time to purge

There are 11,311 messages in my personal email box. Oh don't worry. Only 4,749 are unread. Hey, don't I get credit for at least opening 6,562 of them? Among the unopened are daily headlines from the New York Times, real estate listings, Sirius satellite radio program updates, LinkedIn connection updates, and messages I send to myself from work (recipes, reminders, topics to blog about, links to articles, etc.).

This is in contrast to my work email box, which ebbs and flows depending on a variety of factors, but rarely gets above 100 and rarely holds anything that hasn't been read within hours of arrival. The box was getting a bit big (75), but today, I managed to chip it down to 16 messages (and all of them read). It was not easy. The reason the messages were there was because something needed to be done with them.

Oftentimes, that something is a series of things (make a call, update a task, create an appointment, build a spreadsheet, create a file, you get the idea). Sometimes, it takes an hour to put away a single email.

Obviously, I don't make such time for my personal email. Probably twice a year, I plumb the depths and do some serious deleting. Time to do that again. If only I had time.

unexpected absence

I thought I would have been blogging more, this first week of unemployment. But alas, I spent much of the first three days of this week fixing my internet access. First the cable modem died. Then the router. It was Wednesday afternoon before everything was functioning correctly again. And I just haven't bothered to write anything since then.

Until now, that is.

And what am I going to write? I don't really know. I am inclined to include today's "Poem-A-Day" from Poets.org (did you know that April is National Poetry Month?). I actually started writing a poem on the 1st, thinking I might try to write one every day. It's been a long time since I've written any poetry, and so the stasis has slowed my attempt. That, and a bunch of errands and chores that have commandeered the week.

Here's what I'll do for now. Include today's poem and dust off an old favorite. I'll find some sort of graphic to include in this entry. And then I'll call it a post for now. Maybe I'll work some more on my own poem during the day and come back later to share the results.

Poem-A-Day for April 6, 2007

Bent Orbit
by Elaine Equi

I wind my way across a black donut hole
and space that clunks.
Once I saw on a stage,
as if at the bottom of a mineshaft,
the precise footwork
of some mechanical ballet.
It was like looking into the brain
of a cuckoo clock and it carried
some part of me away forever.
No one knows when they first see a thing,
how long its after image will last.
Proust could stare at the symptom of a face
for years, while Frank O'Hara, like anyone with a job,
was always looking at his watch.
My favorite way of remembering is to forget.
Please start the record of the sea over again.
Call up a shadow below the pendulum of a gull's wing.
In a city of eight million sundials, nobody has any idea
how long a minute really is.

And now, to dig into the archives.

A Supermarket in California
by Allen Ginsberg

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!

What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! -- and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.

I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?

I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and followed in my imagination by the store detective.

We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.

Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?

(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)

Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.

Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?

Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

I'm also changing up my typical post ending. In addition to the song currently playing, I will now include the book I'm reading, and maybe something else unique to my work-free life.

Song: "Faith" by Elmer Bernstein
Book: "Doing Nothing" by Tom Lutz
Other: Played "Promenade" and "Gnomus" from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" on the piano

this is painful

Today's song count is 4148. Sunday's was 4083. At this rate (32.5 songs per day), and using my estimate of 40,000 total songs, it will take me three years, one week, and two days to get everything uploaded. Ack.

I have two problems hindering my speed. Whenever iTunes is importing a CD, it slows everything else down. Really badly. Very frustrating and it reduces my productivity on all projects. Also, every now and then when I insert a disc, iTunes asks me to choose which disc it should reference. Unfortunately, the options are often identical with no way for me to tell what differentiates them or -- more importantly -- which one reflects the correct information for my specific CD.

Tonight's touble child was Jack Johnson's "In Between Dreams." The prompt showed me the same three choices, but when I picked one, the track list was completely wrong. I removed and re-inserted the disc hoping to get the prompt again to choose a different one, but it now automatically associates this disc with my incorrect choice. So, either I do some research and find out how to fix this problem (which requires far more work than I want to do), or I let the stupid thing upload with the wrong track list and manually fix everything afterwards (which is even stupider). ACK!

Someday, probably three CDs away from having everything transferred to the computer (November 15, 2009), I'll figure it out. Tonight's additions are as follows (in absolutely no order and with no reasons):

• Wilco "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel"
• Sting "The Dream of the Blue Turtles"
• Cheap Trick "Authorized Greatest Hits"
• Montell Jordan "This is How We Do It"
• Robert Downey Jr. "The Futurist"
• Pete Belasco "Get It Together"

Ah, the pain I must endure for my music. Now, onto the next blog entry. Two in one night!

emachines sucks rotten eggs

Do I sound bitter? I have owned four emachines computers over the past decade. Until this one, I've been perfectly happy with them. In fact, I've convinced family and friends to buy them. I'm the freakin' emachines chamber of commerce. So, I've been patient through this process. Well, mostly patient. But now, my patience is exhausted.

The second set of recovery disks finally arrived, and didn't work any better than the first set. Technician Karen tried all the same things that Amber, Elvis, Mary, Jody, John, Monica, Linnay, Theresa, and Walter tried. She concluded that something must be wrong with the hard drive, so I should pack up the machine and send it back again.

Customer Kelly politely refused.

I asked to speak to a supervisor (again). (Again) I got Supervisor JT. I told him that this was the end of the line for technical support, and I wanted either a new machine or a refund. Supervisor JT politely refused. He said I could either send the machine back to them, or take it back to the store to see what (if anything) they would do for me.

I might have graciously accepted this option were it not for one comment by Supervisor JT. When I expressed my concern that the store would not do anything because of the length of time since I purchased the machine, and further expressed my frustration that emachines has been (slowly, ineffectively) attempting to fix this problem since July (and, oh by the way, it's now October), his response was simple:

"We have been providing you with solutions all along, ma'am. They're just not the solutions that you want."

HA!

I almost laughed at that. Until that point, I was being respectful of the fact that it's not the fault of the technicians or supervisors that this is happening. That said, it is their responsibility to ensure that I, as the customer, receive appropriate service. So, dear Supervisor JT, I must point out that, by definition, solutions should solve problems, and none of yours have done that. I asked to be further elevated, and he said that there was nowhere further to be elevated.

So, I recruited my niece (who works at the store where I bought the machine) to find out the policy there for returning computers under these circumstances, and we will drive our patooties 400 miles to bring it back. Meanwhile, I will write a letter to Mike Zimmerman, emachines' Senior Vice President of Customer Care and Quality Assurance, and give him all the bloody details of this encounter. Maybe I'll include an itemized bill for the long distance calls and the gas required to get to the point where I should have been on July 16th.

Ack.

rage, part ii

A continuation of this issue. Beware of formatting: emphasis required.

September 24, 2005

Still no recovery disks. Make unhappy call to emachines. Technician Amber says that the disks have not yet been sent,...

at this point, Customer Kelly starts to zone out, unable to hear anything beyond the fact that the disks have not been sent

... attempts to blame Hurricane Rita for the delay, and suggests that she'll try to escalate the issue. Customer Kelly calmly-yet-very-firmly reminds Technician Amber that the disk order was escalated on September 18th by Technician Mary, and that they were supposed to have been shipped immediately thereafter. Oh and by the way, Hurricane Rita hit Texas yesterday, five days after that call.

I tell Technician Amber that I'm getting cranky and request to speak with a supervisor. After a 10-minute hold (all of this, on my dime), Customer Service Supervisor JT cheerily answers the phone and asks what he can do for me.

What can you DO for me?!?! You are the tenth person I've talked to at emachines over the past two months. I want a *&#$!)% computer that works, and I want it NOW! THAT's what you can do for me.

OK, so I didn't actually go ape on him. Having been a computer technician in the past, I know it's not his fault. That said, he needs to make it all better. He promised me that the disks will be sent first thing next week. I didn't tell him my plan (because chances are good I wouldn't talk to him again next time anyway), but if I don't get the disks by Wednesday, they're getting another call from me with a demand for a new computer or a refund.

Customer Kelly is just about done with this crap.

rage against the (e)machine

July 16, 2005

Buy a new emachines T6520 Media Center PC at Best Buy. The thing's loaded. Excited to replace my incredibly slow old machine, but very busy so it'll have to wait just a little while.

July 23, 2005

Set up new emachine. Spent about seven hours configuring, uninstalling unneeded software, installing new software, registering stuff online, and beginning to transfer data. Machine loses internet connectivity for unknown reason. Attempt to recognize internet is immediately followed by machine crash. Technician Elvis (yes, really, his name is Elvis) chastises me for not creating recovery disks before making changes and says he will send a set to me.

August 2, 2005

Still no recovery disks. Technician Jody tells me that Elvis entered my quandary into the notes but didn't actually order the disks. She will do so, and gives me a case number to prove it.

August 9, 2005

Still no recovery disks. Technician Linnay (a trainee, the spelling of whose name I have no idea) took my information, repeated things to me that Unnamed Trainer her was saying to her, put me on hold for more than 10 minutes, then disconnected me. Technician Walter says my order for recovery disks was just entered into the system today. Despite their repeated gaffes, they cannot send the disks express.

August 15, 2005

Recovery disks finally arrive. Turns out they can send express, as they arrived in a FedEx envelope.

August 16, 2005

Attempt recovery of crashed machine to no avail. The exact same thing is happening as did on July 23rd. Technician John thinks it's a bad motherboard. Orders an empty box and mailing airbill to be sent to me so machine can be shipped to them.

August 29, 2005

Receive empty box and airbill to ship machine back.

September 1, 2005

Ship machine back.

September 7, 2005

Machine returns with cryptic form that appears to say motherboard, hard drive, and RAM were all replaced after repeated attempted to re-image the hard drive and re-program the motherboard. Too much going on at work and home to set this up now.

September 18, 2005

Set up refurbished new emachine. Appears to be working, although it did not require me to go through the fresh-out-of-the-box new setup process. Spend a couple hours uninstalling unneeded software, installing new software, etc., and discover that one of the front USB ports doesn't work. Upon testing all four UBS ports, discover that none of them work. Technician Monica attempts to uninstall UBS ports from Device Manager so machine will re-recognize the hardware. Not a bad attempt, except the machine does not recognize it as new hardware. She has me start the destructive recovery process and tells me to call her back in about half an hour when it's done.

Five minutes later, the recovery process appears to be done having only used one of the five recovery disks. I call back. Technician Theresa says that Monica shouldn't have had me start the recovery process through Windows. She also thinks the brand-new-only-once-out-of-the-envelope recovery disks are dirty, and tells me she'll wait on the line (my dime) while I take them to the kitchen, wash them in warm sudsy water, rinse them, dry them off, an bring them back. She has me attempt the recovery through system configuration this time, and tells me to call back in five minutes when it's done.

Three minutes later, the recovery process appears to be done having only used one of the five recovery disks. I call back. Technician Mary thinks maybe the hard drive is bad. Customer Kelly intimates that she'd be keenly unhappy if one bad hard drive was replaced with another. (Sorry, I started talking in the third person there. How very Bob Dole.) She then talks with Unnamed Supervisor and returns to suggest that the recovery disk is probably faulty. She'll send new ones. Customer Kelly reminders her that the first time recovery disks were promised, it took more than three weeks to receive them, and that that sort of delay would not be acceptable. (There I go again.) She promises me, on her mother's honor and her unborn first child, that she will order them and escalate the ticket so that they disks will absolutely positively be sent right away via FedEx.

September 19, 2005

I decide that the second computer tower sitting on my desk with a keyboard and mouse on top of it might be a good message board (hey, magnets will stick to it, right?). I never had a message board that cost so much money, caused so much frustration, took up so much space, and required 104-key dusting.

fresh raspberries and party shuffle

We've been to Costco twice this week. That's not terribly unusual, especially when there are several factors such as:

1. Passport coupons to buy great stuff at even better prices than usual

2. Amazing fresh produce (this week: mixed greens, green beans, raspberries, and red grapes)

3. A huge influx of items that make great Christmas presents (yes, we're already well underway for our 2005 shopping with 39 gifts procured thus far)

4. Stocking up on our contribution to pre-season football viewing at our friends' house

5. I love Costco and use almost any excuse to go there

So, Costco, football, and planning for next year's vacation took up a chunk of the weekend. When I was here and working on/around the computer, I was listening to iTunes (easier than setting up my iPod dock or plugging in the earbuds). The "party shuffle" option lists up to 100 of the last songs it has already played and up to 100 of the next songs it's going to play. Cool feature. Here are the last 37 songs it's played:

"Genius" Julia Fordham
"You Know How I Do" Taking Back Sunday
"Devil" Staind
"Nobody Not Really" Alicia Keys
"Freddie Freeloader" Miles Davis
"Bruised" The Bens
"If You Were Here" Thompson Twins
"Heaven" Los Lonely Boys
"Mr. Wrong" Sade
"My Funny Valentine" Constantine Maroulis
"Everything Is Everything" Phoenix
"Say Yes" Floetry
"Edges of Happiness" Harald Johnson, Jarle Vespestad & Tord Gustavsen
"No Matter What" Def Leppard
"Cantaloop" Us3
"There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)" Eurythmics
"Roof Garden" Al Jarreau
"Chains" Duran Duran
"How'm I Gonna Sleep" Tim Finn
"The First Taste" Fiona Apple
"Haunted" Go West
"Skin" Ephraim Lewis
"Through With You" Maroon 5
"Illusion" Soulstice
"78 Stone Wobble" Gomez
"Night in Tunisia" Dizzy Gillespie
"The Game" Trapt
"You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" Wolf Parade
"Freddie Freeloader" Jon Hendricks
"Future Love Paradise" Seal
"Kaleidoscope" Matt Bianco
"Powerless (Say What You Want)" Nelly Furtado
"Rocksteady" Marc Broussard
"Motorcrash" The Sugarcubes
"Everything" Alanis Morissette
"Mothers Talk" Tears For Fears
"Smooth Criminal" Alien Ant Farm

I'm working on my old computer, which is being incredibly uncooperative tonight (and my new one still isn't set up -- watch this space for an anticipated rant against the maker of said computer, if I don't get those recovery disks soon), so this is all I can do. It's not letting me format the list to make it a bit more readable, and I don't want to just kill the entry (after all, how intriguing to see the combination of music I'm listening to, right?). So, that's it for now. Maybe tomorrow night I'll be busy setting up my new and incredibly fast and cooperative computer, and be back to blogging in style by Tuesday.

not prodigal, just patchy

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

Gosh, I don't think I'm that bad. I think that the phrase "slow and steady" is more forgiving than the description that follows (a painstaking, fussy plodder who never tries anything?). Was it because I said I like purple? Maybe it's because I said that I smooth my hair when I talk to people, even though the reality is that I don't do any of the things the quiz gave as potential actions. If you know me, tell me if you agree with the above assessment of me. Go ahead, be honest.

Many things have transpired in the almost-month since my last post, not the least of which has been a major computer malfunction. Sadly, it was with my brand new, fresh-out-of-the-box computer, which still isn't resolved more than two weeks after I purchased it. That, along with several other things that I've consciously given priority, have kept (and will continue to keep) me in a state of "all quiet on the blog front." I suspect it will be at least August 13th before I blog again. There's a reason for that date. Perhaps I'll explain it when next I return to sanguinary blue.