Employee Free Choice Act

Warning: Political Crap I like Here

Beers Filling Up Through the Bottom!

Coach Wooden Didn't Like Me

Back in the mid-90's I worked for a corporate AV company. There was a myriad of "gigs" involved. Political rallies,Fund raisers, Fashion shows, Training sessions, Video shoots,Etc. 

I started to become the audio guy of the bunch. The long timer guys had moved on from audio so  I was the default A1 on the crew. I found a work-order for a new and interesting assignment. A luncheon for some collegiate athletes celebrating their newfound scholarships. 

The gig entailed a handful of local celebrities, giving speeches and awards. The keynote speaker was Coach John Wooden. Only, he wasn't actually there. I had a telephone interface feeding the telephone audio into the PA system for the attendees to listen to him, and a return feed of the podium mic and an audience mic for him to hear the cues, responses,questions and applause. If you are old enough to remember Phil Donahue-when he would dart around the audience-then ask, "Is the caller there?" Pretty much the same thing. The contact for the event handed me a California phone number with instructions to call at a given time before the event to call and test both directions of the signal. Then I was to call him back at showtime for him to speak to the folks and take a few questions. 

Here is a quick rundown of the conversations:

Me: [ring....ring.]

JW: 'Hello?"

Me: "Hello, Mr. Wooden?"

JW: "Yeah?"

Me: "Hello sir, My name is Rob, I am with the production company handling tonight's ev-[interrupted]

JW: "Yeah..."

Me: "ok, I just need to adjust the level of your phone and make sure you can hear the podium mic" 

JW: "Yeah,sure"

Me: "can you count from one to ten in a steady pace so I can-"

JW: "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10."

Me: "o...k." [I didn't even have time to adjust the phone to my ear-with my shoulder and grab the gain pot to check]

Me: "ok sir, I am going to put the phone down and speak into the mic. Let me know if you hear everything to your satisfaction?"

JW: [pause] ...."What?"

[It has come to my attention that Coach Wooden wants NOTHING to do with the entire process]

Me: "I just want to make sure that you can hear the presenter/Emcee in your phone handset"

JW: --------Silence------

Me: "Ok, 1,2,3,4,5,6...are you hearing any of this?" 

JW: "What?" 

Me "Are you having trouble hearing me sir?"

JW: "No, I can hear it" 

Me: "[confused] Ok, is the level working for you?" 

JW: "sure"

Me: "Great, I will call you back at"-CLICK-.....dial tone

The mother fucker hung up on me. 

Fast forward to the given time to call him and set him up for his speech and Q&A session. 

Me: [ring...rin]

JW: "Hello?"

Me: "Hello Mr Wooden" [Mind you, I am whispering since there is a presenter giving a speech in the ballroom at this point]

Me: "This is Rob again calling from Indianapolis-"

JW: "What? Who?"

Me: "-Rob, with the production-"

JW: "WHO IS THAT TALKING?"

Me: "It is the Emcee-name omitted"

JW: "Oh, How long until I speak?" 

Me: "Less than four minutes sir"

JW: "....[pause].....ok"

Me: "I have the script, I'll give you a ten second warning if you like?"

JW: "......pause....."Huh? oh, sure."

Now, let me imply the tone of his voice thru this entire process. He is very impatient and doesn't want ANYTHING to do with me or any of this process. So,it gets close to the emcee giving him an intro, and I pick the handset back up, and whisper, "Mr. Wooden, are you ready?"

JW: "Yes, I am listening"

The Emcee then calls out his name, and the nicest, friendliest voice you can imagine comes thru the PA system. He gives his speech, answers 3-4 questions wishes all of the athletes well, and everyone claps. As they are clapping, I mute the signal, grab the headset and pick it up to thank him,

Me: "Mr. Wooden?"

JW: "Huh?" 

Me: "thanks for all of your help!"

JW: [speaking over the sentence I am saying to him] "uh-huh...."

CLICK. 

Mother Fucker Hung up On Me AGAIN. 

I was tempted to stick that phone number into my pocket and call him back after a bender, let him have a piece of my irish mind. 

But that would be unprofessional. 

Robere Update

Baby and Momma are doing well. Work is good, work is busy. It was about to look bad there for a while. Millionaires need a place to live too! I kid..I kid. We are actually on the crest-or downhill run of the 2 projects that have kept us busy for the last 2-4 years.The third is on the uphill swing. The big news, the brass at the company are looking into a new OS for all of software we currently use. Currently using a Microsoft based server-moving to a Mac OS-X. "Please God, please help me to NEVER have to use Windows XP or 7 again?"

My Wife...

made a nice post about our baby here

22weeks-5days

More than halfway! 

Thanks Comcast!

