Today is a very happy day. I got my Blu-ray player back, which is fantastic. It's really amazing how big of a difference a Blu-ray player makes even in regular DVDs. I won't have to mess with the aspect ratio on my TV anymore when we watch movies, so no picture will be cut off and no images will be stretched. Hallelujah.
I went home for lunch today, and it was a good thing I did. The UPS guy left the Blu-ray player sitting in front of my door. Awesome. I love it when they leave my expensive purchases sitting out like that.
As soon as I got inside, I ripped open the box and hooked up the player. I couldn't wait to see if it actually worked. I popped in Beauty and the Beast, which had been giving me the worst problems, and the Blu-ray loaded just fine. Happy, happy day! Then I came home from work and watched the whole thing, just to make sure it's really working. And it is.
I think I'm pretty safe to go and buy the Back to the Future trilogy now. I can't wait to watch it on my newly working Blu-ray player. (Or my simply new Blu-ray player . . . I think they might have just shipped me another one. As long as it works, I don't care.)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Being Thankful: Day Three
I'm thankful for money. To be more specific, I'm thankful that I have money. I may not have a lot of money, but I have enough for what I need, which is more than a lot of people can say. I don't have to bug my parents for money, I don't have loans to pay off, and I don't have to barely scrape by. I can go to the grocery store and accidentally spend more money than I planned on and still be okay. I can see movies and buy books and go out to eat and pay my car payment and build my savings. I don't have to stress about whether I'll make rent or have enough food to eat. It's amazing how much I don't have to worry about because I have a steady job. As much as I hate dealing with money, I'm grateful that I have a way to earn it.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Being Thankful: Day Two
Today I'm thankful that I have an artistic brain. That's not to say that I'm particularly creative or that I am able to produce great literature or moving pieces of music. In fact, I would say that I can't do those things. I don't feel incredibly talented at creating art. However, my brain is wired to appreciate great art, whether it be painting, photography, literature, or film, and I'm grateful for that. I love well thought out ideas that are executed to perfection. I love dissecting films and books to find the driving force behind the story, behind the characters.
Tonight I watched Inception for the second time, and the brilliance of the story blows me away. The simple idea that transforms itself into complex plot and dynamic characters. The genius mind that recognized the idea as being worth pursuing. The visionaries who translated the paper version to vivid images.
This is what I want to do with my life: I want to create art. But until I can get to a point where I know how to do it effectively, I'm incredibly grateful that I can look at the art that others have created and see the beauty in it. Without art, life would be dull and colorless, and that wouldn't be much of a life at all.
Tonight I watched Inception for the second time, and the brilliance of the story blows me away. The simple idea that transforms itself into complex plot and dynamic characters. The genius mind that recognized the idea as being worth pursuing. The visionaries who translated the paper version to vivid images.
This is what I want to do with my life: I want to create art. But until I can get to a point where I know how to do it effectively, I'm incredibly grateful that I can look at the art that others have created and see the beauty in it. Without art, life would be dull and colorless, and that wouldn't be much of a life at all.
I get lost in the beauty of everything I see,
the world ain't half as bad as they paint it to be.
If all the sons, all the daughters, would stop to take it in,
then hopefully the hate subsides and the love can begin.
-"Come Home" by OneRepublic
Monday, November 1, 2010
Being Thankful: Day One
This past year has simply flown by. It's ridiculous how much faster time goes when you're not living your life in four-month chunks. And now it's November (already), which means it's time for more thankful posts. I did this last year, and I really liked it. I found myself looking for something every day that I could write about in my thankful post, and it felt really good to constantly be looking for the good things in my life. So today I start my month of daily thankful posts, which I hope I can make an annual tradition.
Today, I'm grateful that Cora lives with me. Don't get me wrong, my other roommates are also awesome, but Cora and I just understand each other. We have the same sense of humor. Plus, we understand each others' families, which is also a huge thing. The amount of inside jokes we have that stem from our families is rather astounding. People often look at us funny when we burst into laughter about something that no one else understands. It's fantastic. Plus, today's her birthday, and I figured no longer being a teenager deserved a blog post.
Thanks, Cora, for being the awesomest roommate/cousin ever.
Today, I'm grateful that Cora lives with me. Don't get me wrong, my other roommates are also awesome, but Cora and I just understand each other. We have the same sense of humor. Plus, we understand each others' families, which is also a huge thing. The amount of inside jokes we have that stem from our families is rather astounding. People often look at us funny when we burst into laughter about something that no one else understands. It's fantastic. Plus, today's her birthday, and I figured no longer being a teenager deserved a blog post.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Customer service is a pain in my behind.
