Tag Archives: random

General, Hollywood, The Singularity, Uncategorized

Quick-Moving Saturday

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This day just flew by me before I really realized what had happened.  Ended up being out a little late on Friday after all the baseball excitement, so I got a late start.  Lots to be done around the house, and I also watched a movie that Brian lent to me.  Eagle Eye was OK, but it could have been quite a bit better.  Another interesting take on a Skynet-type problem that wouldn’t actually ever happen.  But like I said, it wasn’t awful.

Did some laundry while I was watching this evening’s Brewers game.  MediaPortal is totally worth the trouble on my TV box if for no other reason than the DVR features– being able to pause the live game while I was running up and down the stairs changing loads was nice.  If there were:

  • a browser extension, in order to use hulu and netflix within MP, and
  • a decent music library included

… it would pretty much rock.  I might try Boxee for Windows to see how that works out.  The thing I would like best is to do all the video watching that I need to on computer, WITH the remote.  Having to plug in a keyboard or mouse is a pain.  Ah well, minor thing.

I would like to sneak in my blog-o-riffic birthday salutations to my mom, right under the wire here ON her birthday, 4/11.  Love you, Mom– hope it was a good day…

If I miss all of ya on Sunday, have a happy Easter.

General, Uncategorized

Folders Are Tags That You Don't Have To Guess At

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Crotchety Old Internetter here:

Back in my day, we didn’t have TAGS!  When we bookmarked a website, it got added to a big list and we sorted it out into predefined categories, or FOLDERS, within that hierarchy!  Sometimes we would nest those folders, and sometimes we wouldn’t!  Sometimes we just let those bookmarks pile up until they got unruly, and we’d either sort ’em out into our folders, or we’d just get rid of ’em, and we LIKED IT!

These TAGS don’t seem all that convenient, anyway.  It’s a whole lotta folders you can’t see, the way I look at it.  So if you wanna sit there and dream up a bunch of WORDS to describe that LINK every time you mark one, g’head!  I ain’t gettin’ rid of my FOLDERS, no-HOW, for no-BODY!!

General, Uncategorized

Scrobbling Your Pandoras Update

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The Firefox extension that I mentioned the other day seems to be working.  Here is the homepage for it, if you’re interested.

At first, I thought that this little mother wasn’t doing the job, either, but as it turns out, it won’t submit a song until you’ve reached the end of it and the next one has started.  Makes sense, really, since you only wanna submit tracks that you’re listening to, but slightly different behavior than some other scrobblers.

Scrobble is a great word.

In random unrelated news, how is it that yesterday I had a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch for breakfast and was barely hungry by 12:30, but today I had a hearty bowl of Grape Nuts and right now I AM STARVING.

Hollywood, Uncategorized

(Partially) Swearing Off DVD

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At some point during this week (not sure when, the days and mornings are sort of starting to blend together), I ended up on Amazon browsing at CDs and DVDs.  With so many of my friends and fam now making the jump to BluRay, I realized– maybe I ought to quit buying DVDs (for now) altogether.

Jen agreed that for those films where outstanding picture clarity and sound truly add to the experience, that’s a good idea (your special effects extraveganzas, etc.), but for certain other movies or TV (like The Mosquito Coast, for example, which I’ve got coming next week), it’s probably not vital.  I decided I won’t be collecting any more seasons of Heroes until I’m rockin the BluRay, and ditto for BSG.  There’s just not much point when you know that you’re not getting the best that the current tech has to offer, right?

One point I will not waver on, though, is this: I absolutely refuse to put one more goddamned dime in George frakkin Lucas’s oversized pockets.  I’ve bought your son-of-a-bitchin trilogy 6 times now, Georgey-boy, and that will be quite enough.  I don’t care if the BluRay edition comes with a coupon for a free, lifesize X-Wing fighter replica ((I DO care about that, and if that was the actual offer, I would be at the front of the line.)), I am done.

