DirecTV Flung crap and missed

It took those pooh flinging monkeys at DirecTV two weeks, four phone calls, two hours + of phone time, and five fucking seconds once they actually got here to fix our fucking problem. 

Mrs. Stroock was pleased as it turned out her Eagles were on the local telly. We caught a quarter but otherwise watched no sports ball yesterday. Sorry, we don't need lectures on racism from a league like that. And we like the college game better. Mrs. Stroock's Penn State is ranked #6, well done Nittany Lions. We find ourselves anticipating the start of hockey season.

This pic of Joe's Bridge migrants looks like a scene out of The Great Nuclear War of 1975. We read another chapter yesterday and are once again pleased. We really don't feel like talking politics but maaaan. One is tempted to think everything going wrong is part of some coherent plan. No one is this incompetent, right? Who looks at this border fiasco and thinks, 'Stay the course'? Democrats, that's who. They're impervious to empirical evidence. 'Fireproof,' Tucker Carlson once called Gavin Newsom. 

It's election day in Canada. As goes Newsom so goes Justin, we suspect. The polls show a minority government for Justin, but who knows? The conservatives are so low-T, were they to win, we suspect they'd celebrate by making themselves some white wine spritzers and binging Providence. Canadian cons owe these people zero loyalty. This blog endorses Maxime Bernier. 

What Will's Watching, more Voyager: the more we see of her, the more we like Kate Mulgrew as Captain Katherine Janeway. Just a great name, by the way. She's a scientist who does a lot of her own work, unlike Picard who would just let the crew come up with the data. She'll fight if she has to and will talk smack as well. We like that too. Without looking we're sure there are plenty of articles bashing Janeway's hair. Her nondescript non hair style was smart. The producers didn't want Janeway's new seasonal haircut making Vogue or anything like that. It's almost like Janeway was a feminist without being a feminist. 

Lets get Guns N Roses Week off to a GnR start. Here they are performing November Rain at the 1992 VMAs. We remember watching it. Because a 20 piece orchestra, brass section, and back up singers weren't enough, they got Elton John to play with them. The result is epic..:

...epic in a way only GnR could be epic. The actual video cost something like $4 million to shoot. Axl needed a Hollywood set piece, oil tanker, coast guard and the world's most famous fashion model to realize his vision. 'No, I don't think it's excessive, Axl. Why do you ask?' If the outro doesn't make reader(s) think Thor, Zeus, Shiva and the gods of Heavy Metal have come together to battle for control of the universe then this blog has failed. 'You're not the only one...you're not the only one...'

DirecTV is run by Sub-90 IQ Reprobates, and other Observations

We are pleased this morning as Mrs. Stroock's Penn State defeated Auburn 28-20. We know some of the readership around here has some thoughts about that.

But we are also not pleased as DirecTV was supposed to come yesterday and replace our system damaged by Hurricane Ida. We called and read them the riot act after they didn't show for the 12-4 window. We called and read them the riot act again after they didn't show the for 4-8 window. They actually wanted to sent a technician at 10 PM. We had some thoughts on that proposal and shared them. 

Then Mrs. Stroock, who does a lot of phone stuff in her corporate gig, spent an hour on the line inflicting pain and humiliation. They actually offered to have a tech at the house at 10 PM with Mrs. Stroock. Big mistake. She reduced the DirecTV call center to a metaphorical smoldering crater all while watching Penn State. The woman is remarkable.

Overall we spent more than two hours on the phone sorting things out. We need this crappy, out dated service because it's the only TV one can get at the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction in the Berkshires. Also, we married a woman who watches sports more than we do and she won't do without them. But they say Western Massachusetts will be wired for the internet by next summer. The bell tolls, DirecTV. The bell doth toll.  As we write this we're an hour into the appointment window. (Update: 12 noon, Sunday. Still not here. Mrs. Stroock recieved a phonecall advising that they're running late. You don't say, we replied.)

We did 75's first chapter yesterday and everything went just as we had planned. Which worries us no end. We'd rather make these changes now on printout then later on a proof. 

Thirty years ago last week Guns and Roses released their epically massive double album Use Your Illusion I and II. The albums were expansive, excessive and decadent, just like GnR. They just don't make rock bands like GnR anymore. When Led Zeppelin is saying, 'Wow, those guys have gone too far,' those guys went too far. The stories are legion and need no recounting here. 

Upon learning of the anniversary we felt much like the Big Lebowski in seclusion before his fireplace. 'Strong men do also cry....strong men do also cry.' We wept for our old friends Illusion I and II, the passage of time, and lost youth. Those albums were our everyday soundtrack throughout our senior year in high school. Upon hearing any song from either album we're behind the wheel of our '86 Toyota  Celica GT*, wearing blue genes, an earing, a Champion long sleeved T, and black Reebok low tops. We were a pretty good looking 18 year old. Heh, there was a girl we used to drive home from drama club and sometimes there were stops, detours...[Said the father of three daughters. Knobhead-Ed] 

It's Guns and Roses week all week at this blog. Heck, it should be GnR month. And maybe it will be. So for a pre Monday Metal, here's a song we think captures GnR's rock and roll decadence:

*We took that baby over a hundred MPH multiple times. Moron.