Well, put the ceiling in my (home) office back together last night. It’s a drop ceiling, and about a quarter of it came crashing down when I was pulling cat 5 cable over the weekend (and about a million miles of cat 5, coax, phone, and romex cable was sagging down like spaghetti. It reminded me of the part of the movie Brazil that Robert De Niro was in, if you remember that. It’s still a mess in there (it was before), with piles of electronic parts and pieces. ceiling tile crumbs, two batches of fermenting beer, a case or so of aging, bottled beer, and a whole lot of shit that was cluttering up the bedroom, so I threw it all down there (that’s what my mom used to call an “Irish trick.” Like sweeping the dirt under carpet, or stuffing the dirty laundry under the bed). When it comes to Irish tricks, I know ’em all.

Got the HD DVD player yesterday, and hooked it up. It came with the latest remake of King Kong in HD. The picture (if not the movie) is exquisite. Downloaded a couple of movie trailers in 720p, and they’re only slightly less impressive. Spent a lot of last night streaming mp3s from one of my computers via the XBOX, mesmerized by the visualization on the TV. The sound on the new stereo is excellent. I’m not one of these snooty audiophile types (too many concerts spent in front of the speakers, for one thing, plus I clean my ear wax with a phillips head screwdriver – or a Bic pen cap), but it sure sounds excellent to me. One thing I don’t do enough of these days, is listen to music, so I shall endeavor to do more of that.

Oh well, better get out of this bed, and get ready to get ready to go to work. One down, two to go. Have a good one.

Monday, isn’t that just great? Well at least it’s only a three day week (for me, anyway). Got the new stereo hooked up, all the speaker wires puled and all that. Pain in the ass. Had a pretty nifty setup program built into it, though. Came with a microphone, which you put where you’re going to sit (up to eight different locations), and it sends test tones out every speaker, then calculates their their locations and distances, and automagically sets them at the optimum levels. Pretty cool.

Now if I could just win the lottery so I wouldn’t have to go to work.

Not much time for a complete rundown today, as I pooped myself out with phase one of the new teevee installation. Got rid of the old equipment (including a million miles of wires and cables), and got the new TV mounted on the wall. So far, it hasn’t fallen off. Watched a couple of standard def DVDs. The picture is nice, but a little bit grainy. Not bad. Gorgeous colors, excellent bright picture. The HD output of the XBOX is absolutely phenomenal, however. Can’t wait to get the satellite HD hooked up (on Friday). The analog output of the satellite box doesn’t get sent over the HDMI cable to the teevee, so the next phase is to get the speakers hooked up and mounted. At least until the HD satellite box gets hooked up.

I don’t think I’m a teeveeaholic (as some have suggested), but I like movies and I like funny stuff, and I like a lot of other stuff that was never available in the olden days, but is out there now. In one of my past lives, I used to be a projectionist (a motion picture machine operator – IATSE Local 376, in fact), and since those days – back in the 80’s – have always tried to recreate the theatre experience (particularly the 70 mm, split surround version; I ran Top Gun, Ghostbusters, and Star Man – among others – in 70 mm, back in the day, and they were beautiful to behold, both aurally and visually) at home. That used to mean a decent sized teevee (like, 27″ or so) with a hi-fi VCR and a surround system. Before surround, there was quadraphonic sound, and I also used to hook up a second set of speakers out of phase as kind of a poor man’s surround. Me and my buddy Don (another projectionist) would go hang out at his trailer ’til all hours watching movies after work. He managed to get a Laser Disc Player out of a scrapped video game, and we’d rent Laser Discs, and trip. Ah, those were the days. Now, I have the opportunity to have a bigass teevee and (hopefully) a really nice sound system. Not that any of it is the best you can buy. Far from it. I only wish I could afford it. So, shoot me if you don’t approve.

Anyhow, on Press the Meat, it’s the 60th anniversary celebration. Guests are Ron Brownstein, E.J. Dionne, Gwen Ifill, Chuck Todd and Byron York.

Faze the Nation has John Edwards and Jean Cumming of Politico.com.

Fux News Sunday has Huckleberry Huckabee.

George Snufalufagus has Grandpa Fred Thomspson, and This Weak’s group of assholes around the roundtable is David Brooks, Donna Brazile, Jake Tapper and George :jerk: Will, plus Kayce Freed Jennings on her late husband Peter.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft and John Solomon report on a flawed science used in the convictions of hundreds of defendants, dozens of whom may be innocent. Bob Simon on Omar Khadr who was 15 when he was captured in a firefight with suspected al-Qaeda members and now rotting now at Guantanamo Bay. And Lesley Stahl reports on a battle brewing between health advocates and the restaurant industry.

None of this rated Hi-Def, of course.

Have a good one.

Holy shit, it turned into winter while I wasn’t paying attention. Just as well, I guess since there’s a lot to do this weekend. Hopefully we’ll get the tevee mounted and the receiver and speakers installed. I dunno, there’s a lot of thinkin’ involved, and I’m not much for the whole thinkin’ thing. Plus, I have a couple batches of beer that needs to be bottled.

Better get to work.

Giddamn, it’s finally freakin’ Friday. What a long week this had been. I went and lost my glasses (the unfashionable ones that I can actually see with; I think they’re in my bed or under it somewhere), so I’ve been forced to wear the new “progressive” ones all week. At first, I was pretty resistant to them, but now that I’ve been forced to wear them full time, I have to say that they really, really suck. I’ve had a goddamn headache all week. Oh well, whattya gonna do?

Did you watch the big debate last night? I didn’t. These debates are generally pretty stupid, with stupid people asking stupid questions and getting stupid answers. Plus, I already know who I like and who I don’t like, and even if I didn’t, we’ll be getting the friggin’ postgame report from every conceivable angle ad nauseum.

Wake me up when something real happens.
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So, our Governor, Eliot Spitzer, has officially given up on his plan to allow “illegal” aliens to get driver’s licenses. Not too surprising, as it was pretty much a loser issue right from the git-go (though I think the State Republicans suckered him into it by pretending there’d be no objection from them), and kind of an odd thing for him to expend so much political capital on. I’m still trying to figure out why I should be enraged at the idea, personally.

I mean, not having a license doesn’t mean they aren’t here. All it means is we’d know who they are, where they live, that they know how to drive (at least to some extent; mostly, it means they know how to parallel park and do a three point turn), and that there’s a chance the cars they drive will be registered and insured.

But, whatever. I’m sure it’s more of a big deal in NYC, what with the gypsy cabs and all that. Up here? Not so much, I’m guessing. Our illegal aliens are too busy picking apples and grapes and shit to worry about driving around.

So, I wanted to dedicate this video to Farmerkat, Mike Malloy, and their governor, Sonny “Rainman” Perdue, but the fuckers won’t let me embed it. So, I’ll offer this one up, after hearing it on Californication.

It’s kinda disconcerting the way the audience cheers this, though. I think they just don’t get it.

Finally decided to go for the big effin’ teevee thing. Been assembling the pieces (new stereo, new speakers, new DVD player, etc), and got the TV delivered last night. I was originally just looking for a 32″ or so 720p model. So, naturally, I ended up with a 52″ 1080p one. Once I get it all set up (which might take me forever), I need to get the HD satellite package. Hopefully, everything will be in place for the Twilight Zone marathon on New Year’s.

It’s just too bad I have to go to work to pay for all this.

I’m tired. And I really don’t feel like going to work today. I need a note from my mommy.

Happy Veterans Day to all you Vets out there, and to anybody who gets a three-day weekend. I’m not off today, but I do get a day off to use later on. Nice to put another day in the bank.

Here we go again – another Sunday full of heads that talk, but say very little. Today looks like wannabe President’s Day (they ought to make that a Monday Holiday; come to think of it, Monday should just be a damn holiday every week).

Today, Timmy Potatohead has an “exclusive” hour with the Illinois kid, Barack Obama. Big Head vs. Big Ears. Whoopie. Better put your fucking flag pin on, Barack.

On Faze the Nation, Bush Booby Bobby Schieffer does Timmuh one better, as he hosts two Presidential candidates – Mike “Huckleberry” Huckabee and Mr. “let’s kill the government,” Ron Paul.

At Fux News, Weselface Wallace hosts Bill “yes, I’m still running” Richardson, and everybody’s favorite Prednisone Puss, St. John McCain. Then there’s the usual Fux Noise panel of expert assholes, and something that should make compelling teevee, Fux’s “Power Player of the Week,” White House Social Secretary Amy Zantzinger. Wow, don’t forget to set your TiVos for that one.

On the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus gets a visit from the Lizard Queen, Condi Rice, on to talk about Democracy breaking out in Pakistan, and then George will speak with Chris Dodd. Later, the Axis of Drivel is reunited once again, as Sam :omg: Donaldson, Cokie “the hag” Roberts and George :jerk: Will sit around and contribute to global warming with a lot of hot air. And This Weak’s “Voice” will be Maya Lin, who designed the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the age of 21. Well, she aint 21 anymore (sadly, neither am I), as this weekend vets will gather to commemorate the memorial’s 25th anniversary.

I don’t know whose on Wolf Blitzer’s Late Emission this week, and, frankly, I don’t give a damn.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl reports on MRSA, which has been around for years, but is suddenly a big fucking thing we’re supposed to be in a panic over (I guess nobody cares about bird flu anymore). Lara Logan reports on Gregory Thompson, a schizophrenic man who, when unmedicated, hears voices, suffers from severe delusions, is often suicidal, and has eaten his own shit. The State of Tennessee is hoping to keep him medicated long enough to kill him, though several experts have determined that, even medicated, Thompson is still incompetent. And then Morley Safer reports on spoiled brats coddled by their parents, and incapable of functioning in the workplace. They call them “millennials.” I call them Bushies.

Enjoy your Sunday, everybody, but at 11 minutes past the 11^th hour, step back and take a moment to think about the fact that we seem to have learned nothing at all from the war to end all wars (or from all the wars that followed).