customer service
Mood:  irritated
I am fed up with customer service. Wouldn't it be nice to call for help and actually have the phone answered by a real person instead of silicone sam the automated answer man or his wife - silicone sally? How about if the first person you spoke with could actually help you with your problem? A person feels like they are on a telephone merry go round as they are transferred from department to department.

And don't get me started on the nationality of the person answering the phone, most often Peter is actually Pierre and Ralph is actually Raul. I guess they think that Americanizing their names will fool you into thinking that you are actually speaking to someone down the street, not from the other side of the world who could care less if the stupid American gets their problem fixed or not. They dutifully follow their answer trees and when the tree says to transfer you get transferred to Department X, and now you are talking to David (actually Darhan) who is probably in the next cube over and just has a different set of answers on his tree, and guess what - his answers won't help with your question either.

It boils down to a battle of wills. They hope to grind you down until finally you realize the futility of ever getting help and give up. Phone rates and foreign labor are cheap. So they can flip you around from person to person for pennies a day. The only thing you have on your side is persistance. The hope that thru some random process you will be connected with the right person at the right time and they can answer your question.

I am posting this after spending 35 minutes with a cellular company - Sprint. I was transferred 5 times and finally the person knew what to do and it took like a minute to tell me what to do. But I recently did similiar stints with a Aetna - a health insurance company and Skyway - a satellite company. It's an epidemic.

becky surgery
Mood:  irritated

Becky finally had her back surgery.  Too early to tell the long term success. Definitely a lot of pain in the short term - but the doctor said that this was expected. Her roommate is doing very well. She was able to walk around the floor while Becky was only able to make it to the nurses station and back.

She has a lot of pain in the right leg.  The doctor said that operation was a success, but that things were worse than expected.  A pinched nerve turned out to be smooshed flat and also the vertebrae had a fracture. So we are taking things one day at time. Rough start to the new year, but we are hopefull that in the long term this is positive.

 

catching up

A followup to the below outsourcing story.  One of the guys laid off was only with our group for 9 months.  Our parent company is Reed Elsevier and the lease building space in building 5.  Well he interviewed with them and got a better position than what he had with us - and more pay!  Lay me off, please. 

 Coaching basketball this winter. We play a lot of bigger schools and so it is a tough league. We got our first win last night over Dixie, one of the other small schools in the league. The girls had a great time on the bus ride home.  To the tune of 'bingo' they sang, "there was a team that we beat and Dixie was it's name-oh, D-I-X-I-E...."  It was great to see their hard work rewarded.

Chad did some work on Chelsea's car.  So he earned some extra $$ for Christmas, plus he worked over last weekend doing snow removal. Joe is weight lifting for the football team.  Chelsea is off on winter break from Sinclair. She has helped me coach the team a little in her spare time.

Becky has back surgery in another couple of weeks, so she is understandably nervous about getting it done. I only hope that it lessens her pain and that she feels better. 

Cambridge hunting trip

Joe and I went hunting at Grandma Susan's.  We did see deer, but for the most part, only after they saw us.  On the second day, Joe did get off some shots, but we couldn't pick up any trails. We sat down after about an hour of trying to pick up the trail. We talked about hunting out West someday.  Joe heard some leaves rustling. I told him that it must be some cows that were out in the pasture and were nearby.  A few seconds later a buck comes walking by about a 100 feet away. Next time I will let joe trust his instincts.

He couldn't get a good shot because it turned and walked away. So the deer hunting didn't go all that well. But Joe did get to go horseback riding. I didn't realize it, but he had never rode before. He enjoyed riding a mare of grandma Susan's. So now he is a regular cowboy. 

Back to reality
Mood:  sad

The first weekend back from India was nice - I got to see all 4 of the offspring.  Gave them all the goodies that I brought back.  I didn't spend as much as what I did the last go round.  Still was able to buy Becky a nice perl necklace.  Joe must have had a growth spurt while I was gone.  He is beginning to approach my height.  He looks to be around 6 feet tall or close to it. 

