That was some link. I hadn't heard of Paul Bernardo, and ended up reading all 15 chapters between meetings today. How sick.

Thank you all for the lighter topics of weekend plans. As a non-Canadian, many places (Upper Canada Village) are another set of mysteries to me, but the idea of a weekend off is universal. Yay for mandated short (5 day) weeks! It's the first time Mr. Kate and I will have a weekend at home alone without either of us working since we've been married. I think I'm going to cook something nice.

Labral-I've been there. My youngest furkid has super strong prey drive and is very fast on her feet. She's caught birds, moles and the occasional rabbit. Fortunately (I know that sounds terrible but I don't know how to describe it any other way) she's very efficient and kills them right away once she's got them, the animals don't suffer at all and some of them do get away. The last rabbit she got I told her to drop and leave and to my amazement she did it. I've really worked hard on her 'leave it' command and it was great that she was able to do it in such a situation.

My older dog caught a bunny once, it screamed and scared him so badly he dropped it and ran under the deck. That was hilarious as he's a 100lb rottie.
Word must have gotten out in the neighborhood as we've not seen any rabbits or other small furry things this summer at all.
My husband got me a rabbit fur coat this year for xmas-I have to put it on in the garage or Clio tries to eat it.

I am headed to Toronto and Collingwood for the long weekend. I can't wait! And when I get back, only three more days of this shit job until I have a week off and start my new one at Foreign Affairs! (Yes, I live in Ottawa too....)

I went to the University of Toronto and (reluctantly) took many courses at the Scarberia campus. That is also the campus Paul Bernardo attended (but I was there long after him). He is widely assumed to have been the Scarborough Rapist, although I'm not sure it was ever confirmed. Anyways, there is a long staircase leading up to the campus, and then a path through a wooded area. There is a sign at the start of the path that reads: "Warning: Assaults Have Taken Place On This Path."

The little imp in me always wanted to take a Sharpie and write "Paul Bernardo was here."

Thanks for the info, AnneH. What a sick bastard he is.

It was confirmed that Bernardo was the Scarborough rapist. His last rape was on the grounds of my high school! (Agincourt Collegiate)

No wonder you moved to Stouffville.

We only have gangs (in the Stouffville sense of the word) roaming Main Street at night!

I didn't think Canada had those kind of sickos. I thought we only had them here in America. And on a slightly related note, after seeing 'Fahrenheit 9/11' a few weeks ago, I finally rented 'Bowling for Columbine.' One of the most interesting parts was the comparison between Canadians and Americans. For example, all the Canadians kept saying "we never lock our doors." He didn't believe them, so he started trying random houses, and sure enough, most were unlocked. He surprised a few people who were home at the time. He made America look crazy and paranoid in comparison.

This is a response to Zron's post in the spitballing' thread, but I'm saying it here because it's very OT: Because I have no life whatsoever, I just quizzed myself on whether I could name all the teams from all the seasons. I missed one team every year*. I'm very disappointed in myself.

*For season 2, I got them all except for the names of one team: "The meatheads, the 'Rambler's Roost' Guys, the ones who won the frikking thing! What are their names! Ahhhh!" I finally gave up and checked the recaps. Chris & Alex. Duh.

That part of the movie showed me that Michael Moore was full of crap. First of all, he interviewed people in Sarnia, which has a population of like 2 people. (Ok, I'm exaggerating, but it's not a big city.) And when he interviewed those people in Toronto who said they didn't lock their doors:

1) They were sitting at an outdoor cafe in downtown Toronto in the middle of the day, which is a pretty clear indication that they were tourists and weren't even from Toronto

2) You know he must have asked 5000 people before he finally found someone who said they didn't lock their doors

3) If you didn't lock your doors in Toronto, you would come home and your house would be gone.

Bottom line, Michael Moore makes interesting movies but he's just as full of crap as the people he makes movies about.

O/T - That Paul Bernardo lawyer is here right now and, yes, he's skeevy.

