kapgar

Checking it off my list, unable to rewrite...

Yes, I do still have two Top lists to post and, including today, only two days before the New Year to post them. However, I really wanted to do another Snippet Wednesday. Plus, Katie and I are talking about seeing a movie (or two) on New Year's Eve and I'd like to give those movies a fair shake on the Top Films list. So that one will be on New Year's Day while the Top Shows will be tomorrow. Promise.

Banking
This bugs me. We are receiving bills for an urgent care visit for Katie from February and March of 2008. They’re claiming we never paid. Never mind the fact that it took them nearly two years to discover this supposed discrepancy, we did pay it. They say they’ll waive it if I can provide them with copies of the canceled checks. Due to that stupid federal law that passed some odd years ago, banks no longer have to send back canceled checks to us. So I checked our online account to find the digital images of the checks. I can only access back through August 2008. So I call my bank branch and they tell me they can look for it but it will take “research” as the information is “archived” and they may have to charge me for the research time. Isn’t that supposed to be the great thing about online banking is that your history is entirely digital and should be available at your fingertips 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Why would you archive digital information and make in inaccessible to the user? This makes no sense. Stupid banks.

Bear
I was reading Marty’s top albums of 2009 list and I really like this one thing he did which I might try next year… he included lists of albums that he considered a letdown or that he just didn’t get. It’s a pretty cool concept considering how much hype some albums receive. And I completely agree with him on his assessment of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest in this regard. I’ve listened to that album a ton of times and I just don’t get it. Why is it so highly regarded? What makes it so great? Why was it one of the top selling independent albums of the year? And the real kicker for me is that usually when I see a band live, I wind up gaining an appreciation of the album by hearing the songs up close and in person. I saw Grizzly Bear at Pitchfork and the live experience helped not at all.

Bears
Can someone tell me where the hell the Jay Cutler that we saw on Monday night against the Vikings has been all season long? Damn. Even though the Bears defense really started to stink things up a bit in the fourth quarter giving up 17 unanswered points and letting the Vikes tie it up, it was a very exciting game! This is something we haven’t really seen all season… save for the stinking things up bit. That was pretty much par for the course for the Bears this year.

Book
I cannot, for the life of me, find my Moleskin notebook. I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted the places where it could possibly be located. Dammitalltohell. Why is it that when you don't need something, it's always there, but when you do need it, it's nowhere to be found? I wanted to do some writing and, of course, it’s nowhere to be seen. 

Books
The reason I’d like to find my Moleskin is because I have an idea for a book I’d like to write and I want it along for the ride. Maybe I should just buy a new one that would be dedicated to this endeavor. Actually, that probably would be a better idea since I have some ideas for illustrations that would accompany the text and an oversize Moleskin would be better for this project. Yes, it’s a children’s book. Anyone have contacts in the children’s book publishing industry?

Bark
Dog collar beer bottle opener? Greatest. Invention. Ever. Me wanty. Hey, do you guys need a blog reviewer? Drop me a line. E-mail addy's in the top menu bar.

Time to head to work. Adios, peeps.

Everybody's singin', all the bells are ringing out...

Hey all, Merry Christmas!

Yes, I said it. I opted for political incorrectness and y'all are just gonna have to deal with it. Heh.

I just wanted to quickly share one gift that we exchanged. This was with some of the cousins on Katie's mom's side of the family. In lieu of regular, paid-for, what-retailers-are-begging-for gifts, we decided to make mix CDs of music we enjoy for everybody else. No, we're not making mix discs of music the recipient would like. These are of music we like in order to potentially introduce the recipient to new stuff.

Sounds like it should be pretty cool. Especially being the music fiend I am, right?

Not so. I hate making mix albums. I was dreading this. I remember the John Cusack character (Rob Gordon) in High Fidelity describing all the work he puts into the creation of a mix tape and similar information is shared by Rob Sheffield in his book Love is a Mix Tape. And, based solely on this input, I've been scared off of ever making mixes. Stuff like the delicate mix between soft and fast music, the blending of the end of one track into the beginning of the next, etc. I'm a perfectionist and, if I can't do something right, I don't want to do it at all. That's just how I am. 

However, after making the actual exchange yesterday, I feel much better about it. Everyone was really excited checking out the mixes that we all put together. Then, with those couple of people that forgot to include a tracklist, we threw the discs in a stereo and played "Name that Song." It was really fun despite my earlier dread. And Katie and I are kinda hoping we do it again next year. Heck, she's already planning out what she wants to do for hers.

But here are the albums we put together. Let me know what you think.

First, the covers. The covers are basically a photo of us die cut on top of a wallpaper of the album art for the songs contained on the disc. Disc one on the left is the disc in Katie's name and disc two is the one from me.

And now for the music...

Disc 1 (Katie's mix):

• The Smiths - "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"
• Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - "Relator"
• Rascal Flatts - "Life is a Highway" - she was worried about this fitting in, but it actually sounds decent, I think
• She & Him - "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"
• Dave Matthews Band - "Why I Am"
• Weezer - "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To"
• Scissor Sisters - "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'"
• Katy Perry - "Hot n Cold"
• Doves - "There Goes the Fear"
• Norah Jones - "Chasing Pirates"
• Imani Coppola - "Legend of a Cowgirl"
• Lady Gaga - "The Fame"
• Phoenix - "Rome"
• I Fight Dragons - "Heads Up, Hearts Down"
• The All-American Rejects - "Gives You Hell"
• 30 Seconds to Mars - "This is War"
• Paramore - "Ignorance"
• Pearl Jam - "Just Breathe"

Disc 2 (my mix):

• The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"
• Matt & Kim - "Lessons Learned"
• Pomplamoose - "Beat the Horse"
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "The Tenure Itch"
• The Republic Tigers - "Buildings & Mountains"
• Blitzen Trapper - "Gold for Bread"
• Stardeath and White Dwarfs - "New Heat"
• The Mooney Suzuki - "Alive & Amplified"
• Tokyo Police Club - "Tesselate"
• Razorlight - "America"
• Phoenix - "Lasso"
• Silverchair - "Straight Lines"
• Wolfmother - "New Moon Rising"
• Damone - "Out Here All Night"
• Foo Fighters - "Wheels"
• Bear in Heaven - "You Do You"
• Modest Mouse - "Guilty Cocker Spaniel"
• Dungen - "Du ar for Fin for Mig"

I was expecting most people to not know a majority of the stuff on my disc. I relish the thought of it being a musical expedition of sorts.

Alice at Beyond Alice and Through the Looking Glass has bequeathed unto me the Lemonade Award, or at least that's what I think it's called. Might have something to do with being able to turn lemons into lemonade via your blog posting or maybe it has more to do with having posts that grate on your nerves like a sour lemon. Meh, I'll take it either way. Thanks Alice!

And now for the rules...

• Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.
• Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
• Link the nominees within your post.
• Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Well, let's see what I can cobble together here. Mind you, these are just 10 of the many blogs I read and love every day. So, if you're not included, it's not from a lack of love. Trust me on that one.

Oh, and as for the fourth bullet, I may or may not get around to that right away. We all know my piss-poor commenting of late.

