On July 16, 2009, I received an email from Nikon, Inc., alerting me about a “service advisory” (aka, recall, see here) regarding my camera. Nikon requested that D5000 owners with particular serial numbers send their cameras in to get checked for a problem with the power switch not actually turning the camera on. I had not experienced any of these problems, so I was a bit hesitant to send my camera in for service basically due to the sheer annoyance of me having to be without a camera for an extended period of time (insert ominous music here). I finally decided that I [probably] wouldn’t need my camera for a decently long period of time (two weeks…Nikon shouldn’t need more time than that, right?), so I packed the thing up in a box, slapped my prepaid UPS label on it, and sent the D5000 to Connecticut. I should note that the only thing Nikon ever stated when referencing to the amount of time that it would take to get the camera fixed was: “Nikon will return serviced cameras to customers promptly, employing (whenever possible) transportation that limits transit time to two days.”

This is where you laugh and say “I know what’s going to happen next. Lepolt is going to need/want his camera before it’s fixed!” You and Murphy would be correct…almost as soon as I sent the camera in, I wanted to use it.

A little background: Seapine Software has purchased tickets to the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters Open for the past few years, and has graciously offered tickets to employees. I have graciously accepted said tickets, and have been able to see the likes of Roger Federer (Pics from 2007) smacking that little yellow ball around on a court in Mason, OH. I figured this year would be no different, so I put in my request for tickets. Again, Murphy’s interference: I wasn’t able to get tickets at the end of the tournament like I expected, but more toward the middle.

At this point I knew I was in trouble. My camera was in transit to Connecticut, I was in Cincinnati, and the tennis tournament was in a little over a week.

What do I do? I NEED my camera by Saturday! Let’s call Nikon. I’m sure by calling their 1-800 number I’ll be able to speak with someone that can tell me the whereabouts of my camera and when I can expect it to return. Right? RIGHT?!

<insert laughter>

This is where the fun begins…I called Nikon on Sunday evening and talked to Cynthia. I asked her where my camera was. She told me “it was out of her hands.” I asked how I was supposed to find my camera, and how I could get it back by Saturday. She had no idea. She did tell me that she would email the service facility, and she would email me their response by Tuesday.

It’s Tuesday. I’ve heard nothing from Cynthia. I’ll call back. This time I talked to a guy and had to explain the whole situation to him again. He told me right away that “it was out of his hands,” and “we (customer service) are not handling that.” I asked him if he knew where my camera was and he said, “it’s in Connecticut!” I calmly asked if he knew for certain that my camera was in Connecticut, or if someone else’s camera was in Connecticut. “Well, that’s where all the D5000 cameras are going.” I asked again where MY camera was. “Well, we don’t have access to that information.” I called BS and said there had to be someone there that knew what was going on. He put me on hold for five minutes…then hung up. Intentional? Probably. At least that’s the way I’ll spin it.

So I called back. This time I got to talk to Vinnie. I told Vinnie my sob story (for the third time) and mentioned how the previous support representative had just hung up on me, and how the first support representative had failed to follow through on her commitment. Vinnie really felt my pain. “It’s not funny,” he said. “I understand your inconvenience.” At this point I could pretty much recite Nikon’s whole script of how to deal with a frustrated/angry/jackass customer and knew that no one at 1-800-645-6678 would be able to do a damn thing for me. I told Vinnie that this whole situation was unacceptable, and that I was really starting to get angry due to lack of communication between Nikon and its customers, and Nikon between customer service and the repair facility. We spoke for about 25 minutes while I tried to get a loaner camera from Nikon and he read from the script which was full of “I’m sorry’s” and “I understand’s.” Probably to get me to shut up, he finally told me he was pretty sure (although he wouldn’t guarantee anything) that I would have my camera back in time. He was going to email yet ANOTHER department to see if I could get a loaner camera by Saturday. Again, he was “pretty sure” that I could get a loaner camera (but wouldn’t guarantee anything).

I’m not buying it for a second. No chance. Zero. I’m not getting my camera back or a loaner by Saturday. They’ll have to kick the thing out the door first thing Wednesday morning to have any chance of me getting it.

