Web Duster

One of the many things I’ve learned from young children is that lying is instinctive. Maybe it’s part of fight or flight…  For example, one day I a saw a young girl pick flowers out of a landscaped area at our condo’s pool. The girl ran to her mom who hadn’t been paying attention to give her the small bouquet. She clearly thought she had done a nice thing and was excited about the gift. When her mother saw the flowers, she harshly inquired “Did you pick those flowers?” The child now instinctively knew from her mother’s tone that picking the flowers had not been “good” and responded, “No, they were just sitting over there.”

You can imagine how the scenario may have played out – either the mother recovers and makes it a positive teaching moment or the situation escalates because of the newly added lie. Either way, over time, the little girl will hopefully learn that when you make an honest mistake, you own it and take any consequences that go with it and most importantly, you learn from it. Ideally, we should learn that the long-term outcome of telling the truth outweighs any short-term benefits of lying. But as we know, that’s not always the way it works out.

In my view, it seems that as a culture, we’re evolving back to the place of not know that the truth is better than a lie. Just take a look at sports, politics and cable news.  In most sports, it’s not only acceptable to pretend something did or didn’t happen, it’s expected. For instance, in football, if the official calls it a catch when you know the ball hit the ground just before it landed in your hands, you team and fans would find it unacceptable for you to report the truth.  In politics and cable news, at best, the facts are taken out of context and manipulated to support a point of view and at worst, lies are stated as facts. The twisted facts and lies are lapped up by those whose views agree.

With the age of Internet, there is almost nothing we can’t read about, but when truth, facts, lies and spin are all given credence, how can we sort it out? I really don’t know and it worries me.

What would happen if before every conversation we had, every game we played and every speech or talk show discussion, all of the participants took the oath… I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. As a culture, do we even remember what that means…?

I’ve been a fan of the Indianapolis Colts since Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning landed there. However this year, I found myself pulling for the New Orleans Saints, a team I have never cheered. (They are an NFC rival of my favorite team, the Tampa Bay Bucs). But I, like most of you, love a story of triumph after tragedy. The Saints are the team that plays in the Super Dome, a place that holds so many haunting memories from the days folllowing Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans is a city that suppored it’s NFL team even during all the rotten years. Now they will celebrate together! I remember the joy I experienced as a part of the Tampa Bay community when the Bucs won the Super Bowl after years of struggling. I can only imagine how they’re feel on Bourbon Street tonight.

The SkyGolf Skycaddie SGX was just announced and does it sound like it’s going to blow the competition away.  For years I have used the Bushnell Laser Rangefinders and it is terrific if you have steady hands and can see where you’re going.  I can’t imagine the SGX will ever be legal in tournaments, but might just make the average player a little better. If nothing else, it will be easier to see and more intuitive. I don’t know what the retail price will be, but I bet it’s out of my comfort zone for awhile. Hopefully one of my computer clients will buy it so I can see what all the hype is about !

I’m ready to take the leap and get a smart phone. We already have one in the family, but it’s no longer under contract, so we’re free to fly.  For me, it’s not such an easy decision. If I’m lucky and don’t lose or damage the phone, I’ll likely have it for at least two years. That’s a long time considering the speed at which technology travels. At least that narrows the field to the latest and greatest phones available. In my mind, there isn’t enough difference in price to convince me to buy anything doesn’t have a lot of industry buzz. With that in mind, I’ve actually narrowed the field to just a few phones…. Google’s Nexus One (when it comes to Verizon this Spring), the iPhone 3GS, the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Hero and possibly the Palm Pre.

Another consideration is whether or not I have a preference for one cell phone carrier over another.  I’ve been with Sprint for a long time and the customer service used to be horrible, but has gotten much better in the past year or so. Although the price of Sprint’s lowest family plan for two phones is the same as other carriers, they do include texting as well as more minutes, so it would cost me a little less.  The Sprint phones I’m considering are the HTC Hero and the Palm Pre.  Verizon’s ad campaign about their 3G coverage is impressive, but it does make AT&T look worse than it really is. AT&T’s Edge network is pretty fast fills in its 3G gaps pretty well.

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HOLD THE PRESSES

Before I finished writing this blog entry, we decided it was time to go look again. Although we knew the two Sprint phones were not as exciting as the Verizon phones or the iPhone, we wanted to give Sprint one last chance to make a deal so sweet we couldn’t pass it up. At the Sprint store a pleasant young man told us there was really nothing he could do, but gave us the phone number to the cancellation department and told us they would probably try to keep us with some type of incentive. We called the number and immediately were connected to Kasha, a seemingly knowledgeable and helpful representative. After about 45 minutes on the phone (speaker so both of us could hear) with Kasha, we were signed up for a new deal with Sprint.  Kasha not only promised us, but gave us a confirmation number for our new two-year deal.  It sounded almost too good to be true. Kasha was letting us stay on our current voice plan with a $20 monthly discount plus letting us keep the $15 monthly data plan that we currently had on one line and adding the same $15 data plan to the other line. Our monthly plan total for two smartphones with data – $70!!!  The plan would give us our existing 500 minutes with no roaming or long distance charges. It doesn’t have texting built in, but we don’t text much, so that’s a non-issue. It doesn’t include mobile to mobile, but we’ve never had a problem going over our minutes, so this was PERFECT!  All we had to do was go down to Best Buy and buy the phones….

