Hits from the Bong

I am thinking that LG has been listening to too many Cypress Hill songs... Oh the song titles I could use here.... "Hits from the Bong", "Insane in the Brain," and "I wanna get high" Cuz a drug induced haze is the only way I can make sense of their most recent decision. While everyone else is abandoning HD-DVD (well okay maybe Paramount will still be supporting them after their payout in August to go HD exclusive) LG has decided NOT to join that trend. Instead they are planning to come out with a new dual-format player. With the fire sales that are about to happen why not just pick up another HD player? The dual-format players are typically more expensive and (as evidenced by the dual VHS and DVD player) if one part fails you're kind of SOL. I am assuming that people who had built up an HD collection already have an HD player. So I guess LG's strategy is to still make them abandon their old HD player in favour of one that plays both. Why not just pick up a Blu-ray player? Or they are trying to take advantage of some poor fool that hasn't heard the news yet that HD-DVD is dead and the funeral is now over. All I can say to LG is to remember to "Puff, Puff, Pass."

Lunchtime and Alcoholic Beverages

I had some errands to run yesterday morning after work. No big deal but then I didn't want to go home and cook before having to go to bed. So I went down to Swiss Chalet. I couldn't order a Pepsi because I don't like Pepsi... and didn't want any more caffeine in my system. So I ordered a strawberry daquiri instead. The waitress looks at me and says, "That's a virgin daquiri, right?" Did I ask for a virgin drink? I don't think so. So then she says that she asks everyone that when they order a drink at noon.

It still irks me. For one, there are a lot of people that work midnights. I had been up for 14 hours and to me it was a late dinner. If I had come in there at 6 pm nothing would be said... even though I would actually be on my way to work at the time.

Secondly, it's about judgment. You order a drink with lunch and society seems to think that it's a problem. Now with business men it's acceptable. It's like there is this automatic assumption that you are an alcoholic if you have a drink at noon... even though they can legally serve you alcohol after 11:00 a.m. The last drink I think I had was Christmas time when I went out with the family. Haven't been to a bar since November. So it's not like I drink all that often. But I don't want someone to critisize me (or feel like they are) for having a drink with lunch.... After all... It's not even my lunch.

I think that for places that serve alcohol it would be good to go with the thought that if they didn't order a virgin drink then it means they wanted the alcohol. After all it's the patron's responsibility to order the drink the way that they want it. And if I order a daquiri I want the rum. Now that I have Pirates of the Caribbean going through my head and the line, "Why is the rum gone?"

Toshiba PR Might Be Looking for a New Job

Obviously with the recent news HD-DVD is now officially dead.... The format war lasted about 2 years and has now ended with Blu-ray being declared the winner. Now I can't help but wonder if Toshiba's head of PR is going to be seeking employment elsewhere. Most of their press releases about a company (Warner Brothers, Netflix, Best Buy, Wal-Mart) choosing Blu-ray exclusivity were virtually the same.... just a cut and paste job with the names replaced. "We are sad to see _________ go. We continue to maintain that we have the superior format and the customers will continue to choose us for their high definition format."

Last week I think was the best though... Reports came out on many major news sources that Toshiba was accepting defeat and conceding. Toshiba didn't deny those reports. However, they denied making any press statement. Now what kind of denial is that? They also said they had not made a decision yet. Oh yeah a day later there was an official press conference where Toshiba conceded and HD-DVD was pronounced dead.

Now back to my PS3 and those bright shiny blu cases.... And who ever said that gamers don't buy movies... Oh wait that was Universal Studios exec. Ken Graffeo. I saw a poll not long ago at the Blu-ray web site and about 80% of the people on there said they use their PS3 to watch movies on. Guess it's a bigger market then Graffeo thought. According to Graffeo, the PS3 is a gaming machine first, and studies have shown that "70% of gamers don’t even know that their console has a DVD playback option." Hmm... Guess that he was a little off on that statement. Oops.... perhaps they should've pushed Microsoft to include the HD-DVD player in the X-Box 360 instead of as an add-on. Might have made a difference in the format war.... But the end is here and the future is Blu.

HD-DVD: The look and sound of upconverted DVDs. :o)

Nails in the Coffin and the Final Burial

TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.
We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.
We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer.

February 12, 2008 - "We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

February 18, 2008 - "The media [has] reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment."

February 19, 2008 - "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Tales in Customer Service

For once I am not venting about Apple's lack of service. Back in December I pre-ordered the Resident Evil trilogy from Blockbuster. I had $100 in store credit and they really haven't been getting in any Blu-rays. So I went with something expensive since I knew that I would end up paying more any ways. The customer service rep wasn't sure if they would be able to order it since it was a Blu-ray title but promised that he would look into it and let me know if there was a problem. I went in a week before the release date to make sure it was ordered. "Oh yeah, no problem" I was told. So I go in January 1 to pick up my movies and everything came to a crashing halt. It had not been ordered at all. Say what? I was told that they would look into it and get back to me. A few days later I got a phone call promising that it would be in the following week.

So I called on Tuesday to see if there was any news. I figured since movies were released that day it meant that they would be getting in shipments on Mondays. Turns out the shipments come in on Wednesdays so I was told to call back. I stopped in on my way to work. Why waste cell phone minutes? I was already in the area to get dinner so it was all good. No sign of it. But I was told it might be in by the end of the week. Since I had been promised that it would be in that week I went back in. The customer service rep this time was pretty rude. First words out of her mouth were, "Did we call?" This was followed by "wait until we call." Guess they don't want me shopping for anything else.

The following week I still hadn't heard anything so, while at work (of course), I managed to locate an email address for Blockbuster's customer service. I decided to email them with my tail of woe and see what happens. I didn't figure I'd even hear back. But I was getting frustrated. After all I paid for the movies... cost me something like $140 in the end (including the store credit) so I wanted my merchandise. They replied within a few days (which made sense since I emailed them on the weekend). Sent it off to the district guy who got back to me pretty quickly as well. Here I was getting my hopes up. They were telling me that there was a problem with the order. According to the supplier the title was not available and according to Sony it is. They basically said that they would know that day (or the next) if they could get it. They were also going to match Future Shop's price if they could get it (since it was $40 cheaper). So far so good right? Except that I didn't hear back. I waited until the beginning of the following week and then emailed the district guy again. All I wanted was a yes/no answer. Is it available? Didn't get that... He told me that he was going to be checking with the store that day. And once again I never heard back.

Almost a month after it was released I still did not have my merchandise and had no way to know if I was ever going to get it. I keep checking for good deals on Blu (like my misprint for Lost: Season 3 which I got for $24.99) and discovered that Amazon.com had the Resident Evil trilogy for $48.99. Since Future Shop had it for $72.99 that was a wee bit of a difference. I jumped on that deal. Got it for $58 including shipping. So then I had to go into Blockbuster to get my money back. Almost 2 months after the whole ordeal started I still had the $100 in store credit to spend and was back where I started. But I did save quite a bit of money in the process.

I did get a couple of Blus while I was in Blockbuster but they were still overpriced. Why is it that they specialize in movies and can't even compete price wise with other stores? I still have $14 left and no idea what to buy.... As I mentioned previously, I might put it towards a previously viewed movie so that I don't have to spend as much on both formats. Or perhaps a previously played game. But I am not playing that many PS3 games these days. Or maybe they will even start getting in Blu-rays... but then again they even say on their web site that prices start at $34.99. Definitely overpriced... especially compared to the States.

I can say this... after using Blockbuster to build up my DVD collection I have absolutely no desire to ever step foot in that Blockbuster ever again.... other then to use up my store credit. This whole experience has been extremely poor and they really have done nothing to retain me as a customer. I am more then happy to support Future Shop and Amazon with my hard earned cash. Blockbuster is now on my boycott list.

