Today's customer service commentary comes to you courtesy of Disney, owners of the ABC television network. Disney and Cablevision (metropolitan New York cable TV provider) have been unable to come to an agreement over Cablevision's retransmission of WABC programming. At midnight this morning, Disney pulled the plug, leaving 3 million households without one of the country's major TV networks. The timing was clearly intended to tick people off, as it took place the day of the Academy Awards. This is Mickey Mouse politics at its best, figuratively and literally.

The Cardholder Services people called me on two lines at once again. I held cell phone up to speakerphone and the reps started talking to each other. As soon as one of them observed that the lines were crossed, I shouted "They're crossed because you people called me on two lines at the same time. Take me off your damned list." Obviously, they both hung up immediately.

Last night Mark asked me to make him a PB&J sandwich. The peanut butter was too hard coming out of the fridge, so I put it in the microwave to soften it up. I hadn't noticed remnant flecks of the foil seal on the jar's rim, so in went the whole jar. After a few seconds, and and then milliseconds after a couple of flashes, the entire inside of the oven was blazing blue/white plasma. Luckily I was right next to the oven and able to shut it off within 1/2 second. Very exciting! The oven seems no worse for the wear, as it brought a liter of cold water to boiling in a nominal 9 minutes.

Know anybody who has trouble reading a computer screen because of vision problems? I found a virtual magnifying glass that looks easy to use.

http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/

The people of Maine have decided by a mere majority that two individuals of the same gender cannot be married in their state. This same result has so far happened in every state that has passed legislation to permit and recognize same-sex marriage. The tyranny of the majority is alive and well.

Mark came back to his new car, parked in Fields Corner, and found that one of the doors had been badly keyed. This apparently is Dorchester's way of telling people they can't have something too nice or too new. Or it's a way that people mark their territory when pissing on it just won't do. Either way, I have to wonder what the hell is wrong with people who do this. Are their lives so shitty they feel like they have to bring others down? And how is this Mark's fault?

A real ion spaceship engine, not found in your father's space probe. Holy cow! Article at canada.com.

One of the moments I've feared has happened. The director's cut of a movie I'd like to purchase, Terminator: Salvation, is going to be made available on Blu-Ray only. I can't imagine that there's any content that requires Blue-Ray to enjoy, therefore I am attributing this decision to darker ulterior motives at Warner Brothers.

Well, it seems that this website has been visited by Pakistani spammers. These are the people who leave irrelevant comments with links to their own sites, in the hopes of tricking people into visiting them.

Well you Pakistani spammers, I'm on to you. Unfortunately for you, I've got comment moderation turned on, so you won't see anything you try posting until I approve it...and I'm not that generous.

Subject: Rescheduling of the 2009 Men's Ice Hockey Champion Banner Ceremony
Sender: Patrick Madden
Recipient: jparker@bu.edu , mlynch@bu.edu
Copy: nrowan@bu.edu , hockey@bu.edu
Date: 16.09.2009 14:41

Dear Directors Parker and Lynch:

I just learned that BU Hockey has moved its banner raising ceremony from October 20, the first home game and traditional event for banner raisings, to October 10, a holiday weekend and exhibition game. While the article at goterriers.com explains the rationale behind this date change, the announcement comes at a late time and has not given Terriers fans enough notice for them to plan to be at the Agganis, rather than elsewhere, over a holiday weekend. I am one of the people adversely affected by this change.