Wow. I think it is strange that a football game turns into a discussion on religion, but I never heard of hunting down people and killing them because they believe in their religion.
Witnesses to the Oregon bloodshed described Mercer as questioning people at gunpoint about their religious affiliations, and appearing to single out Christians for killing.
It was a class he was taking. Sixteen dead revised; “only” nine.
A place to write it down.
I really like my “local” Walmart (Walmart is mass scale, not a local company). It is small(er) and seldom crowded. Even things like Black Friday and Site to Store work there.
Walmart is an outstanding company. You do not dominate worldwide retailing by accident. They have a lot of advantages–distribution, pricing clout, deep pockets, etc.–and they use them. And they have programs and policies; they do not jerk their customers around.
I think it is a feud between Walmart and Bank of America. Everyone knows that Walmart has been trying to get into banking. So now they are making it difficult to shop with BoA credit cards. Just kidding.
Last week I bought a few items, grass seed, vitamins, and French bread. I like Walmart French bread, especially when it is half price. I went to check out and my credit card did not work. It has both a chip and a strip, get it?, and for some time I have had to hide it from cashiers at Walmart; the self check-out is a perfect way. Just swipe the strip before they can see it and it will work. If not, they will start manhandling it and I will get upset. I digress. Somewhere in this whole thing I learned that they converted to chip only on 9/1.
I am not one of those people who enjoys hanging-out at Walmart. I had a few items and I wanted to get out of there. The cashier started asking me about growing grass seed ($2.97 bag of starter seed). I politely pretended I did not hear her (i.e., ignore). She starts asking more questions… ‘My sister-in-law tried…’ Blah, blah, blah. I said “You have to read the package, sometimes it is annual.” Enough with the grass seed. She was not paying attention at all. I swiped my card and it did not work. I put it in the chip reader/black hole, waited, over and over and it almost worked.
The woman decided to walk around the aisle, she grabbed the card out of my hand, and started violently rubbing it on her leg. I mean violently, it has happened before (four or five times at Walmart), some of these people… I do not know. They treat credit cards differently than I do. Finally, it worked.
What exactly is the point of that, fooling around with my card–I mean, how does that affect the chip and the hardware?
Then there was the apparent manager at the scene–the woman with the headset and choreography tasks. She’s the one who, while apparently talking on the phone, pointed at me and screamed “That man!” as if someone was going to help me. The employee customer ratio must have been about one-to-one (15 employees, fifteen customers) toward the front of the store. Still, nothing happened. Kasey (sp?), the employee/manager I spoke with, knew nothing about it.
After walking to my car I discovered the bread was priced incorrectly. It is a smaller Walmart, but still, back to customer service. There was one person ahead of me. I got to listen to how to remove stains from tablecloths… The transaction–the woman ahead of me–was not going quickly. This was all for a refund between $0 and $3. Finally, I got up there; it did not work; “Do you have another bread?”
Here is where it gets a little different, for me. I even know the customer service manager. She is nice and she tries. I realize she is not the CEO of Walmart. I am not looking to get anyone in trouble. And, while the poor woman was swiping the (by now mangled French breads), the customer service manager was not even “on the clock.”
Have you ever stood there while someone presses the same buttons, and scans the same item, over and over again? It just does not work. But to see them “assaulting” (sorry, bad word) your credit card over and over? That is when I get mad. One Walmart cashier actually started scraping it! (Fine print, it was a gift card, Walmart folks did it, no refund, so I’ll consider it the same). I told, or I guess asked, the customer service manager “I use this card five times a day. It works everywhere but here, what is the problem?”
They put the manager’s name on the receipt, I called… I have matured. It is not a fair fight. But that is how I learn. At least I do not do it on dates (anymore).
The manager apparently is not the manager. The assistant manager, about three-quarters through the conversation she said “I’m the manager.” It just was not fair. No question, there is training… “What can we do to make it right?” she asked. Even, if one pushes, “We will refund your purchases.”
No I do not want to drive back. No, I do not want to do it again with customer service. Maybe I should have because it would have been a lesson in composure. “Send me a check,” on my part, did not work.
Still no word from the real manager.
All I ever said was “I am going to write it down and I would like an email address to send it to.”
THE LESSONS
No manager.
There is much more to this story. I always learn something. I learned that the procedure is to enter the numbers manually when it does not work one time, assistant manager told me.
I did call the 800 number per the assistant manager’s advice and my curiosity. The woman again referenced procedures and was very apologetic. A call from the manager as promised never happened.
Another lesson? I do not work in a managerial capacity at Walmart and they do not have to listen to me. It is a big, sometimes impersonal world.
