Here is the Open Thread for this week.
Readers are invited to discuss things that have been on their minds, regardless of whether they are on topic.
If you are dying to say something that normally would be deleted under comment rules, here is your chance. Rules are very loose for open thread posts, and usual restrictions concerning topic matter do not apply.
Feel free to sound off about anything you want.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080417/od_nm/japan_score_dc;_ylt=AjtwvWfVsc1xCZONMLZh3TKs0NUE
Anyone care to explain this one? I’m having a hard time understanding why the team didn’t just put their most wimpy chearleader in as pitcher… at least there’d be an excuse if that was the case.
Amazing. . . The pitcher had already through 250 pitche in the game, and the coach threw in the towel because he felt that if the game went on any longer the pitcher might injure his arm. . .
It’s snowing. In Vancouver. Snowing. Snow. The white stuff. What the ??
Global warming?
do you mean Cheer Leader..BW ?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cheerleader
well,if you are talking about a real bowler/ batsman..start here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Pieterson
*double-o any thoughts on this matter?*
rem.
been a hard, awkward week week at work and i need to vent. so without further ado i will begin posting in no particular order and at my leisure the types of customers that are causing me to steadily lose me tenuous grip on sanity.
type: the entitled customer
these are the people that call or carry in their computer demanding compensation for some perceived wrong perpetrated against them by u, the brand, or their computer. they have a habit of breaking/misusing/not maintaining their equipment and then trying to deny any fault in doing so. you can usually tell who they are by their case history. they typically call in every time they “find” a new fault in their computer which they apparently hadn’t been aware of in the last six months since the purchase date (really, the ram hasn’t been working the whole time and it took you till now to bring it in? give you 20 guesses as to why don’t i believe you.
occasionally the entitled customer does have a case where the os crashed/hung/failed due to an issue with a software patch, or a firmware update rendered their computer almost inoperable, or they actually experienced a hardware failure of some sort. it is at these times entitled customers distinguish themselves by destroying any sympathy or good will their sad case might have engendered in me by asking for something completely unreasonable, that most of the times i cant even provide. i tell them i need to replace their built in wireless card which my daignostics indicate has failed. they counter by demanding a free copy of microsoft office ultimate edition for their selected platform and a new router in addition to the repair; for the inconvenience.
example of on encountered recently
the customer had a hard drive failure after almost three years of usage, he was still barely in his extended service agreement. the customer had not backed up anything to an external hard drive or any other system. the customer had taken into the store and they could not recover the information using our methods.
excerpts from conversation
“so what are you going to do to make this up to me?”
“absolutely nothing.”
“why not? your hard drive is of inferior quality. it failed on me.”
“i understand you’re frustrated sir, we are going to replace your hard drive and get your system installed and running again.”
“you’re going to do more than that.”
“sir..”
“no one ever told me i needed a backup.”
“actually it says to perform periodic backups on every computer product page on our website, and on the paperwork that came with your computer…”
“but..”
“and on the service agreement contract it also states that we bear no responsibility for lost data.”
“well, if you really need those files, there are hardware data recovery services available through third parties.”
“like who.”
“drive savers is a well known company that provides services to recover data from damaged hard drives.”
“how much are they?”
“rates usually start at $500…”
“fine, you can pay for it.”
“no, we won’t. would you like their number?”
“why won’t you pay for it, you owe me this…”
“fine, but i want my choice of external hard drive from your store or i’m never buying another one of your products”
“that’s your decision sir, but i don’t offer appeasements.”
“well, then get me to someone who will.”
“no.”
“what do you mean no.”
“i mean that we are going to replace your hard drive and reinstall the system and then give your computer back to you, and thats it.”
“i want to speak to your manager.”
throughout the conversation there were repeated manager requests, cursing, threatening to have me fired, and a general temper tantrum. get at least two of those a week.
the only thing preventing these people from being higher on the list of things that piss me off is that it is so much fun denying them what they demand.
If people really feel the need to trumpet their political affiliation to other people who at the best won’t care or at the worst will end up hating you for it, this is the place to do it. Keep it out of the general discussion.
esotericlarity, let me guess, are in the US?
type: the customer who refuses to troubleshoot or repair
this type of customer comes in three distinct flavors
a)the customer who thinks he knows better than you how to troubleshoot the problem
i never understand these customers. if you know how to fix the problem then why are we talking? i’ll you why, because 90% of the time these people either have no idea what they are talking about or are about to perform a risky/unnecessary procedure for a relatively simple issue. they will argue with you every step of the way until you resolve the issue (the whole time you have to assert your authority as the expert and decline to do any of the troubleshooting they want you to do) and then they tell you how their solution would have worked just as well and how you are an insubordinate little prick, etc, etc…
the bright side to these customers is that they either eventually give in and let you do your job, or the hang up/leave in frustration that you “won’t help them” remove a plist from their pc or a dll file from a mac.
