Monday, February 24, 2014

You can't explain Nice

I was on my way home from the gym and a bunch of errands when the clutch on my Honda finally gave out.  I had foolishly been putting off having it fixed for weeks, adding more brake fluid to keep it going, but when it wouldn’t go into gear approaching the intersection of Park and Taft Streets, I rolled it halfway onto the grassy median, a couple car-lengths before the stoplight.  I didn’t know what else to do…

I immediately called my roadside repair service, which I’ve paid for every month for years and have never used, and waited.  And waited.  For almost two hours, calling every twenty minutes to be put on hold, transferred around, and finally told that it would be twenty more minutes before the tow truck arrived.  But during that time, as I played games on my phone and read my e-book, I found out something awesome.  Most people are nice.

It’s rare that I’m in so vulnerable position in a car, parked with flashers flashing, half-in and half-out of a busy lane of traffic, worried that someone would crash into me on general principles of road rage.  But to my astonishment in two hours, only one person angrily honked at me, and that was a school bus driver, who also screamed curses at me as she sharply cut in front of me to turn left.  (I know that’s a stressful job, honey, but take it out on the kids, will ya?)

In that two hours, at least a dozen people, all strangers, slowed down or actually pulled over and stopped to ask if I needed help.  These included young people, old people, men and women, black people, white people, a FedEx driver, a school crosswalk guard, and finally a policeman who finally helped me push the car fully onto the grass.  I’m often not a fan of police – but this guy was so super sweet, and he really didn’t have to do it, legally.   

I know that I often do the same thing - offer to call someone, or push a car off the road, or tell someone they have a flat, or hand a couple dollars to a median beggar.   Without thinking.   Why?  Because compassion doesn’t need a reason.



Monday, February 10, 2014

even more Communistic Cast

Well well well.  I recently quit cable TV cold turkey, and it has been something of an adjustment - but I'm happier every day that I'm not paying these greedy bastards any more of my hard earned money.

Besides spending more time doing more creative and productive work generally, I have proven that every bit of media I care to watch can be watched without Comcast, and watched at a time that I choose.  But of course, the tete a tete with Comcast is not over.

I found out that they've been over-charging me for "high speed internet" for more than ten years, to the tune of $10 per month (plus tax).  I've been monitoring my average download/upload speeds, and it's far below the level I'm paying for.  When I pointed this out to a phone representative from, I assume, Bangladesh, I was told that I would be given a "promotional rate" from now on.  That's not good enough, considering I've over-paid them about $1200 so far - but it will have to do for the moment, as I can't prove that they've been short-changing me in that regard; I only noticed it recently.  In looking at a number of blogs and complaint sites - I find that I am not an aberration, but the norm.

But as big of an idiot as that makes me, I must confess, I'm a much bigger wanker than I myself would have ever believed.  Who among us rents a "cable modem" from the cable company?!  Being in this business, I knew I was being ripped off, but Jesus, I got out the calculator and added it up today.  As a minimum, I have paid about $5000 for a modem that costs $55 at Best Buy or even Walmart.  And yes - it's the same one.  So I ran the numbers today.  If all of Comcast's 23 million subscribers have done the same thing, for let's say 10 years (and that's an absolute minimum for most people) - this company has raked in $184 billion dollars for "modem rentals" in the past decade.

People, I implore you - let us send a message to these media conglomerates - these mega-monopolies who aspire now to even charge us for viewing web sites,  charge us for every single page view - send a message and let them know, we can and will find our entertainment somewhere else!