Motorola Sucks, part 1

Yeah, "intelligence everywhere"
except in their customer service!

Honestly, I'm so exhausted that I just need to write this out to get it off my chest.  There will be a part 2 or even part 3 (hopefully, won't be needed) because the low level of customer service happening here is just insane.

However, MOTOROLA SUCKS.

Why?  I thought that I lucked out when I got a Motorola Cliq XT Android phone for free.  I mean "wow".  My little Blackberry was still holding on and I was going to wait until early next year to do an upgrade.  Yet, I was envying my Android and iPhone carrying friends to some degree.

Initially, the phone worked like a charm.  I'm not sure what happened but the home button stopped working and my calls now immediately roll into voicemail.  It sucks. I'm in matches of phone tag constantly and there isn't a thing I can do about it except apologize profusely to the people that are trying to contact me.

I took it to T-Mobile.  They looked at it and confirmed the phone wasn't working.  They checked it for water damage and they were ready to switch me to a new phone.

But oooops!  Because it was a freebie phone from Motorola, they told me I had to contact them.  (Which, BTW, I HAD.)

This is where the clusterfuckery begins.  I call and their automated system that routes you to the right person is frustrating at best.  I finally get to someone and she tells me my "options" are to mail the phone in.  I stop and I say "and my other option is?"  She repeats that I can mail the phone in to be repaired.  I explain that "options" is plural which, in English, means there are, at least TWO choices.  I point out she's only given me one choice.  She then corrects herself to stay that is my only option.

WTF?  WTF?  (I'm not pleased to hear this).  I've not bothered to get a home phone. The last one I had in Seoul was just a waste of money.  I rarely used it.

Hell, here I'm never home and, when I am, I don't want to talk to you.  I do have Google Voice and I have made calls via my computer, but what?  You can't send me a loner flip phone or something to tide me over?  WTF?  And, let me point out this piece of crap was given to me by this company.

Anyway, I ask to speak to someone else because this is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time.  All around the policy is what it is.  No one can help, not even the folks listening to the conversation via social media (yes, their @MotoMobile Twitter account responded).

The customer service for this
phone sucks on so many levels!

The problem is I was moving so there is no way I'm sending my phone to Texas when I'm trying to move.  I call today because having a phone that doesn't ring is so many levels of ridiculous it's not funny. It's to the point that I'm missing IMPORTANT calls and I'm having a hell of a time just getting things done because people really do screen their calls with voicemail now and call back.

I give up and decide, fine. I've got to bite the bullet, send the phone in and be phoneless for a few days.  30 minutes on the phone to get an RMA number to return the damn phone.  I'm also told postage is on me (fine, fine...the piece of crap phone was free) but that it will take 5 to 7 business days to get it back to me.  EXCUSE ME?

I'll update you all on what happens next, but, trust me, had I known their customer service policy was this shitty I wouldn't have accepted the phone.

So, note to self and anyone who reads this: just don't buy Motorola.  I think I'm going to upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy, I'm just going to try to hold out until I get to the T-mo upgrade period (early November for me.)  I'm not that pleased with T-mo's customer service on this issue either but 1) I didn't buy the phone from them and 2) they have no impact on Motorola's crap service policy.

I'm sorry but eff you Motorola.  You suck.

Yes, I know, lesson to me: a living lesson in you get what you pay for.

More Moto hate here:

Opinions on MOTOROLA 

Here is the promised Part 2 that I also linked above.

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OMG Slate, really? (Not racist but not well thought out either)

Tonight, like most other nights, I was unwinding and goofing off on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Not really a surprise as that's how I make my living now and there are tons of articles and information that rolls across my screen pretty much 24/7.

I follow Emily Bazelon because she's one of the regulars on the Slate Political Gabfest. Emily sent out a retweet (RT). (A RT is just a message that someone decides to repeat to the people who follow them.) 

RT @fmanjoo: How black people use Twitter. My @Slate piece on the latest research on race and microblogging. http://bit.ly/ciIkKw

I've read Slate for years at this point. I know who Farhad Manjaoo is. Also, the title was enticing enough for me to click over. Honestly, I knew it was going to touch upon the hashtags that get really popular in black circles on Twitter. However, this is assumed because Twitter doesn't compile demographic info. Honestly, just because someone puts up a picture of a black person as their Twitter picture, can you really be sure? No.  But I really don't doubt the data that there are a lot of blacks who use Twitter.  On some level, we're having fun with it.

The first thing I see is this image:

from Slate.com

OMFG! Um, okay...what?!!!

