This probably won't get posted until Monday given that I'm traveling all day, but oh well.
• Clueless. One of the comments I got when I had blogged about being in Mallorca and mentioned it had rained for a few hours that afternoon went something like this: "HA HA HA HA HOPE YOUR ENJOYING GETTIN DRUNCHED WITH RAIN IN SPAIN HA HA HA HA!" When stuff like this happens, I never know exactly how to interpret it, so I just delete the comment and that's the end of it. Except this time the person kept coming back again and again to leave the same comment, which I kept deleting. Finally I got an email from him saying "I think your comments are broken because mine aren't showing up." Uh huh. How do you email a clue?
• Comforted. For domestic flights, I usually get upgraded to First Class because I fly a lot and am special like that. But they don't upgrade you on international flights, which is where you'd most want to be upgraded because they're so darn long. Ten hours in a tiny seat squished next to another tiny seat is just not fun. Which brings me to my question of the day... exactly how small and unbearable can they make coach seats before they just end up strapping you to a milk crate? After an hour, you're hurting. After ten, you're praying for death. The seats are unbelievable uncomfortable, and should be banned under the Geneva Convention as a device of torture. I would gladly pay $100 extra to have even a small amount of personal space and a decent place to sit. Where is the airline that services the "PLEASE GOD LET THE HORROR OF AIRPLANE TRAVE END!" market?
• Robbed. On the plane-ride back to The States, one of the many movies playing in the entertainment system was The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This is one of those polarizing films that you either love because it's so beautifully crafted and touching... or hate because it could be considered exploitative and simplistic. I love the film, and watched it again even though I had already seen it twice. Once it was over, I wondered for the thousandth time why the two lead actors, Asa Butterfield as Bruno and Jack Scanlon as Shmuel, were overlooked at the Oscars. Was it because they were kids? I dunno. Because, in all honesty, they easily had the two most powerful performances I've seen in a film all year. The movie was also one of the most beautifully shot, but it wasn't nominated for Best Cinematography either. Typical...
• Analog. Sorry, but Obama is getting off to a pretty shitty start with me. After our government has already delayed the transition from analog to digital television broadcasting for YEARS, we finally got a four-year deadline of February 17th, 2009 so all the feet-dragging citizens would have an incentive to join the 20th century. But then, thanks to Obama begging Congress to extend the deadline, it's been extended. I am so sick of this stupid shit. Like what... now they're going to set a NEW deadline saying "this time we really mean it" and expect people to take it seriously? Procrastinators are just going to keep ignoring the transition until they're televisions stop working. And that's what it's going to take... whether it's in one week or one year. SO MAKE THEIR FUCKING TELEVISIONS STOP WORKING! These delays are costing us millions and won't make any difference. If this "delay until it goes away" bullshit is indicative of how Obama is going to handle the infinitely more serious problems the USA is facing, we're all fucked. Politics as usual, I see.
And now I wait for my final connecting flight home.
I love comments! However, all comments are moderated, and won't appear until approved. Are you an abusive troll with nothing to contribute? Don't bother. Selling something? Don't bother. Spam linking? Don't bother.
PLEASE NOTE: My comment-spam protection requires JavaScript... if you have it turned off or are using a mobile device without JavaScript, commenting won't work. Sorry.
Atom Entries Feed Comments Feed
Is this whall.org or Blogography.com? That last rant, I couldn’t tell… (sorry… couldn’t resist)
That pissed me off, too. Leave the deadline alone. Now it’s going to be a few more months of money-wasting delays. No one will benefit from this. Just turn off the analog signal and be done with it.
I didn’t really get the whole analog/digital thing. I thought everyone just had it? I am so out of the loop. How is it costing us money?
I am not thrilled about the delayed DTV transition (and the $650 million or so that it will cost).
But I understand why Obama did it, and I probably would have done the same thing in his position. He is already going to be the guy on duty while Americans suffer through what is shaping up to be a depression. He does not also want to be the guy on duty when lots of procrastinating dumbasses suddenly lose their TV signal…especially this early in his presidency.
It’s stupid, but it’s the kind of thing that could turn the tide of public sentiment against him.
WTF is getting “drunched”?!
I have never even heard of that film. Must look into it!
I’m curious as to how many people actually get their TV signal via rabbit ears. I’m a bit flabbergasted that it’s more than 2 or 3.
I say they’ve been warned for about year… it’s time to cut the cord. I’ve had enough of having everything cater to the morons of the world. Survival of the fittest, I say.
The 20th century is so ten years ago. I’m joining the 21st century, myself. I’m plugging an old desktop into my TV and streaming video. No one’s going to make me pay for cable, confound it! Especially when there’s nothing good on it that I can’t get on Hulu.com!
[/kidsoffmylawn]
Without having paid too much attention, I thought some of the justification for the delay was the fact that they ran out of those discount coupons. Given that they were offering them in the first place, and then they ran out, I can understand a delay to allow people that had tried to get the coupon and couldn’t a chance to do so.
As one of the few people in my peer group that will actually be affected by the change — I dropped cable about 18 months ago and though I watch digital on my primary TV, the other TVs in my house are analog only (though almost never used to watch TV) — I still say that your sentiment is correct. Most people that haven’t taken action by now are unlikely to do so until the switch is actually thrown.
I agree with the last comment. This President is faced with this conversion at a terrible time. But here in Pennsylvania most stations are switching anyway and saying to hell with the delay. Without reading into this too much, is this the way to stick it to someone? I find it hard to believe this date wasn’t some choice based on the likelihood of casting some turmoil into a new administration. Bush himself said that history has shown incumbent parties very rarely hold the Presidency after eight years. All the same this entire conversion is a mess.
I got one of those converter boxes and the damn thing didn’t work. It continually read “no signal.” So I added a new antenna and amplifier. Keep in mind I’m six miles away from the local towers. After six calls to the company that claimed I need to purchase a new antenna I took the converter box apart to find the circuit board is crap. Two minutes later I had it working with a coat hanger antenna modeled from the one on Makezine.com! Keep in mind I’ve got years of broadcasting experience including satellite operations. If it gave me this much trouble I can only imagine what others are dealing with.
I think the whole analog/digital issue is about senior citizens still picking up basic stations with rabbit ears and aluminum foil and not having the knowledge/ability/money to go out and get what they need to switch to digital because, dear Lord, we don’t want our seniors to be without the ability to discern if a tornado/earthquake/hurricane/nuclear warhead is headed in their direction.
I say? Survival of the fittest, baby. Switch to digital and let Darwin sort ’em all out.
That was mean, wasn’t it? Going away now.
I agree with that television bullshit….it’s been put of time after time for years now. DO IT NOW. Time’s up. It’s been up for a long time.
I am looking forward to seeing that movie. Wife and I walked into an Apple store and wife fell in love with the computers in there, we could become a PC & Apple household.
Oh, and we already got our digital transition box doohikey [sic] hooked up and watching the best picture we’ve ever seen with rabbit ear antennas.
I’ve been wanting to see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Thanks for the glowing recommendation.
One of the reasons for the delay is that they haven’t made the closed captioning work satisfactorily yet. Plug your ears, try your closed captioning on a digital channel for one hour, and just try not to throw a bowling ball at the TV. It has seriously pushed me to tears once. Granted, I was way PMSing, but STILL.