Manlio Rules

christmas at the loconte households consists of the following things (in no particular order)

1. presents
2. food (pasta, meatballs, tacos, pork, desserts this year)
3. trying to see friends and failing (sorry PT)
4. movie rentals (Futurama, Simpsons, The Kingdom, Waitress)
5. well behaved laboradoodles
6. poorly behaved cats
7. lots of “so what do you want to do?” conversations
8. many hours in front of the TV or laptop
9. at least one trip to the burlington mall not this year, suckers!
10. at least one minor crisis (this year it was my brother getting a flat tire as we were all leaving from RI to MA in the pouring rain)
11. just enough family time to make me wish i was staying a lot longer.

Midnight, thursday/friday. i go to check in online for my friday 2:30PM flight. there are no seats available online

12:15AM: “Customer service, how can i help you?”

“i’m trying to get a seat online and there are none”

“the airport has control of all the seats. you’ll get a seat when you check in.”

“is the flight overbooked?”

“yes, slightly”

“so, the sooner i get there, the better chance there is of me getting a seat?”

“yes”

“what time does the airport open?”

“4AM”

4AM: I arrive at the airport. checking in gives me a “ticket” saying that i will get a seat at the gate. curses.

5AM: back at home to try and get some sleep.

6AM: crap.

6:30AM: zzzzz….

7:30AM: buzzzz!!!!

9:45AM: I am packing quickly. i grab a pair of winter gloves as an afterthought. this is important later.

10AM: there are 2 seats online!!!

10:05AM: “customer service, how may i help you?”

“i want one of those seats online but it’s not working”

“should i transfer you to our .com help line?”

“can’t you just book the seats for me?”

“that will cost $15″

“fine. do it.”

“hmmm… actually i can’t do that for some reason. you’ll probably get a seat when you get to the airport”

“i tried that. i didn’t get a seat”

“well, you should get there at least 2 hours ahead of time”

“why did your collegue tell me to go at 4AM?”

“i’m not sure”

“awesome”

“good luck sir”

11AM: tricia leaves work to come get me and take me to the airport (thanks babe!)

12PM: i check in again. i get the same ticket saying there will be seats at the gate.

12:15PM: i’m at the gate. no one is there

12:30PM: I run into Scott, Jay’s friend. he’s going to boston through JFK. we discuss how airlines in general suck.

1:30PM: still no one at the gate. a line has formed. i am not first.

1:45PM: I meet M.P. she’s in the same boat as me. i tell her about driving to the airport at 4AM, and she chuckles and says “oooh… rookie mistake. they never open seats till a few hours before flight time”

2PM: mom calls. i am reminded that i forgot the damn keys to her house. i will have to use the spare set. i still have no seat on the plane

2:15PM: the plane starts boarding. someone is finally at hte gate.

2:20PM: the plane has boarded. MP and i are told that we have seats but they don’t know which ones. we quickly run off to do last minute errands, promising each other that we won’t let the plane take off without the other.

2:30PM (PST): i get a seat! on the plane! i’m going home!

11PM (EST): i get off the plane.

12AM: i get my luggage. fuckers.

12:30AM: i arrive at my mom’s house. the keys are under a foot of snow in the front garden. THANK GOD i have winter gloves and can dig through the ice. it is the only smart decision i made all day

12:45AM: in the car, on the way to narragansett. the gps keeps telling me to do things but the music is on too loud. i don’t care.

1:30AM: i arrive in narragansett.

2AM: drinking 2 diet cokes on the road has me wired. i can’t sleep

3AM: still… can’t… sleep…

4AM: this is torture

5AM: zzzzz….

sigh.

anyone who keeps up with me on a regular basis through IM status or facebook should know that i got a new work computer, otherwise you’re not very good at your cyber stalking.

here is a comparison of the two, in a variety of categories that i feel like talking about

1. Specs
Macbook Pro (2.2ghz core duo, 2GB, 120gb HD)
HP 6220 (1.8ghz centrino, 1GB, 60gb HD)

Winner: Macbook

2. Performance

Macbook Pro runs all CS3 apps, sometimes a bunch at once, starts up within 30 seconds, shuts down within a minute, and has yet to crash on me

HP 6220 struggled with CS2 apps, threw a fit if i tried to run more than just outlook and Flash, sometimes took up to 5 minutes to start up, and crashed whenever i did something stressful like “launch powerpoint”

Winner: Macbook. though i admit that powerpoint sucks and HP shouldn’t shoulder all the blame for that.

