Fall Fun

This was a lot easier when I was a little kid.



I expected to hear the sounds of leaves crackling and crunching when I did this.  Instead I heard a faint rustling followed by a thump.

Rich

Everything I never wanted to know about antennas, but I was afraid I would have to ask.

Just a mundane slice of my life ...

On October 16th, my cable system ( Cablevision, a cable company with more than 3 million subscribers in the Northeast USA ) stopped broadcasting the FOX network ( which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp ). News Corp's last contract with Fox ended on October 16th, and there was a big dispute about how much Cablevision would have to pay to carry the FOX network.

This initially wasn't that big a deal to me. These disputes usually only last a few days, and I don't really watch any FOX show regularly these days ( Well, I do love The Simpsons and Family Guy, but they are not really what you might call "appointment viewing" anymore. Considering how many stations show reruns of those shows, if I miss any new episode of The Simpsons or Family Guy, it's only a matter of time before I see it as a rerun on another station ( Plus, there is always Hulu. ). ).

However, I was concerned about one thing; My beloved New York Jets would be playing against the Green Bay Packers on October 31st, and they only network with broadcast rights to that game is FOX. I probably wrote enough about my devotion to the Jets in this post, but I'd just like to reiterate that the Jets have not won a championship in my lifetime ( The last time they even played in the NFL Championship game was when they won the Super Bowl back in January of 1969 ), and watching the Jets win the championship is one of the items on my bucket list of things I want to see before they put me in the ground.

Well, the Jets are still a long way from the Super Bowl, but they are 5-1 this year ( in a 16 game season ) and are among the 3 or 4 teams in the league with the best chance of winning the championship this year. I'm as excited about this team as I've been in many years ( though as a long-suffering Jets fan, I'm still very worried that this team will far apart like all the promising Jets teams have in my lifetime. ), so I'd really hate to miss a game this year.

Anyway, I wasn't too concerned, because Jets games usually are not even broadcasts on the FOX network. The Jets usually only have one game broadcast on the FOX network a year, and I figured things would probably get resolved by October 31th. However, as we started to get closer to October 31st, and the FOX/Cablevision dispute became more contentious, I started to research contingency plans.

I looked into any and all options for watching the game online via a live feed, but I really couldn't find any non-sketchy websites that could guarantee access to the Jets-Packers game. The best option was probably this site, but this company has only existed for a month or so, and is being sued by every major broadcast network. While their 30-day free-trial sounds like a tempting offer, I didn't feel comfortable about giving my credit card number to a new company that might be sued into financial ruin soon. So, I started to research antennas.

FOX is actually a broadcast network, so by law all their programming has to be broadcast for free over the air. However, getting reception via an indoor antenna can be sketchy at times, and as much as I love the Jets, I wasn't going to buy a big outdoor antenna and install it on my roof to watch just one Jets game.

Still, an antenna was really my only option other than unreliable online feeds, so I started to do research. I started to do LOTS of research. This blog post has gotten long enough, so I won't bore you by writing about any technical details, but lets just say I now know a shitload about antennas, far more than I even wanted to know about antennas.

So, after lots of research, I bought a $15 indoor antenna today ( well worth the price, if the thing actually worked ), brought it home, hooked it up to the TV, pointed the antenna in precisely the correct direction ( Google Maps was involved here ), crossed my fingers, and tuned the TV to the correct channel.

Voila!!!! At 6:30 PM on October 30th, FOX was back on my TV! About a year ago, all over the air TV broadcasts in the USA switched from an analog signal to a digital signal. The nice thing about a digital signal, is that you never get the "snow" or "ghosts" you would often get using an indoor antenna to get analog signals. With digital, you either get a perfect picture or no picture at all, and my little $15 dollar precisely-aimed indoor antenna was getting a perfect picture.

I was actually stunned by this. Despite all my preparation and research, I really didn't think the antenna would actually work.

Anyway, the amusing postscript of this story is the following: After watching the baseball World Series on FOX via my antenna all night ( much better than watching it on crappy online feeds), I switched my TV back to my Cablevision cable box input and started channel surfing a bit. After about an hour of surfing ( just before I decided to start working on this blog post ), I discovered that FOX was available on Cablevision again. Apparently, as I was hooking up my antenna, Cablevision and News Corp were resolving their dispute. As far as I can tell from news articles, FOX became available on Cablevision just minutes after I hooked up my antenna.

