A Taste of India

An online Pasadena Newspaper posted a craigslist ad looking for reporters to cover most of their local city government and political reporting for the city of Pasadena, CA. Nice enough ad, yes? Apparently, the owners of Pasadenanow.com believe it's going to sound nicer coming from Bangledesh, India, which is where the ad was placed.

Who are they kidding? How the hell is someone that is continents, timezones, and anything else in between supposed to cover politically charged events as well as other miscellaneous street beats from the country of India? And forget anyone international. I can't cover anything from Dallas, Texas when I live out here in California? How much of a trusted source would I be? How detached will everything feel for the local consumer?

And as for the international reporters, exactly what time are they going to make their calls to the local gub-ment and when do they expect return phone calls? I can't count how many times I've been deflated when I've had to make a service call and I know that it's being routed to another international location. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, considering that most of our computer troubleshooting (including parts and supplies), cable TV technical support, and other miscellaneous functions are, too, part of the India outsourcing phenomenon. Now, I'm not some North American Flag Waving Made In the USA type of chick, I just don't understand how customer service can excel when call center operations are not based on or near a headquarters where an escalation, if necessary, can, and should occur, under certain circumstances.

I know it's not just me, who feels totally disconnected when speaking to a representative whose voice (not the dialect, the sound quality) has got that Roger/Zapp (R.I.P.) thing going on. There have been a few times where I have called in for my high speed internet support and they have subsequently told me that my service was disconnected, (when actually, it only needed a reset). It's oddly disquieting to feel like the person on the other end of the line doesn't know what they are talking about, and feel like they don't care, yet, they speak almost impeccable English (even with the accent), and generally do answer your questions. However, there is always a lingering feeling that they didn't quite get the question that you were asking them, and that you might be in for a long term conversation to boot. I also, on a very regular basis, get the distinct feeling that I am in a two to three second time delay in getting my questions answers, no doubt due to the speed of sound traveling literally across the country, which also perpetuates my deep fear that I am giving my personal information to someone who is going to take the money (little that is) and run.

Am I the only one?

Does outsourcing creep you out?

Irrational Fears/Phobias - Part Deux

One of my favorite posts on her blog was the post on Irrational Phobias. I thought when I was reading it that it was more funny than anything. I want to say I was sympathetic to what people were saying, but the manner in which they were commenting and the far out things that were being said (present company included) just kept me ROLLING for the entire post.

She was referring to things (irrational maybe to US - totally legitimate and valid to those who deal with it) that people just don't like. That which gives you the heebie-jeebies, or, something that, you just can't put your finger on, just gives you the creeps. If you look in her comments section, you would be surprised at some of the stuff that really just gets under people's skin.

Taken from the irrational phobia dictionary. Supa has some personal ones that she picked out on her post regarding this as well; and here are some of the ones that I found interesting:

Botanophobia: Fear of plants.
Chaetophobia: Fear of hair.
Enetophobia: Fear of pins.
Euphobia: Fear of hearing good news. (what the hell is THAT about)
Textophobia: Fear of certain fabrics. (I think this might be me)
Graphophobia: Fear of writing or handwriting.

Okay, you get the point.

My friend was watching the Maury Povich show, and she said there were people on there that were deathly afraid of different things, up to an including: Mustard, balloons, and clowns. She told me that these people would take off running (stop laughing!) when presented with these things that they feared.

Now, I won't go as far as saying that I'm fearful of particular things, but I must admit that I Do have some irrational phobias that have made many of my friends and family chuckle. Supa in particular (and I'm not telling her business, it's on her post), actually talks about her fear of pine cones.

I have another girlfriend who doesn't cook with anything but wooden utensils, because she doesn't like the sound of metal against any of her cooking products. It's not anything that's a scraping sounds, she doesn't like the way it sounds AT ALL. I have another friend who doesn't like how honeycombs look and, in fact, instructed one of the salespeople at our job that she would NOT help him unless he took off that tie, because it was distracting her. Him, knowing how she was, took it all in stride and promptly removed the tie.

My niece doesn't like to see anything that is bundled or bunched together (like a pack of birds, or a bunch of say, teddy bears in one spot). She gets creeped out.

On to me. . .there is only one thing that bothers me. Unusual patterns. My hairs on my arms and the back of my neck are standing up even as I type this.

If you are wondering what kinds of patterns, it's not all of them, but if it is going in a certain direction, or too many directions, or just has a weird look to it, for some reason it just triggers something in my nervous system and it gives me the CREEPS! One such pattern is crop circles. I have heard that the Mel Gibson movie "Signs" is an EXCELLENT movie . . .however, you won't catch me dead watching it because of the crop circles. Now, I can sit and watch an autopsy, faces of death, and any other bloody mess, but show me a crop circle or a wall with too many cracks in it, or some fabric that has way too much going on it in, and I'm NOT going to be happy.

I don't even like typing the word crop circles.

Stop laughing.

Anyway, I know there are innumerable people in the world with their own idiosynchracies. Some people don't like heights, some people can't sleep or eat without certain items, so let us know what they are. . .

Do you or someone you know have an irrational phobia?