Little Running Bear

I’ve started a campaign to try to raise money to buy a new Mac Book. More correctly, a more reliable one.

I use this computer for almost everything I do: Writing, coding, podcasting. It comes everywhere with me. Every solo interview you’ve heard on Boxcutters, I’ve edited using my current Mac Book. All the weird bumpers I created for the podcast were done on the very same Mac Book.

If I offered you help, gave you advice, did research for you or sent you a delightful email, I did it on this Mac Book.

But this wonderful little miracle machine is over 3 years old. That’s 68 in computer years! It’s feeling its age now. Sometimes it doesn’t start up properly. Sometimes it will lose its network connection as if to say “I can’t go on.”

Here is a graph of money raised thus far. The blue line is the target.

Help to grow the red line by donating to the “Josh Kinal Needs a Reliable Mac Book” Fund.

Every donation of $25 or more receives a signed photo of me hugging (or working on) the new computer when I reach my goal. Remember to include the word “hug” or “work” with your donation.

Thanks for your help. With the new Mac Book I will continue to make the world a better place for everybody (except the bad people).

Just in case you think I’ve been absent from writing for all this time, I thought you might like to catch up on some other places on the web where you can find all the fascinating things I have to say and show you.

Big Red Tin is the blog Peter Wilson and I maintain for Soupgiant. If you’re unfamiliar with Soupgiant, it’s a web production house we started together about 8 months ago. I mostly write about my experiences in running a business and why we make certain decisions but in a really interesting and engaging way. Check out this example about bargains and why to avoid them.

Boxcutters is primarily a podcast all about television. We do, however, also add stuff the the blog from time to time. We’re trying to do more reviews more often. For example, here’s a piece I just uploaded about Supernatural.

I also write pithy little comments on Twitter and then collect other bits of the web I find interesting or amusing on Sealfur Micro.

So don’t stress.

Now, let’s all get a sandwich.

Just quickly and off the top of my head, here’s a quick response to Marc Fennell’s top 5 films he likes to watch again and again. These are in no particular order:

• Barton Fink: It’s a lesson in how to write a screenplay about a man trying to write a screenplay. Kind of like a depression era Adaptation, but not really.
• Wild at Heart: passion, tragedy and the American dream all there on the screen.
• North By Northwest: It’s a silly film but a hell of a lot of fun.
• Mars Attacks: Just one of those films that I can walk in half-way through and always get sucked into watching the rest of the film.
• The Exorcist: It starts so slowly and just builds up fear and doubt. Watch it in the dark and double it with Poltergeist for some great cushion clutching fun.

Of course there are so many more films to put in this list. It’s not a top 5 of all time or a 5 favourite films of all time. But if you don’t want me to bother you for a couple of hours, put one of these in the DVD player and I’ll definitely stay out of your way.

Sometimes Marc and I can be so bang-on the same and sometimes not so much. Hmmm. Deep.

Sent: 27 April 2010

Dear Qantas,

After being on hold to your call centre for 27 minutes, I hope this will get me the information I’m looking for.

I have flights from New York to Dallas to Austin to LA that I took with American Airlines last month and I would like to claim the frequent flyer points for those trips.

I have not been able to find the details/instructions on your website to make this claim and contacting the frequent flyer call centre during the listed opening hours but still being on hold for 27 minutes has done nothing but add disdain to my opinion of your brand.

Now I’m frustrated and still don’t have the information I require.

Is there a form I have to fill out? Is there an address to send the boarding passes to? Do they have to be the originals or can I send photocopies?

It would be simple to have all of this information linked to on your website in the appropriate place but it’s not. Instead, links lead to pop-ups that are the wrong size and still don’t have the information I need. Other links send me around in circles throughout your site. Surely mine is a fairly common case. Why doesn’t your website cater for it?

All I want to do is claim frequent flyer points I have earned. Can you please tell me what I need to do?

In frustration,

Josh

Update 28/4/10

Last night Qantas sent an unhelpful automatic reply:

Thanks for your inquiry.

We’ll respond to any concerns as soon as we can. If your inquiry relates to a missing points claim that is eligible we won’t send a reply – instead we’ll simply credit the points to your account. You can then view your
account on-line at qantas.com/frequentflyer

This is an automatic message, so you don’t have to reply. However, if you need to send us any further correspondence in relation to your enquiry, please include all previous e-mails and your membership number. This will help us process your request more efficiently.

Firstly, is it an “enquiry” or an “inquiry”? I don’t care which side of the semantic fence you fall on (see the usage notes on Wiktionary) but you should be consistent within the document.

Secondly, it’s not that hard to send out another standard email saying “we have credited your missing points to your account.”

The main problem here, however, is that same as on the hold message. How long am I expected to wait for an answer if I’m ever going to get one? As soon as you can? That’s bullshit. What’s the expected time frame?

At this stage, and with that letter, I expect I will never get a response from Qantas.