Category: Uncategorized

Read this loud and clear: Don’t go to Pep Boys for an oil change. It took them 3 fucking hours to do it, even though I had an appointment for them to do it at 2pm.

My complaint to the BBB:

At 11:00 AM on June 26, 2001, I arrived at the Pep Boys at 487 S. Broadway in Denver, CO, looking to get my car’s oil changed. They told me it would be a 2 hour wait, so I asked if I could make an appointment, figuring ‘appointment’ meant I could come in at the time specified and receive the oil change service. They told me I could and we set an appointment up for 2:00 PM, same day. As 2pm rolled around, I found I was busy working in my home office, and asked that my wife go instead. She did. And didn’t get home until 5pm, exasperated and upset. She told me that we were never going to Pep Boys again. She told me that there wasn’t even anyone at the service desk when she arrived, and there continued to be no one there for at least 25 minutes. Our appointment was for 2pm, and it was now 2:30pm. Eventually, the car got the oil changed, and she came home. It took her 3 hours. Upset about this and that she paid full-price for the service, I called the manager of this particular Pep Boys and asked for her to do something about the fact that we were both upset with Pep Boys’ sub-par service. She resonded that their ‘appointments’ did guarantee service for the time specified, merely that you could get in line for service when your appointment came up. This enraged me, as I understand the term ‘appointment’ to mean that one would receive service at the agreed-upon time, not stand around and wait for it starting at that time. She apologized for the fact that the establishement was ‘busy,’ but did not once apologize for my being upset and for their lack of decent service and communication to my wife that it was still going to take 3 hours from our appointed time. Had she known that, she would have gone someplace else, and probably would have received better service. I am UTTERLY unhappy with the fact that we paid full-price for this service, and I am completely positive of my choice to never step foot near another Pep Boys again.

I refuse to simply accept that service this bad is okay. It is not.

Okay, so now at MapQuest not only can you get a map of a specific location (as always), but now you can get a TerraServer-like aerial photo of it. Just click the ‘Aerial Photo’ tab next to the Street Map tab on the map. Weird. Here’s my house. And this is the Apple campus… At least, the big circle is… try and guess what the small one is…. 🙂

Today I decided to read the Denver Post to see what’s up and found out that White Spot, a local 24-hour coffee shop, is closing after 40 years.
White Spot will be torn down and replaced with a 15-story condominium and stores.
Well, I guess we won’t be seeing White Spot again upon our return to Denver someday.

And no more plastic wrap in the gravy for 808. Yum!

Since I don’t a) gloat that much, or b) have a forum other than this in which to gloat, you all get to hear the news. I am seeing Radiohead on Wednesday in San Francisco. I’m driving up tomorrow (from San Diego). From all accounts, these tickets are rather hard to come across, and yet my friends seem to have luck when it matters. I’m very excited.

This year started out sucky, but so far it’s getting much much better.

Okay. It’s gone on long enough. Now, I know that there’s a little eCafeNet link on the sidebar, but I bet you haven’t clicked it. I think it’s about time that we acknowledge and thank 808 (aka Tai) for his wonderful generosity for hosting Alternate on his server, via his (and Michelle’s) eCafeNetwork. We get decent traffic here, and never once has he bitched that I don’t pay for it. 🙂 It’s his site, too, but I think it’s worth mentioning that eCafe has great hosting at a great price (not for free like Alternate, but good enough). So here’s that link again, in case you didn’t click it the first time.

Okay, so I’m happily drinking my Red Bull this afternoon, basking in the warm glow of caffeine and whatever else it has in it, when I remembered something: When I was a kid, every now and then, we’d get our hands on a crazy citrus-drink called ‘Super-Socco.’ It was in a silver can, not unlike Red Bull, with pictures of soccer players all over it. Does anyone else remember this? It had a really really sour citrus-y taste, which I realized is kinda what Red Bull tastes like, only not really. Am I a freak here, or does anyone else know what I’m talking about?

I think I just discovered something: I really hate the term ‘just so you know.’ What it’s basically saying is: ‘I think you’re a total moron, and that you will never figure this out on your own, so I’m going to tell you this out of the blue.’ It’s a very simple statement…’ I’m going on vacation, just so you know.’ But it’s even worse when it’s its own sentence…

“Before you get that approved, it needs to go through me. Just so you know.”

Grr. Makes me mad. And by the way, Cats are from Mars. Indisputable evidence. Just so you know.

Today, Kottke waxes philosophical about how great the internet is. It’s a nice read. Also, he mentions Sigur Ros, the really nifty Icelandic band (?) that I suggest you check out. Only not from our server, as you’ll see when he posted his MP3 to find out who the band was, his bytes/second usage skyrocketed.

So there’s a new poll up. Vote if you feel like it, vote if you don’t.

The. New. Computer. Arrived. Today.