That Late Night Bug ...

I'm sitting at my computer in my underwear. Don't worry, I'm wearing a shirt, but still, I'm sitting here in my underwear. Yes, you're welcome for that image. Now, since I didn't describe said underwear you're probably conjuring up some pretty interesting choices for me aren't you? Well, allow me to ask one thing, whatever type of underwear you are now picturing me wearing (because, yes, I am sitting here in my underwear right now) please make it Family Guy. Thank you. On with the show ...

It's only 11:42 pm and I'm considering this a late hour. Sheesh, what a different a year makes. Still, I'm not used to being as alert as I am right now during this particular hour. In fact, I had expected to be fast asleep this evening considering the trouble I've had sleeping every night before this. Yet, here I am, energized. I have thoughts and dreams and stuff coursing through my body right now that prevents me from sleeping. But, I'm okay with that. It's a good reason to not be able to sleep. Besides, I'll just catch up on my sleep during work tomorrow. I'm so not kidding.

Come August, it will have been 1 year since I was laid off from LowerMyBills.com. Quite a bit has changed since then, but none more surprising than what I'm going to share with you now. I don't want to keep my job. Now hold on, let me explain. This means you mom, calm down. You see, I spent 4 years at LowerMyBills, and where did it get me? Exactly. Professionally, nowhere. Personally, well, it's safe to say that it changed my life forever in some very awesome ways. Still, I gave all I had to that company thinking that it would count for something. Always working, striving, and doing what I could above and beyond what was asked of me. And where did it get me?

Being out of work for nearly 8 months really made me grateful to finally get this job that I have now. So much in fact that I fell into the exact same habits and routine that I developed at LowerMyBills. I felt myself heading down that path again, but I didn't try to stop it. I was just telling myself, this time it will be different. That was, until my roommate hit me with the following question one random night, "so, what is your next step to being happy?"

Wow. There was more to it, stuff was said before that about his situation and the dreams and ambitions we both had months and years prior. But, it was the first time since being laid off that I felt like it was okay to think about myself being happy again. I just accepted the fact that I had this new job and therefore should be happy. And, well, I was, sort of. I was happy to be getting a paycheck, to be able to be around people, and to feel like I was once again contributing something. Yet - he was referring to a different happiness.

The happiness he referred to was the kind I get when I talk to my friends and family about movies, and tv shows. When we discuss certain actors, or stories, or upcoming projects. When my friends and I go back and forth on what sounds like a good script idea. That kind of happy is not what I am feeling right now. But, since that night, it's been weighing on my mind. Now, slowly but surely I have started to distance myself from my job. Not to the point that I am going to quit or get fired, but only in the sense that I will NOT make it my career or my focus for the next four years. It may be my means of income for that long - but it is not my passion.

That is what I meant by not wanting to keep my job. I want to reach the point where I can quit and focus on something that makes me happy. Of course, a hundred million things have to fall into place and go right before that can happen, but I think it's important for me to get this out there. To commit to history that I am vowing not to be sucked into this corporate sand trap yet again.

A Tale of Woe, Starring Vizio

On April 11, 2009 our tale begins. It started simply enough, a young man places an online order for a refurbished Vizio tv. A hefty purchase, to be sure, but the cost is shared by his roommate, their first joint purchase. A milestone within itself. Fast forward two weeks and we all remember the debacle of delivery, no?

Well, two weeks after that, the tv started to show signs of defect. It had this ability to turn anything 'black' on the screen into neon green. Vizio Customer Service was promptly contacted and made aware of this fact. Well, after speaking to them briefly and doing some online research, it became clear that this was not an isolated case. It was attributed to possible damage during shipping. Fair enough. The resolution was to have an independent contractor come out and replace some parts that would correct this error. One week later, the repair took place and the tv was working just fine. For only one week.

Again, Vizio customer service was contacted and they were once again very helpful. They apologized and arranged to have a brand spanking new tv delivered. The old one would be removed, exorcised and well, probably resold to some other poor schmuck, but who knows. Awesome. The only hiccup with this resolution came down to the delivery company only being able to come by on a work day, no weekend option. So, my roommate selflessly takes a half-day off from work and oversees the delivery. It goes swimmingly. We are all giddy because after all of the hassle, we ended up with a brand new tv for the cost of a refurbished one. Not too bad.

That is .. you guessed it, one week later. The defect once again shows its ugly head in this new tv. Damn. Well, we've been through this song and dance before and are learning the steps quite easily now. We contact customer service .. again. They apologize .. again. Their resolution? They replace the tv .. again. Okay, fine, third time is the charm right? So be it. Finally our troubles are over.

That is .. you guessed it right again, ONE WEEK LATER. Here we are. June 17th. Two months after my initial purchase. The third tv I've gotten from Vizio and it is yet again, another PIECE OF CRAP!!! Oh, oh, but wait, it's not the same defect this time, no no. This time, those clever little bast...err, PEOPLE decided to mess with us and have something completely new happen. Yeah, so now, instead of the picture simply turning neon green wherever the color black should be - the tv goes NUTS like it's been sniffing glue all day, gets crazy lines and goes completely black. Hey - at least it's not green right?

Shut it.

How can this be possible? What are the odds? I mean seriously, is there some sort of cosmic joke being played here? I just don't get it. So now, tomorrow Vizio customer service will get another phone call and if they dare mention replacing it again, someone is a'gonna get a'hurt. Now, I've heard from other people who own Vizio tv's themselves, or know someone who does, and nothing like this has EVER happened before.

