rainbowtatt

I’m not very good at arguing about politics. Which is a shame since my Pop was part of the creation of the DLP (scroll down and check out the guy sat right in the middle of the front row). And he was a good arguer.

Is that even a word?

I’m what you’d call a leftie and go with my gut instinct when it comes to the basics of my political beliefs, with big helpings of advice and info from like-minded family and friends.

And infographics like this, which I have shamefully stolen from Elizabeth (click for full-size image that doesn’t throw out my beautiful WP theme):

I haven’t entirely decided which way I’ll vote on Saturday in terms of where I want my preferences to go, but it might have to wait until I talk to our local Greens/independent/Sex Party reps when I turn up at the polling booth on Saturday (I’ve NEVER spoken to those nutjobs outside the school hall on election day, and TBH I’m a bit scared about it).

Executive summary:

1. Jump up and down and make a lot of noise in Vodafone’s direction (contact their support line (1300 650 410), their Twitter account (@VodafoneAU_help) and fax their complaints line (03 6210 3362)
2. When you manage to connect with a human, try to act at least a bit nice and understand that ruining their day by acting like an asshat isn’t going to make them want to help you
3. Tell them what your complaint is and what workarounds you’ve undertaken to attempt to solve the issue yourself (also proving that you’re not a muppet when it comes to tech). If you think it breaches terms of the contract, explain it. Mention that you know that you have the right to contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) if the issue isn’t resolved satisfactorily
4. Use the word “unacceptable”. It’s always worked well for me
5. Tell them what you want to happen to resolve the issue, and give justification for it
6. At least try to be fair in the negotiation if they want to, say, make you give back your iPhone in return for cancelling the contract
7. Regardless of the outcome, be appreciative to your support person (a.k.a. don’t shoot the messenger) and thank them for their efforts

Full story:

For most of the last 10-15 years, I was a happy Vodafone customer. Until I got an iPhone 3GS in January this year on a 2-year contract.

iPhone + Vodafone = optional coverage, phone call connectivity and voicemail delivery.

In June, my car battery died, at home, causing the alarm to SCREAM INCESSANTLY AT ME THAT THE BATTERY HAD DIED. For 10 minutes, while sat in an area claiming to have full phone reception, I was unable to make a single call. It would either refuse to make the call, or would dropout.

Then, in July, while mum was still in hospital, I had a voicemail message that wasn’t delivered for three days. Turned out that it was a known issue and Vodafone had sent a notification text to every customer except me to tell me about the problem.

For a few months now I have been very open about my dream to ditch Vodafone and get an HTC Desire from Telstra. I’d  had enough of being Apple’s lapdog, too, because I knew my phone issues were just as much Apple’s fault as Vodafone’s. But to break my contract 16 months early was going to cost me over $1,000 under their Early Exit Fee clause, and I’d resigned myself to the fact that I was stuck.

But Thursday morning was the last straw when 3G coverage was non-existent for several hours. I didn’t even get a text message that had been sent to me the night before. Fired up, I sat on hold to Vodafone support for EIGHTY MINUTES and gave up in frustration. I send DMs to their Twitter support account and sent a dirty fax to their complaints department:

I heard back from Kirsty from Vodafone’s support Twitter account and I have to tell you, this woman is a superstar. I emailed her all the workarounds that failed me (I hate being told by support staff to turn off 3G on my iPhone like I have NO IDEA how to do these things). I told her what my beef was and I told her what outcome I wanted:

Here’s where Kirsty earns her superstar rating: within 2 hours, Kirsty had agreed and processed the cancellation of my contract – 16 months early – without charing me the Early Exit Fee. All I have to do is return my iPhone next week.

Amazing. That should have cost me almost $1,100.

If the rest of Vodafone worked as well as Kirsty, then I’d still be with them.

But I’m with Telstra now, with my HTC Desire. I have no idea how to use the Desire yet, but I’m working on it.

I still can’t quite believe that I actually got to break my contract for free!

Have you had success with breaking a contract with a mobile phone provider? How did you manage it?

The other day I was minding my own beeswax up at the local shops, waiting at the lights, waiting to cross the road.

