This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
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 I started this DVD like 8 times. Then I’d forget where I was and start over. So I think I’ve seen “When She Was Bad” the first episode on this disk just way too many times. Actually, I think that is true of all four on this disk. That would be “When She Was Bad”, “Some Assembly Required”, “School Hard” and “Inca Mummy Girl”.
The latest time through was when I was making some recent plane flights back and forth to Seattle a few weeks back. I started out watching another DVD I had with me… The Last Temptation of Christ… which was on my NetFlix list because many years ago somebody once mentioned that I should see it. So I started watching it. Just a few minutes in they are nailing some guy to a cross. (Not the main character, that comes later I guess.) And it is all bloody and violent and stuff. At that point I realized there were two under 10 types in the seats next to me looking over and wondering what I was watching. So I stopped and put in Buffy.
Over the course of a couple of flights I finished off the disk. School Hard is one of those episodes that survives multiple reviewings. What with the Spike and all. When She Was Bad is OK too. Inca Mummy Girl starts wearing thin after being watched a few times. And I dreaded watching Some Assembly Required for the umpteenth time. But I did, because I had to watcht he whole disk in order, and remember I had done so for it to count!
And so I did.
Monday afternoon I suddenly started having worse and worse pain in my abdomen. I tried to convince myself it was probably something I ate, and that’s what I said when I wrote the rushed note saying I had to go home sick from work, but I had a strong suspicion as to what it really was. Yup, for those of you who have been reading this blog for more than just a few months, you’ll know. It had all the classic kidney stone features.
I drove home as fast as I could, with it getting worse by the second. About a mile from home there was a sudden very sharp pain, then it got a bit better, but still hurt a lot. As soon as I got home I took a pain pill and lay down. When that kicked in about an hour later, I felt much better.
Except for the massive cold/flu that had been threatening me for over a week but choose this moment to suddenly flare up to full intensity as well.
So, while doing bits of work from home both Tuesday and Wednesday, for the most part I was in pain, drugged up and on top of it a massive cold. It was fun and exciting.
But Wednesday morning my suspicions were confirmed and indeed… three kidney stones.
Since that moment the pain and such has gotten much better. (Usually takes a couple days to fully recover.)
Even the cold is on the upswing. I’d say I’m back up to about 80% capacity.
Oh, and there are no pictures this time because Brandy tends to complain when I post the pictures of these things, even though I think it is quite interesting. :-)
 Author: J. K. Rowling
Started: 22 Nov 2005
Finished: 4 Dec 2005
870p / 13d
67 p/d
I started reading Book 5 a couple of weeks before we got to see the movie of Book 4. By the time we got out of the movie I only had 150 pages left or some such. So, silly me, what did I do? I stayed up all night finishing it. Only had about an hours sleep before I had to get up to go to work. But you get to that sort of point in that kind of book, and you just can’t stop, it would be wrong!
Anyway, I can’t actually remember the last Harry Potter book before this (as mentioned when I talked about its movie) but I enjoyed this one. You can tell by my average rate of 67 pages a day. That is a lot for me! That is partially because it is the kind of book that makes you want to pick it up and read it rather than watching some TV or doing something else. And of course it is partially because it is relatively lareg print at probably a 5th grade reading level or so. Not all that many dense hard to understand sentences that you have to go back and read several times to get the point. Like the Jefferson Davis book. :-)
Anyway, if you like any of the HP books, you will of course like this one. They get a bit darker and more serious as they go on, and the transition as the kids get older seems to be done pretty well.
Well, I have to run to lunch. Meeting Brandy and joining Amy for lunch at the school. But not eating the school lunches ourselves. That would be crazy!
A big decision was reached today. It will be a few days probably before I can really say anything publicly here on this blog. But the decision has been made. And I am quite happy about it. If you want to know prior to me officially posting here, call or email me privately. I’ll be happy to share.
 We waited a couple weeks after it came out for various reasons, but last weekend we managed to get it in before I had to leave town again for work. This is of course the latest Harry Potter movie. Big hit. Everybody knows about it I would imagine. Checking my records I read the book from 25 Feb 2001 to 14 Mar 2001. So I remembered parts of it, but really not all that much. At least not coming in. Walking into the theater if someone had asked me about the plot, I probably could have remembered close to zero. I did remember bits as the movie progressed, but not enough that I was comparing it to the book in my head or anything.
Anyway, I definately walked out of this one thinking it was the best fo the four so far. A little less “kiddie”. Had some humor, but a lot of stuff going on as well. And it was fun and kept my attention. It had the usual sort of Harry Potter thing where everything gets wrapped up right at the end and tied up in a bow, but that is just what these are. And that is OK.
Harry does look more and more like Frodo as he ages though.
Oh, and it kinda annoys me that his scar isn’t a little more visible.
But other than that… excellent Harry Potter movie.
 I was reminded a bit ago about this incident from the days before I had a blog. And I thought it might be worthy of a darkflash. If any of you remember other amusing emails I sent out years ago, suggest them. Perhaps I will put them in a Darkflash too.
In any case, the following is an email I sent out to some of my friends on 2 Mar 2002 at 20:20:33 UTC. Enjoy. And keep in mind: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!! (I certainly never will again!)
OK, it took me a lot longer than I had planned because I took a couple detours.
But a few seconds ago I hit the following reading on my scale:
3/2/2002 17:43 GMT — Weight 170.0 (BMI 24.4) — % Body Fat 22.2%
This means on BMI I am down 10.5 pounds (1.5 BMI points) , or 5.8% from my worst of the year.
(On %BF I am down 2.3 points, or a 9.2% improvement from my worst of the year.)
In any case, the specifics don’t matter. What matters is that I had promised that when I hit 170.0 I would eat an entire package of Oreo Double Stuffs and report on what happened. I bought the pack of Oreo Double Stuffs over a month ago and have kept it unopened. I have also been keeping stocked on milk (whole milk of course, I don’t like the watered down kind) waiting for this moment. I’ve had to throw away 2 gallons of milk as they went bad before they were needed, but I have a fresh gallon waiting. (Almost, I actually opened the gallon and made some hot cocoa a couple times, so I have a little less than a gallon.)
Anyway, here are the stats. The package of Double Stuffs has 15 ounces of cookies, or 425 g. That is 0.93 pounds of cookies. So just under a pound. I will also count how many cups of milk I drink. I will be using a measuring cup to determine how much milk I drink with the cookies.
I will give nutritional stats on what I eat (both milk and cookies) when I am done.
Anyway, here goes:
Before: 3/2/2002 17:43 GMT — 170 lb (24.4 BMI) — 22.2% BF
Time to eat the cookies…
OK… I have now eaten half the pack of Oreo Double Stuffs… (that’s 15 cookies) and have drunk 3 cups (0.7 liters) of whole milk.
I am definitely starting to feel a bit sick. And it is harder to eat these. But I must finish of course! So here I go for the second half…
I have now eaten 21 cookies… And drunk 4 cups of milk. Each cookie now is a major effort, and I’m having to wait several minutes between each cookie, and am definitely getting queasy. I only have 9 cookies left to go. I know I can do it. I just have to take my time. And use my willpower. This is rather crazy, but hey, a promise is a promise…
OK… 22 cookies… And another half cup of milk. I am missing my haircut appointment. I’m also feeling pretty sick now. That last cookie was really difficult. So I am going to lie down a few minutes before I regroup and attack the last 8 cookies…
OK, took about a 15-20 minute break, time to try again… Did 3 more cookies… Time for an other pause. 5 more cookies to go, but I need to wait a few minutes…
Did one, waited five more minutes… Four to go… I’m now on my 7th cup of milk… Lets see if I can crunch through these last 4…
I did 2… One more five minute break, then I’ll finish up… I’m feeling less sick going slowly.
OK… Here goes… The last push… OK, one more cookie down…
One to go… Ahh!!!
Done!!! 30 Oreo Double Stuff Cookies, and 8 cups of whole milk (that is 1.9 liters).
Here is the before reading again:
Before: 3/2/2002 17:43 GMT — 170.0 lb (24.4 BMI) — 22.2% BF
OK, time for the after reading:
After: 3/2/2002 19:56 GMT — 175.0 lb (25.1 BMI) — 25.2% BF
OK, this means that in one “meal†I ate 0.9 pounds of cookies, and drank 4.1 pounds of milk. My weight and BMI increased by 3.5% in one meal, and my %BF increased by 13.5%. Ouch! I also note that at 25.2% BF, this completely wipes out all gains I’ve made for the entire year, and for that matter sets a new “worst†for the year on Percent Body Fat. My previous worst %BF was 25.0% which I last hit on January 13th.
OK, adding up both the 30 cookies and the 1.9 liters of whole milk, here are my nutrition stats for this “mealâ€:
First of all, including time to write the intro on this email and my pauses, this “meal†took me 2 hours and 13 minutes. That is one cookie every 4 minutes and 26 seconds, and one cup of milk every 16 minutes and 38 seconds. I went much faster for the first half of the cookies, but then I had to slow down.
Calories: 3300
Calories from Fat: 1460
Total Fat: 169 grams (251% of recommended daily amount)
Saturated Fat: 62.5 grams (320% of recommended daily amount)
Cholesterol: 280 milligrams (96% of RDA)
Sodium: 3170 milligrams (130% RDA)
Total Carb.: 388 grams (137% RDA)
Fiber: 15 grams (45% RDA)
Sugar: 283 grams
Protein: 79 grams
Vitamin A: 48% RDA
Vitamin C: 48% RDA
Iron: 90% RDA
Vitamin D: 208% RDA
OK. That’s it for now. I missed my haircut, I will have to call and reschedule. But I think I will reschedule for next weekend rather than trying to go in later today or tomorrow. I don’t feel as sick any more, but I am now very tired and wiped out. I need to just relax, watch TV, and sleep.
I’ve eaten enough for a couple days. We’ll see how long it takes me to drop the five pounds from the cookies and milk. I may try to just fast until I get back to 170.0, but if I get really hungry I’ll probably snack. If I just fast it off I should be back to 170.0 by Monday. We’ll see.
OK, I am going to go lie down. I need to lie down.
Later all.
 Going back a bit again, over the Thanksgiving weekend Amy picked a second movie for us to watch. Robots. I’d thought it looked cute when it was in the theater, but we never got the chance. So we watched it. And I was right. It was cute. A few crude jokes I could do without, but for the most part it was a fun little movie. I am remembering not enough of it right now, but it was fun. See, I really have to get better at writing these up right after I see the movies rather than weeks later. My memory is really bad and fades quickly. Right now I am in an airport waiting for a flight and a few feet away from me is a guy asleep on one of the seats snoring loudly.
Oh, the movie? Lets see. Little robot goes to the city to make it big. Gets disillusioned. Then when all seems lost things get better. See, typical robot movie. :-) There was one part that when I saw it I thought to myself, “I must remember to mention that when I write this up!”
But of course I do not remember what that was.
![]() A couple weeks ago Chad suddenly sent an email asking “Sam, what has your cousin Jake been up to lately- making WPT final tables by chance?” and enclosed a link with the picture here and some interesting quotes:
Would a Legend Win the Legends of Poker
(BJ Nemeth, Cardplayer.com)
Day Four: The Final Table
The final six players who would play for more than a million dollars the next day in front of the WPT cameras were:
1. Todd Phillips $1,900,000 Seat 2
2. Alex Kahaner $1,855,000 Seat 6
3. Kenna James $1,540,000 Seat 1
4. Jake Minter $1,525,000 Seat 3
5. Tim Phan $1,085,000 Seat 5
6. Kevin O’Donnell $500,000 Seat 4
…
The blinds skyrocketed to $100,000-$200,000 ($20,000 ante) after the break, costing the players an average of $120,000 per hand. Here were the chip counts at the break:
1. Kenna James $3,680,000
2. Alex Kahaner $3,380,000
3. Jake Minter $1,320,000
Rather than going on tilt, James increased his chip lead after the break, coming back to again hold more than half of the chips in play ($5,200,000).
In hand No. 112, Kahaner raised to $500,000 from the button, Minter moved all in with A-5, and Kahaner immediately called with A-9. Minter was dominated, never improved, and was eliminated in third place, earning $333,600.
(via Chad Hunter)
Indeed, looking at the picture I did immediately know that the Jake Minter in the article was indeed my cousin, although I had not heard this news through the family grape vine. Yup, this was Jake Lightning Minter, the very same cousin who had given me my stuffed bear “Red Bear” when I was a newborn and he was six months old. Yup. That one.
Anyway, congrats to Jake and continued good luck on such endeavours!! Next time let me know when you’ll be on TV and I’ll be sure to Tivo it! :-)
 Over thanksgiving break we watched an Amy chosen DVD for the first time in many months. Her Netflix movie at the time was Roger Rabbit. She had already watched it, but she really wanted us to watch with her. So we did. I missed a few seconds here and there, and we had an interruption during the final credits, so I almost considered not counting it, but in the end rationality prevaled. I did watch the movie. It does count.
I hadn’t seen Roger Rabbit since I saw it in the theater I don’t think. I’d seen parts of it, but never sat down and watched the whole thing. Given that the last DVD I watched before this was Fantasia, it was a lot of fun seeing “half the cast of Fantasia” near the beginning. And there were some other bits I didn’t remember from the first time around.
I remember really liking it when it first came out. NOw I just sort of thought it was OK. I think Roger himself is annoying. The part that was the most fun for me was actually just all the cameos of the Disney and WB cartoons. That was fun.
Anyway, twas an OK movie choice and a good way to spend an evening.
Next…
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Sometime Sunday night, Nala died after several months of illness. He’d been getting progressively thinner, less active, and more dried out. We were able to slow things down and give him a little bit longer by changing the kind of light he had and doing a lot more misting and a lot of extra hydration. It helped some, but not enough. Poor guy. He was with us a decent length of time for an anole though, especially since we have no way of knowing how old he was when we got him. He was a present from Amy to me two Christmases ago. He’s followed me through three houses! A lot of the symptoms looked like they may very well have just been old age.
He just got thinner and thinner and ate less and less and slowed down more and more. Over the last two months we came home at least three or four times and thought he was no longer with us, but then when we reached in to check he would look at us and blink, and decide that he wasn’t quite gone yet. This time it was clear over the weekend that he was in his last hours. But he still managed to go from one side of the terrarium near the water dish over to the other side and up into his favorite fake plant.
He died in his favorite fake plastic plant that night and I buried him, along with the plant, in the back yard.
He was a cute little guy.
Goodbye Nala.
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