I just got great customer service from AT&T Wireless. Normally I get horrible customer service from every company with which I do business, but AT&T Wireless is often an exception–especially today.

I bought my new wireless phone at the end of August, and the price was higher than I would have liked, but it’s a cool phone. I got it because I wanted to upgrade to their new voice and data network, which they had just begun offering in Southern California a few days prior. Then, a couple of weeks later, I noticed they were offering a fifty dollar rebate on the phone.

I called AT&T Wireless to find out if I was eligible for the rebate based on the date when I bought the phone (which was a possibility). Unfortunately, I had bought the phone too early. Then, without my even asking, the woman on the phone did some looking around, and she found out that I was eligible for “loyal customer” status. So she gave me a fifty dollar “loyal customer” service credit. Not only did I get the fifty dollars, but I also saved myself the hassle of filling out a rebate form, mailing it in, and waiting six to eight weeks for a check!

So yeah, I’m really happy with AT&T Wireless right now. They exhibited concern for customer satisfaction, and I really appreciate that. Now if only AT&T Broadband was the same way…

Tonight is the first rehearsal for Company.

I’ve been listening to the revival cast recording to try and familiarize myself with the music. I wish I had the original cast recording because it’s much better, but I ordered it from BMG (for five dollars), so I have to wait a couple of weeks to receive it. I can see it’s going to be difficult to learn the lyrics because there are many lists and repetitions. The harmonies shouldn’t be too difficult, though; they seem very obvious.

Overall, I’m excited about the show. It’ll be fun to work with Masaya, as usual. We’ve had amazing stage chemistry since the first time we read together during Good News auditions. I assume this show won’t be much different for us, although it’s kind of weird that Stan (her boyfriend) is in it too, but I’m the one playing her character’s (soon-to-be) husband. Meanwhile, his character is married to one of her best friends. Dizzying, isn’t it?

I read an article on Sondheim.com about the differences between the original production and the revival, and I think it will be interesting to see which script Ron uses. Knowing Ron, he’ll use parts of each script. The biggest question, though, is whether he’ll set it in 1970 like the original, 1995 like the revival, or another year altogether (like the present, for instance). The show expresses attitudes about marriage, drugs, smoking, and sexism, so it has to take place in a specific time. Of course, you can change the attitudes to reflect the time period of your choice, which is what they did for the revival. According to the article, however, the 1970 version was too firmly grounded in 1970 and therefore not appropriate for a current audience, while the 1995 version seemed out-of-place. So it remains to be seen whether Ron’s version will solve either of these problems.

Incidentally, I read another article about a really bad production of Company at a college, and it’s really funny. Hopefully ours will be better.

So you know how the online dictionaries (such as Merriam-Webster and Encarta) now have audio samples for every word to demonstrate how they’re pronounced? Well, it was only a matter of time before some extremely creative people decided that it would be fun to use this as a form of entertainment:

http://www.dictionaraoke.org

“When it comes to passing, nobody beats the Bear Bads.”

– A wife on “The Newleywed Game,” filling in the blank regarding which football team is the best

After months of waiting, AT&T finally released mMode, their high-speed data and voice service, in Southern California. Now instead of settling for the Motorola phone (which was cool, but not the coolest) and T-Mobile or Cingular, I can get a really cool Ericsson T68i or Nokia 8390 and keep my service with AT&T, which is definitely better than Cingular or T-Mobile.

So there’s this phone called the Motorola T193m.

According to Motorola, the phone is available with both T-Mobile (formerly VoiceStream) and Cingular, it’s relatively small and lightweight, and it has GPRS for high-speed internet access.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile doesn’t list the phone on their site at all (although the original VoiceStream site does), and Cingular offers the phone but won’t let me choose any internet options for it. Other sites like GetConnected and Point.com offer the phone (for free, after rebate), but they don’t offer the internet options either.

Meanwhile, Motorola claims that the phone is 3.3 inches tall, while the other sites say it’s 4.7 or 4.1 inches tall. Judging from the ratio of its height to its width (because they all agree that it’s either 1.7 or 1.8 inches wide), I’d say it’s about 4.3 inches tall. But I think the only way to know would be to see it in person.

And of course, the only way to actually purchase the phone and internet service for it at the same time would be to go to a store and do it in person, since the web sites either a) don’t offer the phone, or b) don’t offer the internet service.

So although all of these companies have gone to a lot of trouble to make it possible to purchase a wireless phone and service over the web, I still need to make a trip to the store if I decide to get a new wireless phone. Arrgh!

The week that I moved into my apartment in Irvine (the last week of January, 1999), I got a haircut at the Supercuts on Barranca.

The girl who cut my (bright orange) hair that day was eighteen years old, just like me. Also just like me, she had dropped out of high school when she was sixteen and gotten her GED. Then she had learned a marketable skill, gotten a job, and moved out of her parents’ house, just like me.

Today I went to the Supercuts on 17th Street to get a haircut, and the same girl cut my hair. Apparently, just like me, she moved from Irvine to Costa Mesa because Irvine was too hot and too expensive.

Sure, that’s not as weird as running into the DOC waitress at Denny’s in La Mirada, but it’s still pretty weird.

Well, today is Stephanie’s last day in Irvine.

She’s been my friend for a little over a year now, and it’s been a lot of fun. Amie, Jonathan, and I spent a lot of time trying to help her learn about the ways of the world outside of her small, maternally-imposed bubble, and now comes the true test to see if our help has helped. Our little one is going off to college in New York City.

Thanks to us, she knows that Irish Cream isn’t just cream. She knows that normal people don’t vacuum their shoes. She knows that you don’t have to stop at the meter if you’re using the carpool lane of the onramp. She knows how to put in a tampon.

The funny thing about Stephanie, though, is that she seems really naive and helpless when she’s in a group, but somehow she’s amazingly resourceful and independent when she’s alone. If she needed to get to Los Angeles and didn’t have access to a car, she’d find out the bus schedule and get herself there. She’s that kind of person. So I think she’ll be okay in New York.

Regardless of that, I’m sure she’ll have great stories to tell her friends back home about her strange and unusual experiences there. And I hope she tells us those stories often because we’ll really miss her in the meantime.

Anyone who’s interested in the Muppets should check out Kermitage, a web site which lists every character, every episode of the Muppet Show, and (soon) every piece of Muppet merchandise and memorabilia ever created.

Did you know that the guy in Mahna Mahna (from the first episode of the first season) was performed by Jim Henson? And the two pink cow-like creatures, called Snowths, were performed by Frank Oz (with one in each hand, I presume).

I put together an album of digital photographs called “Eating Out” (because I tend to take pictures whenever I go out to eat with friends), uploaded the photos to Shutterfly, and ordered 4×6 prints.

When I got them in the mail, I was amazed! The quality of digital prints is astounding. They look the same as traditional photographic prints! Part of that is due to the two-megapixel nature of my new digital camera, but most of it is due to the way they print the pictures. I mean, I printed some wallet-size ones on my little Polaroid printer (which prints digital photos on Polaroid 500 film), and I also printed some on my HP DeskJet (complete with Premium Photo Paper), but those couldn’t compare with the prints from Shutterfly, which were actually developed on photographic paper. The prints from my Polaroid printer were waterproof, but they were also grainy. And the prints from my DeskJet printer were rather crisp, but you could still see the dots, and they were easily smudged and easily ruined by even one drop of water.

So yeah, I’m in love with Shutterfly now. However, I heard that Walmart.com is offering a similar service for nearly half the price, and you can pick up the prints in your local Wal-Mart store instead of waiting for them to arrive in the mail. That would be really cool, but the last time I checked, their web site wasn’t working.