Brody:

thanks baltimore love time people help iphone cool check funny follow phone idea whats wordswell yeah doing dude email bloodwater lisa voice saved awesome night tell video tonight call sweet week life free church please google name amazing stuff tweet congrats wedding looking mails getting read nice real game apple thank party coming look music record start guys media blog

Greg:

cont time night love elise caleb life people morning watching looking seth beach home week help ready check kids little riley dinner world wedding friday follow iphone gerkins forward gary getting days house game tonight wordswell baltimore school lake weekend read harbor stone stafford thanks bono mission client finished josh times office hours tomorrow hamel heading party sunday africa hard

First, Brody had a “tweet of the week” according to Bmore Media. See Brody’s famous Twitter update here.

Also, Brody was on the local news recently. WMAR-TV (Baltimore Channel 2) brought him in as a social media expert to talk about the plague of over-sharing on Facebook. Despite the horribly dumb look on Brody’s face at the beginning of the interview, it’s a good discussion on some social media theory.

Focusing on something you don’t have (but think you need) can be a dangerous, common pattern. The pattern is to identify something you lack and use that as an obstacle that prevents you from doing what you really want.

With an obstacle identified, we feel better. No harm done, right? No harm except that nagging sense in the back of our brain that we really should be doing something differently. Not to worry: most people come to terms with it over time.

I do this. I let obstacles to a task, a passion, or a goal serve as excuses to not attempt them. It’s not a fear of failure. It’s a fear of not having a perfect process.

This is stupid.

Chris continues:

Fortunately, many of the obstacles we perceive are not really obstacles. Many of the things we think we need are unnecessary.

Isn’t that true?

Some of this is tied to thankfulness. If I were to be more thankful for what I have, I’d be more prone to go do something with it. Instead, I wait for something – often the perfect, measurable, replicable, neatly-wrapped, guaranteed-outcome process – and I have an excuse for inaction.

What obstacles do you use as excuses?

If there were a third lesson here, it would be “play dumb”. Here goes…

In trying to get internet and tv in my new apartment, I, of course, was searching the internet for deals, specials, etc. I happened upon a site called BuyComcast.com, a third-party vendor for Comcast. Their site offered $100 grocery discount vouchers for each Comcast service you signed up for. $200 buck in rebates sounded good for me so I called them for the details.

Knowing there would be a catch, I asked the rep to walk me through every step required to get the $100 rebates. Some, I had to tease out of her; others, I had her check with other people in her company. Regardless, I wanted to make sure I got these discounts, and, at least, I was fascinated by what the process might ential. So, I wrote the steps from operator 3774:

1. Sign up for Comcast services through the BuyComcast.com site. Services were full priced, I think.

2. Wait for services to be installed.

3. Wait for the first month’s bill to be mailed by Comcast.

4. Get rebate form from BuyComcast.com website.

4a. Go to homepage
4b. Click on “Rebates” in lower right corner (go see if you can find this link…)
4c. Print PDF rebate form.

5. Mail in rebate form with copy of Comcast bill (front and back of bill).

6. Wait 16-18 weeks.

7. Receive the “registration form”.

8. Apply instantly online or by mail.

9. Wait undisclosed amount of time for coupons to come (usually a 3-4 weeks)

10. Spend $100/mo. at an approved retailer (grocery store or gas station)

11. Save original receipts.

12. Mail original receipts and coupon to redemption center.

13. Wait about 6-8 weeks.

14. Receive $25 refund/gift card (presumably, you can use this item as an actual gift card)

15. Repeat steps 10-13 to receive balance of $100 discount.

Yes, I recapped that whole process for accuracy with Operator 3774 after we codified the process. And then I asked if she thought it sounded ridiculous. Silence. On the short end it would take 11 months to get the $100 rebate. Between that, forgetting to photocopy the back of my Comcast bill, never finding the “Rebates” link in the first place, or spending $100 at an approved retailer, it was clear this company wasn’t interested in people actually receiving their discounts.

So I called Comcast directly. Comcast – the ones who, after the rampant success of the iPod, still think remotes with a user interface like this are awesome:

“No, dude. Hit the circular yellow triangle button above the up-arrow button that’s not the volume-up or channel-up control.”

I wasn’t looking forward to this whole Comcast thing. I have them in the same lousy category as Verizon, and especially Best Buy. But I called. Talked to Jeremy. Told him I was comparing my tv and internet options, and that I was interested in learning more about Comcast and their packages.

“If you buy this from me today – literally right now – I can do this special deal for you,” he pushed. (Later, he would be calling me back after I asked time to think about it). That made me nervous in the “Oh boy, here we go…” way, but I pressed on.

The rest of the conversation consisted of questions like, “What the deal with _____?” “Can I do _____?” “Are you able to _____?” “You said ____. Is that limited by my geography? No?” And basically every question was answered with a concession or offer on his part!

Importantly, one of the first questions I asked was “How do we get back in touch with each other if we get disconnected?” I wanted him to know that he had a good chance at a sale.

Anyway, here’s where we ended: Basic cable, movie channels (which I declined), HDTV DVR box, 12 KBPS internet, modem, and wireless router for $65 a month – FOR 12 MONTHS! Oh, and half-price installation.

Not bad.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a sucky remote discount.