About this site -- This site is a place to keep and share
the somewhat random musings, rants, and observations which otherwise clutter my brain. I hate clutter.
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I have a Sprint Wireless plan. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh. I know it's not the best coverage and certainly not the best service. But the reality is that my phone is used way more as a handheld network device than a phone, and you can't beat unlimited data for $15/month. That's why I stay.
As a part of that data plan I get Sprint's Picture Mail service. In theory, this is supposed to let me send and receive pictures and videos as part of text messages. In practice, it lets me easily upload photos to Sprint's Picture Mail web site and send and receive web links to those images. It's a lousy implementation intended to drive traffic to their site so you'll buy prints and stuff there. But I don't use it much and it let's me get pictures from people on networks with real MMS services. Close enough.
Now, if I didn't have a data plan, they'd charge me $5/month for Picture Mail. So I was surprised when I got the bill this month to see a $5 charge for Picture Mail as well as a $1.83 charge for a picture Kim sent me "before I signed up for Picture Mail". This clearly warranted a call to their customer service center.
I spoke to a very nice girl, and when I explained the situation, she confirmed that I was entitled to Picture Mail without the additional charges. She credited my account and apologized for the inconvenience. "Easy enough," I thought to myself with unwarranted optimism.
But after hanging up, I noticed a message on the phone indicating that I had canceled my Picture Mail service. Hmmm... I wonder. So I opened the application and tried to send a picture as a test. Sure enough, it pops up asking me if I'd like to subscribe for $5/month. If I say no, it won't let me use the service. If I say yes, I'm gonna see that $5 charge again next month. So I call back in.
I got a different girl who was also very pleasant. I explained the situation and she apologized for my misunderstanding, but if I want Picture Mail, I'll need to pay the $5. I assure her that I've spoken to at least two other people who told me it was included in my data plan. Further, I'm looking right on their website where it says the same thing. She again politely assures me that I am mistaken and this has always been their policy. She wants to know if I'd like to add the $5 service.
I'm getting a little irritated at this point. I tell her I am not paying any extra for the service, and that if she cannot help me then I'll hang up and call back in and get someone who knows what their plans really are. She asks me to wait for a moment.
Twenty seconds later her cheerful voice returns to the line. She informs me that since I'm such a valuable customer that she will enable the service on my account at no additional charge. I ask if this is just for next month, and she assures me that this is forever. Riiiight... because I'm such a good customer.
What turnip truck does this chick think I just fell off of?
Damn Funny - Burying the Jersey in two feet of cement in order to hex the Yankees.
Unnecessary Paranoia - paying to dig the thing back up.
Not Surprising- putting the Jersey up for auction.
Pretty Classy - offering all the proceeds from the auction to charity.
Damn Classy - denoting that charity as the Red Sox's official charity that is affiliated with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Proving you have too much Money and your Kids are Spoiled Brats - paying $175,000 for the Jersey because, "I have three young boys that I take to the games and they would have killed me if I didn't buy the shirt."
Last week was beautiful weather around here and the kids were out of school. You don't get those sort of coincidences too very often in these parts. So the boys and I dusted off and tuned up the bikes for the season. We cleaned, lubed, adjusted, and inflated everything that needed attention in preparation for an outing that same afternoon. A smooth procedure except for the emergent need for a trip to the bike shop when Tyler somehow ripped the entire valve stem out of his tire while pressurizing it.
As the last part of this process, given that they are both still growing, I checked and refitted their helmets. Mine simply hung off my handlebars waiting for us to leave because after all, I'm ancient and my head doesn't change shape anymore. All of which is foreshadowing the "Doh!" moment as we were about to ride away and I popped it on my head, only to become suddenly aware that having a metal plate fastened to your skull does, in fact, seem to change the shape and size of your head. Doh! Oh well, at least this delay didn't require another trip to the bike shop.
Not only is G.W. so bored these days that he's popping out to pick up the Pope at the airport, but now he's making guest appearances on the game show Deal or No Deal. Seriously, how lame a duck can he be? Is there a point where it's ethically the right thing to do to euthanize the duck because of its severe impediments? Maybe Dead Duck would be better than Lame Duck. Hey, it's worth a shot (har har, wink wink).
