As you may have guessed from the title I am going to rant about Quiznos Subs today. Wednesday night I was tired as was my wife so neither if us felt like cooking. There is a Quiznos near our house and since neither one of us has had it recently we decided to go there. After getting our food we remembered why we haven't gone there in a while.
Now before I get too far into this rant I want to catch you up on my dining preferences. I love sandwiches, they are the perfect food. I also used to love Quiznos. I went to college in Burlington North Carolina (pronounced by the locals as Brntn NoCalina) and there was the crappiest shopping at the time. Whenever we needed to go buy anything we needed to go to Greensboro to the four seasons mall area. Whenever I went there I would make it a point to go to Quiznos and would enjoy my sandwich very much.
Now my current complaint is partly based on the fact that they keep changing the menu and all of the things I like keep getting replaced by crappier and crappier subs. But, as I said before I love sandwiches, I haven't found one (when done correctly) that I don't like, so there will always be something for me to find on the menu. However, I would like to say... Your a sandwich place why are your trying to branch out into soups and salads, know your role and fill it well. And what's with the tiny "sammies" you have to get like three of them to be full.
Anyway, my experience Wednesday night was more based on the employees, there doing (at least it seemed) everything wrong. The white bread wasn't prepared correctly, I wasn't the only one to point this out the people in front of me remarked that it was flat. But, the better part was there was a little chart next to the prep area that told the employees what to put on the sandwiches using lovely little colors and pictures so there was no reading necessary. Yet, they neglected to put the correct ingredients on my wife's sandwich (who didn't catch it because she was trying to find a bag of chips that didn't suck) and, I had to tell them what to put on my sandwich STEP BY STEP. The best part was there was only one guy in the building who seemed to know what he was doing, yet, he was just wandering around and the untrained people needed to yell across the place far help. I declare this concept Genius!!!
Now, I don't know if this inability to do the job correctly is only at the Leesville Road Quiznos but I don't think it is, because, both me and my wife, after thinking about it, decided that neither of us had been to a Quiznos in over a year. Since there are a bunch of them around to choose from in our weekend outings (I will talk about them some other time I am sure). The only reason we wouldn't go someplace in that span of time (both of us hate to cook) is because the service sucked the last time.
So, I have a message for the Raleigh area Quiznoses and the managers therein. Train your people!!! Just because you have the best toasting method of all the sandwich shops (Subway's convection oven they use dries out the bread so I refuse to have a toasted sandwich from them, and Firehouse is just wet from the steam they use) doesn't mean you can make bad sandwiches. Make sure you have at least one person on staff at all times who knows what they are doing or else you are going to loose more and more business. I mean if a guy who LOVES all sandwiches doesn't want to eat at your sandwich place you are pretty much nailing shut your own coffin. You have somewhere around a year (I figure I will forget how angry you made me by then) to fix the problems and I will be back to give you another shot.
Anyway, see you Monday folks
Friday, September 12, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Fender Bender? Please clear taffic lanes.
OK. so yesterday I'm on my way to my home in North Raleigh from my job in the RTP (it's Durham but nobody wants t o say Durham so we all say RTP) and as anyone who lives in the area know that means a transition from driving on 40 to driving on 540. Now, usually the merge onto 540 is incident clear, it might slow down a bit because someone doesn't know how to merge, but in general it's smooth moving. But yesterday it was raining and, as all transplants to the area know, that's when the locals forget how to drive. It could be the lightest drizzle and everyone will slow down to 25 mph on the interstate! But, I digress, it seems on this occasion someone had managed to roll there car off into the shoulder and the pine trees beyond it. Not sure how they managed when there was hardly any rain coming down but they had. And, as a result, the ramp had slowed down (most likely to see what he did) and another accident happened on the opposite side of the road involving (as far as I could tell) five cars. It wasn't a major accident, as I drove by I saw no smoke, broken glass, or people on the side of the road weeping. It was simply a series of fender-benders. That being said, these slightly dented cars were stopped in the middle of a lane of traffic, and not just any lane the left lane so what happened is everyone had to get over to the right to avoid these idiots and then back over to the left to avoid the tow-truck picking up the royaly fubared car on the right shoulder, thus, causing the entire off-ramp from 40 to come to a DEAD STOP while people snaked around all the hubbubb.