It was a somber day at work last Thursday, a black Thursday for us.  We still aren't outsourced enough.  They let loose some folks in other departments earlier that week, and we got it on Thursday. In our immediate group we lost 3 people.  Our sister group lost 2.  It was quiet as a funeral Thursday afternoon.  Then to add insult to injury, the Senior VP sends out an email stating that the company is sending out an employee satisfaction survey! Gee, I wonder what our groups response to that one is going to be?  Talk about rubbing salt in our wounds.

 The Deeters are doing fine at our house.  It is different to have a little one running about the house again.  Oh how they learn by watching. I was logging in from home to do some work over the weekend. I left the window up when I had to leave.  Vanessa found her tapping on the keyboard. She was worried what mischief she may have caused.  I had ended the internet session, I think...   She also likes the remote controls, you don't dare leave one laying about. 

Joe got all passing grades on his first report card. Chelsea seems to be doing well at Sinclair.  Vanessa is going to come to ball practice on Tuesday for an hour.  Just to help work with the girls.  I asked both Vanessa and Chelsea to come for a day or two in the preseason. 

 

India - last week

Some random happenings –

 

The Hotel has many international travelers and the TV channels reflect this. One night I was flipping thru the channels and came across a live concert. I recognized the song as and old Guns and Roses tune.  Only it was being played by Koreans. The guy on the lead guitar was dead on. The singer was hitting his notes, only it was all in Korean. My mind had a difficult time taking it in.

 

Another woman that was Chinese had a very difficult time eating breakfast one morning. She appeared to be a business traveler and I imagine it was her first time abroad. She was in the table next to us, and I wanted so much to give her a hand.  She was trying to eat bread and butter, only with a fork and knife.  Strange utensils in her hands judging from her awkwardness. She was painstakingly cutting the bread up into small cubes and eating them. She worked meticulously to cut up each morsel, it seemed like it took her a half an hour to eat that single piece of bread.

 

We ate at a pizza joint by the ocean last night. It was very nice, there was a breeze blowing in thru the windows. The chicken pizza was very good, the meat pizza… well the meat tasted like hotdogs.  I have noticed that you can get Mexican, Italian, etc. dishes at many restaurants.  But the sauces are always sweet. The cheese is slightly different, but tastes good. Some general observations about food. Chicken is chicken, but the other meats can vary greatly. Mushroom and tomato soups are the same the world over.

 

The night before last Datamatics took us out to eat.  We ate at a Hotel called the Taj Landing – much grander than the Leela.  They say that many of the Bollywood stars stop in to eat there.  I was impressed by the lobby.  It is big enough to play a game of football inside and is three stories tall with a fountain in the middle. Of course the meal was excellent. I had a few tastes of the desserts and they were heavenly.  The driver pointed out the homes of a few of the Bollywood stars on the way there. It was fun to live like the folks on the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” even if only for a few hours.

 

Well on the final day here in India, it seems like the trip has gone by very fast. It seems like it flew by quickly. The flight will be a drudgery, but I am definitely looking forward to being home again.

 

the Taj
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: General

The dance at Datamatics was fun. The music had an Indian flair. They did some traditional dances – one of which involved bamboo sticks. Each dancer had two bamboo sticks about 2 feet long, painted red on the ends. They kept rhythm with the drums by alternately tapping them together and then tapping them against the bamboo sticks that their partner had.  Regina got onto the dance floor and danced a few dances – Hameed and I stayed on the sidelines. Saturday we departed for our visit to the Taj Mahal.

 

Delhi is the capital of India, and you can tell by the quality of the roads. They were much better than Mumbai’s. Also much more military around. I saw some motorcades where there were soldiers with submachine guns in the cars guarding the vip’s car.  The presidents house and the parliament were impressive. There is much red sandstone in the area and all the big buildings were made of it.

 

We also saw a huge hindu temple there as well. The main temple was white marble while the surrounding structures were the red sandstone. Unfortunately we not allowed to take camera’s with us.  But the intricate carvings in the structure were impressive. Lotus flowers, deities, wheels, etc. all done with detail. I gathered that it was hundreds of years in the making, and they were still doing new additions. There were statutes of some of the deities and also of renowned holy men. Some of the work was done being done with traditional chisels - but I did see some modern grinders at work as well. Almost forgot to mention that Regina wore shorts – but they were not long enough and so she had to wear a skirt that they gave her.

 

We ate dinner at a plaza, it was very good. After eating we went outside and there was a snake charmer. Regina posed with him and he actually had her hold a (non-venomous) snake. Meanwhile he did his deal with the flute and we got a few pics. I declined, stating that I had been bitten by enough dogs and didn’t want to take a chance with a snake. They really seemed to hiss angrily when he put pushed them back in the basket with the lid.

 

Today we journeyed to Agra which is the closest city to the Taj Mahal. Saw several camels on the way, which was surprising since it was not a desert area. They are strong animals pulling large carts. The trip itself was quite the trek. Imagine being on old route 40 – only it is a 4 lane road, and there are no fences keeping other traffic(and livestock) off the road. And there is a variety of traffic – carts, motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, cows, etc.  It is definitely not a road where you can set your cruise control, lay back, and listen to some tunes. Our driver expertly weaved thru the traffic. Oh, and get this – sometimes folks are coming head on at you. There is a median in the middle and sometimes if folks have to go short distance, they will just go North in the South bound lane.  And not always in the slow lane. I remember once when we were headed straight on towards a tractor in the fast lane!

 

And to add to difficulty we encountered 35,000 protesters heading to Delhi. There are not enough jobs in their province and so they are blocking the Northbound lanes as they march to the capital. So now we are all on the same side. And at times it was like being in a chase scene from the Bourne Identity where they avoid the bad guys by going the wrong way down the road. We would pass a slow moving tractor and meanwhile coming head on was some one doing the same in their lane. So both vehicles have to whip back to avoid becoming road kill. Oh, and it gets dark early this time of year – so now do all the above at night…   and about 1out of 4 vehicles has no tail lights…

 

The India drivers are naturals for NASCAR – whip like reflexes, the ability to maneuver inches away from other vehicles and nerves of steel. The nerves of steel part probably goes for the passengers too. We did see one unusual wreck on they way back an older jeep/SUV type vechicle was spun complete around and the front was crumpled. There was an eerie bright blue fog floating across the road from the contents of the vehicle. I held my breath as we drove on thru it.

 

But the Taj Mahal was worth the journey. They do limit gas powered vehicles from going to it, because of pollution damaging the marble -so we took an electric vehicle. We could have taken a cart and camel if we wanted. The first view was something, from a distance the people standing next to it look almost like ants. It is definitely glorious. Inside we found even more details, there was colored stone embedded in the white marble to make the Arabic writing, the flowers, the decorations. I could not imagine the amount of time and patience it took to create each piece. I can see why it was chosen as one of the wonders of the world.

 

There is a redstone archway to the front, a mosque to the left and a similar building to the right. Behind it is a river. You can see the ancient fort from where the Mogul king ruled while the Taj Mahal was built up stream. The guide was very knowledgeable and knew his stuff. He did have us stop at a shop where they demonstrated the old craftsmanship. Using a string to turn a rod attached to a grindstone to smooth the edges of the jasper and stones. A steel tool for carving the design on the marble. And of course over priced souvenirs. Which we passed on, I think the guide gets a kick back for stopping there.

 

Tonight we are back in Mumbai. No thanks to me. I usually have my shaving kit in my checked in luggage. For this flight I brought one bag and when we got ready to leave Delhi, they wanted to inspect my bag for a knife. I thought that I had left my scissors in my bag. But when we opened it, there was an old rusty pocket knife from when I was a scout leader in my shaving kit. I had forgotten all about it and the Mumbai folks had missed it completely. Fortunately they just confiscated it and sent me about my way. I briefly had visions about being held in a Delhi jail.

 

Tonight is the end of the festival for a victory that Rama had over evil. We passed up a float with Rama and truck with load speakers, playing music. And they have been setting off fire works and playing drums. It seems to have settled down somewhat, I hope that every one else has to go into work Monday too and so don’t spend the night carousing.

