review of pizza hut's 'wing street' wings

Took the family to Pizza Hut a few nights ago, and couldn't help but notice the heavily advertised wing street wings addition to their menu.  I'm not really a food critic, but I love wings!  I also enjoy their deep-dish pizza, so how'd it turn out?

Turns out it's all just marketing fluff.  They claim their wing recipes are award winning.  They even put little blue ribbons by some of the flavors on the menu.  I can't imagine ANY contest the wings I ate would win.

I ordered their bone-in medium wings.  Right off the bat, the breading was very crisp.  As I was biting into my first wing I thought the breading had some potential .  That's until the flavor of the sauce hit me.

Thick Salty flavor bit my mouth back.  I hoped that my taste buds would adjust and be ready for the second bite.  They adjusted, and in addition to the thick salty flavor I tasted what I can only imagine mace tastes like. I teared up, not from the heat, but from the salt.

The wing itself was dry, as can be expected from a cooked, frozen, and reheated chicken...  Reheated in a pizza oven, and that's the real problem.  Their wings engineered to be easy and fast to cook, and to last a long time in the freezer.

If this is some sort of attempt to compete its a complete flop.  Why not commit to the idea of being 'wing street' and bring deep fryers in.  Make the wings fresh, add the sauce after they're cooked.  If this is a restaurant, shouldn't there be care in the preparation of the food and it's taste be taken into consideration?  I can imagine it's being run by people who crunch the numbers and calculate the costs of adding deep fryers to the kitchens, increased insurance costs, and additional training for their cooks.   After taking a good hard look at the figures, they decide 'no, lets just call it award winning,  and continue to make them taste like poo.'

Their deep-dish pizza was fine, overall, the experience was horrible.  I could only eat 1 wing, and that was a struggle.  This is a prime example of a destructive bureaucracy.

Bad Business Sense

I'm not an expert on business, but a recent situation I was involved in with someone who claims to be a business expert just blew my mind.

The basics of the situation:
I met someone on LinkedIn with a few of the same capabilities as DFW IT Dept
DFW IT Dept was dropping a client. (we couldn't afford to have our time wasted by this deadbeat anymore)
I attempted to direct them to the people I met on LinkedIn.

After letting the person know I had directed a client in their direction, a string of long inquisitive emails started pouring in.

They were grilling me on the client, and poking at our capabilities.  At the end of my third response to her rather annoying and unprofessional messages, I said 'anyways, I'd rather not waste anymore time on the subject'

I was frustrated.  Not only had the client wasted my time, now this person who I had attempted to give a lead was wasting my time.
I thought that was the end of the situation...

A couple days later I saw she had made a blog post. (she linked it from her linked in)  When I read it I was surprised to see that I was the subject of the post on her 'professional' blog.

In all my politeness to her the only thing she managed to quote from me was 'anyways, I'd rather not waste anymore time on the subject' in her five paragraph rant.  She managed to comment on a lot of things she was clueless about and stated her bad assumptions as fact.

Thankfully she didn't mention any specifics about me or DFW IT Dept.  So she sort of silently burned the bridge.  But WHY?  Is she really that desperate for validation?  She has to create these fantasies of professional superiority to soothe her wounded ego?  At the end of her rant "You can be sure that we won't be exposing our clients to such a cavalier, and unprofessional attitude."  Don't worry children, I'll protect you from my competitors.

The true idiocy of this deception is her target: an SEO.  Truely I'm not moronic enough to pick a fight with, or even cross an SEO.  All the positive web marketing work she's done for her company can easily be destroyed.  People are far more likely to believe any negative reviews out there than positive ones.  Why make a special effort to burn this bridge?

My only guess is she felt dreadfully intimidated when she had a peak at our website and realized she was way out of her league, and saw an opportunity to make herself look better, while making a competitor look bad, and jumped on it.  Her need to do this is based on her complete incompetence when it comes to her actual field of web design and development.  Her site looks like their color pallet was named 'baby vomit' and for her layout she took a below average template and made it look worse.

It may seem like a massive waste of time, but truly I feel like I've gained insight into another dynamic of the human mind, and I'm happy with this.

ignorance and arrogance

Ignorance, people can not always be blamed for this.  Some are raised not knowing things, like tact, general respect for others.  Not always a persons fault they are uneducated, though i prefer they make an effort to educate themselves, I run into the conundrum of them possibly not knowing how to self educate.

Arrogance, I can't complain about this because i find is humorous when people with exceptional knowledge of a subject overbearingly correct ignorant statements.  I feel some well educated people who have put in the effort to make themselves experts in a field deserve some moments of  pompousness.

I think its exceptionally disgusting when the 2 traits combine.  the more i devour the internet, the more i bump into disturbing individuals peddling their fallacies as fact.  Whats worse is when I attempt to confront the issue I  run into even more stupidity.

the most recent example of this was on youtube.  I ran into a misleading title to a video and then while investigating the user more He openly admits on his channel that his mission on youtube is to make other religions look bad so that Muslims look better.

