The Constant Complainer

I apologize for being offline for a few days.  I was traveling for work and had a hectic schedule.  But I’m back and have some content to catch-up on.

In addition to a few posts I’m working on, Guest Posts have been submitted and are being queued up for Jen, Gina, Leo Nevoli, Neo Con Don and Mike N.  Thus, it should be a fun rest of the week!

In the meantime, I took the below-picture at a local Friendly’s restaurant.  This is a true picture - no photoshopping.

Was it an intentional play on words or a true error on behalf of the restaurant?  You be the judge…

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something happen and thought to myself, “I wish I had a picture of that for the blog.”  I don’t intentionally want to carry my phone out with the camera on all the time - I mean; it’s not that big of a deal.  But I did go so far as to practice taking my blackberry out of its holster very quickly and hitting the camera button.  Haha!

With that being said, I’m going to start a new category on here.  It will be called “Cell Shots” and I’ll periodically post mine or ones that are sent to me.  And then we can comment on them.

You probably won’t believe the story behind today’s pictures.  For years I’ve heard that there is a guy who comes onto our company’s property (after hours) and steals the used cigarettes.  Yes, that’s right - he takes old cigarettes that have already been smoked and smokes whatever is left on them.  But for as long as I’ve worked here, and no matter when I was at the office, I’ve never seen him.  That is - until yesterday.

I was in the break room and saw this guy walk up to one of our smoke stacks (plastic container with a metal bucket inside that is used to safely discard cigarettes), remove the lid and start taking the used cigarettes.  He put some in his shirt pocket and had the rest in his hand.

The way I look at it, there could be three reasons for this guys behavior.

• Addiction to nicotine
• Lack of money to buy cigarettes
• He just doesn’t care

I don’t know about you, but I think what he’s doing is absolutely disgusting…

The e-mails I get from readers are the best.  Most of the time, they’re complimentary.  Once in a while, I’ll receive a nasty-gram.  But regardless, I read each and every one.

Melissa sent the below-message.  We corresponded and I decided to publish it.  She works in sales, although she used to work in human resources - which is important to know for the story.

I personally believe in justice and the “what goes around comes around” theory.  I don’t necessarily believe in kicking someone when they’re down, but I’m not opposed to a little mean-spirited snickering on occasion.  The person who called Melissa may be a recipient of that in this case…  You read her complaint the be the judge.  Without further adieu, here’s Melissa…

So I got a call from an HR person today (and this isn’t the first time it’s happened but I never forget the people).  They were recently let go from their company.  When I recreated myself and moved into a sales position, I reached out to a number of folks that used to call me and/or my employer at the time for help with HR questions.  These same people didn’t even have the decency to return my call and say they were not interested in my services, they simply ignored me.

Now that the tables are turned, I am blown away that these same individuals have the audacity to ask me for help. It reminded me of a fable I recently heard about a mouse.

There was this mouse, and he lived in a house.  Outside his hole, the owner placed a mousetrap inside a bag with some peanut butter.  The mouse was terribly frightened.  He carefully moved passed the bag to go outside to the farm for help.

He went to the chicken and asked for some help, but the chicken said, “That’s not a worry for me” as he clucked away.  Still afraid to return, the mouse went to the pig.  The pig replied, “I’m too busy” and he went about his business.  The mouse approached the cow. The cow said “Mooove away little mouse, I will not help you.”

Still frightened and now disappointed, the mouse returned to his hole and tried to fall asleep.  A few hours later he heard a SNAP!  The owner of the house quickly came out and grabbed the bag but was surprised when it was not a mouse that she caught, but a poisonous snake.  You see the snake bit her and she became so sick that she was forced into bed for weeks.

Without any work for food, the family needed soup to make her feel better…Cluck, cluck.

Weeks passed and still she became weaker…Oink, Oink

After her passing, the family prepared for the funeral and needed yet more food…You can see how this story is MOOving along.

The next time an individual reaches out to you, remember this fable.  The tables might not always be turned in your favor. People will be more willing to help you, even if you weren’t in a position to help them when they needed it, because you treated them with dignity and respect.  The next time you have someone reach out to you asking if they may be of service to you, at least have the decency to say “no thank you”.

My four-year-old answered the phone last night and said, “Daddy, it’s for you.”  Below is the gist of my five-minute conversation with the caller:

Solicitor:  Is this Mr. Zkghwkfhalfie (they slaughter my last name)?

