The Vent

[MissStacey 1]

Re: the spanking issue. My stepson was acting up one night and I told him that if he kept it up I would get the belt and smack his bum. He kept at it so I had to follow through with my threat. My husband and his ex wife both spank him on occasion when he is really out of line. I was never spanked as a kid- if my mom raised her voice that was enough for me to snap out of it.

Anyway- I decided to wait until bedtime to actually do it. I got the belt and was in his room and he had his hands covering his butt- I was trying not to laugh. I ended up just giving him a light swat and told him to smarten up.

[xtinab 0]

Ooooooooh i have a vent about recycling also! You have to pay for it here?? I was shocked, and kept asking for the recycling bin. Buddy told me that recycling is private and you have to pay to have them come pick it up. Very Annoying. Trash is twice as much as before.

[trailmix 77]

I'm am fed up at all these stores and brands that pretend to be so charitable by trying to buy shoppers dollars/loyalty.

As an example, in yesterday's paper, there is a flyer for Macys. Basically your child brings their Santa letter to the store, puts it in their Santa mailbox and Macys donates a dollar to the make a wish foundation - up to a million dollars.

How about just donating the million dollars Macys? Why do you need to lure customers in to your store to make that donation - you are obviously making a lot of money - or did your financial people work out that for every child you lure to the Santa mailbox you will reap x number of dollars per shopper?

And all the breast cancer research 'sponsors'. When did it become popular to use disease research as advertising? This only works for women's issues apparently because you don't see huge prostate posters in the men's underwear department.

I just find it appalling that they think it is ok to use stuff like this for marketing!!

Make your donation and put it in your financial report, that is the only place the public should see it.

The way I see it, people pay for these donations and then these business just sit back and go oh, we donated x number of dollars to whatever this year - it's a marketer's dream.

I wish that instead of going to Macys parents would encourage their kids to just write to Santa at the North Pole like it has always been done and then post off another envelope to the Make a Wish foundation, with a dollar in it.

/rant

[thetreble 19]

Absolutely, tralimix.

[Sprailenes 47]

I'm am fed up at all these stores and brands that pretend to be so charitable by trying to buy shoppers dollars/loyalty.

As an example, in yesterday's paper, there is a flyer for Macys. Basically your child brings their Santa letter to the store, puts it in their Santa mailbox and Macys donates a dollar to the make a wish foundation - up to a million dollars.

How about just donating the million dollars Macys? Why do you need to lure customers in to your store to make that donation - you are obviously making a lot of money - or did your financial people work out that for every child you lure to the Santa mailbox you will reap x number of dollars per shopper?

And all the breast cancer research 'sponsors'. When did it become popular to use disease research as advertising? This only works for women's issues apparently because you don't see huge prostate posters in the men's underwear department.

I just find it appalling that they think it is ok to use stuff like this for marketing!!

Make your donation and put it in your financial report, that is the only place the public should see it.

The way I see it, people pay for these donations and then these business just sit back and go oh, we donated x number of dollars to whatever this year - it's a marketer's dream.

I wish that instead of going to Macys parents would encourage their kids to just write to Santa at the North Pole like it has always been done and then post off another envelope to the Make a Wish foundation, with a dollar in it.

/rant

Its evil, it really is. All it is about is publicity and when you buy something with your money and they donate a dollar of your money, they get a tax break. So it benefits them more than it benefits the people they are donating to. Its really all about them.

I was an advertising student and learned all about this and it made me sick to my stomach.

[Brian and Jenn 0]

Christmas Tree Prices.

Enough said.

[Flames9_RN 358]

I hate it at grocery stores when they ask you to donate ur change to their charity!! One feels like a looser if ya don't--and I always feel like a looser,lol We have our own charities that we give to!! As well the damn police assoc are horrible!1 always gettign phone calls about donating $$$

[trailmix 77]

I hate it at grocery stores when they ask you to donate ur change to their charity!! One feels like a looser if ya don't--and I always feel like a looser,lol We have our own charities that we give to!! As well the damn police assoc are horrible!1 always gettign phone calls about donating $$$

I always say no!

[Brian and Jenn 0]

Jenn and I went to blockbuster on friday night and there was 2 14-16 year olds outside asking for donations. Upon hearing his sob story it was revealed that he was NOT SICK or helping someone sick, and was taking donations to go see his favorite team play in a NBA game.

ARE YOU SERIOUS???

Edited December 8, 2008 by Brian and Jenn

[Sprailenes 47]

I hate it at grocery stores when they ask you to donate ur change to their charity!! One feels like a looser if ya don't--and I always feel like a looser,lol We have our own charities that we give to!! As well the damn police assoc are horrible!1 always gettign phone calls about donating $$$

I always say "I already did"

[Emancipation 2]

I hate it at grocery stores when they ask you to donate ur change to their charity!! One feels like a looser if ya don't--and I always feel like a looser,lol We have our own charities that we give to!! As well the damn police assoc are horrible!1 always gettign phone calls about donating $$$

I say no too.. i decide where I spend my charity dollars I figure.. I do give just not to everyone who asks (I would If I had a million dollars of course I'd buy you a fur coat, but not a real fur coat that's cruel)

[Sprailenes 47]

Jenn and I went to blockbuster on friday night and there was 2 14-16 year olds outside asking for donations. Upon hearing his sob story it was revealed that he was NOT SICK or helping someone sick, and was taking donations to go see his favorite team play in a NBA game.

ARE YOU SERIOUS???

Okay one time when I was a teenager I begged for money to go see the Smashing Pumpkins! I DID!

I was living in Toronto at the time and was with my friend at her house listening to 102.1 and we found out tickets were going on sale the next day and we literally stayed up ALL night asking random people to help us out. They did and we were completely honest about it too! We made enough money to go. Of course I wasn't asking for change for food or anything like that, I was just walking up to people asking them to help me go see my favorite band and I would give them advice on any matter or they could have their auras read by my "new age neo hippie" friend in exchange for change.

