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’.
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 We are staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Lake City, SC, just a couple years later than our first attempt. After a long layoff it was good to get back in the Post Office saddle again — Paxville, Davis Station, Greeleyville, Lane, Salters, Kingstree, Cades, Lake City, Scranton, Coward, Effingham, Pamplico and Johnsonville.
Thirteen POs today and we have 7 lined up for tomorrow’s return trip. This was a second trip to Paxville because the first time we couldn’t find the Post Office, through no fault of our own I might add. Couple of interesting town names today. When you say Johnsonville all I think of is Brats, but my favorite has to be Effingham because if it is pronounced the way I hear it in my head, it sounds like someone is cussing about a ham.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 57
 We got the 7 Post Offices we planned for on the return trip, just not in the order we planned. Blew right by the Sardinia PO at first. We knew we missed it when we spotted the sign for the next town south on US301, Gable. After taking Gable’s portrait we made a u-turn and headed back north. We actually drive by it again, but not too far as we were really looking for it this time. It is an easy Post Office to miss as there was no “blue box” out front, the flag pole didn’t taper like a normal pole and Old Glory wasn’t flying from it either. Plus this is the only sign and it was parallel to the road and not noticeable at 65MPH.
The building looks old enough to be the original, but if it was, I would have expected some sort of bronze plaque the be nearby, so I don’t know if that is true. Another interesting tidbit about the town is how it got it’s name. “When the Government was ready to open a post office in the community that is now Sardinia, the residents could not agree on a name. Since they were meeting in the school house, somebody, seeing the globe, suggested that they spin it and let someone close his eyes and put his finger on a spot which would be the name. This happened to be Sardinia.” I found that on the internet, so I don’t know how true that is either.
When we got home I washed the Miata off. It is starting to be spring here as there was quite a smattering of dead insects on the nose. Of course because spring is starting the car won’t stay clean very long as it about time for pine pollen to start blowing in the wind.
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 Close-up of some text on the Civil War monument in front of the Clarendon County Courthouse in Manning, SC. Manning was our last Post Office stop of the day yesterday, so we got out and took a walk around the downtown before hopping in the car for the return home.
The pictures from all 20 of this weekend’s Post Offices are online in the old school gallery. Most interesting tidbit from yesterday’s catch was Alcolu which has the distinction of having the lowest number Zip Code in the State — 29001. The highest number Zip Code is 29945 which belongs to Yemassee was captured last August. The first city alphabetically is Abbeville — 29620 and the last is York — 29745.
While searching out info on the upcoming BMW Ultimate Drive Donna stumbled on a link to a post on the BMW Blog that gives a review of a drive in the new M3. I’ve got to get a ride in one of them. It will be interesting to compare the M back to back to a regular 3 coupe. The Ultimate drive hasn’t had an M version of a car since way back in 1999 when the Z3 M Coupe made the rounds. Should be interesting, I wonder if this thing will have a manual transmission?
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 62
 On the first weekend in March every year the Aiken branch of the American Association of University Women put on a Books & Things Fair. They never keep an accurate record of the number of books on sale, but estimates range around 50,000. Everything is donated, so 99% are used, but the variety is staggering. The sale runs on Friday and Saturday from 9 AM until around 5PM. Donna and I go every year on Saturday and putter around until we each get an armload of books and usually end up spending any where from $10 to $15.
This year is the first time it coincided with our Friday off so we decided to go and see if we might have a better selection to choose from. We arrived at ten o’clock and the joint was hopping. Good thing we walked over because parking was at a premium. The real early birds were already in a checkout line that stretched to the back wall of the old Club Fitness building. These folks had boxes and wheeled luggage brimming with books. Obviously the serious collectors or eBay resellers were waiting outside the building waiting to get in like Black Friday shoppers outside Best Buy hoping to get one of ten $200 laptops available. We both made a couple of rounds looking and when were ready to leave ourselves the line had shortened considerably. After checking out and spending a whopping ten bucks, we took a few more minutes to poke through the dozens of boxes of free-for-the-taking books by the door.
