Insight was on site today at home looking at my cable modem problems. Turns out, as I expected and has happened before, the signal going to the outside tap at my house had dropped. They’re going to work on it, but that happens with a different crew and they don’t need me for that. The Internet works if I move the modem to the basement (one splitter closer to where it comes into the house,) so I’m still online. Just an annoyance.

I also called Insight to see if I could save money on my bill. I cancelled HBO, so I’ll just have to hang with Chuck or Nate if I want to watch the next season of the Sopranos. (And all the older seasons, if you can sit through them, are on DVD.) I decided that, for the first month or two, I didn’t want to give up the cable box/HD/DVR capabilities yet. In fact, I ordered an upgrade … The dual tuner model of their DVR is only a nickel more than the single tuner for the next 12 months (then it’s $3 more per month.) So that’s getting upgraded next week. In the meantime, I’ll just watch my pennies and if things get tight I’ll cut down to just the extended cable plan (gotta have my comedy central.)

But, with football starting, and ESPN and FOX in HD, I don’t really want to get rid of the HD pak yet. That, and then basketball starts I want to have a digital box so I can either see the games in HD if possible, or order the Full Court games/days I want.

The other choice is that I get a digital pak (meaning some select digital cable channels) for free. I’m currently getting the sports one, but I’m considering changing it to the family one. (That way, if mom ever visits, she can have her discovery health. *shudder* Oh God, it would even be on DVR, so it could be rewatched and rewound. Ew.) I’m a little annoyed that would mean missing the SciFi channel, but in reality I never watch any of these extended channels (sorry Josh, I just don’t get up to the golf channel,) so it doesn’t really matter (and it doesn’t save me money.) Here are the paks:

Movie Pak
502 WE: Women’s Entertainment
503 Independent Film Channel
504 Fox Movie Channel
505 Lifetime Movie Network
506 Sundance Channel
516 Encore Wam
517 Encore
519 Encore Love
521 Encore Mystery
523 Encore Westerns
527 Encore Drama
529 Encore Action

Sports & Lifestyle Pak
160 Sci-Fi Channel
161 GSN
163 SOAPnet
164 Fox Reality Channel
273 Bloomberg
274 History International
275 GAS
401 Fox Soccer Channel
402 ESPNEWS
403 ESPN Classic
404 Outdoor Life
405 Golf Channel, The
406 NFL Network
407 CSTV
409 Fuse
410 MTV Hits

Family Pak
120 Noggin
121 Discovery Kids
122 Biography Channel, The
123 Discovery Home
124 Discovery Times
125 Military Channel
127 Toon Disney
128 Nicktoons
130 DIY Network
131 Fine Living
162 BBC America
220 Discovery Health
272 Science Channel, The
276 VH1 Classic
277 VH1 Country
278 VH1 Soul

Just before last weekend, I watched a movie from Netflix and mailed it back, as I’ve done hundreds of times. It wasn’t received, or I didn’t get the email it was received until Monday. Netflix sends you an email each time a movie arrives or departs from their shipping centers. I usually get the check-in emails in the morning, and an hour or two later, the notice my next movie is on the way, and when I can expect it.

What got my attention last Monday was that the subject on the email said, “For Tues: Rosencrantz and Guil…” Ros and Guil Are Dead is a great play and movie, and I highly recommend it, but that’s not why I’m posting. I got the email Monday afternoon, and it said “for Tuesday.”

I love my Netflix, and I really think for movie-rental fans, it’s as good as sliced bread. My only continual bitch is that it takes too long for movies sent from St. Louis (the closest distribution center,) to Champaign. My shortest time having a movie, according to Netflix, was 7 days from checkout to checkin, even if I watched it the day I got it and put it in the mailbox the next day.

So I was a little surprised the email sent at 4pm on Monday said I would get the movie on Tuesday. I was more surprised the next day when there was a Netflix envelope in my mailbox, and even more surprised when I opened it and found the return address was to a distribution center in Springfield, IL (splitting the distance between Champaign and St. Louis.)

As an experiment, I quickly watched R&GAD (what you’ve been is not on boats.) I also watched another movie I had whose return envelope was to St. Louis and dropped them both in the mail the next day (Wednesday.) I’m a gambling man… I wonder which will win and get checked in first?

