Alan Hood

It’s Sunday so of course I have to talk about the Dallas Cowboys perfect season. Isaac Bruce guarantees that the Rams will win this game, and gets his ass handed to him. Isaac I’m sure this was just a ploy to fire up your team but unless you have a realistic shot of even staying in the game then I would suggest that you SHUT UP! Isaac didn’t seriously think they had a shot to win this game, he must have felt pressured into making this statment to try and keep his team from having a perfect season of their own, a perfect 0-16 season. 0-16 has never been accomplished but the Rams have a good start going so far. I do remember a couple of Detroit Lions teams that tried real hard to go 0-16 but even those pathetic teams couldn’t accomplish that lofty goal. Anyway I just love the way Tony Romo plays football; he reminds me of some really great quarterbacks of the past who just loved to play the game.

Being a football fan and a Dallas Cowboys fan makes you also have some teams that you just despise. One of those teams for me is the Denver Broncos. Denver has a sophomore Quarterback named Jay Cutler that they have placed a lot of faith in. I cannot look at that guy and believe that anybody sees a winner in him. Watching Denver get humiliated by the Colts today all I saw out of Culter was a guy who was defeated and barely had a clue what was happening to him. I know he is young but if I were a Broncos fan I would at least hope to see a kid with some fire and grit. Cutler has absolutely no fire and no enthusiasm for playing football. Maybe he has a great arm but look at any of these pictures and tell me this is the guy you would want leading your team. I defy anyone to tell me that this kid will ever be anything more than mediocre.

Without question I also cannot stand the Green Bay Packers, damn cheese wearing fools. But today I will say congratulations to Bret Favre (pronounced Fav-ray). Much unlike Jay Cutler, Brett has a passion for the game and even though he doesn’t always win at least he does his best, and his team has confidence that he will never give up. I like him much better when he is throwing interceptions and losing games but my hat is off to him on this day when he becomes the all time leader in touchdown passes thrown. Congratulations Brett! This will be his final year in the league (thank God) and very soon Peyton Manning will hold this record but for today only I will give you the credit that you deserve.

What is wrong with the San Diego Chargers? Very simply everything that is wrong with the charges is named Norv Turner. As a Cowboy fan I have to say that Norv was and probably still is a great offensive coordinator but as a head coach he is a miserable failure that is absolutely clueless. Give me Marty ball any day of Norv losses. The end of last season when the Chargers lost to New England was more than the franchise could handle and boy did they make some drastic mistakes. I guess that they thought the talent that they had on the field could overcome any obstacle but they had no idea the level of incompetence that Norv had in store for them. Was the Charger management not around when Norv was leading the Redskins? Were they really that blinded by the calls for Marty’s head? They sure are paying for it now, and deservedly so.

Living in Arizona will also make you HATE and I do mean HATE the Cardinals. I like Matt Leinart, because he has that enthusiastic winner’s attitude but they are still the Cardinals, and I love to watch them lose. Today the Cardinals beat the 3-0 Steelers, and all I can say about that is HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! And to all of you Steelers fans that thought they should have won Super Bowl XXX against the Cowboys, all I can say is Neil O’Donnell. See Below!

My privacy is important to me, but more disconcerting is when a company I pay for services decides that it is okay to either force advertising on me, or sell my personal information to other companies for profit. I got a letter in the mail today which I won’t explain why I decided to open this particular letter, normally it would go straight into the trash like other junk mail, from my wireless phone provider.

The letter reads as follows: As part of our ongoing effort to ensure consistent experience for all of our customers, V___z__ W___less has updated its Customer Agreement, a copy of which is enclosed. Depending on how recently you last activated a new line of service, upgraded your device or changed calling plans, the changes in this new Customer Agreement may be minimal. The “Your Privacy” section, however, has been updated to include information regarding Customer Proprietary Network Information (“CPNI”) as well as information about how we may include our own or third-party advertising in the services you’ve purchased from us. These changes are consistent with the V___z__ W___less Privacy Principles, which can be found at V___z______less.com. This new Customer Agreement will be effective at the beginning of your next billing period. For information about our rights to make changes to the agreement, please consult your original Customer Agreement, or the enclosed Customer Agreement.

The quotes around “Your Privacy” are their doing not mine. Kind of ironic that they are calling it “Your Privacy” when it should be “Our Invasion of Your Privacy” or “you have no privacy”. I as a customer have to opt out of this company selling my information or I am giving implied consent. I really find it disgusting that a company this large would think that it is okay to sell their customers information to third parties just to make more of a profit. Why don’t companies understand that forcing advertising on people who are paying them money will only drive their customers away, not endear their customers to them. If you want to provide ad supported services then make them free, don’t charge me a couple of hundred bucks a month and then put ads on my phone also. Speaking of that isn’t it “My” phone I did pay for it right? If it gets lost or damaged I have to pay to replace it right? I can really smell a class action lawsuit coming out of this if it goes the way I think it is going. I understand that having a wireless phone is a luxury and not a necessity, and if I start getting ads on my phone then you can be damn sure I will decide to spend my money on something else.

I love the last sentence of the letter I got “For information about our rights to make changes to the agreement, please consult your original Customer Agreement, or the enclosed Customer Agreement.” To me this says and if you don’t like it then we don’t really care. We can do what we want when we want no matter what you may have agreed to when you signed up for our services.

Just thought everyone would like a heads up on this one. To opt out call 1-800-333-9956. And next time you sign up for a service read the customer agreement because it really may make you think twice before giving any company your hard earned money.

Working for a large corporation can be very frustrating at times. Especially when you can see the things that are going drastically wrong with the company but can’t do anything about them. The difficulty and frustration I feel affects the way that I perform and in turn affects the customers again. But the real frustration is that the company doesn’t set up any real channels for employees to give them any kind of real feedback and relies on a very high level of matrices to determine how the company is performing. And what did I do to vent my frustrations? Of course I set up another blog about working in a call center to tell some of the stories about what is going on inside of the mega-corporation. Take a look at that blog and over the next couple of months you can get the real scoop about what happens to you as a customer after you call in the get your account settled with one of America’s largest companies. You will be in for a real eye opener.

The Cowboys proved tonight that they are an absolute force on offense. It’s not often that you see teams overcome a great defense and either crappy or crooked referees and put up 34 points. The refs for this game were either the worst bunch of blind idiots I have ever seen, or quite possibly paid off by the loser Bears. Illegal block in the back? Offensive pass interference? Not calling when Romo got slapped in the head and 2 very obvious horse collar tackles should be enough for these guys to lose their jobs. At minimum the league should look into their financial backgrounds to find the payments they have been receiving from the Chicago Bears. This was a statement made to the entire NFC that the road to the Super Bowl is going through Dallas this year.

Andrea Kramer interviewed Tony Romo and Terrell Owens after the game and Tony was too weak to say this was a statement game for the team, but Terrell stood up and stated “statement made”. Andrea then followed up by asking what the statement was and Terrell immediately backed down and didn’t give us what we wanted. Terrell scooted around the question when he should have said “this proves we are the premier team in the NFC”. Damn it Terrell why are you all of a sudden afraid to speak your mind? If it’s true and you are thinking it then just say it. Oh well it was a great win and there is no doubt that Dallas in back in top form. Go Cowboys!

My youngest daughter decided to have an end of summer pool party today, and like life as usual everything has to get done in the final hour. The bad part of this whole scenario is that she took Friday off from school to prepare for the party, but she didn’t get anything done for 2 days and left everything for the few hours before her friends are supposed to arrive. I really shouldn’t be surprised by this but I am slightly perturbed by her lack of action. The biggest problem is that her mother and I are now getting on her nerves by telling her everything that has to be finished, and she is getting some attitude with us. I know its just part of being a teenager but it is frustrating when you are doing something to make her happy.

I am sure everyone is thinking end of summer pool party isn’t it a little too cold for that, well not here; we live in Mesa Arizona where it is still 95 degrees. I know everyone thinks it is just too hot here but this time of year until April of next year the weather here just can’t be beat.

