It's been a weird 24 hours at Casa De Big Al
Saturday afternoon, I faxed over the "official" paperwork to MVN agreeing to move TWFE to their network. It's official, folks. It was a slightly strange, but exciting, feeling.
A little later on Saturday, the Lions, for lack of a better word, destroyed the Browns. The Lions played damn well, beating a team who narrowly missed the playoffs last season. I'm doing all I can to not get sucked in again, but it's hard. Awful hard.
I think Michael Corleone speaks for all Lions fans...
Damn straight.
After watching the silly tape delay of the Lions win (Big media and the NFL just don't get it), I needed what was going to be my last Olympics fix for a couple of years. NBC was showing ping pon...table tennis and mountain biking (Mountain biking is an Olympic sport? Well, you can slap me silly and call me Shirley). At the same time, the CBC was showing the very exciting and emotional men's volleyball gold medal game, live and in it's entirety, between the USA and Brazil. (As I write this, NBC is showing a condensed version of the USA win, only 17 hours later, another sign big media doesn't have a clue, or give a shit)
Let's see...Watch a bunch of nameless Euros ride bikes or a USA volleyball team on a mission to win gold for their coach, and his grief stricken family? Easy choice. Living in a border city FTW!
Volleyball ended just in time for...Spain - USA basketball! So I was up till 5 AM watching USA hoops win the gold medal. Jacques Rogge and the rest of the extortionists running the IOC should demand all future Olympics be held in the eastern time zone.
Why?
I'M AN AMERICAN LIVNING IN THE EASTERN TIME ZONE! THE WORLD REVOLVES AROUND OUR NEEDS AND OUR NEEDS ONLY! I HAVE RIGHTS, DAMMIT!
That's why.
I rarely do all-nighters anymore, for good reason. They leave me loopy. Or maybe loopier. You make the call.
I have to say it was quite nice to see jaded NBA gazillionaires act like little kids in a candy store over winning gold for their country. I don't think I've ever seen Kobe Bryant so...well, happy. Ever. Not even after winning an NBA title. Even cooler was every team USA player shaking the hand of Doug Collins. It was the human side of athletes we rarely get to see. It put a smile on my face, but damn, it was weird to see them so openly emotional.
After the gold medal ceremony, I called it night. I'm guessing it was 5:30ish when I finally crashed.
You'd think the weirdness was over, but nooooo. Around 10 AM, I was roused from a semi-sound sleep by the sound of my electronics trying to fry themselves. I had fallen asleep with the bedroom stereo on, and I heard, "click...click...click" coming from the head unit. My first thought? "What the fuck time is it?" My second? "Something sure ain't right."
Funny how a strange sound (or even the lack of one) wakes you with a start. Turns out my neighborhood was going into a brownout. Wonder-fucking-ful.
I stumbled out of bed with slits for eyes. (I'm not making a racist joke about the Chinese, unlike the Spanish Olympic hoops team. If I were to make a joke, it'd be something like: Confucius say before becoming master fisherman, must be master baiter)
I staggered around the house making sure the surge protectors had worked, flipping off switches, unplugging appliances and just trying to get through to my pea brain what exactly was happening.
A few minutes later, I lost power completely. I found my ancient Walkman radio, and crawled back into bed. So I was laying in bed, extremely tired, cranky as all Hell and now worried about a fridge and freezer full of food. Let alone it was over 80 outside, and the temperature inside was quickly beginning to rise.
The power FINALLY came back around 12:30. I was relieved. Sweaty, but relieved.
To say my morning sucked is an understatement.
I'm still tired and still kinda cranky. My mood isn't helped by trying to figure out what in the Hell is going on during the Olympics closing ceremony. I have no fucking clue whatsoever. I think those in charge of these ceremonies use the LSD. A shitload of the LSD. Amounts of the LSD that would have even the deadest of the Deadheads say, "Uh, no way, man!" Acid flashbacks should not be used as the groundwork for anything, let alone a ceremony being broadcast to billions.
All this is my long-winded way of telling you I'll write about the Lions tomorrow.
Are we cool? Good.
Now that was quite the quality blog post. Bravo, good sir.
ReplyDeleteI live out in the sticks so blackouts happen way too frequently. I smartened up and bought a uninterruptable power supply for my PC that's on 24/7. If that thing went to hell I'd go crazy.
Good luck on the move to MVN!
Thanks MW32!
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky nothing happened to either PC, as one was on, but asleep, while the other was up and doing some full bore torrenting. They are on surge protectors, but you're right, I'd be much more comfortable with them running off of a UPS.
A UPS is one of those items that is on my rapidly growing list of things I need. Really need.
Hey Shirley, thank god for CBC, eh? Olympics coverage needs that kind of competition everywhere, not just the border states. Though I do give props to NBC for its been Olympics coverage in years, it still has a ways to go with doing the live stuff right.
ReplyDeleteI fell asleep on the second quarter of the basketball game but woke up after it ended to catch the final score at least.
Also, congrats on MVN! It's great to see you doing so well!
been = best
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kurt!
ReplyDeleteThe CBC, for all their issues, do the Olympics right. Everything is shown live, time zones be damned. Plus I'm a big time fan of Ron McClane.
To their credit, NBC did show the hoops final live, even if it did screw my slepp schedule. I think NBC's coverage on the cable channels like MSNBC, CNBC and USA was fine. Lots of live, overnight coverage. And watching on the NBC Olympics website was quite good, with all kinds of live coverage available. The "up close and personal" crap was kept to a minimum as well, as it should be.
But to tape delay the most important events is unforgivable. They have to realize it's a new era, with information available 24/7, and that's how we want it. For example, their handling of men's volleyball was just plain criminal, it being one of the most compelling stories of the games.
I hate to say it, but a network like ESPN, which shows EVERYTHING live, and has multiple channels, needs to get involved.
So, back to the Lions, eh. Please help us figure out a way to unload Shef that doesn't involve flying to Boston and breaking Big Papi's leg so that the BoSox have to grab Shef off waivers for the pennant push. I'd like to see that $14 mil come off the cap so that we can use it to sign Sabathia--he looks like his stint in the Quad A National League has straightened him out--and he would be worth investing in as a top of the rotation guy. There was a telling article in the Freep a week or so ago that slid in under the Olympic radar--something about next year making sure that the catcher, Inge, is required to go over scouting reports regarding other teams' hitters' tendencies, especially the AL Central. Is this telling us that Pudge didn't? And perhaps that's why he's a Yankee?
ReplyDelete