TDTVS

That Damn TV Show Thursday we watched 2 0f the 4 episodes on disc 5. Friday night from 6 until 11:30 we watched the last 2 on #5 and all 4 episodes on disc #6. Last night we watched nearly every tidbit crammed onto disc 7.

Now that we have finished mainlining Season 1, what? They are about halfway through Season 2, should we jump in now and wait until summer to see the first 11 shows to catch up on the back story? Wait until summer and hope they run the repeats in original order? Or wait until September to rent the Season 2 DVDs and watch them forgoing Season 3 until it’s DVDs in September 2007 and so on? Or download the torrents and watch the earlier Season 2 episodes on the PC?

I can’t just join the show mid stream. We did the one season behind thing with the Sopranos, but that was easy because there was no temptation because we didn’t HBO. With Lost on ABC there will be that allure on Wednesday night to check how things are going on the island. I tried to use a couple of Bittorrent clients, but even with my high-speed connection it was going to take more than a day, then what if what you got wasn’t playable?

My vote is to wait. Donna will probably want to start watching episode 12 of season2 this Wednesday. Family crisis in the making. This may be more of a marriage stability test than doing a Time/Speed/Distance Rally in the Miata.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 35

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42The Powerball Lottery is worth like a hundred eighty million bucks. I think I could quit my job with that kind of money.

Donna and I have our ticket, we bought a quick pick a couple weeks ago with 10 plays, so it is good until the 25th of this month. For the three draws we have been through since we bought the ticket, we have not had a single number match anywhere. Maybe tonight’s the night. If I stop posting here after tonight, check the Powerball site to see if the winning numbers were 1 39 40 42 47 17, that’ll explain it.

Once the jackpot climbs over a 120 million or so there is a guy at work that goes around and collects from a group of us so we can increase our odds slightly. It started out with about a half dozen folks playing, but the number has grown to nearly 30. After all, once you have played once, you can’t get back out, how would you feel if 25 of your co-workers walked in and told the boss to take his job and shove it while you had to stay behind because you wouldn’t cough up a measly buck? So I have about 30 more chances on those tickets for tonight.

Because of my current obscension with the TV show “Lost” I gave a brief thought to playing the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42, but decided against it after what happens to Hurley when he won over a $150 million using them.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 34

Non Conforming Material Report

Donna and I work in a manufacturing plant and our Quality Assurance department uses what they call an NCMR to flag parts that are bad. NCMR stands for Non Conforming Material Report which is the politically correct term for crap parts. Like the parts that aren’t up to spec would have it’s feelings hurt if we called them scrap or something.

Today at work the Activities Committee had a bake sale to raise money for projects they do during the year (and perhaps to help defray the cost of psychiatric help for the fragile egos of non conforming parts.) Donna volunteered to bake some of her renown chocolate chip cookies for them to sell. Last night we made around 10 dozen cookies. As always there are a few that get baked a little too long or crack and break when they are removed from the cookie sheet. Wanting to put only her best cookies on sale we took a paper plate full of the rejects to work to give away on my side of the plant.

To be cute I placed a little sign over the cookies that read:
Non Conforming Cookie Report.
Failed inspection for the following reasons:
1) Heat treated to long
2) Rough edges
3) General workmanship

Within a half an hour the cookies were all gone, but some one had placed a sign over the top of mine:
Second sample of 24 required to make final determination. Submit to Engineering Department. Day shift only.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 32

What?

Something changed with my web host. All of a sudden the fancy post titles stopped working. When I try and go to the configuration page for the plugin I get this evil looking message:

FATAL: Your PHP installation does not support some key functions that this plugin requires. Talk to your hosting administrator about upgrading your PHP installation with GD and FreeType support.

I checked what the web host was running through cPanel and it seems like both those items are already running. I guess I should complain, but I just don’t have the motivation to try.

Is it just me or the reason Ford Motor Company is in trouble is because the head honcho, the guy in the commercials and on the cover of Newsweek, Bill Ford looks a lot like Al Gore.

Bill Ford Al Gore

As regular readers know, my wife and I are recent inductees in the cult that is “Lost” and while searching for an episode guide to see where last night’s ABC rerun fit into the scheme of things I found ABC’s official merchandise store for the show. Why, oh why, do they insist on putting the show’s logo on every item they sell (well that is a somewhat rethorical question) when it would be so much cooler if they just let the item stand by itself. Those in the know would immediately get it and those that didn’t and asked would get an impassioned sales pitch from an insider. And it they didn’t ask, they just aren’t hip enough to matter. I know that I would buy the Oceanic Bag as my laptop carry bag in a minute if it didn’t have the show’s logo on the front.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 32

To Full To Move

All this schooling is making my head hurt and all this eating is making my belly hurt. After training today we just headed back to the hotel to rest up for dinner. Instead of driving back to Concord to overeat at Razzoo’s we decided to just walk across the hotel parking lot to Applebee’s and stuff ourselves. Quite a let down from last night. The highlight of the meal was we got to make fun of our waitress.

