RE: Open Letter

Hmmmm...

I wonder if my post comes off differently to others than it does to me. So I'll try and clarify:

Setting time length limits: Good
Setting acceptable times of day: Good
Blocking Porn and Hate sites: Good

Wanting to be able to record every single action on the computer for later review: Bad. Secretly obtaining a child's email address information and recording all IM conversations is no different than planting a bug in their backpack and reading their diary. I don't think that hiding a wire in the lining of your kid's coat is good parenting (although I did have a customer openly admit he was buying a small voice recorder to plant in his wife's purse.)

And I never once even protested, except on the two occasions that the parents weren't letting their Jr. High Student use the internet AT ALL because "it is just too dangerous." Seriously, they should just get the kid a bubble.

Hope that helps clarify.

An Open Letter

Dear Parents,

I know the world is a scary place for your children, and I know you have some legitimate reasons to be worried about where they go and whom they talk to. But the world is a changing place, and you can't let your fear of the unknown cause you to put your child in a technological bubble. Yes, bad things can happen on those sites like "MySpace" and such, but banning them entirely is the equivalent of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The internet is capable of bringing your children more information than ever before and they need to learn how to utilize that tool. Now it may sound like a good idea to you to make the internet password protected to the point that your 13 year old cannot access the internet AT ALL without your password. But this is because its you who is the obsessive, controlling, out-of-touch tool who doesn't see any use the internet for anything besides porn and never needs to learn because (let's face it) you're not going anywhere else in this world. But your children need to learn and its your job to learn with them.

So don't come to Best Buy and ask me how to get into your son's email so you can read everything he sends, and don't ask me how to make your computer somehow record everything that is done on the computer so you can retrace their exact steps while you were out too busy to be parenting, and don't ask me for a keystroke monitor that records everything done so that you can learn every password, read every IM, and review every website visited. This is the equivalent of buying your daughter a locked diary to which you have a spare key just so you can see her deepest thoughts.... that's creepy.

Instead let me propose this: TALK TO YOUR KIDS! If you're worried about talking to strangers on IM, make sure you know their friends and ask them about what they're up to (you don't need to know every word). There are decent programs out there to block porn sites and even restrict usage between certain hours and limit the hours per day. These are all acceptable. The internet is not a replacement for a babysitter like you use the TV for... you may actually have to get off your butt, learn a thing or two, and God forbid, talk to your child.

Love Rob.

"C" is for Cookie, it's good enough...

So Ro and I did Christmas Cookies this year.

I know, I know.... we're adorable. Its all her, trust me.
Anyways, this was quite an undertaking,
so I won't let you wait in suspense any longer.

Without Further Ado:









Can you guess which one's I'm responsible for?
Nope.









Ok... Maybe.








Nuh-uh. That's from the Cute One.








Ok, The Christmas Führer might be me.

Here There Be Dragons

Is it so much to ask for just ONE totally awesome dragon movie? Seriously, its one of the reasons I really wanted Peter Jackson to tackle the Hobbit, because there would be an awesome dragon in it. I would like to take a moment to review...

Dragonheart: Not bad, especially as Dragon Movies go, but somehow managed to make a dragon movie into an ABC family special... Sean Connery voiced the dragon, and it was all about love or something like that. Blah blah blah... Last of the Dragons, etc.

Dungeons & Dragons: Hey! I know, I'm looking for a great new lead for a totally awesome fantasy flick... who should I pick... YEAH THAT'S IT!!! A Wayan's Brother would be Perfect for one of them! Someone please put a flaming enchanted serpentine kris right between my +4 Charisma eyes.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: They're not joking about "Hidden Dragon." I couldn't find one ANYWHERE.

Reign of Fire: Dragons and Christian Bale, doesn't seem like it could go wrong. The Visuals were AWESOME. The Movie was crappy. I cried... many nights.

The NeverEnding Story: Possibly one of the best to date. I mean come'on, I named my first cat Falcore when I was little.


Which brings us all the way around to the other night. When Ro, Kris, Scott, Trueblood, Hauge and I all saw Eragon. We were incredibly excited, for anyone who doesn't know, just ask Ro why. Turns out, this movie was no better than the rest. The Book is Amazing. Read it. Buy it and the rest of them. After leaving the theatre my synopsis went something like this:

I feel like they took the book and instead of making the movie off of that, they made it off the cliffnotes version. But the director didn't really READ the cliffnotes, just skimmed the back and inside cover then tried to explain the story to his Hyperactive ADD 6 year old daughter. Whom he then recorded telling the story to her dolls, played it back to himself in fastforward and went from there.

"First there was this boy who found a dragon, but it was a little bitty really really really really really really cute baby dragon who didn't know how to fly so the boy taught it to fly and then it was really big and the boy could ride it although he wasn't very good but it was ok cause the old guy taught him how to fight even though he already knew how and started a fire with magic and the boy shot the monster with a magic arrow and rode the dragon and saved the good guys from the army... but I don't remember where the army came from... but it doesn't matter and he saved the world!"

I'm in love...

So, new short Best Buy post for everyone here.

I was up at customer service helping a customer who had ordered a laptop from another store when a coworker came up to the register next to me... I notice then that the customer he was helping was a typical college co-ed blonde type with a tight baby tee, tight jeans and a black thong (trust me, it was noticeable). Knowing the coworker, I assumed he was excited about having a customer like this and I'm sure we'd bring it up later.

A minute or so later, I was done helping my customer and was able to actually look up. She wasn't really really hot... but just in that sorta skanky way. And then I noticed that her Baseball cap was pulled down over her eyes was black and said "Vu." And then I noticed a bright green lanyard that said Deja Vu.

It wasn't that she was attractive. Or even had an amazing body or anything like that... it was just the fact that I knew if I went down the street I "could" see her naked. The very VERY best part of all?

She paid $400 in all small bills.

Pic here.

So I owe you a post...

How about this for a Rob post:
I hate customers.
How's that?

No seriously. People, it's the holidays. Every where you go is going to be crazy. Be nice to the people who don't get paid enough at retail stores. Here's a guy that I don't know who made a post that I would love to have made myself. Its about standing up for retail people/waiters when they've got unreasonable customers being bastards. The guy in his post talks about how the phrase "The customer is always right" has lead to the downfall of civility in America... and I agree. I had a guy patronize me at work today and I silently wished him to die in a fire.

What? Don't tell me that's too harsh. There's a special place in hell for people who are unnecessarily rude to employees. I was just hoping to give him a bit of a warm up for the rest of his eternity. Basically he complained to a manager because I didn't readily know how to ring up his $3 off coupon for his Superman Returns movie. Lets get this straight, I was helping to check out people because I was being nice. And he was a tool.

My other awesome conversation went like this on a phone.

Me: Best Buy Computers, this is Rob, how may I help you?
Her: Yeah, I bought a computer/printer package yesterday...
Me: Ok.
Her: Yeah and I didn't get my remote control.
Me: Remote control for what ma'am?
Her: My printer.
Me: There's no remote control for that printer...
Her: THEN WHY is there a picture of one here.
Me: Ma'am, none of our printers come with remote controls.
Her: If there's "NO remote" control, WHAT exactly am I looking at?
Me: . . .
Her: . . .
Me: . . .
Her: HELLO?!?!?
Me: Wait, are you serious? Ma'am I don't have the slightest idea what you're looking at right now...
Her: Fine. You know what? Let me talk to that Geek Squad.
Me: Sure thing. [Transfers the crazy lady to be someone else's problem]

Maybe she's just new to this whole telephone thing. Maybe she thought I was like Miss Cleo. Maybe she's freshly ridden the White Pony.... I don't know.



But this made my day. Ro and I came back from the store to find this jackass parked like... (You know this one Scott...) like an idiot. So we let the world know how we felt.

Its Christmas Time!!!

We put up the tree!!
Which pretty much means
I took it out of my closet
and out of the bag...