DIARY OF A TROUBLED LONER: November 2001 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday, November 1 2001
Had a bit of a scare when I spotted a state trooper in my rear-view mirror, but he ended up passing me. I saw him again shortly, at my exit. I guess there'd been an accident and he was pulled over to the shoulder with two other cars. There was a back-up at the exit because of gawkers, and then I found out that, just to complicate things further, there was construction at the end of the ramp, where a lane had been closed off. It was difficult and time consuming to get off I-75 and onto Southfield Rd. I ended up being late to work, so of course Dennis had visited the office.We heard some bad news. A special broadcast was planned for next Thursday and we'd need to manually authorize twenty-pages' worth of sites to receive the show. That worked out to about 1400 sites -- a ridiculous amount to expect us to finish in one week! We were going to raise a protest, but I had the sneaky suspicion nothing would come of it. I got to work on the list anyway, later on. I discovered some French site had three excerpts from The Lord of the Ring score. I used my laptop to download them, which seemed to take forever. Sadly, I Can't say I was all too impressed. The Lothlorien music was dissonantly creepy rather than ethereal; the using a tin-whistle for the Hobbit theme was as clichéd as a James Horner score. The MP3s were monaural and poorly done too. I listened to the Harry Potter score on minidisc about three times and managed to cross off five pages of the special broadcast list. Even still that was only one quarter of it. In the evening I got another e-mail from that woman in England. I started reading The Lord of the Rings, but only the Notes on the Text pages. Friday, November 2 2001
Our signal would need to be taken down again for maintenance, so I sent out the alert. The day had finally come for those visitors to tour our room. Fortunately it did not really concern us since one of the big bosses was leading it; all we had to do was wear our new company shirts and look busy. I tried to stop at the nearby McDondald's but it was too crowded; I ended up getting a Quarter Pounder combo at the McDonald's in Woodhaven. On the very last bite, a glop of mustard and onion spooged out onto my shirt -- onto my new company shirt.I went to the lavatory as soon as I got in, trying to swab the stain off my shirt. There was no hope, but at least our room is rather dim. The tour was supposed to show up at two:thirty but Dave bet it would be more like four:thirty. At least I had that special show list to rely on for my busy work. The tour showed up at around four. They gathered into the room, the big boss said a few words, pointed out a few things, and then everybody left. All the preparation, all the clean-up, all for less than five minutes. My nephew would need babysitting tomorrow, so he slept over here tonight. We played the Game of Life, which I won. Saturday, November 3 2001
I used my nephew as an excuse to see Monsters Inc today. It had just opened so I assumed the theater would be crowded, but in fact it was only about a quarter full. I got to see the new Star Wars Episode II trailer, but since this was nothing more than a series of unrelated two-second shots I was not impressed. Monsters Inc on the other hand was excellent. I don't know how Pixar does it, but once again they'd created a totally original, imaginative, delightful piece of entertainment. And it was refreshing that the movie did not feel the need, unlike Shrek, to rely on smarmy fart jokes. (Others, better known as Philistines, have had the gall to actually criticize the movie because of this.) I was already looking forward to getting the DVD.I dropped Jake off at his house, hanging around with my brother for a bit. I stopped at the car wash, then crossed over to Taco Bell for dinner; on the way back home I stopped at Office Depot and bought a new version of Norton Systemworks to insure XP would operate well and be virus-free. Later on, I watched my DVD of Toy Story 2 just because I'd enjoyed Sunday, November 4 2001
Over the last couple days I'd been looking into getting my SFG logo onto some new products. I written to some places that etch glass; I got a reply today with a price quote, so I went ahead and ordered a dozen mugs to see what they'd look like. They might make nice bonus gifts for Christmas, and if they looked really nice I might even add them to my store.I watched Vertical Limit in the afternoon but kept an eye on E! for their Emmy coverage. The third time's the charm, since the awards show was finally going to be broadcast today. I sped off to Rite Aid for some more sinus pills and then to KFC for dinner, but was back in time to watch E!'s pre-show coverage and then the awards themselves on CBS. I was quite pleased to see Late Show get its fourth win. But I was continually annoyed by a series of digital "snits" every ten to twenty seconds affected the broadcast from beginning to end. The show ended right at eleven, so I was able to catch some of the World Series too. Monday, November 5 2001
The construction returned to the Southfield exit so I was late again. Reid told me there'd be some trouble this morning; someone had screwed up in restoring our signal, since all our monitors were black this morning. The problem seemed to only be in our room though, since we were still broadcasting. It turned out our return feed had been forgotten.Dave had started writing e-mails protesting the giant special broadcast this week, but had received no replies. I worked some more on the list anyway. Reid disappeared and it was a while before Dave and I realized he'd simply gone to the weekly meeting with the programming department. They'd talked off the record about the attempts by our company to bid on taking over their company. They were all for it, since they're freelancers and we're full-timers. In fact, while we were looking forward to a long Christmas vacation they were trying to find excuses to come in that week. Of course, if they did manage to find reasons to come in, that would probably mean we'd have to come in too. Back at home, I'd gotten a couple packages today, including one from Amazon UK. I'd ordered the 2-CD import of Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone: the score CD and a bonus disc. As it turned out, both discs turned out to be bonus CDs! I also discovered the Soundtrack.net page had a full review of The Lord of the Rings score, including a clip from each track. Not only did I read all of it, I saved each clip too. I read that the digital breakup problems during the Emmys were the fault of our local CBS affiliate, thank you. They continued tonight as well, screwing up Late Show. Tuesday, November 6 2001
