Saturday, June 02, 2018

List It, List It Now


Fairly recently (I do start things off with "recently" a whole heck of a lot around here.) I felt the need to make a "to do" list for stuff I needed to get done preferably before or during the weekend. It reminded me of a few things first it reminded me of some 20 years ago when Palm Pilots (Electronic Personal Organizers also known as PDAs Personal Data Assistant) were all the rage before smart phones and tablets (iPads) took over. It also reminded me of a catchy 1980s Girl Group song*.

In the mid 1990s the first PDA I got was a Palm Pilot II that I bought used from a co-worker, friend, acquaintance for 60 bucks. I think he had gotten it from someone else and already had an updated model or was going to get an update. They were selling for easily $200 at the time. For those who remember those things the PPII had a simple liquid crystal display that was simply black text on a green or light aqua background. A big selling point for them, besides being an electronic notepad, was the ability to make to-do lists, make schedules and don't forget play simple games like solitaire. As they advanced they could recognized handwriting and change it to a printed font.


I recall one time having to send my PP in for repairs, I forget what it's problem was. I may have dropped it and it stopped working. If I recall correctly the repairs could only be done through the manufacturer. You had to go online or call them (I might have done it that way) to have them ship you a special padded shipping box that you then returned to the repair factory and waited however many weeks (2 or 3?) it took to repair the thing. Usually the "fix" was a factory reset. I forget the exact cost but it was something like $120 or $150 almost the cost of a brand new one. Then a couple of years later it had some other problem and died for good. So I got an updated model that had a color screen a Palm Pilot V (or maybe that I look at more pics the M130?). I don't recall how much I paid for that one or where I even got it. I'm not sure how long it lasted and yet again forget what finally did it in or what happened to it. I recall once losing the stylus for it and at one time getting a pack of 4 or 5 stylus in case of losing the stylus. OH I also had gotten a sim card with some games on it and I think another chip card with advanced word processing something or other on it. I barely remember having to put the chip in and pulling it out.

I'm not even sure if I still have either one of the PDAs anymore. The first one I had gotten a padded case for since I think dropping that first one might have been what I had to send it to the repair shop for. The case of course then didn't fit the updated model. I never bothered getting a case for that one. I think I dropped it plenty of times also. I also recall when all was said and the PDAs were dead I missed having my calendar. I had a pretty tight schedule then, was pretty stressed out maybe because of doing all that keeping track of what I needed to do at that time.


Forward a few years to my 2nd (or 3rd?) cell phone that was my first "smart phone" I recall I used to occasionally use some kind of text editing app/program that could link to the Internet with. OH yeah the Palm Pilots used to be able to sync to your computer which I did once or twice, but eventually the computer it was on died and I never synced the thing again. When I was going to the PP died. I forget what this notepad, memo maker program was called. For my second smart phone (3rd or 4th cell phone) I think I tried to add that same memo thing but only used it once. Now I can't remember what the thing was but know the design of the user field looked like a yellow legal pad. I'm sure if I saw the name or a screengrab of the program I would recognize it.

Hmm it was similar to "Write Now" but was not it. For some reason I have the thought the name has an "A" in it or has "Notes" or "Pad" in the name. I was a simple type in the stuff, not one of these fancy recognize handwriting (like Palm Pilots attempted to do) app things.


AHA! Found it INKPAD Notepad. That seems to be what it was.  I didn't think I would be able to sign-in because I wasn't sure what account I had used or which of my standard passwords I used.Wow I was able to sign-in using my Google/Gmail account. The same account blogger uses. I signed out of the Inkpad thing and blogger kept asking me about my signing in at a different location and if I want to sign in again. When I did it started a new session. I have 4 or 5 notes/memos there 2 or 3 of which I could probably get rid of. One of the notes is a Stuff to get list that I would update when I went grocery shopping or needed to replace something in my wardrobe (worn out pants or shirts etc...)

It was indeed old because I had listed needing to get a second shower curtain. A few years back I had to replace an old dingy shower curtain that had pulled from a few rings. So I got a replacement and a few weeks later got a second curtain to have one on each side of the tub. I kept forgetting whether it is better to have the curtain outside the tub or inside. To keep water from spraying the rest of your bathroom or flooding the floor you place it inside the tub, when not in use and to make things look nice you keep it outside the tub. The dual shower curtain thing you don't have to worry about that just double the curtains up on the rings. It makes hanging them more of a chore but not too difficult.

*Part of the inspiration for this post was The Go-Go's song "Girl of 100 Lists" from the album Vacation.


The title of this post may have lead some to believe I was going to talk about some selling or auction site that is Ebay like with the "List it". On the other hand the second part "List It Now" seems to hint at something like Devo's smash hit "Whip It" even though the lyrics in the song were "Whip It Good" not "Now". As you may have noticed neither subject was breached with this post. I didn't mean to mislead anyone I just wanted a post title that sounded good.

The Palm Pilot images I grabbed from a Google Image search.

Friday, June 01, 2018

NCIS: So Long Abby

Bye Bye Abby Bye Bye Bye

Note: This post began drafting a few weeks ago so by the time it posts the season will have been completed. It was started after NCIS episode 15.21 aired on Tuesday 01 May 2018 was almost finished before the airing of the next episode on 08 May. However, I still wanted to add some specific Abby pics if I could find them or something similar. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but I found some I liked. I could have gone nuts and put up dozens of pics, but I didn't want to do that.


One of my fave television shows NCIS is nearing the end of it's 15th Season, and seems to be killing off a fan fave character of many fans and personally of me Abby Sciuto brilliantly played by Pauley Perrette. A month or two ago it was announced first by the actor via Twitter and then later confirmed by the production company that she would be leaving the show at the end of this Fifteenth Season. Her last episode is number 22 of a 24 episode season. The news made me sad. I am saddened further  that it appears her character is being killed off. After the shocking conclusion to her next to last episode 15.21 One Step Forward and seeing the scenes for her upcoming final episode  15.22 Two Steps Back a realization hit me with the show.


With the exception of the character Alex Quinn played by Jennifer Esposito when a main female cast member has left the series her character is killed off. While main male characters usually survive. There have been some reoccurring supporting male characters that have died, but to the best of my knowledge not main characters.

From a blogging point of view NCIS seems to be a popular subject here on my Knook blog. I'm wondering if this post will join them some day. Five of the ten most popular posts of this blog feature NCIS of those five two of them feature Cote de Pablo who played Ziva David.


Cote left the series at the beginning of season 10 she was in the first two episodes. Then at the end of season 13 when Tony DiNozzo (Micheal Weatherly) was leaving Ziva was killed off screen.

Many fans (not me) had a character shipping fantasy of Tony and Ziva they called it "Tiva". I don't subscribe to the shipping part of fandom. For me that type of fantasizing ruins series. The series confirmed the Tiva relation"ship" with the introduction of Ziva and Tony's daughter whom Tony didn't know about because Ziva was concerned for her safety. Tony was awarded custody of her because of Ziva's death in his last episode.


UPDATE; OH Good she doesn't die. The promos only made it look that way sneaky network and production execs. Abby was too much of a fan fave for them to senselessly kill her. The backlash would have been horrible. She wasn't killed off but the producers shocked fans further by killing of Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry) the MI-6 agent who joined the main team about 2 seasons ago. I didn't see that one coming. I don't recall hearing about Duane's contract ending. I didn't hear any updates from entertainment sources about other departures for the show. To the best of my knowledge the show has been renewed for a 16th season. I think that was done a year or two ago. The last renewal I think was for two years.

I am so glad they handled things the way they did. Except for killing off another character that is. In the story line Abby makes a promise to carry out Clayton's wish to start a charity in his mother's name for homeless female vets who are single mothers and their children. It is just the sweet kind type of thing Abby would do. Abby was a bit of a conundrum a sweet peace loving all caring individual who is a forensic scientist for a government military crime investigative service. A soft personality who would have difficulty being a field agent.

Of course the episode has some television magic healing. Abby was shot in the chest, near death, in a coma for at least 2 days and by the next day she is running around with just a scarf acting as a sling. What should one expect from a series where traveling from DC to Norfolk, VA takes just a few minutes not the reality 3 hours it actually takes.