Rena Sofer

I didn't know who Rena Sofer was until I looked it up. I was watching Heroes that I taped from TV a while back when I realized that flying man Nathan Patrelli's wife is the same person as Marilyn Bauer on 24. I watched 24 at 8:00 on Mondays, but in order to watch Heroes too I had to videotape it because it was on at the same time. If that's not a sign I watched too much TV over winter I don't know what is. So anyway, I'm watching Heroes from my videotape and I came to the realization that the same actress is on both Heroes and on 24. It took me until around the final 2 episodes of these shows to figure this out. That can't be all that common for an actor or actress to be on different shows at the same time that air at the same time on 2 different network TV stations. Technically neither role was a main character but still it can't be that common I wouldn't think.

I was completely wrong about Jack being dead at the end of 24. He's still alive but at a crossroads or something. The last 15 minutes of the finale was pretty lame. It was supposed to be all dramatic or something but instead it was really just boring and disappointing. Kind of a lame season of a good show. That's my opinion. Now it's over and so are most of the other TV shows I watched over winter. All of them except for The Shield and The Riches from FX which I think end next week. Then I can officially get off the couch and on with my summer and a bunch of projects I have lined up for myself.

Jessica McBride Fired

Jessica McBride was fired by WTMJ. I fixed my link to her blog on the right side of my page back to the link to her original blog from before it moved to the TMJ site. Her firing had something do to with a segment from her WTMJ evening radio show. She had invited Journal-Sentinal liberal columnist Eugene Kane to discuss the murder of a 4 year old girl in the inner city. He wouldn't come on her show so instead she did a fake interview where she asked the questions anyway but in the place of Eugene Kane's responses she played the sound of a chicken clucking.

24 Season 6 finale prediction

I'm predicting that Jack will die at the end of this season. The preview shows some kind of explosion. If it's not apparent that he dies I think his fate at the end of the finale will be ambiguous. In my opinion this season didn't measure up to the level of other seasons of 24. I still think the show is better than most of the rest of TV though and this season did have a few great moments. I'm still in shock that Milo got shot 2 weeks ago. That was a stunner...proving once again CTU headquarters is not a safe place to work.

I had a dream last night a Chinese man died right in front of me. It was at some kind of park like one of the Disney parts and I was there with some friends. I recognized him as a bad guy who had some connection with nukes and terrorism. It wasn't part of my dream but now that I'm awake I think it was probably Cheng from this and last season of 24. In my dream he melted to death like the wicked witch only it was much more graphic. The best way I can describe it is that his blood turned acidic and ate away all his flesh and bones. It was frothy and everything until there was nothing left but a puddle of blood trickling into a sewer drain. Everyone present was real shocked but relieved. I somehow doubt that's how Cheng will die in tonight's finale but I'm predicting he'll die tonight also. Perhaps in that same explosion as Jack they show in the preview.

My Bucket

Club on the Club

My dad and I went to the Brewers game on Friday compliments of ABF. I haven't been to a Brewer's game in like forever. I think I went the first year the new stadium was open but that's the only time I've been to Miller Park for a game so far. The Club on the Club area that we had our tickets for was first class. It's new at Miller Park this year. I've never been in one of those luxury boxes which is what I originally thought we were going to be in. This was similar to that only there was no glass. It's all open. It's more like an outdoor cafe overlooking a ball field. In addition to the usual ballgame food (brats, nachos, burgers, etc.) they had tons of other good food...a couple of buffet tables full. The food and 2 drinks were free and after that you paid for just the drinks. Two drinks were plenty for me but ABF had a tab going even if it wasn't. We have a new rep now so maybe we'll get to do this more often. I'm really hoping so.
Friday at the game they gave away bobble heads of Cecil Cooper. The Brewers are giving away bobble heads of the 1982 Brewers team as a promotion this year. The box it came in says there are 13 all together but I think that means 13 players. I think it's really 26 total because each player will have a bobble head with both a home and an away uniform. My dad and I both got away uniforms on our Coopers. This is picture I took of mine.

I just found this on the Brewer's web site:

All fans in attendance will receive a collectible 5 inch Brewers bobble head doll, featuring former Brewers player Cecil Cooper. 5,000 of the dolls will feature Cooper in the powder blue uniform, and the rest of the dolls will showcase the pinstripe uniform. This is the second in a series of 13 collectible bobbles featuring former Brewers players from the 1982 team.

