Necessary Condition Or Symptom?

Last week I started diving into some code at work and felt rather confused. It is a non-trivial piece of code, in a language I don't know well, written in a coding style that is new to me, etc.

This reminds me of a story from my grad school days. I needed to learn a new area for my thesis, and was in the process of reading several papers. Some of them were hard, and at the time they did not connect to a cohesive picture in my brain. I was confused, and must have looked accordingly.

"You look confused", declared my advisor while storming into the department one of those days.

"I am indeed", I said. "These papers don't make sense to me."

"Excellent! Excellent!", he said excitedly, without slowing even a tiny bit, "When you are confused, that's when you learn the most", and disappeared out of sight.

Zzzzz...

At Least They Are Consistent

Guess what email landed in my inbox just a few hours ago. Yes, that's right, yet another message from Live Nation, the fine folks who brought us Dave Gahan the ventriloquist just a week ago.

Thanks for attending Depeche Mode at Shoreline Amphitheatre!
At Live Nation, we want to create great concert experiences. That’s where you come in - we want your feedback on Depeche Mode at Shoreline Amphitheatre. If you thought Depeche Mode was great, tell us. If you thought it was just okay, let us know.

I can't take the suspense: what will come next?

I'm finally beginning to get the sense that Live Nation is indeed in the entertainment business.

Zzzzz...

P.S. Any creative suggestions for feedback in response to their survey?

Do PR People Care About Customers At All?

The following is an excerpt from an email that landed in my inbox some 3 hours ago (the emphases are mine):

Depeche Mode has been forced to cancel their scheduled appearance on Wednesday, August 12th at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California due to doctor's orders that lead singer Dave Gahan be on complete vocal rest for 48 hours.
...
"San Francisco is one of the most important cities to the band and we are devastated that we have been forced to cancel this date," said Dave Gahan.

Perhaps I'm overly picky when I'm bummed, but I find this to be an insensitive choice of words. Is there anybody out there?

Zzzzz...