ah pook is here

Truly we live in an age of wonders

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:45:53 -0800

Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.

Carl: Hello! Thank you for being a valued Bank of America customer! My name is Carl.

Carl: How may I assist you with your personal Checking and Savings account opened in 'California'?

You: i lost my ATM card sometime in the past two days. there are no charges on it, but i can't find it anywhere. so i need to cancel it and have a new one sent out.

Carl: I absolutely understand how important it is for you to get this issue resolved.

Carl: I will be able to block the Check Card immediately.

Carl: And order a new one for you right away.

Carl: May I have your name as it appears on your account?

You: Eric Sorenson

Carl: Thank you for the information provided, Eric.

Carl: Eric, Please allow me to process your request.

Carl: Meanwhile could you please confirm the current mailing address?

You: Carl, are you a computer program or a human?

Carl: I am a real person.

You: My address is XXX, Campbell CA

Carl: So, it has not been changed.

Carl: Okay. I have blocked your check card.

Carl: and also I have ordered a new one for you.

Carl: You will receive the new card within 5-7 business days.

You: just to confirm, this is for the account ending in XXXX, right?

Carl: Eric, to activate your Check Card.

Carl: Yes. this check card is linked to account ending in -XXXX

Carl: Go to www.bankofamerica.com and sign on to Online Banking.

Carl: Check the box next to activate this card.

Carl: And your new check card will be activated immediately.

Carl: There is no fee with this request.

You: perfect, thank you - i am not sure i believe that you are a human but you have been a very helpful human/computer entity in any case.

Carl: Your satisfaction is of highest priority for me.

Carl: I appreciate your nice comments, it just motivates me to provide the best service possible.

Carl: Eric, Is there anything else I may assist you with?

You: That is all thank you Carl.

Carl: Thank you for choosing Bank of America's Text Chat Service! We appreciate and value your business and have a wonderful evening!

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xbox weeping

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:32:06 -0800

Red Ring of Death makes the baby jesus cry. Here's G after finding out that our RMA'ed unit would not be arriving that day (after it's been gone for a month)

MVI_0808

Are we bad people for filming our child's utter devastation, or are we bad for posting it on the internet for you to laugh at too?

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slow food panel

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:58:02 -0800

Just watched this 90 minute panel from Slow Food Nation in SF last summer. Phenomenal. If you don't have time for the whole thing, at least click through to the original page and check out the panelists' answers to the last question: What is local food going to be like in 20 years? Michael Pollan is (as always) on point here about public policy prescriptions that are needed to escape the poisonous trap of industrialized farming.

slow food

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13K odometer

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:33:57 -0800

I haven't posted an odometer shot in a while. Add this to the 4000 miles I put on the Della Santa over the summer and you'd get the impression I ride bikes a lot...

IMG00147.JPG

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nagel bike

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:23:05 -0700

Here's my Patrick Nagel bike. A neighbor was cleaning out his garage and gave it to me a few weeks ago. I was going to convert it to a (freewheel) single speed but when i cut off the old black bar tape, I saw the original hot pink tape underneath it... and a plan was born. I would just bring it back as close to its original rigging as possible. New chain, new brake cables and housing, new pink bar tape and matching water bottle cage set me back about $30 and some Performance points. I had to do some hack work on the front brake which had lost the original QR mechanism somewhere along the way; fortunately I had some Dia Compe Gran Compe 500 brakes from another rescue project -- they are copies of these Ultegra 600 and the mechanism was compatible, so that was lucky.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with this bike. It's a bit small for me. But I just had a Need to build it up and get it ridable again. Re-reading Sheldon Brown's page (may he rest in peace, his site is still and will remain #1 hit for any technical bike web search) on the wacky ellipsoid BioPace chainrings really pushed it over the top for me. Let's just say I'm not a fanatical convert after a few rides around the neighborhood today.

Nagel07-650x402

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caltrain arrest

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:36:58 -0700

Man, this is outrageous. Crossposted from this bikeforums thread, check out this google video, poor SOB got arrested for arguing with the conductor about riding the train with his bike.

Google video - Caltrain arrest

My take?

