What really IS up with kids these days?

Well, bad children are a product of their bad parents (intentional or not), this is nothing new. What I personally see is an issue with current generation parents being really flat-out awful. We’ve become a society of I want this now and blame everyone else for everything, and their kids are a product of this society. There are plenty of kids without this problem obviously, but when a teacher is in fact afraid of teaching (get fired, don’t get proper ‘results’, too much focus on standardized testing) or simply tells the parents their kid has ADD/ADHD because they don’t want to take the time to teach them, it’s a problem.

Also, discipline. Parents are afraid of disciplining their children for fear of any sort or reciprocation, be it getting in trouble with the law or hurting their kids little feelings. In addition, parents have just gotten completely lazy and expect everyone but them to parent their kids—teachers, TV, the internet, ANYTHING TO KEEP THE KIDS BUSY. I’m going to also add that a rising lack of common sense in parents is affecting things as well, but maybe that’s not something new. Parents now commonly don’t seem to want to give up their “youth” in order to have their child grow up properly. Obviously you can have a life, but you can’t keep acting like a kid when you have a kid. Maybe the last bit is just more of a personal opinion of mine.

Everyone believes their children is and always should be unique, when the fact is no one strives to be any better when they think they’re good enough.

I figure I’ll use them again for Valentine’s Day. Week in advance should be enough, which it was. Crap, it’s on a Saturday this year. They deliver on Saturday! Perfect. They look great (durrr hurr) and the cost is okay! Well, wait, after shipping… well whatever, it’s Valentine’s Day and I can’t hide them anywhere so Saturday delivery it is. Saturday rolls around and I play my little game of secrecy so she may have doubted I was going to get her flowers (we had late dinner plans). I expected an early afternoon delivery. Boy, I guess I just expected too much. What happens when you want to surprise your girlfriend with flowers but are stuck waiting for delivery? Nothing. That’s right, you sit at home waiting because you don’t want to ruin the surprise. You’re stuck. At. Home. I was afraid to even take a walk to check the mail because surely they’d be delivered as soon as we stepped out! I know it’s not a big deal, but I had a nice thing going in my head.

8:45PM. You guessed it—that’s what time they delivered. Who? FedEx. Was it in a box? Yes! You know that Superbowl commercial where the chick gets flowers in a box and it’s all funny to get flowers delivered in a box? That was me! I was beyond myself. Fortunately the girlfriend was upstairs getting ready to go out to our late dinner (yes, 8:45PM) so I had a moment to open the BOX up and set the flowers on the table. Except they weren’t flowers. They were stems. Ugly ass stems. With instructions. I paid a good bit extra for a Saturday delivery to get a late delivery full of unbloomed flowers that I had to arrange myself. Obviously I didn’t have time to make it look nice so it was just a red vase (that was fairly nice I admit!), some stems, a cute teddy bear, and some stems. Did I mention they were unarranged stems?

Fortunately Ashton was happy with them and she was understanding of course, but this doesn’t change the fact that this is not the right way to receive flowers. After telling my friends what happened, I heard the same story from them and a “I coulda told you that” warning about not using ProFlowers. Oh well. Here’s an official notice to everyone. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE they had very understanding customer service and refunded me what I requested. If you’re just looking to buy and arrange your own flowers, ProFlowers is for you, otherwise, don’t be fooled by their marketing and their web site—they are NOT the right choice for a special delivery.

Moving right along to the security checkpoint — I toss my keys, belt, shoes in a bucket and put my carry-on through the conveyor and walk through the metal detector. Guy has this super serious look, “What’s that bulge in your pocket??” “It’s my sunglasses.” “Put them in a bucket.” “Okay, but they’re plastic..” (obviously) “Put them in the bucket.” I comply since I don’t want to be gunned down by some fool who has a superiority complex. I decide to toss my wallet in the bucket with my glasses since I don’t need another comment about a bulge in my pants (giggity). So I grab my stuff and get a lecture afterwords on how I should have put my wallet in my bag and not left it sitting out there, whatever, just let me get to my damn gate already.

