hide’s BIRTHDAY PARTY Dec. 13th 2011
Club Citta, Japan….
MY ‘RAGE against the MACHINE’ … or is it the WAR of the WORLDS… 
…
Round ONE, II and 3….
Human feeling, thinking, cursing hormone run entity vs LOPPI TICKET machine…

or MAYBE … just maybe, it is for the sake of FIGHTING for that which we really
believe in, and highly desire…..
ROUND ONE 
First I went on my own, thinking, I CAN SO DO this now….

I can handle anything JAPAN, JAPANESE, TICKETING, MUSICKING, MESSING with MEEING, because I have a creative and problem solving mind set!!
That was on Tuesday Dec 6

I put in the ticket locator number
My ID Number and with some help from the store clerk found my ticket for..

ANA to Sydney….
eh WTF?? NO i told the clerk…. that is NOT mine…
so he called customer service…  
Clerk: -You not go to Sydney?
Anna Cei: No me go to hide Birthday Party in Kawasaki!
Clerk: You not ANA?
Anna Cei: Oh, My name?  I am Anna with two N’s! Here this is my card.
Clerk: This is not correct.
Anna Cei: My name?
Clerk: Yes
… …. ….
and well then it went down hill from there……

Realized later that maybe I had messed up my membership number (random 10 digits) with the ticket locator number (another set of totally random 10 digits)… so maybe I should give it another try?
ROUND II
Friday night the dear, kind and compassionate Phoe-Lo came ALL the way over to my end of town, and went with me to Lawson, and
NOW we were going to BEAT the SYSTEM!
KICK the machine with a digital (as in digits) WHIP and enter it all and
GET our REWARD… eh wait a minute…???!!!  Cannot be a reward …

TICKET is already PAID for!!!

Even more a reason for the MACHINE to cooperate and do what machines always should: OBEY HUMAN COMMANDS!!
It worked wonders until we came to this screen (seen in first photo).
Well this photo is taken today but you get the idea…. the depressing idea….
because since I took the PHOTO above today, it means we 
FAILED!!!! 

We tried all kinds of 4 digit (PIN) CODES…
Phoe-Lo asked me nicely if I indeed could remember giving them a code when signing up, but no and at this particular part of my LIFE I happen to be utterly organized. 
I save everything from screen receipts like reservations, itineraries, membership numbers etc etc. most often as a PDF, but sometimes just a little note.
and I was sure there was none….

I got home MAD, but still with thinking capacity…. after all…. I AM HUMAN!
Then it dawned on me, when looking through all documents I had regarding the Loppi system…. DUH it must be my last 4 digits of my Credit Card that I used as a sign-up ID.
We conversed about this over email and chat Phoe-Lo and I, and YES DUH!! of course that must be it…..

ROUND 3
Hence we decided, she would take some of her valuable time and go with me to a Lawson near where she lives (which was where I had intended to start my walk today anyway) and so we met up!
This screen came up and ha ha ha we were so going to BEAT the machine…

….. or NOT!!!!! 

I wonder what the store clerk or other customers where thinking. A very tall good looking woman and a short one with HOT PINK hair looked, both wicked mad and angry and obviously cursing in ALIEN LANGUAGE
(in fact it was RUSSIAN and SWEDISH but hey…. Alien is COOL!)
…
Luckily for me Phoe-Lo has a lot of stamina and was determined to win over the machine.  
I was already going over my mental Rollerdex WHO do I know who is bilingual and IN TOKYO and who would be KIND enough to understand just how DESPERATELY I want that ticket…..??? Then after counting…. ZERO fingers ….. I was ready to give up!
GO HOME and CRY and spend the whole evening of the 13th camping at the Cemetery instead of ROCKING at his Birthday Party….

Luckily not every one uses heuristic methodology and suddenly I hear Phoe-Lo go YAY!!!! I FOUND IT!!
She had in the email (saved by me as a PDF document) from  the LOPPI ticket system found a tiny little box, in a table somewhere, with 4 digits…
for some reason (Probably a LAUGH from the machine)
the digits were 1964 hide’s Birthyear!!  A number we did not try by random…..

We WON and I NOW have the TICKET!!!

hide-sama I LOVE YOU

Phoe-Lo - You are the best for not giving up! Good LUCK oon your exam tomorrow!

TICKET MACHINE - EFF U! I will be back for more…..