Persist, and you might get free stuff: Lovefilm

I was a long time user of the Blockbuster mail order DVD service. For me, in Guernsey, it worked well enough, DVDs arrived promptly and I was pretty happy. Around the same time, I trialled the Lovefilm service (mainly, I think, due to a friend of mine doing one of those “Free iPod” style things, where you get friends to sign up for stuff, and you get a free, erm, iPod). And whilst the service was fine, I was perfectly happy with Blockbuster, so at the end of the trial I cancelled. But ever since, I have been plagued by emails from Lovefilm, begging me to rejoin the service, and chucking all sorts of carrots in my direction as incentive to do it. I never caved and simply deleted them all as they came in.

But I’ve recently been looking for a new mail order service. I’ve got a spangly new LCD tv, an a Blu-Ray capable PS3 and being a bit of videophile, I like real, actual DVDs rather than downloaded ones with people’s heads popping halfway through the important scenes, and Lovefilm does have a far superior selection than Blockbuster. So I figure fine, next time an email from Lovefilm turns up, I’ll go for it.

But, of course, after waiting a couple of weeks, no emails have arrived from Lovefilm, I had no copies of old emails from them, so I thought I’d try my luck.

What follows is a tale of woe and despair, highlights the problems of outsourcing your call / customer care center to non-English-speaking countries, but ultimately, through a little (sarcastic) persistence, has a happy ending. Kind of.

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Back – with a rant – Apples and, er Oranges? Apple Retail != Apple Store

Go figure. I actually missed having a decent forum for being able to rant about stuff. Freedom to say what I wanted; when I wanted. Then I realised – “oooh I know where people do that nowadays! On a blog!”. Then I remembered – I have a blog! Whoop-de-doo for me, and I can release some anger.

Well actually, my anger is pretty limited at the moment. I mean, I’ve spent the last 5 months travelling, and it’s even longer than that I haven’t been at work, moreorless. So when you find yourself in a situation where you can literally do anything you want any time any day, well I guess you don’t have much right to be pissed off about too much stuff.

One of those things that I wanted to do – buy a new computer. And not just any computer, a brand spanking new Apple Macbook Pro. I felt I deserved it, after all, I’ve been working hard these past few months. [Er, hang on.] Long story short, I negotiated a good price with (the) Apple Store (i.e., the online sales people) but because of the way they work, they couldn’t accept my UK-registered credit card. However, the local store (Stamford) has the machine. I phoned them to check if they would pricematch the deal, and they said of course. So I trundle all the way in to the store – and lo and behold – they won’t pricematch. We figure out how the Apple Store has got such a good price and it’s through a mechanism that the Apple Retail (store) [following this?] couldn’t match. Besides giving me some bullshit about why they couldn’t, I wasn’t too bothered about it all. I mean, they’d told me they would match, and when I get there they can’t, well, I’d normally be upset at even that. But this new Zen state of mind of mine has obviously miraculous calming effects on me. In fact I was doing really well about the whole situation, was even prepared to just buy the new ‘pooter at full whack right there and then, until the sorry operator muttered a sentence which, boils my blood every time I hear it:
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You sir, are full of it

George Bush gave his annual State of the Union address yesterday. It had the usual “God Bless America” nonsense, the usual spiel and all the sycophantic applause, despite his approval ratings being at an all time low. The part that has narked me is his thoughts on global climate change. Take a moment to read what he very righteously said:

Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy that keeps America’s economy running and America’s environment clean. For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence
leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists — who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, and raise the price of oil, and do great harm to our economy.

It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply — the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power. (Applause.) We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. (Applause.) We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — (applause) — using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
We made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies here in Washington and the strong response of the market. And now even more dramatic advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we’ve done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years. (Applause.)

When we do that we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East. To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 — and that is nearly five times the current target. (Applause.) At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks — and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.

Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it’s not going to eliminate it. And so as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. (Applause.) And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Applause.)

America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change. (Applause.)

Well gee, all of a sudden America are the stewards of the environment, confronting the challenge of global climate challenge. Why did the rest of the world realise this? If only there was some way that the whole world could bond together and act co-operatively to effect positive global action against climate change. Wow, I think someone should think up a protocol of some sort, I really do.

You can download the entire thing here: 24_01_07_sotu.pdf

Danielle Lloyd the Philanthropist

I don’t watch Big Brother as I actually have a life and things to do. I can’t think of anything more pointless. But you can’t escape the row over whether or not Shelpa Shetty is being racially abused in the house by the likes of Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd. We all know that Jade Goody is a fat loudmouthed bint who, god help us, has further muddied our gene pool by having more children with dumbass boyfriend Jack Tweed. But Danielle Lloyd is a different story. She’s relatively unknown albeit she’s clearly as thick as the proverbial swine poo. Check out her website, and hear about her plans to make the world a better place:

I would to help those people less fortunate than others. I was given help when I needed it, now I would like to be able to help someone. One in four women has at sometime been the victim of domestic violence and it is not only women who suffer, sadly the children suffer too. Women’s Aid takes thousands of calls from women every year, but unfortunately due to being under resourced and of course severely under funded, last year alone 88,500 calls could not be answered. If I can help in any way no matter how small I will.

I would like to visit many countries and work towards helping those people less fortunate than others. We have so many children and parents who are living in poverty and have to beg, or work from a very early age just to be able to eat day by day. Surely everyone should be able to eat a meal and drink clean fresh water whenever they want. I know it won’t happen overnight, but if we can do something to make a start and put a smile on just 1 child’s face, it would be an achievement.

Magic. I wonder which part of her plans she’s fulfilling by referring to Shelpa as a “dog” and telling her to “fuck off home”. What’s interesting is that her myspace page has gone nuts with people thanking her for the add (i.e., adding them to her friends list)… which is weird, considering she’s in the Big Bro house and has no access to the Internet… but nevertheless in her little blurb, bless her, she says “I’m going in to the BB house so people can see the real me”.

Well, love, I think you’ve managed that. She’s not even that fit.

A Channel 4 insider said: “Racism is ugly but the viewing figures are beautiful.” No shit.

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

I love spam. But the timing on this was perfect.

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!
We provide a concept that will allow anyone with sufficient work experience
to obtain a fully verifiable University Degree.
Bachelors, Masters or even a Doctorate.
Think of it, within four to six weeks, you too could be a college graduate.
Many people share the same frustration, they are all doing the work of the person
that has the degree and the person that has the degree is getting all the money.
Don’t you think that it is time you were paid fair compensation for the level
of work you are already doing?
This is your chance to finally make the right move and receive your due benefits.
If you are like most people, you are more than qualified with your experience,
but are lacking that prestigious piece of paper known as a diploma that is often
the passport to success.
CALL US TODAY AND GIVE YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE THE CHANCE TO EARN YOU THE HIGHER COMPENSATION YOU DESERVE!

4-6 weeks? If I’d known that I would never have spent 7 YEARS at University getting my first degree and Doctorate.

What a load of cock

I don’t tend to get involved in political commentary, I’m much too apathetic to get worked up over all that business. But this one got me going.

A swingeing increase in tax on alcopops and other alcoholic drinks favoured by teenagers is being demanded by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, in an attempt to stop young people damaging their health by binge drinking.

She has written to the chancellor asking him to ratchet up the cost of alcohol in his next budget, to price it beyond the reach of youngsters’ earnings or pocket money.

It’s an interesting theory. There are young people drinking a lot. Therefore if we put the price up, then they can’t afford it. Huzzah! Of course, an unfortunate side-effect would be that it’s a blanket tax, and everyone would be affected, and so, unfortunately, the Government would raise a few extra squillion quid in the extra money. That’d be a shame wouldn’t it.

The most idiotic thing about this proposal is that it’s in part aimed at underage drinkers, or at least that’s the implication by saying that young people’s pocket money shouldn’t be able to afford booze. Now, I might be wrong, but I seem to remember there already being certain safeguards in place for this sort of thing. Something about an age limit for drinking? If kids are getting their hands on booze and drinking themselves silly (and we’ve all been there, I’ve certainly got the scars to show for it) then your average Joe Drinker shouldn’t be punished for it by paying extra taxes, the irresponsible shopkeepers hellbent on profit and the irresponsible parents who don’t do a proper job of supervising their kids should. I don’t know – lock them up, or fine them a million pounds. Make the punishments severe and you might see a reaction.

Of course, all this is entirely confusing and hipocritical. Last year they were worried about binge drinking, and then agreed to the principle of 24 hour drinking licenses. Now they’re telling us what we can or can’t do? If I want to go out and drink 18 pints of Wife Beater and get shitfaced, why shouldn’t I? If I end up getting run over or starting a fight, then I have to live with the consequences. If I die of an “alcoholic liver” then that’s my fault.

I’m getting increasingly bored with the Nanny State in which we’re living. Can’t do this, can do that, going to tax you for that. It’s such a load of bollocks. It’s so two-faced. It’s no wonder so many people are turning to drink.

Oh, for the love of God.

Some people are f*cking idiots. I love dogs, really I do, but this is ridiculous.
Sky News:

A canine couple have taken their marriage bow vows in the first ever doggie “wedding” at Harrods, the top people’s store in west London.

“It is incredible, isn’t it? Just like a normal wedding.”

Now, this sort of news, whilst still idiotic and frankly bizarre, is much more amusing.

“It’s very likely he had auto-sex while driving: it is a matter of investigation. After the accident he was found lying in the seat, his pants were off and it [the pump] was placed on his penis.”

Those crazy Slovaks.