Archive for October, 2008

I’m not sure how many of you here follow the television series The Office, but it seems to be headed downhill. Last night’s episode, Employee Transfer, was the first to be directed by Stephen Merchant, one of the original minds behind the British version of the show. I recently had the opportunity to watch all of the episodes of the British version, and I really liked it. Some episodes were full of uncomfortable situations and were painful to watch (a testament to the actors’ strength), but sadly, the characters were more one-dimensional than their American counterparts. Mr. Merchant’s involvement in last night’s episode had me looking forward to it; perhaps it would recall some of the extremely awkward and uncomfortable situations that made the British version so fun (and difficult) to watch.

Frankly, I was disappointed. Last night’s episode was the second misstep in a row, following the previous Crime Aid episode, which was just as weak. Laughs were few and far between, and the episode simply seemed as a vehicle of (presumably) writing Michael’s latest love interest off of the show. Not only is this disappointing from a character development standpoint (Michael has been maturing rather well this season), but it’s a shame to lose such a great actress in Amy Ryan. She played so well with Steve Carell, which was a nice return to form, seeing as we’ve seemingly lost Dwight to this ridiculous Angela/Andy marriage business.

I’m a giant fan of the show, and I’ll definitely keep watching (especially now that I can watch it in HD). But I’m afraid that the show has peaked, and the best times are now behind us. Perhaps the writers will prove us wrong; I certainly hope they do. Do you watch the show? If so, what do you think?

Now if only more people would start watching Pushing Daisies…

In six minutes of testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Fred Rogers was able to persuade John O. Pastore, head of the subcommittee and a man known for his impatience, to increase funding for public television by $20 million. This short video is a recording of those proceedings, and illustrate just what a great man Mr. Rogers was. The song he recites at the end of this video is particularly compelling.

Regardless of your political leanings, you’re bound to like this video of 5th grader Damon Weaver interviewing Senator Joe Biden. Damon is funny, adorable, and does an excellent job of interviewing the people he meets. It’s great to see kids like this doing something positive.

It’s becoming more prevalent that computer manufacturers, along with hand held device companies, are turning to touch screen technology. The Apple iPhone is one prime example, and now HP is offering their TouchSmart PC (Flash warning). Does anyone really need such a thing? What’s wrong with the keyboard and mouse? I can see touch-screen technology used at kiosks in stores or museums, but I’m not exactly sure I understand the appeal of it at home. At the very least, I don’t want fingerprints all over my screen (which is exactly what I’d get). Does anyone have any idea who would want such a setup? Maybe the target market is older people who aren’t familiar with the mouse and keyboard paradigm.

I’m a sucker for desktop wallpaper (I change the background of my laptop and desktop daily). So I was surprised to stumble upon a web resource I’ve never seen before: InterfaceLift.com. There are tons of great images there, available in all kinds of resolutions. I’m looking forward to perusing their database to find new ways of dressing up my computer screen.

I’ve updated the Netflix queue listing here at the site to show what I’m currently watching. The handy Wordpress Netflix Plugin made the change very easy, and I again recommend it.

I’ve also fixed a validation problem here at the site. My last post included the first YouTube video ever embedded at Year of the Code Monkey. It turns out that XHTML strict, which happens to be the doctype I use, doesn’t like the embed element. YouTube gave me this:

<object width="425" height="344">
  <param name="movie"
    value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y_P6yBJEW38&hl=en&fs=1"></param>
  <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
  <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y_P6yBJEW38&hl=en&fs=1"
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"
    width="425" height="344"></embed>
</object>

And I had to change it to this:

<object width="425" height="344"
  data="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y_P6yBJEW38&hl=en&fs=1">
  <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y_P6yBJEW38&hl=en&fs=1" />
  <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
</object>

Not only is it now compliant, it looks better too. I’ll just have to remember to make this kind of change each time I post a video.

I was doing some furniture shopping this afternoon, and on my way back from the store, noticed two guys twirling signs out on the highway. Kinda like this guy:

So I got to thinking, how horrible a job must this be? You stand out on the street for who knows how long, looking like an idiot. No one can read the sign because it’s spinning around so fast, and even worse, no one knows in which direction to go if they could read it (again, because it’s spinning around). Talk about your dead-end jobs. I can’t imagine there’s much of a career opportunity in this line of work.

Has anyone ever done this? If so, what did you think? Were you as embarrassed and lonely as I suspect?