A Walk in the Woods

I went hiking along the Whitetail Trail today with other members of the Sierra Club. The plan was to start at North Gate of the Quebec Run Wild Area and travel north to Lick Hollow. There were plans for a stop at Pine Knob and D***, the hike leader and senior citizen, had mentioned the possibility of a side trip to White Rocks, making the total for the day around 13 or 14 miles.

I had purchased a new pair of FRS radios and had thrown them into my
trail-end bag along with a clean shirt and a 32oz Nalgene bottle of extra water. I asked if we wanted to bring the radios along but no one else was interested. I was to learn later that this was a mistake. We started on the trail at 10am and it was 80 degrees with almost 100% humidity. I thought maybe my 3-liter Camelbak might not be enough for the day but also thought the 32oz Nalgene bottle might be more weight than I wanted to carry. I left it behind. Another mistake.

The trail was in many places almost completely obscured by overgrown ferns but the blue blazes kept us on the trail. Mid-June is the time for the Mountain Laurel to bloom and there were explosions of white and pink flowers all along the trail. At a point we needed to decide whether to go down to White Rocks or not. The D*** clearly wanted to go. My first thought was to stay on the trail because I was using my GPSr to map the trail for posting to LocalHikes.com but I thought it was selfish of me to vote to stay to the trail for only that reason. Instead, I said that I didn’t care one way or the other so the vote was to go to White Rocks.

On the way down the old logging road we encountered a black bear on the trail. We watched him while he sat down and watched us. Eventually he grew bored with us and wandered off. It was the first time I had ever encountered a bear in the woods.

We arrived at White Rocks and D*** laid down for a rest. He pulled out an 8oz Diet Pepsi to rehydrate and I started to get the willies. His water was gone and I could tell that he wasn’t carrying a third of what I was carrying. And a diet soda is a bad, bad thing to drink under these conditions.

After a rest, we went around and climbed to the top of White Rocks where he took another lie down. I was getting genuinely concerned.

On the climb out of the hollow, I began to realize that D*** was starting to have trouble. He was very slow coming up the hill and when he stopped to take a break I asked him if he was drinking water. He said he had plenty.

I had a 3-litre Camelbak and I knew I was beginning to run low. Anyone who claimed to have plenty of water was not drinking enough. Thus, the conspiracy began. Myself and two others took the lead and as we climbed the hill we started planning on what we should do. Way back in Boy Scouts I had dealt with a similar situation of an extremely hot day and running out of water. The plan was for us to press on to Lick Hollow, stock up on water and then to return to re-supply the second group. This was when I was truly regretting not bringing the FRS radios.

We got to the next turn where D*** had wanted us to stop. The three of us debated and decided to press on after leaving a note. We didn’t get far before we heard them coming up behind. The others had gotten him to take off his hat, which was causing him to overheat, and someone else was carrying his pack. He was making much better time but still didn’t look well. We decided to wait at Redstone Creek for them to catch up.

J*** spoke with me. He told me that the D*** did this sort of thing all the time. But from experience, just because he does this all the time doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

At the Redstone Creek crossing it was decided that three of us would go on ahead and D*** and others would go to the end of Pine Knob road and wait for pickup at the gate. That would cut several miles off the hike. I ran out of water and the two women that were with me ran out a short time after that. It was two hours to finally get to Lick Run. We stocked up on water and drove the waiting vehicle to the gate.

Except that they weren’t there. We got really worried. They should have been there by now. Another mistake: we should have exchanged cell phone numbers (if the second group had cell phones) in lieu of not having my FRS radios. Two of us took the water and started hiking the road but she turned back because her ankle couldn’t take it. At the road that turns off to Pine Knob itself, I left one of the water bottles to make sure that they didn’t get past me and went to be sure they hadn’t make a sightseeing detour.

When I came back there was a bear sniffing around the water bottle I had left. He heard my approach and made his way into the woods. Night fell and I continued up the road. At 9:30 it was decided to call 911. It turns out that the D*** had gone to the other end of Pine Knob Rd. where it meets Skyline Dr., not the end that we were at much closer to Lick Hollow. That miscommunication was yet another terrible mistake in a day full of stupid and careless mistakes.

I had thought to bring my FRS radios but didn’t. I had thought of taking extra water but didn’t. I had thought of bringing my microfilter water bottle but didn’t. I thought about staying on the trail but didn’t.

Block Party

BulkRegister has done it yet again. Network Solutions has responded that Bulk Register has again denied my request to transfer my sci-fi club domain to myself. So, I call up Bulk Register and this time get someone named Jeff.

Jeff again gives me the story about contacting the host, MongoHosting and I again say that they refuse to respond to any of my e-mails and their WHOIS database is full of lies. I tell him that I have been at this for a month and have an authcode and the TransferGuard has been lifted, why is the transfer still being refused?

Each time he offers another platitude I cut him off saying that I've already jumped through that hoop. He uses the standard Help Desk response that "This is the first time I've dealt with this issue."

"I have been dealing with this issue for a month and have talked to at least three, now four different people at Bulk Register. Each one has told me something different and neglected to tell me some vital piece of information that has prevented me from obtaining posession of my own domain."

He said that he would send an email to his manager and the technician (Dip and Ming) to have the block lifted. I ask if this last action will finally allow me to have to domain transferred and he says yes.

I am going to hold him to this and if in a few days I don't get a positive response I am going be tracking down this Dip.

Return of the Squicky Vandals

When I returned to my car after work I discovered that some bastard had again greased my door handle. Now, instead of a one time incident a few months ago, I've got someone who will grease my door whenever the opportunity presents itself. I looked around and no one else seems to have been targeted. So what is it about a green Honda Accord with a bike rack that attracts such unwanted attention? What the hell is wrong with people?

It was raining today so I thought I would park at the Children's Hospital lot instead of in Squirrel Hill, cutting my ride in the rain in half. I suppose I'll just have to start ignoring the weather and riding the longer distance no matter what the weather. And the forcast calls for showers and scattered thunder showers all week.

The Power of Persistance.

I got a response today that my request to transfer my domain to myself was rejected by BilkRegister (oops, BulkRegister). So, I finally got ahold of someone online. First, they told me what I already knew, that the account was expired and that the Transferguard was still in place. I told them that I had spoken with a technician three days before and he said that he was putting in a work order to lift the lock and that it would take two days. That time had passed and it was still locked.

Domain Support: Are you a bulkregister member?

Geis: No I am not. And, before you say that I need to contact my reseller, I must reiterate that MongoHosting has refused to respond to any of my requests to release the lock for three weeks now.

Domain Support: Why dont you sign up with us. So that you can manage the domain yourself.

Geis: Because MongoHosting already blackmailed me into paying them for two years of hosting to get the domain transfered to me. All they did was change the name on the admin and did not release the transfer lock.

Domain Support: But if you sign up with us you can manage the domain totally.

Geis: If you release the transfer lock, like the technician I spoke to on Monday said he was doing, I can transfer the domain to another registrar and manage it there.

I could see where they were going with this as I had seen it in a number of previous e-mails and I will let the domain die rather then pay them a dime of blood money.

They tried to direct me to a phone number that didn't answer. They tried to refer me to MongoHosting who I again said had not been responding to me. I described my experience with MongoHosting in detail using words like extortion, blackmail, hostage and thievery. They tried to refer me to another number and I told them that wasn't getting through either. Then they told me to wait two days (I assunme for the lock to be lifted). I said I had already waited three days. In fact, I had already waited three weeks and have gotten nothing but the run-around.

All told, this conversation went on for an hour and a half with several long pauses as I'm sure the technician consulted with her manager. I did not let them go for too long with each pause, asking if there was a direct number I should be calling to actually talk to someone directly who could resolve this issue. I wasn't going to go away.

Finally, the word came back: "The lock is realeased"

I immediately re-faxed my transfer request to Network Solutions.

A temporary solution.

The backup domain I’ve purchased is set up. I’ve contacted my personal hosting service to add that domain to the DNS resolution so that people going to that URL will end up at my website. My website has been changed so that users will read that this is a temporary situation and that they can click on one of several links to get to a streamlined version of the website. Now, I have to disseminate the new domain address to all the search engines so we can minimize the damage.

Ten kinds of wrong.

Japan and China have been in a war of words recently over perceptions of the Second World War. It involves Japanese textbooks that do not admit atrocities committed in China. It involves war memorials that honor all of Japan’s war dead, including war criminals. Mostly I think it involves posturing and saber rattling by China to counter Japans influence in the region both politically and economically.

Well, a posting to a newsgroup has tried to defuse the situation. The posting was a photograph of a pouting 11-year old girl saying "Please stop these anti-Japanese hijinks. If you don't, I won't like you anymore."

It’s a clever personal appeal. Well, actually it’s somewhat contrived because the girl, model Saaya Irie, didn’t actually say what she’s quoted as saying. Even so, suddenly, the discussion groups went from China-bashing and Japan-bashing to conversations about how cute this girl is. But, what made it really work and what makes this so wrong is that this particular 11-year old girl wears an F-cup. Yea, the little child is completely stacked.



I recently saw an anime called Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan (which roughly translates and “Beat-to-death Angel Dokuro-chan). A time traveling angel lives with a middle-school boy and regularly knocks the top of his head off with a big spiked bat. That’s pretty messed up but what really makes it wrong is the reason. It seems that the buy is destined to discover the secret to immortality. The side effect however is that girls will not mature beyond age 10 and the angel has been sent back in time to murder him and prevent this pedophile’s paradise.

And if the school girl fetish wasn’t disturbing enough, I found a copy of a Japanese print that is the precursor to the tentacle porn genre. It’s titled "Octopi and the Maiden" by Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1814) and portrays a woman being molested by an octopus.

