O O Ø O O O O
Whoops, It’s Tuesday
I hate it when I forget what day it is. I hate it even more when I forget what my responsibilities on the day that I’ve forgotten are. My life’s been a bit of a whirlwind of late, with five trips in the last six weeks, and there’s a lot I’ve been forgetting. I was all set to go to bed, then realised it was Tuesday and, worse, that it was my turn.
Good thing I’m paying attention. So, what’s a boy to do when it’s 21:30 and he’s done nothing in preparation? Why, play the Bermuda Shorts Day card, of course. So, without further ado, here are a few things that have been chapping my ass of late.
The Men in the Zebra Suits
Is it just me, or are the zebras a much larger factor in the NHL playoffs than they should be? I’m all for the new rule changes, and thought that the regular season - for what I saw - went pretty well. That seems to have changed a lot in the playoffs, though, with the officiating playing a much larger role in the game.
I don’t think their calls have been any better or worse, or that they’ve favoured any one team in any series. I’m sure a number of coaches, players, and fans would disagree, but the malaise I’ve seen has been consistent across all teams, games, and series. The problem I see is that the calls are unbelievably inconsistent.
What’s a penalty one minute isn’t a the next. A tap on the shins with the stick on a player out of the play gets called, yet a forward about to receive a pass in front of the net getting slew-footed is fine. Embellishment carries the day, and there’s been so many dives and resultant penalty calls that it’s no wonder the players are always throwing their arms up in disgust. There’s very rarely a flow to the game, and invariably once a flow starts to emerge a couple lame calls mess it all up.
Dear Mr. Campbell: Good rules, poor execution. How about focusing on consistency next year now that you’ve established what’s important to you. Teach the men in black and white that when they call a dive, calling the “trip” that led to the dive defeats the whole purpose, and that it’s ok to call a hockey-turned-soccer player for being a poofta. Good officiating should be invisible, not a topic that everyone’s scared to discuss because you’ll fine them.
Don’t mike the officials up and encourage theatrics in calling the game; make them part of the flow again, not a breakwater.
One visit, one problem
The other day I went to a local sports medicine clinic to get my knee looked at. I filled out all the forms, and figured this would be the visit where we finally start to do something about fixing the problem. Instead, the nice doctor came out and wanted to talk about my foot. So, with him being the doctor and all, I let him.
He talked about my previous visits for my foot, explained what was probably happening with it, and asked me to schedule a follow-up and bring my orthotics in, because they should be helping. Fair enough, said I, and I promised to book a follow up. At this point he starts to wrap it up, and I ask about my knee. He pauses, and gets that “I hate having to explain this all the time” look.
“We only examine one problem per visit.”
“But I came to get my knee examined.”
“We looked at your foot.”
Well, if you want to get particular about it, he looked at my foot. I just kind of sat there wondering when he would get around to my knee. I argued a little and, as could be expected, got a nice little smile with a request to reboot. I muttered something about how it was a nice little scam to get multiple bills headed OHIP’s way, and booked two follow-on appointments; one for the orthotics check, and one for the knee… again.
Sometimes it pisses me off that we’re at the mercy of our healthcare professionals. By and large I am super-happy with the treatment I receive on all levels. Occasionally, however, I run into this kind of mentality and I understand how the costs can escalate and why it takes people nine to twelve months for the treatment they need. I understand why the clinic does things the way they do, and the Ontario government is the biggest problem in this case, but they weren’t smiling at me and telling me to book another appointment.
If they want to explore root cause theories, fine, but please remember that I came to you with a problem that I think is a higher priority. Try and respect that just a little, and I’d feel a lot better.
Mature Products
I hate it when someone uses the phrase “it’s a mature product”. What this means is “we don’t want to sink any money into sustaining development unless someone pays us to”. I hear this phrase a lot when I ask why a product doesn’t have a feature that would position it competitively in the market. I think it’s just a pathetic excuse.
For some companies this works really well. Their multiple product lines are updated so often, and the volume of sales so high they can tell their end-users to pfo, and they will do just that and buy more stuff. They can do this because they constantly come up with new products and/or lines, and have their fingers in so many markets that they can afford to piss off their customers every so often provided something shiny and new and better is available.
When you don’t have a broad product line, large market share, or frequent product line refreshes, this gets a little trickier to do. It’s almost always caused by the desire to move into a new market that’s different from where the organisation currently plays. Usually the old market is drying up, and the brave new world has potential. All resources go into making product for this brave new world in the hopes that a splash can be made, and the old products are left to wither on the vine.
Problem is, that’s where all your customers are, too. Remember something needs to fund the brave new ventures in the interim, and that if you want to keep that revenue stream, you have to keep all those old customers happy. That means keeping up with the Joneses, and not using “It’s a mature product” as an excuse not to make any attempts to fix and or enhance something that a lot of customers still find incredibly useful. This is basic “How To Run A Company” stuff.
If it’s too complicated, let me explain in simpler terms: Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.
So endeth the lesson.
Whoever Kicks Over The Mailbox On My Front Yard
Knock it off.
Whoever Keeps Breaking Bottles On My Street And Driveway
Kids play here, fuckwit. Use your head.
Kev Needham
June 13, 2006
OOØOOOODCCLVII
June 14th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Oh, and I forgot to include a huge “teh yay!” in Ron MacLean’s way for calling Colin Campbell out the other night. It was a spirited discussion that was (unfortunately) a lot more entertaining than the game. Ron’s been a ref forever, and did a great job of laying out what he sees as the problem, and calls it as it is.
June 17th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Ron was great. Ron: “You’ve got guys diving all over the place.” Colin: “You’re going to get embellishment.” Ron: “Embellishment? That’s a dive.”