Guess what happened today?!

I saw snow in the air!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I couldn't think of a title for this post!

All I really wanted to say is that about a month ago my high speed internet connection got REALLY slow and nothing I did to try to fix it seemed to make any difference.

And now, suddenly, it's working just fine.

I'm not complaining- I'm quite thrilled, actually- but, seriously, what the hell?

Wherein your author is well chuffed.

Some weeks ago I mentioned that I had begun a new "exercise" and "health" regimen. I am happy to report that not only have I been remarkably faithful to this new regimen, but today, somebody noticed that I was noticeably more svelte than I was a few months ago.

Go.Me.

It was an accident, I SWEAR!

Reflecting upon my activities yesterday it has become clear to me that I somehow managed to eat an entire pound of ground beef.

When I awoke yesterday morning this was not my intention...it just kind of happened.

I will try to exercise more self-control in the future.

MEATBALLS!!

Tonight, for dinner, I made meatballs.

I don't know if I've ever made my own meatballs before, but if I have, they were never this good!

So good, in fact, that I'm having a very hard time not going out to the kitchen and eating the two other meal's worth that are left!

Hooray for me!

Yet ANOTHER reason why the internet rocks!

So, it's 10:30pm and I find myself in need of some graph paper for a project I'm working on for next week.

Do I have to wait until tomorrow to go to a store and buy it?

Nope.

A quick trip to Google and I find a site where I can customize (line color, grid size, etc.) the graph paper, which the site turns into a .pdf and all I have to do is hit "print."

HUZZAH!

$3.01 and falling

Looks like gas prices in my neck of the woods are about to drop below $3.00 for the first time in I don't know how long.

And you know, that totally makes up for the fact that the wheezing and sputtering economy has eaten up 25% of my retirement fund so far this year.

Yup, TOTALLY makes up for that.

By the way

I watched all of the first Presidential Debate

Most of the Vice Presidential Debate

Some of the "Town Hall" thingy.

I will not be watching any of the last debate.

Why? First of all, because I already know for whom I'm going to vote. Second, because watching them just makes me angry at myself for even considering- at one time- that I might vote for the "other guy."

Somebody remind me, what's so bad about monarchies?

Well done, Sony

...in which your author actually has something good to say.

I'm all for bashing large, faceless, corporations- they are an easy target in the way that the old Soviet Bloc used to be. You're not likely to hear to many people loudly supporting them and the chances of "blowback" on a personal level are pretty slim.

However, I like to think of myself as a pretty fair person, so when a corporation does something good it seems right to give them credit.

I bought a PS3 (the expensive one*...80MB) last Christmas with the rationale that a) it would serve as my DVD player (and a Blu-Ray player for that matter) and I would get to continue to enjoy my racing and soccer video games.

Everything was great until the middle of the summer when I was playing a game and there was a loud "click" followed by no picture or sound. Great. Just great. My initial rage turned into a long bout of procrastination: was it still under warranty? If not, how expensive would it be to get it fixed if it wasn't? How much of a hassle would it be to send it back to Sony? How long would I have to wait to get it back? Should I just by a cheap DVD player and deal with not having a PS3?

None of these were questions I really wanted to deal with so I watched DVDs on my laptop and went without my games. All the while, the dead PS3 just sat there as reminder of my best laid plans ganging a glee...

Finally, I gave up and called customer support. Granted I had to ask the service rep to repeat almost everything he said because I couldn't understand him, but he did eventually lead me through all of the trouble shooting. In the end, however, I had to send the console back to Sony.

They sent me a prepaid box, I sent it to them, they sent it back.

Total time: Less than a week. AND they sent me a new console. I know that's probably easiest for them- and good luck to the person who buys my "reconditioned" unit on E-Bay- but nevertheless, I appreciate that I'm starting out with a brand new unit, not one that's already demonstrated its faults.

Sure, I'll have to set everything back up, I'll probably loose all my progress on my games, but I'm willing to deal with that.

So, Sony, thanks.

*fine, fine, if this post is about being "fair," all PS3s are expensive- damn expensive!

Disappointment

Yesterday I took a delightful little afternoon nap during which I dreamed that it had snowed.

Imagine my sadness when I awoke to find that it hadn't.

Am I the only one?

Any time I hear anyone- politician or layperson- pronounce the country of Iraq as "EYE-wrahk" or the country of Iran as "EYE-ran," I stop listening.

Many of these people also say "Nuke-u-ler."

/grumble.