Outlander Addict

When I first posted about the Outlander media juggernaut in July I said I’d probably watch the show, but didn’t think I’d read any more of the books. WRONGO! I have now read the first 5 (of the 8) books in the series and after I got a little stuck at the beginning of book 6, to cleanse my pallet, I started reading a novella by the same author. That book explores the lives of a couple of very minor characters from the same universe!

The Starz adaptation of Book 1 has become must see TV. It is not a one to one word to picture retelling, but it is a very well done TV series that is very faithful to the spirit and deed of the books. The author has been quoted as saying “if you watch the show with the book on your lap, you will most likely cheat yourself out of the pleasure of both.” Fortunately for me, seeing as I have a very short term memory and I’ve read so much further along in the books, I can not be thrown off track by any differences between the show and book. The show has added some new stuff and left out some other stuff, but so far, in my eyes, the changes have made for better television.

Now, like Mad Men and LOST before it, I’m going to start a section on my links page for Outlander. Part of my enjoyment of a good TV show, along with watching it, is reading stuff on the interwebs about it, spoilers before, recaps afterwards, comments and all sorts of other random stuff, so the links will help me not forget to check for new stuff.

Here’s a start:
A.V. Club Recaps
Claire’s Ring From the Book
Claire’s Ring From the TV Show
Jezebel – Female Centric Recaps
Outlander Kitchen – Recipes inspired by
Outlandish Observations – Recaps, Book Stuff, Etc.
That’s Normal – Home of Things My Husband Says During Outlander
Vulture Recaps

Dyno Movies From Panic Park

They’re kind of fuzzy because I cropped and resized them from the camera’s native 640×480 to a blog sized 800×450. The first video is of the first run:
httpvh://youtu.be/vsC54TNTkyY

This video is of the second run:
httpvh://youtu.be/-RhDmb9VlPY

The best HP number came on the third run – 104.3@6400RPM

The Emperor Gets A Stress Test

Emperor's Stress Test

The MMC visited Panic Motorsports in West Columbia. Owner/Evil Genius Steve and his faithful minion Josh welcomed us with open arms. They had even laid out some donuts and soft drinks for our consumption. When I was helping make arrangements for the visit I had made a request for a couple of items for door prizes and instead there was a free buffet of stickers, car wax, hats, hand cleaner and micro fiber towels for use to pick from on a table.

The main attraction after looking at all the colorful Spec Miatas parked inside and out was the offer of 3 Dyno Pulls in exchange for a portrait of Ulysses S Grant. One of our members towed his Formula Ford race car up to take advantage of the offer, but three of us regular folks thought it might be cool to go ahead and see what we got.

I went first and you can see the results up top here. Mazda rated the 2003 Miata at 138HP from the factory, but that number is at the flywheel, which is always 20-25% higher than what you get at the rear wheels and is measured by a dyno. I’m thinking 104.3HP isn’t half bad for a 11-year old car with over 145,000 miles on it. Steve said to me after that he could get another 8-10 horsepower out of it without adding any hardware, just some tuning and a couple more of those pictures of Grant. I told him to email me the details, but I’m really fine with the power the way it is. I’d rather spend the money and handling upgrades…

On the first pull I took a video of the car running and then on the second pull I shot the computer monitor as the readings bounced around. Both of them are around 30 seconds and 20 Meg in size, so if I can figure out how to edit them down a bit I may post them here too.

Emperor On The Dyno

DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA Batman

Egghead

Most of this week the big bosses of the Valve Store(tm) have been/will be off-site attempting to dazzle the even bigger bosses from Valve HQ by recounting the tales of past triumphs from FY2014 and presenting ideas for a more profitable FY2015. On Tuesday when I noticed that our manager wasn’t in his office at his usual time, I questioned over the cubicle wall to Mark and Tom, “Is Boy Wonder going to be out too?” (A reference to our new supervisor who is all of 30ish.) This led to maybe we should make up signs for their empty offices, one for “Robin” and another for the manager with Batman on it.

This sounded like just the thing for the then unsupervised Arts & Crafts Engineer to do after lunch. So I went to the web and downloaded some photos of the Dynamic Duo for the manager and our supervisor. I then did the same for 5 of the villains from the 60’s TV for us peons. I measured our cubicle nameplates, 2 x 10 for us and 3 x 12 for the big guys and made up some new themed ones. I then used some of my low tack spray adhesive and covered up everyone’s existing signs with the new ones.

They stayed up for all of an hour and a half. Batman called and told The Penguin to tell the second shift supervisor to make sure they folks in the shop weren’t playing poker or anything later because the President of the company was going to want to take a tour of the plant after they all had dinner. We may put them up tomorrow afternoon, because the big guns will have gone back to Jersey by then and leave them up until Batman and Robin get back to work on Friday.

Rollerblading

This was one of questions in today’s Deadspin Funbag:

I haven’t seen anyone rollerblading in at least 10 years. Is rollerblading dead? Is it just an activity that nobody does anymore? Or is it the exclusive domain of weird perverts of some kind?

Rollerblading is all but dead relative to its ’90s heyday; sales of rollerblading equipment have been in decline for a while. I assume this is because no one ever figured out how to freaking stop while wearing Rollerblades. Back in the 1990s, people were skating around and doing all sorts of KEWL tricks on park railings, and so other people were like, “Oh shit! That looks fun!” And then they bought all the equipment, only to realize there’s no way to stop. You have to have skillz to rollerblade well, and people with those skillz would probably rather go skateboarding or snowboarding instead, because Rollerblades make you look like a freaking dork.

Rollerblading was also a general fitness craze, and fitness crazes flame up and flame out all the time. You can throw rollerblading right into the fitness-craze dustbin with strippercizing and zebra-rustling. You know what’s a big fitness thing right now? Ballet. They’ve got fitness videos with ladies contorting themselves around chairs and ballet barres, and it’ll all be dead within a week.

Hey! I’m no pervert! I’m just a guy who figured out to sort of stop and enjoys the sense of speed generated by wheels instead of sneakers hitting pavement. I know I’m in a definite minority who still participate in this fitness-craze some 20 years later, but I also admit I still enjoy a good zebra rustling now and then.

What Goes Around

The Sunday before last on our way to Palm City we stopped for lunch at a Carrabba’s in Jacksonville. Donna had a series of coupons from a newspaper awhile back that were 2 for $10 off two dinners and in the middle was a $5 off two lunch entrees. We thought we’d use the lunch coupon, but as it turns out, there is no lunch menu on Sunday. Not a problem, we could just use one of the $10 dinner coupons. Figuring we would not use the other dinner one before it expired, Donna gave it away to a couple that was at a table near us.

We usually come back from FLA and stop near Ocala which is about halfway home. This time, because the University of Florida had a home football game, the usual Hampton Inn we stay at for $98 was charging a hundred bucks more. So last Saturday and instead of coming back up the Turnpike like we usually do, we opted to go straight up I-95. This put the halfway point on the southeast side of Jacksonville’s outer loop. I found a Hampton Inn there for a mere $75. When we were checking in, Donna asked the lad behind the desk if there were any restaurants within walking distance. He mentioned three, one of which was a Carrabba’s.* Because Donna really likes their Mama Mandola’s Sicilian Chicken Soup and I’m easy, that is where we went for dinner. Guess we should have kept that other $10 dinner coupon.

It was a lot busier on a Saturday evening compared to a Sunday lunch, but fortunately it was still early enough that there wasn’t any real wait for a place to sit. We couldn’t get a booth of course, but ended up in a half booth right next to a family that had a baby in a stroller between their table and ours. We both thought to ourselves, “Uh oh,” but they had just got their check so we knew it would be OK. As they were leaving, the woman leaned over to Donna and handed her a piece of paper and asked if we wanted it. It was a coupon for $10 off two dinner entrees…

*Not the same one as last week, that was on the north side of town.

Volens in Aeternum

Desdemona, or as she is more commonly called, Desi, is the 10 year old dog that belongs to Sandy and Paul. Like all dogs, Desi can understand lots of common English words, like food, treat, vet, ride, bath, etc. She can also spell a few, including W-A-L-K. Desi is loyal and protective of the household and will bark mightily at those approaching, but once introduced to you and you give her a dog treat, you are instantly promoted to friend of pack.

Desi’s primary function is hanging around any person who is passing through the kitchen, in the kitchen, or sitting around the kitchen table eating while watching hopefully for any bit of food either offered or dropped. And while Desi is not of a breed officially recognized by the American Kennel Club, her official family motto is Volens in Aeternum which roughly translates to Eternally Watching.