Customer Service Practice

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I’m getting some practice working with customer service people. I was having some problems with my printer, and customer service said that I had to buy a new color container cartridge. For this printer, there is a container cartridge that holds two smaller ink cartridges. You can’t buy the container cartridge separately, so if there’s something wrong with the container, you have to buy the two smaller ink cartridges with it. The ink doesn’t last nearly long enough for its $50-plus price tag.

I felt it was worth a try to ask them to send me a free container cartridge. They agreed. Can you imagine, they wanted to keep me as a happy customer!

I should have asked for a new printer.

I Wish They All Could Be California

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Tonight, M-D, Jen and I took in Laurel Canyon at the Montgomery Cinema. We enjoyed the flick. I think we were all rooting for the character Ian in some of the scenes. The film did end without a real resolution, which seems to be a popular technique in film making. I don’t necessarily like it. I always wonder what happens to the characters. I like to see conflicts resolved. Without any real ending, it leaves a lot to my imagination which is fun, but I’d like to know what the authors intended. If I wanted to write my own ending, I’d write my own movie or book.

In other news, Michael Moore speaks about developments overseas and “backlash” from his speech at the Academy Awards.

The Choice of the Reality TV Generation

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Pepsi is planning on unleashing to the world a new sweepstakes with a possible One Billion Dollar payout. As with everything else in the world, they are tying it into a two-hour television special. Chances of the grand prize payout are pretty low of course, but this final award would be decided by a monkey picking a number out of a hat. Sure sounds like some entertaining television!

Sometimes I Think You Want

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China decorates our table
Funny how the cracks don’t seem to show

So tonight is the first time in a long time that I’ll be cuddling with only myself as I fall asleep.

Delicacy

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Oh, you have to love our very own Salem County. Here’s an excerpt from a story about muskrat dining.

Thoreau wrote admiringly of the muskrat in one of his journals, and bewhiskered President Zachary Taylor was nicknamed “Muskrat Head,” a moniker he despised. But the maligned mammal’s 15 minutes under the modern spotlight’s glare came in the 1970s with the penning of “Muskrat Love,” still considered by some to have plumbed new depths in pop songwriting.

Dem’s good eats.

Spreading The Word To The Non-Believers

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So, here’s something fun. After we’re done wiping the Iraqi landscape and have begun the rebuilding process, Washington is sending over “evangelical missionaries” who are intent on converting the Muslim population to Christianity! Not just Christianity, but “Southern Baptism” in particular.

Among the largest aid groups preparing to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqis ravaged by the war are a number of Christian charities based in the southern United States that make no secret of their desire to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and win over Muslim souls….

Do yourself a favor, read the whole article.

Somebody’s Getting Married

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I called my mother for her birthday yesterday, like the good son that I am. I found out that my old friend Jeremy is getting married in the coming months. His sister is as well. It’s still weird to comprehend.

As the story goes, he and I weren’t really good friends at first. My parents were friends with his parents, and we attended the same Hebrew school, I think. I was over his house one day, and he saw me complete the Rubik’s Cube. That’s when we became friends… as the story goes.

I don’t even know how I know that.

Emode’s Inkblot Test

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Apparently my unconscious mind is driven most by peace. You can take the inkblot test that was used to determine this, but it’s a little bit long. Here is what they had to say about me:

You are driven by a desire to encourage others to think about the positive side of things instead of focusing on the negative. The reason your unconscious is consumed by this might stem from an innate fear of war and turmoil. Thus, to avoid that uncomfortable place for you, your unconscious seeks out the peace in your environment.

Usually, the thing that underlies this unconscious drive is a deep respect for humankind. You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it. As a result, your personal integrity acts as a surrogate for your deeper drive toward peace and guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Peace, there is much more to who you are at your core.

Taliesin Middle East

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Frank Lloyd Wright had plans for the city of Baghdad, even though noting that his plans were unlikely to be carried out “because a lot of western architects are in there already building skyscrapers all over the place and they are going to meet the destruction that is barging in on all big western cities.”

In other news, so you grab your girls, and you grab a couple more and you all come meet me in the middle of the floor.