Turkeys

My downstairs neighbors have decided that the right way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to play rap music with the base cranked up to floor*-shaking levels.

Food poisoning would be too good for them.

*(My floor, that is.)

Technorati tags: Thanksgiving, jerks, rap music, neighbors

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Not quite what she planned for the wedding….

I think this ring-bearer would rather face Sauron himself than what this bride will do to him:

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Should have had my camera today

There was a beautiful rainbow over the spires of Kerckhoff Hall at UCLA this morning. Drat.

Technorati tags: rainbows

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What they don’t mention about Brett Favre

So, I’ve just turned off tonight’s Saints-Packers game. The second half turned into a blowout and it lost interest for me.

One thing struck me about tonight’s commentary: Tirico, Kornheiser, and Jaworski talked again and again about the controversy surrounding the decision to let Brett Favre go to the Jets this last summer.

“Controversy?” Hello? What none of the guys would mention, what no one on any network seems willing to mention, is that Brett Favre became a huge pain in the backfield because of his drama-queen behavior. How long’s it been? Three years since he started the “Will he or won’t he retire” dance? Four years? Five? He played with the Packers and his fans as if they were a yo-yo.

And then, when he finally does decide to retire, the NFL and the networks honor him with a year long paean to his greatness, including seemingly endless video of his wife singing his praises. With the end of the season, we all bid him a fond and well-deserved farewell.

So, of course, that summer, he says “not really!” I mean, honest to Pete, after the team has begun their transition to Aaron Rodgers, Favre comes back and says he wants to play. You just know that had to be causing all sort of disruption in the locker room, divided loyalties and whatnot. And what about Rodgers? What’s that supposed to do to his confidence thinking he’s the one, then he may not be?  And all the plans management had made for the future, planning on life without Favre?

Feh. To Brett and his ego, that doesn’t matter. It really is all about a little kid who just can’t grow up.

And, to come back to my original point, not one person in the TV media has the guts to call him on it.

Cowards.

Technorati tags: Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers, NFL, Aaron Rodgers, football, drama queens

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Apple and DRM

New Macbooks prevent DRM-protected movies from being played on unauthorized monitors. Has Apple taken a stupid step backwards?

Technorati tags: Apple, Macbook, DRM, HDCP

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Quote of the day

Sometimes the mind, for reasons we don’t necessarily understand, just decides to go to the store for a quart of milk.
– Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

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If they want to do it right

We supposedly had a drill to prepare for a massive earthquake today where I work, a major West Coast university. It caused quite the flutter among staff as we went back and forth over what signage to have, whether we should get under our desks to practice “duck and cover” for this pretend temblor, whether we would make visitors to our facility do the same, and whether we would participate in the “evacuation.”

Yep, that last part would entail having us leave our offices to line up and march to a designated gathering place, just like it was the end of recess in grammar school.

This had to be one of the dumbest exercises I’ve ever seen, probably proposed by some resume-building hack as a “consciousness raising” measure. In the end, it was useless.

Look, I support disaster preparedness, but real preparedness, not this Doctor Feelgood nonsense. Anyone who’s lived in an active earthquake zone knows to duck under some hard cover and stay away from windows during a quake. These Romper-Room games do nothing.

If they want real preparedness, then get staff certified in first aid, emergency response, and evacuation procedures — and pay them commensurately. Pay for storage lockers and supply them with enough food, water, and other emergency supplies to last the standard three days in which we might be without outside help.

Do that, and then I’ll think you’re serious about getting ready for the Big One.

Technorati tags: earthquakes, disaster response, preparedness, drills

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What’s "Commissioner Gordon" in Turkish?

From Daily Variety, the Mayor of Batman, Turkey, is suing Warner Bros. for royalties:

Batman has a new adversary: Batman.

The mayor of an oil-producing city in southeastern Turkey, which has the same name as the Caped Crusader, is suing helmer Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from mega-grosser “The Dark Knight.”

Huseyin Kalkan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party mayor of Batman, has accused “The Dark Knight” producers of using the city’s name without permission.

“There is only one Batman in the world,” Kalkan said. “The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.”

No one from the town of Batman has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comicbook character in 1939 and the “Batman” TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton‘s first bigscreen rendition for Warner Bros. came out in 1989. Undoubtedly the fact that “Dark Knight” is about to pass the $1 billion mark at the B.O. played a part in stirring the ire of the Turkish hamlet.

I wonder if Poison Ivy has to wear an abaya when she goes out on a crime spree?

Technorati tags: Batman, Turkey, lawsuits

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Hope in a loss?

Tonight my 49ers lost 29-24 to the Arizona Cardinals, yet I’m not upset. Why?

Because, for the first time in six losses, they actually made a game of it and had a chance to win in the last couple of seconds. Yes, the players blew it at the end and Coach Singletary’s call wasn’t the smartest one, but they played hard, beat the crap out of the Cardinals, and left the NFC West leaders sweating bullets until the very end.

And I think all credit goes to the new coach, Mike Singletary. He’s demanded they play with passion, toughness, and a will to accept nothing but winning, and it looks like he’s getting through to them.

Next week, we play the Rams, our ancient arch-rivals. They’re even worse than we are, so we should be able to beat them if we play anything like we played tonight. If we do, or even if we lose but still play hard, I’ll start thinking tonight wasn’t a fluke, but instead a trend.

It would be a nice change after all these years.

Technorati tags: 49ers, NFL, football

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A silly idea

Daylight Savings Time ends tonight. I’m glad; I’ve always thought it was annoying.

Technorati tags: Daylight Savings Time

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