Photography with the Left Eye

The management at Photography with the Left Eye is always striving to improve your customer experience. And, as you know, the difficult economy has made it difficult to provide the same level of service as we have in the past; of course you are aware that other Left Eye Bloggers have adjusted their service levels, and as a result we must as well.

Finally, many of you are concerned about consequences of the blog post that we withdrew after it caused uncontrolled acceleration. Our CEO will be testifying before Congress shortly, but rest assured that we have taken steps to allow our readers to manually apply their brakes at any time while experiencing our blog posts, whether as a driver or passenger. We are certain that our political system is not responsible for any unintended acceleration, and are fully investigating all tea party and Glenn Beck mechanisms in our blogging systems.

With that said, we are immediately implementing a number of changes to enhance your experience. While we have previously allowed reading of posts in their entirely, we realize that not all customers need all aspects of our posts.

Beginning on December 14, 2005, we will implement a modest entry charge for all blog posts.

We will phase in the following other fees. (In order to be sure you don’t notice them, they will be listed as “information service fees” on your cell phone bill. What’s one more junk fee?)

Readers who actually read the text will receive a rebate, paid via a gift card for any Circuit City store.

Readers who only look at the photos will be billed additionally via your utility company, and will be eligible for a wide variety of products to enhance your sexual performance (check your email now…our system is so efficient that you may already have several!).

Comments will be free of charge, although any comment that flogs your get rich quick pyramid scheme will result in a recurring charge on your credit card bill, which can only be stopped by a personal visit to an unlisted address in Lagos, Nigeria.

Thank you for your patience. These changes will allow us to continue to provide the rich experience that you have come to expect from Photography from the Left Eye. We will continue to evaluate all of our revenue streams, and may make further adjustments to our payment policies from time to time. These changes will be reflected in our user agreement, which can be found on any public website.

Caitlin

I watched Sicko last night. Sure, Michael Moore gets in a lot of cheap shots, and sure, he’s a drama queen. But the shocking thing is the lead in…it’s not a movie about the 50 million americans without health insurance. Rather, it’s about the rest of us who do have insurance, but get sick and die because of the way policies are written in the US, as opposed to the rest of the western world.

Now, in the midst of the health care debate is time to watch it. And wonder who is behind all of the pressure to kill the public option. Sickening!

JessiK

Google, through its new-ish Google Voice* service, has proved that the cell phone providers in the US are price fixing.

My provider, T-Mobile, charges $0.20 per text message, for incoming and outgoing messages. Whether I want the message or not. So do the other big cell companies.

Google charges $0.00 per text message, for incoming and outgoing messages.

The real cost is somewhere in between. I think the real cost is much, much closer to the amount that Google charges. Let’s say $0.0001/msg. It’s probably less than that. But I will be generous, and even allow the providers to make 100% profit on their messaging service. So charge me $0.0002/message. But I am a little tired of being the (often unwilling) profit center for the cell companies.

FCC, are you listening?

*The Google Voice service was reviewed here last week. Mostly it is a good and accurate review, but as the comments point out, there are two errors:
-Contrary to the article, ALL US calls are free
-You can make a call from any of the phones you associate with your GV service…you do not need to be at or near your computer.

Krista

I had a little trip to Chicago last week, where I did many architecturally related things, as do many visitors. One of those was to visit the skydeck of what was once known as the Sears Tower (don’t bother–it’s a waste of money and time, but that’s for a Yelp post).

After many snaking lines, we were presented with a series of metal detectors and airport type luggage scanners, through which you had to pass to continue on to the next series of lines.

Here’s the surprising thing. I was not surprised. There was no notice of these devices at the entrance. There was nothing about them on their website. But I was not surprised. We’ve become a society that accepts, and even expects, invasive security measures at every turn. We don’t ask why we need them, or what we are being protected from*. We just move through like sheep. Sad.

*The obvious answer is that this is a big ole’ building, and the “trrists” would want to do terrible things to it. Even if that were true, the “security” is in the basement, in a room that has concentrated a larger number of people than even are up on the Skydeck. On the one hand, if some crazy came in with something intended to hurt people (ie, gun, gas, bad jokes), that room was the perfect place, and “security” would matter not one whit. On the other hand, if someone wanted to do damage on the skydeck, they would most like harm themselves and a few others. The greatest potential for harm is simply where the Skydeck owners have concentrated the largest group of people.

A simple portrait of Kristina.

Dealing with a loved one who has end stage terminal disease is wrenching. The people (usually close relatives) who have to carry out that person’s wishes (assuming they were expressed ahead of time) has to do so with compassion and wisdom, all the while watching a person who was once vital deteriorate and suffer. Often these people become someone else…whether due to the disease or the drugs used in treatment.

I was in that situation not long ago, and I was lucky that my siblings and I together worked through it, and that my parents didn’t suffer too much, it was something I would wish on nobody–but something most of us will face.

That is why it is stunning for the Republicans, and a certain failed vice presidential candidate, have created a vast lie ("death panels") from a provision in the health bill that allows for end of life counseling. It is certainly why we haven’t heard the word “compassionate” anywhere near the term “conservative” for a good long while.

These people will simply stoop to the most blatant of lies to prevent any kind of health insurance reform. It’s a bit trite, but it seems more and more true that the members of Congress who are opposing the bill are doing so…because they have health insurance. And that’s all that counts.

(Anon.)