I’ve been watching a friend’s TiVoed recordings of Cold Case, and I have to say that I am very impressed with this show! I know that it’s going on into its Fourth Season already, but I never gave it a chance until just the other day. I’ve now watched about 10 episodes over the course of three days and I can tell that this is going to become one of my new favorites.

Cold Case centers on a special unit of the Philadelphia PD’s homicide squad. Detective Lilly Rush, played by Kathryn Morris, (apparently the first and only female in the homicide division) and her partner Scotty Valens (Danny Pino) investigate “cold cases,” ones that have remained unsolved over the years. Also on the team are detectives Nick Vera and Will Jeffries, along with Lt. John Stillman.

This show is cool for several reasons. First, they make extensive use of music to help set the scene. For example, if a murder took place in 1985, they’d use music that was popular at that time during all the flashback scenes. Second, I like the way the show uses two different actors for each of the major characters involved in the murder of the week. That gives more of an authentic aging effect than makeup could ever do. And finally, I just like the actors that are involved with this show. Kathryn Morris in particular is very good as Lilly Rush, and I simply enjoy watching her work.

If you’re looking for a great TV show to get behind, then I suggest you take a look at Cold Case.

I rented Syriana last night based on all the rave reviews it has gotten (plus I wanted to see George Clooney’s Oscar-winning performance). Well, I’m not too proud to admit that I had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on for most of the plot. It wasn’t clear to me what the characters were doing or why. I couldn’t tell who wanted what or what their motivations were. As a result, the film was thoroughly unenjoyable and I couldn’t wait for it to end. Plus, I didn’t care enough about it to even watch the extra features to see if anything could be explained that way.

I’ve gotta say that I absolutely hate movies like this. Look, I’m not saying that I need every plot detail to be spoon-fed to me, but what’s the freaking point of making everything so obscure and complicated? I mean, what kind of audience was this movie supposed to appeal to? I watch a wide variety of films and am able to enjoy everything from slapstick comedy to more cerebral fare. But seriously, I just don’t get what the hell everyone is raving about with Syriana. Do people automatically think something’s good just because they don’t understand it? Several professional critics, including Roger Ebert, admitted to not understanding the movie, yet gave it high ratings anyway!! What’s that all about? Here’s a quote from Ebert’s review:

The movie’s plot is so complex we’re not really supposed to follow it, we’re supposed to be surrounded by it. Since none of the characters understand the whole picture, why should we?

Um, yeah, okay Roger. Whatever you say.

I thought the movie flat-out sucked despite the strong acting performances by both Clooney and Matt Damon. So my recommendation is don’t waste your time on this money unless you’re really, really, really interested in oil and Middle Eastern politics!

I read a lot of lengthy texts on my computer (including books), so I was happy to come across this site called PDF Online. They provide a free service by which you can convert a lot of different document types into PDFs that are then readable with Adobe Acrobat. According to the front page, PDF Online supports .doc, .rtf, .ppt, .pps, .xls, .pub, .mht, and .txt files. In addition, you can even include images (.jpg, .bmp, .gif, etc.)in your document and those will be converted to. All you do is upload the file, create a name for the output file, and enter your email address. A few minutes later, the PDF file will be in your Inbox ready to use.

I’ve taken advantage of PDF Online numerous times now and am very happy with the results. Now whenever I have a plain text file, like from Project Gutenberg or something, I can convert it to PDF, thereby making it much easier to read. I’ve also used PDF Online for a newsletter and a couple of school projects. Everything has come out perfectly.

I usually read books that are in the public domain, so I’ve really gotten a lot of use out of Project Gutenberg over the years. Another site that I appreciate is ClassicReader.com. This site also focuses on books that belong to the public domain, but does so in a slightly different way. Instead of downloading text files of the novel, users simply read directly from the ClassicReader.com site. I don’t really have any book reader software that I’m attached to, so I like the fact that ClassicReader is easy on my eyes and also easy to navigate.

The site is completely free to use, but recently the owner has started including annoying popup ads. I guess that’s his prerogative since he offers a free service, but of course I was disappointed. At least the ads only appear the first time you click on a title and not with every chapter or anything like that; but it is still somewhat irksome.

On a slightly different but somewhat related note, I am thinking about buying a PDA in order to read e-books (among other things). So a purchase like that might end up limiting the need to visit ClassicReader.com in the future.

I met a couple friends for lunch at Outback Steakhouse today and we got into a pretty interesting discussion about music. You know how there’s that one band, song, or artist that you just can’t stand, yet everyone else seems to love them? Well, mine is U2.

I have never owned a U2 CD in my life and can’t for the life of me figure out why they are so popular all over the world! I hate, hate, hate their music! There’s no specific reason for it; it’s just a matter of taste I guess. Out of all the songs that they’ve ever released and that have made it all the way to No. 1 on music charts in various countries, there’s only one that I like. I think With or Without You is a great song, and totally give them credit for that. But everything else… no. I immediately change the station when I hear a U2 song come on and I wouldn’t go to a concert if someone gave me free front row seats.

I do know that the lead singer’s name is Bono, but I have no idea what he looks like and wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup. Actually, that’s gonna change in about two seconds because I’m going to find a picture of him for this post.

Anyway, I know most of the world loves U2, but that was the point of our conversation at lunch.

I clearly remember when the news of Jon-Benet Ramsey’s murder first broke back in 1996. It sounded like a horrific crime and there was simply no getting away from the near-constant media coverage. Tabloids like the National Enquirer and Star Magazine made it sound like the parents were directly involved with the crime. The speculation at the time was that either the father killed Jon-Benet himself, or the mother did it after catching her husband engaged in some unspeakable sex act with the little girl. (Photo from CNN.com)

Everything about the case was smarmy and disgusting.

Police detectives didn’t get very far with their investigation (funny how things never work out with CSI-like efficiency in real life), and no formal murder charges were ever filed against anyone. The parents maintained their innocence and the case eventually faded out of the news cycle.

But now there’s some totally freaky looking guy named John Mark Karr that has come out and confessed to killing Jon-Benet. This guy was picked up in Thailand where he’s apparently been teaching English to grade school kids. (Don’t I know what kind of losers that “profession” attracts!) Anyway, I’ve been reading the reports and watching video clips of that news conference, and there’s definitely something wrong with the dude. Is he a murderer? Is he the murderer? Obviously that can be cleared up pretty quickly with a DNA test.

But from what I can gather out of all these news reports, the general feeling is that this guy is probably just a nutjob.

I bought a new vacuum cleaner today. My old one seemed like it was ready to give out at any minute and just wasn’t picking up very much dirt and dust anymore. I decided to go with a Dyson, one of the most expensive brands out there, because it’s also one of the best.

Because of the high price tag (I spent over $450 on my new vacuum), I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews before actually making the purchase. There were a couple of things that I was definitely looking for in a new vacuum. First, it had to be very powerful. With pets and kids in the house, I have to vacuum every single day — there’s just no way around that. So I wanted a product that would do the job right. Second, I didn’t want to have to mess around with filters. I hate having to buy accessories for my vacuum because I inevitably run out right when I need it most. I can’t tell you how many times my old vacuum crapped out due to an overloaded filter just before company came! And third, the vacuum had to be durable. I wanted something that would last several years, and I didn’t mind paying for it.

The Dyson DC14 model met these requirements and had some pretty good reviews from consumers. I tried it out at the store and was amazed at how powerful it felt and sounded. I did a demo on that little strip of carpet that the stores put out there and I was sold! I knew that was the vacuum for me.

Once I got it home, I couldn’t wait to try it. Sure enough, it worked like a charm. I only had to make one pass over the carpeting in the living room and dining room in order to pick up all the visible pet hair and dirt. I was disgusted by the amount of debris left in the canister once I finished cleaning — that just confirmed the fact that I need to vacuum every day!

Anyway, if you’re looking for a great vacuum cleaner, I suggest going with a Dyson. This thing really is as good as everyone says!

I was going through some old picture files on my computer today when I came across two snapshots of “Engrish” shirts from Japan. I used to try to take pictures of all the crazy, nonsensical slogans that I saw on clothing over there, and I got some really funny ones from time to time. These aren’t exactly hilarious, but they do make me chuckle.

Anyway, the first one is a boy’s sweatshirt and it says, “Bear Bull Bomber: It is the ally of justice although it is an impudent boy. An inside is weak although appearance is bold.”

This one came from the women’s department and says, “When hanging to dream magic It becomes the happiness. Please introduce again and give wonderful time to me by chance.”

The sad thing is, I actually have a pretty good idea of what these are trying to say!

When I was in high school, I had a fantastic teacher for all four years. She was the nicest teacher that I had ever had, and was really a strong female influence for me at a time when I badly needed it. I liked her a lot even back then and knew she was my favorite teacher. And yet, for some reason, I acted like a complete idiot in her classes.

I mean, I got good grades and all (in fact, I was the best student in the class all four years — by a wide, wide margin — because I tried so hard) but I was very obnoxiouos the whole time. For example, I had a good friend in the class and we kept up a near-constant chatter at the back of the room. We never paid attention to what was going on in class and just made fun of the other students in there. Looking back now, I’m pretty much horrified at how I behaved. Yes, I was young, but by the time I left there I was 18, which was certainly old enough to know better.

My teacher never disciplined me or anything so I don’t know how she felt about my behavior. It’s obvious to me now that I just wanted the extra attention, but I don’t know if she could see that at the time.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to write a thank you letter to this teacher for a long time now. And by long time, I mean this has been in the works for two years! Why is it taking so long? Because I’m not quite sure how to express myself. It’s one of those cases where I have so much to say that I don’t know where to start and so end up saying nothing. I’ve gone through several drafts and haven’t come up with anything that I really like. I even sent a draft to a good friend for a critique and she didn’t like it either, so I know I’m not just being too hard on myself.

It’s funny how I can write several thousands of meaningless words per day for pay but can’t come up with a simple thank you letter. It’s the heartfelt stuff that’s always the hardest to articulate…

But I’ll keep plodding along. Because she deserves my gratitude.

I recently finished listening to the Shogun audiobook, which seemed like it took forever. Now, I’m right back into another long one with Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Usually I love Dickens, but so far I’m not that interested in this novel. It would probably be far less painless to read it instead of listen to it (I’m sure it would be a hell of a lot faster too), but I just don’t have the time right now. I always have one book that I read and one book that I listen to on my iPod when I’m exercising, driving, taking the train, etc.

Anyway, since my Audible subscription ran out, I’m pretty much limited to audiobooks that I can check out at the public library. This was one of the titles that I hadn’t read yet, so I figured what the heck?

Anyway, as I said, the story is horribly boring so far, and I can’t tell whether this is so because of the plot itself or because of the reader. I tend to think it’s the former. I have no idea why any book needs to be this long!!! No wonder people speculate (though wrongly) that Dickens got paid by the word….

I just put the finishing touches on a 20-page term paper for one of my college classes. Since I’m a writer by trade, I’m sure I’ll get a good grade on the paper, so I’m not worried about that at all. But I just feel like the whole thing was a big waste of time. I spent three weeks writing it (I forced myself to do at least one page per day) and can honestly say that I didn’t learn very much about the topic at all.

The assignment was to interview a marketing professional and analyze his or her organization’s marketing plan. The person I interviewed was terrible. I spoke to her on three separate occasions, and even though I gave her a list of the questions I was going to ask well in advance of the actual interview, she wasn’t prepared for any of them. She didn’t give me the answers I needed, nor did she follow up with any hard data to support what she was saying. I guess I can’t really blame her. The last thing I would want to do at my job is take on extra work by giving some college student an interview.

