So no one has to ask.

In the two weeks of Christmas, these things happened

1) I got a 5% pay cut. Lost my 401K Matching. No bonus this year. NO raises this year.

2) My furnace died, which lead to my pipes freezing and breaking. I no longer have ceilings in a fourth of my home. My bed was destroyed as well as my uber remote and some other stuff.

3) While picking up the keys to my friends loft she is loaning me, a guy who just got off of working third shift, fell asleep at the wheel and rear ended my car. My car is most likely totaled.

Essentially I am thankful for my amazing friends who helped me through all of this bullshit, and kept me sane and drunk. Pat yourselves on the back. Now if we can NEVER talk about this again, that would be great.

A Nice Suprise

The other day I called Comcast trying to figure out if I would get the MLB network for free or if I was going to be forced to upgrade to some sort of sports package. They were not in the least bit helpful, and the women on the other end of the line had no clue what the MLB network was. I resigned myself to just have to wait till January 1 2009 to see what was going to happen.

Well, yesterday I am sitting at home flipping through the channels, and I notice that the channel space for the MLB network is already showing up. On a whim I decided to see if it was showing any info about what I would need to do to get the channel.

Low and behold they are already showing content, and the only commercials, are the ones for the network*. The first thing I see is about 2005 White Sox winning the world series. Now, this a slightly painful memory because the White Sox swept an injury depleted Red Sox team in the ALDS, but I was just happy to have baseball content. Well I watch a bit of this video, and head out for the night.

Well guess what's on when I get home? That's right kids, video about the 2004 Boston Red Sox. It was glorious moment. I watched the whole thing, and loved every minute. It was like a family reunion in some ways. I loved all of it.**

The long and the short is that I am very excited for the MLB network to kick of in earnest.


*sadly it's the same commercial over and over again, but whatever.

** Doug would have felt differently about this video

FYI

The Pedro The Lion song, "The Poison" is brilliant.

Gateway Tire and Battery

I am not a very picky person when it comes to customer service. I don't yell at sells people. I almost never get mad at servers who screw up my order, no matter how egregious the error may be. I am pretty laid back about this type of stuff. However, the fine folks at Gateway Tire and Battery have earned my scorn.

Never mind, their horrid web design, which while not as bad as The Baseball Writers Of America's website, is pretty terrible. The people at Gateway Tire, decided to do one of the worst repair jobs ever. They did not hook up my air filter back to the engine, and the broke the fuel injection throttle control. Good work guys. Epic Fail.

Quick note on the media

I was checking out the ESPN and there is a cartoon showing a red sox fan being very upset by the fact that the yankee's got CC Sabathia. Here's the thing, I don't know of a single Red Sox fan who is upset about the contract. I completely agree with Keith Law about how the contract shook out. It's a total downside play for the Yankee's. If he's healthy and good, there is no way he doesn't opt out, and if he isn't why would he leave? It makes no sense at all. I am totally fine with the contract, and I honestly believe that the Yankee's are quietly hoping that he opts out, and I bet my good friend Doug* agree's.


*update your damn blog

JBuilder 2007

I can't say this strongly enough, JBuilder 2007 is a completly and utter piece of crap. I know none of you code, and that's cool, but just know that I HATE JBuilder 2007.

XKCD is better then you

I do not enjoy when things hit this close to home.

A lesson learned over and over again

Drinking mid week is a horrible idea, and yet I continue to do it...

The Photos

My photo webserver is down. It should be up around 4:30 cst.

that is all.

Apropos of something

Maybe I am just one of those true believers, who refuses to give up on the dreams of youth, but I have yet to give up on melody.

I am an absentee father

Ok, not really, but still I have been slacking. I have had a few thoughts (and I will get to those later today I hope), but I just wanted to address something that was bothering me while I was watching TV this weekend. Can announcers and TV shows please stop saying "This broadcast is also available in STUNNING hi-def."

Don't we all basically assume it's being offered in hi-def, and that the only reason we are not watching in hi-def is that our provider* doesn't offer the channel or we simply don't have hi-def? Maybe I am crazy, but hi-def has been around long enough now, that I think we can stop pretending that it's ground breaking technology. I promise, that anyone who has hi-def checks their hi-def channels before they check all others.


*Though I hate hi-def channels that don't show stuff in hi-def. I am looking at you ABC family channel.