Awesome Friday! Horrendous Saturday.

A happy birthday to Benoc! Anne, Amanda, Scottojam, Lydia and I went over to Benoc & Dr. Raven's luxurious pad for some food, drinks, and some serious musical video gaming with Rock Band. This is by the same folks who did the immensely popular and awesome Guitar Hero series, but adds a bass guitar, drum set and microphone so that everyone can join in on the jam session. It's fun for the whole family! The instruments:



It was fantastic! With the karaoke aspect added, it really creates an interactive experience. You feel like you're performing the song along with your friends. Good stuff. Here's a shot of the game:



The game doesn't come with all that many songs but you are able to purchase more on the onlines. Good revenue stream, that.

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Unfortunately I had to get up early this morning to help with the office move. It was an extremely long and painful day, due in no small part to the vast amounts of Jack and Red Bull I imbibed the night prior. A fantastic cocktail, but - ugh. I was at both the old and new offices for the entirety of today, getting home around seven o'clock. Hence why I am taking her easy tonight.

But it's done. Still a lot of unpacking left, but I can't wait to get my new office set up so I can kick back and finally get some serious work blogging done.

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Big Ben's thrown three picks. He's killing the Stillers right now. Is NBC having broadcasting issues or is it my cable? The video keeps hiccuping every few minutes.

Phew

Packed. Moving tomorrow. Several Mai Thais. "Family" connections. Benoc's tonight. Rock Band to be had.

(Yes, this is today's entry.)

Verizon: A Study in the Art of Sucking

The saga ain't over quite yet.

• Phone lines being transferred to the new office tomorrow. Originally scheduled between 8:30-12:00. As of today, it's an "all-day job" between 8:00-5:00.
• Originally I was going to have any inbound calls to our office line forwarded to my cell phone. The customer service representative I spoke with assured me that this forwarding service would cover any down time during the line switching process. As of today I discovered that this forwarding "doesn't always work." How quaint! This forced us to send an apologetic warning in advance to our clients and a few partners and vendors, making what ideally should be a smooth process bumpy and uncomfortable, like that one shave where you realize you really need to buy a new set of Mach 3 razors for an exorbitant sum.
  
• Verizon shut off our DSL prematurely on 12/20. Despite all their claims of escalation, expediting, et cetera, their last communiqué said that they would be able to get our DSL back up this Friday. January 4th. More than two weeks after they shut it off! Simply incredible, made all the more so by the fact that we are moving into our new office this Saturday. Useless. But, the kicker:
• I received an email this afternoon from Verizon saying that they would be able to install DSL at our old office this Monday, 01/07. Something tells me we will be canceling that work order.

On a related note, I am not looking forward to finishing packing and the whole moving/unpacking process on Saturday morning. Ugh. But I am looking forward to:

• A beautiful, new, completely refurbished office.
• My own office complete with circa 1980 glass "ice" blocks,
  aka "the Igloo."
  
• Lunch in the North End.
  
• An around-the-corner commute. Literally.
• "Meetings" at Billy Tse's.
  

Now if I only liked my job and made money doing it...