Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002 - 1:19 a.m.

A Rant Before Smiling
I had a pretty happy day, but before we get to it, Lola has something to say. Be warned.

Marn had a very cool entry today. I applaud her for what she had to say, as well as how she said it, and I thank the Canadian government for having good sense and taking a stand. I wish we could replace the fucking loser in the White House with someone able to see the reality of living on this planet and more interested in doing what's right than in lining his own goddamned pockets with money and favor. I hate George W. Fucking Bush more than a human being should *ever* hate another human being. He is the worst president this country has ever had. His will be a "legacy" of hate, intolerance, greed, damage to the environment, and every kind of corruption. I did not think it was possible to hate a president more than I hated Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, I thought, sullied all that was good and noble about the presidency of the United States when he lied under oath. He hurt my heart when he did that; when he clearly stated with his actions that the President is above the law and made a laughing stock of every value Americans should hold dear, in front of the entire world. George W. Bush is worse. He sits in that office every day - except for the fucking weekends, when he sits in his big fucking lazyboy recliner in Crawford, Texas, costing the taxpayers millions of dollars - and makes decisions which benefit himself and a select few in the Billion Dollar Boys' Club. He has appointed to office men of questionable ethics, morals, honor, and business practices. He continues to bestow honors upon men of that ilk and to pardon and reward big business crime and the worst kind of usury - the gambling of other people's savings and pensions. People who can ill afford to lose a lifetime's worth of savings and earnings gained of hard work - and for what? So that corporate fat cats who already make millions of dollars a year can have free access to corporate jets and houses in the fucking Hamptons. He hurts my heart and drains my soul. He makes a mockery of everything the president should be. There is not a good, altruistic, or noble bone in his body. He drills for oil in wilderness areas and cites statistics garnered from oil drilling companies as proof of no harm done, no negative impact on the environment. He has pushed back and damaged the protections of the Clean Air Act and continues to push to lift the restrictions protecting our air, all to line the pockets of his friends in Big Bidness. He refuses to sign the Kyoto Accord, for no reason other than the fiscal impact it will have on all of his oil company pals...and therefore, his pockets. He has failed to do all that he could to find bin Laden, shifting focus instead to Saddam Hussein, a personal battle. He violates Americans' civil liberties and freedoms. His family is of dubious morality, honor and ethics. He lies, he obfuscates, he misleads, he hides. He is a charlatan and terrible magician of the worst kind of "magic." I long for the day he leaves office and takes the rest of his misbegotten cabinet with him. I abhor all that he is, all that he will be, all that he would have this country become. I hate him. And my heart will rejoice at his passing.

Done.

Happy Happy Bonus Day for Katie
Wow, so time for the happy now, huh? Sorry, but I really had to get that off my chest. Every so often it piles up just a little too high, and I feel like I will never be able to breathe again.

So anyway, I went to Radioshack today to get a new phone, coz when I was in there buying the boyfriend something for Christmas, I got wrangled into talking briefly about a cell phone by the salesguy. Now see, I have a StarTac. I understand some people have had buku problems with the StarTac and are less than enchanted with it, but I love mine. More than is probably healthy to love a cell phone, frankly. I am very attached to it. I've had it since Christmas of 1999, when it was a gift from my best friend. I had wanted one for a year or two before that. It just looked so nifty. It's plain old black, of a polymer so strong you could probably build a nuclear bomb shelter out of it. I've dropped it, knocked it off of desks and tables, accidentally flung it across the room, and a million other unavoidable little traumas, and it takes a licking and keeps on...well, you know what I mean. After 3 years, I can use that baby without even looking at it. Plus, it's a phone. It makes and receives calls. It does not surf the web. It does not give me the sports scores and stock prices. It rings, I answer. It stores my phone numbers for me, takes messages, and has caller id. It places my calls and works pretty darned well. I can hear people easily, and they can hear me...or at least, that used to be how it worked. In September, that nifty being able to hear people thing starting to go a little wonky on me. Until 3 weeks ago, when it ceased altogether. People could hear me, but I could not hear them. :( Much sadness, gentle reader. And then imagine my distress when I go to take advantage of the equipment replacement program I've paid $3.25/month toward every month for the last 3 years, only to find they no longer make StarTac, and my beloved phone will be replaced with a "suitable replacement".

Uh, no.

I am not allowing Sprint PCS, the company with the WORST customer service in the entire world, decide what passes as a "suitable replacement phone" for my beloved StarTac. Nope, nope, nope. So I figure, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, I can choose a new phone, pay probably around $50, which is what my equipment replacement fee is, and voila, new flippy phone. So I start looking, and it is grim, people. All the new phones are in color and have a million buttons. They surf the web, receive messages, take pictures, act as planners and organizers and games. I do not want a phone that plays games or surfs the web. I want a phone that is a *phone*. Period. So already I am dismayed and downright unhappy. But then Radioshack guy waylays me, and I see this little Samsung that isn't too much bulkier than my wonderful, thin StarTac, and it doesn't have too many more buttons, and it's the same boring monochrome screen with the blue backlight, and it's $129.99, with an $80 rebate...for first time Sprint buyers. But the salesguy says don't worry, he can get it for me for 50 bucks. And I go okay, I gotta get home to watch The West Wing - because frankly, that's more enjoyable than a cell phone, and ya gots ta have priorities - but come Tuesday, I'll come get the thing from ya.

Okay.

Today being Tuesday, I head over to Radioshack to get my new phone.

It doesn't work.

The phone itself has some kind of problem with communicating to Sprint, so I have to wait for another phone to come from another store, but he'll check with Sprint and make sure about that $50 thing, because he forgot to do that last week. So there's all this dialing and punching of numbers and waiting on hold, and finally there's a conversation with Sprint PCS, wherein I have to announce within earshot of like a dozen people what my Sprint PCS phone number and password are (great), and then finally I get to talk to the Sprint guy my personal self, and he says he'll give me a $50 credit toward the phone if I will leave my comfy little month-to-month arrangement and sign a one year plan at a higher rate per month.

Yeah, right. For fitty freakin dollas. I don't think so.

So I say to the guy, uh, no, I'm not gonna do that. The phone I have is broken, I have to replace it, this is the situation, please be a mensch. He says no, $50 or leave it. I say you know, Cingular is lookin' good, have a nice day, and hand the phone back to the salesguy. He feels bad, I say it's cool, I buy the present I picked up while I was waiting, and I leave.

On the way home, I start gettin' mad. Who the hell does that little Sprint PCS worm think he is, and what did he have to be such a frickin schmuck for, and why does that company have the worst customer service this side of hell, and fuck, I've already paid $117 in equipment replacement fees, which is already almost the price of the fricking phone I wanted, and damn it, when I get home, we're straightening this out, by god.

So I get home, and I call Sprint. And I get this super cool chick named Monica. I tell her my situation, making sure I don't get all bitchy on her ass, and she's pretty nice. She says that hardly seems cool, which phone did I want? I tell her, and she says you know, lemme see if I can hunt down a StarTac for ya. That suits me perfectly, so I say go for it. Sadly, there were none to be acquired. So she says lemme check out that Samsung. You don't want all these bells and whistles, so is it okay if it does this extraneous stuff if it also does this, this, and this? And I say that's okay, it's the least obtrusive of the new phones - while still being a dual-band - even if it *does* comes with 3 freakin' games (why the hell do you need or want a freaking cell phone to play games?) - and she says okay, I figure you've been a customer with this company for 3 years, you deserve a new phone. Tell ya what: I'll charge that phone to your account, credit the price back, you pay the tax, here's a credit for the half of this month you've had no service, and have a good day; how's that work for ya? I say wow, supercool, thanks, we "shake" on it, and it's a done deal. :) I get a new phone, no charge. I asked how to make sure she got brownie points because she's the first decent person I've gotten at that company, and she put me thru to her supervisor, to whom I raved about her service, and that's the end of this story. :)

(now I just hope it's actually a decent phone...)

Favorite Search of the Day:
"the Katie way"

Someone searched that out 4 times. I don't know why they'd be looking for it, but I like the way it sounds. :)

Net lore googles: 1 (mimi+smartypants)
Racist pervert searches: 1...ew

Chansons de Noel (en Francais) 101
So, MP wrote me mail regarding the whole Jinglebells thing. She corrected my tranlation of Vive le Vent from "live the wind" to "hurrah the wind". Oops. I pretty much figured it meant live as in hurrah, but I went for that literal thing. That'll teach me. :) She also supplied me with the name of the guy who sings it on my cd she made. His name is Henri Salvador, and he is an 80 year old man from the French Antillas who likes jazz, which would explain the whole Vegas loungy, shooby-do-be-do sound of it. I also like the version of Ave Maria on this cd and Petit Papa Noel; maybe MP will come forth on those two, too. :) Noel Interdit is also kinda nice...I think it's Celine Dion, but I can't tell. Some chick with a big voice. Those french chanteusses all sound alike, you know. ;) Basically, I am finding out those crazy froggies just take the tunes of our Christmas songs and change the words all up to whatever the heck they want to sing about. I have to crack up, though. Oh Christmas Tree becomes "Non Beau Sapin"...Non Beautiful Fir Tree. And it has this great dramatic build at the end. The words are prettier than our version though, which actually originated in the German, I believe. Their words are better, too. Whomever did the English version was a simpleton. French sounds very pretty when it's sung, I have to say.

I mistyped the name of that cool highland reel thing that Jean-Jacques Goldman plays, though. It's actually Et l'on n'y peut rien, for those of you keeping track and jonesin' for some good french fiddlin'. It really is a darn cool song. I totally love it, even if it is a love song roughly translated to "and nothing you can do." But darn it, it's just so infectiously happy sounding. I'm a sucker for peppy Celtic sounding music, I guess. Go figure: Doyle. I'm Irish, French and German; think I have a temper? :)

Also, it turns out Michael Vartan does NOT do his own looping for the french version of Alias. Take that, Mike, you poseur.

(I am just kidding; all you rabid MV fans, do not send me hate mail because I said Michael Vartan is a poseur de francais. How the hell would I know? I'm just some chick in LA with an online diary.)

Bygones.

It Ain't Singing Meeses, But It's Funny, Anyway
A friend of mine in Texas sent me this link to the single most useless, pointless site on the internet. I, of course, loved it. :)

And in a sorta similar vein, I swiped this link from Mimi Smartypants. It's just too bizarre. I have to wonder who in hell thought this thing up and why *anyone* would think you want your food to sing to you...

Yes. Exactly what I want for Christmas is a pillow which says "I love snogging." Especially if it has sparkly bits. ::huge eyeroll::

Are all women this stupid?

Bygones.

I am, however, dying to know what a "puppy suitcase art set" is. It's probably something dreadfully boring, like a buncha magic markers, crayons, pencils, and paper in a plastic carrying case with a puppy printed on it. But in my head it's this fabulous, tiny little old-fashioned suitcase for puppies, with oil paints and brushes, turpentine/thinner, a palette, and a tiny little puppy-sized beret. :)

All right. I guess I really have nothing more to say. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. I got a really nifty Christmas card today. Someone ::cough:: Sundry ::hack:: had humiliated her poor dog and stuck stuff on him, and then on top of that, manipulated the photo so that the poor, pathetic thing has a festive sort of schnoz. I, of course, thought it was hysterical. :)

Peace out,
Katie

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008