Month: October 2008

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The SWEETEST Show Ever!

Oh my God… is Pushing Daisies the SWEETEST show of all time or what?

Sadly, the show might not be around for much longer. The “Strike Disease” that’s affecting all of the new shows from last season that were cut off by the strike – Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Dirty Sexy Money, just to name a few – is really affecting Daisies. The show was originally a surprise hit, pulling in better-than-expected numbers for ABC. However, after the writer’s strike, the show simply isn’t gaining traction. Mainstream media like MSNBC are wondering what’s wrong with the show, while ratings blogs like tvbythenumbers are “this close” to putting the show in the “likely to be cancelled” death pool.

Which is a crying shame. There really hasn’t ever been a TV show like Daisies. Yes, it’s like a favorite comfy sweater or pillow… and it almost makes me tear up at least once per episode.

So… enjoy it while you can , folks!

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MS Releases New Patch

Back in 2004, Microsoft made the decision to release all security updates for all of their products on the second Tuesday of each month, a day now known to us IT folk as “Patch Tuesday”.

Occasionally, Microsoft will release an “out of band” or “emergency” patch outside of the “Patch Tuesday” schedule. They do this because the security issue in question is simply too critical to wait until the next Patch Tuesday.

There is a new vulnerability out there that affects the “server” service on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 (both x86 and x64 versions). Microsoft released a new emergency patch for it today. You can read all the technical mumbo-jumbo about it here.

The important thing is that you run Windows Update (or Microsoft Update) on all of your computers ASAP. This exploit looks pretty nasty!

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Mad Men: “The Mountain King”

Wow! Just… wow! After last week’s less than stellar episode, this week’s Mad Men was just… amazing! So let’s get right to it, shall we?

“The Mountain King” begins at the Draper home. Betty yells at the children to clean up their mess. She then goes into Don’s office and endorses his paycheck (which is dated October 11, 1962). She goes to light a cigarette and finds something amiss. Betty gets up and quietly walks around the house… until she finds Sally sneaking a cigarette in the bathroom. Betty locks Sally in the closet as a punishment. Sally threatens to “tell daddy” when he comes home. Betty tells her that she is welcome to do so. From the other side of the locked door, Sally says that Don left “left because you’re stupid and mean”. Sally’s comment cuts Betty to the bone:

We next see Don getting off a bus in San Pedro, a small town around 25 miles south of Los Angeles.

Back at the agency, Ken and Sal sit with Peggy in her “office” trying to think of a way to sell Popsicles year-round. Ken complains about the noise and people constantly coming in and out (the Xerox machine is in Peggy’s office, remember?). Sal complains about the lack of “refreshments”, which causes Peggy to reach in her desk and pull out a bottle of Scotch. While Peggy pours, Sal says that his mom would buy him a Popsicle and break it in half, “like Jesus at the Last Supper”. This gives Peggy a flash of inspiration: everyone breaks Popsicles in half, and that is something you can do year ’round. She compares it to Communion, saying that the breaking of a Popsicle is a Christian behavior, if not a Christian action. Peggy says “and let me tell you something, the Catholic Church knows how to sell things”.

We next see Pete, who is walking back to his office. He asks his secretary Hildy if there are any messages. She says that Burt Peterson called with a question about an expense report… oh, and that Trudy has gotten them an appointment at Spence-Chapin, an adoption agency. Hildy then gives a brief speech about how wonderful it is that Pete’s adopting an unwanted baby. Pete, with clenched jaw, thanks her for the messages.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “The Mountain King””

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The Bobcats’ Road to Nowhere

You know that things are bad for a sports franchise when the local media runs stories about how the owner is not selling the team. From WCNC’s web site:

Bob Johnson said Monday he remains committed to the Charlotte Bobcats, who have struggled to win and attract fans since he paid $300 million for the expansion franchise four years ago.

Johnson laid off nearly 40 employees in the past month to save money, and three top executives have left the organization. But in an interview with The Associated Press, Johnson said he has no intention of unloading the team, and will spend what it takes to get the Bobcats to the playoffs for the first time.

So… the Bobcats recently laid off 40 people, are $4.3 million over the salary cap, hired Larry Brown as their new head coach… and no one in Charlotte cares. Johnson even sold a stake in the team to North Carolina icon Michael Jordan in 2006 and gave him complete control of all personnel decisions (something that Jordan was less than stellar at with the Wizards) and still no one comes to the games.

The Bobcats have run up a stellar .332 record in their brief history, and all the while Bob Johnson has been drowning in red ink, first by charging outrageous prices for Bobcats tickets, then trying (and failing) to start a regional sports network, then pissing off local businesses. Oh, and let’s not forget the now-defunct Charlotte Sting, a WNBA franchise Johnson started that no one in Charlotte even remembers. And now Wachovia, the Bobcats’ biggest financial supporter, is having problems of its own. The team continues losing, and it continues to be one of the worst draws in the NBA (24th out of 30 teams last year).

