Saturday was the MMC Leaf Peeping Run of which I was the leader. We met at the Cracker Barrel over in Augusta. The restaurant was packed with people eating breakfast, but only two other couples were members of the Miata Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally. After eating we headed west and north to the upstate of Georgia (with a brief foray into South Carolina) to see the colorful trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of us driving the windy back roads enjoying nature’s beauty, but there was just our one car from the Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally.
The weather was absolutely perfect for leaf peeping and the roads were mostly uncrowded. We ended up at Black Rock Mountain State Park near Clayton, GA where the club has visited several times before on these excursions. Instead of opting for the mega-meal at the Dillard House just up the street we drove the 35 miles to Clarkesville (where the rock group the Monkees are from) to eat at Zanzo Italian Cafe where we you get the best Italian food this side of, well, Italy. Two words: Baked Ziti.
Somewhere in northern Georgia, the Emperor zoomed past the eighty-three thousand mile mark.
We got home a touch more than 12 hours after we left it, tired, wind burned and completely satisfied. We would have gone right to bed, but seeing as we were going to get an extra hour of sleep, we opted to watch episodes 8, 9 & 10 of Season 2 of Mad Men.
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This photo was taken by Donna as I wound my way up the many switchbacks to the entrance to Black Rock Mountain State Park yesterday.
Not satisfied with driving over 400 miles on Saturday we decided to drive 60 miles (one way) for lunch today. We met Donna’s cousin Laurie in Columbia at California Dreaming where we caught each other up on the doings of the respective branches of the family tree. We rode to there with the top up because we took the interstate, but on the way home it was down because we traveled the two lane back roads on the another perfect autumn afternoon.
We finished watching the last 3 episodes of Mad Men tonight and now have to wait until July of ‘09 for new shows…
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We have spent the first 30 shows covering what has happened to the survivors of the front section of Flight 815 in their 48 days on the island. Show 31 gives us the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of all forty-eight days for the tail section survivors and it ain’t pretty.
An old prospector shuffled into town leading an old tired mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town to clear his parched throat.
He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail. As he stood there brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, “Hey old man, have you ever danced?”
The old man looked up at the gunslinger and said, “No, I never danced, and I’ve never wanted too.”
A crowd had gathered quickly and the gunslinger grinned and said, “Well, you old fool, you’re gonna’ dance now,” and started shooting at the old man’s feet. The old prospector in order not to get a toe blown off or his boots perforated, was soon hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet and everybody was laughing fit to be tied.
When the last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double barreled shot-gun, and cocked both hammers back.
The loud, audible double click’s carried clearly through the desert air. The crowd stopped laughing immediately. The young gunslinger heard the sounds, too, and he turned around very slowly. The quiet was almost deafening. The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels. He found it hard to swallow. The barrel of the shotgun never wavered in the old man’s hands.
The old man said, “Son, did you ever kiss a mule’s ass?”
The young bully swallowed hard and said, “No sir, but I’ve always wanted to.”
My latest obsession is Mad Men and I got the full Monty going, I may need to add an acronym (maybe TDTVS2). My computer wallpaper is a cleaned up version of the show’s logo and my current screensaver (mypics, that comes with XP) cycles through pictures in a folder that is chock full of these.
Don Draper: Advertising is based on one thing: Happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car… It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is okay. You are okay.
I want my (old style, back when they played music videos) MTV! Well now I can have it online, but I have to pick the tunes out by myself. Where the heck is Martha Quinn when you need her?
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 18
In Episode 32 of 82 Shannon gets shot for the third time (once at the end ep #30, then again in the tailie recap and again tonight in the beginning of this one to lead in.) The off island flashbacks give us the story of Shannon’s accidental killer, ex-LA cop Anna Lucia Cortez.
Rachel Menken: It’s nice the way you handled that. It’s hard to get caught in a lie. Don Draper: Well, it wasn’t a lie. It was…ineptitude with insufficient cover.
Because this is our long days week we have to go in an hour early which is fully a half hour before the polls open in South Carolina, so we couldn’t vote early on our way into work. Several people who come in at 7:00 reported seeing long lines of people waiting at polling places they passed on the way in.
We checked the net during the day and read about the long lines at the polls because of the record turn out. A couple of folks slipped out during the day and came back with stories of about an hour wait.
Today was our monthly haircut appointment after work which neither one of us wants to miss because getting another opening would push it into semi-distant future and jeopardize our coiffure couture, meaning we would have less than an hour before the polls closed.
