To all companies who provide a customer service department for its customers. You know, like internet service providers, telephone companies, utility companies, credit card companies…

First, I'd really like to speak to real people. Pushing buttons until my fingers bleed because I'm being taken in circles is seriously frustrating. I have nightmares about the electronic woman's voice who says, "push or say 'one.'" Kill me.

And when I finally DO get a real, live human, could they possibly speak, oh, I don't know…ENGLISH???? I wouldn't have a problem with them speaking another language if the company was based in another country, but when I can't understand the customer service dude, your customer service isn't doing me any good.

And if they DO speak English, could they please speak it clearly so I don't have to keep saying "excuse me, could you repeat that?"

I think that's about it for today. I feel better. :mrgreen:

Yesterday I got a whole bunch of spam via my contact form. All in English. I think.

From Prosto: By all hi! Good day! =)

From Ochen: Hi As to me to adjust correctly time on my computer?

From Serg: Hi! And who saw such

Good ole Stif says: As in your guestbook to include support html?

And last but not least, Artemiy said: Tell, and here at you always so?

Yes, spam is so effective when it's complete gibberish. I here vanilla classic kitty! As book plastic you group!

So there. Visit my links, because clearly, they must be great if my spam doesn't make sense. :roll:

P.S.–for something that DOES make sense, go check out Writeminded's February contest!

After months and months of drooly anticipation, I finally got to see the movie I've wanted to see for, well, months. :roll:

Trembling with anticipation, I popped corn, popped a beer, and snuggled up under a blanket. I couldn't wait. I love fairy tales. I adored Politically Correct, the Ultimate Storybook. I gobbled up Grimm's Grimmest (and traumatized my son at the same time–bonus! :twisted:)

And now, there's a movie starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger (yum!) called The Brothers Grimm. How cool! (Yeah, notice how I didn't link to it? Because it's not worth the effort.)

Needless to say, I was disappointed. Majorly.

Heath Ledger's character ended up being a wussy, sniveling little twit. The story was, at times, hard to follow in that the supporting characters' actions often didn't make sense. I'll admit that having the brothers be con artists was a nice twist, but other than that? Ick.

But I think what truly ruined the movie for me was the animal cruelty in scenes meant to be humorous. I dunno. Call me crazy, but when live horses are set on fire and kittens are splattered on rotating blades, I tend to not laugh. And the fact that the villian who performed all of the cruel acts was supposed to be sympathetic at the end was idiotic. I was absolutely NOT sympathetic toward him.

This wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but it was the most disappointing. It had SO much potential. The dark, grim side of the Grimm tales could have been spectacular. The actors were wasted on The Brothers Grimm.

But on the plus side, Matt Damon looked better than he usually does.
What has been the most disappointing movie you've ever seen? You know, one you waited for and saw at the very first chance you had?

I HATE spammers. Hate 'em. Spamming should be illegal. And spammers…well, they're only a step or two above looters on the scumbag scale.

Recently I've been getting more spam than usual. If I get a hundred emails a day, fifty will be spam. WHY do these morons think I want a watch, penis enlargement pills, or cheap prozac? And WHY do they think I'm stupid enough to click on their damned emails with attachments that could be viruses?

They're getting sneakier though…some of the spam now has headings like, "Re: Jason's story," instead of "Buy $cheap$ viagra!"

For a split second, I sometimes wonder if the subject of "Jason's story" has something to do with some writer's group I belong to. Then I look at who the email is from, and without exception, I realize that "Jason's story" has come from a spammer. See, spammers are getting smarter with their subject lines, but the freaking morons haven't figured out that the oddball names they use won't fool ANYONE.

I don't know anyone named Mie or Eziekiel or Emory or Rishona Luek. I mean, HELLOOOOOOOO! Do they really think I'm going to open a strange email from Jung-Huarizzardi??? :roll:

Why don't they use NORMAL, familiar names that just might fool people? Why not send emails from Susan or Karen or Jan? Everyone knows a Mike. Or a Richard. People might actually open an email from a Steve if the subject isn't "New watches that tell you when to take your cheap Viagra!"

So there, idiot spammers. You're getting more clever with your headings, but the weird-ass names on the emails give you away. I delete without opening. Get smarter. Give me a challenge.

I'll still despise you, of course. But hey, I'll have more fun doing it.

Remember the good old days when you used to give warning before a show was cancelled? You know, so the show could wrap up all the storylines at the end of the season?

It's bad enough when, even with notice, you cancel great shows garnering good ratings. Remember Angel, WB? You know, the show that had a huge, loyal following? The show you cancelled and forced to switch gears mid-season in order to wrap up 5 seasons worth of history in just a few episodes…resulting in the worst series finale in history? I'm still bitter over that incident. I haven't watched The WB since.

So that's bad enough. But I've noticed a growing trend over the last few years. You started cancelling shows between seasons. Shows that ended their seasons with killer cliffhangers. You don't bother announcing the cancellation, so eager viewers wait all summer for the fall premiere of the show, only to wait…and wait…and wait.

Then…no premiere. After a little research, the viewer finds that the show was rudely canceled. Last year, Fox got me hooked on Tru Calling. Last summer, it ended with a great cliffhanger. I was SO looking forward to the fall premiere. No such luck. Thanks a lot, Fox.

So cancelling a show between seasons without giving the show a chance to wrap up is bad, too.

But nothing…NOTHING is so heinous, so diabolical, as canceling a show MID-SEASON. What are you thinking, people??? Cancel Firefly??? Not just cancel it, but rip it from television after 9 episodes without letting the season wrap up? Oh, Fox, you're on a roll.

Fortunately, the folks at Universal Studios were smart enough to recognize the brilliance in the show, and they gave the thumbs-up for a movie, which, if successful, will be followed by two sequels.

Obviously, I've been steaming for a while over the above examples. But the last straw, the spark that fueled this rant, was the fact that last night I wondered why Life As We Know It hadn't been on for a couple of weeks and again wasn't scheduled for this coming Thursday. Well, I did a little digging. Sure enough…canceled. Right in the middle of the freaking season.

Would it be too much to ask for a little notice? Maybe an apology? "Hey, loyal ABC viewers. Sorry to do this to you, but we superior minds think you'll like Supernanny better, because doesn't everyone like watching idiots who can't control their bratty kids? So we're cancelling the entertaining show you like, and forcing you to watch the bad acting in Hope and Faith, and the men of Rodney and According to Jim, who pull such moronic stunts that no one can understand why their beautiful model-wives don't leave their dumpy, dumb asses. Enjoy, loyal viewer, who is clearly too stupid to know what you should like."

And you network brains wonder why you're having trouble building loyal fanbases for your shows. Gee, think it's because viewers are afraid of becoming emotionally invested in shows that get yanked just when they get good?

ABC is going to be airing a new show called Blind Justice soon. Looks like it might be good. Am I going to watch? Hell, no. Because I just know that I'll get hooked and it'll get canceled.

Yep, I'm going to be shutting off the TV and doing a lot of reading in the future. At least with romance novels, you know that the stories are going to be wrapped up in the end.
:satisfied: