Category: Uncategorized

After a small intro, I have an even smaller exchange with departing E-R sports editor John Johnson whose last day was Friday. Although Johnson’s traditional greeting is only two seconds long, I think it was worth preserving for a lifetime. And I’m only partly kidding.

I wish I had the chance to chat with him on the phone for a little longer.

Is it bad of me when I consider buying a minifridge for my room? I’m having some problems with some items in the common fridge being “misappropriated” by my roommates, and I’m getting tired of it.

Am I just avoiding the problem? They’re not too cheap, but I think it might save me some headaches in the long-term. It might also encourage me to remain at home more often — I would know that I have stuff to eat and drink in the apartment.

I’m just dying to hear the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh!‘s take on Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.” I saw a blurb that a Davis-area station was playing the song occasionally.

I liked the song’s sound featuring low brass and bass drums (totally dug the live band on SNL in April). I think a marching band of the Band-uh!’s caliber could rock that song.

Now I have a big reason to go to Picnic Day next April. I know I sound like a geek, but marching bands can totally rock some songs (like the Leland Stanford Jr. University Marching Band’s take on “Welcome to Paradise”).

In other news, The Digital Bits has reviewed two awesome films that recently underwent “special edition” DVD releases — Office Space and The Big Lebowski. I only need to say “TPS reports” or “The Dude” and many, many people would know what I’m talking about. Just as if I were to say that I was going “to go ‘office space’ on the fax machine.” It’s nice to see them getting new releases, but it’s kind of a bummer that the extras weren’t super according to the review.

Just some random stuff surfing around the ‘net this weekend —

– Pluming the depths of MySpace, I rediscovered “The Gleib” — aka Ben Gleib (name seems shorter than I remember). Anyway, The Gleib is a comedian and is responsible of dispelling two beliefs that I’ve held for a while — that Screech from “Saved by the Bell” is funny and that dating shows are real. Sadly, Screech (Dustin Diamond) was dreadful live a few years back and “Blind Date” seems capable of pulling fast ones over its audience.

– Saturday Night Live hasn’t been super funny this season. I don’t know why exactly. Interesting seeing Catherine Zeta Jones sing (and wondering how different she looks “live”), but it wasn’t very funny. One positive note is Tina Fey’s return to Weekend Update after becoming a mother. I got some belly laughs over some of the jokes there.

– If you’re looking for some interesting stuff to watch or listen to, there’s ZeD from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. It’s a combination TV show/Web site featuring a mix of short films, musical performances and trippy stuff.

– While I’ve previously plugged CBC Radio 3’s podcast, I don’t know if I mentioned their magazine. It features lots of music and articles about culture and music in a solid Shockwave presentation. Hours of fun listening and browsing.

It seems I’m sucked into wacky online communities to see what my family’s up to. First, I signed up for a Xanga site to post comments. Now, I’ve plunged into the depths of MySpace.

It’s nice. I found my sisters and some people from around town. I’ve been engrossed with my profile (esp. if it’s to be used as an epitaph). It’s interesting how my tastes have progressed over the years.

Now that I’ve got such a nice little pad over there, I’ll probably use it to post TV show reviews or something. After all, my user name is “galatican” after “Battlestar Galactica.”

I’m such a geek. Anywho, off to bed. Busy day tomorrow.

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Late update: When I say “epitaph,” I don’t think I’m going to kick off anytime soon (I hope). However, if the time comes I want there to be enough information about me. Maybe I’m a little paranoid. – RTO

Last Saturday, I was in quite a rush to get some VHS tapes and DVDs to my friends and family. It seems the U.S. Postal Service was in a rush too — my sister in Berkeley and my friend in Connecticut both received their packages on Monday.

That’s technically one business day after I sent the item. It’s practically overnight delivery — albeit with a Sunday in between.

I’m impressed. I’m slightly less impressed with my own response time — two of my friends got tapes of shows that aired last spring. Oh well, my sister is able to catch up with the new season of Battlestar Galactica that aired until a few weeks ago.

I’m worried that the TV comedy “Arrested Development” will sink further into the abyss by moving from the cushy post-Simpsons Sunday spot to Monday night. They’re trying to make fun of it with ads of the cast trying to make “Monday” a curse word.

They’re probably going to “monday” themselves in the foot. After two years, the show has had a hard time trying to find an audience for their quirky brand of humor. The ad does nothing to convey that.

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Floundering tech — I was trying to access [adult swim]’s Friday Night Fix, featuring streaming episodes of their top shows and new premieres. I quickly hit a snag — the streaming video wouldn’t load and I couldn’t tell what technology it was using.

I think I’m hitting some technological walls with my five-year-old computer. I’m running a processor that’s two generations old and an OS that nearly no one writes for anymore.

Still it’s amazing how much I can still do with this computer.

And what a day it was. I was out of the river … working. It was my own bright idea though because I thought it would be interesting to cover one of the biggest local events of the year. In the past, tens of thousands of people showed up to float down part of the Sacramento River on Labor Day.

The police launched a crackdown this year because of the large number of law enforcement and public safety officials needed in years past. Additionally the event was becoming such a large party that it was bringing lots of people from outside the area.

I also thought that covering this in blog form could boost and enhance our offerings on Chicoer.com. So I spent all day at the bar of a restaurant by the river.

I’m kinda curious to see how well it’s received. There were some interesting comments.

Unfortunately it appears my “The river — without the crowds” slogan I used on the house ads to promote the blog came true both virtually and in reality. Instead of getting the anticipated 20,000 participants on the river, they just a small fraction of that — about 665 people.

The blog is Labor Day Live.

My thoughts go out to the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It’s hard to grasp the enormity of this storm’s effect.

I’m disheartened by the news that the effort to try to patch the levees didn’t materialize when expected. Amid all the footage on CNN, I didn’t see any shots of helicopters dropping the 3,000-pound sandbags into place. Now we know why — the helicopters were apparently diverted for search and rescue.

I hope they can get those levees patched and staunch the horrendous flooding affecting the Crescent City.

Must be late at night, but I thought this to be a pretty awful way to tout one’s product.

“Your local newspaper. We write good.”