Category: BullShit

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And Once again Verizon demonstrates…

Why so very many people hate them!

Internet goes down. 

Modem says problem Bad & at their end.

Call Verizon.

35 minutes of screwing around with their stinking voice obfuscation system which is all the while telling me that I can resolve my problems by visiting them on the web at www.verizon.com. 

To which I say If I could visit you at www.verizon.com I’d sign up FOR THE CARRIER providing me with the ability TO visit www.verizon.com.

Then I finally get to some female in god knows where but based on the static and her accent I’d bet she was in India somewhere. I ask her a simple question. “Is there a service problem in my area?” All I needed was a simple “Yes / No / I don’t know let me check”.

Instead we went down the rabbit hole which is all too common these days.

“What is your operating system?” – I’ve gotten in the habit of simply telling them UNIX. It’s true and then we don’t have to deal with the bullshit Windows questions.

“What is the Model of the modem you’re using?” – It’s a Netgear ADSL2+ DM111PSPv2

“Do you have a Verizon Modem?” – Nope, the one you sent me died and I didn’t feel like waiting 2 weeks for you to get ’round to sending me a new one so I bought this one a year & a half ago and it’s been working just fine since I installed it.

“Can you connect your computer directly to the modem?” – Uh NOPE, I’m not going to tear all my wiring out just so you can say I did.

“Is the modem connected directly to the wall?” – UH YEAH… the Modem reported to me that at 12:53 PST it lost contact with your DNS Servers and was no longer able to obtain a DSL address.

“What are the lights on your modem indicating?” – FUCK!!!!! Power Green, Ethernet Green, DSL Signal Green, WWW/WAN RED

“Do you have a wireless router?” – Yes

“What is the make of the wireless Router” – It’s an Apple not that it’s of any importance to this situation

“Is the modem connected to the Router” – GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! Everything was working and has been working just fine. Can you please just run a damn line test?

“Can you directly connect you computer to the modem?” – Look lady, I’ve got 10 computers of various types, and operating systems all running and communicating to a bunch of hard drives just fine via the router that you’re obviously trying to blame for your companies failure to provide internet service.

SO NO I’m not going to rewire my shit unless you can give me a seriously fucking compelling reason to do so.

What is the result of the line test?

“Oh the line test has indicated a problem, can you turn you modem off and back on?” – Yes… climbs back up on the ladder to push the button.

Ok modem restarted…

Static ~ Static ~ Static ~ Long Long Long wait…

“I’m so sorry that you have been inconvenienced you will be receiving a phone call within 24 to 48 hours explaining when you can expect your internet service to resume.“

So the line test failed… “Yes, the line test failed, We have received reports that DSL service has been disrupted in your area.“

So had you received those reports Before or After we began this little conversation?

“We knew there was a service outage in your area“

Great! Thanks for wasting my time.

I Hang up.

Why the hell is it so damn hard for people to just answer the question? Better yet why the hell didn’t Verizon route me to a recorded message based on my phone number that simply said

“DSL Service is Temporarily Down in your area. We are working to resolve the problem.“

That would have saved me the annoyance, and the “Technical Support Monkey” in India a lot of frustration.

This blog will not have any pictures…. I may add some when the internet comes back up.

How did I post this you ask????

I’m using the hotspot in my cell phone. It’s only a 2G connection but it’s working.

Sigh…

Saturday Update:

They’re at it again.  This morning Verizon was giving my modem an ip address… every 20 seconds. However the data rate was 2000 BITs per second.

Rough math says that’s about 250 Characters per second which means that if you were just reading text based information you’d be able to easily keep up as the text scrolled across the screen. That is assuming that you can actually read… I guess if you’re here reading this blog you do know how to read… Good for you!

However with todays content rich websites… the reality is that you’ll see nothing but a blank page.

After restarting every single system in my network (Modem, Routers, Computers, WiFI extenders), I realized with horror that I’d need to report the problem to Verizon. 

After Irishing my coffee… I was once again on the phone working my way through the insanity that is Verizons menu system.