Clothing and food

Regina had an incident similar to mine with an overly helpful hotel staff. She got an adapter for her curling iron from the hotel. But when she attempted to use the curling iron, it went up in smoke and I guess that there were even a few plastic pieces that flew away. So off it went into the trash can.  But when she came back that night, there it sat on the dresser. I guess they figured that it accidentally fell into the trash, or maybe the crazy American doesn’t know the proper place for the curling iron. The plan is to simply leave it in the trash on the last day so there is no way to return it.

 

Regina likes the Sari’s that the women wear. I liked them from the last visit – they are generally in vibrant colors.  Bright pinks, greens, blues, even purples. In the West we tend to wear more drab colors – pastels, browns, and so forth.  The clothing is light and seems flow in the breeze as they walk. Which seems to give them an air of elegance. Regina says that she intends to try one on just to see what they feel like and how she would look in one.

 

Hameed has recovered from his jet lag and seems to be doing well. I remember that Roopa at one point was going on only 2 hours of sleep.  My sleep patterns seem to alright for the most part.  The last two nights I have slept all the way thru. We have all been busy at Datamatics. I am behind a bit on training so will have to get better organized next week to cover it all. But on the other hand we have gotten off on tangents in class and so I have found out some little things that I am hoping we can improve upon.

 

There is a 10 day festival that is going on. It culminates in Mumbai on the weekend that we are gone. In honor of the festival, Datamatics will have a little celebration in the office around 3pm on Friday.  There may be some dancing – I already warned them that I dance like a fence post, so please don’t ask me onto the floor.   

Oh, almost forgot to add that we went out to eat yesterday at lunch time. To the Bombay Blues. They asked if we wanted something different and Regina wanted Mexican. The Bombay Blues has Italian, India, and of course Mexican. We ordered Enchildalda's. They were unique - the beans were actually sweet, but it had some hot sauce to make it spicy.

India Cricket and such

Being Hotel bound in the evenings gives one some down time to watch some of the local TV. They have some American shows to be sure – I watched some of the Red Sox – Indians series the other day.  Same as before the ever popular cricket seems to be on several channels in the evenings. It is a game as baffling to me as I am sure American football is to the native Indians. It seems to be a leisurely game.  Now the pitcher does start off with flurry – running helter skelter to the line he pitches from as though he were going to charge on and run into the batter. But instead draws short and hurls a pitch at the batter. 

 

But from that point the game slows down – the ball one hops on it’s way to the wicket. Some of the batters are garbed in enough padding to make any American football player envious. They are covered head to toe – helmets, shin guards, and even wear padded gloves. Maybe the ball is made of depleted uranium or some other hard and dangerous material – I’ll have to check wikkipedia and find out. Now when they do hit the ball they trot leisurely back and forth between the lines, maybe from the weight of the shin pads. I’m used to baseball, where you break out of the batters box and tear down to first with all of your might. Not these fellows, my grandmother puts out more effort running to the bathroom. I find myself wanting to yell at the TV – run, darn you, run… now slide, slide into base!

 

I give up trying to tell what is a hit and what makes a run.  Some hits, they shrug their shoulders and it’s like a do over. Other hits go out to the outfield, and here goes the outfielder trotting along as though he was angry at being bothered by having to go retrieve a ball. Other times there is a flurry of activity as though a swarm of bee’s had suddenly descended on the field – players are flying after the ball, the batsmen are running as though some one had stuck them in the backside with an icepick. There is no rhyme or reason to the speed of the game. One minute your ready to nod off to sleep, the next you wonder if some one had snuck crystal meth into their Gatorade.

 

Apparently they score runs by the bucketload.  100 to 200 points is just another days work. And they have overs – no unders, but apparently the overs are a big deal. The referee’s hand signals I find rather curious. I suspect they copied their handiwork from watching the three stooges. Lots of hands waving up and down through the air and sweeping gestures. One play they make the throw to a player at the wicket who stretches to touch the wicket while the batsman races to the line. It’s a close play and the camera zooms in on the umpire. I am expecting to see a sweeping safe call or an arm come down forcefully for an out. Instead he stands there, extends his hand palm down, and flutters it in front of him. Go away don’t bother me now??? I don’t have time for this??? Be gone?? What the heck kind of call is this?  Apparently he was out as the fellows on the field were all jumping up and down.

