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Despite our best efforts, my bowling team held out to stay in second in our division and clinch a spot in the playoffs. I also had a pretty good night with an average just over 150 (throwing a hook for the second week in a row!). That oughta add another pin to my overall average.

It’s getting hard to concentrate at work. I’ve been working on the same project for almost 2 months now and I really don’t know what I’m doing. Unfortunately it’s priority one, so I can’t really distract myself with much else unless my customers have problems. As you might have guessed, they’ve been strangely quiet now that I’d welcome something to do. Add to all this the fact that there’s less than three weeks now before Amber and I head for Nebraska then later onto Jamaica, I’m not getting much done.

Oh, and Lost was good, although a little strange. I’m probably in the minority here, but I felt sorry for Charlie and thought Locke was an ass for one of the first times in the show. Was it really necessary to punch Charlie in the face at all, let alone 3 times?

It’s been a strange day. It started out with me getting a ride to work from Chris again (more on this in a minute), followed by 4 long boring hours of Prelude Administration. I ate a quick lunch then walked 10 minutes back to my office. We’re moving to a new building on Monday and since I’m taking Friday off, I needed to pack up my stuff. I got everything organized and onto my moving cart and ended up leaving around 3PM because Chris decided he was ready to duck out early. All in all, not too bad for a work day, but that’s not the annoying part.

About 3 weeks ago I took my car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change. I already knew I had an oil leak that was getting progressively worse and they confirmed it was something they could not fix. I started trying to figure out where I could take it and got some recommendations via the Classifieds at work. A few calls and my options ranged from estimates of $600 to just under $1,000 to fix the problem. I ended up going with the cheapest place, although it wasn’t my first choice simply because of the strong recommendations for a one-man shop not far from here that wasn’t much more.

I think I made a huge mistake. First, the cost was doubled because the problem was worse than originally thought. I was told it should be done Monday or possibly Tuesday. Tuesday came and went and I was informed that it wasn’t done yet. So I called again today during a break from class and was informed they were waiting on a part. They were expecting it anytime and my car should be ready today. Ok, not so bad. But there’s more…

I’d been home for about 15 minutes when I get a call.

I’m calling to let you know that we just got your parts from the shop. I’ve got some bad news for you. It’ll take three more hours to get it done. It won’t be done today.

Keep in mind that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I asked when they were open next, already knowing the answer was going to be Monday. I responded by saying that was pretty much unacceptable, that my family was coming into town and I needed my car. She offered to “hook me up with a rental” which I considered for about thirty seconds before she said they would only pay for half. Half of $25 bucks a day for five days? I don’t think so. Not when I’m already paying out the nose for this repair.

So lets recap. I’ve been given an estimate on the cost; it’s doubled. I’ve been given two estimates on when it would be done and both have come and gone. I’ll have been without the car for a week and a half. Not to mention the costs involved make less and less sense the more I think about it. One part plus installation = $600. Two parts doubles the cost. Wait a minute…I can understand doubling the cost of the part, but once they take the engine apart to install the first one, they don’t have to take it apart again. Why should the cost of labor double as well? That makes no sense. Let’s just say they’ll have a hard time convincing me to pay their full price when I go to pick it up on Monday (assuming it’s even ready). I wonder how they’ll react when I let them know that I work in a company of over 2000 employees, the majority of which will read the story of my experience with McDermott’s Service and Repair.

The day wasn’t all bad. My family got here before bowling and it was good to see them, although it was a little tainted from the events with the car. League also went pretty well tonight. Although my first and third games were nothing special, my second was a 196, my new high score and the best so far for our team. Only 2 open frames and 7 strikes (4 of them consecutive). Let’s just say I was shocked.

Lost was also pretty good tonight. I finally understand where Ana Lucia is coming from, but I still don’t think her past gives her an excuse to be such a bitch. They’ve got a long ways to go before they get me to like her.

With all the extra work I’ve been doing from home I’ve gotten really behind on a lot of the news I usually follow. I haven’t been watching the Daily Show as much (there’s a new supreme court nominee, what?), and I’ve been missing out on some tech news stories I might otherwise have talked about. So here’s where I catch up.

• It looks like Warner Brothers is going to offer classic TV for free. They plan to launch an ad-supported service called In2TV early next year. Almost 5,000 episodes will be made available in the first year with older shows like The Fugitive and Maverick to more recent ones like Babylon 5. Their saying the system may even use peer-t0-pear file-sharing techonology, acknowledging that it does indeed have legitimate, legal uses. I think this is a great idea. I only sort of understand the big three’s motivation to sell their current content after it airs, but I think there’s only a limited amount of people wanting to buy TV, when they can record it for free and oftentimes put it into whatever format they want (if they’re willing to work for it). Keeping it free allows people to enjoy the TV they want, when they want it, and get it delivered in a manner convenient to them.
• Two teams of engineers decided to try to test the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci. We’ve all seen his drawings of a flying machine, but what about an 80-foot weapon designed to defend castles? Well these engineers set out to build these machines, staying as close to Da Vinci’s specs as they possibly could. The results are pretty sweet!
• Every Playboy Centerfold from 1988-1997. It’s not what you think.
• A portable Nintendo 64!
• This is exactly why I want a Digital Rebel.
• Sony:
  • First attempt to make up for their mistakes. This took entirely too long.
  • Sony apologizes. Wait, they call that an apology?
  • Here’s a pretty good article summing up the rootkit issue. It also goes into detail on how computer security companies have reacted (poorly). Interesting that tech blogs have done more to protect consumers than Sony, Microsoft, or antivirus software makers combined.
  • The company continues to have problems.
• Marines get a new weapon. Just check out the photos.
• Boeing is introducing a bigger and better 747 model. Check out the two interior pictures under Innovation. I like the site design but they overlooked some critical problems (zoom in on a picture and you can still click on the images under it).
• AIM decided it was going to add some bots to my buddy list. It didn’t ask me if I wanted to add them now that they were available, it just did it without my permission. I deleted them immediately, because frankly I don’t need a bot to tell me when movie showtimes are. I know how to use the internet to find out on my own. This is just another example of why I’ll probably dump AIM soon and move to Trillian or some less annoying app for my instant messaging needs.
• I saw this article while I was sitting in the waiting room at GHC, waiting to have the pressures checked in my eyes (a strange story for another time - ever had your vision bounce?). I was hoping to find it online because it’s a pretty cool story. A guy in Minnesota spent 11 years trying to make a colored soap bubble that won’t stain. It’s a fun (scientific) read.
• A new iPod Shuffle may be on the way. I still think the shuffle is the most disappointing iPod to date, and I still wish they hadn’t killed the mini. It’ll be interesting to see if they can improve the shuffle or just succeed in capturing the low price flash market.
• Newegg.com is now offering a Trade-in Program for your old computers and tech stuff. I’ve got some older stuff I want to get rid of. This could be really cool. Also, here’s an article about what makes Newegg succesful.
• The next major update to Firefox may come before the end of the month. Sweet.
• Here’s some bad news for the low lifes that create spyware and adware. The senate has passed a bill to make it illegal.
• Record companies want Apple to change the flat rate pricing scheme of iTunes. Why? Here’s one idea; he makes an excellent point.
• The first reviews of Xbox 360 are in and the results are so-so. I had a chance to play one the other day, and while it did look nice, I wasn’t overly impressed either.
• A Zelda movie may be in the works! This is one game I think has enough backstory that it could actually make a good movie.

Whew! I hate getting so far behind.

Lost spoilers for The Other 48 Days. I wasn’t overly impressed.

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It seems like the weekends fly by. It doesn’t help that I connected to work for a few hours today so I could get a little extra time in. I tried to distract myself with football, but watching the Chiefs soon started to piss me off and I turned it off. I think everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for my fantasy team. The game was a battle for the bottom and I have a feeling I lost (or won, depending on how you look at it). I’ll find out tomorrow because I’m too cheap to pay for Yahoo’s stat tracker for live results.

We did get one major thing accomplished this weeked. We went to the JC Penney portrait studio for some engagement photos. We ended up waiting almost an hour beyond the time of our appointment, but they did acknowledge that fact by giving us two free sheets of pictures. I’m hoping to add a page soon with some details on the engagement and wedding, so look for that soon. I think Amber has already created something, but I don’t remember where it’s at.

I just finished watching Family Guy a little bit ago. It was one of the funniest episodes in a long time. The jokes were a nice mix of classic throwbacks to earlier episodes and excellent random bits that make the show so funny. Recently I’ve thought a few of the gags were a bit overused (think drawing out last weeks Osama scene while he rambles for no apparent reason), but tonights was spot on. The ending wasn’t the best, but still an excellent episode. It’s still some of the funniest stuff on TV.

Seth MacFarlane’s other show, American Dad, has been pretty good lately, too. It’s a different kind of humor, but with a similar style. It’s a nice followup for the Griffin family. We need to see more of the fish.

I just finished watching tonight’s episode of Lost after bowling a crappy series that barely broke 300. Approximately three weeks ago, just after the last new episode, I correctly guessed which character wasn’t going to make it through tonight. Needless to say, I quickly forgot about my crappy bowling. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, stop reading and come back later. Otherwise…

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Here’s a collection of assorted Family Guy videos that most people probably haven’t seen. Some were cut out of aired episodes and didn’t make the DVD sets. There’s also a short film by Seth MacFarland from when he was a student.

For another year anyway. Battlestar Galactica has been renewed to join SG-1 and Atlantis for another season. Luckily ourhaving a DVR means I don’t have to stay in every week and can maintain some semblance of a social life while still enjoying these shows.

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I just finished watching Inside the Actors Studio with Michael J. Fox. I’ve only seen the show a handful of times, but I saw a preview for this one yesterday and made sure to record it. His first major role on Family Ties started before I was born and ended before I was really old enough to care about TV shows enough to know who starred in them. I remember him first from Back to the Future and it’s sequels which I still love. It’s one of the few DVD sets I own, and the movies are so timeless I can’t wait to enjoy them with my kids someday.

When Spin City came out I watched it all the time. It was consistently one of the funniest shows on TV. It was never as good once he left.

I remember how I felt when he finally announced to the world that he had Parkinson’s (after hiding it for five years). I remember how I couldn’t believe that the disease could affect someone so young who wasn’t the least bit deserving of it (not that anyone ever is). I was sad he was leaving his show, but I admired his courage.

Tonight he sat through most of the interview and you would barely know he’s affected at all. Just over halfway through his symptoms finally became visible and he left the stage to take another pill. Still, when he came back out he was able to make a joke out of it and talk openly about how it has affected him. The fact that he doesn’t let it limit his life is really amazing to me. He’s gone on to started a foundation for Parkinson’s research, written a book called Lucky Man, and still dreams of put something new on TV or directing a movie. He also had some very encouraging words for a young actress struggling with a similar disease:

What’s in my power, what’s in my control? Do I throw in the towel and have a tantrum about it or kill myself or what? None of those are acceptable solutions to me. The only one that’s acceptable is to go on and see what happens. And what I find is cool is there’s great stuff out there. When you walk through this stuff, when you walk through the fear, when you walk through what are people gonna think about it, you know, what’s gonna happen. Well something’s gonna happen. And we don’t know what it is, but chances are at least 50/50 that it’ll be pretty good. And so I’m willing to take that risk.

I think I’m gonna buy his book and make a donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Currently Playing: Surphace - Outlit

Next season will be the tenth for Stargate SG-1 and the third for Stargate Atlantis. It would also make the original the longest running SciFi series in US television history, beating out X-Files. It really deserves it. I’m eagerly awaiting the second halves of the current seasons.

Between the Stargates and their followup Battlestar Galactica I can’t get enough of SciFi Friday. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that BSG will get renewed as well. These shows are just amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I like Science Fiction. I really believe these are series that anyone can get into, whether you are into SciFi or not. I hope all of the cast members return. There isn’t really anyone I would want to get rid of on any of the shows. I’d kinda like to see Ford actually come back in Atlantis, too. I feel like he kinda got the shaft in season two. Now if we could only get Richard Dean Anderson to come back to SG-1 more often…

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