100 Pounds of Dynamite

Like a women’s network’s scorn. I woke up to my preset alarm clock radio station and heard a commericial. Apparently, DISH network has stopped carrying Lifetime TV. I’ve seen instances of this before where the tv network calls for viewers to write their provider and request that the network be added back to the line up.

Not this time.

On this commercial Lifetime TV was telling viewers to switch as soon as possible. The announcer had a pleasent enough tone to her voice, but the words were really strong. Theres a press release on the Lifetime TV website that offers some more options, including sending a note to DISH network, but the commercial wasn’t quite as flexible.

It caught me off gaurd, but I was really glad to hear it. Aside from the occasional episode of Golden Girls or The Nanny, I don’t watch Lifetime so I’m not interested in whether is on the air or not. I am glad to see that Lifetime is fighting. We all know how ineffective letters can be - I’ve called Time Warner a couple of times already to try and get Bravo added to the Chapel Hill line up. Ironically enough they have it in Carrboro, the next town over.

So to Lifetime I say - You go girlfriend. Kick DISH network right in the nuts.

Today I went to the South Street Seaport in NYC to see BODIES the EXHIBITION. It was fascinating. They took a bunch of bodies and used a ploymer resin technique to preserve them in a state that was as close to real as I can imagine. They also had a room full of circulatory exhibits where they used a technique to colorize and polymerize all of the blood vessels and them float them in some kind of liquid.

I’m taking these three weeks to travel around the north visiting friends and co-workers. I’m not staying in a hotel any time during the trip, most mooching off friends and family. Here’s my itinerary:

12th Dec: Chapel Hill to DC - staying with Neil Starkey.
13th Dec: DC to NYC - staying with Aunt Karen and family, working at 57th Madison IBM.
14th Dec: Working from Hawthorne, NY at IBM Research hanging with the social computing group - Staying with Kelly-boy in Stratford CT.
15th Dec: Working from Southbury, CT at IBM SBY hanging with the Webahead gang - Staying at Judy’s after the Webahead holiday party.
16th Dec: Lunch with Brian Goodman in Norwalk, back to Kelly-boy’s in Stratford to do some work on my patent prestentation and hang with the CT Friends
17th Dec: NYC, Lunch with Liz, Dinner with Ron, Suzanne and the 1 year old Julian, Sleep at Karen’s house again.
18th Dec: Some NYC stuff, not sure yet - going to see ‘Brokeback Mountain’ since its not playing in the Triangle anywhere.
19th Dec - 22nd Dec: Staying with Ms. Peter Mostachetti in Kingston, working in IBM Poughkeepsie.
22nd Dec - 27th Dec: Staying with Uncle Larry in Oceanside NY.
27th Dec - 1st Jan: Its a surprise right now…

Lots of friggin’ mileage on my already 92,000 mile car… But I’ll be glad to see everyone and hang out…

Former colleague and current friend, James, flew down to Raleigh last weekend. He flew down Friday and back early Sunday morning - both of which seem to be excellent times to travel, due to mostly empty terminals and short lines. A good time was had by all - we got caught up, laughed a lot, randomly fell upon an opportunity to attend a Boston College vs University of North Carolina football game, heckled an episode of Made, ate delicious Ethiopian food and saw the movie Jarhead.

James was amazed at all my innovative household uses for rubber bands

I’ve never been a flosser. I’ve been one heck of a teethbrusher, but flossing has never been my thing… UNTIL NOW! I have one of those suction-cup mirrors in my shower and I’ve recently started flossing while I’m taking a shower. Its really worked out - I love being in the shower and flossing gives me an excuse to stay in there a few mintues longer. A match made in heaven

I’ve taken to only doing “concept” costumes, where the costume is a concept brought to life:

This year I attached some black cardstock to a bent wire hanger frame for this one above where the black bar appears to be floating in front of my face. I’m “that guy on tv who is having his identity protected”

Here’s an NPR story based on the recent article in the NYT Magazine called Meet the life hackers

‘Interruption Science’: Costly Distractions at Work

Technology forces us to juggle competing demands on our attention over the course of our workdays. Alex Chadwick speaks with New York Times Magazine contributor Clive Thompson about “interruption science,” the study of the effect of disruptions on job performance.

Here is one good way to describe life and attitudes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina:

This car is the only one of its kind (i.e. with a buch of crap glued all over it) in town, but it gets surprisingly little attention. Chapel Hill is a place where some pretty well off people are sharing space with the university and plenty of North Carolina’s most artsy crowd.

Yeah, this is probably something you’ve seen before: Google Sightseeing. I still think its pretty cool.

I’ve had it with Blockbuster. They introduced their new “end of late fees” program as a way to compete with Netflix, while also starting Blockbuster Online, a Netflix knock off. My issue is with their physical locations. It seems like every time I go to one they never have the movie I want to see. They do have a “garuanteed to be there” promotion, but almost always those are the movies I don’t want to see.

I’m done with them. And just out of spite, I’m joining Netflix.