• Marie's Blog Cafe
• Kev's Useless Bollocks
• Renagerie
• Sybil Law
• Charm School Reject
• Katie Schwartz
• So a Blonde Walks Into a Blog
• Banal Leakage
• ilaxSTUDIO
• Life is Not a Movie

Merry Christmas to all my lemonheads out there!

Well, I'm outta here. Talk atcha soon.

The gift you gave is gonna last forever...

I know that there are some of you who actually look forward to Snippet Wednesday. And I've kinda left you hangin' the last coupla weeks. Last week it was an unfinished Snippet Wednesday due to Katie's crash. Yesterday, I just plain ran out of time.

So I'm gonna make it up to you with a special edition Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning!

Still love me?

Katie
Tomorrow marks Katie's official final day of student teaching. However, she got her grade for student teaching as well as her portfolio yesterday. As on both! That means she is graduating with a 4.0! I'm ridiculously proud of her! Mah baybee gotz intelluhjints!

Taste
My IT Director at work was in my office for a meeting yesterday when he looked on my cubicle cabinet and saw a promo card for the release of The Flaming Lips new album. This led to a discussion about music. Turns out:

• My IT Director loves The Flaming Lips.
• My IT Director loves Pete Yorn.
• My IT Director loves Bob Mould and Hüsker Dü.
• My IT Director loves The Replacements.
• My IT Director loves Tom Petty.

Clearly, my IT Director rawks.

Digital
I went to Best Buy yesterday to look into how much copies of The Hangover and Inglourious Basterds were on DVD. I also was curious if they came with digital copies. Both do. But, thanks to Ren's recent warning, I began to read the small print. Expirys were not a concern, thankfully. But compatibility was. Basterds is fine, but Hangover is neither Macintosh nor iPod/iTunes/iPhone compatible. Why in the name of Christ would a distribution company not want their product to work on the top-selling digital player of all time? Sure, I can probably rip and convert it without a problem (I do have Handbrake and iSquint and all those other cool little apps), but just loading the digital copy is so much easier. 

Inglourious Basterds digital copy? WIN!

The Hangover digital copy? EPIC FAIL!

Oh, and I alerted some customers and employees to this fact as well. They were dumbfounded by the stupidity of it all.

Blu-Ray
I actually have a Blu-Ray disc. My very first Blu-Ray disc. I don't own a Blu-Ray player, but I have a disc for when that day does come. I don't know how many of you subscribe to e-newsletters from restaurants and whatnot. Well, I do. And I get all kinds of free birthday shit as a result. Usually they amount to free desserts or, if I'm lucky, free entrees.

I got über lucky this year thanks to Disney who offered me a free Blu-Ray disc for my birthday. Say whaaaa? Of course I could only choose from a list of five movies. But it's free. So who cares? I chose Enchanted. Hey, Katie and I enjoyed that movie. And it's got Amy Adams. Can't go wrong with Amy Adams. Both my wife and Sizzle know of my obsession with her very well.

Gift
I think I've finally figured out what I'm going to get for Katie for Christmas. I usually have her gift done by now. This, I believe, is the latest I've waited to buy something. I just want to do a little research first before I actually buy it. There's no way in the name of all that's holy that she'll be expecting this. Not one iota of a chance.

Fox
I had a plan last week to write up a big glowing review of a movie Katie and I went to see, Fantastic Mr. Fox. I had it all pre-written in my head and was sitting down to type when I decided, instead, to read through my subscriptions in Google Reader. This was when I noticed Avitable had done the same thing and pretty much had the exact same opinion of the movie as Katie and I. So, if you'd like to read about a fantastic film, sure to be one of my tops of the year, head over to Av's digs and read up. 

Medley
This is simply too cool.

Well, adios for now.

What do you get if you gobble down sweets...

*Oink* Remember to eat turkey this Thanksgiving, not ham! *Oink*

This Public Service Announcement brought to you by He1n1e the Wonder Pig

Oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe we're actually going to do this, but, for the first time in four or five years, Katie and I are going to take part in some Black Friday sales. Oh shoot me now. Here's where and what we're shooting for:

Old Navy - Free copy of Rock Band: Lego with purchase of $20 or more. And you get a free guitar with a purchase of Rock Band 2. I've played a few tracks worth of that game and I enjoy it. So why the hell not? And they do have it for the Wii. Old Navy opens at 3 a.m. Really, shoot me now. I was serious.

Target - Psych, season 3, on DVD for $12.99. This can be done anytime before noon, I believe. And, if Target holds to their style from last season, they'll offer rainchecks if it's sold out.

OfficeMax - Vivitar ViviCam DVR 810 HD Camcorder. This would definitely make video posting easier. And it's only $69.99. I'm kinda tired of using the video functionality on my point-and-shoot camera. I want higher quality video.

We'll see what happens.

I know just, just what you are...

My bank card is living a far more exotic life than I am, by far!

I was at Aldi attempting to purchase about $4.38 worth of Mexican food fixings and my bank card was denied.

I ran it again... denied.

I left the stuff behind and came home to check our account online... I couldn't log in.

I tried to change my password... no go.

So I called the bank and was told they needed to transfer me to the fraud division. Oh shit.

"Well, sir, we've had some questionable charges on your card. Have you been to Italy lately?"

I wish!

"I've got $45.42 at a gas station in [such-and-such town], Italy, and $938.47 at a photo studio in [another such-and-such town], Italy. We caught it when they tried to charge $1,403.27 at a place called Media World, which I think is probably similar to our Best Buy. Looks like they also did a $2 test charge at an Avis Rent-a-Car."

Holy craptards!

"We have completely shut down the use of your bank card and will track any continued attempted uses of the card."

So now I'm bank card less and we have no access to our online account at all since it's tied to my bank debit/credit card number. Katie's card is fine and all our identity information is supposedly secure as well. I'm also awaiting an affidavit in the mail so all this money can be credited back to us legally. And I need to stop by the bank and make sure everything is cool and that none of our checks will be given stop payments as a result. We've sent some in for bills lately and it would suck for them to not work.

This is some scary shit. I've heard of this happening and even know a person or two who has had it happen, but it never really hits home just how serious and freakish and mentally crippling it is until it happens to you.

Obviously someone spoofed my card from an in-person purchase as I never have nor ever plan to use my bank card for online purchases. I don't even link our real bank account to my PayPal account. I opened up a whole separate checking account at a different bank with a balance of a whopping $4 in it for Paypal. I want no online ties to our real bank account whatsoever. But apparently it's still not safe.

Right about now, I think the only fair thing is to give us all the stuff this douchebag bought as well as let us charge an Italian vacation to him. Sounds right, doesn't it?

Oh, and then I'd like to beat him to within an inch of his life. If he is actually a she, still fair game.

Actually this is more than just a bit related to the post above.

Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, is creating a plug-in device and app that makes it possible to use your iPhone to scan credit cards.

Until my card was spoofed, I would likely have been okay with this sort of technology. But now, after the fact, I see it as making it even easier for someone to scan our information from our card to their phone when we're not looking. Sure they can do it now, but he's creating a device that makes the theft of this information that much simpler and more inexpensive considering the "Cube" costs him $0.40 to produce.

Sometimes technology ain't such a grand thing, is it?

[image courtesy of engadget.com and tuaw.com]

One day I say today we live as a lion...

