FNFD.BLOG

Skate from the Santa Monica pier down to where the bike path ends south of Venice, and then back north to where it gets less maintained around Sunset Blvd? On my first time ever on inline skates, paired nicely with pretty much no physical activity in my day to day life? Sounds like plan.

Well, ok, it actually went very smoothly, with only some general soreness and one knee hurting today. Which I’m going to chalk up to not getting much exercise, and not that I’m coming up on being 30. I’m pretty sure things would have gone much more poorly if I’d have needed to stop without a lot of planning. Going is easy, being similar to any number of other things I already know how to do, ice skating, cross country skiing, roller skating. It’s having the brake be on the back of one foot that had me a bit concerned. That’s an entirely unnatural movement when one is used to dragging a toe for stopping on other similar modes of transportation. Trying that on inline skates does nothing useful, trust me on that, I tried.

So, now I have a new thing to go out and do. It’s a bit far to head up to Santa Monica, and a bit expensive to park at the beaches around here, but there is a chance I could find a way to the bike path that goes along the river. Google Satellite Reconnaissance shows a parking lot that might provide access from somewhere not to far from home, so I’ll have to check that out. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to get in good enough shape to do the 20-ish mile trip to the beach and back.

Filed under: General
1 Comment

Over the last few months, my computer has been having more and more problems of the “freeze up and then refuse to boot anymore” type. So, it’s been getting time to upgrade, and since I don’t do that very often, when I do, no new component is compatible with anything I already have, so I have to do everything at once.

This leads to the problem of trying to figure out where the problem is if (or more accurately, when) it doesn’t work, since I have no way of testing the individual components.

Which leads us here:

The bare minimum bits of the old computer needed to run so that I have something to use while I fight with the various problems that have taken residency in the case they used to occupy.

I’m going to have to remember to A) Not put my feet in it, and B) Turn if off when I’m done so the cat doesn’t lick it.

In other, less home bound news, I went and played some whiffleball with some MeetIN people yesterday. I’m not sure 2 on 3 with copious use of ghost runners is regulation whiffleball, but it was a pretty good time. Particularly considering that I was on the team of 2 and we won quite handily during the almost complete inning we actually played. It was very hot, and we had other things to go do.

Like watch a modified version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a park in Sierra Madre. The essential change was of the “What if it was set on 1950′s Georgia college campus where the Dean for some reason has the power to execute students who don’t marry who their father wants them to marry?” Even if I do make fun of the premise a bit, it was a good show, and now I want to see a more traditional version to see what is in it and what was added for this version.

Filed under: I'm a geek,Scott Complaining
No Comments

“Oh yeah,” I said to myself, “summer time is the time of blockbuster movies, and more importantly, movies are air conditioned.”

Since I am a male child of the 80′s, I had to see Transformers. Since I am a Transformers nerd, I really could have done with more giant robots and less “Teen guy gets the girl who is “out of his league”, but really isn’t because she has %secret backstory making them compatible%.” Not that I’m bitter or anything, what with the number of times I stole the girl away from the football star back in high school, I’m just thinking it may not be the ideal primary plot thread for a movie whose main audience will be A) Children who want to see giant robots blow things up and B) Adults who would willingly go see a movie based on toys from their childhood, not to mention the blowing up of things. Very important is the blowing up of things.

Anyways, if I have a point, it’s that the movie is named Transformers, so, perhaps the primary story should focus on the Transformers. If I had a second point it would be rabid fanboy ranting about character design, which could easily go on for days. Fortunately, I do no have a second point, because I’m trying hard to avoid the trade off in extra geek cred for the loss of whatever normal person cred I’ve ever acquired. Which isn’t much, but it’s all I have. And I’m probably down to a sliver after somehow finding a reason to discuss lich paralysis at work on Friday.

It’s just sometimes, the words that come out of my mouth don’t get run through the “appropriate context” filter. It all looks good in the moment, you touch a spider, it falls over on its side motionless, you say it’s paralyzed because you are a lich, and lich paralysis is permanent. And then the context filter catches up. I blame the new guy at work, fresh out of college, has that shiny passion for life coating still on him. Makes me move back towards my college memories and things I’m passionate about. Both of which tend to fall into the geeky subculture.

Looking back, I see that I’m supposed to be talking about a movie. So, yeah, I felt it was a pretty good movie if it is judged for itself in terms that there is action and some sort of plot. It can’t compete with one’s memories of childhood though, which I guess would be hard to do.

Filed under: I'm a geek
2 Comments