A different kind of post from your’s truly…

I normally use this blog to ramble and vent or just speak my mind. Today is different, I come to you with purpose. I’m looking to fulfill a destiny, live life to the fullest, and seek your assistance in doing so.

Last summer my church, NCC, distributed a catalog of mission trips that were going to occur in the next year. As I was perusing the magazine, I noticed a trip to Israel and Palestine. I was intrigued and decided that I would at least go to the interest meeting.

A few months later, I did just that. After learning about the trip, I felt like this was a chance of a lifetime and something I wanted to do.  So I later gave them my deposit of $100 and I set out to earn the rest of the cost of the trip ($2500). I’ve been tossing the idea of finally launching a T Shirt company (still going to happen one day, maybe soon), or maybe a good ole fashioned bake sale, maybe get a second job, etc. All of that seemed to not really take hold in my mind with regards to this trip so I figured I would ask my family, since my family is usually pretty supportive of what I want to do… this was not the case in this situation. After telling them about it, I don’t know of a single family member right now that is excited for me to go on this trip. To give you an idea of how the felt, I’ll give you some key words that stuck out in my mind: headline, terrorist attack, plane crash, middle east about to erupt into war.
Comforting isn’t it? I know.

My predicament is that I live comfortably, but on a pretty strict budget which doesn’t really allow to put aside that kind of money. I decided I wasn’t going to send a support letter because if I’m honest, I HATE getting those letters. It would be horribly hypocritical of me to send one and the last thing a Christian needs is to reinforce the “say one thing and do another” stigma that goes along with following Jesus. I asked my family to give me money to pay for the trip for Christmas. They were going to spend the money, why not just give it to me? Well it didn’t quite play out, see the previous paragraph.  In my mind I was kind of hoping that I could get most of the cost of the trip….didn’t happen. It was the same story using the keywords from above, however it was a nice Christmas.

Was this the Lord trying to tell me that I shouldn’t go? I don’t think so and I still don’t. So I’m telling you all this, NOT TO ASK FOR YOUR MONEY, but to tell you of a grandiose plan to raise the money that I hope you will be a part of.

2 Timothy 3:12 “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,…” even by your family.

It’s called MP6. It’s a concerted brainchild that was conceived New Year’s Day in Jared and Jessica Johnson’s den. Somebody was talking about murals and I think I said it would be cool to have a mural that your friends all painted in your house. Through some chain of comments, I arrived at the idea of graphing out 3 sheets of dry wall in 1 foot squares. I could sell each square for some amount of money and then I would have 3 of the murals we were talking about and start to pay for my trip.
The idea took off and after thinking it through, I’ve decided that 3 sheets of drywall will be used but cut in half providing 6 potential murals. Each square will cost $25. If I sell every square, it will cover everything but $100 of the entire cost of the trip. So you buy a square and wonder “what can you do with it?” Answer: Anything you want. While talking about it, people have mentioned printing photographs, digital art, puff paint, charcoal, paint, markers, colored pencils, paper mache, construction paper, etc. You can even finger paint if you want. These pieces will be up for a couple of months at The Loft, which is Dave and Kate Schmidgall’s studio apt. for people to work on. Email me for the address if you don’t know it, I’ll post it on facebook too through a series of events.

Once these murals are completed, they will be auctioned off. The proceeds from the auction will go the people in Israel we are going to serve, one is a school for blind children, one is a refugee camp, and the other is a home for young single mothers.

Bottom line: Today marks the beginning of a huge effort to sell these squares. Once completed, money from auctioning the murals will go to help people in need in Israel that we are going to serve. $25 gets a you couple of things:

1. You get to be a part of a giant art project

2. The project will benefit people in need in Israel

3. You get to help me, Mark Armstrong, see the world, experience the Holy Land first hand

4. There will be parties for the murals, 3 to create them, 1 to auction them. Who doesn’t love a party, let alone 4 of them?

Tonight is an Art Exhibition, called In The Beginning, at Ebenezer’s Coffee House, which is free to get in. There will be live music and art on display for you to purchase or view, artists for you to hire (photographers, graphic designers, etc) and of course  I will be there selling squares. I would love for you to come and buy 1 or more. If not, just come anyway and enjoy a great evening.

Comcast Update!

Kim P., my corporate contact at Comcast, called me just after that blog was posted. She let me know that the last time we talked, I didn’t express that the first compensation of $36 wasn’t enough. She was probably correct. I felt like I made it clear I that it was not enough, but I wasn’t explicit. I’ll leave that to rest and give them the benefit of the doubt.

The good news:

1. For Comcast: They have given me enough compensation to satisfy me as a customer. Compensation totaled about $180. They waived the installation fee, the activation fee, a month of internet service, and the original $36. I feel like they have righted their wrong. Very nice work Comcast.

2. For Me: I don’t have to make any more nasty blog posts or twitter posts about Comcast. I commend them for reading that post, taking action, and realizing the potential that was building against them. I also saved a bunch of money.

Bottom line: Comcast was too good at fixing the problems. Too much practice at something like this is indicative of a much larger problem and is need of attention from the top. The scripts were ready for anything negative I had to say and all the opening lines were very pacifying. Band aids will only get them so far. I’m appreciative for what they have done, I just hope that my service stays up and I don’t have to call them any more.

I may just change this blog altogether….

So its been a long time since I’ve posted. That’s partly intentional, partly accidental. The reasons are nothing unique or worthy enough for mention but I will humor you with a short…upon a second read, lets just call it a story of, yet even more, consumer vigilance. Gas was just poured onto the fire if you will.

I moved to a new apartment at the beginning of November with the usual tasks of setting up new accounts for power, gas, and cable/internet service. Power and Gas were no big deal. Turn on fees, get a bill, nothing wrong. Cable, more specifically Comcast was an entirely different story.

Take note of the timeline here, it makes the scale of this series of incidents rather impressive. I never thought a company could make so many mistakes in so little time.

I moved in on a Saturday, I set our cable account the day before on Friday. I scheduled for a Monday appointment. I left work at my lunch hour to go home and meet the technician to install our cable and internet. The window was 11am to 2 pm.  I was on the way home and the technician called me at 10:45 to let me know he would be there in 15 minutes. He was correct and beat me there by a minute. I took him to our apt. and he installed cable and internet in 45 minutes, gave me the crash course on the DVR and modem, and was on his way. No problems yet.