So remember how I posted a couple of months ago about how I bought a totally awesome refurbished Samsung Blu-ray player? Turns out that the totally awesome Blu-ray player is so awesome that it won't even play Blu-ray discs. Sound like a problem to you? Yeah, me too. I played one disc all the way through clear back when I first bought the player, but I have tried four discs since (I don't have a lot of Blu-rays, so don't judge the low number) and none of them has worked. DVDs work fine, but not the Blu-rays.
I looked up the product online and found out that I have a 90-day warranty. Sweet. So I called Best Buy, who told me to take the player into the store, where they could look at it for me. So the next day I went to the store on my lunch break so they could look at my player, and I was told that because it was a refurbished model, they couldn't send it into Samsung for me. I needed to call the number I called in the first place so they could help me. Fantastic.
I went back out to my car and decided to try calling support again while I had some time. They tried transferring me, but I was told that their systems were down so they couldn't help me. Now that is what I call good service. I was really frustrated, so I made myself feel better by buying lunch at Zupa's. Because Zupa's never disappoints.
After work, I called Best Buy's support again, and the call was disconnected. It was getting ridiculous when I finally got ahold of someone who had a working system and could look up all of my information. It turns out that the Best Buy warrantee on my player had run out. I still had a warrantee through Samsung, but I had to call Samsung and get help from their customer service. That would have been nice to know the first time I called.
So I called Samsung's support and spent a good 35 minutes on the phone with a lady with an accent from who knows where. She kept trying to convince me that my player wouldn't play the Blu-ray discs because my firmware wasn't updated, even though that was the very first thing I tried. Then she tried telling me that I just needed to wait for the next upgrade that they were working on right then and that would come out in the next few weeks. There was no way I was waiting for a few weeks hoping the upgrade worked while my warrantee expired. No way. The lady finally agreed that something was wrong with the player when I told her that one of the discs that wouldn't play (How to Train Your Dragon—way cute movie, by the way) played perfectly fine on three—yes, three—other Blu-ray players, one of which was the same exact model as mine.
After this ridiculous process, I was hoping there would be very little I was required to do to get the thing fixed. I spent a lot of money on it—I deserve to have a working player. Unfortunately, my saga wasn't over yet. I was told that I had to fax in my receipt to prove that I bought the product. The fact that they had record of it didn't matter. So I had to wait two days until I was back at work so I could fax the dumb receipt. Then I had to wait for a phone call with the rest of the information I needed. Luckily, I got the call the same day I faxed the receipt. The lady on the phone told me the address and that I needed to ship the Blu-ray player to Samsung on my own dime. Awesome. But I guess it's better than paying for a new player.
Finally, a week and a half of phone calls and $20 later, my Blu-ray player is in the mail. It should get to the repair place in California on Thursday. Then they will have to look at it, fix it, and ship it back to me. In about two weeks (at the longest), I should have a fully functional Blu-ray player back where it belongs, hooked up to my TV so I can watch awesome-looking movies. Because even watching DVDs on a regular DVD player isn't the same as watching DVDs on a Blu-ray player. I need my Blu-ray player back. Seriously.
I looked up the product online and found out that I have a 90-day warranty. Sweet. So I called Best Buy, who told me to take the player into the store, where they could look at it for me. So the next day I went to the store on my lunch break so they could look at my player, and I was told that because it was a refurbished model, they couldn't send it into Samsung for me. I needed to call the number I called in the first place so they could help me. Fantastic.
I went back out to my car and decided to try calling support again while I had some time. They tried transferring me, but I was told that their systems were down so they couldn't help me. Now that is what I call good service. I was really frustrated, so I made myself feel better by buying lunch at Zupa's. Because Zupa's never disappoints.
After work, I called Best Buy's support again, and the call was disconnected. It was getting ridiculous when I finally got ahold of someone who had a working system and could look up all of my information. It turns out that the Best Buy warrantee on my player had run out. I still had a warrantee through Samsung, but I had to call Samsung and get help from their customer service. That would have been nice to know the first time I called.
So I called Samsung's support and spent a good 35 minutes on the phone with a lady with an accent from who knows where. She kept trying to convince me that my player wouldn't play the Blu-ray discs because my firmware wasn't updated, even though that was the very first thing I tried. Then she tried telling me that I just needed to wait for the next upgrade that they were working on right then and that would come out in the next few weeks. There was no way I was waiting for a few weeks hoping the upgrade worked while my warrantee expired. No way. The lady finally agreed that something was wrong with the player when I told her that one of the discs that wouldn't play (How to Train Your Dragon—way cute movie, by the way) played perfectly fine on three—yes, three—other Blu-ray players, one of which was the same exact model as mine.
After this ridiculous process, I was hoping there would be very little I was required to do to get the thing fixed. I spent a lot of money on it—I deserve to have a working player. Unfortunately, my saga wasn't over yet. I was told that I had to fax in my receipt to prove that I bought the product. The fact that they had record of it didn't matter. So I had to wait two days until I was back at work so I could fax the dumb receipt. Then I had to wait for a phone call with the rest of the information I needed. Luckily, I got the call the same day I faxed the receipt. The lady on the phone told me the address and that I needed to ship the Blu-ray player to Samsung on my own dime. Awesome. But I guess it's better than paying for a new player.
Finally, a week and a half of phone calls and $20 later, my Blu-ray player is in the mail. It should get to the repair place in California on Thursday. Then they will have to look at it, fix it, and ship it back to me. In about two weeks (at the longest), I should have a fully functional Blu-ray player back where it belongs, hooked up to my TV so I can watch awesome-looking movies. Because even watching DVDs on a regular DVD player isn't the same as watching DVDs on a Blu-ray player. I need my Blu-ray player back. Seriously.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Chills. I have chills.
This trailer looks AMAZING. So does the other one. Basically, I think the final Harry Potter movies are going to be the best yet by a long shot. With two movies, I would imagine that almost everything in Deathly Hallows (which is my favorite book of the series) will make it on screen. And I can't wait.
I already have my tickets to the midnight showing. And I'll be dressing up. Am I a nerd? Oh yes. But I don't really care.
I already have my tickets to the midnight showing. And I'll be dressing up. Am I a nerd? Oh yes. But I don't really care.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Concert Number Six
On Wednesday, Faith, Cora, and I drove up to Salt Lake to see Sherwood. Yes, again. I will see them every time they're in northern Utah because they're just that awesome.
The first thing we noticed when the band got up to set up was that they were one member short: Dave was missing! I was so sad. It was still a pretty awesome show, but it just wasn't the same without the three-part harmonies and the extra guitar. I really missed Dave. Luckily, both Nate and Mikey informed us after the show that Dave just couldn't make this tour—he hasn't left the band or anything. Hopefully he'll be bouncing around the stage next time I see them.
As much as I love Sherwood, this wasn't their best show. Though that was partially because the Avalon kind of sucks. They were having sound issues all night, which was annoying. Plus, there really wasn't any dance area, so there were a bunch of people jammed up in the three feet of open space between the stage and the first bench. It was annoying.
Mikey was hilarious, though. He usually runs all over the stage, jumps around, and throws the tambourine, but he was having some trouble. He knocked over some amps, dropped the tambourine multiple times (once it ended up in the audience), and he stood on his keyboard and almost knocked the whole stand over. It was great fun.
The best part of the night, though, was when Nate announced that they were going to sing "Make It Through." He then asked, "Who knows this song well enough to come up and sing it with us?" Obviously, my hand shot in the air ASAP. Nate saw me and pointed right at me, so I got to go on stage and sing backup for one of my favorite bands. It was pretty awesome just to be on stage with them. I highly enjoyed myself. It made me wish I could sing with a band all the time. Being in front of an audience is so much fun, I love it.
All in all, it was a great night. We got to sit and chat with Mikey and Nate afterward, which is always fun. I think I've been to enough concerts now that they're starting to recognize me, which is pretty cool. And they announced that they're making a new album, which is great. That means they'll probably take a break from touring for a while to write and record it, but once they're touring to promote the new album, you better believe I'll be buying tickets.
The first thing we noticed when the band got up to set up was that they were one member short: Dave was missing! I was so sad. It was still a pretty awesome show, but it just wasn't the same without the three-part harmonies and the extra guitar. I really missed Dave. Luckily, both Nate and Mikey informed us after the show that Dave just couldn't make this tour—he hasn't left the band or anything. Hopefully he'll be bouncing around the stage next time I see them.
As much as I love Sherwood, this wasn't their best show. Though that was partially because the Avalon kind of sucks. They were having sound issues all night, which was annoying. Plus, there really wasn't any dance area, so there were a bunch of people jammed up in the three feet of open space between the stage and the first bench. It was annoying.
Mikey was hilarious, though. He usually runs all over the stage, jumps around, and throws the tambourine, but he was having some trouble. He knocked over some amps, dropped the tambourine multiple times (once it ended up in the audience), and he stood on his keyboard and almost knocked the whole stand over. It was great fun.
The best part of the night, though, was when Nate announced that they were going to sing "Make It Through." He then asked, "Who knows this song well enough to come up and sing it with us?" Obviously, my hand shot in the air ASAP. Nate saw me and pointed right at me, so I got to go on stage and sing backup for one of my favorite bands. It was pretty awesome just to be on stage with them. I highly enjoyed myself. It made me wish I could sing with a band all the time. Being in front of an audience is so much fun, I love it.
All in all, it was a great night. We got to sit and chat with Mikey and Nate afterward, which is always fun. I think I've been to enough concerts now that they're starting to recognize me, which is pretty cool. And they announced that they're making a new album, which is great. That means they'll probably take a break from touring for a while to write and record it, but once they're touring to promote the new album, you better believe I'll be buying tickets.
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