Me:  Yes.

Solicitor:  I’m calling because you entered a contest to win either a new car or $25,000 (keep in mind that I don’t remember entering the contest - so either one of my buddies entered me or it’s a scam).

Me:  Uh-huh.

Solicitor:  Congratulations, you’re a semi-finalist.

Me:  Uh-huh.

Solicitor:  All we need to do is verify some information.  Is your address still _____?  And are you still married?

Me:  Yes and yes.

Solicitor:  OK, well, all we need to do is get you scheduled for your tour.

Me:  Tour?

Solicitor:  Yes, in order to get your key (that may open the doors to your new car), you and your wife must take a tour of the _____ resort.

Me:  I’ve heard of it, but that’s about two hours from my house.

Solicitor:  Also, if you come in for the tour, you are guaranteed to receive two of the following five items: TV, camcorder, digital camera, $500 or a Vegas/Florida vacation.  I repeat; you will get two of those five items just for showing up and taking the tour.

Me:  Sounds too good to be true (inner voice prompts me to hang-up).  Listen, I’m busy and you’ll have to call me back.

After I hung up, I told my wife about the free gifts and that I should consider pushing them on their promotion.  Meaning - I have a phone recording device, so when they call back, I’m going to record it and post it on here.  And I might just go for the tour and see what happens…

My wife said, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”  I think she’s right.  What do you think?

The winner of Friday’s contest was Keg of Wisdom.  Congratulations!  They will receive a $50 American Express gift card and a t-shirt courtesy of The Constant Complainer.

I saw Kat and Jenny run a number of contests on their blogs and I’m glad I decided to try it.  It was a lot of fun and the comments were great.

So leave a comment, tell us what’s up, congratulate Keg of Wisdom, tell us how your weekend was, tell us about your Father’s Day, etc.  My wife and daughter bought me a basketball hoop - which I very much wanted.  Game on!

P.S.  I hate dumb TV commercials.  Sometimes I wonder how some of these commercials actually get approved.  I guess I’m glad they aren’t asking my opinion on these beforehand.  Anyway, here is a recent 15 -second commercial I saw.  I hate “Just for Men” commercials (for grey hair).  The only one worse than this one is the job interview one - where the daughter hands her dad the “box” before his job interview (I couldn’t find that one online).

P.S.S.  Does Perez Hilton just need some attention or what?  You can view the MTV story here.

In addition to this week’s award, I just wanted to mention a few other things…

First, if you haven’t yet commented on the “A Life vs. 30 Days” post, make sure you do so today.  I’m running a contest where anyone commenting on that post will be entered to win a $50 American Express Gift Card and a The Constant Complainer t-shirt.  The winner will be announced tomorrow morning.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words and congratulations for reaching our first anniversary.  Running this blog has been a lot of fun and I hope this is only the beginning.

Now for our award!  Because of his sheer stupidity, rather than accepting nominations, I decided to award Chad Johnson (of the Cincinnati Bengals) the “Moron of the Week Award” for this week.

Johnson legally changed his name to “Ocho Cinco” last year.  His jersey number is 85.  He wanted the Spanish text placed on the back of his jersey, instead of his last name.  But he screwed up.  First, 85 in Spanish is not “Ocho Cinco” - it is “Ochenta y Cinco.”  Second, his formal name change application appears as “Ochocinco” so that’s how it will now appear on his jersey…  You can view the Sports Illustrated story here.

Speaking of the “Moron of the Week Award” - feel free to comment below and nominate people or stories for next week…

This post officially kicks of the celebration of the one year anniversary of The Constant Complainer.  Along the way, we’ll be doing some celebratory give-a-ways, starting now.  Anyone commenting on this post before Friday the 19^th will be entered to win a $50 American Express Gift Card and a The Constant Complainer t-shirt.  There will be more on our first year in upcoming posts…

Anyway, I have a problem with the fact that Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth received only 30 days in jail for killing a pedestrian while drunk driving in Florida.  You can view the Sports Illustrated story here.  Stallworth was on the road early in the morning, hit and killed Mario Reyes (who had just finished his construction job).  Most reports I read said that Stallworth immediately stopped, called 911, admitted to hitting Reyes, was extremely cooperative with authorities and complied with the field sobriety testing (his blood alcohol content was .126).  According to the Associated Press, in addition to the jail time, “Stallworth must undergo drug and alcohol testing, will have a lifetime driver’s license suspension and must perform 1,000 hours of community service.”  Stallworth also reached a confidential financial settlement with Reyes’ family.  Of course he did!!!  The short period of incarceration was attributed to Stallworth’s complete cooperation during the investigation and the wishes of Reyes’ family to put the incident behind them.

