I was attempting to purchase a moderately priced product for around $40-50. When I got to the checkout, my exchange with the cashier went like this:

Cashier: “Did you find everything okay?”
Me: “yep.”
Cashier: “What?”
Me: “”Yes, thank you.”
Cashier: “Um, you need me to help you find something?”
Me: “No, I don’t need your help. Thanks, I found everything I needed (which is why I’m in the checkout and not the customer service desk).”

Cashier: “Do you have a Rewards Card?”
Me: “I don’t think I do.”
Cashier: “Just give me your phone number and I’ll check.”
Me: “Um, sure. 555-2094″
Cashier: “Was that 2096?”
Me: “No, 2094“
Cashier: “Oh okay, thanks.”
Cashier: “Hmm, nothing is coming up. Would you like to try another number?”
Me: “No, that’s okay.”

Cashier: “So… would you like to signup for the Rewards Card right now?”
Me: “No thank you, maybe some other time.”
Cashier: “Are you sure? You get the following benefits…blah blah blah blah blah blah.”
[One minute later]
Me: “Thanks, but I’m fine for now.”

Cashier: “I see there’s a service agreement available… Would you like to purchase a 3 year service agreement with your product for $29.99?”
Me: “No thank you.”
Cashier: “”Are you sure? This protects you just in case something happens to your product. Just bring it back and if we can ‘t fix it, we’ll replace it if we still have the item in stock.”
Me: “$30 is pretty hefty for a $40-50 product. Don’t you guys have a 15-30 day return policy already?”
Cashier: “”Yes, but this covers you after the 30 days.”
Me: “Doesn’t the manufacture usually have a 1-2 year warranty too?”
Cashier: “Yes, but they have some limitations. Our service agreement covers any accidents that might happen to your product.”
Me: “What if I purposely destroy my product?”
Cashier: “The agreement doesn’t cover willful acts of destruction.”
Me: “So what’s the difference between willful destruction and an accident?”
Cashier: “… … …”
Cashier: “Umm… so you won’t be purchasing the service agreement then?”
Me: “Yes, that’s correct (I said that 2 minutes ago).”

Cashier: “So you will you be paying with cash, credit, or debit?”
Me: “Debit”
Cashier: “Credit?”
Me: “No, DEBIT!”
Cashier: “Okay, just swipe your card…”
Me: *swipes card and enters pin numbers*
Cashier: “Wait, don’t enter your pin yet. “
Me: “… … … (Why did you tell me to swipe the card then)”
Cashier: “Now enter the pin”
Me: *Enters pin again*
Cashier: “… …. …”
Me: “… … …”
*awkward silence*
[20-30 seconds later]
Cashier: “Approved”

Cashier: “Would you like me to put the product in a bag?”
Me: “No thank you, I’ll just carry it. (Anything so I can just get out of here.)”
Cashier: “Here is your receipt. “
Cashier: “If you’d like, you can goto our website and enter this code on your receipt. It will allow you to take a short 30 minute survey and possibly win $500 worth of store credit on your Rewards Card.”
Me: “I don’t have a Rewards Card…”
Cashier: “Umm, oh yeah… You can still fill out the survey if you want. You just won’t win anything…”
Me: “… … …”
Me: “Honestly I probably wouldn’t win anything anyway even if I had a Rewards Card, right?”
Cashier: “Yeah, probably not…” *nervous chuckle*
Cashier: “Alright, have a good day Mr. Christopoulos”
Me: “You too… (I’ll be praying that you get a new job.)”

Aside from being a little hard-of-hearing, I don’t put much blame on the cashier. The cashier is just a tiny cog following store policy in a big machine. But too many retail stores make the checkout process a literal minefield to get through. Rewards cards, store credit cards, member cards, service agreements, purchase insurance, surveys, blah blah blah. I bet some of these stores would see more revenue if they would just take the money that’s in front of them! No need to frustrate a paying customer at the point of purchase by trying to sucker them into numerous other deals.  A $30 service agreement for a $40 product? Are we for real???

But what is certain we’re now completely surrounded. We’ve been completely invaded by the Duckfaces. Who knows, you might already be a victim…

It’s not just limited to women, the Duckface has gotten to guys as well.

If you find yourself becoming symptomatic of the Duckface syndrome, immediately put down your camera phone and disable your MySpace/Facebook account. Hopefully within a few days, your face will revert to normal.

Images Courtesy of Antiduckface.com

Image Source: IdahoFallsToday.com

Aside from a sold-out parking lot, there is nothing worse than shopping carts scattered in various places across the lot during a sold-out lot.

For the most part, modern shopping centers usually have several “cart centers” included in their parking lot that allows users of shopping carts to park once they lift their groceries out of the cart and into their car.

But people are so lazy and inconsiderate that they callously leave them anywhere they want!

The main reason that this can be annoying is because for the most parts, they are parked near the cars. This either doesn’t allow the car enough space to park or the cart can bump into the vehicles and leave a mark.

If there were no “cart centers” conveniently located on each aisle, then sure, leave them anywhere. But there is a reason they were created, so please use it and save a lot of people trouble and grief.

First off, let me say I’m aware that usually the first sign that you’re getting old is when all the songs on the radio begin to “suck”. More often than not, music isn’t getting worse, you’re just getting old. The “good” days of music is almost always the era that you grew up in. Ten years from now people will be saying, “Oh why can’t they make real music like Soulja Boy anymore!?”

Also every era of music has its performers who were more image than substance. Spice Girls in the ’90s, Debbie Gibson in the ’80s, and just about every boy band in existence fall into that category. Heck, 60% of pop music falls into that category.

Having said all of that… Kesha still sucks even by those standards!

She sucks in such a horrific and unprecedented fashion that she sets a new low for the over-produced under-talented segment of the music industry. Kesha even makes Britney Spears look like a musical genius on the level of Mozart (okay, maybe not).

So it’s ironic that Kesha recently was trashing Britney Spears for lip-syncing. But judging by Kesha’s own live performances, maybe she should lip-sync since she struggles to sing even her own simplistic songs. I’ve seen high school talent shows with people who could sing and perform better.

Her studio recordings, artistically, aren’t much better. Her vocals are heavily over-produced even by today’s auto-tune standards. Underneath all that production there really isn’t much of a singing voice or talent at all.  Her lyrics range from mildly amusing to mind numbingly idiotic and shallow. Some of the actual music is catchy and has a decent beat but that’s more a credit to Kesha’s producers than her.

It seems her primary job is to maintain her image of being a trashy drunken slut that’s “real”. She’s basically a Las Vegas trip on infinite loop.

Despite the title of this post, there actually is some good pop music out there. Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and a few others all have a good degree of talent to go along with their image.

I’m just worried that Kesha is setting the bar so low that we’re going to get a flood of copycat no-talent “personalities” taking up space from legitimate artist. Look, there’s always been an epic battle in pop music between the factions of talent vs. image. The successful acts usually had a good mix of both. But Kesha threatens to tip the scales tremendously in favor of the no talent hacks.

But I have a feeling Ke$ha couldn’t care less…

Pft, what kind of question is that?! *rolls eyes*

This recently divorced mother is now one of the contestants on Dancing With the Stars: Season 10, which means she will be busy dancing, and perhaps too busy to take care of her kids?

She has eight kids, for crying out loud. That is definitely not an easy task, and definitely not a crowd you can bring to something like Dancing With the Stars. So where are her kids, if not under maternal guidance?

It certainly is not with Jon Gosselin since he’s too busy posing for nude pictures. According to HuffingtonPost, the PlayGirl magazine initially wanted to pay him 20k for a nude shoot.

Of course, being the celebrity that he is, he wanted more. PlayGirl officials clearly declared that the only reason they wanted him in the magazine was for novelty purposes. But they’ve agreed to better the offer:

We’ve offered him $20,000. He told us that’s not much money. We told him $20,000 is $20,000. You could go to NYC for a year with that kind of money!”

Nardicio says Jon told the mag he’d think about it, and he tells X17online exclusively that they’ve extended an even better offer to the reality star:

“For every inch more than four, we’ll give him an additional $10,000.”

….hahahahahahahaaaaa.

Maybe it is better that their kids are being taken care of by nannies and grandmothers than these pair. *facepalm*

First off, I should say that I’m a huge fan of her songs … that weren’t introduced on the radio. The song “Love Song” and “Teardrops on my Guitar” makes my ear bleed. The lyrics are so corny and on-the-surface, they have made no real impact for me. It is songs like “Breathe”, “The Way I Loved You”, and “Fearless” are songs that have made me respect her as a singer/songwriter.

As a person, Taylor Swift seems to annoy me. Obviously, like any celebrity, we as bystanders only know such a high profile person from what is being said and portrayed through media. And through the media, Taylor Swift seems like the girl next door who is just the perfect little angel.

Being a fan that I am, I kept my eye out for her in the media, and eventually my likeness for her dispersed. Through the whole Kanye West fiasco and the Joe Jonas incident, she seems like a whiny girl always playing the victim.

During the Kanye West incident, it took her forever to stop bringing it up in interviews and such. I’m not saying what Kanye did was appropriate at all, far from it. But some things you just gotta let go! And with the Joe Jonas and the 27 second breakup issue, she continued to harass him in public over and over and over again. We get it, he’s a douche. Now, move on and focus on your new beau, which I believe is the other Taylor.

I suppose my little rant was my way to ease into my opinions on the photo shoot. I adore the photos! It steps away from her usual “goody-goody” glitter-sparkle dresses (I was getting really sick and tired of those glittery dresses) and more roughed up.

Ironically enough, the cover of this April 2010 issue has her in a gray sparkling dress. Gag.

Although I personally don’t have any experience being a tester, one of my family member used to be a tester for PlayStation, and the stories he told me about his experience weren’t really glamorous at all. He described the long hours, the crucial deadlines, and the monotony of it. Being a tester doesn’t mean you get to play the game as you would at home, because you’re looking for bugs and errors, so you would be playing the same level many a several times to find them. I suppose if you are the type who likes to find glitches, you’re perfect for the job.

In the first episode, I was able to watch a challenge where the contestants had to play a “spot the difference between two pictures” game. Okay, that makes sense. I mean, being a tester means having a critical eye, after all. But then, I watched the preview for the second episode.

Why are they running around a field inside a ball? How can that possibly be related to game testing?!

At one point in the show, a contestant surveys the room to see who is his competition and how he will strategize. Okay, first off, what is there to strategize?! If the objective of the show is to outshine the other contestants through playing of games, there is no need to create a complex tactic. Just beat them in the game! But I suppose if the challenges themselves do not involve games, rule out what I just said. Yet, since this reality show is a gaming show, playing games should be its main challenges.

As for the prize itself, aside from being an official tester for PlayStation, the winner will get a $5,000 bonus. Er, that’s it? A measly 5k?

I’m still interested in watching the show, however, just to see how much worse it can get. Anyone know where I can watch it online?

Is ABC out of his minds?! In a television world full of doctors, lawyers, investigators and reality shows, a little bit of fashion fever is greatly needed, as it puts some color into the otherwise bland tv-screen (literally, since doctors and lawyers either wear a full-white outfit or a full-black/gray suit). But putting aside color, there are also several important reasons why Ugly Betty does not deserve to have its head cut off.

Let’s first talk about the characters in the show. For the most part, it’s the characters that make the show a win or a lose, and in Ugly Betty’s case, it is a win. All the characters, including the villainous Wilhelmina Slater, have depth in them that makes their personality something that we can sympathize with and attach ourselves to.

