The writing home of David Soliday
I’ve now got a desktop PC, actually a Supermicro server box, as my own personal computer. This time around, it’s running Linux Mint. I’m setting this blog to my browser home page, in an effort to start writing more. And gaming, plenty of gaming…
Hang in there!
After spending about a half-hour on hold for an Anthem agent yesterday, I came to the conclusion that I could record better hold music than what I was listening to. They had a somewhat dramatic piano sonata, interrupted periodically by the typical recording of a woman’s voice, “Your call will be answered by the next available agent; please continue holding.” This was irritating to say the least.
The accompaniment should instead be something like Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports, and the vocal message should be part of the ambience, sung or spoken to go with it, rather than interrupt it. This would be more calming for callers who may be likely to be frustrated to begin with. Continuous mellow, integrated hold music would also be far better than silence, in which you have to check your phone to make sure you’re still connected, or silence interrupted every so often by someone’s voice. Express Scripts had a woman’s voice saying, “Please hold…”, every 5 seconds.
We can do better.
For me, it’s “Welcome back!” FacilitatingParadox.com was my blog home while I was in seminary from 2003 to 2009. Fortunately, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has dozens of historic captures of my old site. (When I let the domain registration lapse someone else grabbed it and demanded a lot more money to get it back…)
So, I’m not alone in getting back to blogging. I may still resurrect my EdTech at OWU blog, and there’s definitely one in the works at DUUF.org. But this, and my new Twitter handle, @ParadoxMidwife, are where you’ll find my solid day’s thoughts.
I look forward to the conversations!
Welcome to my new blog. This is my first post, slightly edited from the default sample post that comes with a new installation. Stay tuned for more blogging to come!