I’m sure it is a cultural egotism and our nation’s puritanical roots that have me believing that the Japanese are messed up beyond all reason. Evidence shows that these disturbing behaviors occur in all cultures and have probably always been going on. In fact, evidence shows that even animals engage in what would be considered deviant behavior so maybe these sorts of things are really deviant at all. What we consider "normal" is merely an arbitrary central point in a broad spectrum of behaviors. That central point moves back and forth from time to time but the full spectrum remains.

This is not to excuse pedophiles for their criminal behavior but perhaps we need to clearly understand the foundations of what’s going on. It is normal behavior for males to seek out the best females. In nature, the best females are typically young and healthy. In early humans, these females would be "claimed" as soon as they became reproductively viable. Perhaps, even earlier to guarantee that the alpha male had first dibs. Puberty in modern humans begins at around age 8 or 9.

As society has gotten more complex, so too has the time necessary to
develop the ability to make decisions in that society increased. For a primitive human girl concerned with subsistence survival on the African savanna and might not expect to live past the age of 30, hitching up with a male at the age of 8 would be an easy and wholly appropriate decision. But to a modern girl in elementary school who is a decade away from entering the workforce and could expect to live into her 80’s, it’s far too early to be making those decisions for the rest of her life. And it’s always too early for an older male to be making that decision for her.

Does it sound like I’m defending these guys? It shouldn’t. Pedophiles are some of the worst kind of human filth I can think of. But it’s not because they are sexually attracted to young girls because we are all genetically programmed for some level of that. It’s because they prey on their youth and inexperience for their own selfish desires in violation of all the rules of modern society.

End Run.

One of the first things I did today is purchase another domain at Network Solutions as a backup for the one that’s expired through MongoHosting and BulkRegister. It’s not going to help too much as our our sci-fi organization flyers and publications have the old .ORG domain but if I can get the DNS entries changed and the new information out to the search engines we won’t be completely down.

The second thing I tried was contacting MongoHosting by telephone. As I mentioned before, the WHOIS information for Robert Dunbar of MongoHosting and Silvercities is incorrect. In one place it’s an outright lie. In another it’s merely disconnected. I tried calling directory assistance and searched on a few things and the one entry I found turned out not to be the person I was looking for.

Next, I called Network Solutions to see if there was anything they could do. Indeed, there was. Since my name is the Administrator of the domain, it should be an easy thing to transfer to myself. They looked at the entry and said that even though it was expired, the domain wasn’t locked (BulkRegister said it was) and they should be able to do the transfer. It couldn’t be done on-line, however. I needed to sign forms, provide proof of identity and fax the documents. It could take ten days, however.

One of the things on the form was something called an Authcode. This is apparently required for transfers of .ORG domains. I called BulkRegister directly and was able to get the Authcode from them. They also said that the domain WAS locked and that they would enter the work order to have that listed. Interesting, because in all their e-mails of the past two weeks they were saying that only MongoHosting could lift the lock. The discrepancies between what they say via e-mail and what they say when cornered on the phone are all the more reason to get the hell out of there.

Off the air.

I noticed that the website I had hosted at MongoHosting was off the air today. I’ve been trying for two weeks to get in touch with MongoHosting and they have not responded to any of my e-mails. Bastard. And BulkRegister hasn’t been helpful either.

Unfortunately, there isn't much I'll be able to do until Monday.

The rest of the story.

When the systems started having problems yesterday, the Help Desk got a call from a support person who said he was going to do something to try to resolve it. Because it was a production issue, he was told we would have to open a high severity tracking ticket. He said, "No, I'll take care of it."

Then it really went bad.

Whatever he did brought the whole system crashing down.

ID10T indeed.

We all fall down.

Because I'm still training, I don't get my lunch break until 2pm. It makes for a real short afternoon and isn't too bad except that it messes up my feeding schedule. I'm generally eating only one meal a day.

Anyway, on this particular day, shortly after coming back from my lunch, things went south. The Bank experienced a problem with the teller system causing users to go off-line. Our call volume went through the roof and stayed that way. At one point, we received a pop-up message from the Function Desk saying that the system "Should be back up in 10 to 15 minutes". Of course, that didn't affect the call volume.

As that deadline came and went without resolution, we received another message from the Function Desk: "If you get a branch on the line and they ask you how long it will take the system to come back up..... DO NOT TELL THEM 10-15 MINUTES..... YOU'RE NOT THE SUPPORT GROUP.... STOP IT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE USERS ARE CALLING BACK STATING THAT THEY WERE TOLD 10-15 MINUTES."

But, wait. Didn't you just tell us that it should be up in 10 to 15 minutes? Don't you give us this information so that we can pass it on to the users who are clambering for just this kind of information? This problem came at the end of the day and the tellers needed to balance their drawers. They needed to make a decision as to whether they should stay after closing time 10 or 15 minutes to get the systems back up and balance things or just assume that it wasn't going to work at all and go to their backup procedures.

Now, that having been said, I rarely believe these ETA messages anyway. Usually they are based on the mistaken belief that a simple reboot of the servers will resolve the issue. In my experience, that is seldom the case. Whenever I give out these ETAs I do so with the qualifier that support says that it SHOULD be up in X-amount of time. I also usually say that if it's not they the user's are just going to need to continue with the specific interim procedures I've just given them.

Ugh. In any case, I took over 80 calls for the day, half of them in the last hour.

Two Minute Warning

So, the HR Rep come up to me at work and says:

"Did I tell you that you're training a new analyst tomorrow?"

"No. You didn't."

"You're training a new analyst tomorrow."

"Ah."

If this were a sit-com, that comment would have been followed by a cue from the laugh track. Unfortunately, there was no punchline and her comment was followed by a simple stare from me.

"Is that OK?"

"Whether it's OK or not is irrelevant. At this point I don't have any choice in the matter."

The Big Sleep

I received word today from The School that they gave the Help Desk position to someone else. I’ve been kind of down all day because I thought my interview had gone extremely well and my chances were good. I wanted so much to get out of my current situation that the word that I still cannot escape has me emotionally exausted.

Out of India

After yesterday’s debacle over the hardware support outsourcing their call center to India, they have reverted to their Ohio location. The word is it will be that way for a week or two. I wonder how much money that mistake has already cost them. Maybe with an additional two weeks of training the call center people in India will be able do the job they were hired to do. The job that I could train 6th Graders to do in an afternoon.

Outsourced

Sometime over the weekend, The Bank’s contracted supplier of hardware support outsourced their call center to somewhere in India. What that means is, aside from the language barriers, the time it takes to place a hardware call jumped from 3 minutes or so to over 20 minutes. Sometimes as long as an hour.

This is not a difficult job. The Help Desk calls the call center, provides customer name, address, phone number, model type, serial number, issue description and tracking number. The Call Center enters this information into a database and provides another tracking number in return. I could take nearly any person off the street here and have them doing this job in an hour. It’s trained chimpanzee stuff. I don’t know who they hired in India, but the people they got aren’t capable of doing the job.

For high severity issues, the hardware supplier is contractually obligated to respond to the user within one hour. If it takes nearly that long to get through to the call center and place the call, they are going to be constantly in violation of the contract. It won’t be long before The Bank begins reconsidering their contract.

It doesn’t mean much to me personally. I don’t call in hardware issues. But when users begin calling back to complain that their level of service has dropped, the Help Desk bears the brunt of their ire. I’ll simply blame the hardware supplier.

In a more philosophical sense, I both cheer and loathe this decision. I hate the idea that my job could be outsourced to India. But in the nightmare of outsourcing this extremely simple call center task, the likelihood of my more technically intensive job going overseas has plummeted.

Two-wheeled Paradise

I just got back from a long weekend visiting my Brother-in-Law in Madison, Wisconsin. I could go on about the trip, what we did, where we went and all the gory details but what struck me the most was the biking environment.

Everywhere I went, there were bike trails, bike lanes, bike routes, bike shops and bike racks. My Brother-in-Law lived in a new housing development in the middle of a series of shopping plazas, light commercial and restaurants but there were bike lanes available to access the whole area. All the restaurants had bike racks. In Madison proper, there was a two block section that had three bike shops.

It’s a big difference from Pittsburgh where bike routes exist only on maps and as signs on some of the most dangerous streets in town. Advocates at Bike Pittsburgh have convinced the city to allow them to install bike racks throughout the downtown area but the city didn’t drop a dime in support. There are only a handful of bike shops that are small and don’t have a broad selection of either bikes or accessories. Shopping malls and centers are designed for cars and bicyclists and pedestrians would be risking their lives to attempt an approach.

Of course, there are environmental differences between Pittsburgh and Madison that make one more conducive to bicycles than the other. First, Madison has flat, wide open spaces. Being flat is simply more friendly to biking. When the city was growing, there was plenty of space so streets were wide. When it came time for streets to be rebuilt, the availability of space made it easier for city planners to sacrifice some of that space for the use of bicycles.

Since Pittsburgh is so hilly and penned in with rivers and was born a century earlier than Madison, there isn’t a lot of space available. Bicyclists have no choice but to share the space with automobiles, trucks and busses who, because they “own the road” are not willing to share this limited commodity. And even out in the newer developments like Cranberry, the planners are still stuck in the car mentality, building exclusively for those who drive.

I fear I shall die in Casablanca.

I am reminded of the opening of "Casablanca" where the narrator details the plight of those poor souls attempting to flee Europe finding themselves trapped. “Here the fortunate ones, through money, or influence, or luck, might obtain exit visas and security to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to the New World. But the others wait in Casablanca. -- and wait -- and wait -- and wait."

