The Triviality of Daily Life

An Ol' Fartism:  So... it came to our attention that Lady Gaga was named Number Two on  Baba Wawa's 2009 Most Fascinating People list and being the curious sort we are we went looking for one of her songs/videos.  Turns out that "Bad Romance" is currently Numero Uno on Viral Vids top 20... the 30-day list (this link will not age well).  We watched it.  We were amused.  But... if the test is "would you pay real money for this woman's music?" my answer would be "no."  Lady Gaga kinda-sorta resembles a modern day Cyndi Lauper to these eyes, but then again... I'm not exactly into MTV any longer or most any/all pop culture phenoms.  There was a time... but its expiration date has long since passed, being something like "best by 12/15/1997." Just sayin'.

And while we're sayin'... gimmee a call if Lady Gaga ever does something like this:

Poignant, innit? Not to mention being a great tune...

―:☺:―

I placed a trouble call/complaint with our local Comcast cable teevee office (yes, there is a local number... answered by a real, live human bean who actually lives and works here in P-Ville, not in Mumbai, Bangalore, or some other exotic location) about the quality of my HD service late last Friday afternoon... or more specifically the lack of quality: the transmission freezes randomly and sometimes just quits altogether.  The Comcast tech was prompt in returning my call, leaving me a voice mail this past Monday which I didn't receive until Wednesday because I had stuffed my cell-phone in a coat pocket and forgotten I'd done so.  Getting old... with its associated memory lapses and unexplainable quirky actions... sucks, but we digress. 

So.  It seems like things were fine down at the office, but can we come out and check your cable, your cable box, and associated other stuff?  Sure, sez I... c'mon down.  The appointment was made on Wednesday afternoon for 1300 hours yesterday and The Men From Comcast, two each, spent at least an hour and a half in and around El Casa Móvil De Pennington yesterday.  The two techies identified various and sundry issues and resolved same, including swapping my cable box out for another one with a proven track record.  They were also surprised that I wasn't receiving the full complement of HD channels I'm paying for... promptly fixing that lil problem and assuring me I'll get a credit for the channels that had somehow gone missing.  And yes, I had noticed those channels had gone missing but assumed they were part of an expanded service offering, what with there being at least 15 different levels of available service, and me choosing the least expensive out of all of 'em, being the cheap-ass sort I am.  Bottom line: Stuff works fine now.  No further issues.  Yays!  Oh.  One more thing... Am I pleased with Comcast's service?  Yes, I AM.

Another revelation: the cable box also contains a DVR, which was 55% full of programs and movies recorded by its previous custodian... along with programming instructions to record the entire content of The Cartoon Channel (I exaggerate only slightly), every CSI program known to man, all Cops episodes, Family Guy, and numerous other shows... "numerous" being severe understatement.  It took me a full half hour to delete all the scheduled events and clean the DVR of previously recorded krep.  But we are now free from the tyranny of teevee schedules and can record every episode of Red Eye for viewing at a more convenient time, which means I will now be able to retire anytime before 0200 hrs.  This is a Good Thing.  Well, it will be once I figger out how to program the damned DVR... and there is no instruction manual.  But Hey!  I used to be a techie in a previous life, so I suppose this isn't a Big Deal compared to maintaining big-ass high powered radar systems.

Famous last words.