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01/12/2004: "New and improved."
I was going to write a boisterous piece about a US man who's suing a cable TV company for not disconnecting their services to his house (even though he wasn't billed), claiming his addiction to cable contributed to his ruination.
I won't, though. Because that kind of piece is already all over the Internet. This is one of the reasons I stopped writing. Almost everything I'll write about you'll have already heard about - and on websites not dissimilar to mine. In news terms, the Internet isn’t a far-reaching multi-layered global community. It’s a tiny village full of local gossips, each adding peculiar – yet oddly familiar - spins to the tales they tell.
In the Cable TV case, the spin is probably along the lines of: What an idiot, what is our country coming to?, how can cable TV be addictive?, why didn't he just turn the damn thing off? All edgy and different, all subdued and similar.
Here's are a couple of paragraphs from an article about the case, extracts of a letter sent by the man to his cable TV company:
"I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years ...
“But the reason I am suing Charter is they did not let me make a decision as to what was best for myself and my family and (they have been) keeping cable (coming) into my home for four years after I asked them to turn it off."
My comment:
He should have deleted the first paragaph and altered the second. He might have a case for the Cable Company not complying with his request for cancellation, instructions they were (likely) to have been legally obliged to follow. The fact he didn't have to pay for it is irrelevant.
Cold, precise, indifferent. Corporate.
Now that should be different.
http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_14044768.shtml
Text of a newsletter to be sent out tonight - this should appear using the 'more' link, but GM is forcing it into archives only.
Hello.
I'm visiting hospital tomorrow for bloodtests that precede an invasive procedure on Thursday.
I'm quite looking forward to it. Nothing like being laid up in hospital for 24 hours to make one glad for ones bed.
(That or having to sleep in a stone hut with nothing but another man's underpants for company. That story's for a different time, though.)
You can read why I'm going to hospital here:
http://www.idgaf.com/archives/00000008.htm
Think of the Baby Jesus as you cry for me, remind yourself how lucky you are and turn to look protectively at your Campbell's Soup children. It's good to be a Bogey Man.
I'll take a notepad and pen with me on my adventures. I'll try to write something for transcription post-surgery. Chances are slim that I'll transcribe anything. My handwriting is to legibility what cerebral palsy is to ballet.
(Anyway, I might be fatigued after servicing all the sexy nurses in their crisp white uniforms and suspenders with red crosses on.)
In all seriousness, the next few weeks could have serious reapercussions for the rest of my life. Hell, the very universe itself could be in danger.
If you won't wish me luck, don't wish me ill.
IDgaf.
