A few more shots of the carnage [s]

There are a few wires to dispose of, all in due time. The couch is a bit off the wall to center its occupants more and provide a space for the woofer. Um and I'm terrible at pillowing couches.



I brought the tripods home from my office so I had a bit more snapping liberty.



Dixieline was closed today, grumble. Still, I put the head back.



Surf board rack with wifi. Duh.

Truth in 24 (6)

• Rides (7): The speed night mainstay is a powerful road car that features a wealth of modifications such as blowers, bottles, death proof roll cages, and chaingun turrets. The LeMans circuit is a departure, for sure, but not one that dances off into the fairly land of f1 and the lot where cars - to paraphrase Ferdinand Porsche - should win a race and then fall to pieces. Nay, LeMans racers have to run strong for a contiguous day and have been a testbed for the development plenty of commecial technology.
  Truth in 24 showcases the fastest and least recognizable of the series, the prototype class. These machines are purely designed for function and tend to be a crap shoot for aesthetics. I would have found myself salivating considerably more had they focused on the classes that consist of 430s, 911s, S7s, Corvettes and the like. But that experience may have been ruined every time a LMP breezed by on the outside of a hairpin.
  So while there's little variety or focus on the cars you might actually see in the parking garage at your local hospital, they look good, sound good, and require no increased frame rate or cgi to knock your socks off.
  
• Authenticity (10): It's a documentary. You can't get a whole lot more authentic without jumping formats. Of course I'm accepting the characterization of Peugot as evil. But if they weren't evil they wouldn't have made their cars looks so evil.
  
• Femmes (0): I think I spotted a few in the crowd. For something created by nfl films and shown on espn, I actually expected a few umbrella girls.
  
• One Liners (7): The authenticity and female content aren't a surprise, but the prevalence of quotables was a shocker. None are so cornball to be as memorable as 'danger to manifold' or 'my hand gernade', but they're excellent within the context of the story. The lecherous lead engineer of the Audi powerplant has a few, such as the observation that his turbo diesel is quiet and sexy, in contrast to the 'normal' perception of sexy as involving screaming. Shudder.
  Then there are a few - often through thick accents - that draw a chuckle while you're watching, such as, 'Drive home like grandma'. And then the prophetic, 'It always rains at LeMans'.
  
• Action Sequences (7): I'll start with the 3/10ths empty part of the glass: no martial arts, Mexican stands-off, or nos explosions. The 7/10ths is a tasty blend of Fine Driving, high speed camera clips, mishaps, and flying cars. The carnage is actually Tetrised into the storyline so it doesn't feel like a nascar commercial. And most importantly, the movie draws on so many sources of footage that the coverage of the track, cars, pits, is very complete. It doesn't hurt that you can watch some impressive shots and know it wasn't cooked up by a supercomputer cluster or remotely control car.
  
• Star Power (6): Paul Newman and Steve McQueen show up in a few homage clips, the rest are racers.

7+
The Fast and the Furious (7.7): Genre-defining, quotable, unreal
Gumball Rally (7.5): Still relevant
Initial D (7.1): Cult, riveting, but give us some shine
Thunderbolt (7.0): Over the top for better and worse
6+
Days of Thunder (6.7): Pretty good but not very pretty
Ronin (6.3): Left in the briefcase: girls, rides, one-liners
Mad Max (6.2): Brutal action, no frills
Truth in 24 (6.2): Good, but too much truth for speed night
5+
Redline (5.7): Fantastic if watched in a foreign language
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (5.6): Sexy, but unfulfilling
2 Fast 2 Furious (5.3): 2 flimsy
4+
Driven (4.9): Succeeds in everything unrelated to cars
Death Race 2000 (4.0): If only they were just racing across town
3+
Movin' Too Fast (3.3): Well, it has cars

Piso mojado [s]

We left off with our heroes needing to remove some thin set. This called for a terrazo grinder, readily available from Sunbelt and not Clairemont Equipment. While I slaved away at a keyboard, dad and Jon took care of the downstairs concrete. Not to worry, I partook after they headed back to the Bay.



I couldn't let the familials have all the grinding fun, so I sqeezed some in by moonlight. Then I spent some serious time doing edges and missed spots with the angle grinder.



And that took care of the most important room in the house. It went quickly and easily because I was able to run a hose to the grinder. This eliminated the most infuriating part of the process, concrete dust.

As such, I can say that polished concrete is kind of a pain to do in a house, but for patios, driveways, and the like - no problem.



So this left my garage a powdery white, both from the exfoliated concrete and thin layer of dust. I stopped by Concrete Solutions, which seemed to be the only reputable game in town. The rep there was pretty helpful and I got to take home chemicals with cool dangerous labels on them.

The stain, sealer, and urethane (I guess I need them all) ran just north of $600 for what I generously estimated to be 1000 sq. ft. That's pretty good as far as flooring goes, even when you factor in a few throw rugs and the grinder rental.



I tested the stuff in a remote corner of the garage, apparently when sealed it appears as it does when wet. It's got a nice variation, looks fluid from an angle, and has some translucency, though that might disappear with multiple applications.



Tonight I went after the downstairs section. The process was simple:

1. Wet down section of floor with brush.
2. Apply stain using pump sprayer.
3. Brush stain into concrete (immediately changes color so probably important).
4. Apply more stain with pump sprayer to avoid brush marks.

I diluted the stain with about 25% water and ended up with a considerable amount left in the sprayer not to mention the five gallon container. Tomorrow may call for another coat, we shall see.

Most enjoyably, after I was finished, the only unlocked entrances to my house were the garage door and lower back door. It was the first time since age six I had to maneuver myself around an acid trap in order to reach the stairs.