RhymePhile's Rat Race

This brightens my day

2008-05-15T19:18:28Z

A painting by the artist Lucian Freud (grandson to the famous psychiatrist) was purchased at Christie's this week for an astounding $33 million (£17 million pounds) dollars, the highest amount ever paid for a piece of work by a living artist.

The best part about this artsy-fartsy news?

It's a portrait of Sue Tilly, a benefits supervisor in London (link Not Safe For Work), sprawled on a couch, naked. That might not seem like news, but Ms. Tilly is a rather large woman.

Fat chicks rule!!! WHOO!

A larger image of the portrait is here at Gawker, and the image is completely Not Safe For Work. She's naked, duh

This is sort of ironic

2008-05-14T13:59:06Z

This morning I was looking for a photo I had taken of me in Mulder's office (I was standing in front of a green screen) back at the X-Files Expo in 1998. I had it saved on my old, old (last updated 2000) website over at Tripod.

Well, I discovered that Tripod finally killed it. It's kind of ironic, considering the new movie is coming out soon, and my little home on the net had been up for eight years without an update. *sigh*

I don't think my brother (the webmaster who made it for me) saved much of the info on it.

Back in 2005 I had the good idea to send a lot of my older fic to Gossamer, most of which had never made it there for whatever reason. In the old days a lot of my fic (they were written in rhyme, thus my net handle) went to a different Gossamer archive that has since ceased to operate, and I didn't want to lose stuff.

Back when I started fanfic in late 1997, I didn't have a computer. I had WebTV, which was this box you hooked up to your TV and a phone line in order to get on the net. Our family didn't have the money for a computer back then, so a $300 piece of equipment that let me get on Usenet and read stories and check e-mail was all I needed. And man, did I use that thing. I wore out two wireless keyboards, and when they implemented new technology on the service, I would be one of the first to get it sent to me to be tested. I didn't upgrade to a computer until 2004!

Anyway, WebTV didn't have storage ability, which means I don't have anything saved anywhere except Gossamer.

Luckily I was able to access the Internet Wayback Machine and save four rhymes I had written that I never sent to Gossamer, along with two original pieces of art I had on the old website. One rhyme is lost to the Internet ether, as are all my photos I took at the Expo in 1998, and the on-location X-Files photos I took when I was in vacation in California in 1999. Not a huge loss as I'm sure I have them around somewhere at home, but still.

It's a good thing I checked this morning. It makes me feel a little sad though, knowing that a piece of my fanfic history is gone.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

2008-05-13T19:56:39Z

Lip Smacky McLipSmack, a woman who is two cubes away and IS THE MOST ANNOYING PERSON ON THE PLANET (aside from a guy I used to work with who grinded his effin' TEETH all day) and who also CANNOT CLOSE HER MOUTH WHEN SHE CHEWS is chewing gum. I can't listen to my music any louder lest my brain ooze from my ears. I CAN'T DROWN IT OUT.

ALL DAY LONG IT IS CHEWING. CHHHEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWING. At breakfast it is crunching crunching crunching of celery and cottage cheese and lunch is slurping and chewing and talking on the phone with that cringe-inducing laugh of hers and OH MY GOD I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE.

It's innernetz magicks

2008-05-13T17:34:08Z

Mom was telling me yesterday about this great movie she was watching on DVD, Vantage Point, starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Sigourney Weaver et al in a film in which the characters witness the president's assassination and tell their stories from different points of view.

Dad has now become the master of Closed Captioning ever since I suggested he use it. With the sound mixes on certain films these days it's often too hard to hear dialogue without a good sound system. With this film, however, mom told me she couldn't turn on the CC because it was "re-mastered."

I didn't understand; "re-mastered" generally means better sound, like an older film updated to 5.1 Dolby or something.

She was explaining how irritated they both were over the film, and wondered why the copy their neighbor gave them was so crappy with no CC and dialogue they could hardly hear.

So mom went to Blockbuster to rent it. They didn't have it. Weren't they supposed to have everything? Why didn't they have it? This is annoying! All of which mom ranted on about.

Turns out Vantage Point won't be on DVD until July. It seems her neighbor gave her a burned copy from either a torrent or download from the Internet, and that's what mom meant by "re-mastered." A copied disc. But she didn't know the source was a bad download.

Mom wondered how people could get the films so early, and onto DVD?

It's the magic of the Internet, I explained. She nodded sagely, one step closer to understanding the mysteries I take for granted on a daily basis. She uses e-mail like a pro now, she can save and copy photos, and she recently set up Logitech speakers all by herself. She's not all that net-savvy, as I still have to remind her about phishing and spam.

But she's getting there.

Huzzah, Friday!

2008-05-09T15:09:25Z

Thank the Lords of Kobol this week is over! (That was a geeky Battlestar Galactica reference there)

I have my relative pains when it comes to commuting 80 miles each way every day, but yesterday took the cake and ate it too.

Our bus broke down just outside the Lincoln Tunnel (headed home to NJ) only about 10 minutes after we left Port Authority. So at 5:20 we were stuck.

There were around 40 people on the bus, and what annoys me to no end is that the driver didn't say shit about what was going on, i.e. if he called it in, if they were sending another bus, what was happening, all that.

At first we thought we would get another bus, but NO! We had to wait for other buses that were headed on our route to pull over, and try to get on. Well, as Rhymey likes to sit in the back, I couldn't get on the first bus that stopped because most of the front of our bus piled onto the other one. Bitches. Then the second bus was too crowded. Fast forward to an HOUR AND A HALF LATER, the time we would have ALREADY BEEN HOME, and I finally get on a bus THAT'S NOT EVEN STOPPING WHERE I PARKED MY CAR.

But by that point I was ready to get on any bus that was going anywhere near south Jersey. Luckily, one of my bus friends was nice enough to drive me back to where my car was parked.

Thus...I left my office at 4:35 to catch a 5:10 bus. We broke down. What time did I finally get home? 8 effin' 30 at night. 8:30! Four hours door to door. GAH.

The universe is so lucky I had already set up Supernatural to be recorded. I'll have to watch it this weekend. *sigh*

I basically scarfed down dinner and went to bed. What a night.

SVU season finale teaser, "Cold"

2008-05-07T12:55:41Z

Looks like the opening credits will be changing again...

In other news, I was hysterical at the final moments of SVU last night. I never actually "watch" the episode -- it's like a buzzing noise in the background of my evening. But after the *completely* WTF showdown at the end, I watched for Stephen Collins' totally laughable woobie face. HA! My comments during his scene: "They canceled 7th Heeeeeeeeeaven!!! Waaaaaaah!" LOL. Whoo, craptastic.

I am on lockdown bitches!

2008-05-06T14:17:16Z

Well, my wireless router is, anyway!

I wanted to secure my wireless router a few months ago and did the research on it, but I never got around to doing it. If you're not following me, by securing I mean setting a password for my network at home, so that no one in my apartment complex can steal my innernetz via the juicy wireless waves. I pay $43 a month to Comcast for the ability to get online quickly, and I don't want anyone yoinking the precious, precious download speeds.

I didn't catch anyone doing it (there's a freeware program called AirSnare that allows you to see if anyone is trying to get into your network to steal free internet), but I wanted to be safe.

A lot of people advocate running an open network and allowing whomever to access the wireless waves whenever they want. Me, I don't like people stealing my shit. And I don't want to run the risk of someone using my connection to download bad stuff.

I was reading Lifehacker.com yesterday, and they had yet another post about securing your network, and I decided I needed to do it.

I have a Linksys gateway, which is a modem and router combined. After reading all about it online, I shut off my Windows firewall and virus software, reset the router (because the default password wouldn't work), and tried to access it. It didn't work, so I had to call my brother the computer guru to help me.

Me: Stsve, I need help with this. I shut off the firewall, reset the router, but it still won't let me access the default IP address to get into the router's setup menu to change the password...

Steve: (yelling in the background) Why are you out of bed?

Harmony: I wanna glass of water. I'm hot.

Steve: You're hot because you have too many covers on. You already had water before you want to bed.

Harmony: But I neeeeeed it. Who you talkin' to?

