Things To Make and Do

February 12, 2004

Duncan's Law of Diminishingly Random TV Scheduling.

My law states that every time you tune in to watch a TV show you like that's been around for a while, you're more likely to see an episode that you have seen many, many times rather than one that you have seen very few times.

For example. Bravo are showing re-runs of The West Wing. Seasons 2 in the morning, Season 4 in the evening.

You'd think that I would get to see a good variety of the 44 episodes in those two seasons. But no. Instead I see the same six or seven episodes over and over again.

The same can be said of Friends. There's over 150 episodes to possibly see and yet...I still get the same eight. Seinfeld, ditto. King of the Hill, The Simpsons, also true. Angel, ST:TNG, CSI...yep...

I think it works like this:

You have a number of possible episodes to sit and watch. Some you have seen and some you haven't and there's the one you're currently watching. So when you sit and watch an episode, instead of removing that episode from the field of potential next episodes, a *different* episode is removed and the one you just saw is re-included in the field of potential next episodes. So, the more you watch, the greater the opportunity to see the one you just saw is.

If anyone has a similar experience, can write the formula or suggest a remedy for this phenomenon, please tell me.





February 01, 2004

So I have nothing really in the way of work stuff except that there's a new girl at work who is a lazy fucker. I seem to spend all my time yelling at her to do things and, oh, telling her that saying "shit" in front of customers is not acceptable. It seems strange that anyone, of any age, wouldn't know that swearing at customers is a no-no. Also, telling a fellow (white) employee that they have a "blaccent" when they use ebonic phrasing. Okay, so some of it is going to be youthful exuberance, some will be a little lack of awareness...but...for fuck's sake, ascribing a dialect to a color is, for the larger part, racist. Even if the intention is innocent, the execution is stupid and potentially very offensive.

Today was Superbowl day. If there was ever any doubt that I have the best wife ever, just check Jen's blog for the list of goodies she made for me to snack on while I watched the game. On top of that there was beer and bourbon. And the game...? Well, the highlights are on my sportsblog.

And now I'm watching Scarface....does life get better than this...?

I'm thinking not.