Brendon’s Blog

I know I haven’t updated the way I should recently, and I apologize. I feel that maybe if I let you, my readers, in on what’s happening in my life, you may be able to understand why. Life has been hectic lately, but overall good. I was looking into a job with the Emerging Technology Center at school, but due to somewhat poor timing of my application, it seems that the opportunity will have to wait for a future time. Angela and I have been spending a lot of time hanging out recently, just trying to stay close in the midst of the Chaos in our lives right now. I have felt very lucky recently to have such an awesome wife. The Weather has been crazy, alternating between mid 70’s and mid 40’s on a moment’s notice, so I have been struggling not to get sick… mostly successfully. Angela and I have a wonderful married couple that we hang out with as often as we can (Sarah and Ryan), and we have been spending a lot of time with them and their adorable puppy, Daisy. Ryan and I have also been trying to get ourselves into better shape, and have been more or less consistent with going to the Gym at school 2-3 times a week. I have been playing racquetball and running on ellipticals, and will hopefully be a stud muffin for my beautiful wife within the next few months. I may have played a little bit of Call of Duty recently, but no one could ever get me to say how much . I really like Java, and I have been spending some time programming for class. I am in fact ready for school to be over for the semester. Mexico didn’t quite work out, because Financial Aid didn’t cover enough for me to afford it. Instead, Angela and I are thinking about using our free plane tickets to go to New York City. I read a few books, one which was great (The Hitch hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), and one which was more or less OK (House). I am now an author on a Linux blog, and will be moving most of my Nerdy posts here . I am going to take my wonderful Wifey to bed. I hope everyone has a great night!!

Ok, I actually forgot I had promised a translation the other day, so here it is. Just as a side note, this is more of an embellished paraphrase than a direct translation, because it makes more sense this way. Here it is!

Listen my people, this man is ready…
Hope has arrived.
How do you say it, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!

They say we don’t count
Invisible because we don’t vote
But here we are, and all of this is changing
We did the marchas y ahora vamos a votar.
Listen to me people, it’s time for something different..
What we need is a new president…
How do you say it, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!

Mexicans What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Puerto Riqueños, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Peruvians, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!

In this great nation we are still lacking good education,
They say that all our money goes to Imigration
It’s easy to blame those who don’t vote
The latin Giant is about to appear
Wake up!
We will elect the one who truly understands…
How do you say it, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!

Colombians, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Dominicans, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Cubans, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Brasilians, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Salvadoreños, What’s his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA! Latinos!!!
Hope has arrived.
How do you say it? What’s his name? (Repeat)

Lyrics ( Español ):

“Como Se Dice…Como Se llama? (OBAMA, OBAMA)”
Oye mi gente este es un hombre preperado…
La esperanza ha llegado.
Como Se Dice…Como Se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA! (Repeat four times)

Dicen que no contamos…
Invisibles porque no votamos…
Pero aqui estamos y todo esto va cambiar…
We did the marchas y ahora vamos a votar.
Listen to me gente, es tiempo para algo diferente..
What we need is un nuevo presidente…
Como Se Dice…Como Se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA! (Repeat two times)

Los Mexicanos como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Puerto Riqueños, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Los Peruanos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!

En esta gran nacion ya no existe una buena educacion,
Dicen todo el dinero va a la imigracion
Es facil culpar el que no vota
El gigante Latino esta que brota
Despierta!
Vamos a eligir a quien de veras entienda…
Como Se Dice…Como Se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA! (Repeat four times)

Los Colombianos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Dominicanos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Los Cubanos, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Los Brasilieros, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Salvadoreños, como se llama?
OBAMA! OBAMA! Latinos!!!
La esperanza ha llegado.
Como Se Dice…Como Se llama? (Repeat)

I’ll translate the lyrics tonight when I get home, but for now, just know that this song is FUN!!

The other day Angie and I were hungry, so we decided to go grab some Arby’s. While we were there, we received a phone call from a friend of ours who lives out of town, but was driving in to see her boyfriend. As I talked to her on the phone, Angie and I threw away our trash, and began exiting the restaurant. On the way out, we had to pass the Drive-Through window. As we passed, someone shouted out “DUGAN!”  (our last name) from the truck at the head of the line. I asked Katie (my friend on the phone) if she could hang on for a second so I could find out who it was. I walked over to the truck, and saw that the driver was Katie’s boyfriend, so I handed him my phone and let him say hi to his girlfriend. He pulled over and we all talked, and then we left.

Random Quote: You just did an Indian war dance with my face!

I have been very slack about posting recently, and I apologize. I have to admit, I have no good excuse other than the fact that I recently installed Windows XP to a small partition on my Hard Drive, and I have been playing “Call Of Duty: United Offensive”, “Battlezone II”, and “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” way too much. I promise I will do better.

Recently I have had a lot of very exciting possibilities appear in my life. I recently found out about a job working for my University’s Emerging Technology Center, building websites (and possibly translating some into Spanish as well) , that seems like it would be exactly what I have been looking for. The best part of the job would be that my favorite professor would be my supervisor, so I already know that I won’t have to deal with some big idiot as a manager. I have applied, and hopefully will be hired and begin work soon.

Another opportunity that has come about is a University Sponsored Study Abroad program in Mexico. If I get to go, not only will I get all of the credits required to complete my Minor in Spanish, I will have an amazing opportunity to spend an entire month completely immersed in the language ( last time I went to Mexico it was only for two weeks, and I spoke English about half of the time, since I was interpreting back and forth for a group of Americans), studying at a technical school in Chihuahua. While I really hope it works out, I am nervous because I can’t imaging being away from my wife and kids (well, fur kids) for a whole month. When you have spent nearly every waking moment ( not to mention every sleeping moment) with someone for 4 years, it becomes hard to imagine doing anything by yourself.

Well, it is almost 1am, so I should go to bed. Hopefully over the next few days I will remember to update more often. I hope everyone has a great night!!

I recently made a blog post about Customer Service, and how I received some of the best customer service in my life from Schick. I had never imagined at that point that they were not yet done serving the customer. You see, this morning there was a package sitting on the porch from Schick, and I assumed it was the return kit that they said they were sending out to us. So I brought it upstairs, but didn’t pay much attention to it immediately. Later this evening, Angie and I decided to open the box, but found that it was not at all what we expected. Attached to the box was the following letter (personal information having been blurred out):

(click to enlarge)

And inside the box we found a brand new Schick Quattro Titanium razor with an extra set of cartridges ( about $20 at the store), as well as an Intuition Plus razor with an extra set of cartridges ( bringing the total to about $40 at the store). While I am slightly freaked out that Schick was able to find my blog post, match it with a case ID from their database, and then send me a package through the mail, I am ÜBER pumped about getting things for free just by writing about an experience that was already good. Right now, Angie is taking pictures of the stuff we got (in her super-cool light-box no less), so I will post those here shortly. I guess I need to go add to my getting things for free how-to that sometimes all you have to do is blog!!

Angie’s Razor:

My Razor:

I know it has been a few days since I last updated, I have just been finishing up the last bit of work before spring break. Recently the weather had been getting very warm (There were several days in which I was comfortable without a jacket), and i thought it was interesting that on the last day of school for me before spring break the weather changed drastically. I was running late for my second class that day because of taking a shower, and in the time that it took me to walk from my car to class my hair actually froze (since it was still wet from the shower). I have to admit it was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.

In other news, today my friend John stopped by for dinner and an evening of nerdyness. It started with Angela cooking a delicious batch of Cheesy Chicken Dinner, while John and I attempted to get his Mythbuntu box set up to our TV. We got to feel very nerdy and electronics guru-esque, because not only did we have to do a whole bunch of reconfiguring to get his box to display on our tv (which has a VERY strange resolution and refresh rate), we ended up having to ghetto rig a cable to get the sound from his computer on our TV . So here we were, tearing apart an old set of headphones, cutting the wires and trying to connect the leads to an RCA cable John had to get it hooked up to the TV, and every time one of us moved we would lose sound. Eventually John used his magic touch to set the cables in just the right place so that we wouldn’t have to touch anything to get the sound. Afterwards I wrote a script to install a bunch of awesome games for him (which he will run when he is hooked up to the internet again), and then we all watched our favorite Youtube videos on the Wii. Now it is late, and I am tired. Tomorrow, I will write a post about the other things that have been occupying my time. Have a great night!!

I am the type of person who will call customer service any time something does not work the way I think it should. I am not, however, the type of person who calls customer service and yells at the poor representative because something is wrong. Usually, using a very kind attitude, and a little bit of flirty charm (of course without the flirty-ness when the rep is male), not only do I get my problems taken care of, I usually end up walking away with something free in the process. For example, one time Angela and I had a small problem with her cell phone plan, and with some smooth talking ended up with a $300 credit on her phone bill. Another time, Angie and I ended up getting about $500 back from another phone company, but it was a refund for a bill we had paid in the past.

Recently, I have had to call customer service at two different companies, with vastly different results. The first was a company I purchased a Canon Digital Rebel XTi from on Ebay. On a scale of 1-10, with one being the best customer service I had recieved to date before this call, and 10 being the worst, I would rate this company at about a 32. Not a single person that I talked to at this company was a native English speaker (nothing against anyone who is not a native English speaker, but I lose respect for any company that outsources Customer Service jobs, as it shows a disregard for the quality of service provided to customers), and everyone that I talked to listened to about the first three words I said and then rudely transferred me on to some other department, which always happened to not be the department I needed. After about 15 minutes, I gave up (limited daytime cell phone minutes, can’t afford to talk all day). The sad thing is that this company does not allow you to pay for your ebay purchases on ebay, but instead you have to call and do it over the phone. The whole thing is beginning to reek of a scam, and I think I am going to file a complaint and try to cancel the order.

The other company I contacted Customer service about recently was Schick (the razor company). On the same scale of 1-10, Schick most definitely gets a 1, because the customer service I received was AMAZING. The very first thing I noticed when I called was that I was being forwarded to a call center in Arizona. To me, that meant that Schick cares enough about it’s customers to provide native English speakers for it’s customers, even though it costs significantly more. The next thing I noticed was that I was on hold for less than 10 seconds before a representative answered. When the rep answered, I found myself having a conversation with a genuinely nice and friendly person, who seemed to really care that we were having a problem with a Schick product, and offered to take care of us in ways which I thought were WAY above and beyond what I would have ever expected. The thing I was most impressed with was that they are sending us a return kit (to return the defective product), and once we send it back, the same rep that I spoke to on the phone will be handling our case from then on. Overall, I was very very impressed with Schick Customer service.

Now on to the useful part of the post:

How To get Things for Free

1. Whether at a restaurant or on the phone, learn and use the name of the person helping you (unless you cannot pronounce it).
2. Be pleasant, and take a second to ask how their day has been. They have been dealing with Jerks all day long, and you want them to be in a good mood when you ask for something free.
3. Don’t be shy. You will most likely never speak to this person again. Make jokes, this will increase your chances of putting them in a good mood (unless you don’t have a sense of humor) .
4. Expressly ask for something for free. If you are on the phone with customer service, ask for something for your troubles; if you are at a restaurant, just ask for something for free.
5. At a fast food restaurant, do not order a drink. When it comes time to pay, wait until the receipt is printing out, and say “On second thought, could I change my mind on the drink?”. Especially if you paid with a credit card, it is far easier for them to give it to you for free, and they usually will.
6. If you didn’t get what you needed over the phone, ask the rep if you can speak to their manager to give them a complement for their excellent service. When the manager asks if all of your issues were taken care of properly, tell them that the rep was amazing, but that you really wished they had been able to give you some kind of compensation for your trouble. Usually the manager will be so surprised that you wanted to give a complement that they will do your bidding.

::EDIT::

7. A new way of getting things for free has been brought to my attention. Apparently, blogging about good customer service will get you even BETTER customer service!!

Well kids, that will do it for today!! Have fun getting things for free!

p.s.- If you know of any other ways to get things for free, please share them in the comments!!

Angela fell in love with me partly because I am a musician, and I haven’t really played the guitar much recently. Tonight I decided to do something to show her that I love her. Angie, you are my hero!!!

Recently I have been working on the beginnings of a very in-depth tutorial for getting started with Ubuntu, the distribution of Linux I use at home. Because I aim to make this tutorial easy to understand for people who are not tech savvy, as well as extremely accurate from a technical standpoint, I really need reviews of the tutorial as I write it from people who are not familiar with Linux/computers at all (you can be a part of one or both categories), as well as from people who are Linux Gurus. I am including a poll in the post to leave general feedback, but I would love comments to give more detailed input. One note on the poll…. you may select three options, so please tell me what you think about the content as well as the layout, and whether or not it looks right on your web browser. If it doesn’t, please comment and let me know what browser you use. Thanks!!

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