Sunday, February 26, 2006

Prayers for Zola

Ever since we cancelled Dish Network, I haven't been able to watch Zola Levitt, but I have kept track of his ministry.

Now, via WorldNetDaily, I've heard that Zola has stage 4 metastasic lung cancer. We need to all pray for Zola, and his family.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

It looks like I've been spotted

Jeff over at Think Sink has obtained a picture that he says shows that I've become active in the Think Sink Martyr's Brigade.

I can neither confirm or deny my participations in any such actions... Nice likeness, though ;)

Monday, February 20, 2006

It's sad that they're just not funny any more

I hadn't thought of Happy Fun Ball for years, but there was a commercial with the traditional warnings, and the only appropriate response came to mind:

"Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball."

Milady hadn't seen the Happy Fun Ball commercial, so I went to try to find the video. I couldn't, but I did find the transcript. Milady laughed so loud I thought she'd wake the kids.

With Cialis and crew warning us not to consider 4 hours of a good time as a good thing, it's amazing just how ahead of its time SNL with Phil Hartman and crew were.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Request for prayer

Milady's niece "J" has been in the hospital a couple of days now with a stubborn case of bronchitis that just won't get better. After three days in her local hospital, they're transporting her to Lexington for diagnosis and more time in the hospital.

One thing complicating her illness is that she works as a social worker back home, and on one of her home visits a couple of weeks ago, she walked in on a family that had just been cooking meth. She was on steroids to help open her lungs up, so she breathed a full dose of the fumes. Her doctor in the first hospital knows that didn't help, but he can't tell if that did any damage or not.

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Replay of earlier

More DSL trouble. Sorry if you have trouble getting to the site. Of course, if you do, you won't see this note, but I still have to say it. ;)

Monday, February 6, 2006

Selling out

As you can notice to the right, I've included some links to Amazon.com under my Amazon Affiliates account. Anything purchased will go to pay for my bandwidth and/or hosting costs.

The first book I currently have listed is Motel of the Mysteries. This book is a hilarious satire of archaeology, with the protagonist doing an Egyptian-style archaeological dig of a tomb of very important people of Usa (i.e. the permanent residents of the Toot And Come-In Motel!). Motel of the Mysteries is a good tool for understanding that science "fact" is based a lot on the scientist's assumptions (something terribly useful for Creationist parents to share with their children).

The second is Dave MacKenzie's album Solo. Milady and I are great fans of the blues, and MacKenzie is one of the best guitarists I've heard in a long time. Plus, you just have to respect a fellow who will go to a festival and play a song with "I like great big figures when I'm looking at the bottom line" in a song named "Big Ol' Girls" ;).

I finally know what Code Black is

and I'm no better off for it.

Some idiot shot himself with a bazooka, and the unexploded shell was still in his chest. While he sat in the operating room.

I was flipping from channel to channel post-Super Bowl and saw Gray's Anatomy. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

(For the record, I thought someone might have had Ebola, just based on the previews.)

Sunday, February 5, 2006

Ad winners and losers

Winners: My favorite is definitely Ameriquest's "That Killed Him". Second is MacGyver Uses Debit Mastercard.

CGI excellence: FedEx's Caveman Shipping, with Budweiser's "Wave" as #2.

Sentimental Favorite: Budweiser's "Clydesdale American Dream" tied with Dove's Self Esteem.

Best Movie Trailer: V for Vendetta. Best Movie Advertised: probably Cars.

Wierdest: Emerald Nuts.

Second Half

8:25PM I'm going to DisneyWorld. So am I (next year, maybe), it's just going to cost me $2000....

8:32PM: Huge touchdown for the Steelers. Nice.

Gotta go to the bathroom on the plane, and now you're stuck. Ameriquest has another good one (the doctors were better).

The asteroid erodes. Oh, "pebl". It's good that Motorola's current phone came from outer space, they can't make money selling phones from anywhere else.

Captain Hook gives out autographs. He's obviously making that liberal arts degree pay off.

Another Lost ad. I just can't care.


8:42PM: Wow. 10 Minutes without a commercial. Nice. Seattle needs to score, bad.

More Clydedales. This one is sweet, at least. Nothing like a little horse doing the big horse's job.

Fabio gets old fast. I saw this one before now, but it is hilarious. "Live comes at you fast." Good, but not as good as when M. C. Hammer goes broke 15 minutes later.

The old timer wants the old times, when you checked scores on the internet. Haha.

8:49 Time Out

Godzilla-style monster falls in love with giant robot. How very manga-ish. And you get a Hummer. I always knew there was something wrong with them.

People in biohazard suits. They've obviously been around the Packrat household right now. No, just Target cleaners.

Unscripted show. From Lorne Michaels. Sons and Daughter. I knew it'd stink.

