If you aren’t watching The Colbert Report, you are truly missing out. Even as the Writer’s Strike has raged on, Colbert has still entertained. This is perhaps some of his best work as he chats with the author of The Lucifer Effect. He refutes the premise of the book in a sound and informed argument and closes out with the ultimate punctuator. Enjoy!
Suzanne has been making fun of me for not blogging after posing the question: does anyone read this anymore? In that post, I believe I alluded to writing a bit more. And then promptly I disappeared for several months. What can I say? Guilty as charged.
So what’s new?
I’m still going it on my own work-wise. My tiny one-person LLC is doing fine as in November, I landed a contract with the world’s search engine company of choice. I can’t really say what I’m doing and for whom within that company due to non-disclosure legalities, but I can say that I’m working with a talented group of folks in a skillset that I’ve adopted in the past couple of years.
I can also say that I’m enjoying a telecommuting existence whereby my commute only involves walking up a flight of stairs. I manage my own time and live a VPN-connected existence. The obvious downsides are few daily interpersonal interactions and life in a bandwidth-constrained environment. The upsides are pretty obvious, the work is interesting, bozo-free, and I’m nicely paid for my contributions. I’m hoping the arrangement lasts for a long time.
I’ve also recently released a side-project of mine. I’ve been a fan of SportsRadio 1310, The Ticket, a local sports talk radio show for a long time. It was the first of its kind when it started in 1994 and it provides a combination of sports talk and really just guy talk in general. After all these years, the on-air staff are nearly family. Their site absolutely sucks, so I thought I would create a sort of unofficial fan site to extend their brand elegantly into the web world. Who knows if it will catch on, but you can take a look at my creation at Ticketheads.com. When you go there, just know that the site is meant to appeal to men between the ages of 25 and 54. As such, the content is calibrated to that type of audience.
Otherwise, Suzanne and I are doing well and are looking forward to our next planned trip to Hawaii. This time, we are splitting our time between Maui and our beloved Kauai. There are still many months between now and our trip, so it will be a while before we can tell you how cool Maui is. Let us hope that I blog before then. 
I have been told by many that I need to blog more. I’ll admit I go through spurts where I write a lot and then go dark, so right as I reclaim some readership, I leave them high-and-dry. What can I say? Sorry about that; let me make amends by offering up somewhat of an update on things.
So let me start by recounting some goings-on from the last six months or so.
In mid-April I was notified that I was being laid off by Nokia. There was no rhyme or reason for my being selected as I was a top developer integral in several projects. But for me, it was a “free at last” kind of moment. While the technology and experience were great and very relevant, the corporate dysfunction had greatly diminished my enjoyment of the job. Fortunately, Nokia is a very generous and humane company and so my employment didn’t end until the end of June and I was paid a severance package and my first-half bonus. I was, at first, pretty bitter to be selected and then given no reason, but I’m convinced it was best for my career.
Meanwhile, Suzanne had an upheaval with her job a few weeks after I got my layoff notification. The attorney that she works for decided to leave the firm after some 22 years there. Since they’ve been working together for 7 years, he really wanted her to go with him. And so after some time to think about it, Suzanne decided to go.
But here’s where it gets funny. She and I had a previously-scheduled trip to Kauai set up for mid-May. As terms of my layoff, my last day to report onsite to Nokia was in mid-May. And as luck would have it, Suzanne’s last day at her old job was that same day. The next day, we went to Kauai for two weeks both with no jobs; though hers was lined up for her return.
Kauai was great as usual and that’s been well-profile on here, so I won’t say much about it. In late June, I ended up temporarily contracting with a company called Click Here which is an advertising agency. I then transitioned into being a full-time employee. I was lured there by the prospect of working on great websites, with talented designers, and using Ruby on Rails while working on my Mac.
Also in late June, Suzanne and I went to The Police concert. They were awesome! I was so in awe when I saw Sting take the stage — what fabulous shape he is in! I told Suzanne that I was completely letting her down in that regard.
The rest of the Summer was rather uneventful, but I was growing disenchanted with the new company I was with. There were many reasons for this, but I won’t go into them here. So after about three months, I decided to leave the company to strike out on my own. I’m currently working up my own little freelance development company. So these days I’m busy planning, marketing, and doing client work as I have it — and for now, I’m doing so from home. I can’t tell you how nice it is to work at home.
So now we’re mostly caught up, I’ll try to blog more often with smaller tidbits that are hopefully more interesting and more current.
I’ve noticed an increase in traffic to this blog lately because people are finding my post from last November where I say that “Coach Fran Must Go!“ In fact, if you enter those words into Google, you’ll find that post as the number one link on the front page.
I’d like to re-double that traffic with a renewed assertion that this guy must go. In fact, I now think this is inevitable — its just a matter now of when. I’m on the fence as to whether I want it to happen right now or after the season. The players appear to be behind him for some reason, so I can see leaving him in there for him. The other factor is that there are not too many great choices for an in-season replacement.
