There's a famous play (I think it's The Plague) by a famous author (I think it's Camus) in which something along the following lines is said: if something really awful is happening to you, like terminal cancer, then you don't get hit by a truck or anything else like that. In other words, bad things happen one thing at a time.
Even back in Moses's day, the 10 plagues came sequentially. The frogs waited in the wings until the Nile returned from blood to its, uh, pristine state.
Not so at our house. We've had two plagues I don't want to go into, but before they were over, the most recent plague hit: sewage backup from Met Sewer into our basement. Our basement has been deflooded, decontaiminated, and derugged.
I haven't written lately about the Blast. For those of you out there who miss news of the Blues, here's an update on our team.
We're now 0-5 in our B3 league, having moved up from the C league this season. While our standing might seem to reflect poorly on our team, we have been improving steadily and just played the best team in our league to a near-tie. Admission to our games is still a bargain at, uhh, 0 dollars per game.
What a great holiday. As a friend of mine put it, it's all about food and not about gifts. We had an abundance of food, and my wife went nuts on table decorations and stuff. With Martha Stewart in the slammer, somebody has to take up the slack.
Here's wishing everybody in -273 and beyond a great holiday!
It's clear to me now that Apple is investing money in opening classy looking storefronts in expensive places, such as high-rent malls, while at the same time not spending enough money so that people can get reasonable service over the phone or at their classy looking high-rent stores.
You may recall from an earlier post the problems I had getting Apple to repair a defective display on a two-month-old iBook.
My latest round of fun with Apple came with an iPod that would consistently get stuck with "Error -32" or "Error -36" when trying ot sync with its mother ship iBook. I looked at the Apple web site and found nothing there, looked in Google, found nothing, so I called the Apple help line. The iPod is still under its one-year warrantee. I waited for a half-hour to get to somebody (it was much worse last time), and that person told me I needed to send the iPod in to Apple, which I could do at my own expense and they would repair or replace it. I pointed out to the person on the phone that we have Apple stores here in far-flung St Louis. She was surprised at this, but told me I could just take it in there for repair; in fact, I needn't have bothered her at all with a phone call.
So I show up at the Apple store and am "greeted" and told that I need to sign up to see a Genius. If you haven't been in an Apple store, the deal there is that they have this "Genius Bar" at which somebody allegedly much smarter than I am would help me resolve my situation.
Since the number of people who need help grealty outnumber the people trying to help them, I suggest they should call this the "Loser Bar" in honor of all of us waiting to see the Geniuses. Frankly I found the appellation of Genius misplaced and insulting. However, among those who work at an Apple store, the Geniuses do seem to know more and are kinder to customers than all the others, as you'll see when the story unfolds below.
So the Genius did see me after a 30-minute wait. There were plenty of other Apple employees there, standing around, greeting people, and a few of them were actually selling some things. We're talking 15 employees on the floor and 1 genius helping about 10 of us who need service. The Genius tested our iPod and decided to swap us a new one. He said that the cord might be a problem -- we didn't bring it along -- and if it is just bring it in and they'd swap that too. Sounded great to us.
Well the new iPod didn't work so well either, so we took the cord back in for a swap. They didn't have one on hand so they ordered one and told us to pick it up afer Tuesday. On Wednesday, which is after Tuesday on my calendars, I showed up to pick up the cord. I had to enqueue again for a Genius, who told me that the cord should have been there, but it wasn't, and that it might arrive by noon with their DHL shipment. So I went downstairs to have lunch. I called again after noon, was told the DHL shipment had come but with no cord for us. I asked to speak to the manager. This guy Eric came on the phone who claimed to be the manager (but later admitted he was only the "manager on duty" and the real manager was nowhere to be found. It turns out anybody, maybe you, could be the manager on duty at an Apple store, but you can't help people unless you're a Genius).
He went back and rechecked, and lo and behold, our precious cord had arrived, probably on Tuesday (but they wouldn't admit that), and it was in a multibox box and that's why they overlooked it.
Would you believe he made me requeue in line to get the cord from a Genius? So another 1/2 hour goes by and I get my cord, sign two pieces of paper that only a Genius could print, and went on my way.
How can a company like this stay in business? I am not so proud to think that they only pick on me. OK, they make things that should be nice, and seem to be, but like all things they can break. And when they break, they don't stand behind their product, they make you grovel to get things fixed. They are the only Apple in town, and they seem to know this. When my Dell laptop broke, somebody came to Wash U to fix it. There was no long wait on the phone, and no Genius I had to wait to see. They exude the "we make great stuff, how dare you claim something we made is broken" attitude. This customer has had enough of that.