I was midly annoyed, but not surprised, when I got both emails for the checked in movies at the same time on Friday morning. Now, Wednesday – Friday is pretty good, considering most of the first day they sat in my mailbox waiting for the letter carrier (Note to self: ask postal employee best place/time to drop off out of town mail for quickest CU-area departure.) And hour later, two “For Sat:” emails from Netflix. They arrived the next afternoon.

I’m really pleased Netflix opened a closer distribution center, and I look forward to milking it up as much as I can. I’m curious if it’s a full center, or if it just ‘caches’ the next movie in my queue so it’s quick-to-mail-close when I’m ready for it. And why did my STL and Spfld destined checkins take the same amount of time to arrive? Where is the bottleneck?

And in the shoe’s-on-the-other-foot department, I know that Blockbuster is testing using local stores as distribution centers, and the store 1/2 mile from my house is one for the Champaign area. Same $18/mo for three movies, and I think you get two in-store coupons for rentals. Reviewing my queue, nothing is that odd or esoteric that BB wouldn’t have it when Netflix does — and the ability to drop off or pick up my movies on the plan is damn appealing.

But, I _LIKE_ Netflix. I don’t want to leave it, especially if I see them trying to do better. If I had the time and money, I would subscribe to both and try it out, but I don’t have the time for that many movies and the extra $20 is not a good idea right now.

So, Netflix, keep impressing me. Blockbuster, keep impressing me. I will award the best with my money – although it might take me until next summer to have the time to evaluate what “the best” means.

PS. Yes, both of the Saturday movies are going in the mail tomorrow morning.

I’ve been catching up on The Daily Show, and they’ve really been going at Pat Robertson for his comments and prayers that the American government should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I understand Robertson’s arguments, and I think I understand killing in the name of religion or sacrificing one to save many.

What I don’t understand is how a religious man turns to organized, premeditated murder instead of praying for reform, or enlightenment, or some other resolution short of breaking, oh, say, one of the ten commandments? What’s next, coveting his late wife’s ass?

Or, maybe it’s just a side, sneer comment made by a stupid man and blown way out of proportion by the liberal media and the media that likes making fun of the liberal media? I know I’ve made comments about killing people, and didn’t really mean them. Of course, I don’t own a cable network and have a show where I preach and instruct to the world.

Also, today, I learned from Animal Planet that wolverines are cute like sea otters. Thank you TV.

Hello subscribers! I’m sorry I haven’t been around, but I had a cold last week, making me feel like not doing anything, and that was sandwiched by two busy weekends. I’ll give you the quick recap, and then fill you on all the little quirky things I really want to blog about.

Last Thursday, the 21st there was an evening storm. That storm took the power out about 1030pm, and it didn’t come right back on. I wandered around the neighborhood, since it was cooler outside than indoors with no A/C or fans, and then made a paper copy of my cell phone phone book by candlelight. When I went to bed, there was a black and white police car outside the house but I didn’t figure out why. I slept with the windows open, and it was quiet, hot, and uncomfortable. Every storm that came through the night woke me, and that reminded me how nasty it was, and then I couldn’t fall back asleep. About 7am Monday morning (power still out) I was awoken by trees being cut down, and found out a power line was downed last night two houses down. (The cop was making sure people didn’t drive over the downed line, which crossed Clover lane.) When I left for work, they were still working on it. The power was off about 12 hours altogether. Marc complained about losing his work Internet/WAN link, but losing power is a much bigger deal.

Last Friday I took off for Chicagoland with Eric and AJ. We met up with Rich and Marc and Tony at Dave and Buster’s – a mix of sports bar, bar, and video arcade with classic games (Skeeball!) and some neato technology ones (virtual boxing/bowling, neat shoot’em-up games.) It was a good time, but the only games I really won was the Bartender game, the Cards/Cubs game (suicide squeeze,) and I lost the remembering-to-pack-underwear-game. I didn’t do well enough at Skeeball or Popaball to win the D&B boxers. This trip to the arcade was to make up for not going out with Rich on Saturday for his bachelor’s party because this was a Dave Matthews Band concert weekend in Wisconsin.

Saturday, we met up with Josh and Andrea and started the trek north. Chicagoland/94 traffic sucks, but we eventually got into the hotel, and into the Alpine Valley parking lot. No sooner had we pulled in and cracked some beers, when a huge storm blew in. This was one freaky, omnious, end-of-days, sky-dark, wind blowing so much it’s hard to close the car door type of storm. In no time, the car was getting pelted with blinding rain. We just sat in the car and had lunch. Later, the storm cleared and we tailgated outside and then went into the show. Andrew, Eric and I had lawn seats, and slide around on the hill during the concert.

Sunday we were back for day two, but the rain stayed away. It was perfect Alpine weather – sun, beers, cribbage (15 two, four, six, pairs makes twelve,) tossing the softball. Stuck and I had pavillion seats on Sunday, and it was an excellent show. A neat mix of old and new; the new songs with good jams, and some really old classics (#34, #40, two step by request…) On Wednesday, I was able to bittorrent both shows and have been listening to them. Monday was the drive home – which took most of the day, and more cursing at lane-shifty Chicago drivers and bad I-94 traffic.

I started feeling sick on the way home, and the rest of the week was in a cold and cold medicine induced haze. Wednesday was a hard day at work, and I took Thursday off and pretty much slept all day. By Friday I was feeling a bit better, and was back up to Chicagoland for Rich and Cindy’s wedding. I hadn’t sat in a long catholic mass in a long time. The reception and dancing was fun, and of course we had 1-800-TEQ-UILA and Beam Black. But even better was the White Castle adjacent to the hotel. MMmmmmmm… I finally got my White Castle fix, which was great, even though I had to tackle a hedge to get the steamed-cooked-on-a-bed-of-onions-goodness. Between the drinking, Nyquil, and cheeseburgers, I woke up around 0430 on Sunday morning with one of the worst cases of dry mouth in recent memory.

Some other points to ponder, so this isn’t a total week-in-review posting:

I can’t believe August is here already, and I filed June away in the Daily Planner binder. Summer is FLYING by.

I rented the first disc of the first season of Roswell from Netflix, and after watching two episodes, I think the rest of the disc is going back unseen and the other discs nuked from the queue. This is a cheesy-WB teeny-bop program, and not something Dead Like Me meets X-Files freaky/eerie like I was hoping for.

Speaking of Dead Like Me, season two is here and I should be watching that instead.

I finally checked my IPASS account online, and found out I have a $14 remaining balance, minus the $0.80 it took out for today’s tolls. I think that means it will recharge another $40 in my next trip to Chicagoland or two. Isn’t technology nifty? Also, after being satisfied with them and documenting them well enough, I committed the new routes I have through Kankakee and Wilmington to my car’s directions book.

I still need to clean the inside of my car, from over a month ago, and scrape the melted-bun-bag off the inside back window from Alpine.

My Champaign library card expired, and no one told me. All I know is I went to add a book to my wishlist and my PIN didn’t work anymore. An email or something would have been nice. Anyone else been hearing a lot about David Allen’s Getting Things Done recently?

I’m working on a computer program that will help us select where we want to go to lunch. I started working on this in PHP, then decided I wanted to use an object model instead of linear programming. Then I decided I wanted to use XML instead of a database. Now I’m leaning towards Java because of better object handling and I want to present this via a website. Any opinions on XML and Java, or applets versus Java WebStart, and AWT or Swing?

I got the framed certificates for completed my Human Resource Development/Training for Business Professionals Professional Supervisors Program and FastTrack Manager Program. They have the Chancellor’s signature on them, and are very official. One of them is made out to “David E. Musselman” The reasons I’m annoyed with this is three-fold. One, I’ve never submitted anything with my name misspelled — people should be more attentive. Two, there were two certificates/plaques… Someone should have noticed they were different and investigated which was wrong. And three, it hurts. Actually, this has happened quite a few times in my life when getting trophies or plaques or awards. At this point, I don’t care anymore, and I find that a little frustrating.

Polling point: Do you prefer these multi-idea posts as a single long post, or would you prefer multiple shorter distinct posts?

[ Ed Note, although this post is about J.K. Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it does not contain spoilers. Except the post title, which has nothing to do with the plot of the book. ]

Last week brought greatness into the world. On Wednesday, the space shuttle launched. On Friday, Starbucks opened at 5th and Green in Campustown, and at 12:01 on Saturday morning, the new Harry Potter book went on sale.

Well, two outta three ain’t bad. Maybe NASA should rename their website to be http://www.nasa.gov/stillwaitingtoreturntoflight/ I guess I’m just annoyed because I made a special effort to be in front of a TV for the launch that didn’t come. Instead, I got to watch Judge Judy and other terrible daytime TV. It sounds like they’re going to try for next Tuesday.

As previously blogged, I dressed up for Harry Potter Day, although I ditched the glasses before lunch because they were bothering me, and my scar sweated off before I left work. Afterwards, I met up with Mr. and Mrs. TL&EMK for mexican at “The Toro.” That meant grande margaritas and quesadillas.

Then we went home and drank out on the deck. Oh, yeah, Friday, July 15th, marked the one year anniversary of the house closing. So we toasted some brews outside on a nice summer evening. (”I HAVE A DECK” may not be as fun as it was a few years ago, but it’s still true. Maybe now it’s more like “I REALLY HAVE TO CLEAN AND SEAL MY DECK!”)

Then, it got late, so we picked up AJ and went to BW3s to hang with the Olsons and Steph in post-rehearsal-dinner-drinking, [ Ed Note: wearing Harry costume to the bar got me carded buying the drinks, and giggled at by at least two waitstaff and a table of girls that looked about Hermione's age. ] but only had time for a car bomb before heading down to a local bookstore around 11. (We didn’t even have time to watch Pujol’s 13th inning HR to win against the Astros.) After a not so good glass of butterbeer, and a very large mocha, and a meandering line through the bookstore – chatting with a GSLIS grad behind me, BTW…neat people you can run into at bookstores – I left with the four copies preordered (the Kresls got two, because, hey, who can share?)

When we got home, Tony started devouring the book like it was covered with melted real cheese and ranch dressing. I, on the other hand, was still a bit drunk and a bit wired from the coffee. Now, I’ve been drunk before, and I’ve been wired before – but I don’t think ever at the same time. I take that back; too many Baileys and coffee does that too me too, and although I love the potent potable, I don’t enjoy the upper/downer battle going on in my head. It makes me edgy, and possibly because of the Christmas Eve connection, makes me want to play board games.

I tried, very hard, to read the first page, several times, and just wasn’t ‘getting it.’ AJ pointed out the irony that the very first sentence of the book talks about reading something and not remembering it. I read that sentence at least four times and didn’t understand/catch it. I decided I could wait until the next day to start the book.

[ Ed Note: Okay, I said I wasn't going to spoil the book, but that's not a spoiler. It's not like I quoted the words from the book. And the first sentence isn't critical to the plot either. A spoiler is something that gives away something you care about, like Harry got caught with his [ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION CENSORED BY THE MINISTRY OF MUGGLE UNDERSTANDING OF WIZARDRY AFFAIRS AND OTHER LONG BRITISH GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT TITLES. ]]

But I was too wired to sleep. Too wired to put in a movie. (This would have been one of those times Mom or Aaron would have told me to run around the house four times. And I would have done it.) So, while we goaded Tony and forced him to sit downstairs in the papasan (which is Ikea for “uncomfortable,”) AJ and I played backgammon. We played a few rounds until he got the hang of it, and then the cribbage board came out. I think I played 20 or so games with AJ, Marc and Tony through the weekend, and it was great. I hadn’t played in a long time, and it felt good. Junior, we gotta dig out that old Cribbage program, and sound clips, and play again.

At some point in the night, I opened the book to a random page and yelled down to Tony the title of this post. A while later, after he Apparated several times to different areas of the house to read, he chuckled and told me he’d ran across that page. Sunday, when I read it, I laughed – and today, at about 12:30pm, Andrew sends me an IM with that message. He was reading it over his lunch break. [ Ed Note: That's not the only time that quote is said in the book. ]

More about the rest of the weekend, and what I think’s magical about Harry Potter in another installment. If I make this any longer, your RSS Owl will fall down.

