Nick Postagulous
Monday, January 31, 2005
Teething
Nina has four teeth coming in. I need to just get a vat of tooth gel and dunk her in it every few minutes. And it seems that her grandmother, if Nina "misbehaves", thinks that Nina's request for tooth gel is her "trying to get attention." Uh, I tend to give lil' Neener the benefit of the doubt, and due to her age of only 19 months, if she indicates to me she wants tooth gel, I'll give it to her.
It was also pointed out that Nina immediately tells me that her teeth hurt when I pick her up in the afternoon. This info was presented as if it didn't have any meaning and she was just trying to get my attention. Well, no, since grandmother won't give her any tooth gel during the day, Nina's trying to get daddy to get rid of the pain. Her grandmother said that when Nina is upset and points to her teeth, the sign that she wants tooth gel when done to Alison or me, she just says, "Yes, those are your teeth" or "That's your mouth."
And for some reason, no one understood why this upset me a little on Saturday. Well, Alison did after a good 24 hrs.
My boss, who is decidedly new age, said that you can tell if your baby is teething because they have a red ring around their butthole. Well, yeah, I'll agree that statement is probably true in some cases, but not all. After some research, I found out that some kids get diarrhea due to teething. And, since most infants crap on themselves, and not in the toilet, this would make their bootyhole hurt and get oofy.
My kiddo, a rare exception, sure, doesn't actually crap herself. She uses the toilet. I'm also not sure she has had diarrhea during teething anyway. But, as I told him, I've never seen a red ring around her butt. He said that it'll be there if I look, as if it's some mystical ring that appears for no reason.
Hey, did you notice I'm ranting today? Cause I am.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Lookie:
Sandisk Gives Apple the Shuffle!
Also, after being sick, I'm really busy at work. Nina is going through a fussy stage, and Alison and I are thinking she's starting to boss us around too much. We're trying to limit her TV time, etc.
And though it's out of my normal music genres, Tool - Lateralus is a great album. I also like tracks 1, 3, and 10 off The Deftones's Around the Fur. Songs 3 and 10 are Mascara and MX respecively.
And the digital audio player is making me turn from an MP3 person into a WMA person, as 64-44 wmas sound good while 128-44 mp3s are the lowest I go. aka, I get about twice as much music with wmas.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Sick
Yep, I've been sick. Mostly muscle achey, dizzy, and almost pukey on a few occasions. I'm wondering if it was a virus that wasn't really interested in my resperatory track or what. But, I think I might have an ear infection, and I think those can do stuff, but this was mucho achey.
MP3 Player
My MP3 player came into my work while I was off. It's very tiny and sounds great. Insultingly great compared to my big headphones at home. Interestingly, the two things that people griped about at Amazon, that the sound faded in and that it didn't resume songs when turned off, are both options in the audio menu.
And I've got work backed up on me now.
Oh, but Gladius (playstation game) is really killer. Hee hee.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Grumble Grumble
From Amazon's page on the Sandisk DAP 256:
Create multiple custom playlists
From Sandisk's page on the Sandisk DAP 256:
Playlists are not supported on the DAP. You can use multiple folders to organize your music.
However, I can't help but notice in the manual for Musicmatch which comes with the thing, that you can arrange the order of files inside each directory. This is, however, different than having M3U type playlists so I could reference a certain song in both an album M3U and also a "mixtape" M3U.
Grumble grumble. Though I'm not cancelling my order or anything.
I Bought An(other) MP3 Player
See how tiny it is? This only holds 256 megs, but was only $64 with free shipping from Amazon. It has playlist capabilities, and that's what really matters to me the most as far as these thing so.
A month ago, buying this wouldn't make much sense. But lately, I've been listening to music while I fall asleep and I might get one of those little FM transmitters so I can play my own music on my van's stereo. But that is another issue altogether.
My first MP3 player was the Memorex one that plays micro-CDs. It's neat in concept, actually pretty cool. But no playlist support, rather big, and while burning a CD every once in a while for my car is no big deal, burning little CDs, which cost more than double what normal CDs cost, is kind of a pain.
This will alledgedly play for 14 hrs per AAA. So, I'll probably not make the jump to rechargables any time soon.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Pants Hat Recipe
1 18-month pair of long pants
3 balloons
Inflate two balloons so they are slightly larger than a baseball, but not quite the size of a softball. Inflate the other balloon so it will fill the torso part of the pants. Insert smaller balloons into the pant legs and put the torso balloon in the torso place. Put on head. Also works with babies.
Meanwhile...
Yes, Nina continues to get smarter.better.faster.stronger. She has degraded a little on the potty training, but only because she's smart enough to know the fluid capacity of her diapers. If her diaper is wet, and she needs to go, she'll let us know, because she knows if she pees in the diaper again she'll feel the wet some. Her most daredevilly moment lately was walking down a 45 degree (or more) incline. If you live here, it's the bridge at the kiddie play area in the food court of Madison Square. She walked down it. Spidermanish.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Laser Pistols
Yesterday, as I was driving into what all the media was saying was a horrific storm (and turned out to be nothing), one of the national news things was about people being fined for shining lasers at airplanes. I'm not sure, and I might be wrong, but are they actually talking about the little dorky lasers that kids and geeky adults (like me) have? I think, if we were to try to find the most powerful laser in the family, it might be Brad, my nephew, but also Tom and I have one. Though I'm a little disappointed in my beam scattering over distance. Not like I need a laser for anything besides playing with the cat anyway.
But it made me think of Baby Seth's older brother. Baby Seth is a baby that's Nina's age, and Seth's older brother had a laser pointer when I saw him when I picked up Nina from the Nursery. What was significant about this is what he was doing with the laser pointer. He was shining it, point blank, into his eye. Now, since he's maybe four, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's colossally ignorant, and not willingfully risking his eyesight in a bid for attention. And he didn't really get much attention besides me saying, "Hey, don't do that."
But it strikes me as odd that we'll let our kids have real lasers that'll damage other people's eyes, but then we don't let them play with toy guns. Yeah, I know it's a symbology thing. Toy guns symbolize real guns and real guns are made for shooting other people like native Americans/nazis/crime suspects/terrorists/innocent people. Or James Bond. Please, someone, just shoot James Bond.
The laser doesn't symbolize anything powerful or sinister. It's just light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Sure, Goldfinger, or was it Dr. No, used one against James Bond's genitals (with little effect) but it's still just a device that utilizes the natural oscillations of atoms or molecules between energy levels for generating coherent electromagnetic radiation usually in the ultraviolet, visible, or infrared regions of the spectrum. But you can still shine it in your friend's eye and make him blind in that eye when he's an old man.
But lasers don't blind people. People blind people. A kid could blind another kid by, say, accidentally scooping his eye out with a grapefruit spoon. The laser just makes it so that he could accidentally do it.
My Run-In With The Occult
So, they're putting in fiber optic along the boundary of the arsenal. I don't do the arsenal, but they called me about a locate in the small area where they won't be in the arsenal. Technically, they'll be in the botanical gardens, but really, it's in the woods. I got poked with briars.
But after I found a manhole buried by leaves, non-supernaturally, by hacking at the ground with a pick. Me and the more professional of the two droogs I met out there marked my line. Me with paint. He used little flags. And then, when we couldn't really determine where the line was (except for the burm, dur), this dude takes one of the little flags and bends himself a divining rod. Or as he called it, a witching stick.
And sure enough, his rod turned right where we already knew the line was. Imagine that. It's not like he wasn't holding it in his hand. He made me try it. It did nothing. Then, the less professional of the two droogs got back from his truck and he had two nicely made divining rods made of copper.
I sacrificed a goat and left. Freaks.
