Foggy Friday

For once, that doesn't describe me (though I am hardly a morning person) -- it's the weather. Looking out into the farmer's fields, all we see is a blanket of fog. Quite peaceful.

The last two days have been most interesting, here. Two days ago, I baked that most excellent bread (how good? Good enough that my wife and daughter scarfed it down with melted mozzarella and Parmesan for breakfast, two days running) and those equally excellent (actually, pretty powerful) spice cookies. And one day ago, my night was blown to little bitty pieces by a combination of a one-day virus and a major blood sugar low that had me shaking and literally talking in my sleep -- my wife says that I grumbled, three times over the course of an hour "I am (expletive deleted)", followed by intermittent utterings of "I can't fix this". Finally, in the middle of the night, I fell asleep.

Let's do more of the former, less of the latter!

I read an article on the McKinsey (management consultants) site about how telephone companies can increase revenue by sorting how incoming customer calls are handled according to whether the call is likely to generate revenue -- if so, the call would go to a person; if not, to an automated system, at least initially. I have to say, that strikes me as a bit cold. The primary criterion of how to handle a customer call should be a combination of 'how can this call be handled most effectively' and 'how can this call be handled most efficiently'. If we learned anything in the last ten years of voice mail hell, it should be that excessive reliance on telephone automation will drive customers away, and so will getting the feelling that the company is more interested in your money than the quality of their service.

Is it time for Lily Tomlin's Ernestine again?

Still mulling a Mac. My impression is that in the PC/Mac divide, one is not decisively better than the other -- that PCs have much more software available, are less expensive, are more obviously complex, and are more prone to viruses, while Macs have less software (enough, just not tons of it), cost significantly more, are simpler to use, and are less likely to get a virus. Comments about Macs having iLife and such leave me cold, as those sound like 'cool lifestyle' applications. I don't have a cool lifestyle. I did find a place that will rent me a Mac Pro for a week... at a cost that will let them write the Mac off after five more similar rentals.

This morning, I'll be doing the shopping, as well as some cleanup around the house that I've been neglecting last couple of days. Can't understand why, but somehow baking (I'm looking at a sweet dough recipe that can be used to make stollen; this, also, is from The Bakers Manual) is more emotionally attractive than cleaning the bathroom. Go figure.