I love big media

This was a blog posted on CNBC, right next to it was a link to the video for this story..which you had to pay $9.99 to become a member to see...


Paid Video Downloads Are Way Behind The Eight Ball

All the studios and networks are ramping up efforts to sell their movies and tv shows online with sites like MovieLink, CinemaNow, and of course, Apple's iTunes store. But it's just not that big yet -- illegal downloads outpace legal alternatives five to one.

Eight percent of internet-using households download peer-to-peer, but just 2% of those households pay to download video files. And guess what? Most of those paying are paying for porn! Um, I mean, adult entertainment. And speaking of "adult entertainment," tune in later for my report on Playboy Playboy Enterprises Inc (PLA) 11.38 -0.04 -0.35% NYSEQuote | Chart | News | Profile | Add to Watchlist[PLA 11.38 -0.04 (-0.35%) ].

Bidding on movie star contracts ... (it's not what you think)

No, you can't buy a contract to become a movie star, otherwise every pushy stage parent would be going nuts.

Deal or No Deal

Little known fact about Rachel is that she is very perceptive. She can walk into a room and tell who is in a bad mood and who wants to date whom.

This gets me in trouble often:

Rachel: What's wrong?
Dave: Nothing
Rachel: Something, you're acting weird.
Dave: I'm not acting weird.
Rachel: Yes you are - just tell me.
Dave: OK, I ate the last of the cookies and would still like some.

One night this weekend I was bored and started playing Deal or No Deal online. I had picked 5 of my first 6 cases when Rachel walked in and sat on my lap effectively taking over the laptop.
Usually she will close my fantasy sports teams and check her Myspace but this time she said she had a feeling about case # 23. She selected it and immediately eliminated the $1,000,000 out of the game. Before I could even say "What happened to my Monies?" she found the $750,000 and $500,000 cases.

Restarting the game she selected her case and proceeded to play the game out. With 5 cases left in the game Rachel had the $1,000,000 case and 5 small amounts left. She eliminated the cases one by one turning down over $350,000 fake dollars to keep her original case.
As the results show above she had the $1,000,000 in her case all along. We are currently buying lottery tickets on the way to the casino.

On a side note the online game is broken. My theory is they always offer less than money than the TV show to make you think the money on TV is amazing. But I think their calculation is messed up. Normally each offer is a little less than the average value of the cases remaining to keep you going. But when you are down to 2 cases the offer is usually 1/2 the value of the largest case. In the online game Rachel had 3 cases left $1 mil and 2 little ones giving an offer of ~$350k. Turning it down she eliminated a small amount leaving $1 mil and a small case. The online offer actually dropped to $349k.

Last Working Friday of 2006

I can't help but think I'd blog more often if it wasn't such a pain to login to this thing.

I am done with Fridays (maybe even Thurs and Wed) for 2006.

The only plan for tonight is to watch UMass in the Football Div 1-AA National Championship game. Rachel isn't feeling well and may go to bed early so I may have to wake her up later to tell her who won the game.

It is weird to hear the announcers say that it has been 8 years since UMass was last in the Championship, considering I was at that game and it doesn't feel like that long ago (they won and I still wear the t-shirts).

I'm upstairs in the Man Cave / Workout room (depending on the user) which isn't a bad deal now that we have a couch and chair up here to sit on. I have 2 pans of brownies and a Lucy laying next to me. Should be a relaxing night.

*Touchdown UMass*

Christmas Carols

Growing up I loved all the holiday standards. Karen would include Celine Dion remakes into that list but I think most people know what I mean. One that I never really liked was the Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on a Open Fire) it really didn't do anything for me. Just this holiday season I have heard it a few times and I am really starting to like it. Maybe because it has a very vintage sound to it that I can appreciate being a homeowner (I like staying home a lot more now).
Now I am starting not to like some of the old corny songs like "Grandma got run over by a reindeer." Maybe I just don't like holiday carols with their own cartoon. I really can't stand any remake from pop bands of any era. U2 or whoever trying to sell some records over the holidays. The absolute worst I have heard this year is the Carpenter's "Santa Claus is coming to town." It is slow and drawn out and painful with their changes to the melody.

