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Season’s Greetings Saturday, December 13, 2003
Merry Christmas to those of you who live in a place where a fat old man in a furry red suit doesn’t look absolutely stupid. I feel your pain if you are trying to celebrate Christmas somewhere in the tropics. Fortunately for Warren he has always lived someplace where it was at least cool during December. Tokyo very seldom has snow in December, but at least our house in Tsukuba gets so cold at night that I can imagine I am back in Massachusetts or Vermont. I will mention Vermont again further on. Thanks to all of you who sent us cards. Actually, there are not that many cards as Warren’s pool of relatives (at least his generation) is shrinking and Warren & Kuniko gave up sending cards long ago. In place of cards Warren has tried to write and send a letter like this each year. But, seldom does he get it written and even less often does he actually have the courage to send what he has written. This year I think I am on fairly safe ground. Warren and Kuniko are both alive. The doctors shake their heads and say “This test result is too high but I haven’t a clue as to why. Come back in six months and we will put you through the dock again.” And, on the business side, the old style book and magazine subscription business is dying, but our tiny little company with a big name (Intercontinental Marketing Corporation) survives and may actually have adjusted to the new (and still unsure) realities of tomorrow’s information business. Perhaps more on that before the end of this. On Friday Kuniko stood in the middle of the office and asked for projections of money that would be coming in before yearend. No money in, no yearend bonus. The stark reality of being a small company in this very difficult book business. She soon got numbers and decided on bonus ... yearend bonus will equal two-month’s salary (about the expected norm). The only person who is not allowed to get a bonus is Warren. Employees get bonuses, not the owner. Before I get off this first page I want to say that Warren will if possible vote for the man from Vermont in the next Presidential Election. This represents a big turnaround for Warren who has spent most of his life hating the state of Vermont. Warren started school in the first grade at a one-room school house in the small town of Weston, Vermont. Starting school in that isolated town was a shock, but when it came time for Warren to use the toilet he saw (what looked to him like) a gigantic hole in the floor. Nothing to sit on. Just a hole big enough to fall into. Gabrielle (Warren’s mother, also known as Gaby, Mud, and Bum) didn’t much like Weston either. Our rented house was huge, but all rooms had to be shut off during the winter. The only heat was the kitchen stove. Gaby soon moved us to Rutland and Warren entered primary school again but only briefly. First, he almost died at Christmas due to eating a piece of brazil nut (severe allergy). Then one morning during recess at school he slipped on the ice. Kids from the mentally-challenged class piled on top of Warren. They were older, bigger, heavier and broke his leg in three places. He was in the hospital or nursing home for six months. The next school year was spent in Florida repeating the first grade. Warren didn’t catch up with his age group until he graduated from high school. It was a long long time before he could have any good thoughts about Vermont. But, the guy from Vermont appears to be the only Democrat who has brains and guts. Warren’s political feelings are that the man in the White House should be returned to Texas, preferably quickly and in chains, but it would be no gain for the USA if he were replaced by a carbon copy from the Democratic Party. Can’t say that we get a lot of news here in Tokyo or that the news we get is a good cross-section of the facts, but I do think that we get a better selection of news from NHK than most Americans see from TV. NHK is the government supported equivalent of PBS but much much stronger. NHK is more like BBC (which we see on one of the NHK channels). We daily get to see a selection of news broadcasts (translated to Japanese by NHK) from Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Spain, Germany, France, Russia. And sometimes from other countries. I almost forgot to mention ABC, CNN, etc. I may have it wrong, but the guy from Vermont at least sounds like he is opposed to killing people in the name of Christianity and democracy. I think Jesus would have opposed the skunk. Don’t get me wrong, Warren is not against war when it is needed, he is not against the death penalty when it is right. Warren is against killing civilians “by mistake” and brushing it off as collateral damage. For Warren personally, the simple fact is that it doesn’t matter one damn who is in the White House. The overseas American has no real say in the American democracy. No help when unemployed. No Medicare or Medicaid. No protection from terrorism. No schools (except for military and embassy staff). Get in trouble and you are on your own. ENOUGH.
THE STORY – Kuniko and the Computer
Ignore the computer details in the following if you don’t care about computers.
