I For One...

Air Miles

If anyone has any Alaska Air miles they are willing to give up to get Eric down to a Jeopardy tryout, please let me know. Thanks.

Another Pile of Overdue Links!

Comic Book Legends Revealed #269: Little Joe, Terra and Geo-Force, and a G.I. Joe in-joke.

Ok, I figured the best way to treat the WBC idiots protesting at San Diego con was to ignore them, but I love my fellow nerds for out-stupiding them. Bender rocks. But my favorite sign is "Is this thing on?" WBC gave up fairly quickly because the media was paying more attention to the comic book fans than them. More video of the counter-protest.

Also from San Diego: Congrats to Eric Shanower and Skottie Young for winning two Eisners. It was a GREAT deal of fun for me to announce the first win at the Wizard of Oz convention, seriously the only time in my life I wasn't nervous in front of a crowd because I knew exactly what the response would be. I'm also pretty happy with many of the other results, particularly Beasts of Burden getting the nod. I love that book.

Like the Old Spice vids? There's a bunch of them here (YouTube), including responses to viewer comments.

How to throw an Evil Twin party. I *SO* want to do this sometime.

This awesome poster promoting literacy scares some ultra-religious nutjobs and is seen by the artist, who asks her fans to NOT harass the nutjobs. And surprise, they don't. Of course, the flap cheered up the artist who immediately got people requesting copies of the poster.

My husband Eric corrects a mistake on Jeopardy by sending them a real mail letter. He gets a prompt e-mail reply and permission to post it.

Darryl Cunningham takes on Moon Hoaxers on the anniversary of the Moon Landing.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel, and the accident of 1999.

I wanna buy shirts from this factory.

Conscience Cat joins the LOLTheology.

Pugs are popular.

It's Monday Again Already

Happy 5th Birthday to GirlAMatic.com.

Here's a Superman Copyright FAQ that explains how the Siegels got half the Superman copyright back. For the record, since I strongly oppose the Disney-driven copyright extensions, I think my opinion on the details of this subject is best left unsaid. However, I firmly believe the Siegels and Shuster estate deserve compensation as well. Overall, I think this is a win.

Mark Evanier quoted my e-mail to him about our road trip, and linked back to me. Of more interest, he actually got a look at the ingredients of The Soup, which I wished I'd done once I learned they were available. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's a list from which you can duplicate the recipe. (If you're wondering what the road trip was about: Road Trip Part 1 and Road Trip Part 2.)

More on April Fool and the history of the day at the Museum of Hoaxes.

Another condemnation of Vista. As I've said before, I have no intention of ever downgrading to Vista. I'll go to LINUX first.

World's fastest internet connection 'used to dry laundry'. I like this lady's style.

Ah, uses of the internet. Yup, Eric and I do this all the time.

Fifteen years of Spam.

I'm Buffaloed.

Brian Wood tells about the inspiration for DMZ "Friendly Fire".

This is just sick. Putting seizure inducing graphics on a forum for sufferers of epilepsy is the kind of crime that should be punished with prison for a few years.

For the in-laws: sand pug.

And lastly, I've been e-mailed by a friend to ask if I will be posting when/if Eric gets called in for Jeopardy. I can make no promises. I figure that I'll post only when an air date is set for an episode he appears in, and not until. Lots of reasons for that, not the least of which is that things sometimes change at the last minute, so if I post that he got called, and for some reason he doesn't actually play, I wouldn't feel like explaining it. And of course, should he get on the show and play, we won't be telling anyone how he did until after the show airs.

The Road Trip (part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about driving down to Portland, wandering through Powell's, and sitting in a parking garage waiting for Eric to finish the Jeopardy tryouts. Here's the rest of the tale...

I finished reading my book near 2pm and realized that I was slowly freezing to death. It was time for a brisk walk to the hotel to see if Eric was finished. The walk almost warmed me up because the sun was finally out, but the wind was still bitter cold. Once at the hotel, I asked about the Jeopardy thing and they pointed me to the second floor. Moving through the hotel, I got warmer and more comfortable. Once on the second floor I found a table for Jeopardy sign-ins, and stood by it only to discover I was right under a heating vent. I decided to wait for him right there.

I could hear Eric's voice and laughter from inside the room I was next to. I wondered how much longer they would take, hoping it would be long enough to thaw me out completely. Only a couple minutes later the meeting broke up. First out of the room was Eric, who was surprised to see me waiting. I was warm enough, so we headed back to the garage.

Now, I'm no expert on these tryout things, but my impression is that once you pass the Jeopardy on-line test, they still have to make sure you would look good on TV. So they have these tryouts to find out if you have any personality whatsoever, and can actually answer the quiz questions in person (ie you didn't have someone else answer the on-line test for you). Even if you qualify, they get a lot more people every year for the contestant pool than they need. So Eric still has to actually be chosen, and that may not happen despite his feeling that he did really well this time. Remember, this is the third time he's made it this far in the process. He'll be in the pool for 18 months. If he isn't called up in that time, he can take the test again (marking Sep 29th 2009 on the calendar).

Eric mentioned that he'd accidentally washed his Jeopardy pen the last time he tested, so this time I told him to put it in the glove box right away. It's now sitting by his chair, waiting to be used as a clicker when he next watches the show.

It was time to find the Sweet Tomatoes restaurant. As I'd studied the map while Eric was testing, I drove us out of Portland and up to Vancouver via a slightly different route than we usually take. Surprisingly, it wasn't much out of our way.

The Sweet Tomatoes restaurants are basically all-you-can-eat buffets. I haven't been to an all-you-can-eat since I started my weight loss, for perhaps obvious reasons. I always feel like I have to eat a lot in those places to get my money's worth. We'd decided ahead of time to have a very light dinner, so we could eat what we wanted at this place. For the record, we paid $21.16 for the meal ($7.69 each for food, $2.09 each for drinks (!), and $1.60 in tax).

Happily, they still had Mark Evanier's Creamy Tomato Soup on the menu. If you've read his complaint, it's that this soup isn't always on the menu. Apparently they change the menu regularly, and the soup is usually only available in March. I told one of the staff that we'd driven a couple hundred miles just for this soup. I don't think he believed me. That's ok, it wasn't precisely true.

Anyway... I had a choose-your-own-adventure salad that I loaded up with all my favorite salad makings and none of the stuff I hate. Then I added a couple of muffins to my plate, and a bowl of creamy tomato soup. I got a strawberry lemonade to fill it out. I later went back for seconds on the soup and muffins. After I got home and worked out the calories from their nutritional info on the website, I figured I had about 1400 calories for the entire huge meal. I usually have about 1800 calories in a day.

So how was this much-hyped soup? I went back for seconds. It was that good. I wouldn't call it the be-all or end-all of soups, but it was certainly very good. It was creamy. It was tomato-y. It had a hint of spices. It was extremely good for dipping corn muffins into. I would love to try it as a sauce on fresh pasta. Actually, just thinking about it now makes me want to drive back down and get some more. I can understand why Mark Evanier loves it.

I also really liked their muffins. The corn muffins were perfect. They were soft and just crumbly enough. I usually don't like corn muffins that have whole kernels mixed in, but these were too good for that to matter. I would pay the price of admission just for the corn muffins and tomato soup alone. The salad was a normal sort of salad, but the ingredients were certainly fresh and tasty. Eric seemed to enjoy his meal, as well.

When we came in, we told them it was our first time. As a result, we each got a little bag of chocolate chip cookies with a survey tag on them. Both of us called the survey line and left voice mail that said they should open a restaurant in Seattle and that they should have the Creamy Tomato Soup all year long. The survey gives us 15% off on our next visit, but we have no idea when that will be. I suppose we're going to have to visit Portland again before the end of the year, when the tags expire. Maybe I can go down to see Periscope Studio or something.