Just back from timeout, and Seattle gets the interception and make a 50 yard + return. That's the big play they needed. (Then a touchdown a couple of minutes later.)

8:55PM: The monkeys are back. And his friend works for donkeys. Cute.

Now nerd boy in cool car finds nerd girl, and has Taco Bell. Adam West narrating is an extra touch.

I missed a SlimFast commercial there. I don't notice Optra, since I can't drink it (I'm allergic to NutraSweet.)

Sons and Daughters is going to be VERY stupid.

9:01: The razor commercial is still stupid.

Anthony Hopkins as a speed-hungry au ssie is a strange choice.

So why did they try to flood a Toyota Takoma? And do you REALLY think it just drove away?

9:06PM: The kids and I swept and cleaned the floor a bit for Milady. Wow, they're skipping another commercial opportunity, but they did mention Gray's Anatomy in the show.

9:15: Did I miss one? I was helping Milday clean.

A Benny Hill reference in a Sprint commercial? Very strange.

The rest are local, I think, and not worth mentioning.

9:23

Stunt City: Nothing says "Deoderant" like a guy coming through a glass roof.

"Even druids like Emerald Nuts" What?

Paul McCartney is now selling Fidelity Investments. What a sell-off.

Michael J Fox is back on Boston Legal. Good to see him working.

9:28: A reverse pass. Impressive.

Budweiser being poured by the stand pictures. CGI graphics #2, but not as good as the Fedex one.

"We can't leave Jack behind.... Never mind, let's go." I liked the original Pirates of the Cari bean, so I'm somewhat impressed.

MacGyver is back! And he uses Debit MasterCard. I always knew it, myself. MacGyver wasn't a credit kinda guy.

9:34: Another mobile ESPN commercial. Yawn.

Missed the rest of them cleaning, but they weren't good. Nothing lost there.

9:40 The real world series happens in March.

Repeating the GoDaddy.com "sequel".

Monday Night Football's moving to ESPN. I would care if I ever watched MNF.

This one's old. When you want that one certain teddy, it's gotta be the same teddy. What that has to do with minivans, I don't know.

9:54: "Running Scared". They really didn't wanted to describe what I'd do to this movie.

That guy really should have gotten thrown out of outback.

Westin doesn't smoke. Good to know that.

We still have a Code Black.

10:03PM : Seattle basically falls apart at the end....

And the special ads are done.

Halftime

The dog just made me lose the first ads of the Halftime. You didn't miss much.

Now the talking heads are talking. Blah.

8:03PM: Code Black is still a Bad Thing. I guess.

"We;re going to hell. Because we're Jews". Sons and Daughters. It will be stupid, because it will try to be too edgy.

Lost: I like "Addicted to Love". They've mucked to make it sound like it says "Addicted to Lost". Argh.

Now we get to see old guys play rock songs. Cool.

8:07PM: At least Mick Jagger doesn't look like he's lip syncing.

Have to shed a bit of the food from the appetizers, so I'll listen to them from the bathroom.


8:20PM: The Evidence is being advertised again.

Now we're back to locals, nothing original there, except a Darryl Isaacs commercial. He's a local ambulance chaser who looks more like a cross between a football linebacker and Guido.

Back to nationals. Grays Anatomy is Code Black again.

Live-Blogging the ads

Last year, I did a commercial wrap-up. This year, I decided to live-blog the commercials.

6:30PM EST: I haven't watched the pre-game ads, so it's all new.

Bud lights all around: Everyone's tearing the office up to find them. Not very original.

Burger King does a 50s musical with burger parts. All of the Burger King "King" commercials worry me. They give me flashbacks to Queen Bee, the Burger Queen character of the Mid-80s, and that brings Druther's "Andy Dandytail" to mind too. For flashbacks like that, I deserve to at least have done enough drugs to have earned them. ;)

More next commercial.

6:39PM EST:

Sierra Mist: The TSA people steal his Sierra Mist, threatening him with a bit of a body search. You know airport security REALLY acts that way.

Bud Light's Magic Fridge: Cute. Why not just buy some more beer though?

16 Blocks: Yawn.

Halftime Show Commercial: If the Rolling Stones wanted to watch themselves, they'd be banned from the field. Heh e.

Rest in the extended body.


6:47PM EDT: Good grief, lot of kicking in the game. Good thing I really don't care about it.

Toyota Hybrid Car. Huh? I watched it, and it still doesn't make a lot of sense. "Dad, why didn't you put money in my college fund?" "I bought this car for your future."

Cave Man Package: Interesting, in an evolutionary nonsense kind of way. Definitely nominated for "Best CGI" category.

Grizzly bear attack: Yet another way giving someone a Bud Light saves the world.

6:51PM EDT: More kicking.

