Random thoughts and observations

Random thoughts and observations, in no particular order:

I) Who follows the rules?
The sign above the checkout stand says ‘9 items or less, cash and credit cards only. NO CHECKS’ The guy in front of me has an almost full cart, at least 45 to 50 things. I nicely say ‘You do realize that you are in the 9 items or less line, right?’ because maybe he did not see the 6 foot illuminated sign hanging over his head. He answers ‘Mind your own f*&%ing business.’ ‘Well, it IS my business; I am in line behind you, as are these 4 other people, all of who have 9 items or less!’ I get a ‘f&*% off’ and he moves up to the front of the line.

The cashier, overhearing all this, does nothing and starts to scan this person out. AFTER all the items are scanned, this bozo takes out a check book and starts to write a check. Already pissed at having to wait 10 minutes as the slowest clerk (the ones they put in the 9 items or less line) I say, ‘Hey, cash or credit card only!’ to which he answers again, ‘&*^$ YOU!’ Again, the clerk accepts and processes the check, another 5 minutes to finish the process.

When it is my turn, the clerk, as if nothing has happened, smiles and says ‘And how are you today?’ I ask him, ‘That guy had 45 items and then a check. How come you do not ask him to move to a regular line or pay cash or credit, LIKE THE SIGN SAYS?’ The answer from this clerk, ‘We do not want to upset our customers.’

‘Really?’ I say, ‘I am upset, and I am the one with 6 items and cash. I am following the rules and I am upset, as are the now 5 people standing behind me with a few items. So how, exactly, are you not upsetting the customers?’ At this moment, the manager walks up, tells the clerk to take a break, looks at me and says, ‘Why are you making a problem?’

OK, now I am really pissed! ‘I am making a problem? Your clerk takes a FULL cart person while 4 or 5 are waiting in the EXPRESS LINE, does not ask him to move to another line, and then accepts a check on top of it when it says ‘˜no checks’, and I am making the problem?’

‘What would you have me do, fire him? We try not to upset our customers.’ There it is again, don’t upset the customers. So what exactly is the rule here? If you follow the rules and get upset because the store does not enforce its posted rules, then that is just too bad. But if you are breaking the rules, we surly do not want to upset you!

To answer his question, I said ‘I have 3 suggestions for you. 1). Take down the sign. Then no store rules get broken. 2). Move that clerk, and any others that cannot enforce the rules to stocking shelves and working in the back, because they do not belong in the customer’s face. 3). And 3, if they still cannot be customer helpful, yes, maybe fire them! The store manager just shrugs!

II) Who follows the rules, part 2
As I board the United flight with my computer case and a small carry on with books in it, after checking my rolling cart, I find almost all the people in front of me in the isle have 3 or 4 bags each, and are cramming them ALL in the overhead space, including the small bags that could easily fit under their seat. Obviously, they are not alone, because even though I am in the first boarding group, the overheads are full.

I turn to the attendant nearby and say, ‘Excuse me, I checked my bag, and would like a place to put my computer bag overhead, as this one will go under my seat. How about asking some of these people who brought 3 and 4 bags on board to please put one of them under their seat so I can have some space for one of my bags. After all, I thought there was a 2 bag carry on limit here, and they are all carrying 3 and 4.

Yes, here it comes again. ‘I am sorry sir, we cannot do that, we do not want to upset out customers.’ Ok, here it is again. I check my bag, and carried on only two smaller items, and once again those that break the rules cannot be upset, while I, following the rules, have to pay the price for their inability to live in an orderly society.

But I do not fault these people, as the ones that should be enforcing the rules are at fault for not saying, ‘Excuse me, that is 3 or 4 carry on items, we will have to check some of them.’ No, can’t do that, it will upset the customer. Again, I explain to the attendant that I followed the rules, and I am an upset customer. Why does that not matter? ‘Take your seat sir’ is all I get! Nice!

But what is acceptable behavior in these cases? Do I reach up and take down someone’s case to make room for mine? Do I shove it under my seat with the other case, leaving me NO leg room at all in the already WAY too close and cramped seats United offers in coach? Do I complain more loudly and probably get tossed off the plane for making a disturbance? There seems to be no win in these situations for the person following the rules. It seems that all this behavior encourages me to do is break the rules like so many others, just upsetting others who are foolish enough not to break the rules, because the rule breakers are the ones that ‘we cannot upset.’ I have dozens of examples of this.

III). What?
I saw a commercial last night for Allstate Car Insurance on TV. Dennis Haysbert (http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/detail/celeb/188435) is on screen talking about CAR insurance, while the scene behind him show people getting onto and sailing on a BOAT. In fact, the entire commercial TALK about car insurance while showing people on and around a sail boat. WHAT?

IV). Then why are they doing this?
Many Republicans in Congress (and many on this site too) have been blasting the rest of congress for not simply confirming John Roberts and moving on. ‘This is not an election’ said one Republican, ‘Our job is simply to confirm this person.’ Typically aimed at the Democrats for stalling with the same questions over and over and over and over again, all of which John Roberts, like all good politicians, has not answered directly enough for them to move on, will continue for many more days. Even Arlen Specter, a Republican, blasted his fellow Republicans for trying to make this a meaningless rubber stamp process of simply confirming. Obviously, even he gets that they are doing this because it is a REQUIRED check and balance (you remember when the government had checks and balances?) against a president pushing his/her agenda though the system. Why are they doing this? Because it is their job to make sure this is the right person for the job. It is NOT their job to simply confirm ANY candidate the president sends down. If that were the case, the process would not include this step! DUH!

IV). The Fall Guy
Well, the head of FEMA has ‘resigned’, probably because there was a large target painted on his back and a lot of fingers pointing in his direction from the government. All the problems of responding to the Katrina disaster seemed to have been dropped directly on his shoulders, and of course, no one else is at fault here now it seems. But should we not ask who put this guy in charge in the first place? Why was someone with NO disaster planning experience put into such a position in the first place? Could it be because he was a college buddy of some college buddy of the president? Nah, that would never happen, that would be wrong! Well, at the least, they have picked someone this time (the only real guy left perhaps) that at the least has some disaster preparedness experience, to lead moving forward, so there is hope. Now, if the Homeland Security Agency would just start to realize that FEMA actually does indeed play a role in their game of terror preparedness, we will be heading in the right direction. I can’t help but ask if the Homeland people believe that their protection is so good that we will never have a terror disaster again, and thus do not need to properly fund and staff the FEMA organization?

Perhaps this guy will be smarter than his predecessor, who MAY have given disaster relief to people who really did not need it (http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1104/110304cm1.htm), and has, at the least, said ”¦we will review who gets relief and how the money is spent. After all, we are the wards for the public’s money’¦’ What exactly that means, is yet to be seen. After all, all those ‘rich poor’ with TVs and designer clothes (as was pointed out in another post on this site) may really not need our help, right! And after all, Louisiana is not a swing state right before an election either! By past logic, these people may need to wait until 2007 to get help! (Note heavy sarcasm here.) This is a watch and see item for sure.

V). The MPAA and stolen TV shows
The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is cracking down on people who record and swap TV shows. Because many of the same studios who make movies also make TV, the MPAA is, like the RIAA, trying to stem the tide of file sharing of broadcast TV. But unlike music sharing, which was mainly ripping commercial CDs and sharing that music, this is mostly the sharing of shows recorded ‘OFF THE AIR’, converted to avi files, and then put up for grabs as torrents on a number of sites. The MPAA says ‘no’, this is a violation of copyright, so let the law suits begin. It IS a violation of copyright for sure, but just where does the line sit that says I cannot share a recorded show with my friends?

First, the copying of commercial Television DVDs and sharing of those files I can completely understand as a violation of the studio’s rights, and completely understand why they want to stop that. These high quality DVDs have a $$ value, and like their music counterpart, should not be shared or traded.

But suing people who share TV off the air, something that was basically given away for ‘free’ in the first place, I simply do not get. We have been legally allowed to record TV shows to video tape(sans commercials if your good at recording) since the landmark Betamax case in 1976, and since then, people share their video tapes with friends all the time. Were we breaking the law all this time? It seems yes if you believe the MPAA, but what has changed now to start the lawsuits?

Mass distribution is one thing for sure. Now one can share their ‘video tape’ with thousands or millions at a time, and perhaps that is the problem for the MPAA. These shows typically remove commercials too, so the people who watch the copy are not ‘paying’ for the right to view. But TiVo, Replay, and other personal video recorders (PVRs), as well as VCRs, let people skip past commercials all the time, so that can’t really be the issue. Besides, blatant product placement and commercials displayed over the actual show are starting to address that issue, so that can’t really be the issue. And besides, most viewers of avi files missed the original broadcast, so that ‘audience’ was lost already. Many are in foreign countries who will NEVER see a broadcast of the show. What loss is that? Maybe it is because the studios plan to release the show on DVD at some future time, and they worry that people will not buy it if the copy it off the internet. Only problem here is that Television DVDs are having record sales, and anyone who has viewed an avi of TV knows these hold no candle to the true DVD quality. Those that want the show on DVD will buy the DVD because of the quality. Those that do not, will not. OK, so some keep an avi of the show, but this is truly not lost revenue as the studios would have us believe.

So what is the real issue? Greed MUST play a role for sure, and I truly believe these people think they are loosing sales of DVDs to internet copying. Simply look at the price of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) to see the greed factor. With a retail price of $129 per season, is there any wonder why this is not selling as well as it should? The internet is not to blame, the crazy price is! Here is a show that is almost 30 years old, has been on TV since the mid-70’s almost every day, and has more than made plenty of money for Paramount! So rather than pricing this at $39.95 or even lower, it prices at $129, and sales are slow. What a surprise! Many DVD series sell for as low as $29 per season, so why not this one? Personally, I bought DVD collections of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, but I will not buy TOS. I own a consumer TV DVD recorder, and I have recorded off The Scifi Channel the re-mastered versions of this show. Good enough for me and a loss of sale to Paramount. This has NOTHING to do with copying any files from the internet. I am sure I am not alone. I will probably do the same for Enterprise, since I have recorded the HDTV broadcasts off the air, and can put those on DVDs as well. Again, another loss of sale, but not sharing related.

Wake up MPAA and the studios; the internet is not the only enemy here. Might I suggest purchasing a mirror?

Of course, these are just my opinions. I may be wrong! And I am sure many of you will tell me so! 😉