So I'm at home now. It's 7:24pm. The front door is locked, and I do not expect that it will open again until about 6:30am, when I leave to go get donuts on my way to work. Yes, I have to be at work at 7:00am on New Year's Day.
Which means that I don't get to go out and do anything fun tonight.
Which means that I'm about to sit down with my take-out sushi and pretend that this is just any other night, while inside I will sit and contemplate just how boring my life actually is.
Because, as they say, all work and no play makes Jon a dull boy.
Well, at least I get to go to Asia on Wednesday. Don't worry, though, my itinerary never brings me closer than 600 miles to any of the "bad stuff" from the tsunami.
Two shows yesterday! "Little Women" and "The Foreigner." Most people probably have a basic knowledge of each show's plot so I'm not going into that. But I have some thoughts...
"Little Women"
Sutton Foster is amazingly talented. Even when the material she is given is not the greatest, she rises to the occasion and gives 120%. The cast around her is also great, and boy, is Danny Gurwin a cutie. The woman who plays Amy is rather annoying, but it can't be perfect. And perhaps she's just made a decision that Amy is really annoying and should be played as such. But when there was a little vignette of Jo's writing brought to the stage, and she played a troll, well... it fit.
The score? It drags sometimes. It sounds sort of like the love-child of a Jason Robert Brown score and "Les Miz." It doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the period, at least not for me. The orchestrations were nice, but there were (as I frequently complain, when discussing Broadway) volume balance issues. There was at least one point where I felt that the underscoring was intrusive.
The adaptation? Well, I (gasp!) have never read "Little Women" so I can't really say, but it seems to work, to me.
The worst part? Probably the audience. Coughing up about 500 lungs during the course of the show, and unwrapping what had to have been 10,000,000,000 candies. I swear, there was no respite from the freaking wrappers. They gave Sutton a standing ovation, though, but it was clear that it was an audience of 99% tourists.
Whatever theatrical malaise I had, though, was cured when I went to "The Foreigner" in the evening. Good God, can you imagine what the state of American comic theatre would be if Larry Shue hadn't died in that plane crash? The man was brilliant. And we're lucky to have such a brilliant cast in this revival. Matthew Broderick is so funny. He actually caused Mary Catherine Gallagher to lose it more than once. Miss G. was laughing so hard. Kevin Cahoon was awesome as Ellard, and what can you say about Frances Sternhagen? My mom was in awe of her range as an actress, because she only knows Ms. Sternhagen from her role as Trey's fiesty mother from "Sex and the City."
Anyhow, if you want to laugh your ass off, try to get a ticket to "The Foreigner."
The other highlight of the day was flirting with the waiter during dinner -- in front of my mother, no less. Luckily, the restaurant was noisy and the table rather big. Mother had no clue what was going on, but my sister was very amused. I'll be more amused if I actually get to hang out with him after I return from my trip. What is it about me and liking waiters, I have to ask?
Anyhow, have to get ready for work and the trip! Talk to you soon.
57,000: The latest death toll in the Asian Tsunami.
$35,000,000: The amount of money the United States has committed to donate to relief at this time. Colin Powell is upset that some people think the US is being stingy.
$40,000,000: The fundraising goal for Bush's inauguration.
Yes, folks, that's right, we're spending more money to have a bunch of black tie parties for the president who went to a war we can't afford than we are on the hundreds of thousands of people in the world who actually, desperately need help.
How does the song go? "And I'm proud to be an American, 'cause at least I know I'm free..."
The bank issued me a "Provisional Credit" for the first $1451 of my claims against the fraudulent charges on my account. And I donated some of it straight to the Red Cross.
Now, if I could just get my landlord to actually consider working heat a part of his duties... I think I'm going to buy a thermometer today. I'd like to know how cold it actually is in here. I don't think it can be more than 60. Probably colder.
Anyhow, I'm off to go have breakfast with mom and sister, then we're going to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular! Hooray!
OK, I wasn't there. But my mom and sister are in town and went tonight. "Good Vibrations" is like a bad high school play, according to mom.
My late-20-something sister said she felt odd to be so much older than everyone in the cast of the show. And she mentioned that some of them ought not to have been seen in public in their swimsuits.
Oh well, I'm going with them tomorrow to see "Wonderful Town," and we're hoping it will be good...
Sorry to not blog more, I'm busy at work, got the mom and the sister in town, and seem to be drawn to the tsunami coverage in my internet time.
I find it ironic to be reading an editorial about the inherent leisure aspect of Christmas and the joy of having a day off, basically, at 5:45am as I'm up well before dawn to get ready to go to work...
(And KTU just played the Chipmunks, and I love that quote, so it became the title of this entry.)
I love the "optimistic" headline in this article.
"Famous Pair of Hawks Return to Fifth Avenue Nest In Time For Christmas"
OK, they're being offered the "opportunity" to return, but I love how the offering of the nest is rethought into this.
Please do note, anyhow, that the last sentence of the article reminds readers that it's really up to the hawks whether they return or not.
Please also note that this blog entry was a complete and utter waste of time!
And please also note that it's not even the ass crack of dawn and I'm already up and about to get ready to go to work. And the sun will rise after I get there and probably set before I get out. How's that for an enjoyable Christmas Eve? Well, I'm Jewish so I guess it doesn't matter...
Last night at work, a guy asked me if he could ask me an "odd question."
Um... ok, sure.
Turned out he wanted, simply, to be referred to a gay bar.
Why is this an interesting story? Well, really, it's not, aside from the fact that he had on a wedding ring. Now, I guess that could have meant he was in a gay relationship and in from out of town, but if you were a homo on the road, wouldn't you take Damron or some other gay guide with you? And is it me, or is it weird for married guys, travelling alone, to ask for gay bars?
So I was getting out of a cab this morning, going in to work.
And I wished the cab driver a Merry Christmas.
It was only at the last second that I noticed his Arabic name on the placard and realized that a New York Jew had just wished a New York Arab a happy Christian holiday.
Only in New York, kids. Only in New York...
So I was getting out of a cab this morning, going in to work.
And I wished the cab driver a Merry Christmas.
It was only at the last second that I noticed his Arabic name on the placard and realized that a New York Jew had just wished a New York Arab a happy Christian holiday.
Only in New York, kids. Only in New York...
So I closed the old Visa Debit Card on Tuesday, right? That was the 14th.
So how come there's another charge from Sprint PCS for $657.11 which posted on the 15th and cycled through on the 16th?
And where the fuck is my credit from the the bank on Tuesday? I'm not happy here, folks...
(By the way, the running total of scam charges is now over $2300.)
So the Visa Scam drama continues apace.
The biggest problem right now, aside from the fact that the whole saga is underway, is how long it takes for the bank card to cycle itself. I can't dispute a charge until it shows up on my statement, and although the nice guy at the bank told me on Tuesday that there were over $800 in outstanding charges, so far only $216 has shows up on the bill. Out of which $205 are not my charges. But I'm sort of annoyed by waiting for all the other charges to cycle through. The charge I'm perhaps most impatient for is the credit which the bank guy gave me for the charges which had already cycled.
In fact, I have to say that I was quite impressed with how my bank dealt with me when I went in with this complaint; I don't think I was even there for 10 minutes and I left with documentation of the complaint, a promise of charges being investigated, and a deposit of all the funds in question which would, of cours, be taken back should the investigation not go in my favor... although of course it will... But I'm still waiting for the *$@(ing charges.
So what is the title of this blog entry about? It's actually about the other fiduciary concern in the Land of Jon Blog at the moment: my inheritence from my late grandmother's estate. That's the check, and indeed, it's in the mail, and yes, I'm nervous about a big chunk of change. Why? Mostly because I've just never been the most financially responsible person and I feel a lot of stress about suddenly getting my hot little hands on this much cash. Of course, I'm not planning to let myself see the cash, I'm really just going to send it right to my parent's broker. I trust him with it. And I'm thinking that I may end up asking for it back to give to a real estate broker... and lets not even start in about how kinda freaky it will be to discuss the horrors that are first time home purchasing in the Big Apple, ok?
Greetings from Amazon.com.
We perform routine reviews of orders to protect our customers. During one of these reviews we discovered that an account was opened with a card used by you on another account. For your reference the card in question is a Visa card with the last five digits of XXXXX.
As it appears the card was used without your authorization, we have closed this new account and cancelled any outstanding orders. If the account is indeed
yours, we apologize for any inconvenience caused and ask that you notify us as soon as possible by clicking on the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/more-info?comm_id=&q=hrs6
If the card was used without your authorization, we recommend you cancel the card immediately by contacting the financial institution that issued the card.
You should review all recent charges made to this card, reporting any unauthorized charges to your financial institution. The financial institution, in turn, will send you forms to formally dispute the unauthorized charges, the applicable merchants will be notified and charged back, and your account subsequently credited.
We were able to verify that your card was not compromised from our site. Our credit and debit card data is stored on a computer that is not connected to the Internet. When this data is received it is sent to a dedicated computer via a proprietary one-way interface across a simple serial connection. The information is stored no other place, access to the data is restricted and, when accessed, logged.
Although we are not permitted to provide you with any details about the unauthorized use, we will provide this information to the financial institution. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Brian B.
Investigation Specialist
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
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I just went online to check my bank statement.
Bad news, I've been hit by a scammer.
Reliant Energy: $170
Bear in mind that this is a utility provider in Texas. Why would I pay $170 for electricity somewhere I don't live? Particularly a red state?
Public Storage: $103.45
Mini-storage, again in Texas. Will Jesusland please leave me alone for once?!?
Sprint PCS: Four separate charges adding up to $1,178.32
Um, I have Verizon Wireless? And who the *@#& other than drug dealers or pimps charges over a thousand bucks in cellphones on one day? Or did I get a Vertu and not even know it?
Anyhow, that's almost $1,500 of fraudulent charges. So I've spoken to the lovely Myra at my bank's Fraud Prevention Unit, and she's "cancelled" my Visa Debit Card. I have to go get a new one now.