No wonder I saw that guy on the way out looking for a trade if only 5000 out of the 50,000 or so they had were the powder blue uniform. I'm sort of glad I didn't make that trade. It would be cool if I could collect all of these but that probably won't happen. The Brewer's in '82 will be something I'll never forget. I was 9 and it was the first time in my life I was learning to follow baseball and to top it all off the Brewers went to the series that year. I can still remember all the regular players and their position on the field but the batting lineup is a little foggy now after 25 years.

American Idol

Before this season I never watched this show for more than a combined total of 5 minutes. I heard a lot about it of course but never watched it. This year I started watching right near the beginning when all of the delusional folks are trying out for a chance to go to Hollywood. Those try-out shows are hilarious. I can't sing to save my life but at least I know it. After Hollywood I watched a couple of the episodes where the women competed and then I tuned in for the eliminations too. I'm a guy after all so there's no reason for me to care about the episodes where guys compete. Now that they're eliminating only 1 per week I just don't have the patience to sit through watching it. I'll maybe start watching it again when it gets to be the final 3 or 4. Melinda Doolittle is going to win this thing for sure if you ask me. Sanjaya finally went down last week. Lots of pre-teen girls probably ran off their rooms crying. That guy was strange. I was afraid for a while the world might end up with another Michael Jackson type. I remember when Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire on the set of a Pepsi commercial and it was the biggest news item at the top of all local the broadcasts. I think I was in 5th grade. Anyway I'm relieved Sanjaya's gone from the competition.


I don't know if it's been like this in other seasons but there were some real attractive women in the top 24. Alaina Alexander I thought was uber cute. She didn't sing that well when compared with the others so I wasn't surprised to see her go. She could barely get started singing after she got eliminated she was breaking down big time. When I first started watching the show this year that struck me as odd that they did that to people. They tell them they're out and then barely a moment later shove a mic into their hands and expect them to sing again. Alaina might've fared better with a commercial break inbetween or something.

Easter Sunday

Today when I arrived at our family gathering for Easter my niece was so excited to show me the eggs she found that she accidentally dumped the tray they were in and they broke open on the kitchen floor. It turns out the eggs weren't hard boiled enough. The insides were semi-solid. We had to clean them up off the kitchen floor and throw them out. She didn't seem that disappointed. I think there were only 4 of them in the tray so it wasn't too terrible of a mess.

My mom made a cake for our dessert unlike I have ever seen before. It was a layer cake and it had chocolate and vanilla sections in a checkerboard pattern. She said she probably wouldn't make it again because it was a lot of work. She seemed pretty sure it wasn't going to be very good but it tasted OK to me. It was less moist than most cakes but we had ice cream with it so it balanced out fine.


I found this using Google's image search. (What did people ever do before Google?) My mom's cake looked almost exactly like this only I don't think it was quite as high. I wonder if a checkerboard cake is like some sort of pinnacle of cake making. At one end of the spectrum are simple microwave cakes and at the other are checkerboard cakes. If this is the case I've never endeavored beyond the microwave cake. To my recollection I've only made one cake in my entire life, and it was a microwave cake. I was 18 and I made it for my girlfriend for her 19th birthday.

New Videos Widget

I'm trying out the new videos widget over on the right side of my blog page. I don't have much control over the specific videos that show up but I can enter search terms in the configuration settings and it will fill out videos from YouTube and Google videos that match those terms. Until I can figure out how to tweek this new videos widget I just have some trials videos over there. Maybe I'll change it around once a while or maybe I'll get rid of it altogether I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure I like the fact that I can't control which videos are over there. It would be better if I had more control. Maybe I just haven't figured it all out yet.

Interesting Parallel

Yesterday before I left for Target to get some batteries and cat litter it occurred to me that battery sizes and bra cup sizes correspond with each other almost exactly. Other than the fact that there aren't B or A batteries...at least that I know of...it's pretty much exactly parallel. AAA batteries are even smaller than AA. I don't know why this has never occurred to me before but now that I thought of it, it seems very obvious.

I found some pictures on the Internet and put them together to illustrate. I might not be right on with with regard to the models but probably close. I found out that it's not as easy as you'd think to find clean examples of models of varying sizes. It was an interesting venture nonetheless.

???

Am I Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Now that 2 months has gone by since I went to Florida I've finally gotten through all of the nearly 200 photos I took and sorted them out and cropped them and all of that business. I took this picture of alligators on that safari ride at the Animal Kingdom but the thing is, is that now I'm not even sure these are alligators. They might be crocodiles. I'm 34 and I'm not certain of the difference just by looking at one. I bet a 5th grader could tell me. I think it has something to do with the snout but otherwise I think they're pretty much the same thing. I'm 95% sure these are alligators.
http://www.fox.com/areyousmarter/

Florida 2007

Two months ago when it was snowing and cold in Wisconsin I got to go on a trip to Florida. The company I work for is in its' 25th year, so to celebrate the anniversary and to reward the dedicated employees that have made it possible, the company paid for everyone and a guest to fly out to Florida and spend Friday to Monday at Disney World (official site). We stayed at the Contemporary Resort and we had our meal plans paid for and everything. It was pretty much all expenses paid. I don't think I even spent $20 the whole weekend. It worked out real nice because you could get just about anywhere either using the monorail which went right through the middle of our building or by taking a bus. There aren't really many other places the company could have taken us where that would've been the case. We had park hopper passes for the whole weekend so we could visit all the major parks...Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and MGM Studios along with Downtown Disney. The highlight for me was Animal Kingdom. It's like a big zoo but it has a lot of animals that our zoo here doesn't. I took the vast majority of my photos there. Plus it has a safari ride and a roller coaster.

The accommodations at the resort were more than I expected. It was much more than your average hotel that's for sure. They had a flat panel monitor with a laptop type keyboard right in the room. It had a Disney intranet setup where you could look up park hours and get directions and details about attractions and the parks and things like that. Plus you could access the Internet from it besides which was real nice. The bed was super comfortable. Now I'm thinking about a new mattress for here at home like that one I slept on there.

These photos are from the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom from Friday night. After we got in Friday we walked from the resort over to get something to eat. Shortly after that they had these fireworks. I think they had them every night at 7:00.

Rhinoceros

Anteater

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Sunday night our whole group gathered together for dinner at the Ohana. One of our co-founders is retired and lives in Florida and she and her husband were able to join us which was real cool. I took this picture of the grill at the Ohana.

The Dentist

I haven't been to the dentist in a while. I've been thinking about making an appointment just to get it over with. I'm sure I'll get lectured about flossing. I floss pretty routinely but sometimes I lose my way and I get more irregular with it. Either way since it has been around a year and half since I've been to a dentist I'm sure that I have a fair amount of plaque buildup that should really be taken care of.

The other night I had a dream I went to the dentist and my hygienist was Donna from That 70's Show. She told me I had a cavity in one of my lower teeth along the front and that they were just going to pull the tooth out altogether. It didn't really sound that bad coming from her and I haven't really decided whether this was a nightmare or not. I'd probably say it wasn't because I woke up before any extracting took place.

I haven't really ever broken the visit every 6 months routine until this time around. Unless things have changed they don't have hygienists that look like Hollywood actresses where I get my teeth cleaned. (Donna above, Jackie below). One can only hope....or dream I guess.

Hockey Team Photo

Somewhere there's someone from this photo who can tell us about what happened next. I want to hear that story.

Poop Mustache

Tax Cheat

Turns out I was cheater in 2005. I got a big fat envelope in the mail from the IRS last week that turned out to be a bill with interest added. The letter said they had records of $6300 something in income that I hadn't reported on my 2005 return. I remember when I did my taxes that year that I left some out but I thought since I hadn't heard anything for so long is wasn't anything anyway. I practically forgot about it. I got a 1099-misc with that amount on it a while after I got all the rest of my tax documents that year. I used Turbotax on the web like usual and when I tried to enter this income, it led me down a path of questions that I had no answers for. I think they were questions like what was my company name and what was its' Federal tax ID. I didn't like the look of it and since I couldn't answer the questions I made a note in my records and I just skipped it. I figured they'd come after me later if it was an issue. This income was the second lump sum my employer paid me for creating our website. When I reported that same source of income on my 2004 return, Turbotax didn't ask me all those weird questions. My employer paid me as an outside vendor rather than an employee so it wasn't on my W-2 like normal and my checks for this never had taxes or anything taken out of them. I've used that money mostly for investments since then. Good thing I'm disciplined and I didn't blow it on bags of weed or hookers or something so I won't have any problems paying this bill now. Actually I'm using my return from this year to pay it. What sucks is I was making plans for that money before I got this bill in the mail. I got a few thousand back this year on my return and now I have to pay it right back again.

