Rantastic - Slackitude

"These are not the hammer."

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:48:28 -0400

If you haven't seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog yet, you really should get over there and watch it. It disappears (well the free version disappears anyway) on Sunday night.

Like all things Joss Whedon, if I try to explain it, it'll just sound stupid. Picture Neil Patrick Harris as a video-blogging, aspiring super villian with a secret crush, and Nathan Fillion as a slightly dumb and slightly skeezy super hero, and oh yeah, it's a musical. See, sounds stupid. It's really good though. Go watch it! Go!

Best. Error message. EVER!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:31:39 -0400

Yet another reason I love being a Virgin Mobile customer... something that would normally piss me off, made me laugh instead:

F1 - I have charts!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:03:00 -0400

Apparently I've surprised some friends during the past year by outing myself as a Formula 1 fan on Facebook. Well, it ended up that three quarters of the get-togethers we had with other friends were to watch F1 all over the world, so I eventually decided I should just learn to like it.

Of course, Lewis Hamilton made it pretty easy to like.

Now we're down to one race left in the season, and Hamilton is hanging on to the world championship by a nail... 107 points to Fernando Alonso's 103 and Kimi Raikkonen's 100.

I knew that whoever had the most points at the end of the year won, and I knew if the points were tied (as they easily could be in a situation like this), it went to the number of first place finishes, but what happens when that's tied (as Alonso and Lewis currently are)? I looked up the F1 regulations and they say:

7.2 If two or more constructors or drivers finish the season with the same number of points, the higher place in the Championship (in either case) shall be awarded to : a) the holder of the greatest number of first places, b) if the number of first places is the same, the holder of the greatest number of second places, c) if the number of second places is the same, the holder of the greatest number of third places and so on until a winner emerges.

Being the obsessive type that I am, I looked up Lewis's, Kimi's, and Alonso's past results. Kimi has the edge on first place finishes, but that only matters if he comes up with the points. Lewis has the edge on second places, but what if Alonso came in second? They'd be tied. In fact, Lewis and Alonso are tied pretty far down...they have the same number of thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths, and the tie is broken at seventh place finishes (Alonso has 2, Lewis 0). Not that that matters, unless Alonso gets second, but then Lewis needs fifth place to tie him in points and would win on fifth place finishes. Geek that I am, I kept going through every different scenario I could think of... What if Kimi does this? What if that happens to Alonso?

So I made a chart. Voila.

Along the top axis, Alonso's finish. Along the side, Kimi's spot. The number refers to the lowest place Lewis Hamilton can finish and still win the world championship (note that "9" really means "9th or worse" as it's all the same points below 9th). The "A" means Alonso wins in that situation regardless of what Lewis does (thank goodness it's only one spot in the chart). If Lewis fails to reach the result in the chart, the blue squares mean Alonso wins and the red squares means Kimi wins.

Not that that's going to happen. I just like to be complete.

Happy December!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 22:54:22 -0500

And now, my most favorite holiday website ever: Snowglobe! (With music by Esquivel!)

Happy Hallowe'en!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:40:00 -0500

Ah, the one day a year I can unabashedly and enthusiastically blast the Micheal Jackson.

ARRRRRRR!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:24:26 -0400

It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, me mateys! I'd best be hearin' some pirate talk or I'll make ye swab the decks, ye bilge rats!

Cannot. Stop. Watching.

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 12:49:14 -0400

I am terribly amused by this today. It is AWESOME.

It's like if ABBA and the Oompa Loompas had some bizarre lovechildren

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:09:14 -0400

Happy Mornings!

(I cannot believe how much I love this commercial right now. Oh, the insanity!)

NOOOOOOOOO!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 10:37:59 -0400

Dangit.

Between Laurie and Dave D., I've been convinced to watch Battlestar Galactica and now have a raging BSG addiction.

Laurie lent us the mini-series, first season, and about half the second season on DVD, and I've been getting through them pretty steadily. Then I hit the end. I moped around for two days, and then started downloading some more on my own while we're waiting for Laurie's dad to be done with the next set.

Unfortunately, I've hit a roadblock. There's only one copy of episode 11 of season 2 floating around out there, and apparently it's missing a chunk of dialogue. Can't deal with that. I wasn't too worried about it until I watch episode 10 while folding laundry this morning, and hit the end of the episode...

TO BE CONTINUED.

Noooooooooooooo!

YES! YES! YES!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Wed, 17 May 2006 23:43:30 -0400

That was like, the Best. Race. EVER!

"I never said I was a role model."

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:21:53 -0500

I'm wondering if I should start watching Saturday Night Live again.

They recently had Natalie Portman do a fantastic (though highly vulgar) digital short (much like the much-loved - at least in this house - and still-watched Lazy Sunday).

I think Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell may just be a pair of great big dorks. ;)

Separated at birth?

