Amazon.com SUCKS!!!

This is my recent online review of Amazon.com based on my experience

Amazon sells products they claim to have in stock, but don't. To hide this fact, they put a "hold" on your account so you can't log in and see what's going on.

This is a bit long winded, but worth the read to understand the depth of how bad their service is.

Customer service (yeah right) has their hands tied. With your account on hold "customer service" can't log-in to your account either. So, they email their "account specialists" (whatever that is) and then they are supposed to email you back within 24-48 hours to help. Seriously, that long. Three days later, they emailed me with a pre-generated email that said my order can't be shipped right now and that sometimes their stock of items fluctuates and they are sorry for the inconvenience. To add insult to injury the email provides a link to sign-in to my account, but since my account is on “hold” I can’t. Additionally, you can’t reply to the sender of the email, how frustrating. Wow, that was helpful huh?

So I email “customer service” using words that might only come from a death row inmate on his way to be executed, I mean it was really really nasty. I waited about 12 hours, which is how long the “customer service” emails are supposed to take to be answered. No email reply comes. So I call them and get this really nice agent on the phone who looks at the string of emails that have been sent. She stated to me that my last email was “awesome” and that she really appreciated it because that’s what the company needed to hear, she stated that she had regret that she felt this way about her own company. She was very nice to me and apologized for the way the company had been treating me. She even commented that she totally understood my frustration and that it wasn’t like I was just buying some $10 book, it was a $1,500 HDTV. She said very politely that all she could do was email the “account specialists” that my case has been mishandled and that I was a real living person with feelings and would like some answers, not pre-generated emails that don’t help. At the end of our conversation, she said, I have to tell you that after I hang up with you a pre-generated email will be sent to you, and please don’t be mad. I told her that I really appreciated her understanding and that since she told me it was coming, I wouldn’t blow another gasket.

This morning I checked my email and found that Amazon emailed me and had taken the “hold” off my account, but they gave absolutely no explanation in the pre-generated email. I still don’t know if I will ever get the TV, because when I log in, it says that my TV hasn’t shipped yet. So I decided that I will just cancel my order, retreat back and lick my wounds. No such luck, my account stated that I was unable to cancel my order because it was still being processed. Unbelievable. This is where it stands as of now.

Amazon is the worst online retailer I have ever dealt with period.

It's a first for me!

This is the first time my vote for president ever counted. That is, it's the first time I voted for the eventual winner.

1992 - Perot (I was young)
1996 - Perot (I was drunk)
2000 - Gore (It would have been better than Bush)
2004 - Kerry (It would have been way way way better than Bush)
2008 - Obama (It makes me happy Bush won in the two prior elections, because without his idiocy these last 8 years Obama would have never become president)

Wooo freakin Hooo!!!

Move over baby boomers, Gen X and Gen WE are here to stay. Oh, and they vote too.

One of the biggest reasons Obama won this election is because he truly identified with the young voters. Young people, who I shall group as 18-29 know that the future is bleak at best for them unless we have a paradigm shift in American politics. That's largely why Obama took such a high percentage of the young vote.

The GOP (Grumpy Old Pharts) has lost touch with many of the voters, especially in the under 60 category. If the GOP expects to get back in the white house, they are going to have to redefine themselves to appeal to the younger generations.

As for our national security, playing stodgy old hard ball with rouge nations doesn't work. Bush proved that. It's time to open a dialogue with these nation's leaders and work with them on their issues. Nothing pisses off people that want attention more than ignoring them, so lets at least see what they have to say, then if they are still being idiots, Nuke the F---ers.

Okay, that's enough for now.

So ya want to be a Republican?

This is what some typical moron Republican did to my Obama sign. Please note that my sign is hand made from scrap plywood because presumably the same moron stole my actual Obama sign that I got at a the campaign headquarters.

Nice huh?

Oh, I am leaving the sign up so the rest of the world can see what Republicans are like.

More to come...

2 days to go

And go is what the Republicans will be doing, going away from the white house that is.

I can't wait to have a REAL president. I mean one that is an advocate for all Americans. One that has the ability to lead with dignity and honesty.

I have to wonder what it is that makes a Republican think that all the problems of the economy were caused by the Democrats. After all, Republicans have held the white house for 24 out of the last 32 years. The only time the economy was really in good shape during this time was when a Democrat was in the white house. I think the 24 years of republican economic policies have now been proven that they really don't work.

Trickle down economics. Yeah right. When was the last time a CEO decided to forgo his annual gazillion dollar bonus and trim his salary in order to pay for benefits for the employees. It never happens. Why? Greed! We live in a "more is better" society and therefore whoever is in a position to gain more does. Nothing trickles down.

Mark my words. In four years the Republicans are going to complain the Obama hasn't got the economy back on track and that a new Republican president is the answer. There is no way we can dig ourselves out of the hole George Dubya has put us in within a single presidential term. It is way easier to break something than to fix it. And right now it isn't just broken it's freakin smashed and trampled on. I think a dog even came along and peed on it. That would be the trickle down part.

Religion, especially Christianity is the biggest problem in American politics today.

Believing in god and all that it encompasses is the same as believing that WMD's were the real cause for the debacle in Iraq. There never has been and never will be any proof of either WMD's or God.

Faith is crap. It's just a cop-out in order to buy into something without really examining what is real and what is not. Faith is defined as: Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. This is the guise that Republicans and Christians use to guide their decisions.

Just read the letters sent in to the newspaper about the election. It is very rare to see a letter from a Democrat that even mentions God or Jesus. Almost every single letter written in support of Republicans is littered with G's and J's. It is absolutely mind boggling to me that people still use their religion as their guide when voting.

