Month: May 2008

Membata…

…is Indonesian for “doubt” or “uncertainty”.

The last episode didn’t actually jump the shark but it did water ski precariously close. The same thing that really derailed National Treasure for me is one of the things that stretched credibility to the breaking point. Ben blows up the “vault” in the Orchid Station so that he can get to the place he needs to be to move the island. He follows a tunnel for a while then has to kick his way through a sheet of ice and starts to climb down a ladder into a room that looks as if it has been sealed for a very long time. A rung of the ladder breaks because the wood is so old it is dry rotted and Ben tumbles to the icy floor. He then gets up, dusts himself off, pulls some matches from his pocket and lights one. He takes the match to a hurricane lantern hanging on a nail, lifts the glass and the wick lights! That Dharma Initiative lamp oil must really be something.

Another little thing that I need someone to explain to me why the lying. Locke convinces Jack who in turn convince the rest of the Oceanic 6 to lie about the whole island experience. They concoct a story about how they were the only survivors to protect the ones they left behind. Why? The island is no longer where it was, Locke moved it (in space or time or both), how are they going to get found?

I loved the wooden wheel thing that Ben had to turn to activate the whatever that would move the island, reminded me of the Wheel of Pain that Conan had to turn as a child slave that made him the strong man he was. Also kind of reminded me of the wheel that the donkey was chained to in the blacksmith’s shop where Will Turner worked. Or maybe the helm of the Black Pearl. Where’d those last two references come from? TDPM was on USA tonight and I would have watched the whole thing too, if Donna hadn’t make me rewatch “There Is No Place Like Home Parts 2 & 3” at around 9:00 PM.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 182

We Wish You A Happy Red Hot Deals Day

Can’t blog right now, last hour of Lost is on. Come back tomorrow.

That Ben is such a nice guy.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 180

Half Clean

On Memorial Day I spent a good bit of the afternoon pressure washing my driveway and got 1/2 of it done. The neighbors on both sides of us have long single wide driveways and no garage access. They both handle the issue differently, one keeps all three cars in the drive with him doing the parking order shuffle each night depending on the sequence the three drivers are leaving in the morning. The other keeps one car in the driveway and two angle parked on the grass to the side of the drive and one spends the night in the street. Donna and I on the other hand have one car that we park in the garage and a 2 car wide driveway that sits empty.

Jack Sparrow: “Funny ol’ world, innit?”

I Want To Believe this will be a good movie, but it has been a long time, maybe too long. When I stumble on an episode, I can’t watch it (unless of course it is one of about 10 of my favorites.)

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 178

Frack

Paint Shop Pro stopped working. The other day I uninstalled the latest version because I couldn’t figure out how get the media cataloger to not work in the background (which was causing things to work slowly) and a couple of other minor issues. I reverted back to version 9. Tonight for some reason I can’t resize an image. Might be time for the computer version of a high colonic.

I’m almost out of Firefly episodes to watch, just 2 left, and the darn show is starting to grow on me. Oh well, add it to the list of Fox orphaned shows that I wish were still on. Though perhaps it is better this way, a half season of brilliance, before they have a chance to began their inevitable decline into mediocrity.

I have been steady in my resolve to not watch any spoilers (even any ABC promos) for this weeks season finale of Lost. I want to be surprised, but I’m worried. I have been reading interviews with the cast members, who can’t give or haven’t given anything away. In one tidbit I read these words: “The finale will change the way you watch the show. It will introduce new variables that would never even be considered previously.” This damn show is already so far out there that I’m worried as to what the heck that might mean. It is either going to be such an awesome twist that I will be stunned into appreciation or it will be so far fetched that it will jump the shark.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 176

On My Way To Fame (& No Fortune)

About 3 weeks ago I received an email asking for permission to use a photograph of mine that I had on Flickr! called 12-13-2007 Sunrise. It was to be used at the bottom of a page to end a section of a 30 page Executive Summary entitled Savannah River Basin Textile Recovery Plan and Graniteville Area Redevelopment Plan. Yikes, that’s a mouthful. It is a set of recommendations developed over about a year of study for the local economies in Aiken, Abeville, Anderson, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Oconee, Pickens, and Saluda counties that have been negatively impacted by the closures of textile mills and related facilities.

I said go ahead and use it, all I asked in return was that they send me a copy when they were printed. Came in the mail on Friday. Glossy thing with lots of consulting techno-babel that takes up a lot of space and doesn’t say much. I was surprised that mine was the only photograph in the whole thing (aside from the cover.) There were about 250 copies printed up, and the other 249 will be distributed to stakeholders throughout the region (whatever a stakeholder is.) There is a list of them on the back page along with the Project Team, Steering Committee and at the bottom the Photography credit of yours truly.

You can say you knew me when….

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 175

2,701

According to my WordPress dashboard this is post two thousand seven hundred and one. I think there are a lot more, but some must have got lost in the many times I’ve restored from a backup or moved from a different blogging platform. I deduce this from when I went hunting yesterday for mention of when I had painted the bedroom red I’m going to now paint blue. If you check the archive for the month of April 2004 you will see that there are several days of missing posts. There are several days of multiple posts, but that is to be expected because at that time I had two different blogs going, one Miata related and one Rant related. There should be nearly 60 posts per month because then, like now, I rarely missed a night posting on both.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 174

Small Town Parade

We went downtown today, had lunch, bought an ice cream cone and watched a parade. Veterans groups, high school ROTC groups, boy scouts, politicians, army trucks and fire engines. Do other countries have parades like this too?

Got the first coat of blue on the smaller bathroom and I have to say it is a nice bright blue without the vibrancy of the green in the other bathroom. Perfect. Coat two goes on tomorrow. I painted one coat of primer over the Vin Rouge paint of the bedroom in preparation for painting it a darker shade of blue. But first I’m going to paint the ceiling, which hasn’t been done in a while. Then all the trim will get slathered with the gloss white before the walls get covered in flat Ocean Cruise.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 174