helpful phone numbers

a few years back, i signed up for an AOL account. i needed net access for a month before going back to school, so i figured i would cancel when i was done. i went to aol.com, looking for a 1-800 number to call to cancel my account. after 30 minutes of searching, i finally decided to just get a "live" rep over a chat connection. after asking me about 20 questions to make sure i really did need to cancel, and after trying to tell me that 50% of the web's content was only available if you use AOL, they gave me a number to call. a week later, i tried the number, only to find it was out of service.

today, i tried to find a number for amazon.com customer care. after 15 minutes of hunting through FAQ's and readme's, i found nothing. then i remembered my solution for getting the AOL number: i did a search on google. i know this may sound elementary, but i was locked into the thinking that the best place to get a phone number for a company was to go to the company itself. not true these days. here are both of the phone numbers for AOL cancellation services and amazon.com customer care (amazon's phone support was phenomenal, with no hold time and a friendly csr):

AOL account cancellation - (888) 265-8008
amazon.com customer service - (800) 201-7575

hope this helps someone out.

i have been really impressed with this photoblog (link depreciated). i check it pretty much every day, and am continually amazed. it will take me quite some time to get to that level of talent. make sure to check out his older stuff for the san diego fire coverage. that stuff is crazy.

tomorrow i fly to los angeles. i should come back with a haul of photos from the san diego zoo and wild animal park. i still need to hunt through my old red sox / yankess alcs game. just haven't had time, and i am sort of waiting for the new g5 to arrive. but yeah, LA tomorrow. home.

Entry posted by byscuits at 02:53 PM | Comments (1)

movie review - terminator 3: rise of the machines (dvd)

i was really not expecting much on this one, maybe just some decent action in what could well be the final fling from the guv'nuh before taking his oath. so i was quite surprised when the storyline was coherant, the acting was decent, and character development actually existed! this movie truly smacked me over the head with the "you-thought-i-would-suck-because-i'm-a-sequel-but-i-don't" 2x4. and how.

the man
arnie reprises his third role in the terminator franchise. now pushing 56, schwarzenegger really needed to bulk up to get back to his old mr. universe days. so i suspect a return to the 'roids, because the man was just plain huge. nearly twenty years after the first terminator, arnold is still a monster. within the first two minutes on screen, i completely forgot the man was born in 1947.

the plot
this movie even managed to tie up some loose ends left over from james cameron's 1991 terminator 2. questions of whether judgement day was really averted and issues of fate were answered. and i really don't think i gave anything away there. read the title if you might be thinking otherwise.

the characters
the main character was not the john connor of old, but really, that can be nothing but good. okay, this kid wasn't much better, but he was tolerable. just didn't convince me he would lead humankind in a war against the machines.

claire danes was even decent. at one point, the lines she was speaking really seemed to be coming from the perspective of a person that was really in her place. there seemed to be actually insight into her character at that point. no kidding. insight. in t3. yah.

the action
let's face it. you go to see this movie because you want to see action. in that respect, this movie satisfies. there was a downtown LA chase scene where they actually tore up several city blocks. the majority of the sequence was free of the heavy computer effects that have started to plague nearly every movie churned out. in a day where hollywood has forgotten how to blows things up and tear things apart, it was a nice change of pace. the action just seemed fresh.

the drawbacks
okay, i think most people know that the new bad terminator is a chick. some people think this is a drawback, and i have to admit that i was skeptical. but she really doesn't do much acting, and let's be honest: in the real world hot chicks get whatever they want. a female terminator would really be much more dangerous. so i was cool with things as they were. the only issue that annoyed me was the gratuitous shot of her walking down the street wearing nothing but her polymemetic alloy skin. luckily, they did a good job of not showing too much. the violence was really the reason for this movie's R rating.

the verdict
so what am i saying here? will you like the movie? i have no idea. but if you go in with the expectation that the action at the very least will be pretty decent, you should be golden.

Entry posted by byscuits at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

office immaturity?

in today's weekly status meeting at work, it seemed like i was in junior high all over again, except a couple of things had changed. instead of us all facing the teacher, we were around a long conference table. instead of a teacher, we have a boss. and we were slightly better dressed. the things that hadn't changed were: the kid headbobbing in an attempt to stay awake, the kid who loves to hear himself talk (as a nice change of pace, this actually was not me), and the other kids so bored out of their minds that they are passing notes. that's right. we were passing notes in the weekly status meeting. as the meeting kept going on and on and on and on (and on), we had enough. the egotistical kid was droning on about his problems and trying to sound important, so we made use of the time. i specifically remember one suggested option passed around was "murder suicide?" so, in case the "teacher" happened upon the note, we used the one effective form of obscuring the writing - scribbling circles over the written text. that was really the part that reminded me of junior high. some parts of life don't change much - you just start wearing nicer shirts.

i have decided that a regular source of content on this journal will be movie reviews. they are not intended to tell you whether or not you will like the movie (tho it is possible), but rather suggesting what mindset to go into the movie with, should you decide to see it. i find that nearly any movie can be enjoyed as long as perspective is properly tuned. case in point: i recently found the key to watching the third of the matrix installments - i just did not care. as long as i was willing not to evaluate plot or character development or acting, i found the movie to be a pretty nice piece of eye candy. if you were looking for a movie to tell you the answer to the original question - "what is the matrix?", you were looking in the wrong place. if you go into a movie with the right mindset, you can appreciate it for what it is. so let the reviews begin.

