Category: California

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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…

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Complete EDD MEGA #FAIL

I know it sounds like I’m picking on the EDD but for fucks sake…

I Just got a bunch more paperwork from EDD. all of the paperwork has the same phone numbers on it.

The real crack-up is that one of the documents is a confirmation of PIN number request.

This one says “If you did not request a PIN Immediately call 1-800-300-5616 (English)”

This is the number that I’ve been dialing for the past 6 hours trying to get hold of a human being to find out what the hell is happening with my EDD claim and depending on those answers to potentially report fraud.

Of EVEN more amusement is that My Social Security number, phone number, and address are all over these EDD forms.

Which means that if one of these pieces of mail was to end up in someone else’s mailbox. It would be THE EDD that exposed me to complete identity theft.

I swear I can’t even believe the complete and utter incompetence I’m seeing. If someone was to call and use the automated system to change my mailing address they’d be able to take my unemployment payments and at the same time they’d be able to use my social security number at a hospital, or employer, or to buy a car or to open credit cards.

All of this thanks to the State of California.

Why the FUCK do we bother shredding every piece of paper, fighting to protect our privacy when BIG FUCKING BROTHER has no problem violating every rule in the book?

HIPPA regulations, which are enforced by the state PREVENT the exposure of this kind of personally identifiable information.

So why would the fucking Employment Development Department turn around and just publish this stuff on every single document they send out?

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Another EDD #FAIL

Ok so I get this thing from EDD in the mail yesterday.

It said “Additional Instructions”

Please follow the instructions below. Failure to do so may result in denial of your benefits. Please include your name and Social Security number on any additional forms you mail to the EDD.

1) You are potentially eligible to file a new claim effective 07/01/12. We need your correct last employer informant and tast date worked before the claim can be filed and any payments can be issued. You may apply on-line at WWW.EDD.CA.GOV or cal the 1-800 telephone numbers above for assistance to complete the filing of your claim.

The problem is that I to the best of my knowledge ALREADY have an open claim which begs the question why does this look like a new claim is being filed?

I think whoa! what’s going on here?

I’ve just spent the last 4 hours continuously calling the EDD numbers that they reference. Mind you this is 4 hours I have not spent looking for a new job.

I can get to the EDD, I can get all the way to the point where they’re “Transferring my call” Then I get a message saying that due to the number of callers they cannot take my call at this time. CLICK! Then I get to dial all over again.

I’ve got a slight problem with these so-called instructions. Namely… THESE ARE NOT INSTRUCTIONS! There is NO and I repeat NO directive.

A directive would say something like;

1) Go to the EDD web site

2) navigate to xyz page

3) input the information we need.

OR 

1) navigate to the EDD web site and submit a new claim.

The problem is that I already have a claim that was as of last week being paid, so why suddenly do we have this form with nebulous “Instructions” on it?

This is why I really want to take to a human being. It looks like this confusion has already resulted in my unemployment transfer being stopped. 

Taking a break… then back to dialing! I have no fucking idea what I’m supposed to do.

Gotta love how well Kalifornia takes care of it’s citizens… 

Seems like the more you try to do the right thing… the more you get screwed

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Nice to know that I’m not the only one…

Norcalreflection

Was at the Car Dealership yesterday and overheard a couple of conversations that had me nodding in agreement.

California isn’t just hated by me… 

I heard two separate conversations between four different men all of whom are in their mid 40s to mid 50s. In their conversation they were all talking about packing up their shit a leaving the state.

One guy was waiting for his 2 sons to get out of the house. One of them is going to be a sheriff, the other one is 23 and still at home, fighting for a job in an ever decreasing job market.

In this guys case he wasn’t too upset at having a 23 year old living with him. He rightly observed that with things as expensive as they are here, his sons really couldn’t afford to be out on their own. His strategy is to leave for Arizona when his boys have settled.

One of the other guys had just packed up his company and was having his car serviced as the last step before moving to Reno. The money his company was going to save in taxes and fees over the next year PAID for him to be able to pay for the relocation of his entire staff.

In yet another conversation, a guy was counting the days to retirement (90) then he & his wife were heading to New Mexico. They’d already sold their house and had packed up most everything which was sitting in a storage facility in NM. They were doing the minimalist thing until he retired.

His wife had been nice enough to her employer to let them know that she’d be leaving in 90 days… Of course the fuckers she worked for fired her because after all she wouldn’t be working as hard knowing that she’d be leaving… (To This I say WTF??? She could have trained her replacement and she wasn’t under any obligation to let her employer know shit! But courtesy is truly a thing from another age.)

The last guy was funny as hell because he too was heading to Arizona. He said it was as simple as the gas prices dropped 60 to 70 cents per gallon when he crossed the border out of California… He said that alone was enough to sell him on relocating. But then his wife got laid off and after searching for a job in her field for 9 months she’s decided to leave the kids & grandkids in CA and accepted a job in her field in Flagstaff. 

