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The Next Presidential Election

Posted on May 29, 2010 by Brian under Life.

I told someone the other day. “I think they would get more voters if the Presidential elections were done like American Idol.” We all had a laugh and I didn’t think much of it until today. My dad made a joke about running for office and it sparked that memory.

Think abut it! How would the Presidential elections be if we ran them like American Idol? We would have the “Contestants” all come in for a Season. It would be televised. We could have previous Presidents be judges and Political Analysts, Advisers or Advocates would be Mentors during specific sessions. Then the United States gets to vote through their cellphone just like on Idol and the person with the most votes wins the Presidency. Think of the ratings. Think of the advertising. Think of the sponsorships! All of these companies clamoring to sponsor the next President of the United States. Well, that’s not much different than right now; but this would be more public.

I think the biggest problem with the elections right now are that they are boring. No one understands what the hell they are talking about half the time. Other times they just drag things on so much that no one really cares. We could get John Maher to host the show. I think that if it was thrown out to the people in an entertaining platform like that, you would see more interest, more voters. People would pay more attention and in the end, you might get a better President.

Or, it could change nothing.

“Dim the lights!”

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My New Toy

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Brian under Life, Toys.

I finally got the TV that I have been researching for the last three months. The 55 inch Samsung LED TV. It has great picture quality, an increadibly thin profile and the greatest feature of all, it comes Web-enabled. Thats right! I can access applications from the Samsung Apps store right on my TV. One of the coolest apps that we have been playing with is the Netflix App. Since we have a Netflix account and we watch the Instant Watch a lot already, it was a no-brainer for us to get a TV that would allow us to use this feature. Before, we had an old computer hooked up to our TV that let us watch Netflix. It was OK but it reached a point that if we left the computer running for too long it sounded like a jet engine spooling up in the TV cabinet.

Now we don’t have that problem. Our TV can access the Netflix instant watch, the Pandora playlist and a wide variety of other sites. It also has Yahoo widgets added so that you can look at the weather, Flickr and stock data. If you want you can also have a news ticker display news information across the bottom of your screen.

I am looking forward to getting a Bluray player to connected to it. I told Ching that once we get a Bluray player, there will be no need to go to the movies. We will just wait until it comes out on Bluray and watch it in the comfort of our home. I have a feeling that the next fight will be at our house. Although, I am very leery of having people over to the house. I am very protective of my new TV and dont want people around it. I name my cars, I am trying to decide if I want to name my TV.

Here is a picture of my TV on the Apps page.

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You Should Have Been There!

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Brian under Life.

Normally when I leave work there is a variety of different people that are in the parking garage booth. Most of the time they just sit there and don’t say or do anything. Thursday was a little different.

As I was leaving, one of my former employees (who I fired back when I worked as a Supervisor at T-Mobile) was standing in the window and noticed me as I was leaving and said, “Hi.” In past experiences with old employees that’s usually all the interaction that I get (or want; I fired most of them and they are never happy to see me). However, this time was different.

I had to leave early on Friday (we had to meet the maintenance man to put up the new window treatments for the living room), to pick up Ching so that she could make sure that it was done correctly. As I was leaving, the same person was in the booth and actually stopped me. The conversation went a little like this.

Booth Girl: Wait!
Me: (Thinking to myself, “OK. Here it comes. She’s going to blame me for firing her and her present pitiful work situation.”)
BG: Do you remember the Kokapelli dolls you had on your desk?
Me: Yep. (Thinking to myself again, “Why?”)
BG: Well I don’t know if you remember the guy I was dating at TMo but we got married and had a couple of kids. After my second kid I got a Kokapelli tattoo right here (using her hand to rub her inner thigh right next to her crotch).

At this point, I’m thinking “Oh, crap! Not this!” This is where it gets kind of sad and funny all at the same time.

BG: So I’m no longer married and I don’t have any kids anymore.
Me: (This is when I started thinking, “What the hell happened to your kids? Did you eat them? Did you take them to Nebraska and drop them off at the hospital because you didn’t want them? What the hell happened to them?” How exactly does one have kids and then not have them anymore?).
BG: So how are things with you and your wife? (Probably fishing for my marital situation.)
Me: Things are great. I’m actually on my way to pick her up right now and I’m running late.
BG: That’s nice. I am so happy for you.

At this point, I said bye and she opened the gate (which had actually dropped closed during our exchange). You could tell by the tone of her voice and the look on her face that she was disappointed. I got over to Ching and could not wait to tell her about this little conversation.

I have decided that in the future I will take the Water exit and loop around to Broadway to avoid the booth and any more awkward conversations.

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COX, FAIL!

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Brian under Life.

As many of you know, recently Ching and I moved out of our house and into an apartment. One of the many frustrations that occur is transferring your services from one place to another. I decided to get a jump on a lot of these by calling the week before we left for San Francisco (2 weeks before our move). Out of all of the services I called, none were as frustrating to deal with as Cox.

I called Cox the week of Feb 8th and spoke to a young lady in their Sales Department. She was kind but not very helpful. Being an ex-employee of Cox I found myself telling her how to do her job because she could not figure out how to add me to the bulk discount that Quarters at Cambridge offers. After several minutes of conversation she informed me of my new bill and the call was over.

On Feb 24th I called back to provide an accurate number of outlets and to make sure that the transfer was set up correctly and that the service would be activated on Saturday as I requested. I spoke to another rep that could not find any information on my new address and looked at my old address and found that the person I worked with before had simply set up my service to be disconnected but didn’t bother transferring any of my services to the apartment. I spent several more minutes on the phone with this rep making sure that everything was going to be set up and that I would receive the service I had on the day that I requested. Again, I was told with confidence that everything was fixed.

Saturday rolls around and I hook up the TV to make sure that everything is working. We checked the internet and to our surprise we had service. Satisfied I go to the business of putting together my new home and vegging in front of the TV in the evenings.

On Monday we come home from work and start to make dinner. We decide that we were going to watch some TV while dinner was cooking and that’s when we realized. We had no TV or Internet. I immediately called Cox and fight through their unbelievable automated system. Finally getting a hold of another tech person they ask me several questions only to tell me that I need to go to sales. I speak to a sales person who tells me he can fix my problem, places me on hold and then comes back several minutes later and tells me that everything is transferred and that we should have service in 15 min. I wait at least 20 because I know that it takes a little time to push the signal through. After the 20 min I call back and get a hold of a very nice woman named Bethany. She pulled up my account and found that the sales guy transferred my equipment but failed to activate it. She took the time to make sure that my internet was working and that all of my questions were answered. She advised that it was going to take an hour for the service to push through and that she would call back to make sure that everything was working fine. I advised her that I had been told this already and that they had all failed to follow through. She convinced me to trust her and sure enough an hour later she calls. Unfortunately, I was not home at the time and asked if she could call me back in 30 min. She agreed and sure enough, 30 min later she called and my services were working perfectly.

As compensation I was offered $20.00 towards my service for over 3 hours of frustration and the loss of confidence. If it were not for Bethany, I would have canceled my service and looked into an alternative method of entertainment. I have since sent a letter to Cox corporate detailing the above and advised them, it’s on them now. If they were in my shoes and had to go through what I had to go through, would $20.00 be enough. Would that pacify your frustration and disappointment in a service you have had for over 10 years.

In the mean time while I wait to get an answer from them, I am looking at alternative services. I like the Cox service and have never been disappointed with them in the past. They have always been helpful and more times than not, have resolved my issues with a minimum of effort. Hopefully they will see the error of their ways and offer something more substantial in the way of compensation. I guess only time will tell.