Sturgeon’s Law Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.” Oddly, when Sturgeon’s Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’.
|
Long time readers will recognize this theme, sort of. I’ve changed the background image to reflect my latest obsession — Lost. If you are viewing this using internet explorer, I pity you. Those glaring white post and header blocks are really 50% tranparent, but IE doesn’t do that well with the opacity tag in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). So ordinarily I would tell you to scroll down the sidebar to the Themes section and pick Brian’s Red, which is what the theme was yesterday, but once again for reasons know only to Bill Gates, IE won’t change to that particular theme. One of the other two work just fine. Go get Mozilla or Opera and see the theme as it was meant to be. Or wait a week, I’ll probably change again…
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 22
Nothing to watch tonight. We watched Season 1 of Dinner for Five yesterday and we watched Shooter this afternoon, so we are out of red envelopes.
I was checking the local cable’s TV Guide Channel for something to watch. This one program caught my eye. Listed for CNN, AKA: Cable News Network, for 8:00 PM until 10:00 PM — To Be Announced.
Ended up watching That Thing You Do on E!.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 23
Super Bowl 4: Kansas City Chiefs 23 — Minnesota Vikings 7
Super Bowl 8: Miami Dolphins 24 — Minnesota Vikings 7
Super Bowl 15: Oakland Raiders 27 — Philadelphia Eagles 10
Super Bowl 16: San Francisco 49ers 26 — Cincinnati Bengals 21
Super Bowl 23: San Francisco 49ers 20 — Cincinnati Bengals 16
Super Bowl 42: New York Giants 17 — New England Patriots 14
Oh, and I bought the shirt.
Washed the car this afternoon and I’m embarrassed to say that with the temperature in the low seventies, when I was done, I just drove it back in to the garage.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 24
A man wakes up the hospital, bandaged from head to foot. The doctor comes in and says, ‘Ah, I see you’ve regained consciousness. Now, you probably won’t remember, but you were in a pile-up on the freeway. You’re going to be okay, you’ll walk again and everything, but… something unfortunate happened. I’m trying to break this gently, but the fact is, your willy was chopped off in the wreck, and we were unable to find it.’
The man groans, but the doctor goes on, ‘You’ve got $9,000 in insurance compensation coming to you, and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did — better in fact! But the thing is, it doesn’t come cheap. It’s $1,000 an inch.’
The man perks up at this.
‘So,’ the doctor says, ‘it’s for you to decide how many inches you want. But it’s something you’d better discuss with your wife. I mean, if you had a five inch one before, and you decide to go for a nine incher, she might be a bit put out. But if you had a nine inch one before, and you decide only to invest in a five incher this time, she might be disappointed. So it’s important that she plays a role in helping you make the decision.’
The man agrees to talk with his wife. The doctor comes back the next day. ‘So,’ says the doctor, ‘have you spoken with your wife?’
‘I have,’ says the man.
‘And has she helped you in making the decision?’
‘She has,’ says the man.
‘And what is it?’ asks the doctor.
‘We’re getting a new kitchen.’
The Shirt isn’t here yet.
Neither is Season 3.
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 26
For the 4th time in 3 months a disc we have rented from Netflix has not been available at our local distribution center. The British detective show, I can understand not being real popular in SC, and having to come from Chicago, but House, season one disc three? Discs 1 & 2 came from Columbia, how come #3 wasn’t there? I bet #4, 5 & 6 will be there.
Even though Netflix has lost a 2004 class action lawsuit for throttling (with legal feet dragging it is still not settled), I have no real recourse because they changed their user agreement to allow high volume renters to be “smoothed.”
What is really galling is the fact that when a disc is “not available” at my local distribution center they have to wait a full day before it can be shipped from the next closest center. Isn’t this all done via computer? Netflix knows what I want next, how long should it take them to get the word out? I kinda figure email would be pretty much instantaneous…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 26
Forgive me if I can’t remember which magazine it was in, the latest editions of both Automobile and Motor Trend landed on my desk this morning, but there were some photos of several near totally un-camouflaged Porsche Panameras. The four-seat, four-door sport coupe, that is supposed to be on sale next year as a 2010 model was out doing high speed testing. If they were parked along the side of the road in the pictures how did we know they were out high speed testing you ask? Because each car was sporting on both front and rear bumpers a bright yellow sticker:
Get yours here: Government Approved High Speed Testing Vehicle Bumper Sticker
Oh, yeah, IE users you should be able to change the theme back to Brian’s Red if you want to.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 27
Tonight was the February meeting of the MMC. This month it was in Augusta and the big item on the agenda was trying to figure out what to do for our 15th Anniversary dinner later this month.