At any rate, I was able to work around her lack of answers and just generate 20 pages of other stuff. I know I’m going to take a points hit because of the lack of analysis, but I don’t care. Like I said above, I’m sure I’m going to get a good grade. It just won’t be a perfect grade.

Oh, well. At least that’s over with. One more college class down and only one left to go!

I know that a bit of spam is an unavoidable fact of free email accounts, but it still bugs me. I go out of my way to protect my “real” email address: I never publish it on the Internet, I never participate in chain letters or forward jokes, and I never use it to sign up for newsgroups or whatever. Like most people, I have several different email accounts. I keep one for personal correspondence with friends and family, and then use my other ones to register for sites and things like that. Plus, I even PAY (yes, PAY) for my regular Yahoo account so that I can get POP access and use Mozilla Thunderbird for my email tasks.

This premium Yahoo account I have is supposed to be even better at blocking spam than the free accounts, and I have to admit that it was — at least in the beginning. But in the last few months, I’ve noticed an alarming trend. I’ve been getting more and more junk mail (caught by the spam filter). I used to get maybe one junk mail per week; now I’m getting closer to five. That in and of itself wouldn’t bother me since Thunderbird doesn’t actually download anything from the Bulk folder to my comptuer. But I’ve noticed that maybe once or twice a month, some spam slips through the filters and makes it to my Inbox.

Hey, I realize I’m not talking about an overwhelming amount of spam here and that I should probably be grateful that I still have some semblance of sanity with this particular account (one Yahoo account that I’ve had for 7 years gets nearly 200 junk messages per week). But I’m just worried that this is only the beginning and that soon even my premium email account will be overrun with spam. There’s nothing worse than waiting for an important message, seeing the notifier pop up, and then checking the account to find out it’s just another offer for cheap Viagra!

I’ve never really been a crossword puzzle addict or anything. In fact, I usually never make it through the ones in the newspaper because they’re too hard. That in turn makes them no fun, so I just end up not doing them.

But recently I’ve been doing the Daily Crossword over at Dictionary.com. The puzzle is free and has two different skill levels. I always choose the easy one and can usually get through the whole thing in about 15-20 minutes.

On the easy skill level, incorrect letter choices come up as red, so you know right away if you’ve made a mistake. This is great because then I don’t get too far into the puzzle before realizing that I messed up somewhere along the line.

The only problem with this crossword puzzle is that there’s only one per day. Usually that’s all I have time for anyway, but occasionally I do have some extra free time and feel like doing a couple of puzzles in a row. I’ve tried other puzzle sites, but don’t like the different interfaces as much as I like the one at Dictionary.com. So for now, that’s going to have to be the only one I do!

(Photo credit: First crossword puzzle (from http://www.crosswordtournament.com/more/wynne.html).

If anyone has a crossword puzzle site recommendation, I’d love to hear about it!

I watch a lot of TV shows, but really haven’t found a good comedy to replace Friends when it went off the air a couple years ago. I’ve tried watching How I Met Your Mother, and although I like it, it’s not something that I make it a point to TiVo. In other words, I can take it or leave it.

I’ve also been watching Entourage on HBO. Entourage is pretty good and I absolutely love Jeremy Piven’s character, but it has a very short season (like most HBO offerings). I’m looking for something to watch during the regular fall season.

Anyway, a friend of mine gave me the Season One DVDs of The Office. I’ve heard a little bit about this show, but never bothered watching it because the previews and promos didn’t seem all that funny. But the show has been generating a lot of buzz this year (Emmy nominations, etc.) so I figured I’d give it a try.

Well, I watched the first episode and thought it was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I mean Steve Carrell was completely annoying. Yes, I realize that his character is supposed to be annoying, but he wasn’t funny at all. I admit that I laughed a couple of times (like whent the one guy kept putting office supplies inside Jell-O), but overall, I thought it was pretty boring. I’ll probably continue watching the rest of the DVDs just to see if it gets better (and just because I have them) but I’m not holding out much hope .