Year: 2008

I Shall Be Both Dog & Pony

We finished watching Season 1 of Mad Men last night and returned the DVDs today. When I first started watching the shows I thought they had the period down pat, the clothing, the furniture, the attitudes towards women and the smoking, everyone lights up…, but the characters and the drama was as superficial as the advertising that they did for their living. The lead, Don Draper, is an interesting character because they have taken great pains to show it to us, but now after viewing 13 episodes I see that he is surrounded by others that are just as intriguing and I hope we start to explore them in the coming seasons. As we speak I’m downloading season two torrents.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 6

Orientation

Twenty seven of eighty two finds flashback Locke finding love and then losing it because of his obsession with his father while on island Locke finds a replacement obsession — the button.

“We’re gonna have to watch that again.”

Cold Ads

I am watching baseball in the cold Philadelphia rain and have seen a couple of interesting commercials (one of which is not Ryan Howard of the Phillies schilling for Subway’s Philly cheese steak sub.) First up was an ad for chemistry.com an internet “dating” site, it shows two people holding hands in the produce department and discussing how nice it is to have found someone so compatible. Both individuals are men. Two commercials later was one for the new Seth Rogan comedy called Zack and Miri Make a Porno. At the end of the commercial they called the movie just Zack and Miri.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 6

Adrift

Episode #26 unfolds in typical soap opera fashion as we spend an hour and progress the story 5 minutes, mostly with a flashback involving Micheal and his original separation from Walt as a follow up to him losing him again to the “others.” A full third of the show is spent rehashing Locke, Jack & Kate entering the hatch as we saw in the last episode and progressing nowhere. The most exiting thing that happened was Kate getting locked in a closet in the hatch and discovering chocolate bars.

Back Country Funeral

As a young minister in Kentucky, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a graveside service for a homeless man, who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a new cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be buried there. I was not familiar with the backwoods area, and I soon became lost. Being a typical man, I did not stop to ask for directions.

I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the open grave, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. The digging crew was eating lunch. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and I stepped to the side of the open grave. There I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long, as I told them that this was the proper thing to do.

The workers gathered around the grave and stood silently, as I began to pour out my heart and soul. As I preached about “looking forward to a brighter tomorrow” and “the glory that is to come,” the workers began to say “Amen,” “Praise the Lord,” and “Glory!” The fervor of these men truly inspired me. So, I preached and I preached like I had never preached before, all the way from Genesis to Revelations.

I finally closed the lengthy service with a prayer, thanked the men, and walked to my car. As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I heard one of the workers say to another, “I ain’t NEVER seen nothin’ like that before, and I’ve been puttin’ in septic tanks for thirty years!”

Picture Time

Lunch with friends. Went for a 10 mile bike ride. Swept off the roof and driveway of fallen leaves and branches. Went downtown and sampled some chili at the city’s Fall Festival. Took some photos of the new top on the car. And we still did find some time to watch 3 more episodes of Mad Men.

I took several pictures today of the top in full sun and the shade to attempt to show what the color looks like. Comparing it to some photos of the car with the original it is awfully hard to see a difference. I’m thinking the color variation is more noticeable in person because you can see it and the interior at the same time in the same light.

The attached photo was run through a trial version of Dynamic Photo HDR and then tone mapped with the ultra contrast setting using only one image. In spite of everything else appearing surreal, the top looks just about right. You can not see the difference for your self by checking out the pictures in the Flickr! gallery I made.

I put the top up and down in the garage just to see how hard it was going to be and it wasn’t that bad. When I went to put it back up later in the day to take pictures it was a struggle. I had to latch the driver’s side and then go over to the passenger seat to get enough leverage to close that side. The way the top folds (and I’m guessing that’s because of the different construction) the back window doesn’t just flop down, it needs a slight helping hand to tuck it behind the windblocker. Goes up smoothly though. The fabric still needs a bit more stretching I guess.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 4

TV on DVD

3 Episodes of Season 2 of Boston Legal
2 Episodes of the only Season of Firefly
6 Episodes of Season 1 of Mad Men

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 0