The 411 From 406 » Commentary

The Windstream / DISH Saga

Chewie — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:01:24 +0000

I don’t know about you, but we don’t enjoy spending more money than we need to. Recently (after yet another rate increase notice – the 2nd this year) we finally got fed up with Time Warner and decided to make a switch. We were paying around $150 a month for our cable and Internet service through Time Warner… and that’s without any premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc.) Oh yeah, throw in another $15 a month for Vonage and we’re talking well over $175 a month for hundreds of channels that we never watched, and sub-standard (at best) Internet service.

Unfortunately, living in our areas there aren’t all that many options, but The Wife did the research and found Windstream which offers Internet, home phone and cable (through DISH) for FAR less than Time Warner. On top of that they were offering a “lifetime price guarantee” which we know most likely isn’t actually that but it sounds good. To make a long story short, we’re going to save nearly $1,000 a year. Nice.

So the one thing that I requested when all of this was going down was to have my own DVR in my man cave (basement). As you can imagine, I have considerably different tastes in television and movies from the Wife and boys so I didn’t think that was too much to ask.

I came home one day and it was all taken care of. No more Time Warner boxes, brand new DISH boxes and a new home phone number. Everything seemed good until ya know… I turned it on. Low definition. Oh yeah, and I didn’t have a DVR. I was sharing the signal with the upstairs TV and I when that unit changed channels, so did mine. Not good.

After about a week or so we got it all straightened out and I’ve got glorious HD in my basement with my very own DVR. Not to mention we’re getting 3 free months of all kinds of movie channels which is super cool. Good riddance Time Warner… I can’t say that I’ll miss you.

Best Buy Cyber Monday Fail

Chewie — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:02:04 +0000

Monday was Cyber Monday and while I simply out and out refuse to do any shopping with the hordes on Black Friday I’m not necessarily opposed to letting my fingers do the shopping from the comfort of my couch.

I’m in need of a new laptop so the Wife was kind enough to find a couple of online deals. I’m not a gamer anymore so I’m essentially looking for a light, quick PC to do email, browse the web and do some web development. Best Buy had one and with my Best Buy credit card I could take 6 months to pay without interest… score.

Managed to rummage through my wallet and find my card that had seen better days. Went through the checkout process (with Best Buy not able to look up my Reward Zone number – I’ll deal with that later…) and came to the point where I had to enter my card number. Naturally, the card didn’t go through.

So, I get on the horn with Best Busy customer support to see what the issue was and how to fix it. I figured that my card had been deactivated due to lack of use, but it would just be a matter of a phone call, a reactivation and I’d be on my merry way. WRONG.

First I’m connected with an operator who to say had an accent would be an understatement. Folks… if you’re going to put someone on the phone PLEASE make sure they can understand and speak English. I know it’s a lot to ask for but trust me on this. I managed to explain my situation to the woman and was told that my card had in fact been deactivated because, “It hadn’t been used in many days,” and that I could get another one right away… in the store.

Yep, they wouldn’t or couldn’t take care of it on the phone. So what we’ve got here is a customer support rep on CYBER MONDAY telling me to hit up their brick and mortar location which happens to be about 20 miles away. Oh yeah… and it was closed.

Needless to say, I didn’t put the transaction on my Best Buy credit card, nor will I be opening up a Best Buy credit card any time soon. I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where businesses were run logically? Fail.

Fifth Third Bank – Customer Service Well Done

Chewie — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:29:16 +0000

I have to admit that most of the time when I “go to the blog” to talk about some customer service experience it’s typically a bad experience.

I’m happy to say that this isn’t one of those times.

I recently got a couple of overdraft charges on one of my business checking accounts at Fifth Third Bank. I don’t keep a ton of funds in that account cause it’s linked to my PayPal account. In any case… I’d made an online purchase and due to some changes in the order, they credited my card and had to do the transaction twice. You can see where this is going. Naturally, the credit didn’t go through in time and due to the double charge I was hit with $91 in overdraft charges.

That in an of itself wouldn’t have bothered me… except for the fact that I’ve been a customer of the bank for years, have multiple accounts and oh by the way, have a savings account with them as well that could/should have been used for overdraft protection.

I sent Michael an email and explained the situation. I received an Out Of Office reply that he’d be out of the office until Monday. The DAY he returned to the office, he emailed me letting me know that the charges had been refunded and he’d taken the necessary action to ensure that the situation wouldn’t arise again.

HUGE thanks to Michael at Fifth Third for taking care of this. BRAVO!!!!

Not Worth The Paper It’s Printed On

Chewie — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:06:46 +0000

Other than the fact that I don’t have enough money in it, I’ve got a great relationship with my bank. They seem to do business the right way and don’t send me too much junk in the mail. I’ve always thought of a bank in similar terms as a baseball umpire…. they do their job you forget that they’re there. In any case… I got a letter from them the other day that was such a waste I just had to share.

The title of the letter was “Important Information About Your Escrow Account”. This type of letter comes once a year and typically tells me about an overage or a shortage in my yearly escrow account. No big deal. So I’m reading through the details and get to the nitty gritty. I’ve got a shortage… of a whopping 4 cents.

And here’s where it gets good.

“Our analysis of your account has resulted in an Escrow Shortage of $0.04. Please be aware of the following two payment options that are available to you:

Your $0.04 shortage will be collected as part of your monthly mortgage payment over the next 12 months, interest free.

Pay the total shortage amount now by including the bottom portion of this page with a check or money order made payable to ….

So… they’ve done their analysis, determined that I owe them money, typed the letter, printed the letter, stuffed an envelope and paid the postage to mail it to me. All over 4 cents.

Needless to say, I’m not going to choose option 1 which would cost me more to write a check and mail it than the “entire” shortage. I’m very interested to see how they take a additional third of a penny out of my account every month for the next year. *shrugs*

A Rewatch In 3D

Chewie — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:31:14 +0000

I recently reviewed the Michael Bay flick Transformers: Dark Of The Moon after seeing it on opening night. In that review I stated that I’d seen the flick in 2D and didn’t really see the value in 3D (or words to that effect). A good friend of mine Stan commented on the blog and said that I should definitely see the flick in 3D… so that’s what I did.

I loved the flick the first time around and the second time was no different. In fact, I think I may have enjoyed it more the second time, but I don’t really think it was due to the 3D. I have a feeling going into it the second time, I was able to pick up on more of the subtleties in the flick (if there are such things in a Michael Bay flick) and really got to sit back and enjoy the story a bit more.

I will say that this was the best use of 3D that I’ve ever seen in a movie. And yes, that includes Avatar. Michael Bay uses 3D the way it was intended to be used… to provide a little bit of depth. I was worried that with the way Bay makes movies the added dimension of 3D would just be too much. I’m happy to say that I was wrong. The 3D really does add to the movie experience and with the exception of a few scenes really just blends in as part of the experience rather than the gimmick that it is.

All of that being said, I’m still not sold on 3D. For me it just doesn’t add enough to be worth the extra ticket price. I won’t say that I’ll shy away from 3D but give the choice between the two I’d probably go with the “regular” experience. In all likelihood the next time I see a 3D flick will be when Star Wars returns to theaters (again) to get even more of my money.

WrestleMania 27 – The Morning After

Chewie — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:48:53 +0000

WrestleMania 27 is in the books. While Pip, my bro and I had an absolute BLAST building this year’s Beeramid (pics here) I have to say the show was pretty lackluster. It took a good 24 minutes after the show started for the first match to get underway… that’s just WAY too long in my opinion (even with the Rock starting things off).

Edge retained the World Title over Alberto Del Rio
I thought for SURE that Del Rio was going to walk out of Mania with the strap. Not sure where the WWE is going to go with his character at this point but it’s clear he’s going to continue to feud with Edge based on the fact that Edge beat the hell out of his car post match. I’m guessing we’ll get some sort of Edge/Christian/Del Rio feud in the upcoming weeks here. This was a solid opener and I really had high hopes for the show after this one. I was kind of disappointed that they kept telling us that Edge was 0-3 when defending the title at Mania. Kind of gave away the outcome in my opinion.
Cody Rhodes beat Rey Mysterio
I can’t say I’m shocked that Cody got the win here. I think he actually needed this match (career wise) way more than Rey does and I’m happy to see Rey putting over a younger competitor. That said, this wasn’t Rey’s finest match. I’m guessing that we’re going to see Rey against that new high flier that they’ve been introducing. So so match and DEFINITELY not the worst on the card.
Kane, Big Show, Santino & Kofi beat The Corre
Who cares?!?!? This was thankfully rather short and actually wasn’t too bad to watch. I’m not quite sure why the Corre wouldn’t get the win here though… why not build those guys? I mean they DO have 3 title belts between the four guys right?
Randy Orton beat CM Punk
Another WTF match for me. If you’re going to go through WEEKS of building CM Punk as a bad ass and a few MORE weeks of having Orton dismantle his team then why WOULDN’T Punk win this match? Makes no sense from a storyline perspective. Punk at this point is buried. Stupid booking by the WWE in my opinion. That said it was a good match with Orton playing the “my knee won’t hold me” card and a very nice finish with a RKO out of nowhere. Quite frankly either this or Edge/Del Rio is match of the night.
Michael Cole beat Lawler by DQ
This was just piss poor. Lawler actually got the win and then the RAW GM (why do we still have THIS storyline going on) comes on and tells us that Austin interfered so Cole gets the win. This was so bad it made Vince/Bret from WrestleMania 26 look like a masterpiece. This makes NO sense on so many levels. Complete waste of a match.
The Undertaker made HHH tap
This was decent but it was missing something…. and that something was HHH’s career. For a No Holds Barred match this was pretty uneventful. You can tell that both guys were really working hard but they’re just nearing the end of the road. I’m guessing we’ll see a rematch of this one at next year’s Mania with Taker going for 20-0 against HHH’s career. Not sure why in the hell Taker was carted out after the match. He must be setting up his 6 month hiatus that he typically takes after WrestleMania. Decent match but not nearly what Shawn/Taker was the last couple of years.