Need a great gift for a loved one? Try a Snippet Wednesday! They are great for any occasion and are truly one size fits all.

Psych
I did have a few requests regarding where I found those variations of the theme song from Psych and I figured it might be easier to just post them here. Might even steal some traffic when people Google both those audio files, we shall see. But I'm posting them here in MP3 format. There are plenty of tips and tricks provided by myself and others as to how to convert them into ringtones in this post and its comments, so knock yourselves out. Let me know if you are able to make them work.

• Psych Theme Song (Hindi variation)
• Psych Theme Song (Boyz2Men variation)

Zombie
Must. Have. [Brains.] Now.

Zombie Mez-Itz???

God I love ThinkGeek.

Zoo
I'm going on yet another field trip with Katie's class. Today it's to Brookfield Zoo. I haven't been to the zoo in years and miss it immensely. Of course, my number one goal is to collect all the wax animals just like when I was a kid. 

Bonus points if they have a red wax lion.

More bonus points if it has a slightly smashed head.

Even more still if it talks and only I hear it.

"Find a penny..."

Speech
Katie saw this flyer posted at her school. We both found it quite hilarious.

Hair
Less than 12 hours and counting...

Yes, Katie will be there to chronicle (photograph) the shaving of my head and I'm sure to hold my hand as well.

Where's the deception...

It cracks me up sometimes just how we prioritize things in our lives.

The other night, after both Katie and I pretty much fell asleep while watching a show off our TiVo, we decided it was time to go to bed.

Did we go like we said we needed to or felt we should?

No. Of course not. Instead, Katie got it in her head that she wanted to find the Psych theme song as a ringtone for her iPhone, more specifically, the Boyz2Men rendition of it from a few weeks ago. Not being available as a purchasable ringtone on iTunes, we did some research and found what seemed to be viable instructions for making custom ringtones for an iPhone 3G. Then we had to find the song in MP3 format. And, perhaps, a few other Psych-related sounds like the Hindi version of the theme from a couple weeks prior to the Boyz2Men intro and Shawn chiming "Boom, boom, boom... muffins" to be used as a text message alert. Then convert them and then try to make them work.

All this in the name of going to sleep.

Of course it still didn't work. iTunes won't recognize the file as any sort of audio file for whatever reason. Stupid iTunes and their stupid ringtone policy.

They all work fine on my Blackberry. No special conversion necessary.

And Katie hates me for it.

Oh yeah, and after all was said and done, we were so wide awake that we watched three more shows off our TiVo. Go fig, eh?

I finally got to play Guitar Hero: World Tour yesterday with the BiL, Scott, for the first time in my life. Working drums, baby! The stupid display models at stores never seem to work. Always out of order.

Now, though, it was mine! Well, to play anyway. Otherwise it belongs to Scott and Becca.

I did okay. Anywhere from 68- 90% once I figured out the timing.

And one helluva calf workout. Holy crap!

Another TUA? Why, this could almost constitute a Snippet Monday! Nah, not really.

I just wanted to throw another reminder out there that Wednesday is almost here... the day when my hair becomes no more... and I'm only a little bit away from my fund raising goal

If you're able to help, please do so. Thank you all again!

We hear he is a wonderful wiz...

Hollow it out, pack it in tight, light 'em up, and take a long drag on Snippet Wednesday.

iDependence
I was reading a post on Kevin Spencer's blog about his iPod crapping out and how he suddenly became very aware of how dependent he is on his iPod on a daily basis. I completely agree with him except I never needed my iPod crapping out to tell me that. I'm fully aware of my overdependence on this little electronic gem. I listen to it on my commute to work and nearly all day during work. I use it when I work out and anywhere else I drive and sometimes just when I have a free moment and need a music fix. I would be so lost without my iPod. Is that sad?

Jam
I wasn't going to talk about the new Pearl Jam album, Backspacer, and how much I'm enjoying it so far (probably my favorite album of theirs since Vitalogy), but then I read this review on Chicagoist and realized how nicely it summed up my feelings and decided to share it with you. So here you go.

NCIS
After all that to-do yesterday with regard to NCIS: Los Angeles, what do I do? I forget to set the TiVo for last night's premiere episode. Oh well. Guess we'll be starting with episode two as I see no replay of the first episode in the immediate future. Stupid me.

Lips
I totally want to preorder the new Flaming Lips album, Embryonic, from their Web site. Not that I actually expect to get either the autographed litho or win the tickets for the New Year's Eve show (although either would be damn cool), I'm in it for the dead Muppet CD case! Tell me that's not cool. Okay, there are a lot of reasons I really want this set, like the DVD/CD and the litho, but that is some damn unique packaging. Oh and if one of you, as a result of seeing this snippet, orders the set and wins something, I'd better get a cut of it. If it's the litho, be creative. 

Wizard
Tonight, Katie and I are off to see the wizard. Yep, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. It turns out that a local theater is showing it and hopefully there are still tickets left. With my luck, there won't be. But we shall see. That would be a cool flick to see on the big screen.

Yep, it's all sold out. Go fig.

I want to ride it where I like...

As I type this, Katie's asleep on the couch. We're supposed to go run some errands and get some stuff done, but we just got back about an hour ago from a 20-mile bike ride up and down the Fox River Trail. 

We had beautiful weather and it was a gorgeous ride, save for the point where you ride past the sewage treatment plant in Batavia. If you weren't feeling hunger pangs before...

But Katie's now completely wiped. I know she's getting tired on our rides when she starts to lean forward with her forearms on the handlebars instead of her hands. Never a good sign. Thankfully that didn't happen until about mile 18. 

She did take a few pictures. Sadly my PowerShot is in the shop with a busted zoom dial. But Katie took some (one of those times when Facebook readers should click through to view the photos)

Do I wake her up? I know we've got a lot to do, but I'm not suicidal.

I'm so stoked about this little gem I ordered. It's an official Invaded! coffee mug for Avitable's 2009 Halloween party. 

This thing is truly a work containing both fine craftsmanship from the folks at Zazzle.com and the artwork of Dave from Blogography. 

 

Unlike most coffee mugs, the design is not raised at all. It is so protected by ceramic glaze that there is no way to accidentally damage the logo without destroying the mug. And it's a heavy-duty mug at that. This is my favorite coffee mug second only to the kick-ass Jack Skellington mug that Katie bought me down at Disneyworld last year.

Kudos to Adam, Dave, and Zazzle on a fine product.

And no, I'm not receiving any sort of compensation from Adam, Dave, or Zazzle for this shameless plug other than warm, fuzzy feelings. I can't even go to the party. I'm just going to have to celebrate with my mug.

*sniffle*

Here come the story of the hurricane...

I feel like the floor of a taxicab. Hmm, must be Snippet Wednesday!

Bose
I finaly got my new earbuds and I did wind up getting the Bose in-ear buds again. Turns out those of you, including Katie, who said to talk to Bose were absolutely right. They actually do have a replacement program. Turn in your old ones and get a new pair for half price. Sure, this half price is still more than I was looking to spend, but Katie even said I use them religiously and we know we like them, so I might as well. Can I tell you how nice it is to have bass again in my music?

Crowes
And what better to listen to with my new earbuds than the new double album, Before the Frost... Until the Freeze, by one of my longtime faves, The Black Crowes. Glad to see they came back from their hiatus. I only hope the Foo Fighters do the same.

Parents
Not only can I see parents doing this, it's really not a half-bad idea. Funny though it may be. And when The Onion, in an attempt at lampooning morning "news" shows, does a better job than the shows themselves, you know something is wrong. Or maybe it's right. Hmmm...

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

Poll
The idea that somebody would pick Spider-Man 2 over Superman in a head-to-head superhero poll just floors me. Please avert this travesty of superheroic injustice by visiting Cinematical and changing things before it's too late! (I agree with all the other results so far, though).

Kevin
Yeah bitches! I'm a hurricane this year and I'm bearing down on Mexico! Rock on!

Check that. I've been downgraded to a tropical depression. I guess I pussed out. Talk about depression. I was so excited when I saw the name "Hurricane Kevin" on the Google Earth hurricane tracker. This blows, but apparently not enough.

Fetch
Somehow I don't see that a subject line of "Jerry plays fetch with himself" on a spam e-mail message is really going to make me want to open it. Just so many things about that I'm much better off not knowing.

And it's time to head on out into the void.

You were a vampire...

Today we will talk to a 12-year-old girl who was impregnated by her seven-year-old half cousin who summarily left her for his 52-year-old social studies teacher. Now she's working as a greeter at a local Wal-Mart while living in a mobile home that she shares with a family of dogs that sought refuge after escaping from Michael Vick's, er, kennel and traveled halfway across the country with a bunch of crack-addicted carnies. All this and more, today on Snippet Wednesday!

Talkies
Something like that might actually get me to tune into Maury or Tyra or Oprah or whomever. Alas...

Coraline
Instead, I watch movies like Coraline, which, in all honesty, completely underwhelmed me. And I was a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas. A big fan. But Coraline? Meh. The animation was pretty cool, but the story just didn't flow well for me. It felt too forced and no fun.

True
The good thing is now that I'm sending back Coraline to Netflix, I will finally be starting up on HBO's True Blood, season one. My only complaint about this is that each disc of the set only has two or three episodes on it. I've become so accustomed to four or five episodes per disc (House does five per disc from season three on) that this is just not gonna be enough to whet my appetite. I know it's all about the timing. Network shows are shorter because of commercials. But HBO shows aren't that much longer. They still have commercials, just at the ends of the episodes. Most episodes of Deadwood still clocked in at only about 45 minutes each and that was HBO as well. Stinks of a plot to upcharge for the DVD set, if you ask me.

NFL10
It was time to renew my subscription to Sports Illustrated and I saw that they had a new offer... subscribe for a half year and get a free copy of EA Sports Madden NFL 10 on whatever gaming platform you want. So I checked, and they do have it for the Wii. I'm not a huge fan of the Madden games. They just get too damn complex for me. But on a Wii? This could be fun. And Katie wants to play it with me. We can be terrible together (I was going to say "we can suck together" but I know how you perverts think). 

Lebanon
Is it wrong that I saw the headline to this article -- "Arlen Specter Faces Angry Lebanon Crowd on Health Care" -- and all I could think was "what the hell is Marie doing now?" Of course this time, they actually are talking about Lebanon, Pennsylvania, not the country that Marie is currently visiting. My bad.

Lego
I'm a fan of nearly all things Lego (except maybe for Bionicle). I love these little bricks and have since I was about five years old. I still get excited when new sets get released and I love going in Lego stores. It's just too much fun. But this announcement of a combination live action/animation film featuring Legos? I dunno. I can't say I'm looking forward to it at all. Please, just nix it before it goes too far.

When you're gone...

I swear, when technology rains, it freakin' pours.

About a month ago, the left half of my Bose In-Ear Buds died brutally. I was at the gym running and *fzztt* they died. That left me with the gym-attendant-chosen radio station. Christ it's painful.

You might remember me inquiring on Facebook and Twitter about some SkullCandy Ink'd earbuds. While I haven't picked them up yet, I still may. I've been suffering through the humiliation that is the standard iPod earbuds in the meantime, though.

Katie is not happy about the death of the Bose since we spent $100 on them. To me, I got a relatively good value out of them since I used them nearly daily for a year and a half, but it does still kinda suck. And that amount of money is why I was asking about something much less expensive like the SkullCandys. I can't see myself spending as much as I did on the Bose again. Not now at least.

And this morning, while watching the final episode of season one of Battlestar Galactica, another pair is fuzzing out on one side. I was listening to the episode on my big ol' Pioneer SE4000s to keep from waking up Katie. I've loved these over-the-ear, noise-reducing 'phones for quite a while. They're huge, they're bulky, the plastic of the frame creaks when you move them around... but I didn't care. The sound was fantastic, the bass response was awesome, the big sponge and foam covers blocked out anything short of a nuclear blast, and they have about a seven- or eight-foot-long cord so I could still sit a comfortable distance from the TV or stereo and use them.

The best thing about them? They cost me $50 and lasted 16+ years. I was still in high school when I got them, that much I'm sure about, and I graduated high school in '93. Damn, they don't even show up in a quick Google search, that's how old they are.

Crap. Now I need to choose which to replace. I'm sure it will be my daily wear since I'd use them more often. I may be able to juice some more time out of my Pioneers since they aren't completely dead yet. If I move around the cable on the left side a little bit, the sound returns. Annoying, yes. But better than buying two new pairs of 'phones.

This blows.

I am very techno-bummed right now.

It really kills me sometimes when a song like The Who's "Who Are You," for example, comes up on shuffle on my iPod like it did this morning and all I can think of is the opening credit sequence from CSI.

It truly pains me that I can no longer enjoy the song just for the song but that it now has to be forever associated with that show in my head. It's not always such a bad thing like, say, when used in a Quentin Tarantino movie. But, otherwise, TV and product ad usage are really gonna be the death of my enjoyment of music.

It's finally happened, I'm slightly mad...

Most of you know of or have personally experienced Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death.

Some of you might have heard of the X-Box Red Ring of Death.

But were any of you aware that Macintosh has a Gray Screen of Panic and Disarray?

It's also known as a Kernel Panic, and I got it this morning on my G5 iMac.

I was trying to eject my USB thumbdrive when, all of a sudden, my desktop was cloaked in gray. I could still see everything underneath, but the keyboard and mouse would not respond. The GSOPAD said that I needed to reboot my computer. Since I could really do nothing else, I complied.

After rebooting, I got a pop-up acknowledging that the system had to be forcibly rebooted after a failure of the operating system.

This doesn't sound good. Not at all.

Any other Mac users out there ever have the same problem? Might it be time to reinstall the operating system? Would that do any good? I know I still have my Adobe software discs. I only hope I can still find my old Office CD.

Continuing on the suckage front... We are one week away and counting from FabCon, Baby! in beautiful Lexington, Kentucky.

And I can't go.

I was supposed to attend. The plan was for me to take a long weekend and drive with Katie to visit my aunt and uncle in Louisville and then head into Lexington. We were going to rent a car (because both our cars have far too many miles on them to survive this trip) and get a hotel room. Then Katie couldn't get the extra time off work so it became a solo trip. Then a personal crisis arose necessitating the reallocation of the funds set aside for this trip.

And it sucks. But it was a necessary decision. Trying to spend on both the trip and this other thing, which shall remain nameless, would be stretching us way too thin financially.

So to anybody who was looking forward to hanging out with us, I'm truly sorry. The worst part is that I'm not sure when I'll ever be able to meet DutchBitch now. That really sucks. I'm sorry, hon. There's still hope with several domestic blogger friends, but it's those ones from across the pond where scheduling gets hairy.

Or else it gets the hose again...

It puts the lotion on the skin or else it gets Snippet Wednesday again.

Liege
Google is starting to scare me, folks. I think it can read our minds. Yes, I'm anthropomorphising it to some degree, but, to me, it is no longer a corporation... it has become an entity all its own... a sentient being. Right now, I'm just waiting for it to start breathing and eating. I got an e-mail from my buddy Eric and, at the end, he says "Or...we could meet for lunch Thurs or Friday." Off to the right of the e-mail (in Gmail, for the record), at the top of the yellow Sponsored Links box, I see...

Okay, it's not perfect, but the simple idea that it scanned the message and picked up on this without Eric having created some sort of formal calendar request or .ics file or even listing specific dates, well, it just scares me.

I think we should all just give up now and declare Google our Overlord.

Twit-Tees
As much as I love that Twitter has launched a T-shirt shop with Threadless and as cool as this "In Space, No One Can Hear You Tweet" T-shirt, I gotta admit a little disappointment that they didn't create their own official Fail Whale or Foul Owl shirts. Yeah, the purpose of this is more of a contest to get the coolest Tweets on a shirt, but you need a Fail Whale T-shirt, regardless. It's a moral imperative.

Site
You remember that Web site I was working on when my thumbdrive corrupted and I lost it all? Well, with Katie's input, I redesigned the site a month or so ago from scratch and it's done and the customer loves it, and so do I. Much more than the first site I created, which I kinda hated. So big thanks to Katie for the help and big thanks to technology for crapping out on me.

Wolf
I seriously want to know what the reviewers of this T-shirt on Amazon were smoking and if they're willing to share. My God. Dems some creative folk.

Vandapples
One of the windows of the flagship Apple Store on the Mag Mile in Chicago was shattered by a drunk guy with a brick. Best part of the article is the comment from MB, "Windows doesn't need help getting broken - Microsoft has done a great job making it break down for you" or the one from Bill, "Maybe he was a PC."

Dream
Okay, Chris Milk is one talented guy. He created a 43 second video meant to encompass a lifetime's worth of memories into a single "life passing before your eyes" sort of video and it's hauntingly beautiful. Some segments are borderline NSFW, but not too bad. No nudity. Although I can't say the still frame below is necessarily one you want your boss to see over your shoulder.

I still can't believe it had as big a crew as it did, though.

If only the final Lord of the Rings movie could've been this concise... I may have actually enjoyed it more.

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Belongings
I wanted to go out on a positive note and that honor goes to US Airways who have spent the last several months restoring, to the best of their ability, the belongings of the passengers from Flight 1549 that went down in the Hudson River early this year. This week, those belongings began making their way back to their owners. Considering US Airways had no legal responsibility to do this and had already given money to the passengers, it's pretty cool that they did this anyway.

We don't need another hero...

Happy Easter everyone!

I guess Katie and I can now eat sweets again. But, you know what? The concept just isn't appealing to me anymore. We did do well through our 47ish days. I say 47 because, if you look at a calendar, it actually started that long ago. Apparently Catholics take Sundays off from their Lent promises. I never knew that. But we kept going through those Sundays anyway.

We did lapse twice. Once was when my parents took us out for Katie's birthday dinner and we split a piece of cake. The funny thing was, it didn't taste like some great sweet revelation. It was just... cake. The same thing happened last weekend. We had some cake at Katie's parents' house and it did nothing for me. We did try a couple of our chocolate strawberries this morning from our favorite chocolatier in Geneva and it's just not the same anymore. I also had some jelly beans this morning and I've got a stomach ache now.

Have I lost the taste for chocolate and processed sugar? Is that even possible?

I think dieting just got that much simpler.

Katie and I went out to GameStop last night to buy an extra guitar for Guitar Hero on the Wii. I wanted to be able to play side by side with her just to make it more fun.

I started pricing them at GameStop and they had this cheap-o, off-brand guitar that looked like crap for $30. I couldn't see myself paying for something that looked like it was going to fall apart the same day, so I asked about the official guitar controllers. They were $60, without the game.

Then I saw a brand-new Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game on the shelf with the Aerosmith-branded guitar controller. It was marked down to $50.

So, instead of paying $60 for just a controller, I pay $10 less and get a controller and a game. True, it's a game I didn't enjoy that much, so I'll probably trade it back to them for another $15 in credit thus bringing my overall spending down to $35. 

Who was doing the thinking behind this one? Not that I'm complaining, but seriously.

The price of gas keeps on rising...

It's weird, but you would think that a snippet or bullet post would be easier than a regular post. But these last two weeks have been difficult finding stuff to fill in the holes for Snippet Wednesdays. To think I'd have to take a break to recharge from what should be a gimme day of blogging is kinda unnerving. I shall power forward.

Lost
No, not the TV show. Actually, it's a reference to the fact that I'm pretty certain I've lost some weight! Why just "pretty certain"? Because I don't weigh myself, too arbitrary a means of measuring success when getting in shape, IMHO. I prefer to measure based on how my clothes fit and how much of a workout I can continuously do and not die. I'm pretty certain I've lost weight, though, because I was able to tighten my belt one more notch without sucking in my gut. I've never been on this belt notch before. I'm finally giving the nearly worn-out hole a bit of a break (wow, that really sounds bad if you have no context). Oh and I'm up to one mile of running consecutively. May not sound like much, but it's a big deal for me. And I've kept it up for the last two times I've gone running. Woo hoo!

Fridge
Dammit, why won't our fridge close anymore? It used to be that anytime the door was open, it would automatically swing itself shut. Now it swings to within an inch of being shut but won't finish the job. And there's nothing in the way obstructing it at all. Stupid fridge. Yeah, I just got up after that last snippet to close it... again.

Gas
Y'know? I've always been kinda curious. Now I know. Plus, it's a cool T-shirt. I want one. Just for the reaction.

Effects
While I was at the gym last night, I saw the strangest commercial regarding a lawsuit against the company that makes a drug called Requip. The drug is meant to abate tremors caused by Parkinson's Disease and Restless Leg Syndrome. However, the side effects of the drug are what is at issue in this suit. I thought I'd heard about nearly every potential side effect out there... constipation, dry mouth, difficulty sleeping, irritability, et al. But the one at issue here takes the cake... compulsive gambling. Apparently there is a big problem with people who take Requip becoming compulsive gamblers. I think I just solved the world's economic woes. The government just needs to spike water supplies with Requip and what little remains of our hard-earned cash will be cycled back into the economy via excessive gambling! It's brilliant! Move over, Tim Geithner! There's a new treasury secretary in town! And he's got a plan that will work!

Fools
Happy April Fool's Day. Yeah, I got nothin' this year. Sorry to disappoint. Actually I did think of something last October I was going to do for April Fool's Day, but I have since forgotten it. I knew I should've typed it up as a draft post. Dammit.

I am the hunter...

I am the Great White Mouse Hunter.

I have skills that far supercede any mere mortal when it comes to the trapping and elimination of small furry rodents.

I am the Great White Mouse Hunter.

When most people fail to capture their disease-laden adversaries, I succeed.

I am the Great White Mouse Hunter.

I am Boba Fett facing down a Wookiee. Dog the Bounty Hunter to a bail jumper. Chris Hansen to MySpace pedophiles.

I am the Great White Mouse Hunter.

In the last two years, I have, with the help of the Great White Mouse Huntress (Katie), killed four furry invaders as of this morning. Three in the house with traps and one outside with a car.

I am the Great White Mouse Hunter.

Our trap-laying skills are second to none. When we lay a trap, it is thought out carefully and with effectiveness in mind. When a trap is set, we will catch you.

I am the Great White Mouse Hunter.

Now if only someone else would come along and pick up the carcasses. I hate that part.

I have renamed my iPod. It was Snap-P because my nickname in high school was "Snappy" (before you ask, no). Now it's iSonic. Why? Because apparently my iPod has an obsession with the music of Sonic Youth.

When on Shuffle, a Sonic Youth song seems to pop up one in every 10 or 15 songs. This has been going on for about two months now. And I only have 110 Sonic Youth songs of the 5,584 total songs on my iPod.

Not that I'm complaining. Sonic Youth is on there for a reason.

Gimme mo-o-o-oney...

I suddenly realized that, as I was creating this new layout, I should've created some sort of badge or banner for Snippet Wednesday. Ah well. Hindsight is 20/20, right? C'est la vie.

Hero
I love this guy! He lives in an apartment complex in a nearby suburb and, when he found some intruder just hanging out on his second-floor balcony, what does he do? He runs out to confront him and then throws him off... literally! Dude lands on his ass in the garden below and leaves a buttprint. Rock! Oh how I wish I could've seen it. Actually, more than that, I'm wishing this renter lived on the third or fourth floor of his building. Why the heck is this stranger hanging out on some random balcony anyway?

Mechanic
While reading the above article, my eye happened to glance to the jobs ad on the side. No I'm not looking for a job, something weird happened to catch my eye. The ad claimed one of the top jobs in the Chicago area is that of a "Reefer Mechanic." What the hell is a reefer mechanic? Sure, I could just Google That Shit, but what fun is that? I'm sure I'd prefer the fantasy explanation to the reality one. I'm imagining some little known engineering track in college where kids learn the most efficient and cost effective means of growing pot. Or maybe it involves some biology or genetics courses through the science department so you can learn plant hybridization or the like. The classes would, of course, be taught by Donald Sutherland a la Animal House. Oh the possibilities!

Wiki
Have any of you ever set up a wiki before? I'm doing some research into one for a project and I've never really played with them at all. Like ever save for looking crap up on Wikipedia. Do any of you have any experience setting up a wiki? Do you have preferences for a good, free wiki provider on the Web? I've read about so many and read reviews from random strangers. Now I'd like to hear from people I know and trust. What say you?

Rebate
A few months ago, Katie and I purchased a new screen/storm door for our front entrance. There was a $128 rebate on the installation of the thing and we sent it in immediately after the install. We promptly forgot about it until a couple days ago when, for whatever reason, Katie suddenly remembered it and we realized we hadn't heard a damn thing about it. Then, this morning, I checked my e-mail inbox and found a message from the rebate processing center saying they just received it and are processing the claim. Three months later they finally receive it? Do they have one person opening mail once a month? Holy crap that took forever! Well, at least we should be getting it soon.

HD
We did it! We got a TiVo HD for our plasma! We are so stoked. We only got the 20 hour unit simply because of the $300 price difference. And the only way we were able to truly justify it was because we found that the hard drive in one of our old TiVos had crapped out, but the unit was still under warranty. We took it back to Best Buy and they gave us the full $200 original price of the thing toward a swap and we had some credit from Katie's return of her iPhone car thingamajig, so we only wound up paying about $70 for it. The weird thing is, though, that Best Buy no longer offers extended warranties on TiVos. Hmm... interesting. Now I just need to schedule an appointment with Comcast to get their crap DVR out of here and give us a pair of cable cards instead.

For I am a pirate king...

Welcome one, welcome all to SNIPPET WEDNESDAY! Please stay with your tour group and do note that flash photography is not permitted.

Deadwood
Oh, I'm so glad I borrowed the Deadwood DVDs from my brother in law. It is such a great show. I thought Tombstone was a pretty gritty western when it came out, but this just blows it away. And Timothy Olyphant... how is he not a bigger star than he is? Or maybe too many people still confuse him with Josh Duhamel. I dunno. Great stuff. I highly recommend it.

Shuffle
I saw a notice in Google Reader this morning about the launch of a new iPod Shuffle. I've been intrigued with the Shuffle for some time and I have a first generation (the gumpack) while Katie has a second gen (the clip). Considering how small they already are, I was curious to see what they could do to make them smaller. They did. But they screwed up royally doing so. In order to make the Shuffle as small as it is in the image, they moved all the controls onto the headphone cord. Everybody knows the pitiful lifespan of Apple earbuds. Plus I use my Bose In-Ear Buds exclusively, so this won't work for me at all. And what the hell is the purpose of a voiceover on the Shuffle? Sorry Apple, but FAIL!

Pirates
In the most recent issue of People, Zachary Levi (the title character from Chuck) was asked about a movie that he loves. His reply? "The Ice Pirates. You've never heard of it, trust me. It's horribly awesome or awesomely horrible. I don't know which one." Zach, I have both heard of and love The Ice Pirates. You have just stepped up a notch in both my and my brother's opinions of you. Robert Urich is da man!

Art
Album art is back in my sidebar! Yay! I was getting sick of my Hear Me list having no visual accompaniment. But it's all back! There was a step I was missing according to Typepad Help when entering the new albums on the list. It was a step they said was always there, but I personally never had to take in the past, so I'm not sure why I have to now, but at least I know what to do.

Beans
So have you been to Britt's review blog lately? No? Why not? She's got freebies in the shape of beans. Freebies that many of you, seeing as a vast majority of my readership is female, might enjoy. You just need to enter. So, now that this post is over, scooch your way on over there and enter! No really. Go.

Exit... Stage Left...

I think I'm a bit overdue on a post reviewing my experience at Second City Chicago. Actually, I'm a bit overdue on a post, period. For that, I apologize. No excuses, just an apology.

Second City, though? Even bigger apologies there. I've known about Second City for years as it's a Chicago mainstay for comedy and theater and yet I've never visited. There's no real reason why, I just haven't. It took an offer of free tickets to see America: All Better! to get me off my lazy ass to venture into Old Town to see what it's all about. I'm glad I did.

For those not in the know, Second City is an improv comedy troupe based out of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto and served as the launchpad for the careers of such comedy visionaries as Peter Boyle, Harold Ramis, John and Jim Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Steve Carell (who also taught there), Amy Sedaris, Steven Colbert, and Tina Fey, along with dozens more notable alumni. Many of the shows they open to the public are very timely in nature and you might be amazed how quickly they turn around a script or adapt an existing script to reflect even the most minute current event.

