If you know me, you know that I am not religious. This has nothing to do with my point. My point is this, capitalism and greed has transformed nearly every holiday into a mass merchandising nightmare. If you don't have children, you probably only groan when Valentine's Day comes around. If you have children, you understand the ridiculous ritualistic and abusive shopping you must do in order to not be a jerk to your kids.
1. Christmas - might as well start with the worst one. A Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ. Now, he was not born on this day, but as most Christian holidays were placed on top of Pagan holidays to get those damn pagans in line with Christianity, this is on December 25th. What began as a festival celebrating the Winter Solstice with drinking, eating, and tons of sex (tell me this doesn't sound like more fun?), has evolved into a trial of being the best shopper. What does this have to do with Jesus? Absolutely nothing. The majority of Christians in the US don't even go to church on Christmas. Even non-Christians tend to celebrate this one, just so that their kids don't hate them.
2. Valentine's Day - celebration of love. Origins of this day are arguably difficult to trace, but according to the Catholic Church, it is to honor St. Valentine. He was a Bishop that performed secret weddings during a Roman ban on marriage. He was supposedly killed on February 14th. So far so good. Love & marriage. Capitalism has turned this into another disaster of buying the right kind of flowers, chocolates and diamonds. Gotta have the diamonds right? At some point can we agree that gifts do not equal love?
3. St. Patrick's Day - celebrating St. Patrick (obvious from the name right?). What I have learned is that everything I thought I knew about St. Patrick was completely wrong. There were no snakes and he wasn't Italian or Irish. He was actually British and he was taken into slavery, which is how he ended up in Ireland. He escaped eventually, and he began a supremely successful campaign to spread Christianity in Ireland. That's it. He ruined the goings on of the pagans. The green stuff? That's pretty much just because he was in Ireland. The drinking? I'm fairly certain it's the same reason. The pinching if you don't wear green? I'm pretty sure that's because people are jerks.
4. Easter - a celebration of Christ's resurrection. I'm fairly certain there weren't any giant rabbits dropping off chocolate eggs during this whole time. This is another case of Catholic's hating on the pagans. This was a pagan holiday to celebrate fertility in the beginning of Spring. Again, food, drink, sex and fun. The rabbit and eggs symbolize fertility. The chocolate? I think that symbolizes the sex. Somehow we lost the drinking part. What is the day now? A day to get your children to be gluttonous on candy and eggs. Oh, and now they've added toys to the basket, because we weren't buying enough crap.
5. Columbus Day - to celebrate the discovery of America. This sounds above board right? Well, when you actually read history and don't just listen to the falsehoods purported in the text books we get in school, you learn that he almost discovered America. He was also a major asshole and killed many people via disease, slavery and just plain old mass murder. Estimates show that he killed more people than Pol Pot and Hitler combined. So lets have a Parade!!! Italian-Americans fight to keep this holiday, because those damned Irish have one!
6. Halloween - dress up and get candy. Again, pagan day to honor the dead. The Catholic church tried to stop this one and failed. That's why All Saints Day is November 1st. So now we dress up in costumes of any kind (zombies and vampires are kind of dead right?) and knock on doors to get free candy. Any other day of the year, this is totally disallowed. Don't take candy from strangers kids, except on Halloween - the get as much as you can! Oh, and don't tell me you didn't despise those neighbors that spend enough to get the kind of candy you find acceptable.
Anyhow... Happy Easter everyone.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Whatever happened with the Xbox drama you say?
OK, so you didn't say it. In fact, you forgot all about my post in October.... That really is neither here nor there. I didn't forget. What I did was lose the stupid survey. And then, there's that whole lazy thing.
So, Xbox gets to go on their merry old way, without a piece of my mind (I am sure they are sleeping soundly knowing this), and they can continue to drive innocent people horribly insane with their idiocracy.
I take the full blame. I know for certain, that had they received my incredibly worded and pithy responses they would have come full circle and realized they were behaving like a douche.
My bad. Sorry.
So, Xbox gets to go on their merry old way, without a piece of my mind (I am sure they are sleeping soundly knowing this), and they can continue to drive innocent people horribly insane with their idiocracy.
I take the full blame. I know for certain, that had they received my incredibly worded and pithy responses they would have come full circle and realized they were behaving like a douche.
My bad. Sorry.
How I waste my life....
OK, so it's been a while since I've posted. There are a few reasons for this.
1. I'm lazy.
2. Work has become busy, even difficult at times. I don't have hours on end staring at useless crap on the internet anymore.
3. Facebook is pure evil.
4. TV is evil.
Technology in general serves to make us mindless lazy sheep. We don't even try to get out of the pasture anymore, because that would require effort. So, we sit and play stupid games on Facebook and watch hours and hours of drivel on our DVRs. Now, this doesn't prevent us from doing our jobs or most of our required daily chores. What it does prevent is our ability to learn and grow and become anything more than we already are.
So, here goes a new challenge for me. We have turned off DirecTV and we are NOT replacing it. Nope, no DVR, no Television. If I am bored and want something to do for an hour, I will have to read, or write, or draw... maybe do something useful for a bit. Lets cut out some of the distractions and see how it goes.