It’s all voice activated and apparently tuned for non English speaking people because even when I’m speaking to it calmly (Before it pisses me off) it doesn’t understand me. 

As an aside… I really hate voice recognition/prompts that have Genuine People Personalities I find them annoying and condescending. 

This time I tried to work with the damn machine.

I was able to get it to run a line test. It determined that something was wrong and told me that it was going to transfer me to a human being. 

“Cool” I thought. 

Then for my protection, it wanted me to enter the last 8 or 10 digits of my account number. As If I had that handy!!!! Failing that… They wanted me to enter the amount I’d last paid them. UHHH Yeah! RIGHT! If I don’t have the account number handy, I’m sure as hell not going to have the last amount I paid handy.

I mean I could look it up ON THE INTERNET except that I can’t get to the Verizon web pages.

You know… The web pages where we’re all asked to “Go Green” and Save paper by signing up for automatic payments? Yeah… THAT page.

Which takes me into the loop where the Genuine People Personality tries to get me to pull this information out of my ass.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”

At this point I’m heating up for a full on explosion.

Then I remember being told once swearing foully at these systems can get you to a human being. So I channel the spirits of some of my favorite Marines!

It did break me out of the loop… and I felt better too!

Then I’m in a hold queue where a very nice voice complete with Indian accent is telling me they’ll get to me in less than 15 minutes and that she’s sorry for the inconvenience.

I’m calmer. I go back to my desk. I’m watching the modem performance statistics.  

The indian accent lady is telling me they’ll get to me in less than 15 minutes and that she’s sorry for the inconvenience. AGAIN

When all the sudden the stats jump way up Bits… Kilobits… Megabits… per second. the throughput stabilizes at 2.96Mbps (normal)  for my DSL service.

Still, the indian accent lady is telling me they’ll get to me in less than 15 minutes and that she’s sorry for the inconvenience.

I hang up. 

Whatever the hell the problem was… they must have gotten thousands of calls about it.

I’m guessing that was enough to light a fire under them. 

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Good! 

Remember these Utilities WORK for YOU!

They need to be reminded of that on a regular basis. 

Yeah… I’m all Nebari today. So what?

I’d decided that I was going to refer to whoever I spoke with at Verizon in the Nebari way.

“Servicer… I will give commands, you will execute commands“

I probably wouldn’t have made and friends… but I sure as hell would have felt better!

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Alright many Liberal Democrats are officially Obscene!

I’ve seen more dumbass tweets and comments lately that directly say Republicans are the cause of everything from Tornadoes in OK to bridge collapses in Washington.

I’ve got news for you people… 

As a Republican I wish I had that kind of power… If the Republicans had that kind of power do you think President Obama would have won the election? Here’s a better question. If Republican had that kind of power… do yo think they’d unleash it on other Republicans? Uh… NO dumbass they’d have destroyed democratic strongholds!

Ok, So stop with the moronic diatribe. 

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I’m disappointed in, and ashamed of a lot of folks in this country.

In particular I’m ashamed of people who in the midst of a disaster, chose to comment along partisan lines making political points.

Need I remind you that 24 children DIED in Moore OK?

How is this any different from the tragedy of Sandy Hook? Oh yes, one was a tornado the other was an insane guy with guns.

I guess there is a difference… but not to the parents who buried their children.

Where is the wailing and gnashing of teeth? Where is the 24 hour news coverage? Where’s the indignation? Wheres the outrage that a public building wasn’t safe for children to be attending school?

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Within hours of the tornado touching down there were people making comments publicly on Twitter that implied, or directly said somehow a red state like OK was deserving of a tragedy BECAUSE they were a RED state. 

Worse yet were comments saying that because the Republican party had voted against a bill (apparently loaded with pork) to allocate more money for victims of hurricane Sandy, Oklahoma was somehow Karmic payback. 

Frankly, one dumbass comment I could overlook as someones village idiot getting access to a computer.

However, the torrent of similar comments on Twitter and even being posted on major news sites covering the tornado simply made me want to vomit.

I was offended, sickened, and honestly wanted nothing more than to backhand the lot of these people. Including some people I call friends. I haven’t decided yet If I’ll still call them friends… Time will tell.