So the oral of this story is a message to anyone involved in a accident anywhere in the U.S. (but especially here in Raleigh) after you are involved in an accident, if you are capable of moving, and your car is capable of moving, you need to move your car out of the flow of traffic. Now, I have said this rule to people before and the response I get is "but if they move how will the police know who's at fault?" and I have two responses to that...
A. There is nothing that the location of your car in the road relative to the location of the other car in the road can tell the cop that he won't be able to figure out from the dents on your car, or from yours and the other drivers statements. If you are rear-ended your trunk will have a dent and the front end of the guy who hit you will have a dent. The evidence is open and shut, the guy who hit you is at fault. If you sideswipe someone during a lane change or something the cop will listen to your stories and will determine (he might have to ask a question or two) if you went into his lane or he went into yours. They couldn't tell even if you did stop where you collided because by the time you stop the crime scene has been left behind and the evidence has shifted.
B. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. In terms of inconvenience, you both are going to go to the auto shop. In terms of money the insurance company is going to charge you either way, that's what they do, if they see accident next to your name they will up your rates doesn't matter if it's your fault or the other guy's. In terms of your driving record, if your a good driver, you will have a blemish on your record for a few years and then it goes away, if your a bad driver and one more accident will have your license revoked, well, good, one less bad driver on the road.
Now, to the cops in the area, and all around the country, the first thing you need to do when you arrive is make sure that these people move out of traffic faster. Yesterday, the Wake County Sheriff on the scene had them off the road almost right after he got out of the car, but for some reason Raleigh city cops are content to work in the middle of traffic. Other cities and states have laws and signs telling people to move there fender bender out of the road but not Raleigh, NC, no, no, no. Apparently they don't trust there cops to figure out what happened. Which is stupid because, anyone who has half a brain can tell who's at fault in an accident, and these people have been (I am presuming here) trained to figure it out.
Now maybe this mesage should extend to government bodies and not just the police but not only does it help with jam-ups like the one I described earlier but it's a sefety issue. Not only for the police and people working the accident, but the people involved in the accident tend to wander around back and forth to their cars.
OK, end rant, have a nice day.
So the oral of this story is a message to anyone involved in a accident anywhere in the U.S. (but especially here in Raleigh) after you are involved in an accident, if you are capable of moving, and your car is capable of moving, you need to move your car out of the flow of traffic. Now, I have said this rule to people before and the response I get is "but if they move how will the police know who's at fault?" and I have two responses to that...
A. There is nothing that the location of your car in the road relative to the location of the other car in the road can tell the cop that he won't be able to figure out from the dents on your car, or from yours and the other drivers statements. If you are rear-ended your trunk will have a dent and the front end of the guy who hit you will have a dent. The evidence is open and shut, the guy who hit you is at fault. If you sideswipe someone during a lane change or something the cop will listen to your stories and will determine (he might have to ask a question or two) if you went into his lane or he went into yours. They couldn't tell even if you did stop where you collided because by the time you stop the crime scene has been left behind and the evidence has shifted.
B. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. In terms of inconvenience, you both are going to go to the auto shop. In terms of money the insurance company is going to charge you either way, that's what they do, if they see accident next to your name they will up your rates doesn't matter if it's your fault or the other guy's. In terms of your driving record, if your a good driver, you will have a blemish on your record for a few years and then it goes away, if your a bad driver and one more accident will have your license revoked, well, good, one less bad driver on the road.
Now, to the cops in the area, and all around the country, the first thing you need to do when you arrive is make sure that these people move out of traffic faster. Yesterday, the Wake County Sheriff on the scene had them off the road almost right after he got out of the car, but for some reason Raleigh city cops are content to work in the middle of traffic. Other cities and states have laws and signs telling people to move there fender bender out of the road but not Raleigh, NC, no, no, no. Apparently they don't trust there cops to figure out what happened. Which is stupid because, anyone who has half a brain can tell who's at fault in an accident, and these people have been (I am presuming here) trained to figure it out.