I noticed a guy standing near me who was also waiting to cross the road. Then I noticed that he was recording me on his iPhone!

This is how he was standing:

Just imagine that it’s a man wearing a black jacket and holding a black iPhone. Also, his boobs weren’t as big as mine.

He was standing stock still, with his phone pointed right at me. He was looking down, but his head was at an angle that would have given him a better view of what was being recorded. I cottoned onto what the hell was going on and moved closer to him. I starting eyeballing him and he suddenly put his phone in his pocket and got all twitchy.

Once the lights changed he hotstepped it across the street and I started charging after him. Not that I knew what I was going to do – and not that I had any actual reason to suspect him, except that he was standing funny and holding his phone like he was filming for a Today Today expose – but I didn’t want him to think he was going to get away with it.

He ended up at the nearby pub and I was going to go in and challenge him, but I chickened out because I wasn’t in the mood for being punched in the face. A minute later I walked back, ready to ask him to show me what he recorded on his phone.

But he was gone. And now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t think quick enough to bust his chops when I had the chance. But then I wonder what might’ve happened if I did…?

Did I do the right thing? Should I have challenged him on the street straight away where I was unprotected? Should I have challenged him in the pub where staff and patrons would be witnesses? Did I do the right thing to not actually confront him at all?

Cause I’ve been fantasising that I totally kicked his arse and he never filmed another unsuspecting woman ever again.

I don’t make a secret of my fascination with street art. Or graffiti, if you wish.

Not tagging, where idiots practice writing their initials or their tag or childhood drawings of Snoopy.

Living in the inner-west, there’s a LOT of all of the above. But it’s the street art that I love. And so much of is stunning. There’s even a genuine Banksy stencil in Enmore.

We have an external wall that has been painted many times by a local guy. Don’t know his name, but every now and again he comes by and asks if he and his mates can re-do the space. They supply the spray cans, we provide the canvas. By us giving them permission, they’re not breaking any laws. We love talking to them as we come and go and while the smell of paint is gross, I like that we’re giving them a creative outlet.

But lately there’s been a hint of a turf war around Enmore. Nasty messages being left on walls that have had hours… days… spent on them. Creating something visually beautiful, often thought-provoking or funny.

This is the latest:

Technically the cat one is older, but it’s the same sentiment as all the new messages. Writing nasty shit like this just goes against the ethos of street art and street artists. This is tagging in its ugliest form.

Not noice.

From today’s news:

The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) says it is worrying that two girls lost last night in a stormwater drain raised the alert on a social networking site rather than ringing 000.

OH. MY. GOD.

What’s happened to our youth when they’d think of Facecrack before, oh you know, calling the emergency number.

:headdesk:

I always thought of 000 as one of those ‘common knowledge’ things in life. Apparently I’m old-fashioned and a fuddy-duddy!

Although, I have to admit that my second thought was “wow, you can get mobile phone reception in a drain?”

I’ve always been a bit… particular… about the Australian English spelling of “gaol”. As in, not “jail”. I think it’s linked to memories of my childhood when I would read and re-read (and re-read) books about the history of my home town of Grafton that had a multitude of references to Grafton Gaol.

And those stunning Jacarandas.

As the world gets smaller and smaller, Australia’s turning more and more to American English-spelling. Makes sense when you consider how big America is (and how much I enjoy perving on their President), but American English is still a breakaway from real English!

Whenever I see a news article online using “jail”, I call them on the spelling. I’ve done it on SMH, ABC Online, and SBS News’ Twitter account. I never get a reply.

Earlier this year I read Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue and now I’m even more determined to not let American English take over:

We’re not America, FFS. Let’s spell it “gaol” and not “jail”, okay?

* My sub-editor has pointed out that we speak English, not Australian (or American, etc.). Blah blah blah. You get the gist of what I mean, right?

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about graffiti in Sydney. Now that I’m 30 and listen to AM radio, I’ve heard a a lot of talkback on the topic.

I’ve gotten so close to ringing the radio (oh my god, I really am turning into my mother) because the close-minded opinion that graffiti artists just do it to piss people off was, well, pissing me off.