Thanks Comcast, Since I pay the equivalent of a month of gas in my SUV to you every month,

now I can watch all of my paid-for TV shows on my laptop. 

My Prediction:

The Apple Mind Control App will go live. 

AutoCAD 10/26 update post

Now to start reading. 

Re-edited ultrasound video

Heres My take on the ultrasound pics and video. 

A short vid of the ultrasound. All the signs say we have a healthy baby

Ultrasound Nov 2010

Haalp!

Holy Crap, I don't know if I will ever master this, but I will try! 

F-in Windows

I am currently running Windows XP-service pack 3 on a 2006 iMac(4) Pretty funny how well that crappy OS runs on a Mac's Boot Camp but yet when you use a Dell-HP-Whatever- It crashes often. Man am I a nerd.

More Nerd Stuff...not much else going on

New Apple TV for the smart guys to play with

Spooky

Now, with the lights on, poor PC, took a dive in the Trojan pond

Not the official Blue-Screen-O-Death, but a Pre-Cursor

Hell Yea

El Nino

Yea, it's getting freaky. October 10th, 2010. (10/10/10- or if you are in the UK, it's 10/10/10. Or if you are Steve Jobs, it's X/X/X)It's 83d now, When I leave for work on Friday AM, it's possibly 42d. Freaky. $5 says its snows before October ends. 

Mac Crash!

I.....never thought it would happen to me....(dumb commercial reference, tack it up to an inside joke to myself) So I plugged in my iPhone to charge, dock, update-etc. As soon as I did, the iTunes program shut down. When I tried to reopen, it lights up, and shuts down again. Since I realized it was a problem, my first thought was a software update I was unaware of at this point(This is highly unlikely, I am only anal-rententive about 1 thing- having the latest updates) Then I tried the Disk Utility options, verify-repair-etc. Nothing. So I go to Time Machine Back-ups, drag a version from 3 weeks ago. Nothing. I gave up, posted a note on Macworld Forums.  When I awoke, one of the west coasters posted it was an obvious plist file corruption.
I find the itunes plist files. Removed them (At work, away from my Time Machine drive) restart the program, and the license agreement window pops up. At this point, I assume it's ok so I cancel until I get home to use Time Machine. Well, when I tried the older version, (assuming it was a plist file) it does the same thing. I even downloaded a new version from apple. Nothing. After looking thru Apples support pages I think it may be a third party plug in. I delete all of three I had running-nothing.
My last ditch effort was to open the program in safe mode (Holding option command while opening) HEY! It opened. So I begin the task of looking thru the program, as soon as I clicked on the preferences, it crashes. This time, it gives me a crash report

After an hour of searching for the file mentioned, I find it, drag it to the desktop, and fix the issue! This is probably no big deal to a seasoned machead, but I am less than a year with Snow Leopard, and 2 years with Tiger before. Go Me. 

The Elusive Round-a-bout

The Elusive Roundabout

So the folks in Indiana (Specifically the Carmel City Council) decided to incorporate roundabouts to keep traffic moving along. The only problem with this idea? NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO MANEUVER AROUND SAFELY!

I drive through two of them everyday. I rarely ever see anyone do what they are supposed to do. Could we please have the 4 local news channels, the local paper and the Indiana.gov url post a memo/directions explaining WHO has the right-of-way? 

Here's my favorite: I was stuck behind an elderly lady driving down 126th street west bound from Noble-tucky to Carmel. She was driving 20mph the entire 5 mile run. We approach the first roundabout at 126th and Hazel Dell Pkwy, and she maintained her 20 mph without even slowing down, unaware that the oncoming traffic has the right of way. This poor bloke on a classic 70's Honda 750 came around, slammed on both of his brakes but still managed to smack the side of her car. Here's the best parts: 1. He was OK, 2. She kept going, unaware that a mid to larger size motorcycle had just rammed into the side of her late 90s Ford LTD. He got her plate, told me he was OK and to go on so we didn't hose up the roundabout.

Round One

The Wife and I made it past the first trimester. Not a big deal but since I'm a 1/2 step from 40, and she is, well, she's...not getting carded anymore.Doctors and websites have done their best to scare the crap out of us. I think she is starting to worry, but not me. About 5 years ago all of the anxiety and worry in my life was washed away. I don't know if it was the copious amounts of jeagermeister or other assorted toxins forced into my body, but I am not worried.
She is a worry-wart. It's her nature. I have accepted this, due to the amount of things/problems/struggles in her life. My problems have been, "how much is my bar tab?" and "Can I float the car payment and still make rent by the 9th?" I guess I'm hoping my karma is in good working order and the creek won't run dry. I guess I assume that what we have been through up until now- should cover us for the rest of our lives? Who cares, I guess I will try and be-or become- the best dad I can be. Wish me luck!