As could be expected, the post office closest to my apartment is not the post office which had my packages. Fortunately the other one was only a couple miles in the other direction. I arrived and there was a line of at least a dozen people. As for postal workers, there were two. One of which voiced very loudly upon my arrival her shift was over and she was leaving for the day. So now we’re down to one person to handle the line of people which is growing by the minute. I’ve worked retail before and this would never happen. You never pulled someone off the floor when the line was backed up. On top of that, I immediately thought of an experience I had at The UPS Store a few weeks ago. I went in to get some copies made and there were at least four people working and helping customers. They were pleasant and helpful. I was in and out in no time.

So why did the post office only have one person? Simple, to cut costs. Why did that second worker not stick around to thin out the line before leaving? Simple, no reason to. How does this happen? Simple, government run organization. There’s no incentive to exceed or help customers. Your job is secure and there for you no matter how well you perform. This is an example of what our future holds as we give more and more of our services up to government control. Hope you’re ready for doctors and nurses who care as much about helping you as postal workers do. It’s not as far of a stretch as proponents of universal healthcare would have you believe.

“You got your haircut!”

Well no shit Sherlock.

I feel like responding, “Oh my God! Thank you! I blacked out over the weekend for a half hour and totally couldn’t remember what happened! I should have guessed I got my hair cut when I took a shower the next day and noticed I didn’t need as much shampoo as the day before! You’re a genius!”

People are idiots.

So I proceed to the Emergency Contact Information page only to find that in addition to the name and number of Trixie (information which cost me big money to get in the first place by the way), they also wanted her mailing address. Not email. Street address. Let me get this straight? If there is an EMERGENCY dealing with me on campus they are going to pop out the Georgia State University stationary, write little miss Trixie a letter, slap on a 42 cent stamp, and drop it in the mail box? I know the post office claims to be fast but damn, I hope if I’m injured this information will make it out sooner than 3-5 business days.

It’s really just absurd. Trixie can’t even read.

So this got me thinking, how come the news seems so fixated on reporting mundane stories which only impact an incredibly small portion of viewers? Then it hit me, and I’m sure I’m not the first to realize this, but being required to report 24 hours a day means you have to come up with something to report. Well, there is only so much which applies to the majority of viewers so a bunch of fluff gets picked up and put on air.

The problem is, the news becomes far more like entertainment and much less about what is really going on in the world as it applies to you. Even worse than that, when viewers tune into the news, to get “legitimate” information, they are bombarded with all this fluff. After a while, they get trained to believe this garbage and nonsense is just as important to their lives as the bigger issues are.

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going with all this or what, if anything, it means but all in all, I’m thinking 24 hour news channels have done society more harm than good. Does this mean I’ll stop watching or will issue a boycott? Hardly. I will continue doing what I do now and get the majority of my news from alternate sources (and as many as possible). Hopefully others will realize this and do the same but I seriously doubt that. Oh well…

Sure, I could buy a ticket and go to the game but I have a reason not do that, too. It’s just so damn frustrating. I want to be a fan. I want to watch my team through thick AND thin. Tell me why I should support my team when the league won’t even let me watch a game on TV? Give me something… stream it online. Put it on The NFL Network (which I don’t get but at least it’s an alternative). Give me something… if you won’t, I’ll find something else to entertain me next season. God knows the Falcons are still going to be shit anyways.

Is this REALLY how the league thinks they’ll get fan support for the Falcons again after everything that happened this year with Vick, Petrino, and a disastrous season?

Dear ComCast,

Instead of threatening a TV network which has programming so good that people are willing to change providers, why not spend your efforts, money, and resources on providing the channel? It would be great if you would offer that channel in HD as well (DirecTV does).

Your regrettable customer,
David P Brown

PS. You really suck.

DirecTV: 100 by year end.

ComCast: 23