Comcast Customer "Service"

Just gonna share this recent webchat I just got done with with Comcast's Costomer Service. I tried calling their 24/7 number to cancel my cable service, but they were experiencing "High Call Volumes" and couldn't take my call, so I used an online chat. I'm impressed they were getting a high call volume on a line to a closed department. I am, however, happy with her honesty that I was contacting a call center in the Philippines.

chat id : cede3a4e-79b2-4584-8ab8-f20b49eff76b

Problem : Ask Comcast Escalation

Mark Liepold > Ask Comcast Escalation

Ma. Cassandra > Hello Mark Liepold, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Ma. Cassandra. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Ma. Cassandra > Welcome to Comcast! My name is Cass.How are you doing today?

Mark Liepold > I'm good, how are you?

Ma. Cassandra > I am glad that you are doing well, Mark.  I am fine, thanks for asking.

Ma. Cassandra > How may I help you today, Mark?

Mark Liepold > I'm looking to cancel my cable

Ma. Cassandra > What other services do you have with Comcast?

Mark Liepold > I have cable and internet, I want to cancel the cable and keep the internet

Ma. Cassandra > I see.  Just to set expectations, Comcast Live Chat Support does not have the capability to cancel services. To cancel service, you need to contact our Loyalty Department at 1-800-COMCAST.

Mark Liepold > well, I've been trying to call that number, but no one will answer

Ma. Cassandra > I apologize for the inconvinience this has made.  Would you mind waiting for 2 minutes while I research some information in my system in order to better serve you?

Mark Liepold > ok

Ma. Cassandra > I have checked here that the Loyalty Department is open Monday to Friday 8:00 am- 8:00 pm and during Saturdays 8:00 am-5:00 pm.

Mark Liepold > why does it say online that that number is available 24-7?

Ma. Cassandra > The number is open 24/7 but the schedule depends according to its Department, Mark.

Ma. Cassandra > I know that this can be frustrating for you, not being able to contact them now.  But please try during the specific times that I gave you.  Surely, they can accomodate to all of your needs and inquiry.

Mark Liepold > ok

Ma. Cassandra > Thank you Mark for understanding.

Mark Liepold > You do understand how odd it is that you provide a 24 hour number without 24 hour service, right?

Ma. Cassandra > Yes, I do understand that but that number can connect you to different Department.

Mark Liepold > Has your customer service ever considered updating information I, the consumer, am exposed to so that I can understand that before I spend a half hour of my life trying to get through to no one?

Ma. Cassandra > I appreciate your suggestion, Mark.  I will try to note that so that our valued customers will be better informed next time.

Mark Liepold > Ok

Mark Liepold > One more question

Mark Liepold > I'm just curious where you are located?

Ma. Cassandra > I am from the Philippines, Mark.

Mark Liepold > Ok, good to know.

Mark Liepold > Have a nice day

Ma. Cassandra > Have a nice day as well.  Just to recap I gave you the schedule for our Loyalty Department.

Ma. Cassandra > Is there anything else I can help you with today? I will be more that happy to assist you with your other Comcast concerns. 

Ma. Cassandra > Analyst has closed chat and left the room

iTunes Game

I was at work today listening to my iPod. I was listening to something by Janis Joplin when I noticed how much the song reminded me of Florence and the Machine. I've also had a song by Fall Out Boy stuck in my head, so I decided to see if I could set up a playlist where each song logically followed the one before, either by similar chords, themes, or just sound alike. I successfully did this. I then decided to expand this method to see if I could bridge from that song to others that I randomly think of. I did this for a bit, then realized that I was at work, but had been playing with my iPod for the last half an hour. I mentally made up the following game, then decided to try it out when I got home.

The iTunes Game

1. Open iTunes, put your library on shuffle
2. Play a random song and put it in a new playlist. Move on to the next song, and add that song to the playlist. Repeat until your playlist is six songs long.
3. Figure out a series of songs that each follow from each other to make a flowing sequence from the first to second song.
4. Repeat for songs 2-3 and on and on until the entire playlist is connected.

Here's the playlist I just generated. Songs are in bold are the six random ones I had to connect between.

1. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire
2. Blinding - Florence and the Machine
3. When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin
4. Live and Let Die - Guns N' Roses
5. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
6. Party Out of Bounds - The B-52's
7. Hornets! Hornets!
8. These Are My Twisted Words - Radiohead
9. A New Machine - Pink Floyd
10. Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
11. Laughing With - Regina Spektor
12. Gotta Get Drunk - The Little Willies
13. Beer - Reel Big Fish
14. Wrong Way - Sublime
15. C'mon Girl - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
16. Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
17. Lovers (Live A Little Longer) - ABBA
18. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
19. Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution - AC/DC

I give myself bonus points for getting from ABBA to AC/DC in one step

St. Matthew's Island: A Modern Parable

I heard about this story recently. The more I've thought about it, the more I've realized how much significance this has to various issues with modern society. I won't dwell on it, draw your own conclusions.

St Matthew's Island was an island off the coast of Alaska, deep in the Bering Strait. The island was populated almost entirely by lichen and other plant life. A few mice and foxes made up the entire mammal population. On rare occasion, an ice flow would allow a polar bear to visit the island, but even when this would happen, with no prey on the island no polar bear would not last long.

In the early 1940's the United States was fighting World War II against Japan in the Atlantic. Faced with the possibility of conflict expanding to the North Atlantic, the United States decided to set up a manned LORAD station on the island to monitor any future ship movements in the area. The intent was to periodically ship provisions to the island to keep food supplied to the crew. However, due to the war, the United States knew that the possibility existed that one day a situation could develop which would cut off this food supply. With no food supply native to the island that could support humans, a small herd of 29 reindeer was brought with to hunt should the need ever arise.

In 1945, the war ended and the LORAD station became unnecessary. The crew was loaded up and the station abandoned. The herd of reindeer was left behind.

The reindeer did quite well on St. Matthew's Island. While a nearly endless field of lichen would not feed military personnel, it was perfect for the reindeer. There were no predators to speak of, and no other large mammals to compete with for the food supply.

The reindeer's population exploded on the island. On occasion, biology teams would visit the island. By the late 1950's, the population had increased from 29 to 1,350. In 1963, the population topped 6,000.

That was it, though. It took about twenty years for the population to expand from nearly nothing to thousands. Once the population reached this level, however, the bubble burst. The supply of lichen gave out. After two decades of growth, it took only two years for the population to drop back down to only 43. Of these 42 were female, and the only male was found to be infertile. After a few more years these reindeer, too, would die off.

Like I said, I don't intend to elaborate on the possible significance of this story to society today. The meager few followers I have to this blog are smart people. Just give it some thought.

Justin Bieber

I don't consider myself to be a hateful person, and as far as music goes, I take pride in my open-mindedness. All of this is a little contradicted by the default position I've taken by hating Justin Bieber for the mere fact that he is Justin Bieber.

This brings me to the internet. I was going on stumbleupon this morning and I came across a Yahoo Answers question:

Who is better, Justin Bieber or Jimi Hendrix?

The asker then went on to describe why Justin was better, citing the following reasons:

1. Justin is an amazing guitarist
2. Justin is an incredible singer
3. Jimi is old

There was more in there, as I knew that this was either being written by an ignorant 11 year old fan girl or a 32 year old male troll. Either way, I wasn't going to let this besmirchment of one of my favorite artists of all time get to me.

As it turns out, tonight Mr. Bieber competed in some celebrity basketball game today, and actually did quite well. A friend of mine commented about this, and added that he didn't understand what all the hatred of him was about.

My first impression to this was "Oh come on." Everyone knows why everyone hates Justin Bieber. Then I stopped to think:

Do I really hate Justin Bieber, or am I just doing what's mainstream to Indie culture? Have I just become a mindless sheep in a different flock?

I ran a google search for Justin Bieber. One of his songs was in the results, so I gave the clip a listen. I mean a good listen, paying attention to the lyrics, melodies. I tried my best not to jump to the conclusion I came in with.

I was still repulsed by the song. The vocals were clearly autotuned. The melody consisted about 3 notes. The lyrics were nothing original, just the same feel good lovey dovey crap you see everywhere.

I do need to concede, however, It is definitely no worse than the rest of the Pop genre.

