C'est Non Un Blog

Today Jeremy (from work) and I went to Albany to do a little geeked-out guy shopping. Our goal? Well, for a living we both sell speakers and televisions and other high tech electric do-dads, but as us about other high end systems other than Bose and Philips and we don’t really know a whole lot. We love to pick up the new Sound and Vision when it comes in the mail at the store, but aside from looking at all of the pretty photos we’ve never seen or heard any of this stuff in person. So after we got the last Sound and Vision, I suggested that the two of us go out the next time we had a day off together.

First stop: the mall. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in an Apple store before, but you should go because they are really cool. They are really modern looking, very hip place to shop. Apple is doing wonders with their marketing, because I already felt like a much cooler person just for walking in the door. Some of their computers are really sweet. If I ever decided to start making movies or music I would totally pick a G5 up.

The sound systems they had for the iPod were interesting. Some of the just sounded like crap. Others sounded pretty good. A lot looked really weird. Bar none though the Bose SoundDock gave the best performance. Score one for us!

Next on to Best Buy. We tried to get a look at the new PSP, and Best Buy had plenty of them, but the only one they had out to actually look at was sequestered by some little kid who didn’t look like he was going to give it up any time soon. We looked at some TVs and speakers and that Dyson vacuum cleaner. Apparently it is a little confusing to figure out at first. Not as pricey as I thought it was going to be. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t buy anything today.

I walked away with two new CDs. Sigh.

After that we had some lunch at Unos. Had some beers. Talked it up. Had a grand ol’ time. Our waitress looked like my good ol’ Ex, except with glasses. Try as much as I could I couldn’t stop staring at her. I drew the line at actually asking her for her phone number. Good job, Ben! (I think her name was Whitney.)

Then we went off to Hippos. A little note to all who are reading this: Don’t EVER go to Hippos. The two of us had never experienced worse customer service in our lives. We walked around that whole store for over an hour and NOT ONE person said hello to us or asked us if there was anything they could help us out with. It was amazing. Even when we directly asked them a question it seemed like they couldn’t wait to get away. No one tried to sell us anything. They just barely answered our questions with the bare minimum of words.

If the customer service sucked, the store itself was pretty cool though. They had all sorts of different separate rooms filled with TVs and speakers. The television we were most impressive was Sony’s 70” LCOS TV. Oh god was it beautiful. Even up close it looked amazing. The best speakers we heard were a pair of these B&Ws that just sounded so smooth, like buttah. We got one of the sales reps to turn on the best B&Ws (there was a mistake) and honestly I didn’t think they sounded that hot. You had to be sitting right in the middle of them to even have them sound right, and even then they didn’t blow my mind.

After that we went to Tweeters, which was a completely different experience. Within a minute of walking in the door someone came to say hello to us. Fifteen/twenty minutes later someone else came to talk to us and actually spent the time talking with us about the product. He even tried to close us on the sale. COMPLETELY different from Hippos. There we listened to some NL speakers that were really impressive. Just the two of them created a really rich soundstage. They’re really weird too: instead of having speaker cones they have like this electrostatic filament that creates the sound through vibrations. It was pretty cool.

When all was said and done though (and I say this with all honesty and with as little personal prejudice as possible) there was very little I heard today that I would say was better sounding than Bose. I heard speakers that cost 5 grand for just the pair that I didn’t think really sounded that great. Other than the two speakers I mentioned above I don’t really believe that anything sounded better than our stuff. And our stuff cost SO MUCH LESS and it is SO MUCH EASIER TO USE! Every time I hear someone say that our speakers are too expensive I just want to rip my hair out. That they sound nowhere near as good as an audiophile’s dream system, I want to rip my hair out. Bose just kicks so much ass that I’m glad I’m working for them and not somewhere else. Our customer service is better, our customer experience is better, and for the most part our products are better. Now at least I can say that to our customers with a greater degree of confidence, having experienced it first hand.

All in all it was a very fun day though. Jeremy is a really awesome person to hang out with, and definitely the person you want with you if you are going to buy some speakers. I can appreciate sound, but jeez, start talking about amps and my eyes glaze over.

I was a little worried when I heard that NBC was remaking the Office. Having just discovered the BBC Office last year and found out how insanely amazingly great it is you can understand why I might dread NBC remaking it. Remember Coupling? (No? … Exactly.)

So with fear I watched the premire tonight. And it was so FUNNY. Seriously, it was just as good as the original. A little bit different but just enough to make it American. Everything else was pitch perfect to the tone of the UK version. Oh man, I was dying with laughter. I haven’t laughed that hard since…well, when I watch the BBC Office.

And on an even more brilliant move on NBC’s part they’ve paired the show up with Scrubs on Tuesdays. YEAH! I’m now guarenteed at least an hour every week where I’ll laugh so hard I’ll pee myself. Thank you NBC for making my day.

Still no taxes done. How many days left? Oh shit is right.

I’m pretty sure I’m going blind.

Today I finally found out what exactly my insurance is.

Now I can schedule an appointment.

Must do that tomorrow.

So going blind.

So was in denial about the whole thing.

My insurance kicks ass, thankfully.

OK, I think it is probably time for another regular post. Yes, I could be watching a movie right now, but what’s better than speaking to my babies, no?

My last regular post left you with news of a new car. Well, there has been all sorts of new car goings on of late. I got the Mazda 3. It makes me very happy. It runs real nice and better than that, just plain RUNS. I went down to visit my friend Josh down in New Rochelle a little while ago. I went down the Taconic instead of the thruway which was a way I had never been before, going somewhere I had never been before, driving on crazy roads with even crazier drivers and somehow it all ended up OK. Car worked great, no complaints. And now that the snow suddenly seems like it’s on its way out, I can finally open the car up a little bit to see what’s she’s got. It’s a lot of fun. I’d do that Zoom-zoom thing, but that damn commercial drives me crazy. If I was one of those people who let little things drive them nuts, I’d probably be driving another car right now. But my car kicks ass, so ennnh!

In other car news, the Honda was finally getting to be too much for my folks, so they went and picked up a new Honda Accord EX Wednesday. I haven’t seen much of it yet, but from what I’ve seen it looks pretty sweet. No complaints from my mom. The old Accord was just really old, like 15 years old, and my folks were sick of putting money into a lost cause.

At the same time all of this was happening though, Sandy, the roommate of my coworker Emily, had her car just die on her. So my parents sold the car to her for the great deal of $200, figuring if the thing died on her she could at least strip it for parts and get her money back. So far it’s still working. Good luck, Sandy!

Since Seth and Summer got back together the O.C. has just been genius. Thank you O.C., for easily being a giant highlight of my week.

I’ve still yet to file my taxes. I was going to do it yesterday, but yesterday was such a wasted day. God. I went to do something online, and my stupid dialup took FOREVER. By the time I was done I had no desire to dig into the intricate delicacies that are tax code and read some magazines and listened to music instead. I’m such a procrastinator. I really wonder if that is something that will change or plague me forever.

Went to Radio Shack the other day. Saw a loser (I’m not going to be polite about it, come on!) I went to high school with. Either he didn’t recognize me or didn’t care to, as he went about helping me as if I were any Joe Shmoe on the street. I didn’t care to remind him, wanting to get in and out unscathed. I’m sure as hell not going back to Radio Shack any time soon.

Finally I’ll leave you with a little run in I had at K-Mart recently. The other Tuesday I go to K-Mart to pick out the new 50 Cent album the day it was suppose to come out. It wasn’t there, though. So I asked the guy working the counter if I just missed something. He of course had no clue about anything, insisting that DVDs came out Tuesday, CDs Thursday. Uh, no, they both come out Tuesday buckaroo, but nice try there. (Turns out he was right about 50 coming out Thursday though, but that’s another story.)

I wait a couple days and then call up K-Mart to see if they now have it. They did, but the woman I was talking to made it sound very much like they wouldn’t have any more copies for much longer. First of all, she told me that the CD came out early, which was completely false. I had been there the day it was suppose to come out, and I didn’t see it there. Early my ASS, it came out late. I didn’t tell her that though.

Well, can I reserve a copy at least? Sorry, they don’t do that at K-Mart. Well, if I come down tomorrow do you think that there will still be some left?

“I really can’t say…”

So I go down there that night, thinking that a sudden rush in gangster rap fans can steal away my chance at getting my Fiddy fix for ten bucks. What do I see, FIRST THING, as I walk in the entertainment section? A complete rack, two across and like ten down filled with new 50 Cent CDs. I walk to the new CD section. There are copies. Featured Selection section. 50. 50 Cent section. More and more 50.

I wanted to hit the lady. There must have been like a hundred copies there. Even if the entire population of Bennington descended on K-Mart and bought a copy (plus one for all their friends!) there would have still been at least one copy for me the next day.

Oh man, what bullshit was that?

Haven’t said hey in a while, so I thought I’d check in with you happy people.

“Hey.”

That’s about all I’ve got for now. Dude, posting is totally, like, hard and stuff.

…I’ll have … A NEW CAR!!! (Begin Price is Right screaming here.)

So here is the what’s what: The Chevy, at least in my mind, is officially dead. It was running OK for a while after the accident (I could at least deal with the fact that the car’s suspension felt like it was constructed of used Slinkies) today driving home the engine just shat all over me. You press the pedal and weird things happen. Sometimes is doesn’t work. Sometimes it works all too well (and then doesn’t want to work again). Every minute longer I drive that thing brings me closer to death.

Luckily, today when my car decided to give me a big “fuck you” I was coming home from a Mazda dealership. That’s right folks, I went car shopping on my own. Well, not completely on my own. My boss had said she was looking at the Mazda 3 and she really liked it. I went down with Emmy from work and we took a look at said Mazda 3. And didn’t I really like it. We spent about 3 hours playing with them. I went home. The car drove like a piece of shit. Time for action people. I talked it out with my folks and tomorrow I am most likely going home with a new car. My first new car. And it will be awesome. I’m super psyched. But so as to not ruin anything I’ll leave the rest of my story for another day, hopefully when I’ll have my own car.

…almost, but not quite.