“We’re like the Cleavers…except we’re religious…and we like to fool around.”
Rev. Eric Camden; “7th Heaven”
Yes…that kind of “fool around”… What a show… I certainly never thought it’d last 11 seasons…and I certainly never thought I’d hear a pastor say such things…
Keep in mind, he was also in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and became a non-corporeal life form…
I have something to post about! So, first and most exciting, I just heard back from Hillsboro Treatment Center in Jefferson County and I’ll go fill out my paperwork next week and then I can start working! Even though it’s a little far away, I think it’ll be a nearly perfect job for me, so I’m really glad about finally getting this whole job thing worked out.
Second, and a little less exciting, is that I had an appointment with a cardiologist this morning to get checked out for Brugada Syndrome. It seems at this point that I don’t have it since my EKG looked completely normal, but the cardiologist did hear a definite heart murmur, so I’ll be going back in for more tests later this month, but the really nice doctor doesn’t seem to think that it should be anything to be too concerned about right now.
Hopefully, more exciting things will happen soon so I’ll have more to type about than the progress of my knitting projects and which episode of Gilmore Girls is on today!
So, I was reading on ArsTechnica that TV ads are losing their relevance. More specifically:
“McKinsey makes a number of assumptions about consumer behavior such as projecting ‘a 15 percent decrease in buying power driving by cost-per-thousand rate increases, a 23 percent decline in ads viewed due to switching off, a 9 percent loss of attention to ads due to increased multitasking and a 37 percent decrease in message impact due to saturation,’ all by the year 2010 and in comparison to the year 1990. Those numbers are then synthesized into TV-based marketing becoming one-third as effective in 2010 as it was in 1990.”
Now, I can’t say that I find this to be terribly surprising… As the article points out, more people are using DVR/TiVO services, as well as on-demand services, than there were in 1990 (oh yeah…that stuff didn’t exist back then…), but at the same time, realize that these percentages are calculated from data spanning nearly 20 years. Wouldn’t you think that people’s tastes in television and advertising would change anyway, without any help from DVR or TiVO? Personally, I tend to watch shows when they’re premiering, so I can’t skip forward. On the other hand, Brooke’s sister (Rachel) will wait ’til her show starts, pause it, and then go take care of the dog just so she can come back a little later and skip the commercials.
On another note, last month, execs from the ABC network decided to start investigating ways to prevent DVR owners from skipping commercials (apparently thinking we wouldn’t mind). Obviously, the networks are starting to “get wise” to the situation and make adjustments as soon as they can, ’cause as the article points out, “TV advertisers today are paying more for access to a smaller audience, which makes that medium an expensive way to attract new customers.”
Regardless, the model’s going to have to change and we aren’t going to have commercials as we know them for much longer…
…except during the Super Bowl, of course…
“Oops…my squirrel is burning…”
— Les Stroud
So, there was a show on Discovery Science Channel in 2004 that’s now being re-run on the regular Discovery Channel called “Survivorman.” We first discovered it as a stripped down, half-hour version of the full-lenth, hour long TV show about Les Stroud (Wikipedia? & Official), a guy who is dropped off in the wilderness with his camera equipment and a pocket knife and then left alone for a week. Recently, the Discovery Channel started showing the full-length versions on Friday nights, so we’re getting to watch a few that we missed, as well as watch the rest of the episodes that we have seen.
It’s just crazy what this guy does… For example, “this week’s” episode, Les is left in Canyonlands, Utah with a mountain bike and his pocket knife. He cannibalizes the bike for parts (uses tubes to drink wanter and stoke fires, uses the inner tube to act as a canteen when he rarely found water, used the frame as part of his shelter, etc.), used ancient techniques to set up traps to catch animals, and built shelters to help withstand the 15 F nights (i.e. cold, if you don’t have a sleeping bag…which he didn’t…).
So yeah, if you can, you should record this show and watch it. Or if you’re at home on a Friday, check out the Discovery Channel. w00t!
P.S. Nathan, next summer, we’re going to get dropped off in Alaska. We’ll have to eat Grizzly Bears to survive. It’ll be stupendous.
So I’m at the lab, killing time until my 96-well plate is ready to be read… Figured now was as good a time as any to update the world on happenings…
Brooke and I went up to Hannibal for last weekend to visit with family and friends… Saturday was really good in that we got to shoot off fireworks, had an excellent dinner via Brooke’s Mom, and I got a lovely sunburn whilst laying on a raft in their pool. Overall, a successful weekend! My parents came into St. Louis on Monday night for some BBQ and we made some really good ribs. Brooke put them in the crock pot for a good 6 hours along with brown sugar, paprika, and just about everything else on the spice rack. They were some of the best ribs I’ve ever had, honestly…very tender and tasty… It was also good to be my parents for once! We didn’t really do anything for the actual 4th of July holiday, however. The weather wasn’t terribly cooperative in St. Louis…but we didn’t really feel like going anywhere, either. It ended up being a relaxing day, which is all I could really ask for.
Otherwise, my Biostatistics class started on Monday (yes, July 3rd…seriously…who starts a summer class the day before the 4th?!). While I’m telling myself that extended knowledge of statistics is useful for my chosen career path, I just have to wonder if reminders of Confidence Intervals, hypothesis testing, and SPSS are really worth 3.5 hours of class twice a week… Needless to say, I’ll be ranting about this waste of time for the duration of the class (another 5 weeks remain…).
I guess it’s time for the weekend again… I think Brooke is heading up to Louisiana, MO (Ma’s garage sale…) on Friday, so I’ll need entertainment Friday night (’cause Sci-Fi Friday doesn’t start up until next weekend). Keep me posted.
Well, we’ve got TV back… Here’s a numbered summary:
1). I sent two e-mails to the FCC and finally got a response a week and a half after the first e-mail was sent. I contacted the Attorney General’s office and they sent a complaint form to us (as that’s the only way they’ll look into it…if there’s a complaint filed). According to the FCC Rules and Regulations website, in Title 47, Part 76, Subpart M, the lines are owned by Charter Communications. If I owned the property, I could tell them I’m switching providers and either a). I’d have to pay them per foot of the lines within the building to purchase them, or b). they’d have 7 days to remove the lines themselves. Since I don’t own the building, and apparently Park Forest Apartments has a “deal” with Charter, the lines are the cable company’s and I can’t use them. Shenanigans.
2). To avoid any more hassles by Charter, DISH came out today and ran a new line alongside the apartment complex, requiring them to drill a hole through the siding and putting a new faceplate on the inside of the apartment. The only place it could go? Right next to the sliding glass door, on the opposite wall from where the TV currently resides. While this means that Charter cannot cut the line anymore (’cause that’s hardcore illegal), Brooke and I now have to shift the furniture around in the living room to compensate…not that big a deal, I guess. If the line is cut again, the DISH guy has told us to try and catch the Charter fool before he leaves, take pictures of what was done, then call the cops. Believe you me, I will.
3). After talking with the apartment complex manager and one or two maintenence people, it appears that the Charter people have done this multiple times in the past few years, cutting lines that aren’t supposed to be connected to “their” lines. It sure sounded like, next time they have to renew whatever contract they’ve got together, there’s going to be some re-wording…’cause they weren’t pleased. It didn’t seem like they were unhappy with me or anything…just that they have to allow for a new line to be laid into one of their buildings because they aren’t allowed to use the existing one, causing more hassle for everyone involved.
Regardless, we’ve got television back…and next time any of you visit, you’ll see that our living room has been rearranged to a large degree. Oh well…we’ve lived there a year now…’bout time for something new…
My DISH service is being “restored” right now, but as I wait, I find that the new teaser trailer for “Spider-man 3” is online.
w00t!!!? May 4th with rock beyond all belief…
So, the story goes like this: A few months ago, we decide to switch from Charter Television to DISHnetwork, ’cause they’re cheaper and we get the DVR service…which rocks tremendously… Well, shortly after switching, our service goes out, and the hub where cable lines head from outside the building to inside the building was locked and protected (so you can’t steal cable from Charter, of course). Well, DISH sent a technician out, who subsequently broke through the barrier to reconnect our line from the dish to the coax cable that heads into the building. The DISH technician also makes note of the fact that Charter, in disconnecting the line, didn’t just unscrew the coax cable connection, but also cut the line off so I couldn’t reconnect it without having DISH fix it.
