THEME THURSDAY - GATE

Theme Thursday "Gate" submission

Garage Doors

St. Barnabas Catholic Church

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HONDA CRV SUV'S CATCH FIRE - NOT IN THE GOOD WAY

2003 and 2004 model year Honda CRV SUV's are catching fire... literally. The National Highway Transportaion Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reopened their investigation into the fires. In July, the NHTSA concluded that 2003 CRVs were igniting after a faulty oil change, and for most of the victims in the news reports, it appears to have been their first oil change at under 10,000 miles.

Honda and the NHTSA concluded that technicians did not correctly install the oil filter, creating an improper seal that allows oil to leak out onto the hot exhaust system. They did not find any evidence of a manufacturer's defect, so they did not issue a recall. Honda, which enjoys a reputation for safety and reliability, would not issue a voluntary recall. Instead, Honda notified its dealers and independent retailers to follow proper oil changing guidelines, but the fires continued.

The problem appears to be confined to the 2003-2004 model years, which perplexes Honda. Honda claims they have not fundamentally changed the design of the vechicle or the oil filters from the 2002 models. The last major design changed occurred in 2001.

If oil changes are the cause, other vehicles should be experiencing similar problems. But Consumer Reports reviewed the problem and cannot reach a firm conclusion as to the cause of the fires either. They speculate that Honda could have changed the paint or coating that is used on the engine block, causing the oil filter gasket to stick.

The NHTSA's new investigation, an engineering analysis, is the administration's most exhaustive safety inquiry.

Ready the marshmallows!

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WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

That's a question that ALWAYS comes up in our house. When I had a job that didn't consume so much of my time, I would have dinner plans for the entire week. I love cooking, so it was fun making the plans, grocery lists, etc. But that was then. Now, I rarely have time to cook a meal the way I want, and often, neither my spouse or I have time to cook at all, so we have to eat out.

I don't like eating out very often, so we thought we'd try some prepared foods. We tried everything from burritos to chicken teriyaki. We love to eat pasta, so we ended up trying those packaged fresh raviolis and tortellinis. We tried Monterey Pasta Compan, Contadina and anything else that we might find that looked as if it might be halfway decent. We didn't like anything.

Just the other week, we ran across a grilled chicken, mozzarella ravioli, made by Pasta Prima, at Costco. The package stated that it was all natural and had no preservatives, so we decided to try it, and to our surprise, it was actually good. It doesn't taste as good as homemade, but it was really good for prepared food.

We tried it with some spaghetti sauce. The strong tomato flavor of a thick sauce overwhelmed the ravioli. The back of the package includes recipes that might be worth trying next time, but I found some success with quickly cooked fresh garlic, chopped fresh tomatoes, freshly chopped basil, oregano and parsley and of course, a little Kosher salt (available at your local supermarket). Then I top it with just a little more fesh basil and a splash of some really good olive oil, like Colavita.

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SENATOR KENNEDY ON "NO-FLY" LIST

This is a relatively old story, but I just ran across it, so it's new to me. During the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation into 9/11, Senator Edward Kennedy, more commonly known as Senator Ted Kennedy, relayed his own story (Washington Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Canada Free Press) of being refused boarding passes on US Airways flights because his name appeared on the government's secret "no-fly"/terror watch list. (They stop Ted Kennedy from boarding but they let Cat Stevens, aka Yusef Islam, board. Geesh. Airlines.)

Apparently, the list didn't specify that Senator Kennedy be stopped. It noted that "T. Kennedy" is an alias by someone on the list of terror suspects, so Senator Kennedy was refused passage until he got a supervisor at the airport to verify his identity and give him approval to board. The Senator's ordeal didn't end there. It took 3 personal calls to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and 3 weeks for the Senator to be able to fly without being stopped.

I just hope there isn't a "J. Smith" or a "J. Kim" on that list.

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BUSH WIRED FOR ANSWERS?

The Washington Post reported on Internet rumors of a boxy bulge in the back of President Bush's suit jacket at the first debate, leading to speculation among netizens that he was wired to get help with answers. A Bush official joked it off saying something about "little green men and the grassy knoll."

Bush's tailor even got into the act by stating that the bulge is just a "pucker along the jacket's back seam", according to the Seattle Times. If you've seen the pictures, it's definitely not a pucker in the jacket, and a Salon.com reporter reminds us of the long pauses in the debate. But honestly, could he really have been "fed" those answers? If I had been the guy whispering answers in the President's ear, I wouldn't admit it either.

Apparently it's created quite a buzz on the net. Hell, I'm writing about it. Someone's even started a website, isbushwired.com, dedicated to this controversy. They even have an article investigating a report that staffers on the Bush-Cheney campaign know for a fact that Bush is wired during the debates. Fact or fiction?

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THE DISTORTION OF RELIGION THROUGH POLITICS AND VICE VERSA

Apparently, Grizzly Adams Productions released a DVD entitled George W. Bush: Faith in the White House. It was produced to illustrate Bush's faith through testimonials from associates and re-enactments. Though I have issues with any politician (Bush as well as Lieberman) using their faith to gain votes, I believe that it is possible for people of faith to serve their constituents in elected government offices. I've read the reviews of the DVD from the New York Times and from Christianity Today, but I'll try to keep an open mind when I see it for myself.

