In the last Sunday Post, you might have read this:
I don’t care if you are pro-Obama or anti-Obama, think communism would be cool, watch Fox News or CNN. I do have an opinion either way, but you don’t see me stuck in front of the television yelling at the news reader or posting continuously to my Facebook profile, do you? Suck it.
Can I take a moment of your time to tell you why this bothers me?
You see, the amount of time and energy you expend defending your position to others, or discussing certain topics with others that agree with you, can be used in much better ways. That’s what bothers me.
I don’t talk about politics because I have no faith in the United States political system and believe that there isn’t anything I can say or do to make a difference. That is why I waste my pixels on things I can change or fix (or things that might make you giggle).
I like to focus my time where I can accomplish the most good, not where I can get myself or others the most worked up against the other side. To me, that is extremely counter-productive.
Joining a group on Facebook to get it to 1 million members doesn’t do anything. Writing a letter to any elected official does. Similarly, preaching to the choir does nothing more than convince every one that they are correct. Why not take that time and energy to better explain your position to the other side? Or to explain to someone that doesn’t quite understand?
I’m just trying to be productive and effect change where I can. Where I can’t, I keep to myself. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
Just added a new site to the portfolio. Actually, it’s a recycle of my newest theme that I used for Intrepid Cycles. I’ve made some slight tweaks and design changes to make it more fitting for diplaying photos.
Complete with lightbox functionality, a spam proof contact form and password protected gallery pages. I think it turned out pretty well.
/horn tooting
In the most recent Sunday Post, you read about a list of things that I’m pretty tired of. Today I am going to elaborate on one of those points. Specifically, number 2.
Another reason for this post is so I can just point people here next time they tell me this. I need a phone to make phone calls first, handle messaging second and the rest of the stuff doesn’t even get numbered. I need my calls to be clear and start when I dial and not end until either myself or the person I’m talking to hangs up. To me, perception is everything and there is nothing, to me, that is less professional than talking to someone on an iPhone, Sprint or TMobile phone in my area. Every 3 word is heard through a sea of static and 45% of the time the call drops altogether. Suck it.
You see, part of my problem is that I still think like I work in restaurants. People eat with their eyes before their mouths, right? Translated, perception is everything.
I’m also a professional, or at least try to be as often as possible. To keep that illusion alive, I try to present myself as a professional as much as possible.
See that last point? That’s actually a very big deal for me. As I quoted myself above as saying, I need a call to sound clear and not end until either myself or the person I’m talking to ends it. I can’t have static. I can’t have dropped calls. I can’t have conversations where the callee can’t hear me.
Yes, you read that correctly. I said can’t.
I sent the Moto Droid back for many reasons. First and foremost was that it dropped calls. 5 of them in fact in the 2 weeks I had it. That’s more calls than I have dropped with VZW in the almost 7 years I have been with them.
And that is why I can’t use an iPhone. Where I live (southwest Riverside County, CA), the only provider with good coverage in the entire area I spend most of my time is Verizon. AT&T, while significatly better than either TMobile or Sprint, does not. At least not in 100% of the places I go. And that’s what is important.
It’s all about perception.
A list post. For things that…
A bit of a personal rant to close out this week or start the next, depending on how you see it.
I’m sure that all y’all are also tired of hearing me complain about the Blackberry or the iPad or any number of things. Yea, I’m trying to get better. But, until I do.
Suck it.
One of the many things I haven’t understood for quite some time now is the need for people to generate paper. And, if I’m honest, it really drives me crazy. Sure, there are something that require paper (usually stuff that has to be signed) and I get that. But the reams and reams of paper generated for the purpose of putting it into a file folder to be stuck in a metal box? I don’t get that.
Back in 1999 I bought my first DVD player. On that magical day, I decided to go 100% digital across the board. I got rid of all of my cassette tapes and VHS. I stopped printing as much as possible. I went digital.
Why can’t everyone else?
Part of my frustration with paper is the devices used to generate it. That’s right, printers.
What a wasteful product the modern printer is. Have you taken one out of a box lately? There is the box, about 100 yards of tape and enough plastic to melt down and reform into a Macbook enclosure. It’s ridiculous. And, of course, there is the ink, which is the only reason why printer manufacturers make printers in the first place.
Once unboxed and all of the packaging material safely disposed of, it still has to be installed. This is a problem too. You put in the disk, run an installer that takes 20 minutes, plug in the device and wait another 10 minutes while the printer whirs, chirps and grinds. Add another 10 minutes if you are trying to get this on the network. Add another 10 minutes if you are using security software that bypasses the Windows firewall to configure network access to the printer. Crazy.
Once all of that is done, you still have to go through and remove all of the icons to MSN and RealPlayer, kill start up items that every printer thinks you need and reset default programs because nobody wants to use the HP image gallery (trust me) or any other garbage that’s installed. The real kicker here is that Windows does every function supported by modern printers (print, scan, fax) out of the box. It’s too bad that the manufacturers don’t allow it.
I would be perfectly happy if I never had to install another printer again. It’s time.
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