She came over and took our drink order first. Being as we weren’t driving, alcohol was called for in this sort of situation. Mark ordered a bottle of Coors Light and I asked what kind of dark beer they had. It should have been our first clue when she named off a couple and then asked us if Michelob was a dark beer. I opted for a Killian’s Red (which is brewed by Coors, by the way.) Off she went.

After what seemed a long time later she came back and asked if we were ready to order. Mark and I looked at each other, then back at her and nearly simultaneously asked, “Where’s our beer?” To which she replied, “I’m not old enough to serve you, someone from the bar was supposed to bring you your drinks.” She smiled sheepishly and went away, to return a minute or so later with another person carrying beers. When the helper left I told her we would be polite and not drink any until she left. We both ordered the riblets. After she left Mark said, “I should have asked her if she was old enough to serve ribs.”

When she did bring our meals Mark told me (loud enough so that she would hear), “See, I told you she was old enough to serve ribs.” She smiled slightly. She checked on us a couple times during the meal and when we got about 3/4 way through eating and she showed up I told her to see if she could get one of her assistants to bring us another round.

We got in one more when it came time to pay, Mark asked if she was old enough to take cash. After she left both Mark and I commented that we didn’t think she was waitress material, because if she was she would have taken the ribbing with a little more humor. I think waitressing is a lost art and in the 5 meals we have eaten out so far on this trip we have had one real waitress and one who has potential, the other 3 are just going through the motions because they need the money.

I’d tell you all about the good and the great if I wasn’t so full I’m in a stupor. I think I’ll just turn on the Weather Channel and let the dulcet tones of meteorologists lull me to sleep.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 32

Hell Is A Place Called Hollywood

Hell Is A Place Called HollywoodMark and I made our required visit to the Bass Pro Shop, Concord Mills Mall and Razzoo’s tonight after school.

We shopped BPS first. Mark had a list of things to get and wanted to get. He found the first thing on the list, but it turned out not be any cheaper than Wallyworld, so it wasn’t worth spending for here and lugging back to Aiken. The second item on his list was a certain kind of fishing rod for his father, last trip he lucked onto the lure his dad wanted right away, but this time we had to look at 98% of the 68.7 million different rods for sale there before realizing the best buy was a rod/reel combo. And that was even after tossing out the POS reel… So he wouldn’t have to tote a fishing rod around the mile long loop of the mall we delayed buying anything here until we finished shopping.

To pay Mark back for making me walk all around the Bass Pro Shop looking up at all those fishing rods that I didn’t have a clue about what I was really looking for, I made him watch me try and buy a pair of sneakers. He now knows why Donna hates to shop with me. We went into nearly every one of the dozen shoe places in the Concord Mills Mall where the process went anywhere from a quick pass through to me trying on 4 pairs of shoes (sometimes a left and a right from 2 different pairs) and then leaving. Halfway around we ducked into Frye’s where we shopped for DVDs and Xbox games for Mark’s son. He found a cheap game and a copy of Three Kings and I picked up the classic Test Tube Babies. I found a pair I liked in my size on sale in literally the last place we could have looked in. We then when back into the Bass Pro Shop where mark picked up the stuff he needed and we drove the 1/2 mile across the parking lot to dinner.

After our shopping excess we decided to eat that way too. We had some Rat Toes and Fried Pickle Puckers before we even got around to ordering a main course. We each drank about a liter of ice cold Coke to soothe the raging fires burning in the taste bud forests of our tongues. Mark liked the menu so well he asked our waitress if he could buy one, she just said keep that one. Next time you see him ask him about his escape from the restaurant with his prize. We both did buy legitimate souvenirs too, genuine Razzoo’s Brand T-shirts, ostensibly for our wives, but by coincidence they just happen to be in our sizes. 🙂

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 32

Home Away From Home

Back in Albemarle for training again, this time for 3 days instead of the usual two. I’ve got the same room in the Holiday Inn Express as two weeks ago. Somebody else must have stayed here in the interim though as I found the torn off corner of a Cheetos bag on the floor near the nightstand.

Mark drove up this time. He wanted his pick up truck because tomorrow when we go the Bass Pro Shop he is going to be buying some things that are way too big to fit in the Miata. This is our last trip up here for training, after this we are experts.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 32