Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

I have had the urge to watch Kids in the Hall lately. So much that I was looking at buying the DVDs.

I LOVE sketch comedy. The Kids in the Hall was one of the best sketch comedy shows out there.

However, I didn't necessary feel like owning the tv show, I just want to watch the show. Thus, Netflix to the rescue. I mean, they saved the day when I wanted to watch DS9.

So I have loaded up my queue with the 20 discs of Kids in the Hall.

I watched the first disc tonight as I ate dinner and worked on the computer. I got the urge to take some pictures. I tried my hand at making some animated gifs.



I tried to crush my trusty dog bud, but just couldn't bring myself to finish the deed.



I am sure that the blog is in store for some Kids in the Hall quotes as I watch the show.

Laterz.

"... I can stop watching TV..."

In the words of 'Pigman' from PCU, I say that I have finished my quest to watch seasons 3 - 7 of DS9.

I finished up the last 5 episodes Thursday night. I have to say that watching a series that you love on DVD is addictive. Particularly when you are renting them via Netflix. Watching each disc as quickly as possible to allow for the return it to the mailbox as soon as possible. It makes for small marathons when you are lucky enough to have several discs at the same time.

Gina & I worked from the Dallas office this week. I had to drop her off @ DFW for her flight home. She has been making it a bit of a tradition to travel to Michigan for Halloween. This leaves me home along with the dogs. No big worries, I have started to get the hang of feeding all of them raw food. It is only slightly harder than kibble yet easier than canned food.

I say easier only from the stand point that canned food tends to be a hassle to scoop out. Because one can of food isn't enough to feed the four of them. However, two cans is too much. Which means I have to find the plastic topper, that (for me) never seems to fit right. Then there is the fact that the canned food on occasion upsets the bud or Emma's stomach, meaning there can be even messier cleanup that has to be done later.

I have been pestering Gina to post in her blog more and more. One of Gina's latest posts talks about raw feeding, she has been helping her friend Kelly with feeding her dogs.

I am a bachelor for the next few days. I hope to finish this last round of cleaning up of my home office. I have been purging some stuff. I tend to pack rat. You never know when your going to need an IDE ribbon cable, or C programming book.

Given that my quest to re-watch DS9 is now over. I hope to spend time working on some side projects with Jeremy. Plus his weight loss goals will soon hit my own weight. In the spirit of competition I told him that when he hits my weight, that I will throw my hat into the ring. And see if I can't match his weight loss. I am going to need try to setup some tracking logic on the blog here.

I really need to take some time and work on customizing the blog. I am still just using one of the stock templates. Seeing as I am going to have to play around more with RSS feeds for a project for work I have already had a plan for a new technosnobs home page that reads the blog here and posts the latest entry on the main page. The www.jaduka.com home page does this same thing. I had the pleasure of writing up a quick prototype for Devegoodwin to model.

Back on the bachelor subject. I am at the moment torn on what to do for lunch. I am thinking about making chili. However, since I don't have any of the needed stuff to make chili, I think I am going to have to wait until tomorrow. I will try to measure the ingredients so that I can post the recipe up here on the blog. It has turned out really good the last few times I made it. Most likely because of the fact that I make the base of the chili this time the same way Gina makes her spaghetti sauce.

It has been a long month so far. Lots of late nights, some of them working, others watching DS9. So I think I am going to sneak in a nap.

The Alamo Drafthouse is showing 'Man Of The Year' at 3:25. It is a movie I wanted to see and it would mean that I can eat a late lunch. Then I can grab stuff to make chili for tomorrow.

Basic Chili Ingredients:
ground meat (turkey or beef)
stewed tomatoes
onions
garlic
green peppers
1 can of corn
2 jalapeños
chili powder
ground black pepper
cumin
cayenne pepper
Beans (Kidney, Pinto, Black)

well nap time.

laterz

For those of you that have been keeping up with the old blog here. I have been watching the Deep Space Nine, renting from Netflix. I started with season 3, far enough into the series for it to be interesting and at basically the very start of the Dominion conflict.

Now, what does this have to do with Art imitating life?

Not a ton I guess, I mean it is not like we have Klingons roaming around or anything. However, there have been a couple of episodes here and there that were similar to events here in the real world. Which, is funny, because of the fact that the show was made in the past. However, I guess human nature prevails, creature of comfort.

But last night the disc I popped in had an episode on it called, "Once More into the breach". Which reminded me of the entry I did several weeks ago.

I have to admit that I picked the title based upon an episode that I watched for an entry I did a last week, Fortune Favors The Bold.

About six months ago I was talking with a mentor of sorts, about career advancement and what not. I might have mentioned this already, but my mind is a jumble, so I will finish the story. He told me to watch movies and look for leadership characteristics that I felt were good.

As silly as it seems, I have to say that the writers for Deep Space Nine did a good job of making the character Benjamin Sisko into a good role model for leadership.

Watching the series again has been very fun. I have to say that I like the Quark character even more than I did before. I guess he appeals to that inner businessman I have in me.

Oh yeah, I guess before I finish. The new flapperless toilet has been working out well. Doing what it should. Gina asked John to watch the house when we were in Dallas this past weekend. He was intrigued by the toilet. He had to take the tank top off and get a look at how it works.

All for now.

Laterz

Or so I am told. I don't consider myself too bold. However, fortune has favored me more often than not.

A couple of updates.

1. I managed to get the faucet handle fixed. I bought a set of Allen wrenches for about $4. Worked like a charm. Go figure. Hopefully, the handle that is coming is the right part. As I did scratch up the one that is there now. The repair kit should be coming soon from Delta as well.

2. The flapperless tank is not compatible with the old toilet bowl. I ran out to Home Depot at the last minute to pick up the matching bowl. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare before closing.

3. The guest bathroom has a new toilet. It was an interesting experience removing the old toilet. And as I have described recently, removing that old wax is disgusting. Also, the flapperless tank's gasket is quite different than a regular toilet tank gasket. It is flat, it doesn't actually fit into the hole in the bowl. The flapperless tank gasket is supposed to just line up over the hole.

If you aren't careful about this, water will spill out the back. As I found out. Part of the reason for this is that the flapperless bowl has slots vs holes for the bolts. The slots are intended to allow the tank to be positioned at different levels away from the wall, to ensure that the installation of a the whole toilet will fit well with the positioning of the hole for the old toilet.

If it is back too far, then water comes out. If you position it all the way to the front, no problems. It would have been helpful the instructions were more explicit about this. "The gap is normally 1/2" to 1" ..." doesn't really help me. Seeing as I can't see the gap once I put the tank on the bowl, the tank covers everything.

4. Deep Space 9 Season 7 will be waiting for me when I get back from Dallas this week. I have managed to watch seasons 3 - 6 in just about a month using Netflix. I honestly cannot believe that I didn't use Netflix before now. It is an awesome service.

5. I am in Dallas. I have came to Dallas to meet with Bobby Goodwin, about the next phase of developement. I also spent some time with Brent working on the next generation of our billing system. Good stuff, it has been a while since I have had the opportunity to really design something as simple, yet complex as a billing system.

I was going to do some work on our corporate site. But I can't get into the gateway from the hotel. So it will have to wait until morning.

Speaking of which, it is late and I feel the need to sleep the good sleep now.

laterz

ps, yeah another Friday in Dallas.

Of course, the rumors about the rumors of my demise are also probably grossly exaggerated.

I wanted to get a quick post in as I wrap up lunch here at the office. Mmmmm... frozen fully cooked chicken breast from HEB. Not that bad actually, I need to keep a bag of salad mix at the office too.

Back to the rumors. Having seen the fact that I didn't post the rest of my birthday weekend. I could just imagine the folks that had asked me about my plans and I replied "Not sure, but it involves drinking." might have gotten the idea that I had drunk myself into a stupor, or worse.

My birthday did involve drinking and just maybe one beer too many. I felt a wee bit hungover the next day. Which is odd, since the hangover tends to skip a day. Regardless, the feeling bad on Sunday was because of two things.

1. Cleaning the garage out. Gina put up with my crabby attitude while I did some manual labor. In the end I am glad she got us to finally do that. Because she can finally put her car in the garage. But also, because it brings us one step closer for me to be able to bring my car in the garage too.

2. Michigan State LOST to Notre Dame. I mean come on guys. You had be very excited for the first quarter. It looked like we were going to sweep the Fighting Irish out with the rest of the trash. Nope. I mean once MSU started messing up, I lost the excitement and the beer started to take over, making me sleepy. I passed out and missed the rest of the game. At least MSU did me the favor of keeping it a close game. A shut out on my birthday would just be entirely unbearable. 40-37.

You might be wondering what we did on my birthday. Right?

First, I had fallen asleep on the couch on Friday night. It was about 1:30 in the morning before I passed out watching DS9. So when I woke up around like 2:30, I figured it would be better to just sleep on the couch than wake Gina (and the dogs). This means I woke up on the couch. Which, also means that as usual when sleeping on the couch I woke up early. It used to be a comfortable couch, but it has seen better days, and the remaining days are numbered.

I woke up early (8:30 or so) finished watching the remaining DS9 disc that I had. Afterwards, I went to get the mail. Two reasons there. Gina told me that her parents sent me a package (ie birthday gift) and I had another DS9 disc waiting for me.) That was probably close to 10:30am.

I received a snazzy looking orange tie, a little bit of a retro feel to it. When I wear it I will post a pic. And some dress socks. Now, of course dress socks at first mention sound like a bad gift. But for me they are not. I am not sure what happens to all of the dress socks I buy. But I know that I am always in short supply. Personally I think the dogs are eating them or dragging them into the backyard.

I should mention that my pops got me a very good and again practical gift. A gift certificate for Northwest Airlines. It should pay for a flight home and part of a flight for Gina. This means that we can fly home for x-mas and not break the bank. (Remember, when we fly we have to pay to have someone watch the petting zoo. New pet sitter is going to be around $35/day.)

Back to the festivities. Gina brought in my gifts and asked me. "Do you want them wrapped?". To which I replied "Nah, just a waste of paper. But make sure you wrap the x-mas gifts."

Gina got me a subscription to The Economist. I love that magazine, it appeals to the "Amateur Economist" in me, more on that later.

She also got me a DVD player for my home office. That way I can watch DS9 in there and not hog the whole living room. She also got me a little carrying case for my MP3 player that can also hold my headphones and some other stuff.

We went to Enchiladas y Mas (Enchildas & More) for breakfast. I had potatoes (papas), refried beans (frijoles refritos), egg & chorizo taco (huevos y chorizo taquito) and a barbacoa taco (usually cows head, not sure but it was beef). When we had the barbacoa at Arrandas it was very, very good. The barbacoa at Enchiladas y Mas was not as good. Everything else was great.

We decided that we wanted to go to a movie. I had wanted to see Invincible that came out a week or so ago. The gateway had one at around 12:20. We headed over there. Popcorn is a vice for me, luckily they had burned the popcorn and that burned popcorn smell is just not enticing. Not that I needed popcorn, seeing as we just had a very filling brunch.

Invincible was a GREAT movie. I was never into sports, probably for the same reasons I don't like manual labor. However, movies like Invicible, Any Given Sunday and Mystery Alaska make me wish I had gotten into sports as a kid. My boss has joked around with me joining his hockey team, in the off season. Who knows, who knows. But Invincible made me wish I had played some football in high school.

While, as a former AMC Usher I do not condone the act of theatre hopping. I cannot say that I have never done it. I would have to say that if the theatr was truly looking to prevent this they can. I mean at theatres like the Gateway Regal, they open themselves up to this when they rip tickets at the front door. Rather than down by the two main halls they have.

While, ripping the tickets at the front door does help to ensure that everyone that is in the building has a ticket. It means that your staff isn't conistently in those hallways making sure that no one is coming out and going back in without a ticket to the individual theatres.

At the AMC Elmwood Plaza 8, we ripped tickets at the door. But we only have 8 theatres these guys have around 24. I think there are like 12 in each wing.

Anyway, I just want to say that The Last Kiss was also a good movie. I bought a Soda and some Nerd's rope, again the popcorn didn't smell good enough to buy. The Last Kiss was a movie I wanted to see because of the actors in it, I had no idea what the premise of the movie was.

After, the movies we headed home. We stopped at Cavenders and I bought a new wallet. I will keep the old one as a keepsake, but it was time to retire it. The new one is similar to the old one, but different. Pics will come later.

We then headed over to Fry's. Gina had to return some headphones she bought. I had to pick up an RCA-RF/Coax converter, for my DVD player to connect to the little TV I have in the office. Oh yeah, a monsoon decided to spring up as we were leaving. Gina got DRENCHED. I would have been the one to get wet, but we took her car and well she still won't let me drive it. Even if she was bleeding and on the way to the emergancy room she would probably want to drive.

We picked up a pizza on the way home and rented some DVDs. We had just started eating when her phone rang. It was Anthony, calling to let us know that the MSU - Notre Dame game was on. An event that had completely slipped my mind.

The rest of the story you know.

Laterz

I will need to pull out my birth certificate to find the exact time. But I always seem to remember my date and time of birth as:

September 23rd, 1978 - 12:11am, eastern.

So in about 1 hour I will officially be 28.

No real idea what we are going to do tomorrow. I think a good part of that revolves around the weather.

However, I have a another DS9 DVD on the way. I have taken a break from watching for the moment to watch some SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. So there you go. I am a nerd!

I am going try to finish a post I start a couple of days ago.

More DS9 discs came in the mail. I'm currently watching the "Through The Looking Glass" where Commander Sisko gets kidnapped by "Smiley" and taken to the "Mirror Universe" being where everything is backwards. The good guys are bad guys, the bad guys are apparently still bad (Cardassians aren't the heroes of the universe, still opressing folks as often as they can).

And if your Spock you are sporting a goatee and for the most part your evil.

Well it sparked me enough that I felt the need to make a little post about it.

Southpark made fun of the Mirror Universe idea of the fact that people in the mirror universe are the opposite of who they are in this universe and they must sport a goatee.