It's been three weeks since my interview with The School and I still
haven't heard anything. I've left a few messages and sent an e-mail or two with no response. I would normally expect things to take quite some time but when the person who I interviewed with said that she would contact me "next week", I assumed that she actually did mean "next week." If she hadn't said that, I could well imagine a dozen reasons for it to take longer than that.

Instead, I wait. And wait. And wait. The Help Desk is my own Occupied Europe and my escape is prevented, not by evil Corporate Overlords but by what I suspect to be simple bureaucratic delay.

The check is in the mail

The Corporate Overlords didn't fix the shorted paycheck issue yesterday but this morning UPS delivered a check for the other three days I worked last week. There was no explanation as to what happened to have people receiving random hours on their paychecks.

That light at the end of the tunnel . . .

The Corporate Overlords announced a new on-line feature that allows employees to adjust their direct deposit, change their W2 tax forms and view their pay stubs. So, having the new feature we decided to take a look. Imagine my horror when I discovered that I only worked two days last week.

OK, so I had actually worked a full 40 hour week. I then dutifully filled out the timesheet and submitted my time for said 40 hours. And somewhere between the submission and the printing of the checks the 40 changed to a 16.5. Some people were lucky and got credited for having worked 80 hours but more hit by an oncoming freight train and shorted like I was.

How do they fuck this up. This is an automated system where I enter the number and someone at HR looks at that number and says "OK". The system prints the checks from there. No math involved in figuring out the hours. I work 40 hours. I enter 40 hours. They approve 40 hours. The system prints 16.5. Where the hell did that number come from?

It's nice to see that my PTO balance is now included on the check so, after a pile of math because they didn't include cumulative hours worked for the year, I was able to determine that they did adjust for the 8 hours of PTO they shafted me for before Christmas. I've only been asking about that for three months.

It gets me thinking about if I get this job I want at The School, what will happen to that PTO? About 50 hours of it. I am entitled to be paid for it. Will I get a check? When I give my two weeks notice they better have that answer pretty damn quick or I will simply submit a week of PTO and leave a week early. I'll be damned if I'm going to let 50 hours of compensation just evaporate.

I hope I'm not counting my weasels before they've popped but I really want this other Help Desk job.

It was me.

I had my interview at The School and I think it went exceptionally well. A few highpoints:

There were some 450 applications of which I am one of 4 or 5 that are being interviewed.

When the Manager took the position, the Help Desk was somewhat directionless. She has been moving towards a more customer service oriented operation which fits perfectly with my Help Desk philosophy.

She knows someone I know from another department and described him as "our best customer."

The Senior Consultant worked with my brother in-law.

The wife of the UNIX Engineering Manager works with my wife in a different department of The School.

All these connections were discovered after I made the "Final Four" on the strengths of my qualifications. These personal connections can only help to seal the deal.

The Purchasing Director recognized the Illuminiti tie-tack I was wearing. One of the Consultants also recognized it.

When the Senior Consultant was doing the first pass through the hundreds of applications, he saw that I had earned my Eagle Award in the Boy Scouts and on that alone flagged my resume for further attention. When I had been reworking my resume, my wife wondered if it was important and suggested I leave it out because it was from over 20 years ago. I insisted on including it and that decision has paid off.

The Network Manager had a sheet of networking questions. Things like "What is the difference between a switch and a router" and "What is IP?" I didn't do so well because, and I warned him about this in advance, I have worked with networks but have been out of practice. When I didn't answer the way he seemed to want he recited from memory answers that sounded right out of a textbook. Clearly, he was not focusing on the Help Desk philosophy. He also didn't seem too pleased with my lack of Linux experience.

It was immediately after that that I spoke with the Senior Consultant. "Did he ask you the 20 questions?" Apparently that sheet is a standard procedure of his and the Senior Consultant didn't seem too concerned (or impressed). As to Linux, the other Consultant in that interview said that he was hired with zero Linux experience but he learned it pretty quick.

The UNIX Manager also had the same sort of opinion of my lack of Linux experience and said that it is pretty much like Windows except that things are named differently and do things differently. That might not sound encouraging but, as with all OS systems, knowing that there is an analog makes it merely a matter of time to learn the nuances. He gave me a disk with a Knoppix version of Linux. This is a version that runs from the CD so it doesn't need to be installed, and also accesses the disk read-only so you can really work and navigate with the disk you have without risk. An excellent learning tool.

Almost everyone asked the standard question about why I wanted to leave my current position. I said that there were no opportunities for advancement, that I had gone about as far as I could and that I had not gotten a raise in three years. The Company had made a financial blunder back then and the employees were made to pay for it with a salary freeze. "That sucks!" the Help Desk Manager said.

"Yes. Yes, it does."

She said that they were going to interview 2 or maybe 3 other people this week. They would get people together to hammer out a decision on Monday and I should be hearing one way or the other after that. Probably Wednesday. When she first talked about how the process would go, it seemd like I would be brought in for another interview with the Department Manager. But at the end of the day it sounded more like that meeting would be more of a formality than a decision-making interview. Perhaps it was only an impression brought on by my good mood but I think that I really, really fit well into her idea of what she wants for the Help Desk. Whenever she spoke about her plans, I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Yea, that me."

Back on Track

A complete mystery.

The person at The School sent me an e-mail last Wednesday and I never received it. I sent her an e-mail on Thursday and she didn't receive that. Thankfully the voicemail I left today at her home number got through and so I'm back on for my interview tomorrow.

Or should I say interviews. I'm going to be meeting with various people in the department and other staff people over several hours. This is the typical "second interview" stuff that makes the final decision.

Anticipation

I haven't made any blog postings for a while. I've learned that if I wait until I get home to try to write about my day I simply don't do it. So, to combat this, I've opened up a Word document at work so that I can blog when the mood strikes me and then e-mail the text home to do the blog when I return home. It's not a great solution but it's better than nothing.

A coworker who sits next to me, the one who discovered that our employer had not been paying city taxes, has gotten another shock. He has apparently been the victim of identity theft and someone has been taking money from his checking account. He contacted Corporate HR to stop direct deposit from putting more money into the violated account. HR didn't do that. In fact, the local HR Rep said she had faxed the request out weeks ago but Corporate HR says they never saw it. Then, HR said they would overnight him a check to replace the one they had mistakenly deposited in the suspended account. When he received the overnight envelope it only contained an advice stub. Not an actual cashable check.

My own issues not only don't have a resolution but I have received no response whatsoever. It's been 4 weeks since I told them that my local taxes were being paid to the wrong municipality. It's been 6 weeks since I told them that they have never paid my city occupation tax. And it's been 3 months since they double-charged me for a day of PTO before Christmas.

I'm supposed to have a job interview tomorrow but I have not gotten a call or email from the person at The School confirming the details of exactly where and when. I sent a few reminder e-mails and left some voice mails but still no response. It's making me very nervous. I want very badly to be out of the place I am currently at.

Red shifting in place.

When I got home yesterday, there was a message on the answering machine. A job that I've been looking for and sent my resume in for several months ago looks like it may begin to pan out.

Now, at this point I will continue my policy of not identifying my employer by referring to this possible future employer as "The School."

I was very happy and my mood was pretty high all day, even though fate conspired to bring me down. The button on my pants popped off. The battery in my watch is going and I lost an hour somewhere. Someone greased the door handles on my car while it sat in the parking area. The new timecard procedures for my Corporate Overlords is a pain.

But, I got a call from The School and after a short discussion with the person there I am tentatively scheduled for a full interview in a week and a half.

I hate to get my hopes up but I can already feel myself getting ready to go.

Occupied

Occasionally when I get into work, the oversize restroom stall that I use to change from my biking gear to my work clothes is occupied. I'm pretty sure it's the same guy each time because I can hear him in there turning the pages of his newspaper. So, instead of having the privacy of changing my clothes in a stall I have to change in front of the sinks. And I am able to undress, change, pack up and leave while he's still in there reading his newspaper.

I've never figured out what it is about sitting on the toilet and reading. Am I unusual in spending only the time necessary to take care of biological issues?

And another piece of restroom etiquette that I do not understand is people talking on their cell phones. Who in their right mind wants to talk to someone while sitting on the toilet? And who would want to hear someone talking while sitting on the toilet.

"Hey, Tom. How's it going? . . . . That's great. What I'm calling about is. . . er. . . hold on a sec. . . Ennnnnnnuggghhh *ploosh*. . . OK, where was I?"

Come on, guys. That is just so wrong.

Eggs!

I've been watching the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy webcam of the Gulf Building Peregrine Falcon nest. I've known the pair have been back in the area and have been around the nesting box and have been looking forward to the real deal. Watching yesterday I saw what I assumed to be the female sitting on the "nest" all day. (The falcon nest is little more than a depression in the gravel of the nesting box).

Today, she decided to leave the nest revealing at least three reddish-brown brown eggs.

It turns out, I've been looking at an old website. The new one had updates that said that the first egg was laid on the 10th, the second on the 13th and the third earlier was earlier today.

More falcons = fewer pigeons.

Blocked and Logged

I wanted to sign on and blog about The Bank blocking access to Questionable Content, one of my favorite webcomics, only to find that they also blocked Blogger.com as well. From now on I'll have to save up these thoughts for when I get home. It kind of takes away some of the spontaneity of the blogs and takes away something that would otherwise fill the occasional downtimes.

I guess I'll have to start playing Nanaca-crash!!

Twice Shy

I was scheduled for a "Career Development Meeting" today and was completely forgotten. There is some managerial stuff going on as the Site Manager is moving on to "other opportunities" and someone else is being moved up temporarily. The Help Desk is also hiring some new agents.

So, my meeting was completely forgotten. For the second time. I was
supposed to have one of these meetings a month ago and they completely blew me off for that one as well.