Disc #2 Song #11
Listen to a sample here on Amazon

On a side not one of my favorite things about being a homeowner in the winter is controlling my own heating vents. While there is no good reason to have a vent fully open in a small bathroom I love it because it makes the bathroom very very warm. At my parents house we had a couple of cold bathrooms just because they were small and on the outside wall with a cold window.
I think I really cemented my appreciation for the warm winter bathroom in Rachel's last apartment. She had only a couple big heating vents and one was in the bathroom so it was easily 90 degrees all the time. Perfect for staying motivated to take a morning shower before going to work.

Bedtime adventures

Maybe not the ones you want to hear about...
Rachel and I saw a crazy special on people in England who have night terrors. They walk for miles and climb 150ft cranes in their sleep or eat crazy food like a butter stick w/ mayo (no mustard). One guy was even in trouble for starting to have sex with a girl at a party after everyone passed out, until his 4 previous girlfriends testified that he does that in his sleep with no memory of anything.
I am not that weird.
But I do have a history of sleep issues. In college I was on the top bunk. One night someone in my sleep yelled "watch out for the bat" I woke up and a bat flew into my chest. I took my pillow and smacked it into the wall but it kept flapping in my bed. I jumped off the top bunk only to have my roommate investigate that there was no bat.
Another time I dreamt my old roommate was slowly backing over me with an old muscle car so I rolled out of the top bunk and didn't wake up until I hit the floor. Luckily I rolled out far enough to miss my roommates night stand but not too far to hit the futon. That was my last night on the top bunk.
That roommate was very good at dealing with my sleep issues. The first roommate, Jon, was a friend from high school who drank and smoked a lot of pot. So I would end up scaring him a lot more than I was scared. One night I was convinced that our neighbors were trapped in our microfridge and we needed to get them out, Jon ended up saying "dude you're really freaking me out right now".
So I am not as crazy as these sleep terror people because I have some recollection of what occurs but all of my actions are motivated by events that happened in my sleep seconds before I get up.
At the apartment Rachel loved to have the the ceiling fan on at night which I rarely used (maybe it was hot in the bed for those hoping for the other bedtime adventures). Several nights she would wake up with me standing on the bed reaching for the fan getting dangerously close to being hit. I was convinced the fan was falling on us and I had to catch it.
Literally our first night in our first house I had some issues. I woke up to a loud bang (the house settling?) and was convinced it was a gang of robbers hitting a bunch of houses at once by checking if they could get in the garage doors (I get a lot of detailed info from these episodes). As I lay in bed and looked out the window (no curtains yet) to my neighbors across the street, I am sure to this day that I saw something trying to get into their garage door. My best bet now is that it was the branches of our little tree swaying in the breeze. But at the time I thought it was 2 guys rolled up in a rug to avoid being seen by security cameras banging on the garage door. It gave me an eerie "The Village" or the X-files fear at the time.
Rachel woke up to me kneeling at the window watching intently, she asked "what are you doing?" I waited then said "yup, I knew it I knew it" clutching the phone in my hand ready to dial 911. I am not sure why I did not call because I was convinced what I was seeing was real and already made the decision that I should call.
Recently, I just wake up with the need to see if the dog is still breathing. Rachel will catch me leaning out of bed trying to see if I can hear Lucy or see her ribs move. It is a strange feeling because there is no convincing me that I am wrong.
I don't know what will happen when we have kids...

Useful Websites

My admins have presented me with recent data showing that my comments per blog ratio has decreased recently. And I agree my progress towards settling down can't compete with babies popping up all over the place. My Blog Comment Ratio Action Committee has suggested a more interactive topic to really get things going.
So I decided to discuss some of my most useful websites that I use and hopefully learn about some new ones to try.

News: CNN.com - very easy to use and usually my homepage (especially at work). I usually ignore the top story and some days I read most of the articles on the homepage. It is the only place that I learn about celebrity gossip and divorces.

Weather: Weather.com - I don't watch the local news so this is helpful. I enjoy the hour bu hour forecasts but the radar no longer zooms in as well as it did a few years ago.

Sports: ESPN.com - The standard for scoreboards and checking out games but now too many of their articles and content is for INSIDERS. I believe in not paying for anything when I have 100 million other options so I have been checking out SI.com for sports articles.

Email: Yahoo.com - Hotmail gets way too much spam and I just haven't gotten around to using gmail much. Plus Yahoo was one of the first to give a lot of storage.

House Hunting: Sibcycline.com - Not sure the range beyond Cincy but I love the interactive map. Zillow.com is good for getting all the scoop on prices.

