This weekend: a play and a cast party, a company picnic, and a bicycle inspection in preparation for bike camp next week. Fun times…!
]]>Indulge me while I show off Drama Mama’s solo (video) from yesterday’s performance of Willy Wonka. (Note that the audio & video aren’t in perfect synch here…)
Or read the review by another biased observer here.
Yep, the child’s certainly lives up to her billing!
]]>Consider this tale of three vendors:
Sprint: Every encounter with them that I’ve had over the last two weeks has been painful, full of glitches, and unbelievably unprofessional. In fact, I’d say that almost every customer service interaction over the last few years has been an ugly one - from the emails that force me to download an attachment to figure out what they’re trying to tell me to web functions that won’t work as promised to charges that mysteriously reappear on my bill months after I’ve canceled them.
Even though the overseas customer service people themselves - the ones I finally manage to get to after minutes of loud hold music - have tried their best to work within a horrible system, it’s clear that they have no real ability to provide customer service, only to read from the scripts they’ve been given from corporate. Today’s last straw? I can’t put on the five dollar mini-text messaging plan (the plan that was available three days ago) on the last remaining number I still have with Sprint any more - instead, I can only choose the 20 dollar plan. WTF? I’m only with you now because I’m forced into it, and you know this. Why not save us both time and trouble and stop making poor “Linus” in India keep trying to upsell me already…!
AT&T: Sure, I’ve had to wait on the phone a few times while I navigated the maze of moving a mixed-use family plan over to AT&T. But I get people on the other end of the phone who work with me, not against me - and then they do what they say they’re going to do. I keep in mind that they’re out to make money off me - and in return, they know not to try and screw me over now, ’cause I’ll only be back to make someone else’s life miserable later. They need to work a bit more on the in-person angle, though - I waited for an hour yesterday morning at my local AT&T store before realizing that they just wouldn’t have enough iPhones on hand to meet the demand, for example.
Apple: Yep, I waited five hours yesterday in line for my iPhone. But while I waited, I had free wifi. Coffee and water (with Apple employees walking by regularly to check on us all.) Regular information updates. Pizza for lunch. Another friend of mine (waiting at a different Apple store) reports this:
The Apple Store folks did everything they could to make it a fun experience: umbrellas (the sun was murderous at Bridgeport Village by mid-afternoon), water, suntan lotion and sunblock, candy, a handcounting of who wanted what so that no one waited in line in vain, and on and on.
No, I’m not so much of a sucker that I can be won over with a free slice of pizza or wifi. But in this case, the steak (the iPhone itself) plus sizzle (Apple Customer Service) made me willing to overlook the five hour wait.
And that’s why I willingly drink the Apple Kool Aid with an AT&T chaser…!
]]>The reaction from the larger Portland blogging community to OurPDX has been fantastic, my fellow authors are similarly jazzed about the whole thing, and it’s taken off - in less than a week, no less - in ways far beyond my expectations.
I may joke about the fact that I’m famous on the internet for not being able to burp, or that most of my traffic here lately is in search of a decent mojito recipe. But it’s great to be reminded that blogging can be - should be - more than that.
I’m hoping that same kind of enthusiasm and passion spills over into what I’m doing over here.
In my copious spare time, that is…!
]]>Guess which part DM *really really really really* wanted? Guess which part she spent hours rehearsing for the night before her audition - right down to learning the character’s solo cold in one evening (which she wanted to use for her audition song - wasn’t allowed, though)?
Well, if you’ve ever met my child (and even if you haven’t), you probably already know the answer to this rhetorical question.
Thankfully, her efforts paid off (as I discovered via an ecstatic phone call three seconds after camp ended today, heh…)
Introducing my daughter: Veruca Salt.
The next few weeks are going to be um, interesting ones as she further immerses herself into her character, aren’t they? Mmmm-hmmmm….
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