Kimi made banana bread last night. Sophie helped.
“I’m helping”
Posted February 5th, 2010 at 10:55am by StephenBath formula
Posted February 3rd, 2010 at 7:43pm by StephenEgib = Egob > Ep10kH
The Energy to get a kid into the bath is equal to get a kid out of the bath, which is greater than the Energy to power 10,000 homes.
‘Twas the Night Before iSlate
Posted January 26th, 2010 at 10:59pm by Stephen'Twas the night before iSlate, when all through the land
Every techie was jonesing a bit out of hand;
The stock market was hung on the announcement to be,
In hopes that Steve Jobs would soon let them all see.
The faithful were tapping upon their iPods
While mock-ups of AMOLEDs appeared on their blogs;
And Terry McGraw (he's the McGraw-Hill head)
Let slip a few things that he should not have said.
Then suddenly on twitter there arose such a chatter,
I pulled out my MacBook to check out the blather.
And I sifted through web sites all loaded with flash
And read many nutters using #ipad as hash.
The loons who loved gadgets were gabbing again
Giving the lustre of newness to concepts mundane,
When what to my iGoggling eyes should appear
But a plausible leak from a tunneling peer.
With its burnished titanium shiny and new
I knew in a moment this jpeg was true.
More features than Kindle or Android they came
And we googled and journaled and guessed at its name;
"It's iBook, no-- Canvas, no-- Tablet or eSlate!
Or iPad! Or iGuide! Or maybe it's iWait."
To the top of the trends! To my facebook wall!
Now post away! Post away! Post away all!
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So onto my wish-list this gadget did flew
With a cart full of accessories and free shipping too.
And then it was Wednesday morning at last
I'd canceled my meetings and closed all my tasks.
As I fired up Safari and loaded the sites,
I logged out of my IMs and ate my last bites.
And onto the stage strided Steve Jobs
He was dressed in a turtleneck like the flash mobs.
The Apple Store and iTunes were down to deliver
And Steve looked like he could use a new liver.
His iPad -- how it glistened, its curves were so sexy!
Its apps were all written in code that was hexy!
Its cute little screen was so packed up with pixels,
And its underlying OS allowed many C-shells;
The form factor was sleek and just right for reading,
And with its touch-based UI no keyboard was needing.
It used up broadband and a little more 3G,
And no buttons at all, just multi-touch easy.
It was silver and sleek, a right sexy device
And I had lust when I saw it in spite of the price;
A wink of Steve's eye and twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke a few words, then went straight to his demo,
And filled all the screens with a 3-D memo,
And showing us the features we all had expected,
Including which apps were not yet rejected,
We sprang to attention as his team came to the stages,
And an exec from B-N showed us how to turn pages.
And I heard Steve exclaim before he said one more thing,
"Many iPads on sale, for just $899."
How the West was Wan
Posted January 23rd, 2010 at 3:28pm by Stephen
I saw Daybreakers last night, a movie that cleverly explores an alternate 2019 America in which vampires have taken over the world. (Why should zombies always be the ones to eliminate humanity? Why do vampires constantly have to hide in the shadows and keep their numbers limited? The concept of a world populated almost entirely by vampires was also explored in Kim Newman’s “Anno Dracula” series of books.)
While Daybreakers comes off feeling a little low-budget and B-movie in parts, and there are a few plot holes that don’t withstand scrutiny, it’s thoughtful, stylish, gory, engaging, and well-acted (possibly excepting Willem DaFoe, whose character, named Elvis, vamps [hah!] his southern accent a bit too too much).
Star Ethan Hawke’s character has the first name of “Edward.” The movie was made originally in 2007, long before the current Twilight craze, so it wasn’t an intentional reference. But it’s very unfortunate and distracting, even when some characters refer to him as Ed.
I woke up this morning with a $50 million dollar idea that I’m giving away here, because I couldn’t live with myself if I did this. Here’s what you do:
- Hook up with a nutritionist and come up with a vitamin cocktail formulated specifically to make up for chronic Vitamin D deficiency.
- Frappé it, add sugar water and a whole ton of caffeine, and add your (fictional) secret ingredient, “tauro-hemine,” which you say is synthesized from cow blood.
- Bite your tongue and a bullet and license Twilight. See if you can get away with only 20% of the gross.
- Slap Edward’s brooding mug on an ankh-shaped can.
- Call it “Twilight Red Thirst” and set up your distribution channel for every goth club and vintage clothing store in the land.
- Sure you’re splitting your gross with Charlaine Harris, but after a couple of promotional campaigns and with a catchy slogan, soon you’ll be laughing all the way to the blood bank.
Little kids review iPhone apps: Doodle Buddy
Posted January 5th, 2010 at 6:33pm by Stephen
When you’re taking two little kids on a plane for 2 hours, after you’ve read them four books, worked with the Play-Doh, let them annoy nearby passengers by standing up and playing peek-a-boo, spent a few minutes talking with the flight attendant about available drinks and the lack of lids for cups before settling on half a cup of apple juice each, watched one kid spill said half a cup of said apple juice all over themself, cleaned up said spill, read them another three books, exhausted the questions related to oxygen masks and other pictograms in the safety card, and then checked your watch to find that there’s still another hour in the flight, what do you do to pass the time and keep your kids occupied?
You pull out your iPhone and start having them play around with different apps, of course. If you’re exceptionally fortunate, you may even be prepared in advance by having an iPhone for each of them. (Both iPhones in Airplane mode, of course.)
There are a range of apps my kids like, including apps related to bubbles and apps related to noise making, but their favorites (that is, the most distracting) are the different sketch apps that let them draw.
Today, we’ll be reviewing one free sketch app, Doodle Buddy, which as far as my kids are concerned is the best thing about daddy’s phone. (That opinion will probably last another week. When it changes, I’ll post another app review.)
I could talk about Doodle Buddy’s ability to let two users collaborate on drawings (which I’ve never tried), or how it has basic sketching options (in 24 colors, with variable width, plus a smudge tool and eraser), multi-level undo, lets you take a photo or use an existing photo for a background, and has several other background choices, and — its key feature — has 24 stamps (smileys, a couple of animals, and some basic symbols) that make sounds when you put them on your drawing. I could mention it lacks basic shape drawing — no circles or lines or squares. I could talk about all that. But let’s instead let my kids review this app.
Sophie (age 2): “Doodle buddy! Doodle buddy! Doodle buddy!”
I take a photo of her as the background, have her draw over it in various colors, then have her use the eraser tool to reveal her picture.
Sophie: “There’s Sophie! There’s my NOSE!”
With the multi-level undo, you can undo the erasing, letting her play peek-a-boo with her picture again. For a two-year-old, repetition is the soul of amusement.
Sophie: “There’s Sophie!”
Me: “Sophie, do you like Doodle Buddy? Is it good?”
Sophie: “Um. Yes. Um. It’s good. Doodle Buddy. Doodle Buddy!”
Me: “What’s your favorite feature?”
Sophie: (quietly doodles)
My son Sammy, age 4, has a more sophisticated review.
Sammy: “Well, it’s a game that you play with drawing. It has yellow. And there’s blue. And more colors. So that’s pretty good. It has snow and fire. And a basketball. It does NOT have dinosaurs.”
He was reluctant to make more observations because he was busy drawing something that looked just as good to me as your average Jackson Pollack masterpiece.
Demerits that I could see: The shake-to-clear feature is sometimes a misfeature, and can’t be switched off, and you can’t undo it. As a free app it has some ads, which is fine, but if you touch them it will naturally take you out of the app. So the kids will do that from time to time, and then you’ll need to close the Safari window and go back to the app. The app should be smart enough to know if it’s in Airplane mode and that the ads won’t work.
All in all this app is worth about 20 minutes of blissful silence per child on an airplane ride, so its worth is approximately $25. At the price of free, it’s a total steal.
Doodle Buddy, by Pinger, Inc. App Store Link
Also available with a holiday theme for $0.99
Resolved: To never write another check
Posted January 2nd, 2010 at 4:17pm by Stephen
I will never write another check again.
Any company or service provider who needs to be paid anything regularly can be set up for automatic billing through my bank or through their billing system. My bank will write the check for me, if need be — whether it’s for my gardener or the daycare my kids go to or what-have-you.
Anyone else who needs money can take cash or paypal or a bank transfer.
Checks had a good run (2100 years or so, if this article is to be believed), but I will no longer be a part of perpetuating this dead end of financial technology.
Why? My handwriting sucks. I hate having to wait for them to clear. I hate having to manually classify them in financial programs. I don’t want to have to carry around a checkbook. And who wants to pay other people?
I will still accept them. Begrudgingly. For now.
We ate up there
Posted January 1st, 2010 at 10:36pm by Stephen
There’s a maxim my dad told me when I was a kid, after dragging us into some tourist trap of a restaurant by some beach somewhere: “The better the view, the worse the food.”
There’s another rule of thumb engineers talk about also: “Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two.” (Meaning you can’t have everything — there’s always a compromise that has to be made with either the schedule, the budget, or the quality.)
Well, the Sky City restaurant rotates at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, where we ate this evening. It seems to defy both rules: The view is truly magnificent yet the food was good too. I had the clam chowder followed by Dungeness crab mac and cheese, and it was sublime. The other entrees chosen by our group (my wife and my sister-in-law, plus my two kids) all seemed delicious as well, if not especially gourmet. Kimi’s crab cakes were perfect, and Tomi’s French toast with espresso creme was wonderful.
As for that second maxim: The food was good, but it wasn’t fast or cheap. The speed didn’t bother us — more time to enjoy the view. We were planning on riding up to the top of the needle regardless, and since no restaurants were open nearby on New Year’s Day, it seemed prudent to eat there.
The maxim I will pass onto my kids is this: “The better the view, the more you’ll pay for it.”
Great treat to start the new year, though! Happy New Year, Zeigen.com readers. (Both of you.)
Winter travel report, 2012
Posted December 28th, 2009 at 5:37pm by StephenHello to everyone! Happy New Year 2012! We just got back from our annual trip to Seattle, and, man, I have to tell you, we had a great time in Tacoma and seeing the relatives, but the one thing that sticks out is that the new travel rules are a bit inconvenient.
Look, I want our flights to be safe just like everyone, and I know the TSA is just doing its job, but having to check all clothing and personal items is a genuine hardship when traveling with kids. First of all, we had picked up the kid-sized robes for them from Long’s, and at first Sammy and Sophie seemed to like wearing the paper, but it was pretty cold at SJC and even colder in Washington. The cardboard slippers are really flimsy and didn’t stay on. Both kids really complained and were shivering. I swear Sophie’s knees were actually knocking. Meanwhile, Kimi and I showed up starkers as required, with just the transparent lanyard for my ID, and the modesty towels that we had to ditch in the bin upon boarding. (It was a tough juggling act to wheel two suitcases through the checkin area while keeping the towel on.) The security line cavity search was fine, finished in about three hours, but then at the gate, the new rules require you go through that cube to put on the TSA-supplied pasties. Well the cube is waaaay too small, and we were all being rushed to board. Then, afterwards, I was pretty self-conscious about having to wear basically a thong. They say they wash them between flights, but honestly it didn’t seem that sanitary to me.
Second, even for a short flight like the two hours from San Jose to Seatac, having to sit so still with no reading material or gadgets is honestly a hardship. The kids were bored after about ten minutes, and I wasn’t much better. The least they could do is put some reading material back on the planes. I know the last attempted terrorist attack involved paper cuts, but I don’t think it was really very dangerous for the flight crew. Maybe they could compromise and put on some magazines printed on tissue paper or something? At least they were playing holiday tunes. We passed the time by telling stories and by about the second hour I got used to not trying to turn my neck to look at my family while talking. And the restraint cuffs weren’t really that bad, although one ankle was a bit chafed by the end.
If you’d asked me three years ago if I thought we’d be required to sit literally stock still in an airplane with 300 other random naked people in order to get anywhere, I’d have told you you were crazy. But these are the times we live in. And to object seems like such pre-2011 thinking.
But next time, we’re just driving, I swear.
Zeigen’s credo
Posted November 13th, 2009 at 7:31pm by StephenCredo is Latin for “I believe.” These are my personal beliefs. Everyone has different perceptions and beliefs, and I do not offer my credo as an insult or to attack anyone else, but only as an exercise of putting my beliefs into words so that I can better understand myself.
![[Photo of Sammy Mack at Stanford Mall, November 6, 2009]](http://www.zeigen.com/blog/wp-content/sammy-believes.jpg "Sammy believes in sitting on bear statues")
I believe in my kids.
- I believe that people should be treated with respect, no matter what beliefs they hold. I may disagree with certain beliefs, and even try to convince another person to change a belief, but I will always try to respect the individual, no matter how much I disagree with their beliefs. (There is an exception for believers in hatred or violence; I find it very difficult to respect holders of those beliefs.)
- I believe in following a moral code, based on one’s understanding of right and wrong, and I believe in treating others as I would wish to be treated.
- I believe in the scientific method, that theories and claims should be tested, and that beliefs should be based on testable and reproducible evidence. I believe there are no immutable truths and that everything should be up for debate.
- I believe “faith” is defined as having a certain belief despite there being no evidence for that belief. Because of my skeptical world view and my requirement for evidence to support my beliefs, I believe that “faith” has little place in my life.
- I believe that I am completely open to believing in the existence of God (or gods). If I were to find any proof that God exists, I would believe in God. I believe that the burden of proof of God’s existence should be on those who believe in God, not on those who don’t. By some definitions, this makes me an agnostic, but I don’t really believe in labels.
- I believe that the more extraordinary the claim, the more rigorous should be the proof. Belief in a benevolent creator as a conscious entity who watches over us and influences events for us is an extraordinary claim, or so I believe.
- There are several arguments for creator belief that I do not find persuasive.
- I am not persuaded by arguments along the lines that all things have a creator, therefore our universe was created. Who, then, created the creator? The same argument that others make to me that our universe must have had some “prime cause” I would return to them, and ask what was the prime cause for that prime cause.
- I am not persuaded by the extraordinary unlikelihood of life forming on our planet as proof that there was a creator of that life. Deal out a deck of cards. The odds of that particular hand being dealt were tiny. But it happened, and after it happened, the odds were 100%. Deal enough hands and you increase the likelihood of that hand being dealt to the point where it becomes likely. Well, I believe there are a lot of planets in our universe, and I believe that we happen to live on one where life happened to form.
- I am not persuaded by words in a book put down by human hands as any kind of absolute proof of anything in particular, especially when the book in question has had multiple authors and revisions and a long history of mistranslations. (If you are insulted by this, please don’t be. Maybe I’m not talking about YOUR holy book, maybe I’m talking about someone else’s.)
- I do not find persuasive any third party descriptions of impossible events or miracles, especially if they happened long ago, unless they have been credibly witnessed or recorded or reproduced.
- Because I have never seen a credible study proving that prayer has benefits (and I have seen many that disprove any benefits), I do not believe in the power of prayer. How does God choose which prayers to answer? If one person prays for one event to happen, while another person prays for that same event to not happen, how is that resolved?
- I tend not to believe in absolutes or extremes, but instead look at life as a full spectrum of possibilities.
- I believe our brains and perceptions are often deeply flawed, and we have unbelievable power to fool ourselves.
- I believe that every individual is different, and do not expect my own beliefs to influence others or be persuasive. Other individuals have different beliefs based on their different values and world views, and I believe that that’s what makes life interesting. The world’s religions and varied cultural history hold enormous value and beauty.
- I believe that a refusal to be tolerant of other people’s different beliefs is problematic. I respect people for strong-held beliefs, but some belief systems are incompatible with my world view, and I may choose to not have such people in my life, and I believe that some people with extreme beliefs should not hold positions of power or authority over others.
- I fully believe in the separation of church and state.
- I am by nature suspicious of most organizations, and that applies to organized religious organizations as well. I believe in “live and let live” and therefore do not care for extreme proselytizing, or dogma that dismisses or attacks other groups.
- I do believe in groups that support each other and their community with acts of charity, whether those groups are religious or not.
