A Few New Firearm Accessories

It's been a while since I've written about my burgeoning Walther handgun collection (alright, I only own 2 handguns), but I thought I would share with you a few accessories that I recently acquired.

The first is a new shooter's bag. I purchased a Winchester brand shooter's bag from the local Walmart for $20. It's a handy little bag that is big enough to hold:

• Handgun ammo (around 600 rounds)
• Cleaning supplies
• Holsters
• Handguns
• Spare Magazines

Next I purchased a set of Dillon Ammo boxes. I wanted something sturdier than the cardboard ammo boxes and foam inserts holding my 9mm ammo. These Dillon boxes look like they'll last for the long haul.




Finally, I purchased a magazine holder that securely holds 2 Walther P99 mags. As I had blogged back in May, the Walther P99 mags are extremely thin for being double stack mags. After a fair amount of research, I ended up getting the DeSantis Double Magazine pouch (model #A01BJGGZ0).




Normal retail for this leather magazine pouch is $45, but a seller on one of the gun forums that I frequent was selling one for $20. As you can see from the pic above, the mags fit perfectly and the leather is strong enough to take a good beating.

I'm actually hoping to acquire one more handgun. Any guesses as to what it could be? My one hint to you is that it will also be a Walther.

Best Movie Line Ever!

I needed a good laugh and spotted this!



Unfortunately, the line applies to both the Dems and GOP today as each party just follows what their special interests and backers tell them. No party really represents the public anymore. The days of "the Best and the Brightest" running our government are long gone.

It's all about what the politician can:

1. Get for himself
2. Get for his special interests
3. Get for his party
4. Get for the public

The Dysfunctional Workplace

Can I tell you that I honestly hate the company that I work at!?! It has got to be the most dysfunctional company I've had the "pleasure" of working for in my career. This is the one place where shit never gets done and no one seems to care.

Honestly, I've never been at a place with such a lack of urgency, business sense and enthusiasm. Everyone just comes to work, does as little as possible and goes home. (And "NO", I do not work for the government. It's actually a private company...a family owned and family run company.)

What I hate is that I have all the responsibility, but none of the authority. All the authority resides with senior management. The senior execs love throwing their $0.02 in every chance they get and don't mind throwing a monkey wrench into the works even though the monkey wrench flies in the face of logic or a decision they helped make a few weeks earlier.

It's just a fucking nightmare working for these people. If I can just find a new gig, I would thoroughly enjoy resigning from my position!

Defibrillator Implanted!

Well, August 27th finally arrived!

I woke up bright and early to take my dad to the hospital to have the procedure of implanting a defibrillator. We got to the hospital around 8:40am where we proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes filling out paperwork. After that was completed, it was on the surgery preparation which took about an hour. Before we knew it, it was 11am and my dad was rolled off to surgery.

My mom and I were told that the procedure would take roughly 2-3 hours, so we decided to wait in the waiting area. Well, that 3 hour wait turned into a 5 hour wait. Because my dad had had open heart surgery (a quadruple bypass), it made the defibrillator procedure a lot more complex. As you can imagine, I started to get concerned when it hit 4 hours and we still had not seen the doctor. A nurse finally came out to let us know that it was taking longer than expected, but that my dad was doing well.

The doctor finally came out when it was all done and told us that everything went well. The defibrillator was implanted and everything was functioning properly. He said that my dad should feel better as the defibrillator helps synchronize his heart rhythm and should also help minimize the fluid build-up in his lungs that caused his last cardiac episode.

After speaking with the doctor, the nurses told us that my dad would be taken to Recovery ICU and then would be taken to a room where he would spend the night. Well, that process took another 4 hours as there were no rooms available for when my dad was ready to be moved. (Note: if it took 4 hours to get a room in a private hospital, I can only imagine what the wait would be like when the Feds take control of health care in the US.)

