Otterz & Endz
There is a term in communication theory known as phatic communication, coined by Roman Jakobson (and I only mention his name because it looks good in search engines). Basically this is any word or phrase meant to initiate communication or keep channels open. Less academically speaking, any pointless speech to get the ball rolling. Simply…
Read MoreThe official place for the memorial page is here now. -7/24/06 I just found out that my best friend is dead. I hadn’t heard anything from him in over a month. Normally that wouldn’t have seemed odd since he moved to the middle of Wyoming. However, lately he’d been on instant messenger talking a blue…
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or Extended Tales of Poor Customer Service or or This is the Last One of These, I Swear On walking towards the store one Saturday morn I noticed, on the corner across from my store, a tattered man with equally tattered clothing. Besides him stood an eight foot tall picket sign. As the signs on…
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or Further Tales of Poor Customer Service or or Which is worse: The Deal Hunters or Deal Makers? The Deal Hunters: At work I wear tan pants, a navy blue shirt and a radio on my belt with a speaker welded to my ear. I carry around a large black plastic label gun and what…
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…or How Logic Confounds the Common Consumer Some time ago I announced I was employed. And, for the past year, I have learned a new skill – holding my tongue. I had to hold my tongue about the buying public, and I had to hold my tongue about my corporate overlords. Well, a year to…
Read MoreIn the beginning, there was darkness. A mass void of unrealized potential. Then, with a flash and a flicker, a shining star came over the horizon (ok, so there was a void and a horizon, now shh); a star called Mass Media! Radio, TV and the printed word all promised to shine a light on…
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At last I am employed. Employed somewhere where I didn’t get the job defaulted to me because of kin. I am now… in retail. The commercial world. And in an office supply chain, capitalism is definitely the motto. I will, eventually, be working in the desktop publishing center where my skills can finally be realized…
Read MoreI was going to look back at the year we just left, but as I reviewed my notes I realized it would be too great of an ordeal… Let the past go I always say; that is, if the year happened to be 2004. It began with a boob and ended with a bang…. I…
Read MoreA few months ago down ol’ Miami way, the police had a series of incidents resulting in Taserings (stun gunning for all the police technology termed challenged). The first zap was against a lunatic wielding shards of broken glass. He held the police and the gathering crowd at bay with his improvised weaponry as well…
Read MoreThe other day I rode around in search of a paper application. I went in and out of stores only to come up with handful of URL’s. For you see there is no more paper… it’s a virtual world. Apply Online, apply online, apply online. One store did have a sign saying, “Apply inside.” Turned…
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