Vengeance is My Name

I’m dark and I’m dirty,
I’m hungry and alone
The concrete’s hard beneath my back
The cold wind chills my bones

I wasn’t always like this I didn’t call this sidewalk home
I had a wife we had two children
And a house we’d made our own

I never thought that it could happen
Never dreamed in my worst dreams
That I’d lose what I loved most
Or have to hear their screams

Tried to drink away the sadness
Tried to drug away the pain
I tried to kill the past or kill myself
I tried to dowse the flame

But if you see into my heart
It burns there just the same
It burns white hot with hatred
It crackles with my rage
It paces like a tiger, restless in its cage

It drove me to this madness
And it left me in this place
It burned a hole right through me
It vaporized my faith

I’m cut loose from my moorings
Lost my compass and my map
My perfect storm is howling
And I’m about to snap

I’ve asked the gods and asked myself
How much can one man take
I’ve asked myself and asked the gods
When will I finally break

But only the wind answers
I can hear it call my name
Except that I don’t speak its language
Or understand its game

I know that I look broken
And I guess it’s likely true
But I’ve never been a quitter
When I’ve got work to do

The knife I’ve got is razor sharp
I’m loaded and I’m locked
I’m well prepared for violence
I’m watching like a hawk

Don’t think that I don’t see you
Even though you don’t see me
This grime is just my camouflage
The mask I wear ain’t me

So I’m waiting for my moment
Waiting til the time is right
I’ve got nothing if not patience
I will get you in my sights

You’ll never hear me coming
You won’t have time to scream
Your life won’t flash before your eyes
A white light won’t be seen

I’ll wipe you from this planet
And you’re going straight to hell
But I don’t think you’ll be lonely
Cause I’m going there as well

Though I might not come directly
There is still so much to do
I’ve got to find the others, the others such as you.

You can warn them that I’m coming
You can tell them that I’m near
But this will never stop me
Nor move me from path
I’ve dug the graves for each of us
I’ve crushed the grapes of wrath

See my hands are steady
And I know what I must do
My heart is set on bloodshed
The first victim is you

Don’t think that makes you special, privileged or unique.
My list is long with targets cause it’s revenge I seek

Although my body’s weary
Although my soul aches
I’m driven by my madness
And the lives I’ve vowed to take

I’ll sleep well when it’s over
When I put to bed this pain
Until then I’ll keep hunting
Cause vengeance is my name

The AP and Wireless Week are reporting that Verizon customers in Cleveland are complaining of being billed $1.99 by V erizon for Data Services that they didn’t use.

The problem,  originally received attention by the Cleveland Plains Dealer, a local newspaper, when a reader wrote in to complain about the issue.  Soon another 400 area residents echoed the complaint at which point the Verizon spin machine swung into gear.  Four Verizon executives spent 90 minutes at the newspaper’s offices on Monday including Roger Tang, the company’s regional president for Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia who said Verizon is investigating every complaint, because it doesn’t want to “zing” customers on their bills.

I just love their creative vernacular.  “Zing”.  Why not call it what it really is – theft.  If people actually audited their phone bills every month they would be shocked to discover just how many times their bills are inaccurate in favor of their carrier.  In fact every single time I’ve spent the hour it takes to really specifically audit my own bill I’ve found errors that far exceed $1.99.

This isn’t a case of simple mistakes much as the carriers would like us to believe.  It is a case of theft pure and simple.  These companies add millions and probably even tens of millions in additional revenue to their bottom lines ever year as the result of exactly this sort of thing.  How long, do you suppose, this was going on before someone noticed that they were being billed for a service that they didn’t subscribe to and didn’t use.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  How many of us know which “cost recovery” surcharges are legal and applicable to our bills?  Anyone?  The simple fact of the matter is that carriers can pretty much steal from all of us with impunity and when someone finally wises up and makes a stink they apologize for accidentally “zinging” us and then they rename the now exposed rip-off something else like Universal Cost Recovery Surcharge (recovery from what?  the taxes that they are supposed to pay and which they are levying back onto their customers?) and add another $1.00 to the number and make off with even more of our coin.

Part of the problem with the US these days is the fact that corporations are running roughshod over consumers and the very body that is supposed to be looking out for us, from the President and on to the Senate and Congress are so deep in the pocket of these companies that they may as well simply be on the payroll.

Every day I see a new abuse by a big company and it makes me think that the only way this country will ever get back on its feet is if someone pulls a “fight club” on big business.

You may have seen this list already, but I hadn’t come across it before just now and it was good enough I thought it was worth sharing in case anyone besides me had somehow missed this before. Enjoy.

Neill Blomkamp who previously directed Halo and Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame are behind the massively promoted new movie District Nine which opens today nationwide. I’m assuming most readers of this blog are Sci-fi fans who plan on eventually seeing this new film.

What you might not know is that Blomkamp actually created a short film predecessor to District 9 called Alive in Joberg that has been on YouTube for about three years. Here it is in case you missed it:

You can also catch an interview with Blomkamp and D9’s star Copley here and one of the trailers for the movie here.

If you’ve seen the film please let us know what you think in the comments. Thanks.

Recently I’ve noticed something with physicians and it has begun to bother me a lot.  They don’t seem to listen to their patients anymore.  Granted, it is possible that I’ve just been unlucky with the doctors I have seen recently but it seems odd that in the past 24 months every single doctor I’ve visited save one – and that one happened to be a personal friend – have all provided what I would consider to be very poor care principally because they don’t seem to listen to what I’m telling them.

I’m wondering if this problem is unique to me or if other physicians are likewise treating patients the way I’ve been treated.  Anyone have a “doctor didn’t listen” experience they’d like to share?

Frankly I find the fact that a doctor wouldn’t listen to me or would out and out disregard what I was telling them out of hand because what I was describing was either unfamiliar or uncommon or else was something that caused them to come to an erroneous conclusion before they’d even done diagnostic tests.

In my case I had one doctor tell me that was I was experiencing was “impossible” another looked at an image I had taken of a microscopic specimen and said “I don’t know what that is but this is what is wrong with you”, while a third actually refused to look at images I brought with me even though the entire reason for the visit was so he could evaluate the images I had brought with me after he’d declined to evaluate them over email telling me that I needed to bring them in for an office visit if I wanted them evaluated.

Frankly each and every one of these “medical professionals” could have used a good dose of listening 101 in their training. Or at least a good listening refresher course.

I mean how arrogant is it for a doctor to tell someone – and particularly someone that was a professional athlete and thus has spent the better part of his life keenly focused on his body, as well as someone that has a biology and biochemistry plus exercise physiology background that they can’t possibly be experiencing what it is that they’re complaining of.

I mean, I’ve only been driving around in my body for the last 41 years, but hey – Dr “I don’t listen to patients” can look at me for fifteen seconds and without performing a single one of the recommended diagnostic tests for my complaint can tell me that I am imagining things.

Except of course that I wasn’t and when I finally decided to trouble my friend for care – he (who happens to be the only professional I visited that DESERVES to be called a doctor) simply did the diagnostic tests recommended for my complaint and found out that yes- I was correct.

This got me thinking – if I’d been less certain of what was ailing me – or if I hadn’t had my own very high quality microscope and the skill to use it – or if I hadn’t persisted seeing different doctors for more than 18 months, and finally if I hadn’t ultimately prevailed upon my friend to look at me and listen to my complaint – just how long would it have taken me to get an accurate diagnosis and thus proper treatment?  2 more years?  4?  Never?  (or until perhaps my problem because life threatening and thus demanded that a truly skilled physician be brought in to figure out what was wrong?)

So what about other people with less knowledge or fewer resources?  Judging from my experience the tremendous arrogance and ego of many physicians is resulting in a lot of people simply not getting the treatment they need because the doctors they are seeing aren’t even doing the job for which they’re being paid.

Since when did it become standard practice for a doctor to ask you what was wrong and then decide that you weren’t really sick after all?

I have an acquaintance that was just diagnosed with Aggressive Stage 4 Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.  Okay, this might be an uncommon cancer and it might be one that attacked so savagely and so suddenly that it basically riddled his body with cancer overnight – but explain this…The guy has been living with HIV/AIDS for 20 years.  He’s also an Iraq 1 vet and he has recently had two surgeries for a detached retina.  In other words he’s been seen by physicians countless times in the least year.  He’s had blood work done literally dozens of times.  He’d been complaining of pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, and more regularly for the past few months but it wasn’t until he ended up in the emergency room nearly dead from anemia that they finally figured out that he had cancer.

Do you really believe that this cancer just suddenly cropped up?  Or did his doctors fail to look for it because they were making assumptions about his condition based upon his other illnesses?

Seriously, folks, this kind of thing is a big wake up call.  if a doctor won’t listen to us when we describe what ails us and they wish to suggest a course of treatment that is based upon their “considered opinion” one that was reached without performing even the most basic diagnostic tests – this is a problem.

I’ve finally learned that believing a doctor who doesn’t show me the courtesy of believing me first is a big mistake.  While I’ll never know if any of my “non-listening doctors” actually listened to their practice administrators when they went over my complaints with them I do know one thing -  if a doctor won’t do me the courtesy of listening to why I’m there in the first place I hardly think I owe them the money they’re expecting for the service that they chose not to provide.

It’s simple, really.  Listen up – do the right tests and then tell me what’s wrong and I’ll gladly pay you – but if you think for one second that you can take that arrogant “I know better because I’m a medical professional” approach with me, you’re in for a surprise; you don’t take my word for what ails me – why should I take your word that you have a clue what you’re talking about?

And if you’re reading this, Doctors Scheer, Katona, or Carsico – I’ve got a chart to send you and I’ll be expecting my refund and an apology in your responses.

This is taken verbatim from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Get Microsoft to help subsidize your iPhone

Help Me Bring Smiles to these Faces

If you’re anything like me you spend a lot of time traveling for work.  Among other things, this means a lot of nights away from home in hotel rooms.  I’ll bet I’m not the only one whom, as a result of all these hotel-nights, has managed to accumulate quite a supply of personally-sized soaps, shampoos, lotions, conditioners, etc.

In fact many fellow travelers probably have a drawer or a basket under a sink someplace that contains many dozens of these aforementioned supplies.  Perhaps you even thoughtfully put a sampling of these out as a courtesy to house-guests from time to time.  I know I have.

Or really, I should say “used to”.

About three years ago it was brought to my attention by my girlfriend’s family that all these individually wrapped personal care products were perfect for a group of people that needed them far more than either I or my house-guests; underprivileged kids in developing countries all over the world.

When this came up it occurred to me that what for me amounted to a sacrifice of a totally inconsequential nature had the potential to be a gift with great – dare I even say profound significance for others.

In my case the products I was bringing home ended up being carried to Thailand where they were given to an orphanage in a small town in the southern part of Thailand.  To you and I these personal care products are at most a trivial convenience – we don’t experience any direct cost associated with the acquisition or use of these products and aside from making you look like the thoughtful host when your in-laws visit they mainly just take up space under a sink or in a drawer someplace, most likely gathering dust and ultimately destined for the rubbish bin when you do a spring cleaning or need to reclaim their space for something of greater tangible value.

Conversely, to the kids in the orphanage – and in every other place on the planet where there are kids that do not, on a daily basis, have access to things we take for granted – like soap, a toothbrush, shampoo or even a proper bath towel- these items can bring far more than cleaner teeth and skin.

I don’t see how anyone could consider this and not be impacted by the idea that something so basic could be so important.

When I was told that my “care package” had been delivered and that for these kids, many of whom have never had a birthday present or a single item of new clothing or really anything at all that they could consider their own, it was not only a source of improved hygiene, but much more important in my mind, a source of happiness, and a means to some improved self esteem, it became a mission for me to increase my impact in this simple but positive way – to take this same care package idea and extend it beyond a single orphanage and expand it to include many more kids in many more places.

You see, having a little pride in oneself, experiencing  the transformation from being unkempt to smelling nice and having clean teeth is something that all humans from all cultures can understand.  Everyone has experienced the difference in mental climate a hot shower and a warm bed can provide even on the worst day.

For me, the idea that some of these kids – through no fault of their own – have simply never had even a glimmer of these simple pleasures affects me deeply.  It also motivates me that it is possible through my own small efforts that one child at a time, I can actually make a difference.

These days I’m a bit more aggressive in my efforts to collect the individual soaps and shampoos and other supplies that the hotels I stay at provide for me.  For my own use I either bring my own products or at most open and reuse a single soap during my travel.  I make sure to pack up whatever products are provided each day so that I get a fresh supply each time my room is made up and I frequently ask the housekeeper for additional product.

When I tell them why I want extra stuff they all, without exception, are only too happy to load me up with whatever I can fit in my bag.  Hotel management might not like this practice too much, but for what they charge per night in a decent hotel they can afford a few cents extra so I can bring smiles to a few more faces.

Anyway, this got me thinking – if I could have the impact that I do all by myself, what would happen if I enlisted the efforts of my fellow tech-industry travelers?  That’s the real point of this post.  I want your help.

