My Cure For Wall Street

My cure for the total irresponsibility and short term money grabbing of the so-called executives on Wall Street and similar places would be to put the whole load of them on a desert island with enough food for each to have a subsistence ration for 6 months. Then go back and bury the bodies later, as they will no doubt have grabbed and eaten most everything after the first month, then fought to the death for whatever remains.
They truly are just like children.

Pathetic Performance From Those Who Are Supposed To Be Leading.

It is interesting that the higher in the employment scale individuals go, the poorer their performance seems to be.
They surround themselves by 'yes-men' (or yes-women) and insulate themselves from reality.
Individuals in public office are the worst.
We have no doubt all seen politicians at opening ceremonies of their pet projects. Surrounded by those full of praise, they make acceptance speeches for the congratulations given.
The reality of course is different. They are spending the money of those giving the praise. Not only that, but the money of those who are not there, as they are disgusted that the tax money has been spent that way.
If questioned about their performance, the usual ploy in to go incommunicado. They are extremely good at not being able to answer simple questions, such as, for instance, a person who is from a department of food inspection and enforcement will never respond to the question of how many food establishments have had enforcement notices issued against them in the past year?

Interesting.
Take the same behaviour to Wall Street level, and the obstruction becomes even more complete.

Here's How To Fix The World Economy

Those pinhead stock market morons who manipulate share prices are still at it.
They have now upped the pace to make it so that share prices go both high then low on the same day. This allows them to buy low, then sell high, and make millions.

Here's how to fix the world economy.
Pass a temporary law making it so that shares that move more than 2 percent a day get locked up from trading for a week.
That way, they can decline gracefully over a longer term, and these morons who are raping the world economies can be forced to accept what the rest of us have to accept - that when shares drop, we all lose money, or should do.

More Proof That Executives Are Stupid

I just read that the executives at AIG insurance company went on a junket to a spa that cost nearly half a million bucks, and this took place just after the company got the 80 million or so bailout from the US government.

These executive idiots just have no commonsense at all. Even a petty thief lays low once they are in public view.

They appear to have the Elvis Presley syndrome - they are so used to having their own way, living in their ivory towers, that they are accountable to no-one.

Wall Street? Morons, Bufoons, and Idiots In My Opinion

It never fails to amaze me how lacking in vision, innovation, and commonsense the managers in the capitalist system can be. Having worked in industry all my working life other than maybe 2 years, I have seen many apparently intelligent people make mistakes that a 15 year old would not make. The commonality in these mistakes seems to be a case of being unable to listen, and being unable to go backwards far enough to determine root causes, preferring instead to take corrective action by getting the lower levels to work harder but not smarter.

I will keep this short and try to make it readable:

1 - Capitalism cannot continue indefinitely, as it depends on expansion that is limited by energy.

2 - Every political system is corrupt at one level or another.

3 - A change to communism would not fix the global economy, but the capitalist system has to change to something new.

4 - The money-suppliers to the capitalist system have been accelerating their extraction of funds above what is reasonable or ultimately possible.

5 - The old socialist theory about how the masses of the population must have the money (in earnings) to buy the goods that they create appears to be taking effect.

6 - The money taken by the investors creates no wealth or added value to the corporation. It merely robs the masses who do add value of their purchasing power.

7 - Like the legal system, the political and economic systems globally depend upon the confidence of the people, as well as the respect of the people.

8 - The US economy no longer has the respect of the average American, in fact, I would say that the average American is fed up with seeing the rich get richer by forcing the poor to get poorer.

9 - The current issue is not just about mortgages, it is about the rich gouging the poor, and the selling of goods and services using lies.

10 - The US Government as well as the Wall Street crowd have been so intent on using their power in a self-serving manner, that they have failed to heed the signs of the big picture.

So, what does this all mean? Well, it means that George Bush and his advisers have formulated a plan that makes a start on changing how the system works. This has to be done. To do nothing is to perpetuate the current failure of the global capitalist system.
It will allow greater accountability (even though there is masses of stupidity and corruption in any governmental system, it is less than in a government supported corporate system where the corrupt corporations are not even checked by the governmental systems - food safety is a great example in a smaller sense).
The snag for Wall Street is that their thievery has to stop. Their hand has to come out of the cookie jar, the game is up. And they don't like that.
I cannot, for the life of me understand just how imbecilic these Wall Street idiots are. They are so locked onto personal gain, and easy money that they just don't get it.
THEY WILL HAVE NO EASY MONEY EITHER WAY. THOSE DAYS ARE LESS NOW, AND MIGHT EVEN DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY.
They are like fools stranded on a desert island who will not pay the price of a passage to leave there, as the price is 'too high', and will leave them poor.
Hand out the guns to Wall Street, they want to shoot themselves in the feet!