How much longer can Johnson afford to throw money at a team that no one wants?

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The Audacity of The Episcopal Church

This is absolutely unbelievable. From BabyBlue:

It’s been learned tonight that Bishop Peter James Lee and the Diocese of Virginia have requested that Christ Church Alexandria deed all their church property personally to the Bishop of Virginia.

A congregational vote is scheduled for this Sunday.

According to the current rector of Christ Church, Pierce Klemmt and Senior Warden, Rawles Jones, “the Diocese has asked Christ Church to quitclaim its interest in the property to the Diocese.” In a letter sent to members of the congregation, they write that “The Vestry has considered this course of action and recommends it to the Congregation.”

This church has land records dating back to August 18, 1747 indicating that it was given to the “Vestry of Truro Parish”. Peroid dot – game over. TEC loses, especially given the way TEC has been losing in the good courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia lately. Am I to believe that the Diocese of Virginia is attempting to take over parish churches… before Judge Bellows has even ruled?

The sheer hubris of these people… it’s almost unseemly. Seriously! When, in all the many centuries of Christianity, did a mainstream Christian church ever actively start kicking out orthodox members? Well, I’m sure it’s happened more often than I remember at the moment… but still. I guess it’s because it just seems so silly that it would happen in this day and age. The Episcopal Church is remaking itself as the “Good News Church” of our times. But to do that, they have to get rid of pesky “ummm, there’s rules here” people like me.

So, essentially, the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church is telling me to a) join the Catholic Church (no thanks); or b) join a “Continuing Anglican” church, of which there are exactly two in a 90 mile radius of me, that might be anything from High Church (Yaaa!) to Low Church (and why not just be a Methodist if you’re gonna go that route?); or c) go Orthodox (not a bad option, really… but dammit, why am I being forced to leave my church anyway?; or d) wait for the GAFCON Gang to get the ball rolling. So I’m guessing that I’ll just wait. For now.

So… come join us at your local Episcopal Church. We’re the “Hatfield and McCoys” church. It’s real Alice in Wonderland stuff over here.

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SONGS I LOVE: “16 Candles”

Danielle DaxBack in high school, I was the pretentious twit that had to be “this much more alternative than you”. Remember the first time you heard The Pixies? I was already “done” with them by then. The Replacements? Please – I was into them years ago. The Residents? Yep – been there, done that! Mission of Burma? I’ve already taken my MoB albums back to the store, to trade them in for the “latest and greatest”… except for that one album with the guy wearing the WREK t-shirt on the back – that’s kind of cool.

At any rate, being the “most alternative guy you know” was my badge of “cool” I suppose, pointless though it all was. To keep myself on the cutting edge, I buried myself in a gigantic pile of imported or obscure music magazines, like Melody Maker, NME, Option, and Trouser Press, to name but a few. One of the positives of this was that it really did keep me on the edge for several years. One of the downsides was that magazines don’t actually play music. Before the Internet, you could read about a band in a magazine, and if you wanted to actually hear them, you paid $15 for the LP or CD. Picking a new band using the printed word works well much of the time, but sometimes I’d shell out $18 for an import LP that I really didn’t like.

Such was the case with Danielle Dax. Her 1987 album Inky Bloaters came highly recommended from several indie mags, so I shelled out the $21 for the import CD… only to hate it. But it’s not a “New York Yankees” kind of hate. It’s more of a “Vegemite hate”, in that I’ll still go back to it every so often and think “oh, it couldn’t possibly have been that bad…”. But after ten minutes with Danielle Dax (or biting in to a thick layer of Vegemite on toast), it just wasn’t meant to be… until now.

I stumbled across this song from Blast The Human Flower, her only major label recording. It’s the last song on the disc, and probably a throw-away track… but it’s somehow cool. Have a listen:

[audio:16_candles.mp3]

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Facebook and my site are one!

OK, so… as I mentioned a few days ago, I recently signed up with Facebook after being “MySpace Only” for the past couple of years. One of the cool things about Facebook is that you can add an RSS feed to the “Notes” section of your profile. So I could use this site’s RSS feed to automatically “copy” entries I make here into my Facebook account. People that have no idea I even have a site would be able to read anything I post here.

Neat, huh? And that’s exactly what I did. If you’re my friend on Facebook, look for posts from this site as new Notes in my profile. If you have no idea what any of that means, don’t worry: it’s not for you. Also, for some reason, Facebook’s RSS importer kind of sucks, so you might see gibberish characters in Facebook when I post something here that looks perfectly normal.