Dexter's Folly (Last Night)

Dexter fans: this post references last night's episode. If you haven't seen it, you may want to wait to read this.

First, I noticed a filming error. When Dexter's going through one of the empty houses, you can see a face in the bottom left corner of a set of jalousie windows. I thought that someone was watching him, but it's part of the film crew.

Now for the mistake Dexter made: he should have taken care of Trinity after hitting him with the shovel. When Trinity was on the ground, Dexter should have injected him with that sodium-whatever-it-is that he keeps in his syringe. Even though the little boy was sinking in the concrete, there was no chance that the concrete would have set up any harder during the time it would have taken Dexter to incapacitate Trinity. Dexter would still be able to rescue the boy and he would have had the opportunity to kill Trinity that same night.

Maybe they had to write that kind of mistake into the show to set up the final two episodes, but I don't think that Dexter's character should have gone for the boy first. Maybe this is part of his changing as a result of having children himself, but the old Dexter would definitely have taken care of business with Trinity first...especially because he knows that a new kill cycle is just being started with the boy, so there are 3 more people in immediate danger. Bad Dexter.

Pick #165

Monsters of Folk - "Say Please" from their self-titled release

Pub Run

Yeah, pub runs are great. You get some friends together and run from one bar to another. Take turns buying pitchers and take it all in. The event itself is only part of the experience. There's also the anticipation: "hey, are you doing the pub run on Saturday??" and the post-event: "man, that was so cool when those kids on bikes followed us to the next bar."

I've always wanted to do a pub run race. Teams of 3 or 4. At each stop, each team has to consume one pitcher and every teammate has to down at least one glass. The team can't leave to go to the next pub until everyone on the team has finished the beer. Ironically, I think that the experience wouldn't be as pleasant if they were races like the beer mile. What really gets to you when you combine drinking and running is speed. You don't want to drink too fast and you don't want to run too fast. Drinking too fast makes it slosh around in your stomach when you run. Running too fast makes it slosh around in your stomach. There's also the increased chance of hurting yourself. And one last problem with a competitive pub run: finding enough people down to do such a thing to themselves. It's way easier to throw together a friendly pub run.

Pick #164

The Rifles - "When I'm Alone" from No Love Lost

Road ID Firefly Supernova

I just got a Firefly Supernova by Road ID. Mine's blue. It's tinier than I imagined. I clipped it to my backpack for my ride home tonight. I still want to test it out running. I wonder if it will bounce and annoy me.

I'm always curious how I look (how visible I am) on my bike at night. I really want to get in my car and watch someone else ride my bike. Anyway, tonight I settled for dropping my backpack at my driveway, facing down the road. Then I rode my bike to the end of my road and I could still see the flashing light. Road ID claims that you can see the light from up to a mile away...that might be a little far fetched or under perfect conditions or something. This light was still very visible from a quarter mile away. The light is supposed to be omni-directional, meaning it doesn't matter which direction it's facing - you'll still see it from any side. I pushed my backpack over and looked at the light coming out of the side of the Supernova and it was not nearly as bright. You could only see it faintly at about 100 meters.

I'll see how well it holds up...it's supposed to be waterproof down to 300 feet (a light like this would be sweet in low-vis water). It's small enough that I can keep it in my backpack. The packaging says that there's a bike mount for it, but I can't find one on roadid.com. If I like it, I'll probably get another one or 3 of them.

Tri the Rez Recap

Alright, Saturday was the big day. No, not the Great Floridian iron-distance race...not my Granny's 80th b-day...but Tri the Rez. We had packet pickup on Friday and it's a good thing so many people came to get their stuff early because we had a chance to learn what we were supposed to do and it made packet pickup on race morning easier.

We ran into a few snags before the race started. For instance, I realized that I didn't have a lead-out vehicle for the bike. Also, we weren't able to get on Lost Lake Road to mark the pot holes and the turns until 8am (right when the race starts). We were short staffed on volunteers and had to reassign people from one job to another (e.g. body markers became intersection people on the bike course). A couple other snags: didn't have water at the finish line for about the first 60 finishers, didn't have run course marked on the ground which led to 3 runners making a wrong turn and getting DQ'd and I feel responsible (but I gave them awards anyway because they would have won their age groups even if they hadn't accidentally cut the course...and free entry to next year's race since I thought that was fair). I also hear that there was a bit of a bump coming out of the water on to the boat ramp...maybe we'll come up the beach next year...

Overall, I got lots of positive feedback from participants and spectators. I think I did a pretty good job of throwing things together in the 3 months that I had in which to do so. Most everything ran according to plan and ahead of schedule on race day. I think the missing markings on the run course were the worst part of the day, so that's not too bad. There was someone who was having trouble breathing in the swim and the Rez lifeguards did a great job getting him out of the water and into the hands of the FSU First Responder Unit who did a great job of taking care of the situation. The FHP did an excellent job of managing traffic on the bike course (so I'm told...I never got to see the bike in action). I think people liked the awards and there was a good deal of door prizes for the size of the race. Results were posted online before I got back home!

Looking forward to next year...

Zit Popping

The coolest way to pop a zit (or bug bite) is definitely to pull out a hair that's growing through the bump.

Pick #163

Old Crow Medicine Show - "Alabama High-Test" from Tennessee Pusher

Ruffwear

makes me want to get an active dog http://www.ruffwear.com/

Buckle Up Bumper Stickers

I've wondered why people put bumper stickers on their car which are supposed to encourage other motorists to wear their seat belts. One driver shouldn't want other drivers to buckle up due to the moral hazard problem. People will drive safer if they don't have a seat belt. Steven Landsburg proposes that roads would be the safest if there was a spear coming out of each person's steering wheel pointed straight at their heart. Taking away the spear and putting on a seat belt gives you a sort of license to drive more carelessly. You should want to be the only driver on the road with a seat belt.

Red Cote

No, not lobsterbacks...Butler GUM Red Cote Disclosing Tablets are Sudafed-sized chewable tablets that you use to see where you did a bad job of brushing your teeth. I discovered some in the drawer at my family's house over the weekend and decided to try one after brushing. I was surprised at how much I missed (even considering I was using a crappy travel toothbrush). The cool thing is that you can make sure your mouth is squeaky clean before retiring for the evening.

I took a couple of these tablets back with me to Tally. I decided to try one tonight after using my Sonicare. Still missed some spots...most of them were spots I know that I have a hard time getting so I've already started giving those areas special attention after regular brushing. I guess next time I should brush, floss, and use my Sulcabrush (maybe even mouthwash?) before chewing a tablet and see how good I do when I go the whole 9 yards.

It's been quite some time since I checked up on myself after brushing. When was the last time you did? It might be kinda cool to check it out and see what you routinely miss after completing your oral hygiene routine.

Mad Bicycle Skills

incredible tricks on a mountain bike. I HIGHLY recommend watching.

feeDuck

This is a duck outside the Anchor Inn in Lantana, FL. Picture taken after dark tonight without the high ISO setting on my camera...I think it was on "twilight portrait" mode...whatever that means...I think it means you need a tripod because the shutter's open for 2 seconds. There are 2 ducks in the picture. It's currently my desktop background. It'll fit 16:9 monitors.

Pick #162

Wolfmother - "Dimension" from their selftitled release

An? Historic

Alright, I've heard it a billion and a half times (that's (1.0 x 10^9) + 0.5) in the past year. Some people say "an" historic and others say "a" historic usually followed by the word "election." Here's the deal: "a" comes before consonants and "an" comes before vowels...well, it's not quite that simple or people'd never make the "an" historic mistake. You see, "a" comes before consonant sounds and "an" comes before vowel sounds. So, in order to pull of saying "an" historic, you should pronounce historic like you're British...namely, omitting the "h" sound at the beginning and saying "iss-toric." Please and thank you.

More Like 24 Flavors

Someone in the DH @ THC sat down with a Dr. Pepper (I think it was TBW). I took some ketchup, poured it into the glass, and said "more like 24 flavors!" Good times.

Vibram Five Fingers

Have you seen these crazy shoes? They're called "Five Fingers," made by a company called Vibram (VEE-brum) who's been making shoe soles for years. I read an article about them in Runners World a while ago and I came across their facebook page yesterday. I found a local store and went to check them out. My size 42 foot fit fairly comfortably into the shoes, except my pinky toe felt weird. I thought I'd get the Classic model, but after looking at their usage chart, I think I might have to try a different model.

I'd like to have a pair of water shoes. These might be the perfect ditch running shoes...they can get wet and dry quickly. They'll let your feet feel the ground and respond. The only problem is that I'm not cool with the price tag yet. Maybe I'll ask for some for Christmas.

Tri ≠ Try

You might not know it by the name of my race, but I don't like it when the abbreviation "tri" is used to mean "put forth an effort" or "attempt." It's really overdone and it's been old for a while.

My race didn't have a name first. I was calling it "Tri at the Rez" at first, which was short for "the Triathlon at the FSU Reservation." Rez Race might have been a cool name, but someone suggested that I call it Tri the Rez and I thought that the name kind of advertised what kind of event it would be. I'm not a big fan, but it works.

Nike Air Vapors

When I was in middle school, I fell in love with the Nike Air Vapors, which were $100 shoes at the time. I just couldn't convince my parents to buy them for me. We came to a compromise that they would give me $40 toward the shoes because I needed new shoes and that was the most they were willing to spend for a new pair. I agreed to the deal and withdrew money I had earned by mowing yards to finance the rest of the purchase.

I got the shoes and they were the sweetest ones I'd ever worn. I wish I could find a picture of them online, but I've exhausted my searching capabilities to no avail. I was happy to wear them to PE every day and they were pretty cool. I got a lot of use out of them. After they were done for as school shoes, they turned into lawn mowing shoes until I outgrew them.

As much as I liked them and as much as I used them, I quickly realized that it wasn't worth spending $100 on a pair of shoes. I had other things to spend money on (like CDs!) and $100 shoes aren't that much cooler than $40-$50 shoes. You just might have to look around a little and find last year's model or something. I would never have learned this lesson if my parents hadn't made that deal with me. Good move on their part.

I guess I've recently purchased running shoes that are about $100, but I make way more money now than I did during middle school. I also believe that a pair of running shoes that is quality made and fits you properly can end up saving you money by preventing injury. These shoes aren't bought to be cool but rather to be functional. Plus I'm not going to outgrow them like I used to back in middle school.