The predicted snowstorm actually came to pass, and is actually a bit worse than the forecasters predicted (which is rare -- the trend these days is for weather forecasters to irresponsibly overpredict snow amounts and storm severity, leading to the moron in the checkout line in front of Me having her cart stuffed with nine gallons of milk and 22 pounds of ground beef).
Anyway, I took the opportunity for a well-deserved, totally justified, cosmically-mandated snow day!
I've been visiting blogs on My link list. I'm making an effort to keep it clean, removing dead links, moving inactive blogs to the "Emeritus" section, etc. There is more work to do, however.
1. When you make your blog invite only, bear in mind that you are leaving no way for readers to reconnect with you. Is that really the intent? The net result is that I have to remove all these blogs from the list.
2. Some blogs I just have to get rid of. Their authors are either so clueless, so self-absorbed, so ridiculously full of themselves, or just so immensely self-important that deleting them from the link list seems the only reasonable choice.
Part of Me wants to call these people out, and in fact, I've come very close to leaving comments on those blogs from time to time, and I've started and then trashed several posts here addressing the topic. But confrontation serves no purpose -- the on-line universe is already too plagued with rants, call-outs, threats, and simple obnoxious stupidity for Me to add even one direct drop of venom to. Does anyone remember restraint? Self-editing? Simple manners?
The saddest part is that these delusional bloggers are all women. I'm sensing the world was better off when men had the monopoly on crass egotism. One more item to file under "Unintended Horrible Consequences of Feminism." Yikes, that file is getting gigantic! Oh well.
It's still snowing. Yay.
Showing posts with label slice of life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label slice of life. Show all posts
My health troubles of late have kept Me from doing much here aside from doggedly maintaining the weekly YouTube Tuesday video clips (I can tell from the barrage of comments on each one how much that's appreciated).
A bit more on the health stuff. It is serious but not life-threatening, ranging in severity from annoying to semi-debilitating. Good days and bad days. I do go to work every day, and I make it to the end most days.
So I still have a more or less normal life. The problem is that by the time evening comes, the energy I have I put into being with My girls and the odd baseball article for armchairgm.com. Plus, on some evenings I take a pain pill and well, responsible bloggers don't blog under the influence of controlled substances. Weekends I need the extra rest.
It is slowly getting better, however, and before too long I expect the health issue to be pretty much an afterthought, and I'll have more energy for the thought pieces and the fiction.
Until then, you are in My thoughts . . . and I look forward to really settling down and being able to catch up on everyone's lives, update/clean up the link list, and resume link-whoring with vigor.
KAHTATUS.
Penny Wise and Pound Foolish
I happened to find Myself last week in the unenviable position of having to return something to a major chain store, without a receipt.
Not good. But I was going to be happy with store credit. It's not like I'm going to get all nuts and demand cash back when I no longer had had the receipt.
The cashier, upon learning that I had no receipt, summoned the second-demi-hemi-quasi-assistant manager over to deal with My non-standard transaction.
Things did not start off well. The managerial type, who I'll call Brutus, regarded Me with instant dislike and disdain. And I react to that sort of treatment . . . well you can most likely guess.
I am trying to return three items.
Item 1, I bought from their website, and thus can't return at the store. Wow, isn't that convenient?
Item 2, they claim isn't in their database. OK, maybe this is My error . . . I guess I didn't buy it there (I did, of course, but no point in arguing).
Item 3 they can't find a reason to deny the return of and My non-standard transaction is underway.
Well, sort of. Brutus asks for My driver's license and starts entering things into some other machine (not the register).
"What's that?" I ask.
"The Fraud Detection System," Brutus says, unhappier now, not looking up. "Every time there's a return without a receipt we have to run it through the Fraud Detection System."
"Oh," I say pleasantly. "And what is it all about?" I know exactly what it's all about but I'm going to make this self-important little bastard explain. In fabulous fucking detail.
"It checks to see how many returns have been done with this license . . . " Brutus says, more impatient, more annoyed, now.
"Ohhhhh, I see." I"m sounding very impressed by Brutus' grasp of high-tech security measures. "Over what period of time does it check?"
Brutus mumbles something unintelligible, and I stifle a laugh. Brutus has no idea what the answer is.
This goes on for a while and I'm being nice and making Brutus more and more miserable with each passing moment, when I realize how fucking long this is taking.
Finally, the Fraud Detection System has determined that I am not an Al-Qaida operative bringing Death To America by making a bogus return for $27.14 and the actual transaction can begin.
Which doesn't take too long. Brutus creates and authorizes the gift card, and hands it to Me, along with My license back. But he's handed the license back to Me upside-down.
"That's how they teach you to hand a license back in Manager's Training School?" Brutus hands Me back My license properly, no longer maintaining even the previous minimal effort to hide his contempt.
Thanks.
Bitch.
Leaving the store, I resolve to never ever shop there, or on their website again. And then I wonder. Is the Fraud Detection System really worth it? Plus it amounts to profiling, which is going at some point to get this store in some very hot water when the Fraud Detection System fingers the wrong person and the wrong person decides to make a big issue out of it.
You can tell Me that it's people, that My bad experience was caused more by Brutus' assholish behavior than by the Fraud Detection System. But you'd be only partially right. Yes, Brutus made it worse, but I had to stand there for 10 minutes while I was put through what amounts to a "guilty until proven innocent" procedure. And the nicest second-demi-hemi-quasi-assistant manager in the world isn't going to make that better. Throw in the "can't buy on-line and return at the store" policy and it's a done deal.
I am, and will remain, an ex-customer.
