Days Without End

My co-workers and I joke about how certain days fluctuate in relativity to time.  Maybe it is because we came back from a three day weekend, but Tuesday seemed to go by in just a few hours.  I did enjoy my weekend, by the way.  Got some sun, my yard got some rain, and my wife made some great pina coladas.  And again, Tuesday went by so fast, I was back at home.  However the rest of the week has seemed to drag on as if no end is in sight.  More so after lunch.  We’ll just be sitting there taking care of what seems like hours worth of work will have taken place, and when we look at the clock, only 15 minutes have taken place.

At least another weekend is upon us, which means relaxing, trying out a new seasonal beer, and hoping the weekend goes by as slowly as the week has.

Jason Orkin, Time Traveler

DirectBuy Complaints

A lot of people have been jumping on the bandwagon of complaining about companies that they have not actually received service from. One of the best examples of this is DirectBuy. I won’t go in to their infomercial, because I feel if you are lame enough to get suckered into ANY infomercial, you deserve what you get for not doing your research. However, if you are like me and have had dealings with DirectBuy based on recommendations from friends, you probably will have a positive experience.

While DirectBuy may not be for everyone, I again point out that you do your homework first. Ignore sites like InfomercialScams who profit off of people writing in anything. Instead, I suggest you talk to your friends. Find out if anyone in your network has had dealings with them. Chances are, they will be positive.  Maybe look a bit deeper than some anonymous review.

Now you would expect me to be complaining about DirectBuy, but not is the case. My In-laws are members, and let me tell you their place looks great. Granted I still don’t like staying there more than I have to, but at least the redecorated kitchen looks good.

Jason Orkin, Defender

Low Visibility Due to Elements

If you have been paying attention to Florida, and I’m not talking about that stupid idea to split Florida into two states, it is in a drought. For the whole year, Lake Okeechobee has been at a record low, rain fall has been at an record low, and we were in a record high for temperature.

This drought has impacted this state and the crazy whackos that live in it. Some nutjob set fire to a house in Palm Bay, which ended up burning a large portion of the city. Fires have also broken out throughout the everglades. These two events have caused a wave of smoke to fill the air of Miami. While we will have days of humidity and fog that covers the landscape and you can’t even see out your front door, this is a thick cloud of smoke that makes everything smell like a bad barbeque.

Luckily we are had some rain today. We need it, not just to help protect us from this fire, but eleviate the water restrictions that have hit us, and turn our lawns from the decaying brown to a vibrant green.

Of course the hypocrisy is, once the rain starts, people will be complaining that they want it to stop. “Its summer in Miami, I want to go to the beach, but I can’t because its raining!” Too bad. How about instead of clogging our city with your formerly pale, now bright pink skin, you contribute something worthy of this state. I’d like to follow that up, but truthfully, if there is someone in this state that thinks the government is willing to make a 51 state flag all because of some rednecks, they should stand in the middle of I-75 and stare at the sun until someone hits them.

Jason Orkin, Weatherman

Cradle to the Grove

The Grove is one of the trendier areas of Miami. Plenty of upscale restaurants intermingled with dive-looking bars, as well as extravagant boutiques all smack in between the mayor’s office and the ghetto. Its a smaller, more natural and less pretentious Lincoln Road. Unfortunately it is falling on hard times.

Granted all the places of business in the Grove don’t exactly have the highest life expectancy. Stores come and go, although there are the perennials. The issue is that some of the more well known restaurants are starting to close down. According to the Miami Herald, Cafe Tu Tu Tango in Cocowalk is set to close. I’ve been to it, as well as the one in Atlanta, which also closed, and the one in Orlando. I have been a fan of the chain, and sad to see it go in place of… another bloody Starbucks. It seems that because of the renovation of new areas like Gables, Mary Brickell Village, the Design District, and of course South Beach, the Grove is on hard times.

While I am sad to see a restaurant I have enjoyed go, and crap take its place, that is not my main complaint. What is, however, is how the other restaurants and shops in the area are taking this new move. There is a diversity of food in the grove, but now, staff at restaurants are becoming a bit too strong in the hopes that they will have repeat customers. Waiting staff are clinging on to patrons, and it becomes annoying. It is depressing to see a business someone put a lot of effort into close down, but it is even worse to see the staff basically beg you to come back.

I hope there is a renewed drive into the Grove to keep classic establishments afloat, but only time can tell.

Jason Orkin, Patron

Complaints on Litter and Letters

The sad fact is litter will always be an issue in our society.  Do to the fact that humans, in general, are lazy creatures who never want to do anything for themselves, and I’m not going to lie, sometimes I am the same way, we will always have people saying to themselves “I could wait to throw this in the trash, but it is far easier to just throw it on the ground, where it will never degrade back into the soil!”  This complaint is primarily aimed at the few areas of grass left in Brickell.  I notice a lot of the tower dwellers walking their pets in these areas, and I don’t know how the dog doesn’t end up with glass in their paws traversing to these last bastions of nature.

As for letters, this is about the $.01 increase for stamps.  Sure, one cent isn’t much, but this has to do with the fact that it seems every few months it increases in cost.  I remember just a few years back stamps being $.19.  But now $.43?  I understand that the internet is killing them, and with raising gas prices it is becoming more expensive to ship letters and mail, but they should think of better ways to deal with this issue than an price hike every now and then.  Same goes for gas, but that’s another issue altogether.

Jason Orkin, Environmentalist

I’m not dead yet

I haven’t published on my complain blog for some time now.  I won’t go into the details, but sometimes you just don’t have time to type up your gripes, when you could just yell at someone instead.  Nevertheless, the building next door is still under construction, traffic still sucks, and we just went through a heat wave and then flashed to a minor cold front – minor being in the 80s.

My dog, you know the loyal companion, man’s best friend, well Shadow has been acting strange lately.  He just keeps staring at us: he’ll stare at me until I close my office door, and then he stairs at one of the kids.  We’re taking him to the vet this weekend just to be sure nothing is wrong with him, but it is a bit disconcerting to have your pet stare at you.  Maybe he’s just waiting for me to keel over before gorging on the carcass.  Who knows.

But I just wanted to know, I’m not dead yet, and plan on venting more often on here.

Jason Orkin, Extant