Star Wars: The Clone Wars

This afternoon I took the boys to the sneak preview of
Clone Wars at the Sharkey Theater.

First, about the movie:

Wow.

98 minutes of rompin', stompin', shootin', flyin', light-saberin', back-flippin', usin'-the-force, inter-galactic battlin' action. The droid robot soldiers provide a good amount of comic-relief, too.

My 7 and 4 year old boys were mezmerized. They made it through the entire movie without any trips to the LBR (little boys' room). The three of us left the theater humming the Star Wars theme song and quoting the one-liners from the droid soldiers.

It was no more violent than any of the previous Star Wars movies. There's no real gore. When guys get shot, they fall to the ground just like in Star Wars IV. I actually felt better about my boys watching this than I would about them watching Star Wars Episode III (which I still haven't let them watch).


Second, about Sharkey Theater:

Here's some gouge for anyone considering a future sneak preview at Sharkey Theater.

The show was FREE for the first 450 people to show up. There were a LOT of people there, but the theater was by no means full. The employees were commenting how surprised they were that they didn't fill the house and have to turn anyone away - they expected a bigger turnout.

Our neighbors suggested going 2 hours ahead of time to get tickets. I didn't know if I could go THAT early. The show was at 2:30, and LW was going to a baby-shower at 12:30, so we dropped LW off, then grabbed some lunch at Subway and went to get in line. I thought we were going to be sitting in line in front of the theater for two hours and came prepared with our lunch and some kids' books and their Leapsters.

It turns out I was over-prepared. We arrived at the theater at 1:15 and there were probably 50 people in line in front of us. I never had a chance to sit down to eat our lunch though because the line moved really quick. The ticket window was open and they were handing out the tickets as people walked up. We made it through the line and had tickets in hand by about 1:30.

The tickets looked pretty schnazzy - you'd think they were intended as a collectors item.


After you get your tickets, you have to enter through the side door up at the front of the theater. Normally, the movies at Sharkey Theater are open seating, so you want to get in there early to get good seats. For this sneak preview though, the tickets had assigned seats, so there was no hurry. Getting in line at 1:15, we got tickets for seats in Row 15.

We had to be in our seats by 2:15, so I took the boys across the street to eat our lunch on the Lockwood Hall Lanai, let the boys run around a bit and use the restroom.

They would allow each person with a military ID to get up to 6 tickets. You did NOT have to have all six people there when you picked up the tickets at the window. They just all have to be there before you can enter the theater. So you could totally send someone ahead to wait in line and get the tickets and have the rest of your family meet you there to go into the theater just before the show.

They had a big sign there saying that Warner Brothers prohibited any cell phones or other recording devices in the theater for the sneak preview, and anyone caught with one would be expelled from the theater.

Overall, it was a very good time and I would totally do it again.

Sneak Preview

Shhhh!

Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at the Sharkey Theater on the Submarine Base is a sneak preview of the new St4r W4rs: The Cl0ne W4rs. The first 450 people get in for free.

If you find out about it because you read my blog and you get there before I do, save me a seat!

Aloha Furniture Part II

Follow up report to my initial post on the Aloha Furniture.

My back is pretty sore. I slept like crap the first night in the loaner bed. I was tossing and turning and up a few times in the middle of the night. I'm not sure if my lower back is sore from the living room chairs or from the bed.

Oh, and the lamps? They don't come with lightbulbs. Of course, the movers packed our spare lightbulbs...

On a funny note, the boys are now calling our house our "hotel" because of the hotel-like furniture.

Moving Horror Stories and Advice Part II

Shady Business

In my previous post about moving horror stories and advice, I mentioned the need for more than one person to do a zone defense on the moving company. While one of you guards the truck, the other should be alert for some shady business practices around the house.

For Example: Balloon Packing

The moving company charges the Navy for the packing materials they use. The more packing materials they use, the more they charge the Navy and the more money they make. When a moving company uses a lot of excessive packing materials just for the sake of charging the Navy more money, this is called "balloon packing."

So, you're saying to yourself, "Self, why would I care if they use more packing materials and charge the Navy more money? It's no skin off my nose!" Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's why you should care:

1) Besides being "fiscally responsible," saving the Navy money, and preventing the company from defrauding the government...

2) When they balloon pack you, it leads to situations like I describe in the next section about MULTIPLE TRUCKS.

I will have more to say about balloon packing at the end of this post, but first let me take a tangent to discuss multiple trucks.


Tangent: BEWARE Multiple Trucks

When you've accumulated a lot of shhhtuff like we have over the years, then this starts to become an issue. Do NOT expect an EMPTY moving truck to show up at your house on moving day. Often, the moving truck will already be partially full with someone else's household goods. The problem arises that if they run out of space on that truck, then they're going to have to call for a second truck.

