Family

So I got to spend some time with my family this holiday. Now, my family and I are close.. but not in the traditional manner. We get along, just don't see each other that often. But it has been nice to spend some time with them, and my nephews whom I rarely see. Hopefully I can make more of an effort to get out here.

Heading down South tomorrow and going to spend the week hanging out and seeing old friends. I'm going to do my best to see everyone while I'm there... but I won't have a car so I make no promises. But I'll make and effort.. no worries. Definitely won't be long enough with most people. I know that much.

Anyways, everyone who reads this who I'm not going to see this coming week, have a safe new years.

-Later

that time of year

For the five or so people who still read this blog... hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays. I'll be seeing most of you in the next week or so. Suffice it to say, I'm quite excited.

Take care and best wishes in the coming year.

-Later

I want

If you are curious what to get me for Christmas... I could totally go for a WRX.

Below you'll see the sole reason why I want to own one of these cars.



What? I can't deny the fact that I'm a guy and shit like this is awesome.

-Later

Cold

I can't wait to leave this freaking place of the country. -19 degrees this morning? Bull shit. Can't even get my car to turn over. It wants to, but it can't.

Stupid country, why would anyone live in a place where it is so freaking cold.

-Later

Put on your tin foil hats...

Sometimes I get curious where movie writers come up with their plot lines. But then I read articles like this... and I realize that real life provides more than enough facts to make the best movies.

Oh, if you get the chance.. go watch Slumdog Millionare. Fantastic movie.

Hope everyone is doing well heading into this week. Good luck with traveling, etc.

-Later

Genius

Can't resist posting this. Encompasses my feelings about the season so perfectly.



-Later

Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3

So I've finally been putting some time in on my xBox. I suppose it was sort of over due but having given up WoW and it being much to cold to spend more than a few minutes outside... now I have to fill my time with other activities. Sure I still go to the gym most everyday and Aikido is a lot of fun.. but I still have time to kill.

Anyways, I recently picked up Fallout 3. I was a decent enough fan of the first two ittirations of this game and was excited when a third chapter was coming out. Of course they were going to change much of the gameplay since well, computers and consoles are a tad bit better than in '97 when you needed a blazing fast pentium 90 to play Fallout 1.

The game is good, they handle the FPS qualities well and I have few complaints in the game thus far. It is very deep and you really don't have to follow any specific route (well you can if you want to finish the game) but I've just been running around, killing things, collecting weapons, getting rich, etc. I plan to play through the game at least once more, going to try to play a more evil character, or someone who excells at hand to hand combat. I don't know, there are many options available.

Geoff got me Left 4 Dead for x-mas. I put the game in last night and was completley floored by the intro. It was pretty amazing. I know the game wasn't going to look anywhere near that good when I was playing... but well.. it hardly looks bad. The dynamic of the game is a bit different from other FPSs that I've played in the past and I still am not in the correct mindset yet I believe. I need to get over the "clear ever area" idea and just get into the idea of "run like shit to the safe point". You have limited ammo, zombies run freaking fast (still trying to figure out if I like this concept or not) and you just have to keep moving. Stopping and resting isn't always an option. I'm really looking forward to playing this online.

Ok, I'm going to go. If I don't post much in the next few weeks it is because I'm either busy.. or visiting most of you in the coming weeks.

-Later

Action Figures!

Short of strapping M-80s to Barbie dolls, this seems like the most awesome thing to do to an old Barbie doll.

Of course I never actually got to strap any sort of explosive device to a Barbie doll... but I'm sure the results would have been very similar to the following.



-Later

Ice

So this might mean more to people who have been to my apartment.. or seen pictures.. or that I've described it to.

Anyways, it was raining much of the day.. and during Aikido practice the temperature started to drop. By the time I got home there was a good layer of ice pretty much everywhere. As I started to drive down the ramp to my parking lot I found out that my brakes decided to not really work anymore. I started out by sliding, then twisting sideways.. then sliding sideways. My back end bounced off the guard on the right side.. then slide the rest of the way down. Luckily I stopped a few feet away from from some of the parked cars.

So yeah.. it was sort of exciting. Also not that much fun.

have I mentioned that I hate this weather?

-Later

Meaningless Title

So, I would post videos of this thing, but they are sort of long and I'm pretty sure only Joey would get any sort of entertainment from it. And I have a feeling that Joey has already experienced said videos but even he was too ashamed to post them on his blog.

Anyways, I present Angry Video Game Nerd. He has quite satirical reviews of a lot of games from my childhood, and before. But it is quite well done despite his vulgar language.. which is about 50% of each review.

I've been watching them at work with Geoff and well... it is a good source of entertainment.

Not much else has been going on. I've been getting back into Aikido lately and am really enjoying it. Despite the fact that I feel destroyed after some classes... it is well worth it. Nice to be tossing people around again. There is a seminar this weekend which I'll be attending. I'm really looking forward to it, though our mat space is limited and I've heard rumors that we'll have close to 30 people there. I'm a little concerned that someone will get tossed on someone else, actually.. not so much concerned and knowing that it'll happen. Hopefully no one will be seriously injured.

Ok, I'm going to go eat some dinner.

Also, funny little movie (thanks to Lacy).

-Later

Hmmm...

I'm sure this idea has been around for awhile, specifically in the more southern areas of the country. It, of course, was popularized with Gears of War.. but someone went and did it.

Attaching a chainsaw to a shotgun. (with excellent video goodness)

Some might say that this would be perfect for the coming zombie infestations.

But expert sources would disagree.

-Later

More Annoying Video Goodness

I thought this was sort of interesting.



I know, I have too much time on my hands.

-Later

Ahh Chicago..

I know I've bitched and moaned about this city... but where else will you find Jones' Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage?

Make sure to watch the commercial he made. Usually I'm against local commercials but he has a gift.

-Later

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone is going to be able to enjoy one of these for the holidays.

Yes, you can feel your arteries hardening just by reading the article.

And no, America doesn't have a weight problem.

-Later

So..

I should never have learned how to embed stuff in my blog.

Well worth the four and a half minutes it takes to listen to...



-Later

Interesting tidbit.

When coming in from the cold to go for a swim at your local gym... make sure to realize your hands, having just been exposed to the cold and wind, will not be an accurate gauge of the temperature of the shower used prior to entering the pool.

I learned a valuable lesson... I hope all of you don't have to learn it the hard way either.

-Later

Series of... fail?

Heh... Ted Stevens lost. I honestly didn't see that coming. Joey said it would happen but I couldn't believe that the senator from Alaskan since 1970 and never failed to get less than at least 65% of the vote.

Well.. didn't someone say something about "change" recently?

Also, I'm glad the man responsible for the following lost:



-Later

A few interesting things

What would we do without youtube? honestly.. I don't know.



And since I like anything domino related..



If Stuart saw that, I can guarantee that he would be playing with dominoes tonight.

-Later

Check this out.

Tried to copy the picture directly... but it didn't work. But check out this story. Made me laugh quite a bit.

-Later

Why I love American Cinema

I recently came across this description of a movie in my Comcast guide thingy..

Shadow Man:
"Steven Seagal stars in this explosive action thriller about an ex-CIA operative who gets mixed up in international espionage when the tries to rescue his kidnapped daughter and stop a deadly virus from falling into enemy hands."

How could that be bad?

Seriously.

Total awesomeness.

-Later

slightly less tired

So I didn't make it into bed by 11 last night, more like 11:40 or so. Read for a bit, then tossed and turned till around 12:15ish... woke up again at 4am or so. Went back to sleep about 30 minutes later.. and woke up again at 6.

This sucks.

-Later

Tired

I've been sleeping like crap lately. I don't know what the issue is, but lately I can't seem to get to sleep at night. It isn't like I'm just in bed, trying to get to sleep. No, I'm actually fully awake until around 2-3 each morning. It is quite irritating and I don't know why it is.

Ideally I would like to get to sleep early and wake up early. I think ol' Ben said that that makes a person healthy, rich and smart. But I can't remember the quote since I'm tired.

But I've been going to sleep late, and waking up no so late. I think I average around 5 hours of sleep a night. That just isn't good. I know that the ideal amount of time to sleep is 8-9 hours a night, but is anyone really getting that? Seriously. Does anyone out there get 8+ hours of sleep a night. Whenever I try to sleep that much I feel really tired the next day. If I'm going to be tired, I might as well not waste over 10% of my day sleeping.

Tonight I'm going to make a concentrated effort to be in bed reading by 11pm and the lights off by 11:30. If I get my normal 5 hours of sleep and wake at 4am.. well, the gym isn't even open at that time, so I'll be forced to either get more sleep.. or putter around the apartment until the gym does open. I'm curious to see how it goes.

Stupid sleep... can't we just make a pill that keeps us awake? I see them at truck stops all the time. There aren't any negative side effects to these right? What about Adderall? Hmm... I need more of my friends to be pharmacists who don't care about their jobs.

-Later

finally

Well at least it is all over. I doubt we'll see any major changes for quite some time.. but I'm glad that the election is over and am curious to see how Mr. Obama does in the White House.

Also, I'm sad to see the results come in from California. I am amazed at how vehemently so many people believe in marriage. It just seems sort of stupid to me.. if two people love each other, they should be entitled to the same benefits that a legal marriage provides to everyone else. I'm quite surprised California passed the ban... of all the states.

