Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Okay, first of all, I obviously haven't posted in a while. Life's been hectic. Got temporarily switched to another project that was in immediate need of a Java developer. There's about six weeks worth of work to do in three weeks. Considering I'll be driving to Pittsburgh the next two weekends, I have to cram alot of work into the next three weeks.
I also finally got a mattered settled that's been annoying me the past two weeks. I'll get to that later. But first the setup. It started the Thursday before last when, as I was leaving for work, I get a call from an old friend who decided to make a spur of the moment trip that weekend to visit New Jersey. She flew in on Saturday. On sunday, we drove a red convertible down to Atlantic City.
It was my first visit to Atlantic City. I've been to a few casinos in my time, though. They didn't compare really to Las Vegas, atleast the ones we went to, but they were better than the ones I saw along the highway when I drove through Reno with my brother a few years back. (Actually, that was over seven years ago. God how time flies.) I guess the casinos in the midtown section we went to compared to the less fancy casino/hotels in Vegas. But the thing I found weird and interesting was when you walk out the doors of a casino on the boardwalk side, it's like you step directly from vegas or reno into Santa Monica or Hawaii. Well, I'd better clarify that a little. The boardwalk of Atlantic City reminded me of walking along Santa Monica last year near the pier and around Waikiki when I was in Hawaii. There's a beach on one side. Alot of little stores on the other. Every other store is a souvenir store selling the same cheap crap every other souvenir store is selling. Then you step through a door and you're back into a vegas-esque atmosphere. Actually, from what I understand, the new casino there are just as nice as the vegas ones, we just never went into the fancier ones.
Okay, back to the annoyance. Monday morning, I dropped off Tiff at the airport and then returned the call. I pulled in and the lady working at Hertz immediate said "don't turn off the ignition". Since I didn't remove the keys out of the ignition, I didn't notice my apartment keys still attached to the car keys. I realize that halfway home in the taxi.
I called them when I got back to my place. (I got access to my extra apartment key and the front desk guy let me into the building.) By the time I called them, they had already moved my car to another lot. The next day, they still hadn't found them, so I started making arrangements for a new set of keys. Then Wednesday, before I actually put the work order in for new keys, Hertz calls and says they found my keys and would mail them to me. I figured they'd come friday, saturday at the latest. Saturday comes and no keys. Since I don't have an extra keychain sensor or mailbox key, I have to call the frontdesk guy if I want to get into the building, the parking lot or my mailbox. I simply parked the car at work rather than bother with the intercom at the parking lot gate, but the rest was an annoyance.
Now yes, it was my stupidity to leave the keys in the car, but my stupidity should have ended late last week. Yesterday I get the mail, I see two things when I pull the mail out of the mailbox that makes me smile. I see Jessica Alba on the cover of the Rolling Stone and I see something with the Hertz logo on it. Then I realize that the something with the hertz logo on it is inside one of the envelopes the post office uses when a letter gets ripped open. The lady at Hertz sent my keys to me in a standard cheap white letter envelope. Put any irregular-shaped hard object in one of those envelopes and the machines at the post office will ripe up the envelope. The envelope was ripped on the back the entire length of the envelope. No keys. Just a letter saying the keys were enclosed. I called the lost and found at hertz and got their voice mail. My voice mail message wasn't returned. I ended up having to get a new set of keys made anyway, only I wasted an extra week because they had found my keys.
So my car is back in my parking space and I now can get immediate access to my mailbox and my building (and the gym and rooftop which the sensor also gets me into).
Bydaway, first chance I get, I'm going to put in a new comment system since, like Bill, I got screwed by the old one.
On another note. Today marks my nephew's fourth birthday. It also marks the first anniversary of me starting my job which also means yesterday was my first anniversary of me driving to philly for the first time.
I did hear sad news today. Myron Cope is retiring from broadcasting Steelers games.
There's more I want to talk about it. I'll try to post again tomorrow.
I also finally got a mattered settled that's been annoying me the past two weeks. I'll get to that later. But first the setup. It started the Thursday before last when, as I was leaving for work, I get a call from an old friend who decided to make a spur of the moment trip that weekend to visit New Jersey. She flew in on Saturday. On sunday, we drove a red convertible down to Atlantic City.
It was my first visit to Atlantic City. I've been to a few casinos in my time, though. They didn't compare really to Las Vegas, atleast the ones we went to, but they were better than the ones I saw along the highway when I drove through Reno with my brother a few years back. (Actually, that was over seven years ago. God how time flies.) I guess the casinos in the midtown section we went to compared to the less fancy casino/hotels in Vegas. But the thing I found weird and interesting was when you walk out the doors of a casino on the boardwalk side, it's like you step directly from vegas or reno into Santa Monica or Hawaii. Well, I'd better clarify that a little. The boardwalk of Atlantic City reminded me of walking along Santa Monica last year near the pier and around Waikiki when I was in Hawaii. There's a beach on one side. Alot of little stores on the other. Every other store is a souvenir store selling the same cheap crap every other souvenir store is selling. Then you step through a door and you're back into a vegas-esque atmosphere. Actually, from what I understand, the new casino there are just as nice as the vegas ones, we just never went into the fancier ones.
Okay, back to the annoyance. Monday morning, I dropped off Tiff at the airport and then returned the call. I pulled in and the lady working at Hertz immediate said "don't turn off the ignition". Since I didn't remove the keys out of the ignition, I didn't notice my apartment keys still attached to the car keys. I realize that halfway home in the taxi.
I called them when I got back to my place. (I got access to my extra apartment key and the front desk guy let me into the building.) By the time I called them, they had already moved my car to another lot. The next day, they still hadn't found them, so I started making arrangements for a new set of keys. Then Wednesday, before I actually put the work order in for new keys, Hertz calls and says they found my keys and would mail them to me. I figured they'd come friday, saturday at the latest. Saturday comes and no keys. Since I don't have an extra keychain sensor or mailbox key, I have to call the frontdesk guy if I want to get into the building, the parking lot or my mailbox. I simply parked the car at work rather than bother with the intercom at the parking lot gate, but the rest was an annoyance.
Now yes, it was my stupidity to leave the keys in the car, but my stupidity should have ended late last week. Yesterday I get the mail, I see two things when I pull the mail out of the mailbox that makes me smile. I see Jessica Alba on the cover of the Rolling Stone and I see something with the Hertz logo on it. Then I realize that the something with the hertz logo on it is inside one of the envelopes the post office uses when a letter gets ripped open. The lady at Hertz sent my keys to me in a standard cheap white letter envelope. Put any irregular-shaped hard object in one of those envelopes and the machines at the post office will ripe up the envelope. The envelope was ripped on the back the entire length of the envelope. No keys. Just a letter saying the keys were enclosed. I called the lost and found at hertz and got their voice mail. My voice mail message wasn't returned. I ended up having to get a new set of keys made anyway, only I wasted an extra week because they had found my keys.
So my car is back in my parking space and I now can get immediate access to my mailbox and my building (and the gym and rooftop which the sensor also gets me into).
Bydaway, first chance I get, I'm going to put in a new comment system since, like Bill, I got screwed by the old one.
On another note. Today marks my nephew's fourth birthday. It also marks the first anniversary of me starting my job which also means yesterday was my first anniversary of me driving to philly for the first time.
I did hear sad news today. Myron Cope is retiring from broadcasting Steelers games.
There's more I want to talk about it. I'll try to post again tomorrow.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
The work on my project is winding down as it shifts to a production mode. The work will speed up in the fall when the feedback comes in with customer requests. Since, the work was essentially done and there was another project in my section of the company that were in temporary need of people with Java experience, I am switching groups for a month and a half. I'll be getting practice at Java and getting to know more people in the company. It also cuts my commute in half as I'll be switching to the other building which is closer to my apartment building. This should be good, but the only drawback looks to be a possibly less-flexible schedule during this ninety day period in the summer. I will be getting Java Swing experience which I was constantly asked about when I was looking for work.
I went to plug my cellphone in to charge this evening and it's not charging. I've had some problems with the connection between the phone and the adapter cord before, but usually with some working, I got it working. I haven't succeeded at it yet today. Hopefully, I can get it working, or if not, it's the cord part and not the phone. There's still about seven months to go until I can get a new phone free through Verizon's new every two so I definitely don't want to have to buy a new phone now when I can get a free one in seven months.
Speaking of my cellphone, I've discovered that the little Motorola emblem, and just the emblem, is slightly magnetic. I had set the phone down facedown on my desk at work and when I picked it up, a paper clip was stuck to the emblem. It's just strong enough to have the paper clip hang from it, but not much stronger.
So when is a silent auction not a silent auction? I went to a game at the local minor league team. It was beach night at the ballpark and the first 2,000 people got beach towels. I went right at the scheduled game time, but because the game the night before got rained out, last night turned into a double header and the game started earlier than scheduled. Two innings and all 2,000 towels were gone by the time I entered.
Anyway, the players wore "Hawaiian shirt"-style uniform tops during the game. Those game-worn jerseys were auctioned off during the game in a silent auction. All proceeds went to charity. A silent auction is one where there's one piece of paper for each item. First person to bid puts his name at the top along with the amount of his bid. The next bidder puts his name and bid underneath the first person and so forth. So at the end of the auction, the name at the bottom is the highest bidder. I registered for the auction. All the items had atleast one bid. I made a second bid on one. They said the auction would end after the second inning of the second game. They said that at that time, it would turn into a regular auction. I asked for clarification and they said that they were simply going to ask if anyone else wanted to bid. By the second inning of the second game, my bid was well outbidded by a few other people, but I stuck around to see how everything turned out. It did, in fact, turn from a silent auction to a regular auction. The ladies running the auction held up each paper, announced the current high bid and asked if there were any more bids. In almost every case, there was more than one person who still wanted to bid and a regular auction broke out. I have no problem with the regular auction, but it kinda felt like they had baited and switched on the type of auction. The silent auction ended up being only good for setting the starting price of the regular auction.
It's a shame that Stephen Drew finally signed with the Diamondbacks and went off to their minor league system because their jerseys would probably have gotten $500 or more. The two most popular players had jerseys that went for over $200 and they aren't sure things to make the majors like Drew is.
There was a big country music festival at the amphitheatre yesterday and a big day at the aquarium, so the parking situation in the area was not the best. I guess some people coming to the baseball games had problems because they announced during the game that everyone would receive a voucher for a ticket for a future game to make up for any trouble people had getting to the game. I walked to the game. It took me no more than five minutes to get to the game, but I still took the voucher.
It would seem that we're raising a society of beggars. There was a ton of kids at the ball game and everytime there's a foul ball or after the between-innings warmups, the kids would run to the railings and beg for the ball. Even if the guy with the ball was not even close to them, they would act extremely disappointed and even angry if the guy didn't throw the ball to them. The same goes with the free t-shirts that gets thrown into the stands. Their reactions if they don't get a t-shirt is one of almost not-getting-what-they-are-entitled to.
And now for some news:
- Here's one for the anti-Walmart crowd.
- Another Walmart-related item.
- So two teams are fighting for a market that can't even hold an NFL team. This battle is turning out to be more entertaining than any baseball game.
- Parents should be banned from their kids' sporting events. I remember about seventeen years or so ago, I saw a parent from the other team go after a player from my team. The player had been removed late in the game. It was so late in the game, there would be no more subs in the game unless someone got injured. The player was ultra-competitive and made a comment that he hopes a player (on his team) gets injured so he can go back in. It was a stupid comment, but teenage boys make stupid comments. Nobody on my team was offended. Neither did any of the coaches or the parents of the kids on my team. This was in-house soccer, though, which means we often played on fields wherever one can be found. It also means that there were no benches or stands. The spectators stood on the sidelines, including around the team. A father from the other team took exception to the comment and actually started screaming at the player. Before he could physically attack the player, though, one of our coaches stepped in and they ended up fighting. At the time, I thought it was simply a weird incidence. I now realize that it was just an event that occurred before its time.
- Topher Grace is playing a villain in the next Spider-Man movie. I don't know what villain he'll be playing, but I'm immediately skeptical. As actors with potential to be scary goes, he ranks right below Woody Allen. Jack Nicholson plays good scary. Christopher Walken can be scary without even moving a muscle. Topher Grace was the least scary cast member on That 70's Show, and I'm including the women. The other villain is going to be played by Thomas Haden Church. I was skeptical when I saw that, but atleast he has some potential in the right part. I always thought he'd make a good frankenstein-like character, but, like Alfred Molina in Spider Man 2, he could be good in the right part. The right part for Topher Grace, I imagine, would require heavy CGI and voice modulation.
Speaking of my cellphone, I've discovered that the little Motorola emblem, and just the emblem, is slightly magnetic. I had set the phone down facedown on my desk at work and when I picked it up, a paper clip was stuck to the emblem. It's just strong enough to have the paper clip hang from it, but not much stronger.
So when is a silent auction not a silent auction? I went to a game at the local minor league team. It was beach night at the ballpark and the first 2,000 people got beach towels. I went right at the scheduled game time, but because the game the night before got rained out, last night turned into a double header and the game started earlier than scheduled. Two innings and all 2,000 towels were gone by the time I entered.
Anyway, the players wore "Hawaiian shirt"-style uniform tops during the game. Those game-worn jerseys were auctioned off during the game in a silent auction. All proceeds went to charity. A silent auction is one where there's one piece of paper for each item. First person to bid puts his name at the top along with the amount of his bid. The next bidder puts his name and bid underneath the first person and so forth. So at the end of the auction, the name at the bottom is the highest bidder. I registered for the auction. All the items had atleast one bid. I made a second bid on one. They said the auction would end after the second inning of the second game. They said that at that time, it would turn into a regular auction. I asked for clarification and they said that they were simply going to ask if anyone else wanted to bid. By the second inning of the second game, my bid was well outbidded by a few other people, but I stuck around to see how everything turned out. It did, in fact, turn from a silent auction to a regular auction. The ladies running the auction held up each paper, announced the current high bid and asked if there were any more bids. In almost every case, there was more than one person who still wanted to bid and a regular auction broke out. I have no problem with the regular auction, but it kinda felt like they had baited and switched on the type of auction. The silent auction ended up being only good for setting the starting price of the regular auction.
It's a shame that Stephen Drew finally signed with the Diamondbacks and went off to their minor league system because their jerseys would probably have gotten $500 or more. The two most popular players had jerseys that went for over $200 and they aren't sure things to make the majors like Drew is.
There was a big country music festival at the amphitheatre yesterday and a big day at the aquarium, so the parking situation in the area was not the best. I guess some people coming to the baseball games had problems because they announced during the game that everyone would receive a voucher for a ticket for a future game to make up for any trouble people had getting to the game. I walked to the game. It took me no more than five minutes to get to the game, but I still took the voucher.
It would seem that we're raising a society of beggars. There was a ton of kids at the ball game and everytime there's a foul ball or after the between-innings warmups, the kids would run to the railings and beg for the ball. Even if the guy with the ball was not even close to them, they would act extremely disappointed and even angry if the guy didn't throw the ball to them. The same goes with the free t-shirts that gets thrown into the stands. Their reactions if they don't get a t-shirt is one of almost not-getting-what-they-are-entitled to.
And now for some news:
- Here's one for the anti-Walmart crowd.
- Another Walmart-related item.
- So two teams are fighting for a market that can't even hold an NFL team. This battle is turning out to be more entertaining than any baseball game.
- Parents should be banned from their kids' sporting events. I remember about seventeen years or so ago, I saw a parent from the other team go after a player from my team. The player had been removed late in the game. It was so late in the game, there would be no more subs in the game unless someone got injured. The player was ultra-competitive and made a comment that he hopes a player (on his team) gets injured so he can go back in. It was a stupid comment, but teenage boys make stupid comments. Nobody on my team was offended. Neither did any of the coaches or the parents of the kids on my team. This was in-house soccer, though, which means we often played on fields wherever one can be found. It also means that there were no benches or stands. The spectators stood on the sidelines, including around the team. A father from the other team took exception to the comment and actually started screaming at the player. Before he could physically attack the player, though, one of our coaches stepped in and they ended up fighting. At the time, I thought it was simply a weird incidence. I now realize that it was just an event that occurred before its time.
- Topher Grace is playing a villain in the next Spider-Man movie. I don't know what villain he'll be playing, but I'm immediately skeptical. As actors with potential to be scary goes, he ranks right below Woody Allen. Jack Nicholson plays good scary. Christopher Walken can be scary without even moving a muscle. Topher Grace was the least scary cast member on That 70's Show, and I'm including the women. The other villain is going to be played by Thomas Haden Church. I was skeptical when I saw that, but atleast he has some potential in the right part. I always thought he'd make a good frankenstein-like character, but, like Alfred Molina in Spider Man 2, he could be good in the right part. The right part for Topher Grace, I imagine, would require heavy CGI and voice modulation.
