"Random Notes from a cluster of a week" written by Mrmike on estrip.org

05/23/08 08:26 - 55ºF - ID#44432

Random Notes from a cluster of a week

It's been a tough week and this might be what's left of my mind.

Blew up at an account executive. This woman from a local magazine fishing for business came to my office with her rep, who I knew quite well. The Exec decided that being a recent Zoo addition translated into me just starting in marketing work. She reminded me of the actress who plays the all knowing secretary in The American President if only the Exec could have been that interesting. She decided it was okay to lecture to me like I was 14 and I was taking Dad's hot rod out for the first time. One passing comment, I can let go, but after about 10 minutes of being talked at like I was "Special," I caved and voiced my displeasure, reminding her that I have done this work and that I didn't get hired because I look good on casual fridays (I do). By this time, I'm standing and my boss is observing me from across the hallway. Exec: "well, what should I do?" Me: "Walk to your car" Her rep mouthes "I'm sorry" as they leave. My boss told me that shouldn't become a habit, but I was right. Certainly not real high on the professional behavior scale, and I'm not proud of verbally chasing somebody away, but there has to be limits, especially when I'm the friggin client

I hate that kind of shit. I'm not particularly good at it, not relishing conflict and all, but sometimes you got to be ready to tell somebody to shut the fuck up. It messed up my flow for the rest of yesterday, so I went straight from work to go watch Indiana Jones. Yesterday's creative writing had to wait till today when I was just empty creatively. I had two early presentations that messed up any movie going plans on Wednesday.

Feh, ready for the weekend

Anybody else get nervous in traffic when you see a car coming up behind you and the driver is a little too into their phone conversation.

I think I journal here a lot to keep those writing skills easier to come by. Had to crank out a series of ads and my first billboards for the Zoo, a lame pun on how you won't use much gas to get there.

Minor apartment tragedy: One of the most thoughful gifts I received in recent years was at the first estrip secret santa. The lovely (e:ladycroft) set me up with a series of little items that left me very moved. One of the items was a "ONE" bracelet that became part of my daily costume. Yesterday it snapped after 18 months of use. Might have colored my bias against the travesty that was thursday. Left for work strangely upset by that. Maybe the exec paid a little harshly for her crimes, but hell she deserved it.

(e:joshua) is right on the money with Lagniappe's, just came back full of fried crab po'boy. The afterglow is a good feeling.

Still mulling over directions on car purchases. My shaky credit and I got approved for a lease on a Corolla, but I can't help but wonder if a n Intrepid purchase make more sense.

Miss (e:theecarey) 's vision in these pages

Indiana Jones was fun. It ain't Raiders, but what could be. Whatever Harrison Ford and Karen Allen are drinking, I'd like some, please.

A three day weekend couldn't have come at a better time.

Eat, drink and be merry ya'all

imk2 writes at 06:00:42 05/29/08 - Comment #35548: i dont think anyone would hate you for buying a gift someone already had. it's the fact that you did get it that counts. come on peter, you have to participate next year. if you want, i'll help you pick out what to get.

(e:ladycroft), you've got a deal.

metalpeter writes at 05:53:06 05/24/08 - Comment #35429: First of all the entire thing at work sounds a little bit crazy. Yes there are people who do talk down to people and who do lecture them at times when they shouldn't (yes there are times when they should, but not here) but what makes it odd is that the Exec was new to you but you knew the rep. Unless the Exec all ways talks like that you shouldn't have to said anything the rep should have jumped in and said something first like "um excuse the way you are talking is out of line" If they know you and you are being disrespected they should step up for you and not just do nothing. It sounds like even though you where given support you should have been given more. Sounds like your boss should have walked out of the office and said "It is one thing to explain something to someone in a slow manner and to talk down to them, this guy knows what he is doing and if I hear you talk down to him or anyone else on my staff I will remove you from the zoo My self". Granted I only have you side of the story so I don't really know what was said but I think it is good that you stood up for your self, there is only so much you can take.

In terms of Indy. I saw it today and thought it was very good.

No offense to anyone else, but I do agree that this place isn't the same with out (e:theecarey) if you are reading this you can have the love of your life and still post.

