January 23, 2019 commentary on why Hilton Hotels Suck.
Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore & Hilton Hotels generally suck.
When you're staying at a Hilton hotel, and when the onsite general manager physically threatens you, Hilton itself can offer you no immediate route for assistance. And they can do is "make note of your concerns and pass them along."
Hilton, operates as an unaccountable shell company. Reportedly Hilton doesn't actually own any hotels themselves. Instead all they do is license out their name.
Regarding the Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore and general manager Sebastian Hansen.
Original booking included the phrase "breakfast included." Upon check in at the hotel on 1-14-2019, a lady by the name of Hannah treated me like a liar – by tone, facial expression, response, and action. She stated that breakfast was not included with my room rate. Hannah told me that breakfast wasn’t included in the rate plan for my room. She said she’d have to call her manager to see if I could have breakfast or not, and that she’d call me back.
Because of the dismissive and non-trusting responses I received from hotel employee Hannah I next went up to my room to try & resolve the issue myself. Upon arriving in my room I phoned to my travel agent. They then phoned Hilton reservations, who verified that breakfast was included in my booking. This process took 15 minutes of my time on the phone with my travel agent.
Hilton reservations told my travel agent that they would send me an email confirmation proving the inclusion of breakfast, a confirmation I could then show to the front desk. The email never arrived. So next I phoned to Hilton reservations myself. They then phoned the hotel.
After 23 minutes on the phone with Hilton reservations speaking with the hotel, finally the reservations agent came on the line and said that the hotel had finally agreed to allow me to have breakfast.
Next, upon returning to the hotel, I phoned down to the front desk to complain about all the time spent on this issue.
A front desk lady offered to let me speak with her supervisor, who turned out to be the same Hannah to checked me in. I complained to Hannah about all the time spent. Hannah frequently cut me off as I was speaking to her over the phone. She quickly and immediately rebutted my complaint points. Her tone was dismissive and disrespectful. She routinely spoke over the top of me. Hannah, front desk agent for this hotel, was combative and inept.
About $320 for one night at this hotel, and while on a business trip, I have to spend about 45 minutes of my time trying to convince the hotel that breakfast is in fact included with my reservation.
And next, this Hannah becomes combative over the phone, talks over the top of me, and immediately seeks to rebut my complaint points.
On the morning of 1-15-2019 I went down to the front desk to inquire whether I needed a paper voucher for breakfast or not. At the front desk was an older man standing there. I didn’t know who the older man was.
The older man asked me how my stay was going. I responded not well. A female staff person behind the counter asked what the problems were. I then explained to her the experiences I had with staff member Hannah.
The lady behind the counter, began herself to immediately try & rebut my granular complaint points. When I said they should have called Hilton reservations while I was waiting at the desk instead of sending me away in an uncertain state, her response was a flippant dismissal and more immediate rebuttals.
When I said that the main point was that they should have dealt with the issue within two minutes of my standing at the desk while checking in via calling to Hilton reservations right then, instead of sending me away uncertain which then resulted in 45 minutes of my time over the phone, she flippantly responded that I should have given them more time to the fix the problem. Again a flippant response.
Because of the flippant way the lady was responding, I next stated that she was responding to me as if we were in kindergarten.
Now next, came the virtual hammer & thump from the older man standing outside the desk who I did not know the identity of, who was apparently watching my interaction with the behind the desk staff.
The man said: “I don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to my colleague there.”
The man looked strangely upset, and also very angry. His eyes were glazing, and he was shaking.
I however, wasn’t shaking. I wasn’t yelling. I wasn’t using expletives. But this man, looked upset.
I asked to the speak with the manager and he said he was the manager.
The man, also next took the hostile actions of choosing to next stand directly in front of me, looked me directly in the eyes, and the man purposefully stood closer to me – standing essentially right in my face. This physically threatening stance among men is generally regarded as absolutely a physical threat, as a prelude to physical violence. This man was angry and he wanted to clearly exercise coercive control over me. This man had clearly entered an unhinged state.
Even while this man this did, I tried to talk to the man in a reasonable manner, but the man became more and more angry. Again I did not yell nor I did not use expletives while speaking with the man. I just explained that his actions & the actions of his hotel were inappropriate. But the man would have none of it.
Next, the man said that if I didn’t like his hotel, I could find another property to stay at.
I told the man this was an inappropriate response.
Next the man demanded that I move to another part of the room to talk to him.
I refused and this also made the man more upset.
The man next stated that he didn’t care what I had to say. He said that I had a choice of either leaving or going to breakfast. One, or the other, period.
Next, I took out my phone and started typing the name of the man from his name tag. Sebastian Hansen. As I was typing the man next said “do you have a business card? I know you’re probably here on business. What company do you work for.”
Prior to my bothering to type the man’s name in he never once asked who I worked for.
I told the man that he was trying to dox me. He acted confused at the term, as doxing is an online term for someone trying to expose the personal information of someone online as a form of punishment & retaliation.
It was clear that the man, that is General Manager Sebastian Hansen, wanted to retaliate against me. Again the Sebastian Hansen never once asked me who I worked for, until I took the action of recording his name onto the notes section of my phone.
Next, I asked him for the phone number for his supervisor. Manager Hansen refused. He said I could call Hilton customer service but that he would not give me the phone number for the person who was his direct manager.
I left the area and went back to my room.
In my room I first spent a lot of time trying to reach Hilton customer service. They refused to tell me the name of the franchise company which actually owns the hotel I was staying at. All they would do, in spite of the horrid and threatening way I was treated by the general manager noted, is “make note of my complaint and pass along my comments” and that’s it.
Next, I started calling around to other Hilton properties in the Tampa area. When I called each property I asked to speak with the general manager of the properties. I found one property which was willing to help me find the name of the franchise company which actually owns the Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore.
On 1-16-2019 I finally reached the franchise company manager who is over Sebastian Hansen, and man who can be reached at 617-756-seven zero two six. It’s worth clearly noting that neither Hilton customer service, nor Mr. Hansen himself, would give me this info. It was only my own investigative work via calling other local Hilton properties was I able to find this info.
The franchise company manager said that I could stay at the hotel. But frankly, the severe damage was already done. Mr. Sebastian Hansen, General Manager for the Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore had already set up an incredibly hostile environment for my stay.
Even after the franchise owner called to Mr. Hansen, Mr. Hansen never once came to me and apologized for his outrageously uncouth, obtuse, hostile, and threatening actions toward me as a guest. Never, once.
In my first hand experience, observation, and opinion, the Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore and its manager Sebastian Hansen are prone to treating people in an incredibly hostile manner, if you complain too much. No matter how rude and inept their staff are, they will absolutely be prone to treating you and yours poorly, if you complain too much, and “give them too much lip.”
Southern Hospitality, not.
And Hilton corporate, to include the Hilton executive escalations department, cannot and will not help you WHILE YOU’RE ACTUALLY AT A HILTON HOTEL, and under threat from an unhinged manager who doesn’t know how to handle customer service complaints, nor how to train his own staff properly.
This hotel, the Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore, has uniquely verbally combative staff. And a manager who is combative & retaliative as well. Plus the unhinged uncouth old fart Sebastian Hansen will try and dox you for complaining, that is he’ll try & find out who your employer is so that he can complain about you to them. Also if you stand your ground, Sebastian Hansen will get right in your face, and he’ll also physically threaten you in my view and first hand observation.
And all, over breakfast, and inept staff who haven’t been properly trained on how to know when a customer has booked breakfast, and regarding staff who also are verbally combative when you complain about their ineptness and lack of training.
Avoid this property, and all Hilton hotels, at all costs. That is my recommendation to you.
Regards Tim Jenison's efforts to find out how the painter Vermeer painted such accurate paintings of real world objects and rooms, with exquisite detail.
But the guy must have some skill to engage such fine brush strokes (see the film).
There's several reasons to believe that Johannes Vermeer used lenses and a mirror or mirrors to create his paintings:
Reason 1: The level of light, shadow, & object detail in his paintings would be difficult to create extemporaneously (without preparation - just putting brush to paper and painting).
Reason 2: Objects in Vermeer's paintings, their size ratios & etc. match up with each other (see the film also).
Reason 3: Also in a print of an original Vermeer Mr. Jenison noticed painted elements which match up with distortion effects which result from using curved mirrors. True that Vermeer may well have corrected for some such effects, but he wasn't perfect and one part of a painting was curved when it should have otherwise been straight.
In college I did take an art overview class. In that class I remember the teacher bleating on about the distinction between technology and art. What a bunch of bullshit though - especially in light of the findings of Mr. Jenison and related people.
A bit of googling shows that there may be "10 reasons to doubt" Jenison's hypothesis. And there may be 50 reasons why the author of such an article is a petty & shallow moron.
An untrained artist creates a masterwork grade painting, using lenses, mirrors, paint, a set, canvas, and light.
I'm a believer in the clear observational & experimental evidence.
Examining preexisting paintings. Conducting an experiment. Creating a masterwork grade painting on a first attempt, in about ~120 days (actual painting work) using ~350 year old technology. Why object?
We recently watched the documentary at https://indieflix.com/indie-films/beyond-naked-35063/
(log onto your local library website first to view it free).
...Beyond Naked - about nude biking during an art festival in Seattle.
One key thing that struck me about the film was when one very fat woman, who's nude with her husband at home 99% of the time, offered fearful & crass advise regarding penile erections to the participants.
A very unattractive fat woman with rolls and rolls of fat is going to offer advise to men about the state of their penises when they're nude?
Ironic. Strange. A leftist hippie form of sexual shaming. And key denialism from the "nudist" camp regarding what nudity is always partly about, that is when adults are present and can see each other - you know, the S word that they fear so much.
Am I for 100% nudism all the time? No. Why? Because there's crazies in the world who will do worse things than what they're already doing if everyone were nude. You know, the homeless nutjob who goes pee in front of your local Walmart, and worse nutjobs lurking. There's always a certain percent.
But, on the other hand, viewing films like The Good Old Naughty Days (available at many public libraries), and learning of the art in Pompeii, and the above more contemporary links, and books like the Kama Sutra are enlightening and eye opening & incredibly important as well - as are the works that Sister Wendy has shown us.
Life is a balancing act. How to balance between the Puritans on the right and the anti-porn anti-freedom hysterical feminazi hippies on the left? How to reject shame from the right and the left, while still remaining healthy, and free, and happy? It's hard work. But I think we need to be honest.
Humans very thinly hide their sexuality for some very good reasons. But on the other hand, if we hide it too much we can also become fucked up...
When naked adult humans can see each other, and one or both are not 100% ugly, there is a sexual component present, even if the participants are fundamentally dishonest about their status & state (eg: your average nudist in America & Europe).
Sex is hard wired into us. Hysterical leftist hippie nudists cannot rip that wiring out, any more than rightist Bishops & Priests can. It's there. There's no denying it. It does need some management I agree. But we can go too far either way. It's refreshing to know that our ancestors were obsessed - and for good reason. We would not be here otherwise, probably.
Adding a 3TB drive to an HP DC7700 with Windows XP
Had to edit the MSI for the following software: http://www.paragon-software.com/hgst/
...even though I have an HGST drive the software would not install.
The drive also would not work using a PCI-e SATA card. Had to plug it into the SATA port on the DC7700 motherboard.
Our neural networks are highly mailable. We can be swayed into various memetic-social camps due to various influences including: parental, social, educational, experiential, etc. When within one memetic camp we erect walls of defense to keep from being pulled into another camp. If pulled into another camp, we erect new memetic walls to keep us in the new camp.
I remember my time in Portland as being like an Alice in Wonderland. One of my experience paths involved going to weekly meetings for the new sadly defunct group United States Atheists. At those meetings a very nice man befriended me and we would often go to a nearby bar to talk, with a few of the others from the meetings. Also this man later headed up atheist group monthly visits to the OMSI Science Pub events, in connection with atheist related meetup.com groups & later with the Center For Inquiry, Portland.
Here's another video of my friend (who would go to the USA Atheists meetings & the bar afterward & to the OMSI Science Pub CFI events), from 2009. In that 2009 video he talks about going from being a Christian to an atheist.
Within the past few days from February 4, 2014 I found that my friend has converted back to evangelical Christianity. Here is a related video, and some additional debate notes I found about the issue.
The Mormon & Christian Memetic Whirlpool
Mormons wear nice clothes. That was the first comment from my wife as I drove her around downtown Salt Lake, especially during their General Conferences. But just wearing nice clothes doesn't mean you are happy.
As I have walked with my wife & son around Temple Square, I know she's felt the pull of the Mormon memetic whirlpool. I've felt it too, but I also get a huge icky poo feeling along with. A cult is a group which engages in a few key things:
1. Leader worship.
2. Excommunication of those who disagree - both from your own family if you disagree, and from the cult in general.
3. Active suppression of evidence that may discredit what the leaders are claiming.
4. Putting the cult first, above family & other human relationships.
A cult is an especially strong form of memetic group or camp with especially strong defenses, and strong belief maintenance to keep people in line.
Our path through the forest of competing ideas can result in our being sucked one way or another, based on how we are feeling & what's happening to us at any given time.
So, I won't be returning to Mormonism or Christianity any time soon. Why? Because I remember the deception, the lies, and the pain. I haven't forgotten the lies of the leaders or their hypocrisy.
My related video commentary on this whole situation:
While in Portland I was befriended by a man who went with me to weekly meetings for the now defunct group United States Atheists. After those meetings we often would go to a bar for a chat. Also the man became an organizer for Center for Inquiry, Portland and their past monthly OMSI Science Pub events. Also the man invited me to participate in a cable access TV show called Sciligion.
Here's one example where we're appearing together on the show:
In the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxjSAuLAG48 my friend talks about a differentiation between the the physical and the metaphysical, the normal and the paranormal. For me such differentiations are simply memetic camp defense mechanisms. If some god exists in another dimension as a "spiritual being," he or she or it would still be a physical entity. Does the so-called metaphysical item or entity exist? If the answer is yes then they are physical AKA a real thing with real physical properties.
It's sad that to belong to a human social group we have to a.) suck up to a leader, and b.) state that we believe in one or more joint-lies. Can we change this situation? Can we have human social groups where we don't all have to state that we believe in the joint lies?
When we leave conservative religion we may encounter what is essentially liberal-religion. Many atheist & "free thought" groups are essentially liberal religions. If you don't tow the party line in these liberal flavors of religion you will then undergo a heresy trial, one which almost exactly mirrors the heresy trials of conservative religions. In those trials you will be accused of having held onto tenets from your old religion, concepts which you should have just completely tossed according to them. But the key fallacies in their arguments can be revealed via the following activity: Going to China, where they know nothing about your religion, and see what they believe in & do. Do the same thing in other cultures. Religion is a NATURAL phenomenon, and so even tenets in conservative religion can still be fully natural.
