The Big DumpTruck


"Tone Down the Awesome, You're Throwing Off the Curve"
Throwing Little Thought Pebbles at Your Windshield Since 1996
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Thursday, May 31, 2007

white on white


white on white, originally uploaded by Big DumpTruck.

I got to be a chaperone today! We went to Sturbridge Village today with all the third graders from Junior's school...that was five busses worth. I only had Junior and his best bud to watch over, so the three of us basically did whatever we wanted to do. THAT is a great school trip...I felt like I had basically just taken the two of them out to do fun stuff for the day. Plus, as a bonus, I got to ride on the bus there and back!

Here's a photo I took today. I'm getting so much better at this photography stuff, if I do say so myself. Maybe someday I'll get some of this printed and my home can be filled with original artwork. Or something like that.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 4 comments


Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Customer Service and Phone VRS Heck

I just want to vent for a moment.

Oh, before we get going, VRS is Voice Response System. Or Voice Recognition System. I don't actually know if that's the generic name for it, but it's the system where you are asked to enter account numbers, or say random things out loud before someone will connect you to a human at a company. Sometimes I'm okay with them, but other times, well...

I had to call the claims people for my flexible spending account. That's the account where you can have money taken out of your check pre-tax for approved medical/prescription expenses. The website for my FSA company has a link that they say you can use to order the non-prescription covered items (Claritin, Prilosec, etc.) and that online store will automatically send them the invoice to process the claim. It's been a couple of weeks and there's no sign of the claim, so I want to know if I need to send one in manually.

The VRS asks for my account number, which it very nicely lets me punch in on the phone. But then it makes me say my birth date out loud. Um, why can't I punch THAT in? I'd rather say my account number out loud than my birth date! Then it makes me answer questions, all of them out loud. I must sound great to the people within earshot. Why can't they have the "Enter or say "one" for Yes" type of prompts. Okay, so I get past that and tell them what department I want, so I'm transferred.

Now in this new system, I have to re-enter my member number. Crap, I'd put the card away. At least this time I can just punch in my birth date. I press zero to talk to a human. A good 3 minutes after starting the call, I get one.

"Hi this is Angie, can I get your member number?"
"I've already entered it twice"
"Oh, you didn't come up on my system."
I mumble out my number.
"I suppose you already entered your birth date too, huh?"
I mumble that one out as well.

I explain the issue and she tells me she's going to connect me to the company that actually handles these claims for them. Fine. I'm off to another company. They don't need my birth date. They can't find anything for me in the system. I am put on hold. For a minute. Turns out these people don't handle the OTC claims, only the prescription ones.

"I TOLD the person who connected me it was OTC!"
"Well, you'll have to call them back, we don't handle that at all. Sorry!"

I call the FSA company back again...and Oh My God I have to go through the SAME HOOPS to get to the claims group again.

"This is Angie, can I have your member ID?"
"Hi Angie, you just transferred me to another company a couple of minutes ago."
Her response is very cold. "I haven't transferred anybody. May I have your member ID?"
"Wow, there must be two people named Angie in your department answering calls from people with FSA Claims issues." I give her my number.
"I'm sorry, can you give me that number again?"

If you are keeping count, I have now provided my member ID number a grand total of seven times on two phone calls. WHAT THE HELL?!

"This" Angie has more information about how the OTC plan works, but she also seems completely unfamiliar with her company's website, which contains a link to a special drugstore.com site that I'm supposed to use if I want my purchases automatically sent to the insurance company as an FSA claim. She thinks the problem is that the OTC website never asked for my member ID. As if that's something I have any control over. "I can connect you to the department that handles the website."

"I've already spent enough time dealing with this today."

People, if I can give you three pieces of information to make me not hate dealing with your company:

1. Do NOT make me enter my account number/member ID more than once per call. If you cannot transfer the call when you transfer the record, do NOT ask me for the number until after you've transferred me. There was no point in me even entering it the first two times on each call.
2. If you have two people at your call center with the same first name working the same shift, make one of them use a different name, or use a last name. There's no way I'm going to believe I was talking to two different people, and getting snotty with me is NOT appropriate.
3. Never ever NEVER EVER make me say things other than yes or no out loud. Ever. How DARE you make me announce my birth date in public! Pressing numbers on the keypad that correspond with certain answers is plenty easy enough to do.

So I still don't have a clear answer. I'm not happy with the hoops I had to jump through twice for a non-answer, but I'll be damned if I'm going to call them back to complain about the lack of info on the website or the horrible VRU experience and have to say my birth date out loud for the third time today.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 3 comments


Monday, May 28, 2007

You Really Need a Laptop and a Wireless Router

I'm sitting out on my deck, drinking a Coffee Coolatta, and I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon. Well, okay, I can think of a couple of better ways, but those cost money and involve being inside a mall. The breeze is what is making this a great afternoon to sit out on the deck. I highly recommend you run out and get the things mentioned in the subject of this post, and then you can write to me to tell me how great it is at your house!

Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, in which case I'm really sorry, I don't mean to make you feel bad.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 5 comments


Sunday, May 27, 2007

Flickr Users Will Understand

If you aren't a regular user of Flickr, this will mean nothing to you. But for those who know, I noticed this morning that my badge over there on the right had a 4th circle, indicating that one of my photos was showing on the Explore pages. I'm interesting! I can't tell you how hard it is to make that list. Most of the people on it are normally very very VERY good photographers. Or lucky.

Now my interestingness photo is from a long while ago, but I'm okay with that. It's a photo from the Whalom Park group, of the Comet, and right now (Sunday Morning) it's on this page:
http://flickr.com/explore/interesting/2005/2/14/page13

posted by Jody Permalink | 5 comments


Friday, May 25, 2007

A Thousand Freaking Degrees

I am working from home today because I HAVE A REALLY NICE BOSS [*waves*]. Except it's about 95 degrees outside so I can't even go play outside. I was going to buy some flowers and plant them but I do NOT like 94 degrees so I'm in the house, working.

If Junior didn't have a baseball game tonight I probably would have driven to the beach or something. Ya, because this body needs to be SEEN! Oh wait, no, strike that.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 2 comments


Tuesday, May 22, 2007

dirty lips - terra cotta


dirty lips, originally uploaded by Big DumpTruck.

My sister has terra cotta planters shaped like heads. So she's got a head with chives growing out of it. (They make lovely hair). I took a picture of one, but when I went to process it in Lightroom, I realized that the lips were the most interesting part of the photo, because of the dirt on them. The longer I looked at the photo, the more "real" the lips looked to me.

Anyhoo, thought I'd share this one from my flickr pool with you.


posted by Jody Permalink | 3 comments


Monday, May 21, 2007

Where Are the Lobster Donuts?

You know, how sometimes you link hop on the internet and end up on the Dunkin Donuts website? Ya, that happens to me all the time. So I looked up one of my favorite flavors, and found out something truly startling. STARTLING! Are you ready?

Chocolate Cream Filled Donuts do not contain crustaceans.



posted by Jody Permalink | 6 comments


Thursday, May 17, 2007

My Fears Have a Name

I know that it's probably pretty easy to give a formal name to phobias. Some of them look completely made up, but I'm sure there's a committee somewhere that reviews all the new phobia name requests. "Fear of damp sponges. Ah, I'm going to have to pass on that one.

But we do have lutraphobia, which is fear of ottors, and linonophobia, a fear of string. The poor folks with Optophobiaor the fear of opening your eyes, must have a really hard time in the morning.

I should not be making fun of people who have melanophobia, or fear of the color black, because I have a couple of phobias myself. And I'm talking about real phobias, that affect my ability to function on some level, on an ongoing basis. Three of them are related.

I see the following as being tied together, especially the first two.
Lilapsophobia - fear of tornado or hurricanes (the tornado part - I'm okay with hurricanes for the most part)
Astraphobia - fear of thunder and lightning
Thanatophobia - Fear of death/dying

My other big ones are Scelerophibia - Fear of burglars. This one can keep me awake at night. You'd think I'd just buy an alarm system and be done with it, wouldn't you? And tied to the lightning and thunder is Ligyrophobia, fear of loud noises. When I was in college, I would absolutely freak out when I knew they'd be testing the fire alarms in the middle of the night. I'd sleep in my clothes. Not pretty, huh?

So is that admitting too much to you guys?

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posted by Jody Permalink | 6 comments


Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Stormy Weather

Forgive the yelling, but the National Weather Service is all about the caps, and I am just copying and pasting.

Just yesterday I was telling people that one of my biggest phobias is fear of bad weather. Driving in a thunderstorm can reduce me to tears. A tornado warning puts my blood pressure into the stratosphere. So this is what I just read.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 330 PM EDTFOR CENTRAL WORCESTER COUNTY...AT 252 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNYSIZE HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THESE STORMSWERE LOCATED ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM CLINTON TO WORCESTER...ORALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 7 MILES SOUTHEAST OF LEOMINSTER TOWORCESTER...MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH.SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE NEAR... BOLTON...NORTHBOROUGH AND BERLIN BY 300 PM EDT...A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 600 PM EDT WEDNESDAY EVENING.

This is part of the the current warning for Leominster:

IN ADDITION TO LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS...CONTINUOUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM. MOVE INDOORSIMMEDIATELY! LIGHTNING IS ONE OF NATURES NUMBER ONE KILLERS.REMEMBER...IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER...YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

Well now, that's just what I needed to hear!!!

Actually, I was on the phone with Mr. Dump (he was using a cordless). He's working from home and told me that right before one lightning strike that seemed VERY close, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. I would need a lot of medication right now if I were at home. I would also be in the basement, crouched in the corner, wimpering.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 6 comments


Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Worst News of the Day

The news that Opie and Anthony were given a one month suspension for something one of their guests said on A SATELLITE NETWORK THAT DOES NOT HAVE TO CONFORM TO FCC RULES has blown my head clear off my body.

I'm very very unhappy. Very.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 4 comments


My Favorite News Story of the Day

Apparently some dude in Texas stole $250,000 worth of Skittles. You almost don't need to add any commentary to a story like that, do you? $250k worth of candy. That's the value of the 28 pallets of Skittles that were in the truck. That's a lot of money. I can just hear what people are saying as they read this story.

You know, back when I was a kid, $250k would have bought you a lot more
than 28 pallets of Skittles. You could have gotten 50 pallets of Skittles, plus 10 pallets of Squirrel Nut Zippers, 10 pallets of Sugar Daddys, 15 pallets of candy cigarettes and 10 dozen cases of Moxie to wash 'em down. Candy prices these days...it's highway robbery! [sic]

The thing that I was wondering about is that there's a need for a tractor trailer truck with only Skittles on it. Nothing else? Not even a pack of gum or 3000?

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posted by Jody Permalink | 0 comments


Monday, May 14, 2007

Modern Day Annoyances

Mr. Dump called me from Aubachon Hardware (on Rt 12/North Main Street) to tell me that fire engines from 4 different communities appeared to be dealing with something near the Fitchburg line. Like near the MART garage. There was no smoke, but there were fire engines and ambulances.

There is no way on the planet to find out what is going on in a timely manner unless it's some sort of MAJOR happening that gets picked up by the news wires. Nothing on the Telegram or Sentinel (no duh) websites either. Now for the latter, even if they had a reporter helping to put out a fire, it wouldn't make their website until tomorrow afternoon. It really isn't reporting "news," it's reporting "olds".

Anyhoo, apparently there were lots of trucks and at least one was from Devens. That is some serious mutual aid if they're sending fire trucks from Devens. And yet, I know nothing. He didn't go near it, he had to go home and put the new spool of string on the trimmer. They discontinued our trimmer, doncha know. And Amazon said it could take one to four weeks to ship a replacement pack to us. Holy jungle cruise, Batman! In 4 weeks we won't be able to locate the dog if he stands near the fence!

So these are my two complaints of the day:
  • I want every single piece of information that might impact me in any way to be instantly available on the Internet. Every day, all day.
  • Aubachon Hardware - why the hell have you allowed squatters to own your domain? What the hell?! They cannot possibly have a claim to [DON'T CLICK IT!] aubachonhardware.com. Geez, what a stupid move! How the hell are people supposed to find you if they cannot type in the most logical domain name? That's it, I'm having Mr. Dump call them to yell at them.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 6 comments


Taking Things Seriously


Taking Things Seriously, originally uploaded by Big DumpTruck.

Yes, those are two birdy/shuttlecocks in that photo. At one point they were trying to have four going at the same time. You have to imagine it was dangerous being near those rackets.

I was smart enough to stand in the back with the camera, which gave me a reason to stay out of the line of fire of what amounted to 3 9 year olds and a 7 year old. Oh, and two grown-ups, one of them relatively insane although I promised Mr. Dump I wouldn't mention his name unless I was telling everyone what fantastic form he has.


posted by Jody Permalink | 2 comments


Thursday, May 10, 2007

What Not To Do

I have decided to pass along some wise words of wisdom [modesty!] to all of you today. You can thank me later, by showering me with Nerds and other appropriate offerings. (The good offerings would be the ones that fit on the front of a Canon XTi, you know, to clarify.)

Let's just say you're me. Or someone like me. Or you, but you live in this area and drive to someplace south on 495. IF you leave the house and realize you have forgotten to put on deodorant, but then decide you can stop at Bolton Orchards because they sell some grocery items, be prepared to be offered one and only one type of deodorant. Oh, and it's an icky roll-on, so if you put it on under your clothes, you can sit and worry that it will never dry and will put some sort of wet stains on your shirt. And then you can realize that it cost six dollars instead of the $2 you normally pay for your own brand when it's on sale. And then you can be horrified to realize that your armpits smell like those gigantic lilies they put in flower arrangements that give me migraines. That's right, I smell like an allergy-inducing floral arrangment today.



When I go to the baseball game tonight, bees are going to attack me for sure. It was nice knowing you.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 3 comments


Wednesday, May 09, 2007

When Renewal is Just Handed to You

I was thinking of not renewing my bigbadwords.com domain because I actually haven't used it. I will admit, in trying to create the perfect site I sandblasted the WordPress templates and style sheets to bits, and then ended up with redirects not working properly, among other things.