When companies become too big they become inhuman. This is a story of Kuniko and Sony. Warren is writing this using his PCG-GRV550 (Sony laptop). He doesn’t like Microsoft and stays away from that company’s products in so far as possible, but this computer is running Windows XP and this letter is being written using Microsoft Word 2002. This machine was purchased from CompUSA (which was most unhelpful when there was a minor problem) and it is a fine machine even if it doesn’t always seem to be as fast as its 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor should be. Kuniko’s computer is a similar but older Sony (Vaio PCGFX77GBP) laptop running Windows ME (Japanese version). It cost about $2,500 including tax 2.5 years ago. Kuniko is not a geek, and she doesn’t like to complain, so the little shortcomings of her computer were perhaps not taken seriously enough. An addition of 256MB more RAM didn’t help. Warren’s assistance and tweaking didn’t help. Several visits to the Sony Service Center (now not giving any service) didn’t help. Kuniko struggled on. In late November this year the monitor of Kuniko’s computer blinked like a fluorescent light that was about to die. It died dead. The nice bright backlit monitor went black. Warren attached an old monitor from an old computer that was about to be trashed. He succeeded in transferring all important files to another computer, but that computer is used by another person and Kuniko has only limited chances to use it. Warren’s three computers are fundamentally English-only. Kuniko must do a lot of communicating and catalog work in Japanese. Warren does not want to buy a new computer for Kuniko. This is not the right time of year to rush out and buy a computer. Within a couple of months there will be new models that are faster, more readily handle TV, DVD, etc. And they will probably be cheaper after New Years. Warren suggests (urges) Kuniko call Sony’s free-dial Help number. After long waits and switching from person to person, she finally reaches someone who seems to know something. It is decided that Sony will tell a delivery company to pick up the computer the next day. There is no discussion of cost or of why the monitor died. The Sony person seems to think that Kuniko has done something wrong and that killed the monitor. Warren doesn’t believe Kuniko did anything wrong. Sony doesn’t really explain. Kuniko does not like Sony trying to shift the blame to her. No, when buying the computer we did not pay extra for a 3-year warranty, but we do expect courteous and knowledgeable responses from Sony. (Even the police were courteous and knowledgeable when they booked Warren for speeding 61kph in a 40kph zone this morning.) The computer was picked up next morning as promised, and then began a one-week wait. During that week we learned from other sources something of what could go wrong and what costs might be. We also learned that Sony monitors had a reputation for failure. Not substantiated but seeds of doubt were planted. Warren’s Sony laptop has a beautiful monitor that shows no signs of the monitor problems that Kuniko had. Warren’s older HP (Pavilion N5195) laptop’s monitor sometimes gets a bit wavy but it is perhaps 4-years old and has seen a lot of rough wear. Warren and Kuniko develop a lowered opinion of Sony. We think we will have to pay something to Sony to fix the monitor and that will only partly solve the problems with the computer. When the week passes we get a call from Sony. The monitor died, will have to be replaced, that will cost over $1,000. Kuniko will not happily pay anything. Why pay so much just to repair an old computer. Warranty be damned, that computer was a lemon. Sony should at least be reasonable. Sony’s attitude stinks. It is uncaring. At least a geek should come on the phone and give a good explanation. Instead Kuniko is told that we must pay $1,000 to have the monitor fixed. If we refuse to have it fixed, Sony will charge $250 for “looking” at the computer, even though the man on the phone doesn’t know what was wrong. Kuniko goes ballistic. Warren switches the phone away from Kuniko to Mr. Fujimoto. Fujimoto loves a fight. He was an accountant and loves details (of the sort that Warren hates) and he soon has the jerk at Sony cornered. Kuniko gets her computer back, without cost, and still unrepaired. Sony refused to divulge the address of the office (service center, or whatever) where our computer was taken. My guess is that they are afraid too many disgruntled customers will come pounding on their doors. Even the delivery company they use (UPS type) did not put the Sony destination on their forms and refused to say more. Warren decides that we must immediately buy a new computer for Kuniko but he does not want to make the selection himself. Kuniko must go to Akihabara (Tokyo’s center for computers and electronics) alone and look. A key point, not mentioned so far, is