Safe Driver Award

So, this morning, finally, the email came from corporate with the names of those who are going to receive the Safe Driver Award.  It is given annually - if you qualify - on the month of your service anniversary.  I didn't know what to think all the way up until this morning - til' I got to work and opened up the email.

The email shows 1 year, 2 year - all the way up to as many years a person has been a safe driver.  I figured I was at 1 year since I didn't get it last year and it would reset back to 1.  Otherwise, I would be at 4 years.  I didn't see my name under 1 year so I thought - oh well.  I met all the qualifications for it, but for whatever reason, I am not getting it.

I open up the next email from a co-worker in the purchasing department.  He says congratulations on the Safe Driver Award.  ???  Back to the corporate email.  Now I am scouring through all of it, not just 1st year.  My name is there - on the 4th year of getting the award!

I had NO idea that it didn't have to be consecutive!  I thought that if you didn't get it in any given year, the counter resets to zero and you start all over again. Not!  Why is this so grand? Because on your 4th year, you get TWO/2/DOS/week's pay and it stays that way every year after that!  2 weeks pay?!!!  Yowsa!!!

I was like, YES!!!

Endeavoring to simply stay away from Highway Patrol at all costs.  That's what got me through the last 13 months without a warning from them for whatever - avoid the known hangouts for them like the plague as much as possible.  Can't always do that, but at the same time, they can't pull over every truck, in fact, they can only pull over and inspect a small fraction of them.  I'm not saying I am driving a dangerous truck.  We spent $5,000 on tires about 6 months ago.  Brakes are good. No cracks on anything. No leaks of any kind.  No nothing - yet if you get pulled over, they seemingly invent things to write you up for.  The younger ones are mini-gods. Dictators of their own right.  Stalin reborn.  Hitler reincarnated.

And you think I am exaggerating. Uh-huh. 25 years of their nonsense, I have a bit of insight not only from my own experiences with them, but from talking to countless other truck drivers and THEIR experiences with them, some of which are truly nightmarish in proportion.  I will fight any warning they give me from this point forth - actually starting when my company set forth it's new policy in response to USDOT new regulations - extreme regulations to say the least.

It didn't used to be this hard.  Truck drivers were professionals and the motoring public treated them with respect.  That is mostly untrue anymore.  On both counts.  Many people holding the steering wheel of a truck that are far from being any semblance of professional.  We used to all dress neatly and smartly.  We didn't throw "pee bottles" out the windows. We didn't drive in and out of heavy traffic as if we are operating a tonka toy in a dirt maze.  The motoring public doesn't really treat ANY other drivers with respect.

Well whatever.  I drove 132 miles today.  Doesn't sound like much until you realize it was ALL city traffic. I most definitely earn my pay and by the grace of God - keep out of accidents.  I hope it stays that way.

ben

Tuesday 1/31/2012

End of month.  Meaning work will be pushing to get whatever deliveries we can - out the door.

You gotta love this woman in San Luis (small town in southern Arizona) that was running for mayor, whose name was removed from the ballot.  Why?  Because she can't proficiently speak, write or understand English.  So, she is suing! ROFL!!

This is what it's like living in this part of the U.S.  We get people from across the border who move over here and live out their lives - but never bother to learn the language of the land. Instead, they literally demand that companies and governments pander to them and have interpreters or bilingual agents/reps to serve them. They want signs in Spanish and they want everything doubled up - English version and Spanish version.  They could care less that they are living in a predominantly English-speaking country.

It's the never-ending story.

Meanwhile, Pannetta is stating that "No options are off the table" concerning Iran and eluding to military action if it comes to that.  Yes, Iran needs to be stopped, no, the U.S. doesn't need to take on another war all by itself.  That's all I'm saying about it, we don't need to be footing the bill - both financially and at the cost of however many American lives - again.

My battle with Hewlett-Packard has only begun.  Although I did make some progress yesterday, the real progress will occur today - hopefully  anyway - when I contact corporate and get answers to my questions, especially the question about an appointment made and abandoned by their company.  Not only abandoned, but no courtesy-call that they aren't showing.  The appointment had literally been cancelled with no rhyme or reason as to why.  The individual I spoke with yesterday claimed that replacing the LCD screen has to be done in a clean room, not by an in-home visit from a tech.

I am not a fan of having my pre-work rituals interfered with by anyone.  Exactly what is happening right now and extremely irritating.  Whatever.

Off to work.

Ben

Okay, I only have..........

...............my mother to blame.
I watched my mom dealing with companies in all kinds of venues when I was a little boy, growing up and standing in awe the way people treated her after she decided she wasn't being treated right.  She taught me how to shop, cook, do laundry - most of the things that kids are, mostly, not being taught today.

I didn't really start dealing with companies the way that I do now until the level of service went from industry-wide exemplary to industry-wide - shi***.  When America started out-sourcing, that's when my issue with it began.  At the time, I didn't care about who had what job where, I had an issue with dealing with people in foreign nations that don't speak fluent or clear English and don't understand or care about the way we think in the U.S. versus the way they think about customer service in places like India, the Philippines, Mexico, etc.

They don't see things the way we do.  When you call a customer service number and get a different country, you eventually - very quickly - get an attitude and a voice that over time?  You don't even want to hear anymore. You have dealt with them for years, you get to a point where the first sound of their voice is enough to convince you to immediately ask to be connected back to a U.S. incoming call center.

And they mostly do NOT want to do that.  The ramifications are obvious and need I really go into it?  It would take a book to write out my interactions with these people.

So, I started dealing with a "new" company last week in attempting to get my new laptop computer fixed.  Hewlett Packard is hardly new, but I have never had to deal with them before in this manner.  Whenever I bought a cheap printer manufactured from their company, well, when it quits working I throw it away and buy another one.  At $20 - my latest one was $19.99, bought on Black Friday of 2011, I am not going to bother wasting my time calling them.

My laptop was also bought on Black Friday - I wonder if THAT is even true anymore, probably not (asking the question as to whether the day after Thanksgiving is break-free day for companies) - but it was a FAR greater price-tag than twenty bucks.  Today, a repairman was supposed to show up between the hours of 1 and 5 pm.  It never occurred and I did not receive a phone call informing me why it didn't happen.

