Mish mash Rural Ramblings
I’m in random mish mash mode this week.
What is it with packaged foods? I’m gluten intolerant so I check the labels. A lot of stuff, such as ketchups, just show as zero per cent of anything except sodium and carbs. Does that mean all the food value is cooked or chemicaled out? Could I eat gravel instead? It’s cheaper, just harder to chew.
How many times have you picked up the phone to get an automated message. The ringing phone makes you stop what you’re doing and then the caller can’t be bothered to have a human at the other end. I have a policy now. If a robot calls me I hang up. I won’t call back and I don’t trust the call anyway. There are so many scams out there. I ask callers security questions now.
Gambling. People, many people love to gamble. I like to do the lottery. But why oh why is it so difficult to do online? Here’s my wish list. I want to set up a secure online account for my responsible lottery playing. I want to be able to deposit funds in my account and set up subscriptions for weeks at a time, maybe longer. Even buy virtual scratch cards and games. I want to be able to access my winnings up to a certain amount to buy extra tickets maybe or download funds to my bank. I want to have an email alert when I win something. I know such sites in some nations exist.
There is a danger that good causes good suffer as the private lottery gambling market grows. Here’s how they get around national lottery regulations. Online, you can buy tickets for lotteries for virtually anywhere. Except you’re not buying a ticket. You’re putting in numbers but in fact, it’s a bet. The company, usually located offshore, pays out the same as the winning lottery; it takes out an insurance policy against jackpots, which are about as rare as hen’s teeth. The one big difference is that NO money goes to good causes. National and Provincial lotteries you need to up your game, literally.
Sales is the life blood of businesses. I understand perfectly how people can be rude to cold callers from huge corporations that can be bothersome by phone or email. Rudeness to local businesses I think is a potentially selfinflicted wound. I’ve been on the end of that. And, you what? Sometimes that company that was rude could have got my custom or been recommended for business. It didn’t get it, nor will it. Courtesy costs nothing to give and can be costly if one doesn’t give it.
Telus is suffering rural copper wire thefts. Long suffering customers have endured more outages as cables are cut and stolen. Telus please tell us why you haven’t been burying cables in rural areas for years? Please tell us that you’re going to do it now.