Posts from 05/2014
There are no major spoilers in these reviews.
Oral-B Professional Healthy Clean Precision 1000:
My dentist recommended an electric toothbrush a year and a half ago, and because I like to incorporate the pace of bureaucracy in all of my health decisions, I didn't buy one until January. Apparently, I brush my teeth too hard, and if I continue, my gums will vanish and my teeth will go all the way up to my brain. I have mixed feelings on this toothbrush. The thirty-second timer is very effective at ensuring that I brush each mouth quadrant consistently over two minutes, and it's clear that it does a much better job than manual brushing. However, it's so bulky that you must be holding it -- no more puttering around the bathroom with a toothbrush in your cheek. The base is unstable and takes up precious counter / socket space. Also, you will still need to brush your tongue with a normal toothbrush. Generally, I'll use the electric toothbrush a few times a week only -- it's too exciting and I don't always need a techno party in my mouth.
Final Grade: B
News from Nowhere by The Hoosiers:
This is the third album by the The Hoosiers. Free from the shackles of the Sony label and the pressure to be pop platinum, the album is more mature, feels a bit low-fi, and shifts the needle back from pop towards indie style. I enjoy the album a lot although I would be lying if I said that I didn't miss the bombastic pop insanity of the original two albums. (My full review can be read on Amazon).
Final Grade: A-
Archer, Season One & Two:
This is a profane cartoon about a dysfunctional spy organization with plenty of talented, memorable voice actors (a surprising number of the Arrested Development cast appear). With a minimalist animation style and jokes that are actually funny, it's better than one might expect. However, the novelty wore off pretty quickly for me, and I stopped watching after two seasons. Available on Netflix.
Final Grade: B-
Orphan Black, Season One:
This BBC America show is a wild ride, and its initial 10 episode run is more like a long movie than a serialized show. A mystery-thriller with understated sci-fi elements, it's best started with minimal advance knowledge (and plenty of leave to call in sick the next day for binge watching). The fortspinnung of the plot puts shows like LOST to shame, with plots colliding and boiling over as quickly as they should, and a minimum of "fortuitous near-misses keeping characters in the dark" plot devices. More plot progression happened in the 45 minutes of episode six than in the whole hatch season of LOST. Free on Amazon Prime.
Final Grade: A+
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Tired of Warcraft-themed cards? Add these other intellectual properties into your decks!
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On Friday night, we entertained Joe & Katie with dinner on the back porch, featuring grilled blackened chicken breasts and hot dogs. I ate all of the hot dogs because hot dogs are delicious.
On Saturday, following a family event in Taylorstown, we purchased and planted our crop of tomatoes for the year. Last year, we planted two normal tomato plants and two cherry tomato plants. This resulted in more tomatoes than anyone could possibly eat, so we cut back this year -- two normal tomato plants and a sweet pepper plant.
On Sunday, we went to the baptism of Brian & Page's daughter, Hartley, at one of those Catholic megachurches in Reston that is apparently competing with all of the other Catholic churches to win at having an overflowing parking lot. We then had Rebecca's friend, Hannah, over for dinner (Quatro de Mayo tacos and Devil's Backbone Vienna Lagers).
How was your weekend? Are you going to watch the return of 24 tonight?
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The chart below shows all of the restaurants I ate at and paid for by debit card in 2013. The larger pie slices represent a higher amount spent, not necessarily more visits (Popeyes tops the number of visits chart).
You can also see how this differs from 2012.
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The picture on the left was taken ten years ago in May 2004. The picture on the right was taken yesterday. A few changes of note:
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There are no major spoilers in these reviews.
Wooden Leather by Nappy Roots:
This is a middle-of-the-road album -- not as good as Watermelon, Chicken, and Gritz, but better than the albums that came after it. It's a little over-long with filler songs, but I like having too much music over too little. The rapper that sounds like Waluigi is still in the group at this point, adding comically refreshing timbres to the mix.
Final Grade: B-
Don Jon (R):
This is a short, fun movie about a guy whose porn addiction prevents him from having real relationships, written, directed by, and starring Joseph Gordon Levitt. It has a few unnecessary tangents, but is well-acted and over before it gets tedious. Free on Netflix.
Final Grade: B
The Following:
This FOX show starring Kevin Bacon as a former FBI agent tracking a cult of serial killers with an obsession for Edgar Allen Poe starts with a lot of potential, but doesn't really take it anywhere. The plot only progresses through the obvious mistakes of the protagonists ("Let's split up and search!"), and when they actually get something right, the mastermind has usually already outsmarted them by several moves. Interesting characters die too quickly, while the boring ones stick around forever, wallowing in a pig sty of irrelevant flashbacks. I have two episodes left in the first season of this show, but no overwhelming drive to burn through them -- it's good as a treadmill show, but not amazing (yet still a better story than Under the Dome). Free on Netflix.
