Reposted rant: Letter to 3 regarding my latest mobile bill

For the sake of public reference, I will repost an email I have just sent to my beloved mobile company, Three, in response to the bill I have just received.


Hello,

I am writing with regard to the invoice just received for the previous month, invoice # [].
I have been charged $49.95 twice, for an extended warranty. Obviously, I am not interested in a doubly extended warranty, definitely did not ask for one - this must be an administrative error.

I would like this to be rectified please.

I am not going to call up to organise this. When my monthly to-date showed an obscenely huge amount (due to the extra $50) I attempted to call to discover why and had my time wasted by your incompetent call centre staff - time which I was paying through the nose for as I had already hit my monthly cap. I realise that it is not possible to make a refund for time wasted due to incompetence, but it should be registered.

When I attended a three outlet to ask them there was at least some justice - although I had further time wasted, I was at least looked after to the best of the ability of the staff, and had their time and your money wasted trying to call your incompetent call centre.

I am not impressed, and am continually surprised at how worthless calls to you are, and how it is possible for you to overcharge at every possible opportunity. If you look at my most recent bill you will understand what I mean - it is littered with refunds, 'goodwill' and 'loyalty' bonuses, false charges and irreconcilable explanations. If I wasn't good at auditing financial data it would be an impenetrable mess.

I believe I have also been unduly charged $2 for a mobile-TV subscription which should have been included in my mobile internet subscription - or, I should say, the two (2) mobile internet subscriptions which I was accidentally signed up to at the one time. $2 makes no difference, but it is further evidence of your administrative incompetence.

Could I please be advised by email of the method you will be taking for recompense of this incorrect bill. The data is plainly incorrect, and you should be able to make at least as much sense of it as I have. I do not want to discuss this with you.

Thank you, your 'loyal' customer (for at least the next 23 months until my current contract expires),
[]

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com

Knowing 'Australia' - The Layman's Approach

A few of you may know of my disenfranchised attitude towards university. They were good times, but the structures, methods and goals of learning fostered within are... objectionable. I have a peice of paper which says I know Mathematics and Aussie Lit, but if I actually had to make use of my experience in either area I would fall short. Very short. I am actually afraid of people asking me questions about Aussie Lit, because I know I won't be able to answer them. "What do you think of D.H. Lawrence?" "Can you recommend anything?" "So what do you study in that then?" Such innocent questions leave me fumbling for some sort of a response. I did some good work, that I will not doubt - but to suggest I am somehow qualified in the subject area of 'Australian Literature' is proposterous, let alone to suggest that I have a practical or useful knowledge of the subject in general.

Now, if somebody were to ask me about motorcycling that would be different. It's not that I know everything - perhaps not anything to do with how much I know. But my knowledge is built upon a broad interest, tempered in practical learning and weathered by conversation. I can take part in discussion on almost any topic within the subject - even if I can't really contribute. But in many discussions I can, because I at least have a broad base-level understanding of most areas. I am aware of what I know, and what I don't - I have an idea about how to find out answers, or to suggest for other people to search for one. I have regular practices to increase my knowledge and understanding - if only to keep up-to-date.

The only thing more absurd than claiming to know 'Australian Literature' is the all-the-more sensible proposition of claiming to know, in some official context, 'motorcycling'. Can you imagine reading "I know about bikes" on an applicant's resume? But it would be much more truthful and useful an observation than listing an AusLit qualification.

I'm well beyond uni now (undergrad at least), but it's never to late to take responsibility for one's learning. So! - I am introducing the Layman's Certificate (of knowledge or understanding). The point is not to give yourself a pat on the back for random stuff that you know. It is to formalise leaning in a way which is flexible and personal, yet structured enough to ensure practicality (in whatever sense is desired), to provide motivation to continue, and to provide checks to assess one's own learning.

Rather than getting carried away with my own waffle I will cut to the point of the post. 'Knowing Australia' is the only thing on my list of goals for this year which hasn't changed - probably because it's so vague. In order to actually be able to pursue this goal, rather than progress being incidental, I'm doing up an outline for a LC (Layman's Certificate - keep up!) on Australia.

Preliminary LC requirements so far include:
1. being able to confidently converse in 'pub conversation' on given topics;
2. being able to advise people on how to increase their knowledge;
3. meeting minimum, subject-specific knowledge requirements;
4. being aware of the extent (and limits) of my knowledge;
5. being able to revise my knowledge, and to extend it further;

The key to the LC Aus., however, is the realisation that 'Australia' is not something that can be 'known', because there is no fundamental or separable thing to know. Virtually all of the understanding I've gained so far has fallen into an alternative formulation: understanding how Australia got to be the way it is. This is a much easier problem to divvy up and address! One can walk into an info centre and learn about the history of a place, the makeup of the population, industry, sport, environment (weather, geology and geography, animals and plants) - with a bit more subtlety one can look into the symbolism surrounding a place, though expect direct questions to fall on deaf ears!

