The marathon took a break

As posted yesterday, I went to a Saw marathon (I – IV) last night. Everything was running smooth until midnight. Twelve a.m. came and went but Saw IV didn’t start. What the…..

I wondered why it wasn’t starting since all the other movies started every 2 hours on the dot (6,8 & 10 p.m.). When I looked into the projector room, I noticed that there were no lights and no film on the loading reel. There is usually a loading light on when they are switching reels but it was pure dark. I decided to go see what was up at 12:10 a.m.

I asked the first theater employee I could find why Saw IV wasn’t started. He didn’t have a clue so he asked a manager that was nearby. The manager looked at me and asked, “It’s not running?”. If it were, would I have come out to ask why it wasn’t? The manager pulled out his walkie talkie and called another employee.

The manager asked employee 2 (female) if Saw IV was set up in theater 10 and she said “No, only theater 11 has a midnight show.” WHAT!?!?! The look on the managers face was priceless. He told her that the Saw marathon was in 10 so it also had to run in there. After a short “Oh crap, I screwed up” pause, she came back on and said she would have it up in about 5 minutes.

The movie finally started about 12:30 a.m. The movie was great! It was well worth only getting about 2 hours of sleep before having to go to work. The way it ties in with Saw III is awesome.

26.Oct.07 General Comments (0)

I came, I Saw IV, I conquered

Saw IV is being released tomorrow (10/26). Tonight, a local IMAX theater is doing a Saw marathon starting at 6 p.m (Saw IV plays at 12 a.m.). I’m going up there with a friend in a little while. I purchased the tickets earlier today. I got the student discount ($7.50 vs. $9) for no reason except a nice ticket cashier. The price covers all 4 shows and the concession prices aren’t too bad. They’ll probably temporarily cancel the “Free Refills” policy during the marathon.

Tomorrow will be a long day since I won’t get to bed until about 3 a.m. and be at work at 7:30 a.m. It’s worth it.

25.Oct.07 General Comments (3)

New camera & Circuit City’s pricing

My old Gateway DC-T50 was starting to bite the dust so it was time for a new digital camera. Nothing too fancy; just something that would give me decent prints and have a good optical zoom. I looked at various digital camera review sites for two weeks in order to find a camera that’s a good choice for around $200. The Kodak EasyShare Z712 looked to be the best choice so I picked one up last Friday.

So far, I am really happy with the camera. It has a 12x optical zoom, optical (not digital) image stabilization, 7.1 MP and a 2.5″ LCD screen. Kodak sells the camera direct for $249 and Amazon has it for $219. I didn’t want to wait for the camera to ship so I looked it up on Best Buy and Circuit City’s web sites. Circuit City was showing the price as $219 ($249 now) after a $50 and $30 instant savings. I checked availability at the local store and it was showing as being in stock.

I went to the local CC to buy the camera but the price tag was showing $299. I asked the sales associate why it was $80 more than what the web site was showing. He said that CC gives lower prices for online purchases on a lot of items. I asked if he could match the price, since they are the same company, and he said they couldn’t. The sales manager said the same thing. For $80, I drove back to my office that’s 20 minutes away, purchased the camera online and picked it up at the store 30 minutes later.

Why do some companies do that? I know that there are “web only” specials but that wasn’t the case here. There wasn’t anything on the CC site stating that the price was for web purchases only. This practice is a bad idea because it takes the sale away from the sales associate. The price should be the same or the sales associate should be able to give the same discounts when an online price is not designated as being web only.

