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With a pathetic and predictable final loss in Atlanta Sunday, the Seahawks put an end to yet another weak finish. The game featured mostly replacements in the second half from the visiting team who made plenty of mistakes. The urge to protect starting players is completely understandable but at the same time I do not see how losing to a bad team provides good preparation for the upcoming wild card game.
That's why I don't get the big bucks from Paul Allen.
The reason I try to avoid fiction was punctuated over this holiday break. I sucked up both Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades in the past few days.
I just can't put down a good book. My time evaporates until the Spousal Unit kicks me under the covers enough times that I turn off the light, usually after 2:00 AM. But, that's the last of the fiction for a good long while.
Later today the Seahawks will attempt to avoid a repeat of last year's seaon-ending losing streak. The stage was set for the encore performance by the stupidly weak outing against the Panthers.
The Ravens come to town for a game that has massive implications for both teams. Just kidding. The only reason to care about this game is that the Seahawks need to stop this mentality where they quit on games before taking the field. It's like they expect the other team to make it easy for them. A nice long losing streak is not the ideal preparation for the post-season.
Mike Holmgren hates losing for any reason much less to inferior teams because his guys take naps during plays. In order to come away with a win today the Seahawks need to make a serious attempt to play well, almost as if they were tuning up for better teams in the playoffs. Everybody else understands this so let's hope the players get it this time.
Daughter the Second gave an HD Tivo to the Spousal Unit and me for Christmas and we got to open it early so we could beat the post-Christmas rush on cable cards. Did I ever mention that I have the best daughters in the history of the universe? I don't mean to burst any parental bubbles out there but the competition is closed and the winners have been announced.
Back to the point. The difference between Tivo HD and Comcast HD DVRs is like the gap between NFL football and intermural flag football. At a Division III school. Without football. Or intermurals.
It's such a treat to be able to quickly navigate screens, have the fast forward stop where I expect, have shows disappear when I tell the system to delete them, to have the system not crash when it's in the middle of recording. Little things like that.
Comcast needs to call up Tivo and pay whatever outrageous sum the Tivo execs can dream up to replace every single lame-ass DVR Comcast is currently foisting on their poor customers. Let this arrogant and ill-concieved (need I say failed?) experiment sleep with the fishes.
Sure Tivo no doubt asked for extortionistic fees years ago and at the time creating a DVR from scratch seemed so simple. Now, Comcast, you know that you can't just throw dollars at a technology problem and get a great result. Or even a modestly satisfactory result. One of these days we'll talk about why.
So. Love the HD Tivo. Good riddance to the Comcast POS DVR.
Every now and then I'm in the right place at the right time. Not for me but for somebody else. Mostly I don't think about it in-between but as the number of these occurances pile up I do get to musing about them.
Yesterday afternoon was another one.
I was at the mall with my brother getting a last-minute thing but as we were leaving one traffic light was malfunctioning. In fact, the only part of the light that was not working was the lanes going our direction. I bailed out of the car, deciding it would be faster to walk back to the office.
I stood on the corner of NE 8th and 104th AVE NE in the rain. I had my hood up and was feeling fairly festive. A young lady waited for the light to cross to the South while I was heading East. The light turned in her favor and she set off in pursuit of whatever purpose brought her to that point and time.
A silver Mercedes pulled out, making a right-hand turn from 104th on to 8th right in front of me and struck the girl. She rolled up on the hood slightly then crashed to the wet and cold pavement. So often cars will creep out then wait for the pedestrians to clear which is how I expected the scenario to play out only the Mercedes did not stop. The time and distance between the creep-out-and-wait and the impact was a couple of feet and half a second.
I've replayed it many times in my head since then trying to determine if there was anything I could have done to prevent the collision and I come up frustrated each time.
The girl popped up right away saying she was OK. I was at her side in a handful of rapid steps. She kept repeating that she was OK but seemed (unsurprisingly) dazed. Another man ran up with 911 on the phone. I found out later he was using the nearby ATM and had his back to the incident but heard the impact. I told him to make sure the driver didn't get away.
It concerned me that the girl would have just wandered off with shock and adrenaline masking injuries so I guided her to the sidewalk then found a bench where she could sit. A passenger in the offending vehicle jumped out, the driver's son it turned out, to check on things and apologize but I ignored him and focused on the girl.
Very quickly a motorcycle cop arrived followed rapidly by a blaring parade of emergency vehicles: fire engine, Medic One, another police officer, who knows what else. By the time I had given a statement to the first officer the EMT's decided to transport her to Overlake Hospital. It wouldn't surprise me if she had a concussion and some nasty sprains but that's not a bad trade for a meet-up with a Mercedes.