Yeah, swell. Lucky me. Therefore, if I can give you, faithful reader, one bit of advice it would be this: wear sunscreen. If I can give you two bits, the second would be to avoid Vizio branded ANYTHING at all costs. Sheesh.

Feeling Nostalgic

My 18 year old nephew graduated from high school this past week. Quite an accomplishment, to be sure. He moved out to California to live with us when he was 1 year old. All these years later, he is moving on to the next step in his life. On graduation day I was overcome with a sense of nostalgia and put together this little slide show of him through the years. I posted it on Facebook but it was taken down due to copyright infringement. Jackasses. Here it is, for as long as it can be:

Oh, that Obama

The highlight of my day at work today happened around 1:30 in the afternoon. It was pretty downhill after that.

I don't keep up on current events as much as I used to. I tend to stay away from local news because it's just so depressing and repetitive. As a result, I tend to miss out on certain things happening around the area. Getting your news from strictly online resources can have its drawbacks. But, that's why I have co-workers.

I overheard one of my co-workers talking about someone landing at LAX, on the side closest to our office building. I inquired as to what was going on, and was told that President Obama was coming to LAX from Las Vegas. The day seemed a little brighter after receiving that news.

Now, my office building is close to LAX, well, LAX is huge so it's relatively close. To be honest, it's close to the cargo hangars and terminals of LAX. Also known as "Not the Good Side." Still, my fascination with planes kicks into high gear whenever I stare out the window and just get fixated. I mean, come on people, this huge hunk of metal and parts is defying gravity and moving us from one coast to another!! It's freakin amazing!! Although I share that sentiment wholeheartedly, I'm paraphrasing comedian Louis CK. But, I digress.

Soon, I scoured the Internet for an itinerary and discovered that he would be arriving at 1:35 PM. Good, plenty of time to do work and eat lunch. All of which I accomplished in time. I made my way into a better office with a better view at 1:20 and prepared myself for the sight of a lifetime. The chance to see Air Force One in person. The closest I have even been to a sitting president. And on top of that, one I actually voted for!

Then, suddenly to my surprise, from over the top of our office building comes Marine One. Quickly followed by four almost identical helicopters. I don't mind telling you, I let out a disappointed "son of a bitch" right then and there. He arrived in a helicopter and not Air Force One. Probably so as not to inconvenience air traffic or whatever. My co-worker said it best when I made that assumption, "How selfish."

It was rather anti-climatic I admit, but still, kind of cool in its own right. The sight of those helicopters coming over the building, and knowing who was in one, really kind of made me proud to be there at that moment. It all happened so quickly that I didn't manage to get a picture of any of it, but better still, I get to keep that memory. Also, I can now strive to realize something I didn't earlier admit to myself.

I really want to see Air Force One and President Obama, in person. Both, or either, would be kind of freakin' awesome.

Bliggity blogs and faceypages

I'm a fan of the Hulu commercials, all of them, hands down. Seth McFarlane's being my favorite, closely followed by the recent Denis Leary entry. It's his rant in particular that inspired this post.

I'm a social networking whore. Okay, okay, that was mostly for shock value. I'm only one the big three (Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter) but still, why is there a need to do so? People ask if I belong to these groups, and it's quite funny, how over time the responses have changed.

Initially, with MySpace, when someone asked I would say no. Emphatically. I was too old, and felt as such. Then, it became more accepted and I revealed that I did indeed have an account. That was followed by Facebook, and when people asked I would say yes and their reply was always, "Why, you have MySpace!" The difference between the two was immediately noticeable to me. It took some time for others to catch on.

And now we have Twitter. We're still in the infancy stage with this one and I get asked often, "well it's just like status updates, right?" referring to the feature of Facebook that helped make it stand out. I explain yes, it is similar in that regard and yet can offer so much more, if utilized to it's potential. There are articles galore on the inter webs that tell you what Twitter can be used for and etiquette and what have you. So, I'm not going to go into that. Instead I'm going to share my personal story and use of Twitter.

I'm a social networking whore. Damn, I said it again. I'm not often eager to put myself out there, and even when Twitter first arrived I was reluctant. After a year in operation, the buzz started to pick up and I felt a duty to understand this upcoming trend. Due to my initial reluctance, and that of most others, when I started there was some confusion and frustration as to what to use it for. I too fell into the trappings of only using it for status updates. Soon - it became obvious that as such, it would not last long. Then I started to follow people.

The diversity of people you follow helps greatly! Soon you're getting info on cool projects and stories and other things that you would have otherwise missed. It soon became clear that information sharing was the backbone of Twitter. Real time. It's information that otherwise would not have been posted on a blog, or in an article, or on someones Facebook/MySpace profile. I became increasingly intrigued and increased the number of people I followed.

I then, quickly discovered, that too much of something is not a good thing. I started to then unfollow people. Soon, some friends had accounts and I was getting their updates and they were getting mine. It provided a conduit of communication between us that did not exist before. Looking back, it's hard to say for sure if Twitter was created out of a necessity to have that avenue of communication - or, because Twitter came to be, the road was built. Nonetheless, I am grateful for it. I've been able to stay connected to some, and reconnect with others through this new medium.

You will only get out of it what you put into it. Then again, isn't that true for just about everything? Boom ... goes the dynamite.