Uh oh...

Our new-to-us 50-inch HDTV that we bought at Goodwill Outlet for $20 last month seems to be *dead*.

It's an old Sony HDTV from the earlier days of HDTV. It weighs 50,000 pounds because it is a TUBE TV (not LCD or Plasma). It's old enough to feature a Sony Memory Stick Reader on the front - does Sony even MAKE Memory Sticks any more? No SD or USB capability, so I'm gonna say this is probably from 1999.

Went to turn it on this morning and the little power indicator light went on, it made a humming noise (as always) and then... nothing. The light blinked and then turned off. I tried it several times because, y'know, if you do the same thing over and over again expecting different results then you're awesome (I think that's how that goes).

Lucky for me, I used to work at COmcast and so I'm doing all the standard troubleshooting stuff before i give up. If we have to get rid of this TV it won't be the *worst thing*, we just so happen to have a back-up TV in the other room. No, the WORST part about this TV being dead (if it really is actually DEAD) will be removing it's giant corpse from our living room. It almost KILLED us to get it in here! khristle STILL has scars from the incident!

Meanwhile, I have to figure out a way to wake up Molly. Our usual routine is the same way my own Mother would wake ME up when I was young; settle down on the couch and drift yourself awake while Sesame Street plays on the TV. It's a gentle, soothing way to wake up :) This morning, though, will be a stark and jarringly bleak "WAKE UP WE NEED TO GET DRESSED EAT BREAKFAST AND GO TO SCHOOL!!!"

EDIT UPDATE: I fixed it because I am entirely too awesome! I lov old electronics because a lot of the time it just boils down to "Unplug it for ten minutes then plug it back in" :)

MIND = A-SPLODE!!!

I just learned/realized that comedian/VO Artist Phil LaMar (MadTV, Justice League, Futurama, etc) was the voice of The Black Kid on the Mister T cartoon of 1983/1984! It all makes SO MUCH SENSE now! That was his *first* voicing gig, and that makes me all giddy for some reason :)

Unpopular

I have several beliefs and/or opinions that are extremely unpopular, and I know they're unpopular. Some of them are down-right inflammatory! Which is why I always - ALWAYS - try my best to just keep quiet on these subjects and only express my opinions when repeatedly pushed to make a comment. And even THEN I make sure to preface my statements with "You have to understand that my opinion of this is extremely unpopular, irrational and inflammatory. You are going to waste a lot of time, energy and emotion on trying to convince me that I am wrong, and I will nod and agree with you to make you feel as if you've made me see th light once we're done".

MY UNPOPULAR OPINIONS
1) I am deeply, morally opposed to the Zoo. Putting something in a cage so you can stare at it is creepy and wrong.
2) I don't support our Troops any more than I support the people who work at McDonalds. They have a crappy job that has made them have to compromise their morals, and they get paid for it. That's not a *hero*, that's a hitman.
3) If you need Food Stamps, you don't need to save up for a Tattoo. If you have to SAVE UP for a tattoo, you don't need a tattoo. You really just don't need a tattoo, period.
4) Getting drunk is the stupidest thing you could ever do, and if you're drunk around me I will get very tense and fear you.
5) Religion isn't good or bad, it's just another type of fandom for people to be geeky about. "The Bible" and "Harry Potter" are equally good places to derive your morals from if you do it right.

Another brilliant idea!

I want to make a comic series. Web comic? Need to learn how to Art I guess :/

As you may or may not know, Doctor Doom is the ruler of a European country called Latveria. Despite being ruled with an iron fist by one of the most evil villains in the Universe, it's really quite charming! Kind of like a communist version of Belgium, with lederhosen and beer and sausage and oppression and poverty.

MY idea is to follow the lives of those brave men and women who serve on the Latverian Bureau of Tourism. Amongst the normal office folk, I figure there are plenty of second-string and third-string villains that Doom has helped "go straight" over the years in order to just get them out of the way, maybe even a few brainwashed super heroes who don't remember their heroic past. SO while our overall plot will be something like drumming up interest in Septemberfest, we'll allow for B and C plotlines as well that focus on Carl from accounting having to keep blasting Mike Heroman from the Graphics Department with the mind-wipe ray every time he starts becoming heroic, or Sally from Human Resources having to confront The Killer Tiger about his inappropriate "native attire" on Casual Friday. And of course, Doom comes in and murders the department head once a month or so replacing them with a new guy.

Upping The Ante

Having just witnessed a semi-brutal match of "Eff, Marry or Kill", I think it's time to up the ante.

("Eff, Marry Or Kill" is the age old game of giving a friend the names of three people, usually celebrities or close associates, and then that friend has to decide which on they would "Eff", which one they would "Marry" and which one they would "Kill". The fun is forcing your friend in to awkward situations such as having ti kill somebody they really like or eff somebody they don't like at all)

So now it's gonna be Eff, Marry, Kill, Disfigure, "It's Complicated", Salute, Karaoke With, Shack-Up, Fillet, Create a love child they never know about to hide it away from them till they turn 21 so they go and surprise them, Go Fishing and Turn In To A Cartoon.

ONE DOZEN NAMES! GO!!!

Web Comic Idea

Okay, so I used MSPAINT to make a mock-up of my first ever web comic, gonna see what it looks like uploaded in a reduced size, then probably post it full-size if that doesn't work (don't worry, it'll be behind a cut). If you're looking at this through Facebook, you'll need to click over to see this :)

Merlin

The winner of this month's What Should Captain Slinky Watch Next search is the recent BBC television series "Merlin"!

I have great hope for this show, as we are about 5 episodes in to the first season and I'm only mildly interested.

Reminds me A LOT of the first season of Buffy. So HOORAY FOR FUTURE SEASONS BEING VERY MUCH BETTER!!!

Next, I'm torn between "Supernatural" and a possible re-watch of the entire Buffy/Angel universe.