I know I have done a fine job falling off the face of the planet, between being busy and being in and out of a funk, but I'm still around.

The basic recap of what has gone down over the last few weeks follows:

Destruct sequence completed and engaged: Well, after 80 or so years, my bathroom has decided it's had enough. The faucet in both the tub and sink are/were dripping heavily, and when they came in on Monday to do patchwork repairs, it was quite easy to see that the fixtures are severely rusted and have not aged well.

The landlord fixed what he could for now (which was necessary, since the dripping water was quite hot, causing my bathroom to resemble a sauna), and told me he wants to replace the faucet and fixtures in the tub, and replace the entire sink. It's probably long overdue as old as everything is, but obviously it's going to be one serious job.

Still, it's nice to have the temperature and humidity back to normal in my bathroom. Needless to say, I had to blast my walls down with Tilex once he finished putting a Band-Aid on the situation.

Ugh.

Price In Prime Time: Thanks to the writers' strike, and in an attempt to boost interest in Drew's Price Is Right, CBS is giving us six prime time specials in the upcoming weeks. They will be taped next week, and four of the six airdates have been announced (February 22 and 29, March 7 and 14 - all at 8:00 pm Eastern/Pacific).

No word yet on whether they'll be spinning for up to $1,000,000, as they have for the last few years with Bob (they're keeping a lot of information from us so far), but these should still be a lot of fun. I for one am looking forward to them.

Unfortunately, the timing for the tapings sucks - at least for me. Michael has been financially strapped, and would (at the soonest) be able to get out here for the week of tapings AFTER the prime time specials. And with the landlord looking at next week for my bathroom overhaul, the timing just isn't going to work.

Rats.

That said, I must say I'm a bit disappointing to hear that not only will one of the 75 pricing games be retired (no word yet on which one, but we it narrowed down to a few possibilities), but we'll never see Barker's Markers again. We did find out about a week ago that they indeed renamed the game to Make Your Mark (the name they used for it on the short-lived prime-time series from 1994 hosted by Doug Davidson). Maybe they felt that having one game named after Bob still (Barker's Bargain Bar), and mentioning that the show takes place in the Bob Barker Studio during the intro was enough. I don't know. I just personally wish they had left the name alone.

Second Life - for those times when your First Life sucks (like this last decade?): Alane has gotten me hooked on SL (thanks! :P), and I have been doing quite a bit of fiddling around there in recent weeks. What can I say, but it's nice to have a place where I can not only own ballet boots, but walk in them!

I have met a few very nice, interesting people from there. And gotten myself some nice outfits.

While SL has some issues (what doesn't?), I'll give them credit for being far more newbie-friendly (not to mention friendly toward those who don't want to spend an arm and leg for a virtual world/communitee) than some of the others, like ActiveWorld and OuterWorld. At least on SL, it's possible to get yourself started and do some shit without selling a kidney.

If anyone else out there is interested, or already on there, let me know. We'll have to hook up.

Back problems back again: No, not me this time, but my father. It's been about three months since his back went from bad to insanely bad, and we're still waiting for them to seek a real answer to his problem while the disease industry fiddles.

He's 61, has a history of back problems, and has at least four herniated discs, and some of these idiot specialists want to try physical therapy? That's like suggesting physical therapy would be the solution for my torn-up right shoulder. Not going to happen. The only chance in hell is surgery. I know that, he knows that, his personal physican knows that, but these so-called "experts" don't?

As I've said before (and as Jello Biafra said before me), the rest of the civilized world has health care. We have a disease industry, where people try to profit off other people's suffering. And there's little doubt in my mind that all this haggling is over money (how little they can spend/how much they can milk), and not long-term health.

Pathetic.

So, please keep your fingers crossed that they do right by him, and soon. Cortizone injections and Morphine can only do so much.

The 2008 Presidental (S)Election: Lovely. Sure looks like we're on our way to Hillary vs. McCain. Just what we need - one pro-war, pro-corporation conservative vs. another pro-war, pro-corporation conservative. This is a change after the nightmarish Bush regime how?

I get the feeling that no matter who "wins", nothing is going to change. The face may change, the words may change, but it's going to be same shit, different asshole.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Anyone out there have a good reason why I shouldn't just write-in Madonna or Bob Barker come November?

Instant Karma's gonna get you: I'm not going to go into a lengthy post in the matter, because I'm sure most of you wouldn't be interested. But, I just have to say that the Super Bowl might've left me happier than any Super Bowl since XXXIV, when the Rams finally ended a lifetime of frustration for me and beat the Titans.

Blowing a shot at a perfect season on the big stage, in the final game, after months of hype and propaganda? Beautiful. And watching it all fall apart just 35 seconds from the promise land? Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of cheating, self-righteous assholes than the New England Pasterisks.

Eli Manning may have gotten the MVP award, but it should've gone to Karma instead. What a fitting way to end the most overrated NFL season in recent history.

I am glad I picked the right night to end my Patsies boycott. I got talked into going to a Super Bowl party. I spent the evening eating a lot of great food, drinking a lot of great booze, meeting a lot of great people, and watching the Patriots be humiliated. Beautiful.

And, lastly, speaking of fate: Congratulations on getting your new car so quickly, Rob! I am keeping my fingers crossed that fate is much kinder to this Aveo than the last one...

And if it's not, well, come out to LA. They still offer plenty of them on The Price Is Right.

Labels: Barker Worship, Cheaters, Corporate Assholes, Mi Vida Loca, The Drew Is Right