But it's not like anything ever came of these meetings. The call them "Career Development Meetings" but, in fact they do nothing to develop my career. They just go over typical job performance things. Talk times, availability, all the normal day-to-day stuff. There are no more opportunities for career development here shot of going somewhere else. The use of the term "career development" is HR newspeak.

Can you hear me now?

Two weeks ago, I let my employer know that the city's occupation tax had not been taken out of my paycheck ever. Today, the HR Rep came to me on Corporate's behalf asking me to check the first paystub of the year to confirm that it hadn't been taken out.

First; don't they have these records?

Second; didn't you hear me when I said that the occupation tax had NEVER been taken out of my paycheck? Not this year. Not last year. Not in 2003, 2002, 2001 or in 2000. What part of NEVER did you not understand? Are you even listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth? For every problem I have, I seem to have to explain it in detail two or three times before they seem to do anything about it. I'm speaking English here. I'm saying the same thing each time. Do you think I'm making this stuff up? Don't you believe me?

And I think I may have mentioned this before but whenever one of these issues come up, or any issue for that matter, when I explain it to the HR Representative, she gets a very distinctive expression. I don't know what she's really thinking but her face always seems to say, "How could you even think that there's a problem?" Her expression is so vacuous it's amazing she doesn't actually become transparent.

At first, I found this vapidity somewhat amusing but I've really grown tired of it. Especially because I have to explain myself again and again and noone seems to take these issues seriously.

Another Taxing Discovery

I really should have been paying more attention to these things but I've just noticed that since the begining of the year, my local boro taxes have been going to the wrong boro.

With the purchase of The Company by The Corporate Overlords, there has been a gradual transfer of responsibilites. The 2nd paycheck of the year signaled the conversion to the payroll of The Corporate Overlords. Also, for some completely inexplicavble reason, they started paying my local boro taxes to the boro I lived in 6 years ago.

How the hell did they pull that off?

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I paid MongoHosting their ransom on Friday and checking today found that they had indeed transfered ownership of the Domain. It is now mine. Now, if I can hold out until May when the domain expires, I'll be able to make myself the technical contact. Then, I'll be able to change IP addresses whenever I want. I won't have to deal with MongoHosting at all should I want to change my hosting. I'll just log on to Network Solutions and do it. Of course that means I'll loose out on some of the two years of hosting I've paid MongoHosting for but some losses are worth it.

Bigger Pipe

I got an email response from MongoHosting concerning my bandwidth.

. . . you have a yearly paid account that was activated before we took over the company . . . the limits you you have on your account are the ones originally set for you.

Yea?

And?

Their response was completely useless. No options. No suggestions. What does it mean mean? Am I just going to have to wait until the end of the month when my allocation re-sets? I was about to pay for two years of hosting; would that entitle me to the 5 Gig of bandwidth that everyone else is getting for the same money? Since my "yearly paid account" doesn't expire till may, will I be locked into the 500 Meg bandwidth until then?

So, I had to write back and ask all those questions about what can be done about this. . . again.

On the plus side I learned that their admin, while lacking any sort of proactive thoughts, does actually work during the week.

Later in the afternoon, I noticed that the website was working again. I checked the bandwidth meter and it looked like they had upped the bandwidth to 5 Gig. When I got home I found the e-mail from the admin saying that she had spoken to the owner and he had upped the limit.

Now all I have to do is pay their ransom to get ownership of my domain.

Did I mention screaming incoherently?

Therapy

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Bandwidth Exceeded

Today I got a message that the site I am having so much trouble with at MongoHosting has exceeded its bandwidth. It's completely shut down!

So, I access the control panel and begin really researching what's been going on. Normally, the bandwidth usage is 60 or 70 Meg. But over the past few months it has been climbing until it topped out at over 500 Meg. Now I know for a fact that the people I know who visit the site have not increased their activity eight times.

The key was the bulletin board. I set up a bulletin board hoping that we could migrate away from the YahooGroup we have been using. The bulletin board had only 4 members, two of which were me, and there was hardly any messages. Just a few welcoms from me and a question or two.

Yet the web logs show that 80% of the all the traffic that comes through the domain is to the bulletin board. I can only conclude that bots are attempting to farm the board for e-mail addresses to SPAM or back doors so that they can break in an SPAM the board itself.

But here's the real kick in the head. According to the MongoHosting website, what I'm paying should get me 5 Gig of bandwidth. I shouldn't be topping out at just 500 Meg. Did they lower my bandwidth allocation? I hadn't been paying attention so I didn't notice. Honestly, I don't think they did but I have no way of finding out because, as my experience with the domain name extortion has shown me, their admin only seems to work on Saturdays.

So, my website is down until at least then.

The English language does not have curse words sufficient to express my frustration at this whole situation and I have resorted to simply
screaming inarticulately.

One of the things I'm considering is buying another domain, probably the .net version of the .org I already have, and setting up hosting with someone reputable. On the other hand, all the search engines are pointing to the original site and by the time they start re-directing people to the new location I will have solved this issue.

[Insert more screaming here!]

The deal accepted

I finally received an e-mail from MongoHosting with my requested "contract" wherein they agree to give me my domain as a "gift" in exchange for two years payment for hosting. The fact that I've only ever received e-mail from their support on Saturday leads me to the conclusion that they only work one day a week. As if my confidence in them could get any lower.

Also in the email was the suggestion that when I make the payment they will transfer the domain immediately. At least, that's how I'm interpreting it. I still intend to keep hosting with them because they are so damn cheap but, once I own the domain, should they service start down a slippery slop I will cut my losses and take my hosting somewhere else.

Get Busted

My e-mail to MongoHosting accepting their blackmain demands of 2 years of hosting paid in advance to obtain my domain has gone unanswered. Could it be that my simple request to have an itimized invoice of this transaction is too much of a paper trail for them? I'm sure the e-mail they sent would be enough for any court to accept an implied contract.

Well, someone from Bulk Register had replied to my e-mail with a phone number so that I could talk to them directly about their client. I had been putting off calling because it had looked like my negotiations with MongoHosting were advancing but now that they had stalled again, I was ready to see them burn.

Except that the number the Bulk Register customer support person gave me was incorrect. It took me to Alabanza, Inc who is apparently a sister company of Bulk Register. Thankfully, a customer support person there was able to give me the correct phone number.

Speaking with someone there provided me with the following scenerio: If the WhoIs information is incorrect then Bulk Register will attempt to contact the Registrant. If there is no reply after a certain period of time (and it is apparently often the case that they don't), the domain registry is canceled.

I gave them all the details for the inconsistancies in the WhoIs entries. I have gone to Network Solutions and put my domain on backorder so as soon as it is canceled (if it is canceled) and becomes available, I will be able to purchase it immediately. I will need to have in place an alternative hosting solution that I can impliment at a moments notice so the website will be down for only a short period of time.

In the meantime, I have resent my e-mail to MongoHosting and continue to be without a response.

Product Review: Performance Transformer Jacket

I've been riding my bike in the cold utilizing a leather jacket as an outer layer. While it is windproof and keeps me fairly warm, it is rather heavy. And Pittsburgh weather being what it is, it can warm up another 20 degrees by the afternoon, at which point I must wear the coat and sweat it out.

So, I began looking for what they call a "shell." Much of the Windstopper and Gore-Tex products were outside my budget but the Performance Gore Windstopper Shell looked like just the thing. Except that they didn't have it in my size.

The Performance Transformer Jacket was my backup choice.

I happen to be in the area between a Large and Extra Large. It depends on the clothing cut and manufacturer as to what specific size I fall into. The size Large that I ordered was too small so I sent it back and got the XL. Out of the package, even that seemed sized oddly. It seemed long in the arms and tight about the chest and neck. Are all bicyclists bone-thin monkey boys? I can understand the bicyclist's posture calling for slightly longer arms and I also happen to have trouble finding clothes with arms of the proper length but this jacket even seemed to go beyond that. Well, there are velcro cuffs to keep the sleeves above the wrist. And wearing a fleece underneath only makes it seem tighter. With the fleece collar up I couldn't zip the Transformer's collar all the way up. Apparently bicyclists are pencil-necks as well.

I like the sleeves. I have another jacket that has sleeves that zip off. The problem is that you cannot get them off without taking off the jacket. The Transformer's sleeves are one piece, the two sleeves connected across the back with zippers at the fronts of the shoulders. You could take off the sleeves without taking off the rest of the jacket. It's also lightweight and compressable so it could be stuffed into a pack or saddlebag.

This morning the temperature was 30 degrees with light winds and snow flurries so it would be a good change to put the claimed "wind resistant, water resistant" to the test. Initially, I was disappointed. It seemed that the breeze of riding cut through the material fairly easily. But after about a mile and a half, my body began to build up a layer of warmth and the shell seemed to hold it in. A T-shirt, a fleece and the shell are more than enough for 30 degree temperatures. The water resistance has yet to be put to the test. Too bad I didn't get it the day before yesterday as it rained yesterday afternoon during my ride home.

I'll grade the Performance Transformer Jacket a "B".

ur website

I received an e-mail today concerning my website wherein this writer ripped into everything. He hates my writing. He hated my costuming, He hated my crafts. He hatted my hobies. He poured huge amounts of venom into my work, his favorite adjective being "gay" and favorite epithet being "faggot."

It sad, really. I know that some of the things I have done have brought emotional responses but this is clearly the work of a pathetic, little man who's only way of inflating his own self worth is to tear down the work of others.

I was tempted to send back an e-mail; "Seek professional help." but I knew it would be wasted and only invite more attacks, like antagonizing the school bully. In the end, I didn't even bother saving the message.

Compromise

I finally received a response from MongoHosting to my statements that I never intended to withdraw my hosting, just that I had wanted the domain and that $150 was far too much for this.

