Casual Observations: Peter Pan Syndrome

In a conversation today about technology, I happened to mention that the internet didn't exist when I was in college. (Well, it did, but only sort of. There was the start of the web, but this is definitely the pre-Hotmail/commercial search engine era. We had the VAX, and one girl on my hall junior year was talking to people on the IRC. The rest of us were terrified that she was chatting with serial killers. But I digress.)

Anyhow, I got funny looks from the people I was talking to; they thought I was kidding. I had to tell them that I recently turned 40, and both of these people looked as stunned as if I had told them I was from another planet. It was really amusing and flattering at the same time. (Turning 40 hasn't been easy for me, especially since within the last year I have turned into "Everyone's Sickliest Friend", which sucks, BTW.)

Hearing that they each thought I was in the start of my 30s made my month. Hearing that one of them thought I was younger than my younger sister (younger by 4 years) made my year.

Maybe I am doing something right after all!

Christmastime (TV) is (nearly) here...

It's that time of year again... the time for the importation of British holiday/Christmas specials!!

I ran across the trailer for the "Call the Midwife" Christmas special on-line yesterday and was delighted to learn that we won't have to wait very long for this one! (Unlike the "Downton Abbey" air date delays. I don't know about you, but avoiding spoilers was such a pain, I just ended up reading them. Pbbt!!!) Anyhow, back to Chummy, er, "Call the Midwife", PBS will air the program on December 29 at 7:30pm ET!!! (Thanks for not making us wait for this one, PBS!) Per the PBS website, series 3 will be airing in March. (Huzzah for more Chummy!)

Here is the synopsis:
In 1958 Poplar, the holidays are not just about the opening of presents, but also about the closing of deep wounds. Although the weather is unseasonably mild for this time of year, the lives of the midwives are anything but calm. Jenny’s relationship with Alec continues to blossom and Shelagh’s (formerly Sister Bernadette) quiet wedding to Dr. Turner is underway.
When a thousand-pound explosive is discovered, the district is evacuated and the Nonnatus House team is quick to take charge to ensure that the community is safe and warm. Always one to keep spirits high, Chummy decides to forge ahead with the Cubs Christmas party. However, just when the community’s holiday spirit is renewed, Poplar faces an outbreak of polio, with the repercussions of the illness affecting the nurses and nuns more than they could have ever imagined.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a double hankie episode, friends.

And here's the trailer:

Can't wait!! Between this and "Doctor Who" on December 25th at 8:00pm ET, not too bothered about not getting "Downton" on time. And don't forget, series 3 of "Sherlock" starts January 19th!

"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"*

Having totally been sucked into This Charming Charlie over on Tumblr, I have had Smiths songs stuck in my head for the last few days.

source: This Charming Charlie (Charles Schultz & The Smiths)

Strangeways Here We Come was a big part of my first year of college. I (like many others in my age demographic) had gotten sucked in by the Columbia House CD of the Month Club, where the introductory promotional offer was 10 cds for a penny. HOWEVER, if you didn't cancel right away, you were stuck with getting the random CDs that Columbia House would send you that you'd have to return right away to avoid the charge. If you are my age, either you or someone you know signed up for this supposed "deal". Ugh, I know that I got stuck with one or two albums that I didn't want because I didn't get them back to the post office fast enough. Looking back, I can't believe it took me over a year before I cancelled. I am such a sucker for a deal. (But I did end up getting a lot of cool music, most of which was recommended by Rolling Stone magazine, back in the day when Rolling Stone actually mattered to the music industry. Like Sarah McLachlan's Solace - brilliant album.)

Up until that point, I really only knew the odd song by The Smiths from the local college radio station or mix tapes from friends. (I was more into REM and U2 at that point.) But Strangeways pretty much became the soundtrack of my freshman year of college. Make of that what you will. (There was definitely angst, but I was 18 so that is kind of par for the course.)

Anyhow, if you are a fan of The Smiths (as I am AND I am even more so a fan of the Peanuts), I definitely recommend checking out This Charming Charlie. It definitely will make you smile; it likely will make you laugh; and it probably will make you remember things you'd long thought you had forgotten. 


* song title from The Smiths

"Don't Leave Me Hanging on the Telephone"*

Image from Apple.com

I had been hemming and hawing for a while now about replacing my old cellphone and making a switch to either an iPhone or an Android. So after my old Motorola Krazr crashed three times during a work event after I purposefully charged it overnight, I finally gave my old phone the heave-ho and picked up an iPhone 4 this past weekend. It is black and shiny, and I got it a cute case with travel labels on it (London!).

