---

    I got up so late I completely missed Roger Ebert's show. I also completely missed the eBay auction on those Eric Idle books for which I'd been waiting all week! During lunch I reminded TechTV's Audio File had done a special show on U2's concert tour. I checked the TechTV web site and found I could record this show at 2:30 in the morning, so it looked like another long night tonight.
    I finally got around to hand-washing my car for the first time this Summer. I even used wax on it. And, I finally remembered to try out some of that RainX on my windhsield and side windows. I'd bought that stuff on a whim a long while ago, so it was about time I put it on at last. For once I actually wanted it to rain after washing my car, just to see if that RainX worked.
    I watched the Crouching Tiger DVD for the commentary track, watched Inside the Actor's Studio, and stayed up to tape TechTV.

---

    As expected, today was pretty quiet. There would be a holiday in a couple days and I'd already heard many people were taking the rest of the week. Because Jeremy volunteered to work Wednesday, I'd actually get Fourth of July off. This would be nice, although I had no big plans. We finally got our second power supply installed on our DLT tape drive.
    I was planning to finally force myself out to a movie theater tonight to see A.I., which had opened Friday. I swear the last movie I saw in a theater was The Phantom Menace. I didn't want to fight crowds so I decided to go tonight instead of over the weekend. I would be able to get out early tonight though, which meant I had time to go home and change clothes. I discovered my silly little magnetic bracelet package had shown up from Hong Kong. I'd been suckered in to ordering it because it was given away "free" when I completed some e-mailed survey. The bracelet might've been free but it cost $7.95 for shipping, which was easily handled through Paypal. I mainly went through with it just for the sake of trying out a magnetic bracelet. I couldn't figure out how to get the thing on, so I brought it with me.
    I went to the Star Taylor, on Eureka and Racho. I took surface streets since my usual way is closed off and under construction. It turned out this way was under construction too. The five lanes of Allen Rd were closed down to two at West Rd. I wasn't sure if the whole way was going to move as slowly, so I abandoned it and took the expressway anyway, getting off at the next exit. I took Sibley to Racho and even this empty out-of-the-way road was under construction. It was down to one lane! There were no flagmen, but stop lights had been erected which fortunately were timed well enough that opposing traffic cleared before cars started crashing into each other.
    After all my preparation to avoid crowds, there were seventeen people in the theater. I got to see The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter trailers! LOTR actually looks better on the website, since the images are sharper and brighter. The Harry Potter trailer looked better on the big screen, since the video file on its website is so small and glitchy. I wish I could launch into a thoughtful and well-written critique of A.I. but words fail me. The movie has flaws, but I pretty much expected as much. This wasn't a Summertime blockbuster as much as an exercise in constructing a lost Kubrick film. And I thought Spielberg and Kubrick brought out the best in each other. The movie had the thought-provoking depth of a Kubrick film but the fluid camera and more natural acting of a Spielberg film. I was overwhelmed by the look and the mood of the film, so much so that I wanted to maintain that mood. I was so impressed with Haley Joel Osment's acting that I stayed up til around three:o'clock watching my DVD of The Sixth Sense when I got home. I guess a mini marathon of his movies this weekend. (I also figured out how to get my bracelet on then too.)

---

    I went to Best Buy in the morning to buy some CDR blanks. I also tried to find John Williams's A.I soundtrack. It was supposed to be released today, but the store did not have it yet. I thought work would be as quiet as yesterday, but there turned out to be a lot to do. The software for our on-screen Program Guide had finally showed up, so I tried installing it. A manual in PDF form had been included on the disc; it printed out to 94 pages! I followed its instructions and it appeared the software was running properly again. It looked like it was working, but it wasn't, since our Program Guides were still shwoing "NO INFO", just like before the NT crash. We also found out we had to upgrade our scheduling software to comply with the other departments. I ended up doing this too, which was available as a download from one of the company's public drives.
    At around four I noticed some digital tiling on our channel 300. I waited til the show on it was done and then faulted the encoder boards. We're still without any spares so the channel went black for about five or ten minutes while the boards reconfigured. I'd worn my magnetic bracelet to work, which I realized belatedly was a dumb thing to do with all those electronics about. I made sure to remove the bracelet before messing with our encoder boards. Frustratingly, the tiling problem remained when 300 came back online. Even worse, the tiling soon spread to other channels. There was nothing we could do about it till programming was done for the day; after that, I contacted our support company in San Diego. I ended up spending all evening at work. I talked with a phone support person for a few hours and then was contacted by a field engineer so we could troubleshoot for a few more hours. Although there was tiling on all channels, 108 seemed to have the worst of it. When I pulled 108's boards completely out the problem went away. It seemed odd that video problems on one channel could affect all channels, but I guess it is possible. It was as if that channel's boards were throwing out so many errors it was overwhelming the encoder. I could not leave 108 black tomorrow, but I could do so for 109; and since 108's boards were presumably bad, I physically swapped them with 109. Spare boards were expected to show up Thursday, after the holiday, so I assumed the problem would be completely fixed then and we'd be back up our full complement of channels. Since things were good for now, I sent off a couple e-mails saying the problem was solved, and then I went home at around eleven. I accidentally left my magnetic bracelet behind.
    I got my Metaphor CD in the mail, but I listened to a bit of it. I also looked over my video footage of nephew Joe's graduation party. I wondered if it might cause flashback nausea, but instead I was simply reminded how I'd shot way too much footage. At least I could cue the tape up for use tomorrow.

