google.com, pub-4909507274277725, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 Slapinions: February 2007

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Lost "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Ratings be damned, I think the first few episodes of the "2nd half" of the season have been superb. That being said, my wife has dropped out of this house's Lost fan club because of the same complaints you hear in the press: the storyline has become too convoluted.

Well, I disagree.

But . .

Tonight's episode SUCKED. I'm bitter as all he** that ABC spent the week promoting this as the week we get 'answers'.

Answers to what?

That the Others didn't kill the captives outright?. Uh, I never thought they did. Why bother going to the trouble of kidnapping them if you're only going to kill them?

Other than that slim revelation,  I can't think of a single question, big or small, that the episode answered.

Oh, my bad. It told us how Jack got his tattoo.

Whoopee.

Be careful Lost. It isn't the episode so much as the false promo, but with me you're on shaky ground, thin ice, ready to jump the shark, etc.  

Pick your cliche - they all apply.


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Wikipedia

So I was perusing the newsblog over at Baseball Think Factory when I came across this article about a baseball player who intentionally wrote a false entry about himself on Wikipedia.

"If Holdzkom does have a musical past, he won’t admit it, except to say that he and his brother, John, cooked up an elaborate story and posted it on the online encyclopedia site Wikipedia — a site that can be edited by the public.

“It’s not true,” Holdzkom said of his child prodigy story. “We just make things up, and Wikipedia puts it on there. I’ve never been on Johnny Carson. It just sounded good.”

Well, what an a**.  To me, that's no better than painting graffiti on a stranger's wall.

I've only recently become a fan of Wikipedia, but in that short amount of time I've come to adore the site.

Sure, a publicly edited encyclopedia has it's flaws: there's no guarantee the info is correct and there's always the idiot factor (case in point: Ed Gein's entire page disappeared yesterday. It was there at 9 am and gone by 10 that night, with only an offensive sentence left in its wake.)  I've also lost track of how many Digimon and animie entries there are (gag).

But it harkens back to my geeky youth, where I'd joyfully pass time reading random entries in a Children's Encyclopedia we owned. (and boy do I remember my joy when my Dad won a complete set of the adult version!)

So I sit and randomly sift through the site. The wife rents Marie Antoinette? Well, let's look her up. From there, I open multiple windows for different terms and people mentioned in the article, from the Revolution to the guillotine to the Bourbon lineage.

 After that, I might just become curious about the cast of the movie and look up Kirsten Dunst. That inspires me to look up Spiderman, which takes me to Marvel, where I look up Stan Lee, who in turn brings me to Kevin Smith . .

And on and on.

It's obnoxious really. My wife's taken to watching TV with me and saying, whenever some fact presents itself,  "Uh oh, better hurry and look that up on Wikipedia"

And I do.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Follow up on Buddy Holly

The recent coverage (what there was of it) of the anniversary of Buddy Holly's death must have brought some folks out of the woodwork.

Today's Journal Sentinel features a front page article that includes two never before published photos from the Milwaukee leg of that fateful final tour. Up until today, there were thought to be no photos from the show in existence.

Check out the story here.

 

YaYa bows to peer pressure

First, she followed along when the girls in her class ditched pants in favor of skirts (and in the middle of winter). Now she has announced that she no longer enjoys, favors, or idolizes the Disney Princesses that were so important to her for years, right up to our trip in November.

It's horse hockey, but whatever.

That didn't prevent her from being excited about the release of Cinderella III. I'd rag her for days: "Well, if you don't like them anymore there's really no reason to watch . . " and she'd come up with one excuse or another as to why she'd still have to see it.

And one day while driving home from Grandma's, where she saw a preview of the movie, she told me all about the plot. In the movie the Wicked Stepmother gets ahold of the magic wand and reverses the events of the first movie.

YaYa then asked me, with hesitant but genuine concern, "But, there's no way Cinderella will really be hurt, right? She'll be ok because she's still in Florida in her castle?"

Funny. One minute they're all mature and precocious, the next they seem just like the little children they are. :)


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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Baby Slapinons In Utero

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound, establishing that the Mrs. was 14 weeks and 5 days pregnant with a due date of August 10th.

The baby was very active, twisting and kicking and moving throughtout the procedure.

It's very early, but they also said there was a 60% chance that it's a girl . . so we're probably looking at the first pictures of Lauren Kathleen.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Google makes a mistake?? Be still my heart

As first reported on AOL's The Feed, the 'L' is missing on the Google homepage.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

The Day the Music Died - 48 years ago

For most of a month now we've been unable to access the AOL software on my home computer due to a 'runtime' error. Tonight, in my eagerness to post, I finally realized I could do so via Internet Explorer. I'll try to update y'all soon.

Today is the 48th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper outside of Clear Lake, Iowa.

Buddy remains one of my favorite artists of all time - my personal (if eclectic) concert in Heaven would feature Buddy, Led Zeppelin, Artie Shaw, and Nirvanna, among others.

Here's a few clips of rare footage of Buddy performing.

Rest in Peace.