You've got hate mail

Woof! I brought you a coaster!

I was looking through an old "To Blog" list of topics tonight, and I forgot about this one. I'll be brief, as it's not too topical right now, but my feelings are no less strong about it.

So AOL is getting out of the paid Internet Service Provider business. That's too bad. This company has the customer service skills of a misogynist heroin addict street pimp, and not since the fall of Enron has a company been so deserving of a complete collapse.

I won't get into much of a rant about a long ago rip-off at the hands of AOL, but the Cliff Notes: I was charged for three months after I had cancelled my service, and AOL refused to give me a refund. In retrospect, I guess I can at least understand it on some level - why please a person who no longer wants to be a customer? But, this kind of treatment can erode public goodwill and confidence in a company. Predatory business practices will come back and bite you every time (see above).

It seems like just yesterday that AOL was THE Internet Service Provider in the United States, with the annoying and arrogant slogan, "So easy to use, no wonder we're number 1!" In the mid-90s, there were a bunch of smaller, lesser-known companies, & behemoth AOL to choose from if you wanted to access the Internet from your home. This company had the world by the ass, and now... *Poof*

Hey, at least all of those annoying CD-ROMs you get in the mail from AOL can be used for something - frisbees, locker mirrors, or to fix that wobbly coffee table, perhaps? It's proof positive that when a company starts believing it's the best (with a side order of arrogance), very quickly you won't be the best.

So easy to use, no wonder we're almost done. ... Couldn't happen to a better company.

Yet another reason to hate AOL...

Check out this crazy clip from the Today show. Vincent Ferrari tried to cancel his AOL account, but it wasn't easy. Take a look to see what he went through.

Anyone who has dealt with AOL can relate to this. I got completely screwed over by them years ago, and I'll never have AOL again, unless all ISPs merge into one company. Even then I'd have to think about it. AOL is forever on my boycott list.

Special thanks to my friend Rachel for sending this along.

Again, please be patient with the video - you may have to press pause right after you press play - that gives your computer time to download it (you can see the progress bar shade as it downloads). If you wait for a second for it to download at least halfway, you can watch it without interrpution.

It's a baby girl for TomKat!*

* - Who gives a shit.

Am I the only one nauseated by all of the media coverage of the Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes love child? Puleeze. This guy has gone from hero (okay, not exactly hero, but for rhyming purposes, go with me) to zero in just a few years. It used to be that I never missed a Tom Cruise blockbuster movie. Now, not even under threat of taser shock or decapitation would I go see any of his movies or contribute to his success.

His ill-conceived (pun intended), misogynistic comments on postpartum depression and psychiatry are mostly the reason. But how about this - I just flat out don't like the guy. I'm sick of Scientology, and I'm flat out bored with all of the press coverage on this... this... "religion." I'm simply placing Cruise in the category he so richly deserves: with all of the other religious zealots who deserve zero attention and even less credibility. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tom Cruise. Yes, he fits in there nicely. The best thing the press could do would be to just ignore this egomaniac. Okay, I know that's not going to happen, but I can dream, can't I?

Top Gun, The Firm and A Few Good Men seem like a million years ago, when he was my favorite actor.

One more word on the TomKat baby - don't people have anything better to do? People can blame the media all they want, and many do, but the sad truth is that magazines, newspapers and TV shows clamor for news on these celeb babies because it's what their audiences want. I've got two words - pathetic and sad. With so many more important things going on in the world around us - this is what the media spends its time on? I think we've finally settled back into the pre-September 11, idiotic mindset, brought to you by the same people who gave us endless coverage (and even perpetuated some of the stories) of JonBenet Ramsey, Chandra Levy and Gary Condit and, oh yea - Monica Lewinsky. People, the planet is warming at a dangerous rate, a gallon of gas will soon cost more than a drink in the city, Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power, and our young men and women are being struck down in the prime of their lives over in Iraq and Afghanistan every single day. That's what's important - not this rubbish. But, I digress.

Anyway, back to my friend Tom for just a second. Instead of a rant, I'm just boycotting him. He's now on my list which includes AOL, Cingular Wireless and Circuit City. (I won't get into the those now, other than to say their customer service stinks to high heaven.) I'm putting my money where my mouth is - no Mission Impossible 3 for me, or any other movie starring Cruise for that matter, until he changes his tune. Yea, I'm just one person, but at least I can do something about it - I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Empowering.