In almost all of the articles I read that have a depiction of a Twitter bird, the bird is blue.  However, this article is about black folks, so the bird had to be brown and had to have a baseball cap, right?

I'm not claiming it's racist.  

I'm claiming that it's insensitive and short-sighted.  I do wonder if it wasn't, on some level, intentional.  I mean now a lot more people are clicking over to see what the commotion is all about. They're also linking back to the article. That's good in this brave new Internet world.

I decided to send an @ reply to Farhad.  I was pleasantly surprised that he responded and seem to take a sincere interest in why I was not pleased with the image accompanying his post.

For the sake of completeness, let me post the tweets here in chronological order (as best as I can put them together at 2-something am). His stream is here and mine is on the side if you want to click over and scroll through both pages.

(These first three are in rapid succession.)

Me:

RT @fmanjoo: How black people use Twitter. My @Slate piece on the latest research on race and microblogging. http://bit.ly/ciIkKw

@fmanjoo brown bird and baseball cap? Dude, really? I guess a study focusing on whites will have, oh, wait...they get diverse images.

@fmanjoo Good article though. ;) 

(I didn't want to be too hard, so I balanced the criticism with a compliment. I'd read the article. I know this happens on Twitter. I know it's social scientists doing what they do, so okay. Another social scientist will have a theory on it and have his or her stacks of evidence and analysis to justify their conclusion(s) too. 

The author wrote about it. In the article he acknowledged that this wasn't a complete picture of black activity on Twitter and, for that, I say good job.  I have no interest in broadening my frustration with the image a critique of his writing.  That crosses to bitching because you just want to keep bitching.  It's the image I've got issues with.)

Farhad: 

@ReginaWalton Glad you liked the article. But can you tell me what bothered you about the image? I thought it told the story well.

(Okay, here it goes.)

Me:

@fmanjoo Just wondering if the piece was on NE Asian Twitter users if a yellow bird w/ slanted eyes and a China chop would be on the page?

(I'd already brought up the question of what image would have been used had the topic been about whites and their use of Twitter. If a bird image was chosen, it would have been the standard blue variations that are so common. I'd bet you hard money on it. 

So, okay, let's broaden it to another ethnic group: NE Asians.  Hell, I lived in South Korea for eight years, I think that's a demographic that I can inquire about, right?)

Farhad: 

@ReginaWalton It's tough to depict these topics in a way that doesn't offend everyone and is interesting and aesthetically pleasing.  


(I'm unresponsive and determined to bring this point home.)

Farhad:

@ReginaWalton I understand your criticism, but I wonder what drawing wouldn't be offensive for such a story. 

Me:

@fmanjoo It's the need to put an image that is racially distinct & draws on stereotypes that's irksome. Whites wouldn't get anything similar

Farhad:

@ReginaWalton I see what you're saying. I don't know how we'd have handled it had the story been about another race, but I see your point.

Me:

@fmanjoo i do understand that you can't please them all but it was the first thing I noticed after I clicked over to read it.

@fmanjoo We're sensitive about images depicting us. (Sometimes maybe too much). This seems to happen when the story is about black people.

(You KNOW some people live to bitch and complain, especially online.  I don't consider myself to be one of them.)

  

@fmanjoo Thanks for asking me to flesh out my thoughts.

(Then it occurs to me! The perfect image to use? A composite image with a bunch of Twitter photos.  That's easy enough to throw together.  I have it on my Twitter page right now from Twilk.com.  The real photos of the real people who are in this demographic, I think, would have been fair.) 

@fmanjoo oh a suggestion for an image that might have made the cut? A composite image like the one that's my Twitter page background. 

That's where it ended but for sharing a link with him.  However, I think it points to a larger problem.  The lack of black staff at these media companies.  Now, now...I KNOW Slate.com has The Root.  I also know I asked Slate's editor, David Plotz, about why there were rarely any black commentators on Slate's Political Gabfest when they had a live Gabfest here in NYC.  I really do think that Slate.com's staff is well-intentioned and did NOT mean to ruffle anyone's feathers.  

However, the fact is the image did.  I disagree with Farhad's assertion that any image would have gotten push back. (I do think you can't please them all, but that was the case way before the Internet.)  This image was based on a certain image from black American culture.  It's real.  I can walk out of my apartment right now and probably find a young black man with a baseball cap on somewhere in NYC.  

