Random Ramblings

I just don’t understand… The “Fight Global Warming” movement.

Okay, seriously, you mean to tell me that the planet’s getting WARMER? I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, but it’s almost April and I’ve had snow at my apartment for the last two days. IN MARCH. That’s not an increase in warmth, folks, that’s called near-freezing temperatures. I have lived in Oregon for the last 24 years of my life, and as a whole it feels like we’re getting COLDER, not warmer.

And besides which, even if the planet is turning superheated enough to kill us all, if you study scientific history (such as it’s taught in schools, anyway), didn’t we used to be a jungle planet that was inhabited by cold-blooded dinosaurs until an ice age a few millions years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs and gave rise to the mammals? And wouldn’t that seem to imply that, in fact, or climate is more on a cyclical system by your own scientific standards?

Tonight’s some hippie “shut off your lights at 8:00 to fight climate change” event. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to turn all of the lights on. And my oven. I might even leave the fridge and freezer open, and turn on all of the heaters, and run both of my computers at the same time, in an effort to fight mindless hive-minded drone syndrome everywhere. I’m taking a stand for independent thinking, dagnabbit! Hear me… ummm… run up my electric bill?

Tags: I Just Don't Understand... by Andrew Laine
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I received a comment from a new reader (hi, new reader!) on my last post where I briefly (And I do mean briefly) alluded to the Iraq Puppygate scandal, with the U.S. Marine who threw a puppy off of a cliff.

Nowhere in my post did I take a stand on the video’s authenticity, and had that been the subject of the post in its entirety, I probably still wouldn’t have taken a stand on that aspect. So before I get every PETA member with a bone to pick posting death threats on my blog, allow me to explain my comment.

I commented about the incident from the aspect of what I saw happening in the aftermath. Was the puppy real? Was the puppy fake? Was it living? Was it dead? Was the yelping added in, or was it actually the puppy? I do not know, nor will I ever claim to know.

However, I think it’s moronic that some whack-job thought it was okay to post on youtube, along with the video, the guy’s address, his family’s address, his sister’s myspace, and the phone number for his parents.

First off, what the heck did they do to deserve that? Okay, so their kid/brother threw a puppy off a cliff. When you become a parent, do you want to be held responsible for every idiotic thing your adult children do with their lives? What if it had been your brother who threw the puppy off a cliff? Would YOU want harassing messages on myspace?

Secondly, that’s someone’s private information they were posting there. If, for instance, some nut actually decided to carry out one of those death threats, congratulations, you’re now an accessory to murder!

People, please, think before you post these things. And don’t blame the family for what the kid did. Leave them in peace.

Tags: News, Politics by Andrew Laine
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Decided consumer reports will be the topic of the day.

Sure, I find the issue of internet nutjobs posting the guy’s mailing address, sister’s myspace page, family e-mail addresses, and home phone number is an important topic, but let’s face it: No one would listen to me, and I’d probably start getting death threats for “being a puppy-killer sympathizer” (because we all know how people on the internet could make an olympic sport out of jumping to conclusions).

No, instead, I’m taking on a less hot-button issue. Mainly, my recent battle with Targus about a laptop case. It’s been a while since I’ve had a major issue in which I was ready to scream at someone over what they did (or didn’t) do with my product or service that I’d requested.

Here’s the scoop: I recently ordered a laptop case from Targus.com because I get a discount on Targus products through my company. I’ve heard that Targus products tend to be reliable, good-quality products, and I found just the one that I wanted, so I ordered it on the 25th of this month. Now, on Targus’ website, it listed my item as “Limited stock”. This, I interpreted as “we’re running low, so order now while we still have them.” So I ordered then (Why delay?).

The next morning, I recieved an e-mail from Targus informing me that my item is backordered, and I will be notified when it comes back in stock. Okay, I can live with that, I guess. But after thinking it over a couple of days, it started to grate on me. In thinking about it, I realized that, ultimately, after shipping I was only saving a few cents off of the regular price, which I may as well pick up at best buy and forget about waiting on it. But, I decided to give them a chance to redeem themselves and do what’s right for the customer. I sent them an e-mail.

On order number [deleted], I ordered a case that was listed as “limited stock”. This led me to believe that you were running low, but you weren’t out yet. It is, in fact, still listed as “limited stock”. However, the day after placing my order, I received an e-mail stating that my item was “backordered”.

