Got My iPod Touch

I’ll post photos later, and a full review.

Initial thoughts? Well, it’s really fast, and really cool. I’ve received a bunch of compliments for it, so that’s cool. The screen is holding up well, and you can’t really see the smudges when there’s an image on the screen (when it’s off, you can definitely tell: but why would you care when the screen is off?).

Something I found weird, and I don’t know if anyone feels this way: does anyone else feel kinda weird when they’re listening to older music on an iPod? I was listening to early Dead Kennedys just now, and it’s strange, because it’s old music on new technology. Best of both worlds, I guess. I don’t want to carry around a record player.

UPS – “Your Call Is Important To Us… Please Hold”

So, in case you haven’t been following, an important parcel was supposed to arrive yesterday. UPS was (and still is) the shipper, and is ruddy incompetent.Today, I witnessed this raw uselessness.
My package had a scheduled delivery date of yesterday, but it didn’t happen. Apparently, it’s easy to find our house when my dad is getting something shipped, but when it’s my package, they get lost.Anyhow, today rolled around. I phoned at lunch to ensure that my package would be home today. The customer service person apologized for the lack of delivery the previous day and ensured I would get it by noon or just after today. I said “alright” and stupidly decided to go home. I went to my last class of the day, then I left school early (during my spare at 2:00 PM) and walked home in the bloody cold weather. I hate the cold. But that’s another blog story, for another day. I got home at around 2:30 PM, expecting a package. But, lo and behold, there was none to be found. I waited until 5:15, and there was still no parcel.
So I phoned the customer service line again to see if they could tell me where the hell my package was. They couldn’t but assured me that they would forward my concerns to the local distribution centre with a “high priority” rank. They also told me that someone would phone back to me within the next hour.
An hour passed.
Then an hour and a half.
Still, no phone call. I then telephoned UPS back and asked what was up. They said that there was nothing they could do at night, and they assured me that someone would phone me at noon tomorrow.
Isn’t that fantastic?
I don’t recall rescheduling my delivery for 2 days late.

UPS: Useless and Pathetic Service

 

I have a parcel coming that I’m rather excited about. The company I ordered it from usually ships by FedEx, but used UPS this time. UPS said that the package would be here, in my hands, by today. And their website confirmed that it was here! The package was placed on a truck, and driven around the city since 7:30 this morning. It is now 10:30 ish at night. I do not have my package. As of less than one hour ago, their website looked like the image in the top, left. Now, it looks like the image to the right. Notice anything missing? That’s right. It isn’t on time. 

No freaking way it isn’t on time? 

Apple Store Is Down

Probably nothing – might be something.  

Well, There’s Your Problem!

 

This is an adventure in hilarity…  

A classmate won tickets last night to a premiere screening (for tonight) of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged, in its fully uncut and remastered glory. He asked me if I’d like to go, since I was one of the only Nirvana fans he knew, and so I accepted.

 We headed down tonight at around 6 PM. It was held downtown, at the Uptown (?) Theatre. If you’ve ever been to downtown Calgary, you know parking is a bit terrible. We finally found a parkade by the Sears building on 8th Avenue and parked there. We left his truck and went to go see the film.  After about 2 hours, we returned to the parkade. And that’s when things got interesting. 

We first noticed something wrong when we saw that the doors we came in were shut. This didn’t really bode well, since that’s kind of the only exit. We walked around to the back side of the building looking for any and all entrances, only to find that the ones that we found were locked. We finally (after 5 minutes of searching) found one that was open, and went down the staircase. Our hope had improved… for now.

 My friend’s truck was in front of us, and we got to the exit we came in. And then we realized that there was no person in the booth, and no automatic ticket reception thing. Which wasn’t good. We phoned the help number on the booth and asked about our situation. We didn’t know the lot number, however, and they told us to call them back when we found it out. So, we began looking around for the lot number, rather unsuccessfully. As we pondered what to do, we came up with a bit of a plan:

 

1.  Find the lot number
2. Phone back with or without the lot number (it can’t hurt, right?)
3. If (when) that doesn’t work, abandon the car overnight and call a parent to pick us up, or…
4. Sleep in the parkade all night. Pay the $25 to exit at 7 AM, and make a rush for school in a smelly sort of way.

Now, obviously, I had to confer with my mother at which option was best. She didn’t like number 4 (and who can blame her, but what a cool story that would have been), and suggested that we try anything else but that.Luckily, at that very moment, someone was coming down the ramp. “How did they get in?” we wondered. We approached her and asked if she knew what the lot number was. She said that it was “***” (the 3 stars being replaced with the actual lot number), and she said to let her know if it worked. She was a monthly subscriber, so she could come and go as she pleased. We phoned back with the lot number, and then the Impark people said that there was nothing they could do.

Super. 

After a little bit, the lady rolled up in her car, and she asked what the outcome was. We said that we were stuck here for the night. Then, she had a brainwave.

What if we could tailgate her out?

It was a brilliant plan. We got in the truck, and moved towards the exit right behind her. We sat right on her tail as the barrier and door opened.

It bloody worked.

Moral of the story: check the damn times that the parkade is open for. Or find some kind older lady with a monthly pass. Either way…