I read some trouble news that the corporation we work for was cutting payment to their contract workers by 7%. This was troubling, I am a contract worker. This seemed to suggest there'd be a cut in pay. I listned to my Philosopher's Stone audiobook on the way in, getting in the mood for the upcoming movie. I brought in a new water bottle too, to make sure I didn't get sick off my old one. Dave and Reid told me they had good news and bad news, so I assumed it was something to do with the corporate announcement. Instead, it was that the big special broadcast had been canceled this Thursday, but that we'd still have to finish the list sometime since the show would be rescheduled in a month. I asked about the corporate announcement, but everyone seemed to dismiss it. I wondered if this was because it might not come up until our contract renewal.I got an e-mail from the human resources person from Atlanta asking me about the insurance packet I'd sent in. I'd been expecting this, but it turned out there was only one conflict in the forms I'd sent back. It was easily enough remedied. Late in the afternoon, our overhead fluorescents went out, including the CO2 alarm light. A couple workers came in, saying they'd gotten a CO2 alarm from our room. We pointed out how the light was out and they started mumbling to each, somewhat guility. I guess they'd switched to "night lights" in the computer room, unaware this would affect us. Typical. I got an e-mail from Phil in the evening. He said he was going to sell his General Admission tickets for U2 in Las Vegas to some girl in Windsor. I'd brought my bottle of Dayquil in with me, contining to fight my approaching cold, and was disgusted to find the bottle had leaked in my jacket, turning my pocket sticky. Back at home, I watched A Bug's Life still thinking about Monsters Inc. Wednesday, November 7 2001
Sixteen old receivers were sent to our room so we could test them and make sure they didn't work. Dave told me someone had invited him to Las Vegas the same weekend I was going. Of course he had to decline, but still let slip that I was a "bastard" since I could go and he couldn't. Even worse, he realized that the Friday I'd be going was the day the corporation would celebrate Veteran's Day (which falls on a Sunday), so he'd have to work on a company holiday. He consoled himself though that he was planning on going this March.At night I got into an online debate over Steven Spielberg's plans to edit E.T.. "I know I'm in the minority," I wrote, "but I'm very grateful Spielberg has decided to tone down ET. I'm extremely pleased that Spielberg, now that he has his own family, has finally decided to make ET a family film." The sarcastic reply came back saying how the writer could've sworn there were lots of families in the theater when he'd first seen the movie. I have no idea how that makes E.T. a family film. I saw families when I saw Alien. But there's no point in arguing with Philistines. I'm just tired of people actually advocating that "Penis breath" is a classic line. It's not. It's stupid. It was stupid then, it's stupid now. It was only there for shock value and a cheap laugh; and it has no point in the kind of movie that will attract small children. Do I sound like a prude? Yes, sure. But I only became one when Hollywood decided that every movie had been aimed at the teenage audience, had to be stupid, had to be pandering. The kind of thinking that's causing every so-called children's film to inexplicably feature fart jokes. I finally got around to installing The 3D Game Maker program. It was cute and worked okay but the games were rather limited. It was fun to play with, but I had to admit if I wanted to really create a computer game I'd have to learn a programming language. I wrote to Mike, late at night, telling him how I'd gotten Monday off for the Buffett concert. Thursday, November 8 2001
Mike wrote back, agreeing it was hard to believe the Buffett concert was so soon. He also invited me to a U of M game this Saturday (finally) but I believed I had to work. Now the paper was saying our corporation would probably hire 60% of their contract workers and make them employees, since this was cheaper than hiring out. Houghton Mifflin had announced today was Lord of the Rings Day, so I celebrated along with them, leaving early to go to Borders. I bought The Visual Companion and The Official Movie Guide to the movie. Our bosses didn't know anything about the corporation's latest development. I brought my One Ring with me too, for the heck of it, in my pocket.Had a busy afternoon, after Reid and Dave left. I was suddenly bombarded by calls, juggling people on hold. Even worse, none of the calls was simple and some took much too long to clear away. I got another e-mail confirming that my friends had decided a week from tomorrow would be our next poker night. This was unfortunate since it was the day I'd be leaving for Las Vegas. It would be the first poker night I'd be unable to attend. I got home in time to watch the premiere of The Tick on Fox. President Bush had a speech and the only network to air it was good old ABC. They went out of their way to make it a full hour, so Whose Line got pre-empted again. Friday, November 9 2001
Happy Birthday to me.I got in late again. Not was Dennis in, but so were a bunch of other guys. They were inspecting the equipment and troubleshooting ways to improve our return feed, so the gaffe on Monday would not be repeated. Shortly after those guys left, we had another visitor, who brought our new Dell computer. The time had come for our upgrade. As discussed we did not get Windows 2000 but went from Windows 95 to Windows 98 to insure our DOS-based programs still worked. He set the terminal up for us, but for some reason was unable to get us onto the corporate network. I took a look at it after the guy left. I don't know what the problem was, but I was able to get us online easily. All I did was enter the info off WINIPCFG. Once online, I started restoring some of our documents, which we'd moved to the shared drive. I spent the evening playing around, setting Windows 98 up the way I like, getting Outlook to work with three profiles. As a birthday present, I got a final letter from that woman in England, saying she would be moving to Lithuania to work there starting in December. I did not treat myself to anything after work. I went straight home. My birthday horoscope in the newspaper said "Extra cash will land in your lap this month. Show off your radiant, sexy charm in December. You could end up fielding proposals because of it." I wondered if I could find other birthday horoscopes online. The resultant news was not all that ecouraging. Happybirthday.com said "The possibility of a major life change or relocation in early spring becomes the focal point from which all else flows." Yahoo.com said "There is a very unique and mysterious aura around you for the next 12 months and it is not something that you can control - it's just there! Therefore, you can expect people to notice, observe, and admire you." My favorite was from Skali.com. For the remainder of the year 2001, you have to be cautious because some of your good planets turn erratic especially during the period of November 22nd to December 21st when superiors disagree with you and contracts and agreements turn very sour. Save your energy for the year 2002.I guess I have a fair chance. Saturday, November 10 2001
As expected I had to work today so I was unable to go to the U of M game. The shift was quiet and uneventful. I stopped at Arby's for Jalapeño Bites. I worked on the computer when I got back. Got dinner from Taco Bell. My nephew John was in a school play this weekend, but I did not go to it. I finished the Vertical Limit DVD at night.Sunday, November 11 2001
My brother Rick and family came over for my birthday. They gave me Monty Python & the Holy Grail on DVD. I'd asked my mom for a brown cardigan, and when she couldn't find any brown she decided to make me one. It was taking longer than expected (I joked she could give me a vest for my birthday and a sweater for Christmas) so she'd bought a brownish one from LL Bean. (Whatever happened to plain old standard colors? This sweater looks either gray, brown, or green depending on the light.)Tonight, Fox tried to give me a birthday present by presenting the premiere of the new X-Files season. I used to really love this show, but sitting through it now is a chore. I was actually ridiculing it and talking back to the screen. Everything about the show -- except the cinematography -- is so worn out and stupid. There is no "key to everything". There is no "answer". The truth is not out there, it got bored waiting around and went someplace else. And the explanation (or lack thereof) for Mulder's absence was particularly infuriating. He's in danger of his life so he has to hide? Gee, last episode Scully's baby was the answer to everything, so why didn't Mulder fear for the baby's life? It would've made a lot more sense for him to take the baby with him, but then that would mean the writers would have to feature Scully more. Memo to Fox: Please cancel this show. Monday, November 12 2001
Jimmy Buffett's Detroit area concert was finally today. I'd arranged to work the morning shift so I'd have the evening free. The first order of business was to get our "Xytech" program running again so I could enter tomorrow's scheduling. Dave and I found out from the CNN homepage that another plane had crashed in New York. Since it had gone down in Rockaway, I couldn't help wondering if this was retribution for the NY cop from Rockaway who'd publicly threatened Bin Laden from the stage of the Concert for New York. We found out later though that the plane had crashed moments after take-off, which seemed to suggest it was mechanical failure. This is scarcely consolation though for an already beleagured city.Late in the morning someone from the Traffic department came by and installed the latest version of Xytech for us. Despite Buffett being imminent, we really hadn't made too many plans. I e-mailed Mike and we decided to meet at the Drury Inn, off I-75 at exit 69's Big Beaver Road, just like we'd done before. I'd brought some more appropriate clothes in my laptop bag, so I changed in the men's room and left at around three. I decided to take Mound Rd up, since it would be fun to retrace routes I used to drive when I worked for the cable company. I was impatient and traffic was moving slow. At a red light, the woman in the light blue Isuzu SUV in front of me got out and walked back to my car. I rolled down the window, expecting her to ask directions, but instead she started complaining about how I was driving to close to her and that I'd better back off. Taken aback, I staggered my start-up as she drove off, and I gave her a few extra feet between us. I could see her looking in her rear-view mirror, and she nodded to me approvingly. This pissed me off. I was not going to give her the satisfaction of thinking she'd altered my driving -- the only reason I might've been too close was because she kept riding her damned brakes (in the fast lane, too)! So I sped up. This pissed her off, evidently, since just before 15 Mile Rd, she put her brakes on and came to a complete stop. We were short of the intersection and I realized she had stopped wantonly, just to trap me. I was tempted to lay on the horn or give her The Finger, but instead I just sat there and stared at her through her rearview mirror. It was around rush hour now so Cars were collecting behind me, with no idea why we were stopped. I just sat there; if she wanted to inconvenience everyone while she got pissy, then so be it. She eventually gave up and drove off; I made the green light, and as soon as I crossed 15 Mile I made a left hand turn into the Burger King drive-thru. This had been my goal all along, and if that woman could've waited a couple dozen yards I would've been long gone from her; but no, she had to be a complete and total wench and screw everybody over. I dined in the car on my double cheeseburger combo while I got back onto Mound Rd. I took it up to Metro Parkway, aka 16 Mile, aka Big Beaver Rd (depending on what city you drive through). I was early at the Drury Inn, so I sat in my car listened to All Things Considered. I used listen to the show nightly, but since changing jobs I haven't heard it in a year maybe. Mike pulled up after a while. We weren't sure if anyone else was meeting us; and by around five:o'clock we took off, figuring we'd given them enough time. We got to the Palace of Auburn Hills at five:thirty, with few traffic tie-ups. Unlike a typical Buffett concert, neither of us had brought any tailgating supplies, so we waited for the arena to open. The lobby was open so we milled around there for a bit. Security looked low-key which was good since I hoped to bootleg the show. I was worried the talk of heightened security might even affect this show. Mike and I wandered the parking lot, spotting brave souls who were partying at their vehicles despite the chill and the gusty nighttime breezes. One group handed us Jell-O shots. Lines started to form as the venue prepared to open the doors. We could no longer get into the l0bby and had to wait outside, and as we waited I spotted security people behind handed metal detector wands. This was exactly what I had hoped against. Mike talked me into trying it, but I knew it wouldn't work. As expected, I set off one of the wands, but instead of emptying my pockets I just asked for Mike's keys and went back to the car to put the recording gear away. I'd blown two chances to record Buffett this year, once in June and now tonight. I couldn't help wondering how this would affect my Buffett page. This was the first year I'd be without a Buffett tape since 1987. But I could console myself that at least it wasn't my fault; I'd tried, but outside forces had prevented me. I met up with Mike in the lobby. We got some overpriced beers and went looking for Club Trini, who we assumed would be performing before the show. Before, they'd played at the spacious landings at the tops of the stairs, but now they were tightly packed into a corridor. Off to the side we were delighted to spot Fingers Taylor, the harmonica player who'd left the band last year. The crowd pressed too tight for us to get over to him though. Afterward we ran into Greg and Joe, by our section. Joe dropped a beer; the guys bought toasted almonds; and we split up and went to our seats. I guess it worked out I didn't have my recording gear since I don't know if I would've been able to use it anyway. We had second floor risers, at the other end of main floor (opposite the stage), so a security guard was standing about ten feet in front of me. It was also nice not to have to worry about taping, since it gave me the liberty to cheer and applaud and sing out loud. It also did not annoy me that the women behind us never shut up. I might not have a tape to show for it, but at least I had a good time. Tuesday, November 13 2001
Since last night's Buffett show was streamed from his website in RealAudio I was able to download half of it, in MP3 form, from the Holylands FTP site. It seems very bizarre that Buffett broadcasts every one of his concerts but doesn't allow people to tape them. It's as if he doesn't care if people hear the songs, he's just afraid of bass. Our second Dell computer got replaced, at work, with a new one. This must've happened yesterday. Dennis came by with a replacement VCR, since our old one is starting to eat tapes. I installed it, but it didn't have the features we needed to make it work for us. Found out my web host was saying I was using too much disk space on his server; this didn't jibe with the stats the website Control Panel showed, but I obligingly moved all my audio files elsewhere. I wrote to my Illinois pen pal about the Buffett show; I also mentioned that I'd be in St Louis, which is close to her, on Friday en route to Las Vegas. She wrote back that she'd be willing to meet me at the airport Friday, which I thought was sweet of her, except she has travel plans of her own and will be in Arkansas for Thanksgiving.Wednesday, November 14 2001
Late in the day, some guys came by to drill a hole into our floor to run cables between our room and a room across the hole. Our floor is elevated, so when they removed a couple floor panels they found what look like a circular discoloration which kind of looked like a cork plugging up an already drilled hole. They broke this "cork" up and found their job was already accomplished. Dave had stayed late just to oversee this, but he was at dinner now and when he came back he found the whole project over and done with.I finally fixed my audio problem with QuickTime. I'd been thinking it was a problem with Internet Explorer, but reinstalling and upgrading did not work. I finallty fixed it by reinstalling my ATI video card's audio drivers. Thursday, November 15 2001
The end of my week had already come, since I was taking tomorrow off for my plane trip to Las Vegas. Dave jotted down some notes of casinos and restaurants I should check out. Luckily the day was quiet. I stopped at my bank on the way home for some money from the ATM. I have to admit I was starting to worry about being on a plane.Friday, November 16 2001
My flight was late in the day, so I suppose I could've switched shifts with Reid again (as on MOnday); but I liked having the day free so I could pack and get ready. I also took the car out to get an oil change. I assumed I'd be driving myself to the airport later, but I found my parents were offering to drive me. I expected some big showy goodbye, but instead they dropped me off at the curb and then drove off for dinner. I met up with Phil in the TWA line. Although I had some expensive gadgets in my suitcase (a digital camera, a video camera) I decided to check my luggage rather than have to take it through security. The only stuff I carried on were a couple magazines. Our flight was TW349, on an MD3, seats 18D & 18E, scheduled to take off at 18:53 and was 80% on time. I almost had trouble right from the start when I was informed I only had a boarding pass and not a ticket. Phil was already on the gangway and did not hear me as I called to him; but the ticket taker, realizing I was with someone else, discovered my ticket with the one Phil had given him.I had the middle seat with Phil on my left and a guy named Alan on my right. He was originally from Chicago but was heading to Atlanta to see his grandkids for Thanskgiving. Behind us was a loud woman named Barb, obviously drunk, who was going on and on about how she wanted to compare a flight on a jet airplane to the "two-seater water hoppers" she was used to. She also couldn't resist plenty of jokes about terrorists being on board, including "Bin Buddy", and how the plane would probably crash (and how she wanted to pat Alan's head for luck). This was absolutely not what I wanted to be listening to right now. I was surprised when the flight attendants allowed them to buy more alcohol. Later into the flight, Barb evidently spilled her slot machine money since I heard dozens of coins hitting the carpet. "That's the sound I wanted to hear," I said aloud, "but I didn't expect to hear it this soon." Meanwhile, Barb was yelling at Alan to move his seat up (as if he could) so she could pick up all her change. As we neared St Louis, a flight attendant finally came over to Barb's group to yell at them for not taking their seats. I guess the flight crew had finally realized what pains these people were. "Dont think for a minute, the stewardess said, pointing a finger, that we cant bump you from your connecting flight to Las Vegas! The St Louis airport looked very modern, black and gray and silver. The departure gates had overhead TVs, where I could watch CNN while we waited (and where I got to see the visage of "Bin Buddy" to inspire me onward). The next plane was another MD3, flight TW163, seats 25A & 25B, departing at 20:20 and arriving in Las Vegas at 22:00. As we boarded, Phil and I dreaded to think Barb's group might be nearby. Phil was pleased therefore to find out there was a wall behind our seats (for a restroom). We didn't see Barb's group at all, in fact. One young woman, who'd been the only apparently sober member of their group, had been trying to talk them into having a meal in St Louis, so I wondered if the group had been too drunk to keep track of time. But now I wondered if maybe the air marshals might actually have detained them. The flight to Las Vegas was so quiet that I ended up napping most of the way. The crew even turned the overhead aisle lights off for us. Dave had already told me to be on the lookout for the lights of Las Vegas, how cool it is to suddenly see the usually dark desert floor suddenly erupt in an explosion of brilliant neon. I kept waiting and waiting and then finally noticed all the lights were on the right side of the plane! I didn't see them on my side until the plane descended and turned to approach the airport. We arrived maybe twenty minutes early. We took a tram to get from the gate to the terminal, had a long wait to grab our luggage, and then took a shuttle van to our hotel. We were staying at the Flamingo. We had another long wait in the Flamingo lobby before getting our room, #6140 on the sixth floor (which we made sure had separate double beds, mind you). I'd expected the casino to be dark and elegant, like in the movies. The Flamingo's was loud and bright and rather cheap looking; it reminded me more of the Casino Windsor, which was a let down.
Saturday, November 17 2001
Phil was already up when I got up at around seven. He was ready to go down to the casino but I was in no hurry. I hated to admit it but the small amount of gambling I'd done yesterday was enough. I had no great belief that I would win and I hated to throw my money, so in all actuality I was pretty much done with Las Vegas already. The TV was tuned to CNN2 which was talking about the record-breaking release of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie. Phil admitted he wouldn't mind getting the book, so he could read it on the return flights. Staring out the window I realized for the first time there were mountains on the horizon (it had been too dark last night to see them). Phil went downstairs to the sports book and I took my shower. There was only one tap and it only controlled the temperature, not the intensity; and the shower water spewed out like a fire hose.I met up with Phil as he sat in front of a bank of TVs watching college football. We used our second coupon for hot dogs. Then we went across the street to Caesar's Palace where Phil continued watching college football. U of M was playing; it was strange to think that my friends were at that game, how I might've been at that game, yet here I was watching on the other side of the country. The Caesar's casino was ornate and huge, more like how I'd imagined. The sports book area looked like the war room from Dr Strangelove.
I walked around the main floor checking out the casino as well as some of the shops. Phil's birthday would be tomorrow so I thought I should get him a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. You can buy suits and gowns and sunglasses and framed artwork, but for some reason hotels don't sell books and magazines. We went next door to the Mirage. In a lobby display we spotted one of Siegfried & Roy's Siberian tigers exhibiting the trick of mounting an elephant.
We next across the street to Harrah's where Phil finished up watching the football games. The Harrah's sports book was the dingiest yet; the counter to place bets was right in front of the spectactor seats, so half the time your view of the TVs was blocked by people standing in line. When we headed back to our room, for a nap. We'd heard on Wire, the U2 listserv, that there might be a pre-concert get-together at the Hard Rock. Phil wanted to walk there but we couldn't get satisfactory directions. We set out but eventually returned to the Flamingo to get a taxi. I approved of the decision since it was quite chilly and I'd stupidly not packed a jacket. We had dinner at the Hard Rock casino and then dropped a few more bucks in the slot machines. We did not find any U2 party, but the hostess said some people were supposed to show up later, following the Rahman / Lewis fight (over at Mandalay Bay).
On the way back, we found out Lewis had already knocked Rahman out in the fourth round. It seemed quite early for a title bout to finish, but then again I'm used to watching them in the Eastern time zone. The complete antithesis of a party animal, I spent the night in my hotel room. I watched George Carlin's new, live HBO special, and I also watched CBS's broadcast of Fargo (which they'd been playing at the Hard Rock's sports book). The local news (which seemed surprisingly low-budget) talked about tomorrow's Britney Spears' and Macy Gray's shows but not one word about U2. Phil had gone down to the casino. He did not come back by the time I went to bed. Sunday, November 18 2001
Phil was still gone when I woke up, but he came back before I got out of bed. I asked him if he'd gotten lucky last night, but he told me he'd lived out a one of his dreams last night by spending the whole night playing blackjack. He'd been next door, at O'Shea's. He'd started with two hundred bucks and walked away with one hundred; but he still counted himself a winner since he'd been able to play with that for ten hours. He told me all about it, including how a fight had he'd accidentally angered the dealer and how two guys at his table had almost broke into a fight. The gossip among the blackjack dealers, Phil told me, was that Tiger Woods (who'd been at the Mandalay Bay for the boxing match) had won $300,000 at blackjack -- and then had not left one -penny in tips.Phil climbed into bed. I went out and took some pictures.  I looked around for a store that might sell the first Harry Potter book. I found out from the gift shop that there's a mall, the Fashion Show Mall, where I could find a Waldenbooks. I walked down there, past the Grand Canal Shops (designed to look like Venice), past Treasure Island (with its facade looking like the pirate town in Hook). The sun was intense, and not for the last time I wished I could find a pair of sunglasses wide enough to wrap around the front of my big melon-head. This had been such a nice walk that I meant to go back and retrace my steps, but this time with my camera. Phil was just getting up when I got back, at around one. We went to the Chinese buffet for a big lunch. We returned to the room afterward, killing time until the concert. At last the local news started talking about the U2 show. We left at around six or six:thirty. From the lobby Phil called the shuttle van service and arranged a pick-up tomorrow to take us to the airport; and then we went to get a taxi to take us to the U2 show at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Arena.  The taxi driver did not know where he was going; he was following other cars. We found the building but couldn't find the right way into the lot. The guy drove around, reaching dead ends or closed driveways, putting mileage on the meter. Like a schlub I paid the full amount. I hadn't wanted to fool around bringing my DAT recorder through airport security, so I did not plan on taping tonight's show. Since U2 no longer minds people recording shows and taking photos -- God bless them -- I was confident I'd be able to track down a bootleg of the show from another source. I did bring my camera in with me. Phil and I bought personal pizzas for dinner, which we ate at our seat. Our section was right off the stage, on Edge's side for a change. Phil was worried over the tickets he'd sold to that girl in Windsor; he thought they were for main floor, but because they'd had seat numbers he was concerned the girl might get stuck behind the stage or maybe on an upper level. It was great to see U2 again. I was unprepared for the emotional resonance the shows had, post-September 11. The songs of loss, the songs of hope had greater depth and meaning now. I swear, it was like a religious ceremony. When the names of the fallen victims scrolled across the screen during "One" it was tough to hold back tears.      