Steve: Chuchi [an Americanized variation of the word "aunt" or "auntie" in Polish, ciocia, a word our family always used in our mixed Ukrainian/Polish/Slovak heritage]

Harmony: I wanna say hi to Chuchi...

Steve: Go back to bed!

Harmony: But...

Steve: Harmony Grace!

LOL. I had to wait a while for the computer guru to help. I got it figured out following Steve's instructions, which was basically flushing the DNS and doing a release and renew via the command menu. It sounds complicated but it really wasn't. That got me the right IP address of my router, and I was able to go into it and change the name of my network to a super sekkrit one.

For more information, check out Lifehacker's post about securing your home wi-fi network.

Stargate Atlantis Season 4 on DVD -- high res art and details

2008-05-05T14:28:55Z

I noticed blackchaps was squeeing about this, so I thought I'd give you high-res DVD box art, along with the disc breakdown:

Disc One

Episodes

· Adrift

· Lifeline

· Reunion

· Doppelganger

Special Features

· Continuum Trailer

· Ark of Truth Trailer

· Commentary on Adrift by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Martin Gero, Director/Supervising Producer Martin Wood

· Commentary on Lifeline by Director/Supervising Producer Martin Wood and Amanda Tapping

· Commentary on Reunion by Executive Producer/Writer Joseph Mallozzi and Director William Waring

· Commentary on Doppelganger by Executive Producer, Writer and Director Robert C. Cooper and VFX Supervisor Mark Savela

· Mission Directive: Doppelganger with Robert C. Cooper

· A New Leader: Amanda Tapping Joins Atlantis

· Photo Galleries

· Production Design Gallery

Disc Two

Episodes

· Travelers

· Tabula Rasa

· Missing

· The Seer

Special Features

· Stargate SG-1 Seasons 1-10 Trailer

· Commentary on Travelers by Executive Producer/Writer Paul Mullie and Director William Waring

· Commentary on Tabula Rasa by Producer/Writer Alan McCullough and Director/Supervising Producer Martin Wood and Amanda Tapping

· Commentary on Missing by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Carl Binder and Producer/Director Andy Mikita

· Commentary on The Seer by Producer/Writer Alan McCullough and Director Andy Mikita

· The Doctor Is In: The Return of Paul McGillion

· Stargate Atlantis Bloopers

· Photo Galleries

· Production Design Gallery

Disc Three

Episodes

· Miller’s Crossing

· This Mortal Coil

· Be All My Sins Remember’d

· Spoils of War

Special Features

· Commentary on Miller’s Crossing by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Martin Gero and Producer/Director Andy Mikita

· Commentary on This Mortal Coil by Executive Producer/Writer Joseph Mallozzi and Director William Waring

· Commentary on Be All My Sins Remember’d by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Martin Gero and Producer/Director Andy Mikita

· Commentary on Spoils of War by Producer/Writer Alan McCullough and Director William Waring

· Mission Directive: This Mortal Coil with Will Waring

· Photo Galleries

· Production Design Gallery

Disc Four

Episodes

· Quarantine

· Harmony

· Outcast

· Trio

Special Features

· Commentary on Quarantine by Director/Supervising Producer Martin Wood and Amanda Tapping

· Commentary on Harmony by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Martin Gero and Director William Waring

· Commentary on Outcast by Producer/Writer Alan McCullough and Producer/Director Andy Mikita

· Commentary on Trio by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Martin Gero, Director/Supervising Producer Martin Wood and Amanda Tapping

· Mission Directive: Quarantine with Martin Wood

· Mission Directive: Outcast with Andy Mikita

· The Making of Trio

· Photo Galleries

· Production Design Gallery

Disc Five

Episodes

· Midway

· The Kindred

· The Kindred, Part II

· The Last Man

Special Features

· Commentary on The Kindred by Executive Producer/Writer Joseph Mallozzi and Director Peter F. Woeste

· Commentary on The Kindred, Part II by Producer/Writer Alan McCullough and Director/ Supervising Producer Martin Wood

· Commentary on The Last Man by Executive Producer/Writer Paul Mullie and Director/Supervising Producer Martin Wood

· A Look Back at Season 4

· Deleted Scenes

· Photo Gallery

· Production Design Gallery

Teaser for May 6 SVU episode "Trade"

2008-04-30T03:14:02Z

Okay, so there was nothing else on tonight, and I half-watched SVU. I have to say, I was laughing hysterically at the thought of Olivia being shocked. PUSH THE BUTTON, Elliot! Bwahahahahahahaaaaaa. Awesome. In other news, Meloni is totally phoning his performance in. Damn, boy, sorry you signed on the dotted line now, I bet. Also? This episode was written by Neal Baer. This is what he comes up with? Lord.