Donna’s big find was a stack of Golden Books a half a foot high at a quarter a piece for later mailing to nephew James. My prize purchase was two dollars spent on a jumbo book of South Carolina County Maps. I think it is around 20 years old and I’m sure there are a lot of changes around the large towns, but in the more rural parts of the state (of which there are many) it is still seems pretty accurate. As a matter of fact we already got our money back in finding a shorter route than the state map showed from Summerton to Davis Station and then Davis Station to Greeleyville.That was on Saturday, Sunday we used it to find a direct route from Turbeville to New Zion.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 63
 A couple of weeks ago my work PC crapped the bed. I ended up with one that was earmarked for someone else in QC. Unfortunately the monitor that came with the unit was a 17″ flat panel and that had less real estate than my present 20″ tube behemoth, so I didn’t take it. My cubical neighbors (they work for a different manger) just had their same vintage tubes replaced with 22“wide screen flat panels, so I figured now was the time to press the issue with my boss man.
He agreed and passed the request through channels so I could get a new screen too. I was lobbying for a 24″ Ultra Sharp Dell Widescreen, but the manager in charge of purchasing the new PC equipment thinks that the money for this sort of thing comes out of his pocket, so I got the same bargain monitor as the others. It is a GE and while it has a small tilt adjustment there is no vertical height adjustment. Sitting on the desktop was too low, a 1″ thick Reid Tool catalog was close, but the 2″ thick ream of copier paper is perfect.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 64
 Last week’s episode of Lost was about time travel, sort of. It was more like a person’s mind time traveled, not the body.
I’ve been watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles online by time traveling one day into the future and it is heavy with the whole time travel thing.
I watched last week’s Lost podcast where where they showed how they made Daniel Farady’s time machine, so I made one myself and because I don’t have a lot of time tonight to blog I am going to use the time machine tomorrow and come back to today and blog. OK?
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 A smart reader will realize that if I did have a time machine yesterday evening, I simply could have gone back in time a couple hours, thereby giving me plenty of time to write an elegant post, which probably would have dealt with my time traveling.
What I didn’t have time to write about last night was that at the book fair we went to last week I picked up a classic Sci-Fi novel about time travel. I didn’t know that it was a classic until I looked it up on the internet and discovered that it was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974. (I guess it got the nod in multiple years because it id it’s own bit of time traveling. The Man Who Folded Himself is still available new on Amazon, but you can only get the hardcover as used, like I did.
I am a sucker for time travel stories, I even like them when they show up in Chick Flicks like 1980’s Somewhere in Time and more recently 2001’s Kate & Leopold. So I really wanted to like this book, but it got too confusing nearly right from the start and then just got weird.
The first thing that is postulated is that if time travel is possible, paradox is impossible. So there is none of that worry accidentally bumping into yourself and causing the collapse of the known universe. And unlike the time travel in Lost, you can effect the future.
The protagonist of the story time travels back one day and befriends himself. They do the usual first thing, the himself from the future brings back the sports section and they go to the horse races and make a few thousand bucks on the races. He and his one day older self become fast friends. They do stuff together, go out to eat, take in movies. Pretty soon it is cue the Cristopher Cross music for the obligatory slow motion walk on the beach at sunset scene. They have sex with themselves. Yikes!
So I rationalize. I tell myself that it’s simply a complex form of masturbation, and masturbation is all right. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world indulge in it aat one time or another, and the other five per cent are liars.
I haven’t finished the book yet, but the Wikipedia entry mentions that somewhere down the line he ends up living with an opposite-sex version of himself. How the heck that happens I am curious to see, but the cynic in me thinks that it had to added to make up for homosexual bit or the book wouldn’t have been published.
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 If your family is anything like my family, today is a big day and celebrated by exchanging gifts. We are biding our time signing carols and drinking the traditional aqua vitae until the appointed hour when we gather around and watch the lower right of the PC screen as the hour magically jumps back from 2:00 AM to 1:00 AM.
Now excuse me while I go change all the other clocks in the house to tomorrow already.
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 The photo to the left is proof that Donna and I went for a walk in the Woods today. OK, not really proof, I could have taken the picture months ago, but I wouldn’t say it on the Internets if it wasn’t true, would I?