Now maybe this mesage should extend to government bodies and not just the police but not only does it help with jam-ups like the one I described earlier but it's a sefety issue. Not only for the police and people working the accident, but the people involved in the accident tend to wander around back and forth to their cars.
OK, end rant, have a nice day.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Change of plans, I got MAD
So I was going to talk about candidate bumper stickers and t-shirts. The Idea that you can change my mind with a sticker on your back window is insane... And, when your candidate looses you need to remove the sticker because it just shows how stupid you were by backing the loser. And if your candidate wins your just gloating over the loosers, which is just mean.
I was going to say more then that but I got a call from the Obama campaign last night and it MADE ME MAD. There are two types of calls candidates will make to the commoner and both are useless.
1. The automated call: I have recorded a prepared statement (and by prepared six speach writers have written it and four audio guys have peiced the best takes together into a working statement to be broadcast to the masses) that does not answer any questions about the candidate and gives no real information about where they stand on any issues whatsoever. It's basically a vote for me sign said outloud.
2. The volunteers from the campaign call you. Some kid (probably in his 20s earning extra credit in his poly-sci class) is reading from a script. So, not only are you not getting the entire story about the candidate from the script-writers, your are relying on someone who is failing college to convey this information to you.
Both of these methods I view as a slap in the face from a candidate. He's basically telling you that since you are at home you obviously don't have anything better to do then listen to him telling you what he thinks you want to hear. There is no substance to anything that is said during one of these calls and if you show the least bit of interest about a candidate (I made that mistake the first year I could vote) all your rewarded with is the more of the same calls over and over again.
I received my call last night in the middle of making dinner and it threw off the timing and my F'ing halibut got overcooked. So I will not be voting for Obama (just kidding, the fact is I probably won't vote for either of them, but not because of any fish meal but because the sytem is broken)
All the people involved on the making and receiving ends of these calls need to learn one basic rule, There is only one way to get to truly know a candidate (which is pretty much impossible to accomplish). You have to get them slightly drunk and have a face to face conversation with them when none of there handlers are around. That's the only time you won't get a sack of S' from them and might find out where they personally stand on any one issue. This also extends to interviews on cable news channels. But, I will stop here, I promise to rant more on the subject of politics closer to the actual election but frankly, since there are two months till that event, it's a waste of my time and yours to talk any more about it.
I promise to make tomorrow's topic a little lighter and more relevant to our daily lives...
I was going to say more then that but I got a call from the Obama campaign last night and it MADE ME MAD. There are two types of calls candidates will make to the commoner and both are useless.
1. The automated call: I have recorded a prepared statement (and by prepared six speach writers have written it and four audio guys have peiced the best takes together into a working statement to be broadcast to the masses) that does not answer any questions about the candidate and gives no real information about where they stand on any issues whatsoever. It's basically a vote for me sign said outloud.
2. The volunteers from the campaign call you. Some kid (probably in his 20s earning extra credit in his poly-sci class) is reading from a script. So, not only are you not getting the entire story about the candidate from the script-writers, your are relying on someone who is failing college to convey this information to you.
Both of these methods I view as a slap in the face from a candidate. He's basically telling you that since you are at home you obviously don't have anything better to do then listen to him telling you what he thinks you want to hear. There is no substance to anything that is said during one of these calls and if you show the least bit of interest about a candidate (I made that mistake the first year I could vote) all your rewarded with is the more of the same calls over and over again.
I received my call last night in the middle of making dinner and it threw off the timing and my F'ing halibut got overcooked. So I will not be voting for Obama (just kidding, the fact is I probably won't vote for either of them, but not because of any fish meal but because the sytem is broken)
All the people involved on the making and receiving ends of these calls need to learn one basic rule, There is only one way to get to truly know a candidate (which is pretty much impossible to accomplish). You have to get them slightly drunk and have a face to face conversation with them when none of there handlers are around. That's the only time you won't get a sack of S' from them and might find out where they personally stand on any one issue. This also extends to interviews on cable news channels. But, I will stop here, I promise to rant more on the subject of politics closer to the actual election but frankly, since there are two months till that event, it's a waste of my time and yours to talk any more about it.
