OK, I know April Fools was Sunday, but these are really worth checking out. WestJet is the “upstart” carrier in Canada.
April 2012
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Aw crap, it won’t embed. Here’s the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SkoJy3D0M (as an aside, why does this happen, half the time I can’t embed YouTube videos. Anyone know what I’m doing wroing?)
This is the one they did in April 2011
Stephen Harper, Canada’s answer to George Bush, our very own Conservative nasty (how we can have voted that government in is beyond me) is going to eliminate that most ridiculous of coins – the penny.
After first going for plastic bills (only the $100 at this point – and that was a great idea too), the penny is finally going. About time we follow Australia in that regard.
The stupid thing costs half again its worth to produce – 1.6 cents. It accumulates at an alarming rate – who doesn’t have pennies lying around in their desks, car, bags, sofa cushions, and really, there isn’t much point to the things and they’re pretty much worthless. Except maybe as a deco item. I saw this really cool penny wall, it kicks ass, check it out here at Bella Nest. I want that.
Granted it’s pretty cool that you can make them shiny again by soaking them in cola, but that’s more frightening than anything else in an Ohmygod-it-bleaches-pennies-and-I’m-drinking-this-shit!?! sort of way.
Cents will still exist virtually, when you pay by credit card or debit (which most people do today anyway), and if you pay cash the amount will be rounded up or down.
But really, the thing that makes my mind bug out today is that the conservatives are actually implementing an idea I’m thrilled with.
I don’t quite know how to deal with that.
Because it’s snowing. Has been for a couple of hours now. Even as of this morning they were saying rain and 6 degrees for today.
And yet. It. Is. Snowing.
Fucking winter.
And now people are all in a tizzy because they’re predicting 15 and sunny this weekend.
Hello people! They obviously aren’t able to predict the weather 10 hours in advance, much less several days. They just throw the bones and go from there.
People are stupid. Especially when they’ve had months of winter. Or maybe they’re just stupid. Who knows.
Edited to add:
On the plus side, the snow has finally stopped and I don’t live in Syria.
- Good afternoon, UPS, how may I help you?
- Hi. I’ve been trying to send a shipment with a UPS envelope and I’m getting an error message to the effect that my container does not work with my accessories. Can you help me fix that?
- I’m sorry ma’am, but you’ll have to talk to tech support for that. But I can send you supplies if you like.
- Well, I don’t need supplies. I need help. Could you give me the number for tech support?
- Of course.
Then, silence.
- Soooo, may I have that number?
And the number is rattled off for me. So far, this does not bode well.
My colleague who usually does the shipments is not here. I haven’t been on the UPS website for over a year. It has morphed into a whole other animal since then.
But I gave it the old college try. I entered the destination, I checked the box confirming that I want it sent by UPS express envelope. I filled in the two boxes with the weight and value of my shipment. Then I chose the service, asked for pickup and tried to continue.
And got an error message stating flatly that my container does not work with my accessories. Accessories? WTF?!?!
After trying to fix it multiple times, I called UPS and had that bizarre conversation.
Then I called tech support.
- Hello UPS, how may I help you?
- Hi. I’ve been trying to send a shipment with a UPS envelope and I’m getting an error message that my container does not work with my accessories. Can you help me fix that?
The woman at the other end of the line had no freaking idea what the error message meant (of course). I took her through exactly what I did, what I filled out, the order I did it in. She had me try several things. Made me log out and back in again (hey, this could become a blog post I thought at that point), and finally asked
- Are you using Firefox ma’am?
And may I just interject at this point how annoying I find the word ma’am?
- Yes, I am.
- Well, ma’am sometimes Firefox is not your friend.
This last comment in a quite condescending tone. Excuse me? A browser is my friend? Or not? What am I? A kindergartener? You are talking to me about inanimate objects being my friend? You are tech support and talking about browsers being my friend? Are you fucking kidding me?
At her suggestion, I closed my no longer BFF, opened Explorer, went into UPS, logged in, did the whole song and dance again and… oops, error message. Same error message. My container and my accessories are still not playing nice.
At which point she had me go into tools, and options in the browser, had me click hither and yon and eventually we ended up in a window where she said to check this box so whatever-the-hell-it-was can happen.
- Sorry, there is no box to check.”
- But m’aam, of course there is
- But there isn’t
- You’re in the wrong spot ma’am, does it say “Whatever the hell it is” at the top of the window?
Enough with the fucking ma’am already!
- Yes it does.
- Click the box.
- There is no box.
- Of course there is.
- No. There. Is. Not. What part of there is no box do you not understand? I have seen and clicked hundreds of little computer boxes in the past 20 odd years. I know from a box. I am exactly where you said to go and there is no box.
- There should be. You’ll have to call your IT guy, obviously something is wrong with your computer.
At this point, I am mightily pissed off. By her condescending tone. By the fact that UPS obviously doesn’t train its tech support people and tells them to dick around and maybe the problems will fix themselves. And by the fact that this has GOT to go today and it’s looking like shit will be hitting the proverbial fan. *sigh*
- No MA’AM, obviously you can’t help me because you have no idea what you’re doing”.
I try to be nice to customer service people and support people, but sometimes, there are limits.
Deep breath. Second deep breath.
Back to the UPS web page I went to try again. They say only idiots will repeat actions again and again hoping for a different result. I felt like an idiot.
Except this time, in my frustration, I forgot to fill in the two boxes for weight and value.
It worked.
Turns out you don’t click the value and weight for a UPS Express Envelope.
Whoever built the website didn’t make sure these options were unavailable if Express Envelope was chosen.
Tech support, it seems, doesn’t know this.
Sigh.
It’s way past time, I think, that I finally begin blogging on my iPad.
How do I add pics?
What the hell is this: Read the rest of this entry »
Adele’s Lovesong is a cover. I think I might actually like the original better.
Check it out:
Sorry, I can’t embed it for some reason…
2012 – the year our apartment becomes an antique. Sort of strange to think our cozy little abode has been around for a century. And in Mr. Jazz’s family for half that time.
So, since I haven’t yet posted the new apartment, though I promised I would, I thought it would be perfect timing. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures from before I emptied it out. It’s come a long, long way from its quasi hoarded days…
Plus, you get to see The Couch in its new environment, oh how I love me The Couch….
The living room:
Did I mention I love my couch? (If you need a cool couch, head over to EQ3 – you were right Violet Sky, we have one in Montreal) And that vintage Danish table my sister gave me. Love it too. The lamps still need work too, but whatever. And yeah, I know the painting is totally the wrong proportion, but that will be taken care of eventually. Amazing isn’t it all the things you notice when you’re looking critically at a picture? Cause really, when I’m there, I don’t notice it at all. Which is one of the many reasons I’m not a designer. It’s comfy, I’m happy.
And just to prove I’m useless at staging, yeah, that’s a charger on the floor… It’s all in the details and I just don’t have the details.
The other end of the living room. Long skinny room. Really annoying to furnish. Hi Honey!
The hallway towards the kitchen with my sweetie cooking – or maybe making me a margarita. That’s a really grainy pic, probably taken with the phone.
And towards the entrance – I love the transom window, wish it was stained glass:
Bedroom. I love colour, that duvet cover just makes me happy. Again, the painting needs to be changed out, as do the curtains which used to live in the living room upstairs.
These two walls also need something, but lets face it, I spend most of my time here sleeping, and if I’m staring at something, it tends to be the ceiling in the middle of the night so that’s not terribly high on my list of priorities. For now.
And I love that 30s light fixture which used to be in my mom’s bedroom. She gave it to me when she moved.
The bathroom (though you’ve seen that):
The toilet (another grainy flashless photo – phone again?)
The dining room. This room used to be piled high with old newspapers and magazines and stuffed to the gills with excess furniture. I love the built-in cabinet which became our bar and the vintage 50s mirror, which was on another wall. There are some extra chairs in the second picture left over from a party a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I’m slow on the cleanup…
And last but not least, the kitchen. Not crazy about the cupboards, but changing out the handles did help a lot. Amazing how many handles are in a kitchen. You just never notice until you have to pay for them. Not crazy about the counter and backsplash tile either, but I’ll get to that eventually… Those black squares are chalkboard stickers. They’re pretty much always covered in quotes and stuff.
Oh, look there are two pineapples in the window beside Homer. It wasn’t winter when this pic was taken. Haven’t had pineapple lately.
There you go Geewits, I might not have posted my trip to Maine from two years ago yet, but you got to see my kitchen.
