My office happens to be a polling location, and I volunteered to open the doors for the poll workers at 5:00 AM — good citizen, I.
Anyway, when I got here at 4:45 and opened those doors, there were about 20 people there, waiting to set up the voting machines. As they filed in, one young woman said to me, “I’m here to work.”
“Um, for who?” I asked.
“For the election.”
“Oh,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’m just the building guy.” Then I realized — only about seven or eight of the people I let in were poll workers. The others were here to vote. At 5:00 AM.
How much you can read from the demographics, I dunno, but of the dozen or so people, all but three were African-American. They had been standing in the rain at 4:45 in the morning to cast their ballots. I don’t care how many flag stickers you have on your car, you don’t beat these folks for patriotism.
I was somewhat concerned, however, as I had heard an interview on NPR with a woman from West Virginia. She wasn’t going to vote for Obama because she was concerned that — I kid you not — if a black man was elected President, black people would start to feel superior and begin to push us white folks around. (Someone else pointed out that if Obama loses, those same African Americans were likely to riot.)
Now now, before you start jumping to conclusions, the woman was very clear to state that she was not a racist. So there you have it.
GOTV, folks.
Update: Here’s a 20-second video of the line at 6:26:
I’ve been going the freelance route, doing work for Computerworld, some trade pubs, Kiplingers, even Women’s Day (!).
A couple of weeks ago, though, our Realtor in Roanoke called. “I was in a car with some people I work with,” she explained. “And one of them said, ‘I just lost my writer. Anyone know any writers?’ And I told him yes, I did. ‘In Richmond?’ Yep, in Richmond.”
So I called, had a couple of interviews, and now I’ve got a job. And it’s not just as a writer — despite the title, it’s really an editor-in-chief position at a trade magazine, something I’ve done before.
The great thing about it: At the moment it’s long-term freelance, which gives them a chance to try me out, gives me a chance to see if I like being an editor again (I suspect I will), and can eventually lead to a full- or part-time office position.
Right now we’re still undecided whether I should be working full-time or not, so this is the perfect way to test out the work/Sam balancing act.
And the icing on the cake: These folks are very, very into new media. And they don’t just pay it lip service, or think that throwing a few videos on a Web site makes them cutting edge. They’re experimenting with member-driven blogs, Webcasts, message boards, a strong print-Web connection, Twitter and Facebook, and anything else they can think of.
In other words, they aren’t (like some places) doing “new media” because someone told them “this is the future.” They’re doing it because they see it as a great tool for connecting to their members. And when your attitude is “media as a tool” you do a lot better than when your attitude is “media for media’s sake.”
I start next week, and I’m looking forward to working with a company that really gets the whole Internet/social media thing.
Wow, I can see why National City is going under. As you may recall, not too long ago I filled out an online form asking about what options were available to me to reduce my monthly mortgage payments. Instead, National City took that request for info and turned it into an application to begin short-selling my house.
With all that finally straightened out, I finally did apply for either the short-sell or “deed-in-lieu” options.
I filled out the same online form again (you can’t resubmit it), and sent it in.
Yesterday I receive a letter from National City Mortgage asking for “additional information.” What additional information? The same stuff that was in the online application.
They don’t want additional information; they want the same stuff all over again.
The form they sent has some of the field populated, but — despite the fact that I filled them in — most are blank or incorrect. (!)
Further, although they sent this form to my correct address, the mailing address listed on the form is incorrect.
Amazing. I can’t understand how this company can stay in business when its computer systems are so poorly designed and/or integrated.
So I called the 800 number to speak to a person. I get through and am told (by a human), “Our systems are down. Can you please call back after 1:00?”
I’ve been dealing with National City Mortgage, and the level of utter stupidity over there astounds me. I gotta share this.
We own a house in Roanoke. We moved to Richmond. Ergo, until we sell the house we’re paying mortgage and rent. It’s possible now, but it’s a stretch for us until my freelancing gets off the ground in a bigger way. (We’re looking at renting out the house as one option.)
