Life in the Mind of a Modest Genius

Mr. Bungles

I was contemplating whether I wanted to carry this category over into the new year.  One option I thought of was maybe creating a hybrid category.  One that would have the news of the week determine if someone would get the Bungles nod or maybe a hero would emerge instead.  I still may do that.  Still haven't decided.  However, there were just too many idiots out there to not say something about the Bungles award today.

Take Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach for example.  Now we all know that the coaches at the bigger football schools probably employ some unique tactics to inspire their players.  Maybe some of them are questionable, but you would think they would at least watch their steps.  They would have to know in this age of instant access that nothing they do will go undiscovered.  But some of them are just that arrogant to think they are above the system.

Having a player with a concussion stand in an electrical closet as punishment is ludicrous.  Especially when concussions are the hot topic of football today.  Making that same player do that when you KNOW his dad is a well known broadcaster on a national network is just plain stupid.  It's no wonder that several Tech players are now coming out saying they are much better off with Leach being gone.  He should have known better than to walk on the other side of that fine line of respect and hatred.

The other relevant party is Mediacom and FOX.  They currently have a beef going on where FOX wants Mediacom to pay more money for carrying their programming and Mediacom doesn't want to.  That's the laymen version of the disagreement.  I'm sure there's more to it than that, but that's the essence of what it comes down to.  But more importantly than that, what it truly means is the both of them are dumping on us as the customer while they fight over money.

I thought it was just in our area but a similar dispute was going on over on the east coast between Mediacom and Time Warner.  They came to a deal recently so 15 million subscribers won't be without FOX.  Sinclair Broadcasting in our area hasn't done the same thing.  I already know they will though. It's happened before.  They will work out some arrangement where both sides come away happy and Mediacom will use it as an excuse to raise their rates yet again.  Both of them will end up making their executives even bigger millionaires while us average folks are the ones paying the price for it as usual.

Last up is the entire state of Colorado.  Okay...maybe not the entire state.  Just the folks who are responsible for their latest legislation that made national news.  They have announced they will be lowering their minimum wage.  It's the the first decrease in any state's minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938.  Theirs will go from  $7.28 to $7.25. 

In the bigger scheme of things, maybe it's not that bad.  The drop still keeps them at the federal mandated minimum wage of $7.25.  It's only 3 cents, right?  Well think of it in terms of the folks that only make that much money.  Every penny counts.  That adds up pretty quickly.  With the economy the way that it is, this is the wrong time to make such a move.  They're supposed to move the wage the other way, not down.  I wonder how many Colorado legislators took a pay cut in the process of deciding that the minimum wage folks should suffer more. 

Mr. Bungles

Aren't we still too close to the holiday season to be having a Bungles recipient this week?  If anything, there should a shortage of folks even qualifying for it because everyone should be in the holiday spirit, right?  Not so much.  At least not over in New York.

Eutisha Revee Rennix was a pregnant woman suffering a fatal seizure in a coffee shop in New York.  Not even a few blocks from FDNY Headquarters.  There were two city medics right in the vicinity that could have helped her.  Folks kept reaching out to them repeatedly requesting help but the callous medics continued to buy their breakfast saying that the folks needed to call 911 for help.  Eutisha and her unborn child died as a result.

Now I don't know anything at all about how the city of New York handles their shifts for EMTs.  I don't know how they get paid or what their responsibilities are when they're on the clock versus when they're on break.  However, I do know that regardless of what city you're in, if your job is an EMT, that is one of those roles where you're supposed to help save lives whenever you are able.  That's one of those givens that just comes with the territory.

I really don't care if they had just come off a long 12-hour shift.  Or worse yet, if their 12-hour shift hadn't yet started.  There is no way it is acceptable to let a woman die when they are fully capable to assist her.  No EMT with any type of a conscience whatsoever should allow that to happen.  If they do then they have signed up for that job for all the wrong reasons and aren't worthy to be in that role.

You would think after committing such a horrible act that the city of New York laid down the hammer down on those two, right?  They weren't going to stand for two of their rescue workers behaving in such a fashion and giving the city another black eye it doesn't need, would they?  Apparently so.  The Fire Department, which runs the city's Emergency Medical Service, is now investigating the incident and has placed the two EMTs on restricted PAID leave.

They still haven't released the names of these two idiots or I could have put them on blast personally.  As it is, I'll just have to call out the Fire Department instead.  Especially for allowing these jerk-offs to get paid time-off for this incident.  They need to be unceremoniously fired.  Period.  There is no excuse for them allowing an innocent woman to die without attempting to provide any aid whatsoever just so they could feed their fat faces.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the Rennix family.  That had to be one of the worst Christmases ever for them.  May those two thoughtless EMT employees who did it have the same thing happen to them so they can see what it's like.  And the sooner the better.

 

Mr. Bungles

I can't remember the last time that I gave this award to an entity as opposed to a person, organization or group.  I'm sure it has happened, but it just escapes me what it may have been.  If not, this is one doozy of a first-time recepient.  It's this winter storm that finally left us.  It wasn't the first winter storm that I've suffered thru, but if I have anything to say with it, it will definitely be the last.  This one just inconvenienced me to the point of ultimate frustration.

It was all kicks and giggles when it put the city out of commission on Wednesday.  We all saw that coming.  A snow day off from work is always a good thing.  Sure, you end up paying for it when you get back, but something about that little unsuspected reprieve that just has a way of rejuvenating your work ethic.  The storm had more in store for us though. 

Thursday rolled around and I received the announcement the office was opening late.  That gave me just enough time to dig out TDK and leave an hour early for work to allow for slow traffic.  I wasn't even a mile from the house when I realized the right front tire was having issues.  I pulled over to discover it was completely flat.  Completely destroyed was more like it.  The cold weather combined with snow and ice covered roads had done it in.  Better it happen then as opposed to when I was on the highway though I guess.

That little incident meant I had to catch a ride to work Friday causing me to get there an hour later than what I'm accustomed to.  That also meant I had to leave an hour later than what I'm accustomed to.  I was not a happy camper about that.  Not on a Friday.  We won't even get into how the cost to repair the tire and the tow (things that aren't covered by the warranty) set me back.  This close to Christmas, of all times for it to happen.

Then today rolls around and I think I'm in the clear.  Cousin Michelle has been talking about her college graduation all week long.  I'm all geared up to go.  The car's fixed, I've showered and shaved.  Everything's gravy.  Until I hit I-235.  The roads are near spotless thanks to the warmer weather coupled with the constant plowing.  I was smiling at how nice it was to be able to drive 70 mph again without fear of sliding off.  That sensation lasted all of about 15 minutes.

Some of you may remember how I mentioned yesterday I had counted how many vehicles were in the ditch on the way from Ames to Des Moines.  64 total.  Well today was the day that the tow companies decided to get them all.  At the same time.  I-35 was backed up to a complete standstill as several tow trucks worked on getting stranded vehicles.  They created the biggest logjam I had ever seen on I-35.  Ever.

The worst part about the situation was it occurred right after I had just passed an exit ramp.  I thought it would just be temporary.  I hoped it would eventually thin out.  Instead, it got increasingly worse.  There was a point in time where I was able to put the car in park.  For a while.  It must have been a good 20 minutes at least that I sat there.  Traffic was worse than it was during any part of the storm.  By the time I got to the Polk City exit (still a good 15 miles away from Des Moines), I had had enough.  I turned around and headed back.  I was cutting my losses with the hour and half that I had already spent on what should have been a 30 minute trip.

I know I grew up here so I should be used to weather.  That doesn't mean that I have to like it.  In fact, I've grown quite sick of it.  I'm a very impatient man so being waylaid because of storm activity has really gotten on my last nerve.  Would I rather contend with hurricane weather over this?  Yep.  Anything but snow.  Winter storms and I are officially NOT friends. 