Entertainment War

It really does cost a lot of money to upgrade your movie collection to a whole new format.... at least it does when you have about 200 movies. The good news is that not all the titles are even currently available. How can that be a good thing you might ask? Well seeing as I can't afford to buy all the movies I am making my way through the collection. But now there is a new problem. Not only are the movies I had previously on DVD not available but some of the new releases are also not being released in the high-definition format. I can understand not being able to buy those made by Paramount or Universal since they are backing the HD format. However, those made by Blu-ray supporters is a little more mystifying. Rendition is one movie that will be released shortly but so far there has been no announcement on it being released in the Blu format. More importantly, Lions for Lambs will be coming out at the beginning of April and there is no word on it being released in Blu either. The dilemma is that I don't want to be paying for the movie twice. It's an understandable concern. But I really do like the movie. I do have credit at Blockbuster.... so maybe I'll pick it up previously viewed there while waiting for a high definition release. In other news, I really do wish that the format war would come to an end so we can all move forward and not have to pick sides.... It's not grade school... and it's only hurting the consumers.

Random Factoid

The other day I heard a random fact... Supposedly your optimal wake up time is 6 hours after when you were born. So... I was born at 6:40 a.m. and that would mean that the best time for me to wake up and be productive is 12:40 p.m. And go figure if left to my own devices that is about when I would wake up... well aside from the whole midnight shift aspect any ways. Right now I'm not even going to bed until after that point. But I thought that was kind of interesting.

What a Day

Today (or yesterday by the time I post this) I got home from work and then was doing some random, useless things. At the end I was watching Nascar Live to see if they had any useful news. They really didn't. What a waste of time. So in the end I went to bed late... around 2:00 p.m. About an hour later I woke up from my dreamland.... but was startled awake. I was pretty incoherent at the time and somehow thought that I was late for work or had missed my shift entirely. So I turned the alarm off and then realized that it was only 3:00 p.m. Now I thought I turned the alarm back on.... Apparently not. I woke up to my phone going off at 10:45 when my ride arrived. 20 minutes later I was out the door but here we are a few hours later and I still feel like a zombie. Not a good way to begin the day. Stumble out the door to go to work and stop at McDonald's for dinner. Seems they don't sell the grilled chicken after 11. So much for anything that might remotely be healthy. Time for a quarter pounder. The fries were cold. Get to work and according to my schedule I was a no-call, no-show yesterday. Now I pride myself on attendance. Not only that but I was here yesterday taking calls.... so that better get changed... and it better be done before we get paid for that week. What else is going to happen today?

Nature of the Beast

Yesterday was my day off. For whatever reason (perhaps it was the drug induced haze from the antibiotics) my mind wandered off. Oh wait I do that on a good day. That really is nothing new. For some reason a comment from work came to mind. The supervisor had said, "Working in a call center is not something that you aspire to. It just kind of happens. I only planned to be here for 2 months and here we are a year and a half later." This thought was pretty much echoed with the other floor supervisor when he said, "If you plan on being here for a very long time then that is just sad."

I am not saying that people should necessarily aspire to work here. After all it is not a glamorous job. But then most people probably don't aspire to work as a janitor or the lunch lady in the cafeteria at school. Sorry was having a Survivor moment there. However, those are considered to be honorable professions and people recognize that we need to have people that do those jobs.

I believe that there needs to be a shift in thinking in regards to call centers. They are a job and people need to do those jobs. After all customers are always going to need to call their cell phone company, ISP, computer provider or whoever. However, the thinking even from the top seems to be that call centers are glorified temp agencies. I still remember when the head of HR at my former office was quoted as saying "You're all replaceable." And then they wonder why the turnover rate is so high. Hmm... perhaps it has to do with management's attitudes.

This was an ongoing fight of mine at the last place I worked as well. Seems that nothing has changed. Is it really so hard to nurture the attitude that it is a good place to work? Now I think that the wages also create an atmosphere of "temporary workers" since they don't generally pay enough to make it work over the long run. But then everything is geared at just getting bodies in the chair and not long-term employees. Perhaps it is a losing battle.... But it begins with the mind (probably a lot like any other battle).

