I can take or leave this review of I Hate My Teenage Daughter, but I found this intro to be awesome: “Parenting” is one of those words, like “veggie,” that worm their way into common parlance on the back of infectious social preoccupations. We are a nation obsessed with how to raise children and how to eat, perhaps because we’ve become so bad at both.

Jeff Toole, Texas A&M’s senior associate athletics director, in an online forum, called the university’s president a ‘putz‘ and a ‘hopelessly underqualified puppet.’ He had forgotten that he had told board members his identity in earlier conversations. The school’s athletics director is allegedly about to be fired. Something tells me Toole is not going to get his boss’ job.

5 Ways We Ruined the Occupy Wall Street Generation. I was wondering what such a generational broadside was doing on Cracked. But it’s actually a lot more than “Oh, how we’ve spoiled them…”

McDonald’s is brilliant. That is all.

The idiots at Microsoft have decided to do away with the one thing that would have had me purchasing a Windows 8 tablet. Seriously, I was looking at an Android tablet just the other day and saying to myself “No, no, wait for Microsoft’s because it will…” But no, it won’t.

I have only seen two episodes of the revamp of Two and a Half Men, but it doesn’t sound like I am missing much. In fact, it’s become a case-study in why revamps are so hard.

If there is one thing that will make people like Occupy Wall Street More, it’s bringing in a United Nations envoy to lecture America for being so mean to its people. Because Americans love our government(s) being told what to do by the UN.

A teen in Jacksonville missed a flight because of a gun design on her purse. I knew a guy in Deseret who claimed that his parole was revoked for a week because he wore a shirt with a gun design on it. Oddly enough, I believed him (if he were looking to lie, he could have said he failed a drug test because we both knew he continued to smoke pot).

You can now get paid for donating bone marrow. I understand all of the ideological arguments against paying for donors, but I’m just not sold on them.

Save our salt! The FDA lacks a solid scientific foundation to reduce salt intake, but they don’t seem to care. Canada, as ever, is more sensible on the subject.

I am watching and enjoying the show Revenge. However, I am a bit behind on it. I’d like to look up the filmography of some of the actors, but I don’t want to spoil anything and by knowing how many episodes they appear in, I’ll know something I shouldn’t. So if someone could copy and paste the filmography of the actors for these three characters on IMDB, I’d be really grateful. They all look familiar, but I can’t quite place them:

Daniel
Lydia
Frank

And this is important: Please remove any reference to the show Revenge.

Thanks!

A while back Knight asked me to do a write-up on the Republican presidential field in 2012. I still haven’t done a candidate-by-candidate evaluation (and don’t expect to), but I took my response to him on that post and turned it into an entire post over at the League:

It occurred to me the other day as I was leaving a comment elsewhere: if someone had written a TV show and the plot followed the current Republican primary, I would have some serious problems with it. Namely, I would pan the show as unrealistic. A joke. Liberal Hollywood’s parody of what the Republican Party is. Herman Cain? Who the hell acts like that. There is no way that a party would seriously give a serial-adulturing, ideologically muddled, lobbying-compromised former House Leader a shot at the nomination. Hollywood couldn’t devise a more repugnant figure as the potential head of a party that they want noting to do with. The comparisons between Rick Perry and Rob Ritchie have, of course, frequently been made. But in some sense, Ritchie would seem downright normal compared to a lot of the candidates. And though the connection hasn’t been made, I see some similarities between Mitt Romney and Bob Russell, the simply unpalatable (to many) candidate who doesn’t belong there but is there because he’s there and his biography doesn’t entirely discount his presence.

Of course, what would be missing from a TV plot is the “good guy” Republican. Which is to say, the Republican that demonstrates his commitment to morality and apple pie by spending his time criticizing other Republicans (as opposed to Matthew Santos, who demonstrates his commitment to morality and apple pie by being well to the left of Democratic Party candidates). Jon Huntsman comes close to this, but more recently has revealed himself to actually be pretty roundly conservative and the sense of “moderation” is more about temperament than policy. Also, whatever else might be said of him, he is not “leading man” material in the way that even Bob Dole was. Unless it was all a comedy. And, for that matter, maybe it is.

Since this is an overtly political post, I am turning off comments here. The original post has drawn a lot of comments, or if you want a place where it won’t be lost in a sea of comments, you can put your two cents in here.

Courtesy of my red-headed step-computer:

Issue

NTLDR is Missing.
Related errors

Below are the full error messages that may be seen when the computer is booting.

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart

Boot: Couldn’t find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart
Causes

Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.
Corrupt NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM file.
Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32.
New hard disk drive being added.
Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.
Failing to enable USB keyboard support in the BIOS.

When the computer started malfunctioning, I feared it would be something easy to fix. Which is an odd thing to think, when I have spent twenty hours or so over the last week or two trying to get the computer back up and running. I had to do a complete Format & Restore because under the previous installation, tasks that should take seconds were taking minutes. I had hoped, upon reinstallation of Windows, that the problem would come right back.

