Monday, Monday

Craig just poked his head in my door with a bemused expression -- he's the chief engineer for WSYR-TV, channel 9 in Syracuse, and has the office next to mine.

"Just got a call from a lady in Minoa," he started.

"Oh?"

"She said she likes to watch our channel 5 news but it's all staticy. I told her that this is channel 9, and she said that oh, channel 9's bad too."

I sat back and grinned; I've been down this road before.

"I asked if she was on cable and she says no, she gets everything from her indoor antenna. When I asked if she had tried moving the antenna she said, 'No, can I do that?'"

Brief pause as we roll our eyes.

"I said, yes, try moving your antenna. After a moment the noise in the background went away and was replaced by normal audio. She comes back on the phone and says that it's much better now, but is it okay to do that? Yes, I told her, feel free to move your antenna whenever you want to."

And the FCC expects these people to transition to DTV in 2009?

It's all in your perspective.

A foggy grey morning today; I've backed my car up the driveway and Hannah has hopped in -- school is on my way to work. She looked down and pronounced, "Crap... there's a run in my stocking!"

"Could be worse," I replied, which only evoked a glum look.

"It's better than having to say, 'Run, there's a crap in my stocking'."

Maybe she will think it's funny later.

Why you don't upset the backhoe operator...

A shameful week

"Everything is permissible" – but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" – but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24, NIV)

This Monday the world saw the handiwork of a young man whose deranged self-involvement resulted in the traumatic death of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty, and has left countless others forever scarred.

This Wednesday the world saw the handiwork of a corporation whose institutionalized self-involvement led them to publish the video and rantings of a mass murderer. Who can say what the consequences of such gross irresponsibility will ultimately be? NBC management attempted to justify their decision by offering the notion that society can learn something from this; precisely what lesson are we to derive? We already knew that one insane individual is fully capable of producing unspeakable damage and hurt to those around him. Even if history did not abound with examples, the truth of this is intuitively obvious. The true lesson, which NBC surely had not intended to teach, is how a respected and influential corporation can inflict damage and hurt to an entire society... and then attempt to rationalize their acts as some kind of public service.