Fluff

I am taking a stand. For a long time I have been censoring my posts because people seemed to think that my blog was too dark and wanted me to lighten up. I am not, and probably never will be, a merry ray of sunshine. But I am sick of tailoring my posts and creating more "fluffy" posts to appease other people. It's not me.... And let's face it after being fired from my job for no reason and spending 8 months fighting them just how happy do you expect me to be? This is me being me. And if you don't like it then stop reading. But I am going to post about whatever comes to mind... and sometimes it might be entertaining... and other times a little dark. It's called life and it's all mine.

As Promised

Does This Look Infected, Round 2

For the last week or so I have been battling with an ingrown toenail. I didn't want to go to the doctor about it. See a long time ago my family doctor had told me that if I continued to get them then I would need to have the nail completely removed. I really didn't want that to happen. So whenever the toenail got ingrown I pretty much did some home surgery (Read: butcher job) to cut away the nail and drain the infection. Needless to say that's not recommended. But I didn't want my nail to be removed since then it leaves the toe exposed and causes even more pain when you stub your toe. So basically I was afraid to admit that it was a recurring issue. However, this time it has been really bad. Tried the epson salts and tried digging it out (don't try that at home). Not working so well. The other day I was evacuated so I was standing outside. I'm sure that didn't help anything. I really didn't want to put pressure on my foot. Then last night I was standing more at work while talking to the manager in between calls. The pain just kept increasing and increasing and... you get the picture. So finally I decided to head straight to the ER after work. Do not pass go... do not collect $200. Needless to say they weren't so entertained with the home remedies and the DIY surgery attempts. I was there for 2 hours (short trip for me). The doctor didn't want to cut it open at the moment since he couldn't tell just how ingrown it was. So now I am on antibiotics to get rid of the infection and if it still doesn't get any better then I'll be back getting the nail cut away from the edge. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I don't want to be back at the hospital. I was also reminded as to how with Fibromyalgia your sense of pain is really messed up. What would be a tolerable pain for most people may be twice as painful for me, just because the pain receptors are all out of whack. Unlike the fire I will not be posting pictures of the infection later.

Hard at Work

So right now I am at work... and as you can probably tell I am working oh so hard. Been waiting for a call for 30 minutes now. And before that I was on lunch. Hard to call it lunch when it's 4:30 in the morning though. I am not going to complain though. After all I can update my blog... catch up on emails.... shop for good deals.... and check out videos on You Tube. Hours of entertainment right there. And just in case I get bored or have trouble staying awake I can always go to Facebook and go back to playing Dope Wars. Best part is that I get paid for this. :o)

Maybe it is Time to Move

The other day I got home from work just after 8 like I normally do. On my way upstairs I remember thinking just how nice it is to work nights since now I am not home when the fire alarm goes off. As it turns out, I picked the wrong morning to be having that thought. Not 2 hours later the fire alarm is going off. Azrael is hiding in my closet and the super is banging on the door... an indication it's a real fire. So I grab shoes, coat, wallet and cell phone and venture out into the hallway. I must say that all those things I learned in school about what to do in case of a fire has long since disappeared from memory. On my way outside I almost trampled some little old lady. Personally, I just chalk it up to Darwinism and "Survival of the fittest." Don't worry I didn't push her down the stairs or anything. Get outside and you can see smoke billowing from a third floor window. Fortunately it was on the other side of the building and away from my apartment. The fire department got there pretty quick. There were 4 fire trucks, the command vehicle, 2 police cars and an ambulance. Lots of activity. After almost an hour (good thing it wasn't all that cold) a bus showed up. It was somewhere to sit that was a little warmer. But, not even 10 minutes later, we were given the all clear and allowed to return home. Seems it was caused by an improperly placed heater. What concerns me most is that this is the 4th fire since I moved in 2 years ago. Granted most of them have been minor but still. I have never had the pleasure (or pain more like it) of being evacuated from a burning building before.... and now it seems to be a regular occurrence. Perhaps it's time to look for a new place to live... or at least get insurance on all my belongings. Pictures to come later, I am currently at work.