I barely squeezed another hundred miles out of the damned thing when a small crease developed in the treadmill’s belt. It was tolerable but I have little idea how the thing formed. Since the last repair, I tightened the belt a quarter turn on each side because I encountered a couple slips.
A slip (what I call it, I don’t know what the correct term is, I will ask the tech) is when you’re running at a good clip and you feel the belt push forward too much. You experience a bit of a jerk in the shins or knee. Then you have a slight loss of balance. These slips can be scary. Having been thrown off by a treadmill a couple times, the experience is somewhat painful and embarrassing. The safety key popping out only lessens the severity.
Anyway, the crease grew worse and noisy. I couldn’t flatten the problem. My attempts to loosen the belt made it worse. Now the belt is pulled to one side. Somara, the Internet-search guru (or Minister of Information in the Maggi Republic) discovered that the belt is kaput, time for a new one.
The service call was put in. After a little shuffle via ProForm chat support, the process was similar to being transferred through phone queues five times yet it didn’t bother me, chat support doesn’t have annoying hold music.
Let’s see how quickly the repair is implemented and completed. Last Summer, the motor gave out on July 23. The treadmill wasn’t operational again until September 30. I am seriously looking into joining my employer’s gym as a Plan B if the price is reasonable; I recall it was a few bucks a paycheck automatically withdrawn. I need to do something. I cannot achieve my personal goal of driving down my BMI 0.1/week on diet alone. Exercise is an awesome element.
One major indicator? I aced this quiz. Rather creepy but then again, Somara and I set up a friend’s new flat-screen TV and Blu-Ray player in record time. I blame this on taking the time to actually read the directions.
Austin is in the throes of Spring and to counter the wonderful weather, since paradise always has a price, is pollen. Volumes and volumes of cedar mostly. This results in most people suffering from congestion, allergies and/or a general sore throat. One side thing I learned came from Mental Floss explaining why one nostril is blocked whenever you’re sick, we all know what I’m talking about. Hell I often recall whenever I roll over in bed and start to feel the blockage move from one side to the other…giving me the false hope both parts of my nose were going to clear! It’s amazing how the human body has this as a redundancy. I thought it was something to do with terrestrial life being symmetrical.
Huzzah! One of my favorite Austin hangouts got a write-up in the real paper, not the dying mouthpiece for developers/cancers paving over the city.
I too need to read the article. Should be quick and easy, it’s only a page.
Meanwhile, I’m pretty stoked that we’re closer to the weekend so I can make my weekly trek to regain my #1 title on Phantom of the Opera or get my initials on something else. Those of you who live around here, you better be nice to me too. I’m having my birthday party there and I can only have around 30 guests.
Without this man, Rock n’ Roll and the other genres it paved the way for wouldn’t have been as loud or as awesome. I know I’ve lost some of my hearing courtesy of Mr. Marshall’s stacks but it was worth it, especially the memories the artists using his inventions made.
Our collective divining skills provided us the clairvoyance to score this figure from the initial Series One, only to be found at Toys R Us. Playmobil’s non-adventure set characters (Elvis, Uncle Sam, Lady Gaga, etc.) are always their funniest/coolest. I guess this pizza chef could belong to the City line. Regardless I decided Skip (I named him after my uncle due to the mustache) could be the personal pizza guy to my Elvis figure. The King can’t eat peanut-butter and ‘nana sandwiches all the time.
As I’m writing this, I think the pizza Skip is serving must be cold…if it were hot, he should be wearing oven mitts!
I promise no more of these silly things until Series 3 appears in August.
Some of the jokes don’t require much hockey knowledge to be funny thanks to current events in Canada, namely the recent riots. Maybe I should apply. My French is rusty and I could only converse at a grade-school level but it’s more than some former residents of Montreal: Norm MacDonald and Michael Cera’s mother.
We haven’t had cable/satellite TV in years but it’s nice to know that if we did, there would finally be something worth watching on HUB, the channel co-owned by Hasbro Toys. Unlike Nick and Cartoon Network, HUB doesn’t have any qualms against showing 30-minute toy commercials since their content is mainly GI Joe, Transformers and My Little Pony stuff. I would be impressed if they found the means to squeeze in D&D, Magic: The Gathering and Parker Brothers board games.
This program is a welcome respite from the din of HUB’s mediocrity. It’s mostly a big nod to all the Sid & Marty Kroft stuff I saw in the Seventies; I would be negligent to omit the Sixties version of Batman. There’s an element of “so bad it’s good” kitsch to appeal to the Hipsters. For me, seeing the ‘bats finally get their due after 15 years is awesome (they’ve had at least two failed pilots). I figure Chris Jacobs’ (MC Bat Commander) previous roaring success Yo Gabba Gabba! was what it took to get someone to gamble on his original creation.
Show focuses on the band acting as superheroes: fighting monsters, teaching little lessons (with a sideways wink), etc. There’s a brief interruption every episode to show their ongoing serial cartoon. One fun touch they managed to squeeze in from their concerts is the fake commercials for Gloopy products. I loved the ring-around-the-tub aerosol for kids to weasel out of bath time, I doubt HUB would allow the pudding dispenser. The humor is campy and goofy which disqualifies it for [Adult Swim]. Then again, my favorite late-night network did air Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
Will kids enjoy Show? I doubt it. This won’t stop me from subjecting my nephews to my favorite Orange Curtain band because it’s in the name of Science! Maybe I can get them to sing “Martian Girl” or “Giant Robot-Birdhead” around the house.
In era when all you hear about is the bad news for the music industry, namely stores that sell CDs, Waterloo Records proves there will be a future with smaller, specialized places. You could say they’re the Alamo Drafthouse of record stores. To me, these two places are synonymous through Roger Ebert’s point about how customer service and unique experiences are going to be key.
Sure, you go online, buy an MP3 on iTunes, Amazon and other sites, save some money yet it’s really simplicity or convenience those experiences provide. Waterloo makes patronage more exciting through in-store performances, autographs, imports (if something is only available in another nation, tough luck with legal downloads), rarities, impulse buying/random discoveries, related stuff (shirts, posters, books, magazines) and a great staff. The Internet has made many things better (communication) and introduced new concepts (social media) yet it will never replace relationships. If it could, there would be online bars and coffee shops.
Some may think what I do is a bit much. I completely agree, not everyone shares my musical interest but most people have something to be passionate about. I’m grateful to be in Austin and have a great place to support my hobby, not a dying chain.
I need to read this again but it seems a tad reductionist. Maybe the linguist/professor has something more elaborate. It doesn’t apply too much to me since my ancestors came to Illinois long after these “original settlers.”
We only pulled off one prank today…tricking this family into thinking I quit my job at Apple because I received an offer to work part time at the Onion‘s AV Club-Austin branch to write reviews. If only. The Austin division shut down last August which is a shame, I think the publication’s Madison, WI-based DNA was a good match for Austin. However, there wasn’t really enough advertising to support them and the older, more established Austin Chronicle; they overlapped in key subjects: music, movies and books. Besides, The Onion is more well-known online with its target audience, ergo making money is trickier.
Anyway, I don’t think the Simmons family is terribly gullible. Somara and I gave an Oscar®-level performance to lure them in. I had to stop before they grew too worried about how I was going to pay for our house. Not quite as awesome as convincing people Somara was pregnant (physically impossible after her surgery despite some pyramid-scheme’s claims 2000 years ago).
Now to the Header for this month. I had trouble coming up with a great one (trust me, May will be as bitchin’ as last year’s New Zealand music tribute/quiz), then I remembered the centennial of the Titanic‘s sinking. It’s a morbid event which gave James Cameron at least one Oscar® yet some good came from the disaster.
Titanic is synonymous with a colossal failure in Americanslang. I have no expertise with the other dialects.
It was used to great comic effect by Futurama, Time Bandits and Doug Adams.
The ship is a punchline for a clever ethnic joke non-PC people enjoy.
I have a more personal connection to the event through my grandfather Everett. He was seven when it happened and I’m confident the general news took a while to reach the family farm in Central Illinois via regional papers. These factors never stopped him from retelling us kids about what transpired…as if he were there or something. Looking back, Grandpa’s account was amusing despite being inaccurate, embellished and biased. I think he would’ve loved the History Channel and Cameron’s huge movie had he lived couple more years.
…or is it Kurt Russell in 3000 Miles to Graceland?
Sometimes those whacky Germans behind the Playmobil lines make goofy choices on what constitutes a toy or play set. I’m pretty certain this one was aimed at the adults because fewer and fewer children know who Elvis was (hell, fewer adults even remember poor Liberace, never mind Lady Gaga and Elton John sharing his performance DNA). The trickier part to getting this figure involved going through these special random packs. Playmobil is getting into the same random crap business which many attribute to Wizards of the Coast via Magic: The Gathering. When I last heard WoTC being accused, I piped about baseball cards being around decades ago yet few seem to complain about their practice.
Thankfully this wasn’t the case (nor did I need to buy one!). A helpful Terra Toys staff member, Somara and I used our divining skills to feel through the packaging. The key to the King? You feel for his rather distinctive cape but there’s a Darth Vader knockoff in the series of 12 figures so you confirm it by finding the microphone. I was also allowed to open the package immediately with the understanding, I bought it regardless.
Now to anticipate the third line in August. This one will have a hockey player, a Lady Gaga type (it’s not a superhero due to the microphone) and a pastry chef for Somara.