They do actually show him going up to a couple of houses and opening the doors and the people are home. So I think it is fair to say that people may leave their doors unlocked when they are at home, but lock them when they are out or asleep. That's pretty common in my experience.

Ok, those lawyers have the boardroom door open right now and I can hear them discussing some things and apparently they are representing the guy accused of murdering Cecilia Zhang. Seriously? I hate my job as it is but if I have to start dealing with this disgusting crap, I'm going to go insane. Also? This is a high-profile case...maybe they should CLOSE THE DAMNED DOOR while they discuss it.

And not unique to Canada, either, which kind of negates his whole point.

I do take his delivery with a huge grain of salt, but there's usually a message underneath all the exaggerations and oversimplifications.

Hypothetically speaking, if you walk into an unlocked house in Canada unannounced, you are less likely to be shot than if you walked into an unlocked house in the United States. I think he's still harping on the "we have fewer guns and less violence" plot point.

We still do have our Paul Bernardo's, but a lot fewer random gun deaths.

kitelady Thanks for the 'support'. it was really disqusting and pretty sad, but I do understand that it's life. This is only the fourth bunny they've killed....you'd think the rabbits would get the message, but noooooooooo. Both pups seem to be fine, so no harm there, I guess. I came home from lunch and a city truck was parked in front of my house (he was doing work elsewhere), so I asked him what to do with the remains and he took them!! I was all "YAY!!!! It doesn't have to sit in front of my garage until Wednesday (garbage day)!!!!!" What a nice guy.

HE also told me what to do to get the city to fix my drainage ditch. When we get a lot of rain, and then it freezes, I can ice skate on a 30ft x 5ft skating rink!!

I think he was going more for a the US media creates fear point. It's so true, too. Especially during sweeps. If I watch all the promos for the local news during sweeps and took them seriously, I'd think my dishwasher could kill me. Our news feeds on viewers' fears to get ratings.

Roger and Me was classic. Pets or Meat started a decline. Now he's just (IMO) a stick in the sand for something I call "the extreme middle". At least on The Daily Show he bluntly said F/911 was his view, full stop.

I won't hand out my address or anything, but my door is not locked and if I were to fall asleep and find in the morning that I forgot to lock it, I'd just go "hmmm.., must have forgotten". And I'm in a state that is known for it's crazies and violence. If you hear about a weirdo-must-be-an-urban-legend-ohmigod-it's-really-true?? story, good chance it's either in Cal. or here.

Er, New Hampshire?

Jpgr, this might be too late, but for some reason when they check your bag at the gate you don't go back through security. At least that's been my experience going thru airports in the Northeast. I suppose they presume that your bag went thru the x-ray machine on your way to the gate, and that they would have spotted anything questionable or dangerous.

I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where you don't lock your doors. Must be nice. I live in NY, and crime is down considerably now from, say, the 70s and 80s. But my door stays locked, thank you very much.



Hee! This made me laugh.

I live in the New Orleans area, which supposedly has a really high crime rate -- and it does, but only in certain neighborhoods -- but I often leave my doors unlocked. Even when I'm away from home (although then only by accident). Of course, I have (1) a neighbor down the street who has x-ray vision and sees and knows everyting that goes on for blocks around at all times (but who fortunately is a very nice lady, just unbelievably observant), and (2) two large dumb happy dogs who have great big deep barks that scare off people who don't realize that they'd probably do nothing more dangerous than lick a burglar to death. So it really depends on the circumstances.

My mother, who's turning into a real social activist in her old age, described Farenheit 911 as "Propaganda. Really good propaganda, but propaganda nonetheless." She enjoyed it, but didn't necessarily buy into everything presented.

The neighbors across the street never lock their doors. During the Great Blackout of 2003 "Oh no, our beer's getting warm! Let's hurry up and drink it before that happens!" party, they told me that occasionally they've woken up to find drunk friends of theirs, who let themselves in during the night, crashed on their sofa. That would tend to bother me more than it bothered them.

And it's not like I live in the sticks. I live in a suburb of Detroit. One of the safest suburbs in all of Detroit, and more than a few miles north of 8 Mile, but still, Detroit.

