Consumer Thoughts

My mom works as a secretary for an attorney. Today a young woman came in to take care of some business. My mom commented on her cute ring, saying that her daughter (me of course) would love it, because it’s Hello Kitty. The woman took her ring off and handed it to my mom and insisted she take it. My mom said she couldn’t take it, and the woman said, “please take it, I want your daughter to have it. Blessings come to those who bless others.” My mom still insisted she could not take it, and the young woman insisted more. My mom finally relented and I have the ring now. It looks like this but is in gold.

My mom doesn’t even know this woman’s name, but she mentioned she was just home from basic training and going to be deployed soon, although she didn’t mention where to. I know we don’t all have the same beliefs, but if you see this post, please say a prayer or a thought to keep this woman safe on her tour.

eBags is showing off their own-brand best of the best bags - those bags that are rated 9 (or 10) out of 10 by customers, and also have a “would buy again” rating from customers of 90% or higher. I happen to own 2 eBags branded bags - the Thunder messenger and the Kalya tote (now renamed the Kalya Town Square) - and I love them. They are very sturdy and have plenty of pockets to keep things separated and organized, and the shoulder straps are very comfortable. Check them out if you’re in the market for a new bag.

Come on over and talk gadgets at the new Thoughts From The Sidelines forum!

It’s run by the Thoughts from the Sidelines blog. Now you might think a gadget blog is a gadget blog, and you’ve got your Gizmodo or your Engadget, but this site has a more intimate feel that those behemoths are missing, and not just because it’s smaller. The clean layout of the site is so refreshing, and because they post less, each post is more important and better quality… you don’t have posts getting lost in the shuffle.

So shout me out over there - I’m KatGamer!

If you go to the ACLU website and sign the “be a Constitution voter” pledge, you can get a free bumper sticker.

Sign here

I Am a Constitution Voter

* I believe that no one — including the President — is above the law.
* I oppose all forms of torture, and I support both closing the Guantánamo Bay prison and ending indefinite detention.
* I oppose warrantless spying.
* I believe that government officials, no matter how high-ranking, should be held accountable for breaking the law and violating the Constitution.
* I believe that the Constitution protects every person’s rights equally — no matter what they believe, how they live, where or if they worship, and whom they love.
* I reject the notion that we have to tolerate violations of our most fundamental rights in the name of fighting terrorism.
* I am deeply committed to the Constitution and expect our country’s leaders to share and act on that commitment — every day, without fail.

We need to let our leaders know that when we step into the ballot box the Constitution will be the first thing on our minds.

Our goal is to sign up 300,000 Constitution Voters by October 15th to demonstrate our power.

I’ve been a longtime user of the Northwest Indiana Times forums and have never caused a problem there, but suddenly every last one of my threads and posts are being deleted. These are harmless threads as tame as asking when a new restaurant is going to open, while threads and posts from trolls remain. I can only assume some rogue moderator doesn’t like me (for reasons I can’t fathom) and has started deleting all my posts. My numerous attempts to contact the administrators and moderators have all gone without reply. I guess they just don’t care about their users.

Times forums

(Meh, I went for a friend. But the experience of being at a TV show taping was neat.)

I was never a talk show viewer, but my friend really loves Steve Wilkos and so we went to see a taping yesterday. (He used to work on, and guest hosted, the Jerry Springer show.) It was fun, but tiring. The taping started more than an hour late, and some people in the audience would not shut up and ended up getting kicked out. We didn’t have the best show… one of the guests on the show would not stop yelling and cursing, and she simply wouldn’t change her ways so Steve could help out. Our show also didn’t have the usual lie detector test, either. They did try to salvage it and think it will air in a couple of months. We have a phone number to call every Friday and wait until we hear when our taping will air.

Neat things about the taping:

The producers (mostly the executive producer, I think) don’t hesitate to pipe up during the show. When the one guest wouldn’t stop yelling, he first told Steve “you need to take control of this situation.” Later, the producer even yelled at her to shut up.

The stage manager (a great, friendly woman named Annette) told us ahead of time not to curse. I never heard anyone in the audience cursing (although admittedly it was very loud in there when we were applauding), but boy the guests did!

Steve is very friendly and seems to be just like he is on TV… very genuine. He answered questions before the taping and stuck around afterwards for pictures and autographs. Also, they do several tapings in one day.

The set looks a lot more orangey in person than it does on TV. I knew that most of it had a rust-colored look, but it never looked so vivid on TV as it did in person.

It was a neat experience to have. I’d love to go to a sitcom taping next.

Subject: Check-in: Your bags and your rights.

If you travel outside the United States this summer, you can kiss your right to privacy, and perhaps your laptop, digital camera and cell phone, goodbye.

Did you know…

1. Border security can seize your laptop, cell phone or camera with no suspicion or explanation.

2. Many airports use scanners that conduct a virtual ” strip search” of passengers.

3. There are over one million names on the terrorist watch list.

4. The TSA recently expressed interest in having every airline passenger wear “electro-muscular disruption” bracelets that could be used to shock passengers into submission.

Traveling shouldn’t mean checking your rights when you’re checking your luggage. It’s time for some sanity when it comes to security.

I just asked my members of Congress to rein in travel abuses by the Department of Homeland Security. You can learn more about this and email your members of Congress here:

ACLU

Don’t miss these great customer service story websites:

Not Always Right
Customers Suck
Acts of Gord (an owner of a video game store)

Woman’s World magazine suggests that you line the stairs to your deck (not the railings, the stairs themselves) with tealights for a party to light the walkway elegantly. Actually, this sounds more to me like a great way to set your guests’ shoes, socks, and pants on fire.

I think if I were going to use candles to light a walkway, they’d have to be sheltered in some way, like placed inside small lanterns.

Jenn Cannon is the current Jeopardy champion. I don’t know how she won. She’s supposedly a doctor and got a question wrong about the ear canal. How much more basic in anatomy can you get?