For those who love The Muppets’ Christmas:

And for those who liked the above clip:

First up, this very thrilling video of my new cat Starbuck playing with a ball while Mulder watches her. Or more like I’m playing with the ball and the cats are humoring me. Riveting stuff, I promise.

Oh my. -15°F, Fair?
It’s like
Hoth
out there.
Cold, ice, freezing desolation.
You may have to climb inside a tauntaun for warmth.

-15!? Double digits below zero mean I may not leave the house today despite the fact I had plans for a movie.

Unrelated to my computer process that has gone quite swimmingly, I’ve been attempting to re-watch the fifth season of LOST in preparation for the final season that starts at the beginning of February. I have all five seasons of LOST on Blu-Ray discs. This is my first purchase of a TV show on Blu-Ray. Except for that re-buy of ‘Firefly’, but that’s a different story. These LOST discs are supposed to have this cool function called ‘Season Play’ that will keep track of wherever you are in the series, episode-wise, and will restart you wherever you left off even if you had removed the Blu-Ray disc and watched something else along the way. That’s what it’s supposed to do, but mine never has worked right. But the discs will play the episodes just fine and all my other Blu-Ray discs have worked just fine as well.

While was organizing files on my computer and waiting for drives to copy and such, I decided to search and see if there was a solution to the problem I was having with the LOST discs. It appears that people with Samsung Blu-Ray players (which I have) can have problems depending on what model and what firmware they have going. Of course, I can’t for the life of me find my manual for my player so I can look at what model I have. (And I’m not going out to my storage closet to look at the empty box in this weather… at least not yet.) But I am reading how some people are having really bad problems with their players, to the point where they won’t play any Blu-Ray discs at all anymore. I use mine much more for regular DVD’s and the built-in Netflix Streaming functionality, which I’ve had no problems with. But a player not playing the discs it was made for seemed way odd.

I decided I would investigate this more tomorrow and for now, after watching Ohio State pull out a victory for the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl, would just watch some more LOST. Apparently my player has been watching what I read online (it is network-enabled) and now won’t play the exact same disc of LOST I was watching earlier, nor will it play any of my Blu-Ray discs. Awesome.

So now I have to figure out what model it is and where my info is about it and see what I can finagle to try and fix it. BLEH.

Update: Figured out that I have a Samsung BD-2550 player and was able to reset the player (held down the >>| key for 5 seconds) and it is now reading the LOST disc again. As for fixing the ‘Season Play’ issue, that’s for tomorrow, or another day.

http://jhnmyr.tumblr.com/post/308807536/the-one-week-digital-cleanse

It’s a short post from John, just read it, but to sum up:

Guidelines:

*email only from laptop or desktop computers

*cell phones can only be used to make calls, and no text messages or e-mails are allowed – if you receive a text, you must reply in voice over the phone. E-mails must be returned from a laptop or desktop computer.

*no use of Twitter or any other social networking site – this includes reading as well as posting.

*no visiting of any entertainment or gossip sites. (No need to detail which ones – you know what they are.)

He’s got his own reasons for doing it, but I’m trying it because I realize I am completely addicted to my iPhone/Twitter/Facebook, etc. My brain just thinks in 140 character phrases these days. I’m not dropping off the planet, feel free to email, or *gasp* call me if you want to interface and share thoughts. I’ll also still hang out on IM because I need that for work… yeah, that’s right.

This may also help me get back to blogging.

Though if I was to twitter right now it would be these thoughts:

I hate Ohio State. I hate that they are playing in our Rose Bowl (and serious *eyeroll* to anyone who says the Orange Bowl is better. It’s not.).
Also, Oregon? Those are not marching band uniforms. Those are warm up outfits for a dance team.

I’d rather be home enjoying this view:

That is Starbuck under my desk reveling in the warmth from the kitty heating pad.

I had a fantastic weekend in Chicago seeing both U2 shows this weekend at Soldier Field. The show had a scope I can barely describe, photos won’t do justice, and I can’t imagine I’ll ever see something like that again. At least not until U2 comes up with the next big thing.

An Iowa victory added to the awesomeness of it all.

I do have more pictures and video to share, but right now, I must tend to my blistered feet and get some sleep before returning to the real world tomorrow.

I haven’t been sick since then. So of course, with a couple days before I’m going to Chicago for three days for two U2 concerts with Donor and BC, I woke up yesterday with a terribly sore throat and sinus pressure and some other unpleasantness caused by the drippings in my throat. (EW)

I felt even worse this morning, so I hauled myself to the UI QuickCare when they opened at 8am, determined to stave off another round with a sinus infection. The good news is that it is still in the viral stage, hasn’t gotten all bacterial and moved in like it did last time when I let it linger (because I thought it was just a cold and no one would give me anything for it anyway). The Physicians Assistant that saw me didn’t prescribe any drugs, but told me to get a Neti-Pot and use that twice a day. (Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be) Along with that, keep taking my 600mg of ibuprofen three times a day (which was prescribed last week by my regular doctor for my torn calf muscle) and add into that Sudafed (the real stuff you have to sign for) and Tylenol a couple times a day. Plus as much liquids as I can pour into myself. Finally he told me to go home and sleep all day.

So that’s what’s up with me. And now I’m going to go curl up on the couch and hope I’m a less sick person tomorrow.