All I have to say about Donte Stallworth is that if I had done this and not him, and if I couldn’t pay the family off like he did, I’d be going to jail for a lot longer than 30 days.  He’ll still make his millions and basically get away with taking a life, even though he’s pledged to carry on the memory of Mario Reyes…

Next is Daniel Petric.  He is a 17-year-old Ohio teen who shot and killed his mother and wounded his father (who just so happens to be a minister).  You can view the Yahoo! News story here.  Petric was obsessed with the video game “Halo 3.”  According to the Associated Press, “the defense claimed his age and addiction to the game made him less responsible.”  Apparently his parents had taken the game away from him shortly before the shooting. 

Petric received 23 years to life in prison for killing his mother.  I think he should have received life in prison without the possibility of parole.  And I think his defense argument could start a fairly interesting debate.  I think it is BS and that the judge bought it hook, line and sinker.  This kid gets angry because his parents took away the video game he was obsessed with, so he shoots them.  OK, so all of you normal people out there (like me) who used to play “Contra” on the Nintendo 64 or “Grand Theft Auto - Vice City” on the PS2 - I want to hear from you.  It sounds like this guy had been watching the end of “Scream 2″ way too many times.

On another note, I’d like to nominate Chad Johnson, who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals, for our “Moron of the Week Award.”  He legally changed his name to “Ocho Cinco” last year.  His jersey number is 85.  He wanted the Spanish text placed on the back of his jersey, instead of his last name.  However, there are two critical errors with his request.  First, 85 in Spanish is not “Ocho Cinco” - it is “Ochenta y Cinco.”  Second, his formal name change application appears as “Ochocinco” so that’s how it will now appear on his jersey.  Idiot!!!

Remember, comment and you’ll be entered to win a $50 American Express Gift Card and a The Constant Complainer t-shirt…

My wife says I’m injury-prone.  That debatable, but I’ll tell you one thing - whenever sports’ injuries have sidelined me, I’ve trusted my care to the same orthopedic surgeon for years.

Unfortunately, the above-mentioned doctor moved his office.  He is now 45 minutes away.  I mentioned that so you’d better understand my below-dilemma.

I hurt my bicep playing softball (summer recreation league).  I figured it was either a pulled or torn muscle, so I’d need to see an orthopedic surgeon.  With my above-doctor out of the picture, I started looking for a new doctor.

I called my insurance company, several local hospitals and asked around.  Everyone came back with the same answer - a doctor we’ll call Dr. X.  In one case, a woman even said, “He’s world class.”

Anyway, I decided to call Dr. X.  However, he was out of town conducting a training class, so they couldn’t get me on his schedule for a week and a half.  I wasn’t happy, but I waited.  Around this time, a buddy told me that Dr. X was a great doctor, but that every time he visited there, he ended up waiting several hours or ended up having to see the doctor’s physician assistant instead of the doctor.  Admittedly, I started to get nervous.

At my first appointment, I ended up waiting almost two hours to see Dr. X.  And in the end, I couldn’t even see him directly.  As soon as the door to my room opened, in came the physician’s assistant.  My impression became that the doctor only saw major injuries.  Anyway, my x-ray was negative, so an MRI was ordered.

I went to get the MRI and they asked me where the pain was.  I said, “Bicep.”  The employee looked at me like I had three heads.  She said, “Sir, they ordered a shoulder MRI, not one of the bicep.”  As I started to feel my blood pressure rising, she told me that they’d scan as far down the bicep as possible.  What could I say but, “OK.”

I had previously been told to call Dr. X’s office immediately after my MRI, to schedule a follow-up appointment to have the results read.  I called and was told he was now on vacation for two weeks.  I asked if I could see one of his colleagues and was told, “That’s not our policy.”  They told me I could see his physician’s assistant again, which I had no choice but to agree to.  I didn’t want to wait (in pain) for two weeks to find out the verdict.

