Don't buy the Rip Roar Creation Station

So just posting a link to Crufty's post regarding the above toy. Go visit his site for the story, but what a bummer on Xmas. He bought this camera for his daughter and the software won't install. He's no novice so I'm sure he did everything and more to try and get it going. If you stumble here due to the topic do yourself a favor and visit his site for the whole story and a phone number for the manufacturer.

Merry Xmas Cruft. Sorry it wasn't as good as it could have been.

Let's Get Ready To Rumble!

25

Definitely my dirty fighting techniques weighed in heavy.

LADD Championship Bout

As alluded to in the previous post last Saturday was LADD Roller Derby night. The championship bout to be exact. We had a large crew meeting up at the Dolls new home, The Doll Factory. They're no longer at the top of the mall in Japan Town. Now they're playing in Historic Filipinotown. Not too bad a place to get to. The cab ride was just about the same from the Chinese Jet Pilot's pad in Pasadena to the Dolls new home as to their old one. CJP, myself, Mrs. LK and Mr. Kimono all met in Pasadena and cabbed it to the game. We met Fancypants and his cousin there. Will&Grace and his new girlfriend also met us there.

There was the fairly standard line to get in when we got there. It didn't take too long to get in. It was freakin' cold though. I was certainly glad I wore a long sleeve shirt under my Fight Crew jersey. Saw Busta while we were waiting in line. He suggested we head over to the Drunk Scouts section in the VIP bleachers, but we've got a love for the general admission section on turn two so we set up camp there holding spots for everyone. Just after we finished check-in though I was met by Tara Armov. She came bearing gifts from the Crew. See the picture below.


That's right folks. More shwag. That's a full set of the Fight Crew trading cards. W00t! There was also a new full size team sticker and though it's almost not visible at the top a Fight Crew skull cap. Yeah baby! Now I'd root for this team regardless, but man you just can't beat this. Thank you team Fight Crew! I'd summarize the game, but Busta does a way better job than I do. Quick summary though. It was a tight game pretty much from the get go and it went all the way down to the last jam. Unfortunately the Fight Crew was beaten in the last jam with a four point jam. Taking the score from 29-31 in favor of the Crew to 33-31 in favor of the Sirens. Congratulations to the Sirens as they earned every point and the Championship trophy.


Can't wait for the season to kick off in 2008. Here's one final pic with me sporting my new cap.



ps I wasn't beneath picking trading cards up off the floor or stealing other peoples. I have doubles of Leia Mout, Apocalyptica and Trixie Biscuit. I've got triples of Tawdry Tempest. One of those was saved after someone threw it down and stomped on it. Grrr.

Listening to Santastic 3-D while typing this up.

Four And One Half Hours

I come back from lunch at work last Saturday and notice my right rear tire is extremely low. WTF! So I head over to the Mobil on Sepulveda by work. The air machine takes quarters. I have none. Inside I go to get change for the ma-cheen, but the guy inside says no worries, pushes a button under the counter and sends me back outside to a now pumping air machine. Woohoo! I fill up with air and head back to work to finish my shift.

I come back out a couple hours later and it doesn't look much different. I had no tire guage in the car as I hadn't yet transferred my crap from the old Camry into the new Civic Si, 200HP Coupe. Anyway it looked good enough to drive home with so I did. By the way I had noticed a screw in the tread, but didn't have the time really to get it fixed on Saturday since that night was ROLLER DERBY. Nothing happened with it on Sunday seeing as it was day of recovery and all. Fast forward to this morning.

I had wanted to get an early start since I had laundry to do as well as having the tire repaired or replaced. 9:00AM rolls around and I'm still in bed reading Girl Genius Volume 6: Agatha Heterodyne And The Golden Trilobite. I start bitching at myself to be productive and by 10:00AM I'm finally up and out the door to Sears who seemed to be the only store carrying the Michelin tire I wanted.

I roll up and tell the guy my story. Screw in tire. Not sure how long I drove on a really flat tire, blah, blah, blah. Please hook me up with a new tire. He tells me no, no we can fix it. Pull it around back. Half hour later and "Nope that tire is shot. You're gonna need a new one." I looked at the inside and sure enough while the screw hole could easily be patched the damage done to the side wall by my driving on it is terminal. So we go inside to look up the tire I had already looked up at home. Not in stock. They'll have to get it from the warehouse. Ok sure. No problem. How long? "You'll have your car back by noon." Great carry on.

Noon rolls around and sure enough my car rolls out of the garage bay and is parked on the side. Everyones busy so I go check on my new tire.

!!!! Not the same tire. WTF!

So I go back inside and patiently wait for the guys to finish up with the people they're currently handling. For 30 minutes. Bleh. My turn comes up and I take the guy outside and show him that the tires don't match. He agrees and goes to get his manager. Fifteen minutes later the manager shows up and agrees the tires are not the same. He goes back inside to figure it out. After talking with Michelin apparently they are no longer making my exact style, the car is a 2007 with the factory tires, and what they put on there is the replacement. Eww! He suggested that I call the dealer and see if they have the right tire. I politely suggested that he call the dealer for me and let me know. He came back about ten minutes later and told me that yes the dealer did have some. Was I sure I didn't want the tire they had already put on? Yup I'm sure. The car has less than 3000 miles on it and I don't want some mismatched, ugly tire. To his credit he told me that since the dealer had the tire I wanted he was willing to take the new tire off and install my spare for me. Which they did. Actually I think the manager is actually the one that did it too. No charge for anything including disposing of my "old", fucked up tire.

So 10:00AM to 1:30PM. No new tire. No lunch. No laundry done. Heading off to the dealer. I got to the dealer about quarter to two. Pulled up. No waiting. The service manager came right out, heard my story and got the ball rolling. No estimate on time. He did ask me what Sears had quoted me for the work. I told him. $283.00 out the door, they're not cheap tires dammit. And I have to use Premium gas, but I digress. He said he'd see if they could come in cheaper. I was out the door at 2:40 with a new tire. Total bill, $250.

Total time at Sears: 3 1/2 hours
Potential out of pocket: $283

Total time at the dealer: < 1 hour
Out of pocket: $250

Over $30 less and less than 1/3 the time. I know the dealers get a bad wrap for high prices for average work, but I was totally satisfied today with them. I'll be heading back when I need service that's for sure. So I spent most of my day off getting a new tire. No laundry done and I couldn't take Mrs. LK to the airport. Pbbbbt!

I did get to clean the litterbox though when I got home. Woohoo bonus!

ps flickr pics on the right

Encouraging

This would be me I'm sure.

Ah-Hah!

via forksplit via who knows where

IQ Biznatches

The Classic IQ Test

My Result: Visionary Philosopher

Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game — to imagine or anticipate what should come next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with great ideas. The timelessness of your vision and the balance between your various skills are what make you a Visionary Philosopher.

In addition to your strengths in math and linguistics, you have a knack for matching and anticipating patterns. These skills and your uncanny ability to detect the underlying blueprint of most of life's situations add to your Visionary Philosopher mind.
Two philosophers who share the same combination of skills you possess are Plato and Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza had insight into how things worked in the world. He could envision a future based on the patterns he saw in life, and used mathematical logic as a structure within which to present his philosophical arguments. With that base he was able to use logic to formulate his theories. Borrowing from his linguistic strengths he wrote eloquent texts and, therefore, was able to bring his philosophical ideas and structure to the rest of the world. His story exemplifies the talents that are present in the Visionary Philosopher intellectual type.

Whatever you decide to do in life, you've got a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a wide variety of ways. You can expand your mind to understand a situation. Your strong balance of math and verbal skills will help you explain things to others. For example, if you were on an archaeological dig and discovered an object, you could probably use your deductive powers to figure out not only what the object was but also how it was used. Given your ability to put things together, you are more than capable of inventing a life plan that is in synch with your perspective on how things were, how they are, and how they might be one day.

Take this test >

See, I Don't Pahk The Cah To Go To The Pahty

Or do I?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Light Up The Night Sky

I forgot I had this one. Here's the rocket at T-0 or thereabouts. Bye, bye birdy.