Oh, and while I'm on the subject of TV weather, note to Dan over at KJRH: stop making Double Doppler sound like it's the greatest thing since the rain gauge. It's only purpose is to allow you to show severe weather within the couple of miles of the station that the first radar can't see because the scxanner is too low. That's its ONLY FUNCTION! For Double Doppler to actually mean something you need to have the second radar far enough away from the first to see farther out in one direction. Like maybe McAlester, nobody has a radar in that part of the state. 10:20am
 

Tulsa Gas Prices February 13, 2004 12:00 am

 
A current article says that Oklahoma has the lowest gas prices in the nation, $1.49 average for the state. Seeing this reminded me of a website I once visited, tulsagasprices.com. Visiting it, I find that the lowest price in the area is, as usual, the Flying J Truck Stop at Admiral and 129th E. Ave. They list the highest as a Git-n-Go at 111th & Peoria, but given the problems that chain has been facing, that store might actually be closed down and the listed price is what it was when the closing happened.

While at that site I also found a little graphic that will list the current high and low prices for Tulsa. Said graphic has now been added to the right column on the main page. Clicking on the graphic will take you to their web site. (At this rate, it's only a matter of time till the right column winds up being longer than the six articles in the left column!) 4:55pm
 

That "Time Flies" Adage? So True! February 29, 2004 12:00 am

 
Sorry I haven't been around lately, but I have been having just too much fun with my new toy. Most of my income tax refund natually went for bills, but I made sure to keep enough out for one luxury, and I have been having a time of it:

Got a DVD burner. Not one for the computer, but the kind that hooks up to the TV. First project with it was to take the commercials and news stories about the ABATE Toy Run and burn them onto a disc, thereby making its archival much easier. The intended primary use for the machine is to burn a bunch of stuff I've put on video before the VHS tapes have a chance to wear out (that time is coming: some of my tapes are old enough to drive!). At this moment I'm doing a disc of "Mysteries of the Bible" episodes that first aired on A&E back in the mid-90s.

But the project that has been taking the bulk of my time has been converting my collection of Warner Brothers cartoons (Bugs, Daffy, et al) from tape to disk. I don't think it would be too bold to say that I likely have the largest collection of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies between the Rockies and the Mississippi: of the 1003 classic cartoons theatrically released between 1930 and 1969, I'm currently missing only thirty-seven, most of them from the first ten years of the series. So far I've made eight DVDs of cartoons, each of them around five hours in length. And I'm just barely a third of the way through my collection!

I've been having a ball watching these cartoons as I've been transferring them, some of which I haven't seen in years. Mainly because no network or cable channel has aired them in years. I've noticed that, as far as the WB cartoons go, the only ones pre-1948 that get shown anymore are those featuring recognizable characters (Bugs, Elmer, Porky, etc.). Many of the better cartoons in this era are the one-shots, the ones that had no recurring characters. The official DVD collection that recently came out, excellent as it is, follows this same pattern: all named stars, no one-shots. Not even the one with the singing frog that has since become the mascot for an entire television network. It's a shame that a whole generation is being raised without these magnificent cartoons to view. 10:13pm