Final Grade: C+
24: Live Another Day Premiere:
Though the setting has been updated for current events with drones and Edward Snowden, all of the classic 24 elements are still on display: black market technology doohickeys, backstabbing office politics, and agents who refuse to believe the main characters. With this season trimmed down to 12 episodes, one can only hope that the other elements (good people turning out to be bad, and office romances) will be nixed. In spite of her run on Chuck, I had trouble believing that Yvonne Strahovski was an expert CIA agent -- she came off more as an analyst in a giant sweater. Overall, the first two hours showed promise, but not enough that I'm willing to watch it with commercials.
Final Grade: B
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I'm opening up the floor (which from now on shall be called "trapdooring") to questions from the audience. What would you like to know? Leave me some questions in the Comments section, serious or fantastical, and I'll reply to them next week.
Happy Friday!
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On Saturday, we made our first Harper's Ferry trip of the year to go hiking with Rebecca's PTA friend, Hannah. Ambitiously, we opted to purchase the annual pass, which means that we're now on the hook to go back at least two more times this year. We took the Maryland Heights trail this time around -- it was pleasant, but the broad, smooth fire roads made it feel more like a theme park hike than the more nature-y hikes on the Virginia side.
The weather was pleasant throughout the morning, but we could see the thunderstorms approaching from the overlook point, so we tried racing back down the mountain to beat them. This did not work, and we got drenched in a Florida-style deluge that ended just as we returned to the car. Of course, we then drove home at the exact same speed that the storm was heading east. In the evening, we met Frank & Amanda at The V for dinner and frozen yogurt.
Sunday was a quiet day, most of which I spent working on the third week of my functional programming class or learning about Git. In the evening, we took a walk through Sugarland Run and then returned home for dinner on the back porch.
How was your weekend?
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with apologies to those who have never played
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There are no major spoilers in these reviews.
Veep, Season One:
This HBO comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale is fun and has some laugh-out-loud moments, but it's ultimately pretty vapid. There's less overarching plot and more setups for situational humour. The first season is only eight 30 minute episodes, so it's over pretty quickly.
Final Grade: C+
Sheezus by Lily Allen:
It's been awhile since Lily Allen's last album, and this new one turned out pretty well without trying to be too big or too bold. The songs are cleanly and minimally orchestrated, with the expected mix of pop and hip-hop influences. There's a little too much autotune and one song that's too repetitive, but otherwise, I'm enjoying it.
Final Grade: B+
Lights Out by Ingrid Michaelson:
Like snakeheads in the Potomac, Ingrid's fourth album, Human Again, was devoid of hooks. Lights Out takes a few steps back from selling out to Starbucks and has a good number of fun, catchy tunes to keep things interesting. Ingrid's newest device, though, is to forgo lyrics in favour of Ooooohs and Woooos, which can get a little tiresome. As Rebecca says, "There's a lot of ghosts in this band."
Final Grade: B-
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the sequel to Questions Day
i know you mentioned before, and i'm somehow not inclined to google it, so what is the etiquette on tipping for take-out? - Doobie
These are my rules for tipping on take-out:
Generally, people around here are surprised to ever get a tip on take-out, so this may be overzealous. However, it doesn't hurt to treat your service industry workers well if you can afford it.
Show us your bad-assest Reaper of Souls build, any character. - Groovymarlin
This is not in the form of a question, but luckily my ability to parse imperative statements into questions is unsurpassed. Here is my current build for Nope, my Witch Doctor with horrible posture:
I call this build, Vomit of the Gods. It focuses heavily on AOE and mana efficiency, and involves me running around the screen launching Acid Clouds on everyone. I open with Spirit Walk and Soul Harvest, then kite around the room summoning bile from the heavens mixed with the occasional Firebomb (to trigger Vision Quest). The Gargantuan provides an extra taunt (along with the Templar) so I can accurately anticipate where enemies will be standing still, and Spirit Barrage obliterates champions and bosses while restoring some mana. I am rarely, if ever, out of mana and haven't even invested in extra mana regeneration gear.
I could probably improve the build with the Umbral Shock rune on Spirit Walk. However, I'm impatient and like the extra second of Spirit Walk time to run through boring hallways. This is also why all of my Paragon points are invested in Movement Speed.
I play this build on Master difficulty. I don't know if it scales up to Torment because my gear is probably pretty crappy, which makes Torment too slow-paced for me to enjoy. However, the build is a lot of fun, and has made me spend more time with the Witch Doctor than my Demon Hunter recently.
Do you have any phobias? - Evil Mike
I don't have any true phobias. I think that dolls with independently moving eyes (like the ones that close their eyes when you lay them down) and ventriloquist dummies are creepy, but that's not a phobia. I have also noticed that as I get older, I get a little vertigo with heights, which never happened in my youth.
