What with all the hub-bub about the new Serenity movie, I decided to watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I saw it in the DVD rack at the public library. I never watched it before, for two reasons. (1) We pulled the plug on our TV sometime in 1997, so since then we only watch DVDs and (increasingly rarely) videotapes. (2) I don’t like vampire programs, nor anything of that ilk, because I don’t like the creepy feeling you get watching people do stupid things (“don’t walk down that hallway!”) and I don’t like being startled.

But! when you factor that in, Buffy is much better than I expected when I first heard about it, five or ten years ago.

I’m still too busy to post. (Great blog, huh?)

I finished my prison gig and now I’m on vacation for the rest of the summer, studying for the Ords.

I have a GM mini-van that needs a fortune in repair work. I go online to see what’s up with this problem and find out it’s all over the place (note items 25 and 78). GM built a zillion cars with the 3.4L V-6 engine and they have a defective part. The amazing thing is that GM isn’t doing anything about it systematically. Two observations:

1. Isn’t the internet the heat? When the dealership tells you you have a problem, five minutes’ work on Google will tell whether it’s a defect or reasonable wear and tear.
2. I used to be work for a major computer firm in the data storage division. My full-time job was trying to get our warranty costs down and customer satisfaction up. At least half of our 7-figure/month warranty bill was due to customer satisfaction repairs (i.e., the unit is okay but we’re replacing it to keep the customer happy). I’m astonished the GM would consciously anger so many customers by not doing the right thing.

Apart from this repair the mini-van hasn’t been all that bad. Nobody is ever going to be passionate about a mini-van, but it hasn’t been a complete turkey. The computer had a problem that stumped the dealer for a while, and the door fell off once, and as you can see from the list of TSBs above, there’s a handful of piddly problems inside the passenger compartment, but it hasn’t been that bad.

The problem isn’t with the car, just its manufacturer.

The mint is finally starting to get to the interesting states. Go there to find out what quarters are coming out and to decide whether to bother with them.

The pope has an apostolic letter to those responsible for communications, which in the internet age, is practically anyone.

Now this story is something to keep in mind the next time someone tells you about the advantages of the European-style social democracies…

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing “sexual services” at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

(Kudus to Pejman.)

UPDATE: apparently this story is fake but accurate. (1 Mar 2005)

Not even two standard deviations! Woo-HOOO!

(Kudus to Bates Line)

Update: it occurs to me that 50% might not be the mean, nor that the percentage distribution tracks a normal curve. D’oh!

I do 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer every night, watching something or other I got from the library. The past couple of days it has been X-Men 2. Now, I was never a fan of the X-Men, or for that matter, Marvel comics. I was always a DC-type of guy and Batman was my favorite. The Batman movies weren’t all that great, and they got worse with time. But I liked the Spider-Man movies okay.

Anway, the X-Men wasn’t operating that level. It was okay to watch. I especially liked the scene where one of the characters pilots the advanced jet through about 20 tornadoes caused by the character “Storm”. CGI forever! But beyond that, whatever. I give it 2 stars (out of 4).