My mom and I got to see my dad while he was in Recovery ICU. When we first saw him, he did not look well at all. He was still groggy from the anesthesia and his face (particularly his cheeks) had no color at all. He was completely white. We were quite concerned, but the nurse assured us that he was fine. After about 30 minutes from that initial visit, color did return to his face once he woke up and was given some food.

We watched as the nurses measured his vitals - his temperature was fine, heart rate looked good and EKG came back strong. If this continues, I believe we'll be in good shape! My dad will stay in the hospital overnight and we'll take him home tomorrow.

Obviously, we still have to be careful for the next 6 weeks as my dad isn't allowed to raise his left arm above his shoulder as doing so could pull the defibrillator wires out of position. However, I'm optimistic my day at the hospital was well spent.

Review: Class 302's Pork Chop Noodles

My wife and I were in Rowland Heights yesterday and decided to go to a small Taiwanese restaurant called Class 302 for lunch. If you're not familiar with Class 302, they're known for their Taiwanese Shaved Snow. I'm not much for shave ice, but shaved snow is a different story. I always order it here.



We decided to try their regular fare and I ended up ordering the Railroad Style Pork Chop Dry Noodle (with the name of Baked Pork Chop Goodness you know I had to order a pork dish).



The pork chop was fried but the coating was wet at the same time. The noodles were thick with a bit of sauce that had small pieces of pork. Mixed in were some chopped green scallions along with some lightly steamed cabbage.

I tried the pork chop first. The texture was gummy and the pork was bland. I then mixed everything together and it was better, but the dish was still rather bland. I ended up adding a ton of pepper to flavor the entire dish.

This was my first time having a Taiwanese dry pork chop noodle dish, so I'm not sure if the texture and flavor were authentic. However, it's not a fav, so I'd suggest just ordering the shaved snow.

Class 302
1015 S. Nogales St., #125
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 965-5809

Note: Class 302 is really small (hole in the wall small). If you go on the weekend for lunch, be prepared for a lengthy wait.

Why are the Feds contemplating national health insurance/plan?

I have a question: if you know of someone who constantly cannot manage things and get things to work, would you continue to give them things to do or give them a huge project to work on?

If you are a logical and rational person, you would be saying "NO!"; however, why is it that with our government, they constantly say "Yes!"?

To that end, why are we even trusting the Federal government when they propose a new health care solution when they can't even run Medicare and Medicaid properly? Am I supposed to believe that they finally figured it out after decades of trying? Hell, the Feds cannot even run the Cash for Clunkers program properly....how am I supposed to believe that they can run a multi-trillion dollar health care program for every citizen in the US?

I would ask for a cautious approach. If the Federal government honestly believes that they have the right solution, let's test it out first. Have the Federal government eat its own dog food, that is, have all of the Federal government take up this program. Let it run for a decade to see if all the assumptions of the program come true. If the program meets the strict definitions of success, then roll it out to the entire country.

Is this too much to ask? Will the members of Congress, the Executive branch, Federal employees, etc. be willing to test out the program first?

Me: 1, eBay: 0

So after 11 emails to ebay/PayPal (to both Customer Support and Executive Escalations), we received the following yesterday:

From: executiveoffice@paypal.com
Subject: Re: Your Recent Inquiry (XYZ) :ppk1
To: "Me" <me@me.com>
Date: Friday, August 7, 2009, 2:56 PM

Dear Me,

My name is Cami and I work for the office of Executive Escalations. I want to personally thank you for contacting PayPal. Your concerns were recently forwarded to our office for review in the hope that we might be able to assist you further.

I have reviewed your Account and credited you the $48.00 USD for the cashback. I am sorry for the confusion.

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused in respect of this matter. If you require clarification on any of the issues raised, please feel free to contact us directly at executiveoffice@paypal.com.

Sincerely,
Cami
Executive Escalations
PayPal, an eBay Company

Yes, you read that right. We were finally given the cashback that was rightfully ours. Why it took 11 emails before something was done is beyond me. Maybe it was my last email asking them specific questions on how items are considered ineligible spooked them? Or maybe my complaint about eBay to the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) got eBay off their asses?

