Customer Service

I rented a car today from Enterprise. Panda chan is coming into town again tomorrow (yeah!), and I decided it would be better to pick her up in a car, instead of taking BART (the train). Plus, she's getting in at 7:30 in the morning, which means I'd probably have to take a 6 or 6:30 train to make it there in time.

I used Enterprise because a) last time I rented a car through them I had a great experience, b) it's close to my apartment c) it's usually cheaper than other places (though not this time) and d) perhaps the most important part, they pick me up. Last time it worked out great -- I called, and 20 minutes later they were at my school, ready to take me to their location.

This time, however, I waited outside for 30 minutes AFTER the agreed-upon time before they finally came. So, when I made it to the counter, I was somewhat less than pleased. This bad experience had completely colored my image of Enterprise, and not in a good way.

Fortunately, it didn't end there. Sensing I was NOT in a happy mood (and remembering that I had been in a few weeks ago), Kenny, the young guy behind the counter, offered to give me a free upgrade. Not only that, it was from a compact to a convertible (which apparently they had just gotten from the airport). AND, he offered to cut me some slack on the amount of gas I needed to fill the tank with before I brought it back. So he turned a potentially bad situation into a great one. All for the price of MAYBE 2 bucks in gas, and the use of a convertible which otherwise probably would have sat idle on the lot.

So, yes, I'll be going back to Enterprise for my next rental car need.

I was an early adopter

Way back in '93 and '94, I had already started using the internet at Amherst. Unfortunately, at the time all it was good for was sending e-mails to classmates (few people outside of school had e-mail yet), IRC (EARLY version of chat) and downloading crappy quality videos of Tori Amos concerts (it was a long time ago, okay?).

I really wish we had had something like this. I can't figure out if this is officially supported by Amherst or not, but either way it seems pretty cool. Especially the schedule function. Ah, to be young again...

Radicalicious

I want some! I can't recall seeing any Lavazza's in the Bay Area, but I wonder if they're bringing this out here anytime soon... Or maybe the Lavazza's in Japan have it??

Goooooaaalllll!!!!

After a multi-year hiatus, I recently started playing soccer again. A few weeks ago, the soccer club held a first-years vs. second-years match, and so I signed up. I ended up playing in the field for 10 or 15 minutes (talk about out of shape!), and then spent most of the 2nd half in goal.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that I gave up a goal (I was, admittedly, a bit rusty), I was invited to play on one of my classmates' intramural "Speed Soccer" team (basically, 6-aside on a small "field"), because they needed a keeper. My debut game was supposed to happen two weeks ago, but the team roster was full, so I wasn't able to play.

Last Tuesday night (a week ago), I braved the cold, cold weather and showed up, this time with my name on the roster. And in my debut, not only did I manage a shut-out, but in the last 5 minutes I switched with another player and managed to score a goal!! Granted, the other team only had 4 players to our 6, and the final score was an embarrassing 15-0, but still! That didn't take away from the excitement of scoring (my first goal in YEARS...)

Turns out that was the last game of regular season, so in two weeks we have the beginning of the playoffs. Here's hoping for another shutout/goal combination!

This sucks...

I’m writing this post sitting in front of my gate at Oakland Airport, on my way back to Baton Rouge. It’s 5AM, and my flight doesn’t leave until another hour and fifteen minutes. Being 75 minutes early during the middle of the afternoon is bad enough, but at 5 AM it just plain sucks. Especially when getting here this early required me to wake up at 3:40 this morning. Especially when I didn’t get to sleep until almost 1 last night. Especially when I didn’t get to sleep until 4 the night before (although, the extra hour of sleep I got from missing my alarm and being late to class was pretty helpful…)

The first shuttle company I called told me I needed a 3AM pickup for a 6:15 flight. Talk about stupidity. What kind of freakin’ idiots are they?? 2 hours to get to the airport?? Even the San Jose airport doesn’t take 2 hours to get to from Berkeley, especially at 3 o’clock in the freakin’ morning! Morons.

So instead, I called around until I found a place that gave me a (what I thought was) more reasonable 4 AM. Oh well, better than taking public transportation at this ungodly hour.

Now, if only I could figure out why the hell I still have to take my shoes off every time I go through security. And what was up with the TSA guy bitching at me about putting stuff on top of my laptop? Do you mean to tell me that the x-ray machine can see through my bag, and through metal, but it can’t see through my jacket?? Whatever.

Wheels!

Suhweet! After about a month of not having wheels (other than the occasional rental car), I finally got a new bike! Ah, I can taste the freedom. And it tastes kinda like creme brulee! Mmmmmm, creme brulee.....

Anyway, I ended up getting a cool Trek hybrid bike. In this bitchin' red color. And I figured since I was at it, it was best to get some of the options -- helmet (gotta stay safe!), lock (MAJOR Kryptonite U-lock, so the thieves can't strike twice), chain lock (for my front tires, which are now quick-release) and a new mount for my bike light, since the old one was on my stolen bike (but fortunately I had the light itself up in my apartment).

Ready to roll!

PS -- thanks go out to my folks who got me the bike for my (now belated) birthday.

Will it blend?

I don't know why you would ever want to blend a rake handle or marbles (or create cochicken for that matter), but I'll be darned if it itsn't GREAT salesmanship (and a great use of YouTube, to boot).