Around the horn and back.

September 28, 2006 //

I’m back from Houston. And I’m finally done with my business travel for the month. Four trips in 3 weeks – none of them longer than 48 hours. And I am f**king knackered.

While I’m thinking about it…I was struck by the fact that it seemed like every interstate highway in Houston seemed to be under construction. After I’d thought about it for a few minutes, I remembered writing this:

Also, it seems that every interstate in Houston is being rebuilt at the same time.

– from The Big Road Trip – Day 9, dated April 13, 2004.

That was over two years ago – and they’re still going. Are they just constantly rebuilding the same spot, over and over again? Also, anyone who thinks the Garden State Parkway is greedy for toll money has never taken the Hardy Tollway to IAH – I got hit with a $1.25 toll on the mainline tollway, and then another $0.75 toll exiting for the airport, less than 1 mile away! That, my friends, is GREEDY.

Categories Travel, Work

The second most frightening thing you could possibly see the night before a business trip.

September 21, 2006 //

Reservation Cancelled!

Of course, #1 on our survey would be mysterious cancellation of the plane ticket. Thankfully, everything’s OK – there was a problem when I made my booking, and my company’s travel agent redid the whole itinerary, but forgot to reassign my Hilton Hhonors number to the hotel reservation. So when I pulled up my Hhonors account…panic time. But it’s cool.

Oh, yeah. Did I mention? I’m flying to LA tomorrow. Flying back Friday. Then it’s Houston on Tuesday (with a Wednesday return). I collapse into a heap shortly thereafter.

Categories Travel, Work

"Nobody's Watching" goes back to Ohio.

September 14, 2006 //

Edit: Video removed by YouTube. Sorry. But take my word for it – it was funny.

BTW, if you don’t already know about Nobody’s Watching…well, you could almost call it ‘the little TV show that could’. (Or ‘the little TV show that didn’t, then went viral, then finally got a chance’.) Created by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs), the pilot followed two guys from Ohio who are obsessed with sitcoms, but think none of the modern sitcoms are any good. They journey out to LA to pitch their ‘perfect sitcom’ to the (now-defunct) WB Network, and – astonishingly – land jobs creating and writing the series…except that they’re REALLY the unwitting subjects of the WB’s latest reality show. (It’s much more clever than it sounds.)

Anyway, a pilot was originally shot for the real-life (now-defunct) WB Network, but the show wasn’t picked up. Eventually, the pilot found its way to YouTube (in three parts – 1, 2, 3), and the show gained fans and supporters. Eventually, NBC (who shot down the concept pre-pilot) caught on and picked up the show – probably on the strength of the pilot, as well as the pedigree of Lawrence (and, possibly, guilt for all those times “Scrubs” nearly got cancelled). I’m a fan of the pilot, and I’m looking forward to the new episodes since “Nobody’s Watching”, like The Office, before it, is a new spin on the situation comedy. It may do well, or it may fail spectacularly, but either way, it’s nice to see someone taking risks on network TV.

It might just be my imagination, but it seems that being stuck in 4th place has NBC turning the camera inward for the upcoming season – “Nobody’s Watching”, “30 Rock”, and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” are all TV about TV. Thankfully, all three look promising. (TiVo, don’t fail me now…)

Categories Funny, TV

Back from the Windy City.

September 12, 2006 //

Scratch that. Make that the RAINY city. It was absolutely pouring when my boss and I left the hotel this morning. But we had two very successful client meetings, regardless of the weather, and (mind you, I’m not trying to go all “My Name is Earl” on everyone, but…) I think karma tried to pay me back later in the day.

Naturally, torrential downpour early in the day means schedule hell for airports in the afternoon. So when I got to the airport, my 7pm flight was delayed until about 10:30. But the good folks at Continental promptly rebooked me (and my checked bag, thank Brak) on a similarly-delayed earlier flight that would actually end up taking off at 6:40. And then I got upgraded to first class about 10 minutes before boarding.

And on top of all that? The “SERVICE ENGINE SOON” light in my Explorer isn’t lit anymore. All in all, a pretty good day indeed.

Categories Life, Travel, Work

Busy busy busy.

September 9, 2006 //

It’s another one of those busy months. See if you can guess at what point I fall over from exhaustion.