To skip a lot of stuff that I could go into but really don't feel like writing that much information - but it was dealing with people in both India and the Philippines - I finally ended up with a case manager, somewhere right here in the good ole' U S of A.  By this point I am miffed and not accepting BS answers or endless transfers.  I especially hate the attitude - which at first was exemplified by this individual - that they have all the answers and whatever you have to say means nothing and please shut up and listen - or so it is imputed.

Tim - that's his name - went into his spew.  I listened, yes.  I did not cut him off, no.  I then started to reply to him when - he started to talk over the top of  me.  Interrupted me, in other words.  That is when I lose respect for that person and that is when their problem starts.

It doesn't really matter at this point what Tim offered.  His offer was moot.  I was supposed to receive a part in the mail by now and then a tech was supposed to come out - today between the hours of 1 and 5 pm - neither of which happened. That didn't happen and now? HP is going to pay.  This story isn't over, Tim's answer was nothing more than what should have happened in the first place, not an answer plus compensation.

I will get my computer fixed and I will get compensation.  That's the end of it.  I haven't actually ARRIVED at that end, yet, but I have ample experience dealing with these kinds of corporations.  I will get to the right person, eventually.  The amount I paid for my warranty will be given back to me and yes, my computer will be fixed and I won't have to pay any shipping charges, plus it will happen as fast as possible.

I cannot, of course, guarantee that that will happen, but that's what I am after and tomorrow? I will be on the phone as long as it takes.  I didn't spend $50 on this computer is what I am saying and it's all of 2 MONTHS old, not 2 years or something old.

Whatever.  I did get somewhere with the guy - but it wasn't enough.  I am going to search the internet for the phone number I really need to get to and then?  That's when I will finally get somewhere with this.

Okay, I left it having a box being sent to me for pre-paid shipping - on their part and having it sent back to them to have it repaired and my warranty money being given back to me.  What I am after is all of that plus 2 free years of unlimited warranty service.  In the case of a laptop that you are carrying around all over the place?  That's worth something to me.  I might ask for a discount on some other product as well from their store, who knows.  I'm not there yet because........tomorrow isn't here yet.

Goodnight.

ben

Monday 1/30/2012

January almost gone already.
I'm quite glad I didn't bother to make any New Year's Resolutions this year - I am sure I would have already abandoned them by now, lol.
I made some personal resolutions long before the New Year came and those are goals that I am attempting to keep, not because it's a New Year, but because they will improve the quality of life.

Extremely odd.  My son just came out from his bedroom, dressed and ready to go!  I haven't seen him up this early in ages - maybe never, lol.  He's off to school already.  I wonder how long it takes to completely change your schedule and get your body and mind used to it?  He is definitely a night owl - likes to stay up all night long.

Whatever the case, it would be nice if that old car would run for a while and not give me any more problems.  I have determined that as soon as the second trailer is paid off, I am going to either try to sell it or trade it.  Preferably for a pick up truck.

Reading the news, that capsized ship is going to be there throughout the region's "tourist season".  So, will people not go there because that big ole' thing is laying out there or will people flock to the region so they can see it in person?

Well, time to head off to work.  I have no idea HOW I am feeling this morning, usually am not able to tell that too well until I get moving.

Be that as it may, no choice but to get moving and keep moving until the work shift is over.

G'day.

ben

Sunday 1/29/2012

I went to church this morning.  30 minutes into it, I started feeling REALLY bad.
I didn't want to, but I eventually got up and went home.  The pastor's wife caught me in the
hallway and prayed for me - not going to turn down prayer.  I felt so bad, though that there was no
way I was going to do anything but go home.

I have done nothing today.  Lay around. Well, I cooked a turkey dinner, but that was it.

And I'm done.

G'nite.

ben

Saturday 1/28/2012

So, I'm going to try to take it easy today and tomorrow and get over this stuff.

So, here's a tragedy:  A 65 year old man, bicycling on a trail somewhere in Pennsylvania, is pushed over by teens and the teens attempt to rob him. The man pulls out his gun and shoots - all of them I guess - one of the teens dies.  Apparently the teens also assaulted the man while trying to rob him.

I'm a gun rights advocate, I don't go around talking about it everywhere but if the subject comes up, I'm definitely taking the side of the right to bear arms rather than the idea that we should all be disarmed.  Does a situation like this send a message to people who want to rob others?  Yes, the potential exists that you might be shot by an armed citizen who may be concealing a weapon and - you don't know until it's too late.

The moral question - at least for me - should the teen have been killed over money?  I would have a problem with that, but the story also said they were assaulting the man, I'm taking that to mean they were beating him up.  At the point of physical violence, I have no problem with the man shooting those teens.  3 against 1 is not good odds, depending on the size/age of the teens and to what degree of violence they were willing to go to, including potentially killing the man.  We will never know the answer to that question, but in this case, I definitely side with the older gentleman but still have sympathy for the family/parents of the deceased teen.

There are frequent stories about an armed citizen shooting would-be robbers in the news, I tend to read as much information about those stories as I can find.   For me, I had to come to some kind of conclusion as to when I would pull the gun and shoot.  Certainly, if a group of people are assaulting me - if I can even get at the gun at that point - those people are going to get shot.  I would go to bed that night, even if someone died, and have no problem getting to sleep.

I'm not sure I would want to shoot a group of people who are demanding my money and that's it. In other words, the threat of violence may be there, but it hasn't yet happened. If I hand them my wallet and that's the end of it, then I probably would not pull the gun.  I might be incredibly pissed and infuriated at people taking my hard earned money, not to mention have to call credit card companies and having cards cancelled, the bank accounts frozen and what-not - replacing the driver's license and on and on, but I carry nothing in my wallet that has any sympathetic attachments, they are just cards and ID.  Replaceable.  Some of it not necessarily easily replaceable, but still.

Someone comes into my house to rob me - all bets are off.  You are clearly taking your own life into your hands when you "break and enter" a person's home to rob them.  There have been home invasions in this area in the past, in fact, one occurred several years ago 2 houses down where 350 man is currently living (he was in prison at the time).

