Thursday, April 29, 2004

So today I heard Bittersweet Symphony on the FM on the way home. This is one song I have to sing along with. Slow and enunciated. Wait...aren't they british? Odd. I digress. So a couple years ago I was just riding along and there was this Dave Mathews tune on the FM and I came up to a red light and it was a song of theirs where theres a part Dave sings real fast and I looked in my rear view mirror and the dude behind me was lipping the fast part but I know for sure he had no idea what Dave was saying. Speaking of sing-along songs, I heard Come Undone on the FM on the way to lunch today. Now I was listening carefully and I could not tell what the hell Simon was saying. (<- Woah, Simon says, ha!). I need to look those lyrics up.

Finally, I am here watching TV while surfing the web and I finally loaded Musicmatch Jukebox for the first time and some how it ended up playing Bittersweet Symphony. Second time today. I hadn't heard this song in maybe a year. Whatever happened to the Verve anyway? Where are they now? Calling VH1.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Nuriya parrotted us saying "Allah" last night, mashaAllah se. This, a few hours after mimicking mama's "Laa la, la LA laa" (Milkshake, Kelis). Aoodoobillah. Of course dada dadi immediately got into full shahada swing. Baby steps...coming soon.

Friday, April 23, 2004

Jay-Z. Head & Shoulders. This needs to happen.
Who's dad wears safari suits?

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

I am a firm believer in justice. I also believe we, as the little man, should fight all injustices against us by corporate America. A dollar is worth more to an individual than it is to Big Business. Below is feedback I sent to McDonald's via mcdonalds.com:

I am writing to complain about the lack of communication skills of McDonald's cashiers. This is the second time this year I have experienced this and it is quite baffling. The first incident occurred a couple months ago at the McDonald's [Express?] inside the Wal-Mart in Sterling, VA 20166.

Basically, I placed my order which included a request for a small cup for water. I look at my receipt and am charged $1.00 for a small Coke. Who orders a cup of water expecting to pay $1? If your policy is not to give cups for water, why don't your cashiers explain this instead of going ahead and charging customers for what obviously should be free. I believe in the state of Virginia, regular water (not bottled) cannot be charged for, but I may be wrong. Even if you can charge for it, isn't it extremely obvious that a cashier should be able to explain this to a customer?

In both cases, the cashiers in question did not seem to have a firm grasp of the English language. Basically, they can't express concepts which should be quote obvious, or they don't feel comfortable doing so. I don't begrudge them for not knowing our language yet, but customer service includes communication.

The manager in this case gave me $1 cash back without accounting for the tax. That's fine by me. I am just disheartened that customer service does not seem to be a priority in hiring cashiers. To me, it is painfully obvious that when one asks for a cup for water, they don't expect to be paying $1 for it. Any sensible cashier should at least know to explain that a customer will be charged, if this is McDonald's policy.

Thank you for your time.


Is this trifling? This fight is not about $1, although gift certificates will gladly be accepted alongside a corporate apology. There are two things in play here. First, the little man [me] getting shafted by big business. Again, relatively speaking, $1 in my pocket is worth more than $1 in a McDonald's earnings report. Hello, Billions Served. Millions screwed, I say.
Secondly, just the fact that there are people out there who don't have the common sense to know that when a person asks for a small cup for water, they don't want to pay the price of a Coke. Hello, McFly (<- that McFly came out before I made the mental connection with McDonald's; damn that was nice). These are McDonald's with self-serve soda fountains. Why would I explicity ask for a cup for water and expect to pay for it?

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

I got me some new whips the other day. Nuriya has her 9 month checkup today so I had to ride the Jet 35 miles to work today. I'm just learning stick so it was pretty stressful. I pretty much got it down except for starting on any incline so I avoided my usual route and took the one that ended up taking 1hr 45mins! S'all good with the Monsoon though.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

I luh me some guacamole. Baja Fresh es muy bueno. But why do they charge for extra? I submit that guacamole is a condiment that should flow freely. OK bad pun post Mexican restaurant.