b) the customer is upset and refuses to do anything you say, allow you to remote login, or even allow you to look at their computer, usually they wont even give you their name
okay, i get it, you’re pissed off. your computer isn’t working the way you want it to. you called the manufacturer and got some guy in india who in broken english told you to plug in the computer and then hung up. not telling me anything or letting me do anything isn’t going to help. i don’t have telepathy. i’ve apologized for your bad experience. why won’t you let me do my job? why, if you won’t let me do anything, won’t you leave? you just stand/sit there glaring at me/not talking to me and won’t go away/hang up or respond to questions until i do it for you?
i didn’t do anything you asshole! quit acting like i just murdered a puppy in front of you.
c) the resolution to the issue involves them doing something they don’t want to do because of the effort and time involved
“isn’t there just a button to make everything go back to the way it was before i did anything.”
“yes, its called the format button, you’ll find it when you boot to the install disk.”
“but i don’t want to reinstall.”
“neither do i, its not necessary, all we need to do is go ahead and reload the fonts onto your computer”
“but i don’t want to”
surprisingly this isn’t a three year old boy, but a forty year old woman.
d) the customer is a paranoid nut who thinks you’re trying to hack them/steal their identity/erase their vital files
this can actually be kind of fun when the customer is actually crazy. its funny how they dont mind giving you their name, phone number, email address yet cry out in fear of you deleting their files when you clear their temporary files caches. plus its alway good to now how the aliens are doing, ahh…those aliens and their crazy schemes.
what sucks is when the customer is just a misanthrope who thinks you are intentionally trying to destroy their computer. and tells you to stop every two seconds and explain exactly how what you are doing will affect their excel files and contact lists, only to no sell you on stuff that is completely harmless and that would resolve their problem.
these type of customers are relatively high on the list of people i dislike because they make life impossible for everybody including themselves and then blame me for the effects of their own intransigence.
yes jimichan i live in the us. why do you ask?
Great movie - Cha no Aji (The Taste of Tea)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0413893/
“Why are you a triangle!?”
Seen it?
Cha no Aji is great.
Also check out “Naicu no Mori” (funky forest) by the same director.
Rem, you’re going to have to gustfully convince me that cricket is a worthy sport for I am completely m’eh-ed by the entire thing.
However, I do watch some matches from the clubhouse balcony at Brockton Point in Stanley Park. The American tourists also don’t quite understand the point of the game, either, so when they see me watching it while I’m eating a grilled hamburger, they assume *I* must know what the rules are. So I make them up as I go along.
Somewhere in Allentown, Pennsylvania, there are a couple of guys who think the cricket scores are partially based on “style points” for pitching (averaged from four volunteer judges who sit along the sidelines) and the fifth out of the game is exclusively for tea & biscuit breaks wherein the players serve the umpires and team managers.
If you have any semi-nude photos of buffed cricketers, you may get me interested, though.
(Arden’s response) “there will not be any photos of my husband’s rock-hard buns posted on this site..so just butt out”
Arden (on holiday and lovin’ it).
(*|*)
I’m sorry, esotericlarity, but that behavior sounds so stereotypically American.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m American myself. I don’t mean to say that Americans are bad people, but manners seem to have been lost as a part of American culture. (Is that an oxymoron?)
hey rem, check it-
http://people.artcenter.edu/~jsong5/thesis/index02.html
I’m checking it len..but in between carrying shopping bags,organising flights and hotel bookings…I’m not getting a hell of a lot of time to ponder the more important things - like Poetry & Art.
Thank you for your patience and I hope you understand.
remora.
all things in their time my man
lift it when your hands aren’t full
well len (arms and ears aching) I settled down late last nite..and thought Poetry (!)..but just as I got in the zone out came tsutomu and said “Daddy me wanna go chi”..
needless to say..I just switched on to CNN
Baseball’s been bounced at the Olympics.
In theory, this is the last Olympics to have baseball as a medal sport. It’s not scheduled for the next one… that Japan is hoping to get.
Talk about bad timing.
The AP Inside Baseball podcast for April 19th (http://podcast.com/show/4932/) includes a discussion about this (with some good points about Japan) with USA Baseball’s Davey Johnson and Bob Watson at the USOC media summit in Chicago. They’re kinda ‘aw shucks’-y but they do give some background on the situation.
And for JP and others, a chat with Cubs great, Ron Santo.
Baseball is gone (specialized stadiums that many host countries can’t/won’t use, not enough countries do it, plus an anti-US angle on it as well) and unfortunately it took women’s softball with it (many of the same problems). Yet we still have the old European aristocratic equestrian events that are the province of the elite and, truth be told, the horses rather than the people are the athletes.