So it's not that I leave my house unlocked 24/7, but if I come home and find that I forgot to lock a door before I left, I'm not going to freak out about it. But there's no way in hell I'd walk in on someone's house without being let in.

ETA: I guess I'm not the only one who feels the same way about locking their house....

I'm in Canada, and I hardly ever lock my door. Mind you, my town has a population of 1000, but the door still only gets locked if we're going away for more than a day. The one time I did lock my door was when my parents were away for the weekend, and I locked my keys in the house. To get in, my friend's dad pulled the screen off the kitchen window (luckily the actual windows were unlocked or we would have been screwed) and I climbed through the window. All this while I was smashed out of my tree. My bf always locks his door, but everyone knows where the key is kept, so that's kind of pointless.

On another note I got some good news yesterday. My dad brought home the mail, and lo and behold, there was a letter from me. This was exciting because I usually only get magazines and bank statements, and more recently stuff from UWO. Anywho, I open the letter, and it turns out I got a $2500 scholarship through my dad's employer. I wasn't really expecting to get it because there are only four given out across Canada, but then I started thinking that there can't be that many people my age who have parents that work for the same employer as my dad and applied for the scholarship. But still, that gets my whole first year's tuition paid for, so now my mom thought she might get me a laptop since there is no tuition to pay.

Ahh, scholarships from parents' employers. I got one of those my freshman year of college ($1000 and not enough to cover all my tuition but most definitely welcome!). Did they have you go shake the hand of a bigwig and accept the scholarship? I had to meet with the president or thereabouts of the company, and at the time I was working with the Girl Scouts. So there I was standing in this fancy office in my beat-up jeans and my uniform t-shirt because I only had 18 hours off that weekend and was in the middle of running errands and hadn't had time to take a shower. I'm sure I smelled of horses, too. Very odd situation.

Congrats on the scholarship!

That's so interesting reading about all the lock/no lock scenarios. For me, my idea of being carefree is only locking the top Medeco lock instead of both locks if I'm just running to the corner store or something; 12 years of living in Chicago and New York has made it that ingrained in me. Of course, part of it is probably because the one time I forgot I paid dearly...and that was even with me in the apartment! I had a studio in a nice area of Chicago overall, but the building itself was cheap and kinda sketchy. I had just bought a bike about a week before and was coming in from a ride. I heard the phone ring and rushed in to get it, and in my haste didn't fully shut or lock the door, and forgot all about it after I got off the phone.

So the next morning I wake up, and I'm like, "Huh! It seems roomier in here somehow..." Well, during the night, someone (or more than one) came in and stole my bike, wallet, cellphone, and I think a couple other minor things. While I was right there. Sleeping. In a small one room studio. Which goes to show you what a sound sleeper I am, although it still freaks me the hell out to think of what might have happened had I woken up. Although the one thing I'll never understand...the cellphone was in its charger, and yet they left the charger behind. What good is a cellphone if you can't recharge it?

The one thing that did crack me up...when I told my mom, she started lecturing, "Why didn't you lock your bike? You're always supposed to lock your bike!" I was like, "In my own apartment?!?" She was like, "Oh. Yeah. I guess not."

He has a small penis - that's the underlying message that I get when I see his post Roger and Me stuff.

I lock everything. Mr. Binkbink locks nothing. I think that with us it's more a function of who has lived alone. He has always lived with someone. Why lock it when someone else if there? He also can't turn off a light. Which is a function of laziness.

Papa Tiger lived in Japan for long enough (six years), where nobody ever locks their door (at least in Sasebo, where he lived), that to this day I still haven't trained him to at least check that the doors are locked before going to bed at night. Which is a pain since he often stays up later than me, so even if I go around and lock the door to the back porch, he may well unlock it again to go out and get a soda out of the spare fridge or something and then leave it open again.

