Dear Asurion

Well, that's so nice of you to suddenly become concerned, Asurion. Really, I'm touched!  Allow me to make a somewhat  different proposal.

I'd be more than happy to write up a detailed report of your immense shortfalls in this matter. I can't do that for you, for free... after all, you've asked me in this comment for a consultation to improve your customer service, ostensibly, and it would take many ADDITIONAL hours of my time (by which I mean the wasted, uncompensated hours I've spent since March, '14, chasing down this claim) to repeat what your CRM software should, by all rights, have assembled for you a good summary of precisely what occurred.

If you would like my consultation, I offer it at $500/hour. You may reply to this e-mail address (sent 6/25/2014) with any response.

UPDATE: E-mail bounced. Takin' it to the streets.

Delivered-To: j****@***.com

Received: by 10.216.182.132 with SMTP id o4csp269226wem;

        Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:27:02 -0700 (PDT)

[...]

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----

    (reason: 554 5.4.6 Too many hops)

[...]

(much SMTP bilge deleted now -- point made)

UPDATE 6/28/14: Nice to see I have their attention, every day. Even Saturday!

click to embiggen.

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Because You Can't Smell Me

... I have a confession to make. I started smoking again, some time ago. I won't make excuses, other than to say that I was having difficulty resisting the addiction when spending so much time with my two co-workers -- who are literally the last two smokers I know IRL. Well, that's not strictly  true... I guess I do  know more smokers than that, but I spend very little time with them.

However, the two co-workers have recently quit (one for almost a month; the other starting just this past weekend), and I'm all in for making our workplace completely smoker-free.  :)  Competition is good. Plus, I can use the extra $37 per pay period for being tobacco-free, right?  So!

I bought another e-cig kit about a month ago; this one is a much more substantial system, and cost even less than the first SafeCig kit I bought back in 2011.

It's larger than a cigarette, which has two advantages. First, the battery lasts a stupid-long time (at least a full workday, and generally beyond), and it holds more nicotine-infused "juice," so messing with replacement/replenishment issues is a complete non-issue. Set it up once a day, and Good To Go.

Secondly, you don't get dirty looks from people who think you're sneaking a smoke inside, as nowhere civilized allows smoking indoors, these days.

Commonly known as an eGo-T or 510 system

Anyway, one of the guys at work has had a similar system since the day I started, and one co-worker asked his advice (he's been "vaping" -- yeah, that's what it's called -- for years) and bought a system based on that advice. I followed suit, but I kept forgetting to bring the extra battery, or the charger, or the juice... derp. Then, my "clearomizer" tank started leaking. Despite my intentions to order new shit to supplement/replace these items, it was just easier to go grab a pack of Devil Sticks at Any Goddamned Store On Earth, and continue the undeniable self-destruction.

Lo And Behold!  The vaping co-worker-newly-quit alerted me to the fact that a new vapor shop had opened in my neighborhood recently, and tonight, I got what I needed, and have no more excuses. As easy as running to the corner store, it's literally closer than the nearest Kroger. And their prices RAWK.

So, good luck to me.  :)
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Local Political Interactions, Tea Party Edition

Subj: Please expand on property tax increase, if you would

I have received two of your postcards in the last five days, asking me to contact my city council member, etc. regarding a proposed property tax increase.

As an independent, I prefer not to dive into knee-jerk reactions on any particular side of an issue, including tax increases. I prefer to hear the arguments, compare them all to verifiable facts (such as the actual text of the proposed tax ordinance that would be going into effect as of this date, as proposed), and see who's coming closest to objective reality.

If you have the proposed language, today's tax rate & the proposed tax rate, I would like that information (a link to something @ nashville.gov would be fine), if you can provide it. Also, if you know the ostensible reason(s) that're being given for the need for the tax increase, and how you believe the truth or non-truth of said reason(s), that would also be helpful to me in deciding who to call, or if to call.

