Now that our new house is somewhat in order, I thought I’d take a moment and invite you into my home theater room (or as my wife refers to it: my “nerd lair”). It’s definitely not the geek cave that I had in the past, as I’ve decided to only display some of my more useful or favorite items – leaving the real nerdy stuff (action figures, 15 cartons of comics, etc) in my corner of the garage where it probably belongs. This time around, I went for more of a design element, creating my ‘FrankenShelf’ from Ikea’s BESTA line and its high gloss white cabinet doors. This view is only of the media wall, which my 20mm lens makes look way farther away than it is in real life – the reverse angle would show two giant, black recliners where I “sit away the calories playing video games”.
My co-worker, Kia Malone is entered in one of those local Dancing With The Stars type of competitions, and I tagged along on Thursday afternoon to see how training went.
When I’m not locked away in my office writing code and participating in conference calls, I like to sneak out into the studio and see what the rest of the folks are doing. Here’s a few shots that I’ve taken at work lately.
This morning I took a break from my php coding and internet strategery to save the world (yet again). Diego was out sick, so instead I teamed-up with Kai Lan and Dora The Explorer to go on an adventure. We did some counting, organized shapes and colors, and then KILLED THE LAST UNICORN. All of this ended with a cheerful music number, followed by shots of Barenjager.
Ok, not really. Dora and Kai Lan actually came by the Daily Buzz studio this morning to promote their touring Nickelodeon show. We brought in Eliza, so that she could meet her idols. They were super-friendly (as expected) and were accompanied by a large bouncer/stylist. My daughter waved goodbye to them from inside our office as I snapped a final shot of them getting into a towncar – not onto a Pegasus, which is banned from the Full Sail parking lots. It sorta looks like TMZ was following Dora around town, right?
This weekend, while unpacking boxes, I came across one of the many “nerd boxes” (as my wife calls them) containing various “collectibles” (which I like to call them) including my Star Trek dolls. So I decided to grab the entire crew of the U.S.S. Voyager and let my little toddler monster play house with them. I dumped them on the floor in front her, strategically timed to distract her while I assembled a mammoth Ikea entertainment center. It didn’t work, since she ended-up having a million questions about each doll. You know, typical stuff like, “Why don’t they have the same uniforms as the DS9 crew since they were active during the same stardate?” and “Shouldn’t Lieutenant-Commander Tuvok be wearing blue, rather than yellow?” So I had to take time to explain to her that the ship was out-of-contact in the Gamma Quadrant before Starfleet went to war with the Jem’Hadar and switched to the newer uniforms, and that Tuvok was a science officer earlier in his career, but wore yellow because the was a Tactical officer now.
When the moving truck arrived in front of our Florida home, I felt somewhat relieved. Moving companies usually give you a window – in this case two days – of when you can expect your stuff to arrive. For our relocation, they couldn’t confirm the final arrival dates, nor did they actually make it to our house when they originally projected they would. But at this point, we had already come to expect this sort of customer service from Graebel.
They seemed to always put the fragile stuff at the bottom.
We’ve made several cross-country moves over the years, but had never heard of Graebel until our boss recommended that we get a quote from them. When their sales representative, Courtney, came out to our Houston apartment, she was friendly and professional. Her quote even came in more accurate and affordable than any of the other two companies we considered. Within the next few weeks, we had signed the paper work and arranged a date for them to pick up our stuff. At this point, communication from the company became as reliable as my iPhone’s AT&T cell service; it’s never available when you need it. Other moving companies would call and email up before each stage of the move, making sure we’re ready and always”in the loop.” Not Graebel. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even get our friendly, “How To Prepare For Your Move” email from them until moments before the last few boxes went onto the moving van that day.
Now, mind you, this was the third truck they sent to our house that day. On the morning of our move, the driver showed up with the wrong truck (a logistical problem they forgot to account for) and the crew had to stand around for an hour while he drove back across Houston in morning rush hour traffic to get another vehicle. The rest of the day the work crew worked their asses off, loading up our apartment. That was until the driver had to go back across town for another van to fit everything. One of the Graebel people returned my call from earlier that morning, and she was quite apologetic. I did mention that adding the additional shuttle vans wasn’t part of the plan and we shouldn’t be billed for their mistake. She countered with, “But you’re not paying for it” which made me annoyed, because I don’t want to have to go back to my new employer with additional, padded costs. [click to continue…]
Even when you cross off the imaginary items off the list, I still have plenty of work to accomplish around the new LLR headquarters. Eventually, I’ll be posting some shots (once the home renovation is done).
My next step is to get the wireless cloud improved, before I get back to the real physical labor stuff. Luckily, I don’t have many meda devices hooked-up yet, so techno distractions are still minimal.
Yesterday morning, the sensational off-Broadway starlett and Tupperware pitchlady, Dixie Longate stopped by the Daily Buzz studios to hawk her plastic wares and show off her kindly Southern charm. I pulled her aside for an impromptu video interview (which is crazy-hilarious; can’t wait to start posting it in a few weeks), but not before we posed as two sassy Tupperware divas. (Am I working that bowl or what?) In case you’re interested in getting something from her online store, just follow the link on her homepage titled, “buy stuff, hookers!”
Four Rivers Smokehouse
Full Sail 2
NYPD Pizza
Aveda Institute
TrenD
