Keep it to Yourself

 

And here’s another thing about Facebook:  There’s just too much drama. 

Maybe it’s the people I know. (Years of working in a call center has definitely brought some dramatic folks into my life!)  But, I just don’t get why you’d want to be airing some of that dirty laundry on a public timeline.  Broken hearts, crappy bosses, family squabbles—is Facebook really the place?

I mean, sure, tell me about your life-changing event.  If you had a rough break-up, some commiseration from your friends could be helpful, absolutely.  And even if you and I aren’t all that close, that sort of pain touches a common nerve, so I’ll try and leave some sort of encouragement.  But I don’t need all the vindictive anger that comes out after a breakup.  I don’t even really need your play-by-play of your grief and pain, but I’m a little more tolerant of that.  Just not the anger and calling people out all over social media.

And the groups?  Oh my goodness.  These people don’t even know each other, so how can it possibly create such feelings of animosity?  Sometimes I just want to take them all into a timeout corner and tell them to sit quietly until they can learn to play nicely.

By now I’m sure you’re wondering if griping about people’s social media habits on my blog is really much different than the behavior I’m griping about, and I suppose that’s a fair question.  I will only try and clarify that it’s not the occasional rant that I have a problem with, but the constant, unnecessary bitchiness that just makes me scratch my head and wonder why. 

On Person of Interest one time, social media in general was referred to as “a swamp of indiscretion”, and I’m reminded of that phrase almost daily.  There’s a ton of over-sharing, of course, but it’s the angry over-sharing that always bothers me the most.  Seriously, can we not all just get along?

At the Mercy of the Machines

 

You know, I think we’re a long way from the rise of the machines or anything as drastic as that, but there’s certainly no denying that technology holds us in its spell.

My recent issues:  on Easter weekend, my fancy-schmancy induction cooktop went out; earlier this week, it was finally replaced.  Even I, a barely domesticated type, was lost without a way to cook up the most basic of things.  My husband kept suggesting we could probably accomplish much of what I wanted to do on our grill, but I always declined.  Realistically, though, I know the grill would likely have worked; heck, it’s much more advanced than the direct flame people cooked over for generations past.

Just about daily, I curse my DSL connection for moving so slowly.  And I curse my ISP for not providing the latest and greatest type of connectivity to my address.  I spend an awful lot of time online, and it’s horrendously annoying that I can literally watch a page load.

And, just today, I upgraded my cell phone. Due largely to the aforementioned slow internet service, I have spent most of the day just trying to get everything re-installed that I want to carry over from my old phone; I have literally been messing around with this stinkin’ phone for approximately six hours, and I still have apps that are not yet reinstalled.  And ringers and other basic customization?  Haven’t even started.  But I know at least my C25K app and my music have to be working by tomorrow morning, because I need to use it at the gym.  Last week at the gym, I broke my earbuds, so I know how critical it is to be able to have my music in order to get through the workout. 

That these sorts of issues consume my energy and cause me such chagrin is not something to really brag about, but it demonstrates a state of affairs, at least within my life.  And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in being held hostage in such a manner by the technology that is supposed to add such convenience to our lives.  Now that I think about it, it’s possible that the machines will never have to actually rise up against us in order to take over, all they’ll have to do is just go on strike, and life as we know it will slowly grind to a halt.

Old Woman in the Making

 

Oops. I hate when I open up my computer and find last night’s post never published.  I’d say the change in me is that I’m getting old and forgetful, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been forgetful for longer than I’ve been old!  Oh, well, better late than never, right?

I visited the imagination prompt again today, and it suggested I write about how I’ve changed recently, so I’m giving that some thought.

First, as I’ve discussed, I’ve got some physiological changes going on that have also reached out to create some changes mentally and emotionally, but I’m not sure that’s what the prompt was talking about.  And, I’m hoping those changes are temporary!

And, while I think I’ve gained some wisdom and compassion over the years, I like to believe that’s mostly been an increase in characteristics I already possessed. 

But one thing I do notice has changed as I’ve gotten older—and not for the better—is my patience level.  I find that with each passing year, I become more easily aggravated with any number of things.  So far, my behavior hasn’t changed much in relation to my increased aggravation/impatience, so I find that that I’m a little more stressed from having that increased aggravation inside, which is kind of a bummer. 

Anyway, I know that I don’t want to become some sort of cranky old woman as the years go by, so I guess I’m going to have to really start paying attention to this now, and trying to figure out how to regain some of my earlier abilities to simply let things slide.

Outside the Inbox

 

I just emptied out my spam folder.  I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I’ve done that, since I’m generally content to just let the email wizards figure out what is and isn’t worth delivering to my inbox.   Maybe I should peek in there more often, though.  Because apparently there are an awful lot of people who want to say hello to me, offer me amazing investment opportunities, and declare their deep love for me—or at least make a night in bed feel like love.  Who knew you could get such an ego boost from your email?  I’m going to hang out there more often.

Seriously, though, I’ll admit to being puzzled by spam.  Not annoyed, mind you—I’ve never been one of those people who will rant and rave about spam, but then, I also don’t mind the junk mail that comes to my home (except for the number of trees it kills), and I often don’t even complain too much about telemarketers.  I figure everyone’s just trying to make a living.  But spam puzzles me because I can’t understand how there’s any profit in it for anybody.  I mean, if my own practice is anything to judge by, somewhere around 99.99999% of the mail in a spam folder is deleted before anyone ever takes a look.

But, even if you couldn’t resist a subject line and opened up the message, who clicks suspicious links that might infect your entire computer or allow someone to steal all your private information? Or, even if it’s not some sort of malware lurking in the link, who buys random stuff off the internet from a sketchy ad in your spam folder?  But, obviously, somebody does, or these spammers would quit flooding my mailbox, hoping that I’m the one who helps them strike it rich today. 

But, it’s not going to be me.  I might be close to the ultimate consumer, drawn in by all sorts of ads, and easily intrigued by a good deal, but even I don’t shop in the spam folder, no matter how much they might try to boost my ego.

 

Where There’s No Will, There’s No Way

 

I had it all worked out: I was going to go on a pretty well thought out rant about the most recent episode of The Good Wife, talking all about how a show that I have loved for the past four+ years has just likely sealed its fate for me and ensured that this season five will be the last I tune in, even though just a couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to hear it had been renewed for season six.

Instead, I had to come home and do a whole bunch of homework that I’d been neglecting, and now I really need to go to bed, since I will have to be up in about six and a half hours.  So, here’s the shortened version of that rant:  (And, be forewarned, there’s a major spoiler ahead.)

As I mentioned, I’ve been watching The Good Wife for several years, since it premiered, in fact.  And I love it.  Even though this season has caused me some angst, and though the last couple of episodes I’ve had to view sporadically, and I’ve sort of been annoyed with the direction it was heading.  And, truth be told, I’ve sort of been annoyed by Will Gardner, the male lead of the show, and a verifiable cutie pie.

Even this week, I was pre-occupied with something while the show was on—more homework I think.  Whatever it was, I was only keeping half an eye on the show.  But when the shots rang out in the courtroom, it got my full attention.  And when Kalinda and Diane both started desperately trying to get to Will’s courtroom, I got a pit in my stomach.  I knew then, or at least had an inkling.  And when they showed that lone shoe lying in the floor, then moved to the still, shoeless foot, I declared out loud, “If they kill Will, I’m going to quit watching.”  And then, when they showed Will, on the floor, shot, bleeding, barely alive, I knew I was losing a friend.  It was a surprise—a shock—but in those few moments leading up to the terrible reality, I already knew.

So, by the time Diane and Kalinda finally found his lifeless body back in a curtained room of the E.R., I was already numb.  Much as the characters were. 

And now, I am torn between being amazed by the way this huge turn of events was kept secret to provide that oh-so-rare moment of true surprise (since apparently it’s been in the works for close to a year now), and totally peeved that I didn’t have some warning to prepare me.

And, while I understand the idea of people needing to move on to other things, as was apparently Josh Charles’ desire, as a long-time fan, I am also completely saddened that the fundamental make-up of the program has been changed in a split second.  Because, while the show is clearly about Alicia Florick, the best stories have always been about Alicia Florick and Will Gardner.  And, yeah, even though she’s supposed to be “the good wife” to her wandering and questionable politician husband, I’ll admit that I’ve always assumed Alicia and Will would finally find a way to be together forever.  That’s how it was supposed to happen.  I had it all worked out, if only somebody would’ve asked me.

So, I will watch the remainder of this season, and I will work through my grief for Will as the characters do, and I will give them a chance to convince me that the shots in that courtroom weren’t really the death knell for this show.  Personally, I don’t think they have much of a chance; in the long run, I think they’ve probably lost a viewer (and maybe a bunch of them), but I will see if they can succeed. 

And, for the record, just in case they realize the tragic mistake that’s been made, and would like to correct it somewhere down the road, I’ve got that all worked out, too.  I’ll be waiting for somebody to ask me this time.

Snapshot Sunday, March 16

 

No pictures today (at least, none of mine), just a pining for a new way to create them.

A couple of years ago or so, I read an article about a really cool  new camera, the Lytro.  I thought they’d become the next big thing, but I haven’t heard a whole lot about them since then.  The technology is beyond me, but I can tell you that what they say is that this camera captures the entire light field of an image, rather than just a single plane of light.  Like I said, I don’t really understand that, but the end result is a picture that can be refocused and shifted around, even after it’s been taken.  To me, that’s really cool.

I wish I could put some of their photos here, but that doesn’t seem to be possible, at least not with their full functionality.  So, I’m going to paste a couple of my favorites, because a good picture is a good picture, even when it’s static, but I’m going to strongly encourage you to visit their gallery and see for yourself how truly nifty it is to be able to sort of re-envision your pictures after you’ve already taken it. 

   

    

 

 

 

 

 

I always want a new camera; sometimes my wants are practical, and sometimes they’re far less so.  Putting a Lytro into my camera bag would absolutely fall into the “impractical” category, but it sure would be fun.

 

Late to the Party

 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  I don’t really like the Olympics.  First, I don’t care for them because I’m not really all that much of a sports fan, so just to watch hour after hour of various sporting events is never going to make my to-do list.  Perhaps more important, though, I don’t like the way they take over the entire network broadcast time slots.  Of course, you’ve got full-on coverage on NBC, which I could live with if I had other viewing options.  But the other networks don’t like to risk their ratings competing against all that bottled up patriotism, so they show nothing but reruns for a fortnight.  It’s truly annoying.  (I will say FOX may be trying to break that cycle.  Of their programming, I only watch Almost Human, but Brian watches The Following, and both had new episodes yesterday.  Good for them.)

Anyway, because I firmly believe there is only so long you can watch people find new ways to slide along ice, I opted for DVR viewing this weekend, and finally got around to watching a new show that’s been waiting for me since September: The Blacklist. 

In a nutshell, it was worth the wait.  Their commercials say it’s “the number one new drama”, and I can see why, because it’s, well, dramatic.  It’s got an interesting foundation, interesting weekly criminals, and an absolutely riveting main character.  I’ll admit, even though it caught my attention from it’s very earliest ads, and even though I immediately put the DVR on series record, I was just a little bit worried it was going to be all Hannibal and Clarice, and I really didn’t want that.  I’m glad to say that Raymond Reddington is not quite as creepy as Hannibal Lecter, though he seems to be just as dangerous.  He’s brought to life by James Spader, whom I’ve adored since his days on The Practice, which then morphed so beautifully into Boston Legal.  He was also my favorite character in Stargate, but it was really Alan Shore that endeared him to me. 

On the other hand, I’m not sure that Elizabeth Keen is quite as strong a character as Clarice Starling, but she’s gaining some legs.  Agent Keen is portrayed by Megan Boone, who’s done a few things, according to her IMDB page, but I don’t know her.  Like I said, I think her character is a bit weak, but getting stronger.  But I do really like her relationship with Reddington, and that’s critical, since it’s the very premise of the program.

Basically, the show goes like this:  Reddington has been on the FBI Most Wanted list for a couple of decades, ever since he suddenly stopped being an American hero and started being a traitor.  But one day, he walked into the Bureau headquarters and turned himself in.  He had information he was willing to share to help bring in another wanted fugitive, but he had a condition:  he would talk to one person and one person only.  Enter Agent Keen, running late for duty on her very first day of work as an FBI profiler.  No one, including Keen, knows why Reddington chose her, but she’s whisked away to the heavily guarded “black site” where he’s being held, and a partnership begins.  By the end of the hour, they’ve caught one terrorist and struck a deal to go after a whole lot more—as long as Keen stays in the picture.

As things roll along, you find out very quickly that not only did Reddington abandon his family—including a young daughter—to go off on his traitorous spree, but Keen lost her father as a young girl, in as yet unnamed circumstances, though we know he had a criminal past.  So is Red her dad, showing up now to help her make a good name in her new career?  Who knows.  That’s clearly the implication, but things are not always what they seem.  My first thought was that he was not old enough to be her father, but, if you can go by the actors’ ages, I suppose he actually is.  Still, I’m waiting to see how it all plays out.

There’s more intrigue, too, with a shady character named Fitch, who’s maybe a politician of some sort, or maybe just a power mogul.  Whatever he is, he’s played by Alan Alda, and seeing him on screen is always a plus.  I will admit, though, that shows often lose me when they get too mired in their own mythology and backstory, wanting everything to be shadowy and open to interpretation.  When you’re left guessing too long, it can get really annoying, so I hope they don’t go that way.

But, for right now, I am definitely hooked.  And I’m obviously not the only one, since NBC gave it a renewal after only a few months on the air.  It will be back after the Olympics conclude to finish out season one, and there are twenty-two more episodes planned for season two.  The show’s definitely got a lot of promise, and I’m ready to see how well it lives up to its potential.  I’m only sorry I waited four months to watch.

Too Commercial

 

Man, look at the time. I was just unspooling from the day, only having gotten home about an hour ago.  and I fell asleep writing this post.  It’s just  well after midnight time, though if you’ve been round here before, you know this is hardly the first time for that.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about today’s Tube Day Tuesday for a few days, and it’s short and to the point, like a commercial, because that’s what it’s about.  Well, really, a series of commercials—the Ford Dream Big series.  I don’t like them, not one little bit.  It’s one thing to show kids all focused on the presents and giddily asking for all the little kid things that they hope Santa brings; that’s part of the fun of Christmas.  Somehow it doesn’t come across as greedy and calculating when there’s actually some childlike wonder in the mix. 

But these Ford commercials have older kids (though not old enough to drive), rushing through their visits with Santa, no joy in their hearts, just very matter-of-factly asking for a car.  I don’t know why, but it rubs me the wrong way, and it wouldn’t bother me if I never saw them again.  For me, dream big is really more like a little nightmare.

Six Word Convection

 

 

 

  

 

      Got a new toy coming soon!

New Kid In Town

 

It’s a good thing I’ve given up on recording a couple of shows this season and cleared some space on my DVR, because just this week something new worth watching has come along. 

Almost Human, starring Karl Urban and Michael Ealy, is the latest in a long line of buddy shows to catch my attention.  And, these buddies are cops, which is just about the best.  The fact that it’s set against a futuristic backdrop is just icing on the cake. 

Of course it’s a little bit of an odd couple situation, which some might consider over done and cliché, but I’m a big believer in not fixing what isn’t broken.  Odd couples keep showing up for one very simple reason:  they work.  In this case, you’ve got a slightly damaged (physically and mentally) human detective (John Kennex, Urban) who doesn’t trust most people, let alone the robots, teaming up with an android—they call them “synthetics”—partner (Ealy’s character, Dorian) to go out and catch the bad guys.  Oh, and it’s just possible that the synthetic cop is more well-adjusted and likable than the human.  It’s a nice foundation.

FOX aired two episodes this week, the pilot on Sunday and then a second ep on Monday evening.  I thought the pilot was really strong, and it made me set up the DVR for the upcoming episodes.  The second episode was good, too, though already a little weaker, I thought, and it had a familiar flaw:  it moved a little quickly from the tension of two people learning their way with each other to partners who have mostly settled in.  One of my very favorite shows, Hardcastle and McCormick, did that, too.  I think they missed a lot of opportunity in skipping over those very early days (though that missing time period did give me some nice fanfiction idea starters, so it’s not all bad!), and I don’t like to see programs steal away those chances for natural character development.  Anyway, I hope maybe Almost Human will step back just a little bit and give us more of the uncertainty and edginess as the characters get to know each other.   Along those lines, there was one scene in episode two that was just about worth the price of admission, which ended with Kennex giving Dorian a directive to never scan his testicles again.   It was laugh out loud funny, and a new partnership moment at its best.  We definitely need more of that.

So, even though it’s early, I’m definitely on board to see where Almost Human takes us, and I have high hopes.  With the exception of Doctor Who (which isn’t currently airing), I don’t think I have any science fiction in my recording queue at the moment, so that’s definitely been missing.  And we all know there can never be too many buddy cop shows.

2013-14 Under Way

 

Early thoughts on the first couple of days of the new television season . . .

First, I really need to upgrade my DVR to something that will record more than two programs at once.  There are two new shows that were on my list that I was unable to program due to conflicts.  First, some brain child decided to cross-program Robin Williams and Michael J. Fox.  Now, there’s a business side of my own brain that thinks that makes an awful lot of sense, but the viewer side is screaming out that nothing could be more stupid.  Or selfish.  Robin Williams won the initial face-off and The Crazy Ones is on my to-do list, but you know I’m hoping MJF decides to rebroadcast, or change nights, or something. 

Then there’s Hostages, which lost out to The Blacklist.  In some ways, I think Hostages looks like a better show, but as I think I commented, it does not seem sustainable, so that’s the one that landed on the chopping block. 

And, even though the Robin Williams program is safe and sound for now, come October 17, it’s going to find itself in a head to head combat with White Collar and its new night.  I gotta tell you: I adore Robin Williams, but there’s not too much that makes me put off White Collar, even for the couple of hours until the encore showing.  Mr. Williams better prove himself fast. 

Second random thought:  though I might not be a big fan of season-ending cliffhangers, I realized yesterday I don’t seem to have a problem with them during the season.  Castle returned to the air yesterday, and though it resolved last season’s cliffhanger marriage proposal within the first five minutes of the new show, an hour later it flashed the  powerful TO BE CONTINUED across the screen.  I have to say that you just don’t see that many season premieres ending with that level of uncertainty.  Good job to the folks at Castle for keeping us on our toes; I didn’t mind that one little bit. 

And, lastly, though it’s not really about the new season, let me say that as far as I’m concerned, Neil Patrick Harris could host every award show from here on until forever. As you might suspect, I am a big fan of the Emmy awards, but NPH just makes the show that much more enjoyable, and I thought he did a really good job.  And, like Castle offering a two-parter for a season opener, NPH bucked tradition just a little bit with his song and dance production number, and he came up with a winner.  Watch:

 

And that’s about it for tonight.  I had a club meeting after class tonight, so didn’t get home until late, so no TV watching at all today, though I have to say, I was really tempted to punch up the opening episode of Person of Interest and see how it goes, but I guess that can wait until tomorrow.

Doodle Dandy

 

You know, I’m certainly of an age that Google can still amaze me pretty easily.  No loads of encyclopedias and stacks of reference books to find that one obscure fact, no card catalogue to find those stacks of books, no microfiche/film machines to strain your eyesight—and your patience.  Information at your fingertips 24/7, even information you would never have thought to search for.  Really, when I say it amazes me, I mean that fairly literally, even if I do take it for granted now and again. 

But you know what’s almost as cool as having a world of facts and figures at your beck and call?  Google Doodles.  I’ll admit it: sometimes I pull up the home page even when I don’t need to search anything, just to see if there’s something whimsical to amuse me for a couple of minutes.

Today, in honor of what would have been Maurice Sendak’s 85th birthday, we take a stroll through some colorful worlds, with Max leading the way. 

Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, they’re all fair game for some doodle fun.  And not just your normal, run-of-the mill celebratory days; you never really know what kind of doodle you might find.  But, of course, all you have to do is click through the art to find more information on the day’s topic.  Fun and educational; does it get any better than that?

Well, it could be better than that, if one of your very own ideas showed up on the Google home page!  If you’ve got something you think is doodle worthy, you can drop them a line at proposals@google.com.  I wish I had some grand idea, but for right now, I’ve got nothing. 

If you’ve got a few minutes (or more), and want to browse through some of the whimsy, you can find the museum of doodles here.  Oh, and they’ve even got a Zazzle shop, just in case you want to take that whimsy from the computer screen and have it with you always.  I bet no one ever wanted a tee shirt or mug with a card catalogue on it. 

 

No Phones Allowed

 

  You ever have one of those moments when you realize you’re just not sure how you ever functioned without some seemingly indispensable piece of technology?  I mean, intellectually we can usually recognize that whatever we’re feeling so attached to is actually relatively new to the landscape, but we just seem so dependent.

  Well, I had one of those moments today about my cell phone.  As you can imagine, phones aren’t precisely encouraged in the classroom.  But, while every instructor has a rule about not using your phone in class, none of them (or at least, none of mine) really mind if you have it out on your desk just in case something important comes up.  You know the drill: just keep it on silent and leave the

Image courtesy of Feelart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

room if you actually have to take a call.  But, during exams, it’s a different story.  I suppose if phones were really only phones, even then it wouldn’t be much of a problem.  But since what they really are is tiny little computers capable of turning even the biggest slacker into an A student with the touch of a few simple search buttons, you can see why the instructors are a little more particular during the testing times. 

Anyway, this is finals week, so during my exam tonight, I had my phone tucked safely away in my pocket, knowing it was off limits.  But it was still powered on (on vibrate), so I could tell I was getting some text messages while I was testing.  Honestly though, I didn’t think too much about it.  It’s not unusual for the PTK gang to send out a group message and then blow up my phone as everyone starts chiming in to the conversation.  And I never received a phone call, so I didn’t figure it was anything too important. 

But, as soon as I left the classroom, I pulled out my phone to see what the chatter was all about and found that my husband had taken himself to the ER.  We’ve both been fighting this crud for the past week now, but he’s definitely worse than I am.  He went to the doctor yesterday and got some meds, but today his blood pressure was really high.  Now, it’s been running a little bit high for a while (and I haven’t been able to talk him into a doctor), but today was approaching dangerously high.  I checked his medication info sheets since he hadn’t bothered to read them, and found a list of possible side effects that all screamed “increased blood pressure”.  So, I had him call the doctor’s office and they told him to stop taking one of the pills.  Then I saw him briefly on my way out the door to school tonight, and he still wasn’t feeling too great, and was reporting yet another symptom—loss of hearing. 

Well, as the evening wore on, apparently the whole hearing thing got worse, and the BP didn’t get a whole lot better.  He called the doctor yet again, who told him nothing he was taking should be impacting his hearing, nor should his BP still be so high many hours after having taken his last dose of steroids.  They directed him to the ER, so off he went.

So, as it turns out, the hearing is just a really bad ear infection (though why they didn’t find that yesterday, I’ll never know), and they finally convinced him he needs to see a doctor for some actual management of his blood pressure, so it’s not all bad.  But the weird thing was the moment of panic I felt when I realized something at least mildly important had been going on and I wasn’t aware of it.  For a minute, I was trying to figure out if there was some sort of emergency number for the school I could give out or something.  I mean, what if this had been really important?  What then?

But then I realized, as I always do when these moments arise, that the world got along just fine for an incredibly long time without cell phones and the ability to be instantly and constantly connected.  For myself, I’ve only had a cell for about 16 years.  Now, in some ways, that’s a really long time, and you can see how a person can become dependent.  But it’s also not even quite a third of my lifetime, which means I’ve spent the vast majority of my life—even most of my adult life—without a cell phone.  And I survived.  It might be hard to imagine sometimes, but it’s true.  The younger generation might not be able to conceive of a world without such instant communication, but I certainly know it existed.  And, when these odd moments of panic arise now, I can take some comfort in knowing that I could live without such newfangled technology, should the need every really arise. (A confidence I’m not sure my son or others his age could muster.)  But, I’ll be honest:  I wouldn’t like it.  Maybe I need to devise some sort of code for my husband to use in cases of emergency, so I can recognize the important events just by the buzzing in my pocket.

 

In Search Of . . .

 

 

At some point during my sort of busy weekend, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and came upon a post that made me giggle:  “Random thought: what did you Google today?”

I wish now I’d taken the time to jot down an answer just so I’d have gotten the notifications to see what sort of responses showed up, because now I don’t even remember who posted it.  (Apologies if it’s someone who might actually see this!)  Anyway, I think it’s an interesting question, since I know I’m not the only one to use the amazing search engine to find out strange and wondrous things.

At the time I saw the post, my only searching of the day had been homework related, so just a few legal terms and concepts.  And it’s a rare day that goes by that I don’t add a few more of those to my search history.  But since then, every time I’ve popped over to do a quick look, that post has popped back into my mind.

So, yeah, the parol evidence rule and extinction of contracts have recently shown up for me, as have Big Papi, Lyrid meteors, frog sounds, a quick refresher on the proper usages of affect/effect and lay/lie, Earth Day, and Miranda exceptions for public safety (I’m probably not alone in that last one). 

And, I remember back in our more prolific fanfiction-writing days, my friends and I used to joke that if we were ever suspected of any sort of criminal activity, our browser histories would likely sink us, since we very commonly searched techniques from lock-picking to murder, as well as the statutes applicable to whatever crime we might want to commit and the defenses to go along with them.  Fun Google times there.  (And just a little bit scary, the kind of information you can find with so little effort.)

As someone who grew up in the days of making trips to the library to search through volumes of bound encyclopedias and the card catalogue to find whatever tidbits of information I might need to know, I seriously love Google.  And while encyclopedias certainly provided some tangential information and entertainment when you’d stumble across something interesting that you weren’t really looking for, it’s nothing compared to the hidden wonders that await in the vast land that is the interwebs.  I mean, who hasn’t been lured by "just one more” random link that showed up on your Google quest?  I know that I’ve certainly lost many an hour just moving from page to page, reading through the most arbitrary assortment of information, not precisely remembering any of it, but knowing that should those random topics come up at some point in the future, I’d be ready to at least participate in the conversation.  You’d never get that sort of immersion from an encyclopedia.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s still something magical about walking into a library and browsing through the stacks, but that’s a much broader appeal to stumbling across something new and exciting rather than actually trying to find a particular piece of information.  I’m not even sure libraries still have printed encyclopedias, much less card catalogues.  Research will likely never be the same as it was back in my youth, but I’m not convinced that’s entirely a bad thing, not when the replacement method is so darn handy.  Yeah, we might lose something of the wonder of hard-copy books and the institutional reverence of the local library, but when you’ve got worlds of information available at the touch of a button—even on a phone wherever you go!—I think it’s probably worth a few sacrifices.

