Huff and puff

Hello! It's time for my semi-annual post.

So: Hurricane hysteria (I sure hope it's hysteria, because, um, I'm in Zone B) has me thinking. Specifically, it has me thinking "What would Jay Z say?".

Also, there's a Minnesota town called New Prague

Whoa. Been a while! Then again, Google hasn't done a whole lot with this platform, so I can't feel that bad. In the meantime, though, big news: Looks as if my name is going to get some extra Google-juice, courtesy of LinkedIn.

Bobby Stinson's Guitar by The Legendary Jim Ruiz

Bobby Stinson's Guitar by The Legendary Jim Ruiz

I am really, really, really looking forward to the World Cup

This is not really about tennis

I read this David Foster Wallace essay about a tennis player who's better than almost anyone else in the world, but still not good enough to really make it as a pro, sometime in the late 90s. It's one of my favorite things, and I think about it all the time.

In 2005, I got to fly to Spain to write about Maria Sharapova for Forbes. The trip was a lot less cool than I thought it would be. And as usual, so was the story I wrote. Not relevant to this tale, though. What is: Sharapova had basically no handlers, but one guy who was around was her trainer/playing partner.

He was this former American tennis pro who had knocked around the circuit but never cracked through to the top level, and now he was working full time with Sharapova. I thought he was this really interesting guy, because he got paid pretty well, got to travel a lot and did something very few other people in the world were qualified to do. But I couldn't help thinking of the DFW piece, and wondered if this guy ever saw himself the way that guy did.

I'm guessing you know where this ends up by now. But if not, check Wikipedia.

My real question: I loved that DFW piece, and spent enough time with it that I still know what the word "hypertrophied" means. But the penny didn't drop six or seven years later, when I met Michael Joyce and talked to him for some time. And then it took until tonight -- another five years after that -- for me to put it together. So how badly, exactly, does my brain leak?

Why I Thought We Couldn't Watch "Lost" Tonight

Sorry. Totally boring. But imagine if you were the one who was chatting with "Mayboll" the Time Warner Cable rep! Then you'd be bored and aggravated! I'm going to go ahead and cut out almost all of it, but for the record, this was about 30 minutes of back and forth, and all of it was this kind Algonquin Roundtable stuff.

Oh, and the good news: Outage is over!

Mayboll>
Please give me one moment while I send you the refresh signal.

Peter>
just to be clear - there's no outage in this area, correct?

Mayboll>
I checked the outage when we beginning the chat, however I will recheck it, please give me one moment.

Mayboll>
Thank you for waiting Mr. Kafka. I already recheck it and my system shows that We are currently experiencing an outage in your area. Our technicians are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. At this time, there is no known estimated time of repair. I apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. We are confident that our engineers will have this issue resolved shortly, but if you are still experiencing this issue in 24 hours, please contact us again. We’ll be happy to provide an update to you at that time.

Peter>
omg

Peter>
ok

Peter>
thx

Mayboll>
You are very welcome.

Mayboll>
I hope your services come back very soon.

Mayboll>
Do you have any other question may I help you with?

Peter>
No, you've done plenty. Thx.

Mayboll>
It is a pleasure to assist you.

Mayboll>
Thank you for chatting with Time Warner Cable. We value you as a customer and are here to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you would like to take a brief survey please click on "End Session" and the survey will load. Have a great day!

More in the "what people are saying about me on the Web" category

I believe this is intended as a compliment/tribute. That's the spirit with which I'm taking it, anyway. From the wacky dudes -- and a couple nice women, too -- at Engadget.