Many comments had been made to him requesting a title change, and he eventually changed it without really changing the false message.  I offered a suggestion for a title and pointed out the idiocy of his tactics.

He felt it necessary to educate me on muslims, and explained to me that my Doctor is probably muslim, muslims built the tallest building in the world (Dubai) and that I should stop getting all of my news and education from CNN and Fox.

I didn't realize that all doctors were muslims, so I apologized to him for that(CNN and fox failed to educate me of that fact).  I felt it was important that building the tallest building in the world didn't require education, nor righteousness, but only money.  In addition to that, I pointed out  that Dubai had the building designed by engineers in the US, and the primary contractor came out of South Korea.

And then i get the string of nonsensical insults that weren't true nor relevant to anything we had talked about.  is that how ignorant and arrogant people end conversations?  I was blocked so I couldn't make any more progress with the creature.

Is this some part of human nature?  To be blatantly ignorant?  like a balloon filled with the nastiest fart?  sometimes when I read this type of drivel I feel the urge to rip my eyes out and stomp on them.

how to make a bad game

To make a bad game, you first off need to have your priorities straight.

1. Profits
2. Cash flow
3. Revenue
4. ease of programming
5. policing company ownded 'forums'
6. and the list coninues...

and then somewhere down towards the bottom of the list is blah blah customer experience / fixing bugs n stuff.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand devs gotta eat, and shouldn't work for free, but if you wanna make a good game, you cant use the priorities I've listed  inthe order above.

now, when making a bad game, the best and sneakiest way to get people to start playing, is to make it free.  I know, I know, i used the F word and some of u greedy devs cringed, don't worry, we'll discuss why this is even better.  People don't like to spend money, so by claiming a game is 'free' you get them in the door, and they get to play something that seems fun and exciting and best of all 'free'!  to top it off, give them some 'real money' so they get a feel for the instant gratification spending money brings.  Oh man, this is just the start.  

As the players progress in the game, and once they start to feel a sense of accomplishment and ownership in the game, you have to develop lots of pressure to purchase the in game money.  make it feel like they're grinding to a halt and their only salvation is purchasing in game money.  But still, make it feasibly possible to go on without it, just so they feel as though they've made a decision. 

Now here is the best part.  once they've been playing a few months, and they've got their friends playing, we really screw them over.  Jack up the prices of everything, make it so they either spend money, or they will eventually be food for those that spend money.  Maybe not now, but eventually they will get into a scuffle with another character.  If they wanna hit harder, all they have to do is spend money.  If they want to be hit softer, all they have to do is spend money.  They wanna expand?  all they have to do is spend money.  do you see the pattern developing?  And its best to hold this interaction off until they feel committed to the game, so their emotions come into play, and they're more likely to make rash decision and impulse spend.

now for some social manipulation...

Do some experimenting with the prices, I mean really jack them up high on random new accounts.  So people who've invited their friends to come play won't even realize they are pressuring them to spend a lot of money on the game just to keep up.

I know i mentioned early company run forums, and that may seem like a headache you dont feel like dealing with, but it is one of the best tools for squashing complaints.  how so?  you control the content!  you think a thread makes your game look bad?  Close it!  and you also don't even have to offer any real support for the game!  just throw players at your forums, appoint some fanboys as mods, and let them try to figure out the complex mess we've made!

And updates...  Bugs should never be a priority UNLESS they hurt our bottom line.  In fact, they should be completely ignored for as long as possible.  A great way to avoid dealing with the bugs is by releasing new ways to spend money.  This should ALWAYs be your priority when making a bad game.  Your devs should constantly be finding new ways pressure and squeeze the money from your players. 

Give them that feeling, that everything they've built and created over the months in the game will be wasted if they don't spend, always give people who spend money on the game an advantage, and prioritize developments that pressure players into spending money, and I guarantee you'll have made a BAD GAME.

razer switchblade

What is the Razer switchblade?

pretty cool, right?
there is already a review out there from someone saying that its garbage...   the person has never touched one, and had opinions on things that aren't even set in stone yet on.  One of his complaints is that it was too small... HELLO!  thats like complaining that a compact car is too small... well its small for a reason: portability.  Its as big as it can be while still small enough to fit in my pocket.

 If you don't want a portable gaming device this probably isn't for you(DUH)... so why would someone be idiotic enough to complain about a portable gaming device being small?  I dont know, but they were smart enough to turn off comments on their youtube video xD(soo many dislikes).

heres what i love about it
1. keyboard
     It's innovative, fun, customizable, pretty.
2.small, but hi res
     There is a high pixel density, which will make it easy on the eyes. 1280x600 on a 7in screen is like 2560x1200 on a 14 inch screen...very high.  nearly double what most can do
3.gameplay looks smooth
      The WoW and LoL game play looks very nice
4. hd video output
      you could hook it up to your tv at home
5. can attach keyboard and mouse
     can use it as a normal laptop/pc at home for gaming

here are my concerns
1.release date
     they dont have one yet =(...  and rumor is they are looking at 2012.  tbh, by that time something newer and shinier will probably be on its way out.
2. intel atom processor
     just my personal experience.  I bought a laptop with the atom processor on it.  Brought it home, powered it on, boxed it up, took it back to the store.  It was incredibly slow.  The gameplay on their prototypes looks great tho.
3. Cost
   While there is only speculation out there right now, estimates are between 300 and 500$...  if the cost is too high i'd rather just carry around a laptop.

