I've actually been binge-watching a show, which is amazing because

I do not, as a rule, binge-watch. I have a limit of about three hours in me at any given time. The show in question is the American version of 'Ghosts', which is based on the British series, but I find it lighter and more delightful. In other words, more fun. It's not that I don't get the humour of the British series, it just seems that the characters are more relatable in this one, which may be a cultural thing, I don't know, but also I can't even begin to understand Robin in the British one (point of fact, he is a Caveman of sorts, so there's that, whereas the American has a Viking). I'm also not quite so fond of Georgian architecture, so I prefer the house in the American version.

The nicest thing about them, though, is that they are tight little stories. Running time is about 20 minutes on streaming.  Yep, that's it. Both are classified as sitcoms, but they aren't the type we had when I was growing up, forced with a laugh track; I really just have fun watching. And this one is easy for me to binge; I feel like I'm progressing without getting bogged down, you know how other people must feel with regular shows. :)

Anyway, I'm really enjoying it. I like it as each character's backstory is being expanded. My friend just put me through a quiz, and of all things, I came out as the Robber-Baron Era Lady of the House Hetty, which surprised me.  He did too, which did not surprise me, so I guess he trained me well.  But my answers were all over the place, so I expected a different outcome.

There's an hour-and-a-half of my life I will never get back

So I took a fairly short nap (for me) and got up about 8:30 pm, deciding that I was in the mood to watch television, something that almost never happens when I'm by myself. I like watching things with friends, but not so much alone. Well, I don't have cable for that reason, just a little digital antenna, but I do have a Smart TV that can connect via Wi-Fi to Netflix and other services. I mostly use it for Pandora.

So I go into Samsung's Smart Hub, which updates, then into Netflix, and it won't sign in, because I'd changed my password since the last time I was on, and it wasn't giving me the option to re-sign in. I got out of the application, out of Smart Hub, went back in, and it did let me sign in. Then I thought to myself, I'm a Prime member again with Amazon (on a monthly basis), why don't I set up Amazon Video, too, since that was something I never really got into. So my hell began.

See, the password for that had also changed, so I went to put in the e-mail address and new password, to no avail, as it kept giving an unexpected error. That's what it said--an unexpected error has occurred when you tried to sign on. Sigh. So I poked around the Amazon website, as I was given an error when I tried to go back, an error that didn't show up in their code list. I finally deregistered the TV, tried to register it again, but when I chose that option, no code was given, just a spinning circle followed by nothing changing. So after trying this a few times, I called Amazon. Treyshawn was very, very helpful. [I mean that literally, not sarcastically. I say that because tone is not possible on a blog, He was very professional and kept me calm when I was getting a bit frustrated]. He had me turn off and unplug the TV, then had me put it back on again, and he walked me through the steps I'd done, and that didn't work for him either, so he did some checking and apparently it is a known issue on their end. So he set up a followup where they will e-mail me when the situation is resolved. So there is no Amazon Video possible on my TV at the present, but at least I wasn't doing anything wrong, and he reassured me that I can actually operate technology competently. I asked if it were just a Samsung problem, and it is, so the Roku in the bedroom should work fine. I proceeded to set up both Netflix and Amazon Video on that box, so I can at least watch either in the bedroom now. I've gotten pretty decent at putting things in via a remote control tonight.

Sadly, I spent so much time trying to set things up, that frankly, I'm not in the mood to watch now, and I think I'll read instead. Books never fail me. Even my Kindle, which can lose power and I'm sure have other issues, seems pretty reliable. So, it's back to either Aristotle (which might be nice in the quiet of the evening) or The Other Wind, which I began earlier today. Have a great weekend. I think I'll sign off for now.

PS The pesto bread was good, but it occurred to me that perhaps I'd made a mistake in trying it, given that you can't really eat peanut butter or jam or honey on it, and I have only enough yeast to last for one more loaf. So I've had bread, and only bread, tonight. :( There's not much else in the house. I even had to borrow $10 from YKWIA tonight because I was on my gas light and wanted to make it home. Oh, well, this too shall pass. Good night.