At this point in the night we realized that there was something wrong timing-wise with the show. We had about an hour remaining with 3 advertised matches. Houston… we have a problem. As it turns out, Sheamus/Daniel Bryan for the US Title was a dark match. That sucks cause I’m guessing that would have been a hell of a lot better than some of the crap we got.

Snooki, Trish, Morrison beat Ziggler & LayCool
Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame. I knew for a FACT that Snooki wasn’t going to lose but come on folks… you’ve got to give us SOMETHING better than this.
Miz retained the WWE title over John Cena
I think we all saw this coming a mile away. Maybe not the way they got there but the end result. Cena/Miz go to a double count out and out comes Rock (saying “Fuck THAT shit…” which is really funny). Rock gets on the mic, restarts the match, gives Cena a Rock Bottom and Miz retains. We’re clearly headed toward a Cena/Rock program which doesn’t NEED the title involved. This was mildly entertaining though I was just sort of waiting for things to happen.

I’m not sure if I’m just a jaded wrestling fan or what, but I’ve been pretty disappointed with the last couple of year’s offerings. This is the biggest show of the year and I’m just always hoping for a HUGE show from the WWE. Maybe I’m just building things way up in my mind to the point where I can’t be satisfied. That said… I can’t WAIT for April 1st, 2012… WrestleMania 28 in Miami!

What did you think of the show last night?

The Overuse Of LOL

Chewie — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 21:08:45 +0000

I apologize in advance to those that this will offend. The language contained within will not be nice nor will it be “suitable for work” or for a child’s ears (not that you’re reading this blog to your child – boy would that be cool). With that being said… STFU.

We live in world today where the vast majority of our interaction is digital. 140 character tweets, text message, status updates, etc. It only stands to reason that some of that digital communication will be done in short hand so that we don’t have to go through the laborious task of actually TYPING what we think (perish the thought). With the digital world that I’ve molded for myself (between Twitter, Facebook, online communities that I belong to, etc.) I’ve come to accept and downright rely on many of these. A few of my “favorites” are below:

AFAIC – as far as I’m concerned
AFK – away from keyboard
ASAP – as soon as possible (this one really isn’t specific to the online world, but I thought I’d include it)
ASL? – age, sex, location (typically found in an online chat forum)
AYBABTU – all your base are belong to us (don’t ask)
FAQ – frequently asked questions
IIRC – if I recall correctly
IMHO – in my humble opinion
LMAO – laughing my ass off

Those are pretty straight forward… and then we get to these (NSFW – not suitable for work for the non-initiated) gems:

FFS – for fuck sake
FOAD – fuck off and die (a personal favorite of mine, though I can honestly say I’ve never used it)
FML – fuck my life
LMFAO – laughing my fucking ass off
PITA – pain in the ass

And the one that is the crux of this post: LOL – laughing out loud.

Folks… it’s one thing to use this on occasion. You know… when you’re actually laughing out loud. But when you put it in your Facebook status update more than once in the same update you’ve gone too far. Stuff like this (see below) REALLY pisses me off:

“Just got home from the store and the dog ate through the couch cushion LOL. Guess no dinner for him and I’m going to have to find a new couch LOL!“

First off… your dog eating through your couch cushion is not:

something I care to hear about
something that is funny
something that you should be laughing out loud about

Furthermore, if you ARE in fact “laughing out loud” at your dog eating your couch, you’ve already told me once. There is absolutely NO reason to tell me about it again at the end of the message. Are you honestly telling me that you started laughing out loud at the beginning of the message, stopped laughing out loud and then started laughing out loud again after you determined that you needed a new couch???

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not suggesting that the use of LOL be banned or even that you NEED to be physically laughing out loud every single time you use it. I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy. These days LOL has really come to be a way of saying, “Hey, that’s funny/clever” to one of your online buddies. My issue is when it’s used alot… like a TON. Like, a REALLY REALLY REALLY lot. LOL.

