Dear Sir or Madam:
I am writing about the abysmal handling of road closures during the Amgen Tour of California. At no time were there any notifications on Lynn Road leading up to the event that it would be closed to all traffic. My wife and I (and apparently several dozen other carloads of people) were completely surprised when we were told that we were not allowed to return to our home. This was especially irritating since we were returning from the store with groceries.
What was insulting was that it appeared that the local police, while present, weren't truly even in charge. When we tried to explain to a woman wearing Amgen markings that we needed to return home with our groceries, she was outright rude to us, telling us we had no right to cross the road, that we were going to have to wait another hour before we could do so, and that we should have known better because "the schedule was published, after all!" It may very well be that it was published, possibly in many different locations, but that doesn't make up for the fact that road closures should have been posted on the actual roads beforehand. Judging from the many drivers speeding around looking for a detour that didn't exist, many of our neighbors would agree, especially the one who yelled to some police "HOW THE F@#K AM I SUPPOSED TO GET OUT OF HERE?!"
Finally, after making another loop of the area, the Amgen employee said we should park in the neighborhood across the street from ours and then just walk home with our groceries. We relented, since we didn't want our food to go bad. Again, this turned into a bad joke when we were then stopped at the corner, bags in hand, and told that we weren't allowed to cross by foot either, after being told just the opposite at the very same intersection! One of our neighbors had enough at this point, and just crossed with her groceries when she was accosted by someone and told she wasn't allowed to cross. When she persisted, she was pushed down, causing her to drop her food in the middle of the road. Then a policeman tried to drag her from the road as she was gathering her groceries back into the bag. After this, and several other people screaming about the situation, we were told by a different policeman that we could cross right away if we did so very quickly. Keep in mind that at no time had we seen even a single cyclist!
I'd like to make something very clear, I am not against this sort of event. My wife and I have participated in Amgen's Breakaway From Cancer bike rides in the past, and I have years of experience participating in large running events and have seen various attempts at providing a secure course while making a minimal impact to local traffic. This was absolutely the worst managed attempt at traffic control of any cycling, running, or triathlon I have EVER encountered. I hope that in future years we will be given more consideration when it comes to notification of road closures, that some thought is given to detours or at least actual traffic control instead of outright closures to all access of neighborhoods, and that city employees, NOT AMGEN EMPLOYEES, are given the power to make rational decisions in cases of goofs.
Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Lloyd Cogliandro
Showing posts with label Rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rant. Show all posts
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Injunction Against Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Congratulations!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67M4HA20100824
To all those behind the case against President Obama's new guidelines for embryonic stem cell research: Congratulations!
To those members who claim to support the free market: You have supported another attempt by a company to use the courts to stifle competition. Congratulations!
To those members who claim to believe in the sanctity of life: You have delayed the fates of embryos, but have not changed them. The "life" you claim to cherish will still be frozen, NEVER to be implanted in a uterus. Instead of being used for stem cell research using Federal funds, they might still be used for the same research, but using funds from a different source. Then again, they might just be thrown into an incinerator with other biological waste. Congratulations!
To those claiming to be motivated by their religion: You have once again answered those with questions that the suffering of the sick and infirm is not as important as adherence to your dogma. In fact, your implicit message that suffering is necessary to be a "true believer" may help in driving many more away from your sick, masochistic, belief systems. Congratulations!
To all those behind the case against President Obama's new guidelines for embryonic stem cell research: Congratulations!
To those members who claim to support the free market: You have supported another attempt by a company to use the courts to stifle competition. Congratulations!
To those members who claim to believe in the sanctity of life: You have delayed the fates of embryos, but have not changed them. The "life" you claim to cherish will still be frozen, NEVER to be implanted in a uterus. Instead of being used for stem cell research using Federal funds, they might still be used for the same research, but using funds from a different source. Then again, they might just be thrown into an incinerator with other biological waste. Congratulations!
To those claiming to be motivated by their religion: You have once again answered those with questions that the suffering of the sick and infirm is not as important as adherence to your dogma. In fact, your implicit message that suffering is necessary to be a "true believer" may help in driving many more away from your sick, masochistic, belief systems. Congratulations!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Slacker!
Wow, I wish I knew what happened! I've been so good about keeping my running entries up to date, but a few weeks ago I just started slacking off. I can partly blame my attempt to get into the office an hour earlier, but that doesn't seem to completely cover it. My days were getting pretty busy for a while there, and my evenings are quite a bit more crowded with the dog's obedience training, but why should that impact my ability to spend a lousy five minutes recounting how my run went? I'd blame my thyroid medication if it wasn't for the fact that this issue predates the new prescription by a couple of weeks.
