A new blog

Yes, I'm starting a new blog, I'd like to keep going w/ my old one here, but I seem to have forgotten my password. Oh, well. You can click over and read some of my really old rants. But here is a new beginning, but once again mostly boring rants about the world I live in.

Where shall I start? How about the stupidity that I know best, the world of technical support. What is it about relatively normal, averagely intelligent people, that when they sit in front of a computer they just completely loose their mind? And furthermore, when they decide their issue is too mind boggling for themselves to handle they call in to us and unleash their dark side in relative anonymity. Here are a few things to keep in mind when calling into any tech support (especially ours). 1. Most of us are trained professionals, trust us, we know what we are talking about. So if we ask you to do something, even if you think its stupid like checking the power cable or power strip to make sure the modem has power DO IT, 9 times out of 10 its something simple like that, that you may have overlooked. You may feel stupid, but its much less stupid-looking than arguing about it for 20 mins only to realize that, yes, you did shut off the power strip. Anyway #2, and this one is very, very important; the supervisor/lead does not have a magic wand, no matter how much you wish it so. Thus, asking for our supervisor will only net you the exact same results we will give only it will take more time on the phone for you and possibly loosing a trouble call time slot. In the case of our company, yes we know sometimes it takes ridiculously long time to get a truck to your house but theres nothing we or anybody else in the company can do. If you don't like it, get DSL and be content with slower speeds for the same prices. And most importantly #3 is, just be nice to your rep. We are much more inclined to go the extra mile, to pull a few strings or bend a rule to help you if you are not being an ass. And last, have confidence in yourself. It doesn't matter if you barely know how to turn on your computer and fire up your email program, we know what we are doing so all you need to do is follow instructions exactly as we say them. Even if we take you to some scary, command prompt or diagnostic screen.

And now for something, completely different. I was at the renaissance festival this last weekend, and it was wonder full. We spend pretty much the whole day there from about 9:40 am to 7:00 pm. I've been going to it every year for about 17(ish) years, and I have to say this was one of the best. People watching is great at the Ren fest, we saw this one gal whom we dubbed The Amazon Lady. She was pushing 7' and huge, but was also wearing tights and a see through white shirt. Eww. We also met a nice couple who ran a shop selling pet treats. The couple asked us about our snazzy Ren Fest garb and as it turned out it was the lady's birthday so we sang Happy Birthday to her and took some pictures. Also saw a cool guy who made armor out of turtle shells. We also did the Feast of Fantasy; a 7 course meal w/ plenty of entertainment in between. Plus the booze was free, I had a bottomless glass of Merlot, it was delicious. Now I just have to convince the Mrs. to go to the Des Moines Ren Fest