Just over there
Well, I don’t quite qualify for AARP yet but I think I’m ready for a mid-life crisis.
Now I just need to win the lottery so I can afford all the trappings. (I think I’m supposed to go out and buy a $200K car? And get a posse of sexy young things half my age to spend all my (non-existent) money? And go find a beach somewhere?)
If one were to believe the Travel Channel and FoodTV channel (US Cable), every restaurant in the US has some speciality that leads to over eating in some eating “challenge”. Usually eat it all (whatever “it” is) and it’s free!
“It fills you up!”
Largest burger in the world ? There’s one of those in every state (Usually a 6-10lb burger. With toppings)
Hottest chicken wings in the US? Every large college town seems to have one of those now.
Largest burrito/taco? Must be one in every state in the Southwest US.
Biggest steak? We’ve got ‘em out there also.
Biggest bowl of Soup X? That too.
Desserts? Those also.
The things that bug me about this? Besides there being a tv show devoted to this idea?
The peasants/people who appear on these tv shows, trying to eat a week’s worth of food (a month’s worth if you’re a farmer in China) in an hour? They seem so proud of their gluttony (That’s a Biblical/Classical term for the non-Christians out there.). They don’t seem to care how foolish they look stuffing their faces on camera.
Somehow, each show devoted to this topic always, always ends up in some college town where a bunch of frat-boy-esque students try to prove their testosterone level by eating as many extremely hot (in a jalapeno kind of way.) chicken wings as they can stand. (Or something else equally inedible.) With their “friends” cheering them on. It isn’t pretty.
I guess it could be worse. They could have contests to see who can drink the most $1,000 bottles of scotch in one sitting.
Can you tell I don’t find conspicuous consumption like this (or any) endearing?
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet in all the iPad uproar is the different media distribution models used by Apple for their media devices (ie. iPods, iPhones, and Macs) versus Amazon’s with the Kindle.
If I buy a book from Amazon for “my” Kindle, AFAIK, that book is licensed to run on THAT Kindle. My book. My Kindle. My Amazon Kindle account. (There’s an iPhone Kindle app but it is still tied to MY iPhone, and MY Amazon-Kindle account. Amazon assumes that I’m the person using both and that I don’t use them at the same time — I believe it tracks usage somewhere in the Amazon ‘cloud’ so that the current page in a Kindle book is also the current page in the Kindle app.)
So… 1 person. 1 copy. If someone else in your house has a kindle, they have to pay for their books separately.
Now let’s look at how Apple does media on the iTunes store (iTS) (I’m making the wild assumption that they’ll follow the same model for their iBookstore.)
The center of your iPod “digital media lifestyle” is your desktop (PC or Mac). You authorize your computer to work with your AppleID and the iTS so you can purchase media from iTS with it. I believe you can tie up to 3 desktops to a single AppleID/iTunes store account. (It’s at least three.)
Now for the fun part…
If you have multiple iPod users in your household, they can EACH sync their iPods with the same computer (or another computer attached to the same AppleID). And they each have their own sync configs. And they could ALL listen to/watch the same media at the same time.
So… how would I set that up for a family? (The simple version)
1. Create an AppleID for the household (I would also get a credit card JUST for that purpose).
2. “Attach” it to a “family computer” (A Mac mini would do it. Just make sure it has a large hard drive and at least one external drive to back things up to.).
3. Everyone uses that machine to download/purchase music.
4. Everyone in the family syncs their iPods to that machine. Some will want to sync it manually. Some not. But they can share music/media this way.
So, with Apple and the iTS, you end up with 1 copy per household, not per person.
—
Have to wonder what the media people (Publishers, music industry, movie industry, etc.) think about this media distribution model.
Finally got around to moving the last fic The Two here. (Unless I missed one.)
Some parts of it are in dire need of revision. Someday. After I finish it. Not sure when that’ll be but the only thing I’ve done to it in the last 4 years is revise the first 3 parts. So… it could be a while.
I was thinking about my first programming experience this morning while I was getting ready for work.
And then things went meta and I started thinking about HOW I got to thinking about that in the first place. So bear with me for a moment. (I’m not going to explain all of the tech things I mention along the way. Sorry. There’s a google for that.)
{I need a lolcat for this!}
So, Steve Jobs announces (finally) the mythical Apple tablet device. I’m not going to go over the features (has or missing). Every tech blog on the planet has details or you can even go to the official Apple iPad website
Other than the name… iPad? Really? … I actually want one. I’ve been waiting for a tablet for ME (and not all the jealous tech-nerds that hang out in the tech blog comment sections (they already HATE the iPad with a seething passion – and it’s only been half a day.)) and this is the first thing since a Newton MessagePad (I’ve got one of those in a box somewhere) to come close.
Let’s get the low-hanging fruit negatives out of the way first:
Things that have sold me on it — in no special order.
I do wonder about the “Camera Kit” – it includes a USB-iPod Dock adapter so you can plug your camera directly into the iPad. Does that mean you can plug in other devices that have USB based storage in the same format? (Wild guess — the only app that can access that “mode” is the one that lets you import photos from the camera.)
{Pause while I watch the recording of the event — MUCH better info than I got from the live-blog I read earlier.}
Magical/Intimate – key words from Steve Jobs about the iPad.
But let me mention THE app demoed today that really sold me on the potential of the iPad: Brushes (It’s an app for artists). This kind of app pushes the iPad beyond being a media consumer/device into being a device to create with.
It’s not just a mobile web browser.
So, watching a show on one of the History channels. An actual historical discussion of the historical background behind the current belief in the AntiChrist (aka Is the Book of Revelations real?) and prophecy.
(Of course, I say that because it fits my own beliefs about such things. I prefer fact based discussions of religion.)
So… they’ve just gotten to the part where they explain that the current belief in the Anti-Christ is actually based on the ideas of a British traveling preacher from the 19th century that really have no basis in the Christian bible. (Sounds like it’s all just the Christian variety of conspiracy theorists.)
And at that point there’s a 60+ second commercial for some kind of fancy crystal cross for people to buy as a gift – for baptisms, confirmations, etc. and to remind people of their religion.
Sure, that kind of thing happens a lot. Commercials targeting an audience based on the content of a tv show isn’t new. Google does it on the internet even. But when it’s a late night tv show? They almost always seem to get it wrong. The commercials are usually aimed at the people who WOULDN’T watch a show like that. Or who would have changed the channel as soon as they discovered it wasn’t a fanboyish show about their favorite religious topic (As rare as those might be.)
I need to spend some time revamping/revising my list of recommended/favorite fics and fic writers. Not today, but soon.
I was just rereading Mhalachai’s crossover fic Agent Afloat Atlantis (A Stargate Atlantis/NCIS crossover centered around Ziva) — which is only better than my favorite Mhalachai fic Physics of the Spin (Rory Gilmore goes to Atlantis) because it is finished.
And as I was reading it, I tried to figure out why I like it so much and why is her writing so much better than mine?
And I think I figured it out. Her characters (Okay – borrowed characters) move/float inside of lyrical descriptions of movement and scenery. (Couldn’t find an example, now that I want one.) The characters in her stories don’t just talk. They live in worlds that have color and movement and sound.
Reading one of her stories? It isn’t reading in the pedestrian sense of slogging through piles of words. It’s reading like listening to the music of the words. Or something like that.
So, it’s been Christmas in this part of the world for almost 2 hours now.
And, already, I’ve seen a bunch of “Post Christmas Sale” commercials on TV. And got some Borders coupon spam for a post Christmas sale also.
Gee, in a rush much?
My unstated goal (unless you’ve noticed it in my TtH Profile ) is to have over 500K words of fic on TtH by the end of the year. (Which year? Might actually have been 2008 but let’s pretend I meant 2009 
)
Oddly enough, right now I’m 52nd by word count on the site. 500K words seems to be the mid-point of the top 100 writers on the site. And the ones who’ve hit the million word mark are all in the top 20. Compared to some, I’m not that prolific of a writer (There are a couple writers on TtH with stories over 500K words long. Scary! Especially considering most modern novels are around 100K words long.)
I’ll really close. Less than 2K to go. And it only took me 5 years.
The problem? Although I must have over 20K words worth of fics NOT posted to TtH, they are all in unfinished chapters/parts of fics… and I can’t seem to settle on one to work on. I’ve poked a few of my WiPs but nothing sustained enough to finish something I could post.
And I’ve only got a week to go. Argh!
And, on top of that, I haven’t finished moving my fics from my old blog to here.
I’m not really an advertising connoisseur, so this is all opinion (of course).
My favorite Christmas commercials on tv? (No special order)
[The following is anecdotal.]
Okay, I bought an iPhone at the beginning of August.
As a device, with the exception of battery life, I like it very much though it hasn’t completely replaced my 1st Gen iPod touch as my main MP3 player (I occasionally knock my touch onto the floor at work due to headphone cord length (and it survives). Don’t really want to do that with the iPhone, which cost me twice as much as the touch.)
As for local cell service — I must be one of the lucky ones. I get excellent connectivity locally – both 3G and voice. (Of course, I bought it more for the data plan than voice so I’m a light voice user. I rarely use 1/4 of my allotted minutes a month. And I don’t do SMS.)
Traveling thru New England back in August? There were a few dead spots along the MassPike and driving along I89 in Vermont. It had improved a LOT by Thanksgiving, in the same areas. (I81 in Virginia? Not as many 3G dead spots in November as in August. My mother lives along the edge of AT&T service along the upper edge of the Adirondacks (in NY). In August? EDGE. In November? 3G.
So it’s getting better in the US, no matter what the Anti-Apple/Anti-AT&T internet echo-chamber denizens claim.
Doing business with AT&T? Well, that has been an adventure.
Okay.
My cable modem started flashing the ‘Online’ light last night but everything else was working (basically means the cable company’s access point/device somewhere in my neighborhood was having issues but the modem was still connected to whatever was between my apartment connector and it (there are ‘link’ lights that indicate that.))
Normally, I have a fairly decent cable/broadband connection but once every couple of months things just stop for an hur or so. Not a huge deal – it’s usually very late at night (I’m assuming it’s a maintenance thing. Someone is remotely updating the firmware or something on the local cable/broadband hub. Or just resetting it for fun.)
But last night, I thought I would send a message to support and tell them my connection was out (used my iPhone for that. It still had a connection to the world)
Before I fell asleep, I noticed that the modem was working again and I had a connection.
So, this morning, I replied to the cable internet support message that showed up in my mailbox this morning and told them things are working.
In reply…
I got a message from someone else at the cable company asking for details on my problem and wanting to help. Apparently they didn’t actually read the reply I’d sent earlier saying things were fine. Even though it was attached to the bottom of this message.
So… do I reply to THAT one? And will I get another “how can we help you” message back?
I can see this one going around forever until the world collapses under the weight of “I’m okay. Stop asking me if I’m okay” messages.
What’s with the comment spam?
Suddenly my blog has been discovered by the spammers? More in the past day than in the past 2 months.
I haven’t done an in-depth study on the topic but those automated comment spam pushers are annoying. Don’t they notice that it never makes it to live on my site? The WP spam catcher I’m using grabs it. And on top of that, all comments have to be approved. By me.
Of course, I shouldn’t have to use an anti-spam plugin to catch it. It shouldn’t be possible for a spam-bot to insert spam into my blog’s comments for me to reject.
One of those days…
Wanted to watch a movie… but not really. Wanted something running in the background with lots of action while I web surf.
My “Go To” movie for such things? “The Replacement Killers“. I have it in both DVD and Blu-Ray (which I completely forgot purchasing. Must have been a $10 special.). Last night I watched the DVD.
Tonight I’m watching the BR. (It has a few extra minutes / added scenes that actually help explain some things in the movie that made no sense.)
And yes, I CAN tell the difference, even on my tiny 37″ HDTV at 1080i (I bought it a year before 1080p screens were in my price range -now they’re cheap – could buy 2 now for what I paid for mine.).
(movie spoilers below)