Wednesday afternoon comes around, my roommate, who was home that day called to let me know the cable and internet stopped working. I called Comcast to see if they could fix it. They said they could have a person out there next Monday. I was a little taken back that it would take 5 days to get my service back. I mean, I’ve only had it for 2 days. I scheduled it regardless. I then posted on my twitter account about how I wasn’t happy. @ComcastBonnie asked to help, I told her the situation and she graciously forced an appointment for me on Saturday between 9 am and 12 noon. I was very grateful.

Quick sidenote, the Comcast Cares initiative on Twitter may be the only thing going for the company right now. That team constantly responds to problems and qustions and has the ability to make things happen. I applaud them tremendously in their seemingly impossible uphill battle.

So on Thursday, I got an automated notification saying there was an area outage and service should be back up before the end of the day. After the “outage” was over, I got another automated call saying that I needed to confirm my appointment since the problems were fixed.  Which I did, because the problem was not fixed. Our internet was still not working and the hard drive in the cable box crashed rendering our DVR useless.

I did call customer service back to see if there was something I could do to make our internet work. They were not able to help us. So I took comfort that I only had to wait another day and a half to get back on the web. For the record, my roommate does a lot of work from home, this was especially detrimental to his productivity forcing him to seek public wi-fi. Which may not seem like a big deal, but when you are writing a check for $150 a month FOR INTERNET and cable, it gets to be a little annoying.

Saturday rolls around. I wake up, start a load of laundry, put the tv on some football pregame show, turned the volume down and stared at my cell phone, anticipating my internet savior’s phone call. So after 3 hours of sitting patiently, there was no phone call. I waited another 45 minutes. Still no call. I then dialed customer service. The representative said that the on site technicians were 3rd party sub contractors and they didn’t really have a way to track them.  He said that he or she was probably running late and I had 2 options. I could reschedule the appointment, earliest appointment was Wednesday at 3 pm, or I could wait it out and see if they show up. I had nothing to do that day, except… run to target, eat lunch with friends, drop off dry cleaning, run out to Fairfax to pick up a computer part, drop off a thank you gesture, and try to meet up with some friends later that night, so I opted to wait it out. I waited until 4 pm.

As you can guess, I received no phone call. I then called customer service back holding in the anger of a thousand rabid pit bulls. Our conversation went like this:

Comcast Rep: This is Comcast, how can I help you?

Me: Hi, I’ve got something of a problem and I’m not sure you can fix it, but I would like to know my options.

Comcast Rep: If you can tell me what’s happened, I’ll try to help you.

Me: Are you sure you want to do that?

Comcast Rep: I am.

Me: OK,

I then went on to say what happened that day at great length.

Comcast Rep: What I can do is put a missed appointment ticket in and dispatch will contact you in the next half hour to reschedule, hopefully for this evening.

Me: That would be great. Thanks.

Comcast Rep: No problem. Thanks for choosing Comcast. Have a good day.

Me: Too late.

Click.

So its 4:15 at this point. I know how things work in a business so I gave them an hour.  No call.

I called customer service back. This time the anger of the thousand rabid pit bulls was unleashed.  I still feel bad to the day about the way I talked to that lady. I assure you it was nothing personal, but I had lost my cool to say the least. Our conversation went like this.

Comcast Rep: Thanks for calling Comcast, how can I help you today?

Me:  If you can actually provide what I’m paying for you today, I will think the world of you.

Comcast Rep: Tell me whats going on.

Me: Since you asked…

I went on to explain for the 3rd time this day what happened. All the way back from the previous Wednesday. I told her that I was frustrated beyond any capacity I thought myself capable of andthat I was in disbelief Comcast isn’t on the brink of bankruptcy.

Comcast Rep: My records show a technician called you at 2:45 and there was no answer.

Me: Excuse me?

Comcast Rep: His phone is connected to the ticket system so it logs every call he makes. It says he got no answer.

Me: He’s a liar.

Comcast Rep: I know but…

Me: If you say that’s true, you’re calling me a liar. I’m not one.

Comcast Rep: Sometimes people miss phone calls.

Me: I’ve been on my couch, with my phone in my hand on vibrate and the loudest ringer it has, my TV was turned down and I’m staring at my missed calls log. The last one was last Monday when I ignored my mom’s phone call because Heroes was on. I didn’t miss a call today. I swear on my life I didn’t miss a single phone call. I’m not a liar.

Comcast Rep: I believe you sir…

Me: I don’t think you do. I think you’re staring at a computer screen with a service log and a script next to it.

Comcast Rep: Sir, I know how these technicians work, they aren’t the most reliable people. I had to ride along with them when I started, they don’t make very strong efforts to complete appointments.

Me: Not my problem. You can handle your human resource or sub contractor problems when I’m not on the phone.

Comcast Rep: Do you want to know a secret?

My thought: Why in the world are you telling me secrets? I just want my freakin internet to work.

Me: Sure.

Comcast Rep: Appointments can be forced…by certain people. What I can do for you is put you on hold, call cancellations and tell them your story. They will take this call and you will probably get you exactly what you want.

My thought: Does she realize how detrimental that is to their image? Is there no honest way to go about addressing valid issues and complaints? This can’t be happening…surely not…no business model like this could ever be successful. What confused me even more was how willing she was to give up that information. But if thats the case, due to the frequency of calls like mine, why don’t they put power in the front lines?

Me: Let’s do it. I might just cancel anyway.

Comcast Rep: Give me a few minutes.

I held for the next 4 minutes.

A new rep was on the phone. She was a little more apathetic and numb to my anger. It was indicative of how often she has this exact same conversation. She recapped my story to me to make sure it was right, and it was. She said we can do a couple of things. I can cancel my service right now and be done with it or…give her a chance to salvage the account. “Salvage” was her exact word too; while appropriate, it was alarming to actually hear it. I asked her what that meant. She asked me what I wanted to which I responded that I just wanted what I thought I was paying for. I wanted my internet to work, I wanted a DVR that worked, I wanted my Saturday back, and I wanted to just watch TV and be able to check my email without leaching off IT-inept neighbors broadcasting free and unsecure wi-fi for the building. She said I can have an appointment as early as 8 am for you tomorrow. I said I had church and would be home around 12 noon. She said she could get a tech to my place at 2 pm. I said I’d take it. She also said that would compensate me for:

1. The missed appointment

2. Downtime in services.

3. Inconvenience

So for that Sunday I had planned to go home, get a lawn chair and sit in the parking lot because I wasn’t about to give them an excuse as convenient as “there was no answer when we called”. We finished church that early so I went to meet people at our church’s coffee shop. I got there at 12: 30. We were talking about where to eat lunch and about 45 minutes later my phone rang.

Voice on the Phone: This is a Comcast Technician, I’m here to fix your cable box and internet.

