The latest trailer for the Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen movie is up on YouTube and Apple.com. The sequel to the 2007 summer blockbuster features the original cast and a bunch of new Transformers.
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Let’s play a game. Pretend you are shopping for a Star Modelo B 9mm pistol on the Web site of Southern Ohio Guns, a major firearms distributor. You have an account with them. You see some handguns as listed as “out of stock,” and other handguns have a price next to them.
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Let’s play a game. You’re sitting on the couch at home at night, watching television. Snap, the power goes out. Flip the light switch: nothing. You know there’s one flashlight in the house … but where did you put it? Was it in the kitchen pantry? Maybe in the nightstand upstairs in the master bedroom? Oh, that’s right … laundry room. You shuffle around in the dark, knocking stuff over, and find your flashlight.

Except that the batteries are dead, and now you have to wait in the dark for the power to come back on.

Most of us are reliant on artificial light for comfort, safety, and efficiency. Losing light sources during a night-time disruption of service can be an annoyance at best, and life threatening at worst. As such, I keep many different flashlights around the house. I do this to make sure that I have light in almost any room in case the power goes out, or if one of my flashlights go out I have a backup nearby.

You will understand my glee when Woot.com recently posted the Garrity 1 watt Luxeon LED spotlight on sale for $15. For two. Sure, the single, 1 watt LED wasn’t as impressive sounding as a cluster of them. The black and blue, green, or yellow plastic housing was pretty ugly, too. But I bought four of them for $35 shipped. Isn’t redundancy worth $35?
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I started the P90 Basic home fitness program somewhere around September 17th of last year. I’d done the six day P90 Fat Burner Express Hawaii edition before then, so technically I’ve done 96 P90 sessions. I should have finished seven weeks ago, but with the holidays, my own laziness, and travel for work I stretched out the program to twenty-two weeks.

Here’s my final write-up as a Beach Body P90 basic first-timer, with some bonus Sasquatch pics of yours truly.
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A PowerSquid is a geek’s take on a power strip. The problem with power strips is that the outlets often face the same direction. Certain power supplies / AC adapters have bulky power converters, and the length of these converters obstruct some of the outlets. When power strips have outlets facing the same direction, they are often too tightly spaced and you have the same problem.

Enter the PowerSquid, which features bendable “tentacles” with an outlet on each end. This allows one to attach a “wall wart” adapter of any size to the end of each tentacle, with no fear of overlap. You can also position the tentacles in convenient ways, like just underneath the couch, while the rest of the strip is hidden from sight.

As part of my Ars Technica Sekrit Santa gift, I received a black 5 outlet PowerSquid from ThinkGeek. I thought the idea was novel, and considered buying more for my house. And then lo and behold, Woot had a white (apparent knock-off) version from Philips for $3.99 each before shipping. I bought three, for a total of less than $17 shipped. The per-unit price on ThinkGeek for the black one is $15 each, before shipping.

I anxiously awaited for my Woot order to arrive … would the white Philips SPS1596WA PowerSquid knock-off be better than the black one from ThinkGeek?
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If you have any peach Oolong tea from Teavana left you may want to stockpile it. Apparently the tea retailer has discontinued their very yummy tea. There is a possibility retail outlets that still have some in stock, but the Web site is all out.

Starbuck wrote in to ask WTF was up, and check out this detailed response:

Hi Starbuck,

Unfortunately the Peach Oolong has been discontinued. If you have any further questions please let me know.
Thank you,

Carrie
Customer Service
Teavana

Starbuck, I vote you write back and say, “Here’s a further question: what the fuck is wrong with you people?”

Yes, Adagio has peach Oolong also, but it’s not the same. The Teavana version tastes like tea and peaches; the Adagio version is tea with peach flavoring added to it. Whether this is the actual case or not is pure speculation on my part.

Regardless, if you have some Teavana peach Oolong left you may want to be careful who you make it for. I imagine I’ll be clutching my remaining stores tight and whispering, “My precioussssssssssssssssss ….”

Over three years ago, I wrote a post about screaming children on airplanes. I used to take the redeye back from California as part of my job, and my current work found me taking the redeye once more. It turns out I’m not the only one pissed off by misbehaving babies on flights: Anthony Layser wrote a painfully descriptive article on tips on being trapped with evil children on airplanes.

But what happens when a parent tries to discipline their child on board a plane? I found out while waiting for my flight to depart from Los Angeles.
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Happy birthday to Starbuck, who has had quite a year starting her own blog, finishing several pastry classes, and generally showing up her bosses at the desert shop. I am also very grateful for all of the times you have watched the dogs and left “sample” goodies at the house :)

I know this has been a difficult year for you, and that things may get worse before they get better, but I know big things will happen for you next year.

Happy birthday to the sweet lady of sweets!

My flight for California leaves this afternoon. I have always taken the 6AM flight previously; having to plan a mid-day departure has thrown me for a little bit of a loop. I decided to play it safe and go to bed early — about midnight. I watch two episodes of The Big Bang Theory and drifted off to sleep.

Until about 2AM, when I woke up to the combined sound of wet suction and a cough. I knew instantly that it was Porter, and he was throwing up on the floor. I turned on the light and put my glasses on. Sure enough, he had barfed just far enough under the bed so I had to reach to scoop it up. I cleaned it up, kissed him on the top of his head, and went back to sleep.

Until about 6AM, when I woke up to the combined sound of wet suction and a fart. I knew instantly that it was Pearl, and she was laying a nice shit on the floor. I didn’t even have to turn on the light, the smell was overpowering. Light on, glass on, gloves on, heavy, heavy dose of Oust! air freshener, done. I heard Pearl’s stomach grumbling the whole time, and she looked terrified. Porter and Rosie looked pretty freaked out, too. I am sure they expected me to issue at least one beating. I am too old and was too tired, and I felt bad for little Pearl. I patted her on top of the head and we all jumped back into bed. I listened to Pearl’s stomach churn for about fifteen minutes before I could finally go back to sleep.

My alarm went off at 8AM, and I’ve been busy ever since. I have a few more things to do before I leave, but I am cooling off from P90 and thought I’d post while I am at it. Hopefully it’s all down hill from here.

I know I just wrote about P90 a few days ago, but I am excited to have just seven sessions left. I have decided to start with a Hawaii session, then Phase 1, then Phase 2. Yeah, I’m going to gimp it along this last week, but it’s hard getting motivated when the longer Phase 3 and Phase 4 sessions stare you in the face. Anyway, the reason I’m posting is that I’m going to have to modify my work out even more next week.

I’m being sent to California to straighten out a renegade project, and will be away from the nest. That means no weights for the Phase 2 workout. I use weights for the Hawaii workout also, but those are optional. So it looks like I’ll alternate Hawaii and Phase 1 unless I decide to buy some hand weights at Target and leave them for housekeeping. ;)

In the meantime, here’s me doing a prayer squat salutation, one of the warm-up moves from the Hawaii workout:
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