But not only is it an improv theater company, it's also a school for aspiring entertainers. Second City offers year-round classes in writing for improv, directing, acting, and so much more. Sandra at Internal Monoblog is a graduate of some of their writing and acting classes back when she lived here in Chicago and, if the bank account allows down the line, I'd be interested in taking some of the writing classes.

The show I was there to see was America: All Better! on the mainstage. On another stage, they were showing Rod Blagojevich Superstar, which my mom saw and said was one of the most hilarious things she's seen in years.

A:AB featured seven actors (we had two understudies that night, but you never would have guessed it as they were just as fantastic as all the regulars) playing out nearly two dozen sketch comedy routines with pretty much all of them sticking to the shared theme of our pitiful economy. Some focused on relationships and there were also several politically inclined routines, both local and national. Some of the sketches came complete with song and dance. I don't really want to give anything away about the shows in case you're planning on seeing them yourselves or if the co-producer of the show wants to take my suggestion about putting snippets out on YouTube. But, suffice it to say, they were dead on target with their wry brand of humor just skewering their targets and, let me tell you, no one was safe. 

After the two hour show ended, the actors came back up on stage along with a couple more mainstage alumni for an hourlong improv routine based on ads stolen from the Chicago Reader's I Saw You section. Both hilarious and creepy all rolled in one odd little package of dark humor.

And I will go back. I don't see how you can stay away from this high grade of comedy at such an affordable price ($20 per ticket). Plus, they have a full appetizer menu and bar available should you get the munchies.

I will say, though, that after seeing this show, I agree that Rahm Emanuel is one bad-ass Jew. Wow, he really is missing part of a finger. Who knew working at Arby's was so dangerous?

Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): Katie misses listening to her iPod in her car. Ever since she got an iPhone, her iPod has remained docked on her clock radio in the bedroom.

Don't get me wrong, she has music on her iPhone, but no good way of playing it in her car. We bought her a car dock for her iPod back in the day that plays through FM stations and she was fine with it. Worked great. But it is completely incompatible with iPhones. I don't get this. It has the same dock connector as almost all the iPods in existence. It connects to our computer the same way for song transfers, charging, and firmware upgrades. So why the hell won't the iPhone work with this dock for something so simple as charging and playback?

Yesterday, we went to Best Lie, er, Buy and purchased a Griffin iTrip AutoPilot. The guy at Best Buy told us it was the best.

Simply put, if that's the best, I'd hate to see the worst. This thing sucks. The transmitter's strength is for shit. We tried a couple dozen different stations and only two came in but were so filled with underlying static that they were unlistenable for any extended stretch of time. Plus, it doesn't seat properly in the lighter port of Katie's car; the damn thing would nudge just a hair and immediately cease working. I'm pretty sure we're taking it back today or tomorrow. But I have no idea what to get her as a replacement.

Do any of you iPhonePhiles have a preferred way to do this? No, Katie has neither an auxiliary port nor a tape deck in her car so those options are moot. What hardware solutions have worked for you? Please help. Katie has been relegated to *gulp* FM radio stations for entertainment while driving!

I'm incomplete...

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to cobble enough together for Snippet Wednesday, but I pulled it off!

Yoga
I was late to yoga today and I lay the blame squarely on Van Halen. I was in the locker room changing into my yoga gear (warm-up pants and T-shirt... very yogic, I know) when I heard the stereo in the adjacent workout room cranking a live version of Sammy Hagar's "Give to Live." Being the Van Halen freak, I needed to know if this was a live performance by VH or by Sammy solo since the song is actually his from the solo days. So I rocked out through the finish and then heard the stereo kick in my all-time favorite "Finish What Ya Started." Yep, totally Van Halen. NICE!

Heroic
Oh, c'mon! Did you really think I wouldn't sheep it up and make myself a superhero like so many other bloggers?

Make your own!

Goody
Can somebody tell me who the hell Jade Goody is? I subscribe to Famecrawler's RSS feed and, lemme tell ya, I must be WAY out of it on the celebrity front. They report on many people I've never heard of before. And they do this regularly. I know everything that is going on in Jade Goody's life from her pseudo suicide to her pending nuptials but I can't tell you why any of us should give a damn. Who the hell is she and what about her makes her worth watching? Please explain this enigma of a woman to me.

Blackout
I've been watching the last several days as some of my fellow Twitterers, as a show of solidarity, blacked out their profile pictures. Solidarity for what? Supposedly against New Zealand's new ISP and Web liability rules. I'm not going to try to explain it save for providing a link. But I do have one question... what good is blacking out your profile going to do for the cause? I guess it's a show of support from afar against something you don't agree with. But wouldn't it be far more effective to start a petition or create an informative Web site urging people to contact NZ politicians? To me, this blacking out seems like a joke. Like you expect a politician to look at the page and say, "OHMIGOD! He's blacked out his picture! And it's all because of how I voted! I'm never going to know what this person looks like unless I reverse my political stance!" Yeah, okay.

Buddha
Because we all could use a little faith in these trying times. Mine's on my desk.

 

Buried in my shit...

Okay, Comcast, you're really starting to piss me off.

Not your cable services so much. The quality's been fine and we've had little to no downtime on our service. Sure your pricing could use some help. I'm hoping this digital conversion will make that better because, ideally, we'll no longer need to pay extra for HD content since that will be the rule as opposed to the exception.

No, my problem is with your HD DVR. Oh it frustrates me so. And I think our two-year-long courtship may soon come to an end if we can wrangle a deal to our benefit.

You see, until we got our plasma TV and HD broadcasting, we were devoted TiVo users. However, HD broadcasting takes up four times as much space as regular programming on a TiVo and, since the HD TiVo was about $500 at the time, we settled for the Comcast variant. Small monthly fee and we don't have to buy it outright. Sounded ideal.

But the box is SLOW to react, difficult to program, catches all copies of a show even when I set it to "New Episodes Only," shuts off whenever it damn well feels like it, doesn't have a trash bin from which we can recover deleted programming, and doesn't have that cool few-second rewind that TiVo does after fastforwarding through a commercial break.

But the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back? It has begun to spontaneously delete programs off the box that we haven't yet watched. Last night, we got home and were going to watch the second part of The Last Templar (stop laughing) from Monday night, only to discover that it, along with the first four episodes of the second season of Damages, were all gone. There were others, too, but we can't remember what they were. And, to boot, there were five copies of the exact same episode of The Closer on there. AGAIN, we set that program to only catch new shows and this was one we had already recorded and watched and deleted. To make things even weirder, those four episodes were marked with times like 86, 32, 79, and 91 minutes even though the episode was only 60 minutes.

What gives, Comcast? Why is your product so inferior?

Well, guess what? We have an old TiVo that is due for service at Best Buy before the warranty expires (just found the paperwork) and, if we can make it happen, we hope to be able to swap it out and pay a little extra to upgrade to the HD TiVo that is now $200 less, hella more reliable, and will give us back our cute little TV dude. We miss him. Can he ever forgive our betrayal?

Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): Well hell, Shiny does my blog better than I do.

He's calling it Plagiarism Week '09. I'm calling it a tryout. And he wins. My blog is yours, Shiny. Enjoy!