Click on an image to see the full-sized version. During the show Bono spotted someone in the Heart holding up a sign saying "This girl plays a mean guitar". He brought her up onto the ramp, Edge handed her his acoustic guitar, and she launched right into "People Get Ready". She played flawlessly and Bono even held the microphone to her so she could sing backing vocals. Even Adam and Larry joined in, for a rare full-band performance. Bono asked her name afterwards, and when she said "Julie Kryk" Phil hit the roof. THIS WAS THE SAME GIRL HE'D SOLD HIS TICKETS TO! What are the odds that the one person brought on stage was the only person in the venue whose name we knew?! I guess this was the closest I came to winning at Las Vegas: I don't have any money to show for it, but I have a cool story to tell.  It was tough getting home after the show. We hadn't made arrangements and the line for taxis was quite long. Some woman came up saying she had a shuttle bus ready to go, but by the time we got there it was already filled up. We waited with a small crowd for the next buses. We all crammed onto the bus, including people standing in the walkway. There was still a wait just to get into the lane to get out of the lot. We were asking for so many disparate hotels and night-spots that the driver decided to drop us off at centralized locations. Luckily, the Flamingo was one of them. A couple guys behind us were talking loudly, but at least they were witty. One guy opined that that girl on stage had to have been a plant, and Phil was more than happy to set him straight. Monday, November 19 2001
I woke up quite early, well in time for our shuttle. Phil had already gotten up, showered, and had breakfast. He'd gone to the breakfast buffet and recommended I go too, since we had no idea when we might eat (and the airlines don't serve meals anymore apparently). I breakfasted at the Pacific Garden Buffet and then strolled around the grounds. Spending the morning wandering along the winding paths had become something of a ritual, watching the birds walk about or the koi swim in their ponds. I found I was in time for the penguin feeding.
Just for the sake of it, I spent a couple more bucks at the slot machines before going back up to the room to finish packing.
We packed up, waited outside for the shuttle, and then had a long drive back to the airport as the shuttle stopped along the way to pick up other vacationers. Unlike the other airports, we had to open our luggage up and have the contents hand inspected before checking the bags in. As the kid opened my suitcase up, I made an unfortunate joke about it "exploding". I'd meant to imply that its contents were packed so tightly that it would spew undies all over, and thankfully I believe that's the impression the kid got since I was not detained any air marshalls. Our flight was America Airlines 1628, departing at 11:55 and arriving in Dallas at 4:33pm. Unlike the other flights, we did not have seat designations in our itinerary. We found out this was because we were on stand-by. I don't know much about air travel, but it really irked me that we'd ordered these tickets weeks ago but somehow were not fully assured we would have a seat on the plane. And as more people began to show up, our chances looked even less likely. Before long, announcements were made that people with "flexible" travels plans were encouraged to look for another flight. Eventually Phil's and my names were called and we were able to go up to the counter and claim two seats. And then were immediately told to step to the side for a random inspection. I'd seen these occur before our other flights, but this was the first time I'd been asked for one. I thought it was kind of funny since the only things I was carrying were my two magazines. Still, I had to empty my pockets (pouring loose change onto the table) and had to turn on my cell phone (so they would see it wasn't a decoy I guess). I was in a hurry to get onto the plane, so I used my magazines as a tray and stacked everything on them before rushing down the gangway. I had another window seat, but Phil swapped with another guy and sat on the other side of the aisle. He spent the flight reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and napping. I finally got my bird's-eye view of Las Vegas, but in the daytime. It's rather surprising how small the city looks, and amazing to think of how much money is contained in that area. I began to panic after we'd landed, because I couldn't find my wallet. I could sense, as soon as I stood up, that my wallet was not in my back pocket. It was possible I'd dropped it while getting onto the plane. I tried to wedge myself down so I could look under the seats but my wallet was not down there. Just as I began to panic over losing all my credit cards, I discovered my wallet was in my front pocket. I guess I'd stuffed it in there while I'd been seated, since it was easier than trying to reach my back pocket. The Dallas terminal was one long long corridor. Inevitably our gate, number 39, was at the very end. Our final flight was American Airlines 300, on a Fokker 100, departing Dallas at 5:31 and arriving in Detroit at 9:11. Once we got to the gate I called up my brother's house, where my parents would be babysitting. My sister-in-law answered but told me I'd called a wrong number -- even after I'd told her this was Mickey! I hadn't called collect so there was no reason to speak in code, but for some reason she'd given me the bum's rush. I'd lost my chance to remind my parents to pick me up, so I hoped they remembered on their own. nbnsp; As we boarded I had to provide photo ID again. I opened my wallet but now my driver's license was missing! I checked all my pockets, before I began panic, and found the license had been separated from my wallet. I had another window seat, this time on the right side of the plane. My dad was not waiting for me at the gate, at Metro, so I called up mom to see where he was. She said he'd left a while ago. I followed the crowds to baggage pickup, and spotted my dad along the way. He told me that only passengers are allowed to go to the gates now, and this spot was as