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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
Thanks for stopping by! 
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Unlike many people on this site, I don't have any friends or family who are also members. And with the exception of one user who I know from another website's message board, everyone I know on WDC is someone I met right here on the site. I mention this because it's not often I get the chance to meet online friends in person, which made today a special treat for me.
Annette  , it was an absolute pleasure to meet you in person. I really enjoyed our conversation, and hope we can meet again soon. So hurry up and finish the book I lent you!  Seriously, though, it was a delightful way to spend the morning (where did those three and a half hours go?), talking about life, travel, and, of course, WDC. To everyone else, I can assure you that she's just as kind, intelligent and charming in person as she is here online.
Thanks for meeting me for coffee, Giselle!
We should round up a few others in the Southern California area and have a WDC West Coast Mixer...
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Interesting news story today:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/fox-news-video-omits-appl_n_588447.html...
Apparently Fox News omitted (they claim a technical problem... how convenient) applause for President Obama's speech in their video of him at the West Point graduation ceremony, making it look as if his words met with crickets from the graduating class and their loved ones. I'm not going to rant about how biased Fox News is (that would be a very long blog entry), but I do want to say that it's truly shameful when a news organization, which is supposed to value fair and balanced reporting, only presents the unaltered truth when it coincides with their views... and the rest of the time allows "glitches" (or flat-out alters a story) to misrepresent what really happened in a situation.
How can we as a society expect ourselves - and our children - to think for ourselves and be independent, discerning individuals, when the media only presents the version of the story they want us to hear... to the point of omitting critical information? 
It's a sad day when the media ignores objectivity in favor of personal commentary and agenda. 
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Just finished reading The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester; curious to know if anyone else has read it and, if so, what you thought of it.
I'm by no means an avid reader of nonfiction, but this particular story fascinated me. It's an account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, an undertaking the resulted in almost 500,000 entries compiled over the course of more than half a century. The editors assigned to complete the dictionary requested that readers submit entries and citations from preexisting written works, which would be verified, cross-referenced, and included in the dictionary. What makes this story particularly interesting is that it was discovered one man (retired U.S. Army surgeon Dr. W.C. Minor) submitted more than ten thousand entries, almost all of which were used in the dictionary... and that he did so as a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane. 
The book lags a little at the beginning as it establishes the history of dictionaries (ooh, exciting!  ) and the events that led up to the Oxford English Dictionary project, but the latter half of the book is a fascinating account of Dr. Minor's troubled character, his friendship with editor James Murray, and the remarkable contribution he made to the English language, all while battling against what would later come to be diagnosed as schizophrenia.
It's a fascinating story and if you're a fan of history, lexicography, or stories of how coincidence formed events of our past, this might be worth the read. For those that have already read it, what did you think?
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I've been loosely following this whole Facebook uproar that's come up in the past couple of weeks. Apparently Facebook now makes profile information available to third party websites like Yelp and Pandora, so those sites can download your information and tell you which of your friends likes the restaurant you're thinking about eating at, or enjoys the song you're currently listening to. People seem to be getting really upset that their information is being put out there like that.
On the one hand, I can understand people's frustration. Facebook keeps changing their privacy settings, and the default is always to allow the changes to take effect rather than giving their users an option. I can sympathize with people who wish to exert more control over the information they put out there on the internet, and think it's pretty reprehensible for a company like Facebook to treat its 400 million users (who made it the success it is) like marketing tools to increase profits through strategic partnerships. Really, it's not much more than the electronic version of a business selling its Rolodex to marketing firms... it's always under the guise of providing more targeted advertisements for the consumer, but what it boils down to is one company selling personal information about clients, members and customers to another company for profit or competitive advantage.
In that respect, I'm no fan of Facebook.
On the other hand, though, Facebook is a company, and companies aren't really doing their job if they're not exploring every opportunity to grow, expand their business, and increase market share and profitability. That's the whole point of being in business, isn't it? I think what irritates me just as much as Facebook taking certain liberties with that information is Facebook users who post personal information on a social networking website and then become furious when that information is made available to other people. Facebook is a (free) service that people voluntarily sign up for... and it doesn't require you to provide any information that you're not comfortable providing. If you don't want people to know your birthday, don't put your birthday on your profile. If you don't want friends in your red state to know you voted for Barack Obama, don't become a "fan" of Barack Obama's Facebook page. Granted, I signed up for Facebook a long, long time ago so the memory's a little fuzzy, but if I recall, I wasn't required to provide any top secret personal information... and I certainly wasn't required to make it a part of my profile.
