I was looking forward to a screening of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio yesterday. I jumped in the car with Tippy and sped our way to the Loews theaters at the Metreon. It was about 7:15 when we got parking. They said that they overbook the screening to ensure a full house, so not everyone is guaranteed a seat–be there early, they said. So we were there early; we even rushed our way home to complete a few errands before rushing back downtown.

The line was long, but didn’t seem too long to not fit inside a big theater (I would assume they would use one of their larger ones for a screening). I had my credentials on hand to ensure that I was indeed the James Yu that was on the RSVP list. The author and directory were supposed to be there. We were in high spirits as the line began to move.

The staff moved the line a group at a time, and made the rest of us wait anxiously. As we were about to be let in, they made a cut off for a new group, and Tippy and I were now at the head of line. About twenty minutes passed. We were sure they would let us in.

They came back and said they were now full.

You must understand that in any other circumstance I wouldn’t be so pissed off. But we were at the head of the line! If we were just a few minutes earlier, beating out the people directly ahead of us, we would have been golden. A few minutes! Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy at the situation.

I’ve been going into work at around 6am, and leaving at 4:30pm. I’m on the 9/80 schedule, which is quite common here in the Bay Area. Basically, you work 9 hour days, and you take off every other Friday. The payback is that I get a 3 day weekend every other weekend, which is quite nice. However, waking up at 5:15am everyday is quite an adjustment. After the first week of hellish blood-shot eyes, I think I’m actually getting used to it.

My job is going well. Dolby has been really organized about giving me the proper training and background information. This is definitely not the usual haphazard training that I had at many other companies. It just makes things much nicer when you actually understand your job function before diving in.

The photoblog has been backed up; I’ve really had zero time to do anything with my digital life at home recently. Things should be getting back to normal in about a week or two, so check your RSS feeds when the time comes.