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  • Category Archives Rants

  • I, politely, refuse…

    Posted on by Ruth

    ….to discuss, in any signifigant way, the events in Boston as they happened on Monday.

    For one, bloggers with better writing skills than I have already said everything necessary.

    For another, I grew up a bare 20 minutes from Boston.  Up until 7 years ago my mother worked in a building visible in every video of the first explosion and she still rides the T to and from work daily.  I have friends who regularly go “into the city” to watch the marathon on Patriots Day.  And some of THEIR friends (and in one case family) were even running on Monday.  So far as I’ve been able to determine everyone I know, and all of their friends and family, are all ok, or mostly anyway.

    And thats all I have to say on the matter.

     

     

    I take that back, there’s one more thing.  THE GODDAMMED FUCKING MEDIA NEEDS TO SHUT THEIR IDIOT PIEHOLES AND GET THEIR FUCKING STORIES STRAIGHT AND JUST FUCKING STOP!!!!

    Ok, now I’m done.

    This entry was posted in Politics Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • When Itunes and Firefox don’t get along……

    Posted on by Ruth

    Yesterday I attempted to reset the payment option in my Itunes to Paypal since the credit card I’d been using had expired.  I’ve done it before, I know the process, not a big deal.

    Except it didn’t work. 

    I went through the process and instead of being re-directed back to Itunes I was redirected to the Itunes website…..Weird, but whatever.  Went back to Itunes, found the song I wanted to buy….and got told that my credit card was expired.  WTF?

    Went through the process, again, very very carefully reading everything this time, figuring I must have clicked a wrong option by mistake.  Same result.

    WTF?

    A check on Paypal confirms that THEY have approved the process no problem, but apparently that fact isn’t reaching Itunes.

    Try it again with both the firewall and anti-virus turned off.  Still doesn’t work.

    Figure out how to email Itunes tech support, detail whats happened, along with my Itunes version and my browser version, and send off the email.

    A couple hours later I get a response….with the generic instructions for changing my payment option in Itunes.

    I muttered nasty things about tech support people who can’t be bothered to actually READ the complaint enough to vary from the script, and reply, with something pretty close to those words, except politer.

    A couple hours later I get an email stating “so sorry, please try changing the payment option via your Ipad?”

    I send back “there’s no option to use Paypal when setting it up via the Ipad”

    A couple hours later I get another email, asking me to please go to this link and verify that my account information is correct, and then try again. 

    I send back “its all correct, still doesn’t work”

    A couple hours later I get an email stating “according to our records you’re using an older version of Itunes, please update and try again”

    I send back an email stating that I AM using the most current version of Itunes, and it still doesn’t work.

    This morning I got an email asking me to please uninstall and then re-install Itunes and then try again.

    Ok, I can do that.  Except…..I can’t download the Itunes installer??  I click on the download option, Firefox asks me if I want to save or run, I click save, it asks me where, and I say the desktop and click ok…..and nothing happens.

    WTF??

    So I try it with IE.  And it works……hmmmm…….

    Uninstall, reboot, and reinstall Itunes.  The Paypal connection still isn’t working correctly…..

    And little light bulb goes off.  I open up IE, set it to my default browser, and try the process to make Paypal my payment choice again.  And it works perfectly.

    *sigh*

    So I sent an email back to the tech support person with that information along with the suggestion that it get added to their default list of things to check and that someone might want to inform whoever does their programming…..

    And then I go hit the FF support page.  Looks like I’m not the first person to have trouble with trying to download the Itunes file, and its ONLY the itunes file (cause yes, I’ve been downloading stuff all week no problem).  I follow the suggestions (resetting some options in the about:config) and hey, I can download the Itunes file!  I don’t know WHY resetting those options made a difference.  They SHOULDN’T have, as they were still valid options for my comptuer, and I could still download everything ELSE.  But they did.  I haven’t tried playing with Itunes and the payment options again…..

    So I sent a note off to the FF folks too.  No idea if its a FF problem or an Itunes problem, but hopefully one of them will fix it!

    This entry was posted in Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • Well, Apollo’s thrilled…..

    Posted on by Ruth

    Two weeks ago we had grass that was turning green, and crocus blooming, and the rest of the spring bulbs working on sprouting.  No snow, and even temps up into the 60s.

    Now, there’s several inches of snow on the ground.  Its not stopped, not really, for the last week.  The only reason we’re not up to feet of snow again is because the day time temps keep getting just enough above freezing to melt large percentages of it.

    *sigh* I want spring!!!!!  *sniffle*

    This entry was posted in Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • Either you know, or you don’t know….