One interesting tidbit that I did manage to extract from Vinnie was that it could take five business days once they received the camera to generate a service order number, and they could work with me from there. Hmmmm. Five business days. This information would certainly have been useful BEFORE I sent the camera in! Stupid Nikon!!!

I realize that this whole situation is a little bit my fault…but when it really comes down to it, I feel like Nikon should have done a better job of everything! They obviously know how long it will take to repair a single camera, how many cameras they have sold, and how many cameras they could expect to receive at their repair facility. They could have provided me with a rough estimate of how long I should expect to be without my camera! All they told me was they would try to ship it back within two days wherever possible. That’s worthless to me. Unbelievable. I can send something in the mail and tell you that it will take 2-3 days to get there! The useful information is how long it will take them to fix once they have it…information they neglected to share. Oh well.

So, I guess we’ll just wait and see. Hopefully I have something to use come Saturday…Federer is in town.

At this point I’m not ready to spend a smooth half grand on electronics, which is why #2 was the answer. The problem with this is that now we have no good way to watch DVDs. There’s a slight chance that Abi and I both brought portable DVD players into this marriage…but the real issue (finally stated) is that neither of those DVD players has a digital audio output for the 5.1 Bose surround sound system in the house. This means I am unable to get some sweet surround sound effects while watching movies with the sound cranked up rattling the walls, and that’s what I’m really looking for.

I held out for a while but was really inkling to watch something with a lot of explosions. After all, THIS IS MY HOUSE AND I CAN BE AS LOUD AS I WANT TO BE BECAUSE THIS IS MY HOUSE AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME TO BE QUIET!!! Last week I made the decision that I would find the DVD player with the cheapest retail price I could find just to hold us over until Blu-ray was a bit more reasonable.

Let me take a moment to explain a few things about my buying habits. When I buy things, especially electronics, my philosophy is to buy very high quality products. There are a few reasons behind this:

1. I take good care of my things. When they break, it’s not my fault.
2. I have found that nicer things last longer; therefore when I buy nice things I don’t need to replace them because they don’t break.
3. This philosophy was pretty much followed out by my father (at least in terms of electronics), so it’s hereditary and I can’t help it.

Anyways, I decided that in my current situation that buying a cheap DVD player to keep me satisfied until it was replaced by a new Blu-ray was acceptable, even though it was against my core beliefs. I mean, come on! DVDs have been out since 1993…even a cheap DVD player should be decent, right? Abi and I stopped by Best Buy one day last week and found a $30 Insignia DVD player, decided it was acceptable, bought it and took it home. We plugged it in and watched a movie. Everything went surprisingly fine: good sound quality, good picture quality, remote worked…this thing was actually going to work out. Sweet, $30, not bad.

Saturday we were doing some work around the house when I decided to take a break and watch a scene from a movie with a great surround sound scene. The office building lobby scene from the Matrix came to mind, so I popped the DVD in. You know the one I’m talking about:

Anyways, I was fiddling around with things trying to skip directly to that chapter, but the remote wouldn’t work. No matter how hard I pressed on the buttons, the selected menu would only go up. Different buttons did the same thing. Hmmm…maybe I can program my Sony receiver remote to work with this Insignia DVD player. Good thought Lepolt, but Sony spits on that crap.

To conclude this long story, I took back the $30 POS and picked up a nice Sony $80 upconverting DVD player, which still works like a champ even after using it twice. So there you have it: 30 reasons I don’t buy crap.

To keep it brief and to avoid sounding like I’m complaining, there was rain and lightning that started about 4pm Sunday. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:15pm. So long as we were in the air by 6:03pm, getting to our connecting flights in Charlotte would not be a big deal.

Then our plane was delayed. Then our plane was diverted. Then our flight was cancelled.

Oh well, we’re back in Cincinnati now…time to get back to business. I will say, however, that I am a little disappointed in US Airways for not providing anyone with food or lodging that evening. While originally they said our flight was cancelled due to weather, there were other planes flying in and out of the airport at the time of the cancellation. It was around 8pm, which isn’t too late for a flight. I think the crew decided that they were done for the day. I understand the regulations, but it would have been nice to get the real story…and a free hotel room.

A special thanks to Kevin, for pointing this out.

Stop at a clearly marked stop line, but if none, stop before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or, if none, stop before entering the intersection;

Therefore, the correct answer to last week’s poll was: #3, Four-way stop.

Thanks to everyone who played. Whoever voted for bumper cars…I know you know better. My loyal readers are very bright.

Before we conclude for today, there is one other traffic pet peeve that I’d like to clarify. The main road connecting my place of residence and the freeway is a four-lane road with a double yellow line. During the school year there are many times that school busses drive down this road. This, as you may have guessed, also results in them stopping to pick up/drop off kids. On more than one occasion I have seen traffic in both directions come to a complete stop when the bus is stopped. My argument is the following:

When a school bus is stopped on a four-lane road in the state of Ohio, oncoming traffic need not stop.

According to the Ohio Revised Code Title [45] XLV Motor Vehicles — Aeronautics — Watercraft, Chapter 4511: Traffic Laws — Operation of Motor Vehicles, Section 75: Stopping for a stopped school bus, I am correct.

Where a highway has been divided into four or more traffic lanes, a driver of a vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley need not stop for a school bus approaching from the opposite direction which has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school child, persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, or children attending programs offered by head start agencies. The driver of any vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley overtaking the school bus shall comply with division (A) of this section.

I hope that this has been educational. Actually, I hope you already knew this. Consider this a refresher course in basic drivers’ ed. Please note that driving laws may differ from state to state. It is the driver’s responsibility to familiarize himself with state driving laws while traveling. Did you know that in Texas if there is an emergency vehicle on the side of the road you must move over or slow down to 20mph below the speed limit?

20-some years later I still love Cedar Point. Unfortunately for me I don’t live as close as I used to, so I’ve had to substitute Kings Island for Cedar Point. Not a fair trade by any means, but KI is only about 30 minutes away from where I live, whereas CP is more like four hours. Last year Abi and I acquired two season passes to KI, so we became quite familiar with everything it had to offer. We still both agree that Cedar Point is hands up, the best park ever (get it, hands up?), but for temporary enjoyment between CP visits, Kings Island will suffice. We both have our favorite rides at KI, and some may be better than comparable others at CP. I like the Beast and Flight of Fear. Abi likes Scooby-Doo and the Racer, but only backwards (Racer backwards is Recar, for those that didn’t catch on).

Well, she used to like the Racer. Kevin informed me Saturday night that Cedar Fair would be flipping the backwards train forward when Kings Island opens this season. The press release can be found here.

Up until this point I have been the first to defend Cedar Fair in the changes that they made to the Paramount Parks. I defended Cedar Fair in how the currently run all of their parks, Cedar Point included. This announcement, however, I do not support. When the ride first opened in 1972 both trains moved in the same direction. In 1982 the decision was made to turn one of them around so that it would be moving backwards on the track. I have no idea how people enjoyed the change from 1982 to 2006, but in 2007 each time I rode this ride there was always a longer line for the backwards train.

The American Coaster Enthusiasts even branded the Racer as an “ACE Roller Coaster Landmark,” an award that only 13 other coasters share.

My question to Cedar Fair: Why mess with a classic? Cedar Fair says they want all of their rides “to be consistent with other Cedar Fair parks.” I say that if you have something fun and unique that people like, leave it alone. People can ride a forward facing coaster anywhere, the Racer used to have an appeal because it was different. Sure the lines were never that long to begin with, but it’s an older, classic coaster.

Please Cedar Fair, reconsider this decision and let the Racer maintain this distinctive quality.

At first when I heard there was going to be another post-season college basketball tournament this year, I thought it was a stupid idea. The NCAA Tournament is obviously the only one that matters, so why bother with the NIT? It’s just a tournament held for those that didn’t make it into the NCAA, and I never saw the point. Then I heard there was going to be an additional tournament for teams that didn’t make it into the NIT, and I really thought that was a stupid idea. As if being in the ‘Not in the Tournament’ tournament (NIT) was rubbing it in for sucking, we’re going to offer an alternative for the NIT…perfect for those teams that really, really suck, and may never have a chance to play in the NCAA.

