Category: Uncategorized

Jul 23 2010

Stupid Products: No-Touch Soap Dispenser

Not saying I’ll make a regular thing out of this, though I got some other products I find ridiculous, but I saw an ad for this one product last night (twice) on GSN, and it just baffles me people would waste money on this.  It’s that No-Touch Soap Dispenser by Lysol.  The ad tries to make a point in that a regular soap pump would harvest tons of icky bacteria.  Not a surprise, since you need to wash for hand of germs, so the first thing you touch is the top of that pump, so yeah, most likely germs are gonna have a party on it.  Okay, I get that.  But…here’s the thing.  You.  Are.  About.  To.  Wash.  Your.  Hands.  Anyway.  Sorry, for separating those out like that, but I was trying to make a valid point.  True, lots of germs, but unless you feel the need to touch the top of that pump after you washed your hands of all those germs, you don’t have a problem.

I had to go find video of this, so I hunted one on YouTube:

After watching it though, I though of something else.  They show the hand go to the No-Touch System, but not when they turn the faucet on.  Turning the faucet off, is the last thing you touch.  Think about that.

I think I’ll just stick with my regular old soap pump.  And after looking at the comments for the YouTube clip, I am not the only one who seems to acknowledge this.

Apr 12 2010

Job Hunting Sucks

I currently work at a small little (well, not small small, but just not a chain store of any kind) retail store. No, not saying what store and where (I’m not stupid), but it sells home decor stuff and bedding, but after 2008, along with actual merchandise, the owner acquired shit from like those liquidation people (stores have a bunch of shit people don’t buy for a reason, yet there are companies that buy off stuff from them and re-sell to dumbasses. These “seconds” aren’t always bad (such as the extra random fabric he got, or some decent mirrors, etc), but when it just random stuff thrown into boxes, you’re talking broken stuff, half-emptied bottles, or just completely leaked chemicals that got on everything, so nothing is even sell-able. The store has gone down the toilet. Now of course, it’s going out of business, since people with money decided to not buy stuff, causing people trying to work for a living, to either get laid off or have their hours cut (thanks, BTW).

Of course, we get these people who say, “oh, I’m so sorry you’re going out of business,” or even, “I like coming in here to look around,” which makes me want to say, “yeah, well, looking around doesn’t pay the bills.” It’s bad enough that I have been working in retail (and I know I’m not the only one who has to put up with the stupidity of customers, found a great little site nicely called Retail-Sucks.com). But what sucks, is that we’re going out of business, and it was decided months after he opened a similar, yet much smaller, and more beachier, store, only about a 15min drive from the “main” store. They did well in the summer, but, in the off-season, saw a few days where they did even make any money (had some sales, but more returns). They’re staying open. Now, it’s spring-time, and we’ve been going out of business for about 4 months now, and they have only just started to pick up decent numbers, yet he’s not hiring any extra help. I feel sorry for them, working 50-60 hours in a week, because there are only 2 full-timers there, and 2 part-timers. While at our store, there’s 4 of us full-timers, and 2 part-timers (one of which has really low hours, and the other who has to go pee a lot, seriously). We have a manager who doesn’t always show up on time, and another who talks on the phone A LOT (mostly on her own cell phone). The other one sometimes uses the store phone, and has to take a cig break at least every hour. Not saying I’ve always came into work on time (5-15 min late, not a morning person), but I take no breaks, and lately, with business seeing some busy days, I sometimes don’t even get a lunch break, and if I do, it’s 10-15 min, just enough to eat a sandwich.

But back to what is sucking, and that is trying to find a job. I’m trying to look for higher paying jobs, or at least those similar to what I make now (~20,000 a year), but come up empty. The problem, there are TOO MANY damn restaurants now in the area, not that many places to shop, so staying away from restaurant jobs (which I’m reluctant to go back to) and finding a possible retail store where I may do some of the same stuff I do now, is hard. So, as for higher paying jobs, I’ve been looking into government jobs, but experience is a factor (I have an Associates in Internet Technologies, so I was looking at some tech jobs, but typically, that doesn’t seem to be enough).

