April Update

Seeing it's the 25th of April and I have yet to make a post since March 31st, we'll call this the April update, and I will endeavor to give a whirlwind tour of the month so far.

I made it back safe and sound from the bonspiel in New Jersey. (Pictures are up in my photo album.) The trip was a lot of fun, but always nice to get home from far away. Being my first trip to the East Coast (besides Florida, which everyone agrees does not count), it was quite a bit of fun. I need to go back to NYC sometime soon.

Curling wrapped up another year of fun and excitement. I curled in three different leagues this year, and my respective teams did reasonably well in all three of them. My Sunday night team was runner-up in the B division, which was a victory considering how bad we did the first half of the season. My Thursday night team won the C division, and my Friday night team won the A division. [A note about the divisions: the general pattern for curling leagues are that at the beginning of the season, teams are randomly assigned into pools and play teams in their own pool. Half way through the season, for a two-division league anyway, the teams in the top half of each pool are put into the A division, and the bottom-half of each pool become the B division. That way in the second half, theoretically you're playing teams that more closely match your skill level. Still, winning the B division is vastly preferred to, say, coming in 5th in the A division. :)]

Now that curling is done, I'm finding myself with quite a bit of spare time on my hands... which is both nice and not. It gets a bit boring sitting at home all the time, so I have to find other things to do. My current goal is to go to the driving range at least once a week and get my golf skills a step-up from deplorable to respectable. :)

I've had such a terrible track record seeing movies I want to see. I think I'm going to get NetFlix for a few months and catch up on my movie watching. For the past, oh, 2 years or so I've consistently had movies that I've seen previews for and been "I want to see that", but never did. And considering I NEVER seem to go rent movies, I think having NetFlix will convince me to actually watch them occasionally and catch up seeing movies I've wanted to. The big challenge will be setting up my queue and trying to remember all the movies I've wanted to see. We'll try it for a month or so and see how it works out.

Last week I went and saw The Light in the Piazza at the Paramount. This will be an abbreviated review, which is probably what the show deserved. I think this show is hit-or-miss as far as the audience goes... and I think it had its fair share of misses. I've determined there are really three distinct audiences for the theatre... first, people who see theatre as an art form, meant to inspire, intrigue, and promote intellectual discussion on a social commentary of the world. Second, people who want to be entertained, whether in comedy, music, lavish scenery, fantasy reality, or any combination of those. And third, people who have such low standards they would give Rachael Ray microwaving a hot pocket a standing ovation.

I definitely fall firmly into the second category, but if the show crosses-over to cover both the first and second categories, I'm just as satisfied. I don't mind the occasional inspiration, but I definitely want to be entertained or awed by a show. I WANT to be humming a tune for a week after the show. The Light in the Piazza missed the mark with a lot of the audiences. While the show loosely may have inspired or intrigued someone, I don't think that's what it was trying to do, and if it was it failed miserably. I sat next to an older lady who came in by herself, and not to stereotype, but appeared definitely to be in the first category of audience I described. About halfway through the first act I looked over and she appeared to be in the most excrutiating agony and/or half asleep. She did not return for the second act. The music was very operatic in nature, which in turn made it difficult to understand a lot of the words during the songs, as well as just wasn't toe-tapping or hummable music. I think it missed the #1 or #2 audience hits, but there are plenty of #3 audience types who were on their feet at the end as usual.

As for my ratings:

Cast - 4 stars. My lackluster satisfaction with the show was, as usual, no discredit to the actors. Outstanding cast, and well performed.
Script - 3 stars. An interesting story, though nothing spectacular.
Music - 2 stars. The music wasn't bad, but did nothing for me. What would have been a good play without music was just muddled up with added music.
Technical - 3 stars. Not much more to say about that.
Overall - 3 stars. Probably more like 2.5 stars, but I'll round up in this case. I've seen it, it was worth seeing once, but I don't need to see it again in the future.

With that review out of the way, I'm caught up to this week. Not too much going on at all. I should get back to work, then figure out what to do with the rest of my day.

Adventures in New Jersey

Our first night of curling was, shall we say, less than stellar. We lost in spectacular fashion, no doubt attributed to our incredibly poor team play. Our second game wasn't until Friday night, so during the day on Friday we took the opportunity to explore New Jersey. One of the other people I came down here with has some friends who live in Western New Jersey so we went out and visited them. We ate lunch in the nice little town of Clinton, NJ. I took quite a few pictures of the adventure, and once those get up it will be a bit more interesting.

Eventually we made it back and played our second game, which we played far better than the first game, but ultimately came up short in the last end. After two losses, it was time to win. So today (Saturday) at noonish we played our third game which we played spectacularly well and won. Now we're relaxing back at the hotel before we go back to play our next game at 6:45pm. Tonight is also the big pig roast, vegetarians need not apply. This annual event we're playing in is called the Plainfield BonSqueal, the highlight of which is the pig roast feast on Saturday night. I must say, it's starting to smell mighty tasty outside the curling club now.

Last night on the east coast, then back home Sunday evening. Just when I've finally gotten adjusted to Eastern time, I'll have to shift 3 hours back again. Monday's going to be one great day at work.

Whirlwind tour of NYC

After spending Wednesday travelling on what felt like a relatively short 5-hour flight direct from Seattle to Newark, today we don't have our first curling match until 9:30pm or so. So we ventured into the Big Apple for a whirlwind touristy tour of NYC.

We headed over to the Edison, NJ train station and took the train into the city. About 45 minutes later we arrived at Penn Station in New York City. Really, we had very few actual plans for our day, deciding rather to just go with the flow and see what we find. This worked out well, until we decided to actually try to find specific things and were thwarted at every turn. :)

From Penn Station we ventured north, past Macy's and on up to Times Square--not as thrilling as it looks on TV. After we saw what we needed there, we continued on up to Rockefeller Center and decided to take the tour up to the observation deck at the Top of the Rock. From there we had a spectacular view of the city, in all directions. We took lots of pictures, and tried to avoid being blown over by the high winds up on the roof. After that we decided to try to go out to the Statue of Liberty. Here's where the plans started to go awry.

A lady at 30 Rock told us to walk two blocks over to 49th and 7th and catch the R subway train down to the water. This we handled with relative ease. Once we were there we walked along the water until we made it to the mayhem of the Statue of Liberty ferries. Ultimately, we could easily get on a ferry out to the island, but there was no chance of actually going into the Statue of Liberty because all the tickets were gone. Apparently while it costs money to take the ferry out to Liberty Island, the actual tickets to go inside the statue are free, since it's a National Monument. Had we known this, we could have reserved tickets online before we left, but we knew not. After decided it probably wouldn't be worth it to just go over to the island, we instead decided to go visit the USS Intrepid museum, where the WWII aircraft carrier the Intrepid is docked. We took the #1 subway train back up to Times Square, then walked for what seemed to be an eternity (but in actuality about a mile) over to the water where the museum was. Continuing our bad luck, little did we know that the Intrepid museum closed back in October for a 2-year rehab. Ouch, that hurt.

Having had enough of that, we walked back to Penn Station (about a mile and a half adventure) and caught the first train back to New Jersey. That brings us to now, and it's resting time. It was fun, though definitely looking to have a plan of more things to do next time I come to NYC. This was a good once over to get my bearings and understand how the city is laid out and all fits together.

Tonight is our first game... hopefully we still can curl after those miles and miles of walking. Woohoo.

Write it on your hand!

Ever have one of those days where you just seem to forget everything? I'm having one of those weeks already, and when you're getting ready to go on vacation for the rest of the week, forgetting things isn't high on your list of things to do.

Yesterday I had 3 different things I was supposed to do, all of which I completely forgot about. None too critical, I guess, but still just stuff that makes me rework things later to make it all fit.

Then this morning I somehow came to work and left my cell phone at home. So this is probably the least of my worries, but it just feels like I'm missing something without it.

Oh... wait a second... there it is. I just had forgotten which pocket I put my cell phone in. Well, now I'm just an idiot. See how easily I could have just gone back and deleted that last paragraph and you wouldn't be the wiser? But no, because I'm here for you, my avid blog readers, and I wouldn't want to let you down. :)

There are several things I have to remember before I leave for New Jersey tomorrow. One of which is that I don't have an e-ticket, but rather a free paper ticket I'm using from a previous bump on Alaska. Must not forget that... maybe I should write it on my hand. But will that really do anything? I never look at my hand anyway, so how am I supposed to use that to remember? Anyone have a good way to remember things? I forgot all of mine.

It only took a month...

I hope you're sitting down... I don't want you to be too shocked, but I finally have my vacation pictures from California online. It only took a month or so... that's pretty good I guess. :)

Joe's Photo Album

Twelve Angry Men

Broadway doesn't always mean musicals. This is the perfect example. Tonight I attended a performance of Twelve Angry Men, the story of a jury dileberating on a death-penalty homicide case. Picture if you will... one scene, no music, no intermission, and an hour and a half of non-stop dialogue. It was quite an interesting show, and oddly capivating despite the fact that I'm much more interested in the musical theatre, which this definitely was not.

The jury foreman was played by George Wendt, who will probably forever be better known as Norm from Cheers. I think everyone in the theatre was collectively ready to yell "Norm!" as soon as he walked in the door of the jury room, but fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) no one did.

The show had all the drama of a Law and Order episode, complete with emotional outbursts and characters you love to hate. The story alone, however, was pretty predictable once you got your bearings and figured out where it was headed. This would have made for a rather boring show, except for the outstanding acting. All twelve jurors were absolutely amazing, without any weak links whatsoever.

Ratings for this will be short and to the point, yet somewhat counterintuitive.

Cast - 5 stars. These are top-notch actors with a top-notch performance.
Script - 3 stars. A good story, but the strength is really in the character depth.
Overall - 2 stars. It was a good show, but I probably wouldn't go see it again, nor would I have sought it out had I not had season tickets. Ironically enough, the overall rating wasn't saved by the strong marks for cast and script.

Monopoly Money

[This is going to be one of my rare educational blogs where I provide useful information which I have synthesized from across the vast resources of the Internet.]

It's not often I travel outside the US, so until California falls into the ocean and starts printing its own currency, I don't have to worry much about exchanging money. But as the avid readers of my blog may have inferred, I don't like wasting money, or giving more money to "the man" than I absolutely have to. So on my recent trip to Canada, I examined the several ways to pay using their 'monopoly money' (either cash or electronic), to determine the most fiscally-responsible way to beat the system.

There are three main ways to pay for things internationally, cash, debit card (check card), or credit card. As anywhere else in the world, cash is king... assuming you have the local currency in hand. Once you have it, you're all set. Everyone accepts it, and you don't have to worry any more about exchange fees. But how do you get it? There are several options:

1) Exchange your currency for their currency. This is good, in principle, until you look at the rates. Consumer exchange rates are ridiculously high compared to the wholesale exchange rates banks use. For example, last weekend when I was in Canada, the US dollar had a wholesale rate of about .85USD/CAD, but the consumer exchange rate (what you'll likely pay if you walk in off the street) was over .92USD/CAD, a difference of about 7 cents on the dollar! In the short run for small things, probably doesn't make a huge difference, but in the long run, ouch!

$100 CAD = $92.00 USD

If you really want to have the cash in hand as soon as you arrive, you might consider changing it before you go. At home through your bank or online, you'll have the flexibility to shop around for the best rate. You're still going to be paying the inflated consumer rates though. Non-cash options include pre-paid cards (like Visa Travel Money) you load up with money before you go. Though they sound good in principle, but they kill you with fees. First a fee to get the card, then more fees for using it at ATMs, plus the standard exchange fees when using the card. Still a good option if you need lots of money that's safer than carrying around lots of cash, but if you already have a credit/debit card, I'd stay away from it. As far as Traveller's Cheques go, yuck. You'll pay the exchange rates either when you buy them or cash them, plus who uses cheques anymore? People will look at you funny. Cash is king, remember.

2) Use your US ATM card at their ATM. Depending on your bank, you'll pay a flat International ATM Fee, plus a International Transaction Fee for converting the money. For myself with Bank of America, that adds up to a flat $5 USD for the ATM fee, plus 1% of the USD conversion amount for the transaction fee. HOWEVER, you're taking the conversion at the bank wholesale rate. At a Canadian ATM:

$100 CAD = $85 USD + $5 fee + $0.85 (1% fee) = $90.85 USD

This equates to an actual rate of around .91USD/CAD, still cheaper than I could do converting cash. Fees vary widely among banks, and it's really hard to find the right information short of calling your bank and asking them what their fees are. One added bonus with Bank of America is that they are a member of the Global ATM Alliance, which is an alliance between banks in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, China and Australia/New Zealand, allowing fee-free ATM use among those banks. In Canada, the alliance member is Scotiabank... so I could use my BofA card in one of their ATMs and get cash for only the 1% conversion fee.

$100 CAD = $85 USD + $0.85 (1% fee) = $85.85 USD

This roughly .86USD/CAD rate is far and beyond the best you're going to be able to do internationally to convert cash. [Note: Bank of America is very vague as to whether or not the 1% fee is charged for Global ATM Alliance withdrawals. I'm assuming it is, and it's just the $5 fee that's waived, just since past experience is that BofA isn't up on giving up too much money.]

3) Use your US credit card to take cash out. This is a bad idea in the US, let alone internationally. Most credit cards charge up to a 3% fee for the conversion, plus cash advance fees and instant interest. I won't even bother with the numbers, it's so ridiculous.


Once you have local currency in your hands, you're all set. But make sure you don't convert more than you need, because the only way to get the cash back to USD is to pay the consumer conversion rates I outlined before. Better off saving it for your next trip, or if you're not going back anytime soon, go on a souvenir shopping spree.

But what if you need to pay for bigger things, perhaps a hotel, or other expensive things that you don't want to pay with large wads of cash. Just like back home, plastic is a good option. But again, most people have multiple options here too:

1) Use your credit card. Visa or Mastercard are accepted in all the civilized parts of the world. Your exchange rate will be the wholesale rate plus a fixed percentage assessed by your card issuer. Most banks charge between 1% - 3% for this fee. My Bank of America card is 3% on international transactions:

$100 CAD = $85 USD + $2.55 (3% fee) = $87.55 USD

This is still significantly cheaper than any other option, short of the fee-free ATM that we found above. Card fees vary widely, however. Visa is actually converting the money, and charging the issuing banks 1% to do so, however the banks then "pass the savings on to you" by charging you anywhere from 1-5%. However, some cards, such as Capital One's credit cards, actually absorb the 1% that Visa is charging them, and have completely fee free cards. This means with one of those you would pay:

$100 CAD = $85.00 USD

That's it, just the straight wholesale rate and nothing else. Makes it almost worth it to put one of these cards in your wallet if you are frequently travelling abroad, or plan on taking a long trip.

2) Use your debit/check card. Oddly enough, I found it nearly impossible to find information about this for my BofA card. Some references show this as just the 1% fee, others 3%. As with most of my other data, you just have to try it and look at the numbers to figure it out. Your mileage may vary. Either way, I wouldn't expect it to be any worse than using your credit card, if not better.


In summary, know what you're paying before you go. Ask the right questions to find out the right answers about the fees you'll pay outside the country. Also know where you're going. The guidelines I found really only apply to the industrialized world, and may not apply if you're travelling to the middle of nowhere. As I constantly implore, cash is king, and there's probably few places in the world where you can't use a US greenback. I'd always keep a few dead presidents buried in that secret spot in your wallet in case of emergency. When changing money, everyone's out there to take a piece of the action... make sure they don't take too much of yours.

What's so wrong with a $1 coin?

This will serve double-duty of recapping my past weekend, and promoting the widespread use of the newest $1 coin. The connection will be made clear shortly.

I had a long, yet exciting weekend this past weekend as I went up to Victoria, BC for a curling bonspiel. Though I had to get up at about 4:30am to get out on the road and head up to Canada, at least I didn't have to drive, so it was a much more relaxing trip. We got on the road at about 6:00am and made it to the border by about 7:30am. There was only one lane open at the border crossing, but fortunately since it was so early even at that there were only 2 cars in front of us in line. I went up with three other guys, one of whom is actually Italian and a student doing his graduate research at the UW. As a result, we were stopped at the border and had to go inside so Canadian immigration could check out his paperwork and US Visa. I don't think they were particularly concerned with letting him in, as much as they wanted to make sure the US would let him back in when we came home. All went smoothly, and we made our way up to take the ferry across from Tsawwassen to Vancouver Island.

Curling went well, we managed to win our first game which was nice, but ultimately ended up 2-3 for the weekend. All close matches though, so we were pretty pleased, especially since the Canadian locals were far more adjusted to the ice than we were. (The differences in the ice make a huge impact on the game.) Our hotel was only about 3 blocks from the curling club, so we could walk back and forth as needed. We had a few spare hours one day that we used to walk down to the inner harbor, er, harbour, which was fun. All in all, a good weekend. We had about an hour wait at the border coming home, despite our best efforts to avoid it. We came across the truck crossing instead of the main I-5 Peace Arch crossing, which apparently had about a 2.5 hour wait. Lots of people trying to come down to the US on Sunday afternoon.

As always happens when I go to Canada, I am reminded how great the $1 and $2 coins are. The US is the only major country in the world to still have small-demonination bills in circulation, but oddly enough, most people seem fine with that. Even with the recently improved Presidential $1 coin that is now available, people still aren't using it. Some frequently-cited polls report that something like 75% of the US population prefer the $1 bill to a $1 coin, but I don't buy it. I think it's just we're stubborn and hate change... in every sense of the word. :) I for one rarely carry any change around whatsoever... but in just two days in Canada I adapted and was carrying change with me because I had to, and you know what, it wasn't that bad. Who really needs their grungy $1 bills anyway? Use the coin! I'd use the coin more, but nobody gives them as change ever, and cashiers look at you funny when you give one to them. Really, I think it's just a vocal minority opposed to eliminating the $1 bill (the same minority who are opposed to eliminating the penny, though I don't mind the penny). I say let's get rid of the $50 bill and 50-cent piece while we're at it... talk about a superfluous piece of money.

Amazing Race 11

[spoiler alert - if you're behind on your TiVo watching of Amazing Race 11, proceed at your own discretion.]

Those of you who have been watching this season of The Amazing Race will appreciate this more than others... but...

ROB AND AMBER GOT ELIMINATED! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!

Once again, the double-crossing, two-faced, lying, cheating, claw-your-way-to-the-top team fails to prevail! I was convinced I was going to have to suffer through another season with "the team you love to hate," especially after they not only survived but came in 1st place in the first 3 legs of the race. Even when it became apparent that they were going to come in last place this week, I was dreading that it would be a non-elimination leg. But it's all good! Of course, those of you who followed my Amazing Race 7 Travelblog know my fond feeling for Rob and Amber from their first appearance 4 seasons ago.

As for this season of the Amazing Race 11: All Stars edition... I must say it's actually keeping me captivated and watching far more than the previous several seasons have. It's almost even inspiring me to start an AR11 Travelblog... but I think perhaps these commentaries will suffice. And if you're not watching the Amazing Race, it's never too late to start [CBS, Sundays at 8pm]. The excitement really starts to heat up in the second half of the season. There are 12 legs in the race and we're only on the 4th. I have been prediciting for several seasons that an Amazing Race will finally take a trip down to Antarctica, and at the end of the 4th leg of the race they are currently sitting on the southernmost tip of South America. Sounds like a good possibility to me!

Commonly misused phrases? I could care less!

Picture with me now... a dramatic moment in your favorite reality television show. A contestant is fed up with his opponents, and in a moment of high drama, cutaway to an interview clip where he exclaims, "I could care less what they think of me!"

... and... SCENE!

Last night I was watching my DVR'ed episode of The Amazing Race from Sunday and this exact thing happened. All I wanted to say was, "You're an idiot."

Let's face it, we all stumble over words occasionally. And as much as I wish the real world had a backspace key to clean up those little errors, it doesn't. But consider how useless some of these commonly used words and phrases have become. If I were parsing the phrase--not that I do that, well, not too often anyway--I would take "I could care less" as one big chunk and give it the part of speech "meaningless idiom." Phrases like that are so overused, nobody takes them literally anymore. Certainly if they did they'd be as confused as anyone. "So wait a minute. If you could care less, you must still care some."

Now I'll try to assemble as many misused, useless, or generally redundant phrases as possible:

I literally flew off the handle when I couldn't eat nor sleep forever. Like I eluded to prior, it was a very unique experience, most everybody would agree. Due to this affect, I am a man who will be easily aggravated in the forseeable future.

See how many you can find in there. :)

Abusing the system...

Since what seems like the dawn of time, Costco has had an absurdly liberal return policy for products bought from its warehouses. Basically, you could return anything, anytime, even years after you bought it, for a full refund. Well, thanks to the actions of a few who have taken advantage of this policy, Costco has been forced to change it's absurdly liberal return policy to one that's only reasonably liberal. [Costco tightens its return policy -Seattle PI 2/27/07] "Anytime" has essentially turned into "within 90 days", though has been supplemented with a new 2-year warranty. Of course, this wouldn't have been an issue, if not for the abuse by some unscrupulous customers who would buy a $2000 plasma TV, only to return it 6 months later only to turn around and buy a brand new model for half the price. As ridiculous as it sounds, it was fully within the letter of Costco's policy to do so, though certainly not within the spirit of it. It has become so commonplace that one customer, as noted in the PI article, even went so far as to refer to it as Costco's "free TV upgrade policy." As a result, the majority of honest customers to whom Costco has always tried to provide outstanding customer service are being penalized. Now I believe that their new policy is still FAR more than reasonable, and better than you'd find anywhere else, it's the principle.

The "abuse it because you can" philosophy stretches far beyond Costco, or even retail stores in general. It's an epidemic in American society. Cable television, cell phones, any service-providing company is a victim of this. I know people who call and haggle with Comcast over their cable bills every month, not because they aren't satisfied with their service, but just because they know if they complain about something they'll get months of free service or other discounts. When I've questioned these people in the past, it's always rationalized by "they charge too much anyway, it doesn't cost them anything to give me a discount," or "that's the way the game is played." The problem is that it IS costing the company money, and it's also costing every customer in a lack of quality customer service and companies standing by their products and services.

I believe that most companies genuinely want to keep their customers happy--it's in their best interests to do so. It's just that most often, they've been burned so many times in the past that they are skeptical of every complaint that comes in. They start assuming that the majority of customers complaining are just trying to get a free lunch, and as a result crack down on their policies and customer service. Who really suffers is the honest customers, who do in fact occasionally have legitimate complaints or problems. Take my recent bout with Nissan's customer service regarding my broken window regulator on my car. [previous blog thread] I don't believe I was at all unreasonable in my complaint and request for a repair, and ultimately I was able to convince Nissan that I wasn't just trying to get something for nothing, after which they stood by their product and fixed my issues. But no doubt they are inundated with requests from customers expecting them to fix problems due to normal wear-and-tear and the like, that no reasonable customer would ever expect a company to do. I could tell this just from my conversations with the customer service representatives I talked to. As a result, a company who genuinely cares about its customers ends up unintentionally driving away exactly the good customers it wants to cater to.

The value of knowing your customers personally, and customers knowing the company personally, is never to be underestimated. If the company knows you are an honest and valued customer, they are far more likely to help you out when you have a problem. It's a compelling argument for perhaps paying a bit more to buy a product or service from a more reputable vendor, though I definitely don't offer a blanket endorsement for the mom-and-pop electronics store either. Large or small, you just have to know who's standing by your products.

Sure there are unscrupulous companies and salespeople who try to take advantage of the honest, good-intentioned customers... but that's another rant for another blog.

Music from the Stage and Screen

Continuing with my apparent string of great performances, tonight I went to the Seattle Symphony Pops concert featuring Marvin Hamlisch and an outstanding musical lineup of great movie and Broadway show music. I must be on a roll this week, because this was probably the best Seattle Symphony concert I've been to all season. Marvin Hamlisch has of course scored countless movies and 8 Broadway shows, including A Chorus Line, and is an outstanding pianist. That in itself should make for a great performance, but what wasn't expected was that he's probably funnier than even many professional comedians I've seen. I should have expected an entertaining night as soon as the symphony opened with the distinct screeching strings from Psycho. The evening included the symphony performing from various movie scores, and shows such as My Fair Lady and Phantom of the Opera, featuring an outstanding tenor. Hamlisch provided the interludes and introduced each tune, telling various stories and even throwing around some Victor Borge-eseque piano humor. All this from a man who has 4 Grammys, 4 Emmys, a Tony and 3 Oscars (and took plenty of opportunity to joke about the Academy Awards, and his losing to John Williams several times, claiming all John has to do is pound on the piano and he gets an award for it). Absolutely outstanding... another 4+ star performance. Certainly as long as there are plenty of good shows, I won't be complaining. :)

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Tonight I attended Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at the 5th Avenue Theatre. One day after returning from an extended vacation, I nearly decided not to go--what a mistake that would have been!

Buddy is based on the life of Buddy Holly, famed rock and roll pioneer who died tragically in a plane crash on tour with The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in 1959. I was expecting a good show, considering the quality and familiarity of many Buddy Holly songs, but was skeptical of this recent example of the aptly dubbed "jukebox musical" which have left me less than satisfied in the past. Complete enjoyment of such musicals rely heavily on one's recognition and familiarity with the associated songs. Fortunately for Buddy, it would be a challenge to listen to any oldies radio station for an hour and not hear at least one tune used in the show.

Understandably, the quality of the performance depends heavily on the quality of the music and musicians. There was absolutely no disappointment. If you came expecting above-average cover band material as I did, you would be completely blown away. Every one of the actor/musicians was absolutely amazing. Combined with the excellent script and production yielded an unexpectedly outstanding overall performance. My only real complaint was that the majority of the second act became just a rock concert. It was as if the writers had a set lineup of songs they wanted to fit in, but ran out of story halfway through, so decided to write one scene and just throw everything else in it. I was momentarily disappointed by this, but was quickly re-energized by the once again amazing musical performance.

As for the ratings:

Music - 5 stars, without any reservations whatsoever.
Technical - 3 stars, good all-purpose sets and lighting, without interfering with the great music.
Cast - 4 stars, at least half the cast were obviously accomplished musicians in addition to being excellent actors. It's always nice to see musicians out of the pit and on the stage.
Script - 3 stars. Good avenue for telling the Buddy Holly story.
Overall - 4 stars. The 4 that's closer to 5, rather than closer to 3.

"Buddy" was a late substitution in the 5th Avenue's season lineup after the Broadway-bound "Cry-Baby" was delayed out to next season, and as such I think has suffered a bit in its promotion. Quite a few different ticket deals have been released in an apparent effort to fill seats after lackluster ticket sales thus far, but it should be a crime to have empty seats for this show. Its three-week run continues through March 4th, and I highly recommend finding some tickets if you have the chance.

California Adventures, part 1

Avid readers of my blog (if such a thing exists) won't be the least bit surprised at my latest vacation ramblings from Disneyland. But since this trip will likely sound much like the last one this past October, I'll spare the mundane "here's what I did" laundry-list of details. Right now I'm partially soaked after riding the Grizzly River Run which is one of those white-water rafting type rides over at California Adventure. Actually, I didn't get nearly as wet as I expected, I've been on similar, yet far worse rides, where you are drenched by waterfalls and the like. Not a fan of gratuitious drenching... but incidental drenching is fun and part of the ride. :)

Due to the disappointment that the perpetual favorite ride Splash Mountain is currently closed for refurbishment, this trip's Thrilly award for best ride goes to... The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's hard to beat the outstanding theming and excitement of a 13-story more-than-freefall in a runaway elevator. :) But while we're discussing it, this is the only place I prefer to be in any sort of runaway elevator.

Tomorrow after a morning in the parks, I'll pack up and drive over to Santa Barbara, potentially during a LA Friday afternoon rush hour. Me thinks it will be quite the adventure... fortunately, I brought my tunes with me... because I'll need it.

Pictures to come, including some pictures of the fabulous Grand Californian Hotel, if I remember to take pictures around here... which is no certainty at all.

Memories of Grandma's House

Like most people, I always have fond memories of going to grandma's house. I was lucky enough to have grandma's house no more than about a 5-minute drive from our own, so much time was spent over there. Of course, grandma and grandpa had a big house, with a big backyard, and there was always something fun to do over there. (Oh yeah, and they had cable TV, which growing up we never had at home, which made it bonus fun.) Sure, the house had a distinctly straight-out-of-decades-past look, but that's what you expect when you go to grandma's.

But I'm not just waxing nostalgic for no good reason right now. First a bit of history... a few years back before my grandma died, she moved into an "old-people apartment" and we sold her house. I would have kept the house and lived in it, but alas I was just starting at the UW, and really wasn't in the place to live in a house in Federal Way. So what can you do? The house was sold to a nice couple who did some renovation work on the unfinished basement and (though I have never seen it) apparently did some nice things to the house. But last year or so they sold it. And that's about the last we heard of it... until my parents were talking to some friends who still live in my the neighborhood where the house is and we come to find out that the new owners were, how do you say... on the wrong side of the law? Apparently they bypassed the electrical meter and added some new lighting downstairs in the basement. Yes, that's right folks, grandma's house was turned into a illegal marijuana growing and distribution shop.

I recently stumbled onto a press release from the US DEA, ["Marijuana Manufacturing And Distribution Conspiracy Shut Down"]. The address is clearly listed on the press release, where apparently they found 394 plants and $35,000 in cash. Now there's something you don't see everyday.

Grandma's house, it is no more.

If this is vacation, why am I so tired?

va·ca·tion (vā-kā'shən, və-) n.
A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.
Hard to believe I call this a vacation so far. I have spent the majority of the last 6 days putting in about 12-16 hours per day volunteering my time officiating for the 2007 US Junior National Curling Championships which have been held this year at our curling club. It's been a pretty exciting week actually, though with four draws a day at 8, noon, 4 and 8, it's been a loooong week. The only reason I'm not up there tonight is that the 4pm and 8pm draws were for tie-breakers (if necessary)... fortunately, they were not necessary. All that's left are two semi-finals tomorrow afternoon and the finals Saturday morning. While it's been a lot of fun, the long days have not exactly been the definition of pleasure, rest, or relaxation. More like stress, drama, and sleep-deprivation. That's why I was smart enough to plan a real vacation for next week.

And that, I will talk about more later... now I'm too tired.

Vacation + Sick = Bad

There's nothing like waking up the last day before you start a 2-week vacation, only to feel like you're starting to get sick. There will be NO sick while I'm on vacation.

I REPEAT... SICKNESS IS NOT AN OPTION.

It's not too bad right now, and hopefully I can ward it off. I'm kicking up the immune system and seeing if I can knock this off early. We shall see.

HP Mania!

The mania has begun... you can't go two minutes without someone going "Hey, did you hear the new Harry Potter book will be out on July 21st? I have to get it as soon as it's out!" Oh the pain...

The book isn't going to be any different whether you get it one day or the next... so what's the big deal, folks? Sure, I'm interested to find out how it's going to end too, but geez. Why don't you just pretend the book will be released on 7/22/2007, order it on Amazon, and when it arrives you'll be like "sweet!"? Then you won't be disappointed. It's like people who set their alarm clock forward 20 minutes so when they ignore it and wake up 20 minutes late they're suddenly right on time. (Which, by the way, I never have understood, because 99% of the people who do this, KNOW that their clock is 20 minutes fast, and intentionally plan that into their day, so it really defeats the purpose.)

Sure, everyone wants to know what's going to happen with Harry Potter... they've been chomping at the bit for the past year just waiting for the finish. Maybe it's a sense of "beating everyone else to it"... so they can be the first on their block to know what happens. In this case, I wouldn't stand a chance regardless because I read slower than two turtles chasing each other across fly paper.

Myself, I plan on just waiting a week until everyone I know have each read it about a dozen times, then I'll borrow it and read it when I get the chance.

Please do not discard.

Have you ever noticed how mass mail marketers try so hard to make their mail look like real important mail, that usually it's even easier to pick out? It's funny, for years I would never get any sort of useless mail, now I must get at least half a dozen pieces of junk mail a day. However, I've gotten really good at sorting it out just by looking at the envelope. To share in my wisdom, I've compiled a handy little junk-mail identification guide.

1) If the envelope says "Please do not discard" it's probably junk mail. Every time I've received something like new credit cards, tickets from TicketMaster or anything else that I really shouldn't discard, it always comes in a completely nondescript plain white envelope with nothing but a pre-printed return address. These are ones I don't discard.

2) If the envelope looks like something incredibly important, especially if it says "Important!" on it... it's probably junk mail. Get real... you're not that important to receive mail like that.

3) If the envelope is any color other than white, and it's not Christmas, your birthday, or your wedding... it's probably junk mail. Real mail comes in white envelopes.

4) If the envelope has what appears to be a handwritten note scribbled on the front... it's probably junk mail. High-class junk mail, but still junk mail.

I'm not complaining too much though, recycling junk mail is as easy as hitting the delete key on my e-mail. But unlike e-mail, there's nothing worse than going to the mailbox and finding absolutely nothing there. At least junk mail makes my trip to the mailbox worth it.

Sunday's over... I'm ready for a weekend...

Is it a good sign when it's Sunday night and you're thinking "when does the weekend start?"

OK, so it's not quite as bad as that, but still. I feel like it's been pretty much non-stop for the whole long weekend. Friday night I had my regular curling which wasn't so bad, but I just really wasn't much in the mood to curl. Then Saturday was another full day of curling with the mixed bonspiel. Unfortunately, that required playing 3 games on Saturday, of which my team lost all three games. It was fun, but by about 9:30 when I was done, I just came home and crashed. Sunday, well, it was a pretty normal day. Went to church in the morning, then came home and had a little time to relax before, yes, yet another night of my regular Sunday night curling league.

Last week one of my coworkers gave me a box full of old piano sheet music that she acquired when cleaning out her mother-in-law's house. Tons of sheet music with lots of classic songs from the 1920's-1960's mostly. So part of my Sunday afternoon was going through this box and finding all kinds of fun music to play on the piano. I was extra pleased to find a fair share of showtunes and movie themes, but upon further reflection, that's not too surprising. Most of the popular songs of that era were specifically from musicals and movies. What happened to that trend? Somehow I don't think 60 years from now someone will be going through a box of sheet music and stumbling onto last year's Oscar winner for best song and going "Hey, remember that classic song 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp'? Those were the days, they just don't make songs like they used to!" No thanks, I'll stick with "There's No Business Like Show Business" that I found in the box. :)

Ah well, time for another week of work I guess. So long weekend, it feels like I hardly knew you.

And believe me, I know toasted...

Have you seen the Visa commercial where everyone's getting lunch at the cafeteria and everything is moving like a well-oiled machine... then someone throws a wrench in it (in this case, paying with cash instead of their Visa Check Card(tm)) and everything falls apart? [Visa Commercial: 'Lunch'] I like this commercial, mainly because it is the perfect dramatization of how you get into a regular routine, and the smallest change can throw you completely off.

This is especially apparent when you live alone... rarely do things change without you actually changing them, so you can neglect common double-checks you might normally take without fear of anything unexpected happening... until you have guests (like my freeloading sister a few months back). The differences can manifest themselves in the most unusual places... like the toaster.

Have you noticed that most people, whether they realize it or not, have a very distinct preference for how they toast their bread. Some people like it blackened (or as I would call it, 'cajun style'), others just warm enough that it's a bit crusty, but not a hint of brown anywhere on it. Still others prefer it somewhere specific on a scale between those extremes. Myself, I prefer it, as Alton Brown would say, "golden brown and delicious"... no black, but enough that it's just a bit toasty. The problem is, few toasters (and certainly not my classic 1980's stainless steel model) have any sort of custom presets like a car radio to set how toasty you want it. Instead, I have to rely on my experience to get the lever set to exactly the right toastiness, and trust that once I get it right it's not going to change. It's a time-proven system... until someone touches it. On several occasions when I mindlessly dropped my bread into the toaster and pushed the plunger down expecting "golden brown & delicious" toast, I ended up with extra dark and over toasted toast. Such a disappointment. After the first such occasion, I traced it to my fine freeloading sister who had monkeyed with the toaster (and then later claimed that I need a new toaster... totally bogus). It just goes to show that sometimes your routine can get the best of you.

[Editor's note: I had this rant probably 3 months ago, but as usual forgot about it everytime I was trying to think of something to blog about until now.]

