First off, anyone who knows me knows that I tend to rant about my commute (in essence the MBTA) often. In theory, it's not a bad commute. Six stops on the red line and a 'quick'? switch to the green line for another two stops. It doesn't sound that bad, and should take about 40 minutes door-to-door on a good day. But on a bad day, which let's face it is most days for the MBTA, it can be an absolute nightmare. My most recent hellish trip home on a 90+ degree day took an hour and fifteen minutes (due to a derailed train, random schedule adjustment or 'just because,'? no one really knows). The crazy thing is that we're talking a driving distance of less than five miles! Although I guess I should just be grateful that I was on a train with working AC (it's the little things, right?). My chosen method of expressing my feelings about a given commute is often Facebook. When I'm sitting on a stagnant train (at one of those rare stops where I get service), I whip out my trusty iPhone and post whatever experience I'm having in that moment. And boom, what happens next? Usually, a flurry of 'likes'? from friends and often a slew of comments from people commiserating about similar experiences. Ideally, my frustrated posts would elicit real-time responses from MBTA officials ' perhaps explaining the situation, or maybe even just apologizing for my frustration and acknowledging that they 'get it.'? In a recent webinar I attended, 'likeable social media'? guru Dave Kerpen said that without a doubt, 'I'm sorry'? are the two most important words in the social media sphere. If a business addresses the comments it shows that they're truly interested in customer feedback and committed to taking steps to making the customer happy. In the end, an apology from the MBTA wouldn't get me home faster, but I would absolutely appreciate the sentiment and their respect for my feelings and time. It would make me feel like someone is listening and that they fda approved cialis might even care. It's no surprise that when you do a Facebook search for MBTA, some of the top results are negative customer-created pages for people to share their tirades. In fact, the MBTA doesn't even seem to have an official page and therefore no platform that allows for them to shape their own message and potentially turn negatives into positives. Starting an official page is absolutely, positively, unequivocally Step 1 in my opinion. Next month, I'll be moving off the red line and into the North End where I'll have less than a five minute walk to work. I'm excited to have an opportunity to experience a new Boston neighborhood for sure, but I'm beyond overjoyed to be able eliminate commuting on the T from my daily life. Harsh, maybe, but true. Maybe if they had showed more of an interest in engaging me as a customer I wouldn't have felt the need to go off the map. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for their Facebook page'?¦ if anyone's listening.

First off, anyone who knows me knows that I tend to rant about my commute (in essence the MBTA) often. In theory, it's not a bad commute. Six stops on the red line and a 'quick'? switch to the green line for another two stops. It doesn't sound that bad, and should take about 40 minutes door-to-door on a good day. But on a bad day, which let's face it is most days for the MBTA, it can be an absolute nightmare. My most recent hellish trip home on a 90+ degree day took an hour and fifteen minutes (due to a derailed train, random schedule adjustment or 'just because,'? no one really knows). The crazy thing is that we're talking a driving distance of less than five miles! Although I guess I should just be grateful that I was on a train with working AC (it's the little things, right?). My chosen method of expressing my feelings about a given commute is often Facebook. When I'm sitting on a stagnant train (at one of those rare stops where I get service), I whip out my trusty iPhone and post whatever experience I'm having in that moment. And boom, what happens next? Usually, a flurry of 'likes'? from friends and often a slew of comments from people commiserating about similar experiences. Ideally, my frustrated posts would elicit real-time responses from MBTA officials ' perhaps explaining the situation, or maybe even just apologizing for my frustration and acknowledging that they 'get it.'? In a recent webinar I attended, 'likeable social media'? guru Dave Kerpen said that without a doubt, 'I'm sorry'? are the two most important words in the social media sphere. If a business addresses the comments it shows that they're truly interested in customer feedback and committed to taking steps to making the customer happy. In the end, an apology from the MBTA wouldn't get me home faster, but I would absolutely appreciate the sentiment and their respect for my feelings and time. It would make me feel like someone is listening and that they fda approved cialis might even care. It's no surprise that when you do a Facebook search for MBTA, some of the top results are negative customer-created pages for people to share their tirades. In fact, the MBTA doesn't even seem to have an official page and therefore no platform that allows for them to shape their own message and potentially turn negatives into positives. Starting an official page is absolutely, positively, unequivocally Step 1 in my opinion. Next month, I'll be moving off the red line and into the North End where I'll have less than a five minute walk to work. I'm excited to have an opportunity to experience a new Boston neighborhood for sure, but I'm beyond overjoyed to be able eliminate commuting on the T from my daily life. Harsh, maybe, but true. Maybe if they had showed more of an interest in engaging me as a customer I wouldn't have felt the need to go off the map. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for their Facebook page'?¦ if anyone's listening.

With this week's official announcement that Meredith Vieira will be leaving NBC's Today Show, the news got me thinking about our attachment to TV news personalities and the role they play in our daily lives. When Meredith emotionally announced her decision to leave Today, we shared her emotion wholeheartedly. The sadness she demonstrated felt genuine and raw, and no doubt her fans ' myself included ' felt sadness of our own in this moment. Sadness which turned to nervousness as we immediately thought 'Who will replace her?'? We put a certain level of faith and trust in the people who deliver our news, inviting these people into our homes day after day, night after night. They share in our excitement as we experience joyous events like the recent royal wedding, and they share in our heartbreak when something unthinkable happens like the attacks on September 11th. At the best of times and the worst of times, we get to know our anchors as news unfolds. We uncover their personalities in the midst of their reporting, and they become our comrades. So it's no wonder that when there's a change in regime, we as the viewer are wary about who will take the empty seat. We are loyal to our friends, and we prednisone 50mg don't want to have to start over and make new ones. Luckily in this case, we won't have to. In a not-that-surprising second announcement, we learned that Ann Curry would be filling Meredith's shoes. Personally, I was slightly relieved. Ann's familiar, making the transition and loss of Meredith much more tolerable. She's already a part of our friend circle, albeit perhaps not our BFF. Change is, of course, inevitable. I'll miss drinking my coffee every morning with Meredith but, as in life, friendships change and sometimes we must say goodbye. And sometimes saying goodbye to one friend allows us to grow closer to another. To that I say, welcome to my inner circle, Ann Curry.

I know with the advances of modern technology we are all more connected than ever to our cell phones (read 'unhealthily attached'?). We text during movies, keep our phones on the table at dinner and drive the streets with one hand on the wheel and the other on the message we're trying to send (Text Laws be damned!). But despite our attachment to our phones, there is a need for a break sometimes. online propecia sales And in my opinion, that break should always apply to the bathroom. That's right folks - cell phones need a potty break too. A blog post on AdAge.com reported recent statistics from Insight Express' Digital Consumer Portrait, a quarterly report detailing when and where Americans use their cell phones. The not-so-shocking (but nevertheless unsanitary) findings: 56% of users admitted to using their phones while in the bathroom. Cue the gross-out germ statistics here. It's bad enough that more than half of us (I'm in the other half by the way) use our phones while on the toilet, but the statistic that truly disturbed me is that 13% are using location-based applications like Foursquare while in this compromising state. (On a side note, is it weird to anyone else that these apps would even locate a bathroom as a potential nearby place?) For those of you 'checking in'? to your current bathroom location, I think there is such a thing as TMI. I beg of you - when you do your business, please keep it your business. This is not meant to serve as an affront to connectivity or modern technology, and I'm the first one to admit that I experience withdrawal whenever I accidentally forget my phone. All I'm saying is there are times that do warrant relieving yourself of your phone ' like when you're relieving yourself in the bathroom.