remote controlled sharks!

Boston University has an interesting article about remote controlled sharks being used by the US to spy. Read the article here.

FedEx Home Delivery

The Home Delivery Branch of FedEx has the most annoying red tape that I've ever encountered. Here are the facts:

-paid 29$ shipping for delivery 3-5 days after shipping
-Wednesday, 1 week after the "shipped" notice, attempt 1 was made at 3pm, I was at work
-Wednesday pm, I call FedEx Home Delivery and am allowed to put in a 'request' that delivery be made after 5pm with the information that I would not be home until 5pm to accept the package, but "there's no guarantee that it will be honored sir".
-Thursday, no notice of delivery attempt
-Friday, "third and final" attempt notice from 3pm. Where was the second attempt?
-Friday pm, I call FedEx, my package is brought to Wilmington, MA (I live in Boston, MA, no car) and ask that one more attempt be made, and another 'request' is put into the system but with no guarantee. But "don't worry, your package will be held for at least 3 days before it will be returned".
-Saturday, no word, no delivery
-Saturday pm, I call FedEx, and am told that my best bet is to come pick it up.
-Sunday my cousin comes over and offers to drive me to Wilmington, so I call FedEx to ask if they are open. They aren't open.
-Monday, I call FedEx to ask them if it's possible to bring my package to a FedEx/Kinko's location (deliveries are made there regularly so it wouldnt be an extra cost as an extra delivery attempt would be). No is the answer.
-Can I pay extra to have it delivered from the holding station to a FedEx/Kinko's location? No.
-Can I talk to a manager at the Wilmington, MA holding station? No. They're also closed Mondays. P.S. your package is noted to be in a bin marked "return to sender".
-Does it cost money to ask that it be held until Saturday so I can ask my cousin to bring me to get it? No. We can put a request in, but "there's no guarantee that it will be honored....." hahaha, my god.

UPDATE
-Tuesday, I was informed that my package is en route back to the sender. Sunday, Monday they were closed, so Saturday was the only day they held my package, a total of 1 day.


Verdict? Out of a possible 100% of the suckiness from this situation, I award 60% to FedEx Home Delivery, 25% to my obvious inability to deal with shipping a package, and 15% to DHL for not having won the bid to handle Amazon.com's shipments.

T time manners

Two easy actions would make riding the T much more tolerable: 1- covering our faces when we hack up a lung, and 2- taking off the huge ass backpack when there isn't much room in the subway or bus.
Germs- What we really need is a campaign for sanitary public transporation. And by this I mean something that teaches people to attempt to not sneeze in other peoples faces on the T. I'm not phobic of germs, I don't wash my hands incessantly, and I don't act OCD when it comes to being around sick people but I've definitely noticed that people just dont seem to care about anything when they're sick. When you can't breath through both nostrils I know it's hard to be thinking about your fellow man but the mutant bird flu would spread like wildfire in a subway car. Also, have you ever seen the commercial for Purell where that guy sneezes on his hands and then grabs the shopping cart, and then the woman comes along and happily grabs the same handle right after?
Crowdedness- Is that even a real word? I don't know, I was a bio major.... Anyways, haven't you seen the poor little asian girl sandwiched between two huge guys trying desperately to clucth onto the handle bar while at the same time dueling with Joe-Shmo's 55 liter monster backpack in front of her?? Look at me everybody, I superglued a backpack on my back so I can look like Quasimoto. All you gotta do it take it off and the miracle of not taking up twice the space happens. But taking it off requires effort, as does lifting your hand to cover your mouth. Maybe, in the end all we need is an anti-laziness drug?

Wham-o!

I've decided that one of my favorite Christmas songs is by Wham. Spam. Space Jam. What an awesome name. Anyways, from this picture it looks like these guys were bestest friends back in the day. What happened? Are they still friends? Maybe the song Last Christmas was their falling out song- 'last christmas, I gave you my heart, the very next day, you gave it away'. One can only hope that this Christmas none of you will have to suffer the same consequences and tragic fate that ultimately became of Wham. Wait, what became of Wham? On another note, if you don't like 'Last Christmas' you can listen to Steh Auf Wenn Du Zwerge Stehst. Its in the German top 100, and I think its about elves.

Vodka shapes

If I was the marketing guy for Smirnoff, I'd totally change the container that the vodka comes in, or at least vary a few models. Question: What's a bottle shape that would be fun for a party? Oh Oh, me- a wine bottle shape? Ehhhhhnnt. How about a graduated cylinder? Who wouldnt want their own lab drinking equipment? Or something like the Evian swiss alps glass bottle. Those are some bottles that would be frickin' sweet to put out on your coffee table.....

Subway

The Boston MBTA has been promoting security lately by performing random searches on the T, in an attempt to catch and prevent possible terrorists in the act. But in 3 months of riding the system I still haven't seen the organization's actions in effect firsthand.
Where are the security officers? They don't actually need to be searching anyone unless there is just cause, and successful guidelines should be developed -I don't want to be stopped on the way to work!- but it's just that the possibility of being questioned is effective only when officers are present to do it. If this is aimed at 'scaring' extremists away from dangerous actions on the subway then the threat of detection has got to be more obvious. What is going to be the result if weapons are detected too late, already in the subway tunnels? It's not that I don't feel safe, it's that I don't feel the T is thinking enough about our safety. It will be an bright day when we realize that the same thinking that brings security awareness to airports is required in all public transportation. Let's just hope that it doesnt take a bomb to arrive there.

photo from alan.spacemonkeymafia.com