Fun for me? Not at all. But I'd rather be annoyed than broke...
Granted, I'm not a football fan. But even if I were, I think I'd be opposed to a West Side stadium. I can think of a lot of reasons.
First of all, they're saying that "NYC's Olympic bid hinges on it." Honey, get yourself a reality check: NYC's Olympic bid lost any remote chance it had of going anywhere the night that the idiots in Jesusland re-elected Bozo the Clown, he of the most expensive inauguration ever that pays homage to the fact that we're fighting a war we can't afford. Makes perfect sense, no?
Second: the stadium is estimated to cost $1,400,000,000. Which means that it will cost more than that, of course. Now, this season, the Jets have 10 home games. And if you figure that the "productive" life of a stadium is 20 years, that comes out to $7,000,000 (that's still $7 million) as the per game cost of the stadium. Even if they're going to have 70,000 seats, that means that the estimated construction cost comes out to $100 per ticket, ten games a year, for 20 years. And who else builds in Manhattan for something that's going to be used 10 times a year? Oh, sure, there will be rock concerts and so forth, but seriously, how much use is there going to be for a 70,000 seat stadium?
Additionally, there's the tailgating argument, the overwhelming traffic burden, et cetera, et cetera. And the fact that there's a lot more productive, New York-ish functions that the land could have. Apartments? Museums? Things that actually have something to do with what people think about when they think "New York City."
I mean, when's the last time a tourist said, "I'm going to New York so I can go to a football game!" Let me tell you, it's not all that frequent!
So I say stop the stadium before it starts.
And I also say, on a totally unrelated topic, that I should have a work schedule that allows me to get more sleep...
Well, I got around to seeing the fabulously talented Dame Edna tonight. They say she's "Back with a Vengance." Well, she's back with gladioli at any rate. A lot of the material seems very similar to the first Broadway show she did and while it's fun, I just thought she could have done more and different. She's good at what she does, and it's great if you never have seen her before, but I'm sad to say that I'm at a point where I wouldn't pay to see her again.
Still, I'm glad I caught a souvenir gladdy. And not just any gladdy, but the Dame's special flower from the finale. It's actually two gladdys taped together into one, making it more bloomful and more rigid, which are two qualities that are undoubtedly dear to the Dame's heart.
Anyhow...
Nothing really else that I feel compelled to report at the moment but I'm sure I'll think of something soon. Hopefully I'll be in bed at that point, as I have to be back at work at 8:00am. Ugh!
First, it was the hawks on Fifth Avenue. Terrible, ridiculous, senseless.
But increasingly, it's gay rights in crisis. Not just marriage, which 14 states have elected to ban (that's 28%, people), but basis rights, too. It's really rather frightening what Bush&Co. seem to have in mind for us. This article from the Guardian shows a lot of it all too clearly.
I think I need to put together a short list of countries to consider emigrating to...
(Update: At least I found this to be amused by...)
Company lets US Travelers "Go Canadian."
It works. When I did my post college graduation European tour 10 years ago, I found that there was frequently anti-American bias which disappeared when I said I was Canadian.
Worked great, til I met someone who said, "Oh, where in Canada?"
"Toronto," I replied.
"Oh, cool. Me too."
Oops... I confessed to my evil plan at that point. He was amused and, I think, rather impressed. I'm glad to see, therefore, that this part of my plan to take over the world has been brought to the masses.
Bwahahahhahha!
Remember the first weekend of December last year? Remember how I told you it was traditionally the worst weekend of the year at my job? Well, this year is no exception.
And the holiday cheer was further enhanced by the fact that one of my colleagues called in sick. So I was at work yesterday from 2pm until 3am.
How happy am I right now!?!&*@^%!!!!
Well, based on Mr. Tin Man's suggestion, I have changed browsers and I'm now using FireFox.
The one thing I'll say about it so far? Faster. Lots faster.
Thank you, Jeff!
OK, this is fucked up. Do any of you other IE users have problems with your various toolbars? The current problem I'm having is that they are masquerading as each other, and not coming up consistently.
So, for example, there's an AIM toolbar, but it seems to only turn off if I turn off the "Norton AntiVirus" toolbar. And the Google Toolbar replies when I control the Canon Quick-Print toolbar. There are just too many of them and I need it to stop, regardless, but if I use the toolbar manager under tools, that doesn't seem to work right, either. Any IE masters have any good ideas? (I'm running IE6.0something in XP.)
Anyhow...
I meant to blog abou this a couple days ago, but how weird is it to see someone you actually know on "Jeopardy"? A guy I went to college with played against Ken Jennings on Monday (in other words, the last episode before the one Jennings lost). He did OK, but made a few rather stupid guesses. Although on Final Jeopardy, when he realized he had no clue, he went for the laugh question. The answer was something about "The 2003 popular baby name list for boys has two names that end in the same letter which belong to Apostles who were at the last supper."
The right answer was Matthew and Andrew. My guess was Steven and John. My college friend who had no idea? He wrote "Who are Thomas and Judas?"
Points for trying!