The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated (but click here for discussion)

******** G*****
8*** ***** ***** Rd
*****, UT 8****

Verizon Wireless
Customer Service Department
Post Office Box 96082
Bellevue, WA 98009-9682

November 17, 2007

To whom it may concern:

My name is ******** G*****, and I have been a customer of Verizon Wireless for 5+ years. My Verizon mobile phone number is ***-***-**** and my account number is *********-*****. My social security number is ***-***-****.

Apparently, yesterday evening you called my alternate phone number, 801-***-****, and asked to speak with me. My father was so surprised that someone would ask for me at his house (it has been 10 years since I lived there) that he said “He’s dead” and hung up, assuming it was telemarketing. This is in spite of my being very much alive. And, in fact, sitting in the same room.

I suspect you were calling about my address, which has recently changed. I did not inform you of it because all my transactions with Verizon are electronic, and I just forgot. I updated my address information online today at 11:53 AM Utah time, and received a TXT message confirming the change.

I then called *611 and spoke with a representative named Chris. In spite of – I’m guessing – not having much training for what to do when a customer calls and says “I’m not dead” he did an excellent job listening. And, when he checked the notes regarding my account, indeed found one stating that the customer is “deceased.” He told me he would insert a note that the customer is NOT deceased, but he was not sure whether any other action had been taken by Verizon as a result of this miscommunication.

Thus I am formally contacting you in writing. I am not deceased. I like Verizon, I like my phone number. I instruct you to take any necessary action to remove any hint that I am deceased from my account. I also specifically request that you do not inform any business partners of the erroneous news that I am dead.

Next time, just call my [Verizon] mobile number!

Sincerely,


******** G******

No Way

In the most recent Newsweek, or today on NPR's Day-to-Day, there's a story about name-letter preference. I'm so000 hoping this is a hoax... but it's not April...

Statistically, people gravitate toward concepts, names and things that begin with the same letter as their name. No way! (in the science-is-awesome no way, not the science-is-bollocks no way)

My name is g*****. For what seems like an eternity, i have been a Graduate student in Genetics. Other than the friends I have met in Graduate school, a very large fraction of everyone else I care about is Gay. (or other g******s, but i suppose that's hardly a coincidence)

for my friends in vegas ... i nearly choked when he told me his last name... it sounds more like hers than any other utterance i've ever heard.

of the head-over-heels crushes i've had, and there aren't too many of them, are a g****** (which i didn't even know for like 6 months) and a gr***. did i mention i'm a gr****?

for some reason Newsweek doesn't have the short pithy article on their web site, but the full science blog link is:

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2007/11/07/a-my-name-is-alice-moniker-madness.aspx

great

mas music-o

my parents get some XM stations by DirecTV. Since when did my musical tastes tend to involve the word "adult"?

i think i can take a lot of comfort in how much i still can't stand Steely Dan. there's nothing else though! my goodness, it's like having every PBS music special ever produced jammed up your ass all at once. that includes Lord of the Dance.

16 years later

something about roadtrips and quasi-homelessness (the kind where you live at your parents'), something about changing the things you see and hear and do everyday also makes your musical soundtrack veer away from the ruts of comfortable but stale playlists.

R.E.M.'s Out Of Time is remarkable.

to california

I Miss You. Very Much.

for those of you who also yell profanities at your computer

in excel, if are sorting your data, and for some reason it keeps deciding you have a Header Row when you don't,

don't yell out "not fucking header row" because no one around you will think that's what you said.

MY new 7oy

i bought atablet that Ieahwrite with. Iguess its not perfect. In othernews ) I had a great dinner with friends M Vegas The burgers and company were great, and try service was dinine divine Its so sadwhen bad handwriting gets innuway of a goodjoke.