I don't know why I was so tired

I slept a couple of hours, waking up around close to 8 pm. I really needed that, apparently. Now I'm up and I've connected my television to the wireless router so I can watch Netflix and also listen to Pandora. I have an Ella Fitzgerald channel playing now ('As Time Goes By' from Casablanca is playing right now, even though that's Dooley Wilson), so it's very mellow in here. I may talk with a friend on the phone later; I'd called and he was just getting out of the shower, so I told him that I didn't have anything pressing but if he'd like to call me that's fine, too. I've still got the windows up, so the blinds are open. I'm looking around the room. So much to do. So not wanting to just now. I think I will water the plants again (I did just a few days ago, but they're already dry). Also, I need to do dishes and then gather laundry and have it ready for tomorrow. I don't know if I'll get the fish tanks taken care of today, but I need to soon. And I think I will straighten up the living room so it doesn't look so cluttered, which is a bit of a challenge. The books are all on shelves, for example, but there are more books than there are really meant to be, for example. And I need to take the air mattress out of the living room (I thought I might have a guest) and back to the bathroom, where it normally stays. So basically, I need to work on some little things that will improve life around here. I think one of the Habitica challenges puts it as 'Personal Management', the daily stuff that you have to do to have a good environment.

It's a challenge to deal with my stuff--not only am I basically a hoarder, although I've de-hoarded a lot periodically throughout the years, but also my apartment is only 750 square feet. But I was recently looking at apartments for someone else and that's bigger (and cheaper) than a lot of places in Lexington. I'm paying $550 a month, and that's on the low-end of a one-bedroom fee, for a larger apartment with a lot of storage, and all utilities except electric. We have a pool, tennis court, fitness centre, basketball area, laundry, and they just opened a fenced-in dog park the other day. They're making a lot of improvements here lately, too. I'm starting my thirteenth year here, soon. And while we don't have balconies or patios, we do have a large porch off our building (ours is a little different than the rest, which makes it great for getting pizza). Plus there's the windowsills for plants. :) I'm on a long lease, which gives me a break on the rent. I think the standard fees are $555 for a one-bedroom and $655 for a two-bedroom. And pets just require a pet deposit and $20/month (not for each pet, but for any dog or cat), and I see some pretty big dogs here, so I don't think there's a poundage limit. It's a quiet neighbourhood in east Lexington and very convenient to a lot of stuff--shopping, hospitals, etc., plus I have a ten-minute drive to work every day. So I'm happy here.

Okay, enough about the apartment. Time to work on it, with Billie Holliday and Natalie Cole in the background--and of course, Ella. :) Good night, if I don't blog anymore tonight.

Last night

I wound up totally absorbed in putting something together and testing it out for about three hours. I let my phone, which had a low battery, totally go down to the point it turned off, then couldn't find it for about fifteen minutes when I finally did tear myself away, realising that it was after midnight and time to go to bed. I had several calls and texts, but it was too late to respond to either. I did send an email to the person who'd called, saying it was okay to call back if he wanted, which he did so later that night, and we talked for about an hour. The person who texted and I caught up with each other this evening and had a good 'text conversation'. The project meant I messed the house up a bit. In fact, I need to redo a bit of the living room entirely to really incorporate things nicely. This will have the added advantage of giving me more room at the computer At the moment, a small bookshelf is slightly in my way and I sit at an odd angle, which isn't quite comfortable and would be less so for anyone else who isn't used to it, especially a guy. Since most people who might come over and use my computer are, in fact guys, at least one of which is left-handed, which would be even more cramped (and that's my setup as well), it would be nice to revamp things. I probably should have done that tonight, as I was home. Instead I had a quiet evening of relaxation while I planned inside my head.

The nice thing is that I always think my setup in the living room involves a computer desk and entertainment center that between them have bedrails upon which books sit as a double-decker shelving, when in fact, the weight is borne by the computer desk and a matching bookshelf. The entertainment center is separate, with books above it. It has to come out, and can do so without disturbing the majority of the books, and then I can move the table currently dividing the living area from the dining area over where it has been, and then I can stack the four half-bookshelves together in that divider, giving the computer room. The end result would be losing the entertainment center, which is very battered and over 25 years old (and it was a Sauder pressboard product to begin with, It is actually a relic of my marriage.) But things would be streamlined.

This was all set into place because I finally bought a television that is flat-screened and it is just a bit longer than the entertainment center allotment. It's not huge by any means, it's 32 inches diagonally, but it can stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Pandora, among other things. The old TV, a cathode ray tube television my grandmother gave me used before she died in 1993, is clunky but still working, so I moved that to the bedroom, along with the Roku box, so I can stream those services in there (I don't have a second cable hookup, but I can watch or listen to plenty of things just with Roku). I'm going to see about hooking up an old DVD player there as well. I discovered tonight as I was texting with Brandon that it was very pleasant to have Pandora streaming while I had my feet up in bed. I eventually fell asleep, and then woke up about 12:30 am and came out to take care of things like turning the aquarium light to night time use and taking my insulin. The rearrangement is tempting to start, but I think I'll save it for later in the week. I wanted to go ahead and get something while I could. It wasn't terribly expensive (I got it through Amazon, on six-month financing). But that will be the last major purchase for awhile, I think. And for now, I'll keep my cable TV, which fortunately I was already paying for an HD cable box (not sure why), so nothing increased and all I had to do was plug in an HDMI cable to use it to its fullest extent.

I made my appointment for a colonoscopy for next Tuesday, October 1st. The reality of it is really hitting me. Before that it was all in the theoretical category. When I went by the pharmacy today I quizzed them on different preparations. So Monday night I'll probably not be blogging, or if so, it'll be from the tablet or phone, and Tuesday I'm off from work and will probably be out of it. This is all contingent on whether Brenda can take me that day. Hopefully that will be a yes. I originally scheduled for arrival by 7:30 am and then called back and chose a later appointment since although I live just across a major road, she's coming from out of county to take me. I kind of want to get it over with. I have a lot of appointments coming up. There's finalising and signing my will and related documents (which to be honest it would have been nice to have that done before the colonoscopy, but alas, it's a couple of days later). There's a mammogramme, a trip to my regular doctor, a trip back to the gynaecologist, and on Halloween I go back to the endocrinologist. I'm also supposed to be starting physical therapy for my back, but that's only going to happen if I can do it after work. I am obviously breaking down and getting older. On the other hand, that should get most appointments for the year out of the way. I do still need to do a cleaning at the dentist; I'll wait until December on that one so that if they find anything, I'll have a full flexible spending card come January for anything pricey.

Our benefits enrolment is coming up soon, in mid-October. I'm interested in seeing how the health insurance changes. There have been several rumours flying around, and we got a required notice on health exchanges today as a result of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which I gather we will not be eligible for because we will still have adequate insurance. But I am interested in any changes. This major benefit is one of the reasons I stuck with my present job through thick and thin and even when it was only 20 hours a week, because I got full health insurance even at that amount and it was very good insurance. It's eroded a bit over the years (higher co-pays for stuff like outpatient surgeries that we didn't used to have, etc., but it's been pretty good and I don't need referrals to see anyone who takes my insurance, so I've been really happy with it.

Last year I had gone to the benefits fair and then the very next day I was hit by a car. It's amazing to me that it's nearly been a year. The anniversary is in nineteen days. I am so lucky it wasn't worse. Another anniversary that I'm marking, yes, even now, is the death of my last pet, my beloved dog, on the 24th of September. She gave me sixteen great years of companionship. It's hard to believe it's been six years since she passed. I only have goldfish and a betta (not in the same tank) these days. All in all, that's good. I don't really have a great deal of time to devote to a pet and I'm allergic to both cats and dogs. But still...I never thought I'd go this long without one. Also, it's hard to believe, but tomorrow would have been my grandfather's 90th birthday. (Sorry YKWIA, I know you hate it when people dwell on that.) It's hard to believe it's been nearly 14 years since he died. I wish he hadn't smoked like he had; he really might have lived to see 90. Most of the people in my family live to be close to that; the only ones who didn't either died of smoking-related diseases, accidents, or in one case, a severe case of diabetes before we had better treatments.

Speaking of which, I really need to see about going to visit my grandmother soon. With all that's going on this month it will be a stretch to do, but I should.

Okay, I've babbled on longer than usual, and I've been up for an hour in the middle of the night. Good night.

Well, I didn't spend much time on the computer

Except to convert some of my music files over to .mp3s so I can listen to them on my phone (it doesn't really like .wmas). I did have some freeware that converted it, but it would only put the information tags on the first song of each album, so I found another freeware program, FreeRIP Basic, that both converts files and rips CDs directly to .mp3s. I have a fairly small music collection, so it's not so bad to have to convert.

I did watch 'Supernatural'. I guess of all the episodes this season, this was the one I absolutely should have watched, and I really enjoyed it. It set next season up nicely. Now that I know when it's airing (assuming that stays the same), I may watch it then.

I'm starting to flag a bit tonight, the result of not enough sleep. I did look through Google News and all I saw that was interesting was a T-shirt that said:
'After the rapture: 1. Don't panic. 2. Loot with abandon. 3. Celebrate with the other infidels.' Funny how 1) No one actually wants to be on the side that gets raptured; it's no fun and 2) Everyone assumes Rapture=instant end of world, which means they've never read the Bible. But all things considered, I guess that makes sense. That reminds me, someone asked me to send them a link to that video by SomeGreyBloke. I should do that, then probably head on to bed so I can get up early enough to get stuff done that I need to. Good night!

Already they have their revenge

Okay, anyone upset by my previous post can now gloat. This is making the rounds on Twitter:

'Heroes' Canceled by NBC

:(

But it sounds like they may be doing a finale to wrap up the show sometime midseason. That would be fun.

On the other hand, I think this season has been a pretty shaky. But I'll still miss it. That leaves 'Doctor Who' for me (and 'Supernatural' if it does come back for season 6), but I'm behind on episodes, way behind, and then 'Happy Town' sounds intriguing and I'm going to start DVRing it. Of course, it's apparently not doing well and will not be picked up for a full season. Oh, well. At least 'Doctor Who' has been running since before I was born. :)

Okay, it's time to let go

Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but it's omnipresence over twenty years--almost half my life--is a bit much. So I was actually pleased to read:

Case closed: `Law & Order' is canceled by NBC

Now it is unfortunate that they did not manage to eclipse 'Gunsmoke' in terms of length of run. But let's face it, there could easily be a 'Law & Order' channel out there, between all of the incarnations, and two remain active.

So for all those fans out there, I know it was upsetting to you, but really, it's time to let go. And after all, there will be reruns for at least the rest of my lifetime and most likely yours.

Did you know

the same songwriter who gave us 'Eve of Destruction' also gave us 'Secret Agent Man'? :)

I'm rather fond of both. The first is on a video on the Vietnam post below. Here's 'Secret Agent Man', which was the theme for a British television show ('Danger Man') that was retitled 'Secret Agent' in America with Johnny Rivers singing this theme:



You might know of another programme starring Patrick McGoohan: 'The Prisoner'. Some people think that agent John Drake and Number 6 were one and the same. Remember it?


The thing I remember the best, oddly enough, about 'The Prisoner' is the Rover. Here's one:


It was so very odd and British. I really must watch some; I loved it when I was younger, but I never saw the ending.

Ack!

People who have backgrounds in classical and ancient history (well, any kind of historical studies) should probably not watch television. (Of course, then they'd miss things like 'Heroes'.) The History Channel itself is egregious in 1) promoting shows that have nothing to do with history [like 'Monster Quest] or 2) presenting bad or dumbed-down history. Which is why I thought I'd give Discovery a whirl tonight.

Tonight I was watching Discovery's 'Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer', which was overall very entertaining and interesting, but then at the end they wrapped it all up neatly by indicating that Cleopatra had eliminated her siblings and then herself, in essence ending the Ptolemaic line.

They totally ignored her children. One, which she purportedly had with Caesar, was co-ruler for awhile and after her death was proclaimed pharaoh. He was captured and executed on orders of Octavian (later known as Augustus Caesar). That is the true end of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Aegypt, and Pharaonic Aegypt in general. But there may be descendants of Cleopatra out there, for she had three other children with Mark Antony, who were given into the care of Antony's former wife (and Octavian's sister) after the deaths of their parents. It is unknown whether the boys survived to adulthood; it is thought they died of illness prior to their sister's marriage. But the sister settled with her husband in Mauretania and ruled there. She in turn had two children, a boy and a girl, although I think after that the descendants become difficult to trace. Her son ruled Mauretania after his father's death and was murdered on orders of Caligula, after producing a daughter.

I guess that's the appeal of true history--it's never something you can really wrap up in an hour and there's lots of loose ends that can be fascinating.

Still, the show was very interesting, talking about the life and death of Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoë, who had been held hostage by Caesar, escaped, and then led a rebellion that routed the Romans from the Pharos of Alexandria and nearly cost Caesar his life. She was later captured, paraded in shame in Rome, and exiled to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesos, an ancient place of sacrosanct sanctuary which was violated when she was dragged from the Artemisium and murdered. At the time Mark Antony was in charge of the province that included Ephesos. The show follows an investigation into a tomb that was situated inside the city limits (rare in ancient times) of a woman (rare still), found in the 1920s and studied further with forensic techniques. The belief is that this woman was Arsinoë, whose tomb was shaped in a way reminiscent of the Pharos. The bones matched the gender and age. A skull model was reconstructed from photos taken at the time of the first excavation (the original was lost during World War II) and using computers a face was put onto it to give a sense of what Arsinoë, and perhaps to some degree, Cleopatra, looked like.

