Perverse Delight

Recently I got called by not one, but two lengthy opinion surveys!

I guess once you are noted as someone who takes the 13 minutes to answer the thing, they share your number.

I recall a while back enjoying telling a political survey I thought we were on "the right track."

This time, it was the nice people at Nielsen, wanting to know about movies.

Luckily I had just attended Pirates of the Caribbean, so the previews were fresh in my mind.

They asked aobut 17 specific movies.

I enjoyed telling them I would definitely not see Ricky Bobby, but definitely would see World Trade Center.

I strongly agreed that movies had gotten worse, and that I went less often.

And that no, the "theater and audience experience" was not sufficient compensation to get me into the seat.

In fact, I hated the audience!

No, I only go to movies that I think are good and I don't want to wait to see at home.

Because yes, I DO own a widescreen home theater system with surround sound, suckas!

The next survey was a little less exciting...at first.

It was about opinions regarding telecom company brands.

Basically I told them all the majors were about the same, and my opinion of their dedication to their customers and their technological nimbleness was rather low.

And that they try to hide their fees.

And that their branding messages weren't coming across.

But then I was asked if I'd heard about any mergers in the space recently.

Yes... AT&T and SBC? Correct!

And how did I feel about that?

I felt GOOD!

Why?

Because (and here the questioner took down answers verbatim, instead of it being multiple choice) "the government never should have broken up AT&T and the new combined company will be financial stronger and able to roll out newer technology faster and provide more uniform services over a larger geographical area."

As a long-suffering investor in the telecom equipment space, I have a vested interest in seeing CSCO sell more routers and such.

But I didn't mention that.

Then I was asked -- oh joy! -- if I had heard about the NSA's anti-terrorist information gathering program.

I said I had.

And did I know which telecoms cooperated with the NSA and which did not?

I said I thought Quest did not but the others did -- Correct!

And how did that change my opinions of these companies?

I told the questioner to clearly note that my opinion of Quest WENT DOWN but my opinion of its competitors who coooperated WENT UP!

BWAHAHAHahahaha!