OK, you’ve got the situation.
I went to the National City Web site and saw a link, “Having trouble paying your mortgage?” Ah, I thought, maybe they have some programs we can use to reduce payments or something.
The site said I had several options, depending on whether I wanted to keep or give up the house. But I had to fill out a form detailing my financial info so they could tell me what might work. (Link goes to PDF of blank form.)
I did this. The form asks for a listing of my income and my expenses, what the house is worth, a copy of the listing agreement with the Realtor, etc. Simple. I awaited a response.
I didn’t get it. Instead, my Realtor called to say that National City had called her saying we were short-selling the house and that they needed to get an appraiser in. (Short selling, which I had never heard of until that call, means that National City will take less than the full amount of the mortgage, but it would leave a bad mark on my credit.)
Huh? I had no intention of “short selling.” I just wanted info. Further, the National City rep said she was looking at an FHA loan for us to help do this short-sell thing.
Huh? Argh!
So I called National City and said, essentially, WTF? And I was told — seriously — that although the form I filled out said it was just an application for financial help, in reality it was starting the short-sell process even though it never said any such thing. (I have screen grabs of the whole process. It’s pretty clear.)
‘Stop this madness!’ I told the National City person (one “Mrs. Beasley”). I don’t want to short sell. I was just curious what options I might have.
Process stopped. Good. Well, no — I was ticked. So that evening I wrote to National City’s ‘elevated’ customer service address and said, basically, WTF? And: Did you apply for an FHA loan in my name?
The next morning, lo and behold, National City calls me back. This person explains that the online form I filled out is routed to the ’short-sell department,’ but no — they weren’t going to short-sell my house. The whole process starts with an appraisal and then they’ll tell me what they can do.
“You asked us to help you sell your house,” she said. Huh? What? I did no such thing! I asked for information about what help I qualify for, period! ARGH!
Well, she said, you told us that you’re selling your house and that you want financial help. Ergo, you obviously want help selling your house.
No no no, a thousand times no! All I want is information. Stop the $#%&@! process.
Process stopped.
Then I get a call from Thea Dodge, the National City rep who spoke to my Realtor. Of course we started the short-sell process, she said. It’s the only option you have.
Blink. Blink.
Then we took a left turn into a cross between the Twilight Zone and Catch-22:
Based on the information I gave them, National City has determined that we cannot afford to make payments on the house (despite the fact that we have and will continue to do so — it’s tight, but very doable).
Are you ready? Because National City thinks we can’t afford to make payments they will not offer us any kind of assistance.
In order to get assistance, we first have to prove that we can make the payments.
Yes, you read that right. ‘We cannot help you until you prove you don’t need help.’
“Isn’t that a bit backwards?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you want to help me because you think I need help?”
And then we come full circle. Or full something. The only way they can, er, are willing help is by doing a short sale. Ergo, based on this, they began the short-sale process.
Can’t I roll, say, two payments into the mortgage — let me skip a couple and make it up later?
“Which payments do you mean?” Ms. Dodge asks.
“April or May?” I suggested; we already made the March payment.
Nope. We can’t set up a repayment plan or a loan modification based on payments we haven’t made yet. Get this: In order to get that assistance, we first have to miss the payments, get the nasty foreclosure letters, take the credit hit, etc.
I can’t say, “I’d like to skip a payment, can you help.” I have to first skip it, then they might help.
So what about that appraiser they wanted to send? The rep I spoke with said that, before they determine what kind of assistance I might qualify for, the house has to be appraised.
Oh, no, said Ms. Dodge. “We only use the appraiser for a short sale.”
“So what she told me was wrong?” I said.
“Yes. I’ll have to let her know about that.”
Does anyone at National City know what they’re doing? Doubtful. At best, they’re all working with different versions of the same playbook, making it impossible for us to figure out what’s correct and what’s not.
Bottom line: We’ll continue doing what we were doing — paying the mortgage every month and either selling or renting the house.
And if the time comes that we want to do something drastic, well, that’s when we pay a visit to these folks.
