Wednesday's Childe

Slept real well last night, chalk it up to the Irish cream liquor. 4 oz of that and at midnight I decided to forgo the champagne and German chocolate cake until tonight. Also need to think about someplace nice to take myself for dinner. Traditionally I either have brisket or lobster, but then again traditionally I also Get Lucky™ on my birthday, but that doesn't look like it's gonna happen this year.
:-(

Stopped off at the apartment office on the way to work, picked up two small packages from UPS. Stuff I'd bought online - a new mobile phone manager program which works over bluetooth, and a set of SATA hard drive data connectors,( boring stuff cut )

Had a rude shock this morning when Quicken downloaded a $146 Amex charge I could not account for. Figured out it was for a spare hard drive I'd tried to order online but the browser crashed before I could get a confirmation, and I did not get email either.

Doing a boring but necessary test at work. Take an 8-hour recording on the PVR, and FF to 10 minutes before the end, press "play" and see if it plays ok. Then RW to 10 minutes from the start, and do the same. First RW test froze (audio continued to play but video stuck on a single frame). Need to do this 10 times before I am satisfied I have a legit idea of how often it happens. At 25x FF/RW, each iteration takes about 18 minutes. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Major cashectomy coming up. I need to get a bank check for the new apartment, which amounts to more than 2x the monthly rent, thanks to a $900 pet deposit and not only is the rent for the week between move-in and Dec 1 due, but also December's rent as well. And the movers want cash or a money order, and minus the $150 deposit that looks like it will be about $600. Won't know till the job is done since it's hourly. My savings account will not be happy. It is times like these when I wish I had children, so I could sell them to the Gypsies. Oh wait -- I am the Gypsies! Never mind.

The Fremont Athletics? The Santa Clara 49ers?

How about a name change? The A's have a long history of moves with the same name, it's a generic name and while it's a pretty stupid one when you come to think about it, I guess they can keep it. The city of Fremont isn't known for anything, there would be no name I can think of which would capture its spirit. If it even has one.. Maybe The Trailblazers, which is what John C. Fremont was, back in the day, would be okay. Somehow The Fremont Cartographers just doesn't pack the same punch.

The 49ers, on the other hand, is a name attached to The City, and Santa Clara/Silicon Valley was not a part of that history. If the team moves to techville, it needs a techie name. Techie but sporty. The Santa Clara Silicons? Nah. The Chippers? Too much like the Clippers. The VC's? That would work, until some sportswriter cretin screwed it all up by expanding the abbreviation out to its full spelling. The Rockets? Maybe, thought NASA here is known more for its software than hardware scientists. The Mars rovers have a deep tie to NASA Ames, but calling the team The Rovers would hit too close to home when they moved. I know -- the stadium is planned for what is now the Great America parking lot. What better name for a football team these days than The Americans? Sure, Silly Valley is probably 80% H1B holders and their families, but football is the last American sport where the players are overwhelmingly natives.

Edit Add: Looked it up. The A's started in 1901 in Philly, moved to Kansas City in 1955 and on to Oakland in '68.

Not So Shameless Plug

Stanford Savoyards presents Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer in Bollywood style (extravagant India all--singing-all-dancing theme) this weekend. This is the final two shows. November 18 at 8 pm and November 19 at 2:30 pm.

Details are right here under your clicker.

I really wanted to work backstage on this show, but job and moving foo made time fly like Einstein's arrow, and I missed out on the fun. I will try to see it Sunday, if I have enough of my packing done.