Be That Which You Hate in the World

What was it that Gandhi said?  Be the change you wish to see in the world, or something?  Well, my advice for killing some time while studying for the bar exam is to do the opposite.  Be that which you hate in the world.

I'm doing it, and I'm not even studying for the bar exam any more.  I'm already a freaking lawyer. 

Let me tell you about it.  I was watching TV the other night using my trusty Comcast multi-device remote control.  That's the thing that you're using to hold down pile number 219 of flash cards when opening the windows on a windy day.  One day you'll get to use yours again for watching television, but not until the end of July.  I pushed the TV button on the top, the first step to set the sleep timer (yeah, I also get to sleep sometimes, it's one of the perks of not studying for the bar).  I hit one button, the Cable button flashes, and remote stops working on the TV.  Well, that's not what I want, I want the TV controls to work.  The remote, on the other hand, had a totally different idea. 

So there are a couple of rational solutions.  First, I knew that I got one TV click before the remote went back to working for the cable box only.  So I clicked the TV button, pushed one button on the remote that I needed, pushed the TV button again, pushed the next button I needed, etc. etc.  This only worked for one night.  The next night, I'm about to set the sleep timer, and I decide that I need to fix this stupid thing.  So what are the options?  I know!  I can throw it against the wall.  But that won't actually help.  Instead, I go search the vast interwebs.  After that didn't work, I found an online chat with my trusty Comcast tech support guy, Gandhi Jerome. 

What is the first thing tech support tells you to do?  You know the answer.  I usually know the answer.  If it was a computer, TV, router, cable box, or anything else that plugs in, I would have known the answer.  Turn it off and turn it back on again.  (If you don't click the links, that's called power cycling).  I do that with my phone ten times a day (but in all fairness, that's to see if the welfare office has called yet).  Well, stupid Breacher, I explain my problem, accept the false platitudes of this being his top priority, and, do as Sanjay Jerome says and take the batteries out of the remote, wait three seconds, and put them back in.  Of course it works.

I usually hate the ass holes that need help with the simplest technical repairs.  And I hate it more when tech support asks if I turned the damned device off and back on.  Which is why it infuriates me that I helped perpetuate this cycle of hate.  I am now a self-hating lawyer. 

And I have no excuse because I'm done studying for the bar.  I wished I lived like Gandhi, things sure were easier then.