---

    I finished up work on Mabry's Aleythia CD at the same time I was duping his Metaphor CD to minidisc. There was no real reason to make a minidisc copy, but at least it gave me a chance to record something as well as to learn how to create track points and name tracks. In the afternoon I impulsively started work on Darryl Chatman's Tummy Name Generator. Before dinner, I discovered someone had uploaded MP3s of John Williams's A.I. score. I still intend to buy it, but I was still so caught up in the feel of that movie that I could not wait to hear the music again. Unfortunately, my monitor started wigging out. It lost picture, forcing me to turn it off and on again. Some times that alone is enough, but this time I only got a second's worth of picture before the screen went black again. This made it particularly difficult to save my downloads and then shutdown the computer. I could only move one second at a time. A lot of that was spent just trying to spot where my cursor was on the screen. Then I had to find out where to click "OK". Then turn the screen back on to click the second "OK" which verified the second first "OK". It took about three minutes just to shutdown my computer.
    My brother Rick's family came over for dinner. We had a tasty cookout of ribs on the grill. They wanted to see my photos of nephew Joe's graduation, but my monitor was still acting up. I opened up the mini-tower and tried to clean and reseat the video card, but this didn't work either. I wondered if I might need to reinstall my video drivers. I laboriously went to the ATI site and got the latest drivers -- still moving one second at a time -- but this didn't help either. Even worse, I noticed that I was losing picture during the DOS boot-up, even before ATI's drivers would be loaded. This made it seem like there might be something wrong with the monitor itself! I couldn't get over this rash of hardware problems I was experiencing. It's that damned magnetic bracelet, I thought. I'd left it at work, but it had probably created enough of a magnetic field in me that I was systematically destroying all the gadgets I came in contact with, one by one.
    Plus forces were at work denying me the ability to listen to A.I
    I remembered though that I could show them my photos directly from my camera, but plugging into a TV input. This caused us to want to watch some our old tapes of the boys as children. Jake had been irritated I hadn't taken any pictures of him at the party. Now he was more irritated since he hadn't even been born yet when these tapes were shot. It was hilarious to see that one clip of my nephew John drinking water like a dog -- on all fours, out of a puddle on the ground! I should digitize that and put it up on my site, just to completely embarrass him!
    I went over to Rick's house later to get ready to to go the Trenton fireworks. I discovered that my sister-in-law had also gotten sick after the party. I felt slightly vindicated that I was not quite becoming the lightweight I feared. We got to the park a little late so the field was full. We just plopped down near the sidewalk instead of trying to weasel our way further down the hill. The fireworks were decent, and I especially enjoyed how they set off a few extra fireworks after the grand finale. It was fun to see people scurry back to their places just as they were about to leave. They actually did that twice. I stayed at Rick's afterward, while my nephews lit their own stockpile of fireworks. Rick happened to have a spare monitor he could loan me. It was an old and small Compudyne. I hooked it up when I got home. Its display looked ever worse, but that was because I still had my video set for 1024x768. I rebooted into Safe Mode and changed my settings. Frightening but true, I actually was forced to operate now at 640x480 and in 16 colors. I at least finally finished download the A.I. MP3s. I stayed up later still duping this to minidisc and naming the tracks.

---

    I expected to be lauded as a hero when I got to work, for single-handedly fixing the tiling problem on Tuesday. The new, spare encoder boards had shown up and Reid had put them in, but, unfortunately, the tiling problem had returned. My boss was in, and he was upset that I hadn't contacted him on Tuesday. Someone had asked his boss about the video problems and, taken unawares and feeling blindsighted, he'd instructed my boss to improve communications from our office. I chose not to argue, but I couldn't help thinking the reason I hadn't sent out more e-mails was because I'd thought the problem was solved on Tuesday. But, then again, I never had CC'd my boss's boss in the e-mails.
    Once again there was nothing we could do about it till the end of programming. So we just had to bear with the tiling and blocking and glitching for several hours. Then, at eight, I was able to call our support company in San Diego and I could start pulling boards and taking down video. Fortunately, our various help desks knew of our dilemma, so they intercepted most of the trouble calls during the day. I ended up talking with the same support person as on Tuesday, and, late at night, he put me in contact with the same field engineer. It really appeared as if our encoder worked better with one less channel. It no longer needed to be 108, like on Tuesday. If I pulled any channel out, the tiling went away. This seemed quite strange, as if our encoder could handle fourteen channels but not our full complement of fifteen. To them, it sounded like a problem with our bandwidth, but we had not made changes to the bandwidth in many months.
    As the night wore on, I started getting very confused. My boss had insisted on performing an "e-prom" flush, but this seemed to make everything peform even more bizarrely. Once again I decided to leave 109 off the air for tomorrow (since no programming was scheduled for it anyway), but for some completely inexplicable reason I now saw video on 109. This was physically impossible. It's boards were completely pulled, as were the boards for all the spares (so as not unduly trouble the encoder further). Yet, with all those boards removed, I was still seeing video on all channels. This made absolutely no sense, and even the field engineer on the phone was stumped.
    It took quite a while before I figured out what was up, and figured out that I'd been tricked by my own handiwork. Every night one of our divisions sends data through our pipeline on channel 102. To make sure all receivers get this data we run a Virtual Channel Override which force-feeds 102 on to all channels. This takes place at midnight and runs till five in the morning, and I set those times up myself every morning. It wasn't til one:thirty that I realized what I was seeing on 109 was not 109 but simply 102's video, and since it was after-hours all video on all channels was the same announcement-board graphics anyway. So I'd spent the last ninety minutes chasing my tail.
    At two:thirty we finally gave up and conceded defeat. Our encoder simply could not handle all fifteen channels at the same time, so, for now, we left it running with only fourteen channels. And I made sure to CC everyone on the e-mail I sent out, before I left the office at three in the morning.