It only figures that UC would play in this alternative to the alternative, also known as the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). With about five games left in the regular season, UC had a fighting chance of making it to the NCAA. It probably wasn’t going to happen, but if they would have won a few of those games and made a respectable run in the Big East tournament, it wouldn’t have been unbelievable to see UC play on Thursday/Friday this week. However, they decided to lose those last five games as well as the first round game in the Big East tourney, so even the NIT didn’t want them, especially with their losing record.

UC was not a good team this year. They won some great games against Loserville, Syracuse, Villanova, Pitt, and West Virgina, however, they made few mistakes in those games. The games that they lost (UCONN, Seton Hall, I don’t want to continue) they made plenty of mistakes to lose the games. Again, UC was not a good team. There’s no point in making excuses, they WERE NOT GOOD.

At one point Mick Cronin was talking about UC’s chance at any post-season appearances. He talked about the new CBI, and mentioned how college football has been playing tons of bowl games for years. It’s a fair comparison, and at that point I didn’t care which tournament UC played in as long as I got to see them play a couple more games. I agreed with Cronin, “If football can do it, why can’t basketball?!”

Tonight UC lost to Bradley. Bradley is a 17-15 team with a 9-9 record in the Missouri Valley Conference. On any given day, there’s no chance that UC should ever lose to these guys. UC was 13-18 overall, with an 8-10 record in the Big East. Let’s just compare the conference records…UC should have walked all over these guys. That being said, UC lost. They lost because they are not a good team. I’m embarrassed that UC lost to Bradley, not matter how bad of a season UC had this year.

Do “not good” teams deserve any post-season games? NO! HECK NO! Post-season is reserved for good teams that play good strong schedules and have a good record against all of the teams they play! That’s why we have the NCAA Tournament! 65 teams (not all are “good” but I can’t help teams like Mount St. Mary’s) that all have an equal shot at winning. The NIT is a joke. The CBI is a joke. The 30+ college football bowl games are a joke.

What happened to the days when making it to the post-season was a feat in itself, let alone winning that game? With the 30+ football bowl games offerend and only 110+ football teams, not making a bowl game means your team is really, really bad. I don’t think that’s right.

I say we get back to the days when post-season was hard to get to. Enough of this extra junk (International Bowl, Meineke Care Care Bowl, PapaJohns.com Bowl, NIT, CBI), and only let the teams deserving of post-season play in post-season!

Jonathan Lepolt’s Snow Rules:

1. If it’s going to snow, don’t do it while I’m away from home.
2. If it’s going to snow when I’m away from home, especially don’t do it when I’m 30 miles from home in Mason, OH.

Yes, you guessed it.  I got stuck driving home from work in the snow again.  Some of you may find this funny.  Screw you.  Some of you may feel my pain.  I’m about to start a support group, and everyone is welcome.

So it turns out this blog entry is going to be another rant about the weather in Cincinnati, moronic drivers, and the lack of competence of the local meteorologists.  Last week you may recall that I put a poll up on my blog asking people to vote on how much snow we would get overnight.  Meteorologists predicted 3-5 inches, and we ended up with about one inch and a nice coating of ice.  All I saw on the TV was weather people, weather watches, weather warnings, weather updates, weather-related closings, and salt trucks on call to react to the weather.  On my two-hour drive home today in a stretch of about 30 miles, I think I only saw two salt trucks.

Kevin should be able to attest to that.

So where were you on this one, weather people?  On my way into work around 7am they said the snow wasn’t going to start until 5 or 6pm.  Abi said I’m full of crap and they said the snow was going to start at 3pm, but I think they changed their minds once they figured out how stupid they were.  Oh well, I enjoy stop-and-go traffic on the Interstates.  After all, who needs a 65mph speed limit?