This all added up to us expecting a looong wait to vote tonight. We had snacks for standing in line. I brought a paperback to pass the time. When we drove up to the school where we vote the parking lot was nearly empty. Had they closed already? Was there an issue with the voting machines? Did they change our polling place and not change the County’s website?
We walked in, walked up to the poll workers, showed our driver’s license & voter registration card, had a poll worker prime the machine, touch, touch, touch, touch, done, Took all of 5 minutes.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 18
(33/82) So far on island we have seen Kate’s mug shot and know that she was handcuffed on the plane while being escorted by a federal marshal. Off island we have seen her being apprehended by that Marshall in Australia, rob a bank to get a toy plane, get the owner of that small plane killed when he helps her sneak to see her sick mother.
Tonight we found out just what she did to get herself in trouble with the Feds (if you gloss over that whole bank robbing thing), she blew up her biological father and the house he was passed out in.
Kate, both on and off the island, sees a black horse. WTF? Is it the same horse? It must have some literary meaning that escapes me. Maybe the answer is here, but I don’t feel like reading all 11 pages to find out.
I’ve changed the background…again. The tartan was kinda cool, but I wanted something a little more in keeping with my current obsession (I’d call this blog that, but Rick beat me to it) Mad Men, so I opted for something from my old pal Jen at Pixel Decor. She has a ton of 50s – 60s backgrounds for personal wallpaper use. For web site use you need permission. Last time I asked she replied (and I may be paraphrasing here), “For your personal blog, of course, feel free.”
I’m assuming that would still stand today, if not, let me know Jen, and I’ll cease and desist. Also if you think it an aberration for to me to grayscale one of the mono chunky patterns and reducing it in size by 25%, yell at me, I can probably take it.
Roger Sterling: I bet there were people in the Bible, walking around complaining about kids today. Don Draper: Kids today, they’ve got no one to look up to. ‘Cause they’re looking up to us.
I have also started to separate my inane and somewhat pointless TDTVS episode recaps into their own posts so the whole episode title equals post title thing will make more sense when I start witting about my real world as opposed to J.J. Abrams’ made up one.
We rode the tandem to work today, so the Emperor stayed in the castle all day. The Royal Dentist visited and the vampire teeth came out until next October.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 18
We came home from work, packed our bags and packed them in the car because we were heading off to HHI for the weekend right after the MMC monthly meeting. This month we were meeting at Rae’s Coastal Cafe in Augusta and because the food and atmosphere are so good there we always get a big turn out. Tonight was no exception, there were 15 people in attendance. The Club was no the only large party in the place at that hour either, there were two more (with one right behind us), so the normally quiet place was booming. So much so that conversation was only just possible with your immediate neighbor and only by practically shouting.
Large groups equals long wait for service and an extended dining time, crowded restaurant equals too much noise to hold a meeting, so by the time everyone had finished eating, we regrouped outside and had a short meeting it was well past 8:30. We knew we would get to HHI late, but with at least a 3 hour drive from Augusta we were looking a very late night.
Because we were in Georgia and the easiest way to get to where we were going was to go back into South Carolina and pass close by home we chickened out and decided to sleep in our own bed.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 19
Episode 34 of 83 was centered around a new for Season 2 survivor from the tail section, Mr. Ecko. This was one of the better episodes so far. Partly because his back story was so interesting, but also because of how it intertwined to what was happening on the island with the dual themes of religion and drugs.
Jack-centric episode 35 of 83 was almost as bad an episode as yesterday’s was good. The off island flashback felt forced and unbelievable and was there just to show one side of him that related to his on island action. Between those two stories they have turn Jack into a less likable character. Even the lying, cheating, stealing con man Sawyer is more sympathetic.
Even though is was still quite chilly, we put the top down in Williston and as we drove south and east the temperature warmed into a perfect fall day. We got to the condo, checked in and headed right out for an over-stuffed sandwich from Gruby’s New York Deli. After shopping we returned to the condo and settled in. I read and Donna napped.
Because we didn’t have time on Thursday, we watched two episodes of TDTVS with our heat up pizza dinner. It wasn’t until after that when it was fully dark that we took our first walk on the beach. There was a ¾ moon high in the sky which was enough to relegate the flashlight to quick peeks to make sure we didn’t step on a beached whale or something. Because of the time of the year we saw no one else at all on our short half hour stroll.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 22
We got up and had breakfast on the balcony (see yesterdays post for the view) and even though the temps were in the lower 60s it still felt warm enough because the sun was right there 20º above the horizon (Donna had to wear her sunglasses.) We then took a nice long stroll on the nearly deserted beach. When it is low tide like that the beach is about 50 yards wide and there were more gulls standing at water’s edge than there were people within eyesight.