Because it took me so long to Photoshop that fine Diablo III build, I will answer the rest of the questions next Friday!
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On Saturday, we met up with Kathy and her mini-Kathys at Heritage Brewing in Manassas for a Brew/BBQ-Fest. The brews were good, but disappointingly, we were 3 hours early for the barbeque and did not get to partake. Instead, we got a growler of Kings Mountain and some Chipotle, and spent the rest of the afternoon at Kathy's house playing games while the kids made us velcro cookies.
On Sunday after my weekly classwork, we finally finished the third season of Game of Thrones, which was the entertainment equivalent of biking up a five degree incline for five miles. We then went to Ford's Fish Shack in the evening for oysters, fish tacos, and pan-seared sea scallops, while brainstorming what sorts of trips we might want to take in the Fall (Seattle/Vancouver is a possibility).
After dinner, we took a pleasant neighbourhood stroll and bumped into THE Eugene Delgaudio canvassing door-to-door and apparently unphased by his recall petition troubles. After extricating ourselves from the encounter once he told Rebecca to go to his Teen Jobs Fair, we passed a house with anti-Delgaudio bumper stickers out front and wondered if he would try to knock on that door.
How was your weekend?
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I've owned my car for two years now. Here's how my mileage has looked over the life of the car:
Here's the raw data, which can be paged and sorted as tabular data is wont to be.
Date | Gas (gal) | Cost ($/gal) | Total Miles (mi) | MPG |
---|---|---|---|---|
5/16/2012 | 16.9 | 3.87 | 419 | 24.5 |
6/7/2012 | 15.4 | 3.6 | 744 | 21.1 |
6/18/2012 | 16.6 | 3.54 | 1119 | 22.59 |
7/1/2012 | 13.2 | 3.47 | 1424 | 23.11 |
8/9/2012 | 16.7 | 3.7 | 1787 | 21.74 |
8/29/2012 | 17 | 3.77 | 2153 | 21.53 |
9/16/2012 | 11.2 | 3.85 | 2385 | 20.71 |
10/3/2012 | 13.8 | 3.85 | 2698 | 22.68 |
10/24/2012 | 16.6 | 3.8 | 3040 | 20.6 |
11/9/2012 | 12.4 | 3.51 | 3272 | 18.71 |
11/24/2012 | 14.5 | 3.43 | 3602 | 22.76 |
12/20/2012 | 16.3 | 3.29 | 3910 | 18.9 |
1/9/2013 | 16.8 | 3.46 | 4259 | 20.77 |
1/23/2013 | 9.9 | 3.49 | 4461 | 20.4 |
2/4/2013 | 14.2 | 3.56 | 4745 | 20 |
2/24/2013 | 14.1 | 3.86 | 5014 | 19.08 |
3/7/2013 | 5.8 | 3.87 | 5119 | 18.1 |
3/10/2013 | 8.3 | 3.59 | 5341 | 26.75 |
3/27/2013 | 15.6 | 3.79 | 5690 | 22.37 |
4/17/2013 | 15.6 | 3.6 | 6019 | 21.09 |
5/14/2013 | 16.6 | 3.7 | 6349 | 19.88 |
5/25/2013 | 12.6 | 3.4 | 6621 | 21.59 |
6/13/2013 | 15.8 | 3.68 | 6956 | 21.2 |
6/28/2013 | 13.4 | 3.71 | 7271 | 23.51 |
7/13/2013 | 12.6 | 3.71 | 7555 | 22.54 |
7/20/2013 | 10.8 | 3.77 | 7838 | 26.2 |
8/11/2013 | 12.4 | 3.77 | 8074 | 19.03 |
8/27/2013 | 16.6 | 3.55 | 8452 | 22.77 |
9/15/2013 | 14.7 | 3.47 | 8766 | 21.36 |
10/6/2013 | 12.4 | 3.6 | 9028 | 21.13 |
10/21/2013 | 15.3 | 3.37 | 9349 | 20.98 |
11/8/2013 | 11.9 | 3.35 | 9577 | 19.16 |
11/14/2013 | 7.1 | 3.18 | 9731 | 21.69 |
11/20/2013 | 13.3 | 3.29 | 10078 | 26.09 |
12/6/2013 | 14.2 | 3.39 | 10407 | 23.17 |
12/18/2013 | 12.2 | 3.37 | 10649 | 19.84 |
12/30/2013 | 11.6 | 3.44 | 10918 | 23.19 |
1/20/2014 | 12.7 | 3.44 | 11143 | 17.72 |
2/11/2014 | 14 | 3.36 | 11393 | 17.86 |
3/11/2014 | 13 | 3.46 | 11618 | 17.31 |
3/21/2014 | 11.3 | 3.6 | 11864 | 21.77 |
4/1/2014 | 7 | 3.64 | 11998 | 19.14 |
4/6/2014 | 14.2 | 3.31 | 12407 | 28.8 |
4/24/2014 | 15.7 | 3.7 | 12756 | 22.23 |
5/11/2014 | 16.2 | 3.72 | 13119 | 22.41 |
Lessons Learned:
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This picture was taken ten years ago in the early iterations of Poker Night. I had only lived in this house for about three months, so it was still poorly furnished. There was no pool table, and the only art on the basement walls were Anna's prints from Michael's.