They whisked her away and that was that. Probably will never have any more involvement in the case, she will never know about me -- maybe not even remember me -- but that's how this seems to work. I found my way to be at that spot at that time so I could take charge for a few minutes until the emergency people could take over.
As I said, every now and then these things happen. My daughter thinks it's my knack but then she's been reading the Alvin Maker series. I'm not ready to admit to any such thing but I have found out that these things do not seem to happen so much to other people. I'll leave the explanation to others.
OK, let's get this out of the way: what a terrible title. Just awful. The runners-up must have been some real stinkers. Reminds me of one of the biblical names for the devil, I Am Legion.
This movie was pretty good for a zombie flick. Worth a matinee ticket. I very much liked that the cause of the zombie-ness was a virus design to cure cancer. It apparently had some unexpected side-effects. The law of unintended consequences in full bloom. (Let's see, that seems familiar somehow)
Will Smith was in his save-the-world persona and that's what was called for here. As the Spousal Unit mentioned, Mr. Smith is starting to look -- not old but no longer young. Happens to all of us if we're lucky.
At 101 minutes the movie came in way too short. Whole swaths of potential storeline were snipped away so that key story points touched the screen only briefly, like a stone skipping across the water. This left the movie experience much less satisfying than it should have been.
On the whole, for a zombie movie it was better than most.
I went to buy some iTunes gift cards from the iTunes store (if you want the link, find it yourself) for some last-minute Christmas giving. What? A week to go is last minute.
Problem is, iTunes only provides physical cards that they mail out. What kind of moron is behind that plan? I can buy a gift card on Christmas morning and put it under the tree before the family wakes up -- from anybody but Apple.
Any one who fears late delivery (me) will simply pass on iTunes gift cards and find something else. Great strategy, Napolean.
As noted earlier, I have been interested in getting FIOS at my residence. Installation was scheduled for today.
Last week, after reading some notes online about FIOS port blocking (notably 80 and 25), I called to cancel. The order-taker had no idea what port blocking is, so I was passed on to the techies. The young lady who spoke to me confidently informed me that they block no ports at all and don't care what you run. Kewl. So, I let the order stand.
During today's installation, I mentioned this to the installer and he said they do block 80 and 25. He called the mothership to verify but the sad truth is that HTTP and SMTP ports are verboten. Since I do anti-spam development from the house this little nugget is a deal-breaker and I said so.
So, I will be keeping my Comcast service for the time-being.
UPDATE: In the process of re-enabling my Comcast broadband service (or, rather, keeping it from going away) I was able to upgrade to 16mbps/2mbps with the click of a button from the Comcast rep and a reboot of my cable modem. Problem solved.
After realizing they probably had as good of playoff positioning as they were likely to get, the Seahawks went out and played like nothing mattered against the dreadful Panthers, losing by a few points (I don't even want to read the sports page to get the final score). The Line That Offends gave up four sacks, including the game-clinching sack/fumble that lead to Carolina's winning TD. By the fourth quarter I was fast-forwarding through most of the "action".
The Seattle defense made the Panther's rookie, first-time starting quarterback (whatever his name is) look like a star. Not sure what John Marshall's game plan was for the defense but "Run Away!" could fairly easily sum it up.
If Seattle was intending to concede this game (and the next two) they might as well sit the starters.
On the plus side, this was the first game I watched on the new HD Tivo and it must be noted that the difference between Tivo and the Comcast HD DVR is astonishing. The picture is better, the remote response is better, the fast-forward stops where you want it to and the UI is better.
The latest from the Cohen Brothers, No Country For Old Men, is an intriguing movie right up until the movie stops. This film doesn't have an ending. Rather, it reaches a point where the brothers apparently ran out of film stock, ideas, or both and then decided to simpy run credits.
It took quite a while to decide what the movie was about. I was pretty sure I liked it, except as noted above, but had to think about what I liked and why.
*SPOILERS GALORE AFTER THE JUMP*
Here's what I concluded. This is a story about the loss of innocence of a people. The folks in small-town Texas are completely unprepared for the evil that falls on them in the form of the relentless Chigurh.
Chigurh stands in for the Evil of Our Time, whatever time that may be. The film is set in 1980 (you have to do the math to figure it out, they don't put it on the screen) but I have no difficulty parking the concepts in 2007.
Sheriff Bell is the man whose job it is to protect good people from the bad ones but is completely unprepared for Chigurh. He is no Dirty Harry but just a small country Sheriff used to dealing with drunks and small-time drug dealers. Chigurh is several orders of magnitude beyond, a land shark who moves from one kill to the next with a steadfast calm and a clear head.