    Posted on by Ruth

    Had to ignore the news yesterday after getting pissed enough to yell at the TV.

    “Local” shooting, at least two killed, two wounded (those numbers have changed since), news conference with the Gov and other high and mighties to tell us all how horrible it is (like we didn’t already know).  One guy (I didn’t catch name or title) steps up to the mic to tell us about the victims.  Victims IDs not given here since they don’t need to be related to this rant in a search…..

    “Joe Blow, who we believe was in his 40′s or 50′s and who we believe was a 5 yr veteran of such and so service, and Joe Random who we believe  was in his 40′s or 50′s and who we believe worked for X company…..”

    And about that point I started yelling at the idiot standing infront of the mic that there should be no “we believe” when it comes to listing the victims.  Either you KNOW who these people are, how old they are and where they worked.  Or you do NOT know, and in that case you shouldn’t be announcing ANY of it!!!!  Idiot!!

    This entry was posted in Politics Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • Absolutely positively NO

    Posted on by Ruth

    I keep seeing this ad on TV:

    And all I can think of is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY IN HELL I’M VOLUNTARILY HANDING A COP MY CELL PHONE, digital insurance card or not…..and I don’t even have anything to hide!!!!

    This entry was posted in Fail Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • Why I don’t care for Cesar Milan

    Posted on by Ruth

    This post has been building for a while….so sorry if it turns into a rant.

    Now, before I get started, I’m not saying that all of what CM teaches is bad.  Its not.  SOME of his techniques, used on SOME dogs are quite effective.  He occasionally makes good points.  The problem is that a fair bit of what he DOES, is NOT a good thing.

    One of the message boards I frequent is specifically for the owners, breeders, and other folks who enjoy, mastiffs and mastiff type breeds.

    We have a member with a severely human aggressive Cane Corso.  And before someone states that’s a repetitive statement, no actually, its not.  But this dog was mistreated as a youngster and so now will only tolerate her new owner.  And she appears to have actually bonded with her new owner, something that is fairly amazing considering her back ground.  Her aggression towards other humans appears to be mostly fear based, and she has some other fear issues with a variety of things.  Her owner has been slowly working to get her to tolerate cars, for example, in hopes that if he can get her to tolerate cars without being drugged to the gills then maybe he can expand the realm of whats possible.  He’s had trouble finding a trainer who’s got experience with fear reactive LARGE dogs.  But he IS making progress.  Its slow.  But it helps that his sole goal is to simply have her not lunging at strangers if they get to close.  He doesn’t need her to be a love bug, he just wants her tolerant.

    We have another member who’s a big CM fan.  And so this CM fan wanders through the thread where the above  guy is posting on his progress, and tells him that he just needs to alpha roll his dog to show her who’s boss and all will be fine.  I managed to refrain from hitting the roof, but did advise him that alpha rolling a human aggressive dog was a really bad idea….

    And see, that’s my first problem with CM.  And alot of other trainers to be honest.  Alpha rolling, as defined by these folks, is forcing the dog onto his side or stomach in response to bad behavior.  Its based on some rather outdated understandings of how wolves work in packs.

    Unfortunately that is NOT what a real alpha roll is.  A real alpha roll the “dominant” dog does not in anyway force the “submissive” dog to submit.  The “submissive” dog rolls himself over, showing his belly in an apology.  Its an “ooops, I didn’t mean it, sorry!” offered voluntarily by the “submissive” dog.  All that forcing your dog onto his side or back does is show you’re a bigger bully than he is.  Now yes, with some dogs, they do calm down when you do that, if that’s what your dog does that cool, consider yourself lucky.  But many dogs do NOT calm down when that is done to them, they infact consider it a challenge that must be met.  Or in the case of an already fearful dog it can result in the dog becoming fearful of their owner who just proved them-self to be a big bully, and when the dog has already shown a tendency towards fear aggression……

    My 2nd problem with CM, is shown in this video:

    And since I’m to lazy to type out all that’s wrong please read here where someone else said it better than I would anyway.  Suffice to say that this isn’t the only time CM has badly mis-read a dog’s body language, it just doesn’t always end up in a bite.

    My 3rd problem with CM:

    First he’s showing a perfect example of how NOT to use a choke collar.  He never releases it fully, the dog is constantly struggling because CM is constantly restricting the dog’s airflow and jerking on his neck.  Then, he kicks the dog, more than once, to elicit a response from the dog.  Watch his feet closely, he likes to use the foot furthest from the dog to do it, kicking behind him into the dog’s gut.  And then when the dog reacts he chokes him some more.  And then he chokes the dog until the dog collapses.  His excuse: the dog was fighting me, he was trying to bite me.  You know what?  Every single living thing on this planet would fight and bite if someone dropped a noose around its neck and cut off the air supply.  If you or I choked our dogs to unconsciousness and the animal cruelty folks found out we’d be up on charges in a heart beat.  But its CM, he was training the dog, it’s ok.

