life

Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST. - F.Z.

America is drowning in raw information. The news media has become a filtered feed of all the junk on the internet complete with cat videos and conspiracy theories. The spigot is turned on and off with corporate money. Our leaders and institutions dance to the rhythms of public opinion. Trolls are everywhere in the online discussions. Some trolls make videos. Some of the trolls actually have TV shows. Some of them are running for president. How have we come to this?

Barry -- I'm about to go speak to the crowd here in Chicago, but I wanted to thank you first. I want you to know that this wasn't fate, and it wasn't an accident. You made this happen. You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn't easy, you pressed forward. I will spend the rest of my presidency honoring your support, and doing what I can to finish what we started. But I want you to take real pride, as I do, in how we got the chance in the first place. Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests. There's a lot more work to do. But for right now: Thank you. Barack

John Hughes - was the man who defined Chicago for me while I lived there.
February 18, 1950 - August 6, 2009

Barry –

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign – every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

Part four in a series. Part three is here.

Here’s a new twist I found on customer service. A certain satellite television provide advertises on their web site that they have “Better Customer Service for All” and on their contact page it says “Superior Customer Service”. So can you guess what it is like to call them?

Part three in a series. Part two is here.

After a lot of promises to have it installed by Friday, and a few Fridays, they finally were able to install my service last Saturday. Of course my phone is disconnected now for no particular reason that anyone at TPC (the phone company) can fathom. Perhaps Monday will bring another visitor to fix that. I cannot bring myself to recount all the horrible “customer service” I experienced since my last entry. But in the end a few people were unrelentless and with their help I am back online.

Part two in a series. Part one is here.

My phone company, The Phone Company (TPC)*, has a whole bunch of customer service numbers. They have the latest in voice recognition technology. It asks you to speak your phone number and asks for the last four digits of your social security number and repeats it all back to you in a nice pleasant voice. It works well if you want to find out how much money you owe them. That’s what customer service is all about, right? But if you speak the magic word “representative” then you get put on hold. There is a really neat song that loops without any perceptible break and you get to listen to it over and over again. I think one time I counted 78 loops before I gave up.

Maybe God was punishing me last Friday. It wasn’t Friday the 13th. At least not on any calendars with which I’m familiar. And I don’t think I’ve offended any witch doctors or voodoo queens. Sometimes I think that when I have extra cash, my house or my car can smell it. Still that doesn’t explain everything that went south.

As an entrepreneur I learned to hate these words. But I never thought I’d hear them in my home from my kids. Yet my son said this the other day when asked to do something. Apparently what I asked him to do was something his sister usually does ergo it wasn’t his job.

People can give new meanings to words. Weaning is usually used to describe the process of convincing a baby to give up breast feeding. But being a father and an observer of human behaviors has led me to the conclusion that weaning is a life long process. I’m not suggesting that it takes a lifetime to give up suckling a breast, and many men never do. I am suggesting that “giving up” is a process that continues throughout growth and development. In fact, you could say that we are ultimately weaned from the tit of life itself.