Is it truly Amazon’s fault on this?

According to the UK Daily Mail, one of my favorite news websites, Amazon in England is being investigated for not living up to the “Next Day Delivery” option for persons who have paid for an Amazon Prime subscription.  Apparently, people have had to wait for as long as 4 days after Amazon promised “to have packages at [their doors] in 48 hours.”

The Advertising Standards Authority, which I can only surmise is some equivalent to our various consumer watchdogs groups, is considering these complaints and conducting some manner of investigation of the situation. According to the mail they have received “a handful” of complaints from Amazon Prime customers.

Hmm. Let me see:

Globally improving economy (results may vary depending on  your specific country);
More available disposable income across the board;
E-commerce is apparently booming;
Traditional retailers are said to be doing much better than expected (based on everything I’ve seen in the last several days).

Four days. Four whole, long, frustrating days. During Christmas. When every successful company is working at levels many haven’t seen in a very long time, using temporary workers with very little experience, depending on shipping companies which are also stretched thinner than thin by E-commerce, and utilizing in many places the national postal services which bring a whole new set of issues into the situation. And for this “handful” of complainers, it’s the end of the world to wait for four days.

Here’s a bit of disclosure: I’m an Amazon Prime customer. I purchased Prime primarily for the access to video streaming and music streaming. I graduated into using Amazon for more of my purchases because of the attraction of cheaper shipping, and generally more timely delivery.

For most of my transactions, deliveries have been spot on. They generally arrive on time, and have been known to arrive days before the estimated arrival date. This holds particularly true if the carrier is AmazonUS, and the goods are sourced from the facility out on the west side of Indianapolis. The only times I have experienced any real delays have been with orders which either originated overseas, or were routed through our friends at USPS. The good old United States Postal Service, O, say can you see…

Granted, there are probably some legitimate complaints. That goes without saying. Every company is going to have situations which do not go according to plan. But there also is that faction of shoppers who live for the moment when they can grab for some little bit of imagined power by lodging a complaint about something, anything, even imagined imperfections. And when, out of what must be millions of orders placed and delivered across the UK every day, only a “handful” are imperfect to the point that the complaint is taken to a higher authority than Amazon management, one can be relatively sure that much of this is driven by forces outside of Amazon’s control.

The real problem isn’t entirely with delivery goals not being met during the highest sales period of the year, which lines up completely with what is generally also the worst weather of the new winter, and the beginning of flu season which can decimate a workforce with little or no warning. The real problem must also include customer procrastination and unreasonable expectations of perfection. If Amazon is smart about this, they will refund the full amount of that Prime subscription and let them return to “Free Shipping” that takes 3-5 days or longer.

Because, you see, in spite of all we’ve been told, the Customer truly is NOT always right.

 

A new look, possibly a fresh start as well.

I miss writing. I’ve missed it for a long time, but could not indulge for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons was having a computer reliable enough, comfortable enough, and secure enough to write on. Granted, the iPhone is great for lots of things, but lengthy blog posts is not among them, unless you happen to be a raving masochist with deep seated auto-correct issues and a penchant for repeat editing.

I don’t happen to fall into that category by any stretch of the imagination.

The cute little HP I bought over a year ago wasn’t up to snuff either, with incredibly slow chip speed, and nonexistent memory. I believe my old iphone5 was better suited to writing than that 15.6″ cruiser/streamer. So, after much time and an inordinate level of frustration, I finally found it a new home with someone gifted in the arcane dark arts of Computer Alchemy. Soon it will actually have memory on a Gb level, instead of the miserable handful of megabytes it was cursed with by the manufacturer.

And I have stepped up a touch. Nothing super fancy. No bells and whistles, neon, gaming speed, or tricked out soundboard. No, it’s just a solid, dependable Dell with a righteous hard drive and a keyboard that isn’t like a militia of silent, insufficient tic tac slices. I unboxed it the other day, set it up, and it’s just what the Mistress ordered! If I could only find a leather skin for it with buckles and straps. Maybe even a few spikes. *heavy sigh*

Hopefully it will make things easier for the blogs and for some essays. It has been a while, and I’ve been away from it for so long that everything is Big, Commercial, Numbers Driven, and, dare I say it, Professional. Not my thing. Granted, we all like to be read outside the of our friends and immediate families. I love it when I see hits and a bit of LinkyLovin’. But I’m not so competitive that I feel I need to compete for every view with well compensated armies of anonymous minions at some of the virtual sweatshop. I just enjoy doing it when I’m afforded the opportunity and the right material.

So check back once in a while. There should be new things here as the opportunities and material present themselves. Fasten those restraints.

That opened up some TV time…

Let me start by saying that I love football. NFL, college, even that odd high school game you see broadcast on the backwater regional sports channels can be fun and exciting to watch. I don’t even need to have a stake in the game to enjoy it. It makes people crazy to watch with me because I can appreciate great plays by either team, even when the player involved is, in wrestling terms, a Heel. Yes, I even give the the devil his due when the play is exceptional.