I understand your point , However you have to understand that we have no guarantee that you would continue your hosting with us. After I transfered the domain to you you could move the same day.

So, they just admitted that they were trying to blackmail me. I had only paid for one year. There was no guarantee or even an implicit contract that I would continue after that. Only the power of an established domain name. They were right, however, after being shown just what kind of scum they are, I would have jumped ship as soon as I had ownership of the domain.

"But I would be willing to come to a compromise :- If you pay 2 yrs hosting in advance ($50) I will transfer the domain to you."

Actually, a very reasonable compromise. I'm actually surprised. MongoHosting claimed they had renewed my domain when, in fact, they had not. If I refused to pay their ransom I could have simply allowed the hosting and domain registration to run out. Sure, they would suspend the account when I didn't pay but once the expiration date for the domain came around it would become available and I would snatch it up and be on-line again.

It would have been a risky route because if they re-registered the domain out of spite, I would have no way short of legal action to get it back.

But it would be risky for them, too. They would loose the $150 they wanted from me in the first place and they would loose any future charges they could incur from my continued hosting. Perhaps they realized that if they pushed for $150 they would get either nothing or a court summons.

So, the compromise works for both of us. I am not charged any more than if I merely continued my hosting and they get to keep me as a customer for two years.

I'm going to accept their offer. I still do not trust them any further than I could throw them and will ask that they send me an itemized invoice.

Too bad. So sad.

My response from Bulk Register can be summed up with six words:

"Can't help you. Get a lawyer."

Well, since they were going to be absolutely no help at all, I allowed myself the luxury of venting a little at them in my reply:

"So, what your saying is that even though your website states that you "have some obligation to domain owners who need to get control of that domain name," you won't, in fact, actually help the person who actually paid for that domain get control of it. Do you not mind that your client is extorting their customers and lying on their WhoIs information?"

I should know better than to attempt to appeal to a corporation's sense of justice.

Engrish

I had sent an email to Bulk Register about my plight with MongoHosting and received a blank automated response. I'm used to automated responses but usually they have some sort of "We have received your service request" but, because this one was blank, I wanted to be sure they got it. I signed on to their realtime chat:

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Domain Support'

Domain Support: Thank you for contacting BulkRegister's non-member support. How may I help you today?

Der Geis: I sent an e-mail with lots of detail earlier today and got a blank response. I just wanted to be sure it went through. Look for the e-mail address **********.

Domain Support: Sir may i know to which mail id you have send the mail?

My guess is that Bulk Hosting has farmed out their online support overseas. Probably to India. That's where all the support jobs seem to be going. I'm not impressed.

Der Geis: If you mean the reference number attached to the reply description line, it has -**.*******

Domain Support: Sir please send them mail again you will surely get reply from them

Der Geis: By "them" do you mean domainsupport@bulkregister.com?

So I sent the message again hoping that the person addressing this issue is able to read my English. The way I write isn't bad, per se, but it does have some pecular mannarisms and phrases, a relic of my growing up on H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradburry and Isaac Asimov.

Get Packed!

I've done some more investigating concerning the ownership of the domain I have hosted by MongoHosting. According to the WhoIs the Registrant name is Robert Dunbar, 121 Packer Ave, Sayre, PA 19012 with the phone number 215-222-2222.

Firstly, 215 and 19012 are area codes and zip codes for Philadelphia, which is in the Southwest part of the state. Sayre, which has a zip code of 18840 and area code of 570, is in the Northeast part of the state. Both cities have a Packer Avenue but the one in Philly is in the 19148 zip code, not 19012.

The phone number 215-222-2222 never answers. Directory Assistance reports that it is an unlisted number. There is neither a Robert Dunbar nor a Silvercities.com listed for Philadelphia in the 212 area code. A search of the Internet for the number brings up many returns that have the 215-222-2222 as something of a default or false phone number for a number of website templates rather than an actual contact number.

Directory Assistance for the 570 area code reports that there is neither a Robert Dunbar nor a Silvercities.com listed for the Packer Avenue location. There are a number of other Robart Dunbars listed in the area code but I feel it is inappropriate for me to call them all in the hope of tracking down the one I want. Especially when I expect that he will lie to me anyway.

A WhoIs of MongoHosting.com shows Trihost Inc., 121 Packer Ave, Sayre PA 18840. They, at least, have the right zip code. All the contact information is still for Robert Dunbar with the wrong zip code and bad phone number. Directory assistance does not show a Trihost Inc. in Sayre, PA.

A look at www.silvercities.com returns only a placeholder website. A WhoIs on silvercities.com bring up good old Robert Dunbar again but with a new address this time. Charisma computers, 475 River Rd, Nichols, NY 13812. This is just north of Sayre, PA. Directory Assistance does not list any entry for Charisma Computers in Nichols. The WhoIs registrar number listed for Charisma (and Robert); 609-699-0830 "is not in service at this time." Directory assistance gave a number for a Robert Dunbar in Nichols, NY but there was no answer and a lifeless answering machine message that just said to leave a message after the tone.

Bulk Register, who is listed as the Sponsoring Registrar for all these accounts, has this on their website:

However, a small number of Member-resellers go out of business or are unresponsive to domain name owners for a variety of reasons. In this situation we feel we have some obligation to domain owners who need to get control of that domain name. We realize peoples livelihoods sometime depend on it.

I sent them an email describing how MongoHosting is squatting on my domain name in an effort to extort usurious fees from me. I told them how they have not responded to any of my email attempts since Saturday and also detailed the above information showing that the WhoIs information for many of their registry entries are false.

The bad WhoIs information is pretty damning so I hop that wins my case and the rights to my domain.

Help Desk Quote of the Day

It's not often that you get a quote that sums up the entire day before 8:00 am. In this instance, V*** was struggling with walking a user through a workstation password reset. He would give an instruction. Repeat it. Repeat it again. Speak more clearly. Spell things out phonetically. On and on.

At one point, he hit the mute button and said:

"Are you just stupid this morning or are you pretending to be stupid?"

Gotta' love that mute button.

Back Taxes

A co-worker of mine, a resident of the City of Pittsburgh, has just discovered that The Corporation has not been withholding his city taxes. Suddenly he has a $500 bill for back taxes.

The City of Pittsburgh has what's called the "occupation tax" for people who do not live in the city (like myself). My co-worker's experience with his taxes lead me to check my pay stubs, only to discover that my occupation tax hasn't been paid either.

In the past, the occupation tax would be taken out of your first paycheck of the year. It was $10 annually but with the city operating under the Act 47 oversight board and in debt up to it's eyeballs, they have upped the tax to $50-something.

Not only was the $50-odd dollars taken out of my first paycheck of this year but a more in-depth search of my pay receipts shows that The Corporation has never paid that tax. So, I could get nailed for back taxes and interest going back 5 years. And not only me but everyone else who works at the Help Desk.

Hmmmm, DynaVox looks like it's hiring.

Birds of a Feather

As I was walking from work towards where I parked my bike, I heard a screech that said "I'm a bird of prey." It took me a few moments of scanning but I saw the bird perched on top of one of the flag poles at the corner of Grant and the Blvd. of the Allies.

It was one of the downtown Peregrine Falcons sitting on top of the eagle flagpole cap. Both birds were about the same size.

Pittsburgh has several nesting pairs of Peregrines. One pair lives atop the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. The other nests downtown high up on the Grant Building. These Falcons are not migratory but they do seem to roam away from town during the fall and early winter. Now is about the time they return to raise a new clutch.

I can see the Gulf Tower from where I work but the angle is such that I can't see the nest. Even so, I occasionally see the blur of a falcon, folded up in a dive to pick a pigeon out of the sky. (Die! Die! Die, you disgusting rats with wings!)

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy maintains webcams to watch the falcon nests. (http://www.paconserve.org/pittfalcons/index.html) Unfortunately, it looks like the Gulf Tower cam isn't functioning. As you watch, look for eggs near the end of March and for them to hatch at the end of April.

Mongohosting

Last year in May, I signed up for web hosting on behalf of my sci-fi club with Mongohosting. My original intention was to register the club's domain name for myself and then set up the website but I made a mistake and Mongohosting registered the domain. Well, the whole package cost $25 for the year so I didn't think it was that bad. At such a low cost, it wouldn't be a problem to wait for the registration to expire and then get them to transfer it when it did.

Well, as the year progressed, I began to think I had made a larger mistake. I had some thoughts about moving my personal domain but their website and price structure was undergoing some revision at the time and my e-mail requests went unanswered. Later, I had our website go down and my e-mail requests for support again went unanswered. Bad omens.

Today, I sent an email to the admin asking about transfering the domain. I was very pleased to receive a response quickly from Cindy the Mongohosting admin but disturbed that they were asking $150.

$150 to transfer a domain? That's userous! That's blackmail! Year ago, I worked for an IT company and did domain registration transfers. There's really no processing effort, just signing onto Network Solutions website and changing the account properties. Click "submit" and it's done. If I registered with Network Solutions, I could get 9 years for less that $100.

I returned an email questioning what could cost so much. They said: "Your Domain along with many others were sold to us when we bought the company from *******." I hadn't known that. Well, if all my previous problems were *******'s fault, maybe this could be dealt with in a businesslike manner. Except that I started looking things up. Mongohosting had been bought by Silver Cities back in September. According to the chatter on the Mongohosting support forum, that's when the problems really started.

Cindy's email also said: "As we just reregistered the domain we would be expecting to recoup costs
and expenses associated costs from the hosting charges."

I did a whois on my domain and there was no evidence that it was re-registered. It was still due to expire in May.

"As we won't be doing that if you move we have to cover our loses."

I hadn't said anything about no longer hosting at Mongohosting, I had inquired about transfering domain registration. And even so, even if they had already re-registered the domain, unless they registered it for the next 20 years they have no justification to charge me as much as they are.