Oops.  I just remembered something.  The dogs need their shots.  The news had an official on there admonishing dog owners to get the shots up-to-date if they are expired because distemper cases are spreading around these parts like crazy.  Fry's Food Stores carries (or used to carry, I'll find out) those shots, they are cheap and easily administrated.  Pull up the scruff of the neck, stick the needle in, pump the fluid in, done.

Well, took a break and got up on that trailer.  I know, I'm trying to get over sickness, but I just couldn't resist the absolutely gorgeous weather we are experiencing here right now.  It's nothing short of beautiful outside.  I can tell you that I wouldn't want to be doing that work in the heat of summer, on a hot roof with the sun beating down on me and the metal roof putting off heat coming back up at me.  So, the vent is on, installed.  Only have left to put some caulking around it and it's good to go.  I have one more large vent to do, but I haven't bought the vent yet.  $35 or so with tax.  Then a smaller drain vent that I already bought, much less work though I don't have enough new screws to install the new one.  I think putting in the one vent today was enough, thank you.

I stopped by Auto Zone today and got my free gift card.  I was hoping at least $25, I got $20.  The offer for 20% off is still good, though, on the next purchase. Well, the radiator, I have now determined, does not need to be replaced.  I had thought there was a leak in the upper portion of the radiator, but apparently it was just wet from when I was refilling the thing with fresh anti-freeze. Makes me particularly happy that I don't have to shell out $100 for another part for that car.  There are other problems with it, but nothing that stops it from running.

The same kid I had over just before Christmas to haul landscaping rock is here again.  A job I did not want to do: sand down the wood on all the gates and the apply a fresh coating of lacquer.  I gotta say, this is the first person I have found off of Craigslist that really will work the entire time instead of complaining and whining how hard everything is and blah, blah, blahhhhhh.  This will be an on-going thing on an occasional basis to have him over doing the things that I do not want to do.  Next on the list will be to paint the block walls.  They are coated with stucco.  I have never had them painted.  If I had thought about it at the time, the stucco itself could have had tint added to it.  Regardless, my mother gave me 10 gallons of stucco paint some time ago. It's been inside the entire time so it hasn't been exposed to unbelievable summer heat.  It should still be good. Give that kid a roller and the paint and he can paint the entire affair.  That particular job will take quite a bit of time to finish, but he is motivated.  That's all I need - a person that is motivated and isn't going to complain about whatever work I give.  I have had the complainers over and I have never invited them back.

Okay, Mark is the exception.  I not only had him back, but he's lived here for almost 2 years with Lynnette, lol.  No signs that they are leaving anytime soon, but life can be rather strange in the way it treats you so - who knows.  Not asking them to leave, that's for sure.

Friday 1/27/2012

Finally Friday.  I (think) I am getting better.  All tests that were done came back negative - looking for more serious stuff that is, a bit of a relief there for sure.
I'm just ready for a couple of days of laying in bed, to be honest, versus getting up early and heading off to work.
Hopefully by Monday I will be feeling right as rain again.

Caleb called me last night, something up with the car.  He tends to get flustered and give up easily.  The car isn't the greatest vehicle in the world, but for the most part has gotten him around without too much hassle.  I, however, am tired of dumping money into it and am thinking of some alternatives here.

The Phoenix area is immense and widely spread out.  Getting around without a car isn't impossible, but if you try to take the bus system, you are going to spend hours getting somewhere that should take 20 minutes.  That was the reason I kept that car and have tried to keep it running for him, but at some point, a person has to consider it a money dump and let it go. I am already at that point - I have no love for that thing - but I have no alternatives, yet, either.

So, gonna try to keep it running for another 4 months and then that trailer will be paid off.  I will try to either sell it or trade it for a good, running compact car that gets good gas mileage.  I haven't told him that, yet, I haven't firmly decided about that.  He has a job, albeit not making a huge amount of money, if I got him a car I would expect him to pay me back for it, even if over a long period of time at small payments.

I am firmly decided to get rid of that old Buick, however.  I have dumped enough money into it that it should just stay running.  Instead, it comes up with new ways to break down.  However, what it was doing this time is simply that the brake lights were on and the lights on the dash were all on, but the car wouldn't start.  Sounds like a computer reset needs to be done.  At the same time, he got back in and the thing fired right up .
He then informed me he would walk to school tomorrow.  I don't think so.  Get in the thing and drive it. If it breaks down, I will have it towed to the electrical place one, last time and hope they can figure it out.  Well, no, I will go to wherever the car is, actually, unhook all the battery cables from the battery and do a computer reset.  See if that does anything for it.  It already HAS a brand new computer module in it, I replaced that last year.  The real problem is the car is a 1994 model.  18 years old.  140,000 miles, which actually isn't that much for a car that old.

So, I hope not to hear that it broke down again, nothing else to say about it, really.  I am not going to drive it anymore, that's for sure.  My son will have to figure something else out if he decides he doesn't want to drive it anymore, I will sell it for $700 or whatever I can get out of it and be done with it.  It isn't totally worthless, the engine runs great when it does run, doesn't smoke, no leaks, great tires, all the stuff I have already had done with it.

Anyway, work day is here and time to get outta here.

ben

Thursday 1/26/2012

Dragging through this week, gag.
Didn't sleep well, at all, last night.
Which will make for a long day at work, but as yesterday, I will be hoping to leave early if I can.
There is a bunch of stuff to do this morning, but by the time noon gets around, I'm hoping it will all be
done.  I'll spend this weekend laying around doing nothing and hoping that I will get over it before Monday.

By now, everyone has seen the picture.  Governor Jan Brewer with her finger in Obama's chest.
I just watched an online interview of Brewer being asked what Obama was saying to her.
Apparently, Obama doesn't like the book she wrote and he was expressing his discontent with it.
Nice job, Obama: I declared it a couple times, I'll say it again: You are the WORST President this nation
has EVER had.  What kind of President gets off Air Force 1 and immediately gets into a pissing match with
the governor of the state he is visiting, out in the open, in front of the cameras for everyone to see?
Why bother even coming to our state if he has such a problem with it's leadership?  Bunk.