We spent quite awhile playing with the two phones and waiting in line for someone to be available to help us. Finally, we chose one HTC Hero and one Samsung Moment and began the upgrade process. Then came the glitch… although Kasha had assured us that everything was set-up and ready to go, the computer didn’t agree. Our Best Buy rep was unable to make the upgrade without bumping us up to the Sprint plan that would cost $130 monthly ($60 more than we had been told).  We called the cancellation department back and the rep read what I had been promised and tried to set-up a work-around. It took some time for this to happen, but it failed. The Sprint rep on the phone finally called her supervisor who came on the line to tell me that I had been misinformed by Kasha. The only discount available to us was the $20 per month, which would bring this plan to $110 monthly. If you compare cell phone plans between the top three carriers, this plan gives you a bunch and $110 is a better price than I can get anywhere else even for lesser plans. BUT, I have had enough with Sprint.  Over the years, I have wasted hours in Sprint stores and on the phone to their customer support getting inaccurate information and then have to sort and resort it out over and over again. I had two lines plus a $60 a month air card with Sprint and more headaches than I can count. Although I thought the customer service had improved recently, what happened last night was completely unacceptable.  I told the supervisor that I was leaving Sprint and she seemed not to care.  Within an hour we were enjoying our new iPhones.

I LOVE MY NEW iPHONE!!!

What is Scott McCarron thinking? Accusing someone of cheating when their actions are within the rules of the game is just wrong! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it has to do with an old wedge and a new rule. The new rule bans square grooves, but there is a loophole… the rule doesn’t apply to clubs made before April 1, 1990. Phil Mickelson isn’t a fan of the new rule, but he’s not about to break it. However, when he found out that a couple of other tour players had started using old Ping wedges to which the new rule did not apply, he decided to try it out. Turns out he liked it well enough to carry it this week. The club IS approved for use and he and a couple of others are using it. Everyone on tour could do the same thing if they wanted and if they thought it might improve their scores, why wouldn’t they? Taking advantage of the best equipment that is approved for play is just smart. It is not cheating. Tour veteran, Scott McCarron says otherwise.

I have no idea whether or not the old clubs with square grooves really have any advantage over clubs without square grooves made with newer technology that is designed for today’s golf balls. The reason the rule has this loophole has to do with a long-ago lawsuit and the USGA probably assumed that a 19-year-old wedge wasn’t relevant in the game today. They may have misjudged that.

I think McCarron did a disservice to himself, to Mickelson and to the other players who have chosen to use this wedge. The PGA Tour however, may benefit from even this bad publicity since it isn’t related to Tiger Woods. McCarron has now become one of the few players that I am unlikely to ever support, but others may see it differently and hold this against Phil. For me, it makes me want to cheer a little harder for Phil. I admire the fact that he was paying attention and discovered this opportunity and that he was willing to put in the time to see if it was right for him. I’m definitely tuning in this weekend to watch Phil!

One of my clients mentioned using dial-up AOL to get Internet access when he travels.  It took a few seconds for my brain to conjure up the frustrating memories of trying to connect and waiting for web pages to load.  I know it has only been a few years, but light-years in terms of technology.  How much has the world changed because of broadband?  We are definitely more connected with more people… email, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and a bazillion others… And we surely waste more time  on our computers… It’s interesting to watch it develop and wonder what the best and worst of it will be…. It’s also really fun to be right in the middle of it, soaking up those things that seem important to us at any given moment!

Time to get back to work!

I’m starting to feel pretty strongly about the need to significantly reduce “distracted” driving. We’ve all known for a long time about the dangers of driving under the influence, but we haven’t paid that much attention to our increased use of cell phones for talking, GPS units and now there is texting. We’re learning that it may be the worst of all. In recent weeks, even before Oprah mentioned it, I’ve been thinking about the need for a national movement against distracted driving. I’m so glad that she has taken on this cause with regards to talking and texting on cell phones.

I’ve become much more aware of my own driving as I’ve been thinking about this issue and notice how easy it is to be distracted even by things as simple as choosing a radio station. I’m making a commitment to myself to pay more attention to my driving and less attention to anything that can distract me.  I have never texted while driving, but I have decided to pull over when I need to make or take a phone call. That will be a change and a challenge, but I believe that if I’m going to get behind a movement for change, then I must start with me.

I’ve started a blog that follows my progress as a new home composter.  I’m getting 1000 worms and a Worm Factory 360 tomorrow. The response from family and friends hasn’t been exactly what I would call enthusiastic, but I probably wouldn’t have been a few months ago either. Having done quite a bit of research though, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me. The worms are supposed to stay within the worm bins and if I can manage to keep the right balance of food and paper scraps, it’s not supposed to smell. It will occupy a very small space on my porch and it’s probably more attractive than my rusty bike that will sit next to it. If you want to stay up-to-date on that on that story as it develops, check in to My Home Composter blog.

There is no particular point to this blog, but how nice to have a place to put my thoughts and opinions.  Thanks for stopping by and feel free to add your comments if you like. They will be filtered for spam, so forgive me if they don’t show up right away.