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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List your top five favorite Cult Classic movies. We had this discussion a few weeks ago over the course of several afternoon breaks in my cubical. Of the four folks involved we had very few overlaps. A little of this difference can be attributed to our age disparity, but when asked for the criteria used to define cult classic there were lots of variation, from a movie that people dress in character to go see to not having a firm definition, but knowing one when when you saw one.
 My Five:
1) Rocky Horror Picture Show
2) Donnie Darko
3) A Clockwork Orange
4) The Harder They Come
5) The Goonies
The Simpsonized Frank & Donnie Darko comes from Springfield Punx.
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I made an attempt to eliminate a couple of unwanted sounds that the Emperor has been making tonight.
First up was a high pitched ringing or whine that it seems that only I and possibly certain breeds of dogs can hear. I’m hoping that this is what it was in the past, a singing clutch actuation fork. A bit of grease needs to be applied on the fork where the slave cylinder rod touches it. It seems like there was still some grease on there, but I applied some more and worked it around a bit.
Second was the annoying belt squeal, mostly brief when the AC kicks in and occasionally long, loud and embarrassing on damp morning start ups. I’ve been treating this issue with belt dressing with limited success and decided it was time to attempt to tighten the offending belt. I have been avoiding this because I didn’t think that I could manage it without making it worse. Turns out in the intervening 25 years since I last tried tightening an automotive belt they have made it easy. Once you’ve loosened the mounting bolt, there is now a fancy screw that you can tighten with a wrench which increases the tension. Heck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have had to listen to that squeal for the past year.
When I finished the maintenance I pulled out Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and gave the car a sponge bath.
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Turn your photos into cartoons at BeFunky and then add a cartoon word balloon at SuperLame.
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 There is another entry into the browser wars and it is from the company that is out to unseat Microsoft as the ruler of the computer world — Google. Welcome to the front Private Chrome.
I tried it and it has a look and feel that I like, but it won’t (probably) ever replace Firefox. The deal breaker is no Adblock Plus. I read somewhere that because of the way the browser was written you can’t easily tweak it with extensions, etc just yet. Plus Google makes tons of money that is generated from their ads, so why should they want you to have the ability to block them.
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That’s right, we rode the tandem to work today. Even though Tropical Storm Hannah has weakened and there was only a 30% chance of rain we still got slightly damp on the ride home.
Hannah also played havoc with the MMC’s scheduled trip to the Food Lion Auto Fair in Charlotte, NC. The Club (and I use that term loosely) had planned on going to the Spring version earlier this year, but it was going to be a rainy day, so we canceled and rescheduled to go to the fall version. Well, somebody is trying to tell us something, like don’t go, because there is a 60% chance of rain there tomorrow too.
If it was only, say an hour away, we might have taken a chance, but to get there it is at least 2–1/2 hours which is just too long a trip to end up in the rain.
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 On the way home this morning from our visit to Aiken’s Makin’ (the city’s big craft show) the Emperor passed through the 81k mark.
Because we enjoyed the Jesse Stone flick Stone Cold so much yesterday we decided not to wait on Netflix and went to the local video store to rent the remaining three. Then we watched them all this afternoon. No self control. I think I’m going to get me ball cap with a big PPD embroidered on it.
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 Sung to the tune of Scott McKenzie’s San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair):
“If you’re going to walk Hitchcock Woods
You’ll be sure to get spiders in your hair
If you’re going hiking in the woods
You’re gonna see lots of animals in there”
On our walk in the woods this morning we saw several humans, some with dogs, some on horses and a couple on foot. We saw a fox squirrel and lots of spider webs, even some with spiders still in them. We heard several different species of birds. We saw a toad, a salamander and a snake. A SNAKE!?!
He was a decent size one too. just lying there across the trail, probably 4 foot long. When I first noticed him he looked like a little krinkle french fry, all wavy like. Must have been asleep because when I poked him lightly with the end of my walking stick he smoothed right out and kind of looked up at me. Flicked his little red tongue at me several times and just stayed where he was. I’m thinking he was kinda pissed at me for waking him up because he pulled his head back like he was going to strike. I was still standing back away, just close enough to poke him again with my 4′ walking stick.
