Rants

I just spent a little bit of time doing what I was starting to feel like was the only reason why I even went back to the Facbook website: blocking applications that people I was connected with were using because I just don't have an interest in what Facebook game, Facebook quiz or Facebook 3rd-party-app feature most people use beyond the small set I use myself, for my own purposes.
After blocking the eighth facebook app, I started to get a little angry. At least two of these apps I thought I had blocked before. Either there is yet another app on facebook with this or that name, or an app I already blocked has spawned another app to get around the fact that people block it. I really don't care. I'm tired of it. I really only want to see status updates from people that are actually put onto facebook by a person deciding there is something they want to add to facebook, not an automatically generated posting made by a game teasing me with information that I can't get to, because I don't use the app.
I'm sorry; I'm not going to add an app just to see 1 more line of text, and let yet another group mine my information without any value to me.

Part the First: What the hell is going on here

The original idea for this post came kind of early in the year. Of course the problem is at that time of the year, everyone is doing these kind of posts. Programs of all sorts look back on their pasts, talk about current projects and dream about their futures. Toking at some of the title these kind of things get, plays on the US State of the Union, I realized that I am able to do is speak for myself.

And thus the title, “State of this Human.”

The next time the idea of this post came up was around the time of my birthday. And that just seemed rather boring. But the idea kept.

This week (or two) I'm here alone. Seemed like a reasonably good time to be a little bit introspective.

Part the Second: Life in general

Would statistics work here for starting things off? 37. Overweight. Underpaid. How about some categorical assignments? Husband, Father of 2 boys, Technology Consultant. Insomniac.

The phrase that has seemed to sum up everything for me for the last couple of years has been “I'm not really all that interesting.”

The new thing happening on Facebook is their pushing their "automatic Friend Finder." And honestly, I find that their method is overly aggressive and borders on offensive.
I know that a lot of services have a feature where an address book, instant messaging roster and other services' roster and search for people who are also using the service in question, but please don't lie to people saying I found most of my friends this way. And yet, Natalie gets a banner stating that I used the service they're pushing (to mind my non-Facebook contact data) to find "many of my friends." Me? ORLY? I don't think so.
As I've said before, I do not normally add people, even people I think I know well enough to add, until I get a request from the person. It's really the only way I won't feel guilty about the amount of quality of the noise I sometimes tend to post.

I titled the last post , and honestly, I talked about the spaghetti monster map, not about Social Media. So, the title wasn't honest. And the content was clearly on the side of snoring-at-the-keyboard boring.

Really, social media has not changed my life. Not that much, if at all. I still sit in loft here at the house working everyday. I am sitting here alone. I am answering questions via phone, work's instant messging system and e-mail. I do usually have an app or two running on one of the machines that monitors some of the social networking sites where there are people I actually might follow, and Linux apps exist to present the activity/update/life stream.
And watching, normally just out of the corner of my eye is pretty much all I do. I don't interact. I don't participate in any of that Social Network's games. And I most certainly don't let those games or apps or whatever have posting rights to my activity stream. That way leads madness.
Yes, I'm boring.

Tonight we went back to the Max & Erma's on Virginia Beach Blvd for the first time in about three years. And I don't think I will ever be going back.

When we first moved to Virginia Beach, we spent a lot of time in the area of Pembroke Mall. This was mostly because we didn't know the area, and there were things to do up that way. One of the restaurants we thought were good at that time was Max & Erma's. It wasn't overly complicated. It had a decent menu. It wasn't a bad place to bring the kids. But the feeling didn't last.

Over a period of a couple of visits, we couldn't help but notice a steady decline in the quality of the service. The place was always clean and I can't think of a problem with the wait staff, but other things were problems. Most of the problems we were having were that it was taking longer and longer for the orders to come out. And parts of orders were starting to be forgotten. And with small kids, that was starting to be a serious issue. I couldn't help but notice that not only was I waiting a long time for food to arrive, but I was also waiting so long for the check and then my card that Natalie started taking the boys out to the car while I would sit there alone for 20 minutes or so at a time.

Eventually, I just decided we were never going to go there again. And that was three years ago.

(This isn't the only restaurant I feel this way about and the story is almost the same for those, too.)

Tonight, Natalie really wanted to go give Max & Erma's another try. She had a coupon. She was tired after doing a whole day's work at school and then straightening up the garage so we could fit a "new" freezer we had acquired. I decided that maybe three years was long enough, and maybe Max & Erma's would be better now.

I expected the worst, but hoped for the best. I was left disappointed.

I sent an update to the social networking sites I when we put the order in for our meals. Nothing complicated. The kids ordered kid food-a cheeseburger and corn dogs. Natalie ordered a burger and I ordered a really simple chicken dish. I didn't think it was anything all that complicated. Not at all.

All the while I was pinging along on my phone. Jake was finishing his homework. Sam was playing on his DS. Natalie and I were talking. And then it started to feel like it was taking a long time. The place really wasn't that busy.

According to my Plurk timeline, we placed our order at 18:40. The waiter, Will (who was really doing a good job) apologized at 19:20 about the food being late. That really got my attention. At least that was an improvement over the last time I was there. That time they didn't even bother to talk to us between ordering and delivery (and I lost track of time with my tempter). Will did a good job.

The food did arrive at 19:25.

Did I mention that it was a kid's cheeseburger, corndog bites, adult burger and a easy chicken dish? The whole thing should have taken less than 10 minutes to cook. We hadn't ordered any starters when we sat down, because we were worried that was what killed the pacing the last time we were there (and the cookie order just completely screwed that night 3 years ago).

At the point that the food arrived, I was looking at my feed on Twitter. 43 minutes.

Yes, 43 minutes.

I asked the waiter if there was a problem in the kitchen. I didn't actually expect him to say yes.

I filled the manager in on the fact that we had a series of bad experiences at that location three years ago. And that this visit was really their last chance at convincing me that the Max & Erma's brand was worth attention, time or business.

We did get an explanation about what the problem was in the kitchen. It was the kid's cheeseburger. Seems that earlier in the week the kitchen had run out of kid sized hamburger patties. While waiting for the order, the kitchen had been hand modifying adult hamburgers to fit the kid's buns. Seems the cook tonight didn't know that, and the manager had to cook Jake's burger himself because no one in the kitchen could understand what they had been doing all week (and I assume all night).

I thanked the manager (I'm sorry I don't remember his name. He was very nice, understanding and I would say professional). And I explained to him that this was exactly the same kind of problem we saw with the restaurant three years ago, and I didn't think I was ever going to go back.

We ended up skipping desert (made up to the boys at Cold Stone Creamery). We did get 25% knocked off the bill, and coupons for free stuff there for another trip. Natalie took the coupons. I don't think I will ever be going back to that location. I may be soured on the brand enough that I don't think I will be setting foot in another Max & Erma's for a good long time.

I did tip the waiter, Will, on the full amount of the check. He worked really hard and it seems caused a bit of a problem in the kitchen trying to get us our food. I appreciated the effort.

I also appreciated what the manager was trying to do.

Max & Erma's-I don't care what your website says. You're not "a better place to eat."