Semi-Charmed Life

10Jun/114

2011 Mid-year Review

Some of the new experiences I've had in 2011:

- Went to my first live mixed martial arts event.

- Traveled to South America.

- Joined a volleyball league.

- Got my 401k started.

- Asked to be a groomsman.

- Life insurance.

- Had a brief (but very frightening) health scare.

- Moved out on my own.

- Learned to cook for myself.

- First time competing in an open weight class in bjj.

- Learning my first musical instrument (first guitar lesson is this Sunday).

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10Jun/111

Windows to the Soul

Courtesy of National Geographic

What is it that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the words I have read in my life. - Walt Whitman

It has only just occurred to me how powerful our eyes are.

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9Jun/110

Customer Dissatisfaction

Thanks to Ed for sharing this!

An Open Letter from Eugene Mirman to Time Warner Cable

May 19, 2011
May 19, 2011
Eugene Mirman
Brooklyn, NY 10217
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019

Dear Time Warner Cable,
On April 23rd I moved and had an appointment with Time Warner Cable to come and install cable, Internet and phone service and no one showed up. When I called, I was told my appointment was entered wrong and moved to May 4th, without anyone calling me. No big deal, why would a company check with someone to see if they are home on a Wednesday afternoon? Of course they are. Everyone is. Name one person who isn’t home on a Wednesday afternoon? You can’t. It’s impossible, because everyone is home. It would be a waste of resources to call and talk to him. Did Stalin ever call people before he arrested them and sent them to die in Siberian work camps? No! Why should Time Warner Cable have a policy that is any different from Stalin’s?

Did you know that on Yelp, Time Warner Cable has one and a half stars? That’s less stars than Jeffrey Dahmer — who killed and ate people, maybe even had sex with their skulls (I don’t really know). Obviously what I’m saying is untrue, because Yelp does not review serial killers, but if they did, his babaganoush would be better than yours, if you both made babaganoush, even if his drugged and murdered people. Sorry that got weird. F**k you. I just made you read that confusing thing.
To give you an idea of how much I dislike your company, I have come up with plagues I hope God smites your board of directors with. I know He’ll only do this if you enslave the Jews, but considering you might have a monopoly in NYC, you sort of already have:

1. Awkward. Every board member’s cell phone ring loudly announces their weight and also the day they’ll die.
2. Bathroom. The constant feeling that you have to go number two, but completely forgetting how.
3. Improv. Your first-born will want to be a short form improviser.
4. Popcorn. Your second born will smell like hot buttered popcorn. It’s not that bad at first, but eventually I bet it will be maddening.

Sincerely,
Eugene Mirman and probably everyone of your customers

P.S. On May 4th I called you and got an automated message saying my appointment was moved to May 10th, but spoke to two representatives who assured me it was still on May 4th. Twenty minutes later, I got a call saying the technician called and couldn’t reach me and my new appointment would be on May 12th. An hour later I got a call apologizing and saying my appointment was moved to May 6th. Why does your company act like a controlling, abusive husband on an episode of Law and Order?

P.P.S. On May 6th a very nice, professional man came, rang my doorbell and installed everything. I would feel remiss to not mention that a handful of other employees were also very helpful. However, overall your company is run like an ill managed Soviet factory. I bet if Ayn Rand was still alive, she’d write a fun to read, but poorly argued book about how appalling and inefficient your company is. Please cut it out. Thank you.

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6Jun/110

Perfect Communication

I can understand many things my wife thinks before she even says a word, and guess at her mood from changes so slight that I imagine no one else could see them. . . . I can sometimes tell her she's anxious or tired before she has even realized it herself. "You look sad," I'll say, and she'll say something like, "Am I? Oh yes, I suppose I am." It's a beautiful kind of knowledge, since it brings us closer to each other, and as the years go by, her face says more and more to me. When I first met her, it was almost a mask, and I saw only its main lines. Now it almost never stops speaking to me, even when she is asleep. . . .

If I am looking at my wife and not saying a word . . . I am sending very gentle motions, faint undulations in the pool, and each one comes back to me as quickly as I send it. The two of us are like the two sides of a bowl, and the water between shimmers with an intricate pattern of crossing waves. Some of the most important moments of my life have been spent looking into her face as she looks back into mine and watching the liquid motions of her eyes as they make their silent points. In comparison to that kind of communication, everything else is crass. -- James Elkins

6Jun/110

Syrian Blogger Kidnapped

This is sad:

A great, feisty Syrian blogger, Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, who went by the name Gay Girl In Damascus, has been disappeared. Some twenty-something goons, assumed to be agents of Assad, grabbed her on the street. Her last post was a poem, which just brought tears to my eyes. It's worth reprinting in full:

The bird flies free
Knowing no boundaries
Borders mean nothing
When you have wings

My heart and my soul
Long to follow and soar
Out over mountains
And deserts and seas

I have no wings
And earth presses in
Wrapped in a sheet
Forever to lie

Weighed down by dirtclods
Never to feel
Wind on my wings
Sun on my back

Soaring and flying
Freedom is coming
Here am I wanting
To know it one day

Pray for her, wherever she is. And for the people in her country, who are yearning to fly.

 Link

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