Because then I would be done. Done, done, done.

This computer has been a pain since I very first got it. It’s required more attention than all my other computers combined. It had shifted from my second machine to my fourth by the end of its fourth year, passed up by computers five years older than it that had the virtue of actually doing what it was supposed to do (albeit at a considerably slower pace). But it never gave me an excuse to just junk it. Like the slowest kid in the classroom, I simply gave it the most rudimentary assignments with high malfunction thresholds (so if it locked up or something, it wouldn’t be a big deal).

But now it’s dead. Dead, dead, dead.

I mean, I could go through all of the various things, test this and that, and isolate the precise problem. And I confess a little piece of me is tempted. Just to get it back up and running. But perhaps the greatest irony in all of this is that I was going to need to permanently sideline it anyway. I’m building a new computer. The computer to end all computers (until it’s obsolete, of course). And that made for five computers in a KVM switch with only four slots. Once I got Windows reinstalled, the plan was to just stick it in a closet, not touch it again, and hope that it gets demolished in the next move.

In retrospect, I realize that this is kind of irrational. Not the least of which because, by salvaging the parts that excludes the motherboard, I will be saving about $300 on the new computer. And taking the slightest step back, I realize that the motherboard-processor aren’t worth a fifth of that, which is what I would effectively be paying to keep this computer operational, unplugged, sitting in a closet and waiting to die.

Of course, the thought occurs to me that I am 95% sure that the problem is the motherboard. I think the processor is fine. If I were to just replace the motherboard, it would probably be as good as…

Therein my madness lies. Not this time, though.

If I were really sincere, I would be looking at the computers I got in 2001 and junking those rather than going to the trouble of replacing the fan on the one that needs that and the case on the one that needs that.

I’m not quite that sincere at this juncture.

I was at a tire place this morning. In the waiting room was a woman talking on the phone. She talked about all of the gossip going on around her (maybe the local) LDS church. She was actually quite witty and I cracked a smile at some of the things she said. This got a Look Of Death from her for listening in to her conversation.

Of course, I would rather not have been listening in to her conversation. I would rather have been watching TV on my phone, but I couldn’t hear it because she was talking. So instead I just got caught up on blog-reading. The only alternative was for me to go outside, where it was -5 degrees. It’s because of that I don’t blame her for not going outside to talk, which is what I would have done if I’d needed to have a phone conversation while waiting for winter tires to be put on my car. This, despite the fact that it is a pet peeve when people talk on the phone in places that are difficult to leave. I feel that way when I am driving and a passenger is talking on the cell phone. It not only means I have to listen to half of their conversation, but also that I can’t be listening to something that I would rather be listening to.

So I don’t blame her for talking inside, even in the waiting room. Except that (a) it did not seem to be a necessary conversation, and (b) when you have a conversation in such a place, your expectation of privacy is nill.

In a shocking development, banks are still finding ways to make money. I thought that a lot of the pushback against Bank of America’s ATM fees was rather misguided.

The Keystone XL pipeline became a symbol of everything environmentalists hate, and was killed. Canada will be sending their oil elsewhere. I suppose we’ll be getting ours by barge. Sounds safe to me. What can go wrong with oil on a boat?

A trio of women in Zimbabwe who raped 17 men in order to use their sperm in a ritual intended to bring good luck. I love how the article ends with: Are you outraged by what these women did?

In a bizarre couple of games, the Toledo Rockets lost to Illinois 63-60 while beating Western Michigan 66-63. The surprising part isn’t the scores, but that they came in two games that did not involve overtime.

The University of North Dakota is one step closer to no longer being the Fighting Sioux.

A former autism advocate (err, not an advocate for autism… YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!) switches sides on the vaccination issue.

If we think we have a problem getting the wealthy to pay their taxes, Greece has more Porches than taxpayers declaring an income of 50,000 euros or more.

I’m glad that the AT&T/T-Mobile measure appears to be failing, but of all the reasons for it to fail… jobs? That would be very low on my list.

This falls into the rare category of a news story that sounds so incredible that I don’t even know what to say. A six year old boy was charged with sexual assault for “playing doctor” with a five year old girl. Even granting that it was a rectal exam, WTF?

Almost half of a German city was evacuated so that they could diffuse a WW2-era bomb.

How not to understand Mitt Romney’s time as an LDS Bishop.

As Brad Plumer says, let’s hear this man out! Who does he think will win the Superbowl this year?

Sgt. Dakota Meyer is one of the more famous war heroes. He met with President Obama and became the only living Marine to get the Medal of Honor. The publicity helped land him a job with a rifle maker. That ended badly.

There are a few I haven’t seen yet, and I’ve only seen one or two episodes of a few shows, but so far, this fall season has stunk to high heaven as far as new comedies go. I’m not sure there are any that I am going to watch on a regular basis save one: Man Up. Which I will watch a handful more episodes of, because that’s all there are. It has, of course, been canceled.

Man Up is one of three Men in Crisis shows coming out, which the press has made a big deal of. I haven’t seen the other two. One has not only already been canceled, but has already gone off the air. But Man Up is, or was, a winner. Partially because it’s not the woe-is-manhood demonstration that it was cracked up to be. The first episode centers on masculinity as the main character, Will Keen, tries to deal with what to give his about-to-be-a-man son. But from there it’s a three-sided buddy comedy with Keen, Star Wars fanatic Kenny, and mildly effeminate Craig.

The fourth guy in the picture is Grant, who is the boyfriend of Kenny’s ex-wife. Grant is the Total Package, as far as men go. He’s muscular, intelligent, excessively friendly, and both masculine and sensitive at the same time. He is sort of the metric that Keen, Kenny, and Craig find themselves trying and failing to match up against. I was afraid that Grant was going to be a one-off character, but it looks like he’s around for the long haul. He reminds me of some of the people I’ve known where you kind of stand around and try to figure out a reason that they’re not better than you, and all you can come up with is that they are irritating in their perfection. And that sort of suffices.

Keen’s relationship with his wife is partly – but only partly – the typical responsible-wife-helping-husband-along that you see in sitcoms. But Will Keen is competent enough, and Theresa Keen good enough, that I don’t find it particularly grating. Rather than simply rolling her eyes at her husband, works with him and tries to understand where he’s coming from. It’s a bonus that TK is played by Teri Polo, who is always pleasant to watch.

Kenny is a bit more stereotype than person and I would expect that over time that would be worked upon. His ex-wife is the second main-stay female. There is an interesting dynamic between the two of them where they were playground sweethearts and fell in love before either of them realized that she was way out of his league (landing her with Grant, who ought to be way out of hers). Bridgette is the “slutty friend” (to Theresa) and also needs to be worked on, character-wise. Craig is something of a non-entity thus far, mainly rounding out the set.

But thus far, the show has been funny without being excessively predictable. And though it rely on awkward moments, it has yet to get painful to watch as other laughtrackless comedies sometimes get. So it’s a show to keep an eye on, which is more than I can say for the other shows. Which, of course, means it has already being canceled.

My complaints about the other shows:

Whitney – The title character is irritating as hell. I like the boyfriend okay, though the reviews say he’s irritating as well and I’ve only seen the first episode. Excessive laughtrack, also.

Up All Night – I didn’t warm to either of the characters. I didn’t find it funny. It’s slow. Also, a show where the main character(s) are in the TV biz has a strike against it.

New Girl – Yes, Zoey Daschanel is quirky cute. I don’t know how worthwhile it is to build an entire show around that premise, though, and the supporting cast is roundly obnoxious.

2 Broke Girls – Spoiled Rich Girl meets Streetwise Poor Girl. Except the rich girl isn’t rich anymore. And they’re not girls, they’re cardboard stereotypes.

Okay, so I’ve only seen four new shows. But that’s a pretty low average, and these are the ones I thought I might like.

Web’s post the other day reminded me of one of life’s little irritations. To pull down the curtain of fictionalization for a second, one of my previous employers was involved in the photo-imaging industry. You know those kiosks where you get digital film developed? Those. Also, behind-the-counter stuff. Said employer is a relatively major player in the industry, but you have almost certainly never heard of them. Why? Because they house brand everything. If you go to Walgreens and use our product, everything will say Walgreens. Same with CVS. The former #1 player in the industry used their own well-known brand name, but #2 and #3 (who may be #1 and #2 now), one of which I worked for, don’t. Nor does anyone else I am aware of.

As a general rule, I like to patronize former employers. When I can, I get my hair cut at the chain where I used to sweep hair when I was a teenager. Some of it is simple loyalty (a couple employers I feel no such loyalty to, though – nor do I refer to them as “our”). In this case, though, it’s because I know the product back and forth. I know what it can do and I know what it cannot do as well. And it’s a product that I generally believe to be a good one. Maybe one of our (errr, their) competitors is better. But I know what I am getting when I use the product that I tested for the better part of two years.

Except that I never know if that’s what I am using. There is nowhere I can find out if that’s what they’re using. I ask the guy behind the counter and he looks at me like I am an alien. “It says CVS. It’s a CVS scanner.” Well no, it’s not. It’s a conglomeration of products that you purchased for other people. When I print something out on my printer at home, I don’t say it’s a Trumwill Printer. It’s a Canon or a Samsung (depending on which I use).

I get, of course, that they want people to believe it’s theirs. And most of the time I believe it to be harmless when companies did this. My former employer made more money on sales where this occurred, and I liked things that made my former employer more solvent. But for my particular needs, it’s kind of irritating.