imk2 - 05/29/08 18:00
i dont think anyone would hate you for buying a gift someone already had. it's the fact that you did get it that counts. come on peter, you have to participate next year. if you want, i'll help you pick out what to get.

(e:ladycroft), you've got a deal.

metalpeter - 05/24/08 17:53
First of all the entire thing at work sounds a little bit crazy. Yes there are people who do talk down to people and who do lecture them at times when they shouldn't (yes there are times when they should, but not here) but what makes it odd is that the Exec was new to you but you knew the rep. Unless the Exec all ways talks like that you shouldn't have to said anything the rep should have jumped in and said something first like "um excuse the way you are talking is out of line" If they know you and you are being disrespected they should step up for you and not just do nothing. It sounds like even though you where given support you should have been given more. Sounds like your boss should have walked out of the office and said "It is one thing to explain something to someone in a slow manner and to talk down to them, this guy knows what he is doing and if I hear you talk down to him or anyone else on my staff I will remove you from the zoo My self". Granted I only have you side of the story so I don't really know what was said but I think it is good that you stood up for your self, there is only so much you can take.

In terms of Indy. I saw it today and thought it was very good.

No offense to anyone else, but I do agree that this place isn't the same with out (e:theecarey) if you are reading this you can have the love of your life and still post.

(e:imk2) somehow I missed that story about you (and not in the good way) getting stiffed from Secret Santa, sorry about that. That is one of the reasons why I didn't do it either year was because I don't know what to get anyone and the people that I could get something for they might all ready have it. I didn't want to be the guy who think he bought someone a great gift that they hate and then they smile and say thanks and are cursing in their head.

ladycroft - 05/24/08 07:30
awww. i'll have to look into getting you another one! i'm still glad you liked your gifts.


imk2: i'll be happy to take over secret santa. i can feel more a part of it all being so far away :)

imk2 - 05/23/08 23:19
oh and the other thing i was going to add....is that i'm glad that you've gotten so much joy from your secret santa present. however, i will not be doing secret santa next year, because i got completely stiffed last year and was so hurt by it that i've sworn to myself that i will never put forth the effort again. so if anyone else wants to take over next year, they're certainly welcome to.

imk2 - 05/23/08 22:58
ok, few things to add here....

i agree with drew, buy don't lease. and don't buy anything other than a hyundai. i have had two hyundai's in a row, and have been saved over and over by their incredible warranty. it always amazes me why anyone would buy any other car when this car comes with a 5 YEAR BUMPER to BUMPER warranty and a 10 YEAR power train warranty. so basically, that means that if anything goes wrong with your car within the first five years, (except for the normal wear of breaks) you get it fixed for free. no questions asked. and it also means that if within the first ten years if anything goes wrong with your engine or transmission, you have that covered.

also you know that if a company makes a warranty on their car for 10 years, they HAVE to be making a quality product.

for example, we all know that cars are hit or miss, you can buy a brand new car and it can have a million things go wrong with it from the get go. my first hyundai had virtually nothing wrong with it for the 10 years we owned it, except for a fuel pump that went within the first few months of purchase. this second hyundai has had the engine light come on twice in the first three years i've had it. however, since my car is only 3 years old, and my bumper to bumper warranty is for 5 years, i brought it into the dealer both times. i also get the perk of not having to go to sketchy mechanics when i'm most vulnerable (i.e. without a car and in desperate need to have it fixed). since i can go straight to the dealer and know that i will get quality parts and quality work. (i actually trust my dealer, because we've been dealing with them for the past 13 years)

so anyway, the first time the engine light came on and i took it in, and they ran the diagnostics and actually found nothing wrong, they took a sample of the gasoline and found some impurities and suggested i switch gas stations.

about a year later, it came on again, and it started having symptoms of car sickness. every time i would fill up the car with gas, it would not want to start and i would have to pump the gas to get it revved up. once it did start, it would kind of chug and not want to accelerate and i would have to keep pumping the gas for like 30 seconds to get it going.

so i brought it to the dealer, dropped it off, got a free loaner, and went to work. by the end of the work day, i had my car fixed. i can't even recall what was wrong with it, but it now works perfectly. and what did i owe the dealer for both of these incidents?

nuthin. not one single dollar. no hidden fees for anything. no fee for running diagnostics, no fee for parts, no fee for labor. it's a beautiful thing.

and although you do have to maintain the car, and preferably have some kind of proof that you do, you certainly dont have to do it at the dealer, where it would cost you an arm and a leg. (i think that's where they try to recoup their money, as a 30K maintenance check up is 450 dollars). so you can just take it to your regular mechanic, and do your oil changes and tune up's and when something actually does go wrong, you take it to the dealer.

i bought my car from the orchard park hyundai dealer, because the northtown ones are assholes. when i went in there to talk about buying a car, the guy talked to me like i was an idiot and would not even tell me the price of the car unless i agreed to buy it first! and when i tried to leave, they practically blocked the door. i swore i would not buy a car from them even if it was thousands of dollars less than the other huyndai dealer. (there are really only two in town)

when i went to the southtowns one, after a few questions that they threw out there to feel me out before giving me a quote, (like, will you be financing the car or paying for it out of pocket....they do this because they know that they'll make money on you if you finance and so they can give you a lower price on the car up front....if you intend to buy the car out right, and they know that, they will quote you a higher price....so you have to answer that question by saying that you want to talk about the price of the car right now and that's all you want to talk about) so after they realized that i've done my research, they had the manager come in and lay it down to me straight.

he said that he knows that i've probably gone over to northtown, and that since he worked there for many years, he just about knows what they offered me, and that this is the absolute bottom price he can give me for the car.

and it was a fair price, and i appreciated not being dicked around and i took it after a few more questions and some discussion. he also told me that he'd throw in a deal that anytime i brought in a car for maintenance or problems, they'd give me a loaner car for free without any problems. i asked if he would be willing to put that in writing and he did. but frankly i've never even had to use that letter, because as long as i call ahead and schedule an appointment for a day that they have a loaner available (sometimes they run out) i was given a replacement without any problems. on days that they do run out of their rentals, they actually use enterprise and eat the cost.

in addition, huyndai has free roadside assistance on all of their cars for 10 years, so you'd never have to buy AAA again. and i've used that many, many times, when i've locked myself out or when i had a flat tire. so if your car ever broke down, you would have it towed to the dealer and fixed for nothing!

so the moral of the story is that you'd be doing yourself a disservice by getting a car that did not have a 5/10 year warranty on it. think about all the things that can go wrong in the first five years. and think about the cost of replacing a transmission 8 years into owning a car. you would have the peace of mind knowing that if anything ever went wrong, you wouldn't have to worry about having to pay for it. it literally would be like throwing money down the drain if you went with a different make.

that's just my two cent though.....but i have faith that you will make the right decision ;)

paul - 05/23/08 21:36
Crab Po Boy - yummy, yumm, yumm ;) I feel I need to hit up Lagniappe's this weekend.

drew - 05/23/08 20:37
Don't lease. buy.

metalpeter - 05/20/08 17:21
I will admit I have never really gone to a preview. Granted it is a preview and not a premiere but the thing that is supposed to be the thing about the Preview is that you see it before a lot of other people then you can tell people about it, then there is that exclusive thing about it. Granted it isn't like being a test audience or private screening but it might be nice to have been the first (e:peep) to see it, but I do get the not wanted to be crowded thing. It sounds like you still had a great time not going.

fellyconnelly - 05/20/08 08:23
mm guiness. good choice!

mrmike - 05/16/08 14:00
I want to say Impact, but that isn't quite right

empireoflight - 05/16/08 12:15
What font is that??