Outlander

Weekend Edition

Friday we did the usual tandem commute to work and back. For the afternoon ride home there was a stiff headwind for most of the way and the temperature was in triple digits, so we really appreciated the A/C in the house once inside. About an hour after arrival it didn’t seem as cool as it should be, so I checked the thermostat. It read 79°. It was set to 74 and the fan was running, but because it was so hot outside we didn’t notice that the air coming out the vents wasn’t properly chilled. I called up the Air Conditioning & Heating place and they said they had a technician finishing up a job and we would be next in line. It was a little before 5:00 PM when I called and we had actual cold air blowing again by 6.

Saturday morning we woke up the A/C was still running to catch up and get the house down to normal, but shut off soon afterwards. We walked to a local Waffle House for a breakfast of a waffle and hash browns. Trust me when I say the only time to try crossing busy Pine Log Road and not risk death is 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning. In the afternoon I changed the Emperor’s oil and rotated the tires. I re-hooked up the wires to the oil control valve and cleared the P0010 code. I’ve decided to try Option III, another round of the Rotella T-6 high detergent oil because the folks on the forum have said that sometimes it takes multiple tries to clean out all the “gunk” out of the VVT system. We had lunch at home and then dinner out at Sonic with a friend (Hi Jackie)!

Sunday we had our usual bike ride to Ridgecrest Coffee Bar for their delicious breakfast panini and once we got home it was pretty much TV viewing for the rest of the day. Three and a half hours of the 9th Stage of the Tour de France followed by 1-1/2 hours of the Season 2 finale of Outlander which was immediately followed by 3.5 hours of the FRS – Tampa Bay Rays game. For dessert we caught a couple random and wildly varying shows on PBS.

Neither Friday nor Sunday we used a car. The Purple Whale went to North Augusta and back, while Miata never left the driveway on Saturday.

Draughtlander Is Finally Over

Six long months ago Starz showed the 8th episode (of 16) of the first season of Outlander. They left it at at cliffhanger, our time traveling nurse Claire was being held captive by the aptly nicknamed Captain “Black Jack” Randall the great-great-great-granfather of her 20th century husband. Just as Black Jack was about to have his way with her, in through the window bursts her 18th century husband Jamie – fade out. Now, it was only technically a cliffhanger for folks who have not read the book, for some of us it was like we were sailing around the world solo and we dropped our only copy of the book overboard. We know what happens next and would have to wait till we get to the next English speaking port to find another copy.

If you can’t wait until Saturday at 9:00 PM, here is the first 3-1/2 minutes of Episode 9:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4LOmMA-xWQ

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1474

I’ll Take Historical Fiction For $2000 Alex

This was the last clue in tonight’s Double Jeopardy round:

“Written In My Own
Hearts Blood” is the
eighth book in author
Dina Gabaldon’s series
about English Army
Nurse Claire Randal.

Nailed it!

Who Knew?

Folly Beach Pier

Well, not only is baseball season over until April, so too is the first half of the Outlander TV show. Wow, 8 episodes in two months, take seven months off, then do two more months of TV. I hope maybe because the show has already been picked up for a second season, they’ll start filming it and there won’t be a 7 month break between season one and season two.

Speaking of season two, the author of the books and show consultant let out the news that there would be voice over from the male star in the second half of the show. There is a lot of controversy on the interwebs about the female’s voice over in the first half. Some folks find it takes them out of the show and at times it is redundant as it is just describing the action taking place. I kinda like it, but I’ve always liked it, I even liked the controversial voice over of Harrison Ford in the movie Bladerunner.

Oh, and where did the author make these comments? Twitter? Facebook? Nope the Compuserve forums. Compuserve? Who knew that name was still around? Do you have to use the Netscape Navigator browser to go there?

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

#PocketClaire

Outlander - Claire & Jamie

Well I’ve read the book and I’ve watched the first episode of Outlander and you can color me hooked. The series run technically starts tomorrow night at 9PM on Starz, but Episode 1 has been available as a special Sneak Peek on the official site and on YouTube since last Saturday.

All the way at the bottom of the Extras page at Starz’s official site for the show is a cut out of the lead male character, Jamie, in all his kilted glory. You are supposed to download the PDF, cut it out and carry it with you so you can take it’s picture as it interacts with your life. Tweet it, Instagram it or upload your photo to their Facebook page and Starz just might share it with the Interwebs.

While this sounds like something I might do, after all I did tote a Travelocity Gnome around the northwest a few years back taking its picture, I draw the line at strikingly handsome paper dudes in kilts. There is a PocketJamie, but where is the one of our protagonist? I guess I’ll have to make one. A little Google-fu, some “photoshop” work and I made one up. So after you have downloaded and cut out James Fraser, Laird of Broch Tuarach, why don’t you come back here and download PocketClaire, his favorite Sassenach.

Started down, went up, back down, back up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1401