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I recently became aware of an outfit called DisabilityHelpInc that I thought would be able to help me, a person of moderate tolerance and low perseverance navigate the wretchedly byzantine disability system we have. (Maybe it's not, but it scares and bewilders me.) I called them recently and had ... well, maybe you oughta read the letter I wrote a supervisor. So far as I know, I'll never get to send it; I'll have to talk to them on the phone, but this helped me get my thoughts in order. It will also serve to remind me of what happened.
DisabilityHelpInc supervisor:
My name is John, and I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury in 1984. Since then I have been struggling quite a bit with many things, one of them being the byzantine disability system. When I found out about your organization, I breathed a sigh of relief because I thought you may be able to get me some of the assistance I've needed.
For a week or two I have been playing phone tag with Patty in your call center. I was finally able to get ahold of her this afternoon around 4pm CST -- but I really wish I hadn't. Patty provided appallingly bad customer service, and I really feel that I was discriminated against.
Throughout the entire process, Patty's voice was flat and disinterested. When I explained my problem to her, she asked me "How long ago did you see a doctor about this?" A fair question, but one I didn't recall the answer to: the last time I'd seen a professional about this particular problem was a year or two ago when I had insurance to help me pay for it. I told Patty that I didn't remember, and she said something on the order of "Well, we need to know this, because it gets better. It goes away."
My mouth fell open. Brain injury does NOT go away. I have MRI films that prove there is permanent structural damage to my brain. Even now, 23 years later, it is still difficult for me to marshal my thoughts, I have problems with memory, depression, motivation, and so on. I was outraged at the sheer level of ignorance that Patty displayed, but I did my best to laugh and shrug it off.
Next she wanted to know my level of income. Again, fair enough, but I was not prepared for the question. "I don't know," I stated. "Well, how are you meeting your expenses?" came her reply. I sketched an outline of how I'm meeting bills, and she said something like "We need to know exactly."
"Fine," I said. "Email me all the questions you need answers to, and I'll try and get them for you."
"We don't do email. If you want to proceed, we have to do it over the phone," she replied. "Do you want to proceed?"
"Yes, I guess," I said after a while. "What is all the information you need?" I was going to write it down myself.
"We need income ..." she continued in the same aggravating flat tone of voice.
"Income, I know," I interrupted. "What other information do you need?"
And she hung up on me. She hung up on me.
Shortly thereafter I called back and spoke with Angela, who I asked to connect me with a supervisor. Angela seemed a good deal more pleasant than Patty did. She told me that the supervisor was out for the day, and would I like their voicemail? Sure, I said, and was connected with what sounded like a general mailbox.
I am appalled and outraged at the atrocious customer service and sheer ignorance displayed by Patty. As I said above, I feel that I've been discriminated against -- I should not have to educate Patty on the severity and repercussions of traumatic brain injury.
Thanks for your attention to this matter.
John
Tunes: Heather Nova - Make You Mine |
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I'm thinking about getting a Bluetooth headset for my new phone. What are your experiences and/or recommendations with these?Tunes: Lee Spencer & Johnny Klimek - Running One (Large Mix) |
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Plurk -- it's like Twitter, sorta, only more reliable, apparently more geared towards 'real people,' and it's my latest foray into the microblogging kick I'm currently on.
A lot of the buzz around the web says that Plurk is 'better' than Twitter, in the sense of less downtime, more customizable, a different interface, and a lot of other things I can't remember right now.
It's also better in the sense that there's no way (currently) for Plurk to export things to LiveJournal, so you will undoubtedly be glad to know that I'm sparing whatever plurking I manage to do.
And yes, they've made the word into a verb. And a noun, and an adjective, and a descended-past-participle and goddess knows what else. Isn't that clever? Besides, 'plurked' rolls off the tongue a bit better than 'twittered' ... less syllables, too.
So yeah -- one of the reasons I haven't been playing with Twitter too much is because I've seen people whose journals are nothing but long strings of twitters. Quite honestly, that's as annoying to me as it is to you. I hadn't wanted to do that.
I'm going to make something of an effort to update more frequently on plurk. There my updates are limited to 140 characters, where here I have to, y'know, write a meaningful entry and all.
And just to clarify, I won't be 'going away,' and I'm not going to stop reading the things I currently read on LJ. But if you want to keep up with the day-to-day minutiae of my life, at least as it happens when I'm near a Web connection, then please join me on plurk.
 Mood:  optimistic Tunes: Rasa - Kabe Habe Bolo |
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I asked ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) miintikwa to provide five questions for me, in response to a meme she ran a long time ago. I've only now gotten around to answering. f you'd like me to ask you five or so questions, please speak up and I'll come up with something for you.
And I responded:
1. What do owls mean to you? Owls are intelligent and wise, still observers of truth. I feel a ... special connection with them, one that I don't feel with other animals. Besides which, my main totem (who I haven't talked to in a while, *facepalm*) is an owl. So.
2. How is the drawing going? Drawing is going pretty crappy, actually. I'm not motivated to do anything, and these days I'm lucky if I set pencil to paper more than a few times a month. Usually less frequent than that. And no, I don't know what happened.
3. How are things with you and your lovely lady? Pretty well, and getting better. She doesn't write much, or get on LJ at all lately, so it's hard to keep track of her that way. I wish she was more literary, but ... oh well! Things are going well, though. Her sex drive, though ... kaput. :| This does not match up well with mine.
4. What's new and exciting that you haven't talked about, other than your involvement with Obama's campaign? My memory doesn't permit me to tell you, really. As of late it's been a long string of go-to-work-go-home-play-games-do-it-all-over-again. It's not too bad; I only work 5-7 hours a day, and it's low stress so I can take off whenever I need. Had to see the chiropractor recently, though, working on losing weight, my calves are *gorgeous*, etc etc. :) thanks for asking!
5. Are you still enjoying your job? Yes. Though it's a little boring, the benefits far outweigh the bad bits.
I do wish I had more face to face friends I could really talk to, though.Tunes: Estradasphere - Super Mario Bros. 2 SuperBuckJazz OC ReMix |
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I can't believe it.
Luciano Pavarotti is dead. Pancreatic cancer -- one of the worst kinds, from what I hear.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/06/pavarotti.dead/index.html
Although I am happy that those in the Summerlands have something nice to listen to -- our world is a much darker place.
I go to cry now. Then I shall drink. I drained half the remainder of my bottle of Glenfiddich already.
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