Me: Uhhh, Ok. I’ll be there as fast as I can. I thought my appointment was for 1.

Voice: I’m ahead of schedule.

Me: I’m about 15 minutes away, I’ll be there as soon as I can, please wait for me!

Voice: Ok.

Click.
I bolted home because this guy was 45 minutes early. Much to my shegrin, 2 lanes were closed on 395. So it took me a little longer to get home. Mind you I still drove 85 miles an hour down 395…in the Yaris. Take a second to process that. You can shake my hand later.

As I was turning onto Seminary road, my phone rang.

Comcast Tech: Hey man, its been 20 minutes, where you at?

Me: I’m turning down my street. I’ll be there in 2 minutes…literally.

Comcast Tech: Well hurry up, I can’t wait much longer.

My thought: You have nerve my friend, I spent 9 hours waiting on you yesterday… but my level headedness prevailed. I had nothing to gain from getting mad at this guy. He would only put me further behind.

Me: Be there in a second.

Which was true. I pulled in and he was working out of the back of his van. His first comment to me was “Your internet is working, I just tested it.”

“How do you know”

“I pinged the modem.”

“What was wrong with it?”

“Needed to be reset.”

“I reset it 14 times.”

“It works now.”

“Oh. Good.”

I then proceed to walk upstairs with him and he in fact does test it and it worked. What he actually did, I’ll never know. Being in an IT career and majoring in it, I knew he didn’t just reset it. I didn’t care though, my pride and knowledge was not nearly as much of an issue as actually having internet.

When we walked into my apartment, the tech looked at my cable box and literally said “Oh Sh*t! That box is at least 5 years old. No wonder it broke.” I asked if it was brand new but older model box, and he said there was no way it was a new box. He replaced it with what I was told a new cable box which was indeed newer as it had a few more features.

Before he left he made sure everything worked and spent the next few hours getting our network set up and secured.

So on Monday and having let the whole previous five days stew in my brain, I decided that while everything was working, Comcast still needed to fix how they go about their business. As the vigilant consumer that I am, I wrote this (Feel free to skip over it, its the same as above) to Rick at Comcast on the Email Rick Page:

I want to address a few things today. I have had nothing but bad experiences with Comcast this week and I believe that my story may be able to shed light on why most of the comments made in person and on the web regarding Comcast are negative.

I had my cable and internet installed a week ago to the day. They both stopped working last Thursday morning. I called in to have them fixed. I was told it would take 5 days to get a technician on site. I took that appointment. On Thursday night, the cable came back, but the internet did not and now the DVR was not working. I was not happy about this and posted something to Twitter to the effect of “Now I know why everybody hates Comcast…”  ComcastBonnie actually contacted me  and forced an appointment for me for this past Saturday morning to get my services back up and running. I woke up Saturday morning picked up my cell phone and waited on the couch for a technician to contact me. He never did. I called Comcast and was told that he is probably running late and I could either reschedule now or wait a little bit more. I opted to wait because I was tired of not being able to get on the web. There was still no sign of a technician. At 5:15 I called Comcast back. The representative informed me that a technician called me and I didn’t answer. I told her this was in fact not true. I had my cell phone in my hand the entire time. I would have felt it ring and heard it ring. She offered to put a missed appointment ticket in for me and said that dispatch would contact me in a few minutes. An hour passed and I received no call. I called Comcast back and asked to cancel my service. The representative put me through to the cancellation department. I told my whole story to the representative and she offered to compensate my account for my troubles and get me an appointment for the next day between 2 and 5 pm. I accepted her offer.  As I was still at my Sunday morning commitment at 12:45, a Comcast technician called me saying he was outside and ready to fix my internet.  I was not at home, because I thought the window started at 2 pm. I told him I would be home shortly and started heading home. He called me when I was about 3 minutes away and asked where I was with frustration in his voice. I told him I would be there momentarily.  I convinced him to wait and I met him there. He replaced my cable box and fixed the modem.

Now that I have working cable, DVR, and internet, I wanted to offer some feedback to Comcast at large. Throughout one whole week, I was sold faulty equipment, called a liar, was forced to waste an entire Saturday, and put up with a pushy technician who was put out by waiting for me to get home because he showed up over an hour early. I’ve been a Comcast customer for 8 days. I can assure you, until Comcast takes a good hard look at how they operate at a customer level, I will never say anything positive about them. I will never move into another apartment complex that mandates I use Comcast as an internet service provider.

Secondly, why doesn’t Comcast have Spike and Comedy Central in HD?

So a day passes and I get a phone call at work from Kim P. from Comcast Corporate Headquarters. She asks me to tell her the story again and that she is going to work on my case for me. So I go through the whole story top to bottom. I tell her that I wouldn’t be a Comcast customer if I had a choice, I couldn’t in good conscience recommend it as a cable or internet provider to anybody. She said she understood and has experienced the same problems with her home account….Wait, what? You have had the same problems and aren’t doing anything to fix it? And you’re telling me this? I appreciated her attempt at honesty and sympathy, but quite frankly, I think it was more scripted rhetoric designed to calm me down. It wasn’t necessary at this point because my anger had subdued with a good nights sleep. The end result of the conversation was that she was going to compensate me for the faulty DVR cable box. I was happy somebody listened and offered an olive branch. Kim also said that if I needed anything to give her a call. I thought I could lay the issue to rest.

Well I got a bill last week. There were a total of $36 of compensations on there. Kim P. indeed gave me $20 for my troubles with the DVR, and somebody else gave $16 for my downtime. Apparently, lying to customers, installing faulty equipment, missing appointments, giving customers attitude about being early to their appointments, being unprofessional, and taking up an entire Saturday is only worth about $40 bucks to them. If you divide that by the time I spent on the phone with Comcast, writing to Comcast, and waiting for Comcast, my time is worth about $2.50an hour. Not only is that insulting, its infuriating.

So I called Kim P. She didn’t return my call. So I contacted the most efficient people I know at Comcast, the Twitter team.  I sent @ComcastBonnie a message to see if she could answer questions about my bill. She said she would try for me.  What she did was above what I expected. She actually got Kim P. to call me back. So when I talked to her this morning, Kim explained that the compensations were for each of the items I thought they were and were in fact correct.  Which is why I’m here today. I have no choice but to pay this bill in full. I’ll pay for the next 10 cycles too. But until somebody actually compensates me adequately for my trouble, I’ll continue to bring bad light to this sorry excuse for a company. Never, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible, have I met another person when talking about this that didn’t have their own story to tell with the same customer getting screwed ending.  Comcast is terrible at customer service, they don’t have a clue how bad their image is in the public’s eyes. Not a single person I know says anything close to good about them.

