Category: Rants

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I call Bullshit on Oil Companies

An article in the Christian Science Monitor talking about the gas prices in California has really convinced me of a couple of things. Read the article here

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First, I’ve come to believe that the oil companies USE California as a test bed to see how the public will respond to ever increasing gas prices. They raise the prices till the bitching gets really loud and the people of California start demanding hearings in congress.

Then the oil companies back the prices down after apologizing and giving some lame ass excuse.

At the same time they’ve modeled how fast the gas prices can go up before people start really bitching. Then they halve that rate of increase and apply it to the rest of the country. But… and this is the interesting thing… The cost of gas never returns to it’s “Pre-Crises” value.

If the crises is over why doesn’t the cost return to the previous level?

Second, California environmental regulations play directly into the hands of the oil companies. Fully .50 of every gallon of gas is nothing but state taxes. Which means that even those people in California trying to pay attention to the actual price of a gallon of gas have to separate out the state, county, and city taxes on the price per gallon and since those rates are all over the map depending on where you fill up in your 4 hour commute per day you may have all or only one or two of those additional fees.

Southern California is particularly vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. Because the mass transit system SUCKS!

Yes… the politicians would have you believe that mass transit in Southern California is wonderful…

But the reality is; If you happen to live in the Inland Empire (Pomona, Glendora, San Dimas, Riverside, Ontario, Corona, San Bernardino, or Fontana) and you work by necessity in Orange County or Los Angeles you’re kinda screwed. If you live in Orange County and work in LA you’re just as screwed.

 Taking a train to Orange County is pretty much pointless because after you’ve gotten there the transit system is unreliable as hell and you’re talking busses or calling a taxi… there’s nothing else. If you’re trying to get from OC to LA that’s an expensive and painful trip via train, provided you don’t get a message like this;

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TripMaster found NO trip(s) leaving from ORANGE COUNTY AIRPORT to LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. You are traveling on Saturday and Leaving at 12:12PM . Fare class: Regular. Max walk: 1/3 Mile. Mode: ANY. Try changing walking DISTANCE or travel TIME or MODE or FILTERING. Make sure the locations are correct.

Getting to LA from the Inland Empire via train isn’t that bad then you can grab a metro rail (like the “L” in Chicago but not elevated) the problem is that using the train/metro rail system/bus can literally add hours to your commute and god help you if you have to work late, or you have a swing shift you might get to work but you can’t get home.

Essentially, the people of Southern California are faced with spending 5 or 6 hours commuting via train versus 4 hours commuting via their cars. Which would you choose, given that you do want to spend some time with your loved ones. You’d like to see your children and perhaps have an opportunity to have sex. Then there’s the issue of maybe trying to work out and get some exercise.

I know… I’ve done that madness for years! Give me my car not because I like sitting on the freeway but because I like getting home before 10PM.

The point is the Oil companies have a mostly captive audience.

Los Angeles, Orange County, The Inland Empire are these wonderful petri dishes where Big Oil can float higher gas prices and see just what kind of lame assed excuses the moronic public will accept.

The article I referenced above says that three factors are driving the cost of gas up in California.

1) State refineries have lowered production as they get ready to switch to “winter blend” (This is all about California regulations and pollutions controls. It also causes excessive wear & tear on our engines and a commensurate drop in our MPG. So we’re at the gas stations more often buying more shitty gas.) This is a yearly event and yet… The Oil companies always shut the refineries down at the same time. How about this MORONS? Try scheduling one refinery at a time being shut down then when it’s switched to winter blend, and running again take the next one offline to make the switch and so on. You can do the same damn thing when you switch to Summer Blend so you don’t screw the hell out of the public as they’re trying to get set for their paltry 2 week vacations. (Don’t forget it’s not just Gas. It’s also Airline fuel, and diesel that are suddenly in short supply twice a year.)

2) A power outrage at a Torrance Refinery, and partial shutdown at a Richmond refinery. Really? Just how long was the refinery without power? Months? I think not… And why is the Richmond refinery partially offline?