I'd be far more impressed if he went and took those kinds of tones with that idiot president over in Iran.  The only thing I take away from reading and hearing all of that is that President Obama is all for a completely divided country.  He's the president of everyone in the U.S. - that agrees with everything he says, apparently, if not, he wants nothing to do with you.  This guy is NOT a leader and has shown NO leadership skills since he took the office, period, end of story, thanks alot, take your bat and ball and go home.

Whale Wars.  Just saw a short video.  Allegedly, the Japanese have left and gone home.  ???  I didn't quite catch whether there had been any skirmishes with the anti-whalers and whether they had been out there whaling before the Japanese pulled the plug on it.  Have to look at the site later on today.

Whatever the case, just about time to leave for work.

Later.

ben

Wednesday 1/25/2012

It would be nice to be able to sit here and say that I am at 100% this morning, up-and-at-em, ready to tackle another day.
In reality, I feel like I should be going back to bed and sleeping another 4 or more hours.
My bad, really, I would have had to call and tell my manager that I am not coming in today, either - yesterday.
I can only hope for another short day - get whatever is in the truck system done and ask to go home early.
That's it for this one, I'm off to work.
ben

Auto Zone 24th Street & Baseline

I had Caleb take my car and leave his here for today.
Although I am not feeling well, the car needed some servicing on the coolant - basically it wasn't in good shape and I don't want to have some sort of situation where it overheats or worse, freezes and cracks the block if the temps go down.
To that end, I went to Auto Zone, a store I have been going to since it opened in these parts over 20 years ago.

I have never really had any problems at Auto Zone before.  Today, however, was different.  

I went in, found what I was looking for and went up to the register, which is where the problem began.  It started with a $2.97 bottle of rust flush.  You basically pour that bottle into the radiator, let the engine run for 10 or 15 minutes and then drain it all out.  You then fill it up with water and run that through a few more minutes and drain that out and then finally you put in your anti-freeze mixture with water and a rust proofing agent.

The manager came up to the front to check out my goods and scanned that bottle.  Apparently nothing came up.  He tried again and then tried to go into the system to find the price.  He eventually went over to another register and continued on with his search.  This went on for quite a while.  How hard was it for him to just give me the price that was already listed on the shelf instead of making me wait 10 minutes?

That was the first irritation, though not enough to get me "going" or anything.  He then came up - finally - and informed me the price is $3.49. I said no, it's not $3.49, it's $2.97, like what's listed on the shelf.  He charged me $3.49 anyway, completely ignoring my statement - another big no-no in my world.  I then said fine, I'll pay the $3.49 and I will be calling corporate.   He gives me a look.  Corporate? he states.  Yes, I said corporate, I am going to call them...............and that's when he cut me off, talking right over the top of me, a thing I did NOT do to him.

Any regular, long-time readers know where this is going.  Once I have been dissed by "customer service" of any company, all bets are off.  I don't even talk to that person anymore, I go right up over their head and yes, I always get compensation.  Today? No different.  I stopped speaking and he told me, quite disingenuously after I paid for all of it, to "have a nice day".  I looked him in the eye and said, "Yeah, right".  He started laughing at me.

Cardinal sin.  Never, ever laugh at your customers in a mocking way, if that customer is someone like me?  You are going to pay.  And pay he will.  I called corporate to complain who gave me a regional office number.  Great, I call that number and no answer.  Called several times, no answer, just a voice messaging system.  No thanks, been down that road, it doesn't usually lead anywhere.

I called corporate back.  This time I asked to speak to a manager.  No managers here.  Always love that one.  Manager, please and thank you.  After the lady realized I wasn't going away, she left the phone, found some sort of supervisor who started the same kind of junk with me on the phone that the guy at the store had.  No sense in going into all of that - I finally was connected to the district manager over the store I was complaining about.

The situation is going to be referred to some sort of security team in their company who will actually review the video/s that are existent to verify my statements.  I was all over that, yes, please do!  You will see me standing there for an eternity and you will see him laughing at me if the video angle is good when I am leaving the store.

My compensation?  Well, I didn't make all those phone calls until after I came back and I did most of the flushing on the car's cooling system and found - the radiator has a leak.  Not a huge leak, but steam is coming out of it meaning it's not building up pressure.  If it were summertime here right now, you wouldn't even be able to drive that car.  But since it's winter, different story.  Fortunately, the leak is up high on the radiator meaning most of the coolant is still staying in there, albeit it still is going to come out.  I have no idea how long Caleb has been driving that thing around like that.

It needs a new radiator and I am going to get 20% off the purchase price of a new one PLUS a gift card.  I don't know how much that will be for, but I am guessing the price of the brand new radiator will be knocked down to around $100 instead of $160.  I was going to have the old radiator repaired, but I doubt I am going to get it repaired for less than $100, so might as well just throw a brand new one in it!

So there it is.  I spent 2 hours on this deal and I'm guessing my compensation will be the equivalent of around $30 per hour.  Of course, it is also time to go lay down, lol, as I am still sick and not feeling very well.

I'm offa here.

Later.
ben

Direct TV & Other Minutia

I got the hankering yesterday and got it done.
I hate calling Direct TV.  They have some of the rudest, crass and calloused incoming call center employees of any company, though they certainly aren't alone in that feat of mastery in how to diss your own customers.
But, the current set of free movie channels is going to expire soon and I wanted another new set up and running - for free of course - before those run out.

Of course, it really isn't free, is it?  I spend $90 per month for the Direct TV package I have and that doesn't include if we get any pay-per-views.  For that much money, yes, I want a continual string of free movie channels and if I have to call in and get confrontational with them - which sometimes I have to be and other times they just give them to me without any argument - then that's what I am going to do. 

Yesterday was unusual on 2 fronts.  First, I got it done in one phone call, albeit I had to talk to 3 separate people on that phone call and second because a person claiming to be an operations manager got on the phone. 

It's helpful when calling them to have your facts ready to give at no-hesitation's notice.  I have that company down, oh yes, I do.  The first person I talked to I knew probably wouldn't give them to me, but I tried anyway and was very nice about it.. Sorry, Mr. Benb, we can't do that for you.  Perhaps you can't do it, but someone higher up will, may I please speak to your supervisor? 

