Brendan Online

No Laughing Matter

By now everyone has heard the news of George Carlin’s exit and have dealt with it in their own way. The news hit me like a brick last week. I had just seen Carlin in October at the Fox Theatre. He was warming up material for his upcoming HBO Special. He looked old but no one there knew that in six months time he would no longer be writing new material for the next special. If you saw the special you’ll notice that he was a little morbid and it had me wondering all week if he knew this would be the last laugh. I really enjoyed Carlin’s work because he made you laugh and he made you think all in the same joke. He didn’t pull any punches and didn’t care if he offended his audience. As he told those of us in attendance back in October:

The audience doesn’t figure into my plans....I’m here for me, you’re here for me and no one’s here for you

Kevin Smith wrote a good article on Carlin for Newsweek. I suggest you read it if you’re a fan of either. George Carlin was one of my favorite Comedians and I’m glad that I got the chance to sit 4 seats away from him. Now who’s going to pick up where he left off?

Easy Decision

I didn’t have to think very long about getting the new TV. I put the old one up on Craig’s List and ordered the new one earlier this week. I found selling stuff on Craig’s List a breeze. Several people emailed and called me about the TV and one guy drove up and got it on Thursday. I had the new one (HL-50A650) delivered on Saturday so I was only out a TV for a day. Well that’s technically not true. I have a 32” HP LCD in the computer room so I was never really TV-less.

Overall I’m very pleased with the new DLP. It has 3 HDMI ports so I don’t have to use my 3x1 switch anymore. I’ve got the Satellite PVR, DVD player and XBOX 360 connected via DVI. The 360 looks AMAZING in 1080p!! I was playing Burnout yesterday and was truely blown away. Last night I watched Enemy of the State, just standard DVD upconverted, and I discovered the only thing that I don’t really like about the new set. When the room’s pitch black, the left side of the TV emits a glow from the bulb that can be a little distracting. I never noticed this on the old set.

Click more for two pics of the new set!

Thinking about selling my TV

So I’ve had my 50” Samsung DLP for 2 years now. It’s going to be paid off next month and I’ve started thinking about just putting it up on Craig’s list and buying a brand new one. There are a few problems with that TV.. 1) It’s only 720p and 2) it only has 1 HDMI port (ONE!!! WTF!) Plus it’s the first generation DLP so it takes forever to turn on and the picture quality isn’t as good as the newer models.

Not sure what I should do.

Juno is totally boss!

I just watched Juno courtesy of Netflix and can’t resist telling people to see this movie. I figured that I should give it a shot after hearing all of the buzz it got when it hit theaters late last year. The dialog in this film is some of the best I’ve heard since Kevin Smith’s early work (Mallrats, Chasing Amy). It’s a funny movie that has several emotional moments and some good music sprinkled throughout. Oh and Rainn Wilson plays a convenience store clerk. You should see the movie for that alone!
Best movie I’ve seen this year.

Only in Texas

It looks like we have another divine message from God manifesting itself into our food chain. This time it happened in Texas. A youth minister “found Jesus” in a bag of Cheetos that he was ~~inhaling~~ eating. Ever heard of the saying “you are what you eat?” This is a great way for Cheetos to sell more poofs. Check out the news story. The anchor can’t finish the segment without laughing.

And here’s a more serious piece about “Chesus:”
http://www.khou.com/video/?z=y&nvid=228952

Celebrity Apprentice Prediction

I just realized that I haven’t picked a favorite for this year’s apprentice. Two years ago I picked the winner from the first episode. This year I had picked Gene Simmons but he only lasted 3 episodes. I still think he left on his own terms but either way he’s no longer on the show. Now that Bitch-a-rosa is out of the competition it’s starting to get good again. I swear, if that woman worked for me and continuously underperformed and made a hostile work environment, she wouldn’t last 3 seconds. I don’t see what America sees in her. She’s a cutthroat bitch if I ever saw one.