1. I'm lazy.
2. Work has become busy, even difficult at times. I don't have hours on end staring at useless crap on the internet anymore.
3. Facebook is pure evil.
4. TV is evil.
Technology in general serves to make us mindless lazy sheep. We don't even try to get out of the pasture anymore, because that would require effort. So, we sit and play stupid games on Facebook and watch hours and hours of drivel on our DVRs. Now, this doesn't prevent us from doing our jobs or most of our required daily chores. What it does prevent is our ability to learn and grow and become anything more than we already are.
So, here goes a new challenge for me. We have turned off DirecTV and we are NOT replacing it. Nope, no DVR, no Television. If I am bored and want something to do for an hour, I will have to read, or write, or draw... maybe do something useful for a bit. Lets cut out some of the distractions and see how it goes.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Xbox drama
For anyone that does not know me personally and my lovely Xbox experience... here's the long and short of it.
On August 3rd, I called Xbox support because my son was getting the dreaded E74 error. They gave me the in warranty repair, sent me the shipping materials and off it went. About two weeks later I got the email telling me they were sending it back.
Here's where the fun begins. When I originally set the repair up, I was not told that they were going to ship it Signature Required IN PERSON. So, I gave them the home address. Now, I and my husband both work and are not home during the middle of the day. So UPS shows up at 11am and leaves the note - check marking the Signature Required box. I read the slip, and for the box checked - on the back the instructions state to sign the slip and leave it on the door for them. This is what I did.
UPS comes back the next day at 3pm. They leave another slip, checking the same box and writing in all caps: IN PERSON. Now, I check the instructions on the back of the slip again, and for this option they should be checking a different box, but fine. So the UPS person isn't the brightest person in the world and might be mildly illiterate. That's OK.
I call UPS. They tell me to call back the next day and tell them to do a Will Call Pickup at the hub. I check the address and it is on my home from work, so no big deal. I call and they tell me a rep will confirm what time I can pick it up. OK. Rep calls and tells me I can pick it up between 7pm and 9pm. They close at 6pm. So, I call once again and request an intercept to have it delivered to my husbands office instead. I give them my credit card to pay for this, as there is a fee. Another 2 weeks go by and the tracking information gets less and less specific. So we call UPS again. After an hour, they finally find my package. They did not do the intercept right and it was shipped back to Microsoft as undeliverable.
I wait a few days to make sure they get it back. I receive a phone call from Xbox explaining this and giving me a new service number. So, I call Xbox again. I explain the entire situation 4 times before the gentleman on the other end of the phone finally understands my problem. He gives me another service number and says they are going to reship it. I wait another week and a half, no phone calls, no emails, no Xbox. So, I call again, and basically the same thing happens. I wait another week. I call again, I explain it and finally get transferred to a supervisor. She tells me that they were waiting for me to call and confirm the address I gave them 3 times already. No one had said I needed to call back again. She apologizes, puts me on hold while she calls various departments and gets it arranged again. She tells me, and I will quote this, "I know you don't believe me, but you will get a phone call from the dispatch hub to confirm your address within 24 - 48 hours."
I didn't. Again, there were no phone calls, no emails, no Xbox.
After another 2 weeks passes with nothing, I was attempting to find time to call Microsoft Corporate in Washington.
Yesterday, with no warning. My husband gets an Xbox delivered to his office.
My son is happy, after nearly 3 months, he finally got his console back. And it works fine now.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, they put a Customer Satisfaction Survey in the box.
I will definitely fill this out, and I will update all of my correspondence here.
On August 3rd, I called Xbox support because my son was getting the dreaded E74 error. They gave me the in warranty repair, sent me the shipping materials and off it went. About two weeks later I got the email telling me they were sending it back.
Here's where the fun begins. When I originally set the repair up, I was not told that they were going to ship it Signature Required IN PERSON. So, I gave them the home address. Now, I and my husband both work and are not home during the middle of the day. So UPS shows up at 11am and leaves the note - check marking the Signature Required box. I read the slip, and for the box checked - on the back the instructions state to sign the slip and leave it on the door for them. This is what I did.
UPS comes back the next day at 3pm. They leave another slip, checking the same box and writing in all caps: IN PERSON. Now, I check the instructions on the back of the slip again, and for this option they should be checking a different box, but fine. So the UPS person isn't the brightest person in the world and might be mildly illiterate. That's OK.
I call UPS. They tell me to call back the next day and tell them to do a Will Call Pickup at the hub. I check the address and it is on my home from work, so no big deal. I call and they tell me a rep will confirm what time I can pick it up. OK. Rep calls and tells me I can pick it up between 7pm and 9pm. They close at 6pm. So, I call once again and request an intercept to have it delivered to my husbands office instead. I give them my credit card to pay for this, as there is a fee. Another 2 weeks go by and the tracking information gets less and less specific. So we call UPS again. After an hour, they finally find my package. They did not do the intercept right and it was shipped back to Microsoft as undeliverable.