*Allow me to step off of my soapbox*

So, how ‘bout them Bearcats?  Not looking too bad this season after all, and we are sure getting our money’s worth in these close games.  Anyone predicting 2008 NCAA Tournament?

The slogan reminds me about a scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest was in his “running stage” when he helps that hippie come up with a new bumper sticker slogan. Come on, I know you remember it:

Hippie: “Hey, man, hey, listen. I was wondering if you might help me, huh? Listen, I’m in the bumper sticker business and I’ve been trying to think up a good slogan. And since you have been such a big inspiration to the people around here, I thought you might be able to help me jump into… Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dog shit!”
Forrest: “It happens.”
Hippie: “What, shit?”
Forrest: “Sometimes.”

From here I suppose I could transition into how great a movie Forrest Gump is, or how great an actor Tom Hanks is and question how he gets involved in some really crappy movies (Cast Away, just awful. The Terminal, thoroughly disappointed). I could also tell the story about the summer when my sister, brother, and I all got into a huge Tetris tournament with the old school Gameboy…which then led my mom to force me into getting a job.

I think I might spin off the second topic and talk about the Wii.

Since purchasing a Wii and playing it for hours at a time, I can honestly say that I have missed playing video games since the introduction of the Nintendo 64 (circa 1996). Yes, that is correct: the last video game system that I purchase was the Nintendo 64. You may wonder why I didn’t get a GameCube, or a PS2, or an Xbox. Well, if I had to pick a single factor, it would have to be price. Holy crap have you looked at the price for the high end PS3 these days? $500 for the system, one controller, and a crappy game. The price of these gaming systems was beginning to get out of control, and thus I began to focus on collecting/buying the older games like Super Mario Bros. I remember buying the original Gameboy in 1990 for $90. Looking back, that was probably a large amount for a portable gaming system…but come on, the screen was shades of, err, green? The Gameboy at least came with Tetris, a game that could keep you busy for hours trying to get over that 100-line milestone.

Then there was the Super Nintendo that I bought some time after that…for $119.99 I remember it came with two controllers, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and for $4.99 shipping and handling, it also came with Super Mario All-Stars [which contained Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, & 3 and the Lost Levels]. That thing was sweet and to this day, Super Mario World is still one of my favorite games of all time.

At some point after that people in the video game market decided they weren’t making enough/could make more by selling all of these required components separately instead of packaging the required stuff together so that the gamer could simply buy the system, take it home, and play without having to shell out additional coin. Ick. Then the N64 purchase:
System: $150
2nd controller: $25
Game: $50

Yikes, already up to $225.

[Click the ‘Live’ button on the DVR remote]

Playstation 3: $400/$500
Xbox 360: $350
Wii: $250

Now I know we have to take into account inflation, and the rising cost off all the required parts to assemble the video game console, and the advancement of the technology inside the boxes, but holy cow…500 bucks is a lot of money, not to mention the other crap you need to buy!

So what am I getting at here? Well, now I’m a sucker and have bought back into the video game world. Even though I now have the cheapest system available, you can be assured that plenty of birthday and Christmas money have been spent on accessories. Maybe I should have just stuck with Tetris.

The University of Cincinnati football team was recently hosed by the Bowl Selection Committee(s). 

Setting the stage:
BCS Rankings:
20) South Florida
23) Cincinnati
n/a) UConn 

Big East Rankings:
1) West Virginia
2) UConn
3) Cincinnati
4) South Florida 

The order (from best to worst) of bowl games that UC is eligible for:
Brut Sun Bowl
Meineke Car Care Bowl
PapaJohns.com Bowl 

The Sun Bowl said they were going to take USF because they had a better ranking in the BCS polls, and also because [at the time] Oregon State was the team from the PAC-10 that was most likely going to play in the Sun Bowl. UC already beat the crap out of O.State, so I can understand this story. 

The Meineke Bowl decided to take UConn because they were ranked higher in the Big East. 

11/03 -> UC beat #18 South Florida 38-33

11/10 -> UC beat #13 UConn 27-3 

UConn isn’t ranked in a single poll. 

UC got shafted. That’s all there is to it.