Nothing on this thing

No one reads this thing so I have not updated in a long time, then again no one reads it because there is nothing to read, what a paradox....

This coming September, I will be working for the University of Jyväskylä for the next 4 years as a researcher, at which at the end, I will receive a PhD. It is a pretty sweet deal, being paid to learn. But that's how they do here in Europe...loving it!

Noora is great. We are going to Canada next Tuesday. Check my Facebook page for exciting pictures and stuff as you all have it anyway. I hope to keep you up to date with my research on this blog. While there may soon be more content on this thing, it will be regarding my research, so it may also be less interesting to read...well, enough babbling!

I still HATE Bank of Montreal (BMO)

For the 3rd time in as many years, I have had trouble with my student line of credit with the Bank of Montrea. This is like a loan that says is for students but really is just a regular loan. My dad and I decided to get rid of the line of credit and switch it up with good Caisse Populaire Bois Franc...Here is the letter my dad wrote to the manager of Bank of Montreal Salaberry branch. It was cc'd to La Facture:

The Manager
Bank of Montreal
2680 de Salaberry
Montreal QC
H3M 1L3

Re: Student line of credit for Marc Thompson

Dear Sir,
I am writing to you to express my extreme dissatisfaction over the recent events relating
to this line of credit. Three weeks ago I spent the best part of four days trying to sort out why my son’s MasterCard associated with this account suddenly stopped working. Since this is now the third such incident it appears to me that the whole system your organisation has in place to validate these card is very seriously flawed.

My son has had this line of credit for several years and after studying at McGill where he
obtained a degree in music he moved to Finland where he is enrolled in the “Music Mind and
Technology” advanced studies program at the University of Jyvaskyla. Since his student visa
requires evidence that he has funds available a student line of credit seemed like a good choice which satisfied both the Finnish embassy and his day-to-day needs. Each month I have made a payment into this account and he has used it for his housing and personal needs. In fact this had become an essential financial instrument.

Each year a notice appears on the statement requiring that evidence of continuing studies
is provided. Each time we have presented to your branch a certificate (written in English even
though he is studying in Finland) demonstrating that he is enrolled as a student. Since these had not been processed correctly in the past, the last time I presented the form at the branch I asked that the person who accepted it to sign a receipt acknowledging the form and assuming
responsibility for its transmittal to the appropriate MasterCard department.

The first clue that the card did not work occurred on February 6 when my son was at
Helsinki airport en route for Paris. The ATM indicated that the account did not have sufficient
funds for his withdrawal. The balance on the January statement was $13,333.85! The balance on the February statement (received after this event) was $12,761.84 so clearly this was not correct.

However the card had an expiry date of “02/07". It is clearly written on the card “Valid thru end of 02/07". When he phoned me we realized that no new replacement card had been received. The assumption was that the replacement card had been lost in the mail to our home address. I placed a phone call to your branch (the number listed in the phone book). I left a detailed message concerning the situation. This call was never returned.
Then, since the replacement card had not received I rang the “lost or stolen card number”
on the statement. I explained that I had not received the replacement card. I was told that the card was not “lost” because it had never been received. Then I asked if it had been sent out, “Yes cards are sent out two months before, so it was sent in December, December 12 in fact. Then I asked “well if it was sent in December and it is now February, is it not lost?”. “No”, I was told we only deal with lost cards and since you did not receive it, it is not “lost”. I then asked, “Well if you don’t think it was lost, how would you describe this card?” “The card was not received.”

I considered it lost, if they were so sure it had been issued but it never arrived in the mail. I was informed that the problem could be solved by ringing “BMO Direct Banking”.
Next I talked to someone code-named “Muril”. Her story was very different. The card
was NOT sent out in December: “We never send out new cards in December, they would get lost in the Christmas mail”... “Well when was the card sent”, I asked. “No new cards were issued, there was a problem at Winners, and so no new card was issued.” “So should the old card still work, since it has not expired and a no new one has been issued shouldn’t it?” “No I was told, the card expired in February, since it is valid until ‘02/07' ”. (On the card it states valid thru end 02/07) “Yes, that may be on the card but it actually expires at the beginning of the month” was the nonsensical reply from Ms Muril!! The card has been deactivated and cannot be re-activated.

