January 30, 2007
I’m still recovering from my time in Mexico—fortunately I managed to not get sick until after I’d returned home. In lieu of one rambling, bloated week-in-review, I thought I’d offer a few thoughts from my trip when I have a few minutes to do this blogging thing.
I feel like I’m a pretty empathetic person in general. I’m not perfect, but for the most part, I do my best to try to understand others and help ease the burden of my fellow man when I can. But while in Mexico, I had a few occasions that left me considering scenarios I’ve never been faced with myself before—particularly, issues having to do with communication. That seems particuarly relevant to the trip, since facilitating communication is really what Automattic does, in a really corporate-ese way of saying it.
I never had the opportunity to travel outside the United States before our trip to La Paz. It’s something I’d thought about doing for a long time, but had never really had a good enough reason to do it. As such, I’d never had a chance to experience what it’s like to be in place where a majority of people only speak a language that you don’t understand. There’s been so many frustrating experiences when trying to communicate with someone in the US who doesn’t speak english well, but now I can see for myself that it’s ten times more frustrating to be the other person in that scenario.
I thought about how glad I was to get to work with these people, and how privileged I was to get to do what I love, and to get to take a trip like this…
The people of La Paz were gracious and welcoming, but not being to understand even the most perfect of hosts can eventually become intimidating and exhausting. I wouldn’t say I have a whole new respect, but maybe a new level of understanding, and hopefully a renewed sense of consciousness of those who have to overcome obstacles to be able to communicate. It’s something I should keep in mind both in my role as a designer and just as a human being.
Tuesday night, after a long day of work and play, I took a stroll around the grounds of Casabuena, thinking about my experiences so far and enjoying the beauty of my temporary home. I thought about how glad I was to get to work with these people, and how privileged I was to get to do what I love, and to get to take a trip like this, experience new things, and go back to my warm bed and comfortable home at the end of it all. And as I was thinking about the differences between Mexico and my home in the United States, I could barely hear a band playing at a party or something off in the distance. I perked up my ears, and realized that they were playing a popular Radiohead song from a few years ago. It occurred to me then that no matter how far apart we can feel sometimes, we really do live in a very small world.
January 25, 2007
At the Automattic meetup in La Paz (more on that later), we’ve been distracting ourselves from time to time with a friendly game of Wii Sports. I’m now addicted to this game, as it combines the two things in life I’m worst at—sports and video games. Nonetheless, I was suckered into a Wii Tennis tournament and as one of the big losers, I’m now linking back to my boss’ gloating back on Photomatt.net.
UPDATE: Barry hits us with an insanely great photo.
January 9, 2007
My cable internet connection went down about 5:30 today. As usual, I began with jiggling wires around, making sure there was nothing wrong here at the house, then sitting at my desk, staring at the blinking lights for a few minutes, hoping they might start their usual dance if I just sat there long enough. When I realized that wouldn’t work, I occupied myself for about an hour before I had really gotten tired of waiting for it to come back up. So, I called Mediacom.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 2.
“Please wait while we search for reported outages in your area.” [Click.] [Dial tone.]
“Huh. That’s weird. Let’s try again.” I dial.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 2.
“Please wait while we search for reported outages in your area.” [Click.] [Dial tone.]
Clearly, this is not working. I dial a third time.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 0, thinking I might get someone with a pulse.
[Ringing. Score!] “All representatives are currently busy. Please wait while you are connected to a representative.” An obnoxious wrestling pay-per-view promotion plays. I hope this will be short. Exactly at the moment the wrestling ad ends, a representative answers. “Thank you for calling Mediacom, how may I help you?”
“Hi, my internet connection has been down for about an hour, and I’m having some trouble reaching technical support.”
“No problem, let me transfer you now.” [Click.] [@#$%^&* Dial Tone!]
I call back.
“Thank you for calling Mediacom. If you are calling about your local Sinclair broadcast station, press 1.” [Pause]. “For sales, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2.”
I press 2.
“For Mediacom cable television, press 1. For Mediacom High-Speed Internet, press 2.”
I press 0, while destroying a stress ball.
[Ringing.] “All representatives are currently busy. Please wait while you are connected to a representative.” The same obnoxious wrestling pay-per-view ad plays. I wonder to myself, “I bet someone will come on the line right after this stupid ad.” Exactly when the ad finishes playing, a representative answers. “Thank you for calling Mediacom, how may I help you?”
I sit in stunned silence for a few moments, pondering the fact that Mediacom actually subjects you to advertising when you’re just trying to get your existing service to be functional.
“Hello?”
“Ahh, yeah. My internet connection’s been down for about an hour, and every time I try to reach technical support, I get disconnected.”
“Oh, yes, sorry about that. That happens when we’re overwhelmed with too many calls.”
“Aha. So I take it they know about the outage.”
“Yes sir.”
“You might consider updating your phone message with that information, rather than just disconnecting everyone who attempts to call in.”
“Yes sir.”
“Any idea when it’ll be fixed?”
“I don’t have that information, sir.”
“So that’s 90 minutes I’ll never get back, eh?”
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“Nevermind.” [Click.]
