Atomictumor

OK, so I got my bad ass phone, yes.  I also signed up for a years service with Verizon to get the thing, with a 20% employee discount on account of working for a company that finangled a 20% employee discount with Verizon, so I got a reduced price on the phone and the service.

Good deal, right?

Yeah, I thought so too.  Until I got the ‘welcome’ thing in the mail a few days after getting and activating the phone, which had my contract end date as 1/2009.  “Hmm,” I thought “I’m not a mathematician, but that looks like a two year contract.”  I’m not necessarily adverse to a two year contract, but if thats what I get, I should have the two year discount on the phone, and shouldn’t have paid the activation fee, because thats what it says all big and black on the website I ordered the stuff through.
So, I sent em an email.  I said something to the effect of:

“Hey guy, there appears to be a problem with my dealy.  I believe that you’re either short a year, or short about a hundred bucks.  Go ahead and get with your people, and then straighten me out, and then I’ll continue going around happy”

And they replied (this is all paraphasing now):

“No.“

Well, thats a pisser.  So I took a screenshot of the website showing the price I paid as the 1 yr contract price, and a price significantly lower as the two year, and replied suggesting that perhaps they rethink the issue.

My response:

“You’re dumb.  No.“

Yeah, they told me that it clearly states that 249 is the two year price.  I opened up the screenshot again, just to make sure that the moonshine hasn’t dulled my senses, and no, it seems to be agreeing with my original point.  This was at 6 AM this morning, and my blood pressure started to rise.  That right eye started to twitch.  I started turning into the Hulk.

So, I called em, and talked to a sweet girl named Margaret.  She told me theres nothing she can do, that I should talk to the point of contact with the employer.

So, I sent him an email today.

Now, this is my problem.  By rights, I should cancel the contract, curse their mothers name, and set fire to the phone.  However, I really like the phone, and the monthly bill likes that 20% discount.  I hear good things, otherwise, about Verizon, so I’m holding off for now.

But damn.  I hate hate hate dealing with companies.  Corporations are the American evil.

Discuss amongst yourselves.  I need to find some gasoline and a match, just in case…

Willie Nelson was busted for a pound of pot and some magic mushrooms after a cop smelled marijuana during a routine traffic stop of Nelson’s tour bus.

There’s a joke in there somewhere, but it’s too damn early.

One problem I have with mixing Atomictumor.com with stuff like ACES is that some folks are going to come here looking for ACES stuff. Thats all well and good, but with ACES I’m largely trying to filter the more caustic aspects of my personality to fit a more polite audience, and here, well, I just say whatever garbage jumps into my mind.

The way I see it (and Bos, GAC, Eaves, whoever, may not agree) is that the whole point of the thing is to make sure that kids in kindergarden in Oak Ridge now will have the best start in life they can get. Its entirely selfish, because if the schools are great, my kids will have a reasonable chance of making all sorts of cash and buying me a boat. Because the schools are helping out kids with special needs and economic disadvantages, I’ll have less of a chance of a crackhead stealing the boat.�
I’ll probably call it something dumb tho, and misspell it, like “Sissyphus”, or “Admireal”.

Everybody wants that (not necessarily the Admireal, but the good school system). Nobody is going to say “Well, I’m cool with a medocre school”. However, the problem that I see is that the City Council feels safer playing the “no new taxes” card than the “make sure the schools stay good” card.

I’m not blaming council, and I don’t have a beef with them. Theres been the perception that anybody who’s for the schools is automatically against the council. Thats self defeating, limiting, and just plain stupid. The Oak Ridge City Council has done a pretty damn good job running this town. Sure, the mall things a problem, but thats more because Arnsdorff’s a dick, rather than that the council messed up.

They gave city employees raises. The library is getting better funding. Businesses and homes are popping up all over. They’re being proactive about the blight situation. A lot of things that really matter are being handled quite well, so there’s no reason to dismiss them.

However, I’m not sure everybody is as openminded as I am, which is a problem. Turns out, and I didn’t know this before, that 99% of the time somebody mentions schooling, they’ve got a grudge somewhere. People backing the city say “Well, how much money are we supposed to give the schools?” or “The school board is trying to rip us off”.

On the other hand, you have a lot of the people backing the schools who feel that the city is out to get them, they’re holding funding from the school system in order to teach the system a lesson. I’ve accused them of that myself, and who knows?�
(Word around the campfire has been that, in a small ’sunshine law friendly’ get-together, Mayor Bradshaw and Manager O’Connor told SB Chief John Smith and Superintendent Bailey not to give them a budget fight this year, because they’re just getting 3%.)
Maybe thats accurate.

With ACES, we’re hoping to get past those people who have some sort of emotional stake in this thing one way or another, and speak rationally to everybody else. Those of you who want to play sides, guess what?

Its not helping.

This is not a “get rid of the politician” issue. This is a “lets all show everybody how important the school is” issue, and based on the reaction we’ve been getting from ACES, it seems that everybody thinks it, but nobody wants to get up on the chair and say it without thowing mud in the process.

Which is the problem, because I’m a rock thrower. I’m keeping that separate from ACES, tho, and I hope you do too.

Poison Ivy?

You tell me.

A judge in the “Government eavesdropping without warrents” thing has said that the Fourth Amendment was pissed, and did the Temple of Doom heart grab on Alberto Gonzalez.

Democracy is now safe in America once again, even if the Feds think you’re a turrist.

Don’t say the Tumor doesn’t keep you posted on 12 hour old news.