I wait a few days to make sure they get it back. I receive a phone call from Xbox explaining this and giving me a new service number. So, I call Xbox again. I explain the entire situation 4 times before the gentleman on the other end of the phone finally understands my problem. He gives me another service number and says they are going to reship it. I wait another week and a half, no phone calls, no emails, no Xbox. So, I call again, and basically the same thing happens. I wait another week. I call again, I explain it and finally get transferred to a supervisor. She tells me that they were waiting for me to call and confirm the address I gave them 3 times already. No one had said I needed to call back again. She apologizes, puts me on hold while she calls various departments and gets it arranged again. She tells me, and I will quote this, "I know you don't believe me, but you will get a phone call from the dispatch hub to confirm your address within 24 - 48 hours."
I didn't. Again, there were no phone calls, no emails, no Xbox.
After another 2 weeks passes with nothing, I was attempting to find time to call Microsoft Corporate in Washington.
Yesterday, with no warning. My husband gets an Xbox delivered to his office.
My son is happy, after nearly 3 months, he finally got his console back. And it works fine now.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, they put a Customer Satisfaction Survey in the box.
I will definitely fill this out, and I will update all of my correspondence here.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A beautiful sound...
Last night, I was digging through some of my old junk. I was actually looking for a photo of myself playing Badminton (yes, I was on my High School Badminton team) for my husband's amusement. I found an old handheld tape recorder. The kind that you would record a lecture on (back in the good old days of technology). It had a tape in it still, that somehow had not melted or degraded. My husband scraped all the alkaline out of the battery compartment for me, since I had left batteries in it. I just had to see if it still worked. It did.
The tape was primarily blank. The only thing on it actually was a couple of minutes of my father saying things like "testing, testing, 1, 2, 3....". This was the best thing I have heard in such a long time. He passed away several years ago. I laughed, I cried. I think it is the first time, I have ever done both at the same time. Laughing until you cry is different. Crying with genuine sadness and feeling joy and delight at the same time is a unique sensation. As I think about this and write this article, I am smiling and my eyes are misting up.
I miss you Dad.
The tape was primarily blank. The only thing on it actually was a couple of minutes of my father saying things like "testing, testing, 1, 2, 3....". This was the best thing I have heard in such a long time. He passed away several years ago. I laughed, I cried. I think it is the first time, I have ever done both at the same time. Laughing until you cry is different. Crying with genuine sadness and feeling joy and delight at the same time is a unique sensation. As I think about this and write this article, I am smiling and my eyes are misting up.
I miss you Dad.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
lunch time
30 minutes is not long enough. 1 hour is too long. I need a 40 minute lunch. That would be perfect.
What's wrong with Americans?
Notice I said Americans, not America. I am thankful to have the privilege to grow up in such a free environment with so many possibilities. I think this country is wonderful. Nothing is perfect, and that includes our government. I might complain or disagree, but don't take that as meaning I don't appreciate the fact that I have the right to complain and disagree.
So, Americans. We are portrayed around the world as rude, fat, and lazy. Honestly, they are partially right. It comes down to one thing really. We are spoiled. Spoiled rotten. We have every advantage and we don't appreciate it. We are certain we deserve it, and that it is our right.
Now, it's not a terrible thing to have such conveniences. Where I think we stray is that we forget that some people don't have them. We are lucky to live in a place where we can take things such as food, electricity, and water for granted. Everyone has a car and can drive. As much as our health care system might be flawed, no one is denied emergency medical care. Schooling is free, and they provide free transportation for the children and even free meals if needed.
I have thought about this, and I feel that the biggest mistake people in the USA make, is that they forget what opportunities living here actually provides. Not everyone is going to be a millionaire, nor is it going to be easy to achieve such success. Being American does not grant you a free ride, nor do you deserve anything other than your basic freedoms. What you DO get, is the chance to succeed. No matter where you were born, who your parents are, what your childhood was like. If you really try, you can become almost anything. That is what makes the United States of America so fantastic.
Appreciate what you already have people before you strive for more.
So, Americans. We are portrayed around the world as rude, fat, and lazy. Honestly, they are partially right. It comes down to one thing really. We are spoiled. Spoiled rotten. We have every advantage and we don't appreciate it. We are certain we deserve it, and that it is our right.
Now, it's not a terrible thing to have such conveniences. Where I think we stray is that we forget that some people don't have them. We are lucky to live in a place where we can take things such as food, electricity, and water for granted. Everyone has a car and can drive. As much as our health care system might be flawed, no one is denied emergency medical care. Schooling is free, and they provide free transportation for the children and even free meals if needed.
I have thought about this, and I feel that the biggest mistake people in the USA make, is that they forget what opportunities living here actually provides. Not everyone is going to be a millionaire, nor is it going to be easy to achieve such success. Being American does not grant you a free ride, nor do you deserve anything other than your basic freedoms. What you DO get, is the chance to succeed. No matter where you were born, who your parents are, what your childhood was like. If you really try, you can become almost anything. That is what makes the United States of America so fantastic.
Appreciate what you already have people before you strive for more.
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