Of course, justification has nothing to do with it. They have a domain that I want and will make me pay for it. My only other option is to simply not pay the bill at the end of my year. The website will expire and, if they are true to their word, they will have already re-registered the domain for at least a year, keeping it out of my hands. That would be devistating to my clubs web presence.

It is blackmail, pure and simple. And now that I'm looking this up, things look even worse. Earlier today I was on their support forum and there were plenty of postings about the lack of support. I even recal one about them having been reported to the Better Business Bureau. Now that I've gone back to actually check on the details of that all the messages have been deleted from the forum.

They are attempting to cover their tracks.

Oh, this is bad and it looks like I'm going to have to submit to their extortion.

Allah Had No Son

I normally refuse to pick up the various religious pamphlets and flyers that end up sitting around or being handed out by street evangelists but this one was on a shelf in the Barnes & Noble Bookstore and I just shoved it in my pocket to get it out of there.

I decided to take a critical look rather than just throwing it away.

This Chick Publication is titled "Allah Had No Son" and it begins with a father and son walking by a mosque where Muslims are seen kneeling in the courtyard. The boy asks what they are doing and the father replies, "They are worshiping their moon god."

So, the pamphlet starts off with a lie. Sure, it goes on to explain how the Islamic symbol of the crescent moon is a hold over from prehistoric moon worshiping but Allah is no more a moon god than the Judeo/Christian God is a sun god. Each has its roots in paganism but each has also evolved. In point of fact, the crescent moon is a relatively modern invention, I think from the post-Ottoman Empire and the founding of modern Turkey.

Standard propaganda techniques right off. Demonizing the Muslims by reducing them to deluded pagan worshipers. Don't even admit that they worship the same god.

Back to the pamphlet. . .

A worshiping Muslim has overheard the man calling Allah a moon god and leaps up, threatening "The holy Koran says I could KILL you for saying that!" A footnote directs users to reference Sura 5:33.

Of course, most people are going to just assume that, since the Koran is being referenced chapter and verse, then it is being attributed correctly. And few people have a copy of the Koran to check and wouldn't be inclined to read it anyway.

This is another lie. The passage actually reads: "Those that make war against Allah and His apostle and spread disorders in the land shall be put to death or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the country. They shall be held to shame in this world and sternly punished in the next: except those that repent before you reduce them. For you must know that Allah is forgiving and merciful."

The passage does not give the faithful permission to kill for a simple insult; it directs them to mete out various levels of punishment to those that make war upon them. This is the right of self defense and is repeatedly mentioned in both the Torah and the Bible.

Another propaganda technique is to misquote the enemy's own documents. In this case, further demonizing the Muslims by taking a passage that refers the right to defend oneself in warfare and twist it into an extremist view that kills at the slightest provocation.

Next, follows more demonization. The Muslim declares that they expect a Muslim flag to fly over the White House by 2010, that it will end Christianity in America and they have already bringing England to its knees.

Now it's time to make the reader even more afraid. Oh, and more lies. The Muslim says that the Koran condemns the Bible and that Jesus did not die on the cross. But, in this case they don't footnote to a passage in the Koran, they attribute a rampantly racist modern book "Islamic Invasion" by Robert A. Morey. In fact, most of this pamphlet seems based on this piece of crap.

You can tell, I'm starting to loose my objectivity as I study this more and more.

The pamphlet goes on to "prove" that Allah is a moon god, that the so-called Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the one true god and how the Muslims are doomed to hell.

Then, using another tried and true propaganda technique, the Muslim comes to his realization that Islam is a lie, he repents, accepts Jesus as his savior and asks how he can save others. There follows a form the reader can fill out to affirm his faith and get more stuff in the mail to distribute.

But what frightens me more that the contents of this document and that people actually believe this garbage is that MORE people are believing this. I even remember that for several weeks in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration used the word "Christendom" as if this were a new religious crusade against Islam. Thankfuly, some advisor told Dubbya not to use that word anymore but it shows the fundamental beliefs that our president has.

Is it any wonder there are Muslims willing to blow themselves up to defend their faith and homelands from western imperialism. They have every right to be afraid. Hell, I'M afraid because I'm not a Christian. When will I be called a traitor or un-American becuse I'm not a Christian?

0 for 3

Just got an email from our Corporate Overlords:

Dear Valued Employee,

Despite a great deal of care and diligence to ensure accuracy in the first payroll completed through Pomeroy's HR department, we have discovered that your compensation
was not accurately calculated. Corrective steps are being taken as follows:

401k Deduction
The 401k deduction taken was a small percentage of what you had elected. The amount deducted was the dollar amount equivalent to percentage you elected. For example, if you elected to deduct 5.0%, only $5.00 was deducted. The difference between the amount deducted and the correct deduction has been calculated and will be withheld in the next pay period.

So, I forgot to mention that I was screwed for Christmas as well. My paycheck came with the Christmas holiday pay but the very next day the holiday pay was deducted from my account because I was sick on Thursday and took the day off. The policy is that if you take off the day before or the day after the holiday, you don't get the holiday pay. The "official" holiday for The Company was the Friday because Christmas itself was on a Saturday. So, even though I came in sick to work on Friday, the "official" holiday, I didn't get the holiday.

And then, to add insult to that injury, The second, revised paycheck re-submitted the PTO I used for my sick day, taking essentially another 8 hours of compensation away from me.

I suppose it could be worse. One of my coworkers isn't scheduled for Thursdays because he works on Saturdays. He never had a chance at holiday pay for Christmas. The only thing the Corporate Overlords would offer him was the opportunity to work on a day he wasn't normally scheduled.

Oh yea, we're off to a rousing start.

Transference

As I left for lunch, B**** (the person I had only recently trained) talked to me in the hall and D*****. It would seem that B**** was on a call and, being new and not knowing the answer to the caller's problem, he asked a co-worker for assistance.

D***** made a "scisors-finger" gesture. I know that to D***** that clearly means "You're taking too long on this call, cut it short." B**** said "what" because he honelstly didn't know what D***** meant. D***** screwed up his face in a classic "D'uh" expression and gestured with both hands, clearly implying that B**** was stupid for not knowing what was meant. And this was not the first time he's done something like this to B****.

What's worse is that B**** told me that this sort of behavior is recent, say in the past two weeks which, by an astonishing coincidence, is when D***** stuck his foot in his mouth concerning me.

So, either D***** has not learned his lesson and while he is keeping away from me, he is still being a bad manager to everyone else.

Or, he hasn't learned his lesson and is taking out his frustrations on the person I just finished training. Would it be too speculatory to say that he hopes to reate questions about my value by defaming the people I've trained? Two weeks ago I wouldn't have thought so but now I am not so sure.

I told B**** to write it all up with dates and times and to send it to the Help Desk Manager and HR Contact. I'm tempted to go to them right now with this but I think B**** should present it in his own words. I told him to tell them that he spoke to me about this and I advised him to speak to them. Once that ball starts rolling, I will weigh in with my own opinions.

I'm pretty think skinned and D***** cannot truly embarass me in public because most everyone knows how he is but I'll be damned if I'll allow him to take it out on someone else.

A Wonderful Life

I don't know if you've been watching this story on the news but several weeks ago, the building manager of 927 Fifth Avenue in New York City had the nest of a mated pair of Red-Tailed Hawks torn down from his building. These marvelous birds, named Pale Male and Lola, have been living at this posh Manhattan location for over a decade and had raised over 20 children. They were famous celebreties, like apartment neighbor Mary Tylor Moore and Woody Allen across the street.

Someone (who has never been named) complained about the bits of debris and pidgeon carcases that occasionally fell from the nest and, the building manager, hoping to avoid any problems with the rent payer, tore the nest down and removed the pidgeon spikes, which would prevent the nest from being rebuilt. Of course, without the pidgeon spikes, the pidgeons would return to roost on the ledge eventually. I suppose he thought by then the Hawks would have moved somewhere else and become someone else's problem.

Well, he had problems of his own. There was a tremendous outcry. Over the weeks as Pale Male and Lola made futile attempts to rebuild their home, hawk watchers and nature lovers lobyed to have the nesting site restored. The Audubon Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The New York Times and thousands of vigil sitters converged on the cause of returning Pale Male to his home.

As a resident of the less urbanized Pittsburgh area, hawks are a common site. Nature isn't so far removed as the suburbs have deer in the yards, hawks in the sky, turkey in city parks and we even had a bear come through the area a few years back. I can only imagine the horror of a city dweller, encircled by glass and concrete, suddenly waking to find that the one piece of nature in his neighborhood was torn out overnight.

Our own urban pride is a nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons atop the Gulf Building downtown. (http://www.paconserve.org/pittfalcons/gulfvideo.htm) Unfortunately, their nest is not visible from the office windows where I work but I see them from time to time diving past the windows. A distinctive silouette caught for a moment out of the corner of the eye. I would be outraged if some pinhead decided to tear down their nesting box. I feel pangs when the Gulf Building decides to remove the webcam TV from their street-level window, even though they do so when the nest is empty and there's nothing to see.

Christmas Eve brought the best news. The spike were going back up and, if Pale Male and Lola hadn't already decided to move somewhere else, a new nesting platform would be waiting for them to move back to their home.

And it's our home, too. We need this connection to the rest of the world, to remind us that we are not the world's masters but its caretakers.

I was asked, "How would you feel having dead pidgeons falling on your doorstep?"

"Every time a pidgeon dies, an red-tail gets his wings."

Product Review: Sugoi Matrix Leg Warmers

Biking to work in the winter in Pittsburgh means it'll get cold. Typically, I've been using a lay of cotton long underwear under by bike shorts or, when the temperature gets down in the 20's, I'll throw a pair of BDUs over that.