Entry posted by byscuits at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)

waterdeep

a couple of years ago, i put together a cd of my favorite waterdeep songs. i was listening to it again on the way to work today, and am reminded of why they are my favorite group.

waterdeep is able to paint pictures of what it is to be someone else. able to paint a single moment in time, showing what it like to be living that moment. i have listened to them since 1999, each of their albums over and over again. somehow a verse managed to escape my understanding until this morning. when i realized the story being told, i was in silence.

on a night that felt outdated
well he calls her out on the driveway
he's pullin' her by her hips
he says you ought to come by my way
and he kisses her on the lips
his mouth feels cold to her heart
unlike her man who's still asleep in their bed
but she numbs herself to that part
and she leans to what she calls her head
and though her face had turned away for a moment
and her eyes had flashed a bit with doubt
ahe felt the tug of a brilliant showman
and she was on her way out

i am still in silence.

Entry posted by byscuits at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

dr. pepper jelly bellies

i am currently going through my new 49 flavor bag of jelly bellies. i have printed color pictures of each bean from jellybelly.com, so i can more easily identify the flavors. i have tasted 26 of 49. there are some really nasty jelly beans, though. think the worst is juicy pear. back in june, i wrote about my favorite belly flavor: dr pepper. made from the original fountain syrup complete with caffeine, this tiny oblong ball of happiness is a computer programmer's snack food nirvana. i currently have 2 one kilogram bags of these beans sitting in my cubicle.

i also bought a couple of boxes of harry potter jelly bellies in my last order. here are some of the more interesting flavors: black pepper, booger, dirt, ear wax, grass, sardine, spinach, and vomit. yes, vomit. after trying dirt and sardine, i can indeed confirm that they taste just like the real thing. i am terrified of that vomit bean.

so here is today's question-begging-for-a-response-via-comment: what is your favorite and most hated jelly belly flavor? if you have not had the good fortune of tasting these, perhaps i can remedy the situation.

Entry posted by byscuits at 03:25 PM | Comments (6)

unitarian cemetary

friday was a beautiful day, and i took off work a little early to take some photos. these are the result:

 
 

i am especially fond of the third. this redheaded girl was wandering around the unitarian church cemetary in harvard square where i was taking photos. she sat down in front of one of the gravestones to study it, and i took a few photos. i don't think i could have planned a photo like that.

the squirrel photo was pretty decent, tho technically imperfect, as it is backfocused just a tad. still, i had to take about 60 shots just to get that one. squirrels are just a tad high-strung (photo deleted).

---

saturday was house work day. we got a lot done, but i had a bad attitude about most of it. i spent most of the morning working by myself, and just allowed myself to get into a bad mood. i even snapped at a house member in the afternoon, and felt horrible about it until i apologized. just an example of who i am on the inside, when not rooted in Christ. blah. i hate that.

went to a concert of rachel loy, a good friend of a girl in the wilson house. she was fun to watch, and has a great voice. she was opening for this guy named chris williams, who was nothing short of phenomenal. i bought his live CD and will be giving it a good listen over the next week.

our guys life group (which meets at next house at MIT. we dubbed it "next life") is taking a day trip to NYC this saturday. should be a blast. still looking for a place to eat lunch. since we are having dinner at peter luger's steakhouse in the evening, i am looking for something a bit more hole-in-the-wall-ish to get more of the raw city experience. any suggestions for what else (ahem, new yorkers, ahem, helena) we should hit?

Entry posted by byscuits at 02:48 PM | Comments (2)

indian summer

the weather this past weekend was completely crazy. all day saturday, it was around 70 degrees. it was even sunny! madness, i tell you, madness. a good madness. just a week and a day before that, it was snowing. we had few days in the summer that were as nice as that day. guess that's what an indian summer is.

saturday night i went to see "mystic river." i expected it to be a good movie, but not that good. the movie was rated R for good reason, mostly for subject matter, not what was actually on screen. i was thinking about the characters of that movie hours after the credits ended. amazingly written, with a look at the effects of random events and insight into terrible world of asking "what if."

i do not think i will buy the movie, however. it was emotionally took enough out of me to watch it the first time. i might be able to watch it again some day, but it will be a rental. it was just too big. i recommend it if you are looking to head to the movies soon. if there are no oscars given, then the academy is a sham.

overall, for many reasons, it was a nice weekend.

thanks to everyone that gave me some new music recommendations. they will be put to good use.

reading Hebrews in my quiet time today.

Hebrews 6:18-19
we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

i like the word picture of the soul anchor. i like the reality of it even more.

Entry posted by byscuits at 05:25 PM | Comments (3)