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How the hell do you figure anyone was deserving of a MILE WIDE tornado?

In a disaster there are no Democrats or Republicans, there are just people who have in many cases lost it all. They’re Americans and they’re hurt and their community is in shambles.

The only thing we as Americans should be saying is “How can we help? How do we get them supplies and medical aid?” Costs be damned! Let the accountants figure it out later. 

Glen Beck, whom I don’t listen to… I know he’s a media personality, I know he’s a conservative, I suspect from what I’ve heard him quoted as saying that he & I will probably not agree on too many points… called on his listeners for unloaded 18 wheelers to load up emergency supplies an hour after the tornado touched down.

He used his fame and media connections to start coordinating relief efforts.

He could have been taking pot shots at FEMA. He could have started flinging shit at the Obama administration. I don’t know if he did.

What I do know is that a Tweet that came from him and was retweeted, gaining momentum and that more and more people were saying great idea! How can we help?

That’s what Americans are supposed to do. 

Political posturing, grandstanding, and bullshit are supposed to evaporate when it comes time for us to pull together.

Maybe we All should remember that.

I’d suggest that the Ultra Liberal Democrats take note…

I’m a Republican who’s not pleased with the Republican party. But I will never switch to the Democratic party if this is what passes for acceptable behavior.

I will however redouble my efforts to help the Republican party repair itself and grow.

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I hate Memorial Day weekend

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I hate Memorial Day weekend because of the damn garage sale hunters.

I live on a street that first of all is private, second it’s a dead end street. Which means that these people come barreling up the street and then they hit the brakes like maniacs. It’s tough enough on the street.

But… And this is what pisses me off, when these inconsiderate morons do the same thing in my driveway I just go off.

There is no one on my street selling anything…

There’s no reason for these people to be in my driveway. When they damage the drive I get really hacked off about it.

They’re gone in a flash but the leave me cleaning up their mess and damage.

I understand why so many people have their driveways chained off.

I hate living like a prisoner, just trying to keep my shit from being damaged.

The same thing happens with my vehicles. Most of the damage done to them isn’t done by me. It’s done by other inconsiderate pricks. Either in parking lots or by assholes dropping shit on the roads and just driving on.

I hate fighting to keep my stuff nice just so someone else can screw it up.

What ever happened to people doing the right thing?

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I broke my rule – I watched the Benghazi hearing

UnknownAll I can say is wow!

I don’t suppose it really qualifies as watching the news, I was watching the hearing on C-SPAN, online.

I did get some other work done while it was playing, thanks to my big computer monitor, not nearly as much as I should have gotten done.

The hearing was engrossing and I’d find myself stopping everything else just to listen and watch.

imagesElijah Cummings was an ass in his opening statements.

The Hicks testimony was unbelievably moving. Hearing him take note that Libyans died that night trying to help. I think he said “The Libyans shed blood for us that night“, was something I’ll remember for a long time.

When Mr Hicks described the heroism and the professionalism of the staff I thought he was amazing.

To have a Lt Col. Say “For the first time in my career a Diplomat has more balls than the Military” is telling. It describes just how frustrated the Lt. Col was, and notes the respect Mr Hicks earned by his decisions & actions.

I was really disturbed by how many Democrats were bailing out of the chambers during the hearing.

It was also shameful how many “News” agencies said absolutely nothing about any aspect of the hearing. I thought these people were supposed to keep us informed.

I don’t know if there’s a scandal here, or if the Administration lied, or if there’s anything that was unknown, per se.

I do think that enough questions were raised that further testimony is not unreasonable.

Questions like Who issued the order to the military not to go to Benghazi as re-enforcements?

Why was the compound not up to specification?

Why was the person in charge of security essentially made to feel like he had to stop complaining when he was doing his job in pointing out that security was in fact not what the State Department Rules called for?

Who above Nordstrom signed off on the security as it stood?

Why was the terrorist angle downplayed in favor of saying a dumb-ass video caused the attack. When the Libyan Government was telling our people that this was terrorists and named them?

