Dear Patrick R. Donahoe and Paul Vogel,

How many people change their address online versus the old and cumbersome paper way? I wonder if it is much less than expected. I expect it is. I also got to wondering if anyone in the Post Office knew why.

Here it is:

I had to change my address the other day. Finally got a new place to move into and out of limbo. The Post Office was filled with adverts telling me I could do it all online, where it would probably be faster, and more direct. I would get pretty quick e-mail notification, it probably goes straight into the USPS databases, effects my mailing address sooner, doesn't require someone to enter it in to the database and all that.

How much does it cost for someone to change their address? Online or by paper? I know the paper is more expensive. It has to be produced, first of all, and it can be mailed for free.

But online costs more for me.

But it wasn't the cost that made me mail in a change of address postcard. Changing my address online costs only a dollar. But it is the way that this dollar is charged.

It sets off my Scammer-Alert radar. Big time.

"Identity Verification: For your security, a valid debit or credit card must be charged $1.00."

That is a direct copy-and-paste from the website. Look at it again.

....For my security... I must be charged a dollar? After I filled out 4 other pages? My credit-card company might notify me of a single round dollar being charged to my card. It will ping on their professional Scammer-Alert radar. This is exactly how fake web-pages, Craigslist and email scammers operate. They don't reveal their plan until later in the game when you're a little bought into the process. I remember coming across a scammer page once which had an "about" section, a "history" and a "who we are" and it still wasn't real. I thought to myself, if they put as much effort into a legitimate business, they could probably succeed. But all they wanted to do was steal money from unsuspecting people.

I was confused. The web-page was https, but it was also a .com, rather than .org or .gov which did nothing to allay my suspicions, so I did a search. There were a lot of other people wondering if this was a scam, but it appeared that it wasn't. Which was still confusing. Why would an organization like the United States Postal Office have such a shady tactic? There are a lot of other ways to "be secure". If you need money, they just say it costs a dollar. Hell, charge five dollars. It has to cost something for you to change people's addresses, even if you have a vested interest in keeping an up-to-date mailing system complete with correct addresses. People might pay it.

But not if it say "Identity Verification: For your security, a valid debit or credit card must be charged $1.00."

That's just stupid. Identify some way that doesn't make people think your going to steal their credit card information and buy a plasma TV. Charge a dollar in an honest way.

I don't think government sponsored enterprises are inherently inferior to other enterprises, and I don't think the Post Office is, on the whole, so inefficient. I have very rarely had problems with my mail, receiving or sending, and it is usually earlier than the estimated time. I am impressed that I can send a letter to New York and it is there in about three days. That's faster than I could get there if it was the only thing I had to do.

But this is dumb. Sorry. Change it. Now.

Note:
Perhaps this is also for Nagisa Manabe, Joseph Corbett, and Megan J. Brennan. Forward it on.

Open/Libre Office

I use it only because it's the only thing, really. When is someone gonna make something just a little more useable?

"It is what it is"

When I started my last job, my boss would say this all of the time.

"It is what it is."

Perhaps I don't need to spell out her loss of hope and virility. Her dismal outlook on life. Her downfall. Her apparent desire to squelch optimism and independence out of other people because she lost her spunk a long time ago.

I think the quote does it pretty good justice.

The real sad thing is that it works. I started saying this too. At first I cringed at hearing anyone say it; then I got used to it. Then I would cringe when I said it; and then I got used to that too. I examined my own broken psychology a lot at this job. I am no more amazing than anyone else, really, even if it pains me to admit it sometimes. This phrase, and the attitudes that accompanied it, started to become mine as well.

Dun dun dun.

It really is an awful little slogan. And so patently untrue. Nothing must remain as it is, especially if it is bad or wrong. We all have a duty to resist it and to change it to something right and good.

Eventually it will. It can and it will.

Or we'll all go extinct. Which ever is first.

Which would you like?

Remember to be Positive...

I just began reading the introduction to Jane Goodall's book, Harvest of Hope.
   ...ug.

It is a hard way to begin a book and I had to put it down. Especially considering the book has the word hope in the title. I started to lose hope. I thought:

Must remember to start with the positive. I could write 10 thousand pages on the atrocities in the world now, past, and future. Perhaps it's just how my mind works. It is easy to see what is wrong; more difficult to see what is right

So: start with the positive. Some measure of "hope". Give people perusing your words something that they can DO. Something tangible. Some what and how, and maybe some where, First. Just not Why. Why is sad and takes the energy out of a caring Who, eager to get to that what and how.

Start: You are an amazing animal. Capable of one hundred miracles before breakfast and a hundred more uncounted. All of them taken for granted, but astounding miracles none-the-less. You can see, for starters, that is a pretty amazing trick when you stop to think about it. You can identify sounds and smells. Balance on your feet--that's a cool one we don't appreciate until it's gone. Your sense of balance is really rather uncanny. You can convert oxygen and a plethora of foods into ATP, energy, movement, and life. You can sequence DNA, reproduce your basic building blocks with some improvements and digressions. All this stuff we can do without even a careful thought. You are capable of emotions and thoughts and directing your life. you are capable of great good and your actions Do matter, more than you can tell. Just as all these mindless miracles matter.

The most amazing accomplishments of your life are the same as Michael Jordan's most amazing accomplishments. And they are just as impressive as the accomplishments of Genghis Khan and George Washington and Alexander the Great. Your little choices can matter as much as theirs as well. Your little choices Can change the world. Do not doubt your power. Nothing is unchangeable. Really, if you look back, things change remarkably fast.

So, yes, have some hope. And "Be the Change you with to See in the World". If it is eating local, supporting your fellow person, supporting no the millionaires. These little decisions can and do change things. Even if, at some level, they just get converted into little numbers in a massive database. They push the predictions one way and then another.

Corny enough?

Dear RTD

I have been an advocate for public transportation my entire life. And I still will be. We cannot afford to pollute this poor planet any more! We have already lost winter in Denver. But sadly, you have lost in me a very valuable customer and, over the next month or so, at least $100.

I realize that the bus waits for no one. But after missing connections, often because busses are over-filled, and paying $10 per day to suffer through this, and in the end having to call for other rides to pick up our stranded asses (which saves nothing for the environment) I wonder:

Where the hell is the lightrail? Why are we still using antiquated busses for public transportation in a city that is so supportive of this failing public transportation? As long as you interact with the regular traffic, you will be unreliable. And unusable for so many people. And now, that even includes me. Between the advertisements, the $2-5 fare, and the tax-payer support, and the paid parking, I find it hard to think that there isn't enough money to make this a little better.

Why aren't we getting better? Perhaps it is time that we demand something better.

So we will be finding ride-shares instead. Good bye, I hope you can figure out something in the future.