1980 Rainier Columbians

So I got an email from an old high school pal who started a new Yahoo group for our class alumni. I just wanted to send out a note to anyone from that era that reads this blog, so as to spread the word. If you're an old classmate, teacher, friend, whatever... drop me an email and I'll hook you up. If I haven't heard from you in a while, make sure and write something specific in the subject header so I don't toss it unread. :) You can reach me at bju at this domain. Heh. Let's see the web crawling spam bots get that email address!

Ebay - Run by Idiots for your Bidding Pleasure

Okay, I have to vent. Talking to the support people at eBay is useless, so I'd like to just share with you all the ludicrous events of the last week or so, along with direct quotes from eBay itself about those events. I will try VERY hard not to editorialize; I think the ridiculousness of it all will be self-evident.

Note that I've changed some of the names of the accounts, in order to keep search engines from picking them up and linking them somehow to my web site. You'll understand the wisdom of that soon enough...

First, I get an email that says:

We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended because it violates the site policy outlined in the User Agreement. eBay's services are not available to members who are currently suspended. Our records indicate that your account is associated with the following suspended account:

Then, below that portion, is a large blank area that doesn't indicate ANYTHING. After that, the email goes on to tell me that I can't use my account, nor open another account, nor use ANY eBay account ever in my entire life. Needless to say, I was a little perplexed.

After hunting through their site for hours, I finally sent a trouble ticket asking what the heck was going on. Several days go by, without a peep from them. I send a second email, trying to get someone - anyone - to tell me what's going on.

Seven days after the suspension, I get this reply:

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your suspended account. Please note that your account "krokmor" has been suspended due to association with the previously suspended account (PSU):

Let me interject here, that "krokmor" is not my account name. I have no clue what it is, or why they think it's mine. The letter continues:

Your account is found to be linked to (fin.la.tin) who is suspended for
(Unpaid Item). Please keep in mind that per our User Agreement, our services are not available to suspended members. This is stated in the first section of our User Agreement entitled Membership Eligibility.

Nice.

The letter continues, however, on a happier note. Sort of:

Now, in light of additional information that has been submitted and a new review, it has been decided to reinstate this account. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to reinstate this account, and I hope that your future experiences on eBay are pleasant and successful.

Heh. Pleasant and successful my hiney.

Okay, so I'm still confused and a bit concerned over this "krokmor" account being somehow linked to me. So I write back and I ask for clarification, and I make it VERY clear that I have no clue what the heck they're talking about. I should have known that wouldn't do a bit of good:

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the suspension of your account. I can understand your frustration in wanting more information regarding what led us to take this action on your account. As you may know, eBay is taking a tougher stand to prevent fraud on our site. Regretfully, in that process, a few honest members may be required to take one or two extra steps before they are allowed to participate on eBay. For security reasons we are unable to be more specific about the details that led to this action. Thank you for your time.

What a crock. They screwed up, linked some loser to my email, closed my account instead, and then play the "for security reasons" card. Lamers.

I'm not saying I'm going to boycott eBay, but really I'm having second throughts about using it. If they're so incompetant as to suspend my account for no reason, and then write to me and say "your account, krokmor, has been reopened..." what other supidity is going on that might cost me money or credit or worse.

Besides, what really irks me is that they're unwilling to even take responsibility for their mistake, instead claiming it's a "security" issue. Just fess up, eBay, and admit you screwed up.

Of course, when you're one of the largest online companies in the world and make millions of dollars in the time it takes me to write one blog entry, I guess you can afford to push the little guy around. Pfft.

What, Exactly, Do You Do?

Been asked recently what kind of calls are common working on an ambulance. In general, in seems to me that ambluances deal with a lot more medical calls than trauma, and even then, "falls" - often elderly persons - make up a lot of the trauma calls.

Anyway, here's a brief overview of the calls I was on this week. Note that they're from memory, and I know I'm forgetting some. You know, that whole "getting old thing" is finally catching up... :)

Elderly female, ground level fall

Infant, febrile siezure

Elderly male, abdominal pain

Elderly male, difficulty breathing

Teenage girl, bee sting in the back of the throat

Elderly male, chest pains

The bee sting was an interesting call. A teenaged girl was running on the track at her school and inhaled a yellow jacket. It stung the back of her throat and she coughed/spit it out. She had a history of localized swelling with bee stings, so we were concerned about her throat swelling shut. It was way out in the rurals, with about a 30-45 minute transit time back to the hospital. We made the first part of the trip Code-1, but went to Code-3 (lights and siren) about halfway home. She was still concious and breathing - albeit very shaken up - when we turned her over to the ED.

