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Picture of the Week

This image is from the the seniornet.org website. It is a picture of the Kingston – UCCC Business Resource Center at 105 Development Court (Ulster Avenue), Kingston, NY 12401 USA. According to their website, they offer a range of technology classes for people over 50.

Our classes are for seniors and taught by seniors, in small classes, at a speed and in language that seniors can understand and follow.

This is it. This is exactly the service we (we every town, every city, every state) need. As I asked a friend once (and annoyed the crap out of him, I might add), now that you’ve found the answer, what are you going to do about it.

Dear Readers, please return. I’m sure both seniornet.org and the Kingston Resource Center will, with their permission, be featured here again.

Over 50 in an IT World: Is Temper the Issue?

My Blackberry has been on its last legs for some time and finally gave up the ghost this past week. I toddled off to my local Best Buy and looked around for the same type of phone (a smart phone), but a less expensive version than the BlackBerry. After choosing a phone the clerk tried to sign me up for a new plan (I’ve had my phone for 4 years so I am “out of contract”) and was told that my service started in April 2009 and I couldn’t upgrade for 2 more years. It turns out when I moved to North Carolina and changed my phone number the woman who switched my service signed me up for a new plan without telling me. She (the AT&T person on the other end of the phone) also said my bill was 3 days overdue and if I paid the bill everything would be fine (incompetent AT&T person number one).

I went home, paid the bill online, waited a few days and went back to the store. When the clerk tried to sign me up he hit the same brick wall that knocked out the previous Best Buy clerk. He phoned AT&T and the woman on the other end said that I was “out-of-contract,” but that when I moved and changed phone numbers my contract was updated and there was nothing that could be done, I had to wait 2 years to buy a new phone (incompetent AT&T person number two).

My New Phone - Now I have to learn how to use it!

Needless to say, I became frustrated. I went home, phoned customer service and explained – in detail and calmly – the issue. The gentleman on the other end of the phone spent an hour on the phone with me explaining what happened, how it happened, how it could be fixed, how fixing it could go wrong and making suggestions to make everything right. Not only did he clear everything up, but he sold me the phone I wanted, overnighted it to me and discounted it $100 for my trouble.

My rather long-winded point is that I dealt with 3 people at AT&T. Two were thoughtless and, short-sighted and gave lousy service, one was the Rock Star of Service.

I have no gripes with AT&T. I have had mobile phone service with them for 7 years and have been as happy or happier then the people I hear bemoaning their mobile phone carrier. I believe good service is less about the company you go with for your mobile phone service and more about the person you speak to at the company you have chosen. Good service can be given by person at any company and is the difference between a great experience that keeps you coming back and a bad one that has you swearing to never use Company XYZ again.

Do the mobile phone companies take into account that after a certain age running back and forth to the store to deal with their issues is tiring? When the Rock Star asked if I’d like to buy my phone through him over the phone or go back to Best Buy, I was just too tired to go back to back to the mall for a third time. Do the mobile phone companies realize that sometimes someone under 50 may have the energy to get up and go over and over and over again and someone over 50 may not be so inclined and so they lose a sale or lose a client because their service person has not gone out of their way to make sure my problem is solved.
Do the mobile phone companies take into account that when I’m listening to you speak at the end of that magic mobile service my hearing may not be what it once was (I have a 40% hearing loss in both ears) and my frustration may have less to do with what you’re saying and more to do with the fact that there are few devices today to help people with hearing loss and so I just can’t hear what you’re saying?

The title of this post is “Is Temper the Issue?” This time I didn’t lose my temper. I

When a phone was just a phone

wanted to, but the Rock Star was just too good, too thorough and just too darn nice (by the way, I wrote AT&T and told them what a star they had). Had I lost my temper and not bought the phone would I have been like so many people over 50 who feel like they have had just about enough? I told the Rock Start that 30 years ago we could buy a phone for $5, put it on the wall and it was good for 20 years. Do the mobile phone companies realize that some of the people buying their products remember buying a phone once and then not buying another for 20 years?

Chad Gibson Cries Cover UP in Rainbow Lounge Incident

After spending 7 days in the hospital, Chad Gibson is awake and says that the Forth Worth Police Department is guilty of trying to cover up the the truth in the Rainbow Lounge incident. Report by HRC can be found at 2.40 on the video.

