Madness On Demand ... in HD

In case my last post didn't clue you in, March Madness is very nearly here.  And to make it even better, it looks like CBS is working with cable companies to make HD game highlight packages (along with some other stuff) available on demand for free (yes, free!) during the tournament. That's good work. Now that I'm a DirecTV customer (just so the Girl and I can watch IU games), I've signed up for the Mega March Madness package, but I would have been excited about this if I just had cable.  And if I didn't have my TiVo Series3, which won't do video on demand. And if I had a cable company HD box.  And if my cable company was one that did a deal with DBS.  Still, it's a Good Thing.

Quote of the Night

"Girl Scout Cookies do kinda taste like March Madness."

- The Girl

For Your Edutainment

This is really just entertainment, but it's good times, despite the fact that it connotes a "Skynet becomes aware" kind of thing for me.  A co-worker sent it: Animator vs. Animation.

This is more of the edutainment variety. I keep doing it, and I can't get past level 10 (I think).  My highest traveler IQ? 113.

Circling the Drain

When I got out of college (many, many years ago, it seems), I moved from Indy to the Washington, DC, area. I had both an apartment and a roommate that lacked clever nicknames (I think dwellings should have names, really. In college, I lived in Echols House, the Cave, Mt. Olympus, and Joe Bob's Chicken Lounge. Since college, I lived in this generally nameless apartment -- sometimes generically called the APT -- the LUVR Lodge, the SNC, the Pointe, and the Halfway House). The roomie eventually received a good nickname, but the apartment never got one.  I didn't really fret about it, though, because I thought the apartment lacked something much, much more important: a couch.

As I prepared for my move, my grandmother, who was in her final stages of a slow and ultimately ineffective fight with lung cancer, told me to take whatever furniture I wanted from her by then unoccupied house. And take I did.  I came away with end tables, coffee tables, lamps, and perhaps other things I can't remember. I don't think anyone would be confused enough to call those pieces of furniture stylish, attractive, or even not ugly, but they were all well-constructed, and the price was certainly right.  However, I did not come away with a couch, and we started off our apartment dwelling days with a futon performing make-shift duty as a davenport. I kept in mind that I needed a real couch, but I also figured I couldn't afford one I might want.  I didn't really have much money, and I just didn't think furniture was a good way to spend what little I did have.

A couple of months into our lives in the APT, my roomie decided to purchase a kitchen table off of a bulletin board at work. I went with him to collect it, and the seller asked if we knew anyone who needed a couch. Being the savvy shopper that I was, I told her that I wasn't sure, but I might know someone who needed one. She said she didn't really have room for her divan, but it was a good one, really comfortable, that I should sit on it to try it out. I sat down, and maintained my skeptical, wary consumer posture. At least I attempted to, in that I refused to give voice to the impressive sigh/groan of contentment and relaxation that had welled up from deep within as my butt found a place that it would like to spend considerable time. But I couldn't admit any of this to the seller, lest she try to rake me over the coals.

"I guess it's pretty comfy," I allowed.

She said, "I guess I need to get rid of that chair that goes with it, too."

"I can pass that on [to my 'friend' who might want one, remember?]. How much are you wanting to sell it for?"

She crinkled her brow, and said, "I don't know.  Maybe $125?"

"Each?" I asked. I didn't really have $250 to be spending on furniture.

"No. Total," she replied.

Now that seemed like a deal to me. A celestially comfortable couch and a matching chair, both in good condition, for $125?! Still, I couldn't appear to be too eager. I wasn't some rube who just came in with the last turnip truck. (I had driven my brand new Ford Contour.) I told her I'd pass it on. As soon as we left, I told my roomie that I was going to buy them.  How's that for savvy?

And so began the Days of Soft Couch and Brown Chair. I believe that most of you who read this blog have at least sat on them, and several of you have even spent the night dozing on Soft Couch. When the Girl and I moved into the Halfway House, many of our helpers talked smack about the dilapidated state of Soft Couch, and I told them all to shut the hell up and lift. They were probably right, though. Soft Couch has been great, and I don't know how it would work out in terms of Ass Hours Per Dollar, but it has to be an awfully high number, given that it has often had anywhere from one to four (and occasionally five) people on it over the last 11 years. 

However, Soft Couch has begun it's death march. Not long ago it started making clunking noises on the Girl's end whenever she sat down. We were talking about it the other night, and her brother suggested that we should look underneath because it might be a spring and it might be hurting the floor.  Sure enough, it was a spring, and it had torn hell out of the floor. It was a sad moment for me (and not just because we had torn up a spot on the nice wood floors of our rental house). I had to confess that it's time for Soft Couch to go.

So I find myself once again in the position of needing to buy a new couch and not really knowing how to go about it. Should I spend a lot of money on a really nice one, recognizing that I spend tons of time there? Should I buy something cheap, recognizing that I spend tons of time there, and I'm only going to destroy it? How do I figure out who makes quality stuff that won't be uncomfortable in a year? How can I possibly find a couch that will treat me as well as Soft Couch?! Sigh. I probably can't.

All that kvetching aside, I need to move on. But let's not lose sight of the great times Soft Couch has given us all.

Car Conversation

Overheard during a weekend trip to IN this weekend:

Driver: That guy is going too slow! [Flips on turn signal and moves to the left lane.]

Shotgun rider: Are you gonna race that cop to get around him?

Driver: Is that a cop?!

Shotgun rider: That car up there with all the antennae on its trunk? With the blue and red lights in the back window?! I'm not sure.

Driver: [Moves back into the middle lane.] Shit! I'll stay away from him.  I got pulled over last week.

Shotgun rider: I can't see how.

How to Rant

I just put up a link to a video of a Chris Berman tirade on SaWA, and I think you should watch it. So here's a direct link for your convenience. Have fun.

Timing is Everything

Wouldn't you know it? Just two days after I ordered a new AbsPod, Apple goes and updates the line, now offering a 32GB version of the iPod Touch. The bitch of it is that my new toy has already shipped. Just administratively, though. It is apparently scheduled to be exported from China within a couple of days. One of the things I didn't like about the 16GB of the touch is that I would have to actively manage my media on there because I have more than 16GB of music. 32GB would mean I probably wouldn't have to do that, or at least I wouldn't have to very much. I suppose I could cancel my order and upgrade, or return it, or something like that. However, I'm not positive that I want to pay another $100. Probably not. Still, it would have been better for me if they had announced this last Tuesday. Very inconsiderate of his Steveness.

What is Sarah Silverman Doing?

Or should it be whom? The BHK pointed me to this video, and it clued me into two things. First, Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman are a couple. I had no idea. I bet they laugh a lot, though, and that is good times. The second thing it clued me into was ... well, you'll have to watch the video for that. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I watched it. That's right, I was actually LOL. Not ROTFLMAO or anything ridiculous like that, but I did LOL. Lesseee, this video is probably NSFW (the sound, not the actual images), so you should probably watch it at home or with headphones.

Luck Runs Out

No, I'm not talking about the Patriots' almost perfect season here. I wouldn't use the word "luck" in any way when talking about their season. (If I were going to talk about that, the title would probably have been "Cheaters Don't Always Win.") What I am talking about is the AbsPod. Almost a year ago, I wrote a couple of posts about leaving my iPod on an airplane. While it seemed pretty bad at first, I ended up lucky, getting the AbsPod back just one day later, after it had made a nice little round trip jaunt to Grand Rapids, MI.

Well, I wasn't so lucky this weekend. I was talking with the BHK when I arrived home after golf (yes, golf!) Saturday, and I had a few too many things going on as I opened the door to enter the house. As a result, the AbsPod fell right out of my hands. I've dropped the thing several times before, but I typically manage to get a foot under it to cushion the blow or something. Not so much this time. It fell straight down and landed flat on its back on the concrete floor of the garage with a sickening smack. I was bummed about it, but I had other things going on, and I quickly stopped thinking about it.

Sunday morning, I grabbed my standard five things (keys, gym ID card, bottle of water, towel, and AbsPod) and went to the gym, not thinking at all about the stomach-turning smack from the day before. As I started into my work out, I fired up the AbsPod to listen to something, and it did it's normal turning on things, then presented me with a cartoon-ized picture of an iPod with a frowny face, along with this message: "www.apple.com/ipod/support." DOH! I messed with it for a while, but listening to it closely revealed that the hard drive was making lots of clicks and grinding noises, which told me that the hard drive was toast.

I guess I shouldn't be too bummed out about it. I could decide that I've been using it on borrowed time for the last 11 months. I could possibly fix it by cracking it open and digging into the actual iPod molecules and replacing the hard drive, and I probably will. But that's not a for-sure thing. That's just the engineer in me talking. In the more immediate future, I ordered an iPod touch to replace it. The upside of that is that it has no hard drive to ruin.

It's not all bad. For a little anguish and a lot of money, I get a new toy to play with. Still, I hope your weekend was luckier than mine.