Those in Champaign might want to check out the second UI Summer Band concert on Wednesday night, the 20th, on the quad. Concert starts at 7. I’m planning on heading to Murphy’s afterwards; you’re welcome to join us.

From the last episode:

Babysitter: Stewey, this is Jeremy.

Jeremy: Hey, little man, so you’re the guy who’s been tring to steal my girlfriend.

Stewey: What, you? Girlfriend? What kind of sick twisted game are you playing at?

Babysitter: Stewey sounds a liiiittle cranky. I’ll put him to bed.

Stewey: Ha, I got your hat. Take that, hatless. Now go back to the Quad and resume your hackey sack tourney. I’m not going to lie down for some fratboy bastard with his damn Teva sandals and his Skol Bandits and Abercrombie and Fitch long sleeve open stiched crew neck henley smoking a sticky butt out of a soda can while watching his favorite downloaded Simpsons episodes every night.

Yes, we all love Mr. Plow. Oh, you’ve got the song memorized, do you? So does everyone else! That is exactly the kind of idiot you see at Taco Bell at one in the morning. The guy who just wiffed his way down the bar skank ladder.

Babysitter: Good night, Stewey.

Stewey: If he wants to throw hands, I’ll throw hands. *Has pacifier stuck in mouth, and quickly falls asleep* I tell you… I… Uh… *silence*

I’m going to put in the preorder for the next, last, Harry Potter book at Pages for All Ages after work today. If you’re going to be in Champaign on Friday night, and hanging out with me, and want to go to the release party at Pages at like 11pm, and want a copy of the book preordered for you, and don’t want to do it yourself a.k.a. want me to preorder it for you, let me know. Today.

Me, Stuck, Tony, Ness… anyone else?

BTW, Tony, I’m still chuckling over the “very fat Hermione” line.

It’s lame to quote a blog you read about in another blog on your blog, but it happens all the time and I like this person’s characterization of the services Netflix provides that’s outside of the “normal” way people purchase/rent things. It goes with my belief that Netflix can create an agent or avatar that is trained with my preferences and histories. By offering new things to the agent, if it accepts it, there’s a good chance I will. This kind of information mapping isn’t seen (as directly) on the consumer level, and I think the organizations that utilize that kind of personalization will be successful in the long run. Netflix could do more with that. Maybe they should hire me (after the LIS degree.)

Anyway, here’s the quote from ysk.com, which I found through Becky:

However, what I find even more compelling about Netflix is the ability to track new DVD releases and maintain a growing list of movies that I would like to see. I can even add and track movies that have not been released in theatres or on DVD. Netflix can then provide automatic management of new DVD releases into my viewing list on a schedule that I can adjust. On top of that, Netflix provides recommendations and reviews from critics as well as the Netflix community. The net effect is that I now have a relationship with Netflix where Netflix is my personal “movie concierge” or “movie butler”. By providing these personalized services, Netflix is enhancing my overall movie watching experience by ensuring that I see more quality movies that align with my interests and tastes. This value is something that allows Netflix to maintain a premium over other companies that solely focus on delivery efficiency, as well as ensure stickiness that increases switching costs for customers.

I’ll argue that I don’t always see quality movies (in fact, sometimes I rent crap,) but it was crap I wanted to see and enjoyed the experience even if I didn’t care for the movie. At least then I can say I’ve seen it. The rest of the article talks about Netflix needs to improve their interface and access to information: I think it’s better than discussed in the OP but there’s still room to go. Netflix has provides different views and lists and RSS feeds, showing they care about both what information to show/share, and also how to present it. They’ve added a bunch of AJAX applets to the site that give popup balloons with more info, and give you better internal links to friends and reviews.

The one thing I would like is a “notes” field for each movie in my queue, so I can record why I added it. Who told me about the movie, or how I found it. It would be neat to see some other information about the queue (when I added it, where I came from to add it (from a recommendation from another movie, from a list somewhere.) I think I’ll go request that now.

“Locust” is the worst thing I have seen on broadcast TV in a long, long, time.