The sign(s) is posted at the entrance to Crawford Fences where the kindly caretakers have placed stacks of large logs at intervals in a clearing for the horse riders to jump over. There are lots of actual fences and other log piles placed on trails throughout the 2,000 acres, but in all the time we have been walking in Hitchcock Woods we have never seen a horse and rider jump one. They always take the little alternate path around these obstacles.
I think next time we pass that way I will rip down those two pieces of wood, it is scaring off all the perspective jumpers, more people would take advantage of the jumps if they knew they could sue someone if they get hurt doing it.
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The car has been handling a little quirky recently and I figured it was time for an alignment. The car tracks straight when you let go of the wheel, but seems to need constant attention to keep it in the center of the lane. Almost felt like I needed new shocks, but that shouldn’t be an issue because I just had new one put on back in August.
It couldn’t be a low tire as I keep a pretty close watch on the pressure, checking it every Saturday along with the oil level. Wait a minute, the last couple of Saturdays I haven’t done it for one reason or another. Maybe I should go check. I just did. Right rear 27–1/2 psi. Right front 27–1/2 psi. Left front 27 psi. Left rear 15psi. Ruh-roh, Reorge! Dis-mounted the tire and found what looks like a small nail about 2 inches in from the sidewall. Should be able to get this one plugged, depending on how long it is. The last time I found a nail in the tread area it was so long that it tore into the sidewall. Judging by the diameter of this nail it won’t be that long.
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Monday we placed two red envelopes in the mail. This morning I got 2 emails from Netflix saying that they had received the discs. So far so good. This afternoon I got one email from Netflix saying they had shipped one movie. Why not two? Did an email not get sent? So I checked my queue and there at the top it lists movie number 2 as shipping on Wednesday. WTF? It is not like it listed long wait or even short wait. Why the delay?
It just happened a couple weeks ago too. I mailed one back on Thursday, Friday I received the email telling me they had received the disc. They didn’t mail my next movie until Monday. Again why the delay?
I can almost forgive the one where the movie arrived back at the distribution center on December 30, but didn’t ship one out until the 2nd of January. But I can’t, because they actually received 2 movies that day with one being shipped out New Year’s Eve (which is still the next day.) Why the long delay?
My favorite delaying tactic is that whenever they get a movie back and for whatever reason, your next movie isn’t at the closest distribution center, they even tell you it will be shipping the next day from another distribution center. So not only do you have to wait 2 or 3 days for the mail instead of the usual one, but they add an extra day right from the git go. Haven’t they ever heard of the internet? It should take seconds to get the word to the next distribution center that I want that movie, not hours.
I’m being throttled, but what am I going to do, switch? Netflix is still the best fit for us and I think they know it.
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Usually I fart around on the net and with about a half hour before beddy-bye time I’ll toss some nonsense here and smile at my blogging “proficiency.” I got so caught up in my blogging avoidance last night that I left no time to actually blog.
For those of you who might be wondering if I have to go out in the garage every morning with the bicycle pump and top off the left rear tire, the answer is no, I had the tire repaired yesterday.
So, the movie that Netflix said they were going to ship on Tuesday, they didn’t. It finally shipped today. To top it off it is coming from Baton Rouge, LA, so it isn’t expected to make it here until Saturday. Probably really won’t show up until Monday. This is probably the kiss of death, we won’t like it, for this movie too, the last time they pulled this stunt when we got the movie, The Good German, we hated it. To top it off it got lost in the mail going back the Baton Rouge…
Yesterday’s top count will be added into today’s and will be reflected in the footer of this totally worthless post.
Tonight is episode #7 of Season 4 of Lost, meaning more than half of this year’s shows will be over. They are only going to do 13 this year because of the writer’s strike. I’m not sure if it is after this episode or the next that Lost will be taking a break and not coming back until April to finish off the rest of the shows.
It has been three weeks since we last so Miles. Do you think he still has the hand grenade in his mouth? Ben’s out of lock-up, isn’t it about time we gave Mr. Straume a break?
All you kids go right ahead and drool over Shannon working on her tan, or Kate salvaging briefcases in her skivvies, or Sun in her blue bikini, me, I like my woman a little more mature. If only I knew whose side she was on…
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I read the spoilers, I watched all the teasers, so I though I knew what was going on, until the very end.
