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Snow Patrol released a compilation album a few months back called “Up to Now”. Apparently it is not their “Greatest Hits” compilation, but more a compilation of songs over their past albums that documents their style and growth for the past 15 years, since apparently they’re going to switch styles and try for some new sounds in their next album, so they’re releasing this as a milestone. 3 new tracks on the CD, 1 of them is a cover, below:

Any one recognize who did the original version of this song? I definitely know the song when I heard it, but couldn’t pinpoint who did the original and where I heard it from since it was somewhat different. Search for the name online if you can’t figure it out… which is what I did eventually 🙂

Saw this on the “vanity card” after yesterday’s Big Bang Theory, thought it was kind of interesting… copied from Chuck Lorre Productions.

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #277

Belarus is a small, land-locked country next door to Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. According to Wikipedia, one of its major exports is cattle by-products. Which begs the question, what horrible shape are the cattle in, if all they’re good for is felt hats and wallpaper paste? But Belarus does have a bustling TV production industry. One of their most recent hits is a sitcom about four nerdy scientists who live next door to a beautiful blonde waitress. The characters are named Sheldon, Leo, Hovard, Raj and Natasha, and the show is entitled, The Theorists. Each episode begins with a rapid-fire montage of images which takes us from the dawn of time to the present moment. Keeping with that theme, the montage is scored with what is probably the worst piece of recorded pop music since the dawn of time. And finally, each episode appears to be a Russian translation of a Big Bang Theory episode. When we brought this to the attention of the Warner Brothers legal department, we were told that it’s next to impossible to sue for copyright infringement in Belarus because the TV production company that is ripping us off is owned and operated by the government of Belarus. Having no other recourse, I’m hoping that this vanity card will be read by the fine folks making The Theorists, and, wracked with guilt, they break down and send us some felt hats. The Kyrgyzstan version of Dharma & Greg already sent me some wallpaper paste.

EDIT: courtesy of sadd3j, you can watch Belarusian Big Bang clips here.

Background: After receiving my present: Oakley Flak Jackets XLJ (LiveStrong Edition), I was once again met with my predicament of trying contact lenses. After failing numerous times, I decided to look for the easy way out–buying a set of RX lenses for the frames. I figure I can use benefits, now that I don’t have to buy the frames, it shouldn’t cost that much right?

The Search Begins: If you thought that it shouldn’t be that hard to find an optical shop that can do RX-you’d be grossly mistaken. After calling a few stores met with no success, I called the Oakley Vault store, and they said by Canadian law, they cannot sell RX lenses without an optician and they suggested EyeStar and LensCrafters. EyeStar quoted $3-400. When I called LensCrafters, I was quoted $170 (no tax; in Canada, apparently no tax on RX lenses, not sure if this will change with HST). With a CAA membership, you should be able to get 15% off so I figure wow, lenses for just under $150 and change. I should do it up. But first I’ll check it out in store to confirm pricing and then maybe check a few more stores.

The Confrontation: So after work last night, I stopped by the Lens Crafters (Hillcrest Mall location) and was met by an unfriendly woman behind the counter (ok, maybe she wasn’t not unfriendly, she was just stern and not what you’d expect from somebody working in a front-line business). In short, she told me that Lens Crafters ONLY does RX lenses on frames that are purchased in house. When I told her it was Oakley Vault who actually referred me to them, she abruptly interrupted me saying that only frames sold by Lens Crafters were the ones they’d be able to do RX for as they have to ship the frames to Oakley for them to mount the lenses. I repeatedly told her that I spoke with another rep from that store, and they quoted me $170 for the lenses and such, but she insisted, that they only do it if they sell the frames. Reason? Because when they ship the frames to Oakley (apparently), the frame gets cracked really easily, and if they shipped my frames, they’d be liable for the damage and thus they don’t want to be on the line for it. I also told her the Flak jackets were listed on their website, to which she came up with a lame excuse saying, that their website is not a correct representation of store stock, (and they cannot order them or something). So I went along with her, and checked out their store stock and within 30s, I found the Flak jackets. (now becoming more agitated because she clearly doesn’t know what she’s talking about), I confront her, and ask her for a quote for frames and lenses. The flak jackets are selling at a premium of $250 (when the MSRP is $180), and she looks through her papers, $515 for the lenses for a total of $765. Floored with disbelief, I asked her to check again, I said my prescription is quite simple, -3.00 and -2.00 (well within the limits of Oakley’s RX lenses) and I didn’t need anything special, just grey or black with irridium coating, I showed her my prescription. She then proceeded to show me on paper, $515 to prove to me, this is the cost. And she says, this is the price, you must buy both frame+lens, otherwise you’re SOL.

I went home, quite upset at the fact that the initial rep I spoke with apparently didn’t know what he was talking about, and of course there is no accountability. So I called up Lens Crafters Promenade to confirm if all this was true, because it sounds a little insane, how would somebody ever buy Oakley RX sunglasses, surely I cannot be the only person looking to do this. I explained to her my sitaution, and made it clear I was looking for lenses for the Flak Jackets, and she quoted me w/out irridium: $317, w/ irridum $374. Further, they DO accept the frames if purchased elsewhere, they just ship the frame off to Oakley for the lenses to be added and if anything happens, Lens Crafters will take responsibility. She added, that because the Oakley store carried more styles than they did, that people typically buy their frames elsewhere, then bring it to them for RX lenses. Completely surprised, I confirmed that Oakley has a standard pricing chart (to which the CAA membership discount does not apply to these lenses), and then asked her why the other rep quoted me $515. She responded: “oh that’s if you wanted RX, w/Irridium, w/polarization AND progressive.

My Gripe: Why would the rep at the Hillcrest location quote me for their most expensive lenses, while knowing that I didn’t need progressive? Is it because the recession has somehow made their business SO successful that they’re ok with turning away business? Why did she so adamantly tell me that this was Lens Crafters’ policy, and every store would sell only frame+lens. What bugs me is theses people say things without any accountability, and its not like you can fight them. I’d launch a formal complaint against that store, but it’d probably be a waste of effort yielding no result, that is why I’ve posted it here, maybe people searching for stories of bad service from Lens Crafters will find it.

The Solution: After finding the $374 price a little more acceptable, I proceeded to call the chinese optical shop I usually deal with. They confirmed that since the lenses are extremely curved, they cannot produce an in-house lens that fits that shape, meaning official Oakley lenses was the only way to go. Surprise surprise, the price she quoted was even lower than the promenade Lens Crafters, she quoted me…. get ready… $250!!
(while that is still expensive, it is a price that I’m willing to strongly consider)

In short, chinese optical shops ftw. Lens Crafters fail.

It’s been seven months since the first post about dogs, and while it doesn’t seem like long counting it out, it feels like it’s been an eternity. For friends as well, since I won’t shut up about it :). I think in June was when we got really serious about adopting a puppy, and while the delays have been sad, it’s been a good chance for us to think it over and consider the impact it will have, as well as plan, research and prepare for such an undertaking.

Anyhow.. here I get to present.. Burton (amongst his siblings anyway), born January 19th, 2010. The top two photos are taken at 11 days of age, the bottom was taken at 15 days. 44 days until pickup!

Guess I’ll do some musical reviews too after reading the Rent review sadd3j and teewee made. I’m definitely piling up on the number of Playbill programs I have =), but this will be another way of keeping track of what I’ve saw. Oh and I decided to be a season subscriber to one of the musical theaters here too ;).

I went to see a touring, revival production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific last night. Rodgers and Hammerstein are definitely the classical Broadway masters – the “Andrew Lloyd Webber of the ’50s”, to help paint the picture. Rodgers is the composer and Hammerstein is the lyricist, and they collaborated on a whole bunch of musicals including Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I and of course, South Pacific. Random trivia bit: Richard Rodgers is one of 2 people in the world that has an EGOT + Pulitzer prize =P.
Anyhow… South Pacific is a very classical broadway show I would say. The music is very complete but classically styled – a lot of reprises of themes, which makes it very well rounded. Amazing baritone lead with his French accent and the soprano lead is fairly decent. There’s a surprising amount of French dialogue in the show – one of those instances that I’m glad I got a Canadian education, where at least I could understand enough of what they’re saying to catch the gist of what’s happening. Otherwise, the story was very flat – nothing dramatic like Rent or Wicked (granted it is a little unfair to compare to my 5 star musical selections), and people just fall in love at first sight – not a lot of character development. There’s also a very unexpected theme of racial prejudice that shows up in the second act regarding interracial marriage. My initial thoughts were since South Pacific is an older musical from the ’50s, maybe segregation is still a big issue back then and hence the characters made a big deal out of interracial marriage – but on further thought, that seems to be something we (especially as Asians) still struggle with nowadays.
The musical is just shy of 3 hours long with intermission, which is quite lengthy, especially when the plot isn’t moving. 3 stars for me.