A chainsaw is better for your computer than Best Buy's "Geek Squad"

Before having my computer fixed by another company, I went to Best Buy to back up my data, based on the extremely foolish assumption they could handle such a simple task with a sliver of competency. Boy oh boy, was I wrong.

Since my computer was just fixed last week (fortunately by Radio Shack instead of Best Buy) I took my laptop back into Best Buy on Saturday and told them to put the data back on. They agreed, so I signed for it and went back this afternoon to retrieve (what I thought was) my computer with its data reloaded.

When I came back, I started to realize there was something funny about my computer. First, there was no new data on it. Second, the new stuff I had re-downloaded after getting it fixed was also gone. So I called Best Buy to ask where the hell all my data was.

The first time I called, I was put on hold for over 40 minutes. I hung up and called back again, this time greeted by an arrogant jackass who acted as if I was being impatient. "We're working on it, and will call you back," he said.

Needless to say, they never called back. After a few hours I tried calling back again and again, never getting ahold of everyone. Finally, I went back to the store around 8 p.m. and oh boy, was I PISSED.

It took nearly 20 minutes for the Geek Squad imbecile to help me, as he was busy watching sports (Customers? In a customer service area? Whoulda thunk?). By the time he noticed I was there, there were several other angry customers waiting in line.

"I told you guys to re-upload my data. Not only is it not there, but all the other stuff I had on my computer is gone too." The guy looked over the store notes then said there must have been a so-called miscommunication. Instead of re-uploading my data, the geniuses had uploaded a new operating system!

That's right: they confused "back up my data" with "erase my data and make sure I can never get it back."

After about half an hour of telling off the managers, the cheapasses finally gave me a refund. (Refund!? They OWE ME money!)

Next time I have a computer problem, I'd take a chainsaw to it before I'd go to Best Buy.

Cork's insane weekend

Wow, did I ever have a crazy weekend. The worst case scenario of every imaginable worst case scenario!

It all started on Saturday night when I drove with three friends to a city over 50 miles away for a supposedly really good party. (The party, as it turned out, was pretty average.) When we were ready to leave, my friend's car wouldn't start. It was dead beyond repair. Not just a low battery, but completely shot. We tried bump starting it and a bunch of other stuff and none of it worked. The cherry on the top of this crap cake was that it was hailing and raining like crazy. The lightning was nonstop. One of the worst storms I've seen in some time.

Not sure what to do, I decided to call my brother to see if he could come pick us up (who also lives 50 miles away). My brother was drunk off his ass, but said he was coming and would have one of his friends drive.

By the time they finally showed up it was almost four in the morning. And they arrived just in time to see a huge fight breaking out in the middle of the street between two of my friends and several other people who were at the party. It started with a lot of cursing and trash talking, then moved on to pushing, shoving and yelling threats. Un-friggin'-real.

To make matters worse, there were four of us but only two seats in the car when it arrived (my brother came with two friends, while he was blacked out in the backseat). We eventually had everyone just jump in on each others laps and drive a few blocks away, to escape the insane fighting.

Then we realized there simply weren't enough seats. My brother's friend shrieked that she couldn't drive this way (3 people in the front, 5 in the back) without getting pulled over. To make matters worse, my brother was being a drunk, uncooperative asshole, and got in a fight (only verbal thank god) with my friend.

Finally, my friend and I got out of the car and said we would just stay stranded in this city until morning so they could go home. So we were now homeless in some bizarre city in the middle of the night! LOL! And without any plan whatsoever.

We wandered aimlessly, wondering if there was some place we could sleep outdoors (on a park bench or under a tree or something). Unfortunately everything was sopping wet, and we didn't want to be woken up by police or thrown in detox.

We came across a 7-11 at around five in the morning. I walked in and asked if there were any hotels around. The clerk told us there were some a few blocks away, but warned that we were in a dangerous area "this time of night."

We found the block of hotels, but most of them were either full or closed. Finally we found one that would accept us, and got just a few hours of sleep before having to wake up and check out.

In the morning we ate breakfast at a diner, while I called one of my best friends to come get us. He was happy to do so.

Such is the typical weekend in my world.

My next door neighbors are the biggest assholes on the planet

The people in the apartment next door to me have to be the biggest dicks I've ever had for neighbors in my life. They blast their loud, blaring techno music up as far as it can possibly go, for absolutely no reason except to just be obnoxious. And I'm not just talking about weekend nights, but all nights--sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m. And not just at night, but early in the morning too. This morning, they started blasting their music at 7 a.m. They're unemployed (I'm assuming), so what do they care?