If the kids want to visit it’s not too crazy a drive for them, and It’s an easy drive for the guy and his wife too. When asked why drive? He replied; “Who wants to fly anymore? I know I don’t want the TSA feeling me or my wife up she might trade men in…”

The common thread is that all of these guys are middle aged, Middle to late career and they’ve had enough of the B.S. that is California.

Of course what this means is that if the trend continues… California will have a tourist industry ONLY and the dream that was once the Golden State will be just another tourist trap. 

Even the technology companies are leaving. Many of them are reducing their presence here to nothing more than small offices. They’re not even maintaining corporate headquarters here. It’s just too damn expensive…

All of this is to say, 

It’s nice to know I’m not insane or over-reacting as some people close to me have implied. 

I think I can move to another state following work in my field. After 15 years of patiently driving obscene distances I can finally and with a clear conscience put the Golden State in my Rear View Mirror

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Bad Dreams

Usually, I sleep the sleep of the dead.

If I have dreams, they’re most often of a highly erotic nature or if I’ve been playing a little too much Xbox then my dreams are… shall we say all about the violence.

Sometimes the sex and violence combine into a disturbingly satisfying, purely visceral fantasy that satisfies my inner primitives blood lust.

These dreams can’t be considered by any stretch of the imagination to be bad. They’re my own private world and while some of the scenes and imagery may appear in the pages of a story or book that I may be writing… They’re not likely to ever become reality.

The dream last night… In fact the one that woke me at 5AM was of a completely different kind.

Images 1

In this nightmare I was being forced out of my home so that a Locust kind of person could move in. I was still going to have to pay the mortgage and I wasn’t being allowed to take any of my really good stuff.

This person and their family were standing at the door to the house with a cop and pointing at objects like my computer, watch, furniture, etc and keeping all the best stuff. But they and the cop were making me take other stuff. Many of the things I was being allowed to take weren’t even things that were in my house (Nor would they be).

All the items I could take were broken in some way.

The cop was pointing his gun at me the whole time.

In the dream I considered taking the gun from him and making he & these other people leave my home. But when I looked outside, there were police cars and police 100 deep on my lawn. There was no way to win, and I couldn’t see going out in a blaze of glory over stuff.

Toward the end of the dream the Locust was screaming at me in broken English that I couldn’t leave the broken stuff in the trash cans. I had to take it all with me or be arrested. Problem was that these people wouldn’t let me have my car, motorcycle or my truck. They grudgingly let me have my bicycle only after one really fat member of the Locust family sat on it, bending the frame and the front rim.

When I made it clear it was impossible for me to carry everything in one trip. All the police put their coffee down and aimed their guns at me.

That’s when I woke up…

That’s why I’ve been up since 5, and why you’re reading this insanity.

My Brother will no doubt have a field day with this one. He’d say something like this is a reflection of my thoughts on California (Kalifornia, the way he spells it). He may be correct. I think this may be a reflection of my thoughts on where this country as a whole is headed.

This nightmare may have been triggered by an article my Brother sent me.

In the article, a 13 year old boy and a 43 year old adult were arrested. Believe me, In Southern California this is nothing new. What was interesting is what they were arrested for…

The 13 year old was supposedly sitting on a roof with a rifle. As it turns out the “Rifle” was a BB gun. Other “Weapons” recovered were a replica 9mm pistol and an inert M136 AT4 “LAW” anti-tank weapon.

So lets step through this again.

A 13 year old with a BB gun

Living in a house where theres a REPLICA 9MM pistol

And an INERT anti-tank weapon.

Hummmm….

replica

noun

1.reproduction, model, copy, imitation, facsimile, carbon copy (informal)It was a replica, for display only.

inert

adjective

1. inactive, still, motionless, dead, passive, slack, static, dormant,
lifeless, leaden, immobile,inanimate, unresponsive, unmoving,
quiescent, torpid, unreactive, slumberous 
Nope… The definitions of these words hasn’t changed…. I figured I’d check god knows I miss memos all the time…

So what laws were broken? What justified the arrest of the 43 year old adult and sending the 13 year old to juvenile hall?

Hell, when I was growing up I had an INERT artillery shell from the ship my Father served on, I used it as a door stop…

I suppose that NOW I’d be arrested for having something that had no powder in it, no primer, and which I had NO capacity to fire since the gun that fired this shell was mounted on the deck of a ship.

The article says “suspicion of possession of a stolen weapon and possession of illegal weapons.” The BB gun isn’t illegal, nor is a replica 9mm.

Which leaves the inert anti-tank weapon and begs the following question;

If you have no ammunition, and no capacity to obtain ammunition for a weapon, is it still a weapon?