IT HARDLY MATTERS Back to Main Index Browse the Archives	Wednesday, December 28, 2005 ( 10:37 AM ) River: Storm's getting worse. Mal: We'll pass through it soon enough. - Serenity Tuesday, December 27, 2005 ( 11:24 PM ) SERIOUSLY. Judge tosses Letterman restraining order Woman had claimed host caused her 'mental harassment' Tuesday, December 27, 2005; Posted: 3:29 p.m. EST (20:29 GMT) SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) -- A state judge has lifted a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who accused talk-show host David Letterman of using coded words to show that he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host. Judge Daniel Sanchez on Tuesday granted a request by lawyers for Letterman, host of CBS' "Late Show," to quash the temporary restraining order that he earlier granted to Colleen Nestler. She alleged in a request filed December 15 that Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her "mental cruelty" and "sleep deprivation" since May 1994. Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards away and not "think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering." Lawyers for Letterman contended the order was without merit. "He is entitled to a protection of his legal rights and a protection of his reputation," Pat Rogers, an Albuquerque lawyer representing Letterman, told the judge Tuesday. The New Mexico court doesn't have jurisdiction over Letterman, who is a resident of Connecticut, Rogers said. Nestler appeared in court without a lawyer and represented herself. Responding to a question from the judge, Nestler said she had no proof of the allegations she had made against Letterman. She also said that if Letterman or any of his representatives came near her, "I will break their legs" and establish proof of her allegations. Nestler said after the court hearing that "I have achieved my purpose. The public knows that this man cannot come near me." She also said that her comment about breaking legs "is not a threat." "I appealed to the court for a restraining order to keep this man away from me, but now that's been denied me," she said. "He has access to me. He can actually come for me or send people. He has many accomplices. I know this sounds crazy. I was crazy to have listened to him in the beginning." Nestler's application for a restraining order was accompanied by a six-page typed letter in which she said Letterman used code words, gestures and "eye expressions" to convey his desires for her. She wrote that she began sending Letterman "thoughts of love" after his show began in 1993, and that he responded in code words and gestures, asking her to come east. Nestler said Letterman asked her to be his wife during a televised "teaser" for his show by saying, "Marry me, Oprah." Her letter said Oprah was the first of many code names for her and that the coded vocabulary increased and changed with time. ( 08:12 AM ) Vincent Schiavelli, 1948-2006 "They're only monkey-boys. We can crush them here on earth, Lord Whorfin." Wednesday, December 21, 2005 ( 09:42 PM ) This is pretty ridculous, considering: A) the woman is clearly delusional and in need of psychiatric help B) I find it incredibly unlikely he will ever come within 3 yards of the crazy lady. Letterman subject of restraining order Woman says TV host courted her with code words, gestures Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Posted: 5:57 p.m. EST (22:57 GMT) SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) -- Lawyers for David Letterman want a judge to quash a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who contends the CBS late-night host used code words to show he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host. A state judge granted a temporary restraining order to Colleen Nestler, who alleged in a request filed last Thursday that Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her "mental cruelty" and "sleep deprivation" since May 1994. Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards away and not "think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering." Lawyers for Letterman, in a motion filed Tuesday, contend the order is without merit and asked state District Judge Daniel Sanchez to quash it. "Celebrities deserve protection of their reputation and legal rights when the occasional fan becomes dangerous or deluded," Albuquerque lawyer Pat Rogers wrote in the motion. Nestler told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday that she had no comment pending her request for a permanent restraining order "and I pray to God I get it." Sanchez set a Jan. 12 hearing on the permanent order. Letterman's longtime Los Angeles lawyer, Jim Jackoway, said Nestler's claims were "obviously absurd and frivolous." "This constitutes an unfortunate abuse of the judicial process," he said. Nestler's application for a restraining order was accompanied by a six-page