Gas Prices VS Oil Prices

So, the oil goes down, the gas goes up.
This is a classic.

The thing that has prevented the oil refining companies from making even more profits is the perception of the public that gas should go down when oil goes down.

Now they have broken that connection, so it will be free-for-all time. Whenever they want, they can shut a refinery down for a few hours, then jack prices across the board and blame the shutdown.

This is a classic example of why we are in the hole we are all in. The raping of corporate funds by the investors to satisfy the need for short term personal gains.

Now the next step will be that the oil price will increase, and the gas will go up more and the oil price will be given as a reason for the increase.

No wonder the public globally has poor confidence levels in corporations. They appear to be a proven pack of liars in many respects, always finding a reason for making more money. Taking out 'profits' as the corporation fails over a period of time. These 'profits' are not actually profits of course, they are they property of other smaller investors who might not have enough clout to influence the prices by creating false scenarios.

Well done, all you "Captains Of Industry". You manage to make personal gains upon the backs of those who are disadvantaged, as well as those who actually do the value adding to the corporation by doing a fair days work, while you do as much work as a hobo on a park bench. And society actually looks up to you with respect, rather than treating you as the leeches upon society that you really are.

Enjoy that public respect, it won't last a lot longer, as the public begin to understand the deceit and self-serving gains you are in the business of making for yourselves. Soon, if there is any justice in the world, you will be looked upon in the same manner that we now view drunk drivers - as totally unacceptable to society and as leeches upon public funds.

School Communications - Should I Care?

As each day of the new school year passes, I get handed a new piece of paper that is in the name of communication. They generally refer to problems that I never knew had existed, and the solutions that were going to be applied to them.

This is often written in a kind of code, using scholarly terminology that I am unaware of, as it is not used in England, where I am from. In fact, in England, they just get on with it.

So, I have this "They protesteth too much" kind of feeling about this. As a taxpayer, I am paying for the expertise and professionalism of those trained to educate.

I suggest that they stop wasting their time composing this fodder for the paper recycling bin, and get on with what I am paying for, which is educating the kids. If they have problems, speak to their boss, not me.

Municipal Incompetence At It's Best!

Take a good look at the picture of the multi-lane highway above. It is outside an Industrial Park, and as you can see the name of the place is Truro.
So, we know where Truro is, right? It is in the county of Cornwall, England, so the vehicle lights will confirm that, as the vehicles are clearly driving on the left hand side of the road.

But NO ! It is in Canada! Check the picture below. check the flag on the right - it is outside a business that is located on the Number 2 Highway, Truro Nova Scotia just outside the town centre, where the Industrial Park is located. It is a Canadian flag.
Now, you all have heard of the province of Nova Scotia, right? That is just one of the places that has soundly drafted food regulations, but ones that are not enforced, and where those who are paid by the taxpayers to enforce those food regulations say that all is well because the coffee shops that have the exposed food with flies crawling and copulating on it, those coffee shops have a 'Food Safety Program'.

So, we have the food being regulated to the standards, or lack of them, that are set and controlled by a private profit-making corporation, and we have the signs from other countries to show how the business is moving.

Maybe the vehicles are all going backwards, and moving the business AWAY from Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada!

And this illustrates the typical level of attention to simple detail that is missing throughout North America. Because if you for a moment imagine that this is just a Nova Scotia problem, think again.
All levels of corporations, municipalities, and governments are being run by morons, buffoons, and idiots who don't even know how to check their own work. But they do know how to collect their fat pay-cheques and pensions that we, the taxpayers, are handing out to them.

Morons With Loud Cars Make 'Wonderful" Neighbours!

So, you are asleep, and at 2 am you wake up to car doors being slammed. Not just slammed, but slammed as if they had been grabbed by both hands, and wrenched shut as hard and fast as was humanly possible with the windows wound down. Then the pinhead who drives the car fires it up, and revs it up to about 5000 revs (that is about 1500 to 2000 more than a normal driver would ever see their car go up to) and then they pull away after about two or three minutes of revving, then move forward about ten yards, get out slamming the doors again, then get back in, and start it up again, and revving even more come back to where they were, and shut it off.
The whole routine is then repeated about ten minutes later.
Example number two - Some pathetic little insecure worm drives up with a car stereo pumping out about 300 watts of bass. The windows of your house rattle with the vibes.