They didn't get 60 seats.. sorry Joey. I know that probably is a slight damper on, what I can only assume, is a festive mood.

I'm glad the abortion issues raised in S. Dakota didn't pass. Also the bill that was going to label birth as "conception" in Colorado I think it was. I could only imagine the headaches that would have caused there.

Anyways, at least it is over and people can get back to arguing and bickering about other things.

-Later

Stupid cold

It is starting to get cold up here. I'm not a fan of the cold. Not looking forward to another winter up here. They are quite long, quite bitter, and don't allow me to ride my bike. Which completely sucks. But so it goes.. life continues.. and these soon to be frigid days will pass.

There is something about the cold up here, I'm not sure exactly what it is. It just cuts quite deep. Perhaps it is the wind. I know that I lived in the desert where it got quite cold on occasion.. but I think it is something to do with the combination of humidity and temperature. Bah, I really don't know... but it is quite terrible at times.

In other news... aikido is going well. Despite the differences I'm really enjoying getting out there. I miss the aggressiveness of Mr. Hollender's style... but it is also sort of nice to not need to rely on ibuprofen to be able to move the next day. Also, I miss taking breakfalls.. but perhaps I need to work my way up to it.

One sort of annoying thing... after getting to know that deer very well a few years back... my ankles still have some pretty significant scarring. Well, I found out on Monday, that apparenetly rolling around on tatami mats and scar tissue don't get along so well. Excusing one's self off the mat on your second practice due to massive bleeding is quite embarassing. I hate to say, but I think I'll be wearing ankle guards for the rest of my aikido career. If after nearly 3 years my ankles still aren't healed.. I can't imagine that they'll ever be up to the rigors mat work. Oh wells.

Ok, that is all.

-Later

Aikido

So I've been planning on doing it for awhile now, but last night I finally went back to an Aikido class. I think this blog was started after I had already stopped doing Aikido.. so it has been quite some time since I've been tossed around like a rag doll.

It was fantastic. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Of course I'm horribly out of practice, and shape.. but those will return in time. I'm more worried about the state of my feet and ankles. They have traditional tatami mats which I'm not accustomed to training on. So I've got some blisters that even Lacy would be proud of. But it was entirely worth it.

The only issue I have is that it is a different style than I originally trained it. The differences are subtle but apparent. Their movements are slightly different on many of the moves we practiced last night.. so I obviously struggled trying to meld my previous teachings with these new movements. It is interesting and I'm curious to see how everything turns out. They don't kiai which was a big part of my original practice of Aikido. So that made me stand out just a bit. But I'm not going to stop... it was ingrained in me for far to long to try to do things silently now.

Ok, I'm going to get back to work now.

-Later

John Cleese

This is my first attempt to embed a video directly into my blog.

Please be patient.



I thought it was quite funny.

I hope this turned out how I had intended it.

-Later

Benefits

So I suppose living near Chicago isn't that bad of a thing. Achewood's artist is doing a book signing tour of his new book. And he just happens to be coming to Chicago in November. So I'm stoked about that.

Other news... let's see...

I need to do laundry..

The new season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is quite amazing. It is hard to really describe what this show is like but every episode tends to cause me to laugh so hard I cry. Check out this clip from one of the recent episodes. Yes, it is totally worth it to create a user name just to watch this one clip. 90 seconds of your time that I promise won't be wasted.

-Later

Politics

Politics. They really have been getting on my nerves lately. I don't understand why two men running for the highest position of authority in our country can continue to blatantly lie directly to the public. Are we really that stupid that we'll ignore their incorrect statements and just let them slide? It just is frustrating that we can't get one candidate who actually knows what he is talking about.

I suppose it might be too much to ask. I realize they have to have talking points prepared for any possible question they might be asked.. and that it is probably easier to memorize half-truths which sound better rather than the actual facts.

The way the economy is right now, I sort of feel bad for who ever gets elected. As my boss said, "they are walking into a shit storm". And really, he is right. I can't imagine our economic issues being fixed in the next.. 5 years, so that sort of puts the next president in a bad place. He won't be able to make changes to fix the economy overnight and that is what people want. They want the stock markets back at record highs, the housing market to be strong again, and free money. It isn't going to happen. But oh well, the public is a fickle thing. Perhaps who ever gets elected will be able to at least make it through their term without being considered a terrible president. We'll see.

And no, I didn't watch the debates.. I just couldn't bring myself too. Also, I forgot it was on... I was swimming. But I have a feeling half-truths and misleading statements were made. It is politics after all.

-Later

Back

Sorry about the short hiatus. Had to travel down to Las Vegas for Interbike. It was a blast, though driving the trailer down there is always a little hectic.

