life as a dog…

A few weeks ago, we got rumblings of a possible job in Hawaii.  I didn’t really think I had much of a chance of being assigned to it – we have west coast people to take care of things in that area.  I’m more likely to get trips to Europe (of course, I’m not complaining).  But lo and behold…I’ve been assigned to the Hawaii trip.

The trip is a month out, so I have lots of time to research what to do in my down time.  I may not have a lot of downtime…it could end up like Barcelona.  But hey…this may be the only time I ever get to Hawaii.  I have to try and do some stuff outside of work.

I’ve got a few projects that I’ve wanted to do with photos.  I finally started one of them: “Formerly Known As…”  It’s nothing artistic, rather it’s photos of buildings that have distinct architecture – distinct for the business that built it (like the Pizza Hut “hut”).  Not just any picture of them, but pictures of ones that have been taken over by another business.

Of course, it figures that traveling has slowed.  I should have started at least when I was in Kansas City as I saw several candidates there, including a really old Taco Bell – you don’t seem to see those around much anymore.

So far, it looks like Pizza Hut is far and away the winner in terms of sheer numbers.  I’m not quite sure why there are so many Pizza Huts that went under.

It also seems a little more difficult in the DC area to find a lot of these.  Buildings are more likely to be torn down for something new than to be reused.  At least as far as I can tell.

My list of shows that I Tivo has become a bit stale.  It’s not that I don’t like the shows any more.  But when was the last time a new episode of Modern Marvels was aired?  Ace of Cakes has a new show here and there, but they seem to be coming less and less often.  Same thing with Mythbusters.  The First 48 finally started bringing out some new episodes.  I need to find some new shows to watch.  Of late, I’ve tried a bunch of different shows with varying degrees of satisfaction…

• Tattoo Highway – of all the shows, this one probably has the most potential.  Though I have to say Tommy just seems like a bit of an ass.  I’m not sure why.  I guess the fact that he rarely has anything good to say about a client has a little bit to do with it.  Added to Tivo, but there haven’t been any new episodes in a while.
• Whale Wars – I watched a couple episodes of this before deciding it wasn’t worth watching.
• Deadliest Catch – OK, this is not a new one.  But I thought last season was horrible.  For some reason, I think it got a little better this season – though I could do without the sudden introduction of a couple new captains.  Returned to Tivo.  Season is now over.
• Warehouse 13 – a new SciFi channel show (or now apparently “SyFy.”  How stupid.).  It’s not bad.  There was one review that summed it up best – comfort food television.  I think it’s an Indiana Jones/National Treasure type show.  I don’t know if it will go any further than the summer – it’s advertised as a summer show.  Added to Tivo.
• Gene Simmons Family Jewels – ok, this isn’t a new show, either.  But it’s got some really funny moments.  Enough that I went ahead and put it on my Tivo.

Unforunately, I do not have an HD Tivo, so there are some shows that I cannot Tivo, but I have caught and like.

• Built from Disaster – The name pretty much says it all.  They go through different types of structures and show a disaster involving said structure.  They then go through the whole construction process of new building.  It’s very much a “Lessons Learned” kind of show.
• HD Theater weekend car shows – There are several shows on HD Theater that I like to watch: Wheeler Dealers, Classic Car Club, Auto Trader.  I have to specify weekend because HD Theater shows old episodes of Monster Garage, Rides and Overhaulin’ during the week – I don’t like those shows.  Overhaulin’ could be good…if they didn’t do things like put ugly ass wheels on a classic muscle car.

And of course, there are a few that I just caught a glimpse of and that glimpse was more than enough…

• Life After People – I started watching an episode of this show, and was bored silly about 10 minutes in.  L said it best – it could have been done in one two hour episode, not a full season of shows.
• Daisy of Love – I caught this while flipping through the channels.  I couldn’t watch any more than about 2 minutes.  L demanded that I watch 10 minutes of it – to get a full idea of how bad it is.  After a couple of attempts, I finally made 10 minutes.  Wow….just wow.  Why would anyone willingly compete to win a skank?  Daisy is NOT attractive in the least bit.  I dunno… maybe she’s just an easy lay.
• Cake Boss – Copycat shows are nothing new.  But for some reason, this one goes beyond all others.  I don’t know why I feel that way.  The guy just seems like an ass.  I have only seen snippets and I think he fits the “goombah” role perfectly.  Sorry, TLC, but Food Network did it best with Ace of Cakes.  Leave the subject matter alone.

I think I’ve become fairly efficient with my traveling.

I keep a record of all my frequent flier numbers on my phone.  I carry on a laptop bag with my laptop and a binder with all the job info.

Within that binder, I use a folder for each job.  In each of those folders I keep all paperwork. I print my air, hotel and car confirmations.  I print two copies of my boarding passes (keep one on me, a spare in the folder…just in case).  I print out all the relevant job documents (the Production Book, shipping info if it’s there, and anything else that might be important).  I print out any directions I might need (airport to hotel, hotel to job site, etc.).  I keep several blank CDs and DVDs in case I need to make a copy of the presentation/video for the client.  And of course, a bunch of business cards.

But there are always some things that I haven’t done in the past that prove that I am still learning:

• Keep extras in the carry on. The biggest lesson learned on a recent trip was that I need to add a few things in my carry on.  My trip to Indianapolis from Orlando got all screwed up due to weather.  I was stuck in Charlotte for the night.  But my checked bags stayed at the airport – including all my clothes and bathroom supplies.  Nothing refreshing like sleeping in a hotel room without any spare clothes and nothing to “refresh” in the morning.  Granted, you can get most of the bathroom stuff at the hotel (and generally, there is usually a convenience store nearby if they don’t have it).  But in Charlotte I arrived at the hotel a little after midnight and I had to be up at 5:00am.  I’d rather be able to jump right into bed than spend the 20-30 minutes getting what I need for the morning.
• Keep your laptop power supply in your carry on. A few years ago, I had a flight from Las Vegas back to DC and had to carry on two bags – a laptop bag and a camera bag.  It was heavy.  I wanted to lose as much weight as possible so I wouldn’t kill my shoulder.  Big mistake.  We had a delay at McCarran of about 2.5 hours.  With that amount of time to kill, the best thing to do is get out the computer and do some work.  But I couldn’t.  I had no power.  Needless to say, I ALWAYS carry my power supply with me now.  I do still put the phone power supplies in the checked bags.  But I also make sure that they have been fully charged before I hit the airport.  So I’ve never had a problem with them, even on international flights where I use my iPhone to watch movies.
• Make sure you have a backup plan. I thought I was covered on this from Orlando to Indianapolis.  I booked a flight on US Airways through Charlotte that would put me in Indianapolis at 11:00pm.  I only had a 35 minute layover in Charlotte.  So if I missed the connection, I was ok…there was a later flight from Charlotte that would get me to Indianapolis at midnight.  If I happen to miss the flight out of Orlando, there was an American flight that would take me through Chicago.  But that one would put me in a hotel in Chicago for the night.  I’d arrive in Indianapolis at 9:30am.  Not optimal, but I’d be there soon enough to get to the job location on time.  The problem, as it turned out, was that my flight from Orlando got delayed 40 minutes.  That was ok, because I could still catch the later flight to Indianapolis.  But then it got delayed again… another 45 minutes.  That’s when things got a little hairy.  That meant I was going to most likely miss my connection in Charlotte (the second flight was not delayed and I seriously doubt anyone can make it from one gate to another in 10 minutes – assuming we would land at exactly the time they said and get to the gate from the runway quickly).  But it was also enough of a delay that I couldn’t catch the American flight.  So I got stuck in Charlotte.  I did manage to get to the location ahead of time…but there really was no guarantee until I got there.  If I had rented a car as planned in Indianapolis, I probably would have been late.  It was just luck that it was in my parents’ city and they could pick me up at the airport, saving the rental car counter time.
• Make sure your passport is up to date. I haven’t had a problem with this.  But when I was flying to Switzerland, a friend gave me a little bit of a scare.  It was 4 days before my flight and he mentioned that most countries require your passport to be valid at least three months beyond your travel dates.  Mine was not.  It was only valid for about 2 months beyond my travel dates.  Unfortunately, the situation was that there was absolutely no way for me to get it renewed…even using the emergency route.  He told me this info on a Saturday.  I was flying to Orlando on Sunday.  I was returning to DC on Monday and flying to Switzerland on Wednesday.  So Tuesday was the only day I could do it.  I don’t think it’s possible to apply to renew and actually get the passport in 8 hours.  Thankfully, there were no problems.  Needless to say, my passport renewal became the top priority.
• Always make sure your Frequent Flyer # is on the ticket. I usually don’t have to worry about this, because I enter it when I book online.  But every once in a while circumstances make it necessary to recheck.  When I flew to Geneva, I got switched to an Air France flight.  What I didn’t realize is that my Delta SkyMiles number did not get entered into the Air France flight.  Having to send all the information to Delta to get my mileage credit was a bit of a pain in the ass.  They only allow fax or snail mail.  Why can’t I email them a pdf of the ticket?
• Always keep spare batteries for noise-cancelling headphones. I don’t know if it’s just me or if this happens to everyone else.  It took me a while to find a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that I like.  I refuse to pay more than about $50 for a pair of headphones.  And I sure as hell won’t pay $100+ for ear buds.  Ear buds are way too delicate to be spending that kind of money on.  I bought a pair of noise-cancelling ear buds once.  They sucked.  I don’t particularly care for the feel of buds anyway.  I have my ear buds for my iPhone, but that’s pretty much required since they have a microphone on them.  My first pair of noise-cancelling headphones were from Creative.  They worked great.  But like buds, they ended up being too delicate.  After about two years, one of the cords finally frayed to the point they didn’t work.  So I was off to find another pair.  I ended up buying a pair of Sony headphones.  They work great, too…and they only cost $40.  That being said… I have yet to see a pair of headphones where the on/off switch was very good.  It doesn’t matter how many times I make sure I turn them off before I put them away, when I pull them back out, they’ve inadvertently been turned back on.  Not great when you don’t have any batteries.  So I’ve taken to keeping 2 or 3 spare batteries in the headphone case.
• Keep a tiny umbrella packed. I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while anyway.  But the event I had in Iowa just solidified the need for one.  There is nothing like trying to carry equipment from a car to a building when it’s raining out and not having an umbrella.  I’ve got a rain jacket…but that’s not enough, really.  I’m not sure how much help a tiny umbrella will actually do, but it’s better than nothing and it’ll fit in any bag I may have.
• Be skeptical about “high speed” internet offerings. High Speed internet is the number one priority for me when booking a hotel.  Free high speed especially.  It absolutely galls me that hotels charge for internet access.  Especially when you consider, the higher price the hotel is, the more likely they are to charge for access.  If you are going to charge such high prices for your hotel room alone, this is something that should be thrown in at no charge.  It’s not like it’s costing the hotel anything.  Nobody is using that much bandwidth…and if they are, it’s not that difficult to throttle them down.  Regardless… I have been burned a couple of times by what hotels claim to be high speed internet.  Once was in San Diego.  The hotel claimed high speed internet.  Turns out, it was a single ISDN line serving the entire hotel.  That is not high speed…especially if several guests connect.  Another time was in Columbus at the Hilton Garden Inn at the airport.  Their speeds were slightly better than dial up.  I will say, at least these two hotels did not charge for access.  If either had, I would have demanded a refund for those charges.
• Keep an eye on your airline/hotel accounts. A few years ago, I suddenly lost about 15,000 miles with United.  Apparently at the time, they changed their policy that you lose your miles after 3 years to only 18 months.  I don’t remember ever getting an email warning me of it.  So it was too late when it happened.  More recently, I was trying to log in to my Starwood Preferred Guest account.  I could not get in.  I tried resetting the password…and even got an email confirming the change.  But I still couldn’t get it.  I finally sent an email off to them.  The response I got was that the account was considered inactive and therefore cancelled.  There are two problems I have with this – 1.  If the account was cancelled, why was I able to get an email confirming a password change?  2.  I didn’t have this account even 1 year.  That is the one that bugs me the most.  I understand everyone cutting the time that you have to have some activity.  But less than a year?  How utterly ridiculous.  I simply replied to their email saying that I know to avoid any Starwood hotels from now on.  Though I must say, it isn’t as if that will be that difficult.  I hadn’t stayed at one yet, and Starwood includes some brands that I am not that fond of anyway – Sheraton and Four Points, for example.  I’ve stayed at the Four Points at LAX before and I would never stay there again.