WHAT IS THERE IN COMMON WITH BOTH THE ABOVE EXAMPLES?
Simple. D*ckheads.
The only possible reason, for instance, that a f*ckhead like these would have a stereo set at a high level is to piss people off.
I mean, it cannot be that they cannot hear it, and it cannot be that they have trouble hearing it at 100 watts, so they need it up at 300 watts.
And the revving dude? Again, this cannot because the car needs moving. Why would it be needing moving in the middle of the night? What would have changed by the time morning comes? Why not move it using, say, 2000 revs, instead of 5000? I'll tell you why. Because the intention is to piss people off.
This isn't a party situation, where it is a Saturday night, and it happens once in a while, or even once a month. This is an ongoing deal.
There is even dude there who is such a little pr*ck that he spins the wheels at every start. This isn't just outside his own house, it is all around the village, according to what I hear from people who are the 'in crowd' and were born in the village, and are ticked off.
He doesn't even have a car that can actually spin the wheels, I think it is a Neon or something - he has to rev the crap out of it, and dump the clutch to use the flywheel weight to get the tires to chirp. I haven't seen or heard him lately, maybe he broke a driveshaft. I hope so. Pity it didn't burst into flames with him inside it, the little dork.
I have people I don't know coming up to me in the village, and asking "Who are the people who moved in to that house next door to you? They are very noisy all the time, and drive way too fast while there are children around."
And I reply that I heard that it was a young guy who rents out rooms to his friends, who appear to suffer from insecurity issues or other mental problems.
But, I have a plan. I am selling. They Win. But I win too.
I could fight, I could smoke the tires on my old V8 car at 4 am, after THEY get to sleep.
But, I will just move to the city. It is quieter there, and if it isn't, the city cops soon fix that.

Corporate Culture Is Killing Innovation

I saw a documentary on TV that was looking into innovation and change in corporate circles, and amazingly, the High-ups (CEO's etc) actually seem to want innovation.
As a worker all my life at various levels within different companies, I had exactly the opposite impression.
In the documentary, it was stated that 75% of all employees are looking for a new job, and for the higher executive positions, the figure is at around 80+% , I think it was 87%.
This explains a lot.
I have, throughout my life, wondered why when I have a great idea, it is just brushed aside by my boss, and seldom exploited. Now, to be realistic, I know that some of my 'great ideas' are maybe great only in my own mind, and that in reality, the usefulness would be limited by factors in other areas of the corporation.
But probably the main reason for the rejection of innovation is that the people receiving the information are not interested in it, because they are not interested in ANYTHING.
This might be why they act so stupidly, and show little commonsense, other than to give the impression to their specific boss that they are doing a great job.
Looking at it with the knowledge about how most employees are looking to work elsewhere, I can now see what is happening.
If I have a great idea, and I tell my boss, this will mean more work for him/her. It will additionally introduce a budgetary demand, even if only for the time spent presenting the idea.
So, from a purely selfishly personal point of view of anyone in the corporate structure, it has no merit, only liability.
The innovative companies will be those who are innovative at the top.
All others can never have true innovation as it will be stalled at a low level due to personal agendas.

Poppycock! Food Company CEO Takes Blame For Food Problems

I saw on the TV news that the CEO of MapleLeaf Foods has declared full responsibility for the recent contaminated food outbreak.
What a load of TWADDLE!
If his idea was realistic, it would mean that society would not need the food regulations that it has.
If his idea were realistic, it would mean that he is making the statement that the food inspection (You know, the food inspections that seem not to occur despite taxpayers paying the officials who are assigned to be responsible for such inspections) is of no consequence one way or the other.
If his idea were realistic, he is saying that all cases of contamination or other occurrences are measurable and preventable as a 100% method of doing business.

Myself, of all people, with my total lack of confidence in the governmental and civil servant morons who allow food to be unsafe by such practices as using the presence of a corporate safety program as justification for not requiring the legal regulations to be a factor, would be happy if this man was able to truly be a scapegoat, and that by taking his responsibility, all society would need is for him to never do it again and all would be well.

But the reality of food safety is that food is not properly inspected by the authorities, so there is no 'back up' of the inspection process that the company processing the food has responsibility for.

I suggest that this CEO take back his acceptance of responsibility, and re-issue it with the addition of 'within the Mapleleaf plant'.

The final responsibility for food safety is with those people who the taxpayers are rightfully expecting to do what they are being employed by the taxpayers to do. THEIR JOBS!