V for Vendetta: It won't be good, but the trailer sure looks good. They could only afford 15 seconds.

diet Pepsi: Catchy, but really weird. A diet Pepsi can singing hip-hop. The can at least sings better than the real singles.

News commercial. Blah, blah, blah.

Back to the game. Maybe they can get a first down this time. (Before I hit save, Seattle did. Yay.)

6:59PM EDT: Field Goal. Yay.

Leonard Nemoy Aleve: Wow, Nempy act ually did "the sign". Amazing what some real money will get one to do.

"That killed him": OK, Ameriquest has a winner. A young doctor uses the paddles to kill a fly and says "That killed him" just as the patient's wife and kid walk into the room. Definitely on my list for favorites.

Cleaning the gutters: Yet another Bud Light commercial. Yikes. One guy falls through his roof. That's why Milady won't let me on the roof.

"Lost": I just can't get into it, and I liked Twin Peaks.

7:04PM: Almost missed the commercials again:

Diet Pepsi: A movie with Jackie Chan... the stunt double is a diet Coke, and it gets stompted. Cute 15 second, but they're about to push the concept into the ground.

Cars: Oh, is that movie going to be SO GOOD.

Dancing with the Stars: Yawn

I think the next is a local Ford commercial. Not original at all.

7:07PM: Wow, they actually skipped a chance to have a commerical. I'm astonished.

7:12PM: Another kickoff... No res t for the blogger.

Clydesdales playing football, and other animals flashing the game. I didn't need to see that either.

The oblivious guy watching his phone: Huh? I'm not sure I get it. Oh, Mobile ESPN. I still don't get it.

Gray's Anatomy: Code Black must be really bad, but I just can't get enough energy to care.

7:17PM

Monkeys running the company: I've never worked for this kind of place, but I've seen them work. It's not fun.

Fashion Model unmelting from the runway: Cadillac is trying way too hard to be something other than an old people's car brand. Haven't they heard that SUVs are bad?

United way and NFL: babies are always cute.

7:20: Interception and commercial. MI-3. Phillip Seymour whatshisnmae is REALLY creapy. He makes such a good bad guy. Only 15 seconds though, and it's got that guy who likes to jump on Oprah's couches.

I love these Dove commercials, "True Colors". Very sweet, and a very good thing to help offset the "supermodel or ugly" view the media and porn reinforces.

ABC is trying to out-CSI CSI with "The Evidence". I like the Rob guy, but this sounds like a loser.

7:26PM The Shaggy Dog: Every time I think Tim Allen has fallen farther into the career commode, he digs just a bit deeper.

Kermit being outdoors: didn't know that Kermit was such an outdoorsman. "I guess it's easy being green". Ford Escape. Ha.

Finally, a beer commercial that isn't dense. Just stupid.

Shaq advertising Desperate Housewifes. I watched it 5 seconds ago, and I've already forgotten it all.

7:35PM: Time-out

GoDaddy.com makes fund of "The girl". Much cleaner than the last one.

7:38: 2 Minute Warning. Poseidon: Boat sinks. People die, climb and crawl. They drown. Save your money.

Boy, I didn't know it was so hard to make razor blades. Now we have 5 razor blades. Is there such a thing as too many blades on a razor?

Another Desperate Housewife commercial. Hugh Hefner likes it. I guess th is is to convince us that manly men will watch a soap opera. Of course, I liked Falcon Crest, so I can't say much...

7:41: Review of the touchdown. Is the O a part of your life? Do you really care? Blah.

7:44PM This Walt Disney commercial isn't new. Very touching.

7:53 PM Time out. They skipped commercials three times. Amazing.

I'm going to make a seperate entry for Halftime another for a Second Half.

First Half Winners:

Ameriquest's "That Killed Him". Easily. No other serious contenders. Honorable mention: The sheep flasher from Budweiser was a distant second.

Saturday, February 4, 2006

We're just negotiating a price

This story has been attributed to several different people, but basically a rich man asks a woman,
"Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?"

"Of course."

"How about $10?"

Outraged the lady yells, "I'm not a whore! What kind of a lady do you think I am?"

"We already know what kind of a lady you are," says the man. "Now we are just negotiating a price."

The Kentucky horse industry and gambling interests are supporting the expansion of gambling in the state, allowing casino gambling and slot machines into the state.

As I've posted before, I am a recreational no-money-bet poker player. I also have played some serious bridge, again not for money. I have known people who were quite capable of playing games of chance and skill without being out of control. If you have some spare money, and wish to entertain yourself by trying to get ahead of the horserace odds, or try to outplay others at poker, I'm not going to critisize you one bit.

On t he other hand, my great-grandfather allegedly gambled away an entire tobacco check one year. There are a lot of people who gamble in many different forms with money they really need for other things.