The supervisor gets on the phone and as usual, I am adamently told that I will never get free channels.  Not going to go into detail with that particular conversation as it got nowhere and I ended it abruptly: I would like to speak to your manager, please and thank you.  In case you get the wrong idea here, I always use courtesy language and as polite and respectful to them as they are to me.  Which on many occasions, hasn't been all that much.

So, Mr. Whoever gets on the line apparently attempting to take a tone of authority with me, stating his position in the company as an operations manager and after a grandiose introduction, how can he help me?  Just give me the free Starz channels and we're good, I replied.  The conversation went quickly down hill after that after this individual got short with me as I wasn't budging.

You see, customer service reps mistake a person that won't take no for an answer as a person that is being rude.  As the old saying goes, we can agree to disagree, agreeably.  But that is never the case with Direct TV.  The man also states that I will "never" get any more free channels but his tones were abrasive and his verbage completely condescening, a thing I don't tolerate from a company I have paid untold thousands of dollars to over the years for their service. 

"You do realize, Mr. So and So, that I know your company's policies and one of them is that every single phone call is recorded and that I can call corporate and ask to have this phone call reviewed?  Corporate won't have to take my word for, they can listen to the call themselves.  Further, when I call corporate tomorrow, they will give me the channels, anyway, I was just attempting to go through the normal channels first and see if I would get anywhere with it.  You are being rude, condescending and you sound NOTHING like any operations manager I have EVER spoken with at any corporation.  You are being completely unprofessional in your stance with me.  Let me say to you that I have spent untold thousands of dollars with your company over the years and I don't appreciate your tones with me".

"Please hold while I review your account".  When they review my account, they never look back at the decade of service I had with them before my house burned down, they only look at the current account and mistakenly believe that I have only been with them for - well going on 4 years now with this current account so it's getting up there, too.  They seem to not find that other account until, of course, I bring it up to them.

After quite  a bit of time passes - like over 5 minutes - he gets back on the line. "Mr. Benb, I have very carefully reviewed your account and I will give you a one-time courtesy of 3 months of Starz for free, but it's this time only and it won't happen again".  "If you are asking me to agree to never ask for free movie channels again, Mr. So and So, then I absolutely don't agree to it. Further, you undoubtedly only looked at the history on THIS account, you didn't bother to check how long I was with your company before my house burned down of which I had an account with your company for somewhere around a decade". 

A long silence after that statement.  Yes, indeed.  "Even further,  I spend $90 a month on your company's service and that isn't exactly what I would call at the lower end of the payment spectrum.  I'm guessing that is a lot more than the average household spends.  Even further than that, your company gives free channels to new subscribers but for people that have been with your company for over a decade - we get nothing unless we call in and ask for it or have to demand it". 

That is some of my standard, modus-operandi statements to them - but it's not just spoken in passing, I really believe I should get the free channels just because of my longevity with their company, the amount I spend every month for TV and the total amount I have spent with them since starting somewhere in the mid 90's, I think it was.  I always get them, though sometimes that's taken several days worth of calls to accomplish that feat.

In 3 months?  I'll be calling them again. 

Today?  I came home from work early.  I was not and am not feeling all that great and am writing this from my bed.  I just plain don't feel well and I already took a 2 hour nap.  I have to say that buying this laptop is one of the better expenditures of money I have made.  In reality, I don't even watch that much TV, I could do without Direct TV altogether but my tenants wouldn't exactly go for that.  The great lure of my house for attracting tenants is having Direct TV in every bedroom; free Wifi and having very large bedrooms compared to most houses in these parts.  13X15 is not exactly a small bedroom.  The other 2 are 11X15.  Many bedrooms I see listed on Craigslist for rent are more like 10x10 or even smaller. 

Anyway, this laptop is getting a lot of use and frankly, it's nice that I can lay in bed if I feel like it and still get on the net and not have to sit at a desk.  Though, honestly, my desktop computer is WAY faster than this thing.  I spent the money on that computer to make it fast and fast it is. 

Here I thought maybe I would use it if I were waiting at a stop in the semi or up North only.  I am, however, curtailing the spending of money and have been since Christmas.  I will spend whatever I need to to finish that trailer, yes, but even with that I am waiting until my funds are back up a bit. I already bought most of the stuff for the roof, so it's just a matter of finishing those projects, not a matter of buying the materials.  I still have to buy a queen sized mattress, a microwave and  probably replace the carpeting.   Buy them one at a time.  I got my W-2 offline at work, I have my mortgage statement for 2011  and the only other thing waiting for is giving at church.  Oh, and for whatever reason you can also use car registration as a deduction, lol.

My focus after finishing this trailer is going to be saving even more money than I currently am.  It's going to cost $300 to move that thing up north.  I've probably got another $700 or more to spend on that thing - including moving it - before it is done.  I am not doing it half-@$$ed,  I want it right before it leaves the property, cause' honey, there ain't no way I'm gonna want to work on that thing up there.  Not at the git-go, anyway. 

I guess I didn't bother to say that I am quite sick right now, went to the doctor several hours ago, go an injection, took 4 pills, was given eye drops and some sort of cream and yes, I am  not going to work tomorrow and got off early today.

I think it's bedtime.

ben

Monday 1/23/2012

I thought about being a Walmart greeter - you know, when you are attempting to retire and not having enough money, you find yourself in the position of having to go out and find something to do to keep money coming in.  It isn't that I think lowly of Walmart greeters, it's that I don't think I am going to WANT to be standing there doing that or anything similar at the age of - what - 65? 70?

I'm simply motivating myself to take another step in the savings process and either add at least 1 percentage point to withdrawals for 401k or add another $10 to $20 weekly on the bank savings withdrawal.

If I don't keep beating myself up over this - the idea of going into my 60's broke, poor and facing a the end years of my life in a state of want and possibly even hunger or homelessness - I will not stay vigilant about this savings plan and I will, in the end, fail.