---

    I truly did not want to go to work today. I'd just left the place nine hours ago, after spending a fifteen hour day there. Even though I'd had a day off this week, I still managed to work eight hours more than on a normal week! And since I'm salaried, I couldn't even get those exta hours in overtime. I finally got around to visiting the Dell tech support web page and sending them an e-mail about my monitor problem.
    At work, the hardware problems were getting worse. Apparently plenty of receivers in the field were exhibiting bizarre behavior. Our normal solutions and tricks were not working either; and we couldn't simply have new boxes sent over, since we were fairly certain the problem was related to our own equipment problem. My boss was over again, checking things out for himself and already in contact with our support in San Diego. Once again I had to sit around till the evening before I could try and major repairs. At least our video look okay now, since 109 was still down. My boss had planned on taking another week off next week, but this was denied now. His boss told him he could not allow the time off until our problems were fixed. Obviously, my boss was not pleased by this development and he left soon afterward.
    The support group was still fairly certain our problem was bandwidth related. IT did seem like it, but I didn't know how this could be so since we hadn't made any changes. They walked me through lowering our used bandwidth by 200KB. Almost immediately, the support team's own receiver was able to get our broadcasts, so we hoped this might clear up all our receiver problems in the field. And, just as suspected, I was able to put 109 back online. We were running all fifteen channels at the same time without any glitching now. It was suggested that one of our multiplex boards has three crystal oscillators on it which regulate the bandwidth. The oscillators are quite sensitive and it was quite possible they'd been damaged during our last power outage and this could explain our problems with bandwidth. However, the support group did not have a spare for this multiplex board, but they still planned on sending two other spares this weekend. One was, in fact, to be sent to Reid's house, so he'd be able to install it immediately. Now that I'd solved the problem by lowering the bandwidth, Reid no longer needed to come in. Unfortunately, I was unable to contact him to tell him. He was not responding to his pages.
    I e-mailed everyone about this latest development and then I got to leave. Fortunately, we'd hit upon this solution by eight:o'clock, so I was able to leave at my usual time. Reid evidently caught one of my pages, since he paged me back on my way home. I called him up from home and let him know not to come in. But he told me he had to come in Sunday anyway.

---

    It had been nice to have an evening free last night, just to relax. I got up late today, discovering Dell had written me back. Their big suggestion was to check my Power Management settings. Yeah, right guys. I may be wrong, but I really don't think Windows has a "Turn monitor off after 1 second" setting. So I sent them another e-mail reiterating my problem. More importantly, I had an e-mail from my pen pal in Illinois. She was asking me if I could compose a poem to use in the invitations for her husband's 30th birthday party. She'd asked me this before but I kept putting it off. She'd written a couple verses herself, so, thusly inspired, I finished the poem and finally got in the shower and got dressed.
    I found out my brother was coming by today. He was bicycling down from Northville just to see the Downriver Dream Cruise on Fort St. He was also using this as an excuse to bike around his old stomping grounds in Southgate. He would come by here around five, and his family would be showing up around five:thirty to pick him up.
    We went to Bellacino's for dinner, a sub shop and pizzeria in Woodhaven. I hooked my Dell monitor back up for my nieces. I'd given it two and a half days' rest, so I figured it should at least manage to work for the evening. It lasted forty-five minutes in fact, before I had to go back to using the Compudyne monitor.
    As my brother's family drove off, I spotted some impressive fireworks being shot off from the street behind us. Someone had spent a pretty penny on those illegal fireworks, since a couple of them rivaled the real thing. Back in the house, I discovered my pen pal had liked my poem, whereas I liked the fact she'd sent me two letters in one day.