I'm feeling like shit right now. Must have picked up something on the trip since I wasn't sleeping well, and sleeping in strange hotels most nights. I'm glad I made it through the trip healthy, better to be sick now rather than when I'm trying to talk to dealers.

All in all it was a good trip. Got to ride my bike in Utah and Nevada.. which was fun. I miss the desert, great riding and beautiful scenery. Not that other places that I've ridden aren't beautiful, just there is something about the vast expanses of sage brush and rock which really speak to me.

We got a few audiobooks for the trip and I have to recommend "Make Love: The Bruce Campbell Way" which is read by Bruce Campbell and cast.. so it is more than just a traditional audio book. We also listened to "Ender's Game" which is just a classic, and "Bandits" read by Frank Muller. It was amazing. If you ever get a chance to snag anything read by him for a long road trip... you won't regret it.

I'll write more later.. I'm sort of hungry now.

-Later

Rain Rain Go Away

It has been raining non-stop this Friday afternoon. Most people wouldn't mind the rain, I mean it is clearing out the pollen in the air and bringing a small respite the to high humidity that has been plaguing us all summer. Me? I sort of mind it. Not the actually rain, just its choice of days to fall from the sky. Weekends are typically filled with outdoor activities for me.. what exactly? Well riding of course. Typically get in 2 nice long rides over the course of a weekend but not this weekend. Or last weekend that matter, but that was due to travel and work. I suppose I'm just pissed that I can't get out on my bike and hurt myself. I know, I'm odd.

Anyways, so in lieu of biking.. I've decided to swim and lift the last few days. Pretty good alternative right? I mean.. if you can't get outside the only options really are getting to the gym to workout inside. What about indoor cycling? I can't bring myself to do such a thing (though I'm planning on doing some trainer work over the winter at the office.. but that is different. Really, it is). So I've been lifting some weights. Let me also state that it has been over a year since I've really lifted what-so-ever.. and probably closer to 4 years since I hit weights with any regularity. So, what does all this mean?

Well at the moment I can barely stand up.. everything hurts, and I'm having a difficult time doing simple routine tasks. Attempting to extend any of my limbs fully is difficult.. I shake when I try to pour milk over cereal.. and I've found my muscles randomly twitching for no apparent reason. It is really humbling to know that my muscular strength has completely bombed, yet I can ride a bike better now than I ever have before.

So.. I'm going to go curl up in a little ball and try to ignore the fact that every time I try to stretch it makes me want to cry.

Stupid rain..

-Later

Jet Lag

So I got to take a quick trip over to Europe for about 5 days. Business travel so that was even better. Unfortunately that also means that I had to work most of the time rather than go around and see that sights. But that is cool.. did get to see a lot of the scenery as we drove from Italy to Germany.

I figured driving in Europe would be exceedingly different from driving in the US. I was wrong. Everything was roughly the same except for a lot less speed limit signs on the roads. Also, there was a distinct lack of billboards which was very nice. Got to drive through the, I guess, the Swiss Alps in the rain.. which was exciting. Also got to drive up the Ghisallo climb which is a famous bike climb sometimes in the Giro and Tour of Lombardi. I really wish I had had my bike.

Still trying to adjust back over to US time. Harder than I thought it was going to be. Waking up randomly at 3:30 in the morning and being completely ready for the day sort of sucks. Oh well.. got a lot of reading in. Speaking of which... if you want some interesting reads.. check out Jeff Lindsay. I've come to enjoy what I've read of his so far.

Ok, back to it.

-Later

bah

So I went and did it. Signed up for an Ironman.. not a wussy half like I did earlier this year, a full blown 140.6 mile race. I don't know what I'm thinking. Damn you Michael.

But to be honest, I think it will be a good accomplishment to get out of the way. I'd always hoped to get one in before I was 30, so yeah.. doing the race next year in 2009 will fulfill that goal. The registration fee was rough, the training is going to be rough, and I bet the race will be even rougher. But I'll finish (barring any significant injuries/mishaps. Those of you who knock on wood, please do so for me now). It'll be quite the experience I'm sure.

I'm also excited to see how negative and angry my posts get after a few months of training.

-Later

100

It was my first century of the year yesterday. I'd ridden close to that once before but this was most definitely the longest ride I've done by a fair margin in the last few months. It felt good to get out there and ride 100 miles, don't get me wrong it hurt pretty badly too, though I can't imagine doing that sort of distance very often.

I felt pretty trashed the rest of the day. I ate a lot of food throughout the afternoon and ended up passing out on the couch around 10:30pm (I missed the Venture Bros. season finally!) and woke up starving and pretty dehydrated. I drank a lot, ate some food, came to work... am eating more food now, but still feel pretty out of it.

We did the ride in 5h 10m which I think is a record for me at that distance. We pushed it pretty hard despite the wind and hills. We started slow since we had a lot of people with us, after the first rest stop we had a few less, and on the last 50 miles there were only five of us. It felt like I did a lot of the pulling, though typically I dropped people when I pulled on anything other than a downhill.

All in all, it was a good ride. I'm glad I did it. Though my legs would disagree.

-Later

Olympics

So they are wrapping up. I spent many an hour watching the world's best compete for small little medals and was thoroughly entertained. From the constant second guessing of certain swim results, arguments over athlete's ages (yeah, she doesn't look 16.. I mean, even Stuart wouldn't hit that), dropped batons, missed chances, referees kicked in the face, medals refused, incompetent officiating.. well let's just say the news definitely knows how to hype the stories.

But all in all it has been very fun to see them compete. I especially like the underdog races, where the favorites didn't make the final round and suddenly you have a wide open race. I mean, Spain winning the K2 500 meter? Come on.. did not see that occurring. It was also the first time I was able to watch canoing, synchronized swimming, track cycling, racewalking and a few other unique sports which don't show up in American sport's culture as highly as say, tracking and field, swimming, etc.

Oh, and 10k open water swim? Pretty nifty.

Dropping women's softball due to American whooping everyone's ass... then having America not win the gold medal? Ironic.

Watching 2 women from the gold medal ping-pong team face each other in the singles gold medal match? Amusing.

-Later

Killer Bee

Sunday mornings for me tend to mean a ride with the Wheeling Wheelmen. They are a good group of guys. Not excessively fast but very consistent and friendly. I like riding with them despite the fact that I know if I really want to improve my cycling skills I'll have to ride with people who push me, rather than with people I push.

So we started the ride, just sort of cruising along holding what I considered a pretty reasonable 24 pace. We are heading up to a stop light so we are sort of slowing down. I look back to see what traffic behind us is like, since if a car is turning it tends to be a good idea not to block the turn lane. Anyways a few of our group are a ways back stopped on the side of the road. There is a car passing them and a helmet lying in the opposite lane. Of course this is never a good sign. So the few of us at the light rode back to see what had happened.

Apparently one of the group had been riding along and had a bee sting him on his ear. Right on the tragus actually. He told us it was the first time he had ever been stung. So he didn't really know what was going on. When he was stung, he immediately ripped his helmet off, lost control of his bike, and ran into a curb probably doing around 20 mph. He went over the curb and eventually crashed on the grass embankment. Everyone was sort of amazed he managed to go over the curb.. and many were impressed that he did so without injuring himself too severely, especially since he had taken his helmet off first.

We fixed his flat tire but he decided to turn back since he was slightly nervous about having his first bee sting. The ride ended up well, no other incidents to speak of. Good fast pace. I enjoyed it.

Well I'm going to go grab some lunch.

Later

Cold

So for some reason there is no hot water in my apartment at the moment. Since I don't pay for gas, or water... I can only assume that it isn't my fault. Sadly I did not discover this until I decided to take a nice long shower after my ride this morning. I turned on the water, let it run for a bit.. typically I rinse and set my water bottles to dry while the water is warming up. So then I go and hop in the shower. I normally do a preliminary check to determine the temperature but since I spent a little while longer cleaning the water bottles I decided to forgo checking the water this time.

Suffice it to say I was slightly surprised. But I sucked it up and showered anyways. Not the most pleasant shower experience but far from the worst. What's the worst you say? Well.. I don't think I should share that story with the general public.

Now, about 6 hours later... and I'm tempted to call someone. But honestly, it isn't bothering me that much. We just got the shower installed at work.. so I think if I still don't have hot water tomorrow.. well, I've got to ride near there in the morning. And there is always the gym.

I know.. I just hate talking to people I don't know.

Later

Finally

So we finally got internet at the new office building. Numerous calls to Comcast resulted in nothing and it took thinly-veiled threats to actually get the ball rolling. But we have internet, fast and effective. Feels so nice to be able to access e-mail while at work. Really a relief.

Not much has really been happening up here. I've been riding a lot, watching Olympics, enjoying my new subscription to Netflix. Got a bunch of random stuff queued up.. but any suggestions are welcome. I've also been enjoying watching the streaming stuff they have online. The first season of Dexter was quite enthralling. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone.

Well I need to get back to work. Got a few things to get ready to ship out and I need to make sure the FedEx program is working on our new internet system.

Later

Humidity, Moving, and Blogs

It is humid up here. Just enough that it is slightly annoying, but nothing compared to Arkansas. The only drawback? Non-central cooling. I have 2 "window" units in my bedrooms, but nothing centralized. So I've been having difficulty getting the cool air out to the main living area.. where my TV, computer, Jacuzzi.. etc are. So that is slightly annoying. But I still prefer the summers up here to Arkansas. Now if the winters would just be more like Arkansas winter.. that would be very nice.

Almost done moving our company to the new location. Shower should be going in this weekend which I'm very excited about. Showering at work... which will be necessary after riding in.. and hitting the pool along the way. Or running at lunch around the random paved path which encircles the development behind our building. All these nice small things coming together. Internet is still not installed... but everything else is coming along.

Started up a new blog which is, hopefully, going to track progress as myself, Michael, and Darren prepare to do an Ironman in 2009. Just a place to post what we are doing for workouts, push each other... ok, encourage each other.. etc. Michael and Darren are new to blogging so we'll see how it goes. I know it'll help me get up early and stop skipping workouts. Damn competitiveness.

Ok, I'm off.. gotta load up a few more things and head over to the new place.. again.

-Later

I hate phone companies

So I'm helping set up the new phone system at our new office location. I'm on the phone with AT&T. They tell me my new location has an option for DSL at twice the speed we currently have, for FIVE dollars less. I'm was stoked. Told them that is what I wanted.

This was 3 weeks ago by the way.

Yesterday I received word that our new location is too far away from the "central office" to have DSL. So the only option for high speed internet through AT&T is a T1 line... for $300 or more.

Lovely.

Later

Google

They just keep amazing me.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF&ll=45.460131,1.208496&z=6&layer=c

Later

Pool

So I found a nice pool table via.. well.. Geoff at work. But it was free, and we only had to spend a couple of hours disassembling it and now it is in pieces in my apartment.

Unfortunately it is slightly larger than anticipated.. so I'm debating where I should place it. Is it wrong to convert your bedroom into a pool room and move your "bed" out into the dining area? I mean.. I rarely have guests over.. but I think this would work quite well.

Plus it would solve the problem of having so few working outlets in my bedroom currently.

Yes, I know the landlord could fix them.. but I don't need them to work...

Leave me alone. I think it is a good idea.

Later

Since last post

Did the Kansas half-ironman. It was rough. But I finished.. well sort of. They started pulling people in off the last portion of the run due to weather... but I would have finished. Only was like 1.5 miles short. There are some good pictures.. feel free to e-mail me and I'll send you a link to pictures of my pain.

Haven't run or swam much since the race. I've been riding more. Went out with some fast guys on tuesday.. and didn't get dropped. That certainly helped my self confidence about my riding skill. Some of them asked if I had raced over the weekend.. so I guess they thought me fast. Honestly I just drafted like a little bitch... but hey, whatever works right?

The move is going well at work.. just lots of crap to do. Never ending stacks of boxes and shelving units. But it'll be done soon.

Later

WI Ride

So I got up early this morning.. 4:30am early. Yes, 4:30am does actually exist and isn't just a time where clocks jump ahead. I was going on a ride. It was supposed to be 4 hours... up to Wisconsin and back. The bad thing? Wind.

The wind was coming out of the south.. which is odd for this area of the country. Going up was awesome. We were flying... easily pushing 27mph without even trying. Of course we realized it was going to suck coming back. Oh, we also started a little late.. but that is neither here nor there.. except we started the ride 2 hours from the time I had eaten breakfast.

So we are riding.. turn around... and bam. Face full of wind. And this isn't pansy 10 mph winds. These are 30-40mph winds... winds that want to pull your bike out from underneath you. Winds which force you to pedal on downhills or else risk coming to a complete stop. I've never ridden in winds this bad before. Pushing as hard as you can and barely breaking 12mph... it was disgustingly bad.

Thus, what had been planned to be a 4ish hour ride turned into a 5+ hour ride. Now, this probably doesn't seem like a bad thing right? More time in the saddle means more training... right? Wrong! Nutrition and liquid consumption are pretty import factors when doing a serious training ride. I had planned for 4 hours.. so I brought enough stuff for.. probably about 4.5 or so... As we are coming in the last 10 miles or so... I'm out of gels, have maybe a swallow of water left... and I'm bonking hard. It was pretty bad at this point. The winds are still trying to crash me... I'm getting light headed, I can feel my blood sugar bottoming out... yeah.. that was pretty scary. I wanted to stop and lie down in a drainage ditch and wait for someone to come pick me up.

We finally stopped at a 7-Eleven. Less than 5 miles from our destination. I felt sort of like a pansy.. but that snickers tasted like heaven, or at least the edible parts of heaven.. which I assume is the clouds, halos, and possible wings. Anyways, we ate, rested, then headed out. I feel I could have finished without the food, but damn it was good.

The ride was a good one, nice scenery.. decent roads.. very few obnoxious drivers (Only 1 can of skoal thrown at us).. so all in all a decent ride. The winds were a little much.. but so it goes.

Later

Arkansas

It was really great to see all of you over these past weekend. From tennis to rolling down hills outside the Clinton Library.. I had a blast.

Thanks for the awesome time everyone.

-Later

Suck it Sean

Bah, hands free track stands are for punks..

check it...




Later

Swimming

So I've started swimming again. It was a long break that I took.. years it seemed since I really spent time in a pool working out. It is nice to be back in the pool. Though I feel my arm speed has decreased significantly.. but I'm sure that'll come back with time.

Hardest part at the moment is convincing myself that swimming more that 200-300 yards at a time is a good thing. I never enjoyed distance, but I realize I need to start swimming longer to get back into shape.

I suppose it'll just take time.

Later

Running

I don't know what it is.. but I hate running.

Today I went for a run.. and it felt good.

I'm worried now.

Later

Ouch

So the weather up here has finally taken a turn for the spring. Rather than snowing.. it has been in the 50s/60s and even reaching 70 lately. I know.. for a lot of you that is how things have been for the past 4 months. Note that if that is the case, I hate you.

Anyways, I've finally gotten to get out and ride a little. Over the winter I had a chance to pick up a pair of powercranks which I finally put onto a bike. Well.. then have definitely changed my opinion of my ability of ride.



I've always considered myself a decent rider. Nothing spectacular.. but these things have shown me that I suck at riding. Having independent crank arms forces you to pedal perfect circles each time. Which, is harder than you think. On a traditional crank you take for granted the amount of force your opposite crank has on your upstroke... and I'd been working hard to get a good pull up with my legs. These are something else though.. they are working my hamstrings more than anything else.. and well.. yeah... it sucks. But I'm going to stick it out and see what I can do with them. I plan to ride them to work and around on saturdays.. and keep the normal cranks on my quick bike for group rides, etc.

I need to get back into it. I've run a few times.. but need to get more dedicated to that as well. I have roughly 7 weeks before I'm doing the Kansas Half-Ironman.. or Kansas 70.3.. or whatever you want to call it. Mainly I need to get back in the pool again... but I'm lazy and don't want to pay for a pool. I suppose I was spoiled a lot at Hendrix.. yeah.. definitely. I just need to suck it up and go pay the YMCA here some money and start swimming.

Bah.

Later

Back

So I'm back from overseas. The trip was a lot of fun, got to ride the world's fastest elevator, see an amazing amount of copyright infringement in the form of 1 dollar DVDs, cheap electronics, great food, horrible air quality, lots of scooters, and a variety of other things.

I took zero pictures... I know, I know. I'm sorry. And my cellphone didn't work over there, so I never carried it. So yeah.. you'll just have to take my word for it.

Anyways, I've gotta catch back up on sleep and work, hopefully at the same time.

Later

Taiwan

I forgot to tell everyone.. but I'm in Taiwan right now.

Still jet-lagged.

Wish I had time to take pictures.. damnit.

Later

Sleep..

So I don't really get to sleep at a normal hour any more... which means I end up watching a lot of bad TV if I'm tired of reading etc. Which also means I watch a lot of bad commercials.

One thing I've noticed.. that if I had decided to be a professional steel drum player.. that I would have been resigned to playing the background music in Girls Gone Wild commercials.

That seems to be the only place I hear steel drum music anymore.

Also.. 2 DVDs for $9.99... fuck yes!

Later

Post winter training

So it is starting to warm up here in the cold north. And by warm up, I mean that some of the snow is melting off my car everyday. Temperatures still aren't really breaking freezing, but direct sun light is starting to have an effect. It is especially nice since it pools in the roads, then freezes. Lovely lovely.

But I dusted my rollers off last night and started a little bit of spinning. Going to start swimming next week if I can bring myself to go to the local YMCA. Not many other choices in the area.. so we'll see what happens. Been riding a new saddle which I got from the guys over at Blackwell Research. The ISM Adamo saddle. It definitely is a different feel compared to other saddles I've ridden... so it is taking some getting used to. It feels like it is using different muscles since I'm positioned slightly different and is going to force me to develop some new sit callouses that is for sure. Can't really spend more than 20 minutes or so on it but I'm building up my tolerance.

I think I'm getting into the Kansas Half Ironman.. or the Kansas 70.3 which they are called now. It is in June, so I need to get myself in shape. We are helping sponsor it so we get some free entries. Thus, why I'm going. Again, time to get myself in shape. I bet I could swim 1.2 miles... actually, no I couldn't. But I'll get here. Training.. here I come.

