| Travel season! |
[May. 11th, 2009|09:46 am] |
American Airlines is running a double mile deal, so it's time to run all over the place on the weekends to try and keep my status with them for next year. Believe me, it's worth it -- the upgrades to first/business the past two weekends have more than paid for the flight it took to get the status last year.
Anyway, so far it's been Boston and NYC over the past two weekends. It has been a few years since I've been to Boston, so it was great to see friends on their home turf (and have a really nice dinner with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rwgill and ted_badger). We even had a chance to walk part of the Freedom Trail and to play my first GPSMission mission.
NYC was rushed, but worth the trip. Shrek the Musical really is a lot of fun, and we got to meet Brain D'Arcy James (Shrek) on the street outside the theatre beforehand. It was really random, we had just picked up our tickets and were heading down the street next to the theater when we passed him. At the same time, we turned to look at him to see if it was really him, and he turned to check out my Shrek the Third crew jacket -- we ended up talking for a bit and now I have autographed tickets! :) The evening show of Little Mermaid wasn't as exciting -- it really is just a theme park show on a Broadway budget. The sets are nice, the actor playing Flounder has an amazing voice, but that's about it. I don't see this one lasting all that long.
The high point of the trip was dinner after the show at Babbo -- Maril Batali's restaurant down in the village. While it was a bit late (reservations at 11:15pm), the food was spectacular! The only drawback was leaving the restaurant at 1:30am and having to get back uptown, but I can live with that for a meal that good.
Next on the agenda (in no particular order) are Napa, Honolulu, Tokyo, Disneyland, and Boston again -- the latter just being a day trip with only 9 hours on the ground -- the things I do for airline miles! :)
|
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|06:48 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  disappointed | ] |
Welcome to California, one of only three states to have a constitution that removes rights from it's citizens (and the only one to remove one after it was legally granted). Or at least it looks that way at the moment, since proposition 8 is on the brink of passing.
I'm not sure which disgusts me more -- the borderline illegal methods used by the "yes on 8" folks (for those of you who don't live here they included everything from telling people that the issue included things that it didn't such as parental rights and that it would require teaching gay marriage in the schools to automated phone calls using Obama sound bits to claim that he supported the issue), or the fact that over half of the people in the state believed them. It also doesn't help that all you need to amend the constitution in this state is a single vote approved by a simple majority. And let's not forget all of the things that could have been done with the $75 million+ that was spent on both fighting and supporting this issue.
Of course the lawsuits will start flying later today or tomorrow, so this is going to be tied up in the courts for the next year or two. I'm not sure whether the next best step is to try and repeal the amendment or to try and pass one that removes the ability for the state to recognize any form of marriage. If the religious groups are so concerned about gay marriage destroying traditional marriage then let's make it a religious issue and not a legal one.
|
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 26th, 2008|12:27 pm] |
From CollegeHumor:
Sarah Palin Disney Trailer
An Alaskan hockey mom becomes Vice President in the wackiest family comedy of the year! Sound familiar?
|
|
|
| New car!!! |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|11:41 am] |
Ok, so my name finally came up on the list and I got my new Prius -- after only waiting 65 days. Apparently that is a short wait, I've heard stories of folks waiting for as much as 4-5 months, and then paying a few $K over the sticker price! Thank you Costco. I paid $250 under MSRP and got the car I wanted.
I saw the full Costco price list on Saturday, it is rather entertaining. Almost everything Toyota sells is a couple hundred dollars over the invoice price. The two hybrid cars are $250 *under* MSRP. Gee, I wonder which ones are selling and which ones aren't.... :)
This means that the Saturn pumpkin is gone, so no looking for me in the parking lot any more by my rather obvious orange car! |
|
|
| Remember when the sky was blue? |
[Jun. 27th, 2008|10:47 am] |
Can I have some clear skies please? The smoke from the fires in northern Cal. has done a really nice job of filling the air in the bay area. Here's an example:
Last Saturday's San Jose Sky
|
Today's San Jose Sky
| |
|
|
| Customer Service - part 2 |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|09:36 am] |
I just realized that I never followed up on my experiences with Sprint and E*Trade. Just for the record, they did both do something to try and make me happy -- while not completely resolving the issue.
I ended up filing a complaint with the CaPUC on Sprint. Low and behold, they called me a few weeks later to say "we got this complaint and we are concerned that you aren't happy with our service. We wish you had brought this to our attention before going to the PUC." And of course, happily ignoring the fact that I *did* try and resolve it with them first. To make a long story short, they ended up crediting the $1.95 to my account for the period that they had been misrepresenting the fee, and would be charging me $4.95 from here on out. Of course, the last time I checked my account still shows that the fee is $3.00.... It doesn't really matter, I stopped using them as my long distance carrier and closed the account, now I just have to wait for the refund check.
E*Trade was a little bit better about it, I only had to argue with two people before they credited the charges. In the past month though, I have realized that they shouldn't be allowed to handle money with the rate the charge for things and then credit them back to the account (not just this one, there have been a couple of other fees that have appeared and then magically disappeared as well). This is another account that I am closing, unfortunately much like a credit card you have to argue with them to do it. I haven't had the time to take this one up yet. |
|
|
| Whatever happened to customer service? |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|08:34 am] |
It seems like any time I call anyone lately I end up arguing with their customer "service" people, and then their managers. What every happened to the concept of customer *service* instead of "we repeat what is written in front of us and ignore everything you say".
As an example, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that Sprint stated my monthly charge for long distance was $3, but they were charging me $4.95. I called them to see what was up, and was told "our prices went up". After repeatedly trying to explain to them that it is illegal in California to charge more that the lowest posted price I asked for a supervisor. Not only would this person not listen to my complaint, she had the nerve to be rude about it! In talking to two different people (and two more via. e-mail) I have been told three different times that the rate increase supposedly occurred, have been told that the only way I can see statements over 3 months old is to pay $3-$5 each for them (even though they charge you if you want paper statements), and that they would not credit the excess charges. For even more fun, try and find anything on their web site that lists their current rates -- you won't be able to do it. For that matter, try and find anything at all about their long distance service on sprint.com. I ended up filing a complaint with the Ca. PUC on them, we'll see if anything comes of it. Oh, and I switched my long distance service to someone who will give me the same rate with no monthly fee. And I just checked -- it *still* shows a monthly charge of $3 on my account page yet a $4.95 charge on my bill.
Then there is E*Trade. In my last statement I noticed that they have started charging me a quarterly service fee -- out of the blue with no notification. When I called them on it, I got the "your company no longer participates in E*Trade so we have to charge you". First some background, the only thing in my E*Trade account is my old SGI ESPP stock and a handful of MIPS shares I got when SGI spun MIPS off as a separate company. And, I haven't worked for SGI in twelve years. The account has only been around as a holding account for that stock. And, SGI went bankrupt over a year ago and my SGI stock evaporated. Apparently, E*Trade has just finally noticed this, and since the company is no longer paying the fee, they decided to pass it on to me. To make a long story short, after spending nearly a half hour on the phone arguing with the customer service moron and finally giving up and asking for a supervisor, I got the fee reversed. Well, at least one of them (turns out there was on on the last statement as well).
So, my options with E*Trade are:
1. Pay $60 to transfer $45 of MIPS stock to another brokerage
2. Pay $40 to have stock certificates issued
3. Pay ~$15 to sell the $45 worth of stock
4. Leave it alone and pay E*Trade $40/quarter to keep it
And remember, there is already a negative balance on the account due to the fee from last quarter. So, in other words, it is going to end up *costing* me money to do anything with stock that I never paid for in the first place (it was a grant when MIPS was spun off). I put in the sell order on Friday, but now I'm being told that I can't close the account for 3-5 days until the trade "settles". WTF? That's a new one by me. Apparently it's how E*Trade makes money -- by sitting on it for several days.
The moral of the story -- customer "service" isn't, and stay away from both Sprint and E*Trade unless you like having their hands in your pockets. They will take your money at every opportunity, give you no recourse to dispute it, and in most cases, not care. |
|
|
| Another year, another junior show |
[Mar. 11th, 2008|08:11 am] |
As of Sunday another year has passed and the annual junior theatre production has come to a close. As usual, we had lots of kids (47 8-18 year olds, 7 weeks of rehearsal, 15 performances over 4 weekends), and as always some were great, some not so great, and some merely annoying. Pippin may have been an odd choice for a junior production, but it's all water under the bridge now.
It's still fun, but this year has got to be the must frustrating yet. First of all, I know better than to be the tech director and asst. stage manager for one show while attempting to stage manage the next one. It's just too much work at once. While trying to make sure everything is done for the first show, at the same time I have to do the prep work and auditions for the second. Not to mention that all four weeks of performances overlap with rehearsals -- you know it's bad when you have to look at your script to even know what show is in front of you that moment.
To be honest, this wasn't one of our better shows. While the kids were trying (in every sense of the word :) ), the rest of the show just wasn't up to it. The stage manager really should not be allowed in a booth, as she never really took control over what was going on. We had curtains as late as 25 minutes past the scheduled show start. Sure, we padded the time with the "magic trick from hell", but it was still 8:25 before the curtain opened not 8pm. Which of course meant that we didn't end up getting out of the building until after 11:30pm. Let's not even talk about how the show was called or what time she would wander into the theatre every night.
And then there was the drama between the vocal director and the orchestra director, who at this point aren't speaking to each other. And the directing that gave the actors no motivation for anything they did on stage. Let's not forget the almost complete lack of any real color on the stage (come on folks, it's *Pippin* -- it needs color!). I could go on, suffice it to say that the audience reaction was as lacking as the show itself. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the old production team we had years ago. While I didn't agree with some of their methods (memories of actors crying backstage), they produced vibrant shows that involved the kids and packed the houses.
That aside, the cast for the next show is amazing. Sure, they're giving me some new gray hairs, but after watching them work through the entire opening last night I am impressed (and told them so). The opening number for Fame is nearly 10 minutes long, but their dancing and energy held my interest for the entire time. Too bad I'll never see it once the show opens. Knowing our lighting designer, I am going to have my nose buried in my script every night just trying to keep up with the cues. :) |
|
|
| Why do folks want to get into my car? |
[Dec. 14th, 2007|09:00 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pissed off | ] |
(back dating to last week since I should have posted this then)
So I get back to my car at the train station Thursday night, hit my remote, and at the same time I notice a pile of things behind the car hear the "chirp chirp" that means someone set off the alarm. Then I look at the car an notice something missing -- mainly the driver's side window.
Yes, again someone decided to break into my car at the train station. This time they didn't get the stereo, I took the face plate with me so they left it alone. Apparently they saw the Borders bag on the back seat and decided it must be something good. So I hope they are enjoying the APress Python book as much as I enjoyed paying $230 to have the window replaced. They also snagged my bluetooth GPS receiver, it was in the center console storage, so if they ever figure out what it is I'm sure they will have fun with it too. And they can do their laundry now with the $1.50 in quarters that they took as well.
I just don't get it. It's a Saturn! Not like it's the car to steal (which is probably why they just break in and leave it there).
Oh, the pile behind the car wasn't mine, it looks like they hit multiple cars on Thursday. I don't keep D&D books and dice in my car. While the sheriff was there taking my report one other woman pulled up who was missing a stereo, so it looks like they got at least three cars this time.
Hey Caltrain -- how about some security in the parking lot? |
|
|
| Super-sized Americans |
[Oct. 11th, 2007|10:48 am] |
I've said it before (maybe not here) -- Americans have got to be the fattest people on the planet! I've noticed it when I travel, you can spot an American overseas by the fact that they are wider than just about anyone else you will see. However, the bit I just read in jmctechie's blog takes the cake.
It looks like they are going to be closing Small World at Disneyland for an extended period, in part because the average guest is so fat that it is causing the boats to bottom out in the attraction! I have heard for some time that they were starting to remove the old-fashioned turn styles from the parks, in part due to the folks who can't fit through them. But this is something else. Admittedly, they are also doing this because the attraction is still using the original boats and flume from 40+ years ago. But the fact that the attraction was designed with much lighter riders in mind is much of the problem (and according to MiceAge the reason you get huge backups inside the attraction from time to time). |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Oct. 3rd, 2007|01:58 pm] |
Swiped from![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) brandywine93...
20 years ago I....
...was trying to decide if I should find a job when I graduated, or stick around the university and be paid a whopping $10k/year to be a graduate student. (The gradual student choice won).
