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Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Man I'm getting too old

Would someone pull this shrimp off the barbie!?! Man I'm just downright dead. I still have 2 and a half months in the semester but I can barely crawl out of bed every morning.

Here's a bit of advice for all you soon to be or current college students. Never ever take more that the average number of classes. I mistakenly took 18 credit hours this semester and boy was that a stupid idea.

I keep telling myself "You only have one more semester, then you're free!" but I can't see the end of the tunnel yet.

Now if you excuse me I'm off to do a huge backlog of homework...

Monday, September 29, 2003

State of TV report

Well the Season Finale of Dead Like Me was on Friday. I missed it but caught the repeat Saturday. It was a very good show and I liked how they ended the season.

It was a nice happy ending. Obviously the writers didn't want to end with a big cliff hanger since they didn't know at the time if there would be a season two. The major plot was about Georgia getting her job back at Happy Times and her family placing the tombstone at her grave. After the family left Georgia and the rest of the reapers celebrated her new after-life by drinking champagne at the grave. It was all peaceful and joyous.

Sunday was the Alias season premier on ABC. A bit disappointing in how it turned out. They left us last season with Sidney waking up in Hong Kong 2 years after the big fight scene where she passed out at the end. The plot followed very closely to the pilot episode.

The plot goes something like this... She was an outsider but needed to get in and earn the trust of the leaders. So she goes awol and single handily retrieves the object everyone wants but can't get. Everyone trust her and it's all back to normal. A little too squeaky clean for my liking.

Still it's nice to have something to watch on Sundays again.

Finally there are two new shows on CBS.

The first is called Joan of Arcadia. It's about a teen girl Joan who God talks to. He takes on different forms and tells her to do things. It's a bit messed up but looks promising long as they keep the religious overtones to a minimum. It's the usual dysfunctional family deal; a workaholic father, goofy mother, geeky little brother, and sports jock older brother who had an accident and is now wheelchair bound. Admirably it was a bit corny at times but it still managed to keep my attention for an hour which is surprising.

The other is The Handler. Joe Pantoliano plays a FBI agent that manages people that do undercover work. He brings them in, trains them, and places them in positions to infiltrate criminal groups, drug dealers, prostitution rings, whatever. Similar to Joan of Arcadia being a new show there was a lot of character development so it didn't flow as well. But it also kept me watching for a hour and Joe plays the part pretty good.

So that's what's up with TV lately. Here's the rundown
Joan of Arcadia - 8pm Fridays - CBS
The Handler - 10pm Fridays - CBS
Alias - 9pm Sundays - ABC
Dead Like Me - Season is over but keep an eye for repeats - Showtime

Saturday, September 27, 2003

Do Not call list take 2

Shesh... Damn judges and their stupid egos.

Just when I though all was good some dumb ass federal judge from Denver claims the do not call list is illegal. His claim is that the list infringes on telemarketers freedom of speech.

What a load of crap. I'm all for free speech but damnit I'm also for not being harassed and having the phone ring every day. I’m sick of people bothering me trying to sell me stuff. If I need to buy new windows or siding for my house don't you think I'd go out and hire someone. Honestly who the frell has bad windows and just sits around going "hmm, I really wish a window company would call me and sell me some new windows."

Telemarketing is right up there with spam. It's people trying to get me to buy junk I don't need. I don't give a flying F about your rights.

Hey mister judge, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Congress back do-not-call list

Good news everyone. Congress still works!

Cnn.Com is reporting that the House of Representatives voted to back the FTC Do-Not-Call list and that the Senate is expected to pass a similar measure tonight.

Who knew congress still worked. Hell who knew they could move so fast? Those fat lazy old farts can still surprise even me. Maybe they're useful afterall.

I really liked Rep. Billy Tauzin's, R-Louisiana, quote where he said "Fifty million Americans can't be wrong". Ya know I agree! If 1 in 5 Americans sign up for the list it's a pretty good indication that something must be wrong. Only 1 in 5 signed up but I bet the other 4 out of 5 hate telemarketers just as much.

