:: The Rants ::
What's in this section?
Ever just wanted to vent? Well here's were *I* get to do it.
The Laptop Nazi
Friday, May 13, 2005
Unreasonable is only the beginning of adjectives I could use to describe this man.
I consider myself a tolerant person...well, not really, but it sounded like a good line to start with. In any case, I met with an ODIOUS creature in the heat of gearing up for finals. It was the cherry to top off an already stressful day.
First of all, it was a Sunday--a day that should be devoted to taking it easy and leisure. BUT as it was the weekend before the first week when presentations were due, I was having meetings with group members and frantically scrambling to get work done. The most convenient place to meet was school, but we tried to maintain a “sunday-ish” sort of atmosphere by meeting at a cafe. Cafe Esperanto is wonderful for doing school work. The lax service is condusive to staying for a very long time with a lone cup of coffee and my laptop for many hours. They never push for you to get out because they *know* that they are a student cafe where many will come to study. It’s open 24 hours and the atmosphere is very chill.
For the second, i thought i’d mix it up a bit and try another cafe (how sad would it be to leave for 1 hour only to come back and have *another* meeting?). Courtney and I headed off to explore other unknown cafes. And therein lay our trouble. We wandered into Cafe Dante, which is also very near school. We orderd our coffees that weren’t exactly cheap, chatted a little, and then i pulled out my laptop. Not even a minute passed before a waitress made a bee-line to our table.
Her: “You can’t have a laptop in here.”
Us: “...?”
Her: “I said you can’t have a laptop in here.”
Us: “Why?”
Her: “It’s the owner’s policy.”
Me: “Does it say it anywhere?”
Her: “No, it’s the owner’s policy.”
Me: “Well, then can we have our coffees for free because we would NEVER have come here if we knew that there were no laptops allowed. You see, we’re meeting for a class project and we NEED the laptop.”
Her: “Let me get the owner.”
After about 10 minutes, she still had not returned. We had not put the laptop away. In fact, we defiantly continued to work away even though her directions seemed pretty clear. We figured at that point that she had just made a big show but wouldn’t really enforce it or bring the owner. BUT alas, the owner came out.
And i was feeling beligerent. (I suppose I’m really edgy now after the
haircut fiasco that happened back in September)
The owner made the same, “You can’t have your laptop here” statement. When we asked where his sign was, he blustered in his thick accent, “I DON’T NEED A SIGN! WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN BRING A LAPTOP IN HERE? This is a CAFE, NOT AN OFFICE! This is one of the oldest cafes in New York! You don’t bring your laptop in here to do work!” His disgust for the electronic device was evident. So I shot back with, “How were we supposed to know? By reading your mind?” “You ask ‘can i use a laptop here?’” We argued back, “That makes no sense! Why would we ask? It’s not a problem in ANY OTHER CAFE IN NEW YORK.”
I made our final offer. “Well, then give us our coffees for free because we wouldn’t be here unless we knew that we could use it.”
It must have been evident that I wasn’t going to budge. Or I wasn’t going to pay. In fact, i was ready to walk out without paying a cent. Seeing that kind of resolve, he decided to opt for keeping some kind of profit. “Ok, you stay this time. But don’t bring that in here ever again!” “Oh, don’t worry,” I replied. “We’re never coming here again!”
We stayed for another hour or so just to spite him, but by then i was so agitated that it was difficult to get any real work done. My question is, does he outlaw PDAs? Blackberries? Cellphones? Can you do that? Don’t get me wrong, i can understand that he wants to keep the atmosphere relaxed and cafe-ish, but if that’s the case, he’d better be willing to post notice or have a lot of disgruntled students giving bad PR. Like this. DON’T EVER GO TO CAFE DANTE ON MACDOUGAL AND BLEECKER. Ridiculous man. Grrrrrr.
Yahoo! breaks my heart
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
After using my datkatskat address since 1998, Yahoo! has deleted my account for some unknown reason!
One day i try to logon to my account and WHAM-O™, the screen warns me that my account has been deactivated and EVERYTHING is erased with no hope of recover. Ever.
I’d like to mention that I’ve been having trouble with Yahoo! for quite a while now. In fact, it all began with signing up for SBC Yahoo! DSL. I connected my account to that and then when i deactivated the DSL service because i moved, it apparently decided to take out my other accounts like a ninja in the night, flipping out and killing with fierce intensity. Or something like that.
And have you ever TRIED to call Yahoo! about a question? Look all you can but you’ll never find a phone number to call! Or at least *I* haven’t found a number yet. If you do find one, leave it in the comments section! I’m still trying to get a hold of them to see if i can restore my account!
Anyway, so i try to reactivate my account...which works for about 3 days! All my previous emails are erased, but oh well, at least i can still use my address, right? WRONG! 3 days later, i get this message that says, “Datkatskat who? You don’t have an account with us! Bugger off!” It’s maddening. Especially since i tried to upgrade my account for the past 4 months! I even managed to get a hold of a customer service rep who said, “We are aware of the technical difficulties and we don’t really care about you and your needs. Thanks for calling! Buh-bye,” and with a slam, hung up on me. So i haven’t been able to get POP access for forever!
I’m just sick of whatever they’re doing to my account! I’m going to sign up for the account again, but if you have a choice, email me at contact kathy DOT khoo AT gmail DOT com (written out so that spambots cannot harvest my internet soul--thanks Nathan for the tip!). Actually, can you all do me a favor and send me an email there so i can get your email addresses? I have many of your addresses, but just in case, please write!
My closing words on this: MOVE TO GMAIL! (if you need an invite, let me know!)
Fudruckers = Food Wreckers
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Fudruckers is a terrible chain of burgers and other fried/greasy food that should have their right to serve hot dogs REVOKED!
I take the hot dog situation is a personal affront! Being a burger place, they are well equipped to serve every condiment that one could ever desire on a burger. There is, in fact, a condiment bar with big tubs of ketchup, mustard, dijon mustard, bbq sauce, mayonaise, etc. with large pumps so you can squirt them lavishly upon your patty and bun. HOWEVER, when it comes to the very *basics* of hot dog condimentation, there is NOTHING! No sauerkraut. No onions. And worst of all, no relish!!
Who on earth serves a hot dog without these things? I ate my hot dog in stoney ketchupy silence. I even got up the nerve to express my annoyance with the condiment situation to one of the workers who seemed very amused by my emotional investment in relish.
Seriously though, i was about to rush out to a hot dog stand at the corner and beg them for relish. They only have a small 4’x3’ cart and yet THEY still seem to find room for these “exotic” extras.
Fudruckers...stick to burgers. Please. Or take that next leap into the wonderful world of hot dogs! I’m sure adding 3 extra condiments to your bar will seem like nothing compared to the happiness that you will bring to your customers...or at least customer.
Cornering the Market
Thursday, March 17, 2005
I know i rant about Starbucks a lot, but it’s only because we have a love/hate relationship that keeps me coming back for more.
So, in reference to Kirstin’s comment from the last rant, i have something REAL to rant about (though it’s still a cheap shot since it’s just too easy).
A couple of my friends and I decided to head down to Pennsylvania for the day to hang out with another friend and her family. We had agreed by email to meet at the Starbucks at 35th St. and 7th ave. near Penn Station where we would board the New Jersey Transit. The morning of, I called one of the friends, Tanya, to confirm the location. She was already out and about and couldn’t remember what she had written in her email, so she told me 34th and 7th Ave.
As i walked from 6th Ave. toward 7th, i noticed that there were two Starbucks coffee shops at 34th St./7th Ave. AND 35th St./7th Ave. I then got a voice mail from Tanya telling me that she was in the Starbucks at 34th St. and 8th Ave. I headed there only to NOT find her there. Meanwhile So-Young was lost and in the wrong Starbucks too! We found each other and kept calling Tanya all the while. Finally i got a hold of Tanya and found out that she was in the Starbucks at 35th St. and 8th Ave.
Folks, this is just out of control. One city block had FOUR Starbucks coffee shops. Absolutely crazy. Talk about cornering the market by putting a market on every corner. heheheh ok ok that was lame.
The other crazy thing is i finally found a coffee shop that made Starbucks look cheap in comparison. This Korean coffee shop in Korea Town had CRAZY prices like $7.25 for a mocha. ??!!?? And even when we sat down at a table, it took 10 minutes and us ASKING them to acknowledge us for them to even get us menus (or even look at us). Crazy. We obviously did not stay there.
All this = totally worth ranting about. 
The Biggest Industry
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
What is the biggest industry? Porn. Yes, you read that right, PORN.
So maybe i have my stats off, by i know it’s up there when it comes to money-making industries. By the way, if you’re faint of heart, i suggest you stop reading here. But back to the rant at hand…
So i was at my friends apartment and picked up an issue of Stuff, a definite guy-demographic magazine. I ran across an article about this woman who was making observations about being an extra on a porn set. Out of morbid curiousity (and granted, this was very unwise), i read through that article. While there was nothing particularly offensive (just generally so), something about it triggered a realization that i HATE the porn industry.
I don’t just mean dislike. I mean HATE.
(And here’s where i really go off...)
How can they build one of the biggest money-making industries based on the subjugation and objectification of women!?! How can they ignore the immense WRONGNESS about perpetuating the idea that women are only good for the purpose of sex? And of course, this is where someone chimes in, “But the women who are in the movies *want* to be filmed and treated that way. It’s all consensual, so it’s ok.” Fine fine fine. Yes, THEY may not have a problem with or may even like being treated that way, but I DON’T. Those women can’t deny the fact that their participation in that media affects other women in ways that they DO NO WANT. What does it say to men? It says, “It’s ok to treat women as objects. In fact, they like it! All women are like this.” When men say crass comments to women about the way they look or what they want to do to them, they’re responding to what porn has taught them--it’s ok because she’s just a piece of meat. Oh and she probably secretly wants it.