Cotton Kills! That is the cry of all the outdoor pundits and, in some ways they are right. when cotton gets wet it rob your body of heat and you can have hypothermia problems. I wouldn't worry about this on a commute into work but the thing I am concerend with is bulk. For the afternoon commute home when the temperature has risen 20 degrees I have the the pants to carry home. It'd be more convenient to have something that would do the same job but pack smaller.

I had a coupon and so ordered the Sugoi Matrix Leg Warmers.

The description said that they would "add 10 degrees" so since I normall wear shorts down into the 30's I hoped they would be able to pretty much serve me for the winter. In all honesty, they did not perform as well as the cotton long underwear I got from K-mart for a couple of bucks. They did nothing to stop the wind and I think that, because they were so close to the skin they didn't allow a pocket of warm insulating air like the quilted cotton long underwear did.

With a 40 degree air temperature and rain I felt more comfortable with bare legs than I did with the so-called leg warmers.

And while they stayed up all right when riding, the gel edging around the top did not hold them up well when walking. Now I know why women wear garter belts for stockings.

I notice now that the "add 10 degrees" statement is gone from the description. One of the reviews on the site says "Ok for temps 50-65 degrees". I'm sorry, but at those temps I'm still wearing shorts. If they don't do me any good in the 30 to 40 degree range they just aren't worth it. I'm just glad the coupon paid for it and I didn't throw my money away.

I'll grade the Sugoi Leg Warmers with a "D".

Scammer

I received a call this morning from John Manuel who claimed to be from UBS asking to be transferred to 800-444-5656. I said that I could not do that as it is against company policy. He asked to be transferred to the Data Center. I again refused, saying that it was against company policy. He asked "Why" and I reiterated that it was against company policy.

Then he said something like "company policy" but slightly different, as if he had misunderstood what I had said. I repeated "company policy" and he again "misheard". He then started cursing and swearing at me, calling me a motherfucker and a nigger, saying that that in a way that made me think he knew it was an insult but didn't know that it was racially specific. He laughed as he amused himself with his insults of me. Eventually he tired of my silence and put me on hold. I hung up after that.

Of course, this John Manuel person doesn't really work for UBS. This is apparently some sort of scam where the caller eventually gets the access to dial the number himself and uses a flaw in the system to make a long distance call for free. Look at the Snopes website (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/jailcall.htm) to see how this is supposed to work.

So, here is more ID10T action. . . . This is the same guy; I recognize his voice and accent. He keeps using the same name and company, making it very easy for word to get around The Bank and The Help Desk to be on the look out. He keeps calling The Bank even though he's being stopped regularly. And even when he is transferred (under the watchful eye of Corporate Security) and tracked, he is unable to complete his call. This has been going on for weeks and I can only imagine that he keeps trying because he is more often successful than not.

I wonder how entertaining it would be to transfer him the FBI.

Apology

I came in this morning to a waiting e-mail from D*****, sent to my work e-mail box Sunday afternoon.

There are times when people say things that are insensitive, arrogant, and obnoxious without thinking about the impact their words may have on an individual. We all can probably remember words that we have used to insult, humiliate, embarrass, or offend a person but never really gave any special thought to it. I can truthfully say that it can happen to anyone. When that happens, it's only fair for one to apologize to those that may be affected. I accidentally sent an Epop to entire Help Desk with inappropriate words directed toward you. Although the intent was to be humorous, the words were still inappropriate for an electronic format. I apologize for sending such a message.

This "apology", which seems to me long on excuses and short on actual regret, was carbon copied to everyone at the Help Desk. At least he made a public apology for my public humiliation but it wasn't a very good one. "There are times when people. . . ", "We can all. . . ", ". . . it's only fair for one. . . " In all of these, he's not taking responsibility for what he did. He's not saying that he was "insensitive, arrogant, and obnoxious", he saying that "people" do this. Then he says "I accidentally sent. . . " as if his mistake was in sending it to everyone.

I was not satisfied.

Later in the morning, D***** stopped by my cubicle on his way to have a smoke. I was on a call and did not want to interrupt it to hear his abbreviated apology so eventually he tired of loitering and said he would talk to me later. I suspected that D***** had been talked to by management because I don't think he would initiate a verbal, one-on-one apology on his own initiative.

Immediately after the call, I went to speak with the Help Desk Manager. He told me that Corporate had been told about this and they were taking it very seriously. He said that D***** "had a lot of work ahead of him to show that he's not tat kind of Team Lead." Both the written and verbal apologies were part of that "work."

The rest of the morning and the bulk of the afternoon had plenty of opportunities for D***** to get up from his desk and come over to me. He did not. Apparently he thought the apology was important enough for him to stop by and deliver on his way somewhere else but not so important as to make a special trip. That sort of attention to the issue makes me wonder if he's learned his lesson.

Just before D***** was to leave for the day, he finally came over and asked if I had received the e-mail he had sent. "I just wanted to say I was sorry. It wasn't ment to be offensive but it obviously was"

"This is not about remorse or forgiveness," I said. "This is about respect and responsibility. No doubt, Corporate HR has some plan for you but let me tell you how this will work with me. If you ever want to talk to me or about me concerning policy, procedure or the cost of tea in China, you will go to the Help Desk Manager. Do not approach me in the hallway. Do not hover by my cubicle. Everything goes through Management"

D***** said that he thought he should have stayed away but that he felt he had to apologize in person. Liar. He wouldn't have come over if he hadn't been required to by HR. I'm not even sure he would have e-mailed the apology, such as it was, without being impelled by HR's authority.

Oh, he's on the fast track to redemption.

Something stinks.

I was up at my Function Desk to talk with them concerning an update on a ticket. After that, I took a few steps to stand at A**'s cubicle to talk to him about some random piece of news.

*bing*

While I was standing there, a message popped up on everyone's screen, distributed by e-pop, and application like Instant Messenger that we user internally to communicate at the Help Desk. It said:

"What's that smell??? Oh I'm sorry Geis, I didn't see you standing there."

A few Analysts looked around asking "Who sent that?" but I had a sneaking suspicion which was not difficult to confirm. The sender's login id was clearly visible on the FROM line of the popup.

Now, D***** and I have had words before. Usually it has been over some sort of dispute over policies or procedures. D***** is a Team Lead but he's not my Team Lead. That doesn't keep him out of my business, though. Well, arguements over policies or procedures are one thing (within his purvue) but during one such conversation he said that my oposition to a certain procedure was just "Geis being Geis."

Since then I have tried very hard NOT to believe that he has something personal against me, that this was merely a clash of personalities. I kept telling myself that he was just a bad manager. D***** has on previous occasions misspoken and subsequently been spoken to by Management about it but this. . . .this sort of statement is almost unimaginably inappropriate. It would be bad enough coming from anyone on a "public" forum but to come from a Team Lead is beyond my ability to write off as merely a personality conflict.

And only half an how later I was scheduled for a "Career Development" meeting with the HR Rep and my Team Lead. I wrot this incident up in a formalized letter to present during my meeting. My hands were shaking with so much anger that I couldn't even sign the document.

I could see the disbelief on their faces as they read what had happened. Yes, something would be done about this at the management level. . . just not right now. Through a quirk of scheduling, the Help Desk Manager was off today. And while he will be back tomorrow, the HR Rep will be out, as will I. This may need to wait until Monday to be resolved.

And what would be an acceptable resolution? This sort of agregious statement could get him fired. As the last straw in a hay bail of missteps he should not be a Team Lead. At the very least, I want the record of this incident, including the screen shot of the statement itself, to end up in his personnel folder. I can't imagine what they would do beyond that, given the way things like this have been dealt with in the past.

I have a tight knot right between my shoulderblades.

My functional motivation motivates others to function.

Employees of The Bank are apparently encouraged to add "Leadership Statements" to their e-mail signatures. Here is a sampling:


"My Leadership Causes Success Through Teamwork and the Success of Each Member"

"My Leadership Causes a Comfortable Work Environment"

"My leadership makes potential become reality"

"My leadership causes hard work and determination in myself and others!"

"My leadership accelerates consensus!"

"My leadership creates results through accountability."

"My leadership is the catalyst for inspiring compassion, integrity and excellence in others."

My first thought was to add comments to each of these but to be honest, I can't think of any snide ridicule that I could heap on these statements any worse than the statements themselves. I suppose they could be forgiven for bad grammar since no one is proofreading their work, but what are these people thinking? Is this what they really believe leadership is about?

And The Bank is no better. Even though these following statements were surely built by committees, these mission statements posted on signage around the offices really aren't much better:


"We challenge reality to accomplish the impossible."

"Utilizing the power of diversity and imagination, we conquer boundaries, redefining tomorrow."


Oh, the pain! You can read those statements over and over again and still not derive any meaning from them. It may be naive of me to believe that a mission statement should actually be a statement of the department or business's mission , but is that the way it's supposed to be? If it had meaning then the managers would be actually held accountable if they didn't measure up. Do they come up with that crap specifically to avoid that sort of responsibility or do they really believe that the employees are too stupid to realize it meaninglessness?

ID10T Webcomic Number 2

Panel 1:
Close up view of Protagonist's hands, pulling on a pair of hi-tech gloves. The narration box says, "Essential Reality P5 Virtual Reality Gloves: $80."

Panel 2:
View of Protagonist's ear as a headset is placed. The narration box says, "GN Netcom 9120 Wireless Headset: $300."

Panel 3:
View of the Protagonist as he places a pair of goggles on. The narration box says, "I-Glasses PCHR Head Mounted Display: $900."