Whoever thinks blogging is dead hasn't been keeping up with the banter between Chris and Lucas, as they joust verbally and strategically for superiority in NFL picks. Lucas also points to this site as certain to amuse, and I couldn't agree more. As has been said (in English translation from the original Japanese) on the Iron Chef, "You are sure to lose your youth with this." Perhaps you can guess what the original Japanese must have said.
Who will win the battle of NFL picks? Will Lisa emerge as the voice of wisdom behind Lucas's picks? Will Lucas's dislocated thumbs (from Halo 2) hamper his judgement? Will Chris's father in his visit to watch the Chiefs-Patriots game give Chris the inside edge on picks: "Chris, you've been like a son to me; let's talk about your NFL picks and reclaim our family's honor".
Who's pick-machine will reign supreme?
You probably know the phenomenon of the slow moving car creeping through a parking lot looking for a premium space. The driver looks furtively for a shopper exiting the mall in hopes that said shopper will deposit the goods and depart in the vehicle so near the mall that the driver will be the envy of all around.
I was at Bally's this morning, and the lot was about 1/4 full. Sure, the spots near the gym were taken. But I was surprised that when I exited, this two-seater BMW started backing up as I went forward, in hopes of getting a great parking space.
Come on, this is a gym. It's virtuous to walk from a far away space. The driver actually seemed disgusted with me that I cut through to another aisle and departed in a car parked relatively far away (I don't mind the walk, and I hate to wait to park).
I have driven many times past the Ethical Society but until today had not set foot in the building. The building is set low off the road, and has a copper-clad spire that rises well above the building. I was in need of some space to sit and ponder, so I stopped by, rang the bell, and the person in the building was kind enough to let me into the sanctuary.
The sanctuary has a very ordinary vinyl floor and movie-theater-like seating. The room hosts a tracker (mechanical action) pipe organ but I didn't go over to check it out; I'll save that for another visit. Inside the sanctuary, the framing under the ceiling reaches impossibly up through the building's spire, which is of interest below. The Ethical Society is not a religious institution. The woman who answered the door informed me of this when I asked if I could sit in the sanctuary. But the building and its people are evidently on a path "up".
Tomorrow is our 15th anniversary and I've been full of mixed feelings today, and needed a place to sort them out. I'm happy about our anniversary, but I know of two families in a great deal of physical and emotional pain right now, and their suffering tempers the observance of our anniversary.
In one family, a couple is thinking of splitting up and it's been a very painful thing. In the other family, a relatively young mother of two has an inoperable brain tumor. At an intellectual level it's simple to rationalize that these things happen all the time to people I don't know. But when you know the people who are suffering it's hard to put them out of your mind at a time when you should be happy and celebrating a joyous event.
In looking for a "sign" in and around the Ethical Society, I noticed that the remarkable roof, which you can see in the photo on the page I reference above, flattens out at the edges of the building. It has been sprinkling steadily today, and the rainfall on its own is insufficient to make anybody very wet. However, off this roof and through a spout that drains water from the roof onto shrubbery, there was a strong and steady stream of water.
The insignificant sprinkles took on added strength and meaning because the roof served to collect them and channel them toward some good. I'm very glad I stopped by.
If you think these pages have a new look, then you're right and we have David to thank. Thanks David!
I haven't seen "Saving Private Ryan" so I was looking forward to seeing the movie tonight on TV. Sure I know I can get the DVD, but there's something about seeing a movie "fresh" on TV with commercials and stuff.
Just as the movie was to air, the local station ran something that said they wouldn't carry the movie because of some federal guidelines about violence or something like that.
Maybe I'll go get equipment to project the movie on the side of a dumpster.
I saw "Saw". It was pretty much as expected -- lots of good suspense and a downright scary story line. I won't say much more in case you should seek to see "Saw". I then went to Brandts and heard jazz and had dinner.
My night out was a last-minute thing and everybody I called to go was busy, so I went solo.
I'm free and solo tomorrow (Saturday) night - anybody want to go see a movie? Anybody recommend a movie I should see?
The election has come and gone and most people I know can't figure out why Kerry didn't do better.
This just goes to show how out of touch I am with the pulse of this country. Where did he go wrong? Do most people think we belong in Iraq? Do most people want a Supreme Court populated with justices who sit somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun?