What's Your Time Worth?

Here's an interesting dilemna I ran into this week...

About a month ago my cell phone wasn't working properly. With the warranty, I was able to exchange and get a brand new one (same model) for free... I thought this was great. But now my new phone's battery is not holding a charge. I know I can take it and get a replacement battery if I were to take it in again...but here's the dilemna... where I need to take it is about a 15 minute drive one way...not bad... but I will also end up waiting approximately 30 minutes (minimum) to see a customer service representitive and then about another 15 minute drive home, a total of about an hour to get a new battery. The battery can be purchased online for about $20 and mailed directly to me, no hastles but $20 out of my pocket. As much as I like to be frugile with my money, the pain of wasting an hour at the mall just didn't seem worth it... I purchased the battery online. Obviously each case is different, but to me a lot of these companies are willing to give you good customer service when you eventually get to speak with someone but they make the process one that is far from pleasant which I think in turn is a natural detterent from using their customer service in the first place. What I also noticed at this cell phone store is that 80% of the store is set up to sell phones and accessories to new customers with several avaialable sales representative to help anyone that should need it, with most of the sales reps. just meandering around with no new customers to even assist. On the customer service side, there were 3 representitives and a line of 12 waiting individuals in a section of the store that was less than 10% of the total area available for customers.

It's like most every service in this country these days... as long as there are no problems or issues with your service everything is great. But the moment you have problems be prepared to be put to the test with your patience.

They have arrived!

The picture is a little blurry... but my tickets are here! I can sleep easy tonight knowing I will be seeing Tool in about 3 weeks!

Tickets Have Been Acquired

I have acquired 2 tickets to the May 12th Tool show at the Orpheum in Minneapolis.

I have yet to have them in my possession - which makes me a little apprehensive at this point - but there is no reason for me to doubt that the tickets are in route to my house as we speak.

The show was said to have sold out in under 5 minutes. I know of no one that was able to get tickets online and Ticketmaster outlets were sold out almost instantly. Tickets on EBAY and various other online ticket distributors have them priced at $150 to $1,000 (front row) for those still looking... and no, mine are not for sale! I'll see you at the show!

The NFL Draft...Why I Don't Care...

So Saturday is the 2006 NFL Draft and I, as a self-proclaimed football fan, really don't care all that much about it. What? How can that be? Right now there are people planning to spend all of Saturday parked in front of ESPN to witness every first round move. The draft gives all teams hope, if not just for one day.

But you see I've 'evolved' past the draft. Yes, at one time I did care about the draft. I too would be parked in front of the TV waiting and watching all the action of the NFL draft. But that was many a year ago now and here's why...

First, it's the whole draft ordeal. It is not interesting to watch on television in any way, shape or form. You wait for 20 minutes for a team to announce their pick...or better yet that they traded their pick... and wait for another 20 minutes. Yes, this is the ideal television to have on if you plan on drinking all day and essentially not doing anything and as much as I am a proponent of that activity, the draft still isn't enough interesting to justify that.

Then there's the whole post-draft world...and let's face it, the number of players that fail to make the NFL versus those that do is greatly skewed. First round busts aren't uncommon anymore, they are the norm. No matter how highly touted a player is, the likelihood of that player making an impact on an NFL team in the short-term is slim to none. And let's face it, that's where all the 'draft hype' is really at... the first round, maybe the second round. Any player drafted in the later rounds of the draft are rarely considered a 'bust'.

I think in conjunction with the whole 'draft hype', knowing that a team is likely to spend way too much on an unproven player is why I have trouble even caring about the draft anymore. Yes, I'll admit that maybe the Ryan Leaf experience may have biased me but if so then I am glad it did. It just further illuminates my point. To be tuned into that draft and to be excited about Ryan Leaf was just false hope.

Is the draft a COMPLETE waste of time? Absolutely not. I am certain I will flip by ESPN on occasion to see who the Chargers have picked but that will be about the limit of my caring...

10,000 Days First Listen

So I've managed to listen to the full 10,000 days album...

Tool seems to be reaching for a 'deeper' feel to their music without getting overly 'heavy'. Without question they are putting out music that is different than anything anyone else is doing right now and Tool is doing it in a manner that you can clearly see is masterful.

There is no way you can label Tool a 'heavy metal' or a thrash-rock type act. They are their own entity. Not progressive rock (ie: System Of A Down), they are better than any of that. Today's 'heavy' bands all just scream and shred. Tool is melodic and their lyrics mean something on many levels.

Like all of Tool's albums (except Opiate which really is an EP, imo) 10,000 Days has a 'feel' that is maintained in every song. It's nice to hear some new Tool, but what amplifies my appreciation for their music 1,000 fold is hearing them perform it live and any/all Tool performances have been unbelievable! I can hardly wait!

Toughest Ticket Around

Tool is playing in Minneapolis May 12th at the Orpheum Theatre. A tiny venue that holds around 3,000. Tickets go on sale this weekend. I am going to try and get tickets but am pretty sure that this show will sell out in minutes. This obviously won't be their full tour but they are playing small venues for a month or so after the release of 10,000 days then head to Europe. I'm sure we'll see the full awesome Tool show later this year where tickets will be cheaper and easier to get...

But if I am so lucky to somehow get a tickets to this May 12th show...that would be awesome!

Happy Easter

Son Watching Son

Because I just started using YouTube (which is pretty cool imo), here is a video of my son watching the video of himself and sister (previous post).

My Crazy Kids...

Video of my kids chasing balloons...

Godfather...

EA Games' Godfather... I've been playing it lately...

Sure, it resembles GTA a lot, but it's the mafia...extort businesses, take over rackets and wage war against the other families to become the Don of New York.

It's pretty fun...

(More screen shots on my Xfire profile page.)

Brett Favre

I'm not really a Favre fan...not really a Packers' fan.

But to recap this whole deal... 2 weeks ago the Packers gave Brett an 'ultimatum' to decide wether or not he was going to retire. The 'deadline' was April 1st and the Packer organization really didn't say what the consequences would be if Brett was still undecided. So then Brett holds a press conference late last week to say that he is still undecided.

This actions make it almost obvious as to what Favre wants to do...he does not want to retire but does not want to play for Green Bay and is essentially 'holding out'. Why hold a press conference to tell everyone that you still haven't made a decision? You could have a press conference every day if he wanted to do that...but it was to clearly send a message to the Packers that he wants to know what the organization's plans are with him before he makes a decision... and it's obvious that all this posturing is so that Favre doesn't look like the bad buy in the whole deal and that Packer fans will always worship him like a god...

The whole thing, imo, seems stupid. I don't think Favre is all that good and with his performance last year, who would want him? I think he should cut his losses while he still can. The last 2 seasons it just seemed like he was chucking the ball and hoping his team would get the ball...

Go Sioux!

The University Of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, 8 time NCAA National Hockey Champions, will take on Boston College in the first of two national semi-final games tomorrow at 3 ET in Milwaukee, WI. Championship game is slated to start at 7 ET on Saturday with the winner of this game taking on the winner of the Maine-Wisconsin game.

The Sioux are a young team and if you would have watched them earlier this season you'd wonder how they made it this far. But down the stretch the Sioux played some good hockey beating Wisconsin and then St. Cloud to win the WCHA tournament and then went on to beat Michigan and Holy Cross to make it to the Frozen Four.

What is so impressive about this team is that there is only 2 seniors and there is 13 freshmen playing. If the NCAA hockey teams think it is tough beating the Sioux this year...wait until next year!

I'd like to see both UND and Wisconsin make it to the final game proving that the WCHA is the best division in collegiate hockey.

Go SIOUX!

Mac's Running Windows

Ah, justice is being served.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've tired of Apple computer users' 'superiority' complex that seems to perpetuate many of their faithful. For years Apple-heads have decreed that the Mac/Apple computer(s) are superior to Windows/PC based systems with no really logic other than they pay more than they would for their Mac than for a comparable PC.

Well today it was announced that despite it's previous claims, Apple is releasing a beta version of 'Boot Camp' which will allow Macs to run Windows XP. Apple's first big move 3 months ago was to start using Intel chips and now they are supporting Windows...

So it will be interesting to see how all the Mac lovers out there tell us PC users how great their computer is...oh but wait...it's the same freakin computer now and you're still stupid enough to pay twice as much? I'm sorry, Mac lovers will only prove their ignorance and stupidity if they continue the charade that some how, some way an Apple/Mac computer is now better than a PC... end of discussion!

What A Flop!

Look at this flop that happened last night at the weekly card game I go to...

It went Q, Q, Q,Q and then the 6. That's right, four queens in a row! Unbelievable. The winning hand is off to the right...a pair of bullets. So after the flop he was sitting with a full house, queens over aces... hand ended up being 4 queens ace kicker...