A few days ago, I was searching the internet for any news on whether or not there was a DVD out there for a show I used to watch called Orleans. This show was only on for about 8 episodes and starred Larry Hagman. Anyway, I found a blog of some guy who was a fan of the show and was lamenting that there were no dvds available. Being the nice, supportive person I am, I posted a comment which said in a nutshell, "Keep the faith, sometimes it does happen. I found a DVD collection of a show that Fox aired around the same time on Ebay." Well, the guy, apparently quite pleased with his defeatest personality, responded, "most of the dvds you see on ebay aren't official." I deleted his response from my email. I figured that if he didn't want someone to be nice to him then I didn't need his negativity tainting my email.

BTW, the dvd I found on Ebay was of the tv show Kindred: The Embraced, and it IS OFFICIAL. Amazon's selling it. The jerk. If people don't want to hear from others, why do they have comment options on their blogs? Anyway, I sent an email to CBS, the people who aired Orleans, and asked them who I would contact to ask for the show to be distributed on DVD. I haven't gotten a response yet, and if I do, I plan to be keeping that to myself. This guy doesn't deserve the info.

I found out that the new Keith Partridge, Leland Grant, has his own website. So, check it out. He's not only cute, but very talented. You should have seen him on the audition shows.

I just checked VH1 and the new Partridge Family show isn't on tonight. Apparently, the programming folks believe we haven't heard enough about Michael Jackson so they are airing the same old tired shows and documentaries that have been shown repeatedly over the last few years. Ugh! We've all heard TOO much about the Jackson family.

Today, I tried to download the IRS tax form I need to file, but I couldn't get it to come up on my pc. I don't know if I need to update acrobat reader or if the IRS just doesn't want me to submit a 1040EZ form though the mail. I know it's cheaper for them if I do it electronically, but I don't like the little kid-like form they make you use for telefile and I never put my personal information online. I will have to remember to try to download the forms at work like I did last year.

Tonight I gave the dogs their over the counter worm medicine. I still had until the 9th before their worm pill ran out, but I figured if the worm pill wasn't doing them any good, then it wouldn't hurt to give them the otc stuff early. Fritz licked his up like it was really delicious. Steffi will never take hers willingly. We had to use the syringe and shoot it down her throat. I'm wearing some of it, but that's ok. The instructions on the box said 5 ml for every 5 pounds of weight. After a bit, Mom and I realized that this means that for every 1 pound, the dog would get 1 ml. I wonder why they would intentionally make you do that much math, when they could have just said, "however much your dog weighs, that's the number of ml you need to give the dog." Maybe they are intentionally inviting a lawsuit for some reason.

Comics Comments

1) I just read that Spoiler is dead! Spoiler is the little girl friend of one of the Robins in the Batman comic books. I think Batman let her be the new Robin when her boyfriend Robin was shipped off to military school or something. I'm getting tired of Batman's Robins dying. They have to stop that.

2) Why does Wil Yun Lee have to play the bad guy???? He was an excellent good guy on the Witchblade tv show, but he was a bad guy in Die Another Day and now he's a bad guy in the Elektra movie. He needs to get better roles and whoever's in charge of the Witchblade tv show needs to issue all those episodes on DVD.

Wonder if this is really fair to Ben Stiller??

Hitting things makes you smarter!!! Guess what I'll be doing at work tomorrow!!

Update: Evil Lona

Last week, I posted some comments about Evil Lona and the stupid adjustment unit. Well, here's the latest. After agreeing to label the case as audited, they changed their minds. They said that because the case was off by a whole $1.26 that I had to do the paperwork to get it fixed because the difference did not come from a variance in interest charged by our computer. The supervisor down there said, "I know it's such a small amount but it needs to be correct." Well, today I had to point out to them that yes, the difference was in fact a result of the interest variance. So, they were wrong AGAIN! And this time when the supervisor down there emailed me and Tony back she said, "It's such a small amount I don't see any reason to debate it any longer." Well of course not. When they tried to make it my mistake, they were all about debating it. But now that they've been proven wrong, it just isn't worth their time to debate it. I really, really, really do not like them. I should take my house money and spend it all on Powerball lottery tickets. Surely with the amount of money I have, I could win the jackpot. Then I could quit.

Review: Young Blades

Well, I watched the first episode. It is a fairly entertaining show. I think it's geared more toward pre-teens and younger audiences, but it was an hour well spent. I was surprised at the amount of suggestive material in the show, considering it's on the Pax channel. Pax promotes itself as good family entertainment and even on their website, there's a "worship" button for the religious folks. I plan to continue watching the show. Hopefully it won't be cancelled early.

Young Blades

Young Blades is a new action/adventure tv show on Pax tv that premieres tonight at 8pm eastern. It is a Mustketeers themed show and looks to be very promising, with actors like Bruce Boxleitner and Michael Ironside signed up.

Partridge Family Version 2.0

I just watched the first episode of the new Partridge Family tv show on VH1. A few months ago they had auditions for the new Danny, Keith, Laurie, and Mom and my mom and I watched them week after week and voted for our favorites. Tonight's episode was pretty funny. French Stewart is the new Reuben Kincade. There's a lot more cussing in this version than the original. The funniest thing about the episode was actually the preview for the next episode. It showed that Danny Bonaducci is Mr. Partridge and that he has a 'life partner'. Hopefully, I will remember to watch this next week. I never watch VH1 so it's very likely that I might forget.

Will wonders never cease? I have actually added a few words to the Manuscript Destiny blog!!! See, I didn't forget about the blog novel. Gotta go. Alias comes on soon.

Ranting time

I have really had it with the adjustment unit. The adjustment unit is a group of people who review my work and keep an error rate on me. These people have not demonstrated an expertise in performing my job duties. They are people who have been hired in off the street with little or no training. So, the very idea of them keeping an error rate on someone who has done the job for 6 years is absurd to say the least. Well, my error rate, for what it's worth considering how many mistakes they make, is under 5% which means I have the nice title of 'released worker'. Theoretically, a released worker does not have their work scrutinized as closely as new workers with higher error rates. And a released worker has the ability to just send an email to the adjustment unit instructing them to label a case as audited, if the case is correct, without having to do a lot of paperwork. Well, today, Evil Lona (name changed to keep people from finding out who I am) sent me an email asking me to send paperwork to her to have a case labeled as audited because other cases involving those customers were being audited and they all have to have the same 'audited as of' date. The case Lona wanted the paperwork on was correct. So, I emailed a supervisor down there to ask why a released worker would have to submit paperwork for a case that is correct. And guess what. I never did get an answer. So, I have to take my concerns to my regional manager tomorrow. Tony sure is a big help - NOT. He didn't even open the email I sent to the supervisor at the adj. unit. Some supervisor he is. The new governor here is talking about reducing the size of government. He can start with the adjustment unit. Someone may have to point him in a certain direction........

WHAT???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boomer is a Cylon on the new Battlestar Galactica show????? How could they???!!!!! First, they turn Starbuck into a girl, then they make Boomer not only a girl, but a cylon! That's stupid! I haven't even seen the new series yet. It starts in about 15 minutes. I'm watching a half hour show called "Battlestar Galactica: Series Lowdown" right now. At least they had Richard Hatch on for an episode. When do we see Dirk Benedict? And Sheba! We need Sheba!!!

Take a few minutes and check out Michael Drayton, Detective Guy. It is a very entertaining story. The characters are very realistic and personable. I look forward to reading more as it's posted.

I don't normally criticize the tv shows I watch regularly. I'm not one of those people who say the writers should have done this or that. But last night's Alias had one moment that was just difficult to buy. Nadia, a trained spy, was told that the villain they were currently chasing was also responsible for killing her mother. Gee, what a coincidence. Not. Jack faked some intel to make it appear as though the villain had killed Irina. What I found difficult to believe was that Nadia would just accept the coincidence of the case they were working on and her mother's killer being tied together. It was so transparent. But, I really think that Nadia knows everything that no one else does about Rambaldi and that she's using everyone. So, I guess I would have to believe that she was playing Jack.

Off topic - I'm watching a golf tournament now. It's the Sony Open in Hawaii and it's a PGA tour event. So, it's a men's event. Interestingly, it looks like they are letting Michelle Wie play. She is a native of Hawaii, so I guess she gets a sponsor's exemption or something. Some of the men on the PGA tour have issues with women being allowed to play with them in the same event. It's one of the few things that disappoint me about the sport. When I first started watching golf, it was a nice, pleasant sport with adults rather than overpaid kids who do nothing but get into trouble with the law. For the most part, golf is still a sport for well mannered adults, but there are some times when some of that spoiled kid attitude creeps in. Not that I'm in favor of combining the LPGA and PGA into one tour and making the men and women play together forever. I think there should be separate tours. But I do think that a few times a year, the two tours should play together. Tennis has Mixed Doubles teams, why not have a couple of golf tournaments a year where men and women can compete against each other?

