The wussification of corporate America

I seem to be saying this a lot lately, what is WRONG with people? And what is wrong with companies? My wife tells me you can't hug at her place of work, it's a big no-no. That's not far off from forbidding shaking hands, because that *IS* physical contact you know. How about the good ol' boy pat on the back? Only in baseball (butts allowed too!). When did everyone get carpel tunnel, ADD, restless leg syndrome, acid reflex and autism? Who decided a little ass wiping was a bad thing? Not my Mama, I can tell you that!

It particularly bothers me about the businesses, the entire "that's the way it is" and "it's what's best" mentality, without hurting anyone's feelings except for the accused. What happened to doing what's right? I love the anonymous phone lines for reporting inappropriate dress or performance. Think about it. If it's THAT bad, it'll be obvious and SHOULD fix itself (if the company isn't afraid of firing or some kind of discipline, but they are). But the phone line is set up in case ONE person is offended, but it's not bad enough to publicly complain about it. I heard a story recently about a guy that had to lay off his entire department. One person sued for discrimination cause she was mexican. One of the guys I used to deal with works for a major auto manufacturer, has been reprimanded for stealing from his company, and to this day still appears to sell stolen items on eBay. The company is afraid to fire him. That makes sense.

It seems to be getting worse. I've griped about eBay, in that they're changing their feedback policy so that sellers cannot rate the buyers as anything but good. That's just wrong. PayPal, an eBay company, is doing something similar yet different. If someone has gone past the 45 days to file a claim, they can still report that to PayPal, PayPal will note it and warn you, but you have no recourse. It's like our HOA "courtesy letter violations". The PayPal thing came out of the blue for me, someone who bought something a year ago, unknown to me, never got it. The email from PayPal indicated something to the affect of "While this claim was not processed, we've noted it on your record and it has no affect on your account". What a minute!? If it doesn't, why are you telling me? Where's my trial? How many anonymous strikes to I get before it DOES make a difference.

Now, the other day, I get something from Amazon. Seems like I stepped over the line again. What did I do? I don't know!! But by golly, they're letting me know I did bad!

From Amazon.com Seller Performance Team
Subject: Notice: Policy Warning

We have received a complaint about an inappropriate email contact that originated from your email address. Please note that sending excessive email is against our policies. Please consider the privacy of Amazon.com participants to be of utmost importance and refrain from sending unsolicited or excessive email.

So what did I do? Did I send someone their tracking info and they thought it was spam? Did I Respond to an idiot that was whining about something stupid and they reported me for responding? Was it sending the guy a link to my pinball site as he bought a pinball price guide (we all know solicitation is a BIG no no). Or what? Who was it to? What was it about? When did I send it. I'll never know, you want to guess why? Because the Amazon Seller Performance Team is a send only, never respond email. When I emailed asking what I did, I got this in response:

Thank you for writing to us about the notice you recently received. Please note that this is an automated response to your message. While we cannot provide a personal reply to messages sent to this address, please be assured that you are a valued member of the Amazon.com selling community and we value your communication with us.

Accused, tried and convicted. And don't do it again, whatever it is, we're not telling you, you should know better.

A Hair Above the Rest

What other business seems to have witty names besides hair cut places? You ever notice that? It struck me a week ago and then even more so when I saw something on Family Guy (which I forgot of course). There's one by one of my favorite taco places, and for the heck of it, I just checked the Yellow Pages:

Shear Bliss
Hair It Is
Shears 2 U
The Happy Lookers
Best Little Hair House (for Reno, that's funny!)
Urban Tangles

And I know I've spotted some other funny ones around town that are not in the book.

Just an observation.

The biggest change....

I've been in Nevada for 9 months now, and sometimes still can't believe we made the move. It doesn't seem like 9 months, yet in some ways it does. To date I'm still fighting the overcharges with the moving company, still don't have nary a tool or most garage items unpacked, haven't found (or looked for lately) my crock pot or EPROM programmer. When I do open up a box, I'm often struck with a sense of "Huh! Forgot about that!". Since there are no built in bookshelves like the old house, most books are still packed up. As are lots of things I probably don't need. Will I ever be unpacked?

But it's feeling like home. I no longer flip three light switches looking for the right one, and I can drive home without really looking for my street. My dogs are happy. I love my kitchen. But I tell ya, I'm still lacking PEOPLE. Some KC friends still seem close, others dropped me before I left town, it was kinda weird. Why is it that some people that you rarely saw in person, can no longer pick up the phone or email just cause you moved? In some ways I guess they were never good friends. And I'm not finding good friends here, but I've also kinda given up trying, at least as much as I was 6 months ago. Yeah, there are people that I like & seem OK, but too often I feel like I'm a third wheel, which is a feeling I've ALWAYS hated. One guy has turned out to be a real loser, and it's sad cause he could be OK if he wasn't always so full of bullshit. Another squirrelly guy has actually turned out to be pretty OK, despite being a bit of a loner and a conspiracy theorist. Thankfully we have pinball in common. I know my neighbors about THIS MUCH more than I did when I got here, but I've gotten to know my mailman fairly well. Who woulda guessed?

I'm looking forward to the warmer weather, and that means outdoor work. I actually miss mowing, and a garden is right around the corner! I was a long cold winter and I'm ready for a change. It's supposed to hit 70 today to really give us a taste of things to come. I'm sure in 4 months I'll be bitching about the 110 degree temperature, but I'm going to enjoy the time between.

Looking at my life, this is definitely the biggest chance & change I've ever made. Quitting my corporate job, getting married, buying a house, etc were all huge events, but nothing like this one. I'm still surprised.

(This ramble was brought to you by early morning Folger's)

Game over....

The title is about as witty as I want to get. I guess it happens to a lot of people, a little life changing moment that makes you slow down and think... I was coming back from a friends house about 20 miles North of me, two lane highway, speed limit 65. I had slowed down a bit for the car in front of me when I noticed the guy behind me approaching fast. Fast he was, and passed he did, both of us without using his signal. I then passed the vehicle in front of me and two miles later crested the hill and came upon this:


Unfortunately, the person in the picture is not the driver. The driver is in the ditch, dead. For some reason he lost control and flipped at least 2-3 times, and not wearing his seatbelt, he was ejected. He must have died quickly because it couldn't have been minutes. Life is that quick. I was home an hour later, seatbelt as always, but driving a little slower.