I picked the 4 over the 4S because of the battery problems reported with the 4S; I have had enough of those for the foreseeable future! I went with AT&T because I could use it in Europe, for all the European traveling I do. ;-) Actually, I went with AT&T because our office tech support, who is hooked on all things Apple, recommended that. (And I was glad I went there because the salesman was really nice, knowledgeable, and helpful. Thanks, Mike, in Chestnut Hill!!) So far, things are going well with it! ::knock on wood:: If you think that there are an apps that I should add to my phone, please let me know!



*Blondie

All the cool kids are doing it...

So a couple of weeks ago, after reading about it on my Twitter feed, I signed up to get a Spotify account, and I can confidently say that I am LOVING it. I never got into Pandora Radio or Last FM because I wasn't interested in listening to referred music (even if it was based on music you indicated that you liked through some magical algorithm I can't begin to understand.) As I have said in other blog posts, my tastes in music are quite varied, and I have an extensive music collection to show for it. I can start the day listening to Muse, switch over an hour later to Dead Can Dance, play the soundtrack to Out of Africa during lunch, tune in to some late afternoon Katherine Jenkins, and crank the Smiths on the drive home.

The difference between Spotify and those other internet music services is that YOU pick the music you want to listen to from their extensive collection. The other day I listened to almost the entire New Order discography and looked up a bunch of old songs I loved in college. This is great for me because I tend to get random songs stuck in my head. Now, I can look them up, play the whole song, and be done with them. Or listen to them on repeat for an hour. The best part is that I don't have to commit to owning them to listen to the whole song (unlike with iTunes).

There are some great features on the player. You can tag favorite tracks to revisit, and you can create (or import) and save play lists that you can share with other Spotify members. This is great for me, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE making play lists (they are the mix tapes of the 21st century after all).

With a free account, there are ads, which isn't as annoying now that I am used to them, but at first their incongruousness made me nuts. You can also get a paid account, which has enhanced features, including the ability to listen on your mobile device or when you are offline. (Oh, the possibilities!)

If you have a Spotify account already, you can check out my top BritPop Anthems of the 1990s playlist that I created based on the list published in this week's Boston Phoenix and played on WFNX last night. And if you don't have Spotify, you might want to think about signing up. It makes me so happy to be able to find all these tunes in one place - for free!


(Okay, I just reread this entry before posting, and this totally reads like an infomercial. Sorry about that. I swear Spotify hasn't paid me for this endorsement; they earned it by have a killer product.)

Hooked on eBooks: Learning to Put Down the Paper

So my bedroom has two good sized book cases, packed beyond belief. They look like this:


1. I like reading, and I like owning books.
2. I buy a lot of books (new & used) that sit for months on my "to read" shelf in the book case or in a pile of books on the floor. (I finally have gotten through enough books that the floor is clear, and everything is on the shelf.)
3. I want to keep most books after reading, but some of them I am completely happy to pass on, and, in a couple of cases, throw out.
4. Books can take up a lot of room (and weigh down) my purse so I tend not to carry a book with me for the train, my lunch break, or waiting in doctors' offices, etc.

Wait a minute, scratch that last sentence. Back in February, I used my Federal tax refund to buy a book reader. I had made a list of the pros and cons of the three big book readers: Kindle, Nook, and iPad, and the Kindle made the final cut. I already used Amazon a LOT and am happy with their prices and service. The Kindle came with free 3G service (meaning you pay more for the 3G reader, but there isn't a monthly service charge...looking at you, Apple). Lastly, it is easy to read in bright sunlight, perfect for both the neighborhood park or the beach.

Things I really like about the Kindle:

1. Very easy to read. I can read it without my glasses!
2. Lightweight and takes up very little room in my pocketbook.
3. Easy to buy books from Amazon and many titles are available for purchase.
4. Even more classic novels are available for Kindle for FREE on websites like Project Gutenberg and Girl ebooks.
5. The battery holds a charge. I am constantly recharging my iPod, but I haven't had to recharge the Kindle in almost two weeks.
6. Easy to transfer content onto the Kindle from your home computer. No proprietary software is needed.
7. The screen savers when your Kindle isn't in use are fabulous.