Getting back to the camera; I didn’t have to purchase a memory card for it. I already have a couple of SanDisk Ultra II SD 2GB memory cards from a previous project that are no longer being used. The SD card supports a minimum 10MB/s read and 9MB/s write speed. With the Z712 set at 6.3 MP, the optimal high resolution for 4×6 prints, one card can hold a little over 1,000 pictures or 30 minutes of video at 640×480 (MOV format). Two 2GB cards should be enough storage to take a few pictures on the next family vacation.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. – Frank A. Clark

01.Oct.07 General Comments (0)

You don’t really have an appointment

I’ve been feeling like crap for the last couple of weeks. Yesterday, I decided to finally see a doctor. The doctor’s office opened at 8 a.m. so I called at 8:30 to make an appointment. The lady on the phone said that my regular doctor wasn’t in but I could see a nurse practitioner. I don’t have a problem with that so I asked what times they had available. She told me that they had a 3 or 3:40 appointment available. I went with the 3 p.m. appointment.

I arrived at the doctor’s office at 2:50 and signed in. While reading the 6 month old magazines, I noticed several people coming in after me getting called back. At 3:45, I went up to the window and asked the nurse how much longer it would be because I had a 3 o’clock appointment and had been waiting for 45 minutes. The nurse checked my chart and said, “You have an appointment? We have you down as a work in.”

I told the nurse that wasn’t right because I had called that morning and made the appointment. She handed the paperwork to another lady, whom I assume is one of the ladies that takes appointment calls, and that lady came to the window. She said, “I didn’t take your call but I do see where we have you down as a work in.” I asked her why and she said, “Well, even though you called and made an appointment, it’s considered a work in if you make the appointment on the same day.”

WHAT!?!? I told her that it was ridiculous because I was told I had an appointment, not a work in. If I was going to be marked as a work in, I would have went there earlier and waited. She apologized and said that is just how they mark it down. She said that the doctors were running behind but I could wait longer and they would “try” to get me back there. I told her to forget it and left.

I still feel like crap. Hopefully, I can get in with a doctor at another location today. I’ll just have to remember to ask if I have a literal appointment or a figurative one from now on.

You have a cough? Go home tonight, eat a whole box of Ex-Lax – tomorrow you’ll be afraid to cough. – Pearl Williams

21.Sep.07 General Comments (0)

Way to lose a sale

There are a lot of ways to lose a sale. Most of the time, it’s as easy as ignoring the customer. The vendor I’ve been dealing with was the opposite. They hounded me constantly. Even so, that isn’t what made me decide not to buy their NAC appliance. What killed the sale was the way they answered one simple question:

How much does it cost?

That’s all that I asked. I asked how much it would cost to buy 30+ units. The vendor replied to every request for a quote with:

Have you contacted [insert finance company name here]? They can give you a good rate.

What!?!?! Why would I, or the people I work for, finance something when we don’t even know how much it is? In fact, we don’t finance. Period. After two more replies of the same nature from the salesman, I replied to him with:

1. We don’t need a finance company. We’ll pay for the product if it is in the price range we want or we won’t purchase it.
2. Send me a quote ASAP.

The salesman sent back, “If they won’t work, try calling [insert another finance company].” Really? What kind of rate on zero dollars can I get?

I decided to just start ignoring the emails. No point in talking to the wall. It was quiet for a few days until a salesman called me yesterday. The conversation went like this:

Him: Do you have any questions about purchasing the appliance?
Me: Yes. Where is the quote I was supposed to get almost three weeks ago? Do not give me any more finance information.
Him: No problem. I can email that to you today. Do you think you’ll have a decision by tomorrow?
Me: No, that’s not possible. As I’ve told you, we are looking at many solutions.
Him: Well, my boss is getting really aggressive on the pricing.
Me: Great! That still doesn’t change the fact that I won’t make a decision by tomorrow.
Him: I’ll have to make it for a 30 day quote in that case. It will be a little higher.
Me: Fine. [click]

24 hours later and still no quote. It’s not a loss because we have other options that actually did a lot more and were within our price range. We also have another NAC vendor, Trend Micro, coming in later this week. We already use their antivirus so they’re willing to give us a nice discount to use their NAC appliance.

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it. – Robin Williams

30.Jul.07 General Comment (1)