Yawn

2008-04-28T16:37:25Z

Ahh, Mondays. I just did a skip=320. Cuz that's how I roll, y'all.

Some minor things of note:

1. Battlestar Galactica on Friday. I love Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol. However, seeing him face off against Edward James Olmos -- a notoriously Bring Your A Game Actor -- was icing on my luv cake. Did I mention I bought a Tyrol action figure autographed by him at Comic Con?

2. Children of Men was effin' depressing. I was looking for something sci-fi-ish to watch this weekend that didn't include whiny hipsters and shaky camera work (Cloverfield), or anything (I Am Legend) starring The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (because Big Willy, you will always be the Fresh Prince to me, I don't care what you say). I rented CoM for the sci-fi factor, but also for the Clive Owen factor (and I enjoy his work so much I even watched Bent). I get the whole end of the world, dystopian no-babies future, but GAH, depressing!

3. I cleaned out the large fish tank this weekend which previously held Big Guy, my huge freshwater shark that I had for almost 8 years. When I got him he was the size of my little finger, and eventually he outgrew two tanks and was over a foot long. He died Thursday. I didn't feel like posting about it then because yes, I cried over a fish, okay? I might have cried a lot, in fact. He barely fit in the Amazon box I used for his fishy coffin. *sigh* I'm still sniffly over it.

4. I'm taking my mother to go see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Mom can fangirl with the best of them.

5. I'd like some of that Doctor Who Adipose stuff so I can lose like 30 pounds before May 31st. I wouldn't even mind those cute Tribble-like blobs of fat!

30 Rock

2008-04-25T18:19:16Z

Am I the only person that watches 30 Rock? Well, technically I watch it online on Hulu.com on Fridays because it airs opposite Supernatural, and there's no way I'm missing the Winchester boys.

Anyway, just thought I'd say that I love Will Arnett as Devon Banks. When he and Alec Baldwin are in the same scene together it's like a battle of the basso profundos. Arnett's Banks is a gay guy who's marrying the boss' daughter in order to get a hold of NBC, with Baldwin's Jack Donaghy fighting him every step of the way this season.

We now return you to the few hours you must watch the clock until you can get the hell away from your job for the weekend. In the words of Liz Lemon, "Aw, blurgh!" TGIF.

My niece, 4 going on 40

2008-04-24T15:39:57Z

Mom e-mailed me telling me what my four-year-old niece, Harmony, did this morning.

My brother works from 7-4 and is out of the house really early, so he was already gone when this happened.

Apparently Harm woke up at 6:30 a.m., and went in to wake up my sister-in-law, Angie, telling her it was time to get up. Angie looked at the clock and told Harmony to go back to sleep because it was too early to go to "school," which is the daycare center approximately 4 houses down from where they live. I guess Angie rolled over and went back to sleep, thinking Harmony would do the same.

Harmony, it seems, didn't believe Angie that it wasn't time to get up (now that the sun is coming out earlier). She then proceeded to go into the bathroom, wash her face, brush her teeth, comb her hair, and get dressed. Then she went downstairs into the kitchen and got her lunch out of the fridge. Since she knows how to unlock the front door, she did that as well and walked down the block to the daycare center, all without my sister-in-law knowing!!!

She got to school at 7:30 and rang the bell to be let in. Seeing other kids that come in at 7:30 instead of her time of 9 a.m. (and she didn't recognize anyone, I guess) she started to cry. The school had to call Angie to tell her that Harmony was there!

She has been rasied with a lot of independence, and that kid is very headstrong and defiant at times because she knows what she wants. It can make things difficult, obviously, when you have a 4-year-old who can be obstinate when she's told to do something. She's going through what I call the "Ferocious Fours", LOL.

Anyway, my brother had to put a lock at the very top of the door so she can't reach it, and he now has to exit the house through the garage. Although...who knows how long it will take her to figure out how to work the garage door opener!

More sauntering

2008-04-23T13:12:57Z

It's another nice morning here in Manhattan, so once again I decided to walk the 26 blocks to the office. It's partly because I'm in no particular hurry to get to work, and partly because it's good for my fat ass.

On the way this morning I saw a Tylenol billboard that said for every one pound of weight lost, four pounds of pressure are taken off your knees. I'm all for that.

But the most iconic NYC thing, if you will, I saw this morning was a guy taking a pee completely in sight of everyone on 9th Avenue. This wasn't one of those crazy homeless guys; oh no, it was just some worker dude who didn't even bother to find a john. Or even walk farther down the street to at least hide the fact that he was pissing in front of everyone for that matter.

As I passed him, by strange chance a female cop was walking my way. She didn't look like a parking cop as they have different patches on their uniforms. I told her there was a guy pissing around the corner. Her response?

"I don't wanna see that!"

*sigh*

And in semi-related NYPD news, could last week's teaser for last night's episode "Closet" of SVU be any worse? I'm guessing NBC chose to purposely ignore the gay athlete storyline and instead chose to focus on Bill Pullman's 2 minutes on screen? WTF? I tuned in last night more than halfway through, and when I saw the pretty, pretty guy Lincoln (played by an actor named Bailey Chase if you're interested) I was pissed that I might have actually enjoyed the episode. But noooooo, don't tell us that the storyline might actually mention homosexual reltionships, NBC! Instead, show us the awkward weird kiss between Oh I've Been Dating Her For Months Offscreen, Why Don't You Move In With Me Bill Pullman Character and Worst Detective EVAH Olivia Benson Who Had The Audacity To Be Annoyed When It Was Her Fault Cute Gay Sports Guy Almost Got Killed?

GAH, this show. Next week is Robin Williams chewing the scenery and shitting out Emmy nominations. That's a big HELL TO THE NO. I'll hold up my end of the bargain to the 170+ people that subscribe to my YouTube channel in order to watch the teasers, but that's it.

Meloni, when you're done with that poorly-written crap, let us know, okay? Even you can't get me to watch anymore.

Teaser for April 29 SVU episode "Authority"

2008-04-23T03:05:54Z

Comic Con report

2008-04-19T16:49:35Z

I was up too late last night to write about Comic Con here in NY, so now that I'm more awake here's the full report.

The convention was held at the very large Jacob Javits Convention Center on 11th Ave in Manhattan. This was the third year of the con, and every year it expands in size. This year it was held on three levels of the convention center, with the exhibitors and dealers in one large space. This made it easier to see everything in one fell swoop.

There were also rooms in which talks were being held, but as I wasn't interested in much of that I focused mainly on the exhibitor hall.

I didn't want autographs from anyone, which meant I didn't need to be there early. We got there at 2:30, doors opened at 3. Entering the Jacob Javits Center, you first see booths set up where you can pick up tickets. These lines moved quickly, and although I had to remind the woman behind the desk that I bought 2 tickets not 1, we got out of there pretty fast.

From there we proceeded to this huge hangar-like area where we all huddled in a huge line. It was hot, I was sweaty, and we were surrounded by these annoying guys, the kind that you probably find on XBOX Live calling everyone a fag while playing Halo 3. Ugh.

Anyway, the line moved quickly as well, and soon we were deep in the heart of geek central. There weren't many people dressed up -- more of them come on Saturday -- but there were a lot of teens dressed as anime characters. There was one guy dressed as Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan from the Star Wars prequels, and he was handsome enough with a real beard and longish hair that he really pulled it off. There was a very tall waifish Princess Leia, a great Indiana Jones and Henry Jones combo that had great costumes, and various other people dressed up to varying degrees of success. My thought? If you're even a little bit chunky, don't dress as Spider-man. This comes from a chunky gal.

Speaking of, if your self-esteem is low and you feel like the ugliest/fattest/whatever in the world, your thoughts on yourself can be vastly improved by visiting a con like this.

As is the case with many of these cons, there are some things that you just don't care about or are too damn crowded to deal with. Years ago I collected comic books (I still have them all), but they aren't my priority any more. There were many, many artists and publishers there, which meant a large portion of the floor held no interest for me. Of course I knew some of the more famous names, but my comic book days are past.

Also, there were booths of indie creators and indie publishers, their tables full of their comics/books, which were passed by. Unfortunately, rules of the con state that you can't sell bootlegged stuff, which as any sci-fi fan knows, is the cool shit. I would have to have seen some bootlegged imported TV shows, or fan-made stuff. That stuff I love.

There were the mainstream book publishers there as well, selling their sci-fi lines; Sony had a Playstation 3 booth set up and Microsoft had the XBOX 360 booth; there large booths promoting online gaming and online virtual worlds; manga and anime distributors had booths; a few toy companies were there (not enough for my taste); and a bunch of other booths had stuffed toys, posters, stuff like that.

My first stop was the Diamond Select Toys booth, where I picked up Battlestar Galactica action figures, one of Apollo and one of Chief Tyrol which was signed by Aaron Douglas. Yay.

After that we wandered around for a while. I visited this great T-shirt vendor, Pegasus Publishing, where I bought a BSG T-shirt. They have some great stuff -- check out the cool shirts, all fairly cheap.

Then I bought this fantastic Darth Vader T-shirt created in line-art, or pin-striping. I'm such a geek.

Then it was off to a lunch/dinner of a small chicken sandwich, small bag of chips, and 16 ounce water for $17 freaking 50. Good Lord.

By then it was around 6 p.m., so we wandered downstairs to where the IGN Theatre was holding the X-Files: I Want To Believe panel. The panel didn't start until 7:30, but the main reason I went to the Comic Con was for the XF2 panel.

At 6:15 we walked into the darkened theatre, which was playing a documentary on independent comic book creators.

After that there was a panel with legendary animator Ralph Bakshi. He can best be described as slightly, um, outspoken. There's a new book coming out about his life, and the two writers were there with him. One writer caller him "no bullshit." Okay. I waited patiently for this legend to get the hell off the stage.

The first four rows of the theatre were reserved for VIP ticket holders. That didn't matter to me, because I was in the fifth row center with no VIPs sitting in front of me! That was why I got the great shots I did.

Then they were holding a screening of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, but by then I was exhausted and it was time to go home.

I don't know how some of the attendees can go for the whole weekend. For me, you see a few things and you're good to go.

I didn't take any photos of the costumed attendees, but the rest of my XF photos can be found at my Photobucket account here.

Quick Comic Con photos

2008-04-19T05:24:37Z

I'm headed off to bed. The full report of my New York Comic Con experience will come when I'm more coherent, but for now, some shots of Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz during tonight's panel about X-Files: I Want To Believe. More tomorrow.

Blink of an eye

2008-04-17T18:40:16Z

Life is beautiful, and sometimes difficult, but always fleeting.

For most of us, finding a group of friends online is an added gift. "People just don't understand me" is my preferred way of explaining myself, except when I'm online. Here I'm embraced.

Thus, those who "get" me online are often more precious than anyone I meet in real life. I consider them friends, despite never having met most of them.

When I first entered online life, my mother wondered why I worried about the people online. They were just names to her, not people in front of a keyboard. It's a mysterious connection one can never explain to those that haven't experienced it. You write a story/post something/share a thought. In turn, someone, out there in the ether, reads it and responds. You then discover that you share many of the same interests, and just like that, you have a friend.

I've met many people because of my fan fiction. One of the sweetest and most kind-hearted of the bunch was vestafour, who passed away late yesterday/early this morning after a very long battle against cancer.

I first met her on RATales, our long-running Krycek message board at YahooGroups. When I made the jump to LJ, she would visit and leave comments on my fiction or posts. I admired her strength of spirit, because she had such a lust for life despite all her setbacks and hospital stays. She was only 53.

I never met her, but in her last response to one of my comments, she said something that sums up my feelings about online friendships.

Someday I want us all to find a reason to be in the same city. To meet everyone and just be able to talk real time for hours would be incredible. Many hugs!!!

Peace on your journey, L. You will be missed.

Teaser for April 22 SVU episode "Closet"

2008-04-16T03:06:45Z

Ah, a morning saunter

2008-04-15T13:01:35Z

With this stretch of pleasant weather we've been having here in the New York area (clear blue skies, 50s), I've walked to the office yesterday and today. It takes me exactly half an hour to get from 42nd Street down to 16th, walking along 9th Avenue. Walking along other routes gets me agitated because the sidewalks are so crowded. This is my preferred stretch of pavement.

Along with not tripping over my feet, there are two very important things to consider when walking in New York City. One, pay attention to the walk signals. People are in a hurry in the morning and have no problems running you down. And two, try not to step in anything.

With those two caveats in mind, I try to take in as much of my surroundings as possible. I'm never in a hurry because I get into the office at 8:30, an entire hour before my boss gets in.

I saw some interesting things this morning.

+ There was Nathan Lane grinning at me from a poster, which seemed to be advertising an upcoming movie or play or something. I was crossing the street when I saw it and couldn't stop. I thought of colleendetroit when I saw him, though.

+ An ad for the Gay Men's Health Crisis on the side of a phone booth, with an image of an African-American man kissing a Latino one, and the caption "I love you, boo." It's meant to draw attention to the large gay minority population that should come in for HIV tests.

+ A woman walking a rather large pit bull, where the dog was carrying her purse in its mouth. I'm not kidding. That's one way to discourage a mugger.

+ Finally, a mounted cop whose horse trotted all the way down 9th Avenue from about 25th Street. It was such a unique sight in Chelsea (as the mounteds tend to patrol the heavily trafficked touristy areas) that the cop was waving to kids going to school, and dogs -- most of which had never seen such another huge dog before (LOL) -- were barking and pulling on their leashes for a closer look.

When he stopped for a light I actually pulled out my camera (my handy dandy Sony Cybershot that hangs from a chain inside my messenger bag) for a picture, and also got a photo of a curious dog looking at the giant horse. ~~I'll try to upload those tonight as I don't have my Sony camera cable with me in work (I need to buy a second one for just this reason).~~ Uploaded!

Mounted cop on 9th Avenue

Hmm, I've never seen a dog that big before! The dog's owner is laughing in this shot. I like this shot so much I uploaded it to Flickr, in the hopes that Gothamist might use it.

And if that nice walk in this morning wasn't enough, my boss is working from home today. Whoo!

Start the week off feeling good!

2008-04-14T19:50:08Z

Reality TV? I don't care for it. BUT...this is what reality TV should be made of. I dare you not to cry when he sings. It's beautiful. This is 13-year-old Andrew Johnston from Carlisle on Britain's Got Talent. Now I'm going to have to follow him on YouTube.

PS...linked from Towleroad

That missing $9.98 from my checking account

2008-04-13T22:40:46Z

As I posted yesterday, my Visa check card was compromised and $9.98 was fraudulently removed from my account. I already canceled it, don't worry. callmerizzo linked to a site where people have been complaining of this same company taking money from them.

Thanks to the link and with a little research, I discovered that:

1. This has been happening to multiple people, with similar domains as the culprit -- funworkdesign.com, funwork-design.com, and other iterations of the same

2. I called the Arizona number that was provided with the charge, and an Eastern European-sounding recording came on saying that operators were busy and to e-mail a specific address. Yeah right. I don't want the scammers getting my e-mail addy too.

3. This scam is being perpetrated from Eastern Europe

and 4. A website that I purchased a T-shirt from about a year and a half ago, Ranger Joes, was hacked (among others). I'm thinking this is where they got my information. But these scams are really easy to perpetrate, it seems. There are complaints all over the net.

I already called the bank and listed it as a disputed charge, but what I did this evening was issue a chargeback and file it as fraud. This means the scammer will have to pay a fee to get this done. Ha ha, bitches! Try to pull one over on the mighty Rhyme, eh? Foolish mortals!

At least I know I'm not the only this has happened to, which makes me feel a little better. But when you think about it, the scammers already got my $9.98, along with probably hundreds of others. The bank is stuck with repaying that money, and the scammers get away scot free! It doesn't seem right somehow.

Someone has absconded with $9.98 from my checking account!

2008-04-12T23:19:35Z

If you don't already utilize online banking, consider this post as your impetus to do so.

I have a Visa check card that I use frequently. I never carry cash. When I do buy things online with my card, it's generally through PayPal for an eBay purchase. If it's not eBay, it's for items with a specific pricetag, like the $60 I charged for tickets to the New York Comic Con next weekend.

Now, if someone out there gets into your bank account, the rules are much different than with credit cards (at least here in the US). Banks only allow you 48 hours to dispute a charge on your account, whereas with Visa/credit cards, you have 30 days. This is why you should get into the practice of checking your bank accounts online frequently. I do, and on Thursday I discovered this strange charge on my account, made with my Visa check card:

I looked at the $9.98 and thought it was weird, because I didn't remember making it. The "WWW" told me it was made online, obviously, yet the only charges I had made recently weren't for that amount, and were through PayPal.

After double-checking PayPal, I knew something was fishy. Curious, I called the bank this afternoon, and asked for the full domain of the website, because as you can see from the image it's not provided. He told me it was for "funwork.com", which, if you were to plug it into your browser right now, would result in no such website.

Obviously my check card had been compromised.

Luckily, my checking account was not affected, just the card, and because it's through Visa, the 48-hour window didn't apply. I immediately canceled the check card, and the bank will issue me a new one within the next 5-7 days (with the new pin arriving 2-3 days after that). This, unfortunately, necessitates me borrowing money from my parents for the New York Comic Con next weekend, as the card won't arrive in time. No big deal.

If you haven't signed up for online banking, I would urge you to do so. Checking your balances by using a bank's automated telephone system isn't always up to date, whereas online banking gives you charges that are pending, along with other information. This goes for your credit card accounts as well. If you haven't signed up to manage your account online, you should.

I have no idea how this happened. It's becoming more common though. I like to read Consumerist.com, and they have documented similar occurrences this year.

I also have to sign an affidavit from the bank about this charge, stating that I didn't make it. I should expect that in the mail as well.

So kids, pay attention to your accounts and be vigilant! Hackers are everywhere.

This comes as a surprise to no one, I'm sure

2008-04-11T19:37:36Z

I was reading my video gaming blog this afternoon, Kotaku, and they linked to this interesting article from Wired magazine that discusses a poll about offensive things in video games.

A website called What They Play gives parents information about recent video games so they know what Dick and Jane are playing. Fair enough, as I'm sure parents are oh so busy with other things in life than paying attention to what their kids are doing on their $450 Playstation 3.

But I digress.

The site offered a poll which stated: "As a parent, which would you find most offensive in a video game?" The answers:

Man and woman having sex: 37%
Two men kissing 27%
A graphically severed human head 26%

This country is fucked up.

Oh those kids today

2008-04-11T18:39:16Z

I just ran out to the cheap Chinese place down the block for lunch. My requirements for a good Chinese place: 1) it's cheap, and 2) I've never gotten sick (knock wood).

Anyway, as I was sitting there waiting for my tofu and brown rice, three kids came in for their after-school dinner-ruining. They couldn't have been more than 10, and one of them was wearing a green Police T-shirt, as in the band. It had images of an early-80s Police incarnation, with the band members in shaggy hair.

Kid 1 to T-shirt wearer: Who's that guy? (he was pointing to Sting)

Kid 2: It's a band.

I really had to chuckle to myself, because I doubt the T-shirt wearer knew who they were either.

Press release about the new X-Files DVD set!!!

2008-04-10T19:37:07Z

With my new fancy design, you're going to have to click on the thumbnails below to read FOX's official announcement about the new X-Files DVD set which comes out July 8th in Region 1.

I cropped the stuff that wasn't pertinent -- it was just stuff telling us who Duchovny and Anderson are, blah blah. The important parts of the press release are right here.

Carter and Spotnitz are going to tell us in the DVD extras why they picked these episodes and how they relate to the movie, and I'd be really interested in those conversations. I can't seem to see a correlation between them all, except for the fact that overall they're all pretty good episodes.