Filtering the World

I had always heard stories about outsourcing and people having to talk to women in Vietnam to fix their soap dispensers, but today was my first direct experience with outsourcing.
I ordered a debit card for my new checking account and it had not arrived after a month so I called my bank. After first receiving the Harris customer service line which offered me 4,238 clicking options, I decided to try my luck with a real live person.
I called my bank in town and the lady directed me to a banker at another bank. After hearing my story for 4 seconds he directed me to the customer service line. Yep, back to the 4,238 options. Well, I sucked it up and found the button I needed to push to receive service, and there I was greeted by a wonderful - but partially deaf - Asian woman. After a 10 minute conversation which involved her ordering a new debit card, a change of address, and me repeating 30 N. Brainard 4 times; my first experience with outsourcing was complete.
She seemed to have a grapple on the English language, but not so much on her health, as she continued to hack up phlegm through the entire conversation. Her phone saviness made me wonder if I could do customer service in Manila from my couch in Naperville. Did the customer service lady know where Illinois is? Does she know what a "ville" connotates? Has she ever heard the name Austin before?

In other worldly news, my eating habits have changed. My new top 2 favorite foods are:

1) Mexican Food [carne asada tacos are the sole reason for Mexico's high showing]
2) Japanese/Sushi [if you like sushi, you know that it just makes you feel good inside. And not the way a cheeseburger feels after you haven't eaten for seven hours. Sushi makes you feel Really good.]

In other other worldly news, I realized our news cast at the radio station does not offer a slot for world news. A regular WONC news cast format transfers from 2 local stories, to 2 national stories, to sports, to traffic, to weather, to some unnecessary tid-bit about Madonna, JLO, or Kathi Lee Gifford. This morning I fictionalized a large monster eating his way through Ghana, killing 67,403 people; and I realized, I would struggle with accurately placing this story in my Americanized news cast.

Tonight.

http://www8.earthhourus.org/

Soon Everybody Will Ask

Spring is officially here (I swear) which means my bike is back at school. Corinne and I were looking for vintage bikes last year when we passed a house which had 2 vintage "Free Spirit" bikes for sale. I thought they were both going to be at least $100 each, but the old woman who owned the bikes offered them for $15 each. After kissing her on the cheek, I gave her $50 for the pair and we continued on with a great summer.
Skip ahead 3 seasons and I am back at school with my bike for the first time. Corinne rode hers at school, but JAL frowns upon bikes on airplanes so I left mine here when I went to the big continent. Now that I have rode for 4 days I have trained myself to not want to walk , which causes a problem with shitty weather. Yesterday our poor bikes had to deal with the rain/snow/ice/crap that came out of the sky so we brought them in last night and let them spoon in the stairwell. They appreciate little things like that.
The bike allows me to transcend time. Normal errands that would take an afternoon to accomplish, can now be completed in 15 minutes. I have to wrap 2 books, go to the bank, go to the post office, and get to my 4pm meeting at the career development all within 1 hour. But what am I doing? Writting about time travel while listening to Panic at the Disco (you can't avoid the catchiness of 'Nine in the Afternoon').

I've Been to his House

I'm taking a Leadership, Ethics, and Values class and the topic is Abraham Lincoln. It's led by a history professor, but it's a Gen Ed so there is a conflict of interest right there as she believes history is a gift from God; meanwhile the class of 87% seniors is not planning on doing one lick of work. The first assignment, due Thursday, is to read the first seven chapters of a book about how Lincoln named his four biggest rivals to his cabinet.

The assignment is 236 pages.

I read 8 last night and then said, "I'm done tonight, tomorrow I will skim 230 pages".

Arizona in Pictures

Suggestions?

I am looking into purchasing an iMac and was looking for any feedback.

Help?

Back from the Southwest

Arrived at O'Hare last night to slush and 40 degree temperatures. Arizona is a wonderful state full of varying scenery and friendly people. If you like warm weather at all, Arizona will quickly rise to the top of your favorite state list.

I'll post some pictures soon.

We were planning our return trip before we even touched down in Chicago.

Tucson, you're spelled funny

12 hours from now I will be done with winter term and my mind will be able to officially comprehend leaving for Arizona on Thursday.

These are a lot more fun to make than studying for finals

I'm freaking out that in four days I will be wearing shorts and sunglasses.

Spring Ads

Here is the new Bikes & Books spring ad. We're going with a comical approach this time around. Expect some more of this variety soon.

Off to sushi!

Thursday

I've been looking at a lot of photographers who concentrate on band promos. Autumn de Wilde and Ryan Russell are two I repeatedly come back to. They live such a different life; it's enthralling.

They May Not Have Many "Friends", but...

Started a mini-site for our book buying business today. The link is over to the right, called Bikes & Books ----->

Computer science and html codes are more difficult than any language I've ever experienced.

Respect, nerds.

Hush

Too Much Computer Screen

I never want to stop taking pictures as we play putt-putt in the desert.

All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, now ladies.

Steak & Shake after a long day of computer labbing is the perfect remedy for any sort of homework overload.

There could have been bike rides today.

There will be many bike rides in 3 weeks.

Get ready, Naperville streets.