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Ramble Archive: 01.01.06 - 06.30.06
...from the cobwebs of my mindSELECT A DATE BELOW TO JUMP DIRECTLY TO THAT RAMBLE |
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| TUESDAY, MAY 02, 2006 |
 *sniff* *sniff* Smell That? |
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That's the smell of the Cubs stinking up the joint. Man, they are really sucking right now. In the past four games, including another big 8-0 loss today, the Cubs have been out-scored 34-3. That's right... thirty-four-to-three. That's not a typo. I actually had to use my calculator to tally it all up, seeing as I ran out of fingers and toes. These guys understand that they're supposed to score runs to win, right? I'm just asking because it appears there may be some confusion on this point.
On a positve note, we finally got our Cubs flag mounted on the garage. Check it out here.
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| Quack Update |
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Yes, I'm still going to the quackopractor and it appears to be doing some good. I'll write more about this later.
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| TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006 |
| D-Lee on the DL |
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Yeah, so the Cubs player you want most not to get hurt, did. In the April 19 game against the Dodgers, Derrek Lee collided with shortstop Rafael Furcal, resulting in a fractured right wrist for the Cubs' All-Star. This is a huge blow to the Cubs, who already have two of their best pitchers (Prior & Wood) out on the disabled list. Lee is currently on the 15-day disabled list, though he's expected to be out at least two months. Check out the Cubs injury list here.
From a Cubs.com report...
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Derrek Lee has never broken a bone, never been on the disabled list, doesn't like to take a day off, and isn't used to being a cheerleader. He's now sidelined with a fractured right wrist and it's frustrating.
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The timing of the accident was terrible - not that there's any good time for something like this to happen - just a day before the Cubs headed off to St. Louis for a three game series in the Cardinals' new stadium. The Cubs dropped the first two games, which really hurts, but managed to win the third, thereby avoiding the dreaded sweep.
Also good news is the Cubs managed to stage a fantastic eighth inning comeback against the Marlins Monday night, winning the game 6 to 3. What I find important about this win, along with the game three win against the Cardinals, is what it says about the Cubs' mental state.
There was a huge fear that the loss of D-Lee would be mentally devestating for the players and they'd just roll over and play dead. But, they didn't, and it's obvious they're going to keep fighting to stay in the hunt until the injured players start returning. The trick is, can the Cubs stay close enough to the division leader to make a run at it down the road? For the past few years, the Cardinals have simply run away with the lead, and by the time the Cubs started getting their injured players back it was too late to catch up. Hopefully the Cubs can hang in there this time around.
Oh, I almost forgot... we got a sweet 3'x5' Cubs flag to hang off the garage. It's friggin' HUGE!! I don't know what it is about me and flags, but I continually misjudge the size and end up getting something way too big. Like the American flag I bought my dad several years back. That thing could be used as a sheet on a king-sized bed.
We'll get the flag mounted this week and post some photos.
Go Cubs!
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| Quackopractor |
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I broke down and decided to go see a chiropractor about my neck and upper back. I've been getting these severe kinks in my neck more often lately - the kind where I can't move my head at all and feels like a ten inch knife is embedded in my neck. I had another one that started last Friday morning. I was miserable all day at work and basically useless most of the weekend. I'm still not 100%.
Anyway, Kim has started seeing a chiropractor recently about various neck and back issues, and she started feeling better after the first appointment. My dad has been seeing one forever, and he swears by it as well. So, after this latest neck-kink incident, I figured it was worth a shot. I got a referral to a chiropractor real close to the office, and apparently several employees here see the quack.
I had my first appointment late Monday, and spent most of the hour getting manhandled by this nice lady who is apparently stalking me. She touched my eyebrows and goes, "Do you have sinus trouble? Mostly on the right side?" Why, yes I do. "I can tell."
"Do you have trouble sleeping at night?" Why, yes I do. "I can tell."
She then touched me in the middle of my back and asked, "Do you fart in bed a lot?" Why, yes... yes I do. "I can tell. And your wife wants you to stop."
Okay, so I made that last one up. But the bit about the sinus trouble is true, and I'm assuming she only knows that because she's stalking me.
I don't feel a whole lot better after that first appointment, but all she did was sort of rub me down a bit (sans happy ending, of course), which did loosen up my shoulders and neck, but I guess the real work begins at my next appointment Wednesday. I wonder if that's when the quack brings out the divining rod. Good thing my insurance covers this.
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| TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006 |
| Remote Storage DVR, Part Deux |
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arstechnica.com has a follow-up on their previous article regarding a new remote storage DVR service that Cablevision is working on.
After thinking about it a little more, I'm a bit more pessimistic than I was before. While the idea of having the cable company record and store all your shows on their end is intriguing, it really all depends on how it's implemented.
Some of the pros to the service include,
- being able to access your recorded shows from any TV in the house
- no additional DVR box in-house
Some of the potential cons include,
- slow, crappy interface like Comcast currently has for its On Demand service
- if the cable service goes down, can't access/watch any recorded shows
- cable company could eliminate the feature allowing viewers to fast-forward through commercials (though, to be fair, DVR providers could do this as well)
In the end, I guess it would all hinge on how the service is implemented, but as it currently stands, there's way too much opportunity for cable companies to screw the customer (imagine that).
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| MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2006 |
| Hey! Hey! Holy Mackerel! |
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The Cubs swept the Cardinals for the first time since 2001. I know it's way early in the season, but it's fantastic how well the Cubs are playing out of the gate. The Cubs could very well drop five in a row now, but an early season sweep of the Cardinals is huge.
You can read about the sweep here.
Go Cubbies!
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| FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2006 |
| Invade Canada? |
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Please... if the U.S. wanted to invade Canada, we'd just knock on the door and go, "Hey Canada, we're out of trees. Get out." It'd be that simple. It'd be like invading Wisconsin, only easier. Then again, that's what the Bush administration thought about Iraq.
Why am I talking about invading Canada? Because I ran across an interesting article online that refers to a secret plan developed by the U.S. War Department in 1930 to invade the Great White North. It's actually an interesting read.
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The United States government does have a plan to invade Canada. It's a 94-page document called "Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan -- Red," with the word SECRET stamped on the cover. It's a bold plan, a bodacious plan, a step-by-step plan to invade, seize and annex our neighbor to the north.
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Check out the article here.
For a more humorous take on invading Canada, check out InvadeCanada.us. Good stuff!
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The magnetic north pole is within the Canadian border. We must protect Santa Claus!
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| BASEBALL!! |
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So, yeah, the Cubs won their opening day game against the Reds, but lost game 2. No biggie. The Cubs home opener is today against St. Louis and I'm wearing my Cubs jersey in support. I would so love the Cubs sticking it to the Cards. How great would that be?!
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| FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2006 |
| T-Minus 3 Days and Counting... |
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...until opening day for baseball. YAY! It looks like the Cubs have set their starting pitching rotation, which includes a rookie left-hander named Sean Marshall. It'll be interesting to see how the 23-year-old handles his first planned start against the Cardinals April 9. On national television (ESPN), no less.
The rest of the Cubs starting rotation includes Carlos Zambrano, Greg Maddux and Glendon Rusch. Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are officially on the 15-day Disabled List, and apparently there are Cubs players who are actually trying to forget Prior and Wood are even part of the team. Meaning, they want to focus on and win with the team they have now. If/when Prior and Wood heal up and play, great. As Dusty Baker says, when that happens, it'll be like trading for an all-star (or two). Prior is projected to return in May and Wood in April. I wouldn't start holding your breath just yet.
Beyond all that, I'm getting pretty excited about the season. Yeah, Prior and Wood are out, and I'm a big fan of Prior, but you know what? I don't really care so much anymore. I guess I'm just getting used to them both being injured. Whether they're made of glass or Baker is miss-using them, the fact of the matter is they not dependable. As such, I'm going to get behind the team we have now and go from there.
GO CUBS!
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| Remote Storage DVR |
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arstechnica.com has a great article about a new service Cablevision is working on, and I can only hope Comcast is doing the same.
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When is a DVR not a DVR? How about when there's no DVR? If Cablevision has their way, customers will enjoy the benefits of a DVR without the DVR, at least in the sense that we've come to expect. The plan is so simple, you'll swear you've heard it before: instead of recording shows on a box in your home, why not let the cable company do it for you? Enter "remote storage DVRs."
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Basically, the DVR functionality would remain the same, but instead of your shows being recorded to a DVR box in your living room, your shows would be recorded and stored on the cable company's end. The potention impact of this is fantastic.
We have one Comcast DVR and two digital boxes at home. The DVR is in the living room and the digital boxes are in the master bedroom and down in the basement. While the Comcast DVR is more than a bit frustrating to use, the service it provides - digitally recording multiple shows, time-shifting, etc - is wonderful. After you program in the various recordings, you just sit back and let the box record everything you want automatically. No having to change tapes, change channels, blah, blah, blah.
While all that is great, the biggest complaint I have is that the recordings aren't easily transferrable or viewable on any of our televisions except the one in the living room connected to the DVR. I said easily transferrable because there are ways to transfer or otherwise watch these shows on another TV, but they're not exactly easy. So, what we end up with is all our shows recorded on a box in the living room, so if we want to watch them, that's where we have to be.
This new service that Cablevision is working on would completely eliminate that. With the shows recorded and stored on the cable company's end, then we could call them up from any one of our digital boxes. That would be frakkin' awesome!!
I really, really, really, really, really, REALLY hope Comcast is working on something like this.
Check out the article here.
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| THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 |
| Ouch. |
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I can't believe it's been two months since I've made a post. Looks like I'm falling back into old habits. I'll try and get better about this. ugh
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| Happy Birthday Kimikins! |
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Yes, today is Kim's birthday. No, I'm not going to post her age. Yes, my wife will kill me if I post her age. No, you can't convince me otherwise.
We're going to do a nice dinner/drinks thing this weekend, which should be fun. I know we're both looking forward to it. She's totally going to love the presents I got for her. I can't wait for her to open them. YAY!
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| Baseball Spring Training |
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Baseball spring training is well underway, with players reporting the end of March. Things were looking good there for a bit, but then the inevitable happened: the injury parade came to town. Prior has a shoulder problem, Wood a knee problem, Lee some shoulder soreness, blah... blah... blah.... It's basically the same crap, different year.
It's been a disappointing ramp-up to the start of the season, but it's still very early and I'm holding out some hope that this will all work out (though I'm not exactly holding my breath).
Opening day is April 3, which has the Cubs playing at the Reds home opener. The Cubs home opener is April 7 against the Cardinals.
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| Misc. |
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Let's see... here are a few items of note, in no particular order...
- Kim's company had a post-end-of-year party a few weeks back that was really fun.
- I attended traffic school two weekends ago to get supervision for a ticket I received for making an illegal left turn (yup, guilty as charged).
- I attended software training through work last week for Adobe InDesign CS2, which was not only fun but the instructor was a guy named Josh with whom I used to work back at Midwest Visual in the late '90s. Talk about a small world.
- Our next door neighbor has a dog that likes to crap on our side of the bushes.
- Kim and I have been talking about getting a dog.
- Kim's getting all reved up for Spring so we can start working on the upstairs (painting, repairs, etc).
- I'm thinking about getting a new bike so I can start riding again.
- We're both really bummed that Battlestar Galactica is on hiatus until October.
- Ned and Laura bought a house that is sort of out our way and are moving in soon.
- Kim says she has a whopper of a birthday planned for me when I turn 40, which is like a year and a half away. It's good to know she's planning early.
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| THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006 |
| Stupid is as stupid does. |
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Further proof that the U.S. patent system is run by chimps...
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To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the emoticon. When harmless they are cute, when used at the end of a rude comment like “just kidding!” they seem hostile. But for the most part, they are a part of Internet culture ever since email began zinging around. Today, if you can believe it, I found out that Cingular is going to patent the emoticon. As far-fetched as that sound, in this era of Amazon owning “the one-click” and RIM battling for the ability to send Blackberry email, patent law is scary and not even close to overheating. The patent number is US2006015812 if you want to look it up.
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Read the full story here... slinky
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| Speaking of chimps... |
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Referring to the recent Hamas Palestinian election victory, George W. Bush makes one of the most ironic statements of all time...
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A political party, in order to be viable, is one that professes peace, in my judgment, in order that it will keep the peace," the President said, after a strong showing by Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary voting.
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Check it out here... slinky
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| Was she blond? |
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No, just from Tennessee.
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Flight attendant arrested with inactive grenade
A Northwest Airlines flight attendant faces charges after security officers found a real - but inactive - hand grenade in her carry-on luggage at Mitchell International Airport, officials said Wednesday.
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Full story... slinky
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| WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2006 |
| Bears? What Bears? |
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Yeah, so the Bears didn't play all that well in their game against the Panthers. As I feared, the Bears defense didn't show up, missing all kinds of tackles and letting Steve Smith run around like he was invisible. The Bears tried to make a game out of it down the stretch, but ended up losing 29-21, the capper coming by way of a late interception thrown by Rex Grossman.
Aside from Steve Smith embarrassing the Bears defensive backs, I'd say the Bears pretty much beat themselves. They missed way too many tackles and failed to execute on offense. If the defense could have played as well as they did most of the season, the 21 points scored by the offense should have been enough. But, that didn't happen.
Oh well... shoulda, woulda, coulda, I suppose.
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| Automated Phone Hell |
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Want to know what Hell really is? Call up the automated service line at Lowes and try to schedule a service call on an appliance.
Our six-month-old refrigerator that we bought at Lowes started leaking water a little while back. It only happened once in a while and we couldn't figure out where the water was coming from. Since it was so intermittent, I didn't want to place a service call for fear it'd be too difficult for the technician to determine the problem. So, after many weeks of effort, I finally figured out that the plastic drip-pan at the bottom of the unit is cracked in two places, which lets the water dripping into the pan leak onto the floor.
Once I figured that out, I immediately set about placing a service call to get the pan replaced. I mean, it's a new frig, right? Why wouldn't I want it fixed under warranty? Because dealing with the Lowes automated service line is one of those special places in hell reserved for pedophiles and people who talk in the movie theater, that's why.
Before I go into detail, let me ask this: what genius decided it's better to say "one" during an automated phone session rather then press the one button on the phone? I mean, seriously... were there a lot of complaints from people with no arms saying, "I can't press the one button because I have no arms!" Okay, Venus de Milo, how in the hell did you dial the number in the first place? But I digress.
So, yeah, the Lowes system is not only automated, but it's one of those vocal-types where you speak your answers instead of pressing buttons. I tend to deal with automated phone systems quite a bit in my daily work, and I can easily say that I have not used one of these vocal-type automated systems that didn't make me want to claw my eyes out with a staple remover. And the Lowes vocal-type automated system is worse than all those others combined. And before any of you smart alecks fire off an email, I tried all kinds of button combos to get to a live person, all to no avail. So, just calm yourself down there, skippy.
There I am, twenty minutes of saying one, four, yes... refrigerator... refrigerator... REFRIGERATOR... whirlpool... whirlpool... WHIRLPOOL... top and bottom... top and bottom... TOPANDBOTTOM... top(pause)and(pause)bottom... TOPANDFUCKINGBOTTOM... top... and... bottom... saturday... saturday... ohgodpleasekillmenow...
The final straw came when the system prompted me to say the model number of the frig, which is something like "01G900JKLMNOPEE". No matter how hard I tried, no matter how slow or fast I spoke, no matter how carefully I enunciated, the system simply would not recognize what I was saying. I finally gave up when it asked me for my preferred appointment day, to which I responded "saturday", and the system started reading back, "If you would prefer Monday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, say 'yes'"... "If you would prefer Monday, 8:00am to Noon, say 'yes'"... "if you would prefer Monday, Noon to 5:00pm, say 'yes'". At that point I began sobbing, hung up and put the phone down. Okay, slammed the phone down.
