PlanetFeedback's Mr. Helpful

There is a common adage out there amongst those who ponder such things
that we, as humans, take as much as we can get, go as far as we're
allowed and push the limits.

I have proof this concept may have some validity.

Im just about to wrap up my second year with Verizon Wireless. I have
a basic no camera phone that suits my needs perfectly. I'll be
renewing my contract with Verizon later this month, taking advantage
of their "New Every Two" program to get a better phone. Through this
whole process, I doubt seriously I'll feel the need to use PFB to
loudly proclaim that they're ripping me off, misleading me, not living
up to their promises or any of that stuff we see on a regular basis on
this site when people deal with wireless companies. That will likely
have something to do with the fact I'll educate myself as to the terms
of the agreement I'll sign and not have unreasonable expectations
about how Verizon should value me as a "long term" customer.

At any rate, there has been one small glitch along the way. I started
out with insurance on my phone and, at the current time, I dont have
insurance. "Oh Mr. Helpful, you poor man, what did those greedy
corporate rat bastards at Verizon do to you?"

They didnt do anything to me. I did it to me. I somehow managed to
lose two phones in 14 months. Both times, I used the insurance to get
a new phone (yeah it cost me a fifty dollar deductible each time...I
guess if I were a "good" consumer, I woulda bitched about that but I
already knew that was part of the terms of having insurance so I didnt
feel the need).

After the second one, I got a nice letter from the insurance company
that basically said "been nice doing business with you but you kinda
reached our limit of how many times you can replace a phone in two
years so thanks for the memories and good luck". I probably shoulda
gone ballistic on that too (DONT THOSE BASTARDS VALUE ME AS A LONG
TERM CUSTOMER??!!) but I already knew they could term my insurance if
I made two claims on the phones.

Now, here's the funny thing...I lost two insured phones in the course
of 14 months. In the ten months since, I havent lost one yet.
Hmmmm....I wonder if Ive been more careful since I know I'll have to
pay full price if I lose this one?

Of course that shouldnt stop me. As a red blooded consumer, I
shouldnt care if I lose the phone because if I do, I'll just scream at
the insurance company for not allowing me to keep my coverage. And
after Im done with them, I'll scream at the top of my lungs at Verizon
for daring to charge me full price for a replacement phone--DONT THOSE
BASTARDS VALUE ME AS A LONG TIME CUSTOMER?? And in the process, boy,
I'd sure take a stand for my rights as a consumer, BY GOD!

Right?

Right?

Ive spent most of my life doing things different than most people.

That doesnt mean you'll find me out doing wild and wacky things that
only the strangest people alive would do. I do the same things
everyone else does...I just do them differently.

And it's usually the hard way.

For instance, when bowling, most people take five steps or at least
four before releasing the ball. Not me. I stand almost past the ball
return and take three steps...three VERY small steps and on that third
step, I nearly bury my foot into the floor and cut loose. It's a very
strange style however I can routinely throw a 200 game with a house
ball.

Or golf. I position the ball far enough in front of my left foot that
it's like I was hitting a baseball. And I use a baseball grip on my
clubs. Im not quite as successful with golf as bowling...I hand in
the low 90s.

The worst example is drumming. I play the drums...well, I did.
Havent really sat behind a set in about 8 years. I started when I was
18 and played in bands for a couple of years before being sucked into
the world of business. Nowadays, you can play any instrument any way
you like and no one cares however in the mid seventies, there were
RULES. And a huge rule for drummers was you had to play right handed
(which I was) and you had to play cross handed (which I didnt). Cross
handed means keeping time on the high hat with your right hand and
hitting the snare drum with your left. I couldnt do it and keep time.
The only way I could play was to keep time on the high hat with my
left hand and hit the snare with my right. This would cause snorts of
derision from anyone watching, especially my younger brother who was
the guitar whiz in our band. He used to scream at me to "PLAY THE
RIGHT WAY" and I, never much of a follower, would scream back "IF YOU
DONT SHUT UP IM GONNA SHOVE THIS DRUMSTICK UP YOUR XXX!!!"

Anyways, the whole point of this lengthy post is Ive gone and been
"different" again. In the middle of this massive heat wave, even here
in Seattle, Ive grown a beard.

Heh.

Playing On KHELP radio (where the hits just keep on
coming...bam...bam...BAM!) tonight is:

Remedy--Black Crowes

I don't care for a lot of Black Crowes stuff but that song rules.

So, let's talk music, shall we? As I putter through the work day (and
the rest of the day, for that matter) the underlying foundation is
music, music, music! It's always playing in the background...or
foreground when I have my headphones on.

Im all over the map with my taste in music. About the only genre I
dont like is rap (although I have a few of those songs too).
Otherwise, Im there, dude.

The Mr. Helpful music collection resides on my Windows machine. Ive
gone through and digitzed 250 cds, 400 cassette tapes and 600 albums
(geez, can you tell what era Im from?). Plus Ive bought a fair share
of songs online.

This means Ive got just over 6,000 songs on my computer at the current
time. That doesnt represent every song on all that other media...I
actually went through every album, every cassette and every CD and
digitized only the songs I like. The CD's were fairly easy...I just
ripped the songs as they appeared on my screen. But the albums and
cassettes were a different matter altogether. I had to capture every
single song in real time. Needless to say, it took me a LONG time to
create this library. Yeah, I know. I need a life.

Right now Ive got about half of my library on my MP3 player.

So how about you? How do you store and listen to your music?

Where does the time go?

Honest to God, I swear sometimes I dont know where the time goes!

It was just yesterday we were celebrating Cinco De Mayo and now it's
almost the end of June. What in the heck is going on? Did someone
put life on fast forward?

Or maybe it's that the crystal meth just kicked in.

JUST JOKING!!

Heh heh heh....

It's just past midnight and here I sit on my deck, thirty feet up from
the ground, encased in darkness, listening to the rain fall while Im
trying to think of something compelling to type.

These are the peaceful moments even as the peepers begin croaking once
again. In a few minutes, I'll trudge off to bed, tired but relaxed,
ready to get up in seven hours or so and do this PFB thing all over
again.

We've got a lot of stuff going on yet, even as we move forward, it's
so exciting to see how the community is coming together. Sure there
are bumps in the road however, overall, we're in a much better place
now than we were a couple of years ago.

We have you, the site users to thank for that. It may not always seem
like your voice is heard but, trust me, it is. We cant do everything
all at once however we are making incremental progress, day by day.
That's exactly how solid foundations are built.

We'd just like to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who finds
value in the experience that PFB offers. With your support, things
will only get better.

The peepers have stopped croaking. It's no longer raining. Time to
go to bed.

So I'm sitting here in the breakfast area of the Marriott Residence
Inn in Portland, Oregon.

I need to give a great big shoutout to the hotel. Free wireless
internet. A very comfortable room with a decent size work area. Very
friendly staff. Heck, make that EXTREMELY friendly staff. There was
a maintenance guy fixing the door closer on a sliding glass door next
to where Im sitting. When he was done, he turned and asked if he
could take my dirty plate from my table. That was kind of amazing, to
say the least.

All in all, the Residence Inn did a great job!

Little by little, PlanetFeedback is expanding your ability to connect
with fellow PFB users!

Now you have a place where you can express your thoughts beyond just a
response to a letter. And there's more to come. We've just scratched
the surface.

So play with your new toy and rest assured that we're working hard
every day to make sure your voice is heard!