I promise to make tomorrow's topic a little lighter and more relevant to our daily lives...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
I have a sign, you should vote for me!
Today is part one of a two part rant. Today's topic Candidate Support Signs.
OK, so since it is an election year candidates are trying to get there name into the conciseness of the public. There are several ways to to do that. They could buy advertisements on Radio, TV, and in Newspapers. They could make speaches on a regular basis that will be picked up by the local media. they could even go so far as to set up shop in front of a store and basically shake the hands of passers-by. But for some reason lots of candidates have decided to go the easy cheap rout and put signs along the side of the road. I know you have seen these things there about 2 feet by three feet and usually made up of red white and blue. I hate these damn signs for the following reasons (in no particular order).
1. They are UGLY... like some guy took a template in a Microsoft Office product added some clip art in varying shades of red white and blue and viola! A Sign! now lets go put it on the side of a road.
2. They give me NO INFORMATION about the candidate, in fact I can barely remember the names that are on the signs. And, when they do have info it is written so small that there is NO way you can read it from the you car. A perfect example is a sign that is currently around North Raleigh is a sign (which the candidate I can not remember the name). This sign makes no sense whatsoever, it has a picture of a broom it took me months to pull up close enough to one that I could read the sentence saying he was going to sweep out congress or something like that. Which leads me to my next point...
3. The amount of time they are up. The sign I just talked about went up some time toward the end of July, the election isn't until November which means I have had to look at this UGLY UGLY sign for the past month and a half and will need to look at it for the next three months! Which makes the effectiveness of this sign even more useless because it is completely diluted. It's like people who get tired of Christmas by the end of November because decorations went up before Thanksgiving (which is a rant that will be coming during the holidays). and do you think the guy will take them all down the day after elections? Heck No! they will most likely be up until the end of the year.
4. These signs are put in horrible locations. At my old house I used to pull out from a neighborhood street onto a busy main street. Well, one day someone decided to put a candidate sign in a spot that completely blocked my view of oncoming traffic, now this wasn't on some guys yard. This spot was city maintained roadside property so I know it was some minion of the candidate that decided to put it here. I go so pissed at this sign's location I got out of my car, yanked it out of the ground and threw it down. The next day it was up again, I assumed that some resident thought the sign got blown down or something and was being nice and put it back up. So, the second time I destroyed the sign (yeah that's right ripped it in half, I chalked it up to free speech) and the next day one was back up in its place. I moved this one farther down the road and there it stayed until December 15th.
If I think about it more I am sure I could find more resons to hate these signs but I am happy with what I have written so far. So, I would like to pose a question to anyone involved in the creation or placement of these signs is... What good is it doing? I mean, people have them on the front lawn and declare themselves for a candidate (that's stupid but there is a reason for it). But, do the campaigns really think I will read the sign and say "Well, I was going to vote for John Davidson but now that I have seen a sign for him on the corner of Creedmoor and Strickland I think, I will vote for David Johnson." For the love of god there must be a better way to get a name out, one with some substance.
Tomorrow, Candidate Shwag...
OK, so since it is an election year candidates are trying to get there name into the conciseness of the public. There are several ways to to do that. They could buy advertisements on Radio, TV, and in Newspapers. They could make speaches on a regular basis that will be picked up by the local media. they could even go so far as to set up shop in front of a store and basically shake the hands of passers-by. But for some reason lots of candidates have decided to go the easy cheap rout and put signs along the side of the road. I know you have seen these things there about 2 feet by three feet and usually made up of red white and blue. I hate these damn signs for the following reasons (in no particular order).
1. They are UGLY... like some guy took a template in a Microsoft Office product added some clip art in varying shades of red white and blue and viola! A Sign! now lets go put it on the side of a road.
2. They give me NO INFORMATION about the candidate, in fact I can barely remember the names that are on the signs. And, when they do have info it is written so small that there is NO way you can read it from the you car. A perfect example is a sign that is currently around North Raleigh is a sign (which the candidate I can not remember the name). This sign makes no sense whatsoever, it has a picture of a broom it took me months to pull up close enough to one that I could read the sentence saying he was going to sweep out congress or something like that. Which leads me to my next point...