Up here in the NT, virtually all of the National Parks are Aboriginal owned, and its the depiction of 'country' up here which has fired up my literary brain. The word 'Dreamtime' is typically avoided in favour of original-language options because it moves us away from understanding country inseparably from these stories (which are much more than stories! - they are laws, practices, and the country itself). As the creation beings created the land, so the Dreamtime preserves that creation in an understanding of the land formed by the Dreamtime itself.

Western romanticisation of Aboriginal relationships to the land say less about some magical sense of being 'of the land' than it does about our queer sense of nature as 'other', as out there (out back), and as alien, and about our refusal to recognise our interrelationships with it, and the way we shape it with our own understanding.

This isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff, whether personally or academically. The creation of symbolism and meaning in public spaces has been an ongoing source of interest for me - and the conversion from urban to rural/bush is not a large leap. But rediscovering old trains of thought in new contexts has been exciting, and applying this understanding to my approach to knowledge of the country I am travelling through... - well, it's significant enough for me to write all this. What more can I say?

Book Seed: Not Knowing What to Write

On first glance it might seem absurd.  On a second take it probably sounds unoriginal.  But if nothing else I can at least point to precedents which show it is feasable.

One of my all-time favourite books is on a topic closely related to what I have in mind.  Drylands (Thea Astley), subtitled 'A Book for the World's Last Reader' (or something like it).  Astley's approach is far from unoriginal, and while concern about declines in reading practices might have been done and redone, the way she has treated it is engaging - if not inspiring.

So my idea is starting with the pretty bland premise - my strongest thoughts about writing a book.  The premise is that I don't know what to write.  'What to write', however, is not a simple proposition.

I want to write something that people want to read, but I don't know what this is.  Who are 'people', and how much do they really want to read it? What I feel myself struggling with most of all on this point is not knowing how others read.  I put some words onto a page, and I of necessity approach those vastly differently than how any other reader will - readers who of course don't agree on readings themselves.  This is the main problem that I have had throughout my writing at university (essays, primarily; don't you dare try to tell me they aren't 'creative').  For whatever reason I think I am unusually susceptible to being blinded to reception.

Here I am struggling within a vector field of perspectives.  But it is only one part of a complex space including objectives and intentions. Never mind my incapacity for divining the field. Readability is far from the only critereon, the only parameter. Throwing lazy glances at Zen, I want to write something of value.

Value to whom? - to me!

To me?

'Value' to me might include of course a sense of creating value for others (or pour l'art), but fundamentally, it is about me.

Right?

So, I am writing a book about not knowing how to write something that I want, and still have people read it.  And not knowing how they will read it, or what they would want to read if I did.

Bugger me.

Resume writing - career goals

I've done the 'looking forward' thing a few months ago with vacation position applications.  Think up something about how I see my career progressing within said company... something 'good', that a reviewer would like to hear.  I think I did alright...

"...As time goes on I would be more and more able to help newer members of Deloitte to achieve their best. Eventually, as a partner in Deloitte I would have a much broader responsibility for our operations and equivalently a much greater ability to shape the direction of the company.

..."

Problem is, I hadn't really spent much time looking forward, not like that.  I thought thinking about where I would like to work, and why and how much I would like to work there was enough!  So the result - well it may have been technically sufficient, even good enough to impress a reviewer - it was a little plastic.  A little puppy-dog career-grunt.

Yes, career-grunt.  Just because your career involves ascention of the chain of management doesn't mean you aren't a grunt.

Well, I'm rewriting my resume now for graduate applications - introducing a 'career goals' section as a method of orienting the resume towards the future rather than the past - and as these applications actually matter I put a bit more thought into it.  And I thought...?

I don't care about 'career progression'.  Do I want to be partner/manager/CEO?  No!  Not specifically, not particularly.  Of course, if my career takes me that way I will take my opportunities, I will enjoy the positions, I will make the best of it.  But such career progression is only useful in terms of career goals that actually mean something to me, rather than the accepted notion of what a grunt in a career should be doing.

What brings me to this point?  Well, I worked out a set of goals which actually means something to me.  And this is what I got:

Short-Medium Term

- Secure a graduate position within a company that allows

- Ongoing development of my skills and abilities

- Contribution to the community

- Develop confidence with my role

- Developing the skills to be an asset within the company and for our clients

- Also gaining the broader knowledge required to understand how to best use these skills

Long Term

- Contributing to my family's financial security

- My parents entering retirement, my sister starting work and my own family should I start one

- Investment in terms both of money and my professional value

- a valuable role within the company

- Community contribution

- Revising and developing methods of conducting business, increasing productivity to benefit clients, community projects and the community at large

- Never sitting still

- Being exposed to ongoing challenges – and overcoming them

- Continual professional development

- Avoiding complacency within my career and objectives

- Retaining my vision

- Not loosing sight of my goals

- Being aware of the goals which are assumed for my position, yet not necessarily personally important

(Yes, the original formatting made that a little clearer.)

Well?  Is that a daffy list of goals to list on my resume, or do you think it will strike a chord?