I’m asking you to send me your stories about Comcast to me at markarmstrong919@gmail.com. I’ll post them there. I’ll even change the name of this blog to Comcast Is Clueless if I get enough. Until then, I will continue to post to twitter, facebook (www.facebook.com/mark.armstrong), and this very blog about how much I dislike this abomination of a company.

Sorry for the long post, I hope you can find humor in it, I hope you can understand my frustration, I hope that if you share my frustration, you’ll send me your story or at least comment. I hope that if you work for Comcast, you tell somebody about this, because I’ll be up for this as long as I’m a customer. I’m ready to listen and change anything I post so long as you can actually make a difference that makes me feel like what I’ve said is wrong in judgement. The odds are against you at this point.

Good day to you.

My life should be a TV show, oh wait it already is.

Seinfeld? I live it.  The Office? I do it everyday 9-5. And by living the life I do, I find myself in situations that couldn’t be scripted any better.  Most recently it has been a series of unfortunate events that will ultimately end up more unfortunate for the entities that I have conducted business with.   Let’s start with this past Saturday….

I look at my Maui Jim Mahaka sunglasses, which I purchased at Sunglass Hut in Grayson, GA while on travel to visit my family, only to find that there is a weird mark in the core of the lens. These are polycarbonate lenses and this appears to be a crack on one of the interior layers.  If I knew how to do this, I would be called a superhero, but I can’t and therefore I’m just an unhappy consumer (only to get worse up until last night).  So I go to Maui Jim’s website and figure out what I need to do in order to get a new pair sans internal lens crack. Simple, put them in a box with a dated receipt and a check to cover shipping.  I go to look at my receipt and realize that it was hand written except for the receipt number and barcode.  The most important thing is: there was no date.  Shouldn’t be a big deal, Sunglass Hut around the corner should be able to reprint this receipt given the receipt number.  So I call the Sunglass Hut located in the Pentagon City Mall on the food court level just up the escalator and to the right from the Pentagon City Metro Stop.  A not so delightful female sales associate answers the phone and the dialog went like this…

Ms. Attitude: Sunglass Hut, may I help you?

Me: Hi, how are you, I have a couple of questions for you…

Ms. Attitude: We’re very busy so if you don’t mind, call back tomorrow.

Me: Excuse me, I do mind, this is about a $150 sunglass purchase.

Ms. Attitude (after a second to realize that I wasn’t just another call…): Uh, Ok, what can I do for you.

Me: I bought a pair of sunglasses at a store in Georgia and I have noticed that there is a crack on the inside of the lens. I would like a receipt printed for them. Can you do that?

Ms. Attitude: No.

Me: What can I do to get the receipt.

Ms. Attitude: Call the Georgia store.

Me: Will do.
Click.

Being in the generation I’m in, I quickly dash to www.sunglasshut.com to find the customer service contact methods. I found a 1 800 number, I called, it was open M-F 9-5.  Fair enough, I can respect a normal work week. I’ll just send them a quick email letting them know that the manners in the Pentagon City store were not…let’s say…existent.  Here’s the email I sent.

In June, I purchased a pair of Maui Jim Makaha
sunglasses from a store in Atlanta while on travel. I’m now back in my
homestate and the lens cracked near the nose piece. I went to Maui Jim’s
website to see what I need to get them fixed under warranty and they
request a dated receipt as a proof of purchase. My problem is that the
receipt I have was half hand written due to a broken printer, it has no
date on it. I called the Sunglass Hut nearest to my home in Virginia
only to get a shockingly rude response to my inquiry. The sales person
said “I’m very busy, so if you don’t mind, call tomorrow.” I replied
with “I do mind, this is about a $150 sunglass purchase.” She conceded
and curtly answered my questions, proving to be no help whatsoever. She
said that she couldn’t do anything and to contact the store I bought
them at. So I called that Sunglass Hut and they said the only way to get
it to me is by fax. I don’t have a fax machine. What is your advice on
how to get my actual receipt? Please advise as I am extremely
dissatisfied with customer service so far. Mark Armstrong 404 *** ****

Here’s the response I got Monday Morning:

Hello Mark,

If you cannot receive a fax copy of your receipt the Sunglass Hut location can send you a copy by mail as well.

Thank you,
Erica

Sorry SGH, not gonna cut it.  I actually followed the Pentagon City’s advice and called the Georgia store.  This lady said “Sure, no problem, I just printed it.  You can come by and pick it up anytime. “  After explaining that I actually couldn’t swing by and that I’m 650 miles away from that store,  she then said she couldn’t email it but could fax it.  I actually don’t own a fax machine as its 2009.  I asked her to mail it, she said she didn’t get off work until 6 pm for everyday up until next Thursday and the post office would be closed.  At this point, I wasn’t about suggest the use of FEDEX GUY WHO COMES EVERY FREAKIN DAY TO DELIVER SHIPMENTS OF SUNGLASSES, that would have blown her mind.  I conceded and said that I would call Monday from my office that still had a fax machine.

Monday Morning, I stroll into the office and give the store a ring.  I filled in the new associate as to what happened on the phone Saturday…here’s the dialog:

1st year college student home for summer: “Are you Mark Armstrong?”

Me: Uh, Yes. (I though to myself thats creepy.)

Girl: I can’t fax it and mailing would take all week.

Me: What can I do to get it?

Girl: I can email it to you…?

Me: Thats what I wanted all along, that would be great and relevant to this day and age’s technology.

Girl: It will be later tonight, I can’t email from work.

Me: Thats fine, just so long as I get it.

Click.

The day ends.
Tuesday Begins.  I get to work only to find an email from bubblebaby8419@aol.com.  Note: I don’t wish the wrongdoings of email spammers on her, but there is a lesson to be learned from using personal emails for work with an angry and frustrated customer.

Regardless, the receipt is attached, scanned in as a JPEG front and back. Mission accomplished.

I get home from work, find that I have a package.  Awesome, this must be the Xbox 360 I ordered from Dell.  I don’t open it yet.  So I’m folding the 8.5 x 11 receipt along with the 2.5 foot hand written bootleg receipt to go  into a box with the glasses.  My roommate asks what I was up to and what I was doing for dinner.  I inform him what happened with the glasses and he says I should just take the receipt up to the local Sunglass Hut and they will exchange them. I figure its worth a shot and I would like to see what kind of operation was being handled by miss manners.  So we trek up to Pentagon City Mall and find quite the opposite of I what I encountered on the phone.  The lady said that I could “SRD” them.  I asked what that was and she informed me that its a replacement program where I can swap those out with a brand new pair for half the cost of the glasses.  I inform her that I won’t be “SRD”ing anything and that I would like them to just be swapped because the flaw in the glasses couldn’t be anything other than from the manufacturer.  She says that her manager would have to approve it.  I tell her that’s fine.  She called him and he actually approved it.  I was surprised, and after it was said and done, they owed me $1.60 from the difference in sales tax.

