WhistlinDixie

The Heidi Effect

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the Heidi episode from many years ago. To catch you up, I believe it was an Oakland Raiders game that was on TV. When the time came for the movie Heidi to air, the Raiders were loosing, but in the process of making a comeback. Heidi then preempted the game. The Raiders ended up winning the game, but no one was able to see the end on TV. The NFL made an agreement with the television industry after the season ended and a game has never been preempted by other television programming again.

Why do I bring this up, you ask? If any of you were watching network television last night, you might have an idea. At 7:00 CDT, the President aired a press conference. When 8:00 CDT rolled around, the news person broke in while the President was speaking to tell us that the Simple Life was starting. I guess that networks other than FOX also did this. I just find it unbelievable that the networks would interrupt a Presidential news conference so they could air some crappy reality show. After all, we already know that Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are incapable of doing any job correctly. Does anyone know what is right anymore? You know, it’s sad that I even had to pose that question. What has become of us?

Error!

Ok, I feel kind of stupid. In my gallery of Day 3 of the Quebec trip, I incorrectly stated that an employee of Toys’R'Us took the picture of CJ, Chief, and I as the Village People. In reality, she just helped us get our nifty outfits. Cassandra corrected me on this point, and I have duly corrected the caption. Thanks for the feedback.

Exclusive Cable?

You know how at hotels, they are always like "check out our premium channels"? I got to thinking tonight, if we get two Showtime channels for free, why don’t we get ESPN2 or Comedy Central or Discovery Channel or History Channel? They would have to cost less than the two Showtimes, and they actually have programs that I would like to watch. What is really sad is that I couldn’t even see the Bulls game last night when it was being played in Chicago! Talk about being disappointed. I was really looking forward to seeing the Bulls in the playoffs for the first time since the Jordan era. Maybe I’ll get to see their next game since it is in Washington.

Money!

Ahh, my first paycheck. Ever. In paper that is. I normally have direct deposit set up (a great convenience), but UPS didn’t have it set up for my first pay cycle, so now I have a nice check in my room that I’ll have to cash over the weekend. It is kind of weird getting paid for the month of April when the month has yet to finish. I guess that is one of the advantages of being salaried.

In other news, CJ is planning to visit on the first weekend of June. It’ll be great to see him. Now all I have to do is scout out downtown so I can be a good (or at least decent) tour guide. I just want everyone to remember, you are more than welcome to come and visit sometime. It gets lonely sometimes being here alone. (It’s almost pathetic how much time I spend with my computer.) If you feel like visiting, give me a heads up and I’ll get you hooked up with directions. Remember, you are always welcome.

Down Time

Well, I’m sorry about the website being down over the weekend. I’m not sure what was wrong, but it has been fixed. Let’s hope that it never happens again.

Technical Difficulty

This wireless network is really starting to get on my nerves. From around 10:00 this morning until 9:00 tonight, I have been unable to access the internet. No matter where I carried my laptop in my hall, I could not connect to a good access point. Since I could not access the internet, I ended up playing HalfLife 2 all afternoon. Finally finished the game. The ending cinematic was predictable after playing the first game. The high point was definitely when you got the dark energy-infused gravity gun. You don’t know how much fun it is to grab enemies and fling them at each other. It was also fun to rip large items off of walls that used to be unmovable objects.

In other news, tonight marked the first time that I actually cooked a meal for myself, other than just putting something in the microwave or the oven. So maybe it was only Hamburger Helper. You have to start somewhere. Just for kicks, my mom suggested that I take a picture of it, so, here you go:

The true bachelor setup: food, TV (ESPN, nonetheless), and a computer. Who could ask for anything more?

OK, so maybe it doesn’t look too appetizing. It was tasty and somewhat nutritious.

NFL Draft 2005 – Day 1

Day one is in the books. As many analysts have stated, not much has gone on that wasn’t expected. No big trades, Eli Manning-esque episodes, or large fights (err, wait, these weren’t the Vibe Awards). Only four things that I can see as really noteworthy: quarterback Aaron Rodgers of Cal dropped all the way to the 24th pick and went to the Packers; Ohio State place kicker Mike Nugent went to the Jets with the 47th pick; Ohio State safety Dustin Fox went to Minnesota at the 80th pick; and former OSU tailback Maurice Clarett was actually drafted in the first day, going at the 101st pick to Denver. Personally, I expected Clarett to go in the sixth or seventh round, or even go undrafted. I never imagined that he would go in the third round, even if it was the last pick of the day. A lot of people were surprised by this move by the Broncos. The only plausible explanation that I have found is that the Broncos didn’t think that he would be available by the time their next pick came up, so they picked him just in case. Oh well, I hope that I never have to taint my blog with that loser’s name again.

Hard Time

Today I got to go to my first department meeting. It was actually the April TSG (Technology Support Group) Recognition Meeting. Birthdays, anniversaries, both marital and employment-wise, and A+ certifications were on the agenda. Also, I was recognized as the new guy, the quiet co-op that needed to be loosened up a little.

Right now, you’re probably thinking, "So, what’s so hard about that?" Well, yesterday, I was handled the TOFC project. This had been worked on for over two months by one guy in the Applications Group, but he left us for bigger and better things, leaving the project without anyone to do it. During the meeting, Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-a), the manager of the Apps Group announced that I had inherited the TOFC project. After she said that, I got a bunch of very sympathetic looks from the other TSGers and a few "I’m sorry"s. This project is actually a complete overhaul of a database application that has been in use for almost fifteen years. It DB2 for a database and uses a Q&A front end. Don’t feel bad if all of that made no sense to you, because it made no sense to me either, because it was all from before my time. Anyway, this system makes very little sense to me and the program that I started writing in Access with VBA is proving to be a pain. Who ever thought that Visual Basic would act so much different from Visual Basic for Applications?

OK, as a change of pace, a quick commentary on JAG. I just happened to be watching TV while I am typing this and caught the end of tonight’s episode. Rabb finally got promoted from Commander to Captain. He was way past due since I think he has been a Commander ever since the series started all of those years ago. (I don’t even remember when the first episode aired, but it could have easily been eight or so years ago.) The new commander of JAG, a Marine, has decided to reassign Mac and Rabb to new jobs. Mac will be transferring to San Diego and Rabb to European Command, staying in London. Next week will be the series finale. A sad day, since JAG was one of the better shows out there. I don’t know how I feel about the teaser for the finale. It appears that Rabb is finally going to propose to Mac. It has been obvious that they have liked each other for a long time. I just don’t like the way that shows always wrap up everything in their last episode. Would it really hurt the viewing public to leave a few loose ends, have some conflicts go unresolved? I would love to see that happen, even if just once. Now I leave you for Numbers, a geek’s dream come true.

Annoyances

You would never think that a wireless internet connection would be the biggest pain in an apartment that is in a hotel-like complex. It has been for me. The access point that I am closest to is not connected to the internet for some reason or another. There are plenty of access points that work just fine, but they have weaker signals than the non-functioning one. To get connected to a working access point, I have to unplug my laptop and carry it out into the hallway, where it can pick up a good signal. Then, I can carry it back into my room. Then I hope that the connection stays strong enough that my laptop will not connect to the bad access point again. My arm is starting to get tired, so I hope that it doesn’t happen again.

In other news, I now know that I have friends. Last time I checked, I have 20 friends. What really surprised me was how many people have invited me to be their friend only a day after I joined the FaceBook community. Thanks.

Spreading my Wings

Guess what? Kettering finally joined FaceBook! I wasted no time in getting a basic entry on there. I’ll flesh it out later. BTW, please, be my friend, because it is lonely to see the friends page empty. (Je n’ai pas d’amis.)

Also, I am searching for a free server where I can try to recreate my web page the way that I had envisioned it from the beginning. I’ll notify you if I decide to move, but it will be a while before I reach that point since I’ll have to learn PHP first. If it does work out, maintenance will be a lot easier for me, and it will result in smaller downloads for you.