Stay Classy, National Home Services

So one day a couple weeks ago, we got a aggressive door knocker -- someone who rings the bell and knocks loudly on the front door. Most of the time when a door to door comes around, I just say "we are not interested in participating, thank you for coming" and close the door, but aggressive door knockers irritate me.

So I open the door and the guy says "Hi, I'm $NAME" -- and I cut him off and say, "Hi $NAME, I guess you can't read?" and I point to the sign on the window next to the door:

Yeah, a pretty jerky thing to do, I admit it. But this guy quickly recovers and says that he's not actually a solicitor because we're actually paying for his service, and he starts to talk about hot water heaters. Before he finishes saying "hot water heaters" I'm laughing and going through my "we're not interested in participating" routine and closing the door.

The next morning I'm leaving to go to work and I find this love note stuck in my door:

Classy. So what do you think the odds of me seeking out this company to business with them are? Did he really think that insulting me is going to somehow change my mind?

And that's not even addressing the fact that most of the flyer pictured above was about telling me how Direct Energy was evil for trying to squash door-to-door water heater sales, and didn't tell me at all how it might be better for me to do business with National Home Services instead.

I've heard anecdotal stories about others who have had... lets say "issues" with door to door hot water heater people. One person reported that when she declined to participate, the person on her step cussed her out. Not that this person was necessarily associated with National Home Services, mind you, it just seems the mentality of the people doing the sales, which is driven by those hiring those people who do the sales...

Most of the time I don't have a problem with door to door salespeople or telemarketers. They are just trying to make their way in the world and there's nothing to be gained by being mean to them. And most of the time I don't give them a window to be mean to me. But sometimes... sometimes they just ask for it.

Review: Into The Storm

I don't like watching "movies" shot by teenagers running around with steadicam cellphone cams. But it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Jenn thinks all the "good" disaster porn shots were in the trailer -- and I think that yes, most of them were. So if you've seen the trailer, you've seen most of the movie already.

On City Parking

Speaking as a spoiled suburbanite, if you want me to go downtown and spend my money there, there had better be parking around where you want me to be because there's very little I will sit on a bus for 45min each way for.

Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy

This movie lives up to its reputation, but not its hype. Now that's more because the hype was OMG BEST THING EVER and frankly nothing can live up to that.

(I also classify hype like Star Wars for a new generation as ridiculous hype that nothing can live up to. Star Wars was Star Wars because you were seven when you first saw it, and nothing can live up to the experience of a seven-year-old unsuspecting brain getting wowed by something they've never seen before, especially when you are trying to do it to a brain that's seen everything that's come since Star Wars. So stop trying to convince me that whatever you are hyping will do that, because I can guarantee you that it won't.)

But its reputation, it meets Marvel's standards for fun and entertainment. It sits in the comic book pantheon comfortably above such offerings as The Fantastic Four (either one) and possibly both of the Thor movies.