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db has been posting about some customer service issues recently (no link cos I know you already read it) and I thought this was too amusing not to post.

A guy I work with has Time Warner Cable for his internet and for the last couple of days he says that their mail server’s time is off by an hour and 27 minutes, so his mail has the wrong timestamp. TWC lets you chat to a customer representative online and he sent me his transcript. It’s a little long so you can see it after the break. Anyone want to bet that RadleyH isn’t a real person?
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The other night outside Von’s I was taken in by the feminine wiles of a young lady selling “Toys for Tots”, and ended up buying a puppet theatre kit (look for some vids soon!). Anyway, the item only cost $15 and it’s all for charity, right?

But hang on there! Reading the back of the receipt last night it says that 5% of the retail price goes to charity. The other 95% goes to the corporation selling the item and that “no portion of the 95% is used to benefit any non-profit organization”! So, I spent $16.16 and only 75c is going to charity? What a con!

That chick used me, man.

As you all know I’m into most of the social networking sites, you can find me at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn on a regular basis. And it’s been great “reconnecting” with past colleagues.

But when I look at my list of contacts, I get a large amount of career envy. Just some of the titles my ex-peers hold:

• Director of IT
• CIO
• Vice President of IT
• Financial Controller
• CTO
• Owner of their own consulting business

And here am I, peasant worker bee for a big conglomerate. I know some people will say ‘but you moved across an ocean etc’ and that might be true, and might even be a ‘big deal’ but ultimately I’m about to turn 43 and I am just another programmer on the treadmill. How come all these guys did so much better than me?

This past weekend, my Dad, Teri, her parents and her Uncle John and Aunt Vaneta took a road trip out to the railway museum in Campo, CA, a small place in the high desert between where we live and San Diego. We had hoped to ride the train that they run on weekends but it turned out that it doesn’t run in December as they run a special train for kids instead.

So we made do with a stroll around their rolling stock museum, over 80 items ranging from old steam engines to covered wagons. Most everything is in need of a good sprucing up but it was a cool stroll around the yard and through some of the carriages.

Of course I had my Flip camera with me to capture it all: