Omphaloskepsis  -

+ 4 - 3 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Jan. 31-Feb. 6

Monday

Work (go in early)

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- new episodes on ABC Family (7:00-7:30 and 8:00-8:30) (second one tape delay)

24: "Day 4: 1:00 P.M.-2:00 P.M."

(perhaps) Medium -- I may sample the show, since CSI: Miami's still in repeats this week

Tuesday

Work

Veronica Mars: "The Wrath of Con" (repeat, but new to me) (and really, how could you not love that episode title?)

Wednesday

Work

Lost: "Raised by Another" (repeat, but new to me)

State of the Union speech on C-SPAN

Psi Phi meeting

Thursday

Work

The O.C.

CSI: CSI: "Nesting Dolls"

Friday

Work

Star Trek: Enterprise: "United"

JAG: "Heart of Darkness"

Numb3rs: "Vector"

Stargate: SG-1: "It's Good to be King"

Stargate: Atlantis: "Hot Zone"

Battlestar Galactica: "You Can't Go Home Again"

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Super Bowl XXXIX (mostly for the ads)

Young Blades: "Wanted"

American Dad: "Pilot" (pilot episode)

This will be the final disclaimer for now.

davidh

+ 2 - 4 | § ¶Car fix, part 2, plus Pirates!

This entry is about oil and pirates. Unfortunately, these are two separate topics which are joined only by time. :-) Read on . . . (more)

+ 2 - 4 | § ¶Sick

I've got a sore throat and major headache. Slept quite a bit this evening (listened to most of the repeat of NCIS that I've seen before, but fell asleep before Veronica Mars). Got up a bit ago feeling restless, so I thought I'd check my E-mail and post an update here.

Unfortunately, this is a really bad time to be sick due to some stuff going on at work... on Wednesday some important stuff is going to happen, and I have to be there in case anything goes wrong (as it inevitably does).

For those of you keeping track (all zero or one of you), yes, post 310 is missing. That's because I'd been working on it and didn't feel like cutting and pasting and editing a new post in between. So 310 and 311 will be out of chronological order.

davidh

+ 5 - 1 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Jan. 24-30

Plus a revised (backdated) schedule for yesterday and today.

Saturday (Yesterday)

Car stuff with Joe

The Pirates of Penzance -- local play at Woodruff High School, dinner and a show

Sunday (Today)

Church

Young Blades: "Wanted" (series premiere)

Numb3rs: "Pilot" (series premiere)

Monday

Work

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- new episodes on ABC Family (7:00-7:30 and 8:00-8:30) (second one tape delay)

24: "Day 4: 12:00 P.M.-1:00 P.M."

Tuesday

Work (go in early)

Veronica Mars: "Meet John Smith" (repeat, but new to me)

Wednesday

Work (go in early)

Lost: "Solitary" (repeat, but new to me)

The West Wing: "King Corn"
[Added 1/28: The song at the end of the episode is "Desire", by Ryan Adams, from his CD "Demolition".]

CSI: NY: "Tanglewood"

Psi Phi meeting

Thursday

Work

The O.C.

Friday

Work

Joan of Arcadia: "The Rise & Fall of Joan Girardi"

Star Trek: Enterprise: "Babel One" (tape delay)

Numb3rs: "Cause and Causality"

Stargate: SG-1: "Prometheus Unbound""

Stargate: Atlantis: "The Defiant One"

Battlestar Galactica: "Act of Contrition"

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Church

Young Blades: "Rub-a-Dub Sub" (if I like the pilot)

Disclaimers wanted. Apply within.

davidh

+ 5 - 1 | § ¶The Numb3rs are in...

Based on this article at CNN.com, I'm definitely going to add "Numb3rs" to my viewing schedule. I was strongly considering it, but here's the line that made it a must-see: "I commented when I first saw how he was acting that he [actor David Krumholtz, playing math whiz Charlie Eppes] was in danger of making math sexy!" :-)

Sci-fi cast connections: David Krumholtz will be in the upcoming Firefly movie, Serenity. Alimi Ballard was in Dark Angel. Judd Hirsch was in Independence Day. Sabrina Lloyd was one of the original cast of Sliders. Peter MacNicol was in Ghostbusters II, Addams Fanily Values, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. The only main cast member who doesn't have a direct sci-fi connection at least has an indirect one: Rob Morrow was in a movie called Mother, which (according to the IMDB) is about a sci-fi writer with writer's block who moves back in with his mother. Yes, I admit it's a stretch. :-)

The first episode airs this coming Sunday on CBS, then moves to its regular spot on Fridays after that. So now I'll have seven shows on Friday nights. Seven! *faints*

davidh

+ 4 - 3 | § ¶Normally I wouldn't post this, but...