That's where the dogs come in handy. I got a good example the other night of how protective they can be: Papa Tiger wasn't here and I'd gone to bed, and then realized I needed to get something from downstairs, which was of course dark since there was nobody else home. I figured I could find the kitchen without turning on a light -- but the dogs were sleeping in the living room, and the second my foot hit the floor they leaped to their feet barking their fool heads off. They did shut right up when they realized it was me, but it was good to know that they won't let people just wander into their territory without at least going on alert. (Not that they'd do more, being a golden retriever and a yellow lab!)

Those living in the Big Bad Bruins era of the 1970s may remember this local bumper sticker. "Jesus saves, but Esposito scores on the rebound!"

Similar to the amusing quote someone had in the epi thread, but for us older folks.

Also - I love you guys posting. You all crack me up and also educate too. I don't know where to say it - certainly not in the thread, for risk of violating the commenting on the comments rule. If there was a Show the posters some love topic, I'd be there.

Reading 5-10 pages a day gets me through to the next fix on Tuesday. Love it!

I lock my doors...we have a couple of homeless people that wander around the neighborhood, sometimes asking for a job to do or money for "the bus". Sometimes they follow people home and sit on their front steps...so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

My house is so damn noisy though, (creaking and settling noises, scary refrigerators going on and off) that I freak out anytime I'm home alone at night. Even if the doors are locked. Because, who am I kidding...if someone really wanted to get into my house, a little lock is not going to keep them from coming in.

On the lock/no locking front. We live in the county but lock our doors at night. Of course, my husband is a locksmith, so if people didn't need locks my husband would be screwed. People have been known to just walk in when the doors are ulocked - pizza guy and MIL, but hey, my husband also has guns (very secure in a special vault he built in the basement).
I enjoyed 'Bowling fo rcolumbine' and had the perspective from someone who lives with a gun owner. He hates the gun registry, I just don't like the 2 billion wasted on a system where in the end he got photocopied pieces of paper as his registrations.

My parents live in a small town of 3,000 in rural Illinois. When I was growing up there, we locked the house before going to bed, but never locked anything, including the cars, during the day. Now my parents lock the cars routinely, and lock the house when they're away. I don't know what changed to make them change.

I live in a close-in suburb of Washington, DC. I once locked myself out of my house, and the people who had keys were all inaccessible. So I went to my neighbor who used to be an apartment building manager. He said he could break in. Well, he did, but it took us 45 minutes, partly because I opted for the slower, no broken glass route. He also said I had good locks, because he never needed more than 10 minutes before. I've got all the flash plates next to the deadbolts, etc., and evidently that makes a huge difference. Flash plates protect against all the usual tools for jimmying locks. We ended up having to remove two window panes, one to the back porch, and another to the kitchen door that leads to the back porch, instead.

Anyway, if I'm in the house during the day, I may or may not have the doors locked. Wherever they are in the house, my trusty watch cats* react to any activity near the door, so I always know if someone has left a flyer or something on the porch, and if someone is at the door, I definitely know.

*And they are trusty watch cats, because nothing out of the ordinary occurs without them notifying me.

I got one of those too when I went to college. Actually, my brother and I were both Seagram's Scholars. It's was always a fun time to explain that the liquor industry is paying for you to go to college...way to make loyal customers!

Congratulations on the scholarship. That's awesome, but I can't even imagine how that pays for a whole year's tuition. I went to a private university, though, so my perspective is skewed. Now I work at a public university, and don't understand why these kids complain so much about the cost, since it's about half of what I paid 20 years ago.

On the security front - I'm a locker. My family was burglarized twice when I was a kid. Once while we were on vacation, and once when we were home. Very traumatizing, and I still feel the effects. When we returned from vacation, what tipped us off was that every cabinet door and every drawer in the house was open. To this day I am a compulsive door/drawer closer. Can't sleep if the closet door is ajar, etc., and this happened 30 years ago. My hubby is like Mama Tiger's - doesn't notice if the doors are closed, much less locked. Drives me nuts....

Heh, I had to go back to the start of this thread to figure out what it was about; I haven't been a regular at TWoP for a long time, so the "Meet Market" threads are new to me. Anyway, if I'm posting here, I should be neighborly and introduce myself.