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THE DANTE CLUB - Eh.

Having completed The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl, I can confidently say, "Eh." The novel opens with a grizzly incident that might be murder or might be something else entirely, we're not quite sure. But shortly after this incident, Pearl begins the long, somewhat dry but necessary backstory of 1865 Boston and the characters involved in the novel. This backstory consumes approximately one-third of the novel. It should have been more condensed and better intertwined with the primary plot of the story. The fact that the main characters consist of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J.T. Fields and James Russell Lowell, and of course, Dante kept me reading, but the workings of the Dante Club are insteresting, not spellbinding.

To my relief, I found myself hooked in the last two-thirds of the novel as the characters begin to engage themselves in the main plot. This book is not for someone looking to read a mystery novel that continues to unwind itself like a puzzle box throughout the book, but it's not bad if you have some time.

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LOSS OF TODDLERHOOD

It's funny how your mind wanders to random places in your memory. It's like your memory is stored away in a card catalog, and every once in a while, a card will jump out of the stack for no particular reason at all. I was thinking about my cousins when they were little. And by little, I mean 2-5 years old because they're only 11 and 12 now.

I was in college when they were born, so I had a lot more free time. I spent part of everyday with them during those first several years, and when I started working I still saw them frequently. Even now, my husband and I take care of them 3 days a week.

I guess that's why I feel like they're mine in a way. I remembered when the oldest would half crawl, half walk into my lap to watch TV. He'd sit there, all warm and baby smelling, fidgeting with my clothes. I would put my arms around his little body and kiss his head. He always liked that. He liked to be held and carried. I guess it made him feel safe.

He used to make these sounds that were part word and part grunt while pointing at something and looking at me inquisitively. His smooth pudgy hand would grasp all but his index finger, which had pillowy pouch segments, topped with a small square nail. It's unbelievable how small he used to be. But he had these huge puppy dog eyes. When they welled up with tears, he'd look at you as if you were the only person in the world that could help him feel better. It never failed to make me cry, which made it that much harder for me to tell him he couldn't play with his toys and his brother's toys too.

Remembering left me with a deep sense of loss. It was almost as if he had passed away. It surprised me to feel that way because, as I mentioned earlier, they are still a large part of my life. I supposed it's simply because I long to go back and experience his infancy again, when the world was new, everything was fascinating and all he wanted to do was sit in my lap and snuggle.

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THE IMMINENT FALL OF EBAY? (aka eBay Sucks)

eBay is accurately described as the electronic Main Street, and as such, eBay has experienced massive success. However, customer service at eBay has lagged. Complaints regarding eBay's service and policies, from both buyers and sellers, appears to be growing exponentially. When you type in "eBay sucks" at Google, it returns about 177,000 results.

I personally love buying and selling on eBay. It's the next best thing to Wal-Mart and Costco, sometimes better! However, I'm hearing more and more horror stories of bad eBay/PayPal experiences, and I've run into some problems of my own that, in days past, used to be a no-brainer for eBay because of clear violations of their policy.

Along with my own problems, it seems that there is a growing chorus of complaints that have gone past simple customer service issues. People aren't ready to leave eBay because there isn't a viable alternative, but more and more people are talking about it with fervor. I don't think they're "screaming" for an alternative just yet, but eBay is starting to take on the persona of the local phone company (before they opened up competition), where there is no recourse for the consumer or merchant if eBay enforces their policies, written and unwritten, inequitably or unjustly. This becomes a national issue if you consider the number of individuals and companies relying on eBay for their livelihood, but of course, if enough people become frustrated with dealing with eBay, it will open up the door for a competitor, like Amazon.com.

Some of these serious issues are:

1. Accounts are closed for no apparent reason at all, or for an unjustified reason.
   
   People have recounted their experiences of selling and/or buying items on eBay, without incident, only to have their account closed without warning and for no apparent reason at all. After digging and jumping through hoops to find out what happened, they're told that their account was suspended because an "associated" account is delinquent in their payments to eBay.
   
   I have heard that this has happened with PayPal (an eBay owned credit card company) as well, and I'm sure there are numerous testimonies of this at Paypalsucks.com I have never heard of another company that will kill your account because someone that they think that someone you know owes them money. When did it become your legal responsibility to resolve your mother, brother, sister, father, roommate, neighbor's delinquent bills?
   
   If this has happend with a PayPal account, it should violate some consumer protection law because they will freeze the monies in your account, indefinitely. Unfortunately, in the cases when people have tried to fight PayPal on this issue, they are told that PayPal is not a bank or credit card and therefore not bound by federal regulations.
   
   


2. You report a violation of eBay policy by an auctioner, but nothing is done if they're a huge seller.
   
   Most sellers, at some point in their eBay life, have had either received a phone call from eBay or had their auctions dropped, without warning, for violating eBay's search engine spamming policy. The policy is a good policy, and that is not in question. Users take exception to eBay's practice of enforcing their policies.
   