The responsibility of a corporate CEO is clearly split - there are the shareholders, and there are the consumers. And even I cannot expect 100% success on my behalf as a consumer while the shareholders have to be satisfied with profits.

The ones who should be taking the blame are the failures to society, the civil servants who live in a self-protective culture that encourages them to never accept responsibility, or even to do the job we are paying them to do. They favour the practice of letting the food companies self-regulate the food safety, instead of participating in the inspection process.

Should The Public Sue The Food Safety Enforcing Public Servants?

Food Safety is far lower than it appears. We are no doubt all lulled into a false sense of security by knowing that there are laws governing food safety.
There is, after all, only one thing that is more unsafe than an unsafe act or condition, and that is having the same situation but covered up or hidden.
The problem can in most cases be traced to the enforcers.
Try taking a look at the amount of times a food establishment has has action taken against them for violation of food storage or handling regulations.
In many jurisdictions the number will be easy to count - NONE.
That is because the food safety enforcers appear to be favouring the food companies in their methods of applying the regulations.
In most if not all states and provinces the regulations are fine, well thought out, good commonsense rules and laws.
But you can have all the laws you like if the enforcement is not occurring.
The amazing thing is that if you chase these people, they will generally point blank refuse to do their job and enforce the regulations.
I informed such an individual about flies from a garbage bucket stored behind the counter in a coffee shop in a shopping mall food court, and that was over a year ago. The bucket remains, the flies still fly up, and even at times settle on the uncovered food (against the regulations) and even copulate there.
As an experiment, and just to see how thick skinned and obtuse these public servants are, I have actually informed THREE governmental levels, including a provincial Member of the Nova Scotia Legislature (MLA) of the flies, which fly up as the servers pass, and then settle on the sugar and the cups. The coffee counter is three small units from the passageway to the public washrooms, which are in constant use.
The end result in doing this is that there is protesting done about my attitude, and thinly veiled threats made about legal action. But still no attempt to enforce the regulations.
Maybe I have to belong to a special club or society in order to get work done that my tax dollars are paying for.
What the public needs to do is take some action in the courts to force these individuals out of their cozy civil servant jobs.
They need suing for accepting salaries under false pretences. They need publicly exposing , and publicly ridiculed. If they were in private industry, they would have failed performance reviews. If continuing, they would eventually be let go.
So, if you need to have some fun, and have some time, look into how many food establishments have been acted against for regulatory violation. In Nova Scotia, it is very few, the reason being given that "We work with the establishments in order to get the compliance done" or something similar.
Also, I was advised to phone in order to discuss the matter and have it explained to me.
Interesting how those who prefer not to be accountable always prefer the phone.

But, this is not just a local problem to my own province here in Nova Scotia, it is a Canada and USA - wide issue.

Check the regulations for your state or province.
See the violations
Advise the Enforcers.
Be told a load of hogwash.
See the violations continue.
Watch the issue create health scare or a death.

That appears to be the system of food safety we are working under. Amazing.

Annoying Advertising To Attract Attention - Don't Buy These Dell Products!

I have previously, in my other blogs, I believe, mentioned advertising that is created to deliberately annoy the consumer in order to attract attention to the product.
I have no idea what the product of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is, but I do know that should they ever canvas me for a donation, I will point out that they should have saved the money that they paid out for a TV ad showing a crying baby, with the volume and frustration of the child increasing throughout the ad. Yes, MADD people, I saw it. It worked, I was put into a position where I could not ignore it. And I feel sad for the people who donated in good faith to this organisation only to see their money wasted in this manner.

The latest one is DELL.
Now we know that this company, despite good products, has very poor customer care, in fact so bad that it is better not to annoy yourself calling them. And we know, or at least I do, from experience that they have poor internal communication, and will lose payments money in the system for months. We also know that they do, at least when you blog about how poorly treated you are by them, make the money correct by recognising the payment made (in my case to the incorrect department) and correcting the interest charges. Moral of the story - pay cash, or get your financing elsewhere.

BUT.
The latest is a window that pops up in your PC saying DISCONNECTED, together with a loud high pitched whine. After a few seconds, just as you are about to shut it down, it comes up with a DELL ad.
Well, DELL, I have news for you. I think that your ad stinks, and I refuse to finance such activity by buying another PC or digital camera from you. I suggest that you either fire your ad agency, or check their work before it goes online. There are other companies with similar prices to yours who don't annoy me in order to get my attention, but instead just offer good products, the same as you do, you know, the ones that I will no longer be buying from you, even for cash.

