Crossword Madness

The words MAMA or DADA have showed up for at least the last two days of the NY Times crossword, and they showed up in two or three other puzzles today. They are never clued as "Arp's Art?" or "____ Cass" or anything of that sort. At least two of the puzzles used the exact clue, "Word from the crib." I'm telling you, there's some sort of strange conspiracy amongst crossword constructors. In a related story, today's CrossSynergy puzzle featured the clue "Actress Stark of Star Wars." I saw "Star Wars" and thought, "Great, this'll be easy." But I've never heard of her. The answer was "Koo." What the hell? Apparently, Koo Stark is an actress who played one of Biggs' friends on Tatooine in a deleted scene from A New Hope (I think she calls Luke "Wormie"). What??? You seriously expect people to know that, crossword puzzle? I LOVE Star Wars, and while I was familiar with the scene, I couldn't have told you that actress' name! She doesn't even list the role on her IMDB page, for cryin' out loud! Sheesh. You just made "the list," CrossSynergy.

By the way, I'm basically just blogging a random thought each day to get back in the habit of posting. I'll get back to my usual way of posting Eddas (that's Scandinavian Epics for you non-crossworders) and philippics (look it up yourself, I ain't Wikipedia) shortly.

Cheers,
Eli

Consider the Carrot

Yesterday, my wife told me the pack of carrots she took for lunch had a weird white coating and smelled funny. She tasted one and said they tasted sour and threw them out. Today, I examined my carrots carefully. They looked and smelled like normal, so I went ahead and ate them. I think they tasted okay.

But that's the thing- I only think they tasted okay. The whole time I was eating them I couldn't convince myself that the orange sticks I was shoving in my mouth were normal. I couldn't for the life of me remember what carrots were supposed to taste like. This happens a lot. I want to see if the milk is still good, but damned if I know what "normal" milk taste is. Weird.

One Of Those Days

This morning, after breakfast, I needed to clean out the cereal bowl and I took it into the bathroom sink instead of the kitchen sink.

Then, when Mike picked me up for carpool, I took out my keys and tried to unlock the door on his car with them.

Just now, I turned on my laptop and when it made the "Mac Chime" (ie- the sound it makes EVERY TIME I TURN IT ON), I panicked and reached for my cell phone (My ringtone sounds nothing like a Mac Chime, by the way, it's "Go Cubs Go" by Steve Goodman).

I think I might need to go back to bed and just skip a day.

Stupid Election (Grumble, grumble)

John McCain's much publicized ad comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is the most retarded, childish, asinine thing I've heard this week. Yes, Obama's popular so he must be on the same level as a couple of blonde super whores. That just makes a ton of sense. People are popular for all kinds of reasons. I guess that means Obama's like Will Smith, Alex Rodriguez, and Harry Potter, too! Yay! The fact that McCain is reportedly proud of this ad is infuriatingly stupid. Is this really the only argument you have against the guy? That he's popular? You might as well go home and hand him the election if that's the best you can do. Yes, throngs of people came out to see Obama on his recent world tour, but what was telling to me was how much the LEADERS of those countries seemed to admire him. I bet they would be a little less friendly with Grouchy Ol' John McCain.

Hell, if inconsequential, non-sequiter similarities are what define us as people, why not run an ad for McCain comparing him to Wilfred Brimley and the crazy guy who talks to himself at the bus station because their all old. It's distressing how early this thing has digressed into name-calling stupidity.

I've said it before and I'll certainly say it again - Got To Hell, John McCain.

Cheers,
Eli

Earthquake Redux!

Yes, I'm reusing the picture from one of my earliest posts. As I'm sure everyone on the planet is aware of by now, there was a moderate earthquake in Los Angeles yesterday. I certainly felt it in my office (and believe me, the 10th floor of an office building was not my first choice of places to be in such a situation). It basically felt like the building rolled around a bit for about 15 seconds. That was it.

Contrary to what you may have seen or heard from the media, this caused little to no turmoil in most parts of LA. My office paused for about 30 seconds and went right back to work. Everyone I talked to had pretty much the same story. "I freaked out when it first started, but then I realized that it wasn't that big a deal." Some people evacuated their buildings, per building policy, but I think it was mostly to get out of the office for a while. No one thought that there was any signifcant damage.

When I got home last night I went around my apartment to survey the damage. I just got earthquake insurance a few months ago and wanted to see what I could be reimbursed for. My findings? My toothbrush had fallen over on the bathroom counter and the Darth Vader action figure on my desk had tipped over. I'm going to ask the insurance company for $5003 dollars ($5000 for emotional turmoil, and $3 for a little stand for Darth). My friend Mike suggested that I knock my TV to the ground and tell them that it happened in the earthquake to see if they'll buy me a nice new one. I think my window for this fraud has passed, however.

Seriously, the only thing that worried most Angelenos was that this wasn't the Big One. These smaller earthquakes serve as a reminder of what could happen in the future, at a time when we're not so lucky. We're all thankful that this wasn't that time (except perhaps for the news media, who seemed to be craving something more disasterous to report on that what actually happened).

I'm fine.

Cheers,
Eli

Feeling Stimulated

Melissa and I finally received our Economic Stimulus payment yesterday. As some whose social security number ends in the 90s, I was in the last batch to get it. I plan on stimulating the economy by paying off the rest of my credit cards (Yay!) and paying the rest of my stupidly high podiatrist bills. I don't know how much that will do for the country, but it will certainly help my personal finances.

Cheers,
Eli

TV From the Sky

I'm Sorry, Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That
Originally uploaded by EliCubs

So, last weekend, Melissa and I made the switch from cable to DirecTV. We had had a series of horrid customer service experiences with Time Warner and just weren't that impressed with the product. We have been much happier with AT&T as our internet provider, so we cut the cable company out entirely.

Installation was pretty painless. They sent someone out on the 4th of July. I felt bad for the technician who was working the holiday, but I couldn't argue with the convenience. Instantly, it was an improvement. The HD-DVR they gave us (pictured) doesn't sound like it's constantly overheating the way our cable box did. The picture quality seems a little more stable and less compressed than what I was seeing from Time Warner. The DVR options and interface are much more robust than what I was seeing before. Oh yeah, and we also went from getting about 20 HD channels to getting about 50. And more are scheduled to be added in September.

And what did all of this upgrade cost us per month? Well, full price, the whole package will end up being about $10 cheaper than our cable service. However, we won't be paying full price for another 2 years. For the first year of service, we get $23 a month off of the package's full price (plus they threw in free Showtime for a year. Score!). On top of that, we get a AAA discount of an additional $10 of for 2 years. So, where our cable bill had been a little over $100 a month, after adding a ton of channels and getting better equipment we will be paying under $50 for the next 12 months. Not bad.

Of course, there are a few quibbles. We haven't experienced any weather outages yet, but they'll probably come. Apparently the new technology is less prone to interference, and I live in southern California (where it never rains, dontcha know), so I'm not expecting huge problems. If I do miss something, sites like Hulu.com or BitTorrent provide me with everything I might miss. The only real complaint I have is that the majority of the cable channels are shown in the east coast feed. While most channels still reair their shows late at night for the west coast, it's taking some getting used to. Daily Show coming on at 10pm and Adult Swim starting a half hour later doesn't feel right yet. And TBS is tricky because when I want to watch My Boys, it comes on at 6:30. With the DVR, though, I don't think I'll notice it much. I'll get a new late night TV schedule set and everything will be fine.

I look forward to many nights of television being beamed into my house like on Star Trek. The future is now!

Cheers,
Eli