Ken Jennings Jeopardy Update

I think this is the night Ken Jennings will finally lose on Jeopardy.  The chatter that I've picked up still indicates that he will lose his 75th game, which will air tonight.  I thought last night was toing to be the night, though.  The 2nd place challenger gave him a run for his money, but lost $15,000 on Double Jeopardy. 

I had planned on going out tonight after the crappy day I've had, but instead, I'll be parked on the couch with a glass of egg nog and will cheer the other 2 contestants on to victory. 

Big Brother Will Be Watching

Security officials to spy on chat rooms Last modified: November 24, 2004, 10:28 AM PST By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

The CIA is quietly funding federal research into surveillance of Internet chat rooms as part of an effort to identify possible terrorists, newly released documents reveal.

In April 2003, the CIA agreed to fund a series of research projects that the documents indicate were intended to create "new capabilities to combat terrorism through advanced technology." One of those projects is research at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., devoted to automated monitoring and profiling of the behavior of chat-room users.

Their proposal, also disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, received $157,673 from the CIA and NSF. It says: "We propose a system to be deployed in the background of any chat room as a silent listener for eavesdropping...The proposed system could aid the intelligence community to discover hidden communities and communication patterns in chat rooms without human intervention."

Riiiiight.  This shouldn't come as any big surprise to us.  But somehow, I really don't think that terrorists that want to blow up our country are spending their time in chat rooms where the most pressing questions are "A/S/L?" and "Got a pic?"  Who knows? Maybe there are some terrorists who used to watch "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and want to chat with other Buffy lovers.  Or maybe there are some terrorists that are into quilting, and want to chat with other quilters and exchange patterns. 

I'm Hacked Off

I'm really hacked off today. Actually, I've been hacked off for almost a week.  Last Tuesday, we discovered that our church had been broken into and robbed. 

The good Lord is still watching over Fourth Avenue Baptist - the robbers didn't vandalize nor tear up anything in the church except for the door handle on the refrigerator.  There are couches and chairs that they could have slashed, and they could have torn out new carpet.  But for some reason, they didn't.  Maybe the thieves had a conscience.  The thugs cut the padlock on the courtyard gate, and broke a basement window.  Once in through the window, they went through the catacombs, aka the dungeon, and came up by the sanctuary. 

Based on the items they took, it was as if they were furnishing an apartment: a big tv from our Sunday School room, a couple of brass urns, a few pairs of brass candle holders, a few pairs of sconces, my Dad's tool box, a small relaxatin fountain from the Pastor's study, and a big mirror.  From the refrigerator they took a couple cans of pop, and from the freezer they took a 5 pound box of frozen Old Folks sausage patties and two Lean Cuisine meals that Mom kept there for an emergency if they were working and had to stay late at church.  How low can you get?

We don't have any real suspects.  We could have gotten fingerprints from the refrigerator and from the empty pop cans they left in the church.  But without proof all they could be hauled in for would be receiving stolen property if they still had the items.  Our only hope is that they try to hock the tv - it was engraved with our church name in 3 different places, so hopefully the pawn broker would notice it and call it in. 

Our church may be small in numbers (we average about 30 every Sunday) but you'll be hard pressed to find a congregation with hearts as big as Fourth Avenue.  Through the generosity of members' bequests and offerings, this year we've been able to get the church in tip-top shape -- new lighting in the sanctuary, new carpet, a new central air unit, reupholstering on chairs in the sanctuary, and we're currently working on getting a new baptristy.  So we'll keep plugging along and doing the Lord's work at the corner of Fourth and Oak as long as we can.

Link of the Week

We might be reluctant to admit it in mixed company, but we all have at least one tv show that we watch faithfully every week regardless of what's going on at home.  For me, it used to be "The X-Files."  Even though I taped it for the archives, if I had to miss it "live" and didn't get a chance to watch it late Sunday night, I was at a loss the next morning at work when everybody was talking about what happened to Mulder and Scully.  When the closing credits were playing, I could usually count on my friend Steve, another X-Files fanatic, to call so we could discuss the show.  Now that "The X-Files" is off the air (although it will be aired forever in syndication), "CSI" has taken its place.  While "CSI" is a consistant top-ten show in the ratins and has spawned two other hit "CSI" shows, I've had a hard time finding CSI fanatics to discuss the week's episode.  That was before I found www.televisionwithoutpity.com. 

