Music humor

My kids are at a day music camp for a few weeks and are both playing guitar there. They got in the car the other day and the following exchange ensued:

"Dad, guess what we learned today? A, B, C, D, and E!"
"That's nice."
"Guess what we're going to learn tomorrow?"
"What"
"EFFIN' G! (giggle giggle giggle)"

Get it? F and G? Effin' G? Ha ha ha!

They're grounded. (Not really, I actually thought it was pretty effin' funny.)

Tech support fun

I've recently gotten some excellent technical support for some odd reason. Latest example was last night from HP. But let me back up a bit and tell why I had to call them.

On Monday, Maria's computer, a HP Slimline, just up and clicked off in the middle of running. Would not power back up. I called customer service, told them the symptoms, told them I tried plugging into a separate outlet, but it appeared the power supply was dead. They concurred and FedExed me a new power supply on Tuesday. (Nice of them to give me the option to repair it myself rather than have to send in the entire computer somewhere.)

Last night (Wednesday), I set out to replace the dead power supply. Turns out, since this was a Slimline, the operation was trickier than normal, and none of the online documents described how to get the power supply out. So I called tech support. The first person I got was able to walk me through taking apart the computer. No escalation to Tier 2 or 3... very first person. She was exceedingly patient, gave me some hints on what to do, and even verified the steps I took when I put it all back together... and I mean ALL back together. In addition to removing all the drives, I even had to unscrew the motherboard to give the power supply enough clearance to be maneuvered out.

Anyhow, got it all back together, took it over to its normal table, plugged it in, and... STILL no power? What was going on? Was it some kind of fuse or reset button on the motherboard? Did I manage to blow something while taking it completely apart? How could two power supplies be bad?

The tech politely suggested that I try a different power cord. Well, sure, I'll try that, but c'mon, when has a power cord just failed spontaneously like that?

Yep. It was the power cord. Ugh. All that work and it was the friggin' power cord.

Anyhow, props to HP for some excellent support. Stupid power cord.

Wii statistics

I skimmed this post on Kotaku where they crunch some numbers that were just released by Nintendo generated by Wii owners who opt-in to the Nintendo Channel. Maybe a bit skewed as a result, but still fascinating. Bottom line is that if you own a Wii, you probably play the hell out of Guitar Hero, Wii Sports and Wii Play, and almost nothing else.

On a side note, we saw Guitar Hero III on the Wii today and Anna and Theo couldn't get over how awful the graphics were compared to Rock Band on the 360. It'll be interesting to compare apples to apples and see Rock Band on the Wii, to demonstrate just how underpowered the Wii is.

News: Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths...

Crystal Skull abridged

My blogging hero, Mark R., linked to this abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skullbleep. It is totally awesome and thus I must also link to it.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Abridged Script

PS to Mr. R: I wasn't one of those people who were appalled by Crystal Skull... luckily I hadn't gotten my hopes up for it.

Unaffected

My children are in no danger of the tomatoes out there that have salmonella. Firstly, Maria only gets cherry tomatoes. Second, I've had to pay my kids to eat tomatoes.

Charles Moskos

I read his obituary in the paper yesterday. He's best known as the creator of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, but he was best known to me as a Northwestern University professor. I took his "Social Problems: Norms and Deviants" course as a junior. The majority of the grade in the class was a research paper, and for that paper I wrote about UFOs as a social problem. I even arranged to talk to J. Allen Hynek, noted UFO researcher (as in creator of the phrase "close encounters of the third kind") and Northwestern professor emeritus, about my paper. Grade? Nailed it. I have to find it and post it sometime.

But I digress. Moskos was a popular NU professor. May he rest in peace.