Or I used to. At least as far as the NFL is concerned. Not so much any more. And college ball is at risk of tagging right along with them into the I Can’t Be Bothered With This Anymore zone.

The politicizing and grandstanding by players, celebrities, politicians, “journalists”, malcontents (professional or otherwise), and others have hijacked the game. The constant chatter from all of the various parties drones on and on, sucking the joy out of the experience. They cheapen it, turning it from a classic metaphor for primitive warfare into yet another dismal playground display of “I know you are but what am I” with overbooked and overpriced commercial time, bad behavior on the field, on the sidelines, and in the bars, often questionable officiating, and disruptive two minute warnings (to accommodate even more commercials).

There are so many people, individually and through various groups, responsible for the devaluation and degradation of the NFL that it is impossible to list them all. It would be pointless to try. But I place the greatest blame not on the initial tantrum. Instead, I place the blame fully on the supposed adults who chose to react and fight over it instead of just ignoring it, turning it into one giant meaningless game of (Your Cause Here) Superiority One-Upmanship. I’ve seen more civil behavior between warring divorced parents over the actions of their spoiled and indulged backpack kids, with the Grandparents at the NFL making it worse with their coddling.

So tickets go unsold, viewership slowly drops, and football as we know it, with many decades of incredible games and almost superhuman plays by amazing players, slowly bleeds out on a 100 yard field of vivid green grass as false and disingenuous as the nattering, chattering din of the attention whores who surround it.

The Post Equinox Process

It’s now fall, the time of changing leaves, increasing mold, airbourne dust and dirt from agricultural activities, drastic weather changes, and a variety of seasonal triggers for those with more aggressive or brittle forms of porphyria.  Soon to be gone are the days of open windows on rainwashed evenings, replaced instead by closed windows, forced air heating, decreased circulation of relatively fresh air, and the almost inescapable buildup of layer upon layer of potential environmental triggers.

Oh, Joy…

Now is the time to prepare for the onslaught and set in place your seasonal plan for attack avoidance and health maintenance in the face of the dangerous beauties that are Fall and Winter.

We know the basics, things like new filters for the environmental systems, flushing drains with white vinegar to cut down on mold, and doing seasonal maintenance on any air filtration devices you may have.  But there are other things that you may want to do as well.

Now is a good time to see your physician and go through any changes you may have documented over the course of the summer, both in triggers and in your reactions to your medications.Keeping your medication evaluations up to date is important and can prevent confusion later on in emergencies.  Update any documents your physician may provide for you, such as letters for emergency room physicians, medication lists, and documents ensuring access or accommodations in public spaces.

It is also a very good time to rummage through your kitchen staples and toss anything that is old. Even perfectly innocuous things for others can be devastatingly dangerous for anyone with a metabolic issue. If you aren’t sure about how old something is, or have some question about the manner in which it may have been stored or handled by the others in your household, err on the side of caution and be rid of it.

Also on the rummaging subject, it’s a great time for going through any and all of your medications and be rid of any old, expired, unneeded things that you’ve held onto for whatever reason.  Call your local law enforcement or pharmacy for free drop-off points in your area.

Saving for a Rainy Day

Taken from the Tip Garden, I’m sliding this in here so I don’t forget it. I’ve had a similar recipe before, but it had other grains/flours in it as well, so this is a starting point. Follow the link and give her some love.

Multi-Grain Pancake & Waffle Mix:
(Makes 4 quarts)
Store in pantry for 1 month or freeze for up to 6 months.

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup raw oatmeal
8 cups all purposes flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (or whole white wheat)
1 1/2 cups Buck Wheat Flour
1 cup corn flour (See my tip below recipe)
2 cups buttermilk powder
5 Tablespoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons baking soda
2 Tablespoons sea salt (more or less to taste)
Optional: 3/4 cup sugar.

Directions to make Master Mix:
in food processor, grind oatmeal to a fine powder.
if using corn meal instead of corn flour grind corn meal to a fine powder as you did with oatmeal.
In a very large bowl, mix together all ingredients till well blended. Divide into quart jars or freezer conatiners

Jan’s Tip: Question: Is Corn Meal and Corn Flour the same thing? Answer: Not exactly.  Corn Meal is ground more corsely and  corn flour is ground more fine. If you are like me and only have corn meal on hand, you can grind it in your food processor till it is a fine powder to make corn flour. 

To Make Pancakes:

Ingredients: 
1 cup of master mix

1 egg, slightly beaten

½ teaspoon vanilla

½  to 2/3 cup water

2 Tablespoons mild tasting vegetable oil

See Recipe Variations below:

Directions:

Combine master mix with water, egg, vanilla and oil until just moistened.  Add more water as needed to reach desired consistency.  Drop by ¼ cup measure onto hot griddle or pan.  Flip pancakes when lightly brown on bottom cooking for another few minutes till done on both sides. Serve warm with syrup.