I thought of maybe adding an ad to this blog, but if anyone actually views this and clicked on it, it wouldn’t be enough (though still, I’ve considered LinkShare, since they do the affiliate links with iTunes). I hate ads, but I may need to start monetizing this blog (the main site has some affiliate links, as does this blog already, from Zazzle, but I am having a hard time thinking of something truly original for a design to go on shirts and mugs that people may actually want to buy). If I can finish writing my story ideas, I thought of seeing if I have a writing future, but, as evidence of this blog, I don’t think I’m much of a writer.

Come to think of it, I don’t know what it is I’m really good at, except for watching a bunch of different TV shows, but I feel there are enough TV bloggers out there, and I think I’ve been real good about lessening TV talk on this blog. Although, I’ve been using this blog less and less now.

Oh well, felt the need to vent a little, plus my arm is tired and I need to finish Legend of the Seeker from my beautiful DVR that makes it possible for me to watch the amount of shows I do.

Oh, did I mention that job sites like Monster and HotJobs are useless, since I live in a tech-challenged county that are least likely to post job openings online.

Jan 15 2010

MTV Networks Arrange Haiti Telethon

Press Release

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 — In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, MTV Networks is presenting “Hope for Haiti,” a global telethon to air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, and CMT on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT and 7:00 p.m. CT. “Hope for Haiti” will also be made available to MTV Networks International, CNN International and National Geographic channels worldwide.

Full article: the futon critic

Find out what you can do to help Haiti.


All new episodes scheduled for January 22nd (including the return of the CW’s Smallville and the series finale of FOX’s Dollhouse will air the following week on January 29th.

Sci-Fi Wire

Dec 30 2009

Once in a Blue Moon…

I talk about something not related to TV. Okay, that’s not exactly what the post is about, but I rarely do mention non-television things (I just love TV too much). I thought this was just too cool to not mention. December 2nd, there was a Full Moon. Well another one is set for this Thursday, the 31th (29 days later). That means, it’s a Blue Moon. They actually aren’t as rare, but it’s just cooler when it occurs in time for New Year’s.

Blue Moons occur about every 2.5 years (see, not that rare), but one to fall on New Year’s Eve occur about every 19 years (so, a little rarer).

Rare New Year’s Ever ‘blue moon’ to ring 2010 – Yahoo! News

Sep 30 2009

300 CDs and Counting

I am glad to announce that I have surpassed my goal of 300 CDs (I have 301 now) in a matter of slightly less than 14 years time [which comes to around 20-21 CDs a year, but some years, such as the first few years, are more pathetic, while my bigger year is 2008, with 40 CDs, and then 2001 with 34.

Today I got Breaking Benjamin’s latest, ‘Dear Agony’ (which I flavored on my way home from work and got to say, amazing), and Three Days Grace’s latest, ‘Life Starts Now’ (released last week), which I have yet to check the rest out, but I’ve already ripped the songs to my laptop, so my Last.FM account will reveal when I play the shit out of them, like I did when I got Tantric’s last two releases, which are so very underrated, even in the rock world, which is a real shame.

Oh, and I updated my CD list: Current List of CDs I Own

May 25 2009

Customers Abuse Return Policies

explicitWarning, I’m in a venting mood:

Being I work at a retail store (a home decor actually, where I know nothing about decorating, but they don’t know shit about computers), I see a lot of fucked up shit. I don’t know how many times a customer may buy a whole bedding set (quilt, shams, ruffles, blah, blah, blah) and then come in the next day to return the whole thing because it wasn’t right for their room.

