Back in May I posted about Ohio Republican John Boehner. He’s making headlines again calling Obama’s out on his record of voting present nearly 130 times in his short tenure in the Senate. Boehner says:

“In Congress, we have a red button, a green button and a yellow button, alright. Green means ‘yes,’ red means ‘no,’ and yellow means you’re a chicken s***.”

I’m really starting to like this guy.

I think NPR running their “annual” fund drive during the final week of the campaign season shows they’re much more concerned about making money than they are spreading their own brand of Independent news. It’s even more telling that they didn’t respond to my email asking them why they would do such a thing. NPR has ensured that I never make a pledge.

I’m going to miss This American Life, Wait-Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Sound and Spirit but honestly, are these shows not good enough for commercial radio? Maybe it’s time we all start pressuring our representatives to end NPR as a not-for-profit, government subsidized institution and start making these elitist panhandlers pay their own way.

How is an Underwriter different than a sponsor? Their ads are tax deductible – that’s it.

[You] should say that you’re back in Texas for a bit longer… you’ve got a great opportunity to write something about the similarities and differences. I’ve been in some sort of bizzaro-world for a little while where everyone I meet who wants to comment on my accent wants to talk about Texas. Not New York or Florida, as usual, but Texas. Yee-hah. I just tell them, yep, well Tennessee and Texas are ideologically and alphabetically next to each other.

The building I work in while in Texas is six stories and my office is on the top floor.  I found myself alone with the security guard in the lobby waiting for the elevator.  The guard, looking straight ahead said; “Yup.”  All I could say was “Mmm-hmm.”  I felt like Boomhauer from King of the Hill.  (Okay, okay, I’m really more of a Dale.)

And from what I’ve seen King of the Hill is not that bad of a starting point when it comes to understanding Texas. The older neighborhoods have alleys so driveways and garages are on the back of the houses, just like on KOTH, there are big white water towers and propane tanks, pick-ups are nearly even with cars in number and…get this, the local exterminating company owns the minor league arena football team.

San Angelo has about a hundred thousand people, maybe a bit more.  It’s home to San Angelo State, Goodfellow Air Force Base, and is currently the center of the FLDS madness. The surrounding country side is mostly farm land.  I read in the paper today that cotton planting season is about to begin.  In the city there is of course Sitel, my purpose for being here, as well as Verizon and Blue Cross call centers, and a few collection agencies.

I found a baby cage like they had in the nursery at the Iroquois Avenue church in Oak Ridge in a thrift store. It was $45.  I bet the church paid a lot more for theirs.

The NPR Station comes out of Austin and is about a billion times better than Knoxville’s.  They have the normal shows (Morning Edition, All Things Considered, etc) and when they’re not playing those they play music.  Not classical or jazz but music people actually want to listen to.  I’ve heard Steve Earle, Dwight Yokum, Allison Krauss, and a new discovery for me, She and Him.  It’s NPR that I would actually consider donating to.  It’s that good.

I’ve been in Texas for a little over a week now and since I promised I’d blog while I was here, I guess I need to get on that.

I’m in San Angelo, a town suddenly on everyone’s lips thanks to the FLDS folks a few miles away.  There’s a CNN van parked in the hotel parking lot and there’s not a hotel room to be had in this town.  The kids from the compound are being held about three miles up the road at the convention center.  Until recently they were being held at an old fort a bit further out but after the kids’ mothers’ started complaining that the facilities were sub-par.  Whatever.  They’re a bunch of crazies.

A woman a work said that she has a neighbor who has been working with some of the kids.  She said that two pregnant, twelve-year-old girls were upset that they were, most likely, not going to be allowed to return to their husband(s) to raise their kids.  These teen girls think of themselves as adults.

Aside from the media madness San Angelo is a quiet little city.  There’s right around a hundred-thousand people but the city offers the shopping, entertainment and dining of a much larger town.  There’s a mall, though not a very big one, two Wal-Marts, a Target, a Best Buy and the rest of discount stores.  It’s still seeing a lot of growth and, in typical Texas fashion, they’re creating some pretty crazy sprawl.  The strangest thing I’ve seen is that many of the apartment complexes require you to drive through a commercial parking lot to get to the apartments.  It’s enough to make me not want to rent.

The site is quite a bit different that Oak Ridge.  First of all, the site is located in a six-story building.  We occupy, and own, the entire facility.  My office is on the top floor where I manage five coaches and around sixty agents.  There are support people who do almost every task that I was taught would be my responsibility.  I spent a lot of time working with my staff on a one-on-one level.  I have a counterpart who works on the forth floor and, thus far, she’s seemed reluctant to let things go.  The people are great though and, assuming the job offer is right, I am thinking of staying.  We’ll see.