Well, I guess I've now got 2 ways to watch the Jets tomorrow, though I must say I'm a little disappointed with Cablevision. It seems like they caved a bit in the negotiations with News Corp, which of course will mean higher cable bills soon ( Switching cable providers is a bigger pain in the butt than you might think, because we get our cable TV, internet access, and phone service all though Cablevision. I'm not fan of Cablevision, but I must admit that their internet service is ultra fast. All non-biased reviews indicate that all other internet service providers in our area offer much slower upload/download speeds than Cablevision. I could cancel the Cablevision TV and keep the Internet and phone service, but the price of the Internet and phone service goes WAY up if you do that. ).

Oh well, at least I got a good antenna for situations like this in the future, and I have all this antenna knowledge that I could use if I ever find myself on one of those oh-so-popular antenna-based quiz shows.

Rich

Guest Blogger: My Mom

A few days ago, Michael was going through some of my old books on a bookshelf in our basement. He was fascinated by some of the bigger books ( particularly one that had about 3000 pages ), so I decided to show him my copy of the complete works of Shakespeare ( a book I bought more than 20 years ago ). When I opened this book, I made two discoveries:

1) I found an old ornate envelope which contained a wedding invitation to my parent's wedding, along with a Mass book for their wedding Mass.

While that was certainly cool, I thought the second discovery was cooler.

2) I found the letter below:

This is a letter my mother wrote to her friend Kathy when Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm not sure how this letter got in the Shakespeare book. My guess is that Kathy gave the letter to my Dad after my Mom died ( August 1996 ) and before my Dad moved out of our family home in Queens. I was already married and out of the house by this time, but a lot of my stuff, including my Shakespeare book, was still there. I'm not sure if my Dad put the letter in the book or if I did when I was clearing my stuff out of the old house ( when my Dad sold the Queens house about about 10 years ago ), but I never recalled seeing the letter before, and it was nice to find.

It was nice to see my Mom's handwriting again.

It was nice to "hear" her words again via a letter.

Most of all, it was inspiring to be reminded of what a good person my Mom was. Here she was, suffering from the ovarian cancer that would ultimately kill her, and she took the time to comfort a friend. I think I've accomplished a lot in my life up to this point, but I really hope I can live up to my Mom's example some day. So, without further ado, I'm going to turn the rest of this blog post over to my Mom:

Dear Kathy,

I'm so sorry to hear of your illness. I guess you know I have ovarian cancer. I just want you to know I have met so many women who have breast cancer and are doing great. One woman had the cancer invade her lymph system; that was 14 years ago and I'm glad to say she's happy and very healthy.

Barbara waited two years before she had her breast checked. The tumor was as big as a baseball; it invaded the muscle of her chest. After her operation she was given chemo, then radiation, and then more chemo by pills. This March it will be 13 years and thank God she's doing great. So please don't give up; cancer can be beaten. Keep thinking of all the people who are getting well. I know you must be scared about your treatment. But remember everyone is different; some people don't get sick on chemo. Barbara was expected to get sick and she didn't. She just got a little tired.

I just want you to know we are all praying for you. Let your family's love and your friends help you through this difficult time.

Love,

June

Secret Hugs

My baby doesn't want to hug me anymore.

"My baby" is my youngest son Peter ( 5 years old ). I know it's generally mothers who think of their kids as babies, but I'm a lot more affectionate than a typical Dad, and I think part of me will always feel like my kids are my babies, no matter how old they get.

That's why it kinda hurts a little bit that Peter has decided that he doesn't want to hug and kiss me anymore. His older brother Michael still gives me a goodnight kiss without fail each night, but Peter tells me in no uncertain terms that he only want to hug and kiss Mommy.

Actually, he's made it really clear that he only wants to hug and kiss girls and never wants to hug and kiss boys. Those of you who have seen my YouTube videos know that I'm the last Dad in the world who would teach his kids strict gender rolls or display any attitude that would even hint at homophobia, so I really have no idea where he is getting this attitude from. However, things are what they are. It's really hard to change Peter's mind about anything. He's decided that he won't hug boys, and that mean no hugs for me.