Door to door sales are dead, soon telemarketing will be too. Now if we can just get rid of the spam email problem I'll be very happy!

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Cleveland finally wins one!

Well it's about darn time! Browns won their first game. Been a diehard fan all my life but this year I was getting rather worried. Defense has been junk, offense was looking very 1 dimensional.

Thankfully they pulled through today and won against San Fran. Give the boys a little happiness in their lives. Maybe they'll start playing like a real team and make it to the playoffs this year. I can only hope!

Saturday, September 20, 2003

Dead Like Me renewed for season 2!

Hot damn!

Excuse me while I go do my happy dance.

Ok I'm back, sorry about that. Good news for fans of quality TV. Showtime had already renewed Dead Like Me for a second season. The season finally is next week and I had been worried that might be the last time I see the show. However when I headed over to the website to check the forums I found the press release.

quote:

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The critically-acclaimed SHOWTIME/MGM Television Entertainment series DEAD LIKE ME has been given an early renewal for a second season of 15 episodes, it was announced today by Robert Greenblatt, Showtime President of Entertainment. Stated Greenblatt: "This is an unqualified hit for us. Not only have the critics embraced the show, but its premiere time slot on Friday is earning ratings 60% better than the year-to-date time period average and 45% stronger than the network�s overall primetime average. This show portends great things for the future of Showtime, which we hope will become a home for truly original series."

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Showtime doesn't release rateings but with the numbers they're showing I think the show's going to have a very long future. Oh how happy I am!

Sure I know I'm being a big ol' sap but I'm hooked to the show. The characters are written very well, the stories are strong, and like a good TV show when it's over you can't wait till next week.

I've started taping but I hope showtime decides to crank out a DVD set to help all of us fans out. Thankfully Alias starts up soon to keep me busy but I'm still going to have withdraw symptoms until season 2 starts. Oh I can't wait!

Friday, September 19, 2003

Moving jobs overseas

Few articles worth reading about all the high tech jobs getting shipped overseas.

The first is by CIO magazine. It shows that many jumping on the outsourse bandwagon are finding that it's not such a great idea after all. The savings are not always as great as they appear.

The second is from Wired News. It talks about how many tech trade shows are turning into outsource fairs where foreign companies are advertising their outsource services.

Third is another from Wired News. It's about protestors at the 2003 Nearshore & Offshore Outsourcing Conference.

I'll leave you all with one quote from the last article
"'We're sending all our technical expertise overseas,' Snyder said. 'Pretty soon, we're going to see a drop in the number of people going into the electrical engineering and computer science fields in this country.'

Indeed, interest in computer science among new college students has been dropping steadily since 2000.

A survey conducted last year by the University of California at Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute revealed that 2.2 percent of freshmen in 2002 planned to major in computer science -- down from 3.3 percent in 2001 and 3.7 percent in 2000. "

As a Computer Science student I can attest to these numbers! The size of incoming CS studends has srunk since I was a freshman. For basic intro levels classes it used to be packed rooms and multiple times offered. Now they're cancelling classes for lack of interest and even those that aren't cancelled are dwindling in size.

Not only are there less students coming to the CS major but many in the programs are changing majors for fear of not having a job when the graduate! Sure part of this is just due to the crappy economy but it doesn't help to have a crappy economy and hearing stories daily about companies in the tech industry dumping whole divisions and shipping opperations overseas. It's just frightning to be a student right now in a tech field. I would have never thought of it 2-3 years ago but I might end up finding a government job just for the security it provides.

I know I don't have a chance in hell but I'd love to get a job at the CIA. It's not all clandestine operations. They do hire people for tech support, software development, IT, etc. The biggest reason why I'm interested you ask? Simple really. The first requirement any of the jobs require is you have to be a US citizen! I'd never have to worry about the CIA moving to outsource IT staff.

I'm going to definetly apply for a job. I know I don't have the grades or skills to score such a sweet job but I'd never forgive myself for not atleast applying.