Just got in to Seattle, and it’s just as I remember it, 67 degrees.

Alright Nico, I broke down and decided to give homemade bread a chance. You guys should invest in a KitchenAid standing mixer. It makes the whole process so much easier, and you can use it for so many other things.

Letting the dough rise, while I’m off to the gym and errands.

Nice to meet you. It’s time for us to get better acquainted. I’ll be out on the balcony grilling up some paneer kebabs, so feel to stop by. I look forward to your warm sun light.

Grill on.

Example of an idiomatic error:
_It’s hard to choose between so many appetizing desserts._

The same sentence, corrected:
_It’s so hard to choose among so many appetizing desserts._

I’m sitting here watching another great episode of Law & Order on TNT, when I’m introduced to TNT’s latest attempt to increase ad viewership. With the advent of Tivo and other DVRs, stations have been scrambling trying to figure out a way to stop people from skipping over commercials. TNT is trying to entice viewers to watch ads by tying them together in what they deemed a microseries.

Microseries is a story told during the commercial break of the primary show. Each segment runs about 1 minute, and is of course “synergized” with ads. Personally, I like this idea. Instead of trying to block users from skipping ads through technology and legislation, TNT is trying to draw users to ads by creating a compelling story littered with product placements through the microseries. I grant the density of these product placements, since I consider this just to be another commercial, and I’m hoping this will be successful.

Now I can’t speak to the quality of the microseries “Lucky Chance”, but it seems TNT went basic with the equation:

* Lots of actions
* Scantily clad women
* Fast cars and motorcycles
* Fiji Water – ok, this isn’t really part of the basic equation, but it’s pretty obvious Fiji has sponsored this segment

Now, back to Law & Order.

I miss the days of waking up early just to catch Sesame Street:

One book down, six more to go.

Alright, for those of you who didn’t catch the Calvin and Hobbes reference in my last post, I have Calvin and Hobbes on the mind. I’ll be digging through the archives of my library to find my collection…

no wait they called it a transcoder. Seems like the transcoder in my building broke a couple weeks ago and I haven’t been able to get HD quality for TNT or TBS since. Finally after three technicians came on site, and several phone with AT&T, they’ve pinpointed the problem. I should be swimming in HD goodness by tomorrow night.

Sometimes it’s more obvious than others, but you should always double check those pesky monthly bills you get (electricity, gas, cable, etc.). Since I have a horrible memory, I keep a document with a list of my monthly recurring bills with an expected amount. When that time of the month comes, I compare the bills in my inbox to my expected amounts. Sure if it’s been an extremely hot summer or frigid winter, my electricity or gas bill will be off, but within good measure.

Then today I got my bill from AT&T Home Entertainment, a.k.a Dish Network. Here’s the first red flag: when a service is provided through a third party, I guarantee your billing will be screwed up. Low and behold, I open my bill to find they had overcharged me by 900%! Now this is just your basic satellite setup, and it’s a set charge, so I should never see anything different from my expected amount. I come to find that they decided to charge me for everything but the kitchen sink. I call in to customer service and they are nice enough to clear all the charges, but that took another 30 minutes out of my day. Not bad for me, but I wonder if other people are willing to put in the effort.