Brennan’s Blog

Back in the Christmas of 2005 I read a story by Sean McCormack about something that happened that is worth reading again.

Right before Christmas I was rushing around trying to get some last minute
shopping done. I was stressed out and not thinking very fondly of the
Christmas season right then. It was dark, cold, and wet in the parking lot
as I was loading my car up with gifts that I felt obligated to buy.

I noticed that I was missing a receipt that I might need later. So mumbling
under my breath, I retraced my steps to the mall entrance. As I was
searching the wet pavement for the lost receipt, I heard a quiet sobbing.

The crying was coming from a poorly dressed boy of about 12 years old. He
was short and thin. He had no coat. He was just wearing a ragged flannel
shirt to protect him from the cold night's chill.

Oddly enough, he was holding a hundred dollar bill in his hand. Thinking
that he had gotten lost from his parents, I asked him what was wrong. He
told me his sad story. He said that he came from a large family. He had
three brothers and four sisters. His father had died when he was nine years
old. His mother was poorly educated and worked two full time jobs. She made
very little to support her large family. Nevertheless, she had managed to
skimp and save two hundred dollars to buy her children Christmas presents.

His Mother, on the way to her second job, had dropped off the boy. He was to
use the money to buy presents for all his siblings and save just enough to
take the bus home. He had not even entered the mall, when an older boy
grabbed one of the hundred dollar bills and disappeared into the night.

"Why didn't you scream for help?" I asked.

The boy said, "I did."

"And nobody came to help you?" I queried.

The boy stared at the sidewalk and sadly shook his head.

"How loud did you scream?" I inquired.

The soft-spoken boy looked up and meekly whispered, "Help me!"

I realized that absolutely no one could have heard that poor boy cry for
help.

So I grabbed his other hundred and ran to my car.

• Source
• Original Location (currently unavailable)

For a little bit of internet nostalgia, head over to the All your base are belong to us page over at Wikipedia. The video is still funny. More below...

(more...)

You have to see this website.

Trivia time: Which game used that sequence of buttons and what did it do?

Besides jogging the dial between static, bible readings, country music and heavy metal I did not know of a good way to find good music for the holidays. In Milwaukee the stations have changed so the much the past 2 years that I do not even know what is all out there. So I found the Radio-Locator. A quick search on Milwaukee shows lots of stations with holiday music.

I have been watching Heroes on NBC and the show has grown on me. If you would like to catch it from the start you can see the marathon on SciFi this Wednesday. What has made the show grow on me is the fact that it embraces the cheesiness of certain aspects of the show, at least I think they do. A tag line they used for weeks was, "Save the cheerleader, save the world." It just sounds so stupid but they stuck with it. Gradually you will learn to really like a few of the characters, especially Hiro.

Then on Tuesday on the local radio station they do a bit called Blog Boy and Chat Man. These lame characters talk about the show. It is really funny.

This is hilarious. Last month Ted Stevens made some interesting comments related to Net Neutrality which illustrated his understanding of the internet using lay terms. Since then he has been lampooned all over. You can watch the Internet Tubes Remix which is one of my favorites because of the great review of our internet favorites as Senator Stevens jibber jabbers in the background. (Remember All Your Base?)

I found another remix at the Bold Headed Podcast. This one is just audio and mixes the sound bytes thoughout the song. There is so much more out there on the topic. I love the internet. I hope Senator Stevens does not destroy it.

• Jon Steward on Net Neutrality
• Senator John McCain on Daily Show discusses Net Neutrality
• Ted Stevens Fan page on MySpace
• Series of Tubes on Wikipedia

This is really great news. This week iTunes is now carrying Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis in addition to my other favorite shows like Battlestar Galactica and Lost. You can purchase a season pass for $37.99 for each of the Stargate shows. That comes out to about $2 a show which I think is more than fair. So what would it cost if I were to tally up all the shows I like to watch?

• Stargate SG-1 ($37.99)
• Stargate Atlantis (37.99)
• BattleStar Galactica ($25.99)
• Lost ($34.99)
• Daily Show ($9.99 for 10 shows)
• The Colbert Report ($9.99 for 16 shows)
• Comedy Central Stand-up ($79.60 for 40 episodes)
• 24 ($42.99)

That looks like it adds up quickly. Up to $279.53 to be exact. And I would want many more episodes of Daily Show and The Colbert Report. So you can easily tack on another $40.00 and make it $319.53. And since iTunes does not include those great home shows on HGTV that I like the iTunes-only approach does not really match up to cable yet. The low end for cable in my area is $51.99 which is $623.99 for 12 months. Add the DVR option for $5.99 a month and it comes to $695.87.

What does that mean? Well, if I could watch just a bit less TV I could save a chunk of change. At least with iTunes it is a cafeteria plan instead of all or nothing.

The 100th episode of Alias is being filmed and should be out soon. And apparently there are rumors of a movie. There are so many aspects of the show I like. A good part of it is in the complexity of the story and how everything seems to fit together seamlessly. At least it use to before the twist with Vaughn. Now it feels like they are scrammbling to make sense of that twist. So instead of continuing to twist the story they are going to simply end the series.

Another aspect of the show I like is the music. One time Syndey was in a German night club and a song called "I wanna mmm" from The Lawyer was playing. Sometimes watching the show seems like watching a good music video. I am anxious to see how it ends.

Now the creator of Alias, J.J. Abrams, has been writing the storyline for Lost. I have been watching it and it is a good show with many of the same qualities in Alias. But when Alias ends, I do hope that J.J. Abrams creates a new show with a theme like Alias. I think it warrants a spinoff. Characters like Weiss, Flinkman and Rachel, the new girl code-named Mockingbird, would do well in a new series.

Back in 1998 the now infamous holiday greeting which became South Park first came out my co-workers and I were watching it just about every day. I pulled up Photoshop about then and created my own lame little kid for South Park. After creating my cookie-cutter character I had to dig up my old, manually drawn character. Say hi!

My brother Steve has gone all South Park suddenly. You can use the South Park Studio to make yourself your own South Park character.

I just created my own character. His name is Frank. He really likes to have fun, especially with fire. Fire, fire, fire. He is actually a very fun guy to be around. Just do not have him over to your place. Your parents would freak.