Diary of a Wolfeman

So we’re remodeling our offices, and it turns out that Bossman has had the great idea to install ceiling speakers throughout the new space. RF was in this morning early and put his music on the system.

His choices leave a bit to be desired. Anything that isn’t from the 70’s, for instance.

*shudder*

So, back today from a sudden overnight trip to Bellevue Washington… which is a very weird place.

Bellevue is not too terribly far from Seattle proper, and you can tell that the Grand Vision for the downtown area is to be a little chunk of Manhattan as far as density goes, but they want it to be more modern. They have basically flattened and repaved all of Downtown, and built up towers. (They call ’em skyscrapers, but they average maybe 40 stories.)

I went to see our client’s offices, and noticed that there were three (3!) towers within 2 blocks of my client with Microsoft signs on them – which has got to be confusing when giving directions. “Now, ya turn left at the M$ tower, then turn right at the M$ tower and go past the M$ building…”

For anyone else who may be going there for some reason, I will tell you this: don’t cheap out on the hotel room. I stayed at the Extended Stay America on Main Street because it was only $100/night, and the bed was too hard, the pillows too flat, the windo faced the freeway, and worst of all, the “high-speed wireless Internet” was a $4.99 surcharge, and tested out at a whopping 256k.

I can get that tethering to my fucking phone. To sort of top everything off, the room stank of baby formula and I had to track down a Walgreen’s to get a can of Febreeze.

Another reason not to cheap on the hotel: get one with a decent restaurant or cafe because you’ll have to pay for parking everywhere you go, and the good restaurants that aren’t in the hotels are in the office towers, and parking is $3 an hour. Either that, or take a cab.

All in all, I didn’t like Bellevue and won’t be going back if I can help it.

Da Roomie and I have been sadly watching the downward spiral of local radio in Portland, and it has gotten to the point where I just can’t take it anymore. Radio sucks, and I get tired of swapping CD’s around on the road – especially when I’m flying solo out to one of the wineries on the back twistys and don’t want to stop just to change discs.

So, I’ve been saving up for a new toy, and today I treated myself (and my passengers) to some new audio capabilities: a Kenwood KDC-HD942U. So far I’m diggin’ it. MP3-on-CD-R support, USB support and built-in HD radio.

I don’t really care about the HD radio – it sucks just as bad as regular radio – but that USB support is crucial. The reason for this particular model, however, is that the USB port is a cable that they routed from behind the unit to one of the center console pockets. On all the other models in my price range, the USB ‘support’ is a port on the faceplate so you can break off you thumb drive and kill the port with an accidental grab at your drink.

A quick trip to the electronics store netted me a 4GB USB drive, which is plenty of room for my roadable selections. Of course, it will take a bit longer to dig my way through the manual to figure out how to use all the functions on the thing.