'My Way Home' Connection

As mentioned here, I was watching Christmas Vacation tonight on TBS. At the part where Clark gives his boss a present, only to be told to "put it with the others," I was reminded of a particular episode of Scrubs. In this episode, My Way Home, Turk tries to bribe his way into an operation by giving Dr. Kelso a Dr. Kelso Bobble-head doll. Kelso winds up pointing to all the other doctors behind Turk, who had come there before him to do the same thing. (If you've seen both these scenes, you'll know what I mean.)

About an hour or so later, I watched three episodes of Scrubs on WGN, (and CW). One of the episodes, on WGN, was "My Way Home."

Connections:

"My Way Home" episode: from memory to reality

Sneezes

I was feeding Zander today, or last night, or something like that (the days seem to run together sometimes) thinking to myself "How will I explain it when he asks me one day why we say Bless You when someone sneezes?"

Thankfully, the answer was on yahoo! news today, in their question and answer section. I wasn't even looking for it, it was right there on the front page!

Here's what they had to say: http://answers.yahoo.com/...

1408 Connection

Watched the movie 1408 last night, a spooky movie about an evil hotel room. After the movie was done I went down and played some Warcraft. After doing some daily quests for money, I checked a mod I have installed that keeps track of gold for all my characters. The total was, you guessed it, 1408.

Birth Dates Connection

Mandiejolander came into town on Saturday. She wanted me to text her my phone number for her to call when she was ready to head out for a couple beers with the group. I sent her a text but it doesn't always work on my phone. I ended up calling her just to make sure.

Later as I was talking to her about it, she looked on her phone to see if she got it and noticed a blank text message from "unknown" at 8:22, which is her birthday. I looked at my phone and the time I sent my text message at 8:28. She asked me what time my phone said compared to hers to see if they were 6 minutes off. I looked at the time on my phone which was 10:29, my birthday.

'1603' Connection

OK, now this one is kinda cool... It starts out a little dryly, but please give it a chance - it's worth it.

I'm at work yesterday morning, continuing my efforts to create an SMS package for deploying Symantec Anti-Virus to all of our computers, replacing our previous A/V product, Sophos Anti-Virus. (I don't like it, I'm just following orders.) Anyway, I'm using SMS Installer to create a wrapper application that then spawns the Symantec install. If an error is encountered, it logs it. I'm testing the process using my non-administrative account, so, permissions lacking, errors are definitely encountered. In this case, the error was 1603, which, according to Windows XP's "NET HELPMSG 1603", corresponds with a "Fatal error during installation."

Fast forward a bit in the day to after ku came in and asked me to help him move some network switches around in the wiring closets. Thirty-eight minutes later, as I'm back at my desk logging the time spent helping him out, I ask him (jokingly), "so what budget code do I use to charge <his state agency> for my time?" "I dunno," he says, shrugging. "1603?" he says sarcastically, blurting out the first random thing that came into his head. I instantly stopped what I was doing and turned to look at him. "Why did you say that?" I asked. He could tell that he'd said something extraordinary. "Why? Is this a blog moment?" he asked.

Well, of course, it was. You see, he had no idea of the work I'd been doing, or the errors I had been receiving. "1603" wouldn't have even been a valid code. Something like "ETDS-US" or even "100-ETNK-8314-ETDV" or something equally ridiculous would have been more like it. I showed him one of the log files that my testing had created:

*** Installation Started 09/12/2007 10:20:55 ***
Title: Symantec Anti-Virus Installation
Source: <Server>\Package Source\Symantec Corporation\Symantec Anti-Virus\10.1.6000.6\SymantecAV.exe
Uninstall MIF: unSymAV.mif
Manufacturer: Symantec Corporation
Product: Symantec Anti-Virus
Version Number: 10.1.6000.6
Serial Number: SMS Installer

Installing "Symantec" Component:
   Secondary Source: <Server>\Package Source\Symantec Corporation\Symantec Anti-Virus\10.1.6000.6
   PROCEXITCODE: 1603
   Component Installation Completed 09/12/2007 10:21:24 AM

*** Installation Completed 09/12/2007 10:21:25 AM ***

And yes, I looked at my screen after he had said it to make sure that I didn't have "1603" up anywhere for him to see, even subconsciously.

Pretty cool, huh?

Friends Connections

Was watching an episode of friends while at the hospital, and the inevitable commercials hit. The last commericial before the show comes back is a game for Nintendo DS. As that ends, a quick "This episode of Friends, brought to you by" intro comes on. The Friends logo is split up with the FRIE on the left of the cast while the NDS is on the right. There is the connection.

'Vincent Price' Connection

Last night I was watching Simpsons episodes with the family. The last episode we watched was Sunday, Cruddy Sunday. At the end of the episode, I discussed who some of the voices were, as I am prone to do. Fred Willard guest starred in this episode, but there was also a Vincent Price reference/character. My daughter BP asked me who Vincent Price was and I tried to explain. As it turns out, she remembered him from Edward Scissorhands.

Now here's the connection... After Simpsons episodes, I did various things around the house. When I was finally ready to go to sleep, I went to turn the TV off when what should I see playing but Dragonwyck, starring none other than Vincent Price.

Olivia D'Abo Connection

So I have finally got my blogger password reset thank to my wife. Yesterday I posted on my blog about watching Batman Beyond and being amazed at the list of people who contributed their voices to the show. I also listed all the names that I recognized.

Now a couple names I recognized were ones that maybe not everyone would recognize, (like Miguel Sandoval) or ones I did recognize but off the top of my head I couldn't remember what they were in. (specifically I thought of Olivia D'Abo) I promised myself that I would look some of those up at a later time.

Fast Forward to a few hours later and I decided to catch up on some shows on my DVR. Since I had three Eureka shows saved, I started watching those. At the start of the second show, who else is in it, but Olivia D'Abo, playing the ex-wife of the main character.

On a side note, I recognized Oliva D'Abo's name from Conan the Destroyer!

'Céline Dion/Titanic' Connection

I watched Titanic on DVD tonight with the kids. It was the first time they'd seen it, and only the second time I'd seen it. The first time was a long time ago. When it ended, I was looking for something to watch on TV, and finally rested on Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, (MXC), on Spike. It was an episode with Las Vegas vs. Sesame Street. At one point, when they were doing some sort of Roulette game, the announcers were talking about Céline Dion. One of them said something like, "I'd rather take a ride on the Titanic than to hear her sing about it."

Connections:

Dual references to Céline Dion and Titanic

The Downtown Connection

While watching Lost last night, a commercial for Visa with the song "Downtown" by Petula Clark came on. My wife and I were talking about the song, and I mentioned that there was a funny bit on Seinfeld about that song (Everything has a tie to Seinfeld). And I commented at the time about how I could post about it on this blog if it came on.

After Lost I totally forgot to check the night's eipsode. When I got home from work today, Seinfeld was on and I mentioned to my wife that I forgot to see if the "Downtown" episode was on the night before. Sure enough , the episode The Bottle Deposit was currently on.

As a nice little extra bonus connection, during a commercial break of the Downtown episode, I couldn't remember what the commercial was selling, so we went into the other room to look it up on the internet. Right as the wiki page came up for the song "Downtown", we could hear that commercial on the TV in the other room.

And for a third, weaker connection, the Wiki page also had a listing for the song in this year's season premiere of Lost, the show(not the episode) we were watching that started it all.

You're So Glib

I was watching an episode of Dawson's Creek, and Joey (Katie Holmes) calls her college tour guide glib. The episode aired in 1999.

Fast forward to June 2005. Tom Cruise (Katie Holmes' then-fiance, now-husband) gets into an argument with Matt Lauer, and calls him glib.

I think those are the only two times I've ever heard the word used.

Monday Night TV Connections

My wife and I watch a few shows on Monday night's lineup. Tonight before the prime time lineup starts, we were watching a couple of old Friends episodes.

The first one was titled, "The One with Ross's Inappropriate Song". In it, Phoebe was meeting Mike's parent's for the first time. One of Mike's parents was played by Gregory Itzin, who plays President Logan on 24, a show on Monday night. Also a disgraced Logan was central to the night's show. The mother was played by Cristine Rose, who plays Angela Petrelli, mother to two main characters on Heroes, also a Monday night show. She also plays Mrs. Mosby on another Monday night show, How I met your Mother.

The second Friends episode was titled, "The One with Ross' Teeth" In this episode, Ross bleaches his teeth really bright on a first date. His date was played by Missi Pyle, who had a role on Heroes.

And finally, Rena Sofer, who plays Jack Bauer's sister-in-law on 24, also plays Heidi Petrelli on Heroes. She was also on an episode of Seinfeld, which played last night after the Oscar's. That is of course on Sunday night, but the Oscar's ran late, as usual, and Seinfeld ran past midnight, giving it a Monday connection.

'Be Al(l)' Connection

This morning, as I was heading in to work, I was listening to WOLX, a local "olides" radio station. (I had turned off WJJO because, they're one of those stations that loves to hear themselves talk in the morning. Um, hello...that's not why I listen to the radio!) Anyway, at one point during the drive, they were playing The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City." During one part of the song, the lyrics go:

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

As the lyrics played, "it'll be alright," I looked at the license plate ahead of me which read: BEALL 02.

Connections:

"BEALL" license plate noticed in front of me, while "be al(right)" played on the radio

'Scrubs/IMDb' Connection(s)

I watched the usual block of Scrubs this evening. We were watching something on TLC from 10:00 to 11:00, so I didn't get to watch the 10:30 episode on WGN, channel 13, but saw the 11:00 episode on WGN, and the 11:30 episode on The CW, channel 15. The 11:00 episode was My New Old Friend, from Jan 2003, and the 11:30 episode was My Friend the Doctor, from Dec 2003. ("Friend" in both titles.) In the former, there is a scene where the Janitor steals some of J.D.'s scrubs to pretend to be a doctor at his son's class' career day. Later, J.D. envisions the Janitor telling the class that his name is "Dr. Jan Itor." In the latter episode, there was a part where J.D. sees the Janitor in a scene from The Fugitive. Of course this made me wonder whether or not Neil Flynn had really been in the movie, or if it was something they "doctored up," (no pun intended), for Scrubs. To the Web! Specifically, IMDb. Search for Scrubs, then follow the Neil Flynn link. Sure enough, he was in the movie. While on Neil's page, I decided to look at his bio/trivia. One piece of trivia states the following:

His "Scrubs" (2001) character has been named only possibly twice. In episode #3x08, "My Friend the Doctor," it is revealed that the Janitor played the part of "Transit cop" in The Fugitive (1993), a part that was actually played by Neil Flynn. Because of that, fans have speculated that the Janitor's mysterious name is also Neil Flynn. In another episode (in one of J.D.'s fantasies), the janitor is talking to his son's class in school and refers to himself as Jan Ítor.

(It goes on to mention that the Janitor refers to himself by that name in thought in another episode.) So, it just so happens, that the two unrelated episodes aired on two separate stations, happen to be the two that share a connection of the Janitor's mysterious unknown name.

