April 2009 Archives
I know this journal has essentially become an American Idol blog. I didn't intend for it to become one, at least not exclusively, so I apologize for the lack of non-American Idol related content. I have plenty to write about -- a new car, a baseball game, a weekend in Henry Coe State Park, and developments in my life, but I've handed over too much control to my inner-perfectionist , who wants to hold onto every idea and story until I've come up with the funniest and most creative way to share it. This week, I hope to take back the reins and set some of the ideas and stories free. But before I do, tonight is another episode of American Idol (in roughly fifteen minutes). So, stay tuned, another hour of off-the-cuff writing about other people singing is on its way.
With last week's surprising save, this week is a rematch between the remaining seven contestants. Unlike last week, though, two will be going home tomorrow night (thank goodness). The excitement begins in just over an hour. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to grab some grab before the show.
At lunch, I visited the Digital Bookmobile, which was parked in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in downtown San Jose.
According to its site, the bookmobile is "a community outreach vehicle for public libraries to promote downloadable eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video". It was equipped with laptops, computers, and various mobile devices to give the public a taste of the digital experience. There were also a few helpful guides on hand to answer technical questions.
I decided to check it out because while I regularly use the library to borrow hard and soft cover books, I haven't taken advantage of their digital collection. I thought a visit to the bookmobile might inspire me to start (and it did).
If you're a member of the San Jose Library, you should definitely wander through the library's virtual aisles. If you are a member of the Santa Clara County Library, they have a digital library, too. I don't know how their collections compare, but both are worth exploring.
In the coming days and weeks, the bookmobile will be visiting northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Take a look at the schedule and keep an eye out for a sky blue big rig with laptops in your neck of the woods.
For locals, if you missed it today, don't worry, the bookmobile will be in the area for another two days. Tomorrow, it's at the Saratoga Library, and on Saturday, it's at the Morgan Hill Library (just down the street from me).
I don't know if I'll get this posted in time, but if I type faster, I just may. Here we go...
Early Thursday morning, vandals (or saboteurs, depending on which news source you read) managed to slip down four manholes (two in San Jose and two in San Carlos) and clip critical fiber optic cables belonging to AT&T, disrupting phone, internet, and cell service to Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy, parts of south San Jose, and areas of Monterey and San Benito counties. We were one of the lucky thousands affected by the outage.
I noticed something was wrong shortly after I woke up, a few minutes before six. As part of my morning routine, I check email while brewing coffee. On Thursday, instead of checking email, I was checking our internet connection and the phone line. By the time the coffeemaker had finished, I had learned both were out of commission. Luckily, my iPhone had reception (two bars). It just couldn't connect to the web.
For fun, I flipped on the television to see if any of the morning news programs could give me any clues as to what was going on, but as I suspected, they were clueless.
On the drive in, I did a quick scan of the radio news stations, but caught all of them running commercials or updating the traffic and weather. After a few minutes, I gave up and switched back to the classical music station, figuring I'd get the scoop when I got to work.
It didn't even occur to me, until I got to the office, that things might be offline there, too. Fortunately, everything was up and running.
Before burying myself in work, I did a quick web search to see if any of the media sites had picked up on the story. The first ones I found were CBS 5 and the Mercury News, so I kept tabs on them throughout the day, supplementing their coverage by keeping an eye on the AT&T's Twitter feed1 (@attnews).
On my way home, I actually passed one of the locations the vandals/saboteurs struck. Monterey Highway is one of my favorite routes to and from work (when I have to drive). Just as I reached the on-ramp to Blossom Hill Road, the southbound traffic on Monterey slowed. Everyone was gawking at the dozens of news vans and AT&T trucks parked between the road and the railroad tracks. It was quite a sight.
When I got home, I checked the phone line and internet connection just to see if they were back online. They weren't. I flipped on the television and the evening news was finally buzzing about the outage. Most channels estimated service would be restored between 6 and 9 PM. Ours came back around seven o'clock.