Mr. Bungles

Wow, has it been some week for losers to really show their arse to us.  It's as if folks were trying their best to make a last minute push to get the Bungles award before the close of the year.  It's supposed to be the exact opposite.  Now that we're approaching Christmas, people are supposed to be committing more acts of kindess that makes it more difficult to find Bungles nominees.  That certainly wasn't the case this week.

We all know that the lowlifes that burglarize homes are scumbags anyway.  However, it takes a special type of scumbag to pull off the crime that happened here in Des Moines.  There was a story of a woman by the name of Buffy Lucas whose SUV was somehow driven into Gray's Lake and she drowned inside.  It hasn't been confirmed yet, but I think it was suicide.  At any rate, shortly after it was announced in the news, her home was burglarized and thieves made off with several pieces of electrical equipment.  Her family was already dealing with enough and then they had to deal with that.  May the idiots that did that be fitted with gasoline drawz for their trip to the lake of fire.

Next up is the fella that has dominated the news for the past week now.  None other than Tiger Woods himself.  I have already spoken on this in somewhat considerable length here.  The only thing I can really add is clarification that Tiger is clearly Bungles worthy for his actions.  If he wanted to be such a playboy, he shouldn't have gotten married in the first place.  Period.  If anything, you would think folks of his stature would have learned something from the whole Steve McNair situation.  Apparently not.

The standout Bungles winner though is this cat named Pleasure P.  I recognized the name, but didn't know who he was until I started doing a little research on him.  The only reason I did was I noticed that he was a trending topic above Tiger on Twitter.  I was wondering how this cat nobody knew (comparatively speaking) was more newsworthy than Tiger's scandal.  I quickly found out why.

Pleasure P molested his niece and nephew and basically got off with a slap on the wrist.  I'm not going to say "allegedly" like the story indicated because it was clear he did it.  He got himself a good lawyer that was able to get him very minimal jailtime.  As a result, he was able to still have a recording career with the R&B group Pretty Ricky.  The incident happened a few years ago, but is just now coming to light.

It's bad enough that dude was a pedophile who tried to have intercourse with elementary age children.  He committed the heinous act on family members.  The fact that the children have to live with the horror that a monster stole their childhood was already horrible.  Add to that the fact that it was their own relative that did it and it's even worse.  That's more than a fast track to the lake.  That's getting a full ride scholarship. 

 

Mr. Bungles

I hate to admit it, but something told me this was going to happen.  Soon as we got a brotha in the White House, I had a funny feeling that the Secret Service would start getting a bit lax.  Maybe it's all these movies I've been watching like "Air Force One" and "The Sentinel" where they elude to the fact that there is a possibility of having shady folks in the ranks of the Secret Service.  Or maybe it was just that the Secret Service is inexcusably incompetent.

Whatever the case, there is no excuse for what happened at the State Dinner this past Tuesday.  A couple by the name of Tareq and Michaele Salahi were somehow able to crash the event.  They got past security and were able to mingle with other guests as well as personally meeting the President.  Apparently the Secret Service did have them go thru the magnetometers, but other measures of protocol weren't followed verifying that these two individuals were on the guest list.

First off, it kills me how some of the reports are reporting the story and saying the couple "allegedly" crashed the event.  I absolutely HATE that word.  There was no "allegedly" about it.  They did it.  They weren't invited.  They basically got in illegally.  They were trespassing.  They need to be prosecuted instead of joked about as if the situation was a small oversight.

It's pretty obvious how it happened.  Look at the Salahis.  He's an older, grey-haired, distinguished looking gentleman.  She's rail thin with blonde hair and blue eyes.  They had the all-American, non-threatening appearance that is never part of the profiling that we know goes on.  They relied on their charm to get them past whatever gaps in security allowed them to get in.  I guarantee you if they were the Muhammads with much more melanin, they would NOT have gotten access.  The Secret Service would have made absolutely certain they cleared every check point.  They probably would have even verified a couple of different times just to be certain.