---

    Once more, I slept so late I missed Ebert's show. Once I got dressed, I went out shopping. I couldn't resist pricing new computer monitors. My Dell monitor is still under warranty, but it was hard not to be tempted to just outright replacing it with something bigger and better. A big 21" or 23" monitor was within my price range, but I was fairly certain they'd be too big for my table. A flat panel would be more desirable but the only ones I could afford were smaller screen than I wanted. That was a decided step in the wrong direction.
    In another step in then wrong direction, I had to go to Target to buy some new shirts. My Summer wear does not fit me anymore. Not only did I buy a couple XL golf shirts, I even actually bought a couple XXL ones. There was no denying I was buying actual fat clothes.
    In the afternoon I got a call from Reid. He was at the office and needed me to come in. He had something he had to do, so he wanted me to come in at seven and take over for him. Amazingly, the support group had not sent him a replacement board yesterday. He'd called them and they said they were no longer sure our problem was with the mulitplex boards. I got to the office before seven but Reid had already left. I was asked to lower the bandwidth another 200KB. Despite the fact so many receivers in the field were having problems, none of the receivers in our room were. The only one we knew of was our boss's boss's. I called up my boss, who drove over to his boss's office to check the receiver. It was still bad. My boss came by the office afterward to make some calls and send out some e-mails. He was complaining how his vacation this week was canceled, and his mood was not improved by the fact his boss did not answer his cell phone or any pages.
    It was agreed there was little we could do now until upper level support was called in on Monday. I got home around eleven, I think.

---

    I was woken up by a door bell. The cement guys had finally shown up. They'd redone the driveway next door some days ago, and we wanted them to repair our sidewalk on the side of our garage and also the patio behind the house. They left some equipment in our driveway but then went down the street to another job.
    Dell's e-mail support was pretty much useless. It appeared to be automated too. Their second suggestion was to try a Power On Self Test. Which was the same as step 2 in their initial list of things to check. So I tried calling them in the morning. I was on hold for maybe a half hour before I finally had to give up and go to the bathroom. I tried them again, after showering. I dialed the number given in their e-mail but somehow ended up being transferred to some department that handles military orders. The man who answered gave some other numbers to use, and then presumably transferred me. But by then it was too late and I had to give up.
    A team of engineers in San Diego was working on our video problem at work. Our boss was in the office, on the phone with them. They were noticing a lot of junk data coming through, so they asked us to pull the connection the SAC port. Immediately, they reported the problem went away. Even better, one of our boss's boss's receivers was now working. The SAC port was what we use for the information on our on-screen Program Guide. And it soon became apparent this whole week of video trouble was all because of how I had installed the Program Guide software. It had never occurred to me to consider how the tiling problem had coincided with my getting the on-screen Program Guide installed. And even though it wasn't exactly working as it was supposed to, it had never occurred to us to actually close the program. It was quite troubling to realize all our equipment problems were all my own doing. Even worse, today would've been the first day of my boss's vacation, and I have expected him to demand my paycheck be docked again to cover all the camping equipment he'd just bought. Instead, he was peeved more by the fact it had taken us a week before we'd been allowed access to upper-level support.
    I'd simply followed the manual print-out, and when it showed a picture of a screen with a baud rate setting of 912K, that's the setting I'd used. But, as was explained to me now, we had not had that much remaining bandwidth, so, while the encoder struggled to accomodate our on-screen Program Guide's needs, the rest of the channels suffered. Plus, since our on-screen Guide's software was not configured properly, it was spewing out junk data which was confusing the recievers. I had had no idea the on-screen Guide was so powerful and so insidious. I was told to drop the baud rate down to 254K, but we still could not get the software running properly. "NO INFO" still showed up on all Guide screens. I wasn't sure that would work either. We had 254K remaining, but that was because the bandwidth had been lessened 400K since Friday. I might've been asking for trouble, but, after the phone call, I tried to lower the bandwidth on my own; but that didn't fix the Guide either. At least the Guide was no longer doing any more damage; and we were able to accept trouble calls and troubleshoot receivers the same as before.
    I called Dell again when I got home. The person I spoke with agreed to swap out my monitor immediately. They'd send a new one out and I could use the box to return my defective one, and they'd pay the postage. I should expect the new monitor in a week.

---

    One of my letters yesterday was about my Mobil Speedpass, reminding my credit card would expire this month. I decided to get it off that credit card anyway, so I called up to change my credit card information. It turned out to be a good thing I did, since I hadn't realized how low on gas I was. I tried to get some McDonald's for lunch on the way to work, but both restaurants I tried were packed. I remembered seeing ads last night for some giveaway for the 11th and 12th, and I wondered if people thought it began today instead. Things were back to normal at work. All channels up, no video problems, and the equipment behaving as expected. We got an e-mail that mutiplex cards were shipped, so we called our support group again to find out if we had a multiplex problem or not. I almost hoped we did, since this would make me less culpable. But they told us to send the multiplex boards back as soon as we got them. Reid thought it might be best to wait, to raise our bandwidth 400K to where it had been to make sure our video stayed good.
    I got an e-mail late in the day about my unofficial Li'l Stubby page. Apparently, not one of my links worked! This was quite a shock. I checked the page myself and confirmed I was unable to download any MP3s. When I'd moved the files from my SFG space to my new space I'd used its IP address for my links. I would've thought that was unchanging, but evidently it was better to change the links to my virtual domain name. I did that now, hurriedly, and reactivated all my links.