The party has started and I have already had to tell the little hellions to stop screaming, but one day of pain for my child’s happiness isn’t too much to put up with.

It has been hard to find the time to write on this blog lately, but I sure have a lot to say so here it goes.  First I am sure all of the readers of this blog are aware that I have multiple blogs that I maintain and this is just my personal gripe spot so if you want to read better more interesting posts then visit some of the links in my blogroll.  I am excited that survivor starts tonight, it is by far the best show ever invented and I hope that it will continue to air for many years to come, without survivor I would not have any entertainment left on TV at all.  TV actually bores me and turning it on is a good way to get me to fall asleep, but not survivor.  What could be better than taking a bunch of city folk out into the wilderness and making them fend for themselves, and then top it off by beating on them during challenges?  There is just so much fun in that scenario it is almost hard to describe.

Work right now is really interesting, I have not had a supervisor for almost 2 months so I am pretty much left alone to do my job, which is a really good thing.  If they could just keep it this way I may never want to quit.  Alas I am sure that it will not stay this way and soon enough I will have some idiot telling me that I am not sending out enough spam to our customers and not asking the customers if I have resolved their questions.  Yes you heard me right resolved their questions.  How do you resolve a question you ask, well obviously the people I work for don’t speak the English too good or they would have us say something slightly more correct but this is the way they choose to run their business and who am I to question them?  I am a nobody in the grand scheme of their plan so like a good little monkey I just show up and help the customers.  Customers are mostly nice but wow do we have the dregs of society also.  People so stupid that there is no possible way you could help them, but I guess that’s just one of the realities of life.

Unfortunately I have to cut this post off here.  Mama wants to go to lunch and get her tire fixed so chores over rule.

Click images to enlarge

2 games down just 14 more wins to go. I don’t really think the cowboys are going to have a perfect season but after 2 games they are looking very good. I am relieved because it’s hard to watch you team mired in mediocrity. That is exactly what the Cowboys have been for the last few years, just a very mediocre team. Long gone are the days of Troy, Emmitt, and Michael but it looks at long last that Cowboy fans will have something to cheer about in the future. Go Cowboys.

Being consumed by websites can be dangerous to your health. I should know, because I spend way too much time playing with my websites and not doing other things that I should be doing, like finishing projects around the house. I have a dream that one day SOON that my websites will support me and that I will no longer have to go to a job every day. I am not really sure that it would be like not having a job though, because even now I spend more time working on my sites that anything else. The problem is not having a dream the problem is when the dream interferes with everything else in life that matters. Like spending time with your family and doing the other things in life that have to be done.

The one good thing that has come out of this past few months is that I have learned more about internet marking than I have in the last 8 years that I have been messing around with websites. A lot has to do with writing the correct articles that will drive traffic to your site. Not for this site, this is just my personal place to rant, but for other sites that I am trying to build. If you are interested in learning how to promote your site the right way then head over to netrat.com for some great tips on writing articles and building communities online. It is also my blog and there is nothing to buy just great articles to help new webmasters learn about building traffic.

Just as I assumed would happen the Cowboys went out today and took care of business.  Tony Romo looked great and for some reason I am starting to not mind Terrel Owens.  Not really for just some reason the reason is that he hasn’t been running his mouth yet.  I am not sure if this is an indication that he is finally growing up or it’s just the first game of the season and he hasn’t hit tantrum mode yet.  I hope it is an indication that he is finally maturing as a person.  He has always been a great football player, but he has yet to prove that he can be a great teammate.  I hope for his sake and the sake of the Cowboys that it is finally his time to shine off of the field also.

In other games, I have to laugh anytime someone gets beat by the Lions, and when it is my next door neighbors team the Raiders then it is even funnier.  It shouldn’t be so fun to see other people in misery but when they are a raider fan I just have to love it.  I know it makes me a bad person, but life is rough and sometimes people suffer.  I just hope the Cowboys defense doesn’t make me suffer this year, because they were downright horrible tonight.  The NFL is back baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!