(e:imk2) somehow I missed that story about you (and not in the good way) getting stiffed from Secret Santa, sorry about that. That is one of the reasons why I didn't do it either year was because I don't know what to get anyone and the people that I could get something for they might all ready have it. I didn't want to be the guy who think he bought someone a great gift that they hate and then they smile and say thanks and are cursing in their head.

ladycroft writes at 07:30:11 05/24/08 - Comment #35413: awww. i'll have to look into getting you another one! i'm still glad you liked your gifts.

imk2: i'll be happy to take over secret santa. i can feel more a part of it all being so far away :)

imk2 writes at 11:19:51 05/23/08 - Comment #35408: oh and the other thing i was going to add....is that i'm glad that you've gotten so much joy from your secret santa present. however, i will not be doing secret santa next year, because i got completely stiffed last year and was so hurt by it that i've sworn to myself that i will never put forth the effort again. so if anyone else wants to take over next year, they're certainly welcome to.

imk2 writes at 10:58:48 05/23/08 - Comment #35406: ok, few things to add here....

i agree with drew, buy don't lease. and don't buy anything other than a hyundai. i have had two hyundai's in a row, and have been saved over and over by their incredible warranty. it always amazes me why anyone would buy any other car when this car comes with a 5 YEAR BUMPER to BUMPER warranty and a 10 YEAR power train warranty. so basically, that means that if anything goes wrong with your car within the first five years, (except for the normal wear of breaks) you get it fixed for free. no questions asked. and it also means that if within the first ten years if anything goes wrong with your engine or transmission, you have that covered.

also you know that if a company makes a warranty on their car for 10 years, they HAVE to be making a quality product.

for example, we all know that cars are hit or miss, you can buy a brand new car and it can have a million things go wrong with it from the get go. my first hyundai had virtually nothing wrong with it for the 10 years we owned it, except for a fuel pump that went within the first few months of purchase. this second hyundai has had the engine light come on twice in the first three years i've had it. however, since my car is only 3 years old, and my bumper to bumper warranty is for 5 years, i brought it into the dealer both times. i also get the perk of not having to go to sketchy mechanics when i'm most vulnerable (i.e. without a car and in desperate need to have it fixed). since i can go straight to the dealer and know that i will get quality parts and quality work. (i actually trust my dealer, because we've been dealing with them for the past 13 years)

so anyway, the first time the engine light came on and i took it in, and they ran the diagnostics and actually found nothing wrong, they took a sample of the gasoline and found some impurities and suggested i switch gas stations.

about a year later, it came on again, and it started having symptoms of car sickness. every time i would fill up the car with gas, it would not want to start and i would have to pump the gas to get it revved up. once it did start, it would kind of chug and not want to accelerate and i would have to keep pumping the gas for like 30 seconds to get it going.

so i brought it to the dealer, dropped it off, got a free loaner, and went to work. by the end of the work day, i had my car fixed. i can't even recall what was wrong with it, but it now works perfectly. and what did i owe the dealer for both of these incidents?

nuthin. not one single dollar. no hidden fees for anything. no fee for running diagnostics, no fee for parts, no fee for labor. it's a beautiful thing.

and although you do have to maintain the car, and preferably have some kind of proof that you do, you certainly dont have to do it at the dealer, where it would cost you an arm and a leg. (i think that's where they try to recoup their money, as a 30K maintenance check up is 450 dollars). so you can just take it to your regular mechanic, and do your oil changes and tune up's and when something actually does go wrong, you take it to the dealer.

i bought my car from the orchard park hyundai dealer, because the northtown ones are assholes. when i went in there to talk about buying a car, the guy talked to me like i was an idiot and would not even tell me the price of the car unless i agreed to buy it first! and when i tried to leave, they practically blocked the door. i swore i would not buy a car from them even if it was thousands of dollars less than the other huyndai dealer. (there are really only two in town)

when i went to the southtowns one, after a few questions that they threw out there to feel me out before giving me a quote, (like, will you be financing the car or paying for it out of pocket....they do this because they know that they'll make money on you if you finance and so they can give you a lower price on the car up front....if you intend to buy the car out right, and they know that, they will quote you a higher price....so you have to answer that question by saying that you want to talk about the price of the car right now and that's all you want to talk about) so after they realized that i've done my research, they had the manager come in and lay it down to me straight.

