tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153241752008-05-16T02:48:19.509-04:00Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comBlogger560125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-10860282580406702932008-05-15T09:10:00.003-04:002008-05-16T02:48:19.543-04:00

Batman style! CBS just bought CNet. Nobody can figure out why. Proposed new shows include "How I Met Your Motherboard", "I Love Linux", "Office", "Everybody Loves Redmond", "The Where Do You Want To Go Today Show", and the new Sunday night anchor, "60 Megabytes". Seriously though, CNET owns and operates the domains TV.com, MP3.com, and News.com. Start puckering up to kiss the sites you love

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-24159891909845709552008-05-14T16:14:00.004-04:002008-05-15T09:46:25.034-04:00

We've had two beautiful spring days and I've spent them inside and I don't mind a bit. I've spent my time inside finishing a treatment for that historical biopic, finally, after several false starts. I also discovered there's a script on the same personality that's been in development for six years. I'm not sure if that's good news or bad. I attended an ELAN schmoozer last night and talked

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-83678110951162101162008-05-12T10:49:00.002-04:002008-05-12T11:17:38.558-04:00

The parent company of I Can Has Cheezburger is looking for a human to sift through submishinz for that Web site. The AP reports. I'd apply but I'd never hear from them again, like pretty much every pitch I've sent out this year. One of my goals for 2008 was to do less research and do more byline. It's not working out. I've started applying for contract jobs and that's not happening either. As

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-56270323253737087082008-05-08T22:41:00.004-04:002008-05-08T23:38:03.873-04:00

Tomorrow through Sunday, our family and home will host two students from a faraway land called Japan - or as the Japanese themselves call it, Jappan. Our two guests are both teenage males and older than all our non-adopted children. In a way, it will be like having two older brothers for our almost 14-year-old daughter, Child One. It had better be just like that. The boys are staying with us

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-34089090056293625072008-05-07T09:42:00.002-04:002008-05-07T10:09:35.784-04:00

The NHL playoffs have taken a little break and therefore so has our pool. As Will Dixon posts, I'm tied in third place, eight points back of leader John Callaghan, but there's no way I can gain ground, since we have the same players now. In fact, my team is not even to going to maintain my third-place tie. My Team 990 baseball pool entry is mired in 113th place out of 256, primarily due to

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-552604924671150172008-05-04T10:30:00.004-04:002008-05-04T11:20:03.890-04:00

I don't have much to write about. I got a haircut Friday morning. I had a dream about Youppi on the beach that night. Yesterday, the wife sent me a link to this BBC article. Which punch line do you like best? That's why Antarctic scientists don't wear tuxedoes. Not surprising, and explains why whole chickens are banned in Antarctic research stations. Obviously, the seal couldn't find a

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-19575658627791984802008-05-01T19:57:00.002-04:002008-05-01T20:00:16.354-04:00

I'd love to have this, but $2,900 is a bit steep. Do watch the video.

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-85221752883350072242008-04-30T10:56:00.002-04:002008-04-30T11:07:54.468-04:00

The New York Times hosts a series of Q&A sessions with its own editors and staff. On April 21, the guest was Khoi Vinh, design director of NYTimes.com. It's a fascinating look at how one flagship paper presents its news on the Web, made astounding by this response to the observation that NYTimes.com maintains consistency across browsers and platforms: It’s our preference to use a text editor,

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-52635991531596181052008-04-27T11:49:00.004-04:002008-04-28T22:39:15.629-04:00

We're back home. thanks to a healthy dose of luck. When I booked our flights back in February, our return home consisted of two flights. Continental 9300 would leave Freeport at 1750 and arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 1835. Air Canada 927 would take us from Fort Lauderdale at 2050 and arrive in Montreal at 0010. Some time after that, Travelocity notified me that the Air Canada flight had been

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-89390020434601377202008-04-24T10:06:00.003-04:002008-04-24T15:13:54.393-04:00

My dad took us up in his plane yesterday afternoon. Technically, I took us up, since I was doing the flying, including take-off. Children Two and Three occupied the two rear seats. I was in the pilot (left-hand) seat, but as I explained to the kids, I'm only a glorified passenger. I can fly sufficiently, but I have neither a pilot license nor the desire to pursue one. My dad was in the right

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-89291854912913688482008-04-23T11:55:00.003-04:002008-04-23T12:29:52.290-04:00

You may have heard that a handful of morons vandalized police cars and shops after the Habs won round one of the playoffs. In the "duh" department, here's a quote from Beverly Best, a sociology prof at Concordia (quote taken from the Gazette): "This can't just be about hockey. It has to be symbolic of something else. There has to be some other source, some other feeling of dissatisfaction that

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-56464992182315463242008-04-21T11:56:00.004-04:002008-04-22T00:37:28.459-04:00

We had our seders and we're dividing our time so far between the TV and the pool. (Sorry about my simian partial nudity. Don't click if you don't want to be able to count every hair.) The kids and I are watching a ton of movies. I saw "I Am Legend", and I have to say, I like the alternate ending better. (Although this alternate ending kinda glosses over the fact that all bridges to Manhattan

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-81832212905868085652008-04-19T10:02:00.003-04:002008-04-19T13:37:00.033-04:00

Water is my nemesis so far this trip - to Freeport, Bahamas, by the way. It's a bit too humid for my taste in heat, which ranges from Sahara to Mojave on the moisture scale. Worse, and more expensive, is the tapwater, especially when mixed with my native idiocy. I put my contacts in yesterday to go out for supper. I ran out of the simple clean/rinse/store all-in-one solution on the first

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-82991962166065808702008-04-18T00:56:00.003-04:002008-04-18T06:40:23.119-04:00

While today was a fabulous day up here in the Great Brownish North, here's what I face over the next week and a half:

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-40557999577388901432008-04-16T12:11:00.003-04:002008-04-16T23:49:05.489-04:00

I know at least one of you readers finds my sports posts boring. You can wait for the weekend, when I post from a place in the sun. Meanwhile.... The Irrational League is in full swing and I'm in second with 54 points. First place has 64.5 points and third place has 50. It's shaking out pretty much as I suspected, although my boomers are lagging somewhat in home runs and RBI. .271 batting

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-83975809959040882632008-04-13T17:12:00.004-04:002008-04-14T02:40:09.833-04:00

My 428 students this year did some decent work. The projects are hardly perfect, in terms of organization, design, and editing, but as you evaluate their work, consider that 13 of the 16 students had virtually no HTML skills to speak when the class started. I'm impressed. Over Beers Do It in Montreal Fallacy of the Week (grad students) What bothers me most are typos and grammar mistakes. There

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-13050917862587362008-04-10T15:19:00.002-04:002008-04-10T15:39:19.527-04:00

I taught my last class of the semester yesterday and to celebrate I attended a Montreal Film Group bash. Usually I'll run into a few people I know, but I was starting to worry about that when Cynthia walked in. Cynthia came off the bench for me in Alex's writing room when I had my Wednesday afternoon course to teach despite having more TV writing experience than I do. We hung out and she

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-47474662167320690222008-04-09T09:27:00.004-04:002008-04-09T19:31:44.539-04:00

I'm not a big Skype user, and my IM client (Proteus, by the way) is up only when I need to reach somebody instantly. My e-mail is up constantly, and my e-mail client (Eudora, still) checks for mail every five minutes. When I work, or when I used to study, I never have music playing in the background. It's just too distracting. I know many people do listen to music as they work or read, but I've

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-39128352083501394192008-04-06T14:33:00.004-04:002008-05-07T09:05:56.883-04:00

We held our Irrational League draft yesterday, in record time, I think. (Interjection as I watch the Braves/Mets game: Wow, what a double-play by Mark Kotsay!) It was an odd draft. At one point, the bottom dropped out of the talent pool. I never would have thought that Jack Wilson would be anything more than a reserve or last resort, but he's an asset for me as a utility player. Third base

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-73963052658926018482008-04-04T14:07:00.001-04:002008-04-04T14:08:57.426-04:00

It's snowing again. A lot.

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-62817466610400607142008-04-02T20:07:00.003-04:002008-05-07T09:06:50.796-04:00

By the end of September, Canada will implement a do-not-call list by which most telemarketers must abide. A variety of organizations may legally ignore the list: registered charities; newspapers; survey companies; and, of course, political parties and campaigns. No, the politicians will not allow us to forbid them from asking for money. As well, any company that a Canadian has contacted may take

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-24372872083428613492008-03-31T11:29:00.003-04:002008-05-07T09:08:09.822-04:00

AL East Every year, pundits across the world consider either the Red Sox or the Yankees. Who am I to break with tradition? Boston isn't perfect. Manny Ramirez has lost some power - I think that's a real drop-off at age 35. The brain trust was right to try to trade him last winter.... Drew has good numbers for a middle infielder. Ellsbury played over his head last year. On the other hand,

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-3940141582195440232008-03-30T16:09:00.003-04:002008-05-07T09:15:25.249-04:00

NL East The big off-season acquisition in this division - strike that, in this league is Johan Santana's move to the Mets. The team's strength is its pitching: Santana and Martinez might be the best pair of starters in baseball; Oliver Perez is a good #3 even if he slips a little; Maine will contribute; and anything Hernandez adds is luscious, luscious gravy. There's not much depth after that,

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-77245603443590656582008-03-28T19:29:00.002-04:002008-03-28T19:34:12.122-04:00

Helicopter pilots from the NZAF deflate the macho fighter pilot persona. Unlike similar military videos, this one seems to use an original song, and it's brilliant.

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-23172043521957122922008-03-27T11:41:00.003-04:002008-03-27T12:13:25.427-04:00

Desmond Warzel's unconventional short story adopts the format of a forum thread, were that forum devoted to time travel - the real thing, not the fictional. Warzel nails the tone brilliantly, from the clueless noobs to the exasperated mods. I only wish it went on longer. Equally fun, but much harder for most people to experience, is the Bear Creek Saloon in the Montana wilderness. I've been

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com