close as he could get. I met up with Phil, got my bag, said our goodbyes, and then my dad drove me home. As usual, he missed the exit out of the airport and ended up getting onto the expressway instead of Middlebelt. And then, once we finally got back onto surface streets, he ignored me and turned north instead of south. I had a little bit of mail waiting for me. My CD of The Lord of the Rings score had showed up today, a day before its release. I listened to it on my computer while I copied my digital photos over. I hate the way XP does this, so I finally got around to loading in the old Kodak drivers. I checked my e-mail and discovered that girl from the Las Vegas show was asking if anyone had photos of her performance. In this way, I learned the correct spelling of her name and that she has a website.) I assumed she'd get better and closer ones than mine, but I offered her a couple anyway. I uploaded them to my FTP space, so they wouldn't clog up her mailbox; and I wrote: "Congratulations on almost stealing the show on Sunday," I wrote. "You don't know me, but in a strange way I kind of know you. I and a friend flew from Detroit to Las Vegas just to see the show, and that friend was Phil Borsa who sold you your ticket. So I guess that means we're related somehow." Tuesday, November 20 2001
Those chilly Las Vegas nights had given me a cold. Even though my car had been sitting for only a few days, I had trouble getting it to start. It turned out to be a relatively quiet day at work. I seemed spend most of the time telling Dave and Reid my Las Vegas stories. I found out the corporation had finally made a decision on our own company's bid to take over the production department. I was not surprised to hear that they'd passed on the deal, especially with all the recent cutbacks. Still, it was a shame they hadn't gone for it, since even the production department had been looking forward to it (since they would become full-timers instead of freelancers). Dennis came over to run us through some training. I got a few calls later in the day, and did not feel all that rusty.Mike e-mailed me to invite me to the U of M game this Saturday. It was about time. This week might almost be as busy as last week, since Thanksgiving was in a couple days. As before, Canada was making us work Thursday and Friday, but there was nothing scheduled Saturday. I also got an e-mail from Julie. "That is so cool how we are sort of related! THANK GOD he sold us those tickets...I owe my opportunity to him!!! No GA's, no playing guitar with my all-time hero's!" It turned out my photos were one of the first ones she'd seen, so I felt much better about sending them. Wednesday, November 21 2001
The U2 listserv had stories about people buying the U2 Live in Boston DVD at Best Buy already, even though it was't supposed to come out for another week. Out of curiosity I left early to check the Best Buy by work. I was indeed able to buy the DVD but could not find the promotional CD Best Buy was also offering. It was strange knowing tomorrow was a holiday. I'd only be working two full days this week. I found out Julie Kryk was compiling all her photos and putting them on a webpage. (Hopefully this link will contiunue to stay activce.) I especially like the picture of Edge checking out her ass! Phil called me up to remind me about U2 being on The Tonight Show. The U2 website had mentioned it as well, but we were confused by their headline of "Tonight, Tomorrow". Did this mean U2 was performing two nights, or that their one "Tonight" appearance was "tomorrow"? Thursday, November 22 2001
Over the last couple days I'd been trying to download a VCD of the Harry Potter movie. The last half was supposed to be available today, but just in time my cable modem wasn't working. Reid would be working the morning shift, so I was free to watch the Detroit Thanksgiving Day parade. I don't know why I continue to watch this parade since the commercialization annoys me more each year. I had to miss the end, but I listened to Santa's arrival on WJR as I drove. I only had to work five hours, from twelve to five. But as it turned out the last show ended at four. I made it in time for dinner. I got to finish up downloading the Harry Potter movie, so I could show it off; but it turned out no one was interested. Those that would've been had already seen it. Besides, my dad had a rental copy of Shrek for the kids to watch. My sister-in-law Eileen insisted on watching Survivor, sheepishly admitting she was hooked on it. She'd also brought the photographs my niece had taken of a ghost. I'd been looking forward to seeing these since I'd heard about them on Halloween; but, sadly, they weren't as good as I'd hoped. However, when my I magnified my scan of the photo, later that night, after everyone left, I did indeed get spooked -- enough so that I started work on a webpage about Heather's ghost story.Friday, November 23 2001
I set my alarm for six since I'd be working the morning shift today, starting at eight. I had to enter up the schedule for the weekend and for Monday. Amazingly, I got a call from a guy at a US site trying to get his receiver working for a show. I got his receiver up and running, but felt obligated to point out there were no US shows on till Monday. He started laughing, realizing what day it was.I got another call, from our production group. They wanted to take down our channels one at a time, but wanted me to route working channels over each one so they could do their work invisibly. Dennis had just gone over the router on Tuesday, but I panicked and got flustered and wasn't able to work as quickly as the production group wanted. So they sent one of their own guys over to do the job for them. I swallowed my pride and let him in, knowing I'd not only surrendered the upper hand to the production group but would also probably be inundated with e-mails on Monday about my incompetence. I sat around watching him from a distance while he punched buttons on the router for them. I tried to put this shortcoming out of my mind as I got home. I got the new Santabear and I spent the afternoon downloading and listening to some U2 concerts I downloaded off the U2 Achtung site. It was quite the U2 week. Not only had I seen them Monday, but I bought their concert DVD on Wednesday, they'd been on The Tonight Show last night, and now VH-1 had some specials on them this evening. Saturday, November 24 2001