All is well with the sunglasses, back in action with my new Maui Jim’s.  Roommate and I decide to go to California Pizza Kitchen.  We arrive to an empty host stand and for about 15 minutes, stood there while another dozen people got in line behind us.  The restaurant was busy, not slammed, but busy.  There were about 10 tables open.  The host returns to the stand and asks us how many.  We say 2, he says 20 minutes.  Baffled at why we couldn’t sit any of the open tables, we take a seat on a bench and wait.  10 minutes later, he asks us if we would like to sit outside.  We said sure in hopes that we might get to eat faster.  We sit outside, our server, who took 15 minutes to realize we were there, finally took our drink orders and brought us bread. 7 or 8 minutes later, he returns with the drinks and takes our order.  The pizza comes out fast, so fast, it beat our drinks to the table.  How about that? So I polish off my first glass of sprite and still have half a pizza left. By now its starting to rain, hard.  We are covered by an awning, although the path for the servers was not.   After I realized that the server wasn’t coming back, I finished my pizza, thirsty.  After about 15 minutes of sitting there, he finally comes back with a bill.  No refill, no checking in on us, no offer for dessert. We tip him appropriately (it my or may not have been a 2.50 tip on a $30 tab) and leave.   Worst service ever, always good pizza.

We went to Cold Stone too, nothing  good or bad happened except I payed $5 for a single scoop of ice cream.

So I’m pulling into my parking garage and find that a Silver Mazda 3 is parked in my reserved spot, which was marked reserved with a number in it and also by numerous signs throughout our complex.  The reason its reserved is that I pay $75 a month for that spot (not a choice, I consider it part of the rent).  I used to be gracious to these folks, maybe they are only going to be a minute, maybe its a Chinese food delivery.  But that ended after the first 15 times.  By now, and my mood as of this point didn’t help, I don’t care why you’re there, but you shouldn’t be because its my freakin spot.  So I call A1 towing and wait, illegally parked in handicapped spot with my emergency flashers on.  He arrives, realizes its a manual transmission, uses a slim jim to pick the lock, opens the door, puts it in neutral and rolls it out of the spot.  He lifts its, I sign and he’s off.  He made it about 80 feet away when I young guy comes running out of the hallway and flags down the truck.  He asks what was happening, the towtruck driver says, comically, “You’re getting towed…for parking in a reserved spot.” “I didn’t know!” “Now you do. The fee is $150 and you can get it at our yard.”  I’m not kidding when I say this, the guy starts crying…hard.  And it worked because between his dad coming out and yelling in Spanish at the driver and the 17 year old bawling in the streets of Alexandria, the driver had enough and only charged him $25 to drop it.  I didn’t care, I just wanted my spot.  But the whole situation was surreal.  Did I really make a kid cry over getting his illegally parked car towed? Yes, Yes I did.  Go figure.

So I go inside, anxious to get to bed because the day was just that good so far but get distracted by new electronics.  I decide to open my new xbox.  Tearing through the packing and smelling all the new electronics, I get to the games that were bundled with the system, and they shipped the wrong ones.  I ordered the Xbox Elite 360 Holiday Bundle with Fable 2 and Halo 3, but I received Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones.  Honest mistake, similar boxes, same main product.  So I jump on dell’s website and report a wrong order.  Here’s my response: (My real name is Gary, its on the credit card, hence the greeting…)

Dear Gary Armstrong,

Thank you for contacting Dell online Customer Care.

I understand from your email that, you have received the wrong games with your order 792669776. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

As per the records, I see that your order 792669776 for Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle includes Kung Fu Panda, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures games with the order and we have sent you the same so, at it will not be possible for us to arrange the replacement for the order as, replacement are set for like to like items only.

Sincerely,

Mohit Kwatra

Here’s my response:

This is almost correct. When I ordered my elite bundle, there were two options.  One was the Halo 3/Fable II bundle, the other being this one, the Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda.  I specified the Halo/Fable bundle. I now see you have taken that deal down; however, when I placed my order, it was still available.  You have clearly sent the wrong bundle.  Considering my demographic, a 26 year old male with a credit card, did you think I would have preferred Kung Fu Panda over Alien Killing Marines? While the line item on my receipts don’t say which bundle it was I realize its my word against yours.  I would hope you choose to satisfy a customer as opposed to losing one.

Good day,

Mark

That story is yet to be resolved.  From what I hear, their senior execs aren’t that hard to find, I’ll do what I can…make that have to…to get the games I actually ordered.

The last story, I’ll keep this one short as this post is getting ridiculously long, is with Microsoft themselves.  With the purchase of a new xbox, I need to transfer the contents of old hard drive to the new one.  Microsoft lets you do this with a free kit.  I called to order the kit and after about 15 frustrating minutes dealing with a robotic female voice recognition touch tone menu, I finally spoke to something with a pulse.  He said he could help me…but not tonight as their “system” was down.  I thought, hmm, customer service got red ringed, ironic.  I said I would call back later this week.

Well I hope you learned something from all this. I learned to never shop at Sunglass Hut, don’t go to a CPK when its sort of busy, don’t buy anything from Dell, and keep pushing zero when on the phone with one of those stupid inanimate systems that can’t tell words apart like Boat and Apple.  Try to understand this one ms. robot phone answering system: Customer Service at Xbox iz teh suxxorz.  And when I do get a hold of a human, put your script down and don’t tell me some made up American name, we know your cheap labor in an undeveloped country.

Dinner with a Presdident

Tonight was bigger than any blog post will able to convey but I’ll write if anything for preservation of my own memory.