Another Classic "I don't care' Customer Care Experience.

So, I noticed that the channel programming guide on the cable TV had an error that didn't get fixed after a few days, so I thought I would do the cable company (Who I have high regard for until now) a favour by informing them.
As I don't want to wait on the phone while listening to how important my call is to them, I chose the contact form on the website, and here is the email result, together with my original text:

Hello Mr. xxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for taking the time to send us your email. We apologize for
the
recent issues you have in countered with your cable service. We will be
happy
to look further into the issues for you if you are still experiencing
the
problems. Please call our cable support department available to assist
you 24
hours a day, by calling 1-888-xxx-xxxx option 4 then option 2.

Thank you,
xxxxxxxxx Customer Care
"It's That Easy"


Please do not reply to this message. If you require further assistance
please click here   and you
will be taken back to our main web contact page.

Original Message Details:

First Name: John
Last Name: xxxxxxxxxxx
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Comment
Comment: Hi, Just to let you know that your digital cable guide is
incorrect for listings of South Park on the Comedy Network - the
descriptions lately do not match the content. Also, the Men channel
breaks up all the time, losing sound and picture so badly that it is
unwatchable. Do I contact the Men TV for this? The problem is perhaps
theirs? My other channels work fine. Have a great day, John

Now, let me translate what they are actually saying:
Dear Mr xxxxxxxx,
I have not fully read your contact form text that you submitted from our website, and so am ignoring that you asked a question.
I am actually trying to just find a way to respond that will not generate further emails that I have to reply to, as I am the email person assigned this week, and I really hate my job. So I have decided to use a template referring you to the phone-in customer care we have. I do it with all the incoming contact form messages, and most customers like yourself are so brain dead that they put up with it.
I have detected from the brief look I gave your text that you are also having technical issues, so, despite you filling out a silly load of personal info text boxes just to submit the contact text (one of which was an alternative phone number that was not marked as being essential to fill out until after trying to submit the form) that actually gives us your full contact information, I prefer for you as a customer to go through the mindless process that you were trying to avoid, namely, phone us and be put on hold and get annoyed by our stupid eternally repeating message telling you a pack of lies about how we value your business, whereas, as you can tell, we don't.
Anyway, this email to you is done, and I am well within my handle time for replying - obviously if I don't actually do any thinking before replying, it makes my job of keeping good personal statistics a lot easier.
Further, by failing to actually respond to what you wrote, I am avoiding a bad personal evaluation that might occur if I made an error in what I advised, this being a likely probability due to me actually knowing nothing at all about the subject in hand.
It was annoying having to write all of this, I prefer to use templates like are used for form letters.
And no, I am not going to contact someone within our company who can actually help - it is up to you to work at contacting us.

Thank you,
Anon Customer Care Person

And finally, here is my response:
Hi, Thanks, but that's Ok, all the info I can give you is in the original note I sent. Your choice what you do with it.
According to my son, the guide has been incorrect for a while now, and as for the Men channel, I just have to not watch it if it has breaking up sound and picture. I will take it up with the Men channel.
Thanks,
John

It came back at me as the address was a noreply one.
So, I have been converted from liking this company and being reasonably satisfied with the service, to being pissed off.
I cannot for the life of me know why they bother having an online contact form if they are not supporting it.
Anyway, screw them. They can boil their heads for all I care. I have better things to do than endlessly chase them to assist them in correcting errors that are probably caused by their own incompetence.
As they say, "It's That Easy"

Here's Proof That Corporate CEO's Are Idiots!

Here's some proof that corporate CEO's are idiots!
Any company is ultimately run by the CEO and his/her team, and so if the members of the team, or for that matter, anyone in the organisation, fails to perform, then it ultimately rests on the shoulders of the CEO.

Let's take advertising.
Say a person in the organisation decides to advertise the product of say, landscaping services, in say, a child's comic, then we all would agree that this might be a stupid move, because the ad will not likely reach those who might want to purchase landscaping services. The advertising budget would be wasted.

So, it follows that the end media of advertising must reach the expected prospective customers of the advertiser, right?

Television is fairly good for this, as there are many programs that will suit various products. For instance, put a beer ad on during a ball game. Put a childs toy ad on during a morning cartoon.
Put a female product ad on during 'The View'!

So, if a company places an ad in an incorrect slot where it would not be seen or heard by the target audience, it would be just the same as the childs comic example - the advertising budget would be simply wasted.
And the CEO would ultimately be responsible because they are employing idiots who would do such a thing.

