Todd Bradley’s Galaxy

I guess I don’t hate him personally, but it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for me and Apple stuff.

First, Final Cut Pro crashes on me for the first time ever, losing 90 minutes of work. Of course, I didn’t follow the cardinal rule – save early and save often. But, I checked my settings and I had the software configured to do an auto-save every 30 minutes. So how come the last auto-save file was 90 minutes old? Argh! Luckily, I redid the work that I’d lost in only about 30 minutes this time.

Then, while I was running iTunes last week, a window popped up and said there’s a new version. “Do you want to upgrade?” Hell, yeah! You bet! Why not, I thought. So I downloaded the upgrade, and part of it was that I also needed to upgrade the firmware in my iPod. I’d heard from a friend of mine that the new firmware has some really cool stuff in it, so I was looking forward to trying it out. Sadly, after installing the upgrade, my iPod hasn’t worked since. I tried everything Apple suggests on their website to deal with a dead iPod, and none of them worked. It looks like I’m not the only one, though. There are literally thousands of posts on Apple’s bulletin board from angry iPod users who upgraded to version 1.2 of the firmware and are now having problems with it. So, for the past week, I’ve been without a working iPod. I took it into the local Apple Store, where the resident “genius” said it’ll have to be replaced. They’ll give me a new one just as soon as more arrive in stock. I asked him, “How often have you heard the same story – someone updates to iPod firmware 1.2 and then their iPod becomes useless – in the past week?” The genius’ reply: “More often than I’d like to say.”

You can be sure I won’t be so quick to upgrade to a new iTunes or iPod software release in the future.

I took my Dodge Dakota pickup in for service this past week. I hadn’t been happy with Northglenn Dodge for a long time, and so when a friend recommended Stang Auto Tech in Broomfield, I decided to try them out. The truck just needed a regular oil/lube and a radiator flush, so it wasn’t a huge repair or a huge bill.

But, a couple days later, I got a thank you card in the mail. Not just a form letter either – this one was hand written and signed by the owner of the company and his wife. Now that’s the kind of customer service you just don’t see around these days, and what makes for customer loyalty. You can bet I’m taking my truck back there next time it needs service!

Just in case you missed the “Conviviality Love Circus” play, here’s a photo of the cast. Unlike last year’s Conviviality cast photo, you can actually see me in this one! We had a cast reunion party Friday night and watched the video of the show, which was a hoot.

Touch the photo with your pointer to make it bigger.

I’ve got an email list I use for announcements about films I worked on or acted in. But I decided to set up a Google Calendar with the same info. Here it is, in all its heavy coolness. If you use Google Calendar, you can add this calendar to your own so you see events all in one calendar view. Thanks, Google!

Positive Press on Iraq Is Aim of U.S. Contract – Anyone read “1984″ lately? In that book, the government used public relations to make citizens feel good about a war that was made up against an imaginary enemy in order for the populace to feel their government was doing a sound and admirable job of protecting them.