Under Prezzure
Posted on | February 27, 2008 at 8:54 pm | 3 Comments
Back in this entry, I complained about how my Prius was getting far worse gas mileage since I got it back from the body shop following the bus accident. It was barely better than a non-hybrid. Loyal commenter and fellow Prius owner dgstan suggested checking the tire pressure, saying the body shop may have underinflated the tires. Indeed, I checked the pressure and all the tires were under 30 psi, and one was under 20 psi. Toyota recommends 33/35 on the door, and the tires themselves say to not inflate past 40. So I filled them all to just below 40. Lo and behold, not only has the gas mileage improved, it’s actually a bit better than it was before the accident. So thanks, dgstan!
Overheard at our local pizza joint tonight: “How big is your 12 inch pizza”?
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 28°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Losing Streak” (Eels)
- “Song for a Boy” (Lauren Hoffman)
- “Inbetweener” (Sleeper)
- “Lately Lonely” (Echoboy)
- “Bailed Out” (The Auteurs)
- “Is Anything” (Judybats)
- “Hung up on You” (Fountains of Wayne)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Waiting in line for the better part of an hour at an understaffed pharmacy with dead computer issues.
Latre.
The Boredom Of The Chase
Posted on | February 26, 2008 at 9:18 pm | Comments Off
Is it mere coincidence that tonight I watched last night’s episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and then read a news article about the threat posed by killer robots? I think not.
BTW, I am enjoying the show, though possibly not as much as I should. I like that it has direction and a story arc/quest that’s not getting derailed. Too often, these types of science fiction-y shows end up being too episodic in nature – the questers go from town to town, finding new clues in their quest, running from someone, and helping the random troubled guest stars they encounter. I think of the Incredible Hulk TV show as the model for this sort of thing, although I suppose it goes back even further to such shows as The Immortal and even further back, to The Fugitive (and yes, I know that’s not SF, but I suppose it was the major “chase show” template). So far our little Terminator clan is mostly staying put, and they’re far from helping out others in need. In fact, people who interact with them frequently end up much worse off (usually dead) than they were before. Yeah, there’s a lot of hokey time travel elements to the story, and I’m pretty tired of that sort of thing, but at least it’s fairly well handled here. You really can’t avoid time travel when dealing with the Terminator franchise. The best you can hope for is that it doesn’t make your head hurt.
Though she’s a good actress and very beautiful, I’m not totally buying Lena Headey in the Sarah Connor role. She tries, but she just doesn’t quite have that Linda Hamilton edge. Summer Glau, late of Firefly/Serenity and The 4400, is great as the Friendly Terminator and new clan member, but Thomas Dekker’s John Connor is a whiny petulant brat. He’s growing on me a bit, though he has a really long way to go to become the Last Hope For The Human Race, and I’m not sure I’m real interested in that journey.
The production values are pretty good, but you never quite forget it’s a TV show with a limited budget instead of a feature film. For all the prevalency of CGI morphing and such in today’s televised SF, there’s precious little of that sort of thing in Terminator. However, there is a lot fighting, gunfire, and explosions.
There’s only two episodes left in the season (both of which will be airing on Monday night) and there’s some doubt it will be picked up for a second season, but I kinda hope it does. There’s some interesting directions they could go with the story, and I really want to see if they continue to avoid the standard Chase Show route.
But all it really needs is some monkeys to mix in with the robots.
Latre.
Chicken Rock Paper Scissors
Posted on | February 25, 2008 at 9:16 pm | 1 Comment
My Oscar wrap-up will have to wait, I guess. We got back from dining a bit late last night and only managed to watch the first couple of hours of the Academy Awards before we got just plain tuckered out. We’ll watch the rest in a few days. It’s impossible to avoid the results however, and from what I’ve seen, it looks like it pretty much went as I thought it would. One happy surprise was the Best Song winner, which is what N & I were pulling for and was the major reason we wanted to watch the show. So we’re looking forward to seeing that award presented, as well as the actual performance. All day long yesterday before dinner, we were puttering around the house duetting “Take this stinking boat and point it home, we’ve still got TYYYYYYMMMMMME…”
Instead of going modern for Denver Week Restaurant week like we did last year, we decided to Old School It this year and eat at the Briarwood Inn in Golden. I swear, it’s been at least 20 years since I last ate there, and I don’t think the place has changed at all. Eating in the main dining room is like eating in your gramma’s house, especially if your gramma lives in a really big old mansion-type house with dim lighting, lots of dark wood, and antique furnishings. It’s fairly “elegant” – some place where you probably wouldn’t feel right in jeans – but not too formal either. It’s pretty much upscale comfort food. $52.80 for two people is a pretty good deal there. The DRW menu was limited but still had some variety. I got the prime rib, which was nicely cooked and a very hearty cut (I could only eat half), while N got the Chicken Rochambeau, which was very rich, decadent, and mouth watering. I wanted to trade. We also both got the spinach salad, which was tasty and dripping with bacon dressing. The highlight of the Briarwood was thankfully left intact for DRW diners – their appetizer tray. The tray is part of every meal and is packed with lots of huge shrimp on ice with cocktail sauce, and a variety of special crackers with different spreads (duck and chicken liver paté, smoked salmon butter, fresh vegetable marinade with mozarella, select cheeses blended for dipping, spinach and water chestnut mousseline). Really, you could do the whole meal just with that and go away satisfied. The dessert tray (”an assortment of Fresh Fruits and Petit Fours”) wasn’t as good, but by that time we were too stuffed to care and just took most of it home. The service was good, even to us DRW “slummers”.
