Customer Retention people are my newest best friends. These folks have the power to throw sweet deals at you if you ever try to cancel a service or return a product. Whether it’s with a 50% discount or 3 months free service, their only purpose is to keep your credit card on file. If you think you’re getting a bad deal on anything (and most of us are), take 10 minutes out of your day and call that 1-800* number on the back of the box.

*1-880 if you’re calling from Jamaica. You’re welcome.

Post Script:

The XM Radio call center is based in Jamaica. Portmore no less. I used up valuable international minutes (as much time spent holding as talking to someone) while calling across the street. I should have just jogged over there or asked for the dude’s cell number.

It almost goes without saying that a black man in America, and for that matter black people around the world, by and large associate with the Democratic party though they are noticeably ignorant and only blindly subscribe to their policies. The simple truth of the matter is that if you really stop and think about it, blacks are much more attuned to the ideology of the Grand Old Party than to the Democratic or Libertarian stance. It was a Republican (Abraham Lincoln) that signed the Emancipation Proclamation (albeit under duress) formally abolishing slavery, Republicans support less taxes and less involvement in the day to day lives of citizens, and the laundry list goes on and on.

If blacks do indeed have the same ideals as Republicans then why do so many identify with Democrats? I believe a lot of it has to do with the GOP’s name. It sounds classist and exclusionary with a huge throwback to slavery and the Great House. All in all it kinda rubs you the wrong way. This alone couldn’t be the reason however (one would hope) and I’m sure each person could give their own story. I’m no exception.

Again, if the views of republicans line up almost purposefully with my own, then why do I trumpet my democratic status. It’s simple really; I’m a Democrat because Republicans are nonsensical and oxymoronic. If that comes off as a little too harsh then lets just say that at the very least they’re…convenient.

Their policies of less taxes and more independence come from the concept of “small government”. The idea being that citizens should not have the government interfering with there day to day lives, and should be granted certain inherent freedoms. This comes from the belief that the Free Market is a perfect, self correcting entity that will always work out for the economy’s and its citizen’s best interest. Now while there are many instances of the market healing from a scratch or a jolt, there’s zero evidence that this mantra holds true for gaping wounds. The Great Depression (1929) and The Greater Depression (2008) are both instances of the market failing horribly and in both instances the government (correctly) intervened. The idea that if left alone, the market will always (eventually) be in the right seems to be an unrealisable fantasy. None the less, this is what Republicans believe and while I disagree with it, that’s not what I have a problem with. My problem is that their idea of small government only extends as far as giving you freedoms that do not trample on their own moral judgement. The things that are personal and *should* be left to individual judgement are being governed by persons with a “I’m right, fall in line” mentality. If they believe that the government should stay out of our lives then they have no business legislating about issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Regardles of my own stance on those or any such issue, I don’t believe the impact on my own sense and sensibility gives me right or reason to impede on someone else’s decisions. In other words, stay out of their lives. Be a small government.

The moral right is highly subjective. Parents, friends, school, community and church have the voting majority in moulding your view of the world. It seems to me that Democrats realise this, and as such don’t impose their will in areas where shades of gray exist. When it doubt, let them work it out. When you start to govern with a view of not just managing the business of the country but also its moral fibre, then it’s easy to develop a school of thought that those who don’t agree with you are against you. And we’ve seen where that leads.

So I’m a Democrat because I differ morally with some beliefs of Republicans and the convenient way in which some issues require small government while others do not. My wish is that more (black) persons would pause for a minute and figure for themselves why they’re drawn to the party, though it might be too late to make sense from all the noise. With Obama in the White House, it’s pretty hard to think you need any reason beyond that.

“Welcome to my parlour” said the spider to the…ant.

I’ve been without a television for the better part of a month now. I can’t remember how long exactly as the first few days were a blur. It got water logged (don’t ask) and I decided not to spend money fixing it or buying a new one as there are plans afoot that would prevent me from realizing a return on my investment.

Being without television, which has been a steady companion my entire life, has been difficult to say the least. It has however forced me to seek out other methods of entertainment and expand my thus far limited horizon in terms media consumption.

Top of the list is of course Internet media. I’m a long time YouTuber (and a fan of many non-social streaming services before it) and have always been pleased with what it provides. A reactive source of moving pictures. Reactive in the sense that I have to tell it what i want, unlike a television that pushes content at me in a more proactive way. Sure I can view what others are viewing, see related media and some services will even give recommendations based on what I’ve watched in the past, all great stuff, but it’s not what I’ve gotten used to from years spent in front of the idiot box.

I’m not inclined to say that one paradigm is superior to the other, I will simply say that I’ve grown accustomed to one thing and while I can appreciate this new way of doing things,  it hasn’t managed to completely sway me into changing the way I expect to get my media.

Online media providers have failed to appease this crucial aspect of television watching habits. Sometimes people just want to get lost in what’s coming at them. Empowering me to control all aspects of what I absorb doesn’t really help me when I’m just in the frame of mind to watch whatever is on. In the same breath, people are varied in what they may choose to watch. My recommendations can’t be based solely on what I’ve watched and/or what my peers are watching. In the old way of doing things many times discoveries are stumbled upon from simple channel surfing, not complex algorithms. People need to have a choice and media companies need to not assume that new automatically equates to improved. At times it may simply be different.

P.S.

Television studios need to completely embrace the Internet as an avenue to distribute their content. I wanted to watch the Grammys tonight but there were no live streaming sources to be found. The technology is there and so are successful revenue models, so what’s the holdup?