My point is, however, I can also walk out and find a black man in uniform coming home from work.  I can find a black man in a suit leaving a law firm office after putting in a hard day's work.   It reminds me of my father who'd work six days a week at a blue collar dock job and was almost always putting in overtime.  (He gave my mom the checks, trust me, he was clocking some serious overtime.) The image also cuts black women out. I know a lot of women participate in these discussions on Twitter because I'm connected to a couple of women who are always in the hashtag fray when it heats up.  I do sometimes poke my head in when the hashtags heat up and click on it to see who is saying what.  Women are well represented.  (Also, yes, I know women wear baseball caps too but a girl bird would have had long lashes or something indicate it was female.)

It just feels like a lack of awareness of the people who put this together.  Also, with there being very few blacks on staff, I don't think anyone black saw it or, if someone black did see, it they chose to not say anything. (However, I'd hope the environment at Slate is a bit more productive than that.) 

This is laced with a bit of frustration. Honestly, one of my best friends just got an awesome job.  He's also a blond-haired and blue-eyed white male.  I'm ecstatic for him. However, in contrast, I've been back in the States for over a year.  I've gotten a few job interviews, but I support myself now strictly with my freelancing.  

That's great on some level, but I'm still very much underemployed and off of the grid.  That's scary.  It's also really frustrating because I've got the education, the skills and the experience.  It makes me wonder how things would be different if I were a blond-haired and blue-eyed white female. Seeing articles like this doesn't help my perspective either: 1 in Every 4 Blacks is Underemployed, More Black Women Jobless.  It's frustrating because with all I've done, let me get on the subway and you can feel the judgment based on nothing more than me being black, casually dressed and usually having an afro.  

It also reminds me of the much more embarrassing kerfuffle with the release of a book called Love and Consequences in 2008.  Basically, a white woman lied.  She said she was half native American and that she was raised by a black foster family in the neighborhood where I grew up: South Central L.A.  This got her a book contract and enviable media attention just before the book was about to be released.  This set off alarm bells as soon as I heard the premise.  It's hard enough for white couples to adopt black babies. There is no way in hell the system is going to put a white child in the care of a low-income black family in a troubled neighborhood.  No way. I really believe had there been ANY black staff in the decision ranks they would have said as much.

Is it fair to apply that line of thought to this scenario? Maybe. Maybe not. Farhad isn't white.  However, he's also not black. I'm not saying that he can't understand, but I am saying if it was his choice to use that image, he's got to learn.  I had to learn about and understand the particular frustrations my Korean friends have regarding race, so I don't expect anyone who isn't black to know them right off. It's the same with any group, even whites.  Trust me, I've had white friends talk about their perspectives on race and theirs are valuable too.  The issue is the power structure. Which I won't get into as I've written enough.

The problem is usually no one wants to listen when the topic of race comes up because now it is about power.  It takes having an interest, having a dialogue, shutting off the excuses and actually listening versus merely having the dialogue to automatically dismiss what the other person is saying. (On that note this older post: Brilliant: Derailing for Dummies.)  I'm glad Farhad asked.  I'm glad we had a dialogue.  I hope he listened and truly understood my point.

Now it's time for bed.  It's way past my bedtime.

Here is a great blog from the instant vintage blog: ...oh, slate...(Side-Eye).  She's changed the image in question to represent a range of blacks and she'll be adding more.  I've adopted the one with the mortar board for obvious reasons. 

The Black Snob weighs in on the topic here.
 

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Six Clips of the 2010 Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Show

A friend and I went out to Clinton Cove Park (on Foursquare, it's Pier 95 Park) yesterday to eat, talk and, ultimately, watch the Macy's 4th of July fireworks display.

When I lived in San Francisco, I would wander down Van Ness to Fisherman's Wharf to see the fireworks show.

I decided to try out the camcorder function on my new Android phone and it's pretty good. You'll hear me and the people who were around me last night here and there. Overall, though I tried to keep my arm up (hard for minutes at a time) and my mouth shut to just enjoy the light show. For some reason, a couple next to us decided that it would be appropriate during the light show to turn on music. Odd, but in the grand scheme of things, minor.

Honestly, it's not the most exciting on tape, but live it was really nice to let go and morph into a little kid. ;)

I taped 6 clips and here they are:












Will I do it next year? Maybe.

My friend and I were pleasantly surprised at how well the crowd behaved and with the crowd control walking out of the area. Overall, it was nice to make the effort to see the show live as yesterday was my first 4th of July in NYC.

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Fiction vs. Reality: A Personal Take on Being an Orphan

“Because orphans represent the feelings and pain that all humans experience, the character still resonates with audiences of adults and children alike. And until the day when no one feels the pain of isolation, orphan characters will continue to symbolize it for us.”

– Professor Melanie Kimball

 Orphan Girl in a Cemetery by Eugene Delacroix

In June I get hit with two days that poginantly remind me that I'm an orphan. My first reaction is to hop online and look for information and resources to help me through it.

What’s interesting is if you Google terms like “loneliness and orphan” you’ll get tons of links on the phenomenon of orphans in fiction, especially children’s fiction.  There is an impressive list of characters:

• Peter Pan
• David Copperfield
• Oliver Twist
• Huck Finn
• Tom Sawyer
• Jane Eyre
• Mary in The Secret Garden
• Sara in The Little Princess
• Anne Shirley in Anne of Greene Gables
• Heidi
• Louisa May Alcott’s Rose or Fanny
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
• Harry Potter (the one, surprisingly, I relate to the most)
• Luke Skywalker (my personal favorite) and, his twin sister, Leia Organa 
• (list lifted in its entirety from this webpage)

Illustration by J.L. Cook 

I won't deny that these stories engage you and pull at your heart strings.  Real stories of misfortune and triumph do the same.

If you don’t find links to various essays on on fiction, then it's usually a mental health professional talking about the literal or figurative state of being an orphan through the lens of some sort of trauma.

Another result? The how-to lists on combating loneliness for those who might be a bit shy and reserved.

All of these have their place and are definitely useful.  The most engaging category for me is the fiction analysis because that’s an interesting phenomenon that I’d never thought about.

The problem is that in looking for answers all of these sources fall flat for me: a real life orphan. That means when I’m having these moments, none of those resources do much for me. 

I didn’t have any trauma until the trauma of my parents’ deaths (when: my mid-20s, how: 5 weeks apart and unrelated (no accidents, just sudden trauma)).   I was a very happy and very loved only child.  (I'm also usually a pretty happy adult, considering.) I knew my parents adored me, and I was very close to both of them.

In person, I’m outgoing and engaging.  I don’t need tips on how to meet people and form friendships.  I'm not shy, and I'm pretty confident.

I also don’t need analysis on traumatized children as that wasn’t my childhood.  I have a literal separation due to death and not a figurative one due to bad parenting.  Those are heartbreaking stories, for sure.  People in those positions do need help and support.  Also, when I read those, I'm thankful that I was so incredibly lucky. However, those don’t apply to me.

I don’t relate well to any of these because I don’t see myself.  I can’t be the only one.  BTW, yes, I have seen and owned books like Motherless Daughters. It's just that most works like that are for sale only, so outside of an Amazon.com link and summary that's all the solace and direction you get.  (Time for me to make a run on the public library.)

June is a hard month for me.  Usually, the weather is lovely.  It’s the start of summer, and it’s bright and sunny.  I'm writing as the sun rises over the NYC skyline, and loving the view.

Again, in June, I get hit with two significant days: my mother’s birthday which is in mid-June and then Father’s Day which was always a big deal because I was daddy’s girl.

There is almost nothing out there that deals with my sort of loneliness head on.  My loneliness is the pain of having lost my parents and missing the deep connection I had with both of them.  I have it in spirit and that keeps me going.  I also know that I’m blessed to have been loved so much that my grief runs deep. (Irony at its finest, but a way to spin it so that I’m not just a mess.)

From an academic perspective, it’s really interesting to see that adult grief is rarely addressed.  We all know that if the natural order of things occurs, our parents will die and we’ll be left behind.  For me, that happened years before anyone expected it. It does affect how I deal with people now. It's very hard for me to get close to others as I have a fear of abandonment.  There is also that feeling of constantly running scared because I am my safety net and when things go wrong, it's all on me.

There's my psychological rubble from all of this.  I can socialize with no problem.  Throw me into a party where I know no one, and I’ll leave with a few new friends.  However, I’m very slow at getting close to people.  (I always have been. Now it’s just 10 times worse.) Knowing it's all on me also means I've learned to be both resourceful and responsible.  I used to lose my keys all of the time.  I knew my mom would have an extra set waiting for me.  Since her death, I've never lost a set of keys (misplaced, yes, but lost, no).  That's probably because I know that, if I do, I don't have mom to save me anymore.

Since I’m adopted, I’m also an orphan twice over. I'll admit that probably factors into the deep attachment I had with my parents.  I was very aware that they chose to save me.

Illustration from StarWarped.net

You have to be a fictional character tasked with saving the world or a galaxy far-far away, someone traumatized to the point of serious behavior and psychological problems or simply someone so reserved and shy that they can’t make friends to get essays written about you.

I don’t fit any of those, so, I guess that's why I'm watching the sunrise and writing my own essay.

I’m someone who had loving and supportive parents and I miss them.

A lot.

Happy Father’s Day to my dad, RIP.

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