I'm torn between believing it will engage a recruiter and worrying it will scare them away.

Writing Books (feasability studies)

The other day I decided I should write a book.  Perhaps even two!  It has been one of the potential engagements for this twelve months since they existed - perhaps even before that.  But I had not done much towards it beyond keeping (semi-) active writing blogs.

Just now, I decided I should actually do something about it.

That 'something', I would like to point out, is 'engaging in the process of writing (a) book)s(' - actually having a book by the end is pretty inconsequential.  Partly, though, I think that is the point - I decided I should aim to actually have a book written.

Of course, I'm not as daffy as I was fifteen years ago - I like to work out whether things are reasonable before committing to them - so I'm currently undertaking a feasability study into the writing of a book.  So far, there has been no studying - I don't think that bodes well.

In my defense, I haven't put it off - which I might have expected - I just haven't gotten around to it.  I have, however, been putting off some of the things higher up the todo list... : )

Whereto from here?

1. What on earth would I write a book about? Answer 1: Australia.  Ummm... yeah, the details are the hard part.  Answer 2: the bushfires, from a motorcyclists' perspective (including other perspectives of the motorcycling community), focussing on the process of rebuilding, regrowth and change... I don't think it would really be all that hard to nurture sprouts of inspiration and other leads - not to say the hard yards of actually writing it would be easy.

(I'm thinking about doing a bit of work and submitting an article on the latter to AMCN - if that goes well I will probably pursue it further.)

2. Re-engage with contemporary Australian literature.  Because if you're trying to write literature without engaging with literary people in the present... well you'd really need to reconsider. A little bit surprised when musing over this point that I couldn't think up a bunch of themes or potential topics with which to engage.  Kind of sad...

3. Learn how to write.  I figure that I need to know how to write by the end, not the beginning, but all the same I need to actually work on this point.  I can make words, but can I make creative-writing?

What kind of sex do you buy?

This is a random post written with a job application in mind.  No more random than other posts admittedly, just not on the usual topics...

Warning that the final joke might not work outside Australia...

We all know that sex sells, but do we appreciate the different ways that it does?  I hear people lamenting the appalling, crass or blatant use of sex and sexuality to sell things here in the West, and all I can do is shake my head.  Yes it is used, but don't talk trash about the method!  We have it good.

It takes genuinely shallow sex-advertising to wake one up to the reality of how far we have come.  And genuinely shallow is something Russia has in spades.  So many aspects of Russia's contemporary culture hark back not to communism, but to a bad 1990's American Dream.  You hear it on the radio, you see it in the 'fashion', but more strikingly than anything it is the advertising which slaps you in the face.  It is impossible to drive the streets of Moscow without being distracted by billboard-sized breasts advertising toothbrushes and automotive paint. The TV ad with the three naked nymphs playing in a field?: tissues - though admittedly there could actually be a causal link in that one.

The complex viewer-sex-product relationships which I hear attacked as blatant are anything but - the presence of sex might be unmistakeable, but its uses are increasingly ingenius, adapting to increasing desensitisation and viewer fatigue.

I look forward to the ads of ten years' time, the new ways in which the gurus will latch on to my predictable - and natural - desire to fuck.

And Russia, in ten years' time?

WANT LONGER LASTING SEX?

Foucault 2.0: power as knowledge in use

I have been reading some quite interesting stuff lately, about the changing nature of the net... did you know people are Already tolling the bells for Google's search engine?  It probably (hopefully) sounds as absurd to you as it does to me, but they are offering quite valid points.

As it turns out, I don't want to write about that at all. (Though it is on-topic.)

One particularly interesting quote - which I will dig up if anyone actually wants it - made an 'obvious' point about the power of knowledge.  They were foregrounding the importance of online structures (e.g. searches like Google's) in the practical value of the information available online. The point that was raised was that the huge resource of the mass of info on the internet might be 'accessible' to anyone, but it is completely useless if it can't be organised, found and used appropriately.  Knowledge, in other words, is not 'power' unless it can be applied.

Foucault's knowledge-power simbiosis is almost arbitrary in its method of interconnection.  Like the rhizome, it tends to connect everything to everything else, with knowledge determining the nature these connections take.

That last paragraph, you will have noticed, was full of shit.  (I'm out of practice - unable to fool myself.)

Regardless, it is important to recognise the way emphasis on application of knowledge refocusses attention away from 'knowing' things, to being able to organise information.  And in a world of increasing abundance of information, we are falling behind if we don't recognise that what is actually important is structing information to be useful, not the creation of that information in the first place. A website with a million and one useful tips is of no value if nobody reads it.  Nor is the expertise of an organisation of excessively knowledgeable professionals taking advantage of its potential if that knowledge can not be applied where it is needed.

The creation of new ways of application of knowledge will become increasingly important - corporately - and increasingly people will realise the value not of knowing, but of being able to apply.

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@JohnSBaxter

2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com

2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com

jsbaxter.blogspot.com