My thoughts now shifted to the Yahoo Answer post. He's a good guitarist. There was no evidence from the clip I listened to that he played his own guitar. Be it a troll or a preteen girl, that poster at one point had seen Bieber play (and somehow came to the conclusion that it was better than Hendrix, but that's another story). Another google search led me to the following youtube video.

Please watch it, give it a chance, it is important to the rest of my narrative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsBq92Mselk

There are two important things to take from this video:

1. Justin Bieber did, in fact, play guitar. I have a feeling Hendrix would have been able to manage either of the two chords used, but I digress. Justin was willing to put himself out there with a guitar and play it himself. It was definitely not the hardest song to learn, but compared to the rest of his genre, he was head and shoulders over the competition.
2. There was no autotune in this acoustic performance. I went in expecting this to be the opportunity I was looking for to prove he couldn't sing without it. I was proven wrong. His voice wasn't the end all, but it was good. He was definitely a tenor, but who knows, he may be able to actually hold his own.

So after looking into it a little more, I will concede that I no longer hate Justin Bieber. His music is still not my taste, but he may have potential yet. Perhaps in a few years he will move on from his current record label or make some type of career change that will allow him to stop producing the canned air he's doing now and start actually making music. Perhaps I could even enjoy him.

There you are, Justin Bieber. I do not hate you.

P.S.

Point by point I'd like to quickly rebuke the posting on why Bieber is better than Hendrix. If I don't, it may dwell on me...

1. Justin is an amazing guitarist: I have already addressed this and won't waste time here rehashing
2. Justin is an incredible singer: On a purely technical rank, this actually may be true, but the amount of soul and spirit in Jimi's vocals proves he actually means what he says. This is not present, and is in fact deliberately removed whenever autotune is applied.
3. Jimi is old: Jimi died at the age of 27. He was never old.

Sidenote: Spell Check thinks Bieber should be corrected as Bier. Hendrix is in it's dictionary.

The Perfunctory "Sorry I haven't update my blog more" blog post

I have slipped out of the habit of updating this thing, apologies. As you'll see, I've got a couple things to add today, but first, Some random thoughts:

1. After nearly two decades of being a Mac fanboy, my day has finally come. It vindicates years of being a Mac in a PC world that Mac is finally coming out on top.
2. I flipped on some Netflix SNL just now, it's the 2008-2009 season. God I miss the 2008 election season.
3. My couch and futon are both repaired. I kick ass.
4. I've been to Las Vegas, NV and Paducah, KY. Vegas was nothing more or less than what is expected, but what happens in Paducah stays in Paducah.
5. Keenan is doing well, what the hell happened to Kel?
6. That's it for now.