Things that I feel Kindle could do better:

1. Advancing the pages by pushing buttons. This feels a bit old school for me, and there is a lot of "stop and go" with it when browsing through the menu. I still catch myself forgetting that is how you advance and reverse. I prefer the fluidity of the touch screen on my iPod Touch or even the scrolling wheel on my classic iPod.
2. Copy editing for Kindle needs to be improved. Newer books seem to be fine, but older books that are "retrofitted" for the Kindle have errors, most notably, BLATANT punctuation errors involving commas being the most common, but not limited to, as there are missing words and unintentional line breaks that aren't in the print editions. (I checked one book against the hardcover because it was making me spazzy.) This is not Kindle's fault; I blame the publishers, rushing to fill the demand with a less than perfect product.

Well, that is my 2¢ about the Kindle. I am really happy with my purchase over all. While it doesn't have the bells and whistles of the Nook Color or the iPad, it is a fraction of the cost, and it does have web surfing capability and will play music and audio books. The Kindle certainly isn't going to replace print books for me, but for book club selections or summer beach reads, the Kindle is my new favorite toy.

Because I love the Interwebs

My friend JR sent me this the other day. She isn't sure where it came from, but it really does sum the internet quite nicely.

(If you know who designed this, please let me know so that I can credit them. Thanks!)

"I am proud of what I am." "And what is that?" "I... am a librarian. "*

I love to read books. I honestly can't imagine one day where I would make the switch over to a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or other electronic reading implement. Now I know I said that at one point about the iPod, and now I have four of them, but that is besides the point. Books are not only for reading; (ideally) they have soft leather covers and aging paper pages just made for touching and smelling and writing yourself little notes in the margins. There is something wonderful about owning a first edition of a book you love or buying a book in a used bookstore that is over a hundred years old and thinking about the person who owned it before you.

That being said, I have a confession to make. I am afraid of libraries. I love the concept of the library, and, truth be told, I did like to go to the library in my hometown. Things changed once I got to college. I did spend *some* time in my college library (don't start laughing, college friends, I DID!), doing my reading for history in a comfy chair in a nook under the stairs. But I found the stacks intimidating. I got a little lost down there once and was reluctant to spend any more time in them than necessary. Skip to the Boston Public Library, which is just HUGE. I went there for a reading once, and I got a library card that day, but have I been back to use it? NOPE. (Read that last word with the "P" popped loudly.)

This is bad on me, especially since I have friends who are librarians or studying to be librarians. My aunt on the Cape was once a librarian. Rachel Weisz played an action librarian in The Mummy. Librarians are lovely people; they also love books. One of my goals this year is to go to the BPL downtown and go past the front room into the stacks. I just need someone to go with me the first time.

Here is a really funny PSA supporting libraries on YouTube, starring the Old Spice Guy.





*From The Mummy
Evelyn: Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I... am a librarian.

A Little Light Reading

There are several sites on the internet that my friends have told me about recently that I really like. When I come across a really great website, I, of course, want to share them (as opposed to hording their URLs in my dark, damp cave like Gollum *mypreciousIlovesitmyprecious*), so without further ado, here are three websites that you may want to add to your daily rotation. (Well, I've added them to mine.)

1. Hark! a vagrant: So I actually began reading this one back at the start of the year. HILARIOUS historical/literary comics (with a bit of Anglophile slant) by Kate Beaton. It totally appeals to my sense of humor: clever, satirical, and a little bit adult. Some of my favorite ones include: the Brontes, Nicola Tesla, Holmes and Watson, and Victoria and Albert, but I honestly can't think of one that I didn't like. I was given a copy of Ms. Beaton's book Never Learn Anything From History for my birthday, and I lovelovelove it. I put it on my coffee table so that people could see it. (Now I just need to have people over so they can see it.)

2. The next website worth checking out is a JR discovery: THXTHXTHX. Basically, blogger Leah posts a "thank you" note a day (or nearly every day). But they are not to any specific person, just to the cosmos at large. My favorites of late include thank yous to: Piles of Books I Haven’t Read and Restaurant Tap Water that’s Served in a Glass Bottle. It is nice to read that someone else appreciates some of the things that I do, and it can also be a good reminder of how many great things there are in the world.