that Kuniko has been complaining about the readability of the laptop’s monitor. She spends hours every day looking at the monitor. I want to be sure that she gets a computer/monitor that she can be comfortable with. Today she could easily buy a good looking (and better than her laptop) Sotec, eMachine, or Mouse computer for $1,000. She must find what she can be comfortable with. It is a rainy Friday (yesterday). In the morning Kuniko went to a couple doctors to find out the results of tests. Good. She is told that she has the bone density of a 30-year-old, not bad for a wife of the geriatric Warren. In the afternoon. Kuniko goes out on bicycle to visit banks and government offices in our vicinity. She is feeling good despite the rain. She decides to go to Akihabara on her own. She doesn’t “like” Akihabara. Too many men, dark atmosphere despite the noise and neon, computer-game-playing, porno-loving men. Too dirty. No nice department stores with fashions and perfumes. No tea shops. Few women. She looks and looks at computers and monitors, but she is still seething at Sony; so …. Kuniko goes to the big department-store-size shop where her laptop was purchased. She sees the Sony representative in the Sony section. Turns out that he is just a part time employee of Sony and he is no match for Kuniko. There is a conversation, something like. Sony: “I am very sorry. It is regrettable that the computer was less than you expected.” Kuniko: “So what. Your regrets don’t help me.” Sony: “I really regret it but monitors sometimes fail.” Kuniko: “Our other monitors, older ones, from other makers, don’t fail. Is Sony such poor quality?” Sony part time man, trying to escape from having this complaining woman in the middle of the Sony area where there are a number of listening potential customers: “I will take you to the Service Counter.” Kuniko follows to the service counter. Here the Sony man grabs a man from the store (probably telling him to take care of this witch) and Kuniko begins explaining the problem. She does not have the computer with her, or the receipt. (Truth is that Warren has already been to the Service Counter a day earlier where he talked with a most unhelpful woman.) But, the store finds that we are listed in their customer list. Kuniko is stubborn. She takes one hour, stands holding her ground with a what-are-you-going-to-do-for-me-attitude. The store relents, truly we sold you a Sony lemon, we will repair it, no charge. Kuniko, phones Warren. She is on her way back to the office. Warren must get the car, get the computer, and be ready to rush to the store with Kuniko immediately, before the store changes its mind. Near total success. Back to the store. Warren does not go in. This is Kuniko’s fight. She comes out smiling. The store had already started to change its mind … probably not free but not expensive. Probably she will have to wait two or three weeks. At least the financial damage has been limited. We can be sure of getting a professional job done, not just the incompetent runaround that Sony first offered, and the cost will be sensible. Kuniko will still need a new computer. To Warren the main plus from all of this hassle is that Kuniko now knows vastly more about computers than she knew one month ago. She can fight with computer people the same way she previously fought with cosmetics salespersons in department stores. She is getting to know better what she likes and dislikes in computers.
Friday night, back in our new mansion (yes, our apartment in Tokyo
changed in November, but no change to our mail address, etc), Kuniko,
for the first time in her life, happily sits down at Warren’s old
computer and begins searching for a “mook” (mook = magazine-book). She
had started reading the mook in the doctor’s office that morning but it
was not on sale at the bookshops nearby and she didn’t remember the
exact name or the publisher. Three hours later, after Warren
has gone to sleep, she finds the mook. She orders it from Amazon.co.jp. ………………HUSSEIN
IS FOUND.... The world has been saved, Japan
too! One of the great things about World War II was that Japan was given a Constitution that prohibited it from ever again having an Army, Navy, Air Force, etc. Ever since then the USA has been trying to get Japan to rearm. Neighboring countries don’t want a strong military Japan. Iraq became a great chance for the USA to pressure Japan. P.M. Koizumi is caught between militarists (there are still plenty here) and the bulk of the people who see no need to get involved in a U.S. war. Sony and Toyota don’t want to lose profitable markets. Now Hussein has been found, Japanese “Self Defense Force” personnel can safely go to Iraq. Koizumi wins. Warren will vote for the guy from Vermont. He has the guts to stick by his convictions, and I think they are pretty near to being right. Kuniko, for once, agrees.
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