The word graffiti is being used far too broadly—graffiti really is moreso about illegal artworks and “tagging” (I hate tagging). Street art refers to those beautifully thought-out and executed pieces where most-often the artists have gained permission of the owners to decorate their vertical real estate.

Me? I’m a fan of street art. If I had that kind of talent with a spray can, I’d be going for it, too. And I really do hate tagging – it’s thoughtless and it’s a spray-can equivalent of a dog taking a whizz on every blade of grass in the neighbourhood.

Our garage wall had been covered in graffiti – meaningless tags and spray drips that made it look more like a training ground for junior street artists. Then late last year we saw a group of guys working on a wall near us that ended up looking like this:

We got to talking to the group of guys and offered them our tacky garage wall as a canvas. Turns out that most street artists get the permission of the property owners (or in our case, renter) and go as far as getting contact details of the property owners so that they have a fallback position if the cops start asking questions. Cause they know that doing it without permission is, you know, illegal.

The guys we met over the course of a few weeks while they worked on this wall as well as hours, we found them all to be intelligent, articulate and most of them had day jobs and this was just their creative outlet after hours.

I like that.

And I have since had greater respect for the street art I see around Enmore, Newtown, St Peter’s and other places around Sydney.Yes, I know there are some bad apples around, but aren’t there always in social groupings?

I’m making it my mission to educate everyone around me that there’s a difference between graffiti and street art and that there is a hell of a lot of street art-talent out there.

And for the record, ever since our garage wall has been done up, there has been NO MORE TAGGING on our roller door. Kinda goes to show that there is a level of respect for each other’s talent in the street art world.

I wrote about the blue monkey here.

Edit: to steal Fiona‘s idea, the pet name for this project is Going Commando For a Cause :o)

So the saga continues with Pacific Brands and their decision to sack almost 2,000 Aussies and send production work overseas while their execs still take home big bikkies in the most unstable economic situation this generation has seen.

The Media™ has mainly mentioned that Bonds and Holeproof are under the Pacific Brands umbrella. I own a LOT of Bonds and Holeproof under and outer wear and if I owned other brands of knickers I’d definitely be wearing them instead of my Bonds and Holeproof brands in support of the men and women who will soon go without a regular pay packet.

I decided to check out the Pacific Brands web site (refuse to link to them in my own personal <a href> protest) and holy crap there are so many other brands that I have to steer clear of

• Bonds
• Berlei
• Holeproof
• Antz Pants
• Hestia
• Jockey
• Rio
• Playtex
• Razzamatazz
• Voodoo

… and that’s just in the underwear section! Then there’s the outwear, sportswear, homeware and footwear sections. Sweet jeebus!

So I haven’t quite worked out how I can manage it, but I still plan to boycott Pacific Brands until someone knocks some sense into them and decide to do their bit for the Australian economy and for their Australian employees.

Who’s with me?

So if you’re so inclined, steal this pic and post it wherever you like. Take a stand for the 1,800 Aussies who are getting screwed right now.

Yes, I know businesses need to be ruthless to stay alive, but they got it wrong this time. Taking government funding, giving execs pay rises and then moving production overseas at the detriment of 1,800 workers’ livelihoods AINT NO WAY TO DO IT.

Something Manda twittered this morning reminded me of what happened on the train from Newtown to Central on Monday:

Getting on the train at Newtown: chick with suitcase twice as heavy as she is gets help from a bloke to lift the suitcase onto the train

Getting off the train at Central: same chick gets no help from the handful of men beside her waiting to get off the train; in the end I helped her to lift the suitcase onto the platform. The nearby men were long gone before the chick even had a chance to thank me.

So now a second Qantas plane has had to make an emergency landing this week – this time in Adelaide.

Why haven’t I heard anyone ask if these critical incidents (if I use the language we use at work) are linked to the offshoring of Qantas engineering teams? Seems a bit suss if you ask me.

(I promise to go back to pictures of cupcakes and stupid posts soon – something about this week is getting me all ranty and in the mood for heavier posts)