Well we’re getting a bit better. Just a bit, mind you, so don’t go getting excited. This pizza didn’t make me wish i hadn’t ordered it like South Side did, and it had pretty good reheat value the next day. Make no mistake, though, my expectations are low at this point. Good West Philly Pizza where art thou? I’m looking for some pizza that’s the john.

Accu Pizza
(215) 474-7150
4802 Spruce St
Philadelphia, PA 19139

Crust: 2/5
Sauce: 2/5
Cheese: 2/5

Sauce to Cheese ratio: 3/7. slightly better than South Side.

Extras:
Did I leave the crust: YES -1
Did the cheese fall when i bite: NO
Did the wife not like it: YES -1

Total: 6 - 2 = 4 points

This is the promise Verizon Wireless gives you when you sign up for any contract they offer.

“You have the option to change to any qualifying calling plan or airtime promotion at any time.”

I think that they get away with what they did because of the word “qualifying”. Here’s my situation…

Two years ago this July, I signed a 2 year contract with Verizon. I got the Kyocera 7135. It’s a great phone. It hangs sometimes when it’s trying to find a network. But other than that, it served me well.

My 2 year contract included a 800 minute plan for $59.95 a month. I had a few extras put on there like internet and some call functions but the important part is the contract and plan.

Fast forward 1 year, 9 months. A few days ago. I know my plan with Verizon is up soon so I am in the market for a new phone. I went to Best Buy and researched about different phones and different carriers. The guy at Best Buy (seemingly knowing enough about carriers) was telling me different things about different networks and different carriers saying that Cingular is the best one around here. Now he seemed to have a believable story. So I believed him. (possibly making me retartedly gullible.) I figured Best Buy associates do not get commission so he must be telling me what he knows to be true. So I went home and ordered a Nokia 6620. Now I also signed a 2 year contract with Cingular. (possibly making me even more retartedly idiotic.) My plan was this: If I ” have the option to change to any qualifying calling plan or airtime promotion at any time”, I’ll just change my plan down to the smallest cheapest “qualifying” plan I can get for the last 3 months of my contract, pay 20 bucks a month for that (I’m out 60 bucks but that was fine with me), and get a kick-ass plan from Cingular. I buy the phone and get the plan from Cingular. I love it. works great. my reception is fabulous in my house down in my basement it’s so great. I think I could be locked in a lead coffin and my cell signal would be fabulous.

Fast forward to today. I call Verizon to execute my “option to change to any qualifying calling plan” plan. The woman gets my account up. She starts taking stuff off the plan. All my extras come off. She cuts me down to a 30 dollar a month plan. I know I wanted to only pay 20 bucks a month but if 30 is the best they can do then fine. (now im out 90 bucks. ill suck it up.) I ask her what the final per month charges would be as well as the prorated charge for this month. She adds it up and it turns out I’m paying less for this month and then about 30 bucks for the last two months. Which is great. Upon figuring out the numbers, she messes up and says she needs to go figure them out and she’ll call me back. I hang up.

She calls me back 10 minutes later. She now says that my plan can not be changed at all from what it is except for deleting the extras. Apparently in October of 2004 they discontinued my “plan type” and currently they do not have any “qualifying” plan that I am able to switch to because my “plan type” is not offered any longer. So now, according to Verizon, I am stuck with this plan now and end up being actually out 180 bucks plus tax. Does this mean that when I sign a contract with Verizon, this little guarantee fall short when they discontinue your “plan type”?!? I’ll let you decide if they’re being true to their statement:

“You have the option to change to any qualifying calling plan or airtime promotion at any time.”

Now, the early termination fee for Verizon is 175 dollars. My first thought is, “(175 < 180) = terminate the contract early." Not so fast. I would still have to pay the 20 bucks prorated this month. which brings it to 195... So, my second thought is, "(190 > 180) = suck it up and keep the plan.”

Not in my world. I will be calling Cingular tonight asking if they will transfer my old number to my account. (not even sure if they do that. hopefully they will. I got a new number with the new plan… we’ll see) Even if they don’t transfer the new number, I will then call Verizon Wireless and let them know that I will be cancelling early and not paying the cancellation fee on the grounds that I feel they aren’t being true to their statement iterated above a few times. You might say, “but denni, they are being true to the statement because there currently is no ‘qualifying plan’ that u can switch to…” Verizon has another promise…

“If you ever have a problem, it becomes our problem the first time you call.”

I have a problem. It becomes theirs. If you look they say: “If your issue can’t be resolved during the course of your first call, we will take the responsibility to get back to you with an answer.” Which is bullshit. It’s run around language that basically means we promise to fix yer problem in the first call but if we don’t it’s ok cuz we will call u back between 1 minute and infinite minutes. So I’m not sure I’m going to get anywhere with this promise because it doesn’t say that they will resolve it in your favor.

Also, they’re not really promises… They’re guarantees. Which might not be as firm as promises. We’ll see how far I get tonite when I call both companies.

To boot… our Verizon dsl stinks at night. All network operations work perfect and fast as hell EXCEPT for web pages.

Ratzinger is new Pope

A German Pope?!? LAME

Let the global march towards Fascism and intolerance continue!

Btw, I say that not because he is German, but because of his record. He’s deemed ultra-conservative.

Good, I hope this continues the decline of Organized Religion.

So, I’m gonna weave myself a new wardrobe out of these and power all of my personal portable devices (iPod, cellphone, PDA, dildo,…) from body heat…

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments concerning Mexican citizen, Jose Medellin, who has been sentenced to death in the U.S., but who was never provided access to consular officials from his home country. The right to consular access and notification of this right is a provision in 1963 Vienna Convention, which the United States ratified in 1969. Last year, the International Court of Justice in The Hague found that the United States violated the rights of the 51 death-row inmates and ordered a review of their cases. The treaty states that the decisions of this court are binding and in the past, the U.S. has argued for this provision and its binding nature as a means to protect U.S. citizens from being unfairly tried in foreign courts. The most notable invocation of this treaty was during the Iranian hostage crisis, where the treaty was used to put international pressure on Iran. The Supreme Court must now decide whether the U.S.’s obligation to abide by the ruling of this international court under the terms of the treaty trumps Texas’ right to limit the number of appeals available to its inmates.

The Bush administration has said three things:

1. “It is for the president, not the courts, to determine whether the United States should comply with the ICJ decision and, if so, how,” says the brief filed by acting U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement.
2. The Bush administration has announced the United States’ withdrawal from the optional protocol that established the World Court as the enforcement body for the treaty.
3. President Bush issued an executive order directing state courts to comply with the ICJ ruling and review whether the treaty violation in any way prejudiced the capital cases of Medellin or any of the 50 other Mexican nationals on death row.

Texas has already said that it will fight Bush’s order to reconsider the case of Medellin and 14 other foreign nationals on death row in Texas.

I believe the Bush administration’s plan here is to convince the Supreme Court not to intervene. The Bush administration’s recommendation to Texas will then go the way of the term “private accountsâ€? and thus, Texas’ right to execute who ever it wants
will be protected at the cost of America’s credibility in world.

The next time U.S. citizens are tried in foreign nations without counsel (and given our foreign policy this is pretty much guaranteed), and international out-cry sounds like a yawn; we can take solace in “culture of life� rhetoric of our favorite Texan. We can only hope that when Americans beg for their lives as Karla Faye Tucker did, that their capturers show more mercy than then governor Bush did.

NPR has a great story on this topic at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4563316

In my attempt to find decent pizza in West Philly, i’m going to rate a new place every time i order pizza. Lets start with this one.

Original South Side Pizzaria
(215) 727-0900
5138 Greenway Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19143
0.7 mi SE - Direction

Well, this pizza wasn’t very good, but hey, its west philly, so what did I expect. My quest for even decent pizza continues.

Crust: 1/5
Sauce: 2/5
Cheese: 0/5

Sauce to Cheese ratio: 1/9 way too much cheese, and it was thick and artificial tasting.

Extras:
Did I leave the crust: YES -1
Did the cheese fall when i bite: NO
Did the wife not like it: YES -1

Total: 3 - 2 = 1 point

Are you settling for Starbucks when you’d rather find a local coffee shop?

Check out Delocator.net, originally called the Starbucks Delocator, but now under legal pressure from the coffee giant.

you should all go visit LittlePo.com for interesting views on life as a taiwanese adventurer living in the states.

So I got this Sony Bluetooth headset, and its a piece of crap. Its basically a really cool headset with the shittiest ear clip every designed (I kid you not its literally just a light weight plastic clip from one of their over the ear headphones).

The problem is its a bluetooth headset, not a tiny head-phone, so gravity just pulls the thing off of your ear. Not to mention that the clip doesn’t take into account the fact that a human head is not a cube. The angle of the clip is just straight out the back, no curve to make the mic point towards your face instead of out over your shoulder. I couldn’t get it to stay on my ear properly even if i tilted my head on its side.

this is really a horrible product from sony and they should be ashamed of it. I hope Apple takes over the portable entertainment market and leaves sony wondering why yellow walkmans never caught on.

I was over at underreported and found this gem.

Gotta love it.

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