Jeramie and I left around 6:15, parked on F street and walked over to the south east gate to the White House.  I showed a secret service agent my driver’s license and he allowed me to pass.  I walked through a tent and put my cell phone and camera in a basket.  They allowed both.  We proceeded up the East side of the Mansion, the Treasury to our right.  There is a big black building that houses the motorcade.  I found it to be very interesting and not so discrete.  I bet its hard when you have 50 vehicles in it though.  We entered through the East entrance, greeted by marines in uniform.  We were allowed into any room.  We started in a room I don’t know the name of, but if you check my facebook album, there is a picture of the roses that were on the table.  It was a library of sorts though.   It also had a mens restroom.  Right across was a sitting room that is primarily used for the First Lady’s tea gatherings.   We made our way upstairs to find a 4 piece marine jazz band playing in the foyeur which is up against the main hall.  Mind you, the architecture in the White House is nothing short of breath taking.  Very ornate, the floors, the hand rails, the moldings, the walls, the wall paper, the painting, the ceiling, the columns, the stately eagles everywhere, the Seal of The President over the Blue Room.  We got a drink, I had ginger ale, although they had beer, wine, and a few cocktails.  We then proceeded to the West side of the mansion to ballroom type of room.  There we enjoyed flank steak, rack of lamb, stuffed shrimp, blackbean salad, and a W shaped cookies.  There were also dessert tables that had a bunch of different hors d euvre type of sweets from cappucino puffs to lemon cake bites.  We wandered around, Jeramie introduced me to people.  I saw Madeline Albright from across the room.  I met Karen Nichols, Kevin Madden, Joshua Bolt (chief of staff), the usher to the President’s family.  I also Mercer Reynolds from across the room.  Then a marine approached us and said that red tickets may get in line.  When we first got there, we were handed a ticket.  It was a set of instructions for the receiving line.  We lined up in the main hall, carefully ushered by the SS Marines.  They allowed us to go back downstairs and get in a line.  We handed in our red ticket and received a green piece of paper that had our names and address on it.  This was our voucher to meet the POTUS (President Of The United States), who is affectionately referred to by most people in the RNC as “The Boss”.  We got in line, entered into a library behind the people in front of us.  When we reached the door to the room that had the POTUS in it, we were stopped by another SS Marine, he verified that we were who the card said we were.  He very explicity said looking at Jeramie “You will stand next the President, and you Mr. Armstrong will stand next the Vice President.”  I couldn’t believe it, both Cheney and Bush!  When we were in that room there was an SS Marine at my right side up until I was introduced to Bush and Cheney standing next to Cheney.  We posed for the picture, I saw a flash and the next thing I know I’m in the Dish Room.  I couldn’t stop smiling, I had just met the two most powerful men in the world, shook their hands and exchanged simple greetings with them.  I don’t remember clearly, but I think I said, “Thanks for what you have done, its an honor to meet you.”  If they responded, I’m sure it was a simple “Nice to meet you” but I don’t really recall.  This may the first time in my life I was literally star struck.  To see the President, stand next to him, shake his hand, and pose with him.  Its still surreal.  We walked back upstairs, mingled some more.  I was taking photos like a tourist would the first time they see the Capitol building.  About a half hour later, an SS Marine approached us and said, “The President will be arriving in the East Room in about 20 minutes.  Proceed there if you wish to hear him speak. “  So we did, we lined up in the makeshift aisle that was created by SS Marines.  We stood there, camera and cell phone camera equipped.  Bush and Cheney walk in.

Cheney introduced the President.  GW stood at the platform, he looked tired.  Not like he didn’t get enough sleep, but there was a look about him, like he couldn’t wait for the next 9 days to go by.  His words echoed his look.  Very witty speech.  He made his remarks: “I’m leaving this position with my head high, and knowing that I made progress.”  He went on to thank the people in the room for making him successful, he was especially thankful for the prayers.  He spent a good 3 minutes talking about how nothing was possible without prayer and that the difference was so noticeable.  He went on to tell stories of how he met with the families of fallen soldiers, he talked about how his administration shaped history and laid a foundation for peace in the future.  He went on to say that he’s enjoyed it and can’t wait to return to the “Promised Land…Texas”.  On his way down from the podium, he shook hands of those in the aisle.  So I got a second handshake that night.  I’m still in disbelief that I got to see him deliver a speech from about 15 feet away.  Amazing.

Jeramie and I walked around some more to meet some of his old colleagues and we eventually made our way back out of the east side basement door.  Upon our exit we were given a red box with a black “W” on the front of it.  Inside is a frame for the official White House Photo that will come in the mail, a book of The 43rd President’s Accomplishments and an invitation to see them off on the 20th from Andrews AFB.

All in all I still can’t believe it all happened.  It was a life goal of mine to meet a President. I accomplished that tonight and met the VP as well.  Words fail me but just know that I haven’t stopped smiling since about 6:30 tonight.

Can a blog get dusty?

I think it can.  This one has for sure if it is possible.  No apologies but I’ll blow the “E-dust” off of it.  Blogging hasn’t been a priority so much as surviving and attempting to make sense of life has been.  So you can imagine that a lot has happened since the last post.  I’m not even sure who’s reading, but to those that may still have this handy, here’s the extract:  Job is good, best friends in DC moved away, confused about where I should be.

I wish there was more variety to that, but when I think about it, I don’t know what else to write about.  I love my job, good group of guys, its fun, interesting, rewarding, and a tiny bit fulfilling.  Not my dream, but it will suffice until I know what’s next… I hope I’m not saying that in 20 years.  Jeramie and Amber moved away and got married.  They were my go to folks for lunch, dinner, and whatever.  Still a little sad and rediscovering how difficult it is to crack groups of friends in DC.  Makes me want to move back to Atlanta…again.  I have other reasons, but I can’t go into those right now.  That touches on my confusion about where I’m supposed to be.  I’m finding success in DC, but I still feel out of place here.  I wonder if Atlanta will fill that void, I have a feeling it won’t but the curiosity is going to drive me insane.  I feel like my military brat instincts are taking over and just making me want to move.  Enough about me.  Let’s talk about the shortened chronicles of my flying experiences.

Delta = failboat

I have flown for 5 consecutive weekends now.  4 out of 5 were with Delta, 4 out of those 4 were delayed.  2 for weather, 1 for mechanical failure, and 1 for no reason given.  Understandable, out of their control, etc etc.  Don’t care.  Customer service failed them every time.  Lying to passengers, treating them like garbage, not telling them anything, are just a few things that come to mind.

