11/26/08

'Tis the Season

I got online to buy concert tickets today. $15 apiece for a small band at an old venue. Deal, right? Check out the itemization below:

Full Price Ticket $15.00 x 4
Total Building Facility Charge(s) $1.00 x 4
Total Convenience Charge(s) $6.50 x 4
Additional Taxes $1.04
Other Processing Charge(s) $5.30
TOTAL CHARGES $96.34

60%+ increase in the ticket price due to all of this hogwash? Seriously!? Am I that out of touch, or is the SOB who came up with this crap in dire need of a groin shot, or five?

Shouldn't 'Building Facility' be factored in as venue overhead? Isn't it equally as convenient for the seller to automate ticket sales rather than pay someone to work in a sales booth? Could 'Other Processing' be more vague?

Having taxes as the least expensive aspect of this itemization (in Chicago of all places) really does me in. I wish good luck upon all the dumbasses buying in to this crap, as well as the d-bag who came up with these add-ons (not sure which party is worse).

Godspeed..., idiots.

11/17/08

Stole'd Ringtone: My Struggle

When cell phones began their boom, I hated them. I rebelled for roughly 5 years until giving in. I had come to the unfortunate realization that not having one made it incredibly inconvenient for me to not have one. For everyone else's sake, I made a sacrifice.

When polyphonic ringtones began to popularize, I hated them. I stuck with the standard-issued ring for nearly 2 years. Once the boredom overtook me, I obtained 'Somebody's Watching Me' (by Rockwell). Needless to say, the "cellular road," I've been traveling for almost a decade, continues to roughen. And the saga continues...

Currently, there's a guy who sits near me at work who has my same ringtone. Whenever his ringtone goes off, I reach for my pocket to be left with nothing but the feelings of rejection. It has begun to cause quite a large amount of a mental uproar to one of my typically mundane days. Despite him being older than me, I have been in my location for longer than he's been around. So I ask...

Is it not common courtesy to change your ringtone if someone else, who you spend the majority of your days with/near, had it first? Am I not grandfathered in? Is Rockwell ('Someboy's Watching Me') the sole, shining beacon of hope that no one else dares assign their ringtone?

Until this gentleman's ringtone changes, I'm staging a sit-in. Whenever I'm at work my phone on my desk, with ringer volume up, allowing all unidentified calls to ring freely. If you would like to contribute, please call me at work (M-F: ~8am to 5pm Central) at 309-648-1603. If you know your number is in my phone, please call on an unidentified phone, unless you want to chat.