Welcome to my website.
Here you will find posts about myself, my hobbies, and my interests.
Amazon
Like many people I'm a fan, I enjoy their movie, TV, and music streaming services, I enjoy their hardware device which allow me to control my lights and surveillance cameras by interfacing their smart controllers, and really like the ability to ask Alexa to call help for me in case I fall from my wheelchair or get stuck in my tub. But there's one thing I don't enjoy and I find frustrating and wasteful.
I'll need something, usually an electronic doodad, I'll do a bit of research, and tell the Amazon website to search its database for one. It's rare to not find what I'm looking for.
I then trim the list down by clicking the All Prime checkbox which presents a Featured list of the item I want to purchase. Like a lot of people I like to save money where I can so I prefer to sort the list by price from low to high, but that breaks my search. The item I want is no longer in the list and instead of the wifi router, or external Blu Ray drive I want, I get things like replacement shirt buttons, thumb tacks and all sorts of things one might find in their local dollar store. Scrolling though the list to the end never shows the item in my search.
I start over, the list now back to being sorted by Featured and none of the other search functions available will do the job, so I'm stuck with featured instead of a complete list of all the items that meet my search criteria.
My goal yesterday was to buy an external USB Blu Ray player and the model LG sells looked promising so I punch the model number into Amazon's search bar and press [ENTER]. It's a good list showing just a few of the model I'm interested in, so I don't have to scroll through page after page of search results looking for the best deal.
All three units I find use a stock image I'm sure they captured from LG's website, all three units look identical, all three are similarly priced, all three are slim and only require a USB port for connectivity, and all three have descriptions that are nearly identical. The top choice looked a bit expensive and the price is the same as what LG wants for the unit, the bottom choice is suspiciously priced, it's a good price but seems to good to be true. The middle choice is only a few dollars cheaper than the top choice so I pick it, add it to my cart, and tell Amazon's servers to use my credit cart.
Good news it'll be delivered by 10:00pm. I really don't need it until sometime next week, but hey, who doesn't like same day delivery, though it's a complete waste of resources.
The drive actually arrives before 8:00pm, I use my reacher to pick it up off the front stoop and bring it in. I open the large cardboard shipping envelope it arrived in, take the drive out, and set it up, eager to try one of my few Blu Ray discs to see how it works. My computer installs what ever drivers it needs, I open my file manager and the link that leads to the drives attached to my computer. But I don't see anything labeled Blu Ray. Instead I see two DVD R/W drives.
I double check the packaging that looks remarkably like the packaging use on LG's slim Blu Ray drive and see no mention of it being a Blu Ray drive, It'd been hours since I ordered the drive and I'd completely forgotten the model number I'd searched for. In anger, I unplug the drive and throw it over my shoulder gleeful of the sound it made when it crashed into the wall on the other end of my living room.
Amazon is notorious about this. They love inserting an item that looks so close to what a customer is looking for in the middle of a list of the item they're looking for that looks like a great deal. They know for a fact that most people won't file a return request for an inexpensive item because the customer doesn't want to make fool of themselves by having to admit to them that the customer is too stupid to tell one product for another. The return itself isn't really a problem for most people, they'll happily stop somewhere on the way home from work to drop the item off to be shipped back free of charge. But then there's my case, and I know I'm not the only one.
I live in a small town. I'm more than happy to fill out Amazon's online form and point out that they're bastards who should quit doing such things, however the only place in town where I can drop off a package to return to Amazon is a little independent letter box place. It's close by, it's maybe five blocks north from me, on a nice day I can wheel there in my trusty Quantum R-Trax, when the weather's bad, I can drive my Town & Country or my E150 there. But I'm presented with a problem from there on. The letter box place is an a-frame building with half a dozen stair, I can't get in. I have to look their number up on my cell phone and call them. If I'm lucky they answer, there's only one person working there. I then have to wheel home or drive home, the trip wasted, so I just don't bother.
My next option is to drive somewhere to drop off the item I got which turns into a thirty to fifty mile drive depending on the trop off location I'm told to use. Free returns turns into a $5.50 to over a $9.00 gas bill.
I don't understand why people aren't protest this obvious scam by Amazon to just steal their hard earned money.
I.C.E.
Masked I.C.E. agents are murdering people in our streets and calling them domestic terrorists. There should be rioting in the streets, everyone should be furious and I'm sad that I know four people who are okay with this.
Kristi Noem, Todd M. Lyons, the agents who murdered innocent citizens, the agents who stood there and did nothing to prevent it, and Donald Trumpler need to be hauled into court to answer for these crimes against the people of this nation. Donald Trumpler has failed in his sworn duty to:
- Support the Constitution of the United States
- Bear True Faith of the Constitution of the United States
- Discharge his Duty as a duly elected President
Trumpler and the Federal Agents under his command have violated the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and the Eleventh Amendment.
Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House, a historical building that doesn't belong to him, it belongs to us!
Trump first puts his name on the Kennedy Center, then turns around and shutters us telling the world, the building is too dangers and that he plans to gut it and refurbish it.
And what's worse is Congress, and the Supreme Court lets him do it!
Just to make clear, Donald J. Trumpler needs to fucking die.
Protests!
There are protests going on in a number of cities across the US in response to arrests by I.C.E. agents.
First off, I'm not okay with illegal immigration. Not because I'm a racist, but because we're now importing criminals.
That said, I believe in due process of law. Everyone in this country is supposed to be protected by our constitutional rights, everyone.
Without due process people are being sent to prisons in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras though these people aren't necessarily from these countries. Even American citizens are being sent to prisons outside the U.S. without due process.
Of course this has spurred the protests we're seeing. People need to stand up for each other's rights, certainly Trumpler cares not about our rights.
I've been watching the news and live feeds from places like LA and Dallas and have seen many peaceful protesters attacked by police for standing up for their rights. I've also seen violent protesters, those protesters need to be arrested, and stand tria for their alleged crimes. Again though there must be due process.
Sending the National Guard and Marines to LA, DC, and possiby Chicago is out of line, threatening to arrest Governor Newsom is out of line.
Donald Trumpler is a convicted felon and has no business being president of the United States and needs to be removed from power!