It should be pronouced puh-fleg-um

Phone Rep: Thank you very much for calling Sony Manned Spacecraft Technical Support. My name is John. May I be having your number of the phone beginning, please, with area code?

Astronaut: This is spacecraft commander Jim Lovell. I'm aboard Apollo 13, and we've had a problem.

Phone Rep: Yes, I need the phone number beginning with your area code, please.

Lovell: Phone number? What? Look, we're on a spacecraft heading for the Moon, for Chrissake, something's just gone horribly wrong, and you want my phone number?

Phone Rep: Very much, sir. Beginning with...

Lovell: Yes, yes, I know...

Both: ...the area code.

Lovell: I don't think you understand. We're all about 200,000 miles away from the nearest telephone.

Phone Rep: Then how, sir, if I may be asking you now as you are talking to me, did you call technical support?

Another Astronaut: Look, this is Fred Haise. We've had some bangs, and we've got a wicked shimmy up here right now...

Phone Rep: Pardon me, are you calling about the same Sony spacecraft product?

Haise: We both are, darn it!

Phone Rep: Well then, Mr. Haise, would you be so good as to provide me a phone number starting with the area code? The other gentleman was sadly reluctant to be forthcoming...

Haise: We don't have a d**n phone. Lookit, we're talking to you on a headset connected to the spacecraft radio. And it doesn't have a phone number, either.

Lovell: Why do you want a phone number?

Phone Rep: I'm sorry, sir, you're not coming through correctly. Perhaps you have another extension you could use instead?

Lovell: There's only three headsets, each of us is using one. Now, we're in distress and we need help. Could you please put down the script and help us?

Phone Rep: Oh, I'm very much being sorry about that, but I must ask you for your phone number. We cannot begin the call without one.

Swiggert: Hang on a second here. One darned second. I don't know if you're copying us, but we're having a life-threatening problem here. We're fighting just to keep from tumbling off-course, we've got just tons of thruster activity up here, and you're telling us you can't begin this call without a phone number? We're already talking to you. So it seems like we've skipped that part. So can you just give us some basic support without the hassle?

Phone Rep: Hmm...

*thinks about this, actually wonders how he could have had this call without yet having obtained a phone number (beginning, of course, with the area code)*

Phone Rep: Well, I may place you on hold for just a moment while I speak with my supervisor about this?

Lovell: What? Put us on hold?

Phone Rep: That is correct, sir.

Haise: So you can ask your supervisor if it's alright for you to help us to keep from dying here in the next few minutes, possibly, without a phone number?

Phone Rep: That is correct, sir.

============================================
Stolen from this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=788822&page=4

I am sure this has been posted many places across the web but for those who haven't seen it, occasionally matadors don't win.

For the squeamish, I will just link to the following image and video.

Image: http://www.noticias24.com/actualidad/noticia/156125/el-espanol-julio-aparicio-sufrio-una-espeluznante-cornada-en-las-ventas/

Video: http://www.elpais.com/videos/cultura/escalofriante/cornada/Julio/Aparicio/elpvidcul/20100521elpepucul_5/Ves/

So tonight I gingerly performed surgery on the Nissan Altima to keep it, yet again, from the freeway in the sky. For a while, okay 40k miles, there has been a noticeable but relatively quiet tick from the front of the engine near the top of the valve cover. At the time I first heard it I did my homework and it turns out that the engine used in this car, a KA24DE, is prone to breaking the upper timing chain guide. Now, seeing that it didn't sound broken and it didn't change the way the car was driving I figured it was just tweeked.

I have had the car in for servicing (bad starter) and the shop, an import specialty shop, told me that the chain was on its way out but I had my doubts.

Well, last week the ticking got quite a bit louder and my intent for this past weekend was to pop the hood and take a look. Then we got sick. Then I got better. :)

So my friends I am happy to say that yes indeed it was the upper timing chain guide.

Now, here is the kicker. Nissan is aware of this problem and their solution is... to remove it. That's right! There is a Technical Service Bulletin specifically indicating that it, and the non-tension side guide should be removed as they are prone to making noise and are superfluous to the operation of the engine. As for the shop's recommendation to replace the timing chain my research has led me to believe that this chain will outlive most of the major components of the engine. Oh, and that recommendation was 20k miles ago.

