As a soccer coach, I have to leave Nashville every Tuesday and Thursday to get to Smyrna as close to 6pm as I can get. That means my wife has to leave her job a little early downtown, come pick me up in Hillsboro Village, and then we join the mad rush of commuters trying to get the heck home headed Eastbound on I-24. However, without fail, every Tuesday and Thursday, traffic is unbelievably busy. It’s not even stop ‘n go, it’s stop ‘n stop. There is no rhyme or reason why it should be this way - logically speaking, you would think the traffic would be the busiest (both East and Westbound) on a Monday and Friday, the two days when people have to return to work, and the other where they can’t wait to leave. But no; for some reason, the traffic on a Tuesday and Thursday are the worst. I’ll give you a couple of examples. On Monday morning, it took us approximately 25-30 minutes to get to work and approximately 30 minutes to get home. This morning (Wednesday) it took us around 25 minutes to get to work and about the same to get home. Yesterday (Tuesday), it took us 45 minutes to get to work and an hour-and-a-quarter to get to Smyrna - an hour-and-a-bloody-quarter for a thirty-minute journey! There was no fender-bender, no police hold-up - it was all traffic congestion.

“But Internet Monkeh, surely you’re leaving different times so the traffic is different?” Nope. My wife and I generally leave the house around the same time and leave our workplaces at the same time.

I have a solution that will solve the traffic crisis, boost jobs, put money back into the local economy and help the environment - the Music City Star train needs to be available as an option for Rutherford County commuters. The current route that is shown on the RTA website has the train headed out to Lebanon from Riverfront via Donelson, Hermitage, Mt. Juliet and Martha. I pulled this copy straight from their website:

RTA has provided Middle Tennessee with commuter rail service between Lebanon and Nashville since September 18, 2006. The RTA Music City Star makes trips to and from Lebanon and downtown Nashville Monday through Friday during peak rush hours, and makes an evening run on Fridays.

Oh, really? That hub of activity that is Lebanon gets train service while the county with one of the largest housing developments in the country has to fight it out on the interstate. Don’t even mention the bus service as being a viable option - all the buses I’ve ever gotten into Nashville have always been standing room only. It’s a joke. Even worse, in bold white text in the footer of the MTA website is the text RTA is a Clean Air Partner of Middle Tennessee. Oh, really? If you’re that concerned about the environment, let’s get serious and give the thousands of commuters who travel both ways on I-24 another option. If a train can be operated to Lebanon, then surely one can be operated to Rutherford County.

I’d be interested to know from media outlets such as @wkrn if this option has ever been explored. If it has, what’s the status? If it hasn’t, why not? It’s not like it’s not needed.

If you use I-24 as part of your daily commute to the office I’d love to hear your opinion.

I got one of those emails a few weeks ago, you know, the ones where they say that your image has been chosen to be featured in some online publication. But wait, this one was for real. I was notified by an Emma J Williams, Managing Editor of Schmap Guides, that one of my pictures (this one) was on the shortlist to be featured in a Schmapp Nashville Guide.

Good right? Well hold on there one second - these emails are surely sent out all the time? I did a bit of research and sure enough, Schmap is a legit online guide. About 2 weeks later I was sent another email to let me know that my image had made it and was selected for inclusion in the newly released seventh edition of our Schmap Nashville Guide with full credit.

Brilliant - cheers Schmap!

As part of my job as SEO Manager at Sitening, I get to contribute to the Raven blog (Raven is the most powerful suite of Internet Marketing tools available online). The Raven blog is read by Search industry professionals from across the country. This means that articles on the Raven blog need to be well written, of high-quality, provide useful information and be thought provoking. As a contributor, my posts not only represent my professional thoughts, they also represent Raven and Sitening.

So it’s a huge honour personally and professionally to have one of the articles I authored, 7 Social Media Websites and Their Impact on SEO, listed as one of the best internet marketing posts of 2008 (scroll down to Social Media: Strategy for Social Sites - mine is the third one down). I’m particularly honored  because the winners were chosen by Tamar Weinberg, Managing Editor at Search Engine Roundtable and owner of Techipedia.

That should just about do it…now it’s time to kick some arse.

So in October of 2007, I picked up my console from Best Buy and all was going fine until I got the dreaded Red Ring of Death. My XBox would play for a short while, freeze, then give me the red lights. This continued to get worse until I couldn’t use my console at all. I contacted XBox customer support and they gave me a cheat sheet of steps to try out to save me from shipping my machine. Unfortunately, none of those steps worked and so I had to ship it off. They sent me a box and UPS label to send it in, and then sent me my replacement back in around nine or ten days. Not a bad turn around time.

