Friday Frustrations

You read it right, in place of the usual Friday Funnies – today I bring you Friday Frustrations.

Things that chap my hiney. Surprisingly, at the moment, I only have two. I shouldn’t say “at the moment” since these two things have chapped me for years. Oh well, they are the things on my mind at the moment.

You can ask anyone who has ever been at the counter in a Starbucks with me and they will tell you that I am embarrassing to be seen with. I don’t drink coffee, so I always order the same thing in the same way.

“Good morning, welcome to Starbucks what may I make for you today?”

“Good morning, I’d like a medium non-fat iced chai tea latte with 4 cubes of ice, please.”

“OK, a grande non-fat iced chai tea latte, light ice.”

“Yes, but not just “light ice” – only 4 cubes of ice.”

“Your name?”

“Linda.”

“That will be $4.43.”

Can you spot the embarrassing part? And I’m not talking about the fact that I refuse to use the word “grande” instead of “medium.”

No?

Well, imagine what happens if I get a cup that is half-filled with ice. If you’re looking to be embarrassed, stick around, things are about to get a little testy.

The reason for the “4 cubes of ice” is that I do not appreciate paying over $4.00 for a couple of sips of the refreshing beverage and being left with a cup full of frozen water. No one needs that much ice in their drink!

Notice how smart the cashier of this particular order was?

“Ask me.”

I’m sure when the barista did ask, the cashier had a few choice words to go along with, “Yeah, she only wants 4 cubes of ice.”

But what the heck do I care what they think of me!?!

I feel better! Hiney Chapper #1 is out of the way!

Next up… Spam. I hate spam! In fact, I don’t think I know anyone who is a fan of it. Unfortunately, just recently, I have noticed that I have been receiving a lot more spam than usual, on my blog and via text messaging.

Look, I get it! More and more people like to use SMS marketing as a way to reach their customers and expand their business, but some people like to make a joke out of these things and I don’t think it’s particularly funny.

I have friends that have been caught out by spam text messages before, which is why I think everyone should take the time to learn more about What is a spam text message? This way, they will be able to spot the signs before it’s too late. Oh, how I wish my friends had known about this before.

But, we can do something about it. And the best place to start is to know how to spot a real and a spam message.

The same applies to those of us who have blogs too.

You know the saying, “If I had a dollar for every time…”? Actually, the original saying was “If I had a nickel for every time…” but I suppose with inflation and all.

Anyhow, if I had a dollar for every piece of spam I get on my blog, I’d be rich! Seriously rich!

To give you an idea of how rich, here is a screenshot of my spam filter, taken on October 23, 2014.

Here is a screenshot of the same spam filter today, November 7, 2014. An additional $15,655 is would have made in just two weeks!

Now that would make me love spam! Heck, even at only a nickel per piece of spam, I would have made $782.75 for the spam I prevented from getting into the comment section of my blog these last two weeks.

Believe me, some of it really nasty stuff. Things that would make a sailor blush!

To sum it up. I hate paying over four dollars for a cup of chai tea flavored ice and I hate spam on my website!

Thanks for listening, I feel better.