Without ado, photos of my grubby assed engine:

So I know that almost no one reads LJ anymore, and certainly not mine but I still think this is the better place for this sort of thing.

So a while back I got an iPhone and on the recommendation of many a person I got an otterBox for it. I like it but it is a bit bland. After searching for suggestions on steaming out my otterBox, and seeing redheadded's colorful transformation of hers I was inspired.

A bit of prep and paint later, may I introduce the otterTock.

I heard this on KWHL a couple of weeks and it reminded me of certain friends. I leave it to you to indicate if this fits your bill.



FYI, fits me to a tee.

Okay, regrettably I have no pictures but today was my first leg of lamb! That is to say the first one I have ever prepared.

Okay, so I didn't plan on purchasing it or even shopping for it. The truth of the matter is a little bit more low brow. Our local grocery store has, as many do, a small section devoted to organ/just about to expire meats. I like to peruse it for the occasional great deal on a death-row steak. So a week and a half ago I was looking for just a steak when I spotted a vacuum packed hunk of meat. Thinking it could be the holy grail of cheap meat, the beef tenderloin, I pulled it out. To my amazement, it was an 8lb leg of lamb for half off! All told, it was just at $4/lb, a steal in these parts so hell yeah I loaded that sucker into the cart. Granted, the "Sell By" date was the next day, but these cryovac meats can keep for a month and a half easily.

After buying this hunk of bone-in meat it occurred to me that it was a hell of a thing for just the two of us to consume. Since we occasionally have Sunday dinner at Dad's house I figured that would be a prime opportunity to experiment and perhaps make a dent in the sucker. After setting a dinner reservation for today, I went about planning it.

Having never cooked lamb of any sort, I did a bit of homework and arrived at a game plan. I brined it overnight in a simple brine (salt, sugar, peppercorns), slathered it in olive oil and chopped garlic and smoked it for 3 hours over hickory. I pulled it at 130F (rare/mid-rare) which meant the thinner portion of the leg was closer to mid-well/well done. Perfect since my step-mother does not do rare anything.

In addition, I prepared this English mint sauce as a condiment with a few minor changes. Since I didn't have malt vinegar, I substituted 3:1 white vinegar and balsamic and used demerara sugar instead of white for a bit more complex flavor. It turned out very dark, but the smell was heavenly.

All in all, they both turned out most excellent! The lamb was moist, smokey and damned near "melt in the mouth". The mint sauce was not all that "minty" but was very good. It added just enough flavor, but without the sweetness that mint jelly usually imparts.

Now all I have to do is figure out what I am going to do with all this left over meat. I made up a batch of Garam Masala a while back, so I think I will saute a bit and serve over some rice for dinner one night. Perhaps gyros another. Worse case, I'll freeze it and work on it later.

This post is kind of short and sad. It's just a post to show off a new web album of visitors to our front yard.




That is all.

So, walking into Sears Mall the other day, using the same entrance I have used probably a dozen times by now, I finally noticed the Hours and Rules sign. You know, "No skateboarding, etc.". Well, as the pics below show, this sign has some very encouraging wording.



Note, "No concealed weapons..." Alaska is, naturally, home to what is referred to as the "Alaska Carry". After passing the now mandatory federal background check, there is no other licensing, registration or inspection necessary to own or carry (open or concealed) the firearm of your choosing. We do offer a concealed carry license, but it's only required for states that offer reciprocal carry rights. Open carry here is common, but not as much as you would think.

In related news this weekend is the Wasilla High School Booster Club's annual Gun Show. At the High School of course! I can just see some of the "zero tolerance" school principals going into a tizzy if they knew of it.

This post is just a quick note to wish everyone an exuberant and joyous new year. If last year was good, may it keep rolling. If it was crap, and for us it was mostly crap, may it turn around lickity split!

Well, that's all folks!

This really cool display shows the representative scale of many small things, from the visible to the atomic.