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So Sick of T-Mobile

The T-Mobile call centers seem to have been fobbed a new policy requiring everyone to be more chatty, informal and energetic. Much, MUCH more chatty, informal, and energetic.

This is even more irritating than it sounds. We’re not at a party. I’m not trying to hook up with you. I don’t even know how cool the handset is, because I don’t have it yet. That’s why I’m calling.

Rewind. I ordered a new phone for $18 at the end of September and signed up for two more years of service. Note that the phone was “free,” except for an $18 fee, which wouldn’t have been incurred by simply using my current phone for two more years. We, as a society, are drowning in bullshit.

I checked UPS.com last week to find out why the phone hadn’t arrived yet. They had no information about the order, so I called T-Mobile again. The ridiculously chatty, informal and energetic representative informed me that it hadn’t shipped yet, but would the next day. I verified that it was coming to my new address in LA, not my old address in Boston, thanked the representative and hung up.

Fast-forward to last night. On a whim, I checked UPS.com again for the shipping status. The phone was in Chelmsford, MA, and scheduled to be delivered today. I called T-Mobile back.

Chatty, informal and energetic Esther told me that the phone was back-ordered. No, it’s aready been shipped, I told her, and gave her the tracking number. She verified that as true, and finally gave me a number to call — which I realize now she must have gotten by Googling the UPS Store in Cambridge, MA. I was told to call and cancel the delivery. Once the phone got back to T-Mobile (whenever the hell THAT might be), they would reprocess the order and send it out to me in LA. I called the number, got a machine, and left a message.

I checked UPS.com this morning. The phone has been delivered. To my old address, on the beautiful North Atlantic.

I’m about to call T-Mobile for round three.

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The Man With the Pointy Hat

"In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance . . . As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.

"So at the end of the day, all one can do is try to do the best one can with the notes one is given, and try to execute them in a professional way -- because who knows, the other guy may be right . . . ."

— J. Michael Straczynski

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We Heart Superman: Episode 105: The Krankorbatch Switcheroo!

A strange physics experiment leads to stranger chemistry!

— Listen —

Click here to listen to episode 105:

“We Heart Superman: The Krankorbatch Switcheroo!” (MP3 format, 24MB)

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Get We Heart Superman automatically downloaded to your iPod or Zune! (Because somewhere, somebody has a Zune!)

Subscribe with iTunes or Zune Marketplace:

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— Credit, Swag, Love —

“We Heart Superman: The Krankorbatch Switcheroo!” Written and produced by Matt Rasmussen. Directed by Troy Minkowsky. Featuring Mike Devine, Christian Sterling, Gina Robbins, Lindsay LeClair, Dan Miller, Melissa McCue, Debbie Chiang, and Arturo Meneses. Sound and technical support by James Force and Adam Stugatch. Original Music by Subpar Costar. Superman created by Joel Schuster and Jerry Seigel and property of DC Comics.

Thank you for listening!

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2:35

“And sometimes there’s no one there. And there isn’t going to be.” — Michael Ventura, Shadow-Dancing in the U.S.A.

Wall-E is the perfect expression of what it’s like to meet a modern woman. She’s sophisticated, sleek, brilliant, beautiful, focused — and something of a pyro. You’re a bit clever perhaps, but otherwise the only thing to recommend you is that you’ve somehow managed to survive this long.

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Scooter Unapologized

Scooter is a big, dumb arena rock act — but since they’re German they do techno. They’re as brainlessly self-aggrandizing, self-referential and self-conscious as Kidd Rock, Monster Magnet or club hiphop.

Download the uncensored video for “Weekend,” and you’ll start to get it. The director’s concept seems to have been “Alexander the Great.” It’s become a mini-addiction for me. Lead singer H. P. Baxxter rides in cape and armor with three sometimes topless multiethnic dancing girls upon a boat carried by a sea of Buddhist monks. Warriors and dancers appear in fast cuts on a dry nighttime plane, the frames shooting psychotically from the beautiful (three girls making out in the snow) to the disturbing (passable CGI replacements of Baxxter’s head onto a line of boys). A striking Hindu dancer crawls toward Ganesha — the height of my guilty pleasures. Baxxter’s face morphs awkwardly out of a man’s back to kill the fun. There’s a maybe virgin Mary in heavier eye makeup than Filter’s “Take A Picture” mermaid. Nothing is held up long enough for rational thought. It’s a wonderfully terrifying thing.

You’re not supposed to feel good about listening to this music. The clever flourishes don’t make it okay. The dozen platinum albums don’t either. Forcing you to admit that there’s some flaw in you that enjoys the music is Scooter’s only redeeming characteristic.

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We Heart Superman: Episode 104: The Cannabis Conundrum!

What madness lies ahead when Jimmy Oleson smokes weed?

— Listen —

Click here to listen to episode 104:

“We Heart Superman: The Cannabis Conundrum!” (MP3 format, 24MB)

— Subscribe —

Get We Heart Superman automatically downloaded to your iPod or Zune! (Because somewhere, somebody has a Zune!)

Subscribe with iTunes or Zune Marketplace:

Or point your favorite podcatcher to:
www.spacetoast.net/stp/podcasts/superman/podcast.xml

— Friend —

Visit our MySpace page at MySpace.com/WeHeartSuperman.

Join our Facebook group, “We Heart Superman”.

— Credit, Swag, Love —

“We Heart Superman: The Cannabis Conundrum!” Written and directed by Troy Minkowsky. Featuring Mike Devine, Honzer Chen, Gina Robbins, Dan Miller, Lindsay LeClair, Melissa McCue, Christian Sterling, Michelle Webster, and Arturo Meneses. Sound and technical support by James Force. Original Music by Subpar Costar. Produced by Matt Rasmussen. Superman created by Joel Schuster and Jerry Seigel and property of DC Comics.

Thank you for listening!

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Greetings

I’d like to say a quick hey there to DIY fans from BoingBoing.net and ProQuo.com who are discovering the blog by way of my junk mail blinds article.

Here are a couple more junk mail tips for you:

  • Pick up a traverse rod at your local hardware store and make verticle blinds with the same strips of junk mail. I now have one set of either in my bedroom.
  • Lampshades. Try to use compact fluorescent bulbs — they run cooler, and are better for the environment. (And contain only 1/100th the mercury of a household thermometer, so we’d best get over that please… Remember to recycle them, also at your neighborhood hardware store, too.)

Finally, I’ll be moving to either LA or San Franciso at the end of September, based largely on whether either produces a good bite on a job. Please contact me by any of the means on the main page if you happen to have any leads for me. Shukriya!