Welcome to My U-verse

On January 2, we had the new AT&T U-verse installed in our home.  I can remember the day, because my wife was still on break from her job and my son was not back to school yet, so I stayed at home that morning to hang with them and answer any questions the installer might have.  It was an enjoyable moment for me because I remember sitting with my wife on the sofa as we waited for the installer to show up and how great our conversation was that morning.

The upgrade from our one little dish and standard receiver, to a DVR which records four channels at one time and two more receivers in other rooms, along with a faster Internet connection, was our Christmas gift to each other.  We had finally succumbed to the peer pressure from our friends and were upgrading to the DVR, a decision they assured us would change our lives.

I’m not sure our lives have changed much, but we do enjoy the DVR.  It’s very nice to fast forwarded through the commercials and to watch shows faster then we would normally watch them.

All of this would be so great if the system we were given would just work properly.  Enter frustration!  We started noticing problems a few weeks after the installation.  At first the picture on the TV would just freeze up for a minute or two and would only happen a couple of times a week.  We could live with that.  In fact we barely even noticed it.  But over the past six weeks the barely noticeable problem has turned into a nightmare of a mess.  We can’t even enjoy TV anymore, because the picture freezes every few minutes.  You end up missing more of the show than you get to watch.

It’s not like we haven’t reported the problem.  We’re now on our fourth installer coming out to take a look tonight.  We’ve changed routers, and had every connection checked throughout our house more than once.  When are they going to get a clue that it’s a problem on the outside of the house and not on the inside?

I feel like we’ve been very patient through this whole process, giving them multiple chances to get this fixed.  We don’t want to switch back to Dish, because we feel this is the best deal going right now and we’re confident that eventually they’ll get this fixed and we’ll be happy.  All the AT&T representatives have been extremely nice all the way down to the sales person who came to my door a few days before Christmas and signed me up.  I’m just trying to understand at what point does being nice become bad customer service.  I’m pretty sure we could continue this little dance for the rest of this year.  We can continue to be patient, they can continue to be nice, but we can still end up with our problem not fixed.  At some point AT&T has to get this right and show that their customer service can actually follow through and in the end the problem can be fixed and the customer “me“ can be happy.  Right now I’m not happy, I’m frustrated, and when I angrily payed my bill yesterday I wasn’t feeling very satisfied that the price I was paying for my service was equal to what I had received.  At some point in this process I’m expecting AT&T to make good on their services and show me that they really do care about their customers satisfaction.  Until then, welcome to my U-verse!

 

Speed Racer

Tomorrow is the big day my son and I have been waiting for.  SPEED RACER!  We can’t wait to go and see it as a family on Saturday.  Honestly I can’t really remember the show from when I was a kid.  Maybe I’m just too old or my family didn’t get the channel it came on.  I’m not sure why I don’t remember it.  But the movie looks fantastic.  In fact the trailers I’ve seen even have that TRON feel.  (Now that’s a movie they should remake)  Do you remember that movie?  For a 1982 movie it was way cool. 

Actually Saturday won’t really be about the movie it all.  It will be about the experience I’ll have with my son.  I can’t wait to spend time with him and as I was tucking him into bed last night I said in his ear “are you ready to go see Speed Racer on Saturday?”  And as he was quickly falling asleep he mumbled “yes!”  So I whispered back “are you going to sit by me?”  With eyes closed, fading fast off into dream land, and with an even softer whisper he said “yes!”  As a dad, if you can’t get excited about that, then you’re out of touch with reality!

The really cool thing about getting to see the movie on Saturday with my son is seeing it at the IMAX theater.  We’ll see this action packed little flick on one of the biggest screens around and with incredible sound.  It’s going to be an experience we’ll remember for quite some time.

So are you excited about seeing the new Speed Racer movie?  Do you remember watching the show as a kid?

  

 I took this picture when I was in New York.  Can you tell I’m very excited to see the movie?

The Dance

Today is the big day.  Millions of people will begin watching one of the best sporting events of the year.  That’s right it’s NCAA men’s basketball time.  Time for the Big Dance!  Watching some hoops with friends and family, eating good food, rooting for the underdog.  Sitting on the edge of your seat during that nail biter game when the little point guard from the number 13 seed team sinks the last second three pointer to win in an upset and advance to the next round.  Now that’s exciting and one of the reasons millions of people, even some who don’t like basketball, watch this tournament every year.

So why does everyone get so excited about the underdog winning?  Why do we root for the underdog, the team that is so unlikely to win?  Why is that exciting to us?

I once heard a pastor say that God was on the side of the underdog.  Really?  God still chooses sides?  I had to think about that for a moment and get my head around the comment.  If you look back through the old testament it’s full of examples of God rooting and being on the side of the underdog.  The most notable for me is the story of a boy defeating a giant with a slingshot and five tiny stones.  A true underdog story!

If God is on the side of the underdog and America loves rooting for the underdog, don’t you think we should look a little harder for ways to help those who we would consider an underdog?

Who are some of the underdog’s in your life?  What are you doing to help them?

What Job Would You Like?

I often wonder how many people really get to do for a living what they really want to do.  The statistics have to be staggering on how many people just get up and go to work every day.  I mean I hear all the time from people “it’s just a job” and I certainly feel that way the majority of the time, especially when we get toward the end of a project.  You know the time when everything gets really tedious and boring.  It’s not like the beginning weeks of the project when things are new and taking shape…those are the fun days. 

So, if you could have any job you wanted, what would you do?  I asked a co-worker this morning that question and she said “I’d like to be a waitress for a really nice restaurant in the Bahamas.”  I thought her answer sounded pretty exciting.  Nice, sunny, warm, tropical environment…I could get used to that!  Getting to meet new people, maybe someone famous on occasion.  Oh yeah…living the high life!

Now, let’s just assume that you have all the skills already needed and you could start tomorrow.  What would you do?  Here are the top 5 jobs making the dream list for me.

1.  Professional Photographer

2.  Writer

3.  Poker Player

4.  Tour Guide

5.  Consultant

Nothing too big or surprising and I’m sure I’d get sick of all of those jobs as well.  Most of them could potentially be high stress with lots of hours and not much different from what I have right now, other than more travel and a change of scenery once in a while.

I wonder…if we’d just enter each and every day with the perspective of “I’ll do my best no matter what it is,” would we be happier with our surroundings and the job we go to every day?  My guess is the majority of people who are unhappy with their jobs are just too tired and worn out to enjoy life and actually have a little fun once in a while.

Taking the time to have fun is very difficult for me.  I just don’t have the time and my job is too demanding.  I even struggle on the weekends to schedule fun activities for my family.  It feels like we are running non stop with errands, grocery shopping, church, the list could go on and on.  Fun!  It’s the one thing that has continued to slap me upside the head recently.  I know in order to fully experience and enjoy life I need to stop running and have a little fun.

What do you think?  What would your job be if you could do anything you wanted?  And if you have any fun activities you think I should try, I’d love to hear your ideas.