My Life Blog

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.

Pearl Harbor Memorial

Originally uploaded by bill_eisenhauer.

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.