3. Annoyance factors

Macbook Pro has some keyboard issues, i have trouble with the “o” key and a few others. Also it was sort of tricky getting it to work with the internal VPN here.

HP 6220 had a tendency to sieze up and die if I tried to open outlook before it was done with it’s startup process. and it would start the auto backup and the most inconvenient times imaginable.

Winner: Macbook

4. Compatability with peripherals

Macbook Pro auto detects the projector every time i plug in to give a presentation

HP 6220 failed to find a projector one time for 30 minutes during a design review, leading to me breaking into a flop sweat and having to describe how a menu moved using a glass and a bag of peanuts

winner: Macbook could start giving me small electrical shocks every time i plug it into a mouse and i still think it would win

5. Untested anecdotal category

Macbook Pro doesn’t fit very well into my timbuk2 bag. this is sub-optimal

HP 6220 occasionally needed to restart 4 times (5 min each) before it would do anything but freeze on login.

Winner: draw (the bag thing is annoying)

Gee what a surprise, a new macbook pro beats the pants off HP 6220, a computer that was old when i got it 1.5 years ago, and was presented to me by IT as “an oldie but goodie”.

this should explain why i’ve been generally happier at work since last week.

of course, the better question is: “how does a major tech company think that it’s ok for its designers to be working on computers that won’t run basic graphic apps?” and to be fair, i got a particular shaft in this case, most of the designers here have shiny nice computers.

last night I went to see the Golden Compass.

good things about the movie:

1. the storyline is fairly entertaining
2. the movie is well acted, especially the little girl
3. 5 words: fighting polar bears in armor!
4. the CG doesn’t look like cheesy CG
5. for as long as you can tell they wanted to make the movie, it’s of a reasonable length and well paced

meh things about the movie:

1. there’s waaaaaay too little background on the world, teh characters, etc… i find this pretty typical of serial books converted into movies. you get maybe 30 seconds to set the scene for a very complex and rich world. Dune is a great example of this, where the princess’s voiceover takes the place of something like 100 pages of background.
2. i’m not arguing about any world with Pirates, Cowboys, and talking Polar Bears. really, i’m not. But if you’re going to steal so liberally from other genres (ok fine, polar bears aren’t a genre, but you know what i mean) maybe it’s best to stick to genres that aren’t so similar… i mean, sure, you could have a world with cowboys, pirates, gypsies, swashbucklers, australians (burn!), and monster hunters. or you could just say: “look, everyone’s a little shady around here.” and not worry about dressing them up so stereotypically.
3. i still have no idea what Nicole Kidman’s character was doing the entire time. was she working for the Magisterium? with them? subtly against them? all i know is that her demon was an ugly monkey which she beat. that leads me to believe that she’s evil.
4. i just don’t understand why you’d make a movie where most of the people have british accents, and then make Daniel Craig hide his scottish accent behind a poor american one.

1. holiday parties are in effect. white elephant parties, company parties, friend parties. this is great. i wish i didn’t feel compelled to eat so much. but hey, when am i going to get the chance to chow on latke’s again?
2. i had one very hard task this year: finding a wii for my mom. thanks to wiitracker.com, i nailed it this morning. bam! i can’t wait to play wii bowling with her. and win.
3. Boston/NY in 10 days between xmas and new year’s is going to be a quick trip. attention to the NY kids, i’ll be in town from the 27th to the 30th ,staying at lyandra’s place.
4. i’m sleepy. should have gone home about an hour earlier than i did last night
5. looks like i found a new apt. not saying anything else, don’t want to jinx it…
6. did i mention i found a wii for my mom? still revelling in that one
7. the patriots are headed for trouble in pittsburgh this week. it took all sorts of miracles last week against baltimore, the kind we used to pull out in 2001 that made me happy. now it worries me. karma has to come the other way sometime (even though we got robbed in that Denver game a few years ago)
8. 5 fantasy football leagues, 3 of them i made the playoffs. 1 of them i have a realistic shot at the title. the other two i’m just hoping for a first round win and then sneaking into 3rd place.
9. yawn.

i’ve been doing user testing at our research labs for the last few days, and it’s impossible not to laugh. there’s something that’s just hilarious about watching other people try to use stuff that i’ve built poorly, and am only good with because i’ve used it like a million times. every time a click goes awry, i start to crack up and i guess i’m laughing both with myself and at myself, a little more of the latter one.

overheard: “i left your money in the other room. i’ll go get it”. i feel like someone should then shamefully get dressed.