Behind the Face(book) Day 3

Another day of Facebook updates uncoded (trust me, this will get less interesting as time goes on)...

is thankful that not only did Duncan sleep in his crib all night (after we finally got him in it around 10:30), but he's still asleep. Of course, Malcolm decided to climb into our bed at some point during the night and was pretty much up by 6. You win some, you lose some.

Juggling the sleep patterns of two kids can be exhausting...

officially hates Wednesday drop offs now that I'm leaving both boys at the JCC. Malcolm needs to be there no later than 9:15, but Duncan can't be dropped off until 9:30. Those 15 minutes of extra bonding time made him miserable when they finally opened the doors. Now I'm stuck at my parents' house waiting for some workmen...bored, bored, bored...

Sure its only 15 minutes between taking Malcolm to his class and Duncan to day care...but in those 15 minutes Duncan had phone trying to jam his plastic "Bob the Builder" phone into the coin return slot of a vending machine and I kept pulling it out (much to his delight -- and the nice thing was it fit perfectly)...so by the time we could go in, he didn't want me to leave...but its one of those things you do quickly, like taking off a band-aid...and he had a great day.

has pulled the trigger and started the process on switching from Cablevisionless to Direct TV.

More on this later...

Day 3 of the Wii Active 30 Day Challenge said to rest...so I did 30 minutes on the Elliptical...I'll rest later...

I figured I'm in a groove and while I could have done a workout with Wii Active anyway by just pushing the button, I decided to change things up a bit by "resting" with the game (still filled out my journals) and doing straight cardio.

Direct TV has been ordered (thanks Liz & Darin)...earliest installation is January 21 because lots of people are jumping off the Cablevisionless ship...

We know someone in the install business that we met through doing theater. If we signed up for Direct TV through his company we'd get an extra discount. I talked at length to him about my fears that we would not be able to get a good signal because of all the trees around our house. He spoke to his tech people and they claim that this isn't much of a problem these days. Less than 1% of installs have to be aborted because of lack of signal. So I figured let's try it...worst case scenario is we have a day like the one we had when AT&T tried to install U-Verse -- a waste of time -- best case is we're out from unble the thumb of Cablevision for TV service.

The sad part is that things are only going to get worse across the boards between the distributors (Cablevision, Direct TV, etc) and the providers (the various networks). In the case of what caused us to switch, both Cablevision and Scripss (owners of Food Network & HGTV among others) are at fault. And the only people who are gonna get hurt are the consumers because everything is about pleasing the bottom line of the stock holders and has nothing to do with keeping the customer base happy. Look for more battles like this, more channels removed from various distributor's lineups, rate increases and a major overhaul in how we the consumer eventually get to the programming. Look for the internet to help change that even more drastically over the next few years.

just had the best (or maybe second best) tamale he's ever eaten (which I believe brings the total in 40 years to like 4 -- 3 in the last 7 years).

Our cleaning lady brought us tamales she made over the holidays and they were yummy...almost as good as or maybe better than my sister-in-law's...of course, its hard to keep track of how good things taste when there's at least a year between eating them...but they are good.

isn't sure if it's funny, ironic or just plain stupid that 45 days after the failure of AT&T to get U-Verse into my house, they've sent me a postcard about how "my rates" are going up as of February 1. I'm gonna go with just plain stupidity. And now to watch an all new ABC Comedy line-up (just wish "Ted" were part of i...t, but we got a nice double dose last night).

Of course its just a blanket postcard that AT&T sends to all of its customers, but I found it pretty funny.

Meanwhile, ABC has finally gathered together an almost perfect night of shows on Wednesdays. "The Middle" is a funny show about a middle class family who lives in the middle of nowhere just trying to get by in life. The situations they find themselves in are easy to relate to, especially if you have kids. Patricia Heaton's voice overs are cliche, but you get used to them. The show would work just as well without them. "Modern Family" is probably the best comedy currently on TV. This "documentary" about the lives of an extended family has a top-notch cast and is always funny. "Cougar Town" should be something I dislike (not a big Courtney Cox fan), but it works well because of her supporting cast and the writing. And now they've added "Ugly Betty" to the end of the night, possibly saving it from the death it was experiencing on Friday nights. The show isn't as fresh as it once was, but it is still enjoyable.

Now all ABC has to do is find one more 30 minute comedy to plug the hole left by "Hank" (someday Kelsey Grammar will get a good show that people will want to watch again). I'm hoping they just move "Better Off Ted" onto Wednesdays. Its dying a painful death paired with the revamped "Scrubs" (which I have been referring to as either "After Scrubs" or "The Shitcom Formerly Known As Scrubs" because itis that bad). "Ted" is as funny as "Modern Family" but in a different and more surreal way. This office comedy takes a huge poke at the corporate workplace with a cast of quirky characters who wind up in unreal situations. Funny stuff.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times... who are all you people?

Occasionally I like to use quotes from various sources as a staus update -- sometimes to see if someone gets the reference, sometimes because of my mood -- This one comes from the TV series "The Critic" and was uttered by Jay Sherman's father. No reason in posting it other than finding it funny (and yet somewhat appropriate for a social networking site where I don't necessarily really know everyone I'm "friends" with).

Be seeing you.

Behind the Face(book) Day 2

Doing this a few hours later than expected because it took longer to get Duncan in bed last night.

Is sore all over...but in that good way...once both boys are out of the house today we do today's Wii Active workout and continue with the binge and purge of stuff around here...

Tuesdays are busy days for the wife. She takes Malcolm to school, then teaches a music class (although that will probably get cancelled since there were only 3 kids signed up and only 1 showed up so she pulled Duncan out of babysitting so he could be part of the class), then she picks up Malcolm, takes both boys to their music class, then Malcolm to therapy (with Duncan tagging along) before coming home around 5pm. So it gives me a good chunk of alone time in the house to try and get stuff done.

Finished day 2 of Wii Active's 30 Day Challenge. Got through all 18 exercizes without strangling myself on the nunchuk cord (my height, arm span and the shortness of the cord helped with that...an extension would be nice, but I'm pretty sure I'd wind up hanging myself in the process). Thankfully, no Inline skating today.

The biggest problem with using the Wii for working out is the nunchuk. Having the cord flopping around is a pain. My arms are too long so doing extensions means I actually have to move both arms a bit just so the cord doesn't pull out of its socket. The same thing goes with running or lunges where the nunchuk is in the thigh strap. One friend suggested going wireless, but another said that the wireless ones have very mixed reviews and suggested an extension. After yesterday's workout, wireless would be the only way to go as an extension to make the wire longer would be worse. So now I gotta figure out which one's the best...more research...yay!

apparently has Bette Davis thighs now...after today's Wii Active workout and all the moving stuff up and down the stairs all day, they're just bitching me out.

By the middle of the day, after working out and moving various things around various rooms (like the 4 VCRs that are just taking up space in my office and are now in our mudroom waiting for a decision on their final destination -- not sure if the $20 I could attempt to get for each on eBay is worth the effort and they may just get donated), my upper leg muscles were screaming at me to stop and sit down for a while. It would take a few more hours before I did that.

I've been telling Malcolm Indiana Jones stories at bedtime (made much more friendly to a 4-year-old) and I'm pretty sure my version of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is much better than the actual film. On tonight's "Daily Show" I hope that George Lucas at least apologizes for something stupid he did in the last decade.

Every night I watch "The Daily Show" at 11pm for my "news" (let's face it -- Jon Stewart's "opinions" are probably more valid than Glenn Beck's), but I rarely watch the interview segment unless its someone I'm really interested in seeing. Lucas was on to plug a book (which he did successfully as I now want to read it). The interview was funny (Stewart didn't let Lucas off the hook for the weaker "Star Wars" prequels) and interesting (Lucas has his reasons for doing what he does and was able to refer back to a segment earlier in the show about how people remember "earlier times" -- while he may have "ruined" our movies, there is a generation of kids who prefer the prequels, however wrong they may be).

One day after they announce the next Bond movie is "on hold" until MGM gets sold, they announce that Sam Mendes is directing??? Not fair.

MGM is up for sale and a few days ago the Bond producers finally came out and said that pre-production was on hold pending said sale. Now, they've apparently done an about-face and are trying to fast track the film using the director of "American Beauty". This should be an interesting film if the script can be up to snuff -- more "Casino" and less "Quantum".

That would have just been weird...

The Doctor Who News Page: Torchwood The Musical?

I posted this link to share with friends on Facebook. The idea of Russel Davies making a musical based on "Torchwood" with the guys from ABBA is weird, but intriguing...especially if John Barrowman were to still be involved (he's got an amazing voice and is probably one of the better aspects of the film version of the musical version of "The Producers" even if he's in a very small role).

Well...that's all for today...tomorrow...who knows...we've got a technician coming out from Direct TV to see if we can get a good signal at our house (I doubtful), but if we can we'll be getting rid of Cablevision (well...not their internet for now as what we've got is priced well and very fast).

Be seeing you.

Behind the Face(book)

A while ago, someone suggested I compile my Facebook updates here for those who aren't on that social networking site. So for the next few days I'm going to experiment with that a bit. But you'll get a bit more "thought" here about those status updates...

The day started with:

A new day (week, month, year) has dawned. Time for change...but first...ouch...I'm in pain....owie, owie ,owie...

I slept wrong (again). Duncan's sleep patterns have been in disarray since Thanksgiving and getting him back on track has been a royal pain in the ass. The last week or two has involved all of us going to bed once Malcolm is asleep and as soon as Duncan falls asleep in our bed he gets transferred to his crib. But inevitably he winds up back in our bed most nights and its hard to sleep with an 18 month old kicking you all night long.

Has officially downgraded his Cablevision account. The only thing we'll be "missing" is "Entourage" when it returns with new episodes...I figure we can wait for Netflix to get it...or borrow a recording from someone we know...but we're saving money now and hitting Cablevision where it hurts (wish we could just drop the...m entirely, but we can't). New year, new changes, new rules.

For those who don't know, Cablevision and Scripps (the company that owns Food Network & HGTV) have stopped negotiating and those channels were pulled from Cablevision's lineup. These are channels that the wife and I do watch a lot and would love to pay a fair price for if any company started doing "a la carte" services (they won't). It took losing two channels to finally realize that I don't need the package I have with Cablevision so we went from IO Gold to Family plus IO and are now saving $30 a month. If I could change TV providers I would, but we have too many trees to get a good signal for Direct TV (I can barely get my XM Radio to work in the house), Verizon's FIOS isn't in our area and AT&T's U-Verse hasn't made it down the hill yet (we're 1000 feet short for a good signal -- I know this because I wasted a day trying to get it installed when they were telling me that it was new to our area. Turns out its not our whole area -- but I got $50 in credit from them for my torubles and was told to check again in February as they may have gotten closer).

Just finished his first workout using Wii Active. Starting with small goals & the "30 Day Challenge". Can't do the inline skating (just can't get the hang of it) and need wireless nunchucks (well...would prefer wireless nunchucks). Now on to packing up the holiday decorations.

I'm 40 and I'm a fat emotional eater. It's time to get my act together -- one day at a time, ten pounds at a time. Today was a good day for both the intake of food and the expenditure of energy. My thighs are sore from the lunges -- but its a good sore. The holiday decorations got packed up, but they won't go back into storage until tomorrow or Wednesday.

Dear ABC, We get that you cancelled "Eastwick" because only my wife and I are still watching and appreciate that you were willing to continue airing what you had paid for...but it would have been nice to have you air the episodes in order cause the one you aired on 12/30 didn't pick up where the previous episode left off.

ABC cancelled the show after paying for 13 episodes that got made. They were going to burn them all off before 2009 ended, but they were only able to get to 11 of the 13. For some reason, they skipped episode 11 and aired 12 instead as a "final" episode. This wouldn't have been a problem if the show had stand alone episodes, but its very much a serial and they jumped from the ladies kidnapping a character to them having killed him without showing us the inbetween. Its kind of unfortunate the show got canned as its been pretty interesting. It started off as "Desperate Housewitches" and evolved into a nice mystery piece/retelling of John Updike's novel. Luckily, the two "missing" episodes will be airing in the U.K. this month, so we can at least see them through other means.

I kind of understand why ABC jumped an episode with "Eastwick" (there's some semblence of closure on one story), but they shouldn't have left a big gaping hole in that story by making the jump. Meanwhile, my wife was watching "Supernanny" because we no longer have Food Network or HGTV to keep her busy at night. I have a... new reason to hate Cablevision now...

So "Eastwick" ended with Daryl and the ladies reunited (some closure even though there was a gaping hole as to why he left and where he went) while leaving us with new plot threads just starting. Oh well...

The wife has been searching for shows to fill the void left by Cablevision's short sighted stupidity...so she catches "Supernanny" and the episode is about a family trying to get a 2 year old to sleep at a normal hour -- something we need help with...but the solution was nothing we haven't tried anyway...so we're still at square one.

Anyway...I'm still thinking about the final David Tennant "Doctor Who" episode. While it wasn't bad, it wasn't the best send-off it could have been (SPOILER ALERT). If you're gonna bring back Gallifrey and the rest of the Time Lords either do it or don't. This part of the story needed more time to play out and less "we're back, nevermind, we're gone again" two seconds later. Add to that Russel Davies self indulgent "goodbye" (I think the end of "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" was shorter) and the silly use of a name from the old series and a woman with no real identity -- two things that only played into the concept of fanwankery -- and you've got a bit of a mess with some fun moments and some nice, touching moments. I look forward to seeing what Matt Smith does beyond what seemed to be channeling Heath Ledger in the last moments.

Anyway -- that's all for today, we'll do this again tomorrow.

Be seeing you.