It's easier to save in a 401k than in a bank savings account, though.  You can't easily access 401k savings.  You can take out loans, but you have to pay them back and in the company I am working for, you can only have 2 out at a time.  The 401k loans are, of course, a bad idea.  I know this but I have taken them out anyway.   The great disadvantage to taking out those loans is the compounding interest.  The more money you have in that account, the more you will make on interest.  To that front, I am attempting to save up enough money in a bank savings account that I won't have to touch 401k savings ever again, or, at least, not until I retire.  I figure having at least 5k in an emergency savings fund is about right.

I know financial guru's tell me differently.  They tell you you should have 6 months worth of pay saved up.  That's no small chunk of change and though it isn't impossible, it would take years to save up that much money.  However, to realize my "dream" of having rental properties, that's exactly what's going to have to happen. I am going to have to save up a lot of money to get a second loan.  Any lender would have to see a substantial chunk of change - meaning I would suffer a sizable loss if I foreclosed on something - down on the table.

The other idea that has always lurked in the back of my head is an RV park.  I have considered that idea for at least 10 years now.  Too bad I didn't start saving towards such end that long ago, lol.  An RV park won't make a person rich, but certainly will make a decent income if it's set up properly and appeals to enough people to want to stay there overnight and others living there.  Some of the parks around here are pure and total dumps.  They  are nothing but dirt lots and dirt driveways.  Pretty ugly stuff, really.  Some of them are exceptionally beautiful and well maintained.

But I wouldn't even consider starting one inside city limits.  Too much beauracracy, red tape and all of the nonsense that goes into having to deal with city officials to get the approval of such, if you can even get approval of such.  They don't exactly like such places, to be honest.  At least, not the ones that look like earthly hell.

Onto other things.  Well, time is almost up and not a lot of other things to speak about in a short time period. Work day almost here.  I have a mind full of things that are floating around, not endlessly but I do tend to analyze things well into their potential endings.

Whatever the case, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Sunday 1/22/2012

So, 10% of my gross income.
At least.
That's the statements of financial guru's that are talking about getting a late start on saving for retirement.

Yes, I frequently visit this issue because, well, I'm there.  It's past do-or-die time, there are no more excuses.
Not that, in recent times, I have been making any. Retire broke or retire at least comfortably enough to be able to enjoy the "Golden Years".

Upon checking my Prudential 401k retirement account - which is a dismal thing to look at sometimes simply because of the low account balance - I am saving at a rate of about 13% of my gross income.  That's pre-tax income, in other words.  On top of that, the money I am having taken out weekly for emergency savings fund - though it IS a savings account.

I guess, realistically, I should not count that towards retirement, though.  A broken washing machine; busted water heater; broken down car; this that and the other thing.  That's what that's for.  If it gets beyond that, great.  It's also saving for a new (well not brand new) vehicle.  I am tired of making auto payments.  As if it's some sort of thing that you HAVE to live with ALL of your life.  No.  It's something like 2 more years and the car I am currently driving is paid off.

So, there is a goal that I have determined to set for myself, starting today, actually.  No more car payments after this one is paid off.  I don't CARE if I am driving around an old car, as long as it is dependable and not breaking down every other day, I'm good with it.  I really want a pickup truck, though and that is what I am going to save for.  Eliminating a monthly auto payment and putting that towards retirement - or even investment - would do wonders.

The other monthly payment that I hate paying but have no choice is the monthly child support.  The money I am paying now is going to the settlement made at the time of the divorce for the house and the 401k account which was cashed out.  That's a couple of more years, actually and unfortunately.  Nothing to do but live with it.  One of the reasons I will probably never get married again, or if I do, there is definitely going to be pre-nuptial agreement and if the "mate" doesn't want to agree to it, then no marriage.

This idea that marriage is sanctimonious - well it is, really but that's a different story - and is life - binding - which it also is, but also a different story - has turned into a pipe dream.  There are no guarantees that your partner and you are going to stay married the rest of your life and if not, then what?  You lose half of everything, all over again, and start from Ground Zero!  Screw that!  Been there, done that and not desirous of going there again.

Whatever the case, there is at least one thing I can eliminate in the not-too-terribly-distant-future: a car payment.  In 2 years, I am going to be 50 years old and I want to see that retirement fund at the very least, doubled by then.  Actually, at the rate I am saving, it should be tripled - that is, of course, if the doom and gloomers are wrong (which I hope they are ) about their prediction that 2012 is going to see a recession or depression worse than the one we already went through ( or are going through, depending on your perspective).

Another factor that is somewhat of a game-changer is the fact that I am posting more hours on each paycheck.  I have no idea whether that is going to be sustained for any length of time, but I did get almost 87 hours on the current pay period, versus the 3 years of 70 hours.  401k deductions are pre-tax, so the OT is good for that, at least (however, why the government thinks it's entitled to 40% of any OT hours is beyond me, I worked just as hard for that OT as I did the regular hours, it's not like it's "free money" to me or something).

I'm not the best at saving, but I am at least trying at this point.  It's not that terribly difficult: save now and in 20 years you will probably have something to draw on that is sizable enough to sustain you for a while.

In other news, lol, well I finally got back up on the top of that trailer yesterday and went to town cleaning off the junk where the new vent will go.  It took forever because that grinder I bought is a very cheap one and the motor heats up quickly.  I had to keep stopping and let the thing cool down.  I might have bought a more expensive one, but how often do I use the thing?  It's only for this project on the roof and after that, I don't even see a use for it.  If it will finish the 3 projects on the roof, I am happy with it and it can melt down and disappear into thin, blue air if it lasts that long.  It was like an $11 grinder, lol.

The cleaning is done on the one vent, so only one more larger vent to go and a much smaller one after that.  There is also another area that probably should be taken down to the metal and re-done - but I will call that shot when I get to it.

4 more payments on one of the travel trailers and it is paid off.  The other one is already paid off. I think when I pay off the one I am making payments on, I will probably try to sell it.  Not sure yet - 4 more months to decide on that one, but I am thinking I would rather have the money in a bank account instead of sitting on 4 wheels out in my driveway.  But, life is never really a constant, things change and so do circumstances.  Who knows what might be going on in 4 months that the use of that thing might be needed for something?  I dunno, but it's in pretty good shape, needs some things fixed on the inside but nothing that would make it unsellable.

Enough for one entry.

Later.

ben

Cafe World Tips 34: Low Buzz Rating Glitch - Cafe World

I'm getting hits on an old article I wrote about buzz rating.  I am guessing that is because people are experiencing buzz rating drops or even having it go down to 4 or 5, apparently while you are not even in your cafe.

The way the game normally works is that buzz rating stays at whatever point it is when you exit your cafe.  However, there is yet another glitch now which has nothing to do with the layout of your cafe or whether your waiters can get to all the food on your counters or not.

You're going to have to ride this one out until Zynga fixes the problem, there is nothing anyone can do.  Just wanted to throw that out there because of the hits my blog is receiving for buzz rating issues that I have posted in the past.

PS: One more thing: YES, this current situation is one of a seemingly endless line of glitches with Zynga's Cafe World game. If you leave your cafe at 105 and come back to find it at 4 or 5 or whatever much lower number, you are not alone! Many players are experiencing this glitch! Why doesn't it affect ALL players? As with almost all glitches with Cafe World, the glitches affect one or more servers, but not all of them (usually, anyway). I have no idea how many servers are used by Zynga for this game, but there are undoubtedly a large bank of them. Not all servers are affected by these glitches, hence, not all players experience the glitch. I added this comment to this thread but decided to post it in the thread itself.  

 past. Further Update: Zynga has officially announced it knowledge of the problem and is "working to fix it": The Wedding Table is causing my Buzz to drop

Updated 01/22/2012 at 05:41

Greetings chef,

A small number of our fellow chefs are reporting that after placing the Wedding Table into their cafe, the Buzz rating drops. As a temporary workaround, may we suggest that you place the table back into your inventory.

Meanwhile, we have notified our engineering department and they are currently working on a fix. We hope to have this resolved shortly. There is no need to submit an email for this issue.  Instead, click the Please Fix button below to help us keep track of the number of players affected.

If you decide to report a ticket, place the keywords "Wedding Buzz" at the start of your message and reference: CAFE-26287.

For immediate support and the most up-to-date information, click here to visit our Technical Support Forums.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

.........I somehow doub it's a "small" number of chefs, but whatever the case, at least they know about it and hopefully will have a fix for it soon.  

Saturday 1/21/2012

So, I have decided to embark upon another month long tracking of my expenses.

I do it once in a great while to see what I am spending on what.

I can mostly go to my checking account and see what's going on, but there is a lot more information to be gleaned when you write every single purchase you make and bill you pay whether online or at the QT - not only the amount you spent but WHAT you spent it on.

I'm looking for ways to increase my savings is the point.  With my 401k loan payment, my contribution and my company's contribution, it's around $200 per paycheck - which quite frankly, isn't near enough.  That's only around 5k per year.  I also have $40 per week going into a savings account, but that money is being saved up for emergency use.  It will go beyond that if I ever get it up to where I want it - which is going to take quite a while since I figure I should have at least 5 grand in a savings account for emergency use if the occasion rises.  I am thinking of increasing that to $50 per week.

Onto other things.  Finally going to try making Navy Bean soup with the ham bone and extra ham fatty that I have left over from the last ham I cooked.  I was going to make it today - but I didn't know the beans have to be soaked "overnight".  I am going to let them sit in a pot 6 hours and then try it anyway.

I kind of find it odd that this South Carolina voting is being done on a Saturday. Maybe they've always done it that way and I've just missed it?  Or perhaps they have a set date for it every year and it doesn't matter what day it falls on?  I did watch the last debate, it was quite entertaining from the git-go.

Nothing much else.  Randy apparently has all of his permits now to build his house.  It will be quite interesting to see what, exactly, is going to go up over there.

As for today?  I am burnt out from working this week.  I don't feel like doing anything.

I'm sure that will change as the day grows longer, but for right now, I am doing a lot of nothing.

ben

Cafe World Tips 33: How To Easily, Automatically Collect Bonuses And Gifts From Your Cafe World Neighbors

Let's face facts, Cafe World, if you let it, will take up a LOT of your time.
Going around attempting to collect bonuses and gifts off of your neighbor's wall feeds is one of the most time-consuming elements to this game, an element that is easily by-passed by using one of numerous auto-collect tools that are to be found on the internet.

Yes, that's what this article is about.  I have hundreds of Cafe World neighbors and no way am I going waste as much time as it would take to visit every one of their Facebook walls to find the gifts and bonuses that they have posted.

When I found out that you can simply use an app to collect them for you, I was all over it.  The app that I am using is called Friendly Gaming Simplifier.  This is, for me, the best one out there.  Unfortunately, Facebook has been giving the individual that created this particular app legal troubles and it appears he has taken down the link to install the app.  But, you can do a search around the web and many sites appear to have a link to download it available.

Here a few links to other apps that do the same thing:
http://bonuscheckers.com/
http://gamersunite.coolchaser.com/games/cafe-world-bonus-collector

There are more of them out there, just giving you a clue how to get all of the bonuses without all the work!

Cafe World Tips 32: Live Chat: How To Access Cafe World Live Chat Zynga Live Chat For Any Zynga Game

This will be a short one.
First off, you DO have to have been a paying customer sometime in the past to even have access to Zynga Live Chat.  If you have never bought Cafe Cash, you won't be able to access the Live Chat option - but on the same page I am about to take you to, you WILL be able to access their email version whether you have paid or not.

Okay, having said that, go into your Cafe (or any other Zynga game, it's all the same).  On the top right hand corn of the screen, you will see the large, red Zynga bulldog.  Click on it.

It opens up a separate, new page.

On the top, right-hand corner of the new page, click on Support.

Yet another page opens.

On the left side of the next page that came up, click on Cafe World (or whichever game it is you are wanting to access live chat for).

Sometimes the live chat option comes up immediately (it will show up next to the  "Search All Articles" bar) and sometimes you have to wait. Other times it won't show up at all - Live Chat is not always available.  But if it IS available, it will come up without having to do anything else.

