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Because “All pet posts, all the time” is beginning to sound better and better…
Have I mentioned recently that I really really love GoComics.com? For $12 a year, I get to read Rubes and Ballard Street and Doonesbury and Non Sequitor every morning, as well as some of my favorite editorial cartoonists (Danziger, Rall, Toles), and I never run the risk of accidentally stumbling over a Mallard Fillmore strip to spoil the mood. Web life self-segregation, fvck yeah!
At least we’re supposed to get some sun this weekend. We’ve had exactly 3 sunny days in the entire month of June, and my tomatoes are lush with blossoms but they won’t set fruit. How do your gardens grow?
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asiangrrlMN
Thanks, Anne Laurie, for the shiny new thread. I used to visit GoComics.com back when it was ucomics.com (I think), but the only comic I like is Boondocks, and he hasn’t penned a new one in years.
I don’t garden, so I can’t answer that question. All I know is that I’m excited that it’s only four months until snow season!
Where my bitchez at?
Steeplejack
Just passing through on my way to bed. I watched Superman Returns off the DVR. Ugh. Did not like. I can’t believe it was so overhyped. The good news is that I got back three hours of free space on the DVR. So there’s that.
Mañana.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Hi! Bye! Night!
Open question to any IT geeks out there: Is it really so hard to treat a customer like a human being? I talked to two techs today (same company) and while the first one was very nice and polite, the second was a huge asshole. So much an asshole, I will not buy from this company again. I thought what he told me was shitty, but it was his attitude which really set me off. I know they get a lot of dicks in return, but if I’m not being a jerk, why be preemptively dickish?
Something Fabulous
I also am so excited about the new guest doggie! Been following those posts all day and so wonder how it’s all going to turn out. Rosalita looks so much like my childhood pooch (although with just a touch more… padding) that she has pulled all my heartstrings today.
Martin
Pretty well. Planted the tomatoes in Feb. Sunny and 72 every day. I’ve got an apple tree next to my lemons. Y’all are taking the hard road.
Martin
@asiangrrlMN: Customer support costs. Consumers don’t like to pay for tech, and they get shitty support in return. Such is the way of all markets, unfortunately.
Mark S.
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, that movie sucked pretty hard. I thought Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor might make up for the cast of Dawson’s Creek playing the other leads, but no, it still sucked.
asiangrrlMN
@Martin: Yeah, I know. Still, I paid for my warranty, and I would pay extra for supportive and polite tech. I’m spoiled, I know, because my brother is my first go-to in all matters tech (and I’m used to his brusque demeanor), but there are some things when I have to go straight to the company. And then, it’s just a fucking crapshoot.
Steeplejack
@Mark S.:
Okay, haven’t quite gone to bed yet.
Kate Bosworth did nothing for me as Lois Lane, and I kept getting hung up on the cheesy “Superman is floating in midair as opposed to actually flying” effect. And a recurring thing that drove me nuts: numerous scenes where Superman was descending from the sky feet first, and instead of his cape streaming up from his shoulders into the sky it was still in “draped down” mode but daintily fluttering to show that wind was passing over it. Puh-leeze.
I felt sorry for Parker Posey at first, and then I didn’t when I saw how awful she was. Must have been a rent move. “Ms. Posey, as your accountant I am in no position to advise you on which roles to accept, but I must remind you that the Malibu beach house will not pay for itself.”
Must stop. I’m getting upset all over again just replaying the movie in my mind. What a load. I think I got suckered in because the on-screen guide, which is usually not so completely inaccurate, gave it three or four stars.
Something Fabulous
I would love to stay up and see this turn into one of those late night song posting extravaganzas, but I MUST go to bed, in order to get up early and finish writing this report! Feel the insomnia coming on again– I’m afraid I am not disciplined enough to work from home like this! Ugh. Perhaps a little glass of wine and turn the computer off. Wish me luck. Good night all!
asiangrrlMN
@Something Fabulous: Good luck! We may still be at it when you get up. Night.
Yutsano
12 hour shift. Exhausted doesn’t even begin to cover it. The only saving grace was the last three hours I didn’t have to talk to any
idiotscustomers. Part of what I do is so mind-numbing that I have to basically shut off areas of my brain in order to save my sanity. Ah well, I’m home now and tomorrow’s Friday.@asiangrrlMN: My guess, off the top of my head, is self-entitled jerk who feels like he’s already overexplaining to you so you’ve been judged not worth his time. That being said, if you run into this again, ask to speak to a supervisor IMMEDIATELY. Then inform the supervisor that you’re never purchasing the product again and the exact reason why. Then state that you expect that the individual you just spoke to had better receive a coaching or a dressing down for how you were treated, then set an expectation with the supervisor for a follow-up call. If they don’t call you, call them, tell them you cannot be saved and you will also ensure that everyone you know will also terminate their relationship with them, then move on with your life. That will tell you how seriously they take customer relations in their company. And none of this is unreasonable if you get bad service anywhere. Trust me, this is what I do.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Aw, I’m sorry you’re so stressed and had such a long day. I was beginning to wonder if you would just skip checking in tonight. I wouldn’t have blamed you.
Your advice is similar to the advice of my bro. I will have to utilize in the future, but I am not very good at that kind of standing up for myself. The second guy, I could tell immediately, was just an asshole in general, and I don’t deal well with assholes. Plus, he made me feel very stupid. I don’t like that feeling, either. So, in the end, my brother is gonna fix the problem for me, at a fraction of the cost, but I should be getting it done free by the company if they hadn’t weaseled out on my warranty.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Nah, I’m doing a short unwind before I go pass out. What better place to do so than on my wifey’s beautifully inked pillows? :) Plus the more I do things like this the more I realize I’m doing the right thing by leaving. It’s just solidifying that decision more and more. Except I do work with some awesome people.
The other point I meant to make was to compliment the first representative you had, preferably before you lit into the other one. It’s always good when complaining to also give a positive note to those that deserve praise, that way you come off as more reasonable and not just a flaming bitcher. It gives your concerns a more solid footing, and the supe will take you more seriously after that. Trust me bitching and doing nothing else gets pretty much ignored in my line of work. I shut down a guy who was doing that tonight, hopefully I knocked some sense into him.
I know I’m tired cause I know I had another point here. I’m just glad it was a slow news day overall.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Well, my inked pillows welcome you at any time to lay your weary head on them and rest a bit.
Your work: Yeah. I think it’s cool that you are pretty resolved and relieved to be getting out of there.
Customer service: You are so right. It’s important to point out the good service, too. My style would not be to bitch but to just point out the facts. I know customer service is a heinous job, so I am willing to cut considerable slack.
Hope you get some sleep. I am probably going to sack out soon. For everyone, a beautiful night-time melody. Night.
robertdsc
I miss those days during last year’s Medicare book rush. I lost 10 pounds from all the sweat.
Starfish
@asiangrrlMN: Aaron McGruder has been focusing on the cartoon I guess. I liked the first season of the cartoon better than the current one. The humor has gotten repetitive and stale. I liked his comics better.
Yutsano
@robertdsc: I look at it this way: when I roll out of there tomorrow at my usual time, if I haven’t killed anyone or lost us half of our clients, I’ll be doing all right then. Plus I’m fortunate in that I don’t do this often, which is probably a positive because otherwise I’d have to take it out on someone, and it wouldn’t be pretty. At least I’ve lost about 30 pounds since I started working there, so it does have its positives.
@Starfish: McGruder is dipping into the Velveeta hardcore on some of his jokes. Most important thing I’ve noticed this season (and my biggest complaint) is Not. Enough. Huey. It’s all been centered around Grandpa or Riley so far. Huey only had one episode and it was fine until the DragonBall Z ending. Otherwise he’s been a wallflower. STOP OPPRESSING HUEY FREEMAN!!
robertdsc
All I can say is thank the Infinite for video games, lol.
bedtime. Have a good day, everyone.
ReggieH
Do you get “Pearls Before Swine”? That one is Hilarious.
tesslibrarian
Garden is coming in fairly well, but I had a brandywine give up the ghost this week. It’s in the sunniest part of the sunniest bed, and perhaps, despite lots of watering, this week of 95-degree weather was more than it could take.
I also have knee-high volunteer tomatoes coming up from around the beds from last year’s 16′ x 6′ matt’s wild cherry tomato. Those really are foolproof, grow like mad, and are so delicious, I feel bad pulling them as weeds.
stuckinred
My dog, Bodhisattva agrees with this cartoon!
ChrisS
Everything is up, the radishes are ravishing and the lettuces are showing their color. Because we start the tomatoes & peppers inside here in the backwoods of the rustbelt, I lost one ‘mater plant during the transplant, but everything else took and are flowering up. Have a couple of little fruits swelling up and the peppers are flowering all over. The pears are growing and I think I’ll net about a gallon or so of sweet black raspberries from my small clump of briars.