Stay with me here, I WILL get to the point eventually!

Say I was responsible for placing my company's advertising onto a TV station, then all I would have to worry about is that the time slot was appropriate for the product involved, right? WRONG!

No Sound On TV?
Say I placed an ad with a TV station where the sound was switched off, would that be good placing for the advertising budget? Obviously not. It would limit my advert to being visual only, with no sound. And yet it is happening every day.
And if I was the guy who had the job of deciding where the budget is spent, then I would not, in that last case with the sound off, be doing my job, right?

And if I continued to do this incompetent work over a long term and it went unnoticed by those higher in the organisation, then they would not be doing their jobs, am I right?

Viewers Have TO Use Mute Button
So, WHY , OH WHY, OH WHY, are advertisers doing just what is written above, namely wasting their advertising budgets, or at least not maximising the budgets.
How are they doing this? Simple, by not watching the darn TV after they placed the ads.
No doubt all people in the advertisers organisation are all patting themselves on the back, saying how great things are, or no doubt these days wringing their hands in worry wondering how to increase market share in a folding market, and all they have to do is PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL!

Here Is The Actual Example
The TV Station is MuchMusic, out of, I believe, Toronto Canada.
The Programming is generally excellent.
The sound control is pathetic, however.
The sound on this station during some programming is so loud during the ads that it forces the viewer to either abandon watching, or hit the mute as soon as the ads come on.

CEO's Don't Watch TV?
This means that the CEO of MuchMusic is not watching his/her own station. The feature is so annoying that if he/she did, then the problem would get resolved post-haste.
It is even more interesting than that though.
Not only is there incompetence in the MuchMusic TV station, but also in the advertisers corporate structures.

The Advertisers Don't Watch TV?
The advertisers agents who are paying out their company's budgets are obviously not checking on the quality of service they are getting.
And their supervisors are not checking that those individuals are doing their jobs. And the CEO's of the advertising companies are not monitoring what is going on below them. They probably depend upon what they are told by the stool-pigeons below them rather than do proper checking, or even set up procedures for accurate checking by those below.

MuchMusic Stinks From Top Down - it never used to!
So, MuchMusic, your organisation appears to now stink from the top down.
So, those who advertise on the Muchmusic TV station, your organisations appear to stink from the top down as well.
And while the upper echelons are confident in the way they are doing things, the people below are probably going to work each day wondering how they can put up with the stupidity above them for years on end.

As for me, I am considering contacting all the companies who advertise on these badly engineered TV stations, and let them know that I am considering a "Don't Buy This" blog, listing all the moronic companies who are financially supporting badly engineered TV stations, in order to try to get the TV stations funding reduced until they fix their internal sound engineering issues.

Morons With Noise Pollution In Cars

We have new neighbours.
There was an empty lot next door, and it was purchased by a builder who had a house moved onto a basement he built there.
He spent the whole of last summer with a little farm tractor trying to bulldoze the mud around to level it out. He would choose days when it was raining, so he could get it stuck, and then presumably have fun shunting backwards and forwards to free it up again.
This would start at 6am and sometimes end at 10 pm. Just when I would settle down to watch TV, he would fire it up again. Then after about an hour, would stop for an hour or two.
All summer long.
Then he eventually finished, and the house, which is a large one, was sold, apparently to a young guy who rents out rooms to his buddies, so I am told.
No problem there.
The problem is with the idiotic, mentally insecure fools who frequent the place.
One in particular appears to need driving lessons, as he seems completely incapable of pulling away in his Mazda Protege (Ohhhhh, I am impressed!) without screaming the engine so that it develops enough power to make the tires chirp as he dumps the clutch and the car starts to move.

Now, I have a 1966 Mercury with a 390 cubic inch V8 that I purchased for the sole reason of having similar fun, except in my case, I can actually have the smoke rolling off the tires for quite a while. The difference is that I choose not to do it at 2.30 am.

Added to this, there appears to be deafness in the clan somewhere, as they seem to need a car stereo that is cranked to about 200 watts in order to hear it.

I know, I have it wrong.
Let's have a look at the REAL reason these effing useless piece of crap morons crank their car stereos - it is because it is the ultimate in "eff you" to the rest of the world, which in this case, as I live next door, is me.

Well, I have a plan. I still have access to my old DJ gear that I gave to my eldest son recently as he is doing some jamming with other guys, maybe to start a band.

But, I can get it back here in a flash. And I can have parties here at 1 am through to 4 am during the week, with enough power to setup a sound system for an auditorium (I had about 3 DJ rigs total) Or, maybe 3 am through to 4.30 am might be better.