1. That completely sucks for the guy. The charge? DELAYING THE TRAIN.

2. The bombardier cars are a nightmare for bikes on board. Caltrain need to admit they f'd up on them and rip out the rest of the seats on the bottom level of the bom bike cars , so they get up to parity with the gallery cars' capacity.

3. All summer the conductors have been getting surlier and the bikers more frustrated..it's escalated to the point where I've seen the engineer storm out of the cab car to yell at a cyclist, and now somebody got arrested through no real fault of his own. (Other than trying to argue with the cops, which never works -- it's not the time, guy, just take the ticket and tell it to the judge) Could fights in the queues be far off? How about some hothead assaults a conductor -- which is a Federal crime BTW -- and they use it as pretext to just stop bike service entirely? It's not unthinkable.

I have a Go pass from my employer and ride tamien or diridon to cal ave. I used to be in the bike car five times a week but except for rare one-offs., nowadays I either bike the whole way, get a ride in the car, or take the train as a ped. Someone else can have my bike slot. It's just not worth the stress.

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bagnews on housing meltdown

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:03:11 -0700

One of my favorite stops in Left Blogistan is BagNewsNotes. Michael Shaw, the site's proprietor, is a clinical psychologist and a keen observer of the visual media. I've been commenting there on and off for years and recently tuned back in for his take on the big national conventions, because I didn't think I could trust my own take on the imagery I was seeing.

Today there's a post up commenting on this NY Times article on Merced, CA and the effect the housing crash has had on there. It boomed the highest and went bust the highest, with crazy numbers of foreclosures now underway. I saw this pic and was moved to comment:

Wilson Merced 2

The last picture is especially haunting. For me it evokes jim kunstler's "Geography of Nowhere". The cul-de-sac really is a dead end, the symbol of the idyllic suburban lifestyle grown cancerous. Master-planned developments, designed by companies with transparently bogus names like "Toll Brothers", ensure through a fractal complexity that everyone can live on a cul-de-sac. But when the fuel runs out -- and these things run off a volatile, too-rich mixture of cheap oil, subprime lending and short-sighted greed -- this is what we're left with. Ugly, blighted, useless asphalt that goes noplace and does nothing: the true face of a new American landscape.

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radio hack

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:56:53 -0700

Second attempt at a 'foxhole radio', no batteries required. This time we used a germanium diode instead of a catwhisker (pencil stub) Second attempt at a 'foxhole radio', no batteries required. This time we used the coil in the electronics kit instead of the toilet paper tube, a germanium diode instead of a catwhisker (pencil stub) and I hooked up to the big antenna on the roof. Much b Second attempt at a 'foxhole radio', no batteries required. This time we used the coil in the electronics kit instead of the toilet paper tube, a germanium diode instead of a catwhisker (pencil stub) and I hooked up to the big antenna on the roof. Much better, and tunable! Got CNN, KGO, and RADIO ROMANTICA in nice and clear. Second attempt at a 'foxhole radio', no batteries required. This time we used the coil in the electronics kit instead of the toilet paper tube, a germanium diode instead of a catwhisker (pencil stub) and I hooked up to the big antenna on the roof. Much better, and tunable! Got CNN, KGO, and RADIO ROMANTICA in nice and clear.

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tiny insight

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:39:32 -0700

This is a little bit too long for a tweet but not quite a full blog post.

The margin of difference between being a good manager and a mediocre one might lie in one's willingness to broach unpleasant subjects with coworkers and one's ability to do so in a respectful, professional way.

At least, the times when I am happiest about my own performance as a manager are when I come out of one of those conversations thinking to myself "I'm glad I did that. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting". A rare bonus is hearing from the other person "Thanks for bringing it up, I didn't know if I could talk about that."

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hamming it up

nobody@vox.com(eric) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:44:48 -0700

My kid is a total ham.

Gunnar-crazy-grover

He said "My singing is loud. I don't like my singing." And then... Whoa. The bit at the end is when j3n, completely unscripted, started playing this brilliant bit from old skool Sesame Street

Classic Sesame Street - Grover and Madeline Kahn

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