The Falling Blog

My Workout For Tuesday May 14

I earned 307 points for my workout on Fitocracy!

• Running +307 pts

  • 0:24:30 || 2.7 mi || flat (+307 pts)
  • Found out I don’t have cancer today.

Think you can beat me, or want to comment?

Fitocracy is the social fitness community that has helped hundreds of thousands level up their fitness. Start your fitness transformation today!

Now available for free on both iPhone and Android!

5k

Ran my first of this year after a break. 27 min!

My Workout For Saturday April 27

I earned 401 points for my workout on Fitocracy!

• Running +401 pts

  • 0:28:17.7 || 3.1 mi || 9:08.4 min/mi || light hills (+401 pts)
  • http://runkeeper.com/user/850829196/activity/172625933

Think you can beat me, or want to comment?

Fitocracy is the social fitness community that has helped hundreds of thousands level up their fitness. Start your fitness transformation today!

Now available for free on both iPhone and Android!

Whom do you represent?

I just got a letter back from Craig Zucker, the MD State Delegate. 

I read the letter last night and had decided to write him back to continue the discussion. And then something about how it had been written had struck me as terribly odd and also completely out of line with the job of being a representative of the people. 

He writes: 

“Over the past few sessions, bills concerning the legalization of marijuana have been debated on the House floor. Though I believe that marijuana should be accessible for medicinal purposes only to patients with a debilitating medical condition, I do not support full decrimialization and regulation at this time, and I will be closely monitoring the progress of this bill.” 

After reading the letter a second time, it occurred to me that my delegate had used the term “I” for everything in his argument about how he is representing the State he is sworn to serve. Service is not about “I”. 

What is he a King? He’ll closely monitor the bill but be warned he doesn’t support it? Where are the arguments about my fellow Marylanders who have written in full support of continued prohibition? Where are the references to studies that indicate that the decriminalization of the plant would be  deleterious to MD society or economy? Just that he doesn’t support it (which is interesting also because he gave no reasons why, yet he voted ‘Aye’ for the gambling bill to support casinos in the state, so surely it isn’t the morality of the issue). But yet everywhere I’m looking I’m seeing overwhelming support for decriminalization of medical and recreational both from my fellow Marylanders as well as my fellow Americans (See Oregon and Colorado and others).

Bear in mind, this isn’t necessarily about THC or the potential benefits medically, socially, or economically it could bring to our state. For me this is much more fundamental. I’ve received a letter from some hedge delegate who has no earthly idea what his job is or whom he serves, or truly that his job is to serve the interests of the people who reside in the state. His beliefs and opinions and personal views are not my concern. The fact that he is brashly indicating that he will do as he sees fits is. 

There are other Maryland reps who send out a bi-annual survey to get actual data on what the people want. They don’t rely on the beliefs but on the will of their constituency. 

You will be hearing from me Mr. Delegate Zucker. You can count  on that. 

Imagine how many other of our representatives only do as they deem? 

Been a busy couple of months.

Well, it has been a while since I actually updated. 

New job for me and for my lady. 

Next thing you know we are both sick of the 270 commute. Time for a new house. 

We sold our little townhome just two weeks ago. What a crazy experience that was.  I learned that you never take a real estate recommendation from a work colleague. The team was a disaster. They had no idea what they were doing (even with their purported 30 years of experience). We finally got to closing and they couldn’t be bothered to show up on time. They had the nerve to be surpirsed when they were fired for finding our new home. 

The new home has been found and it’s 2/3rds closer to our new jobs and it’s on 10x the amount of land. We’ve gotten ourselves a nanny and we’re awaiting our closing date. 

Soon, after a little longer, I will up to my eyeballs in home projects. I look forward to blowing up your dash boards with decks, gardens, homebrew and bees before long. 

Good Lord

There are a lot of people with uninformed opinions who have access to the internet. 

I really should just delete my facebook. It’s like a rage inducing machine. 

I had just posted this petition about bees and pesticides. 

My friend shared it and got his first hater on his page discussing how there is two sides to every story and how people should educate themselves about the issue before signing anything. I’m all for that, but the link he provided went to a study at some podunk institution that had been sponsored by Bayer Chemical. 

I don’t know if you know this but Bayer is already in a lot of hot water about Colony Collapse DIsorder and seeing their name on a debunk study does not constitute evidence of anything in my book as a scientist. 

But that isn’t what pisses me off. Giant corporations and their business as usual is not my problem (at least not today). 

