not your father's shrew

Went to see the Fenix Theater Company's rendition of Taming of the Shrew last night in Deering Oaks Park. Taming of the Shrew is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays and I was a bit concerned that it might not be the same as the Burton/Taylor version I had seen when I was much younger.

It wasn't. Not better, not worse as they say just different. And what a marvelous difference it was. Director Sally Wood has put together a cast that had me smiling all the way through. Bryant Mason and Ian Carlson were awesome as Petrucio and his servant. Katerina terrified the cast as her shrewish self.

One of my problem's with this particular play of Shakespeare's, as much as I love it, is that Petrucio and Katerina always blow me away so that I forget the rest of the story. I mean they get most of the great lines "my tongue in your tail" oh yeah. Still the rest of the cast did manage to hold it's own and there are a few surprises in store for the patrons that show up.

It is a great play and well worth trundling down to the Oaks Thursday to see it.

It's by the wading pool, bring some chairs and a blanket or two to keep warm.

nvidia update not quite right

The nvidia graphics card that came with my computer keeps getting an update. That update keeps causing my monitor to blink. So much that I can't work. I have to power off the computer and restart it in safe mode. Then I go into device manager and uninstall the card. Restart, windows finds it reinstalls the driver, restarts, and I'm good to go.

I keep hoping that the newest update will take care of the problem but it doesn't seem to. Yet another reason to view updates before installing them, cause I'm not going to install another nvidia update for another six months.

saving foreclosure shouldn't be an afterthought

OK so I was listening to this video



and it sounded like congress is on the right track, but it also sounded like saving the homeowner that is about to be kicked out of his house was not quite as non-negotiable as the rest.

Check it out. Even if the government ends up owning a lot of real estate, it's real estate so it will continue to increase in value.

This is going to take a long time to set itself right. A long term investment is going to be needed. Part of that investment needs to be in the home owner that is trying to raise a family.

bank bailout, how bout homeowner help

I just read of a proposal by Bush for a huge bailout fund for failing banks that own bad mortgages. If it is to be enacted, I'm not sure the money should go to the banks, certainly not as principle plus interest.

Seems to me that it's not a bad idea but that the funds should go to the owners of the homes esp if the house is the primary residence.

That way the banks get their money and no one is thrown out of their house.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Course if it were to be enacted we'd probably have to stop spending quite so much on things like the war in Iraq but I digress.

No longer shopping at bestbuy

So my computer crashed hard the other day. I had hoped that I would get the chance to choose my time to purchase another computer but life has a way of inserting its own timeline.

I went to best buy online and found the computer that I wanted and called up the local store. They didn't have it. But I needed a computer right away and I knew they had a price match guarantee. So I went and purchased an HP. It's nice and I love how much faster it is than my old box.

On Sunday, I looked in the circulars and found that not only Circuit City but Staples both had the same computer package on sale for less after rebate. So today I hopped in my car with the circulars and my receipt in hand and went to the best buy store. Turns out that they don't honor prices that are lower after rebate. They would rather have me return the equipment and purchase it somewhere else and lose me as a customer than honor a rebate offer from another store.

Well, it worked. They've lost me as a customer. I hope they lose you, too. At the very least, make sure you check out Circuit City's prices before you buy. Yeah the rebate forms a pain but some of them are quite large.

tcahf

UPDATE 9/20/08
The computer went on sale the next week at Best Buy but with a different more hi-end printer. I went back and asked for a refund. They said that they couldn't do it because it had a different printer. I asked for the manager and asked if I could bring in the other printer and swap it out for the new printer and get the refund. Yes, sort of, but they didn't have the new printer in stock.

What ended up happening is that over the course of the next week I brought in the old printer which I had never opened. They returned the entire package, I bought the new package with the new printer and gave me $60 back.

Still seems a rather cumbersome process and I'm not absolutely certain I'll shop at best buy certainly not without checking other places first. But I did get a cheaper computer, which I really like. It's not quad core but it is so much faster than my old one.

divorce sucks

Well it seems that people are actually starting to look here again. Expecting
Nu Haiku

Well here you go

got no cash looking
work escapes me I am here
interview, no joy

Once again I'm looking for a game

Check out Http://www.halfbeard.net It's my attempt at a sponsor for a world series of poker run.