Damn Debbies

I hate Debbies.

I hate them with a passion!

You see, I went to see The Lion King 3D this evening at my local AMC Theater. It's my favoritest movie in the whole wide world. It's the ONLY movie I've ever paid to see in theaters after I owned it on video.. and now TWICE!

Anyways, I go to the theater and understand that there's going to be children there. It IS a Disney movie, afterall [even though I went to the 8pm showing expecting it to be past most of their bedtimes, but I digress]. I'm "OK" with the occasional chatter of a child when I'm at a Disney movie. I understand that they don't always know better, but sometimes their parents want to see a movie as much as they think the kids do.

Anyways, this group of three Debbies came in to the theater... loud and obnoxious, and wanted to turn the movie into a sing-along. A F'N SING-ALONG! AND THEY WERE MORE TONE DEAF THAN I AM! [Note, if you don't know my voice, it's a cross between William Hung and the Ken Lee girl]. Now, mind you, these were either high school or college aged Debbies. Old enough to know better, but obviously not old enough to appreciate things.

Now, let's think about this. The price of a ticket is $11. Add $4 for the 3D glasses. I was talked into the $12 Stubs program. And I bought $11.50 worth of concessions. So, that's $38.50. I could sit in the cheap seats at the Fox Theater of a live show for that price. But, I digress.

So, these Debbies were talking through half the movie, and singing along, and jumping about. Completely disturbing the enjoyment of the movie. And, at the end, they decide to squeal!

While I understand that everyone sitting in that theater probably has seen the movie before, and some of us can quote it line for line, there's a simple appreciation for a film being able to see it on the big screen. Especially at the prices movies have gotten to be.

I partially blame AMC Theaters for this. While they can't screen every patron that comes through their doors to ensure the movie experience will be enjoyable for everyone, they CAN have their ushers "patrol" the theaters to ensure people are being quiet [it wouldn't have been polite to other patrons for me to yell across the theater to demand they shut up, especially in front of children*]. Apparently the "Please be courteous to others" segment before movies isn't doing enough.

And, for that matter, opening your cell phone to look at the time or check messages, or whatever you do should get you banned from theaters.

So, AMC, please patrol your theaters during showings. At these ticket prices, I'm sure you can afford to hire someone to sit in the theater to keep people quiet. It should not be up to a patron to exit a movie, spend time to find someone who works there to correct the problem. You MISS pieces of the movie that way.

Kinda makes me wish I lived near the Alamo Drafthouse:




*Yes, I understand that I don't normally think of things like this, but I DO TRY not to be a bad influence on children.

My letter to McDonald's

I had a pretty wrong experience at my local McDonald's. So bad that I decided to write a letter, which I'm sharing with you.

Today, I was embarrassed for my local McDonald's.

Today, I visited the McDonald's on Powers Ferry just south of Delk. I spent two or three minutes waiting to decide when another customer told me about the 2 for $2.50 Egg McMuffins. So, I made my purchase of 2 Egg McMuffins, a pair of hashbrowns, and a large soda at 9:47am.

During the time I was waiting for my food, three customers complained about the orange juice filling an inch below the cup lid. The employee's response was always "That's for room in case you want ice." Seriously, who wants ice in their orange juice? I say charge an extra nickel and fill it -- and if someone wants ice in their OJ, it becomes their loss of volume and a few cents in McD's pockets. (This is not my first complaint about this as when I order through the drive through, my soda is always an inch from the top -- and it has ice in it)

I digress -- I continued waiting for my food. Eventually, people who ordered as I walked in had finished eating their meals and left. In the end, it took thirteen minutes from the time I ordered to the time I got my food. Thirteen minutes to get something off the menu labeled a "Number One." That is beyond ridiculous for a "fast food" restaurant when there was only one order in front of mine.

My experience with the BBB

First, I apologize to my four readers that I haven't been posting in a LONG time. It's been mostly an uneventful period. A few minorly exciting things happened, but nothing noteworthy for the four of you (Unless you count getting a Jury Duty summons).

That being said, I had my first experience with the BBB!

Here's the story.

Back in December, I ordered something off one of the online deal sites I frequent. I used Paypal as my payment method as I had money there. It was a whopping $11.44. But, I never got an order number, nor did I get the item I ordered.

So, after 30 days, I emailed them. I got no response.

Then Snowpocalypse happened [oh yeah, something exciting DID happen.. We became Hothlanta!... here's some pictures!], and there was no mail (or deliveries of ANY kind as you can see), so I gave a few more days.

Then I tried several forms of contact and absolutely nothing.

I decided to do the resolution system in Paypal. But, alas, it was just over the 45-day limit, so they wouldn't refund me my money. Darn Snowpocalypse!

So, this past Saturday, I went to the BBB online. I registered the following complaint:

I placed an order with on Dec 10 at 10:13am via their PayPal checkout system. The PayPal transaction ID is . I have not received the item I ordered, and my numerous attempts to contact for an order status have gone unanswered.

I got a standard automated reply saying "We'll look into it, but it will take several days".

Monday at 3:07pm, I got the following email:

Dear Smply Unprdctble:

This message is in regard to your complaint submitted on 1/29/2011 10:22:39 AM against . Your complaint was assigned ID .

Your complaint has been sent to the business for their response. The entire complaint process can take four to six weeks from the time we receive your complaint. Once they have responded to the BBB, we will contact you again. During the complaint process the company may try to contact you personally to clarify information or try to resolve the complaint. We encourage you to be open to their correspondence or attempt to resolve the claim. We ask that you advise us in writing by email, fax or mail if your claim is settled directly with the company.

Regards,

Person Named
The Better Business Bureau

Then, Monday at 3:51pm I got my $11.44 refunded!

This morning, I got the following from the BBB:

Dear Smply Unprdctble :

This message is in regard to your complaint submitted on 1/29/2011 10:22:39 AM against . Your complaint was assigned ID .

The business has sent the BBB a message regarding this complaint, and we are passing it on to you. The contents of this message are below or attached. Please respond to this message at your first convenience.

Regards,

Person Named
The Better Business Bureau

MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS:

I do apologize for this issue. I looked over all communication and could not locate any emails from Mr. Unprdctble. I also looked into his order and indeed there was a payment but a Paypal notification was never received so an order was never generated. I have issued a full refund back to his account and do apologize for the inconvenience.

I think it's pretty cool that it was resolved quickly. I didn't WANT to get the BBB involved, but I do have copies of several emails, including one that went through their site. If they can't find those communications, something's wrong.

That being said, I'm probably going to continue to make purchases through them. I may have to go back to the standard credit card order instead of going through Paypal (unless I remember to file a complaint within the 45 days).

Blue Balls

So, a few weeks ago, I found this really awesome sounding recipe for blue balls.

I convinced my friend Mikers to make it for his Labor Day cookout thing he was doing. It took a bit of convincing, but he did it.

I had fun discussing the whole ordeal.

Ranging from "Mikers is offering me a taste of his blue balls" to "I just left Mikers place with blue balls" to discussing the "after-effect" of the blue balls, including pictures (which I will refrain from this blog for now).

I'm sure y'all want to know what these blue balls look like.

Today, I brought the leftovers to work. And I got to go around the office asking if people "want some blue balls". It was quite exciting (and I figured as long as I had them in hand, it was not an HR violation).

Everyone thinks the side effect is a blue tongue.... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Is insurance REALLY a good thing?

I confess. I have a bit of a medical condition. The good news is it's in the "pretty much cured" phase, but I still have a few doctor followup visits to go to to ensure I'm continuing staying healthy. This blog posting is NOT about my condition. I will not reveal that condition because it's irrelevant to anyone outside my close personal friends and family.

Anyways, I've been seeing my specialist ever since I was diagnosed with this condition. I want to say that was like 6-7 years ago. At the time of me being diagnosed, my then employer's biggest source of revenue was insurance companies -- because I was working for a health care company (corporate offices, of course -- we all know I can't deal with sick people).

During my visits with my specialist, I've always had to pay my "Specialist Co-Pay". We'll call it $40.

Then, came the unfortunate incident. But, then came the awesome event where I got new employment. Due to timings and other wait times between the two, I had to get on COBRA for about 2 months (And it's minimum 2 months on COBRA, but that's yet another story).

I had a specialist appointment sometime during the month of November -- COBRA had not kicked in yet (you hafta sign paperwork and get that mailed in and processed and yada yada yada), so when I went to see the specialist, they said I was uninsured and charged me for the office visit -- $75. Not a big deal, and I was pleasantly surprised.

This year marked a change in The Company's health insurance plans. We went from a "Co-Pay" system to a "Co-Insurance" system with the non-HMO plan. This means I'm required to pay out of pocket 100% of a doctor's visit until I meet my deductible, then I have to pay whatever co-insurance percentage is. For example, if I have a $500 deductible then 10% after that and I have a $1000 medical bill, I would have to pay $550 ($500 deductible plus 10% of the remaining $500) and insurance would cover the remaining $450. This is where people spent hours of calculations to find the break-even point in medical costs, but that's not the scope of this blog entry.

Back on topic, I had an appointment with my specialist this year. Due to the co-insurance thing, we pay $0 up front and get billed afterward after insurance pays their portion (which is after contractual discounts and whatever other BS goes into the calculations). I got the bill in the mail the other day.

$185.01.

The same visit type as when I was virtually uninsured before COBRA kicked in. Nothing extra.

