Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2567
Aches & pains: the usual suspects
Current reading: ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Recent listening: Muse, Tom Waits, XTC, Massive Attack, Portishead, DJ Shadow, The Chemical Brothers, Tones on Tail
Recent viewing: Timeline, Shaft (remake), Medium, Flash Forward, Heroes, Dollhouse, Buffy, Better Off Ted, The 13th Warrior, Memento, The Illustrated Man, World’s Greatest Dad
Recent playing: geoDefense, Link4 Online
Recently accomplished: Ordered birth certificate, Scout bookkeeping, passport application, voted
Imperative To Do: Clean gutters, hook up antenna in the attic, clean office, clean roof, fix bathroom door (again)

Olbermann Apologizes

Last week Jon Stewart had some fun at the expense of Keith Olbermann but with a serious point. Olbermann addressed it at the end of his show last night:

Keith’s response was rather graceless and his joke about Jon was a bit mean-spirited. However, he did admit he was wrong and apologized.

Reverse Baader-Meinhof Syndrome

Part One
Some time ago I renewed my subscription to Netflix in order to utilize their streaming video service which is offered “free” to all their subscribers. The service is nice but the selection of movies available to Watch Instantly (their term for internet streaming) is a very small subset of the movies that they have on DVD. Because I’m interested to know of any additions to this subset, I subscribe to their RSS feed for New choices to watch instantly. With that subscription I receive notification in my web browser whenever a movie is made available for Instant viewing. This morning there were approximately 20 new movies available which I quickly scrolled through, clicking open a new tab for each that interested me. One of these was Yojimbo by the legendary Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, who also directed the seminal Seven Samarai. After reading the description, I clicked the “Add to Instant Queue” button to save it for later viewing. Whenever you add a movie to your queue on Netflix they suggest 10 more related movies that they think you might like. This time, they showed me these (click to enlarge the image):

Netflix Choices

My eyes were immediately drawn to one of the movies on the bottom and in the middle, The Beider Meinhof Complex. The name was somewhat familiar so I read the description but it didn’t interest me so I closed the window.

Continue reading “Reverse Baader-Meinhof Syndrome”

Lucky Louie

Tina and I just finished watching the first and only season of Lucky Louie the other day. Lucky Louie was a sitcom that ran on HBO a few years ago starring comedian, Louis CK. The show sort of harkens back to the classic sitcom of the 70s but with adult content. The adult content is not necessarily nudity (although there is some of that but never female nudity) and isn’t just about sex. It’s a thoughtful and funny look at situations that adults, and especially parents, sometimes find themselves in. The clip below is a great example of a show-opening scene:


Continue reading “Lucky Louie”

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2567
Aches & pains: sore sinuses
Current reading: Timeline by Michael Crichton, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Corey Doctorow
Recent listening: Fairground Attraction, Essential Rarities by The Doors, Love and Rockets, Live at the Olympia by R.E.M.
Recent viewing: Jericho (Season One), Beef, Overnight, Capturing the Freedmans, Orgazmo, Everest: Beyond the Limit (Season Two), Die Hard, NFL Wildcard Playoffs
Recent playing: geoDefense, Link4 Online
Recently accomplished: Christmas tree recycling, grocery shopping, replaced furnace filters
Imperative To Do: Clean gutters, hook up antenna in the attic, get passport, clean office, clean roof, fix bathroom door (again)