No Longer for Stuffy Heads
NyQuil will no longer contain the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine, thanks to the idiots making crystal meth from it. Instead, it contains NO nasal decongestant at all. DayQuil adds the decongestant phenylephrine, but as always, it's never as good as the original. Stock up on the good stuff now, if you still can!
I guess they have to change their commercials, since it's no longer for stuffy heads... [update: they did. Notice the difference between the DayQuil slogan and the NyQuil one.]
A La Carte
The FCC has reversed course, and is now thinking that maybe "a la carte" cable is a good idea. The premise is that cable companies and broadcasters force channels on viewers that they don't want to watch, and maybe it would be a good idea to just pick the channels you want off a menu. That way, you wouldn't have to pay for the Nascar channel if you didn't like it, or you could vote with your dollars if you didn't like the content on F/X. With that in mind, here are the channels I'd keep.
All the networks, even UPN and WB. Even the minor networks have some good shows on, so they're worth it. This also includes PBS for Ellie.
ESPN and ESPN2. I can do without the ESPN News and the others.
CNN. One 24 hour news station, in case major events happen.
Weather Channel. Can't live without it.
USA. Good shows occasionally on there, and they are usually good for a cheesy 80s movie on occasion.
SciFi. If only for Battlestar Galactica.
TNT/TBS. See USA.
Comedy Central. The Daily Show. Period.
Travel Channel/Food Network. Mostly for Lisa's escapism.
Those are my only must-haves. I think my cable bill could be pretty cheap with that bare minimum. A few others I might consider if they were cheap enough: Discovery, TLC, Bravo, Animal Planet, AMC. With my Tivo and daughter dictating what I watch, I'm pretty much tailor-made for this a la carte stuff.
Fire in the Hole
We made our first fire of the year over the holiday weekend. We don't make nearly enough fires, even though we think it's really nice to have a fireplace. It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not the best at making a fire. They didn't let us play with fire in the Cub Scouts, that must have been later on, if I had stuck with it through Boy Scouts. I can make a nice fire out of newspaper that lasts about 30 seconds, but getting a good roaring fire going is inconsistent at best. So this weekend was about the same. The fire got going, but was slow to catch, and just wasn't getting going very well. Lisa went to take Max out and came back in with some nice dry sticks that had fallen off the trees in recent days (along with a gazillion leaves that still need to be raked). A couple of them were thick enough that they stayed lit for a good long time, and they really got the fire going. So there you have it. Lisa makes a better fire than me. Clearly I'd be voted off of Survivor by now.
Speaking of reality TV, what the heck is going on with the "production errors" on the Amazing Race??? They've done at least 5 or 6 seasons of this, going into Third World countries, never a problem. But put them in an SUV in the US, and the cameras are draining the batteries left and right! So far, the teams affected have been lucky to not get eliminated, but how much would it suck to lose thanks to a stupid problem like that?
Home Game Hell
OddJack is dying soon, Nick Denton decided to pull the plug. But BG is still working for a few more days, so I sent this item over to him. The article ran in the Washington Post a couple of days ago, and describes how a poker home game in the nearby Fair Oaks area in Northern Virginia got robbed recently. Of course, it probably didn't help that the guy running it sent his Evite to almost 300 people. He's lucky that he just got robbed, he probably could have gotten busted by the police as well. And that's the part that cracked me up most. All these people are quoted in the article could very well be admitting to illegal activity, or at least saying "Come rob my home game next!". Not the smartest cookies.
MLB Hall of Fame balloting
The big story coming out of the Baseball Hall of Fame nominees coming out is that Pete Rose is no longer eligible for the Hall of Fame (at least not eligible to be voted in). But who cares, let's talk about the people I think should get in. It's all about me, after all.
Tommy John - If they name a surgery or disease after you, you're in.
Don Mattingly - Donny Baseball gets my homer vote.
Rich Gossage - Dominant reliever before most people knew there was such a thing. Also a homer vote.
Lee Smith - currently still the record holder for all-time saves. How is he not in already???
Jack Morris - Basically never has a season with less than 14 wins while pitching for the Tigers. The Tigers! Then was MVP of the 1991 World Series after pitching 10 innings of shutout baseball against the Braves in Game 7.
Dale Murphy - Underrated because he played for the Braves when they stunk, because he was such a clean-cut guy, and because steroids have inflated stats since he retired. None good enough for me to withhold a vote.
Just missing the cut for various reasons: Orel Hershiser, Andre Dawson, Alan Trammell.
Fire John L. Smith
I've mentioned my displeasure with the state of State's football team before. I just don't think John L. Smith is the guy to get the recruits, and the Big Ten is figuring out his screen pass offense REAL quick. It's time for him to go. Why? Because a big name just popped onto the radar screen. Steve Mariucci was fired by the Lions. Please. Like it's his fault that Matt Millen is possibly the worst GM in the history of the NFL (cases in point: his talking to college players at a postseason all-star game when he's not allowed to do that as a GM; hiring Mariucci without following NFL hiring procedures; drafting three of the exact same wide receiver, only to have them all fail to produce a 1000 yard receiving season). Mariucci is a good coach whom I could see turning into another Pete Carroll type, having done his time in the NFL, and finding a home at the college level.
We all know by now that Steve Mariucci is good friends with basketball coach Tom Izzo. It's time to bring them back together and get the football team back on track.
Using a Robot to Win Online Poker
All you need is $100, 2500 hours to set it up, and you too could be using bots to "win" at online poker. Or you could use those 2500 hours to take the money off all the jokers who play there yourself and be able to sleep at night.
1000 Posts
My blog software informs me that this is my 1000th post. Hard to believe. No big celebration here, just business as usual.
As expected, last night was a late one as our curling game got started even later than usual, and I didn't get home into bed until after 12:30am. Ugh. Dragging this morning. Thankfully, we played really well, and won our game. I feel like I'm getting back into the groove nicely, sliding easily and being fairly sure that I will throw the right weight at the right spot. Good stuff.
I even got to watch the end of the Monday Night Football game, which almost never happens. Of course, the game was over almost from Indy's first play. What was that corner thinking???
The Yankees have been pretty quiet on the free agent front thus far, but that hasn't stopped the deals and money from flowing freely. First BJ Ryan gets a crazy 5 year, $47 million deal from the Blue Jays, now Billy Wagner gets 4 years, $43 million from the Mets. With that kind of money being thrown around, I'm not surprised that the Yankees aren't doing much yet. They're still looking for a center-fielder, and now Joe Torre is pondering putting Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez in center-field. Very interesting:
"That's happened before hasn't it?" Torre said about converting a power-hitting infielder into an outfielder.
"Bobby Murcer, Mickey Mantle. Hank Aaron came up as a second baseman. Robin Yount went to centerfield."
They couldn't be any worse than Bubba Crosby or Bernie Williams last year.
Chocolate recipe
As expected, the chocolate recipe was evil. Chocolate Coconut Cream Batter Pie. I'm not a big dessert guy, but I still ate at least half of the thing myself (over the course of several days). Lisa was a bit disappointed in the results though. Essentially, the batter was like a brownie, and Lisa just does not have good luck making brownie pies. The middle always ends up really gooey. Not a problem if you ask me, but it bugs the heck out of her that it doesn't come out even. Anyway, this pie ended up about the same, gooey in the middle. But it was very yummy! The coconut was swirled in, just enough to cut the rich chocolate flavor. Good stuff.
Next ingredient is Cinnamon. No word yet on what recipe Lisa will be baking though. And again, the book is Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson.
Sick as a Dog
Ellie may have been the one who was sick this weekend, but I'm the one who felt like throwing up last night. 3 missed game-winning field goals? Are you kidding me? Well, at least there is some solace in the fact that at worst, the Giants are still tied with the Cowboys in the division, and with Tampa Bay and Atlanta for the wild card. Still, it would have been nice to silence the critics by winning a big game on the road. Huge game this week at home against the Cowboys though. And naturally, it's not on TV for us here in the Washington area. Instead, we get Bengals/Steelers, Chiefs/Broncos, and Redskins/Rams. Well, at least I won't have to watch if things go horribly wrong again.
Last night we had a late curling game, but we managed to start early, and finish early, so it wasn't too horribly late (unlike tonight, which will probably find me crawling into bed after midnight). We won our second game in a row, despite only having two full-time players on our team. I actually played pretty well last night, and we kept the pressure on the other team, who were far too serious about a "Pizza League" game. Always nice to win against teams like that.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Ours was fun, but rather uneventful for a Thanksgiving with the Cajuns. Less than a month left of shopping until Christmas, so be sure to check out my Amazon wishlist over on the side there!
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