Bee sting in the back of the throat. Man, that's just not right. I'm glad she was okay.

Live from the Fire Station

Sitting at the station between calls, and tired of watching Sunday football. I used to watch football with my dad a lot before he died, but since then I just don't do much of it any more.

Been a relatively slow shift today - one elderly woman who fell and injured her knee and couldn't get up, and a 14-month old baby in febrile siezure (febrile = brought on by a fever). Both ended well, from an EMS point of view (meaning we got them to the hospital safe and sound) and both should be okay in the long run. That's always good.

Anyway, I logged into the 'net to check email and check up on some eBay prices, and thought I'd drop a blog entry since I'm trying (very hard!) to keep some semblance of regularity going here again. Apologies to anyone that's checked back repeatedly only to find the same (old) entries time and again. :)

Off tomorrow, except for drill at C2FR, then I'm back up here again on Tuesday. Probably get around to another entry then, if not sooner. I guess with being between nursing schools, and no writing projects in the pipe, I just don't know what folks would like to know about. Maybe posting my Fire/EMS experiences will keep you all on the edge of your seats.

Or not.

Another Closed Captioning Rant

A year and a half ago I ranted about the ridiculous closed captions in the series Rescue Me. Oddly enough that post generated a lot of email - some from total strangers - defending the closed captioners. Most of it centered around the "hey, they do it on the fly" line of thinking, but those are real-time captions (such as found during a press conference or live sporting event).

My gripe has never been with the "on the fly" type of captioning - I couldn't do it and I have a lot of respect for those who do. What I'm complaining about (making fun of?) are the captions that are scripted, where the captioner has plenty of time to watch and listen to a television show or movie, and many times has access to a written script to follow along with, and yet STILL makes ridiculous mistakes such as those listed in that previous post.

So why, 18 months later do I bring this up again? Simple: I've been rolling my eyes at the captions on The Sopranos DVD sets since I've been watching them over the last few weeks. I can't keep it to myself any more, and I had to let off some more steam.

Okay, I understand that sometimes you misunderstand a word, or misspell one, but give me a break. The way these things get captioned doesn't just indicate a mis-heard word, but a complete lack of common sense on the part of the captioner. Some examples:

Dialogue: "You're the SEC compliance officer, for Christ's sake."

Caption: "You're the FCC compliance officer, for Christ's sake."

Okay, who with a brain in their head would think the FCC would care one iota about an insider trading stock scam? And it's not just once in this episode, but every time they mention the SEC the caption says "FCC" instead. Pfft.

Music playing Otis Redding's My Lover's Prayer: "This is my lover's prayer; I hope it will reach out to you my love..."

Caption: "This is my lover's friend; I hope it will reach out to you my love..."

My lover's friend? In a song entitled "My lover's prayer." Good lord.

I could go on, and perhaps I will later. Maybe I should keep a list as the series continues (I'm starting Season 3), but I think this shows my point. Those aren't mis-typed words, they're not computer errors. They're listening errors on the part of the captioner, who didn't have enough of a brain in his head to know they just don't make sense. FCC indeed.

Okay, so I feel better, and I've probably offended people again. So send the emails, I've got thick skin. Just please don't defend the captioners by saying they're typos, computer errors, or done on the fly. It's just sloppy captioning and a lack of intelligence to know that the caption they're written makes no sense in the context of the dialogue anyway.

More to follow, I'm sure.

Nursing, Firefighting, and All That

Taking a little break from the local nursing program and looking for another college. It's a long story (and most of you who know me personally already know the details), but suffice to say there is no way I'm going back to the local college's nursing program until they get rid of some of the instructors. At least two are heavily biased against men (one is very vocal about it).

One of my clinical instructors told me: "EMTs and Paramedics aren't even medical professionals. I don't know why they even let you do what you do."

She also said: "You'll never be a nurse."

Hmph.

Needless to say, it's impossible to pass a subjectively judged clinical course with instructors that have already judged you unworthy. Despite my Dean's List, President's List, 3.9 GPA, letters of recommendation from all my previous clinical instructors, and so forth... this instructor isn't letting me through. *sigh*

So, I'm hunting for a better, less-biased nursing program and picking up some work in the meantime. Have my application in at a regional hospital to work as an Emergency Department Technician, and I'll be working as a shift volunteer out of town at another fire department as soon as I get my physical. It will be nice to get back to working a field I really like - emergency medicine and firefighting - rather than slugging through nursing clinicals while trying to please a dictatorial clinical instructor.

I'll keep you posted.