Have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

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June 26, 2006 Monday 10:34 PM
sketch date 9/26/89

Saturday morning I checked the status online again, and realized I'd had enough. The CSRs were being nice enough to me, but I wasn't getting the answers I wanted. I'm a reasonable guy, just give me an explanation for things. So for the third time, I called Apple, and decided no more Mr. Nice Guy. That's always been my problem. In college, girls always told me I was too nice. I'm always a pushover when it comes to shitty service. I guess I can handle that with cable, a clerk making minimum wage, etc. but not with my precious computers (or something that I dropped $1500 for)!

My customer service call was the standard. Same vague answers, same lack of knowing what was going on. I acknowledge to the dude that I knew he was just doing his job with the tools provided to him. I remained calm and told him how extremely frustrated and disappointed I was. Every time he would try to soften something I said, I'd counter-point it with the facts. I told them about my iPod dying, and how although it had nothing to do with my computer repair, that it was horrible timing. I told him that had I waited the amount of time to purchase the computer that they've had it in the shop, that chances are I wouldn't have gotten the lemon they sent me and would have gotten a free iPod with the Back-To-School promotion they're running. I told them that I've been a life-long supporter of Apple and how utterly disappointed I've been. I told him I knew that telling him all of this would do no good, but that I just needed to vent.

He told me he understood my concerns, and then asked if it was okay if he put me on hold. I ended up being on hold for over 15 minutes with him cutting in a few times, apologizing for the delay and promising me that he'd get me somebody who could help. Once I got out of the hold loop, I talked to a dispatch specialist. It was pretty obvious right away that this guy was some level higher than the CSRs I'd been talking to. Right away, he was able to give me the scoop on what's been wrong with my computer. It started out as a cosmetic issue and they replaced the case. But they ran it through some diagnostics and found some other problems with the circuitry. The computer was moved up to an engineering level and they were looking at it. Fine. That was all I wanted to hear.

The guy acknowledged my frustrations and the problems with the computer. He was the first person I talked to do this. He told me that the time I was waiting was unacceptable. Then I heard him shuffle through his notes and he said, "I understand you also have a dead iPod as well. I can imagine how frustrated you must be." Then he said the magic words: "How about I give you a free iPod Nano to help with some of your problems, since you would have gotten a free one if you would have bought the computer a few days later anyway."

"A free iPod?" I replied, surprised as hell but relieved at, finally, some resolve. "Sure."

He asked me what color (black I decided) and informed me that a new 4 GB iPod Nano (the largest of the Nanos, a $250 value) would be sent to me ASAP. He apologized again, gave me all of his contact info, guaranteed me that we'd know exactly what was going on by Tuesday, and that I'd have the computer and the iPod by the end of this week at the very latest.

Today, I got an email from Apple. It said that my case ID has been escalated and that my replacement computer is being sent out. I guess by my conversation with the dispatch guy, that they decided enough was enough, give the guy a new computer too. It gave me a number to call; they told me the computer and iPod are being shipped to me tomorrow overnight and I will have them on Wednesday.

Apparently, telling a good customer service rep what's on your mind and not backing down, but doing it in a very calm and rational manner can not only get you a brand new computer, but also a free iPod Nano.

Granted, it's way too small of an iPod to be my main iPod, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. This one will hold 1,000 songs (what the original full-sized ones held, mine that just died held 7,500). It will do me just fine until the next big iPod release comes right before the X-Mas shopping season. Hopefully, this is one nightmare customer service issue that ended on an good note. And if they uphold their promises, they've gone above and beyond to keep a happy customer. The items haven't arrived yet (have to wait a couple more days), but if they do show up, they've got me back as a fan.

Thanks for listening to a few nights in-a-row of my customer service/comptuer woes. :)

Monday's playlist:

1. Keane - Under the Iron Sea

2. U2 - How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb

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The past day and a half, I had a fully functioning iPod again. I did the factory restore on it, wiped the slate clean, and slowly started adding songs back on it. But then today shortly after lunch, it completely died on me again. This time, I wasn't able to do a hard reboot like I did before. All I got was a flashing apple icon that I swear gave me a dirty look. It's dead. Kaput. My last hope is a place called ipodmechanic.com. I can send it in for free, they will do a free diagnostic on it, and then let me know how much it's going to cost to fix. If I choose not to get it fixed, I can have them ship it back to me for a max of $19. I know somebody who did that and it cost her $70 to get the touch-wheel fixed vs. buying a new one for $300. So we'll see. I'm still not giving up.

What did I do before life with my iPod? CDs? For real? Those big, clunky, bulky things that only hold 18 songs? But what if I get a whim and want to listen to something obscure out of my collection of 10,000+ ? Surely one can't expect me to ask that whim to wait, can they? Sigh... I've come so accustomed to a certain lifestyle with that device and now it's left me in the cold. I was the first person I knew to have one, and I feel like with it's death, it's betrayed me. Curse your black iPod heart...

And to make matters worse, I called Apple again today to see what's up with my MacBook. On Tuesday, the website said the repair was complete. As of tonight, it still hasn't been shipped. Now customer support is telling me that it didn't pass some final check, and that it may take an additional five to nine days to get a new part in. Fuck. The thought of being without my new computer that I spent a lot of money on for over two weeks really pisses me off. And to add insult to injury, had I waited two weeks when I originally bought the thing, I could have gotten a free iPod Nano with my purchase using my student ID. But now, I guess I'm just S.O.L. I've been very nice and patient to the CSR I talked to. She's just doing her job. But I'm ready to explode and tear somebody a new one if I don't see results soon. The iPod shitting out on me while this is all going on may be the final straw. Am I having a Mac attack?

I know how silly it is to let it affect my mood. I still have music, still have CDs, still have my Shuffle for goodness-sake. I have my great desktop iMac and I'm really not out of commission at all. But I feel so fuckin' inconvenienced. And I guess when I'm paying top dollar for my electronics, I don't expect to be inconvenienced at all. Yes, my iPod is three years old -- but I paid $500 for that thing when it came out. Is our attention span so short these days that a three-year life span on a $500 item is acceptable? WTF?

Over the past few months, I've been just feeling blah -- the stress at work never disappears and I've been in a funk. Now this dark cloud with the electronics, my one real escape from it all, just won't leave me alone. I have some bad karma following me, and I need a change. Tonight I got my hair cut really short and shaved off all of my facial hair except for my goatee (that's just the chin part right? The chin thing and a moustache is actually called a dickey I believe...). Hey, it's a start. (Gosh that sounds stupid in writing...)

Anyway...I need to change my attitude here. If the sun won't find me, it's time I found the sun....

Today's playlist: Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself

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It's as if I'm the exact opposite of Michael Jackson in the "Billie Jean" video. Instead of things lighting up when I step on them, they go dark and stop working....

What's happened to me? I'm the techie guy. Or was. It's as if in one broad sweep, I've lost my electronics mojo. Anybody with a pacemaker, I'd recommend to stand back. Over the past few days, I've just felt lost and off. All because of my string of bad luck. To quote the UK version of The Office that I've been watching:

"I wouldn't say say he's bad luck, but if he fell in a barrel full of tits, the only thing he'd come up sucking is his thumb."

I've become inseparable with my iPod. I had three years of playlists on there, endless songs from countless difference sources, thousands of songs tagged in certain ways and in certain orders. And poof -- just like that, it's gone. But on the positive side, I've been able to do a "restore" on the iPod, which means I've been able restore it to the factory settings, completely erasing all of the contents. For now it works, on and off. For some reason, though, it's not working in my car yet -- I have a feeling there's an intermittent hardware problem with it too -- so it will never be the iPod it once was and eventually it will just shit out on me for good. But I was able to get it working and listened to it all day at work. So now the iPod has a clean slate; I'm starting from scratch and slowing beginning to repopulate it. A song here, an album there. Who knows, maybe this is a clean sweep I needed to do? If I have to buy a new one, I will...I was so hoping to wait until this upcoming Christmas season though, when a new model is for sure to come out.

And for my MacBook, well, today I checked the status, and it says the repair's been complete. So much for the five to seven days. It looks like it should show up either tomorrow or the next day.

And, believe it or not, I found a cheap DVD player that I forgot I had. I'm back in business.

When did I become this guy? Yesterday, I was downright depressed when my iPod died. I become so attached to these modern devices, but the second they go-tits up I feel helpless. I need to unplug and be in control of my own luck.

So anyway...I've been disconnected. I didn't dare touch the files to this site. Later.

Tuesday's playlist:

1. Keane - Under the Iron Sea

2. U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind

3. U2 - How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb

4. Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You a Secret

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It's an odd thing watching your friend's wife act as if she died. It's odd to feel creeped out by this fake death and to see all the people on the set get the heebee geebies as well. It's weird watching her come back to life, only to be slashed down by a huge authentic sword. It gets even weirder to see her fake head, made by her husband, so effectively be ripped from her body and launched off a cliff and then see that same head with the blank glance come flying right at you at the bottom of that cliff, landing mere feet away. I think irony might be the word to describe watching all of this fake blood and violence amongst the serenity of the private land, this magical spot full of hills, valleys, moss covered 100-year-old trees, flowers, cliffs, and loudly singing birds.

The truly bizarre qualities to all of this don't escape me. But yet, I can't help but think that's what makes this so cool. For me to be part of and to experience such a unique and talented group of friends coming together for this movie is something that most people would never even think about, much less do. There are countless people out there who talk big -- they throw ideas out there like candy at a parade -- but those things never see the light of day. This movie project is the realization of a lot of friendships, dreams, and talents. It's pretty cool watching people fall into their roles and all pitching in. My duties have already included giving some script feedback early on, creating logos that I eventually applied to props that were used in the shoot, landscaping some of the location, running my camera for "B-reel" footage, being a gofer on the set, and helping set up and tear down our camp. I still have many duties ahead of me including about 20 drawings that will be added to a few sequences once the editing starts. There have even been talks of getting me in front of the camera and behind some makeup as "male zombie #1." Who knows what else I will do!?

Is this going to be cheesy? Probably. Is it going to look like it was done on a $400 budget? Hell, yeah. But we're doing it. Bottom line -- we're doing it. And we're all giving it 100% of our heart and soul -- and I know that's going to show through as well. Once it's done, we're going to submit it to every website and independent film festival that will have it. My goal is to somehow have the world see it. Thanks to YouTube, MySpace, IFC, Current, etc., that could very well happen. My heart is full with possibility.

So as I sat on the cliff watching the above scene take place, waiting to shoot as I was grabbing some stills, I found a real moment of peace in the excitement and passion of this project. The location, as I've mentioned, is just amazing. Check out my homepage for another image from the location. There will be more photos to come (but first I have to catch up on posting the rest of my Arizona pictures from April as well as the ones from my birthday weekend in May!).

My friend Mitch has fallen into the role of cameraman, editor, and director. I'm going to end this with a quote from him as he requested an additional take in a thick fake French accent: "I love it!!!...Now make me hate it!"

No matter what the final outcome, the memories on this project will last a lifetime.

That's all for now. Back to the real world.

Today's playlist: Under the Influence of Giants - Heaven is Full EP

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Friday I helped set up a little team building project for work and a bunch of us got to leave early to catch a matinee of the movie Cars. I've been a fan of the Pixar movies since Toy Story came out. If you ask me, their animation, characters, and stories are second-to-none. Cars was an amazing movie. Absolutely wonderful. I'm taking my nephews to see it next weekend and I can't wait to see it again! This race car movie is about slowing down and finding the good things in life. Man, was it good.

After the movie, I zoomed back home, packed up my car, and headed to Madison for the first weekend of shooting on our big zomibe movie. A couple hour drive later, I got into town around 10:00 where final planning was going on. By the time all was said and done, I hit the sack around 1 AM to wake up at around 6:30 on Saturday for our first big day. The day was long and full of surprises and frustration at times, but we hit our stride late in the day. Today was another 6:30 AM start, but things cruised along better than we could have imagined all day, having an amazing day of shooting. I left town feeling extremely proud and excited about what we accomplished this weekend. But, brother, am I tired. I'm sunburned and scrapped to hell from a weekend of shooting on location out in the heart of the wilderness, miles away from anything. Our location was simply breathtaking, with nature all around us. Shooting in such conditions made it challenging, that's for sure, but also made things seem pretty magical when they clicked into place.

But like I said, I'm just tired as hell. After being up the past six or seven nights until at least midnight (many nights much later) working on some aspect of the movie and waking up around 5- or 6:30, I'm just plain fried. Squeeze work in there, the Cars movie, a couple hour drive to and from Madison, and two days of solid shooting out in the sun, and I'm a freakin' zombie myself. But things are good. It was a great weekend, through and through.

But I'm beginning to not make sense and am having a hard time functioning. I'll talk more in depth and post some photos from the set eventually. But for now, I'm feeling this weird combination of being completely tapped out, but also complete satisfaction and happiness with the events of the past few days. It's all good my peeps, alllll good.

