Month: March 2005

Whats Hot And Not on TV (for me)

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As I always say I am a science fiction geek. I don’t care what you think about that. It is not like I have costumes and goto conventions. There was that time at Burson that I ran around with a Star Wars laser gun, but that was more to make fun of Jeffrey M for having it than anything else, but I digress. Being a sci-fi fan I get very happy when I see a real good sci-fi drama. Battlestar Galactica is my latest favorite. it is dark, gritty and has a real feel to it. Granted it is sci-fi but it is at least tries to put a human element in everything it does. The stories are fantastic, and lets face it CGI doesn’t make everything ok. The story is what makes things work. The first season is more than half over. I am already dreading the months to a year for the next 13 episodes to come out.

Season 3 of Mi-5 (Spooks) is still as good as the first 2 seasons. the only problem is that 10 episodes does not a season make. Maybe that is why the british tv calls it series 3? Even the Soprano’s has more than 10 episodes a season. of course if my only complaint of a show is that they make too few of them, then they are doing something right. Even after 2 of the 3 main characters are out this season it still keeps its stride.

For all those people out there saying DVR’s like Tivo with the ability to keep shows forever are killing DVD sales I have one thing to say. I can (and do) burn shows to DVD for person use, as is my right under fare use laws. I had all 10 episodes of season 2 of Mi-5 on my hard drive. I still went out and bought the dvd series, and deleted the perfectly good high quality MPEG-2 files from my hard drive? Why because I wanted the DVD. you are afraid of losing money because of people like me saving files on my computer. If I can get the season’s of stuff on DVD quick I will still buy them. I will let you in on a little secret, I spend more on DVD’s now that I have a DVR than when I didn’t. Buy tightening the reigns on DVR’s you are only pissing me the consumer with $$$ off. Think about it.

I haven’t watched a complete season of 24 since the first season. I just bought that one on DVD a few weeks ago. This year I watched the first 2 hour episode of season 4 and I was interested. I had the Tivo grab every episode. I find that 24 is better to be watched 6-9 episodes at a time. When I was recovering from being sick I sat and watched all the episodes I have up till now. Man can I say action packed. Granted it is unrealistic, but it is a good serial drama. I still have my season pass waiting to capture the remaining episodes. I actually like what fox did and waited to put the show on until January to give it a 23 week run with all first run episodes.

Now I don’t normally admit I know this show exists, let alone watch it, but Gilmore Girls used to be good. I mean you may ask why a 30 year old guy is watching that show? I say why wouldn’t I? I will watch any show on TV now a days with good witty writing on it, decent stories and did I mention hot actress’s on it! So a chick show, maybe, but don’t mock me for it. Did I mention hot actress’s? I blame my friend Jenn for getting started on that thing. Yes Jenn another plug for you:)

Law & Order is another great show. A semi realistic look at crime fighting. Recently I am a fan of the Special Victims version of that show. Just good all around crime show. It is not as good as my all time favorite crime show, Homicide Life on the Street, but it is better than everything else out there now. Now if you never have seen Homicide, you need to go get the DVD. I need to finish my collection of that series on DVD soon.

Some shows that I watch, but I don’t know why are things like Enterprise. Man I really don’t care if that show gets canceled. I am a sci-fi fan, and an off and on again Star Trek fan, but looking back on all the series they made I only like about 1 1/2 of them. I don’t care if you agree with me or not, but some of those people need some spines. I don’t know about you but if I was on a ship (space ship, naval ship, inflatable raft) and I saw/knew a bad guy is coming after me I wouldn’t try to talk. They don’t want to talk to you. You need to show them a whole six pack of wup ass. I need a good show like Babylon 5 again. The good guys don’t always have to be squeaky clean pussies. OK, I feel better now.

Third Watch was another show that used to be good, but it is so over the top now I don’t know why I watch it? I keep hoping it will get better. I don’t know. It is not like I have more time for TV than I did before. I actually have less. I guess I am an optimist sometimes. Of course there was a time that I liked ER also, and now I can’t stand that show. How some shows should be pulled off the air after a while.

Lastly one last good show Arrested Development. Funny, witty, and well written. If you know me you must be wondering why I didn’t mention the Simpsons sooner? The answer is the Simpsons are always good, no matter what I or anyone else says. Mmmm Simpsons… And that is what is on my mind about what is on TV. Just remember this is my opinion. I don’t care what you or anyone may thing about my opinion. I am just writing because I feel like writing about what is on my mind.

There are plenty other shows out there that I can comment on, good or bad. This was just a few that came to mind when I couldn’t sleep last night.

Mac Mini Twins

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Being single + impulse buyer + tax return = new mac mini for Scott. I was at the apple store Monday. Gus may refer to it as his Mecca! I was looking for a bluetooth USB adapter for my Mini. I happened to ask if the Mini’s were in stock. I wanted another one, but I haven’t wanted to wait for it to show up so I haven’t ordered it yet. Stupid logic, but it works for me. The guy at the store said they had the high end one in stock. In a moment of weakness I said I will take it.