Anyways, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and kicking. Well.. I will be doing more kicking in the water next week. I hear that is the best way to swim.. right Sean? Just kick like crazy and I'll get across the pool eventually.

Later.

Why I love Google.

So if you type my name (first and last) into google.. go to the images, and bring up the first image... you get to find out a little about me.

Apparently I'm Australia's most notorious abortionist.

Go me.

Also there is the popular links to how in 1982 someone with my name killed himself with a cactus.


Later

Video Games

So, I've always enjoyed myself some video games. From as early as playing Super Mario Bros. on my own NES system, traveling to the arcades around town with friends during birthday parties, hanging out playing hours of console and computer games during middle school and high school... getting to college and playing more video games with my new friends there.. World of Warcraft...

Suffice it to say, I've played my share of video games in my life. I don't want to think of the number of months.. if not years of my life I've actually spent playing. And I don't mean figuratively. I mean literally. If you clumped all the hours I've played video games... how many months of 24/7 time have I played? As I said, I don't want to know. It actually depresses me that WoW keeps a log of the amount of time played on a character.

What's that? You want to know my lifetime "/played" in WoW?

A lot.

Anyways, since moving up to Chicago.. I've been introduced to a new form of gaming. Not "new" in the sense of something never before seen.. but more like, the accessibility of a few type of gaming. Cabinets. You know, the things that sit in arcades.. take quarters. Well, my co-worker Geoff has a few cabs.. and has definitely piqued my interest to the genre.

There are cabinets called "Candy Cabs" which are very popular in Japan. Video games are called "PCBs" and a certain format of PCBs can be run in any Candy Cab. There are also other motherboards for other types of games.

So basically, imagine owning a cabinet in which you can play any game you ever played in the arcades.. you know.. all those quarters lost.. and now you can play any of those games as much as you want... virtually for free. Well, you have to buy the boards, or cartridges, or whatever.. but after that.. unlimited play.

The cabinets are imported from Japan.. by a guy in California. Now, shipping one of these is expensive... so I wasn't quite ready to buy one. But I was keeping an eye out for any that popped up in the midwest at a reasonable price. Well, one popped up in Cleveland.... at a good price. So I drove out and got it.

I replaced the buttons, sticks, and cleaned it up. So it looks a little like this now...

The buttons are incredibly snappy.. the joysticks are flawless... so very very nice. And yes, you are meant to sit down at this machine. Which sort of sucks, since they were not designed for a man of my height in mind. Crazy Japanese.

So, now I have a cab.. but whatever do I fill it with. Games of course. I've become hooked on vertical shooters lately... shoot-em-ups.. or shumps for short. So I finally broke down and bought DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou (one of the hardest vertical shooters ever made) a few Metal Slugs.. a game that I've loved since I first played it way back when. Also found a few other gems on the forums I've been cruising... and amazingly enough.. they all arrived this morning at work.

Yeah, I took a long lunch.. what of it?

So the games, laid out in all their glory.


No, I don't have a problem.

Well, maybe 1. That I'm at work rather than at home working on these games.

Later

There Will Be Blood & Pizza

I went and saw "There Will Be Blood" a few weekends ago. It was an amazing movie. I'm still working through all of it in my head... I don't know if other people will enjoy it as much as I did. The movie feels slow at points.. and long.. but I couldn't look away. It was strange.

The music was amazingly done. Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead scored the entire thing. It was eerie and compelling. I don't know if it is something that I could listen to while not watching the movie.. perhaps I'll dig around and see if I can find a copy of it online.

Initially I had gone to the theater to watch an entirely different movie. When we discovered that wasn't playing... the guy I was with suggested this movie. I haven't been following movies much lately, so I had no idea what it was about.. who was in it.. anything. I was hesitant at first since he claimed it was about railroad tycoons or something... but I saw a huge poster for the movie next to the ticket counter and noticed Daniel Day-Lewis's name on it. I figured, "what the hell.. he is an amazing actor, let's give it a shot." Well yeah, he was fucking amazing in it. I don't know how he does it.. but he can embody a character better than any other actor I've ever seen. Perhaps it is the scarcity of roles he chooses as well... but each time I see him it is quite the experience.

Something else I noticed.. I think I found where he derived his image from.

Vs.

Anyone else see it?

Paul Dano is also spectacular in it. He has come a long way from the kid he played in The Girl Nextdoor. He was in other stuff before that, but I think that was the first movie I saw with him in it. He can't rival Daniel Day-Lewis on the screen... but he holds his own. The last scene between the two of them.. you just have to see it.

Alright, sorry for the hiatus. I'll try to post more, and keep the posts up.

Later