| It must be true… I read it in the tabloids
A Croatian woman who went missing 42 years ago has been found dead, sitting in front of the television in her own apartment. Neighbors of Hedviga Golik reported her missing in 1966, but it was only this week that police finally broke down the door of her apartment and found her mummified corpse in an armchair before a vintage black-and-white television set. “So far we have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before,” said a police spokesman. ~The Week Magazine, May 30, 2008~ |
Don’t call me an iconoclast, Shirley!
| The Day the TV Died by Stephen Bates [From The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2008 Edition, Full story here.]
“‘DTV’ IS COMING (AND SOONER THAN YOU THINK!)” proclaims the Federal Communications Commission website. With, perhaps, a touch of panic? Digital television—DTV—will replace the venerable analog format on February 17, 2009, at midnight, time zone by time zone. The changeover won’t affect most Americans who get TV by cable or satellite, or those who already own digital TVs or converters, or the handful of iconoclasts (less than 2% of households) who don’t own TVs at all [← ME!]. But that leaves millions of people at risk of severe entertainment deficit. By various estimates, between 10 and 15 percent of American households watch over-the-air programming exclusively, relying on rabbit ears, rooftop contraptions, and other gear from the I Love Lucy era. A third of these People of the Airwaves don’t know about the digital shift, according to a poll by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. If DTV arrived tomorrow, some 20 million Americans would turn on American Idol and find Randy, Paula, ans Simon replaced by snow. People will be able to continue watching over-the-air broadcasts on analog TVs if they get converter boxes, which currently cost around $60. The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration is offering every household two coupons, each worth about $40 toward a converter. According to the poll, though, three-fourths of American’s haven’t heard about the coupons. That’s not the only complication. |
The story goes on to talk about how some programs (local programs and university TV station programs) won’t switch right away, and so if you want to watch those, too, you’ll have to connect and disconnect your antenna, or buy some device that will allow you to switch back and forth without doing that, and if you record a show, you have to consider the format, and one remote will work the converter and one remote will work the volume on the TV, blah, blah, blah.
To those of you with TVs, good luck with all that. I’m glad I’m an iconoclast. I’m just saying…
I worked from home this morning and from Helios this afternoon.
I got an e-mail from the hiring manager of the Social Software Programs Communications Specialist position letting me know that someone on the “corporate communications team” was offered the job.
Today was free pizza day (each first Monday of the month) at Planet Fitness. I went by myself today, as Kevin (av8rdude) is in IBM New Manager School this week, and Joe’s back is still out. After lower body work, crunches, and cardio, I partook of some pie. Get your mind out of the gutter! I don’t do that!
|
Resistance (Lower Body) |
45 |
|
Strength (Crunches) |
10 |
15 |
|
Cardio (Elliptical Machine) |
40 |
822 |
I met Steve Nelson at Helios at 6:30, and he shared pictures from his recent European jaunt to Zürich, Paris, Innsbruck, Venice, and Vienna.
I had bittersweet thoughts looking at them, as I’ve been to all of those places, but when I was married; he did it “the gay way.”
I read some of Eat, Pray, Love out on Helios’ patio until about 9:00.
On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store, mostly for pineapple tidbits for my salads, but ending up with a whole lot more.
At home I read more of Eat, Pray, Love until I fell asleep on my couch.