i always used to pride myself on not being caught up in the reality show craze, but i've since come to face the harsh truth: reality shows are awesome. especially elimination shows a la project runway, which was possibly the first great one, but just doesn't quite do it for me, possibly because my sense of fashion is boring at best.
one of the newer of these shows, top design, combines my two great tv loves, elimination reality shows and interior design. it's fabulous. at the end of each show, jonathan adler says to the eliminated contestant "see you later, decorator!" this is both the best and most painful moment of the show week in and week out.
but why do reality shows consistently pick such reality theme songs? the top design theme song starts out sounding ok...generic, but has something of a beat. but then this crazy voice comes in going "heey heey heey heeeeeey, heeey heey heeey heeeeeey" and it's almost too much too handle. who writes these songs? this becomes even more of a problem when you try to enjoy your reality elimination in marathon form. over winter break i was dedicated exclusively to killing brain cells and i watched like four seasons of antm on the vh1 marathon. i didn't stop singing "i wanna be on top (nananananana)" for weeks. i think tyra banks sings that theme song, so what exactly is top design's excuse? i know that crazy voice singing heeey at me is not todd oldham.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
good sunday
today was a good sunday. we had ulimate practice with our team crafty for the first time this season at 9:30 am. i wasn't dreading the practice (as i have been known to do in recent times), but i was seriously not looking forward to getting up that early. and i was nervous to get out on the field since i really haven't exercised very much lately (read: at all) and i haven't played ultimate in quite some time either. however, it was great! i didn't play amazingly well, but i remembered that i enjoy playing with all these people, and just generally that i enjoy playing ultimate. in fact, i used to be mighty obsessed with it (those who knew me during college can definitely attest to this), but somehow as i got less and less good compared to the people i was competing with, and as i got busy doing other things, i just wasn't as focused. but playing with crafty during sectionals and regionals of last year (we joined late in the season for reasons that are too complicated to go into) was a great experience, and this was a good reminder that it should be fun to play with them again this summer. so yay! i am sore though. i will really try to go to the gym this week. really.
after we got home from frisbee, we had lunch, showered, and i read the sunday styles/took a nap. i've been slowly moving towards completing my homework assignments, too. very slowly. i really, really need to get out of slacker mode and kick it into high gear, but the spring just makes it so hard!
after we got home from frisbee, we had lunch, showered, and i read the sunday styles/took a nap. i've been slowly moving towards completing my homework assignments, too. very slowly. i really, really need to get out of slacker mode and kick it into high gear, but the spring just makes it so hard!
Friday, March 16, 2007
writing/pulling teeth
i am currently working on a brief for my lawyering class. this is a class in which we essentially are pretending to be lawyers who are much more responsible to their clients than we probably will be for years, unless we get involved in some non-profit direct service work (i do want to do public interest, but not so much direct services). in this exercise, we are writing a brief about the indian child welfare act, specifically its implementation in california, and then arguing it in front of a "judge." the judges are either actual judges or established lawyers, and i am lucky/unlucky enough to be arguing in front of an actual judge. i think it should be really interesting, and the topic is really quite compelling, but i have been trying to write this brief over spring break and it is incredibly slow going. i don't even remember the last time i've found it this hard to get words down on paper. i think it's a result of there being so much material to research that i am struggling to synthesize it into actual arguments. i wish i could just argue what i think about a case instead of actually have to provide information to back up what i'm saying--that would be much better for me.
at least there's plenty of basketball to keep me distracted.
at least there's plenty of basketball to keep me distracted.
Monday, March 12, 2007
in happier news
this doesn't exactly describe this season, since i've always been a knicks fan and maintained a ridiculous optimism that things will start to look up, but this article still captures something of the way this season is going.
what's your major vonage, heather?
this morning was the first weekday of my FULL WEEK OFF!! that's right, i'm on spring break, and despite the fact that i have really quite a bit of work to do, i'm determined to enjoy it if possible.
my mission was put on hold as i attempted to call vonage to cancel our phone service. we used vonage out in new jersey, and it was just fine...not too expensive, worked pretty consistently, etc. when we decided to move into the city, however, we discovered we could get a land line for the same price from the company providing us with cable and internet. being a fan of paying as few bills as possible, this seemed like a no-brainer.
