‘Cause it’s much too late for goodbyes…

Just a reminder to everyone that we’re still in the midst of a wonderful week full of cheer, fun, stupidity and dishonesty. Yes — it’s the second day of Plagiarism Week ’09! If you’re still confused as to what it is, go ahead and click here for an explanation.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a derivative of an idea that I’ll pretend was my own from the start! I know you’re all intrigued, excited, and likely pressing charges, because it’s Snippet Wednesday!

Housebroken

I’m pleased to announce that the House of representatives has defeated the bill to delay the transition to digital TV in the USA. For those of you haven’t watched a television show for the past nine months, you probably haven’t been interrupted by public service announcements about howin February your television set might not receive broadcasts anymore.  Word has been out about this transition literally for years now, but they still feel like the general public is not ready for it.  Perhaps they’re right; I was just asked today by Katie my wife socKs if our upstairs TV which receives analog cable would be affected. (No.)  I’d like to share this handy flowchart from the Consumerist about what to do:

Click the image for a larger copy

Mars

Life on Mars is back on ABC tonight. I’m stoked for its return. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the USA version after seeing the UK version in full, but I think they’ve done some impressive things with the series. They’ve carefully blended some of the UK storylines into this incarnation, but they’ve also let this show go its own way in more of a Lost-esque mysterious universe. I didn’t think Michael Imperioli as rival detective Ray Carling would do much for me, but he came through quite well.  Same goes for Dean Winters as Sam Tyler’s dad. And Jason O’Mara as Sam.  Speaking of Jason O’Mara — did anyone else catch Trust Me on TNT on Monday? Good show — and good guest starring role for O’Mara as well.

Gaseous

Dave tweeted about this already, but I’ll ask the same question: What’s up with all the fart apps for the iPhone?  I’m a pretty humorous guy who likes the funny, but is this really something we need multiple apps for? And — here’s the clincher — do we need to have Lite and Pro versions?  Call me boring or a prude; I just don’t get why people would download these if they can simply produce a fart more quickly au naturale.  While I was writing this, an iPhone “burp app” was presented on my RSS reader. I guess that’s progress…

Freeze

Following yesterday’s DC area snow and last night’s area-wide icing, the roads were a bit treacherous this morning.  It took me about 30 minutes to de-ice my car to the point where I could open all four doors!  There’s something serendipitous, however, to getting to the point where an entire chunk of ice shaped like the entire back of your car slides off.  I just wish that people would let that happen in their driveways rather than driving on the Interstates where that ice becomes a projectile.

Flinty

And speaking of the ice storm, President Obama had a few words to say about it. “Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly? It has to do with Washington. My children’s school was canceled today. Because of what—some ice? As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled.”  He pretty much told DC area residents that we should stop being pussies and emulate, what he called “flinty Chicago toughness.”   I suppose he has a point — but I also suppose I’m biased because all of my Snippet Wednesday segments seem to skew with a Chicago bias for some reason.

That’s it for this week — stay warm! Happy! And Flinty!

Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): I now realize that I completely forgot to wish a happy birthday yesterday to Avitable.  This young starlet just turned 32 years old. That may still be quite young, but believe me — Avitable is going to be a star. My own personal connection with him occurred at TequilaCon ’08 where he not only was kind to me, but left my driver’s license in my wallet when he stole all the cash and credit cards from it. It’s this type of generosity which simply makes him beloved.

So, yeah. I forgot yesterday. Guess I’ll try again next year.