After stuffing ourselves to near breaking, Eric took the wheel and we headed back up to I-5 and home. The weather seemed to change every five minutes along the road, with sun giving way to rain giving way to hailstorms giving way to sun again. I saw many stretches where I could see the snow on the hills brightened by sunlight. As we headed up through Kelso we saw a horrible car accident in the Southbound lanes, with the contents of one car strewn across the road while the other was just smashed up. Police and fire crews were dealing with it, but it really didn't look good at all. Another mile up the road there was another accident in the Southbound lane, more of a fender bender this time, but still enough to make us both feel sorry for anyone headed South at that point.

We stopped for gasoline at one point, and Eric forgot to put the gas cap back on. Fortunately, he found it after it rolled off the car while I was pulling out. The whole trip took about a full tank of gasoline. I was extremely drowsy from the food and long day, and let Eric take over the driving during a hail storm somewhere. We also got caught behind an accident, one that was nearly cleared by the time we reached the spot. My memories of the rest of the trip are a little hazy, and I was getting carsick (which usually happens to me on long car trips) and was very sleepy. My body also seemed to be having a difficult time dealing with the changes in the weather (changes in air pressure often seem to trigger my fibro, so I think I may have been dealing with that). All told, when we finally got home around 7pm I didn't even bother turning my computer on. I took a nap. When I woke up, the clock said 8:00, but it was light out. I'd slept for 13 hours. I missed dinner, but I really didn't mind (or notice) thanks to the large lunch. More odd was the fact that I was offline for over 24 hours and didn't really care.

Despite the carsickness, the long "nap", and Powell's not having a copy of Nancy and Plum, it was a pretty good trip. Hey Eric, let's do it again!

The Road Trip (part 1)

So, Eric had to head down to Portland, Oregon, on Saturday the 29th for the Jeopardy tryouts. The tryout time was late enough that he didn't have to get down the night before, like last time. So, after some consultation, I decided to go with him, and we'd take my "new" car, Cody the Cavalier, and see how it handled a long trip.

On Thursday, I read about Sweet Tomatoes Creamy Tomato Soup on Mark Evanier's blog, and checked the map. The nearest location of that restaurant is in Vancouver Washington. But wait... on Saturday, Eric and I would be very near there. I told Eric to read Mark Evanier's blog and see if he thought what I thought. He did, and we planned a detour on the way home. Lunch at Sweet Tomatoes in Vancouver!

Eric's tryout was 11:30am, and it usually takes about 3 hours to get to Portland (even with my driving) from the Seattle area. We decided to leave by 7am, giving us time if there was an accident or other problem. As we watched the snow fall on Friday afternoon, we decided that we would leave the next morning as soon as both of us were ready. Eric printed out maps and directions, and we put everything we might need in the car the night before.

At 5am Saturday morning, my phone alarm woke me with the Jeopardy theme song, which amused Eric. I posted my links for the day, then whipped up a batch of oatmeal for the two of us. We got out the door shortly before 6am, and hit the road with me driving the first leg.

Roads were wet, but clear. Light traffic for the morning, and nothing unusual until we got near the Toutle River rest stop. There was lots of snow on the ground around that area, and the rest stop itself was still under a blanket of snow although the lot was clear. I drove from that rest stop to Portland, while Eric snoozed. Because he was asleep, he missed the heavy snow we drove through. None of it was sticking to the roads, but the visibility was bad enough that I slowed down to well below the speed limit (which is a tad unusual for me). It was only raining in Portland itself, so that wasn't stressful.

We found a parking garage at 10th and Yamhill, then walked over to the hotel where the tryouts were to be held. It was 9am. With two hours to kill, we decided to walk to Powell's.

I'd been to Powells once before, and everything about the experience had been bad. I decided that I was going to completely forget that previous visit and pretend this was my first time going there.

As Powells is widely considered the best bookstore around, I've heard that some people "test" the store when they visit by looking for specific books they don't expect to see in bookstores. I came up with my own tests. One: I would look for an Aquaman collection. With a couple of trades, the Archive, and the Showcase volumes, I figured this would be easy. Two: I would look for Queen Ann In Oz, hubby-Eric's book. Although some stores carried it, I wasn't really expecting to find it there. Three: Nancy and Plum by Betty MacDonald. This one is a no-brainer... a local author whose 100 birthday was just a few days ago? I expected a display of her books.

It didn't take us long to get to the store, once we figured out what direction to go. It was only a half-mile or so from the parking garage. Once inside (and out of the rain) we wandered aimlessly for awhile. It's a BIG store. Easy to get lost in. We found the Children's section relatively quickly and got separated when I spotted some old adventure-type books and started down the aisle forgetting for a moment that I was married and hanging with my hubby. Eventually I tracked him down again (or he tracked me down, I'm not sure), and he showed me their Oz section. Sure enough, Queen Ann In Oz was there! I suggested we tell someone that Eric is the author so he can sign it, but he refused. Eric noted that they had lots of the Books of Wonder Oz books.

Next we hunted down the graphic novel section. I found Manga scattered all over, including one island in the Award Winning Children's books section that had all of the English Hikaru No Go so far on it. Eventually we found the graphic novels in the coffee shop. Have I mentioned that I hate the smell of coffee? The section itself was tiny and I nearly gave up hope of finding any Aquaman when I spotted the Archive sitting on top of a stack of others, mis-shelved and looking forlorn. Despite finding Aquaman, I was NOT impressed with their graphic novel selection. The Manga selection just outside the coffee shop was bigger and better lit (and didn't stink).

So the last book to look for was Nancy and Plum. We wandered a LOT (and yes, it was fun) and didn't find it. Eric hunted through the sports section for books on the Olympics and found less than a shelf of them. Eventually, I found a computer and typed in "Betty MacDonald". The only book they listed was The Egg and I. Huh. That was odd. Maybe they misspelled her name in the catalog. I typed in "Nancy and Plum" and got no hits. Hrm. I went back to searching for her name, and found out where her books were located. The local interest section. Ok, we trekked over there and... the only book by her available was The Egg and I.

And so I left the store slightly disappointed. It is a very impressive book store, but it wasn't nearly as robust as people have claimed. I'm being slightly snarky here, by the way. I really did enjoy the visit.

We walked back to the parking garage in the continuing rain, and I decided to nap in the car for a bit while Eric went to his tryout. I also had a book to read. And so I napped and read in the car. At one point, I heard this incredibly loud "KERRRSCRUMP!" which repeated every few seconds. It got louder and louder and I realized that something was coming up the ramps of the garage making the sound. It finally passed my car, and I saw that it was a car with one of those plastic carriers on the top that was just too tall for the garage. Every time it passed under a supporting beam, it scraped against it, making that noise. The driver didn't seem concerned. Another driver had her music so loud that it echoed in the garage... even though she had all her windows rolled up. I was very relieved when she shut off her car.

Ok, I'll break off there... you'll have to read the rest of the tale tomorrow...

This... Is... Jeopardy!

Hubby-Eric was just informed that, once again, he's in the contestant pool for Jeopardy (after the screening/in person test in late March).

Hey Ken Jennings, Lookee Here!

Much to my astonishment, Ken Jennings told me tonight that he reads my blog! And how did I talk about my blog with Ken Jennings? Well, it came up because I was wearing my "I'm blogging this." t-shirt to the Ken Jennings book signing and trivia contest at Third Place Books tonight with hubby-Eric.

My astonishment was so great I forgot to ask Ken my favorite trivia question: "What was the first United States team to win the Stanley Cup?"

I'm sure he knows, but it's still my favorite trivia question. Also, Ken, Tom Chambers? Eh, hubby-Eric did fine in your trivia contest, getting 18 of the 20 questions right. He only missed Tom Chambers and Mt Adams (he had a brain-freeze on that one). And he thanks you muchly for the $30 in gift certificates he ended up getting thanks to you!

As is traditional now, Torvald posed with Ken. I would guess that Ken is now one of the most recognizable people Torvald has posed with.

I also convinced hubby-Eric to pose with Ken. Maybe this will give him that tiny bit of luck he needs to finally get onto Jeopardy!