(bet he didn't see that one comin'.)

Rudie can't fail...

Ladies and Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and return your tray tables to their upright and locked positions. We're about to enter Snippet Wednesday!

FAIL!
Now if ever there was an ultimate example of a corporate FAIL, I must argue on behalf of Spirit Airlines. You see, Spirit overbooked one of their flights out of NYC and moved some of the passengers to, you guessed it, the US Airways flight that splashed down in the Hudson River last week. Clearly, none of these passengers made it to their destination, which was North Carolina, so none of them used the return portions of their round-trip tickets. Spirit decided, in it's, er, infinite wisdom, to charge each of them a $90 cancellation fee. Sure, the decision has since been reversed, but even having initially asked for this has to constitute one helluvan epic fail.

Pledge
This is kinda cool. Starbucks Coffee has started a program they call Pledge5. You pledge to volunteer five hours in your community, and they give you a free tall coffee. Sure, that's not a lot that they're giving up, but it's still a pretty cool idea. Just a way to get people up and out there and helping to make the world a better, and more caffeinated, place.

Toys
I am an admitted Mac Whore. You all know it. But I would like to posit now that Katie has surpassed me in my Mac Whorishness. The evidence? We both have iPods and Shuffles and we both use the iMac, the PowerBook (even though it was purchased by me), and the soon-to-crap-out Airport Extreme base station. That all cancels out. Yes, I just got my 1TB Time Capsule, even though it will be used by both of us for backups. But Katie now has an iPhone and a brand spankin', and damn pretty, MacBook for school. We got her one of the aluminum ones and it's truly a sight to behold. I still don't get how Apple can make such beautiful and functional products and nobody else seems to get it. How is that possible?

Hey Marty, check it out, Apple does have an upgrade program on iLife!

Noble
A month or so ago, I preordered an album by Andrew Bird called Noble Beast. It was released yesterday and I have had nothing but issues with it. When I first received notice about it from iTunes, I went to preorder so I could get the Instant Grat Track, the free early download song from the album. However, when I visited the page for the album, I kept receiving an error that read "This album is no longer available" due to such and such change in the store. This kept going for a week before I was finally able to preorder and d/l the track. Now that it's available to d/l in its entirety, I'm receiving another odd error. I click the link and it's trying to tell me that I have a partial album purchase and that I need to take part in the Complete My Album program and pay the difference to get the rest. If I do this, I would lose out on any preorder only exclusives. So I e-mail iTunes help and explain, the guy contacts me back and says to go ahead and do the CMA and he will make sure it all works out. So I try again last night and now the album is completely unavailable yet again due to the same issues. I don't get it sometimes. Please fix. I need my Bird fix.

Well, I guess I do have the Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians five-disc Luminous Groove set to tide me over for now (library pick up).

Have a great first-full-day-of-Barack's-presidency, okay?

It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up...

All animals have their quirks, right? Oh God, I hope they do or we apparently have psycho-dog on our hands. Okay, even if they don't have quirks, just tell me they do so I don't have to live in fear for my life the rest of the time that Lilly's with us, okay?

Anyway, now that you've all reassured my nerves (you did, right?), I'd like to share one of the many quirks that Lilly has. I'm sharing it because we finally captured it on video. You see Lilly likes to spaz out on occasion. I got a photo of it one time, but it's hard to really make out what happens based on a single still frame.

And yet it's hard to know when she'll go into a full-blown episode to be able to capture it on video. The only time we can guarantee it will happen is after she's taken a bath. So here's Lilly in all her post-bath glory. We hope you enjoy.

Lilly's Freak Out from Kevin Apgar on Vimeo.

And please forgive us the titling on the video. It's the first time either Katie or I have played with iMovie. I couldn't get it to work for the life of me (I could create titles, but iMovie refused to add them to my video on the iMac), but Katie got it to work on her new MacBook with a newer version of iMovie. I think she did a great job and I'm sure she'll only get better. It's just sad that I, with the media studies degree, can't figure the damn thing out. So she just may be my editor from here on out. We'll see.

Oh, and even though I've proclaimed my disgust with Green Day (oh god, how I love re-reading those comments on occasion; warms my cockles), even I've gotta admit that "Basketcase" is the perfect song to title this post.

Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): I've been trying for nearly a year now to convince Katie to play. And she's staunchly refused. "No," she'll say. "I just don't want to. It just doesn't look fun."

How can Guitar Hero III on the Wii not be fun?

Well, something tipped the scales in my favor and finally drove her to want to play. It came in the form of a challenge from Kristy of Our News... All the Time who received Guitar Hero II for her Playstation II for Christmas. She and her husband, Graham, play a lot. Graham says he just can't quite grasp it but Kristy's glomming on like nobody's business. She'll play on medium and handily defeat Graham who's playing on easy.

I get the feeling this is going to turn into a tag team duel. I'll have to play the medium level (of which I've only played a little bit, but I rock all but one of the easy songs at a 93%+ rating) against Kristy while Katie tackles Graham at the easy setting.

I think we're going to have to spend the next several weeks with a hardcore diet of Guitar Hero III and deprive her of all other things. Oh, we may just have to. There is no way the kapgars are going down. No, no. Not to some Mommy Blogger and her hubby. ;-)

Oh it's on... it's on like Donkey Kong!

'Cause I'm free-ee-ee-bird, yeah...

Dang it! I got so caught up in my year-end best of lists that I forgot Snippet Wednesday again last week. Well, it's back... again... and I now have no reason to forget it... again...

Fit
I can't believe I actually found a Wii Fit! It was on the shelf at Target and I wasn't even sure it was actually the real deal until I asked an employee and he confirmed that it was the last one. So I went for my phone to see if Katie wanted it figuring I could grab it with her approval. Then I thought better of my ordering of actions and grabbed the Wii Fit off the shelf and then my phone. As I walked down the aisle, three other people saw me with it and rushed down to find one of their own. Sorry, I got the last one. Probably could've sold it for a profit. Hmmm... maybe I should have.

So, Wii Fit party at Kapgar's place?

Blackberry
I've discovered something, in order to make ANY of the applications work on a Blackberry, even those you download off the Web, you must have the MediaNet package through AT&T. I find this to be complete and utter bullshit. Why can't some of them work off wifi? Especially ones like Twitterberry or Blackberry Messenger? Oh well. Guess I'm not getting the full package with my phone for a while. Just how it's going to have to be since we're not getting a second data package for a phone. Costs too much. We were forced to get one for Katie's iPhone because you are required to do so, but I can live without for now.

10
Katie and I started watching 10 Items or Less on TBS last night. Not sure how well the show will hold up overall, but last night's episode, all about turkey bowling (a secret fantasy of mine), was hilarious. Does anybody else watch this show? Is it generally pretty good?

Dexter
Speaking of good. I started watching Dexter, season 3. I couldn't wait until the DVDs come out next year, so I've found alternate methods of viewing. I'm only through the first two episodes (think facing off with Freebo) and, if the rest of the season is as good as these two, this is gonna be a great season! Is it? Please say it is!

Soldiers
I'm not sure where I saw this on the Web, but I thought this picture was so well done, I wanted to feature it here and provide a link to the photographer, John W. DeFeo.

click the image for a larger copy