Tuesdays with Muerte

Here is an excerpt from an online evaluation of a customer service call I made yesterday to inquire about the status of the internet outage at my house:  Based on this experience with CenturyLink's Customer Service, how likely is it that you would recommend CenturyLink to a family member, friend or colleague?  (required)   2 of 10 Please provide your reasons for your rating above.   My rep, RJ, was nice enough, but he was powerless to provide any real help.  The message communicated to me was, We're sorry. We're working on it.   (Which was probably true. Poor RJ probably didn't have any more information than that. However, if I wanted someone to comfort me, I would have called my mother.) At the time of the call, my apartment's internet service had been out for 72+ hours (that's over 3 days for those of you who are slow with arithmetic), which is ridiculous by any standard. The only information I could squeeze out the old RJ, my technical service rep

Image Source Surprisingly, fatigue may boost creative powers. For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best tackled in the evening when they are tired, according to a 2011 study in the journal Thinking & Reasoning. When 428 students were asked to solve a series of two types of problems, requiring either analytical or novel thinking, their performance on the second type was best at non-peak times of day when they were tired, according to the study led by Mareike Wieth, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Albion College in Michigan. (Their performance on analytical problems didn't change over the course of the day.) Fatigue, Dr. Wieth says, may allow the mind to wander more freely to explore alternative solutions. Article Source  

Photo source:  Flicker Which Cell Phone Provider Offered My Family The Best Plan? This is a follow up  post from  yesterday's   Winner: Verizon's Share Everything family plan .  Most important to me:  p rice  & c ontract flexibility. Less Important to me:  superior quality and coverage . I f you have the patience, i t's worth your time to follow these steps exactly:   the most comprehensive cell phone plan purchasing walkthrough .  If not, here's the 3-step summary: The best thing you can do first is identify your usage for those three (data, voice, text) up to this point. ( Get an estimate .) Then ask yourself, what is the lowest quantity, in each category, I'd be willing to buy.  As I mentioned, nothing worthwhile exists for less than $30 for me as an individual.  If you're interested in the lowest-end service, PCMagazine identifies  10 super-inexpensive (but crummy) cell service providers .  Barring those cheepos, search different mid-r

I've put a LOT of thought into this over the past few weeks.  Here's why choosing a Verizon's  Share Everything plan is the best option for each of the 5 of us: Everyone: Verizon is the best service provider (based on my collective research): Highest voice quality on calls. Best coverage for 4G network in the U.S. Best customer service. Simple Sharing Plan. Family plans  always cost less and offers more than individual plans . Here is the cost breakdown: Data plan: $40 for both Unlimited Text & Voice—EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME! 4GB shared data for $80. This is where they bilk you if you're not careful!  (e.g. $40 for 1GB, $60 for 2 GB.) The more people on the plan, the less expensive it will become. (Assuming we all manage our data appropriately.) If we do happen to go over, it's only $15/1 GB we go over our allotted amount, which is still a great deal! Additional Costs: Add $40 for every smartphone you add to the plan ($6720

My experience last year (5 parts) Vooray-sponsored Devin Graham sharing his experience, this year

Image Source:  iTunes I Think I've Got A Screw Loose When I talk with my family about the girls I date, they get really excited for me.  But I can quickly shut down their enthusiasm by adding, " she's a beautiful girl, but I'm not attracted to her ." And here's the crazy part (which is never verbalized, but is evident after I share all the great things I think about her) In every case, without exception, the woman in question is way out of my league. Only a crazy person would look at my dating record and not arrive at the conclusion that I am crazy for not having pulled the trigger before now.  My "beauty meter" must be skewed.  And I blame the media & pop culture! Like every other male blinded by pop culture, I measure women against a vague standard of perfection (by which they are eliminated from my dating pool soon as I met them). Historically, it's a pageant of sorts, where women are scored in a number of categories, resul

Pope is a good friend of mine; he's my best friend at work. We eat lunch together regularly in the company cafeteria to discuss work-related stuff and check in with one another generally. It's wonderful having someone with whom I can be completely open with.  However, I'm afraid it was that same closeness that caused the following debacle... One week, Pope was suffering some weird respiratory symptoms—labored breathing followed by wheezing (like a subtle Darth Vader).  After a day or two of this, we both got used to Pope's condition. After lunch one day later in the week, Pope invited me up to his office to look at some of his work.  We hoped into one of the six elevators along with a lovely senior missionary couple. Between floors three and four I very innocently asked Pope about his raspy breathing (not giving thought to our fellow passengers).  " How's that respiratory disease? " I inquired.  The poor missionary couple was petrified.  They conspic