hoodwinked!

as i may or may not have mentioned before, job hunting is far less fun than pretty much all of the other things i hate:
grocery shopping on sunday afternoon;
arguing with a 3 year old;
moving your entire residence without the help of any sober individual;
listening to hilary talk about how she is going to "let" barack run on HER ticket;
waiting for comcast to attend to a service problem;
running into a significant ex at the gym;
you get the picture...

it's a game. it's like your goofy best friend from high school. it will lift you up just high enough to see over the fence into your kick-ass future, only to pull your legs from underneath you and laugh as you fall to the ground. i think that i've learned to play... the trick is to grab onto the fence before you fall and figure out how to swing up and over. i'm still hanging...

so last week, i got a phone call letting me know that i'd finally scored an interview at the company i've been wanting to work for ever since i went back to school. my interview at ann arbor radio group was yesterday and it went like this: i arrive, feeling good, looking professional and i meet the guy who's going to interview me. he seems like a pretty cool, laid back guy... he's in jeans and a button-up so that puts me at ease since i'm definitely more comfortable with the "casual" crowd. we have what i think is a great interview, although he does throw out a few questions that make me wonder "why did he ask me that?". he wraps it up and asks the customary "do you have any questions?" question. of course i do. i'm prepared. so i go into what it is i do understand about the position and ask if he could tell me a little more about what my responsibilities would be. the look on this guy's face was one of pure confusion and embarrassment. turns out, my resume was passed along to the sales department and he was interviewing me for an ad sales position, unbeknownst to me. let's pause and imagine my shock and dissapointment. i thought this job was going to be my ticket into the radio biz, out of the U, and perhaps into my own condo. i know my great future is out there, i just don't know how to get to it.

another pause, this time for a tom petty lyric: "god, it's so painful when something is so close... and still so far out of reach"

subsequently, i went home with my tail between my legs and drank it away. today, i am able to laugh it off but haven't shaken the disappointment yet. it reminds me of my time in california job hunting and/or soul searching. i went in for a sports marketing interview one morning and was somehow tricked into going door to door in dress shoes for 9 hours in the rain. i don't even remember what the hell i was selling. note to potential employees: if you have to be tricked into a position, you probably shouldn't take it.

although i can say i'm in quite the predicament now. i don't want to sell shit, but i can certainly think of less appealing things to sell than radio advertising. people think they are straight celebrity status once they hear their name or voice on the air. the salary is higher than my current salary and i'd be earning commission on top of that. maybe it's something to think about. when i was first offered an internship at greater media, i originally turned it down. it turned out to be the best thing that has happened to me in the business, and regardless of where i go from here, i will always credit the people i've met there for jump-starting my career. maybe this is another "door close - window open" situation. everything good that's ever happened to me has happened on accident and has been the result of me taking leap of faith. analysis and advice is welcome...

com-smash-tic?

comcastic? sure, if the pseudo-word is meant to describe the frustration you feel after the worst customer service ever. big ups to mona shaw and her self proclaimed "hissy fit". after several poor experiences with the cable giant, i feel better about life in general now that this 75-year old granny stood up for us little people. and thank you to tone, who brought this story to my attention. who can help but smile while thinking of this woman, hammer raised above her head, shouting "do i have your attention now?!?!" after searching for a few facts to back up my rant, i was tickled to see that there are hundreds of blogs out there complaining about this monopoly. seriously, google "hate comcast" and you will get tons of hits. i even found a girl who wanted to blog about how great her zingerman's experience was and couldn't because her comcast internet was down. (sad face) i mean, c'mon... all we want is to watch our shows, surf the net and chat with our friends in peace. should it really be all that difficult?

my personal beef with comcast:

1. 2004: i ask my teenage brother to sit at the house to wait for the cable guy. since you tell me he'll show up between 8 and 5, i really need someone without a job to hang out. especially since that often means 8am on tuesday and 5pm on saturday. the guy shows up, and recites some bullshit rule about not being able to run cable where i need it to go. he asks my brother to unhook and bring my computer downstairs so he can hook it up at the door. when i get home, there is a 6 foot piece of cable, a modem and a cable box sitting inside the door.... oh, yeah, and a bill for the service call. "FUCK YOU, comcast!" my brother can have your funky ass 20 dollars for the work HE did. it took several calls from my then-boyfriend (whose name it was in) to straighten that one out.

2. i don't want your damn triple play package. i don't need a home phone. if you will provide cable, internet and phone service to me for $99, then why am i paying $118 for just cable and internet? also, to reward me for being such a loyal customer for 12 months and for paying my bills on time, you will generously increase my monthly rate by about $40. i hate you.

3. no big ten network? WTF??? i live in ann arbor and that shit is real serious around here.

4. since either nobody will speak to you on the phone OR the person who will speak to you is obviously clueless, you will schedule a call-back in the next 2 hours. "wait, did we say hours? we meant days." and guess what? the person that called back... yeah, they don't have the answer either. if they do have an answer, it's not the one i want to hear and it's delivered as rudely as humanly possible. do you conduct rudeness training for that? nobody can possibly be that rude without learning from professionals.

5. (i know, there are a lot of reasons - i'm not done ranting yet...) i am a single mother who is hog-tied indoors 28 nights out of the month. my one salvation is my "nightly line-up" of shows. of course, they are hard to enjoy when the signal keeps scrambling. it'd be one thing if i were trying to glimpse skinimax without paying for it, but I PAY for these channels. also, the signal usually seems to be weaker during season premieres or finales - when important things are happening. i'm holding out on a service call, though, to avoid another incident similar to #1.

6. i cannot STAND the woman on tv who says everyone is talking about comcast. "what does at&t like to talk about? well, lately... us!". shut up, bitch. everyone is talking about you because we all hate you. if you smile any harder (or faker), your teeth might fall out of your mouth.

believe me, if my co-op complex didn't have an agreement with this stupid company, i'd be all over some other sort of service. they're totally monopolizing the area. it felt great to cancel my internet service - more money that i am NOT giving you. in addition, my victory sometimes arrives in the form of free cable, usually as a result of them not doing their job correctly.... gasp! knowing comcast, though, they were probably still billing someone else for it all along. after all, i'm not ready to go without cable. it may be sad, but i need that part of my day.

the following logo lacks creativity, but still, i believe that it is representative of the belief of many: