Wrap-up

Let’s see, where to begin…
First, I’m glad to see that Brad is out drinking.
Now, to what I’ve been up to:
Last week we went on a geocache after I picked up the girls from school. You can read the story of the Gamble House Micro geocache hunt. I’m still finding acorns around the house.
On Friday I picked up some of the foul tasting Harry Potter – Bott’s Beans. You can read about the Bott’s Beans Tasting
On Saturday I did a lot of yard work, and ended up building a new fence for the side of the house. Here are the images. I’m quite proud of myself.


On Saturday night I went to see Eqilibrium with Martin. Travis had told me about it, and it looked good. It’s kind of Farenheight 451 meets Blade 2 meets Minority Report. Travis wrote up a good review that I basically agree with. I was hoping for better, but the movie wasn’t as bad as some these days. I would had a bit more of the cool ‘gun-kata’ action and a little less staring into mirrors.
I’m not sure why the movie was shelved for two years. I would have thought that movie would have done even better after the Matrix, before the rash of films starring the bulletime/wire-fu techniques.
In summary, it’s worth the $8.
Today I did a bit more yard work and played with the girls. Based on Cruft readers’ suggestions, I stopped by the library and picked up Masters of Deception and The Skystone. I also took the time to watch an hour of the extended version of Lord of the Rings. I tried to explain the Ringwraiths to Zoe, but in the end we settled on a definition of ‘scary bad guys on horses’.
That’s enough for now. G’night.

Save Firefly


OK folks, last night was a great episode of Firefly. The episode ‘War Stories’ included smuggling, ambushes, torture, firefights, lesbian sex, and even three-way sexual tension all wrapped up in a tasty sci-fi wrapper.
Watch the damn show or it’s gunna get canceled. Friday’s at 8PM. Set you Tivos. Tell your friends. Post on your weblog. Write letters to Fox.
Sign up for the Official Firefly Fan Club at fox.com
Sign the Save Firefly Petition.
Fireflysupport.com has the most info on how you can help.
Fireflyfans.net has the best general information on the show.

5 minute update

OK, I’ll take 5 minutes to update during a work break.
In the parking garage, I saw this license plate (thanks MisterP to for taking the picture):


This guy is an Everquest player and proud of it. While I am suprised at the blatant geekage, I do appauld his bravery to cross his virtual and real lives.
Elfmage, whereever you are, Bravo.
Next, I saw on Slashdot today that that are slamming Phil Lelyveld. I work with Phil and he’s a good guy. He’s not a lawyer like they accused him of being. I don’t see eye to eye with him (and our company) on how to handle the issues surrounding digital content and consumer rights, but he does believe what he said. There’s no reason for the personal attacks and slams directed at the man. Attack the message if you disagree, but don’t attack the man. I gave Phil a call, but he’s out of the office today. I’d hate to see what his email inbox looks like.
I’m running a text ad at BBspot. Brian, who runs BBspot, has committed himself fully to running the site and quit his day job. I believe in supporting sites I visit & enjoy and so I bought a text ad. In a couple days, I’ll see how many clickthroughs I get.
There is a convoluted story about the power of blogs that involves, MisterP, Trikster, and HyperactiveMan, but I don’t have time to explain it now.

Just a few minutes

I finished reading The Postman by David Brin. The story is the basis for the film The Postman that Kevin Costner starred and directed. I picked up at the library last week and gave it a quick read.
The story takes place after ‘DoomWar’ the typical civilization-ending, few survivor, scenerio, common to many books and films. The protaganist stumbles across a mail truck and in hopes of scamming his way to food and shelter pretends to be a postman. This little lie leads to much bigger things. The book is significantly different than the film after about 1/3 of the way in. The basic idea of people who have sacrificed much already being called to sacrifice even more is common. It’s defintely a good book to read if youare tired of the more complex sci-fi & fantasy novels that are steeped in technology.
Now I need a new book. Suggestions?
I worked on my holiday greed list last night, but it’s not ready for public consumption yet.
In other news:
Mister P has got his weblog rolling at fever pitch. It must be the holiday season.
The All-new Trikster is also blogging again, mainly due to the fact that he is working now and bored.
Metsfan continues to persue his goal of weblog apathy.
Lastly, over at Anita’s I saw a link to The Christmas Monkey. It’s hi-larious. Go read it now.

Layaway

My brother Matt was visiting and I sprung on him my great idea.
Layaway is when you give store a deposit on an item, make payments on the item on a regular basis until you have paid the full price. Once you pay for the item, you get it.
My idea is for online retailers to use layaway for purchases. They already have the ability to do electronic checks that pull money from a savings account.
Imagine that you want that new $1,200 laptop. You don’t have the $1,200 and you don’t want to put it on credit due to interest payments. You got to Dell and select the layaway option. You agree to let Dell pull $100 out of your bank account on your weekly payday for 12 weeks. The $100 doesn’t put a big crimp on your budget, and in 3 months, you get the laptop.
Some people have the discipline to save money themselves into a savings account, but many don’t. Layaway would be a great way for people to buy big ticket items without falling into the credit trap.
Companies would benefit from layaway since they’d have your money before they gave you the product. The interest they could earn would be huge.
You read it here first.
I had great plans for tonight to work on things, but my energy is minimal. THere’s a big meeting at work in the morning, and I need to be rested.
Good night.

Back at the com

The computers are logged in, I have over 200 emails, Monica just came in with a list of phone messages, there’s an inch of paper in my inbox, and the red voicemail light on the phone is blazing like a road flare.
Looks like I have some work to do.

Kickstart

Ready? Here we go.
After a several day posting hiatus, I am back. I’m not quite back in the groove, but I’m back.
Thanksgiving was fun. We enjoyed the traditional roasted turkey and a smoked turkey as well. I brined the turkey and Martin smoked it. It was kind of fun to start smoking the turkey the night before. Martin, Casey, & I drank a few beers and poked at the fire for a while. It was nice for me since I went home and went to sleep. Poor Martin was up tending the smoker all night.
My father loved the smoked turkey, so I expect we’ll be smoking another one next year.
I finished reading Vanishing Act last week. I really enjoyed it. It was a solid read with a good story arc and plenty of surprises that kept me guessing as to what would happen next. Thomas Perry’s writing about the underworld is fantastic. I still think Metzger’s Dog is his best story, but this one ranks up with Butcher’s Boy and Sleeping Dogs.
On the linkage front, go read this Being Daddy. It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
Geocaching front: We went geocaching on Sunday. Here’s the story of the Where the Wild Things Are cache. I did another geocache today, but I haven’t written it up yet.
Children front: As a Hanukah present, we took the girls on a trip to Build-a-Bear. People without children may find this strange.
Technology front: I picked a new toy for Michele. One of the drawbacks of the MSN Companion we have in the kitchen is that it does not play audio. I bought a modded Virgin Webplayer as a replacement. It has a hard drive and Windows 98 installed and is a full computer. After a few minutes of fiddling, I had it playing MP3s and streaming audio. Michele is happy.


Television front: In the last 3 days, I have watched 5 episodes of the Sopranos. I had let them build up in the Tivo and to the point that I was way out of date. I am super-saturated with Sopranos at this point. I think they are going to leave us hanging in the finally and not wrap up any loose ends. All I can say is that Paulie Walnuts is crazy.
Over the last several days, there were several other things that I considered post-worthy, but right now, I am too tired to remember them. More later.

Universal Geekage

Some have said the my weblog roams in the area of the geek fringe. This may be true. It has also been said that sometimes my technical posts need translating. This also may be true.
But I see that every hobby out there has it’s strange lingo.
Consider what I saw when looking the description for a bike. A bicycle, not a motorcyle mind you…
New lightweight A1 Premium Aluminum comfort designed anatomic frame.
Shimano Acera 21-speed with 11-34 MegaRange drivetrain.
New Body Geometry therapeutic soft triple density grips.
Super-soft Comfort Plus mattress base spring saddle.
Specialized 700x38c Nimbus EX tires with Flak Jacket puncture protection.
Specialized 700x38c No-Flat Airlock tubes.
Nimbus? I thought Nimbus made brooms for flying?
Flack Jacket? What does a Flak Jacket have to do with a bicycle? Will someone be shooting at me?
Those bike geeks are weird.