Thursday, February 24, 2005

Fortified by a bowl of Froot Loops (with marshmallows!), armed with a large glass of Vanilla Diet Coke, cell phone at hand, dogs at my feet, and Holly over at the neighbor’s, I am now ready to begin this day of telecommuting.

First up: entering the file folder label data into the template. We’re talking hundreds of files here. Oy…

UPDATE (11:00am): I don’t think I brought home enough folders. Oops.

I’m making good progess though. Me likey working at home.

Here’s what we’ve got so far.

EVEN LATER (2:10pm): So the feds are closing early. I can’t tell you how happy I am not to have to face that commute home. My poor roomie has to stay for the full day since she’s considered “essential.”

It’s been a while since I’ve talked TV. So here’s a round-up of random thoughts I have on recently viewed television.

1. Alias - I’m getting a bit meh about this season. Bringing back Anna and Sark didn’t excite me as it may have others. New villians would be more interesting. Also the continued venomous animosity of Sydney for Sloan is wearing thin. Hate gets old.

2. LOST - still one of the best shows this season. I missed the first five minutes of last night’s episode, but I have it Season Passed on Tivo and just watched it. Those first minutes make the last five minutes even sadder than they were last night.

3. CSI - this is one of the freakiest shows, but I love it. ECD, not a TV viewer until I moved in, hadn’t seen it before. She’s seen parts of a few episodes and they’ve all been the ones with the freaks - vampires, swingers, grown men in diapers, etc. “I’m not sure I like this show,” she said after one episode. I had to reassure her that those are not the usual episodes. Every week I pray for the bus over the cliff type of episode so that she can see that it’s not all about the freakshow.

Meanwhile, my parents have jumped onto the CSI bandwagon and like the show despite the freak shows. We all agree that what we appreciate is that while they show the seedier side of our society, they always show that there’s a consequence to one’s actions. There aren’t many shows on TV with a moral at the end.

4. TAR7 - I really can’t believe that the next season of The Amazing Race starts next Tuesday. I’m not doing the game this season, nor am I playing. If you’re interested in a game, see here. I will take notes on all episodes and post my thoughts as I have done for the past couple of seasons - so tune in every Wednesday and be prepared to share your thoughts as well.

I’m also watching 24, American Idol, Survivor (and participating in a quiz game for that as well - after the first ep, I came in 6th overall, which was hilarious to me. I’ll drop quickly now), Celebrity Poker Showdown, and Cold Case on a regular basis. CPS gets Tivo’d in the wee hours of the morning and I’m behind on my viewing - I plan to catch up on that today while I work. That’s a show that I can passively “watch” while doing other things. I like to listen to the banter around the poker table.

LATER: Jay reminded me about House in the comments. House is on at the same time as TAR. Given that I was running a TAR game, House was relegated to the back burner. That said, I’ve been recording the season of House on my VCR and plan to start watching it sometime soon. I did see this week’s episode and a few earlier episodes and I like the show a lot.

LATERER: I also forgot to mention Numb3rs. I Tivo this one and usually watch it over the weekend. I like it. I know the math is sketchy - it’s TV math. It’s like TV spies and forensics.  I suspend my disbelief just enough to enjoy the show. I like the way the father and brothers are portrayed - deeply loving of one another.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

... of the telecommuting waters.

The weather forecast for tomorrow in our region is for snow - 100% chance of 3-6”, which isn’t a lot. However, it is enough that DC roads will become much like the bumper cars at the beach and I try to avoid that. People around here forget the rules of the road when the white stuff falls from the sky.

Since I live about 40 miles from the office and already got positive feedback on the idea of telecommuting, I broached the subject with my boss today. I don’t relish the idea of driving in only to be sent home in the snowstorm midday. He was very amenable to the idea. Woo!

So I’ve got a box of filing that has piled up for the past couple of years (yes, years ... it’s a specific type of paperwork that I’m in all the time, so I haven’t been pressed to file it). I estimate that will take up the bulk of my day tomorrow since I need to create the case files, labels, and stuff the folders. Doing it at home will be great because I’ll be able to spread the papers out, which is hard to do here in my little office. And I have a drawer all ready for the folders when I bring them back on Friday.

I’m excited about my first day of telecommuting. It’ll be nice to be able to start work early without having to battle traffic first.

My parents and I found our new church through their website. We thought it looked good and conveyed the information we sought.

Thinkling Shrode Rob T. asked for samples of good church websites because his church is ready to update their site. I posted the link to my church and just went back to the comment thread to find that someone had recommended the Heal Your Church Website blog. I’ve been meaning to check that out for a while, but never got around to it. But I clicked over today.

Scrolling down a bit, I found this post about McLean Bible Church’s website. The opener made me laugh out loud (it’s a great parody of the real thing). Go take a look, I’ll wait.

MBC is a rather respected church in the local area and it’s seen some remarkable growth in the last 10 years. I jokingly call it Willow East because they have close ties to Willow Creek in Chicago. But I attended church for a short time at MBC back when they had moved into their last “new” building in McLean. Their pastor is the real deal and has a heart for reaching this area with the Gospel. And I have friends who are members. For a while I considered going back when I left my old church, but I wasn’t really interested in a mega-church and the Lord led me to FCC instead.

