I tried really hard to surpress my schadenfreude over this case, but my dislike of moral busybodies overcame my restraint.

A pastor who has spoken out against homosexuality was arrested after propositioning a male undercover police officer outside a hotel, authorities said.

As the Rev. Lonnie Latham, 59, left jail Wednesday, he said “I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police.”

Latham, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee, was arrested Tuesday and charged with offering to engage in an act of lewdness, Capt. Jeffrey Becker said.

Hmm…. “pastoring.”  So that’s what they’re calling it these days. 

I’d been hearing that the new Battlestar Galactica series is good, so I decided to start by putting the miniseries in my queue on Netflix.  I finally got around to watching it last night, and have to admit that I’m hooked now.  The miniseries is three hours, and since I started late my intent was to watch an hour and then pick it up again today.  That didn’t happen.  After the first hour I said to myself, “I should turn this off now,” but did nothing.  After the second hour I said to myself, “I really should turn this off now,” but kept watching.  As soon as it was over I put the first season in my queue and moved it to the top. 

For those who haven’t seen it, I won’t say much about what happens.  But I do have to comment about the ending.  All I could say was “Frack, no!  Not Boomer!”

Now I just have to avoid all spoilers until I catch up.  The second season will be out later this month, and it’s also in my queue.  I should finish the first season just in time to get the second when it comes out.

A few months back I stopped at the local Sonic for breakfast and ordered coffee to go with it.  The coffee was nasty.  I suspect I could have drained some of the oil out of my truck’s engine and strained it through a moldy sweat-sock and it would have been better than this coffee.  Hoping that it was just an aberration I gave them another try a few weeks later and found them to be no better. 

In an episode of hope springing eternally, I tried the coffee at a Sonic in Amarillo yesterday morning.  Gack. 

While it’s only a two-location sample, I can only conclude that Sonic’s coffee is supposed to taste like it does.  Maybe the person in charge of getting coffee for Sonic is a tea drinker or something.  I can’t see how anyone who actually likes coffee would serve something that hideous.

Heck, as much as people go on about McDonald’s food, at least their coffee is coffee-like.

I’ve been working late the past few days in an attempt to get some things finished before I leave on vacation.  I had intended to tune into the Keller City Council meeting on TV so I could get some work done while waiting for the library discussion (turns out now that they didn’t have a discussion since they passed a resolution to have a vote).

When I went to my on-screen Fios program guide I couldn’t find it, though.  Which was odd because I distinctly remember it being there.  So I pulled out the latest printed guide, which didn’t have it, either.  Just to make sure I wasn’t going nuts, I found the PDF of the first guide I got, and there it was:

Why did Verizon remove the local access channel?  Did they decide they didn’t need it anymore, since they’re no longer required to get a franchise agreement with the city?  (It certainly wasn’t to reuse the channel for something else, since those channels are now blank.)

Oh well, not a big deal.  It just seemed odd at the time, since it was the first time I’d ever actually wanted to watch that channel.

I was talking to a friend of mine this afternoon who was thinking of going to Brazil to visit a former coworker of ours.  He was using Travelocity to look for flights and came across something weird.  He lives in Grapevine, but has family in Chicago, so he was evaluating both Chicago (ORD) and DFW as departure points.  If you try to book from Chicago (ORD) to Sao Paulo (GRU), you can get fares as low as $525 with one stop, which happened to be at DFW when he searched (subsequent searches show several other options for stops, with DFW being included).  However, if you book out of DFW to GRU the direct fare is $1024.  What’s odd about it is that it appears that the direct flight is simply the second leg of the ORD-GRU flight.  It sure seems like a huge premium to pay for a direct flight.

In fact, looking on AA.com, the best price from DFW to GRU right now is $705 for a flight with two stops (DFW-ATL-MIA-GRU)*.  I can’t help but think that the Wright Amendment has something to do this.  One of the common complaints about DFW is that flights are often more expensive there because it’s the only choice for long-haul flights due to the Wright Amendment. 

* The criteria he used when searching:  1 adult fare, flexible dates between 2/1/06 and 2/20/06, ten night stay

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I got hit by some sort of bug last week, such that I was barely able to put together a coherent sentence until sometime Friday afternoon. 

Unfortunately, this means that I’m behind on a prototype I was planning to deliver by last Friday.  The upside is that there is a little bit of slack in the schedule, so it won’t impact the overall project.  But I’m probably going to be in coffee-swilling, keyboard-pounding mode for most of this week.  Normal crap will resume once I’m caught up.

Is anyone besides me tired of getting letters marked “Important Information About Your Account?”  I know marketers like to get their stuff in front of you using any means ppossible, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m almost ready to start shredding them unopened.  I got two of them the other day that annoyed me, since they appeared to actually be legit at first.  One was from my mortgage company, and I always pay attention to that stuff, since it’s pretty important.  So opening it and discovering it’s actually a solicitation for one of those “early payoff” plans that was just using my company’s logo was very annoying.  The other was from GM and it said that it contained “Important Information about your Chevrolet Avalanche.”  Since there’s a recall on the Avalanche for a problem with rear seatbelts, I thought it might be something about that.  Instead it was actually a solicitation from Chase for a GM business credit card.

I really wish they’d quit doing this.  It’s sneaky and deceptive and it relies on the fact that you are afraid to miss some bit of information that actually is important.  I noticed that companies have had to start putting “statement enclosed” on bills, likely because of this stupid marketing tactic.

I guess on the upside I can use it as a good signal that whatever is inside needs to be shredded instead of just tossed into the trash… 

My new Fios TV package has the Crime & Investigation Network. 

I already watch far too much of this stuff on Court TV and A&E.  Having it available 24/7 on its own network means I’m doomed.

I stumbled across these shirts while looking for something else.  Finally, something made for guys like me!

(The title is from one of their shirts.)

I don’t generally follow sports, but it’s been hard not to hear about the Congressional steroid hearings and Rafael Palmeiro.  Looks like he’s going to get off without an indictment.

But if it’s a crime to lie to Congress, why isn’t it a crime when they lie to us?