Well, actually, it means no hugs for me as far as Peter can tell.

While Peter doesn't want to hug me, he still likes to do "boy" things like wrestle. So, I'll ask him to wrestle, and the next thing you know we'll have our arms wrapped around each other.

He thinks we're wrestling, ...

... but I know we're hugging. :)

Rich

I wanna be famous

No, I actually don't wanna be famous. I don't exactly want to be a hermit either, but I certainly enjoy my privacy too much to want to be famous. I gave this blog post the title I did because it represents something that really makes me smile. It represents Monday nights with my boys.

Each Monday night, the boys and I sit down to watch their favorite cartoon "Total Drama World Tour", the theme song of which is "I wanna be famous".



"Total Drama World Tour" is the third season of the "Total Drama Island" series, which is basically a satirical cartoon version of "Survivor". I had watched parts of a few episodes during the first two seasons, and while I found the show to be quite clever and entertaining, I never could find the time to commit myself to following an entire season-long story-arch. However, this year I'm fully on board with this show because my kids are fully on board. I can't tell you how much fun it is to sit down with my kids each week to watch something we all truly enjoy ( Of course, we all kind of enjoy it on different levels. Michael loves the fact that it's a competition ( He can't wait to see who gets eliminated each week ), Peter loves the cartoon slapstick, and I love the cartoony stuff, the satirical aspect of the show, and hearing my boys laugh. ). It's not that I don't spend a lot of time with the boys otherwise, but it's just nice that three of us have this special "Daddy and the boys" time each week. I guess we'll eventually have a lot of "guys" time together when they start watching sports with me ( Micheal does sometimes, but he doesn't quite have the attention span for a full game yet ), but for now, watching cartoons together is as good as it gets.

As long as I'm on the subject of TV, I think it's about time that I say a few words about the "LOST" phenomenon. Well, not actually "LOSTt" itself ( which I never actually watched ), but just TV shows in general that have complex plot lines that extend over several seasons. You've got to be a little bit careful with shows like these. It's great when the show plays out to a conclusion ( like "The Fugitive" or "LOST" ), but it REALLY REALLY sucks if you get sucked into a show that winds up getting canceled before there is any resolution. I can't emphasize how much that SUCKS. For those of us who read and loved the Harry Potter series, just think about much it would have sucked if J.K. Rowling had died right before she wrote book 7. That's how much it sucks when a show you love gets canceled before there is any resolution.

You've got to be kind of savvy about which show you choose to follow, plus a little bit lucky. I've been kind of unlucky at times when it come to picking shows. I passed on shows like "LOST" and the new "BattleStar Galactica", but at about this time last year, I got sucked into a show called "FlashForward". "FlashForward" was based on an intriguing concept, but unfortunately, it got canceled after one season. Worse yet, the final episode ended on a cliff-hanger, so it looks like all fans of the show will be left hanging indefinitely.

( Why did it get canceled? Well, it was officially canceled for poor-ratings, but every problem has a root cause, and the root cause of FlashForward's bad ratings can be summed up in 2 words:

Joseph Fiennes

My God, is that man an AWFUL actor. Every time I watch him act, I'm stunned that he could have emerged from the same womb as Ralph Fiennes. As intriguing as the concept of "FlashForward" was, I should have stayed away from that show as soon as I realized that Joseph Fiennes was playing the lead role. That show was doomed from the start. Then again, he did play the title role in a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Or course, I still maintain that "Shakespeare in Love" was by far the wost movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. I'm still stunned that it was even nominated for an Academy Award.

BTW, I have a theory about why "Shakespeare in Love" won the Academy Award. The movie is full of supposedly clever allusions to many of Shakespeare's works. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ( the people who vote for the awards ) is probably full of a lot of poorly educated shallow types who like to think of themselves as great thespians who might someday perform Shakespeare , but who actually are not smart enough to comprehend most of his works. When those people watch "Shakespeare in Love" and are spoon-fed simple allusions to Shakespeare's works, they have the following type of reaction:

"Hey, that's a reference to 'Romeo and Juliet'! I bet most people wouldn't have gotten that reference, but I got it because I'm smart.
. . .
Hey, I think that line is from one of Shakespeare's sonnets! Boy, I am smart! It's great that they made such a smart movie for smart people like me. This is one of the smartest movies I've ever seen. This movie definitely deserves to win the Best Picture award."

