Year: 2003

Half-Asleep Man Pauses 20 Minutes Between Socks

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I enjoyed this News In Brief from the latest issue of The Onion:

Half-Asleep Man Pauses 20 Minutes Between Socks
SANDPOINT, ID—Seated on the edge of his bed, Carl Thompson, 38, paused for 20 minutes with one sock on his foot and the other in his hand Tuesday. “Ugh, tired,” said Thompson, who was otherwise silent from 6:30 to 6:50 a.m. During that period, Thompson stared at the wall and teetered perilously close to a reclining position six times.

I can relate to that feeling from when I used to work for Steamatic. Their office is in Fort Worth (about 45 miles from here), and I had to leave at 7:30am each morning just to get there on time. That made for some tired mornings.

The Shawshank Redemption

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

I saw The Shawshank Redemption the other day, recorded from TNT on TiVo. I hadn’t seen it before, but I heard it was good and so I set TiVo to record it (and I’m glad I did).

It was actually excellent, and I was surprised to later learn that it was based on a short story written by Stephen King. Had I known that previously, I might have avoided it altogether since I dislike horror flicks (of course, this was more of a drama in any case).

After watching it, I thought for sure that it must have won some Oscars. So, I loaded IMDB to check on its awards only to find that it didn’t get any Oscars. I was puzzled at first but then realized that 1994 was also the year the Forrest Gump came out, winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Yeah, pretty much everything ;).

You’d think that there might be a lot lost between the original R-rated cut and the version of The Shawsharnk Redemption shown on TNT. But, it wasn’t too bad. Reading over the quotes at IMDB, some words were cropped but only the ones you’d expect. And, I also learned that [spoiler] the scene with the warden’s self-inflicted gunshot [/end spoiler] was heavily cut.

All the same, I really enjoyed the movie. But, I’m not sure I’d buy it on DVD — it’s the type of flick that kept me interested because I didn’t know what was coming next. Of course, now that I've seen it once, I know what happens during every scene.

There is one part that confused me. [spoiler] Why did the warden have Tommy shot? (He’s the Gil Bellows character who revealed that Dufresne’s wife was shot by another man.) [/end spoler]

Goodbye, Landline

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

I cancelled my landline with Comcast today. I’ve been thinking about it for some time and — since I have a cell phone anyway — there was little reason to keep the landline. Really, what kept me from cutting it off even sooner was DirecTV. Since it needs a landline (for DirecTiVo especially), I hesitated to cancel the landline and lose that option.

It didn’t help that Comcast Phone offered no means of auto-payment each month nor any means of online payment (sure, Comcast Internet Access has both of those, but it seems that two subdivisions may as well be separate companies). I mean, if they had auto-payment that billed my credit card for the $24 each month, I probably could have put up with that. Compared to paying online, I’d rather not have to go through the effort of writing a check and licking a stamp each month.

The final straw was their recent form letter about an upcoming 19% price increase on residential service (up two dollars). Well, forget that. Of course, DirecTV would be a bit of tougher option now ;). But, my primary interest there was just for HBO (since it’s not available in my area without moving to digital cable). And, Mike has a Netflix subscription so we can probably get most of the good shows (Sopranos et al) on DVD through there.

Service King: Good Service

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Back in November, I walked out of Kroger to discover some small cracks and paint chipped off the left side of my rear bumper. I wasn’t pleased, but I chalked it up to a rogue shopping cart. And, figuring that it’d be below my deductible anyway, I wasn’t in any particular hurry to have it fixed (it was only a cosmetic issue and didn’t affect the car).

Earlier this month, I decided that I should get it taken care of since I’d have to get it fixed sooner or later anyway. I recalled that Scott Secrest mentioned a repair shop during the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event at Cosmo’s. So, I e-mailed him about that and it turns out that it was the Service King near Plano Dr & Kingsley.

I went there for an estimate and it was about the same (or a bit less) as other estimates I had. But, I decided to give it a shot since they appeared more professional than some of the other outfits. I scheduled the appointment for Monday.

I brought my car in and, conveniently, there’s an Enterprise car rental in the same building. I was almost expecting Enterprise to take advantage of its “free customers”, but they gave me a good rate as well (about $24/day).

They estimated that my car would take about four days and it was finished today (four days). I went to pick up the car and the workmanship was top-notch. I wasn’t certain, but it looked like they may have even washed my car as well (a nice touch). I can see why Scott recommended Service King — they did quality work and the staff treated me professionally.

If you need collision repair on your car, I’d recommend Service King. If you’re looking for a specific name,the guy I dealt with was Bruce Williams.

Ah, Got a Roommate

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On Friday, I wrote that it looked like I had found a roommate. Well, Mike and I went over to the leasing office and signed all the papers on Monday. So it’s official now — whew. Not that I was expecting any problems, but it’s a relief to have all the Ts crossed and Is dotted.

It’s also nice to have a couch once again — Jason took his futon with him when he moved out, so I had nothing to sit on for a while. But, Mike has a blue L-shaped sectional couch that is much more comfortable than my floor ;).