WHEN THIS HAPPENS, make sure you keep track on the inventory of which items went on which truck.

Worst case scenario, here's what happened to us when we were leaving San Diego:
The first time we encountered the multiple truck issue was leaving Monterey. Having already been through the experience once, we told our moving company in San Diego that they needed to send an empty truck or make us the FIRST pickup for the truck because we have a LOT of SHTUFF.

Did they listen? Heck no. The first truck they sent was already about a half full when it got to our house. They filled that up and then called for another truck.

The second truck they sent was already about 7/8 full. The dispatch people figured they just needed a little bit of overflow from our house and clearly had no idea how much shtuff we had. They filled up the second truck rather quickly and called for a third truck.

Well... they didn't HAVE a third truck to send. Meanwhile, about a third of our household goods are laying out on the driveway of our house and it was like 5 p.m. and our kids were cranky and hungry and tired and LW and I were cranky and hungry and tired.

They ended up sending over the packing company's local runabout U-Haul-sized truck. They loaded up the remaining household goods on this truck and took it away to transfer to another moving truck when the next one became available.

If reading that last statement doesn't give you the heebie-geebies, IT SHOULD. Anytime your HHG have to change hands (going into storage, coming out of storage, changing from a local U-Haul truck to a bigger cross-country moving truck), it increases the risk that you're going to lose shtuff in this move, because you have no way of proving who took it or which company to hold responsible (the first moving company that took it to storage, the storage company, the second moving company that brought it out of storage). Yes, sure, you can file a claim to get stuff replaced, but there are some things you just can't replace due to their sentimental value or scarcity.

As I mentioned before, we had DOZENS of line items on our inventory not show up in Virginia. They made TWO deliveries and said "that's it folks!"
We said, "Whoa! Where's the THIRD truck?"
"Uhhh.... what third truck? We don't know anything about a third truck."

Of course, I had no proof there was a third truck because I didn't make them keep separate inventories for each truck. It took a lot of arguing with them (and pointing out how many things were missing) to convince them that YES, there WAS a third truck.

They eventually found the stuff that went on that third U-Haul truck and got it to us in Virginia, but even then, we were still missing a lot of shtuff. If the inventory just says "1.5 cuft box" and nothing about what was IN the box or even what ROOM it was from, then it's almost impossible to tell what was missing. The worst of our losses there were our mattress and our silverware (yep, ALL of our silverware was GONE - we had to start over from scratch).

Getting back to my previous topic on balloon packing:

When we arrived in Virginia, we discovered part of the reason we needed THREE trucks was because the moving company in San Diego had balloon packed us.

For example, open a big 5 cuft dish-pack box, dig, dig, dig and remove 4.8 cuft of packing paper, and remove ONE plastic (i.e. NOT fragile) Fisher Price toy. We had MANY boxes like that with ONE non-breakable item and LOTS of packing paper. I wish there was some way I could find out the statistics of just how much of the volume and the weight of that shipment came from packing materials. I'm sure it was staggering.

So again, stopping the moving company from doing things like this is in YOUR best interest to both keep your shipping weight down and to prevent your stuff from being separated into more than one moving truck and risking loss of your shtuff in the shuffle.

So you say to yourself, "Self, I now understand what balloon packing is, but what should I do if I think they're balloon packing or doing anything else wrong?"

CALL THE HHG QA INSPECTOR!!!

Rhetorical question: Which do you think is better, to already have the QA inspector's phone number pre-programmed in your cell phone and ready to dial OR have to go hunting for it while the movers are botching your packing job?

My Advice: When you schedule your move, make sure you get the phone number for the HHG QA Inspector and program it into your cell phone so you have it readily available. If ANYTHING goes wrong with your movers, then err on the side of caution and call early.

Caveat: Note that in places with a large concentration of military servicemembers like San Diego, there are probably several dozen people moving on any given day, and probably only one or two inspectors. They're not going to make it to ALL of the active move sites on any given day. When we moved out of San Diego, I called the QA Inspector several times through the course of the day. In the end, he was too busy and never made it to our house.

But wait! Don't dismiss this as "I shouldn't bother calling because he's not going to come anyway." (a) You may be someplace where they have more inspectors and fewer people moving. (b) When we got to the Virginia end of our move, I filed a very lengthy complaint against the moving company (me? verbose? say it isn't so!!!).

The first reponse I got from the NAVSUP people who process the complaints was, "Well if it was THAT bad, then WHY didn't you call for the HHG QA Inspector???"

I said, "I did... several times... the inspector never showed up."

