Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Tanked
April 11, 2007

FishtankRecently Berta got the idea to pull the twenty-gallon fish tank out of the guest room and clean it up so that we could once again use it to contain fish. The tank still had little rocks in it left over from our last functional tank, but in addition to the dried scum that seemed impossible to remove from the glass, that’s about all we had.

As it turns out, a little vinegar will remove all of the scum from the tank. She removed the rocks into a little plastic trash bin (which sat like some kind of modern art sculpture on our kitchen island for a while) and proceeded to scrub the tank to good effect.

Stuck in my Head
April 10, 2007

When I get tired, weird things get stuck in my head. The soundtrack to Wicked had recently been plaguing me, for example.

Today, I have words stuck in my head. Odd words. I would like to share them with you. Hopefully this release will also free me of them to think of other things. I doubt it, but maybe in sharing others can join my misery.

vip622 Software Update Woes
April 10, 2007

I guess that Echostar/Dish Network decided to roll out a new version of their software onto my satellite receiver recently. There has been talk of it on the forums, but I’m still wondering just what benefit this software supposed to have to me.

I only noticed that the software update had taken place because the receiver is now completely unable to play back a HD show while it is recording it. As an example, I was recording 24 in HD last night but wasn’t watching it. About 45 minutes into recording the show, I turned on the TV and started to watch. I tried to, anyway.

The Standard
April 06, 2007

In the Standard Hotel lobby, behind the reception area, there is a large glass enclosure. Inside the enclosure, hanging from the ceiling, is a makeshift claw apparatus. This claw is not unlike the claw you might find in a midway game to pick up stuffed creatures to deposit in a chute as a prize.

Like the midway game, this claw enclosure is filled with stuffed white teddy bears. Also like the midway games, there is a single special prize that everyone attempts to grab, but nobody ever seems to accomplish, leading to much profit for the midway operator.