Pilot's Log

*) On the Super Bowl--for the first time ever I saw Peyton Manning's dark side. At a few times when he was on the sidelines watching his team try to hold the Saints, the looks on his face reminded me of Tony Perkins in Psycho and Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. For all his "nice guy" image it wouldn't surprise me if somebody cast him as a villain in a horror movie after his football career is over.

Meanwhile, nobody can say the Saints didn't earn their victory. Yes, they DID have "something to prove"...and now we'll have to get used to them being called "defending NFL champions".

I didn't watch the Who's halftime show or more than a few commercials. I get my sister's point about the Denny's commercial with the screaming chickens. I can't remember the last time I ate at a Denny's anyway.

*) I'm starting a Google account. I used to have one, but then I shuffled it to Mum for reasons that aren't worth explaining.

*) The weather is typical February lousy. Tonight is cold...not enough to freeze the water pipes, but enough to make us miserable. I've been hitting the coffee and cocoa very hard but wish I didn't have to.

*) I'm waiting for three things in the coming mail: a package of scale model parts to review; a check from the State of Tennessee to pay me for three days of jury duty; a response from the IRS to my return. Which one would you think I'd get first?

*) Did an extended shopping trip today. Didn't buy much, because places had sold out of what I wanted to buy. But at least that's a good sign. (I was halfway expecting to write this out in Kiffiescope, and may still do that.)

*) When I was in Knoxville yesterday, I noticed that Marshall Classics seemed to have been replaced with another car seller at its Morris Avenue location (where I-40 and I-640 came together) west of Downtown. It wouldn't surprise me if Ross Marshall had retired or moved on; the economy wasn't there to support his rebuilt Bentley Special operation, or his Deronda super-roadster. He also imported that MGTD replicar from Asia that I mentioned a few years back.

*) A stalker is sending e-mails to me because he thinks my addy is for somebody named Suzanne. He's sending links to "e-greetings" that I think are virus-ridden.

*) Mum may finish her latest book this week if all goes well.

*) My brother and I are planning a vacation for Spring Break.

1) An interesting discussion on the Shortpacked! official board has been about the fact that the Diamond Distributor company uses the Batman standard to judge title sales. That is, every title they sell is compared to how well it does against the specific DC comic book titled Batman. One of the readers has suddenly made it his mission to create a comic book and attempt to sell a CentiBatman's worth of copies of it. (As the value of a Batman in copies is somewhat variable there is some luck involved.)

2) News relayed to me by Aaron ps238principal Williams that a British court ruled against Lucasfilm in a copyright case involving the Imperial StormTrooper costume from Star Wars. The judge had declared that the costume was "industrial design" rather than "scuplture" under the legal definitions (the copyright on it had run its course) and become public domain. My immediate thought was on the status of car design--whether the motorcars built before 1995 were suddenly made public domain by this ruling.

3) There are only six or so songs left to vend in my quota for Dread & Terror.

4) All of a sudden somebody is following my LJ via Blogged. I'm supposed to have a Widget working to tell me more about that as part of the LJ, but I haven't figured out how and where to put it up. Welcome, Kikuko...hope you are comfortable here.

5) According to the Japanese site www.saiani.net, the game Armored Core will have an OAV spinoff released sometime in 2010. I'll be watching for this in my usual around-the-blinders fashion.

6) Jon Bon Jovi was on Fresh Air yesterday. He says he absolutely hated the music videos his band made back in the Eighties. I wonder what the boys would have done if they had more creative control back then.

Anybody else notice that money now comes with an expiration date? "Best SPENT by January 1, 2010"?

It's even on the nickles and dimes.

FP

Due to the contraversy on the rec.aviation.military forum on USENET (yes, I still check USENET every day, even if the server is regurgitating messages from years past) I have been informed about the Air Force's "rediscovery" of the trainer-as-counter-insurgency-strike aircraft and the use of ex-Raptor funding in this program. Yes, the Air Force has done this on a regular basis. In Korea, they pulled T-6 Texans out of mothballs, put bomb racks on them and sent them after Mao's Mob. In Vietnam, they had to scrounge T-28 Trojans from junkyards and mount flare pods on them to mark targets on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. For Desert Storm, they decided "well, better wait to retire the OV-10 Bronco--gonna need those for Iraq and Kuwait". Between the wars, the pundits always conclude that small, low-altitude aircraft have no place over a "modern" battlefield, and then war comes along and there's a need to be filled. Something cheap, easy to use, that can be fielded close to the front lines without heavy support demands. (Of course, for all its high-technology and specialization, the F-22 is none of these things.)

Anyway, my look into that story led me to this story, and from there to this story. Yes, a "random encounter", just like what role-playing gamers have seen over the last three or four decades. A weapon is only as good as the person who uses it...and even the best can be beaten if he makes an error of judgment.

Haiku2 for frustratedpilot
tomorrow or else soon i'm certain we'll need to be animated
@ aboutmylife.netadvogato.orgblogger.comblogs.gnome.orgblogspot.comdeadjournal.comgreatestjournal.cominsanejournal.comlivejournal.commyspace.comspaces.msn.com
Created by Grahame

Took a lot of tries to get a decent one this time.

* Getting handed a bag of mousetraps. (I've never used them before and my father never told me he was getting them.)

* Refueling Moonshine after all the running-around done over the weekend.

* Buying a pair of cheap Coca-Cola glasses at Dollar Tree to replace one my mother broke at dinnertime.

* Learning that the Morristown Dunkin Donuts store will open on April the 6th.

The Acai Berry Trade Promotes Child Abuse.

It does. Look up the lyrics for "Linstead Market".

PS: I really hate the jingle for the Create Network.

IF A MOVIE WAS MADE OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
Here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button.

Ready? GO! ( The Soundtrack of DREAD & TERROR--Volume Two! ) I hadn't done this before as I have only used WinAmp for a little while and didn't figure Shuffle Mode till just today.

Hey.

I had to get out of the house and go somewhere before the weekend, but I couldn't decide where I wanted to go. So I rolled a die. 4 equalled Sevierville, and so there I went.

There, I found that the Dollar General stores restocked their Bandai DVDs, so I bought three:
The Big O first season #3
Gundam 0080 #1
The Red Spectacles, a live-action movie from Oshii that unleashed the Hellhounds Police on an unsuspecting culture. I kinda liked Jin-Roh, although I must have been the only one to watch it on the big screen in Knoxville.

Since they've restocked, the hunt is back in season. I've appended the shopping list I keep in my wallet, but this time I'll try to concentrate on completing sets I've already started (Big O first season, Argentosoma, Stratos4, G-Gundam, Gundam W, and the Gundam OAV serials) rather than take on additional series I don't have (Gundam TV, Ronin Warriors, Banner of the Stars, etc.).

One product I wish was available to consumers is the DVD case that can hold multiple disks. *Pulls out Microsoft Works Suite 2006 package* Look at this case! Holds five disks in the space of two regular DVD cases! If empty cases like this were available to consumers I'd buy them and consolidate my stock. But no! All the electronics and office supply stores carry are regular size and thin DVD cases, which are no improvement. I can't even replace the mutilated DVD cases I have for The Aviator or My Fair Lady, because they both are special two-in-one cases.

Sorry for the rant, but this is what happen when I roll a die. Get used to it. :)

FP

PS:

LIVE TRUMPS 1.1

watch frustratedpilot fight

CREATE YOUR CARD

So, nick_101, who do you wanna deck?

Live Trumps IS NOT JUST A MEME! Once you've created your card, click the "watch ____ fight" and see the show! When that fight's over (if you use IE), click your "Go" on your address bar for another match.

I've already Friended two LJ users because their cards appealed to me and I visited their LJ pages to see what they're about.

In theory, you're supposed to fight all the way up the chain to the #1 card. I think I've only gone six rounds at most.