Keep in mind my keys and wallet were the only thing in a bucket/container. The next morning I wake up and think, weird, I don’t remember taking my pocket-knife off my keychain. Crap! Lo and behold I see my serrated blade pocket-knife on my keys. Okay, all the fuss about seeing if I can keep my Mach3 in my carry-on bag, all the fuss about buying bottles for stupid liquids, all the fuss at security over nonsense. And a knife goes through unquestioned even though it was practically by itself. A knife more dangerous than what they used on 9/11. I guess as long as I can’t kill more than one person in one shot it’s not important enough. You know, between the administration and this stupid government we have in power, the fear mongering, taking our rights and freedoms for false security. I’m really almost not surprised. Almost. All I can do is sigh… TSA: go fuck yourselves. You’re a god damn joke.

Let’s start with initial sign-up (this is for HydroBarn). The process went smooth, however, their internal billing system is shoddy. It runs off of a “billing” user account on their server and it doesn’t tie in to your original user account. Did I mention it’s slow as balls? Whatever. Up-time has been acceptable. So I need an SSL certificate for my shopping cart. I need a static IP. Additional $2 a month? Okay, I guess. I purchase an SSL certificate from GoDaddy and I’m greeted with a link to SSL configuration on their web page by a live chat support rep, no problem. Generate CSR, get my certificate. “Now what Mr. HostGator support?” Yet another link to their site. They want to charge $10 to install the certificate. What? WHY?!

Fine. One time charge to install it. First month billing rolls by and I keep getting these blank e-mails from billing@hostgator.com. No subject. No message. I open a ticket “What’s going on?” I’m told it does this every month. They don’t know how to fix it. Real professional, guys. Whatever, so life goes on and I’m paying $16.95 for a basic hosting package with private SSL support. Bit pricey, but I deal.

One year rolls around, my SSL certificate is expiring. I have to rekey and resubmit these stupid forms. I’m told they’re going to charge me $10 to update the certificate. WHAT?! Here’s some chat transcript from two different online CSRs:

danny: so i have to pay $10 bucks a year for you to update your Apache file?
Alan L.: It’s a little more complicated than updating apache

Yeah. Right. Whatever, I have to update it so I fill out the form. But this time I ask another rep.

Gary A.: and since this is to update the SSL, we probably won’t, which might be why they didn’t include it

Funny thing is, the moment I clicked to submit the request on their web page I get this:

Gary A.: The charge is still there, because this is a new SSL
Gary A.: even though you’re just updating it, it’s a complete new SSL

These retards have no idea what they’re doing. Oh, and I actually decided to check their hosting plans and saw that my plan has gone down to $7.95 a month. I ask the rep to change it for me.

Gary A.: https://secure.hostgator.com/downgrade.php
danny: why the hell do you guys charge $10 for everything
danny: jesus
danny: that’s stupid that i have to pay to change my plan
danny: i know you’re just a support rep but what the fuck is that about?
Gary A.: It takes admin time, which means it costs us money to do, which means we don’t want to be losing money, which is why we charge.
danny: do you guys not have in-house admins?
Gary A.: We do, but we still have to pay them.
Gary A.:

Wow. Another stupid web page, another stupid $10 charge. You have in-house techs on salary and you’re charging your customers for 3 mouse clicks. Fuck you and fuck your piece of shit company. A company apparently that’s so distraught and spent all their money on marketing that they have to screw their customers on basic needs like installing an SSL certificate and DOWNGRADING YOUR HOSTING PLAN. Scum. I responded to the SSL update ticket immediately telling them not to install it. They sent an e-mail saying the ticket’s been “resolved” with no other information. Think they’re going to try to scam me? Won’t shock me. Found many horror stories about them and their employees after the fact—wish I found those earlier.

I submit a cancellation through yet another form—I’m surprised they didn’t ask for $10 to cancel. I decided to go with HostDime.com because I know they have at least a bit of professional management, and hey guess what, they don’t charge me $10 every time they move their mouse. As of now, HostGator still hasn’t responded to my cancellation request, seeing as how my cancellation was the same day as my next billing cycle, mark my words, you’re going to get some happy charge backs from AMEX if you dare charge me.

In closing, STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM HOSTGATOR.COM. Thanks and have a nice day.