Surplus words » Uncategorized

UX as Customer Service – Verizon Model

Slava — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:10:28 +0000

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This post might as well be titled – the genius of Verizon or how I overcame ingrained user behavior to save $60/month.

There is a lot of talk, books, and blogs about how properly designed user experience is a key to doing more business on the web, and in real life. But what if the pundits are wrong? What if you have a business that needs to interact with customers on the Web, but where making transactions easy means losing money?

What if you knew everything there is to know about user experience and customer service? What if you turned that knowledge inside out to create an impenetrable online maze? What if you coldly calculated what kind of transactions you want to make easy, and which you want to discourage? You be just doing your job, right? Following orders, as it were. And you might be working for Verizon.

Once I realized that Verizon does not actually want you to make changesÂ their whole website started making sense. It is not ineptitude that allows you to pay the bill right away, but requires an expiring PIN delivered by mail or a phone call to a Verizon home phone line to change your channel choices. It is brilliant and deliberate design.

Verizon’s problem is that whenever people actuallyÂ look at their bills, they immediately realize that they do not need 285 channels and a 50GB backup bundles with teaser rates that expired 6 months ago. So their formal UX design challenge is to have all of the functionality expected of a customer-facing website, but have it sort of off.Â

For example – you would think that having “See More” option that does not lead anywhere would be a bad design choice. Not so.

It does not show me any options for additional movie channels but that is OK for Verizon, because they understand something far more important – bounce rate is their friend.

While most sites want to keep their users for as long as possible, Verizon understands that there is only so much time an average person will spend, at a go, trying to make sense of their subscriptions and options. So if I get frustrated and leave before making a change – that’s OK. Chances are that I was going to downgrade my service or cancel an option, so if a page takes 20 or 30 seconds to load – that’s OK. In this game, Â bounce rate is their friend.

Still, I persevered. I got the PIN. I wanted to cancel some channels but keep some others. Finally, I asked their live chat support:

I think the support tried to get me to bounce – I need to call an office from 9-5 M-F to change Â my choices? I am already committed to change, so I would rather feel righteous for saving more money (and watching less TV) than to stop now. As a result – all premium channels cancelled.

Epilogue:

Has Verizon lost its battle in keeping me away from changes? Alas, no. they simply ignored my request. Maybe I did not press some button correctly, maybe I did not wait long enough, but when I came back 18 hours later, I will had the channel subscriptions unchanged from before. I submitted the changes again, perhaps they will stick this time.

How not to do surveys – Verizon (fridnet.com)

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-11-07

Slava — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 11:05:00 +0000

nicely done! RT @asmartbear Build your own Startup Death Clock: http://bit.ly/DthClk #
Watching snl clips special on NBC. #
really enjoying Terremark's vCloud Express. Provision 4 servers? done. http://yfrog.com/mwl9cp #
argh. wordpress killed itself during upgrade. I guess that is why people use hosted services… #
New post: Lost sale â€“ a tale of a forgotten password http://www.fridnet.com/slava/blog/2010/11/03/lost-sale-a-tale-of-a-forgotten-password/ #
Updated post : Door handles – the color tells the tale http://www.fridnet.com/slava/blog/2010/11/04/door-handles-the-color-tells-the-tale/ #
analysis of sales increases for tickets/events from sharing on different social networks. Facebook wins (for now). http://lnkd.in/72i-PM #
Liked this article – College Applications Continue to Increase. When Is Enough Enough? – http://nyti.ms/aQ7H3N #
Epic traffic jam on nj turnpike. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-31

Slava — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Business partner day at #iod2010 Starting of with a huge slide of companies IBM bought. #
Overheard in a lobby. "If something is really personal, I only put it on facebook." new normal, i guess. #
1 of 3 CEOs feel that they make decisions based on incomplete information. Only 1 in 3? I'm pretty sure it is 3 in 3. #iod2010 #
Crowd-forcing is what happens when crowd-sourcing gets out of control. #
ADP tells a great analytics story. Hope there will be a video for later. #iodgc #
Which booth has info on db2 time travel? And cognos+lotus connections integration? #iodgc #
if i hear "doing more with less" again… It's like a drinking game for data alcoholics at #ibmgc #
Serious money for Internet access #iodgc http://yfrog.com/n8lddbj #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-24

Slava — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Amnh explored app is super helpful. Especially with kids in tow. Amnh.org/apps #
What a great post! http://bit.ly/ctBBiJ – overview of possible futures for living room TV+content+apps+second screen #
Dear verizon, giving me a connection troubleshooting app which does not work with your router is not nice. #fail #
hat tip @arkady_n Timeless: Coney Island's Cast of Thousands, as Seen by Weegee – http://nyti.ms/auumzD #
Didn't realize pressing power+home on iPhone takes a screenshot. So useful. #
Great ode to mechanical keyboards. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/10/the-keyboard-cult.html. #
Don't say cognos, say cogyes. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-17

Slava — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 11:05:00 +0000

So they take "sponsored" route RT @lennyzeltser Google testing self-driving cars : http://goo.gl/qnOb #
Evernote iphone client has a tiny problem with email – it does not search through address books. Annoying slip for such an awesome product #
Things for Mac are great-looking, but not having integration with Email pushes me back into ActiveInbox camp. And no web-synch? #
very polished RT @LotusKnows: Pleasing customers is the cornerstone of an exceptional Web experience … YouTube http://bit.ly/dg0nmt #
just discovered snapengage. What a cool product. #
from discussion today, "It is one thing to eat 'your own dog food', it is another to eat someone else's" #gladisaidit #
mint apologizes for spam, that's nice – but did it really take them a week to figure out what was causing it? that's what is bothering me. #
Mutltiple tasklists and apps just means there are more places were you are behind. #
great quote: "If you're gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough." (in a comment thread about poor financial decisions) http://mee.bo/ajKDzO #
citibank – you rock! you let me reorder checks – but won't tell me what they look like or how much they COST. Call 800# for that? #fail #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-10

Slava — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 11:05:00 +0000

testing out taskforceapp – very beta app to help unclutter my inbox and move it to a "task-based" one.. I will take all the help I can get. #
Yet again. Conference organizers who forget everyone has mobile devices. Slow wireless kills buzz faster than bad presenters #fail #LoLA #
Geico glovebox app for iPad is awesome. Assumes the iPad is not damaged in the accident, of course. #
Really enjoying discussion at chalk 106 at #lola2010 #
Quite a party going on at Dante bar. Perhaps a new "drinks" widget can be added to communities in LC to foster communication :) #lola2010 #
Just bought phyisical books from Amazon for the first time this year. Very excited – http://amzn.to/9x3NtQ #fb #
Heh RT @PinboardIN this post is nice example of why we use PHP: http://bit.ly/bz6ACZ Our 'deployment toolchain' is rsync and a can of beer #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-03

Slava — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:05:00 +0000

quote of the day, present for @eriksorensen, "there is no sense in being precise, when you don't even know what you are talking about" #
after a whole day of listening and typing and more listening a small victory over a Mashups install. Hooray for small victories! #
some interesting thoughts on entrepreneurship, voting, cities RT @mengwong: http://bit.ly/9EX92B letter to a couple of politicians #
all hail 'kill -9' #
interesting project for kids to follow. RT @inspirationroom The Eos Talking Tree http://bit.ly/98nS4O #
another "seasoned professional" tagline. What *are* people seasoned with? Paprika? Would "weathered" be better? #
Why is anyone surprised that wealth distribution follows Power Law (top 20% have 80% of wealth) – http://bit.ly/bqwmd #
My weath inequality linked got foobared by bit.ly… it should be – http://bit.ly/asRs11 (http://www.slate.com/id/2268872/) #
Thinking of attending this AVC Meetup http://meetup.com/u/2S6G #
seeing new renditions of IBM Northstar. Very very cool #ibmexperience #
Is Northstar UX team using Portal UI to work on the Northstar, instead of "inventing" UI in vacuum? I think so & it shows #ibmexperience #
want to help NYPL to get better with mobile? Fill out this survey – http://bit.ly/acxIaN #NYC #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-26

Slava — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:05:00 +0000

How excited am I about "game of thrones" on hbo? Enough that I'm likely to be disappointed. #
Ok. that's just crazy. RT @lbenitez: RT @sweettt RT @monkchips: point iPhone @ plane in the sky, find out flight info http://monk.ly/brNeSx #
informative & well-written RT @cDima: @SimpleGeo: Five Important New Trends in Location. Great insights from @Mashable http://bit.ly/9hHwBA #
Colleseum on fire – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11370168?ls – #art #
I wonder how much productivity is LOST because of Lotus Notes mail client vs Gmail #annoyed #
Delat #fail – send copies of tickets from partner airlines somewhere. Really? You cannot accept those in an online form? #
more Delta #fail – I could not photograph the stubs, assuming I have them, and email them to your office or attach to a form? #
dear quest diagnostics, when pointing people to URLs for insurance plans, use URLs that work (and escape characters properly) #fail #
beautiful infographic from good on GDP impact of hours worked in OECD countries http://bit.ly/c3ZkB6 #
RT @evanherbst: How 2 affordably leverage IBM Northstar 4 mid-market companies. http://bit.ly/csshxS #work #
from AVC.com – "chance favors the connected mind." #mottos #
I wish @tripit would support a few conference organizers. Would be great to have conferences imported there alongside flight and hotel info. #
RT @nycgo: 2morrow catch the free NYHarborway ferry 2 DUMBO & enjoy day in the parkâ€”with free bikes from Bike & Roll. http://bit.ly/db3cWU #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-19

Slava — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 11:05:00 +0000

ob2nddayofschoolpic http://yfrog.com/2cw34uj #
very cool – infochimps data sets — buy, use, or even sell your own – http://bit.ly/16seQg #
good, if not comforting RT @kencooperusa: Learn to deal with information abundance – or someone else will | http://bit.ly/awsUU3 #e20 #
} catch(me) { RT @lbenitez: Something exception is about to happen .. are you ready ? #ibmexperience #
liked the first comment. http://yfrog.com/j465996619p full discussion at http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ – http://bit.ly/a9UtEe #
good -RT @lennyzeltser: Distinctions between designing a "secure" #Cloud architecture and managing risk: http://bit.ly/8ZE4dQ by @alexhutton #
As always, Schneier's Cryptogram newsletter is great. On the web at – http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-1009.html #infosec #toread #
looks like a good addition to IBM Analytics portfolio RT @CraigRhinehart: IBM buys GRC market leader OpenPages http://tinyurl.com/2byngzn #
feel-good moment of the day – walking kids to school and all 3 of us humming "strangers in the night" because I started it #feelgoodmoment #
finally expressing himself in more than 140 chars. @lennyzeltser – blogs.zeltser.com #notable #
Dragon dictation app really letting me down today. #
Mark Hurst doing a good job, except reading handwriting. #ibmexperience #
I know *I* love getting a call from COO saying "fix it right now". More spur-of-the-moment ideas please. #ibmexperience #
Excited to be here. #IBM announces new customer experience software, mentions working with Gemini http://bit.ly/dracct #ibmexperience #

Artwork in lieu of taxes

Slava — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:45:54 +0000

Walking aroundÂ PompidouÂ Center in Paris last week , I noticed that a number of works had a sign that were donated by artists to the museum in lieu of paying their taxes in cash. I believe Italy has a similar program, and both governments have amassed great art collections as a result. Artists do need to demonstrate the market value of their work through prior sales, so my doodles would never pay taxes in Italy or France. USA seems to have some kind of a program for donating art to museums by art collectors, but I never heard of an artist using their artwork instead of tax.

It is possible that the art market in US is liquid enough that an artist can simply sell their work. Still, I wonder what kind of art the public would have been able to see and have access to if this was a viable option in the US.

Really? Preparing Children to Be Safe at College – NYTimes.com. Really?!

Slava — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:56:56 +0000

Aghm… People do realize many of these schools are “inner city” schools, right? I think this is might be another non-trend trend for Slate

But just because you are paying tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars for your childâ€™s education does not mean the university is a safe place.

A report released this week by Insite Security is sure to shake parentsâ€™ confidence. The security firm analyzed crime statistics on and around the campuses of the eight Ivy League colleges as well as Duke, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago. This study was intriguing because it looked not only at the on-campus statistics that colleges are required to report, it also took into account crime in the areas where students socialize off campus. (The off-campus statistics were drawn from the F.B.I.â€™s uniform crime report.)

via Wealth Matters – Preparing Children to Be Safe at College – NYTimes.com.

Really? This is “sure to shake parents” ? Most of the parents went to the same schools in the 1970′s and 1980′s – when things were *much* worst, at least in West Philadelphia. Just seems like lazy reporting with the special hook of $41,000/year spent in

“Ostrander Internationalâ€™s security assessment and training program, mainly for the children of international business executives, royalty and celebrities, which starts at $41,000 for the first year.”

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-12

Slava — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Quite a line at staples. First day of school is like Christmas in September. #
My google just won't switch from .fr to .com — and results *are* quite different. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-05

Slava — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Flying on the jumbo airbus 380. It is definitely jumbo. #
Why do I always get confused with gate signs at Spb airport?
they have different numbers in English and Russian. http://twitpic.com/2ki5j1 #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-29

Slava — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Not sure what to expect, but installing the super sad true love story app #
RT @lennyzeltser: "Computer-side reading" = a book you read in snippets while waiting for programs to start or for the system to reboot #
Grease lightning on AMC. #faves #
today's lunch reading – http://bit.ly/aTsZlY #
The Worldâ€™s Worst Traffic – By Jared Mondschein | Foreign Policy – http://goo.gl/1Hcz #
small steps: finally managed to move J. off Palm Desktop last updated in 2006. Whew. #
new work from @fridfurniture – http://t.co/V2n3E6H #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

Slava — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 11:05:00 +0000

note to street card: egg and cheese w/ salt, pepper, ketchup is not nearly as good without salt, pepper or ketchup #
"Super Sad True Love Story" is truly sad. #
trying out @zemanta plugin for wordpress. Wish there was one for #LC – enterprise market could certainly use something like that. #
RT @nickgiglia: Love this quote: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."- T. Edison. #
argh. with no amazon prime I must now wait until I need *2* books before shipping them. Oh the humanity! #

Room Planning with Autodesk Homestyle

Slava — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:20:44 +0000

Longer post to follow, but initial playing with Autodesk Homestyle beta led to this picture:

that acts as a validation of my inept measurement — stuff mostly fits. Of course, it fits even better since we only have the TV and the couch right now. Art, vases – are a nice touch in the software that takes modeling a step (or 10) beyond what you can buy in Staples. Its catalog of “real” items provided in 3D by manufacturers is the real draw. It is high time these were available – ideally not just for proprietary software solutions. The 3D model is accessible here

Prior to Autodesk I was using Google Sketchup which is great – if you have a LOT of time to get good at it. I got the link and idea of using Homestyler from the DYI Stackexchange site.

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-26

Slava — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

youtube channels for products are always great, when they have good content. Lotus Mashups do. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-25

Slava — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

seriously Penn. I cannot remember my PennKey, and this should somehow disqualify me from donating money over the web? #upenn #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-24

Slava — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Gemini is looking for a f/t senior technical recruiter. Email with recommendations. #
No longer homeless. In hock to bank now. Vivat capitalism. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-22

Slava — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

It took a decade for XSD and WS-* to raise and fall, but it will take 2*decade to undo the damage they did to the mind. (via @sallamar) yes! #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-20

Slava — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Toy story 3 – not a dry eye and applause when over. First time I've seen that at movies. #awesome #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-18

Slava — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

bad sign? when your mortgage banker calls you in Russia to double-check your credit history. Luckily – nothing new there. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-16

Slava — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

You know you are in Moscow when ride from airport takes far longer than the actual flight. #
tech star – that's what I want to be when I grow up – http://youtu.be/Xed8eVUvm_E #
big news from IBM – buing Coremetrics. http://bit.ly/c43XXd #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-15

Slava — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

loving skype when I am away from home. Spoke to kids, parents – good night to all. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-13

Slava — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

and an even bigger one today… RT @mgualtieri: … Reminded how amazing the engineering feat it was to put a man on the moon 40 years ago #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-12

Slava — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Really?! Can't book a flight because Finnair does not recognize my phone format, yet provides no help on what it should look like. #ux #fail #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-11

Slava — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

loved this — NIKE FOOTBALL WRITE THE FUTURE – FULL LENGTH VERSION http://youtu.be/idLG6jh23yE #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-10

Slava — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

RT @arkady_n: Shallow DOF, framing, tilt, creamy bokeh, all comes together for an excellent portrait : http://nyti.ms/c9fTPE #photography #
remembered that tinyeye can search for images by URL and see if other sites on the web link to it. http://www.tineye.com/ #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-27

Slava — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

great presentation RT @fredwilson: I am showcasing a couple things i read today and liked Digital Strangelove http://bit.ly/Ks6V0 #
spot-checking new production release. the toil and trouble of daily routine… #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-22