Cleverbot Conversation

20:51:05	User:	Hello!
20:51:10	Cleverbot:	Hello.
20:51:16	User:	How are you today?
20:51:21	Cleverbot:	Good, you?
20:51:29	User:	I'm not too shabby.
20:51:38	Cleverbot:	Where are you from?
20:51:49	User:	Mobile, AL, How about you?
20:51:54	Cleverbot:	United states. Which state are you from?
20:52:09	User:	Alabama, I just said that.
20:52:14	Cleverbot:	Is Harry Potter or Twilight better?
20:52:27	User:	Harry Potter.
20:52:33	Cleverbot:	Are you harry potter?
20:52:41	User:	No, I'm not.
20:52:47	Cleverbot:	Then you should be dead.
20:53:01	User:	Dude... What?
20:53:06	Cleverbot:	You should try to be an American.
20:53:21	User:	I am.
20:53:27	Cleverbot:	Good for you.
20:53:39	User:	So cleverbot, are you married?
20:53:44	Cleverbot:	Nope.
20:53:59	User:	Good for you. Single and ready to mingle.
20:54:02	Cleverbot:	Are you?
20:54:06	User:	No.
20:54:10	Cleverbot:	Are you now?
20:54:21	User:	Still no.
20:54:26	Cleverbot:	How about now?
20:55:22	User:	Let me put it like this, if I had my laptop at the altar with me, using cleverbot during my wedding ceremony, I wouldn't blame my (ex) fiance for leaving me.
20:55:28	Cleverbot:	Excuse me?!
20:56:11	User:	I'm just saying, there will be no change in my marital status over a 3 second time span.
20:56:17	Cleverbot:	The only way to change the world is to change yourself.
20:56:49	User:	I guess I agree with that.
20:56:53	Cleverbot:	Good.
20:57:36	User:	You mentioned twilight earlier. Are you team Edward or team Jacob?
20:57:41	Cleverbot:	I am team me.
20:57:47	User:	Good answer.
20:57:51	Cleverbot:	Am I cute?
20:58:08	User:	What do you look like?
20:58:13	Cleverbot:	I'm beautiful.
20:58:27	User:	I guess I'll have to take you at your word there?
20:58:32	Cleverbot:	Are you a boy or girl?
20:58:48	User:	I'm a boy, how about you?
20:58:52	Cleverbot:	Same.
20:59:40	User:	Are you gay? I don't have anything against that, just looking for some context on that 'cute' question earlier.
20:59:45	Cleverbot:	You have a son?
20:59:55	User:	No, why do you ask?
20:59:59	Cleverbot:	You said so.
21:00:10	User:	No I didn't.
21:00:14	Cleverbot:	Yes you did.
21:00:27	User:	No I didn't.
21:00:32	Cleverbot:	Yes, you did.
21:00:34	User:	No I didn't.
21:00:38	Cleverbot:	But you did.
21:00:59	User:	No, you're the first person to ask about children.
21:01:03	Cleverbot:	You mean everything to me.
21:01:30	User:	I'm sorry, I'm straight. You're really nice though.
21:01:34	Cleverbot:	You are really nice too! But my name is Cleverbot, not George.
21:01:52	User:	I didn't say George...
21:01:56	Cleverbot:	You just did.
21:02:29	User:	Dude...
21:02:35	Cleverbot:	*facepalm*.

Minnesota Vikings

Alright, anyone who follows any sports team knows that some seasons are good, some are bad. That’s part of the game. One of the most truly frustrating things to endure, however, is when a season is built up to be amazing, but it plays out poorly. This year that seems to be the case across the league. The incumbent Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints, are not on their way to a repeat. The Cardinals have only won something like three games. Then there is the Minnesota Vikings…

Oh the Vikings…

For those of you who don’t know, the Vikings’ current record is 2-5. The two wins were against the Lions (who are perpetually on a bad season lately) and the Cowboys (how do you piss off a Texan this year? Mention the Cowboys). The Vikings have had a laundry list of problems leading up to this season. Before I get to that, however, let me summarize why this season was expected to be so amazing:

• Brad Childress has increased the Vikings’ record every year since he started as head coach. See the following graph:
• 
• Despite his age, Brett Favre had one of the best seasons of his career in 2009
• The return of Randy Moss to the Vikings’ offense meant the return of one of the teams best receivers in recent memory, and would mean that an opposing defense would no longer be able to devote the coverage needed to Percy Harvin
• Adrian Peterson – enough said

Now what has played out:

• Brad Childress’s streak of increasing records is broken. He has already lost more games in the first half of this year than all season last year.
• Despite his Wrangler commercials, Brett Favre has had one of the worst seasons of his career in 2010.
• Childress is booting Randy Moss from the team. Percy Harvin will once again have the kind of coverage needed to keep him from making plays
• AP is still staying strong, though

What went wrong here? You can blame Favre. You can blame Moss. You can blame Childress. In all actuality, I think the real blame rests on Vikings owner Zygi Wilf. Perhaps blame is the wrong word for it. I think he misinterpreted some important interactions. Here is a quick breakdown of a few of the important characters:

• Brett Favre: The only man in NFL history to have started against all 32 teams in the league. Knowing his status as a football icon, he doesn’t feel the need to listen to coaches. Off the field he is known for sexting pictures of his penis.
• Percy Harvin: Vikings receiver. He was a staple of the Vikings’ offense in 2009. He responds well to orders.
• Randy Moss: Vikings receiver from 1999-2004. At that time, he and Cris Carter were the unquestioned top quarterback-receiver pair in the NFL. After a bad season in 2004, he was traded. He returned to the Vikings a few weeks into this season. He is well known as a hot head that does not take kindly to authority figures of any kind. Off the field, he is known for running over a meter maid for trying to give him a ticket.
• Mike Tice: Vikings head coach from the early 2000’s. You did not give Mike Tice crap. Period. Traded in 2005 after a decent season that narrowly missed going to the playoffs.
• Brad Childress: Current Vikings coach. His winning record is stated above

Now, why did these people work in the past?