What really bothers me about the incident is I also can't help but wonder if there was some bribery involved that led to this breakdown in security.  Salahi looks like the type with a lot of digits in his bank account that could buy off some Secret Service supervisor to allow him access.  The scary thing about that is if some over zealous multi-millionaire fan is able to do that, what's to stop a determined terrorist from doing the same thing?

The Secret Service got off VERY fortunate this time around.  No harm came to the President.  They may not be so lucky next time and there SHOULD NOT be a next time.  The statement from them rambling about how they have "successfully protected more than 10,000 sites for the President" does not instill confidence in their system.  So what?  It only takes one time for them to mess up and then it won't matter how many successes they have.  Failure is NOT an option. 

The bottom line is whoever was in charge of security at that State Dinner needs to be fired.  Period.  I don't care how long they have been with the Secret Service.  It's obvious they don't know how to do their job.  Put someone in that position who does.  In addition, the couple that got in needs to be punished as well.  I don't care how much money they have, they need to be prosecuted as criminal trespassers.  I'm sure it won't happen since they look like Barbie and her dad, but it should.  Both the Secret Service and the disrespectful Salahis should be ashamed of themselves as this week's Bungles recipients.

Mr. Bungles

The weekend rolled up on me so quick that I realized I didn't have a viable Bungles candidate.  I guess that will happen when you're so busy at work that time just flies by.  It was my flex week which cut the week even shorter with my half day on Friday.  That helped speed the week up even more.  In addition, it caused me to think of the perfect Bungles recipient. 

What I usually like to do on my half days is find a matinee playing that I'd like to see.  That is on the Fridays that I don't have to take the car in.  This Friday, I had mistakenly chose to go see that "New Moon" hot mess.  It was only because my first choice still has not made it here to Des Moines.  For the third week in a row since its "national" release, no one in central Iowa is playing "Precious" yet.  That qualifies for a Bungles award if I ever saw one.

It doesn't necessarily surprise me that Des Moines once again doesn't get a Black film.  I've been in central Iowa long enough to get used to that.  They had fooled us into believing times had changed once Tyler Perry started doing his thing.  The problem with that is for a while there, it seemed like it was only Tyler Perry putting out the Black films.  So as long as his name was stamped on it, Des Moines didn't have a problem getting them.  That in itself is a bit ironic.  I'll get to that in a second.

As far as Des Moines and their lack of support for Black films, even before "Precious" they had proven they weren't yet about to get Black movies here like they should.  Chris Rock put out the documentary "Good Hair" a month or so and Des Moines never saw any parts of it.  You would have thought his name would have been enough.  Then there was also the new age blaxploitation film "Black Dynamite" that never came here.  So Des Moines is definitely Bungles worthy.

The word starting getting around local Facebook friends that were also interested in seeing "Precious".  Someone did some research and found that you could call 877-370-6824 to request the movie.  Something about how Lionsgate purposely put it in limited release and supposedly calling that number will help them gauge how much interest there is to broaden the release.  It leads me to believe they're basically holding it hostage looking for some "Paranormal Activity" type of buzz.

"Precious" is distributed by Lionsgate films.  That's the same company that distributes all of Tyler Perry's films.  In fact, he even gave this movie his personal endorsement.  So with that being said you would think that Lionsgate would have put a bigger push behind "Precious".  Perry has made them enough money catering to the Black community with his stereotypes.  They know that he has our ear.  That should have been enough for them to give "Precious" a broader release if anything else.  For that reason, Lionsgate DEFINITELY gets the Bungles nod.