---

    I'd been meaning to send a package out to an old friend of mine, John Mabry, with whom I went to junior high school, and with whom I'd trekked over Europe one Summer. I at least finally got around to e-mailing him. I planned on meeting up with my buddies after their golf game tonight, but work kept me til after nine. I still tried to get to the bar in time, especially since I'd burned copies of my U2 Detroit show for them. We talked about setting up some kind of intranet so we could share computer files, so I did some research on that when I got home. The best news of the day though was my Dell monitor had already arrived. I hooked it up immediately, and then stayed up way too late getting caught up on computer work.

---

    We discussed file sharing a lot during e-mail conversations in the morning. I felt like getting some KFC crispy strips before work, but the place was packed. I went across to Arby's instead, getting a chicken cordon bleu sandwich. I couldn't believe how tough it was to turn left out of their parking lot. I ended up getting in ten minutes late. There was no denying it either, since our big boss ran across me in the parking lot. He asked if I was going into the office and added he'd see me in a few minutes. It turned out some data transmissions were failing, and it was believed the problem was in our room. It turned out we simply needed to power cycle a modem -- which we hadn't even known was back there.
    Along the way we got in touch with our support group in San Diego and got their permission to up our bandwidth the way it had been two weeks ago. I was also on the phone with them going through all the settings in our Program Guide software. It turned out it had been far from being ready to run. But, by around four or five, we got it working. In fact, everything was working and everything was back to normal. Just in time, I figured, for the next catastrophe.
    I once again had to stay till nine. I discovered John had written me back already. A while ago I'd made a deal with some guy, through eBay, to trade U2 concerts. He had the Lexington show I needed (which I'd attended but had not recorded) and he was interested in my Detroit show. We'd agreed I'd send him my Detroit and Toronto recordings (which themselves have been pirated and auctioned on eBay, to my great bemusement) and he'd send me Lexington and two blanks. I'd done my part, but I'd never heard back from him. This had been weeks ago, but I finally decided to send him an e-mail and ask what was up.

---

    I've since grown out of being superstitious about Friday the 13^th. Nowadays it seems like I have worse luck or am in a worse mood on the 12^th or 14^th. I'd heard yesterday that some audio techs had been called in to investigate a reported problem. I wondered if this would be traced back to us and we'd be blamed for something else. But after a day or two of inspecting the equipment in the production studios, it was finally determined the problem was not the fault of the equipment. Someone had realized that people complained when the soft-spoken instructor ran classes, but not when his louder counterpart was hosting.
    I got out of work at eight tonight, which allowed me to head on up to Royal Oak to see another Li'l Stubby & the Disappointments show. I brought both my DAT and my minidisc recorders. This would be my first chance to test the minidisc out "in the field". Larry Banner, the bass player, got the okay from Neil the sound guy for me to patch my DAT into the mixing board. However, while I was over by the soundboard with Neil, some guys stole my table. I wasn't able to get another one, since the open tables on main floor were reserved for dining. Luckily, I'd just met up with Scott Stroshane, the guy who'd e-mailed me two nights ago, and was able to sit with his girlfriend and friend.

---

    I probably should've spent some time creating some Li'l Stubby MP3s off last night's recordings. I listened to them, but instead of working with them I did some writing. Late in the day I decided to go out to the video store and rent some DVDs. I'd been relying on NetFlix for quite a while, but I'd gotten tired on waiting a week for each movie to show up. It had been such a long time since I'd been to the neighborhood video store I hadn't even known the New Releases against the wall now included DVDs. I walked through the entire section of DVD racks, scoffing how they had nothing new, only to find the New Releases in the last place I looked. I rented O Brother Where Art Thou and The Contender, both of which I liked a great deal.
    One of these days I'll add my reviews to my DVD page.

---

    Even though there were two street fairs in neigboring towns this weekend, I went with my mom and dad up to the street fair in Plymouth. We met up with my mom's sisters, and we walked from one aunt's house all the way to the fair.


I brought my minidisc player, for the heck of it, listening to my Li'l Stubby recordings and the soundtrack for O Brother Where Art Thou. My aunts are notoriously slow, seemingly hypnotized by crafts and stuff I wouldn't give a second glance to. So I wasn't surprised when we got separated almost immediately. I walked past the booths quickly, and then doubled back to look for my relatives. I met up with my dad and one uncle, sitting in the park in the center of the street fair, and reportedly my mom had been by only minutes before. I went off looking for her, until I ran out of street and went back to the park. Now my dad and uncle were gone too. I didn't see any art I liked, but at least I got to a nice Pad Thai lunch from a kiosk on the curb. I still did not see any relatives while I ate, so I decided to head off to the front of the fair, wondering if they might be waiting for me. As luck would have it, I happened to hear my Aunt Dorothy as I walked by. I stopped and found my aunt and my mom looking over a sun-catcher for the garden. I met up with them just in time since they were about to walk back. I could've sworn we were going to meet at a flower shop on the corner, right at the start of the street fair; but my mom explained that that idea had been dropped since no one could agree on the time. So I guess it was a very good thing I'd met up with them just then.
    By coincidence, my Aunt Dorothy had just seen O Brother Where Art Thou and was even talking about buying a copy. So she took a great interest in my minidisc of its songs. After we left, my Aunt Mary and Uncle John accompanied us to Applebee's for dinner. I'd never heard back from that guy who'd offered to send me his Lexington CDs. I'd done my part, but this jerkoff was evidently pimping me. Luckily, I discovered a copy of a Lexington show was available online, at Blood Red Sky. So I was able to start downloading the show for free. So screw that guy.

---

    I finally mailed John's CD package before work. I discovered a couple spoilers online about X-Files next season. I also watched The Mists of Avalon a day late. I thought they did a good job telling the story, and I liked it better than the book. It wasn't quite so preachy and didactic. I watched some of my Cast Away rental afteward. I tried downloading some QuickTime movies from the Pete Townshend site, but I had trouble playing them. I'd noticed this before, while trying to watch the Harry Potter trailer. I thought it was just a problem then, with Warner Bros crappy capture. But it seemed to be more widespread.

---

    Our stupid power was out again when I woke up. The weather was far from inclement, and in fact it was sunny and hot. Since the sidewalk next to our garage was finsihed, my nephews came over to help fix the landscaping. They'd picked a terrible day to work outside since it was hot and humid. Fortunately our power came back on before I left. I couldn't resist going online and checking my e-mail in the few minutes remaining.

---

    I really didn't have time for it, but I went to Borders to check out some of the books John had recommended. I enjoyed reading some of the sermons he'd posted on his site, so I'd asked him suggest some books on the "historic Jesus". I couldn't find the ones he'd mentioned, but I did find one called simply enough The Historic Jesus. I tried to buy it, but discovered the checkout line was incredibly long. I don't know what made this lunchtime so special; you would've thought it was Father's Day this weekend. There was no way I could buy the book, so I went without. I got to work ten minutes late. And there was no denying it, since I ran into the big boss's boss on the way in!
    After work I tried to meet up with my friends at Big Al's Sports Bar. I showed up at quarter to nine but still wound up around twenty minutes early. I'd brought another copy of my U2 Palace show, since one of the guys who'd showed up was a big fan (big enough to actually skip the Wednesday golf game to go see the show). I thought Schmoe and Mike would be there, but was reminded they were out of state at Six Flags for a big in-laws reunion.

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    It appears my QuickTime problem is actually the result of my trying the beta version of Internet Explorer 6. I'd been forced to upgrade to IE6 because my previous version of IE5.5 would not let me log into the Windows Update site. (And I could not reinstall IE5.5 since it, for some reason, would simply not let me.) So I'd fixed one problem but had created another. And it's laughable that Microsoft is suggesting the problem lies with QuickTime. It's obvious an IE6 problem since I can't view QuickTime files at all -- online or offline.
    I'd thought about going to Borders again, but decided to just order a book through the Barnes & Noble site (one of the ones John mentioned: Jesus Matters by C.J. den Heyer). I also looked around for Stanley Kubrick DVDs on eBay. I was thinking about getting the re-remastered box set. Actually, I realized the main reason I wanted it was for the documentary disc. This disc is only supposed to be sold with the box, but I discovered a couple people were selling it separately. I put a bid on it, and in this way I could see the documentary and could still boycott the box until Warner Brothers releases the European version of Eyes Wide Shut.
    I also added a pop-up window to my homepage. Not one of those annoyingly ubiquitous X10 ads (I'm embarrassed to admit I bought one of those cameras now) but a self-closing pop-up window which appeared while my DHTML menu bar loads.

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    Speaking of my menu bar, I discovered it somehow no longer worked in Netscape. I swear it had worked fine when I'd first installed it, but now there was something wrong. I redownloaded Netscape when I got home (since I'd removed it a while ago) and I confirmed my menubar would not work in Netscape anymore. I also ended up removing the pop-up menu from my homepage. Even being self-closing, it was still a pain. I also tried using Odigo, since it was supposed to allow me to be accessible to AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger users. I couldn't tell if it worked or not, since no one IM's me. John got his CD package today.

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    I had big plans for today. I'd been making noise about revamping the look of my homepage, but to start with I worked on creating one MP3 from last week's Li'l Stubby show. It was a good thing I had indoor plans since it was raining out. It hadn't rained in quite a while -- which actually coincided with the day I'd put RainX on my windshield to see if it would work. The rain got pretty intense, turning into a bona fide thunderstorm. The lights flickered and power went out. But it came right back on again, causing my computer to restart. I tried to continue working on my big plans, but the power went out again, and then came back on.
    It did that five times. But, on the fifth time, the power stayed off. What was more aggravativing was that the rain had stopped by this time. The DTE recording said power would be restored in three hours. Which soon became five hours. I'd meant to get so much done, but now I couldn't do anything. Just to occupy my time I decided to create an audio diary, recording a RealAudio message I could include here.
    After three hours, I got so sick of doing nothing I impulsively ran off to the movie theater. I went to see Shrek, at six:o'clock. Last time I'd gone to the show the feature had started fifteen minutes late. So of course, when I arrived about five minutes late the movie of course had to already in progress. I suppose I was still in a foul mood from having lost power a dozen times in a week, since I ended up not really enjoying Shrek. I did not care for the anachronistic humor and music -- although this and the animation are the film's big selling points. I couldn't help wondering how cool it would've been if they'd actually animated a straight forward children's fairy tale.
    But no, that would mean the movie couldn't have fart jokes and characters getting hit in the balls...which of course every family movie must have nowadays.
    Amazingly, astoundingly, the power was still not on when I got home. Now DTE was saying a "crew has been dispatched". Oh gee, thanks. Oh yeah, sure; we live five hours from Detroit, so I could see why it would take some time (he typed sarcastically. We actually live about twenty minutes from Detroit).
    We finally got power back at nine:thirty.