3. The amount of time they are up. The sign I just talked about went up some time toward the end of July, the election isn't until November which means I have had to look at this UGLY UGLY sign for the past month and a half and will need to look at it for the next three months! Which makes the effectiveness of this sign even more useless because it is completely diluted. It's like people who get tired of Christmas by the end of November because decorations went up before Thanksgiving (which is a rant that will be coming during the holidays). and do you think the guy will take them all down the day after elections? Heck No! they will most likely be up until the end of the year.
4. These signs are put in horrible locations. At my old house I used to pull out from a neighborhood street onto a busy main street. Well, one day someone decided to put a candidate sign in a spot that completely blocked my view of oncoming traffic, now this wasn't on some guys yard. This spot was city maintained roadside property so I know it was some minion of the candidate that decided to put it here. I go so pissed at this sign's location I got out of my car, yanked it out of the ground and threw it down. The next day it was up again, I assumed that some resident thought the sign got blown down or something and was being nice and put it back up. So, the second time I destroyed the sign (yeah that's right ripped it in half, I chalked it up to free speech) and the next day one was back up in its place. I moved this one farther down the road and there it stayed until December 15th.
If I think about it more I am sure I could find more resons to hate these signs but I am happy with what I have written so far. So, I would like to pose a question to anyone involved in the creation or placement of these signs is... What good is it doing? I mean, people have them on the front lawn and declare themselves for a candidate (that's stupid but there is a reason for it). But, do the campaigns really think I will read the sign and say "Well, I was going to vote for John Davidson but now that I have seen a sign for him on the corner of Creedmoor and Strickland I think, I will vote for David Johnson." For the love of god there must be a better way to get a name out, one with some substance.
Tomorrow, Candidate Shwag...
Monday, September 08, 2008
Home Depot, you can do it, but good luck finding one of our employees...
Here is my first rant. It is a little long but it feels good to let this out. As you may notice I like tangents and will usually use parentheses to denote those tangents.
So, I just finished remodeling my bathroom. So, I had to take several (and when I say several I went to the Six Forks Home Depot so many times that one time when my wife an I were going to go to Miltons in the next shopping center over I pulled into the parking lot of the Home Depot and my wife asked "Why are we hear?" I starred at her for a second until I realize that gosh darn-it, we weren't going to the Depot).
But, on the times I did actually need to go to HD after the initial welcoming squad of employees hanging around the entry door it was next to impossible to find anyone to help me, I mean for F sake they have bright orange smocks on but they are still able to hide, how does that work? But as I searched the store and found people to help me I came up with the fact that really only three type of people work on the floor of home depot (there are of course cashiers but they know nothing outside the checkout line). The three people are...
The retired guy: "Jim" used to be a plumber or an electrician, or a carpenter, he spent 40 years working hard either for himself or other people and now he hurts. He has developed arthritis or suffered an injury and can't work any more, but, he hates sitting at home doing nothing so he got a job working in the department of his expertise at Home Depot helping others with advice based on 40 years of experience. Unfortunately there are less and less of these guys working at the Depot. They are staying on the job longer and making enough money to travel in there retirement years.
The Young Guy: "Dave" needed a job, he has rent and wants to eat and be able to drink with his buddies on the weekend and Home Depot was hiring. He can run a forklift, he can stock the shelves and he knows where stuff is. But he doesn't know what to do with anything in the store and he is the first to admit it. You ask him what you need to fix a particular problem he will say “I have no idea but Jim works this department I will go get him for you”. I have no problem with this guy and can spot them from across the store and if I am having trouble fining an item, or Jim, I will ask them for help.
