The Creative Nerd

Mystery Shopping with Service Intelligence: Provide Feedback for Service Industry

2008-07-02T22:02:21Z

Having served the public my entire working life, I try to give compassion and understanding to those servicing me when I'm the customer. I extend kindness always. I am slow to complain and quick to complement. I try to be the customer I would love to help.

Like everyone else, I have had those experiences with sales and service people that make me wonder. I wonder who hired these folks. I wonder how companies who's front line workers are so terrible stay in business.

Everyone has a customer service hell story. When it comes to retail, mine is funny for it's ridiculousness. When Chris and I still lived in Western New York, we were killing an afternoon wondering one of the smaller malls. You know the type: where the number of open stores fluctuates from visit to visit leaving you wondering if the whole place might be closed down any day.

The first thing we noticed in the privately owned poster shop was that the guy at the counter didn't acknowledge us when we walked in. It was not that he didn't see us. He looked right at us. Had we been in the buying frame of mind, I doubt we would have stayed to browse. Lucky for us or we would have missed one of the most bazaar conversations I have ever overheard.

While I love telling this story, I don't thing the owner of the store (I refuse to believe that guy owned anything beyond a used car with fuzzy dice) would have laughed. Since the store is no longer there, it's even more sad.

If I had been working with Service Intelligence on a mystery shopping assignment for the store, they would have gotten the accurate and timely feedback they clearly needed. Maybe they would even have been in business today.

The guy at the counter was talking on the phone, just a touch too loud, as if he was out to impress somebody. The core of the his side of the conversion was pretty much this:

"I don't know who they think they are messing with. Everyone knows you don't mess with my money or my family. When you mess with my money or my family you mess with me."

At first, standing among the black light posters and Pam Anderson posters and beer joke posters, I was trying to figure out wither dude was quoting Pacino or De Niro. As it continued, it was clear he was serious. He obviously believed he was living in one of those mob movies. Slowly, we made our way towards the counter. Thinking if we made it apparent we were in earshot, he would be shamed off the phone and into normal customer service activities like greeting us. You guessed it, this crazy guy stayed on the phone, making weird semi-threatening comments right up to Chris and I leaving the store.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

2008-07-02T20:35:58Z

When I first read The Catcher in the Rye in my senior year of high school, I regretted not having read it in early adolescence. I thought about all those out-of-sorts, conflicting, intense thoughts and feeling I'd experienced. Holden Caulfield gives a voice to those mixed up years when nobody feels understood. Most of the ideas I wrote poems about in middle school are better expressed by Salinger.

Loneliness, disappointment, disillusionment. Every one goes through the same growing up process, to some degree, and everyone feels alone in their suffering. I honestly think a shiny new copy of The Catcher in the Rye should be issued to each child as they hit puberty to be read periodically over those troubled years. I have personally read it every couple years since the first time.

The edition I currently have is a little mass market paperback copy. It is obvious it was intended for high school students. It contains no blurb about the book or the author anywhere on the front or back cover. I am intrigued by this. I have owned copies of both Romeo & Juliet and Great Expectations with information about the story and author on the covers. The Catcher in the Rye is so universal that it needs no introduction.

Without going into book-report detail, allow me to explain the story in a few sentences. I did think everyone had read it. Around the time I reread the book, I found both my husband and my friend Kate's mom haven't ever read it. Go figure.

Sixteen year old Holden tells the reader his story in first person. The genius of the writing is such that it reads just like the moody teen is sitting across the table from you, telling you the tale of leaving his prep school early for Christmas break. In fact, I imagine him alternately sitting and pacing the room as the narrative unravels. He takes the train home to New York, then kills a few days bumming around the city waiting until his parents receive the letter explaining his expulsion from yet another school.

Holden is more messed up and mixed up then the average teenager. He is self-destructive, paranoid, and extremely hostile. He is obsessed with bitterness towards "phony" people and liars. But like any teenage hypocrite, he displays those qualities he rails against. He holds others to moral standards he cannot keep. He wants perfection. He wants some miss guided, impossible correctness in the world.

The extreme nature of Holden teen angst makes him a hard character to like, but an easy one to relate to for many readers. It is an easy to read book of just over two hundred pages, but some of the events are not easy to digest. It is a gritty story. No pretty bows at the end.

I know was many people who dislike the book as like the book. I can understand not liking it. My friend Kate, for example, didn't like it. I can also understand those who list it as the most important book in their lives. When it comes to an understanding of modern classics, what is most important is reading it.

