An unexpected benefit of networking was presented to me today when Nerds on Site saved my sanity. I had posted recently about chats with my new “friends” at Bell and Sympatico, and after the last round, I could again receive (and make) phone calls, but couldn’t get on the Internet. Each service provider blamed the other. So from Tuesday evening through to Friday morning, I packed up my laptop twice a day to visit the local Internet cafe to send and collect e-mails while pondering my next step.

During this, an e-mail from one of the contacts on my IABC/Toronto West networking group included an offhand remark that her husband’s business was Nerds on Site, so I asked if he worked with Macs as well as PCs. Within an hour, my local Nerd called and within a day he was at my door. To make a long story short, I’m posting this because at long last I’m able to access the Internet.

So, get out there and network. You never know when someone you know knows someone you WANT to know.

The freelance life is a true rollercoaster ride. There are stretches of calm, measured work, maybe even not too much work. I like these because I know they won’t last and I use them to run errands, organize my office or occasionally goof off. The quiet times are punctuated by spurts of frantic activity that leave you, as participants said in a recent IABC session on the indie life, “without time to pee.” I’m having one of those weeks. No, wait, it’s been one of those months; the days have flown past so much that last Friday, I was torn between being glad it was the weekend and wishing for another couple of days to finish everything on my plate.

If you’re an independent, how do you cope? Here’s what I usually do:

*  make all my phone calls and do interviews during the day in case the only time I have left to write is at night or on the weekend

*  keep a “to do” list (rewritten each night or when it gets too messy) so I don’t lose track of who to call, what to write and for when

*  go by most urgent deadline first

*  fit in small things while waiting for calls to be returned.

Keeping up this blog is one of the things falling by the wayside when things get busy. I’m fitting this post in now while (a) waiting for someone to call me back (on my cell phone) and (b) also waiting for my new best friend, Mr. Bell Telephone Repair Guy. That’s right, I’ve been chatting with the call centre in India again, who noted that I don’t have “repair protection” on my line and it may cost me to have Repair Guy fix the line that suddenly went out yesterday. I didn’t know this for several hours because I could make calls and (hooray!) access the Internet; I just can’t receive calls. So between noon today and six tonight, Repair Guy may show up and save the day again. Or not. In the meantime, if you want to reach me, e-mail or cell phone is the way to go.

Have you run across this one? “SSEWBA” — it’s short for “someday soon everything will be acronyms.” (It may already be happening in companies you and I know!) I thank Ragan’s Grapevine e-newsletter (subscribe here) for sharing this news, which commented on a Chicago Tribune article about the explosion of digital shorthand:

“Resist if you will, but understand that if you do you’re going to be branded an old fogy…”

On the other hand, the article reassures those of us who care about language:

“But if you want to ensure that everyone reading what you wrote will understand it — whether it’s a two-line e-mail or a 40-page white paper, next week or five years from now — stick with standard English.”

As an aside, the always entertaining Ragan Grapevine pointed me to another entertaining blog/podcast, Grammar Girl. Check it out!

There surely is proper etiquette for visiting the dying, and I had recent occasion to try to figure it out. My elderly neighbour, a widowed Scot in his eighties, knew he was dying of cancer and had just been moved to Ian Anderson House. This is a warm, homey six-bed cancer hospice that provides end-of-life palliative care in my town. The Web site revealed that pets are welcome visitors, and I knew Jim would want to see “the old dog” (as he called him), Jake.

Although for a happy minute Jake thought we were at a new leash-free park, he came willingly into the building and was a very good boy. Jim was sleeping, so we just stayed a short time. I chatted with the family and Jake charmed everyone in sight. I can see why Labs are often used to help autistic children communicate.

Sadly, Jake never did get a chance to brighten Jim’s stay; several days later, Jim passed away.

Did you know that there is another “holiday season” approaching? I know this because a weekend flyer from a local grocery store mentions it several times. It was a little puzzling, at first, because the only “holiday season” (and I shudder every time I see this term) I had been aware of was the holiday formerly known as Christmas. After reviewing the items on offer, I’m guessing this new generic holiday is actually Easter since wouldn’t ham rule out the holiday meaning Passover? Probably the writer(s) wanted to be inclusive. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but can’t we just be specific instead of using the watered-down “holiday”?

Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox on usability pointed to an interesting article on cellphone “function fatigue.” The USA Today article reports:

“Manufacturers have become so enamored of cool features — including cameras, recording devices and video-streaming capabilities — that they have lost sight of the fact that many consumers just want good voice reception…Consumers say they are overwhelmed by their phones, at least in part, because retailers do a lousy job of explaining things.”

Exhibit A: When I upgraded to a newer cellphone, my list of what I didn’t want (all the bells and whistles) was longer than the list of what I did want (a basic phone to make and occasionally receive calls). Of course, “basic” is hard to find, so I ended up with a phone that also allowed text messaging and access to the Internet. But wait; there was nothing in the manual about how to access the Internet, so I went back to the store to ask how to pick up a ringtone. The rep showed me how to do it, while cheerfully admitting the explanation wasn’t in the manual. Doesn’t that seem like an important feature they might have wanted to communicate?

Here’s another tale from the customer service (or should I say, disservice) files.

I was away for five days, and I mean AWAY — no laptop, Blackberry, not even a cell phone. My voice mail message was clear that I was out of the office and not often checking for messages, and there was only one message waiting when I returned. Of course, there were 79 assorted e-mail messages, which I downloaded the night of my return and scanned through checking for urgent ones before turning off the computer and going to bed. The next morning (insert dramatic music here) — no access to the Internet.

I tried all the usual tricks of turning the modem off and on several times and restarting the computer. Not having any luck, I called my service provider, Sympatico. Is it just me or have you noticed that tech support people seem to have been told to assume the customer is at fault? Despite being told up front that I did not change any settings or otherwise sabotage my access, and in fact I wondered if they had any issues that would affect me, the fellow asked me a series of questions that appeared designed to find out what stupid thing I had done. After about half an hour he had to “escalate” me to second-level tech support, who said there appeared to be a problem with the line and it would take them 24 hours to properly test it. Right after this statement, Tech 2 Person said “Have a nice day.” No apology, no promise to get things corrected quickly. I replied politely, “I doubt it given the circumstances, but thank you for the sentiment.”

For now, I’ve been able to receive a few e-mails using WiFi in the neighbourhood, but it’s next to impossible to send anything out, so I spent most of the morning trying to get a file to a client. With that accomplished, I hopped on the Internet to see how many posts I’ve missed (13, in some cases) from the feeds I follow and post my own thoughts. I’m thinking Sympatico could spend less time trying to prove customers incompetent and more time trying to help them.