Why can't people leave religion out of politics? I wouldn't have any problem with religion if religious people didn't use G and J as their guide for truth. I mean honestly, G and J have become the go to answer for people when they can't prove their point. They just throw in some crap about God will guide us and Jesus died for us and a bunch of other conjecture. And to them it's the same as truth.

Abortion. Okay, I know this is a really hot topic so I won't go into pro choice or pro life. I just want to point out that the president does not decide the laws on abortion. The supreme court has that power, at it's discretion, to hear cases on this issue. So why would you vote for president based on this issue? I know you're first argument is that the president selects the supreme court justices. Fine, but the president can't tell them how to think or decide. And really, the justices themselves are supposed to use the Constitution and Bill of Rights, etc. to guide them and decipher, not their personal feelings.

Oh, and don't forget to vote. In order to clear-up any misconceptions, Democrats vote on the 4th, Republicans vote on the 5th. It's a new system they are using this year to ease the lines at the polling locations.

Roofing

I never set out to be a roofer. Then Ike came around. As a result, Dave's roof was partially blown off. He needs it fixed, and I have the skills, and his insurance company has the money. Now I'm a roofer. Well, if only for a couple days.

I do get asked about doing roofs a lot and have always said that "I don't do roofs". Well I guess I lied. I actually roofed a 12x16 yard barn that I built for a guy a week or two ago. It wasn't that bad. The worst part is getting the bundles of shingles to the top of the roof, they weigh like 70 pounds or so. The only reason I roofed that barn is because the guy I usually get to roof it flaked-out on me (like sooooo many roofers do) so I was stuck doing myself.

Dave's roof is about 2600 square feet, or 26 squares as they would say in the business. It takes three bundles of shingles to cover 100 sq. ft. I'll save you the trouble in doing the math. It takes 78 seventy-pound bundles of shingles to do the roof. That's 5,460 pounds of shingle humpin' hell. Well luckily we had a shingle lift to help us get them up there. It's essentially a ladder with a gas motor attached to a pulley system that lifts a sled with a bundle of shingles up the ladder to an awaiting grunt (me). Then the grunt takes them from the sled and places them in a straddling position over the ridge of the roof so as to keep them from sliding down the roof and killing an unsuspecting person below.

I also stooped to the low of actually buying a roofing nailer. Now I'm really a roofer. As usual, I set out to buy a reasonably priced nailer that could handle the job. And as usual, I found myself researching the best nailers online and ended up spending $300 instead of $100-200, but I got the Porsche of roofing nailers. According to most it's the best one out there. It's also the only one that has 5 year warranty even for commercial use. Most have a 1 year warranty and it's only for non-commercial use. Okay, okay, I know you are all frothing at the mouth wanting to know what kind of nailer it is. It's a Hitachi-NV45AB2. Now bow before me and my nailer. Or maybe not.

Many who know me say that I have every tool in the world. It's not true, I don't have one of these: tool.

Well, I've about extinguished my literary fire for the evening. I guess I'll go build a real one in the wood stove and get warm. Until next time.

The family is going to expand

By the way, I didn't mention it in my first post, but as most of you know, Tracy is pregnant. She is due to deliver a baby girl on February 27. No complications have come up yet.

No names picked out yet, suggestions are welcome but not likely taken into real consideration. Just warning you. We probably won't tell anyone the name until she's born. That's the way its gonna be. Deal with it.

I should start this thing off with a mild topic: How about Politics!

Well, I think last night's debate put the final nail in the coffin for the McCain campaign and his "faith"ful band of bible waving religicans.

It's not all John McCain's fault. He actually has some respectable qualities. Although no one could ever have enough good qualities to overcome the stigma of the Bush administration and it's indefensible tenure (or "eighture", man just think if we still had 2 more years to go with that moron) of failed politics, poor judgement and its cloak of secrecy. It would take a miracle (and I don't believe in them) for a Republican to win this election after the last 8 years.

What is John McCain's fault? Picking that absolute nutjob Sarah Palin for a running mate. Wow, what a bad move that was. If you equate it to a chess move, as in reality it was, Bobby Fisher just rolled over in his grave. It's like having over sized ears and punching Mike Tyson in the face. It's like a straight man saying he's not jealous of Hugh Hefner and so on and so on, you get the point.

It's about damn time we had a minority in office. I'm tired of the era of gun toting, mud tire having hillbilly knuckleheads living in a pre-civil war mindset. They say he ain't no American. Well, in fact he is. And to add misery to that untruth, soon in this country minorities will become the majority, so stick that between your cheek and gum and suck it! Let's keep this pot melting!

I'm not going to tell you that Obama is perfect. Neither is he. I feel that the backbone of a good president is someone who listens to opposing arguments on both side of the aisle all the time and make sound judgments based on TRULY credible information from experts in their field. Or, another way of explaining my point would be to think of how the Bush administration makes decisions and it's the opposite. No one person can have all the right answers to running a country at the tip of their tongue, the best we can hope for is someone that can make sound informed decisions, and if the decision turns out wrong, admit it and try to solve the problem again. I know this is a foreign concept to Republicans, because for the last 8 years, the president hasn't admitted any bad decisions, so why would Republicans think that admitting they were wrong is an option.

The LAST thing I want in a president is someone that will inject and infect our government with any religion. Religion has easily been the number one source of conflict throughout the world in the past Milena. Followers of every religion think they are the ones that are right. How can this be? I think religion should go far, and the sooner it gets going, the better.