Kudos!

New passport!
New passport!

I was attempting to purchase a good airfare deal to Vancouver for the Canada Sevens rugby tournament when I was reminded that my current passport expires next January… meaning I cannot book a trip in March without a valid passport at the time of the flights.

Considering how many sycophantic donors have been elevated to federal government positions I expected my passport renewal to take at least six weeks to complete if not double that. The State Department apparently has not succumb to this disorder yet, at least not the Passport Service. They were quoting routine renewal processing times of four to six weeks.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed my bank had cleared the check within three business days, then even more surprise when I received the new passport in the mail within two weeks including weekends. Wow!

Kudos to the State Department Bureau Of Consular Affairs!

Nerd alert!

Nerd alert!
Nerd alert!

Yes, I ordered the new Apple Watch with cellular capability. Discuss and feel free to nerd-shame me.

The Apple Watch is one of my favorite gadgets as it serves a required function (telling time) as well as bringing my my activity to the forefront of my attention. While my original Apple Watch has served me well it is showing its age in speed, battery capacity and scratches. It also moves notifications from audible (noisy!) to a subtle tap on my wrist. Perhaps you don’t receive a lot of alerts on your device… I do, however. Cutting down the noise pollution is the number one selling point for me.

Original Apple Watch
Original Apple Watch (work appointment details have been obscured)

Since I am old and enjoy sleeping I did not stay up until 1 AM local time to place my order. I was able to order from T-Mobile this morning with little stress, with the only downside being it appears my watch may not arrive until 10 October or so.

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower

 

I loved Stephen King’s Dark Tower series of novels when I was younger.  I was excited to see an attempt at adapting them to the big screen and hoped that big-name actors such as Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey would end up presenting a good, if not great, film.

Unfortunately the studio, director and writers decided to cram as much of several of the books into a single 98 minute film.  Time was spent on details that would only please the hardcore book nerds at the expense of the overall story.  For example, there is a reference to the Crimson King but nothing is made of it.

I think the biggest mistake was trying to make the film the story of Jake, probably for the YA audience demographic, instead of focusing on Roland.  Other characters were missing (Oy, the billy-bummer) yet still alluded to.

If you had not read any of the Dark Tower series the film is not bad in itself.  It’s just not the story I grew up reading and that’s a difficult thing to ignore.

I’ll get over it.

“Climate change is a hoax” MY ASS!

100 degrees F on June 10 in Colorado
“Climate change is a hoax” MY ASS!

So. June 10 in the Denver metro area. 100 degrees Fahrenheit. What. The. Hell?

I suppose I need to add a “Global Warming” category to the taxonomy for the site.

Looks Like Somebody Took A Nap On My Delivery, Literally

Wow, UPS. I guess it’s a good thing this box doesn’t contain anything fragile, like lightbulbs.

Oh, wait, that’s exactly what is inside.

I suppose most of the blame belongs to Home Depot for not marking the box “fragile”.

While nothing appears broken on first glance I will have to open each individual item and test them to ensure everything works.

A Cautionary Tale

If I had known how desirable my Apple ID email address is, I would have put it up for sale.

After talking to Apple Support it appears somebody tried to have my Apple ID reset earlier today. Luckily, I set up two-factor authentication and set up an alternate email address for any notifications about altering my account.

Same As It Ever Was

Windows_8.1_-_Parallels_Desktop
I upgraded to Parallels 9.0 yesterday when it was announced and have been starting up each of my virtual machines to allow the newest version of Parallels Tools to install in them. Windows 7 and XP both upgraded fine, as did my CentOS linux VM… unfortunately my Windows 8.1 image wouldn’t start with the error above: “PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA”. Okay — I guess I will search the internet for a clue about exactly what that means.

Yes, Microsoft’s famous “blue screen of death” is no longer a darker blue, it’s now sky blue with the classy (and very business-like) emoticon for a frown. Reminds me of the “Sad Mac” icon from a couple of decades ago:

6a0115713419e0970c017eeafda4cc970d-800wi