“You must talk with the security department” she insisted, they can help you..
So now I phoned the Security Services.. 1 800 321 8041 “Your call is important to us...”
Ninety three minutes later someone actually answered the phone. Yes, I’m sure that my call was important.... very important... I provided all my personal information to someone code-named Sheldon. He checked the card number... “There is nothing wrong with this card, there has never been a hold on it. It works, there are no problems with this card.” “But it does not work, My son tired it yesterday and it did not work, but it did a few days before.” “There is nothing wrong with this card”.

Hoping that Sheldon had solved the problem I e-mailed Marc. Unfortunately, he tried the
card again and it still did not work.

The next day I tried “security services again”. This time after a mere sixty three minutes
the phone was answered by “Don”. I assume that Don actually looked up the correct file and he provided an interesting answer. “Yes there is a hold on the account. The hold was put on by the branch of the bank which you deal with. The hold was applied on February 6th since they were told your son is NOT a student. “But, I gave them the proof on September 14 last year, in fact I have in my hand a hand-written acknowledgement from someone at the branch stating very clearly that the proof of enrollment was received. The message is written on the university’s certificate of registration”... The response was: The problem is at your branch, not with MasterCard.

What I have recounted above is a subset of the phone calls I actually made. The elapsed
time before the problem was solved was over four days... The number of times I was probed for personal information in order to verify MY identify by people who categorically refused to tell me their full name and where in the world they were must have been at least ten..

What a way to treat a customer of over 30 years. What a disorganized place. The bank and MasterCard and their communications seem to be those more akin to those in the “Tower of Bable” than a well run financial institution. Where do you get these stories from.... Your call is important to us... what nonsense. Do you not realize that there other financial institutions out there... Do you even care...

This situation is completely and utterly unacceptable. Fortunately there are organizations
who offer student lies of credit. These appear to be more accountable. There is one organization responsible for all aspects of the service. They don’t need to pass the ball from one place to each other. They even answer the phone....

So who actually decided that the line of credit was stopped? Was it someone at your
branch, and if so why then, and on what grounds? Why was new the card issued at a reasonable time ahead of its expiry date, was it because of the Christmas rush, a break-in at Winners, or because the information relating to the student registration was not acted on? Why was I told so very assertively that cards expire at the beginning of the month written on the card by someone and a few hours later told that they expire at the end of the month by another person at the same call centre? There is a serious lack of communication in this organization.

This is now the third time the same line of credit has been summarily frozen. We have put
up with the “it is not our fault” excuses in the past, but I am now of the opinion that there is an endemic problem with this product, and have arranged to have another financial institution deal with my son’s student credit needs. I can’t believe that this could happen to us in three consecutive years and not happen to anyone else. I seriously suggest that you review your procedures relating to this product, or better still scrap it and come up with something which offers one-stop responsibility rather than the buck-passing excuse ridden “customer service” which seems to be an intrinsic part of the Bee M&M OOOOH! MasterCard student line of credit product which you currently offer.

Sincerely,
C J Thompson DSc FCCPM

I am so Embarrassed

I am so embarrassed by not writing on the blog, especially since there are so many links to this page all over the internet, Facebook, mySpace, my family's newletter. Well, what are you going to do?


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Back Home ?

I am back in Canada for the first time in roughly 15 months. I'm really happy to be home, but really surprised to find how little has changed, including myself.

I feel like I have been in a time machine and have returned from my original point in time and nothing has changed. It took no time at all for me to re-adjust to being back home. I do the same things I have before I left. I feel like what people say about how travelling makes you grow does not apply to me.

All I know is that being back in canada feels so normal that the normality is the fanstasy. Having Noora to go home to in Finland makes me feel like my life is really there now...

Anyway, Merry Chirstmas!

Randomness

Welcome Back!

Wow, that was a long time, wasn't it?
Well, instead of telling you what I have been up to the last few months (hosting my parents in Finland, going to Spain and Belgium, Italy and Holland, working on my thesis, getting a place with my girlfriend Noora, etc, etc) I am just going to pick up where I left off....


