Thank you for making an appointment to Donate Whole Blood.
Location: Lansing Donor Center
1729 East Saginaw Street
Lansing, MI 48912
Date/Time: Monday – March 30th 2009 – 04:00 PM – EDT
Author Archives: David Crampton
Doctors and Auctions and Random Cooking
First trip to the doctor for Cian today. He’s got conjunctivitis in one of his eyes, otherwise he’s fine. His growth is normal and healthy, and he’s gained all of the weight back that he lost at the hospital, plus some. I’m not naturally distrustful of doctors, but I have to admit that this pediatrician put me at ease as soon as he came into the room. I kind of wish that he was in Lansing. Since he’s not, I need to find one that will take both Medicaid and military insurance.
My welcome back to eBay has been interesting, to say the least. Now, when accepting payment via PayPal, and your auction is classified as “risky”, they will hold the payment until:
21 days have passed
Positive feedback has been received
Delivery of the item has been confirmed by PayPal
Risky means that your auction has ended for more than $100, or it’s in one of the “risky” categories, such as computer parts.
I think 90% of my positive feedback has been from selling computer parts. Needless to say, this is beyond irritating. That, and one of the winners of my auctions has already decided not to pay, and is not responding to attempts at communication. My first group of auctions back, and I’ve filed an Unpaid Item case. CraigsList has its own share of dumb, or I’d already be using it. 5/6 successfully completed auctions isn’t that bad, is it? *headdesk*
—
Random Cooking with Dave
—
Four pieces of Tilapia that has been frozen so long, they’re almost guaranteed to have freezer burn
Olive oil
Water
Garlic Garni purchased at the RenFest
Eight slices of Pepper Jack cheese left over from a Walmart lunch meat tray
Tortilla chips left over from Los Tres Amigos and El Azteco
Preheat oven to somewhere between 350 and 450 degrees.
Place water, olive oil, and Tilapia in a glass baking dish. Frozen fish is floating. Hee!
Sprinkle liberally with Garlic Garni.
Bake at around 350 for 7 minutes, grumble about the water not boiling away yet, and raise oven temp to 450.
Bake for five more minutes.
Pull out of oven and drain almost all of the fishy, oily water.
Lay two pieces of pepper jack cheese on each piece of fish.
Crumble tortilla chips and sprinkle over everything. Liberally. No, really. Don’t be shy.
Bake at around 450 for 10 to 12 more minutes. Or, really, however long until the water has evaporated and the grease from the cheese is boiling.
Let cool until cheese can be cut with a spatula.
Enjoy!
An actual blog post
http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=ad1038b6-ce73-4c09-8e8b-131dbc89348c
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmcrampton/3325061074/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmcrampton/3325071764/
He was born at 7:34 AM on Monday, March 2. He was 9 lbs, 1.4 oz. He’s lost some, since then, as babies do. He’ll begin gaining soon, as
Aidan’s definitely a righty, so I’m holding out a special hope for Cian. ;)
When I’m laying him on my shoulder or on my stomach to burp him or just to hold him while he falls asleep… I’d swear to anyone that would listen that I am in heaven. I’ve told people that being a family man has added an entirely new dimension to my life. This baby that has come into my life… another entirely unexpected and amazing dimension to my life. It wasn’t empty before, but it’s so very, very full now.
I am a happy father, a happy husband, and a happy man.
McGoo
Monday’s the day.
As long as he doesn’t boot his way out through
Monday morning. Early morning. It’ll still be dark when we get to the hospital.
Did I mention early?
I had better brew some of the holy bean the night before, or I’ll be even more out of it. More than, you know, the out-of-it generated by welcoming my son into the world.
Monday. :)
Time Bandits, The Prophecy 2, Ghost Rider, The Prophecy 3, and The Animatrix
Take the Princess Bride, put it in a blender with Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail, drop in a couple of doses of your favorite hallucinogen, and you’ve got this movie. There’s quite a few cameos by Monty Python players, as well as (I think) some famous British actors from the 80’s. It was in
If you’re going to start the movie by having a nurse hit somebody with a car, and then follow up with an angel sex scene, do it up right. No, seriously. Neither the accident nor the scrumping are gratuitous. They’re integral to the plot, and that made me happy. The sequel keeps the same fast pace that the first had, complete with kicking angels out of hell, and discovering that humanity has paved over Eden (in California, of course) and turned it into an oil refinery. Mr. Walken gives another amazing performance as Gabriel. Creepy with class. Four stars.
“This is how legends are born.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time. It’s time for one of Aidan’s favorite movies! Nearly every morning, when he’s gotten up, when he’s done with his cereal, I hear him say, “Daddy, I watch Ghost Rider.” or “Daddy, Ghost Rider now please.” Though, to be accurate, it sounds more like “gho riyer”. I think that the mispronunciation might be an integral part of his cute beam design. Ah, but I digress. We’re talking about a comic book movie.
I generally like comic book movies. It should also be noted that I’ve never read the Ghost Rider comic, and never really had much inclination to. Dude with flaming head on a motorcycle. And? Anyway, every review I’d ever heard or read about this said that it was full of suck. I’d have to agree, when it comes to the villain named Blackheart. There is one scene in the entire movie in which the actor does not do his best to embody suck. Through and through. For those that have seen the movie, it’s the scene where Johnny Blaze has just fully become flaming skull head guy. He actually emotes and gestures and convinces me that he -is- the character in that one scene. He fails at every single other scene. And then there’s Nicholas Cage, who very nearly graduated from the Kevin Costner school of acting. Two stars.
I don’t usually expect the main character to get shot to death at the beginning of a movie. By a blind man. Who is carrying a bible. And yet, it worked perfectly for this movie. Christopher Walken, playing a now-human Gabriel, plays a more humble and learning angel than in the past. Hell couldn’t temper him, but humanity somehow has. The ending left a LOT to be desired. There was such a build up about the angel, whose name meant light, that stayed on Earth after the first war in heaven. The climax was weak, and the resolution seemed too easy. However, the epilogue scenes were amazing. Three stars.
I’d always thought that this compilation of animations had been released between the first Matrix movie and Reloaded. It turns out, according to IMDB, that it was released between Reloaded and Revolutions. That’s three releases in a single year, which was four years after the first movie. It’s safe to say that I now know where all of the good animation went that was missing in Reloaded. All of the skillful CGI was sucked out like a Ross Perot description of the economy, and shunted into the Animatrix.
I think again, like I did when I’d seen this for the first time, that this should have been essential viewing material when it comes to the Matrix storyline, not optional “add-on” animation. For all those that complained about a lack of depth in the second and third movies, these animations may have filled in the gaps. Like the chapter introductions in a fantasy novel, these shorts would have divided the second two movies up nicely. I rated this one five stars when I joined Netflix, and I’m going to have to continue that rating.
Penguicon 7.0
Yes, the rumors are true! David will be once again attending a convention. He will be a panelist at Penguicon 7.0, and will be on a ridiculous number of panels. (He’s had to be duct-taped to the wall since he found out he’d be on panels with both John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton.) This year, he will be handing out a new badge ribbon, which means the corresponding link will be activated here. Come and say hi, get a ribbon, take a picture, and feel free to pester him about his upcoming projects.
Automobile Adventures
My wonderful wife made omelettes this morning. It must be the shredded cheese mix that she uses, because they come out tasting amazing every time. The ham wasn’t overpowering, and it was done to perfection (she calls it “burned”). After taking Hunter to school, picking up Morgan for day care goodness, and picking up a mug of Tim Horton’s crackified coffee, breakfast was a great finish to the start of my day.
I’m not a morning person yet, but I seem to be on my way. And after yesterday, I’m surprised the both of us didn’t just curl up under the covers and tell the day where to shove it.
Both cars. Out of comission. Aidan and Morgan in the car with us in Howell, Hunter in school in Lansing.
Well, the brother in law injected himself with a shot of pure awesome, and left school to come and rescue us. A 30-dollar lifetime-warrented water pump and some scraping away of the old gasket later, and my car was functional. A replacement ball joint was acquired, as was contact info to start climbing the corporate ladder to get the rim paid for due to the faulty part. However, a replacement rim seemed to be scarce in the area, so we brought my car back and collapsed. AFAIK, all we’re waiting on is the rim, and we’ll be able to go back and rescue the Focus.
We’ll be a two-car family again soon. As it is, I’m full of coffee, egg, cheese, and ham. Yum!
I have much to say.
I’m updating from a new/refurbished laptop that has come my way thanks to the amazing
I hesitate to call the machine reliable, lest it suddenly become not. Yes, it’s running Vista (Home Premium), but I’m not complaining too much. It is after the SP1 threshhold, after all. Also, it’s a Dell, who happens to also sell machines with Linux pre-installed. So, both wallet and conscience were served.
For Yule,
“Skippy! Your mp3 player! I found it!” We were on our way to Howell to pick up
After waiting a few hours for it to dry, I gave it a shot. My Philips GoGear survived being lost in the snow, shoveled into a snowbank, being melted on, and then being dried out. It works flawlessly. It’s one hardy piece of tech.
Good gift. :)