MY problem is that we live in an era where information is not locked up in institutions or in libraries or in even buildings. Dammit. People this information is right there for the gathering, processing, evaluating, and then finally digestion. But oh no, we’re too busy and saavy for that! 

Quick! Off to google to find a single source that agrees with our initial position! Now we’re an expert! Doesn’t matter that we didn’t actually even read the damn journal article. It just matters that we cited a source, right? 

Honest to God, the science education in this country is in the toilet. Logic, mathematics, causality, critical thinking, etc, are just not practiced by anyone I seem to run into on the regular. 

The funniest/saddest part is the guy didn’t even seem to understand why I was upset. 

Transmutation

So, you ever set out on a journey that took something like 10 years? What did you feel when you got there? 

What is today? Feb 2nd? Definitely saw sun come out today. 

33 now. I got married at 24. It’s a crazy thing. My adoring and terribly talented wife bore me three kids in that time. I sent her back to school because I knew those babies wouldn’t keep. Sure enough they’re getting up there. The Mrs. is on her third honest to goodness week of work since we married. I’ve achieved (and am blessed to have) a job where I have an unprecedented amount of personal freedom and flexibility with regards to my family. As such, I’ve taken on many of the roles my wife used to handle for me while I worked. I get home after work and I become the primary caregiver for my three little kiddos. Laundry, dishes, homework, dinner, and cleaning all falls to me. 

It’s surreal. 

All of this was my plan. I even get to spend more time with my kids. The startling thing? I don’t remember actually building this plan. It all just sort of fell together. 

The commute is hard and the hours are not ideal, but goodness knows? I love this. I have exactly what I want right now. It’s a crazy transition and when we get to the other end with a new home, and a new paradigm, I’ll remember today. It’s only a few weeks until spring. 

Then it’s back to gardening. 

Service

It has been a frustrating couple of days. 

I have been busy. Busier than I’d like to be. We’re doing alright! Wife has a new job, kids are in day care before and afterschool and we’re dealing with the 90+ minute commute down to Virginia. We’re holding together but it isn’t easy. I’m only writing this for framing, as I’m sure I have readers who have their own challenges. It’s these challenges that lead me to the question that is transfixing me this evening .

What the fuck has happened to customer service in this country? 

We’re busier than we’ve ever been, I believe, as a culture. We’re constantly plugged in, moving, going, answering, overworking, shopping, and just doing what it is we do as a modern people. 

We have so little time because we’re chasing dollars and dreams and in my opinion, we’re chasing time. Because we make a bit more money, many of us outsource part of our responsibilities in order to acquire a bit of time. Don’t shake your head, you do it too. Order a pizza? Chinese? Get your oil changed? Have a yard service? 

Those jobs are there to meet the needs of other people who are working to meet the needs of others. We’re all trying to serve our customers, where does it break down that the customer service you would expect is not the service you would provide to your own customers? 

Today, I had a carpet cleaning service come to my home. I used their coupon to get the 4 room deal. They showed up, they were curt and business like at first, and then told me that they don’t touch furniture. I figured, no big deal, I’m a big strong guy I’ll help. I move all the stuff and help out. They finish up and go out to their truck. I expect them back to finish cleaning up the mess they made in my front hallway (pool of dirty water their machine had left) and I look out and down the drive they go. 

Oh well, just water right? Who cares. Mopping it up, my wife goes out to discovery this HUGE pile of detritus they threw in my parking spot. Call them up to complain and get told by the supervisor that we should have said something before they left. 

Seriously? It’s my job to police your people? They didn’t send anyone back. Had to scoop up the hair (human and animal), coins, nuts and bolts, and god knows what else into a bag and throw it out. The manager said that his team was supposed to throw the stuff in the drain outside (which is a storm drain that feeds the Chesapeake bay) because the material is organic. 

The amount of things that I cannot believe from a customer service and corporate responsibility standpoint in the preceding is more than I care to contemplate. 

I’m so pissed about the whole thing. As a side of good and oddly ironic, the best customer service I’ve had this weekend was CapitalOne bank stopped an ID thief from spending 500 bones of my money in another country. 

People; whoever the hell you are out there in the world, your job is important and should be done well. Stop thinking like you don’t owe the society in which you live something more than half assed bullshit. I cannot stress enough that part of the reason that this country is going downhill is not just the fault of our politicians and media, it’s our own fault for allowing and perpetrating the grievous lack of concientiousness towards our customers. It affects people, and not just any people, it affects your fellow Americans. 

Let’s have some pride in this country again.