How the HELL can you justify charging a patient MORE if they have insurance than if they don't? That's like a company offering a program where if you sign up and pay the premium, you get all kinds of perks -- including 200+% markup on products and services -- all just for being associated with them.

It makes me wonder how Obama's Healthcare Reform Bill will impact the same charges. Will the option of "I'm waiting for COBRA to kick in, so charge me the $75" go away? Will people, by default, have a co-insurance plan like The Company rolled out and if I'm waiting for COBRA to kick in I'll be charged $185?

If I had my choice, I would have said "charge me as if I don't have insurance." -- and send the bill to the insurance company to demonstrate I'm working towards my deductible (because they're not going to reimburse anything until I hit that number). And, if I break my leg, I may have more deductible to work through, but it's that much money I've saved if I don't break my leg.

Why can't we do things like this? Or can we? I really would like to know.

I am so deliciously evil!

As you may or may not have heard (I'm told it made national news, so it HAD to be a slow news day), a zebra escaped from the circus last week.

That's not the awesome part about it. Before I start to read the massive tweets of a runaway zebra, I get a call from a coworker. She said "You're the only one I can tell this to who'll believe me... but a zebra escaped from the circus, and I was stopped over by the Mac-Donalds over by Five Points and it comes running at me and almost hits me!"

Yes, that's right -- a runaway zebra almost hit my coworker as she was leaving the office. Apparently there was like 20 police cars chasing after it and one officer on foot.

She became a pseudo-celebrity on Friday at work. Everyone wanted to hear the story of how she came face to snout almost literally with a zebra. The only thing I could imagine is the conversation had it hit her car: "Hello, State Farm? Yes, I need to file a claim. A zebra hit my car...... Yes, I live in Atlanta..... Yes, the incident happened downtown Atlanta..... No, I'm not on drugs...."

Of course, I enjoy finding the humor around me everyday. Not that what already happened wasn't funny, but I like making things better.

So, I went out Saturday and found a zebra.

The thing is zebras are apparently very difficult to find.

I couldn't find one at WalsMart. I couldn't find one at Target. I finally went to Toys R Us. I asked the poor guy and inquired, "do you have any zebras?" (pronounced "zeh-bras") -- dude looked at me and said "any what?" -- "Any zebras? Z-E-B-R-A" (pronouncing Z as Zed like every other english-speaking country does) -- he was all confused, but it was worth it.

Finally, we went to the stuffie area and found the following:

Granted, it's not the bestest zebra in the world, but it was gonna hafta do. (And for $5, it wasn't a bad deal)

This morning, I came into work and went up to her and said "Does this look familiar?" and tossed it at her. She jumped until she realized what it was and began laughing.

It's now on display in her cube (she's the one who took the pic), and she's having way too much fun with it!

My own mother didn't recognize me!

So, I did it again. I showed up unannounced.

I flew into Boston Logan International Airport yesterday afternoon. I stayed with a pair of awesome friends of mine in Portsmouth, NH for the night. We went out for twin lobstah to celebrate my birthday. It was GOOOOD!

Then I got up this morning (which coincidentally is my birthday) and saw a tweet from my sistah saying it's snowing. I laugh at her and log into my AIM account and head towards Western Massachusetts.

During the drive, she and I have a bit of conversation (heaven bless technology allowing me to AIM from my phone to eliminate any potential suspicion). When I arrive in town, I show up at her place d'emploi and get to the top of the stairs and proclaim, "You know why it's snowing, right?"

I could tell she was about to say "No, why?" -- but she pauses and stares for a moment and goes "YOU JERK! You need to quit showing up unannounced!"

I told her we needed to come up with some way to surprise Mother. I told her to make some excuse to go to WalMart or something.

Then, I decided it was Nan's turn. I thought about calling her, but decided I'd knock. I'd be good.

When I got there, my cousin and his son had just arrived and she was closing the door. I said "Heylo!"

Nan (in her 85 years on this earth) was a little startled as she turned around to see what was going on. She got all excited and I gave her a hug and was like "Don't collapse on me! Don't collapse on me! Don't collapse on me!"

I sit and talk to her for a bit and she said she had to go get a nerve pill thanks to me. I know, I'm a bad grandson.

My sister got home and said she told Mother that she wanted to go to WalMart after her husband got home. I told her that was too late. But! My sister knew which bar Mother was in, so we decided to just go there and show up.

I would TOTALLY have video this time, but my camera's battery was dead (some idiot didn't check to make sure the camera was in the "off" position when arriving in NH).

Since we all know all about my mother, I'm not even going to go into the details back story.

We walk into the bar and Mother's back is turned. Sistah is motioning the "shh" symbol telling everyone to be quiet. I put my arm around Mother and say "Well hello!" and give her a kiss.

Sis comes right behind and we're having a jolly old time talking. I make comments about "No heart attacks this time?" and talk about various things from the last visit and she's clueless. After about two minutes I say, "What? No happy birthday?"