Anyways, I'm glad this ordeal is finally over.



Trust me when I say that I had given up hope on ever getting my cashback from eBay. It turned into a quest of finding out why I was denied and their cookie cutter responses (especially the ones with the blatantly false information) pissed me off to no end. It's too bad eBay didn't attempt to answer the questions from my last email. I would have loved to see if they could put together a coherent story on why they denied my iPhone purchase as being ineligible for cashback.

We'll write them a thank you letter for finally giving me my cashback and we'll leave it at that. I've had more than my fill of eBay drama.

SwitchEasy Colors iPhone Case Follow-up

Well, it's been almost a month now, so I thought I would post some thoughts on the SwitchEasy Colors case I have been using on my iPhone 3GS. (Read here for my initial impression of the SwitchEasy case.)

The SwitchEasy case continues to impress. The silicone that is used truly does not pick up lint or dust like the cheaper cases do. Even when I place the iPhone in my jeans pocket, I find little to no lint on the case when I pull the iPhone out. Also, I've taken the case off the iPhone many many times and the silicone is holding its shape really well.

The one item that has not held up well is the screen protector that SwitchEasy includes. After only a few days of use, noticeable scratch marks developed on the screen protector. While it's not a major issue, one would think that the screen protector would hold up better since the iPhone is a touch screen device that will undoubtedly get heavy use on a daily basis. (I'll have another post soon on a replacement screen protector that I ordered online and have used in the past with my previous cell phones.)

The best thing about the case so far has been SwitchEasy's customer service! After I received the Colors case, I wrote to SwitchEasy to inquire if they sold the included power jack connector protector and a headphone jack protector separately. Being that these pieces are small and easy to misplace, I wanted to find out if they can be replaced without having to buy a whole new case. SwitchEasy wrote back and informed me that they currently don't sell these pieces separately. However, they offered to send me an extra set if they get a return or if they have to write-off some cases due to damaged packaging.

I took them up on the offer and after about 2 weeks, an envelope arrived for me from SwitchEasy.



They kept their word and sent me a spare set of protectors for the power jack and headphone jack. Now that's what I call excellent customer service! eBay could learn a thing or two from them. :-)

Not Done with eBay Quite Yet

Well, after having some time to calm down and to think about eBay's last response to me, I've decided NOT to go away quietly. Here's the latest email salvo:

Dear Jennie,

Thank you for the reply. While I do not agree with the outcome/response, I will not continue to ask for the $48 that I believe I am rightfully due. I do, however, have questions about this ordeal that I expect you or your office to fully answer/disclose.

Here are my questions:

1) Your email states that you reviewed my account and matter thoroughly. Please explain to me what was reviewed. I'm particularly curious as to what you can review when one of the earlier exchanges I had with eBay/PayPal Customer Support resulted in the following quote: "On this situation, We don't have any option on our end if you were eligible for any cashback for your recent transaction for $600.00."

2) Your email states that "only certain items selected by eBay from time to time in its sole discretion will be eligible for Cashback Rewards." If the iPhone I purchased was not eligible, why does eBay advertise the 8% Cashback promo throughout the entire process? Surely, if eBay knows the item isn't eligible, eBay would remove that icon so as not to deceive its customers?

3) Your email states "eBay will notify you on the purchase review page of the Buy-It-Now transaction process if the item you wish to purchase is not eligible." Well, I never saw this messaging on the transaction page. Did your review above show that this messaging appeared?

4) If my iPhone purchase was not eligible, why do I continue to see the Cashback offer for other iPhones? Why would one iPhone purchase be eligible while another not be eligible? What is the logic or business rules behind that?

5) Why did it take over 5 email exchanges with Customer Support and a few exchanges with Executive Escalations before getting a semi-decent response? Since you have all the email exchanges, you will clearly see that I was given false information at least twice (once from Customer Support and once from Executive Escalations), was given generic template responses that showed that my emails weren't even read, etc. If you don't have all these email exchanges, I would be happy to forward them all to you.