Yesterday morning, when I awoke, the first thing I did was check the landline. As soon as I heard the dial tone, I let out a sigh of relief.
What took a few people only a few minutes to break took several crews several hours to repair. That's pretty amazing and incredibly scary. Before Thursday, I had the silly notion our communication system was robust, like rope, but now, I have the paranoid notion it's weak, like string.
It was extremely fortunate that nothing disastrous happened during the outage. If there had been an emergency, inconvenience could have escalated to tragedy. I truly hope the incident will prompt The Powers That Be to make this part of our infrastructure secure.
1 Which, by the way, was a nifty way of staying updated until I actually returned to the affected area, at which point, I had to rely on traditional media again for the news.
In just a matter of minutes, the final eight contestants will be performing to keep their dreams of fame and fortune alive. Tonight's episode will be a swift sixty minutes of singing. It shall happen all so quickly, I can only hope my eyes, ears, brain, and fingers are fast enough to keep up.
Song on my mind... "Ku'u Lei Awapuhi" by Hapa (plays music automatically). It's the perfect song for a sunny Aloha Friday. I guarantee it will brighten your day.
My ears had been wanting a Hawaiian getaway for a while, so I finally gave it to them. For the past week, they've been staying at this album, one of the nicer musical island resorts. I have a feeling when they get back, both will be badly sunburned.
Anyway, this song wasn't on my radar for a long time, but it caught my attention this week and has become my second favorite track on the album, right behind "Lei Pikake".
The lyrics are on Hapa's site, but just in case they mysteriously disappear, I've pasted them below.
Auhea la 'oe ke aloha
Awapuhi pala o ka ua noe
A eia no me a'u
i ka poli o ke aloha
E ku'u aloha e (e o)
Auhea la 'oe (e ia mai au)
A huli aku au ia 'oe
Translation:
Where are you, my beloved?
You, who are like the ginger, covered in the misty rain
If only we could be together again
Here, to love's sweet embrace I call thee
Oh my beloved (I am here!)
Where are you? (Here, indeed am I)
It is you who I will forever turn to
By the way, I love that "e o" or "eō" means "I am here" in Hawaiian -- such a simple and beautiful response.
It's been a little while since I shared a Top 5 list of my favorite non-reality television shows. Here it is, sorted by day of the week:
- How I Met Your Mother
- Chuck
- Castle
- Bones
- Dollhouse
If I were listing my Top 8 shows, Heroes, Lost, and The Office would make the cut, but one has to draw a line somewhere, and five is a good number. It keeps the counting contained to one hand, leaving the other hand free to do more important things, like hanging out in a pocket, hailing a taxi cab, or giving a peace sign (or smacking oneself upside the head for a bad Alanis Morissette reference).
Anyway, if one were to take another look at my Top 5 list, one would see this group of seemingly unrelated shows have something in common: they all feature at least one cast member from a past Joss Whedon project.
- How I Met Your Mother (Alyson Hannigan, Buffy and Neil Patrick Harris, Dr. Horrible)
- Chuck (Adam Baldwin, Firefly)
- Castle (Nathan Fillion, Firefly/Dr. Horrible)
- Bones (David Boreanaz, Buffy/Angel)
- Dollhouse (Eliza Dushku, Buffy and Amy Acker, Angel)
If you didn't spot the connection right away, don't feel bad. It took me until today to see it myself, and I've been watching these shows for weeks now.
Interestingly, one of the questions this list raises (right after "So what?") is, "Would I enjoy these shows if Whedon alumni weren't associated with them?" I meditated on this matter for a considerable number of seconds (roughly five), and my answer would have to be, "Yes, but to a lesser degree." (The correct answer, of course, is, "No, really, so what?!")
For the curious, American Idol tops my list of favorite reality shows. It's a list of one.
Also, Alanis dated Ryan Reynolds, who was in a comedy series (Two Guys and a Girl) with Nathan Fillion, who worked with Whedon on Firefly. (Sorry, I just needed to tie up that loose end.)
