TDTVS

Weekend Update

First the good news: We are finished with Phase Three of Donna’s breast cancer treatment, Friday was #33 and her final radiation treatment. Lumpectomy, chemo and radiation are done. Now we are on to the preventative process. Because her cancer was ER+ she will be taking a drug called tamoxifen for 5 years to help prevent any recurrence.

Now to the mediocre news: We only made it through 18 of 24 episodes of TDTVS, AKA Lost: Season 2. Some of the situations and happenings are just too weird. But mostly what keeps us coming back is the humor, especially Sawyer’s irreverent and on target nicknames for the rest of the survivors. It seems as if some of the back-story we are getting is mostly rehashing of last years back-story with a touch of new stuff added to make the character’s stories meld together with strange coincidences, how their lives interacted in the past without them knowing about it.

Then the bad news: Two help desk tickets, two separate emails and even two phone calls have gotten me anywhere with my current web host, ssWebHost, so I’ll be moving to the .net address soon. The first ticket actually prompted a dialog. They said that I should let them know and they’d send me a link to where I could set up my new credit card. I responded that they should send it to me. 4 days later I still hadn’t heard back so I tacked on another message to the ticket asking again. After a week of no replies, I opened a separate ticket asking for way to change my billing info. I figured the new one would pop up on their radar. Nope.

I emailed the billing department of the web host. Silence. OK, let’s try emailing their support address. All I heard back was the white noise of packets zipping by my node.

Hidden in a dark corner of ssWebHost’s web page was a contact phone number, Friday I gave them a call. After an unusually long time the phone started to ring with a very strange sound. I knew I wasn’t calling Kansas. After about 7 rings an automated voice mail system kicked in. It was not English, could have been Russian or some other middle European language. Having dealt with enough of these type things I figured if I hit the #2 on the phone I might get another language and if I was lucky it might be English. Nope. Maybe I misdialed. The second time I had the same pause as before, but this time instead of the funny ring I was disconnected.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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The Lost Weekend

LostStarring Brian Bogardus as Don Birnam and introducing Donna Bogardus as Helen St. James.

We went to the video store this evening and spent $25 renting all 7 DVDs of TDTVS. Twice.

The first time we went into the store and found the TV section where they had the Lost discs all lined up. I grabbed the first three thinking that would be enough to keep us busy for a while. Donna said, “No get all of them.” Checked out all seven and came home. Donna took a quick nap and about 5:30 we thought we would start our marathon. Each disc has 4 episodes and each episode lasts about 42 minutes, so we figured we would watch one disc tonight leaving 3 for Saturday and 3 for Sunday. When I opened up the case for disc one, I realized it was a Season One disc. WTF? All of them were Season One…

We didn’t pay attention in the store, we just figured that the second season’s stuff would right up front because it just came out on Tuesday. Nope. Donna called the store up and asked if they had Season Two in stock. They did. She asked them to put the whole set aside for and we would be in later to get them.

As we were checking out we asked for the “Stupid Renters Discount” and explained what we had done. The manager was there and had the clerk call up our account. She could see we had picked out 7 DVDs just two hours before and took pity on us. She did a swap thing and we didn’t have to pay for them the second time. Nice.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
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Lost

No, not TDTVS, but First Daughter.

I put this movie in the rental queue at the behest of my lovely wife. I’m not exactly sure what prompted her to want this movie (maybe because it starred the future Mrs. Tom Cruise,) which is fine because sometimes I’m not sure where I get the idea to add a movie either. The disc showed up in Saturday’s mail and we decided to watch it that evening. We endured about 25 minutes of it before hitting the eject button.

It went back in the mail to Netflix on Monday. It still hasn’t arrived back at movie central, so tonight I reported it missing. They say they forgive an occasional missing disc, but if you pass a certain level they might cancel your membership. I just hope they don’t think I liked the movie so much that I decided to keep it, I don’t need that kind of reputation.

Started down, went up, still up.
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The Loud Thud You Heard

Was me crashing down from 40,000′ just like Oceanic Flight 815 (Sidney to LA.)

Last night was a new episode of TDTVS and true to my decision, I didn’t watch it. I was going to wait until September and watch the DVD of Season 2 in it’s entirety. Donna, who has less will power, watched it in the other room, while I wasted time on the internet with Radio Paradise playing softly in the background to mask any dialog leakage.

I’m not saying I’ve been a saint all this time either, I have pumped co-workers for a few details of what has been happening and I have peeked at a few screen captures from Season2 on some fan sites.

After talking with one friend/fan at work during break this afternoon, I fell off the wagon. I spent the next 45 minutes reading the synopsis of the first 12 episodes of Season 2 on the official ABC site.

Started up, still up.
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TDTVS

That Damn TV Show Thursday we watched 2 0f the 4 episodes on disc 5. Friday night from 6 until 11:30 we watched the last 2 on #5 and all 4 episodes on disc #6. Last night we watched nearly every tidbit crammed onto disc 7.

Now that we have finished mainlining Season 1, what? They are about halfway through Season 2, should we jump in now and wait until summer to see the first 11 shows to catch up on the back story? Wait until summer and hope they run the repeats in original order? Or wait until September to rent the Season 2 DVDs and watch them forgoing Season 3 until it’s DVDs in September 2007 and so on? Or download the torrents and watch the earlier Season 2 episodes on the PC?

I can’t just join the show mid stream. We did the one season behind thing with the Sopranos, but that was easy because there was no temptation because we didn’t HBO. With Lost on ABC there will be that allure on Wednesday night to check how things are going on the island. I tried to use a couple of Bittorrent clients, but even with my high-speed connection it was going to take more than a day, then what if what you got wasn’t playable?

My vote is to wait. Donna will probably want to start watching episode 12 of season2 this Wednesday. Family crisis in the making. This may be more of a marriage stability test than doing a Time/Speed/Distance Rally in the Miata.

Started down, went up, still up.
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4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42The Powerball Lottery is worth like a hundred eighty million bucks. I think I could quit my job with that kind of money.

Donna and I have our ticket, we bought a quick pick a couple weeks ago with 10 plays, so it is good until the 25th of this month. For the three draws we have been through since we bought the ticket, we have not had a single number match anywhere. Maybe tonight’s the night. If I stop posting here after tonight, check the Powerball site to see if the winning numbers were 1 39 40 42 47 17, that’ll explain it.

Once the jackpot climbs over a 120 million or so there is a guy at work that goes around and collects from a group of us so we can increase our odds slightly. It started out with about a half dozen folks playing, but the number has grown to nearly 30. After all, once you have played once, you can’t get back out, how would you feel if 25 of your co-workers walked in and told the boss to take his job and shove it while you had to stay behind because you wouldn’t cough up a measly buck? So I have about 30 more chances on those tickets for tonight.

Because of my current obscension with the TV show “Lost” I gave a brief thought to playing the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42, but decided against it after what happens to Hurley when he won over a $150 million using them.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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Totally %@&#ing Lost

Totally %@&#ing LostToday was a total loss on the outdoor front. The rain started about sun up and didn’t quit until late afternoon. So the planned bike ride or hike in the woods will have to wait until next weekend.

I scanned some more images from the Big Box of Morrison Memories this morning. By show of hands, how many of you have a picture just like this from your childhood? There was no date on the photo, but from the looks of the kids, that’s Donna second from the bottom, she is thinking 1961 or 1962.

After going out for lunch and a stop at the supermarket to pick up a few of the missed items from yesterday’s major shopping expedition, we went somewhere we haven’t been for over 6 years, Blockbuster. They didn’t have what we wanted. So we doubled back and went into Movie Gallery, where we stopped going when Blockbuster came to town about 9 years ago. We grabbed the two DVD cases we wanted and went to the checkout. My name was still in their files, but that was it. Every other bit of info had to be re-entered. Once that was finished, ready to go, the clerk informed us that these were just the empty display cases, she needed the box with the DVD behind them. They weren’t on the shelf. Damn, they were already checked out. Disappointed we headed home for a dull afternoon inside the house. Part way home I made an unexpected right turn, I remembered the other Movie Gallery on the southside of town. We had never even been in this store before. At first we couldn’t even find what we wanted, but then there they were, behind the display cases were rent-able DVDs. Grinning from ear to ear, I handed the girl behind the counter my license and a credit card so I could open an account. We politely looked like we were listening to her spiel of the rules. We smiled attentive-like at her sales pitch for a rental gift card thing that could be had for $17.95 and was worth $24.95 before bolting for the door. We didn’t even feel the cool misty rain as we skipped back to the car.

Clutched in my hands were Season 1: Disc 3 & 4 of “Lost.”

Started down, still down.
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