Okay then... I will be doing a triple backup of my laptop most of the evening in preparation for installing a bunch of software updates I've been holding off on. Hopefully nothing will go wrong but, given my luck earlier today, I am taking no chances.
I made copies of all my files before I left work yesterday because I wanted to work at home today. But when I actually sat down to get started this morning, I discovered that a critical component... THE FRICKIN' CABLE FOR MY WORK HARD DRIVE... was missing, and so I ran into town to get it. Of course I had to wait for a train on the way. Then I got to work and realized that I didn't have a key because I had removed it when valet-parking my car in Seattle. So I had to go back home to get my key. And of course I had to wait for another train on the way back to work. Couldn't find the cable at work, so came home to find that it had been in the bottom of my backpack all along. That's a half-hour of my life I'm never getting back.
Hence the backups.
And now before I get on with all that, I have one big questions...
WHY IN THE HELL IS BBC AMERICA AIRING "STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION-???"
Seriously. Why? It's not a British show. It's barely an imitation of an American show. I think of all the awesome material from the UK that BBC America could be airing, and I just want to punch somebody in the face. There are tonnes (heh) of ways to better spend that hour of programming 5 nights a week.
I'd kill to see episodes of Nevermind The Buzzcocks or Mock The Week (even in reruns!) but instead I get a 23-year-old show I've seen dozens of times. Hell, I'd settle for being able to buy Nevermind The Buzzcocks DVDs, but I don't get to do that either because they're region-encoded. Why won't some smart person at the BBC sell their fucking shows to iTunes here in the USA so that they could make money off them? Especially if BBC America is too damn stupid to air them, and is instead airing boring old American television now.
What a bunch of bloody wankers.
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Only half an hour?!?!? If I had retraced those same steps, it would have been… um, *calculating*, um, well, just a second. Computer? Compuuuuuuter!???
*taps chest communicator*
Engineering, status report…
My office is about 6 minutes away by car, 20 minutes on foot (trains add 5 to 15 minutes). Granted, where I live isn’t as exciting as where I used to live (in a larger neighboring city), but the time and gas savings are worth it.
I wondered about STNG on BBCA too. Wth? I’d rather watch old BBC versions of What Not to Wear than STNG which I can already find on two US channels during weekdays.
Better yet, put on something cool I haven’t seen any of.
Too many awesome British shows are being ignored for “Star Trek: The Next Generation”… it’s criminal.
I’m with you on the BBC station. Even BBC Canada is lacking in good BBC shows. Where’s Red Dwarf? Where’s Psychoville? Where’s Doctor Who?
Thankfully the interwebs gives another option to watching these shows.
What’s so crazy is that truly British shows like “Graham Norton” and “Jonathan Ross” and “Top Gear” are fairly popular… why not bring other shows over to see if they do as well? Madness.
I’m not sure if you’ll be able to access it, but worth a try. BBC have allowed MSN Video to host full length episodes of Mock the Week free to view anywhen. There are about 18 episodes from Series 4 and 5 up there right now.
I recognise that’s the UK MSN site, but the provider for each video is listed as “BBC Worldwide” so maybe it will work for you.
WAH! NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION!! Thanks for trying though.
🙂
“What a bunch of bloody wankers” made me snort!
Sorry you can’t catch MTW – it is genius, as you know..
Sorry again, that didn’t help much…
Ummm…can I get you anything?
You could bring me a Mars Delight candy bar from Blighty when you come to Bitchsterdam! That would be ever so lovely, thanks! 🙂
Wankers, indeed!
Don’t feel too bad- I do shit like that ALL the time with something I’ve lost, only to find I was smarter than I thought and I already had it.
I try not to feel bad, but it’s hard not to beat myself up a little when I waste valuable time like that. 🙂
JEAN-LUC PICARD!
Yes, Number One?!? 😀
Holy crap balls. I had this same discussion with Tyler last week. I was all “What the fuck?!? ST:TNG? I’m watching this channel to watch British TV, not shitty American sci-fi. If I want that, I’ll watch the Sci-Fi channel!” (NOTE: I refuse to call it that other name with the two “y”s because that’s just… wrong.)
At first I didn’t want to adapt to Sci-Fi Channel’s new name either… but eventually I figured it’s just as stupid as the network it’s naming, so I’m embracing it now! 🙂
I thought the same thing when I saw NG on BBC America, there are plenty of good Brit stuff available.
At this point, there’s probably more better British programs than American shows! 🙂
Dave – if you Paypal me some cash, I’ll happily buy the DVDs, rip them and burn them to fresh discs with no region encoding 🙂 .
Oh sure… trying to get me extradited and imprisoned under ACTA, aren’t you? 🙂 I need to just buy a region-free DVD player and be done with it. Though even that is questionable legal-wise. I just don’t understand what people are supposed to do… move to a foreign country when there’s a television show they want to watch? Madness.
Well, if you want to circumvent ACTA, I could _loan_ you our region-free DVD player. That wouldn’t get the lawyers after us, would it?
Technically, I want to ABOLISH ACTA, but I really do need to get a region-free player of my own. Too many good movies and shows I miss out on because their rights holders won’t distribute in the USA.
WANKERS!
Have you heard of Dropbox? You can install it on both your home and work computer and just put the stuff you want to work on at home in it and it will be available to both computers and even update your files on both computers. Oh, and you can even put it on your iPhone if you ever work on documents that way.
I do have DropBox, but the files I work with are so massively huge that keeping things synced with an online solution isn’t very practical. Still, it’s a capability I am happy to have when I am away and need an emergency file from work, so DropBox has really saved my bacon on occasion! 🙂
“What a bunch of bloody wankers.”
We have such a way with words over there don’t we?
Yeah, it was impossible to come up with an American equivalent for that! 😀
I’m only 10 mins from my office via car or scooter. And I’ve done this before, with the waiting for a train. Frustrating, but when you need a cable, you’ll take those measures.
I LOVE Buzzcocks! (I still miss Simon and Bill…)
I’m another American in love with Brit TV…You should try…
QI (Quite Interesting – Stephen Fry is Incredible… and unapologetically brilliant)
You have been watching (kind of the tv version of Buzzcocks… it ill get you through the lean months)
Extras
The Office (the original)
Graham Norton (when in the mood)
and of course Doctor Who…
I will never understand the insane restrictions against distribution over here ‘across the pond’… for a country built by the best of other cultures, we sure do our best to run away and hide from them sometimes.
All my best… silently in love with your blog for ages… Drew