The Junk Drawer

There’s a Pizza Village (IV) over by Weis on Crawford Avenue in Hanover Township. I’m sure their pizza is fine, but we always go for their burgers. Taste completely homemade, just the way we like. And you get more burger than bun, which is also a plus.

Dave paid them a visit and came home today with some burgers (and pierogies — about the best in town, second only to Pete’s Hotdog in South Side Bethlehem). I’m glad one of us isn’t afraid to go. He went because I refuse to anymore. Why? Because the big guy behind the counter refers to me loudly as The Cheeseburger Lady, since the only thing I ever get from there is cheeseburgers.

For a while, I was picking them up about once a week. I’m sure he meant to be funny about it, but it’s embarrassing to be referred to that way. I’m afraid there’s a picture of me in the back with four cheeseburgers dancing around my head and a caption that reads "The usual."

The day they start calling Dave "The Cheeseburger Guy" is the last time we set foot in there. Anyone know of another great burger joint in town? We just might need a new place.

At one point or another, you’ve been frustrated with a computer problem and needed to reach out and call the tech support line. It’s possible you would rather have your fingernails pulled out, one by one, than talk to a help line person. It doesn’t have to be a bad experience if you follow these 7 suggestions:

1. Relax. The person you’re calling is there to help you and probably will do a good job of it. Give them a chance. Avoid screaming and ranting, as that tends to get the support person’s back up against a wall and that won’t do either of you any good.

2. Take good notes. If you are calling because you received an error while using a program, it’s extremely helpful to write this down. You can even take a snapshot of it for reference (CTRL+Print Screen, then Paste into MS-Word). Your problem can be solved much quicker if you have the entire message handy.

3. Patience, Grasshopper. Understand that the person you are calling likely has other customers or clients in the queue already. Try not to jump ahead, claiming your problem is an emergency. Most of our calls are emergencies. That’s why we get calls. You not only frustrate the tech support staff, but you also force other people to wait. If you were in the queue already, would you want someone else trying to nudge ahead in line?

4. Show respect. It takes a healthy amount of education and training to provide good technical support. A common complaint among my colleagues is that we do not feel our profession is well-respected because society thinks "anyone can do it." Doing it, and doing it well are polar opposites. Trained professionals do it exceptionally well.

5. Ask for training. Many computer problems can be avoided with a little user education. Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know how to do something. Use your problem as a learning opportunity. Good technical support staff will offer additional help past the point where an immediate problem is resolved. It never hurts to ask, and it shows you are willing to learn and minimize your computing problems down the road.

6. Fess up. If you’ve tried and failed to solve the problem on your own (and perhaps made things worse in the process), it helps to know what transpired. Often, we can reverse-engineer the problem, which almost always leads to a faster solution.

7. A little humor never hurt. We all know how stressful computer problems can be. Try to take the edge off and use a little humor. It sets both parties at ease and usually leads to a more satisfying experience for everyone.

I was talking to my student assistant yesterday about some really bad pictures of me as a kid. It happens I had some particularly embarrassing ones floating around on my website and showed him this. The poor kid. Didn’t know WHAT to say.

Christmas, 1970. There is so much scary stuff in this picture. I think I’m wearing a smock-thing made of really bad fabric probably not meant for clothes. What is Ann wearing? Those pants!!! What is with the pants?!?! And just what is Dad doing? Is that part of a bike? A balloon animal in the making? Bert and Ernie are hanging out behind us. Ernie still had his hair. He later lost it in the "Scissor Incident of 1971," perpetrated by me.

Stay tuned to this channel for more of the same. The best (or should I say the worst?) pictures are not surprisingly from the 1970s.

As we approach the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I remembered a picture I took of a beautiful sculpture by artist Steve Tobin on a trip to NYC last year. The plaque nearby reads:

This sculpture is cast from the roots of the sycamore tree that was stricken by flying debris on September 11, 2001 in the churchyard behind St. Paul’s Chapel at Broadway and Fulton Street. Tobin created the bronze sculpture from 300 individual castings of the tree’s roots to commemorate the events of September 11. The sculpture was dedicated here on this site on September 11, 2005. The original sycamore roots, painstakingly preserved by Tobin with the help of tree experts, now rest permanently in the St. Paul’s Chapel churchyard.

Watch and listen as Steve Tobin tells why he took on the project. (Requires Windows Media Player)

Interesting bio factoid: Steve lives in our own backyard. He’s from Coopersburg!

Research reveals that the average American worker spends from one to two hours handling email every day. Depending on your job, that number may be higher. For some — much higher. Email revolutionized the way we communicate at work, but it can also be the bane of our technological existence. If you find yourself the victim of email overload, try some of these tips to manage your mail and reclaim your workday.

1. Don’t need it? Delete it! If you’re a packrat, you’re in trouble. One of the biggest email problems users face is the sheer volume of messages they receive every day and the tendency to keep everything. Some tricks: Pick off the easy ones first. If you have a quick answer, send it, then delete the message. And not just from the Inbox – get rid of it in Trash, too. Stop re-reading the same message. Be realistic. If you know deep down you’ll never reply to the message, delete it and move on.
2. Set aside time to review email. Establish a routine for checking email. It may be that you block off time at the start of the day, again after lunch and then before you leave the office. Don’t allow yourself to be interrupted during this time. Deal with messages immediately: Delete it, forward it, schedule it, respond to it, or file it. Consider closing your email program outside of these scheduled times so you won’t be compelled to check for new messages constantly.
3. Setup a filtering system. If you belong to a listserv or receive daily messages from the same place (such as bulletins or announcements), filter them out of the Inbox and into another folder. Then when you have time, go to that folder and read them at once. This will keep your focus on one topic and minimize the time it takes to deal with them.
4. Setup a file folder system. Many of us keep messages for reference purposes only. Build a file folder system that categorizes these reference messages for quick access later. The important thing is to get them out of your Inbox.
5. Limit unnecessary responses. You don’t have to respond to every message, especially just to say "Thanks" or "OK." The more email you generate, the more someone else has to act on it.