The one person committee had it narrowed down to 5 different restaurants in the three different cites on 3 different nights. The haggling lasted until nearly 9:00 PM with nearly twenty differing opinions on when, where, and how much. It was as difficult to reach an agreement as it was for the SALT talks. Believe me, in the middle of it, it felt as if it was taking as long too.
By the time we got home there were less than fifteen minutes to go in tonight’s episode. I sat in front of the PC, but Donna couldn’t resist the call of the siren and headed in to watch the last bits. I’m going to wait until tomorrow and watch it online at ABC.com.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 29
Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in New York to talk about the world. After her talk she offers a question time. One little boy puts up his hand. The Senator asks him what his name is.
‘Kenneth.’
‘And what is your question, Kenneth?’
‘I have three questions:
First — whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband’s eight years in the office as President?
Second — why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third — whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?’
Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kids that they will continue after recess. When they resume, Hillary says, ‘Okay, where were we? Oh, that’s right, question time. Who has a question?’
A different little boy puts his hand up. Hillary points to him and asks him what his name is.
‘Larry.’
‘And what is your question, Larry?’
‘I have five questions:
First — whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband’s eight years in the office as President?
Second — why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third — whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?
Fourth — why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
And Fifth — what happened to Kenneth?’
I’ve been watching a lot more television than I used to lately and the down side of this is commercials. Theodore Sturgeon was probably a little optimistic about the percentages as they pertain to TV ads, it is more like 99% are crud.
The ads always show stuff in a positive light, except for prescription medicine which have to go on and on about the possible side effects. Car commercials have some rules too, but do their best to find their way around them. If you advertise the starting price of the car, you have to show the price of what it would cost to buy the car featured in the commercial. They show this much higher price in the fine print at the bottom of the screen and it only appears for milliseconds. This price is always considerably more than the base price of the car by thousands of dollars. The current big price jump champion is the new Nissan Murano with a base price of $26,330 with a price as shown of $38,930, nearly 50% more expensive.
A way to avoid showing this greatly inflated cost is to not mention the base price of the car at all. But to be fair if you are not featuring the base model of the car in the ad, you have to place this helpful little phrase in the fine print for a few milliseconds — Optional equipment shown.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 30
 As a recent graduate of the John Locke School of Survival I feel right at home in the woods. But when Donna and I somehow got off our mapped trail this afternoon and stumbled on this trail, I have to admit that I became a little uneasy.
For the first time in about three weeks we finally escaped the high gravity couch and took a walk in the woods. The last time we took a hike, on that same day, we watched a couple of episodes of Season 1, Disc 5 of TDTVS. Today, along with the walk, we also watched a couple episodes of Season 3, Disc 2 of TDTVS.
Papa got a new pair of shoes!
We finished the evening off with dinner out with friends. We went to our least favorite Italian restaurant, Roma Pizza. We got the polar opposite of last visit’s service, if anything our waiter was too attentive. We decided to get something besides pizza this visit, I had spaghetti with sausage and Donna had the veal parmigiana. the food was good, but not great, we’ll be sticking to the pizza from now on.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 3o
I’m not sure exactly where the phrase “forsaking all others” is from, might have been part of my wedding vows or the oath I took when I joined the U.S. Navy or maybe it is from my college fraternity pledge, but I have been hearing it in my head a lot recently.
When I came home from work on Friday I had with me the borrowed DVD of the movie Lucky # Slevin to watch (thanks Mark.) Also on Friday, in the mail there was a red envelope with Notes on a Scandal inside. Here it is Sunday night and neither movie has found its way into the DVD player.
Not because we weren’t in front of the TV any this weekend, we were, for a good bit of it, but because we watching more of Season 3 of TDTVS.
Ben: Bring me the man from Tallahassee.
Man leaves, and Locke and Alex exit the closet.
Locke: Is that some kind of code.
Ben: No Locke, we don’t have a code for ‘There’s a man in the closet with a gun to my daughter’s head.’ Although there clearly should be.
P.S. I do know that it came from my wedding vows…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 30
Its a good thing we took a vow of poverty then innit brother?
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 32
A few months ago some new folks moved into the neighborhood about 5 houses down. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen them out and about. Which is probably not unusual, because I’d bet they’d say the same about us.