Cue last weekend - the games I played began to skip and jump. Not cool. I switched discs and sure enough, it happened with each one. Then the screen went a weird green colour and looked all washed out. Again, I changed discs, rebooted, and did all the things they tell you to do at the Microsoft support site - none of which worked. I did some checking into the warranty and this is where it gets all murky, what I like to call misty buff.

The three year warranty only covers ‘hardware failures’ - or errors deemed to be caused by a hardware malfunction. In other words, unless your XBox 360 craps out and shows the red ring of death, you’re out of luck and have to stump up almost $110. After looking at online forums and YouTube videos of my issue, it seems that it’s not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently it’s a video card issue resulting from over-heating (my apologies for playing on my console for over three hours).

The way I saw it, I had three options:

1. Go out and purchase a new 360
2. Stump up the $106 to get it repaired
3. Pitch a hissy fit on the phone to Xbox support.

There was no way I was choosing option number 1, putting more money into Microsoft’s coffers? Heck no. Again, choice number two was out, why should I have to pay for repairs on the console that they sent me? So I was left with option number three - and that is exactly what I did about two hours ago…

I was in no mood to beat around the bush, my machine going out at all is bad enough, but over the Christmas holiday period? Even worse. However, I retained my composure and called the support number. The service rep I spoke to explained to me that even though it was indeed a hardware issue, it was not covered under my warranty for my original 360 and that I would have to pay for it to be repaired. I told him that this was the console they sent me, and that it should last longer than an obligatory seven or eight months before it bites the dust.

After much back and forth in the conversation here’s how it went down:

Rep: “I understand that you’re having some hardware difficulties sir, but that’s why we have these kind of warranty’s and you did have the choice to renew it..”

Uh-oh, he just committed the ultimate customer service faux-pas, putting the blame on the customer.

Me: “Why should I have to pay for something you sent me to replace the original one that crapped out? That’s a pretty crappy warranty if you ask me.”

Rep: “Let me go ask a supervisor to see if there’s anything I can do..”

A few minutes later…

Rep: “Sir, I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do because your warranty expired in October 08″

Me: “So you’re telling me that because I chose not to renew the warranty on a machine that lasted less than 8 months, which was sent by Microsoft, that I have to pay for something that is not my fault?”

Rep: “That’s correct sir, unfortunately even though it’s a hardware issue it’s not covered by warranty”

I’d heard this warranty crap long enough. I don’t mind paying for something if it’s because of something I’ve let happen or if it were an old machine and I needed to get a new one. But there was no way on God’s green earth I was going to pay for damage that happened to a console I had less than eight months. We were about 15 minutes into the conversation at this point.

Me: “Can I speak to a supervisor please?”

I must have waited for another 15 minutes before someone called ‘Frasier’ came on the line. Frasier asked me if I was given a reference number by the last service rep..

Me: “No, I think he was pretty sick of me.”

Frasier: “Ok, so can you please explain to me the problem you’re having?”

I told him what was going on with the video being messed up and that this was the XBox I was sent by Microsoft to replace my original.

Frasier: “Sir, I can tell you’re very frustrated. I can’t offer you the repair for free but would you be willing to come to a compromise?”

Me: “Sure, what do you have in mind?”

Frasier: “How about 50% off the repair price and an extra one year warranty plus some free months on XBox live?”

Me: “Done!”

Frasier was then quiet for a point after he’d took my details…

Frasier: “Uh, sir, do you mind if I ask you what your nationality is?”

Me: “Hah, sure - I’m English”

Frasier: “I was gonna say man, you don’t sound like you’re from Tennessee!”

After that he confirmed that he would be sending me a box and a shipping label to send off my damaged XBox and that I would receive it within a few days, and that’s how it ended.

Before the conversation began with the first rep I was prepared to give a little ground to gain some, but I knew what my boundaries were and I wouldn’t cross them. I was ready to come online and start a viral campaign against Microsoft explaining what a bitter experience I had and that they were just money sucking vagabonds.

However, I’m very pleased with how this was settled. It’s easy to forget that behind the large corporations are people who have to feed their families, pay the mortgage, buy Christmas presents for the kids and listen to people like me day after day whinge about something that they have nothing to do with.

Dear Microsoft, please employ more people like Frasier, your company will be a lot better off because of them.

Purr rocks if you like cats, but what if you think cats are sinister, viscious beings who set foot on earth preparing for world domination? Well my friends, I have good news. You can take any picture in your library and add it to Purr. Take my Boscos beer mug for example - I am now the proud owner of a purring cup of ale, all thanks to Purr.

See Bob’s domain video segment in full.

I doubt that it will be as cool as this though: