Empty Notebook

For safekeeping…

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

What’s better than watching the video of Buckner over and over again?

Watching an RBI Baseball reenactment of it with the announcers dubbed on it.

Kathy Sierra hit the nail on the head again, this time talking about how so many companies are like bad marriages. Her visuals are funny, as usual, so check out the article.

I wonder why companies behave like that so much. Maybe when a company is big, they forget about what could make them great because so many people are used to the “bend over and take it” treatment. Her point about marketing literature vs. user manuals is a perfect example. Why do I get generic help files and black and white documentation with poorly translated directions and diagrams? Because companies LOVE to outsource support.

For every good support experience, I’ve have at least 10 bad ones. If anyone needs an example of good though, call up BFG Tech. I had to wait on hold a little longer than I would have liked, but once I was through to an operator, my issue was resolved within 5 minutes. In all fairness, I had an advantage of the typical user, I could identify my motherboard and everything else I had tried, but BFG was great about not flipping through the “helpdesk script of death” and making me check if there was power to the card. The guys knew what they were talking about, pointed me to some new chipset drivers and I was on my way to SLI.

Thinking about that experience, I have to say, it’s not always all on the company, just like it’s never all on one person in a bad relationship. Slightly more educated users can also help the tech support vs. marketing vs. consumer battle.

Week 8 Update

1. Healthier Living - Like ESPN, I’m still undefeated in 2007. It was a good past week for Resolution #1, go figure, I actually paid attention to what I ate over the weekend. The first goal is doable by next Monday, which is opening day for softball. I might come up just a bit short, but no big deal.

2. Cleanup - I still need to get to Goodwill. Right now some other little projects have taken up my time around the house.

3. Website Growth - Pageviews are up per day… which is interesting since visits are roughly equal to January’s.

With some Dropkick Murphys

Who’s really the winner here?

Loyal
Pronunciation: ‘loi(-&)l
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French, from Old French leial, leel, from Latin legalis legal
1 : unswerving in allegiance: as a : faithful in allegiance to one’s lawful sovereign or government b : faithful to a private person to whom fidelity is due c : faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution, or product

I never realized, until recently, how much I appreciate loyalty. Not blind loyalty mind you, but rational loyalty. Loyalty that does its research and prepares its argument. Loyalty that has your back. The even more interesting thing about loyalty, is that sometimes you get it from the places you least expect.

I suppose I should have some sort of commentary on this, about society and the massive quantities of alcohol consumed by people on home game weekends. But hell, it’s just funny. Enjoy.

Week 7 Update

1. Healthier Living - The scale fought hard, but it lost the round, again. I remain undefeated. Mwahahahahahaha. I might not quite make the goal for opening day of softball season, but if I don’t it should only miss by a pound or two. The reality is that some muscle gain is occurring with the weight loss, which is affecting my overall loss number. That’s fine with me, I’m less worried about the actual weight number in the end, than a good number for body fat on the scale.

2. Cleanup - I still need to get to Goodwill. I will soon enough. Other than that, it’s just getting rid of tons of old paperwork.

3. Website Growth - February looks to be leveling off just under January’s numbers. But, there’s time left, so we’ll see.

Bonus - If I accomplish any one or more of these by my birthday in July, I’ll be making an interim resolution on my birthday.

!!!!!

Yessssssssss!!!!

Link for Pre-Order at Amazon