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Tuesday's playlist:

1. Michael Jackson- Bad

2. U2 - How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb

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As I look forward to this exciting movie project, which I'm doing with my so-called "comic book friends," I find it quite fitting that I saw X-Men III over my holiday. I've been a fan of that series since I was a young boy. I loved how the stories always involved misfits who somehow honed in on their differences, made them their strengths, and became heroes. It's amazing how much those storylines have affected my art and perspective on things. After I saw the movie, I looked up a bunch of the histories of the characters on Wikipedia and kind of did the stroll down memory lane. The X-Men will always have a place in my heart.

Over this past weekend, I found a couple old sketch books in my closet at my parents' house. I have a ton of sketches I copied from X-Men and Spider-Man comic books over the years from when I was young. One of the projects I had my freshman year in college (back in 1989) in one of my first design classes was to take an artist for the entire semester and copy their work. To my teacher's surprise, I chose a comic book artist, John Byrne, and replicated his work. To my surprise, she let me do it. I looked through those sketch books and am taken back that I drew those images over 15 years ago when I still a boy of 18.

Some things never change.

So now with the phase I of this zombie movie coming to a head this weekend, I'm reminded how life and interests, talents and inspiration, all are cumulative. The friends I'm doing this project with are all in my life now because of who I was back when I was drawing those X-Men way back in the day.

And to this day, I still see the band of misfits all honing in on their talents, that may have cast them aside but now make them individuals who stand out in a crowd. But those misfits are now the ones creating the works of fiction, not reading them.

Monday's playlist:

1. U2 - How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb

2. David Gilmore - On an Island

3. Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way

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P.S. Am I the only one a little creeped out by tomorrow being 6-6-06?

After an emotionally long week, it just kind of feels good to veg out. With my friend leaving the company on Wednesday, it just felt like a dark cloud was hanging that I had to get over. To be honest, that's kind of how I felt about my birthday this year, too. So now it's time to stop being angry and sad, upset and pissed off -- it's time to start enjoying the summer.

I have much on the horizon for the next few months. Next weekend we start filming our zombie movie. I have much to do before the weekend where that is concerned but know I will get it done. I've been so preoccupied the past few weeks that I've been dragging my feet. But this is going to be an awesome experience and a great time with friends I don't see nearly as much as I should.

This week, although I had to get a stand-in, sailing started for the summer season. Every Wednesday night from now until Labor Day, I'll hit the waters of Lake Winnebago with my coworker's yacht club and race. It's always a good time and a really cool experience to have under my belt.

I'm also really excited about a few of the summer movies coming out. Over the weekend I treated myself to X-Men III. Being an X-Men fan all of my life, this movie kicked ass. I am almost crawling out of my skin to see Cars. Pixar has set such high standards with all of their other flicks, that this one is sure to be great as well. I promised my nephews I'd take them to see it (although they requested to see Garfield 2 as well when that comes out) and am looking forward to the new experience of taking a 4- and a 6-year old to the movies.

On that note, recently my brother-in-law introduced the boys to my Star Wars DVDs. They are now obsessed. I have moved up to the top spot with them where cool uncles are concerned. Now our conversations are all about Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Anakin, etc. I was thrown for a loop when the 6-year old asked me where the dark side was. He asked me, "Is it North, South, East...." which boggled my mind that he even understood those concepts. I decided that since his dad allowed him to watch the ultra-dark Episode III, that I wouldn't pull any punches with him on the darker concepts of the movie. I explained to him that the "dark side" was "You know how when your brother is being really naughty? Well, it's like that, but with killing people too." His eyes got real big and said "Oh." Then he said in a low voice "Luke, come to me." How cool is that? When I brought my replica Darth Vader light saber over (yes, I own one), they both nearly wet their pants. Up next: Introduce them to Episode I, Anakin as a young boy, Jar Jar Binks, Darth Maul, and some podracing. Being an uncle just keeps getting cooler and cooler. I'm actually thinking of painting a Star Wars mural in Derick's room this fall.

But on that note, it's time to do a spell check and figure out what I want to do for the night. This big cushy leather chair I'm sitting in as I watch the traffic on the main drag zoom by feels like the right idea.

Friday's playlist:

1. Jack Johnson - On & On

2. OAR - Stories of a Stranger

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P.S. Be sure to check out the May archives. When one door opens.....