Wayne D's Blog

I generally don't watch a new TV show during it's first season. I have been disappointed in the past when I really got to like a new show only to have it cancelled. I warned my wife but she decided to show caution to the wind and watch Smith, it was cancelled after three episodes. This year I decided to break my rule decided to start watching Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip. I really liked The West Wing and Studio Sixty if from Aaron Sorkin who also created The West Wing. I wasn't disappointed, it's a great show but I have been reading that the rating have dropped in each of the three weeks it's been on the air. Evidently NBC has ordered a firm thirteen episodes.


I watched CSI:Miami for a little while when it first started but soon tired of  David Caruso's  constant intensity. Kim Delany couldn't stand it either and bailed after 10 episodes. The final straw was when Emily Procter left the show at the end of the second season. I was a fan of hers when she was on The West Wing but even she couldn't moderate the glowering Caruso enough to make the show watchable for me.


I would like to urge you to give Studio Sixty a test watch. Try watching two episodes, it may take you a while to warm up to the characters. If you are Canada and have access to a U.S. proxy server you can download the previous episode and watch it at your leisure on your PC. If not learning how to use a peer to peer program might be worth your while. If you have no other reason to watch at least tune in to see how they hide Amanda Peets rapdily expanding midriff. The wardrobe gyrations remind me of Shelley Long and Rhea Perlman on Cheers hiding behind trays and the bar during their pregnancies.


On a side note, Sting was on this week's show performing music from his new album "Songs from the Labyrinth". Very nice, give it a listen if you get a chance. The NPR website has a interview and some song samples here.

Or it takes them a while. A few weeks ago my wife forgot to watch Survivor and went to the U.S. network website to watch the show she missed. Unfortunately when someone from outside the U.S. ties to access the U.S. network site they get a message saying that only residents of the U.S. can watch. Peer to peer networks have been full of TV shows for quite some time and the U.S. TV networks have responded by either making there shows available for purchase from itunes or for free on their websites. For most shows Canadian's have the option of either finding out how to set up a U.S. proxy or learning how to use peer to peer to get the content. The Canadian rights holders are encouraging people to take the effort to learn how to bypas the legal content distribution channels by not providing one. In the process they are missing the opportunity to market to these viewers. If people get used to downloading their content from the Internet they won't bother to video tape the shows they want to watch  and viewer numbers will decrease. Less viewers means less money from advertisers.


SunTV in Toronto was showing season two of Veronica Mars over the summer. They decided to skip the last four episodes of the season to allow them to start showing the season three episodes in sync with the U.S. network. What do you fans of the show thought of that? On their website they say they will show the remaining episodes at some undetermined time in the future. The funny thing is that they doubled up on shows, showing two episodes on consecutive nights when they first started broadcasting season two but decided not to do that at the end of the season leaving the story arc for the season unresolved. How many people do you think ended up downloading those episodes?


It should be easier to buy what you want to watch than to steal it.

Bugger, I wrote half of this thing and Seamonkey crashed before I saved it. Let's see if I can remember what I wrote.


Last Sunday my brothers and sisters and their respective families went to Lonestar for lunch to celebrate my two oldest sons confirmation. The woman who led us to our table told us that our server's name was Corona. When Corona came to take our drink order I couldn't resist asking her whether her mother had called her Corona. She replied, not surprisingly,  that Corona was her server name. I didn't ask but I wondered if the wait staff in the restaurant adopted server names to protect their privacy, whether the company wanted them to use a name that reflected the Tex-Mex theme of the restaurant, whether the company recycled their uniform jerseys when staff turned over or whether it was just easier to not reprogram the restaurant's food and beverage system with new names. I guess I'll never know, irregardless, Corona treated us very well and we had a great time.


For the past ten years or so I have been playing NTN trivia on Tuesday nights with a bunch have guys that has remained pretty much constant over the years. Since I started we have had to change bars once due to an ownership and them change, before I arrived I think they changed bars a couple of times. One of the side effects of going to the same place every week is that you get to know the bar staff by name. The Tuesday after my visit to Lonestar I was late because I had a meeting at the church. In our rush to get everyone organized and off to lunch on the Sunday we had neglected to take the flowers from the alter that had been given to us to commemorate the boy's confirmation. I put the flowers in the car and headed straight to the bar.


When I arrived I decided to bring the flowers in with me and distribute them. On my way in I gave one to the security guy and the manager on duty whose names I will omit to protect their privacy. The security guy gave the flower he picked, which was a daisy, to one of the wait staff who was also our server for the evening. She took my beer order and when she came to the table to deliver it she was wearing the daisy in her hair. I asked her whether the name she gave us when we asked was her real name or her server name. Over the years we have found that when you treat the people who bring your food and drink like human beings they really appreciate it. I was surprised to find one night that another group who had been coming to the bar for at least three years didn't bother to For a second she looked at me as if I was from the moon before saying "of course it's my real name". I quickly explained the story of Corona and she decided that she was going to take Daisy as her server name. The other female server who was working that night took her flower into the kitchen to give to one of the cooks. She then came back and asked if she could have another one because the other guy in the kitchen was jealous because he didn't get one.


The moral of the story, if you aren't going to bring the wait staff flowers at least take the time to call them by name, and if they treat you well, tip them appropriately. To compliment the daisy theme of this posting I have included a couple of daisy pictures. If you are reading this on www.wdawe.com you have to go here to see the other daisy picture. To ensure there is no misunderstanding, the picture of Daisy to the right is Daisy Fuentes not Daisy the server.

I know you are all dying to find out what happened in my search for shoes. No need to wait any longer. My quest was actuallyu completed last Monday evening but I've been too busy to let you know of the outcome of my quest. Last Monday evening I girded my loins and headed off to Vaughan Mills the mega mall located close to where I work. I arrived at about 6:15 p.m. and about two hours and nine shoe stores later I left with a new pair of black Sketcher running shoes. Before making my selection I visited Foot Locker and found that the same Timberland shoes I had found at Hillcrest and coveted so were also only available up to size 10.5 there too. The Timberland store had a similar style but they weren't close enough to satisfy me. I tried on a pair of shoes at Ecco but the toes were a little too wide, found a pair that almost satified my requirements in Town Shoe Outlet but the toes were too shiny. Also visited were Sketchers, Soft Moc, Nike and Reebok stores.


I finally ended up at Shoe Factory where I almost bought a pair of shoes, the brand name of which escape me.  They looked nice on the shelf but when I tried them on there was no way I could get my feet into them even though they were supposed to be size 12. There were no size 13's available in that style of course. After trying on a pair of Nike Airs I settled on a pair of black leather shoes with a retro sneaker look. Picture of new shoes above, old shoes below. Click on the picture for a bigger version.

As promised here is my picture with the six string nation guitar. Click on the image to see the full size version.