Tomorrow: Travel to Chicago for two client meetings on Monday. Fly back late Monday night.
Next Monday & Tuesday: Attend the Broad Symposium and the announcement of the winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education in New York. (I’ll get to hear Bill Clinton speak at a luncheon.)
The following week (exact dates undetermined): Fly to Texas for client meetings in Houston (and, potentially, Dallas).

And, astoundingly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg – because the Siemens Competition looms large on the horizon in October.

I might be able to get a day off between now and December…oh, who am I kidding?

Categories Life, Work

One day out of 365.

September 7, 2006 //

Let me explain why today was something of a bad day.

I was supposed to take this week off from work – I’ve got five weeks of vacation time (well, three weeks earned, two rolled-over) coming to me, and damn it, I’m trying to use them – but between my workload and some upcoming travel, I had to go in. My compromise was that, if I had to go in today, I would finish a specific set of tasks, attend the meeting that was on my calendar, and then leave early to try and salvage something of the day.

That didn’t happen.

I did not get through the predefined tasks prior to my meeting, due in no small part to our marketing person (who shall remain nameless) deciding that the application form that ‘wasn’t critial’ and ‘didn’t have a set deadline’ suddenly had to be done for her 1:00 meeting. Mind you, she shares this fact with me at 12:20. She demanded that I ‘drop everything and do [her work]’ – to the point that when my telephone rang, she physically put her body between me and the phone. So there goes my lunch – in part because I wouldn’t have enough time to finish her edits AND get something to eat, and in part because by the time I was able to get to the cafeteria in my building, nearly everything edible was gone.

The meeting, while running long, went well enough – unfortunately, I had to go back to my desk. At 3:30, I had about 30 minutes of work left on my list. I didn’t get to those 30 minutes until nearly 5:00. It wasn’t one big issue this time, just a whole bunch of little issues including, but not limited to, scheduling LiveMeetings with a number of our clients, and trying to get my call center to understand that when I say “Scholarship on hold – pending clarification” on a Scholarship Action Report, that’s exactly what I mean. (I lost a good 20 minutes on that last issue alone.)

And on top of that, while driving to my parents’ house after work, the “SERVICE ENGINE SOON” light makes it’s first appearance on my year-old truck.

One of these events would just be a bummer. Several on the same day would be a headache. All of them in one day, and you’d probably need a beer at the end of the day. So what makes today such an especially lousy day?

Today was my 31st birthday. And to quote Dante Hicks, “I’m not even supposed to BE HERE today!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories Life, Meta, Work

Pardon the mess.

August 31, 2006 //

I’m still alive (no, really), and believe it or not, this isn’t the web equivalent of an abandoned storefront. I’ve been taking something of a ‘blogging vacation’ over the last few weeks – prompted mostly by a lack of creative spark, itself prompted by too many hours at work. I’ll provide a full update in a day or so, but in the meantime…

It should be pretty obvious to anyone who checks in on a regular basis (or, at least, anyone who isn’t using an RSS reader) that I’ve switched from MT to WordPress, so things look a little different than they used to. I’ve only started tweaking things here, so expect constant change for the near-term. (I’ve been told that change is a good thing.) In the interim, if you see anything amiss, please let me know.

(Oh, and for those of you who ARE using RSS readers, I suspect the feed address has changed – links are in the sidebar.)

Categories Site Maintenance

…you're on notice.

August 8, 2006 //

Go get yours.

Meaningful posts soon, I promise…

Categories Inside my head

Hold that pose while the closing titles run…

July 26, 2006 //

I suppose I should post something about my trip to San Francisco, and I’ll get to that, but first, I’ve totally got to geek out about this:

Image from The Digital Bits.

Yes, Police Squad!, the true descendant of the ZAZ style after “Airplane!” (ZAZ was rather fond of the exclaimation point). It only ran for six episodes, and unleashed Leslie Nielsen as a comic lead on an unsuspecting TV public. And now it’s coming to DVD. Life is good.

Categories MediaWatch

Warning: Busy week ahead.

July 16, 2006 //

Monday: Play host for a late scholarship application read.
Tuesday & Wednesday: Try to finish processing the remaining scholarship renewals for my programs.
Thursday: Going-away party for my friend Margaret, who has a fantastic new job in LA.
Friday: Clerks 2 opens. I WILL see it on opening night.
Saturday: Fly to San Francisco.

At least I can’t complain about being bored.

Categories Uncategorized