In a related story, my flight this morning, which was delayed for no apparent reason, was supposed to leave at 8:30 am which meant I was supposed to be there around 6:30.  No traffic allowed me to be there at 6:15.  I checked my bag, for $15 to cover the increased fuel costs right?  Oh wait, fuel came back down in price… -10 points for Delta again.  Back on track…I get in the security line and there are two guys in front of me, both dressed in jeans, black jackets, and black boots.  One is wearing sunglasses and has a distinguished look about him.  A TSA agent comes up to him and my thought is this guy’s in trouble.  She goes on to tell him that she loves his music and that she loves his new video.  Another lady does this, another man does this.  It happens about 6 times before we get to the agent who checks your boarding pass.  I still don’t have a clue who this man is.  I’m intrigued though.  So being the clever person I am, I’ll just check his ID card as he hands it to the agent.  He pulls out a passport, name is Alan Horne.  I’m stumped.  As soon as he walks away, I ask the agent who that was.  He says, “Thats Robin Thicke baby! You know, I’m lost wit ouchyoo!”  I say, “Oh yeah…” not having a clue what song he was talking about.  I had heard of Robin Thicke though.  I used to like that song “When I Get You Alone” from 2002.  So after we proceed through the metal detectors and gather our things.  I tell RT (as he is affectionately called on the web) as we are putting shoes back on, “I would be lying if I said I was a fan, but I remember your old stuff, and I liked it.  Keep up the good music and safe travels to where ever you are heading.”  He responds, “Thanks for saying that, listen to the new stuff, and become a fan! God Bless.”  Interesting response.  I would have not pegged him to say God Bless first of all.  Second of all he wasn’t above plugging his own music still even after he had achieved this celebrity status.  Third of all, he was a genuinely nice guy.  He was very grateful for all the compliments and very receptive to the attention.  So he actually gained a fan today.  Its good to know that somebody who has that reached that level of success didn’t turn out to be a huge jerk.  I have met some pro athletes and other big band members and have found many to be too cool to talk to fans or converse with them.  I mean just a few words can go a long way with an average person.  Don’t blow it when you have the chance.  I say this as if a celebrity is reading, slim chance, but just in case.  I did however youtube a lot of his music and its all pretty good.  I recommend him for good music and congeniality reasons.

Right now: playlist of touchy feeling songs including ballads from Chicago, Journey, Boston, and other sappy songs.  Its fairly indicative of my mood.  I drove down to Good Stuff to eat a late dinner.  I drove slow and made it a point to pass some of the tourist sites.  The clothes on my bed are mocking me.  Time to put in my new ATHF DVD and do some work on my disaster of a room.

Comments are more than welcome.  I’ll pay 10 theoretical internet dollars for each one.

Another day at the office

I’ve lost the first 10 of hopefully many more pounds in my effort to lose weight. Project “Chin Line” is in full effect. In order to accomplish this, I bought a new bicycle, which I discovered is not all that unlike buying a car. I encountered some real A hole salespeople in my shopping experience. Ended up with a Specialized Rockhopper for those who are interested. I have been riding about 4-8 miles every other day. Surprisingly enjoyable and really convenient due to the Mt. Vernon Trail being right across the street from where I live. Wish me luck.

In other news, my quality of life has improved 100% since I got laid off and moved, and it continues to get better. Making friends has a proportionate relationship of my mood. The happier I am, the easier it is to make friends. Thats tough when you hate your job and where you live and have no friends. Go figure, 2 friends turned into many. I like to look at my “Friend Concentration Map” on facebook. DC is getting darker. That being said, I still don’t care for the area. I hope to move back south as soon as I can. Ideally, all the way to Florida. I spent Sunday by the Chesapeake Bay, and it was the same feel as the beach…except the body builder sporting the hot pink banana hammock…not cool dude. Very ironic since I was there for a church picnic/baptism. Anyway, the ocean speaks to me and I am a fool to not listen to it. I feel like I will “arrive” when I can wake up and see the ocean first thing every day. So that was my sign, even though things are great here, I don’t belong here. Its clear to me that I need to adjust anything I can to be around the water. People say that I should do this sort of thing while I am young and single. I agree with that, but in my own fairy tale world, the single thing would go away and not affect my dreams. There are female pirates too…I know a few. Send any people you know selling boats or beach property dirt cheap my way.

I suppose this implies a career change, which would be welcomed with open arms. The corporate arena is not something I wish to pursue any more. If I stay in DC any longer, my convictions about politics and gov’t spending may manifest…into God knows what. I may become a lobbyist/activist/policy writer…all things that I feel like are better suited for other people. I like people, and I like it when people like me. I don’t want my career to isolate who my friends are, at least to that extent. Not yet anyway. I could see myself at 50 running for an office or something, thats another post though.

I wish I had a funny story to tell you this time around, I don’t though.  I feel like life let me down with that guy in the pink g string though.  That had potential.  Maybe next time.  Cheers!

I’m about to get serious on you

Its Wednesday and for the first time, I have resorted to posting at work. Risky business. Probably the first and the last time, but I feel like I should get some thought on paper(online?…internet has destroyed common phrases) while I am feeling pensive and quasi-philosophical.

So I was on a plane Monday night coming back from Texas after seeing my cousins graduation. I killed three birds with one stone though with that trip. His graduation was important and good to see, I got a break from the norm in DC, and I got to see my family, mom and sister to be specific. The flight was delayed due to the nasty thunderstorms that seem to wreak havoc on the midwest daily recently. I managed to get on an earlier flight standby which was a huge relief and quite significant in retrospect. I was in the second to last row by the window. I shared my two seat row with an old man who clearly hasn’t flown in a few years. He had his bose noise cancelling $500 headphones connected to his 80 gb ipod video, a book (didn’t catch which one, probably something real trendy), and refused to share the armrest. Since this row was a bulkhead seat, my tray table was in the armrest that he hogged. I had to nudge him twice to get it out. Normally I wouldn’t use it, but normally airlines don’t give you the can of soda along the with small cup that can barely hold anything to begin with, but they did qualifying my need of the armrest. So as I pull the tray out and unfold it, I see a huge flash of light outside my window. You would have though a photographer was on the wing taking pictures. I waited a second and sure enough, I was on the topside of a thunderstorm. I saw lightning and thunder from the top. If you have ever seen this, maybe you can relate to what I was seeing. It was truly spectacular, remarkable, and for maybe the 3rd time in my life, I was in complete awe of something completely natural (#1 was the Grand Canyon, #2 was an underwater experience at 70 below the surface(1 and 2 would have been girls, but for the sake of my tone and goal of this post, we’ll stick to Mother Nature…but if you are curious as to what girls, and you are a girl, trust me, you are number 1 *wink* and Carrie Underwood is number 2)). My thoughts were somewhat mixed. How could something so magnificent and beautiful be so relentless and destructive? After a few minutes of it, I realized that is a pretty common thing in life. It all depends on perspective. Below the clouds, you take cover and hope that the storm is over fast. Above it, you are safe and it allows you to witness the beauty and power of Mother Nature. I will let you draw your own inspirational conclusions from that, but for me, its an affirmation of a basic tool of attitude and life skill, perspective.

I don’t endorse flying into thunderstorms intentionally, but if you happen to be on a flight that flies over it, be sure watch out the window.