I've been on-and-off posting in various forums at TWoP since Real World: New Orleans in 2000, back when this site was called MightyBigTV (and I had to walk 5 miles to school every day going uphill in both directions). It's been quite a while since I've done more than lurk, and not even much of that, since almost a year of 80+ hour work weeks (completing my thesis, finishing up med school, now as a resident) demanded a "reprioritization"" of my time. Now that I have some relatively easy months ahead without in-hospital call, I figured I'd rewet my feet with posting about my favorite show (well, there's Nip/Tuck, but nothing ruins discussion of medical-themed shows quicker than doctors nitpicking them). Although I'm usually a sporadic poster, at best.

Anyway, so... hi. TAR rocks my world, go Colin and Christie- intense, arrogant, and hypercompetitive pretty much describes me and my colleagues perfectly, I always lock our doors (we live in downtown Philadelphia), and being a right-wing conservative [dodges dirty looks], the less I say about Michael Moore, the better. Although thumbs down to the Republican National Convention, unlike the DNC, for interfering with my regular TAR viewing. Yo, Dubya, how you gonna play me like that?

Point taken. The state OTHER THAN California and New Hampshire with more than its fair share of crazies. I haven't done a scientific study yet, but I'm thinking that if I count the stories in "News of the Weird" which runs in my local Creative Loafing publication, I'll find my (adopted) state shows up more than any other. And a lot of them would involve alligators and convenience stores.

And even I (the hard-core left wing Yellow Dog Democrat), look at Michael Moore and go ".....dude..".

One of the primary reasons why I have schnauzers living with me is that if they hear anything they think I should know about they will tell me, especially when I am in situations where I cannot hear anything (sleeping, showering, or exercising where the hearing aids might be exposed to moisture). Some of them have taught themselves other things, such as letting me know if the telephone rang while I was gone (because it was observed I was always checking to see if I had messages with a flashing indicator on the telephone), but that phone wore out and I don't have a landline phone I can use these days. But its good to know that the companion animals are observant about things like that!

I leave my house doors unlocked unless I am going to be gone overnight. I grew up in a small town where all doors were left unlocked, and keys frequently left in car ignitions, and even though I live in a city now, I just can't bring myself to stress out over whether the door is locked. Plus, I have extremely vigilant neighbors on one side, who are (1) retired -- ie, home all the time, and (2) prone to stepping out on their front porch with a shotgun and demanding to know what business someone on my property has. Other than me, of course, me they don't go confronting with a shotgun. Across the street is a sheriff's deputy's home, and the cruiser parked in front or in the driveway is a handy deterrent to crime as well. Also, my dog is often as not inside the house while I am away, and she does a very good job of sounding vicious. She lets loose with a torrent of barking, getting so worked up that she starts to choke. She hurls herself against doors, scrabbles along the window frames, all the while snarling and slobbering and barking like the hound of the Baskervilles, if anyone even walks on the street in front of the house. She's actually pretty harmless, but you'd never guess it.
I even leaved my car unlocked unless there is something inside it that is valuable and I really don't want to lose. In fact, I leave the car unlocked and say a silent prayer that someone will steal it from me. Insurance money would be the best deal I could ever get for my car, and I really need a new one.

Oh they TELL you all right, but when action is called for, schnauzers are no shows.
The security gate of my apt. building hasn't worked for years and one morning last winter a homeless man decided to break in and sit on the stairs to get warm. I let my little guy run down ahead of me since it was still dark and no one else was up. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I found my ferocious little schnauzer in the guy's lap getting a belly rub. Scared the crap out of me!

On the plus side, I guess the homeless trespassers around here are nice.

Hi Sgib! I'm relatively new to TAR Meet Market threads myself.

My mom lives in a pretty safe suburb of Atlanta, and you can believe that the front door is always locked, the security system (apparently a staple in Atlanta suburbs) is activated, the kitchen door opening to the garage is locked, etc. Her car was broken into when it was sitting in the driveway a few months ago, but even before that lone incident she's always been pretty vigilant in locking up at night. She likes to tease me about how Georgia is so much safer than NY, where I live, but at the same time she doesn't leave anything to chance.