HSN knives video

This is my all-time favorite video.


I've watched this dozens of times and it never wears out on me. I keep a copy of it on the network drive at work so I can access it whenever I need a good laugh. The first part is the best. O'Dell at the end is a bit anti-climactic.

"Ow!!!! Aoowhhh that hurt. (pause) Oh that hurt big time."

I find my self using that expression "big time" now and then. I catch myself and I think of this video.

I Shouldn't Be Alive

I watch entirely too much TV. This is primarily a wintertime phenomenon. One show I've been watching lately is called "I Shouldn't be Alive". It's on the Discovery Channel.
I think it's been over for about a month now but I saw all of season 3 except for one episode. This show was on as part of what they called, "Survivor Friday" but I didn't really watch any of the other shows.

Here is the description of the show from the Discovery Channel website.

I SHOULDN'T BE ALIVE pushes the limits as survivors of death-defying ordeals relive their experiences at the edge of human endurance — and the moment of truth that kept them alive.

The series examines our most basic instincts while revealing amazing intricacies and profound depths of the human condition. Each one-hour episode explores the very best true stories of survival, focusing on the moral dilemmas, crucial moments, chance events and life-or-death decisions of the survivors. Viewers will feel the power and magnitude of those decisions, and be moved to ask themselves, "What would I have done to survive?"

Some feats of survival come from the world of professional adventurers and extreme sports — men and women who deliberately invite danger — while others find ordinary people caught in terrible ordeals fighting for their lives. But at the heart of each episode, an agonizing moment reveals key choices that must be made to allow the survivors to cheat death and live to tell their story.

Don’t miss I SHOULDN'T BE ALIVE, Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Despite the name of the show, some of the people in some of the stories aren't alive anymore. I think most of the shows though everybody lives...sometimes a little worse for wear.

1 vs 100

I think I judge my game shows by how much I'd like to be a contestant.

1 vs 100 beats Deal or No Deal hands down in my book. I can't understand why anyone even watches Deal. It came on TV before 1 vs. 100 and I could never get interested in it. No matter how hard I try I just don't give a crap what's in the case or if the contestant takes the bankers offer or not. It's very uninteresting to me. Now 1 vs 100 on the other hand there are at least questions to hold your interest. It allows you to become more involved and to play along while your watching. It's sort of like Who Wants to be a Millionaire only if you give a wrong answer you lose everything and also you're competing against a "mob" who gets your accumulated winnings if you're wrong while they answer correctly. Plus it's a little bit like Hollywood Squares (but without all the jokes) because they sometimes put famous people in the mob.

I only saw previews for it once but apparently Penn Jillet from Penn and Teller has a new game show called Identity. It looks interesting. I'm gonna check that out in March when it comes back.

Gift Card Money Grab

My last post reminded me of something I read a while back that also involves the government taking money from private businesses. In this instance a state representative here in Wisconsin plans to introduce a bill which would give the unused value of gift cards to the state treasury. In other words if someone gives you a gift card and you don't use it, the money that the retailer would normally take in profit when the card expired would not be retained by the retailer but instead would be forfeited to the state!

The Latest Liberal Money Grab -Jessica McBride

Side note: I'm adding Jessica McBride' s Blog to my links section down the right side of the page. I read her blog regularly along with that Crush Liberalism blog. You can always count on that Crush Liberalism guy to find examples of and expose the liberal slant in the MSM. Not that it's difficult to see or to find....turn on CNN, MSNBC etc., watch for 5 minutes.

Oil Profits

If you listen closely you can hear our forefathers turning in their graves.

I've read the constitution. It's a document that defines the authorities and duties of our three branches of government. I'm certain that there is nothing in there than even implies that any branch of government has the authority to take profits away from corporations and use them as they see fit.

The profits of the oil companies belong to the oil companies and their shareholders NOT the government.