More important than anything else, why is this political at all?

Truth is never political, it simply is.

I saw some younger Democrats asking reasonable questions, and I saw older Democrats glaring at them. Why?

The people asking well reasoned questions were doing their jobs. The jobs that their constituents sent them to Washington to do.

Unknown-1The Democrat from NY Maloney… Wow!

Ma’am you were so far out of line I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Mr Thompson was not compelled to speak with you. That he chose not to speak with the Democratic Minority was well within his rights. It wasn’t at all partisan.

That you attempted to get away with such a blatant spin on the truth, trying to paint the Republicans as obstructionistic was embarrassing.

Ms Maloney, you’ve embarrassed yourself, your state, and your country.  I sincerely hope that your constituents vote you out of office in the next election cycle.

I’m hoping that the truth of all of this comes out, not because I want to see the administration blamed. But because I want to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.

The only way to do that, is to fully understand what happened in the first place.

We do that by dropping the partisan bullshit and asking well reasoned questions.

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Oh for the love of god! The insanity continues!!!

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As a side note this was originally going to publish on Tuesday. Given the events of Monday in Boston and Wednesday in TX I held it up. I’ve thought about it and decided that this still needed to be said.

We as a country cannot and should not get into the habit of “Banning or interfering” as this Senator attempted to do. 

Banning an event or book one group dislikes, places us on the slippery slope to censorship. 

I personally disliked Jesse Jacksons rallies in FL against Zimmerman. However I am duty bound as a citizen under the constitution to protect Rev. Jackson right to free speech.

This is a philosophy that is deeply ingrained in me. As it should be in all American citizens, most especially our politicians.

I understand that the Senator was likely just seeking some publicity, but this method sets a bad precedent. 

All right people I’m going to say some things here that are likely to piss some of you off.

TOUGH!

A Connecticut Senator by the name of Murphy asked that the NRA 500 NASCAR race be Not Aired or cancelled because of the fact that it was sponsored by the NRA.

I don’t even follow or watch NASCAR and this pisses me off.

I see this as nothing more than a spotlight grabbing publicity seeking asshole Senator standing on the Newtown Tragedy in an effort to look, yes look like he’s doing something.

I’m sick of hearing about Newtown. I’m sick of hearing every fucking controversial issue being tied back to Newtown. 

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I’m so fucking over it I can’t see straight and I am equally sick of hearing talking heads and dumbass members of congress blabbing on and on about the pros and cons of various asinine gun control bills.

I’m sick of hearing moronic state representatives blabbing on about things that they have no idea about.

Then trying to make laws that are supposed to be about the safety of the public. When in reality the new laws will not do one fucking thing to make us safer.

If Senator Murphy had been successful in stopping the broadcast or even the race, I’d have been calling for his immediate removal from office for violating his oath of office.

You know… that little bit about upholding the constitution? I might even have been screaming for him to be hauled up on charges of improper use of power and influence peddling.

Why?

Because had he managed to stop the broadcast or the race itself, I believe that would have violated the First Amendment.

Folks… Events like this race are planned at least a year if not two years in advance.

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The NRA PAID their sponsorship money.

The fans paid their money for the tickets.

The advertisers paid for their commercials to run during the broadcast.

The cars and team uniforms were logoed, and purchased.

Thousands of people fed their families because they had jobs associated with the NRA 500.

That doesn’t necessarily mean those people agreed with the NRA on any point.

However, unlike our politicians, those thousands of people did their jobs and were paid for their labor.

No-body could have predicted that a CRAZY person would kill his mother, take guns from his home and kill a bunch of school children.

That this Senator, seemed to think that all that money, and all those jobs should… What?

Give everybody a refund? Take a 400 million or MORE (I’m guessing) dollar loss?

Simply because he disagrees with the sponsor, demonstrates to me personally that Senator Murphy is unfit to be in the Senate.

Clearly he has no clue about how economies work and is more than willing to disrupt the finances of thousands if not hundreds of thousand of people for nothing!

Based on that alone he should be removed from office, he’s unfit to lead in any way.