The view of the tees is beginning to take shape. The trees are there but are small… which is just as well because it will be difficult to hit over them when they are bigger.
The ground under repair area (new seed) took forever. There are 3-5 new-born deer (now 4-5 months old) and their parents and others roaming around constantly. The young ones bounce around everywhere. The only way I have found to grow grass seed is to build a small fence around it. The deer may smash into it a few times but they seem to learn that it is there and then usually they avoid it.
So what did you do this Summer? Most of this land has never been touched. It is almost like archaeology, especially with the rock outcroppings. They remind me of North Carolina. What is the legal term, it is not undeveloped… Would it be considered undeveloped anyway, it is within a subdevelopment lot?
I did not know it was even my property until…
The legal term is “unimproved,” which is awfully difficult to define. But it actually makes a lot of sense. For instance, when it comes to criminal trespassing, you cannot really tell if it is private property, or if it is not be encroached-upon, if it is untouched. That is why there are other requirements, such as a fence or sign.
… there have not been new posts lately. It is a software thing! And other things.
The intent is to only put serious things here.
I’ve been waiting for this ever since the story broke about a day ago. It does not disappoint.
As for Subway, I never really got it. Even I can make a sandwich.
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To get the obvious out of the way first, this wasn’t about some picture from Bulgaria showing up in someone’s email. There’s a link to this “foundation” and quite a bit of access and influence potentially involved.
Moral, medical, scientific are things I am not really following. To my knowledge this had nothing to do with smuggling girls or (widespread) trafficking. I would call it more of a cultural or sociological problem, or even reality.
Moral is maybe for churches, medical is for doctors, and scientific, that could mean a lot of things. Psychology probably is in there. There’s a lot of ground to cover. And “porn” is just, again, culture is as good as any other way to describe it.
“Child sex abuse,” on the other hand, is not so vague and difficult to deal with. It is difficult to deal with. But you know it when you see it, meaning the age-specifics are there for a reason. It’s purpose is to protect the victims and, mostly because we have no way to deal with it on a much larger scale, punish the perpetrators. In this case there is indisputable history and evidence.
That’s the thing about these crimes by these guys, they’re… widespread isn’t the right word. That’s why these guys are not just guilty, but going to jail. Maybe this is where all the moral, medical and scientific stuff comes in–there really isn’t any reason to believe that profit or even abuse was the motivation in any way. They did it, over a significant period of time with a number of “girls” (that’s the law, under 18). I don’t know the specifics of distributing and the crimes associated. Obviously, they have teeth.
On an individual level, Fogle was married (second time) with two very young children. The other guy had all kinds of video equipment–hidden video equipment. I don’t know. (EDIT: Russell Taylor was married too.)
So what did we learn here, how is this case different than the others? Boy, did everyone have their t’s crossed and i’s dotted on this one. He’s a sleaze, he’s going away, and hopefully he’ll reform. I guess that’s the white-collar, upstanding citizen reaction. A couple of months ago everyone was saying Fogle hasn’t done anything wrong and it is just that other guy who’s the perv. What was it, June? (EDIT: July 7.) We now know that it takes about two months to analyze hard drives and reach a bit of a conclusion.
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Interesting. Did he lose?
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/mt-supreme-court/1522607.html
http://mtfamilylawblog.com/does-spousal-maintenance-under-montana-law-end-after-another-marriage-wolf-v-wolf/
Seems awfully roundabout.
INSERT image here of Tom Cruise (ew!) in Days of Thunder (Robert Towne, yeah!) saying “You gotta be good at your job/something.”
The sports blog has turned more and more into a repetitive look into management and championships. You might call it In Search of Excellence. Suppose, just for the fun of it, someone were to ask you…
What are you an expert at?
marketing research
survey research
deer and elk damage
the basics of psychology and anthropology
customer satisfaction
You can see the list is based a lot on education and work experience.
Imagine if I were a father, or mother, or housekeeper or wife. Would I have the confidence to include “raising kids?”
Suppose it was worded as things you are very good at:
aspen
German cars ‘60’s to about 2000
sports/column writing
certain (e.g., alternative, folk) music genres
marketing
“novels to movies” (just kind of comparing them)
cooking (i.e., making pizza or brownies)
business consulting
creative writing
These include things I am good at for various reasons including experience, passion, and enjoyment. Basketball, running, and tennis are wannabes.
Then there are things that I am just “at.” These are things that I just do. I am not really good at them. I am functional, sort of like a dull job.
Finally, there are things I am bad at:
Earlier in the playlist there was a Bob Mould imposter. Imagine! Charlottesville bartender.