I thank you in advance for your prompt response to my questions above.

Regards,
Me

I'm dying to see if eBay will respond and if they'll actually answer each question. Stay tuned...

PS - I decided to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and to the CA Office of the Attorney General regarding this incident. As you can tell, I'm pissed about this and will not go away quietly!

The Great Kogi Truck Incident of 2009

Alright, I'm exaggerating by calling it the "Great Incident", but I had to share with you my Kogi experience today. For those of you not in the Los Angeles area, the Kogi BBQ Truck is very popular here. It's basically a catering truck (or roach coach, if you will) that serves Mexican food (tacos, burritos, quesadillas, etc.) with a Korean twist. The food is quite tasty (if you like Korean kimchi, you'll love the flavor) and the trucks have a very loyal following. See the Kogi website for more info!

Well, two of the Kogi trucks made their Santa Monica stop today during lunch. My workplace is close by so I decided to make a Kogi taco run and waited in line. After the Kogi trucks arrived and had served about 3 people, the Santa Monica Police Department show up and start harassing the Kogi trucks. The Kogi trucks were parked in a red zone, so I figured the SMPD just wanted to hand out some tickets as they had nothing better to do. However, it turned into something bigger.

After about 20 minutes of questioning, the police officer finally told us that the Kogi trucks were missing a permit from the city of Santa Monica that allows them to 'cater' food. As such, the SMPD was shutting down the trucks and would not allow them to serve food. We stood in line for about 30 minutes only to be denied...yet Kogi had been serving food at this same spot on Wednesday for the past 4 weeks or so. I asked one of the drivers from the Kogi truck what was going on and he said that the SMPD was looking for one particular permit which they did not have. However, they did have other permits which they thought gave them the right to serve food.

You really have to wonder who fucked up here? Did Kogi not realize they needed this additional permit? Or did the city of Santa Monica not inform them of all the permits Kogi needed since they seem to have other permits from the city? Regardless of who screwed up, Kogi lost out on a ton of business today, the state lost out on a good amount of sales tax revenue (yes, Kogi does collect sales tax from every order), and we boo'd the hell out of the SMPD for not cutting the Kogi trucks a break (at least let the Kogi trucks serve the people who had waited for them to arrive).

Here are a few pics from today:


(The SMPD arrive in their squad truck. One of the worst looking police cars I have ever seen!)


(The main SMPD officer who did the work of writing up the two Kogi trucks.)


(The 2 additional officers who mainly stood by and chatted while the other officer did all the work.)

Defibrillator Procedure Scheduled

As you have probably noticed, my blogging has been few and far between the past 30 days. With everything that's been going on with my father's health, I haven't had much time or energy to devote to blogging. I'm hopeful that this will change over the course of the month as I have plenty of items I would like to blog about.

My first blog entry of Aug 2009 is related to my father's health issue. I took a half day off from work to accompany my father to consult the doctor who will be performing the procedure to implant the defibrillator. It was a mid-afternoon appointment, but like most doctor appointments, they are never on time. We waited an hour past our appointment time before we finally were seen by the nurse. The nurse did her thing and checked my father's vitals (which included an EKG) which took about 15 minutes total.

After that was done, we were told to sit tight as the doctor would be right with us. Well, we waited for another 20 minutes before the doctor came in. He basically told us that he had consulted with my father's cardiologist and agrees with the assessment that my father would benefit from a defibrillator. After a brief discussion, my father gave his approval to have the procedure and we had it scheduled.

Unfortunately, the earliest they could do it was late this month. I was hoping to have it done sooner, but the doctor's schedule was already booked for the next 3 weeks. He said my father should be fine in the meantime as long as he gets plenty of rest, continues taking his medication, and takes it easy for the next few weeks. I asked my dad to do just that and to minimize his activity.

As I stated before, I'm going to be anxious between now and the day of the procedure. Here's hoping to no emergency room visits or additional health-related drama. I've had my fill of them.