Also, if you are comfortable sharing the source(s) of the funding for this direct mail campaign, that would also be a factor for me. 

Thank you much, and look forward to your timely response.
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Echolarity

Poor ol' Rusty. He's so unconcerned that people find out what a coward he is, blocking my comments at tennesseefree.com, that he came over to Eschaton to say so!


Ah, but I'm a liar, you see:


This couldn't get much more entertaining.

UPDATE: So unconcerned for such an innocent guy. :lol:
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Echo Chamber: Now With Even MORE Echo!

Well, folx, this graphic has finally pushed ol' Rusty ("serr8d" -- clever, typically-winger macho name evoking a bladed weapon -- ooh, how original) off the deep end. He's blocked my ability to comment at tennesseefree.com, where I used to get my daily quota of pointing and laughing. I still do, actually, but I'll have to share the pointing and laughing over here, from now on, it seems.  :)  That's cool -- it probably needed a wider audience, anyway.

I e-mailed Glen Dean, just to let him know that his ideal of "... a website created by a middle Tennessee political junkie for the purpose of encouraging and promoting the free exchange of ideas among Tennesseans" had been hijacked by an impotent blowhard who's simply frustrated that my blog has no such mission statement, and that I therefore regularly reject his many humorous comments about my cats' litterboxes and my horrible photograpic skills. He's spent many hours combing the net to gather my comments from other sites, and sharing them over there, in a sadly-misguided attempt to shame or intimidate me, but now he'll have to do it without my being able to address it in the same forum.

Brave Sir Rusty!

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Tea 2 Da Bag

From Fox News/Opinion Dynamics (PDF):

43. Would you be willing to join a symbolic tea party to protest excessive government spending on April 15?

Yes No (Don't know)

31 Mar-1 Apr 09 36% 58 6

Democrats 29% 65 6
Republicans 47% 48 5
Independents 29% 63 8

So, with a metro area of a very 50/50 purple area of Tennessee with a population of ~1,000,000, I would expect ~360,000 locals to have answered this question in the affirmative, if asked. Accounting for the fact that people in general notoriously lie about how involved they are in politics, I would still expect to see at least 100,000 teabaggers on state capitol grounds on April 15th.

I'll be there, with cameras, to document the reality.

UPDATE: HAW!

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MCB Responses, 4, Vol. I

Due to the somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent application of the commenting policy at Music City Bloggers, I've decided that it's better for me to comment on things which appear there that are of interest to me here, since here, I know they will not be edited or deleted.

Here's what caught my eye:

Ned Williams on 4 October, 2007 at 4:01 pm #

RoR,
Just because a certain party wins an election is not de facto proof that any particular policy of that party is “the will of the people.”

Which, Ned, is why polls are so helpful. Your folks keep touting the low Congressional job approval ratings. Guess why it's so low? Because Congress is not getting the troops out of Iraq. You're not touting the fact that Republicans are currently more approving of Congress than Democrats, since that wouldn't fit your narrative, but that's the fact, Jack.

70% of Americans want this goddamned goatfuck of a war OVER, ASAP.

You know it. I know it. Congress better know it before this time next year.
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MCB Responses, 3, Vol. I

Due to the somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent application of the commenting policy at Music City Bloggers, I've decided that it's better for me to comment on things which appear there that are of interest to me here, since here, I know they will not be edited or deleted.

Here's what caught my eye:

This post.

Compared to what he wrote earlier, it's pretty Neville Chamberlain, given the jokey, lightness in context to the partisan bullshit that's happened in the last couple of days.
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MCB Responses, 2, Vol. I

Due to the somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent application of the commenting policy at Music City Bloggers, I've decided that it's better for me to comment on things which appear there that are of interest to me here, since here, I know they will not be edited or deleted.

Here's what caught my eye:

MissSharonCobb on 2 October, 2007 at 2:34 pm #

I don’t bother anyone and am supportive of almost everyone.

Once again, thanks for the loyalty.

Number9 on 2 October, 2007 at 8:43 pm #

Is the manual for this strategy? You must really think we are not very smart.

I know you aren't very smart ("Is the manual for this strategy?" Is question this is? You type pretty one day!), or if you are, you sure the fuck hide it well. You still think Saddam Hussein refused to allow UNSCOM inspectors to do their job prior to the illegal, March, 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. You still think the U.N. approved the illicit invasion. When you can renounce that as revisionist bullshit, you'll be on your way to smarter.

Sharon, you bother more people than you think. You are only supportive of your partisan tribe.

Boo-fucking-hoo. Jeebus, what a fucking wimp. He can't withstand Sharon Cobb's mighty Wurlitzer of Truth, but don't you bet he imagines being Patrick Fuckin' Swayze in Red Dawn, but instead of Russians flying Bearcats and MIGs, it's crazy Muslim fuckers, coming over the horizon of Bumfuck, TN, by the score, on camelback?

Man, I'm soooo glad the military won't take this guy.

You don’t think that the idea this was your handiwork had not crossed people’s minds? It crossed my mind immediately. A former reporter might have an “in” with the local media?

I don't know what's he's going on about, here. Maybe the NiT post deletion thang...? I dunno.

Considering that Beale has the same M.O. I have to wonder if there are seminars that teach what to say.

Y'know? You got us. George Soros pays for our training. On yachts. They serve Christian baby pate, and the toilet paper is made from real American flags, made in China (our largest banker!).

I'm sorry, but you really are an idiot.

Save the sugar for the newbies. I have heard your song before. Like the last go around, the advice is the same, you need to toughen up if you want to keep throwing lawn darts at people and what they believe.

Ha! Yes, indeedy-do! How's the Windex holding out?
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MCB Responses

Due to the somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent application of the commenting policy at Music City Bloggers, I've decided that it's better for me to comment on things which appear there that are of interest to me here, since here, I know they will not be edited or deleted.

Here's what caught my eye:

Ron on 2 October, 2007 at 4:05 pm #

So someone’s all “Everyone’s against me! Kat hates me!” yet we’re the ones who need fainting couches?

Yeah. See, I never said what you interpreted my saying, since I think both assertions are wrong, and irrelevant. What I think is that KatCo and Ivy have started this really cool site to keep the old NiT gang together, but it's having its growing pains. As much personal sympathy as I actually have for both ladies' personal challenges with families, health, deaths, overwork, underpay, etc., I have absolutely none for the maternalistic monitoring of comments at the site. That's something they chose to do, and they definitely didn't consult me prior to doing it.

That's not personal -- that's business.

I've been using these here Innertubes since 1989, and I have very little regard for those who can dish it out, yet not take it -- even less regard for those who feel that those types need protection from my tirades. I figure everyone's arms reach the keyboards, and the words represent the thinking of the parties who typed 'em, and as such, can be judged by all and sundry who decide to read them. I mean, getting comments deleted because they contain an accusation of another commenter being "exceedingly silly" is, well, exceedingly silly. As is deleting a reference to a winger cartoonist duo as "fuxandcork'em.com," but maybe that's not safe for work, or something.

Bottom line: At present, I'm not content to comment there, pulling punches in some ingratiating gesture to some pretense of civility, lest I be school marm'd to the commenting cornfield. Fuck that shit! Pabst! Blue! Ribbon!

If I have something to say about what goes on at MCB, I'll say it, here. Oh, definitely, I'll be a religious reader, as I have been from Day One -- I wanna know what's going on in the local blogohood, and that is the place to do it, right now (I can also get a small dose of hyperlocal flavor from Ft. Wayne, IN, and misogynous BlowSmokestan there, as well!). But I prefer my words to remain unspindled, unmutilated and undiluted.

So those will be here, and there you have it.
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Fake Photos To Sell Fake GOP Sympathy

Free Speech Zone, since the hall monitors at MCB seem hellbent on enforcing politeness at the tea party.
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