On the other end of the phone line, "...(silence)... Oh... Okay. As long as you TRIED calling the QA Inspector."

Okay, so wrapping this all up, here are the key points to takeaway:
- Get the HHG QA Inspector's phone number when you schedule your move.
- Have more than one person at your house on moving day. Zone Defense.
- One person at the truck: Make sure everything going on the truck has an inventory tag and is accurately documented on the inventory sheet.
- One person roaming: Watch for shady practices like balloon packing.
- If there's anything fishy with the movers, call the QA Inspector.
- If they end up using more than one truck, keep the inventory segregated to show which items went in which truck.

If you've read all this and you find it at all helpful, please leave me a comment and let me know. I appreciate your feedback.

Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

Holy Cow Batman! Did you see the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics???

INCREDIBLE!!!

That was absolutely spectacular. If you didn't see it, you really missed out. I can't even begin to describe it all. I really liked the globe thing with the people running around it (if you watched the ceremony, then you know what I'm talking about). You can find lots of videos on YouTube.

I had to pick my jaw up off my lap when the grand finale and the lighting of the Olympic torch were complete. WOW! This YouTube video was taken at a slightly different viewing angle than the NBC footage, but still gives you a feel for it.



I suppose it shouldn't come as any surprise that they really know how to put on a good fireworks show in China.

Update 8/9/2008: My Aunt Ruth forwarded me this article from Gizmodo by Elaine Chow:

So for those of you who caught the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony last night—Holy crap, right? The synchronization, the music, the timed fireworks; it was a spectacle so awesome that for entire stretches of it, I couldn't really think of anything to say but “woah.” It almost goes without saying, the show owes a lot of its splendor to the absolutely amazing amount of technology that went into it. Chinese news sources now have a breakdown of what was employed to create something that'd make a billion nationals proud. Some crazy stats:

• The LED screen at the center of the ground, which unrolled to represent a huge scroll detailing China's 5,000-year civilization, measured 482 feet by 72 feet wide and contained a whopping 44,000 LED beads with a distance of 600 millimeters between each two.
• Technical monitoring systems were employed to keep track of over 18,000 performers through identification codes, a first for any Olympics.
• The fireworks used a digital ignition control system that coordinated blasts in over 30 locations across Beijing. According to Cai Guoqiang, the explosions maestro behind that part of the show, not a single of the 40,000 cannon shots faltered.
• The material used for the paper on the painting scroll was produced by the country's aerospace sector. Similarly, most of the core technologies used in the ceremony had been developed by domestic companies.

As was stated by broadcasters over and over again, China's a country of tremendous challenges—environmental, economic and human rights-wise—and as a journalist heading into that mess some time in the near future, I'm all too aware of the problems that await me. But after last night's performance, I walked away with a small overflow of pride for my heritage and a lot of hope for a brighter future. I guess that's what the Olympics are all about. [Xinhua]

Aloha Furniture

The vast majority of our shtuff is all boxed up in crates headed for Virginia. The timing worked out perfectly, because right as the moving truck drove away from our house, the Aloha Furniture delivery truck pulled up in front of our house.

In case you're curious what the Aloha Furniture is like, here are a couple of snapshots.

Dining Room

Family Room

Aside: No, Aloha Furniture did NOT supply the TV, XBox, satellite receiver or the black table they are all sitting on. LW says you can rent a 13" TV from the YMCA loan locker. The MWR loan locker on base will loan you a large bin of basic kitchen stuff - plates, flatware, cups, pots and pans, etc. For more information, you can pick up a flyer on the counter in the Aloha Center / Housing Office across the street from PSD and Ruby Tuesday.

We also got beds and dressers upstairs.

GOUGE: Note that Aloha Furniture only provides twin or double size beds. Some of our neighbors passed on the gouge that you should get two twins instead of the double size bed and set them up next to each other. Viola! It's a king size!

LW went out and bought some king size sheets to put on the bed. She washed them and dried them and then set them down on the couch... yyyyyeah, they're gone. Packed. Moved. Bye-bye. In a wooden crate on their way across the Pacific where they'll be absolutely useless to us in Virginia.

It's my fault. I should have put a pink sticky-note on them. :-)

LW is now exasperated and on her way out to buy some more king-size sheets.

Moving Horror Stories and Advice

Okay, so this move is going pretty well (knock on wood crate on back of truck). It's nowhere near our worst move experience.

A couple of tidbits from THIS move:

- Take the batteries out. If you have any toys or other electronic devices, then take the batteries out. It's pretty frustrating when you have a wall of cardboard boxes and there's a noise coming from somewhere inside. In this case, it ended up being a toy vacuum cleaner and it wasn't too hard to find, unwrap, and turn off.

