Month: August 2004

Beautiful day in the server room

Had major problems today with the network — spent mundo quality time with our new network admin dude in the upstairs server room. He had botched setting up a new switch stack, and I got called in.

Anyway, happy birthday to YC! My travel agent has lined up a ticket to Malaysia for $895 on Korean Air JFK->ICH->KUL departing 8/27, returning 9/3. Is that a good deal?

NYC stuff

Statue of Liberty re-opens… (see YC’s Tues. post below).

The post office across the street from World Trade Center finally re-opens (it has been 9/11/01 since the closure/damages).

Bob Murphy, longtime voice of the NY Mets, passed away. Amusing yet poignant note: I listened to parts of the Mets v. Milwaukee Brewers on the radio, wherein the current voices, Gary Cohen and Howie Rose, reminisced about Murph moments. They then realized that every time they relayed on the air a Murph memory, the Mets made hits – and Cohen and Rose wonder if Bob Murphy was lending a hand from up in heaven. Either way, they were impressed that the Mets were playing well. So, the Mets ended today’s game on a happy note: 12-3 victory. A “happy recap” (as Murphy would say) will be in the newspaper or tv or radio. Mets fans need a little cheer, even in these times.

Bill Clinton’s appearance on Letterman’s show was a good watch (I didn’t even realize that he’d be on; I was just channel-changing and there he was. Promoting Kerry and Hilary? Geez, Bill Clinton).

An interesting story on Slate.com about the Citigroup building.

Plus, on a non-related (yet still about Citigroup) note, Slate.com’s latest “Ad Report” grades the latest Citigroup ads. Seth Stevenson notes that these ads, wherein people make huge errors (one woman mistakes her friend’s weight for a pregnancy; a man tries to duck out of his girlfriend’s request to discuss marriage) and then confuse their friends/significant others by just saying, “Thank you” out of nowhere. As Stevenson puts it: “‘Thank you!’ blurts the first woman, in a total non sequitur. Magically, the insult is forgotten. Says the announcer, ‘It’s amazing what a simple “thank you” can do.'” Apparently, the ads are Citigroup’s attempt to get people to join in some bonus points program.

Stevenson gives Citigroup credit for being “honest”; he says, “Maybe Citi thinks they can win our respect with a no-nonsense take on the situation: They’re going to treat us badly—and we know it—so why not at least get some tchotchkes out of the deal?” He gives the ads a D+ because he really doesn’t like it when the big corps rub it in.

Personally, I thought the dumb boyfriend ad was funny (his suddenly saying “thank you” actually thrills his girlfriend; apparently, he lacked good manners, forget the capacity to commit – methinks that relationship will either end soon or else continue in limbo). The ad where the woman bursts into “thanks” after mistakenly thinking her friend was pregnant – that was just plain stupid; it wasn’t entertaining but embarrassing. Where did Citigroup come up with that one?

So it goes…