Real Kato Blog: 2009 December

For those of you who are college football fans, you probably did a spit-take with your coffee this morning upon hearing that Urban Meyer is resigning as head coach of Florida. Meyer, one of the most successful coaches in the game, is stepping down due to concerns over a heart condition. Florida now faces a potentially difficult transition year, as they'll have a new coach and a new quarterback. Michigan fans know a little something about that.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie

Tuesday, 2009 December 22 - 5:14 pm

So here's my wonderful Nablopomo prize package from Elizabeth:

Aussie treats

I've duly researched each item and I now know what a Tim Tam Slam is; I'm planning to try it tomorrow morning. The ANZAC biscuits are surprisingly tasty for what was essentially a military ration... they're like hard crunchy oatmeal cookies, though I've read that I should never call them "cookies".

And of course no Australian collection would be complete without Vegemite. On the next Australia Day, I'm going to put on the Australia temporary tattoos and make everyone at work try a bite of Vegemite on toast. Heh heh heh.

Thanks, Elizabeth! I'm greatly enjoying the prize.

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Posted by Ken in: bloggers, food

Ken's Tacky Christmas Tour 2009

Friday, 2009 December 18 - 8:30 pm

You may remember Tacky Christmas Tour 2005, where I took you on a wondrous journey of North Carolina Christmas decorating. I have some new treats for you, after the jump...

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, interesting, life

Sing Off

Friday, 2009 December 18 - 2:31 pm

So, is anyone else watching "Sing Off" on NBC? It's like "Glee" meets "American Idol". In fact, it's so obviously a mash-up of those two shows, it almost makes you pity poor NBC for not having the ability to come up with any new ideas. Next year on NBC: We put eight high school glee clubs on a deserted island, where they must sing and dance for food and firewood! We'll call it "Lord of the Dance (and the Flies), Plus Eight". (Kate Gosselin hosts.)

I mean, "Sing Off" even features Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger playing the role of bubble-headed blabberer (a role made famous, of course, by Paula Abdul). And there's Boyz II Men's Shawn Stockman, who gleefully throws around terms like "pitchy" and "make it your own" so often that you keep expecting him to call someone "dawg" at any minute. They've got an awkwardly metro host in Nick Lachey. If they'd only found a crotchety Brit to be the third judge instead of Ben Folds, they'd have duplicated the Idol formula precisely.

Oh, and did I mention that one of the groups sang an a capella version of "Don't Stop Believing"? They might as well have been wearing "Glee" t-shirts.

Now, all that being said, we're fans of the show. The groups are sincere, and the performances are fun to watch. We like the Beelzebubs, a bunch of college guys from Tufts, who seem to be the most inventive group of the contestants.

NBC is slamming through the competition quickly (three two-hour episodes, and a finale next week), making this seem like more of a trial balloon than an ongoing series. I'm hoping that if they do decide to make this a recurring show, we'll get to see more of the early auditions and the elimination process.

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Posted by Ken in: music, television

Oh Yeah, Blogging

Wednesday, 2009 December 16 - 10:10 am

Remember, like four posts ago, when I said I'd try to keep blogging on a regular basis? And that kind of seemed like a New Year's resolution? Well, yeah. It's EXACTLY like a New Year's resolution, because it lasted all of a couple of days.

It's not as if there hasn't been anything to talk about: health care reform and Joe Lieberman's douchebaggery; the Big Ten expanding to twelve teams; "Sing Off" on NBC; a trip we took to Schenectady; a big package of Australian goodies that arrived yesterday... so many topics! Argh.

I'll try to catch up over the next few days. Really. No, REALLY.

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Posted by Ken in: life

Math Humor

Thursday, 2009 December 3 - 11:38 pm

Amy: So they need to put Vitamin C in vodka so it doesn't make you have to pee as much.

Me: You know alcohol turns into Vitamin C, right?

Amy: With me, it turns to Vitamin Pee.

(later)

Amy: Are you making Vitamin C or Vitamin Pee?

Me: You should have seen the Vitamin Poo I was making earlier.

Amy: Vitamin P O squared?

Me: Vitamin POPO?

Amy: No, you only square the "O".

Me: Did you just square the circle?

Amy: Say what?

Me: Only nerds are going to understand this.

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha

Blu-Ray

Wednesday, 2009 December 2 - 11:56 pm

I bought the Star Trek movie on Blu-Ray to showcase my new system... but not before I had put it on my NetFlix queue. So with both the DVD and the Blu-Ray disc here at the same time, I figured this would be a good chance to compare quality. I can tell you: even from ten feet away, the difference is noticeable.

Here's a closeup comparison. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image (a bit less than a quarter of the full screen).

I wasn't convinced before about how much I'd notice the difference... but I think it's safe to say that any movies that I purchase in the future will probably be Blu-Ray.

In other tech news, I'm a bit concerned about the new TV... on occasion, it's refused to display a picture from the HDMI inputs. I'm concerned because this is exactly the same problem other people on the Internets have complained about with this model. It seems to require some power-cycling and resetting to get things to work again... if the problem doesn't go away, I might have to (shudder) call for tech support.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Good Times

Wednesday, 2009 December 2 - 1:26 am

So first of all, I won a prize for NaBloPoMo, which is awesome because I never win prizes ever. And to top it off, it's actually something I appreciate: food. Some of the other prizes were baby bibs and handmade jewelry... I'm sure they're lovely, but I haven't worn a baby bib in like, months.

The prize is being provided by Elizabeth of Scarlet Words, which I immediately added to my RSS feed list and my sidebar because both the blog and the blogger are cute and brilliant.

In other news, Blu-Ray (PS3) plus new flat panel TV plus digital surround sound plus Star Trek equals geekgasm. Even Amy shuddered at the awesomeness. Sunday will be movie night here... let me know if you want to come over.

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Posted by Ken in: bloggers, techwatch

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