It's too bad we can't recall Stacey Campfield

He's a danger to society and public health and reason. Sadly, in TN we can't unelect him. But during the next election cycle I intend to work my rear off to ensure that he is NOT elected again.

The only taxpayer money he deserves is welfare.

If you're sliding off the Gay St. bridge...

So some snow hit Knoxville tonight, and as I usually do when things get wacky, I tuned into the police scanner. One of Knoxville's finest was attempting to cross Gay St. bridge and asked about getting some salt trucks out there... Dispatch responded that "we can't salt that bridge, it'll void the warranty."

Luckily the cop went ahead and put a little bit of chemicals on the road to de-ice a patch. But if you ever plummet to your doom thanks to an icy patch on Gay St. bridge, just remember "I wish we'd bought the extended, salt-OK warranty for this stupid bridge..."

Your tax dollars at work!

How Knology could have kept me as a customer for a measly $10

As I've said before, we were early adopters when Knology came to Knoxville. And I would still be a customer, if they would pay someone slightly more than minimum wage to handle their social media. You see, companies, when you set up a Twitter account and never acknowledge major issues until hours after they occur, you are not using Twitter correctly. I don't come to your house and wipe my ass with your tablecloth, do I?

So here's the thing. I have complained numerous times to Knology via their Twitter account. Frankly, it is one of the best ways to relay live information. Instead of updating their Twitter feed when they suffered a major outage, an outage which made them unavailable by PHONE support, they instead let their Twitter feed sit unattended for hours. Then, they hand-picked a few clueless saps who were having issues and responded with a few "Sorry, we're working on it" tweets. Pathetic.

Further, I had no idea about their Edge service, and was not once solicited. I know very little about sales, but it seems like if a customer is completely unaware of a product, they are 100% less likely to buy it. Contrast that with AT&T, who sends me mailers by the dozen each week. I'm not suggesting Knology go as far at AT&T, which I consider wasting money with all those mailers, but at the *least* shoot me an email or something! Heck, try to upsell me when you fix my service!

Speaking of service -- I found it to be great sometimes, abysmal at others. There was no rhyme or reason, there was no institutional knowledge of me as a customer (let's face it, I'm a pain in the ass and should be listed as such -- that's a basic of 21st century CRM). Each interaction was a new one, whether on Twitter or elsewhere. But worse, I went through 4 or 5 DVRs in just a few years, we had lots of service problems and Knology wound up being late with higher speeds than everyone else in town.

There were good things about Knology, and at the time it was a good deal, but now that they've acted like my business is nothing to them, I think we're done here. AT&T, by contrast, called me after the install based on a twitter conversation. Actually, called before AND after to ensure I was happy. Granted, waiting one hour on the phone to reschedule my appointment they screwed up (late, I had an appointment that evening and couldn't stay) after we already waited 2 years after they completely ignored our original work order.

Businesses need to learn HOW to use the tools that are out there. I'll leave the Cautionary Tale of the Comedy Club for next time.

Harry Potter Hip-Hop in Knoxville

LiL iFFy and Dude Source released Wandcore back on Nov. 13, presumably as a one-off, but word has it they are still performing. I'd love to see a show, the music is awesome.

Knoxville: A good place to murder kids

Just read this and follow the bunny trail until you discover: the police basically did investigative work by looking at text messages and making a few hurried calls. I'm betting there was some seminar 8 years ago about how "all the kids is usin the texting now, so that's your top priority as a detective" ... sigh.

Knology goes down. Hard.

Not that anyone in the local media noticed, but Knology suffered a pretty major outage today for several hours. A couple of limp tweets indicated downtime (long after it had begun) and supposed uptime (I just gave up and went somewhere else -- having to abandon my house to get work done is always great).

What I find HILARIOUS is that they responded to less than a dozen people on Twitter. Knology, seemingly incapable of understanding the internet, is also your supplier of internet service. Their phone lines were busy today, I'm guessing due to call volume and not massive incompetence.

My options to switch? Comcast, which has terrible (legendary and sometimes hilariously, spectacularly BAD) customer service and quality of service, or AT&T's U-Verse. AT&T actually had a guy come to our house (which we hate) and knock on our door unsolicited to give us a "great" deal on U-Verse when it debuted in Knoxville 2 years ago. Guess what? That work order sat on my fridge door for over a year before I think I threw it away, giving up on AT&T. I think it says something when a company can't live up to a signed document. Of course, if I fail to pay my iPhone bill I get in trouble. Nothing happens to AT&T in this case.

Knology, on the other hand, should be thrown out of Knoxville and fined massively for the incompetence and failures it has plagued our town with.

Hoping for a Rogero mayoral win

I really get the feeling Mark Padgett wants to be a one-term mayor, a one-term governor and then hit D.C. with a vengeance. I get the vibe from him (and yes, I've been around him in person) that he sees politics as an ambition, as a career path, as a route to fame and fortune.

Which is exactly the things you should never look for in someone you plan to put in public office.

Rather, look for a candidate who understands that civil SERVICE is a service to the community. Look for someone with a smidge of experience in the public sector, because, like it or not, the government and its ancillary minions are a complex web, and it takes experience to make the most of the taxpayer's money.

So I'm hoping Knoxville elects Tennessee's first female mayor to a town our size, someone with experience, vision and a heart: Madeline Rogero.

Can't wait to see the outcome!