Moving on. Tonight Trump will pick the final two. I’m assuming he’ll bring back the rest of the group to work for these two and there will be one last big task. My pick for the final two? Trace Adkins and Piers Morgan. They have both been true performers on the show and have pimped their contacts for a lot of charity dough. It’s going to be a nice fight between them. I think the winner will ultimately be Piers because Trace is too nice and laid back. Piers has what it takes to get things done in NYC.

My other prediction is that the Apprentice will be back this fall for one last season before NBC is forced to fire Trump for low ratings. The show just isn’t what it used to be. The celebrity angle was cool but if next season is anything like last season then I’ll pass on that opportunity.

Tornado Conspiracy?

Wow...first post of 2008! I made a New Year’s resolution to blog more and you can see how quickly I broke that one! I wanted to get a quick post in to let everybody know that I’m still here. That F2 tornado that hit downtown Atlanta didn’t really affect me all that much. It’s going to change the look of things downtown for a while but I rarely get into the city anymore.

Earlier this week I argued that it wasn’t really a tornado that destroyed Atlanta. I don’t know if you heard but Dish Network attempted to launch a satellite from Kazakhstan on Friday night. Coincidentally the satellite didn’t make its intended orbit and was lost in space. Now it looks like they’ve somehow found the satellite and will push it up into orbit. Yay science! As a Dish Network subscriber I just can’t wait to enjoy all of those nice HD channels that the DirecTV people have had for darn near a year now!

Don’t worry. From here on out you’ll see a new post from me at least once a week. That’s all I can promise. Hey it’s better than nothing!

Land of the free?

We are no longer allowed to live free in this country. Every day when I drive into work I pass through a line of trees on either side of the road. The trees have been changing color and starting to drop their leaves so I thought that I should head out and capture it before I missed the opportunity. This road is fairly wooded at the beginning and then it opens up and there are office buildings on either side of the road. I parked my car at a vacant lot at the top of the road and walked down taking pictures from the side of the road.

I had been out there all of 15 minutes when a sheriff’s deputy pulls up behind me. I thought he was waiting so that he wouldn’t get in my shot so I waved him through. That’s when he put his lights on and stopped his blocking one lane of the narrow two lane road. He gets out of his car and proceeds to interrogate me asking why I’m out walking around taking pictures. I told him that I was capturing this view that I see on my drive to work every day and he asked if I was sure that was all that I was doing. I tried to explain to him the concept of leaves changing color and how it’s a pretty good photo opportunity but he just couldn’t comprehend it. He then asks if he can run my driver’s license.

Here I am, an American citizen, out for a walk on a Saturday morning on a road that is frequented by joggers and I’m being treated as if I’m a terrorist plotting to blow up some oak trees. The area that I was photographing was at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest office complex (I didn’t want them in my shot). While he’s running my ID I finish up taking my shots and I’m ready to leave but I’m being forced to wait for the background check to come back. I also noticed that he’s got dash camera pointed at me so I walk a good distance from his car. After waiting for 10 minutes or so he gets out of his car and apologizes for holding me up. I should have never been halted in the first place.

George Carlin said it best:

“Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. Like staying up late to watch television on a school night. That’s all we have is privileges here. “

Naked DSL

So I’ve pretty much had naked DSL for 2 days now and didn’t know it. It seems that a storm that blew through here on Monday night knocked my home phone out but left the DSL working. That shows you how much I use my landline. I did notice that yesterday and today my sat receiver was complaining that I needed to connect a phone line but I just ignored the message. Tonight I got kind of curious and decided to call my home phone from the cell and see if the caller-id showed up on screen. Sure enough I got a busy signal. Checked the land line. No dial tone. I guess I could live with naked DSL after all.

This made my day

Direct quote from the just published REAGAN DIARIES.

The entry is dated May 17, 1986.

A moment I’ve been dreading. George brought his ne’re-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I’ll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they’ll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.