Both Lionsgate and Des Moines share some responsibility in keeping "Precious" away. It was already stupid enough to put it limited release only for so long.  Even if only certain theaters got it, Des Moines should have tried harder to be one of them.  It is a capital city that sits almost in the direct center of the midwest.  It would have made perfect sense.  Regardless of which one of them is doing it, they both share the blame so both get the Bungles recognition for this week.

Mr. Bungles

When I first heard the story, I knew something couldn't be right.  There was no way I was going to believe it until I saw the pictures for myself.  Even after that, I would need further confirmation.  I mean we were still relatively close to Halloween so perhaps someone just released the photos late and they were really intended for a costumer party.  Unfortunately for Sammy Sosa, not so much.

Former Chicago Cubs slugger and steroid user Sosa showed up at the Latin Grammy Awards last week with an egregiously altered appearance.  He still had the Eddie Munster widow's peak but he decided to add light eye contacts with it.  Oh...and also a new skin tone that has him looking about 100 shades lighter.  It actually doesn't look like a color at all.  It's more like a horrid opaque manifestation he's managed to achieve.

Naturally, folks tried to immediately make excuses for him.  Some automatically assumed he must have the same "skin condition" that Michael Jackson "allegedly" had.  I will give Sosa credit for at least owning up to it.  He could have went along with that story.  Instead, he admitted that he was using skin cream to create that appearance.  However, beyond that, Sosa can't seem to keep his stories straight.

He tried saying that he was using skin cream as part of a rejuvenation process.  That because of the years of playing in the Chicago sun in the outfield, he needed it.  Okay...I've been to Chicago.  Maybe my Chi-town friends who live there can help me with this.  It just doesn't get THAT hot there.  If he was playing in Cali or Florida then MAYBE I could buy it a little bit.  Not playing in the midwest though.  And even if that was the case, how is it "rejuvenating" your skin by making you look like a ghost?

Sosa also claimed he has been using the using the cream for a long time, and combined with bright TV lights, it made his face look whiter than it really is.  He's been seen around prior to the Latin Grammys and he wasn't remotely close to being light-skinned.  That means he expects us to believe that a cream he has been using for a long time just had a sudden reaction that one particular night that caused him to look like that.  That and the bright lights.  There aren't lights bright enough anywhere to give someone that type of appearance.  Not without some make-up and/or CGI. 

The bottom line is for whatever reason, Sosa wasn't happy with his ethnic appearance.  There's really no other explanation.  Regardless of what other excuses he had for the skin, that doesn't explain why he had in the light contacts or why his hair was more gelled up than usual.  It really makes no sense because he seemed to relish his ethnicity for years.  Especially during his steroid testimony when he suddenly didn't know any English.  There's really no other excuse for it. 

Unfortunately, this type of deceitful behavior coming from Sosa shouldn't surprise us.  He did rise to fame because of his steroid usage that allowed him to bang our homeruns at a record pace.  As if the roids weren't good enough, he also used corked bats.  He has an established history of being dishonest.  This is just another incident for him to continue that behavioral trend.  It's just too bad it came at the expense of him apparently being ashamed of his race.

Mr. Bungles

This has been one heck of a week for bad news.  Not that it comes as a surprise since we've been getting a lot of that lately, but this week was just abnormally terrible.  It started off when I thought I had Mr. Bungles pegged early on with the Phi Beta Sigma story.  I do have some friends that are Sigmas so I had planned on treading lightly regarding the whole Donnie Wade incident.  Then they got off the hook anyway thanks to a couple of gun-toting idiots that dominated the headlines later in the week.

Let's start with the one that happened more recently.  Jason Rodriguez decided to go a shooting spree in an Orlando office where he worked.  The end result was one person dead and five others wounded.  Unfortunately, the one death wasn't his own.  We would find out later that several of the people in the office recognized him as being a former co-worker. 

