Net Boredom

It's becoming painfully clear to me that I'm quite bored with the Internet. The days of surfing for hours are long since gone. I have several sites that I read every day but I haven't added to that list for some time. So, the purpose of this entry is to ask everyone if there's something interesting I should be reading.

Anyone?

Sinking the Ship

Wow. Just wow.

Remember the guy who brought us Terminator II? Titanic?

On Monday, he's going to announce that he found the tomb of Christ and that Christianity is a sham.

Read it here.

You Tube Lameness

I generally dislike using my blog to recycle things from You Tube, but sometimes it's the only way to point out funny stuff. This was going around the office today and it's pretty damn funny.

Themed Like A Good Idea

For my money, the best TV theme song EVER.

The Fire

I am fortunate enough to have a house with a beautiful marble hearth. I made a fire today and have been sitting in front of it for the last couple of hours, just staring at the orange embers and listening to the hiss and pop of the burning wood. Starting a fire is an achievement in and of itself. This isn't a gas stove where you just flick a switch and watch the flame glow blue. This requires kindling, paper, matches, and nice dry wood with rough enough of a surface to give the flame something to light on. When you get a nice fire started, it's almost like a piece of art. I can honestly look back and remember good fires I have lit and bad ones that just never went right. This one took a little coaxing but eventually everything came together and a satisfying evening of calming sights, sounds and smells were my result. Tonight was a good fire. It drained my fears and disappointments and centered my hopes and aspirations for just a little while. It's just like magic.

One can enjoy a wood fire worthily only when he warms his thoughts by it as well as his hands and feet. ~Odell Shepherd

Shakes On A Plane

The one thing I miss most about my morning Radio Show is the ability to rant and rave about something that pisses me off. I have rarely done so here on my blog, but this takes the cake. In case you missed it, a huge snow and ice storm shut down a number of NYC airports, stranding passengers. At least two airlines, Jet Blue and Delta, in several cases, wouldn't even let the passengers off the f'ing plane. For between 8 and 11 hours!

Yep. You heard it right. 11 hours on a fucking plane that is sitting either at the gate or on the tarmac.

Now, I don't know if you've ever been on a grounded plane for a long time. I had a 2.5 hour ordeal last year where I was stuck next to a smelly, sweaty 400 pound guy who was 1/3 of the way into my seat. We sat there on a boiling hot plane, taxied away from the gate, waiting for takeoff. And of course, they couldn't or wouldn't tell us why.

By the way, one of the airline's dirty little secrets is that if they taxi away from the gate on time, the flight is considered "on time" even if it doesn't take off. Ridiculous.

So imagine being stuck in that cramped space, breathing recycled air (even though Jet Blue reportedly opened the door a couple of times to let some air in. How nice.). If you have ever travelled with children, just try and imagine THAT.

The point of the story, is that this behavior is reprehensible. My personal opinion, is that it is criminal and someone from Jet Blue and Delta should go to jail. Maybe not for a long time. Even a couple of days. Or, how about 8 to 11 hours just this once, to make the point. It could be the pilot (the airport is blaming the Jet Blue pilot. Jet Blue is just playing dumb about it all.) At some point here, you are holding people against their will, and that is a criminal act.

I've read a lot of proposals for an Air Traveler's Bill of Rights. A lot of these ideas are pretty damn whacky and protect idiots who get drunk and punch flight attendants. Further, they ask for ridiculous amenities that would drive ticket prices up by a factor of 4. But one I heard today was pretty interesting. It basically said:

1) If a flight hasn't taken off in 2 hours and passengers are not allowed to deplane, the staff must pass out sanitary supplies like wetnaps and the bathrooms must be sanitary and accessible. Handicapped passengers must be attended to and offered the right to deplane.

2) If a flight hasn't taken off in 3 hours, passengers requesting to deplane MUST be permitted to do so. Passengers will be refunded 150% of their ticket price. (By the way, that is almost impossible to enforce a refund due to the nature at which tickets are purchased. The important point is the first sentence.)

3) If a passenger is separated from their luggage for more than 12 hours (due to lost or misdirected luggage) then the airport or airline is required to provide standard toiletries.

And it goes on and on. The important point is the ability to deplane. Hell, three hours is a long freakin' time but you at least have to consider that the window for take-off is such that it would take another 30 minutes to get everyone back on the plane.

Service on airlines has just gone in the toilet. I have at least 5 trips in the next couple of months and whereas I used to enjoy, then not mind flying, I now loathe it. Sitting 8 hours on a plane would probably drive me straight to a Greyhound station.

I'm dead serious. I wasn't on that plane but I empathize with what those people went through. I would be screaming for a pound of flesh right now. And another bag of peanuts.

Remember the 70's?

I swear I had a reason for posting this. Really. Just give me a minute.


Umm....

Oh yeah, Lynda Carter is appearing on Smallville as Chloe's mom.

And uh....

I guess that's all.

Really.

Double The Bauer...And Still No Thigh Shots

I'll ask you again. What happened to my dry cleaning?? It was hanging on the wall just yesterday!!



Ok, last night was double your pleasure of 24. And a lot happened. I had considered doing the entire entry in a haiku, but I got too excited seeing Jack wielding a double-barreled shotgun and it just doesn't work in that literary form.

- Tom is a weenie. No, he's a patriot. No, a weenie. Now he just became his assistant's bitch. "Get me the itinerary. Bitch."

- Would Secret Service really allow the world's worst terrorist to sit alone with Palmer? "We're just outside the door, Mr. Sucker...errr...President."

- Jack, sans helmet, gloves or arm protection is the first one in the door wielding a SHOTGUN!! It's DOOM baby! Boom! Boom! "This is my boomstick!"

- "I lost control Bill!!!!" You think?

- Bill will cover up anything for anybody. God love him. I wish he was my boss.

- Sorry blondie but you didn't even have a name, did you?

- "So Morris, how was your day?" "Oh, some asshole really drilled me about a programming project." "That's too bad. Coffee?"

- So, if the two metal plates need to touch for an electric current, why did Jack feel so comfortable about separating them with his SWEATY BARE HANDS?? Just askin'.

- CTU has setup a perimeter. Has that EVER worked? "Christ! There are sewers under this building? Dammit!"

- Marylin has been trying to forget Jack for 20 years. Well, that blows my theory about the kid being Jack's. That's ok, he's a weenie.

- But dad. Man. He's a dick. Jack is so going to shoot him in the thigh.

- Aha! There are Russians involved. And they're still pissed about the Cold War. And look, they have a bald, mean looking guy too! Everyone has one of those. (For those of you not keeping score at home, that's #4.)

- Whoa, Dr. Pepper Guy can drive. Sort of. Grenades? I think I would have thrown them, I don't know, AT the guys chasing you?

- Los Angeles is still very calm after a nuclear blast.

- Tip for terrorists and private security forces. Put the bomb INSIDE the cardboard boxes. Seriously.

Great episode. Not many dammits and no thigh shots. Oh, and Nadia is still smokin' hot. And she has a website.

Is it just ME?

Because my computer decided to blow up when it did (I suspect copious amounts of jelly in the keyboard had something to do with it) and I bought my new system when I did, I get a free upgrade to Windows Vista. Woot! So I've filled out the rebate form and should be getting it in a couple of weeks.

Now, I have to say I have really enjoyed the current version of Windows (Windows Media Edition). I didn't know much about it prior to getting my new system but it just freaking rocks. XP was always solid for me but it didn't have the media bells and whistles that this one did. I'm anxious to get my Xbox 360 so I can network the media up to my bigscreen (my brother in law did this and it's very cool).

So I know that Vista is coming and I've been doing a lot of reading on it. However, I read a review on PC Computing that made me wonder. I made the number from Windows 95 to Windows ME. A stupid, stupid move. ME was really nothing more than a cosmetic overhaul and essentially just compiled a handful of patches into one "operating system". The review on Vista stated that a lot of it was just "cosmetic". As I already have the Media Edition, I already have a lot of what Vista includes so I'm wondering if Vista will be another ME.

And before all my Mac friends jump in, no, I'm not going to a Mac. Maybe, like, ever. Been there, done it, consider it a toy.

Enjoying What You Do

I really do have the best job in the world.

In any given day, I get to have serious discussions about who should win in a fight between various super-heroes. Lately, my job has required me to read a stack of comic books, on work time, for research, watch AVP over and over, request DVD copies of Ultimate Avengers 2 and the Invincible Iron Man, go through 6 Star Wars movies looking for flavor text, play Halo 1 and 2, see my name as captain of a Pirate ship, have to explain the lack of purple underpants, argue how tall the Alien Queen really is, fend off angry co-workers because I didn't bring back a stack of Nerf Bowcasters from the Star Wars store at Disney.

Seriously, it doesn't get much better.

Cancer Sucks

It's the day after my surgery to remove my basel carcinoma (not to be confused with Basil Rathbone, a joke that NONE of the young nurses got) from my left upper lip.

I can pretty much describe the procedure in one word.

Ouch.

The Skin Surgery Center was very nice and did everything possible to make me feel comfortable. They had to go in twice to dig out the roots of the cancer. That actually wasn't bad because I was numbed, but I lost count on the number of novacaine shots I got somewhere around 18.

After 2 hours of waiting for the second biopsy, they slipped me a note in the waiting area that said I was cancer free and was 4th in line. So after another hour wait I went in for the suturing. That's where things got ugly.

They took the bandages off and asked a question that should ALWAYS be answered with a resounding "NO!".

"Do you want to see the wound first?"

Like an idiot, I said yes.

They gave me a mirror and I almost dropped it when I saw the quarter-sized hole in my face that was deep enough to have blood pooled in it. I handed her the mirror back and started getting nauseous. I thought I was gonna puke, but I held it together. I almost lost it again, when I felt blood pouring from the wound down the side of my face and neck.

After cleaning me up, they started the sutures with the doctor talking about his entertainment system and the nurse (who was from another country) talking about something that sounded akin to voodoo. This was not helping.

After about an hour (it seems) of stitching the doctor said he was finished and that it "looked good". They bandaged me up again and then said "Oh, we forgot to show it to you." Again, I didn't learn from my previous experience and asked to see the picture they took. I have this large, triangular stiched piece in my face.

So for two days, I am not supposed to talk, I can only eat mashed potatoes and milk shakes and vicoden doesn't do crap. But, I survived.

And I guess that's the good part, eh?