It was supposed to be cold and rainy so I stopped at 7-11 for some Cold Eez and some Tylenol Sinus pills before heading up to Mike's house. Because of my stop I didn't show up til quarter after eight. It was cloudy and cold, once we arrived, but the building we were near blocked out a lot of the wind. Mike's friend Dick, and Dick's nephew Bill, were in charge of the tailgate. The meal today would be chili. One of the wives also brought some tasty chicken mushroom soup. Mike asked if I was going to the high school reunion tomorrow. I confessed I'd forgotten all about it. My Las Vegas trip had driven it completely out of my mind, so I hadn't made plans or bought tickets. Mike said I could be his date, since his wife Sarah might not be going; but I declined, even though it was our big 20th year reunion.Today's was a big game, since it was U of M vs Ohio State. The stands were packed and tension was high. However the Wolverines seemed to be the only ones who failed to notice. They were easily dominated by the Buckeyes for most of the game. They didn't seem to realize the game actually counted till around the fourth quarter. The disheartened U of M fans -- those that remained -- started to rally, but unfortunately those last-minute points were too little and too late. The game ended up at 26-20 (Ohio), a rather misleading score since it had been 23-0 for much of the game. It drizzled during some of the game, so I ended up wearing all the layers I'd brought. We gathered back at our tailgating spot, putting the tents back up and warming the chili and chicken soup again. We hung around till it got dark, but even after waiting the extra time it still took forever to travel through Ann Arbor to the expressway. I'd brought some DVDs in my car, so I stayed for a while at Mike's when we got back. I'd brought the U2 DVD but remarkably Mike had watched VH-1's broadcast of it last night. We watched the whole thing now, plus my Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD. I threatened to play the "José Chung's From Outer Space" episode of The X-Files (it's one of the best hours of television ever written, but he's not a fan of the show), but Mike escaped. Sunday, November 25 2001
Brought out a lot of the Christmas decorations boxes, and brought up the boxes for the Dickens Village. I put up several of the Dickens buildings, but only temporarily. I still needed to build levels and put down "snow", but at least I had an idea how to form the streets this year.Monday, November 26 2001
I was questioned about what had gone on Friday, but nothing really came of it thankfully. Dave made sure to walk me through the router again though. I found someone was auctioning off a recording of the Las Vegas show on eBay. Since this was the first recording I'd heard about I bought a copy. I also discovered Caedmon has finally released their JRR Tolkien audiobook recordings on CD, so I got a set of those through eBay too.Tuesday, November 27 2001
I guess our room had been setting off enough heat alarms that something was finally being done about it. Some guys were behind our console, when I got in, and were trying to widen the ventilation hole between the front room and the equipment room. Although they struggled back there to finish the job (one guy had blood on his shirt), the front room didn't feel that much cooler.Wednesday, November 28 2001
I guess it took till now for the fallout from last Friday to hit. One of the bosses in the production department had sent out an e-mail saying our group was underqualified and overstaffed. He was also saying how our groups needed to be cross-trained. This was odd, since when he'd been against this when our company had offered to take over the production group a few weeks earlier. And his statement about our being "overstaffed" was ridiculous. Dennis came over to discuss this with us. He assured me he did not mean to point fingers, but he said it was exactly these kind of backstabbing Machiavellian politics we needed to train for. So he had me learn the frame sync and tone generator during the evening.Thursday, November 29 2001
Went to Burger King for lunch and picked up a Lord of the Rings "glowing goblet". I knew rhis was silly, but in fact the goblet was rather cool. That show producer who'd asked us to input hundreds of receivers for a "select-site broadcast" had another request for a similar show and a similar amount of receivers. At last some of our bosses were voicing our complaints over this and meetings were being scheduled. I read up about @Home's future, since thet might be allowed to declare bankruptcy tomorrow. I even checked Earthlink's website to price a DSL line. My way home was blocked by a police car; just around the corner from my house a cop had left his car running in the middle of the street with lights blazing. I was forced to back up to the next side street and try a different way into the subdivision. Cop or no cop, that's stupid.Friday, November 30 2001
Paul, whom I used to work with, IM'd this morning, saying we should get together for a drink for the holidays. The post-production house he works for has all their employees on AOL IM now. I found out George Harrison had passed away. I listened to Cloud Nine on the way to work. Reid was out sick, so Dave worked the morning shift. Dennis came over. And Darryl came over too, filling us in on the meeting he'd just had with the production department. Reportedly, when confronted face to face they'd recanted everything. (I couldn't help noting how they'd recanted in private, but their e-mails still existed.) Dennis stood up for us, scoffing at the statement about how we're overstaffed. "My guys aren't just sitting around twiddling their thumbs," he said -- just as I realized I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs while I eavesdropped!I was shocked to find out Excite@Home would be allowed to declare bankruptcy. They would shut down at midnight tonight. I had no idea what that meant for my Internet connection at home, but I had the feeling Comcast's appeals might delay the actual shutdown. I stopped at Best Buy after work. I wanted to get my mom and dad a DVD player so I checked out what models they had; I even jotted down prices and model numbers so I could do research. I spent the evening on my computer. Midnight came and went without an interruption in service. Back to Trouble Loner homepage To Bitter Old Man site To SFG World |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
