a place no spaceships go

Ever have one of those days where you haven't thought about something for months and then it comes up several times independently in one day? I've had that feeling twice today - about space elevators and the tale of Prometheus. Very odd.

Incidentally I was also reading about Atlas, who was Prometheus' brother, and in fact it was not the Earth he was punished to hold up.

I beat Ace Combat 6 for the fourth time this morning (after getting it upon release on Wednesday) so I'm taking a break - hoping one of my friends will get a copy as well so I can try some of the online features. Instead of Xbox this evening I have been watching new episodes of QI on YouTube.

Lots of car stuff. First and foremost, I saw an Enzo on the road yesterday! That is by far the rarest car I've seen here, with only 400 made.

The Nissan GT-R has been making a lot of news lately. It was just officially shown off recently at the Tokyo auto show. It's already been to the Ring, where it posted a lap time of 7:38, which puts it above a Z06 or a 911 Turbo. The GT-R is apparently going to be the poster car for at least two new racing games, NFS ProStreet and Gran Turismo 5. The former I tried the demo for and found to be awful; the latter will be PS3 only.

GT5 is also going to have the Top Gear test track. That makes me almost want to buy it. Maybe with the current trends of PS3 price drops, the console will be $50 by the time the game comes out around Christmas next year.

Top Gear is back today after a week off so the BBC could televise snooker, and it looks to be an awesome episode. It isn't going to have one film that takes the whole episode like some of the latest shows have. Unfortunately the torrent is crawling so I won't be able to watch it until tomorrow.

50k

i can't feel you there

My iPod has been working OK for a while, but now it's started a new game - locking up when I try to sync it with iTunes. Fortunately I can use the power cable to keep it powered, but that means I can't load up the new Gobeski/Wallace Report podcast.

I've been spending some time cleaning up the kitchen. The plume of ash got tiny carbon flecks everywhere, so I now have to clean every surface. I did get the stove cleaned up nice, and now I'm enjoying some frozen pizza. I also bought a fire extinguisher to curtail future incidents.

I blew some money this weekend and some of it was on a Halo 3 wireless headset. Note this in no way implies my endorsement of the game. Another $20 got me a receiver for the computer, so I can now use Skype with it as well. Adam and I tried that for a little bit, and now that Skype usage is starting to proliferate amongst our circle of friends a multi-way podcast may appear in the future. We have to commission a technical feasibility study first though.

Sunday night again, so pulling down the next Top Gear. Someone posted a lower resolution one so I should be able to get that before it gets stupid late and let the full size one run overnight.

fire, brb (part II)

I figured out the mysterious source of the fire. It was a damned spatula. I had used it the previous day to scrape some peanut butter out of the jar and then tossed it in the sink. Then when I put the pot in the sink the next day to fill it with water, the peanut buttery spatula stuck on the bottom.

That would explain why the smoke smelled like nasty burnt plastic.

fire, brb

I accidentally started a fire today while trying to boil water. I still have no idea how it started. My initial theory was that a towel was caught under the pot I was heating, but whatever the hell I pried off the stove was more white and rubbery. So I don't know what the hell it was. The more pressing concern after getting the fire out was the fact that the entire apartment had filled with smoke. And yet didn't set off my smoke alarm, come to think of it. I should probably check up on that.

I opened up all the windows, got the fans going and drafted my ionizer to clear the air, and I went out. I didn't have anywhere to go, so I went to Fred Meyer, where they had copies of The Orange Box which I have been looking for but had not been able to find. So when I got back I cleaned up some of the mess and then played through Portal. It's an interesting game. I then started HL2: Episode 2, but I was too used to playing with the portal gun to deal with it.

TG1001

Decided to stay up. Totally worth it.

still chasing skies

Now that it's October, the rainy season is upon us here in Oregon, but I am looking forward to another new development - my master's diploma should be showing up soon. Technically I have been a Master for three months, but it's good to have the official proof. Just like how my business cards showed up, so I feel more of a proper engineer now.

Once more this is not a mere Sunday night, but a Sunday night with a new Top Gear torrent running. Series 10 just started up. From the previews it looks pretty good. I've had torrents running since 2 but none have finished yet. Now I have to gamble on whether it will finish at a reasonable hour or if I should just go to bed.

Last week, figuring I am not building a new PC in the near future, I picked up a used copy of Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the 360, and worked my way through that. I had played it before but didn't beat the last guy. Yesterday I picked up Need for Speed: Carbon, which is the sequel, and I finished it today. Obviously, the campaign is much shorter, and there are other ways you can tell the game was half-assed (in standard EA fashion), but the number one annoyance I have is that the version I got does not have the Camaro Concept, which I had been led to believe and was the only reason I got the game to begin with, and I need to hunt down another copy if I want it. The least they could do was at least offer it on Xbox Live as an extra download.