He didn’t like me poking him, but he still didn’t move off the trail until I kicked sand at him for the second time. He looked up at me once more, as if to remember my face, and slithered away slowly biding his time, probably planning when he could catch me unawares at another time.
Just after he left the trail Donna said, “Take it’s picture.” Good idea I thought, if I only had a camera. I did, like I always do, it was right there one the end of my walking stick. I just didn’t think to use that end of the stick, I was too busy poking with the other end.
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An older gentleman had an appointment to see the urologist who shared offices with several other doctors. The waiting room was filled with patients.
As he approached the receptionist’s desk, he noticed that the receptionist was a large unfriendly woman who looked like a Sumo wrestler. He gave her his name.
In a very loud voice, the receptionist said, “YES, I HAVE YOUR NAME HERE; YOU WANT TO SEE THE DOCTOR ABOUT IMPOTENCE, RIGHT?”
All the patients in the waiting room snapped their heads around to look at the very embarrassed man.
He recovered quickly, and in an equally loud voice replied, “NO, I’VE COME TO INQUIRE ABOUT A SEX CHANGE OPERATION, BUT I DON’T WANT THE SAME DOCTOR THAT DID YOURS.”
Every month we ship off a box to the Seattle area where Donna’s brother Scott and his family live. This month’s care package includes a gift & card for Scott because his birthday is coming up, but usually the boxes just contain books and a few small toys for Baby James (who used to go by the name The Baby To Be Named Later, but now doesn’t because he has, uh, been named) and some of those complimentary coffee packets lifted from the hotel rooms we have stayed in for Baby James’ mother & Scott’s wife, Beth.
Why are we sending coffee to an area of the country where it is every citizen’s right to not ever be out of sight of a Starbucks or independent coffee hut? Leave a guess in the comments and if you are right I will mail one less packet of java to Beth next month and send it to you instead.
I’ve added another category of links to the side bar that will be used for links that I want to save because I find them entertaining, but don’t fit into any of the other categories. The category is called Salmagundi which is Cardassian for — entertaining, but not fitting in.
Check out Joe Posnanski, he used to be a sports writer for the Augusta Chronicle, but has moved on to the greener pastures of Kansas City. Because I really don’t read the sports pages I was unfamiliar with his writing, but now that I have stumbled on his blog, and if he wrote in the paper like he does on the web, I’m sorry I didn’t read him. Read this post entitled The Play (with bonus Augusta coverage) and tell me if this guy isn’t great. The only bad thing is he has just been blogging since October of 2007 and that leaves only 317 more posts of his to read…
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 According to this Slate article the movie Netflix members love to rent, but have the hardest time watching is Hotel Rwanda, with Schindler’s List coming in a close second. There are also stories of keeping a movie for months before watching them (or not.)
I have been a Netflix member 2 separate times. The first was from May 2000 to October 2004 when I was a 4 at a time unlimited member. The second time from January 2006 until present where I started as one at a time and recently bumped it up to two at a time. Looking over the difference between membership periods, when I was a 4 at a time user, the time a movie was kept on my coffee table was a lot worse than now when I can only have two out at a time.
The movie with the “honor” of being in my possession the longest was Better Luck Tomorrow at 75 days. The disc I kept the absolute longest was a TV one, The X-Files: Season 2: Disc 3, which sat around the house for 12 weeks (84 days.) Considering that I think of myself as a big X-Files fan I was surprised to find that of my top 10 delayed watched discs, four of them were from that show.
I’ve done much better this time around because the longest out movie is A Scanner Darkly at a mere 18 days. The worse TV show disc was Due South: Season 1: Disc 1 at twelve days in waiting.
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 And here I have been slowly building up my collection of TDTVS action figures, how so 2004, I need to get in the moment. According to a New York Daily News article there are 2008 Presidential campaign action figures available from HeroBuilders.com.
