Just had an interesting experience with my bank's customer service representatives. I had discovered a $10 account activity fee in my savings account so had called to ask them what this was about. First rep who answered was a young female and sounded new. I could literally see her flipping through a faq to look up the answer to my question. Explained to me that the charge was because I was under the minimum balance that I had to maintain for my account and then proceeded to ask if I'd be interested in a linked checking/savings account instead which might prevent this from happening again (even though it didn't really). After declining and hanging up, I took a look at Fleet's website to double-check the minimum amount needed on a regular savings account (which is what I thought I had). Found a discrepency so I called customer service again.

Older lady answered and within a few seconds I could tell she was a grizzled veteran. I first explained to her about the $10 charge and after doing her thing, she apologized and said because I was a Gold member (what the heck is a Gold member?) I shouldn't have been charged and immediately initiated a refund. A bank? Giving me back money? Whuut?? Then she asked me if I wanted to switch my savings account to their basic one that didn't have a minimum balance. This was exactly what I was looking for since I had a opened a savings account elsewhere (which led to me dropping below the minimum in the first place). She even told me that the difference in interest rate between their basic savings and the money market savings which I originally had was negligible despite the money market account requiring a significantly higher minimum balance. A bank rep? Not trying to sell me a pricier option? Whuut???? While she was at it she decided to check on my checking plan as well which turned out to be ok to begin with. Needless to say I finished the call with a $10 refund and a savings account that worked for me. Amazing.

Not that the first rep was necessarily bad. She was really quite nice and tried to be helpful. My feeling was that she just hadn't been around long enough to get beyond the company faq yet. But anyway, good customer rep experience. I dunno, I never seem to have a problem with customer service. I keep hearing stories about bad customer service but I've never been a victim firsthand. Frankly I think it's just human nature and the way a consumer-driven society works. When people feel like they've been wronged, they want _everyone_ to know about it. Lots of whiners in the world. But when something good happens or when something works the way it should, not a peep. Which is a pity. So kudos to my 2 Fleet Bank customer service reps for doing their jobs and doing it well. I just wish I had the foresight to actually remember their names. =p

I routinely buy a Snapple or two every day and the little stats and figures thing that they have under the cap is generally pretty interesting. Trivial, but interesting. Except for the one that I got at lunch yesterday which said something to the affect of:

"The average American will eat 8 spiders while sleeping."

Now is that something we _really_ need to know? I guess in the grand scheme of things 8 spiders in your lifetime isn't much but still, just the thought. And it might not only be spiders... bleech! As one of my coworkers said to another, "Well, you're not vegetarian anymore!" =p

The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

So very true. There are safety labels for just about everything out there these days and most of it is so damn stupid that anyone who would do such a thing deserves what they'll get to begin with. Why coddle the morons in the world? And while we're at it we should make it harder for people to sue others for their own stupidity.

I've always found the evolution of advertising on the NY subways to be pretty interesting. The newest form I recently discovered while taking the PATH train in to Manhattan. Between the 14th and 23rd Street stops, Target has painted one side of the train tunnel with a sequence of images so that when the train is passing through that area and you're facing in the right direction, you're basically watching a full motion ad. Very much like the flip books we all used to play with as kids. Lasts for about 20 seconds or so. Pretty darn neat and distinctive. As far as I know this area's the only place that has it.

From today's news:

El Youm director told Reuters the newspaper received on Monday by e-mail taped answers to questions that had been sent Sunday to al Qaeda's Internet Web site.

al Qaeda has their own website? You would think the US gov would have this site bugged up the ass. And how do you tape answers to an email? Oh I see, they meant audio clips attached to the email. Who said English was easy? ;-p

a little bit of that...

This entry's "Given Up on Life" award goes to whoever wrote the fortune that I found in my fortune cookie last Friday. Behold, this sublime phrase:

Suppose you can get what you want...

Two weeks ago I dragged Erin off to a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Despite arriving at the studio over 2 hours before the doors were supposed to open, we barely managed to squeak in. Small place, fits about 100 people. Started off with a show writer/stand up comic doing his spiel and getting the audience involved. Pretty funny guy. Then Stewart came in and fielded some questions. He's a rather short guy. Unfortunately the show's guest that day was some lesser known actor (in the new Sum of All Fears movie) so I don't remember his name. But overall it was a very fun and entertaining experience. I'm sure Erin didn't appreciate it as much as I did but at least she can't complain that I never take her anywhere. ;-p

Lately I've become an addict of the NY Craigslist Open Forum. There are people who live on this bulletin board from work every day, all day. It's quite insane. They've pretty much made a chat room out of a bulletin board. For a few days I was so excited that I even registered a user name on it. But I gave up trying to keep up with the regulars who frequent the place. Keeping up with the conversations on this thing is literally a full-time job. Who's got time for that? So I'm no longer addicted. Must be the shortest addiction I've ever had.

Apparently there's an unconfirmed formula floating around out there that Lucas uses (ok, most likely not) to come up with his Jedi or Sith names for non-main characters. Uses your first and last name, mother's maiden name, and place of birth. Someone took it and created a dinky little Mac program out of it. Say hello to Master Chebe Yakao. Or grovel at the feet of Darth Benyan Kaocbe. Not as cool as Darth Tyrannus but oh well.

Anyhoos, recently I ran across a full Flash site for a Flash company. It's been awhile since I've looked at these. Used to check them out alot a year or two ago but forgot about 'em as the craze died down. Anyway, 2Advanced Studio's site reminds me again of how impressive these sites can be if done by creative designers. It also reminds me of why some people hate these sites so much. While the effects are pretty and nifty and all, all the extraneous animation and stuff can be really damn slow. Definitely not a good thing if all you want to do is get some info. Back to text it is...

Last week there was a new UN report on how the Earth's environment is pretty much going to hell in a handbasket. Not really anything that we don't know already. What gets me is the final paragraph or 3 of the article where they quote a "dissenting environmentalist" as saying that this issue isn't as bad as some people are trying to make it out to be and that it's not correct to say that "the poorer are getting poorer and the world is getting thirstier." How did this guy get to be an environmentalist??? The reason the poorer aren't getting poorer is because they're pretty much at rock bottom. You can't exactly get any lower than having nothing. And I'm sure these relatively frequent drought warnings that we're getting in our area and in northern Taiwan aren't any indication of a trend eh? I don't recall having yearly drought warnings when I was a kid 20 or so years ago. Even if the environment isn't as bad as the pessimists would like us to believe, it's still in pretty bad shape and it's not going to get better if we ignore the problems. That's just silly. Anyway, I'll be very interested to see how the Honda Civic Hybrid does next year. 46 mpg city driving. Yeah baby! Finally, a semi-electric car that doesn't look like a toy.

I've been thinking about taking flying lessons. Triggered by the brief air show we got down by the Hudson River last week during Fleet Week. Those 2 F-14s roaring up the shoreline was an impressive sight. Anyway, it's just a thought right now but I think it'd be kinda cool. Of course it'll also cost like $3-5k. Hmm....