In the case of Wilhelmina, although she is known to be the dragon lady in Mode, there is a reason that she is who she is. Many times throughout the show, she was supposed to be the next person in charge of the magazine, but many obstacles came her way, such as Alexis Meade and Daniel Meade, that made it impossible for her to get the crown. Of course this led her to be more vicious in her attempts to take over the empire. She’s not completely evil, however, and this can be seen more evidently through her relationship with Marc St. James, her loyal assistant, and Conner, her only lover on show.

There is still a long list of lovable characters that I will briefly mention, or I’d be sitting here all day just writing about them. First, there’s Amanda, the receptionist who at first seemed like a dumb blonde but expanded to be a character who wanted to achieve something out of life. Second, there’s Marc St. James, Wilhelmina’s assistant, who went from being a jerk always picking on Betty to someone who never gets that break from being a regular assistant to someone of more importance. The final character I will mention is Daniel Meade who was once a carefree playboy party animal to someone more grounded and more focused. There’s, of course Betty, but we all know what she stands for, so there’s no need to mention it.

Moving on to the great script and storyline. Okay, I do admit that the storyline is a little extreme (during one season, Wilhelmina is so desperate to become editor-in-chief, she stole sperm from a dead Bradford Meade, the owner of Meade Publications) but it because of these extreme and improbable storylines that makes the show so much fun to watch. They’re just so ridiculous that it’s simply pure awesomesauce and takes the viewers away from the real world for a bit. Compared to the lawyers show, where the criminals are deranged and they get caught for their crime, Ugly Betty makes their criminal actions creative and of minuscule importance to the higher authority, making anything possible.

This then causes for many comedic one-liners and overall dialogue. Here are a couple of examples:

1. Justin (Betty’s nephew): I don’t want flan. I’ll get fat!

Hilda (Justin’s mom): Honey, you’re a boy. It doesn’t matter if you’re fat or not

2. Marc to Justin (Justin is into fashion): Be who you are and wear what you want, just make sure you can run real fast.

All the characters have some form of witty comment in each episode that really adds such flavor to the show. And to my knowledge, no to other show does what Ugly Betty has managed to do, with the exception of Glee (but that show came after Ugly Betty so ‘meh’).

There is still so many things that needs to be covered in the show, such as Betty transforming into a beautiful dove appearance-wise, Betty and Daniel getting together (because we know they’re perfect for each other), Marc’s life as an editor, Amanda as a non-reception, etc. etc. For one thing, we do know that Betty will finally getting those adult braces off, but having them off right before the show’s final episodes is somewhat cruel to the viewers, in my opinion.

From my understanding, the show is getting cancelled due to the low amount of viewers. But blame it on the ABC network itself for constantly moving the show’s timeslot! From the poll shown on SaveUglyBetty.com, thirty percent of the poll-takers either didn’t know when the show was on or it was shown too late in the night, they weren’t able to watch it!

It’s probably unnecessary for me to say, but…

Bring Betty Back!

For some reason, The Pokemon Company likes to remake their video games, and I’m not complaining. When they decided to remake the original games, I was skeptical. But when I played it, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

For the most part,  the main draw for me were the graphics. Who doesn’t enjoy a colorful game compared to a monotone look? Then, there was the problem of game system. The originals were made for Gameboy Color whereas the newer ones were for Gameboy Advance.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver has also gotten an upgrade on its graphics, using 3D instead. Aside from that, some mini-games have been included, and you can use the touch-screen to play them. But what I found to be the feature that most grabbed my attention was the Pokewalker.

With this little pedometer device that comes inside every package, players can train their pokemon without even playing! How cool is that?!

The only problem for me is that I don’t currently own a Nintendo DS. Gah. I will though, which leads me to the next dilemma: which DS should I get? The original DS, DS lite, DS i, DS i XL?