Around 9:00AM Donna (Horsman) the Condo Queen came over for our photo safari. She needed pictures of 3 condos for the web page. One was interior updates in the one we were staying at because the living room and dining furniture were new. I had taken them already yesterday before we started strewing our stuff around, so we already had one down. The second one was an ocean front unit on the second floor of the A Building. When Donna opened the door she could see right away we weren’t going to be taking pictures, all the furniture was pushed in to the center of the rooms as it was being repainted. The Queen was displeased because she told him we would be taking pictures today and he said he would be done. Things happen, so we moved onto the third condo. This was a two bed room unit in Admiral’s Row and it is amazing how much bigger it is compared to the single bed room places. It was ready, so I snapped away. We then parted ways and told her we would see her about 5 that afternoon for dinner, my Donna was making sish-ka-bobs for grilling, while DTCQ was making potatoes and a cobbler for dessert.
We watched another disc of An Unsuitable Job For A Woman. Unfortunately this is the last one done, so now I have to find another British mystery show to watch. We then went out and visited the end of a Fall Festival at a local church and before having some lunch. The afternoon was spent watching three episodes of Law & Order between cat naps.
Dinner was wonderful and afterward the three of us took a 3 mile walk around the bike paths in Hilton Head Plantation where Casa Horsman is. DTCQ and I quickly ran over the verbiage changes needed on the site and we made tentative plans to return over Thanksgiving weekend to photograph the one condo, if it is finished…
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 24
One more walk on the beach before loading up the car and we were on the road to Aiken by 8:00 AM. We like to get home so we can eat lunch at the house, plus we need the rest of the afternoon to grocery shop for the coming week and do the laundry without feeling rushed.
We also had time to watch a movie, rake leaves (front yard only) and I washed/vacuumed the sea salt/beach sand off/out of the Emperor.
Now I just have to tweak and re size the photos and edit the text for the condo web page, then type up the MMC meeting minutes from Thursday — tomorrow.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 26
Halfway through Season 2 in Episode 36 of 83 we get another well written story that intertwines the off island flashbacks with the on island action. This episode is Charlie-centric and we see him trying to save his drug addicted brother, but it breaks up their relationship and their band Drive Shaft. On island he has dreams and sleep walks convinced he must save Claire’s baby Aaron, but all he does is make people think he is using heroin again and breaks up his relationship she and her son.
Thanks to the insistence of a co-worker (Hi Mark!) I registered at drpepper.com to play along with their current promotion. I have so far steadfastly refused to sign up for any of these soda company promotions as it seems as if the value reward is nowhere near worth the effort. (I can’t say the real good payouts are too far between to warrant participation because after all I’m plunking a buck down twice a week in the state lottery.)
Don Draper when asked how he likes smoking pot: I feel like Dorothy, everything just turned to color.
The Dr Pepper promotion promises “1 in 6 Wins! Fantastic Prizes.” so how could I resist. After a couple weeks and entering 5 codes from 20 oz. Diet Dr. Pepper bottles all I had ever gotten was “Sorry, try again.” I figured that number six would be a winner, they promised. Bastards. Liars. “Sorry try again.”
When I tore the box up from my 12 pack in the home fridge to throw away I noticed that there was a game code on the inside. What the heck, I’m already signed up and besides now it becomes a test to see just how long it will take to win something.
Didn’t take long as seven was my lucky number. What did I win? The Grand Prize, a trip for two to a college football conference championship game? Nope. Third Prize, an Aero Tailgater Chair? No chance. Seventh Prize, an XL Dr Pepper t-shirt? Hah! Tenth Prize, a Dr Pepper Cell Phone? No sir. I just won 1 of 23,028,000 Fifteenth Prizes, a Dr Pepper Football Computer Wallpaper (Average Retail Value: $.99)
Yippee!
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 27
I’m thinking I’m going have to defer to my wife’s supervisor Brandon on this now. He once asked me which season of TDTVS was my favorite and I said, “One.” He said , “Two.” Tonight’s second season episode, number thirty seven of eighty two, was Sawyer centric and the writers have really hit their stride. The off island flashback concerned Sawyer’s intricate double con on a woman. While on island Sawyer, cons Locke into inadvertently handing over the islander’s gun stash with the help of recent pariah Charlie and an unknowing assist from Kate.
I’m still lacking Charlie from completing my collection of all of McFarlane’s LOST Series 1, but snuck in a victorious bid on Sun from Series 2. She has been selling for around $15, without including any shipping, which is my max bid on these figures, so Sun has been out of reach. But this auction started the bidding at 99 cents. The shipping was $11.00, so I bid $4 making my total cost fifteen. Maybe the high shipping scared everyone off because I won with the minimum bid.
If Sun is indicative of all the Series 2 figures, McFarlane learned a few things from the Series 1 pieces. All of the first figures had a large cardboard diorama backing that consisted of a blurry image of what was behind the figure in the episode the pose came from that was awkwardly attached to the base, Sun has none of that. Each character came with a separate 1″ x 3″ x 3″ battery operated box that emitted 3 or 4 sayings in Series 1, Sun has that box built into her base.
Series 2 consists of Sun, her husband Jin-Soo Kwon, Mr. Eko and Sawyer. Jin & Eko have been going for close to my $15 limit and seems purchasable, but the Sawyer figure on the other hand must be really popular because has been going for the mid twenty dollar range and I think I’ll have to get lucky with him like I did with Sun.
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A cabbie picks up a nun. She gets into the cab, and the cab driver won’t stop staring at her. She asks him why are you staring. And he replies, “I have a question to ask you but I don’t want to offend you.
She answers, ‘My dear son, you cannot offend me. When you’re as old as I am and have been a nun a long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I’m sure that there’s nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive.”
“Well, I’ve always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me.”
She responds, “Well, let’s see what we can do about that: #1, you have to be single and #2 you must be Catholic.”
The cab driver is very excited and says, “Yes, I am single and I’m Catholic too!”
The nun says “OK, pull into the next alley.”
He does and the nun fulfills his fantasy. But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying. “My dear child, said the nun, why are you crying?”
“Forgive me sister, but I have sinned. I lied, I must confess, I’m married and I’m Jewish.”
The nun says, “That’s OK, my name is Kevin and I’m on my way to a Halloween party.”
Episode 38 of 82 tells us how Sayid becomes a torturer for the US at the end of the first Gulf War, while on the island he gets to use those skills on a person that the French Chick has captured in one of her snare traps. She says that he is one of the “Others” and not to be trusted, the captured party says he is just a cross pacific balloonist that crashed on the island 4 months ago. His name is Henry Gale which is also the name of Dorothy’s uncle in the Wizard of Oz. It is also the name of an American physicist in the early 1900s who worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, CA.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 31
Episode 39 of 82 concerns Claire, now and before. For the first time a flashback doesn’t go off island or pre crash, it concerns a missing 2 week chunk of Claire’s memory from back in the first season when she was kidnapped from the beach by a person who was not on the plane.
At work a big chunk of the productive part of today was spent staring at nearly worthless PC. Half of everything that most people need to do their jobs and one major item, email, are controlled through servers in New Jersey and it seemed like maybe somebody parked their truck on the network hose and didn’t realize it. Started sometime mid morning and after lunch we got partial connectivity back and received this email:
Our Datacenter is still experiencing network problems as a result of several outages by our local telecom carrier. We have failed-over to a backup link and will continue to work on restoring the primary link. We are severely limited in bandwidth so please suspend all non-work related web/internet activities until our primary link is restored. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions, please call me at the numbers listed below.
Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx
Manager, Network Systems
The highlighting is just as it came from the sender. My favorite part is the red letter words, “please suspend all non-work related web/internet activities” because I could swear that every employee has to sign off on a computer usage policy that expressly forbids using the net for anything non-business. I’m thinking that because this manager has to remind us not to use it for non-work, that perhaps he must think it is OK in other times to use it that way.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 32
Episode #40 of 82 is about Sun & Jin and their pre-crash attempts at having children and their post crash discovery, in spite of doctors telling them they couldn’t be parents, that Sun is pregnant.
Normally in my circle of office mates, the conversations that fill up the large gaps between actual engineering work consists of sports or movies or food, but with the recent presidential election there has been a lot of chatter about politics. In a recent discussion my immediate supervisor asked me where I kept my copy of the Constitution so he could prove one point or another. I replied that I didn’t have one, but could Google him up one if he desired. He said, “Never mind, I’ll go get mine.” “You have one?” I asked. He said sure, it is in the back of my copy of The Federalist Papers.
Now I’m sure I must have learned about these papers somewhere in my admittedly dodgy educational experience, but couldn’t come up with what they were. He came back and handed me a normal sized paperback, that seemed substantially weighty (like Krispy Kreme doughnuts) and was full of 85 letters to the editor sort of essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay in 1787-78 to explain the need for and explain why the state of New York should ratify the proposed Constitution.
To say that deficiencies may be provided for by requisitions upon the States, is on the one hand to acknowledge that this system cannot be depended upon, and on the other hand to depend upon it for every thing beyond a certain limit. Those who have carefully attended to its vices and deformities as they have been exhibited by experience or delineated in the course of these papers, must feel invincible repugnancy to trusting the national interests in any degree to its operation. Its inevitable tendency, whenever it is brought into activity, must be to enfeeble the Union, and sow the seeds of discord and contention between the federal head and its members, and between the members themselves.
That is but a small excerpt from #30, Concerning the General Power of Taxation, and now I can see why the book felt so heavy.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 32
Downtown Aiken is quiet at 7:45 AM on a Saturday morning, but that was about to change, the Master’s Miata Club was coming for breakfast and the sounds of hundreds of buzzing sports cars would soon be bouncing off the empty walls. Well, maybe tens of cars with raspy exhausts. Ok, a few two seaters zipping around. Actually one Miata coasting quietly to a stop in front of the Sugar Magnolia Cafe.
Today was the November edition of the MMC monthly breakfast and nobody came, Donna and I were unfazed and ate a delicious meal. I had the French Toast and she had the Eggs Benedict.
Roger Sterling to Joan: Aren’t you even going to have any of this? Look, we’ve got Oysters Rockefeller! Beef Wellington! Napoleons! We leave this lunch alone, it’ll take over Europe.
We sat down to watch The Darjeeling Limited this afternoon, it was the final chapter of my Indian (Bengali) Trilogy from Netflix. The first movie was The Namesake which we watched a couple weeks ago. It was definitely not a “Hollywood” movie in that is was more of a slice of life, that of a first born Indian immigrant, than a flatulent based comedy or explosion filled action flick. We both enjoyed the movie and were rewarded with learning a bit about the Bengali culture. The second movie was Outsourced and it was more mainstream in that it was a romantic comedy, but it had a non-traditional happy ending. Once again we both enjoyed the movie and learned that although India looks like a magical and exciting place, these movies are as close as we want to get.
When I popped in the DVD for The Darjeeling Limited there was a short movie that proceeded it called Hotel Chevalier labeled as Part 1, so I opted to start there. After watching about 5 minutes of it, I jumped ahead to the actual movie remarking, “I hope the movie is better than this.” After 11 minutes we both looked at each other and said simultaneously, “I guess not.” I hit eject. Well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
We started the weekend by watching the the first four episodes of Season 3 of Boston Legal.
Denny Crain: Denny Crain!
The actual legal work on this show is laughable, but the humor in the William Shatner/James Spader parts more than makes up for it. After the loser Darjeeling flick we decided to pop in a disc of Firefly and watched a couple of episodes.
River: Two by two. Hands of blue. Two by two.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 35
Halfway done, Lockdown is episode #41 of 82 and appropriately it centers around John Locke. The off island flashback shows how John is totally locked to the whims of his con man father. After attending the father’s funeral he is shocked when a few days later the “deceased” shows up requesting help. He needs Locke to go and retrieve the money he stole from a couple of very bad dudes by unlocking a safety deposit box. On island, John has to enlist the aide of suspected bad guy Henry Gale, who he has unlocked from his cell, when he gets stuck under a blast door that automatically closes as part of the titular Lockdown. While trapped under the door he gets a brief glimpse of a strange map.
As I mentioned we are re-watching Firefly, we are now about 3/4 done, and had a eureka moment early on in the episode Trash. We meet for the second time a character named Saffron that “married” Mal and hijacked Serenity leaving it and its crew heading for a 26th century chop shop. This time she is married to one of Mal’s old war buddies and named Bridget. A fight ensues causing Monty to leave his bride behind in the clutches of revenge minded Mal. Bridgett, the smooth con woman she is, convinces Mal to bring her along because she has a surefire plan to steal a priceless artifact. As the intro credits roll I see a name that looks familiar. When Bridgett and Mal break into a house to steal the object, the owner walks in and recognizes Bridgett as his long lost wife, Yolanda. Despite her best efforts Yosaffbridge is foiled in her attempt to dupe the crew of Serenity out of the loot, mostly thanks to Inara.
Despite my recognizing the name and instantly recognizing who she was playing, I spent the rest of the show staring at her, sometimes I was sure that is who I thought it was and other times thinking no way. After watching the episode I hustled over to IMDB and sure enough it was Christina Hendricks, Saffron/Bridgett/Yolanda was Joan from Mad Men.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 36
(42/82) Hurley is tonight’s episode’s central character, both on and off the island. Both on and off island scenes concern Dave, that’s him in the picture with Hurley, and is a figment of Hurley’s imagination that that resists change. In the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute he tries to keep him from coming to grips with his grief over having (in his mind) caused the deaths of two people and to keep him from losing weight. On the island he is manifested when Libby, a tail section survivor, tries to help Hurley to lose some weight too, but perhaps Dave is also there to prevent Hurley from developing a relationship with Libby.
After nearly 4 weeks and 3 dozen top transitions the new roof has stretched enough that latching it is as easy as it used to be with the old roof. There is still a extra push required on the back window to get it to fold down. I’ve done it enough so it has become second nature and barely noticeable in the top down process, but I worry about the stress on the material surrounding the glass. Maybe it will loosen up more in another month or so.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 36
Episode #43 of 82 introduces us to the Rose and Bernard back story and is another fine example the writers relating the on island story to the off island one. We see how they met, the marriage proposal and after they are married how they ended up in Australia, Rose is dying and Bernard tries to fix her by arranging a visit to a faith healer. Bernard wanted to fix the survivor’s plight by making a giant S.O.S., but abandons the plan when he finds out that that where the faith healer failed, the island succeeded. Rose says she is cured, she can feel it.
Number 44 of 83 with just 3 remaining in Season 2. This is Anna Lucia centric and here the show takes a darker turn. After Sun & Jin settled in all happy once they find out she is pregnant, last episode’s love story show with with Rose & Bernard, a budding romance between Hurley & Libby and a steamy jungle quickie between Anna Lucia and Sawyer this show ends with a major betrayal and two murders by gunshot. It seems as if Michael will stop at nothing to get his son back.
It happened 3 weeks ago and it happened again this past Tuesday, I missed House. You would think that with only one TV that I need to remember to watch, I’d remember it, but you’d be wrong.
I downloaded the torrent overnight and just got through watching it. It was a nicely written episode with a couple of story lines that melded the medical mysteries with family relationship issues, up to and including the brotherly relationship between House and Wilson. The medical parts were their usual all over place guessing and testing before stumbling on the right solution, as to whether they were medically well written, I’ll defer to the expert – Scott.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 37
When AutoCAD crashes it pops up a dialog box that reads something like this – FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0×000c Exception at 654bdec7h – and underneath there is one button to push, the button that you know when you push you will lose all the work you’ve done in the last half hour, and that button is labeled OK.
No, it is not OK. Maybe it should read We’re Sorry or You Are So Screwed or maybe it should read my personal favorite AutoCAD Crash Slogan – It Always Goes Faster The Second Time You Draw It.
This episode returned to the good writing that entangled both the off island flashback of Mr. Eko and his on island story. Through his dreams (or religious visions) he insists that he and Locke search the jungle for the ? which leads them back to the wreckage of the small plane in which Mr. Eko found the remains of his priest brother. Locke has a dream which shows Mr. Eko where to go, enabling him to see the ?, which turns out to be another hatch. Inside the hatch they watch another orientation film which cause Locke to lose his faith in the button pushing, but surprisingly has the exact opposite effect on Eko.
I have nothing really in mind for a post and staring at mostly empty title box and the vast expanse of empty text is not really helping me conjure up something. The only thing I have to write about is the oh so exiting news that sometime yesterday the odometer on the Emperor easing over the eighty-four thousand mile mark. And that won’t take up much space, as you can see.
Last week on the way home from work we stopped at Regions Bank and made the last payment on the Miata. The check has cleared, but we are still waiting for the title in the mail. Now if only my wife would let me have that “extra” $300 a month to spend as I wanted… :D
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 38
Run your blog throught the Typealyzer and it will analyze your writing and spit out your psychological type. I know this is probably a lot like a horoscope, so vague as to apply to everyone, but I do see quite a bit of me in here:
ESFP – The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.
The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.
(except for the whole soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells thing)
I just saw a trailer for the new movie Australia and is it just me, but did they totally rip off that theme from TDPM?
Do you think the newest versions of the Chrysler minivans (which don’t seem to be too mini anymore) with it’s more angular look is meant as retro in the same mode as the new Beetle or the new Camaro?
Dear Fox, I downloaded the the illegally copied & shared bitorrents of last three episodes of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles because I couldn’t watch them directly from your site. I used to be able to watch shows directly, but something has changed since last year. The video herks, then jerks and then the audio becomes unsynced. At first I thought it might be my high speed connection had slowed, but I can still watch stuff on ABC.com. Ironically when it usually happens is at your minimal commercial breaks, even the ones where there is no actual ad there.
Started upn, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 38
Not for us, but that dog sure as heck seems to be enjoying himself. On our walk in Hitchcock Woods this afternoon, even though the parking areas were pretty full, we only saw a couple walkers, a couple on horseback and this carriage.
I’m now up to date on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, having watched Episodes 7, 8 & 9 this afternoon. Just like last year during Season 1 it has taken a while to get back into it, to get the suspension of reality up to the level required to forgive the unbelievable turns the show takes at times, making a couple of the last bunch real enjoyable. They are starting to let us in on just how tricky the whole time travel thing is, seems like every time our intrepid heroes think they have done something to thwart the coming of judgment day,another thing happens in parallel that keeps the it on track.
Cameron, our hottie good Terminator, in a few places during episode #8 is shown walking away and she has this way of walking by placing one foot right in front of the other along a straight line. Very robotic looking gait, exactly like the walk used by models walking along the fashion runways. A comment from the producers on the humanity of supermodels?
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 40
Episode 46 of 82 is the story of how Michael goes out after the “Others” to get his son Walt back. There is no traditional off island flashback, just a jump between present time and flashbacks running backwards from 13 days prior when Michael left the survivor’s camp to meet up with the present. Michael has always been my least favorite character, I can understand his motivation, every time he gets close to the son he barely knows some one or something gets in the way, but he has always seemed so whiny about it.
Did you remember to go to DrPepper.com yesterday and sign up for your free soda? I did around mid-day and expected a crashed, overloaded web site, but was disappointed by things going smoothly. I will be enjoying my Dr. Pepper in just 6 to 8 weeks.
I’m not sure what prompted it, but earlier this year the Dr. Pepper company promised everyone in America a free soda if Guns ‘N’ Roses actually released the long rumored Chinese Democracy album before the end of 2008. Axl Rose and friends came through, releasing the album yesterday. Dr Pepper, true to their word, gave away a free soda certificate yesterday to any one who lived in the US and filled out a form on their web site between 12:01 Saturday night and 11:59 on Sunday night.
I’ve seen various lengths of time that the album has been in the works, from over a decade to a more accurate guesses of 14 or 17 years. My favorite quote is this one:
The new album dropped Sunday after fans held on through 17 years of myriad false starts and production delays after Guns ‘N Roses began recording in 1994.
Fast forward to the future? 1994 + 17 = 2011, I thought we were still in 2008?
I found that in an article from the New York Daily News that reports a Chinese newspaper calls the album as a “venomous attack”on the nation. Enjoy. I think the Chinese are just pissed that they weren’t eligible for a free Dr. Pepper.
P.S. The Dr Pepper web site is down today, I can’t enter my cap codes to see if I’ve won anymore wallpaper, aftereffects of yesterday? Or did it go down later in the day yesterday and is still hosed?
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 41
Episode 47 of 82 was the 2 hour Season 2 finale. It was jam packed with the return of Desmond, dynamite explosions, a giant 4-toed foot, even more betrayal from Michael, gun fire, tranquilizer darts, hieroglyphics, extreme magnetism, load annoying sounds, bright spectral skies and a kiss.
It was pretty much Desmond-centric where see how he got to to the island in the first place, his being suckered into pushing the button, how it might actually be his fault Flight 815 crashed there and in the present how he, along with Locke, let the countdown go past zero without pushing the button and then blows up the hatch.
Most of the other on island antics concerned the Fab Four (Jack, Kate, Sawyer & Hurley) & Michael trekking across the island so he can “get his boy back.” He finally does and sails off towards freedom in the Other’s boat given to him for delivering our main characters into imprisonment. Except for Hurley who gets sent back to the survivor’s beach to tell them to stay away. Because it was a two hour show you get 2 pictures.
Don’t know if you have been keeping up with this story or not, but apparently the last shuttle mission took a “state of the art” urine-purification system for water recycling up to the International Space Station. They must have bought it at Big Lots because when they got up there it didn’t work right. Apparently there was a hiccup in the centrifuge or something, but now it is fixed.
My question is who is doing the taste testing? Rank has its privileges.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 42
The Season 3 opener is show number 48 of 82 and opens with a seeming normal book club meeting in a suburban home with absolutely no one we know. Yet. There is what seems like an earthquake and when it is over thy run outside, we see a familiar face and when they look up there is a jetliner in the sky breaking into pieces. This is the Others watching the arrival of Oceanic Flight 815 a couple months ago. From here we jump to the present where we see Kate getting put in a dress to dine with Ben, Sawyer in an animal cage and jack in a room with a giant Plexiglas wall. This episode is well structured and we get some fun interaction between our love triangle survivors and their captors, but a lot of time is spent with Jack and this new woman from the Others, Juliet. The flashback concerns Jack and his divorce from Sarah and his mistrust of his father. Somehow Jack has been thrust into the hero leader role on the island, but the more we learn of his past the less sympathetic he becomes.
This morning we slept in, ate breakfast, stood on the balcony and watched a bunch of dolphins swim by, watched the 4 episodes on Disc 2 of William & Mary and then went for a looong walk on the beach. This afternoon and into the evening we had a small turkey dinner with DTCQ. As usual the mysterious Lisa the Condo Princess was spoken of obliquely, but not seen.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 44
(49/82) This show was about Sun & Jin, both on island and in flashbacks off, and how they have been deceiving each other in small and large ways. We also check in with the big three and their antics while in captivity. Jack just gets the mental beatings while Sawyer and Kate get, unbelievably (if you can get anymore unbelievable than we’ve gotten so far), enlisted in some sort of chain gang.
After the usual sunrise, breakfast, walk on the beach thing, Donna and I headed out to help the local retailers have a good Black Friday. We were not alone. At the first place we stopped at, Tanger Outlets 2, they were busy, but not so overcrowded that it wasn’t unpleasant. But by the time we called it quits at the other Tanger Outlet place the parking spots were at a premium. Trying to leave got a little dicey as folks jockeyed for the scarce spots and clear exit paths. We didn’t go particularly early because we weren’t out to to get big ticket items with big ticket discounts and our Christmas shopping is already finished, we just did a little clothes and trinket shopping for ourselves.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 46
Episode 50 of 82 is Locke centric and a return to more of a Season 2 style with nice writing that wraps the present on-island happenings with the off-island flashbacks. Plus we get zero coverage of the weirdness that is occurring on the “Other” side of the island with Jack, Kate and Sawyer.
When Locke wakes up in the jungle after the hatch implosion he now doesn’t know what to do, when he found the hatch initially he felt it was his destiny to save the world by pushing the button every 108 minutes. Then anther hatch was uncovered and it seemed to reveal that pushing the button was all a psychological experiment and really meant nothing. But when he devised a way to prevent the button from being pushed, something very powerful event did occur and the hatch was destroyed. For guidance he builds a sweat lodge where he is visited by the dead Boone and is pushed around the Sindey, Australia airport in his old wheelchair until he figures out he has to clean up his mess, i.e. rescue Mr. Eko who was also inside the hatch and consequently tossed about the island somewhere and has been captured by another of the island’s polar bears.
Because it is the weekend there is no TDTVS and we didn’t have any red envelopes to watch, so we watched the last three episodes of Firefly; The Message, Heart of Gold & Objects in Space. I got to get me one of those Jayne Cobb hats. Winter is coming ya know.
Jayne: How’s it sit? Pretty cunning, don’t you think?
Skipped the sunrise this morning, weren’t one. Skipped the walk on the beach, raining too hard. Matter of fact, it was going to be raining for the foreseeable future, so we skipped breakfast too. Emptied the trash, packed our bags, loaded up the trunk and started for home.
We did stop in Bluffton for a bagel breakfast. When we gassed up at the crossing off I-95 and SC336 the rain had stopped and the skies didn’t look too dark or gray, so we put the top down. Made it all the way to Varnville (about 39 miles) before the rain returned and we returned to the top up condition. Rained the rest of the way home and I think it has been raining here in Aiken all day.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 48
I know lots of places started decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving, like whoever made the Sand Man at HHI. When we went for our morning walk on Thanksgiving morning this was already proudly standing on the beach. We waited until today. Our massive 4-1/2′ antedate illuminate coniferous falsiful was erected by the door and Donna spent a couple hours trying to put 7′ worth of ornaments on the much smaller tree. The mantle was decorated and thousands of Christmas themed knickknacks were scattered around the house. I would have put out the flag and the Santa mailbox cover, but it has been raining all day.
We also moved into the “Winter Bedroom” on the other side of the house. The plan this year was to have two beds, so I didn’t have to disassemble the one and move everything to the other room, but I never did finish the foot board and we never bought the extra queen mattress set or frame, so take down, move, put up I did.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 48
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'.
Saturday was the MMC Leaf Peeping Run of which I was the leader. We met at the Cracker Barrel over in Augusta. The restaurant was packed with people eating breakfast, but only two other couples were members of the Miata Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally. After eating we headed west and north to the upstate of Georgia (with a brief foray into South Carolina) to see the colorful trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of us driving the windy back roads enjoying nature’s beauty, but there was just our one car from the Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally.