Me Talk Good English

I read an article today ["Bad English confounds Beijing teacher"] about how in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, there is a big push among the Chinese to improve their rather poorly translated English signs. I actuall recall many bizarrely worded signs when I was in China back in 2001 and doubt they can possibly fix them all in any reasonable amount of time. Some of them just have misspellings and typographical errors on them, which aren't such a big deal to me. The amusing ones are the complete mistranslations that occasionally could be read quite differently by a native English speaker. These signs are widely collected online, so I decided to post a few of the more entertaining ones I found here, with my own commentary added. Enjoy!

But speaking cellphone on a sunny day is perfectly fine... I wonder if cellphone sounds a bit like Swahili?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Who's Carefully? And why was he standing so close to the water?

... or it might chase after you.

Please confine your frolicking to the kiddie pool.

"You need a breath mint."

You is valued neighba.

I took a picture of this one (or one like it) in China too. "Please keep your graffiti neat."

Very important. I do this every time I walk out on the curling ice.

... and don't you forget it!

Yeah... and no free refills on your Diet Coke either!

Truer words have never been spoken...

Nor will it ask you for spare change...

I actually had to look this one up. A "balustrade" is a railing supported by a bunch of columns (balusters) that hold it up, like you usually have on the side of stairway or balcony. This begs the question... how is it that these people who can't make a correctly formed sentence have a better vocabulary than I do?

Yeah... do something with your life and get a real job!

As opposed to the alternative... ?

I'm just trying to figure out which of the Chinese symbols stand for "deformed man".

Sign outside a Xenophobics Anonymous meeting.

... and please, no smorking within 25 feet of any doorway.

More snow...

Seattle's crazy weather adventures continue. After rain, rain, rain, snow, wind, rain, wind, rain, we're back to snow. Here in Seattle I only had maybe half an inch or so, but I've learned that's pretty typical. It rarely snows too much in the core of Seattle. But my parents down in Federal Way weren't quite so snow-free. They sent me this picture of the backyard:



I haven't seen that much snow down there for years. The odd thing this time is that it's supposed to stick around for a while now, because it's going to stay bitterly freezing for the rest of the week. It's not the snow to worry about, but rather the ice covering the roads. I'll go ahead and work from home today.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Tonight I went to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Paramount Theatre. Despite having one of the longest titles of any musical I've ever seen, it was quite the atypical musical experience.

The whole plot of the musical was basically, well, just what it sounds like--a spelling bee. That's pretty much it, nothing more, nothing less. Sure, they added a few musical numbers where we delved into the personal lives of these middle school-aged kids; amusing little ditties but merely accessories to the rest of the dialogue. The 2-hour production had no intermission, though an intermission-like scene was built into the show that gave the audience a break from the seriousness (and I use that in the loosest sense of the word) of the spelling bee.

Reading my recap thus far you might be led to believe it was a disappointing performance, but you'd be wrong. It was absolutely hilarious! Much credit for the comedic brilliance needs to be given to both the writers and equally the actors. A great deal of improvisation was involved in various parts of the show, including bringing four members of the audience on stage as additional spellers at the beginning of the show. (Those audience members were relatively quickly eliminated through the use of obscure or ridiculously impossible-to-spell words.) Rather than applause, laughter was the prevailing sentiment from the audience.

I considered whether this show would work better as a play than a musical, based on the relative unimportance of the musical numbers' contribution to the overall plot, but concluded that it's best as is. The music really is the glue that holds it all together. While it doesn't really add a lot to the overall picture, it's adds greatly to the structural foundation of the show.

As for my much awaited ratings...

Cast - 4 stars. A small, yet outstanding cast with great comedic talent.
Script - 5 stars. Inspired genius, and we'll give the credit for the improvised customizations here.
Technical - 3 stars. All you'd expect from a Broadway-caliber production, but nothing remarkable.
Music - 2 stars, and no discredit to the singers or musicians, all of whom were outstanding. I considered giving it 3 stars, but couldn't justify it. It's just not the focus of the show.

Overall - 4 stars. Worth seeing perhaps more than once, because I'd doubt it's ever quite the same show twice. Definitely an unconventional style of musical, but nothing wrong with that.

Whatever happened to do-it-yourself car repair?

Last night on my way to the curling club, I came to the realization that it wasn't quite as bright as it should be in front of my car. After I got there, I got out of my car to take a look and sure enough, my front passenger-side headlight was out. Ignoring my past experiences ["All that work for a $10 lightbulb" 11/20/2005 ], I figured "Hey, no big deal. I'll pick up a new bulb tomorrow." And so this morning on my way to work, which just happens to go right past a car parts store, I picked up a new headlight for my 2001 Nissan Altima for the amazing low price of $8.69. After work, I got a screwdriver and wrench and headed down to the garage to replace the headlight. As I recalled from the driver's side headlight just over a year ago, everything has to be done from the inside under the hood. Unfortunately, where on the driver's side I had the battery to contend with blocking my access to the bulb, on the passenger side I had a slightly less movable object, the coolant tank.

After pondering just how much work it would take to wedge my hands in far enough to get at the bulb, then realizing that I'd never actually get the bulb out once I did, I retreated to the assistance of the owner's manual. Despite my hopes to the contrary, the instructions had not changed since the last time I tried to find the instructions to replace a headlight only to ignore the manufacturer's recommendation that you take the car to the dealer, lest you follow their instructions on how to completely remove the front bumper of your car.

For more than a brief moment, I contemplated actually following said instructions and removing the front bumper of my car in order to replace the headlight, and even went so far as to remove one of the supposedly 4 screws holding on the bumper. After regaining my senses in a bout of extreme frustration, I put everything back together, closed the hood and ranted to myself all the way back upstairs. A bit of research online led me to the exact situation I had already deduced from my own first-hand experience. BUT... the suggestion quickly came that there really is only one screw that holds the coolant reservoir in, and after you remove that easy-to-access screw, all you need to do is use, and I quote, "more than a little upward force", and the coolant tank will just pop right off and you can move it to the side. Could it be so easy?

Back downstairs I go, open the hood back up and do a little further investigation. I removed the screw that holds the coolant tank down, and then pulled up on it. No success. Wiggled it a little and pulled up again a little harder. No success. Stared it at glaringly, cleaned it off and reached down as far as I could to get a better grip, and pulled up even harder. No success. Hmmm, did I miss something? Did a little investigative work to figure out just how it was held down there and saw a bit of a clamp on the left side that appeared to hold it on there. Took the end of a screwdriver and used a little leverage to pull up on the top edge. POP! It came loose and I just lifted it right out and set it off to the side.

Now I had easy access to the bulb, just a twist of the locking ring and out came the old bulb, in went the new one, voila! Snapped the coolant reservoir back in its holder and screwed it down, and that was it. All-in-all a 15-minute procedure, 10 of which were trying to get the darn tank off, and now both my headlights work again.

This brings me to the rant of the night, if it's so easy (obviously) just to remove the coolant tank to get at the headlight, WHY does the instruction manual give you the daunting instructions to remove half the front of your car to get at it? I'LL TELL YOU WHY... to convince less-adventurous folk to take their car into the dealer who can charge them an arm an a leg to "remove the front of the car to get at it, because it's so difficult." Of course, once you take it in, they probably just pop off the coolant reservoir and replace it in all of 5 minutes and charge you for 1.5 hrs worth of labor. OK, so I'm probably exaggerating and there's some legal liability reason why they can't actually tell you to remove the coolant tank or the battery or whatever. Like that makes it any better.

Well, that should cover the headlights for a while now. What will go wrong next? I dunno, but maybe it'll be time to get a new car by then.

Happy New Year!

I decided a new year deserved a redesign of my blog, so as you probably noticed the colors have changed and layout slightly modified here. Nothing too different, but hey, it's the thought that counts.

Now 2006 is gone, it's January 1st of 2007, a completely new year and the day of a million bowl games. OK, not quite a million, but 6 of them anyway. This morning I could switch between ABC, CBS, FOX and ESPN and watch 4 different bowl games at the same time. And people claim there are too many bowl games? I don't see how they could possibly think that. :)

How about some New Year resolutions? I seem to recall last year's new year resolution not to make any new year resolutions. Seriously, what's up with resolutions anyway? I am going to make retroactive 2006 New Year resolutions to do whatever it is I got done last year. WAHOO! Time to celebrate 2006's accomplishments by not making any 2007 resolutions until December 31st of next year.

Wow, that was alot of words and not a lot of information. I'll try to work on that in 2007...

The Freeloader is GONE!

Well, it's been how long, 3 months off and on since my freeloading sister Amy showed up on my doorstep claiming she'll just be "crashing on my couch" for a few nights. Finally tonight she came and got all of her stuff and took it off to her new townhouse up at Northgate that she and a couple friends are renting. Merry Christmas, I have my apartment back.

But I have to admit, it's a bit different around here now. After 3 months I finally got used to having her around, and now it's a bit quiet around here. (Though I have a ton more space, now that I look around.)

Hmmm... no more hearing her cell phone go off at 6am while I'm trying to sleep. No more hearing her up until who knows how late in the morning before going to bed. No more piles of junk around the apartment that aren't mine. :) Ah... good times.

Now it's time for Christmas excitement. Saturday is a pretty slow day actually, I don't think I have anything of any sort of importance going on. Then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities are ready for fun. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Being sick is no fun...

