Month: January 2008

The Importance Of Understanding English

Fluctuations Noun; plural

When I got back from Canada last week, I had a bunch of Canadian dollars I needed to exchange so I went to the currency exchange window at the local bank. It was a short line with just one guy in front of me. He was an Asian guy who was trying to exchange yen for dollars, and he was a little irritated!

He asked the teller, “Why it change? Yestoday, I get two huna dolla fo yen. Today I get huna eighty? Why It change?”

The teller shrugged her shoulders and said, “Fluctuations.”

The Asian guy said, “Fluc you white people too!”

Oceanic Airlines

Oceanic AirlinesMark got his Sawyer’s Fish Biscuit T-shirt yesterday and wore in it to work today. I would have been very jealous, but my Season 2 DVDs arrived via UPS today. So tonight Donna and I watched the first disc. I know I’m probably way late for this party, but I just realized that THE NUMBERS (4 8 15 16 23 42) add up to 108, which is the number of minutes between hitting execute on the computer in Dharma’s Swan station.

I think I’m going to get a T-shirt of my own, but with the Oceanic Airlines logo on it as soon as I find just the right one.

If you happen to live in one of these cities: Los Angeles, CA – Tustin, CA – Ames, IA – Miami, FL – New York, NY – Portland, OR – Knoxville, TN – Seoul, South Korea – Sydney, Australia; keep your eyes peeled for the billboards – Oceanic Airlines.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 17

Whatever Happened To That Post Office Photo Project

Air MailI’ve given it up. I think I’m going to start taking photos of people handing me mail sacks while I sit in my plane instead.

Not really, it has been because the days are too short and too cold, plus all the Post Offices we have left are too far away for day trips. Give us another month or so and we will be back at it. Only 115 to go.

While you wait, don’t forget to look at the already captured photos in my Gallery. And if you would like to see more old timey photos, check out the Library of Congress’ Flickr page.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 16

Love/Hate Relationship With The Internets

I love the net. It is a vast repository for everything from diamonds to dreck. I mainly like it for the reason that I don’t have to remember stuff anymore. Brain storage space, now at a premium because of age and heavy abuse of mind altering drugs as a teen, does not have to tied up remember that Jon Provost played Timmy Martin on 178 episodes of the TV show Lassie from 1957 to 1964. And things like, “Although it has been the subject of many spoofs and misquotes, the one situation that Timmy never needed saving from in the entire history of the show was falling down a well.” That’s what IMDB is for. If I ever need to know how to change the fuel filter on my car or how many red Miatas were made in 1993, Miata.net will remember it for me. I don’t even have to remember what happens to me anymore, that is what this blog is for.

I hate the net. The main reason for that is spam. It is light at the home address because I rarely use it on the net. It is just the opposite for my work email. Somewhere along the line that address got sold on a CD and I get about a hundred pieces of crud every day. Fortunately it is stopped before it gets to my inbox by a service the company subscribes to called Postini. I check the MMC‘s email and because we have a yahoo.com address 99.9% of what comes in there is the usual replica watches, male enhancement and free gift card junk. My gamil account gets a bunch too, 27 so far today, but 26 were caught by Gooogle’s spam filter.

Today I received 2 emails at my gmail account purportedly from eBay about “Item Number: (300192365929) Zulu – scarce Stanley Baker signed autograph.” Could this be because of my furious bidding for Lost: Season2 DVDs on eBay? Doubt it, my registered eBay email is still the now defunct brian@mr-miata.com… Both emails contained the right letters to my gmail address, but did not include the dots in between the letters. Do you have a “.” in your gmail address? If so, try sending your self a note by leaving out the dot. Worked for me.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 15

Thirteen Times A Charm

At first I didn’t want to spend more than $20 for Season 2 of TDTVS, including the shipping. But after about 4 or 5 failures I upped the ante to $24. Still no luck after two days. Here are the selling prices of the 13 auctions I bid in:

$34.00
$30.50
$27.50
$23.01
$26.05
$23.00
$25.51
$25.01
$24.50
$35.00
$31.00
$29.03
$24.49

The last straw was tonight when I made one more attempt. The seller was here in Aiken (might even see about saving the shipping cost), but after putting in a bid that took my total to $24.99, I was informed I was already outbid. Some one already had a maximum bid in that was greater than my offering.

I don’t know what these people are thinking? Why buy used? The damn thing is on sale new at Amazon for $29.99 with free Super Saver shipping!

Not wanting to wait around for a week waiting on the Super Saver shipping I nibbled at their hook for Amazon Prime. By trying it free for a month I get 2-day shipping for free. As soon as I get the DVDs I’ll go ahead and cancel it. No way I do enough business with these guys to warrant $79 a year…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 15

I Push This Button Every 108 Minutes

I figure if I do, sooner or later I’m going to win an eBay auction for season two of TDTVS.

The Numbers have not, so far, been picked in either the Powerball or Mega Millions games. If they did, would they prove to be cursed?

The Emperor got the day off. But we didn’t stay inside all day. About 2:30 we put on our sunglasses and coats and walked about a mile and a half to a Marble Slab Creamery for some ice cream. When I pulled out my ratty wallet to pay for it my wife suggested that maybe we should walk across the street to the Walmart. I said OK, but we would have to look in the toy section for Mia and Tia. The Movie Moments, of which they are part of, must be on the way out because they weren’t in the toy section, but scattered in a couple of fringe aisle ends throughout the store. No cute Miatas to be found.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 15

Everything Happens For A Reason

We went out for a bagel for breakfast. Right here in Aiken. The MMC did drive to Saluda for breakfast, all 2 cars of them. I guess we weren’t the only ones who decided not to for go a 60 mile drive in the cold rain to eat when there were places closer to home. We then picked up a few items we missed on yesterday’s grocery shopping trip and spent the rest of the day inside watching the rest of Season 1 of TDTVS.

I was outbid with 7 hours to go on my first attempt on eBay to buy the second season. Eighteen hours left on try number two. I don’t want to pay more than twenty bucks (with shipping) unless I have to.

I’ve been considered buying one of the McFarlane’s action figures Series 1 or Series 2 just for the cool little toss ins. With Hurley you get a replica of the winning lottery ticket. Sun includes a life size recreation of an Oceanic boarding pass and with Kate you get that little model plane from her childhood sweetheart.

Yeah, I got it bad. At least I haven’t bought a T-shirt — yet.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 15