Rants

Since I rant a lot, this is my special place to put extremely long rants so it doesn't fill my journal. This prevents people from being forced to read all of it if all they want is the summaries in the journal. It started from a box of writings I found under my bed, some of those dating back to 1998 or so. Those will remain here, so deal with it.

I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the Occupy Movement... but has anyone really stopped to think about the load of bullshit it really is?

Company: The Vieno Group (www.thevienogroup.com), also doing business as Superior Concepts, formerly known as Synergy

Summary: The company "hires" people into their business, which functions similar to a pyramid scheme, and in some cases people have not been paid for their work, which is illegal in the United States.

In this rant, I will start with an editorial by Cliffwhit, since this is how this scam came to our attention. This editorial has been republished by permission from Cliffwhit:

What's more, he's not the only one. Click here to read the entire thread on Vieno's inconsistencies.

If you have been a victim of this type of behavior, please contact me through this website. I have reported them to the Oklahoma Department of Labor, and am currently awaiting a response. I will also post that here once I receive it. Please, if you have been a victim of this behavior, please contact me to share your story.

Here are the links to the website and e-mail of the Oklahoma Department of Labor:
[email protected]

State	Website	E-Mail
Oklahoma	http://www.ok.gov/odol	[email protected]

You may also use the comment forms at the top of this posting to leave an instant comment for other readers.

Information is power, and it's yours to use.

If you're in the process of looking for a good job, this list should help you avoid making a mistake like working at Wal-Mart or somewere else ghetto. Look for the following terms. If they are in the job description or recruiting poster, move on to the next one...

1. FAST-PACED -- Busy all the time and short-handed. Your ass will be ran into the ground.

2. TEAM ENVIRONMENT -- You will be forced to work with a bunch of lazy fuckers who will leave you to do all the work and you'll be stuck with a worthless salary working well into the evening finishing up what they could have if they hadn't left at 3pm to go play golf with Fuffer and Marty.

3. STRONG COMPUTER PROFICIENCY -- Usually means they have done something stupid like use a version of Windows to run intense graphics software on a worthless Intel processor.

4. MULTI-TASKING ABILITIES -- This means you will be doing the jobs of eight people, plus that of your boss.

5. FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING -- You'll be stuck with a shitty shift for the first half-decade of your employment. After that, you have the option of moving to a slightly-less-shitty shift, until you eventually get forced into working 20 hours per week.

6. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER -- Not what you would normally think. This means they're looking for a "Yes Man"

7. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY -- This means that everyone has the equal opportunity to get shit on by upper management.

8. CUSTOMER COURTESY SKILLS -- The ability to keep oneself from reaching over the counter and beating the ugly off of someone.

9. ABILITY TO RESOLVE CUSTOMER QUESTIONS -- Likely that someone will call and ask how to remove a cell phone from a small child's trachea. If you're lucky, they'll just ask you the telephone number to Mazzio's.

10. COMPETITIVE PAY/BENEFITS -- You will be started out at $5.15 per hour with health insurance that has a $10,000 deductible. After five years, you are eligible for $1,000 deductible and a fucking absolutely worthless 401(k) plan that you could blow out your nose into a Kleenex™.

12. ESTABLISH COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS -- It probably means that you'll have to have sex with your boss, which may or may not be a problem. On the other hand, it means you'll have to walk all over people to get any kind of good results out of the lazy bastards.

13. MANAGE BUDGET RANGING FROM $4 MILLION to $18 MILLION -- This is a ... wait... yes, this is a good thing... write yourself in for a hefty $1M bonus.

14. RELOCATION ASSISTANCE -- They'll pay for your fucking lunch at McDonalds on next Tuesday. You can forget any kind of UHaul fees, etc. You might as well lick dirt, because that would be easier than trying to get corporate America to pay for anything.

15. ADVANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES -- You can advance up to be the CEO's assistant, which means you'll basically have to kiss (and probably wipe) ass for a considerable amount of time, not to mention keep all of his/her corporate accounting scandals under cover.

This is a rant about a scenario (really happened) and my comparison, which could happen provided a person with a low enough IQ tried it...

CUSTOMER: I want to return this air mattress and this shop vac that I have no receipt for.
JOMPZ: I can allow an exchange for equal merchandise, or a store credit, whichever you prefer.
C: I can't have cash?
J: (Thinking "Did I say you could have cash, dumb bitch?") No ma'am, I can only issue an equal exchange or store credit.
C: But there is nothing wrong with either item.
J: I'm sorry, ma'am. The shop vac has been used... there is dirt on it and no paperwork in the box, so my manager tells me that I can't accept it as a return.
C: Why not?
J: Because it's been used...
C: I only used it a few times and once to clean up water out of my garage...
J: (Rolls eyes)
C: I can't have like, ten dollars or anything?
J: Why would I refund only ten dollars and the rest on store credit?
C: Because I need gas money.
J: (THINKING "And the truth shall set you free...")
J: I'm sorry ma'am. Without a receipt, you are out of luck. I'll turn your issue over to the next CSM, as my shift is ending... (translates as "I don't give a shit...")

CAR SALESMAN (S): Can I help you today?
JOMPZ: I would like to return this car that I purchased.
S: Do you have your original bill of sale?
J: No.
S: Can you prove you bought the car here?
J: It's a Honda. This is a Honda dealership.
S: You are aware that you can't just drive a car for almost two years and then return it, right?
J: Wal-Mart does it.
S: (Thinking "what a dumb fucker.")
J: I mean, it's been used... and the steering wheel is missing..."
S: I'm going to have to turn your issue over to the sales manager, as you have given me the worst craving for nicotine that I have ever experienced.

You see, it's the same situation. Who really buys something, uses it for an eternity, and brings it back not only used, but missing parts? COME ON PEOPLE, IT'S COMMON-FUCKING-SENSE! I swear, some people are so fucking stupid. I know 17 year olds that are brighter than some of these people...

Okay, we've all gotten these messages. We know they are spam. Internet companies will NEVER, ever ask for you to verify your personal information through a link in an e-mail. I got this one from God-only-knows-who and it just amazes me at the stupidity of these people. Following is a copy of the actual message, and I will dissect afterwards.

FROM: Msn General Staff <[email protected]>
SENT: Monday, February 28, 2005 12:16 PM
TO: MSN Customer <[email protected]>
SUBJECT: Your Msn membership suspend message.

Dear MSN Customer,
During one of our regular automatical verification procedures we've encountered a technical problem caused by the fact that we could not verify the information that you provided during registration.

We urgently ask you to submit your information so that we could fully verify your identity, otherwise an access to MSN services for your account will be deactivated until you pass verification process.

To submit your information please use our secure online application - secure form.

Did you see anything wrong with this? It had "red flag" written all over it. First, is "automatical" really even a word? I don't think it is. Second, companies do not use contractions in letters from the business to the customer. Anyone with a college-level writing class will tell you this if they had a good professor. And the phrase "...caused by the fact that..." is not used. Instead, most intelligent employees would phrase it something like, "problem caused by our inability to process your initial registration information...". More grammar problems follow:

1) They say "so that we could fully verify your identity." If you read the entire sentence, it should read "so that we can fully verify..."

2) They say "otherwise an access to MSN services for your account." Again, a proper business-related letter would read something like, "otherwise access to your MSN account..." How do you get an access anyway? Don't you just get access?

Never mind the fact that their link to the "secure" form takes you to a site that is not even on MSN. Microsoft Network (MSN) performs all of its information processes on its own web servers, not a third party's.

Leave it to me to debunk stupid web hackers' pathetic attempts at getting your information and leaching free Internet access. They can take their automatical verification for an access somewhere else

I was thinking the other day about people during the holiday season. And it made me think about all the stupid things people do. So this may help you NOT do something stupid when you are at a retail establishment.

1. Retail establishments get busy. It is a fact of life. They lack the ability to see into the future and see that forty people will converge on the front checkouts all at once. Stand in line, be patient, and fucking deal with it.

2. When someone sounds like they have a slight tone in their voice, don't automatically assume they are rude. They may be having a bad day. They may have had a customer like you bitching because we were out of the toilet paper you use and you have to use something else that doesn't make your ass feel as special, literally. Tough shit, it will be on the truck tomorrow. A 97-cent four-pack of store-brand tissue will suffice. Your ass will have to cope.

3. CSMs/front-end managers have a lot of stuff to do. Their main job function is to supervise cashiers. When they are trying to do fifteen things at once, don't get mad when they ask you to wait for less than a minute while they remedy a problem at a register. They have the option of making you wait two minutes, or making a whole line of people wait five to ten minutes. Your ass will still get helped faster than they would have. Deal with it.

4. Policies are something corporations enforce on their stores. Your cashier has nothing to do with it. They don't want to hear you bitch. They hear enough of that from their supervisors daily.

5. Put your mother-fucking shopping cart back in the corrale when you are done. I don't want dings in my door or to be trapped inside of a burning building because your fat Michelin-man ass couldn't burn four calories and put the fucking thing back where you found it. The bad parenting your mother and father provided is not an excuse. I should not have to spend half of my shift cleaning up after GROWN ADULTS!

8. 90-days is exactly that. Three months. Twelve weeks. WRITE IT DOWN. Something you bought in 1997 is past the 90-day return period. That would be the equivalent of buying a car in 1986 and returning it in 2004 because the wheel fell off. (SEE MY COMPARISON) Use your brain if you have one. If you don't, consult someone who does.

9. All businesses have payroll to follow. When you don't see all registers open at 9:00 A.M., that is why. Stop being a cheap shithead and get that fucking checkbook out. If you don't have money, use the credit card. Buying $5.00 worth of meaningless shit will not afford an additional cashier. Don't be surprised when I look at you like a dumb fuck because you waste my time with nothing but a forty-cent candy bar. Buy a riding lawnmower, then I'll kiss your ass.

10. Don't ask me if I work here. I am wearing the vest. I am behind the counter. What was your first clue? And right now, I am probably donning a goddamned Santa hat. If that doesn't raise a flag, you really don't belong in public.

11. Common sense... it's what's for society. It's also the least common of the senses.

12. Keep your fucking kids with you. Nobody wants to pick up after the heathen little shits. This is not Mr. Sam's Daycare.

13. Most retail stores do not honor prices from other stores within their chain. Example: You find a book at a Wal-Mart for $9.97, and the same book at another Wal-Mart for $6.97. Drive to the other fucking Wal-Mart and get it. Better yet, go to Kmart. They will do it for you. That is why they filed bankruptcy.

14. Don't ask me if I am checking if I am in the service desk. When there is a line of people with refunds and returns, I think it is self-explanatory that I am busy with other things. That is what the checkout registers are for.

15. If you do not know everything there is to know about some merchandise, there is a chance most employees aren't going to know either, especially if they don't work in that department. My suggestion: READ THE FUCKING BOX YOU BRAINLESS MORON! I've obtained a plethera of information from doing this one simple thing.

16. Don't use profanity. Not only is it rude, it makes you look like a complete ass in front of other shoppers, and you will be bookmarked by the employees. Chances are, you will find a brick thrown through the window of your robin-egg-blue minivan. Cope with it.

17. Don't come whining to an employee when you were stupid and left your pocketbook with $500 in it lying around somewhere and can't find it. Chances are someone found that $500 and turned it into an e-Machine Pentium 4 and is using it to surf the web, file taxes, and perform various other tasks. Nobody cares.

18. Learn to read signs. This includes the following: 10 items or less; Layaway hours 7 A.M. to 9 P.M.; Service Desk hours 7 A.M. to 10 P.M.; Returns/Exchanges only; 90-days with receipt; Lane Closed; price tags/flags; the pedestrian crossing sign in the parking lot. Oh, and THE GODDAMNED BOX of the merchandise you are trying to figure out whether or not it will work with your kick-ass 19-inch Sanyo with rabbit-ears antenna.

The SSA (Shopper Safety Administration) has found these facts to be beneficial in maintaining good physical health and to prevent an angry retail employee from beating your ass senseless. They should all be taken seriously, and you may not be the next red-flag alert on the workplace violence rating system.