At the same time, they stand right outside and chain-smoke like crazy. The nonstop music and smoke means I can't have my window open to get fresh air, which means I'm boiling like crazy this summer (I have fans, but no air conditioning). I can't sleep or even hear myself think. If I were to complain (this is supposed to be a quiet apartment complex), I have no doubt they would get pwned. Of course, it would be blatantly obvious that I was the one who complained, since I live next door. And that would just be awkward.

I can't wait til I'm out of this hell-hole. Just one more month to go...

Don't Support The Troops!

Some years ago I gave my expression to my own feeling – anti-patriotic feeling, it will doubtless be called – in a somewhat startling way. It was at the time of the second Afghan war, when, in pursuance of what were thought to be “our interests,” we were invading Afghanistan. News had come that some of our troops were in danger. At the Athenæum Club a well-known military man – then a captain but now a general – drew my attention to a telegram containing this news, and read it to me in a manner implying the belief that I should share his anxiety. I astounded him by replying – “When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves."
- Herbert Spencer

We get the usual "support the troops" nonsense, even from the antiwar types and especially on Veterans Day:

As a life-long pacifist, I hate war. Detest violence of any sort.

Still, it is not the soldiers who decide to go to war, they do what they are told, whether volunteer or conscripted.
DemConWatch

Hey, pacifist jackass, go fuck yourself! I'm tired of all the crap that pours out of the mouths of leftist idiots like diarrhea coming out of a sick dogs butthole. Got that, fool? Anybody who calls himself a pacifist (by the most common definition of that word) has already proven a lack of sense so profound as to render anything else they say completely worthless and devoid of logic. Let me make one thing perfectly clear, I AM IN FAVOR OF DEFENSE. If someone attacks me I will NOT lay down the sword ( I will run away to avoid harm to myself or to avoid harming another, always if it's possible) I will fight back and defend myself. If my land is invaded by any, soldiers or otherwise, who seek to subjugate me, my loved ones and neighbors and enslave us, I will take up arms and shoot back at the bastards. What I will not do is have sympathy for those who willingly (WE DO NOT HAVE A DRAFT, DUMBASS!) join the military knowing full well of the history of US intervention abroad and the fact that we have goddamned troops in countries all over the fucking planet. This world empire has NOTHING to do with defending our freedom, as you well know, being anti-war and all. But your dumbass comment is that the troops don't decide to go to war. Question, Dumbass: did the soldiers not DECIDE to join and then go through training to learn how to kill "the enemy"? Did the poor innocent soldiers never think they might be sent to war sometime in the future, after they joined? And what about all those recruited AFTER the war in Iraq started??? Did they have no clue they might be sent there? They joined knowing they were involving themselves with an evil criminal organization (the US military) and therefore they are without any excuse, and excuse me if I have no sympathy for them.

This country has not had a truly defensive war since the War of 1812. The so-called Civil War (more properly referred to as the War Between the States) was also a war of aggression, by the North against the South, so maybe we can include the Confederacy as fighting a defensive war as well, but that still only takes us to 1865. The "Good War", WWII? Read Buchanan's Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World.

Read the asinine comments to the above linked post of our pacifist. Inane, illogical bullshit! Like this: our war time veterans should have our lifelong gratitude and we should demonstrate it with post-service support. They deserve no such thing, and will never receive it from me or any compassionate person. No mercy for those who cause evil! No tax dollars (socialism) for war whores! No "benefits", no free health care, no nothing! Not with my money, buddy! Give to them out of your paycheck if you want, but don't steal my hard earned income to redistribute to some government employee leech (by the way, funny how "conservatives" so dislike Federal workers and their benefits, except when they wear a military uniform).

Another question: If these jerks you love so much had not signed up for "service" would this war we currently find our nation in have been possible? If they hadn't willingly signed on the dotted line, there would be no pawns for the generals to order around, no brainwashed hired killers for the decider-in-chief to send to kill and bomb and maim and destroy thousands of innocent children and their homes and families. I'll save my empathy for the victims of our aggression, thank you very much.

There is one thing you can do for those who join and then repent of their bad decision. Lobby to make military "service" like any other job, with the right to quit whenever you want. Pushing for such a change really would be supporting the troops, and would leave no room to excuse those who kill in our country's name.