Alright I was messing with the title so don't let it through you off... that's assuming anyone is reading this thing nowadays (check 1,2,3... is this thing on).
So I've been in a funk lately and super busy would be a huge understatement. I decided that although I have no extra time that I would still make time for writing. As a little back story I was a technical writer for a geek newsletter and other writer for a few years in my past. I got severely burned out and dropped pretty much all forms of writing... blogs, notebooks, you name it. I finally got the vox account and started to warm back up to writing again. Now that doesn't mean you see me proofreading or spell checking or any of that fancy stuff. Basically this is just a stream of conciousness as fast as my fingers can type it. No drafts, straight to publish!
Having rambled all that crap though I have decided I don't know what to write about. My old writing were all technical writing, some script writing (short movies) and throw in a little dry humor. So I'm going to ask you my reading public (which I'm sure is mostly in my imagination) what do you want to hear from me? Do you want to read my random rants where I don't care if you love or hate me afterwards? Do you have lighting or other questions that are burning in your brain that you want to try to have me attempt to answer? What will bring you all to this blog to look for updates or do I just keep rambling and drooling over myself in the corner (which I'm perfectly fine with doing too)?
So if you have a comment/question then post it and we'll see which way I am swayed in my writing. Personally I'm hoping that everyone votes on drunken lighting/photography advice. Something about slurred typing and overlapping/double-vision diagrams just seems like so much fun. Who knows... maybe just like Jackie Chan I may be the drunken master. Only your post will decide!
For such a large company I would think you should be able to get through the waiting phone lines within 15 minutes or so but no that doesn't seem to be the case. I've called 3 times today and each time I was audio assaulted with elevator music from hell for upwards of 20 minutes before finally caving in to having to leave the desk and get something productive done. They don't give you any feedback either... no, "operators are busy but we'll get to you shortly" or the popular "you're (insert number) in line and will be help in (insert time) minutes." Just evil music that was surely designed to make you so greatful for a voice on the other end that you completely forget the seeming endless torture you just endured. Now with that rant done let me explain the situation...
Several weeks ago I filled out the online pre-order for CS3 but had to cancel before finalizing because of the kid getting into stuff, etc. Well I later attempted to finish the order from work. This wouldn't normally be a problem but I didn't realize that their store detects your operating system and adjusts what you are ordering if you aren't paying attention. So I spaced off and ordered a Windows version which will surely not install at this time on the mac, no matter how many live animals I sacrifice to the machine. So the next day I noticed the error and did what any right minded person would do and call customer service. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes I finally get through just to be told they don't have the power to access the sales system and that I would just have to wait for it to come in, return it and then reorder the mac version... unless I would like to be transferred to sales. Well of course the answer is that I would rather save myself that misery and fix it now. So I am transferred to sales and after a 10 minute wait the phone goes dead. I call back and after another 10 minute wait it goes dead again. Finally third times a charm and I get through to a real human being that speaks english. I explain the situation and the guy pulls up my customer information. He makes small talk and tries to buy himself some time while he searches all over their system to only come to the conclusion that it's not really ordered. I'm a little confused because I can see it under my order history but he checks by name, phone number, e-mail, blood type, dna and first born genome comparison and still doesn't see the order. Well how can I argue with that... so I order the mac version of the upgrade but he tells me to check back in a week or two and make sure that it is still right in the system. I take his advice and wait until last Friday and after a few attempts give up until today. Finally by the third attempt I get the most knowledgeable and friendly sales associate I have ever talked to at Adobe (seriously you guys at adobe should ignore the law and clone him... I know you have the technology, after all I've seen the new clone source tool). He sees the windows order straight away but no mac order which irritates me a bit. I ask about canceling the windows order but he tells me he wishes he could but it tells him it already shipped. My screen says otherwise but the sales associate calls to shipping and they verify it went out this morning. We go through the process of ordering the mac version so I don't have to wait 7 days to get the Windows one, return it and then wait for the mac version. It turns out 2nd day shipping is only 8 dollars over what I would pay for ground so I agree to that. So when all is done I have a mac version ordered today that will be here Wednesday, a windows version which will get here sometime next week or so that was ordered a few weeks ago and I'm back to basically doing what the first customer service person was going to have me do anyway. I'm just glad I didn't order the master collection because two of those charges on the credit card would really suck. Adobe might make the best image editting/design software but they need to seriously redesign the internal processes. I'm sure someone someday will rise up to challenge Adobe and if the products are comparable then it will come down to ease of purchase and right now Adobe would lose (unless they adopt my cloning idea at which case I expect a check or free upgrades for saving their butt).
Now with that rant out of the way I have one question for all of you....
Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?