You don’t have to be as aggressive as I am about it, but if you like the idea of happy smiling kids – of providing something to the underprivileged at no real cost to you and if you want to quietly feel good about something you’re doing every time you’re on the road here’s what you can do:

Don’t waste the product you get in hotels each day.  Open just one or at most two items – use them until they are gone but be sure to put them away each day when you leave the room so the housekeeper gives you fresh products.  Don’t open these new ones.  Just toss them in your toiletries bag or in their own plastic bag (the small plastic bag in your ice bucket will work nicely).  Bring them home and put them in a box.

When the box is full send it to me and I’ll see that it’s delivered to someone who can really appreciate these products.  In many cases the kids will say prayers on your behalf so if you appreciate those sentiments make sure your name is associated with what you’ve sent.

It’s a bonus if you travel business class and can bring back the small toiletries kits you get for the flight – these have even better items including new toothbrushes, combs, socks, etc. that these children need desperately.

Once you have a shoebox worth of stuff, post it to me as follows:

Soap Suds for Kids c/o Oliver Starr
411 West 5th Street #240
Los Angeles CA 90013

Your help will not only make my day, but much more importantly you’ll make the days of many other small people who need and deserve a good day far more than I do.

Please pass this message on and feel free to repost.  The more folks that participate the more smiles we can create, the more self esteem we can foster and the better we can demonstrate that sometimes the smallest of kindnesses can also have the most profound impact upon all concerned.

I guess that the folks at Apple don’t really believe in the first ammendment.  If they did I simply cannot understand why they would refuse to post the following review to the iPhone App Store.  I have looked and cannot see how anything written in the review posted below violates any of their terms for posting reviews yet they have clearly removed it from the store.

This is not nice and should give everyone pause when considering where we should spend our technology dollars.  I am really disappointed in the company – a company that has received a fair bit of my money, too – and would really like a representative from Apple to explain just what it is about this review that is so objectionable that they would remove it from the store:

Please spread this around.  Company’s that censor their customer’s shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

I think these images speak for themselves.

Something about this folder layout doesn’t exactly scream “GTD”…

I’ve heard of wanting to be “in control” but Firefox appears to have taken this concept a little too seriously judging by my current browser menu(s)

If I was Juno Cho, LG’s President of Mobile Products I would not be a happy man this evening.  In fact I would be pissed.  No.  I’d want a crossbow with a picture of Michael Bay’s face tacked to the target.

Michael Bay should be mortified but, in spite of his considerable directorial talent, I’m not so sure he’s that bright.  Or perhaps, like some others with creative genius, he has a bright headlight with a narrow focus.  If he was anyone else, this would be a cautionary tale.

Here’s what went down:

Today at CTIA, LG was showing off their global promotion in conjunction with Dreamworks SKG and Michael Bay of their collaboration around the new Transformers Revenge Movie.  This included the world premier of the trailer for the movie just at the end of the day.  After the trailer which had delivered quite a crowd, Juno delivered a few words culminating with a very warm welcome for their surprise guest, Michael Bay, who just happened to be in town for an awards show in the next day or two.

Michael was warmly applauded.  Casually dressed, he seemed at ease as he took the mic, said hello, then said, “I have some big news: I’ve just been named the next CEO of LGE…”  The crowd laughed.

Michael smiled again and then delivered a nice turd for his partners by saying “No.  Seriously – I don’t know anything about mobile phones.  In fact, look at my phone (which he held up) – it’s a Thirty-Nine dollar Samsung”

You could feel Mr Cho’s anger from across the room.  LG people ran to get phones, Mr. Cho went up to Michael (who seemed oblivious to the enormous slap he’d just delivered to every LG employee’s face) and said, “Here now you have an LG phone” and gave him his own personal device.  He took the mic back and quickly wrapped up the disastrous press conference. But not before Micheal could dish out a little more pain…”but all my contacts are in the other one” he said in a petulant voice.

Juno said “we’ll take care of that.”  I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of care he was imagining taking and of whom.

Way to go Michael, that was classy as hell.  I don’t think you could have insulted them more thouroughly if you’d planned it for months.

Making matters even worse, I later heard that they’d even scripted all Michael’s remarks but for whatever reason, maybe because he’s retarded or perhaps he’s just a total jerk, he elected to trash LG instead.

Samsung must be delighted – they’ll still be talking about this next time I’m back in Korea, just you watch.