I said yesterday that we were going to do this and tonight we made it official.
“American Idol” is no longer on our TiVo. It has become entirely too mean spirited. We will no longer waste brain cells, electrons, bits or bytes on this program.
Buh-bye.
When I’m folding laundry I enjoy turning on the television to make the time pass a little quicker. Can someone please explain to me that while we have over 400 channels in a wide selection of languages, why can’t we have a 24/7 classic sitcom channel? “TV Land” doesn’t fit the bill anymore, since they show lots of Gunsmoke, Bonanza (which does fill the woof requirements with Pernell Roberts) and the A-Team, but gosh I want to see more Green Acres, The Munsters and Leave It To Beaver. What happened to “Our Miss Brooks”? If we can have a channel dedicated to documentaries, we certainly can have a channel dedicated to classic sitcoms.
I’m just saying. Tinka-tinka-tee, me. Please.
Well now it’s looking like January. We’re under a Lake Effect Snow Warning through tomorrow night. I’ve heard expected snow accumulation of anywhere from one inch to at least a foot. Only Mother Nature knows, so I figure why worry about it. We’ve got a snowblower, I’m capable of running it, and we like being snuggled up in the house, so what’s there to worry about. Hell, we’ve even got powdered milk that we can mix with snow if things get really tough.
Since I’m a relatively smart cub, I have today and every Friday off from school. I’m using the time to catch up on my assignments, catch up on laundry and clean the house from top to bottom.
Yeah, right.
I stopped in at my old office and gave them a loaf of raisin bread to share and then I’ve been working on websites and doing road geek things all day. I am doing laundry too, but that doesn’t really require a lot of effort. I do think that I’ll have to get up and chase the guts of the washing machine down the hallway some time soon because those bearings that have been making noise for the past four months or so are getting really, really loud. Let’s all say a prayer to Mother Downy Tide that we don’t have to buy a new washer for a while, because fixing this beast is more expensive than buying a new one.
Tonight we are scheduled to go to Syracuse for dinner with my sister. I think we’ll brave the storm and go unless it gets too out of control on the Thruway. After all, that’s why four-wheel drive was invented.
Earl and I have decided that we are not going to watch “American Idol” for a while. I was fully prepared to jump onto this latest season in full snark mode, but last night’s auditions in Seattle were just too mean spirited. The judges were pretty mean spirited on Tuesday, last night they were just downright mean. We weren’t entertained at all.
Now I don’t consider Earl and I to be ultra politically correct guys. Once in a while we may snicker privately when we shouldn’t or we may tell a joke that’s a little rude. However, we know the limits of good taste and last night a line crossed. The three judges on American Idol hit a new low. Three people “in the business” really have no business making fun of a contestant’s physical apperance by calling him a monkey. Paula Abdul, regardless of her state of inebriation, should not cheer a contestant on when they’re in the room and then laugh uproariously when they’ve left. That was just humiliating for all involved. The judges and the producers should be ashamed of themselves.
We’re not watching the rest of the audition process. We may boycott the rest of the season. It’s just become too mean.
This picture is of our local Price Chopper grocery store. They are rebuilding it from top to bottom and keeping it open at the same time. It makes for quite an adventure for a number of reasons, including the fact that nothing is in the same place two days in a row, the checkout lanes are scattered all over the place, some of the aisles are half a cart-width wide and most importantly, there’s a lot of prime beefcake in the way of construction men to be found in just about every nook and cranny. In fact, I tried to sneak a picture of the guy sticking his head out of ventilator shaft, but then I found myself almost being run over by a fork-truck, so I decided not to risk the venture.
When all is said and done, our Price Chopper will be as close to a Wegmans as the area will allow. This being our closest grocery store, it’s still almost eight miles from the house. I really wish that we had a store closer to us and I have begged Wegmans to build in our area on several occasions, but they’re not coming this far east. I’d even be happy with a Wal*Mart Neighborhood Market.
When I got home from class today I noticed that our contractor had put the sheetrock up in two of the four rooms we’re having built in our basement. It’s very exciting to see this sort of progress. I’ve been pulling wire through the studs for the past couple of nights, when all is said and done each room with have three-line phone jacks, internet/network access and a clock from my school clock collection properly flush mounted against the wall. Even the storeroom.
