Friday, May 11, 2007

Things I like

1. Fancy BLTs. Not on purpose though. I really just wanted a BLT. I hadn't had one in forever. So I fried up the bacon. Got out the rest of the stuff to make the perfect sandwich. Only to discover we were out of mayonnaise. And I didn't feel like making any. Only to discover we were also out of fresh tomatoes. And I don't have any growing in my 'yard'.

But I did have some fresh sheep cheese and some tomates confites. So, the rustic spelt country bread was spread with the cheese, topped with the bacon, topped with the chopped tomatoes, topped with frisée. Voilà. Fancy, and yet very good, blt.

2. Well, people not things. Computer geeks (meant here as a term of endearment, for heaven's sake take no offense). I like them a lot.

A pain-in-the-ass thing about living outside the US is tv. We get the new season of a series a year after it comes out in the US. And most of the time it's dubbed. Which makes it quite unwatchable. All the homepages of US television channels (the big ones, of course) that show all kinds of stuff for free on-line won't allow overseas access. And of course, dvd's are zoned. Zone 1 is North America, Zone 2 Europe, etc. And of course, dvd players are programmed to only accept dvd's marked for the zone in which they are sold. Gangsters, all of them. So anyway. Out there, in the world, are really nice computer geeks who spend time figuring out the codes and protocols to get around all that. You can get dezoing codes for just about any equipment out there. So now I can watch dvd's from any zone on both of our dvd players. And I just finished watching all the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy Season 3 (very good) and Prison Break Season 2 (sometimes good and sometimes disappointing) for free on-line without illegally downloading anything. Geek on.

6 comments:

C. said...

Oh I know, it's so annoying! I love the dubbing - it's so badly done.

Anonymous said...

Were you able to watch the Grey's Anatony season 1 dvd? Why are things zoned?

Nicole said...

Carter-Ann - it's so bad it's almost good. But not.

Beth - I was. Things are zoned so that if, for example, Grey's Anatomy Season 3 comes out on dvd in the US before it's on tv here, they think people will just buy the dvd's and not watch the show which means advertiser's won't want commercial spots before and after the show and blah blah blah. It's all just about money.

Unknown said...

way to work the system nicole! i still think the zoning thing is completely RIDICULOUS!!

Lorraine said...

Two words: "Gilmore girls".

Nicole said...

Christina - COME ON.

Lorraine - Hmm.