3. This last site is one that seems to be getting a bit of buzz of late: Hyperbole and a Half. I have seen links to it cropping up on Twitter and on other blogs. I was totally hooked by the entry about growing up and dealing with responsibility. It resonated with me A LOT. ("CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!" "clean all the things??" had me laughing out loud. Not that that has ever happened to me. Okay, maybe once. Or twice.) I can't wait for the next update.

So these are some reading recs for out there in the wonderful world of the interwebs. Enjoy! (And if you have a website that you think would appeal to me, feel free to recommend it in the comments. Always looking for something new to read at one in the morning when I should be in bed asleep.)

Seven Things Making Me Smile

Once again, I am posting a list of seven things that are currently making me happy. This is to serve as a little reminder/pick me up for myself because things are a bit stressful at the moment.

1. The new series of Doctor Who. Was a little concerned with all the changes this year: new production team, new cast, new TARDIS, new theme. That's a lot of "news" for someone not very keen on change, but I am really liking this new Doctor and the new series on the whole. It did take me while to warm up to Amy Pond, the new companion, but now I think she is pretty good. "Got my spaceship, got my boys, my work here is done." (She's no Donna Noble, though.)
2. Today's State Opening of Parliament. Nobody does pomp and circumstance like the Brits. (I would love to have that Black Rod job, banging on the door and inviting the House of Commons into the House of Lords.)
3. The Friendly Toast in Kendall Square. Meeting up with a couple friends there after work. They have a whole drink menu with concoctions named after Hitchcock films! They also serve breakfast all day long. Who doesn't love "all day breakfast"?
4. Having an electronic organizer again. I finally replaced my dead Palm Pilot with an iPod Touch. I don't really understand how to use it yet, and I am sure that I could benefit from some "aps", but, for now, it does what I want (well, except for Bluetooth syncing with my laptop, grrr.) The reminder alerts are key.
5. Series 2 of Lark Rise to Candleford, which I just finished on dvd. I tried to make it last longer by only watching one episode at a time, but I couldn't do it. I can't wait for series 3!! It is like Cranford with more delightful characters and a lot more episodes. Plus, the costumes that Julia Sawalha wears are simply gorgeous! Beautiful costumes are "my one weakness".
6. Saturdays. I had become a bit of a "weekend hermit", so one of my goals for 2010 was to make sure that I had something to do with a friend for a significant portion of the day on Saturday, preferably out of the house. So far, so good, and SO FUN!!
7. You are now able to shop on the Vera Bradley website! I was able to buy the bag I wanted to complete my travel luggage in Frankly Scarlet, my discontinued pattern! Can't wait to use it on a weekend away. (I used to be very anti-Vera Bradley back in the day, but now I totally love it. There is nothing like having a cheerfully colored bag.)

Perspective

Aunt E forwarded me this email, and I really liked it a lot, so I am sharing it with my blog readers. It is about keeping things in perspective, which I find hard to do sometimes.

As is the way of email "forwards" some of the truth of this original column was lost, and with this post I am trying to restore the truth. The original email came with this header: "Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio 'To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:'" I Googled Regina Brett, and she is not 90. That is an urban legend; she is in her 50s. (Either that or she has some DAMN FINE genes.) Anyhow, these are Regina's perspective on perspective.

Regina Brett's 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don't ask, you don't get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Satan Strikes Back: Customer Service or the Lack of It, Part 2

Well, Satan's Bank is back at it again, and shame on me for not canceling my account when I said I was going to.

I went to check my balance on my credit card on line yesterday and logged into what was supposed to be my credit card account. Except according to their website, I didn't have a financial account associated with my user ID. Oh, really? That's news to me.

Because I really didn't want to deal with the situation at the time, I dismissed the problem as a web issue and figured that I will try to access my account when I get home from work, where I ran into the exact same problem.

So I call Satan's Bank and talk to a customer service rep, who confirms that the account was closed on Tuesday. I was incredulous. When I asked her why, she told me she couldn't tell anything other than a fraud alert had been placed on the account. When I asked the very reasonable question, "by whom?", she had no answer, although she suspected that a vendor I had used may have reported that their security was compromised. (That is my phrase; the way she described it was not remotely as concise.)

I then said to the rep, "Well, I purchased a several things today using my card at the post office and Whole Foods. Did those purchases go through?" The answer is "yes", despite the fact that the card is supposed to be "closed." So is it okay to use my card still? "No." Will my scheduled on line payment still go through okay? "Yes". (It had better.)