typed letter in which she said Letterman used code words, gestures and "eye expressions" to convey his desires for her. She wrote that she began sending Letterman "thoughts of love" after his "Late Show" began in 1993, and that he responded in code words and gestures, asking her to come East. She said he asked her to be his wife during a televised "teaser" for his show by saying, "Marry me, Oprah." Her letter said Oprah was the first of many code names for her and that the coded vocabulary increased and changed with time. Her letter does not say why she recently sought a restraining order. Rogers' motion to quash the order contends the court lacks jurisdiction over Letterman, that Nestler never served him with restraining order papers, and that she didn't meet other procedural requirements. Friday, December 16, 2005 ( 08:29 AM ) Yesterday, I turned in the last paper I will write as a Masters student. Hurray! Friday, December 9, 2005 ( 11:11 AM ) There are many important points to be made about this video. 1. It really takes a lot of the romance out of giant guns when a little girl can use one. You'd always think that it takes an adrenaline-filled U.S. Army Killing Machine Soldier to operate one of those. Turns out, pretty much anyone can use one. Boring. 2. Good thing those are legal. Image what can happen if the Terrorists get ahold of one. 3. The Mythbusters did not conduct their Exploding Car Gas Tank experiment correctly. Obviously, they needed several people firing high-powered fully-automatic machine guns at the car in order to get it to explode. Can't wait for them to revisit this one! ( 10:51 AM ) Oh and if you want to see the pilot for Heat Vision and Jack, you can download it at Waxy.org. Be warned: by watching the show, you may be frightened. Or aroused. Thursday, December 8, 2005 ( 10:02 PM ) Okay so this is may be old news, but it looks like Heat Vision & Jack might be getting a second go, only this time on the big screen. You read right, folks, OWEN WILSON as the voice of a TALKING MOTORCYCLE. Can you handle it? ( 09:26 PM ) This is the saddest thing ever. Brothers die in traffic crashes minutes apart Thursday, December 8, 2005; Posted: 1:42 p.m. EST (18:42 GMT) LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- Sheriff's deputy Andy McDowell was forced to live a parent's worst nightmare twice in a matter of minutes. After he was taken to the site where one of his two sons was killed in a car crash early Wednesday, McDowell was driven past another fatal accident. Only later did he learn that the fiery wreck took the life of his only other child. "You take the most unimaginable hell that a parent could be told and double that," Warren County Deputy Coroner Dwayne Lawrence said. Rory McDowell, 23, and Cory McDowell, 21, both died within a couple of miles from the home they shared with their father in southern Kentucky's rural Warren County. Rory McDowell lost control of his pickup truck coming out of a curve and the vehicle struck a tree shortly before 1:30 a.m., authorities said. There was no visible sign of alcohol involved, sheriff's Capt. Brent Brown said Thursday. The father told authorities he had been talking with Rory McDowell on a cell phone about the time of the crash, Brown said. He said that might have been a factor in the crash, as well as excessive speed on a narrow road. He had no further details. About 15 minutes after the first crash, Cory McDowell's 1984 Porsche veered off another rural road, went into a spin, struck a tree and burst into flames, authorities said. The crashes remained under investigation, police said. Authorities said the father had always doted on his sons. "That's all he talked about was his boys," said sheriff's department Sgt. Tim Meyer. "He lived for his boys." Warren County is about 110 miles southwest of Louisville. Wednesday, December 7, 2005 ( 05:37 PM ) Don't let anyone ever tell you it's hot all the time in Texas. Yes, Weather.com, "Wintry Mix" of MISERY. ( 02:24 PM ) And the teaser trailer for X3 came out this week. All I can say is, "See you in Hell, Golden Gate Bridge!!" ( 02:18 PM ) I just got this message in my inbox: Due to today’s forecast of inclement weather, the University will officially close beginning at 2 p.m. today and reopen at 10 a.m. tomorrow. AWESOME. NO CLASS AT 4. I did NOT want go outside right now. Sunday, December 4, 2005 ( 11:19 PM ) After 15 hours of fine-tuning, The Thesis is DONE! KINDA!!@!! Teaching Social Skills to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Use of Social Stories 54 pages 12,370 words 2 tables 2 graphs 7 appendices Now all I have to do is get it approved by my thesis committee. Friday, December 2, 2005 ( 03:01 PM ) Talking about iTunes is masturbation. Open iTunes/iPod or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrasing it is. How many songs? 11515 Days worth of music? 