TiVo Series 3: Coming Soon!

TiVo giving away Series 3 player - and launch date?

So, the fact that TiVo has just launched an eleven-week contest in conjunction with American Idol, in which the grand prize is a TiVo Series 3 DVR, has already resulted in a flood of speculation as to when the long-awaited box will finally materialize. The contest rules stipulate that TiVo has up to four months after the end of the contest to fulfill, meaning that the latest the Series 3 will be available will be October.

Commence saving pennies... NOW!

Whuzzup?

Just some randomness:

  • Man, it seems like Google has de-listed the BlahStuff (or at least ranked me down a ton). My traffic has dropped by more than half starting last Wednesday. If any of y'all that get regular Google hits felt like mentioning BS in a fresh post in the hopes to re-upping my Google-juice, I'd appreciate it.
  • Hey, look! It's Mars!
  • Monkey pictures are fun.
  • Started working on a new double desk set-up for our office on Saturday. Got some nice 3/4" maple veneer plywood and glued some half-inch MDF on the bottom to strengthen it up a bit. Got to use my flush-cutting router bit for the first time, but then it got all cold and snowy. Gonna treat the edges with some strips of this cool laminated oak I have, so it should give a cool effect. Photos when there's something to see.
  • My tattoo has a few spots that will require touch-up. I wonder if it's just me, in general, or the forearm location, specifically, or a combo that cause me such problems in healing my tattoos.
  • Saw Murderball on A&E. Good stuff (except for all the Dog the Bounty Hunter commercials). Zupan's the man.
  • The BU Terriers swept UMass and will meet UNH in the Hockey East semifinals.
  • My friends at the Exchange Tavern managed to shoehorn a dart board into their fine establishment. I'm excited. Now if only they'd update their web site.
  • What with Miracle Ed's visit and the fresh tattoos, we've been out of the hot box for over a month now. Time to get back on the horse real soon. Luckily I haven't slipped much (yet).
  • The biggest crawdaddy you'll ever see (thanks Brandon).

Holy cow... Go BU!

Somewhat against the odds, the BU Terriers have won the Hockey East regular season title! Wow!

“So we finish the season 16-2-2 in our last 20 games - that’s quite a run for us and might be the best run we’ve ever had since the 1978 team that only lost one game all year,� said BU Head Coach Jack Parker. “It was a great regular season for us and we get rewarded with the league championship outright. To enjoy the evening tonight - getting the championship and getting it in the style we did down the stretch is pretty nice.�

Yep. Pretty nice.

Thanks go out to the UNH team for beating BC in their season closer.

The Oscars

The Wife and I ended up attending a small Oscars get-together last night. While we had a blast (and I won the pool!), I have to say the the event itself was kind of dull. My thoughts (in no particular order):

  • Charlize looked horrible (but as I pointed out last night - she's still hot).
  • Salma Hayek hurt me, she looked so good.
  • John Stewart was mostly inoffensive. A couple good chuckles.
  • I thought the fake promo commercials were great.
  • Seems like a lot of folks were more embarassed than entertained by Ben Stiller's greenscreen suit antics. Personally, I thought it was a hoot.
  • Why were there only three nominations for best song? That seems weird. And why were all the performances except Dolly's put on like weird high school plays? [Highlight: During the performance of the song from Crash: "Is his hand in her crotch?! What the hell?! Are they reenacting the whole movie?"]
  • George Clooney basically owns Hollywood nowadays, doesn't he?
  • Reese Witherspoon is sweet, but I just can't get past her giant forehead and generally triangular face.
  • No Mr. Chicken in the "folks who died this year" montage, eh? Fine.
  • I won the pool (amongst only four people, because others showed up late) thanks to picking oddball categories like cinematography and art direction. I think I only got one or two of the major categories right.
  • The show finished early?! They could probably have afforded to not be such speech Nazis, eh?

Other than that... Meh.

Barak Obama on Energy

I wish I had more time to ponder/discuss this speech, but I'll just post the link right now...

This isn't to lay the blame for our energy problems entirely at the feet of our President. This is an issue that politicians from both parties clamor about when gas prices are the headline of the month, only to fall back into a trance of inaction once things calm down. And so we all need to get serious here. Automakers need to get serious about shifting their technology to greater fuel-efficiency, consumers need to get serious about buying hybrid cars, and Washington needs to get serious about working together to find a real solution to our energy crisis.

Such a solution is not only possible, it's already being implemented in other places around the world. Countries like Japan are creating jobs and slowing oil consumption by churning out and buying millions of fuel-efficient cars. Brazil, a nation that once relied on foreign countries to import 80% of its crude oil, will now be entirely self-sufficient in a few years thanks to its investment in biofuels.

I like the things I hear coming from Barak Obama. A lot.

Quicky Music Reviews

In no particular order and with omissions more probable than not:

The Devil's in the Details

Fears for 'dazed' George That's erstwhile pop star George Michael (aka Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou), who was found in an interesting state:

The 42-year-old singer was arrested after police allegedly found cannabis and GHB - a Class C drug known as liquid ecstasy - in the vehicle.

Sex toys and masks were also found in the boot, according to reports in The Sun.

The paper quoted a witness as saying: "George was completely out of it - he was all over the place. He was found with his head slumped against the wheel. No one could rouse him. He was virtually unconscious. When the police came he could hardly speak."

The former Wham! star was arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive, but after being taken to a police station and examined by a doctor he was "de-arrested".

So... um... in spite of finding an assortment of drugs in the car with him, he was only arrested for maybe being unfit to drive an auto? Really? And then a doctor's examination reversed that arrest? Really?

Huh. (And yeah, nevermind that junk in the trunk, yo.)

Anchors Aweigh

"So, Heather's worried her anchor is going to be too butch, so you need to gay it up a little for her.""Too butch? It's an anchor for crying out loud! It can't help but be butch." "I know. Throw some flowers or swallows on the thing or something."

That's a conversation I had with our family tattooist, Fish while Ed was getting his greenman. So, yeah, as you may have gathered, The Wife is getting a new tattoo today.

Sadly, I am unable to attend the inking, and will have to wait until I get off work to see the latest masterpiece to come off Fish's needles.

Pictures to follow...

In the meantime, here's a little history on anchor tattoos (courtesy of Sailor Jerry):

The anchor has become quite the staple in the tattoo world but was originally associated with young sailors first trip over the Atlantic. The anchor tattoo has become a symbol for stability and a strong foundation. It can also symbolize a lover and the stability that lover has brought to their lives. In ancient times the anchor was a symbol with ties to the early Christian church. An anchor tattoo can also be thought of as holding one steadfast, like an anchor holding a great sailing ship safe in harbour, against winds and currents that might carry it astray. How Romantic.

Damn right.

Update (12:28pm): Just heard from The Wife -- apparently the anchor goes through a heart and there will be a life preserver inside the arm. And there's a banner that will be left blank for the time being (Feel free to submit suggestions. My current favorite idea: SINK OR SWIM). She's super excited and says it's beautiful. She also says she needs to start working out so she can be as badass as her tattoos seem. ;) I also reminded her that her phone has a camera and should be able to post to my Flickr account, but we may have to depend on Miracle Ed to figure that crap out.