- I believe that I should try hard not to be a hypocrite. But I believe that I am a flawed individual, and that my actions may not always be consistent with my beliefs. But I believe I should always try to be consistent and try to improve myself.
- I believe in kind actions and kind words. I believe in not taking oneself too seriously. I believe in love. I believe it’s time to eat.
The Letter V
Posted November 7th, 2009 at 3:14pm by StephenSorry, every other letter in the alphabet, you’re fired. The letter V has completely dominated popular culture.
Vvvv vvv vv, V vvvvv, vvv vvvv vvvvvv vv’vv vvvv vv vvv vv “v.”
![[Collage of images involving the letter V from popular culture, including V, True Blood, V for Vendetta, others]](http://www.zeigen.com/blog/wp-content/v.jpg "The letter V in popular culture")
(Click to enlarge)
In the collage, roughly from left to right:
- Supermodel Anne V (Sports Illustrated photo), wearing a v-neck bathing suit, from her 5-year SI run.
- Actress Morena Baccarin as Anna in the new “V” series on ABC.
- The energy drink V.
- XKCD illustrating Valentine’s Day (V Day). (Notice that the bottom half of a heart forms a V.)
- The band Live’s album V.
- V logos for Virgin brands as well as the TV series “V” look similar.
- The annual music festival in the UK.
- The victory gesture with 2 fingers; Churchill (his arm, at least) and Nixon are demonstrating here. Nixon is really demonstrating three Vs.
- The graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, drawn by David Lloyd, which later became a movie.
- In the HBO series “True Blood,” adapted from the Charlaine Harris novels, vampires are known as “Vs,” and their blood is a drug known as “V” (reminiscent of “X” for ecstasy).
- Visitors, visitors, everywhere. In addition to the current “V” series (where the Visitors are called “Vs”), there was the original two-part 1983 miniseries, a three-part 1984 miniseries, a short-lived 1984 TV series, and various novels and comics.
- Thomas Pynchon’s first novel, V.
- The V subway train, familiar in orange to residents of New York.
- The Gibson Flying V, made famous by Lonnie Mack and Jimi Hendrix.
- V Day (or V-J Day), and the world’s most famous photograph of a kiss in Times Square.
And there are probably a dozen more I could have included if I had thought of them.
Catan iPhone app review
Posted November 5th, 2009 at 2:44am by Stephen
I’ve expressed before that The Settlers of Catan is my favorite board game. But I don’t get to play it much lately, so I was excited by the news that there’s now a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch. “Catan – The First Island” was developed by Exozet Games and released by USM; the Catan app is $4.99 from the iPhone App Store.
Previously, Catan fans had to settle for a knock-off called Kolonists (currently not available from the iPhone App Store — pulled due to being too close to Catan without a license, perhaps?). Kolonists dressed the game in a Roman theme and did away with the random dice roll element of resource gathering, replacing the roll with a workable-but-inferior mechanic of having a single worker per settlement (and two per city) that provided guaranteed resources each turn, and a bit of jostling for position with your neighbors. It made the game faster but less interesting. So it was refreshing to go back to the original mechanic. (Other limitations of the Kolonists app are that it’s single player only, and there’s no ability to trade resources with the computer players, only the bank.)
This is a preliminary review of Catan, having just three-and-a-half games under my belt, but that’s enough experience to offer the following points. First, the good:
- It’s Catan. The rules are implemented faithfully, the terrain and icons are familiar, and the gameplay is smooth. If you’re a Catan fan, you can stop reading here and just go get it now.
- The music is excellent, and the sounds are good (but I could see them becoming annoying over time). There are options to switch off either or both.
And the bad:
- This is just basic Settlers. No expansions, no 5- or 6- player options. You do have a few options when creating a game, however. These options are: fixed or variable setup, random vs. stacked dice, optional friendly robber (no attacking players who haven’t earned any points yet), changing the victory requirement from the default 10 points to either 8, 9, 11 or 12, an optional catch-up “resource bonus” to players who haven’t earned any resources in five turns, or starting with a settlement and city instead of two settlements.
