Ternaugh

Our home Zip 100 had a SCSI interface, which was very speedy. I took in a disc to work, which had a parallel port drive. It seemed glacially slow.

I'm sure if I dig through the old parts box, I'd find a cable or two. Probably find a terminal resistor, too.

I went back to my original property to train a new tech, and the whiteboard still has the phone numbers of the other properties (including several demolished ones). I had added to the list several years ago, and the entries were still there: CPE1704TKS Jenny: 867-5309 Hal x9000 Reliant: 16309

The Nevada Republican Party is all sorts of messed up. Their chairperson, Michael McDonald, has been indicted for his involvement in a fake electors plot. He's decided that the party should ignore the election, and have a caucus instead, as it's believed that the caucus will favor Trump. https://apnews.com/article/presidential-preference-primary-caucus-ec9da0c9fb14ca484fecc3fdc6fa89d9

Quality control issues? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/united-finds-bolts-need-tightening-inspections-door-plugs-grounded-boe-rcna132879

The Court Jester: This one's a favorite of mine, and I rewatched it tonight because I heard about the death of actress Glynis Johns yesterday, at the age of 100. (Vudu) https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/04/entertainment/glynis-johns-dead/index.html

Total Recall: The good one. (4K UHD Blu-Ray) Apparently, some default settings on Sony 4K players sometimes cause some discs to skip or freeze. This disc was giving me grief a few days ago, and just would not play after the FBI warning. I found a video on Youtube, however, that told me to disable the upscaling, and to switch another picture setting from Auto to Video mode. Worked like a charm.

Jurassic Park: This movie turned 30 this year, and it's still a very good watch. (4K UHD Blu-ray) Serenity: The follow-up to the short-lived TV series, Firefly, it wraps up a number of plots from the series. It was absolutely brutal to watch it in the theater. It's a good watch. (4K UHD Blu-ray) I've been playing a fair bit of Starfield, and watching Serenity again, I can see a fair bit of things borrowed for the game from it and Firefly.

Snow White: The first Disney feature film, cleaned up and on 4K UHD Blu-ray. The difference in the picture from the older DVD or Blu-ray release is stunning, with beautiful detail revealed in just about every scene. Highly recommended. (4K UHD Blu-ray) Elemental: Pixar's latest story, about a fire being and a water being getting thrown together and falling in love, as they try to prevent a disaster. Like many recent Disney/Pixar films, there's no real villain, just some generational angst about parental expectations. I enjoyed it, but it's decidedly middle of the pack when compared to other Pixar releases. (4K UHD Blu-ray)

The buffets here in Las Vegas casinos mostly didn't reopen after the shutdown. They were generally operated as promotional loss leaders to get folks in to gamble. Most buffets were delayed from reopening by the Nevada state government, and the casinos didn't see a very big hit to the gaming revenues. So, now many are being turned into food courts or other restaurants. Sizzler pulled out of Las Vegas sometime before 2020, but Golden Corral seems to be going strong. The old Asian buffets have mostly disappeared, but a few newer ones have popped up.

Paramount+ has them to stream, I'm on the no ads plan with them. Amazon also has the original series on Blu-ray for around $58.

I've caught up on the new Dr Who episodes on Disney+, and must say that I'm looking forward to when the main series starts. I've also watched the first two episodes of What If? season 2 on Disney+, which I also enjoyed. Seven more episodes to go in this season.

Back in my Circuit City days, it was fairly common to get TV/VCR combos which had been "fed" things by small children. Service would send the objects back in an accessory bag attached to the device. One object sent back was a desiccated peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I somehow upset my Blu-ray player's remote, which did a perfect arc through the air, landing with a splash into a glass of milk (not the first time I drowned a remote). Aftermarket replacement has now been ordered from Amazon.

First time I've been namechecked on a Youtube video! My beard grows slowly on the sides, but the mustache and goatee grow well. I've currently a short full beard, but here's a picture from last year when I had grown it longer.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: It's a serviceable story built around the search for the other half of the antikythera mechanism, and has a heap of nostalgia for the older films. Runtime of 154 minutes is a bit long, and some scenes drag. Overall, I liked it, and thought that it made a good final movie in the series. (4K UHD Blu-ray; also available on Disney+)

Barbie: A fantasy movie about the doll having an existential crisis, and the aftermath. It's a good watch. (Max) Blue Beetle: Better than I thought it would be, but it still feels like they were cribbing notes from the Iron Man series of movies. (Max) Die Hard: Because it's not Christmas until you see Hans Gruber fall. It's a good watch. (Digital copy on Vudu, because I'm too lazy to look for the disc in my collection)

So he's re-doing Battlestar Galactica?

I just cleaned out the spam trap on one of my emails. My favorites: 1. An extortion email that claims that they've been watching me do naughty things through my non-existent webcam, and to prove it, they've provided a password which was compromised over a decade ago, and doesn't match any of my other passwords*. I didn't see this one for a while, and it told me that I only had 48 hours from Friday to pay $950 in bitcoin or they'd release non-existent videos. They also helpfully had an explainer on what cryptocurrency is and how to find a way to transfer the money. I've lost track of how many of these I've received over the years, but they usually come in a cluster of 2 or three over about a month or two, and then disappear for several years. 2. There's something wrong with my non-existent bank account at a major bank, and that I wouldn't be able to use my debit or credit cards unless I updated my information. 3. An email claiming to be from my email provider, saying that I needed to log into the account to verify due to inactivity. You know, on the email account I had to log into to see the message. 4. An email claiming that a payment was rejected by my bank, from last month, sent from a random email address, and asking to click the link to fix. *I'm not even sure that the company that had the breach is still in business at this point. I don't re-use passwords, so it's essentially a dead one anyway.

"I can see you are wondering why I called you here...."

Dredd: Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. It's a violent movie that is much truer to the source material than the Sylvester Stallone version. It's just a shame that it didn't get a sequel. (4K UHD) The Dark Knight: Second movie in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, and one of the best. (4K UHD) Escape from New York: Air Force One is hijacked and crashes on the island of Manhattan, which is now a federal prison. Snake Plissken is tasked with finding the President, and returning him and a tape before time runs out. This one's released by Shout! Factory, and includes a very clean transfer of the movie to 4K, as well as an Atmos soundtrack. There's also a Blu-ray of extra features included. (4K UHD) I've also watched the Dr Who Special 1: The Star Beast, which reunites the David Tennant Doctor with Donna. I liked it, and will be watching Specials 2 and 3 very soon. (Disney+)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: This one's a lot of fun. I particularly enjoy the comic book callouts and footnotes. Looking forward to the next installment. (4K UHD) I'm a few episodes into the current seasons of For All Mankind (Apple TV+) and Julia (Max), and enjoying both. For All Mankind is exploring the colonization of Mars in an alternate timeline where the Soviets were the ones to first set foot on the moon. Julia is a somewhat-fictionalized account of the events surrounding Julia Child's first television show. I'm two episodes in to the first season of Babylon 5, from the Blu-ray release this week. The transfer is very good, and I believe that the source was from the recent HD version on streaming. Unlike my original DVD sets, this hasn't been formatted in widescreen, which keeps the image quality fairly good on any CGI/composited shots. I bought myself a bit of a birthday present a few days ago, and upgraded my Samsung 4K to a Sony Bravia XR OLED. The picture quality is excellent, and it works well with both games and the videos/movies that I've played so far. The sound also seems better, which is odd, as I'm using a separate surround receiver for output. I'm planning on rewatching a bunch of my favorite movies again, to see how they look.