R the F n M

Guy calls in today. He spoke with my buddy an hour earlier. Said he didn’t quite understand things, so I happily went through everything again from the beginning. The case notes were quite clear, buddy had already done this, and emailed step-by-step instructions. With diagrams. It became clear this guy was not having trouble following the instructions. He just didn’t bother listening or reading the email.

He confirmed he received it, but said “Oh, I haven’t opened it yet.” He was still running the wrong disc, the computer was hooked up wrong, he had not set a restore point or done any prep work. He had done nothing. Nada. Niente. Just called back in.

If only he had opened that email, I was thinking.

I know this guy could read OK, because he read from his screen to me without difficulty, and he was not deaf, judging by our conversation. This sometimes is the case so naturally we are sensitive to it. Not this guy. My buddy before me did everything possible to make this easy. And I repeat everything. Again. He still didn’t get it, and I quickly realise, he is not listening to me either. I know this, because when you ask someone to open a command prompt and they restart the computer instead, it’s a bit of a give away. When you ask why they did it and he replies “Didn’t you ask me to?” it kind of confirms it.

Buddy and I are good at what we do. Neither had any success. Now, colour me crazy but I figure if you spend a morning talking to tech support, you may as well listen. Or open the email. Or listen. Or open the email. Or listen.

I guess it was a personal pilgrimage for him. I checked the notes a couple hours later. He had called in again. Four times now. The notes showed another buddy jumped through the same hoops. He still had not opened the bloody email. It saddened me. I wonder how many times this caller stuck a fork in his eye before he learned how to eat without pain.

Or did his wife just say ‘Screw it’ and stick a cork on the end for him?

One for Melinda

Carl on Skye
Carl in the Cuillin foothills
The edible Nikki and I have friends, Mike and Melinda. Melinda has a particular dream. She wants to visit Scotland. I know the area reasonably well and can guarantee a most enjoyable holiday experience. We talked over maybe making up a four to go there and check the place out. THAT would be awesome, I really want to show Nikki the old country and Mike and Melinda would be fantastic companions. For now, I just wanted to show how beautiful the place is, so here is a bad photo of me, scaling the foothills of the Cuillin mountains on the Isle of Skye, in a previous life. That’s a story that would take a book, so just enjoy the photo.

This shot was taken just below the peak of the location used in the film Highlander: the shots where the helicopter circles the peak as the Highlander finishes his training and gets struck by lightning. The Scottish Board of Tourism actually keep plastic swords on this peak, for any intrepid tourist to get his buddy to take a photo. All you got to do is climb. The actors were air-lifted up there.

Skye is a beautiful, evocative and mysterious island. I enjoyed my brief time there, an extended weekend on a mission of mercy. That’s all I’m going to say on the subject, except “Thank you”.

Silly thoughts

I heard a show today that addressed a listeners question about whether breast implants can make noises. Apparently they can, for the first six months, when they are new. Truth! Made me think.

I wonder if there is a market for custom implants? Maybe I could get rich selling ones with those little dog chew toy noisemakers that squeak when you squeeze them? It would keep babies amused for hours, never mind any straying husbands. Maybe a different squeak for each breast? Wow. Imagine a thousand of them at a hockey game. Who needs air horns? Or hockey, with that kind of a spectacle. I could even expand the range to transparent ones with fish in them… Be honest. If it was possible, someone will have it done. You know it’s true. Makes you think, doesn’t it? 🙂

It has been a day for silly questions

“I can see my server from 6 other computers but not from this one. What’s wrong with the server?”
“Nothing. It’s your PC. Get the hell off my phone.”

“I set up a web site on this server. What do I type into Internet Explorer to get there?”
“The name of the web site you registered. Get the hell off my phone.”

“My PC won’t backup to the server. What’s wrong with it?”
“Is your PC running OK?”
“No, I lost this and the TV when we got hit by lightning. It won’t start, that’s why I want to back it up.”
“Just get the hell off my phone.”

These are some of the things I wanted to say today. But didn’t.

In Vino Veritas

The edible Nikki is working and I’m not ready to go home yet. As I type this on my iPhone (You notice that, our Vyv? :)), I’m bored. Sitting alone in a bar full of empty, nursing a lonely drink. When it’s this quiet, you can’t help reflecting… I have spent many hours waiting in bars. Some of it waiting for people, some for the night to end, some to forget, some to see who I would wake up with. Some avoiding going home, for various reasons. If you have to ask, you wont understand and you’re obviously too young to drink anyway.

This waiting is different. I can honestly say I am looking forward to the end of the evening. Why? Because the edible Nikki will be there with me. Curled up on the couch, end to end, rubbing each others feet, laughing at the same jokes and enjoying the hell out of life. We took very different roads to get here. Me? UK. Mining community, old school, respect parents or die. Nik? Pretty much the same, Canada style. Were both from broken families: My dad died, hers left to make his own path. Yeah, i know, boring. Point is, same result; broken kids seeking unconditional love. Here’s to the future. We found it.

Life moves forward with or without you. Remember the past with a smile and don’t let it die, but you can’t live there and be happy. Not if your brain works properly (Old age can be a blessing).
Keep moving forward. Remember that.

Congrats to mother and baby

Over the years families tend to grow. Mine is no different: We have a new addition to the clan.

Rachel and Amber Rose
I wish all to join me in welcoming into the world Amber Rose, who drew first breath on September 1st, 2010 at 4:27pm.

Daughter of niece Rachel, if she grows to be half the no-crap ass kicking soft hearted heartbreaker her mom is, the world will be a better place. Hugs and Congratulations from Uncle Carl.

From 3,500 miles away, I raise a glass and salute you both. CheerS!

Insane AND stoopid

I saw a news item today about a Florida preacher that plans to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 with a book burning of the Qu’ran at the church he is pastor of. Just the suggestion of that has already caused riots and the retaliatory burning of US flags in Afghanistan, Iraq and a host of other countries. There will be deaths on both sides and the end result will simply be further suffering.

More weeping mothers in a dozen countries. And why?

What exactly is this fool trying to achieve? The church he claims to represent promotes love, mutual understanding and the teachings of the Word of their God. Burning religious texts goes beyond national boundaries and government, it strikes to the very heart of Faith, whichever one you believe. Or don’t. It is, quite simply, a call to war. And in response? ‘They’ show righteous anger at the thought (as would most Christians) of their most sacred texts being destroyed in a public act of dishonor. But still, these protesters choose to dishonor the U.S. flag, not the faith of its people.

I have yet to hear of any terrorist (or the mosque across the street) burning a single bible.

Even ‘they’ have respect for the deeply held religious beliefs of others. This man of God should hang his head in shame for the pain he will cause on both sides.

Learning to drive

A scary thing happened to me on the way home from work the other day. I pulled up at an intersection, right behind a driving school car. I could clearly see the learner and his instructor. To my horror I saw that both were wearing hats! OMG, the blind leading the blind is an old phrase but freakishly accurate. As I sat there waiting for them to move off I saw them each pointing in a variety of directions, blissfully unaware of the traffic building up behind them. This went on for over a minute. Long enough for a good half dozen vehicles to be stalled at the tumbleweed-empty intersection on Hwy 3. Normally, one would assume the instructor was pointing out important things and they were discussing scenarios. Based on my theory and experience, it is more likely they were deciding which way to go next. Since one of the directions was up, either the discussion had ranged to the need to yield for oncoming aircraft or the car was about to spread wings. I started to worry. Eventually, they decided they were going straight across the intersection, and off they went. They were narrowly missed by a truck. Which are louder, do you think? Air horns or air brakes?

Is it just me that attracts these things?

I’m new to blogging but I fully expected a certain amount of spam comments and replies. It goes with the territory. Anyone that puts their head above the Internet wall can expect a few sniper shots. I got one last week from a person claiming they could make me and my visitors rich within a week, simply by following a link and yadda yadda yadda. Well, you guess correctly that I trashed it on the spot. Imagine my surprise today when I checked my comments and there was an angry post from that sender, asking me why I deleted it when all he was trying to do is make people rich and stuff. I’m used to spam, but spam with menaces is a new one on me. Screw that, thought I, and retaliated. I’m what you could call ‘a bit of a techie’. Instead of blocking the IP both messages came from, I traced it. A professional spammer would neither waste the time nor risk contacting a site owner, so it’s quite possible he’s dumb enough to use his actual IP, not a spoofed one: If so, he has a pretty long plane journey ahead before he can egg my windows. I won’t lose any sleep just yet.

If I get a repeat performance I’ll post a Google Street view of the buggers house for all to see. Paybacks are a bitch. If that person happens to read this, please try me. I’m sure my visitors are all dying to know what kind of car you drive. 🙂

Some otherwise well educated people…

Girl calls in today, very pleasant, obviously intelligent and a pleasure to talk to. After the preliminaries, got down to business.
“How can I help?”
“I can’t connect to my server anymore. Was alright yesterday.”
“Let’s see if we can fix this for you. Let me get some details.” Checked the basics, power, fans, lights: Server and PC both OK.
“Maybe it’s just a network problem. Is the server connected straight to the router or do you have switches and stuff?”
“Er…to the router…?”
“OK, what about the PC? Is that connected to the router as well?”
“Oh, no. That’s connected straight to the Internet.”
“OK.” I didn’t bat an eyelid, just went with it. “Does the Internet have any flashing lights right now?”
“No. Should it?”
“Yes. Can you check the power cable?”
“Oh! Wait. Yes! The cable was out. Wait…there are all kinds of flashing lights now. It’s not going to blow up is it?” – nervous laughter.
“Haha, I don’t think so, you should be safe enough. Give it 30 seconds and try to get into the server…can you?”
“I got right in! That’s great!”
“Glad to help! Anything else I can do for you while I have you on the phone?”
“Well now you mention it yes. I haven’t been able to get my email all morning. I think it’s broken.”
“……….”

If you are going to clean the office, don’t unplug the Internet so you can use the outlet for the vacuum. Or if you do…plug it back in when you’re done. Always check the basics 😉