...with so many of my Democrat friends feeling posting missives about the reïnauguration of George W. Bush, I figured I might as well venture briefly back into political territory with a little positive news.

Self-proclaimed "miserable individual" Michael Newdow has fortunately lost his last-minute attempt to prohibit the free exercise of religion. Chief Justice Rehnquist and seniormost Associate Justice Stevens both denied appeals for the Supreme Court to ban a minister from praying at the inauguration. Newdow had petitioned both of them separately, as he believed the Chief Justice should recuse himself from the consideration of the appeal because he was presiding over the inauguration.

Unlike his earlier case to remove God from the pledge of allegiance, in which he was found to have no grounds for pursuing the case (since he did not have custody of the daughter in whose name he sued), this time he attempted to show personal injury by obtaining a ticket to the inauguration, then filing that "[a]s an atheist, [I] cannot in good conscience attend an exercise where [my] government forces [me] to endure religious dogma [I] find[] highly disagreeable." (He referred to himself in the third person, since he acted as his own lawyer, but I'm rephrasing it as though he said it himself instead of saying it about himself.) I am presuming, therefore, that he stayed home today.

I wonder why he wanted to attend an event where he knew the guarantees of the First Amendment would be exercised, if he knew he was going to be so offended by it.

He is still pursuing other cases to spread his misery to others, but since he hasn't had a paying job in over three years, he may soon have to back down and return to medicine. Let's hope he's a better doctor than he is a lawyer.

davidh,
returning to the politics-free zone

+ 4 - 2 | § ¶Car fix, part 1

After last night's Psi Phi meeting (the first of the semester), Joe needed a ride home. Seeing as everybody else had left already, I offered to drive him home. On the way there, he noticed that my left turn signal was still blinking rapidly... the rear left turn signal has been burned out for a few weeks now, and when the front or back turn signal light is burned out, the other one blinks double-speed to let you know about it. (Or maybe it's because there's only half as much resistance across the circuit, so the I-forget-the-technical-term heats up faster, bends faster, and breaks contact faster than normal, and letting you know about it is merely a side effect.) He told me how simple it would be to replace it myself, so we stopped in at the Wal*Mart in Washington and found the appropriate bulb in their automotive department. (I don't think I knew they even had such a department.) Joe showed me how to get to the rear turn signals, and swapped the appropriate one out. I'm certain I could do it myself next time.

As he was getting back in, he noticed a dent in the front right fender, which I got last week. (I had been in a parking lot, in a hurry to get home; there'd been no car in front of me, so I'd intended to just pull forward; I hadn't noticed the adjacent lightpost until the car started scraping up against it. I hadn't even pressed on he gas pedal yet, I think, before I heard the sound and stopped the car.) Anyway, he offered to help get the dent out, so I'll be going over to his house on Saturday to get that taken care of. That will be part 2. :-)

davidh

+ 3 - 3 | § ¶davidh quiz results

Here are the results for the davidh quiz...

(And if you haven't taken it yet, why not do so before peeking at the answers? :-)

(more)

+ 3 - 3 | § ¶Odds and Ends

Assorted recent happenings...

(more)

+ 0 - 6 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Jan. 17-23

Monday

Work (maybe?)

Whose Line is it Anyway? -- two brand new episodes on ABC Family (7:00-7:30 and 8:00-8:30) (second one tape delay)

24: "Day 4: 11:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M."

CSI: Miami: "Cop Killer"

Tuesday

Work

NCIS: "Doppelgänger"

Veronica Mars: "Pilot" (repeat, but new to me)

Wednesday

Work

Lost: "Special"

Alias

CSI: NY: "Officer Blue"

The West Wing: "365 Days" (on tape, 1:05am -- pre-empted by Bradley basketball)

Psi Phi meeting

Thursday

Work

The O.C.

CSI: CSI: "Swap Meet"

Friday

Work

Star Trek: Enterprise: "Observer Effect"

Stargate: Atlantis: "The Eye"

Battlestar Galactica: "Bastille Day"

Stargate: SG-1: "Gemini"

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Church

Young Blades: "Wanted" (series premiere)

I've run out of clever disclaimers.

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Peoria still among top ten best-mannered cities

Marjabelle Young Stewart has just released her annual list of the most polite cities in the U.S., and again, Peoria is among the top ten.

Charleston, South Carolina tops the list at #1 for the tenth year in a row. San Diego, California, which was not on last year's list, came in at #2. Seattle, Washington, which was #12 or #8 last year (depending on how you count ties), rose to #3. Although last year's list had Peoria tied for second, in the 2005 list, Peoria has dropped to #4.

Rounding out the top ten are:
#5: Omaha, Nebraska (tied for #7 or #5 last year)
#6: Quad Cities, Illinois/Iowa (tied for #2 last year)
#7: Hollywood, Florida
#8: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
#9: Houston, Texas
#10: Salt Lake City, Utah

Thank you.

