AABA

Still Out There?

2007-05-29T21:15:00.000-04:00

Not sure how many of you will ever see this, but for the near term, I've moved my writings to Unlikely Words. Take a look around and let me know what you think.

24: Episode 22, 4 AM - 5 AM

2006-05-15T23:20:00.000-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,
What do we know? We know that regardless of the fact that millions of Americans were screaming simultaneously at the TV during last week's show for Jack Bauer to play the tape for someone, anyone, ANYONE! Apparently, they only delayed the show by 20 minutes and not 30, which would have made more sense. And apparently, I missed the ambush scene and about 10 NJBDs.
9:31: Motherfucker. I can't believe I just missed the first 10 minutes. This is just another reason to resent President Bush…
9:33: So who was torturing Aaron Pierce? Why is the president bargaining with him? And who is this other Secret Service agent? There's a reason the Secret Service doesn't work for the president, and I think Charles Logan is the reason.
9:37: There's nothing more annoying than someone getting a hundred lucky bounces and then gloating about it. The president had a gun in his mouth 20 minutes ago and now he's king of the world.
9:40: Buchannon just said "What would David Palmer do?" WWDPD, I want a bracelet.
9:42: Oh, the politics of survival. I think Christopher Henderson is a neo-con.
9:43: I'm actually really enjoying this scene between Jack Bauer and Henderson. It's a joust of Jack Bauer and someone who can at least carry Jack Bauer's underwear.
9:50: "Not a Phoenix. It's a poison pill firewall." Oh, Chloe, you've been doing so well lately. And now you've gone and said something annoying! Damn it!
9:51: What an inopportune time for the First Lady to be wandering aimlessly in a stable.
9:52: Yeah, it's definitely not in the Secret Service code to point a gun at the First Lady. That's for sure.
9:53: YES! NJBD: 1 (Evil Secret Service Agent). Way to go, First Lady! Wait, what's wrong with Aaron Pierce? Is he going to become the first person in the history of media to be killed by a gun butt hit to the head? That would be remarkable.
9:58: So Henderson said this guy would be able to tell if there was a wire and yet it's OK for C.T.U. to hang out outside? That makes sense.
10:01: "24" is really getting some great cameos this year. This bad guy is a face, right? I've seen him before.
10:02: I bet Christopher Henderson's double cross was some sort of rouge…
10:03: JBKC: 1 (Molina)
10:04: Christopher Henderson obviously had this planned out, so why wouldn't he tell Jack Bauer in advance? I guess he just wanted Jack Bauer to look stupid. Well, Chris, it worked.
10:10: Next year, it should be "24" starring Aaron Pierce and Curtis Manning. I'd watch that show and I wouldn't ever complain.
10:13: Is this the first time that Jack Bauer has warned someone and they've sprung immediately into action? I think so.
10:13: NJBD: 1 (The Captain)
10:14: NJBD: 10? (The sailors)
10:15: I can't believe "24" had the balls to let Bierko escape, and let him have a back up plan that includes a Russian submarine. This is a total "I'm Keith Hernandez" moment. They think we'll believe anything. Next week there's going to be a pizzly bear, just wait.
1 JBKC, 0 tortures, 21 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
2 hour finale next week. Should be great. Or watchable at least. I may actually have to watch part of the show on some sort of tape delay. We'll see. We'll see.
Totals for the season, 37 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 148 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 21, 3 AM - 4 AM

2006-05-08T23:14:00.000-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

I'm going to be upset with the outcome of this.

9:03: Please, Jack Bauer. Please figure out a way for other people to listen to the tape…
9:04: Ha! I knew that Secretary Raines survived!
9:04: I like how this guy talking to the president is so matter of fact when he's talking about shooting down a plane.
9:06: What consequences is that guy talking about? Wouldn't they just deny any involvement?
9:09: Come on, Novick, talk them out of it. It's really their only choice.
9:09: I wonder what the time differential between the 15 minutes the military guy said they had left to shoot the plane down and the 21 minutes it will take to land the plane they talked about a few minutes ago. It's really impossible to tell in the "24" reality.
9:10: President Logan is several different clichés all at once. It's so ridiculous.
9:17: Why does Jack Bauer still say, "This is Bauer" when he picks up his phone? People know who he is, that's why they call him.
9:17: "5 minutes away".
9:18: "1 minute to missile launch". That was the fastest 4 minutes ever.
9:20: They can't shoot it down if it's landing.
9:20: Abort. Hold fire. President Logan almost lost it there.
9:22: Seriously? They couldn't let the plane go under the overpass and rip off the wings… I was braced for some shearing. What a missed opportunity! I haven't been this disappointed in several weeks. The pilot said they needed 5000 feet for a regular landing. He somehow was able to increase his speed and angle of descent dramatically AND still land in less space than usual? There's only one explanation. The ground is allergic to Jack Bauer. Jack Bauer's presence in the front of the aircraft provided just enough repulsion for the plane's nose to not go plummeting into the ground.
9:29: Damn, Curtis. He should be promoted. He's the Tony Almeda of a new generation! "This is not the Jack Bauer you are looking for." "This is not the Jack Bauer we are looking for. Move along." I want a Curtis T-Shirt.
9:30: Jack Bauer REALLY needs to play the tape for someone else, please.
9:30: Miles the Snake. I hope he saves the day.
9:30: What is Chloe working on now? She finished the airplane tracking thing, right?
9:32: Miles the Snake is such a bitch. He's been acting like Dwight Schroot more and more. His voice even sounds like Dwight.
9:33: Why are they transporting this guy when they don't transport anyone else? They still have Christopher Henderson in there, right?
9:34: There's no possible way that Bierko would have planned to have the C.T.U. transport driver there be one of his guys. That would be the contingency plan of mother contingencies. He would have no way of planning on being captured by C.T.U. and then being brought to their HQ and then being moved from there. How much do you have to spend to have a man on the take in every federal agency everywhere? And why don't any of these agencies do any background checks?
9:39: Tell him, Logan, you need a way out of the darkness. Stop letting innocent Americans die. Tell him!
9:40: What are these guys going to do if President Logan doesn't
9:41: PLEASE MAKE A COPY OF THE TAPE. PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! If Bierko has people in C.T.U. maybe Audrey's a traitor. You never know.
9:42: Audrey and Jack Bauer must have stinky breath right now.
9:44: Why is Charles Logan so beholden to these guys? He is like the little gang member that wants to be a big gang member and has to kill someone from the other gang so he can be a full member of the gang.
9:47: Here's the thing, not just anyone can clear all the hurdles necessary to become President of the USA. The person who becomes president must have certain personality traits that don't allow them to take no for an answer or accept defeat. So "24" is now asking me to believe that President Logan somehow became president while having none of the traits. Even his impetuous now seems to be a ruse. They want me to think he's going to kill himself to protect the guys in the room with the silly hands free things in their ears? I say NO!
9:52: Oh snap, she don't love you anymore, Charles!
9:54: Saved by the bell. Get the phone, Charles.
9:54: There is hope yet, eh, Charles?
9:54: Miles the Snake is SUCH A BITCH. Looks like he's got a new snake charmer.
9:56: Why do these ceremonial guns that people have always seem to come with bullets?

0 JBKC, 0 tortures, 0 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
Who knows anymore? I mean, really. There's nothing left to say. No one died today, which is odd. I think this is the first time all season.
Totals for the season, 36 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 127 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 20, 2 AM - 3 AM

2006-05-01T23:31:00.000-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

I sense this might be a kind of let down episode like a few weeks ago. We'll see.

9:08: So far, nothing special. Except I bet Chloe tells the hotel bar drunk guy off at some point.
9:10: Good to know that "24" thinks so highly of air marshals. JBKC: 1 (Air Marshal)
9:17: Is she trying to tell Mike or not? The First Lady not doing a very good job of being quiet.
9:18: The problem is that the First Lady doesn't have any credibility left, so it's really hard to figure out what she's up to. The writers can really do whatever they want. If they want to go Lady Godiva with her, they could do that and no one would really be able to tell.
9:20: I can't tell if it's me or if there's nothing going on in the show right now.
9:21: The president can be pretty smart when he wants to be. Wait a second. How can we believe that he is smart enough now to outsmart his wife, when he's been as dumb as a paperweight all season.
9:21: Ah, here we go… Time for some action.
9:23: I thought this was some sort of diplomatic flight? Doesn't it seem like a commercial flight to you? Why is there an air marshal on a commercial flight?
9:30: Uh oh, Jack Bauer, better get out of there. Something bad is happening that couldn't have been foreseen.
9:32: Nice. I think that may have been one of the best things Chloe has ever done. She should add the taser to her normal repertoire.
9:34: Jack Bauer knows so much about airplanes that he is able to adjust the flight pattern from the baggage hold. Absolutely amazing. He never ceases to amaze.
9:35: This has got to be the worst air marshal of all time. Getting knocked out originally and now not doing anything when he has a gun pointed on him.
9:42: Now Miles knows that Karen Myers is screwing around. Miles is a lot like Dwight Schroot. We all know that guy.
9:42: Mike Novick is the perfect person for Miles to be calling right now. This is going to turn everything around. I hope.
9:43: "A soft Q and A". Maybe Miles just wishes it was him getting the soft q and a.
9:45: See here's a situation where the President is going to use the Secret Service as his palace guard. I could see that happening in the next couple years.
9:51: I wonder how long Chloe can keep electrocuting this guy without anyone noticing.
9:51: Why did it take so damn long to find out about the pilot? They can do and not do whatever they want and it doesn't ever seem to bother people that the time of tasks changes drastically depending on what needs to be done when… Oh well.
9:54: Can Jack Bauer fly the plane? Can he? What do you think? It doesn't matter! Yay, Jack Bauer. Now how's he going to escape the Secret Service/Palace Guard?
9:54: I bet Jack Bauer can fly the plane. CAN JACK BAUER PLEASE PLAY THE TAPE FOR SOMEONE ELSE? PLEASE! JUST PUT IT ON LOOP ON THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SO SOMEONE CAN RECORD IT. I can't stand it.
9:56: Art imitating life with the plane being shot down? I don't even want to suggest it. 9:56: Isn't the plane supposed to be landing really soon? They said 15 minutes a while go

1 JBKC, 0 tortures, 0 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
I was right, nothing really happened. Why didn’t the co-pilot crash the plane? All the other folks were willing to die to protect the secret. AND, how could it possibly have been arranged that the co-pilot able to meet Henderson and then fly the most commercial "diplomatic" flight of all time? We'll never know.
Totals for the season, 36 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 127 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 19, 1 AM - 2 AM

2006-04-24T22:47:00.000-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

Has anyone seen The Sentinel yet? I wonder if it's as totally crappy as "24". Post a comment if you've seen it. I'm glad that they showed the scene from last week where Jack Bauer let Christopher Henderson escape again, this time, after giving him the only evidence linking the President to everything.

9:04: Jack Bauer makes leaders of the most powerful military of the world beg for forgiveness. Yes, he does.
9:04: So Chloe wasn't able to use satellites to track Henderson either of the 3 other times he got away when she could have used all the C.T.U. resources. But now, when she's using Buchanon's computer (which she sneered at by the way) they're able to do what Jack Bauer has been begging for all day. That makes total sense.
9:05: Jesus, now CHLOE is telling people she doesn't work for them? Great. Soon it will be Curtis, too. It's about the subnets and the VPNs, didn't you know that?
9:10: "Audrey, please get back in the car." I see Jack Bauer and Audrey sometime down the road when they're lost and Jack Bauer says something like, "Audrey, we're not lost, and NO, I'm not asking for directions."
9:11: Jack Bauer says that Christopher Henderson doesn't bluff, but wasn't Christopher Henderson bluffing when he was willing to let Jack Bauer shoot his wife?
9:12: Jessie and I want to know why Heller doesn't just drive off the road. OH SNAP. Well, we meant kind of like under trees or something, not off a cliff into a river. I hope he has his swim floats. NJBD: 1 (Secretary Heller by the water).
9:13: "Do it. Kill him, Jack." Where does Audrey get off. If she had just waited in the car, they wouldn't be in this mess. Or something. The characters can go back and forth 100 times in 24 hours between whether or not they want to kill people or save them for prosecution.
9:18: Oh, it's that guy. Which movie is he from? This is the second or third Wizard of Oz, moment. How does this guy work with the sketchy phone guy from earlier in the season? Do they call each other up and demand things of each other?
9:19: It must be hard to be crazy and be the first lady. You think you're entitled to being treated with the ultimate respect, but at the same time, no one takes you seriously and everyone patronizes you incessantly. I think the Secret Service has to step in if the president tries to kill the first lady. They do, right?
9:22: Jack Bauer is making crappy decision after crappy decision.
9:22: Jono thinks Audrey is going to die. Jessie agrees. I'm skeptical. But if she does die, it's because she bleeds to death, not because someone kills her.
9:28: "I can trace her location by looking at her binary." Sheesh, I hope you ask first.
9:29: Why are all these unhinged people able to get into positions of responsibility to national security? Don't they have background checks?
9:31: This seems like a misstep to me. But maybe telling the crazy first lady these things isn't so crazy after all. Yes, Charles, "why?"
9:32: Do you think Bush and Cheney ever worry about the scandal that could destroy the credibility of the US all over the world? I wonder if they've discussed it.
9:39: Who is this guy talking to the President like he's a little boy. No, a little girl.
9:40: I'm sorry about your father, he was great, let me go.
9:40: Christopher Henderson is good, you've got to give him that. And Audrey is LOSING IT!
9:41: I'll never understand why in these situations the Audreys never shoot the Christopher Hendersons in the toes or knees, just to get them to shut up. Audrey, if you shoot him, he'll know you're serious.
9:43: Seems like she waited just long enough to get caught. Good job, Audrey. Way to let procrastination get the better of you! Just like college.
9:44: The last time Audrey got caught from behind like that. Well… You know.
9:45: NJBD: 3 (Henderson's baddies by C.T.U.
9:46: What happened to the guy on the helicopter? How did Curtis sneak up on the house without the helicopter seeing him?
9:51: I'm not sure, but it seems like any truck that is searched underneath is going to be searched on top, right?
9:51: No one's going to hear that phone ringing? I guess not.
9:53: Come on, Karen Myers. Tell the tact. team not to go to Bill Buchanon's. Let's go, Karen, let's go!
9:54: The president who uses his own council has a fool for a client, right, right? Come on. Right? Ba, dum, dum!
9:54: Mike Novick just said, "It's been strange night." Then kind of looked sideways. That was sweet. It could have been used in several different movies.
9:56: It's too bad no one saw him. Otherwise, Jack Bauer would have stared the guy down and said, "These. Bags. Need. To. Get. On. The. Plane. Too. Man."

0 JBKC, 0 tortures, 4 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
I just don't know what to think, and next week the airplane gets hiJacked (Copyright Jon O'Toole 2006)!
Totals for the season, 35 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 127 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 18, 12 AM - 1 AM

2006-04-17T22:39:00.000-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

Is this week's episode going to suck? I sure hope not, and our guest Jen MS hopes not also.

9:02: The president has a cell phone? That he answers by himself? Do you think he has Domino's pizza in the speed dial?
9:03: Here's the thing, "24" has done such a good job of convincing all of us that President Logan is a bumbling moron, that it's impossible to take him seriously as a criminal mastermind. That's one of the main problems with this show, they spend multiple weeks telling us one thing and then just change their minds all of a sudden and we're supposed to go along with it.
9:03: President Logan just hung up on Christopher Henderson, and then Christopher Henderson looked at his phone like, "What the hell, did the president just hang up on me?" That was great.
9:03: I STILL hate those C.T.U. phone rings. Beep Beep, Boobeep.
9:05: I like Bill Buchannon more and more every episode.
9:10: Jack Bauer is going dark. WOAH. Not dark enough, huh, Heller.
9:11: Secretary Heller thinks he's going to take the power back and be able to handle it. You know, Heller, with great power comes great responsibility.
9:16: Sometimes Chloe is good enough to realize there's a sting going on, and sometimes she's not good enough. It all depends on what the writers want to do on any given night.
9:17: Why were those security guards wearing white shirts instead of red shirts? What's going on here?
9:18: Isn't it impossible that President Logan would be able to talk to people like Karen Myers without them figuring out what he's up to.
9:19: Well, well, well, look at Mike Novick watching news updates on his razor phone by Sprint. Available at Sprint stores everywhere.
9:20: Where is Curtis during all of this? Was he replaced by Homeland?
9:21: So now Mike Novick realizes that President Logan is telling C.T.U. the military is on the search and the military said they don't know what's going on. Big goings on. When President Logan does it that means it's not a crime.
9:23: Come on, Mike, President Logan has been doing a damned good job of leading the country through the crisis over the last 18 hours. It seems like if he knew what was going to happen, he should have been doing a MUCH better job, right? It's like he had the answers to the test on a piece of paper during the test and he still was asking his neighbors what to do.
9:29: I don't think Miles is as big a jerk as he pretends to be either. I don't think Chloe is smarter than everyone either. Just with computer codes and stuff.
9:30: GIRL FIGHT!!! I don't think Chloe should have told her about President Logan's plot against America.
9:32: You can always tell the type of President that isn't getting the respect they deserve as president because they keep saying things like "I am the president, don't forget that."
9:38: First Lady Logan really isn't as young or sexy as she thinks she is. Aaron Pierce doesn't care.
9:40: President Logan as king. King Charles. He is above the law because he knows best what the country needs. I might eventually watch this season again and do a better job documenting the parallels between Charles Logan and George Bush.
9:42: Wait. Chloe was able to walk out of C.T.U. that easily? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SECURE BUILDING!
9:43: Jack MacBauer. Too bad it took Jack Bauer 40 minutes to find the heated pipe, otherwise he could have been more of a factor in this episode. He could have been somebody.
9:43: JBKC: 1 (Secretary Heller's security detail)
9:50: JBKC: 1 (Henderson baddie)
JBKC: 1 (Henderson baddie)
NJBD: 1 (Secretary Heller's security detail)
JBKC: 2 (Henderson baddie)
9:51: "Our government has no integrity." That's right, but who knew Jack Bauer was a democrat?
9:53: This is so stupid. GO GET THE TAPE, JACK BAUER.
9:55: Anyone who didn't predict this ending down to being able to write out the dialogue doesn't know anything about "24"
5 JBKC, 0 tortures, 1 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
Jack Bauer still needs some more JBKCs to catch up to everyone else on the show, but a couple more episodes like this and he'll be right back in the running.
Totals for the season, 35 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 123 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 17, 11 PM - 12 AM

2006-04-10T23:18:00.000-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

I was trying to write the "24" blog ahead of time tonight. I included sentences like "This show sucks." "I can't believe this is happening, it's totally unbelievable." "Wow, Fox has such a poor opinion of women, she's so a) dumb, b) crazy, c) evil, d) all of the above."

9:03: "Wayne, can you get us a room?" 7 words I'd never expect Jack Bauer to say.
9:04: Let's just remind everyone that this is the second time Christopher Henderson has easily escaped.
9:05: I hope Jack Bauer sutures the wound with a hair dryer, that would be the best possible way to solve this problem.
9:08: Even in his evil conniving mood, President Logan is a blame hungry troll.
9:08: Oh, a "24" special, a person who appears bad seems good. Karen Myers has second thoughts?
9:09: I wonder if Christopher Henderson hates when President Logan starts freelancing like this and calling Directors of Homeland Security with orders to apprehend Jack Bauer.
9:11: "It's starting." Silly Audrey, it's been starting for about 17 hours.
9:12: I just missed that part. Karen Myers is being used and I think she knows it.
9:19: I wonder if Heller flies in this type of plane all the time.
9:20: Isn't anyone going to wonder why the Secretary of Defense is landing in LA? Oooh, "off the manifest." That means it's OK.
9:21: Audrey Raines was able to find the tracker SO fast, they should put her in the field.
9:23: "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, I'm the Commander in Chief and you're not."
9:25: Seriously, I don't think they need to spend any more time with the assistant's daughter storyline. Oh right, I guess they do so she can call 911.
9:32: Why don't they just have Aaron Pierce arrest the president the same way they busted up Lynn McGill.
9:33: I bet the sneaky assistant to Karen Myers ends up doing something surprising and saving some part of the day.
9:37: NJBD: 2 (EMTs)
9:41: She went from being so strong and crazy to being lame and gullible. Gross kissing, I saw an elderly couple making out outside of a Denny's once, which isn't really related, but kind of.
9:46: The recording seems to prove the idea that the president was getting used. He seemed angry, stupid, and blaming on the phone, that means it wasn't faked.
9:54: This music is stupid. Good thinking, Chloe, bathroom jokes are always the best way to get out of trouble.
9:55: I kind of feel like if these guys really were patriots, they wouldn't be shooting cops. Another incongruity with the show, it's SO implausible.
9:56: NJBD: 6 (cops and baddies, bank manager). I wish the bank manager hadn't died. He was one of the good ones, he was.
0 JBKC, 0 tortures, 8 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
Jack Bauer is really getting outclassed on the killings lately, he'd better catch up. I'm watching this show now, only for the blog, it's pathetic.
Totals for the season, 30 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 122 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 16, 10 PM - 11 PM

2006-04-03T22:57:00.001-04:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

I'm mad at "24". Two weeks ago, the cliffhanger was that the terrorist may or may not have got her information from Audrey Raines. Audrey was portrayed as a terrorist. Then,, "Oops, Christopher Henderson just told me to use that name." Again, it's a problem of trust. If we can't trust "24" not to jerk us around and just throw in random bits of information, then there's no reason for us to watch.

9:02: Looks like Jack Bauer's plan worked and the world is safe for everyone.
9:03: Oh, my God, bring the terrorist to safety, Jack Bauer. Fire doesn't burn Jack Bauer. Jack Bauer is the white-hot heat of one million suns.
9:04: Jack Bauer is scared? A shockwave just went through the universe.
9:06: Karen Myers' assistant is like an airplane full of snakes.
9:07: Do you think Aaron Pierce goes months and months without being shot at and then relishes the days he's shot at twice in a couple hours.
9:09: So is Evelyn a good girl or a bad girl? Maybe she's both, the best kind.
9:10: Oooh. The "IP Account" that's what the interweb is made of.
9:10: I just laughed out loud. No one cares about Evelyn's baby. Except Jack Bauer.
9:12: I've said it before and I'll say it again, THIS SHOW SUCKS!
9:16: "Backslash Protocol" hmmm.
9:17: How does Audrey not smash that guy? I don't think her loyalties are as divided as Homeland thinks she is.
9:19: When a mid-level Chief of Staff starts throwing around nasty threats like that, Bushbots everywhere get excited.
9:21: This is another situation when the show is making it seem really obvious that a major figure (Hal Gardner) is responsible for everything. They did this earlier in the season and it made me really angry and depressed because I knew it wasn't going to turn out the way they were making it seem like it was going to turn out.
9:24: Evelyn Martin's daughter looks much older than I would have expected.
9:28: Duh. Duh. Duh. Hal Gardner, meet Wayne Palmer.
9:31: Audrey's entrance into that conversation seemed horribly unnecessary.
9:31: This is so fucking stupid. There's no explanation. There's no way at all for it to be believable that Evelyn Martin would feel like she "has [David Palmer's] blood on her hands" and not do everything possible to help the investigation.
9:33: "Patch me in"? How exactly does one patch someone in on a cell phone?
9:40: Why doesn't Jack Bauer just torture Evelyn. I mean, in the scheme of things, what does anyone care about her? Jack Bauer has a weakness for little girls, but still…
9:42: Jack Bauer has an enormous sentimental side. Basically if you want to convince him to do something he doesn't want to do you just play the revenge card and talk about you brother getting shot through the neck. He crumbles like a house of cards every single time.
9:43: What if the President is the puppetmaster? That would be the ultimate in unbelievability and right up this show's alley.
9:44: Torture her, Jack Bauer, torture her!!!
9:51: "Damn it, there's too many of them." What the hell does that mean, Jack Bauer? When has that ever stopped you?
9:51: JBKC: 2 (Christopher Henderson's bad guys).
9:51: NJBD: 1 (Wayne Palmer pops his death cherry on a buddy of Christopher Henderson's).
9:56: JBKC: 1 (Christopher Henderson's bad guy).
9:58: Ahem, I don't mean to toot my horn but, "9:43: What if the President is the puppetmaster? That would be the ultimate in unbelievability and right up this show's alley."
3 JBKC, 0 tortures, 1 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a (I could count the rope-a-dope president, but I didn't follow prediction protocol).
This shit sucks. President Logan is a mastermind and for what? The only reason I'm watching this is to see how lobbying and immigration get folded into the plot in the next couple weeks.
Totals for the season, 30 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 114 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 15, 9 PM - 10 PM

2006-03-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

The "24" blog might be a bit delayed for a couple minutes because the fantasy baseball draft is going long.
9:03: Sanctioned or ordered?
9:07: This is either staged or leading to something… Oh, it's leading to something. They just got themselves a police escort.
9:09: Chloe got all that in that short of a time? Interesting. Walt and Audrey sitting in a tree.
9:11: There should be something in Jack Bauer's contract that forbids him from taking parts in movies in which his character wears sunglasses and runs around with guns all day. I heard he was in a "24" like movie, but I just saw the commercial for the first time?
9:14: Do you think this is what Audrey and Jack Bauer are like when they're dating. The lies about who slept with whom and how many times, which country I betrayed what time, the shouting. They need couple's therapy.
9:17: Damn it, Audrey, tell the truth.
9:17: JR hates Jack Bauer and says he is disgusting. But what do you expect? She's lying to Jack Bauer about sleeping with someone who is a traitor. Audrey said it herself!
9:17: Throw the table, Jack Bauer, throw it! There, don't you feel better?
9:21: How much do you think that guy's going to regret tasering Jack Bauer? A lot. He's going to get the label around the office of "The guy who tasered Jack." People won't sit with him in the breakroom. And soon he'll take another job. It's like that in every office.
9:26: It's crazy how much they're talking about Audrey "sleeping with" people. You'd think in a moment of stress they'd be tossing around at least one other euphemism.
9:27: Jack Bauer sounds paranoid right here. Talking about double super secret back up pans.
9:30: Shoot. I forgot to mark this stuff. NJBD: 4 (cops and guards at gas plant)
JBKC: 1 (guard and then he got tasered)
9:37: Where did DP''s brother get that assault rifle from?
9:39: JBKC: 1 (guard)
9:39: Jack Bauer is upset. Believe me, Collette, you won't like Jack Bauer when he's angry.
9:44: That was great. The new girl works out the problem then imagines sexual harassment. I'm hearing it from JR and JMS that I should be mad at Fox for their portrayal of women who claim sexual harassment as insane. I'd like to take this opportunity to declare my reprehension with Fox's behavior.
9:44: Who are these paramilitary men and who do they think they're shooting at with no silencers on the Presidential Retreat.
9:49: OK, ready to watch
9:50: It's amazing what they can and can't do at any given time. Some weeks they can't decide what to get on the pizza and some weeks Chloe can tell a helicopter pilot the right flight vector Chloe knew what "Flight Vector" to give the pilot so they could avoid detection? Uhh, really? Welcome to the "Magical 24 Hour"
9:52:JBKC 3: (Baddies), NJBD:2 (Curtis shot the other baddy and one of the C.T.U. dudes got it)
9:56: Run Jack Bauer! RUN! Jack Bauer doesn't run, he walks in a whisper and the world spins faster for him.

5 JBKC, 1 tortures, 6 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
The JBKC had a pretty quiet episode last week, but Jack Bauer brought us all back into focus this week with 5 JBKCs. Sorry I wasn't very attentive at the beginning of the episode, but if it makes you feel better, I ended up with BJ Upton on my baseball team.
Totals for the season, 27 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 113 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

24: Episode 14, 8 PM - 9 PM

2006-03-20T22:40:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

It seems like 3 or 4 times a year there are let down episodes. I think this might be one of those episodes. Basically, the let down episode follows about 2-3 weeks of totally crazy hysteria. There was a let down episode after the airport hostage situation. We'll see. Also, how many of you think Sean Astin thought his cameo on "24" was going to be a bigger deal than it was?
9:02: Wait, so Christopher was able to escape before the lock down? What? How? Weren't they in lock down? Doesn't it stand to reason that they should have been in lock down? And they're just going to let him get away? He just killed Tony!
9:03: At some point they're going to have to have some scene of resolution between Manning and Jack Bauer.
9:04: First Lady, this is your last chance.
9:04: 40% of C.T.U. was killed or unable to work? Jack Bauer counts for about 58.5% of the remaining 60%.
9:06: President Logan is such a douchebag.
9:08: Wow, do you think Miles uses his "Priority Admin Directive" line with any success at the bars?
9:09: I'm glad that Wayne Palmer is back in the picture.
9:10:"They're talking about the legality of my decision." You mean, like the NSA wiretap program you ordered a couple weeks ago?
9:16: 56, huh? That's a TON of NJBKs.
9:17: It's strange, normal TV situational circumstances dictates that the tension between C.T.U. and Homeland is going to come to a head. But I just don't see how that can realistically happen.
9:18: How do they not know she left? Didn’t they coordinate with hotel security at all? Curtis and his Action Boys are generally a bit more professional, usually.
9:19: This is a foreign agent from another country. I guarantee it! Prediction.
9:20: I WIN! Finally. It's been a long time since I predicted something right.
9:22: I really want Jack Bauer to tell the German spy "I don't work for your government, or mine."
9:28: Jack Bauer doesn't negotiate with terrorists. But he does negotiate with spies.
9:29: Wet List, huh? Weird.
9:30: Wet List, Wet Lap? What's the difference? That's the oldest one in the book. Good thing Miles is so smitten with Chloe he has no idea.
9:38: The Vice President gets involved in this type of decision? No. He doesn't, that's certain. The Vice President has no role in the "appropriate chain of command".
9:41: What, are they going to fire Chloe again today?
9:43: Say it, Jack Bauer, say it: "I don't work for you, Karen Hayes, I don't care about you or your bullshit repercussions!"
9:45: That was a little "Alias" of the writers. The spies are in love and undercover.
9:46: That was kind of nice of Jack Bauer to call the spy he just betrayed. It must be hard to be Jack Bauer or any of his friends. Or anybody he comes into contact with.
9:53: Jack Bauer gives immunity to people like it's going out of style. He sells immunity on ebay.
9:53: You think Teo is going to come rescue her?
9:53: Jack Bauer does what he wants around here.
9:55: Apparently, the idea of a black president was so distasteful to America that the government assassinates him when he gets out of office. And his brother, too. This government is so… how do you say it? It's like the inmates are factory, you know they're not supposed to be there, but they won't take know for an answer and they're totally destroying the factory.
9:56: Audrey Raines. Wow, nobody expected that. We'll have to see how this plays out. Someone should do a study into whether or not characters remain good from year to year. Or do you think it was someone pretending to be Audrey Raines?

0 JBKC, 0 tortures, 56 NJBD, Prediction Ratio 100% (1 for 1)
Well, what can I say, was that a let down show or was that a let down show?
Totals for the season, 22 JBKCs, 4 tortures, 107 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11).

24: Episode 13, 7 PM - 8 PM

2006-03-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

Barry Landis is going to get it today, and Jack Bauer is the one that's going to give it to him.
9:05: Oh man, Barry Landis, you don't even know.
9:05: Kim looks so proud of Barry Landis. It's like Jack Bauer is supposed to forget that Kim has been dating older guys her whole life. You're not shocking anyone, Kim.
9:05: I want Lynn McGill to imperiously berate the red shirted guard. "I didn't know my junky sister was going to jump me, I was embarrassed!"
9:07: NJBD 1: (C.T.U. Doctor)
9:08: Tony Almeda does what he want to around here. "My name is Tony Almeda, you killed my wife, prepare to die. MY NAME IS TONY ALMEDA, YOU KILLED MY WIFE, PREPARE TO DIE!"
9:10: It's hard to interrogate someone after you put antifreeze into them.
9:10: 40%, huh?
9:11: Why do so many people shuffle in and out of command of C.T.U.?
9:12: If you were in Las Vegas playing poker and President Logan sat down at your table would it be impossible for you to stop giggling to yourself and planning what you were going to do with all of his money? Conversely, how fast would you move away from a Black Jack table that President Logan was sitting at? You know he hits 16 all the time stealing your Queen.
9:16: Strike One, Barry Landis! (You don't need to be qualified…)
9:17: Strike Two, Barry Landis! (You have no idea what I'm doing…)
9:18: Barry Landis has really silly eyebrows and he knows how to use them.
9:19: There's a marriage joke in there about "constitutional rank", but I'm not sure what it is. I feel like a failure.
9:22: I don't believe Jack Bauer would have a go bag and not have some sort of gas mask protection in it.
9:27: So there's all this space that's not contaminated, why don't all the peeps go into the other C.T. U. secret passage ways?
9:28: Barry Landis wants everyone to breathe. Barry Landis keeps talking about breathing, when the underlying drama is that everyone's going to die because they won't be able to breathe.
9:31: Come on. Really? They're going to make Harry Swinton kill himself. And they're not going to make him have kids or anything? And what about Lynn McGill's mom? She's going to lose 2 of her kids on the same day?
9:37: Chloe hates Barry Landis, Jack Bauer hates Barry Landis, I bet Kim starts hating Barry Landis soon.
9:38: Oh man. Harry Swinton does have kids. Sheesh.
9:39: RUDY! RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!
9:40: Come on Harry, make it, please. I want this. DAMN IT. This makes me sadder than Edgar dying.
9:41: I can't believe they just did a close up of Lynn McGill's mouth while he was dying. TWICE.
9:42: NJBD: 2 (Harry Swinton and Lynn McGill)
9:43: Jack Bauer wants to spend "one day" with Kim Bauer explaining everything. Can you imagine anything worse than a "24" styled show about Kim and Jack Bauer hanging out? There would be three full episodes of them waking up and traveling to the meeting spot.
9:48: Now it's Charles Logan's turn to be proud of something shitty. He's the reason presidents don't write their own speeches.
9:49: What do you think it was like planning a wedding with Charles Logan? "Damn it, Martha, I don't know if I want the filet or the salmon. I don't know how much more of this I can take."
9:50: Wait a second, did you see how the terrorist dialed his phone? He just tapped on it with his forefinger. Did they make a new kind of cell phone that's easier to dial?
9:53: It's a little late to be kissing ass, Barry Landis, what are you thinking?
9:54: Where are all these C.T.U. agents in full battle gear come from. Didn't THEY have a bag with a gas mask in it? Unbelievable. They have helmets and no gas masks?
9:55: NJBD: 1 (Agent Burke)
9:55: NJBD: 1 (Tony Almeda) I did not see that happening. It's too bad Tony knocked out all the doctors, isn't it?

0 JBKC, 0 tortures, 5 NJBD, Prediction Ratio 0% (0 for 1)
We still don't have an accurate count of how many C.T.U. staff died. I was wrong about both Tony Almeda predictions. But how long do you think it takes Jack Bauer to tell Karen Hayes he doesn't work for her?
Totals for the season, 22 JBKCs, 4 tortures, 51 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 40% (4 out of 10).

24: Episode 12, 6 PM - 7 PM

2006-03-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

9:01: Here's the thing that bugs me. There's no way the terrorists could plan on having that key card. Unless that key card guy's only job is to track the junkies of greater Los Angeles looking for someone with a relative that has security clearance. That means there's no way they'd be able to set up a plan to attack C.T.U. "24" is asking me to suspend my disbelief too much.
9:03: Buchannon asked, "What is Kim Bauer doing here?" What he meant was "What's Kim Bauer doing here without Chase and his baby?"
9:04: Yeah, Christopher. We know you love Jack Bauer's. And we know why, too, you filthy, filthy man.
9:05: Again, we're supposed to believe that Jack Bauer was pretending to be dead but wasn't getting updates on his daughter. You know he'd be living in her basement without her knowing it.
9:07: This is the Cheneyesque executive privilege character. Come on, Mike, let's federalize the National Guard and use the military inappropriately. Yet another example of "24" imitating life.
9:09: Christopher seems to think that telling Jack Bauer that he doesn't want to know what he knows will make it OK. I don't think that's the right plan.
9:14: Would they have mentioned Barry Landis twice by name if he wasn't going to have some larger role than Kim Bauer's boyfriend?
9:15: Easy Barry Landis, Jack Bauer will interrogate you if you're not careful.
9:19: There's no reason why the terrorist would set the time on the gas for longer 10 minutes, which means there should be some resolution on that during this episode.
9:20: Come on, Bill, you need my gun. Put me back on the force. Sorry, Tony.
9:21: My prediction is that Tony does something about the gas…
9:23: The teacher becomes the taught. Christopher Henderson, meet Jack Bauer. Torture: 1 (Christopher Henderson)
9:29: Mike Novick must hate the fact that the only hope the Constitution has against the crazy VP, Hal Gardner, and President Logan rests in the hands of a crazy lady.
9:32: Edgar, Edgar, Edgar. You're never going to get the opportunity to eat Carrie if you snap at her.
9:35: She had already dialed and the ice pick man didn't shut her phone off. That should be a problem for ice pick man. NJBD: 1 (Carrie)
9:42: You've got to tell them, Lynn. They're going to find your wallet any minute. That's when the trouble will really start.
9:43: Lynn McGill shall now be referred to as Mini-Bush.
9:44: Tony and Chris, sitting in a tree, K-I-L-L-I-N-G. Prediction Two: Tony does something to Chris.
9:51: NJBD: 1 (CTU Red Shirt)
9:52: JBKC: 1 (Terrorist)
9:56: And thus ended the heavy life of Edgar. Maybe because he's so big, he'll be able to make it? That scene was like watching King Kong die.
1 JBKC, 1 torture, 2 NJBD, Prediction Ratio 0% (0 for 1)
One of my predictions for Tony, was proved untrue and yet, the preview of next week implies there may be hope yet. I'll count the full amount of C.T.U. deaths next week. TV on the airplane rocks! One day I hope to meet one of the writers of 24 to ask what they're doing with all the unfavorable representations of real life Republicans. Or else, I'd like to ask a real life Republican what they think of the obvious references on the show. The main reason they killed Edgar off was because Louis Lombardi was eating all of the food back stage. Is his character still alive on The Sopranos?
Totals for the season, 22 JBKCs, 4 torture, 46 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 40% (4 out of 9).

24: Episode 11, 5 PM - 6 PM

2006-03-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

Today's edition of the 24 Blog comes to you from 30,000 feet above the eastern seaboard. I'm currently on Jetblue flight 1208 from PBI to Logan International. Last week when I saw that "24" was going to be 2 hours long, I disappointedly thought I'd miss not one, but two episodes tonight. Thanks to the magic of technology, and Jetblue's partnership with Direct TV I should be able to watch both episodes with minor interruptions for safety announcements. Without further adieu…
8:02: Tony! Tony! Tony! Actually, why is Tony being treated at C.T.U.? I know they have hospitals for explosion victims.
8:04: Why does Tony need talk to Jack? I'm missing this dialogue because the captain is telling us about…
8:30: Oops. I forgot you're not allowed to have laptops turned on during take off. Sorry for the missing minutes, federal regulations and all.
8:31: I've missed almost everything during this episode except that Tyler Memorial Hospital is in a lot of trouble. The pilot is so chatty, sheesh.
8:32: If Martha Logan isn't careful, she's going to kiss Aaron Pierce.
8:41: If there's anything to say about Christopher Henderson, at least he uses a Mac.
8:41: Mrs. Henderson's wife is REALLY annoying.
8:43: C.T.U. seems to be getting lots of lucky bounces during this hour. Come on, controlling the First Lady's philandering is definitely NOT Mike Novick's job.
8:44: Is shutting off the air not an option? It seems that's the easiest solution.
8:52: Regular people don't run into people that tried to kill them only an hour before. Jack Bauer runs into these people three times a day.
8:53: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. 1 torture (Miriam). "Miriam Henderson has been shot." That happens when you shoot someone, Jack Bauer.
8:54: NJBD: 1 (Terrorist)
8:55: It took 8 minutes for the C.T.U. guys searching the terrorist's body to find the remote detonator. Where do you think it was?
8:55: The football is in motion. This reminds Curtis of when he was a running back in college.
8:57: NJBD: 2 (Lynn McGill's junky sister and her boyfriend). Who didn't know that was going to happen?
0 JBKC, 1 torture, 3 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a
I'll save the final thoughts for next episode.
Totals for the season, 21 JBKCs, 3 torture, 44 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 44.4% (4 out of 9).

24: Episode 10, 4 PM - 5 PM

2006-02-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer,

9:03: Way to go, Mrs. Logan! You go! This is the biggest quandary of President Logan's career. "If we warn them, they'll set off the gas!" You think?
9:05: The President on line 1? How many lines does that limousine have? Isn't every presidential phone call get recorded? How can they talk about this stuff over the phone?
9:07: Edgar was just thinking to himself that the last time a pretty, blonde girl talked to me, "I ate her."
9:08: Lynn McGill is seeming more and more insane every second.
9:10: Edgar is thinking to himself, "Mmmm. Pretty, blonde girl sandwich. Just like an Oreo, but sexier."
9:12: Heavy traffic? That's the best you can do, Martha? The last time you drove was 1997.
9:16: Some day, I hope to be powerful enough to fire people for multitasking. Lynn McGill will be my model.
9:17: Yes, Audrey, stand up to him. We all know he's a douche.
9:18: I can't believe I still watch this show. It sucks the worst. I could be watching The Apprentice or the Bachelor finale. DVR.
9:20: WTF! That guy just keeps a taser ready for situations like that? I doubt it. Or maybe.
9:28: I bet Lynn McGill is an only child. Oh, wait, his sister is a junkie.
9:29: That guy looks like Rutger Hauer. But I don't think it was him.
9:30: Audrey just made the decision that there needs to be a change at the top. You could see it in her eyes.
9:32: Edgar just wants it known it's not a good idea so he can blame the pretty, blonde women if he gets in trouble.
9:32: Section 112. I'm the man. I called it last week: " How long until there is a coup and Lynn McGill gets deposed for being insane? It could happen any minute here. Jack Bauer will come into CTU with a gaggle of security and say something like, "Lynn McGill, I'm placing you in custody until this crisis is over in recognition of section X of the Y Code. Your continued leadership is no longer in the best interests of this country. Sir, please follow these men." In fact, I think that's happened on this show before."
9:34: "You tell me where the solution is on this one." See, Charles, your father didn't want you to ask other people, he probably wanted you to solve the problems yourself.
9:36: "Pray with me, Mike." Unbelievable. This show is ridiculous.
9:37: It's happening now. I love the nameless "Red Shirts." You know where their loyalty lies.
9:37: "The Incapacity Clause of Section 112." Unjustified Usurpation. It's all so great.
9:44: NJBKs: 7 (2 cops, 2 Secret Service guys, 1 driver, 2 terrorists). The flame thrower was a nice touch. I definitely thought Aaron Pierce was dead, but I guess he knows how to get hit by a rocket launcher.
9:52: Nice way to bring Nina Meyers back into the series.
9:53: Jack Bauer is in Custody! Jack Bauer is in Custody!
9:53: How long before gas starts leaking into that chamber? Not long, apparently.
9:55: What a crazy detonator. Can't they set bombs off from cell phones these days?
9:57: Get him off the phone, Mike. The president is badly overmatched.
Final thoughts:
0 JBKC, 0 torture, 18 NJBD, Prediction Ratio 100%
My prediction from last week came true. And also, I added the 11 people the accurate number from the mall gas attack. Next week looks crazy and I'm pretty sure that not only did I see Kim, I THINK I SAW TONY. Unfortunately, I'll be on an airplane from 8-10 next week.
Totals for the season, 21 JBKCs, 2 torture, 41 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 44.4% (4 out of 9).

24: Episode 9, 3 PM - 4 PM

2006-02-20T22:45:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, Julian Sands,

I've been thinking about the Bird Flu. I bet Jack Bauer battles the Bird Flu next year.
9:03: NJBK: 1 (The Man in the Yellow Tie). It just shows to go ya you can never trust a terrorist, even if you're a terrorist yourself.
9:04: NJBK: 1 (Nathanson's co-worker)
9:04: NJBK: 1 (Some one else) This is going too fast. "24" hasn't been too violent lately, I guess they're making up for it now.
9:05: Ahh, the Lynn McGill's junkie sister storyline back again. Great. I hope Mr. McGill gets jumped again.
9:06: Take responsibility, Rudy. Quitters never win. President Logan sucks.
9:07: Audrey isn't thinking with her head, but Lynn McGill isn't either. I'd like Lynn McGill to try to tell Jack Bauer he works for him. Because it's been made abundantly clear at least 2 times this season that Jack Bauer doesn't work for anyone, but himself. And the USA.
9:09: Jack Bauer is in custody! Jack Bauer is in custody!
9:09: James Nathanson here, pleased to meet you. I have know where your nerve gas is. Want me to tell you?
9:12: How many times has Jack Bauer had to put Curtis Manning into a sleeper hold? It probably happens all the time. Curits has the last doughnut and BAM Jack Bauer puts him into a sleeper hold. Curtis and Jack Bauer go out from lunch and Jack Bauer wants to pay and Curtis won't let him? BAM Jack Bauer puts Curtis into a sleeper hold.
9:12: JBKC: 1 (Curtis Manning)
9:18: Lynn McGill is my least favorite character. Less favorite than even Chloe. There's no way he would get to the position he's in without sleeping with all of his bosses continually and passionately. He's irrational, unable to control his temper, makes bad decisions constantly, and also is prone to getting mugged by his junkie sister and her boyfriend. The only one who makes stupendously bad decisions with more aplomb is President Logan.
9:20: President Logan whispers, "Is someone tracing the call." Good thing he's in power, I bet no one thought to try to catch the terrorists though a phone trace.
9:21: Doesn't the president know the US doesn't negotiate with terrorists? I thought he said something like that in the last couple weeks.
9:22: Mike Novick needs to get the president off the phone with the terrorist quickly, it's clear he is badly overmatched.
9:23: If President Logan thinks it's a good idea to have the route of the motorcade in his hand when the terrorists call back, it's probably NOT a good idea.
9:28: "Someone's screwing with me, Bill, and I won't tolerate it." Lynn McGill was definitely stuffed in lockers when he was a high schooler. "I don't care how I sound." Lynn McGill is SUCH a baby. GOD!
9:30: Nathanson needs the country to get behind him. Then he said Cummings. This show is so sexual.
9:32: NJBK: 1 (The baddie Nathonson shot)
9:34: JBKC: 2 (Baddies coming after Nathonson)
9:35: Jack Bauer just brought down a helicopter with a pistol He's a baaaaad man.
9:35: NJBK: 1 (Nathonson)
9:37: Chloe only WISHES Jack Bauer would upload his drive to her socket.
9:42: President Logan thinks the Russians should be OK because they have a lot of security. Well, that's good enough for me. Give it to them.
9:43: She may be crazy, but she's not stupid! Here's the thing First Lady Logan, he really IS considering it. How did you not know your husband was such a moron. He's just so single minded. He latches on to the most obvious answer and that's that. "You're the president of the United States of America!" President Charles Logan is living proof that people really don't put much thought into choosing the Vice President.
9:46: Lynn McGill is such a paranoid brat, he's like a totalitarian dictator. Why would anyone be afraid of him? How long until there is a coup and Lynn McGill gets deposed for being insane? It could happen any minute here. Jack Bauer will come into CTU with a gaggle of security and say something like, "Lynn McGill, I'm placing you in custody until this crisis is over in recognition of section X of the Y Code. Your continued leadership is no longer in the best interests of this country. Sir, please follow these men." In fact, I think that's happened on this show before.
9:52: I bet that company Chloe just told Jack Bauer about is based in Los Angeles. That's my prediction for this week.
9:53: "Martha, please." Shut up, Charles, this isn't a good idea, and there's no way you're going to convince me or her that it is.
9:56: It wouldn't be a terrorist plan without dramatic sweepings of the pen and giant red x's. Oh Julian Sands, you're so bad.
9:57: YES! Martha is great. Totally unpredictable. Probably the best move she could have made. She really put herself on the line right there. That was awesome. Yes.
Final thoughts:
3 JBKC, 0 torture, 5 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a.
Looks like next week is when Lynn McGill gets relieved of his duty. It's pretty clear that his key card will cost some money to get back or else end up in the hands of some nefarious characters, though I hope the writers of "24" don't expect us to believe that these particular smack addicts hang out with terrorists. My prediction about the location of the company has not yet been proven or disproven.
Totals for the season, 21 JBKCs, 2 torture, 23 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 37.5% (3 out of 8).

24: Episode 8, 2 PM - 3 PM

2006-02-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, C. Thomas Howell, Sandrine Holt, ER,

I'm not excited about this week's episode. I didn't think the previews from last week were that good and frankly, I could shut this season off right and not suffer the shakes of withdrawal.
9:02: I have to reiterate the idiocy of the plot twist which led Lynn McGill to get mugged by his junkie sister.
9:03: There's no way for anyone to get anywhere in any city in five minutes. It will probably take him 5 minutes to get out of the building.
9:06: "No statement until his wife has been notified." I think the President learned that in the Presidential Clichés class he took his sophomore year of President College.
9:06: Yes, Mike, go on. Paint a picture for the second stupidest president, real or fake, ever. Wasn't it clear when we saw Walt dead that the administration would change their story? It was to me. President Logan must have had other stuff on his mind, like what would happen if gorillas and rabbits mated. Is that a gorabbit or a rabilla?
9:08:Stop asking questions, Evelyn, or you'll be sent back to small roles on ER. You don't want that, do you?
9:11: Raise your hand if you think Chloe would be able to describe the reconfiguration of a chip well enough for Jack Bauer to pretend to be technology dude. Me neither
9:12: Jack Bauer is in custody! Jack Bauer is in custody!
9:13: Audrey, stop thinking with your heart. Jack Bauer is a big boy, he can take care of himself. See! Bill Buchanan just said it!
9:18: If the First Lady doesn't understand what's going on here, maybe she SHOULD be committed to that place in Vermont..
9:18: How many times do you think President Logan can say "I'm the president" to his wife!? She's not going to tolerate it forever, that's for sure.
9:20: Hello. I just realized that C. Thomas Howell is listed as a cast member in tonight's episode. What could the star of "Red Dawn" and "Soul Man" be doing on "24"? I'd like to think that he's bigger than a bit part on a series like "24", but if I were to think that'd I'd most certainly be wrong.
9:22: Lynn McGill is pissed about getting mugged by his junkie sister (for what I can only assume is the tenth time) so he's going to take it out on thousands of innocent consumers? That doesn't make any sense. What am I talking about? Nothing on this show makes sense. You know when you're supposed to stop watching a television series? When it becomes an arduous task to suspend your disbelief. Careful "24" you're in uncharted waters, suspending this writer's disbelief has always been so simple.
9:28: NJBD: 1 (Mall security guard).
9:30: My guess is it would be hard for Jack Bauer to stand there and hear this conversation and not want to whisper a line disparaging Lynn McGill's manhood for getting mugged by his junkie sister, in what is beginning to look more and more like a throwaway plot twist.
9:31: "100% certainty?" Lynn McGill, how can you possibly say that with a straight face?
9:32: "This is a field operation, it's up to you." Haha, that was sweet. I'm going to use that line when I don't want to make a decision. This is the silliest and most ridiculous president of all time. Err, the second silliest and most ridiculous president of all time.
9:33: Doesn't Lynn McGill know that he can't "order" Jack Bauer to do anything? Lynn, he doesn't work for you, duh. That goes doubly for the president.
9:40: "This is war." Did Congress declare that, Lynn? Because if they didn't, it's only an armed conflict and not a war. You know that.
9:41: JBKC: 1 (Terrorist)
9:43: It's funny to imagine Jack Bauer walking though the mall in a gas mask holding a gun while people run in the opposite direction in terror. The only thing that would make it better is if he could possibly be wearing night vision goggles and a bow tie.
9:45: I'm not sure which drug Jack Bauer asked for, but how did he know which one to ask for? Jack Bauer is saving young girls left and right now. Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim!
9:51: You seem to be incapable of doing that, Lynn McGill, because you spend all your time getting mugged by your junkie sister. Doesn't that type of thing show up on a background check? You know it does. That's why the president referenced it just then.
9:54: That's right, First Lady, take your medicine, you know it's the right thing to do. For Walt's family, AND for the country. Don't be stubborn, you know you were wrong. Oh come on, don't be that way, give your hubby a kiss. Mike Logan is so not getting laid tonight.
9:55: Can Curtis drive with a gas mask? I guess so.
9:56: NJBD: 1 (The other terrorist)
Final thoughts:
1 JBKC, 0 torture, 2 NJBD, Prediction Ratio n/a.
That's two episodes past the point I thought that Kim Bauer would make her appearance. Also, was C. Thomas Howell on tonight or not? Can anyone confirm that? I get really frustrated when Jack Bauer and CTU don't use the technology and knowledge they've used in past seasons or even past episodes. It's like they have selective terrorism fighting skills. I hate it.
Totals for the season, 18 JBKCs, 2 torture, 18 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 37.5% (3 out of 8).

24: Episode 7, 1 PM - 2 PM

2006-02-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, Richard Nixon, Gregory Itzin, Elisha Cuthbert,

Well, Jack Bauer, what have you got for me this week?
9:03: I'm pretty sure they choseGregory Itzin to play President Logan because of how much he looks like Richard M. Nixon.
9:05: A daughter? Who doesn’t know you’re alive? Maybe you should see her at some point in the next hour? What do you think Jack Bauer? I was right, I was right. How long before she shows up?
9:05: Jack Bauer, the president won’t let you quit, he’s latched on to you like a giant boa constrictor of Executive Privilege and there’s no way for you to get out now.
9:06: The man with the yellow tie is an equal opportunity terrorist. If he can’t kill Russians, he'll happily kill Americans.
9:07: What is Lynn’s relationship with this crack hooker? Oh, his sister. It seems like all the good genes went to Lynn from that set of parents. How are they going to make his meeting with her more dramatic, and more importantly, where is he going to get $500 in the next twenty minutes without going to the bank? I guess we’ll find out.
9:11: Chloe is a good problem solver when the problem is a high-end proprietary security system and the solution is the dude she was bagging. Also, she's very adept at rolling her eyes.
9:12: "Audrey, the president thinks I can help." Jack Bauer's blood isn't red, it's red, white and blue.
9:18: Really, I don’t think there’s any chance that the First Lady’s going to be the first one he turns to for advice. Especially if she keeps slapping him like that. It’s not going to make her seem less loony.
9:19: Are we supposed to sympathize with President Logan and think that’s he’s changed a lot and that he’s going to be a good president for the next eighteen hours? I don’t know about you, but it’s going to take more than a kiss and slap scene with his wife and the aide he arrested illegally for me to change my mind.
9:21: “The only thing they won’t forgive is being lied to.” “I agree, why don’t we work on it together and see what we come up with.” Sheesh. This show definitely sucks again. Last week was unfortunately an exception and not the rule.
9:21: “It’s a proprietary network, so get to work.” Chloe’s describing the security on the building Jack Bauer needs to get into. Now, I don’t know what “proprietary network” means, really, but it seems like the majority of America, probably doesn’t either. However, I have to imagine that the people who do know what that means probably think this show is pretty dumb, though.
9:24: “Status check blue” sounds like “Flank 2 position.” Doesn’t it?
9:26: JBKC: 4 (3 security guards, Roessler).
9:28: I don’t have much to say about the Russian slave Roessler was keeping. It was funny, however, when she asked if Jack Bauer and Curtis were the police and Jack Bauer said something or other. Like she knows the difference.
9:33: I kind of hope the terrorist kills the motorcycle mechanic just to prove a point. “See kids, it just shows to go ya that you can NEVER trust a terrorist.”
9:35: “Trust me, you don’t want to go down this road with me.” If that guy just cried out like that from a little slap, there’s no way he’s going to last too long. He just doesn’t have the stones. Torture: 1. I really like the way Jack Bauer bargains. This guy asks for a lot, Jack Bauer does not bend an inch. WTF? Lynn just lets this guy go? No way. I guess he doesn’t have time for this type of thing when family is involved. How can Jack Bauer let him have the girl? He’s got a daughter about that age. How would Jack Bauer feel if someone took his daughter and used her as a pawn in an immunity deal with an aider abettor of known terrorists? How would he feel if he knew I made up words like aider?
9:42: Jack Bauer’s beautiful plan is to put a chip onto a chip? That doesn’t really seem like it’s going to work out, but Jack Bauer does what he wants around here.
9:44: Chloe has a serious personality disorder. It’s not even worth pretending that you’d want to hang out with her because having her around would not be revenue neutral. She’d be a total drag
9:46: What is going to happen in the west hallway? I can’t even imagine what the next plot twist is going to be. Oh. Walt Cummings is hanging from the ceiling. That fits.
9:47: NJBD: 1 (Walt Cummings). Something’s definitely up, and I don’t just mean Walt hanging from the ceiling. The first lady had motive (Cummings killed Palmer), Mike Novick had motive (political fallout reduction), President Charles Logan had motive… Well, no he didn’t, but he is clueless enough for lots of crimes to be committed on his watch.
9:52: Really, why is Lynn carrying $500 around? Oh. He’s just got a piece of paper worth $500. Samwise is such a douche, he just got mugged by his sister and her guy. How many times do you suppose that’s happened? 4? 5? Lynn’s sister probably calls every spring and pulls the same trick. Unbelievable. What was the point of that little plot twist? Did they really need to fill time that badly? I guess so.
9:54: Jack Bauer is really going to try to send this 15 year old off with Roessler? There’s just no way.
9:55: Listen to Jack Bauer. When he says something like “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you,” one of two things is going to happen. Either nothing is going to happen to you, or something really bad is going to happen to you.
9:55: Prediction: The Russian girl isn’t in the bedroom when they get back.
9:56: YES! See?! That’s why you can’t trust a terrorist. They give their word they won’t kill you and then they kill you after you finish helping them.
9:57: Damn it. Wrong again. The Russian girl was there. And no Kim Bauer? WTF.
9:58: Well, that works, too. Imagine how mad President Logan will be when he hears that a 15 year old illegal Russian immigrant just shot the only link to the nerve gas. He’ll ask if that’s enough to go to war. I know it!
Final thoughts:
4 JBKC, 1 torture, 2 NJBD, Prediction Ratio 0% (0 out of 2).
It was pretty clear that something was going to happen with the Russian girl. She was either going to kill herself, kill the guy, or run away. I thought run away made the most sense, but I should have been able to figure it out. I’ve got to step it up.
Totals for the season, 17 JBKCs, 2 torture, 16 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 37.5% (3 out of 8).

24: Episode 6, 12 PM - 1 PM

2006-01-30T23:12:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, Plausible Deniability, Downing Street Memos, Secretary of Agriculture, Habeas Corpus, coup d'etat, The Bodyguard, Glenn Morshower, Elisha Cuthbert,

I'm SO not ready for this week's episode. I literally need 20 more minutes. Please Jack Bauer, please.
9:03: "Just so we're clear, this is about getting Cummings, not revenging David Palmer." Jack Bauer's, says "I understand." What he means is, "Uh, whatever, Samwise."
9:04: Audrey says, "When Cummings realizes you're alive, he'll come after you." That's her way of saying, "I'm still in love with you, Jack Bauer."
9:05: The gas was "stolen" from the airport? What exactly does that mean? Why was the gas at the airport, anyway? Don't they guard that? Or was this a case of hiding something in an obvious place and hoping no one realizes it?
9:06: "So good to hear your voice, Jack." Jack Bauer and Mike Novick had a tryst between the second and third season. No one knew, but that doesn't make it any less hot.
9:08: I've really got to get away from just making fun of the dialogue. That's no fun for anyone. What else have I got? Not very much.
9:14: Aaron the Secret Service Guy goes through so much, so robotically. What does he think about? Does he have friends? Frankly, I'm surprised he's still on the show. He must know the director. I do like him, though.
9:16: I think this suspicious bad guy looks like Viggo Mortensen a little, but he just might be the worst actor of all time.
9:17: Audrey and Dianne might throw down. With looks, if not fists. Looks can kill, you know.
9:19: Jack Bauer doesn't have time for emotions. Emotions are scared of him, though.
9:20: Aaron is putting himself on the line. Walt Cummings will be firing Aaron in a few moments.
9:21: Damn it, Walt. Don't you know anything about plausible deniability?!
9:22: If this is such an "unspeakable crime" why is he talking about it? Who exactly does President Logan call in this situation? I saw him reaching for the phone, but, I mean, it's not like you can just call the cops and have Walt Cummings arrested. There has to be a protocol for detaining a high level official from your own administration.
9:23: This is unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Walt killed David Palmer?! My brain can't handle this. What do you do when you're the president and your top aide tells you he committed multiple felonies and crimes against national security just to frame a rouge nation in Asia? You must feel so helpless. I might have to start tracking the number of times "24" parallels the news of today. In the coming weeks and months you know that memos will leak out detailing Walt Cummings' plans to lead the country to war under false pretense.
9:29: What a warm embrace, they were definitely lovers. Mike Novick was the one who introduced Jack Bauer to Audrey.
9:29: Jack Bauer is in custody! Jack Bauer is in custody!
9:30: Mike Novick's not authorized to hear national secrets? Really? How is that possible? What is he, the Secretary of Agriculture? This is the second time the writers of "24" have allowed a president to ignore Habeas Corpus. Next thing you know, Jack Bauer is going to fake a relationship with a drug dealer's girlfriend for no reason.
9:32: Oh yeah, Aaron the Secret Service Guy also had a thing with Jack Bauer. Did you see that look?
9:33: YES! Samwise, you need to KNOW when to disregard a Presidential Order. It comes from EXPERIENCE. Rudy is disregarding the order, but he doesn't like it. Buchannon just schooled him.
9:36: Aaron the rogue Secret Service Guy? Let's hope so. It must be hard to be a robot. Protect the president, Pierce, protect him from himself. If Jack Bauer ever says coup d'etat again or anything in any other language I might give up.
9:40: "What about you?" the rookie Secret Service Guy asks. "I'm Aaron Pierce the Secret Service Guy. I do what I want around here." Do you think before each scene that Glenn Morshower is in, he asks the director, "How do you want me to play this one?" And the director says with exasperation, "Same as always, Glenn. You always ask that, it's never going to change. Pretend you're Kevin Costner in 'The Bodyguard', that's how we want you to play it."
9:41: JBKC: 1 (Walt Cummings). Torture: 1 (Walt Cummings). Normally, I'd give Jack Bauer extra points for torturing the PRESIDENT'S CHIEF OF STAFF IN FRONT OF THE FREAKING PRESIDENT, but the numbers must be accurate so I can't bonus him.
9:43: There's all sorts of crazy stuff swirling around right now. C.T.U. ignoring President's Logan's turns out to be right. "Agent Piece, take back your shield and get Walt Cummings out of my sight." You know why, Walt, President Logan thinks to himself, "It's because of something you said earlier, I'm the PRESIDENT." You don't lie to the President and get away with it. Not in "24".
9:47: Now what I have to wonder is how does this relate to the current administration. Do we take the bait and fall for the first connection between the Logan administration and the Bush administration? Planting evidence to convince the country to go to war? Or do we take it one step further and use the scene of Pierce and Jack Bauer going against everything they've been taught and breaking multiple laws under the guise of protecting the country? I think that my main problem is trying to find parables in "24".
9:51: Margaret, come on, he's trying to apologize, don't be that way. You know he'd still love you if you weren't so crazy, right? Dry your eyes, honey.
9:53: Where is Mike Novick, by the way? If there's any president that needs a few extra aides around, it's President Logan.
9:53: I predict the gas doesn't go off. This music is driving me crazy.
9:54: NJBD: 1 (Agent Schaeffer).
9:55: How does it feel, Walt Cummings? You double cross the country (or break multiple international laws to start war, all with patriotic motives, either one), you get double crossed yourself, a perfect example of why not to look for the lessons "24" is trying to teach. BECAUSE THEY DON'T EXIST.
9:56: So let's get this straight: This Russian terrorist was going to teach Moscow a lesson, but then he realized something was fishy, somehow got a government agent to confess, and changed all those plans just to get back at Schaeffer, Cummings, and the USA? That doesn't make any sense. I don't know much about terrorists, but it seems like they're focused enough to attempt the elimination of the first mortal enemy before moving on down their hit list. Is this guy really that different?
Final Thoughts:
1 JBKC, 1 torture, 1 NJBD, Prediction Ratio 50% (1 out of 2).
Wow. That's about all I can say. I'll admit I've been somewhat of a "24" gadfly of late, but tonight's episode was about as good as they've had EVER. There were many surprises and finally almost all the characters seemed to be a bit smarter than the average mailbox. Big ups to Aaron Pierce for making it possible for Jack Bauer to torture President Logan's chief of staff right in front of him. That was probably the most unpredictable television or movie scene in the history of moving pictures. Whew. Can't wait for next week!

I have it on high authority that Kim Bauer makes her appearance on next week's episode. You heard it here first!

Totals for the season, 13 JBKCs, 1 torture, 14 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 50% (3 out of 6).

24: Episode 5, 11 AM - 12 PM

2006-01-23T22:29:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, Louis Lombardi, West Wing, Illegal Wiretaps

The first real week of "24". Can they make the magic using only 60 minutes instead of last week's 120? We’ll see.
9:03: Jack Bauer is in custody, but still being used as a resource, he must be steamed.
9:04: See, this is why you don’t drug a First Lady and leave her on a bed all asunder. You're bound to get caught, Walt. Jack Bauer is probably already on to you.
9:05: The energy crisis is hitting C.T.U. just like everyone else. They’re still driving SUVs, but each SUV is required to carry 5 passengers inside the vehicle and at least 4 hangers on.
9:08: Oh, ho ho. These terrorists are smuggling poisonous gasses OUT of the country. Is it possible Jack Bauer should be helping them?
9:11: Does the Secret Service protect a First Lady if she's in an asylum.
9:12: Why is it that C.T.U. is easier for bad guys to infiltrate than, well, there’s never ever been an entity easier to infiltrate, ever. I guess, that if Kim Bauer could get hired, they’ll hire any body off the street as long as they have agent training and clearance. Though if Walt can be a baddie and also President Logan’s most trusted aid, this alternate "24" universe is filled with the most gullible people of any work of fiction. I’m trying to suspend my disbelief so I can enjoy the show, but really.
9:19: Chloe sleeps with who she wants around here, Spencer, get used to it. Isn’t Spencer too obvious a bad guy to be the inside guy?
9:19: I'm still intrigued by how giant Edgar is. It’s like the actor who plays Edgar this year ate the actor who played Edgar last year whole and still hasn’t digested him yet.
9:20: And if Spencer is such a bad guy, won’t Mr. McGill catch him? Here’s what I think Audrey’s interrogation is going to be like. "Wait, you slept with Jack Bauer? That’s so funny, I did, too! Wow, what a small world, huh? Woo. So where was he when David Palmer was killed?"
9:22: Audrey says, "Yes, I knew him." While thinking, "In the Biblical sense."
9:27: LEVEL TWO CLEARANCE?! LEVEL TWO CLEARANCE? I can't believe that's all he got. Jack Bauer sprinkles Level Two Clearance on his oatmeal in the morning. That is, on the days that he’s eating. Lucky for Mr. McGill, today isn’t one of those days.
9:29: “So you don’t have a personal relationship with him?” That’s Audrey’s way of saying “Wait, do you KNOW him or not?"
9:31: "Jack, you made a hard decision." Come on, that’s too easy for me. Sheesh.
9:33: "I needed to get into your utilities volume." Oh, Chloe, stop it, you’re too much. Her days are filled with self-doubt and lust, just like all of us. Chloe reminds me of a rhinoceros, always has, anyone else?
9:36: Wait, so Spencer got this guy in to C.T.U. legitimately and he just happens to be an assassin? What a serendipitous twist of fate! I have to say, the terrorists have had Lady Luck on their side in each of the past three seasons and you know what? When Jack Bauer was done with Lady Luck she was begging him to stop while secretly wanting more and Jack Bauer gave it to her, too.
9:40: JR said it would be a big scandal for the First Lady to be committed. I said it would be a bigger scandal for her to commit suicide. We were both wrong. Don’t First Ladies get fitted for GPS tags or something? You’d think they would be after one of the daughters went missing on The West Wing a couple seasons ago?
9:52: Jack Bauer likes Derrick so much because he has never had a son with two arms before. Get it? Chase? Get it? Because Chase…Oh, nevermind.
9:52: Spencer is such a bad bad guy. Too bad to be bad? I think so. He must be good. Prediction? Chase isn’t a bad guy.
9:53: The first violence of the episode. What’s going to happen? Is there anyway for Jack Bauer to kill the assassin 11 times to get his JBKC up?
9:53: NJBD: 1 (Doctor Paulson). JBKC: 1 (The baddie who killed Doctor Paulson). Cracked rib, huh? How long does that slow Jack Bauer down for? Not long I’d bet.
9:56: Can Internal Affairs agents get in trouble? Walt Cummings wanted to make sure C.T.U. was operating within the rules, but he went outside the rules to do it. Just like last year with all torture all the time (Jack Bauer would have cut wholes in Spencer to get him to talk last year) this year is mirroring the new government scandal. What I haven’t been able to figure out yet, Is whether the writers of "24" are trying to portray this favorably or not. Do they have an opinion or are they just objectively putting in their commentary using Jack Bauer as their pen?
Final thoughts:
JBKC: 1, torture scenes 0, NJBD: 1, Prediction Ratio: 100%
A kindler, gentler "24"? Tonight it was, and I don’t think it was that bad, either.

Totals for the season, 12 JBKCs, 1 torture, NJBD: 13, Prediction Ratio 40% (2 out of 5).

24: Episode 4, 10 AM - 11 AM

2006-01-16T22:35:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer

9:00: One day someone is going to capture Jack Bauer and kill him immediately. When that happens, the bad guys will win. Until that time, there is always hope.
9:01: “Your president is a weak man.” You’re damn right he is and he’s definitely the type of president who would reverse American policy if it seems like a good idea in the short term.
9:02: NJBD: 1 (hostage).
9:04: So right here a woman has proof that her husband was wrong and she’s not going to bring it immediately to his attention? This show is less realistic than I thought. You know in real life Martha would bring the transcripts right to him.
9:06: Sean Astin! Yes! Samwise in the house!
9:08: Mr. Lynn McGill is such a sport. He takes the office, but Bill Buchannon can call him whatever he wants, as long as it’s not sweetheart.
9:09: The president is scheduled to sign the treaty at 9:39, Curtis is scheduled to storm the airport at 9:29.
9:16: What is that little personal media viewer that the terrorist has? I want one.
9:17: Derrick does something in this episode that we’re not expecting. I’d guess he was going to get himself killed saving Jack, but I’m not sure they’re going to let him die. My prediction ratio of 50% is on the line. I’m saying he gets hurt trying to do something heroic, but doesn’t die.
9:29: Prediction number 2. The president makes a spur of the moment decision not to sign the treaty during this episode.
9:36: Curtis took 7 extra minutes to get ready. This is the kind of critical time management errors that get people killed. Get your head in the game Curtis.
9:40: The treaty is being signed right on time, though. President Logan doesn’t mess around when it comes to time.
9:41: JBKC: 3 (I’m giving him one for the terrorist he shot right before the terrorist blew himself up).
NJBD: 7 (That’s just an estimate, there were too many people being killed, too fast.)
9:42: 0-2 on the predictions. They keep me guessing. Or maybe I’m just trying to predict the wrong things.
9:48: I can’t believe Jack Bauer is sending Derrick and Dianne to CTU to be safe. Remember a couple seasons ago when people blew up CTU.
9:48: It was “10:51” at 9:48, we’ll see if that time differential holds up.
9:52: Jack Bauer is in custody. Jack Bauer is in custody.
9:55: Walt must be pretty desperate to attack the wife of the president. Aren’t there ANY cameras around? And how exactly is an aid that highly placed going to turn bad?
9:55: See, did you see? Right there. They went from 10:51 at 9:48 to 11:00 at 9:55. Real time, my ass.
Final thoughts:
JBKC: 3, torture scenes 0, NJBD: 8, Prediction Ratio: 0%
I’m already tired of watching 24, so it’s a good thing I have this journal and all it’s readers to keep me going. What do you think? Any statistics you think I should begin tracking?

Totals for the season, 11 JBKCs, 1 torture, NJBD: 12, Prediction Ratio 25% (1 out of 4).

24: Episode 3, 9 AM - 10 AM

2006-01-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer

Last night’s part of the four hour premier party has us all hot and heavy. Let’s get right into it.
8:01: The scenes from last week lead off with the Martha Logan/David Palmer phone call conspiracy. Seems to lend it a lot of credence. The intrigue begins.
8:03: I should have been counting how many people that were killed by someone else besides Jack Bauer. I’ll start now remembering from last episode as much as possible. These will be called Non Jack Bauer Deaths: (3, David Palmer (episode 1), Security Guard from Airport (episode 2), Hostage with cell phone (episode 3))
8:07: Jack Bauer just put technology to work about 2 seasons too late. I wonder how handy a picture phone would have been in either of the last two seasons.
8:11: The first foreigner has been identified as a Russian. Or a former Russian, he’s from one of the breakaways.
8:14: President Logan showing again that he’s unfit to lead the country. Anger? Check. Inability to deal with opinions counter to his own? Check. Who does this sound like?
8:16: Jack Bauer isn’t fighting for just the country anymore, he’s fighting for Dianne.
8:20: “Spare the agency patter, just get it done.” President Logan was born to delegate.
8:22: NJBD: 1 (Hostage)
8:32: Spencer knows more about bandwidth processing than anyone. Glad he’s on the team.
8:32: Aaron the Secret Service guy is back! Yay! I thought Secret Service guys were one president men. The sluts.
8:33: I think that that was the first time I ever saw anyone peeing on TV. That was new and fresh!
8:35: Nice to see a first lady using her dwindling sexuality to get what she wants. She wasn’t born yesterday you know.
8:38: OK here’s the thing. The terrorist said they were going to kill Derrick in 15 minutes. That was 14 minutes ago. Jack just said they’re going to kill Derrick in less than 3 minutes. What gives? I’m thinking this isn’t going to be the last time that the chronology of the show comes into question.
8:40: What an engaging and charming terrorist, trying to keep Derrick calm before he kills him.
8:41: Is Jack going to kill the terrorists with his cell phone?
8:41: Yes. JBKC: 1 (terrorist)
8:43: “The man we’re talking about is Jack Bauer.” Isn’t it always? If not, it should be.
8:44: “You tell me everything and I will decide which details are important.” President Logan is George W. Bush.
8:49: “How dare you barge in here!” Matha’s assistant, Evelyn, isn’t too convincing.
8:50: Why exactly are the communications archives in Los Angeles?
8:53: I wonder if that airport terminal has Wi-Fi, the terrorist seems to think so.
8:55: Jack Bauer is in custody. Jack Bauer is in custody.
Final Thoughts:
JBKC: 1, torture scenes 0, NJBD: 2, Prediction Ratio: n/a
I’m not quite sure what to think except the show is going to be pretty boring if Jack Bauer is in custody for an entire hour.

Totals for the season, 8 JBKCs, 1 torture, NJBD: 4, Prediction Ratio 50%.

24: Episode 2, 8 AM - 9 AM

2006-01-15T23:10:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, Die Hard, Political Capital,

9:13: Edgar just provided conclusive proof that Jack Bauer was the guy who killed Palmer. Doesn't Frank Flynn have a pretty good alibi? "Audrey, I don't want to believe this any more than you do" but we're going to need something to keep the authorities from helping Jack Bauer for as long as possible.
9:27: JBKC: 1 (FBI agent, wrong place, wrong time)
9:30: Jack Bauer is in. Am I the only one who finds this completely unbelievable? I mean Jack Bauer walks into a building full of officers from every agency involved in law enforcement and not a single one of those officers recognizes Jack Bauer from the convention in Miami a couple years back? No one from academy? What kind of show is this?
9:30: (Palmer uses an iMac) Jack Bauer is on the computer in the study and the only one who catches him is David Palmer’s brother. Right.
9:33: David Palmer got elected with a 60% plurality? That’s what I would call a mandate. Imagine the "political capital" he had to spend. Last year I was convinced that all the brutal torture in the show was a way of showing the American people why American’s shouldn’t torture. (Because torture sucks). Then I got confused because Fox would probably be the last channel on the dial to be sending that type of message. Now they’ve mentioned political capital twice. What gives?
9:37: CTU uses HP computers. No wonder they can’t do anything right, they’re hindered technologically.
9:38: Does anyone else think that the David Palmer All State commercials are kind of strange? This is sort of like when newscasters are in movies giving fake news. Now that David Palmer is dead are the All State commercials going to be less effective? I think so.
9:42: First foreigner. What does this mean?
9:44: JBKC: 2 (Random good guy, wrong place wrong time.)
9:45: JBKC: 3(Random good guy, wrong place wrong time.)
9:45: I bet Derrick is driving the van.
9:46: Damn it, just Chloe.
9:51: If it were me, I would leave Derrick at a mall somewhere and tell his mom to pick him up there. But, you know, that’s just me. I don’t have the training that Jack Bauer has.
9:53: Oh and if I had dropped Derrick off, I wouldn’t have been able to have this conversation with him, telling him, "I really do care about you. I care about your mother. I hope one day you can understand that." This is why 24 wins Emmys, the drama.
9:56: YES! Martha IS insane and they didn’t make us wait 6 weeks to prove it. Thank you, 24!
9:58: I’m sensing that we’re supposed to think the Russian President’s helicopter is the target, but that that’s just what they want us to think. So far I’m 0 for 1 on predictions, though.
10:03: “I lied to you, I lied to you about a lot of things.” You’re damn right you did, Jack Bauer. Now how can Derrick and his mom get involved in danger?
10:06: I’m conflicted. I was going to give a JBKC for Chevinsky, the chubby security guard, but Jack Bauer just pushed him down and he was fully conscious when he ate his poison pill. Also, I’m not sure whether to count this as a torture scene or not. I’m saying yes to torture, no to JBKC.
10:06: Oh, this is how Derrick and his mom are going to get into danger. Derrick is a spy in training and he’s going to warn Jack Bauer. An attack on the airport? My second prediction was correct. 24 prediction ratio: 50%. 10:08: 24 just turned into one of my favorite movies. WHO THE F CREATES A HOSTAGE SITUATION OUT OF AN AIRPORT TERMINAL? I mean, come on! Really?! They couldn’t go to a bank? A school wouldn’t have less security?
10:09: Walt’s a bad guy? Martha Logan was right? Oh man. They’ve just gone and flipped so many switches.
Final thoughts:
3 JBKCs, 1 torture, Prediction Ratio: 50%. I think I’m not going to get into discussing the “Next week on 24” as that stuff is never as important as it should be.

Totals for the season, 7 JBKCs, 1 torture, Prediction Ratio: 50%.

24: Episode 1, 7 AM - 8 AM

2006-01-15T20:45:00.000-05:00

Key Words: 24, Jack Bauer, Chuck Norris, Go Bag, Political Capital,

James Brown, a football analyst, just introduced "arguably the most exciting" program on TV. Who argues this?

I'm going to journal it. Why? I don't know. No one will read this, and I'm going to stop by week 4. At least this will give me a reason to watch. There's nothing else redeeming about this show. I reserve the right to make up rules and statistics as I go along. I’m going to track the number of people that die by Jack Bauer’s hand, the number of people who are tortured, and the number of my predictions that turn out to be correct. I may add trackable items as I go along, so bear with me.

8:13: Jack Bauer died at the end of last year, or did he? He didn't. 7 AM in "24 time". That means there will be another conclusion in 20 weeks when most of the city is asleep.
8:16: Repeat characters this year? President Logan, President David Palmer and his brother.
8:18: Woah, David Palmer is down. Of course Jack Bauer could get up from that in 25 minutes, as long as someone needed torturing.
8:18: Repeat character, Mike Novick is back.
8:20: Did we ever find out if the president from last year died? It seems like most of last year's cast is back so I'm going to stop tracking repeating characters. What's wrong with this Russian Treaty? Who wants to stop it? Arms dealers or major gun companies? Both? President Logan just referenced his "political capital".
8:22: Chloe gets guys? I don't think so. A newer, softer Chloe this year? I hope she doesn't make it through the entire season.
8:24: Jack Bauer hasn't loosened up even though he's supposed to be dead? What's with the gun? I would have thought Jack Bauer/Frank Flynn would kill anyone who doesn't drink OJ out of a glass. Chuck Norris would.
8:27: Tony and Michelle fighting again, all year? One can only hope. Tony is putting his capitalist dream before his duty to the country?
8:28: Now he doesn't have a choice, Car bomb!
8:33: Edgar looks bigger this year. Is that Jon Favreau? He's warning Chloe. She seems to have transformed from a desk jockey to a super agent. I guess all you need to be on 24 is a sixth sense! And Jack Bauer's telephone number. Jack Bauer has a Go Bag and he's not afraid to use it.
8:38: Audrey is back, this could cause a conflict between Jack Bauer and his new lady. Now all we need is Jack Bauer’s squeeze from the 2nd season. Also, let's get Nina Myers back, too, Jack Bauer I don't know if Jack Bauer got enough closure for him to be over that relationship.
8:39: I think the First Lady might be insane. She was right, though, she did look like a wedding cake. Yup, definitely insane. And people were critical of the way Hilary looked, wait until they get a load of Martha Logan. It's too bad they couldn't get someone like Stockard Channing to play THEIR First Lady.
8:48: Jack Bauer can spot any sign of someone following him, but not when its the disgruntled son of his new lover. He must have an invisible cloak. This kid is probably going to get hurt, especially now that Jack Bauer is involving his new love. "Get in the car and start driving towards Los Angeles", straight to Audrey and my past. Jack Bauer knockout count: 1 (Helicopter Pilot)
8:53: You know what? I'd love for Mike Logan to say definitively to Walt that his wife was delusionally placing herself in the middle of a conspiracy theory and actually be right. It would at least keep it interesting. We've already seen this "crazy character with important information not being listened to" in about 400 different movies and TV shows over the years. We knew this, but 24 is no longer exciting or fresh.
9:00: Didn't they change some things after 9/11 to make helicopters and airplanes harder to steal? Shouldn't the air force have arrived by now?
9:02: Because all rescue helicopters keep their smoke bombs in the same place.
9:03: Jack Bauer death count: 2. (Bald bad guy)
9:04: I was going to try to definitively track the number of people JB killed and those he knocked out. I realized, however, that I'm not going to be able to really count how many people Jack Bauer kills and how many he knocked out. And how do you count people that Jack Bauer knocks out who later die from injuries sustained by an interaction with Jack Bauer? Instead, I'm going to refer to both knock outs and killings as knockdowns. I will call these JBKCs. JBKC: 3 (Bad Guy in Car)
9:06: JBKC: 4 (Palmer Assassin who was surprisingly chatty).
Final Thoughts:
4 JBKCs, no torture. That's it, folks, first episode is over. No scenes from next week, as next week is right now. What did we learn? Jack Bauer is going to be considered, at some point in the coming episode, to be the main target in the Palmer assassination investigation.

Totals for the season, 7 JBKCs, 1 torture.

5 Months Later!

2006-01-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

It's now been about five months since my last blog post. I'm not quite sure what happened except that it's possible that I began filling the time I used to spend writing blog posts beginning to plan a wedding.
Well, with the new year almost a week old and no other viable New Year's resolutions, I resolve to try to blog more often.
In my last post, I told you about getting engaged. I also pledged to continually update you on the trials and tribulations of planning a wedding. That hasn't quite happened, but there's still plenty of planning before this thing gets done. We've picked a place, saved a date, and, well, that's about it. Still up? A florist, photographer, dresses, invitations, and plenty of other important details I don't currently know.

Some anecdotes and statistics from the last 5 months of planning?

We visited 8 different locations and saw the good and the bad in each of them. In order to assist in this difficult decision, we turned to the numbers. I created a complex matrix that weighted different aspects of each location and made clear which choice we needed to make. It was probably the dorkiest exercise I ever took part in.

JR has gone dress shopping twice and picked out a couple potential winners. It's unclear whether she'll continue shopping or not. I don't know anything about any of the dresses and I'm not sure I'm supposed to talk about it.

Since JR and I got engaged, 7 of our friends got engaged. Including our own, we have 7 weddings between April and November, one that we're not going to on a Monday in Mexico, and one in 2007. This should be interesting.

After receiving wedding menus from about 40 different venues, we've determined that scallops wrapped in bacon are, indeed, the most popular wedding appetizer.

The next several months should be pretty interesting, I'll definitely do a better job keeping you updated on this and the aspects of my life and the lives of others that I find exciting.

PS: Dancing with the Stars started tonight and though I didn't feel like throwing myself out the window like last year, the new Thursday/Friday schedule makes it unlikely I'll tune in. Watching Master P cha cha should be exciting, though.

She said YES!

2005-08-01T10:49:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, on the commuter rail home, I decided to finally take steps to make an honest woman out of JR. I've been certain for a while that I wanted to spend my life with her and I look at an engagement and the wedding as a formality. I'm not minimizing those things, but I don't think they're going to change our lives very much. This lack of change is the main reason I decided to propose.
JR's got a lot of traveling going on this month, so after I decided to do the deed, I knew I was going to get right to it. Also, while deception and subterfuge are 2 of my strong suits, this is a pretty big cat to keep in the bag. This led me to a couple issues: how and where to get a ring, and how and where to give it to her. People take these proposals very seriously, you can't nonchalantly plop a felt box onto the coffee table during a ballgame. It's simply not done.

Getting the Ring:
Like the majority of people getting engaged for the first time, I had no idea what I needed to know to buy a ring. JR hasn't ever made a point of taking me through a jewelry store hinting at what style of ring she would or wouldn't like. This would have made my decision monumentally less intimidating, and guys, you might want to see if you can set it up if you have ANY interest in engaging your girlfriend. Refusing to be caught unawares I spent the better part of Thursday and Friday evenings, learning as much as I could about buying an engagement ring and wouldn't you know it, the internet was a pretty handy reference. I learned a lot on this site and this one, while also spending a bit of time on Bluenile.com "building my own ring".

So like any young buck looking to engage his mate, I felt a basic understanding of the 4Cs (cut, clarity, color, and carats (though they should probably include chape, as well) was enough to handle anything the jeweler would throw at me. JR had to go in to work on Saturday morning and that figured to be about my best ring-buying opportunity for the following six weeks so I jumped at it. At my first stop, I found one ring that I liked. However, after asking the saleswoman about the diamond, I was borderline offended when she told me the clarity and color ratings. It seemed like most of what they sold was crap so I decided on to keep on moving. Remember, I was under time constraints. On the way to the next place, I called JR's mother, father, and sister to get permission (and hopefully fish for fashion advice), they were down (but lacked concrete advice). Luckily, the next place I visited was great. They won me over immediately with superior lighting. You wouldn't think it would make such a difference, but actually being able to see the diamond sparkle does a lot to help it sell itself. The salesman also won points for trying harder to get me to buy a ring less expensive than my obvious favorite. Less than 20 minutes after walking in to the store, I was skipping out, the future in my pocket.

The Proposal:
I knew I had to do something, but unfortunately, my best ideas are usually too grandiose to accomplish on a limited clock. I contemplated the jumbotrons at both Fenway Park and Gillette, but both of those would have required waiting longer than I was willing and a intolerable level of public embarrassment (for JR). I wanted something memorable and remarkable, but not fantastically cheesy. I definitely got out Scrabble and pulled "W-I-L-L Y-O-U M-A-R-R-Y M-E J" out of the bag. Not knowing how to best utilize the letters, I put the tiles into my sock drawer, just in case, and went back to the drawing board. I'd had a sneaking suspicion since I decided to propose that if we were in the house, I'd use Charlie and James to help. So I did. I raced back after getting the rock since JR was supposed to be home around 2 and here it was 2:10 already. I had decided to tie the ring around one of the cats and a poem around the other. I tried the ring on James first, thinking he wouldn't realize it was there. Unfortunately he did and kept putting it in his mouth and chewing on it. At around 2:20, JR called and said she was on her way home. I quickly tied the ring around Charlie's neck and he actually didn't seem to mind the bling too much. I knew neither cat was going to be happy about the poem so I wanted to wait to attach the ribbon until JR pulled in the driveway. So I waited, and waited. And waited. I didn't want Charlie running all over the house with a ring around his neck, so I made him wait with me in the office. Which got hotter and hotter with the door closed and sun streaming in the window. 45 minutes later, JR called and said she had gotten a call from a friend and was talking to her outside a coffee shop and that she'd be home in a couple minutes. She came home, I tied the ribbon around James' neck, carried him to the kitchen (knowing Charlie would follow us in), dropped to my knees and asked, “Will you marry us?" JR hadn't seen the ring and thought it was a joke and when she realized I was serious, she started crying. Charlie, meanwhile, had decided to bring JR's ring into the litter box. We grabbed him quickly, cut the ring off, JR tried it on, and said yes. Mission accomplished.

We haven't seriously discussed any ideas for a wedding or a date yet, but I am REALLY excited to efficiently plan an extremely happening shindig. Really. When we do begin planning the wedding, you can come back here to read about everything we go through; to share in our joy and revel in our misadventures.

Occupations

2005-07-21T17:24:00.000-04:00

All right, so I'm unemployed, and have been for a while now. I'm being picky, I tell myself (and my family, for that matter). Naturally, a lot of time is spent thinking about jobs and paths for the future and I've come to realize at least one very important thing in the process:

I do not want an occupation.

Now, don't get confused and think that I plan to stay unemployed. There is a significant distinction to be made between what I want and what "occupation" describes. Think about that word for a minute.....There. See what I mean?

I'm starting to feel like "occupation" isn't just another way of saying "job." Now it means something different for me, something more specific. The job my uncle has is an occupation. He works because it makes money and his ultimate goal is to retire. High hopes, people. High hopes. I know my uncle isn't the only one with this attitude, he might even be part of a majority.

You and I can aim higher, of course, and this is what I've chosen. Months of unemployment and stress and parental-questioning-deflection are the price, but I know the final reward will be more than worth handling my mother's worries.

Peter Berger--a boring sociologist--desribed the process of maturing as at least patly terrible. According to Berger, to be mature requires that we become more realistic in our goals, that we lower our sights. Obviously we can't be NBA players or a space-camp counselors like we wanted to be when we were kids, but that doesn't mean we can't aim high, aim for more than just something to occupy days and cover the rent.

I want a job where I'm proud and excited when I answer the question "What do you do?"

How Continental Raised the Price on ALL Their Tickets, (at least to me).

2005-07-20T22:23:00.000-04:00

I'm back from JR's Family's Lake Erie Reunion. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and indeed, I actually had a little fun. However, the major excitement was Sunday when we arrived at the airport to fly home. Somehow, I made the colossally idiotic mistake of buying my ticket for Monday the 18th instead of Sunday the 17th. I'm not quite sure how it happened because I AM quite certain I never entered the 18th as an option for flying. I do take responsibility for not confirming the information on my ticket was correct before buying it and for not checking it sooner to make a change.
I hoped the flight hadn't sold out and that I would be able to sweet-talk my onto the plane at minimal extra cost. At worst, I figured, I'd pay the industry-standard $100 change fee. When I went to the Continental counter, the woman told me Continental has a strict policy of not allowing people to fly standby until the day of their original flight. She also informed me it would be $320 on top of what I had already spent in order to change my ticket to fly that day. Flabbergasted, I asked her how much it would cost to skip my original flight and buy a new ticket on the flight I had planned on taking. Incredibly, buying a new ticket and forgoing the next day's flight would only cost $280. I didn't understand how buying 2 tickets could be cheaper than changing my old ticket and if I was going to buy a new ticket, I wanted to do some comparison shopping.
First stop was Southwest Airlines where the woman was shocked Continental wouldn't change my ticket or allow me to fly standby. She seemed genuinely offended as an employee of the airline industry that another airline would have such ridiculous policies. She informed me that the best she could do was a flight from Cleveland to Baltimore to Providence for $185. She even reserved the ticket for me without making me pay so I could check with some of the other airlines. She also suggested I call Continental to try to talk to a supervisor. United was $611 and Independence was $250.
Having collected my facts, I dialed Continental's 800 number and waited on hold for several minutes before reaching Helen. Helen told me the same thing the woman behind the counter had, that there is a strict policy against allowing people to fly standby unless it's the day of their original flight, that the cost to change the ticket would be $320, and that a new ticket would be $280. Helen didn't seem to care when I argued that it didn't make sense they would charge me so much (or charge me at all) since they obviously had seats available. I mentioned that Southwest was willing to fly me for $185 and told her that they may get the $280 out of me because I was desperate, but I would never fly Continental again. I also mentioned I would spend the next month telling everyone I knew how stupid I had been to buy the wrong ticket, but especially how greedy Continental had been in trying to take advantage of it. Helen told me there was nothing she could do and something to the effect of "You should probably fly on Southwest if you don't want to pay $280." She then suggested I try to get someone at the airport to do something about it.
I got back in line steeling myself for what I knew could be an epic battle. The problem as I saw it was my total lack of leverage. Continental didn't need to do anything for me because I had already paid for a ticket for the next day's flight. They didn't need to do anything for me because they had their money and that was final regardless of what I decided to do. I had a minor scuffle with the woman directing people to the counter after she was offended I was talking on my phone while in her line. I don't remember much about the incident, but I include it as further proof that Continental needs to focus harder on customer service.
I approached the woman at counter 19 tingling with trepidation and excitement. I felt excitement because I envisioned an intense match of verbal sparring where I could pontificate loudly on issues involving efficiency, logic, customer service, money, and right and wrong. I felt trepidation because the last thing I wanted was to spend $280 more than I had already spent.
And then nothing. I explained to the woman behind the counter that I had mistakenly purchased a ticket for Monday's flight when I really wanted to fly today. She nodded and told me she could change my flight, but she'd have to charge me a $100 change fee. I quickly handed her my credit card before something happened to increase the price of my fare and walked away stunned after telling her she had made my day. I think she really appreciated me saying that. I had never been so happy to spend $100.
I don't know if Continental thought someone else was going to rush into the airport 25 minutes before boarding willing to pay the premium price they had assigned to the ticket. That can be the only explanation for not allowing me to fly standby on a flight that clearly wasn't full. And I don't understand why 2 different employees refused to let me fly standby or pay $100 to change my ticket citing strict company policies before a third employee did so without pause. You'd think Continental and every other company would try to fill up every plane all the time and would willingly sell tickets to people at some small margin above cost 25 minutes before the plane boarded. Much like an ice cream store giving out ice cream in the event of a power outage, giving it out in exchange for good will and nothing more, Continental should have welcomed me aboard in an effort to fill up every sellable bit of space on that plane. (Empty seats are giant tubs of melted ice cream, as it were) In the end, the flight took off an hour late further lowering the value of the service Continental provided me. As far as I'm concerned, every flight I take on Continental leaves at least an hour late as my flight from Boston to Cleveland took off an hour and a half after it was supposed to.
In the interest of full disclosure, what I said to Helen about never flying on Continental again isn't totally true. At this stage in my professional career, I can't afford to be so stubbornly principled. The next time I'm looking for flights, I'll fly on Continental if it's significantly cheaper than any other option. This means that the Continental flight will have to be direct and cost at least $40 less than the next lowest option. So in reality, what I should have said to Helen was "You may get your $280 out of me, but it's going to make each of your flights appear $40 more expensive than they are for the next 5-15 years. However, I will certainly stop flying Continental as soon as I make enough money to base economic decisions on terrible prior experiences."

Free the Pittsfield 16

2005-07-18T17:25:00.000-04:00

A brother of my friend got himself into a sticky situation. He's been charged with selling a small amount of marajuana to an undercover police officer. The undercover police officer spent last summer gaining the trust of my friend's brother and 15 of other kids from Western Mass before buying different amounts and types of drugs from them. These kids are not big time drug dealers and most of them only sold the drugs because they thought they were doing a friend a favor. Since the sale took place in a parking lot less than 1000 feet from a church basement nursery school which was closed for the summer, the DA has decided to utilize school zone drug laws which carry a 2 year mandatory minimum. Mandatory minimums for first time offenders are ridiculous.

One thing you can do is go to the Berkshire Eagle website and scroll down the page to the poll where you can voice your opinion on the DA's plan to utilize mandatory minimums. Also, if you see somewhere to post comments feel free to do that as well. Thanks for spreading the word to your friends as much as you're inclined!

One article
and another

A few things...

2005-07-12T23:33:00.000-04:00

Seems like I may be the lone voice of this place. Hopefully people will start writing again. Anyway, here are just a few things from lately.

This weekend, JR and I went to DC to see JT and NP and take in a Sox-Orioles game. Camden Yards is a really beautiful stadium and the fans are the most affable second place fans around. There were loads of kids and also TONS of Sox fans. Every few batters, a "Let's Go, RED SOX" chant would start up pretty fervently and the Oriole fans would boo lustily. It got to a point where anytime the Orioles did something good (they won 4-1), this drunk guy a few rows down would stand up and point to all the Boston fans. It kind of made me feel sad, because this guy shouldn't have anything to prove in his home ballpark. He was outnumbered in his own section and that can't be a good feeling a few miles from his bed.

We flew on Independence Air and that was OK, except our plane coming home Sunday night was delayed over an hour which was a major bummer. While waiting, we heard an announcement that the customers flying to Syracuse should use the rest room now because the toilet on the airplane was broken. While we were preparing for take off, the pilot said something along the lines of "Sorry the flight was delayed, the plane we were supposed to take had some maintenance issues, and luckily for us this one was available. I was thinking to myself, "It's not lucky for us, it's lucky for you and the rest of the "Fly I" staff. I'm glad you're not making me fly on a broken airplane, but really, the ticket I bought was for an on time flight on a well maintained airplane." The same type of thing happened this afternoon while on the phone with Staple's customer service. I had ordered file cabinets for work and the sales rep had said they'd match all the locks for me so they had just one key. She said if the locks for the cabinets didn't end up matching when we got them, I could call Jill and get them ordered free of charge. Wouldn't you know it, the 7 cabinets came with only 1 pair of matching locks and when I called Jill to get the new locks, she said there would be a $14.99 charge for each lock. I told her what the sales rep had told me and she said Staples would pay for half. At the end of the call she said, "I'm sorry for the error, sorry for the misunderstanding." I almost said, "There was no misunderstanding at all, I understood perfectly what your sales rep said." Oh well, maybe next time.

2 political conspiracy theories:
-The editor of Time released Matthew Cooper's notes because of politics, not ethics? Maybe? I don't know anything about him and if political reputation means anything, wouldn't the NYT have released their notes sooner?
-The evangelical right came out opposed to AG Alberto to make him seem more appealing to the Democrats. By declaring that they would oppose even him, Democrats may think of him more fondly. Already I've seen several places that opine Alberto may be the least of all evils when it comes to potential nominees.

This weekend I'm going to JR's family reunion in CLEVELAND. I'll post again shortly if I make it through!

Royal Buffet

2005-07-02T00:47:00.000-04:00

This evening, JR and I went to the Royal Buffet in Loew's Plaza in Cranston. After surveying the buffet options and sitting down with our first plate, JR said "This is a great place to blog about" and so I am. Although this place comes off as a Chinese buffet, more than half of the buffet options were of non-Chinese options. (Note: Chinese in this instance refers to what Americans think of as Chinese and not traditional Chinese cuisine.) There was french fries, hard rolls, onion rings, stuffed mushrooms, and apple pie. And there was seafood as well, which is how I think they pack them in. I don't go in much for seafood buffets, but I thought I'd check out the crab legs because it seemed like everyone was piling their plates high. The best part about this restaurant was what they were playing on the stereo right before we left. A cover of Michael Jackson's Beat It, in Chinese. Brilliant.

We got Jersey Girl from Netflix, the power of the queue and Kevin Smith. Anyway, this is one of those times where you watch a train wreck involving an actor or director you've previously enjoyed knowing full well all previous happy memories will be forever tarnished. It's unfortunate, when this happens, but what can you do? There are those that would say Kevin Smith's train wrecks started with every movie after Clerks, but I liked Mallrats and Chasing Amy. (Incidentally, JR has been laughing quite a bit, it's a little embarrassing.)

Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement today. I know there's going a knockdown dragout about who Bush nominates to replace her and probably again if/when Rehnquist leaves. We're about to weather some major political storms, but I wonder how the next several months will be remembered in history. It's likely BushCo will nominate someone totally reprehensible to the Democrats, but it's possible that that nominee will serve the court with distinction and not be a board member for Haliburton. If that's the case, history will soon forget the contentious months we're about to experience.

And finally, this is latest gadget I covet, a teenie, weenie, digi-cam.

Death in the celebrity age

2005-06-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

Kottke's first line in this article asks "Are you worried about the future glut of obituaries in national newspapers?" And while I've never been worried about it, I have thought about it before. As Kottke points out, there are a lot more known people now than ever before. Basically, since it takes very little to become a celebrity in this world of a 24 hour news cycle, we're going to recognize the names of more people that die. Kottke's concept of multiple important people dying every day is interesting. Can you imagine what it will be like when someone like Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise dies? That will definitely be a cover on People, and if Brad Pitt becomes the anti-poverty crusader Angelina would have him be, he might get the cover of Newsweek as well.
One thing that struck me in this piece, though, is the fact that Kottke is assuming that we will always read paper newspapers. I'd bet newspapers of today will be unrecognizable in just 10 years. Which is a different post completely.

At the Beach

2005-06-26T19:15:00.000-04:00

JR and I went to Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA today. As far as I'm concerned, a beach is a beach, JR's mom said it was the favorite beach of MA residents, and JR said it was just so so. Since I don't like salt water (it's sticky, cold, and full of terrifying sharks) I usually don't do much swimming when I go to the beach. This means that the pleasure I derive from the beach could be functionally replicated in a crowed, shadeless backyard filled with sand and a big fan blowing intermittently to act as the breeze.
One major reason I like the beach is because JR lets me lie down doing nothing for several hours in a row. Although it's not banned in my apartment, this type of sloth is generally frowned upon.

Sorry for the recent lack of posts, many of the writers of this blog are lazy and some are genuinely busy.

The Onion in 2056

2005-06-22T18:44:00.000-04:00

I forgot how funny the Onion can be. Check out their 2056 issue.

Work Poll

2005-06-11T13:02:00.000-04:00

I just want to start an informal poll and/or discussion about work.

Unless you are some sort of crazy person, most people would rather not work. But, we have to if we want to eat. So, my question is, since we have to be at work anyway, would you rather be busy for the whole day or just fart around all day?

I'm not sure about this. Yesterday, I was actually busy for the entire day and even stayed late, on a Friday no less. And you know what? I kind of liked it. Most other days I am only kind of busy and tend to get tired and bored around 2:00. But yesterday I was neither tired nor bored. It was kind of fulfilling or something.

What do you all think?

Dancing with the Stars

2005-06-08T22:02:00.000-04:00

JR is making me watch Dancing with the Stars. By "making me", I mean she's watching it and it's too hot to throw myself out the living room window, and thus, I'm stuck. In case you haven't seen it, this show is kind of a cross between Solid Gold, the Surreal Life, American Idol and any other terrible show you've ever hated. Some of the b level celebrities on this show are Trista Sutter from the Bachelorette (who at the moment is modestly complaining about how sensual the Rhumba is, she's sad she can't do it with Ryan), Joey from the New Kids, Rachel Hunter, Elaine's boss from Seinfeld, and Evander Holyfield.

Each pseudo-celeb is paired with a professional dancer and they are judged by what seems to be the dance versions of the American Idol judges. I really can't tell the difference between the dances, and I doubt most of America (excluding JR and her mother) can either. [Kelly Monaco and her partner just did the Rhumba, the judges were not impressed. This quote by the co-host sums it up, "Oooh, 17 out of 30, that's very low."] Evander just got 14 out of 30 "That's a tough score." This show gets better the more I watch it. This show is live, I can't wait for something, anything to happen. I can see Evander disagreeing with getting voted off and he quick jabs the host. Possibly more on this next week. Trista just got voted off. Serves her right, the prude! Except, wait, she redeemed herself in my eyes when asked by the host, "How does it feel getting kicked off the show?" Without skipping a beat, and with brutal sarcasm, "Uh, it sucks." Yes, this is why I tune in, folks.

(I feel sad that at the beginning of this post, I wanted to push my TV down the stairs, now I'm definitely going to watch next week.)

The Craziest Thing Ever

2005-06-02T14:10:00.000-04:00

I know this is not generally an arena for posting things we've found on the internet, but this case actually falls pretty well within my daily life activities. I have no job, of course, and I spend a lot of time reading boring listings. Today I encountered a listing for a "Grant Writer" on craigslist.org, and I feel like I have to post it here, for fear that the posting will be taken down and nobody will know of its glory.

So, without further ado, a posting for a "Grant Writer" in Boston (edited for length, if you can believe it):

Seeking grant writer to perform pro bono grant writing for establishing many public service companies, including though not limited to:

A marketing campaign seeking for nominal profit micro credit toward establishing a grassroots distribution network of bed netting for malarial mosquito avoidance. Grow your money and your good karma. Promote a philosophy, by stressing the life altering importance of the distribution of netting, that ensures the grassroots network operates for nominal profit. Each level facilitating netting sales by loan as necessary. Any person not otherwise employed encountered is a candidate for netting distribution. Move to other needs as finance allows, when demand for agricultural/verifiably harmless product proves true and as wide as our marketing campaign well performs establishing financiers of micro credit loans for mosquito netting.

Wheat bread pizza machine production, where in no potentially perilous work be human performed. Thus the mining of the minerals that become the Wheat bread pizza machine is performed by bot. The farming process also automated by track skirting system suffice sensor and plant/monitor grow/harvest equipment to deliver agricultural product for Wheat bread pizza. Full nutritional delivery (Iodine, C, A, B Vitamins... enhanced) Wheat bread pizza then automated baked at each Wheat bread pizza machine of expected worldwide 100,000,000 Wheat bread pizza machines. Delivery of the raw and processed agricultural product performed by capsule in tube on track. The wheat bread pizza machines are then to perform Wheat bread pizza making so long as a volunteer attendant is available to tend to maintainance when paged. The Wheat bread pizza machine should house suffice sensors to determine what is at issue when the machine is in need of repair. The tech should be paged with an issue description suffice to convey understanding what's necessary to repair the machine.

Wind Energy collection implement (WECI) production and delivery to hard fastened automated on multi pole slide lift via pully, each WECI formed in a cube structure for fasten and hoist, simple motors perform the "wind in" of the fastener U.

I am of course not interested in operating all of the companies established and don't mind your command of any of these or from the many more I've conceived, many of those likely ranking more important.

I am interested in taking applications toward commanding each of these endeavors as CEO. I plan on offering your grant writing service as an incentive to apply for the position as CEO in an advertisement I will place in publications oft read by workers in industries similar to the particular endeavors nature. We're looking to place an Electrician and Mechanic who has experience with ropes (possibly due nautical experience) as the CEO of proWECI, a Pizza Chef/Robot Tech as the CEO of WBPM's, any kid with unmedicated ADHD as our BedNetting Micro Credit Salesman.

We're looking mostly for aptitude, functionality and today place alongside the many. Fitting these characteristics our CEO's will be selected finally on having some experience as qualification.

Your compensation is to be taken as a percent from the CEO's salary, upon the CEO yielding pay as your grant writing proves worthy. As such at present your potential compensation is negotiable.

Some of the other ideas I'm working on:

Policy control advance to national referendum wherein the vote is conducted by satellite photo of shirt color.

The ideal travel solution, capsule in tube on track, safe, fast, carefree travel.

I look forward to hearing from all serious respondents.

Thanks for your time,

Dan,
617-***-*****

So that's that. I am incredibly tempted to apply for this position just to meet with this man. Perhaps we can hold a vote tomorrow wherein everyone wears a particular color shirt to vote on what I should do. I'll get the satellite ready.

James on the Couch: AC Gets with the Program

2005-06-01T22:48:00.000-04:00

James on Couch
Originally uploaded by tintinfisch.

I finally joined Flickr. You can see my pics at www.flickr.com/photos/aaba. It's really a great site and very easy to use. I think I'm probably the millionth person the blog about Flickr, and I did have some trouble initially, but for the most part the site works the way it's supposed to. If you take pictures with a digital camera, you don't have much of an excuse for not using Flickr, unless you're using something cooler. In which case, you should tell me about it immediately.

You gotta try Virginia wines

2005-05-30T20:04:00.000-04:00

I know it sounds kind of outlandish, but some Virginia wines are actually really good. Just about an hour west of Washington, D.C., are several really nice vineyards. Not all the wines are great, but most the vineyards are just really nice to visit. Even though it was the seat of the Confederacy, Virginia is a really beautiful state. I just got back from my personal favorite, Linden Vineyards. But there are several others in throughout the state. Just go to this website for a complete listing. At this point, you still can't get wine shipped if you live out of state, but a recent Supreme Court decision should change that.
I did feel like a yuppie driving around the countryside in my European car sampling wines and snubbing my nose at the ones that taste like Ecto-Cooler (I didn't say all the wines are good). But, sometimes we have to accept who are and embrace it.

Seth's Blog: 55,000,000

2005-05-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

We all know that Asia has a lot of people, but did you know there are 55,000,000 kids in China that take piano lessons. I haven't found anything to back this up, yet, but just wait until I Google it. In other news, my iBook is "in the shop" with a bad harddrive. More to come on "Karma, as Illustrated by AC's Apple experiences" when I get it back.

For Further Study

2005-05-21T23:40:00.000-04:00

Instead of saving links by emailing them to myself too look at or act on later, I'm just going to post here, and hope I come back to them sometime soon. (Also, I'm editorializing a few links, well.)
Special thanks to Engadget, Slashdot, and Boing Boing for supplying a lot of links, and to Bloglines for aggregating them all.

First up is this, page that describes how you can download This American Life episodes instead of streaming them. Right now, if you want to download the programs, you have to buy them at Audible.com. I haven't figured out how to make this work, and I'll probably wait until someone puts torrents of the episodes online.

There wasn't very much information in this article, but it seems that there may soon be peace in the battle between hot dog makers and hot dog bun makers. Two companies have agreed to market packages with the same number of dogs and the same number of buns, unfortunately, neither company is one of which you've ever heard.

Do you remember Oregon Trail? Here's an interview with the creators. Scroll down past the cake to get to an interview with the three creators.

STOP THE PRESS: A Boston sportscaster has filed suit against the writer of a comic strip. Bob Lobel is suing the writer of "Get Fuzzy" for a comic on May 13th that implies he is is drunk during telecasts. From the Boston Globe: "His on-air demeanor mixes humor and news, and the occasional lapses of focus that have led to rumors that he may have been drinking before going on the air." For some reason, they don't mention his lack of balance or bright red nose. Not sure if this is lawsuit, worthy, though, because Darby Conley, the writer of "Get Shorty" seems to only have written what most people in Boston think. From the Associated Press article, Lobel's attorney, Harry Manion, had this to say: "People can say, 'Is he on something?' The answer is, 'No.' You can sort of bandy it around a water cooler. That's one thing, but to publish it in 450 newspapers? Here, Lobel said, 'That's enough.'" Which kind of plays to the fact that people ARE talking about it. Don't mistake my coverage of this as any slight at Lobel. I see nothing wrong with drinking while working, unless you drive cars, fly planes, operate heavy machinery, put out fires, or do anything else for a living where you should be sober. I pledge to keep you updated on this delightful turn of legalism.

From the Little Engine that Could department: Wal-Mart has raised the white flag. That's right, they are surrendering their online DVD rental service to the small upstart Netflix in exchange for Netflix's agreement to urge users to buy DVDs from Wal-Mart. Netflix has it's work cut out for it, though, because Blockbuster is still charging hard.

I'm really just putting this in here so that when I have $2500 or so, I can easily figure out how to turn a Mac Mini into a media center. Not sure if I'll ever do it, but It's DIY, it's pleasant looking, and it's not powered by Windows.

Bloglines | My Feeds

2005-05-21T11:29:00.000-04:00

Your Taste in Music:

80's Alternative: Medium Influence

Punk: Medium Influence

Ska: Medium Influence

80's R&B: Low Influence

90's Hip Hop: Low Influence

90's Rock: Low Influence

Alternative Rock: Low Influence

Dance: Low Influence

Gangsta Rap: Low Influence

Old School Hip Hop: Low Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?

A Picture Share!

2005-05-20T21:04:00.000-04:00

One more picture from the movie.

An Episode Share!

2005-05-20T18:47:00.000-04:00

I just saw Star Wars. Now, I'm telling you about it - from my telephone - on the train. This is a technology wow moment.

"Inventions" Part One

2005-05-16T10:58:00.000-04:00

Flipping through my "ideas" book (which carries the label "Pictures of boobs" to keep people off the scent) I see a large number of inventions I've thought up that have, well, already been invented.

That's not to say that I thought up these ideas based on something I saw on the internet or in a store--I legitimately invented them, only to find out later that someone else already had. This has been going on for a few years now, and I've developed a theory (hopefully my own) that it's something running through my family. My father has an extensive history of inventing things, then deciding that they're inventions nobody would buy, and then finding them on the market a year or two later selling with wild success (Noodles, etc.)

My inventions, on the other hand, tend to be ideas I think many a person would enjoy and happily make me rich by purchasing.

The first significant example is the cell phone dock that allows you to use the service of your cell phone in the land-line phones in your house. This was an idea for people who have no land line in their home but want to use their regular phones. Using the dock, the cell phone becomes the phone service and is hooked to your entire home phone system. It would allow you to take advantage of limited areas in your home where there is cell service and could cut down on "harmful" cell phone radiation. The dock could have multiple ports for multiple phones and include different ring patterns to let you know who was the important person this time. Of course the dock would also have a charger built in.

The sad news.
Nobody offers the multiple port feature, so I still have a chance!

In Part 2 of this Blogspot: More inventions, more sad news.

QuizFarm.com

2005-05-14T00:30:00.000-04:00

I just found QuizFarm.com. Seems like a pretty intersting site that I'll spend more time on, hopefully soon. And soon, I might even make my own quiz. That'll be great.

Near Loss, Triumphant Recovery

2005-05-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday night, I did something to my iBook and it got very upset. It had stalled when I tried to do too many things at once and when I tried to reset, it hung on the gray apple start up screen spinning indefinitely. No amount of restarts or PRAM zaps would get it back together. I even took out the Airport card and thought I might try to take out the after market memory because I've heard that helps. Unfortunately, I didn't have any after market memory and I continued to be stumped. I was forced to use JR's craptastic PC to search for a cure.

Eventually, I tried some system discs from 10.2 that I had (I had been running 10.3.7). The hardware test disc gave me an error message saying "Invalid Memory" which freaked me out and the system software gave me another error message which told me I had to restart my computer. By this time, I was depressed and distressed. There was nothing to do. I thought of the possibility of losing the majority of my college work and anything I've felt the need to save since then. I imagined losing 4 years of AGP Quicken. I'll write a post on great amounts of material loss soon, where I'll delve into this more deeply.

I did think that maybe system discs for 10.3 might work better and I knew I could get some at work on Wednesday morning. Fala, fala. You can't imagine my glee on Wednesday when I reinstalled the system software and got my computer back. I ended up not fairing too badly. I lost my bookmarks for Safari and my email settings for Mail. Plus, Thunderbird and Firefox seemed to stop working and needed to be reinstalled. I was able to save my Firefox settings, though. The biggest loss was my calendar, but I hadn't used it for much except birthdays, and I always forgot to call people on their special days anyway!

I have an external hard drive, and if anything, this experience will get me to set up some sort of system for backing everything up a couple times a week. That way, the next time my computer decides to die, I'll be ready!

A Picture Share!

2005-05-10T14:59:00.000-04:00

Charlie and James

NYC Job, Part III

2005-05-10T11:49:00.000-04:00

I've accepted the new position. Which means, I'll be finishing out the rest of the month at my current job, then I'll move to the new job on June 1 and work out of the Oakland office. On October 1, I will leave California and be unleashed into NYC. Here are the things I would like to do in the next 4 1/2 months before I leave the Bay Area.

1. Stick to my budget, which will enable me to save enough money to make the move without having to go into debt.
2. Go to Carnaval, in the Mission
3. Experience "Bay to Breakers"
4. Make one last trip to Yosemite
5. Make one last trip to Harbin Hot Springs
6. Go to at least one more "Sunset" party
7. Do at least one backpacking trip
8. Throw a going-away party
9. Eat a lot of Mexican food!
10. Go to as many San Francisco street fairs as possible
11. A trip to wine country
12. A trip to the Big Sur coast
13. Kayaking in Sausalito
14. Go rock climbing at Mission Cliffs
15. Go to a handful of restaurants I've been meaning to try
16. Eat oysters in Point Reyes

Woo hoo!

Day-Time Television

2005-05-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I have a "government job" (I even do those finger-quote thingies to make my joke more apparent). I hang out at my house and try to find things to do with myself before the regular people I know come home from their "actual" jobs.

This situation affords me a plethora of me-time in which I may do anything I wish, as long as it's free or next-to-free. After a certain number of months, the normal solutions to filling the time grow tiresome and I find myself looking to the television for help. If there were a really good show on for an hour every day, I'd appreciate it a lot.

There isn't. I've looked.

My exhaustive research has led me to a list of shows that are really really really good for the daytime. If you find yourself at home one day--or many--I hope my research will save you from some Lifetime Movie you thought had a chance.

Obviously there's Sportscenter. To save yourself time and anguish, watch only the last 12 minutes of this program. The ratio of analysis-to-highlights has gotten way out of control and the Yankdees/Lakers analysis to other stuff is even further out of control. The Top 10 Plays and the last game they show highlights for are always the best part. You can read the ticker on ESPNews later on if you want a score update.

After that, there's the morning repeat of yesterday's Daily Show, which is like a shining beacon of hope for the rest of the day. This starts at 10, which is after I wake up but before I get up, so I usually miss out.

After 11Am, you're pretty much screwed until MacGyver comes on Spike TV at 3Pm. You may say "MacGyver?" turning your nose up in the air. This is because you are coming from the prime-time television perspective. At a certain point, a good mullet on TV is the best thing you've got going in your life, and MacGyver is there to provide. (My research has not yet revealed MacGyver's first name. Perhaps someone can help me there?)

Outside of those three shows, daytime television is a barren wasteland. Unless you like Star Trek, in which case you're all set.

I'm Not Making Myself Look Any Better...

2005-05-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

But for a second week in a row, I went shopping for a product that should have been fairly simple to buy. For the second week in a row I didn't read the box, and for the second week in a row, I bought something something that's similar to what I wanted, but not it exactly. Instead of an iron, I bought a steamer. I think they're similar, but I'm not sure and tomorrow I get to go back and return it. Sweet!

NYC Job, Part II

2005-05-03T10:32:00.000-04:00

I had a team meeting with my boss yesterday. He had been out of the office for 2 weeks. The first week he was dealing with a kidney stone, and the second week he was on a business trip. He called me and my 2 colleagues into his office to go over the changes that need to take place in our group. We have a meeting like this every couple of months when he's questioning his effectiveness as a manager. Then two more months of ball dropping pass by, and he calls another meeting to go over everything again. At least he has good intentions.

I sat in this meeting and received criticism for the following:

1. My failure to set up meetings to see clients (I haven't done this because it means I would have to travel with him and the East coast print rep. Picture bonding through heavy drinking and long talks about their suburban-dad-woes.)

2. My lack of time spent on project X (I'm not even going to go over this one because parenthesis cannot contain the magnitude of my gripes on this subject.)

3. My projections are not accurate enough (I'm not clairvoyant.)

4. I'm not using Daylite, the crappy CRM solution we have in place.

Needless to say, I left the meeting feeling like a little pile of turd. I arrived in my cubical and found that I had a new voicemail message. It was the HR lady from the NYC job. She told me she had good news for me. They had everything in place to make me an offer. The next step was for me to talk to my boss and I had to do it that day. I hung up feeling elated but dreading the thought of going back into his office to relay the news. Bad timing! I waited long enough to get my courage up, and walked into his office, shut the door, and in a sort of shaky voice, told him that I was interested in an internal position in NYC. At first he was shocked and then he was supportive. He did manage to put in one little jab. He said "I was going to talk to you about how you've been out of sorts lately". I nodded my head and told him that after 2 1/2 years, it's time to move on. I should have said, "Yeah, I've been noticing the same thing about you."

The wheels are in motion! Now, the potential boss needs to talk to my current boss, and then they'll make me an offer. NYC...yikes!

Thoughts

2005-04-26T13:24:00.001-04:00

I don't seem to be able to finish writing anything I start these days so I thought I'd post a collection of some links I caught myself sending to other people over the past couple days.

This is from RD's sister's man's blog and talks about a new device that helps you wake up better. It's a watch-like contraption you wear to sleep and, by measuring your biometrics, the watch keeps track of your sleep cycles. This allows it to predict the best time to wake you up in the morning, usually while you're sleeping lightest.

Bill Simmons has done it again and it's only a matter of time before people accuse me of making him my binky. After this weekend's donnybrook between the Red Sox and Devil Rays, ESPN reprinted this 2002 column about basebrawls. In this long column, Simmons goes into detail describing 12 reasons baseball fights are so great. Reason #9 is especially poignant in lieu of Trot Nixon's actions this weekend, though Simmons disputes the existence of a "Crazy Guy" in this weekend's imbroglio. I guess it's his column so I'll defer to him.

Imagine being able to search for files on your computer by the location you worked on them last. I know, my mind was boggled too. GPS enabled laptops are coming, and I can't wait...

Another reason to love kottke.org this morning is the McSweeney's RSS feed he created for the good of all mankind. If you haven't read any of the lists at McSweeney before, you might be interested to in Actual Ways I Have Been Flirted With That, in the Future, I Wish You Would Refrain From, With Explanations as to Why, and Suggestions for Alternative Methods. and Reasons to Fear Canada..

I'd like to find out from Mel Kiper, Jr if the point of the NFL draft is to choose attractive, athletic players of if the point is to win Super Bowls. Because Kiper seems to want athletes, not champions. I can't think of any other reason he would give the Patriots a C in this draft when they drafted 4 players that can presumably help immediately and ALSO picked up a 3rd, 4th, and 5th round pick in next year's draft. Also, Mr. Kiper, who cares if "Matt Cassel is a big project at quarterback", did the Patriots make an underreported draft day trade of Tom Brady for Jay Fiedler? In the same column (and although he gave the Broncos a C as well), Kiper describes the Broncos selection for Maurice Clarrett by saying he'll "defer to coach Mike Shanahan when it comes to fitting the right players into his system". This is obviously a reference to Shanahan's ability to take ANY athlete and turn them into a 1200 yard running back. If Shanahan is getting that type of leeway, shouldn't Belichick's THREE SUPER BOWLS IN FOUR YEARS give him the same type of draft capital?
Kiper's Patriots' draft rating for those of you without access to ESPN Insider.
New England Patriots: C
Guard Logan Mankins was a reach in the first round but the Patriots obviously like his size and nastiness, and he will help fill the void left by Joe Andruzzi's departure via free agency. Ellis Hobbs has good size but not enough skill to be more than a nickel back, and safety James Sanders was a teammate of Mankins at Fresno State and both were helped by the relationship between Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Fresno State coach Pat Hill. Tackle Nick Kaczur could play guard as well but came off the board a little early and Matt Cassel is a big project at quarterback.

