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rachel at phoenixfeather.net
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February 15, 2005
Epson Tech Support S#&@$!!!
Rant

I have a list of things that I really want to post about... but right now I'm just pissed at Epson! Its been an uphill battle getting this printer to do what i want it too. It is doing pretty well lately until one small glitch popped up, I called tech support and now after being pushed around and told the easiest answers for a while I finally got the answers I needed, got off the phone got ready to print and can't print at all because the ICC profiles have disappeared!!!

Don't ask me how this happened, but whatever, I call back up and get told that they normally don't help with profiles, that I should go download them and call back if I have a problem and then a lecture about how the person I talked to before is a really good agent. I didn't bring up my last agent at all... all I know is that I tried to solve one problem and somehow something I needed disappeared in the process!!

Can't you tech support people just be helpful and not so aggravating!!!!!!!!

04:45 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2005
Because I SO UNDERSTAND!!
Randomness , Rant , Water

As someone who grew up in what the rest of you call Upstate New York (which to anyone who doesn't know New York seems to be anything that isn't NYC - those of us who live there will refer to Western New York and the Finger Lakes Region. No one seems to understand that I lived in New York and yet lived 7 hours or more away from NYC. Its a big state people! But I'll now set that bitterness aside) and who now lives in California and observes how people here react to weather and giving directions and numerous other things, I find this email my Grandmother sent me amusing.

I can relate to more than 2/3 or these jokes in some way or other. If you don't believe it, you should get out more. If you don't get it, visit "Upstate New York" It really is a beautiful year no matter what the jokes say. Just pick the right time of the year!!

Jeff Foxworthy on Upstate New York:

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation, and Syracuse gets more snow than any other major city in the US, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you might live in Upstate New York

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year, you might live in Upstate New York.

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live in Upstate New York.

If your town has more bars than churches, you might live in Upstate New York.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Upstate New York.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE UPSTATE NEW YORKER WHEN:

1. "Vacation" means going South past Syracuse for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).

7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend / wife knows how to use them.

9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

11. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.

12. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

13. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

14. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

15. Down South to you means Corning.

16. A brat is something you eat.

17. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.

18. You go out for a fish fry every Friday.

19. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

20. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

21. You find 10 degrees "a little chilly."

22. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Upstate New York friends.

09:44 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2004
Grumpy Like The Dickens
Rant , Water

Woke up in a state of hormonal induced grumpiness to begin with.

(It kind of sounds like I'm trying to write a Dickens novel here doesn't it? Marley was dead: to begin with...)

So already grumpy wasn't a good forecast for the day. But I thought, hey its Thursday - that's biking morning with Kevin - after some good exercise I will feel really good and my mood will pick up.

However in my Dickens classic all three ghosts were currently out to lunch.
My bike was stolen!

10:50 AM | Comments (7)
May 14, 2004
Online Frustrations
Fire , Media , Rant

The last couple of days there has been a rant brewing in my head. So many news papers are now requiring that you sign up and log in every time you want to read one of their articles. Sorry guys, but I am not the only one who is getting more and more pissed about this. I don't really mind giving you some info about me, though with all the people who just make stuff up I don't know how accurate you can say the data you collected is. And if I'm a member of a site its because the site needs to be confidential, or its a place that I need to go to do some specific job - like when I log in here to write on my blog.

Last night I had this discussion with Kevin, Rick and Ammy. We know that these companies marketing departments have latched on to this idea and they aren't going to let go, but it doesn't really benefit them that much and they actually lose readership this way.

In the past my habits have followed a path of: Oh, I would like to read that - I have to sign in? - oh fine - then i read. Or: Oh, I would like to read that - I have to sign in? - yeah, maybe later.

It's annoying, I get frustrated and I move on in one fashion or another. Today the New York Times did it to me and it was the last straw. I signed up a while ago for their email list that gives me the headlines every day. And so I get my email and read the headlines. Most times I don't end up wanting to read the rest of the article. I did today though, so I clicked on the link in the email and low and behold... THE LOG IN PAGE!

They sent me an email, can't the email tell the page to check my old cookie and be done with it? I mean really, I'm coming from my email that they sent to me - I'm quite obviously already a member. Lets not put a requirement on how determined you are and how many places you have to remember which login combination for in order to be an informed citizen.

*sighs* This time I was annoyed enough not to log in and not to read.

Anyone want to tell me about the situation in Colorado where the bishop is denying religious rights to anyone who votes for a politician or policy that doesn't support the churches desires? (hee hee - this one is another rant all in its self!!)

10:00 AM | Comments (4)
March 19, 2004
Angry Angry Oh So Angry!!
Fire , Health , Rant

I'm warning you now... this is a rant... just warning you!!!!

I am so so so angry!!! Some of you know that I have a possible health issue. It’s a possible issue with a non-cancerous breast lump. If you want the whole story read it here.

To continue the story, I knew that my insurance ran out on my birthday, May 1st. Since that was coming up fast Kevin and I got to work on making sure I was going to be covered all the way through. Now one of the downsides of my current insurance is that it won't cover anything preventative, only specialist/emergency issues while I'm not in the state of NY, which is the insurances origin.

So I call to find out what paperwork I need to deal with in order to transfer myself over to Kevin's insurance on my birthday. I get on the phone with them and they are all of a sudden telling me that they have made a mistake and they need to cut my insurance that day. No grace period, nothing.

So Kevin was wonderful, we scrambled, signed some papers at Google to start the process of getting me on his insurance. The only thing missing is the letter from my old insurance telling me the date that they stopped covering me. This allows the new insurance to retroactively pick me up from that day and I have continuous insurance.

The insurance company promised to fax a copy of the letter I needed. They said it would take them 3 days to get the letter together. After meeting with Google, the HR department asks if the letter can be faxed directly to them. I call back to find out if this is possible. Well the girl I had been talking to has left for the day. Well I just want to change the fax number, so I tell the guy this and he comes back telling me its illegal for them to fax this to me at all. He says he can mail it, or I can have the new insurance agency call them. Kevin and I decide that it will be easier to have it mailed.

That was Monday and I have been checking every day for the letter so I can get things going. I have an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday (I've been wearing the same contacts way longer than I should have) and my third breast exam this year is on March 31st.

I got the letter today. It’s a computer print out that the guy I talked to that day made from his computer screen. It lists my original end date, 05/01/04. It says NOTHING about the fact that they already dropped me from the insurance; it doesn't have the right end date on it, and it does me NO GOOD WHAT-SO-EVER!!!

I'm so angry right now. By the time the mail was delivered today, the insurance company was closed (east coast time). So now I'm stuck, waiting all weekend... further putting off this issue. While I can claim that I have insurance... I really don't and the whole issue is kind of shaky. I think I would be covered by Kevin's insurance - as in the insurance company would wait for everything to go through and then back pay the docs. But I see headaches for me in this situation.

Truly, I got this letter and wanted to cry and scream and stamp my feet. They have reduced me to a child having a tantrum. This whole unknown health issue is stressful enough to me without adding this crap on top of it all.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant!! I might still go do some screaming or something. The insurance company will at least get an earful on Monday! *sighs*

NOTE: Later in the evening, after I had figured out how to get them to fax me the right letter on Monday, Kevin called me. He went to check his desk at work and a fax had arrived. Apparently the guy who insisted he mail the letter (and got it wrong) never bothered to tell the first girl I had talked to about this. So when she got the letter she faxed it to Kevin anyway. All in one day the insurance company messed things up completely and then fixed it, all without even knowing it. Don't you love with the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!!! End Rant!

05:30 PM | Comments (0)