This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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July 2005
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Matt Lucks Out

Just under an hour ago, as I was driving away from work to go get packed for my trip, I was listening to CNN on the XM Radio and got this news:

STS-114 Shuttle Report | Mission Status Center

1732 GMT (1:32 p.m. EDT)

SCRUB! Today’s launch has been scrubbed for today due to a problem with the ECO engine cut-off fuel sensors. A problem with these sensors was noted during the fueling tests on Discovery earlier this spring.

From the sounds of it, looks like this will be more than a one day delay too, so I should be back before they try again. (Although they are not going to make an official annoucement for a couple more hours.) Everybody seems to be thinking this is not a short turn around event though. They have until the end of July for this launch window. After that, they have to wait until September.

Oh, and one more thing, someone please get Kira Phillips off the TV. I don’t usually watch CNN in the daytime since I am at work and all, so I don’t know how she usually is, but she has been asking some of the stupidist questions I have ever heard. Let Miles O’Brian handle this by himself. He isn’t the best in the world, but at least he sounds like he knows what he is talking about. (To be fair to Kira, she did say this was not “her area” at one point, but still…)

DVD: Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (D1)

imageWe got back too late from the space center on Saturday. Everybody was sleepy. Amy was already asleep. And this story was six 25 minute episodes. So, we skipped it for the night.

The next night, there was still some debate. We knew it was a 2 disk set, and would it be fair to watch the first part while my mom was visiting, but the second the next week, after she was gone, thus leaving her in suspense? But thankfully, it turns out all six episodes are on Disk 1. Disk 2 is all special features it seems. (So I put it way in the back of the Netflix Q.)

But when we got back Sunday, it was late again. So we decided to split things up a bit. Rather than attempt to watch all six episodes in a row we ended up watching one, then the next day three, then on a third day the last two episodes.

I feel a bit guilty for subjecting my mom to three days of this stuff. I mean, it can be fun, but that is a lot. This was a very famous story, and for the era (originally aired in November and December of 1964) it was considered to be pretty good. But the pacing is slow, the effects laughable, etc. But that was to be expected.

The quick summary of the story is here.

We did get to see some fun scenes with Daleks all around London. And the historic moment of Susan leaving. She was the first companion to ever leave. And she was the Doctor’s Granddaughter and all!

And basically, he just marooned her on Earth, with no way to get back to him or to their home planet or anything. It was because she had fallen in love with some guy and was “now a woman” and all that, and needed to start a life seperate from her grandfather. OK, fine, but… basically, he abandoned her on a planet that was not her own with some guy she had known for less than a week.

Oops.

It was fun. I liked laughing at some of it. But like I’ve said before, I’ve always had a bit of trouble getting into the first Doctor.

Anyway, that is it for the First Doctor episodes available from Netflix. Next up, the Second Doctor, and Cybermen!

Legolas Transformed

image

imageAfter I first saw the tadpole with legs, I would check in occationally. The next night, he was no longer in the tank. He was climbing up the walls next to the tank. The tail was gone. He was all frog. I called him Legolas. Leg. Get it? Ha!

Anyway, he was a tiny cute little thing. About the size of a dime. He would turn his head and look at you he would climb around. If you got too close, he would hop away…

For a couple days, he hung around the general vicinity of the tanks, and would occationally get back in the tanks. After that, I couldn’t find him any more. He hopped away somewhere, now a free frog, no longer needing to be confined to the tanks in which he was a tadpole.

Legolas, out in the real world. Good luck Legolas, against all the things out there that can eat or otherwise hurt frogs the size of a dime.

Meanwhile, at least one other tadpole is growing legs. It so far hasn’t climbed out of the water, but it will soon, I can tell. Last I looked, its back feet were ready, but the arms still hadn’t seperated. But they were close. I expect it to probably start crawling out while I am away on my trip.

There may be more. But those are the ones I have seen for sure. The rest are still very much tadpoles, swimming around like crazy, but no legs yet. I’ll be keeping watch!