Now I use my mini at home almost excessively. I sometimes use my Thinkpad or my HP desktop, but very rarely. The Thinkpad is only for work emergencies. that happens enough to warrant me taking it home every night. The HP is my DVR and not much else these days. I live off of my Mini. That is why I wanted another one. I spend 10 hours a day at work and allot of it is on a computer. hey I am in the Technology field. So I figured dropping a Mini at my desk would be great. I can do allot (but not all) of my work on a mac. And the mini is portable so I can throw it in my bag and take it with me when I need to. The logic worked for me. As I said I had tax return money. So now I have more computer than I can count. Well that is not true. I have 1 PC desktop, 2 mac desktops, and 1 mac laptop. The rest of the computers I discuss are not technically mine. The Thinkpad is the works. But it makes sense if you look at it a certain way. I need a PC at home, and I need a Mac. Another mac for work, and the powerbook for when I travel. Well in my head the logic worked. I know I am crazy. you don’t need to tell me.

So far I am happy with both Mini’s. I should get my 512 meg ram upgrade for the new mini in a day or so. I didn’t want to shell out the outrageous price for the 1gig chip again. With my new camera phone I can take better pictures of the inside of the unit compared to the bad ones I took when we opened my first mini.

Update, I got the 512 Meg ram upgrade. Jayson had the handy putty knives from the last time we did this and had the memory upgraded on this new mini in 20 minutes. I have it sitting on my desk at work. I was able to use it for more than like 80% of the day Friday. I need to find a good open source SSH client for OS X. I am starting to make a list of business software that I could use on the Mac.

I got the new mini to bluetooth sync with my Treo 650 after about 2 minutes of trying. It worked like a charm. So much simpler than my horror with the 3com PCMCIA card with my Thinkpad, and the Xircom bluetooth card that I never really got to work right.

Computer Buying For Novices

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I had to explain computer purchasing concepts to my brother in law. he doesn’t understand why he cannot buy a $299 computer and be happy with it. I tried (not sure if I succeeded) in explaining that it is low end crap, and that it will be easily outdated in 3-5 years. Since they want to (plan to) keep the computer that long, they should not buy the bottom of the barrel. I didn’t mention but felt like I should mention it, that I wouldn’t recommend to my worst enemy to buy a $299 computer so I would not let my family buy that stuff. The only exception of the rule mentioned above is Gus. Since he seems to think he can run the universe on his old P-2 300mhz, I would recommend a 5 year old used Dell off of ebay for him:)

How Can He Be A Pisces Too?

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It felt like Friday, even though I worked from home yesterday. I am feeling better this afternoon, but this morning I still felt lousy. Jayson took off at noon on his week long trek to Baton Rouge. I think his timing on the drive was off, but I wasn’t going to argue traffic patters since neither of us drive that much anymore. I wasn’t driving down there, so I was happy. Danny is moving this week so I won’t see him till Wednesday. I feel all alone!

It was Nelson’s birthday today and they did the traditional birthday lunch with him. A bunch of people also went out after work. I went for 1 drink. It was one too many. I knew I shouldn’t drink if I was sick recently, but I was stupid. Thankfully I only had one.

I am just trying to figure out how Nelson and I are both Pisces. I think he is faking it or something. I have made it almost a mission for me to distance myself in every way from him. And Nelson if you are reading this, yes I am kidding! Dan if you are reading this, no I am not kidding.

Busy and Sick

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Got one of the 2 circuits we were going to cancel taken care of. our provider is working on canceling the other line. The new bigger circuit for my office is on order now.

Jayson is working on finishing up the hardware for our VMware GSX server. We had issues with the poweredge we bought so we won’t have 4 gigs of ram. We will settle for 3. That means less VM’s we can run. I need to cofigure GSX when I am in the office Friday.

Jay is off next week to goto sell his house. he is going to fix it up and put it back on the market.

I am working to get hardware for our Biztalk 2004 deployment. I need to buy a server for QA and 2 for production. Working out pricing issues now. Hope to have them by next week.

What Is Up With Me?

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I had to leave work early yesterday because I felt like crap again. I am feeling better today, but still not 100% myself. Not sure what is up but I need to take it easy. Jayson thinks I am overworking. I need a vacation. I am working from home today. But I am actually working so I am not that much more relaxed than I would be at the office. At least I can play music and sit at my computer in my PJ’s.

I hope I am better for tomorrow. I need to goto my sisters. I also am planed to help a friend move on Saturday, but my body (and my dad) are advising against it. I feel bad but I need to call him and discuss the situation with him.

Emailed Jenn again tonight. I have written her more in the past week than I have in the past 2 years. I miss talking to her. I miss talking to steve also, but getting him to talk is much harder than speaking to Jenn! I hope to see both of them soon.

Journal Import Disclaimer

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A friend of mine emailed me about the old journal posts. Instead of replying directly to her I figured I would post several “disclaimers” regarding these old posts. First there is not that many of them. Between 1995 and 2000 maybe about 100 to 150 of them. Some of them were very short. Also they were clustered together. I did allot of writing during the summer of 1995. I had my first Thinkpad and allot of free time at night to write. I also did allot of writing in the late spring and early summer of 1996. I had my afternoons free when I was done with my Anatomy and Physiology Summer school classes. I then skip ahead to december 1999 through the first half of 2000. When you read the 1999 & 2000 posts you will see why I wrote then. I was in training and traveling for a while and I was alone, bored and had free time at the hotel. I then pick up again for a little while for a few days in november 2000. that is it besides one rouge post in 2001.

I will edit some of the posts, but others that probably should be edited (i go off on my parents a little in 96) I will probably just post as is. In an answer to my friend Jennifer’s questions, I don’t bash many people. I manly just said what I did on a given day and some feelings I had. In more recent posts on this blog I give more graphic opinions. And yes Jenn I do mention you in some posts. How can I discuss Oneonta without mentioning you? Well I could but it would be weird.

I hope to (when I have time) go back and fill in details on specific days that I remember things about. I think that would be fun to write about old almost long forgotten stuff from my less than wild and crazy youth. Of course then I may have to mention certain young ladies from the greater Binghamton area’s drinking habits! That is when it does not in any way incriminate other people (namely myself). But fun it will be. And no, as much as my blog posts are an english teachers nightmare I will not let anyone check my spelling or grammar. I found an outlet (blogging and email writing for that matter) where poor grammar and spelling is almost acceptable. don’t ruin it for me!

Never A Good Reason To Visit The CCU

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So I am going to be light hearted about the following post. I am not insensitive, but that is the way I am. I started the day with a wonderful 45 minute commute to work. That would have been ok if I commuted from my old apartment. Since it normally takes me 20 minutes to get to the office I was kind of pissed off. Turns out the trains were all messed up so they were really crowded and slow moving. That adds for lots of fun.

I get to work and get a voice mail from my sister to call her right away. I was sort of busy and didn’t really call her right back. I then get a call from my mom on my cell. Now I know something is wrong. My mom would never call me at work at 10AM. Turns out my dad had some chest pain and was in the ER. Granted he works like 60 seconds from the ER, and spends his mornings there, it wasn’t he was working in the ER. it was he was there with a problem. Turns out he had a blockage in his heart and needed to have a stint put in. Now if you were calling to tell someone about a problem like that you would start the conversation off with just that. This is the issue. Not my mom. She had to explain she was calling me because she called my sister also. That went on for a bit until I learned of the issue. Needless to say I was a bit worried. My dad is not exactly in the best shape. This was the second time in 6 years that he had a blockage that needed stinting. So all the worst case scenarios go through your head. Turns out he is fine, or as fine as someone who just had a plastic thing put in his heart can be.

I am relieved to know he will be fine in the short term, but concerned along with the rest of my family that he is not taking care of himself. Everyone else is either yelled at him, or said they will decide what he can and cannot eat. Everyone doesn’t understand why I wont step in either. My opinion boils down to two pieces of information. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks, and no one can change without wanting to change. If my dad wants to change his diet he has to say he wants to, and make an effort to. You cannot force him to. That brings me to the realization that although he wont die tomorrow, I have allot less time with him than I used to.

I am either in denial about the whole situation or I am handling it rather well. Not sure which one yet. I went up the hospital tonight to see him. That was a bigger feat than I originally thought since the subway was still messed up. The snow and wind didn’t help either. Once I got there he seemed to be in good shape. he sounded fine, and looked ok. I guess we have to wait and see how he handles himself once he gets out.

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Journal Import Update

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It is weird reading over old writings about what was going on in my life. It is also interesting to see the huge gaps between when I wrote. There were months that I wrote almost everyday, and other entire years that I didn’t write anything. I have imported everything I have from 1995 till February 2000. Once I go through everything I think I will actually import it into this main site. The problem is since I never (never in a million years) thought I would publish this stuff for people to read I used last names, and other details that I should filter.

I realized I was depressed when I was working at Datastream. It was the being alone and on the road that I think did it. Being bored towards the end didn’t help either, but I when I read back on the posts I realize I was depressed even when I started working there in training. Of course I wasn’t doing what I signed on to do for the 3 months of training, and that could have been it. I don’t know. it is just weird reading all these old posts. I may decide to go back and fill in some blank spots of time with posts of things I remember.

Morgan’s Birthday Party

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Today was Morgan’s birthday party. She seemed to have fun, and so did her friends. I think the only thing she didn’t like was the cake. My dad and I are going to smuggle her some blackout cake the next time we see her. The white frosting didn’t make her happy! I actually didn’t have to wait long for the subway on the way to Queens today so I made the entire trip in like 40 minutes. That included about 5 minutes of getting lost since the roads in Forrest Hills are not numbered like they should be. The return trip however took allot longer since I ended up having to wait for the 6 train for like 15 minutes.

I watched TV, did some work, and cleaned my apartment a little during the rest of the day.