I want to make a quick plug for Terra Toys before I go. This place is the store to shop at in Austin for everything Playmobil. As much as we love to support Learning Express, Terra Toys carries all the major genres: Pirates, Cowboys, Treasure Hunters, City, Knights, Fairies, Spies, Space, Ancient Egyptians and the new Stone Age adventures. What puts them over the top is their bins containing extra parts, animals or people. Playmobil has additional pieces you have to buy online. For example, a vending machine, an elephant or miscellaneous Union soldiers, these things aren’t sold in the sets. Terra Toys has them in stock!
OK, I have one more reason to praise Terra Toys…their staff. These people dig toys and I have always had a great time engaging them. One staffer gave me a great suggestion on a Christmas present for the budding Billy Wilder nephew.
Beware! If you have a kid under 10, you may receive something Playmobil-related for a birthday or other occasion. Believe me, I’m trying to line up a recipient for this bitchin’ dollhouse they sell.
I will blather on some more about my reconciliation and good time at SXSW (South by Southwest for those who don’t know) later. Sadly, the nice couple from Houston who took my picture with Matthew Caws of Nada Surf never followed through so that story may never happen because there’s no picture (I like to have proof, no one likes a fibber!) and/or too much time has passed. Now I want to go on about how I finally got to enjoy Austin’s relatively new commuter train.
This is the stop near our house, it's pretty sweet.
CapMetro’s first light rail line finally got rolling on March 22, 2010 and I’ve been wanting to ride it ever since. I think it’s a great idea but what do I know. In Texas, you’re a third-class citizen at best if you don’t have a car. Many residents, namely the suburban/non-Travis County dwellers (often GOP/Paultards imported from Dallas, Houston and California) believe mass transit is synonymous with Communism. Sorry, I’m a little peeved due to this little stretch of track being a fight going back to almost 1985. Never mind how much commuter-rail systems are integral to the larger American, Canadian and European cities. No wait, if an idea/concept wasn’t invented in the Deep South it’s an ‘-ism which much be rejected unless it’s racism, sexism or classism with WASPs as the ruling caste.
I’ve editorialized enough yet I think my recent round trip to SXSW proved its potential despite my biggest peeve…most jobs in Austin aren’t downtown, they’re in the blight/sprawl surrounding the city where the traffic problems are. Governor Goodhair and the Center for Bad Ideas (aka the Texas legislature) plan to solve Austin’s issues by putting a Spanish vacuum cleaner on everyone’s wallets…you know, toll roads “owned” by Spanish interests. I would say the Economist‘s argument favoring these remora routes to alleviate congestion is bullshit after living in the vicinities of Chicago and Philly.
Back to the trip. Sorry.
For well over a year, I have been trying to schedule a day off from work to take the red line into downtown Austin. The trick was to make sure I had enough to do since I would be stranded for about eight hours; it used to stop operating after 9-10 AM and come back online around 4 PM. When SXSW 2011 occurred, CapMetro tried scheduling some extra trains during the Friday and Saturday evenings. These must’ve been succesful for they did it again. So I scored a Friday off and decided to take up Chip’s offer to see the free performances Waterloo Records offered.
Many other people must’ve had the same idea. Howard Lane is the third stop on a southbound trip and when I got on board, the two cars were over half full. By stop number four (Kramer Lane), it was elbows to anuses. I think people were turned away at Crestview and Highland Mall. I was fortunate enough to score a seat. Next on the agenda, test out the free Wi-Fi. This was rather disappointing and I wasn’t really pushing on the connection with something needing much bandwidth (a game or stream). In CapMetro’s defense, it was free and I figure they’re anticipating small devices on the Wi-Fi, not so much portable computers.
I arrived downtown as planned! The stop was Fourth Street, across from the Austin Convention Center. Overall it is perfect. Congress Avenue is four blocks East; Sixth and its attractions are two blocks North (Alamo Ritz); the Bat Bridge is around six blocks South; and a key destination I plan to get reacquainted is over six North (Stubb’s and the Mohawk). As for today, this would take more effort, Waterloo Records is over a mile on foot. However, I needed the exercise and sunlight. I received them in spades. The bigger benefit was how much I paid…$2.75 one way which is cheaper than a gallon of gas. Parking would’ve been the larger rip off. Again, mass transit put me ahead!
My forays back and forth were repeated Saturday.
Now the best news of all. CapMetro is experimenting with Friday and Saturday evening runs. The train will just keeping continuing after 6 PMish on Fridays until about midnight. With Saturdays, it will come online around 4 PM. The only downside is Lakeline being the last northbound stop instead of Leander. I can live with it.
I’ll close with the Saturday arrival. I know little kids will dig it, they always love trains.