If it doesn't show up and you don't want to keep trying/waiting, you can also support and Email ticket on that same page.  Just click on the white arrow in the red box right next to the "Search All Articles" bar.  It will bring up the email option and click on that.  However, be prepared to wait an extremely long time for an answer, up to 2 weeks.  Yes, I have recently submitted tickets that took them 2 weeks to respond to.

1/19/2012 Thursday

Thursday already.
Plenty of stuff to do at work today, which always makes a day fly by.
I haven't seen the doom and gloomers lately in the news, concerning another
recession or even a depression, I guess they are all waiting to see whether their
predictions come true or not.
I, for one, certainly hope they are WAY off on their predictions.

After posting a rather - in-your-face note on the main bathroom wall, one tenant came forward and took responsibility for it.  It being the puddles of urine on the floor.  Not going to go into great detail here, hopefully the problem is quashed and I won't have to deal with it again, at least with this individual.

Anyone care to tell me why Obama decided to nix the pipeline from Canada?  The same people that oppose wind farms because the blades on the fans might kill birds and oppose solar farms because - who knows why, something about turtles I believe it was - now have their voice magnified 1,000,000 times over again in having this pipeline stopped before it started.  I am always amazed at how such small groups of people can have so much power over governments.  I dunno, but they are building a HUGE solar farm/array/whatever they want to call it down in Gila Bend, Arizona.  It's basically nothing but desert down there.

Whatever.  If these people who are opposed to all of this are really going to stand behind their words, then they better shut off the power to their homes and stop driving anything with an internal combustion engine in it.

Haven't heard anything on the neighbor front concerning the war going on over there. Apparently 350 man and Randy are completely ignoring each other now.  Randy put up a temporary fence to block the view of 350 man's house.  350 man is still able to completely annoy me, however, because he has very bright spotlights directed at my front yard.  Every morning I go out there and there they are, in my face.  I don't know if the city will do anything about that, but I am going to find out. It's been this way for months now.  I am assuming he is doing that to see if I have the animal trap out there and to "catch" me in the act, apparently.

What is he going to do if I DID decide to put the trap out there?  He would be ill-advised to put a single foot on any portion of my property is all I can say about that.

Anyway, work day is almost here, time to leave!

ben

Wednesday 1/18/2012

Went to church last night for the prayer group.  But this was a different type of thing.  They had the lights dimmed and were playing Christian worship music.  The idea to basically get into the Lord's presence as a group.  They have a much different type of prayer group going on Friday - not sure if I'll make that one or not.

Dunno how Caleb's first day at school went.  Considering he had school, then Muay Thai and then work, I'm guessing his late night stuff playing online games with his friends are going to greatly curtailed.  Then again, the only class he had yesterday was Japanese. For whatever reason, he wants to learn how to speak Japanese.

Nothing new going on here, besides a few notices that I haven't heard back from yet.  Which doesn't necessariliy mean that anything bad is going to happen (ie: a tenant moving out), but I had to inform one person that he is now limited to 3 loads of laundry per week and if he wants to do more than that, it will cost him the same as at a laundromat. I'm sorry, but one person doesn't need to be doing 8,9 10 loads of laundry per week.  That's more in the range of family of 8 or something.

The other notice was entitled: "Lakes of Pee". Someone has been missing the toilet so badly that there are actually puddles of urine left on the floor after they are done.  I left a message in the bathroom.  If the activity doesn't stop, we will find out who is doing it and that person will be given a 30 day notice. I mean, that's just plain disgusting.  It's bad enough guys that don't quite hit the bowl and a bit of it goes down the side of the toilet bowl, it's an entirely different matter when you are finding PUDDLES of the stuff on the floor next to the toilet.  Gross!

Who wants to clean up someone else's urine? Not me!

Well, it's time to be off to work.  Hump Day - middle of the week.  Life is good.

ben

Tuesday 1/17/2012

So, Caleb comes in last night - just before I'm heading off to bed thank you - with no small degree of consternation about something.  He is getting money "back" from that federal Pell grant and they apparently couldn't figure out how to go about doing it.  They being his mother and him.  I think it a good idea if he does this stuff alone and if he messes it up, it can be fixed.

I went through all the screens - lots of them to go through - before I got to where they left off.  The money is being processed by Citi and the only thing left to do was to make a 100% withdrawal for when the "next installment" comes through, of which I did.  So, when it gets in there it is going to be automatically deposited into Caleb's bank account.

His first day of school? Today.  His schedule, routine, entire life really is going to make a dramatic change and he will have little free time with all that he has going on.  School, work and Muay Thai.  That is enough to fill up any day and then some.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia has made an announcement that for 24 hours on Wednesday, they are blacking out the English portion of their site, taking a stand against some sort of anti-piracy bill that is being considered by Congress.  I have no idea what that bill is about, besides reading into the name of the bill of course, I have not taken the time to look into it.  But I have been reading about numerous web sites that are considering doing the same thing.  Craigslist put a paragraph on their main board about it as well.  It's making me curious enough that when I come home from work today, gonna take a lookitit.

I did watch the debate on Fox last night.  I have not decided who I would want in a race against Obama, but I did decide that Ron Paul made himself look utterly contemptible with his anti-war statements.  I still sort of like Perry - he made some good comebacks and statements last night, but I think his numbers are down too low.  Who knows, though.  I'm not a fan of Romney and yes, religious views have a lot to do with it. The media and the big wigs in it are bashing Christians for not support Romney simply because of a religious problem.  Yup, I'm one of those dummies.  Mormonism is a cult - not trying to offend anyone but that's the way I see it and that after doing considerable research on the subject over the last few decades.  Yes, I have even gone to some of their meetings.  Beyond everything, though, Mormonism is based on works.  You earn your way into Heaven - the Bible clearly states that salvation is a gift from God, not of works lest any man should boast.  The idea that the "good works" that we do in life somehow account to getting more favor with God is absurd at best in terms of thinking it is going to buy your way into heaven.

But, whatever.  If Romney gets it, then he gets it.  Hopefully we won't be seeing legislation to ban the drinking of Coca-Cola and coffee, lol.

I rather like my morning coffee before work, of which I am enjoying and finishing up right now, cause........it's almost time to leave.

G'day.

ben