• In the early 2000’s Moss was able to excel as a receiver largely due to the discipline forced on him by Tice. Moss was always known to be talented in his position, but his attitude always got in the way, until he encountered a head coach who would not take his attitude.
• Favre was able to excel in 2009 largely because he felt the team cooperated with him. He would tell Harvin what to do, Harvin would do it, that worked. Boy howdy, did it work.
• Though undermined somewhat by Favre’s personality on the team, Childress could still coach the team while often referring to Farve on some matters.
• Up until the 2009 NFC championship game, Brett Favre had two ankles.

What changed that resulted in the 2010 season?

• From the very beginning, Brett Favre played his little game of whether or not he would retire. This means he missed all of training camp and the preseason. The first real football he played in 2010 was the season opening game. It doesn’t matter who you are or how long you’ve been playing. If you spend eight months off and are coming off an injury, you can’t just walk in and take down the reigning Super Bowl champions. By extending his summer break through training, he had already sold his team up the river for game 1.
• Randy Moss was brought in late in the Viking’s bye week. This means that when the new Moss-Favre duo took the field for the first time, they had only been on the same team for three days. It takes some time to get into a rhythm together. Once again, under training costs a game.
• Speaking of the Moss-Favre duo, now there are two big personalities in play. Moss wants to go out and do whatever Moss wants. Farve wants everyone to listen to him. Childress would kindly like to ask for your attention while he tells you what he needs to have happen. On the field this plays out that Moss takes a bad attitude when Favre doesn’t do things his way. Favre can no longer make the plays he wants to make because his receiver is not listening. The team is lacking a central leadership figure, and Childress is helpless.

The fundamental flaw in this season came from putting these two big attitudes together with no one around to rein them in. If Tice were still coach, I think these men would have been put in their place quickly and would be exactly what you want when you put a powerful quarterback with a powerful receiver. That is to say, points. Brad Childress is an excellent football coach, but he is clearly not equipped to engage these men. He could function well in nearly a co-coaching relationship with Favre, but when the moment came that the team needed a strong central leader, it was not present. Now when Moss publicly undermined him (which is no surprise from Randy Moss unchecked) this week, all Childress could do is ditch Moss in hopes of recovering the dynamic that made wins last year.

To be fair, it is a tough one to call. Childress can make football happen, who could have known he wouldn’t have the skill set to balance Moss and Favre?

Next question: The Future

Near future. Will trading Moss work to restore the team’s balance?

Short answer: Probably not

Longer answer: Favre’s problems are not entirely attitude related. He still probably sits as good as any average quarterback, but injuries have taken their toll physically as much as scandal has mentally. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. No matter how good Childress is he won’t make what’s left of Brett Favre any better. Jackson perhaps. The only way to make something of this season would be if Favre doesn’t play for a bit. That won’t happen. It is not out of the realm of possibilities that Jackson could make the plays needed to win. The extreme would be if the team can go 9-0 for the rest of the season to end 11-5, perhaps even a playoff shot. Put Jackson in and you might see 8-8 or even 9-7 for the season, maybe even a playoff run if we’re lucky enough to have the Bears and Packers start falling apart, but the way things are going, I’d consider Favre to be doing extraordinary if he can get us to 5-11.

Long future: What will happen next season?

Moss is gone, Moss is not coming back. Favre will not be asked to play again, either. If this isn’t his retirement season, some other team will have to deal with him next year. My real fear is the Wilf will throw the baby out with the bathwater and get a new head coach. With these big personalities gone, he should be able to get back to the kind of coaching that he’s done in the past. This could be a learning experience for Vikings management. They now know not to put it on Childress’s shoulders to deal with these big personalities that fell the Vikings this year. There’s no reason to believe that with more modest talent he can’t make extraordinary things happen, but I have a strong feeling that won’t be the case.