My Envelope Organizational System
I have tried and dismissed a number of personal organizational systems over time, but none of them has lasted as long or served me as well as my current system: my life and all of its to-do lists are managed…
Category consumer watch
E-mail messages I delete without reading
Life's too short. E-mail messages I tend to delete without reading (other than obvious spam): Messages with a blank subject line Messages with a blank body, with only a mysterious attachment that's supposed to explain everything when I open it…
Five Geopolitical Scenarios to Consider
From the "I hope it doesn't happen but wouldn't be surprised if it did" department, I have some predictions and scenarios to throw out there about stuff that could happen sometime in the rest of 2008. I suppose this is…
The 2007 Wayne County Alternative Gift Fair
The 2007 Wayne County Alternative Gift Fair, held at the new Reid Hospital today, has just concluded. It was a great opportunity to get gifts for family and friends in the form of donations to local non-profit organizations, and at…
You know the world is ending when...
I've blogged before about turning points in awareness of the issues that we face with regard to "the environment" and the energy crisis. Today I received a postcard in the mail with a photo of a man holding a gasoline…
My VOIP home phone setup using trixbox
I've generally been content not having a physical phone line at home and using my cell phone instead. I'm not much of a phone person anyway, my back yard looked a lot nicer when Verizon cut down the unsightly cable,…
The Cheapest Pine Nuts In Town
Recently, the Summersault staff was eating together at the Golden Corral here in Richmond. They were out of the feed buckets that you just strap onto your head and tilt up, so we ended up having a conversation. We noted…
Local carpet company covers up error
This is another customer service observation, though hopefully not one that isn't already completely obvious. I recently had some new carpet installed in an apartment that I rent out (which, by the way, is available again at the beginning of…
Is it possible for Sprint customer service to be this bad?
Presenting: another epic saga of wireless phone company incompetence...bear with me. I'd had my Sprint cell phone and plan since 2001 - six years of relatively problem free operation (minor billing annoyances aside). And they recognized that I was a…
For national security reasons
It's interesting to me that the phrase "for national security reasons," offered by the U.S. government and governments around the world to justify various uncomfortable activities (withholding information from or spying on its citizens, demanding cooperation from corporations in legal…