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶What's your davidh quotient?

Test your knowledge of me by taking the Your davidh quotient test at QuizYourFriends.com. The answers to several of these questions are available in my blog somewhere. For others, you'll need to look elsewhere. This quiz is quite challenging; of the first 17 people to take it thus far, the highest score has been 60%.

(Although the site asks for an E-mail address to get your results, if you're worried about spam, you can give it a phony address and it'll still tell you your score. But if you would, please do include your name when you take the test so I know who's who.)

I've already mentioned this quiz elsewhere, so several people have already taken it. In a week or two, I'll post some statistics about which questions people got right or wrong most frequently, and explanations for the answers.

davidh

+ 13 - 6 | § ¶Most Boring Entry Ever

This is post 300. I have nothing interesting to say at this time. Thank you.

davidh

+ 4 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Jan. 10-16

Monday

Work

24: "Day 4: 9:00 A.M.-11:00 A.M." (season premiere, part two; two hours)

Tuesday

Work

NCIS: "Blackwater"

(perhaps) Veronica Mars: "Clash of the Tritons" -- this show has also been recommended, so perhaps I'll give it a look-see

Wednesday

Work

Lost: "Hearts and Minds"

CSI: NY: "Recycling"

The West Wing: "Opposition Research" (on tape, 1:05am -- pre-empted by Bradley basketball)

Thursday

Work

The O.C.

CSI: CSI: "Snakes"

Friday

Work

Joan of Arcadia: "Queen of the Zombies"

Star Trek: Enterprise: "Daedalus"

JAG: "Automatic for the People"

Battlestar Galactica: "33" and "Water" (possibly re-edited as a 2-hour movie)

Battlestar Galactica: The Lowdown

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Church

Joel moves back into the dorms

This space for rent.

davidh

+ 4 - 2 | § ¶2004 Year in Review, part 5: May

Here's the things that happened in May, 2004...

(more)

+ 3 - 3 | § ¶Household happenings

A few of the householdy-type things of late (and of early). . . (more)

+ 6 - 0 | § ¶Texas, hold-em; Utah, take-is wallet

Looks like I've gotten my second comment advertiser... the first was a one-off a couple months ago, while this was a repetitive attack on several different posts. Somebody was advertising, I would guess based on the name, an on-line gambling site, under thirteen different URLs. The comments have been deleted.

Pivot isn't a very popular blogging package, unlike (for example) Movable Type, so there aren't a lot of drive-by spammers who are already configured to post comments on Pivot sites such as this one. But eventually Pivot will just be one more option in their advertising arsenal, so I've got to be prepared. I'll try finding or programming a Human-confirmation* feature to add to the comments thingie. Since I don't get a ton of comments anyway, I won't be too concerned if, while I'm building and testing things, comments are temporarily disabled or broken.

davidh

----
* - which isn't to say that all non-Humans are bad... but I'll want to screen their posts before they go live, either to filter out the ads or to make first contact with a new lifeform :-)

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Update 1/6, 8:20am: Got about a dozen more from several new IP addresses this morning... I guess my site is on some sort of advertiser mailing list now. First step: Block any comment which contains "http:" or "www". This will let regular text messages through but will block ones with URLs. Second step: Ban those new IP addresses (for as much good as it'll do).

Update 8:51am, 3:45pm: Blocked one from a zombie PC in Italy, and another from a machine in Belgium. Still looking for a better way to block them, though, since this is really just a quick-and-dirty hack.

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Black Monday

I now have a cell phone. Pity me.

davidh

P.S. On the plus side, I now have a camera.

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶My Upcoming Week, Jan. 3-9

Monday

Work -- go in early; first day back

CSI: Miami: "Shootout"

Tuesday

Work

House: "Pilot" (repeat) -- a few people have said this show is good, so I'll give it a try

Wednesday

Work

Lost: "Whatever the Case May Be"

The West Wing: "Faith-Based Initiative"

CSI: NY: "Tri-Borough"

Thursday

Work

The O.C.

CSI: CSI: "Who Shot Sherlock?"

Friday

Work

Joan of Arcadia: "Game Theory"

JAG: "Automatic for the People"

Saturday

No particular plans

Sunday

Church

24: "Day 4: 7:00 A.M.-9:00 A.M." (season premiere, two hours -- continues Monday, two hours)

Insert something funny here.

davidh

+ 1 - 5 | § ¶Out with the old, in with the new.

I celebrated New Year's by cooking some eating, drinking, and being merry.

More specifically, with bacon and tater tots cooked on my new Christmas griddle, Pepsi in the can, and chatting with friends on-line. :-)

Happy New Year!

davidh