Re-organising Blogs

I hope I'm not confusing anyone, but I re-arranged and re-organised my blogs. (It probably doesn't make a difference, I don't think anyone is reading these anyways.)

This blog (http://chuckclark.blogspot.com) is mostly for stuff relating to me and only me. In the future this site will probably contain stuff I have written or thoughts that I have.

If you're looking for posts about biking (or cycling), life in Taiwan, or things we have done or things about my family, then look at Bikes, Kids, and Temples (http://bikesnkidsntemples.blogspot.com/).

For stuff about my children, look at Fruits from the Nanatree (http://nanatree.com/fruits/). Anything relating to Wen BB or Wen CC will be located there.


And don't forget about my collection of Chuck's Cold Jokes (http://chuckscoldjokes.blogspot.com/) and Letters to Leland (http://letterstoleland.blogspot.com/)


Also, make sure to check out Nanatree (http://www.nanatree.com/) if you did not come here via there.

I now have MacJournal set up on my Mac to be able to post to my blogs, so hopefully I will be able to blog more often. One of the hindrances before was the tediousness of having to go to the blog, log in, type the post out, format it, and then publish it. With MacJournal set up, the only thing I have to do now is type out the post. It's always hard to find the time to do that, but at least the tediousness of it is gone.

Open Letter to an Unspecified Company

I'm sorry, but you're going to have to accept alternate methods. Cancelling by phone would be fine if I were living in the Pacific time zone, but unfortunately, I am not. I am living halfway around the world from you.

Your practice of only being available during regular business -- and only in your own time zone, by the way -- is quite short-sighted, inconvenient, and impolite. Not every one is able to call during regular business hours in the Pacific time zone. As the majority of people in the world don't live in the Pacific time zone, I would think the number of people who can call during regular business hours is very, very small. Most people in North America don't even live in the Pacific time zone, so you can't even claim you are catering to most people in North America.

When you are available, it is night time here. Why should I lose my sleep so you can do your job? It should be the other way around, should it not? The company should cater to the customer's needs, no?

Moreover, the one time I did call to try to cancel, I was put on hold for a very long time until in the end I gave up. I didn't give up out of frustration or because I figured that if I were going to be on hold for so long, I might as well just continue; no, I gave up because a long-distance phone call halfway around the world where I have been on hold for so long is just too expensive. The least you could do is provide a toll-free number for people not living in your area code.

The thought occurred to me as I was on hold that maybe you like to put people on hold on purpose. I can't see your phone lines being that busy. If so, you need more phone lines. I'm willing to bet you put people on hold on purpose for a long time because you figure that if unsatisfied customers are on hold for long enough, they will eventually give up and won't bother to cancel. Am I too far off with that observation?

>>If you want to cancel, please call us at (1) 760-602-3000 M-F 8-5

Pacific Time and select the appropriate menu option. Be sure to

listen to the entire list of choices in order to ensure your call

is directed properly. Alternate methods of cancellation will not

be accepted.

Good from the Bad

The bad news is that my boy has been really sick lately. He’s had a cold and a fever. He’s had no energy; for two days I had to carry him around as he wanted to be held and didn’t want to see anyone other than me. With not feeling well, he also wasn’t sleeping well, and one morning he woke up too early. He wanted to go outside, so I walked around outside carrying him for about an hour. The good news out of all this is the view we saw being out that early in the morning. There were the trees, the fog down in the valley, the mountains in the distance, the clouds over the mountains, and rays from the rising sun shooting up from the mountains. It was beautiful.

Knowing the Owner

I like going to shops where I know the owner.

My wife has decided she would prefer me to go riding at night while our boy is sleeping. I usually go very early in the morning, but apparently if I’m not here when my boy wakes up, he keeps looking around for me. So, to make things easier, I’ll probably be doing most of my riding at night from now on.

For that I need another light on my bike, as it can be pretty dark out there. So I go into a bike shop yesterday, a shop where I know the owner and he knows me. I tell him I need a light, he asks me what for, I tell him for riding at night so it needs to be bright. He shows me one that is very bright, has a lot of functions, but is also very expensive. Then he shows me another one, and finally another. After informing him that I already have one light, that I just need to make things a little brighter, he thinks the third one would be good enough. That one was a quarter of the price of the first one he showed me. Most salespeople would probably try to convince shoppers to buy the most expensive one, but he tells me to buy the cheapest one.

That’s what I like.

What the Fortune Teller Said

Last week, my wife and I went to see a fortune teller. To those that don't know, fortune telling in Chinese culture is not the same as in Western culture. There are no crystal balls or Tarot cards. It's nothing like, "You're going to meet a dark stranger," or "Something bad is going to happen to you in the next week." Instead, they take your birthday and the time you were born, do some calculations, and tell you what kind of person you are, what kind of job you are suitable for, when would be the best time to get married, have children, move house, start a business, change jobs, etc. Is it true? Who really knows, but in my personal experience it is less ambiguous than crystal balls and horoscopes. And it's something that has been done for thousands of years, so they've had lots of time to research this and make refinements.

So, here is what he said:

*It is better for me to be living anywhere but in Canada -- at least for the next ten years. I will do better, be happier, and make more money if I am outside my own country. We were contemplating moving to Canada in the next one or two years, but I guess now those plans are on hold.

*It is best if my wife does not work for the next ten years. (Chinese fortune telling goes in ten year cycles, by the way, that is why there are so many "ten years".) So for the next little while, my wife is stuck being a housewife (or "homemaker, which I believe is the proper term right now). She's not happy about that. She wants to be out working.

*We will have two children (we already have one, in case you didn't know) and the best time to have one is next year. My wife is destined to have two boys, so if this is true, my dreams of having a daughter are gone. Oh well, there's nothing wrong with boys.

*We should be living in an apartment. If we live in a house, it should be in a high place. That's good news to my wife; she would like to move, given the chance. For me, an apartment would be nice -- it'd be cozier, I think -- but one thought keeps occurring to me: In an apartment, where do I keep my bicycles?

*I'm going to get fat, but my wife can't let me get that way. Being fat is bad.

*I'm going to live for a very long time.

*Concerning our two children:

--> The older one is going to pick on the older one, but having a younger brother will be very good for the older one.

--> The older one is not going to want to study but will be quite smart and will make a lot of money.

--> The younger one is going to be a bit of a bookworm. 

--> The older one is going to talk to his mother more than to me. He will, however, need to be around me a lot. He just won't say much. Anything important or interesting in his life he will tell his mother; when he needs something, he'll come looking for me.

*He did mention what kind of job I should be doing, but I both forget and didn't quite understand the words used. I think he mentioned something about importing and exporting though. And he did say teaching wasn't exactly the best job for me.

I think that's all, but there might have been more that I forget. That's enough for now though.