Panel 4 (tripple wide, below the first three):
The narration box at the top of the panel says, "Casual Fridays at the Help Desk . . . " The Protagonist is seen wearing all his equipment and only a pair of shorts lying on a lawn chair in his cubicle. A bank of sun lamps on a tripod is on his desk above his workstation. His voice bubble has him speaking; ". . . You now need to enter a new password, 5 to 8 characters long . . ." The Boss is standing beside the cubicle with his hands on his hips. His voice bubble has him speaking; "Geis, when you're done I want to see you in my office." The narration box at the bottom of the panel says, "Priceless."

So-called Cost of Living

Open enrollment in the health plan of our new Corporate Overlords started today. I went through all the menus and chose the minimum coverage partially because I stay away from doctor's offices anyway but mostly because of my stagnant pay. At the end it calculated how much this new plan was going to cost me and it turns out that my health care costs will increase by just about the same amount as my "cost of living" pay increase after my last performance appraisal.

So, my relative pay continues to drop.

Holiday Screwge

This tale of woe requires a little lead in to understand all the players. First, wer are the Help Desk. The Help Desk works for The Bank but we are not employees of The Bank, we are part of an IT service company that I will refer to as The Company.

Back in May we learned that The Company was being purchased by another IT services company. That company will hereafter be referred to as The Corporate Overlords.

So, now it's Thanksgiving. I was a little late in asking for the Friday after Thanksgiving off so that I could join the family get-together at my sister's in Maryland but I did get the day off. We at the Help Desk were told that The Corporate Overlords recognized the Friday after Thanksgiving as a company holiday for which we would be entitled to holiday pay. Swell! Since I was taking the day off, I duitifly filled out the PTO form.

Today we had some rolling meetings as groups of Help Desk staff were called into the break room to meat with the Help Desk Manager and HR Rep. We were told that the manager was mistaken. HeThe Corporate Overlords and the Analysts that work for them get the Friday after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday but here at The Company, there is still a separation between Analysts and Managers. That separation means that we would not be getting holiday pay for the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The way he phrased it, it sounded like he and the HR Rep (managers) would be receiving pay for that day.

Since I had filled out a PTO form, I figured I was still going to get paid, it was just going to be coming out of my pool of PTO hours instead of being a holiday bonus. I wasn't particularly pleased with that but I have a lot of PTO built up and don't spend it in big chunks (taking a day here and there instead of taking a full week vacation) so it wasn't going to be a big hit.

Except that, because The Manager though it was going to be covered by The Corporate Overlord's holiday pay, they didn't submit my PTO request.

*WHAM* I'm out a day's pay.

I am told that I can re-submit my PTO request and it will be honored but the paycheck I get next week is going to be out a day.

Hmmm, let's see what's going on at Monster.com this afternoon.

New Directions

I have noticed an unpleasant habit for The Bank's web designers. When they develop a new Intranet website to replace an old site they simply create a new URL. In yesterday's update, they apparently sent an e-mail about this change to SOME users. Users that did not receive this e-mail were getting a number of error messages trying to get into the old site. After a few hours of fielding these calls and opening tickets because we didn't know what was going on, we finally received a copy of the new instruction and new URL.

This happens all the time and our call volume spikes because of it. Sure, they often send out an e-mail warning people about the change but many do not read it. A simple solution would be a redirect at the old page that takes people to the new page or, at the very least, has a message saying that the procedure or URL has changed and providing users with the new information.

It's not hard.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=http://new address">

See? It's pretty much that easy.

In another example, there are a number of web-based applications that use a single password. There is a database within Lotus Notes that allows users to reset this password. Users who are having problems with their password is directed to this database but, of course, they are not told how to get this database if they don't already have it, prompting them to call the Help Desk.

It would be so simple to add a link to this page that would add this database automatically or to have the instructions there. But, no. They say "Call the Help Desk" and we get scores of calls every day for an issue that users could take care of themselves if only they were provided with the information.

ID10T Webcomic Number 1

If I had any sort of artistic talent, I'd try to boil some of my life here at the Help Desk into four panels and try to publish a webcomic. Well, it probably wouldn't go for very long but there are a few incidents and ideas that would be worthy of such a treatment. If you've read my previous posts, you probably have already seen them.

But, I will not be deterred by my own artistic ineptitude. What follows is a text version of what would be my first attempt at a webcomic.

Panel 1:
Close up view of a Help Desk workstation. The Protagonist's hands are seen installing an access point on the telephone. A box is seen labeled "Wireless Headset."

Panel 2:
The Protagonist, wearing his wireless headset, is standing at the copier. The voice bubble has him speaking "Corporate helpdesk, this is Geis. How can I help you? . . . . "

Panel 3:
The Protagonist is in the break room, pouring some coffee. The voice bubble has him speaking; ". . . now, go to the lower right hand corner of the window and click on Office Network. Select Edit. When that comes up . . . ."

Panel 4:
You see the Protagonist's feet in a rest room stall. His pants are bunched around his ankles. The voice bubble through the door has him speaking; ". . . go to Start. Select Settings and then Printers. Do you see your printer listed there?. . ." The Boss is standing outside the restroom stall with his hands on his hips. His voice bubble has him speaking; "Geis, when you're done I want to see you in my office."

Here's Looking at You

On Tuesday, building maintenance went throughout the floor and pulled down all the security cameras watching the emergency stairwells and elevators and replaced them with new cameras.

On Wednesday, they pulled down all the new cameras and replaced them with the original cameras.

Then yesterday they pulled down those cameras (again) and replaced them with a third camera design.

Apparently they discovered that the scores of cameras they had bought were incompatible with the system they had and they had to get a different camera. One would think they would have tested the camera compatibility before buying a huge order for the whole building. And even after that, they installed at least one entire floor of cameras before discovering that none of them worked instead of checking to make sure that one worked before moving on to the other dozen.

Oh, yea. I feel my security being enhanced.

Webcomics as Job Performance Enhansement

Here at the Help Desk, our job performance is rated on a number of metrics. Things like First Call Resolution Rate, Average speed of Answer, Average Call Time, in all, 14 things are rated and we earn "points" for each metric we meet. The names of those who get 14 points each week and each month are put into a hat and one name is drawn to wil an incentive prize. Weekly incentive winners get 4 hours of Paid Time Off (granted without the Corporate central office knowing). Those who win the monthly incentive get taken out to lunch by the Manager in addition to the PTO. (He writes it off on his taxes as a business expense).

Most of the time, my stats are pretty good. I've always earned at least 12 points and often do better. The things I slip on are Average Talk Time and Availablility.

Availability is the most important metric. It's the one The Management is always whining about. It's the percentage of time that you are either on a call or waiting for a call. My availability wasn't bad, it just wasn't regularly quite enough to earn that 14th point.

That is, until Webcomics.

Some months ago, I started reading webcomics. Megatokyo, El Goonish Shive, It's Walky, College Roomies from Hell, Queen of Wands, Nukees, Wapsi Square, The Devil's Panties, Filthy Lies!, The Wotch, Questionable Content and Count Your Sheep. Typically, I discover a webcomic and then go back and start at the begining, catching up between calls. Some, like Megatokyo, I've gone through more than once (That can take days).

The unintended result is that rather than taking short breaks between calls to go to the vending machines or discuss the latest Megas XLR episode with a coworker, I'm sitting at the desk with my phone in the "ready" mode waiting for another call. My availability has gone almost as high as it can go and I am now earning the coveted 14 points nearly every week.

The days seems to go faster as well and, to be honest, I find that much more valuable than lunch with the boss.

One down

The news of the day is the "retirement" of John Ashcroft. An article in The Register summed it up quite well:

"His legacy includes boosterism of the so-called Patriot Act, a longstanding federal law-enforcement wish list of legal shortcuts that the atrocities of 11 September 2001 made it impossible for Congress to reject; covering the tits on a prominent bronze statue of Justice that always made him twitch; gleeful promotion of capital punishment; rounding up thousands of suspected terrorists, and failing to prosecute any of them successfully; advising the military that torture is fine so long as no one gets caught, and that the Geneva Conventions don't always apply; advising the federal bureaucracy that DoJ would help it fight any FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request from nosy reporters; making a further mockery of the Act of Posse Comitatus by actively encouraging military outfits to participate in terror-related law enforcement; wildly overplaying his hand whenever some small-fry terror suspect like Jose Padilla popped up on the radar; warning the public that criticizing the so-called Patriot Act is an act of disloyalty verging on treason; inventing an arbitrary class of person called an "enemy combatant" so that writs of habeas corpus can be ignored at the government's convenience; prosecuting a crusade against pornography, apparently another deadly threat to US national security; and turning out the DoJ as a sort of "copyright 911" hotline so that the public might pay the bills of companies that wish to defend their intellectual property.

Clearly, he will be missed."


I wonder what caused such a stalwart support of Dubbya's agenda to leave the administration. A pang of conscience, perhaps? Probably not. More likely that he looked out of the world of domestic civil rights and, like Alexander, wept at having no more lands to conquer.

Holiday Snear

The Halloween costumes aren't even back in the closet yet and already the Christmas decorations are going up. Workers are stringing lights in the trees. The 20' tree is on the steps of the City Offices. The life-sized nativity is starting to go up at Steel Plaza. Barnes and Nobel has a table of Christmas books just in the store entrance.

I hate it.

I remember when the "holidays" began after Thanksgiving. That very national holiday is all but forgotten as the Christian majority and capitalist jackals rush to capture more and more of the public's attentions. Veteran's Day, Hanukah, the Winter Solstice and the opening day of whitetail season are also trampled.

So, for the next two months I will become increasingly Grinch-like as I am bombarded with Christian-capitalist messages and images. Carols will fill the public spaces. I will be shown just how much of a minority I am in this country that supposedly has "freedom of religion" as one of its core values.

Fifty-three days and counting.