Here is a very rare video of Evil Mike losing (yet again) to Vu while not recognizing the full house. Note the random construction materials stacked against the wall in the background, and the cheap plastic chips we're using.
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There are no major spoilers in these reviews.
West Wing, Season One:
This earlier show by the creator of Newsroom shares a lot of blatantly obvious DNA with the later show. It's a character drama featuring the many people of the president's communications office, and tends to focus on various real-life (at the time) political issues. The characters are likeable although the level of exposition can make it feel like I'm being preached at sometimes. It's pleasant enough for a treadmill show, or even one to have on in the background as I'm coding. On the negative side, it has a horrible soundtrack of composed music that only swells in at imminent points for extreme emotional manipulation -- it sounds like any sappy movie soundtrack from the mid 90's. Free on Netflix.
Final Grade: B-
Game of Thrones, Season Three:
The main problem of the second season still exists -- too many characters with too brief vignettes to get invested in their plights. While there is always progression, there is never momentum, and too much time is wasted on less interesting stories. I don't need to watch ten episodes of a character getting tortured, and I'm super bored with all of the animal dream stories.
Final Grade: C+
Aziz Ansari: Dangerously Delicious:
This is a fun, brief standup session that's about as good as his previous one. It's fairly vulgar, but in a harmless, not-very-mean-spirited way which can make all the difference when determining whether a joke about whale fellatio is worth listening to.
Final Grade: B
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the sequel to the sequel to Questions Day
I was out late having a delightful dinner with the Wilmer family, which is why this post is so late today.
If you were going to open up a restaurant what kind would it be? What would you serve? - Evil Mike
Less important that the specific type of cuisine would be the ways my restaurant is less annoying than other restaurants:
Beyond that, I don't know. Burgers will probably be involved.
what question would you like to be asked, but never have been? - Doobie
Having a blog means that I never have to worry about this. If there is a question that no one is asking, I'll answer it anyways and silkscreen my answer upon the fabric of the world's consciousness through the magic of the Internet.
Anything in life you regret and wish you could re-do? - Evil Mike
All of the major stuff shapes who you are, blah blah blah. Off the top of my head, there are only minor things to be changed:
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Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Memorial Day
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I'm busy this week writing open-source software. Enjoy this video from May, 31, 2005, when kitten-Amber lived with three other cats, but still couldn't find anyone to play with.
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There are no major spoilers in these reviews.
Zodiac (R):
Movies based on a true story are always given a bad rap for straying too far from the true story, but this one doesn't stray far enough. It's based on the (still unsolved) Zodiac serial killer case from the 1970s, but while the lack of resolution may be true to life, it results in a movie that just peters out without satisfaction. Much of the running time is spent fading out and jumping forward in time, giving some idea of just how thin the source material is. The two and a half hour span is occasionally beautified by Robert Downey Jr., but this is counterbalanced by Jake Gyllenhaal acting like Tobey Macguire and Mark Ruffalo mumbling a lot. Free on Netflix.
Final Grade: D+
West Wing, Season Two:
This continues to be a good background show -- occasionally interesting but slow enough to not require full attention. This season gets a little more preachy, and does some unnecessary timeline devices that feel like cerebral writer exercises. Free on Netflix.
Final Grade: B-
Ender's Game (PG-13):
This adaptation of Orson Scott Card's sci-fi book is a misfire all around. It hits all of the high points from the book in an expected way, but trims so much character development to fit into two hours that the entire thing lacks any emotional resonance. The diction is wooden, the music is repetitive, and the post-climax ending feels as tacked on as it did when Card rewrote the book so he could tie it to the sequel. Skip this.
Final Grade: D
Hoover WindTunnel MAX Pet Plus (UH70605):
This vacuum is no Dyson, but no one wants to pay that much for a vacuum. It's heavy but maneuverable, and does a decent job of normal cleaning. The only difference between the attachments and a normal vacuum's attachment are exposed rubber surfaces that are intended to draw pet hairs out of cloth so they can be sucked up. This works well with effort, but you still have to go over a surface a few times -- it's not a magic solution. The trap fills up after a full floor of my house, and empties easily. I'm satisfied with its performance after four months of use, and the auto-recoiling extension cord is a nice touch.
Final Grade: B
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May's Final Grade: B+, thumbs up for May!
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