First off, you know what your damn room looks like. Second, if it’s a matter of color, don’t come back and say it was too blue or something, ’cause, you knew there was a lot of blue in it (this argument also ties in with “you know what your damn room looks like”). Third, not only are you wasting my time, you’re wasting your time as well (and money too, think about the gas it took to get your ass to the store).

Another thing that pisses me off.  Why won’t people keep their damn packaging.  Most stores will not accept returns without the original packaging.  Think about it.  If you owned a store, are you gonna wanna deal with products that have no packages?  And it’s listed on the damn receipt.  I know, ’cause I put that on there in hopes it’ll decrease the ammount of stupidity;  it doesn’t.

You see, when I shop, I know what I want, and only a few times did I get something to try out (electronic stuff is about the only item that you may need to test out and see if it works for you, especially something like an antenna, ’cause I may not do any better than a standard non-amplified antenna).  And you know what I did when I bought that more expensive amplified antenna?  I kept the fuckin’ box and everything.  I stuck it back in there, nice and neat just like I have opened it.

It’s not hard folks.  Same thing goes for the receipt.  Most stores won’t except returns without a receipt, and for good reason.  They may have a 30-day policy, and the receipt is the one thing that’ll show it being within the 30 days, and how it was paid for.  Now, we are more lenient, in we allow returns w/o a receipt, but with store credit only.  I wish we didn’t.  It’s not hard to keep a receipt.  There’s actually a regular returner (new word: noun, someone who buys just to return it later, for some dumbass reason).  This person apparently has racked up quite a good amount of store credit, giving us lame excuses (elementary student excuses, such as “the dog ate it”).  Not joking, it’s true.  And, if I remember correctly, I think it happened twice.  If the dog did eat it, then maybe you should keep your receipts “out of reach of pets.”

If I owned and operated a store, I would be much more strict towards a return policy.  I don’t care if they don’t end up buying something, because if they end up returning it, it’ll cancel that purchase out anyway.  Plus, time is money, so why waste employee time on stupidity?

Oh, and the customer, truly, is not always right.  We just have to work like that’s true, but you know what, we don’t really think that.  And anyone who has worked in retail, feels the same way, yet, despite this, they may be some of the same people who do the same shit they hate customers of their own stores to do.

I also hate it when customers fill a cart, and somewhere in rugs, decide to just leave.  Unless it was some dire emergency, like a sudden family death you found out about or something, then you are an ass.  I hate people who take towards using every fuckin’ coupon.  I get it, everybody wants to save some money, BUT, how do we make money to stay in business if we end up selling you every item at or below cost.  More importantly, I hate other employees who allow certain coupon usage that had been forbidden.  Items on sale dirt cheap, are sale items.  Most stores do the same thing by not allowing coupons on sale items.  Unless it says something like “an additional on top of an existing offer” or something, chances are, you can’t use a coupon on a sale item.

I hate customers that feel the need to take an entire sheet set out of the package, allowing pillow cases to fall on the floor and get dirty, making it almost unsellable.  Do you really need to take the whole fuckin sheet out?  Do you know that size of your own bed you sleep on everyday?  If so, why the fuck do you need to take it out.  Or the window panels, or even quilts.  Half the shit gets displayed, so it’s not that you can’t see the whole pattern.  Is it measurements?  Most of any quilts, panels, and the like have the measurements on the damn package.  Don’t know how long of a curtain you need?  Well, if you were thinking of getting a curtain, maybe you should’ve taken some damn measurements before you left.  BTW, we’re not mind readers.  You cvan describe your house all you want, but it isn’t gonna make us qualified to give you decorating advice on YOUR house.  Customer service is really just needed to help customers look for certain items.  Unless a place says there are Interior Designers for hire, you do your own decorating.

Point A: Know what you want/need before you buy.  Point B: well, there is not point B, just have at least an idea of what you need or want before you go and buy something.  It not only saves us time, but as an advice to other customers out there (we are all customers, some of us are just better to stores than others), it also saves us all time and money in the long run.

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