Slava — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

I do not understand Friedman’s references to untouchables in his op-ed – http://bit.ly/1wNHrD. Wikipedia doesn’t help – http://bit.ly/4JPga #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-21

Slava — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

$2.49/mo for Slate on Kindle. Is that because there are no ads on Kindle or because of bandwidth costs? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-20

Slava — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

after days of being remote and VPN, it is nice to be on a LAN and have things load quickly for internal resources. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-17

Slava — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

playing with new IBM Portal beta on Amazon EC2 #
only $20 difference between US Only and US+International coverage for kindle – http://bit.ly/1VEprc, seems like a good deal for travelers #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-16

Slava — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

downloading conference materials… hopefully every session is in there! #pec09 #
ok… google wave is a bit buggy so far :) #
one of my favorite columns, because nothing in law-land is as simple as it looks – http://bit.ly/4s7uiJ #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-15

Slava — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

watching a demo of Portal theme “ExtremeBlue” written entirely in Flex, using JS and REST services for portal data. very cool!!! #pec09 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-14

Slava — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

cloud services – great presentation so far. and a full room. heard animoto story before, but it never stops to amaze. #pec09 #
new new thing for demos – do not bother with VMWare – just host it on amazon. #pec09 #
Why don’t status messages just expire after 12 hours? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-13

Slava — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

anyone organizing tweetups at #pec09 ? #
great line, “[sametime/uc2] designed to help eliminate human latency” very good point #pec09 #
people are building *really* cool sametime plugins. bluetooth + radio location services for sametime. #pec09 #
WCM portlets also supposed seedlist 1.0 – awesome. #pec09 #
theme development for 6.1.5 is finally what it should be — simple and powerful. #pec09 #
definitely drinking the cool-aid. Client-side analytics microformat FTW! #pec09 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-12

Slava — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Mildly disturbing & accusatory posters at LaGuardia. “Lotus knows who will miss you.” & how to reach me? http://pic.gd/9f386f #
Very impressed with iphone photoshop mobile app. #
If you attend a conference, but it does not have a real #tag, did it really happen? #
IBM, Coke, and Microsoft are top brands worldwide? Really? Should we be more concerned about the world… #
More stalker sppech from lotus, “lotus knows… Reach them where they live and work” seriously??? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-10

Slava — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

ant-trust violation for mainframes? http://bit.ly/boHWx #
pretty interesting stackexchange site for just “users” – http://bit.ly/mW4ly #
heh. finally registred for Portal Conference a day before actually flying out to it. Now for those #ls10 abstracts… #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-09

Slava — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

RT @fredwilson: OH at #usvsummit “we tried charging for our api without much succes, then we paid developers to use it and it took off” #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-08

Slava — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Thinking of teamwork and marketing on the way home from the Yankees game after a customer event. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-07

Slava — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

of all airlines, only Delta has e-tickets that are classified as spam by gmail… #ls10 #
Sounds silly, but cannot wait for Spolsky/fogcreek announcements from their dev days. Are they on their way to ecosystem like 37Signals are? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-06

Slava — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

considering going to see http://bit.ly/WtHva – Serizawa:Master of Japanese Textile Design #
so I got to do #Lotusphere abstracts, but is there really a point? I *never* get in #ls10 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-02

Slava — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

proposed onion headline… “local teacher from elite university confused by two welcome emails” #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-26

Slava — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Last leg of the trip. AMS to JFK. Airlines must be making a mint – every flight I’ve been was full. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-25

Slava — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

What’s the difference between getting on a plane and missing your oversold flight? American passport, apparently, really helps. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-24

Slava — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

if you are a 3 days late on a 3-week iteration, is not that a 20% overrun? Or just 3 days late and it is not a big deal? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-23

Slava — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Listening a customer talk about our solution at an IBM forum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Always fun. http://myloc.me/J3KG #
Didn’t realize they had 100 people just uploading content into WCM all day long. #
just bought skype credit for calling into conf calls while away. will see how well it works… #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-22

Slava — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

At breakfast. Place called elki-palki. http://pic.gd/994e00 #
really, really using up those 24 hours of internet access (RUB 900 at the hotel, free across the street) #
inbox zero? not really, but getting better. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-21

Slava — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Transferring at Paris CDG. Why would a french airport have no sit-down full service restaurant? #
Back in ussr. Broken escalators and a huge line to enter. Par for the course, that. Just hope 05.11.09 on my visa is nov 5, and not may 11. #