The problem is that Kentucky, like the lady, is already committed. The state is littered with Bingo parlors from one end to the other, all providing games of chance under the flavor of charity fundraising. The Commonwealth runs the largest numbers racket gaming system in the state, the Kentucky Lottery. There are race tracks and parimutual gambling stations all across the state. Betting is already here, and already legal.

I personally wish slots were banned world-wide. They are a complete ripoff, because they are a complete game of chance. Video poker and slots have been described as the crack cocaine of gambling addiction. That said, bingo and scratch-off lottery tickets are just as purely chance, and probably just about as addictive.

The other big proble m with the KEEP campaign is the dollar figures being thrown around. KEEP is suggesting that Kentucky will receive $430 million a year on a 33% tax. That means the gaming industry would have to pull in at least $1250 million in profits. Even the best games for the house involve 90%+ payouts. Let's we assume that the industry can pull 75% payoffs, which doesn't happen. To generate $1250m in profits, Kentucky gamblers will have to spend at least $6000million (6 billion). Even with much of that money being recycled, it still just isn't going to happen.

I'm afraid that, like the Kentucky Lottery before, gambling will not pay off like its promises. I just hope that the worst of the negatives don't pan out either.

Friday, February 3, 2006

Only one thing to do concerning Mohammed

There is only one appropriate response to the fuss over the Mohammed cartoons:

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Squatter's Rights - Not Quite

Update: According to today's Kentucky Kernel, the UK campus newspaper (I can't find the article on-line), Ms. McDonald was in year 2 of a 5-year lease on the building. While I still believe that Ms. McDonald is too vocal about requesting compensation for "her business", she is certainly owed damages for the breaking of her lease, especially since eminient domain wasn't used to buy the property.

I'll renew my opinion that Ms. McDonald needs to own her property before feeling a sense of ownership.


I think I've said here before that I am a graduate of the University of Kentucky. While I was on campus, I only had one apartment, which was on Conn Terrace Drive. I am still amazed that the landlord didn't evict me a couple of times. :) The SuperAmerica store on South Limestone had a lunchtime cafeteria with the best barbeque pork in Lexington. I'd get it and mac & cheese at least twice a week on the way to class. It helped make me the man (or at least 30 pounds of the man ;) ) I am today.

When Milady and I got engaged, we moved away, but Conn Terrace has retained a special place in my heart. Even 12 years later, Milady dreams she's calling me at the apartment and can't get through.

Unfortunately, you can't go home again. UK bought my old apartment, and every other building on that side of Conn Terrace and the street behind it. They've torn all of the old houses down ahead of the construction of the new parking garage for the Chandler Medical Center.

There is an old building at the corner of Transcript and South Limestone that held several businesses. The Dutch Mill Cafe was famous for being a lunch place that two old ladys ran in the late 80s and early 90s (never did get to eat there). Wheel Liquor was a mainstay there, and several other restaurants and businesses gave the place a try. The last place to close there was PJ's Barber Shop. The Herald-MisLeader had an article about her in the paper a couple of days ago. Miss McDonald rented her place from the building owner, who recently sold out to UK for over $600k. I can understand one's attachment to a place one's rented for 19 years, but PJ has been unusually bitter these last two weeks. I've seen several signs in front of her place complaining about UK, and then this quote from the story:

The university acquired the building from owner Frances Fresh for $650,000, according to Fayette Circuit Court records. McDonald says she now is seeking an agreement with Fresh on compensation for the loss of her business.

She wants to be compensated because her landlord sold out? A renter wants to be paid! No, no, no, a thousand times no! She was a renter, not a sqatter.

If you lease, you don't own. That's pretty simple. Miss McDonald was offered (I hope) fair rental rates each of those 19 years that she was i n her place. A renter doesn't get any rights to a place just by sitting in a place for a bunch of years. Frances Fresh sure didn't get any extra from UK because Miss McDonald was in the building; if anything, UK would have prefered the building empty from the start.

It is a serious sign of an entitlement society where a renter can get upset that a landlord has a different use for the building. Miss McDonald needs to apologize to UK and to Miss Fresh, and buy her next cutting shop if she wants to control what happens to the property.

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Hiccups in the DSL Line

I've been noticing that the website "hiccups" occasionally, pausing to serve pages. I think the database may have its connection limits too low. Unfortunately, that's an OS reconfiguration, and I won't do that unless I'm home. Please bear with me.

I am thinking about outsourcing to a hosting site. Can anyone recommend a good one?

Update: It's not the database, but instead it appears to be my ADSL line. My DSL provider is looking into it now, but I may be forced into deciding if I'm keeping my ADSL line or going to a hosting site and cable modem.

Update 2: The home network line acts like it's fixed. Hopefully it's fixed. That was enough excitement for one day.