Books: Notthebookstore.com - obviously.

Search: Google.com - I find the image search very useful for blogs and work related things.

TW2: The Empire Strikes Back

You saw that I am saving a bunch of money on my cable now.
When I added the DVR I asked if I needed a new box, they said if I have the HDTV box that will be my DVR. Joke was on me the next night when I tried to tape (do you say that w/ a DVR?) Grey's Anatomy for Rachel and my HDTV box kept looking at me like an idiot. If it could talk it would have said "are you kidding me do I look like a DVR." Then it taunted me a little bit by replacing the clock with "REC" after I hit the record button. Needless to say Rachel was left to try and catch the Friday night repeat.
You may have won this round Time Warner...

TW3: Return of the Jedi (but not the 'extra' cable box)
So I called Time Warner to see if they were laughing at me from a hidden camera like the fake water bed trick (showing here):



It turns out the problem is Time Warner was sure that I had 2 HDTV boxes in my apartment before I moved to the house. This was not true but apparently I have been charged for 2 box rentals (and 2 remotes). So not only will they mail me a DVR but I may get back credit for up to 4 years of a box rental @ ~$5-$7/month.

At least my cable is costing me less...

Mark this down - Show Me The Money - Worst TV show of the year.
I have no idea why they keep saying this wed is the premiere, I have already seen the show.
Maybe they were just testing it on CNBC. I have no clue how this ever got past the bullshit test in any boardroom. If you haven't seen I won't even try to explain a minute of it, you'll just have to watch for yourself.
I do enjoy Deal or No Deal and it took me awhile to get used to Howie Mandel. It is very simple so it is fun to see people's risk reward tolerance. I always route for them up to a point but once they keep going beyond a rational point they are on their own.

Most useful site of the week - whattorent.com

There is a reason the show is funny.

I guess I am a blogger.beta user which makes it impossible to try and log in!

My group at work is relatively small, about 40 of us in two hallways. Every year we have a thanksgiving pot luck day where everyone brings in food and we eat all day. I always find my way onto the soda/drinks list to save everyone from my lack of cooking skills. Normally we sign out the only conference room in our hallway to store all the food, and during the day people come and go to sample the goods.
This year was a little different. In the past year they converted that conference room into offices by turning it into 4 cubicles inside the old large conference room. This would seem to be a big problem for us except somehow we ended up using one of the empty cubicles. So all day 40 people are walking by someones desk chatting away to stuff themselves with food. The poor guys working here are not in our group so they were not involved in this potluck. They had to try to go about their normal work while inhaling a wide range of smells from Dunkin' Donuts coffee to venison chili (at least this year they labeled it).
On a side note I was put on Pepsi soda duty even though I am a Coke drinker. On my way to work I swung by Kroger and picked up 4 2-liter bottles. Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Cherry 7-up. After swiping my Kroger card the total came to $3.52! I couldn't believe it since they were all marked $1.39. Now if only they brought back their $1 off Jones orange and cream soda...

Who's Next?

My office is at the end of the hallway. There are 4 young guys down this end of the hallway in the last 4 offices (maybe they did some kind of study).
At least once a week we wheel our chairs out into the doorway and complain about our cable/Internet/and phone bills. No matter what we try we end up in the $130/mo range if you want HDTV w/ Internet.
Here is what happened today. Rachel and I have ADT Security (w/ motion sensors so don't even try) and today they sent us a letter saying "sorry you are no longer an ADT member, reactivate and get 2 months free." I was confused since this is one of the ONLY bills I allow to be drawn out of my bank acount directly. I called them up and they said it was a mistake. Actually it sounds like a marketing ploy to increase subscribers. I said "oh, well then do I still get the 2 months free, and they said yes!" Now, I've got the bug so I call up Time Warner and tell them someone offered me Internet access for $20 /mo and asked how much I would save off my bundle if I cut out their Internet service. They transferred me to their retention department. I had heard from one of the guys at work to try this and it is surprisingly easy (which makes it scary that it has to come to this).
At the retention department I told a really nice guy my line and he said "we'll take care of that." He said I was paying $42.50/mo for Internet (which surprised me since I thought I got in at $35 plus the P&G discount which is roughly $0) he said he could knock it down to $29.95 for 6 months (and then call back after six months). Also, unprompted he said he could work a deal on my digital cable plus HD package (I don't know what it was).
I told him I was interested in adding a DVR and saw their add for free DVR service for 12 mos if you add Digital phone. I told him (and this is actually true) that I could not add digital phone because my alarm system was on my regular phone. He said "no problem we'll work it out".
Here are my results:

Prior Bill: ~$125/mo
Digital Cable
HD Tier Channels
Road Runner Internet
a second TV

New Bill: $107/mo
Digital Cable
HD Tier Channels
Road Runner Internet
a second TV
and now a DVR

Savings: ~15% plus a DVR (which may save me from buying the Office Season 3 on DVD next year)

I wonder if this will work on the IRS...

Ghost writes a blog

OK, a little late for trick or treating but...
On a date night, Rachel and I were killing some time at Borders before a movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Rachel went to look up what our birthdays meant for our relationship and I was walking around aimlessly after realizing I had read 1/2 of the business books.
They had a Halloween display stand that had my new favorite book in it. It is a children's book called "Ghost Eats it All." It stars a Pac-Man looking Ghost named..."Ghost" and a Charlie Brown does Frankenstein looking Monster named..."Monster."
The writing is very descript, it starts with "Ghost eats an egg" and aptly enough the picture shows Ghost eating an egg while Monster looks on. The drama continues as "Ghost eats cake" and "Ghost eats candy", each time with Monster getting increasingly upset about Ghost eating everything. I won't ruin the ending but Monster works in an unexpected twist.
I'm not blogging this to tell you about Oprah Book Club's next best seller. See, I have found this story to be very useful and have incorporated some of the lessons into my daily life. Rachel and I are currently in an Oreo phase (Double Stuff) and one day she walked in and said "what happened to the cookies?" Now with an innocent shrug I just say "Ghost eats cookies." I have learned this could also backfire, you may think sending your fiance a text message during lunch would be a sweet thing to do, but apparently if it contains "Ghost eats Chipotle" it may not be taken as well if you don't bring home a burrito.

Profile: Lucy

Lucy is our dog. She came with the fiance, but I couldn't have asked for a better dog. I met Lucy on my first date w/ Rachel but didn't know I would soon be sharing my bed with her and taking her to the 24 hr animal clinic at 5am. Rachel often takes off her engagement ring and offers it to Lucy because she says I love the dog more than her. I keep saying "that is crazy, there is no way Lucy is a size 4.5."
Lucy has had a tough adjustment to living in the house with Rachel and I. She lived with her sister Missy at Rachel's mom's house. There, the dogs live well in the kitchen but have rules and aren't allowed upstairs or on the carpet. In 6 months since moving in with us, Lucy is now a thread count snob.
Taking Lucy away from her sister was tough, she wasn't familiar with the new house and was really nervous to even step on carpet. We had to leave her home alone since we both worked and put her in the laundry room thinking the smaller space would make her feel more secure. For the first few weeks, she would get really nervous and poop on the floor of the laundry room. Since Rachel worked up in Dayton at the time, I would be the lucky one to come home to clean up. 45 mins and two rolls of paper towels later and we were friends again. I even gave her extra treats once she got to 2 weeks without pooping in the house.
My biggest fear is that I will forget that I let her outside. All summer I was able to go outside with her but now that it is getting colder I watch her from the window. Why so much attention to her outside? See my later blogs.
Lucy has a few talents. She will not eat her food in her dog bowl. She has to knock the bowl over with her nose, then eat the spilled food. When she gets nervous she makes piles of food around the house. After we got back from Alaska and brought her back from Rachel's mom's house she left at least 7 piles around the house (just incase). There was a pile in the dinning room, on the stairs, at the top of the stairs etc. They usually stay for a bit until she feels better and then she will slowly eat them all. When my family came in for Tom's wedding she started making piles again. My brother Mike picked one up and I think it made Lucy mad.
Her latest trick is she now spills her food, piles it up, then flips her empty bowl back on top. I assume instead of taking the time to make emergency piles all over the house, she is cutting to the chase by making her food "disappear" so we will refill the bowl. Don't believe me?

There's a new blog in town

I finally caved and started a blog. Mostly to claim copyright trademarks on my title since I had disclosed it several times before. I have been slow starting a blog to see how well others keep up with their blogs. I can't promise a top 25 Blog that gets linked to from Karen's blog but we'll see...