Whatever the reason, I'm going to work at keeping up to date again. Only time will tell if it sticks this time.
Whatever the reason, I'm going to work at keeping up to date again. Only time will tell if it sticks this time.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
A bit pissed at Amazon
A little note I just sent to Amazon:
I understand, but don't completely agree with, your battle with Macmillan over e-book content. It's bad enough that I can't currently purchase their books from your site, but now I find that they don't even show up on my wish lists! Being told that an item is not currently available is one thing, but I'm not even sure which items those are since they've all been replaced with placeholder images and captions stating "This title is no longer available!" For a company that wants us to use your site as a universal wish list, you have certainly made me consider your company less than reliable for this purpose. For what it's worth, I have three suggestions:
1) Reinstate Macmillan content on customer's wish lists so that they can at least be seen.
2) Open the Kindle device to support alternate formats like ePub. That will allow the Kindle to be even MORE useful to your customers.
3) Let the market determine if Macmillan's $15 price point for e-books is too high (I agree with your company that it is.)
Sunday, December 20, 2009
I'm so glad they kept her safe!
Dutch girl missing after thwarted global sail trip
To summarize: A young teenage girl, who has been sailing her entire life, wanted to sail solo around the world. Her country's government got word and promptly stepped in to stop her attempt "for her safety." Now she's gone missing.
To be sure this would have been a risky endeavor for anyone, but really it is a manageable risk considering that humans have been sailing the world for thousands of years. Also, with the current state of communications, you can honestly say that help would only be a few hours away, at the outside. Unfortunately, the idea that a child is exposed to any risk apparently switched off some brains, so she was made to stay at home, where she would be completely safe. We'll just ignore things like getting hit by a car walking around her neighborhood, being mugged, getting kidnapped, or say, running away from home.
So instead of letting her proceed with her sailing attempt, where they would be able to monitor her constantly via electronic devices, they now have absolutely no fucking clue as to her location or whether or not she's even alive. Way to go folks!
Oh, and the truly funny part of all this. The government is trying to find a girl whose passion is sailing by monitoring the country's airports! What a bunch of dumbshits!
To summarize: A young teenage girl, who has been sailing her entire life, wanted to sail solo around the world. Her country's government got word and promptly stepped in to stop her attempt "for her safety." Now she's gone missing.
To be sure this would have been a risky endeavor for anyone, but really it is a manageable risk considering that humans have been sailing the world for thousands of years. Also, with the current state of communications, you can honestly say that help would only be a few hours away, at the outside. Unfortunately, the idea that a child is exposed to any risk apparently switched off some brains, so she was made to stay at home, where she would be completely safe. We'll just ignore things like getting hit by a car walking around her neighborhood, being mugged, getting kidnapped, or say, running away from home.
So instead of letting her proceed with her sailing attempt, where they would be able to monitor her constantly via electronic devices, they now have absolutely no fucking clue as to her location or whether or not she's even alive. Way to go folks!
Oh, and the truly funny part of all this. The government is trying to find a girl whose passion is sailing by monitoring the country's airports! What a bunch of dumbshits!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Banks, Helping People (A Rant)
Just came across this story, and it made me angry for a number of reasons. On a personal level, it's because of the repeated acts that I have put up with over the years at the hands of idiots employed by these institutions. Now, before you think I'm going to go off on the evils of financial institutions, I need to explain that what I'm going to rant about is actually related to the idiocy of individuals. However, corporate policies encouraging "gotcha capitalism" also fall in my sights.
My most recent dealing with this kind of idiocy happened just yesterday, while dealing with Chase. I have two business accounts that I opened with WaMu years ago, and needed to make some deposits. However, I realized that my last ATM card had expired and that I hadn't received a new one. When I called Chase to find out about a new card I ended up having to go through all of the usual steps to confirm my identity and accounts, twice. Even after that, they refused to send me a new ATM card until I provided the date that I opened my accounts, something that would require me to dig through archived files that I hadn't seen in half a decade. When I explained this to the person on the phone, she told me that they couldn't do what banks have been doing for years: automatically sending a new card to replace expired ones. It didn't matter that I confirmed my account number, address, phone number, personal name, company name, SSN, etc. they wouldn't just send a replacement card to the address they had on file until I dug up some old paper. Finally realizing that stupidity is never cured over the phone, I hung up and went into the nearest Chase branch. I walked up to the first person I saw, said "I need a new ATM card," gave them my name and account # and told them it could be sent to the address on file. They said "sure" and I was done.