Anyway, getting back to be original point this tangent, the people who watched "Shakespeare in Love" were probably also thinking "I can't believe that hack Joseph Fiennes is related to that guy who was in "Schindler's List" and "Quiz Show" ( BTW, I mentioned "Quiz Show" rather than the "The English Patient" because I loved "Quiz Show" and hated "The English Patient" almost as much as "Shakespeare in Love". ). )

Anyway, thus concludes my bashing of all things Joseph Fienness. I think I'm just bitter that he got one of my favorite shows cancels.

However, as upset as I was about the "FlashForward" cancellation, it's not the most disappointing premature-cancellation in my life. Even 14 years after the fact, I'm still upset that "Nowhere Man" was canceled.

To give you an idea of what the premise of "Nowhere Man" was, each episode started with the following monologue from the lead character:

"My name is Thomas Veil, or at least it was. I'm a photographer, I had it all: a wife, Alyson, friends, a career. And in one moment, it was all taken away, all because of a single photograph. I have it; they want it; and they will do anything to get the negative. I'm keeping this diary as proof that these events are real. I know they are... They... have to be."

Sound intriguing? It was to me, and from August 1995 to May 1996 I found myself watching this show religiously. Of course, the show wound up getting canceled after one season. I'll admit that the show had its problems ( It helps if a shows about mysterious conspiracies has at least some level of plausibility and has some logical consistency between episodes. A few episodes of "Nowhere Man" failed on both those counts. ), but the concept of erasing somebody's identity was so interesting that I couldn't help but tune in each week to see how things would turn out.

While it sucked that "Nowhere Man" was canceled fans were not left as badly hanging as the fans of some other canceled shows, because the writer/creator of the show was told that the show was going to be canceled before the final two episodes were produced. Two episodes certainly were not enough time to resolve all the plot elements, but I think the writers did a great job with the final two episodes. I don't want to give too much away ( The complete series is available on DVD, and I highly recommend watching it if you ever get a chance ), but the last scene of the final episode reveals something the makes you see the entire series in an entirely different light ( and fixes some ( but not all ) of the plausibility/consistency issues ). It was a great way to end the series, but it was a bit disappointing.

Anyway, I started writing this post on September 17th, and now I find it's the 28th. I'd better post this baby so I at least have one post for September.

Rich

P.S. Since I started this post, I dipped my toe in The Event. Two episodes so far, both very mediocre. Sure, the show has a lot of mysteries to reveal, but I'm not even sure if I care to know.

P.P.S However, Boardwalk Empire has been awesome so far.

P.P.P.S Just for laughs ...

Visiting my Dad ( a preview )

I've been visiting my Dad in upstate New York for the past few days. I'll definitely be posting a bunch of photos from the trip, but the Internet is REALLY slow up here, so I can only post a few for now. The two photos below are ...

1) Michael milking a cow ( He actually got some milk out! ).

2) A sample of the natural beauty of Letchworth State Park in upstate New York.

Rich

Better late than never

Well, most of the people reading this probably already know this ( or have seen the photos a long time ago via one of the Shutterfly links Ruth occasionally send out ), but as promised in this blog post, I finally posted my 2009 California photos to facebook.

Also, considering that the Summer is almost over, I thought I should probably follow through on my promise to finish telling you about what I did on my Spring vacation. For for those who have already forgotten, the "What I did on my Spring vacation" blog posts consisted of this post, this post ( This one has got LOTS of Cornell photos that I probably won't bother to post on facebook - I refuse to show the natural beauty of Cornell in facebook-photo resolution ) , and this post.

What happened next? Well, the story of the rest of that week, the rest of the Spring, and most of the Summer can be summed up in two words: Six Flags

This year, we decided to graduate from Sesame Place, and get a season pass to Six Flags. So far, we've already made 13 trips to the Six Flags complex near our New Jersey home. Clearly, there are a lot of potential photos to post, and you'll probably see those photos on facebook if I ever find the time and energy ( Which could potentially mean that I'll get around to posting these photos next Summer ).

Anyway, it's getting rather late tonight, but don't be surprised if I post some more stuff soon.

Rich