Got Wills

Well, I got an invite to GrandCentral a few weeks ago and finally found time to set it up. There were no Holbrook phone numbers available. In fact, as far as I can tell, there were no numbers in the local Frontier calling area (Show Low, Snowflake, Heber, Pinetop, Lakeside, etc…). So I went with a Winslow number. The features on this service sound really great, so far (would have been better if I’d have found a Holbrook number). I can get any calls sent to any of my phones that I choose. I can even have them sent to a hotel phone if I choose. Also, I can listen to my voicemail online and choose to have all calls go to voicemail.

If you use the link on the right hand side of my blog, you can call me for free. It will call your phone, then mine. No charge for the connection at all. You can use it to record calls (both parties are notified when you turn the feature on) and you can use it to keep a call log. All in all, it sounds like a great tool. Maybe I’ll even start giving out this phone number to my students, since it’ll be easier to check the messages. Then I can have it go to my office phone only when I’m in the office.

You can also send emails to my phone number at grandcentral.com and they will come to me. Of course, I will not be giving out my number on this blog, but if you would like to know my number and have a good reason to know it, please use the button to leave me a voicemail.

I don’t know how this will work in the RSS, but here’s a call link in the post.

Well, I got the job teaching at NPC, which means I’m going to be a lot busier here in a month or so. It also means that our refrigerator won’t ever look as anorexic as it is looking right now. I’m going to continue working for the county. My duties there have not lessened at all, in fact… I’d say I have more to do there than ever. Now that I’ve successfully exported the parcel search to another county (Graham), I’m sure I’ll be helping more counties get it set up and working. I’m also charged with getting the “Pay your property taxes online” feature working by the end of the month. So, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

However, I’ve also got a new project with the same deadline as my online payment system, building the White Mountain Regional Development Corporation’s Web site into ours… I guess the WMRDC will cease to exist. I’m not real sure what’s going to happen to the member list. I guess it’ll all come out in the wash.

I guess all of this work isn’t so bad… even the deadline. I mean, I don’t even start at the college until after the deadlines, which is good. I think I may have to spend a few nights this month getting everything finished. At least the month will pass quickly (it always does when I have deadlines looming over my head).

There’s a lot more sites cropping up that help to make the world a more socially responsible place by shaming people and businesses who play dirty. TechCrunch has a recent article on a new service, dotherightthing.com. I agree with Michael when he says this site has a huge potential to become a site where the only people using it are smug, better than you, types that are more interested in making themselves look good by bringing others down than actually trying to hold companies responsible for their social regressions.

These startups aren’t the first to hold companies to a higher standard. Before dotherightthing.com, and other similar sites, there was epinions.com and the rating and opinion system of just about every other shopping site since around 2002 (give or take a couple years). While one or two bad opinions won’t deter me from my intended purchase, a 25% or higher rate of negatives will give me second thoughts about buying from the merchant. The main difference between the two is that the latter are primarily rating online retailers, whereas the former are trying to establish a rating system for online as well as traditional brick and mortar retailers. The other real difference is that the rash of new sites are not solely focused on buyers experiences, but also the social impact that the business is making.

The sole purpose of a business is not to make money. While making money is the primary purpose of most businesses, they also have a responsiblity to build the economy. In most cases, these two objectives go hand in hand, what’s good for one is good for the other. However, all of the thievery and dishonesty going on lately is bad for the economy (and the company), while it makes the few people who are in on it wealthy. This is a horrible direction for the upper management of these large corporations to be taking us. Now, don’t get me wrong, not all CEO’s are bad. It just seems to be the way of things, that all we hear about are the bad ones, at least they’re the ones that we remember.