Archive for October 2008
We all have a little light within us
I saw him outside in the night; a few kin were hanging around. I tried to take a photo up close, but it was very dark, even though he had brought his own flash. I gave up and went inside, only to find him clinging to my camera.
A message to my ex (bank)
Dear Standard Bank
I have been one of your customers for nearly 10 years, making use of a Blue Bean credit card account.
Today, I got an sms telling me that I was in arrears on the account, and should contact you to make payment parrangements. I was amazed because the card was paid up to date the last time I looked. I phoned, and discovered you had charged me a hefty service fee, pushed my account into the red, and then opted to treat me like some kind of bad debtor. No apology was offered when I phoned up.
I cannot say my time with Standard has been happy. Your organisation is slow and bureaucratic. Many of your staff are keen to help, but your systems are so unwieldy that very often they cannot.
If your organisation was truly “inspired” and “involved”, you would have customer management systems that involved your staff taking responsibility, rather than treating us as smelly problems that need Read the rest of this entry »
runtime, dreamtime
It is 1.45am, and he has gone to bed, but does not feel sleep is near. He has been talking to someone far away, and reading that the US is called Turtle Island by its older inhabitants, a name that seems friendlier than the political description. And useful: perhaps if you know you are on a very large beast of uncertain temperament, you might step more lightly.
The book is by a physicist who points out that there are different kinds of time; that not everyone feels that progress is necessarily progress; that not all are naive enough to think that one can have eternal economic growth without eventually eating the whole planet; that there are greatly different worlds of perception which he cannot imagine.
He is startled to feel these thoughts nudge the world into a different texture, and he is reluctant to submerge them in sleep. He has a painful headache. But the mountain is near.
He did not run earlier as he had meant to; he had not enjoyed the last one, not at all. The itch is now here, though, and the night not too cold and he yields; out of bed, into shorts; a moment to take the portrait of Read the rest of this entry »
Apple Mail now prefers port 587 for Gmail SMTP
If you’re using Apple Mail, and Gmail, and your emails seem to be getting stuck in your Outbox, Read the rest of this entry »