   Basically, sellers aren't allowed to fill their auction text with words that will come up in multiple searches that have absolutely nothing to do with their auction just to get eyeballs on their auction. This policy maintains the integrity of a shopper's search, since there are probably hundreds of thousands of items being sold on eBay at any one time. However, huge sellers are guilty of keyword spamming, and not only has eBay not curbed the behavior, the sellers continue to flagrantly keyword spam without penalty, which creates an uneven competitive playing field for anyone wanting to sell similar products on eBay.
   


3. eBay's VeRO Program
   
   In eBay's attempt to curb fraud and copyright infringement, they created the VeRO group, which, in a nutshell allows manufacturer's, like Rolex, Cartier, etc. "police" auctions on eBay for fakes and frauds represented as their products. It would be impossible for eBay to have an expert on every product that is sold on their site, so this protects consumers by allowing the experts to monitor auctions and report problems to eBay.
   
   The problem arises when legitimate sellers have their auctions closed by the VERO group, but the VeRO group cannot tell you how why. The VeRO group takes the word of the manufacturer that the auction in some way infringes on their copyright and eBay immediately pulls the auction, according to the VeRO group, without even finding out why! This protects eBay, but there is no recourse for those that have been wrongly accused of some vague copyright violation. Not only that, but it is near impossible to contact the accuser, the person at the company that made the initial accusation to verify or dispute the complaint. What if they had simply transposed two numbers in the item ID and you were not the intended target?
   
   In addition, if you did unwittingly committ a copyright violation (maybe you improperly used a term that you thought had passed into the common vernacular, like Kleenex), there's no way for you to correct it in the future so that eBay does not close your account or stop any other auctions.
   
   In many ways, eBay is damned if they do and damned if they don't. As stated earlier, they cannot possibly police all their auctions, but they need to at least keep a record of the accusation and have a method for sellers to contact the originator of the complaint, and not through a bulk email address.
   


4. A Seller doesn't want to ship my item because they want more money for the item and have relisted.
   
   This has happened to A LOT of people. A bidder will bid on an item, get a great deal on it, fully intending to purchase the product, only to have the seller backout and relist the item. eBay used to deal with this judiciously and immediately, but most people do not receive a response from eBay when they report this behavior.

Some of the more solvable complaints stem from either buyers or sellers that have not educated themselves on how eBay works and how to avoid getting scammed on the world's largest online auction marketplace. eBay has actively attempted to address some of the more common complaints that can be easily remedied through education, and they do make an effort to educate buyers and registered users on how to avoid scams, especially phishing scams. Some common complaints are:

1. I got outbid in the last several minutes of my auction and lost the item by x¢.
   
   There are a number of "sniping" services (proxy bidding services), available for free or a fee, online that will allow ANY bidder to bid up to the very last seconds of any auction on eBay. Experienced bidders know that sniping is one of the best ways to ensure you win your auctions, provided that you placed a high enough bid in your snipe. Most bidders also don't seem to understand that, even if you use eBay's bidding system, you should put in the amount that you are willing to pay for an item, instead of bidding it up dollar by dollar. eBay's system won't make the auction the final bid amount (unless there is a reserve that is higher than your final amount) until another bidder challenges your bid. At that point, the auction will be bid up to the lowest amount bid, until the next challenging bidder arrives, etc.
   
   The highest amount of bid activity on most auctions at eBay are done within the last 30-60 minutes, and sometimes in the last 30 seconds! If you choose to bid up an auction a dollar at a time, that's your choice, but you will be beaten, and there's nobody to blame but yourself for being outbid. It's not cheating because everyone has the ability to bid up to the very last seconds of the auction.
   


2. You can't trust sellers on eBay, regardless of good, high feedback, because it might not really be them.
   
   This is also known as "hijacking" a user's identity, and it happens when thieves have phished for a seller's username and password, then they take over the account and change the password. When the worst of this was going on at eBay, eBay and PayPal both sent out numerous emails warning users about clicking on any link sent in an email that leads them to another site that requires them to enter their username and password. Since then, I believe that most power sellers are aware of the danger, so I feel I can trust most of the sellers with a lot of good, recent feedback, but if you're still worried, pay with a credit card. Your credit card company will protect you from fraud just as they would in a store.
   


3. I got screwed by a "0" feedback bidder!
   
   I think it's always unfortunate for the eBay community when either a buyer or seller doesn't follow through on their contractual obligation, but unless you want to sue them for the money, you'll have to relist your item and report the bidder as a non-paying bidder so you won't be responsible for the eBay final value fees.
   
   However, in the future, if you want to either approve all your bidders before they're allowed to bid on any of your auctions or forbid "0" feedback bidders from bidding, you can set that up in selling manager.
   


4. eBay charges outrageous fees above and beyond the listing fees!
   
   Yes, eBay charges final value fees in addition to their listing fees, and if you accept PayPal, be ready to have PayPal take a little over 2% of the final sale price, immediately. Neither company hides any of their fee schedules. Just be sure to read all the information regarding fees for any service you use, and if you think it's too high, don't sell on eBay.

There are many other common complaints, but if you don't find the answers you're looking for on eBay's Help pages, then try their community discussion boards. Most people are pretty friendly to newcomers.

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