Well last season ended well and the upcoming season is close upon us. I've been invited to join the High Performance team this year which is going to mean a bucketload of training (where am i gonna find time for this???) but I think it'll be fun.

Goal setting is always tricky - you need to set achievable but challenging ones. I think my overall goal this year will be to place better in the final AFL rankings, and to place better in the open division of the tournaments. I'm usually in or near the top 8 but I'd like to get another open medal (or two ;) which would mean placing in the top 4. That will be quite challenging but I don't think it's too far out of reach. I'm going to really have to work on my mental preparation skills and refine my technical skills to even hope to have a chance at meeting these goals.

Having missed it at the theatre, we finally watched Sin City last night - what an amazing movie! This is definitely one we'll have to buy. It opens with an assault on your senses, both sight and sound, and continues to command your attention all the way through. Eagerly awaiting the sequels!

The film plays like the graphic novel it's drawn from - in fact it's like a graphic novel brought to life. I love the way the digital elements are placed in the movie, almost like the live action reverts to animated and then back again.

The film itself is comprised of a number of stories and characters who weave their way through each others' storylines. Kind of like Heavy Metal meets Pulp Fiction. Be aware that there's loads of violence and gore and really dark overall. (Frank Miller writing/directing and Quentin Tarantino guest directing - 'nuff said) It's done in black and white with colorizing/highlighting of certain things for effect. Such as the crimson slash of lipstick for example. Visually stunning.

Of the characters, I think my favorite character of them all is Marv, and probably the 2nd favorite is Miho; the creepiest is Kevin (played by Elijah Wood).

★★★★★
5 stars out of 5

Well, it's midweek of my first week back from vacation and I've survived so far ;) I've managed to clear up a project that was on my to-do list and catch up on emails, tracker tickets, and general correspondance. I may even get lucky and finish off another smaller design project before the weekend (or if not, I can at least get a good chunk of the work done). Still have tons of work to get done (mostly before the end of the month) so posting will probably be sporadic and sparse until I get some of it out of the way.

Keith wrote an interesting article on Usable Consulting and the Customer Experience, which I found was quite timely in a loosely related way to a customer experience I have been struggling through for the past year or so.

It all started with a desire to upgrade two cellphones to newer models. At the time, I was told that my phone was too new (being two years old) to upgrade, but they could upgrade the older one. At the time I decided to forego the process because it would've meant switching phone numbers which seemed like too much bother when we could just wait a year and upgrade both. Well two years went by as we researched plan options and different carriers etc. and we finally decided to do the deal with our current provider on Saturday.

Now I'm the kind of person that needs to process what I'm being told (sold) just because I want to be sure I understand everything before signing off on a contract. So, of course, it seems that every salesperson we come across is one who subscribes to the Fast Talkin' Hard Sell school of sales. Yikes! Add to the fact that it was Saturday, the store was crammed full of people and literally screaming kids and I quickly felt unable to process anything other than the need to get out of there pronto. It didn't help that when the salesguy checked our phone status to be sure we were allowed to upgrade, mine came back permission denied - but no reason given. And when I asked why it was denied he just shrugged. Fixing a smile on my face I grabbed at D's arm and started backing away when the salesguy then started rattling off full price for various phones - no way! We were off to talk to competitors.

I really don't get what is the big deal about this whole process. It seems like the providers just want to get your business, but once they have you you're not treated very well. There doesn't seem to be any loyalty acknowledgements for long-term clients. A very little in that regard would really go a long way.

We found that Competitor #1 was very helpful, but the comparable plan would be double what we were paying now. yikes! And Competitor #2 was even more helpful, and offered to waive our system access fees for a year - but - their service was spotty in some rural areas, which was a concern to me as I drive through those areas very regularly for work and would hate to have car trouble and no service...yikes again.

What to do, what to do. We decided to let things float for a while before making a decision.

Then on Monday I think we must have done enough penance with the cellular phone gods because on a whim we decided to check out phones from a third party store and we finally got service from an ace customer service rep. This fellow took the time to go over various options with us and work out which option/s would be the most beneficial. He took the time to check with our current provider if there would be any issues with following the options, checked on if we could in fact upgrade both phones (it turned out we could - the other phone was denied in error) and made sure we were all in agreement every step of the way. He took the time to clarify what he was going to do, confirm each step with us and made sure we were in agreement with the direction we were going. In short - good customer service. What made the service superlative was when he decided to give us in-store rebates on our phones rather than the mail-in rebates because they either couldn't find or had run out of the forms.
We left, 2 happy campers with our brand new phones.

So what did this guy do that the others didn't?
1. Talked slowly and clearly
2. Listened to us
3. Made sure he understood our requirements
4. Offered some creative solutions
5. Made sure we felt like we in control of the process
6. Threw in a bonus to be accommodating (after all doesn't everybody hate mail-in rebates?)

And if you compare these things with the list at the end of Keith's article, not surprisingly, they match up. How lucky were we - to finally cross paths with a usable sales consultant. He's earned any word-of-mouth recommendations he gets.