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    I'd been so lazy these last couple Sundays that I could not wake up in time to catch Ebert's show. I finally managed today...only to discover it was pre-empted for the British Open.
    Figures.
    The first order of business to print up lots of CD lables and inserts and artwork, so I could finally identify all the unmarked CDRs lying around the den. About midafternoon I finally started playing around with the look of my homepage. Then, at night, I decided to create another MP3 for my Li'l Stubby page. It turned out to be terrifically huge file, but I like the song so I uploaded it anyway. I also worked on fixing my menu bar problem in Netscape. I discovered there was an upgrade to my DHTML menu bar creation program...and that solved the Netscape problem.

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    I kept getting the same stupid e-mail all day Sunday. I couldn't believe it when it continued through today. I eventually discovered I was being bombarded by the SirCam virus. I was not threatened, since my computer was protected; I was simply getting irritated by having the same stupid "Hi! How are you? I send you this file in order to have your advice" message.
    I stopped at Best Buy before work. I needed to get more Neato CD label sheets, since I'd run out yesterday morning. I also bought a CD shelf from Mead. I liked the Mead model since it did not have slots; this meant I could file single and double-CD clamshells together. (The old Allsop holders used to do that, and was stackable too, but like most things I really I like it was discontinued.)
    Apparently there's discussion of our working with the Muzak company on some project. I don't have much to do with it. When I got home, I was puzzled to see my computer already on. I found out the power had gone out AGAIN this afternoon (which caused my computer to restart). And then, around eleven, the frigging power went out again! But it came back on a couple minutes later.
    I can't believe how fragile our "infrastructure" is now. This does not bode well at all, especially since there are a couple new subdivisions being built up in the area. So if the power goes out every time there's a stiff breeze now, what's it going to be like with some new neighborhoods leeching off us?

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    I continued getting those stupid SirCam e-mails -- including one from my boss! Even worse, it had been sent to his boss, and had infected his boss's home computer! The corporate servers had removed the virus, so we were safe at work; but the big boss wasn't so lucky. It amazed me how I'd gone through so many high-profile viruses (like I LOVE YOU and Naked Wife) completely unscathed, but now was continually getting SirCam e-mails.
    I'd gotten my tax refund check ("For America's Workers") in the mail yesterday. George W "Sugar Daddy" Bush was trying to buy my love with a three hundred dollar check. Someone online had joked they should give their check to the Democratic National Committee. I on the other hand put it promptly in the bank, to help cover all the credit card payments I'd just sent out.
    Around five:o'clock I got a phonecall. God, I wish I could tell you all about it...but...the law is involved, so I have to maintain the anonymity of the guilty party. But, man, what a hilarious story! I stopped at the Best Buy by work on the way home. I picked up another Mead CD shelf (which was sadly the last one in stock), plus some more blank CDRs, some blank minidiscs, and some blank Hi8 videotapes for the big Homecoming and reunion weekend. At home, I expanded my Lexington MP3s to make CDs out of them.

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    I tried to tape some of my X-Files episodes for some friends, before work. I was upset to find the one DVD had frozen twelve minutes into the episode. I already have this one on laserdisc, so I taped it off that; and then I tried to squeeze in a second episode before I needed to leave. It would be close, but I went for it. And then, forty-five minutes later I thoroughly disgusted to find I hadn't taped anything at all. Somehow I'd hit Stop instead of Record between discs, so I'd wasted those forty-five minutes for nothing! I ended being a full twenty minutes late to work too. (And I could not explain why.)
    Reid had some stories, but the big news was that Jeremy was forbidden to work weekends. Part of the appeal of having a third guy was the fact we could have him work weekends; and he was amenable to it, since he could get overtime, while Reid and I remained salaried. But why would a company pay someone an hourly rate when they could have us work for free, right?
    I went back to Big Al's after work. This time, I decided to do some shopping first so I wouldn't get there too early. I went to the Best Buy in Southgate to see if they had anymore Mead shelves. Luckily, they did. I also got a "wet" CD cleaner, to see if that might get rid of my X-Files DVD problems. In the checkout line I ran into none other than my brother Rick and his wife Debby. They were buying a new computer monitor at last, a nice flat-screen one. Mike and Schmoe, at the bar, were talking about finally having a Whose Line party, where I could show them my PPV tapes as well as Whose Line's hilarious 100^th episode (which I still had on tape). They talked about having it coincide with the online sign-up for Fantasy Football. At home, I tried cleaning my X-Files DVD but the little oval discoloration on the disc would not disappear. I feared it might be a mastering problem. It didn't help that this was one disc out of seven in this package...and, that this was the second disc in the set that was giving me problems. It further did not help that I'd taken my time going through this box set, so I'd probably blown my chances at getting a refund or replacement.
    Coincidentally, I finally tracked down my old tape with Whose Line's hilarious 100^th episode.