Give Me Five Monday Meme Is Looking For Ideas

2008-06-30T23:05:49Z

I am not ashamed to say, I love good memes. I grant, I would not want to blog to be 100% memes. Still, a good meme is a prompt to create a quality post inspired by the idea, rather than a simple copy/paste job.

For twenty-seven weeks, Becca has kindly provided the inspiration for five item themed lists. I have not played every time, but I have enjoyed playing every time I have played.

This week, Becca is calling for ideas for future Give Me Five Lists. She'd like something thought provoking and fun, among other guidelines she uses to pick topics. Favorite cheap hotels isn't interesting enough for Give Me Five Monday, in my opinion. It remains to be seen if Becca will like my ideas well enough to make them official.

By the way, if you play Thursday Thirteen or just like lists, these ideas are free for the taking.

1. Five Books You'd Take to A Desert Island - Becca did this with movies a couple weeks back. I'd like a book edition, even though I would have trouble picking only five.

2. Five Albums You'd Can't Get Enough Of - I love music, but I'd usually rather listen to the same things over and over than listen to something new. Hey, I love my ruts.

3. Five Qualities About Yourself You Really Love - We are often so down on ourselves, it's good to think of the good stuff.

4. Five Weaknesses You Know About Yourself - We love ourselves, but it's very important to know our flaws.

5. Five Guilty Pleasures or Indulgences - If you don't have five, I'd be happy to suggest some.

Reuse and Restructure: Pants Into Purse

2008-06-28T18:05:00Z

I'm so excited about my latest craft project. I turned an old pair of pants into a handbag. The pants were that short length with the wide leg that was fashionable a few years back in a soft, slightly stretchy corduroy. I'd worn the poor things to death around six months ago.

It wasn't until last week that I found instructions on to turn jeans into a bag exciting enough to try. I forgot to take a picture of my pants before cutting into them. I also neglected to take step by step pictures as I worked. Oops.

You can check out the how-to for turning jeans into a purse on Threadbanger. If you like crafty stuff with a young hip edge, be prepared to spend serious time browsing the projects. I especally like this method, because the one leg becomes a flap. I do poorly without some sort of closure on a purse for my clumsy self. It calls for using three strips cut from the other leg braided together for the strap. With shorter legs, on both me and the pants, I had to invent my own solution. It was more sewing, but it worked.

I especially love the corner of crafting where thrifty, creative, and green converge. I am very thrifty (okay, a bit cheap), a bit creative (even if my idea take ages to become projects), and I'd love to be more green.

Buying something used locally or making your own something is about the ultimate recycling project. I've seen awesome crafts done with throw away items like computer parts. I don't know that anyone would repurpose used Cisco systems for a craft project, but keyboards and circuit boards are popular materials for the geek crafter.

Here are the pictures I took. The first one is with the flap closed, and the second with it open. What do you think?

Are You A Reader?

2008-06-26T20:44:01Z

Booking Through Thursday provides weekly prompts on book related topics. This week's topic is "Definition."

Check out the details:

What, in your opinion, is the definition of a “reader.” A person who indiscriminately reads everything in sight? A person who reads BOOKS? A person who reads, period, no matter what it is? … Or, more specific? Like the specific person who’s reading something you wrote?

A reader is any person who always has an answer to the question "What are you reading now?"

More often then not, a reader will tell you what book they just finished, what they are in the middle of, and what they plan to read next. (Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Fire and Ice by Anne Stewart, and I've got a stack of romance novels borrowed from Kate to dig into next.)

What this means is that folks who read a handful of books a year with plenty of time, weeks or months (gasp), in between finishing one book and beginning another. Those are what I call "people who read books." While they trump "people who don't read books" in my level of understanding, they are not "readers." In the same group are those who read only best sellers or only one author.

Readers are slightly obsessive. There is a word for compulsive writing (hypergraphia), but there should be a word for compulsive reading, too. I only buy purses large enough to hold a paperback, but prefer them to hold a hardcover. I read in bathrooms daily.

I got to work with at least two books: the one I'm reading, plus a spare. If I'm not sure I'm going to like my spare book, I throw in a book I adore just in case. Too be stuck without anything to read is a nightmare.

Yep. I'm a reader by any definition. What about you?

Semi-Regular Entrecard Top Droppers and Linky Love

2008-06-25T19:20:05Z

Many thanks to all the wonderful folks who visit to drop Entrecards. Each and every one is appreciated.