and so, shortly before we moved, i called vonage in what i will refer to as Call 1. after pressing a few buttons i talked to a sympathetic gentleman, and after only a few minutes of confirming my name, billing address, phone number, pin number, etc., he launched into his diatribe of "well we can offer you this deal" and "you know vonage has the best blah blah blah." after i convinced him that we were already at the cheapest level of service, and were quite sure we wanted to cancel, i then told him i wanted to cancel three days later, which he informed me was impossible: once they cancel, it's a final cancellation and you can't schedule a cancellation in advance. not wanting to be without phone service for the next few days (cell service in our apartment was mysteriously spotty), i decided to wait.
a few days after the move, perhaps a week after Call 1, i made Call 2. i got halfway through the a second person's discussion of vonage's myriad billing options and enticing qualities, when my cell phone cut out. wanting, at this point, to simply be done with it, i made Call 3. Call 3 was the most successful call, in that i got a very nice operator who seemed to take me at my word when i told her i had just gotten cut off from someone else who was ready to cancel my account, that i was sure i wanted to cancel, and that she should just go ahead. she got ready to cancel my account, but when she finally got to the last screen, noted that it was three weeks before a full year had passed since i started the service, and so i would be charged a cancellation fee of $42 for cancelling before then. given that i only pay vonage $19 a month, i decided to wait the extra three weeks.
and that brings us to this morning, when i made Call 4. for some reason, vonage decided that it would remove any direct links to general customer service from its main customer service number (hmmm...), and so i was ultimately forced to press 1 to identify myself as someone with internet service, after several fruitless attempts to press zero. this lead me to Operator 1, who was polite, took my information, asked me why i wanted to cancel, and when i had explained, transferred me to customer service. after a good 5 minutes on hold, i got to Operator 2, who asked me all my information and why i wanted to cancel. after i told him, he said he would transfer me to management at corporate headquarters. when i asked why i had been transferred to him when i had told Operator 1 i wanted to cancel, he explained that corporate does all cancellations. feeling that arguing the point would get me nowhere, i agreed. then i sat on hold for 10 minutes. when i finally got to Operator 3, i told her my name and number and address and PIN for the third time this call. she asked, surprisingly, why i wanted to cancel. i tried to explain that i had gone through this twice and that i really, really just wanted to cancel my service. she snapped at me that since she was the one who was actually going to cancel the service, now she was asking the questions. that explained everything. she literally would not cancel my service until i had admitted why i wanted to cancel and told her there was absolutely nothing vonage could do to get me to stay with them. i may have also mentioned that after my experience trying to cancel, i would never consider going back to the service, even though i had been reasonably happy with the way my phone actually worked. she finally, begrudgingly, cancelled, and i hung up, at which point the counter on my cell phone read 21:35.
i don't understand! i thought when that guy taped his aol cancellation call a few year's ago (remember? the one that took forever even though he repeatedly begged to have the service cancelled) everyone sort of agreed that this was not the way to run a business or to hold on to customers. i also cancelled cable and utilities, and both companies not only made it very easy for me to cancel, but recognized that people move and change services. it's not generally a personal affront. not to mention that making it harder to cancel will not generally stop people from cancelling. i mean is that just me? doesn't being put through the ringer generally make you hate a company and want to stop paying them immediately? why can't there just be a button on your online account?
so, thanks blog, that was very cleansing. the ultimate message here is beware of vonage.
my mission was put on hold as i attempted to call vonage to cancel our phone service. we used vonage out in new jersey, and it was just fine...not too expensive, worked pretty consistently, etc. when we decided to move into the city, however, we discovered we could get a land line for the same price from the company providing us with cable and internet. being a fan of paying as few bills as possible, this seemed like a no-brainer.
and so, shortly before we moved, i called vonage in what i will refer to as Call 1. after pressing a few buttons i talked to a sympathetic gentleman, and after only a few minutes of confirming my name, billing address, phone number, pin number, etc., he launched into his diatribe of "well we can offer you this deal" and "you know vonage has the best blah blah blah." after i convinced him that we were already at the cheapest level of service, and were quite sure we wanted to cancel, i then told him i wanted to cancel three days later, which he informed me was impossible: once they cancel, it's a final cancellation and you can't schedule a cancellation in advance. not wanting to be without phone service for the next few days (cell service in our apartment was mysteriously spotty), i decided to wait.
a few days after the move, perhaps a week after Call 1, i made Call 2. i got halfway through the a second person's discussion of vonage's myriad billing options and enticing qualities, when my cell phone cut out. wanting, at this point, to simply be done with it, i made Call 3. Call 3 was the most successful call, in that i got a very nice operator who seemed to take me at my word when i told her i had just gotten cut off from someone else who was ready to cancel my account, that i was sure i wanted to cancel, and that she should just go ahead. she got ready to cancel my account, but when she finally got to the last screen, noted that it was three weeks before a full year had passed since i started the service, and so i would be charged a cancellation fee of $42 for cancelling before then. given that i only pay vonage $19 a month, i decided to wait the extra three weeks.
and that brings us to this morning, when i made Call 4. for some reason, vonage decided that it would remove any direct links to general customer service from its main customer service number (hmmm...), and so i was ultimately forced to press 1 to identify myself as someone with internet service, after several fruitless attempts to press zero. this lead me to Operator 1, who was polite, took my information, asked me why i wanted to cancel, and when i had explained, transferred me to customer service. after a good 5 minutes on hold, i got to Operator 2, who asked me all my information and why i wanted to cancel. after i told him, he said he would transfer me to management at corporate headquarters. when i asked why i had been transferred to him when i had told Operator 1 i wanted to cancel, he explained that corporate does all cancellations. feeling that arguing the point would get me nowhere, i agreed. then i sat on hold for 10 minutes. when i finally got to Operator 3, i told her my name and number and address and PIN for the third time this call. she asked, surprisingly, why i wanted to cancel. i tried to explain that i had gone through this twice and that i really, really just wanted to cancel my service. she snapped at me that since she was the one who was actually going to cancel the service, now she was asking the questions. that explained everything. she literally would not cancel my service until i had admitted why i wanted to cancel and told her there was absolutely nothing vonage could do to get me to stay with them. i may have also mentioned that after my experience trying to cancel, i would never consider going back to the service, even though i had been reasonably happy with the way my phone actually worked. she finally, begrudgingly, cancelled, and i hung up, at which point the counter on my cell phone read 21:35.
i don't understand! i thought when that guy taped his aol cancellation call a few year's ago (remember? the one that took forever even though he repeatedly begged to have the service cancelled) everyone sort of agreed that this was not the way to run a business or to hold on to customers. i also cancelled cable and utilities, and both companies not only made it very easy for me to cancel, but recognized that people move and change services. it's not generally a personal affront. not to mention that making it harder to cancel will not generally stop people from cancelling. i mean is that just me? doesn't being put through the ringer generally make you hate a company and want to stop paying them immediately? why can't there just be a button on your online account?
so, thanks blog, that was very cleansing. the ultimate message here is beware of vonage.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
we're home
the move is officially over! we have made it into our new apartment, and with only about 6 boxes left to unpack (out of an uncountably large number), we are making serious progress towards being comfortably settled into our new home.
thank goodness for tom. true to my propensity to under-think commitments at the time i'm making them, i signed up to help print publications for the convention of the national law democrats council, which my school was hosting. this took far, far more time than i could have realized and basically meant that tom had to take care of the move himself. he is a champion.
you can see pictures of the new place over at tom's blog. i will post some more once i get things cleaned up and have a chance to load the pictures onto the computer.
now i'm off to eat some re-heated chinese food. it feels really good to be home: )
thank goodness for tom. true to my propensity to under-think commitments at the time i'm making them, i signed up to help print publications for the convention of the national law democrats council, which my school was hosting. this took far, far more time than i could have realized and basically meant that tom had to take care of the move himself. he is a champion.
you can see pictures of the new place over at tom's blog. i will post some more once i get things cleaned up and have a chance to load the pictures onto the computer.
now i'm off to eat some re-heated chinese food. it feels really good to be home: )
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