Monthly Archive for October, 2006

Project Runway Season 3 finale

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 18th October 2006
in TV
. 3 Comments

Tonight is the season finale of Project Runway. The DVR finally caught up with live TV, and I have seen Jeffrey and Uli’s collections, and I am watching Laura’s collection right now. I have seen some of these in pictures on Yahoo!, and seeing them move and flow totally changes the way the clothing appears. Having not seen Michael’s collection yet, I am looking at Uli to win.

We’ll see.

*spoiler* Update: Well, I’m blown away, but I’m not at the same time. Jeffrey won! I was placing him at a close second to Uli, because his collection was just as well done as Uli’s. The reason I put Uli first was that I thought Jeffrey’s going over budget was going to negatively affect him more than it did. I think he’s been a strong designer throughout the season, and I will also admit that his designs have been more varied than Uli’s, while still remaining strong. He deserves the win.

Pens

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 18th October 2006
in General
. 1 Comment

Since July or August, I have been walking around with a pen I found on a table at CHS. The pen is one of those pens that salesmen hand out that have the name of a company or product on it, with the hopes that it will become free advertising as you weild it in meetings. This particular pen has the logo for a prescription drug on it. Since I first found the pen, I have wondered for what the drug is prescribed. This morning, on the way out the door to check on a computer problem in another building, I decided to look up the drug.

Pfizer manufactures the drug called Geodon. The chemical name for Geodon is ziprasidone HCl. For those of you not in the know, like I was about ten minutes ago, here is what the Geodon website says:

GEODON is a medicine for the treatment of some mental illnesses. It is used for acute manic acute bipolar mania or mixed episodes associated with bipolar disorder.

Doctors believe GEODON helps balance certain natural chemicals in your brain. This, in turn, helps treat your symptoms of acute mania acute bipolar mania or a mixed episode. And that can help you feel better.

Of all the pens for me to have picked up, I had to pick up one for a drug that treats schizophrenia. I wish the pens I bought at the store didn’t run out of ink so damn quickly.

Update: I have been told I made a huge jump from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia. Admittedly, I did not fill in the blanks between the two. While they are not the same illness, the GEODON website lists both. I haphazardly chose parts of their site to quote, leaving things a bit confusing when taken out of context.

Long time, no see

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 17th October 2006
in General, Software, TV and Work
. 0 Comments

It’s been a little while. Don’t expect this post to be of much substance, despite the length of time since my last meaningful post. I’ve been really busy lately, so I’ll try to make this like one of those annoying "streaming consciousness" posts Hersch puts up, but a little less smushed and a little more listy:

  • Doug Baker, 1980-2006 :-(
  • Steve and Beth Tymonko, October 14, 2006.
  • Hersch is making the most out of CA.
  • Meetings prevent me from working on things.
  • Bears win! 6-0!
  • Heroes and Studio 60 are both quite good ways to spend Monday evenings.
  • 1 vs. 100 is much better than that piece of junk Deal or No Deal.
  • I still like Project Runway. Thanks, Lynn!
  • Campaign ads are getting really obnoxious as of late. And quit calling me to tell me to vote early; I’ll vote whenever the hell I feel like it.
  • The house is a mess.
  • A little more about Google Reader.

Vista and DivX Player

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 10th October 2006
in Software
. 0 Comments

Besides playing with iTunes, I have also been playing with the DivX Player on Windows Vista. One of the most annoying things about using the DivX Player on Vista RC1 is that the window flickers while playing a video. The video will appear just fine, but the UI will flicker around the video. The controls of the UI still work just fine, but you have to keep track of them as they flicker on and off.

The only solution I have found, and it is more of a workaround than a solution, is to turn off Aero and use the Windows Classic GUI. This will turn off all of the eye candy, drawing windows in the dull and drab gray with blue title bars and *gasp* normal window control buttons. With the classic GUI, the DivX Player operates normally. I am waiting to see if this workaround also fixes my UI problems with iTunes.

Update: The latest versions of the DivX Player do not suffer from the abovementioned GUI issues. Vista automatically removes transparency from my Desktop when I open the DivX Player.