So, tell me, what have you Googled today?

Bring on the Swiss Army Knife

 

Gosh, Tuesdays are long days.  I’m not sure why they seem that way even more than Thursdays, when my schedule is identical on the two days, but that is the way it seems.  Maybe it’s because when I get home on Thursday, the weekend has begun, so I don’t feel quite so weary.  Or maybe today it’s because I spent some time in the gym for the first time in forever.  Not much, just a few moderately paced miles on the treadmill, but at least it was something.  And, I did survive it, though I have to admit that I popped some Advil and Tylenol just to get through the rest of the evening of classes, and I reached for the Lortab pretty quickly after making it home.  Still, I felt like I accomplished something. 

But, having had the pain med onboard for a couple of hours now, my brain is slowing down pretty considerably, which has made a difference in what I’m going to chat about for tonight’s Tube Day Tuesday.  I had originally intended to talk a bit about Castle, a show I really enjoy, and tell you all about this week’s contribution to their annual tradition of a two-part cliffhanger episode during winter sweeps.  But, I don’t think I can think clearly enough to explain some of my disappointments in a show that I like so much, so I decided to stick to something a bit simpler.  But what could that be, when television offers so much to choose from?

Well, a quick Google search revealed that today (well, Feb. 26th, which is likely to be tomorrow by the time I post this thing) is the anniversary of the 100th episode of another program I liked quite a lot: MacGyver.  I’m not proud; that seems like as good a topic as any.

You know MacGyver, right?  The guy that runs around solving problems and saving the day like some sort of combination of James Bond and Bill Nye?  All in all, one cool dude. 

MacGyver, which ended up airing a total of 139 episodes, starred Richard Dean Anderson as the title character.  In his job as a sort-of government agent-type, he traveled to all sorts of places, got into all sorts of trouble, and caught all sorts of bad guys.  And every week, he got out of some of that trouble by looking around wherever he happened to be, grabbing up whatever he could find, and turning those random items into . . . well, into whatever he happened to need at the moment.  He could do more with a roll of duct tape, a couple of paper clips, and a roll of duct tape than most people could with an entire hardware store.  Often, he created some sort of explosive, because we all know that things look cool when they blow up.   One of the things that’s always stuck with me, though, was the time he fixed a leaking radiator by frying an egg inside it.  Just in time to use the jeep to rush away from some crazy banana republic goons looking to kill him, of course.  Brian insists that wouldn’t really work, at least not long enough to escape through a jungle.  He says the egg would just keep heating until it shriveled up and no longer covered the holes, but I say you can’t argue with MacGyver.  Besides, maybe they took along an extra dozen for the escape.  Full disclosure, though: MythBusters put some of his tricks to the test, and they didn’t all pass, but if I was trapped in a room somewhere, he’s still the guy I’d want with me.

But, while some of MacGyver’s concoctions might’ve been questionable, the production lore insists that it was all pretty well founded in actual science.  And, that’s part of what made the show more than just your typical 80s action show.  Unlike most action heroes, MacGyver didn’t go in for all that macho, chest-beating stuff.  He didn’t believe in violence as a solution, and he didn’t carry a gun.  He preferred to think his way out of problems, negotiate solutions to problems, and only resort to physical force if absolutely necessary.  Even a lot of the explosives he concocted were only made to allow escape, or to slow down the aggressors, not to actually kill.  And, kind of like Star Trek got people interested in space and related scientific careers, MacGyver stirred up interest in physics and engineering type sciences.  There’s a lot to be said for being able to escape just about any situation with the stuff you’d find in a bathroom cabinet. 

And, like the very best of pop-culture television, MacGyver made its way into our every day conversations.  People no longer “jury rigged” something to get out of a mechanical fix, they “macgyvered” it.  And if you happened to find yourself with an odd assortment of items that seemed to have no relationship to each other whatsoever, it wouldn’t be uncommon (at least for the folks I know) to wonder what MacGyver could do with it all.   I’m pretty sure even my son can recognize those references, and he was still an infant when the show went off the air.  And, last year, I even told you my own story of the time my friend, Kim, and I had our own MacGyver moment—and a successful one, at that.  His name has become synonymous with being ingenious, quick thinking, and an all around clever person.   Like I said, pretty cool dude.

By the way, if you aren’t familiar with MacGyver, you can catch the episodes on NetFlix, and I think you’ll be glad you did.  And, here’s a couple of sequences to give you an idea of what the man could accomplish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image courtesy digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Mission to Mars

 

Remember Dennis Tito?  He’s the richy-rich dude who paid many millions of dollars to become a space tourist way back in the day.  He reportedly spent $20 million to spend a week up at the ISS.  I’ve sort of got mixed feelings about that.  Part of me feels like people with that kind of money ought to just donate it to the scientists who could put it to decent use in our space exploration ventures (you know, back when we had some).  On the other hand, if I was a richy-rich gal—and if I could get some super-duper Dramamine—I’d be tempted to buy my way into space, too.  I mean, come on; it’s space we’re talking about.

Now, Mr. Tito apparently has a plan to send a couple of people slingshotting around Mars, and if rumors can be believed, he plans to do it in the next five years.  Now, in fairness, I’ll say that it’s probably too soon for feelings at this point, mixed or otherwise, since the guy hasn’t even had his official press conference yet, and little bits of information are just sort of trickling out about the ether.  Still, fair or not, I do have those mixed feelings already.  This time it’s not about thinking he ought to take whatever insane amounts of money he’s thinking about putting into this endeavor and funneling it all to NASA. I mean, I’m still a big believer in letting the professionals do the work, but NASA has been screwed over so much, and dwindled down to practically a shell of a useful organization, so I’m not sure they could get the job done any more efficiently than a highly motivated private company. 

But, I do worry about the zeal of a highly motivated private company, and whether they could be restrained enough to ensure a safe situation for their astronauts.  Because, really, when it comes to sending a couple of people 34 million miles or so into space—and hopefully back again—five years isn’t a very long time to make sure you’ve got things right.  And you really do want to get things right.

Still, I can’t deny how exciting it would be to send people to Mars, even just to orbit it, within my lifetime.  And, yeah, I’m hoping to be around at least another five years, so it would be very cool to see it happen.  But I think maybe it’s too early to be getting too excited.  Even so, you can bet I’ll be waiting to hear what comes out of that official press conference next week.  Like I said, this is space we’re talking about.

 

Gold Star to the DVR

 

If I haven’t said so before, let me go on record right now as saying that I am imminently grateful for the invention of that wonderful little box known as the DVR.  I mean, I had a VCR back in the day, and then I even had a DVD recorder.  But for a television junkie like me, you just can’t beat the DVR.  Pausing live programming, rewinding to catch a line you missed—or one you just have to hear again.  It’s great.

But, of course, the best part is the relatively painless way you can record the shows you that air in your absence, or when you’re watching something else.  No difficult tapes or discs to deal with, always worrying about whether you’ve got enough storage space left to hold tonight’s programming.  No rewinding or fast-forwarding to just the right spot to find the beginning of the program you want to watch first.  Just a handy box, that knows what time your favorite shows come on and keeps them in a nicely organized list so that you can watch whichever one you choose.

Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But one of the other benefits is that it helps avid viewers like myself sort of prioritize what’s important and what’s just something to pass the time.  I think of it as a Delayed Value Recognition machine.  You see, there are plenty of programs that I’ll watch if they happen to be on, though I might not enjoy them enough to actively seek them out or watch them on purpose.  The thing is, though, if you happen to be at home every time those shows are on, you might not be able to easily recognize them for the ho-hum program they are, because they’re enjoyable enough while you’re watching.

But, the key is, if you record something for later viewing, how long does it sit on the DVR before you actually get around to watching it?  Of course, there are a lot of variables.  Life does get in the way of television, no matter how much you might prefer to lose yourself in a particularly exciting episode of something or another.  But, when you do find time to start cleaning off the machine, which ones do you go for first?  Answering that question lets you recognize the value of what you’re recording.  When the episodes start piling up, unwatched, always playing second fiddle not only to life, but to every other program on the list, then the show clearly doesn’t hold much value to you. 

Last season, the DVR helped me realize that NCIS: LA wasn’t really all that valuable to me.  I was still recording it because I’d been watching it from the beginning, and, as an NCIS fan, I really wanted to like the spinoff.  And, honestly, the show is fine.  But “fine” doesn’t make me run for the DVR to get caught up on what’s going on with the characters, so now I don’t record it anymore.  I suppose I might still watch it now and again, if I happened to be sitting home on a Tuesday evening with nothing better to do, but I don’t feel deprived not watching it.  I recognized its value to me.

Now, I need to make that same decisions about another show, and maybe more than one.  Last fall, when the new television season began, I was excited about the new show, Vegas.  So, I added it to my DVR list and hoped I’d be impressed.  But you know what?  I haven’t seen it yet.  My trusty box records it faithfully, just as I asked it to do, but tonight it recorded the 15th episode, and I haven’t even seen number one yet.  That’s fifteen hours of television I need to get through, assuming it’s a good show, of course.  But, really, how important is it to me if I haven’t even bothered to tune in once?  I’d have to vote for “not very”. 

The converse is true, too.  Shows that I might’ve thought were just something interesting to pass the time, I find myself going to first when there’s a recording available.  Most recently, Elementary.  Sure, I knew I was enjoying it, but it hadn’t quite seeped into my conscious brain that the show had become must-see TV for me.  But episodes never sit around long; in fact, I usually watch them the same night, once I’m home and settled.  When I see it on the list of recordings, it calls to me.  The DVR strikes again.

So there you have it, the joys of the DVR for a television junkie— time-shifted viewing, skip the commercials, and Delayed Value Recognition all in one convenient box. 

 

Webmaster I Am Not

 

                                                                 Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I may have mentioned, my responsibilities with ΦΘΚ involve keeping up the social media for the chapter.  And, by “keeping up”, I mean create and implement a whole new plan of action.  It seems in the past, the chapter often didn’t have a PR officer, so any form of advertisement (if that’s the right word) pretty much fell by the wayside.  They did have a Facebook page which wasn’t being utilized, but beyond that, not much.

So, in addition to trying to put the Facebook page to work for keeping members informed, and doing the same with a campus forum for members, I’ve been trying to stay in touch with our campus newspaper to get the club mentioned at least once a month and keeping fliers posted on the bulletin boards. 

But, I also decided to launch a chapter blog a week or so ago, figuring one or two posts a week would keep things plenty updated for the moment.  It’s not getting a lot of traffic, but that’s okay; I knew it would be slow going.  One of the other things my duties call for, though, is publishing two newsletters per semester.  I’m running a little behind, because I only just got the first one done.  Rather than print them for distribution, our advisor thought an electronic publication would be a better choice, suggesting I simply put it up on the blog.

All of that sounded like a great idea until I got around to actually trying to upload a document from template format into a blog post.  Wowser.  You know, Word has a “save as web page” option, so I didn’t anticipate it being much of a problem, but I find that things rarely go the way that I think they will, especially when technology is involved.

After many, many attempts and a lot of trial and error with modifying the HTML code, I finally got it almost right—certainly close enough that I could live with.  I work in Chrome, and it was fine there; ditto for Firefox.  Sadly, when I got to IE for testing, I found that it does not display in that browser.  WTH?  But, it was after midnight, and the blog stats say that most of what readers we’ve had have come in from Firefox, so this is a battle I simply cannot continue to fight tonight.  Maybe I’ll tackle it again tomorrow, or maybe I’ll just try and get it worked out within the next month or so before the next volume has to be published. 

But, the ordeal has served to remind me of some of my limitations.  I waltzed into this whole thing thinking, how hard could it be?.  I figured, post a few Facebook status updates, a blog post or two, maybe get some pictures floating around, and life would be good.  After all, I already know how to use Facebook, Blogger, and a camera, right?  If only.

Frustrating as it is, though, sometimes it’s good to come up against the things you don’t know, to figure out how to use what you do know, and what you might want to learn next.  While I was pondering this, I found a quote: 

“In the process of trial and error, our failed attempts are meant to destroy arrogance and provoke humility.”  ~Master Jin Kwon.

Seems just about right to me.

What sorts of things have provoked humility for you recently? 

Oh, and if anyone knows any simple secrets to converting Word newsletter templates to HTML, I would love to hear them!

The New-Fangled TV

 

Image courtesy of tungphoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Sometimes, television makes me feel sort of old.  Not the stuff that’s on TV—though sometimes that has the same effect—but the actual television sitting in my living room.  It’s what some would consider a fancy piece of equipment—HD, Wi-Fi, 3D, bigger than two of my parents’ old sets—and I alternate between taking it for granted and being amazed by it.  It’s during those latter moments that the old-age feelings sink in.

Since I can remember when HD and Wi-Fi didn’t even exist, 3D was reserved for cult films, and a 21 inch screen was considered big, it’s not all that hard to understand why this technological marvel makes me feel like some kind of artifact.  I even remember black and white TVs, though it’s true that when I was growing up, the primary set in our home was always color.  But, other than a small hand-held we kept around for weather alerts during power outages (until everything went digital), I’m not sure my son has ever seen a B&W set. 

And the accessories?  Cable, satellite, VCRs, DVDs, DVRs, they’ve all come into existence within my lifetime.  Well, okay, cable was around before I was, but it was hardly widespread.  I can remember when it became available in my hometown, and I can remember how excited we were when my dad finally relented and said we could get it.

All of this technology goes into the television viewing experience, making it more convenient, and, in many ways, more enjoyable.  It’s all part and parcel of the normal television landscape these days, and I’m grateful I’ve had the opportunity to witness this sort of electronic revolution.  But sometimes it still makes me feel old.

What’s your favorite piece of television technology?

Life Lessons From a Kitchen Appliance

I bet you’re wondering how someone can learn something from your typical kitchen appliance, right?  Let me tell you a story . . .

We bought a new refrigerator this weekend.  I was mostly excited about it; after all, who doesn’t love to get new and shiny things?  But only “mostly” excited, because for as long as we’ve had our old fridge—about twenty-five years now—I’ve said that when we finally replaced it, the new one would have ice and water in the door.  Brian has never wanted that, but it’s long been my opinion that he got his way the first time around, so I should get to pick the next one.  And though he disagreed with my thought process, he didn’t really argue about it too much.

But then something even more new-fangled came about:  French doors.  I got distracted by the novelty of it all, and for the past couple of years, I’ve been thinking we might want to go that route when we finally gave up on our old clunker, though I had some serious reservations about the freezer situation.  But, Brian really liked the bottom freezers he’d seen, so I figured it would be a nice compromise: I’d get my ice and water, he’d get his bottom freezer, and it would look really nice.  What could be wrong with that?

Sadly, what I’ve realized in the past few months as I’ve been researching, is that the typical French door models are far too big for our current refrigerator space.  Oh, they would fit, but hang out past the wall, and stick out past the countertop, and just generally look a little bit awkward, completely overshadowing the new and shiny effect.  So, we opted for a smaller version, which allowed us to get the nice looks, but—unfortunately—meant I had to give up my long-anticipated ice and water in the door.  But at least I was getting a built in ice-maker, something I’ve spent the past 25 years without, so I thought it was a compromise I could be okay with.   And, like I said, I still thought it looked pretty nice.

                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                

     

               See?  New and shiny.


But now, it’s 36 hours later, we’ve moved all the stuff over to our new fridge, and my worst fears have come to pass: the bottom freezer is really a pain.  There’s no good way to organize things, and it’s way too small for stuff we normally keep on hand.  (Well, not way too small, but at least a little bit too small, and that’s with everything crammed in so tight we can’t see what we’re looking for.) So now I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on something that’s not really going to meet even my basic needs, and I’m still destined to spend the next couple of decades without ice and water in my refrigerator door.  Definitely puts a damper on the excitement of a new appliance.

The moral of this story:  Be true to yourself; don’t let the new and shiny things lead you from the path of something that you’ve always wanted.

What life lessons have you learned from an unexpected source?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments.