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April 26, 2006
Oh Jonah!
Tonight the kids at church performed the musical "Oh, Jonah." I couldn't really see most of the show as I was hiding behind a big whale, trying to keep up with the music in the book (they did sound good) so I knew when to make the lights flash (for the storm) and move the whale.
Speaking of storms, we've had quite the series of storms [rather monsoons] today. Lots of thunder, lightning, and power outages (I'm glad my computer is on a UPS) around town. Most of the traffic lights were either blinking or completely out on the way to and from the church.
Answers to Trivial Tuesday #16:
1. Oceanic (Bonus: Another tailee, Cynthia Watros. She plays Libby, Hurley's lady friend)
2. Sean Preston
3. Hydrogen
4. Las Vegas
5. Rams & Raiders
Posted by mhader at 9:22 PM
April 25, 2006
Trivial Tuesday # 16
1. Michelle Rodriguez of Lost (Ana Lucia) will be spending some time behind bars after driving under the influence (twice the legal limit) in Hawaii recently. What was the name of the fictitious [but popularly used in film] airline whose plane crashed in 'Lost'? (Bonus: which other cast mate was also pulled over the same night within minutes?)
2. 'Oops I Did it Again' The rumors of Britney Spears 'Anticipating' a 'Baby One More Time' with her 'What U See (Is what U Get)' 'Toxic' husband are apparently true. What's the name of their first child?
3. Today, President Bush halted filling of the nation's emergency oil reserve to try and ease the pain at the pump. What new fuel source for vehicles has Bush been pushing
for?
4. This week is the National Association of Broadcasters 2006 convention covering all aspects of media. Where is the convention being held?
5. Los Angeles wants a football team again, and they are willing to put $800 million into the stadium. What teams were previously in LA?
Posted by mhader at 10:29 PM | Comments (6)
April 24, 2006
It's Nearly Tuesday
Yet another day where I made the mistake and installed a video game on my computer. I believe the game might have come free with something (like a video or sound card) and is designed to run on Windows 95. The game is 'Total Annihilation' by Cavedog. It's very similar to the origianl Command & Conquer (I think they still make that, but I haven't seen it for years). I try not to play video games too often because they totally eat away the day/week/month.
I didn't do anything too exciting this past weekend. The storms we had here on Saturday were very loud and actually woke me up. It takes a lot to do that. Due to the weather Saturday, not much could be done outside. Luckily I did some yard work on Friday before the rain came. I edged the yard for the first time this year which took a lot longer than I expected because it was very overgrown. Mowing the lawn also took some extra time with being Fall here. I had to empty the bag every couple minutes in the back yard. Being ambitious, I took the circular saw to the gate and got it working (not the one I replaced last year, that one is still doing great)..
Posted by mhader at 10:29 PM | Comments (2)
April 21, 2006
Picture Friday
I took this picture mid February of 1996 in Florida's Crystal River with a disposable camera.
Posted by mhader at 7:56 PM | Comments (1)
April 20, 2006
4:20
Hopefully my the North Bridge controller doesn't really need that. For those that don't know, it's a [blurry picture of a] heat sink..which helps dissipate the heat from a computer chip. It's been hanging off for a while because the loops that it connected to keep popping off the motherboard (only one of the four appear to still be there). Now it's sitting on my desk and you could probably cook an egg on that chip..
The new hard drive went in much easier than I was anticipating. I was worried that I was going to have to pull out half of the computer to get to the drive bays. It actually took me longer to find the application in windows to partition the drive. The location of the drive bays will be a major priority for my next case. btw, it takes FOREVER and a day to format a 250GB drive..
Posted by mhader at 10:20 PM
April 19, 2006
Make Up Your Own Title
I just started watching Alias so I don't expect to make it too far into this entry. Last week during the woot-off at woot.com I purchased a new (it's actually kind of old) 250GB hard drive which should be arriving shortly. I decided I needed more space to record tv shows and download my legal torrents. I plan to take out my 80 & 60 GB drives to make room for it. It's only a gain of roughly 110GB, but it will free up a spot on the IDE chain. Yeah..see, I didn't get too far..
Answers to Trivial Tuesday:
1. Smyrna, Georgia
2. U2, from the song 'One'
3. San Andreas fault
4. Blu-Ray (Bonus: The Last Samurai, The Phantom of the Opera, Serenity).
5. Due to a labor dispute, last year's season was canceled in February of 2005 and the Stanley Cup was not awarded. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Cup in 2004.
Posted by mhader at 9:19 PM
April 18, 2006
Trivial Tuesday #15
Hopefully these questions are a bit easier than last week. I tried to put some questions I could answer without having to scour the interweb.
1. After three weeks of previews, Julia Roberts officially becomes a Broadway star tomorrow night in Richard Greenberg's "Three Days of Rain." Where was the actress born?
2. VH1 conducted a poll to find Britain's favorite song lyric. The top lyric chosen was "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers". Who was the artist/band?
3. At 5:12 this morning 100 years ago, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook San Francisco. What is the name of the fault that runs through California and has been responsible for many earthquakes, including the one in 1906?
4. A next generation DVD, called HD-DVD, hit the shelves today with one player and 3 titles. What is the competing format that is expected to be released in the next couple months? (Bonus: What are the three titles released on HD-DVD today?)
5. With the 2004-2005 regular Hockey season coming to a close, it's time to start thinking about playoffs and the Stanley Cup. Which team won the Stanley Cup last year?
Posted by mhader at 4:32 PM | Comments (7)
April 17, 2006
Creative Title Goes Here
Thanks to Ben for the reminder, I took care of my taxes today. Well, maybe I did it last week. I did actually get my state refund today. The money didn't stay for long. It went right back out of the account mere hours after arriving to pay bills (I can't wait to pay off my student loans!).
Towards the end of last week I uploaded the Tigerama audio and video files. I didn't verify that they all uploaded correctly so if you notice any problems, please let me know.
I'm off to bed so I can get up early to write some trivia questions!
Posted by mhader at 11:03 PM
April 13, 2006
Two Quick Funnies
I saw The Office PSA's a couple weeks ago on NBC, but I didn't realize how many there actually were. Apparently they were done in honor of April Fools day and you can see them all on the NBC website.
The other item of note for today was a minivan I saw in a parking garage today. It had stickers covering the back window suggesting that readers attend Easter services at a particular church. I had a slight chuckle when I noticed the tags on the car started with 666.
Posted by mhader at 11:08 PM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2006
Answer & More
A couple weeks ago I started jotting down topics for my entries as I thought of them which worked very well. Then I stopped jotting. I know I have things to fill the white space with, but I can never think of them when I sit down to write. Not wanting to have topics to write about every day is why I came up with "Trivial Tuesday's" and "Picture Friday's". Two days a week where I don't have to have a topic for discussion (although I probably spend more time on those two days than I do the other three). I really hate to take the easy way out and have Wednesday be the answer day for the trivia, which is why I'm rambling here. Giving you a little extra bang for your buck.
Yesterday I finally got around to getting the 1996 & 1997 tigerama skits on to my computer. I hope PSA isn't missing those tapes :). I'm doubting it. I promise I'll take them back next time I go. For the '97 skit I actually had two tapes so I took the two and merged them together. There were a lot of tracking errors on the tapes so I was able to get the whole skit looking good. My computer fought the whole time I spent editing (one frame at a time), even after I closed almost every program on my computer. I can't imagine editing something much longer than 8.5 minutes. I was happy with the end result. I'd really like to edit something where I have high quality video to start with.
I now have at least the audio and poster for every year I was a part of Tigerama, so I'll try to post it all soon. I'm happy for a submission of the things I don't yet have.
Answers to trivia:
1. Bryant Gumbel
2. Chicken Little
3. Hubert Humphrey, 1966, 1968 (others include James Sherman (1912), Thomas Marshall (1917, 1920), Charles Dawes (1926), John Garner (1939), Henry Wallace (1942, 1944), Richard Nixon (1959)
4. May 2005
5. Mets 7, Nationals 1
Posted by mhader at 10:27 PM
April 11, 2006
Trivial Tuesday # 14
1. A week after Katie Couric announced she was leaving The 'Today' show on NBC, her co-anchor Matt Lauer extended his contract through 2011. Who did Matt Lauer replace in 1997?