Why this post then? Quite frankly, I’m tired of them losing to Texas Tech. If A&M is truly battling Texas for the top Texas school and thus competing for the top recruits then they should rarely lose to the so-called lower tier Texas teams. And yet, Tech has had a stranglehold on the series. That just needs to stop right now.
Today’s lopsided 35-7 loss was very hard to watch. I am trying to recall the day when I was comfortable with the A&M defense. Its been since the original Wrecking Crew. These current players try real hard, but game-after-game receivers just run through them. Tech even managed a bit of a running game today.
I really like Stephen McGee as a leader and a player with a huge heart. But what happened to his ability to pass? He was actually a passing quarterback coming out of high school. Of course, if you have no one to throw to, your ability to be a passing quarterback is severely limited. I feel very sorry for Martellus Bennett. I’m afraid that we won’t be able to see how good he is until he lands on a pro team. And its too bad for him that his unimpressive career at A&M will cost him a lot of money early in his career.
So bottom line: let’s get rid of Fran and get another of these innovative up-and-coming coaches. I’m thinking we need to find football’s version of Billy Gillispie, but work in some loyalty so that we can keep him. Should be interesting to see how quickly this all comes to pass.
I was thinking to myself there was something funny to say about last night’s Dallas vs. Buffalo football tilt. Through all 60 minutes of the game, Dallas never led — but they won. Yes, that’s true. The clock hit 00:00 before Dallas obtained the winning points.
But leave it to Razor Reaugh, our local hockey TV analyst, to put the right words in place. Recall that Dallas beat Buffalo in the Super Bowl in the 90s and beat them to win the Stanley Cup in hockey in ‘99. The latter event is still disputed by Buffaloans as the game winning goal was scored by Brett Hull with one skate in the crease.
So Dallasites, please observe the travel advisory for travel to Buffalo…something tells me their hospitality may not be what it once was…
On the October 8th episode of Heroes we were innocently watching when a beach scene appeared before us. Well, it was none other than Bali Hai in the background and thus it was likely Tunnels Beach on Kauai. When asked where they were, the female character in the scene answered “Maui” which was incorrect.
Its okay to take poetic license, I guess, but I had to wonder why Maui was any better choice than Kauai. If this is the prevailing opinion, then let it be so, for we will be happy to have Kauai be Hawaii’s best kept secret.
Given the time between blog entries, you might think I have stowed away on that secret island. Alas, not so. Its been an interesting few months and I am overdue an update on these parts. Stay tuned.
In March I finally decided to go proactive with getting HD into my home theater through the satellite dish. My indoor antenna just wasn’t working — it didn’t work for most local channels and for those it did, I nearly had to stand on one foot while holding one end of the antenna and raising my other arm with a hand full of aluminum foil. Hey, I can get through “Lost” that way, but watching a NASCAR race is a little bit challenging.
So when I saw that DirecTV offered local channels in HD, I looked into it. As usual, they greeted me as an “A-List” customer which always makes me feel a bit smug and glow with a hint of aristocracy. I mean, are you on the A-List? See, I’m pretty special.
I didn’t realize how deep the rabbit hole was going to go. To make the change, I needed to swap out the satellite and get a new receiver. They would “lease” me a new receiver for free as far as I can tell. And the satellite, they would lease me as well if I paid them $200 to install it. More than I expected to pay, but I’m an early adopter and the move toward HD is inevitable; I was ready to be assimilated into the collective.
So the install began routinely, the receiver was swapped out, the satellite was installed, and there was a picture on my big screen. However, there was trouble pulling in the HD channels. Then it was discovered that my multiplexor was incompatible with this new signal; they replaced that too. But then things still didn’t work.
And I lost my signal on another TV. I had visions of losing all TV service entirely at that point. The technician then scrambled up to the attic and began troubleshooting. Unfortunately, his troubleshooting logic led him to believe that cutting a couple of cables was going to send him down the proper path. These cables were installed by Dallas Home Theater Design Group at a pretty high cost to me. I’ve had no problem with these cables and of the two groups of technicians, I trusted DHTDG more. So I was pretty on edge now.
He eventually spliced the cable back together and came back downstairs. My receiver, an UltimateTV box (old, I know), was now not booting up. Apparently, the technician had found a way to introduce an electrical spike. The box never came back up.
Meanwhile, elapsed time on this quick install event was in the 3 hour range — it was supposed to be about 45 minutes. I could tell he was antsy, no doubt he had other afternoon appointments that were being jeopardized. And sure enough, he told me that they would have to be going and that it appeared the HD was working. He said that DirecTV would take care of the damaged receiver.
Obviously, I wasn’t happy and told him I would not sign any form of documentation approving the work. He said that he didn’t expect me to and literally ran out the door. I was incredulous, so I immediately got on the phone to tell Suzanne this story. Problem is, the line was dead! I ran out the door as the technician was leaving and waved the phone at him and said it was dead. He said it wasn’t anything he had done and he sped off.
So in a hurry was he to leave, that he left some sort of a testing device. I’ve subsequently learned that it has a $100 value or so and that it the rest of his day was probably challenging without the device.
