Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen

Chris and Alec, Market Researchers Outside the Nokia London Store

2008-05-14T15:35:19Z

Wed 05.13.08 - Anytime that Chris and Alec want me to conduct a market research interview about my opinion on Nokia, I am available... ;o) The only downside to my trip to the Nokia store is the did not have any wired headsets available for the N95, neither does nokiausa.com. Bluetooth is too crackly to listen to music on and the pair of earbuds that came with my N95are broken. Thus the trip to the Nokia store on Regents St.

Colin Laughing

2008-05-13T20:26:05Z

Tue 05.13.08 - London Day 0.5. Dinner with Donna, Siobhan, and Colin at The Aphrodite Taverna on Hereford Rd, Bayswater, London. The evening was so lovely we ate outside. Delightful.

Travel Day or Why United Needs to Rethink their Mileage Security Practices

2008-05-13T00:30:32Z

LAX -> DEN -> LHR The following post is brought to you by a layover at the Denver airport and Joiku Spot wifi via my Nokia N95. After a long drive home from Arizona last night, I found myself at home backing up my work computer, charging the old school 12" powerbook, targeting them together to transfer needed files and mail, and going to bed way too late. Seven-thirty a.m. came much too quickly and the rush to walk Scruffy, pack, and then get out of the house by 10:30am. Done. There was trouble at the United counter at LAX, as the person who booked the gift ticket for me was not with me upon check in and the United folks would not check me in without the giftor and their credit card. Really. Truly. Very frustrating. Interwebs, please note the following, United's system is currently such that if you purchase a ticket or gift a friend with your extra miles and then you pay the taxes on the phone or in person, then the giftee can check in without you. But if you purchase a ticket online or gift your miles online to a friend and then use your credit card, then you either need to call United to get the "fraud" hold taken off the reservation and paper tickets issued or go to the departing airport before departure (even up to a month beforehand, I was informed by the 1st check in agent) to prove to United that you really do want to gift these miles to your friend or purchase the ticket for them. As we all know, fraud only happens online and a company must protect itself After an incredibly unproductive conversation with the check in agent who was convinced that United was protecting my friend from me the fraudster, and she kept saying that because the ticket was booked over a month ago that gave my friend ample time to come on down to United at LAX to show her credit card (said friend was in Turkey & Germany most of the last month earning more United miles). When we reached an impasse of which neither of us wold budge and I was on the verge of losing my temper, she informed me that I should go to ticketing who could refund my friend her "substantial" ticketing fee & taxes and they could use my credit card instead. The "Future Ticketing" agent was much more helpful. He took my passport & reservation confirmation number, looked at the file on his screen, and asked me how he could help me. I explained that the trip was a gift from friends who used their miles to book the ticket, said friends were at work and could not come to LAX to prove that the reservation was legitimate. He told me the rules and that anyone could use anyone else's United frequent flyer mileage number to book a ticket with a miles reward and that the credit card that paid for the fees and taxes was needed to prove that the miles were not used fraudent. He asked if I would be willing to have my credit card charged and my friend's card credited. I said yes and handed over my card. He took it and continued to stare into his screen. A minute or two lapsed, the agent passed my card back to me uncharged and said, "Over a month has passed since this ticket was issued, so I can let it pass because if it was fraud the person would have complained about a wrong charge to their card." He issued my ticket, weighed my bag, put the bag onto the conveyor belt, and told me to have a good trip. Many kudos to the Future Ticketing agent who used logic and reasoned out the situation, but minus kudos to United for having a system that allows anyone to cash in miles as long as they have a person's mileage number and then put the security check at the airport which harasses the travellor and not where it should be in the first place - which is at the time of ticketing. A possibility for United, if they are concerned with online fraud, is to call the frequently miles holder to confirm that they were the person to book the gift ticket or miles transfer ticket rather than harass the giftee at the airport or force their frequent flyer miles holder to take extra steps (like take a day off work to go to the airport to present their credit card). I have a credit card of which they will call me every time a purchase is made over a certain amount to confirm that I made the purchase, once they even called while I was at the Apple store to confirm the purchase. The upswing is that I know my friend and someone at United is going to hear all about this. The other upswing is that United did not gain another customer today but after this bit of making my birthday gift a trial, I will make sure I fly American even if United is a tens of dollars cheaper. Why American? Well, American does not quibble with you if someone has gifted you a ticket and can't accompany you to the airport, they check you in without a half hour of hassle and raised blood pressure.

Splash!

2008-05-12T07:21:39Z

Splash!
Originally uploaded by Ms. Jen

Sun 05.11.08 - Eoin and the front half of Joe's boat gets soaked while on a Mother's Day cruise of the Colorado River. Ms. Jen gets blamed from some corners for driving the boat too fast into a choppy wind driven swell, but gets kudos & clapping from other corners of the boat for catching such a great wave at the right angle.... ;o) Video captured by Ms. Jen whilst driving brother Joe's boat on the Colorado River with a Nokia 95.

The Windmills

2008-05-12T06:47:04Z

Sun. 05.11.08 - The windmills in the pass between the Coachella Valley and Beaumont/Banning along the 10 Freeway / Interstate.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-12T06:28:39Z

Sun 05.11.08 - Belle and Mom on Joe's boat today in Parker, AZ.

Floating

2008-05-11T04:45:03Z

The Parker Dam

2008-05-11T04:43:01Z

Sat 05.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 camera phone while boating on the Colorado River in Parker, Arizona.

Fox's River Bar

2008-05-10T17:34:43Z

Sat 05.10.08 - 9:23 am. I am the designated Rhino driver for the b-day boy.

Love's

2008-05-10T03:10:01Z

Fri 05.09.08 - Photo taken at Love's Gas Station, Dillion Road, Coachella (Indio), CA, whilst driving out to Parker, Arizona, for my brother Joe's birthday and Mother's Day.

Photo + Wacom Tablet = Iteration

2008-05-09T05:58:16Z

This week Sandra and I are working on an iteration or somewhat-redesign of her Debutante Clothing blog. The other night I went over to her house and used a photo of Justin's sister to make a big bold splash of a banner header. But by the time I got home and all through yesterday day, I felt it was too bold for the rest of Sandra's blog and overwhelmed the content. This afternoon, I plugged my Wacom tablet in, turned on Fireworks, opened up the photo of the roses outside of Sandra's front door that I took on Tuesday evening and started to draw over the photo with colors from her blog. I wasn't sure if Sandra would like the drawing for her masthead or if she liked our big bold statement, or if I should take the the drawn over roses and weave them into the new masthead I created on Tuesday evening. Tuesday Evening's Masthead:

This Afternoon's Rose additions to the Bold Banner:

Now looking at the two ideas above, I thought of a subtler iteration:

What do you think?

onBlur

2008-05-08T04:59:50Z

For a variety of reasons, fast cars and even faster panicked dogs at the vet, the last few photos I have moblogged here have been blurry. I am happy with them. Yes, blur is good. When Greg took off before I could capture the photo of him & Ryan in the hot rod, I was afraid that my Nokia N95 could not and would not take the photo fast enough to capture Greg's peeling out on to Electric avenue. But the N95 did get the photo. Last evening, as I drove north-east to Sandra & Justin's house in Ontario, I wanted to get a photo of the golden Brea Hills that were speckled with oak trees and shrubs. I kept pointing the N95 to shoot while I was driving at the or a bit over the freeway speed limit. Due to the fact that the sun was going down, the light was all wrong and I kept getting a bright sky with dark hills. I decided to fool the light meter in the N95 by pointing it low and then moving it to see a bit of the sky as the shutter was releasing, which caused the white out effect. I love it when I can get a Nokia camera phone to white most the landscape out but leave a few saturated objects, in this case the red car speeding by on the other side of the freeway. This morning I took Scruffy for his yearly vet check up and shots. He gets nervous and shakes violently when he is at the Vet and the Groomers. This morning it took a while for the vet, Dr. Kali, to come into the examining room, so to distract Scruffy I tried to take photos as he attempted to jump off the exam table and into my arms. It wasn't that bad. Scruff survived. I love how the N95 focused on his legs & paws on the exam table but everything else is slightly blurred. Which brings up one of the major reasons I primarily shoot photos with my camera phone: the gift of a good shot within the randomness of very little control and the constraints of capturing good photos with a mobile phone.

Waiting for Dr. Kali

2008-05-08T02:11:07Z

Wed 05.07.08 - At Scruffy's annual vet visit. Dr. Kali rocks. He is very calm and he calmed Scruffy down.

Sandra's Roses

2008-05-07T05:55:15Z

Red Car

2008-05-07T00:53:25Z