“No parking sign ten feet in front of me? Disregard.”

by   •   General
 

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

A while back, my university had its first home football game. The day before, in preparation, a lot of areas were either shut down or reserved so the sports crew could come in and set up their equipment.

A “No Parking” sign was posted on a street near the football stadium – this happened to be the street across from the lot where I normally park, so I had a clear view of it when I arrived.

While I was getting ready to pack everything up so I can head out to the bus stop to ride to the main campus, a car pulled up on the street.

No parking sign? It’s clearly just an illusion.

 

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I’m getting a new replacement laptop from Dell

by   •   General
 

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Today’s the day you’ve all been waiting for. … Or at least, I’ve been waiting for. October 11 is the deadline I set for Dell to finish fixing up my laptop and send me a confirmation email with a tracking number letting me know my laptop has been sent back to me.

I got a voicemail from Dell a few days ago that they are unable to repair my laptop (I’m guessing due to another ridiculous reason with an easy and straightforward solution, but they didn’t specify). However, because they would like to honor the deadline I set for them (or because they’re terrified for their company’s reputation), they concluded that they would like to send me a replacement laptop.

I received a follow-up call yesterday, which I was able to answer. The customer support technician stated that he just wanted to verify that this would be okay with me, and informed me that, although they were not sure which laptop would be sent to me, it would be a laptop of equal or greater quality. He also mentioned that it would take about seven days for the laptop to go through the approval process from the management.

So here’s where I stand today.

I specifically told the technician that he had until today, October 11, 2013, to email me with a shipping confirmation. I informed him this eight days prior to the deadline I set.

Although I acknowledge that he did eventually come to somewhat of a resolution before the deadline, I still do not have the shipping confirmation in my email (and most likely will not, because he said it would take a week for it to be ready). If this was the solution they wanted to approach, they could have acted quicker (possibly deciding to do a laptop exchange the day I set the deadline), and still had a day to spare to ship out my laptop.

As a result, the deadline was not met. I will keep my side of the condition, which is to publish this entire problem as a complete and coherent story, and to publicize the poor service I received from Dell.

I will start working on writing this story once I receive my exchange laptop, so I have a specific number of how many days the entire repair process took. This will be released on my website, as well as (likely) in the form of a YouTube video.

There will then be a condensed version of this story written, to be posted on popular purchase and review websites like Amazon, and even on Dell’s own website. If the review site allows me to include hyperlinks, I will link to the full version of the story on my website.

I assume that hearing the tidbits of my story so far has convinced you that Dell’s repair service is pretty bad, and hopefully hearing the full story to be released soon will persuade you never to do business with Dell. I also hope that Dell will realize that in the age of social media, they will never again lie to their customers and make them wait over a month to get a laptop fixed, or else their reputation will be shattered to pieces.

 

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Re: “Daily Prompt: Fright Night”

by   •   Daily Post
 

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Do you like being scared by books, films, and surprises? Describe the sensation of being scared, and why you love it — or don’t.

Source: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/daily-prompt-frightening/

I don’t think I’ve ever been scared by a book (except maybe when someone throws one at me), but I have been by films and surprises, and I definitely do not enjoy it.

In normal situations, I always value being in control of everything. Although I do not necessarily demonstrate my control to others, it’s always a thought in my mind. If I notice that something has a potential of doing something unexpected, I think of ways of how I can react to these things such that I can easily regain control of the situation caused.

To me, the feeling of being scared is a feeling of losing control. Something that you weren’t expecting happens, and you are not prepared to properly react to it. As a result, I feel like being scared is a sensation of vulnerability, which I do not enjoy feeling.

I generally don’t watch horror films in the first place, but when I do, I usually have to remind myself that I’m in a completely safe environment and it’s perfectly normal (and intended) to get scared. Otherwise, I tend to naturally begin to overanalyze the film, trying to predict what’s going to happen to prevent being taken by surprise. But even when I do let myself get scared, it brings back feelings of unpreparedness and vulnerability, so I tend not to watch horror films.

In real life, I always have a mentality of reacting, which helps me expect the unexpected. I have also built up some good experience dealing with strange and unusual situations, so even if something catches me unexpectedly, I’m able to react to it properly without getting scared.

 

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Re: “Daily Prompt: Bloggers, Unplugged”

by   •   Daily Post
 

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Sometimes, we all need a break from these little glowing boxes. How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

Source: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/daily-prompt-unplugged/

I find this to actually be a really funny prompt, because things tend to be the opposite for me. When I know it’s time to unplug, it’s usually unplugging from real life and entering the world of a “little glowing box.”

However, I do guess that there are times when I need to unplug from technology as well. There are literally an infinite amount of things I can do when I’m connected to the Internet – I have a list on my virtual notepad, and it’s actually impossible to finish the list because multiple items can go on forever (a few easy ones being adding more content to my website, and watching other people’s League of Legends streams to get better at the game). So, I eventually need to find a stopping point so I can go to sleep.

Generally, the only time I really need to get away from a computer is when I’ve been on for so long that I can feel myself getting dizzy and need to start walking around. There have been days when I have been on my laptop for around 16 hours straight, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, and still haven’t felt exhausted. Normally, the only reason I would feel dizzy while using the computer is if I’m also sick in the process (but that usually means that I’m dizzy regardless of what I do).

Overall, I think I have adapted my life enough that I never really need to unplug, because such a huge portion of my normal life now exists in the form of technology – online in the form of the things I enjoy doing, the things I make for others, and the communication I have with friends.

 

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The view out the window from my new study spot

by   •   General
 

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

At the end of last month, I mentioned that I spent my first full week at my new university. Being at a new university also means having a new study spot – I snapped this photo out the window behind me.

A bit of construction going on, but still a nice view.

 

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“Some men have the ability to see through solid surfaces”

by   •   General
 

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Some men have the ability to see through solid surfaces

If you can’t tell from the photo, that’s former United States president George Bush looking through binoculars without removing the lens caps – I came across this in a book that I was reading a while back.

 

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