digital retrograde

July, 2007 [Reset]

Visitation Station

Betsy came back to town briefly and we had a nice visit Saturday. I failed to convince her to move back to Minnesota immediately, but I had some pretty good arguments. Namely: it's not Texas. The odds of getting swept away in a flash flood here are much smaller.

She recently went on an aircraft carrier turned floating museum and took some pictures. I especially liked the "Link aviation trainer". It's a blue box that you "fly":

I went to the beach today and completely forgot to bring my camera. I don't think I've posted any pictures all July, and this makes me very sad.

7/30/2007 12:11 PM

Life

The Trouble with 3s

Krista says that bad things happen in 3s. Not the most falsifiable of claims, but I've hit my 3rd and am ready to be done. The driver's seat in my car popped alarmingly last night and the adjustable lumbar support died. The formerly-comfortable seat is now reminiscent of a hammock. With the plumbing and electrical problems (electrician in the morning!) that makes 3.

Oh, we should all be so lucky to have such mundane problems!

Totally unrelated, I can't resist posting this:

From: Which lolcat are you?

7/23/2007 9:33 AM

Musings

Attack of the Home

First came the plumbing problems, the problematic toilet with a phantom clog. Bought all sorts of byzantine accessories to appease the syphon deities at the bottom of the swirl. Nothing worked. So I called a plumber and within minutes he unclogged my troubles.

I thought the house was done with me, but I was wrong!

Yesterday the garage door stopped halfway down and all my frantic opener clicking went for naught. To my surprise, all of the outlets and lights in the upstairs bedrooms were dead too. Something went wrong with the branch circuit that just so happens to power the garage door.

After conferring with my personal electrician (aka "Dad"), I replaced one of those outlets with the "Reset" and "Test" buttons that we thought had gone bad. That didn't do it. This afternoon I turned on a light fixture and was greeted with light much brighter than normal.. so much so that the light bulbs popped and I smelled smoke from the bedroom.

The circuit ate my alarm clock. :(

I still don't know what the problem is; I also bought a circuit analyzer probe that plugs into an outlet and gives you a readout on 3 LEDs. It tells me "all 3 lights" but the label doesn't list that as a real code. Looks like an electrician will be visiting shortly.

House troubles aside, Krista's family is up from Missouri all week, so I've been busy visiting. Tonight we took a trip out to visit my folks and take a brief sailing excursion. It's also the first I've had in awhile to sit and reflect.. on how poorly wired the townhouse appers to be.

7/18/2007 10:08 AM

Musings

Best Post I've Read All Week

From Marginal Revolution:

Discover Your Inner Economist has lots of great insights. But this one Tyler gets all wrong.

Small changes in incentives can make a big difference in our beliefs. For instance, UFO sightings are down dramatically in the last decade...I think [one factor is] cell phones and cell phone cameras.

"The spaceship was in a no-call dead zone. And you didn't snap a picture?"

...The story is suddenly a little harder to swallow. Most of all, it is harder to fool oneself, not just one's spouse and friends.

I mean really. Why jump to conclusions? OBVIOUSLY the aliens know we have cell phone cameras now.

Link

7/11/2007 12:30 PM

Musings

More than meets the eye?

Transformers. This week I discovered what happens when you take Michael Bay and hand him a premise that consists of giant transforming alien robots. You get a movie with some fun moments, giant explosions, and all the cohesion of warm Jell-O. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but my favorite character was a bad-guy transformer who became a boombox. He was devious, driven and expressive for a pile of bolts, while all the good guys were good in the same bland, benevolent robot soldier way. (If for no other reason than their extremely limited character development time, a sorry state of affairs for a 2.5+ hour movie.)

IMDB already lists 'Transformers 2' as 'announced'.

Coworker's wedding yesterday, today's a mini-vacation embedded in my weekend.

7/8/2007 11:18 AM

Musings

Sun 'n Fun

Best weekend of the summer for being out of doors and either in or on the water, so we took advantage of it.

I've also relapsed into a bit of a Battlefield 2 habit; the game is more challenging now than when I last played it a year and a half ago. I think the players have improved as opposed to any difference in the game itself.

Here's an entire dubiously-named article on Netflix and relationships: Getting Some On The Sly

The most forgivable transgression is watching something that you erroneously (but honestly) believe your partner would have no interest in seeing. Example: "Premonition," when your spouse repeatedly hates on Sandra Bullock.

Slightly more despicable is watching a movie you know your partner would like, but for which no specific viewing plans have been made.

The highest level of cheating occurs when you knowingly and willfully break a specific and longstanding viewing agreement.

A special circle of hell is reserved for those who watch directors' cuts alone.

(The picture is a re-run. I need someone who was on the boat to send me one!)

7/2/2007 1:56 AM

Musings

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