Alert reader Kim sends us news that the U.S.A. ranks 5th in the world for executions, behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Presumably if you added in the people we killed abroad as opposed to just those we kill domestically, we'd rank a lot higher. I'm surprised really. The Bush Administration is usually masterful at recasting statistics so they shine favorably on their policies. And we all now how important victory is to them. Geeze... 5th place... I mean... c'mon already!
In case you're thinking that it's been awhile since you've come up with a really good idea, this should make you feel smarter. At least you didn't invent the "Body-Laptop Interface". I love the reviewers tag line. Perfect for all you closet Dr. Seuss fans.
"The Body-laptop interface is knitted from Thneed which nobody, Nobody, NOBODY needs"
It was just a month or so ago that the nation was all atwitter over the Rev. Wright's fiery rhetoric. The fear seemed to be that the radical views of Obama's former pastor had rubbed off on him. That beneath the polished words and even tone was a disenfranchised Black American who felt the country had wronged his people and was poised to take remedial action.
Fast-forward to the present, and now the so-called "bitter" remarks of Obama have everyone worried that he's an overly cerebral elitist who's out of touch with the common man.
Perhaps I'm overgeneralizing here, but I doubt very much that Rev. Wright's words were aimed at the successful college educated ivory tower elitists in whose company Obama is now accused of being. These are two camps that are so far removed from each other tha having one foot in each would require a degree of flexibility that would make Mary Lou Retton cry "uncle". Curiously, it is the same cabal of pundits and opponents who are making both accusations.
Granted, there is undoubtedly a lot of political opportunism going on here. Opponents and their supporters are pouncing on any perceived weakness in an effort to drive down Obama's popularity. And even the more objective, less agenda driven news outlets are prone to promoting the sensationalistic stories that drive their ratings. Unfortunately, it's left to us, the consumers of the so-called news, to sort through this and find the reasonable mid-ground.
But I don't think we can let Obama entirely off the hook here and let him play victim either. Yes, he could have handled Rev. Wright sooner and more definitively. Yes, he could have offered a quicker retraction/explanation of the "bitter" remarks. But more importantly, he could offer us a clearer view of who he is and what he stands for. We know much about his emotionally charged vision of a blissful united future that he touts at every opportunity. And while that's compelling, it is without substance. He has not given us a clear picture of how we will get there, only the promise that he will lead us. But he has also not given a clear picture of who he is as a man, and without that deep understanding, he cannot reasonably expect people to follow him into uncharted territory. That sort of allegiance is earned through trust and belief in the individual. Knowing that the character of the man is such that you can march blindly in his footsteps with confidence. This is a trust he has yet to earn.
He is arguably the most personally opaque of the three remaining candidates. I believe it is because of this vacuum of identity that surrounds him that he is uniquely prone to others latching onto statements and contexts that might otherwise be overlooked, as saying something definitive about the man. Is he a closeted Muslim? Is he a militant Black? Is he all smooth talk and no action? Is he a pandering politician? Is he an egg-headed lawyer who thinks he's better than us? In reality, probably not any of those things, yet maybe a little of each, and likely many more. But until he provides some substance to his persona, he can't reasonably expect the labels and accusations to bounce off. It's hard to bounce something off of a vacuum.
To this end, he brings these media frenzies on himself.
Alert reader Jennifer shared this little tidbit from MadTV. I haven't picked on the Bush Administration in a while in here, so this will have to make up for that.
Just sharing a creative concept I've been playing with. The video below was made from a still photo taken from a school event a couple of years ago where my son was playing Albert Einstein. The photo was then subjected to digital puppetry techniques. I wrote a short script based on a quote attributed to Einstein, and Doug recorded it using his best drama club voice-over skills. The audio clip was then lip synced to the mouth, and the character was then animated with head and camera movements and facial expressions. The background was also swapped out for a more context appropriate one, and then the transient video title was added. The result is kinda cool.
I have a feeling that not only would many people envy John Perry, but if doctors could figure out how to induce lipodystrophy in people, there would be lines around the block at the clinic. You see, John Perry "suffers" from a condition which makes his body unable to store fat. His body simply burns though all it gets and he never gains weight. He gorges himself on Chinese takeout, french fries, chocolate, whatever he likes... and his weight never changes.
This has the potential to finally settle the question of what to get your girl for her birthday. "Honey, I got you lipodystrophy, 2 cheesecakes, and a stuffed crust pizza!" My guess is she'd be so grateful she wouldn't even think to ask if this means you think she's fat.
Of course this means the country would be overrun by skinny little stick girls. While this wouldn't be nearly as appealing to most men as an appropriately curvy woman, it would finally make the women stop obsessing about their weight. Although I suspect that maybe we'd just be squeezing the obsession balloon here. If weight ceased to be an issue, I'm sure the women's magazines and talk shows would soon have them obsessing about hair texture or skin tone.
Your first job as an actual parent is choosing a name for your child. Which may explain why so many people seem to fumble this important task. After all, they're new at the job, maybe they're still a little doped up on the labor room pain killers, or the combination of euphoria and terror just has their senses all muddled. None of which seems to truly explain why a rational grandparent, or even an attending nurse, doesn't grab one or both parents by the ears and loudly and passionately inquire as to whether or not they've lost their freakin' mind or not.
One might think that childhood presents ample opportunities for other children to pick on your kid without saddling them with an oddball moniker. Then there's always the "Boy Named Sue" theory that such a name will force the kid to get tough or die. I have personally known a guy named Bennett Bennett and a girl named Mary Christmas. But these kids got off easy compared to the winners in the Worst Bad Name Contest. Despite competition from people like Chastity Beltz, Wrigley Fields, Justin Credible, Tiny Bimbo, Brook Traut, Ima Hogg, and Shanda Lear, the winner was an unfortunate woman with a great sense of humor named Iona Knipl. Although I suspect with that name, a sense of humor would be sort of mandatory.
And if so, should it be about $25?? I ask because I'm facing a minor moral dilemma. On Tuesday, the hospital where I had my surgery last August sent me a statement saying I owed them $25. This by itself, should be a red flag to someone. These accounts were all settled in September, and then suddenly this bill pops out? But in an effort to be prepared, I dug out my folder replete with $35,000 worth of various medical bills (thank goodness for medical insurance!), and proceeded to plow though it looking for something which matched. I suppose the other argument would have been that they had already been paid $35,000, why were we quibbling about $25? Or in a similar vein, it was only $25, how much time was I going to spend to prove I didn't owe it? But this was a matter of principle, not financial expedience.
Anyway, I eventually found a bill with the same base charge. I noted that the bill from September showed a $25 credit from my credit card where I had paid a co-pay. The new bill they sent did not show that credit. Just to be sure, I pulled the credit card statement, and sure enough, I had paid that $25. "So," I says to myself with unwarranted confidence, "There's yer trouble right there!"
The next morning I called expecting it to take way too long. I was prepared for the person to put me through the wringer and insist that their system could not possibly have made a mistake. After only about 30 seconds on queue, Dagmar answers and I proceed to explain the situation. I have documents I'm prepared to fax, and color photographs with circles and arrows on the back to explain each one. I wait tentatively as he pulls up my records. I'm poised for the return volley. And I find that I'm almost deflated when he informs me that he'll credit my account $25. I should just ignore the bill, and they are very sorry for the confusion.
"Damn!" I mean, "Cool!" But... "Damn!"
Well tonight I go to the mailbox and find that the hospital has now sent me a check for $25 to reimburse me for overpaying them when they sent me the previous bill, which I never paid.
"Curses Dagmar!! I knew it seemed too easy!"
I have to admit, that it's tempting to just pocket the money as a stupidity tax on them and call it a day. But that wouldn't be right. If $25 was worth the trouble in one direction, it would only be fair to call them again tomorrow. But I doubt I'll be as well prepared.
