Recently in Rants Category
I'm blogging about recent events again... someone stop me before I go apeshit.
So, it's disgusting enough that Jdimytai Damour got crushed to death at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. I just saw the autopsy revealed the cause of death was asphyxiation. Imagine, trying to catch a breath while hundreds of feet are pounding on your chest - feet that are racing to get gasp! ohmygod! a LCD TV for $200 off! It infuriates and sickens me.
So yea, that's bad enough. But guess what? Now there's more. And I bet you could smell this coming from a mile away.
Wait for it... wait for it...
Customers injured in the crush are suing Wal-Mart!
I'm trying to figure out why, if I'm so disgusted, I'm sitting here stifling a laughing fit so I don't wake Dave up in the other room. I probably want to laugh because people are so goddamn ugly and predictable.
Attorney Kenneth Mollins said Fritz Mesadieu and Jonathan Mesadieu were "literally carried from their position outside the store" and are now "suffering from pain in their neck and their back from being caught in that surge of people" that rushed into the Wal-Mart.I bet the pain in their neck and back is nothing compared to what Jdimytai Damour went through.
And even better:
In a claim against the Nassau County police department, the men also contend that they "sustained monetary losses as a result of health care and legal expenses ... in the sum of $2 million."Wow, that's a nice round number. Health care and legal expenses, my ass. I had full blown knee surgery a couple of years ago - cost of everything, including surgery, drugs, months of physical therapy, and a year's worth of followups with a rheumatologist ran somewhere in the neighborhood of $30K. Sure, not a straight up comparison, but give me a fucking break. My theory? See, since they were "carried from their position outside the store", they weren't able to get that gasp! ohmygod! LCD TV for $200 off, so they figure a cool $2 million should allow them to get any TV they want... even if it's not on sale!
He said his clients and others who were at the scene contend that the police "were there ... saw what was happening, and they left."Really? So maybe they should sue the police, too!
Maybe Wal-Mart is partially at fault. Who would have thought a business would need full-blown riot control on Black Friday? Maybe the videotape should be investigated and these two asswipes can sue everyone who "carried" them outside the store. If they'd do that, though, they'd probably have to settle for buying a much smaller TV with their lawsuit winnings.
And maybe on their way home from Wal-Mart that day those guys should have stopped at the McDonald's drive-thru and got themselves a nice, hot cup of coffee.
I guess for some, thankfulness for being alive isn't enough.
I usually stay away from blogging about current events, but...
Regarding Jdimytai Damour, the Wal-Mart Employee who got trampled to death yesterday after opening the doors...
"This incident was avoidable," said Bruce Both, President of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500. "Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?" asked President Both. "This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart. UFCW Local 1500 will demand a full investigation by all levels of Government to ensure both justice for the surviving family members and to ensure the safety of current employees and the general public. This can never be allowed to happen again and those responsible must be held accountable," Both concluded.
I am absolutely no fan of Wal-Mart in any way, shape or form. And sure, there should be some safety measures to protect these types of things from happening. But what about the people? The people who needed to shop right that minute, that they couldn't stop and help someone from getting hurt. The selfish, ignorant, savages (to take a word from that article), who just had to get that flatscreen TV for only 500!, or ohmygod that digital camera for only $69!.
So is Wal-Mart responsible? I'll leave that to the lawyers. But maybe, just maybe, Wal-Mart should offer a class in being a responsible, aware, and courteous human being for the low low price of just $19.95! Sometimes people just disgust me.
My thoughts are with the Damour family.
Is it actually physically possible to have a headache for 15 days? Yup.
It all started on September 17.
I was spending my weekend working on a poster presentation for work. The presentation was on September 28, and I needed one 24"x36" and two 12"x36" posters. I got most of it done, but I needed a couple of photos and images to add to it yet. I wasn't at all stressed about it. As long as I got the files to the printer by the end of the week, all was going to be fine.
Well, Sunday I was checking email when my darling little iMac decided to freeze up. Very unusual - no kernel panic or anything, everything just froze. I had to press the power button to shut down. I let it go for a couple of minutes, then powered back up. While it was starting up, I took Cragar out to pee.
When I got back into my office, the screen was gray with stripes and what looked like a ghost image of the screen when it froze up before. It refused to boot any further. So I did the usual, zapped the PRAM - didn't work. Tried to boot up from the Panther CD to check the disc and repair permissions - didn't work. I finally called AppleCare - the tech had me reset NVRAM (which I already started doing while I was on hold). Did nothing. I finally got it to boot from the Hardware Test CD - after running the test, I got an error code for a bad video card.
Sunday, September 17 was the LAST DAY of my AppleCare warranty. Yes, my computer had the good sense to take a shit while I still had 6 hours of coverage left.
So Apple said they'd ship a new part and schedule me for onsite service. Fantastic. I can still get my files of my hard drive and get them to the printer on time.
Monday morning I got a call from Qualixserv, the onsite repair place, letting me know they received the information from Apple and a technician would be calling me to set up an appointment within 24 to 48 hours.
24 to 48 hours pass - no call. So I call Qualixserv back and ask what's going on. They had the technician call me to give me an update and apparently Apple sent my replacement part to the wrong place. They sent it to Washington, PA, which is CLEAR ACROSS THE STATE FROM ME. He said he'd have the field service location in Washington send it to him, as well as order another part from Apple. Whichever one he got first, he'd be out to replace it.
This is the same technician who helped me out with my previous sagas. I asked him what part they were shipping. Guess what? ANOTHER LOGIC BOARD. This will be logic board #4 in three years.
By Friday, I still hadn't heard a word. I was really getting stressed about getting my presentation done for work. I guess I could have recreated it, but it took me hours of work to do what I already had done. I got home from work early that day, so I decided to give Apple a call. After waiting on hold for 60 minutes (seriously, that's ridiculous), I got someone who didn't know what the hell was going on, either. I'm trying to tell her Apple shipped the part to the wrong place, she's asking me where it should go, and I'm telling her, "I don't know where the hell it's supposed to go!". She let out a sigh of impatience and then I lost it. I told her, "All I'm trying to do is get my computer fixed. I'm in the middle here. All I know is Apple said they sent it on Sunday night, the repair place doesn't have it today - 5 days later. I don't give a crap where the hell it is now, but I want a part at my house on Monday morning and I want my computer fixed."
Seriously, if she was sitting in front of me, I would have hit her.
So I get a call from Apple guy Rodney later, telling me they're going to get this all worked out. I told him it wouldn't be such a big deal, but this is the fourth time I've needed a logic board in three years! That's insane! I told him again I needed it fixed Monday (which was 3 days before my presentation). Later that night, I got a call from Qualixserv chick Sarah and she told me Apple shipped another logic board Friday. The times were a bit screwy - I talked to Rodney around 5:30 but she got the request for another part at 3:50. Hmmmm, strange. But she said it's shipping DHL and I can call back later for the weigh bill information. I wanted to make sure it was shipping to the right place!
I tried calling ALL WEEKEND LONG, and there was no weigh bill information. I had no idea what was going on. Finally, Monday at around 12:30PM, I got a tracking number from Apple. I asked Dave's mom to go to DHL online and see where it was, and it was in Reading. Great, at least it's in the proper location. I called t