The impact to my traffic has been huge. If I'd bought Thermal labels and stuck them everywhere, I wouldn't have had the results visiting other Entrecard blogs then being visited in return provides.

If you are a blogger, you've got to get one. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my first Entrecard link love post.

In the last thirty-odd days, these fine bloggers have faithfully visited me. Each visited my blog 30 or 29 times. As it happens, they are also visit worthy.

Join me with a round up of blogs with a deep link to a noteworthy post for each blog.

60 Were Enough - links to full track legal music downloads. It's not mainstream, so all the better. Check out this cool Jazz track.

Aerten Art - Kelly is a programmer in her day job. We are lucky that she shares her abtract art on her blog. I love these colorful circles. Once you are hooked, stop by Kelly's Etsy store, Aerten Caislean, to buy a piece of art.

Obscure History - I respect any blogger who can write with equal effectiness about Mobsters in the 1940s and O.J. Simpson.

Random Ramblings - With topical blogs all the rage, it's nice to see a personal blog. What sets this one apart is photos. I love these hegdehogs.

Sensory Over Load - A book centric blog from the mind that brings you Obscure History and Monkey Fables. My husband, Chris, commented on the post about Echo Park by Micheal Connelly.

On The Bricks - Personal blogs with a male perspective are rare indeed. Here you'll find news, sports, and commentry from a blogger in rural Georgia, so rural they just got a McDonald's.

Chica & Pumuckl - Mom and kitty orange cats are some of the web's best cat bloggers. Everyone should keep them and their human folks in thoughts and prayers as cats and human Mama move from Egypt to Germany, while waiting for the Papa to join them later.

The Ups, Downs and Sometimes Insane World of Freelance Writing - Jon has a long blog title and a resume to match. Writing is only half of his freelance work. I want to share his picture of our primate cousin.

Photography by KML - The blog arm of KML's professioal photograpy website. I have just enough training in photography (one semester) to know her photos posses composition and lighting that mark talent. Check out "Through the Trees."

So Now What? - Commentary based political and current events blog. Well thought out posts on such topics as high gas prices.

Honorable Mention:

Juuust A Bit Outside - In addtion to being my husband and my cats' dad, Chris keeps a serious sports blog. It was a natural to take thirty plus years of sports fandom and turn it into a blog.

Keep on Blogging.

Eddie Izzard: Cake or Death

2008-06-21T17:20:16Z

...in Legos.

Everything is better with Legos. Since Eddie Izzard is smart and hilarious, this clip could not be funnier.

For those who are not familiar with Izzard, he's a British stand-up comic who John Cleese himself has called "the Lost Python." Like Monty Python, he can joke about the silly, like squirrels, or the mundane, like toasters, or the cerebral, like religion. Every bit of it will make you laugh until it hurts. I'm sure he could do a bit about installing an air conditioning compressor and I'd be rolling on the floor.

My best friend Kate has been a Eddie fan for years. She had me watch his special Dressed to Kill a few weeks ago. Every single bit was deadly funny.

As a reward to my readers, I'm posting this clip for you to enjoy. Be warned, the Brits love to use the "F" word. If you don't want to hear it, skip the video.

I Don't Want to Be A Mama Goat In My Next Life

2008-06-15T20:45:43Z

I'm cheating a little in this week's Self Portrait Sunday. One of the rules of the game from Cass herself is that the photo should be taken during the previous week. This one was taken at Grant's Farm a few weeks ago.

I posted baby goat pictures a right after I'd gone with Kate and three year old Sabrina. I'd even joked about the funny t shirts they sell at the gift shop. They say "I survived feeding the baby goats at Grant's Farm." Let me tell ya, not a joke.

Dr. Drew Comment Has Tom Cruise's Lawyer on Attack

2008-06-14T16:03:17Z

I found this crazy story on VH1's blog while looking to see when the second season of Celebrity Rehab is set to begin. October, in case you are wondering. But I found the utter wackiness instead. Go read the whole piece, for the full effect.

The statement in question was made in a Playboy interview. Here is what he said:

“A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without a doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology? To me, that’s a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood - maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect.”

After Tom Cruise lawyer compared Dr. Drew to high level Nazi Joseph Goebbels, a representative for Dr. Drew issued an apology for any hurt feelings. I don't think he had any reason to take back what he said.

I understand Dr. Drew needing to publicly apologize. It's a better option than having fleets of high priced attorneys running to file ugly slander charges. Both offended parties have bottomless bank accounts and an ax to grind. But I don't have to like it.

