The Lewis Show

I couldn't close out the year without one more plug. I know I haven't waxed nostaligic this year either, but that's because this year has gone too fast and it won't sink in that this year much less this decade is already gone. So I leave 2009 with Anti Duck Face . You probably already know what duckface is. It usually involves orange girls around the NJ Turnpike, but it's spreading like a bad rash. As we go into a new year, I can only ask us all this one favor. Stop making that stupid, stupid, STUPID face. Happy New Years everyone!

I have done some quick best of posts, now for a worst of post. This relates to my customer service posts recently as well. Here's a short list of local establishments that have rude customer service: Ukrops - Across from Va Center Commons. One of their managers finds no problem of wrongly accusing someone of writing bad checks. Is it any wonder Ukrops will be no more? They did themselves in. I would consider shopping there again when the management at that store offers an apology for falsely accusing someone dear to me of wrongdoing. It would just be more the same at Giant or whatever they will become. Sears Outlet - Despite every attempt of regional managers trying to make things right with me, I will never do business there again. The manager at the store would not even give me his name when I needed to address a serious problem with my lawnmower. Until he apologizes to me personally, I recommend no one shop at that store. Other Sears stores are fine, but I've been wron...

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Despite the stress and extra travel, it's good to take hold of some good and simple traditions. I always enjoy simple things like catching The Christmas Story, or tearing into one of those tins of popcorn. You know, the tin that serves up some buttered, cheese, and caramel popcorn. I know Janine and I will start new traditions, but without that routine, I've found it's very hard to get enjoyment out of the season. I'll be spending next week trying to find out what happened over the last ten years. That was a fast decade! I'm hoping the solution can be found in fruitcake. Or fudge.

You can watch Gary's talk here . (language warning, my readers can handle it though) I was very inspired by Gary's talk at Le Web in Paris recently. He focuses on customer service, word of mouth, touch, and dedication to customers. I agree that this is a wake up call to companies to focus and sweat to maintain a relationship with their customers. Most of his talk encourages all of us too to put some elbow grease into the things that we're passionate about and in the end get more enjoyment out of life.

I went through my Flickr uploads for this year. This one stands out among the others. This year marks the time when Mike finally got it right. One Ring

Several posts are going to be dedicated to random highlights of this past year. They will be short sweet and worth the time, I promise. I start with my pick for commercial of the year. Heineken's walk in closet ad.

I wanted to touch on another topic in my customer service series. Time time I'm directing my attention to companies. Recently a company and major partner changed their phone menus to a complete voice activated system. Many of you have experienced these new phone prompts that do not involve pushing a button for an option, but forces you to speak your option. Those spoken options teach the phone menu the direction for your call and on paper are supposed to get you to the right place. I understand the need for this process. Especially in companies that have a department for everything, nothing can be more frustrating than sitting on hold for a long time just to end up in the wrong department. It's just not so easy to hit a button and be in the right place, I understand the need to specify departments, just so that's known. Companies are convinced this is something that will benefit customers and it's something that customers want. I don't know where they're ...

Probably not the best weekend to get buried in global warming glitter, but it's still pretty. Festive too!

It was unanimous, we found a product we can support here at The Lewis Show. Hold on to your...hats.

No one's really feeling that spirit this year. Then again, I can't remember the last time anyone really felt anything exciting about this time of year. There's no pressure to be festive, but it takes such little effort not to be a total scrooge and wet blanket. Super little. Who knows, getting over yourselves for a couple weeks might become contagious and you might get five minutes of Christmas spirit this year. So while we're getting over ourselves, enjoy a video. Do Muppets have more holiday cheer than we do? Obviously!

As we all know last week at this time I was in the hospital. Since my release, I seem to have re-discovered some of the simpler joys in life. Here's some I've run into recently or hope to re encounter again soon: Turning up the radio and singing that crappy Lit or Blink 182 song that's always playing. Smiling at people for no particular reason. Laughing at memories. Planning on making new memories. Learning and telling jokes. Long distance sock sliding. Jazz hands. Headbanging to classic Testament. Reconnecting with KoRn.  Belching. Really belching. Admitting fault. Cheering for the Packers! Cooking. Driving below the speed limit. Below. Yes, below. Crayons. Sleeping in. Laughing hysterically at the news. Air drums. Doing the "WHAAAAAAT'S UUUUUP?" thing with my brother on the phone. Trying to out geek my Dad (which has become darn near impossible). Extra long hugs with my girl (love you, Janine).  Remember the simple stuff, kids. Life...

Needless to say, this made me hurt quite a bit. Classic hat tip to Ben and Kristopher at Facebook for posting this.

In random format: Hospital food still tastes terrible. The gallbladder is a small non vital organ that stores bile. Removing said non vital organ is a pain. Removing said non vital organ suddenly without warning is more painful. Vicodin helps with the pain. Janine is a godsend. I'm fortunate to have such a loving family and good friends. I am mortal. I will make better use of the time I have. So Saturday morning I woke up with what I thought was some crazy gas pain. I tried to treat that with the usual measures, but that only made me nauseous. As the pain continued to get worse, I finally let Janine take me to Patient First to get checked out. After all, I was just anticipating some kind of shot for gas or something... Once I got to the doctor, and after a quick poke of my stomach, he immediately knew I needed to get checked into a hospital right away and get my gall bladder scanned. So I checked into the hospital and sure enough after a cat scan, I had an en...