WTF?
But then The Lost Forum explains it:
Jin was in a flashback to 2 months after his marriage to sun before the island. Sun was her flashword after the island after Jin dies by means we don’t know.
 First the actress who plays Sun is photographed with an MX-5 last month and now this time a Miata makes a cameo in last night’s episode. Not only was this a Jin flashback, but it is a flashback for the car as well.
The episode was a sneaky one that broke new ground. We have had flashback shows and more recently flashfoward ones, but Thursday was a combination of the two. They were trickily edited to appear like just one flashforward our Korean couple. A few hints in Jin’s scenes were left for eagle-eyed Lost viewers to pick up. I would like to tell you I am one of them, but I’m not, I learn most that type of stuff from reading The Lost Forum and subsequent viewings of the show.
The production folks at Bad Robot made sure to give Jin a bulky older cell phone, a toss off line about being married for only a couple months and a stuffed dragon with a reference to it being that creature’s year (2000), but weren’t savvy enough to be aware of the difference between a 99/00 Miata and an 01–05 model.
If you look closely at the headlight in the background of the above picture you will see a sharp crease in the body emanating from the upper inside of it plus the separate projector low beam and standard high beam that are the big difference in the model years. Now I know technically you can purchase a 2001 model year car in 2000, but that doesn’t happen until the last couple of months of the year and if this was really taking place in Seoul, the people would have been more bundled up for the cold weather.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 78
 Missed two nights blogging this last week. The first was Wednesday because I didn’t really have anything to write about. That wasn’t the case last night, I had a great topic to write about, but that topic was the reason I couldn’t blog about it.
It rained. Really, really, really hard. At one point we couldn’t see the street, 50 feet away, from the living room window because it was coming down so strong. About 5:30 the cable (and the internet with it) went POOF! As I was turning off the now nearly useless laptop, the power to the whole house went off as well.
Not 10 minutes later the clouds broke and the sun came out, so we sat around with the curtains open reading. When the sun started going down and we could barely see the words on the page anymore we opted to go downtown for some ice cream. At about the same time as we were putting on our shoes, the power came back on. But no cable.
After ice cream, no cable. I watched Blade Runner — Final Cut while Donna read. Rise and shine in the morning, no cable, so we bought a newspaper. Went for a hike in Hitchcock Woods and when we got back, no cable. Boy would I feel foolish if we were the only ones in town without cable, so I dialed the office, busy signal. Guess we weren’t alone.
This afternoon I pulled down off the top shelf of a closet, the box that held my old TV-Radio card. I was going to use the cheesy dipole antenna with in on the living room TV so maybe we could pull in a couple of the local channels. As I opened the box, the TV picture flickered and cable was back. Re-booted the router and the internet was back as well.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 80
Finally the red envelope from Netflix arrived with The Emperor’s New Clothes DVD inside. We showed it, we didn’t watch it. So there.
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 Last Saturday we were in Augusta for an MMC breakfast event. Afterwards we went over to look for ideas for our bathrooms remodeling project. We visited home improvement warehouse number one and marveled at the selection of stuff to choose from. We looked at new bathtubs, tile for the walls & floor and fixtures.
“It’s not easy, but marriage is wonderful. Let’s face it, every decision that you try to make takes twice as long, because you always have to talk them into it.” — Bernard Nadler
A tub is a tub, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. We think we found a floor title we both like a grayish-blue 12 x 12 and thought we would just go with a plain 6 x 6 white for the shower walls and tub enclosure walls. But we couldn’t agree on faucet style. Well, truth be told, neither one of us could come up with one we liked enough to try and talk the other into it. Off we go to the competition, home improvement warehouse number two, which was literally right across the street. We struck gold on the faucet here, we found a style we both agree on — Savannah by Price Pfister.
On the way home we stopped in at The Tile Center in downtown Augusta and got some professional help. The woman who helped us listened, suggested, listened some more, held our hands until we found our perfect tiles, 13 x 13 blueish-gray for the floor, 10 x 13 white with a slight gray marbling for the walls and a 3 x 3 blueish-gray accent. Thanks Janie.
Monday, Contractor #2, who we saw on Friday, called with their preliminary bid. Yikes! can you say steep? It was 2–1/2 times more than the first contractor’s bid. And they weren’t including as much of the materials as the first guy either. We have pretty much decided to go with Contractor #1, but if we do we need to do more shopping. We need to pick out a vanity and top for the bigger bathroom.
Tonight we visited both big box home improvement stores here in Aiken. These are actually almost a mile apart and much smaller than there Georgia counterparts. We really didn’t get much accomplished except for more confusion. And actually, we found some stuff we like online, but it is hard to spend that much money without seeing it in person. We are leaning towards this: Pegasus Exhibit 48 In. Vanity and think it will look nice in the room, but we will need to get a top that, not necessarily matches, but at least coordinates with our floor tile…looks like another trip to The Tile Center is on our agenda.
You think watching Lost will make your head hurt?
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 84
Because of where the date of my birth falls in the Gregorian calendar I am considered a Libra. The symbol for Libra are the scales of balance representing the balance that Libras continually seek in their selves and their life.
I don’t put much stock in astrology and my wife doesn’t either, but one or both of us must subconsciously because it is my job to balance the checkbook. And when I get done posting here I need to get back to seeking what happened to the $5.41 the bank says we have that I don’t think we have.
An interesting side note (or maybe not): Libra is the only inanimate sign of the zodiac, all the others represent either humans or animals.
Might be something to this astrology after all, because I am constantly seeking ways to be inanimate.
The FRS almost didn’t go to Japan for Opening Day.
To get you ready for tomorrow’s Episode 8 of Lost here are a couple of theories on what the “Island” is all about:
1. Coolest. Theory. Ever.
2. The Great Gedanken Expriment, a Tale of Time Travel and Schrodinger’s Cat
They are kind of long, so you might want to save them for next Thursday night, because Lost won’t be on. Tomorrow is episode eight of thirteen total for this season and there is going to be a six week break before we get to see the last 5 episodes (dang writers strike.)
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The Freighter captain puts the beatdown on one of his own crew.
“You can’t kill yourself Michael, the Island won’t let you.”
We find out the real reason Tom is called Mr. Friendly. 
Ben’s sharpshooter guns down the French Chick and Carl.
After the NCAA Tourney is over we will still have 3–1/2 weeks until Lost returns.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86
 Donna is in the other room watching the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships on ESPN. Tonight was the Ladies Short Program which Italy’s Carolina Kostner won.
I am in front of the computer watching the NCAA basketball tournament. With 28 of 32 1st round games played in the “Big Dance” I have correctly picked exactly half, which leaves me nearly dead last and in the company of people with names like Susan, Lorrie, Kella & Jean…
We went back to Augusta today to order our tile for the bathroom. Afterwards we went back to the Home Depot in Evans to try and get a look at the top color for the vanity we have picked out. The floor tiles are grayish-blue and there is a stock color by the company that makes the vanity we have picked out called blue pearl that we wanted to see. Our Home Depot in Aiken had a sample of every other color but that one. When we told the tile lady that we really did want to see the vanity top before ordering. She asked what the color was called and when we told her, she said we have a sample of that and she showed us. It was a lot more black than the blueish tinted web photo, but it would definitely work.
I still wanted to see what Pegasus called Blue Pearl because it might be completely different. Well the nice new big store in Evans did have the color and lo and behold it was just like what they had at the tile store. As we walked the bath aisles there was a vanity sitting in the middle of one that looked awfully familiar. Wait a minute that is our vanity! It was at a reduced price because it was damaged. There was a whole section with that style stuff in various sizes, including the desired 48″ one. These things, according the HD web site, are online order only, what’s this store doing with them?
Donna went up to the service desk to ask if we bought it here would they transfer it to our local store. The person wasn’t absolutely sure, but delivery would be expensive for us because of our over 25 mile distance from the store. We weren’t buying just then, so we figured we would ask that question at our store later. Big mistake, the people at our store knew even less. They even doubted that the store in Evans had what we saw with our very own eyes.
We have got a 10% off coupon (Thanks Patti) and it would be nice to take advantage of the discount on that high priced item. It has to be used on a single in store purchase, so I guess we will need to figure out how to do that. Unfortunately in this case a Miata is not as good as a pick up truck because of the objects size. We may have to borrow a friend on this one.
On the way back from Augusta the Emperor passed the 74,000 mile mark.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86
At today’s MMC Tech Day I finally painted the insides of the headlight housings. I have been wanting to do this since 2004 when the Mazdaspeed Miata came out and they had the same treatment.
Came out pretty good. The icky black glue that holds the lens to the back section left behind a couple of “strings” on the lens. After I had the light all together and back on the car I went to clean it with some Goo Gone. Big mistake. It cleaned the glue right off but it also took off some of the plastic lens. I just spent a couple hours with some 2000 grit sandpaper, toothpaste and plastic polish to clean up the lens. It is still not 100% clear, I might have to get some polishing compound to bridge the toothpaste and the plastic polish.
FYI, WD-40 will take the glue off lickity-split and not “melt” the lens.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86
We went downtown last night to get an ice cream. The place was hopping. That was to be expected because the middle jewel of Aiken’s Triple Crown, the Spring Steeplechase, was yesterday and it routinely attracts 30,000 people and a lot of them hang around town long after. The restaurants were packed and there were several venues with live music. We arrived at the Sweet Cow Creamery at just the right time, we were next in line to be served and by the time I paid for our ice cream there were a half dozen people storming the door to get in.
This morning after watching last Thursday’s episode of Lost with breakfast, we went out and got lost in Hitchcock Woods. As usual, we were not really lost, we just didn’t know exactly where we were. The map hasn’t been updated in a long while and there are quite a few new trails that can confuse us for a short while.
To help you through the next few dark days until April 24th, go to the Lost Island Video and see want some talented Losties have created.
So far I am 31 of 48 in my March Madness picks leaving me only 20 points behind the leaders and next round games are worth 15 points. That’s the good news, the bad news is that there are still 15 of the 21 people entered ahead of me. Unlike last year when I watched none of the games, this year I have actually watched a few of the games. The b-ball players these days love their tats. There was one guy playing for Memphis who I could have sworn had the whole Declaration of Independence tattooed on his upper arm.
We are taking the day off from work Tuesday because the BMW’s are coming to town. We can’t start driving until 9:00AM, but that is OK because I have the perfect way to spend those pre drive hours — baseball. The FRS open the season in Japan against Oakland and the game starts at 6:00AM on ESPN2.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86
“I was going to have you fight Klondor in a stone circle death match.”
I stopped watching network when The West Wing went off the air. Was it the really annoying commercials? Or was it because shows weren’t aimed at me anymore when I reached 50 thereby falling out of the favored demographic? Or was it because the shows were too predictable, because I had seen so much TV to this point in my life, there was nothing new anymore?
“You should definitely step outside the circle”
Commercials have always been annoying, so that probably wasn’t it. A lot of shows were never aimed at me even when I was in the most desirable demographic. Probably not that either. Predictable? Yeah, but even predictable when done right will make me tune in.
“Yeah… just to avoid any confusion.”
Reality killed TV for me. Apparently a lot of people want to be famous and will go to great measures to try and get there. And the rest of the people tune in to see the missed attempts so they can feel superior. I don’t want real life on TV (I’ve got my own reality show starring me going on right now), but I want fantasy. Aliens on X-Files, an intelligent President on West Wing and now magnetic anomalies, smoke monsters and time travel on Lost.
“Klondor, let’s, aah, pack it up.”
I’ve found a couple of new shows that I enjoy. Both are on Fox, one just ended it’s writers strike shortened season and the other just started up in it’s time slot. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles stopped after nine episodes and there hasn’t been any word on wether or not they will film anymore or even if it will return next season. Tonight is episode 5 of New Amsterdam which I will watch tomorrow on the internet because Donna is watching something else. Who knows how long this show will last.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 88
We drove 8 loops in seven different cars for a total of 113.6 dollars raised to help fight breast cancer.
- M3 Coupe
- X3 3.0i
- 650i Coupe
- Z4 3.0i
- 528xi Sedan
- Z4 3.0i
- 750Li
- 535xi Sport Wagon
There were a few surprises for us today. Two of the available cars actually had manual transmissions. One of the cars that had a manual transmission was the M3 Coupe. It was not on the reservation form, but once there they put you on a list (if you were over thirty, sorry Ian), and when your turn came…woohoo. The other stick shift was a Z4 3.0si, which we didn’t end up driving.There were no 1 Series or no X6 to drive (the signature car was an X6.) Both of these vehicles are supposed to join the fleet at the end of the month.
The biggest surprise was they held a survivor’s lap at 12:30 that lined up every car with a breast cancer survivor in it and was given a police escort around the course. Good for them, but they should have done it first thing in the morning, because it took a two hour chunk of time out of the middle of the day. Good thing we had the whole day off from work and didn’t do just an afternoon off or we would have only got in two laps.
Raw gallery is up here: BMW Ultimate Drive 2008. Captions will come later.
I’ll write more about the experience later this week too.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 90
 As always when the BMW Ultimate Drive comes to town I try to talk everyone I know into participating. So far with my co-workers I have had limited success, but with the fellow MMC members I have had better luck.
This year I had almost talked one of our young engineers into doing it. He was on the fence until I mentioned that they had an M3 Coupe in the line up, then he started leaning. He currently drives a tarted up Lexus IS250 with inspirations of turbo charging it.
When Donna and I left work on Monday he said call him if they had the M3 available and he would seriously consider taking a half day off. When we saw the M3 sitting there in the morning I gave him a call, he said he would be there in the afternoon. Because it was just sitting there waiting, Donna and I took our first loop in it. A couple of miles into our loop and having listened to the sound coming from the exhaust pipes when mainlining bursts of acceleration I told Donna to call Ian’s work phone. I wanted to seal the deal and make sure he came over by having her hold the phone out the window when I punched it. He must have been working because he didn’t pick up.
Turns out he didn’t need that sound incentive because up he drove at about 12:45. At that point the Survivor Drive was in progress so there were no cars to drive. I told him to park and go inside to register. At that point of the day it was taking a while to register, so it took about 20 minutes before he showed up back outside. He had a disappointed look on his face, turns out you have to be 30 years old to drive the M3. He wasn’t to badly hurt because he had lined up a round of golf for later that afternoon, so he just got there early and hit a bucket of balls before playing.
I think Donna and I felt worse about it than he did. I didn’t think anything of it when I asked him to come drive. I thought there might be a 25 year-old age limit on the 6 & 7 Series cars, but I didn’t know about the extra 5 years needed for the M3 Coupe. Because he is so mature acting I thought he was in his upper 20’s, but as it turns out Ian isn’t even old enough to drive the 6s or 7s. He is only 23.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 92
Got my latest cholesterol numbers back and the HDL & LDL numbers are pretty much identical, but the total number was down 10 points. Maybe because my triglycerides were the lowest they have ever been.
| |
Chol |
HDL |
LDL |
Trig |
| Goal |
<200 |
>31 |
<100 |
30–150 |
| 03/21/08 |
164 |
37 |
104 |
115 |
| 12/12/07 |
175 |
38 |
104 |
165 |
| 07/17/07 |
185 |
36 |
117 |
162 |
| 03/05/07 |
195 |
39 |
123 |
167 |
| 09/19/06 |
167 |
37 |
103 |
135 |
| 04/06/06 |
168 |
37 |
106 |
126 |
| 12/08/05 |
182 |
35 |
120 |
137 |
| 07/28/05 |
177 |
30 |
113 |
169 |
| 06/17/05 |
164 |
31 |
85 |
238 |
| 05/06/05 |
174 |
27 |
108 |
194 |
| 01/10/05 |
176 |
33 |
110 |
167 |
| 09/21/04 |
209 |
24 |
131 |
271 |
So I guess I’ll be sticking to the 48mg Tricor in the morning and the 20mg Zocor in the evening. Actually worked out cheaper this way because I’m taking the generic for Zocor and it is only $8 bucks a month compared to the $30 a month for the Red Yeast Rice it replaced.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 94
In spite of my repeated protestations to the positive, every once in a while you do need a pickup truck.
