Saves
Eli 22.9s team went to the conference tournament without three of their top players.
Overmatched really doesn't begin to describe it. They were getting outshot 3-1 or 4-1 in almost every conference game with those three players.
Pool play in the conference championships consists of three one-period, run clock games. In other words, the perfect scenario for underdogs.
Their results in pool play: 1-0, 1-0, 0-0. In the first game, they only had one shot, but it went in, and they won. For the day, they were outshot 48-13.
They won their group.
I knew the odds of them making it through the elimination rounds (starting in the quarterfinals) were slim, because it was only going to take one bad bounce, and as soon as Eli gave up a goal, I figured it was over. Plus, the quarters and semis were two-periods run clock, which was going to make it considerably tougher.
That's what happened. They lost in the quarters 2-0.
Still, Eli said everyone was happy they won the group, considering they didn't expect to win a single game.
He finished the season with a .957 save percentage, and in regulation games (three periods, no run clock), he averaged over 50 shots faced.
In one of the pool play games, his last save broke the Oxford career record for saves. One of his teammates gave him the puck, and he said it's something he'll keep forever.
He's playing next year, too. By the time he's done, it may take someone a long time to catch him.
Mom 94.1 and the new computer
I'm installing a new computer for Mom this week. Here's an abbreviated data dump if you also need to do this soon.
First off, I ordered a Lenovo all-in-one because it had solid specs for $700 (i5 CPU, 16GB, 256SSD+1TB HD, 23.8" monitor). The monitor maxes out at 1920x1080, but that's okay, because text is a little larger for Mom and the image is sharp. Oh, and it's quiet. I've never even heard it, and I have freakish hearing (which is usually a curse).
It's much faster than I expected, and exponentially faster than the seven-year-old HP system it replaces.
It comes with Windows 11 Pro, which is fortunate, because it has zero crapware installed. Lenovo didn't load it up with garbage, either, so I didn't have to uninstall a ton of programs.
I decided this time to turn the system on and finish the Win 11 installation on the first day, resolve as many known issues as I could, then watch Mom use it every day. She has a very specific routine, and just observing helped me understand very quickly where she was having difficulty. I've done this for the last two days, and I'm fairly confident now that everything works the way she expects. I'll watch her tomorrow and resolve any remaining issues before I go home on Thursday.
Thumbs up to Lenovo and Windows 11 Pro.
Slalom
I was thinking today about the little house where I grew up. Then I remembered the slalom.
I watched the 1968 Olympics, and the skiing in particular. It was incredibly exciting, because I'd never seen snow in person. Grenoble, France seemed like magic. Skiing looked amazing, but I wasn't going to be doing it anytime soon.
Not the Olympic version, anyway.
However 6.10 Me did get our sizable stack of National Geographic magazines out of the bookcase and arrange them in the living room as gates, then put on my jeans. For the starting gate I used the doorway into the kitchen, because I could slingshot from it just like Olympic skiers. Then I "slalomed" around the gates on my knees, using my hands as ski poles.
Mom had just waxed the floors, so it was slippery, which made it even better. I timed the runs, and kept track of the best ones.
You may be surprised to find out I medaled.
Allegedly, the worst movie ever made
"Allegedly" because it wasn't released, but it's legend has only grown since 1972.
The lead actor? Jerry Lewis, who had grown annoyed at his "snubbing" by the Academy and decided to make a film so dramatic, so powerful, that he could no longer be ignored.
The plot, incredibly, is this: "a circus clown imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp." At the end of the film, the clown leads children to the gas chamber, distracting them on the way by entertaining them. The clown is so distraught that he follows the children into the gas chamber.
Well.
In the Wikipedia entry, actor Harry Shearer (who saw a rough cut in 1979, said this: [It would be as] if you flew down to Tijuana and suddenly saw a painting on black velvet of Auschwitz. You'd just think, 'My god, wait a minute!'
The original script, written by Joan O'Brien and Charles Denton, was changed substantially by Lewis, gutting the film of much of its meaning.
Lewis said the film would never be released, given the amount of ridicule, but he did donate footage of unedited scenes and sound reels to the Library of Congress with the stipulation they not be publicly available until June 2024.
It Certainly Could Have Been Worse
As it turns out, I caught a break from Honda dealer service. It's the first good experience I've had with them in three years.
They found me a new oil cap, cleaned the engine, and filled the crankcase back up with oil. $108. I didn't even have to pay the "evaluation fee."
Now there are no fumes inside my car and I don't feel like Ace Ventura when I'm driving.
I'm going to go back to "Fire" and
1. Get a refund on the oil change they fouled up.
2. Ask for a free oil change at a later date, instead of trying for cash reimbursement for the service costs. It's about a $20 delta, and I'm okay with losing that much if I can be done with it.
I'll make sure the cap is screwed on before I drive off this time, just in case.
Irony
I stopped taking my car to the local Honda service center because it was taking 3+ weeks to get an appointment.
There was another place closer to my house (it has "Fire" in the title). I started using them for tires, oil changes, etc., and they were great. Nice guys, 2 days for an appointment.
I had my oil changed there two weeks ago.
As I was driving off, I thought I smelled gas fumes, but dismissed it as coming from another vehicle at a stop light. Or something.
The fumes didn't go away, though, so I went back to "Fire" last Sunday. I described the problem, and the person behind the counter said it would probably be better to go to the dealer, because they didn't do emission/exhaust work.
Fine.
I call the Honda service center and they have an appointment in two days. Oh, and it's a $130 to bring the car in for diagnosis. I guess that's how they solved their service level issues--by extorting people until they stopped bringing their cars in for service.
I needed the dealer, though, so I sucked it up and took the car in.
They called me a while ago. The service place hadn't replaced the oil cap after the oil change. Oil's everywhere, of course. There's a bit of gasoline in oil, and that's where the fumes came from.
I'm going to try to get reimbursed from "Fire," and I'm sure it will be fruitless, even though I took the car there first and they sent me away.
It makes me just want to drive the car to a used car lot and sell it. If you add the cost of service (oil changes are $90 now--for an Accord!) and insurance (50% more expensive than last year), my junky 2014 has suddenly become very expensive to have.
Boys
At their finest:
It's going to be a very busy week (house is showing April 30-May 30), so posts will be brief, but still occurring.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, an incredible story: ‘The money is not real – it’s a feckless level of wealth’: the inside story of the biggest art fraud in American history.
This is stunning: The urban-rural death divide is getting alarmingly wider for working-age Americans.
From DQ Creative Advisor John Harwood, a terrific read: My formal 2024 solar eclipse apology.
From Wally, and no one should ever steal these: Police arrested four people over $300,000 of stolen Lego kits. This is so depressing: Incels and the Gaming-Radicalization Nexus. Sherlock Holmes nerds, your day has come: Sherlock Holmes Manuscripts: A Census Summary. This looks intriguing: An Indie Studio Just Dropped the Best Sci-Fi Anthology You Haven’t Seen For Free. An analysis: Somalia April 2024. McSweeney's! MY NEW TUPPERWARE HAS DEADASS RIZZ, BRUHew-tupperware-has-deadass-rizz-bruh.
From C. Lee, and is anyone really surprised? MONEYWATCH Lunchables have concerning levels of lead and sodium, Consumer Reports finds. An excellent read: Why Jesus Never Ate a Banana. An obscure bit of history: The Ancient Female Alchemist Whose Name Is in Your Kitchen. Unnecessary and also fantastic: This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It’s Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years. A terrific read: ‘With a Strat you can rule the world!’ Nile Rodgers, Bonnie Raitt and John Squire on the electric guitar that changed everything. This seems promising: New Window Film Blocks Heat-Producing UV Light Without Compromising the View. The first line of this interview applies to everything, really: The big Larian interview: Swen Vincke on industry woes, optimism, and life after Baldur's Gate 3. Not a bad idea: Don’t stay mad: Write your anger down and toss it away in the trash.
Baby Reindeer
I started watching
Baby Reindeer on Netflix this week.
Most series I watch either make me laugh or raise my pulse. Very few ever move me. Even fewer unsettle me. Baby Reindeer does both, and also includes what might be the single greatest monologue I've ever heard in a series.
It's much better if you go in cold. I'll just say that the two leads in the show are magnificent, and the show is deeply unsettling. It's nominally about a stalker, but underneath the surface are insecurity and identity and selfishness, and it has a brutal impact emotionally.
It's also very funny, at times, and even lighthearted. What it's about, though is darkness.
Mulch Wars 2024
I have a contentious history with mulch. See here: The Ides of Mulch.
Mulch has a math formula:
mulch you need=mulch you buy * 1.75
This was the formula in 2023. It was also the formula today.
It doesn't matter how much you buy. You could have a dump truck pull up and dump as many truckloads as you want, and you'd still need *1.75. The trick is that "mulch you need" is not determined until you define "mulch you buy."
Sure, smarty pants. I know what you're thinking. What if I just buy one bag? Nice try. You can't cheat the system. It's just math.
I bought 125 pounds, then had to go back and buy 100 pounds more. I spread it all. Theoretically, I never have to spread mulch again. My back is in favor of this plan.
For dinner I had chocolate cake and Celebrex.
Udio
I fiddled around with Udio last week because of this Ars Technica article:
New AI music generator Udio synthesizes realistic music on demand.
I'm particularly interested in AI-generated music because so much of music is artificial already. Algorithms, sampled beats, editing software, etc. There are entre genres of music now that have DJs instead of musicians. No one plays an instrument. It seems logical that AI is the next step, even for professional musicians.
I wrote lyrics for a short parody song for C and used Udio to see what it would sound like. In less than five minutes, I had four different versions, one of which I liked very much, and it was done. I'm not including the recording (for Cs privacy), but it sounded far better than I expected, and generating samples in different genres (I tried used the Beatles, Paul Simon, and Neil Young as keywords for styles) is fascinating. In the end, the recording I chose wasn't any of the above styles--it was Udio's own choice--but it sounded far better than the others.
There are ways to enhance what the AI generates, but I didn't need any of them. It's a powerful tool, and if you're curious, here's a link:
Udio.