he said that he knows that i've probably gone over to northtown, and that since he worked there for many years, he just about knows what they offered me, and that this is the absolute bottom price he can give me for the car.

and it was a fair price, and i appreciated not being dicked around and i took it after a few more questions and some discussion. he also told me that he'd throw in a deal that anytime i brought in a car for maintenance or problems, they'd give me a loaner car for free without any problems. i asked if he would be willing to put that in writing and he did. but frankly i've never even had to use that letter, because as long as i call ahead and schedule an appointment for a day that they have a loaner available (sometimes they run out) i was given a replacement without any problems. on days that they do run out of their rentals, they actually use enterprise and eat the cost.

in addition, huyndai has free roadside assistance on all of their cars for 10 years, so you'd never have to buy AAA again. and i've used that many, many times, when i've locked myself out or when i had a flat tire. so if your car ever broke down, you would have it towed to the dealer and fixed for nothing!

so the moral of the story is that you'd be doing yourself a disservice by getting a car that did not have a 5/10 year warranty on it. think about all the things that can go wrong in the first five years. and think about the cost of replacing a transmission 8 years into owning a car. you would have the peace of mind knowing that if anything ever went wrong, you wouldn't have to worry about having to pay for it. it literally would be like throwing money down the drain if you went with a different make.

that's just my two cent though.....but i have faith that you will make the right decision ;)

paul writes at 09:36:04 05/23/08 - Comment #35405: Crab Po Boy - yummy, yumm, yumm ;) I feel I need to hit up Lagniappe's this weekend.

drew writes at 08:37:20 05/23/08 - Comment #35404: Don't lease. buy.

Permalink: Random_Notes_from_a_cluster_of_a_week.html
Words: 587
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/23/08 07:42 - 45ºF - ID#44426

Wonder what Simon thought

I'm not much of an American Idol fan but this was one of the better acts.

Permalink: Wonder_what_Simon_thought.html
Words: 20
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: film

05/19/08 07:57 - 48ºF - ID#44394

I'm a bad geek

Two passes for tonight's preview of the new Indiana Jones movie were tossed on my desk a few days ago and after watching a large portion of the Sci Fi showings, I made plans to go, easily done since who is free on a Monday evening. I drove over to the Regal after work and saw people in line at 5:30 for a 7:00 show. I was going to exchange my pass for a ticket and go drink at Wild Wings for an hour or so.

I walked in and thought this is ridiculous. The movie is going to play for next few months, including downtown on thursday where the popcorn is so much better. What is to be gained by shoehorning myself into an overstuffed theater? Not a damn thing, only thing to be gained by going to a preview is that Jeff Simon might be in the next seat hating whatever is going on on the screen. I know of no one who would be impressed by getting in tonight. Give me the real butter of the Market Arcade.

Instead of fighting for a seat I didn't want all the badly, guinness and wings at the Anchor Bar were a much better solution.

Permalink: I_m_a_bad_geek.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

05/16/08 01:49 - 59ºF - ID#44367

Hi, I'm Troy McClure

And you might remember me from such crappy Zoo commercials like "The Lemurs ate my Ice Cream" and "No, monkeys really aren't coming out of your butt." My job sometimes has me doing some very silly things. At some point, I'll have to dish about being Johnny Bravo at a Bisons game.

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Rare multiple post kind of a day. This is beyond cheesy and I only got to write part of it, and you can tell when I have to shift from one paper to the next. It aired a couple times on Star 102 on Wednesday. I think I'll keep my day job.

Permalink: Hi_I_m_Troy_McClure.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

05/16/08 11:44 - 57ºF - ID#44360

eye rubber

Permalink: eye_rubber.html
Words: 2
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: random

05/15/08 05:04 - ID#44351

Allergies suck and other random notes

My allergies ramped up this week and for the past two days, I feel like I've been underwater and not in a good way. I tried walking the ring road at Delaware Park at lunchtime and with all the beautiful flora, I looked like a bad break up happened to me on my stroll.
This, too, shall pass...