3) Several refineries in the Central Valley have been shutdown for weeks because of “High Organic Chloride Levels in the Crude”.  SAY WHAT??? So what exactly does that mean? Are they shipping the High Organic Chloride crude to another refinery? Are they throwing it away? What EXACTLY does that mean?

 SO I call BULLSHIT on Big Oil and think that everyone else should too.

Time to BITCH LOUD LONG and HARD

Write your representatives and demand the oil companies stop fucking with us. 

Off to write a letter to politicians

Because I’m not going to pay 4.99 a gallon for gas. Oh and don’t even try to make me say “Oh goodie” about 4.99 a gallon by pointing out that Europe is over $8 per gallon.

Big Deal! So What? 52% of their oil isn’t coming from under their feet.

Don’t even mention a Prius, or accuse me of driving a gas guzzler. I’ll give you an earful that will feel like an ice pick through your brain.

 

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Legalese!!!! Everywhere you look…

I understand that we live in a litigious world. 

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I get that people and companies want to protect and preserve their rights.

But FUCK!!!!

Ever tried to wade through a Microsoft agreement? You have to BE a lawyer to understand what the Lawyers wrote.

Worse yet, are the Apple Agreements that are in your face all the time. If you use iTunes, have an iPod, use an iPad or god help you have an Apple Computer every time you bring up a piece of software it seems, you’re confronted with YET Another licensing agreement from Apple.

Enough already!

These agreements are so ubiquitous to have become irrelevant. I have no idea what I’ve agreed to anymore!

I used to diligently read them start to finish but they became longer, more complex, filled with more legalese and longer still. Now I don’t even try. Invariably I’m confronted with a document that is as long as War & Peace which might as well be written in Aramaic when I’m just trying to do something simple…

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You know, something like sync my iPod before I head out for the day. More than once I’ve said screw it! just leaving the iPod sitting on the desk.

This morning was a classic example. I fired up iTunes to listen to some music, My iPad started syncing. I noticed that there were a bunch of application updates. Oh, I thought, I’ll start those downloads while I’m eating breakfast.

I come back to the computer 30 minutes later to discover that NOT One of the updates have downloaded. Why? Because Apple made some changes  to the terms of use, or the licensing  agreement or they changed the toilet paper in Cupertino or something!

What ever it was that they changed, required that I accept a document as cryptic as the writing on access hatch to the Alien ship that crashed in Roswell. This document is  longer than the recorded history of mankind. I’d be better off, and have several Phd’s to my credit if I read half as much.

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The practical upshot is that I scrolled & scrolled & scrolled & scrolled to the bottom of this overly complex tome, found the little checkbox next to agree, clicked it and then the aptly named “submit” button.

I have no clue what I agreed to. Did I just give Apple my left testicle?

These agreements aren’t fair!

I, like most consumers just want my damn computer to work. I want my software to work.

I honestly don’t give a crap about the companies that are oh so intent on protecting themselves.

If they make good shit I’ll buy it, and use it. If they don’t… or their shit stops being good, or they update it and I don’t’ like the update I’ll find something else. In fact I’ve done exactly that.

We all know that Quicken Products have become something to be replaced as quickly as possible. It’s interesting that Quickbooks (Which BTW I paid $300 for 10 years ago, and then $149 for 7 years thereafter) is discounted on the Intuit site to $199. I know a lot of people that are searching for less expensive alternatives, and they’re finding them.

Those of us that helped the Omni Group build the popularity of their products aren’t updating their products anymore unless we absolutely have to. Mainly because the Omni Group is greedy, charging WAY TOO MUCH for upgrades. 

Several years ago I had enough, I no longer have any Omni Group programs on my computer.  I was a serious fan. At one point I owned the professional editions of all their core applications. Now, I use Powerpoint, or Adobe Illustrator instead.  

The cost of upgrades aside, I absolutely can’t stand being held hostage to an agreement from Apple so that I can update applications I purchased from 3rd parties. The agreement Apple threw in my face this morning was exactly that. Had I not agreed to it, I wouldn’t have been able to update the applications that I’d purchased.

And people talk about Google being “Evil“… 

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Apple really needs to understand, they’re the ones that created the app store / update mechanism.