While reviewing articles for the Music, Culture and Cognition class, i came across a very interesting article on randomness in the iPod shuffle. This relates a little to John Richardson's lecture.

It seems that humans have a biological ability to find patterns within explicitly random things, such as claiming the iPod shuffle has its 'favorite songs'. This extends to pretty much all of existence. Periodicity is seen everywhere from the 7 days of the week, to the 4 seasons, to sound waves, to the planetary patterns of the solar system. I think the idea that we find patterns in music, perhaps even in chance and aleotoric music, may be an interesting area of study for music perception...what do you think?

The article is located at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6854309/site/newsweek/
and is quite short...

Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up The Ski Hill...

They will see us waving from such great
Heights, 'come down now,' they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away,
'come down now,' but we'll stay...
- Such Great Heights, The Postal Service












The last time I broke into somewhere I was 12. It was during summer break at my school, Transfiguration of our Lord Elementary. My friend Tony and I snuck down a large air vent when we saw some hockey cards and loose change. The first time was fun. We collected some cards and picked up some coins. When we got out we met this other older kid and wanted to show him how to get down. I was much less careful climbing down the second time and the gate felled down and crushed my arm. I don't remember what happened but I ended up with having to get stitches on the back of my left arm and on my shins. My sister later told me the cuts were so deep, she could see my bones.





















So you can see why I felt a little apprehensive when Emili decided that we should climb the wet 40 foot steel ladder that led up to the Jyvaskyla ski hill. I followed her up. We then had to jump a fence and climb again to get to the actual ramp. It's hard to explain so I will let these pictures tell the story of where we ended up. They are all taken between 10 and 11 PM, to give you an idea of how long the days are here.











But it was really beautiful sight. The sunsets in Finland last forever but because there are no great heights, it is hard to get a good view without getting a bunch of trees in the way. We were truly in the highest point in the city.











Up the stairs to the landing
Up the stairs into the hall
Oh oh oh
Take oasis
Marat's bathing
We walk through the wood,
We walk

'We Walk' - R.E.M.

PLANS 2: Summer Time!

This is what I plan to do this summer, how I plan to do it, that is the next step...

June 1st- 30th: Working as research assistant for my teachers in Jyväskylä.
  Almost everyone (other international students) I know leaves.  It is time
for me to start integrating with the real Finns.

June 14th-20th:  A visit to Frankfurt, Germany, where I will hook up with
good ol’ Eugene; bari-sax player extraordinaire, sometimes General Rudie
member, and for the last year, teacher in Saudi Arabia.  We will have tons
to talk about.

July 7th-15th:  Will be paid a visit from my parents.  We will tour Finland
in a car, ending up in Jyväskylä where they will witness how my life has
disintegrated into pure debauchery since moving here.  Then, I’ll take them
to a sauna.

July 20th-25th:  Summer school in Audio and Music Computing in Barcelona. 
Should be educational, but also I’ll be in Barcelona during late July.

July 25th-?:  This part is less planned.  I would like to take the train
back north across Europe towards Finland.  It is financial suicide, but who
knows when I will have another chance to do something this exciting.  I will
surely need places to stay.  If you will be anywhere in Europe, I really
want to hook up!

September 1st-10th:  ‘Summer’ school in Systematic Musicology in Ghent,
Belgium.  I get to skip school in Finland to attend another school in
Belgium.

PLANS

This time last year (2005), I already knew how I would be spending the next two years. Living in Finland. Now, I don’t know where I will be this time next year. I guess a job would be the best option seeing that I will end this degree over my head in debt. A sponsored PhD would equally be useful. I just don’t want to be ordinary. Mediocrity is my greatest fear. Plans will make it easer for my to shape my future.

Every passing moment is a new opportunity to change the course of your life forever. In perception, one moment lasts 5 seconds. That’s 12 opportunities per minute, 720 per hour, 17280 per day, 6 307 200 per year.

On June 1st, exactly one full year before my time in Finland will end, I will have approximately 6 307 200 opportunities to change my life forever. I plan to not waste any of them.

...although sadly, I'm sure I will...