Archive for the ‘General’ Category

thrisis??

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

so first there was the quarter-life crisis… now they’re saying there’s a thrisis?? seems new “mid-life” crises keep getting invented as i age. my generation must be a crisis-plagued generation… we’re hypochrondriacs when it comes to mental anguish!

bold prediction!

Friday, October 29th, 2010

i will not get sick this winter.

my theory:
i got some kind of flu-like virus in july. for the entire month. in october, i got another flu-like virus for 3 days. these HAVE to had given me some sort of immunity against the flu strains this winter!

let’s see if my prediction happens!

sleazy used salesmen stereotype dispelled!

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

thank you bill page toyota for proving that used salesmen are not all sleazy.

about a year ago, when i was car shopping, i was getting increasing frustrated (i’m looking at you, KOONS TYSONS TOYOTA) because it seemed like used car salesmen were exactly as they are stereotyped – sleazy, willing to do anything to get you into the store so they could rip you off. koons tyson reneged on a price on me TWICE. the very last time, i had already ignored them for the past week after i told them i no longer wanted to deal with them. then they came calling, telling me to come in and i asked them to promise on the price and i’d come in. so they said yes. and i started making calls/plans to get to the dealership during lunch. when they called back to say no again.

another dealership tried to convince me that 1. ABS was standard on 2004 (no…. i know my 2004 camry!) 2. the car they were trying to sell me came with it because it was standard. i had them open up the hood and we went looking for ABS (i actually don’t know what ABS looks like… so i wanted them to show me something with ABS written on it =P but i learned later that it’s a much bigger unit, like a box or something? anyways i just knew the car had no ABS so i wasn’t afraid to ask them to open up the hood… )

so last year, when i went to bill page toyota after all these fiascos…. i was pleasantly surprised. jonathan took me in 2 different cars to test drive. they were willing to negotiate on both vehicles… in the end, i went with the cheaper, but newer car.

even with such a good buying experience, i was worried that i’d get ripped off. they were nice at bill page, but who knows… maybe they were still sleazy!!!!

which is why this year, i was even more pleased!! so part of the reason why the newer car was cheaper was because it was riced up. so i started having problems with my taillights (policeman gave me a warning because he accused me of switching lanes without signaling… i actually argued back with the cop because i know i usually signal? i think he saw how tinted the lights were so he switched to “just” a warning), friends following me complained they couldn’t see me signal either. when i tried to get my light bulbs switched, i found that the lights had been modded. they were soldered directly into the socket and were dim LEDs!!

so i went back to the dealership a year after i purchased the car. i was afraid they’d be like “sorry, you’re out of luck!” because it’d been a year since i purchased the car… it’s not like i could return it!

but the people at bill page were awesome! Mike (the manager) remembered me! And told me he’d take car of it. He got their shop to replace the lights for me AND do my safety inspection. All free of charge!!

I really appreciated that they were willing to take care of my problem. Made me feel like they weren’t trying to rip me off when I bought the car.

fun fact

Friday, October 15th, 2010

i leave jobs on the 15th of months. first job – the ides of march. second job – the 15th of october.

beware the ides……

P.S. i did NOT change jobs!! i was just noticing this since it’s been about a year since i quit my previous job!

pet peeves

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

1. wendy’s employees who don’t know the difference between their caesar salads and garden salads…

2. automated phone systems that tell you for yada yada “press #” and then when you press that key, they hang up on you!!

3. people who drive in the shoulder of highways when they are backed up. uhh you’re not the only person in a rush.

cox cable – can’t read clocks???

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

what is up with my customer service issues!? tried to call cox today at around 5pm EST. got told their offices were closed. and then the automated lady started to tell me what their hours were… 8am to 9pm…

uhhh… yea.

directv – scammers!

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

so i bought an HD projector! finally some nice TV! no more flickering, tiny tube tvs! our band’s singer might actually be able to read the words clearly in rock band/guitar hero!

so i looked into upgrading to directv HD service. i knew i’d have to pay more monthly for HD service. $10 a month. not cheap, but not bad. but then! directv wants to charge me $199 to get the HD DVR receiver! wait. for the receiver that i pay $5 a month to rent.

huh?

apparently, this is just the way directv operates! what a load of crap! the $199 doesn’t pay for the box clearly (else, why are you charging me $5 a month extra?) and it doesn’t pay for the HD service (else, why are you charging me $10 a month extra?)… so what exactly am i paying for?

spoke to THREE different directv reps. all of them basically said they couldn’t waive that fee. that it costs more to buy the receivers new ($500) than to rent… ‘cept if i bought, at the end of it, i’d own the receiver! (even got one rep to admit it made no sense that after 2 years of renting, i’d basically have paid enough to buy a receiver. then she was like but why would u want to buy a receiver? u can only use it on our service? to which i responded… so you’re telling me there’s no point to staying with directv? because u’re either trying to sell me a receiver that can only work with your system or u’re trying to make me spend enough money to buy a receiver, but not actually buy it? how are u selling me on staying with directv?! … then she got all flustered)

i am apparently not the only person annoyed at directv… there’s apparently a class action lawsuit too! see: http://medialoper.com/directtvs-dvr-lease-shell-game/

frustration

Monday, June 14th, 2010

when i’m frustrated, patience and empathy are the first things out the door. ironic… since those are the 2 things that i’m looking for from others too.

wow… the world is complicated…

Monday, May 24th, 2010

so i saw this sale on sigg water bottles and thought, perhaps i shall get some. since plastic have been shown to have bpa or whatever and my bottle is from before they started selling them labeled with bpa-free. i heard those metal ones were safe. so i was about to order a sigg bottle when i started reading negative reviews. apparently aluminum (what the sigg bottles are made of) is not entirely safe either and the sigg bottles’ liner wasn’t bpa-free until only recently (past year or so). reviewers were telling me to get kleen kanteen instead! which apparently is stainless steel. of course research into that says that those bottles are made in china. manufacturing kiss of death? how soon before there’s a recall on them?! so…. i don’t know what kind of bottle to get. and i’m sure in five years research will show that neither of the bottles are good. but i just want something to hold my water!! what to do?

separation between church and state

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

latest supreme court nominee is jewish. read an article on cnn about how the court is now catholics and jews, but the author was saying that in reality, the catholics and jews and protestants share similar views (on governing) so it doesn’t really make a difference. but the author brought up how a more diverse supreme court would still be nice. (article – http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/19/do-6-catholics-3-jews-9-protestants/?hpt=C1)

Then read the comments, one of which said how the only way to have true separation of church and state is to have only atheists on the supreme court.

questions

  • does atheism count as a religion?
  • can u have separation between church and state with religious people?
  • can u have separation between church and state with ANY group of people? because people will always have an inherent belief (believing in the absence of god is still a belief no?) this is kind of combination of the first two questions i have
  • “The separation of church and state was to prevent the state from establishing a state church and to prevent the meddling of the state in religion.” (another comment) – true or not?
  • if the above bullet point is true, what is meddling?