TelevisionWithoutPity is a forum for TV lovers.  There's a section for most of the current drama or science fiction tv shows.  They even have original series from HBO, Showtime, and MTV.  You can read very in-depth re-caps from previous episodes, and if you want to express your opinion you can post on the message boards.  Back in the summer, I spent an hour one evening actually LOL while reading the message boards about Jessica and Ashlee Simpson's tv shows.  What was so funny wa not the comments themselves, but the fact that while these people were merciless a they trashed the shows, they apparently watched the shows on a regular basis or else they wouldn't know the details.  For some reason TWOP dropped their forums about Jessica and Ashlee's shows.  But don't let that hinder you - go check out their site. 

 

Where's A Camera When You Need One?

This summer when Radio Shack had a big sale, I bought a new Fuji digital camera.  I've used it twice, I think.  I still use my ancient Polaroid digital for all of my photo needs, and said that I would keep the Fuji in the car in case I saw something or someone that needed to be photographed for the journal. And who knows when I might see a celebrity here in the 'Ville?  Well, needless to say the Fuji camera is in the case setting on my dresser.  I would have given anything to have had it with me last night. I saw not one, but two, journal-worthy things that were major Kodak moments.

I was on my way home from having dinner with some friends, and was running low on gas so I stopped at the Dairy Mart to fill up.  My BMW has a 26 gallon tank, so filling up takes a few minutes.  I took the opportunity to throw away old receipts and empty Kroger bags and a few leaves from the car while I was waiting.  I walked over to the garbage can by the gas pump and as I was tossing in my bag, something in the garbage can caught my eye.  I looked down in there, and saw a plate in there.  No, it wasn't a paper or styrofoam plate - it was a nice big dinner plate.  Pfaltzgraff to be exact. The plate was upside down, and had foil wrapped over the top of it.  I guess someone was just NITM (not in the mood) for any more leftovers so they just tossed it in the garbage when they were getting gas.  I looked in the garbage can again, but didn't see any more of the place setting. 

By this point, the tank was only about half-full, so I just leaned against the car while I was waiting.  I was looking at the doors to the store, watching the people coming and going, and then I saw him - he was coming back out of the store, walking over to his white S-10 pick-up truck, carrying a small bag.  It was an Elvis impersonator.  He had on the white jumpsuit (complete with the big belt, and with the big rhinestone eagle on the back.) His hair and sideburns were jet black, just like The King.  And he looked like him, too.  I'm going out on a limb and assuming this guy was an Elvis impersonator, and not just someone who felt like dressing up like Elvis; besides, Halloween was a month ago.  If I'd had my camera with me, I would have had to have asked another person at the gas pumps to take my picture with the Elvis impersonator to add to my collection. 

All of this happened at about 11:00 at night - not at 2 or 3 in the morning when most  bizarre things occur.  And the strongest thing I had to drink last night was Nestea decaffeinated iced tea, so I know I wasn't seeing things.  There truly was a Pfaltzgraff plate in the garbage can and an Elvis impersonator in the parking lot of the Dairy Mart.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Updates

The auction has ended for the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich.  The winning bid was a whopping $28,000.  No, that wasn't a typo.  There were only 27 bids for this miraculous sandwich, with the opening bid at the bargain price of $3,000.  EBay said that financing was available, too.  No payments were due until April, or if you were expecting a big income tax refund, there was no interest if you paid by April.  Shipping was only $9.95 - a bargain by EBay standards, considering that for the majority of the items I buy on EBay the shipping and handling is usually more than what I paid for the item itself.  While the item listing had the amount of the winning bid, they didn't give the identity nor even the EBay screenname of the winning bidder. My guess is that person didn't want everybody on the internet to know how stupid they were. 

My co-worker Adrian and I have collected 201 E-Ploids so far.  We only have a week left to eat as many specially marked bags as possible; Adrian is taking care of the Funyons and I'm handling the Doritos.  We're still confident that we'll win our Pizza Hut gift card to prove the unbelievers wrong.  I'll keep you posted on our progress.

There is currently a federal investigation into Krispy Kreme's accounting practices.  The SEC is looking into the company's franchise reacquisitions and its future earnings outlook.  Whew.  I'm relieved to know that their losses may be due to shady bookkeeping and not from actual sales declines. 

 

Top Ten Things I'm Thankful For

1.  God's love
2.  My parents
3.  My friends
4.  My family (related and extended)
5.  My church
6.  Music
7.  My job
8.  Laughter
9.  My college education                                                                                           10. Freedom of speech so I can continue writing in TWIT