I'm sitting on hold, waiting for someone to take my call. Some lady keeps interrupting my musical experience... "Thank you for your patience! Your call is very important! Please remain on the line... blah blah blah". How annoying! Just play the music and let me work on something else until a real person picks up!
Not a very positive mindset, I know, but this led me to start thinking about other things that annoy me. While I'm waiting, I might as well make a top 10 list of things that annoy me, starting with the current issue:
10) When I'm on hold and the hold music is constantly interrupted by a voice saying "Thank you for holding, your call is very important, please remain on the line..." Just play the darn music and leave me alone!
9) Boxes of paper clips that are labeled "Staples" (Yes I'm just looking around on my desk for things that annoy me. It's harder than you think to come up with 10 annoyances!)
8) Online video players that hang in the middle of a clip even though the clip is already sufficiently downloaded to your computer (such as the Microsoft Starlight player or whatever it's called used by the NBC Olympics website)
7) Asterisks that don't lead anywhere (except for the one in the LunchClub.com logo)
6) When an automated phone menu asks you to enter your account number or social security number, and then when you reach the attendent they ask for the same info
5) Automated phone menus that claim "Our menu options have changed" (YOUR OPTIONS HAVE NOT CHANGED! STOP INSULTING MY INTELLIGENCE!!)
4) Ridiculous made up fees on bank accounts, such as the "Inactivity Fee" (Yes, I'm talking to you, Chase Bank.)
3) When I'm trying to leave a voice mail and I have to sit through a long obnoxious automated message, such as "The caller you are attempting to reach is not available. At the tone I will take your message, or press 5 to page this person. Press 6 to leave a call back number. When you are finished with your message, if you are satisfied with your message, press pound, or hang up to deliver the mesage, or press star for more options. [PAUSE...] [PAUSE...] [CALLER COMMITTING SUICIDE...] BEEEEEP!"
2) When my Internet connection is slow
And finally, the biggest annoyance of them all...
1) The term "pet peeve"
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
I saw a movie recently called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's about a French guy named Jean-Dominique Bauby who had a stroke at age 43 and became completely paralyzed, after which he was only able to communicate by blinking his left eye.
His speech therapist developed a system for communication which consisted of her repeating over and over a modified alphabet, which was ordered by the frequency of use of each letter. When she got to the right letter, he had to blink once. Then she would being again repeating the alphabet for the next letter.
After coming to terms with his situation, Bauby ended up dictating an entire book using that alphabet blinking system!
While the computer scientist in me was appalled that they didn't come up with a more efficient dictation system, I felt compelled to read his book. I figured that if this guy could have the incredible tenacity to crank out a complete book one letter at a time, that I had to at least check out what he had to say. So I ordered the book on Amazon.
It's an interesting read. Bauby was a journalist, actually the editor-in-chief of French Elle, so he's an eloquent and poetic writer. Reading it of course made me think about the human condition, the fragility of our day to day lives, and the need to savor the moments and appreciate the little things. But the most moving thing to me was just the fact that he wrote it at all, using that incredibly tedious system. Pretty amazing.
If you're wondering about the title, as I was, a Diving Bell is a "cable-suspended airtight chamber, open at the bottom, that is lowered underwater...to operate as a base or a means of transport for a small number of divers." Bauby describes his condition as being trapped in a giant invisible diving bell. And he uses butterflies as a metaphor for his ability to escape the diving bell through journeys of the imagination.
His speech therapist developed a system for communication which consisted of her repeating over and over a modified alphabet, which was ordered by the frequency of use of each letter. When she got to the right letter, he had to blink once. Then she would being again repeating the alphabet for the next letter.
After coming to terms with his situation, Bauby ended up dictating an entire book using that alphabet blinking system!
While the computer scientist in me was appalled that they didn't come up with a more efficient dictation system, I felt compelled to read his book. I figured that if this guy could have the incredible tenacity to crank out a complete book one letter at a time, that I had to at least check out what he had to say. So I ordered the book on Amazon.
It's an interesting read. Bauby was a journalist, actually the editor-in-chief of French Elle, so he's an eloquent and poetic writer. Reading it of course made me think about the human condition, the fragility of our day to day lives, and the need to savor the moments and appreciate the little things. But the most moving thing to me was just the fact that he wrote it at all, using that incredibly tedious system. Pretty amazing.
If you're wondering about the title, as I was, a Diving Bell is a "cable-suspended airtight chamber, open at the bottom, that is lowered underwater...to operate as a base or a means of transport for a small number of divers." Bauby describes his condition as being trapped in a giant invisible diving bell. And he uses butterflies as a metaphor for his ability to escape the diving bell through journeys of the imagination.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)