15 years ago I....
...was wondering if I made a mistake by leaving New Jersey and moving back to Ohio to work for a NASA contractor. The job was fine, but the contracting company was a nightmare. But, at least it gave me time to get back into theatre - it was just about that time that I landed the role of Jesus in a local community college production of Godspell.
10 years ago I....
...was working an insane number of hours a week trying to support Cisco's web server. In those days, the site was running around $1M/hour in sales, when it went down it was "all hands on deck", no matter what hour of the day or night. I still blame most of my gray hair on that job. I had just started doing theatre again that spring after a three year break.
5 years ago I....
...I had just started working at PDI/Dreamworks, just in time to be involved in moving the entire office 5 miles north and to finish up work on Shrek 4D. The work hours and a much longer commute meant that theatre was happening less and less though.
1 years ago I....
...wasn't much different from 5 years ago, except I had been at Dreamworks for 4 years instead of having just started. And the movie was Flushed Away instead of Shrek 4D.
yesterday I....
...got my new TiVo HD! And worked.
today I...
...had lunch with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of Dreamworks Animation. Admittedly, it wasn't just me, it was the 10 or so of us who started in Oct and have been with the company for five years or more, but still! :)
tomorrow I...
...move away from DirecTV and return to the land of Comcast (the TiVo HD is cable only). And work from home, that part I'm looking forward to. It is a rare enough event that it's nice spending a day being able to focus with no interruptions. |
|
|
| I want my Mickey Ears! |
[Aug. 24th, 2007|09:18 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | awake | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | HK Disneyland Grand Opening song | ] |
Two updates in one day, this could be a record! :)
The folks over at the DisneyBlog are having a contest. Since I could definitely use a set of "Mickey Dream" ears in my collection, I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring.
While I've never celebrated my birthday in a Disney park, a whole group of us managed to celebrate a friend of ours a few years ago. We made a day of it, complete with birthday buttons for the entire group (8 of us wearing buttons that said we were 21, the birthday girl's was 22 :), attended the Birthday Party at the Plaza Inn, got our birthday bag of tortillas at the Mission tortilla factory, and just spent the day enjoying the park with friends. We had a blast between the "Happy Birthday" greetings from the cast and just spending the day having a good with with a group of good friends.
And while this picture isn't from that day, it's a great pic, so I had to share. :) |
|
|
| Quote of the day.... |
[Aug. 24th, 2007|09:11 am] |
This from the cube behind me:
"What is the prize the doctor is going to give you for harvesting the little girls?"
I'm really hoping they're talking about a video game.... |
|
|
| Ok, so I'm a geek |
[Aug. 20th, 2007|08:42 am] |
As I was driving home last night I got this tickle in the back of my throat that had me trying to hack up a lung. When I commented on it, the first thing that came to mind was that it's a good thing it was only a tickle, and not a perl or a python....
(if that doesn't make any sense to you, consider yourself lucky :) ) |
|
|
| Bird amusement park |
[Jul. 11th, 2007|02:45 pm] |
I have this great amusement park for birds outside my office window. It's not just the agapanthus flowers that send the hummingbirds into sugar extasy, or the hawks that make a game out of scaring the bejeesus out of the local pigeons (more power to the hawks).
No, it's that time of year when the ornamental grasses are putting up their nice three to four foot seed stalks. We have lots of finches that just love these seeds. But, the stalks aren't really strong enough to support the bird's weight. I get to watch these birds struggle to get the seeds out without landing on the stalks and finally give up -- either landing on the stalk and pecking at it or flying off to try another one. Of course, the landings are the entertaining ones. The stalk will hold the bird's weight for just long enough for one or two seed extractions, then it will start to bend over. The fun starts when it just about doubles over, eventually leading to the bird frantically taking off and/or trying to hover -- looking like the stalk has just thrown the bird up into the air.
Ok, maybe it's not all that amusing to the birds, but it's fun for me to watch! And of course they know I'm writing about them as now there's not a one to be seen.
Next time -- the skunks that were living under our front walk..... |
|
|
| What ever happened to shareware? |
[Jun. 22nd, 2007|02:23 pm] |
I keep running across software that claims to be "shareware", yet stops working after a few days/hours/weeks unless you pay for it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what is called a "demo"?
I remember shareware as being software that you paid what you thought the software was worth, usually with a recommended "price". So, if you thought the software wasn't worth paying for you got it for free. If you thought it was really useful and wanted to support the developer, you could pay more. Cacti is a great example of this, it's an open source project that you can use for free, or you can buy the author an item off of his Amazon.com wishlist.
Did the term change somewhere along the line? Or have software developers just decided to start using it since it sounds better than demo? Thoughts? |
|
|
| People Suck! |
[May. 17th, 2007|08:52 am] |
And in other news, I got back to my car at the train station Wednesday night to find my trunk open, my rear driver's side window spread across the back seat, and a hole in the dashboard where my car stereo should be. So much for San Jose being America's safest city (at least as far as my car is concerned).
Admittedly, no one was hurt, the car is insured, and it's just a thing -- but it's going to eat up a bunch of time over the next week or two getting things put back in order. I worked from home yesterday so I could get the glass taken care of. Good thing I kept the $250 deductible, as the glass was $870 installed. Apparently Saturn made the decision somewhere along the line that the entire assembly had to be replaced, not just the glass. I'm sure I'll be finding glass bits for the next few weeks, even after both the glass shop and myself vacuumed it to death.
Monday I get a visit from the stereo-company-in-a-van folks, they'll look at the hole and the damaged trim, take some pictures, and eventually show up with a new stereo and trim pieces. I figure I'm going to be going w/o a car stereo for at least a week. You don't really notice how much you depend on the radio/CD/iPod until you get to spend 30 minutes or so in the car listing to the road noise. It was bad enough today that I dropped my phone on the charger and started listening to streaming audio (http://www.subsonicradio.com/ for the Disney fans out there, as I couldn't get KQED to play). The worst part -- no traffic report, so I ended up stuck behind an accident for 20 mins. this morning.
All-in-all, it's a royal pain in the backside. And even though the SJ Police showed up to take some prints (they left their screwdriver behind), I'm sure they'll never find out who did it. |
|
|
| YouTube are us! |
[May. 17th, 2007|08:50 am] |
I've made the big time, I'm on YouTube! On of our actors took some video from backstage during closing and posted it on YouTube. You can see me in the background, in the follow spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d32Qe1JUxHk
The "Children Will Listen" segment that she posted is nice too, even if it doesn't have me in it. :) |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[May. 14th, 2007|09:32 am] |
ursulav just wrote a wonderful entry on her experiences at work that reminded me of one of our mantras at the theatre -- "NO GLITTER!"
I mentioned this in a comment on her entry, but we have standing orders from the theatre no to use glitter in any of our productions. You see, a director a few years ago had the brilliant idea to use it when Cinderella's fairy god mother cast her spell. Unfortunately, the stuff goes everywhere. And I do mean *everywhere*! Our stage manager used to spend a good part of his evening on his hands and knees trying to vacuum the stuff out of the seams in the stage and the seams in the pit covers. Of course, the pit cover seams go all the way through to the pit, so we would find it in the pit as well. And anyone who set foot on stage tracked it backstage. And into the dressing rooms. Which meant it got on the costumes. And so on....
Admittedly feathers are almost as bad and confetti is just evil. The crew loves making me cringe by showing me the feathers they find backsatage -- frequently from shows that are over a year in the past. Most of them have only heard the stories about all the different ways we tried to clear the stage of feathers during a show where one of the actors wore a pink feather boa. The most famous one involved me scampering across the sage with my hands wrapped in gaffers tape, trying franticly to pick up as many feathers as I could during a blackout! |
|
|
| Sleep? What's that? |
[Apr. 17th, 2007|07:45 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
I mentioned this in passing in yesterday's entry... I'm in the beginning of hell week for Into The Woods. If you're out here on the left coast, pay a visit to Sunnyvale and come see it! (now, since I got home at 12:15 this morning, back to sleep on my keyboard)
Book by James Lapine
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by George Nikitas
Vocal Direction by Diane "Mom" Reynolds
Conducted by Jeff Hicks
Produced by Susan Buchs
April 20, 2007 - May 13, 2007
www.sunnyvaleplayers.org |
|
|