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:46:38 -0500

For all the Veronica Mars / curling fans out there, I present the following:

Brad Gushue:

Logan Echolls:

I leave it to you to decide. ;)

Best moment of the Games

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 10:14:42 -0500

I have finally found a video clip of Jeff Bean, Canadian aerialist, as he took a practice run last weekend.

Click here and cringe (but in a good way; he was alright).

Batman Begins, The Inside, and just the littlest bit of Serenity

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 19:18:20 -0400

Matt and I went to see Batman Begins this past weekend. I actually kinda liked it! (I mostly went because I heard it wasn't too bad, and I also heard the Serenity trailer was showing before it (eeeeeee!) which it was and OH MY GOD I cannot wait for that movie to come out!)

It wasn't too much of a typical summer action flick; there was actually development of the story. Not so much development of Katie Holmes' facial expressions, sadly, but the rest of the story was well developed. I really like having the character justifications in the movie because I really enjoy immersing myself in a story, and it's easier to do that when the people in it aren't caricatures. I mean, the fight scenes were cool too, but the story being solid is what made me happy.

There was about a million Hey! It's that guy! guys in Batman Begins; Matt and I love to play the Hey! It's that guy! game... we often watch TV with the laptop close at hand so we can imdb people. The Inside, Tim Minear's new show, has a ton of guest actors from Wonderfalls lately. Also, at least two or three references to Buffy, Angel, and Firefly each episode and it's cracking me up. Too bad it's almost CANCELLED already. I hate you, Fox Network! I'd recommend people watch it if they'd like a more messed-up-character-driven twist on the typical cop show, but don't get too attached. Tim Minear only writes 13-episode mini-series anymore - Firefly, then Wonderfalls, now The Inside. At least I can get the DVDs. Tim, I love your work, but why for the love of God do you keep going back to Fox?

It's nice to have new TV for the summer, it would probably keep me from torturing my husband with Big Brother, which I am going to watch tomorrow because he's not here to stop me. However, he's at the Smithsonian right this instant, so I think he's probably getting the better deal.

Boy, I'm talkative while my husband is away, eh?

Tag!

nospam@example.com (Tamara) — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 15:54:59 -0400

I am, apparently, it.

There has been a book meme going around the blog rings and I have been tagged by Aaron, so here goes. Prepare to be shocked and appalled at the total and utter fluff included herein.

Number of books I own:

Probably about 150 - 200, including the textbooks. I used to be more of a library person, but living with Matt is making me a collector.

Last Book I Bought:

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. What? I was going on vacation. A girl's entitled to a little chick-lit on vacation.

Last Book I Read:

Last book I actually finished? That would be The Dirty Girls Social Club, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. I read it while I was on vacation. Back in Cuba, in January. It was the last time I actually had time to do any reading, and I didn't want to think too hard; hence, the chick-lit. I've since started and put down three or four books (the aforementioned Can You Keep A Secret?, Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy), but school keeps me too busy to really get into anything serious. Also, anything totally lacking in seriousness, apparently.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me:

(1) Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. I have a justification for this one that isn't the content of the book though; it was a gift from Matt the second summer we were together. Outlander's not the trashy romance novel it would seem to be; it's a historical fiction with a little bit of trashy romance novel thrown in. Hey, if Damian Brooks had it on his list, I am going to pretend I don't need any more justification.

(2) Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, by Marcus Borg. Yeah, I don't get to church very often, but I still do consider my Christian in my own way. This book really helped me feel more comfortable with my understanding of faith as a personal relationship with God that doesn't require me to be at church every Sunday. I'm definitely not the world's best Christian, but I'm trying to be a better one.

(3) Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, by Eric A. Meyer. This one was a gift from Matt for our first wedding anniversary (the paper anniversary). It means more to me that just being a gift from my husband; it really represents the first time I started learning a skill more or less on my own, without relying on Matt to teach me everything (he might argue this point, but I still did more on my own than when learning, say, c++). This book helped me to learn a skill I wanted to learn - not one I had to.

(4) The Quantum Universe, by Tony Hey and Patrick Walters. This book introduced me to quantum phenomenon. It is a non-mathematical book and I highly recommend it (also, Einstein's Mirror by the same authors) to anyone wanting to know a bit more about science without bothering with all the equations. This book really brought the wonder and the curiousity out in me, and I'll be re-reading it once I'm done school to try to capture some of it back.

(5) Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. I first read this series back in grade 7 or so, and I've been enchanted by it ever since. Sometimes you can take the morality tale out of it (doing what's best despite personal hardships, etc.), sometimes you can pull historical analogies out of it, and sometimes you can just read it for a good adventure.

Tag Five More Bloggers:

Matt, Walter, Marli, Dave and what the heck, Monte Solberg, it's your turn! It's a toss up in my mind whether Dave (who blogs rather infrequently) or Monte Solberg (who certainly does not read this blog) is more likely to actually do this. ;)