So, to me it looks amazing...  If they are able to release it in the near future, run a lot of games on it, and keep the price low, the switchblade will be a huge success!

sometimes

sometimes the only difference between fact and opinion is perception
one person will say its a fact the abortion is wrong, and another will say thats a matter of opinion
the thought of someone saying abortion is right as a matter of fact is slightly humorous.  as if stating life's existence is wrong, everything that comes with it, even pondering what right and wrong is.

fact isn't always what we know... like if were to say the world isn't round, could u argue it to be? Do you know it to be?  we rely on our faith that we are not some center of a world wide joke

The more i think about it the more i realize our 'knowledge' depend so heavily on our faith in what others have experienced
and yet
many in society criticize those who openly have faith
why?
it makes me think of the opening statement 'God, if there is a God...'
as if some void would be offended at the mere mention of there being a God...  no, its really fear.  why fear exposed faith in something that can be so easily attacked, right?  its a noncommittal  'if' exit strategy.
There is a God
now I'll sit here and wait for an angry teenager to yell "PROVE IT!!"
prove there isn't one punk.
'well if there wus a Gawd why would there be so many epic tragedies, like school shootings and  twin tower attacks'
well, that doesn't really disprove anything, just shows that people have a potential to be bad people
'fine fine, wut about earthquakes and tsunamis and junk like that?  if there was a God he would stop that stuff for sure.'
again, that only proves that there are forces of nature.  Did u think of God as merely humanities babysitter?  Or maybe an easy target to blame for everything bad that happens?
I feel that God is blamed for everything that goes wrong.  sooo much easier than blaming humanity, and our constant epic failures.  maybe tsunamis and junk are really a blessing.  Humanity's obsessive need for possession and drama constantly escalates into wars.  purely human driven blood baths of destruction.  And for the damage we deal to the earth maybe it deserves some payback occasionally.  maybe we should realize we do not need our self created drama, the earth will provide it.
we can stop our self destruction
we should start taking accountability

Amazon business roflcopter

several months ago I broke the lcd on my new laptop.

i called sony and they wanted 500$ to replace it

i looked online and it was 200$ for the screen....

so i pulled a screen out of an old laptop (about 8 years old) and placed it one my new one.  wasnt able to close my laptop but hey, it was runnin' fine.

eventually saved up some money and started screen shopping.  with more info i accumulated i found a sweet deal: 88$ on Amazon for a brand new screen.  Ordered it and about a week later it showed up at my house.

the problem is that it brought a friend with him.  when i received the box there was another box with it.  I just figured Amanda had ordered something too, so whatever.  I installed the screen and it looks amazing.

later i gave the box to Amanda and she told me it wasn't hers.  It had our address  and phone number but had G. M. Smith as the intended receiver.  So I kindly wrote an email to the company, after leaving positive feedback for the lcd screen, that they had accidentally sent me an additional package.

they responded

"Thank you very much your reply.

I am really very sorry to you for the troubles you have suffered and I do give my deeply apology to you.

We will contact UPS, maybe they make a mistake.

we will reply you on monday, and ship the panel to you ASAP.

Sorry again.

 best regards!"


I asked them to re-read the message i sent them, and informed them i received the lcd screen already.  They then asked me to take the package to ups and ship it to them and they will send me money on amazon.  
I asked them to send a prepaid shipping label .
they said it takes to long, they 'sent me 8$ on amazon' if thats not enough to cover the shipping they want a receipt and then they will give me the rest.


I explained to them, first off, i did an calculate shipping on ups and the cheapest option was 13$, second I cant pay for the shipping with the amazon money, right?


I got in touch with my brother, Abe, who works at ups.Abe confirmed that the seller is able to make shipping labels, email them, or pay for direct pick up from my home.


I received an email from the seller saying he didnt have any prepaid labels to send me, and that it takes a long time to make them.  and for me to check if its cheaper to send fedex


In addition to wasting my time writing this guy emails, i took pictures of the items sent, shipping info, and packaging, all to help him out.

I finally put my foot down and said, 'if you want your packages send me a prepaid shipping label, or pay for ups to pick it up from my house.  if you have any more questions, feel free to contact ups'


I felt like this guy was constantly testing the limits of how much advantage he could take of me once he realized i was nice.  He continually ignored what i was saying.  Why are there people like this?  it seems like the philosophy is 'if you're nice to me ill treat you like crap, if you treat me like crap i'll be nice to you'


idiocy at its finest