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US Post vs. Canada Post
Sunday, 17 December 2006 08:58 pmA minor rant.
On Tuesday morning at 9am, I dropped two theatre tickets in the mail for friends here in town. The tickets didn't arrive in Friday's mail, which meant it won't arrive until Monday- two days after the theatre show.
We drove to Ithaca on Friday. Friday afternoon at 4pm, I dropped sixty holiday cards at the post office. On Sunday, we saw some of the people who were sent cards. Every single one of them had already arrived.
*makes eye-daggers at Canada Post*
I still haven't gotten totally used to no Saturday mail; I guess I'm OK with it. But: 4 business-days vs. less than one? Both systems are overloaded with Christmas mail. Both systems are running a 2.5% profit.
In fact, the per-capita profits of both institutions are surprisingly similar, roughly $4 (US and CAD respectively).
Grr.
On Tuesday morning at 9am, I dropped two theatre tickets in the mail for friends here in town. The tickets didn't arrive in Friday's mail, which meant it won't arrive until Monday- two days after the theatre show.
We drove to Ithaca on Friday. Friday afternoon at 4pm, I dropped sixty holiday cards at the post office. On Sunday, we saw some of the people who were sent cards. Every single one of them had already arrived.
*makes eye-daggers at Canada Post*
I still haven't gotten totally used to no Saturday mail; I guess I'm OK with it. But: 4 business-days vs. less than one? Both systems are overloaded with Christmas mail. Both systems are running a 2.5% profit.
In fact, the per-capita profits of both institutions are surprisingly similar, roughly $4 (US and CAD respectively).
Grr.
Last night, I discovered that Staples Copy and Print finally works with non-IE browsers. So I can get my schtuff printed at staples without mucking with IE on Windows. That's progress.
Unfortunately, my pamphlet I wanted to print there has a fatal flaw: I can't figure out how to flip the inside page, so both sides will be appropriate-side-up when it's folded. Rather, I can't be bothered to figure out how to find the Open Office 'make a book' setting right now. (which is one of the reasons I'm not a professional designer...) No matter, it's a small enough batch I can print and fold it myself.
...and a public memo to my bank:
If you're gonna call at 6:30pm and say "this is your local bank branch. Please call us back tomorrow," you really can give some sort of hint that you want to SELL ME SOMETHING and not that it's, y'know, a real emergency. Because when I call 10 times the next day from work, worried my ID was stolen or something, and still can't get ahold of the right person, I will be quite irritated when you finally call me back (at work, in late afternoon) and launch into a sales pitch. And I will be no less irritated when you act surprised and apologetic, but claim you're only following privacy regulation. Thanks.
Unfortunately, my pamphlet I wanted to print there has a fatal flaw: I can't figure out how to flip the inside page, so both sides will be appropriate-side-up when it's folded. Rather, I can't be bothered to figure out how to find the Open Office 'make a book' setting right now. (which is one of the reasons I'm not a professional designer...) No matter, it's a small enough batch I can print and fold it myself.
...and a public memo to my bank:
If you're gonna call at 6:30pm and say "this is your local bank branch. Please call us back tomorrow," you really can give some sort of hint that you want to SELL ME SOMETHING and not that it's, y'know, a real emergency. Because when I call 10 times the next day from work, worried my ID was stolen or something, and still can't get ahold of the right person, I will be quite irritated when you finally call me back (at work, in late afternoon) and launch into a sales pitch. And I will be no less irritated when you act surprised and apologetic, but claim you're only following privacy regulation. Thanks.
Flights of Fancy
Sunday, 7 May 2006 12:15 amYou know about Terry Bissoin's short story They're Made of Meat, right? Well- Go. Watch. (work-safe, about 4 minutes long). Thanks ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
infinitehotel!
I took my sweetie's advice and took most of today easy. I mowed the lawn, did a bit of raking, and played fetch with Rover. She does love fetching sticks, but she gets bored after only one or two throws. However, if I have in my hands a big batch of sticks, and I wave them at her, she'll come back and relinquish her old stick to chase one of the new sticks. We kept this up for at least fifteen minutes, which might be a record for her?
Later this evening I felt a bit like I was playing that game too, looking at flights to California. (for nearly the only time that d. isn't already going to be travelling elsewhere.) Expedia consistantly played the "Here's a flight... oops, the price changed. Try again! Here's another one... oops!" (adding $200 to each fare; but of course if you reload the first search page, it hasn't updated there, mysteriously. Wankers.)
So I spent some quality time with some web-searches and Orbitz found me a cheaper fare than I saw anywhere else except for flights that left Buffalo at 6:00 in the morning (what, are they daft? or do people actually leave their houses before 4:30am to fly?), and Orbitz's site also behaved as one would expect them to. They even took my US credit-card with a Canadian mailing address, which is never a sure thing. So, Orbitz >> Expedia for me, at least for the next while.
I had hoped to head over to chezlovecraftienne and persephoneplace for some movie-watching and meeting holographicjoe but... I dunno, I felt worn out. So rather than pushing it I had a quiet dinner here and I've been spending too much time in front of a computer since.
infinitehotel!I took my sweetie's advice and took most of today easy. I mowed the lawn, did a bit of raking, and played fetch with Rover. She does love fetching sticks, but she gets bored after only one or two throws. However, if I have in my hands a big batch of sticks, and I wave them at her, she'll come back and relinquish her old stick to chase one of the new sticks. We kept this up for at least fifteen minutes, which might be a record for her?
Later this evening I felt a bit like I was playing that game too, looking at flights to California. (for nearly the only time that d. isn't already going to be travelling elsewhere.) Expedia consistantly played the "Here's a flight... oops, the price changed. Try again! Here's another one... oops!" (adding $200 to each fare; but of course if you reload the first search page, it hasn't updated there, mysteriously. Wankers.)
So I spent some quality time with some web-searches and Orbitz found me a cheaper fare than I saw anywhere else except for flights that left Buffalo at 6:00 in the morning (what, are they daft? or do people actually leave their houses before 4:30am to fly?), and Orbitz's site also behaved as one would expect them to. They even took my US credit-card with a Canadian mailing address, which is never a sure thing. So, Orbitz >> Expedia for me, at least for the next while.
I had hoped to head over to chez
lovecraftienne and persephoneplace for some movie-watching and meeting holographicjoe but... I dunno, I felt worn out. So rather than pushing it I had a quiet dinner here and I've been spending too much time in front of a computer since.