On the drinking front, has anyone ever had the perfectly mixed drink? I met a friend for dinner this evening, and our drinks were absolutely superb. Awesome. That's no small feat here, where most drinks are just passable in addition to being way too expensive, and always have too much of one ingredient and/or not enough of another. Just had to share that. I'll sleep well tonight.

Must have been that particular homeless person they determined was harmless.

The first schnauzer that I had with me full time helped repel some would be burglars in the home of the then in-laws of my sister, she assisted an older schnauzer that my whole family had originally adopted. They were only there for that evening while my sister and her then-husband attended some event or other, and so it wasn't even their house. I've had schnauzers that made it real clear that they did not like (or trust) someone or other that came around them, so I've learned that if they sense the need, they will defend.

You guys are making me feel like I live in a really dangerous neighborhood or something just because I lock my doors. One of the things that drew me to my apartment was that it had a keyless lock which means if I'm on the inside and I lock it, anyone on the outside would have to put up a hell of a fight to get in. I always lock my car too and not just in the crappy neighborhood where I work where a coworkers tv-in-the-headrest thing got ripped out. I guess it's that whole better safe than sorry thing. I never lose my keys so locking doors is never a big deal, it's just the push of a button or the turn of one key.

Oh, and my dog actually slept through all 4 tires being stolen off my dad's car in the middle of the night. He's a big dog too, not one of those ones you could easily dropkick as a friend of mine once said. He just happens to be the laziest dog on earth.

So - do any of you nonlockers have small kids? I had a neighbor who didn't lock anything until her 3 year old left the house one day while she was upstairs. They found him 4 blocks away playing in a church playground. Now she locks everything. Sometimes it's not just about keeping people out.

I love my alarm system. Not so much for the alarm part, but for being able to tell which, if any, windows are open when I'm about to leave.

I think that was Moore's point - not about your mom AlmondEyes :) - but that we in the U.S. are much more fearful of things that really aren't that dangerous than people in other places are.

Like the whole summer of shark attacks and summer of abducted kids (hmm, what's with the summer thing?), both of which seemed to make some people believe those things were on the rise, when they were both on the decline in their particular years and very, very rare regardless.

Not that one can't get munched by a shark or abducted, but it's really rare, and stuff people don't tend to worry about is much more common but equally deadly. Anyways, that's what I got from that segment of Columbine.

Speaking of movies, has anyone seen the remake of the Manchurian Candidate yet? I thought remaking was a bad idea, but it looks good in the previews.

Non-locker here, checking in. I live in Huntsville, Alabama which is basically a high tech city and the Space and Rocket Capital dontchaknow.

I don't intentionally leave my doors open, but I have three and more often than not at least one of them is left unlocked every night. I too have a dog... Cotton ... who is known in my neighborhood as "The Never-Ending Story Dog." Cotton sounds just mean as hell and I figure most anyone will hear that and think "Hey, her neighbors probably have a DVD, too, let's just keep moving!" Which will in the end be a very good thing because IF someone ever did come in and spoke nicely to her or gave her a treat she would immediately stop-drop-n-roll into her trademark "One belly - no waiting" pose and that would be the end of my security system. But it is nice, having a dog that feels like she's the Queen of the Compound... there's not an unknown car that can so much as turn around in my driveway without my knowing it.

One of the worst things I've started doing within the last year or so that is so incredibly stupid would be somehow managing to forget that I've left my keys still hanging in the lock on the outside of the door. I'll be trying to leave for work, looking everywhere for keys, and then will finally go check a door only to find that they've been out there all night long. If that's not Southern Hospitality I don't know what is... "Oh yooooooo hooooo, Mr. Burgular! Let yourself in and stock up on what you need and then feel free to just drive away with all of it in my car! I'll be sleeping through the 2nd coming and if you let yourself in Cotton will surely greet you with fiercest "one belly - no waiting" fallout on the floor."

