Chip's Spynotebook

07:41 pm - Procrastination: The Blogger's Best Friend

I'm washing clothes and getting ready to go to the beach on Saturday morning. I have been meaning to blog forever and ever, but honestly, twitter is so much easier. If you aren't following me and you read this blog, you should probably start following me there. At some point, I plan to figure out a way to archive a day's worth of my online comings and goings and post it here for the future generations. Maybe I can figure that out while I'm at the beach.

So, here is a brief catch up on my life.

Wedding still on for September. Honeymoon in Las Vegas to follow.

I started a new job at UGA on June 9 and so far I like it but I have had a tremendous amount of trouble with UGA Human Resources.

Walking to work in the morning rocks. Walking home in the afternoon sucks.

Scrappy and I canceled cable and are living off the internet. I think I am about to cancel our Netflix also. We just are such in the habit of having things streamed or downloaded that it is almost not worth the effort to get things through the mail. The tipping point was when I read that Netflix was getting rid of their option to split one account into different profiles. That is how we have handled ours for a while.

Hmmm. What else?

Can't think of anything for now.

Oh yeah, I have been reading Scott Pilgrim. It is awesome and you should read it also.

05:42 pm - Smells Like Wednesday

New Buffy today! Hannah, have you found a comic shop in Lexington yet? You should.

No new Doctor Who means I will have to trick Scrappy into reading something else. I'll glue a picture of David Tennant on Detective Comics. She'll never know!

08:23 am - Weekend Update

So, we started off the week a little crazy by canceling cable.

This is not as crazy at it seems at first. We're keeping the internet (10MB through Charter) and plan on watching TV via the web, NetFlix, and various other methods. Plus, it saves us about $90/month that can be spent on other things like comic book spinner racks, roller skates, and weddings.

I also have spent the week trying to get my iPhoto library into some organized manner. Ever since I had to recover all my photos from a hard drive crash a few years ago, they have been all kerfluzzled. The are only mildy fluzzled now.

Friday night we went to DePalma's and then for coffee on College Square. There were "preachers" with signs about drunkards and fornicators standing on the little war memorial island in front of the Arch. Loud, annoying, etc. Some girls ran out of one of the bars and started to make out in front of them and they stopped preaching and packed up and left. Now, it was about 10:00 and they might have just been leaving anyway, but the girls were very proud of themselves and so were we.

On Saturday, Scrappy and I went to the auction at Barnett's News Stand. I was there to buy one of the comic book spinner racks as were friends of mine. I paid a little more than I wanted to but I am happy that I have it. It has Richie Rich, Archie, Spidey, and Supes on it so it is pretty cool.

I am trying out a new cross-posting app so this MIGHT show up on my old livejournal also. Who knows if anyone still is my friend on there.

01:51 pm - Maybe last post on LJ

My cross post plugin that ports my spynotebook blog over to livejournal has stopped working again.  So, I am going to stop using it. Which means that those of you who read my blog via your friends page will actually need to start reading my real blog.

The address is:

http://www.spynotebook.org/chip

It has RSS feeds and junk so there may be a way to put it back into your friends page but I don't know how to do that. It is cooler anyway because it has suggested links and my flickr pictures and all sorts of other stuff.

If I can get another plugin, I may be back here someday.

I love you all equally,

chip

10:05 am - Harry Potter Audio Update

I've listened to 562 out of 6,032 minutes of Harry Potter. Harry has just met Mr. Weasley.

Only 5,470 minutes to go!

08:13 am - The "Match Game" Curse Takes Another

Charles Nelson Reilly, Dead at 76.

07:50 pm - Harry Potter Audio

Last night, I put all of the (first six) Harry Potter audio books onto my iPod (the UK version with Stephen Fry reading). iTunes reports that this is 4.1 days of audio which ends being around 98.4 hours.

This means that if I listen to it every day on the treadmill for 45 minutes then I can be done in just over 131 days! I won't be done until September!

I better spend more time on the treadmill if I am going to finsh in time for Book 7!

08:36 am - Things That I Have Been Meaning To Say

Yeah, I know. I never blog anymore. Some items:

1. We have a job opening for someone to manage our help desk at work. It consists mostly of handling the phone calls on the tech support line, helping students and faculty when they bring in laptops, and being the point of contact between us and the repair depots. I would think it would start August 1 at the latest and July 1 at the earliest. Detailed knowledge of computer guts not required.

2. Do any of you guys actually use twitter, jaiku, or any of those sites? Just curious.

3. Some of you don't realize that I post a lot of pictures on flickr that don't make it over here. Such as this one. Or this one.

4. Did I mention that I served on the grand jury for 13 weeks? I learned a lot about Athens. Not necessarily in a good way.

5. Scoops cost 75 cents at Hodgson's now.

6. The Athens Roller Derby was a lot of fun a few weeks ago. I forgot to put those pictures on here also.

7. I like this ad:

8. Shawn and I think that being locksmiths would make us a lot of money.

03:18 am - My Grandad

Sad news. My grandad passed away yesterday morning very unexpectedly. There are several stories already in the papers about it and I am posting them here as I come across them. The AP Report has his age wrong (81, not 82) and says he died of fluid on the heart which is wrong. He had been having trouble regulating his blood pressure and blood sugar and passed away in his sleep at Athens Regional yesterday morning (with the TV on, of course).

Here is a combo of a couple of the obits compiled with snippets from an auto-bio he wrote for something:

Worth McDougald, the man who oversaw the prestigious Peabody Awards program for nearly 30 years and known to thousands of students and journalists as "Dr. Mac,", died Thursday morning at Athens Regional Medical Center. He was 81.

He was a native of Statesboro (GA) and was educated in the public schools there, being graduated from Statesboro High in 1942. (Chip adds here : actually from Clito, not Statesboro)

McDougald came to UGA in 1949 as an associate professor in what was then the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, and served as director of the Peabody Awards program from 1963 until he stepped down from that post in 1991.

"Worth McDougald is a giant of 20th century UGA history," said UGA president Michael F. Adams. "He laid the foundation for what has become the most prized honor in broadcasting, the Peabody Awards. His focus on quality as the guiding criterion informs the selection process even today. As great as his impact on the broadcast industry has been, his impact on students and colleagues in the Grady College may have been even greater. For 42 years he served this university with dignity, dedication and humor, and we will miss him very much."

In World War II, McDougald served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater.
He entered both Hiroshima and Nagasaki within a few weeks after the atomic bombs destroyed those cities. In 1946 the Appalachian served as Press Ship for both the air and underwater explosions of atomic weapons at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

Upon leaving the service, he completed his degree requirements at Emory University in 1947. He joined the staff of radio station WWNS in Statesboro, Ga., as program and news director and, from there, was recruited to the University of Georgia by John Drewery in 1949. In 1951, McDougald was recalled to active duty with the Navy and served during the Korean War, attaining the rank of Lt. Commander. After returning to the university, he received a master of arts in political science from UGA in 1954 and a Ph. D. from Ohio State University in 1964.

McDougald retired from the UGA journalism school in 1992, the same year he was named Georgia's Broadcast Citizen of the Year and inducted into the Georgia Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

During his tenure as director of the Peabody Awards, McDougald saved and protected the program's collection - nearly all the broadcast entries and documents submitted for judging from 1940 to 1991 - and he had them moved into a permanent location at the UGA Main Library, said retired UGA journalism professor John English.

"To his credit he maintained the collection, kept it protected and finally got it to the library," English said. "Now it's this national treasure that we have and one of a few such broadcasting collections in the country."

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Central Presbyterian Church, 380 Alps Road. Bernstein Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

The visitation is tonight (Friday) from 6 to 8 at Bernstein's.

05:28 pm - Portrait of Chip

Portrait of Chip, originally uploaded by Chip.

Mark Johnson was doing $1 portraits at Fluke 2007. This is me.

10:35 am - How To Ruin A Weekend In A Few Keystrokes

I'll start off by saying that I saved a lot of my pictures. I still haven't saved my music but it is on my ipod so I can probably download it from there even though the man doesn't want me to.

This is about to get real geeky. Most of you won't care about this, so I am putting it in an extended entry.

11:15 am - Catchup

Whenever there isn't late breaking Chick-Fil-A news, I seem to disappear from the internet, don't I? Well, let's see what has been going on.

Last week, we went to see Lily Allen and The Bird and The Bee. The Bird and the Bee were awesome. You should go to iTunes right now and buy the album or actually GO INTO A STORE and get it if you are like that. I'm not. Lily sings well. She is poppy and English and that is just someone I am 9 times out of 10 going to like. But, she drank and smoked the whole time that was kind of fun at first but then just got old before it was all over. And then someone from the audience gave her a shot of something in a plastic cup and she drank it. Yeah, that's a good idea. But, it was a very fun show nonetheless.

In other music news, Madie's newish album is reviewed at Pitchfork.