My previous episode was with a branch of Bank of America. I had paid off my car, and received a check back from the company for an ~$2 overpayment, drawn off of an account at B of A. Thinking that it should be a no-brainer to get this cashed I went into a branch across the parking lot from where I was buying groceries and was told that because I didn't have an account there, I would be charged $5 for cashing a $2 check from their own damn accounts. Fortunately, at this point the teller stopped trying to convince me to open an account there, since it was getting obvious that I was not a fan of their "gotcha" practices.
Another great B of A story isn't directly mine, but my grandfather's. He's in his 80s, and cannot drive anymore, but still uses his old driver's license as an ID. This, apparently, is good enough for everyone except B of A, who took exception with the fact he tried to access his account with it after it had expired. Now, before you say "sure, why should they accept an expired driver's license" keep in mind that a driver's license is a form of identification that also states whether or not the holder is legally capable of driving. An expired license simply means that as of some date, the identified person does not have the right to drive, not that the person has now changed identities. This is also why expired passports are considered valid ID in many cases. Again, idiocy had trumped common sense.
The best example I have, though, comes from many years ago and involved a credit card company that no longer exists. I used my card to pay my utility bills every month, then paid off the balance. This worked fine until my card expired and I hadn't received a new one. I called the company, wanting them to send a new card and also let me know what, if anything had changed on it so that I could continue paying my utilities online with the new information before the card arrived. No matter what I told them, they refused to tell me anything because of "security." I explained that they were the ones who had made a mistake in the first place by not sending a new card, a card that was only of value to me if I could pay my bills with it. Still refusing to give me any information because they couldn't trust me over the phone, I told them that in that case, their card was of no use to me. I told them to cancel the new card, and that I wanted to close my account with them. Remarkably, they seemed to think that I could be trusted now and proceeded to close my account based solely on the word of a person on the phone who wasn't "secure" enough to trust with account information just two minutes earlier.
My most recent dealing with this kind of idiocy happened just yesterday, while dealing with Chase. I have two business accounts that I opened with WaMu years ago, and needed to make some deposits. However, I realized that my last ATM card had expired and that I hadn't received a new one. When I called Chase to find out about a new card I ended up having to go through all of the usual steps to confirm my identity and accounts, twice. Even after that, they refused to send me a new ATM card until I provided the date that I opened my accounts, something that would require me to dig through archived files that I hadn't seen in half a decade. When I explained this to the person on the phone, she told me that they couldn't do what banks have been doing for years: automatically sending a new card to replace expired ones. It didn't matter that I confirmed my account number, address, phone number, personal name, company name, SSN, etc. they wouldn't just send a replacement card to the address they had on file until I dug up some old paper. Finally realizing that stupidity is never cured over the phone, I hung up and went into the nearest Chase branch. I walked up to the first person I saw, said "I need a new ATM card," gave them my name and account # and told them it could be sent to the address on file. They said "sure" and I was done.
My previous episode was with a branch of Bank of America. I had paid off my car, and received a check back from the company for an ~$2 overpayment, drawn off of an account at B of A. Thinking that it should be a no-brainer to get this cashed I went into a branch across the parking lot from where I was buying groceries and was told that because I didn't have an account there, I would be charged $5 for cashing a $2 check from their own damn accounts. Fortunately, at this point the teller stopped trying to convince me to open an account there, since it was getting obvious that I was not a fan of their "gotcha" practices.
Another great B of A story isn't directly mine, but my grandfather's. He's in his 80s, and cannot drive anymore, but still uses his old driver's license as an ID. This, apparently, is good enough for everyone except B of A, who took exception with the fact he tried to access his account with it after it had expired. Now, before you say "sure, why should they accept an expired driver's license" keep in mind that a driver's license is a form of identification that also states whether or not the holder is legally capable of driving. An expired license simply means that as of some date, the identified person does not have the right to drive, not that the person has now changed identities. This is also why expired passports are considered valid ID in many cases. Again, idiocy had trumped common sense.
The best example I have, though, comes from many years ago and involved a credit card company that no longer exists. I used my card to pay my utility bills every month, then paid off the balance. This worked fine until my card expired and I hadn't received a new one. I called the company, wanting them to send a new card and also let me know what, if anything had changed on it so that I could continue paying my utilities online with the new information before the card arrived. No matter what I told them, they refused to tell me anything because of "security." I explained that they were the ones who had made a mistake in the first place by not sending a new card, a card that was only of value to me if I could pay my bills with it. Still refusing to give me any information because they couldn't trust me over the phone, I told them that in that case, their card was of no use to me. I told them to cancel the new card, and that I wanted to close my account with them. Remarkably, they seemed to think that I could be trusted now and proceeded to close my account based solely on the word of a person on the phone who wasn't "secure" enough to trust with account information just two minutes earlier.
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