FUCK You, UPS

The dumbing down of the American consumer continues. We have computers who treat us like we're stupid. We have TV programmers who really believe that quality programming includes nude teenagers. We have corporations that tell us what we really want, er, need and just have to buy.

Now UPS has gone the same way. They will deliver your package where they think it should go, regardless of what address you put on the label.

I LOVE my locally owned and operated The UPS Store - those people deserve medals for doing business the way it should be done. But in light of recent events, I will never use UPS to ship so much as a birthday card, and if UPS is the only option for any item being shipped to me, I pass.

So here's the deal. I knew that going with Priority Mail from the Post Office would be cheaper, and maybe a tad faster, but I've been doing business with my locally owned and operated The UPS Store for several years renting my box and various miscellany, that I decided to spend the extra bucks and have them ship a little box from Indiana to Florida. All-in-all, it came out almost twice as much, but I bought their box and they packed it for me. (Don't forget- priority mailers are FREE) We filled in all the paperwork and I walked out with my receipt, confident that the package I sent on March 8 would arrive on March 11 -- I got it in writing, even. Silly me.

The package didn't arrive on Friday, and they called to "correct" the address. I gave them the same address as before, and the very nice man at The UPS Store confirmed that was what he had on his paperwork too. I looked up the tracking online and sure enough, it said address correction was needed. This happened several times. If I or the locally owned and operated The UPS Store had made a mistake, I could *almost* understand. But no; here's what happened:

*The driver decided he couldn't find the house - not apartment, lot, cardboard box, or alleyway - HOUSE. On a main street. Off a very main intersection.

*The driver then decided that "the customer" must not be right and I must have put an erroneous address on the package.

*The driver then pulled out a phone book from 2003 and looked up the name of the recipient, copied down an address at which the recipient has not lived for around 6 years, and put THAT address on the box.

*The driver then attempted to deliver the box to the "correct" address.

*Whoops! Fortunately for me, the recipient and UPS, no one accepted the box there. (Had someone else signed for that package, this would already be in court instead of this blog)

*I called The UPS Store, who advised me the driver was attempting to deliver to a different address - POW. I just went from annoyed to highly pissed off.

(The actual source of the "corrected" address is unknown to me at the time of this writing, but somehow, somewhere, the driver got outdated information from a faulty source without consulting the customer -me- or the originating office.)

*whew* You'd think things would get caught up at that point, right?

Again, NOO!

Then it went to a city over an hour away - for.... who knows why? I mean really, WTF? Another day wasted.

What's in the box? A few things, including a very important tool that I and the recipient needed to continue a business venture. Now we have lost five days of productivity.

I called customer service and the feces hit the fan. UPS (the corporation) put all the blame, responsibility, accountability, etc. on my locally owned and operated The UPS Store - even though they did not do anything wrong at all. I asked for a discount or a refund and was told that since they didn't receive any money "from me" they do not refund money to me - I would have to get it from my locally owned and operated The UPS Store - again, they did nothing wrong. I do not want a cent of their commission. I want a refund for the amount UPS (the corporation) was paid on my behalf, to do a service on my behalf, which they failed to do. I also want an explanation of how they feel they can disrespect their customers enough that when I tried to get an answer about how a driver gets "corrected" information, the CSA hung up on me, claiming that I would not let him speak, when I could not get a word in edgewise.

WHEN IS UPS (the Corporation) ACCOUNTABLE FOR ITS ACTIONS AND BAD PRACTICES? Who's the IDIOT who authorized a driver to consult an outdated database? Why do they have a customer service center that does not provide answers or service?

Up to this point, I have not cussed, addressed any CSA personally or called into question anyone's character or intelligence (well, I did say that it was a stupid move to change the address on the package without consulting the customer) but I'm sick of bending over and taking it up the ass without even a drop of lube.

FUCK YOU UPS!

I am not the only one having problems with UPS.

A commercial account I know very well has been having problems with UPS saying they are unable to deliver to addresses they don't find on their route, even though the addresses show up in their own shipping labels, AND they have delivered to those addresses before.

Another friend shipped a package that went to a different city based on someone at UPS (the corporation) re-routing it.

I've seen several complaints about UPS on Twitter, blogs and in chat.

What the fuck is UP? I want a REAL officer of UPS (the corporation) to listen to the recordings of my customer service calls and apologize for the lack of knowledge and help on the part of the CSAs - the call center is full of useless drivel on flow charts. No one there is authorized to really do or say anything except, "Call your local store." BULLSHIT. I want to talk to UPS THE CORPORFUCKINGATION!

Whiskey, Piss and Power

Those UK folks are really something, eh. Earlier, you saw how diabetic urine is being used to ferment top-shelf whiskey. Not the most attractive thought, but hey, different strokes, right? Here's the deal. We're only scratching the surface of renewable energy sources.

Please allow me to introduce you to another link in the chain: WHISKEY POWERED CARS!

Here's how it works:
Diabetics piss in a bottle.
The urine is used to make whiskey.
There's a lot of whiskey left over. Hmmm.. what to do with it?
Scientists use whiskey to produce a biofuel called biobutanol.
Biobutanol can fuel ordinary cars.
People drive the cars to the liquor store and buy whiskey.
Diabetics who drink the whiskey have to pee.
Diabetics piss in a bottle.
~lather, rinse, repeat~

And VOILA! We have infinite whiskey supplies, infinite gas supplies and piss enough for everyone!

Just some interesting stats:

Scotland produces so much whiskey that they have 1600 Million Liters of pot ale left over (1600 million liters = 422,675,284 US gallons!) AND they have 187,000 TONS of draff left over -- That's a lot of gas!

Biobutanol is believed to produce 30% more power than ethanol.

Biobutanol needs no adaptation and can be put in the gas tank as-is.

Original post at GREENWALA

Royalties for My Apologies?

(Photo and original article: Gizmodo)
So Kanye West has been apologizing. A lot. His unbearably rude actions at last year's awards ceremony was offensive, not only to Taylor Swift, but to the music industry and human beings at large. I'm not a fan of either one, but what's right is right. I don't care who wins an award, but here's what's happening. Mr. West is flooding the world with his (IMHO:BS) apologies in a well-timed propaganda campaign to endear himself to the public (who rightfully has seen fit to lose interest in his career) and to Ms. Swift (who hopefully will ignore the ignoramus). He goes on and on about the "scars" he bears from the backlash of fans and people who see his behavior for what it is. He blames his behavior on alcohol and bad timing. He places himself in the role of a victim of the media who, he feels "were waiting for the opportunity to go in all the way on me, and when it came, they beat me to a pulp." Then he goes on about how no one in the artists' position ever stands up and says anything anymore; how he has given his awards to other groups multiple times on national TV, but "they" never showed that during the "massacre of Kanye." After all, in his own words, he was "only trying to do good." WHAT? He saw himself as the helper? "But people don't always need my help. Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that. And Taylor and her family, friends, and fans definitely didn't want or need that." He goes on again... how he imagines that there are many people who think he only said what they were actually thinking (DUH! but we didn't behave like a self-righteous hun). He goes on again about who actually "benefitted" from all this. Again... WHAT??? There is no benefit. Who cares if the media made money from his public shame? Of course they did. I would too, if I were in the position to do so. I would plant his image and description of his horrible behavior for the world to see and hope that he might truly be ashamed. Throughout his tweets (nice... a real meaningful way to apologize...) he does say a few times that he's learned a lesson, that he's changed, that he was a jerk. But the veil of humility is not strong enough to block out his diversion tactics shifting the focus from where he claims to be solely responsible for his actions to blame chemical dependency and clouds the difference between truth and perception.

The public self-abasement comes across as shallow and self-serving, as it should be blatantly apparent now that he has come forward with a song he wrote just for Ms. Swift. He really wants her to perform this song. Why? He's losing money. Even if he never lays a finger on a track or lends a note to the background, if she records and/or performs a song he's written, he will benefit with royalties. How's that for an apology? It's easy for a songwriter to write a song. How about he does something he's not so good at? Like.... tearing down the veils and letting the light of the truth burn away the clouds.. until there's nothing left but a man named Kanye who is reaping what he sowed.

Another Baaaaaaad Idea....

I've heard the buzz in the news. The government is looking into ways to help homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than what their homes are worth. Awwww... isn't that nice? Um.. nope, not really. The government has no business meddling. The bail-outs, the weird tax cuts/hikes, where does our government get the right to interfere in the natural cycle of things? America is a free-market system. Well, mostly... but with the government regulating, taxing, appropriating and generally sticking fingers in everybody's pie, the free enterprise system is becoming a very narrow road, and difficult to travel.

Whoops, back to the real estate thingy. So, Mr. John Q. Public bought a house at its current fair market value, and took out a loan to pay for said house. Fast forward n-amount of time, and the property has depreciated, now he owes more than the property is worth. DUH! This happens all the time. It has happened since the beginning of property ownership and it will continue long after past, present and future administrations become nothing more than dusty volumes in a basement storage room. When I bought a car and took out a loan for it, I drove the thing away and enjoyed using it, owning it, caring for it, polishing it. I even made a few improvements and repairs here and there. Still, its value fell and I owe more on the car than it's actually worth. Should I go crying to the government to help me out? Oh, silly me, it's not their problem, is it? And what happens when the market swings upward again? If Big Brother did help out, would Mr. H be obligated to repay the lost revenues to the government -- or the bank? After all, it is the bank's assets and income we're really worried about here. John Q is merely a funnel for the money. We don't want to clog him up, eh?

It's not the government's job to interfere with the natural progression of economics. And yes, I said "natural". Any current economic situation is the natural result of previous economic trends and actions. We must allow businesses to fail or succeed on their own. No, it's not comfortable, but it's the only way we Americans will be shown for who we are. We can show that we will support each other and get through the hard times and work even harder to bring back the good times. Let the cycle work itself out and we'll enjoy a stronger future economy for it. Keep bailing it out and we'll all suffer the sudden collapse which bailouts serve only to delay. If a business fails, it fails.

Our government has overreached its job description. What is that? Look in the Constitution. We are not guaranteed prosperous lives. If we continue to lean on the government for our daily bread, we become helpless sheep, dependent on elected shepherds who will show us what to eat, what to drive, where to sleep, and they will continue to shear us for every bit of warmth we can offer them.

C'mon sleepy sheep.... it's time to wake up and stand on your own. Money can't buy you character. But character can earn you a stable life with everything you need.

Diabetic Urine... $6 per Shot?

Uhmmmm.... okayyyyy....
I just read that sugar-heavy urine from diabetics is being used in the fermentation of high-end single malt whiskey for export from the UK. I've looked and looked for anything to help me describe this as just an ill-timed April Fool's joke but noooooo, lol.

Here's the first post I saw about it on BoingBoing. Once I picked my jaw up from my desk and stopped laughing, I realized that it had a ring of truth, so I dug a little deeper. Seems that the story is actually legit! HERE is an excerpt from an interview with the distiller. And to make the story even more veritable, The Discovery Channel website has this offering.

So now my question is... can I just have my Dad pee in a bottle and sell it for extra cash to buy more whiskey?

Slide On In!

Okay, so I live in a town that has more restaurants per capita than nearly any other city in the US. I guess people here just don't like to cook and have a nice family meal at home. But that's another rant. This one here is about the new BBQ menu items at White Castle. That's right-WHITE CASTLE, lol. Okay, so they put some shredded meat product in a soup of bbq sauce and put a tablespoonful on one of their little buns. Every business should rethink their business offerings from time to time. What got me is that the drive-thru, parking lot and access road were filled and lined up with cars full of people just aching to try out this 'new' thing (c'mon, we've all had bbq on a bun before, lol). But to have a very, very, very long line of vehicles filled with bleating consumers who apparently have nothing better to eat from the other (hundreds!) of restaurants in this weird place- it almost filled me with a sort of Stephen-King-ish fear. Sometimes I wonder if, like Derry, Maine in his books, that this place doesn't have some ancient evil sleeping and lurking under the earth, seeping into our drinking water and crops, eating away at not only our brains but our very souls. For me, for now, I'm staying as far away from White Castle as possible. And I think I'll avoid the local produce for a while too, lol.

White Neon, White iPod Earbuds, RED STOP SIGN

To the lovely lady in the white Neon at the intersection of 18th and Underwood on Monday morning (6/7/10):

I hope everything's okay. I mean, you probably had some sort of emergency, right? The hospital was'nt too far from there. Is that where you were going? I thought maybe you were in labor, since you had the ipod earbuds in -- practicing your breathing with a soothing voice telling you to focus and relax. I could see you were in an urgent hurry, so much that you barely paused to acknowledge the stop sign (one of four at that intersection) and you didn't seem concerned at all that I slammed on my brakes in the middle of my left turn to allow you to rush to your.... wherever it was you risked everything for. Don't worry, my daughter is okay too. She would have been the first person to feel the impact had anything gone wrong.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you are in my thoughts. So if anyone out there sees the lady in the white Neon with Indiana plate 294ZVR, give her my regards.... since she doesn't seem to have any of her own.