Random Quote of the day...

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."
- JD Rockefeller

HR Block: the bad and the good...

This was my dealings with HR Block:

Your transcript is shown below.
You have been connected to James W..
James W.: Hello and Welcome to the H&R Block support Chat site. I Am James and would like to extend a heart felt thank you for choosing H&R Block we are proud to have you as a client. Please allow me a moment to review the information you have given me here?
James W.: First I am going to need to verify some information? Is this the e-mail address as listed on the return? I am also going to need you to verify your
Full name:
Address:
Date of Birth:
Last four of the social security number on the return :
Phone number:
please?
Marc : Marc************
Marc : **************
Marc : **************
Marc : **************
James W.: Thank you.
James W.: Do you know your username please?
Marc : **************
Marc : I literally went through everything and it said i successfully reset my password
Marc : but then it wouldnt let me log in
Marc : and now Im locked out for the next 20 mins
Marc : maybe 10 now
James W.: The username is correct.
James W.: **************
James W.: Is this your security question please?
James W.: What was the name of your elementary school?
Marc : yes
Marc : desoto trail
James W.: Do you remember anything, that is correct.
James W.: desoto trail
Marc : ???
James W.: Is there anything else we are able to assist you with today?
Marc : um
Marc : you havent assisted me yet.
Marc : Marc : I literally went through everything and it said i successfully reset my password
Marc : but then it wouldnt let me log in
Marc : and now Im locked out for the next 20 mins
James W.: desoto trail (***See Note***)
Marc : let me sum it up
Marc : I would like to log in
Marc : please help
James W.: You will have to wait the 20 minutes I am not able to reset the password.
Marc : ok
Marc : i know
James W.: I do apologize for the inconvenienc
Marc : my problem was that i DID reset the password and it didnt let me log in
Marc : why didnt it work?
Marc : why will it work if i do ALL of that again, just the same way?
James W.: I do not know just remember that everything is case sensitive.

---

(***See Note***): I left in this answer because of the complete randomness that he inserts it into the conversation.

I have obviously changed my security question.

---

I found this funny and posted a tweet about how ridiculous online "chat assistance" is on websites (had problems with multiple other sites). Here is my tweet:

Why is it that every online chat "assistant" is a freaking moron @HRBLOCK you suck. Asked me if I needed anything ELSE when hadnt helped yet

Surprisingly, H&R Block had immediate response time (and on today of all days!!!). I am HIGHLY impressed with their care for customer service. Here is their tweet not 12 mins later:

@ithinkchaos Marc, I'm here to help! DM your contact info and let's get this taken care of! ^KG

I am extremely impressed. I was only slightly pissed at you for the chat session. You guys still rock!

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts...

I am proud of my Greek heritage, but this is no proud day for Greece:

"Greece has a budget deficit of almost 13 percent of gross domestic product. It has borrowed too much money for too long. Worse, rather than using that money to invest in improving the efficiency of its economy, it has blown it on lavish public spending and generous welfare benefits." - Matthew Lynn with Bloomberg News

Hmmm...sound familiar? Maybe we should accept this gift of foreshadowing that Greece has provided and DO SOMETHING about it!

Here are some intersting statistics:

In less than 3 years the US's Deficit spending (as a percent GDP) as gone from 1.14% (in 2007) to a whopping 10.54% (projected 2010 total)!!! Even if you don't want a projection and use the actual record from 2009, it had risen to 9.91%...in 2 years!

Say what you will about W Bush (even I thought he did some questionable things), but at least he was some what fiscally responsible...for awhile I used to believe that a lot of what was happening to Obama's administration was inherited problems from Bush.

Obama and the very Liberal Democrats are in serious need of a paradigm shift. Their heads are in the clouds and they are just daydreaming if they think the economy can go on like this for much longer. We simply can not pay for everything that our socialist President wants for our country.

"...rather than using that money to invest in improving the efficiency of its economy, it has blown it on lavish public spending and generous welfare benefits."

Wake up and smell the roses! Just because, "Yes We Can" doesn't mean we should.

We are by no means out of the woods either. Obama brags about the sharp increase of jobs in the first quarter 2010...how many were Federal Census jobs that are only temporary? The census is a large undertaking and has provided a lot of jobs at a critical time. But these jobs are not permanent and they are absolutely not indicative of an improving economy.

What is even worse is the fact that every recession for the past 30 plus years has been preceded by an increase in the price of energy. What happened right before the "great" recession we find ourselves in today? Oil reached a record high of nearly $150 per barrel in the middle of 2008! And it had never broken the $100 mark before that rise. Hmmm, highest energy costs ever followed by the worst recession in 70 years? I only bring this up to strengthen my point that the dark times are far from over: Energy costs are on the rise again (back up to $85/barrel).

The economy barely survived this last recession (if it can even be called over) and even then it was by massive amounts of spending by the Federal government; money borrowed from tomorrow without plans of getting it back...

"...rather than using that money to invest in improving the efficiency of its economy, it has blown it on lavish public spending and generous welfare benefits."

It's a pity we didn't invest in making the economy more efficient rather than pouring money into becoming socialistic.

How will we survive where we are currently headed? The answer is, quite simply, we won't. Something needs to be done now to change our direction and curb the actions of our out-of-control government.

And the answer is simple: austerity.

I wonder if Obama or the Liberals on the Hill even know what that word means...

An EPIC WIN if ever there was one....hahaha

I went to download Server 2008 from MS's site...using IE8:





DENIED!


Ok then....what about Firefox:




The definition of EPIC WIN!

Classic Microsoft...


That's all. It cracked me up pretty good, so I had to share.

Riders of the Storm...

I bought a motorcycle this weekend.

More out of necessity for transportation than anything else.

Shit is scary as hell. Hopefully I will not be riding for longer than is needed.

But still, it does have an appeal to it :-)

deep...

"One looks everywhere
for something to lean on.

One is charmed by the hope
of having found it.

Turns out to be a dream
in which the harsh facts...

are scattered with the rude awakening."



From the movie "If Lucy Fell" and supposedly credited to an author named Marie Ann Du Daffand (but I can't find anything about her).

Truth:

"The fundamental problem with America's immigration system is that it forces Americans to justify to their government why they want to bring someone into the country, instead of requiring the government to justify to them why they can't. Uncle Sam is less gatekeeper, more social engineer. Instead of focusing on keeping out those who pose a genuine security or public health risk-- the only immigration policy consistent with ideals of limited government -- it is driven, among other things, by a need to manage labor market flows and the national demographic makeup."

-Shikha Dalmia


Yep.