No appreciation from the church

About twenty five years ago I started going to one of the local churches. Not because I’m a deeply religious person but the true reason was that I needed some supportive people in my life.

My marriage was not a success, to put it mildly, and I was living under pressure with no one to talk to.

I met some very friendly people who made me feel welcome and the services provided the warmth and inspiration that I was looking for.

After a while I felt that I should contribute to this community, and I went to see one of the pastors. I offered to make a web site that could be not only a source of information for members but also could help spread the word and attract people who were unfamiliar with the church.

The pastor agreed that it was a great idea and he promised to help me get all the necessary information.

I went to work and got the domain name and the hosting, for which I paid out of my own pocket. Then came the time where the actual content had to be added.

Every Friday a bulletin was printed regarding the services and activities for the coming week. I asked to have the bulletin faxed to me so I could add it to the site. The first week I received it on time, the second week I had to call and remind them to send it to me. The third week I had to call a few times, etc.

I also asked for biographies and photos of the pastors. Despite repeated promises I never got them.

The church also failed to promote the site. I was hoping it would be mentioned in the services, and at least it should have been give some attention in the printed weekly bulletins. It didn’t happen, there was no co-operation whatsoever.

At some point I told the pastor that if I could not get obtain the material that I needed I would have to take the site down. His answer was disappointing, to say the least: “Just take it down.”

The site was removed that same day and apparently no one ever noticed. I was not upset about the time I had spent on it; I did feel that I hadn’t been taken seriously. And my attempt to make a worthwhile contribution had failed, and not of my own doing.

Don’t expect customer support to help you!

If a police officer pulls you over and says that he is going to give you a ticket you have the right to know what he is giving you the ticket for.

A generic answer like: ‘Because you did something wrong’ is unacceptable.

Sales platform OfferUp does exactly that. I used it for several years, going by the rules and amassing 862 five-star reviews.

Then one day my account was disabled without prior warning. I could still post items, but they would not show up in the general feed and the search results.

For a few months I tried to sort this out with their support team, but to no effect.

All I got from them were generic responses, most of them totally unrated to the problem. A few times someone promised to look into it and three times I was told the problem had been fixed.

I came up with the idea of deleting my account and opening a new one. No such luck, it is impossible to delete it. I’m done with OfferUp, and I still have no idea why they basically banned me.

Please do some research on their customer support and you will find that there is none. I understand that they cannot go thought great lengths to help people with free account but just giving them the boot is unacceptable.

I did some research and found there are so many users who had the same problem. No wonder their rating at places like Trustindex.com is exceptionally low.

Another problem is that they facilitate scammers to post to their hearts content. And ads do not expire. Often I when I did a search for something items that were posted six years ago show up.

I just stick with good old Craigslist, never had a problem with them.

It happened again.

It happened last night, of course it did. Around 1 AM I woke up from a dream that played with my mind afterwards.

As long as I can remember this has happened, every single night.

Maybe it wouldn’t bother so much if those dreams were pleasant, but they never are. I cannot recall a single time when I woke up and felt disappointed that the dream had come to an end already.

Sometimes they are scary, and usually weird. And they always show scenes from the past, usually from 20 to 30 years ago.

Last week my dad (who died in 1995) and I were making our way through a forest. Suddenly we came to a swamp that we could not cross of course. Before we could decide what to do next, a huge alligator appeared and approached us.

We ran away as fast as we could but the animal still gained on us.

Then I realized that the only option was to fight it. I turned around and hit it repeatedly on the nose with a plastic fly swatter that I happened to carry with me.

It slowed him down for a little while and I kept swatting as fast as I could while dad watched from a distance.

Then a goat showed up out of nowhere and the alligator went after it, probably deciding it was easier to get. Suddenly and without warning we were safe again.

The dream was clear and even after a week I still remember it in detail.

I have had dreams that were so realistic that afterwards I couldn’t tell if it actually was a fictional dream or something that had happened in real life.

Lately it hasn’t occurred but there  have been times when I had the same dream multiple times. And the weirdest thing was that while still dreaming I realized I had gone through that one before.

Tonight, it will happen again, I’m sure of it. Maybe even more than once.

I know dreams can be interpreted but I have never tried to find out what they mean. Maybe I’m better off not knowing anyway.

Terrible ads

Regularly I visit Craigslist and Facebook to check if there is anything for sale that may be of interest to me.

And often I shake my head when I see poorly worded ads that lack essential information, ads full of spelling- and grammatical mistakes accompanied by photos that are so bad that you really can’t even see what the item is.

Just yesterday I saw someone offering a Nikon. That’s it, not mentioning that it is a DSLR camera with a lens. No model, age, condition. For the amount of $500 you may expect all the relevant information to be provided.

The seller probably doesn’t even realize that the post will not show up in the results when someone does a search on the keyword ‘camera.’

And at the same time, it is clear that the seller is either completely ignorant or plain lazy by not wanting to put any effort into it.

Aside from the fact that this camera is way overpriced I would not be interested simply because the owner makes a bad first impression.

It is astounding that many people cannot even correctly spell the brand and name of the product. I see at least one a week someone offering a Cannon camera.

The worst ad I have seen so far this year was from a guy who wants to sell a 1960’s Volkswagen Beetle. He could manage to say only two words about it: ‘Have title’

Another problem, at least to me, is when someone posts something for FREE and then asks for offers. So, it is a bit misleading to say the least.

And how about this one. Two or more of the same items are being offered and the owner doesn’t make it clear whether the price is apiece, or for all of them.

A well-known trick is to say that he, or she, is selling the item for a friend, neighbor, family member etc. with the addition: “I don’t know anything about it.” In other words, the seller will not answer any relevant questions and takes no responsibility in case the item is faulty.

And when it says plainly in the ad: “I don’t know if it works or not” then it is almost certain that it does not work.

Be careful, always.