3 other happenings of note in the last week:
I'm definitely not the most pious of Jews, but I do my best to observe Passover every year. This time around, however, the boys at Streits, threw me for a loop on my very first meal. Apparently, they sell matzah these days that's "Not for Passover Use." How many seemingly observant Jews have been ambushed thusly?

While walking to work the other day, bird poop splattered on the pavement mere inches from my feet. It was almost like almost getting hit by a car. Almost. You have to admit, something like that is pretty omenesque. My outlook on the morning changed and then I got to work and realized nothing was going to be different, so although I was glad to not to get hit by bird poop, I didn't look at it as an omen anymore.

The parking lot at the train station employs the use of an honor box to charge for parking. I'm constantly forgetting to look at what parking space I'm in before I walk away from my car. In the middle of last week, this happened and I walked back to figure out for which space I had to pay. A combination of tiredness, being late for the train, and general brain dysfunction forced me to determine the wrong space for my car. (Admittedly, I didn't walk all the way back to my car, but stopped at the beginning of the row and counted down to my spot, incorrectly). When that happens, I pay for the wrong space and come back in the evening to find an envelope on my car asking for the parking fee plus $1 service charge. I deserve it. This day was different, though, because on my way to the honor box after figuring out which space I was in, the woman who had parked next to me was also walking back to figure out her space. I smiled widely and exclaimed "You forgot also, right? I do that all the time. You're in 723." Random act of kindness? I feel bad about it, but she probably got an envelope, too. Oh well, it's all in the thought, I hope.

NYC Job

2005-04-25T11:12:00.000-04:00

I had a third interview for the NYC job last Thursday afternoon. I met with BH, who told me that they posted the job in NYC and didn't find anyone who would be a good fit. Then he told me they were going to "junior-ize" the job so H, the current regional manager, could train and mentor me for 2 months before i move to NYC, then after I'm working in the position for 6 months, I would be promoted into a role where i would be responsible for all of the revenue in my territory and H would move on to other things. In other words, because they're worried about my lack of experience in the video gaming market, they would put a "safety net" in place so i wouldn't be thrown into the fire right away.

Because it's an internal job, there's a protocol BH needs to follow before giving me a formal offer. First, I need to talk to my boss. Then BH needs to talk to my boss about how to make the transition smooth. Then I get an offer, and either take it or turn it down.

As I was leaving the interview on Thursday evening, I was really excited about the prospect of moving to NYC and taking on this new job. That night I had sushi with my boyfriend, A, and we talked about all angles. He was not nearly as excited as I was about moving to NYC and we agreed about how much we loved it out here in the Bay Area. On Friday, I was very distraught and my chest felt tight and my arms felt numb each time I thought about moving to NYC without A, thereby ruining our relationship and for what? I told him I didn't want to move out there. Suddenly, I got the feeling like the tables turned and he was more excited about NYC then I was.

After a weekend of mulling it over, we came to the realization that the Bay Area will always be here for us to return to, but NYC F*CKIN CITY would be a welcome change and an adventure. In the words of Pat Benatar, "We are young!" Stay tuned...

Eggs Polenta

2005-04-24T20:37:00.000-04:00

Continuing on AC's culinary theme, I am going to give you the recipe for a really yummy breakfast. It isn't anything too fancy, just eggs and polenta. If you don't know what polenta is, it is just Italian corn meal. It kind of reminds me of grits. You can buy it premade at most stores.

Here's what you need:
Premade polenta
Tomatoes
Eggs
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh herbs: basil and parsley

Here's what you do:
-Finely chop your herbs and set aside for now.
-Slice the tomatoes into circles (1 slice per person).
-Slice several 1/2 inch slices (2-3 pieces per person) of polenta and dredge them in Parmesan cheese.
-Fry the slices in a mixture of butter and olive oil.
-Once they turn a darker yellow, transfer them to a plate covered in paper towels to drain the extra fat.
-Now fry an egg in the butter and oil, salt and pepper the eggs.
-While the eggs are frying, make a layer of polenta and then add a slice of tomato on top.
-Once the eggs are done, put them on top of your polenta and tomato.
-Sprinkle some Parmesan and the herbs on top .

Once you break into the egg, it mixes with the tomato and kind of makes a sauce that the polenta absorbs. Trust me, it is really good.

West Virginia Liberalism

2005-04-20T21:44:00.000-04:00

I went down to Blacksburg, Va., with my friend, JB, to visit a friend of his that is a grad student at Virginia Tech. While we were down there, we went to a frat party, where our education into West Virginia liberalism occurred. During the party, I was standing in the corner with JB when two girls came over to talk to us. JB chatted with Sara or Tara and after a while the girls leave. JB looks at me and kind of shakes his head. Apparently they got to talking about politics. She asked him he voted for and it turned out they both voted for the President. So that was pretty neat for JB. However, Sara or Tara explained to JB that she is liberal on certain issues. So JB asked what those issues were, expecting a somewhat interesting little discussion about social security or foreign policy. Apparently, this seemingly nice girl is "liberal" on homosexual rights. She said that although she doesn't agree with their lifestyles she is against "beating" them. (Keep in mind that she used a very hateful word instead of homosexual.) Now JB is a real conservative, but was appalled by this remark.

The next day during lunch, JB was telling this story to his friend and made what I thought was a pretty interesting observation. "If not beating homosexuals is considered liberal in Bluefield, W. Va.," he said. "Then does that mean beating them is considered being conservative? That's not much of a political spectrum."

Smoothie Season is Upon Us!

2005-04-17T21:59:00.000-04:00

For those of you who know me, it won't come as much of a surprise, but smoothie season is here again. Tonight I bought all the ingredients for a week's worth of smoothies, and almost instantaneously my diet will be more than 26 times better per day. Literally. I went from eating about 4 pieces of fruit a month to about 3.5 servings a day.

The best morning smoothie recipe (Serves 2):
2 bananas
Half a pound of frozen strawberries
4 ounces frozen raspberries
3-6 ounces frozen blueberries
Some orange juice
In this order, put bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. Pour OJ into blender until it comes 2/3 of the way up to the strawberries. (More OJ will make the smoothie thinner, less will make it thicker). Blend. When a cyclone starts in the middle of the smoothie, it is perfectly blended. Pour smoothies, rinse pitcher, repeat.

Dessert smoothie recipe (Serves 2):
1 banana
Half a pound of frozen raspberries
4 ounces frozen strawberries
2 ounces frozen blueberries
Even less orange juice
Chocolate chips
This smoothie is created about the same as the breakfast smoothie, but it's got a higher raspberry percentage. Mix the smoothie and pour half into each cup. Put a layer of chocolate chips into each cup and pour the rest of the smoothie. Top of with a few chocolate chips. This smoothie is not only tasty, but fun to eat also. The chocolate chips add a little texture and activity to the normally docile smoothie.

Other things I've learned about smoothies:
The trade off between fresh fruit and frozen fruit is with the frozen stuff, you don't need to water your smoothie down with ice. More tang for the buck.

Chocolate syrup is a good add-in for giving a regular smoothie a little kick.

Milk works instead of OJ if you want it to be even creamier.

The creamiest smoothie can be had by adding a big dollop of plain or vanilla yogurt to either of the recipes above. This is how JR likes it, but since I do all of the smoothie cheffing, I make the rules, and she gets yogurt only on special mornings.

Blackberries are the lowest of all suitable smoothie berries. They're cheap, sweet, and give the smoothie a dark purple color, but the seeds are giant and always get stuck in your teeth.

The Dentist and Why Going There Blows

2005-04-14T10:14:00.000-04:00

I always walk out of a cleaning with a laundry list of dental problems I need to get fixed. I go to the dentist every 6 months and I religiously brush (but not too hard) my teeth like I should. I floss every night before I go to bed. I still get cavities! And it's only getting worse as I age. My gums are receding. It might be because I brushed too hard, or maybe it was the braces I had in 7th grade, or it might just be genetic. Now I have some roots exposed. What that means is when the dentist is scraping my teeth with their sharp instrument and they come across the exposed root, I experience a whole-body flinch as the worst sort of pain tingles from my tooth to my toes. That is the only time the exposed root troubles me. And now I have to spend $600 to cover up the exposed roots with some sort of bonding, so that twice a year the dentist doesn't cause me pain when they scrape my teeth. Plus I have two cavities. The thought of saving up my money to blow it on the dentist, is about as fun as seeing Anwar's exposed chest on American Idol.

When she told me all of the work I needed to get done, I practically started to cry. My routine must change during the next 6 months. This is going to be a sort of experiment. My hypothesis is: If I am OCD about keeping my teeth healthy, I will make it out of the dentist scott free. Here is the procedure.

1. Buy a Braun electric toothbrush. This eliminates any limitations coming from my own brushing skills or lack there of. The cost is $100, about the same price as two fillings. Definitely worth it if it prevents three or more cavities from forming.

2. Use the perscirption strength toothpaste the dentist gave me. Apparently you can't rinse your mouth out once you rub it on the teeth. Gross, but necessary.

3. Continue flossing every night.

4. Buy some ACT like the hygienist suggested and swish it around every night.

My next cleaning is scheduled in October. I will keep you posted....

I Still Don't Like the NBA...

2005-04-11T21:11:00.000-04:00

...But I don't mind reading about it when Bill Simmons is doing the writing. I agree with most of what he says most of the time and he has anywhere from one to three references per column that I wish I had written down before him because they're mostly perfect. Plus, like Peter Gammons and Sean McAdam, he's a Boston homer and about 75% of his columns are about Boston teams. When it comes to reading about basketball, I may as well be reading about the Celtics, right?

(This might be another column, but you know how the Righties incessantly complain about the "liberal" mainstream media without providing facts to support their claim? I think if I lived in another part of the country, I might complain about the so-called national sports media's Northeast/ Boston slant. I'm not going to do it, but a scientific survey of ESPN.com would probably prove a higher percentage of stories are written about the Red Sox-Yankees-Patriots than any other 5-8 teams combined. In acknowledging this bias, I feel like the millionaires who sit up in their castles pointing out world problems without taking any steps to correct them. It's so easy to do. But the view is great up here and I enjoy feeling like a millionaire sitting in my castle. Since I benefit from the bias, I'm not going to make a stink).

The most recent reason I owe Bill Simmons is his column last week was responsible for pointing me towards Paul Shirley's blog. I'm not sure it can actually can be considered a blog, since it was written over 5 days and I don't think there was any plan for it to be updated infinitely. I don't really know what the definition of a blog is, though, so call it whatever you want. Paul Shirley is a 27 year-old forward who fills the "Suns’ need for a warm body to keep the bench from tipping toward the coaches." He doesn't play much, and didn't actually play at all on the 5 game/ 8 day road trip in mid-March. He did, however keep a journal of his thoughts during the trip and the result is great. Bill Simmons said something like it fulfills the wish we all have of having a friend in the NBA and getting daily emails from him. (Personally, if I had a friend doing anything and sending me a daily email about it, I'd probably change my email address, but being able to go to his website to read at my own leisure would certainly keep our friendship intact.) Anyway, Paul Shirley probably doesn't have much of a grand future in the NBA, but judging by his writing, he'll probably end up OK whenever he blows out a knee or decides to hang it up for other reasons. Since I don't think any of the people reading this will actually click through to Paul's blog, I've grabbed a couple of the choicest quotations for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

-Paul reviews the beach in Spain

"The greatest thing about living near the water is that there is always something to do. Bored? Go to the beach. Can’t figure out what to do at the end of a first date? Go to the beach. Got a few knock-off sunglasses that need sold? Go to the beach. The only problem with my time in Spain was that the beach in Barcelona set the bar a bit high—because of the rampant toplessness."

-Paul on tattoos

"Tom Gugliotta has the worst tattoo in the NBA. The barbed wire on the bicep is bad enough to put him in the running; the fact that it is the dreaded “I thought I could get away with not having it complete the circumference of my arm” type puts him over the top. It is like wearing a tie that is not only ugly, but is a clip-on to boot. Ugly is at least forgivable; the clip-on aspect makes it reprehensible."

-Paul on the possibility of playing

"I began considering the possibility that there could very well be a bit of playing time in the offing and started paying at least cursory attention to what was going on in timeouts, in case Coach D’Antoni said something like, “From now on tonight, everyone will be shooting with his left hand. Deviation from this plan of attack will result in castration immediately following the game.” I would really hate to miss one of those instructions, come out firing, and because of my own mental lapse, ruin the rest of my life."

-Paul on being tired even after not playing

"When the game was over, I was fatigued, much like usual. It is difficult to explain, but it is exhausting to, over a two and a half hour period, keep oneself vaguely mentally prepared, yet relaxed enough to theoretically play basketball. Now, don’t get me wrong—it is not nearly as taxing as, say, playing 38 minutes and huffing and puffing up and down the court. There is, however, a little more to it than would first appear. Of course, as my dad would say, it still beats the hell out of digging ditches, so I won’t complain."

-Paul on meeting Magic Johnson in an exercise room

"We all wandered over and chatted with Mr. Johnson. He was gracious, kind, and charming, just like everyone says. I did notice that, when I introduced myself, he did not tell me his name. I, of course, know his name—the above paragraph would have been difficult to write without that knowledge. I do not know, however, what I am supposed to call him now. Magic? Seems a bit odd. Earvin? Seems a bit forced. It will be a dilemma that haunts me."

-Paul on the Atlanta Hawks

"Saying the Hawks are a bad basketball team is like saying that living in Beirut would be exciting—true, but not really the whole story. The Hawks are really, really bad."

Ridiculous Radio

2005-04-10T21:22:00.000-04:00

Washington, D.C., has a dearth of good radio stations. It got worse several months back when a fiesta fun Latino radio station replaced the venerable WHFS. We have a generic "rock" station that plays the smattering of Nickleback, Three Doors Down, and Bob Marley manifestation. We have a couple of vanilla adult contemporary mix stations and a pretty standard classic rock station.

Things got worse a few weeks ago when one of the mix stations, Mix 107.3, "expanded its playlist." Basically, what they've started playing what seems to be a totally random pastiche of songs. There is no continuity and they don't even play hit songs like other mix stations tend to do.

For example, I was driving around with NL yesterday doing our various errands and 107.3 was playing on the radio. A typical playlist we heard that day was Bob Seger, "Turn the Page," followed by Mike and the Mechanics, "All I Need is a Miracle," some Kenny Loggins garbage, and then U2's "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own." At one point, we just shook our heads in disbelief at the sheer randomness of it all.

It is as if they are trying to recreate the freedom of downloading music and putting together random playlists that appeal to each of us. If this was their intention, they failed miserably, because one person's playlist is obviously very personal and will not necessarily appeal to another person. You can't do this with a radio station that is meant to appeal to the general public. I can't imagine there are whole lot of people out there who are just waiting for Kenny Loggins to come on the radio.

This got me wondering if radio will become obsolete in the age of iTunes and MP4s. And stations that play a mindless smattering random songs will further push people away from radio.

Congress may extend daylight-saving time

2005-04-07T23:35:00.000-04:00

I've never been prouder to be from Massachusetts. If only Ed Markey was my representative. In an epic example of how politicians state the utterly obvious while attempting to appear smart, Markey had this to say, "The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use." Oh really, Congressman, thanks, what else can you tell us? "The more time we waste passing kind of dumb laws, the less we actually get done in Congress with the power invested in us by the voting public." [Imaginative quotational extrapolation mine]

I guess it's OK that some of Congress was working on this bill, because in another part of the capital, other members of Congress were trying to tell Apple how to run their business. I don't think Steve Jobs heard them, though, because he didn't show up.

Going to Shows

2005-04-06T00:29:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went with JO, W, and N to see Bloc Party at the Paradise. After working as the road manager for a touring band for the past 3 years or so, I don't really enjoy going to concerts that much anymore. Growing up I was at the Saturday and Sunday afternoon all ages matinees all the time. Now it's kind of boring going to shows, though. In fact, the last time I saw live music recreationally was in Sept of 2003, and then it was only because my new favorite band was in DC the same night as the band I worked with.

Bloc Party isn't my newest favorite band, but I did start listening to them recently enough that I was still semi-excited about the idea of going to see them. To me they sound like what U2 would sound like if U2 started today. The music was pretty good. They played for just long enough for me to get bored (35 minutes) and then during the encore I was so excited to go home, that I was excited again. I guess you can't expect much from a band with only one album, but you'd think they would have SOME other material, maybe a cover or two?

Being at the show with JO, W, and N was fun, too. Instead of joining in the hipster fashion parade, I think it's safe to say that they've internalized hipsterdom to the point of almost complete and total cynicism. Maybe that's a generalization. It was interesting, though, that everyone in the crowd we mocked (which was everyone) totally deserved it. There was the giant in the suede jacket who didn't realize his height and couldn't decide between leaning over and talking to his friend or crashing in to various members of our party. There was the frat boys who accosted the band for tickets at dinner before the show. (We were in the table next to BP, who, in their defense, refrained from returning any dishes or ordering copious amounts of JD). And then there were the fashionistas that looked like they raided their dad's closet from 1975 before the show. I mean, has anyone going to indie or British Dance Rock shows looked at themselves in the mirror lately? Mods with bad haircuts? Preppies with torn sports coats? I'm not sure these people know.

Music and fashion are so closely linked and I wonder why. I stopped going to hardcore shows when Straight Edge became more of a fashion statement than an ethos. SxE varsity leather jackets = lame no matter how fervent your belief in a 'my body is a temple' philosphy. However, thinking about it for a second, I can't really say that's why I stopped going. Not wanting to deal with hipster kids, though, is a good enough reason to stay home any day. And I don't think JO, W, and N are alone in their internal hipsterdom, either. I imagine a movement afoot. I wonder if there will someday be a battle for true hipsterdom and all the fashion hipsters (LOOKING like you're too cool for school) will do battle with the emotional hipsters (KNOWING you're too cool for school). It's unclear who would win this battle, quantity or quality, but one thing's for certain, bands like Bloc Party would probably stop selling so many tickets.

A Bay Area Weekend

2005-04-05T11:07:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I drove to Tahoe to spend the weekend at our leased-for-the-season cabin on the West shore of the Lake. I spent all day Saturday at Kirkwood Mountain snowboarding with my bf and three friends. On Sunday, my bf and I met up with my bf's father who had driven up from San Francisco the day before along with his 9 month old boxer puppy named Abby. The plan was to rent cross country skis and hit up the Black Canyon trail for a serene glide through the wilderness. By the time we clicked into our bindings, the snow was falling heavily. About 2 miles into the trail, my bf spotted a large brown bear lumbering across the path about 50 feet away.

"Look, quick! A bear!"

"Grab Abby!", his father said.

The three of us turned to the dog who hadn't spotted the bear yet, but sensed our agitation. Since I was closest, I was able to grab her and bring her to me. I caught the last glimpse of the bear's hindquarters before he silently sauntered into the woods.

Five hours later, we were back in San Francisco in my bf's apartment checking out movie times. My bf, his roommate, and I decided to go to a 9pm showing of Sin City. If you haven't heard of Sin City, it's an adaptation from a series of graphic novels written by Frank Miller. The movie is all about sexy women, badass men, freaky villains, hookers, cops, and crime. The plot sucked but the movie was visually appealing.

We left the theater around midnight. As we pulled onto Sheridan St. we saw two sketchy looking guys taking two bikes out of a garage. It was obvious to us that they were stealing the bikes, based on their shifty behavior and their shady looks. One young man was closing the garage door as the other man was biking away while carrying the other confiscated bike over his shoulder. The man on foot ran down the alley.

"I'll call the cops, and you guys go after him in the car!", the roommate said as he jumped out of the car.

My bf and I didn't hesitate. We sped off after the bad guys, unsure of what we would do if we caught them.

"They turned left... quick!" I said to my bf as he hit the gas.

It was like we were back in the movie theater, only this time we were the protagonists trying to keep the streets clean. We found them but they had positioned themselves on a one-way street, so we were forced to go around the block to head them off. By the time we made it around the block, they had split up. The one with the 2 bikes had ducked down an alley and the guy on foot was crossing Harrison St. right in front of us. My bf crossed three lanes of traffic and turned on his high beams. We pulled up right alongside the villain and rolled down our window. He was a short white guy that couldn't have been much older than 25. He had greasy brown hair that fell in his eyes and he had a pinched face, not unlike a rodent. He was wearing a long black leather coat and had an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Did you just steal those bikes?" my bf asked.

"No I'm friends with those guys...Dennis and all of them." he said.

"Then why were you running away?" my bf asked calmly.

"I wasn't running away."

"Why are you so sketchy?" I aptly inquired.

"I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't steal those bikes. I'm actually going back there right now to talk to Dennis."

When it was clear that we weren't going to get a confession out of this guy, we drove back to Sheridan St. where the roommate had new information. When he was on the phone with the cops, reporting the incident, the owner of the garage where the bikes were stolen, had walked out of his garage and was confronted by the leather coated villain who had just spoken to me and my bf. As promised he had gone back to talk to "Dennis". After a short discourse, the owner of the garage frantically hopped into his SUV and stopped in front of the roommate.

"My bike just got stolen! Did you see anyone do it?" he asked.

"Yeah, I did. I'm on the phone with the cops right now. The guy you were just talking to took the bikes with another guy."

"I thought so. I know that guy... but I wouldn't put it past him to take my bike." he said excitedly.

He sped off to find the perpetrators. Just then a police cruiser came down the alley. Two policemen came out of the car, and we told them what had happened. Then we went upstairs to go to bed and congratulate ourselves on our crime-fighting skills. About 10 minutes later the cops were back and the leather coated villain was in the back of the cruiser. They had found the bikes. They were waiting for "Dennis" to return to hear his side of the story. Would Dennis accuse the leather-coated rat-dude of stealing his bikes? Or are they all in this bike ring together?

Here's what I think... we're ALWAYS seeing sketchy stuff going on in front of that building. We see guys who look like addicts leaving there all the time. We've seen inside of the first floor apartment a couple of times when the door was open, and it looked an awful lot like the crack dens in movies I've seen. It's obvious to us that there is shady stuff going on there. So... two guys take two bikes out of the garage right as we drive up. The bikes are on the black-market already. They know they've been caught. They know we're going to call the cops. They quickly escape and split up. We confront the guy on the side of the road. Now it's confirmed that he's been caught. He runs back to Dennis' garage and quickly tells Dennis to expect the cops. Dennis has to leave his apartment now. The cops are coming and they might want to search the place and he has x Kilos of x stored in the back of the toilet, etc. He gets in his car and PRETENDS like he's going after the "bike thieves". He plays along and stops in front of my roommate and says "My bike just got stolen! Where'd they go?" to add to the illusion. The cops catch the "bike thieves" and now they're waiting for Dennis to come back and identify the guy. Dennis will forgive his acquaintance, get the bikes back, and the cops will leave hopefully before searching the place.

Where else than the Bay area can you see a bear in the morning and witness illegal bike ring that night?

Hello World

2005-04-03T20:37:00.000-04:00

AC, thanks for the invitation to join your blog. It's great to have a distraction like this at 8pm on a Sunday night while sitting in my cubicle at work.

Some introductory things about me:

5 realizations I made this weekend
(1) Alonetime is essential to mental health - turning off the cellphone is key
(2) Furniture that is also art is an enjoyable investment
(3) Perhaps I should be questioning the Americanized mispronounciation of my surname
(4) Sugar addictions are a very real thing
(5) Macrobiotic diets seem cool but may be difficult to maintain if you don't keep much food in your house

5(ish) Places I've lived
(1) Saudi Arabia
(2) California (Concord)
(3) Marshall Islands (Kwajalein)
(4) Mississippi (long beach)
(5) Rhode Island/Massachusetts (Providence, Boston)

5 things I'd definitely bring with me on vacation (if I were to go today)
(1) Gummy bears or orange slices (the candy, not the fruit)
(2) Ipod shuffle
(3) "Flash of Lightning in the Dark" by HH the Dali Lama
(4) "Breaking the Tongue" by Vivian Loh
(5) A world map

5 Places I'd like to go on vacation
(1) Cambodia
(2) Peru
(3) Bhutan
(4) China (silk road)
(5) Morroco

Note: I'll be going to Hawaii for sure this year, but would like to go to one other place on the top 5 list too, if possible (it will probably be either #1 or #2)

If it seems like I'm obsessed with going on vacation, you're right. I am. But, I digress. Back to work...

Identity Crisis

2005-03-31T16:25:00.000-05:00

A week ago I arrived home after work and found a package on the doorstep addressed to me. It was from Vonage, the broadband phone company. At first I thought the package might have something to do with my recent quest to get them to advertise with the magazine, but I quickly realized that there was no correlation between the mystery package and the weekly voicemail messages and emails that go unanswered. The box contained a Linksys Broadband router. The next day I went to the ATM to check my account activity and saw a charge for $57.78 from Vonage. When I arrived in my cubical, I called Vonage and explained what had happened. Apparently this is a common occurrence. The perpetrator gets a hold of your credit card information, and proceeds to download their SmartPhone service which can turn any PC or laptop into a full-functioning telephone. They then proceed to rack up some serious long distance phone calls. What's odd is that there is no hardware needed to install SmartPhone. Perhaps the bad-apple thought he was downloading SmartPhone when in fact, he was ordering the wrong service. Needless to say, I filed a fraud case with Vonage and they will be refunding my money. I'm sending the router back to them, and canceling my debit card and getting a new one issued. I feel so violated and I blame technology. I probably entered my debit card number into a website that wasn’t as secure as it should be, and some crappy person got a hold of it using some sort of hacking capabilities that are probably very easy to learn. Vonage has the technology that allows the violator to realize his evil plan, leaving innocent victims clutching their pocketbooks. Not cool!

The Office - Why Have you Forsaken Me?

2005-03-29T13:14:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I watched NBC's premiere of The Office. While watching, I couldn't help thinking it was so bad they may cancel it before it comes back from the next commercial. This show is very bad. It makes me sad how bad it is. I can't imagine it airing for three more episodes, let alone the rest of the season. That's a shame though because I LOVED the BBC series that The Office is based on, incidentally called The Office, as well. (From here on, when I write "The Office", I'm referring to the BBC masterpiece. When I write "NBC's Piece of Crap", I'm referring to the piece of crap that was on NBC tonight.)

The Office is one of those things that happens to me once or twice a year, the type of experience I envy other people for not experiencing it yet. I know how much they'll love it and remember how I felt the first time I loved it, too. And it's one of those things that make me angry at other people, as well. I've told them repeatedly how excellent and truly original it is, but for some reason, they refuse to watch it. Yes, I take it personally. No, I'm not related to Ricky Gervais.

NBC's Piece of Crap has none of this magic. Instead of being painfully awkward like the original, it is awkwardly painful to watch. And since a lot of the jokes are recycled (and not very well) from the original, NBC's Piece of Crap is not only terrible and a disappointment, knowing most of the punch-lines makes it boring as well. And yet, the recycled jokes are the most redeeming quality of the program. The laughingly bad attempt to recreate brilliant scenes brings the original to mind, the memory of which causes a quick chuckle, and then I remember where I am and cringe.

Watching NBC's Piece of Crap is like when you were growing up and tried to hang out with your best friend and their really annoying cousin from New York. You love your best friend and want to tolerate the cousin so that you can continue playing with his Coleco Vision. You can see a resemblance between your best friend and his cousin, but you can't, in your seven year old brain, understand how two totally different personalities could be related. This has two possible outcomes, usually one or the other, but sometimes both. 1) Your friend's mom stops calling your mom for a play-date when she realizes you and the cousin always end up in a fight in the basement. 2) You see the station wagon across the street with the NY plates and tell your mom that you've decided to decline the invitation to Chuckie Cheeze because you hate your best friend. Of course, you become friends again as soon as the station wagon pulls away on Sunday afternoon.

It will be interesting to see if NBC's Piece of Crap shows up on its regularly scheduled slot, Tuesday at 9:30 PM. Will I be watching? Of course, I crave memories of the Office and maybe this week will be better. Besides, I don't want to miss anything!

I Hate to Admit it, but...

2005-03-28T19:29:00.000-05:00

I kind of like the new song by Rob Thomas. You know, the lead singer for Matchbox 20. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly abhor Matchbox 20 and really, really hate Three Doors Down. They just totally and utterly annoy me. And for some reason, their guitar player reminds me of this guy that AC and I played guitar with in our high school rock and roll band. But, I can't help it, I actually like his song. It even has a dumb name, Lonely No More. But damn if it isn't catchy. And yes I was listening to it on an adult contemporary station.

I hate to admit this too, but I also kind of like the Toyota Corolla. At some point in the next couple of years I am going to have to get a new car. At first I was thinking I'd get the new Mustang. That was kind of a cool idea. I knew it didn't make much sense, but in my imagination, I didn't care. But, then I got to thinking that maybe a more practical car would be better. So I thought about a hybrid. However, I am not convinced that the premium you pay for the hybrid really offsets how much you save on gas. So here I am, thinking that I'd like a practical car with good gas mileage. And there you have it, I started noticing the Corolla. For some weird reason I actually like the way it looks and it supposedly gets good gas mileage.

The worst part about this is that I'm not even thinking about the car I am actually going to get. What I am pondering is a kind of dream car. What kind of person's dream car is a Corolla?

What I've figured out is that these lame leanings aren't so bad. It is indicative of something that is actually pretty cool. I am maturing. I am thinking practically and mellowing out a little bit. I guess that's what happens when you get older and move in with your girlfriend. Some of us get kittens and some of us dream of cruising along the road getting more than 25 miles per gallon in their Corolla. But either way it is kind of exciting. Almost as exciting as the beat behind Rob Thomas' new jam.

Maybe I'll take back some of my youth and get a Corolla S.

Girlfriend Vacation Running Journal 3

2005-03-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

10:15 AM Again, not as late as I'd have liked, but respectable, maybe I'll take a nap later on. I'm still expressing my displeasure by staying in bed for a couple hours this morning. I'll read the Globe sports page, slashdot, and anything else that catches my fancy.
12:35 PM I like Mark Cuban's blog, and I'm not ashamed!
12:43 PM Wow. This French site has pictures of the "transparent" backgrounds people are putting on their Macs. Imagine lifting your computer up and taking a picture of what is behind it. Then put that picture on you Mac desktop so you can "see through" the computer.
1:35 PM Shower. Didn't really get very dirty since yesterday, but a habit is a habit.
1:50 PM Eating cereal and reading Rolling Stone. I just like the People-esque section that talks about the different gossip. Most of the articles bore me. Though I did read an article about Suge Knight a couple years ago that gave me nightmares.
2:30 PM I tried adding pictures to the blog. I am using Ourmedia.org to do this and so far it's not working.
2:52 PM Decided to use up all the outstanding gift certificates I have. First up, $10.00 at iTunes. This is hard, I want to get something I'll like, but I can't find anything that's a certain hit. In desperation, I bought The Promise Ring's "Nothing Feels Good".
3:10 PM JR just called to let me know she's about 100 miles away. I better hurry if I want to have a good goal achievement percentage.
3:18 PM Next up, $90.00 at Smalldog.com. Game or External Hard drive?
4:32 PM After much discussion and misgivings I finally chose a hard drive only to find my credit rejected. I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. I have to go pick up JR in 20 minutes so I don't know how to prioritize my last few minutes of freedom. The $75 at Amazon will have to wait until later this evening.
5:53 PM I left to pick up JR signifying the end of "Girlfriend Vacation".

My best guest without reexamining the goals, I'd have to say I was pretty productive this weekend. However since we try to base everything at AABA on science and facts, let's go through the original list one by one.
Use up gift certificates to Smalldog, Amazon, and Borders. I wasn't yet able to use the Smalldog or Border's GCs because of a problem with the websites. I added iTunes to the list, and used up the Amazon GC so I'd have to consider this goal completed.
Purchase iPod case and external harddrive (perhaps with gift certificates). I plum forgot to buy an iPod case, but my big issue was getting over the hurdle and deciding which one to get. I've done that and I'll buy the case tonight. The hard drive was all set to be ordered from Smalldog until my store credit was rejected. Completed.
Shop for groceries. Over-completed.
Watch movies and basketball. 4 movies and a couple close games. Completed.
Laundry. Completed.
Finish a few blogs I've been working on (not the GF Vacation Journal). Ideas only, not completed.
Clean around the house. Depends on the definition of clean, but I did tidy up. Completed.
Extra goals will be added as they are realized. I learned about the history of notebook computers, researched discount online brokers, the difference between AAC and MP3, worked for about 7 hours, made some lunches for work, and fleshed out my disapproval of Rick Pitino. Completed.
Sleep a lot. The bane of boyfriends everywhere. When the girlfriend goes away, all semblance of time disappears, (which is why I think it's so hard to accomplish goals). Going to sleep early becomes impossible and for silly reasons, too. I failed to complete this goal.

That gives me a 90% achievement rate, I'm an indisputable success. But I wouldn't have been able to do it without all (ha!) of you. Clearly defining my goals for you gave me a small sense of structure to my time wasting and you deserve some of the credit. Next time we'll have to set higher aspirations.

Girlfriend Vacation Running Journal 2

2005-03-27T11:23:00.000-05:00

4:35 AM Got awoken by bad cat who was trying to climb on my bedside table. Normally, only JR is afflicted by them. Kicked both cats out and realized one had knocked my water over onto the carpet.
8:50 AM Cursed my job for conditioning my body to wake up early.
9:15 AM Decided to start my day. But to show my disapproval and reluctance, I'm going to spend the first 2 hours of the day in bed.
11:49 AM After reading a good deal of , Boston.com/globe/sports, and the RSS feed of slashdot.com, I got up to bring Another State of Mind (Netflix) to the mailbox. Instead of leaving it in our mailbox for the mailman to pick, I decided to enjoy the cloudless day and walk it down the street to the box. Hey, that could be all the going outside I do today.
12:05 PM Got back from my walk, so I'm now reading an article about The Birth of the Notebook on MobilePC. Why do I care about the history of mobile computing? One interesting fact is that portable PCs originally referred to the idea of being able to use what we now refer to as desktop computers anywhere.
12:21 PM Finished reading an article on Business 2.0 about how Apple is going to use the iPod and iTunes brand to continue kicking ass in the coming years.
12:42-1:42 PM I spent about an hour looking into discount online brokerage houses. I'm convinced there is an "Online Brokerage Association" that mandates every member must keep their fee schedule murkily confusing and make it difficult for interested investing novices to spend their money. I imagine that through an agreement between Federal Regulators and the OBA, online brokerages stay out of the regulatory spotlight by making a concerted effort to confuse and repel idiotic and impulsive consumers like me. Right now I see myself as a bleeding dolphin in the middle of the ocean. I'm being circled by sharks dressed as discount online brokerage houses. They're just waiting for me to make a decision so that they can eat me alive with hidden fees and surcharges. Individual sharks keep making a run at me, woosh, there goes an Ameritrade hammerhead, swish, a Scottrade great white. With whom will I invest? I don't know. But for now I've been sufficiently scared off. But I will swim again.
1:46 PM My arcane and indisputably geeky New Year's resolution was to track every cent I earned and spent this year. In that name I updated my Quicken records.
1:53 PM I need a new password system. I continually forget the passwords on my credit card site.
2:15 PM I Tried to figure out the difference between audio files in MP3 format compared to audio files in AAC format. I think I might have been going about things all wrong for the last year by ripping everything into 128 MP3. I don't ever really hear a difference, but I guess AAC takes up less space?
3:00 PM Took a shower to prepare for going to the grocery store.
3:34 PM The productivity begins right now. I'm going to throw in a load of laundry, go to the pet store and the grocery store and then clean. Or at least the laundry and stores.
5:22 PM For proof to the old adage don't go shopping on an empty stomach see AC's Shopping Trip on the 26th of March, 2005. Talk about bleeding dolphin in the middle of the ocean, I didn't stand a chance. I bought 3 of everything that I don't need. I see a sale on things I eat and buy a lot of it. This does keep me from having to go to the grocery store, but did I need 4 pints of Ben and Jerry's? I still haven't eaten the Ben and Jerry's I bought when it was on sale a couple weeks ago.
Let the productivity continue.
6:15 PM Cleaned toilet, bedroom, coffee table. Started working on spreadsheet again. Watched West Virginia totally blow a lead and lose to Louisville and Rick Pitino. I don't even like the Celtics very much, but I hate Rick Pitino. He wrote a book called "Success is a Choice" and that may be true, but if it is, why the F would you choose anything except success? And if you know it's a choice why would you make the decision to sign Travis Knight? There's only one explanation: Rick Pitino chose to fail while coaching the Celtics which makes his tenure here even worse, because he failed on purpose.
8:15 PM Started cooking and cleaning the kitchen. Pasta and chicken in different forms make up the majority of my diet, so I'm making a pound of chicken sausage, a pound of pasta and some sauce. I'll make several meals out of this that I can bring to work this week. Or else I'll just leave it on the stove and eat it until JR comes home tomorrow, it's probably what I should have done yesterday. Up until this point all I've eaten today is a banana and some ice cream. I'm pretty hungry.
9:34 PM Finally sated. It didn't come out as well as I would have hoped, but dinner is finally eaten.
9:38 PM Starting Outfoxed (Netflix).
9:45 PM Decided to work for an hour and paused Outfoxed.
10:45 PM Back on Outfoxed.
12:10 AM Outfoxed is over. It was pretty good. It seemed to me it was the film version of "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them."
1:00 AM I'm going to get into bed and watch a little bit of Closer, my second Jude Law movie in two days.
3:15 AM Damn it! I watched the entire thing. What was I thinking? Closer was pretty good, but I happen to hate most movies that were plays first. There is something different about dialogue written for the stage as opposed to the screen. People in plays and movies of plays tend to say stuff you wouldn't hear in real life and the conversations are almost always between two people only. Also, the timing always seems off, like the characters wait an extra beat before saying anything at all, which is what drives me craziest about this genre of film. Next time you have a conversation, try to get the other person to agree to count to one before responding to anything you say and you'll know what I mean.

Girlfriend Vacation Running Journal 1

2005-03-26T01:02:00.000-05:00

JR is in NY this weekend, which means I'm on Girlfriend Vacation. Every time she goes away I have high hopes of really getting some stuff done. Why can't I get this "stuff" done when she's here? I don't know. Why can't I ever get this stuff done when she goes away? I don't know, but I think it has something to do with heaping too much onto my plate. But without fail, it always ends up Sunday night and I wonder what I actually DID DO over the weekend because I haven't realized a quarter of the goals I set out to achieve. This weekend, will be different, though, not because I'll achieve any higher percentage of my goals, but because I'll at least have a record of my actions. To do this, I'm going to keep a running journal of my weekend.
But first a listing of goals in no real order of priority:
Use up gift certificates to Smalldog, Amazon, Borders.
Purchase iPod case and external harddrive (perhaps with gift certificates).
Shop for groceries.
Watch movies and basketball.
Laundry.
Finish a few blogs I've been working on (not the GF Vacation Journal).
Clean around the house.
Extra goals will be added as they are realized.
Sleep a lot.

Without further adieu:
4:40 PM Got home from dropping JR off at the bus station. I forgot I would be driving when we left and I didn't bring my wallet. Luckily, I didn't need it.
4:50 PM Read Salon.com's political blog, War Room. It was dominated by different stories about the Republicans unsuccessful efforts to politicize Terri Schaivo. More than likely, her name will be all but forgotten in a month. I don't feel positively or negatively about that, I just think the news cycle is so fast that stories don't stay around for very long. Remember the tsunami? Remember the elections in Iraq and Palestine? Remember steroids?
5:25 PM Worked on complicated (for me) Excel spreadsheet for work.
7:00 PM Shooed bad cats off of kitchen table and continued working on spreadsheet.
7:09 PM Shooed bad cats off of kitchen table again and decided to start watching Another State of Mind, a movie about a tour across the country in 1984 with Youth Brigade and Social Distortion. It's supposed to be one of the first and best punk documentaries. Still working on spreadsheet.
8:30 PM Another State of Mind is over. I wish it had been better, but it was interesting seeing Mike Ness so young and seemingly healthy. Although, Youth Brigade put together the tour and seemed to headline, it seemed like Social Distortion was more popular. At least it seemed like they had more money than Youth Brigade. SD all ended up flying home from DC when the bus broke down for the umpteenth time, while Youth Brigade and the road crew drove home in the back of a UHaul truck.
8:31 PM Fed cats evening snack. They're on a schedule now where they get a small meal in the early evening and then a big meal in the late meal. This should keep them from crying for food in the morning and waking us up. Unfortunately, they wake us up anyway, but not because they're hungry. I think it's because they're bad cats.
8:32 PM Back to work on the spreadsheet.
9:45 PM Quit working on spreadsheet. Major problem was coming up with a solid formula to calculate the percentage of change (both positive and negative). I was able to get it to calculate positive growth and also to calculate negative change, but not at the same time.
10:00 PM Ate my new favorite 'easiest meal ever'. Poached egg and cheese wrap. It takes about 3 minutes to make.
10:14 PM Scooped poop from kitty litter box. One of the bad cats hasn't learned to cover his poop and therefore fills the entire house with a terrible smell twice a day.
10:21 PM Started watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. UNC-Villanova is on the muted TV, though my bracket is in absolute shambles.
10:58 PM JR calls to check in and say good night. She had really good Indian food, I'm going to have some ice cream.
12:06 AM Finished Sky Captain. It was OK. I liked how it seemed like I was watching a comic book the entire time. It seemed to black and white with a little blush on the cheeks every now and then. Silly plot. You just don't expect movies to have only one major problem for the heroes to solve. This one did.
1:00 AM Fed the cats and went to bed.

The Art of Interviewing Part II

2005-03-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

I love interviewing! This time I wiped my mouth thoroughly before heading into the lion's den. I met with two twenty-somthing sales women and it was less like an interview and more like three people chatting at happy hour! We exchanged animated stories about our jobs and I actually felt like I wanted to be friends with them. That said, you can never be too cautious when it comes to people in the sales profession. It's basically their job to make you believe that you're worth a million bucks. They are in the business of giving warm and fuzzies... and there have been plenty of times when I thought I nailed an interview, only to find that they never called me back.

Another thing- this job is in NYC. So that means I would have to leave SF (my home for 3.5 years) and relocate to the opposite side of the country. My sister and brother-in-law both have lived in NYC and they say one of two things can happen to me if I move there. 1. I can adjust to the fast paced/hard core/intensly competitive environment and be changed for the worse. 2. I will get chewed up and spit out and want to leave NYC badly. Neither of those options are favorable. But, my sister and brother-in-law live out here and don't plan on moving back East, so perhaps they're just saying these things because they have their own motivations for keeping me here. The rest of my family is back East and the pull to go back has always been strong. Then there's the fact that my boyfriend lives here in SF, and he's a big factor in the decision.

Best case scenerio, they offer me a $20K raise to my base salary and a big relocation pacakge. My bf decides if there's a time to live in the Big Apple, it's now. And they give me two weeks off to make the road trip cross country. Upon arriving in NYC, we find a great and affordable 1 bedroom apartment right near a bagel factory.

The Art of Interviewing

2005-03-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

I have an interview today. It's my second interview where I meet more people and wow them with my charm, intelligence, and charisma. There is something exhilirating about interviewing. This one is at 4pm so I have the whole day for my anticipation to build. There is also something detestable about interviewing. I'm on the chopping block with my cheeck pressed against the stump, while my interviewer positions his ax.

During my first interview with this company, I had some time to kill, so I headed to Starbucks. It wasn't until I was back home in my apartment with the interview behind me, that I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, and lo and behold, a smudge of crusty cocoa had hardened to the corner of my mouth. The cocoa I sprinkled on my latte! Interviewing.... ARGHHHH!

Free Online Tax Filing--While It Lasts

2005-03-21T23:45:00.000-05:00

One thing that many people don't know this tax season is that, because of an agreement between the Free File Alliance, LLC and the IRS, most Americans are eligible to prepare their taxes online and e-file using the websites of well known tax software companies. "The FFA was founded several years ago by a consortium of software companies who wanted to keep the government out of the tax-software business. At the time, the IRS was thinking of offering its own free tax-preparation software in order to encourage people to file their returns electronically. The IRS has set a goal of receiving 80 percent of all returns electronically by 2007." How's the government doing with that goal? Well, they expect 67 million people to file electronically this year.

Besides the speed of receiving one's return, the other great thing about using tax software to prepare a tax return is the way that they prompt the user along asking question after question in easy to understand language. Unlike most of my peers, I didn't receive any W-2s last year, but I did receive two 1099-MISCs for work I did as an independent contractor. Yup, you can even use the software to prepare multiple Schedule Cs. Sounds great, and it is. Unless of course, you're trying to use H & R Block's offering.

Two years ago, I used Intuit's online Turbotax software. I don't remember much about it, except that in the top right hand corner there was an ever-changing number totaling how much I owed or would get back. It was kind of like a fiscal scoreboard in a grudge match between me and Uncle Sam. I used H&R Block's online software last year after getting a coupon for it. I could have filed for free last year, as well, but I procrastinated and missed the deadline. (Rejoice underpaid America, for this year there is no deadline to file for free.) H&R Block was clumsy, and didn't have the fiscal scoreboard, but it worked well enough. This year, I decided to use H & R Block again, so as to take advantage of what I thought was the most key feature, importation of last year's information!

So I gather my various 1099-MISCs, 1099-INTs, 1099-Rs, 1098-Es, and Form 5498s rollover and settle in to compete against Uncle Sam on the hallowed playing fields, walked on by most Americans, with the notable exception of Al Capone. My own private version of March Madness, winner take all, or, if not all, plenty enough coin for several 20 pound bags of Iam's Adult.

Through two tortureous sessions of self-doubt and misgivings, I slaved away. I quickly discovered two bugs with using H&R Block with Safari on a Mac. 1) After a few minutes, regardless of whether I had been idle or slaving away, a warning would pop up saying I would be automatically logged out in five minutes if I did not click cancel (clicking OK would log me out immediately). I can understand this safeguard if I've actually been idle, but it gets annoying when it POPS UP EVERY THIRTY SECONDS. 2) Often H&R Block will ask if I have more questions or want more information. I found out that clicking these links did nothing and I was relegated to trying to understand the different deductions and recaptures as best I could. These links didn't work at all on a Mac; I tried the site on both Firefox to check (IE wouldn't even load the software).

Finally, FINALLY, I finished and got ready to file only to find out that H&R Block wanted $49.95 for the priviledge of filing my tax return. I was disconsolate, beyond disappointed, and completely without recourse. It was my fault, though, if the pop ups had worked on a Mac, I wouldn't have imported last year's information (and I wouldn't have been on H&R Block's site in the first place). Knowing it wouldn't do any good, but wanting to get some satisfaction from my experience, I decided to ignorantly chat with a site technician from H&R Block. As far as customer service goes, this woman was an accountant, if you know what I mean. For your enjoyment, I've included a copy of the chat below. There will be bonus points if you can figure out BB's quote of the day.

In the end, I used Turbotax off of the website Statetaxfreedom.com, and I suggest all of you do the same. It was much faster (using Firefox), much easier, much prettier, and, best of all, I was able to keep an eye on my fiscal scoreboard. How'd I do? Let's just say JR, James, Charlie and I will have plenty of Iam's Adult for the next year.

Welcome to H&R Block. Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
You are currently at position number 1 in the queue.
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
An agent will be with you in a moment. Thank you for your patience.
The next available Agent will be with you in a moment.
You are currently at position number 1 in the queue.
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
You have been connected to BB.
BB: Hello AARON, welcome to H & R Block's Live Technical Support Chat! How can we assist you today?
AC: Hi,
AC: I went to HR Block through IRS.Gov and thought my federal and state return would be free.
AC: I'm being asked for $49.95.
BB: So, just to make sure that I understand your issue, you are being charged but you want to free file?
AC: Yes
BB: I can help you with that.
BB: To do that:

1. Navigate your browser to www.irs.gov
2. Create a new account with new user ID and password from the H&R Block link. Note: If you used this FREE filing Program in previous years, to use it again, you must create a new account and not import from last years return.
3. Complete your taxes.
4. You will receive your federal return for free if you meet the adjusted gross income criteria.
AC: I didn't realize I needed to use a different account and not import from last year.
BB: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
AC: I already finished my return.
BB: Unfortunately, if you want to free file, you must follow the steps above.
BB: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
AC: So should I start over on Turbotax?
BB: I cannot make that decision for you.
BB: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
AC: I don't feel like you assited me. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be using HR Block tax software again. At the beginning of the session I tried to click "What Happens If I Import" and the dialog box never came up.
BB: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
AC: I used a Mac and tried on Safari and Firefox. HR Block wouldn't even load on IE.
BB: Below is a list of supported operating systems and browsers for the online products.

Note: Your browser must be set up to accept cookies, Java and JavaScript.

Supported Operating Systems and Browsers

Windows 95:
- Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL6, 7

Windows 98:
- Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 and 6
- Netscape 6.2 , 7
- AOL6, 7, 8 and 9

Windows ME:
- Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL6, 7, 8 and 9

Windows NT:
- Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 and 6
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL5 and 6

Windows 2000:
- Internet Explorer 5.5, 6
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL6, 7, 8 and 9

Windows XP:
- Internet Explorer 6
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL6, 7, 8 and 9

MAC OS 9.1:
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL6, 7, 8 and 9

MAC OS X:
- Internet Explorer 5.01
- Netscape 6.2 and 7
- AOL6, 7, 8 and 9

Minimum Hardware Requirements:
16 MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended)

Note: The browser must have 128 bit encryption.

To check the encryption for Internet Explorer, follow these steps:

1. Select "Help" from the menu in Internet Explorer.
2. Choose "About Internet Explorer."
3. Look for the section that reads "Cipher Strength: 128 bit."

To check the encryption for Netscape Navigator, follow these steps:

1. Select "Help" from the menu and choose "About Navigator (or Communicator)."
2. Look for the section that reads "Contains encryption software from RSA Data Security, Inc".
3. If the next paragraph says "This version supports U.S. security", that means you have 128-bit security. If it says you have International security, that means you have 40-bit security.

Pop-Up Killers / Ad Blockers:

Ensure that third party software such as "ad blockers" or "pop-up killers" are disabled. Netscape version 7.01 has built in "ad blockers" or "pop-up killers." For more information, open the "Help" menu and choose "Help and Support Center" or visit http://help.netscape.com/default.jsp
BB: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
BB: Thank you for contacting H&R Block, AARON, and we look forward to serving you in the future!

MIT Develops $100 Laptop

2005-03-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

MIT's Media Labs is developing a laptop that will cost less than $100. Nicholas Negroponte, who heads the lab, envisages the computers as educational tools for use in developing countries. An even more ambitious goal of the project is to give a laptop to every child to use as a digital textbook. The theory is that kids will not only use the computers to access information, but will use their innate curiosity to figure out how the machines work and presumably learn some programming.

To keep prices down, these computers will not be the fastest or most powerful machines. They will inevitably use open source software, such as the Linux operating system, and will be exported as kits to be built locally.

Negroponte plans to export his laptops next year, and has been discussing a large shipment to China's Education Ministry.

And that's what I think is the most surprising thing about this whole thing. Maybe I am wrong, but I always thought China was somewhat paranoid about allowing its citizens free access to the internet. This will most likely occur when you give kids computers and the basic education needed to operate the machines. And that is exactly what they are doing. These kids will find a way onto the internet and will have almost unfettered access to the outside world. Do China's gerontocrats realize what they are allowing? I sure hope not.

I do have one concern. Say these computers get into the hands of Nigeria's children. Are they going to continue in their parents' footsteps and attack the world with 419 scams that are actually believable?

Job Angst

2005-03-17T00:08:00.000-05:00

Today my boss Dave came into my cubical and sat on my guest chair in his usual attempt to find out why I'm not "hitting my numbers" without coming right out and asking. The background story is that I sell advertising for a tech magazine, my territory stinks, my revenue goal is a pie in the sky number that Dave arbitrarily picked out of his rear and I share a cubical wall with Steve, a Midwestern metrosexual who was recently hired to help handle the territory and is doing a great job of closing business, kissing Dave's ass by appealing to his strong need for a "buddy", and igniting a competitive fire inside of me that I haven't seen since 8th grade CYO basketball.

I imagine you can sense my frustration.

So, Dave sits in my cubical and talks to me about his latest business trip to see Steve's clients. He goes on about how they stayed up until 3AM with the agency and how great they are and blah blah blah. I'm not listening anymore because I'm reminded of how I should be planning business trips to see my clients but how the heck am I supposed to set up meetings when no one is frickin' calling me back!? My knuckles are gripping the armrests of my Aeron chair so tightly it's becoming obvious to Dave that I'm about to launch into it. Which I do. It's a half hour conversation all about how my worth is attached to an end-of-the-month number and each month I feel like a turd. About how I'm responsible for a publication that the company isn't putting any time or effort into and I'm not getting compensated enough to assume the responsibility for sales, marketing, business and development for an entire website! Just writing this blog entry is getting me heated up, so I'll stop there. Needless to say, when the talk was over, I felt like my emotions were too involved and I said too much. Another case of falling into the role of “PMS-ing young woman at work" when I told myself I would never, under any circumstances, let myself be her. Oh well!

So back to the story... Is this sales? Is this just part of the gig like Dave says it is? Or does Dave need to assume some responsibility as a manager, and if so, do I have the right to make some demands of him? These are the questions I ask myself... questions that come from inexperience and self doubt. I've been in the working world for three and a half years now. I'm faced with a situation where I can continue working in this particular cubical and wait it out for the next big win, or I can leave this job and explore options elsewhere in far off cubicles that hold lots of promise, excitement, and money (of course). Sianora, Dave!

You know what I don't understand?

2005-03-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

I was just watching a DVD of the second season of Alias (which, by the way, is just as crappy as the first season). In it, a character mentioned the name of their webpage and I remembered it to look at later. The page didn't really bring anything up except a silly search engine that didn't give any results unless you searched for a website that had bought an advertisement on the site.

My question is this, why don't companies ever buy these websites to point to their sites as part of their advertising budget? I can't imagine that I'm the only one who looks for these sites, and I know that these fake website names are mentioned on TV or DVDs fairly regularly.

I did a quick Google search on domain names on TV shows and I
found this blurb about Will and Grace and the Simpson's. Apparently, TV shows have started to buy the sites mentioned on their program, and this seems like a bright idea - it reinforces the alternate universe that the show inhabits. This marketing department/ writing team synergy must be fairly new, though, because it didn't apply to Conspiracychick.com, and it didn't apply to another domain mentioned on a syndicated episode of the Simpson's, the name of which I unfortunately (and conveniently hee hee hee) can't remember.

This link is especially worth clicking on:
http://www.springfieldisforgayloversofmarriage.com/wiggum.htm

How to Start a Startup

2005-03-13T22:29:00.000-05:00

I don't want to be a working man forever. That means that I'm eventually going to need to become rich. In order to do that, I feel like my best bet is starting my own business. According to Paul Graham, "You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed."

I don't know who Paul Graham is, a tech guy who made good stuff at some point or another. And he's right about the 3 things needed for a good startup. Except that spending as little money as possible, and even finding good people isn't close to as hard as coming up with a good product. Having a good product won't take you all the way to success, but it definitely will allow you to make a lot of mistakes along the way.

Now, I've got some good people in mind, and I'm great at being fiscally conservative, anyone have any good products?

I need this

2005-03-13T14:26:00.000-05:00

It's too bad my birthday was a while ago, because I would have asked for a subscription for Make: Technology in Your Time. Check out the table of contents. It teaches you to make a desktop rail gun. Or your own UAV equipped with a digital camera. So maybe I should scrounge together the $35 to get a subscription and find myself a useful hobby.

It’s Not Dangerous

2005-03-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

This is from Sun Microsystems' Technology Director Tim Bray. His 10 reasons why blogging is good for your career offer even more inspiration for me to blog. I want a good career.

Jack in the Box Voicemail

2005-03-10T23:23:00.000-05:00

JR thinks this is fake. I think it's real.

Regardless, I've been inspired to leave more messages like this for my boss. Probably can't hurt, right?

Hillary and Chuck

2005-03-10T01:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon an intense weather system moved over the Northeast and made for some nasty conditions. Walking across the parking lot from the train, I came as close to having a Luke Skywalker killing his ton-ton moment as I've ever had in my life. One thing that stopped me was my semi-animal friendly disposition and another thing was my lack of ton-tons. I accepted my lack of ton-tons and trudged furiously to my car.

The locks on my car have a habit of freezing up when the temperature drops suddenly. I finally got in through the passenger side after several desperate minutes in the 100 million mile an hour winds and the snow, sleet, and hail, that was actually blowing up. After I got into the car, the windshield needed serious attention, except since I couldn't get out of the driver's side door, I decided to drive home and hope the windshield wipers would do their job. They didn't and I think this driving was the worst of my life including van and trailers in torrential downpours on steep mountain roads.

Anyway, this morning, as I got into my car to drive to the train it was the first beautiful morning in a long time and I was feeling pretty good. That was until I tried shutting the door and realized that instead of my door being frozen closed and locked, the latch had frozen open. The door literally would not stay shut without my holding it. WTF, right? Although I eventually figured out that I could keep the door jammed shut by shoving an ice scraper though the armrest, I drove to the train serenaded by the "Doo-Bee-Doop" door chime. I made the best of it by pretending it was techno.

Because of traffic and my car door, I didn't make the 8:30 train to South Station. Big deal, I'd take the 9:05. Unfortunately, the 9:05 got canceled. AT FIVE PAST TEN! The 10:02? I don't know if it ever came because I left the station at 10:35 with Hillary and Chuck, two strangers I had been chatting with at the train station. After realizing the train probably wouldn't come unil 10:45 anyway, I decided to drive and figured I might as well have company (and maybe some help splitting the cost of the trip?)

Anyway, I found out a lot about Hillary, not because she talked a lot, but because I think Chuck was hitting on her and kept asking her lots of questions. Chuck was probably mid to late thirties and he worked for a marketing company from Providence that had offices in Boston. Hillary, early twenties, was a bartender for a bar near Fenway Park and illustrated children's books. She just graduated from Mass Art and lived in Attleboro with her boyfriend. Chuck moved to Attleboro about a year and a half ago to live more in the woods. Hillary's brother plays music and he's a music teacher, but he's in law school now. He's pretty good with HTML and might help her make a website to display her art. Chuck plays music on the weekends in a Pink Floyd tribute band. Hillary didn't seem to mind Chuck hitting on her and at times she even seemed to be working him for a tip, like all good bartenders. Neither of them offered any money for gas or parking.

Everyone's got interesting stories if you take a minute to ask them questions. You find out a lot more if you let someone else hit on them for a while, though.

Blog-linked firings

2005-03-08T23:25:00.000-05:00

I work for a company that really, really REALLY wants its employees to blog about life at the company and life in general on a company hosted blog. I believe this encouragement is a no brainer - a good thing for the health of the company (the employees), while also leading to a transparency beneficial to the general public.

Admittedly, I don't have much experience in the work force, but I think my company is different and would never fire employees for posing seductively in the office.

At the same time, you never know. Opportunities abound every day for us to blog about company goings-on that don't seem too serious until magnified by the white hot heat of cyberspace. We're still a young company, and we still make mistakes so it isn't too hard imagining an employee creating a serious problem for the company (or themselves) by blogging about something they shouldn't (a client? a project they're working on? a competitor?)

The company needs to figure out a way to remain transparent, while giving employees clear guidelines for what it expects. How would these guidelines affect the integrity of the blog that is so important to the future of the company?

Mr. Roper, Mr. Roper!

2005-03-07T00:23:00.000-05:00

I think my landlord hates me.

Admittedly, he may have reasons to, but at the same time, if he had been a good landlord in the first place, none of our run-ins would have happened.

On first glance, everything seemed peachy, we looked at the place and loved it - loved the space, loved the rent, loved the perceived landlord/tenant relationship. The guy who lived here before us seemed to have a male crush on our landlord. And it was definitely a mutual relationship. Great, I might not know anyone in this new city, but at least the landlord would be a cool guy.

Fast forward to the day of moving in. The landlord knew what day we were moving in, he had told us the back stairs might be too thin for us to move bigger furniture in and he, in fact, had even suggested we use the front stairs, as they were much more amicable to furniture moving. So what do we find in the front stairs on the day we moved in? A bunch of crap including boxes of books and a filing cabinet. After moving the crap out of the way as unobtrusively as possible, we commenced moving the bigger furniture into the house. Everything went pretty well until the couch. (In the future, I think we'll be buying all of our couches from people who deliver them. All my old couches will be destroyed with a pick axe in my livingroom and thrown out the window closest to the garbarge pick-up area.) Back to the couch. While bringing it up the stairs and trying to finagle my way around the filing cabinet, I had to do a little limbo maneuver with my feet out under the couch and in front of the filing cabinet. Momentarily, my ass was pressed against the top of the filing cabinet and it gave way a bit. The filing cabinet was now warped enough so that the top drawer didn't close flush with the sides. I tried to fix it, failed, and forgot about it in my moving-in exhaustion/euphoria. The next day, our landlord came up and seemed depressed about something. He made sure everything was OK and then asked if I remembered anything falling on the filing cabinet in the front stairs. I explained to him what had happened. He got all passive agressivey and was like, "Nah, it's OK, I'll have to get a new one, this one's busted." That's the first reason my landlord hates me.

Fast forward a couple uneventful landlord/tenant months until 3 weeks ago. He had asked if I was going to be home on Thursday to show the place to a lead inspector and I said I wouldn't be home Thursday, but I could do it all day Friday. I was actually excited to do him a favor. But then he flipped the switch on me and came home from work to show the lead inspector around on Thursday instead of Friday. Watch out! Upon leaving the apartment, he locked the door as any good landlord would do. Here comes reason number two my landlord hates me. When we moved in, the doorknob only allowed one key to work (I can only presume the original), regardless of how many copies we made. We told the landlord and he told us he'd take care of it. Days went by, weeks went by and nothing ever happened. Eventually, a doorknob set appeared by his door, an obvious reminder to him, which he ignored every time he went in or out of his house. One day, I took home improvement matters into my own hands and installed the doorknob myself. It's possible that I installed it incorrectly, but it's possible the doorknob was from the same cheap piece of crap doorknob set from whence our original doorknob came. Within days, we realized had the same problem as before (no copied keys could unlock the door). So what were we to do with 2 people and one key? Leave the door unlocked of course. Seems like a foolproof plan, but there was just one hitch. With a door permanently unlocked, we couldn't leave our landlord a key. After locking the door behind he and the lead inspector, we came home to find ourselves on the wrong side of a cheap doorknob set doing the only thing it knew how to do, which was stay locked. The landlord didn't think the predicament was too funny and had to knock the doorknob off with a hammer, which I had never thought of as a break-in technique, but it did the trick. Anyway, he was helpful and all, but not without a helping of that same passive agressivey attitude again.

The third reason my landlord hates me happened just last night. The pressure of the hot water in our bathroom sink is terrible. Remember the broken water fountain in school? Try to imagine washing your face with it and you'll get an idea of what our bathroom is like. Anyway, I finally got frustrated enough to do something about it 2 nights ago. But instead of doing the RIGHT thing and calling my landlord angrily, I tried to solve the problem myself. I went underneath the sink, twisted the nozzle all the way in one direction, turned the faucet on to no change, twisted the nozzle all the way back to way it was, turned the faucet on to still no change and went to bed upset and forlorn at the thought of many more months of cold face splashes. The next morning, yesterday, I looked under the sink to try a little harder and noticed that the nozzle seemed to have leaked a bit during the night. For good measure, I gave the nozzle a few extra twists back into it's original position and gave it not a second thought. Unfortunately, my plumbing destruction prowess is nonparalelled and the nozzle continued to leak drip by drip, hour by hour, until my landlord noticed it through HIS bathroom ceiling. Well, we came home last night to an unhappy voicemail and even less hot water pressure. Our landlord had fixed the problem. And made a notch on his belt for yet another reason why he hates me.

My point is that if he had moved the filing cabinet out of the only area suitable for bringing couches upstairs, had installed a good doorknob which accepted copied keys, and had fixed the bathroom sink which he had no doubt used in the course of his ownership of the house, none of the stuff I did to him would have happened. I'm not without blame in this relationship, that's clear, but I'm not above casting stones at him as well.

P.S. Our apartment isn't really as nice as we thought it was when we looked at it the first time. They're isn't enough light in the bathroom or living room, the front room seems to have dryer lint for insulation, the colapsed ceiling is colapsing in multiple locations, and front gate is hard to open. I feel so petty and relieved!

Netscape 8.0--Stick to Firefox

2005-03-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

So Netscape/AOL introduced the beta version of its browser. According to eWeek, "Netscape version 8 focuses on security and user privacy, and supports rendering with both Mozilla's Gecko and Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser engines." So yeah, it is more secure than IE, but what isn't? But I have to say I was completetly underwhelmed by Netscape's offering.

I played around with Netscape 8.0 and was immediately struck how ugly the thing is. The menus are cluttered and there is just way too much going on. One of the things I like so much about Firefox is its simplicity and its clean interface.

The other thing that jumped up at me was Netscape's menus. They are exactly like Firefox's. That shouldn't be a surprise since the browser is based on the open-source Firefox. But, it gives Netscape's product the feel of something that was haphazardly slapped together in a feeble attempt to take part in what seems to be the Second Browser War

For what is worth, I'd say stick with Firefox. It is kind of nice that we have a non-Microsoft browser for viewing IE webpages. That's not such a bad thing at all.

First Blog Ever

2005-03-02T18:35:00.000-05:00

So I am a little behind. Here it is, February 2005, and I am making my first foray into blogging. I'm not even sure if blogging is cool any more. But I am going to give it my best shot and hopefully cultivate as large a following as my fellow Washingtonian, the Wonkette.

I don't really have a grand idea of where I want to go with this. My thoughts will probably coalesce around the major themes in my yuppie life:

--Computing. I put up with a lot of teasing from my girlfriend about how nerdy I am, but I switched to Linux and can possibly help you make the switch to. I am warning you all now, Linux isn't for those who believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

--Commuting. Washington is quite possibly the worst place to drive. Ever. Trust me. People FLIP their cars over when it snows an inch or rains. It is insane.

--Cooking. I have some good recipes that are easy to make and there is a whole lot I want to learn.

--Oh, and of course moving. I have moved every year for a while now. This year is no different. We'll follow my adventures as the girlfriend and I pick out paint (Victoria Red goes with my desk), furniture, and other wonderful things. It will be great.

I can tell you this much, I won't writing about sports. AC has that covered. I can't throw, so that should tell you how much I am going to know about sports.

That's it for now. See you soon.
JT

Circular Theory

2005-02-25T23:41:00.000-05:00

'Toine is back! I don't think this is the time for my "AC's feelings on basketball" blog, but I should at least mention that I don't care about basketball. In October of 2003, Danny Ainge traded Antoine Walker to Dallas for some other players and maybe some draft picks or cash. Who knows? Anyway, while listening to WEEI this afternoon one of the substitute hosts for the "Dale Arnold Show" (possibly more on this later) said by far the most interesting thing I've ever heard on sports talk radio. This is a paraphrasation of the quotation, but... "If Danny Ainge hadn't traded Antoine a year and a half ago, he wouldn't have been in the position to make this trade today." The context of the discussion let me know that what he meant was that without the players he got for Walker a year and a half ago, he wouldn't have been in the position to pick up an impact player for the playoff drive. The obvious point, though is that if Ainge hadn't traded Antoine he wouldn't need him as an impact player because he would have already been there. Which wouldn't have made him an impact player, but a current player. Walker wouldn't be a big midseason boost, but maybe if he had been there all season, they'd have won more games?

AC Basketball Talk Episode One over and out.

Mascot 1, Cris Colinsworth 0

2005-02-21T12:31:00.000-05:00

This morning, as I was waking up, I had a ridiculous dream and I was wondering if you thought it was a problem. The New England Patriots were playing in a "Big Game" against the San Diego Chargers. I don't know the signifigance of the opposition being the Chargers, but it was the Chargers in the way you know certain facts in your dreams. Anyway, the Patriots were at the goalline when Bill Belichick inserted himself as quarterback. He was wearing his oversized gray sweatshirt and instead of a helmet, he was wearing his headset. He called for a QB sneak and ran the ball in easily, even sticking it out a little in a somewhat taunting manner.

This is where it gets interesting. I didn't see anyone hit him, but all of a sudden a Chargers player is running out of the endzone with the ball before he gets decked around the 50 yard line by, who else but, Rodney Harrison. At this point the dream turned from a linear story into a choppy highlight real. There was a Terrel Owens-esque scene of a Charger's player spiking the ball on the Patriots' midfield logo, there was a scene of Patriots players on top of Chargers players in the end zone punching the crap out of them. This was weird because the Patriots players were raising their fists and punching in unison (imagine the Rockette's in a street brawl).

Right before I woke up and as if my dream was returning from commercial, there was a scene of the Patriots mascot being held down by Cris Colinsworth in the way that players are held down during a kick off return. The mascot gets up and punches at Cris Colinsworth missing most of him and Cris Colinsworth slaps him. I didn't realize this at the time, but slapping the mascot wouldn't really hurt because he had one of those giant heads. I think in the dream, though, the mascot's head was a real giant head and not a fake giant head. This mini battle ended with the mascot decking Cris Colinsworth in the mouth and Cris Colinsworth walking way shaking his head and scowling with bloody teeth. And then I woke up. Red Sox pitchers and catchers reported on the 17th and the position players reported today. Although it is snowing outside, today is the first day of spring.

What part of "Due by noon on Tuesday" don't you understand?

2005-02-18T21:58:00.000-05:00

I hadn't planned on being so prolific today, but something about the first post of the year and this head cold gave me seven billion ideas.

This being just one of them:

I'm not sure, and I don't mean to sound like I have a higher than average sense of personal responsibility, but is it possible that one of the reasons that most Americans seem to have a completely unrealistic sense of, well, reality is that since they were younger someone has always bailed them out?

I'm sure I sound like a schill for conglomerates, but this is just ridiculous. Most of my generation, and possibly the one before it has grown up with the solid understanding, that there will always be someone there for them. While this is reassuring, it has made us into a country of irresponsible chumps. When we were chastised in school, there was a parent defending us and now, when we can't return our movies, who comes running, but the beautiful state of NJ.

Blockbuster has made a big deal recently of canceling their late fees. It appears that NJ believes its citizens have been wronged by this seemingly in-good-faith act by Blockbuster. In reality, I believe Blockbuster was acting more in their own interests than the customers, they crunched the numbers and realized they'd retain more customers and even regain lost customers if they changed their late policy. That doesn't change the fact that you should be able to return a video on time, or at least ask what happens if you don't. I've returned movies late, and I always feel like a dolt for having to pay a late fee. I've never understood why Blockbuster charging late fees was a problem, but even before their recent policy change, they were facing lawsuits. Am I supporting tort reform? Not really, but I definitely don't support the government sueing companies for charging fees that can a) be easily avoided b) will be explained by a clerk if asked.

(I'm not a good blogger yet because I'm about to say something that I don't have a link for so just bear with me and take my word for it or google "blockbuster late fees". Would you have noticed? Probably.) I've read that Blockbuster has used the cancelation of late fees to raise their rental prices, at least for video games. This I find abhorrent. Still, there's no reason to not your movies on time.

My first post of the new year.

2005-02-18T14:06:00.000-05:00

Uhh... So in my first post I wrote that I hoped that I would continually post. I'm not sure if I can get credit for that, but maybe I will redouble my efforts today. Topics I could talk about in the coming weeks or months or years:
The end of an era?
Commuting to work?
Cats?
Hopefully all of the above and more in the next couple weeks or months or years.
We'll see.

Win It For - www.ezboard.com

2004-10-28T13:23:00.000-04:00

This might be the best documentation of the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 Win It For - www.ezboard.com. It's filled with hundreds of people asking the Red Sox to win for... Most people have a story about who they want the Sox to win for. Usually, it's because that person either shared many memories with them, or they had been taught to love the Red Sox by them. It's great and I consider reading it straight through this morning to be my personal celebration of the Red Sox World Series win!!!

6,000 BTU Maytag "X" Chassis Built-In Air Conditioner, M6X06F2A

2004-10-04T15:29:00.000-04:00

You know what you don't hear about too often? Air conditioners falling out the window. But it happens. It happened to me, and this was my air conditioner.
6,000 BTU Maytag "X" Chassis Built-In Air Conditioner, M6X06F2A.
Luckily, it fell straight down because if it had fallen a little to the left or a little to the right, it would have caused a lot more damage. The air conditioner suffered massive damage and will be replaced in the next year.

Merriam-Webster Online

2004-08-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

You now have to pay to use Merriam-Webster Online. How are we supposed to look up our words for Boggle? I'm pretty upset.

Test Your Geography Knowledge- Africa

2004-08-15T11:16:00.000-04:00

If you want to be humbled, check out this geography quiz. Test Your Geography Knowledge- Africa You can test yourself on other areas such as the US, Europe, and Asia. I found the African test particularly galling because in Middle School I knew the locations of all the African nations.

Urban Discovery Channel

2004-08-10T01:24:00.000-04:00

This afternoon, while I was sitting on the couch, a hawk snatched a pigeon from the sky right in front of the window. They landed on the ground with a loud thump and I looked out the window to see the hawk nervously watching the cars drive by while the pigeon flapped its wings slower and slower. I didn't think stuff like that happened in cities, but apparently it does. It was definitely interesting.

This weekend we saw The Bourne Supremacy and The Village in the theater. Both were pretty good. I haven't decided which one I liked better yet, though. I liked Signs a lot when I saw it, so I expected more from The Village. We also saw two movies on the latest greatest invention, On Demand. Hysterical Blindness and Lovely and Beautiful. Both were extremely so-so.

First Post

2004-08-08T04:48:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged before. I hope I keep this up. Maybe it will become the place where I can keep track of all the movies I see and the books I read. I'll most likely stop posting on this within a week. I hope I don't.