Skeery driving in this morning. I turned off of Amherst onto Colvin going the Park and this white SUV is following me. I'm sort of groaning anyway as all the walkers who come to the Park for a prework walk all come to that end so there is precious few places to park. As I'm cruising to the last available spots, this SUV is filling my rear view mirror, enought that I'm getting a little afraid that if I stop my little red buggy quickly, I'll be a mitsubishi pancake left in its wake. I see a space to pull into and escape unscathed. Worse part was she wasn't looking for parking, she was just using the park to turn around on Amherst St. I get out of the car and promptly drop a bottle of orange juice which rolls down the curve of the road, under my car and is floating like the good ship lollipop on the other side of my car in the mud puddle by the grass. If that doesn't say omen, I'm not sure what does.

Thank god it's payday so the day recovered quickly. The Zoo runs a fundraiser in July called Wines in the Wild. It's a pricy mini Taste of Buffalo with some spas thrown in for good measure. The chairman was all proud that he got one of the golf stores to come and set up a "Golf Simulator" at this years event. I guess you hit a real ball and then computer generation shows what "happens" next. He was rubbing that in my face, so I responded in kind. I got one of the video game stores to come in and set up a station for people to play "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" between stuffing their faces. I think my contribution will be better received.

I took my son to see Iron Man and it was a lot of fun. I was smart enough to be the only guy over 30 of the many to bring a kid with him. To achieve intellectual balance, I went to see Chicago 10 at the Amherst. It will probably be gone tomorrow, but it was an interesting take on late 60's politics. I can say I had some brain food before I go to a special preview of Indiana Jones on Monday.

As soon as I figure out how to post an mp3 to play, I'll put up the cheesy commericial I recorded. It aired on Star 102 a couple of times and since I only got to write part of it, I sounded a little much like "Troy McClure."

Good tv tonight -- got the DVR set to earn its keep, catching Earl, Office, Lost, Grey's and American Chopper while I head off to help fight the No Child left Behind policy. There are some flaws inside them good intentions and stupid me, said I'd write a statement for next week's Buffalo School Board, just got to find some other sap to read it.

Partook of a growler of Alexander Keith's from the Village Beer Merchant and it was quite tasty. Now, that I have the growler fee paid, I may have to head back for a refill.

Think I may have stumbled into a relationship, too -- so far so good.

Good's starting to outnumber the bad.....

Keep passing the open windows, ya'all

Permalink: Allergies_suck_and_other_random_notes.html
Words: 618
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: holiday

05/11/08 04:52 - 65ºF - ID#44310

Happy Mother's Day

Good times, watch, chuckle knowingly

Permalink: Happy_Mother_s_Day.html
Words: 8
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: work

05/06/08 02:36 - 63ºF - ID#44255

Gratuitious 400th post

Another Zoo baby pic (posted by indirect request of (e:hodown))

Before the rains came Saturday, we had a little fun. When the rains did come, I learned an important fact. Wet purple is not a good look for a man of my years, but check out old frosting face (no,not me)

Never saw a Rhino charge before, but the two ton mother could book. She was a little excited for cake. She charged the cake, skidding considerably to stop herself in time. Who were we to say no?

Too effin cute.

Enjoy

Permalink: Gratuitious_400th_post.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: pics

05/05/08 10:00 - 50ºF - ID#44238

Sunday in the Park Photo Dump

Went wandering around Hoyt Lake and Glens Falls, came back with a few interesting images.

Permalink: Sunday_in_the_Park_Photo_Dump.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: work

05/03/08 09:26 - 64ºF - ID#44224

Babyshowers in Thunderstorms

Never been a party to this kind of party before. My employment has sometimes taken me to strange lengths, but I'm uselessly hoping the rain holds off long enough for the baby shower for this.

Her name is Clover and she isn't going to cute very long being a Rhino, but we're tossing her a party at the Zoo provided the thunderstorms hold off. Wet Rhino, nothing spells par-tay. Pray for late rain peeps.

Things I do for my work....