There are a few things that have been getting on my nerves this past week, so at the risk of sounding like Foamy, I thought I would compile them into a single RANT post. So here goes!
1) Call of Duty 2 commercials. Don't open your commercial with a quote from a magazine calling it the best looking game ever, then follow up with fake footage of simulated gameplay. Every Call of Duty commercial does this; they never show actual footage of the game. It might not fool hardcore gamers, but I'm sure tons of people are flocking to stores expecting to re-live the experience they saw on TV. It's false advertising and it pisses me off every time the commercial comes on!
2) That song about Christmas shoes. Have you heard this one? It's a song about a guy who is Christmas shopping, when a poor disheveled boy comes in to the store to buy some shoes for his mom. You see, his mom is sick and his dad says she doesn't have much time, so he wants to be sure she looks nice if she meets Jesus tonight. The song is the most formulaic, pandering bullshit I've ever heard. It tackles all the key heart-tuggers: a poor kid who wants to help his dying mother, a guy who helps the poor kid do so, and lots of references to Jesus and God. It just reaks of bullshit trying to cash in on the season and even worse, the singer sounds like one of those voices you would hear in a South Park parody.
3) Dasani with Lemon. Last night I was in the mood for something a little more than a water, but not too much for my still recovering stomach. I really wanted a Pellegrino sparkling water, but apparently that is too upscale for Wawa (the best convenience store IN THE WORLD, btw). So I decided to try Dasani with Lemon. It's Dasani water, with a touch of lemon. I like water with lemon, but this stuff was sickening. It has this strange burning sensation in your throat and the feeling stays there until you rinse it out with regular water. You know what other drink does this? Bottled Lipton Iced Tea. I hate that stuff with a passion. Lipton tea bags are good, Lipton instant tea is fine, but I avoid Lipton bottled and canned iced tea like the plague. Both Dasani and Lipton are apparently using some chemical lemon substitute that tastes like ACID and someone needs to be fired over this. I thought I might be crazy, but I confirmed this with other people - the crap burns going down and is anything but refreshing.
4) Amazon. I've been a long-time Amazon.com supporter, but recently they have been getting on my bad side. First off, they seem to increasingly rely on alternate vendors to supply merchandise. I'll buy a CD through Amazon, but it will actually be sent to me by a third party vendor who is partnered with Amazon. I ordered a CD that was supposed to ship in 2-3 days and didn't get it until a month later. Amazon tries to dodge responsibility for this by making you deal with the vendor if you have problems. It's hurting their brand, though.
Also, April ordered some gifts through Amazon a whole month before Christmas. Unfortunately, we didn't open the box until we were wrapping gifts yesterday. Turns out the box was filled with someone else's order and now it's too late to replace it in time for Christmas. To make matters worse, April logged in to her account and Amazon was having a yet-to-be-resolved "technical problem" where she can't view her order history. When we tried to fill out a form to return the package, it wouldn't allow us to access the form because no order was on record (due to the technical problem). The recipients will be getting an IOU until we straighten things out with Amazon.
Alright, that's it for my rants. I saw a Call of Duty 2 commercial while I was typing this and I'm still pissed. It feels good to vent.
