I just thought this was cute:
Friday Fun: A cartoon!
I just thought this was cute:
Worth Watching: Paradox
If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of British TV. I’ve recently stumbled across a show I think my readers might enjoy: Paradox
The gist of the show is this: a satellite (privately owned by a British defense contractor very closely aligned with the Ministry of Defence) suddenly, out of the blue, begins receiving pictures… from the future. The pictures come in batches of eight or perhaps twelve. They’re usually grainy or out of focus, and are of some minute detail, like the partial serial number of a manhole cover, or a small section of a roadway sign. It’s up to a special group of Manchester cops – led by DI Rebecca Flint (Tamzin Outhwaite, of Hotel Babylon, The Fixer, and “sexy, sexy voice” fame) to figure out the clues and stop a crime – or disaster – from happening.
Happy Birthday, Simpsons!
On a happier note, The Simpsons debuted as a stand-alone show on this day twenty years ago. Originally a series of shorts on Fox’s Tracey Ullman Show, the iconic cartoon first appeared in its current form in a Christmas special that aired on December 17, 1989. Now that makes me feel old!
R.I.P. Chris Henry
Like any other red-blooded Steelers fan, I hate the Cincinnati Bengals. However, I’ll take a pause from that hate to mourn with the team for wide receiver Chris Henry, who died this morning after a bizarre accident here in Charlotte.
It seems that Henry got into an argument with his fiancee, and the woman tried to leave in a pickup truck. Henry then jumped into the bed of the truck as she sped away, only to fall out a short while later, suffering severe injuries. According to a spokesperson for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, Henry died at 6:36 a.m. Thursday morning. He was 26.
Henry was one of the most troubled players in the NFL, with a history of off-field troubles that reaches back to his college days at West Virginia, where he was ejected from one game and suspended for another by coach Rich Rodriguez, who called him an “embarrassment” to the team. In 2005, Henry was arrested for marijuana possession early in the season and a gun charge after the Bengals lost to the Steelers in the playoffs. In 2007, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Henry for half a season for violating the league’s conduct policy. After his fifth arrest in that same year, he was released by the Bengals, only to be given a second change with the team in 2008.
Henry had decent seasons in 2008 and 2009, but broke his forearm in a game against the Baltimore Ravens on November 8th.
He was in town visiting his fiancee’s parents, who live in the Queen City.
Who’s That Girl?
This is a United States $1,000 silver certificate from 1891:
The woman on the left of the note might seem unremarkable, little different from any of the other allegorical depictions of “Liberty” or “Columbia” often seen on American currency at the time. I can assure you, however, that this woman is different.
To ask who she is is to scratch the seedy underbelly of America’s Gilded Age.
* * *
Her name was Josie Mansfield. She was born either in Boston in 1842 or California in 1853; coin collecting sites mention the former, while original sources state the latter. One way or another, she became an actress and showgirl in San Francisco in her teens.
Like a lot of actresses at the time, Josie had trouble making ends meet. Many less famous actresses resorted to prostitution to earn extra cash, but Josie was different. Her stunning good looks and bubbly personality led to her becoming a “courtesan” for San Francisco’s elite. She eventually married fellow actor James Lawler, and within months she convinced him to move from San Francisco to New York.
The Quotable Gene Hunt
Gene Hunt, the Detective Chief Inspector from Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes is, to put it bluntly, the best cop in the history of television. Yes, he’s better than Joe Friday. Better than Kojak. Better than Steve McGarrett. Better than Andy Sipowicz. Better than Columbo. Better than Tony Baretta. Better than the entire cast of The Wire. To paraphrase Lady Caroline Lamb, he’s mad, bad and dangerous to know. But he’s also really funny, too.
Here are bunch of his one-liners, starting with the first thing he ever said to Sam Tyler, the protagonist from Life On Mars:
Gene Hunt: They reckon you’ve got concussion – I couldn’t give a tart’s furry cup if ‘alf your brains are falling out. Don’t ever waltz into my kingdom acting king of the jungle.
Sam Tyler: Who the hell are you?
Gene Hunt: Gene Hunt. Your DCI. And it’s 1973. Almost dinner time. I’m ‘aving ‘oops.
“You are surrounded by armed bastards!”
“You great… soft… sissy… girlie… nancy… French… bender… Man United supporting POOF!”
“He’s got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course.”
“I think she’s as fake as a tranny’s fanny.”
“She’s as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.”
“Drugs, eh? What’s the point? They make you forget, make you talk funny, make you see things that aren’t there. My old grandma got all of that for free when she had a stroke.”
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-13
- "Hello liver damage, I've been expecting you." #
- Have fun in Shreveport, Dawg fans! #
- The BBC "Sound of 2010" list is out! http://ping.fm/hfrpE #
- "… starring AJ Hawk and Chris Tucker!" #
- "Agents: Woman sold moonshine at day care" http://ping.fm/Fcr5k #
- I'll ask again: if anyone has a copy of the song "Minutes in a Day" by 86 in mp3 format, I'd love to have a copy! Thanks! #
- Holy crap! I found it! http://ping.fm/xt8ZL #
- WOOOO-HOOOOO! I *finally* found the 86 ep! #
- GO NAVY! BEAT ARMY! #
- Take that, grunts! Navy wins again! #
- Nobody rocks The Scorpions like Veronika! #
- I fought the law… and *I* won! #
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SONGS I LOVE: “Minutes in a Day”
I sometimes wonder how much great music there is out there that will one day be lost forever.
You’ve probably heard about the thousands of movies slowly turning into dust in film vaults. Likewise, there must be millions of great albums, singles and cassettes released by bands that either existed before CDs, or who just weren’t popular enough to make the leap to CD – and thus, easy ripping to mp3 or other digital formats.
As turntables and cassette players continue their march towards obsolescence, people don’t know what to do with their old vinyl and tapes, and eventually just give or throw them away. And then there are people like me, who continue to hold on to their vinyl in hopes of one day converting it to digital format, but just can’t get around to it. Either way it’s a shame.
Take the Atlanta band 86 for example. One day I was at the Book Nook, an iconic used book and record store in the city, when I stumbled across their EP Minutes in a Day. I bought it and took it home for a listen. Most of the EP is just OK, but I quickly fell in love with the title track. The desolation of the opening made it my perfect “drive home song”. When I listen to it I think of driving home on almost empty interstates at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, and the eerie stillness of everything at that hour. And it makes me smile.
I searched high and low on the Internet for the EP for years, but never had much luck. Given that the band broke up in the early 90s and didn’t have much of a following outside Atlanta, I didn’t have much hope of their music ever turning up on iTunes or at Amazon’s mp3 store. However, thanks to a “magic Google search” yesterday, I was finally able to snag a copy in mp3 format from a music blog. So now I can share it with you!
Have a listen and tell me what you think:
[audio:86.mp3]
Outlook: Filtering for Read Messages
Microsoft Outlook makes it easy to filter for unread email messages and posts. In fact, the default view in Outlook 2007 is unread messages. However, Outlook makes it a bit more difficult to filter only read messages. There’s no built-in way to have Outlook display only read messages in a folder.
My favorite feature of Outlook 2007 is the built-in RSS reader. I use it to subscribe to at least three dozen different feeds. However, because some posts in some feeds interest me more than others, each feed’s folder oftentimes is a jumble of read and unread posts. De-cluttering the folder by deleting or moving the read posts would certainly make my life easier, but there’s no easy way to do it.
Or is there?
To have Outlook display only read posts in a folder, do the following:
1) If you don’t already have the “Advanced” toolbar displayed, do so by clicking on View > Toolbars > Advanced.
2) Click the “filter” drop-down box and choose “Define Views”:
3) In the window that opens, click “New” and then type a short name for your new filter (I recommend “Read messages”). Leave the “Type of View” at “Table” and then click the “All Mail and Post folders” (unless you only want to use this view on a single folder). Click “OK”.
4) In the next window, click the “Filter” button, then click the “More choices” tab. Check the “only items that are” button and choose “read” from the drop-down box. Click “OK” several times to accept the settings.
5) Click the filter drop-down box and choose “Read Messages” (or whatever name you chose in step 3) to filter only read messages.
If you don’t want to have the Advanced toolbar appearing all the time, go to View > Toolbars and uncheck the Advanced toolbar, then right-click the main toolbar and choose “Customize”. Click on View in the left column and scroll until you see “Current View” and drag it to your main toolbar: presto! You have only the “Current View” applet and none of the other bits of the Advanced toolbar!
Those Eyes, That Mouth
Sure, it was the name of a Cocteau Twins song… but it could also apply to Kat Dennings:
Aside from being incredibly cute, she’s also one of the coolest actresses around (seriously: check out her blog or Twitter feed). She’s funny, kind of nerdy and doesn’t know how pretty she really is (that last part sounds like a girl I know!). As a bonus, she’s going with the pale skin, which is kind of cool in a world of “Hollywood orange”.