I must admit, I’m rather annoyed with the whole thing. I’m not saving all that much over purchasing another brand at my local electronics store even with my Farmers’ employee discount (after shipping, the laptop was only 77 cents cheaper than regular price without shipping). At this point I’m seriously considering just canceling the order and going to Best Buy to pick up a case, because I was expecting the case to come sooner than “whenever it’s back in stock.” What kind of incentive do you offer to keep my business in this case?

Now, most companies would jump at the opportunity to do the right thing for the customer, perhaps drop the shipping altogether to keep the customer content (Except for Smith & Wesson, but that’s another time, another story). And honestly, I would’ve settled for them just dropping my shipping cost off of there. Sadly, it seems that while Targus does want my business, they aren’t willing to try and keep it legitimately.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for contacting Targus Customer Support.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Your order for the CBT201US is still on backorder. Once the CBT201US is in stock the order would be shipped out to us as soon as possible. However, the order can only be cancelled within 30 minutes after the order being placed.

Please feel free to contact us in case of any further assistance.

Now at this point I’m scratching my head, because a) I didn’t want an update on the stock status, and this wasn’t why I’d e-mailed, and b) as you can see, I apparently have to tell Targus I want to cancel my order 30 minutes after placing it or I’m stuck with said order. This, in fact, got me rather fired up over the whole thing because it doesn’t say anywhere on the website “You must cancel within 30 minutes to stop your order”. So, now angry, I fire an e-mail back.

Okay, that answer is unacceptable. I didn’t receive an e-mail until the day AFTER I placed the order, and now you’re telling me that I can’t cancel the order because I’m dissatisfied with how long the order’s taking because I didn’t do it within thirty minutes of placing the order?

Nowhere on your site does it say you have to cancel the order within 30 minutes, so if that is the case, that’s not only deceptive advertising but that’s cheating the customer. If you don’t have the item in stock, and you haven’t shipped it out yet, you should full well be able to cancel it.

Now I would’ve settled for you waiving the shipping charges before, but now I’m angry. Cancel my order, or I’ll be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Clear enough, right?

Wrong.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for writing to us again.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Unfortunately, the order can only be cancelled within 30 minutes after the order being placed. However, once you receive the case you need to call us at 877-482-7487 or email us and we will go ahead and process an RMA for you in order to return the case at our warehouse. Once the amount is charged on your credit card the amount of the case would be credited to your account.

Please feel free to contact us in case of any further assistance.

So, let me get this straight. you haven’t shipped it yet, but in order to cancel it, I have to wait until it’s here, call you, wait for a tag to get here, and then ship it back to you? How much sense is this making to anyone else?

Response.

Do not, I reiterate this, do NOT ship this to me. Do NOT charge my credit card for it. I see no reason why I should have had to cancel my order thirty minutes after ordering when you did not even have the decency to send me the e-mail to tell me it was on backorder until the next day, so I could not have possibly known that it was back-ordered and had no way to weigh that into my decision when buying it. If you ship it to me, I will refuse the package, and if you even think about trying to charge my card for it, I will dispute the charge. This is absolutely ridiculous that you are making up your cancellation rules for your supposedly “limited stock” items by telling me that I couldn’t cancel the order any later than 30 minutes after purchase.

At this point, I’m sure the person is making things up. After asserting myself clearly (for the third time), I expect this to be resolved. Guess what? It’s not.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for writing to us again.

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

Your order has been shipped out and you would receive it within 7 to 10 business days.

My apologies once again and greatly appreciate your patience with this matter.

Please feel free to contact us in case of any further assistance.

First off, coming from a customer service standpoint, I know she’s doing her job, but this woman’s thanking me every five seconds is really REALLY getting on my nerves, particularly since she’s been completely unhelpful. Second of all, I don’t appreciate being lied to, as when I checked my order status, guess what? It shows as “Not shipped”! So now, not only is this woman making stuff up, she’s telling me that they shipped something that hasn’t shipped!

Flustered, I’ve fired off one more e-mail.

I would like the name and contact information for your supervisor as well as the tracking number for the shipment.

No response yet, probably because she realizes I’m onto the fact that she hasn’t shipped a thing yet!

