Friday Funny: BlueTooth?

City Cousin: Well, it'll probably be many a year before modern technology makes its way to your little hick town.
Country Cousin: I wouldn't exactly say that, cuz. We got ol' Bubba, he's pretty much a wiz with that GreenTooth technology.
City Cousin: GreenTooth? Don't you mean BlueTooth?
Country Cousin: Obviously, you've never met Bubba.

I Love TV

The title says it all... or does it?

To be more precise, I'd have to say that I love certain TV programs. Lost and 24 are my favorites, for completely different reasons. Lost, for the mystery and the character interaction, 24 for the action, the intrigue, and the larger-than-life modern-day superhero known as Jack Bauer.

The only comedy I currently watch is My Name Is Earl. This show is redneck screwball comedy at its best, with a good message that sort of lies barely hidden, just below the surface: Everyone's made mistakes, but if you try hard enough, you just might be able to make up for some of them. I was watching Crumbs, too, but that lasted about 6 weeks and then disappeared. They say it's on "hiatus"... which means we'll probably never see it again. Too bad, it was hilarious, and Jane Curtin stole the show every episode as a freshly-discharged mental patient who had tried to kill her cheating spouse (William Devane) by trying to run him over with a car. (Although, with this show on hiatus, it did free Devane up to make a return appearance on 24 as Secretary of Defense James Heller... there's your silver lining!).

That's it for me as far as comedies go. The rest leave me bored, mostly, although I have caught bits and pieces of Freddie and George Lopez; they're not bad, they're just not "must-see TV" for me. (Note: I don't really consider Monk a comedy, although I know a lot of other people do.) Before Earl, I hadn't really gotten into situation comedy since Friends and The Drew Carey Show.

At some point in the near future, I am going to get a digital video recorder (DVR). For those who don't know, a DVR works something like a VCR, only there's no tape (and if you've EVER had a tape break in your VCR, you know full well what a pain in the ass that can be!). It has a hard drive, similar to your computer, and records the program right onto the hard drive. Depending on the size of the DVR hard drive, it can record anywhere from 60 to 100 hours of TV. People that own TIVO's call them TIVO's, everyone else calls them DVR's. I'll be renting one from the cable company, so mine will be a DVR. If you think it's a lousy idea to rent one from your cable company, consider this: to use TIVO, you have to have a subscription to their service, which will cost you $10 a month. To rent a DVR from the cable company, it costs you $10 a month, but no further "subscription" charge. So, you can spend $100-$200 for a TIVO, and pay 10 bucks a month, or you can pay NOTHING up front, and then 10 bucks a month. What sounds better?

In about a month, most of the stuff I watch will be on summer break. By the time fall rolls around, I should be well-versed in the use of the DVR, so I won't be such a slave to the TV schedule. I like the shows that I like, but damn, I kinda hate that they tend to run my life sometimes. (And taping programs on the VCR can get to be SOOOOO tedious, a tape will only hold so many hours of programs.) Anyway, it'll be great when I finally become the master of my TV domain!

Yada yada yada!

Resolutions Any Day Of The Year

Many people start New Year's Resolutions on January 1st. And how many are still sticking with their resolutions by mid-January? Not very many, I'll bet. (NOTE: I re-use the same New Year's Resolution every year, and I've never had a problem sticking with it. My resolution? To not eat caviar.)

However, there are no laws that say that resolutions can only be started on New Year's Day. It's either 3½ months too late for that, or 8½ months too early, and I want to start now.

Anyway, there are some things I would like to change in my life. Probably the main thing is my health. When you're a big guy, it's hard to find decent clothes that fit. Plus, it would be nice to have some energy, instead of spending so much of my time feeling tired. So, instead of bitching and moaning about it, I'm going to start doing something about it.

I cannot diet. That's not to say that I can't or won't adjust what and how much I eat -- I can and I will. But I won't waste my effort on a total deprivation system. In the end, that would be doomed to failure. Instead of dieting, I plan on eating more sensibly. Also, I need to start exercising. And, just as they always say on TV, I did check with my doctor, and he approved my exercise plan.

So, having said I'm going to work on getting myself in shape in a public venue such as this, I feel that my feet are somewhat held to the fire, and I will HAVE TO go through with it. Don't worry, this won't be turning into a health journal... It's still going to be anything I feel like ranting or raving about, or anything else on which I feel like waxing poetically. But, as I make any kind of progress, I'll post it here. And if I make any startling discoveries that I feel might help other people, I'll share those as well.

You have been warned!

