george johnson

0xGJ

A Lunch Date with Billy

Today I walked across the river to Fountain Square in Cincinnati and had lunch with a man named Billy. Billy is tall and lanky, in his 50s, and has long hair and facial hair. He speaks softly, but eloquently and intelligently. Billy's originally from coastal Florida, on the Atlantic. He worked as a roofer there before coming to Cincinnati on a bus in 2007. When I asked him why he would move from paradise to Ohio, he said that while the area was beautiful and peaceful most of the time, he was scared of the gun-fire and crime there. He does miss the weather.

Billy loves music, and used to be able to play the guitar. Unfortunately he doesn't have one anymore. Like me, Billy likes BBQ, but hates coleslaw. His favorite neighborhood in the entire city is Mt. Washington. He says the shops are small and friendly, it's quiet, low-traffic, and he likes all the trees there.He sometimes feels boxed-in, downtown. Billy doesn't have any family in the city, or elsewhere for that matter. He has some friends, but he's not close to any of them.

Billy mentioned that he's having housing issues right now after running into "personal issues" with his landlord. I asked how long ago this was. Billy's been on the streets since early 2008.

Billy still has his pride. He told me that this was temporary. It's taken him a while, but he's certain he'll get things together soon. I didn't ask, but he reassured me he's not a drug user. His arms tell a different story.

I thanked Billy for the company, shook his hand, wished him well, and went back to my air-conditioned room to sit in my padded chair and finish my work on my $1,600 computer.

Homelessness is a huge problem in our city, and if we don't take care of our own, no one will. For more information, please visit The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. A number of shelters are located in the area, both secular and faith-based, and provide great volunteer opportunities.

Scamming Subway with Loyalty

Subway is currently running a promotion which can be exploited to make every other sub you buy cost nothing. I want to note that I don't encourage anyone to exploit this, (stealing is bad, m'kay?) I merely thought it was interesting when I noticed it whilst enjoying my extra-spinachy sandwich today.

Subway's new loyalty cards require no sign-up or identifying information, they're merely unique cards that are handed out to patrons at the point of sale. Since the program is new, you can also earn 50 free points (enough for a 6" sub) by texting your card number to 35562. This only works once per card. But you can get a new card with each valid purchase by simply discarding the old one. End result? Unlimited buy-one-get-one free 6" sub sandwiches.

Fwd: This year I'm importing my Autumn

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My parents and some close family friends of ours spent some time this week exploring Harlan, KY just as the usual Appalachian Autumn weather begins to arrive. They emailed me some pictures, and I've taken the liberty of posting them publicly so that I can gloat to the Internet about how pretty my hometown is.

It's Justified.

Thanks to Susie Auer for the pictures.

Directly Emailing AT&T Customer Service

This tidbit of information took me a ridiculous amount of time to find. The email form in AT&T's account dashboard is completely non-operational for me, and the phone agents weren't able to resolve my issue. Trying to find a direct support email address was tough, but it does exist. If, for any reason, you ever need to directly email AT&T Customer Care, you can do so at ATTCustomerCare@att.com. You can also try tweeting at them.

 
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
  
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