Swedish Steel

Luckily, I remain unscathed, and my credit card untainted, but, my fellow consumers, be aware of a unscrupulous online merchant by the name of "Bestchoicedigital.com". They specialize in digital cameras, camcorders, and other fancy playthings. However they are so shady I urge you to stay away at all costs.

My wife's friend was visiting from Sydney, and she asked us to order a camera from these guys on her behalf, as they needed the same ship to address as the credit card bill to address. That sounds shady enough, as that's total bullshit. However, maybe it's just their policy. Whatever. Did I mention they have the best price for this camera? $199.00, normal price $250.00 I think.

Wifey orders the shit on my card, I get an email stating, "Thank you for your order. Please call our customer service dept at 1-800 -WE SUCKS." That's all. I assume the order was sent. By the time it should have arrived, wifey calls to see what was up. They tell her that I needed to call before they could ship the order. Now I feel bad, as I didn't call them when I received the email. They tell wifey that the order was sent that day (Tues), and will arrive by Friday. Friday comes and goes, no camera. Wifey's friend calls and emails them. Then I get an email from these turds, asking me to Paypal them $412.33. I'm confused, so I check out my credit card online and there's no charges. WTF?

Now there's no fucking way I'm Paypaling these fucks $400.00. So, wifey calls them to see what was up... and they tell her she ordered an extra memory card for $180.00. That's total bullshit, so wifey tells them to cancel the order, she didn't order that shit, what's wrong with you, and they hang up on her. She swears she could hear a boiler room in the backround.

Just type "bestchoicedigital complaints" in Yahoo search, and you will come across a wealth of shady going ons by these turds. Now I know why they wanted Paypal. It doesn't offers the same consumer protections, say a Mastercard or Visa does.
Caveat Emptor!

This all went down a couple of weeks ago, but I vowed to tell everyone I know to stay away from BCD. Personally, I'm still using disposable cameras... they rule!

The warship has encountered dismal sea conditions. Mind you the structural integrity of the ship is not compromised one bit. The admiral, captain, the skipper, cookie, even the first mate and his favored sailor companions are sally-ing forth with ever increasing eagor vigor and optimism. Their shared language and beliefs bring them a level of protection and favors not bestowed upon the rest.

The sailors are queasy and disgruntled. Their rations are given at less frequent intervals. Some have walked the plank due to their protest. In other cases..."Man overboard"! How long until mutiny? Until the laboring masses onboard raise their arms in defiance? How about the smarter ones? Will they fight or quietly slip away?

The ship sails stronger, more powerful everyday. But can a ship with sailors who've lost faith, spirit, and rations carry on? On whose backs does the mighty ship wield its might? The men of squadron "V" are tired, can they still fight?



*This is no way a political analogy.

"We reiterate that there will be no dialogue with the Jews and Christians other than the sound of bullets, blood and fire," Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said in a separate Web statement.

I think you need to deploy a "Diversity, Tolerance, and Sensitivity" training task force on the double! Make yourselves useful.

Great news, the newest Flames in SJ has opened. It's within walking distance, so I am definitely looking forward to to bleary-eyed Saturday morning strolls to get some hollandaise and hash browns.

On the negative front, look at the "memo" I received today regarding my way overdue pay raise. We are merging with another company, and I knew I would get jammed up.

Please note, company names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Q: When will TURD employees become eligible for a base salary merit increase, once the companies are combined?

A: TURD employees will become eligible for merit increases after December 31, 2005 under ThisSucks' existing annual review policy.

As a corporate flunky with quarterly numbers and objectives, forecasts, and other such wonders I am inundated with bullshit meaningless phrases, originating from the top down, but rapidly adopted by lower level workers who seek acceptance and back pats. Phrases such as "At the end of the day", "let's take this offline", "do you have enough bandwidth".. all sorts of bullshit. Maybe you hear different ones than I do, but it's the "same coin, different side".

I don't even have enough time to "circle back" to go over the ones I hear over and over.

I remember one from a meeting years back, "Let's doubleclick on that one".. What the fuck are you talking about!? In retaliation, I even created my own bs phrase, "Let's right-click on that one". I was surprised it wasn't already in wide usage. A few colleagues at the time even adopted it, sort of as a joke, but not really.

Now that we are buried in bullshit speak, it's about time someone recognized this problem as it's infecting nearly every spoken word coming out of every high to low-ranking executive's mouth... That's not so much of a problem, but it's now infecting the rest of society. This must be stopped.

For everyone of you out there with "Stretch Goals", read the word, and fight back.

Free Tom Sizemore.



"Nothing takes five minutes!"

Ok, enough fun for now. I love Tom Sizemore, and think it's a tragedy that he's under legal duress, while his ex Heidi Fleiss is practically an American folk hero. Of course, his first mistake, is dating Ms. Fleiss. She looks like someone hit her in the upper lip with a steel pipe and undergone at least three corrective surgeries.

On an even more serious front, I'm thinking about the coalition soldiers fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere in the world, promoting liberty, and what they're against.

First, let's look at who they're fighting. The so called "insurgents", are the biggest cowards in the planet. They hide behind women and children, will wire their own mosques with explosives and use them as arm depots. Why? So the second a stray bullet or spark, from one our guys, or even more likely, one of theirs, lights up one of their most "sacred" places of worship like the Fourth of July.... and it'll be our "fault".

They claim we are there to kill muslims. Well, the number one killer of muslims, is other muslims. Either through self means, or because one's version of Islam does not jibe with another's. Perfectly good reason to kill someone. We are dealing with the world's least tolerant culture and religion. One the opposite side of the spectrum, western culture, despite many faults (little disclaimer for you libs), is the most tolerant, diverse, and open society on Earth.

It kills me that the media, is making a huge hoopla because of a small percentage, like .00001%, of our soldiers allegedly desecrated the Koran. We have the most disciplined, honorable, and just military on the planet,(major props to our allies, the Brits and Aussies) and they are getting raked over the coals. What's worse, desecration of the Koran, or of life itself? Killing in the name of islamism? I'll tell you this, our guy's will not strap a bomb to an innocent boy with down's syndrome, and send him off to kill his own. Where was that story? That's pretty fucking outrageous to me. Why not in the media? We fart in the same room as the Koran, and it's WWIII and we're Nazi Germany.

Our poor guys, the most courageous force on earth, are fighting on two fronts, psychotic islamo-fascists who hide among the innocent, and the media.

Hey, it looks like the web site that hosted the Truffle Shuffle shut down. I'm sure that damn site had that shit on there for ten years. A week after I throw it up there, it's done for. All I can tell you, is the guy who played Chunk, is a cool bro.

I am finally recovering, and able to regain normal sleeping patterns after the past holiday weekend of madness. What I learned, or rather, reaffirmed, is that when I pledge to just take it easy, have a few drinks, and then get home not too late on a Friday night. It doesn't happen, and I'm thrown into a reverse-intention vortex, champagne bucket-stealin, Patron shooting, another round gettin' - wipeout of all proportions. Not to say I didn't enjoy myself. Instead of being disappointed, I should learn to reset my expectations. "

Follow that with a straight up drive to the campsite and hitting the Steel Reserve with quickness. I made sure to set up the tent while the Steel (beverage) chilled in the cooler. Lest I repeat a long ago camping trip. We hit the bottle with fury upon arrival and the passed out, unsheltered, except for our sleeping bags. An assortment of critters and scavengers ransacked our food. Not this time, even if I pass out like a fool, Camp Leader Jim-Nuts saves the day, and secures the area.