Poor Joe Biden, he doesn’t rate a figure though. You can get McCain in a T-shirt, Palin dressed in some Japanese school girl fantasy outfit (among others) and Obama, sans shirt, who looks like he has been working out. Also available for your collecting pleasure are a couple of disgraced politicos who had trouble with that whole faithful section of their marriage vows, John Edwards and Elliot Spitzer.
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A male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young, student nurse appears to give him a partial sponge bath.
Nurse, he mumbles, from behind the mask. “Are my testicles black?”
Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, “I don’t know, Sir. I’m only here to wash your upper body and feet.”
He struggles to ask again, “Nurse, please check. Are my testicles black?”
Concerned that he may elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worry about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and pulls back the covers. She raises his gown, holds his manhood in one hand and his testicles in the other. Then, she takes a close look and says, “There’s nothing wrong with them, Sir!”
The man pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her and says very slowly, “Thank you very much. That was wonderful, but, listen very, very closely.…..A r e — m y — t e s t — r e s u l t s — b a c k?”
A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children. “You all have obsessions,” he observed.
To the first mother, Mary, he said, “You are obsessed with eating. You’ve even named your daughter Candy.”
He turned to the second Mom, Ann, “Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child’s name, Penny.”
He turned to the third Mom, Joyce, “Your obsession is alcohol. This too shows itself in your child’s name, Brandy.”
At this point, the fourth mother, Kathy, quietly got up, took her little boy by the hand and whispered, “Come on, Dick, this guy has no idea what he’s talking about. Let’s go pick up your brothers Peter and Willy from school.”
 Sorry I didn’t post anything last night, but I was too busy admiring myself in my new hat.
I made it 30 minutes into the season premier of The Sarah Conner Chronicles before giving up tonight. Credibility was stretched too far, snapped and I was returned to reality. I can bring myself to believe that killer robots have been sent back from the future to kill an individual that threatens them in the future, but I can not believe that that individual can be involved in an auto accident at 35 MPH while not wearing a seat belt, get out of the car and trot off down the street. Alright, maybe I could have gone for that, but not after they show a close up of his pant leg and it looks like a river of blood running down it, apparently caused by a compound fracture. Followed by that leg practically collapsing when he first puts his full weight on it, then 2 baby steps later he takes off running at 15 MPH.
That was just one of several things that made me wince. But if I remember correctly I may have had the same trouble when I first started watching this series last year. Maybe I just need to be in the mood?
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Flicker Field in Hitchcock Woods.
That’s a photo from last Sunday’s hike. We went for a bike ride this morning, but are planning on a walk in the woods tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of words recently. Suffering from a little bit of BA.
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The FRS were on TBS this afternoon (and won the game thanks to a couple of Jays errors and a couple of blown calls in their favor by the umpires), so I spent several hours planted on the couch watching. Then at 5 o’clock this afternoon a House marathon started on USA and here I am, still denting the cushion.
We did get out and go for a nice hike this morning though…
My Friend Flicka
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At a Senior Citizen’s luncheon, an elderly gentleman and an elderly lady struck up a conversation and discovered that they both loved to fish. Since both of them were widowed, they decided to go fishing together the next day.
The gentleman picked the lady up, and they headed to the river to his fishing boat and started out on their adventure. They were riding down the river when there was a fork in the river, and the gentleman asked the lady, “Do you want to go up or down?”
All of a sudden the lady stripped off her shirt and pants and made mad passionate love to the man right there in the boat!
When they finished, the man couldn’t believe what had just happened, but he had just experienced the best sex that he’d had in years. They fished for a while and continued on down the river, when soon they came upon another fork in the river. He again asked the lady, “Up or down?”
There she went again, stripped off her clothes, and made wild passionate love to him again.
This really impressed the elderly gentleman, so he asked her to go fishing again the next day. She said yes and there they were the next day, riding in the boat when they came upon the fork in river, and the elderly gentleman asked, “Up or down?”
The woman replied, “Down.”
A little puzzled and disappointed, the gentleman guided the boat down the river when he came upon another fork in the river and he asked the lady, “Up or down?”
She replied, “Up.”
This really confused the gentleman so he asked, “What’s the deal? Yesterday, every time I asked you if you wanted to go up or down you made mad passionate love to me. Now today, nothing!”
She replied, “Well, yesterday I wasn’t wearing my hearing aid and I thought the choices were fuck or drown.”
John Locke
Like Mr. Locke, I am a man of faith, as long as you consider faith in failure. The FRS were leading tonight’s game by 13 to 1 after 5–1/2 innings and then as if to validate my faith, they have given up 5 runs in the last two innings. I’m pretty sure they won’t blow the remaining 8 run lead in the last two innings, but if they do, you should have faith that I will blame myself for the loss because I jinxed the team by saying, “Pretty sure they won’t.”
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 What makes Visa think that a skit that was funny once, maybe twice, on Saturday Night Live a couple of decades ago would make a good commercial spokesman?
I’m thinking that I need to start an auto insurance company because there sure are a lot of them in the business and they all seem to be advertising heavily.
I’m watching Season 5: Episode 1 of House on regular TV and I thinking there must be some correlation between House viewers and movie goers as we are just past halfway through and that was the 5th upcoming movie promo commercial.
For the record, I didn’t really enjoy the Victoria’s Secret commercial either.
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 A co-worker cleaned up his office a bit the other day and brought me a stack of magazines about a half a foot high. PC World & PC Magazine. Random issues from early 2006 up to early this year. The earlier ones are the best (if you can’t read the latest that is) because they are like history books. Remember that a couple years in the tech world are like several decades in real time. 2006 was pre Vista, pre Iphone even. In an article from the the November 7, 2006 issue entitled PC Magazine’s Top 99 Undiscovered Web Sites I was actually surprised by how many of them are still up and running.
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The 2001+ Miatas, which the Emperor is one of, requires premium (91 octane) fuel because they bumped the compression, among other things, to increase the horsepower. Because of this I have been paying 20¢ more a gallon than must folks.
The car will run on lower octane gas because the ECU (brain) will compensate and adjust the timing so the engine won’t knock. When this happens the car will lose a few horses and the gas mileage will also suffer some. I have never cheated and run lower grade stuff, because even when the car is on E it only takes 10 gallons to fill up, so considering the downsides, saving two bucks more a tankful is just not worth it.
When I first got the car I was startled by a sort of abrupt surge in engine power as it passes up through 3000 RPM when the car is not fully warm. I wondered if there was something wrong because none of my previous Miatas did that. I checked that fountain of Miata knowledge, the forums on Miata.net and learned that that behavior was common in the 2001+ cars. They added a mechanical variable valve timing thingamabob and that in conjunction with ECU created that little surge which smoothed out after the engine was up to temperature.
Funny thing happened last Friday though, because Hurricane Ike created havoc with the gas supply in our neck of the woods, when I finally found a place that actually had gas for sale they weren’t selling premium. I filled the car up with mid grade (89 octane) and so far my butt dyno has noticed zero difference in pep. And as a bonus that, still surprising after all these years, 3000 RPM surge is gone. I didn’t check to see if the mileage was down, so tonight I filled it up with mid grade again. At the next fill up I’ll see if I end up getting less than the usual 27 MPG.
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When we got home today and checked the mail there was a familiar red envelope in the box. Upon closer inspection it was a clever advert for the service. Inside were four cards, offering 1 month free trial to Netflix that you would hopefully pass out to your friends and when they signed up you would get a bonus movie shipped to you from your queue.
Sounds cool, but I won’t be passing any out and here is why, when you sign up you need a valid form of payment (most likely a credit card, but I’m sure direct debit from a checking account is an option) and this I understand, but the part I don’t like is that they will automatically start charging that card or whatever if you do not cancel before your month is up. I’m not stupid, I know why they are doing it that way, they are betting you won’t remember to cancel in time and they can charge your account. They are also betting you won’t even see it on your monthly bill and can probably get a couple months of money before you figure out what happened. That just smacks of sleazy.
How about playing fair and using the opt in policy, send a couple three emails after the three week time frame and ask if they would like to continue? We had just recently considered giving someone a gift of Netflix for Christmas, but decided against it for the same reason.
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Unfortunately I have used up all the words I’m allotted for today by typing out captions for the pictures I took this morning at the balloon fest, so head on over to Flickr to see ‘em and read ‘em — Aiken Balloon Fest 2008.
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 We walked back over to see the balloons fly again this morning (more pictures.)
After the skies cleared they held some equestrian type stuff, go figure, the event is called Ford Trucks Equestrian America Balloon Festival. We stayed a while to watch our neighbor and another member of the Aiken Pony Club do a musical dressage demonstration. They did a 5 minute walk, trot, canter, etc. in sync inside a small ring set up to the music from TDPM.
Coincidentally I got to watch the last 15 minutes of that movie on USA after the FRS beat the Blue Jays on TBS that segued into a House marathon, which I have been glued to ever since. If you like House like I like House check out Medical Reviews of House on Polite Dissent. The fellow is a doctor which gives him a very unique slant on the show. Don’t forget to read the comments as they are almost as good and at times even better.
Just like us, the Emperor took the day off.
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 Night 1 of 82. We have started watching all the previous seasons episodes of Season 5 of TDTVS , one at a time, every weeknight until January when new episodes begin again.
I still have trouble with the jet engine remaining running long after the crash and then spectacularly blowing up when some red shirt is sucked into it. The second explosion when the wing crashes down on the sand is a credibility stretcher as well.
This episode is entitled Pilot (Pt 1) because it was what the producers, in the traditional sense, used to sell the show to the network. But knowing now, what I didn’t know then, I’m betting it is also called this because of the key role the pilot played in the plane getting lost.
Just how old was J.J. Abrams in 1969? Do you think the genesis of LOST was a show called The New People?
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 Show 2 of 82. Does this photo look familiar? I think it does. Just six days ago I posted a photo I had taken of the Shannon Rutherford “Action” Figure that was based on the scene from this episode.
After Sunday’ games the FRS had a magic number of 1 for clinching a wild card playoff spot. They were also only 1–1/2 games out of first place and winning the division was once again in play. But last night they lost and Tampa Bay won dropping them back to 2–1/2 games behind. Because the Yankees had the night off the playoff clinching magic number remained at one. Tonight the Yanks are winning and Tampa Bay has won the first game of their doubleheader and although the FRS are winning, they are making it look hard, they are up by only one run and the Indians have loaded the bases the last two innings. Update: The FRS managed to stave off defeat and are going to the playoffs.
The weather has turned positively March like all of a sudden here, High near 80, low in the upper 50s and 20 MPH winds. Even though it is our long days and 1 hour earlier start, we got up even earlier so we could ride the tandem to work. The good thing about the extra hour early start, there is nobody, and I mean nobody, on the road at that time. The good thing about the wind is it is coming from a direction that makes it a tailwind on the way home.
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 TDTVS episode 3 of 82 gave us a little peek at Kate’s Australian back story. On the island miracle man John Locke whittles a whistle that brings Vincent out of the jungle.
Besides LOST we also watched 2/3rds of the second episode of An Unsuitable Job for a Woman the decidedly British mystery show that came in the mail today. When we tear off the outer flap of the red Netflix envelope we shred that sucker because it has our name and address on it. For those of you who laugh in the face of the identity thieves I have the perfect solution of what to do with all those envelope flaps — Netflix Origami
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 Episode #4. On the island Locke, the great white hunter, kills a boar and pre-crash, off the island, we see he was a loser in a wheel chair. At one point he is talking on the phone to a woman named Helen who we are led to believe he has a relationship with, but it turns out she is a phone sex operator who John is paying just to talk to. Later on in the series, his back story shows that he does end up in a real relationship with someone named Helen, who I don’t think was a phone sex worker. If it turns out she was I’ll be sure to let you know.
Tuesday night I needed to collect something from friends, when I called to see if I could come get it, I got their answering machine, so I said call me back if it is not too late. Of course they called back in the middle of this weeks new episode of House. I asked if it could wait a half hour. When I did go over after the show they asked how it was. They are fans of the show, but in DVD form because there never seems enough time to see it in real time. I told them that I didn’t enjoy it as much as a lot of the other episodes. I couldn’t put my finger on an exact reason though. I wasn’t until the next day when I read Polite Dissent’s review. Here is the first line:
This was not so much an episode of House as it was a parody of an episode of House — and a parody which seemed to be written by someone who’s heard about the show, but never actually seen it.
If you are like me and can’t figure out why you didn’t enjoy the show, read the rest of the review.
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 Tomorrow is my birthday and Monday is Donna and my anniversary, so we decided to get away for the weekend. Last week we made reservations at a hotel in Myrtle Beach. This week, for what ever reason, gas became scarce around these parts with half of the stations in Aiken not having any gas and the ones that do, usually only have regular. The gas station at Krogers has had a line 20 cars long in both directions for the past two days. Maybe they have premium?
Yesterday we checked the Myrtle Beach newspaper online and they had an article about the gas shortage, but they only mentioned one station that was out of gas and the rest of the story was more general about the whole southeast region having availability issues. We started to question as to whether we should make the trip. One thing that was making us want to go was we had put a non-refundable one night deposit down on the charge card. But we didn’t want to get 200 miles away and not be able to find enough as to gas to get back home. So this morning we decided to go get some breakfast and check to see how easy we could find some gas in Aiken. There was already a line at Kroger and the next couple of stations we passed had bags over their pump handles. On the west and north side of town gas was a little more plentiful. We stopped at one northside station and filled up the tank as we were a little below a half a tank. All they had was regular. We almost decided to pack it in and go home, but agreed to go up to I-20 and see if those stations had gas. If they didn’t we would just turn around and go home. Of the the 4 stations at the interstate only one was pumping gas.
Screw it we said and pressed on. If worse came to worse we could always turn around at Columbia. About 45 miles into our trip we pulled off at an exit for a snack break that only had one gas station. They had gas, all grades, and no line. The station is several miles from a town of any size, so the only people who get gas here are the few folks who live out this way and the random interstate drop-ins like us. Not enough people I guess to create a critical mass of panic making everyone keep topping off their tanks when ever they see a gas station with a line. We when got to Myrtle Beach, everybody has gas. When we spoke to someone at a welcome center she said the only place that was out of gas was the one mentioned in that online article we read.
When I filled up this morning in Aiken I had been 170 miles and the tank took 6.5 gallons meaning that my time running mid grade netted a 26.3 MPG average. That might be slightly less than my usual average with the normal premium gas, but seeing as I haven’t really been keeping track there is no way to tell for sure. When we got to Conway, at the first gas station we saw, I stopped in to fill up with premium like Mr. Mazda wants me too. There was still a little over a half a tank left so the car only took 5.4 gallons, but we had been 194 mostly interstate miles. That resulted in an average 34.7 MPG! Usually all interstate driving results in around 32 MPG, must have been that magical mixture of a half a tank of mid-grade and a half a tank of regular…
The real reason for the higher MPG was probably because I didn’t drive at my usual speed. Normally I set the cruise for an indicated speed of 80 MPH which means I have an actually ground speed of 75, my typical five miles an hour above the posted speed limit, today I set the cruise at 75 so I was probably moving along at right around 70 MPH.
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 We are staying in a place called Sea Crest in their 15 story tower with a room that has a balcony. From the room you can see the beach, but you can’t hear the surf over the 20 water features in the kiddie pool. And even if you could shut off the water there would be the music from the bar to contend with…
I didn’t really pay to close attention to all the hotel had to offer, because if I had I would realized that the place didn’t offer in room internet. My first clue was when I opened the wireless utility and there wasn’t any signal labeled with any variation of Sea Crest. There was however about a dozen unsecured connections, several with real good strength, labeled Hotel Blue, a 15 story neighboring monolith.
We went for a big loop drive today and took Post Office pictures, a baker’s dozen. We also took a walk on the beach, went to a Greek Festival, looked at the fishies in the Ripley’s Aquarium, didn’t watch the FRS (they were rained out), took a nap, bought some souvenir t-shirts and when it got dark we drove a feww miles south and west for a nightcap, one more Post Office.
