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thatvoodoochickI thought I would share the following article from the Chicago Red Eye. Enjoy.
Today is National Relaxation Day, and where better to soothe your stressed-out soul than in Chicago? Our city is known for three things: high homicide rates, corrupt politicians and being as laid-back as the Build-A-Bear you stuffed full of Ambien last time you went to Navy Pier. Who needs a pillow and ZzzQuil? Here are five ways to celebrate in the Windy-But-More-Like-A-Gentle-Relaxing-Breeze City.
Take a scenic CTA trip: Walk up to your nearest train station, swipe that Ventra pass of yours a few times until it works and explore the city on the CTA. Sure, it’s crowded! Of course people are rude. And yes, I understand that someone next to you just pooped. But nothing centers your life circle more than taking a long commute with your favorite book. While someone is so obviously playing with themselves in the back.
Go for a dip in Lake Michigan: Grab some sunscreen, a beach towel and your fave hazmat suit, and go for a swim! Enjoy the weather (while it lasts) as thousands of tourists (probably from Indiana) invade our little slice of heaven, leaving piles of garbage on our already-polluted shores. Rising water levels—a whopping 15 inches since last year—have already swallowed up many northern beaches and destroyed several bike paths, but it doesn’t matter. Anything north of Evanston isn’t considered real Chicago, so we’re cool.
Snag a one-way ticket to easy street: Become a politician, because they get away with so much stuff in Chicago that it would be a crime not to enjoy it! Get elected and then get loose—meaning both your stiff neck muscles and your moral code. Hey, if you’re evil enough, they might do a "Chicago P.D." episode about you! And if you’re Rod Blagojevich, you’ll get eight more years at that Colorado all-inclusive.
Don’t count sheep: Because how many sheep can there possibly be? Instead, try counting down from 2,539—which is the number (as of Thursday) of shootings in Chicago this year. This won’t actually help you fall asleep, but it will most likely cause you to pass out from the realization that each one of those numbers represent a human being. All 2,539.
Get some aire fresco: Turn off your Blackberry and go for a jog—because you’re running from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Illinois immigration courts are currently backed up with over 20,000 deportation cases, leaving many seeking asylum stuck in a three-year limbo ... limbo party! Someone pour out the punch, because while you’re waiting to reconnect with your loved ones, we’re out here listening to Harry Belafonte and drinking Malört.
Ah, cheers to chilling in Chicago!
Chicago is currently under an excessive heat watch from now until Friday evening. I know other cities will be experiencing the same as well. Stay safe, people. If you don’t need to be out and about? Don’t be!
And now a public service announcement. It could save your life.
What's the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke?
Heat exhaustion is the precursor to heatstroke and is a direct result of the body overheating.
Heat exhaustion is identifiable by heavy sweating, rapid pulse, dizziness, fatigue, cool, moist skin with goose bumps when in the heat, muscle cramps, nausea and headache.
These symptoms may develop over time or come on suddenly, especially during or following periods of prolonged exercise.
When heat exhaustion is not addressed, heatstroke can follow.
Heatstroke is the most severe heat-related illness and, without emergency treatment, it can lead to death. It results when your body temperature rises to 104 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
At this temperature, your brain, heart, kidneys and muscles can also become damaged, leading to serious complications or death.
In addition to a high body temperatures, the symptoms of heatstroke include altered mental state or behavior, nausea and vomiting, flushed skin, rapid breathing and racing heart rate.
If heat exhaustion is suspected, remove the sufferer from heat and cool them down, if possible.
This can be done by getting out of the sun and removing or loosening tight clothes, misting the body with water or placing ice packs in the armpits and groin.
Additionally, rehydration is key. Consume plenty of water and avoid beverages that contain alcohol, caffeine or high amounts of sugar.
If you or someone else is experiencing heatstroke, seek immediate medical attention.
Be on the alert for a scam. I almost fell for it myself today. I was online using Foxfire when all the the sudden my computer starts beeping. There's a pop up from Foxfire that I need to call a Microsoft Technician. Something about a dll____ file being compromised. Don't turn off your computer because you can cause bad people access to your computer. (Those aren't the exact word but the gist of it.) So, I called the number because I was like WTF? I've never had this happen before. Of course, Middle Eastern dude. Asked me the problem. I told him. He was like oh, your computer gives you that warning when someone is trying to access your computer that shouldn't. Okay? So, he has me go to this website. I see that it wants me to input a 6 digit code and download software and I'm like, ohhhh...something's not right. So, I told the guy I'm not downloading anything to my computer because I don't know who it's from and what it's for. He's like, "Well, why would I try to access your computer to get your information? Why would I do that?" Um, hello. Because you're a hacker? Not like a hacker is going to say, "Hi, I'm a hacker. I want your info. Can you give it to me please?" Then the guy got really nasty and called me stupid because I didn't know anything about computer. OH HELL TO THE NO, YOU DID NOT JUST GO THERE! Well, it might have been "stupid" in not realizing this wasn't legit sooner, but I found out before I gave you access to my computer. So yeah, not completely stupid! So, if you get this popping up on your computer, DON'T FALL FOR IT NO MATTER HOW LEGIT IT LOOKS. Because mine really did. I'll give them props for that.
L.A. Banks is gravely ill with late-stage adrenal cancer, which is leaving her with, as I'm sure you can guess, mounting of medical bills. The romance community is coming together and having an auction for her. If you are a fan of her writings and would like to help, please see the following link:
Thanks.
Hard to believe three weeks ago today I had my jaw busted. Actually, the surgeon's gave it some big fancy name but in short, that's what they did. Things are, well, going. Face is still puffy though not as bad as it was. Pain still remains an issue. The sides of my head now hurt for some odd reason. I'm sure it's because the nerves are slowing back but still. Heaven help it when they come back in along my jawline. I swear I was going to go blind from the pain yesterday it was so bad. A few hours after it mysteriously started, it stopped, but by that time it had physically made me sick. Next follow up is Tuesday just to see how I'm healing and then back to the orthodontist for yanking my teeth around on my birthday. Oh joy!
Now the insurance crap. Got 2 letters today, that were copies for my records, of the denial to the surgeon for payment. Seriously, must we go through this? I already did the preauthorization, preapproval, pre-this and that. It's such a joke. They're requesting this information which yeah, good luck getting it from them because it all goes through Shelia aka their insurance person that doesn't know what the fuck she's doing that sat on my information for 3 months before sending it in to BCBS. Yeah, that woman. LOL
I truly don't get why it's necessary to go through all of this. The insurance companies get a premium every month for services that I may or may not use. Well sorry if I'm bursting your happy bubble BCBS but I'm using it. It wasn't for cosmetic reasons. Look at my x-rays. Look at the measurements. My jaw was structurally off. Believe me! This is NOT something I would recommend to ANYONE unless they absolutely needed it. Granted, it hasn't been as bad as I expected but it hasn't been a walk in the park either. Just pay up so I can figure out how I'm going to pay my out of pocket expense before shit kicks in at 100%.
I'm really getting sick of being nice and helping people out only to get screwed over in the end. Well congrats! I'm done. Screw over someone else!
So, mom and I went shopping at Wal-Mart last night. During checkout, my mom who is in her early sixties, got carded. She took it in good stride saying she couldn't remember the last time she was carded. Out comes her ID, the woman puts in her birth date and it comes up as INVALID!!! hahahahahahahahaha
What truly boggles my mind is how customer services seems to have gone out the windows these days. Granted, we have become a throw away society; making things so cheaply that it's more cost effective to buy a new item then repair it. Nonetheless, there are still some instances were you need it.
Example:
I recently got rid of T-Mobile! (Hooray!) I opted for Sprint because I did have them many years ago and the sound quality was always superb. I had left for minor issues that I assumed over the the course of time have been improved upon, i.e., at the time good luck connecting to the intenet. After reviewing many phones (both consumer and CNET), I opted for the HTC Evo Shift.
It's a pretty phone. LOL A bit pricy but after all the rebates, it dropped to what I felt was a reasonable price for the phone. However, I still had to pay a bit of a high bill that sent my credit card people into a jig and me into cardiac arrest. I'm sorry. I'm a cheap ass when it comes to me. LOL
Anyway, the people at the store were FABULOUS! We went the day before just to check out the phones. Even though the store was crowded, the rep took the time to answer all of our questions. Going back the next day, the experience was just a great. Ah! Customer service. NICE.
Got the phones up and running. Great crystal clear sound quality. AH! Even during the Blizzard of 2011, we never expereienced any dropped calls, calls that didn't go through - NOTHING! We were over the moon. Until a few days later. The secondary user's phone decided to go stupid. So, he called Tech Support and they suggested he take it to his nearest "repair" store to have it tested. Okay. He gets there and is told, "Well, we're a repair center, but you really should have just taken the phone back to where you purchased it from, but we'll take a look at it." Um, what? He told the guy, don't act like you're doing me a favor. You're a repair center, kind of your job. They tested the phone and it failed every point. Okay, no biggie. He got a defective phone. You can buy a Caddy and get a lemon. So, they give him a new phone and off he goes.
Meanwhile, I've noticed some odd things with mine. Granted, this is the first time I've ever had a smartphone, so it could be just me, but thinking the other phone was defective, I'm going to take mine in to be looked at in case the store we bought them from just happened to get a bad batch. No biggie. Call Tech Support, tell them what's going on, take phone to repair center.
I do and am met with the same, well, you should take it back to where you got it from. Okay, shit like that doesn't sit with me. I've done retail (will never do it again), as much as you might HATE your customer, you're at least polite. Hell, even at the law firm if I even thought of talking to a client like that, chances are I would be out of a job. So as sweetly as I could, I commented, "Well, if you don't want to be a repair center, maybe you should inform the corporate office so you won't be bothered with people like me." LOL Wow, suddenly it's let's check out the phone.
I tell them the issues I was having. The one guy just told him to give me a new phone, the one issue, tinny earpiece was a known issue. Hmm, really? That's odd. I didn't see that in ANY of the reviews. Okay, whatever. Gimme new phone. It's all good. Well after and hour and 15 minutes of this fool trying to get the new phone working and my contacts back, I was out the door. I did a test call to make sure it worked, it did and off to work I went.
At lunch I went to reset up my voice mail and holy hell I almost dropped the phone. The tinniness was so bad, it just hits that nerve in your ear that when it gets to a certain pitch caused you immense pain. Yeah, I had that. Thinking it was a bad connection I tried again. Nope. Okay, now I'm starting to get pissed. Playing around, great, the damn notifications aren't working again. (Another issue I had with the first phone.) So I called the store, explained the situation and they told me to come back down, it sounded like a faulty device.
Grr, back down after work and yeah. Now I'm getting attitude from hell. "Well, it's not a phone issue, it's a network issue." Okay, how the HELL is a bad earpiece a network issue? I told him I didn't see how a faulty earpiece was the network's fault. He told me and I quote, "Well, you're under the 30 days. Just cancel the contract if you don't like the service. We're not in the habit of just giving phones away to people." Okay, NOW I'm pissed. All politeness on my end has gone out the window.
First off, the notifications not coming through, yes, I'll buy it's a network issue. Crappy earpiece, no. Two, if necessary, I will cancel this contract but quite honestly, I would prefer not to since for the most part it's the PHONE that's the issue not the service. Three, I wouldn't be so flip about telling customers to leave because in cause you didn't realize, people like me coming in buying these phones, signing contracts, review your performance when the survey comes in, keeps you working. And four, I'm not trying to get something for nothing. I paid handsomely for the phone and as wild and wacky as it might seem, I expect it to work.
So, they go off to test my phone, of course find nothing wrong. Hands it back to me and was like, well deal with it or cancel and walked away. I got home and emailed the CEO. (The rep on the 800 number gave it to me. She said they like to hear from customers about their experiences to see where they can improve.) Well, by golly, he got an email from me which generated the typical, we'll contact you shortly message.
Frustrated as all hell over this, because now my phone is fucking losing it's mind. Oh yes, still no notifications coming in. NOW, it's just deletely the all of the home pages so I just have the wallpaper and nothing else. I call Tech Support yet again to see if they could help. Explain ALL of it to the woman and she was like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. The earpiece has poor sound quality and it's the network?" Yes, that's what I was told. She literally laughed and said, "NO, defective phone. Hello." I had to chuckle. When I told her what he said about cancelling the contract, she flipped. She's was like, "Sprint's not in the habit of telling it's customers to go away." So she suggested me NOT going back to that store. Yeah, no intentions there and I have reported the store. She gave me a trouble ticket number and told me to go back to the store I purchased it from. The ticket states I received a new device, was told it was a network issue, earpiece is defaulted. Repair or replace. She even said she would call me back on Monday (which will remain to be seen) and she said, and I quote, "If they so much as look at you funny, I want you to tell me because this is not the Sprint way." You got it toots! LOL
So as much as I really, really like this phone, I think I'm going to bypass getting another one since I've had two and it just doesn't seem to be working out for me. The other 2 4G models I had to look at were another HTC which is like their iPhone. As much as I would love to get that one, I think I'll stay away from it. Granted, it could just be that model, but at this point with only a little over 2 weeks to decide if I should keep them, why take the chance? So, I'm going with the Samsung Epic 4G. It was the one I had thought of getting but I thought it wasn't as sturdy. However, all of the "manufacture" reviews I've read rave about how sturdy it is and user reviews are pretty good for it too. So wish me luck. I think I'm gonna need it.
