House of Eratosthenes

I have a rule that I don’t talk about…you know. “Ew, I’m so sorry I haven’t been blogging lately life has gotten SO hectic and I’m SO busy…” Let’s face it, you don’t really care. Besides, it seems kind of Valley-Girl-ish. Also it doesn’t mean a goddamn thing. “Too busy to do X” means you’re just not giving X priority and you fully intend to keep right on doing it that way. Why apologize?

I’m on vacation next week. Which is not a promise of more updating, quite to the contrary I’m on vacation with family & stuff. This week I’m trying to tie stuff up. Now, I have another (informal) rule of not talking about work too much…but…let’s just say I’m a software guy who works for a hardware company. My job deals with validating prototypes of products that are going to hit the market some number of years in the future, like two or three years — can’t say any more than that. Except to say we’re getting completely slammed.

I’m still clocking out after eight hours. Or…ten, maybe. We’re leaving the hundred-hour-weeks behind, in my young-adulthood, twenty years ago. Where they belong. But, then I watch stupid movies about stupid whores in summer camp getting hacked to ribbons by deranged maniacs swinging machetes around…after muttering hackneyed phrases like “Brandon, is that you? C’mon, guys, quit joking around, it’s not funny anymore!”

Still with the computer on my lap. But only to make inquiries to IMDB to figure out “is that [so-and-so], what other movies has she been in?”

I’m turning forty-five soon. Still not wearing glasses, knock on wood. But the computer screens are starting to hammer away on those little muscles that move the eyeballs around. In the evenings, watching stupid slasher flicks is about all I can manage.

My fiance is still stuck on medical-examiner-shows. I’m still putting up with them, because I still like her. But at this point I have begun walking off into the bedroom to read a book when “Bones” is on. X-Files and Bones, I’m at Popeye stage: I’ve had alls I can stands and I can’t stands no more. Sorry, there is mildly repetitious and then there is a mobius-fucking-strip of a television show. They WILL solve the crime! They will NOT sleep together! I have no curiosity about this…not willing to part with the sixty minutes I’ll never get back again.

Columbo is do-able though. I can watch Columbo. “Oh, and eh…one more little thing.” Hehe, makes me chuckle.

Well, I’m going to go inside and help her watch that. In forty-five minutes I have to hop on a teleconference with the Bangalore folks. Working a project with some people thirteen time zones away…oh well, whaddya gonna do. Hope my Thursday doesn’t get rearranged too drastically.

And so it goes. Life keeps churning along.

SNUL.

Morgan, I actually appreciate you posting this. Every now and then I notice the pace of the updates slows a bit, and I’m always tempted come on here, click on the most recent post, and write, “Morgan’s getting lazy. This blog hasn’t been updated in three days!” Now I’ll resist the urge.

Oh, I’m right there with you with “Bones.” I’ve seen enough of that show to last me the rest of my life. Same deal with Law and Order. You know they’re going to catch the bad guy and wrap up everything in a nice neat bow. My co-workers love that crap. All day long, it’s bones, bones, bones…along with Everyone Hates Chris, Scrubs, and a little The Office and some How I Met Your Mother.

If I dare change it to The Military Channel so we can actually learn something about our country’s history and the sacrifices its soldiers made for our freedom, they go apeshit. A few days ago the shift manager gave me a pompous lecture on “broadening my horizons” simply because I watch TMC so much. What can I say – top ten sniper rifles? Armor School? World War II in color? What’s not to like?

The title character is smokin’ hot, but she’s got some rather ugly prejudices (kind of dovetails nicely with “snotty atheist ramblings as explained under the SNUL link, actually)…and her complete lack of social graces makes the character annoying. She’s like freaking Data from NextGen, minus the superhuman abilities and innocent charm.
- cylarz | 03/31/2011 @ 01:39
The Bones title character is smokin hot, that is…
- cylarz | 03/31/2011 @ 01:40
I was wondering…have a good vacation, we’ll see ya’ when we see ya’.

“Still not wearing glasses, knock on wood. But the computer screens are starting…”

Imagine someone who’s been wearing glasses/contacts for 35 yrs. and now they’ve reached that age when they can’t even read something right in front of their face trying to read dark blue letters in the smallest font possible, with a blueish/purpleish background, just to make it that much worse. 😉 Since you brought it up, just sayin’…
- tim | 03/31/2011 @ 06:09
Dang. First time I read that Cylarz, I was thinking you found a show about military hardware with a title character who was smokin’ hot. I actually had the remote for the DVR unit in my hand before I re-read it and saw you were talking about Deschanel.

Small-tee, I’m wondering many times a week if it’s time to go in. It’s going to happen tomorrow morning, actually, because we have a meeting in a conference room with a projector that can’t quite get focused. I’ve asked myself this question so many times “is it time to go in and get some specs?”…in that conference room. Fridays, at nine o’clock.

Getting migraines lately, but I think that’s because I’m using my peepers to look at computers screens many hours per day, much more than they were intended for. Maybe sixteen, eighteen hours a day I’m looking at a computer screen. But I can see fine. Well, my time is coming. I know a few people in their forties with perfect vision, or I know of them anyway; but I can’t think of anyone in their fifties with this blessing.
- mkfreeberg | 03/31/2011 @ 07:52
Ah, yes, I became familiar with Morgan’s position on “SNUL” not too terribly long after I discovered him.

It hasn’t stopped me from posting the occasional SNUL, but I do know what he’s talking about.

But see, I don’t hear Morgan’s voice in my head like some Valley Girl who is apologizing for not keeping me up to date on who she likes on American Idol or Dancing With the Stars.

I come here to see what Morgan’s thinking, because normally, in turn, it starts me to thinking. So — and I know you won’t let it go to your head, Morgan … but some of us actually do care. 🙂

It’s not the end of the world if you don’t. But …

Wait, did somebody mention Zooey Deschanel? Mmmmm. Zoooooooeeeee. (Although I have to overlook her vegan-ness. Oh well, more meat for me, right?)

Ok, who do you like on Dancing With the Stars? 😉
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 08:30
Oh. Whew.

I feel better now.
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 08:50
My fiance is still stuck on medical-examiner-shows. I’m still putting up with them, because I still like her. But at this point I have begun walking off into the bedroom to read a book when “Bones” is on. X-Files and Bones, I’m at Popeye stage: I’ve had alls I can stands and I can’t stands no more.

I’m there myself. She’s in to all that. I’m not. I watch NCIS with her, and that’s it as far as those shows go. (I mean, Ziva. Hello? Just turn the sound off and let me watch.) And fortunately she likes my outdoor survival shows. It’s ok, though. We don’t have to have all of our interests in common.

We did start watching this PBS series from the 1970’s I bought on DVD about the John Adams family. We’ve watched the first DVD so far. There are three more.

I’ve been going upstairs and reading when the other stuff is on. Or blogging. Or arguing with idiots. Or playing guitar. Or fixing a gun. And I have some upholstery to do here in the near future.
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 09:21
I realized what really irritates me about these shows. After all, they shouldn’t; they are well-done, in their own way. They don’t talk at a jackrabbit pace like they used to on West Wing or Boston Legal. But they just make my teeth ache.

They are consuming minutes for the purpose of defining attributes about their characters, which have already been defined. This just grates on me. It’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. And yet…you realize what we’re saying here Phil…we’d rather get on the innerwebz and argue with liberal dipshits than watch Bones & Booth.

If that betrays a bias or a perverse love of conflict, it says something derogatory about us. On the other hand, if it betrays some trait of unpredictability possessed by the liberal dipshits (hah!) which Bones & Booth are conspicuously lacking, it says something derogatory toward Bones & Booth.

I’m leaning toward the latter. I mean let’s be real: I don’t really know, word for word, what the liberal dipshit is going to say. But I can make some pretty easy calls on B&B.
- mkfreeberg | 03/31/2011 @ 09:53
It’s not the conflict that attracts me. It’s what I’m fighting for. Frankly, I’d rather be playing the guitar or fixing the guns or tweaking photographs. But I am alarmed at where this country is not only headed but is just about there … that I feel the need to read and learn (even though like I said ultimately I wish I didn’t have to think about this stuff… but I do have to) … and that’s what irritates me about these shows.

You sit and watch 3 or so of them in a night and your evening’s shot. You haven’t thought about the thngs that need to be thought about so that you can discuss them intelligently and vote intelligently, and you’ve increased your talent at nothing except perhaps talking about what some fictional people did to solve some fictional crimes — often using methods that are probably at least slightly misunderstood if not outright blatantly misinterpreted by the fiction writers who wrote the show.

But hey, Ziva’s pretty and the kooky chick is kinda hot in an offbeat way, too. Plus it’s nice to see people who are dedicated to their work and each other — I mean that’s the main positive thing about NCIS…. I’ve got nothing against some escapism. But when every night turns out to be hours long forrays into solving of fictional crimes or asking questions about whether that thing that went “bump” in the night or lit up a funky electronic gadget was a ghost or not, or watching chicks fight over a bachelor, or watching people in a bakery argue over every little stupid thing (which is what most of these “reality” shows are really about).

If I’m going to be watching, I’d rather be learning how to build a fire with sticks or a shelter or what kinds of plants and animals I might find to eat or ways to find water and make it safe to drink … that kind of reality show I like.
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 10:20
That reminds me, I have to set the DVR for “You’re Cut Off.” Keep forgettin’.
- mkfreeberg | 03/31/2011 @ 10:25
At least the DVR cuts 20 minutes out of every hour. That’s nice.
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 10:28
The only kind of “reality TV” I watch much of, are the ones about people in dangerous occupations. “Deadliest Catch.” “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.” One I saw last night for the first time – “Coal.” There’s a new one premiering next month on Discovery channel called “Wild Hogs” or something…and it actually is about feral pigs (which I want to learn how to hunt properly), not motorcycle gangs.
- cylarz | 03/31/2011 @ 10:52
Dirty Jobs is another of our favorites. But you learn something from Dirty Jobs.

Dirty Jobs, NCIS, and Man vs. Wild (yeah, it’s cheesy but we like it). Those are the three shows we consistently watch together.

We watched Deadliest Catch one season. It was ok. But when they got into the personal arguments and made those a major part of the show …. bleah.
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 12:38
Eighty percent, or more, of the content of these shows is: “when [blank] said/did [blank], it made me feel [blank].”
- mkfreeberg | 03/31/2011 @ 12:44
You know, for a SNUL post, this one really got tricked out in the comments section 😉
- philmon | 03/31/2011 @ 13:03
Oh, and I meant to say, sorry Phil. I wasn’t talking about Zooey…I was talking about her older sister Emily. (I really have no idea what either of these women is like in real life or how the actresses think, to clarify further.)
- cylarz | 04/03/2011 @ 00:57
S’alright. Emily’s no slouch, either. 🙂
- philmon | 04/03/2011 @ 09:43

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