RandomFailure

By now, I assume that you’ve gotten around to watching the season finales of your favorite shows. If not, spoiler warning, because I’m going to talk about three of them: 24, Lost, and Alias.

24 – This was probably the bet overall season (of the four total, for those who don’t know). Why? Season Four managed to almost completely avoid the annoying little side plots and pain in the ass characters who made you wince every time they appeared on screen. The only major flaw all season was not permanently getting rid of Chloe, quite possibly the most annoying character currently on any TV show. With main character Jack Bauer supposedly dead and really leaving the country with a new identity, it should be interesting to see how they manage to bring him back (in January 2006). I just hope it’s not one of those ridiculous Tom Clancy-type comebacks.

Lost – When I first heard of this show, I thought it was going to suck. The way it was written up was completely uninteresting. Despite that, I decided to watch it. Turns out it’s one of the best shows on TV. Though the now-deceased Arnst had a point: there are many other people on the island who were also on the plane that are nothing more than background. I guess that beats being Star Trek-like cannon fodder (or beast food, in this case). The character Hurley has to be the best character on the show, and one of the better characters on TV. Why? He has all the best lines, and for some odd reason seems the easiest character to relate to (never mind that minor $165 million lottery jackpot). The one episode where they’re playing the music and it suddenly stops when Hurley’s CD player batteries go dead was priceless. (Though why he didn’t have an iPod is beyond me; must not have been in the product placements.)

Alias – This show is getting bounced around the TV schedule yet again, and with star Jennifer Garner supposedly being pregnant (damn you, Ben Affleck!), it could be delayed beyond January. That said, this season was uneven. I think the show was more interesting when they were focused on the Rambaldi artifacts, even though that was all rather farfetched. (Apparently, lots of people have spent time thinking about this fictional character; check this Google search result.) Anyway, back to this year’s finale: it was stunning enough when Vaughn said “I’m not really Michael Vaughn.” And I actually gasped out loud at the car crash – it was the POV shot that got me.

Not only would it be a rude and disastrous nightmare, both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security don’t like it (see the CNET article). And well, if those guys don’t like, then it can’t be good for you. (Pretend there’s a smiley here with a sarcastic expression; I hate f-in’ spyware!)

Mortgages. This should be a lot simpler than it’s turning out to be. Part of my problem is trying to cram lots of informational reading into a very short period of time. Crazy-ass terminology and a gazillion and one options are starting to drive me nuts. This is harder to figure out than some of the patent applications I’ve written. Combine all this learning with phone calls that have to be made during the business day (since that’s when everyone else works, too) has seriously cut into my productivity in the office. Enough so that I’m going to need to work this weekend just to avoid falling behind. Not a good sign. But I have been reassured that I should get approved for a mortgage fairly easily, so that’s a little relief.

But the wine may not yet be free-flowing here in Pennsylvania, one of the few states left with archaic state-run liquor stores (see PA’s state store Web site). Per a decision on Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court (see the Reuters article or the actual opinion (in PDF) if you’re so inclined), states can no longer discriminate between in-state and out of state wineries. In case you haven’t been paying attention, some states permitted their in-state wineries to ship directly to consumers in those states, but prohibited out of state wineries from making direct shipments. This, as you might imagine, is a royal pain in the ass for wine-lovers, since you can’t receive direct shipments.

However, the Court did not say that wineries could ship to any state; the opinion was directed to the more narrow issue noted above, of discriminating between in-state and out of state wineries. So, an “evil” state (like Pennsylvania) could prohibit direct shipments from all wineries. The bogus argument floated is that it prevents minors from ordering alcohol. What minor is going to wait for a few weeks to get their drink on? Besides, those shipments require proof of age upon delivery. If the carriers want to go out of business (and you don’t think FedEx will do that anytime soon), then they will be checking IDs. So, that means that a minor would need to have a fake ID. And if they have a fake ID, why go through the hassle of waiting?

I can’t really believe I’m doing this, but yesterday, I plunked down a deposit on a house. New construction at Front and Dickinson in the Pennsport section of Philadelphia (see the Google Map of the location).

Now, I’ve probably started going about this process ass-backwards, since I found a place I liked before I had a mortgage commitment in hand. I had assumed I wouldn’t find something so quickly, and figured I’d have time to figure out mortgages, etc. So now I need to work quickly to get all of that in order. I think it will basically suck up all of my free time for at least the next week. Which means I shouldn’t be sitting here typing this.

I saw Denzel in Julius Caesar this past weekend. (See the New York Times’ review.) It was rather sad to see Denzel race through his lines in the first half of the play, like he was still uncomfortable with the role. Which he shouldn’t be, since he’s been doing it for a month. It was entertaining, but I didn’t think it was worth the standing ovation at the end (I assume that was due to Denzel’s mere presence on stage, and nothing about the quality of the acting).

There is finally a verdict in the Philadelphia City Hall corruption trial. Everybody is guilty of a little something. (See the Reuters article and the Philadelphia Inquirer article for details.) Too bad this couldn’t go higher up the food chain, since Mayor Street is giving his best impression of ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers by saying that he had no idea what the people around him were doing. Uh-huh. Yeah, right. And monkeys will fly out of my butt.

For the uninitiated, LBRR stands for Long, Boring Race Report, a term coined (I believe) by Ian Chillag. Anyway, on with my LBRR from this year’s Broad Street Run, on May 1, 2005.

This was my third consecutive attempt to bust the 1:05 barrier. I lined up with Jesus Steve, Craig, John, and Mony (who showed up just in time). I figured we would be better off staying to the left, since it would be easier than dodging those 60+ year olds who like to line up in front. Juking around people caused JSteve and I to lose Craig, John, and Mony rather early (sorry about that).

First mistake from running on the left was missing the Mile 1 clock. I looked at my watch, and saw 7:22 or so and told JSteve that we had better have already passed Mile 1. Hit Mile 2 at 12:30, so I’m guessing we were doing 6:15s. Big problem for me: I can hold 6:15s for a 5K, but no way I could handle it for a 10 miler. I didn’t slow down that much into Mile 3 (6:21), but JSteve took off shortly after Mile 2 and I knew that I couldn’t keep up.

Craig passed by between Miles 2 and 3; by the time I saw him, he was too far away for me to shout to. Besides, I couldn’t have kept up anyway.

Saw John sometime after Mile 3 (I think). Also zipped right on by.

Started to blow up into Mile 4 (6:44) and Mile 5 (6:50). Beginning to get a bit delirious; tried drinking some water. Helped a little bit. Enjoyed the drum squads.

Mile 6 (7:05). Loved the large crowd near the Bellevue. Missed the Guv and the PR group at South St. Trying to hang on through Mile 7 (7:11), Mile 8 (7:17), and Mile 9 (7:14). Attempted to average my time, and still saw that I was averaging under 7:00 per mile. The problem with that was I felt like I was in a dead zone – I couldn’t keep up with people as they kept going by.

After Mile 9, I see Brian S. fly right past me. Damn that Brian Smith gear! (For those of you unfamiliar with this, Mr. Smith can accelerate towards the end of a run, regardless how far. First noticed this phenomenon during a 21 mile training run for the 2002 Philly Marathon; with about one mile to go, he just takes off. Un-bleeping-believeable.)

I recover a bit to finish Mile 10 (7:02), to end up in around 1:08:20. Better than last year, but about 2 minutes off my PR. I am pleased with the time, but wished I would have been more consistent (that minute-plus blow-up bugs me).