And lastly, as we were leaving the store, I realized that the information sign was in a very nice spot with regards to Ken Jennings. I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Sunday Morning Thoughts

Just Read This. A truly amazing piece of writing by a former Seattle Times reporter about the Pike Place Market and the Great Depression. Just go read it.

Ken Jennings and the Daily Hello's. Hubby-Eric figured out what Jennings says in the rest of the article a long time ago. More proof that hubby-Eric needs to get on Jeopardy?

Boing Boing on the Wizard of Oz.

A MetaFilter poster by the name of forrest discovers connections.

Jack Chick takes on Harry Potter and even gets the facts wrong. Cool.

The math was wrong, but it doesn't change the facts.

If you bought a video from Google's download service... too bad. They are taking it back. This is yet another reason DRM sucks. You buy something, you expect to own it. Not to have it stolen from you by the company you bought it from. No one should trust any company that sells stuff with DRM on it.

An editorial about menu rules that I pretty much agree with.

Elvis was NOT racist.

The Fog Clears

...and I manage to pull together a links post at last. Yay! I hope I didn't make too many typos.

If you plan on going to Comicon International, read this.

Oops. Silver Surfer Quarter illegal.

Len Wein about Jeopardy. I was hoping for an Aquaman clue. *sigh*

Rashy is famous. Again.

Why skinny people can't tell us fat folk to lose weight.

Milk from REAL cows. Do tell, Bully.

What font do you use? I've set up my notepad program, in which I type up all my blogs and other writings, to use Courier New. It's been that way for many years.

I Can Has Cheeseburger. What, are you going to stop him?

More LOL Doctor Who.

Speaking of Macros or LOLs, FilkerTom links to another video of his song about them.

The Case Against Homework. If this book says what I think it does, then I think it ought to be required for teachers. More homework doesn't equal better knowledge. It's the quality, not the quantity, that counts. I'm checking the book out from the library, doing my homework on it, to make sure it's what I think it is.

Speaking of education: Fast Math.

This sounds really gross, and I'm sure I'm going to have to try it sometime.

How the Pentagon got its shape. Not a fairy tale.

Scott Adams on Global Warming, as a man who came to it recently and has had a blog-comment assisted education about it.

The War Prayer by Mark Twain.

Real examples of Feminism.

Hmmm, irony? A man who constantly cleaned his apartment to protect himself from disease was overcome by the fumes of the disinfectant and killed. Too much of ANYTHING is bad.

Homer Simpson Flower.

A Fifth of Lunkdimp

Butt-Shots in Comics. I particularly like the Vixen/Amazo contrast, because I didn't notice it when I read the book, but it's totally obvious when taken in this context.

Boing Boing on tormenting squirrels. Spinning Bird Feeder. Squirrel Obstacles Courses.

It's the Dursley Syndrome! Parents don't recognize obesity in their kids.

More Wil Wheaton, who is vastly more interesting as a nerd than he ever was as Wesley: tapestry. Two stories of Wil dealing with fans.

TangognaT passes along some cool library links: What Is A Librarian? and The Joy of Interlibrary Loan are great reads.

And don't forget to enter TangognaT's Manga Giveaway!

A whine about e-mail sigs. Way back in the early days of the 'net, when we had to power our computers with hamsters, I was told that a sig should never exceed four lines of text, which I have stuck to all these years. Reports of PHOTOs in sigs admittedly bothers me, especially if you are sending mail to someone who has to pay for download time. I don't mind sigs, but be reasonable about them, folks!

Jeopardy is teasing about Friday March 16th's show: "for the first time in 23 years, 'Jeopardy!' history will be made." Well, hey, since we got the TiVo entirely to record Jeopardy so hubby-Eric never will have to miss it again, yeah, we'll watch it. Via Various and Sundry.

Which microlender is best? Surprise, it's Kiva, the one that I have a little bit of money in. I meant to put $50 a year into it, but haven't put any money in this year yet, due to our financial difficulties.

Sunday Links

I'm still not sure whether or not I have the flu. I feel awful, but I don't think I feel awful enough to say it's the flu for sure. I'm still going to take it easy. This iteration of the flu is pretty bad (two girls in Seattle have died from it, and a woman in BC, if I remember right) and wasn't in the flu shot (not that I ever get the flu shot anymore, since I'm over-sensitive to it and get flu-like symptoms whenever I get it). If you get it, take it easy. Entire schools have been closed because of this one.

Now, on to the linkage:

If you speak French, Linda Medley wants your help. Also, Castle Waiting needs letters for the new Letter Column, so write to Linda with your comments.

Mark Evanier links to this YouTube video of Chicken Fat, performed by Dinah Shore and Nanette Fabray. When I was in elementary school, every PE class for several years started with this song. I never did manage to do any pull-ups, but I was a good runner.

Mike Sterling gives us Crimin-El amusement.

Aqualad & Robin = Goofus & Gallant?

Paul Cornell on the Gallifrey Convention. Saturday's report. I wish I was there. Really. Eric and I haven't been down to the Gallifrey con for years, and we miss it.

Len Wein Likes Jeopardy.

Hijacker Beaten. More on the Book Video.

Textbook Disclaimer Stickers and Science vs Faith flowcharts.

The MPAA thinks it's ok to sue people for violating software agreements, but they are in violation of software agreements themselves. It's only ok to steal if you are a corporation, apparently.

TiVo!

Hubby-Eric and I had a little mishap with the VCR a week or so ago, in which it ate his tape of Jeopardy. Eric really enjoys watching Jeopardy, but is generally at work when it's on, so he tapes it, watches it, then tapes over it. Well, the tape he was using got old enough, and the VCR tired enough of it, that it got all chewed up and devoured, and hubby-Eric missed a week of Jeopardy (because we also had to get the rest of the tape out of the VCR). He grumbled that maybe it is time for us to get TiVo.

Flash forward to just before Christmas when our good friend Jen visited and bought us pizza (thank you again, Jen!). We had a merry little night, and I noticed a coupon on the pizza box for TiVo. Normally I wouldn't look twice, but we'd talked about it, so I showed the coupon to Eric, and we popped on-line to look at the deal.

It wasn't bad. For the price of a very nice quality VCR we'd get a TiVo box, wireless adapter, and three years of service. There was one problem, but it isn't unsurmountable (more on that in a second). So we did a bit more research, slept on it, counted up Christmas money... and went for the deal. We don't watch a lot of TV, but we like having flexibility on when we watch what we do watch, and the VCR is getting a bit tired of helping us, so a TiVo makes sense for us.

There are a couple of issues I have with our new little TiVo friend.

First... to install the thing you need a landline phone. We do not have a landline any longer. We went to cell phones and haven't missed the landline at all until now. The installation instructions say you can go to someone else's home to set that up, but you still must have a landline for the initial installation. That's annoying.

The other issue is setting up the wireless. Basically, I really hope I'm up to the task. I have my router filtering by MAC address at the moment, so I hope the wireless adapter has a MAC address I can use.

Anyway, I'm blogging about this mostly in the hopes that somebody out there has some links to TiVo support sites and such so I can learn how to get the most out of the little thing. Any advice? Any thoughts? Anyone even reading right now, or is everyone off on holiday?

Linkage

I'll try not to neglect my links while I'm doing daily Aquaman reviews...

Enter Dave's Contest.

Speaking of contests, if you miss a game of Jeopardy, you can find out what happened at the J! Archive. I think my hubby-Eric will love this site, if he doesn't already visit it regularly.

Wil Wheaton write on SuicideGirls and tells us Five Books Every Geek Should Read. I've read 3 out of 5.

Aaron Williams got on TV handing out candy to Trick-or-Treaters... but as part of a story that wasn't so innocent.

Hmmm. I like the idea of a change of route for the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train. If it does move, we'll have to go on it again.

Sadistic Phishers send out pink slips and keyloggers. Ouch.