Meanwhile, speaking of DVDs, I really need to find a reasonably priced storage medium for discs.  Don’t like the clunky (and expensive) cases, so I’d like to get a book.  But what sort of storage capacity do I really need?  That’s the question.

Hey, since YOU went BluRay, which are your favorite movies so far?  Have you caught yourself licking the screen at any point?  That’s kinda gross, dude, but I understand.

General, Uncategorized

Here's To Productivity

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To say that many of my days since I started working a job 8-5 have been mired in senseless, random bullshit would be an understatement (there was a lot of that BEFORE working 8-5, too, but when you don’t have that job, it opens up like 33-45% of your day).  I have tried (and failed) at numerous methods of better managing the little time leftover.  I might have finally stumbled onto a new system that I hope will work.  It involves following a careful daily plan of operation, from which you leave only a VERY little room for deviation.  I’ll give it a shot and see how it goes.

To that end, I have to leave the computer now and use the rest of this hour to be engaged in activities related to dining.  See you bright and early tomorrow…

General, Uncategorized

Back In MKE and All Is Well

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Made it back to my house at about 9:30 or so.  Had a good weekend overall; more to come about it tomorrow, for now I am tired and going to get ready for bed.  For those that are curious, I would’ve picked Philly and Pittsburgh to make it the Super Bowl.  Can’t believe the frakkin Cardinals!  And speaking of frakking, shut the frak up about BSG until I have a chance to watch it (tomorrow morning).

Last day of GW’s administration tomorrow!!!!!!!

General, Uncategorized

What Are the Odds of That?

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I was pretty excited today because I got the DVD recorder that Mom and Dad bought me for my birthday in the mail.  After work and dinner, I spent some time hooking it up and comparing the video and audio quality to my trusty old Pioneer.  I came to the conclusion that I would have to leave both of them hooked up; the Pioneer has optical out for the audio, and there is a notable difference between that and the coaxial audio out on the new Magnavox.

Once I had settled that issue and moved my server to a different shelf (freeing up some space in the sad, sad, little “entertainment center” that my sad, sad, little living room has), I ran the boxes for both players down to the basement and retrieved my VCR, ready to begin the process of dubbing over the VHS tapes that I have so longed to get rid of.

Plugged in the VCR, and I almost immediately noticed the subtle aroma of an electrical fire.  I sniffed each component close up.  Naturally, it was the VCR.  Even though it smelled like that, I thought, “what the hell, I’ll try putting a tape in here.”  That didn’t work, either.  Seems like the deck itself is jammed and (without a LOT of experience or know-how to go on) the burning smell is probably the motor that operates it literally burning itself out.  Eh, what the heck?  The VCR was purchased in haste in the year 2001, when I needed it for something random that involved a computer.  Frankly, I don’t recall what.

Wait!  Ohh!  It was to record video ONTO the computer via the TV card!  That sorta worked a little bit at the time.  Point is, the VCR didn’t even cost 40 bucks as I recall, so it’s to be expected that it doinked itself after so (relatively) few hours of playback.

I guess I’ll have to borrow someone else’s VCR to finish up this project, but I can go ahead and begin with the tapes I made on vacations and in Montana a few years back…

General, Uncategorized

A Fairly Non-Descript Day

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Not too much to report for this Thursday on a personal level.  Ohh– here’s something: I did have a little “phone envy” when Michelle finally got her LG Voyager and I had a chance to play with it.  I did NOT opt for that phone back in August when I was shopping because I thought the touch screen would be a hassle for me to use.  After spending some time with hers, it seems like that probably wouldn’t be the case.  Ah, well.  In a couple years, there’ll probably be an even better and more affordable “all-touch-screen” option on the market (LG’s Dare is just too pricey at this point).

I heard some news about a friend that I apparently could have gotten earlier if only I was out there on the stupid Facebook.  I have considered the possibility of trolling those pages just to hear from people or find out the latest news, but I haven’t brought myself to do it yet.  At this point, it’s still just a random consideration.

It seems like I see stories of some of our nation’s dumbest with Wisconsin datelines too often.  Here’s one from Sheboygan: Man accused of urinating on arresting officer.  Classy.

This was delightful to see, too– just after I was able to say that all the computers in my house operate USB devices at 2.0 speed, here comes USB 3.  Dammit.

And, I’m sorry, but this Nebraska safe-haven story is just unbelievable– this quote just KILLS me:

With legislators set to convene on Friday, weary parents like the Lincoln mother have been racing to drop off their children while they still can.

I still think that mandatory birth control is an idea worth looking into…

That is all the random drudgery I can muster for now; enjoy your Thursday evening!

"Roll Your Own", General, Uncategorized

Weekend Update: Special Monday-Mid-Morning-Bocko Edition Without Any Political Commentary

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Well that’s a mouthful.

Weekend flew by for me– Friday night, Michelle and I went over to The House On Dousman for Justin’s birthday observation.  It was a nice time; Marcia & Todd made an unexpected appearance, so it was cool to talk with them for the first time since they got hitched.  There were libations aplenty, and Michelle made cake.  We couldn’t stay really late, because she had to get up early to judge a cheer competition.

On Saturday, I had some plans to work on a little computer biz at my house, but I got an call from the Poquettes who needed backup on a short babysitting gig– Kilian and Harper had some overlapping zoo classes, so I met up with them there and watched Abe for an hour or so.  He’s a very low-maintenence baby; took him about 20 minutes to fall asleep, then I just milled around the zoo for a while until Amanda called to say Harper’s class was done.  The zoo trip worked to my advantage, as I was able to miss the majority of the Badgers’ drubbing at the hands of Iowa.

Later in the evening on Saturday, we met up with Michelle’s friend Amisha and her (relatively new) financee, Ajay.  I hadn’t met him before.  We had a good time at Vox on Prospect, where the atmosphere is pretty smokey, but also quiet enough to talk.  They also have movies going in the background all the time there.  For me, it’s a good way to keep time at the bar without looking at your watch: “We’ve been here for Princess Bride and half of Team America? Shit, it’s gotta be pretty late…”

On Sunday, I got around to working on some of that computer stuff and did laundry.  I was pretty happy to note that I was just about able to migrate my home server over to a new machine without having to call Joe every five minutes with questions.  There are a couple things that are still left to do, but I was glad to have been able to install the new system, import all the old user accounts & various server settings without incident.

I wanted to head over to Grandma’s house to help out with yard work, but I ran out of time.  Now it looks like it’s going to rain the rest of today, but it’s supposed to be nice on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Maybe by Wednesday, the leaves would be dry enough over there and I could give it another shot.

General, Uncategorized

50 Nifty

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Who among us Northland Pines alums (and probably several others, too) remembers singing the “50 Nifty United States” song in grade school?

Don’t ask me how, but I got it stuck in my head this afternoon.  There’s a YouTube video out there of a very poor a capella performance of this tune combined with a single shot of a US map, if you wanna look for it…

Here are the lyrics that I found on sing365.com:

Fifty Nifty United States from thirteen original colonies;
Fifty Nifty stars on the flag that billows so beautifully in the breeze.
Each individual state contributes a quality that is great.
Each individual state deserves a bow, We salute them now.

Fifty Nifty United States from thirteen original colonies,
Shout ’em, scout ’em, Tell all about ’em,
One by one,til we’ve given a day to every state in the USA in the USA in the USA, <- hold out all the A’s for 3 beats
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana
Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan.
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York,
North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

North, South, East, West in a clam, objective opinion (Name of favorite State)
Is the Best of the Fifty Nifty United States from thirteen original colonies
Shout ’em,scout’em, tell all about ’em
One by One, till we’ve given a day to every state in the good old U….S…A (hold all notes very short)