I’ve written in the past how good Frontier Airlines’ customer service has been to me and my family at various times. However their web site has one really annoying flaw in it: It appears to be built for Internet Explorer only. That was annoying. Also annoying was the lack of clarity for what format my phone number was supposed to take in their web form. Further, their error page basically says, “Call our toll free number since something’s not right.” Basically, they need to buy Defensive Design
and learn good user friendly design.

Last week while I was in Texas I got a really good list of things I have to do before the next release of the software. However, the deadline also got moved up (perceptually, maybe it has always been there) so my time is limited. Blogging will be light to low for the next couple of days because I’ve got to have a lot of things to get done. Apologies that you’ll not get as many good jokes, bad jokes or lame puns during that time… oh, wait, maybe that’s a good thing.

Today the arguably biggest game in football is played while we gorge ourselves on name brand sodas, chips, beers and pretty much anything else name brand while watching at a minimum 45" televisions with surround sound and high definition pictures. Not really. In fact today I might watch the Super Bowl because of the commercials. I am half interested in seeing who wins, but since I don’t watch a lot of football the rest of the season I can’t say that this one game is going to make me a football junky. I do, however, hope to grill something on the patio which is kind of like a tailgate party. We’re all moderately sick (I’ve got a bit of something going on in my sinuses) so there’s not a lot of cheer and energy involved with the household.

Worst case scenario the bowl is much better than the party.

Today at the airport I watched as a male ‘security’ guard had the wrapped attention of three female gatekeepers. That is three women were listening to him tell them about whatever he was saying. Kindly lending him their attention.

In an attempt at humor he yelled out to one of the pilots or co-pilots (uniform wearer that looked authoritative), “Autveterstien! I think that’s ‘hello’ in Korean!” Chuckles went all around the small group. Dang, that’s just not funny. Sometimes I’ll be responsible for that sort of humor, but I’m embarrassed by it now and will work to keep the humor of a higher quality.

Last night I watched Napoleon Dynamite with Jessica at the recommendation of my brother and a mutual friend, Michael Nelsen. Whoa! Really, really not what I expected. Most of what is funny is the awkwardness of the actor. However, there’s no intensely strong moments in the movie. It comes and goes, but the dull life of the main character, ironically named, Waterloo Fuse* is just awkward. There’s strange humor involved, but its more of the subtle, “that would be a funny thing to have as a side joke,” sort of way instead of the laugh your head off because frankly that just is the funniest thing I’ve seen since [some funny event in your life here]. The movie continually built up to a place where I was ready for a great whity line, a funny moment or a great heroic thing. However, the movie builds up to one moment of stage flapping. It was almost as funny as I expected the whole movie to be with the hype that the movie had gotten from some and the hype that my brother and Mike gave it. So, in the end, it was well worth my two hours in comparison to (you knew this was coming) Eks Verses Sever (Balistic).

Now, this wouldn’t be a fare review if I didn’t give some constructive criticism so I’m going to offer the writers and directors some ideas:

• Please don’t rely on duldrums to emphasize the mundane
• Please consider using jokes in movies that are supposed to be funny. Bike crashes that place the protagonist’s groin up against the post of his buddy’s bicycle are not enough to carry the whole movie.
• Please bring in more actual dialog. Sure, teenagers often feel awkward, and sometimes the thoughts of a teenager are hard to speak, but I’m pretty sure that what was said in the movie could have been augmented with an actually full script.

Apologies to the actual writers, actors and directors if I’ve just crushed your egos (yeah, right). I’m highly impressed with the concept of your movie. There was incredible potential in this movie, there really was. I just didn’t get to laugh like I expected.

* not really. However, Waterloo was the end of Napoleon and a fuse usually will do in a stick of dynamite… or so I’m told.

Well, this morning I’m leaving for my first trip to Texas in 2005 (that’s what that cryptic abbreviation in the title means: First lone star, 2005). I’m going to be working closely with Matt, another contractor based in MI. We’re going to wrap up some work, figure out what’s left, and hopefully enjoy some work-like social interaction. Normally all my work-like social interaction happens via instant messaging. Yeah for small trips like this!

See you in in 7 or 8 hours (I’m flying, but I’ve got prep time, get to a Inkernet [SIC] connection time and saying ‘Hi’ time).

FogTower

The building across the street from my office. I love the fog, I love towers in the fog. I love the fade, the contrast and the depth that is created. The top of the tower is almost visible, but it looks like it could go on higher.