The Manager Guy: This is the guy you need to avoid like the plague. "Mike" used to be Dave. He got a job at the Depot to pay the bills and worked hard and did hid job well. One day Mike's immediate supervisor quit and his job was left open. The store manager came up to Mike and asked if he would like to step up. He would get a raise and supervise a few people. At first Mike was hesitant but decided that he would love more money so he could by his friends more beer on the weekend. However, when Mike got into his new supervisor role he realized that he liked being in charge of people. Being the boss was fun and he decided to start trying to work his way up the ladder. Now, he walks around the store like he owns the place he asks customers if they need help. The problem is he doesn't actually know anything. All of the knowledge he has is based from one of two places 1. The book, Home Depot has a book (I have never seen this book and I am sure nobody will admit to it's existence but it must exist because all the managers give the same answers). This book has the most basic answers to the most routine questions and leaves no room for unseen problems. 2. Overhearing conversations between Jim and his customers, which is even more useless because it's second hand information. This guy needs to stay behind the customer service counter and not move from there. I once (years ago) bought items based on his recommendation and not one of them worked, I had to return everything and since they were opened I had to debate the return policy with the cashier thus a manager was called over. But, since Rick was the M.O.D. the fun part was the fact that I had to explain to Rick the fact that he told me to buy all the wrong stuff.
Now, I would like to say that I like Home Depot in general. Their selection and the products they sell are far superior (and usually slightly cheaper) to their direct competitor Lowes (which I am sure to rant about another time).
So, I just finished remodeling my bathroom. So, I had to take several (and when I say several I went to the Six Forks Home Depot so many times that one time when my wife an I were going to go to Miltons in the next shopping center over I pulled into the parking lot of the Home Depot and my wife asked "Why are we hear?" I starred at her for a second until I realize that gosh darn-it, we weren't going to the Depot).
But, on the times I did actually need to go to HD after the initial welcoming squad of employees hanging around the entry door it was next to impossible to find anyone to help me, I mean for F sake they have bright orange smocks on but they are still able to hide, how does that work? But as I searched the store and found people to help me I came up with the fact that really only three type of people work on the floor of home depot (there are of course cashiers but they know nothing outside the checkout line). The three people are...
The retired guy: "Jim" used to be a plumber or an electrician, or a carpenter, he spent 40 years working hard either for himself or other people and now he hurts. He has developed arthritis or suffered an injury and can't work any more, but, he hates sitting at home doing nothing so he got a job working in the department of his expertise at Home Depot helping others with advice based on 40 years of experience. Unfortunately there are less and less of these guys working at the Depot. They are staying on the job longer and making enough money to travel in there retirement years.
The Young Guy: "Dave" needed a job, he has rent and wants to eat and be able to drink with his buddies on the weekend and Home Depot was hiring. He can run a forklift, he can stock the shelves and he knows where stuff is. But he doesn't know what to do with anything in the store and he is the first to admit it. You ask him what you need to fix a particular problem he will say “I have no idea but Jim works this department I will go get him for you”. I have no problem with this guy and can spot them from across the store and if I am having trouble fining an item, or Jim, I will ask them for help.
The Manager Guy: This is the guy you need to avoid like the plague. "Mike" used to be Dave. He got a job at the Depot to pay the bills and worked hard and did hid job well. One day Mike's immediate supervisor quit and his job was left open. The store manager came up to Mike and asked if he would like to step up. He would get a raise and supervise a few people. At first Mike was hesitant but decided that he would love more money so he could by his friends more beer on the weekend. However, when Mike got into his new supervisor role he realized that he liked being in charge of people. Being the boss was fun and he decided to start trying to work his way up the ladder. Now, he walks around the store like he owns the place he asks customers if they need help. The problem is he doesn't actually know anything. All of the knowledge he has is based from one of two places 1. The book, Home Depot has a book (I have never seen this book and I am sure nobody will admit to it's existence but it must exist because all the managers give the same answers). This book has the most basic answers to the most routine questions and leaves no room for unseen problems. 2. Overhearing conversations between Jim and his customers, which is even more useless because it's second hand information. This guy needs to stay behind the customer service counter and not move from there. I once (years ago) bought items based on his recommendation and not one of them worked, I had to return everything and since they were opened I had to debate the return policy with the cashier thus a manager was called over. But, since Rick was the M.O.D. the fun part was the fact that I had to explain to Rick the fact that he told me to buy all the wrong stuff.
Now, I would like to say that I like Home Depot in general. Their selection and the products they sell are far superior (and usually slightly cheaper) to their direct competitor Lowes (which I am sure to rant about another time).
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