I have to agree with MeanDean of HYCW that it’s not necessarily seeker-friendly to imply that users are lame because they don’t have Flash installed or pretty much demand that the user install it even though if they scroll down a tad they’ll see the content they were hunting down anyway.

bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Courtesy: Jon

Sometime in the early morning, my stats counter rolled over 100,000 visitors. I have no clue whom it was, but I wanted to take the time to thank my loyal regular readers. Somehow, two and a half years ago, I never imagined that I’d still be blogging this long and that I would have made so many good, blog-friends. Thanks to those who’ve provided invaluable technical support - you know who you are - I greatly appreciate your aid. Thanks, also, to the folks who comment (and often!). I value your feedback, whether you’ve agreed with me or not.  Thanks for the challenges, encouragement, laughter, and fun.

My mother gave me a page-a-day calendar of Bushisms for Christmas. So far there have been amusing quotes, but nothing blog-worthy. However, Friday’s quote is hilarious.

“Arbolist ... look up the word. I don’t know; maybe I made it up. Anyway, it’s an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees. As quoted in USA Today, August 21, 2001

Heh. This is what I love about President Bush - who hasn’t made up a word on occasion?

This may be the start of a whole new category. We’ll see if I get others that are funny enough to share.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

This article from National Review is a pretty good assessment of 24, which I believe is one of the best dramas on TV today. One line in the column stuck with me today:

As in previous years, terrorism is the basic plot line — this time with an Arab-American family at the center, a plot decision that has earned the show a rebuke from the Council on American Islamic Relations. (In response, Fox has run a public-service message from Sutherland urging viewers to keep in mind, as they watch 24, that the Muslim-American community stands with America in its opposition to terror.)

The emphasis is mine. Read that again.

Now, read this:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — An American citizen was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and with supporting Al Qaeda (search).

If convicted of all the charges, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (search), 23, faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison.

Abu Ali, a former Virginia high school valedictorian, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

[...]

An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Alexandria on Feb. 3 was unsealed Tuesday. There are 10 alleged co-conspirators in the indictment.

Abu Ali faces six counts: conspiracy to provide material support and resources to Al Qaeda; providing material support to Al Qaeda; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; providing material support to terrorists; contribution of services to Al Qaeda; and receipt of funds and services from Al Qaeda.

The federal indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified co-conspirator discussed plans for Abu Ali to assassinate Bush. They discussed two scenarios, the indictment said: one in which Abu Ali “would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street” and, alternatively, “an operation in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb.”

Again, the emphasis is mine.

Sadly, it’s stupid to assume that all American citizens are on board with our fight against Islamic terrorism. Clearly, that’s not the case. And for Fox to kowtow to CAIR’s complaints is a waste of time. Are they going to apologize to the Bush family and the American people for this Abu Ali’s alleged assassination plot? I don’t think so.

National Review article, courtesy: Cam Edwards

PSA: Thinklings.org is working again.

Nothing irks me more than for some atheistic blowhard to proclaim that Christianity is just a fairy tale and those who believe that Jesus is the son of God are merely clutching a hold on their childhood.

Christopher Hitchens* can kiss my childish rear end.

*Hitchens was just interviewed on Joe Scarborough’s radio show.

And Bill Maher, too, for that matter.

LATER: I realized that my inviting Hitchens and Maher to kiss my rear end probably isn’t the most loving Christian attitude, huh? Heh.

However ...

... they can kiss my rear end. I’m ticked.

There’s a large cluster of media in front of the courthouse. That usually indicates something potentially big is happening upstairs.

LATER: News link here.

Monday, February 21, 2005

As a favor to my blog buddies, I thought I’d pass on that The Thinklings crew are having some technical difficulties. They have the blog on .org and .com and for now the .com link works. So until further notice, click The Thinklings for the main blog and click Mysterium Tremendum for Jared’s blog.

I’ll update again when they have the .org blog working again.

In the meantime, Bill/Jared - I’m impressed with pMachine’s hosting service so far. Tech support is very responsive, the price is reasonable, and they speak blog.

I have a Gmail account that I’m barely using, but I have 50 invites available. Anybody want one? You have to post a comment with a real email address to which I can send the invitation.

Jamie Foxx will win the Best Actor Oscar™ for his portrayal of Ray Charles.

I fully expected that word of his portrayal had been exaggerated. But we were only about 15-20 minutes into the movie when I forgot that I wasn’t watching Ray himself. Really, Foxx is quite astounding and must have studied hours of film and video of Ray. I do know that he was able to meet with Ray while they were filming - that had to have helped him as well.

If Foxx doesn’t win (and Leo does for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator) then Leo must have been much, much better. But I have a hard time believing that.

Overall, the movie was pretty good. Actually, the movie showed Ray for the musical genius that he was but didn’t ignore his personal demons. Not did it glorify them or use them to explain away his bad behavior. He was a junkie and womanizer and a terrible husband, but he was magnetic and brilliant and driven and willing to work hard to succeed. I’m not a fan of jazz, but there wasn’t a wrong note that ever came from Ray’s fingertips or mouth when he was on stage or in the studio. He was a true pioneer and managed to cross many genres and blend them to make them meld to his own unique style. But the movie itself was kind of long and dragged in places.

I appreciated that the movie honored his mother well. She was a remarkable woman.

I highly recommend this movie with 4 out of 5 stars.