One of the best things about being on vacation is that you live on your own schedule. You get up when you feel like it and do stuff at your own pace. You also have time to enjoy being a tourist in your own town, like we did this afternoon by going for a long walk around the Irving Nature park. This nature park was set up by the Irvings on Taylor Island which was the local hangout/party spot (a number of years ago) for biker gangs. The Irvings bought the land and set up trails and interpretation centres and have staff for maintenance. It's a lovely bit of wild land with magnificent scenery and many people hike the long trail around the perimeter (which is what we did).

Home again, home again, jiggity jig. We were a little late getting started on the road home but the drive back was pretty uneventful. Another hot sunny day with clear roads ahead of us. There was some roadwork being done on all the routes home but there were no delays thankfully. I think we were all ready to go home at this point. So ready that we bypassed the Desert of Maine when we got to Freeport, opting to try it again in the fall since it's open until mid-October. It might be nice to come down again in the off-season to take in the blaze of autumn foliage.

The most interesting thing on the way home was this airplane shaped cloud that we saw after crossing the border at St. Stephen.

There's nothing like coming home after being away, to be back in familiar surroundings, your own space. And Cassie - we all missed our doggie and I know she missed us too (she was pretty much doing backflips in greeting us!)

The next morning dawned bright and clear so after a quick breakfast we headed out to the Settler's Green Outlet Village - brand name heaven and cheapey prices. One can only shop so much so we wandered about the town for a while, took lots of scenic photos and then went back to the campground in search of a pool.

Aliya mentioned there was a beach so we went down to the Saco River for a swim. They call it a river, but I'd call it a creek as it's not too wide nor too deep. I think the deepest part of the river came up to my chin and I'm pretty short (5'4") but it was a very beautiful spot. The water was gloriously cool and crystal clear, the river bottom sparkly sandy and the current was gentle enough that you had a lap pool effect if you tried to swim against it but it was not too difficult to walk upstream. I think this was my favorite part of the trip - floating on my back as the river carried me gently downstream, watching the clouds and trees pass by. It was very restful/de-stressful.
I think we stayed down at the river for an hour or so, but we couldv'e stayed much longer, unfortunately there was laundry and packing to finish to get ready for the long drive home tomorrow.

I'm glad we came up from the river when we did, because after organizing the car we noticed those damn dark clouds moving in again. And of course, around 6-7pm the thunder and lightning show was on again for a repeat performance. Fortunately we'd had enough time for supper and just hung out in the tent until the rain let up which it did around 8:30 or 9. Just enough time for a campfire to burn off our wood and then get some sleep. And since no campfire is complete without beer, D went off to the 7-11 for some tallboys of Bud. What is it about sitting 'round a campfire in short shorts, a bikini top and flipflops drinking cans of beer that brings out the Daisy Duke in a person?? Too bad, so sad no pictures (thank god!) but we had a ton of laughs that night and it was a great end to our family road trip.

In the morning we woke to find the wind had blown the lid off our dry goods container which we had left on the picnic table. Thankfully it happened after the rain had let up some as evidenced by the amount of rainwater inside but unfortunately some critter(s) had gotten into our goodies. The cookies and marshmallows were picked at - ewww. And of course, everything inside was wet.

By the time we got ourselves organized the fog had come in and the rain was sprinkling on and off. Breakfast ended up a soggy mess of pancakes and sausages while we desperately tried to dry off our stuff enough to pack to go to North Conway. We packed as best we could and off we went, hoping to leave the rain and fog behind at the coast.

To our glee we left the rain behind as we wound down I-95 towards Portland. The day cleared up bright and hot (temperature was in the high 80's). The drive to North Conway, New Hampshire from Portland is along Route 320 and winds through some beautiful landscapes and pretty towns. Bridgeton in particular was a very lovely, colorful and artsy town.

The campground we stayed at in North Conway was the Saco River Family Campground - it's major selling point is that it's practically across the street from the Settler's Green outlet village. Also there's pretty near no bugs here. But it does have a bunch of detractions, the biggest being there's way too many rules here. However, upon looking around we noticed that many of the rules are simply ignored. Also, the lots have very little privacy, it's RV land - almost a trailer park, our tent lot was on a slope of bare ground (which quickly turns into mud in the rain) but it was liveable for a couple of nights.

We got here around suppertime just in time to see a cover of big dark clouds moving in...this didn't bode too well. And sure enough, by 7pm we were in a crazy thunder/lightning storm. Thunder and lightning - always a treat in a tent. Were we prepared for monsoons? Of course not. No tarps to provide extra shelter so we stayed in the tent until the rain let up enough for us to go find some quick food. It wasn't too traumatic through because I am sick enough to bring a laptop and some DVDs on a camping trip - just in case. And thankfully, because we had brought a power pack with us, there was enough juice to power the laptop to watch Pirates of the Caribbean while the thunder rumbled and crashed outside.