This morning I arrived for my follow-up appointment, only to wait for an hour and a half in the lobby.  Apparently, the MRI results were never faxed over to Dr. X.  The nurse came out and said, “It’s going to be a while.”  So I sat there and enjoyed hearing the other patients complain of the same.

Luckily, my bicep was fine.  But I wondered when this world class doctor actually sees patients.  From what I have been told and now experienced, he is always training others, in training himself, on vacation or passing patients off to his physician’s assistant.  But yet people continue to refer him.  I just don’t understand that…

On another note, this, along with the proposed Government run health care, really makes me nervous.  And I’m not getting all political, NeoConDon.  LOL.  I’m just saying that you already have to wait to see a doctor these days.  And the insurance companies continue to lower their reimbursement levels.  Do you think my cautionary MRI would have been approved by some call-center-pencil-pusher?  Probably not…  That’s what really scares me…

I often get asked what the keys are to a good blog.  The way I see it, there are three:

• Content
• Visitors
• Comments 

If you can accomplish the above-list, I’d be willing to bet that you have a pretty good blog.  So along those lines, I try to write posts that will not only attract readers, but will generate comments as well.  Of course, some posts do better than others.  And some really surprise me with how popular they turn out to be.  “Date Night Disaster” was an example of the latter.

I wrote “Date Night Disaster” after I ended up missing more than half of a showing of the movie “Revolutionary Road” due to a domestic disturbance that occurred in our row (and the subsequent police investigation).  I mean; this incident made the local police blotter and everything.  Anyway, to this day, that is one of the most viewed posts I’ve ever had on this blog.  Cleveland.com even picked it up and mentioned it.

Before I wrote that post I had a problem with people that text during movies.  When I wrote that post I had a problem with people that text during movies.  And I still have a problem with people that text during movies.

Anyway, speaking of cell phones, I was talking to my buddy and his father-in-law about cell phones and texting, and their implication on society.  It’s sore topic for all of us.  I’ve blogged about everything from cell phone use while driving to constant texting.  They brought up another issue - the lack of social skills most school-age children have these days - because instead of talking to each other, they just text from across the building.

Anyway, going back to “Date Night Disaster” and the guy who was arrested - I called the local police department to follow-up.  All charges were dropped.

Oh, to close the chapter on Leo and Kate, I rented “Revolutionary Road” tonight…

I really enjoyed the “Consumer Power - Part I” post and discussion.  The comments were great and some of the stories were very entertaining.  And I think we all learned never to mess with Jenny Georgio-who.  And if you don’t believe me, check out her recent blog post.  She rocks!!!

Now, when originally writing “Consumer Power - Part I,” that post was supposed to be called “Consumer Power.”  The reason I had to make it a two-part series was because I was waiting to hear back from someone.  You see - I had written a paragraph about people who are in the business of being consumer advocates.  I mean those who do it full time.  I did some research and decided to contact Tim Duffy and ask him for some information.  I came across Tim’s web site a few years ago when I was doing some similar research.  So I figured I’d give him some free publicity and mention his site as a part of my post.

Regarding media requests, Tim’s web site says, “We respond to all inquiries.”  Not that I need his permission to mention his name or web site on my blog, but as a professional courtesy, I reached out to him and told him of my intent along with an e-mail.  He NEVER responded!  And he’s a consumer advocate!  Hello, sir, consumers are getting stronger and fighting back and that’s going to hurt your business, so I was trying to help you.  Maybe that explains why his web site has had the “Wanted Corporate Sponsor” link listed for as long as I can remember.  Anyway, do not recommend Tim Duffy’s site.  That’s what he gets for not responding to me several years ago and again this time - and for having me waste my time to make this a two-part series because he allegedly responds to every inquiry.

On another note, our new friend (that I mentioned in “Consumer Power - Part I“), who billed Verizon for his time while on hold, has been in contact with me.  His consumer advocacy skills are an inspiration to us all.  We’ll definitely hear more from him on this blog moving forward.

Oh, and on a completely different note, I was listening to the radio at home this morning and the lead news story was that an African Supreme Court (in Malawi) ruled that Madonna could adopt a young girl.  Then I got into my car, turned on a different radio station and heard the exact same lead news story.  Let me get something straight - this is not news.  There are two things I just care about which the media obviously does - Madonna adopting more children and Angelina Jolie having more children.  Give me a break…