Since I’ve been staying in a hotel I’ve  had the chance to watch a lot of television.  I’ve come to a decision.  I don’t need cable.  Sure I’d like to see Deadliest Catch, Naurto, Dirty Jobs and Survivor Man but being subjected, even for a few seconds, to Rock of Love, Flavor of Love and the like is enough to make me rather go without.

My sister has asked that I take some photos of the town and such.  I’ll be doing that soon.  I promise.  Watch for more posts kids.

I work in customer service so I really couldn’t let this go by without commenting on it.  This week Sprint sent letters to 1200 customers who they felt complained too much.  While most customers of Sprint call customer service less than once per month, these people were making 30 to 40 calls per month.

The letter, which I will be posting eventually, states that based on the number of complaints received Sprint doesn’t feel they’re able to meet their needs and will be ending the relationship at the end of the month.  The gave them bill credits to bring their balance to zero and the customers can take their number elsewhere, but as of the end of the month, its over.

My sister sent me a memo from her boss saying that it’s a nice thought but you have to be sure you’re providing the best service possible before you start kicking your customers to the curb.  He’s got a good point there and I sort of doubt Sprint is up to that level.

There’s the public perception to think about as well.  Now everytime a customer has an issue they’re going to wonder if they complain, are they going to get fired too? 

I’m sure someone did the math a realized that they’re not making money on these people.  There is a very good chance these are the same people who are one or two months behind on their bills and are always demanding bill credits for one reason or another.  Its a matter of cost vs. revenue. 

How to you measure the cost to your public image though?  Is firing them going to shut them up or will they just find someone else to complain to?  I doubt Sprint has heard the last of these people.

I’m on vacation this week. My sister T is in from England so I took the week to spend time with them each day. Today they’re in Louisville visiting my aunt so I’m at my parent’s doing laundry.

So if I had been posting in the last week or so I would have touched on Scooter Libby’s Get Out of Jail Free card, the defeat of the Immigration Bill and of course, the madness in the UK.

Since I’m not posting, here are some pictures I took while hanging out at Frozenhead State Park.

Ken Lay died last night.? I can’t believe he found away to cheat America again.? Facing up to 30 years, he didn’t serve much if any.? For those of you who moved into a spiderhole for the last five years Mr. Lay and his buddies did some fancy accounting that made it look like there was something left after they filled their pockets will millions of dollars that didn’t belong to them.? How is that not flat out stealing?

Anyway, he’s dead now. Let’s see if his accounting schemes can help him now.

Arab News, the Arab world?s largest English language paper has an article outlining a deal being proposed by Hamas that actually recognizes Israel.? Palestinian activists sitting in Israeli jails, some of which are Hamas members themselves, put the compromise together and high-ranking Palestinian officials are praising it, though stopping short of officially endorsing it. Continue Reading »

Now I am well aware that griping about government waste doesn’t do a bit of good. Our elected leaders really don’t care about their wasteful ways. But when I hear stories of government agencies actually working against each other, I’m more than a little annoyed.

A group of volunteers are in Arizona are fighting against a non-native grass called buffelgrass, going on foot plant to plant and manually uprooting the invasive species. It seems that back in the 1960s it was decided that to control erosion and to provide a hearty crop for cattle they brought some buffelgrass from Africa and set it up to thrive in the American southwest. Continue Reading »

USC Gabe Pruitt was having a great week. He was finishing up his college basketball regular season and was getting ready for the PAC-10 tournement. To top it all off he’d met a great girl, Victoria, who he spent the week chatting with via instant messenger. Boy-howdey things were going Gabe’s way.

So much in fact he gave Victoria his phone number and said they’d hook up when he got back to LA.

So when Gabe suited up to play Cal he was thinking he’d have a pretty good game and afterwards maybe get a little lovin. Things were going great until this 79reethrow shooter came to the line. Normally Gabe is able to block out the taunts coming from the Cal student section; the foam poles, the screams, the waving arms. What he could not ignore was the entire student section alternating between chanting ‘Victoria’ and Gabe’s actual cell phone number.

It turns out Victoria is a member of the Cal RallyCon, a school spirit organization responsible for much of the hype at basketball games.

Gabe made just 3 of 13 free throws that night helping his team lose to Cal 71-60.

Maybe Gabe should keep both heads in the game.