(Actually, they were very nice people.)
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Transcend
Most of my relatives believe that a person can either curl their tongue or they can't. That it's not a learned thing, but some innate part of your genetic structure. If you aren't a natural born tongue curler, you've just missed out. There is no way to transcend your non-tongue curling DNA/karma/fate. You will never curl your tongue, and this will, possibly on a yearly basis, at parties, be a small source of entertainment.
And really, in a world where Joan Rivers and her spawn mocking expensive and avant garde clothing LIVE is considered TV worthy, noting the sad existence of non-tongue curl invalids is pretty good stuff.
I on the other hand, believe that you can transcend your non-tongue curlyness. I might be wrong, but it's a triumph of the human will thing. I taught my left hand how to do that Live Long and Prosper thing. Though I'm still totally unable to do it with my right hand, making those sad fingers akimbo attempts (which are so much fun at parties), I can celebrate my ability to overcome and do Vulcan humor and also, while quite dated, Mork humor, with my left hand.
Not Transcend
However, I do think there are things you can't transcend. But I can't think of any.
Low Rider
In a dream last night, I dreamed of a car which had been lowered. It was literally floorboard on the ground. I wanted to take a picture, but, you know how it is with dreams. No camera.
Mirrors are to Vampires as Cameras are to..
I don't think I've ever had a camera in a dream. Maybe they're like vampires are with mirrors and cameras cannot appear in dreams. And I've always though that whole vampire crap was some really weak fantasy too. I mean, do they buy vampire clothes? Did the sheep that made their wool suit cannibalize other sheep?
Sloppy sci-fi, you gotta hate it.
And, in traffic, it would be really easy to spot vampires in the car behind you. I bet vampires would get sick of people turning around to see if there was anyone in that car behind them.
And garlic. That's stupid too.
And you know how they always pop up behind people and disappear in the movies? I'd like for once for someone to show it from the vampire's perspective as they sneak into the house (which, according to Buffy rules, can't happen, you have to invite them in. I think the Lost Boys was like that also.)
I'm really more about zombies anyway.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Ooh Ooh!
I never thought the Saturn Sky would come out so well. How can that thing be from the same company that makes Pontiacs?
I might have to switch the Miata for a more practical Daddy car in the future. Maybe a Saturn or something.
But is it Art?
I have a new entry in my But is it Art section of my pbase site. After already doing two composites of gals from my high school yearbook and then a quickie one, badly, of my three best friends at the time, I decided it was time to move on to something that wasn't the moiré dotted images of the yearbook.
But I didn't want to do mugshots. Generally, people in mugshots are criminal types, and when you do a composite, you generally get a very nice looking face. It's due to the anomalies which our brains interpret as unattractive being averaged out. Well, I thought about it, and almost did composites of realtors, but there was no subset of realty that was small enough to interest me. But there are plenty of mugshot type images of realtors online.
Then I thought of it. That image up there is the composite of 30 women who were not happy with their noses. They are the before picture from before/after sets for rhinoplasty. I put the black bar over their eyes since I don't know them.
I expected a pretty gal with a big nose, but the nose didn't even come out that big. Which leads me to think that if I do the composite of the after pictures, that the pretty gal might have a freakishly small and upturned pert little nose. I know that nearly every one of those gals did go for the Barbie dream pug nose.
And honestly, little bitty noses just plain suck. Give me a hottie with a good old Roman nose any day.
Speaking of Rome
Besides the various fun things we did over the weekend with Nina, which I will mention later once I offload pictures from the camera so I can link to them, I played my playstation game Gladius. Gladius is about gladiators. (duh)
Well, my gladiators aren't gladiators, their Vikings. I feel a deep kinship with the Viking people, as a person of mixed white-person-ness of unknown origin, because they are kick ass. However, I am not sure what north land they are actually from. Denmark? Did Vikings invent the cheese Danish?
Well, last night at 11 p.m. my Vikings finally got to Rome, or whatever you call the Roman Empire. (Roman Empire.) However, I would have to fight about 8 battles before I could save. Thanks, Lucasarts. So, I will have to fight the Big Bad Vikingland Classic again, since it would take less time to do that than fight the Roman battles.
I only wish I could have recruited more berserkers while in the north land. Well, I guess I can, as I have to do that over. But there are some cool recruits in Rome too. I picked up some lame looking male centurion, who just happens to be more powerful than my main guy I've had since the beginning. And the female secutors, very cool outfit. However, I need archers or javelin types.
And a yeti. They better let me recruit a yeti. Not that they fight worth anything, but they are so dang tall and cool looking.
A yeti in a pimp hat (not available in this game) would be teh 73Et!
Time to Drink more Coffee
And actually get to working. People are starting to show up.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Winter is Just Plain Lame
Sometimes in the summer I think, hey, it sure would be nice if it wasn't so hot. Well, forget that. I don't like winter. It's not the cold that gets to me so much, though it does, it's the lack of light and thus my near constant depressiony type state.
I don't like to say that I'm depressed. I think that I should be able to rise above such a thing, and generally I do. But I get this funky, distant feel. It's hard to really get motivated. Plus, it's just dang cold in the winter and I hate that.
Nina
One of the things I've been lacking in motivation in is Nina-ness. Granted, I have a great time with her when I get home and before Alison gets home. But usually, I'll flee upstairs once Alison gets home. Also, I just haven't taken many pictures of Nina lately. In the last week I've only taken four. Usually, I take about 700 or so pictures a week.
Well, really, I've taken about 420 pictures, since the first, when we went on the mountain, I took a little over 410ish.
Blah
But generally, I've been blah. I still haven't spent all of my money I got for Christmas. Now, depression or no, that's very atypical of me. But, what the heck am I going to buy. I've got video games stacked up that I don't have time to play. I have at least ten projects I want to start around the house but don't have time to do them. And besides, those housey projects have budjets that don't come out of my Christmas/biweekly passification money.
For the Price of a Good Used Car
There is an ad on the radio for Suzuki. The ad claims that you can pick up a new Suzuki for the price of a "good used car." Well, what about used Suzukis? Aren't they cheaper than the new ones? Are Suzuki not good cars?
As for cars, there are certain ones I like. Sedans, I like the looks of the Caddilac CTS and the Chrysler 300c. I don't know that I'd want to own one, but they look cool. For station wagons, I like the Mazda 3 and the Dodge Magnum. I'd own the 3 in a heartbeat, but I probably wouldn't want something the size of the Magnum unless I got very old, very quick, or perhaps had some Great Danes or something. For coupes, I like the Mitsubishi Eclipse (though neighbor Kurt says they ride squishy) and the Toyota Celica. Both, however, I must say look better without the spoiler. I'd probably, in my little dream world, get the decked out Celica, so I could get the ground effects kit, but then have the spoiler removed.
As far as roadsters, honestly, I think I like the first generation Miata best. Good think I own one, eh? But I wish I had time and more money to spend on the little thing. With more time/money, I'd have those shocks sitting in the garage already installed. I'll have a new top soon, mainly because the top now leaks not just on me, but on Nina, and Alison is fired up about me getting a new top. And I'd really like to put a few thousand into a supercharger for it. Maybe get it painted a Avacado mettalic. Go a one up on the wheels and keep super gummy, run out every other oil change tires.
And as far as smart cars that actually make sense, I like the Scion xA. The Mazda 3 makes sense too, but with my "build your own 3" car ending up being $23,000, I doubt I'll ever find that on the used market.
Oh, and Saturns. Yeah, boring but quite smart. Traction control is something I'd like to have.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Andersonville
Those who read me regularly know I have no love for the south. Those who have confederate flags on their trucks or either ignorant or monsters. They might claim that it does not mean racism to them, but if it does to the people they enslaved, then who is to say your victims are wrong? And even if it were true that there was no racism involved, you still are supporting a war against the United States.
But what I did not know until today, was about Andersonville Prison. Go ahead, read that. Here are some excerpts:
By January 1864 slaves from local farms were put to work on the prison...With no shelters built on the prison grounds, the prisoners made do with what they had, constructing tents, huts and lean-tos out of whatever materials they had with them or could find on the site...new prisoners kept coming, and by August Andersonville held nearly 33,000. Unofficially it was the Confederacy’s fifth largest city. It was so overcrowded, there were only 27 square feet per prisoner, a patch roughly 3 feet by 9 feet.
Salt, meat and sweet potatoes were eventually eliminated from the prisoners’ diets. The cornmeal allotment was decreased, and food wasn’t distributed every day. Some prisoners developed methods for catching the swallows that swooped low over the camp and would eat their quarry raw before anyone could take it away from them.
Mean-spirited guards would toss hunks of cornbread into the pen just to watch the prisoners scramble. Occasionally they would drop food into the forbidden zone beyond the dead line so they’d have someone to shoot at.
[A Confederate guard from the 26th Alabama regiment] heard a series of high-pitched, plaintive wails that carried over the din, and now there was no doubt in his mind that there was a child [born] down there. The silhouette in skirts swayed faster, bouncing the bundle on her shoulder. The guard didn’t like this development at all. He feared for their safety. A horrible thought passed through his mind—the emaciated prisoners falling upon this child for food.
I hate you, you damn confederate bastards. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. You'd kill your own so that you can keep human slaves. Evil, evil people. At least they're all dead, burning in hell forever. But ignorant ol' Bubba still wears his confederate flag hat. I sure hope he's ignorant.
But, at least the article had this to say about Alabamians:
As former prisoner of war Sam S. Boggs wrote in his memoir, Eighteen Months a Prisoner Under the Rebel Flag, A Condensed Pen-Picture of Belle Isle, Danville, Andersonville, Charleston, Florence, and Libby Prisons, “The Alabamans were intelligent and kind hearted… the Georgians were ignorant and brutal. The Alabamans would talk to us from their posts, while the Georgians were liable to shoot if we spoke to them.”
I, however, am a Texan.
Adventures
Yesterday, I left work early. Alison's mom had a doctor's appt and so she took Nina by Alison's work. I left from my work and picked Nina up. Since we were downtown anyway, we went by Big Spring Park. Nina really had fun. She happily screeched at the ducks. She happily screeched at the pidgeons. She happily screeched at the seagulls. She pointed at the fish and made octopus noises. We saw the little rooster that lives near the parking garage. A toddler boy tried to poke Nina in the eye. A good time was had by all.
Once back in the car, Nina told me that she needed to go to the bathroom. I decided the library would do. And let me warn anyone going to the main branch of the library here, the male bathroom stalls don't have doors. No biggie for me, really, as I was just letting Nina go. She didn't produce anything, but her diaper was soaked when we got there, so the few minutes it took to get there were probably too much.
What Have You Done With My Daughter?
All the fun was about to come to a screeching halt when we got home. Nina was very fussy. I knew she was short on food, but she didn't want to eat anything. I offered a bottle, bread, and tortilla. She took a piece of tortilla, but after just plain being gross with it, she handed it back to me.
I omit all fussing in the description of what happened, because there was 90% fussing by Nina and 10% everything else. Nina was like the Flash, or one of those people in the Matrix. She was able to fuss faster than time would allow. It was time for Baby Brainwash (aka Baby Beethoven). Nina watched that, mesmerized, and I read some of my book, Migraine. When that was over, she wanted a Blue's Clues.
But Blue's Clues is not enough to satisfy the fussy baby. She wanted to draw. She first let me know this by taking a pen out of my pocket and trying to draw on my book. Did you know she can click retractable pens now? She can.
I got her drawing pad and crayons and she drew on the table, smashed crayons with the box, threw crayons, smashed crayons with a plastic bin, and stabbed at my eyes with crayons. Well, not the stabbing, really. But the crayons were soon rescued from her wrath and much crying did ensue.
After she was done with that, I tried to keep her happy, but nothing I could do was good enough. Eventually, I told her that I wanted to go to the bathroom, which actually means she's going to the bathroom. If I ask her if she needs go to, she'll say no if she's in a fussy mood.
Once Nina was on the toilet, we heard the garage door open. Mommy was home. Nina started crying. Alison came in. Nina was happy to see her. Alison walked into the kitchen to put down her purse. Nina cried. Alison came back. I left and hid upstairs on the computer for the next hour. More on that later.
After a while, I played with Nina and Alison with balloons. Yesterday was the first day that I let Nina know that the air can come out of balloons. We did the balloon flying around thing, but she seemed to like the small hole expelling air in a fine stream better. We only popped one, and it didn't scare her. After the pop, I started using kitchen shears to make the cut into the balloon so air could come out.
Computer Problems
My download speed is 242 somethings and my upload speed is 22 somethings. The reason my internet seems so slow is because of that upload speed. My requests for web pages is too slow, or something. This explains why I can download entire albums (like the Danzig I'm listening to now) from AllofMP3 quickly and easily, but if I just try to check my email it craps out. I called Bellsouth and the 14 year old who functioned as my tech support said he would see what the deal is and call me today around 5:30 p.m. I don't know when he's really going to call, since he was unable to understand that I wasn't in the eastern time zone.
Please, bellsouth. No more teen tech support people. Please, transfer me to India where they'll actually know something about computers.
Another Composite
I have a few composite faces working now. One is of 33 fairly random girls from my high school year book. Actually, 32 of them were either friends or school co-worker types. I added one of the popular gals, kind of like almond extract, because of her excellent looks. I could always exclude her, as it doesn't seem that her addition really changes the influence of the 32. And while I have nearly all the nodes placed, I did so on the raw scans which had only been cropped. I need to overcome the moire dots of the printing on each image before I composite them.
Also, I'm actually making three for that one. I have a composite made of the first 16 and I'm nearly finished with a composite of the next 17. Then I'll merge those into one. However, it's amazing how similar the two composites looks so far.
Of interest is that I was able to drop all the non-girlfriends out of the first one and see a composite of four of the girlfriends I had in high school. Interestingly, they kind of looked like another gal I dated who wasn't included in the composite. I was curious if it composite would look something like Alison.
I need to do some composites with Alison in them.
Another neat thing was when I was moving from composite 1 to 2 and needed to take the nodes over. So I deleted all but one image from the project (it happened to be Christine Burgess) and added the first from the second project (which was Holly Crocker). You would not believe how unbelievably cute a hybrid Chris/Holly is. They both had great attitudes and it really shows in their facial features.
Now that I have my node configuration, and more importantly prepwork process, ironed out a little, I think will do a composite of some males, just so I don't do all females. And regardless of what Alison says, I'd like to do mug shot pictures too. Oh, and the cats too.
I am a geek.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Pbase and Bellsouth
Right now, Pbase, my image hosting service, is all wonky. Not only that, but Bellsouth, my DSL, is all crappity too. I'm actually wondering if I have a virus at home, as I've scanned for spyware and there wasn't any, but several of the programs I use warn me of their security holes when I start them (Firefox and Winamp 2.81).
So, there are no images of the weekend uploaded, which is a real shame, as we went on the mountain and took a lot of nice pics of the Neenster.
Going Through A Phase
Nina is going through a phase right now where she's super happy and nice. It's really great having her bubbling around the house constantly. That is, until she's hungry. She and I share the hungry = surly gene. Well, I say that, but for dinner last night I only had a glass of milk and I'm fine.
One thing that I don't tend to overemphisize is that Nina doesn't have any of the sleep hangups that everyone warned me about. Around 6:30, once Nina is borderline flopping about, and occasionally lying down on the ground, you can feed her a bottle, read Goodnight Moon to her (if she doesn't dive toward the crib first), and put her down and she'll go to sleep.
And if she doesn't go to sleep, she'll just babble a little bit, and then fall asleep. The only time we have trouble putting her down is if she's having too much fun. And really, that's the only reason she ever gets all worked up, if she stops having fun, or something hints that fun will stop. Or, yeah, "Gimme that [knife/bottle of Tylenol/saw]. No. Cry." That happens too.
What Nina Loves
TV and brushing teeth would have to top that list. Sure, she loves all the people who are part of her life. Heck, she even blows kisses at the cashiers at Target. But as far as activities, TV tops the list. Brushing Teeth is almost a tie for TV. Possibly more popular really, as you can get her to stop watching TV so she'll brush her teeth, but I'm not sure if you could abrupt the sequence of teethness to go watch TV.
Teeth Brushing Protocol
Pick up child and put her feet into Alison's sink so she's sitting on the countertop. Take kiddie toothbrush and put 3 atoms of toothpaste on it. Wet toothbrush in my sink and then brush Nina's teeth. After about 15 seconds of brushing, let her brush. It's then that I brush my teeth, because, hey, why not. After I spit my toothpaste into my sink, Nina will make hissing noises since she doesn't know how to spit. Plus, if she did, she'd be spitting on her own feet. I rinse my brush, tap it on the side of the sink to shake the water out some, and put it in the toothbrush cup. Then, I help Nina do the same with hers, but it's such a reach since she's sitting on the edge of the other sink. Then I pick her up and she wipes her mouth on a bath towel. Yeah, not the best thing, but it's a pattern that I have that I've passed on to her.
TV Watching Content
Nina doesn't just watch any old TV show. We have our replay TV get certain shows for her.
There are always two Booh-Bah episodes around. Whatever the last one that came on was, and a preserved episodes, Beards.
There are also two Play with Me Sesame, which is like a 30 minute version of Sesame Street. But unlike Sesame Street, it doesn't totally suck. In the new century, no one watches Sesame Street, and this has resulted in a loss of quality, mostly in lame pacing and the need for a distinct story line. There is no fun in the modern incarnation of the Sesame Street we loved as kids. But Play with Me Sesame is pretty cool.
There are always three episodes of Blue's Clues. But unlike Booh-Bah and Play with Me Sesame, we don't actually have the replay looking for episodes of it. We have the replay recording any show with has Steve Burns in it. So far, he's only on Blue's Clues, which is fine, but I look forward to the day that he shows up on some other show. He's in a band now. I still need to go see what his music sounds like. The Flaming Lips helped him out alot on his album. And the reason we don't just record Blue's Clues is that the new guy is plastic and wooden and lame. Patoo, I spit on his non-striped shirt.
And the entire world wouldn't be complete without The Wiggles. While I originally though they would be the bane of all existence, they are remarkable benign, and have catchy songs too. And, I must admit, in the Network Wiggles years (before Disney bought them) there are several recurring show segments that I like. Where's Jeff for example, where one of the Wiggles (or Captain Feathersword) asks questions to the host (another Wiggle) to determine where Jeff has fallen asleep (like in a rowboat, at the train station, library, etc.) And theme music for the segments are bordering on classic minimalist humor. Examples:
Music with Murray Theme
Myu-myu-music with Murray, Yes, Everyone!
Anthony's Workshop Theme
Anthony's Workshop, It's a Workshop with Anthony!
Although, really, it's not a workshop. It's an artist studio. The kids make clone crafts while Anthony looks and comments on. Though he does wear a tool belt.
Best.Wiggles.Evar = Rolling Down The Sand Hills. It's drek, but very well done drek.
