FEBRUARY 2002
Flowers for Belinda
Thanks to Cathy, at long last Belinda Beetle is fully accessorized.
February 26, 2002
Shake what your mama gave ya!
Most people who know me are fully aware of what a sucker I am for small furry animals; rabbits and guinea pigs in particular. One of my all-time favourite movies is Eddie Murphy's version of Dr. Dolittle, because Rodney the guinea pig is totally inspired and hilarious. So it was with immense pleasure and amusement that I viewed this ad. Click on Gotta Dance. You must have sound! Thanks a million to Gwendolyn for this.
February 22, 2002
Cruel and unusual punishment
I feel Meg's pain. One of my (thankfully former) cow-orkers always had her mobile turned up to maximum - probably still does, if I know her - and was never ever at her desk when it rang. Well, she was never ever at her desk when customers rang either, which was also a subsidiary gripe seeing as we were an ISP heldesk, but I digress. No matter how many times I got up and turned the phone off, frequently having to excavate in her handbag to find it first, she never got the message. Until my patience ran out one day and I dug around around in her bag for the phone, switched it off, stole the SIM and replaced the phone. It was hours before she noticed it was off and longer before she found it didn't work.
February 17, 2002
Rings, redux
I got a really nice email from Billy, Grand Poobah of Team Billy. Yesterday? Well, Tuesday, anyway. There's something curiously very pleasing about learning that my white gold twisted braid ring, which is fact an Irish-designed wedding ring though it was not bought for that purpose, was the same style he and Jessica chose for their wedding bands. Ain't that a nice thought for today?
February 14, 2002
Affirmation required
Oxfordshire
14/02/02
I, the undersigned, do hereby attest this Fourteenth Day of February in
the Year of our Lord 2002, in the presence of an independent witness,
that Princess Gwendolyn
of Bennington does not annoy the piss out of me.
(signed)
S. N. Chapman
(witnessed)
Curtis da bunny
February 14, 2002
Airborne porcines
Wonders never cease. In the pantheon of Things Unlikely To Happen This Century, sitting just about top of the list is getting through to a real person at NTL. This was a significant achievement in its own right, but to find someone actually capable of helping me and without being rude and ignorant was, as David Coleman would say, quite remarkable. In this case I wanted them to take money off me, which you'd think was the raison d'être for a business, but which can be unaccountably troublesome when NTL are involved.
They had sent me a default notice as I hadn't paid my phone bill for ages - my fault of course, but really, could they make it more difficult to pay? The notice instructed me to ring a freephone number within seven days to pay the bill or make arrangements to do so, otherwise it was "see you in court, Bub". Naturally the number is only open between 8am and 6pm and is so jammed that you cannot even get onto the call-queuing system. This means they do not have enough lines to cope. This might not seem such a bad thing; victim of their own success, etc. Except for one thing. NTL are a telco. Does this not seem the sort of thing a telco ought to be able to organise with ease? Particularly for the use of its own accounts payable department. Is it any wonder they're in such deep doo-doo? I was almost tempted to go to court and use my willingness but inability to pay due to the impossibility of getting through on the freephone number as my defence.
This is what gets me about NTL. The services they provide are excellent. I have an NTL phone line which has not given a moment's trouble in five months and the 512K cable modem service which, a couple of outages due to core router failure and once due to a DHCP server screwup aside, has been thoroughly excellent and reliable. I know a couple of people who have cable TV though them and say the same of that. But customer service.... dear, oh dear. I don't know anyone who is with NTL who doesn't have grief with their bills, either getting them correct, getting them on time or merely being able to pay them. Come on guys, sort it out. Your customers like not having BT in the house. And the thought of paying BT's outrageous price for ADSL is too, too horrible.
February 13, 2002
Startling statistics
Now this is what I call creative use of Shockwave Flash, not to mention intelligent use of statistics to make a point. Excellent pause for thought.
February 11, 2002
Alternate perceptions
What do you think of when you hear somebody's name? Do you think of objects or characteristics? I almost always think of characteristics when a name crops up and I suppose I assumed other people did the same, but perhaps not. The other day Cathy mentioned to me whilst losing to me at pool as usual that when she hears my name she always thinks of rings. Funny how people's observations differ from what you'd expect. The three rings on my fingers hadn't occurred to me as something people would notice; perhaps that I constantly fiddle with the one on my left little finger, but not the rings themselves. Curious.
February 11, 2002
New year, new domain
So, Cathy has a shiny new domain and a shiny new site to go with it!