Connections:

Two separate Scrubs episodes on two channels, each with "Friend" in the title

Above episodes happen to be the 2 that shed some possible insight into the Janitor's name

'Circle/Slash' Connection

I was working tonight on an acquaintance's computer: backing up data, installing Windows XP, restoring data, etc. Well, of course, those that know me would know that I would set up the main profile of that machine as a non-Administrator, and tell this family that they should only use the Administrator account when absolutely necessary, (i.e. installing software, etc.) So I thought, "I should change the default Welcome screen icon for the Administrator account to something like a red circle with a slash through it to help warn them to stay out of the profile. I did a quick search for that graphic in Google and found a match. I saved that graphic to the hard drive and made that the profile icon associated with the Administrator account. A Few seconds later, I looked over the monitor into the living room, where I still had the TV on from earlier. It was now late night programming when all the crappy "Paid Programming" comes on, (oh my freaking God do I hate when that happens!!!) So, this particular commercial was for an acne product of some kind, but it showed an image of a red circle with a slash through it super-imposed over someones acne-riddled face.

Connections:

Two different instances of the red circle with a slash image around a minute apart

Um...

I don't know why, but the thought went through my head not 5 minutes ago that a co-worker was going to be sick and wouldn't be in work tonight. He would email another co-worker saying "I'm letting you know just in case the boss isn't in."

Just now, my co-worker said to me "I just got an email from M. He's got the flu. He emailed me in case the boss wasn't working."

What the hell is that???

Promising Movie?

I saw a teaser trailer on TV tonight for a new movie, The Number 23, starring Jim Carrey. It looked pretty cool, and right up my alley. Then I checked out a longer trailer. Looks a bit more freaky than the teaser made it seem, but still feel like it's gonna be a "must see." See what you think...

UPDATE(s):

• 20070124 - Very interesting... I was going to post an update stating that this morning I was realizing how particularly apropos this movie might be for me, as my favorite two numbers are 2 and 3. When I launched Internet Explorer to blog, it came up to my default home page, (haven't bothered to change it from the OEM default). When I looked at the cycling headlines, I was confronted with the following text:

  The Tax We Hate the Most: Now 23 Million Will Have to Pay AMT...

  Ya' see that?!? 23?!?

A Couple Connections

Where've I been?

Well, I've still had a few connections over the past couple months. I just haven't had a chance to blog about it. But trust me, the world hasn't suddenly stopped throwing these little "situations" at us. Many of them, however, still come from the media. I once had a discussion with someone about how many of these connections seem to come from watching TV, etc.

Anyway, now on to two connections that came about while I watched TV this evening.

I was speaking with The Donald today at work about rheumatoid arthritis, (RA). Then tonight, I saw a commercial for Humira, an RA treatment.

Later on at work today, I was talking briefly with mjl about Underworld. Guess what I watched on TBS tonight? Yep, Underworld.

Connections:

Dual references to rheumatoid arthritis

Dual references to Underworld

Ramble on...

A friend and co-worker of mine were finishing our work day with a discussion of the magical music from the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin. I know, you're saying "So Fricken What - What's your point?"

So, tell my co-worker I would see him tomorrow and prepare to leave. I grab my leather racing jacket, don my driving gloves, and sprint out to my late model, fuel injected, aerodynamic, built for speed, seats 7, MINI-VAN. I buckle myself into my 3 point harness seat belt for the ride of a lifetime home. I fire up all 6 cylinders, and she's growling like a cheetah hungry for her next prey. I check my mirrors, place this hot rod in gear, turn on the radio, and place my hands at 10 and 2, and begin the defensive driving experience home... I know, I know, get on with it....

The third song I heard on the radio was from Led Zeppelin! You know I was "Ramlin on", all the way home.

The Donald

Chipmunks/Randy Quaid Connection

Saturday night, we flip on the start of SNL, their Christmas show. Justin Timberlake is the musical guest/host, and he is singing The Chipmunks Christmas Song with, of course, The Chipmunks.
Fast forward to Sunday evening...we put in the movie The Ice Harvest with John Cusack (Randy Quaid also has a part). It happens to take place on Christmas Eve. At one point in the movie, The Chipmunks Christmas Song is playing on John Cusack's stereo.
That movie is over...and we're flipping channels. Ah, I've never seen Nat'l Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, so we turn that on. Who is in that movie? None other than Randy Quaid.
It's like 6 degrees of The Chipmunks or something...