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

Categories

Calendar

July 2009
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Really Long Effin Poem

Sam and Ivan talk about:

  • Goodbye Sarah Palin
  • Jupiter Gets Smashed
  • Alternate Money
  • Honduras Again
  • New Diabetes Treatment
  • US International Rep
  • Henry Louis Gates

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes

View in iTunes

Podcast XML Feed

Note: For those using the “View in iTunes” link, it often takes iTunes quite a few hours to show a new episode after the episode is posted here. So if you are looking for the podcast very soon after I post this, use one of the other methods to find the new episode. For those who are subscribed, your Podcast software should pick up the new episode next time it checks for new episodes on its own, or you can always force a refresh. For those using the XML feed directly, the new episode is now there.

DVD: Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Discovery Channel Version): Disk 3

So it was time once again for a DVD we own but hadn’t watched yet. This time it was Disk 3 of this series. There were two episodes on this disk. One thing I was struck by was that there were a number of stylistic elements that were different than the first two disks in the series. But no matter. The two were “Tidal Seas” and “Coasts”. Now, of course the area where a lot of the tidal action was going on WAS the coasts, but they differentiated with the tidal one concentrating on wildlife whose life was exceptionally strongly influenced by tidal cycles while the second one was more about just things going on at the coasts that were not tide related.

Of these two, I liked the tidal one better. More odd creatures I was less familiar with that were just neat. Meanwhile, the second one had a lot of large predators killing and eating cute penguins and seals and stuff. You’re busy thinking “Aw, what a cute penguin!” and then all of a sudden a sea lion or walrus or something is tossing it up in the air and ripping it in half or whatnot. Oops.

Anyway, this continues to be a good series. I think of the first three disks though, Disk Two is my favorite at the moment.

DO. NOT. WANT.

Just a Thought

I don’t know (yet!) about the trials of parenting an infant or toddler or other ages younger than 7, but being a parent to a teenager is definitely much more difficult and stressful than parenting a 7 to 12 year old pre-teen! Just sayin’

Alex’s Baby Registry

Oh, and yes, since a bunch of people have asked over the last few weeks… there is of course a baby registry. Of course it is at Amazon. We fully anticipate to get most of the stuff ourselves, and some of the “nice to have” we may not bother with at all, but if anybody out there DOES want to help out at all with stuff for Alex we would of course welcome and appreciate it. The direct link to the registry is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/WOM4ACMY49EM

Based on the range of estimates, best we can really say is he is due “sometime in September”, although we are guessing earlier rather than later. And we were planning on doing almost all of our baby supply purchasing at the beginning of August (to coincide with my next batch of company stock becoming available). So… if anybody wants to help… THANKS! :-)

And our baby’s name will be… William Alexander Minter

William because I noticed awhile back that on my father’s side of the family going back through his father, and his father, and his father, etc… every other generation since 1736… 273 years… has been a William Minter. (Details below.) When I showed this to Brandy, her immediate and unhesitating reaction was “Well, we know what we have to name it if it is a boy.” And that was that for the first name.

We did also decide though that we would not actually call him that on a regular basis. There is already someone in the immediate family, my father, very much still using that name. So we’ll let him continue to be the William/Bill in the family. So we’ll call him by his middle name.

We tried a bunch of names as we were testing out calling him various things after we found out the gender. “Alex” just sort of stuck. There was no single moment where we decided that would be it, it just sort of happened and then we all realized that was what we were calling him. It is also the name of my sister Cynthia’s pet snake, but we decided we wouldn’t let that stop us. :-)

Anyway, it will be “William Alexander Minter”. We will generally call him Alex. Except Amy, who has decided to call him “WAM”.

Official due date is still September 21st, although the latest ultrasounds showed him a bit ahead of schedule, with an estimated date of September 5th. (Closer to what Brandy has thought all along.) So possibly not very long now at all.

Oh, and for those who are interested, the line of William Minters…

1619-1655: John Minter
1650-????: John Minter Jr
1690-1743: John Minter III
1736-1809: William Minter
1769-1846: John Minter
1797-1871: William Minter
1833-1913: John Russell Minter
1873-1943: William Ramseur Minter
1912-1991: David Ramseur Minter
1942- : William Maynard Minter
1971- : Samuel Antonio Minter
2009- : William Alexander Minter

And yes, for awhile there was something going on with the name “John” as well, but it seemed to have petered out almost 100 years ago. :-)

Edit a few minutes later: Look at my next post for baby registry information if you are interested.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Always Reboot

Sam and Ivan talk about:

  • Healthcare and Retirement
  • Off Site Backup
  • Frustrating Software
  • Sotomayor and Congress
  • End of the Recession?
  • Space Exploration
  • Cronkite

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes

View in iTunes

Podcast XML Feed

Note: For those using the “View in iTunes” link, it often takes iTunes quite a few hours to show a new episode after the episode is posted here. So if you are looking for the podcast very soon after I post this, use one of the other methods to find the new episode. For those who are subscribed, your Podcast software should pick up the new episode next time it checks for new episodes on its own, or you can always force a refresh. For those using the XML feed directly, the new episode is now there.

We Choose The Moon

For those who aren’t already watching/listening We Choose The Moon is replaying the live audio (delayed 40 years) from Apollo 11. As I type it is 1 hour and 13 minutes until they begin the lunar decent, and 3 hours and 45 minutes until the landing. Worth a listen.

Doctor 11 – Seriously, a Bow Tie?

First Photo of Next Doctor’s Costume
(Doctor Who Official News Site, 20 Jul 2009)

His new costume comprises black boots, dark trousers, a smart shirt and bow tie with a light brown jacket completing the ensemble. It says adventure. It says laid back cool. It says Time Lord chic and we’re loving it!

Uh huh.

DVD: Sixteen Candles

So, this week was an Amy movie weekend. It actually was supposed to be for the last several weeks, but she never had a qualifying movie. This time she did. But then at the last minute she got an invite from a friend for some concert, so ditched family movie night. Brandy and I watched her movie anyway.

The movie was Sixteen Candles, which I had NEVER SEEN. I knew it was some sort of “classic” from the 80’s that was always spoken of with nostalgia. I figured that meant it was a good movie. I was wrong. There were perhaps a couple of funny moments, but it was mostly just bad and full of annoying stereotypes. Now, did I recognize some of Amy’s behavior in Molly Ringwald? OK, maybe. BUt for the most part, it was just people walking around doing things that didn’t make sense, and for which the motivations were unclear and also made no sense. And almost everybody making bad decisions and acting irresponsibly at every turn.

I admit it, I just don’t get it.

Why does anybody like this movie?