A bunch of us went to see "Waiting For Guffman" at the recent film festival. Afterwards, Robert Osborne interviewed Fred Willard. It amused me that someone asked about Fernwood 2Nite because that was an awesome TV show. But, I'm not sure the film festival was the place to ask about it. But, they don't have sitcom festivals (at least down here) so what is a Fernwood fan to do?

We finished watching "Rome" last night and have the first two episodes of "The Tudors" queued up.

Learn history the fun way... the fictional, sexed-up on cable way.

09:23 am - Lily, Bird, Bee

Spring Break is over. I upgraded the MythTV and the laptop and they both seem to freeze more so upgrades are not always a good idea. But, I can record two things at once so that is a good deal.

Scrappy and I are going to see Lily Allen and The Bird and the Bee tonight in Atlanta. It would have been better if this was LAST week but I can't decide when bands I like come to "town".

I don't think it is sold out so if anyone wants to go, let me know and we can carpool or meet up. It is at The Loft at Center Stage which looks all swank and hip. Not really my style but we'll see how it goes.

04:34 pm - Live Blogging Jeopardy!

At first, I thought Alex was going to do the entire episode with a Irish accent. No such luck.

Two people have scored... what is it?

One guy looks jittery. Maybe he is going to pass out. Has that happened in 23 years?

Maybe Alex is making up all the answers.

At first commercial break, Scott has $0, Jamey has $1800, Anders has $3600.

Maybe someone will answer all of double jeopardy?

Anders has donated blood 170 times.
Jamey has a 7 year old son who wants him to bet it all at Daily Double.
Scott grades AP Computer Science Exams.

Scott has a lot less money than anyone else. But no one is way ahead at the end of the first round.

Scott $400
Jamey $7200
Anders $4000

My money is on Scott getting all of the questions for the rest of the game.

Nope. Jamey just got one.

Seems like a very mediocre game to me.

Alex is at the Mark Twain House. I hope that the special Jeopardy isn't that Alex visits somebody's house.

Scott is racking up. Double Jep almost over. Why am I even wasting time blogging this?

OK. Going into Final Jep with category of Women of the 1930s:

Scott $13,400
Jamey $8000
Anders $8000

Could it be a three way tie at the end? What else is there?

It was indeed a three way tie. All the contestants will be back next week. Cool.

I guess they all get $16,000 for this game? Is that how this game works?

Anyway. Here is a screen shot:

02:20 pm - Jeopardy!

I don't know what it is and it may be lame but on today's Jeopardy, something is supposed to happen that has never happened before in the history of the game.

My prediction is one person questioning all the answers (is that the proper Bizarro jeopardy way of saying answering all the questions?)

So, you should watch it.

If you don't, I'll just tell you about it later.

04:29 pm - Chip's ReplayTVs 1999-2007

I think it was 1999 when I got my first ReplayTV. It might have been earlier, but I doubt by much. I got a second tuner working in my MythTV today, so I really have no need whatsoever for my Replay because 1) It costs money and 2) it doesn't look cool and run on Linux.

So, I have one working Replay and one that probably works but might need a new hard drive.

Anyone interested?

01:37 pm - Saddest Thing In The World

Saddest Thing In The World, originally uploaded by Chip.

On the way back from lunch today, we spotted lots of stuffed animals in an intersection. I had to make a choice and ran over Pooh instead of Piglet. I figured Pooh had lived a longer life.

12:42 pm - Wreaths Are The New Pumpkins

My mom and aunt are now in the wreath business:

Waggin' Wreaths

So, if you need something wreathy, let them know.

10:53 am - Blogging While Hungry

I made soup for the first time yesterday. A lot of soup. For a swap. So, in theory, other people will be eating my soup. Should be interesting.

In other food related news, the new Chick-Fil-A on Epps Bridge Parkway is opening Thursday. So, check this out:

The newest Chick-fil-A in the Athens market will hold a grand opening beginning at 6 a.m. Thursday. The Chick-fil-A store at 1870 Epps Bridge Parkway, across from Wal-Mart, will award a year's supply of Chick-fil-A combo meals for a year to the first 100 customers.

I might be making an early trip out there. It is very convenient to my new gym. Which is unfortunate. What is more unfortunate is that they are building a new IHOP out there also.

Is it time for lunch yet?

08:51 am - Beechwood Chick-Fil-A Closed Until Summer

I just read that the Chick-Fil-A in Beechwood is going to be closed until July 1. Not that I went there THAT often but I am suddenly craving a chicken biscuit. But, when they rebuild there will be wireless there so all you people who want to surf the web and eat chicken are SET.

Of course, the Dairy Queen on Oak St. has free wifi also. Scrumpdillyicious.