Of News and of Note…

Michael Jackson.
For a significant civic event a city is expected to pony up the money to help said event take place.  How did Michael Jackson’s memorial service become a significant civic event in a city where, according to the LA Times, $1.6 billion will be cut from education and as many as 4,000 teachers and staff may be laid off (LA Times Article)?  Is this event only about laying to rest a tremendously talented man who was taken too young? Somehow, I think not.

GrandCentral
Do you remember Cary Grant buying a ticket in Grand Central Station and then trying to get lost in the crowd in the movie “North by Northwest”?  Google is giving us a whole new GrandCentral and this one should make you feel even better than watching an old movie!  How many times have you thought, “WHY DO I NEED SO MANY PHONE NUMBERS???”  Well, Google has listened to your cries.  This week Google rolled out its GrandCentral service.  The service allows users to route all their calls through ONE NUMBER. WooHoo!!! (GrandCentral).

Shame on You! On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, Lieutenant Dan Choi who served in the New York Army National Guard faced a panel of colonels who decided to dismiss him from the service because he said “I am gay” on the Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Here is that clip and an interview of Mr. Choi by Rachel Maddow (Maddow/Choi Interview).

The United States has the greatest military in the world and has a lot to be proud of.  Dismissing a West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran for saying “I am gay” is not something to be proud of.

A Crabby Old Man

I found this poem in an AARP blog.  The author’s name was not given and after his death it was distributed to the nurses in the nursing home he lived at until his death.  From there it was probably passed around further and even found a place in the news magazine for the St. Louis Association for Mental Health.  Think.

A Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses?  What do you see?
What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?
A crabby old man, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try!”
Who seems not to notice the things that you do.
And forever is losing a sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding the long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking?  Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse, you’re not looking at me.

I’ll tell you who I am.  As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of Ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another.

A young boy of Sixteen with wings on his feet.
Dreaming that soon now a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now, I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my woman’s beside me to see I don’t mourn.
At Fifty, once more, babies play ’round my knee,
Again, we know children my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me my wife is now dead.
I look at the future shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known.

I’m now an old man and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body  it crumbles, grace and vigor depart.
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass a young guy still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living life over again.

I think of the years, all too few gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes people, open and see.
Not a crabby old man.  Look closer.  See ME!!

Gay Marriage…Republican Style

An interesting opinion from conservative political columnist David Brooks.

Mr. Brooks equated the idea of gay marriage with traditional conservative values: “We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity…. It’s going to be up to conservatives to make the important, moral case for marriage, including gay marriage.” (New York Times, November 22, 2003, A-15.)

Can this be an effective argument to use against those fighting our right to marriage?

What is Technology?

I’m trying to figure out how to use WordPress while I try to figure out what I’m going to say on my Word Press blog.  For those of you who know me, you will probably be stunned to find out that occasionally I am at a loss for words.

So, for my second installment, I thought I would let technology help me along because I really haven’t spent the time necessary to impress you. Instead, I decided to let Google impress you.  Google is very good at impressing.

Instead of answering the question, “what is technology,” I did a Google search (something I will explain further in future installments for those who are unaware of all the fun that can be had clothed) for “what is technology.”  Google found 245,000,000 answers.  Okay, that’s misleading.  Google found 245,000,000 results.

Here is where “what is technology” becomes a significant question in regard to age.  If you are over 50 and have not used or even heard of Google the next question to be asked would be, “what is the difference between 245,000,000 answers and 245,000,000 results?  And, where do I find the answer to that question – never mind what is technology?

Dear reader, you have come to the right place.  If I do a search for the phrase “what is technology” google will search for each of the words “what” “is” “technology” first in the order of relevance to my question (or query).  Click on this link for further explanation (http://www.googleguide.com/results_page.html).  Start in the middle at “Search Results.”

There is much more to be said about  searches (oodles and oodles of googles and googles – I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist).  My point, however, is this.  Even what some may think of as the simplest of tasks is tremendously confusing without education.

Homework:  If you are under 50 and you know and love someone over 50 ask them if they know how to search using the Google search engine.  If they don’t, show them.  I bet when you have finished they will be smiling.

Hello world!

I recently received an email from a dear friend (really).  It began, “You know you’re becoming menopausal, right?”  Right.  I bet I can bring the same energy to this project if I try hard enough.  You need to let me know how I’m doing.

There are an awful lot of people in the world who are (1) over 50, and (2) can afford to include modern technology in their lives…but don’t.  I want to change that.  Keep coming back to see how I’m doing.

Menopausal?  You ain’t seen ‘nothin yet.