kudos – Moby Files: Blog

Defend

And speaking of Instagram, I had a very odd (in a good way) interaction on there recently.

I follow several fellas because they work out and post progress selfies. Being back on my gym-kick, I like the inspiration. Besides the selfies, they’ll often post tips, suggestions, diet routines, etc, all of which I find beneficial. In the process of ‘liking’, I don’t often check to see if they are gay or straight.

It should come as no surprise I also follow others for a different type of inspiration. Most of the guys in the latter group are most definitely gay. lol Nothing x-rated mind you, but still gay. ^[1]I actually don’t follow x-rated accounts on Instagram at all. Different purpose, different medium as it were

The problem arises when I forget to check which group said person is in before commenting. This has led to a few awkward conversations from time to time. In the most recent situation, I made a comment on a straight guys feed. He was hot and I said as much. Several folks after me started leaving comments trying to dog him because "gay guys were checking him out." For my part, I usually don’t engage as it is a futile endeavor. To my utter surprise, the guy himself came to my defense. He posted several comments chastising commenters for being so shallow and homophobic.

I was really impressed by his replied. He could have deleted my comments, blocked me, or just ignored it completely but he took the time to call it out. I decided to write about it here only because it left me with such a good feeling. We, as LGBT folks, still have a ways to go to overcome the discrimination we face on a daily basis. But interactions like this give me real hope that we are winning. We are changing hearts/minds of everyday.

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↑1	I actually don’t follow x-rated accounts on Instagram at all. Different purpose, different medium as it were

Service

And before you hoes go getting all excited, it ain’t nothing dirty. lol I thought I’d take a moment to send a shout out to Reebok.

See I decided to treat myself a while back and order some custom color shoes. The picture you see is the end result, of which I am extremely happy with.

As is bound to happen, there was a hiccup along the way. Apparently, when you ship via FedEx, you can’t ship to a PO Box. Well, nothing on the website said as much, no errors were generated, etc so I proceeded as planned. I got a tracking number for my package and all was good.

Four weeks goes by and no package. Delivery was projected at ‘3-5 weeks’. I pull up my tracking number and was surprised my package had been delivered! Even more bizarre, it was delivered to an address in Massachusetts. I’m thinking they just gave me the wrong tracking number. I call up and it was my tracking number. Since they don’t ship to PO Boxes, it got sent to their main US distribution center, which in turn popped it into the regular mail.

You can imagine my frustration at this point. One, my packaged had to be remailed after I paid for FedEx shipping. Two, why didn’t they just have their site setup to prevent such snafus or at the very least warn you. The rep was very nice and apologized and explained my order had been reshipped and should be arriving soon. At this point, I’m disappointed and not really impressed with their company.

I hang up and about 5 minutes later the rep actually calls me back. This by itself was a huge surprise. When does a company ever call the customer anymore? The girl explained that since it was their fault with the shipping options and I was about to go over my 5 week window that she was going to refund my shipping charge. I was very gracious and thanked her profusely for the consideration and call back.

Having never had any direct interaction with Reebok as a company, this left me with a very positive view of them as a whole. I don’t know if this is they’re standing policy or if the rep just went above and beyond to make a customer happy. Either way, as a first time customer, I came away with a good impression and a willingness to become a repeat customer. You just don’t see this anymore. Reebok is a global brand and to see this type of attention to customer satisfaction was refreshing and totally unexpected. I guess years of shitty service from companies has conditioned med to expect the worst. It is nice to discover not all big companies totally bail on customer satisfaction. So here’s a shout out to Reebok for getting it right!

Kind

It is amazing what a kind word to a stranger can do. I’ve mentioned here more than a few times that I try to do random acts of kindness.

Today, as I was showering off at the gym an older guy came in. He’s a regular and had been missing for over a few months. I’d seen him a while back and he didn’t look good. He’d obviously had some sort of medical episode and was recovering. While he has always been on the very lean side, he looked like he’d put on a bit of muscle on his upper body. His skin had gained that healthy glow again and he basically was looking good.