Fast forward to this past Friday, 6/16/06. Well, I call Brooke up to tell her I’m heading home from the lab around 4:15 and she says, “oh, the TV just went out.” So, I told her to look outside and see if anyone was standing around that hub again. No one was there. I get home and start investigating… The green barrier where the hub is was re-set back on its base like it hadn’t been before, so someone had been there… But, I couldn’t find the cable that came from our dish anywhere, that was supposed to be plugged in to the line heading into our building.
I notice some ground disturbed. I grab our trowel. I move the ground.
I find the line cut and re-buried. The line from the dish. Deliberately cut. DISH is charging $100 for them to come out and repair it.
So, I’ve put in an e-mail to the FCC to check on the laws, specifically, to see if the lines within the building are owned by Charter…or by my apartment complex… If the lines are owned by Charter (somehow…), then I’ll have DISHnetwork run a separate line. If it’s owned by our apartment complex, then what Charter is doing is illegal.
Believe you me, this isn’t over.
…Well, my 23rd birthday has come and gone and I am now an old woman with wrinkles (according to my cousin, Griff). All in all, it was a good weekend, though. Andy made me a green Jello poke cake on Friday and we barbequed some pork chops and watched Sin City. Then, we drove to Columbia on Saturday morning to do some laundry and go shopping for the strand of pearls I wanted from Andy for my birthday, but alas, could not find. Went to church, ate some tasty enchiladas, had a nice chat with the in-laws, and headed to bed. Went for a walk on the MKT on Sunday morning, then headed to Millersberg for some chillin with the Poors. Got a bit of a sunburn and ate too much, drove back home and here I am, watching CSI and working on a quilt. Not too bad of a weekend, if you ask me…now if I could only find a job, I’d be the happiest girl in the world!
So, DISHnetwork has been kind enough to give us free movie weekends on Showtime and Starz! recently, therefore our DVR has been busy recording stuff.? We caught up with a few movies from awhile back yesterday:
Grizzly Man was about Timothy Treadwell, a self-proclaimed “bear savior” who spent 13 summers in Alaska “protecting” the bears there.? He took over 100 hours of video footage, some of which is in this 3 hour documentary.? The rest of the movie involves interviews with Timothy’s friends and relatives.? You see, Timothy was mauled by a bear up in Alaska…and, honestly, watching himself on the recordings just shows how nuts he really was…and I say “nuts” in the “clinically insane” sort of way.?? I mean, he had no scientific background…he just went up there and spent the summer living with bears…with no knowledge of their lives and how they’re wild animals…? While you have to admire his dedication to the cause, you also have to realize that he treated grizzly bears like people…he would follow them around and talk to them and pet them…and he would also talk to foxes and tell them how much he loves them.? Each animal got a different name.? This guy was crazy.? Overall, it was a pretty good movie, but started to feel pretty long toward the end…
Hotel Rwanda, on the other hand, was a really good movie. ? It centers on the true story of a man in Rwanda that took in refugees during the murder of about 1,000,000 Tutsi people by the Hutu (well, both sides had heavy losses).? As Wikipedia tells us, the really sad thing is how little anyone did to intervene.? There are many scenes where the UN has “peacekeepers” down there, yet they can’t fire and can’t protect anyone…? Don Cheadle’s character saved over 1,200 people by putting them in the hotel he manages, keeping their presence a secret for a long time, then helping to get them out of the country.? The only downside is that the movie gets kinda confusing, not knowing which side is who and what exactly is going on…? I recommend looking up a little info on the Rwandan genocide before watching, just so you have a little basis of what’s going on…? Supposedly, the movie is pretty accurate, from a historical point of view…which is that much more depressing…
So yeah, a few movies to check out…w00t to lazy Saturdays…