Someone’s world headquarters is going to be getting a call…

Tags: Consumer reports by Andrew Laine
3 Comments »

1 Kings 13:1-10

In 1 Kings 13, we see an interesting man. He is not named, he’s only mentioned in the Bible once. But for the few paragraphs we see him, he leaves an excellent example of taking a stand for God.

Backing up to chapter 12, we see Jeroboam setting up idol worship in Bethel and Dan. You see, Jeroboam was afraid. The kingdom was divided at this point, and he was afraid if the people went to Jerusalem to worship at the temple, they would eventually return to follow the rightful king, Rehoboam. So Jeroboam crafted two golden calves, and in the same words as Aaron in the book of Exodus, said “Behold thy gods.” He portrayed it as a chance to make God more accessible to the people, to make worshipping a little easier on them, but what it came down to was Jeroboam was selfish.

Then in chapter 13, as Jeroboam is preparing to burn incense at the altar in Bethel, we see the stranger arrive. We know the man was out of Judah, and he came because God called him to go, and he went to the false altar and cried against it. He said in verse 3:

“O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.”

The stranger’s message wasn’t popular. He was in a strange land. He was not of the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom; he was from the tribe of Judah, of the southern kingdom. And his words against the altar got Jeroboam fired up against him, to the point that he ordered him captured.

God sometimes calls us to take a stand for him, even if it means risking everything to do so. Are you taking the risks in Jesus name, or are you trying to hide from what God would have you do?

I’d like to share three keys to taking a stand for God from the life of this unnamed stranger.

Take the risk to do God’s will. – In Verses 2-3, the man got up there and prophesied against the king’s altar, I’m sure there had to be some in the crowd thinking, “Who is this guy? What business does he have in criticizing how we worship?” But there were certain guidelines that God had set forth for worship, and what Jeroboam was doing wasn’t it. The stranger had to be willing to surrender to God’s purpose and take a stand for God. This man got up before the crowd and proclaimed the truth, even if it wasn’t popular to hear.

Don’t hate those who speak against you – We see in verse 4, Jeroboam stretched forth his hand against the mysterious stranger and told the people to seize him, and the moment he stretched forth his hand against the man of God, it withered. But what’s even more interesting is, in verse 6, Jeroboam asks the man of God to “Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again.” At this point, the stranger had two options; He could a), walk away, laughing at how God struck that old fool Jeroboam for trying to bring harm on him, or b) Pray to God on Jeroboam’s behalf. We see later in verse 6 that he did the latter, and prayed on Jeroboam’s behalf, and Jeroboam was healed.

Don’t make compromises with the world – We see in verse 7 that Jeroboam said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.” Jeroboam wanted to reward the man of God for asking God to heal his hand. In verse 8, however, the man replied, “If thou wilt give me half of thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, “Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.” Instead of taking up Jeroboam on his offer for a reward, he said, I don’t want your gold, I don’t want half of your house, I just came to do what God commanded.” We need to get back to doing what God commanded of us instead of simply doing what makes us feel good about ourselves.

Tags: Religious by Andrew Laine
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Jack Nicholson has apparently decided on a unique way to garner support for Hilary Clinton: He recut video segments from various movies he’s done over the years, intersparsed them together with notes praising Clinton, and slapped “I’m Jack Nicholson, and I approve this message” onto the end. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

You put together a campaign ad that looks like a film school did it in his free time.

Need proof?

Behold, the parody (NSFW):

And I’m sure things will only get better from here, we’ll have every celebrity in the world “voicing their opinions” on the candidates via intercut film clips and ideas.

The new political dynamic: The youtube campaign.

Tags: Humor, Politics by Andrew Laine
2 Comments »

I was just on CNN.com reading about Prince Harry’s return from deployment in Afghanistan. There are two thing I would like to note on this.

First of all, I have a lot of respect for Prince Harry for serving on the front lines with the military. I think having British royalty serving like any other person has to be a huge morale booster for those troops, and it takes a lot of guts to put oneself in that kind of position when you’re that high up the royal line, it poses some obvious risks, but he was willing and eager to go.

Secondly, I have to express my amazement with the media for being able to keep their mouths shut for 10 of the 14 weeks Harry was deployed. 10 weeks of having a story that big and not breaking it is an eternity in journalism, but to have so many major news organizations know it and not say anything, even if they didn’t make it the whole 14 weeks, is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Tags: News by Andrew Laine
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