- Even switching the option for “quick animation” on is not quick enough. You get bogged down in transitions and long dice roll animations and the resource assignment animation. Kolonists had a faster pace.
- I don’t like the UI. All the commands (building, trading, etc.) are hidden in a slide-out menu to the right, guaranteeing that even a simple “end turn” is two gestures. Building a settlement is needlessly complex: Slide out menu, tap build, slide left in the build menu to choose to build a settlement, tap a checkmark to confirm, tap on screen where you want to build the settlement, tap a second checkmark to confirm. A better option would have been to dedicate some of the screen real estate to action buttons.
- No undo.
- While there is a good in-game statistics section (keeping track of dice rolls and other interesting data), it doesn’t keep track of your overall win-loss record. Kolonists offered a campaign mode, awarding points for each game that earned you new (cosmetic) titles. Catan would have done well to offer something similar.
- The AI does not seem great. I’m 3-0 so far (but might have lost another game that crashed). You can choose either random computer opponents or select different characters, which are rated by skill. I’ve seen even the best-rated AIs make some questionable moves. And they all trade too much in the end-game.
- You can only save one game at a time. If you save a game and then start a new game, it doesn’t warn you that your previously saved game is lost.
- It’s a bit buggy. For example, I chose to switch off the insipid comments that the AIs make when building items, but sometimes they still make comments anyway. And one game had to be abandoned when it was a computer player’s turn but it took no actions, with no options to continue or skip.
- Multi-player is only done via pass-the-phone (hot-potato style) — no networking support.
- Picky: The random setup of ports isn’t in accordance with the rules, randomly putting ports closer together than the official random setup rules allow. (Unless something has changed in the fourth edition that I’m unaware of.)
Despite the limitations, I recommend this anyway. I’m hopeful that all of the above problems will be fixed over time.
For players not familiar with the board game of Catan, they offer extensive tutorials and help. I didn’t go through them all but they seemed exhaustive, which should help a bit with the learning curve.
I’ll give it 3.5 stars for now.
Scary driving
Posted November 2nd, 2009 at 12:56pm by StephenSome mornings I get caught behind someone driving 35 mph on the freeway in the far right lane. When I pass that person, they look terrified — hunched forward, gripping the top of the steering wheel. Each car that zooms up behind them and passes scares them more.
But they’d be far less terrified if they sped up and used the next lane over — that way, they would avoid all the people merging onto and off the freeway.
Of course, there’s no chance they’re going to read this and change their habits. But the solution is easy to see, from the outside.
There’s some kind of life lesson trapped in there, somewhere.
Hello, Jack-O-Lantern
Posted October 31st, 2009 at 10:15pm by StephenKimi carved this at a pumpkin-carving party at Bob P.’s place today. Nice work, sweetie!
Halloween dry run
Posted October 29th, 2009 at 6:38pm by StephenJust a test.
“New Wave” no longer means Blondie and The Cars
Posted October 7th, 2009 at 7:19pm by StephenMy previous post is entirely null and void, because I have a Google Wave invite now (thanks to Marty Bonner).
Google Wave UI has a 'New Wave' button -- Gary Numan would be proud.
I have played with it for all of twenty minutes, so I don’t have any impressions of import to share yet, but:
- This is a bit buggier than other betas from Google I’ve played with during the invite phase, like Gmail. (Occasional crashes, buttons not working, things not archiving when I say archive.)
- It’s not really that hard to explain. It’s chat combined with e-mail in a post format, except each exchange can be edited by the participants and can be rich in media, and you see the other participants making their edits in real-time, typos and all.
- More than anything else, it reminds me of a bug system (such as Bugzilla).
I hereby boldly predict that — for groups collaborating on projects together — this will win. But for non-business uses, regular e-mail will remain more popular for, oh, the next ten years or so.
I’m estephen@googlewave.com. Wave me.
The actual real genuine reason you don’t have a Google Wave invite yet
Posted October 2nd, 2009 at 8:25pm by Stephen
Among certain circles, the main topic of conversation for the last few days relates to invitations to try out the new Google Wave service. On eBay, invitations can be had for the low low price of $100. Enthusiasts say it’ll be bigger than gmail. Some reviews call it a bit overwhelming. Detractors say it’s overhyped.
Right now about 100,000 invitations have been sent out to early adopters. And in turn each of those 100,000 users have been given 8 more invitations, but those ones are not yet distributed. Speculation — and gnashing of teeth — abounds as to why those invitations haven’t arrived yet.
But I have my own suspicions. Here is my understanding of why you (yes, you) haven’t received your Google Wave invite yet.
- You didn’t respond to Google’s last invite to you, Google Rave.
- You’re doomed to repeat today over and over until you learn how to truly love and be worthy of being loved. Only then will you receive your Wave invite.
- You aren’t worthy. You smell. You dress funny. You think strange thoughts.
- You don’t type fast enough. 130 wpm, minimum. With 99% accuracy.
- Your invitation was sent to Evite by accident. Yes. No. Maybe. Tragically, no one ever reads Evite invitations anymore.
- You don’t read item 6 in list posts.
- You are unable to describe Google Wave using actual words. In your defense, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what Google Wave is. You have to link in an 8 minute YouTube video.”
Did I forget any?
Fall TV, Week of Sep. 28: Trauma, Hank, The Middle, Stargate Universe
Posted September 28th, 2009 at 3:05pm by StephenFor the rest of this week, the pace slows down a bit, with 4 new shows and 4 returning shows.
I forgot to post yesterday (oops!). Sunday was a busy night, with one new show (The Cleveland Show, a spin-off from Family Guy) and many returning shows (60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, season 21 of The Simpsons, Family Guy, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Californication on HBO, Desperate Housewives, American Dad, Cold Case, Brothers and Sisters, and Dexter on Showtime).
For the rest of the week, here’s what you can catch.
New shows:
- Monday: Trauma (NBC drama from Peter Berg of Friday Night Lights, a San Francisco-based medical drama focused on paramedics in the field)
- Wednesday: Hank (an ABC comedy starring Kelsey Grammer as a suddenly-unemployed CEO) and The Middle (ABC comedy about a middle class family, starring Patricia Heaton)
- Friday: Stargate Universe (another Stargate series, this one with Lou Diamond Philips, Ming-Na, and Robert Carlyle)
Returning shows:
- Monday: Lie to Me
- Thursday: Private Practice (third season starting only two weeks after the second season, airing during Summer, ends)
- Friday: ‘Til Death
- Sunday: America’s Funniest Home Videos
EGBDFF
Posted September 24th, 2009 at 12:24pm by Stephen
First bicycle ride for Sammy
Posted September 20th, 2009 at 4:40pm by StephenFall TV, week of Sep. 20: FlashForward, Mercy, Cougar Town and more
Posted September 20th, 2009 at 8:02am by StephenFall TV 2009’s third week is much busier than the previous two weeks, with 27 old shows returning, and 11 new shows to check out.
Here’s what you can find this week. First, for new shows:
- Sunday: Bored To Death (HBO comedy with Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson)
- Monday: Accidentally On Purpose (CBS comedy starring Jenna Elfman as a mother-to-be)
- Tuesday: NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS extending the franchise), The Good Wife (CBS drama starring Julianna Margulies, and the forgotten (ABC forensics drama with Christian Slater)
- Wednesday: Mercy (NBC medical drama with Delroy Lindo), Modern Family (ABC comedy with Ed O’Neill), Cougar Town (ABC Courteney Cox vehicle), and Eastwick (ABC adaptation of the Updike novel, with Rebecca Romijn)
- Thursday: FlashForward (high concept ABC SF show with an impressive cast)
- Friday: Brothers (FOX comedy with Carl Weathers)
And for returning shows:
- Sunday: Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO — lot of press over the Seinfeld cast reunion)
- Monday: House, Dancing with the Stars, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Castle, and CSI: Miami
- Tuesday: NCIS
- Wednesday: The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, CSI: NY
- Thursday: CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist
- Friday: Ghost Whisperer, Smallville, Law & Order, Medium, Dollhouse (woo!), Numb3rs
- Saturday: Dateline NBC, 48 Hours Mystery
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