 

There is some hope for the sport. I saw one segment that shows me that there is some possibilities for the game.  They have foul balls and foul tips just as they do in baseball. But the catcher wears nothing to protect him but an oven mitt. And get this, the batter is allowed to try and make him drop the ball. I forgot to mention the bat is basically a big old 2X4. So this one pitch, it carooms off the 2X4 and hits this catcher guy in the shoulder and bounces in the air. The batter with all the padding and the 2X4 is rooting around trying to block the guy from making the catch.  So this poor catcher is taking a beating while this guy is flailing around with bat to make him drop the ball. But that got me thinking of a new sport combining baseball and cricket – crickball.

 

Now we allow the batters to put on helmets and padding and carry their 2X4’s when they run just like in cricket. We still have the bases and all the rest like in baseball. But now we have more action. Now when a runner comes into second base to break up a second play, they come with bat at the ready and lay into the second baseman. When a play is broken up, I mean it is broken up. And a play at the plate – the batsman and the catcher have at it, the winner gets to step on home base. Now there is an international game that both cultures can appreciate.

 

Besides their cricket the Indians really like their music. There are several music channels with videos that young men the world over will enjoy. Scantily clad females dancing to the beat of the music is a recipe for success where ever you call home.  Most of the videos seem to have large choreographed scenes with like hundreds of dancers – all in sync. And its not only in the music videos, but in the movies. You’ll be watching a show and all of sudden every one jumps out of their chairs and start doing a dance number.  Then they all sit down and it’s back to the show. Only you can’t remember what the story was about because you were distracted by all of the dancing. Indian movies are not for those with short attention spans. 

 

On a more serious note, the food has been good so far. I have ate both Western and Indian food at the Hotel. Datamatics has been great about providing us with lunch each day. Each meal has been excellent. The stray dog that Todd noticed on his first visit, and showed to me on my visit, seems to be gone. Gone to find another building to hang out in front of, or maybe roadkill with all of the traffic. The last Thursday that we are here, they are going to take us to a shopping mall. So we are looking forward to that.

 If I were ever going to stay here, I think that I would change occupations. Either a cricket referee – lord knows that I have watched my share of the Three Stooges, or a dance choreographer – I don’t know anything about it, but it would be fun trying

India part duo

Well back to India once again. The flight over was not particularly bad – although I did have one after effect.  The salmon that I had for dinner must have been bad. I didn’t feel real well soon after eating it.  Then that Sunday I yacked after eating supper at the Leela.  Made it to restroom just in time. The bathroom attendant was probably rolling his eyes. But today, Monday, I feel quite well.

 

You always forget something when you pack, I forgot my captain crunch decoder – my vpn token that gives me the code to log into work remotely.  Fortunately one of the other fellows left for India two days later and is bringing my token with him. So I should have full access by tomorrow.

 

The advertising for the 2008 Olympic games begins here already. Jackie Chan has a funny spot. He plays ping pong like an action hero – spinning, etc. Then does other sports stuff all in his Jackie Chan style, the voice over says you don’t have to work like this to get to the Olympics – all you need is Visa!  So Jackie Chan buys the ticket to the Olympics and goes to his seat. Only to have Yao Ming the 7’ 4” center sit in front of him.

 

The airport is a lot nicer this go around. They are renovating it, but the changes that they have made really made it better. According to the one person that I spoke with, they have privatized the airport and a private company is investing capital to improve it.  Traffic lights are new, but the traffic is still snarled.  

 

Did have one curious incident with Hotel Security today. Came back from work and there was a cryptic message that I would need to get with the day manager to get my code to access the safe in my room. After regaining  access to the safe from the hotel I was able to piece together the scenario. Inside the safe was not only the passport and $$ that I had placed in there, but also my ‘valuable’ $25 timex watch and an empty wallet that I had brought, but not used – both had been left on the dresser when I left. Apparently housekeeping was worried about these treasures and had notified security to do me a favor and lock them away in my safe for me. 

 

On hand their concern is appreciated, on the other hand – access to that safe seems rather free. The day manager did get it unlocked with some sort of pass key, but could not reset it. A maintenance engineer came by and unlocked it again and was finally able to get it working completely. It feels like every other employee can waltz into a room and open a safe.