I managed to be sick most of last week, which wasn't much fun at all. I rarely take any sort of drugs when I'm sick, rather just resting and surviving through it. The exception is when I have a cold and am so congested I can't really breathe well. For that, I usually keep a good stock of DayQuil (the gelcaps, not the liquid, bleah) on hand, because it does an amazing job of keeping your head clear and breathing. I still had some (that I probably bought a couple of years ago, and admit was a bit past its expiration date, considering how infrequently I find myself needing it), but it still worked wonders. On Saturday morning I ran out of it, so I stopped by the drug store to get some more. No problem, right? Well, mainly I wanted to not be sniffling all through Saturday night at my cousin's wedding (pictures in the online album, btw). I took the stuff in the afternoon and the evening, and neither time did my head clear up. Maybe the drugs were broken? Was my cold just so bad nothing could save it? Did I just imagine taking it? Something wasn't right. I got home Saturday night and took another dose right before I went to bed, usually ensuring at least a clear night's sleep. But I woke up about an hour later with my nose so stuffed up I could barely breathe. It was horrible! I finally made it to sleep (probably because I was actually getting better, not necessarily because any drugs were helping me) and slept through most of the night.

Sunday morning it was time to do some research. I look at the DayQuil box and what do I see, they have actually CHANGED one of the active ingredients that is supposed to solve all the sinus congestion. How dare they?!

Now for your education moment... if you have read nothing else, read this and learn...

DayQuil, as with most other over-the-counter cold medicines, used to contain Pseudoephedrine which does an amazingly good job at clearing sinus congestion. However, as the most unscrupulous world of illicit drugs also learned, is remarkably easy to break down into Methamphetamines. Thanks to recent legislation within our fine US Congress, laws to help restrict the sale of products containing Pseudoephedrine were incorporated into the not-so-aptly named 'Patriot Act'. As a result, most manufacturers have reformulated their cold medicines to replace the Pseudoephedrine with another less-easy-to-turn-to-meth alternative called Phenylepherine (also in a much smaller dose). This is the ingredient now found in DayQuil among others. I'm all for getting rid of bad drugs if there's a reasonable substitute, the problem is, Phenylepherine doesn't work! Several studies have shown Phenylepherine to be no more effective than a placebo at alleviating sinus congestion. WELL THAT'S JUST WONDERFUL! I might as well swallow a sugar cube when I have a stuffy nose... probably tastes a lot better.

As a result, yesterday I made a stop at the local Rite-Aid to look more closely at the cold medicine shelf. Looking at the boxes, most of the easy-to-find stuff is all using the new Phenylepherine. If you look hard enough though, for example, I found that there is another version of DayQuil called "DayQuil Sinus" (seems redundant to me), but infact, it's essentially the same as the regular DayQuil, but instead contains the ill-fated Pseudoephedrine. WAHOO! So I grab a box and take it to the register. Not so fast. The forementioned Patriot Act now mandates that ALL sales of products containing Pseudoephedrine require the purchaser be logged and limited on how much they can buy. As a result, it takes me 5 minutes while the kind, yet slow and not very computer-literate, cashier basically takes all the information off of my driver's license and enters it into the register. It's easier to buy a bottle of Jack Daniels than a bottle of DayQuil! However, I made it out with relative ease. Took the DayQuil Sinus and within 20 minutes, the runny nose was gone and I could breathe free and clear.

The moral of the story: KNOW what you're buying! Ask for the Pseudoephedrine by name! Know the differences! It's worth the extra trouble, especially when you're sick and the difference is between feeling better and being miserable.

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

Last night I went to see the musical adaptation (for once, the movie came first) of White Christmas playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre. I took my sister Amy with me, mainly because she has seen the movie probably 124 times, and besides the complete song montage she sang while we were waiting for the show to start, it wasn't too bad. :)

As for the musical, an excellent performance. Most of the cast was outstanding... the chorus was excellent, the leads were entertaining, with the possible disappointment of the actress who played Judy Haynes, who did not impress me at all. Not bad in general or vocally, but she was a bit sloppy on the dance numbers which really stood out next to the outstanding performance of the rest of the ensemble.

I have to avoid trying to compare this production to the movie, because the movie is an American classic, to which there just is no comparison. Though in short, as in any adaptation, various changes had to be made, in this case some of the minor subplots and edges were rearranged or changed to be more usable on the stage rather than the screen. But the overall story remained intact.

On the technical aspects, the sets were impressive. The orchestra was outstanding. Breaking down the rating:

Cast: 4 stars - no Bing Crosby, but who is?
Script: 3 stars - too used to the movie, hard to handle many changes.
Technical: 5 stars - great sets and lighting and everything else.
Music: 4 stars - All the classic songs, with a great orchestra to back it up.

Overall Rating: 4 stars. I'd see it again... actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Nothing really to complain about here... more than that, lots of good things about it. A holiday classic worth seeing. I can't give it 5 stars though, because I've seen better.

Global Warming? Yeah, right.

If anyone needs proof that Global Warming is bogus, I now have it. This Seattle weather we're having is quite possibly the most insane weather I've seen in 27 years. Sure there has been snow, sure there's been wind and cold... but this is just odd.

Not that it's surprising, but the weathercasters around here have absolutely no clue what they're doing when it starts to snow. Sure, they make it seem easy enough, cold air comes in from the north, meets the moist air from the south, in one of their favorite areas the "Puget Sound Convergence Zone", and just like Emeril would say... BAM!... snow. If only it really were as simple as they make it seem, perhaps it would actually stop snowing when they say it would. But no, this latest blast seems to have come out of nowhere and just appear.

The biggest question is, to go to work tomorrow or not. The official word from the office was "If Seattle schools are open tomorrow, Insightful is open tomorrow." Well, Seattle schools are closed... but that leaves a bit of ambiguity as to whether or not work is. I'll see how the roads look in the morning and if anyone else is going to work. I probably could make it to work with relatively little difficulty, but that hardly means much if there isn't anyone else there.

Alas, what an uninteresting blog today... but at least I put something here.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Ever since The West Wing finally wrapped up and went off the air, I've needed some other compelling show that keeps me waiting in anticipation of the next week's episode. I had high hopes for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." With half of the cast coming straight off the set of The West Wing, and Aaron Sorkin writing the show, I was definitely expecting a great show. The pilot had me hooked... but apparently not so much for the rest of the world. The show has been in a steady ratings decline ever since the optimistic pilot episode. I was a devoted follower for the first 5 shows of the series... really getting interested in the characters and following the usually compelling story lines... but somewhat disappointed overall. Something was missing... I wasn't finding myself yelling at the TV, rewinding the episode to watch an amazing scene over again, dying to know how it's all going to work out... until last night. Seven episodes into the series they finally hit the mark. Last night's episode finally fit together. They didn't need to waste time developing characters, didn't waste time trying to convince people that the show is about writing funny sketches for a late night comedy show, and didn't have any "space-filler subplots" that nobody really cares about. It helped that they had the amazing actor John Goodman (who I think has been a guest star in every show on television these days), and to top it off, the sketch that the plot centered around was actually funny! My only complaint was that it was the first part of a two-part episode that just left me screaming for more. This is the show I was waiting for.

The show is finally good -- one problem: nobody knows this anymore, and no viewers means the show is doomed to end up in the land of lost shows. Apparently NBC has contracted it for 13 episodes and just bought 3 more for a total of 16. Usually that's a good sign, but the ratings need to increase if it's ever going to stay on the air as long as it should. The one thing going for it is that it's pulling in a very profitable demographic. It's a huge draw in the rich and well-educated audiences, which means big money from advertisers. That alone seems to be enough to keep it on the air through the season... it just can't seem to shake off CSI: Miami in the same timeslot over on CBS, which means it will probably get shifted out of Monday 10pm into some other slot (Wednesday perhaps). My guess is that if people who watched the pilot give it a second chance and watch it again now, they might have a more favorable view. Regardless, I think it's a show worth watching... especially for anyone who was a fan of The West Wing, or just likes a good dramedy. We'll see if it survives... but if you haven't watched it yet, I recommend it. At least throw it on the Tivo or DVR and keep it around when you can't find anything else good on TV.

And the rain rain rain came down down down...

Well the rain seems to have stopped, after several days of somewhat constant rain. The "Pineapple Express" as the weatherpeople call it dropped a ton of rain on Seattle. Didn't bother me much, I wasn't outside much except driving around in it, but still.

On my way to work yesterday morning I felt bad for several people:

1) The city worker standing in about 8" of water on the street corner trying to clear a clogged storm drain, while it was pouring down rain.

2) The construction workers doing their normal work on the Fremont Bridge, out there in the pouring down rain trying to get things done.

3) The garbage man who was out in the rain, but that's not too extraordinary, because it rains 3/4 of the year probably. But...

some idiots in my apartment building thought (or rather didn't think) that if they just set 4 mattresses down next to the garbage dumpsters the garbage man will take them away. Well, the garbage man cometh, he empties the dumpsters, and lo and behold, the mattresses are still there. Of course, the mattresses have gone from 4 mattresses down by the dumpster to 4 very wet and nasty mattresses down by the dumpsters. The sad thing is, considering how relatively ineffective the latest building managers around here have been, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes weeks before someone does something with those mattresses. It wouldn't bother me quite as much if not for the fact that the dumpsters are right next to the garage door, and I drive by them constantly, nearly running into them. Stupid people.