- Tag the stuff you don't want packed, or set aside a separate room. We knew this already from previous moves. We set aside our Master Bedroom closet as the "do not pack" zone.
I also got a stack of bright pink sticky-post-it notes, and put those on anything that wasn't supposed to be packed that wasn't in the closet (telephone, cable modem, wireless LAN router, etc). I didn't do a very good job of it though, because I missed a few things - like the remote control for the satellite receiver and the alarm clocks and the sheets for the bed.

Like I said, nothing terrible on this move so far.

We've been talking with our neighbors and comparing notes on the worst moves we've had. Our two worst moves so far have both been leaving California - first from Monterey and next from San Diego, and San Diego was by FAR the WORST.

One thing I learned during my first couple of moves as an Ensign was inventory documentation and loading control. If one of you guys at nuclear power school or prototype is reading this and getting ready for your second or third PCS move, then please take this advice:

Blunoz's Golden Rule of HHG Shipments:
Do NOT allow the movers to put ANYTHING on the truck unless YOU (or your spouse or other designated trusted friend) are standing at the entrance to the truck.

This definitely requires more than one person and an active zone defense. One of you will always have to be standing at the truck. Yes, this can be boring. Bring a book or a magazine, but vigilantly guard the entrance to that truck!!! The other person will be able to roam the house and watch for other shady business practices (more on that later).

When the movers show up, tell them that this is your rule and they WILL follow it or you will call for the HHG (household goods) Quality Assurance Inspector. Note that the movers are GOING to complain and whine. Call the wah-mbulance if you have to, but don't let them bully you into lowering your standards or giving them any leeway on this.

As each item goes on the truck, YOU need to verify two things:

1) There is an inventory sticker on it.

2) The inventory list shows an accurate description of WHAT that item is,
and not just "1.5 cuft box" - What's IN the box? What ROOM did it come from?

If you DON'T do these things, then you can expect the following results:

1) Things that go on the truck and DON'T have an inventory sticker will mysteriously disappear in transit and you will never see them again. If it wasn't on the inventory sheet, then you can't file a claim against the moving company for losing it.

I've lost several things in this manner. From my first move as an Ensign, I remember watching certain things go on the truck that didn't come off the truck in Orlando, but I couldn't prove they went on the truck because they weren't on the inventory.

The most notable thing we've lost in a move this way was when we arrived in Virginia and our queen size box spring came off the truck... but there was no queen size mattress to go with it. It wasn't written anywhere (legibly) on the inventory, so I couldn't PROVE that we ever HAD a queen size mattress. One would THINK it would be logical that where there's a BOX SPRING, there's a MATTRESS to go with it.

Note that this episode of the lost mattress happened after the movers in San Diego gave me a hard time about waiting for LW or I to verify inventory tags at the entrance to the truck. The head mover guy whiiiiined and complaaaaained and mooooooaned and grooooaned about how this was going to add HOURS to their packing job. I put my foot down and said, "No, it's not. It only takes half a second for me to see the inventory number on your way up the ramp, and if I'm not standing there then leave it at the bottom of the ramp and go get another load of stuff from in the house." He vehemently disagreed with this policy and I caught him several times putting things on the truck when LW or I weren't there to check.

If such a situation were to arise again, I would be even more anal-retentive about me or someone I trust being at the entry to the truck and not allowing anything on the truck unless it's got an inventory sticker.

Tangent About Overseas Shipments:

Note that this is not as much of a concern when you are shipping overseas (like to and from Hawaii), because they put everything in large wooden crates that get nailed shut and sealed until you open them at your new house overseas.

These are the wooden crates they put your stuff in when you ship overseas.

These are the nails and seals for the wooden crates.

Note: YOU need to SIGN the seal sticker. If you don't, then they could open up the crate at their storage facility and take what they want and "seal" it back up again and slap another seal sticker on it. The purpose of the seal sticker is to prove it wasn't tampered with, and that requires your signature.

End of Tangent: Resuming original line of thought...

2) Even when you get everything on the truck with an inventory number, some of the stuff isn't going to show up on the other end. When that happens, you need a LEGIBLE and ACCURATE description of what that item was so you can file a claim for it (and so you know what you lost).

Our movers leaving San Diego wrote like chicken scratch, so when a dozen or so inventory numbers were missing when they unloaded the truck, there was no way for us to be sure what exactly we were missing. I find it's easier for my own peace of mind to just write the inventory myself as it goes on the truck.

I do have more to write on this topic, but this post is long enough as it is. I'll write more later. (I know you all will be waiting with baited breath). I hope this advice proves useful to someone. If any of you reading this have questions about HHG shipments, please ask.

Click here to go to Moving Horror Stories and Advice Part II.