Category / OT

by CIDU Bill

Totally OT other than the fact that the lightning was why today’s CIDU went up half a day late

robin computer

Okay, so big boom and the neighborhood went dark. Once power was restored and my wife switch on her computer (Compaq PC) this afternoon, this was the screen and the computer isn’t responding to any keyboard commands. We rebooted several times, with and without various accessories attached.

Any suggestions other than “Well, the computer lived a long and full life”?

(In hindsight we should have unplugged it to eliminate any chance of a sudden power surge doing damage, but that’s not the sort of thing you think of when everything’s dark at 4am)

by CIDU Bill

מחוץ לנושא [OT]

I know there are a number of Israelis who visit here regularly, so perhaps somebody can provide some answers.

Saw The Band’s Visit yesterday (which takes place in Israel). Granted, my Hebrew education ended fifty years ago (almost to the day), so I know this will seem presumptuous, but a sign referring to cellphones as פלאפונים just looked very wrong to me (and when I got home, I couldn’t find any such translation).

And continuing my pickiness, one of the songs referenced “like a deer in the headlights.” Is this really a phrase in Israel? Do they have deer in Israel? Honestly that question had never occurred to me before yesterday — but even if they do, “deer in the headlights” just seemed awfully American.

(spoiler: the score was written by an American)

by CIDU Bill

Ring Tone I Don’t Understand [OT]

Maybe somebody here can figure this out…

My wife phoned me yesterday; and instead of a default ring, I heard… well, the wrong kind of Ring. I heard “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Which would be fine, except I never set that as the ring tone for calls from my wife’s phone. And I don’t have that music in my phone. Anywhere.

Nonetheless… Ride of the Valkyries

The next time she called me, I heard the usual default ring tone — so I  have no idea what happened earlier. The most logical hypothesis at this moment is that this wasn’t a ring tone at all: at the very moment she called me, an army of Valkyries just happened to be flying past.

(She later decided, by the way, that she wants that music to be her ring tone on my phone — specifically, the Elmer Fudd cover version)

by CIDU Bill

Oh seriously, ANOTHER Bill Bickel? [OT]

IBB, the Seattle real estate agent, has appropriated my Gmail address. Now South Dakota’s Bill Bickel is using my Yahoo mail address.

So I know all about the Dodge van he and his wife Courtney own, paid for by his mother Laurie.

This would make him at least the fifth Bill Bickel to use either my Gmail or Yahoo address. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

by CIDU Bill

Spongechronicity

Well, a personal spongechronicity, anyway:

I read this comic (which I did not at all understand) while I was in Manhattan today, having gone in to buy tickets for my wife and me, our sons. and their girlfriends to see Spongebob Squarepants the Musical.

TicketMaster was charging almost $80 in fees for six tickets, by the way: How is this not considered scalping? We’re not talking about the premium they charge for had-to-get tickets (even though Ticketmaster is often the reason tickets are hard to find), which is a separate matter: these are literally the same tickets I was able to buy at the box office.

Anyway, y’all are here for the comic, not to hear me rant about Ticketmaster:

sponge

Added 10 minutes later:

Okay, now it’s getting weird (even though I suspect those are supposed to be pieces of Swiss cheese rather than little Spongebobs: I really don’t have a clue what the Off the Mark is all about either, so I guess we get another bonus CIDU this evening)

mark sponges