In the DS9 episodes I don't think there is anyone suddenly sporting a goatee. However, there are a number of the characters that have gone from good to bad. Or at least from good to amoral (being Sisko in the Mirror Universe).

But there are a number of plot flaws that strike me funny. Like the Klingons in the Mirror Universe are still very much a warrior driven race. If things are so different, shouldn't they be more like the Federation. I mean shouldn't they be explorers and scientists not warriors?

And the Cardassians, they should be a peace loving bunch who trust everyone and have no need to the Obsidian Order. I mean they have the Bajorans acting completley different from the main Star Trek universe.

And the Terrans who around the time of The Original Series, TOS had enslaved many of the Federation races (Vulcans, Andorians, Tellerites) have been reduced to a minor power by the time of DS9. They had been beaten by the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance. It also appears that Romulans serve the Alliance.

This means that in the Mirror Universe, the Terrans were a ruthless conquering race. But after running into the gang from TOS events were set into motion that caused the fall of the Terran Empire. Which I guess means that rathering than staying true to form the "evil" Spock decided try to change the way things worked, he broke the Mirror Universe.

So this means stay true to form. Otherwise you end up getting overrun by Klingons and Cardassians.

However, my real interest in making a post about the Looking Glass episode is actually more along the lines of. What would I be like in the Mirror Universe.

Would I sport around a baby face? Seeing as I already have a goatee. Or would I have to sport a full beard instead. Would I be less tech inclined and more into sports. Would I prefer to read more and watch tv less?

Well the Looking Glass episode is over. I should be getting to bed I have to drive to Dallas early in the morning.

Oh yeah, one last thought on the Mirror Universe. Would the Dominion be more like the Federation. Since the Terran Empire was much like the Dominion.

I hope to get 3 discs from Netflix on Saturday, which should start getting into the conflict with the Dominion. I can't wait.

Laterz (For more info on the Mirror Universe check out Wikipedia.)

So the wife has turned me into a reading fanatic. Well a fanatic in comparison to how much I used to read.

We hit up Half-Price Books a few weeks ago for well books. I browsed their sci-fi selection for World-of-Warcraft books. Oddly enough, no WoW books. However, they had a fine selection of Star Trek books. I am a closet Trekie.

I enjoy watching the original kirk and spock, (aka The Original Series, TOS). Picard and Data in The Next Generation (TNG) are good as well, of course the first season or two are extremely laughable when compared with any of the later seasons and series that followed.

Then came Sisko, Quark, Odo and the rest of the crew on Deep Space Nine (DS9). Janeway and Seven of 9 had a couple of good seasons on Voyager (VGR or VOY), the wife loves Voyager. Then came the ill-fated Enterprise, with Captain Archer and T'Pol, I enjoyed the last two seasons of that show.

But the one that really caught my interest was DS9. Maybe it was the fact the hero and I share first names, Benjamin Sisko. Or it could be the fact that it sported some of the best action (space battle) scenes that I remember not being on the silver screen.

So the Star Trek books that caught my eye @ Half-Price Books were that of The Dominion War. Which happens to be the episodes that had the best action scenes. However, the books crossed over between the TNG and DS9 shows, so I had to pick them up. They had books 1 & 2. The following week we went to a bigger Half-Price Books and I lucked out as they had books 3 & 4.

So I finally finished up the 4th book the other day. Books 1 & 3 were TNG based, they were quite good. At the end of book 3 I actually felt a little bit of remorse that they had killed of Professor Grof, he had been a prick most of book 1 and 3, but proved himself in the end when it counted. I'm sure if it had been in a movie or TV show it would have been in the last 15 minutes of the show.

Books 2 & 4 were also good. However, they were adaptations of the show. This renewed my love of DS9, so much that I looked at how much the series costs on DVD. Answer to that, way too much for me to spend on some DVDs.

So I turned to Netflix. Jeremy has been using them for a while, with little complaints (if any at all). So in standard fashion I follow his lead. He used them to rent and watch the first season of Lost. Something I too may have to do. But not until I finish watching Seasons 3 - 7 of DS9, with a few of the wife's picks thrown in here and there.

So I signed up on Tuesday night. They got my first three DVDs in the mail on Weds and tonight I have been watching them while finishing up some stuff for work. Speaking of, I need to wrap this up and get back to finishing that stuff up.

I think I will be able to return two of the discs tomorrow. Meaning that I should receive some more DVDs on Monday. (Discs should hit their center on Saturday, hopefully my next two go out that afternoon, and arrive Monday).


I felt the need to also mention the CD that has been in high rotation for the last couple of weeks.

"Meds" by Placebo.



The first like 4 tracks are great, the middle ones tend to be a little too slow, and the last half pick back up the pace. I will say that when the disc is on shuffle in the car the slower tracks don't bug me.

Ending this post, all I will say is.

Someone call an ambulance, there is gonna be an accident.

Laterz