2. The ratings for 'American Idol' have been steadily dropping since Kevin Covais was kicked off the show only a few weeks ago. What was his nickname on the show?
3. Today Vice President Dick Cheney, welcomed by several loud boos and a few cheers, became the eighth VP to toss the first pitch at a season opener in the capital. Who was the last Vice President to toss the home opener first pitch in DC?
4. Lenovo and Best Buy announced today that you will soon be able to purchase ThinkPads (as well as other Lenovo branded computers) at Best Buy. When did Lenovo finalize it's purchase of ThinkPad from IBM?
5. What was the score of the Nationals game?
Posted by mhader at 8:41 PM | Comments (2)
April 10, 2006
Quick Rant
I'm sure I've ranted on this before, but it seems to be getting worse. Networks need to abide by the clock and keep 30 minute shows 30 minutes and 60 minute shows 60 minutes. ABC seems to be the worst based on my experiences, but NBC and CBS are also quite guilty. Generally they've been adding a minute to shows. Last week, however, ABC added 5 minutes to 'Lost' Wednesday night. I saw it as an attempt to fight back at NBC who started 'Heist' at 10:01 the previous week (of course now the two both come on at 9:0x). My guess is they didn't make the show longer by adding 5 minutes, they just added commercials (thank goodness I could skip those). Why do they do this?
Bottom line - Money. They want to get more commercials on the popular shows, and they like to screw around with the tivo generation, hopefully making them stick with same network because you've already missed 60 whole seconds of the show you really wanted to watch on the other network? It makes it hard for me, with just one tuner, to easily record all the shows I actually want to see when they overlap by a minute (not that there is really much on the tube I want to see these days). I need another tuner card (I'm sure my signal would look great with another splitter on the line!) so I can actually record everything I want to watch rather than acquiring it by other means..
Posted by mhader at 10:50 PM
April 8, 2006
Picture...Saturday
There is a new scanner in the house so I pulled out some of my printed photos to scan. The scanner is a good bit quicker and has a much higher resolution (I can actually make a good looking wallpaper for my monitor) than the old scanner. The above picture is in honor of my dad's (he's on the left) birthday last Thursday. It was taken in July of 1994.
Posted by mhader at 8:50 PM | Comments (1)
April 6, 2006
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday Dad!
Posted by mhader at 5:49 AM | Comments (1)
April 5, 2006
Non-Trivial Answers
1. 'Jurassic Park', followed by 'E.T.', 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park', and 'King Kong'
2. Grey's Anatomy (Bonus answer: Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) and Cee-Lo Green (Thomas Calloway))
3. The Hammer
4. Jim Kimsey, Steve Case
5. 1996
Posted by mhader at 11:12 PM
April 4, 2006
Trivial Tuesday # 13
1. With only a week on the shelves, King Kong has set a new record for Universal Pictures, selling 6.5 million copies and earning over 100 million dollars. What is Universal's largest grossing film to date?
2. Crazy, by Gnarls Barkely, is the first download-only song to make it to the number 1 position in the UK Charts. On which popular US television show did it recently (in the last week) get some airplay? (Bonus, because that should be a tough one to answer: Who makes up Gnarls Barkley?)
3. Tom Delay, former House Majority leader, has been caught up in a few scandals during his tenure. He announced today that he will not seek re-election. What's his nickname?
4. America Online official became AOL LLC yesterday. Can you name a former CEO of America Online?
5. Florida beat out UCLA to win the 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship last night. What year did Billy Donovan start coaching the Gators?
Posted by mhader at 6:23 PM | Comments (1)
April 3, 2006
Ghetto No Mo'
Well, at least not the mailbox. With something new, something old, something borrowed, something blu..well..black, and after way too much procrastination, a new mailbox post has finally been erected by the street. Many of you were likely lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the ghetto mailbox we had for quite a while. The ghetto post was thrown together [with parts from my college loft] after some contractors working for our neighbors destroyed it. The new one follows the style of the old, which isn't something you can just buy in the store--that's part of the reason it took a while. I think my mom and I could go into the lucrative business making mailbox posts.
Posted by mhader at 10:21 PM | Comments (1)