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Columbus: It’s amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total shit storm.
9:45 PM
I sit down at the PC and check on the FRS score — ooh, only losing 3 to 2 in the sixth, we’re still in this one.
By the time I get logged into Gameday Audio the Indians have scored another run, it’s now 4 to 2.
Why, oh why, MLB.com, when I click the audio button on the web page of the Boston Red Sox do I get the Cleveland radio announcing team. You would think if I’m on the FRS page I would get the WEEI crew of Joe Castiglione & Dave O’Brien.
By the time the audio player is loaded and I have changed broadcasting teams, I hear like two pitches called and then on the third pitch some moke for the Tribe hits it into the right field seats with two runners on base. 7 — 2.
9:50 PM
I close the Gameday Audio player and open up Winamp to listen to the soothing sounds of GotRadio New Age Nuance.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 988
The Alien
Today’s art project is so simple a caveman could do it. No tape, no glue, no tabs and no xacto knife needed, just scissors and a steady hand. Desktop Gremlins
Mark wore his new Zombieland T-shirt to work today and took every chance he got to show off his sartorial splendor and rub in the fact that I was wearing nothing but a plain green shirt. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, the shirt I ordered several hours before he ordered his, was in the mailbox when I got home tonight.
So what did I do, you might ask, well, I didn’t even open it up, I wrote return to sender in big red letters and stuffed the overstuffed envelope back in the mailbox.
OK, not really, I eagerly ripped open the bag and I’m wearing it now and plan on not taking it off. Ever.
Truthfully, I put it in the hamper to be washed. I have this phobia about wearing anything brand new, it has to be washed first.* Amateur psychologists, feel free to pipe in with a diagnosis.
*Actually, that would make a nice Z-Land rule. #33. Always wash new clothes. Because you never know if a zombie has tried it on before you.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 931
My latest fixation, started in the usual manner, a random blog post on a random web page. Now I just can’t help myself, I just have to cut something out of card stock and glue, insert tab into slot or press it together to create “art.”
Today’s papercraft piece, Minimimmo, is from Italy and hopes to colonize the world. These boogers are just so cute, I might just make a hundred of them, starting a southeastern US outpost. Good thing there is a video on the web site as the downloadable instructions were only available in Italian.
No package in today’s mail. No failed attempted delivery notice. Some rat bastard postal worker is wearing my Pacific Playland T-shirt.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 930
The Hostess truck from TDZM was easier than making a mini-me. The truck was held together by tabs glued to panels, but this had tabs going into slots and while the head was kind of easy the body was tricky and the “legs” were a real pain. And even though I used a metal ruler for a straight edge, cutting parallel and perpendicular was equally important as straight. As you can see I had to resort to clear tape to keep me together.
It took UPS two days to move my Pacific Playland T-shirt from Groveport, Ohio 530 miles to Atlanta, GA. It has taken the USPS two days to get it from Atlanta, GA 150 miles to Augusta GA. I wonder how long it will take them to go the last 25 miles? Two days?
Little Rock: Have you heard about Pacific Playland? There are no zombies there.
Columbus: The amusement park?
Little Rock: Yep!
Tallahassee: That place totally blows!
[Little Rock and Wichita shoot Tallahassee angry looks]
Tallahassee: … my mind. Just fun for the whole family.
My current car insurance is with State Farm and after watching Two and a Half Men this evening I think I can get 21st Century insurance to pay me to be insured with them. First, switching to Geico will save me 15%, then switching to Allstate from Geico will save me an additional $396. Changing to Progressive from Allstate will save me $474. Then converting to 21st Century from Progressive saves me another $550.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 929
The other week I came into work and there was a Sno-Ball on my desk. This morning the perpretrator of that crime had a small Hostess Truck on his desk.
With lots of things happening, but must of them mundane.
The big news is coming soon:
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 927
Yesterday evening while searching for something to watch on TV rather than a bowl game that I had picked the wrong team in, I stumbled on Superbad on FX. If you’ve seen the movie, it was the Home Ec scene and there was Emma Stone. Hey, I don’t remember her in this movie. I instantly thought, Wichita! I watched the movie for a bit, but restlessly, so when the next commercial showed up I surfed up one channel to Comedy. They were showing Little Miss Sunshine with Abigail Breslin. Little Rock! It took everything I had not to fire up Netflix and start watching Zombieland.
Today’s movie in a red envelope for dinner entertainment was appropriately enough Easy A starring Emma Stone. She narrates the movie sort of like Jesse Eisenberg did in Zombieland. The credits are made of 3D letters superimposed into the scenes like they were in Zombieland. The first hour of Easy A was better than the last half hour, just like Zombieland. All and all it would have been preferable to have watched Zombieland than Easy A, but Donna couldn’t sit through the gory parts of MNFMTMWHS.
In a somewhat related and circular reference, Abigail Breslin’s character’s name in Little Miss Sunshine was Olive and Emma Stone’s character’s name in Easy A is Olive.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 924
This is the explanation for those of you with puzzled looks on your face over the post titles this past week.
Last Monday the FRS had a day game, so in the evening, while Donna surfed her usual cooking, home or reality shows on TV, I decided to watch a movie from my Netflix queue. This movie was there because several of my co workers had seen it and were talking it up as something I just had to see, so to appease them I added it. Now I don’t watch a lot of monster movies to begin with and zombie ones are even at the bottom of that pile, but once I got watching it though, I was hooked. And it turns out it is more of a road trip slash geeky guy wins heart of attractive female romance flick than a zombie movie. Plus nobody told me it was a comedy!
The narrator of the movie is a college student that credits his survival of the zombie apocalypse to the strict adherence of a set of rules, which is where the last 7 titles came from. Not all the rules are actually in the movie, some came from trailers and other promotional items, and the list is not complete. I guess that is why they are going to make a sequel. So we can know what Rule #5 is and #10 and so on.
01. "Cardio"
02. "Double tap"
03. "Beware of bathrooms"
04. "Wear seatbelts"
06. "Cast iron skillet"
07. "Travel light"
08. "Get a kickass partner"
12. "Bounty paper towels"
15. "Bowling Ball"
17. "(Don't) be a hero"
18. "Limber up"
21. "Avoid strip clubs"
22. "When in doubt, know your way out"
29. "The buddy system"
31. "Check the back seat"
32. "Enjoy the little things"
33. "Swiss army knife"
On a side note, I thought that the lead actor/narrator, AKA Columbus, looked familiar and it turns out I had just seen him in another movie a couple of weeks prior. The title of that movie was called Adventureland. I wonder if every movie he will be in will have somethingland in the title? And Little Miss Sunshine is growing up nicely.
As long as you don’t have a weak stomach, sorry Donna, I recommend you see Zombieland. At least once.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 789
“When in doubt, know your way out”
There have been a few times when we have been out geocaching that following this rule would have helped us find our way out of the woods. It is a simple thing to do too, when you exit the vehicle, turn the GPSr to a map page, hold down the button for a couple seconds and hit OK. You have now created a waypoint to help you find your way back to the car.
Trouble is that, like today’s little excursion, most of the time we are no more than 100′ into the trees and it just doesn’t seem to make sense to do it. And because I feel that way and don’t do it, it has never become habit, so that the times it could come in handy, that lifeline isn’t available. Hasn’t got us in trouble. Yet…
We dodged muggles, prejudicial clues and light rain, but not spider webs and briars on our way to 7 finds this morning just north of town. We stopped at seven because that gave us a nice little milestone, 500. If you are a member of the local geocaching cult,when you reach 1,000 finds they present you with an ammo can painted gold. We are not, so maybe I should cover a pill bottle in silver duct tape, present it to ourselves and go hide it somewhere.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 788
“Cardio”
Part of it is we have found other interests, part of it is time, part of it is age and when you get right down to it, all those are really the same reason. We used to ride thousands of mile a year, but now we are down to just hundreds. Now we are happy to get out at least on one weekend day and get in a 10–15 mile ride. There is hope that when the weather cools a bit we might stretch the mileage and maybe add a week day commute to the Valve Store. We still like to walk in the woods, but that pales in comparison to the cardio work out you get from bike ride.
Today we managed to get in a dozen miles surrounded by a biscuit breakfast at Popeye’s (whose service still sucks, even in the morning when you are the only customer in the joint.)
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 783
“Travel light”
Because the Miata is our only car and it has a mere 5.1 cubic feet sized trunk we have learned to travel light. We’ve taken two week driving vacations in it. But we have learned to pack smart, by taking at most 4 days worth of clothes and using the hotel laundry. We have even gone for a long camping weekend carrying 2 mountain bikes with us using the Miata too.
We travel light when flying too. Donna takes a small carry on with the essentials and her purse while I carry the laptop with various electronics. We check one big bag, so we don’t have to hassle hunting for an empty overhead bin.
Seems like the only time we don’t pack light is when we go on an overnight trip in the Miata, we always end up taking as much as we do when we go away for a week in it.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 783
“Bounty paper towels”
I always keep a roll of paper towels in my cube. Donna and I eat lunch together there, so we always go through a couple three then. They come in handy for wiping up desk dust bunnies that develop and hide behind my PC. Plus they are handy for the occasional drip when pouring my daily Diet Dr. Pepper.
This Monday I used the last one on the roll. I walked back to the Tool Crib where they usually have shelves full, except today. The shipment was late and the attendant said, “They are due in Wednesday.” Luckily I had a short roll of brown towels that came out of a bathroom dispenser as a back up.
I went back Wednesday to see if the paper towels had come in. No they hadn’t. Tried again today, but there are still no paper towels and my brown paper roll is just about gone. Hope the real paper towels come in tomorrow.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 782
“Beware of bathrooms”
I was walking down the main hall towards the restroom this afternoon a a co-worker stepped out of his cubical in just in front of me. As we walked down the hall I pulled along side of him on the right and said, “How’s it going?” He responded with, “Good. You?” We continued walking in tandem exchanging banal pleasantries, but as we neared the hall to the right that led to the restroom, he slowed. I sensed he was headed the same place I was, but he didn’t have the same premonition. He was trying to politely let me continue on so he could make a right turn behind me instead of cutting across in front. But I slowed too and then he knew we both going to the same place.
We were headed towards the the smaller of the two Men’s Rooms near the front office. The larger one near HR has two urinals and three stalls, but this one only has one urinal and two stalls. As I was on the inside I made the turn in the lead and cried, “I’m going to get the urinal!” with child like glee because I wasn’t going to have to make a Morton’s Fork as to whether to lift a possible germ laden seat or try and maintain an accurate stream between the narrow gap at the front of said seat.
But my co-worker was unconcerned, as he replied, “I’m just heading in to wash my hands.” Fortunately he noticed the roll of paper towels was empty before he started washing, so he exited, heading back to the other restroom. I’m kind of glad, he seemed uninfected and everything, but the bathroom is where you are most vulnerable…
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 780
“Check the back seat”
Here is where the Miata has the advantage, there is no back seat to worry about checking. But this plus is more than offset by its major disadvantage, the soft top.
Back a decade or so ago when we went to one of the first Miatas at the Gap, one of the MMC members was out back of the lodge washing her car when a small black bear waddled by. She quickly hopped in her car ’til it passed. Later at dinner when she was telling this story at the communal table, someone who had spent some time in Alaska, where the bears were more of the grizzly kind, asked, “Do you know what they call convertibles there?” Shrugs all around, so she answered her own question, “Peel ‘n’ Eats.”
So, if Columbus would be so kind to quote me too, I’d like to add another rule, when given a choice of vehicles, minivans aren’t cool and convertibles are dangerous, so “Rule #34: Take the SUV.”
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 777
“Enjoy the little things.”
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 775
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