31.2 Sort by song title: -First song: "'85 Radio Special Thank You" TMBG -Last Song: "Zurich is Stained" Pavement Sort by time: -Shortest Song: "Who's Knocking On the Wall?" TMBG -Longest Song: "Sleep" Godspeed You Black Emperor! Sort by album: -First Song: "Blue & Grey Shirt (Demo)" American Music Club -Last Song: "Panic" The Sundays Top Five Most Played Songs: 1. "Patriot's Heart" American Music Club 2. "Big Heartbreak" The Rosebuds 3. "Another Morning" American Music Club 4. "Call To Love" Crooked Fingers 5. "Back To Boston" The Rosebuds First song that comes up on Shuffle: "Fishing the Sky" The Appleseed Cast Search .... "sex", how many songs come up? 28 "blood", how many songs come up? 56 "death", how many songs come up? 84 "love", how many songs come up? 403 "you", how many songs come up? 1126 "it", how many songs come up? 2510 "f***", how many songs come up? 25 "Existentialism", how many songs come up? 1 Thursday, December 1, 2005 ( 11:20 AM ) Haha, pretty damn cool. Turn left in 500 feet... fool! Companies are offering some surprising voices for you car's navigation system. Make room for Mr. T. December 1, 2005: 11:31 AM EST By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Believe it or not, getting yelled at and berated by Mr. T actually becomes boring pretty quickly. Everything he tells you to do -- everything -- starts with "Hey, Fool!" That's true even when he's telling you to do something dumb, like drive onto the lower level of the Queensboro Bridge when the upper level is the one you need. California company NavTones has contracted with Mr. T and the actors Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper to record voices that can be loaded into navigation systems, giving your driving directions a little extra personality. More voices are coming, the company said. Another company, TomTom, offers John Cleese's voice along with several "fictional" characters that include a New York City cab driver and a Freudian psychoanalyst. Other companies are also creating customizable voices for navigation systems, said Anne Louise Hanstad, vice president of marketing for TomTom. "The potential here is as great and as wide as downloadable ringtones," she said. The voices don't change the directions you're given. That depends on the hardware, the navigation device itself. The voices will work on a variety of different navigation devices but, for the time being, they will have to be portable navigation devices that can be connected to a computer. Test drive "What are you, high? How do you know I'm not just (b.s.)ing you, man? You think I know where you're going? C'mon!," chides Hopper in a sound sample on the Navtones.com Web site. "Are you lost yet? Are you LOST YET!?!" With that confidence-inspiring message in mind, CNNMoney.com tested NavTones' Mr. T, Hopper and Reynolds voices loaded onto TomTom Go 700 portable navigation system. Besides directions, each voice offers a few extra phrases here and there, but not so often as to become obnoxious, said Will Andre, chief executive officer of Wanderlust Media, NavTones' parent company. They might need to dial back some of that "personality" a little more. In our test, the snide asides became stale long before the first short drive was over. It was kind of funny at first, but there are only so many times I want to hear Mr. T, without apparent provocation, threaten to come out of my navigation device and beat me. Where the typical navigation system says "You have reached your destination," Mr.T's voice follows that with: "What is that? That's where you were going? Oh, man. You wasted my time!" Dennis Hopper sounded as if he had a bad hangover and I'd just dragged him out of bed for this. "Turn left in 200 feet... Oh, man," he would groan. I actually started to feel sorry for him. I wanted to let him go back inside and get sleep off whatever he'd done last night. Burt Reynolds made the best navigator. For the most part, he didn't complain and his chipper-sounding insults were at least given with a smile in his voice. I could leave him on duty full time. Later, when speaking to an expert in computer-voice interaction, I learned that I probably liked Reynolds best simply because, of the three, the personality of his voice was most like mine. I won't say there are any other similarities. Surprisingly, none of the voices objected when I ignored their advice in favor of my own ideas on the best way to get around in New York City. I expected Mr. T to get really irate when I refused to turn when he told me too, but he just quietly recalculated the route then barked out "Hey, Fool! Turn right in 500 feet!" I ignored him again and we just kept up this dysfunctional interchange until I arrived at the intersection where I actually wanted to turn. NavTone's downloadable voices are expected to be available for purchase by the end of the year, said Andre. TomTom's Cleese voice, and others, are available now for TomTom navigation devices.