Hasta La Vis(t)a, Baby!

Chase, the issuing bank of my United Visa Card suck. I had been in the thoughts of changing cards since United was no longer my airline of choice (prices too high, staff who hate their jobs and refuse to smile at you, slim chances of ever getting upgrades no matter how good your status and various other crap that pissed me off), but the thought of spending time updating my automatic payments was just too much to bear.

However, Chase decided to make it a lot easier for me today - the card got rejected when I tried to fill the car up this lunchtime (despite it working this morning for my BMW Car Club membership - I'll post about that at some point when I'm not so angry). So, having had them shut down the card at inopportune moments in the past (think week of the wedding when trying to pay for the flowers, despite me making a courtesy call to them the week before I left for England telling them that there were going to be a lot of big charges from a foreign country on there), I thought I knew the drill - ring up, tell them the charges were legit, and they'd apologize, re-instate the card and I'd be good to go.

Of course, they have to throw in a curve ball, given that I'm about to embark on one of those nightmare travel few months when you grab a day or two here and there in your own bed while desperately trying to stay sane. The card was just cancelled - no discussion, no negotiation, no explanation of any worth (the security team decided it had been compromised was the most I got out of anyone), and the new one won't arrive for another 4 or 5 business days (meaning 2 hotels, 2 flights, a rental car and untold meals etc later). And they can't automatically transfer my regular payments over to some other account because the number has to change, and that's just beyond their capabilities.

So, if I have to do all the leg work anyway to change that stuff, I may as well take the opportunity to never use the card again. American Express, you now have the chance to win my business for life, so please, don't let me down.....

Weather Forecasters Suck - Panic Over

So the supposed 12 to 18 inches of snow that was still predicted on the 10pm news last night managed to turn into absolutely zero snow (and the sun is now coming out, so it's not like it's just late). The news sites even have their excuses posted, just so people don't get too upset.

Some people say "It's just Colorado - the weather forecast is just too difficult to get right". Personally, I think it's bollox. As I've mentioned to anyone who would listen to me today, it's the only job where you can get something 100% wrong and you don't even get a written warning, never mind escorted off the premises. Do you think these guys have their pay rated against their success in predicting the weather? Of course not - that would imply that they actually did something, as opposed to just have a random guess based on some pretty pictures coming out of the national weather service. I even read one site (can't remember if it's the one that I linked above) who blamed it on the fact that they only sent balloons up to measure the Jet Stream twice a day (even though by my reckoning, 6pm is still plenty of time to adjust your 10pm weather forecast). Shit, why can't they send up their own balloons - they're always presenting their little slot from the "roof" of the studio.

So, rant over - I guess I should be happy I didn't have to dig the car out this morning. I think my next mission in life might be to try and get one of these jobs - if no-one cares whether I'm right or wrong (and when I'm wrong I can blame something or one else), isn't that the perfect job for slacking off?