Here’s something stupid: Wearing your iPod on a belt clip with 1 ear bud in your ear. It’s bad enough that people think they look cool with their cell phone on their hip and a bluetooth headset (both of which are, in fact, quite stupid). But come on, an iPod? Really?
iPod Belt Clips
Oct 14th, 2009 by DBS Chris
Weekly Dose of Stupid - Utah Drivers
Oct 5th, 2009 by DBS Chris
For a little over 5 years I have had a 30 minute commute to and from work every day. The commute itself is not that bad. However, there is one thing that completely ruins it:
Sharing the road with Utah drivers.
You may think that the drivers where you are from are bad. But trust me, they don’t even compare. Here is a sample of the stupidity that I have seen from drivers on Utah freeways:
- Doing their makeup
- Shaving
- Reading books
- Brushing their teeth
- Talking on the phone with one hand and eating with the other
Not only do drivers do stupid, distracting things on the road, but there are also a few unwritten rules in Utah that are absolutely infuriating:
- If someone turns their blinker on to change lanes you need to speed up so they don’t get in front of you.
- The empty left lane is only for holding up traffic when you want to take 5 minutes to pass someone. It shouldn’t be used to move over when someone is entering the freeway from an on-ramp.
- When a car is stopped on the side of the road, whether broken down or pulled over by a police officer, you should speed up and get as close as possible rather than slow down and move over.
- When a lane is closing and everyone is moving over, you should move into that empty lane and pass everyone then try to force your way back in and make everyone slow down even more.
All of these frustrations I can deal with, and have for years. But there is one thing in Utah that is just absolutely stupid. Every year, around this time we have our first small snow storm of the year. Usually it’s just enough snow to cover the road in slush. And every year, I have to sit in traffic because more than one idiot lost control and got in an accident. Seriously? We are talking about Utah. We are known to have storms dump 10 - 12 inches of snow in one storm, on multiple occasions throughout the winter. Driving in snow is not a new thing to drivers in Utah. It is expected for about 4 months out of every year. Yet, every fall it’s the same story, with a very simple solution: Don’t Be Stupid.
Let me just say, I could do a post on how stupid cell phone companies are probably every week. I can’t believe how dumb they are.
My cell phone service genealogy started with Verizon in 2002. I then canceled (because funds were tight during college), and in 2006, I signed up with Sprint. Earlier this year, I switched from Sprint to Verizon.
I’ve run the rounds with the cell phone companies. They are all idiots.
Here is a break down of dumb cell phone carrier decisions:
- Text Message pricing - Does anyone else remember when texts were free? I do, I also remember when they were $0.10 to send and $0.02 to receive. It then went to $0.10 to send and $0.10 to receive, and now it is almost universally $0.20 to send and $0.20 to receive. They have now come out with text packages which are nothing more than a way to get make people feel warm and fuzzy about getting screwed. For example, I pay $5.00 for 250 text messages, I send and receive about 30 texts each month. Of course, I can’t share those texts with my wife (who also uses about 30 texts per month) she has to have her own text plan. Oh yea, did I mention that it literally costs cell phone companies less than $0.001 to send a text message? They piggy back text messages to the normal carrier signals (thus the 160 character limit).
- Family Plans - What? Family Plans are dumb? They sure are. These plans are specifically to help people lose track of minutes, texts, data, etc. and pay massive overage charges. Awesome. You don’t believe me? I’ll bet you have either gone over, or you have purchased a Family Plan that includes WAY more minutes than you will probably ever use so that you won’t go over. Have you checked out how Family Plans work? First you have to bump your normal plan up to a plan that is “Worthy” to have other people share minutes. This costs anywhere from $20-$30 per month. Then you have to pay an additional $10-$15 each month per phone you want to share minutes with. Doesn’t sound like cell phone carriers really get the “sharing” mentality. “Sure, you can share YOUR minutes that YOU purchase each month. Of course, you’ll have to pay us extra so that we can enable you to share what you have already purchased.” Yeah, it’s that stupid.
- Customer Service - This is a big fail. They will always tell you that you are the most important part of their company. But when you have a request, they will almost unfailingly give you the canned response “I can’t do that. This is just how the plans are.” It is as if the plans are some deity, or universal law that is unerring, uncontested, omniscient, unchanging, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega. Last time I checked, Newton didn’t discover the Law of Gravity, AND the Law of Cell Phone Plans. The Pope doesn’t pray to the plan. People don’t beg the plan for forgiveness. The truth of the matter is that the plans are something that THEY came up with and the only thing stopping them from changing the plan to fit your needs is their stubbornness.
- Contracts - ‘Hey! I like the contracts, I got a free phone that way.’ That is what they pitch to you. The real purpose of the contract is so that they only have to earn your business once, then they don’t have to worry about you at all for the next two years. If you think I’m joking, go to a cell phone place and tell them that that you are considering signing up. They will spend hours helping you if you want. Now, go to your cell phone provider and tell them you have a problem with your service. Unless you’re lucky and get someone who cares, you will most likely be out of there in 15 minutes just as frustrated as you were when you walked in. Contracts have allowed cell phone carriers to be lazy competitors. Competition in the cell phone arena is so stagnant that when I think about it, I’m reminded of the moldy french bread I found in my pantry the other day that looked a lot more like a Chia Pet than a loaf of bread. It is my opinion that contracts are the reason we aren’t all on unlimited cell phone plans right now.