It is amazing how youth always rebels against the older generation. We had Elvis, then there was the 'drug bands', then the heavy metal crowd. More recently it is the rappers.
I have no problem with it, because they grow up after a while, and in the past it has been a general thing to ignore it. But the noise pollution, they have a classic there. It cannot be ignored. The sub bass sound can be heard by whales in the sea over 12,000 miles away.

I keep getting asked by more established residents than I am (I have only lived here about 10 years) "Who are the people next door to you?" I have no answer. "They use the road like a race track" is the next comment.
They are as you find them. I find them to be un-neighbourly idiots who have a circle of similar idiot friends who have no consideration for others.

But I have a great plan.
I will let them have their tunes cranked, and will say nothing.
Then, as they get older, their deafness, which is already started (when I was DJ'ing if I was ever asked to crank it up, it was always by a club-type dude or a thump-thump car person, because those are the ones who have already damaged their hearing)
I will have the last laugh, because as I lay on my deathbed, I will think of those pinheads in their later years, asking for stuff to be repeated all the time.
And it will look good on them.

Primus Phone Service ! NEVER, EVER!

Here is an email I received from Primus, it was sent on the third, about a week after my email to them. Before reading it, bear in mind that I stressed in my first email that I had been asked to assist a friend with their account, and that Primus might prefer to obtain confirmation of that from the account holder. Anyway, here is the text of the email, my conclusions are below it:

Good Morning Mr. John XXXXXXXX,
Ref: account of XXXXXX XXXXXXXX
We apologize for the delay in answering your below message.

This refers to your recent inquiry regarding account number with Primus Canada.

Due to our privacy act policy, we are unable to answer your inquiry, as your name does not appear in the above-mentioned account. The account holder will need to call us at 1-800-806-3273 in order to have your name added to the account as extra contact before we are able to address y
our concerns. Although we apologize for the inconvenience, this is done for your security. As a leader in the telecommunications industry, we strive to maintain a high level of integrity in all our business practices. We can assure you we are committed to quality and processes.

To view the Policy, please go to the Primus Canada web site at http://www.primustel.ca/en/residential/legal/privacypolicy.html

Once you are authorized to have access to the account and have further questions, let us know.

Sincerely yours,

Jamie

Customer Service Associate

Primus Telecommunications Canada

customer.care@primustel.ca

Primus web site information: www.primustel.ca

Toll Free customer service number: 1-800-806-3273

Our Terms and Conditions which can be found at http://www.primus.ca/en/residential/legal/termsofuse.html

And here are my conclusion:
Primus customer care appear to have a focus on what in the call-center industry is known as 'handle-time". This is basically the ability to get rid of the caller as quickly as possible.
They are insulting me by ignoring my email to them.
They are using a template for the text of this latest email, and cannot even be bothered to change it to be appropriate, relative to the account number.
In short, this leaves me with the feeling that if I was a customer, I can expect nothing except a runaround from them.
They have failed to react in any way to the level of this complaint, as I have sent several emails together with links to my various blog entries about Primus in several different blogs.
The level of poor behaviour amazes me, as if I was working for them and received such emails as I sent, then the alarm bells for damage control would be ringing loudly.
The final analysis has to be that Primus are such a poorly run concern that they really do not care at any level, even about their own continued existence.
Remember now, this all arises from their initializing action to attempt a sale - it was not anything to do with anything that the account holder did (other than believe the Primus salesperson!)

Not being an ignorant person, I always respond to emails. Believe me, my response to this one will be extremely brief, as I just don't have the time to waste dealing with morons. The friend is changing away from Primus to other carriers due to Primus's inability to adjust even the simplest of their errors. The matter is now closed.

Here's Proof Of A Moronic Company - Primus

If you have read my recent entries at http://bloggerjohn.bravejournal.com/ then you will be aware of how stupid the idiots at the customer care part of Primus Canada are.
They either are deliberately entering into some battle to see if they can piss me off more than they have ever pissed anyone off before, or, it might be that they are simply TOTALLY INCOMPETENT at every level.

Some 50 years ago, my father, at his place of business, had a visit from a representative of the Olivetti typewriter company, who then proceeded to sell items that were not as stated, and in quantities that were never agreed to. This is called slamming.
I have no idea if this company still does business, but I grew up knowing that it would never, ever, do business with me. It never ever did any business with my father, nor me, nor my brother. I can even remember years ago seeing an Olivetti typewriter secondhand at a good price, but I was not prepared to buy it, in fact, I purchased a different brand later the same week.
And so it is with the Primus company. I don't care if it is Primus, Primus Canada, or Primus Timbuktu.
There is now no room in my life to take a risk on this, whatever they eventually do to rectify my friends issues that were of Primus's creation, which based on current performance, is rectification that will possibly never occur.