I’m a car guy, so I noticed right off what vehicles they owned. On the side street from their house there is an old flat bed truck, which I assume is the fellows work vehicle. Some times it is warming up when we drive by on our way to work in the mornings. Her car (I’m guessing) is a less than 2-year old white Lexus IS 250. I know it is this new because it is the new body style. His car (again a guess) was a black 2006 or 2007 750i BMW. Again I it is of this vintage because of it’s toned down “Bangle-butt” rear end and that is when the “5”-liter engine was available.
German cars are known for their good brakes and part of the reason for that is the type of brake pad they use. But the down side to the pads is that in short order they turn your shiny silver wheels to dark gray then to black because of the dust they give off from use.
When they moved in the BMW’s wheels were shiny. I don’t think he ever washed those wheels in the first couple of months they lived there. Eventually they looked about the same shade of flat black as the tires. One evening on the way home I noticed the wheels were bright again.
The next day on the way home, there was a silver 650i convertible parked next to the Lexus. He washed the wheels because he was trading the big sedan in on BMW’s big 2-door ‘vert.
After a couple weeks, the wheels on the 650i weren’t even dull silver yet, it was gone. Now there is a gray 550i BMW sedan in the driveway.
Somehow I don’t think there will be a 3 series car there next. The Lexus IS is same class car. I’m betting that sometime in March there will be a black Z4M Coupe there.
Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 37
We finished watching the last 3 episodes of season 3 tonight and made a vow to wait at least 4 months before we start over again with season 1.
After we finished watching Lost I caught up with the latest episode of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles online. Midway through there is this scene between the man that Sarah was living with prior to her jumping ahead 8 years into 2007 and his current wife (the Sarah replacement if you will.) He was trying to convince her that he wasn’t lying, that he hadn’t seen Sarah recently. The wife looked real familiar. I had seen her in something recently. Real recent. No, it couldn’t be. With a quick check of IMDB and I found out it was who I thought it was — Penny!
Sonya Walger
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 37
On tonight’s episode of Lost we find out that the island has some strange power over the surrounding environment and every person on it. Oh, that’s right, we already knew that…
So of the “Oceanic 6″ that get off the island, we now know 2/3rds of them. In the “flash forwards” so far we have found out that Jack is so afraid of something that he goes back to being a drunk, Hurley is so afraid of something that he hides out in a funny farm, Kate is so afraid of something that she is hiding and now we discover that Sayid is so afraid of Ben he kills people.
Interesting thing about watching the show on “live” TV is watching the commercials. For the longest time I figured I was the whole wrong demographic for the show. The ads skewed way young. Old Navy clothing, birth control pills, the hip new Ford car that you can talk to get it change the music playing instead of the archaic button pushing, etc. But finally in the next to the last commercial break I felt better, there was an ad for Viagra.
Speaking of Old Navy ads, was the new Urban Safari look advertised inspired by the whole running through the jungle on Lost or is that the new look and they picked Lost to sell it because of the whole running through jungle thing?
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 38
Because it was a borderline nice spring day and we were buoyed with optimism from our last successful visit, Donna and I decided to walk to Roma Pizza for some lunch. As we approached the end of our street there were two white Ford Crown Victorias parked side by side with one person leaning in the window of one of the cars. As he stood up he velcroed something black around his midsection.
When we reached him, Donna asked him if it was safe to keep walking. We weren’t too far from home and didn’t mind turning around now. He said, “Yeah, go ahead. There was an armed robbery at a quick cash place on Whiskey Road.” We continued on our way.
Hey, wait a minute, there is one of those places right next door to our destination. As we walked we discussed if maybe we shouldn’t be walking around here right now. When we arrived at the shopping center there were police vehicles everywhere. City cops, county sheriffs and the State police were milling about law enforcement vehicles of all shapes and descriptions.
While we were eating a local news crew set up outside and created quite a stir among the patrons and staff alike. There presence let us know that something important had transpired.
Too bad that it wasn’t during the local mid day news broadcast, because then we could have watched the live news feed on the TV above the bar with one eye while seeing the reporter and camera man with the other as we ate our pizza.
And it was a good thing that we didn’t start out for lunch a half hour earlier or we might have stumbled onto the robbers as they exited the cash place through the back door.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 38
I spent the whole day wearing my Oceanic Airlines T-shirt. The seller said it was pre-shrunk, but there was a lot of shrunk still left in it. After washing it still fits, but it is a little short, so I ordered an XXL in dark blue for back-up.
At one point this afternoon I was on the couch trolling the net for Lost stuff using links from other Lost pages while Donna was in the other room on the desktop reading the Lost forums. The best find is a toss-up between a blog from Jorge Garcia the actor who plays Hugo Reyes, AKA Hurley — Dispatches from the Island or some nude images of Mira Furlan who plays Danielle Rousseau, or as Sawyer refers to her, the French Chick from a 1985 Yugoslavian movie called ‘When Father Was Away on Business’.
With nothing left to watch DVD-wise, this evening, using the laptop, resting on the dinner table between us, we went online to ABC.com and rewatched the 3rd episode of season 4, The Economist, to see what all the losties on the forums were talking about.
We bought our next 5-week Powerball ticket today. Instead of the usual quick pick, we opted to pick our own — 4–8-15–16-23–42. That’s right, we are risking the curse, which I figure in this case will be nothing more than having to share the prize with thousands of fans of the show.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 40
Car News: For some reason the BMW 6 Series convertible is back at the house down the street. The 5 Series sedan is gone. This guy must sell BMWs for a living or he has big repair issues with the 7 Series and swaps around loaner cars.
Other Car News: Halfway between here and there, some one traded in their Hummer H2 for a BMW Z4. It is an M edition no less. So I guess I was right about the Z4M, just off by a couple houses on the location.
Outdoors: Although we do enjoy laying around the house doing nothing, it can’t be the only thing, as we found out yesterday. By early last evening we had cabin fever, so today to stave off the late in the day boredom, we went for a walk in Hitchcock Woods around mid-day.
Komen’s Coming: They have got the BMW Ultimate Drive map for 2008 online. Shiny new BMWs with pink vinyl accents will be stopping in Augusta on Tuesday, March 25th. Donna and I will be putting in for our vacation day tomorrow.
Innings Pitched. Yesterday was the first official workout of Spring Training for pitchers and catchers in Fort Meyers. The FRS title defense begins soon.
Everthing Happens For A Reason: Only two of the famous numbers were picked in Saturday’s PowerBall drawing — 4 & 8
Sunday Night: And it is time to go watch some Law & Order: Criminal Intent on Bravo.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 40
BMW Ultimate Drive® supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Georgia
Savannah – Monday, 3/24
Augusta – Tuesday, 3/25
Athens – Wednesday, 3/26
South Carolina
Greenville – Saturday, 3/29
Columbia – Tuesday, 12/9
Charleston – Wednesday, 12/10
North Carolina
Charlotte – Thursday, 12/4
Asheville – Friday, 12/12
We have already put in for a vacation day for the Augusta event on March 25th. Whether we have any vacation days left in December to do the one in Columbia or Charleston remains to be seen. Registration opens for Augusta tomorrow and I’m going to sign up to drive the two new models for this year, the 1 Series and the X6. Registration is not absolutely necessary unless you can only be there at a certain time and want to drive a certain car. Donna and I will spend several hours there, so we will hitch a ride in anything that is sitting there. Hopefully we will drive at least 8 of the 14 mile loops so we can make it over the $100 mark.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 42
 When I entered the garage this morning to get in the car I was struck by an odd smell. A very chemical smell. I opened the garage door and it was quickly disbursed.
I didn’t recognize it, wasn’t motor oil, wasn’t gasoline and it was not anti-freeze. Wasn’t coming from the car at all. It really only smelled right on the stairs from the house to the garage. I opened the cabinet doors one by one and sniffed. It was faintly there, but I was unable to pinpoint it. Didn’t smell like paint and it wasn’t natural gas. It had a sweet odor, so it certainly wasn’t a dead critter under the house.
As I pulled into the garage tonight after work the smell was still there, so I started a more thorough search of the garage. Wasn’t the fire ant killer or the potting soil. Not the 3 in 1 oil or the liquid wrench. Didn’t come from the car wax or Amour-All. Not the Simple Green nor the tire shine. Wasn’t coming from the bicycle chain lube. Ditto the “clean” rags. Not the wallpaper paste or the wallpaper remover. Kind of smells like it was coming from the spray paint area. Didn’t smell like paint, but I started pulling out the dozen cans of partially full cans. What’s this?
AH HA! A pint can of Paint & Varnish Remover way in the back. As soon as I put it on the counter I knew I’d found the culprit. I don’t remember ever buying this. Probably purchased when we first moved into the place to clean paint off the molding or something. Pretty toxic stuff I guess, only took 18 years to eat right through the metal can.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 46
Keep it down!
Lost is on.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 47
I’m beginning to think this thing has run it’s course. Things are happening all around me, but I’ve lost the will to write about them.
I need to shake things up. Haven’t figured out how yet.…
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 47
Oh, yeah, the title reflects the total number of posts in this blog.