I told him his upper body was looking good and he’d obviously been working hard. I swear, you could tell he almost started crying. You could see the admiration and gratitude in his face and his voice as he thanked me repeatedly.

Just something so little and slight to me made someone’s day. You could see it put him in a better mood. And I should hope I look as good as he does at his age. He is probably mid to late 50’s and clearly takes care of his body. Anyway, do a random act of kindness today, this week, or just once a week every week. It may seem trivial and pointless but to the people on the receiving side, I’d bet money they see it a lot differently!

Oh, and you should be logged in. 🙂

Gracias

Thanks for all the kudos on the tattoo. I appreciate it. I go back on the 2nd for the color and shading. I’m still extremely excited about my tattoo. Considering it is permanent, I guess that is a good sign. lol The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone is eager to see the final look. *hint – so am I.*

As for work, I got a little embarrassed yesterday. The #2 guy in the fire dept. chain of command came by to personally thank me and shake my hand. ^[1]To be clear, he was there for other reasons but took the time to seek me out. I don’t always take compliments well. And to have the #2 guy personally shake my hand was a bit unnerving and daunting. hehehe He was clearly sincere and gave me a great honor by telling me to call him by his first name instead of sir. If you are familiar with military and/or para-military organizations, that is almost unheard of. I didn’t expect it but I quickly recovered and promptly picked my jaw up off the floor.

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↑1	To be clear, he was there for other reasons but took the time to seek me out.

BBP

I rarely advertise for corporate logos here as….well not many companies every really meet my expectations. Most corporate gigs these days are all talk about customer service until it comes right down to it, then they stick it to you. I’m happy to say, not all.

I’ve been the proud owner of a BBP bag for about 2 years now. The unique design first drew me when I started riding motorcycles. This bag allows me to push the weight down onto my lower back instead of pushing me onto the handle bars. It also doubles as an over the shoulder tote-bag. ^[1]They have a nifty little vid on their homepage that shows how easy the bag converts. The picture above is the XL version as I have 17" laptop.

I give them props for standing behind their product. They offer a lifetime warranty and they mean it. I’ve only had two problems in the past two years but both times they helped w/only a minimum of fuss. The first bag had to be replaced completely. They had just branched into larger bags and the zipper compartment was faulty. Once I sent them a pic of the broken zipper, they sent me a new one pronto.

My second problem popped up recently. The back buckle has a little resistance lip to keep the straps from slipping. One of the lips cracked off. Once again, the folks over at BBP sent me my new shoulder strap w/just a picture for proof. ^[2]I did have to pay for shipping but that was expected.

Anyway, if you are in the market for a new bag, give’em a whirl. It may or may not be for you but I can vouch first hand they stand behind their product. A very rare thing these days.

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↑1	They have a nifty little vid on their homepage that shows how easy the bag converts.
↑2	I did have to pay for shipping but that was expected.

Insert Tear Here

A big thank you to all the kind words and advice from so many of you. I’m very honored people have followed my constant back and forth’s with TFA so intently. ^[1]Lord knows, it has been a bit of a roller coaster.

I’m not really that depressed. Sure I’m sad. But, if I think about it, I haven’t really lost him. We’ve just altered the parameters of our relationship. I still feel the same way. In an odd way, I actually feel closer to him. I’m content to be his friend and confidant. Who knows what the future holds. Worst case scenario, I made a very good friend.

In completely unrelated news, work was a bore today. I did manage to log on and order 4 new pair of jeans. ^[2]Gooster will be so happy.

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↑1	Lord knows, it has been a bit of a roller coaster.
↑2	Gooster will be so happy.

Belated Christmas Pressie

My laptop finally shipped today! I was surprised as its Sunday. I didn’t really expect to see any changes but I got an email stating it was shipping today. I figured I’ll get it by Wednesday. Just in time for my weekend. Wahooo!

I’m off the gym, more nonsense later.