In other news... I want the holidays to be here. November is such an uneventful month. Once Halloween is over there's nothing festive until Thanksgiving, then it's officially the holiday season. What I'm really looking forward to though is Christmas music. I could complain now... and people just say "well, why don't you just listen to Christmas music now?". That's crazy. You can't listen to Christmas music too early, otherwise you get sick of it before the holidays are over and that would be a tragedy. This begs the question, when is too early? This is a complicated question. Previously I strongly claimed that you must wait until the day after Thanksgiving, the "official" start of the holidays. However, the Holidays Amendment of 2004 officially changed that rule to allow Christmas music anytime starting the week of Thanksgiving.

It's too early to change the rules again anyway... what do I look like, a flip-flopper?

Sweet Charity

Tonight I went with my sister Amy to go see the musical Sweet Charity starring Molly Ringwald at the Paramount. I had no real expectations going into this musical, but figured if it was a touring production at the Paramount, it's bound to be good.

Boy was I wrong.

If there was a genre of "classical musicals" this would firmly fit in. In fact, the original musical opened on Broadway in 1966. I usually enjoy the classic musicals, just as I enjoy most of the more contemporary musicals. It includes several classic tunes such as "Hey, Big Spender" and "If They Could See Me Now", but even the music couldn't save this show. It's hard for me to dedicate even much time reminiscing of this musical, other than to express my extreme disappointment.

My first warning should have been that the theatre was probably 1/2 to 2/3 empty. The 3rd mezzanine was almost completely empty, and probably most of the people in the theatre were actually season ticket holders who had nothing better to do. I have never been to such an empty performance at the Paramount.

The show was plagued with 15-minute long song and dance numbers (which shouldn't be surprising considering the original production was choreographed by Bob Fosse). I nearly fell asleep a couple of times, which is very atypical for me as well.

At intermission I considered it a 2-star performance on my rating scale... I should have left at intermission, the second act was only worse... overall it rates as a lonely 1-star out of 5. I would not recommend it, nor voluntarily go see it again.

On a related rant, some would argue that there should not be courtesy applause after a poor performance. I actually believe that courtesy applause is only customary at the conclusion of a show. Good or bad, the actors who performed are doing a service and should be applauded for their performance. HOWEVER... there is NO such thing as a courtesy standing ovation. If the conclusion of the show doesn't make you want to spring to your feet and cheer, then don't. There are some people who rise to their feet with a standing ovation at the conclusion of nearly every performance, especially the bad ones. Tonight's show was no exception... though more annoying is the fact that most of those people seem to always sit in the 1st row. As a result, you have several other involuntary standing ovations:

1) standing because the person in front of you is standing and you can't see if you don't stand too.
2) standing because other people are standing, and if they're standing it probably means you should too.
3) standing because you're trying to get out as fast as you can

I REFUSE! It cheapens the impact of a standing ovation when it is overused. If you aren't compelled by the performance to leap to your feet, THEN DON'T! DO NOT BE TEMPTED!

Tonight was the perfect demonstration. At the conclusion of the show, a mild courtesy applause arose for the cast taking their bows, and of course, 4 people sitting in the row immediately in front of me stand in ovation. I refuse, but in a strange change of scenery, I glance to the sides and behind me, and most everyone else is refusing to stand as well. The result was basically everyone who was standing looked like idiots-- either idiots for standing at the end of a performance that obviously did not merit it, or idiots for believing that the performance actually did merit it.

RESIST THE COURTESY OVATION!

Tra-cation Part 2

OK, nearly a week later and I need to finish my last saga... which will be short and to the point, I hope. :) Oh, by the way, pictures are online. Click the album link on the right side. -->

The conference I went to was actually far better than I expected. On Tuesday was an all-day tutorial on model-based testing. It was fascinating and actually very entertaining. My only complaint turned out to be a common trend among the entire week: the meeting rooms were a frigid 60 degrees most of the time. I must say, it's rare that I'm looking forward to the breaks so I can go outside and warm up in the sunshine. Regardless, after the day was over, I high-tailed it back to the room, to dump stuff off and headed to the park. Why not, eh?! Spent a fine couple of hours in the undercrowded park and then meandered back to the room for the evening. Slept much better the second night than the first... maybe I was more tired, or maybe it just wasn't a strange new place anymore.

Wednesday began the actual conference, which was basically a whole lot of 1-hour track sessions of which we usually had about 5 different sessions to choose from in any time slot. Various keynote sessions for the entire conference were at the beginning and end of the days, which usually ran from about 8:30am to 5:00pm. This proceeded most of Wednesday, Thursday and until Friday at noon. Some sessions were good, some were less good, some were worse.

That was the conference, or at least enough of it to care. On Friday I packed up and spent the afternoon and evening at the park, until I headed up to the airport to pick up Jonell who came down to spend the weekend with Heather. We went over to Heather's and spent the weekend hanging out with her. It was fun, we did a lot of driving around the LA area, getting lost and seeing where we ended up. Most of the time I didn't have my camera with me though, so no big picture festivity. But on Sunday we went to the Getty Museum in LA, which happens to be about 10 minutes from Heather's place. It was an amazing museum of lots of random artistic stuff. Pictures provided. Want to know more: www.getty.edu.

Sunday evening provided the setting for the celebrity sighting of the trip... we were at a burger place in Encino, and had just finished out dinner when who walks in to the restaurant? None other than American Idol celebrity judge Randy Jackson, along with his wife and son (we presume). And that's the best celebrity sighting I could come up with.

Sunday night came home, the plane touched down at midnight on Monday morning... and I came home and slept and did laundry to celebrate my birthday. Wahoo?

That's the story I've got for now. I'm sure there were things I was going to mention but forgot to... but oh well. You probably didn't care anyway. :)

Tra-cation

I've been spending this week down in the Happiest Place on Earth for work, which is oh so hard work if I do say. :) I have dubbed it "tra-cation" which is training + vacation. I've been attending the STARWEST Conference (which if you're curious, stands for Software Testing Analysis & Review... the West part is simply because this one's in Anaheim every fall, and there's a STAREAST in Orlando every spring). I've been here since Monday, but due to my own busy-/lazy-ness, I haven't blogged the stories yet. So I'll begin from Monday and write until I get tired, then continue when I feel like saying more. :)

So on Monday I headed to the airport to go to Ontario (the city in California, not the province in Canada, duh), and everything went pretty smoothly. It's been my first trip through the airport since the latest security changes regarding liquids and gels, and as a result I checked most everything (toothpaste, etc.) that I would normally keep with me in my carry on. Except I forgot to check some chapstick that I keep in my pocket. Well, here's a useful fact: the TSA couldn't care less about chapstick. I took it out and showed it to the TSA agent and he gave me the "whatever, don't worry about it" look. Nice to see things aren't totally ridiculous. Of course, our pilot for our plane is one of those essential things you "don't want to leave without"... and ours was late because he was stuck on a ferry. Only in Seattle will your pilot be late to the airport because a ferry was delayed.

After that thing were rather uneventful until we made it to Ontario. After making it to the airport and waiting for a surprisingly long time to get my luggage, I went to get my rental car. I ended up with a maroon Mazda 3 hatchback, which I must say I am thoroughly unimpressed with. Of course, as a rental car I don't mind too much, considering it was only $170 for the week. Then I navigated the LA freeway system to make it to the Disneyland Hotel. All I can say is thank goodness for GPS navigation devices. I brought mine and it was the best thing I ever could bring.

At around 5:30pm I finally made it to the hotel and checked in. Now, this is the first time I have ever stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, for one main reason... I'm cheap. But since the company is paying for it and this is where the convention is, it was a nice deal. Without even requesting it, I got a room on the 8th floor of the Sierra Tower (one of three towers), right across from the elevators, on the side of the building that faces towards Downtown Disney. I couldn't have requested a better room. The windows open up to a mini-balcony from which I could look down at the ESPN Zone and the Rainforest Cafe, among other things, and see the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain in the distance at Disneyland. I recommend to anyone who ever has the opportunity to stay in the Disneyland Hotel to request the Sierra tower facing that direction, unless you have a problem with noise.. because Downtown Disney stays hopping until late into the morning and even with the sliding glass doors to the balcony closed, it's still somewhat noisy. I didn't mind it.

