Laptop, Aquarium, and Shipping Companies

Okay, so first off, good news, got my memory upgrade for the laptop today. Overnighted from Crucial and it's exactly what they said, it arrived when they said, and it works just fine (in fact it's almost 2 points higher on the Windows performance score, and given this is supposed to be my travel/gaming laptop, improved performance is nice).

Next, as the package arrived earlyish, ran out before heading to work to the LFS.... bad idea... I'm going to write off completely the LFS near us, second time I've gone in there and the store person has basically told me that I didn't really want what I came in to purchase. Idiots, it's like they want to lose money or something, there never is anyone in the store other than staff from what I can tell, the tanks looks mostly healthy, but they don't seem interested in selling anything. Anyhow, anyone in Sunnyvale or the surrounding area, I'd steer clear of Aquatic Life Forms, and instead recommend you go a little further afield if you need something the big box stores don't have. So far I've been greatly impressed by Aquarium Concepts in Dublin, and Neptune Aquatics in Milpitas. There are some others in the south bay, but I don't like Dolphin Pet Village's staff (see other aquarium store rant *grin*), Seascapes appears to mostly sell livestock, T&T Marine Aquarium & Koi Pond is way out of the way, but appears reasonable, with a decent livestock selection, and the staff try to be very helpful and they are willing to order just about anything in.

And now, for another complaint of mine, shipping companies.... So I've ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon this week, mostly bits for around the house, and food supplies (Amazon has a neat selection of long-shelf-life food products, I feel like I've gone back in time and stocking the pantry from the mail-order company *grin*), however as I have Prime, I don't always get to select what shipping company they use for a specific shipment. Now, I have my issues with UPS (just had annoyances with them in the past), and Fedex has always been great to me, but the one that gets me most annoyed at the moment is ONTRAC.... I can't understand how they're in business, must be very cheap for people. This morning, just before heading out to the LFS, I hear what sounds like someone yelling outside, then a WHOMP noise, and so I open the door, and there's my package, tossed from outside my fence to the front door. Glad the contents turned out not to be fragile, but seriously? Throwing the damn package from outside the fence? Can't be bothered to open the gate and at least try knocking? The UPS guy even does that much! Oh well, rant at Amazon as well, telling them to please stop using those bozos, never know it might work, and the more people who complain about that sort of package treatment, the better off we'd be as the companies would stop using them.