Airports are hands down the single best place to people watch. Especially in Texas. Lots of midwest flights connect there, that being said, a lady, who looked, acted, and talked just like Roseanne, decided that I would be her conversation while we waited on our plane. She was from Oklahoma, headed to DC for the week. I wish I could have recorded the conversation, but it went something like this.

Her: This weather sure does f*%$ up airports don’t it.

Me: Yeah, probably better though, tornados and airplanes don’t play well together

Her: (Hearty laugh) I reckon you’re about right.

Me: Better late than never, right?

Her: Hell, I’d chance it if I could get there quick, I got a ride waiting on me.

Me: (Thought: Its people like this that warrant agencies like the FAA, because common sense tells you not to fly in horrible weather…) Would be risk…

Her: (interruptingly) My whole life is risky, its my fuel for life.

Me: I gotta go to the bathroom, bye.

Priceless. A gem in the rough that is Oklahoma.
Anyway, hopefully that lightened the post a little bit. Til next time…

Rain Rain Go Away

Well I am trying to go to sleep and the slow drip from my leaking window is keeping me from that.  I went to sleep at 2:00 ish today and woke up to downpours.  I went to Nate’s apt for some leftover steak (delicious by the way) and came back to settle in for the night.  I hear a clicking type of noise and sure enough the window seals are non existent on the right side of the windows.  Hopefully the four towels will be enough to last the night.  I heard on the news we got 4 inches today.  Crazy.

I normally would apologize for the lull in post frequency but I have accepted that once a month is acceptable and you are probably not expecting much more than that any more. 

My small group wrapped up and I finally feel like I have some friends, more importantly, I found a couple of lifelong best friend type of people too.  It is so much easier to get by when have those readily available.  I also got a nice apt.  You should come visit.

The last week or so of my free time has been consumed by GTA IV.  I won’t bore you with the details of the game, but you should check what set entertainment records.  $400 million in its first week…eat it Titanic.  In other news I finally caved and bought my first apple product which will likely lead to another one.  I bought an iPod touch.  Its sexy, easy to use, and remarkably handy.  I am not your normal pretensious apple user though as I don’t flaunt it and put stickers on my car or briefcase.  I want a laptop to surf around on the couch and what not.  I want a solid state disk drve too, that being said…the macbook air is the clearly the best buy on the market coming in at $3000 less than its competitor. 

That rain is really starting to make me angry.

DC has a lot of homeless people.  Some you actually start to recognize and see on a normal basis.  For instance at the corner of Route 1 and Glebe there is always one of two guys standing there.  The other day I gave him some coupons for free sandwiches at McDonald’s.  I usually won’t hand anything to these folks if they are begging, but my window was down and felt awkward, not relevant, but just for the record.  Well I drove by the other day and he was on the corner checking a CELL PHONE.  ??? Who are you calling?  Why don’t you buy some food or new clothes with that money?  Not very convincing and I want my free sandwiches back.

Completely unrelated, whats the deal with the gov’t assisting people in the digital TV transition?  Is TV not a luxury?  If thats the case where is my power yacht assistance?  I wonder sometimes about priorities and I worry for our country.

I got nothing else and the dripping has subsided a little bit.  Have a good week. Until next time…Cheers!

Tuesday Night

Well, it certainly has been a while.  I feel inclined to post for a couple of reasons.  I have some additions to my audience, shout out to Tallatrashee.  Also, when I get requests to posts, I tend to respond to that.  So here ya go.  My spirits have been higher lately so hopefully my wit and humor has returned and this post won’t be my normal DC downer.

Things are finally starting to feel normal here.  I have friends who I hang out with, I have co workers who I click with, I live in a place for 2 weeks and it feels more like a home than my last closet, I mean apt did in 10 months.  Its great actually, you should visit, because I have a pool, a hot tub, a gym, a free shuttle to the metro stop, and a lovesac.  Google it, its not dirty.  I have 3 roommates, one guy and two dogs.  One is a puggle (half pug, half beagle, all cute) named Tucker.  He’s hilarious, always in your face and sniffing things.  The other is a beagle, Mack, who is pretty annoying in the sense that he never stops barking.  Ever.  No kidding.  Luck would have it that my human roommate is going to give him away to his boss.  Tucker will be sad, but we will all be better off.

In other news, I left Fairfax…thank God.  That place sucks, so many uppity people, bad drivers, and chain businesses. I now live in Alexandria which is more of a ”cool” place to live and full of people my age, not necessarily like me.  I will explain in two points: 1. I drive a Yaris 2. I don’t hide that I live paycheck to paycheck.  Its all good though.

Ok, I’m way overdue for a tangent.  Today I will rant about one of my geekier guilty pleasures in life.  So there is a website called gamefaqs.  Its a video game site with very active forums.  I post in these forums with a few goals in mind.  My main goal is to get those kids, or other adults who act 12, pissed off to the point where I can get them modded.  All that means is that a moderator deletes their post due to language or trolling or flaming.  It is generally frowned upon to get modded.  Another game I like to play is “hijack the topic”.  For instance, some kid will post a topic like “What is your favorite game?” and I will post something like”Your favorite game sucks, this topic is now about_______”.  Its a sure fire way to get a kid angry and get him modded.  Well I have been on and off this site for about 4 years now.  Just recently have I actually decided to be a contributor instead of a firestarter.  It has been, what they would call an “Epic Phail”.  So I have reverted back to my original plan to ruffle feathers of the 13 year olds.  So with the upcoming release of GTA IV, the board for that game has a lot of activity.  Enter Mark.

There is a brand new part of GTA now, its going to have online multiplayer.  Resulting in many of the posts being similar to ”I hope I don’t get stuck with all 12 year olds” which is funny because they are 12.  So I always find out what they don’t like and tell them thats all they are going to get stuck with.  Specifically, there is a kid who said that he didn’t want to play with girls…especially comedic, outgoing and loud girls.  He “hates when they act all tough”. So I chime in with “I’m a comedic, loud, outgoing, and tough girl.  I hope we get matched ALL THE TIME”.  I then shorten it to CLOTGirl.  So now everypost I deem appropriate, I just type CLOTGirls FTW!!!! (For The Win).  It has been truly annoying to these kids and I feel a little satisfaction.  There is something about anonymous annoyance and troublemaking that makes me smile.  I’m a geek and if you know me, I have never denied it. 

I just read that and its pretty random and may not provide you with much entertainment, but if you ever find yourself on www.gamefaqs.com on the Xbox 360 GTA: IV forums…just know that the guy always posting CLOTGirls!!!!!!11!!!1! is me.