adventures in disaster

Chelsea

I like Chelsea,I do really. I think they play great football but I was amazed to see that their football? Not all that great really when Barcelona is in the picture. Chelsea seemed lost,frightened when Barcelona revved up their game. I wondered where did the almost serene confidence go?
I guess even really great teams can be awed by truly brilliant players. Maybe just playing on the same field as Ronaldinho can leave you stunned and cowed.
I was embarrassed to hear about the racial taunts some of the very best players are subjected to.
It left me wondering about monsters lurking everywhere. If you can be one of the very best players of your time and still be attacked racially what does it say about the world? I guess it means that there are still enough people left in the world who would be more than happy to reenact Hitlers reign of terror. No matter what people say we have not changed at all.
We have learned nothing.
I was happy to see the banners in the stands stating those fans refuse to accept racism and intolerance but what of the fans that started this? Where are they? How can we change the way they think? Punishing them only reinforces their delusions of persecution..
I wish I had a clever answer but I don't..all I can hope is their children are better than they are and that it won't be too much longer for that racist generation to die off.

I have just finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters. I have read enough of Chuck to realize it's all one theme. Alienation. It's boring. I know it's "perverse" and "cunning" and "wildly inventive" but ultimately alienation is boring. If I can't fall in love with at least one character I can't care about their disconnect and the book fails for me. I couldn't find any way to get close to any of these characters, it may have been intentional that each of these characters was so sketchily drawn. They didn't seem real and the exposure of relationships was so obvious it was irritating. I must have said "I know already geez get on with it" ten times. He chose an affected timeline. He spent way too much explaining the timeline as if the reader would be too stupid to figure out what was flashback and what was present and eventually I stopped caring with each announcement.
I was disappointed and I honestly felt like he has told this same story over and over with different characters and I just spent good money on a repeat.

I am in a battle with Vanity Fair. I love Vanity Fair. I know it's pretentious and that obnoxious name dropper "crimes of the rich and famous" guy is still writing for them but I like the magazine. In each issue there is at least one article that exposes a world I knew nothing about.

Vanity Fair ran into some publishing issues for Canadian subscribers, we didn't get our magazines. I called and got the usual "we are working on it" and "you will have it by Feb 28".
Well the 28th came and went and no magazine. I waited another week and called again, this time I got an asshole, all" it's not our problem" "it will be six to eight weeks" and I got pissed. I asked this prime example of crap customer services rep if she had a copy of the magazine on her desk and she cheerfully said "yes" and I said "mail it to me". It was kind of funny and now I am waiting for the magazine right off the desk of Cynthia, the not very bright rep for Vanity Fair. She said it was coming first class mail..why do these idiots think we are as dumb as they are? I know she doesn't have a copy of Vanity Fair on her desk. I know she doesn't have a desk, she has shelf and a phone attached to the side of her head and she isn't in Canada or the US.
She has no idea what happened to my subscription and she has no power to fix it but she does have the power to obstruct anyone from finding out. She can refuse to let you talk to anyone else but her and she does gleefully. It must suck to have her job.

Things like not getting my magazine make me crazy.It small things that can ruin your day. It is always customer service no matter what service it is that can make you want to pull out your hair.
Many years ago I hurt my back at work lifting a damn huge patient. It was a simple workmens comp case. It has been three years of fighting with them only to finally find out they never had any real intentions of doing what they said they were going to do..it was all smoke and mirrors and cover their ass and now we go back to where we were a year ago. It is customer service at its best..doubletalk, denial, lying their ass off and denying it all a week later, ridiculous excuses..my absolute favorite "I can't read this can you send me it again?" a few weeks later.."I still can"t read this send it again"...a couple of weeks later" I still can"t read this.." "oh right I can increase the font..hee this windows thing is great isn't it?" Months go by....
The goal of any good customer service rep is to make it so difficult you give up. They deliberately obstruct and bs you into insanity hoping for that moment when you say "oh to hell with this" and they have won.
This is the holy grail of customer service..to make you go away.Kind of strange when six months later they call to ask how you are enjoying the service and wouldn't you just love to sign up for some more abuse.
I don't really care about the magazine or for that matter the workers comp.I care about being dicked around as if I am not a human being. I care about being treated like a problem that needs to go away.
It makes me sad that no one really cares anymore. It's all just do whatever the boss says and put in your day and get the hell out and cash the check. There is no accountability, no one is responsible for anything..it all just happens and that is "just the way things go" and "oh well why do you care so much?""you must be crazy".."geez lighten up lady".

I wonder if people start out in customer service actually caring and the never ending litany of "I didn't get it" and" it is broken" grind them down or are they chosen specifically for their already present level of burnout?
A mystery and since no one ever makes any comments one that will most likely be left unsolved.

Still...where the hell is my magazine Vanity Fair?



I watched House tonight, thankful that the writers have pulled back on the weird plot lines and was hit head on by the story. It is a real problem in the real world. When resources are scarce and incredibly expensive we start making some brutal choices. It is true that when you reach a certain age some medical procedures are no longer offered. That heart that you desperately need is not offered to you because there is an eighteen year old on the list right below your name. Doctors have to play God. They have to say the eighteen year old life is more valuable, more important that the seventy five year old. I don't know what criteria they use. The seventy five year old could be a brilliant mind, full of education and experience with a loving family, the eighteen year has only potential unrealized.....who is more important to our society?

Why do we automatically choose the eighteen year old to expend the resources on? Because they are young, because they haven't lived yet and somehow deserve their life more?

Yeah, it's weird.
In Canada we have just introduced some new laws. We have to call the organ donation people any time anyone dies and we have to ask the family within two hours of the death if they want to donate. If we know someone is near death or we plan to withdraw care we have to call the organ donation people and we have to approach the family. I never know how to do this. I want to do it with compassion and dignity but most of the time I just mumble it quickly..like pulling off a bandaid . I have so far never met any family that knows the answer.
I think we should have experts there to present donation better. It is a worthwhile thing. Honestly you aren't going to need your parts when you are dead so why not give them to someone who needs them? I wish people would tell their family if they want to donate. It would really take a load off me you know? We could avoid that awkward, weird conversation where I mumble at you and you go "huh?" and we both flinch and you say "um no thanks".


I was shocked to hear about Dana Reeve. I never quite understood why she got cannonized for staying with her husband when he became a quad but I always thought she was a pretty cool woman with a great sense of humour. I was damn surprised the cancer got her that fast though lung cancer is a real bitch . I feel for that kid becoming an orphan at thirteen . I wish people would stop talking about how brave the kid is..he should be allowed to completely lose his mind without censure. Man that kid has been battered..his mom was right though..Life is not fair and it's best we all get used to that fact pretty damn quick.

posted by adventures in disaster @ 10:43 PM