ISP fees

Again we are subjected to a typical DesElms rant.

I agree.

 

I consider it a treat.

 

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

[sigh]

I'm starting to understand, now, why not just anyone can -- or should -- become an attorney. The difficulty that some here (whom I know to be very smart people) are having getting their minds wrapped around the subtleties of my argument is a real eye-opener for me.

Anyone who thinks this is about mere price-shopping is either not reading my words sufficiently carefully and/or thoughtfully, or is simply not capable of grasping the concept. Since I'm virtually certain it can't possibly be the latter in the case of most -- if not all -- of those who have posted here, I'm left only with the former. Maybe everyone's just in a hurry and doesn't have the time to really read it and get it. Who knows. Or cares.

I'm fighting the urge, right now, to try to explain it in yet another way but, given how I've explained it so far, it doesn't seem possible to make it any clearer.

It is what it is. I stand by it. Some get it. Some don't. Either is perfectly fine with me.

 

Gregg - Remember that if enough people don't understand/agree with what you're saying then you are either a genius or psychotic.
Jack
(also, you're not the one who gets to decide which)

 

No posts for a couple days causes me to think everyone had his say and the thread ran its course. So I’d like to take the opportunity to make a few observations without risking a flame or another rant.

This was a learning experience. I’ve always shied away from alpha male cyber gunslinging. I neither work with nor have I taken the time to familiarize myself with internet addiction. I assumed the draw is either pornography or the caricature schizoidal nerd who desires yet is intimidated by interpersonal contact and incapable of managing intimacy with human beings in the flesh. Unexpectedly I discovered rush and turn-on. I’m appalled by Gregg’s cavalier approach to the human experience of emotional distress – mine – but it was a rush to track the thread development and strategize responses. Gregg hurls a taunt or insult and I respond. Neener, neener, neener. Like any addiction it’s corrosive. It reached a nadir when obsessed with this silly little drama I failed to give my wife the attention she deserves when she wanted to discuss something important. I took an inventory and discovered this is neither who I am nor the person I want to be. I just happen to be the schlub who served as fodder for someone’s jones. What I am is an easygoing, accommodating, slightly bookish middle-aged guy who was blessed with a great life. I discovered DI while doing an online BS in IT. Subsequently, I found a niche contributing to the occasional conversation about healthcare as well as providing information about applied psychology to the group at large and sometimes advising aspiring psychologists. I get satisfaction from this and I was moved recently by expressions of appreciation for my contribution.

Strapping on the metaphorical cyber six-shooter, no matter how exciting isn’t me.
Drag racing was a turn on when I was a kid. I mean I just loved challenging an opponent and tachin’ up my 327-equipped, hot rod 56 Chevy. One of my colleagues, a female, contends the male animal has two emotions: anger and excitement. I think we’re just a bit more complex; there might be a third, I just don’t know what it is <grin>. I first glimpsed how foolish street racing could be while taking my turn as the starter and both vehicles fishtailed into the center. I was very nearly creamed. For the uninitiated reader the starter stands slightly ahead of and in between the vehicles. He gives the signal to go then runs forward, between the vehicles, like crazy. The cyber-joust rush isn’t anywhere as stupid as drag racing but it’s not something on which I plan to continue wasting time and energy. If I keep this up I’ll wind up a lonely, divorced gnome, spending Saturday nights in front of the monitor looking to hijack somebody’s thread.

If not to be punitive, I’d like to know why Gregg employed and went to such pains to heap disdain and sarcasm. Nothing squelches the teachable moment like sarcasm. This is rhetorical since I expect it was to wind me up; as I’ve mentioned elsewhere if his hands were really clean and his intention was to be helpful he could have simply brought his concerns to my attention. Shame on him for doing it shame on me for taking the bait. I remember kicking the rush up a notch or two with a cheap shot prodding a reluctant opponent in 56 Chevy days. Of course, I was a teenager at the time. I hope Gregg doesn’t interact with people in the flesh the way he did me. If so, he can expect to spend an isolated, lonely life. You can slap a coat of paint on it, parse or dissect it six ways from Sunday but its self-defeating and just flat wrong to treat human beings so abrasively and disrespectfully.

Gregg, your last post was telling. You struggled so trying to convincing us we’d see the point if only we’d pay closer attention. It takes an enormous amount of psychic energy to populate the ramparts defending the belief you … can’t … be … wrong. You’re obviously a very bright guy. Use your energy more adaptively. Pay some attention to your emotional IQ. You seem to enjoy discussing legal constructs so if you’re not already an attorney think about going to law school. If you’re like me and like to build think about getting involved with Habitat. Get involved with your church. Volunteer. If you’re single, work on finding a girlfriend or domestic partner. If you’re married spend more time with your wife and kids. Whatever. You identified a history of conflict with customers as a determinant of why you went off on me. You may find working on your listening and communication skills will improve that threshold. Gregg, most people who traffic DI are here to help. I may be wrong but I expect most if not all of the responses in the thread were to some extent in the service of saying lighten up and enjoy life. Control is a paradox. The more tightly wound you become the less you really are in control. Like other energy forms, psychic energy is a finite resource. There’s only so much available and the more you tie up in ramparts the less is available for the really important stuff.

That’s it for the time being, boyo. I plan to leave behind rules of engagement in favor of my usual engagement in threads I enjoy. Like the expression says, I have a (good) life.

 

As do I. Do not be so arrogant as to assume that you've learned some existential secret that I either could not possibly have discovered on my own, or haven't already.

I'm glad this was an eye-opening experience for you as you get your mind wrapped around the Internet's interactive potential.

But you don't know me, or anywhere near enough about me, to presume to tell me what I should or shouldn't do with my life; what my contribution here means or doesn't mean; to comment on my emotional IQ; to presume that you were (or are) important enough to me that my motivation would be as simplistic and mean-spirited as just wanting to "wind [you] up"; or to otherwise attempt any of your other pathetic armchair psychoanalysis on me. You just don't know enough about me to even broach those subjects.

I, on the other hand, know at least this much about you: You got SBC to lower its price so it could hold onto you as a customer, and hung-up the phone leaving SBC to believe it had satisfied you and could count on your continued business. Then, in almost the same breath, you contemplated switching to the other company anyway... so soon after, in fact, that the presumption of bad faith is inescapable.

Those are the facts. They are the only things upon which I based my challenge of your behavior; and we don't have to venture off into psychobabble never never land to see it. You can arrogantly conjecture 'til you're blue in the face about what you think makes me tick; or what you perceive to be my psycho-social infirmities, but non of it makes what I know you did any less reprehensible. That was my only point, throughout.

What's "telling" is the ease and arrogance with which you assume your, "Okay... now that everything's calmed down, let me tell everyone what really happened here; who's really got the problem; what the issue really is; how awful it was to have my tender sensibilities run roughshod over by such a primitive lout; the valuable life lessons I've learned from the experience that will, no doubt, inform my future contentious engagements with others of his ilk; the refined sophistication I'm now exhibiting as I size it all up; and the grounded and reasoned person I am, and that Gregg is not" position here.

Gimmee a break. You came into a forum where debate -- sometimes rough debate -- is the coin of the realm; and you advocated a course of action that, I'm sure unintentionally, betrayed your unethical sensibilities... or at least a teenie, tiny part of your overall sensibilities that just happen to be unethical. We all have them, by the way. Regardless, I called you on yours. You didn't like it. And now here we are. No one got hurt. No one's any the worse for wear... despite my... how did you say it... my "cavalier approach to the human experience of emotional distress"... yours.

You know nothing of me or my response to "the human experience of emotional distress" -- yours, or anyone else's. Maybe the emotional distress you're feeling is your inability to reconcile the good person you believe yourself to be -- and probably are, all things considered -- and the dispicable thing you suggested here everyone should do.

And where was your sensitivity to my emotional distress when what you did reminded me of all the other knuckleheads in my career who've let price -- and price alone -- be their guides, regardless of how the products/services actually compared (something we didn't really even get into in this thread... about which you should be thankful, by the way, since if we had it would have made you look even more ridiculous); but then, to make it worse, negotiated a deal with me (as you did with SBC) so that I would be led to believe I had worked-out whatever my client's issues were (as you did with SBC), and had given something of value to ensure our continued relationship (as SBC did with you), and he accepted (as you did with SBC); and then he went to my competitor only seconds after we'd hung-up the phone (as you came here and advocated... apparently believing that no one should have the temerity to call you on it).

Where was your... what was it again... your "approach to the human experience of [my] emotional distress" then, eh?

And, of course, the answer is "nowhere." And that's as it should be. This is a forum, for godsake, not group. It's where these things sometimes happen; and where trying to read too much into it is just a big waste of time.

Good work, though. Now I've gone from not liking what you did to not liking you. Pity.

I don't mean to give you too much emotional distress, but I'm not the one who acted in bad faith. I'm just the guy who didn't let you get away with it. If I had to guess, I'd say it's you who has spent alot of time populating his ramparts. I don't even have any ramparts...

...and I'm sleeping just fine. After all, I'm not the one of us who's obviously in an existential dilemma, am I? My psychic energy gage is on "Full." Judging from the navel contemplation exhibited in your post (to which I'm now responding), I'm guessing you can't say the same.

 

Typical.

 

Again the pot calls the kettle black.

Backatcha.