 We went to Booklovers today and I picked up five new reads. It is hard to pick out books, seems like I’ve read them all already, or maybe it is because the three paragraph blurb on the back on all of them sound exactly the same, there must be one guy writing them all. Kind of like that Movie Announcer Guy. To make it easier next time, I’m bringing a list.
In past years I’ve given a blow by blow accounting of my Girl Scout Cookie consumption, this year it will be different. I am letting you know that 14 boxes were delivered to our door today. I will mention them again just one more time, when the last cookie is gone. On a sad note, this year they are not selling Lemon Coolers. They have been replaced by Lemon Chalet Cremes and while I’m sure these are a fine snack, to me they will pale in comparison to the Coolers.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 48
 Let’s see, it rained most of Wednesday and it rained cats and dogs on Thursday, today is Sunday, it should be safe. It was, we only sunk in up to our insteps.
I wonder how Miles is doing with that hand grenade in his mouth? I wonder if his jaws getting are tired yet.
It has been 78 days, but we have once again broken out the state map with the colored dots on it. Next weekend we are going on the first Postal Safari of 2008.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 48
 Had to use the fog lights this morning to get to work. Not that the fog lights on the Emperor are that great, but at least then I could see the road ahead of me. The first five feet of it anyway. When the fog is this thick you can get a real good idea of the sharpness of the cutoff of the projector low beams of the 2001+ Miatas. It was a slow trip in.
Via links in The Lost Forum I have downloaded the first 4 episodes of this season of Lost. I guess someone hacked into their DVRs and uploaded the files of the HDTV broadcast. Each episode is around 350 Megabytes and looks like about 640 x 360 native, which still looks pretty darn good on my PC when played full screen. I’m looking into turning them into DVDs that I can play on the living room TV instead of Donna and I having to cozy up to the laptop…
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 50
 Tonight was our every four week haircut appointment. Because one of the stylist’s other appointments didn’t make it in both Donna and I got got taken care earlier than we expected. Which left us enough time for her to make a Pampered Chef party over in Augusta. I drove her over and stayed behind at John & Carol’s house while she and Carol proceeded to go to the “party.” Soon John and I were joined by exiled husband of the hostess of the party. John grilled burgers and us guys hung out, chatting about guy things and watch the History Channel show, Modern Marvels: “Trucks.”
On the way back from Augusta, somewhere on I-20, the Emperor hit the 73,000 mile mark.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 51
 Since Saturday our internet connection has been problematic. Sometimes it was dial-up slow, others it would take 2 attempts to get to a web site and sometimes it seemed to be browser specific. I wanted to blame the cable company, you know take the easy way out, but before I made a fool of my self I decided to try a couple things.
I cleaned out my internet temp files. I cleaned out the hard drives temp files. Both were substantial. I defragged. Tonight I figured I better eliminate the router from the equation, and that turned out to be the problem. When I hooked a Cat 5 cable from modem to PC, things flew with nary a hiccup. I downloaded a firmware upgrade, reset the unit to it’s default settings, set it back up from scratch and once again we can watch streaming video with aplomb.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 51
 Actress Yunjin Kim plays, Sun-Hwa Kwon, one half of a married Korean couple on Lost. This photo and a brief interview appeared in last Sunday’s Daily Mail. While I like that particular color of the car, I think they missed the boat, it should have been white and they should have replaced the Mazda Flying M with the DHARMA logo. Maybe even replaced the text Mazda with the words “Dharma Initiative” and the script Miata with the words “Sports Car.”
Here are a blurb from the interview:
But I really love this Mazda MX-5. It’s so cute. It would be great around town and it’s perfect for somewhere like Hawaii, a sporty runaround – just put the roof down and off you go. I feel I’ve bonded with it.
You can read the rest here.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 52
 Tonight was the 15th Anniversary Dinner for the Master’s Miata Club. As usual we all got dressed up nice and went to a “fancy” restaurant. While the attendance total was right around the usual level, but percentage-wise it was probably the highest it has ever been because of the shrinkage of the membership rolls.
This year we dined at 6th & Watkins. Nice place, great food and a fun event. Some of the discussion at our table centered around the so-called Club’s Anniversary Dinner jinx in which the restaurant that has hosted our dinner has fallen on bad times not too long after we dine there. We have “killed” at least two places, one went bankrupt and changed hands and one had a big fire. We then tried to name all the places we have held an anniversary dinner and came to the conclusion that we don’t have the memory capacity we did when the club was first formed.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 53
|
|