Looking good so far.
satby
@asiangrrlMN:
The advice upthread to compliment and then complain will be effective; but as an IT geek (and I manage helpdesk work) myself I have to point out that a lot (a real lot) of support people are in IT because they relate better to machines than to people. Believe me, his supervisors already know the guy has lousy CS skills, unless you happened to get someone on his worst day eveh. The front line help desk people get chosen (hopefully) for customer service skills but every level above that you run a greater risk of hitting the semi-autistic geek who just can’t talk well to people but is brilliant at the other side of his job. Smart managers try to keep them hidden from clients, but you can’t always.
Not that you shouldn’t complain, you should, but just to let you know it’s not you personally at all.
frankdawg
@ReggieH:
Love PBS! They carry it on comics.doc too. I go there but freeload. You can set up your own comics page with the stuff you want to see. No Family Circus!
Also, for an interesting take on the comic page try the comic curmudgeon http://joshreads.com/
often times its better than the comics themselves.
Xboxershorts
I kinda like John Cole’s cartoons
http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/johncole/
WereBear
@frankdawg: Love the Comic Curmudgeon. The Mary Worth episodes especially.
I think we discussed here the newspaper syndrome wherein one complaint will get a strip put back in the paper. Nice for the cartoonist; not for the readers.
anticontrarian
you must live in seattle, too.
cleek
@satby:
let’s play spot the IT consultant !
R-Jud
I just picked a half-pound of strawberries out of my garden and am letting the kid eat a few. There are more getting ready to ripen: I see jam and ice cream in our futures. Raspberries look good, we’ve been eating salad veggies for a few weeks now, and I am in hyper herb harvesting mode.
Comics: I admit that I enjoy the soap-opera schlock of 9 Chickweed Lane and Pibgorn, both by the same artist. Other than that I really only read Doonesbury anymore.
WereBear
Therein was once my profession: I know enough code, and have enough people skills, to be an excellent liasion between engineering and marketing.
Back when businesses cared.
harlana peppper
I enjoyed the video of Guesly and Lily so much – Lily has come into her own and I feel like I have watched her blossom under all that loving care
satby
@cleek:
ROTFLMAO! So true. So Typical, though with the younger ones it’s industrials and tats.
NobodySpecial
My cat is learning. She doesn’t like the eye medicine, but now she bugs me in the morning until I give it to her. Of course, it’s only me who can give it to her – they get cranky when they turn 21.
Skepticat
I agree that gocomics.com is great, but I’m not interested in paying for the privilege of commenting. I want only to view and laugh. Though if forced, I might pay for Non Sequitur. Have you noticed that Ann Telnaes has animated versions now?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/anntelnaes/
Skepticat
Too funny. The Impolitic is saying “And on a totally unrelated note, it looks like John Cole has a new dog.”
Svensker
This is really off the wall but have any of you run into wingers who have a secret language? I’m not kidding. A friend of a FB friend is really off the wall, a Beckian “Obamarxist is going to put Sharia on us all!” type and he and a couple of his similarly insane buddies are speaking in a secret code/language. They are in their 50s, normal married guys with jobs and kids going to college. Anyone heard of this?
Randy P
Well, speaking of pets and comics, I often love Get Fuzzy (there’s something inherently funny about that cat with the ears perpetually down in the angry position) though Conley gets irritating when he gets political. I remember when he kept throwing in random unfunny French-people-are-cowards “jokes”. I’d roll my eyes and wait and see if the next day he had an actual joke.
Garden? I’m kind of Darwinian about gardening. If anything survives the neglect of growing season, it’ll be a miracle. It’s weird I’m that way, considering I’m a pretty dedicated composter. Our weekly trash load is so small we can easily skip a couple of weeks and still not fill the trash can. Anyway, this year’s current survivors are 4-5 zucchini plants, which still seem to be thriving, but in the past we’ve generally lost our whole crop to some sort of borer that gets in the stalk and kills the growing vegetable. So I guess I’m expecting to see that again and not really anticipating eating any zucchini.
asiangrrlMN
@Starfish: I will have to check it out. I haven’t watched it (no cable and fear that it would suck). I will put it on my Netflix Queue tout de suite.
@Yutsano: HUEY! He’s the best. I wrote a blog entry on how he reminds me of…me.
@satby: Oh, I know it wasn’t personal. He wasn’t even really a proper IT tech. He was just a jackass. Still, they should not let him have any contact with customers. I am very very polite to customer service, and he pissed me off in two seconds.