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    I've made a history of avoiding "reality" shows, but I was intrigued by Murder in Small Town X. I was caught up less with the "personalities" of the contestants than with the mystery itself. Trying to read anout it sent me over to Mighty Big TV. They did not mention the show, but instead I got roped into reading up on some of their X-Files material. The moderator, Jennifer, had written a recap of Darin Morgan's "Humbug" episode. She made a point to criticize closed-captioners for using the name "Feejee Mermaid" instead of "Fiji". On a whim I typed "Feejee Mermaid" into Google, and got a bunch of returns on PT Barnum (whence the name originates). So I was irritated Jennifer hadn't had the sense to take thirty seconds and do the same. No, she'd rather toss out ill-informed insults.
    I got my Pete Townshend package tonight, plus my Kubrick documentary DVD -- Jesus God, Nicole Kidman looks breathtakingly gorgeous in her interview segments (...and she's single now, too...).

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    I stopped at Office Depot on the way to work, picking up some extended phone cords. Last night's Whose Line sent me looking for some Colin Mochrie sites. The official one has started a listserv, so I signed up for it. Match Game tonight, on Game Show Network, featured the unexpected appearance of Kirstie Alley, not as a guest star but as a contestant!

    I got an unexpected e-mail from my friend Mike Loftis, inviting me to go to an ELO concert in September.

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    Now that Jeremy can't work weekends, I had to go in today. There was supposed to be a block party today but fortunately no barricades were up yet, so I was able to drive off without a problem. Programming ended after twelve, so I gave my friend Mike Auquier a call. Back on Wednesday, he'd invited me over. I wanted to make sure the invitation still stood. He told me to come over now; I'd expected to go over after dinner, but he said his wife was working during the afternoon. Even better, his kids were at a birthday party. I'm closer to his house at work than from home, especially since I just need to take one east/west street for about fifteen miles. However, the street is lined with traffic lights so it took almost an hour to get there. I stopped at Taco Bell on the way, craving some food despite the fact Taco Bell is notoriously messy. Remarkably, I managed to eat my food without leaving a stain on my shirt -- but it was my damned diet Pepsi which dribbled on me! (I'm not even sure how, since the lid was on tight.)
    Mike had a couple guys over, working on installing a patio. I discovered Mike bought himself an electric guitar, which he was trying to teach himself to play. He told me how his new neighborhood is having a vote on uniform mailboxes. I was completely against the idea, but he said he didn't mind if all the mailboxes were the same. He was concerned though since one mailbox choice was cement. which he feared would make the streets look like a series of Stonehenge momuments. It looked like cement was the frontrunner too, especially since the woman in charge of thew ballot seemed to be stacking the deck. The choices were wood, aluminum, and cement -- and somehow installing an aluminum post was more than the cement structure!
    I guess Mike had contacted his wife, since Sarah showed up with some extra food for dinner. Mike had a cookout; we had steaks, the kids had fat burgers, and Sarah had fish kabobs. One of the kids found a silly "Hot Potato" game and us menfolk ended up playing it in the backyard. Without even trying I ended up winning several games, much to the kids' irritation. Brian tried to trick me by keeping hold of the Hot Potato, waiting as long as possible before throwing it away -- but this always backfired on me, with the Hot Potato going off in his hands. Back inside, Brian tried to quiz me using his 2^nd graders trivia cards. (I got them all right.)

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    In the afternoon, I ran into an old college buddy, John Kurko, online. We chatted a bit and I told him about my CMU photo album. I impulsively decided to finally do another page in it, since I'd stopped in my Sophomore year. Now I got started on the first Junior year page. It rained rather hard in the evening, but I pressed my luck and stayed on the computer and continued scanning photos. Amazingly our power did not go out. The lights didn't even flicker! I finished the Cast Away discs before bedtime.

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    I had to stay late to work on our encoder boards. There was no problem; I was just asked to do straighten things up and do a little housekeeping. Irritatingly, one of the board sets kept failing, which screwed up the order of things. It finally got to the point where I failed all the boards just so I could set everything back up right. That night, back at home, I finally got around to writing to another old college buddy, also named John. Now, he works under the name John Curtis as a sportscaster at WHP-CBS in Harrisburg PA. He'd written me a while ago, and I only now got back to him. I'm embarrassed to admit he wrote me back in May!

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    I found out Dennis had been in this morning, even before Reid showed up. It turned out the guys at the computer network hub had decided last night at two in the morning and not this weekend was the best time to set up for Muzak, and poor Dennis had had to come in to help out. Reid had decided to help with the encoder board housekeeping, so he'd come in earlier so he could leave earlier and return here after programming was done at eight. Once again, when the time came, we decided to fault several boards at once to make it easier to line them up in order. Along the way we spotted some more tiling video. We'd been running on the spare MUX for so long, ever since our video problems weeks ago. We finally faulted off the spare, only to discover the tiling returned! So, evidently, my blunder with the program guide settings was not the sole reason for the tiling! Even though I was still to blame, I felt slightly vindicated.

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