As much as I dislike Facebook for manipulating their privacy settings in a borderline unethical way, I really can't stand people who voluntarily provide information, and then get upset when that information is available to other people. If you don't want someone to know something, don't post it online... especially on a website that, by design, is intended to share information.
There's a general rule of netiquette ("net etiquette") that I follow. While I originally heard it in reference to status updates and message board posts, I think it applies to any information one provides online:
Don't share anything that you wouldn't want your parents, your boss, or your significant other to see.
To me, in addition to status updates, blog comments, and other opinions, that also goes for pictures, contact information, favorite groups or pages, and yes, even friends. While I sympathize with everyone who is outraged at Facebook's continued disregard for the privacy of its members, I also have to keep in mind that Facebook wasn't the one that put that information there in the first place.
If you don't want people knowing something about you, just don't put it on Facebook. Then, Facebook can do whatever it wants, and you can be safe and secure in the knowledge that even if the information is broadcast to the world at large, the world isn't going to see anything you didn't want them to see. And if Facebook has a history of pulling this crap with its privacy settings, why take the chance by leaving that information on your profile? Just get rid of it and be content with the knowledge that even if the settings do change again, the only information that will be shared is information you're comfortable sharing.  |
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I hate people that take advantage of others, especially those that prey on people's insecurities, desperation, or dreams. Today my wife and I found a beautiful house for rent in the classified section, at an amazing price, and called to inquire about the property. Turns out it's a bank-owned foreclosure, and this company rents out the properties. I know a lot of banks are doing the whole "take over the mortgage payments on this house" thing, which is definitely not for us, but this company assured us it was a rental only. We'd have the option to buy, but we could also rent the property with no loan application or any of the other really questionable practices a lot of banks employ to find someone to acquire their toxic assets.
So I talk on the phone with this representative for fifteen minutes, and he says all the right things. He's reassuring, confident, and definitely talking up the properties. Tells me that his service has hundreds of properties in the area, and we'll have access to his website where we can log in and check out the properties, then request to view them in person before we decided where we'd like to live.
Then, after getting my name and mailing and email addresses, he hits me with it.
"And how would you like to pay for this today? Visa, Mastercard, American Exp--"
I stopped him right there and said, "You know, I appreciate all the information, but as a general rule, I don't give payment information over the phone after a phone conversation. Can you send me some documentation to review? Terms and conditions of your service, things like that."
He immediately snapped at me, losing all pretenses of courtesy and politeness and says, "We're not in the business of sending out pamphlets or marketing materials. We put people in houses. So what's your credit card number?"
I explain to him again, now with warning bells going off in my head, that I will not be giving him a credit card number over the phone, at least until I can review - at my own leisure and with legal documentation in front of me - the terms of the service he is asking me to pay for. Especially when the service involves foreclosures, dealing with banks, pre-approvals, mortgage agreements, etc. I say I hope he can understand my hesitance to just give him a credit card based on what he's told me over the phone. Heck, he hasn't even told me how much he charges for his service!
Oh, but I'm missing out on such a great opportunity! I'm really going to be sorry if I pass up this chance! How can I even think of wasting all his time today if I'm not going to go through with it?
The call ended with him very abruptly saying, "When you're ready to rent a real property, you give me a call. We're not interested in sending people information (as if it were a dirty word)... we put you in a house. Period."
And then he hung up.
Sorry, Mr. "Trust me and give me a credit card number over the phone"... I don't do business that way, and I hope most other people don't either. Even if you are providing a legitimate service, you're going about it the wrong way. Asking for more information or time to consider an offer is not a crime... and treating it like it is only makes you look like you're hiding something.
I hate scams. 
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It was one of those days... not the bad kind. The kind where things seem to fall into place and the cosmos smiles down at you. Today, in short succession, I got approval for my refund from Bally (see below), received a call about a job interview, got an email from a job placement service who saw my resume on Monster.Com and thinks they can match me with some employers (not sure about this one), and figured out what I'm going to say on Friday when I speak about the entertainment industry as part of a Performing Arts Day event at a theme park in the Bay Area.
I've also been inspired to write on the two scripts I've got going at the moment... and the whole "fewer days at the office, more days working from home" is actually working out better than expected. Being home has allowed me to keep the apartment cleaner, have more time to exercise (gotta lose those pounds before the reunion this year!), and generally just spend more time on me. All in all, the lack of a full-time job notwithstanding, things are actually going pretty well this week.
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WARNING!
If you try to cancel your membership at Bally Total Fitness, make damn sure you get confirmation in writing! Over the weekend, I discovered that despite canceling my membership to Bally last September, my credit card has been charged every single month since then. When I called to inquire why and ask about a refund, the woman told me that she doesn't have any record of my request to cancel. I told her that I requested my membership be canceled on the last day I was in the gym, that the person at the desk told me he would take care of it, and suggested that I send a letter to Bally's corporate office "just in case." The woman on the phone's response?
"Well I don't have a record of either of those things in your file."
I offered to send her a copy of the letter I mailed to the corporate office.
"Was it sent by Certified Mail?"
No...
"Well without sending it Certified Mail, you can't prove we actually received it."
So what you're saying is, unless I - a customer in good standing who has always paid on time and has been with the gym for over three years - can prove to you with absolute legal certainty that I asked my membership to be canceled, you're not going to do anything?
"We're not required to do anything, no. So unless you can provide documentation proving that we didn't honor your request, we'll be happy to cancel your membership effective this month... and no refund is due."
Apparently, if you want to cancel a gym membership, you need evidence that will hold up in a lawsuit to present when they don't honor your request to cancel. And apparently, speaking with an account rep at the gym and sending a letter to the corporate office isn't enough of a declarative statement to cause Bally to close a membership account.
I mean, we're only talking about $250 or so at this point (and I know I should check my credit card balance more frequently so this stuff doesn't happen), but now I'm pissed off. I'm a pretty laid back person who takes his obligations (like paying membership fees to organizations in full and on time, regularly) seriously. I've been a good customer to Bally... actually the best kind; I paid on time every month and rarely used the gym, never complained, and never received complaints by other members. And to be treated like I'm the guilty party who has to prove himself in order for them to do anything beyond the bare minimum that they're legally required to do according to a membership agreement is just an atrocious breach of customer service etiquette, from a company (like so many) who claim that customer service is a priority.
Or did they mean, a priority just under the priority to make money any way possible, including shady dealings with members who want to close their accounts? 
At this point, since they're hiding behind "our membership agreement only requires us to blah blah blah," I'm requesting a copy of the membership agreement, terms and conditions of their automatic bill pay system, and corporate policy on customer service to review. It's more about the principle now than anything else, and they really shouldn't have treated me like I was the criminal trying to get money out of them. I'm well versed in legal agreements and language, and have all next week off from my consulting gig... so I can sit at home and argue with them ALL day.
I hope that $250 was worth it Bally... because between encouraging friends and family not to sign up with a gym that has questionable business practices and no respect for its members, and the sheer number of man hours and paperwork you're going to have to do to close out my file... I may or may not get the refund I'm looking for, but at the very least I'm going to make damn sure you earn every penny of that money and have a massive headache to show for it. 
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Apparently, at the White House Correspondents Dinner this year, it seems that President Obama actually upstaged comedian Jay Leno in the comedy department. While Leno made the usual jokes about Joe Biden, Obama's socialization programs, and that his staff is largely from his home state of Illinois ... Obama had the comedian blushing with his opening introduction:
"I am glad that the only person whose ratings fell more than mine is here tonight. Great to see you, Jay. I'm also glad that I'm speaking first ... because we've all seen what happens when somebody takes the time slot after Leno."
BAZINGA!
Who knew the Prez could upstage the night's comic entertainment?
On the issue of the NBC late night fiasco, Conan O'Brien will be on 60 Minutes tonight. His severance contract stipulated he couldn't appear on television until May 1st, and by golly, CBS wasn't going to waste a single day in getting him on the air and airing his dirty laundry about their rival late-night network. Should be an interesting evening...
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