SEAL team ambushed in Afghanistan, their American-Afghan interpreter narrating. [Fast forward to 29:45] [ 12/16/2003 06:45:28 PM ] [ ]
Monday, December 15, 2003
Manic Compression
While I was x-mas shopping Saturday, I remembered to check Tower for the Quicksand album I've been missing forever. Someplace I have the actual CD, but the surface looks like it's been used for removing coral from the bottom of cargo ships. Not good. So I happened to find it at Tower - unusual since it's from the early 90s and Tower is mostly about whatever has been "poppy" in the last few months or years (though this varies greatly from store to store - I've been very impressed with some of the staff at various Tower stores). How much did they want for it? $18.99. I'm not kidding. I ended up not getting it, instead buying two more recent albums for that much. Granted, if Tower had Swamp Terrorists' Wrecked, I would have gladly paid that much for it (they didn't have it, and no one does - I can tell many sad stories about attempting to reacquire Wrecked and Teknowhore). But this was Quicksand, which I like, but it's not something my world hinges on. Looking on the ITMS today, they have the Quicksand album I want for $10. Fuck you very much tower, love, Apple.
The two albums I did get? Puretone's Stuck In A Groove (LOVE IT!) and [Slick Idiot] remixes. Neither available on the ITMS.
[ 12/15/2003 03:45:24 PM ] [ ]
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Disappointed in my new AquaLung Tyke mask
So yesterday after the race I trucked over to Sports Chalet to get a new mask and snorkel. Much of my scuba gear is from when I was certified 10 years ago and it's past time to replace it, so over the past few months I've been watching for sales and reading reviews and slowly replacing gear. I had been to Sports Chalet a few times in the past month or two to try on masks and I settled on the [AquaLung Tyke] mask after reading some good reviews and trying the seal for fit. Bought it. Brought it home. Pulled off the strap to fit on a velcro [Slap Strap] - I had one on my last mask (also an AquaLung) and now I can't imagine diving without one. Lo and behold, the new AquaLung masks (Tyke, Mythos, and SEAL Masks) all use unusually narrow rubber straps and buckles - too narrow for the velcro of the slap strap.
I'm not happy about this. If you are planning to put a Slap Strap on your new AquaLung mask, it's not going to fit. Now I have to figure out if I can work around this somehow, or if I'm just going to return the Tyke and buy another maker's mask. AquaLung, you've really disappointed me here. I can't imagine what the advantage of such a narrow strap buckle could be.
Maybe I'm nit-picking, but I'm an engineer. [ 12/14/2003 04:35:02 PM ] [ ]