After all, for me, why take risks that are not necessary. There are plenty of phone companies out there where the risks are unknown, which right now looks really favourable compared with "known to have poor customer care that ticks off customers."

Interestingly enough, others seem to have had problems with them, too.

http://www.ehmac.ca/everything-else-eh/31751-primus-stinks-1280-dollar-phone-bill.html

Companies That Stink, Generally Stink In Many Aspects.

I don't know if you have noticed, but bad companies are like bad drivers. They don't know that they are bad, and if it is even politely suggested that they might have a little problem, or maybe can improve some little aspect (even though this is a polite way of saying the whole place sucks) the response will be either total denial, or if the information is passed on by email or voice-mail, there will in 100% of cases, be no response whatsoever. Complete and total denial, they are so introvertedly wrapped up in their own perceived glory that anyone suggesting that anything is, or might be, wrong is to be avoided and not engaged into two-way communication.

Bad drivers will typically, also, be bad in many aspects. For instance, the moron who swerves across the road due to being in the act of using a cellphone while driving will typically also cruise through stop signs without stopping, will race up to junctions and slam on the brakes at the last minute, causing others to brake in case they are as out of control as they appear to be. They will generally also fail to signal intentions, or will signal a turn or lane change at the same time as they make the actual move, way too late to be of use to other drivers, but of use to the perpetrator in meeting the law, because yes, the signal did come on before the turn was made........like about a nanosecond before!

I often feel sorry for companies. Sometimes when they are, for instance, asking for advertising to be done for them, they stress this must be like this, that must be like that, and then you go to their webpage, and find it full of typos or the very same bad grammar that they insist is not acceptable to them!

During my lifetime, I have worked for many companies. For a good number of years I was a contract machinist, and so worked as a fill-in for staff who were on vacation. The interesting thing about having such a wide experience of different management styles is that I have ended up being able to forecast the future demise of many of those companies. There are also a good many who SHOULD have gone broke, but were saved by the type of business they were in, such as mining for instance. To manage a mining business is maybe way easier than managing a production concern, because you are just basically digging stuff out of the ground and selling it. Provided you check that the stuff is what it is supposed to be, then you cannot go wrong, as your only limitation is cost of operation.
You cannot 'make' it wrong, because you are making nothing. The only added value you are creating is by the physical transfer of location from under the ground to a place where it can be transported from.
So, statistically, you are probably more likely to find incompetence within a resource industry than within a production industry where the added value is from the conversion of the raw material into a merchantable item.

Bad companies generally stink from the top down. After all, if those at the top are dissatisfied with the way things are done, they have the power to change that, and so they do. Being at the top, however, they are often completely blind to reality in what is going on below them. So if told things are bad, they will generally choose to ignore it, especially if the company is still making profit.

Now, take for instance a phone company such as Primus Canada. Their service is surely comparable to other phone companies. People who use them are probably able to pick up their phone, dial a number, and get connected to the person they are calling. Likewise, the customers are likely to have their phone ring, and when they pick it up find that the person calling them was able to dial the number and get connected through OK. So, technically, Primus are comparable to other phone companies, and might even have better pricing, who knows.
But just try getting in touch with their customer service department. What a nightmare of ignorance! Check out my recent blog entry at:
http://bloggerjohn.bravejournal.com/entry/25417
Like many companies these days, Primus have probably worked out statistically the likelihood of the failure to impact their profits, and the likely conclusion is probably that, provided they keep their sales dept working hard at getting new accounts, then the new accounts will exceed the accounts that ticked-off customers cancel out on.
I suspect that with the upcoming shrinkage of the world economy, such practices will fail to work any more, and these companies will be the ones who disappear and make room for companies who are not behaving so badly.

There are some things I don't complain about!

Yes, it is true. There are some things I don't complain about. Here is my initial list of things that immediately spring to mind:

Being given money.
Earning more money than the work justifies.
Hot looking gals.
Time spent with friends
Time spent with strangers who are intellectually interesting.
Having a politician or government official surprise me by showing commonsense.
Summer rain.
Winter rain. (You don't have to shovel it - I live in Canada, remember!)
Censored, censored, censored, and censored. (All one item)

That'll do for now.