AtomicInternet Archived News

Archived News starting from 10-26-2012 and earlier

With a sudden rush of subscriptions to my pointless Youtube channel, I decided to investigate what the big attraction was. Turns out, this video managed to get listed high up in related videos of a few popular RC car clips. Now an internet millionaire, I'm on track to retire in the year 3752 if views remain constant and inflation stays flat. I can only assume people watch beyond the first 5 minutes because it stars two women, which is likely a rare combination with RC cars.

With my new car delivered and broken in, I managed to convince Lisa we should take it on our family trip through the eastern United States. It was her first time driving a 6-speed manual, so the first few hours were entertaining before she got the pattern straight. Luckily I have a reverse lockout so the transmission remained inside the vehicle at all times. Our first stop was Illinois to visit grandparents, then Florida to visit the beach and Joseph. I'm fairly certain Lila did not particularly enjoy the beach, but endured it well after seeing how ecstatic her dad was about it. Lisa also made sure we had time to bring Lila to her first visit to Kennedy Space Center on the way home, which she seemed to enjoy much more than the beach. Our final stop was in South Carolina for Lisas' cousins baby shower. I managed to sneak off and get some serious beach time at Folly beach which was similar to a small scale Key West due to the high number of beach bars. 1800 miles and a week and a half later we arrived home, more exhausted than when we started.

Despite recommendations to the contrary, I took the plunge and pre-ordered the Microsoft Surface. My last tablet experience ended with a realization I don't need a tablet, so it's only natural I forget all about that and try again. My only real reason for getting one is "shiney" and "not android or ios" so this one is squarely in the Microsoft fanboy corner. I'll of course keep everything eBay ready for when I realize I still don't need a tablet, but now it's time to get excited for all the things I do on my phone to be done on a slightly larger screen.

With three friends having babies relatively close in age, Happy Baby Fun Time was destined to happen. While my planned baby race and baby fight never managed to take off, due in part to 2/3 of the attendees unable to walk, we did manage a scoot race and there was some inappropriate positioning that could almost count for both. While the babies had plenty of energy, the 6 exhausted adults eventually called it quits and concluded the first Happy Baby Fun Time event. Here's to hoping for more.

Today Xbox announced they would begin rewarding gamers having high achievement scores with "discounts and gifts" which got me all aflutter. When I found out the "discount" is a 2% rebate and the "gift" is a 25¢ item, I was not surprised. I'm also not going to complain about free stuff. What I do need to rant about is how only 25,000 gamerscore is considered "Elite." An additional rank like like "Ultimate OCD" or "You Have a Problem" would be good for 50k or more, with "You Have a Problem, Seriously" and "How Do You Find The Time" for 75k and above. Flying me out to meet Major Nelson would be a nice perk too, but I'll just throw that out as a "nice to have."

With my new car delivered less than a week ago, it was time to beat the crap out of it. Having just barely 500 miles on the odometer, I decided break-in was good enough and signed up for it's first Autocross. I was of course the star of the show, with no less than 10 people asking how well it drove and how the seats were on long trips. I replied with "awesome" and "it only has 500 miles so I don't know." Compared to the Cougar, this car handled like it was on rails. I decided to turn off all stability/traction control for my runs, but in hindsight wish I had tried a few with it on. My classification was under question since I had street tires and the car has only been available for two weeks, but my assigned group had nothing to worry about since the 80% driver, 20% car rule was in full force. Hopefully during my next race I'll be slightly less excited and maybe get my side of the equation up to 50%.

As far back as 4 years ago I fancied a Focus ST. Unfortunately, the north american product team at Ford never thought it was "homologated" for the US market until 4 months ago when I was finally able to place an order for my current dream car. Today I finally took delivery of the beast. I arrived in full creep gear with my Focus ST hat and badge (from Myrn) and happily dispensed with a significant amount of cash for the privilige of driving what I've been obsessing about for years. The 1,000 mile break-in period is like a torture sentence, and I've considered putting a block of some sort under the gas to keep me honest. Tonight was also the release of Borderlands 2, so James and I took it for a spin to pickup our copies of the game. The Gamestop manager asked who had the Focus ST, so already I'm a superstar.

Back to back birthday weekends is where it's at. While the last party had pinatas, parachutes and animals, Lexi's party had cotton candy and a bouncy castle. It's clear to me now that I underfunded Lilas party, but she is partly to blame having been born on a day that prevents any outdoor activity. Our first stop was the bouncy castle, where Lila was initially unsure of what to do, but quickly got the idea. Her lack of mass was a disadvantage, especially when bigger kids joined the bouncing, but it was easily her favorite thing of the whole party. To combat this lack of mass, she immediately began eating cotton candy which was a source of confusion at first, not knowing if it was something to eat or play with. After tying baloons to her failed to amuse me, I decided to write a warning about her recently soiled diaper on one and begin the public humiliation she will have to endure her entire life with me as her father.

Lila had her first birthday party aside from her own today. It was a lavish affair at a cider mill, with an entire barn set aside for the festivities. Wandering around the cider mill, Lila discovered goats will eat anything you give them, flowers should not be picked, and tractors are still a bit too big for her to safely operate. A pinata was beaten, a parachute was deployed and Lila finally ran out of energy after several hours of adventure. A new bar has been set for toddler birthdays.

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