my great-grandfather had to leave italy in the 20′s because he hit a fascist with a tuba, so if you think I am going to take this sitting down you are going to have to catch these hands and also this tuba
me: in italy
facists: everywhere
tuba: out
i am forcefully escorted out of italy
Because I’ve had a super busy week, including revising a 37 page long chapter for someone and taking a tour of Blizzard (which I can’t talk about any more than that it was awesome especially considering how many of my followers are into Overwatch) and so I don’t have the chapter for this week finished yet.
I’ll see how revising goes because that has to rank higher, but you’ll probably get the chapter on Sunday since that’s what I’ve been doing?
Some hostile alien: I could kill you if I wanted to, human.
Bones: Yeah? So could another human being.
Alien:
Bones: So could a dog.
Alien:
Bones: So could a dedicated duck.
Alien:
Bones: You aren’t special.
Since @beesmygod has been posting a lot about bothering your local elected representative, I thought I should help a little as someone who understands government work. I live & work outside of the US, but I suspect this is applicable to many local & state/provincial governments.
ALWAYS REQUEST A CALLBACK
If you want someone to actually look at your issue, to do more than write “Feedback noted” in a complaint system resolution field, ask for a callback. Demand a callback. You can ask for an email too, but I will be blunt: the effort that is put into returning an email is less than half of the effort you force me to put in when I call someone back.
Pick a phone number you will be reached at during 9-5 hours (b/c that’s when government workers do their callbacks). Calls are what I recommend simply because a call requires that person to put more effort into addressing your complaint even before they pick up the phone. They have to do more than send a pre-written email template to brush you off, and it allows you to actively engage back with them rather than starting from square one when you send a return email and end up in the system at the bottom of the queue again.
If you go with an email, pick an email address that you check regularly. You can even make a professional looking email address for your complaints, which is guaranteed to get better answers than if you ask someone to email xxbigdaddysephirothxx@gmail.com
When you make your complaint, ask what the time you can expect to wait is, and if you don’t hear back by that length of time, call back and raise hell over it. If there is a ticket system of some kind for tracking complaints (and there usually is when we’re talking government work and accountability), ask for your ticket number. Keep it on hand. Keep all of your numbers on hand.
Be prepared for a callback. Have your feedback/goals already written down somewhere you can easily pull up on the fly so you don’t get caught flatfooted. Don’t get sidetracked. Stay on point and have a clear end goal – you want to see your local representative support a specific bill, you want them to issue a statement on a subject.
Get a name. Get a phone number you can call them back at. Make them accountable for anything they say or promise.
DO NOT USE ABUSIVE LANGUAGE. DO NOT MAKE THREATS OF VIOLENCE. If you use abusive language, I don’t have to engage with you. In fact, if what you write is vile enough, I can refuse to answer future complaints from you. So be passionate, be angry, be uncompromising, but keep that language clean and keep it clear of threats. I can’t do anything to get rid of someone who is pissed but does not cross the line.
I answer a lot of dumb complaints in my particular field. After a while, it gets easy to start tuning complaints out and assuming that people are just mad for no good reason. Callbacks force me to engage. They force me to look into a problem before I call someone back – to actually investigate instead of assuming. It’s harder to tune someone out when you’re holding me accountable.
a really really great post from a professional who knows how it works
I think a lot about who I am to other people in the world–particular who I am to strangers as a mere concept in their lives.
Today this woman called our information desk and said, “my son’s band is playing tonight. I want to come see him, but he never answers his phone…..I want to be there. Have you heard anything about his band?”
And I felt so bad for this lady but I’m not in the music scene around here so I had to tell her no, sorry.
Five hours later, I’m hiking and run into a group of guys setting up for some outdoor performance, and as I watch them unload the drums it hits me.
“Hey,” I said, “are y’all in a band?”
They said yeah and smiled and I told them “one of your moms called today. She wants to watch you play, but she can’t get a hold of you. Call your mom.”
And they all pulled out their phones and started discussing whose mom it probably was as they presumably dialed their own.
And now, unless we meet again and recognize each other, that’s who I’ll be forever to those guys–some mysterious courier for mom-messages who came out of the woods and told them their mom called.
I didn’t even tell them why their mom called me. Who am I to their mom?? Nobody even asked. They just took my word for it and called their mothers.
Speak with Tenderness 