It's a mess.

I did have a lot of luck with the Nanowrimo blog I set up as a subdomain, so there's always that. Anyway, the domain was up for renewal, and I just don't have the cash to renew something that I'm not using, even if it was only $15. So I went to my hosting company to just back everything up and let it die of natural causes when I noticed that I had a $15 credit on my account. That's right, they had credited me with $15 because someone out there knew who my host was and put my domain in the referrer field when they signed up for service. DUDE! Do you know how awesome it was to be able to renew the domain? And now I promise that I'm going to perform a "do over" on the site, and get something going over there, even if it's mightily scaled back of what I had planned out last year.

So just as an FYI, if anyone is looking for ultra cheap yet very good hosting, I highly recommend PowWeb. And when you sign up, for goodness sake, you need to either give my name or "BigBadWords.com" (Not this site, which is under a different hosting company because I'm too damned lazy to actually move it over to another host, given there are years and years worth of files I'd have to worry about.) If I get another $15 referral fee, I'll consider setting up another subdomain that we can all play with, a la the nano blog.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 0 comments


Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Look Back at My Childhood

Do you Hanker for a Hunka Cheese? Oh my gosh, look at the production values on this puppy! And yet, five billion years later, I still have this song memorized, and sometimes it leaks out of my ears. And stuff.





I found this via Huxtabled, which I found because C. Monks of Utter Wonder has a new blog called Dadsmacker, both on offsprung.com.

Wow, that's plenty of links for you for one day.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 3 comments


Monday, May 07, 2007

Worst News Story of the Year

I call this one even though there are plenty of months left in the year. Not for the squeamish. Then again, it's right there on CNN, so go ahead and just try to avoid this one.

Icky Icky Spider Story (You have been warned)

I need to go have a lie-down.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 6 comments


Saturday, May 05, 2007

ball field, 8:00am


ball field, 8:00am, originally uploaded by Big DumpTruck.

8:00am. That's early on a Saturday. Hell, it's early on a Tuesday. Our team had the 8:00am practice slot today, so off we went, coffee in hand. It was much warmer than I'd expected, given how chilly it was during the game last night. It was actually a great morning to be outside playing baseball. I just wish 8:00 happened a little closer to 9:30am.

By the way, there's a project called "24 Hours of Flickr" and anyone who wants can upload a picture that they took on 5/5/07. The Flickr people are going to look through all those photos (oy!) and put the best ones into a book. I am not nearly as good as half or more of the people using Flickr, but I'm getting better. This photo was my entry, because I was thinking to myself that baseball is a huge part of many people's lives this time of year. And there's something about seeing an empty ball field that just looks sad, somehow. Now I know that later in the morning, this was a bustling spot, but not at 8:00am.

My two backup photos, one of a glove and one of my flowering crab apple, are available on my Flickr page (click my name below).

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posted by Jody Permalink | 0 comments


Thursday, May 03, 2007

First Week of May Snack Reviews

I know you've been waiting for these. You've probably been asking yourself "Hey Me, how do I know what to buy if Jody doesn't provide me with her personalized snack reviews?"

I apologize. You're right, I should have been more proactive about this.

Did I just say proactive? Man, I need to get out of the office more.

Okay, not a lot of items this week, but it should get you started.

Fritos Chili and Cheese Flavor - I thought I was going to hate them. I actually did not buy my own, I ate a few out of the bag my project manager bought [waves to PM]. My first reaction was "oh my God, this really tastes like chili!" They are VERY VERY SALTY. Which isn't a negative, just a warning. They are addictive the way smokehouse almonds are. I can't figure out why I can't stop eating them, but there you go.

The cheesecake they sell at Hannaford in Marlboro - I'm pretty sure this is the dessert you get when you eat a meal in Heaven. I can recommend the one with raspberry swirled in and the one with strawberries on top. I didn't try to chocolate one that was filled with oozing caramel, but just the sight of it made me happy inside. Once again, got to try these courtesy of the same project manager who said "It's not a question of whether we need cheesecake or not, it's how many cheesecakes we need." (The answer is apparently 2.)

Nerd-Filled Gumballs - I have a gumball addiction. It's a recent one, and I try to fight it, but it's hard. I found this enormous gumballs filled with Nerds. Now normally, I don't like mixing gum with anything else. I even have a problem with Blo-Pops. But these gumballs rock. And the flavor lasts a long time. I rate these 5 out of 5 cavities.

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posted by Jody Permalink | 9 comments






 
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"Tone Down the Awesome, You're Throwing Off the Curve" (c)2009 Jody Burchstead LaFerriere