Monday, July 18, 2005

Comcast, Capitalism, and a Casino

We trundled off to the casino yesterday with our friends. None of us did well, but we had our shirts as well as the cars that brought us, so I guess it wasn't so bad. One thing that's missing from the casino here that I got so used to seeing in our trips to Atlantic City: oxygen tanks. Specifically, oxygen tanks strapped to the 800 year old blue hair riding around in a power chair, with a hole cut in the oxygen mask to allow for easier smoking. Haven't seen that, and part of me misses the sight. The negative from this trip (apart from losing): RC cola. While I prefer Pepsi over Coke, I can drink either without a fuss. Yes I can tell the difference. Anybody can tell the difference. People who say they taste the same are either lying, stupid, or smoke 8 packs a day so their sense of taste is gone. This particular casino purveys RC cola to those possessed of a non-alcoholic thirst. RC cola tastes like it was mixed in a 10 year old plastic pail used to collect coins, and the occasional ash. Those who have seen me eat know that when I drink soda I don't do it lightly. A one-liter bottle is easily polished off, and a 2-liter could go if I'm thirsty. I didn't even drink half of this RC glasslet. Ick.

As for capitalism, I've made a bunch of new stuff at cafepress. And I can say with no small amount of pride (and a greater amount of joy) that I've actually sold something there! Woohoo! (And no, it wasn't to a family member. So there.) Just click on the cafepress link to see what's there. I'm making more stuff all the time, too. Nothing beats working for yourself!

Ah, ComCast. I'll spare you the details, but give you something to think about. For those of you who don't pay bills online, do you deduct the price of the stamp from what you're sending? Paying bills online is faster, and costs less by not only the price of the stamp, but in the price of the postal worker, the gas in the postal worker's vehicle, time... you get the idea. Now, if a company claims to have an online bill paying feature, yet can't get it to work, would you deduct the price of the stamp from your bill? A bill that you would normally pay online? Or do you just gladly pay the $5 extra a year because the company can't be bothered to fix its website? If enough people deducted the cost of the stamp from what they owed, the company would notice.

Why, look! A windmill! I've seen those before... somewhere... Gotta go change my name to "Don".

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