Then I asked when I should expect to get the replacement card; the answer is 7 to 10 business days. When I asked what I should do in the meantime, she answered, "well, don't you have another credit card?" All I could think was, "You have got to be kidding me." Now I am lucky enough to happen to have a back up card, but what about the people who don't because of the credit crunch??

I am completely disgusted. This bank can spam and junk mail me to death with emails about balance transfers, but can't make me aware of the fact that they are closing my credit card due to a security breach for the second time this year? When asked what I should do while I wait for them to fix the problem, I am told to use another credit card? Well, I intend to do that, and I don't plan on using their card again. (I am also planning on reporting this to the consumer assistance office of the state division of banks.) I didn't sign up to be their customer; they bought out my original credit card company. In the future, I do my best not to become their customer again.

How I long for the days of the little community bank.

All I Ever Wanted, All I Ever Needed is Here in My Arms

(In the event that you are reading this blog through a feed or Reader application, you may not have noticed that I changed my blog around a bit, including the name. You are now reading The Casual Observations of a Casual Observer. It is a much more accurate title for these entries, since my days of 12 cans of Diet Coke in an afternoon are long gone - thank heavens!)

On Friday afternoon, JR and I drove down (JR drove, I was the navigator) in the rain to Great Woods in Mansfield (the more these places change their names, the more inclined I am to call them by their old, non-corporate names) to see Depeche Mode in concert. Our seats were in a great spot in the first level on stage right, and we had no difficulty in seeing the band. JR commented that the last time we saw DM in concert, we were so far back, it was like watching a music video, but this time, it felt like a live performance. There is nothing like dancing in your seat, singing along to the songs while the music vibrates through your whole body.

This was my first concert experience where a large majority of the audience was openly taking pictures using digital cameras, iPhones, and the like. It was pretty distracting, especially when the house was pitch black except for all of the illuminated LCD screens in front of us. We ended up commenting, "I guess it didn't really happen if you can't FaceBook it in real time?"

It got me thinking about the whole "living your life" vs. "documenting life" quandry in which we seem to find ourselves in this digital age. (This parallels the "talking in the movies syndrome" that some people seem to find acceptable; I don't, by the by.) Personally, I was at the show to rock out to one of my favorite bands. But there were definitely people there, including the very intoxicated and obnoxious Australian men in the row front of us, who spent more time recording the show than enjoying it, and I felt that they were missing the point.

Performance is one of those things that lasts within a specific period of time and is made up of the elements that are brought by both the performer and the audience. If the audience isn't giving the performer the courtesy of its full attention, why should the performer feel obligated to do their best? Why not "phone the performance in"? Or in this case, why bother having separate concerts at all when it would be easier for the band to film one show in a studio and just broadcast it in stadiums on different dates in different towns?

DM lead singer, Dave Gahan, spent a lot of time last Friday engaging the audience, getting people to sing and clap and wave their arms around. The unity of that kind of participation can reinforce some amazing positive energy, even from a venue that wasn't sold out. I hope that will never be lost, and I hope that audiences will put away their cameras and recorders and just relearn to enjoy the show for what it is, because Facebook is never going to be able to recreate that kind of interconnectedness, no matter how many people you friend.

Music makes the people come together... yeah

I am in the process of putting all of my cds on my computer, and, subsequently, my 80G iPod Classic. At this point in time, I now have over 10,000 songs on the iPod (it is about half full.)

I decided to do this when I had to move my heavy cd racks and a bunch of the stereo equipment in my apartment to accommodate the annual visit of our condo's exterminator. I realized that, most of the time, instead of putting cds in the disc changer, I was just plugging my iPod into my tuner's AUX jack and playing playlists. (The playlist IS the mix tape for the new millennium.)

So I began the process of ripping the cds to mp3s. I already have ripped classical, film scores, world, reggae/ska, and jazz. I still have my entire pop/rock section to go (yes, I organize my cds by genre.) I will be putting my cds in storage with the absolute "must-keeps" in a little box in one of my closets (for the car and such).

It is nice to have some of the cds, especially for the car, but most new music I am downloading from iTunes. Plus, the way things are going with technology, it makes more sense to accumulate less stuff to clutter up the place. I know the music quality of the mp3s isn't the greatest, but are cds really all that better? Until they start making music in high definition, I think that I am going to stick with this plan.

Now, if I could just figure out what I am going to do with all my vinyl.

Twilight... with Cheeseburgers

This made me laugh out loud... and kind of hungry!

