Quick update. I called Shell to check my account and the money still has not been transferred. The lady went on to tell me that there is no way possible for them to transfer money from an old Texaco account to a current Shell account, contrary to what the last 10 people there have told me. She went on to say that she checked with a supervisor to make sure this information was correct, and the supervisor said that it was correct. I told her she was wrong, and I started to feel angry again, so I took a second, took a deep breath, and said "OK, whatever" and hung up.

I immediately called back and got another rep, explained the exact same scenario to the guy, and he told me that they had just gone through a migration of their "system", so they never received my fax, and that the fax number had changed. So now I have to get my bank to do a third "proof of payment" bank transmittal. He told me that once that transmittal gets keyed into the system, that yes, they could move the money into my current shell account, directly contradicting what the rotten cunt I got last time told me.

I am going to complete boycott Shell. Ever since they took over my Texaco stations, everything has just slid South, and spiraled into a massive bastion of shitlyness. These people could not locate their anus if it was attached to their fucking faces. So, forever, I will not step into a Shell station, unless there is some sort of seriously dire emergency that requires me to do so. Also, to make me feel better, once I get my money back from them I (if ever), I am going to give them the old $2.47 credit screw job. I will make certain that they owe me $2.47 for the rest of my life.

Probably about 30% of the time when I leave work, there are people out in the street a few blocks down pointing things at my truck. I am not a huge fan of this so I went on a short journey one day to discover why. Come to find out there is a business called "Applied Concepts", the leading manufacturer of speed measuring equipment. So basically to test their new products, they go out in the street and measure the speed of passing vehicles. Their biggest customers are police departments. There are usually several police cars in their parking lot ready to be fitted with such equipment.

Americans are sort of trained not to enjoy people pointing things at them and pulling triggers. A lot of these devices look like guns. So to see some dude standing on the side of the road with a gun shaped object pointing at me is not very cool. In Texas, we have concealed handgun laws, and we also have laws that allow people to shoot other people in the face to protect themselves, or their property. If you were new to the area, and did not know what was going on, it would not be unreasonable to think that someone was trying to shoot you! I suppose in that scenario, you could swerve and hit them with your vehicle, and although you would have to go through "the process", you would probably make a pretty good case. I am not suggesting anyone do this on purpose, I am simply saying that I could understand someone feeling as though they were in danger upon seeing these people point their gun like objects at passers by.

From another point of view, what even gives them the right implement this practice in the first place? I suppose there is no law against standing outside and messing around with equipment, but if I am helping you test your equipment, then I am part of the manufacturing process, and deserve to be paid for my services.

I have half a mind to pull over one day and tell those people that I think they suck and that they should fuck right off with their gun shaped objects. I suppose also I could force a change in their methodology if I whipped out a gun and pointed at their eyeballs, and told them I intended to kill them because I thought they had a gun. I'm sure at that point, they would reconsider using these devices on a public street.

In the meantime, I always make a point to speed up when I see them, then slow down real slow and flip them off. In my mind, it makes their stupid radar gun test not work very well if I am not maintaining any sort of steady speed, with the added bonus of them seeing me flip them off through their viewfinder. It may not fuck up their test, and they may not even see me giving them the bird, but it makes me feel good inside, and isn't that really what life is all about?

Why do American have so much shame when it comes to bodies and bodily functions? I will never understand this as long as I live. We are trained from birth to pretty much be ashamed of nudity and bodily functions. Almost everything that comes out of a human body appears to be something that people are ashamed of. In case anyone reading this does not already know, everyone urinates, everyone excretes solid waste, everyone has snot, everyone has spit, ear wax, releases gas, etc.. Everyone. Everywhere. This being the case, why are we forced to by society to be ashamed of these things. I am certainly not saying that I think people should walk down the street shitting and pissing everywhere, I understand the sewer system, its function, and requirement. It just seems as though if the shame associated with these things was not there, life could be so much better. You could have one massive bathroom, with no need for stalls, and the toilets could be a little bit closer together, saving more space. If you saw a guy urinating outside, it would not be a big deal. These days if you got caught pissing outside, technically, if the judge hated you, he could file your case as indecent exposure, and label you as a sex offender for the rest of your life. This has happened to young high school kids pulling a senior prank and streaking across a football field in the nude. They did this and now they are labeled as sex offenders, and can't live near a school, and have to file with the state every time they wanna do something. This is ridiculous.

