CM has been broken for the last month. Maybe you noticed? And I have been in less than optimum health during that same period. I kept making stabs at fixing it - the DNS registrant mess, the hosting company mess, the recreation of the backend db mess - but, I would run out of energy or the world would run out of time.
Take, for example, the day I tried to get the DNS resolved:
920 receive email that chapatimystery.com's transfer is blocked. the site is still broken
924 call customer support at 1and1.com.
924-49 on hold
950 explain my problem. am transferred to billing.
950-55 on hold
956 explain my problem. am put on hold.
956-1014 on hold
1015 explain my problem. am put on hold.
1015-1040 on hold
1041 explain my probem. am told the problem is not w/ 1and1.com but with bluehost.com
1042 call customer support at bluehost.com. am told not their problem, call 1and1.com
1044 call customer support at 1and1.com. am put on hold.
1044-1130 am repeatedly transferred between 4 different departments.
1130 am told that "wait for 12 days and your problem will go away. If not, call back".
And so it went. This is well after my problems with globat.com, my host. Let this be a lesson to kids out there. Pick a good hosting company. You can get out of marriages with fewer emotional scars.
But, it is all settled and done. Of course, the XML export made gobbledygook out of my squiggles category. That remains to be fixed.
Lest this post remain utterly boring, here is a conversation I overheard and, subsequently, recorded in an email from the same day as the transcript above:
Person 1: "The CIA is looking for Arabic linguists. Especially to send to Afghanistan"
Unknown Male1: "The CIA is doing a great job. But why would anyone want to go to Afghanistan. That is the most fucked up place in the world. The people are savages, really. Their culture is in the Stone Ages."
Unknown Male2: "It is really sad that these Arabs and Persians have such a backward society. I mean, India or Pakistan, which one is next to Afghanistan? They have their widows burned after the death of the husband"
Unknown Male1: "Yeah. I heard that in Afghanistan, they shot little boys and girls, EVEN THEIR OWN CHILDREN, who look at each other at the playground."
Person2: "You know, there are other cultures. And they have various values, we should recognize..."
Unknown Male2: "NO way. I dont care about that. If it is fucked up, it is fucked up. That story about widow burnings? The British ended that. You know how? This one General was riding by and saw a widow about to be burned. And he asked them to stop. And they said, it is their cultural heritage. So he said, 'look. i respect your culture. you can do as you please. but you will have to respect my culture too. In my culture, I have to build a gallow right here and hang you for murder'. And that cured widow burning from India".
And that's lunch hour. That day went on to become a truly memorable one.
COMMENTS
hoopoe | February 18, 2007
Glad to hear UnknownMale2 figured out "sati" was an Indian and not a Pakistani practice; God only knows the sorts of misconceptions that would've engendered!