After I hauled all my stuff in, I left and walked through to the other side of Downtown Disney where the parks are. Knowing that I'm going to come back down to California for a wedding in February, I bought an annual pass (which was an excellent choice, especially considering this week has been a lot of evenings where I'd head over to the parks for a few hours here and there). In yet another in the series of firsts, I went to Disneyland by myself. I've actually heard mixed reviews of this, some people claiming it's nice because you only have to please one person--yourself. Others have said that it's not as fun when you don't have others there to share it with. I'd have to put my opinion somewhere in the middle. There are definite advantages to going around the park by yourself. Certainly just the fact that I tend to move pretty quickly around when there's somewhere I want to get to, and not having to slow down for people I'm with who, shall we say, are not so fast, is a nice thing. Also, I do what I want to do, and don't have to worry about what anyone else wants to do... this isn't such a huge deal though because at Disneyland I pretty much will go on any ride and am pretty easy going in that regard. Perhaps one of the nicest things--which I have fully taken advantage of--is the relatively recent invention of the "Single Rider Line". This really only applies to a few rides around, most notably Splash Mountain, but the concept is simple. Some rides have very odd seating configurations, in the case of Splash Mountain 6 people to a log. Disney has two very simple rules that they live by when placing people in ride vehicles: 1) Never split up a group, unless they are larger than a single ride vehicle. 2) Never combine separate groups in close quarters unless they have their own seat. OK, so the 2nd one is hard to put into decent words, but I'll demonstrate by example. On Space Mountain, the ride vehicles are 6 rows of 2 across. Now if there is a group of 3 and single rider, they will put the group of 3 in two rows (2 and 1) and put the single rider in a third row (1 only). They won't mix strangers up and put the single rider in with the extra from the group of 3. Space Mountain does not have a single-rider line because they rarely have a use for needing someone to fill out a car. Splash Mountain's logs of 6 individual seats are different though. Disney will happily put people in their own seats, so if a group of 5 comes along, the only way they can fill out the log is if they have a single rider, or else they'll leave the seat empty. Same thing with a group of 3 and a group of 2, or occasionally if they have several large groups at once (say, two groups of 4, but no groups of 2 around). OK, so the logic of this may not fascinate others as much as it fascinates me, but suffice it to say, there's plenty of use for single-riders on Splash Mountain. As a result, single riders can actually go in the exit and get in a special line (which by my experience, never had anyone in it), and get on the ride usually within about a minute, even if the regular line for the ride is 30 minutes or more long. It's a wonderful thing! (A side note: groups could use the single-rider line too, if they don't mind being split up all over the place.) So yes, after digressing about the advantages of going to Disneyland by yourself, I now will advocate for the other side. Going to Disneyland with other people is just plain more fun. There's something about wandering around with people you know and just having fun with friends that going by yourself can't beat. So in summary, going by yourself is fine if you have to, but I wouldn't plan to do so just voluntarily (though I may end up doing so in February if I can't find anyone else around who wants to go. HA!).

More details about the conference itself will be coming next, but it's currently 11:30pm on Thursday and I need to sleep. Pictures are also coming once I get to an actually fast internet connection. :) Until then....

Beyond a reasonable doubt

Well, as you may or may not have inferred from my abrupt lack of blogging, shortly after my previous blog I was summoned for a jury panel. The following will be a not-so-brief recap of my jury experience.

15 names were called, including my own. We followed the bailiff down to the courtroom where we were led in in order, I was juror #9. We were introduced to the judge, the prosecutor, and the defense attorney, then Voir Dire began. They needed to turn these 15 potential jurors into 6 that would be on the trial. The judge rattled off her series of simple, obviously well-recycled questions regarding if any jurors knew anyone in the courtroom, had any problems being on a jury, had ever served on a jury before, etc. Nothing too alarming there. Then the prosecutor began with his questions, which took a swift turn towards any jurors who were involved or had a close family member involved in domestic violence. Suddenly we knew where this case was headed... or so we thought. I tended not to have much of a reason to raise my hand for any of the questions, until the question came "who enjoys lawyer shows on TV?" Well now we're talking, several of us raised our hands, to which I was questioned
"Mr. Roberts, what's your favorite lawyer show?"
"I enjoy the original Law and Order."
"Why do you like it?"
I didn't have a really good answer for this, but said "I like it for the characters".

The questions moved on to other people, but several additional times, questions came back to me about Law and Order.

"Mr. Roberts, do you think Law and Order is an accurate portrayal?"
"Haha, absolutely not, I think it's highly exaggerated."
"How so?"
"I don't think there can possibly be that much drama in the real world."
"So you won't be dissapointed if during my closing arguments there's no thrilling music?"
"No, I don't think so."

The prosecutor looked like a nice guy, though from the way he was stumbling through things, I think he knew what he was doing, but couldn't have been with the city prosecutors office for a terribly long time. Then, however, we moved on to the defense attorney.

Now I have to admit, looking at this guy, he looked like a cross between a used-car salesman and Donald Trump. I thought to myself this guy looks like a slimy, sleazy defense attorney like you see on TV. Of course, this was all on first impression -- I later came to find out that my first impression was 100% on the button.

Despite this impression, it took me just a few moments to realize--after noticing that after receiving the list of potential juror names probably just 10 minutes prior he had already memorized the names of all 15 jurors and would proceed to call each of us by name--that he was astoundingly good at what he did, and that the prosecutor was sorely outmatched. The defender asked his barrage of questions to the juror panel, but it quickly became apparent that he was really targetting the women on the panel trying to determine exactly which ones would be sympathetic to the victim and thus he wanted to dismiss from the jury. You really do notice by the pattern of questions the attorneys ask what they are looking for (both in jurors they want, and in jurors they don't want). I guess that's the point, but I never realized it would be so obvious.

After the questioning was over, the judge asked for challenges for cause, of which there were none. Then the attorneys sidebarred with the judge to request their peremptory challenges, where they can eliminate any jurors they wish for no reason whatsoever. Now, the first 6 jurors would carryover to the trial, and I was juror #9. So presuming I was not eliminated, if any 3 jurors above me were eliminated I would be on the jury. Seeing the preponderance of women at the top and the line of questioning, I was fairly certain I would be bumped up, unless I said something one of the attorneys didn't like. Sure enough, the judge listed off the 6 jurors who would be on the case, jurors 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10.

Without much ado, the other jurors returned to the pool, and the 6 of us took our seats in the jury box and the case began. This was the first we would hear the actual details of what this case was all about... the bizarreness of which we never would have expected.

The finer details of the case I will spare you, mainly because they are vastly irrelevant. But in summary, this crime was "violation of a no-contact order". The scene of the crime: the very courtroom where we were sitting, 4 months earlier. Apparently the defendant was in court for a similar violation brought on by his ex-wife. Immediately following the judges determination of "not guilty", he allegedly turned around toward his ex-wife sitting in the gallery and mouthed some not-so-nice words to her. If true, this would be a violation of the no-contact order between he and his ex-wife, which indeed was the question we were asked to consider.

Witnesses came forth, the prosecution attempted to prove a case based around inconsistent witness accounts, and just a lack of anything that could substantially prove the charge. Throughout the defense really didn't add much information in defense, but obfuscation was the order of the day. In later discussions with my fellow jurors, none of us really were swayed by this mess of confusion the defense was trying to cause, but I think it made him feel like he was doing something right.

Ultimately, after hearing the evidence and the arguments by the attorneys, we proceeded to deliberation. As much as I made it sound like there was no evidence, it wasn't quite as cut and dry as that. I think all 6 of us were doubtful who to believe, but I know as for myself, I came to the conclusion that I was pretty sure the defendant did what he was accused of... but there was definite doubt in my mind, enough so I couldn't reasonably consider him guilty of said crime. The one thing that was for certain to me was that this case was a collossal waste of the court's time, that probably never should have gone to trial. It wasn't a blatant disregard for the no-contact order, even if he did do what he was accused of... though the law may have dictated otherwise.

Regardless, it was definitely an interesting experience. I actually enjoyed it, but quickly realized that it was far more work than actually being at work. That's probably the one thing I wasn't expecting. It didn't feel like a waste of my time--quite the opposite, in fact, all 6 of us on the jury left making similar comments: everyone should serve on a jury, it's a valuable experience. Too bad the system tends to pick the same people over and over.

Upholding the Constitution... again...

Yes, that's right, through the miracle of random selection, I have jury duty once again. It astounds me what the odds of such a thing happening to me just a year after the last time I did it, while other people seemingly never get selected... perhaps I'm just the lucky one.

In any event, this time I'm visiting the Seattle Municipal Court here in downtown Seattle. After my last jury service with King County down in Kent last year, I've been consistently claiming that jurors are treated like royalty because nobody wants to do it, and once they are here nobody wants to be here. Well in Seattle I must say it's no exception. I'm sitting here in the SMC Jury Assembly Room on the 12th floor (that's the top floor by the way, the jurors get the penthouse suite here) on 5th and Cherry. Huge floor to ceiling windows looking out South, West and North (not East, but really, who wants to look East from here anyway)-- some people would pay money to get a view this good. This building has to be one of the newer buildings around here, looking out the window I can see the much older King County jail and courthouse. We also have our own private outdoor terrace, and uh... well, we better enjoy it because for the next 3 days I'll be stuck here. :) Fortunately I have wireless internet access that does a splendid job of letting me pretend to be productive while away from work.

This morning has been so far uneventful... I haven't counted, nor are my powers of estimation very accurate, but I'd say there's probably 100 or so jurors serving this week. So far no jurors have been needed, so we're all still here waiting around. We can take a 15 minute break and leave whenever we want to... this building is right next to the Columbia Center (for those who aren't well versed, that would be the tallest building in Seattle, and the tallest building by number of floors [76] west of the Mississippi), so there should be plenty of interesting stuff around. Oops, I spoke too soon, they just called the first batch of 15... however I was not selected, so back to blogging. Lunch is from 12-1:30, I think I might take a walk down to Westlake Center (only 9 blocks or so), because the latch on my watch broke this morning and I need to get a new one. I know there's a Fossil store down there and hey, it's probably time to get a new watch anyway, I've only had this one for about 7 years or so.

I'm surprised they don't have a Starbucks stand in the jury room, that would be very Seattle of them. More updates later.