    There….hopefully I have it out of my system so now I can go be polite to the CM fan on the message board instead of telling them just what I think of their animal abusing god…..oh wait, maybe not.

    This entry was posted in Dog Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • NY’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act

    Posted on by Ruth

    Update 5:30pm: NYS Assembly Passes Gun Control Bill (holy shit, I’m front page on Google for searches for the text of the act, I’m getting hits from DOD, DHS, FAA, State and County level government offices…..)

     

    Text of the act.

    Someone remind me why I live in NY?

    Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the mountains in VT or NH is looking better and better….

     

    Edit:  its 11am same day.  I just doubled my  average daily hits just from people hitting this post.  Almost all of them coming in from a search engine looking for information on this act.  Am I the only person out there linking to the actual text of this today?

     

    This entry was posted in Politics Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • Dean & Tyler has horrid customer service: A review of my experience ordering from them

    Posted on by Ruth

    The Dean & Tyler who sells products for canines in case there’s more than one company by that name.

    On 12/4/2012 I ordered a muzzle for Arty (long post coming on that, if I ever get the energy).

    It shipped on 12/6/2012.  Nice and quick.  And I had it by that Friday.

    Saturday, in the process of training him to not consider it a bad thing I realized I’d screwed up the order somehow.  The whole point of a basket muzzle is that you can feed and water the dog through it, but he couldn’t open his mouth wide enough to do so.  So we re-measured him and got the same measurements as the first time.  So I double checked the muzzle I’d ordered.  Sure enough I’d ordered the wrong size.  My fault.  But hey, D&T offers a service where you can email them your dog’s measurements and a picture and they’ll help you determine the right size/style of muzzle, oh, and put “urgent” in the subject if you need help in a hurry.

    So Sunday 12/9/2012 I emailed, with URGENT in the subject line, asking for help fitting the muzzle so I could return/exchange the one I’d miss-ordered.

    Wednesday 12/12/2012 I’d not heard from them so I called.  Was informed by a “Lissette” that the sizing folks only worked over email, but if I’d forward my email to her she’d make sure they got it.  So I forwarded it.  She emailed back asking me a couple questions about the measurements, which I responded to.

    Friday 12/14/2012 I’d still not heard back about what size might fit him better…..I was starting to get a little peeved.  I sat back down with his measurements, and the measurements listed for the muzzle sizes and styles and finally settled on one that other than being to long should fit him better.  I looked up the returns/exchange process info and it says to email with your order number in the subject line along with whether you want an exchange or return.  Oh goody, I bet I can guess whats going to happen here.

    Thursday 12/20/2012 I got an (probly automated) email from D&T asking me to rate my experience with them and the product I bought.  So I did.  One star all the way baby…..

    Today is 12/21/2012.  I have heard back from neither the sizing folks nor the returns/exchange folks.  Its not like I’m ordering a muzzle cause its a cute fashion accessory…..I know all this took place the last few weeks before Christmas, and that they were probly extra busy.  I work for a very small company that does online retail (smaller than D&T).  We were swamped the last couple weeks.  Thats normal.  You know what?  We still found time to call back customers who had questions or needed to return items……

    This entry was posted in Artemis Dog Rants Bookmark the permalink

  • WTF advertisers!

    Posted on by Ruth

    All I wanted to do was check Weather.com’s forecast for my weekend. 

    Type in the address….page loads….and before I can EVEN MOVE MY MOUSE the whole screen is taken over with an advertisement. 

    Arg.

    Find the little “close ad” option.  Close it, type in my zipcode.  Page loads…..and before I can EVEN MOVE MY MOUSE the whole screen is taken over with an advertisement, AGAIN.

    ARG!

    Find the little “close ad” option.  Scroll down the page looking for the 5 day forecast since that’s apparently no longer the point of Weather.com and I have to go in search of it instead of having it front and center.  Click on it…….

    Page loads…..and before I can EVEN MOVE MY MOUSE the whole screen is taken over with an advertisement……..

    WTF!!!!

    Different ads for different companies every time too.

    I knew there was a reason I mostly used local news channel’s webpages for my weather searching, but seriously, WTF?!

    This entry was posted in Rants Bookmark the permalink