Not good. But I was going to be happy with store credit. It's not like I'm going to get all nuts and demand cash back when I no longer had had the receipt.
The cashier, upon learning that I had no receipt, summoned the second-demi-hemi-quasi-assistant manager over to deal with My non-standard transaction.
Things did not start off well. The managerial type, who I'll call Brutus, regarded Me with instant dislike and disdain. And I react to that sort of treatment . . . well you can most likely guess.
I am trying to return three items.
Item 1, I bought from their website, and thus can't return at the store. Wow, isn't that convenient?
Item 2, they claim isn't in their database. OK, maybe this is My error . . . I guess I didn't buy it there (I did, of course, but no point in arguing).
Item 3 they can't find a reason to deny the return of and My non-standard transaction is underway.
Well, sort of. Brutus asks for My driver's license and starts entering things into some other machine (not the register).
"What's that?" I ask.
"The Fraud Detection System," Brutus says, unhappier now, not looking up. "Every time there's a return without a receipt we have to run it through the Fraud Detection System."
"Oh," I say pleasantly. "And what is it all about?" I know exactly what it's all about but I'm going to make this self-important little bastard explain. In fabulous fucking detail.
"It checks to see how many returns have been done with this license . . . " Brutus says, more impatient, more annoyed, now.
"Ohhhhh, I see." I"m sounding very impressed by Brutus' grasp of high-tech security measures. "Over what period of time does it check?"
Brutus mumbles something unintelligible, and I stifle a laugh. Brutus has no idea what the answer is.
This goes on for a while and I'm being nice and making Brutus more and more miserable with each passing moment, when I realize how fucking long this is taking.
Finally, the Fraud Detection System has determined that I am not an Al-Qaida operative bringing Death To America by making a bogus return for $27.14 and the actual transaction can begin.
Which doesn't take too long. Brutus creates and authorizes the gift card, and hands it to Me, along with My license back. But he's handed the license back to Me upside-down.
"That's how they teach you to hand a license back in Manager's Training School?" Brutus hands Me back My license properly, no longer maintaining even the previous minimal effort to hide his contempt.
Thanks.
Bitch.
Leaving the store, I resolve to never ever shop there, or on their website again. And then I wonder. Is the Fraud Detection System really worth it? Plus it amounts to profiling, which is going at some point to get this store in some very hot water when the Fraud Detection System fingers the wrong person and the wrong person decides to make a big issue out of it.
You can tell Me that it's people, that My bad experience was caused more by Brutus' assholish behavior than by the Fraud Detection System. But you'd be only partially right. Yes, Brutus made it worse, but I had to stand there for 10 minutes while I was put through what amounts to a "guilty until proven innocent" procedure. And the nicest second-demi-hemi-quasi-assistant manager in the world isn't going to make that better. Throw in the "can't buy on-line and return at the store" policy and it's a done deal.
I am, and will remain, an ex-customer.
A Few Thoughts For The Day (Or, As Close To A Rant As I Get)
1. Just becasue I stopped responding doesn't mean I agree with you.
2. Just becasue I don't respond to a dig with a dig deosn't mean I didn't "get" it. I got it. I just decided to leave you down there and stay up here.
3. Being nice is, for Me, an effort to stay on what feels like the right path for Me. It doesn't mean I'm weak, or stupid.
I could go on, but I feel much better now. Happy Monday.
2. Just becasue I don't respond to a dig with a dig deosn't mean I didn't "get" it. I got it. I just decided to leave you down there and stay up here.
3. Being nice is, for Me, an effort to stay on what feels like the right path for Me. It doesn't mean I'm weak, or stupid.
I could go on, but I feel much better now. Happy Monday.
Update
1. Still smoke-free! It's just about a month now. To be honest, I don't feel markedly better, or even different. But I'm glad I did it. And yes, I was (sadly) right about one thing. People STINK, and when you don't smoke you're completely open to exactly how much people stink. I am seriously considering carrying little department store spritz bottles with Me.
2. Daily visits to the blog hit a low about a month ago, coinciding with the latter stages of the long Lenora X story. Visits at that time were down to about 110 daily. Lately they are back up and in fact higher than ever, verging on 150 a day. I attribute this largely to adding a number of links to the link list . . . and, wonderfully, I got a bunch of links in return without any actual link-whoring! But I won't let serendipity throw Me off course -- link-whoring can and must continue.
3. The girls are fine, and their usual wonderful selves. They are a continual source of pride, joy, and inspiration to Me. I gladly repeat Myself to say that I love them, so incredibly much.
4. Judging by the comments and allowing for the typical ratio of readers to commenters, the erotic fiction seems well-received. Which is nice. I am not sure exactly how long and where "The Taking of anni" will go; contrary to usual practice I just sort of tossed Part I out there without having any grand plan in mind. The little snapshots of Miss and anni will continue at least for a bit . . .
5. I have another Lenora X story forming, and a more structured D/s-type story on the horizon as well. And the one "mini-erotica" post I did is the first of hopefully many; I enjoy the short-short form. With the long stories it's a matter of time, and "spacing" -- as I was explaining to someone recently, I find that when I'm doing a story it's difficult to stop and do normal blog posts. And I don't want this to become strictly a fiction blog. My goal is to have the three main things in the title banner -- essays, fiction, and slices of life -- is more or less equal balance. It's a work in a progress.
6. I hope that everyone out there is doing well and blessed with all the love and happiness that is possible in life. KAHTATUS.
P.S. Please don't make Me write another pathetic post about how no one e-mails Me! I'm certainly not above it but I'd really rather not. Do your part!
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