Josh's Thoughts

This post is a little late, but we’ve been busy over here at Eastmedia.

I’ve just had the chance to catch up on world news, and I read that protesters attacked/harassed Olympic torch bearers to the point that they even discussed rerouting the runners and/or canceling entire legs. My first thought: All of this over Tibet and some guy who got 3 years in jail for speaking up against the government in a Communist country?

OK look, I’m not a fan of authoritarian government, occupation (ours, theirs, or anyones) or Communism, but I am a fan of the Olympics. The idea that once every four years countries, despite their differences, can come together in peace to compete is one of the few things that makes me feel good about the world. To me the Olympics represent something very human and not political. They can be a powerful reminder that people are people despite political, racial, economic and class differences. Protesting the Olympics over politics seems to be contrary to what many of the protesters want to accomplish. It’s not well thought out.

Now I understand that people are upset that China was chosen. The arguments being made by protesters point to China’s concept of “Human Rights”, the IOC giving in to the money by not taking the higher road, and issues in Tibet. I just wonder if it ever occurred to any protesters that having the Olympics go well in China could actually help their cause not hurt it? I’m sure that question can be argued either way.

My bigger issue is with the actual protests themselves and the behavior of the protesters. Harassing torch bearers and suggesting boycott is ridiculous. Go ahead and protest China because you disagree with their policies, but harassing an Olympic torch bearer, who is probably doing something they never even dreamed they would have the opportunity to do, makes you a complete lowlife ass. At that point your statement of disagreement is no longer political, it’s personal. And to my point about the Olympics being a time when countries can come together in peace, it seems to me that protesting the Olympics amounts to nothing more than protesting peace.

Oh yea and as far I understand it, Tibet has been part of China since about the time of Kublai Khan. That’s a long time. I’m not sure how the US would react if a state tried to claim autonomy by leaving the Union, but I think it might look somewhat like the Civil War. It sucks, but it seems to me that Tibet has had it easy. It’s just a shame that Communism sucks so bad.

So someone threw a lit cigarette butt out of their window from a couple floors above mine and lit the trash on fire. The fire filled the hallway by my bedroom with smoke and probably could have caused a major disaster. The building manager posted a notice asking people not to do that, but still hasn’t taken the time to mop and disinfect the floor in the basement where all of the sewage backed up. I totally understand not wanting the building to burn down. I don’t want it to burn down either. I just don’t understand why, if they’re obviously at the building putting out fires, they can’t take the time to clean up the damn mess in the basement. They did sweep all of the water/sewage up and it’s not like there is poo on the floor, but I do think bleach or disinfectant should be involved if they really want to avoid a plague.

Experienced something brand new today. It didn’t kill me, but I doubt it’s made me any stronger.

I live in a duplex in Manhattan with a roommate. It’s not luxury, but it’s definitely not cheap. We pay enough money to have some reasonable expectations about the quality of the building and general maintenance. We’ve lived there for about five months now, and have had nothing but problems. When we moved in, the unit had just been remodeled – new floors, recessed lighting, new kitchen, new bathrooms, the works. It looked good, and things seemed to work. However it turns out that it seems to have been remodeled by a bunch of special needs elementary students on a field trip. Btw, I really don’t mean for this post to denigrate children with special needs. In all honesty they probably could have done a much better job than the assholes who worked on my apt. In fact, I think my most recent apt manager qualifies as special needs, and he is remarkably able to hold down a job and occasionally answer his work-related mobile phone all by his-self.

Back to the story.

In the five months we’ve lived in this apt we have noticed the following:

• Front door buzzer won’t turn off
• There is no way to get out of the basement (where the laundry room is) when the elevator doesn’t work because there are no stairs
• The dryers are consistently broken (reported to super)
• Pipes bang so loud that it sounds like a marching band is playing upstairs (reported multiple times to management)
• Water leaks from the base of my roommates toilet and from an exposed hot water pipe in his bathroom (reported multiple times to management)
• Water leaks from radiators (reported multiple times to management)
• Heat does not come on consistently (reported to management and there have been violation notices)
• Water leak caused by mis-installation of valves caused the ceiling of my bathroom and part of my bedroom to cave in and soak my entire room (obviously reported)
• When they fixed the ceiling they never finished, mis-installed a hatch in the ceiling recommended by the plumber in case there’s a future problem, and left me to clean up the mess
• New neighbors have complained of mice (reported to management)
• One window does not open or close properly
• Numerous state and city notices near the post boxes stating violations including at least 1 for heat and another for waste disposal
• I have seen at least 3 different building managers and multiple supers since moving in. I am certain that no one in the building knows who to contact if there’s a problem
• This morning the basement of the building flooded with sewage (SHIT) and my shower drain backed up putting sewage (SHIT) in my shower (reported to management)

OK did you read the last bullet point? If not, please read it again.

At this point I am so angry I don’t even know what to do.

OK. So a couple months ago I bitched about not being able to find any books on web product management. Interestingly enough, Amazon sent me an email a week ago telling me to pre-order “Subject to Change: Creating Greate Products & Services for an Uncertain World” by Peter Merholz of Adaptive Path. Now I don’t know if the book will address the stuff that crosses my mind when developing a new product, but I have a feeling it will be a damn good read.

It looks like it’s going to be out sometime at the end of April. I’ve never actually pre-ordered a book, not even the last Harry Potter, but this one is going on my list for sure.