First of all, Dr. Drew has the credentials to make the statement he made. To quote VH1's bio of the famous doctor, Dr. Drew co-authored the "first systematic, empirical scholarly study of celebrity personality and was based on a standardize test of narcissistic personality traits administered to 200 celebrities." His statement was opinion based on scientific data and vast clinical experience.

I don't have nearly as much to back up my thoughts on the topic of Scientology and Tom, but I do have every right to state it. I always knew someday I would blog my thoughts on L Ron Hubbard and Company. It was only a matter of time.

By all definitions, Scientology is at BEST a life philosophy created by a third-rate hack science fiction writer (exhibit a: Battlefield Earth, worse sci-fi movie ever). In most people's opinion, including mine, that it is a dangerous, soul sucking, money fleecing cult.

Any group (Scientology) or individual (Tom Cruise) that vocally opposes the use of any and all psychiatric medication and mainstream psychiatric care overall should be disputed at every opportunity. While they, too, have the right to put forth their views, I have a right to shout from the roof top how wrong they are.

As a culture, we denounce groups that decline other types of medical care. A church that prays rather than administering antibiotics is considered plain wrong. Psychiatric care and drugs save lives, too. Even if the mental illness doesn't cause death directly, living in mental illness for shame or fear of treatment is tragic in it's own right.

Having personally suffered major depression and anxiety, I can attest that medication works. Along with cognitive behavioral therapy, medication changed my life. I would not hesitate to take it again if I were to need them. With my personal and family history, it is a real possibility. For me, it is no different than treating my thyroid condition with medication or a teenager seeking out the best acne treatment. Medically necessary with no shame involved.

It breaks my heart to think even one person suffers with mental illness based on the ideals of Scientology. It is hard enough to seek treatment for these problems without Tom Cruise going on television to tell the world what he thinks about psychiatrists. We are making progress in thinking about mental health, but we can not afford setbacks. Even though he went back on Oprah to apologize, it doesn't change what he said or what the organization believes.

I am not qualified like Dr. Drew to state an opinion. Still, I'm going to toss my two cents in the ring. Tom Cruise's ego is over grown. He's a very devoted member of cult that targets famous people for publisity and money.

I am not apologizing.

Book Clubs: Nice Idea But Do I Join?

2008-06-12T22:22:14Z

I've decided to test out Booking Through Thursday, a book and reading themed weekly meme. As with all memes, I will play or not play at will on a week to week basis.

Each week, Booking Through Thursday provides a question for discussion. I love a question. I could go on for days with a good prompt.

This week we are talking about book clubs:

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (or, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?

Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?

I have never been a part of a formal book club where everyone gets a copy of the book, then meets for appetizers and wine to discuss. The first reason is the I do not have a large enough social circle to have much of a party. I've never sent out Halloween invitations. In fact, I've never had more than three guests at my place at any one time.

If I had the opportunity to join a formal book club, I would give it a whirl. What I would be worried about is that the other members either wouldn't be in it for the books. As is clear from my blog categories (44 entries under "books" to date), I not only love to read, I want to share about books. I would want a book club meeting to be more like an English class than a social event, with passionate discussions and analysis.

There is an episode of King of the Hill where Peggy buys a book store in order to get an invite to join a book club full of upper middle class women. When Peggy and Hank go to the party, no one else has read the book. Peggy is considered a bore when she tries to discuss literary themes. It's hard to tell if the club members' motivation for telling Peggy the event was the last ever meeting of the book club. I can imagine myself in a book club with similar results.

That being said, I think book choices should be made based on common interests. Every member should want to read the book. I would avoid massive best sellers, think Da Vinci Code. What hasn't been said about a book that crosses into pop culture phenomenon?

Discussions should be lead by whoever is most comfortable. If more than one member wants the spot, it should be rotated. Most discussion should flow around the group rather than strict leader lead discussion.

Rather than thinking less of a book I was reading for a book club, I think I would be more mindful of the details. I would make notes of major ideas instead of letting them wash over me as I read. Otherwise, I'd go the the meeting with nothing to say.

The one place I get the experience of a "book club" is sharing books with Mom and my best friend Kate. Lots of the books I read come from the two of them. When Mom mails books from Seattle, I pass Kate the ones she is interested in. It's exciting to read a book knowing you'll have a like-minded reader to discuss the book with when you're done.

Overall, I think like-minded readers are the key to a happy book club. Even if you don't have a club or more than one copy of the book, sharing the love of books is always a good idea.