Tank one hundred and three

Total miles: 36599. Trip miles: 366.9. Gallons: 7.392. Price per gallon: $2.519.

Screen mileage: 54.8 mpg. Tank mileage: 49.6 mpg.

Couple long trips, leading to much improved mileage.

Tank one hundred and two

Total miles: 36233. Trip miles: 221.6. Gallons: 5.59. Price per gallon: $2.599.

Screen mileage: 42.7 mpg. Tank mileage: 39.7 mpg.

Terrible mileage! Cold weather's killing me.

200K!

I finished the 200K on Monday, not a moment too soon. I promptly came down with a cold on Tuesday. Now I’m just going to take it easy until my cold is over.

See more progress on: Complete the Concept2 Holiday Challenge

kinda boring (rated 3 stars)

Tetraktys

by Ari Juels

I can’t recommend Tetraktys. While the book should be filed in the same section as The DaVinci Code, its mystery – centered around cryptology and a modern version of a Pythagorean cult – is not nearly as thick, tantalizing, or convoluted.

In addition, the book is written entirely from the point of view of the lead character, a computer science grad student. With a sufficiently interesting character, that can work, but our hero is a rather dull guy, and I just got pretty bored.

Skimming the comments about this book over at slashdot, it appears that Dan Brown is pretty widely scorned, and I agree with the poster that described Digital Fortress as dreck. However, for page-turning entertainment, The DaVinci Code beats Tetraktys hands down.

See more about Tetraktys

140K

I’m nearing the end of the Holiday Challenge... just 60K to go!

See more progress on: Complete the Concept2 Holiday Challenge

Tank one hundred and one

Total miles: 36011. Trip miles: 209.8. Gallons: 5.288. Price per gallon: $2.499.

Screen mileage: 41.8 mpg. Tank mileage: 39.7 mpg.

The snowstorm this week really messed with my mileage.

for teens (rated 3 stars)

Twilight (Anamorphic Widescreen Single Disc)

It has been many years since I was a teen, but I decided to give Twilight a try. After all, I really enjoyed Buffy.

But I didn’t find the characters engaging, so maybe this is a movie that works for teens, but not for me. The movie seemed a little padded, with scenes that didn’t really move the plot along or develop the characters (I truly do not understand what the baseball game was doing in there).

OTOH I did find the plot original and entertaining enough to distract me during my rowing workout, so I’d probably watch the next in the series during a workout too. It’s not a bad movie, just nothing special.

See more about Twilight (Anamorphic Widescreen Single Disc)

A review of "2012 [Theatrical Release]"

2012 [Theatrical Release]

by Roland Emmerich

I agree with the other excellent reviews on allconsuming. Despite that, I don’t think 2012 is “not worth consuming”; I give it a wishy-washy rating.

The movie starts out with some scientists discovering that neutrinos from a large solar flare have “mutated” and begun “acting like microwaves” to heat up the earth’s core. Thus, you are given an idea of the quality of the movie from the get-go.

We follow a family as they manage to stay just inches ahead of disaster, in various vehicles: limo, RV, small plane, large plane, giant ship. Added to the mix is a smattering of ethical dilemma about who gets to be saved when the world ends, and some tear-jerking moments when various arbitrarily introduced characters bid a fond farewell to their loved ones.

So, it’s a mediocre movie, but despite that, I found it mildly entertaining, although not really what I want from an end-of-the-world movie (it’s not the end of the world when a ton of people survive). To give you an idea, as a disaster movie, it’s slightly better than the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and not as good as Cloverfield (I like my weird monsters).

Favorite memorable quote:

Noah Curtis: Woah, that’s a big plane.

Yuri Karpov: It’s Russian.

See more about 2012 [Theatrical Release]