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The FRS are finishing out the the last of their 162 game regular season today. Ordinarily these last three games with the MFY would be very meaningful and have every Sox fan (and Yankee fans too) on the edge of their seats, this year it is different. The Red Sox clinched a Wild Card Playoff spot several days ago and the Yankees are not going to the playoffs for the first time since 1993. I am sitting here listening to the broadcast and most of the time I’m not sure who is batting and who is in the field. Not because I’m not paying attention, but because both teams are playing the scrubs.
I started listening to this afternoon’s game, but quit for a bit because I had something else to do, when I tried to reconnect I couldn’t get back to the Boston web site. I couldn’t even get to MLB.com. I guess a lot of people took advantage of the daily or weekend pass for MLB TV and they overloaded the servers.
 When I first checked the Boston home page this morning to see what they planned on doing about yesterday’s rain out, I noticed an advert to buy some Red Sox playoff gear. I’m not sure if you can read the hat, but it says “2008 Division Champions.” Someone forgot to check their facts because that ship sailed on Friday when the FRS lost a squeaker to the Yankees 19–8. If you clicked on the link you got to see the gear the Sox really earned, the much coveted “Wild Card” or “I Kissed My Sister” hat.
 Tonight we watched episode 5 of 82 of TDTVS. It was the one we should have watched on Friday, but we weren’t home, we were in Myrtle Beach and I forgot to bring the DVD.
Finished up the weekend today by taking the long way home and snapped 10 more PO Portraits giving us a total of 23 for the 3 days. We are now 93% finished with the project and all that remain are the ones right around Charleston and the 6 military bases in the state.
Somewhere west of Branchville the Emperor cruised past the eighty two thousand mile mark, so when we got home I gave him a well deserved royal bath.
Started up, went down, went up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 370
 Season 1 Episode 6 and at first glance the title seems all wrong because Sun & Jin are Korean not Japanese, but after watching it through you realize the word Sun is not for the center of our solar system, it is for the character of Sun. It showed us someone who has seemed meek in the first 5 episodes is actually a woman of surprises and quiet power.
Tonight I discovered that I can not count. That’s not entirely true, I can count, I just should learn to start at one like most folks, not zero. I have finished cropping and tweaking this weekend’s Post Office photos (no snappy captions just yet) and when I uploaded them to the gallery I noticed that they filled the whole page, which is 4 columns of 6 rows. When we laid out a plan in which order we wanted to do Saturday’s POs we started numbering at 1 and worked our way up. No problem. When we got home and I filled out the Sunday POs on the map, I started right where I left off on Saturday and ended at 23. This is why I said twenty three yesterday. I forgot that we actually snagged a Post Office (Number Zero) on the way to the beach on Friday.
Hey wait a minute, one of the famous LOST numbers is 23, coincidence, I don’t think so…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 370
 Show number seven. Charlie-centric. Before I started rewatching the TDTVS episodes I would have told you that season 1 was my favorite, because it was new and it was interesting getting introduced to the characters. Now I’m not to sure, maybe because I already do know their back stories…
Ironman was waiting on the front steps today thanks to the UPS guy. I watched it tonight and it is just as good as I remembered. It is so good that I can overlook one of my pet peeves in action movies, the clichéd car wreck scene that destroys dozens of cars when just a few would get the point across. The one thing I couldn’t overlook is the hiring of an actor that was unsuited for the role or they changed the direction of the role and kept the same actor in the part (hey, maybe he was the producers brother-in-law or something.)
You are saying to yourself, I’ve seen that movie, the casting was spot on, what’s this guy talking about? There is this scene late in the movie where Obadiah Stane is berating this scientist guy because he has failed to recreate the mini “arc reactor” needed to power the Iron Monger suit. They shaved the head of the scientist guy in such a manner as to give him a typical male pattern baldness look. Was it in an effort to make him look more scientific? I’m surprised when this film was first released there weren’t members of the SPODAAAS (Society for the Prevention Of Discrimination Against Androgenic Alopecia Sufferers) protesting the not hiring of an actual bald actor to play this pivotal role.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 372
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My Five:
