This is topic Why My Cat HATES Easter! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-23-2008, 09:46 AM:
 
Why My Cat HATES Easter

JimC (with apologies to "Albert-The-Cat")
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 03-23-2008, 10:01 AM:
 
The reason for the holiday notwithstanding, I have mostly unpleasant memories of Easter from my childhood. To this day, I absolutely cannot stand marshmallow, marshmallow candy/eggs, hollow chocolate rabbits, or pastel colors! It all gags me.
 

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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 03-23-2008, 10:10 AM:
 
Someone please explain to me where the idea of a giant Bunny, with a basket full of eggs came from. I would maybe understand it a little if bunnies actually laid eggs...
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 03-23-2008, 10:33 AM:
 
Apparaently you have not seen how Cadbury eggs are made
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 03-23-2008, 10:36 AM:
 
I will never forget when I was seven years old I got my first real 2 wheel "grown up" Bike. It was a black Kent with only one gear and the braked worked by peddling backwards. I had this bike for years and I loved it until one day when I was 15 or 16 I threw it off a cliff in the woods
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-23-2008, 11:17 AM:
 
Jim Gaffigan has a brilliant stand up about Christmas and Easter.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjJCIbC9sxA
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-23-2008, 11:39 AM:
 
Allison,

Essentially, the name Easter and the bunny both have their origins in a Pagan festival Eostre. A story says she (Eostre) saved a bird that had its wings frozen by changing it into a rabbit and since it had been a bird before it could now lay eggs.

And other legends just refer to "hare's eggs" (which changed to rabbits in culture since hares aren't common in most countries). Apparently hares dig out holes in the ground to raise their young and plover birds will come and take over those "forms" to lay their eggs and other birds lay eggs in similar ground as hares. So seeing eggs in an area that hares would raise their young fueled the notion of hares laying eggs at spring time.

edit: Fixed grammar

[ 03-23-2008, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Chris Slycord ]
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-23-2008, 03:14 PM:
 
Remember Critters 2? That is a good reason to NOT want to be the Easter Bunny.
 

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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 03-23-2008, 04:44 PM:
 

quote: James Westbrook

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Remember Critters 2? That is a good reason to NOT want to be the Easter Bunny

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YES! I had totally forgot about that scene hahaha. Note to self: go buy the first two Critters movies. I had a huge crush on Scott Grimes when I was younger. ANYWAY...back to the subject of Easter Bunnies....
 

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Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 03-23-2008, 05:51 PM:
 


By the way..Two-Tone LOVES EASTER!
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-23-2008, 07:39 PM:
 
I was supposed to have the day off today, but I got paged early this afternoon and had take care of a "popcorn machine emergency" at a theater. They were panicing. Big crowd; no corn.
That's OK. I'll just celebrate Easter tomorrow, when all the candy goes on sale!
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-23-2008, 10:23 PM:
 
Rant on:

Yea, my Easter was spoiled also with one of the theatres I take care of decides to lose a bulb sat night and them not thinking to immediately call me until I see the email that they sent that same night to me from that theatre on Sunday when I got home from church services - and then got in trouble for it from my superiors that I didn't immediately run up there and change out that bulb when it went down.

Course, I spit back and cleared that one up real quick that I didn't have my laptop on when the email was sent due to my 'doing my required work' and feel I have the right to control my laptop usage when I want to turn the thing on or off.

(..as if I'm supposed to be 'married' to this company and also live by my laptop and celphone 24/7/365...."I don't think so..")

rant off - Monte
 

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Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 03-23-2008, 10:38 PM:
 
If I did that to my cat, he would kick my ass.

P.S. Does the fact that I intentionally scheduled myself to work a double today in order to avoid Easter Dinner with the family make me a bad person?
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-23-2008, 11:22 PM:
 

quote: Mike Schindler

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with the family make me a bad person?

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quote:

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Monte, You shouls have chewed your superiors out for not having theatre staff capable of changing a xenon lamp. It really does not take a technician to change a lamp!

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True and agreed: unless there's a peculiar reason not to (e.g. the venue is a general purpose arts centre which only shows films once in a while), the projectionists of any well-managed cinema should be trained and competent to replace a xenon.

That having been said, if anyone is in the slightest doubt, I'd far rather that they called a service tech out and incurred a bill than attempted the job themselves without proper training and/or feeling 100% confident about what they were doing. Unlike almost all other jobs in the booth (except possibly replacing rectifier diodes, for which a similar health warning applies), you can hurt yourself very seriously if you get it wrong.

In both the two places I worked as a chief projectionist I made completely sure that either the projectionist on duty was trained or confident to replace a lamp and handle them safely, or that if necessary, there was a way of continuing the show without needing to (i.e. in a booth which has two projectors plus a platter).

But that having been said, in no situation except bad luck of the sort you can't plan for (e.g. being sent a faulty bulb) or a very unlikely emergency should you ever need to replace a bulb unexpectedly. Even if you don't replace them after X hours' service regardless, they gradually start to flicker towards the end of their life, which should be all the warning sign anyone needs to replace them first thing one morning when the bulb and the lamphouse are stone cold. I suppose the analogy would be of airline pilots training to deal with all the engines breaking down in mid-flight. A hell of a lot of care and planning is done to minimise the chances of that ever happening, but it has done on a small number of occasions and when it has, that training saved lives.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-25-2008, 01:47 AM:
 
Thx all for the support and comments given to my rant!

I know it was looking as if I was almost making a mountain out of a molehill to whine over a trivial thing (being that doing bulb changes is really nothing and minutes to do..) to where I really apologize to the members of this FT forum in appearing tthat I am whining, but with me spitting back, it exposing those who climbed all over me realized that they need to look at both sides of the story before making hasty decisions on making the conclusion my fault with me not taking immediate action in repairing a down screen situation.

Thus, they reversed the conclusion with complimenting me on heading up and making that 35 mile (58Km) drive from home that late Sunday afternoon and doing the changeout "so quickly."

Unfort, the mgr of this theatre, is the only one that knows how to do a bulb changeout, and the mgr was down for the count with the flu that wknd. Thus no other staff was trained to do the changeout. Plus, the supervisor that sent the email also apologized for not even thinking on calling me since she had a horrible night herself when the closedown numbers failed to balance on the first go-around.

...one of the things that a company tech has to face at times ...

( Oh, as for the bulb (( a 2500w Christie in a X90 console w/1900hr on it)). it lost its gas when the end seal went - went completely dark blue. Have to admit: prettiest dark blue that could be... .. It just shattered when I busted it outside-no "pop" or "bang" )

Thx all again!- Monte
 

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Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 03-25-2008, 04:10 AM:
 

quote: Paul Mayer

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I hear your rant Monte. My company expects me to be available 24/7 on weekends and when I'm covering for the boss. But unlike the salaried boss I'm hourly, and I don't get paid (overtime or otherwise) for such coverage.

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quote:

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Here's an extreme example to illustrate factors that establish that an individual has been engaged to wait and therefore is on the clock. Consider a maintenance worker who's on call every weekend, must respond to every call, must be able to reach the employer's facility within 10 minutes of a call, will be called at her home telephone number unless she buys a cellular telephone at her own expense and pays for the service, and is called several times each weekend. The on-call time constitutes work time and must be paid as such. When the on- call time pushes the nonexempt worker over 40 hours in a workweek, she must be paid at overtime rates.

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Link

Of course, these types of issues become a question of whether it's worth pushing it or not real quick.
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 03-25-2008, 05:26 AM:
 
Monte, don't feel bad I think its a pre-requisite for service techs to be able to complain about some of their locations

It's funny before I started training to be a tech I was very very nervous around Xenon lamps and all of a sudden I was expected to go in and free welded on bulbs and work around them a lot. I think I kind of just found a way to put it out of my mind, I always took the proper precautions but somehow I forced myself to bury the deep rooted fear I had of Xenon bulbs. I know a lot of theatres don't want anything to do with them because of that fear but have no problem opening the door to the power supply and poking around in there, one theatre used to hide there tools inside the p/s compartment I think there is more of an immediate danger of shocking yourself on a power supply than of getting hurt changing a xenon with the proper gear.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-25-2008, 06:21 AM:
 
It's the same issue as with handling nitrate film: you don't need to be afraid of xenons, but you do need to treat them with respect and you do need specific knowledge in order to handle them safely. The message to get through to trainees is that it's not rocket science, but is a much bigger deal than changing a normal filament bulb.

The worst example of bulbs done wrong I ever came across was walking into a provincial arthouse which will remain anonymous, to do a sickness cover relief shift. On a shelf above the rewind bench were about 20 2k xenon bulbs, sitting loose and wrapped in a couple of layers of newspaper - no other packagaing, and certainly no sign of the protective 'condoms' in which they were originally shipped. I reported this to the manager immediately and, wearing the full protective gear, removed the bulbs to the boiler room in the basement and stuck a great big 'no entry' sign on the door.

It turned out that the chief projectionist there (who'd started as an assistant manager and gone upstairs following a retirement) had been taught, incorrectly, that xenons are only dangerous at the start of their life, and 'lose pressure' and their ability to explode once they start to flicker and are replaced. However, the cost of shipping the bulbs back to the supplier for disposal (which was what company regulations dictated had to be done with them) was such that his boss balked at paying the bill. So, while the boss sorted the issue out with Head Office, he simply put the bulbs on the shelf until this issue was resolved. That was several years ago, and it never was resolved. And as for the bulb condoms, he'd taken those home and was using them to grow tomato plants in!

The thought of 20 bulbs falling off that shelf and onto the workbench when someone was sticking films together does not bear thinking about.
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 03-25-2008, 06:49 AM:
 
Wow, Thats crazy! The thing is with all the things that could kill you in a projection booth (High voltage power, High speed Metal Reels Re-Winding, Fire...) people are only taught to be paranoid of Xenon lamps. I re-member my first day in a theatre being told that you can be killed by an exploding xenon, that it would take out the whole booth and the wall to the theatre, and that the bulb could go shooting out of the projector into the auditorium. Being fifteen and stupid I did not know any better. Maybe not to that extent but everyone is taught to fear Xenon lamps, most people really think you can die form an exploding lamp. I guess maybe you could if a peice of quarts cut a main arterry but what are the chances of that? How many people have you heard of dying from a Xenon lamp? These same people who are petrified of Xenons are not afraid to stick their hands in a power supply, wear a neck tie around a high speed rewinding reel, Stick there head under the top deck of a potts type platter to thread while breaking down from the top deck at high speed, Turning their backs on large metal reels rewinding on a bench at high speed, and many more dangerous practices. I think Xenons should be handled with care, respect and the proper safety equipment but it's crazy that people are brainwashed to fear these lamps and ignore all the other dangers in the both???
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-25-2008, 12:14 PM:
 
Monte,
I did not hear your complaint as "whining". At least in your situation, there was no one there that could change a bulb.
Where I work, before one can be promoted to Senior Assistant manager, one has to know how to change a xenon bulb and diodes. The manager on that shift knew how to do both but did neither. "It's not my job".
Later, that assistant needed someone to cover their shift as something came up...I said "No. That's not my job."
 

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