And a few things that are specific to my job:

• Keep that Magic Jack with you on all trips. I have been taking it with me on my trips, but when I went out to Iowa I left it at home.  I figured I probably didn’t need it since I was only going to be gone for two days.  It’s for personal use, after all.  But wouldn’t you know…in Iowa I needed it.  The job site was in a basement – the cell phone coverage was zero.  And I couldn’t get a landline phone near me in such short notice.  Plenty of phones around, but no phone cord.  If I had the magic jack with me, I could have hooked it right up to my laptop and had help troubleshooting the problem that I was having.
• Keep the Multi-tool in the company encoder box. I have to take my Gerber along with me on all trips.  There is no way around that.  But that one thing keeps me from avoiding checking bags when flying.  I need to start leaving it in the company box.  The company box has to be checked because of sheer size.  But there are some times when I can ship it ahead of time.  A few trips I’ve had are all of 2 days.  It would be nice to be able to just go carry on.
• Always care extra cables. I had a job recently where another crew did not bring what they were supposed to bring.  I saved them some trouble with a VGA barrel, but could have helped more if I had kept a firewire cable in my bags.  They were supposed to bring equipment that was 16×9 format.  They brought 4×3 equipment.  There was a roll-in that was supposed to be played at the beginning of the event.  Problem, of course, was that the video was 16×9.  Since I have Premiere on my laptop, I could have easily reformatted the video to 4×3.  But with no firewire, it made it next to impossible within the time frame.

I was out in Kansas City about 1.5 weeks ago.  Now there doesn’t seem to be anything coming down the pipeline.  There were possible trips to Chicago, Cincinnati and Michigan at the end of this month, but those are no longer on-site jobs.  We are still doing them, but not locally.

There is possible trips to Boston and Orlando, but from what I’ve heard the Boston one is doubtful.  There is also a possible job in Honolulu, but it’s VERY doubtful that I’d be on that one…unfortunately.  Not only do we have people on the west coast, but there is a possible job the same day right here in DC.  Doesn’t THAT figure!

So we’ll see what happens.