Last December, the departmental manager had a TV installed in the office where I work. The stated purpose was that we would leave it tuned to news channels, but everyone assumed that the real purpose was to use up some of the budget at the end of the year.

The oldest guy in the office likes it tuned to CNN. The youngest guy prefers Al Jazeera America. There's one guy that likes Fox News, and another that tunes to the MSNBC. He told me doesn't think that's the best news source, but he enjoys irritating the Fox News guy.

For most of us the TV is basically useless as a new source. We work at real-time terminals, and have lots of Google News alerts to let us know about anything that's actually relevant to our jobs. But the TV is nice for me, because when I'm working overnights and the manager is at home sleeping the sleep of the just, I can change the channel to something more entertaining.

We get a special corporate channel package, with basically every news channel that Time Warner offers. But there are a strange collection of other channels too. We get the NFL Network. (Apparently because one of the guys called in a favor.) We get the Military Channel. We get H2 but not the original History Channel. We get the Cooking Network but not Food TV. Country Music Television, but no other music channels. It's all very strange.

My favorite random channel has been El Ray Network, which doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry last I looked. It's basically the Quentin Terantino and Robert Rodriguez channel, if you know who they are. I watch it because Saturday nights they show six hours worth of classic kung fu movies.

Sadly, last week we had to add some more equipment to the office, and it went where the TV was. So some technicians came in and installed a wall mount for the TV on the wall behind everyone's backs. It's nice that it's out of the way, but now the original purpose is completely obviated, since you can only watch the TV by turning away from the computer where you are expected to do your actual job. Originally it was in one's peripheral vision. I figure in another six months it'll be gone.

Or maybe there'll be more money left over in the budget, and we'll get a second TV.

Posted by: Boviate at 08:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It turns out there's a little bridezilla in every bride.

Specifically, my fiancee objected to one of the menu options, because the same side dish had been offered at her sister's wedding.

Which was eight years ago.

Posted by: Boviate at 09:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I just got back from shipping a care package to a former classmate of mine who is now a soldier in the 'Stan. After I sent it off that I realized that I had failed to include one of the required items for this sort of package: a think bundle of USMC recruitment pamphlets. It's all part of the honorable tradition of intra-service rivalry.

Next time, I guess.

Posted by: Boviate at 03:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I got with the times and purchased myself a Kindle. (The "Paperwhite" model to be specific.) I've only had it for a few days, so I can't really review it at length, but so far I'm quite pleased. The battery life is very good, its onboard storage is sufficient, it's survived one fall onto the floor so far, and it's quite lightweight. It charges by USB, but it didn't come with a USB power adapter– if memory serves, it's the first device I own that charges via USB that didn't come with a wall-wart. I guess they assume everyone now has a zillion of those things.

One interesting feature is that Amazon has a program where if the publisher agreed, a Kindle user that has in the past bought a physical book can get a discounted e-book edition of the same book. But Amazon's computers, as smart as they are, are not all-knowing. I can now buy very cheap electronic copies of quite a few of the physicals books I've given as gifts over the years.

Posted by: Boviate at 11:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I got home from work today at about 3:30, and it's warm. I'd like to go for a bike ride, but it feels like there's a 50% chance of rain. Breaking that down further, there's a 0% chance if I stay home, and a 100% chance if I go out riding.

Posted by: Boviate at 02:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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