I spent the next hour on my cell phone with DirecTV complaining. I called the phone company and they confirmed a power spike, but they would need to send someone out the next day to take a look at the place. So I was going to be out one receiver and my phone service. That’s pretty unacceptable to me.
I was still steaming mad later that night and decided I would call DirecTV again. At least I was put in touch with a patient and qualified call center rep this time. He suffered and survived my initial tirade and eventually consulted his knowledgebase and determined that the technician had hooked up my receiver incorrectly. The phone line was input into the Ethernet port and that caused this. So…telephone service restored.
So now to the receiver. Unfortunately, this is considered a damage claim situation and it was logged as such. Days later, I received a note telling me all that I needed to do to progress the damage claim. Among those tasks is that I have to get a professional repair or replacement estimate. Huh? They don’t even make these anymore. And who is going to service them? And how do I get the box to them? Mail it to them? So because this was just logistically hard, I’ve deferred the problem for almost 90 days. So here I am trying to figure out if I’m just going to let DirecTV get away with this.
I still have their device, they never came back for it. Hmmm…eBay? Lest you think this is unethical, I did inform DirecTV that I had the device, so I can only assume they are okay with it now being mine.
One other point. When they installed the new dish, they had to uninstall the other dish. But they left the “boot” up there. I complained about that not being a very clean install and they said that they couldn’t guarantee no roof leaks. I guess I wish I had know about this little detail too.
All in all, I cannot say that getting HD was really worth all that. All I can say is that if this is how DirecTV’s A-List customers are treated, God help those who are in less favor — ever seen Poltergeist?
While on vacation, Suzanne and I stumbled upon a 30-minute political satire TV show called The Colbert Report which produced quite a few laugh-out-loud moments. And after reviewing all the content on Wikipedia about the show, I can’t help but feel that I’m late to the party again (I know, shocker!).
We’ve now watched three shows and its been consistently hilarious. My favorite parts are the interviews where Colbert shows an amazing ability to run circles around his interviewees. Its smart comedy and Colbert’s timing is near perfect.
This is a must-Tivo in my household…especially in the Summer where TV completely sucks.
And you thought I only followed basketball and football, eh? Mostly true. Baseball had its time for me, but its too boring to watch when there are other options.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t take pride as an Aggie Alumni. The Ags actually play great baseball too! This past weekend they hosted a regional tournament and had to claw their way out of the loser’s bracket to advance. They did so by beating Louisiana Lafayette (who?!) on consecutive days; the last victory coming behind sophomore pitcher Kyle Thebeau (shouldn’t he have been playing for the Rajun Cajuns?) who had a career-high 13 strikeouts.
So this weekend they head to Houston to play a best of three series against Rice who are 52-12 on the year. Two of those twelve losses are against A&M. If they win, they make it to the College World Series. And then I may have to watch.
You are made to check out of your rental home at 10am which can often leave you at loose ends on your last day. In the past, Suzanne and I have not used these days very well — you basically kill time until you leave.
Since our flight back routed through Honolulu this year, we decided to leave Kauai early and tour the Pearl Harbor Memorial during the day and return to the airport for our 7:55pm flight.
We had some initial bad luck leaving Kauai as Hawaiian Airlines was uncharacteristically late taking off. Its only a 20 minute flight, but we were around 40 minutes late. This put us on the ground on Oahu after 11pm and we were worried we would not be able to get into the Memorial. You see, they only have a few tours a day and we were told that we probably needed to get there by noon in order to get into one of them.
As luck would have it, we were able to get in with no problem. Our previous research led us to believe we’d be standing in lines — at least, that’s how we interpreted what we were reading. Instead, what happens is you get a numbered ticket upon entry. The number is for the movie showing — for instance, ours was number 21. When we arrived, they were showing 17 — each movie is about 30 minutes in length. This meant we had a bit of a wait.
However, while you wait, you can tour the museum exhibits and the gift shop. We found that the exhibits were so interesting that the time flew by. Before we knew it, our movie showing was next up and so we actually stood briefly in a line to get into the theater.
The movie is really a documentary with a lot of black and white footage (obviously). I figure its the same documentary that I saw when I visited the Memorial back in 1986. Its quite a moving story and sets the scene for a somber visitation to the Memorial itself.
At the end of the movie, everyone is escorted directly to the ferry where you are taken directly to the Memorial. You can stay as long as you like since ferries come and go quite often. The Memorial itself is quite well done. You can see all the names of the fallen soldiers as well as those who have subsequently interred there. The Arizona itself is in shallow water and in partial view from the Memorial. Oil still seeps up to the surface and disperses quickly.
After touring the Memorial, Suzanne and I made the mistake of asking a cab driver’s advice on where to go for lunch. We mentioned our preference for a view, possibly eating outside, and yet close to the airport. We clearly had trouble communicating and in the end, we were delivered to a Chinese Buffet in a run-down strip center. It was far from what we had imagined, but it was fine. We did feel like the music stopped and heads turned as we walked in. Yes, we were the only two white people in the place.
All in all, we were happy that we maximized the value of our last vacation day. It did make for a very long travel day, but since we are now back, that seems inconsequential to the experience.
