1 Happy St

This is a fascinating article. Apparently scientists have discovered why our mind plays tricks on us when we look at optical illusions.

The reason, as my tiny mind understands it, is that our eyes see things one tenth of a second before our brain processes it. To compensate for the lag, our brain predicts what we're going to see before we do.

Optical illusions are caused when our brain predicts what it is we are looking at based on our, expectations, preconceived notions or personal biases.

I just love this kind of stuff, but now my head hurts from thinking about it.

Earlier today I had an on-site meeting with my customer. The security over there is pretty tight, so every visitor has to go through a checkpoint right at the door. They make you fill out a form with your name, the company you're representing, who you're there to visit, etc. Then you give the form to the security guard and he prints you out an ID sticker. I couldn't help but laugh when he printed mine. I had Donald take my picture once I got back to my office.

[Note: the blacked out portion is my customer's company name. It's a pretty big company, so I'm sparing them any embarrassment]

Those people who have "Thank you" in their email signature, but type "Thank you" at the end of their emails anyway, so you'll see something like this:

Brain,

Blah blah blah blah I'm an idiot, so can you do me a favor and blah blah blah please kill me?

Thank you,

Thank you,
Johnny McMoron

Johnny McMoron, you're a dumbass. Fix your email signature already.

The following is a snippet [still a good word] of a real conversation I just had with a customer of mine:

Raphael: "Thank you for calling ************, this is Raphael, how may I help you?"

Brian: "Hi Raphael, this is Brian."

Raphael: "Hi Bondo. How may I help you?"

Earlier today, I was part of a large CC of people in an email from a friend of mine. It went a little something like this: "Hey you guys, just a reminder it's Jeremy's birthday on Saturday, so don't forget to wish him a happy birthday."

Thanks for the heads up, right? Of course. Either I wasn't part of the CC to remind everyone what tomorrow is, or I don't rate all that highly within my group of friends.

My sensitivity strikes again.

You remember this story from 2 weeks ago, right? It was a recap of the less-than-stellar customer service I received from Home Depot where they talked me into signing up for a new credit card. Over the weekend, I received that card in the mail, but my name was misspelled on the statement and the card itself. Yep, I'm Brain.

Admittedly, this happens to me all the time. I can't even tell you how many times I've received an email or something from someone where they start off by calling me Brain. Pointing out the error to the people who do it is something that I gave up a long time ago because it really is a common mistake for people. For whatever reason, they can't grasp the difference. But this time, it's not an email mistake; this is on a brand new credit card. We're not starting off on the right foot here.

So I called their customer service number and I explained to gum-chewing customer service rep Tessa that I just signed up for this card 2 weeks ago, but I'm reluctant to activate it because on it, my name is spelled B-R-A-I-N rather than B-R-I-A-N. A simple problem and a quick fix, right?

Yet here I sit on the phone on hold while gum-chewing customer service representative Tessa investigates my problem.

A good few minutes goes by before she finally comes back. "So your name is spelled B-R-A-I-N, right?"

"No," I say. "That's what it shows on the card, but it's wrong."

[momentary silence]

"Oh," she says. "So you spell it with a Y?"

Fantasmic.

[Editor's Note: If any of you can guess what Brainy Brian is (as mentioned in this blog title), you get a gold star]