I Have a Theory

My theory is the pain in my upper right side of my mouth and jaw is caused by a very tightened muscles(es) of my TMJ, and not nerve damage. The pain started last April, about 3 months after seeing a speech therapist. She gave me list of exercises to stretch my mouth trying to get back normal after the stroke. But the excerises made my TMJ tighten even more, causing the pain.

The speech therapist thought the mouth was weaken of my left side my because when I was smiling, the right side came up higher, much higher, than the left side. I told her my mouth was weak on the right side. Now I know the upper right was going so much higher because of the tightness.

At first when the pain started, I thought something is wrong with my teeth. Almost all the upper right side of my mouth was in pain. I went to a dentist and we did so many things with my teech, including a root canal. I spent around $3500 before I stopped. During that time, I kept exercising my mouth but it didn’t help. It did nothing at all. Didn’t increase the pain or lessens it either, so I stopped.

But now, with taking 300mg of Lyrica and 2400mg of Neurotin a day, I decided to stretch my mouth as far as I can. I opened it ever way that I thought off. The pain has subsided, the tightness is going away.

My theory is the pain is/was because of the tightness in my TMJ. I didn’t feel the pain immediately after the stroke because maybe the tightness was not too tight at the time. I don’t know. In April, I could feel the tightness starting around the gum line and going all the way to my eye, and last year, going to my ear.

But now, exercises my mouth, trying to get back normal, has decreased the pain. I can feel it stretching and pulling the painful muscles. It’s not back to normal, not yet. It’s a long way to go to get back to normal again. I still feel some tightness around some teeth sometimes and I could feel the tightness on the my right of my nose, but I hoping that will go away.

My mouth and the ugly truth.

My right side of my mouth starting acting up big time about 3 weeks. Today my neurologist got me on Neurontin and Lyrica. Business is sucking; it was failing before the stroke and the stroke put the nails in the coffin. I hate my stroke, I hate it, I hate it.

Tips on how NOT to try to grow a large IT Business

Do not:

1. Cold call one-man IT shops you find while searching on Google, Bing, Yahoo or through the yellow pages.
2. Feel out over the phone if you think the other guy is slow and desperate for business.
3. Based on the feelers put out on the phone, believe the other one-man IT shop might be receptive to do anything for additional business.
4. Attempt to convince the other IT shop that you are only trying to help because you have so much business that you can’t take care of it all and would like to spread the business to others that might need it.
5. Proceed to attempt to toss normal high paying jobs to the other IT shop but offer to pay a third or only a quarter commission to them.
6. Attempt to convince the other guy you are not looking for an employee, but then immediately tell them they are not allowed to take their own business cards, answer their own cell phone, and if the customer asks, instruct them to state they work for you.
7. Use such pressure tactics as “We’re expanding and looking for other good IT guys.  You would be dumb to turn down our offer”, or a classic “You don’t want the extra business?  You must want to fail”.

Do:

1. Treat the other one-man IT shops with integrity, respect and build upon that.  And if  it works out, perhaps work toward a partnership.
2. Repeat the above Step One in the “Do” list.

Managed Services – Buyer Beware

There are lots of us good computer guys out there that our aim is to take care of the customer – only sale them what they need, give them good advice, don’t overcharge or pad the bill, and don’t use used parts unless it is agreed upon by the customer. But unfortunately there are scam artists out there. Computer guys that never solve the problem but keep collecting the check. Computer guys that use used parts but don’t inform the customer and charge like the part is new. Computer guys that push a product just to make a sale. The computer industry is not regulated similiar to the auto repair industry, but probably will be soon, and maybe should be.

But in the past couple of years or so, there has been a new wave of computer guys out there that are solely looking for the quick buck and easy money in a particular fashion. And that quick buck is in the name of “Managed Services”. Managed Services in itself is neither good or bad. It is a loose term roughly meaning remote monitoring for trouble spots in computer hardware, providing updates, and making the necessary and needed adjustments or replacements.

Managed Services was developed in response to the sheer number of computers and servers used by large companies, and the near impossiblility for a single person or even a team of people to constantly survey hardware and monitor for problems. Managed Services are often provided by a third party, and up until the very recent past was very costly.

There are small companies that could also benefit from this type of service and the peace of mind it can afford. These small businesses hope that they can avoid costly server outages and that downtimes can be minimized, or maybe avoided, due to this offering. But the service was cost prohibitive and out of reach for many small companies.

In response to this market need, there are a new breed of Managed Service providers that have made it affordable for small and SOHO (Small Office Home Office) companies to afford the service. Many of these providers are offshore.

These newer managed services providers like to partner with small computer shops with a contract, and in exchange for these contracts, the computer shops receives exorbitant amounts of revenue for every customer they sign up. And there is the problem. From Glenn Frey’s song Smugglers Blues:

It’s the lure of easy money, It’s got a very strong appeal

The lure of easy money. Google “Managed Services” and you will found many providers that offer this service to small companies. And what’s their pitch? “Easy money” for the computer guy. And next to the nothing about the benefit to the customer.

