Radio Paradise

AKA: Night Watch. I watched this movie today on the lap top because I knew Donna would want to have nothing to do with it. Now that I’m done, I’m not so sure I should have had anything to do with it either. At least I didn’t have to walk out to my mailbox to get it.

Blockbuster has got their own mail-it-to-your-house DVD rental program. They are now touting that you can return the mailed disc to the store and get a new movie without that long wait of a couple days. Well, Netflix has upped the ante, I now don’t even have to go the store. I can just click and watch. I’ve known it was coming, just not when, a couple months ago Netflix announced that you would be able to watch any of their movies on demand from the internet. How many movies you can watch this way depends on which plan you are signed up for.

What it amounts to, is for every dollar in membership fee you get 1 hour of movie time. I’m a One at a Time Unlimited for $9.99, so I can watch 10 hours worth of video per month. Your minutes don’t rollover, so it is use it or lose it. Night Watch cost me 1:49:19 leaving a little more than 8 hours and 10 minutes to use before my month ends on the 14th.

I have toyed with the thought of wirelessly piping Radio Paradise to the living room stereo from the desktop, but never really followed through because the TV is in the living room and almost all the time that there is a person in there they are watching TV not listening to music. Plus it is not real cheap to do. But now that such a system might be used for piping TV to the TV room, we’ll see.

I wonder what my cable company thinks about me using their internet service to, in essence, avoid using their pay-per-view or premium movie channels?

I missed it I guess.

Actually nothing blog worthy happened. Tonight same story, but I can’t skip two nights in a row, so you’ll just have to suffer with some sub-standard posting, sorry.

Spent yesterday updating the HHI Condo web site. Awaiting approval before actually uploading the files. Nothing major, just some new photos that were taken last weekend.

I also worked on a “Best of 2005” page, by going through all the stuff I posted that year and picking my one favorite post from each month. Some months were leaner than others, so a couple of the bests are a little weak. I guess maybe if I changed the format from one per month to just the Top Ten…. Hey, here’s an idea, you go read all 350-odd posts for yourself, leave a comment that includes the titles of your favorite 10 and I’ll add it to the sidebar too.

Tonight is the last day of the month and as usual I PayPaled some dough to RP thanking them for the music. As much as I love Bill’s music programing, sometimes I have to stray for a bit so I don’t build up a tolerance towards it. My usual first jumping off point is at SKY.fm as they have several channels that appeal to me and even on the freeloader streams, the interruptions are minimal. The Reggae, Classical and the New Age channels are bookmarked in my Winamp player. They also offer several variations of Jazz and Oldies, but yesterday I noticed an new one, Classic Rap. Does that mean rap is now just another pass? genre and can by filed away with “The 80’s”?

If not for my wife practically dragging me out of the house for the mile long walk around our neighborhood, my only foray outside would have been to the end of the driveway to pickup the Sunday paper. I spent most of the day on one end of the couch listening to RP and reading Prime Witness by Steve Martini. I have read several of his books and enjoy the whole lawyer – murder trial – twist in the end books he writes.

While poking around the authors web site I discovered a couple of his books I hadn’t read that I’ll keep my eye out for when poking around the used book stores. One in particular, his first published, called The Simeon Chamber in which the protagonist is someone by the name of Samuel J. Bogardus will be especially sought after.

A fart. I still have a long way to go before I am better, but a few cc’s of gas is a step in the right direction.

Stayed home from work today. My main activity was napping while mainlining RP. Laid out on the couch from 7AM until 4:30 covered in a blanket with earbuds in that were hooked to the laptop on the floor beside me. Seems like I would close my eyes and the next thing I knew 35 minutes had passed. Twenty six minutes. 42 minutes. An hour and five. I was usually conscious just long enough to marvel at how long I was out, before dropping back into never-never land. Bill played some great music for me, what I can remember, thanks.