Paying for 2 40.00 tickets in change is quite funny.

[Sprailenes 47]

Vent for the day:

So I went to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients I was missing to make some sugar cookies, not too many groceries so I get out my canvas shopping bag and go over to shoprite. I go to the check out and I tell the lady not to bother bagging my groceries because I brought my own. She gives me this clueless look and proceeds to bag my groceries. Again, I say: "I have a bag" and hold up my bag and she says: "Yea you can put this in that bag!!" I tell her: "No I don't want a bag, I brought my own!" and she huffs and puffs and says: "Fine!" and takes all of the groceries out and throws the BAG THAT HAD NOTHING WRONG WITH IT IN THE GARBAGE!

Whats the freakin point of trying with people like that!?

The guy behind me was just shaking his head laughing at the moron of a woman.

[thetreble 19]

Ahhh gotta love it.

Also, there are SO MANY DAMN police associations around. When I see the PBA stickers and stuff in people's cars, it makes me ticked off that if they donate regularly or if they know someone in the police department, they can get out of tickets.

[TayL 0]

My fiancé is making me angry. He's got to replace his car because he drove his 200X (I think 2003?) Chev Impala into the ground. He got it from his mother when it was only a couple years old. He didn't do the correct upkeep on it. He didn't take care of it. He drove it into things and didn't pay attention, ended up breaking off mirrors, he's cracked the exhaust, etc. Yes, he's young and he was a young driver for much of the time he's had the car. (I think he got it when he turned 16, which means he's had it a bit over 3 years) I got my first truck at 17, it was a cute little truck and I checked its fluids every Sunday afternoon, had its oil changed exactly when it was supposed to be, kept it clean... That truck would still be on the road if it wasn't for some idiot that I crashed into (idiot parked IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD with no flashers on a country road, right over the crest of a hill where no one could see him until they were about 20 feet behind him. Fun of it was that it counts as a "rear end accident" so I automatically got a careless driving conviction, still bitter about that, considering the idiot wanted to hop out to talk to friends and just left his car there!).

I don't see how he couldn't take somewhat better care of the Impala. They're not terrible cars.

So he started the process of selling the bloody Impala. We're getting a whole 800 bucks for it. Largely because he doesn't barter or haggle. Had I been there, we'd be getting over a grand for it. I know cars and I've been haggling for them at my grandfather's knee since I was little. (Grandpa's a mechanic) I dealt with the fact that Kori doesn't haggle. It's okay. 800 bucks is better than nothing.

So we go looking at cars through Auto Trader so I can have some say in what he's looking for. We're planning on having kids in 5 or 6 years, so I wanted a four door (I've put kids into carseats in a two door. NOT happening again). I asked for fuel efficient. We don't need to pay a lot of money or ridiculous insurance (he's 19, so his insurance is high to begin with), so I wanted something sensible, with a few extra miles and a couple extra years. With proper upkeep, those extra miles and years will hardly matter. I looked at model and make reviews and picked out a few makes that were known to stand up well to abuse for decent prices and asked him to look seriously at those makes. I was kind of pushing him towards Mazda (decent price, decent quality and I've driven Mazdas since I was a kid, never had a break down) and VW (known for dependability, decent prices).

He picked a Mazda all right. A Mazdaspeed 6. The ONLY thing it has in common with what I asked is that it's a four door. It's a standard. He doesn't drive standard. He has to learn before he can drive this thing. It's got a leather interior. Which will be RIDICULOUSLY hot under the Texas sun, because I GUARANTEE he'll forget to put up a sun shade. It's got a Turbo. It's 5000 dollars more than we budgeted. It DOUBLES his insurance to 300 dollars a month.

We can't afford this car. We can't afford the insurance. We don't need this car. It's a toy. It has several other features he doesn't need to be paying for, such as a GPS, considering he HAS a GPS already that we decided he could buy. It's got a premium sound system. I could build him a better system AND install it for less than half the price they've likely tacked on for this "premium" sound system. The default Mazda sound system has always been excellent. Why do you need "premium?" It's got a sun roof. Those things always bloody leak after a few years.

He's buying it, apparently. I found virtually the same car, one year older with about 50 k more miles, automatic transmission, cloth interior and without some of the bells and whistles (like the GPS, premium system and sun roof) for 4000 dollars less. No go. It HAS to be this one. He doesn't even want to LOOK at other ones.

I told him we can't afford it. He said he's gonna get 5 year financing instead of 3 year. Because it's CHEAPER. I explained interest rates and how it will be much, much, much more expensive if he buys this car on a 5 year as opposed to a 3 year. Nope. Doesn't matter. He's getting the car. I had said I'd be willing to talk about it if he could achieve some impossible feats--finding someone to teach him to drive manual, since no one we know drives manual was top of that list. He achieved them. Somehow. Teaches me a lesson, I suppose. Just put my foot down and say no. Don't agree to talk about it. Because now? He won't talk about it. He feels that he's heard all my objections and he's in the right.

I disagree. Strongly. My mum pays 300 a month in car payments for a similarly priced car on a five year. So even if he pays 250 for car payments, 300 for insurance and keeps gas down to 150 a month (given the amount he drives, unlikely), we're looking at 700 dollars a month on his car? I don't think so! He's living with his parents right now in order to SAVE MONEY for the visa process and so we can eventually get a nice place. He's going to have to move out of his parents' house because his work is moving, in a few weeks. He hasn't found a place yet. He doesn't know what property costs in the new town he's moving to.

He doesn't normally even CARE about cars and he knows nothing about them! Why does he need this stupid bloody car? WHY?