But the irony of it all? I am freakish, nightmarish if you will, about locking my car. It's always locked - even when in my driveway at home. But the doors? Well I forget those, remember? So if you wanna steal my car the easy way would be to just open the unlocked door and come in and get the keys if you can find them. No sense in hotwiring, just think like I do!

We moved from the country into the town the summer my little brother turned 3. There were lots of other kids in the neighborhood (because in that town, there was nothing to do but breed). Anyway, my brother and a 3-year-old girl ran off together about 3 blocks and found a wading pool someone had left out in their yard. My brother took off all his clothes and got in. Then he returned home stark naked, the little girl walking behind him carrying his clothes. My parents still didn't lock the doors, though.

Feeling the love here, too, bdarling.

Security? My hubby's obsessive about it. We often lock our doors when we're just home with our small children. We also have a very observant and protective dog (mutt). When we first moved to this neighborhood, there were lots of teenagers allowed to roam the streets in front of our house. Now, 11 years later, those teenagers are adults in prison. Seriously. One of them used to call my husband when he was first sent to prison. He would come over and visit with Mr. Magoozen as he was processing deer in the garage, and apparently saw Mr. Magoozen as a sort of a role model. Then the kid (6'4", 275 lbs.) got drunk and assaulted several police officers. Then he went to prison. The calls have stopped now, he's been in several years.

Yes, I lock my doors to keep my children in. The oldest is five now, but not allowed to go in the front yard without a parent. The back is fenced in, and I still check every 5-10 minutes. The neighbor's girls, ages 2 and 4, escaped from their home a few years ago and were found a couple blocks away, playing on a swingset. I'm paranoid because of that and because we have sex offenders in the neighborhood. I looked it up on the website.



I recently got two hearing aids. I'm finding them difficult to get used to, and don't wear them as much as I should, probably, because I clearly need them. Instead, I frustrate those around me by asking them to repeat themselves 1,000 times. *sigh*

Drinks? I had the most divine bloody (pronounced "bloo-dee") marys at the hotel on our trip to Mackinac Island. Simply perfect. Little tiny bits of... something, just the right amount of pepper to make your throat burn *right there*. I've been trying to duplicate it ever since, with dismal results. I even called the hotel once and got switched to the restaurant to ask for the name of the mix they use, but I called at a bad time and they were too busy to take the call. *sigh* again.

Nope, I just have to send them proof that I'm going to Western this year and then I get the money. It's sweet, I hate meeting bigwigs.

I always lock my car doors, although this one time I went to the bank and locked the door even though the windows were wide open. My dad leaves the van in our driveway with the windows down and the keys in the ignition.

TiVo seems to have the puzzling idea that I speak Spanish. It's been recording Spanish language movies for me overnight. I had to remove all the Spanish stations from my cable lineup. I'll have to add Telemundo in when there's soccer to be watched. Maybe it thinks it's helping me prepare for TAR?

I wish there were a way to tell it to record all 3 and 4 star movies. I'm sure it will soon realize that Rob Schneider is not my cuppa. I think it may think the love of sports equates to being an adolescent male? But you'd think the Oprah season pass would cancel out that idea!

I just got the TIVO that comes with the cable company's receiver. I am in lurve. My favorite TIVO line comes from The King of Queens where the goofy friend Spence tells his girl he has TIVO and says it will record things it thinks he would like. So, it recorded Will&Grace, some musicals, Queer As Folks, and some other stuff. Spense says "Oh my God - TIVO thinks I'm gay" Still cracks me up.

So how does TIVO decide what you want to watch, anyway? Is it based on the season pass shows you put in or something? It's quite mystifying to this TIVOless person!

I think it's based partially off your season pass selections - it gets similar things.

Also, you can rate shows/movies up or down (anywhere from three thumbs down to three thumbs up), to further show it what sorts of programs you like.

It still seems weird and arcane -- but does sound fun, to see what an inanimate object will decide I need to see next!