Sorry, website is down for a bit. -Sha

Posts Tagged ‘rant’

The problem with car insurance

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

I have been insured with State Farm for about 8 years in the Bay Area. In those 8 years, I have received 1 ticket, which I took traffic school for. I have filed 1 claim, for a cracked windshield, which costs around $250. Conservatively, let’s say I’ve paid $10,000 in car insurance over the past 8 years. So they’ve collected $9,750 free and clear from me, and this doesn’t even include the renter’s insurance policy I have with them.

Yet just now, when I called to file a claim about my pole vs. car parking incident, I find out my premium will be raised by about $300/year for this $1600 claim. Not only that, but as I am taking my car to a ‘non-preferred’ shop, I have to wait some indeterminate amount of time to get a call from the insurance adjuster (the woman said she doesn’t know when he’ll call me back), who then has to come inspect the car, and make his own BS estimate. If his estimate is lower than the body shop’s estimate, I am responsible for the difference. All the while, the woman is telling me how if I get a ticket or file another claim within 3 years, I’ll lose my good driver discount, and my premium will go up 20%, etc.

Urge to punch someone…rising…

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Facebook usernames

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

As I’m sure you’re aware, Facebook is now allowing you to choose a username for your account to allow you to easily direct people to your profile. They announced that you would be able to select a username starting at 9:01 pm on Friday. I actually forgot about it until around 10 pm Friday when I noticed some people’s status updates mentioning it, so I logged on to choose one. /shasha was unfortunately taken (as I thought it might be; it’s a weirdly popular username) so I went with the standard /shashachu, which is fine by me. This morning, I realized I could see who took /shasha, so I entered it into my browser, hoping it was at least someone awesome. Imagine my dismay when it directed me to the profile of one ultra-blonde Shannon Henderson of Orange County, whose fan pages include Adam Corolla. /cry

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You can’t spell ‘Pretentious’ without ‘Prius’

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

This morning I saw a Prius with the following license plate:

“OFF OPEC”

Now, friend, I’m sure you do love your car, and I applaud you for doing your small part to reduce your carbon emissions, etc etc, but PRIUSES ARE HYBRID CARS. THEY STILL USE GASOLINE.

Sorry to break it to you this way.

[Edited with a much better title.]

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Overheard at In-n-Out

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Kid 1: Dude, I hate my car. If I had a choice, I’d sell it.
Kid 2: Who’s car is it?
Kid 1: Mine.
Kid 2: Did you buy it?
Kid 1: No, my parents bought it for me. Whatever, it was only like $29,000.
Me: …

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People Suck

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Since my car doesn’t have a tape deck, I’ve been using an FM transmitter to listen to my iPod in my car. Over the weekend, it must have fallen halfway out of my car, because when I discovered the next day that it was sticking out of my car door, and someone had ripped off the iPod connector, leaving me with bare wires and a $60 piece of plastic crap.

I hate people.

Edit: I hate people even more. Apparently that FM transmitter is being discontinued, and has been replaced with a model that has an average rating of 2 stars. Boo.

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Irony

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

The morning I was driving to work when a car suddenly reversed into the street, causing me to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting it. Then it pulled forward a bit, and just stopped in the middle of the road.

As I honked and pulled around it, I noticed it had the following bumper sticker:

“WHY AM I THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH WHO KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE?”

Why, indeed.

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A letter to my iPod

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Dear iPod,

You are so cute and shiny, and I can listen to podcasts on you, and even watch TV shows. I can also play Peggle on you. When I dropped you on the asphalt on Judah Street, you did not break, and barely scratched. I like this a lot.

But there are a few things, iPod, that I do not like. For one, why was your interface designed by retarded monkeys? Why, when I just want to shuffle all the songs from a particular artist, do I first need to go to the “Settings” menu and set Shuffle to “Songs”, then find that artist in my library, hold down the center button to add the songs to a “On the go” playlist, and then find that playlist and play it?

And while I’m on the topic of shuffling, why is it that your “Shuffle Songs” feature is so very non-random? Why do I always hear so many Avril Lavigne songs, but only have about 25 Avril Lavigne songs in my collection of 4000+ songs? Did Avril pay Apple millions of dollars to bias your shuffling algorithm towards her songs? More importantly, why do I have so many Avril Lavigne songs?

iPod, I like you so much, but every day when I listen to you on shuffle on the way to work, and you play me 9 Fort Minor songs in a row, it hurts me. Please try to change.

Love,
Sha Sha

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My generosity knows no bounds

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

On the heels of my previous $100 “donation” to the city of San Francisco, I will shortly be making another $40 donation in the form of a street sweeping ticket. This one was totally my fault, as I just forgot to move my car. Maybe if I make enough donations, I’ll get a shiny yellow boot for my car.

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Do you think it’s tax-deductible?

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

I will shortly be making a $100 donation to the city of San Francisco in the form of a parking ticket I got last night for parking on the sidewalk. There are two driveway spots in front of our apartment building that we can park in, and when I can, I park across them, but when there’s no parking, I’ll park in them, perpendicular to the sidewalk, but not blocking the sidewalk. I thought that parking on the sidewalk was only illegal if there wasn’t enough room for a wheelchair to pass (there was), but according to vehicle code 22500(f), it’s apparently illegal to park on any part of the sidewalk. Even so, I don’t really think it was in the spirit of the law for me to get the ticket.

I spent the day in the South Bay today because Enzo had a grooming appointment. I had lunch with Peter and Crystal at Sushi Tomi, then Babs joined us for some climbing at Planet Granite in Sunnyvale. Even though I’m a weak baby (I’m climbing a full grade lower than I was at my peak), I had a lot of fun. Hopefully after work dies down, I’ll be able to resume my regular climbing schedule. I did, however, notice that my harness was a wee bit tighter than it used to be… I should really get back to running.

I’ve been watching Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. It’s amazing to me that as advanced as the terminator robots are, they still haven’t mastered crossing the street without getting hit by cars.

Finally, as I type I’m watching Underworld: Evolution and it’s terrible.

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Roundup

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

Because I can, in bullet form:

  • Dear San Francisco: I like you, but why must you be so…San Francisco? For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, please examine Measure C. Get a job, you hippies.
  • I have been working a lot. Consequently, I have been exercising…not at all. This would probably be a good time to put into effect some New Years resolutions.
  • I should probably stop flipping off people who tailgate me, but on the other hand, they should probably stop tailgating me.
  • It’s definitely time for a musical spring cleaning — I’ve been listening to my iPod on shuffle during my commute, and only recognize about 40% of the songs.
  • Said commute would be much better if people would stop crashing their cars into things on the highway.
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