No Television Weekend

Too busy over the weekend to even think about turning on the TV. Found that I have gained an extra hour of sleep by not watching television while eating breakfast. I hope Joe and Mika (hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe) don't mind. The extra hour of sleep is quite an enticement to make a ban on morning television permanent.

Skipping Adult Swim on Sunday allowed me to enjoy other activities. I made it to bed at a decent hour and even managed to write a couple of gags.

Still transitioning to the laptop. I need to get my contacts and some e-mails from the old computer. I updated my cartoon using Dreamweaver and managed to set up a site with FTP successfully on the first attempt. I have been using Notepad with a little help from FrontPage. I really like auto thumbnail.

Skipping the gym tonight to rest after the Armadillo Dash. My quads are a little sore. If it is not too cold I will take Loki for a walk.

Lessons from Nanny 911

I've spent too much time on Saturdays watching back to back episodes of Nanny 911 on CMT.

What I have learned from Nanny 911:

1. Don't have more than 2 kids.
2. When trying for a second child avoid using drugs that increase your chance for multiple children.
3. Children will exacerbate any issues that the parents have.
4. Mothers should do something outside the home without the children once in a while.
5. The pets are usually well-behaved.

All this is easy for me to say, I'm not a parent and I own a dog that I allow to behave less than perfectly.

I've not seen an episode with the blonde nanny in action. I wonder what her special abilities are?

I like It's Me or the Dog. I've not watched any of the episodes filmed in the United States.

Victoria Stillwell's dog training power comes from the big red belt she wears on almost every episode.

Okay, I like watching train wrecks but only of the self-made middle class sort.

Olympics

Where can my dear husband see a good video of the drumming countdown to the opening ceremony of the Olympics? We tried nbcolympics.com but all the videos either edit that part or talk about how spectacular it was and then not show it. MSN also does not acknowledge the existence of my TV provider so I had to say Dish Network in order to see some of the archived videos.

I spent a good portion of the weekend watching various Olympic events. Can someone from another country explain to me what is so damn exciting about soccer? It is more fun to watch than golf, poker and fishing but not by much. I understand the existence of soccer hooligans, now. I watched soccer games on both CNBC and Telemundo.

Watched women's beach volleyball. US vs. Japan. The Japanese team is the second shortest team in the tournament at 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 9 inches! Caught a bit of men's rowing, and a little of women's indoor volleyball.

The men's light heavy weight boxing matches were boring. Jab - hug - jab - hug - jab - hug - jab - hug. The welterweights and light welterweights were much more interesting fights. I'm becoming a fan of Tony, one of the fight commentators. He sounds and looks like an old boxer that took too many to the head. He provides some of the best unintentionally funny commentary. For example, 4th round in a light welterweight match, the scoring was close and Tony says this match will come down to whoever can establish his identity. I did not realize boxing had so many dimensions - punching, bobbing, weaving and identity formation all in two minute rounds. Most of the boxing matches have been on CNBC and Telemundo but be sure to watch a few matches on CNBC for Tony's commentary and a segment called Tony's Corner. NBC needs to bring Tony into prime time.

I'm cheering for a 33 year old gymnast competing for Germany - a woman competing in women's gymnastics.

Watched a sport new to me - synchronized diving - much more impressive than synchronized swimming.

For those on Suddenlink Cable the channels are 6 (NBC), 21 (Telemundo), 23 (USA), 37 (CNBC) and 64 (MSNBC). I'm annoyed with NBC for not showing Olympics on all their channels at the same time. They only use two channels at a time and seem to go to commercial at the same damn time. I like to see various events and want to jump around during commercials. I guess NBC got too much grief when they added Sci-Fi to their Master's coverage so that one get left out for the Olympics.

I don't know why I'm so interested in this Olympics (I signed up for the alerts for Track and Field). I don't think I will get much done in the evenings for the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of games, I will be doing my first event in the Gold's Gym Games tonight - push ups. I'm aiming for 25, my personal best so far 21.

OCD in the funnies

Dagwood only wears that to work. His weekend clothes are elsewhere. Are five pairs of the same shoes really necessary? Unless he plans on running an ultra-marathon in that get up and the shoes go up a half size I think one pair of shoes would be sufficient. Given Dagwood's other quirks I guess owning several pairs of the same style of shoes seems comparatively harmless.

I wonder about the extent of Dagwood's work clothing neuroses. Does Dagwood pitch a fit if the Monday shoes are placed under the Tuesday suit?

Dagwood: Blondie, the Wednesday bow tie is on the the Friday shirt!
Blondie: Dagwood, they are all the same.
Dagwood: No, they are not! You just refuse to see the differences! How many times do I have to show you? The Wednesday bow tie is a slightly lighter shade of red. And --- oh no! --- the Thursday pants are with Tuesday jacket! AHHHH!!!!!

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder explains so much about Dagwood. The chronic tardiness, sleepiness, and the long baths. Blondie is a saint to be able to live with Dagwood for 75 years.

------------------------------------
The History Channel has moved away from all Nazis, all the time. I think everyone has gotten the point about the Nazis - they were evil. That is the point of every Nazi documentary.

Now the History Channel is all dangerous jobs that kind of suck but pay pretty damn well. Deadliest Catch, Axe Men, and Ice Road Truckers. A show about how tough it is to live and work in Alaska will premier soon. Eventually the History Channel will take this to its logical conclusion - a show about the camera operators who film these people doing the dangerous, kind of sucky, well-compensated jobs. Call it Camera Men!

I will expect fair compensation and executive producer credit if this show ever becomes reality. I know a special has been done about camera operators in dangerous places but never an entire show. The whole thing will stretch to infinity until Discovery Networks collapses into itself.

At least I have an idea for a cartoon.

Battlestar Galactica

The first of episode of the final season of Battlestar Galactica premiers tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel at 9:00 pm Central Time.

To my friends and family, I love you but do not think about calling me after 8:55 pm tonight unless you are dying.

When Battlestar ends Sci-Fi better have something just as good to replace it. No not another Ghost Hunters, please. Battlestar and Enterprise reruns are the only things that really justify Sci-Fi's existence.

I anticipate major geekgasm tonight.

In case you have not seen this yet:

Getting things done

I finally found a way to get up in the morning and make it to work on time. I use my cell phone's alarm clock feature and have the sound set to the chirps of Salvador. The sound wakes me gently rather than jarring me out of a dream and Walter does not hear it and get disturbed. I've tried it successfully for two days so far. I haven't experienced the 9:00 am - 11:00 am struggle to stay awake, either.

I've accomplished a few minor but overdue tasks.

Things have become a bit busy at work but I don't mind. Keeps me out of trouble and justifies my existence at work.

I feel good about how this week has unfolded so far. I'm a bit behind in scanning my cartoons but I still have four days worth on the hard drive. I have three cartoons in the box awaiting scan.

I still read the comics but nothing has been worth commenting on. At least the Charterstone Tales did not happen as I feared.

I finally saw the Chocolate Rain video on YouTube. Oddly enough, a reference to it appeared on both South Park and Lewis Black's Root of Evil tonight. I did not go looking for the video. I received a subscription update - looked at that video which lead to the Chad Vader parody of Chocolate Rain and finally to Chocolate Rain. I'm glad I caught that bit of pop culture when I did or else tonight's line up on Comedy Central would not have made as much sense, especially, South Park.

Massage therapy is winning the Mary Worth poll. Still time to cast your vote. If you want to know what being a super delegate feels like vote 1,000 times.