All posts by cs

arrangement

To be clear, the US Airways and AmericaWest “merger” is a shot gun wedding. The grouping of these airlines was not born from competitive scheming by either. The combination of two struggling carriers is at the behest of aircraft lessor, General Electric. GE’s capital risk exposure is minimized by consolidation. Collapse averted, GE will take back a much smaller, and manageable percentage for re-marketing to Europe and Asia. The entire industry is on a very short leash. The lenders are calling the shots.

final episode

I haven’t seen it [yet] but previous chapters in the series would predict that the action, special effects, and visual imagery is top rate. The acting and dialog wooden and disappointingly lame. The lines will be monotone, as if read from cue cards – minus any pizzazz. I’d had the idea that this was attributed to the no name talent or the casting department, but now I’m convinced otherwise. The acting is bad by design. The keepers of the Star Wars Series are jealously guarding the franchise. No one actor or actress will be allowed to steal the show. The idea is to sell the theme and movie fantasy (and action figure toys) and not enhance the celebrity of or to create movie stars. The movie wishes to be known and remembered as epic sci-fi. There has never been a splashy marquee or whos who list of acting credits to compete with or detract from this George Lucas Industrial Light & Magic title. (for instance note: that the actor(s) identity of the Wookie or Threepio characters has never been officially acknowledged, certainly not promoted — a contractual thing I’ll suppose). One can only imagine what it must have been like on the set during filming. If an actor got too dramatic or used artistic license in his character role he was likely slammed or asked to stick to the tone, thereby maintaing uniformity and conformity and for the sake of selfish protection of the [franchise] empire. Must have been as frustrating for the talent as it is for us to endure the end result. The movie could offer so much more. Glorious, if they could maintain the level of special effects fantasy while releasing some of the capabilities that the role players surely must be capable of. Once more next time. With feeling!

Waiting for UPS

or someone like him… Dell’s price leader, as advertised, is a $399 special. In order to qualify for the free shipping (a $99 value) you must customize for an additional $102. Okay, so it’s not 399 rather 501 — but still bargain bang for the buck. Moraff or Hoyle, IE or Firefox, ripping or burning CDs, and email application will be this machines forte. To play the latest 3D 1st person shooter you’ll need high end (read large green). The derby brown van drives by without slowing. Then, a few minutes later, yet again– backtracking. Package not on board? Lost? Spotted large scary dog in driveway? It could have been a huge tease but the driver makes a third run at us — and this time delivers.

Daisy

Fitting – that the old desktop OS should crash just as I was saving the last of the important files. (“what are you doing dave!?”) It has been unplugged. Actually the machine served us well for 7 years and a month (a very long time in computer years). As Dad Harrison liked to say, “She owes you nothing…” (you got your money’s worth). Windows95 is no longer supported by Symantic, ZoneAlarm, or even Microsoft, and so this paper weight was coasting on legacy apps like Office 97 and Lotus Organizer. The Dell Dimension 300 XPS. Good bye old friend.

    Original specs:
  • 8.4gb drive
  • 4mb video
  • 64mb RAM
  • Pentium II 300mhz
    Youthful upgrades:
  • 40gb drive
  • 8mb video
  • 384mb RAM
  • CD RW

double clutch

Everybody wants stick time, so the clutch has been warm ever since we brought it home. KB and S’man have the mechanics of shifting after only two lessons. They are good to go — as long as I’m riding shotgun… and the hills aren’t too steep… and it’s not commute hour traffic. Spencer wants to know if he should take the revs up before changing gears… From idle to 5000 RPM the car is harmless. You’d think that you were listening to a CIVIC under the hood. Tip your foot into the throttle and by 6000 the little Formula 1 motor comes on cam and begins to pull extremely well to its 9000 RPM redline. Shift early 😉 The transmission is close ratio so when grabbing 2nd you are still in the power band and the tail steps out. ( Kids, don’t try this at home!)
We call it the fun car. The top is never up and we can’t stop grinning.

SFO layover

Big city nature.

Fabulous jog this morning on the San Francisco Bay Trail, next to my layover digs…
Oyster Cove (north of SFO) is representative of the clean view.

Google Earth Placeholder

Provenance

B.O.U.R.Girl and I drove over to the north side this afternoon to inspect an S2000 that I spotted on craigslist.org. The owner represented it as her “baby”, and pampered, “near tears over parting with it” but it turns out that she is only a silent partner and that it’s really her brother’s car. The windshield has some kind of graphic logo spelled across the top. Translation. Little brother owns a tuner shop and sells nitrous and speed equipment… and I just have to ask: “…of course he never bolted anything on THIS one — right?” We walk away from the vehicle taking backward steps toward our car.

Portland, ME

great running route on the Back Cove. Fresh sea air and sights and smells from the tidal marsh.

Portland, ME

great running route B

Portland, ME

great running route A