littlelostrobot

A sneak peek into my “nerd lair”

JL — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:14:25 +0000

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”.

[NOTE: You should be able to highlight over the image for my notes. If not, here's the direct link to the photo.]

Kia’s Dance Rehearsal

JL — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:54:48 +0000

Kia’s Dance Rehearsal from JL Watkins on Vimeo.

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.

Three various snapshots from the workplace

JL — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:02:54 +0000

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.

Today I earned my “Explorer Stars!”

JL — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:19:31 +0000

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?

Eliza likes Tuvok the most

JL — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:47:55 +0000

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.

Thank you, Graebel, for breaking our stuff.

JL — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:08:53 +0000

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.

Later that day, the crew stuffed all our belongings into a storage unit and we were off to Florida to find a home. When we finally closed on our new house, we contacted Graebel to arrange for the truck to arrive. We were given a window of dates when to expect the truck, which they didn’t make. We gave them our phone number, which they didn’t use. And when my wife finally got the answer of when our truck would arrive…it was through email because the moving coordinator didn’t have the courage or respect to talk to my wife on the phone.

The truck arrived that morning, followed by the local Graebel crew. The guys were all really hard working and nice, though they kept unloading boxes clearly marked FRAGILE and stacking a half-dozen, heavier box on top of them. The driver and the movers would occasionally just let boxes tumble off the truck onto the driveway. I watched my wife’s sewing machine box drop twenty-feet, from the top of the pile in the moving truck to the hard pavement below. Sadly, this is to be expect of just about any moving company, but our Graebel driver soon took it all up to the next level. He waited until the end of the move to unload the broken furniture.

They snapped the legs off a few items, and left several boxes filled with shatered glass.

They unloaded an antique piano bench and a chair, each with a leg busted off. I also noticed that one of are really nice dining room benches had DEEP gouges across the top, and that the movers arranged it in such a way, so that we wouldn’t notice it until they were gone. I got suspicious of the way it was stacked, and on a whim, decided to inspect it. When I mentioned it to the driver, he got worried. He explained that the “didn’t care” about the broken furniture because he picked it up at the warehouse that way and he was covered. But the damage to the bench happened by him, or on his watch, so he could be held accountable. That’s when he tried to pay me cash if we didn’t report it. He started speaking in a really low, sad voice, saying, “Please, sir. Will you allow me to buy the bench from you? You can keep it, and you can buy a new one. Just, please don’t claim it.” My wife was livid, and explained to him that the dining room benches each cost over $200. After I couldn’t take any more of his pathetic begging, “Please, sir. How much?” I said, “I don’t know…a hundred dollars.” His pretend sad face went away, and he said in a don’t-give-a-crap tone, “I don’t have that much money on me. I guess you better claim it. It probably won’t do you any good anyway.” The packing team in Houston was clever, writing multiple ’scratches’ on most furniture items, even if they didn’t have any. That way, they’d be protected, or at the very least, enabled them to be careless.

Just for fun, here’s my audio reenactment of the conversation with the driver.

Moments later, he has me sign a stack of forms, and I made notations of the damaged items. I then was asked to sign a form stating that we received all of our inventory, despite the fact that I couldn’t account for a few remaining boxes. So I signed the form, but made notations of all the items that I was unable to verify before they left.

Anyway, it’s been almost two weeks since the moving fiasco came to an end, and we still haven’t gotten the courtesy follow-up call from Graebel that any other moving company would have attempted by now. Unable to talk to a real person, my wife sent an email wishing to address some of our concerns with the relocation, to which she received a complaint form to fill out. The saga continues. From here, we continue unpacking boxes and making note of shattered glass items, so that we can fill out our forms, likely to never hear from Graebel again.

I still have a few items remaining

JL — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:41:42 +0000

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.

Tupperware Divas!

JL — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:21:20 +0000

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!”

VaultTec engineering at its very finest.

JL — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:07:55 +0000

A sure sign of the impending nuclear holocaust is when you start seeing “Pip Boy” the Vault-Tec logo appearing on industrial machinery, like this generator in West Orlando. I noticed the large sticker on this industrial generator on the way home during our boring-ass commute last week and made a mental note that I absolutely had to take a photo before it was gone or vandalized. I’m crazy fanatic about the Fallout games, so to see some random thing like this is pretty rad.

Taking the photo was a real pain. It was off the road, in a place where parking is wholly impossible. I trekked through high, grassy weeds that were crawling with lizards, in ninety-degree heat. Then I found that I had nowhere to stand that wasn’t on an ant hill – which gave me a ninety second window to snap some shots before the little bastards started biting my ankles. It’s sorta funny, considering that in Fallout 3 one of the first things I did after leaving Vault 101 was murder dozens of irradiated mutant ants. Virtual karma is a bitch.

I still ended up having a fun, spontaneous adventure tonight, and was completely floored when I got back home and realized that there’s a perfect robot shadow on the right side of the photo!

list of names for my future indie rock band

JL — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:04:25 +0000

The chance of me actually starting a band is unlikely, since I really don’t play any instruments, apart from depeche-mode’n around on the keyboard. And while I tear up the stage at karaoke, I can’t really sing. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

But, I like to keep the dream alive by updating my list of possible names for my future indie rock-electro band. Here’s the list I have currently loaded in my iPhone notes application. My friend Audio (the editor of Android Delight – which would be another wicked-cool band name!) said that “the closest we’ll ever get to forming a band will be on Xbox Live in Rock Band.” Yeah, he’s probably right. Maybe it’s a good time to finally start the search for Emotional Laser’s new drummer.