OIC, u r just being a POS PITA right? LOL. I’m ROFLMAO at you. TTYL cuz this is the SSDD that I always hear from U. FML. L8R. LOL. FOAD (there… now I’ve used it )

You Really Can’t Go Wrong With Some Kenny Loggins

Chewie — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:37:17 +0000

I’ve said it time and time again… I’m a geek. 80′s movies are my wheelhouse ranging anywhere from science fiction to action movies to horror. Many times these movies come complete with some cheesy soundtrack and when we’re talking soundtracks no one does it better than the man… Kenny Loggins.

I’m Alright – Caddyshack (1980)

I can’t embed it here, but if you want THE edition of this song you’ve got to check it out here… the hair ALONE makes it all worth it: Kenny Loggins – I’m Alright (Live-HQ). If you’ve never seen Caddyshack… well, PLEASE for the love of God stop reading this and go out and rent it… like right now. Shame on you.

Playing With The Boys – Top Gun (1986)

OK, so this one has a bit of homo eroticism thrown in there, but it’s not Loggins’ fault… damn you Val Kilmer. Damn you to hell. To up the “stud factor” Loggins came back with Danger Zone on the same soundtrack. Too cool.

Footloose – Footloose (1984)

Pure… brilliance. I imagine there’s a video of Pip and I floating around somewhere dancing to this song at his wedding. I haven’t seen it, but I know it exists… somewhere. God help me. (If you’re interested, here’s my toast to him).

Meet Me Halfway – Over The Top (1987)

It’s like a switch… enough said.

Throw in two other of my all time favorites Conviction Of The Heart (even after you factor in the Al Gore connection) and his version of Rainbow Connection and I’m more than sold. I’ll leave you with one more Loggins tidbit. A twitter pal LaVieBoheme73 turned me on to this gem: The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas. Epic. Long live Loggins!

I Hate People

Chewie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:02:39 +0000

OK… so the title of this post isn’t quite true. A more accurate title would be “I Hate People Who Can’t Or Won’t Drive The Correct Way When It Snows” but that seemed a bit on the longish side.

I live in northeast Ohio. I also happen to live in a particular spot of northeast Ohio called the “snow belt”. If you’re not familiar with the term please allow me to explain. Based on our close proximity to Lake Erie our climate is a bit more humid that most. So, before the lake has frozen for the year, there is a TON more moisture in the air. When you add very cold temperatures to moisture in the air you get something called SNOW. Now… the snow belt is named as such because of something called “Lake Effect Snow”. This is due to the fact that all of this snow created from the moisture above Lake Erie dumps right on top of my house. There you go… snow belt and lake effect snow defined.

Folks… this shit happens EVERY… SINGLE… YEAR. It’s not as if Lake Erie is here one year and gone the next. Which is why I get completely FLOORED every year when it snows and people say shit like, “Man… when’s it going to stop snowing.” Living in Cleveland, the answer to that question is “March… maybe April.”

In any case, we got a snow storm a couple of days ago. Sure it came during rush hour and it was a lot of snow, but it wasn’t the worst storm I’ve ever lived through, nor was it the coldest. But you’d think we were living in the middle of the Sahara and people had NEVER seen snow based on the way folks were driving. Good lord. Luckily I had some good music and podcasts to listen to on my trek to work. I really wasn’t that upset. Like I said, I’ve lived here for a long time, this shit happens every year… I’m used to it. For better or for worse.

What I’m NOT used to is people driving like idiot when the snow is done. THIS morning, I rolled out, left the house a little earlier than usual and STILL was stuck in complete gridlock. No snow on the ground, no snow falling yet I’m still waiting in a mile long line just to get on the freeway. What… the… FUCK! Turns out some jackass flipped his pickup truck in the middle of an interchange during morning rush hour. Who knows… maybe he was texting one of his buddies asking when it’s going to stop snowing in Cleveland.

Thank God It’s The 3rd

Chewie — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:08:54 +0000

As everyone knows, November 2nd is Election Day. 406 is and always will be an apolitical blog so don’t worry… I’m not able to celebrate or complain about yesterdays results. What I am going to say is that I’m SO damn glad that I don’t have to hear about it any more.

Yes, I did my civic duty and voted yesterday.
No, I didn’t vote for every single issue/race on the ballot. Why? Cause I didn’t know everything about all of them and I’m a firm believer that an uneducated vote is worse than no vote at all.
Yes, I’m completely sick of all the smear campaigns that I saw this past year.
Yes, I’m totally sick of my friends, family and social networks showing me videos, stories and other “proof” of why their guy is the best or my guy is the worst.

There are two things that I really never talk about. Religion and politics. It’s not because I’m scared of the topics… far from it. It’s because there’s absolutely NOTHING that I (or you) can ever say to make you (or me) change our minds. So why bother?

You’ve got your opinion… I’ve got mine. Let’s leave it at that OK people? All your videos, stories and “proof” tell me is that you’re a tad bit insecure about your position and your guy. If he was so damned good, would he really need you to tell me how good he is? Wouldn’t I already know?