Customer Service or the Lack of It

I had a problem with my B*ank of Ame*rica credit card last week (I had my card declined at two vendors, despite the fact that I hadn't come close to reaching my balance.) When I called BoA to find out what was going on, I was told that my card wasn't activated - this is a card I have had since 2001, mind you. The problem was eventually identified when the BoA representative realized that their fraud department had put a hold on the card after I had tried to buy my new television. (I ended up using another card to make the purchase.) Oddly enough, despite the hold, I was still able to buy stamps at the post office, books at Amazon.com, and food at Trader Joe's - so much for the fraud alert, about which I was never contacted.

I tried calling today during my lunch time to talk to someone at B*ank of Ame*rica about my unhappiness with the situation. I waited on hold for 26 minutes and still didn't have my call answered. (Fortunately, I was able to use my headset, and I was able to do some filing while I waited.) When I realized how long I had been listening to the classical music, I finally hung up, completely frustrated.

Twenty-six minutes of hold time on top of the errors they made with my account is entirely unacceptable. At the least, they could have customers enter their phone number in the automated system and have someone call them back, like other banks do. (There is a reason that I refer to BoA as "Satan's Bank"; lack of customer service is a big part of it.) The irony of this situation is I had to listen to several pre-recorded adverts about the embarrassment of having one's credit card declined and how one doesn't have that with BoA. Yeah, riiiight.

I am going to make that call again tomorrow. Except now I am not going to call to complain; I am going to call to cancel the card. And take my business elsewhere.

Do I spend too much time on the internet?

My friend JR who knows how excited I am about going to see Hamlet in October sent me a link to McSweeney's HAMLET (FACEBOOK NEWS FEED EDITION). It is hilarious, and I thought I would share it. (This makes loads of sense if you are a Facebook person, not so much, if you aren't.)

A sample:
Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.
Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests.
Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family
The king commented on Hamlet's play: "What is wrong with you?"
Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.
Polonius is no longer online.

Lookee, it's David Tennant as Hamlet. SIGH. Two months to go.

Bill Gates Meets the Queen

This photo from Boston.com makes me laugh. I came up with a pretty good caption. "We are not amused by Service Pack 3. Or Vista. And, no, presents will not make it better."

A Concordance to Shakespeare

Something happened to me today that made me think of the wonderful Shakespeare classes that I took with one of my favorite college professors. The student who works in my office (the Protégé) came in today to give us her schedule for the rest of term and stayed on to talk with me about a class that she is currently finishing called “Science and Shakespeare,” and she has taken on a very ambitious final paper topic (I have been warning her that her topic is too broad.)

She was stumped with finding enough citations/primary sources to support her argument, and I asked her if she had looked in the Concordance to Shakespeare. She was unfamiliar with the book, and I got all excited, telling her about what an excellent reference tool it was, thinking in my head of the wonderful volume in the college library.

While I was telling her about it, I went to “google” where she might find a copy of it. Little did I consider that, coughfifteencough years later, the whole thing is now on-line. It was one of those humbling moments where you realize that no matter how far you come in embracing technology, you are still going to have moments where you think of a large, leather bound volume rather than a website.

Still, the Protégé was extremely pleased and went off to research more about “merchants” and “money” and figure out some correlations to the Elizabethan and Jacobian economies (quite broad, don’t you agree? She hadn’t even considered the implications of the plague until I mentioned it to her!)

Don't Get Caught Watching the Paint Dry

My friend Mike Philbrick (and I don't mean "friend", like I read his articles, and we are BFF through the magical powers of the internet. I actually KNOW this man. I went to his wedding in fact...) :-) is a writer for ESPN Page 2.

Recently, he has two really cool articles which I would like to recommend to friends. The first is an interview with Bruce Willis/John MacLean where he asks insightful questions, such as "How does it feel to be Nick Lachey's hero?" and "Who deserves a lower circle in hell -- Internet predators, lawyers or the paparazzi?"

The second article is even better. In fact, it is truly awesome. It is a commencement address given by Rocky Balboa, Norman Dale, Carl Spackler, Roy Hobbs, and the voice from the cornfield in Field of Dreams. How could this happen? Only through the genius of Michael Philbrick, who has written an inspirational commencement address using only lines from sports movies. I HIGHLY recommend that you check this out, especially if you are the kind of person who cried at the end of Rudy. This speech was made for you and me.