I told Kim that if she wanted Lowes to come out, she was going to have to make the appointment because I'd done my best and the machine won. It beat me, hands down. Not only did it beat me, but it smacked my ass and called me Judy.
At the end of the day, I decided I'd just use some calking to patch up the cracks and get on with my life. I just dread the day when the frig breaks and we absolutely must have a service call. That's going to be fun.
Oh, by the way... we need a new phone now.
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| SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2006 |
| Bears Playoff |
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So the Chicago Bears are playing their first playoff game this Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The Bears beat the Panthers 13-3 in their first meeting, but it's always a guessing game with the Bears this season.
As far as this season goes, if the defense played well, the Bears did well, even when the offense stunk up the field. But in the games the defense didn't play well, well, let's just say the stink was ever so offensive, if you'll pardon the terrible pun.
Now that Rex is in charge, there's great hope for a reinvigorated offense, and the final few games of the season showed as much, but there's still way too many unknowns.
Will Rex get all girly nervous in the playoffs? Will the offensive line fall down? Will Rex get injured by a strong breeze from the lake? Will the defense show up and play like they have most of the season? UGH
The Bears defense and offensive line (and backfield) have been solid most of the season. If they can show up and continue that trend, then it's basically up to Rex. So, like it or not, it's really up to Rex. Assuming the defense, offensive line and backfield play like they've played all year.
Guess we'll find out Sunday!
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| Podcast Favorites |
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Since I've been really getting into podcasts lately, I decided to add a list of my favorites over in the left-hand column. I've listed them in alphabetical order so as to not offend any of the authors. If you're into podcasts, please check them out.
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| TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2006 |
| Happy Freakin' New Year! |
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Welcome to the year 2006, my faithful readers - all seven of you. According to many experts, we should all be riding around in flying cars and have turkey meals poofing to shape from pill form. Where is that stuff? Seriously... I want my flying car!
Kim and I enjoyed a wonderful night-in for New Year's Eve, which is exactly what we wanted. This holiday season has been very hectic for us, so we were happy to enjoy a relaxing night in. I'm excited to say we cooked a killer standing rib roast (less-expensive brother of prime rib), which turned out totally amazing! The only trouble was, we completely underestimated the cooking time. Don't know what we were thinking (Kim blames me, of course), but it took several hours to cook that sucker. In the end, however - OH MY FREAKIN' GAWD!
A standing rib roast isn't exactly cheap, but it's cheaper than dinner and drinks for two at a decent restaurant on NYE. And, since I've been wanting to cook one of these suckers for quite some time, I'm really excited we did this. We followed an Alton Brown (Good Eats) recipe from FoodTV.com. We didn't use the goofy terra cotta contraption or age the meat for three days, but we did most of everything else and it turned out great. Maybe next time we'll age the beef according to the recipe. Maybe. Oh, before I forget, there's a Good Eats episode for this recipe, so if you're interested, keep checking out the show for re-runs.
So, we made the roast, home made mashed potatoes, sautéed butter-n-garlic baby portobello mushrooms and steamed fresh green beans. The roast turned out nice and crusty on the outside while rare in the middle, the 'shrooms were garlicy-heaven, and the green beans had that perfect bite: a nice snap but not too firm. MMMMmmmmmm!!!! My mouth is literally watering as I type this. This is easily one of the best meals we've ever made. Makes me glad to be a carnivore!
As you can maybe tell, I was really excited about that meal and how it turned out. I've been wanting to make a great roast like that for ages, and when I first suggested it to Kim, she was like, "Oh, yeah... here... twist my arm." Which is one of the many, many reasons I love her so much.
Happy New *burp* Year!!!
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| Ramble Archive |
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As may be evident, this front page is now mostly empty. Every six months I take all the Rambles on the front page and send them off to the archive section. Why? Because I like the front page to load as quickly as possible. The less text and crap on the front page, the faster it loads. Thus my archiving process.
Now that we've hit January 2006, I've sent all Rambles from July 1, 2005 - December 31, 2005 off to the archive section. There's a link over in the left SITE INDEX that links to the Ramble Index, so check it out if you're looking for something prior to this date.
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