She rebutes with "It's your birthday too.... You f**ker! What are you doing here?"

I start laughing and go "What, you didn't recognize me?"

"Nope! I was gonna call <sister's> later and ask who came here with her and gave me a hug and kiss."

HOW EMBARASSING! Not even recognizing you!

Yes, I know I'm evil!

So, we all know I have this odd way of being crazy.

Along with this idea that I have interesting conversations.

Or leave people speachless.

And have really weird conversations like this and this.

Today, I was in Scumberland Mall. As I was leaving, I was ambushed by some girl at the Dead Sea Spa Kiosk. Obviously trying to make a sale.

She forced some of their salt scrub product in my hand and had me rub and exfoliate with it. She does her talking and I explain I don't like the oily feeling it leaves (I really don't. It's disgusting).

Then she starts to go on about how bad my manicure is.

I then have to inform her that the Korean ladies have been known to fight over who gets to do my nails because I have such soft and lovely hands.

Let's not forget she's keeps telling me that their product would end up causing all the girls to be after me. I giggled.

In order to get away from her, I decided I would inform her that I would be back for the holi-daze to buy something for my sister. THEN the pitch comes in. Normally the manicure product would sell for $59.99, but today only, she could sell it to me for $49.99. And today only, it would be BOGO, so I could get one for my mother!

That's when I decided to have at it.

I started tearing up. As the tears welled up, I told the girl that I my mother was no longer alive. I went on saying we were out at a great lobster restaurant and the lobster she picked broke out of it's claw bands and attacked her jugular, leaving the entire restaurant in a bloody mess. That, combined with dad's unfortunate incident with a cow, has caused me to have difficulty going to almost any restaurant without choking up.

The look on her face was priceless.

Of course, the story I told her isn't true. But it allowed me to get away from her and have a little fun at the same time!

Happy Medium

So, last week I got a new laptop here at The Company. I utilized my massive storage space at home to copy my files over because 1) it'd be MUCH faster and B) I didn't feel like clogging up the shared network drives with multiple gigs of data that has a ton of mp3s.

I've been trying to get back in the groove. Then I realized I hadn't copied ALL my files back to my lappy and all my music is sitting in a zip file on my file server at home. And since the zip file is 1.5 gigs (little music music and a TON of documents and the like), I'm not going to try to push it out of my home network to work. Seems WAY out of the way.

So, I complain to Princess Sparklepants with this conversation:

Me: grr... my music is sitting in an extremely large zip file at home. I can't download it 'cuz it's so large. woe is me
PSP: Music is not supposed to be on your work computer, anyway!
Me: and CDs aren't supposed to be left in drives -- so what is the happy medium? utilize network resources to stream? :-)
PSP: Get an iPod
PSP: :-)
PSP: I love my little nanopants.
Me: LOL

So, yeah, I like to violate the rules. But it's better than carrying around an MP3 player that The Company will eventually decide confidential information could be put on and forbid them, just like they block web based email because of "increasing security risks" with the fact "The Company doesn’t have the ability to scan for viruses or security concerns as we would with our Company e-mail." (Yes, geeks, you and I know what's wrong with that statement.) Of course, my mp3 player is a little large... since it's a Creative Zen Vision:M. But I love being able to fit my mp3 empire on one device... until that runs out of space.

So, right now, I'm pretty much musicless except the RENT soundtrack (OBC, not OST). But, as much as I love it, I can't listen to it on repeat for eight hours. I'll end up mooing all over the place and wanting to jump over the moon!

Three things I learned I hate

I'd like to share a few tweets from Saturday:

• I HATE roots, and I don't mean the Kunta Kinte kind. 09:47 AM September 20, 2008
• And clay. I HATE clay... Especially Red Georgia type.. And sometimes that homo Aiken ;-) 10:00 AM September 20, 2008
• And bricks... I HATE bricks, too... don't ask me why I'm finding bricks buried in my back yard, but I am. 10:11 AM September 20, 2008
  

First, I'd like to point out how eerily evenly spaced the three posts are. I just noticed it. Not planned at all!

Basically, what went on was I decided to start digging a trench to bury the cable from my satellite dish to my house. First, I hit a number of roots... then I got tired of digging in my Red Georgia Clay (I'd like to think we have more pressing matters than where that link goes to, but I digress)... Then I hit a brick. I thought it was my imagination at first until I dug out a perfectly shaped brick... then another... and a third... I gave up after I dug out no less than EIGHT bricks. That's right, people -- there's a stockpile of bricks buried in my back yard. I'm' about 2/3 of the way from the satellite dish to the house and I gave up. And it's going to piss me off to finish this trench so I can a) get my back yard looking "closer" to normal and not have a partial moat and b) say I accomplished something that's needed to be done for a while.