31 Weeks

We hit 31 weeks yesterday. It's hard to believe that in (possibly less than) 9 weeks, we'll have a new member in the household. We have sonograms every two weeks, roughly, and they're about to increase in frequency. It's good for me, though, because I have been using these doctor visits to test my sonogram-reading abilities. Whereas we don't want the sonogram techs to tell us the sex of the baby, I want to see if I can figure it out. So far, I haven't really been able to tell. I'm hoping that one day, one of the sonogram techs will let me use the thing. Yeah, you're not the only one who doubts that.

In addition, the Girl has the blinders on. She's very pregnant. She knows she is, but she doesn't believe me when I tell her she has a massive baby bump! Really, you can tell she's pregnant. And if that weren't enough, the baby might come out knowing how to play soccer. At least he/she kicks very well. Sometimes I can see her belly jump.

But no, she doesn't believe she has a baby bump...

(Psst... she does)

A Whole Lot of Happenstuff

Well now, it's time to be more regular in the world of the blog. A lot has happened lately.

First off, I got a baby mobile... with a turbo! I went the route of the Mazdaspeed3. It has four seats and four doors for the baby, and the turbo's for me. It's a joy to drive, and will be a joy to suck my head into the seat after I break it in. No head sucking when the baby's in the car, though. I am, after all, a responsible human being.

We have reached 30 weeks in the pregnancy! And, since we're high risk, we get sonograms every two weeks. And these are 3-D sonograms! It's awesome. We walk out with ever better renderings of our child.

We also don't want to know the sex of our child until it arrives. Some people think we're strange. It's driving the grandparents nuts. But, we like it this way. However, I am taking this opportunity as a challenge to see if I can read sonograms. I don't want anybody to tell me the sex of the child, but I do want to see if I can figure it out from looking at the sonograms. I think, so far, that I've failed. I've also gotten the sonogram techs to teach me about anatomy during the sonograms. It's pretty cool. I'm hoping that they'll let me mess with the sonogram buouy, or whatever it's called, someday. That'd be awesome! Somehow, I don't think it'll happen. One can hope.

OK, Argentina's about to play Germany. Two soccer powerhouses going at it deserves my full attention. Until we meet again...

Once More, With Feeling - 2010 WRX vs. 2010 Mazdaspeed 3

So now I'm 30, and with it brings the satisfaction of being able to answer one of my current great questions; which do I want to drive next, the Mazdaspeed 3 or the Subaru Impreza WRX. Yup, I decided to celebrate the double digit flip by driving them. All three of them. I drove a Mazdaspeed 3, the WRX wagon, which the sales person assured me wasn't a wagon though we all know it really is, and the WRX Premium sedan with the SPT exhaust and short shifter.

So, the Girl and I took a ride over to our friendly neighborhood Mazda dealer and test drove the Mazdaspeed 3. I gotta say, I dig it. Before going, I read the reviews about the Speed 3. They all say that the road noise is too great and the ride is too rough. I was particularly worried about the road noise, but it's remarkably better than all of the reviews led me to believe. The interior is incredible. The technology is fun. The car is FUN to drive. When you step on the gas, you know you stepped on the gas. It GOES!

After returning the car to the dealer and learning how to open the trunk, we checked out what the tech package looks like, and what the push button starter is like, and that's frickin' awesome. I was immediately impressed with it. The speed bump test hurt a little, though. That's the only thing.

From Mazda, we drove down to the Subaru dealer to drive a couple WRXs. The first was the 5-door, bottom of the line WRX. We drove it all over. It felt somewhat sluggish. Despite the fact that I know the car is fast (even faster than the Speed 3), the response just didn't feel like it was there. The turning was a little sluggish to me compared to the Speed 3, and the interior was just bland! The clutch was quite a bit stiffer and harder to work with. All in all, I just wasn't impressed. Not at all. It felt like it took the fun out of driving a fun car. Bummer.

After we got back to the dealer, I still asked to see the WRX Premium with the SPT exhaust. While we were waiting for Subaru dude to get the keys, the Girl asked me what I thought. I asked her to tell me what she was thinking first, and she came back and told me that she could read my mind and that I liked the Speed 3 better. It's true. She can read minds. Stay away from her if you have any dirty little secrets.

Dude returned with the keys, and we got to the WRX Premium. Immediately after he turned it on, I noticed the exhaust. I love the sound of a WRX SPT exhaust. I got in afterward, and felt the clutch, and it was WORLDS better. We took it for a short drive, and it was much more fun. It was also much much louder. The exhaust boosted the cabin noise significantly. I'd consider the WRX Premium if it weren't $29,000, a full $3,000 more than the fully loaded Speed 3. The base version of the Speed 3 is even cheaper! I'm not sure that all-wheel drive and an exhaust can justify $3,000. In fact, I know it can't. Not for that interior. Not for that noise. Not when I can haul ass in a Speed 3.

The Mazdaspeed 3 is the hands-down winner. And, it's also not a car you see everywhere. I dig it. I want one...

Standard Nomenclature for Suckage

I like bad movies. It's just a part of who I am. It's the warm, gooey center that somebody eventually reaches after getting to know me for... 20 minutes, probably. I owe it to that part of myself to help bad movies.

Many bad movies are fun. Many are not. That's the problem. We need a way to classify bad movies to indicate whether they're bad fun, bad like a train wreck from which you can't take your eyes, or so bad you'd rather stab yourself in the eyes with a fork so that you won't have to continue enduring the misery.

With that in mind, I'd like to propose the following classification system for bad movies. This is my SPECTRUM OF BAD:

• Vomitously bad - The movie is so bad and not fun to watch, it will make you vomit. Who is the idiot that thought this was a good idea and actually funded it? You won't be able to watch this movie from the beginning to the end
  
• Staggeringly bad - You might make it all the way through this movie. Sometimes alcohol may help you make it
  
• Fun bad - It didn't aim to be a good movie, and it definitely isn't, but you can still watch it repeatedly because it evokes joy due to its badness
  
• Epic bad - Like fun bad, but so much better. This is one that everybody has to see, despite the fact that it isn't a cinematic masterpiece
  
• Uncanny valley of bad - Too much like a good movie, making the viewer uncomfortable liking the film since it's supposed to be bad.
  

I may amend this at some point, but this is my first stab. Yup, you'll get examples as I watch them. :-)

Next up? Gonna watch Bitch Slap.

It's True!!!

It came up in Modern Family, so it must be true. I've been saying it for years. I have my own anecdotes about it, but I have not had any hard evidence to support my theory. Today, it becomes one of the immutable laws of physics.

The quote, as it happened from Modern Family:

Claire: Haley sweetie, wake up. I need you to teach me how to use the tv.
Haley: Now? Why can't dad teach you?
Claire: Because we're married.

Now it must be true, because a prime time sitcom has recognized it to be so! You may ask now, "But Greg! Why do you know it's true?" The answer? Because I had to get somebody else to teach the Girl to drive a stick, and that's just the latest in the series.

Brew Hacking

For the first time ever (while brewing), we had too much wort. Too much wort!!! That never happens. After filling the 5-gallon bucket up to about 6.5 gallons, we still had some left over. At that point (because it's just not right to waste any beer), we had to sanitize a carboy for the leftover.

However, in going through the supplies, we learned that we were missing a piece of the air lock. It's the little middle piece that prevents the back-flow of water into the fermenting wort. We were in luck, though. Amanda, being the pack rat that she is (;-)), keeps the old test tubes from liquid yeast. She brilliantly realized that the tube fits perfectly in the outer part of the air lock. I brilliantly realized that she has a circular saw. She brilliantly realized that the test tubes are not glass, but plastic.

A couple minutes later, she cut down the tube, and then I sanded the rough edges until they were smooth like glass, and we had a complete air lock!

The process, in less sarcastic detail, is to take the yeast test tube, cut it down to about 1-1.5 inches with a circular saw (carefully). Once that's done, pick off the extra plastic bits and then use some fine-grained sand paper to polish the edges smooth. It should fit in the air lock, and you're good to go (after sanitization, of course).

Ubuntu 9.10 Networking

I just ran into a goofy problem. Every time I rebooted, I would not be able to connect to my ssh server. I finally got fed up with having to switch keyboard and mouse cables (lacking a KVM), and so I decided suddenly to tackle the problem.

Switching to TTY/1, I learned after logging in that my machine had no IPv4 address. What the hell?!? The shocking thing about this, other than its existence, was that it wasn't a firewall issue.

I logged into Gnome, checked the networking settings, and obscured somewhere on the bottom of the IPv4 settings was a little check box; it said "Enable for all users." So, apparently you can limit specific network connections to specific users. If you don't already know about it, though, it can be a pain in the ass.

Driving Randomness

Thanksgiving just happened. That's a crazy story, but it's not the only interesting story.

Did you ever wonder about parking lots full of Christmas trees? Yeah, neither did I, but I still found out how they get there anyway. It's interesting driving down the street and seeing a caravan of Christmas tree delivery trucks. Unfortunately, the picture is blurry.

Another bit of driving fun always happens when we drive to Philadelphia. Every time, on the side of the road, we see a sign for a Decoy Museum. Now, as you can probably imagine, I have to wonder whether it's a real museum, or... wait for it... just a decoy. I'm tempted to go sometime. I MUST know what's there.

Nah, I don't want to talk about Thanksgiving. Driving stories suffice for now.

OS X Tips - Tagging Contacts in Address Book

I get pretty irritated with adding and removing people from groups in my Address Book all the time. I recently found a way to remedy this situation. Now, maybe this has always been the way users were supposed to use smart lists, but it was new to me.

I like to keep lists of people for emailing for different purposes. For instance, a 'rock climbing' group, and 'bad movie' group, a 'snowboarding' group, and so on. So, what I've done is created smart groups for each of these, and then, in the notes section for each contact, I've added the tags that will trigger addition to the smart group. No more manual management when something changes! Voila!

OK, well, at least I'm excited about it...

To Whom It May Concern

Dear Maryland Drivers,

It's just rain. Get over it and put your feet back on the gas pedals.

Sincerely,

Greg