They also included a small shot of a horned viper, one of several snakes sometimes called an asp, which is supposed to be the manner of Cleopatra's suicide. (Personally I vote for the Aegpytian cobra as the manner of her demise; it is fitting given its link to the royal family and is also sometimes called an asp, which simply means poisonous snake anyway.) This was timely as in the game yesterday (we're set in the Sudan, which was Upper Aegypt in ancient times, at the moment), we were attacked by magical asps that managed to bite my character as she fought the evil cultists, leaving her pretty close to death until she put herself into a stasis-like trance. I came across a video of a Field's Horned Viper which pretty much reminded me of what I was visualising at the time, although this particular snake is not native to Africa (but then do magical venomous snakes HAVE to be???) It is a Pseudocerastes; the African ones are the Cerastes themselves. The embedding is disabled, but the video's interesting, if for no other reason than the man doing closeups on a venomous snake with the cage open. Don't watch if you're ophidiophobic.

An odd finding

B&W TV Generation Has Monochrome Dreams

I've always dreamt in vivid colour. But when I was a kid, I thought things that happened before I was born were in black and white because of the popular technique of filming flashbacks to the past that way.

PS, here's hoping for a full recovery of a fellow medical librarian

***SEE UPDATE BELOW***

I didn't really read much of my RSS feeds, including news, over the week I was on vacation. I have 600 in my reader right now, and I went through a few earlier today. But one thing I did see was unfortunate, and I thought I'd mention it here. David Rothman, a medical librarian whose blog I read and who was named as a Mover and Shaker in Library Journal last time they came out with the list, had a heart attack a few days ago, followed by a quadruple bypass within 24 hours. There was a 90% blockage. David doesn’t smoke and is primarily a vegetarian, but apparently there is a family history of heart problems. He's not that old (he looks to be in his 30s or early 40s at the most). He and his wife were blessed with a baby this summer. I'm hope he's doing better now.

To put a face to a name, you can see David in a video shot earlier this year as part of a plenary session called Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices: Discovering the Participatory Web at the MLA annual meeting in May. He was the first presenter. He gave a great talk, and has a definite sense of humour. Or there's a nice article about him called 'Direct Effects: David Rothman, Community General Hospital' with a picture. Again, best wishes, and I hope everything turns out for David and his family.

UPDATE: Please see the next post for the real story. Basically, the David Rothman who had the heart attack was not the medical librarian who blogs at davidrothman.net. Their names are very similar, and it appeared in my library feed because David H Rothman (who did have the heart attack) is involved with E-Books.

Thanks to David (no H) for putting me straight, both in the comment below and on his blog. Sorry for the confusion/alarm, and a personaly apology to David for any misunderstandings that may arise. I've tried to update this in such a way, both with a new post and editing this one, so it'll make it through searches and RSS feeds okay.)

I hope to Gods this doesn't turn viral. I'll have more understanding for gaffes that politicians and reporters make (although I still love Biden's assertion that FDR addressed the country on television in 1929, when he wasn't president yet, no was there television. Hey, I'll still vote for him, even if he has a weak sense of history. At least he knows he's running for vice-president, which is more than you can say about Sarah Palin.)

I hope Heroes won't be disrupted

but it seems to me the writers of Hollywood do deserve royalties on podcasts and 'webisodes'. Here's hoping they won't have to strike to get it, or at least that it won't last too long.

What a Writers' Strike Means for Us

I spent most of the evening

watching shows on YouTube from my childhood, like ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, the Secrets of Isis, and a bit of the Bugaloos. I now realise I had a crush on Joy from the Bugaloos as a child, and also on Andrea from Isis (although I also wanted to be her, and even had a plastic jewelry set that included the cow's horns and solar disk of her amulet, so I'd run around in it pretending to be Isis. I also used to pretend to be the Goddess of the Rainbow (I had a rainbow swimdress and would play with one of those sprinkler hoses. So I guess I was destined to be pagan, right?)) Yet I was clueless when it came to sexual orientation as a teen and young adult, even though in retrospect one of my friends made overtures when we were in junior high, and I think I felt threatened for that reason and ended the friendship, explaining it to myself with other reasons.

Of course, I also had crushes on Donny Osmond and Sean Cassidy. Needless to say, I was a sexually confused youngster who'd never heard of gay or bisexual back then.

Anyway, it was great to see them, and I hope to continue watching some more another day. They were so hokey in some ways (it was the 70s--think of the giant ElectraComs on Lori and Judy's wrists) but I loved them then and it brings back wonderful memories of when I was a kid, lost in the world of Saturday morning television. :) Thanks to YKWIA for the fun.

Here's the intro to ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, to give you some idea of the ElectraComs, etc. Note there is a really large tarantula and then snake in the sequence, right before they start singing, for those of you who are phobic. Once the song's lyrics start, you're safe. :)