I know that the thought of sitting 12 inches from someone else taking a huge dump with no wall in between sounds awful to you right now, but that is only because your tiny pea brains are programmed, essentially by the government, to think this way. My last thought here is that the only things that come out of a human body that we are not completely ashamed of in society is sweat and tears. It is acceptable to cry in public in some situations, yet not in others. It is "ok" to see people sweating in public sometimes, and sometimes not. A quick example here is that after my last hockey game, one of the guys on the team had some big sweat rings on his shirt, under his armpits, and he appeared to be a little apprehensive about going to eat chicken wings due to this sweat. Why? because he has been brainwashed by society into being ashamed of sweat.

Nudity is just as bad, if not worse in our society. I would like to hear one sane person, come up with a single solitary technical reason, why I can walk around without a shirt on, with my big old floppy man titties bouncing around, and that is perfectly OK, but the second a female lifts her shirt above the nipple line, she is committing a crime. WHY?!?!? This makes no fucking sense whatsoever. People are not born with shame. Little children do not know that society says it is "bad" for girls to walk around with no shirt on. I am not saying this because I want to see hot chicks running around with their boobs all hangin out. If every hot chick on the planet walked around like this all the time, no one would even think much of it eventually. And I am certainly not limiting this nudity thing to just hot women. I think that everyone of all shapes and sizes, colors, religions, etc.. should be allowed walk around with no clothes. If you saw a big huge nasty looking broad, and her fucked up meth head no teeth redneck husband walking down the street with no clothes on, SO FUCKING WHAT?! If you don't like it, look away.

I just think it would make the world a better place if we didn't have so much shame. You wouldn't have prejudice, bigotry, and segregation based on clothes anymore. You wouldn't have sweat shops. You wouldn't have a clothing industry at all I suppose, which would put some people out of business, but its for the greater good of mankind. I suppose there would always be a market for some types of coverings so that people could still handle the elements, but on a nice day I think people should just be free wear or not wear whatever they want, and then if they need to blow some snot, or fart, and take a dump, or whatever, they should not be made to feel ashamed of it.

Ok, so I don't want anyone to think that I am above any of this. I am clearly not. I rarely give a flying shit what anyone thinks about me, what I look like, or what I do; however, I do understand the unwritten societal rules, as well as state and local laws, and I do abide by them all, and do you know why? Because I am ashamed not to.

I find human nature quite interesting. Its funny to observe how people follow patterns, and even if they break the pattern, they eventually fall back into the same pattern later. I think depresses a lot of people. For example, some people might get really excited about a new diet for example. They are all gung ho about it, and they do really well, but then several months later, they are right back to their old routines, and it gets them down. My findings are that people never change... situations change, and result in apparent changes in people, but given the right scenario, the old people are still there. Humans are creatures of habit, so it seems to me that people should expect to fall back into their old patterns again. I am certainly not exempt from this pattern of human behavior. I go through phases where I want to do various things, then after I do them for a while, I shift to something else. The easiest example would be something simple like using my computer. I decided a while back that I would start recording music into my computer using my guitars and whatnot. I bought some equipment to use, got all ready to start, fiddled with it a few times, then just moved on to something else. I did not let this bother me though, because I expected this to happen. The only real downside is that I spent money on the equipment. I could sell it if I wanted to, but I like having the necessary stuff in case I suddenly wanted to start again.

I spend a lot of time just observing human patterns, and I think I have gained the ability to predict human nature based on these observations. For example, I have gotten really good at predicting what other drivers on the road are going to do well before they do it. These types of things are particularly interesting because they apply to a lot of people, rather then any specific individual.

I also see this at work a lot aswell. People decide that they are going to start coming in to work at 7:00am. They do it for a little while, then it becomes 7:15 for whatever reason, then a little while later its 7:30 and so on, until they are back to coming in at 8:00 or 9:00 or whatever.

Anyhoo, it is interesting to think about things you do and why, and see how many patterns you can find in your own life. Its fun, and a good way to gain insight on what you really are. I am not saying having patterns is bad by any means, and I hope this is not coming across as a negative piece, it is just human nature that everyone should feel comfortable with.



Oh and... the Texaco/Shell fiasco has still not been resolved. I have decided not to let it anger me anymore. Worst case scenario, I will pay the 15 bucks monthly minimum until the balance is zero, and I will not go to a Shell station until that time.

I am tired of, and get a little confused by, the way that some people run a business. The example here is the place where I play hockey. The facility is the Dr. Pepper Star Center. It is tied directly to the Dallas Stars professional NHL hockey team. They use the facility for practices, and various other things, and it also houses tons of local youth hockey, tournaments, figure skating, public skating, etc... There are 6 of these facilities around the Dallas area. Each one is pretty much identical in design. There are two rinks at each house, and in between the rinks, on the second story is a large area where people can go to watch the games and be inside from the cold, buy beers, food, etc... So after our games, we go upstairs and hook up with our fans, and drink several pitchers of beer, eat, reflect on the game, make plans for the next game, and sometimes even split beers with the team we just played. Everyone has a real good time.

Last summer, my first season with the Scarecrows, pitchers of beer were half price if you had the score sheet from the game you just played. This is a way to give a discount to people who have already paid the expensive league fees, and generate a little more business for themselves. Its win/win. At the time, I am not 100% certain, but I believe the pitchers of beer were 6 dollars, 3 if you had the score sheet. I may be off a little bit, but its something very close to that. A hell of a bargain. We would drink MANY pitchers of beer. Everyone on the team enjoys beer, and there are maybe 15 players per team, so roughly 30 hockey players, and then all their friends and families. So after any game, there is maybe 50 people giving them money.

Then, after the summer, the Star Center sold the bar to an outside business. I knew things would go downhill, and sure as shit, they did. Almost instantly, the half price pitcher deal for players was gone. Now our thousands of dollars that goes into the facility deserves no such discount. I understand though, the new ownership is not tied to the facility, so basically its just like going to a bar outside the facility, without having to drive. Well later in the season, the service declines sharply. We were always pressured to leave because the stupid bitch that runs the place wanted to go home, the new people were rude. Then even later in the season, the price of a pitcher went to 8 dollars. Wow, so far so bad. Next thing we know, the owners had some sort of clash with the beer distributor, so now they no longer served Shiner Bock, which everyone on the team had grown to love, and the same stupid bitch had the nerve to try and tell me that Shiner Bock and Zeigenbock were exactly the same! The final straw was when they put up a sign that said "NO OUTSIDE FOOD". So now you have to buy their crappy food, and pay their extremely high prices for beer.

We tolerated their shit for the rest of the season because it was convenient to go up there after the game. This year's summer season has just begun. Now the fucking beers are 9 dollars for what they deem to be "domestic beer", and 12 dollars for anything else! They only have 4 kinds of beer on tap, Coor's Light, Miller Lite, Bud Light, and Ziegenbock. Last time I checked, none of those beers come from anywhere other that the U.S., and they apparently consider the Ziegenbock to be not domestic. IT IS FUCKING MADE IN TEXAS!

Why would a business owner blindly change things that make a place successful. Can they not see that charging 12 dollars for something that used to be around 6 dollars will drive people away? I have always been amazed by this concept. I know they have a bottom line, and they have to make money, but if you have no customers, the bottom line becomes zero. Would it not make more sense to sell 100 of something at 5 dollars, then to only be able to sell 10 for 10 dollars each, because no one wants to pay the higher price?

I am not a business owner, but this seems like common fucking sense. Especially if, as the owner, you are never at the place you own to see how it is going. I believe that the bottom line will decrease dramatically because of the way the place is being run, and I will see a "under new ownership" sign going up within one year.

It has been a while since my last post. I'd like to say I have been busy, but I guess I haven't. I have been ignoring the Outlook reminder to post for a few days because I wanted to have something with substance. So, just to make the reminder go away, I will update on a few things.

The Shell Texaco fiasco is still going on. My money is still not transferred. Turns out after the bank faxes in the "bank transmittal", which I now am referring to as a "proof of payment", the fax go to a special investigative team at Shell to figure out what's what. I finally got a hold of someone at shell that knew what the hell they were talking about, so I sweet talked her into giving me a little bit more information than everyone I have spoken to. She ended up telling me that the investigative team is internal only, and does have have a direct customer line since they are not CSRs. She also told me that they have a pretty big work load usually, so my fax would go on top of the pile, so realistically, it could take up to 10 business days to process the faxed information. At least I understand what is occurring behind closed doors over there now. Also, she told me that the automagic harassment money collecting nazi bot would get off my back if I would send them the 14 dollar minimum payment that is due on the bill. So for 14 bucks, no more robot. Was that so fucking hard for all the other shit socks over there to tell me?

So now I am waiting for resolution, but it should only be a few more days, and I did send in the minimum payment. Terra, the super knowledgeable CSR I spoke with also said that one the payment was transferred, I would have a credit, so she would be happy to either send me a check if I would like, or I could just use the credit at my leisure in any of their fine establishments.

Also, I got all the electronic parts for my brainwave machine, and I am maybe 35% of the way through building it. I took some pictures so I can photo document the thing here or over at http://www.snotpocket.com.

Again, I wished this was more about a certain subject, rather than just an update on what I have been doing, but fuck it for now. Also, the year is half over now, so I will update on the goals for 2007, or whats left of them.

Ok, I have several gas company credit cards. In particular though, I have a Shell and a Chevron. I used to also have a Texaco card. Well, at least here in Texas, Texaco has gone away now, and some of the stations got taken over by Shell, and some by Chevron. So now basically I have a Chevron/Texaco card and a Shell/Texaco card.

I got current Shell bill and it says I missed the payment, so there is a finance charge and a late fee of $29.00. Well, in my online banking's bill pay function, I still had Texaco setup as a payee with my old account number. When I last got my Shell bill, I accidentally paid the money to this old Texaco account. So I check my accounts on line. Chevron... nothing, they don't have my money. Shell... nothing, they don't have my money. And there appears to be no more Texaco stuff online. Great. So I call Shell and explain my situation, and after a little bit of giggling, they say they have no record of that old account. So then they look it up by payment date and amount. They find the money in their system, seemingly just floating in the ether, not attached to any particular account. I ask them to simply put the money into the correct place.

"We can't do that" is what I get. They require me to call my bank and have them fax a "bank transmittal" to them so they can track all the appropriate information in order to make the change. "No Problem". I call the bank, and the people act is if I am from outer fucking space asking for such a thing. They say they will take care of it so I go on about my business. Next day I get an email from my bank saying I need to call Shell and tell them that NetBank will be investigating the thing, so to grant them access to my account there. Shell should already know this, so I don't call.

Next day I start getting harassing calls from Shell from an automated collections robot device. I call Shell and they are all shitty with me on the phone because I have not paid. I explained the scenario, and they took my word for it. Next day I get a email from my bank saying they talked to Shell, and shell told them I gave them the wrong account number, which I didn't, so they were having trouble verifying that my payment to Texaco was valid.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I explain, again through email) that I not trying to pay Texaco, I am trying to pay Shell. I assume again that they will take care of it. Next day, I get ANOTHER call from Shell's magical collections robot machine. I swear this time it sounded kinda pissed off at me. So I call Shell again, get transferred around 4 or 5 times over a 30 minute period, and finally explain the whole entire thing over again, at which point, the guy tells me I have to get a "bank transmittal" faxed to them first.

A FAX? REALLY? A FUCKING FAX? It is 2007, and you want a FUCKING FAX? FUCK YOU!!

So I ask the guy how long I have been a customer with Shell, and he tells me that he is not allowed to give that type of information over the phone. REALLY? You cannot tell me how long I have had an account at your business? Instead, he told me to look on the front of my card, and it will say "member since".

Everything in quotes that I am about to say, you should pretend I am yelling it at the top of my lungs "YOU MEAN YOU CANNOT FUCKING TELL ME HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN A CUSTOMER EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE IN THE MOTHER FUCKING WORLD COULD SEE IT RIGHT ON THE FRONT OF MY GOD DAMN CARD?!" So then I ask this SHITBOX how many late payments I have ever made since I became a customer 8 years ago, in 1999. His reply of course is none. So I proceed to tell him then I am getting harassed by a fucking robot, given the run around by both them and my bank, about money that technically is in their system already! I told him to have a nice day.

I emailed my bank and told them to send a "bank transmittal" to Shell, and let me know after it is completed. I got the reply from my bank stating that they completed this task... JUST IN TIME TO MISS SHELLS BUSINESS HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These fuck stick mother bitches can all go to hell. Results next post (hopefully)

I lost the stupid cup that came with my Zujiroshi NHS-18 rice cooker. The problem is that their documentations all say to use the cup, but don't tell you exactly how much rice it holds, in american units, and the way it works is that you put the rice in, using the cup, and then fill it with water to a certain level. This makes things pretty difficult when you don't have their cup. Their cup is not proprietary, and I can figure out how to make rice is the cooker anyway. There may be a certain amount of trial and error involved though.

Losing things is one of the most traumatic events that humans seem to endure. The range of emotions is based on the importance or value of the item lost. I am not pissed because the cup was valuable, nor am I pissed that I no longer have it. I am pissed because I JUST CAN'T FIND THE MOTHER FUCKING THING AND I JUST HAD IT THE OTHER DAY!!

Then there is the feeling when you lose something that is valuable. Two instances enter my mind instantly when I think about this. I used to carry my expensive Oakley sunglasses around with me, so naturally I would set then down at various places. The feeling I used to get when I realized I had left them somewhere was almost indescribable. It was sheer terror deep in the gut, followed by rage for being such a dildo, and then anxiety, because I had to rush back to where they were. Sometimes this was across town at a restaurant, where who the hell knows what could have happened to them. The few times this happened, luckily, there was a nice waitress who had held them for me. It was totally bad times when I left those suckers behind, because they were worth almost 200 bucks.

The other thing that pops in my head was recently when I was at the horse racing track, I had a winning ticket, and a value coupon thingy, which is just basically a ticket with all the money in your "account" leftover after you make your bets. I took both of them and somehow managed to throw them away with sum miscellaneous papers I didn't need anymore. Mind you, this was at the track on the 2nd busiest day of the racing season for them. Anyway, so I ended up digging through a nasty ass trash can to get them back out and luckily I found them both. The time between when I lost them and the time I realized where they were was terror, followed by rage for throwing them away, followed by disgust that I had to dig through a trashcan to get them back.

Then there are the biggies, like losing love. When you are a teenager, you emotions are pretty screwed up as it is, but then sometimes you have to deal with breaking up with a girlfriend or something of that nature, and those feelings can drive you to do unimaginable things.

Probably the biggest and hardest of all to deal with is losing people. Sure, it is a completely different type of loss, but it is loss none the less. I won't get into this one, because it cannot be described. You can't know until you go through it.

Anyway, various loss seems to be capable of producing an absolutely amazing range of raw human emotion, that cannot be replicated. You would not get those feeling if you lost something on purpose, or even if you tried to set yourself up to lose something, because you would still be expecting it. We should invent a loss simulator. We would be rich. I suppose the only was to do it might be to have someone pay a service that gives you the feeling of loss. Then our employees would follow the subscriber around, and then capitalize when the subscriber gets into a situation where our employee could quickly snag something. Then when the subscriber realized it was gone, they would get the emotions, then we would return whatever the item is. This would work for loss of material items only though I suppose.

I'll have to put some more thought into this...