Vocabulary Word: "aphorism"

aphorism \ noun:
1. A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage.
2. A brief statement of a principle.

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A Death In The Family

A memorial service was held yesterday for my Uncle David. (I was not really close to him.) He died on March 30th, but he was cremated, which gives you some flexibility when it comes to scheduling the service.

My sister said it best in describing Uncle David: "He was a gentle soul who never hurt anyone except himself." You see, he had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. He was also the kind of person who was a follower, as opposed to being a leader. Those two nuances make an awful combination, as you might imagine.

The cause of his death was liver cancer, brought about by Hepatitis-C. He also had cirrhosis of the liver. He was only 57 years old. That's too young to die, in my book.

I know some people might say, "He got what he deserved." I'm not necessarily inclined to disagree with that sentiment. But still, a nice person is no longer walking the earth. In his later years, he'd given up most of the substances he'd formerly abused, with the exception of beer and ciggarettes. I would also like to point out that he served honorably in the United States Army.

I have to simultaneously laugh and shudder at one thing. Last Christmas, I bought Uncle David a big box of chocolates. Well, it turns out that no one told me that he had a pretty bad case of diabetes. Yet, he seemed so happy to get that box of chocolates. Maybe he knew he didn't have much time left, so time to enjoy life while you can.

The bottom line is, don't let anyone tell you that drugs don't hurt anyone. If nothing else, they shorten lives needlessly, and they also hurt the friends and family members left behind.

R.I.P., Uncle David.

So, I Edited My Template...

This post will probably only be interesting to my fellow Blogger bloggers (and even then, maybe not!).

In the Profile area for Blogger, they have sections for Favorite Books & Favorite Movies, but strangely, no section for Favorite TV Shows. What's worse is, no way (none that I could find, anyway) to edit the Profile layout. So, I thought to myself, "Ha! No problem!" (just like ALF used to say it). I backed up my template to a "safe" file, just in case... then I created a section for Fave TV shows underneath the Archives section on the right sidebar. I've only been doing this a few days, and I'm already editing the template... but then again, I am a computer programmer, so it's not that big a deal to see how something's done, mimic that action, and then tweak it as necessary.

By the way, if it seems like I watch a LOT of TV shows, that might be misleading... Due to the way in which different networks schedule their shows' seasons, they are not all on at the same time of year. In about 6 weeks, all of my shows that are currently on will have their season finales. Starting sometime in June, I will only have 2 shows on: The 4400 and The Dead Zone (which is fine with me, it will be summertime, time to get outside and do stuff!!!).

Sometimes, It's The Little Things...

I got a phone call this morning from a good friend of mine, who is on vacation in a place that's a bit warmer than Michigan. It wasn't a long conversation, maybe ten minutes or nearly so, but it was lovely to hear her voice. She was telling me things she'd seen and done on her trip, and to tell the truth, I was a teeny bit jealous, though not in a bad way.

When I got off the phone, something hit me: She took time out of her vacation to call me. Well, that realization made me feel really special. Now I can hear some cynic out there saying, "Aw, she probably called six other people!" Well, that IS possible... but somehow, I doubt it... and even if that were the case, so what?

Just think about that for a moment -- that you could make someone's day with something as simple as a phone call.

Now, go forth and do good.

;-]

Vocabulary Word: "truculent"

truculent \TRUCK-yuh-luhnt\, adjective:
1. Fierce; savage; ferocious; barbarous.
2. Cruel; destructive; ruthless.

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WOO-HOO !!!

FINALLY!!! I have gotten the blog completely transferred up to my own web site. Whew!!! And with no actual help from Blogger support. I did two things: (1) Read the living crap out of the Blogger Help Group, and (2) Kept checking out random blogs until I figured out how other people's Archive links differed from my own. It's amazing how much a missing backslash can screw up your life.

Anyway, please make a bookmark (or Favorite, or Favorite Place, depending on your system), the site is http://JimMcKee.com.

Thanks for reading!

Vocabulary Words

I've made up my mind to expand my vocabulary. From now on, whenever I encounter a word I don't know the meaning of, I'm going to look it up, then post it here. Maybe my learning a new word can help someone else learn a new word as well.

Ugh...!

All right, already! For a day and a half, I've been trying to move this blog from Blog*Spot to my own website (jimmckee.com). However, every time I try, I keep getting an error message stating "Your blog is under maintenance". I've even e-mailed Blogger support, but all I've gotten so far is the automated response. So, it looks like I'll stay on Blog*Spot for the time being.