By the way, this isn’t just porn. In fact, it seems that most media today portray this message. Advertising exploits it. I’m getting really sick of it.
If i could, i would single-handedly bring down the porn empire. I would apologize for this subject, but i’m just too pissed to be apologetic right now.
TYPE 'A' PEOPLE DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Don’t think that i am missing the irony of the above statement (considering that i myself am Type A).
Brace yourself. I’m about to go off on a serious rant here.
Today I met someone who miraculously knew how to push MANY of my buttons all at once and just set me off. Unusual for a person that i *just met.* This person we’ll call JS for now. JS became my partner for the first project for Instructional Television 2. We made several attempts to meet up without coming to a good time/place. Finally, last night at 11:49 pm, she wrote about meeting today at 4:30 at Starbucks on campus. At 11:51 pm, i replied, saying yes that would be fine.
As i was running to the subway today to meet JS, I realized that I forgot the video that we needed to transcribe, but I didn’t think it was crucial to the work that we had to do since we had both already seen it. So instead of going back, i decided to go for being on time instead, thinking she would be more upset if i was late. (I had already gotten the inkling that she was growing impatient because her last email was very abrupt.) The B train, however, was not going to cooperate with me. I got on board, and what did we do? We sat there for about 10 minutes. Finally the kicked us all off because of a door malfunction in car 3. D’oh! This meant that for SURE i was going to be late at least 15 minutes. But maybe JS would cut me some slack since it was out of my control?
Sure enough, despite all i could do (which is nothing) to urge the train on, I got to West 4th station at 4:36. It took me until 4:44 to finally arrive at Starbucks. I walked in, found JS, and started to apologize profusely, explaining that the train broke down and had me trapped on it for about 10 minutes. I couldn’t call her on the way down because i had no reception underground and I hope she hadn’t waited long.
I don’t think she even heard me. She tore into me about how she had almost lost hope that I was coming because i had never confirmed with her that i was going to be there at all. She had emailed me at 11 and she had been online til 1 am and I obviously hadn’t emailed her back. Confused, I replied, “But i emailed you at 11:51 last night!” Oh, but JS didn’t check her email today, and how could i assume that she would have access during work and class? I figured she had a desk job. Wouldn’t it make sense that she had online access? She then stated that i should have given her 24-hour notice and that such a thing was not too much to ask. 24-hour notice was impossible since she only emailed me about it 16 hours prior to the event.
By now i was getting pretty riled. My replies were in a raised voice and i was not making any pretense of trying to keep things “friendly.” Mostly because she was accusing me of being irresponsible with HER time and HER grade and HER convenience. Didn’t i know better than to email her? I should have called! Oh but wait, she broke her cell phone’s antenna so she can’t get reception in most places. All i can say is, if you want to push my buttons, tell me that I’m NOT all the things I’m trying so hard to be like a) on time, b) not forgetful, c) considerate of others and their time, AND THEN accuse me of being purposefully late because OBVIOUSLY, I CAN CONTROL THE SUBWAY SYSTEMS OF NEW YORK. Grrrrrr…
And then to make things worse, i made a legitimate mistake. I forgot the video, which i told her up front. She just about lost her mind. “How are we supposed to do this assignment then? Sure, YOU have a mental image of what this thing is all about, but what am i supposed to do?” she pointed at me accusingly. She folded her arms and sat back in her chair with a smug yet upset look of righteous indignation. I had no idea what she had planned to do to begin with considering that starbucks doesn’t exactly have a video machine sitting there for public access! I was prepared for what i *thought* we were meeting to do which was to cut up a transcript and paste it together literally, but apparently i was WAY off track compared to what she was thinking. By this time i was upset because i thought that i had just spend about an hour coming downtown only to find that there was NOTHING TO DO.
We finally came up with a plan to get another copy of the video and finish the project. As we walked out of starbucks, it was all i could do to keep my tongue and not give her a verbal lashing for being unreasonable. She turned to me, “Okay, we can’t be pissed at each other if we’re going to work on this together.” I looked at her and said, “I just need some time to cool off, okay? I’m not the one to forget things. I’m also not the one to be late to anything. Just give me some time.”
After that, we were able to cordially finish the project (after she kept me waiting for 40 minutes in the lab watching her stuff while she ‘ran an errand’). It took us 3.5 hours to complete a *simple* assignment. She kept making random notes, trying to bulldoze past my opinion/rationale, couldn’t keep things straight in her head as to which scene was what, and made things way more complicated than they needed to be. And i remained cordially polite the entire time. Woo. Good for me. If only she could have seen the raging storm inside my head.
The entire time, all i could think of was the quote that i put up recently from the book of James. Thank God for all your troubles/trials because they will teach you perseverence and all kinds of other good stuff. I prayed til turned blue.
Man, it’s been a long day.... :(