His reasoning that he has given so far was he was going thru a tough time right now.  Then he had the nerve to apologize.   There's no sense in even addressing any type of apology he might have offered.  That in itself is ridiculous.  What gets me is his selfishness.  Just because he is going thru a tough time, why does the rest of the world have to suffer?  Things are tough all over.  That's no excuse for snuffing out innocent lives just because your weak-minded behind feels bad.  If it was that rough, he should have saved us all some trouble and grief and used the gun on himself instead.  Then we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

The most heinous perpetrator this week goes to Nidal Malik Hasan.  I absolutely refuse to address him as Major.  He lost any chance of that kind of respect when he took it upon himself to go on the worst killing spree ever seen on a military base.  His murderous rampage wounded 38 people and killed 12 others.  Again, unfortunately contrary to early reports, he was not one of the fatalities.

From what we know so far about Hasan's situation, his actions were because he was depressed about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.  Um...hello, moron?  You do realize you're in the military and that is an expectation for your job, right?  It's a job requirement.  If you're called to duty over there, you go.  If you didn't want to run the risk of encountering the inevitable, maybe you shouldn't have enlisted.  Or you could have joined the Air National Guard instead and then your chances of getting deployed overseas would have been even less.

Hasan's situation was the worst of the two because he was an American soldier.  When we heard the news that a man dressed in a military uniform was killing people, I know I wasn't the only one who was hoping that he wasn't an actual soldier.  These are the people that are supposed to be protecting our country.  Not endangering it.  Not only does he not deserve the respect to be called "Major", he's too much of a coward to even be considered a soldier.

I couldn't help but think about how we spend all this money on TSA just so they can harass us in our airports and meanwhile, security everywhere else is crap.  I can't take a 3 ounce bottle of lotion in my carry-on luggage, but a disgruntled employee can get a gun into an office and go ape-crazy.  Here's a thought: re-allocate some of those TSA agents.  Send a few of them to whatever jail Jason Voorhees and Genghis Hasan are being held.  Give both of them a good old-fashioned firing squad execution an call it a day.  Two less Bungles fools to worry about.

Mr. Bungles

A Homecoming dance is supposed to be a memorable experience.  It's a young person's first opportunity to participate in a formal dance atmosphere.  More or less a practice run for when they eventually have their junior and/or senior proms.  Just ask all of the FB parents that have been flooding the updates the past few weeks with pics of their shorties going to their Homecomings.  It's supposed to be memorable in a good way.  Not the traumatizing experience that happened to a 15-year-old at Richmond High School in California.

By now, I'm sure most of you have already heard the story.  It's been plastered on the news pages for the past week.  A 15-year-old girl left her Homecoming dance with a "friend" and ended up getting gang-raped in an alley.  For over two and a half hours.  While up to 2o people stood there and watched.  Some of them even participating.

The story is disturbing on so many levels that I almost don't know where to start. Let's address the most obvious which was the blatant lack of security.  I've been reading on some other sites from people who are familiar with the area that it was rather hood-ish.  There was security but they were allowing folks on the school premises who weren't even students.  Furthermore, they apparently weren't patrolling the perimeter very effectively if this went on so close to the school and none of them ever discovered the criminal act.  Obvious Bungles recipients for that reason.

Then there is the crowd of students who all sat there watching.  They don't specify, but I'm willing to bet they were all males.  Contrary to what some people have insinuated, I'm pretty certain the reason none of them didn't report anything did not have anything to do with them fearing retribution for snitching.  These were a bunch of boys with raging hormones who wanted to see a movie scene acted out in real life.  So much so that some of them even participated.  A big Bungles recognition to all of them for that.

Then there was the "friend" of the rape victim who came forward and slammed the school for allowing it to happen.  Kami Baker claims they went looking for their friend when she disappeared and were shocked when they discovered what happened.  They must not have been looking very hard.  It's not like she was blocks away.  She was only in an alley right next to the school.  What kind of searching could her friends possibly have done in two and half hours?  If they had tried a little harder, they could have found her and possibly prevented at least some of the act from occurring, if not all of it.   Sorry Kami, but you and your "friends" that were supposedly so worried get a little Bungles acknowledgment of your own because of that action.