Earl has big plans for the workout room, including a set of lockers he has leftover from work to store our stuff in. It’s great to see the project coming together. We’re really happy with the work.
I can’t wait to move our offices, the music studio and everything downstairs.
Well today was the first day of my “Introduction to Mathematics” class. This is the non-credit course I have to take because I didn’t achieve a high enough score on my two attempts at the college pre-placement exam. I commonly refer to it as “Math for Dummies.”
This course probably has the most eclectic assortment of people in it. They’re from all walks of life and of all ages. I’ve made it through four of my five courses so far and I have yet to be the oldest. I’m feeling like one of the cool kids, as I had to share my book with another and he complimented me on my handwriting. At least he didn’t say that I write like a girl (Earl always says that). I’m now even tempted to wear my jeans all saggy with my butt crack showing. On the other hand, that may be more frightening than I need to be as I probably have a little more hair there than my peers.
One thing that I’m adjusting to is the presence of cell-phones in the classroom. Up until today it hasn’t been too bad, but because this math course is basically a lab, people were starting to take or make phone calls (that sounded like a lot monosyllabic words and a mixture of grunts) before being scolded by the professor (who, by the way, is an adorable geek about my age).
The course is self-paced and I’ve decided to take it nice and slow. I need a good, solid foundation of mathematics for the rest of my courses and since I have to take this course, I might as well do the best I can, take my time and get the highest score possible. It’ll pay off in the long run.
“The Doomsday Clock” has just been brought closer to midnight per an article in USA Today. The new time of five minutes before midnight (armageddon) is reminiscent of the days after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I find this to be a little frightening.
From The Bulletin:
IT IS 5 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
2007
The world stands at the brink of a second nuclear age. The United States and Russia remain ready to stage a nuclear attack within minutes, North Korea conducts a nuclear test, and many in the international community worry that Iran plans to acquire the Bomb. Climate change also presents a dire challenge to humanity. Damage to ecosystems is already taking place; flooding, destructive storms, increased drought, and polar ice melt are causing loss of life and property.
Always looking for the irony, there’s an episode of Wonder Woman where Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark come back from the future, and one of them mentions that there were considerable changes in government after “the nuclear holocaust”, which took place in 2007. Now I’m not basing what lies ahead on an episode of Wonder Woman, but it does make you take pause for a moment.
Between North Korea, the mess in Iraq and now the heating up of activity in Iran, this may be turn out to be quite the year for the history books. I hope we can find a peaceful solution all around.
I’ve been going on about global warming and how much like spring the weather has been here in the middle of January. Well, as they say, “it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature”. This morning we awoke to a glorious, beautiful sunny day.
However, it’s currently -1ºF. I wish it was -1ºC, now that wouldn’t be so bad. This cold weather makes navigating the campus interesting and forces me to wear my dorky hat out in public. It looks like it’s going to be in the mid 30s by the end of the week though, so that won’t be so bad.
Well I’m officially back in school and have survived my first class. On this morning’s agenda was “Introduction to Sociology”. It’s a required course for all college students in New York State and I must say that I think I’m going to enjoy this course. There’s only four exams and one paper plus a lot of reading. It’s a large class with 75 students and is held in a lecture hall. It’s funny, I hadn’t even considered the fact that I would be sitting in a large lecture hall for any of my courses, for some reason I pictured them all in smaller traditional classroom. Oh well, I don’t mind this approach at all.
And I’m not the oldest person in the class. Yay!
I was a little nervous walking into the hall and I remembered not to be an annoying adult type and sit front and center. That’s not my style. But I did raise my hand and answer a couple of questions today which now that I look back at it I think I found a little startling. I could just hear all the psychic thoughts in the room, “Who’s this guy with the bald head and bushy moustache and what is he doing here?” That could have been paranoia instead of psi powers though. I did blush a little bit but I got over it quickly.
Tuesday is my busiest school day as tonight I have five hours of Civil Engineering/Drafting. I’m trying to decide if I need to eat supper before I get to class at 5 p.m. or afterwards at 10 p.m.
Is it safe to eat at Taco Bell yet?
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!
