My Dad turns a youthful 72 on the 14th, but my Mom is throwing a little thing on Sunday afternoon. He's tough to buy for because he isn't wanting for much. A semi-retired computer systems consultant type, he pretty much has all the gizmos covered. He even took to a chomby for the home office. Given these lovely economic times, the family is reitering on cutting back on gift purchasing. He's always been a big classical music fan, but has little use for much of anything post 1900. He would periodically appear at my bedroom door when I was in high school studying to Yes or Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, but the Clash would send him on his way. That's why I couldn't help but laugh when he mentioned he'd like an ABBA cd. One of my wisenheimer daughters was teasing him a little about Dancing Queen coming out of his Ipod, when he responded with an almost scholarly take on "the classical structure in some of their music." Might very well be true, but sounded silly nonetheless. So, Dad, here comes ABBA's greatest hits for your big day.

I think that burning smell was my 401K.

Survived two sessions of Bikram Yoga. I was a little scared that after the first one, I'd be too stiff and sore, but that wasn't the case. After a busy day of work and late meetings, I had to scramble to get there on time yesterday and must have been closer to one of the heating units. I wasn't so much sweating as I was crying from every pore. Can't balance much to save my life, but the trials of the day and the effects of the first session had me taking a knee a couple of times.

Why does John McCain think I care about Obama and Ayers? I don't.

Why does Sarah Palin want to bring up Rev. Wright again when somebody could show the video of her and her preacher riding her of witches?

Ch. 4 stiffed me on coverage of the Tiger Cubs birthday party on Tuesday. There was plenty of cute video to be had, from hopped on cake kindergartners to the cubs destroying their cardboard, meat-scented cake. Usually, the tv news divisions eat that stuff up. Unless of course, said tv channel is in a pissing match with the cubs' sponsor, in this case, Time Warner Cable. Yes, the Buffalo media outlets are indeed that petty.

Definitely want to see the Bill Maher movie. He was on Jon Stewart the other night and it looks like a lot of asking of good questions.

Sabres Opening Night is tonight and I'd be more excited if it didn't cost so damn much to see them, so my couch is going to have to do.

Won an Ipod Classic from one of the exhibitors from conference/trade show I was just at in September. That was a nice bonus from otherwise unremarkable week in Wisconsin.

Snagged a flu shot for the first time in forever yesterday, no reaction today. Life can be good,

And how was your week?

Every once in awhile, I miss my compadres at Adelphia, but this weekend was not one of them. The slapfight between Lin Broadcasting (Ch. 4's owner) and Time Warner assured that the people who do the real work would be taking the brunt of the frustration from the people caught in the middle...us customers. This might sound like apologizing or ass kissin, but it isn't. Lord knows both can be greedy pigs, but Time Warner is in the right this time. From my former life, I can tell you that the local stations in a area have agreements with the cable, satellite, and Fios guys for carriage. There is actually a lawsuit waged by local tv stations to get on a given system. Now Lin TV wants paid, for something they really aren't entitled to. My experience with this is when Fox 29 was at the end of its deal with Dish Network and ran on screen crawls encouraging everybody to go get cable. Every station is a little fickle. You dance with who you have at a given moment.

Lin TV owns 12 stations in markets mostly around the great lakes. When Fox 29 came to the end of their agreement almost two years ago, they let TW keep showing them while the negotiations kept going. 29's parents had a lot at stake. The same firm owns NBC in LA.
Lin decided to cut off Buffalo, but the local station that shows the Packers to Green Bay (that had to be ugly) as well as their other markets. If I am an advertiser (like I am now), I'm pissed because they just took over 330,000 out of the loop because they felt like it. If I'm a paying cable customer (like I am now), I'm miffed because there are two channels doing nothing, yet I'm stuck paying for them.

While they talk, it would behoove Lin to put the channels back up. Both sides are going to take a beating for their stances, but Lin has a chance to actively be a "good guy" and place their signals back on.

I guess my point is that moving to Dish, Verizon, etc doesn't insulate you from such foolishness as they have to work with broadcasters under similar agreements. I'm not saying that because I used to be there or that my former Amherst office had a thousand people waiting for antenna on Saturday, but in the battle of overstuffed corporate entities, Lin is the one who could lose this time and throw the switch to put their signal on.

I can appreciate taking a stand, but perhaps there was a better way of digging in their heels.

Just in case you haven't seen it yet...

"Maybe in Ohio, but not in America"

Hee!

I WILL NOT complain about my job,


EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!