I have been approached by numerous Managed Services companies over the years and the pitch is the same, once again “easy money”, and I have rejected these companies. Unfortunately I also have known computer guys in my area that did not reject these offers. But these same guys will spend 30 seconds, if that much, on learning and understanding a customer’s needs, and then they spend 30 minutes on a sales pitch for managed services.

There is also a potential real risk here to the small business that signs up for these managed services . The scenario is comparable to the way fitness clubs like to sign up X amount of people, but only plan for a small percentage to actually use the gym. Once again, easy money. But what happens if more than the small percentage tries to come to the gym? Overcrowding, long waiting lines for equipment, and in some cases, turned away.

A similar situation can occur for a one-man computer shop that signs up too many customers up for their managed services offering, but then they have multiple customers with simultaneous issues. Real disaster can occur for the small business if the computer guy is a greedy con artist; because of instead of using the money from the Managed Services contracts to help ensure zero downtime and to hiring good IT folks to solve problems as they arise, he simply pocketed the money. Which in the end leaves the small business stuck with a dead server and downtime.

Managed Services can be a great product. But Buyer Beware. I recommend having a mutual discussion with the computer company offering it, and make sure it really benefits you. And if you think it benefits you, make sure the company you are contracting with can fulfull their end of the bargain. Otherwise, look for another computer managed services company.

Options I would like to hear on a Phone Tree

Dial 95 “if You’ve already gone to our website and checked your balance, so we don’t need to play an endless loop of ‘Go to our website for all of your answers’ during the 45 minutes while you are on hold.”

Dial 96 “if You’ve already submitted an online Customer Service and Support Request, and our automated email attendant responded to your request with a ‘Do-Not-Reply’ nonsensical email that had absolutely zero do with your problem and it only referred you back to the website.”

Dial 97 “if You’ve already given us the following a total of at least three times – your full name with middle initial, your complete address with zip+4, social security number, account number, phone number with area code, billing reference code – all because you had to shout into the phone when the robotic-automated-voice-attendant kept saying ‘I didn’t quite understand you…can you repeat that?’, so you would rather speak to a living, breathing human being even if the accent is overseas and terrible and using a shitty VoIP system.”

Dial 98 ”if You’ve already experienced buckets-full of fake sorrowful apologetic tear drops from our ‘Customer Service’ agents, shift supervisors, managers, and regional directors that all make the late Tammy Faye Baker look like a rank amateur and would put her to shame, but who stiffen at the mention of even giving a single dollar credit to your account.”

Dial 99 ”if You already know that our reducing of staff, closing customer service phone centers and walk-in centers, removing our phone number from all correspondence including removing it from the website, all in the name of ‘better service’ and ‘efficient cost-cutting’, is just plain garbage from the CEO du jour who hopes to get on the cover of the latest entrepreneur magazine and to use that for springboarding into coning another corporation into hiring them.”

Dial 100 “if You already know that the only reason why we do such things listed above is that because we are a mega-company who has the market share (well…depending on which ‘Independent Customer Satisfaction Surveys’ you read and believe that they are just as real and non-biased as the paid-off and conflict-of-interest ridden bank and security credit rating agencies that helped to bring down the financial industry – but we digress) and who not only counts on it, but bets on it, that no matter how much you grumble and dislike us, you won’t leave us. And if you do try to leave us, we’ll first perform the buckets-full of apologetic tears routine, and if that doesn’t work, we will slap a big-ass revenge fee on your account, but we prefer to call it a ‘Early Termination Fee’ or sometimes call it a ‘Customer Service Inquiry Fee’.”

I’m always Lost…well, sometimes.

I’m always lost when talking to people,
I’m sometimes lost when listening to people talk.

I’m always lost when starting to say something,
I’m sometimes lost after beginning to talk.

I’m always lost with a lot of noise in the background,
I’m sometimes lost with talking outside, with or without noise.

I’m always lost trying to speak with my tooth pain,
I’m sometimes lost when speaking when the pain stops
because I’m afraid it was starting hurting again.

I’m always lost when people talk so fast,
and I’m always lost when I try to speak so fast.

I’m always feel lost since the stroke,
sometimes wanting to lay down in the bed and
just die or go to sleep 24-7-365 days a year.

I’m always lost thinking this is really bad fucked-up dream,
But, sad to say, it is not a really bad fucked-up dream.

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When someone ask me how was 2010 for me, I’m not sure what to say.  I met Bruce in 2010; that’s a plus.  But I also had a stroke (three actually) in 2010; that’s a minus.  I  sort of smile and say nothing, as usually do in most of situations since the stroke. I met Bruce in February and we had a good time. So we decided for a second date on June 27, but I had my first stroke on June 24. That put a pisser on things.

Bruce has been a life saver for me.  If weren’t for him I would committed suicide.  I’m not kidding.  But at times, when I’m in a bad mood, I want to lay die and just die, or sleep 24-7-365 days a year.  But other times, when I’m in a bad mood, I want to lay down and just snuggle with him.

I wish it was just a really bad fucked-up dream, but it’s not.

Breaking the Silence

And Thanks to Bruce for being there for me and telling me my voice will come back.

I starting to going to acupuncture for the TMJ pain and really helped. It most likely my nerves healing itself caused by the stroke.