They probably shouldn’t remind all us Sheeple that we’re hostages. Otherwise we’re likely to see what alternatives are available.

Wha… I see an update server… Baah Baaaaahh.

 

 

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The Evil of Express Scripts

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I’ve written before about some of my travails with Express Scripts.

The latest dealings with them is simply too annoying for me to let pass without comment.

Two weeks ago, I noticed it was time for me to order the single medication that I use daily.

I went to the Express Scripts web site, placed an order , got a confirmation number and then heard nothing else.

I didn’t get their usual string of annoying emails;

“We’re processing your order”

“We’re really processing your order”

“We’re putting your order in a box”

,“We’ve put the stamp on your order”

“Do you want to schedule automatic home delivery?”

“We put your order on the shelf”

“Are you really sure you don’t want to schedule automatic home delivery?”

“We’ve moved the box containing your order to another shelf”

“Why don’t you want to schedule automatic delivery?

“The post man picked up your order”

“Your tracking number is…”

Normally, I’d get the tracking number a couple of days after I had the package in hand.

I didn’t think too much of their new terseness, I actually thought, “Great, I’m not being spammed to death with irrelevant B.S.”

Then I forgot about it… It’s not uncommon for them to take as long as 10 day to get my stuff to me. That’s rare but it’s happened in the past.

On the 10th day I log into the Express Scripts website, to see where my order is. I find that it shipped on September 11. I check the supplied tracking number and discover that the order was apparently delivered via a post office in Calimesa, CA. Apparently someone received the order… it’s listed as delivered by the Calimesa Post Office.

Whoa!, First, Calimesa is about 65 miles from me. Second I didn’t pick up the order.

I call Express Scripts and get this really snotty little bitch.

I wasn’t particularly upset when I started the call, I just needed to know what was going on.

But after speaking with little miss bitch I was angry!

Turns out Express Script policy is not to worry about it until 12 days after a package has gone missing.

OK fine what then? According to Ms. Bitch then they’ll send me another order but in the mean time I’m the one that has to follow up with the Postal Service.

WHAT? I’m not the one that shipped something only to have it go missing.

Every other vendor who ships something will initiate a trace in the event that a package goes missing. But not Express Scripts.

Which caused me to ask the question “What would have happened if this prescription was an opiate? Vicodin, Darvon, Demerol, Percodan? Those are heavy duty controlled substances, would Express Scripts be so cavalier about a package of that going missing?”

Little Ms Bitch interrupted me 5 times while I was asking that question, then bitched at me for talking over HER!

Her response was “my hands are tied, our policy is clear” which I thought was a pretty defensive and pat answer.

I asked another question and little Ms bitch talked over me AGAIN. “What happens if I run out of my RX?”

“If the patient runs out of their medication,

The patient has to contact their physician to get an new RX to have filled at a local pharmacy. “

Which is seriously annoying because Express Scripts has the RX and could easily arrange with the local pharmacy to provide a small supply while the shipping issue is being sorted out.

Needless to say a stronger letter will follow to the fine dumb asses at Express Scripts.

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Saturday I couldn’t do anything, since I needed normal business hours to speak with supervisors.

I will be sending a letter to the FDA, the DEA (Both of whom are involved with the regulation of online pharmacies) Another letter sent to the California “Board of Pharmacy”. All of which will be CCd to Express Scripts Corporate offices.

Oh, By the way, you have to Google for Express Scripts corporate office address because it’s not on their damn web site!

It’s not just that I’m missing a single package.

I can’t be the first or only person to have a package go missing.

As a customer it shouldn’t be MY responsibility to track down that package.

There is the whole can of worms about what happens if the drugs being shipped are Schedule 1 drugs (Highly addictive or subject to abuse) and those go missing?

There’s the issue that if I’m out of the drug I need now I have to take my Doctors time un-necessarily to clean up Express Scripts mess.

Then there’s the problem that what my Doctor prescribes and what Express Scripts actually sends are two different things. Express Scripts has no problem taking a patient off a perfectly good medication that works effectively and predictably to put the patient on a “Generic” medication.

I don’t care what the hype says… A generic medication has a slightly different chemical makeup therefore It’s NOT the same as the prescribed drug. (I can produce proof that Generics aren’t as effective as the “real” drug I was prescribed. That proof is of course strictly about my own body and your milage will vary. But the ineffectiveness isn’t pronounced enough to FORCE Express Scripts to give me the “REAL” drug again.)

What the hell is Express Scripts doing prescribing medications without having ever personally seen the patient in question? 

If I have the RX filled at the local pharmacy, I’m going to get what the Doctor prescribed, which means I get to go through an uncomfortable re-adjustment to the “REAL” drug, and guess what? I get to go through that painful re-adjustment AGAIN when Express Scripts gets their shit together and sends me my damn order.

Express Scripts is Evil… They’re the Wal-Mart of the pharmacy world.

Most shopping plazas have a grocery store and a pharmacy. There’s a reason that became the norm, we all buy groceries and it’s no big deal to drop by the pharmacy when we’re picking up the weekly supplies.

That is, by the way exactly what I used to do. I’d call the pharmacy, place the order and schedule to pick it up on whatever evening after work when I was getting groceries. Simple, efficient, and it was good for the economy.

Yeah, think about that…

How often have you gone into the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and realized you’d forgotten vitamins, or shampoo, condoms or whatever?

Now, because of Express Scripts and companies like them, you don’t go into the pharmacy nearly as often.

This translates to a loss of sales on all those little incidental items, or seasonal items that you’d have purchased in the past. Now, you’re not likely to even see them.

Guess what? That means that local jobs in your community are at risk. Stockers, cashiers, and the staff of your local drug store won’t be as necessary because the drug store loses business.

Highly trained individuals like Pharmacists will not be in demand so their jobs are at risk too. Overall that degrades the quality of the local community.

I miss going to the pharmacy and picking up my prescription. I miss talking with the pharmacist and the human touch. I miss the confidence I had in my local pharmacist. They not only had my prescription records, but that they checked them for drug interactions.

I get NONE of that using Express Scripts. What I get from Express Scripts is inconvenience, and a snotty little Bitch that has no courtesy, and reads a script instead of being actually helpful.

I’ve said it before, RESIST! REBEL!

It’s your health and your body that these people are arbitrarily playing with. You don’t have to accept the B.S. they’re peddling.

Don’t agree to an insurance plan that includes Express Scripts, choose other insurance options if at all possible.

If your company has already bought into the Express Scripts kool-aid, You can try to force your company insurance programs to stop using Express Scripts.

Complain to your HR people every single time Express Scripts screws up, or swaps your working prescriptions for a generic without bothering to tell you.

Eventually, your company insurance administrators will get tired of hearing the complaints and fielding phone calls. When they do… you can be sure they’ll drop Express Scripts… because dealing with Express Scripts is too much trouble.

Check your prescriptions carefully

When Express Scripts substitutes a generic for the drug you were taking make sure they spoke with your physician.

Even though they claim in their letters that they speak with your Doctor about sending you the generics… They apparently don’t. My doctor has no record of them ever speaking with him.

Stop buying into this concept of cheaper is always better!

Sometimes cheaper is just another word for shitty.

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My God I am tired of the job hunting games!

I’ve written about the EDD, I’ve written about companies demanding Twitter and Facebook account information. 

Now, It’s crap where companies are asking questions that sound an awful lot like “Does this dress make me look fat?” Every single man in America knows that no matter what answer you give… it’s the wrong one!

“Why do you want to work for us?“

“Well… My unemployment benefits are running out. I’m tired of jerking off or fucking all day. I’d like to go back to contributing to my 401K.

I don’t really know much about your company since your web site is all about marketing hype but doesn’t actually say what the hell you do. However, your ad matches my experience and qualifications pretty closely so I figured I’d apply.

Finally, to steal a quote from Malcolm Reynolds, “I have a powerful need to eat sometime this month.”

Oh and that dress makes you look really fat! Ya probably want to loose that skirt/tutu thing with that leotard… The whole ensemble just makes your fat ass look like Saturn!