Naturally, the school itself is the biggest Bungles at all in this whole incident.  They did the right thing initially by having the Homecoming dance at the school which should have been an environment that was easy to control.  However, they should have made sure that security was accurately doing their job. They should have made sure that non-students weren't lingering around the campus.  The students that were there should have been able to count on being safe on and around the premises.  They deserve any and all type of civil action that will eventually be presented against them.

You're probably wondering how I could possibly omit the offenders, huh?  I definitely am not.  Every single one of those criminals should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  And every one of them should be tried as adults.  The horrendous act they committed far exceeds any type of Bungles acknowledgment.  It was inexcusable barbaric behavior that no one should ever have to be exposed to.  May every single one of them receive the same consequences when they land in whatever penal institution lucky enough to have them.

Mr. Bungles

Two years can be an eternity in technology time.  That's why it doesn't surprise me that my HP lappy will have problems from time to time.  Although it would help if I didn't download things from Limewire when I KNOW that it is known to have viral issues.  I probably just take it for granted that if a problem comes up, I have an extended warranty on the lappy that goes thru December 2012.  That's how it happened that the good folks at the HP helpdesk were fortunate enough to be this week's Bungles winner.

It was as soon as I got to the hotel in Detroit that the lappy decided to start acting up.  It wouldn't stay turned on and continued to reboot all by itself.  The last time it did that, it was a motherboard issue which required me to send it in for repair.  This time around, I tried every fix I could think of on my own and nothing worked.  That's when I finally conceded and called the helpdesk.

The first guy on the first call had me go thru every fix I had already tried plus a couple of others I hadn't thought of.  He was actually fairly helpful.  He was able to get it to the point where the lappy wouldn't reboot.  It just wouldn't stay on.  Then it started going back to the constant reboot cycle.  His recommendation was to send me a system recovery disc.  I would lose everything but that wasn't my issue.  It was that they wanted to charge me $20 for the shipping and handling.  I told him I'd have to get back to him on that one.  That was their first fail.  We'll get back to that one.

I let the lappy sit over night without messing with it to see if the time off would get it to work again.  Because you know... computers heal themselves when you let them rest.  It faked me out for a second because it did start up.  However, soon as it got to the desktop, it rebooted and the whole process started over again.  I called the helpdesk again to see if a different rep could provide a different fix.  That's where the second fail came in.  He saw in the notes that I had called.  He saw what the issue was.  I even TOLD him what I discussed with the prior rep. Yet STILL he made me got thru all the same things and repeat myself all over again.  I HATE having to repeat myself.

He then suggested the recovery disc which brings me back to their first fail.  The more I thought about it, the more I rationalized that I shouldn't have to pay for shipping and handling.  I had a warranty.  And since when does shipping and handling for a small cd cost $20?  I told him if I had to send the lappy in, they would send me a box to pack it and send it to them with no cost to me.  If they can pay for the shipping and handling on 3+pound lappy, they can certainly pay for the shipping and handling on a 2-ounce cd.

Dude then tried to explain to me the rationale behind charging for the shipping and handling of the cd.  Something about the computer comes with instructions on how to create your own recovery cd so that's supposed to be done...blah, blah, blah.  I didn't care about all that.  All I knew is that I paid for a warranty.  If they could pay to ship the lappy, they could pay to ship the recovery cd.  They weren't trying to hear that though.  Therefore, I proposed my idea of shipping the entire lappy to them.  They must have got tired of me griping because they agreed to do that afterall.

So now I'll have to sit and wait for them to fix the lappy again.  I already know they're going to do a system recovery that I could have done myself had they just sent me the disc.  But $20 is $20. I wasn't about to pay for something that should have been covered under my warranty anyway.  I don't care what their justification was.  It was about principalities.