Color me impressed. After poking fun at Verizon’s online help-request system, I filed it under "Some other time, maybe." Not so Verizon. The screenshot made its way up the ranks of the company, and I got a surprise call from Kim, a customer service supervisor.
She apologized and told me they’d look into my Call Waiting problem today, and they’d have the IT people check out the Web site to see what went wrong there.
So, yeah. Wow. Again, you see why I don’t have Comcast.
All the outlets in our house work fine, save one. With that one, plugging in (and turning on) the vacuum caused the breaker to trip. Most other appliances didn’t, but some did. Clearly there was a problem with the circuit.
It wasn’t overloaded by any stretch, and all the wiring appeared correct according to my plug tester thingy. So maybe it was a bad breaker.
Our landlord is a nice guy, but not always the quickest responder unless it involves imminent danger to the house. I wasn’t going to bug him with a problem I wasn’t even sure of.
I figured to tackle it myself. And thanks to Jeff Sturgeon, I can.
A few months ago, in my old house, Sturgeon showed me how to open the breaker box — something I considered one of the scarier things in my home; there’s a lot of electricity running through there.
Anyway, with Sturgeon’s help we added a circuit to that house, and thus the mystery and fear associated with the breaker box was gone. (In large part because that breaker box was an ugly mess. If I was cool with it, I would be cool with anything.)
I was therefore willing to open the breaker box here. I had identified the questionable breaker, as well as one of the same rating (20A) that wasn’t used at all. (I still don’t know what it controls.)
I opened the box, shut the main breaker, and swapped the questionable one with the unused one. No fear.
And it worked just fine. Now the vacuum doesn’t trip the breaker, and I have Sturgeon to thank for making my life easier.
When we moved to Richmond, I was very clear that I wasn’t going to use Comcast for Internet access. (I use DirecTV for television because it’s the only place to get NFL Sunday ticket and thus watch my Giants games.)
I don’t want to give my business to a company that thinks it has the right to monitor what I do online and slow down my connection if it doesn’t like the content I’m getting. That’s exactly what Comcast does. If you use Bittorrent to get files, good luck; Comcast throttles it.
The logic is that Bittorrent is used by people illegally sharing music and movies. But it’s also used for downloading large files. For example, video-game demos, which can run into the hundreds of megabytes. Ditto for versions of Linux. And other stuff, all of which I’ve downloaded via Bittorrent.
Bittorrent lets content providers ’spread the pain’ of sending enormous files to people. Everyone who downloads is also uploading, so no one person (or company) has to supply all the bandwidth. It’s by far the most efficient way to download a big game.
But because it can be used illegally, Comcast thinks it has the right to slow down users’ Bittorrent connections without telling them. It then denied it was doing such a thing, but the Associated Press — and others — went and proved it was.
The company is now facing lawsuits over this, as it should. Can you imagine if every Internet access company decided to monitor traffic and decide what it would allow and what it wouldn’t? Immediately you’d have every right-wing nut group demanding that ISPs cut off nudity, information on religions other than Christianity, information about birth control — you name it. In fact, every interest group in the world would demand that information not meeting its agenda be stifled.
Wonderful.
Verizon understands this at least. The New York Times writes that AT&T is developing software to scan what its Internet users are doing and attempt to identify and block pirated content. (This is the same AT&T that let the feds tap its users’ phone calls without a court order.)
Forget the problems with identifying what’s pirated and what’s legal (maybe I’m sending myself a copy of a song so I can listen to it somewhere else). AT&T wants to get into the content-police business.
Once you start going down the path of looking at the information going down the network, there are many that want you to play the role of policeman. Stop illegal gambling offshore. Stop pornography. Stop a whole array of other kinds of activities that some may think inappropriate.
Exactly.
So I won’t use Comcast, even when DirecTV’s monopoly on the NFL runs out, and I certainly won’t use any AT&T product. There are better alternatives.
Note to Comcast users: There are simple ways to bypass the company’s filtering. Read about them here.