Of course that kind of brutal honesty isn’t something that anyone nowadays is ready to hear. Honesty it seems is just too … honest.

You know… honesty, like reality can be painful!

Instead some companies apparently want to be wooed like a fucking Prom Date!

Which, by the way is one of the reasons that prostitution is such a popular service industry. At least prostitution is honest. You see the goods, you like the goods, you rent the goods, and you get off. Everyone is happy. There’s a straight forward no-nonsense business transaction and that’s it.

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But corporate America apparently wants to play games, and have you win a popularity contest before they’ll even look at your resume. 

Don’t we play enough games? Look at my fucking resume, then using that information narrow down the list of candidates, then call us, then schedule an interview. Shouldn’t a cover letter and resume be sufficient for consideration? Why on earth would qualifications be secondary to how pretty the lies you tell are?

If Corporate America wants a popularity contest that’s fine… I’ll put on my best suit, (Or my sexiest outfit) and take a bunch of pictures of myself leading up to a grand finale where they see my cock and then some little HR bitch can decide if I’m worthy enough to actually speak with the hiring manager

Yeah… I’m over the bullshit!

I can do the fucking job! Stop toying with me.

It’s real simple corporate America

I’ll do the job, and you’ll pay me.

I’m probably not going to want to spend my off time with my co-workers

I will use the money you pay me to eat, buy shit, date, and screw. And you Corporate America can’t say shit about that.

I’ll be professional at work

I will never be owned by you, and honestly if someone comes along and makes me a better offer I’m likely to consider it JUST LIKE YOU WOULD! 

The only difference is that you’ll align and realign with large corporations in strategic partnerships and I’ll align and realign with your competitors for straight up Cash! I won’t give your secrets away because more often than not those are given away on the golf courses of America… CEO to CEO.

SO Don’t ask us to participate in your popularity contests.

Don’t worry about equal opportunity employment crap, just hire the best fucker for the job and move on.

 

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And YET ANOTHER EDD #FAIL

Ok so here’s the deal.

As I’ve chronicled The California Employment Development Department is anything but what it’s name claims it is.

We’ve learned that calling them and reaching a human being is impossible.

We’ve learned that when they call you to ask you questions in their Eligibility Interview process, that they are unable to transfer you to any other departments. But occasionally they can at least answer a question.

We’ve learned that EDD does not know what a directive statement is. They prefer to use passive voice in their correspondence, suggesting potential actions that you might wish to take when the drug induced haze of your medicinal marijuana or ‘shrooms wears off.

Today we’ve learned that if you happen to be one of the people who owns a macintosh computer OR if you happen to run one of the Linux variants  that you had better be prepared for your claim form to take between 2 and 5 hours to file online.

Yes! You read that correctly. 

It seems that the EDD is Windows-centric 

On the Macintosh platform ANY error in data input will cause you to have to force quit Safari because once the EDD generates an error dialog box in Safari you CAN NOT CLEAR THE ERROR DIALOG. No matter how many times you click on the OK button.

This means if you fail to put two zeroes after a decimal point, or you include an apostrophe in a contraction in a text box, or you have a dash in between the area code and dialing prefix on a phone number, you’ll generate an un-clearable error.

And guess what… You’ll get to go right back to the beginning of the form and start all over again.

I finally re-loaded an Virtual machine containing Windows XP just to be able to get through the damn form.

I’m trying to print a copy of my EDD entry form right now… and I think that the print routine has hung, Which means that I’m going to get to re-enter all the information yet AGAIN.

The irritating part of this is that the ONLY way to communicate with EDD in terms of filing claims is to do it ONLINE. Given that fact, you’d at least hope that they could program their fucking form so that ANY modern web browser can be used.

Mind you these are the people who are responsible for BILLIONS of dollars in California tax money, and they can’t be bothered to test their forms for compatibility.

Considering that Apple is still based in Cupertino you’d think the California web sites would at least work properly with Apple systems.

Of course, at some point Apple will look at it’s bottom line, then look at the tax burden it’s carrying because of it’s presence in California… And they’ll move to another state.

If companies like Hughes and Northrop Grumman decided it was time to move… Apple can’t be far behind…