- Different rates for different phones - iPhone. I think the iPhone is seriously sweet. But is there any reason why the service plan that AT&T requires you to have is more expensive than the other plans? Some will say that it is worth it to experience the awesomeness of the iPhone. That may or may not be the case, but the truth is that to own an iPhone you have to accept the fact that you are getting screwed on your service plan.
I could keep going on, but I’ll stop for now. How did we get ourselves in this position? Well, I think that we have stopped holding these companies accountable, and WE KEEP PAYING FOR THEIR SERVICE. We have accepted the fact that when we deal with a phone company it’s going to be a big problem. I’m refusing to accept that.
Keep in mind, I have no problem at all with companies making money, a lot of money. I have no problem with companies making a lot of money from providing me a service. However, I do have a problem with companies that refuse to compete and refuse to work hard to continually earn my business.
I wish cell phone companies were more like these guys:
Power Walkers
Sep 29th, 2009 by DBS Chris
Here’s something stupid: Power walkers who insist on walking 2 or 3 wide in the middle of the road. I have nothing wrong with people who want to exercise. But is this really necessary when there is a perfectly good sidewalk a few feet away?
Ultimate Stupidity - September 11
Sep 11th, 2009 by DBS Chris
We will never forget:
- The lives lost 8 years ago today
- The men and women who saved countless others
- The brave passengers of United 93
- The unity of our country that now seems to have been lost
- The ultimate stupidity of the 19 cowardly murderers that forced us to remember this day
Weekly Dose of Stupid - Cash for Clunkers
Sep 9th, 2009 by DBS Chris
Thanks to a loyal DBS Method reader for sending us this bit of interesting information:
A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.
A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim nearly 700,000 vehicles were sold through the program - so that’s 224 million gallons / year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day’s US consumption.
And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $375 million dollars at $75/bbl.
So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $375 million.
How good a deal was that???
I know, I know. The program was about more than just saving money on oil. It was about getting consumers to start spending again and stimulating the economy. Which it did. I just wonder how many of those 700,000 brand new cars were bought on credit that won’t be paid back. Isn’t unnecessary debt what got us into this mess in the first place?
Weekly Dose of Stupid - Prison Stimulus
Sep 1st, 2009 by DBS Chris
Hey Now! Get your mind out of the gutter! This is a serious matter.
Remember the massive economic recovery package approved by Congress in February? Well it turns out that as a part of that recovery package 3,900 stimulus checks were issued to prison inmates. What’s even better than that? 2,200 of them actually got to keep the money! That’s right, 2,200 prison inmates received federal stimulus money while they were incarcerated. I don’t really feel that I need to list the reasons why this is stupid. However, there are a few other things that should be asked here:
- Out of the 3,900 checks sent, 1,700 (44%) were sent by mistake. How many other ‘mistakes’ were made on this bill? I hope not 44% (44% of $787B = $346B).
- The total incorrect amount sent to inmates was $425,000. The total ‘correct’ amount sent was $550,000. Seriously, $1 Million for prison inmates?
- How exactly are prison inmates supposed to stimulate the economy? I thought they paid for things with cigarettes.
I understand the reasoning behind the 2,200 ‘correct’ checks sent to inmates. But regardless of the rules shouldn’t any and all privileges be void when you are an convicted felon?
Random Stupid - New KFC ‘Sandwich’
Aug 21st, 2009 by DBS Chris
The next time you go to KFC, make sure you use the tips from our Healthy Eating page when you order. Honestly, you need to ask yourself, “Would it be smart or stupid to order this?” Who comes up with this stuff?
My apologies for the stupid quality of the video.
Absolutely Not Stupid - Chevelle Tour Page
Aug 20th, 2009 by DBS Chris
I enjoy listening to music. But in my opinion nothing compares to attending a great live show. Over the past decade or so I have attended a wide variety of concerts. The one thing that I have found to be very annoying is scrolling through a big list of tour dates on your favorite band’s web site just hoping that your city is on there (I don’t live in a very big market area, so it’s never a guarantee that they will be coming to my area on tour).
A few weeks ago I was searching around on a few different sites and came to the official Chevelle web site. I noticed that they had a new album coming out and decided to visit their tour page to see if I might be able to see them live. This is the first thing I saw at the very top of the page:
So nice. Instead of having to scroll through a big list of cities and dates, all I had to do was see if there was a marker in my area. The only stupid part about this? There wasn’t a marker in my area…
Random Stupid - Cookie Prices
Aug 18th, 2009 by DBS Chris
Here’s something stupid: I just took this picture in the break room at work.
You’ll notice that there are two different options for Grandma’s Cookies. Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter.
Posted prices:
Chocolate Chip - $.65
Peanut Butter - Somewhere between $.60 and $.65 ($.62 I guess?)
Actual prices:
Chocolate Chip - $.80
Peanut Butter - $.65
It’s not that hard. Sometimes I’m unsure how people are able to make it through the day without someone reminding them to breath.