Month: July 2004

For the record, I dislike instant messaging. Maybe I’m old school about this, but I don’t like the idea that someone can randomly interrupt what I’m doing while I’m in the middle of typing or doing something intricate on the screen with the mouse. Yes, even if it’s my girlfriend. That’s in addition to random bling noises happening, or even worse, something worse popping up on my screen.

That being said, I tried sending a TV show to P–. I have a TV tuner card installed into my home computer. It’s possible to set the TV tuner to act as the video input for the web cam feature of Yahoo messenger. The hardest part was trying to change the channel — it insisted on setting the channel to public access every time it was activated. I had to start up the TV program to get to the channel switcher, then go back to Yahoo and fiddle with the screen size until the soundtrack kicked in. P– was able to watch Emeril with me.

That with using the included Snapstream (aka “BeyondTV”) software, tv viewing anywhere over the Internet is a reality. The video quality is not so hot – upstream on DSL is not much better than using a modem — but it works.

“Why does Saturn have rings? – And how come Earth has none?” – Slate.com Explainer explains…

The passing of Jeff Smith, a.k.a. The Frugal Gourmet.

According to the NY Times, apparently, there is more green stuff (of the tree-like variety, rather than the toxic) in downtown Manhattan; more parks are good for you, you know. (of course, my understanding is that Bowling Green also has wireless internet connection, but it’s not like I’ve been able to try that there).

Finished Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone last night. Scholastic, the publisher, annoyingly made obvious edits to slightly Americanize what is supposed to be British, so far as I can tell… well, yeah, I read/watch too many British stuff such that I’d notice the changes, but still, I ask why tamper with that? It’s not like American kids can’t figure out the context of the British terminology or wouldn’t still enjoy the work. And, I cannot accept that J.K. Rowling really originally had her British characters calling their mothers “Mom” or soccer “soccer.” Otherwise, nice read. Went fast (of course, I’ve already saw the first movie, so maybe that’s why it went fast as a read). Let’s if I can get through all five books in the series by the end of the summer (not bloody likely, as there mucho other books to read, but we’ll see).

Enjoy the weekend.

Seen on the (same) subway: Hasid with superslick fedora; young woman wearing a Calvin Klein burka. It was black with the CK logo in a subtle midnight black. I had no idea.

Planning meeting today for the picnic. The concept of buying food for 200 is intimidating. Not because it’s 200 people – I’ve done that before. Doing it without a car is a problem.

Finally I can say it. My promotion at work finally came through, so I’m quite happy. I’m managing four people now, so that will be a bit of a challenge; we’ll take it one day at a time.