unculturedswine

Or no deal. Last night I signed on to the Mario Kart Wii Channel to play my friends Josh (Pleasant Grove, UT) and Chris (Nixa, MI) in some friends VS racing. Sadly, Wii doesn’t do any kind of VoIP so you either play in silence, or use the phone. I bite the minute bullet and call them both for a 3 way conversation. I started the call at 8:25pm.

As we are all very aware of, cell phone providers are always keen to point out ‘Free Nights and Weekends!’ as one of their perks. For most companies that starts at 9pm. So let’s do some Math here.

8:25pm – 9:00pm = 35 minutes. Then multiply that by 2 (that is the catch to 3+ way calling, each person counts as a minute) and I would have used 70 minutes of cell time. After 9pm, I would have changed into my Free Minutes, right?

Wrong. When I made the call, I checked my minutes. I had 700 minutes remaining for the month. Now, subtract the 70 I used during normal hours and I should have 630 minutes remaining. However, I checked this morning and I have 553 (the call was about 75 minutes, or 150 for both). Therefore, ATT did NOT use my unlimited night minutes after 9pm.

So I figure it must be in the fine print that calls need to be made after 9pm. Let’s check the fine print:

“Nights and Weekends: Nights are 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Weekends are 9:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 a.m. Monday (based on time of day at switch providing your service). Included long distance calls can be made from the 50 United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands to the 50 United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. Roaming charges do not apply when roaming within the service area of land-based networks of the 50 United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. International long distance rates vary. Additional charges apply to services used outside the land borders of the U.S., Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.” Link

Do you see it in there? I don’t. I did a ‘Find’ for “Nights” in the entire Plans and Terms document and found that same paragraph 3 times verbatim. No where did I find mention that the call had to be placed after 9pm.

I get a little bit more irritated by cell phone companies every day. Before text messages were all the rage (circa 2001) incoming text messages were free and didn’t count against your plan. Now they do. When I bought my iPhone in December 2006 my data plan was $20 for unlimited usage. Now, because the new iPhones have the faster 3G cards, access to the same information via the same network costs $30, for the same unlimited usage. That’s odd, don’t you think? One unlimited plan is $20, while the other is $30, on the same network. Rock. On.

Thankfully, I have more rollover minutes then I can shake a stick at, so using 150 minutes for nothing but sheer pleasure is not really a big deal for me. The iPhone and rollover minutes are the only things I like about ATT. Since they bought out Cingular service and customer service has just degraded to absolute annoyance.

There is no way in hell I’m going to watch it. One of the most significant events in Politics and I have every intention of avoiding it to the fullest extent.

The Inauguration. Count. Me. Out.

In the deli at work they have the TV’s turned on to CNN. It’s an absolute JOKE how much they worship Obama. They all have half-ass grins plastered on their face at the mention of his name. I don’t even know how they breathe! They don’t stop kissing his butt long enough to take in any air; their lips are just plastered there. It just makes me sick.

I have every intention of treating him with as much respect as he and his socialist friends respected President Bush.

While I wish the country the best, and hope for a good future and solid 4 years, let’s just say my faith that it will happen is completely thin. And it’s not just him. It’s Pelosi and Reid, it’s his celebrity filled and tax evading cabinet that he’s assembling. How many scandals and questionable characters can this man hide behind?

Oh, and back to CNN. Everytime I log into Facebook one of their ‘Don’t miss history! Watch the inauguration on CNN!’ ads is shoved in my face. You can rate ads with a thumbs up or down and I’ve (not lying) given probably close to a dozen thumb downs to the ads; yet they still keep coming. I mark them offensive nonetheless, but I still get CNN ads.

I’ve had it. I’m done. I can’t take this anymore. He’s turned politics into a hollywood rock star event everywhere he goes. He gives ‘amazing’ speeches. But let’s not forget this one fact:

He hasn’t actually done anything.

This afternoon I had to go to Salt Lake and meet some people that have asked me to shoot their wedding in July. We decided to meet at the Salt Lake Library. Across the street from the Library is Charlie Chows. Charlie Chows is one of my favorite restaurants. I’m not allowed to eat there right now. It was hard. All you can eat Mongolian BBQ was so close… so very close.

I’m sorry Charlie. I promise I’ll visit next time. Please understand. No hard feelings.

In other news, Smith’s had a shipment of Wii Fit show up while I was at work the other day so I decided to buy one. $86 for me with my 10% discount. I listed it on eBay and sold it for $125. I’m pretty happy about that! I think I’ll keep it up when they’re in stock!

Oh, and this diet I’m committed to? Well, it’s benefitted me -16 pounds as of this morning. Hopefully another pound or two will be missing tomorrow morning. Seven days left!