I wish we could’ve tried out more restaurants throughout the week, but alas I’m on call at work this week. Plus, eating out every night, especially at $50, can be a bit of a drain on the wallet and not too good for calorie-watching either. I’d love to be a restaurant critic, but I don’t know how they do it.
So tonight it was back to leftovers. Until next year.
Latre.
Puttin’ On The Glitz
Posted on | February 24, 2008 at 3:10 pm | 1 Comment
Tune in tonight for an unprecedented second-post-in-a-day entry where I’ll blog live about the Academy Awards presentation. I’ll let you know what I think of the fashions, the writing, Jon Stewart’s jokes, the speeches, the production numbers, the tributes, the commercials, the mistakes… everything. All here, all live!
Just kidding. The gf and I have Denver Restaurant Week reservations and so will miss the beginning of the festivities. But we’ll watch it DVRed and hopefully catch up to it live at some point by FFing through the commercials, the acceptance speeches, the lame production numbers, and all that. No FFing through Jon though! I’m not into the Oscars as much as I used to be, but it’s still pretty much the only awards show worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of the movies. I’m just not going to plan my life around it.
I feel really bad because I think this is the first year in a long long time where I haven’t seen at least one of the Best Picture nominees. If I had seen them all, I suspect I’d be rooting for No Country For Old Men (which appears to have a lock on the win) or Juno. I really want to see There Will Be Blood and will probably like it, but I suspect it’s a bit flawed (and long). Atonement doesn’t look that exciting, though I wouldn’t mind seeing eventually. Michael Clayton looks good, but there’s something about the aura of it that just doesn’t scream “Best Picture Oscar”. Again, I’ll rent it before too long.
I’d probably be more interested in watching the show if I had seen a majority of the nominees. As it is, I’ll still enjoy it. I just won’t be quite sure who to pull for.
Latre.
Beeps Or Electric Shocks?
Posted on | February 23, 2008 at 2:57 pm | Comments Off
I stayed up too late last night playing with my PS3 (especially Heavenly Sword, which is beautiful). Very tired today even though I’ve got tax-related stuff to do.
In the news today:
The U.S. is ready to go live with a “virtual fence” on the border with Mexico, in the hopes of curbing some illegal immigration. The only problem with this system is that it requires all Mexicans to wear an electronic collar.
Oscar-nominated flick Norbit won a lot of razzies last night for worst acting, etc. I just don’t understand the Hollywood double standard.
Cosplay goes too far. Why do I get the feeling this is an all too typical occurrence in Japan? Personally, I would’ve dressed up as a giant robot or an elf myself.
I have nothing to report about monkeys.
Latre.
The PDA’s A Better Friend
Posted on | February 22, 2008 at 9:58 pm | Comments Off
Favorite recent Google search term that led someone to this blog: “is the television a good or bad friend”. The television is a bad friend, my friend. Oh, you think it’s giving, but it’s really just taking and taking (mostly your time). It can’t help you move. It can’t drive you to the airport. It can’t lend you money or buy you a beer. It can’t be your wingman. It can’t tell you to not drunkenly call your ex-girlfriend. It can’t cook decent Thai food. It can’t bail you out of jail. It can’t be the Designated Driver. It can’t lift you out of the gutter and give you a hot shower and a cuppa joe. It can’t lend you its Vicodin when yours runs out. It can’t wear a Superman costume and switch places with you when you need to prove to Lois that you and Superman are two different people.
It can listen to you talk about your bad day at work, but it can’t really react to it or give you a hug.
Someday the PlayStation will be able to do all that.
Oh that Bell X1 album that I said I wasn’t sure would be on eMusic? It’s on eMusic. You were right, 2fs.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 29°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Theme from Volkswage” (Anton Barbeau)
- “Blinking Lights (For You)” (Eels)
- “Terrified” (Uncle Green)
- “Read My Mind” (The Killers)
- “Don’t Let It Show” (Alan Parsons Project)
- “How You See The World No.2″ (Coldplay*)
- “S.P.A.C.E.R.O.C.K. With Me” (Julian Cope)
* Hey, it was on various artists a compilation I downloaded.
Latre.
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