Discovery of hidden laboratory sheds light on Leonardo's genius

Today was kind of a sucky day at work. You usually don't hear me complain about work much but today was an evil day. The evil adjustment unit just would not quit. I finally had to quit working on audits and do other stuff because I just couldn't stand one more email. So, April and I cleaned Tony's old cubicle for the new worker who starts on Tuesday. We stocked the drawers with office supplies and listed the things she would still need and gave the list to Tony. Oh, and I sort of promised to make peanut butter fudge for Tony and Charlotte for Friday. Along with me and April, Tony and Charlotte have been having a sucky time with the Adjustment unit too so I thought fudge would be good therapy. I, of course, will not be eating any of it since I'm spending time on the treadmill most evenings. Monday and Tuesday I did 1.5 miles each day and over the weekend I did more than 2.5 miles a day on Saturday and Sunday. I'm too lazy to let all that exercise go to waste. Thank goodness for low fat ice cream! After a day like this, I need some.

On the plus side - Alias is on tonight and I found a golf ball in Tony's cube so I told him I was keeping it. It's the closest I'm ever going to get to Fred Couples or Nick Faldo. I did give Tony the $0.11 I found in his old desk.

April will not transfer to P-Burg!!!! There. I just had to write it down because people say if you write down affirmations then they eventually become true. If they had better management in P-Burg, they wouldn't need to steal all our good workers. And if Charlotte happens to mention her little scheme to me, I might just end up telling her that. I'm sure that will go over well.

I've been watching this guy, Kevin Sites, on NBC news for a while now. He's very good. Check out his blog. I've created a permanent link to it over in the Blogs of Note section.

DVD Recorder Report

I think I am now all set with my recorder.

1. I have changed how I had it all hooked up so I can now watch one channel while recording another.
2. It records from TV or Satellite Dish
3. It records from the VCR. I bought a new vcr last night so I wouldn't risk tearing up any more of my tapes.
4. And the DVDs I record in video mode will play in the RCA dvd player we have in the other room. I haven't tried the dvds in my sanyo dvd player yet.

The DVD Recorder I have is a Pioneer DVR-220 purchased from Walmart. It is one of the most recommended recorders by the folks at VideoHelp.com.

Now if only I can keep the cat from jumping up on the dvd recorder. I think I'm going to ship that cat out to Cincinatti in a box as a present for my new nephew Timmy. If I call it a present, then my sister and brother-in-law are bound by rules of present ettiquette to keep the cat and not re-gift it back to us at a later date.

"Doesn't anybody ever stay together anymore"
(brownie point for the person who can tell me what song that quote is from)

#14, 13, 12, 9, and 3 - very funny.

Got this from Doik.net (in the green box)

You scored as Country. Country. Classic Rock. 46% Country 46% Punk and Pop Punk. 46% Emo & More 42% Indie 38% Mainstream 38% Ska 33% Britpop 21% Indie Rock 21% Industrial 8% Hardcore 8% Hip Hop and Rap 0% Music Recommendation created with QuizFarm.com

Don't Believe Everything You See

Tonight on walmart.com I saw a listing for the Season 3 box set of Andromeda for $3.00. No lie - it was $3.00. It was also out of stock. Duh! I think it was a lie. No way could they sell the entire season for $3.00. But if I can trust Walmart at least a little, then hopefully I can buy the box set from them once it is 'in stock'. Of course they would be out of stock now, the box set isn't getting released until Feb. 1st.

Once again Tiger Woods is ruining my golfing experience. I haven't watched much golf in the past few years because of all the sucking up the media has done to Tiger Woods. I, for one, do not see what is so special. So, I found the Mercedes Championship on ESPN tonight and I thought, "hey, I haven't watched this in a while. Let's look at some pretty scenery and learn about the new golfers on the tour." Well, then they started showing Tiger Woods again. Ugh. It's sad when an entire sport is stolen away from you and replaced with one person. The media should do a better job of featuring ALL the players. Golf is more about manners on the course and showing sedate respect for your competitors than it is about one or two players winning the most or making the most money or creating the most controversy.

DVD Recorder Update

I have discovered that the dvd of Alias that I recorded WILL play in our RCA dvd player! Whoohooo!!!!!

