avablog

There’s a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today about Disney being in serious talks to buy Pixar.  This would be a huge win for Steve Jobs.  Absolutely huge.  And not just because it would make his stake in Pixar worth about $4 billion.  Consider the investment genius here, from the […]

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Just started watching it at 7:30 CST. Some random musings: Geena Davis is a big woman. I’ve never watched more than 10 straight minutes of this House M.D. show, and this guy is winning a Golden Globe? Pamela Anderson looks like she’s smuggling tortoises in a Hefty bag. Terrible dress. I like Steve Carrell’s acceptance […]

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I’m sitting here watching Law & Order.  Yes, yes.  Whatever. Anyway, there’s a woman in tonight’s episode who looked vaguely familiar to me.  Sure enough, I’d seen her before. Her hair looks a lot better now.

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Leah and I have been getting a big kick out of the local dustup over NBC’s new show The Book of Daniel. The other night we took a couple minutes to watch a roundtable sponsored by our NBC affiliate in Waterloo that brought together area clergymen to watch an episode of the program and comment.  […]

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I just remembered a very disturbing episode from our otherwise-splendid New Year’s Eve celebration. At 11 we tuned in to the  New Year’s Rockin’ Eve celebration just in time to see the fancy ball drop for NYC’s new year.  I was surprised to see Dick Clark sitting behind his usual table somewhere over the crowds […]

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From the WildCam homepage: All good things must come to an end, and the recent onset of the annual rains at Mashatu herald the end of our live broadcast from Pete’s Pond. The WildCam Africa feed closes at 5:59 a.m. Botswana time on Thursday, December 15. Bleh. I saw a gnarly warthog on there once. […]

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I don’t usually go in for celebrity deaths, but I like comedians. And Richard Pryor was one of the best. Some people just get it. They wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, or vice versa, and during their every waking hour they just know the score. Richard was one of […]

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And “The Office,” too, for that matter. Thursday nights used to be killer for NBC. Friends, followed by Seinfeld. Or was it the other way around? In any case, that one-two small screen punch blew away everything else in their time slots for years. But those days are gone, and now the Peacock is looking […]

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Leah and I have become hooked on this show, “Supernanny.” It’s really come at a great time for us, because we can excuse our consumption of this pap as homework, study into the methods of how best to raise an obedient, happy little kid. Of course we’re really into it for the same reasons everyone […]

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I haven’t heard back from Dan about whether he ever took the plunge on a new stereo system, but I hope he got some use out of the information I passed along. Now A.J. is looking for an HT setup to go with his huge Sony TV. He started out with a Bose system but […]

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I was winding down in front of the tube last night after dinner when I came across one of my favorite movies: The Quiet Man (1952). I suppose I’ve seen The Quiet Man 15 times or so over the years. It has much to recommend it, including John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, and an Irish countryside […]

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My friend Dan approached me today with a challenge: Find a good stereo setup, comprising a receiver and speakers, for around $1K. I haven’t shopped for honest-to-goodness stereo equipment for quite a while, so I’m looking forward to digging around to see what I can find. My first thought on speakers was to go with […]

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If you’re like me, you’re usually scouting around for interesting music. Whether new or old, major or indy, there’s more good listening floating around out there than any one person can get a grip on in a lifetime. My SLiMP3 library is sitting near a measly 6,000 songs, and there are genres I haven’t even […]

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