Tonight we went to the Home Depot in Evans to buy the vanity that was supposedly online order only. While we were there we bought the top too, went with a Beige because the Blue Pearl was more black than blue and they had a Beige one right there in stock for $199 instead of ordering the Blue Pearl for $465. To the cart we tossed in the matching mirror, two wood framed medicine cabinets and a couple of new exhaust fan / light combos. Try as I might, no matter how I arranged them, I just couldn’t get all that stuff in the trunk.
Rudy and his S10 to the rescue. He and Patti were nice enough to make the round trip from and back to Evans to haul our bathroom bounty. All it cost me was an ice cream cone for each of them. Thanks guys.
If you ever find yourself in Evans at dinner time both Donna and I highly recommend the Pork Anticuchos at Patagonia Grill.
If you have been waiting patiently for my witty captions to the BMW Ultimate Drive on Tuesday, your wait is over — 2008 BMW Ultimate Drive Gallery.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 94
 What is this flowering vine? I Googled “Yellow Flower Vine” and didn’t get a definitive answer.
Instead of taking a hike in the woods this morning we decided to take a walk downtown to the Old Aiken Market where we can get fresh baked bagels and fresh squeezed orange juice for our Sunday breakfast. It is definitely springtime here in Aiken because on our 5 mile meander we passed by numerous plants and trees in bloom and stopped at several spots so I could take pictures of the azalea, dogwood, wisteria, cherry and whatever that yellow vine is blossoms. We also stopped for a while at the Aiken Training Track and watched the thoroughbreds go through their morning exercises. We stopped at a railroad overpass and watched the local 5 car work train pass by. On the way home we ducked into the library to read a magazine. By the time we got home we had killed the entire morning.
Update: Two years (March 31, 2010) after I posted this, I got an email from someone asking if I ever did find out what this plant was called. He has a big bush of it in his backyard and was trying to figure what it was. He did manage to find out what it was with zero help from me and emailed me the name, Rosa Banksiae ‘Lutea’. Cool. So that is where the old home that dates from the time of the Civil War War of Northern Aggression, Banksia, and currently houses the local county’s museum got its name.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 95
 This is a quick stitch job showing the small bathroom as it exists now. The contractor sasy he can start work a week from tomorrow and we are getting ready. All we have left to buy is 2 new toilets, a tub for the other bath and light bulbs for the new fixtures. The tile is on order and should be here mid-week. The last faucet is in the Greensboro UPS hub, so it will be here Tuesday. I see a lot of chatter about the US coming into a recession. Donna and I are gallantly trying to stave it off because in our household consumer spending is definitely on the upswing. You can thank us later.
The 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four is all set. Usually there are three #1 seeds playing with one upstart on the last weekend. The final four has featured only two number one seeds 5 times and has had zero one-seeded teams twice, 1980 and 2006. But this year is the first ever to feature all 4 number one seeds. For the heck of it I ran all eight different permeations of outcomes for the Final Four and of the twenty one people in our office pool there are 13 people with a chance to finish in the money and 8 still with a chance to win the thing. My favorite situation is Kansas beating NC, UCLA beating Memphis with UCLA beating Kansas in the final. If that happens three people would be tied for first so it would come down to the tie breaker, total points in the final game. Two of those three people picked the same total points! Coin toss? Two out of three at Rock, Paper, Scissors?
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 95
I just downloaded Version 2.5.0 of Word Press and I think I am going to update to it this week. Currently LOB is running on Version 2.0.4, so that means there have been 46 updates since I started using this version. I’m just kidding about the update totals, there have actually been only twenty.
Anyway, some or all of the plugins I use might not work and who knows if the current red stripey theme will work. I will try and make it go, but if you come here and you find something that looks generic, don’t panic, I will be behind the scenes working feverishly to bring it back to close to this look.
Version 2.5 has some sort of photo gallery built in which should be interesting to try out.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 95
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We are staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Lake City, SC, just a couple years later than our first attempt. After a long layoff it was good to get back in the Post Office saddle again — Paxville, Davis Station, Greeleyville, Lane, Salters, Kingstree, Cades, Lake City, Scranton, Coward, Effingham, Pamplico and Johnsonville.
