Horsepower

 I like cars and I like fast cars.

The first fast car I owned was a 1985 Ford Mustang GT. That car had a 5.0 V8 engine that made (wait for it) 210 horsepower. It's 0-60 time was 6.4 seconds. It's the first car I went over 100 mph in.

By comparison, the 2025 Honda Odyssey minivan has 280 horsepower and goes 0-60 in the same 6.4 seconds. It's a lot heavier than my Mustang was.

I've always wanted more horsepower in my cars. But what is too much horsepower?

I am still browsing cars on the internet, looking at ones with manual transmissions. I was very much tempted by this car, except I thought the price was outrageous (and the dealership only came down $1,000 off that price). So I kept looking. Then I came across this car and I thought the price was really high for a used 2019 Mustang GT. But I looked at the further and it turns out it's a Roush stage 3 aftermarket upgrade of a Mustang GT and has 710 horsepower and 610 pound-feet of torque. And that actually scares me. 

My Corvette had 505 horsepower and that car scared me. I never floored the gas except when I was pointed straight and had nothing in front of me. I did get it up to 155 mph on the racetrack consistently because the track had a half-mile-long front straight and I would floor the gas. 

A Mustang with 710 hp just scares me. I think I would put it in the ditch. Or run into something. You'd never floor the gas. And I mean never.

Do you like high-horsepower cars? How much horsepower do you think is too much? Let me know in the comments below.

Does One "Fire" Arrows?

Recently I watched the Lord of the Rings movies all in one weekend (extended editions of course; it pretty much took all weekend). And something occurred to me for the first time after having watched the movies several times.

In the battle at Helms Deep, Aragon tells the elves to "prepare to fire" their arrows. And the orcs laying siege to Minas Tirith, when the the 6,000 Rohirrim ride toward the orcs, the head orc tells the archers to "fire at will."

And I thought "fire" is a weird term for shooting arrows. Mostly "fire" is reserved for things involving gun powder (or its modern equivalents). 

Then I wondered what would be the proper term. So I googled it. And the command to get ready to shoot arrows should be "nock" or "draw" as in nock an arrow or draw the string back. And the command to shoot arrows would be "loose arrows" or "release arrows."

It's been a long time since I read The Lord of the Rings books so I don't know if this is a mistake Tolkien made or the filmmakers made. My opinion is it's probably not Tolkien. Besides, in the books, there weren't elves at Helms Deep.

I do think that the worst parts of the LOTR movies is when they strayed from Tolkien. That's why I suspect this was an error by the screenwriters: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson. 

The one scene I can't stand is in The Two Towers when Legolas and Gimli are counting how many orcs they kill and Legolas, being one short, shoots the orc Gimli is sitting on, saying he was twitching. And Gimli says "That's because my axe was in his nervous system!" I really don't think in the society of Middle Earth, they knew anatomy that well. (That scene may only be in the extended editions.) The whole counting of how many orcs killed isn't in the books, I'm pretty sure. Here is that scene.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

Eyeglasses

My eyes have always been a source of frustration for me. In 2006 I got LASIK and it was wonderful for a couple of years until I developed kerataconus (read all about it here). And since then, I've had to wear eyeglasses again.

Currently I have three pair of eyeglasses. My regular glasses that are progressive bifocals, my prescription sunglasses for driving and being outdoors (like, I go outdoors a lot), and my "computer glasses" that block blue light.

Prescription sunglasses are a luxury, I'll admit. But I need my regular glasses, obviously. And the computer glasses also became a necessity. 

I was having migraines. Not often, maybe once or twice a month. So I saw a neurologist (had to drive 70 miles to see him). He prescribed some medicine to take when I feel a migraine coming on. But we both noted that migraines tended to be worse on days when I spend time on the computer. So he suggested getting blue-blocker glasses. I went to my eye doctor for a routine checkup and he and wrote a prescription for blue-blocker glasses, based on my computer monitor being two feet from my eyes. Since I didn't plan to wear the blue blockers outside my house, I found the cheapest frames I could. 

Since I got the blue blockers, I haven't had migraines except recently after my wisdom teeth were pulled a week and a half ago. Some days I forget to put the blue-blockers on and I get headaches, but not migraines. Perhaps it takes a few days of no blue blockers to give me migraines. I try to set them on my keyboard so I won't forget to put them on. 

Unfortunately, my insurance only pays for the regular glasses, and then not much and not often. So getting three pair of eyeglasses was expensive. But so worth it.

Do you need eyeglasses? If so, do you have more than one pair? Let me know in the comments below. 

Paddington Bear

I have now watched all three of the Paddington Bear live-action movies and I enjoyed each one and without hesitation recommend them. 

The Paddington Bear movies are based on a children's book series written by Micheal Bond that has 29 books published from 1958 to 2018. So sixty years. The last book has published posthumously.

So, you might be saying, if the movies are based on a children's book series, wouldn't the films be for children. Yes, the movies are aimed at children But Paddington is such a refreshing, guileless, polite character, it is fun for adults too. 

In the first movie, Paddington moves from Peru (there's bears in Peru? Google AI says "Peru is home to the Andean bear, also known as the spectacled bear.") to London to find the explorer that found him in Peru. Instead, he is found by the Brown family in Paddington Station and they adopt him. They name him "Paddington" because his bear name is too hard for humans to pronounce. While in Peru, Paddington developed a love of orange marmalade. And pretty much everywhere he goes, he sings the praises of orange marmalade. It's gently funny. No one is made fun of or put down. 

The second movie is the best of the three. If you only want to watch one Paddington movie, make it Paddington 2. But you'll want to watch Paddington so you understand the background. Paddington 2 even got a call out in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent movie starring Nicolas Cage. 

The third movie, Paddington in Peru, is enjoyable. But with a director change and a recasting of Mrs. Brown, seemed to have lost some of its charm. It's still a good movie and worth watching. And you'll laugh. Some of it is implausible, but that's okay.

Watch the Paddington movies. You won't regret it. And apparently, there will be a fourth one.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.