A quick story about globalization
The touchpad on my laptop broke. I restarted my computer, which is my solution to all computer problems and some problems that are totally unrelated to computers. Nothing. I restarted it again. No signs of life.
It was worse than the whole thing freezing. I could see all my work laid out in front of me, like a glistening buffet with lox and kipper, but I couldn’t get to any of it, because the cursor wouldn’t move. Stupid arrow.
I restarted it again. Nothing. I yelled wordlessly and kicked something.
My foot hurt.
I had about twenty things I needed to be doing. All of them depended on that little arrow being able to move around.
I called my dad. Because he still solves the problems that I can’t solve sometimes. He told me to find a mouse and plug it in.
Are you still with me? Because this is a pretty exciting story.
I found a mouse. Bear had one somewhere. I plugged it in. I used it to navigate to the Dell website and start a chat with a tech support person. His name was Avinash and he seemed fairly certain that he could figure everything out. He asked if he could take control of my computer. I said yes. It felt sort of illicit.
In fact, it was incredibly boring.
(I found ways to amuse myself, though.)
Two hours later, Avinash was running fifty diagnostics and I was on the phone with an Aol tech, who was trying to figure out why their system hadn’t worked for me earlier that day when I tried to load the post about International Women’s Day. He was asking me to try things and Avinash and I were wrestling silently for the cursor. It was jerking all over the place.
“I’m sorry,” I told the Aol.com guy. “There’s another guy on my computer now.”
“Another?” He sounded appropriately taken aback. I mean, he’d thought he was the only one.
“Yeah, Dell.”
“Oh. Hmm…Some day for you!”
“My camera died, too.”
“Ah.”
An hour after he was done, Avinash was still working, accomplishing, as far as I could tell, nothing. Except for preventing me from doing anything I’d meant to do.
(These are really good. I had plenty of time to eat most of them.)
He hadn’t said anything about my power grab earlier. I read half a book. I got up to make dinner. I hoped he’d leave before Bear got home. I didn’t want to have to explain everything.
And then, five minutes before Bear walked in, and over three hours after we’d been introduced, his chat box popped up on the screen that was no longer my own.
“I will advise a Dell repair crew to contact you and set up a time to replace the touchpad,” he said.
“Wait, like physically?” Are you serious? After all this?
“They will come to your home and replace the touchpad. May I have your address, please?”
Otherwise, he said, the computer was totally fine. I was annoyed. I hadn’t accomplished any of the twenty things. My months-old computer was breaking, but only enough to be replaced one part at a time, until it was some horrible patchwork of gruesomely stitched together pieces. The child of rogue science and cold greed. And I would have to wait for someone to call me to schedule an appointment that they wouldn’t fill for a week, all the while thumping Bear’s clunky, awkward mouse around the table and misclicking on everything. I was about to have a fit of being-spoiled-by-modern-life.
And then I thought about Avinash. Sitting in a cubicle somewhere very, very far away. Running diagnostics on whiney Americans’ computers all day long, every day. I wondered if he liked any part of his job. I wondered how many people chat-yelled at him. I thought it might be a lot.
So I wrote to him, “I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for all your help.”
And he wrote, “Thank you!”
I thought the exclamation point was significant. I said, “You were really thorough. That was a lot of tests.”
He explained that he’d run extra tests, just to make sure. I said that was really nice of him.
“Well, it’s my job :-)” he said.
I told him I hoped it was interesting for him. He deliberated for a while about what to say in return and the italics at the bottom of the box told me he was typing for a long time. I was afraid for a moment that I’d put him in a bad place because if he admitted that he didn’t like his job some half-asleep person who monitored the tech chats would get him fired. And then he explained again what work he’d done and put another smiley face.
I felt us both relax with his reply. We cheerfully went over the details of followup and I said “Take care!” He said, “Take care you too!”
We signed off with smiley faces.
I don’t know exactly why, but suddenly I felt like the over-three-hours had been worth it. I’d needed to read that book, anyway. And Avinash seemed like a cool guy. Deep in the web of cyberspace and globalization, for just a few moments, with incredibly little effort, I’d made a friend. Or at least I hadn’t been yet another rude person in a constant stream of rude people.
This whole being nice thing– it’s the best thing ever.
See? Great story, right?
(Apparently, when I’m not doing something else, I put on excessive amounts of chapstick. It’s fun. I don’t know why.)
About five minutes ago, I was picking absentmindedly at my broken touchpad, and I dislodged a crumb with my fingernail. Suddenly, it sprang back to life! I stared at it for a long time. I jostled it a little with one finger. No way.
I’m a hero!
And a villain. I have no one to blame but myself.
Now that is a problem that Avinash probably could never have solved without knowing just how much I eat while I’m sitting here.
* * *
Un-roast: Today I love the shape of my fingernails. They can’t ever look elegant, because they’re stubby, and it really negates the pressure to ever have them done.
Quality photos today, too, right? (Sigh…)
Kate on March 10th 2011 in Uncategorized
Leslie B responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 12:47 pm #
Best. Funniest. Story. Ever.
– Leslie B
Erin Block responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 12:57 pm #
Yes! Love the photos! Good work….and, now I want to eat potato chips…
josie responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 1:23 pm #
I have these “Chats” with techs almost daily. There are so many computers in my office and other technical stuff. You make a really good point about the cubicle and wether or not they like dealing with whiney spoiled people. I have to remind myself of that all the time. Have you ever read Dr Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? The paradigm shift and seek first to understand then to be understood? (that’s one of the habits) It’s really a great book and an amazing seminar if you ever get the opportunity to attend. He inspires me to be a better person and you just inspire me altogether! Thanks.
Barbara responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 1:27 pm #
Yes. Really good in so many ways!
Kate responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 1:55 pm #
@Leslie B
Thank you!! You just made my day. I felt kind of awkward publishing this. Like, I am literally writing a piece about tech support now…Is that interesting to anyone? Now I feel like a decent writer.
Kelli Belarde responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 1:59 pm #
Sitting in a dermotogists office for a pesky rash on my arm that of course looks fine today. Reading your post and trying not to LOL.
Don’t you just HATE it when that happens? (the crumb thing, the wasted time). But LOVE that you made a friend, were the hero, got the book read and FIXED your computer?!
Kate responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 2:02 pm #
@Kelli
Let me just say that a few weeks ago my feet broke out in horrible, crippling blisters and I could not walk. Like, really. Just out of the blue. So I made a doctor’s appointment for a few days in the future, and by then, they had vanished. Just as though they’d never been there to begin with. What is the deal with that??
Emmi responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 2:05 pm #
Several comments:
I also still call my Dad when I can’t figure something out. My Dad suffered a hypoxic brain injury some years ago and is pretty feeble and fuzzy now, but he’ll usually be able to advise me on what subway line is best to take to the Boston Public Records building (Red or Green will work), which are the best headphones to buy (“I’d say noise-canceling, but you’re got that tiny head and you might need a second neck put on to use them”) or financial questions or classic rock questions & you get my drift here, I hope.
I discovered Popchips two weeks ago. My husband and I consumed two bags in an embarrassingly small amount of time and we buzzed about them to friends and family. The very next day my husband got an interview offer from the company. Coincidence? I THINK NOT. Okay, it was pure coincidence but totally hilarious. I think my husband might be on the lookout for listening devices on the bags now, though. (Wow, that would be a great – if totally illegal – marketing strategy)
I am coming out of a period of my life where I was fairly constantly cranky and not-nice to people because they all seemed to warrant no better treatment. Lately, I’ve been endeavoring to be nice for niceness’ sake, and it’s been quite rewarding. Down with crankiness!
If my novel of a comment didn’t make this obvious, I enjoyed the post. Thanks!
Kate responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 2:08 pm #
@Emmi
That makes me sad, about your dad. I hope he heals. I worry about my dad’s health a lot.
And the popchip story is AMAZING. If he ends up getting a job offer from them, please please let me know.
Emmi responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 2:17 pm #
Unfortunately the injury is of a sort that won’t heal, but it actually turned out kind of okay because now he doesn’t have to work anymore and that means his life is much lower stress. He laughs a lot more now and is more laid back. He’s only 55, but I worry about him declining as well. Oh, dads.
My husband had actually *just* gotten an awesome promotion so wasn’t looking to move away from that anytime soon, so he declined the interview. Sadness. Now I need more Popchips.
Kate responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 2:22 pm #
@Emmi
I’m sorry it’s a non-heal situation, but glad that he’s doing alright. Laughing more is awesome. And knowing subway routes is pretty sweet, too.
Congratulations to your husband!! Apparently he’s a hot commodity! I wish Popchips wanted me as much as I want them… 🙂
Kelley responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 3:13 pm #
I had a similar experience over a year ago, wherein a techie from Pakistan took over my computer. At that time, the wallpaper on my desktop was a photo of Safeco field in Seattle, and he asked “Where is this green place?” My initial frustration and irritation melted away as we began to discuss this “green place” in contrast to his four-hour daily commute (one way!) and his dreams of someday saving enough money for his own apartment so that he could get married. It was humbling, but it helped me to become a kinder, gentler, less-whiny American. Great post!
Dana Udall-Weiner responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 4:42 pm #
I guess cake is better for humans than computers. But makes for a great story, nonetheless!
Jillian responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 6:04 pm #
That tech support guy? That’s kind of me. I work for a small company with a contracting company that has offices all over the country. On any given day, I help at least five people anywhere from locally in my building to thousands of miles away.
Trust me when I say that your kindness made his day better. People are often very thankless to computer support staff, even downright rude. We notice when someone is nice for a change.
And… I AM a spoiled American. I deal with other spoiled Americans every day, and it helps keep my spoiled behavior highly in check. 🙂
Lynn responded on 10 Mar 2011 at 10:40 pm #
Great Story 🙂
Zoe responded on 11 Mar 2011 at 10:36 am #
I bet your kindness really made an impression. Most of us have had jobs where we deal with people treating us like crap all day, and in that environment, even civil people stand out like shining beacons. I remember working at Panera and having a terrible shift (working at Panera, people treat you like you are a slave who just dropped something maliciously- you ridiculous peon, no supper for you, getmemylatteRIGHTNOWBEFOREIBEATYOUAGAIN), and this one couple was overtly pleasant to me. Nice, even! It was like the sun came out. I almost cried. People vastly overestimate the power of simple kindness.
Meow responded on 11 Mar 2011 at 4:05 pm #
I had a Zappos online CSR type to me in LOLcat during our whole convo.
Aren’t Dells notoriously shitty computers?
Kate responded on 11 Mar 2011 at 4:14 pm #
@Meow
Wow.
I’m beginning to think so.
Jenna responded on 11 Mar 2011 at 5:17 pm #
True Story. One night I woke up and I was putting on chapstick…as in while I was sleeping…
Weird right?
Loved your story!
Kate responded on 11 Mar 2011 at 5:23 pm #
@Jenna
I’m definitely headed in that direction.
Lilli responded on 12 Mar 2011 at 4:52 am #
LOVE the story 🙂
As for being nice to people, i think a lot of people’s whose jobs it is to help us on a daily basis (waitresses, cleaners, tech support) either get abused or ignored, because we consider them part of the furniture. I always get funny looks from people if i stop to say hello to a cleaning lady, people act like i’ve stopped to talk to her hoover or something >,<
On Dad issues, i love my dad a lot, but he's turning seventy this year, and i'm only sixteen… and he's not very healthy as it is, incurable high blood pressure, pretty morbid obesity, i often worry how much/little time i have left with him, because we've always been close, and i don't think, when i'm your age, that i'll be abke to ring him up and ask for help 🙁 So enjoy that Kate!
xxx
Alyssa responded on 12 Mar 2011 at 5:35 pm #
I have been reading your blog for close to a year now, and have never commented. I find myself always thinking “YES, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD” upon finishing most things you write, but then convince myself that whatever I want to comment is not nearly interesting enough to warrant actually posting it.
DEEP BREATH
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I can relate. And I love that you linked to that Louis CK clip. I just rediscovered it and re-watched it the other day right before I got on a plane to Austin, and then tried SO HARD to tap into that should-be-there feeling of exhilaration as I careened through the air in a chair (A CHAIR!!). But couldn’t. Because my pen leaked ink onto my Macbook and I was worried there would be stain on it.
Oh well. As long as I remain Kindle-and-iPad-free, I find I can still manage to convince myself that I’m not bourgie and ridiculous.
(No offense meant to those out there who look way cooler reading off of flat glow-y screened thingies on the subway.)
Raven responded on 12 Mar 2011 at 7:58 pm #
Love the moment of connection with your tech support. Love the crumb finale. Sometimes we need a crumb in our cursor pad to get us stop and take care of more important things. ^_^
P.S. I’m the same way with my Dr. Bronner’s lip balm (unscented!) When I’m bored, I grab for it and moisturize.