Tag: help

Slow Down

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

I feel like everyone in Information Technologies should take a crash course in customer service. It's one thing to be a good technician. It is a completely different thing to provide good service.

Slow down. Talk to people like they matter. Talk to people like they are important. Talk to people like you want to help them.

As I listen to most technicians assigned to customer support, they fail to do these things. They speak on the phone as if they're in a hurry to be done with whatever they're doing. They don't take time to build rapport, or gain the user's trust, and confidence.

I've always said, technology is 10% fixing technology, and 90% understanding there is someone who depends on this technology who might be feeling frustrated, disregarded, angry, or simply inconvenienced by a problem. Understanding how to alleviate those feelings, and help them understand that you are there to assist them goes a lot further than just quickly fixing their problem, and then abandoning them again. Or acting like you know everything, and they know nothing. Or complaining to them about how tough your job is, and how dumb other people are, when they were probably just thinking the same about their job, and the IT department that you work for.

Maybe businesses should put more effort into having classes for emotional intelligence...

Sushi Bandit

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

If you do a web search right now on the "Sushi Bandit" you will most likely find an endless string of stories about a Utah man who repeatedly did a dine-and-dash at his local Asian style restaurants. Which is a shame, because a decade or more ago that same search would have yielded at the top of the listing an amazing blog called The Sushi Bandit.

I have been posting to this blog since December 2010. Although I have owned this name, and domain since 2005, and my official start to my latest incarnation of my photography career I consider to be 2007, it wasn't until about 2010 that I began building this site, showing off my photography here, and blogging about... everything under the sun, and under my skin.

Much of that inspiration, I have to credit to the mysterious comedic blogger who went by the name, The Sushi Bandit.

I wish I could share all of the wonders of that blog. It taught you a lot about Sushi. It was funny. It was informational. It was a deep dive into the person behind it. It was whimsical. It was sexy. Like most heterosexual men, he had a penchant for attractive females, especially Asian women, and often referred to them as his "sushi." His images often bordered on the X-rated. It was everything I would hope for a blog to be.

From it I think I absconded with some of the coolest animated GIFs going. He was a master at hunting down just the right GIF to go along with his thoughts, feelings, and what he was trying to express.

 

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say with this one, except it seems as thought the world took a big bite out of my hero of the bloggosphere. But I believe this was one I collected from his madness. His blog shut down suddenly many years ago, and it appears as though he had a failed attempt to raise funds for the goal of turning his blog into an actual book. Not sure how animated GIFs translate to a paper page, but I'm sure he would have made it work somehow. In my research, this appears to have started, and ended in 2013, and I am finding nothing more recent.

Like mine, the Sushi Bandit's blog wasn't posted to daily. Sometimes there would be multiple posts in a day, sometimes it would be untouched by the author for weeks, or months. I guess that's the nature of blogging.

So in the spirit of inspiring others, and continuing legacies, I want to work on making this blog a better, more interesting, and more inspiring place for people to go. However, I can't just read your mind with an eye scan as you glance with disinterest at what I already have here. I need to know what would make this more interesting for everyone.

 

Sure, that's one of the basics, right? Make it sexier? Except no one wants to see me remove my clothes... like, ever, so aside from photographing much better looking people than myself, or adding in similar "sushi" content such as...

 

Or creepy content such as...

Or just funny or weird content...

I guess my question is, does it make a difference?

Here is your chance: what would make this blog more of an inspiration to you, or at least get you to read it more often?

Or, in the case of all 7 billion of you on this planet, read it at all.

Vent

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

It's a sad day when I can't even come up with a decent title for a blog entry. No clever word play. No playful word cleverness. Just bland.

I think once things settle from the movie production I'm going to lock myself in my house for about four days, and write. A screenplay. A novel. Something. What are the stories that last throughout the ages? The struggles of a common man against great adversity? An eternal love spun from the horrors of the violence of humanity? Abstract looks at modern life, love, and the challenges represented by coping with our humanity? Cannibals? Ancient Composers? Marathon Runners? Gladiators!

I guess the point I'm trying to make is comedies, and sci-fi never really win best picture, and comparatively sell fewer books. 50 Shades of Gray has sold 125-million copies of four installments, and it is complete crap. Likewise, Twilight has also sold 120-million in five installments. Star Wars, one of the world's most popular franchises, has had over 300 installments, by various authors, and sources, and collectively has sold 150-million. 50 Shades of Grey which is probably on an even par with trashy paper-back Romance novels ("...her breath quickened as Duke Remington thrust his purple-headed solider into her moist, yet trembling apple pie of love.") except less creative, and poorly written, yet out-sells what is now a Disney franchise by a generously conservative 6:1 ratio per installment. Meanwhile, Star Wars also lost out on Best Picture to the story of an amateur boxer given a once-in-a-lifetime shot at the title, and thustly, was pummeled mercilessly.

So where do I start? A half-baked romance involving a billionaire predator trying to get a college student to be his sex slave? A fake documentary about a woman fighting against social injustices highlighting the socio-political, and religious shortcomings of modern society? I certainly can't write a sci-fi about the intergalactic socio-political struggles of a young man following an ancient religion. Or, the story of a stand-up comedian who just isn't funny. Not if I want it to actually work, and be recognized as a good bit of writing.

Ideas?

Suggestions?