Wooo

I passed.



That's my new belt.

-Later

Aikido

So I took my Nidan test on saturday. It could have gone better. A lot of people tested that day and a lot of people did poorly. So the instructors are asking everyone who tested to be prepared to demonstrate some skills that were asked for again.

I don't think I did fantastic on my test.. but I'm really nervous about what they'll be asking me to do again. Probably the tanto stuff.. because that just wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked it. But, honestly, who knows.

I do know that one of the people who tested before me did very poorly. I believe that put the instructors in a bad mood... which could have negatively effected how they saw my test.

I realize this sounds a bit like an excuse. I could have done better. I realize that too.

I'll let everyone know how it goes after tonight.

-Laer

Is it just me...

When I'm driving I tend to be sparing with my blinker. I hate people that have their blinker going and not realize it. Since hate has trained me to be very conservative with my blinker. I typically manually turn on and off my blinker since I don't trust whatever mechanism is integrated into the wheel to do it for me. Clearly it doesn't always work... especially clear when I'm driving behind a large SUV which has been attempting to make a left turn for the last 20 miles.

Anyways, I signal when I'm changing lanes. Usually 3-5 ticks of the blinker.. more if I'm attempting to merge into a crowded lane. But after I've made the lane change I turn off my blinker. Now, here comes the question.. what do you do when you enter into a forced turn lane? I signal when I enter into one of these lanes.. be it left or right.. but then I turn off my signal. I don't want to sit at a left turn arrow for a complete light cycle with my blinker clicking at me. It drives me crazy. I'm in the left turn only lane.. thus I must turn left. I feel that continuing to indicate that I am turning is redundant and pointless.

But I recently found out from a person who works at a driving school.. that it is required to have your blinker on in the turn lane. I was sort of confused as to why. But i'm just asking... what do you guys do with your blinkers in a turn lane situation. Do you leave them on? Turn them off? I must know!

-Later

Interesting.

This is a new gym marketing campaign in the Netherlands. It is a sign in bus stop which, when you sit on the bench, shows your weight.



I'm torn with what to think of this.

-Later

Happy Vernal Equinox

Yeah... the first day of spring is today!

I hope everyone is excited by this event. Equal sun and darkness tonight.

For those of you in the southern hemisphere... enjoy your first day of fall.

I know, presumptions to assume that I have international readers.

-Later

Nice weather

Over 70 degrees today. Holy crap, it was nice! Rode to work, went for a ride after work..

felt so amazingly good.

I know it won't last but it was great to take advantage of a fluke like today.

In more bike-nerdy news, Campagnolo Super Record 11 rocks. Shifts smooth, rides smooth... feels great. Really love it. If anyone is looking to spruce up their bike this season.. I'd strongly suggest some of the new Super Record.

Granted I've not ridden Red or the Dura-Ace 7900... but I doubt it'll compared.

-Later

Fun Times

It is bitterly cold here again. Very very cold and windy. And after the weather taunted me last week with temperatures over 60 degrees.

So it rained most of the weekend and some of the moisture got into my car. It was slightly warm yesterday so the water created a bit of humidity in my car. When heading to the gym this morning I found that with the sudden drop in temperature last night that the insides of my windows were covered in ice.

Yep.. so there I was this morning, scrapping ice off the inside of my windows, struggling to get my door to close since the locking mechanism was frozen.. and just being in a generally pissed off mood.

Oh yeah, I didn't have any cereal this morning. So I was extra pissed.

-Later

happy b-day

The CD, that is compact disk for all you young-ins out there, turns 30 years old today.

That's right.. March 9th, 1979 was the date the Compact Disc was first introduced to the world.

Craziness.

Damn, older than I am.

-Later

awesomeness

I'm sure any nerd out there has seen this. It is amazing no? Absolutely gorgeous. If I could scrounge up the 500 dollars to purchase this I would it a heart beat.

The box weighs 26 pounds... the instruction manual is 300+ pages long and weighs 4 pounds..

Let's just say that would be really really really fun to build. I've read some accounts that say it takes over 4 hours just to organize the pieces... which you need to do with over 5000 pieces.

Anyways, there are videos out there of people building them up. But... someone went and made a stop motion video... of lego men building it. BRILLIANT

It is 12 minutes long... but sort of interesting to watch.

Enjoy

-Later

Best idea ever...

All stoplights should be "Left turn yield on green." Rarely are they set up to give you an arrow without going through a complete cycle. Or at least around here it seems that way. I'm the only one at the intersection. Just let me go damn it!

Also, I think I hit 5 yellow lights on my way back from Aikido tonight. Felt awesome.

-Later

Almost half way there..

Nearly half way done with having to work downtown this week. It has been a frustrating ordeal thus far. Yesterday wasn't as bad as monday.. but leaving for work at 5:30am and getting home at 10:30pm really pisses me off for some reason. Go figure.

Some of the highlights of my day are walking across Chicago to get to the office. I could take a bus. In fact, the 122 (I think), would pick me up at Ogilvie and drop me off right outside this building. But I'm much more enjoying the 25 minute walk across town. Ok, so I don't know if it is across town... but it seems pretty far. I've found that if I walk at around 80% max speed I can hit all the lights when I'm walking East... but I need to walk a bit slower to hit the lights walking North. Guess the blocks are slightly shorter or something.

It is a pretty good walk.. brisk, relatively flat, plus you get to weave in and out of people. Lots of fun. Sort of like going to a crowded mall and attempting to wade through the throngs of people as fast as possible. Yes, I realize that is a stupid thing to get excited over... but I've gotta find something positive about my day.

Alright, enough whining. I'm off.

-Later

ugh - part 2

Today was a bad day.

I'm hoping tomorrow is better.

-Later

ugh

Getting up early to go to work downtown for stupid reasons really sucks.

Trying to have a positive outlook on it... but really just pissed about the whole deal.

-Later