That's the thing about Evil: it isn't always crazy. The results of evil appear insane to civilized society but the perpetrators often act in a rational manner that fits within the structure of their rules. Which is why I think Chigurh represents Jihad. Sheriff Bell can't grasp the nature of evil on this scale. Hell, he doesn't even pursue Chigurh in anything like the way film cops go after a killer. More like he trails along behind Chigurh, shaking his head at one bloody mess after another.
In the end Bell can't deal with his failure to capture Chigurh and the escalation of violence. He has no tools for the fight and even less desire to participate, so he quits. Chigurh walks away, battered and injured but undeterred and therein lies the lesson. Unless Evil is pursued with relentless vigor and tracked to the ends of the earth until it is exterminated then Evil will come again.
And that, in the end, is a young man's work.
Verizon spent the spring and summer jackhammering my neighborhood laying down fiber lines. I put up with the 6:30 AM drilling and pounding in anticipation of super-high speed internet.
I decided to take the plunge. The mailer I got this week offered 15 mbps connection for $49.99 (one year commitment) plus $15 per month off for three months. So I followed the link to the special website: http://www.verizon.com/fios46 which i'm spelling out here because the last two digits will change before long.
Guess what? Can't get that price or that deal from that website. So I called the phone number on the mailer (877-232-7330) and they didn't know anything about the deal or how to get it. It was suggested to me that it is a local deal only and that the national call center hadn't gotten it yet. Nonsense, because I've been getting these mailers for months now.
I plan to call the local business office (800-483-4000) to see if they know anything. After that I'm going to the Attorney General with a complaint of false advertising.
I got a refund from Expedia on a non-refundable ticket. Here's how:
In my previous entry the manager "John" (I'm sure he didn't use his real name) flatly refused to refund my ticket and hotel on a flight that was not unworkable due to weather in Las Vegas.
After that fruitless conversation I called US Airways to work on alternatives but nothing was possible unless it resulted in the wife and I spending the entire weekend flying or waiting to fly. The extremely helpful clerk at USAir cancelled our tickets, meaning the entire trip. Perfect-o.
After getting back home I realized the hotel reservation was still out there. I called the hotel directly and cancelled that, too, but they informed me that the refund would have to come from Expedia. Uh-oh.
This morning when Expedia's stupid online site was back up, I called back in. With the airlines and the hotel both agreeably cancelling and offering refunds, Expedia had no choice but to cooperate. So, there you go: if you want a refund from Expedia then work it backwards and leave them no option.
Was scheduled to travel from Seattle to Toronto via Las Vegas yesterday but storms in NV got in the way. The flight was delayed, naturally, not something Alaska Air has a lot of control over. The connecting flight departure gave us only the slimmest margins for catching it.
I called Expedia to see what they knew. After explaining the situation to the "Customer Service" representative I was put on hold. For 48 minutes by the timer on my cell phone. I called back and waited for another fifteen minutes before hanging up.
The wife and I were literally standing at the gate, boarding passes in hand, waiting for any information regarding our connecting flight. Alaska knew nothing, the US Air phone system said it was on time, and Expedia was stonewalling.
If we got on board we could very easily get stuck in Las Vegas with no way home. No the world's worst scenario but not what was planned. The gate agent said they had to close the doors so I had to decide. I thanked them and said we weren't going. It was the right call. That flight ended up missing the connector by three hours.
I called Expedia for some resolution. I asked to speak to a manager and was connected with "John" (not his real name, I'm sure, but that's what he said). I was far more upset over the lack of service from Expedia than anything else. John explained that Expedia doesn't have any information about flights, that they, "are only an online booking service" to quote him exactly.
Helping customers who are stuck at the airport isn't part of their job. Finding customers another way to their destination is just absurd. Once you pay them money they are not interested in your problems, especially if the flight is non-refundable. Free money!
Why, then, I asked him, didn't the reps just say so? Either time? I explained to John that in this situation "I don't know" is a perfectly suitable response and one I could easily deal with but his people were incapable of such honesty so instead they left me hanging on the line for an hour. Then he said, "Nobody told you to stay on the line." I guess next time I hear the words "please hold" I should ask, "How long"?
No refund forthcoming from the assholes at Expedia, either. Thankfully, US Airways was completely understanding. I should be getting my refund from them later. Marriott was equally cooperative, although the pleasant clerk I spoke with informed me that I would have to go through the morons (my words) at Expedia for my money back. Can you say "fat chance"?
I should add that the geniuses at Expedia took down their entire system for half a day for an "upgrade" so I will have "a better experience". Well, it will take more than a pretty UI for that wish to come true. What kind of idiots take their entire business offline for 12 hours? No doubt people at Amazon would just laugh at the idea.
Any guesses when I might use Expedia again? When Frosty and Lucifer play together.