Month: February 2011

Almost A Million Miatas

Mazda MX-5 Miata number 900,000 rolled of the assembly line sometime yesterday, a soft-top, six-speed manual-equipped Copper Red MX-5, and destined for Germany. It took 21 years and 10 months to get to that figure, so after some not so quick math I figure that the one millionth car will be made less than 2-1/2 years from now on July 13, 2013.

The photo accompanying the Autoblog article has this caption: 20th Anniversary Mazda MX-5 Miata special edition ? Click above for high-res image gallery. I don’t remember any 20th Anniversary Edition. So I clicked on the link and was taken to a post from March 3, 2010 about the car at the Geneva Motor Show. This was a photo of the European 20th Anniversary model. There were also a Japanese and a British version of the 20th Anniversary car, but alas, no US version. You would have thought we would have gotten one too, after all, according to the 900,000th car press release, the US received nearly 45 percent of these little cars.

In that gallery are a couple of photos that interest me, one showing the outside badge proclaiming “20th Anniversary” and other was of the sill plates with “20th Anniversary” above “0000/2000.” The Emperor is a 2003 model, I wonder how much it would cost to have a couple 13th Anniversary badges made up? Of course the number plate would read 1 of 1.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 937

Groundhog Day

Another Desktop Gremlin, this one is a Special Edition available only to “subscribers” i.e. people who sign up with their email address to receive notice when a new gremlin is available. Some folks* might classify the octopus as the groundhog of the deep and this cephalopod mollusc saw his shadow this morning thereby predicting 6 more weeks of winter, unlike the landlubbing marmota monax on Gobbler’s Hill.

*mental unacheivers and bloggers

This morning while discussing the upcoming evening’s entertainment, whimsical holidays and animal weather predictors at work, I came up with the brilliant idea to watch Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell tonight and wondered why TNT didn’t run a 24 hour marathon of this movie like they did with A Christmas Story on that day. I don’t own it, so I asked myself, “I wonder if it is available as a Watch It Now movie on Netflix.” Good news, sure enough it is, bad news, Donna hates the movie* (maybe there are a lot more like her and that is why there is no 24 hour marathon.)

*She liked it the first time, but once was plenty.

Our network is locked down pretty tight at work, no Youtube, no Vimeo, no streaming music, so I figured there was no way I could watch Netflix, but being the curious type I had to try. You know what? A person could watch the streaming Netflix. At least I’m pretty sure I could, as soon as the Starz Play intro started I disconnected. I don’t know if alarm bells went off in the basement in St Louis or not, but I’m certain I didn’t want to get caught watching a movie at my desk because my instincts told me management would probably frown on it.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 937

The Canary

Today we went to work a half hour early to make up some time missed by Donna for a follow up doctor’s appointment (mouth healing nicely, thank you very much.) Seeing as I didn’t have any time to make up, I used this extra time constructively in paper, by doing another Desktop Gremlin. I love these little things, one sheet, no glue and in about 15 minutes…

I am working on a papercraft project that is little more difficult, perhaps 2nd grade level, and is a slight departure. Instead of printing everything on one sheet of paper, this one has several pieces layered on top of each other to give the object a bit of depth* and it is taking a little while to do because I have to cut out the pieces during breaks at work where there is more light and fold and glue at home. It should be finished by tomorrow, so try and remain calm.

*Well, as much depth as can be achieved with something .010″ thick.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 937