Happy Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day to all veterans and currently serving military no matter where you might be! I wish you the best now and in the future. May you all come back safe and sound!

For an article about some of my more flamboyant adventures while in the Air Force click here. I might mention that I actually did some stuff that was actually useful to the Air Force, and before I was in the military, I did some stuff that was even more useful to defend our country.

I got a job right out of high school working as a technical illustrator for a small printing company doing the assembly, wiring, and other diagramming for all the manuals for the BMEWS Project.

I hope the weather where you are is nicer than it is here for Veterans Day. Here it's chilly, overcast, and drizzling! Makes me not want to go out at all!

I had planned to go to the library and grocery store, but if the weather is better tomorrow, I think I'll do it then.

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The repairman from Comcast came on Monday, and said that the only way he could "repair" my DVR would be by replacing it. I wasn't really happy about the idea of giving up all the shows on the hard drive. There was at least half of one show that I hadn't watched, and some others that I wanted to watch again. He said I didn't have to decide now, that I could try to get along with the machine I had and If I changed my mind, I could get a new one later. He said most of my problems were because I had the machine set to keep programs until I erased them. Possibly, but I really don't think that that's why it says I only regain 1/4 of the space used to record a program when I erase it. He says it is, though.

The new DVRs they have are made by Motorola, and mine was from Scientific Atlanta. He said that the two DVRs were identical, just made by different companies. You would think that they'd go for some kind of improvement, but NO. I looked around the internet and discovered that the "new" DVR is just as unreliable as the old one (maybe more), and has it's own set of idiosyncrasies. I'm not sure I want to change.

But, while looking around the internet, I found out that you can use TiVO on Comcast. I have to find out more about that. I suspect that you have to pay the fee for TiVO service, and I know that you have to buy the box yourself. If there's anybody out there using TiVO on Comcast, give a shout, and let me know how the arrangement works! Clearly, I have to do some more research on this. But if there are still any questions, there will be a representative from Comcast here on the 19th to talk to all their disgruntled customers in this building.

Maybe he can explain why they have done their "weekly required test" and then repeated it and hour and 10 minutes later, and then again, 45 minutes later! Three tests in less than two hours doesn't strike me as a "weekly test." The answer I get to that one is that the government requires it. No, not true! Otherwise, why call it a weekly test?

I have to laugh at the FIOS commercial where their representative is asking their customers about how they like the service, and the cable guy wants to know why they care what the customers think. I've dealt with some other cable companies, and they seem to provide quality service and care about their customers. But Comcast really doesn't care if they provide what you're paying for, or how bad their service is.

The people who are supposed to fix things over the phone are actually there to provide excuses so that you can never get anything fixed. Their DVRs (and cable boxes) malfunction on a whim, and it's not just that there's a bad box or two floating around. They all malfunction, and they do it from the beginning. I have never seen a DirecTV box malfunction! The DirecTV boxes are the best out there in my experience, but I've never had an actual TiVO.

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Well, there doesn't appear to be any science fiction on TV today at all! I thought there was an SF movie on SyFy today, but I tuned in, and it's a documentary on possession, like Ghostfacers in Supernatural.

Eastwick is not on tonight, due to the Country Music Awards. I'm disappointed!

Sorry I'm so boring today. I think it's all the rain and overcast today. Days like today always made me wish I could play hooky, and stay home from work. It's one of the few perks of being retired.

I have to run to check the mail!

I hope something cheerful happens to you today!

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Addition:

The news has just broken that Fox has decided that they will cancel Dollhouse after this season. At this point, they're saying that they'll show all 13 episodes of this season, and that the decision to cancel it has come early enough for Joss to wrap up the story for the series. There are only two episodes that haven't already been filmed, so I tend to wonder about that.

Fox has been notorious for sabotaging their own shows and then canceling them when their sabotage is effective, and seems to be fairly schizophrenic at best. It looks from the outside (where I'm standing) like they're over endowed with a combination of greed and fear.

In related news, Joss wrote up info on a project called Goners, and submitted it to Universal, who are not doing anything with it, but haven't freed up the rights so that Joss can use it. See more information about it here. The site doesn't include an email or street address for Universal, but does contain all the information you need to make your opinion known on Twitter.