Goods and Services: June 2008 Archives

I suppose I should be writing about the passing of Tim Russert, but instead I'm going to mention how much fun Million Dollar Password is. I've been liking Moment of Truth, but it's fun having celebrities and just the joy of winning money. Rachel Ray was fun, as was NPH (Neil Patrick Harris). Betty White was surprisingly good fun. But hearing how damaged people are is also okay.

I'd love to go on that show and just not give a fuck about what's revealed - similarly with whoever's in the audience. You're fine as long as you can stand the boos of the (oddly judgemental) crowd. And as long as you know how polygraphs work. Though they seem to be less keen on tripping people up this season with ambiguous questions. 

Whenever I'm productive in some way, I always think about Dead Like Me (now cancelled, though apparently there's to be a straight to DVD movie), Delores Herbig (as in, Her Big Brown Eyes), and "Getting Things Done". That Millie was too much a laggard to stay on. Went to Target and exchanged the trash bags for the ones without odorshield, since it comes (apparently) with some kind of dusty residue. Got more Diet Root Beer via A&W. I wish I could get vats from The Port Drive-In, but some other time perhaps.

It's all about having gotten the wonderful Jokari Soda Dispenser, that makes 2 liter bottles fun again. As long as when you first get the dispenser you flatten it out so it doesn't curl up. I put it under a wooden chopping board.

Since I was at Target, I went to get water from Costco and had hot dogs and a churro. Also moved over to new shampoo, body wash and facial cleanser in an effort to get these things in a convenient yet reliable supply. I also like being able to buy off the shelf, rather than having to special order these things. Luckily Cetaphil sells a scentless facial cleanser.

Since I was up north, I went to the post office and mailed the remote control to Marty, the Interfolio thing to the Transcript clerk at Western and the disc for Digital Imaging Suite to Mark. Though I maintain that he's probably better off with the (absolutely free) Irfanview if he wants to view and do simple editing of images.

Since I was there, I went to Dinkels and bought pastries, Since I was driving back from Dinkels, I bought Boston Market for monkey. I have to plan ways not to get back till 3pm, since that's when permit parking starts. Otherwise there's not a spot for me and I get cranky.

I wish I had the will or inclination to do more detailed reviews of places we went to over the weekend, but that's not what's happening right now. Suffice to say that Red Roof Inn has a stupid policy regarding Internet access for what they market as an "All Inclusive" business room.

Being able to only use one device at a time is just idiotic. It's not just about if two people with two laptops were staying there, what if one person wanted to use his laptop and smartphone wifi at the same time? Bastards. I found a workaround for the issue, but still. One of the staff members there is good at his job. The rest deserve to be slapped.

Websters is a place that I wish were better. Unfortunately it's not. Maybe their strength is with meat rather than seafood, but being unable to tastefully season seafood (way too salty AFAIC) isn't too much to ask.

The wine was good, the baked potato was lovely. Some of the staff were charmingly eager to please, but most were obsequious. Whatever the case, this is just another place that's earned our desire never to go back.

It wasn't this weekend, but as disappointing is the fact that Chalkboard has ceased to be a place that anyone with tastebuds can go to. Similarly has the obtuse habit of over-salting seafood - especially their scallops, in the most unforgivable way.

The worst thing is that the last time we went, the last and only thing they were ever any real good at, their fried chicken, was lacklustre if not simply bad. monkey's right that most of it's probably from sitting out too long before being served, but whatever the case, it's just not what it was. And for whatever reason, the collard greens seemed to have made the entire, previously lovely, mash concoction bitter. I don't mind bitter, but this was bitter.

The Mac and Cheese was nice, but that's nowhere near enough to get us to ever go back. I'd rather get a nice patty melt from the Golden Angel across the street.

I'd argue that the headline would work fine with Hillary and McCain on the cover, but I suppose I don't disagree with the sentiment. As long as McCain whips him in the fall.

Turns out it's the sins of construction or remodeling that led to the problems with the cable signal.The splitters that were used to portion out the signal were just awful - the off-the-shelf stuff, rather than real cable grade. Not only that the connections weren't very good and rust was getting to things. The cables didn't look particularly well-spliced either. I doubt the cable was of great quality.

The exigencies of quick cheap construction and the consequences that come after. Makes you think it's a good idea to build your own house. But I suppose there's something to be said for price and speed, and only fixing the things you need to fix after. Ah the economic process. (What's wrong with me?)

But yes, upload speeds are much improved from before all this came up, I'm uploading at 100kb/s (when not downloading) rather than the 60kb/s before. And that's before the overhead of donkeys at 10kb/s. Thankfully the cable guy was pretty amenable, and reasonably competant. Hispanic cable guys are the way to go. Presumably any pixelation will also be gone from the digital cable signal.

If only ethernet were standard in laying out houses. I love my D-Link router that's survived for at least half a decade now, if not more. Still getting the job done, despite my maligning of it when the ATT DSL was so piss poor. Results above are with upload already maxed out, so pretty alright, as far as I'm concerned. Not Singapore speeds, but then those speeds were probably withing the island only, with more latency etc. going elsewhere.

Got up the balls to add infolinks to my old blog, since that's where most of my traffic is at the moment. We'll see what that does for revenue. Now if I could only figure out how to get SP1 on my Dell.

Wow, you never know how much caffeine fucks you up until you have too much of it - especially after such a long period of not having it. Made the mistake of thinking, because they didn't have to golden label Coke without caffeine, that I should try out Coke Zero. Hence awake at 5 in the morning when I've been going beddy-bysies before midnight for weeks now, if not months.

Doesn't help that I've fallen into one of my spirals where something doesn't work and I obsess about fixing it. There's so much about trial and error that involves doing the same thing over and over again like you're crazy. But only a little bit different each time, trying to see if it makes things better.

An appointment's been scheduled with Comcast for Thursday for someone to come over, but it appears I'm able to connect for a while after I restart the modem.

Had tacos from La Pasadita. Every taco they serve appears to be some kind of religious experience. The Chile Rellenos in particular is outstanding. But both their Carne Asada and Barbacos tacos are similarly lovely. They serve it on two tortillas with cilantro and onions. Superb. I don't know what they do to the meat, but it's to die for.

There are 3 places on Ashland, and basically the one on 1141 N Ashland is the oldest, and I suspect the most old-school. It was the first one we tried, and it's likely the best we've had so far. Also the one that's smallest, dirtiest looking, and smells most funny. The one at 1132 is the nicer (relative term) sit-down place that serves a wider menu (chicken tacos, platters etc.), but the Carne Asada from there isn't as good as the rest. 1140 is basically in between.

It's a sight just watching one of them carving up the large hunk of meat. When you take out they ball each taco up into a little foil ball with a layer of paper around the tortilla. The burritos are basically just more meat in a bigger tortilla. I wonder if their super taco thing with sour cream and other stuff would make it gross. It's a pity that their menu and website in no way accurately represent the experience of their place, nor the aesthetics of their lovely tacos.

I'm wondering to myself whether it was the remote modem restart from talking to the tech support people, or was it the same issue as before with the connection crapping out after a particular amount of time.

When I bought soda, I also bought Honey Nut Cheerios. The kind Omar likes on the Wire. May be going to Target tomorrow (the posh one in the South Loop) to buy soda that won't keep me up. Have been making the most of my soda dispenser. Even though it took me forever to untangle it from it having been curled up so as to be unusable. It had been on sale at dealspl.us, but I didn't get it. Had to pay full price and full shipping to get it from cooking.com.

I suppose at some point you just have to say to yourself there's no blood to be squeezed out of the stone. Stuff just happens, eventually. How shall I stall Beth tomorrow?

Tomorrow I go and mail off an application to Columbia College, though I'm not holding my breath. I like my writing sample though. I'm pretty sure my Staples experience will be better this time round. I'm hoping there's no way Kendall College wouldn't want me to at least teach adjunct - I really do like the idea of teaching at a (at least partly) culinary school. And, well, it's practically next door.

I also wouldn't mind crunching data for an ad agency, but we'll see. In the end I wonder if it was just irrational exuberance that led me to sign up with Interfolio. I suppose it's my insurance policy in case I get to a point where I'm qualified. I'm sure teaching at Facets will do wonders as well.

Had a lot of fun watching Tommy Walsh's Eco House. Almost as much fun as watching Family Guy, and untill recently, probably more fun than watching American Dad, which is getting better in the second season. No doubt due to those duds going off to do HIMYM.

Readjusted the central air so that my room gets more blowing. But in between it still gets stuffy, as I'm finding out right now.

If you were wondering if the oil companies and speculators are really responsible in their greedy (and lets face it, probably jewish) ways for jacking up the price of oil, it's always nice for common sense and sophisticated analysis to overtake the simplicity of not knowing what you're talking about. Oh, and oil could also be running out, like food is. Isn't knowing shit wonderful?