April is a coming

And with the month of April comes that fabulously under-advertised and rarely event, Porphyria Awareness Week.

Granted, there have actually been a few brief comments in some of the open and private groups on Facebook this year, which is overwhelmingly better than usually seen during March. And if so inclined to check, there are some items on that foundation’s website already, which is also quite unusual and not at all like past years.

Then we go to Google, the all knowing, all telling website, and search under the News heading and sort by date. This is the sum total of news items.

“Search Results

“

“NORD News for February – The Voice of the Community

“Rare Disease Report–Feb 16, 2017

“To promote awareness of SIH, February 26 to March 4 has been designated the first … The IPPF anticipates awarding four to eight grants in 2017 with values ranging … all to join in observing National Porphyria Awareness Week April 22-29.

 

 “Stay up to date on results for porphyria awareness week 2017.

“The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. The time or date displayed reflects when an article was added to or updated in Google News.”

 We are less than a week away from April, and under a month away from Awareness Week, and that’s it, a post from February.

 

Giving Shorthaired Pointers a bad name.

Millions of people were duped, used, exploited using their own personal prejudices, turned into a mob both online and in public, by the very people who claimed to represent them.

Millions of voters were used to corrupt national election by the very party that presented itself as the party of the little person, the disenfranchised, the poor, the misunderstood, the social outliers, the immigrant, the free thinker and the enlightened.

They lied. They lied with smiles on their faces and their hands extended in unity and friendship. They lied about their motives and their reasons. They lied about their own candidate. They lied about the opponent. They lied to manipulate people into supporting them and into forming a great angry mob to do their bidding to derail an election.

Most people would be angry, upset, disillusioned, confused. I would have been furious. No, actually, I am furious for them.

But these millions of people are strangely silent. Is it because many are so entrenched in the lie that they cannot bring themselves to give it up? Is it because many of them cannot bring themselves to accept the corruption within the party they trusted to be above such tactics?

Regardless of the reasons, this needs to end now. All of it.

It has been decided that today is my day for pissing people off, and, at the moment I genuinely do not give a rat’s ass about it.

I read a post this morning equating the discussion of male victims of rape and sexual abuse with all of the negative perceptions of “All Lives Matter.” I read and reread that post, making sure that I wasn’t misreading or misinterpreting what was being said.

I am sickened by the conclusion that rape perpetrated against men, whether by women or by men, does not truly rise to the level of rape. I am disgusted that sexual violence against men is, in the minds of other victims of sexual violence, not the same horror as sexual violence against women.

Rape is rape.
Abuse is abuse.
Violence is violence.
The genitalia of the victim does not lessen the validity of the human being who survived or who did not survive.
Nor does the genitalia of the perpetrator somehow lessen the act.

It is believed that rape perpetrated by women occurs at the same rate as rape perpetrated by men.

It is also believed that men are sexually assaulted at the same rate as women. But it is never seriously discussed or taken seriously as the soul killing, devastating event that it is.

I have known male rape and abuse survivors. I’ve heard the anguish and witnessed the post trauma mental and emotional aftermath years after their events. It is as dark and ugly and devastating as that of any other survivor.

If you cannot understand and accept that, you know which prompt to use to leave.

Something has Got to Change!

This is the potential text for a petition for White House action regarding diagnostics for porphyria. Too many people have suffered for entirely too long because porphyria diagnosis requirements have become increasingly arbitrary, severe, and impossible to reach for 5% and more of people with active and symptomatic porphyria.

People have a right to have and to know their own diagnoses. People have a right to access reasonable diagnostics and effective treatment. By setting unattainable requirements based only one aspect of how a disease presents itself while ignoring the full presentation of a disease through symptoms and their lasting effects, too many people unnecessarily are shoved into a no-man’s land or pain, deterioration, and disability leading to an untimely and unnecessarily terrible death.

Please read this draft and make suggestions in the comments:

Statistically, in the case of the acute and non-acute porphyrias, 5% up to a possible 10% of people with active porphyria do not test positive through biochemical testing. These people do not produce the requisite precursors in amounts necessary to meet the current diagnostic requirements.

Similarly, 5% and up to a possible 10% of people with active porphyria cannot be diagnosed through genetic testing because of the very limited number of mutations currently accepted as pathogenic for porphyria. The population of persons showing one or another specific unaccepted mutation may be significant, but unless the specialists or experts world-wide acknowledge that mutation as pathogenic, this population will remain undiagnosed and unable to get appropriate treatment.

In this increasingly under-served population there needs to be a standard protocol for diagnosis, based on the preponderance of medical evidence, beyond often unattainable blood or urine precursor level requirements and overly subjective genetics testing. Family history, personal medical history, and a detailed symptom algorithm with requirements across multiple systems to catagorize an individual using current symptoms should be accepted and used as an irrefutable means for diagnosis and treatment.

Rare Disease Month/Day 2015: You need to be your own activist.

Rare Disease Month/Day 2015: You need to be your own activist..