Monday Morning Musings

As some of you may know, I'm currently working on a massive project at Regence BlueCross BlueShield (my benevolent employer). It has been going at a furious pace for several months and over a dozen people are working on it (which for this company is a lot), myself included. My boss, and the project lead for this monstrosity, joked the other day "well I sure hope you're not taking any vacation this summer." I gave him one of those looks one gives when one is not sure whether they've just heard a joke or an ultimatum. I've decided to assume he was joking, and as confirmation of this assumption I sent a "reminder" email to him and to his boss stating (not requesting) "FYI, I'll be on vacation the last half of August." Currently the project is scheduled to be completed August 1 and it's a hard deadline, but in the software world, even the hardest of deadlines have a way of being pushed back. I don't care though; even if it gets me fired (which it won't), I'm going on this trip!

Since Nick never writes in this blog, I'll summarize his most recent roadblock. He's been trying to acquire us tickets to a production of Hamlet in Statford-upon-Avon that will prominently feature Patrick Stewart, one of the greatest actors of all time (and, I suspect, the subject of a major man-crush from Nick). He's had some difficulty for a few reasons: the theatre company doesn't sell tickets online, Nick can't directly call England from his cell phone, and we don't have a land line. I did some research and found www.callingcards.com . Simply put, you buy pre-paid international calling card, dial a 1-800 number, enter your card number, and make your call. I'm pretty sure you can even do this from a cell phone, but we'll find out soon enough. Even though we're ordering tickets in the standing-only area, the show might be popular (after all, it's Patrick-freaking-Stewart!), so I'd like to acquire them as quickly as possible.

Lastly, I'd like to tell a sad story. Recently, I bought a nice HDTV (this isn't the sad part), but we've been playing DVDs on Steve's PlayStation2, and the video quality is shockingly bad. I'd been passively searching for a new DVD player for a while. When I saw the post for a lovingly used DVD player on the internal web-bulletin board at work, I knew it was perfect: it does upscaling to 720p, it has HDMI output, it's effectively brand new, and it was only $60. Sweet! I quickly bought the thing and joyfully stashed it in my duffel bag (along with some dirty underwear) to carry home on the bus. Well, when you've got expensive electronics in a bag under your seat, it's a good idea to tie the strap to your foot, or SOMETHING to remind you it's there. I zoned out while reading my book and trying to ignore the traffic (since I hate driving in traffic). When we arrived at my stop, I was excited to nearly be home and exited the vehicle as quickly as possible, rushing home so I could relax. About five minutes after getting home, I had one of those "Oh... [long pause] ... [expletives]" moments. That's right, I left my nice, new DVD player on the bus. Along with a moderately expensive pair of pants and shoes. I called Tri-Met the following Monday, but they haven't seen it yet (meaning it's probably not coming back). Sometimes, I hate my brain. My only consolation is that the jackass thief will have to paw through my dirty workout clothes to get at the DVD player. Take that, punk!