Pick #148

Senses Fail - Can't Be Saved

Coacksucker?

Interesting Prague graffiti. I'm not exactly sure what they were going for.

Remote Desktop

Whoa is technology amazing. I've been videochatting for free over long distances. I just took remote control of my desktop machine at school and had the power to run GIS and Stata from the comfort of my own house. This opens up possibilities. Could make me way more productive. I hope it does. I can check on the status of a Stata program (and fix it if it breaks). I can do one thing on this computer and another thing on another computer and check in on them both. Shit, I could overtake a few computers and use each of them for a different task. Amazing. I love technology. Except when the battery falls out of my laptop and I lose whatever I was working on.

Triathlon Nightmare

Last night I had a nightmare that I had a super crappy T1 in my ironman. My swim went well, but when I got to T1, it took me forever to put on my running shoes. I was like "crap, I'm in my trainers." People were passing me all over the place as I'm sitting on the ground. I took them off and put on flats then ran out of transition before I realized that I was supposed to be getting on the bike. When I turned around to go get my bike, other crazy stuff happened. I found my cross country spikes, but not my bike shoes. Then I realized that I hadn't picked up my packet. I've spent about 15 minutes in T1 and I'm getting really frustrated with myself. I had to go find the packet pickup lady, who was at a merch tent. She tried to sell me a hoodie. I finally got my packet (which was amazing: it was a biking jersey with all the stuff they give you shoved into the pockets). I woke up before I could put on my numbers and hit the road. It made me realize that I really need to think about my transitions before the race. Maybe even practice them a little. I've been thinking about making a list of what I want to put in the bag for each of the transitions and the special needs bag. I think I'll write that list down today.

Pick #147

Oasis - "She is Love" from Little by Little

Pro Lithic

Interviewer: Boy, Stephen King, you sure have written a lot of books. You're pretty much the definition of pro lithic.
SK: I think you mean prolific. A pro lithic would be someone who gets paid to be a rock.

Runner Dog Friend

When I was running today, a dog came running at me about 5.5 or 6 miles into the run. It turned out to be friendly and followed me down the street. I thought it would stop there, but the dog ran the next 5 or so miles with me...most of them alongside me. Friendly dog, but no tags so I didn't know his name. I tried to get the dog to go home when I was leaving his neighborhood, but he kept following me. I tried to give him water at my turnaround point (I was wearing my Camelbak), but he ran away from the water stream. Anyway, this dog went out on to Capital Circle NW (a fairly busy road with 45mph speed limit) and wasn't mindful of the cars. I figured that if it followed me all the way home I could feed it and keep it in the back yard. Fortunately I saw a cop car and flagged it down and we ended up loading the dog in the back of the cruiser and I gave the officer directions to where the dog and I had first met. I think the cop took the dog back home. I wonder if I'll see that same dog again next time I run through that neighborhood.

Weird Movie Volume Problem

I've had a problem on my laptop that movies won't play their sound as loud as music. I've tried to adjust the volume settings for individual programs, but that doesn't seem to matter. Windows Media Player will make a movie quieter than songs plaid on WMP and Firefox does the same thing when I try to stream Netflix movies. Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong?

Tri at the Rez

I'm putting on a triathlon via the triathlon club @ FSU. We're going to host a sprint triathlon the same distances as Red Hills on November 14th, 2009 at the FSU Reservation. I'm in the process of getting all the necessary permits & whatnot. I need to find some good people to be on my team to put this thing on. Hopefully we'll raise a good deal of money that we can use to help send people to Collegiate Nationals in Lubbock, TX this year. I'm sure I'll write more as I get more progress.

Why Moths Have Powdered Wings

There is a cool spider living in a web outside my rear garage door. I watched it grow up from a little tiny thing to a pretty large cool looking spider. I wish I could get a picture, but my camera won't focus right. I've got to duck a little to avoid this spider's web, but that's ok. I figure that it catches all kinds of flying pests and eating mosquitoes is cool with me. The other night I was out back at night and I saw a moth. I caught it and threw it into the spider web in hopes of watching it get wrapped up by my friend, the spider. To my amazement, the moth didn't stick to the web. That's when I realized that they probably have powder on their wings for a reason. Maybe one reason is so that they don't stick to spider webs.

New Laptop

I bought an Acer 5535 laptop from TigerDirect. I'm starting to get used to it. It has a full sized keyboard and a number pad. Kind of crappy battery life, and it's got Vista on it, but whatever...it was a good price. The main reason I got a laptop is so I can get work done when I'm away from Tallahassee on my amorous trips up north. I need to get it set up for remote control of my desktop machine at school. That way I can use the power of the number crunching laptop from the convenient location of wherever I am. It's also a portable DVD player, but I don't think it could get through an entire DVD without having some wall power. I picked up a power inverter to plug into my car's cigarette lighter for taking this thing on road trips.

Picks #145 & 146

Whoa! Looks like I didn't put up a pick of the week last week...how'd that happen?! Here are this week's & last week's:

Boys Like Girls - The Great Escape
Saosin - It's Far Better to Learn

Serial Correlation in my Bedtimes

I definitely notice that there's serial correlation in my bedtimes. If I'm up late one night, it's nearly impossible for me to get to bed early the next night. If I want to start going to bed earlier, I have to do it in 15 or 30 minute increments. My bedtime one night is probably the best predictor of my bedtime the next night.

¡Ay! ¡Qué calor!

No hay mucha gente quienes ya sepan que empecé una relación a larga distancia. Ella vive muy lejos de mi...a unas 12 horas. Hablamos bastante en Skype y acabo de comprar un webcam. Me parece que la distancia y falta de contacto construyen una sensación de necesidad y anticipación. Antes, no pensaba que era posible empezar algo amoroso a larga distancia para mi. No quiero ofender a nadie, pero no he encontrado la mujer perfecta para mi en Tallahassee durante los 3 años en esta ciudad. Estoy satisfecho con elegida dama quién puede elevarme a niveles donde no voy solo.

Por el título, supongas que voy a recontar algo muy caliente que pasó entre nosotros. Debes conocerme mejor que eso. Sino hablo de un calor que estaba durmiendo en un lugar muy hondo de mi ser. Despertó el calor. Pone un fuego bajo mi corazón y hace que palpita más rápidamente. Este sentido envuelve a mi pecho y a veces me dejan las palabras. Pues ya lo sabes por la manera como escribo ahorita. Lo raro es que no puedo organizar mis sentimientos ni describirlos. Sólo sé que me hace feliz. Vale la pena. Ojalá que podamos juntarnos por un poco de tiempo, por lo menos.

Pienso que la falta de contacto físico va a ser la parte más difícil.

Lo siento, pero tuve que escribir algo. Si lo anterior no tiene sentido o hay castellano equivocado tengo que confesar que tengo sueño. Buenas noches.

Genetically Modified Tobacco

You'd better watch out for this biohazard...

I don't know what the top line says. Vstup means enter and I assume zakázán means don't even think about. They were just growing these plants in the ground. How cute to be so scared of GM plants.

Head Winds

When I'm cycling with people, sometimes I like to say that there's always a head wind if you're going fast enough. I think this is a good metaphor for life.

Green Bicycle Project

I went to help Micah & co. paint at the Green Bicycle Project (GBP) today. If you haven't heard about the GBP, then you should check them out if you're considering picking up a good used bike. Micah restores bikes that are missing parts and have been abandoned as well as finding nice bikes that are no longer wanted by their owners. His bikes are really cheap compared to anything you could find at a bike store. If you want to stop by the shop, check out the Contact Us tab on the website.

Pick #144

Vampire Weekend - "Oxford Comma" from their self titled release