While Jeb Bush is touring tsunami damaged Asia, officials in his state have closed down a 10 year old's cookie and drink stand because she didn't have a permit. I guess she's one American the President can't call on to support the relief effort.

I believe this was random. I work with numbers all day and you wouldn't believe how often 666 comes up.

Boston Tea Party relic.

I like Garfield!!!

Check out the Tuesday post about Tom Delay. Apparently the Tsunami happened because all those people weren't Christian enough to please God. Give me a break. I'm so sick of Christian yahoos in control of the US government.

Last night was the first episode of Alias for this season. It was a two hour premiere. A very good episode, great humor and good surprises. Marshall saying that he actually visited Sark in custody a few times, Marshall being recruited for APO, Sydney 'quitting' the CIA, the cute villain, the big shocker that Jack killed Irina because Irina had put out a contract on Sydney's life. They haven't explained why she did that yet, but I'm betting it has to do with the Prophesy about how the Chosen One and the Passenger will fight and one or both will be destroyed. I can't believe Sydney didn't just laugh when presented with a legitimate black ops division of the CIA like SD-6 had been. If I had been her and had gone through everything she had, I would just start laughing at the lunacy of it all. Oh yeah, Sydney's sister said she would never rest until she found the person who killed their mother and killed them. So, at some point Nadia will try to kill Jack, I'm guessing. That should be good. Jack needs more action scenes. I taped this using my new dvd recorder. I don't know if it worked because I haven't checked it yet. But I'm hoping it did. I think I'm going to hook up the dvd recorder a little differently. The way I have it now, I can't watch one channel while recording another. But there is an alternate way of hooking everything up that will let me do that.

First a Princess.........

And Now a King! My sister had her baby last night. We knew it was a boy and they had already named him Timothy Edward. 7 pounds, 12 ounces or so. 19 inches long. I was hoping he would wait until the 8th to make his appearance - that is Elvis Presley's birthday. But little Timmy just couldn't wait. I will still refer to him as "Little King" though (as in Elvis is the King of Rock n Roll). If they can have "Princess" Jasmine (my niece) then Timmy can be a King. Also, as soon as I heard they were naming him Timmy I had a horrible thought, which knowing my niece, will probably come true someday. It starts by remembering the old tv show Lassie, about the collie and her master, Timmy. A running joke, or it might actually have been on the show back in the old days, about that show is that Lassie would come running up to the parents and bark at them whenever Timmy got into trouble. And so one time, Lassie ran up to one of the parents and started barking. The parent said, "What's that Lassie? Timmy's stuck in a well?" Well, when I heard my sister and brother-in-law were naming this one Timmy, all I could think of was Jassie (short for Jasmine) coming up to my sister and telling her what had happened to Timmy: "What's that Jassie? Timmy's stuck in a well? And you pushed him in?" And people think I'm strange for just wanting pets. Hahaha!!!

Really good article about Bush's Social Security Plan.

Why is Jeb Bush not believable when he says he isn't running for Pres in 2008?? Well, some people believed his brother when he said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and had attempted to buy uranium from Africa. Look how that turned out.

I got my DVD recorder today!!! I had no problems hooking it up to everything, which is surprising because usually my dad and I have to have our 'family bonding' moments (that means we yell at each other about how to hook up the machine). So far I know it will record our network channels and our satellite dish channels. I haven't tried copying vhs tapes yet. I figure I'll play with that this weekend. I took an extra day off from work so I can learn how to use this thing. This manual is ridiculously complex. It starts on one subject and then without explaining it all, it tells you to see page such-n-such. That makes it hard to actually learn how to work the recorder. But I'll figure it out. Oh, and I will have to find out if the dvds I make will play in the other dvd players I have. That's important because I don't want to become forcibly brand loyal to Pioneer (the maker of the dvd recorder).

Important lesson of the day: If you have a tooth with a really bad cavity, Twizzlers candy should not be eaten. I am in such pain right now. I have to go brush my teeth.

See what happens when religious zealots are allowed to make and interpret law in this country? Now this woman has to stay married to a wife beater and the real father of the child cannot properly provide for the woman and her child.

Bush is buddies with Mexico's president. Mexico publishes this free guide on how to circumvent US law and illegally enter our country. Another example of Bush thumbing his nose at the law.

What does the US Congress buy on Amazon?

Someone's list of the top 10 War Profiteers for 2004

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Apparently a little thing like the Constitution doesn't get in the way of Bush's warped idea that he can control the whole world.