A Fruit Only Diet?

Dean Karnazes writes an entry in his blog about a guy who won a marathon and has a weird diet. Dude just eats fruits (occasionally some veggies). Sounds pretty crazy, but dude's getting good results athletically. Read it and be surprised.

Tri the Rez 2010 Registration Now Open!

Go to IMAthlete.com and search for Tri the Rez...mine is the only race that shows up. $50 for early registration...where can you find a tri cheaper than that??!!

The first 5 people who use the discount code 6362M8KN3O will get $5 off their registration...I just want to see if anyone's being pointed to register from my blog :).

Vegetarian Streak

I've been a vegetarian for 3 or 4 consecutive days now (unless boiling my quinoa in chicken broth disqualifies that statement for you personally). I didn't do it entirely on purpose. It sort of happened that I made some chicken last weekend and had some leftovers in the days following then there just wasn't meat in the house. It's been kinda cool, but 2 nights ago I went a little hungry because I couldn't find anything to satisfy me.

Last night I made a really cool dish. Vegetarian tacos. For the "meat," I used textured vegetable protein (TVP) and refried beans. It turned out really good. And filling. That was cool considering it's the first time I cooked TVP.

Pick #182

Davis Coen - "Busker's Blues" from Ill Disposition

Krankin' It Up

I went to a new volunteers meeting yesterday at Krank It Up and I went in tonight to get some training and see where stuff is in the shop/familiarize myself with shop policies. It's pretty cool. They've got some really neat tools. I'm looking forward to getting to use some. I used the crank puller today for the first time. I also got a lesson on bottom brackets. How cool.

In order to become a full mechanic, you have to build a bike up from scratch...nothing but the frame. I'm looking forward to that challenge. I need to learn a little more about the hub/axle/wheel setup and headsets before I take that on, but Micah's taught me well over at the Green Bicycle Project and I feel pretty confident.

I'm not "switching" my volunteerism. I'm hoping to expand it. I'll still try to help out at GBP on Saturdays and add KIU on Thursdays.

One thing that's always annoyed me about KIU is the weird and not reliable hours. I think I'm going to try to volunteer on Thursdays to combat that sort of idiosyncrasy in hours.

Anti-Social Running Groups

On my way out of school today, I saw a pack of 6 Delta Delta Delta sisters jogging together. I thought that it was kind of funny that they were all wearing sorority t-shirts but it was kind of cool to see them all running...until I noticed that everyone was wearing headphones listening to their own iPods. How crazy is that? I've never been running with a group of people with headphones in. Isn't the point of group running to socialize? Maybe it is for me but they use the group to stay motivated or something. I promise not to do that.

Nice Day = Lotsa Bikes

It's gorgeous outside. It looks like there's a lot of occasional bike riders who decided to cycle in to FSU today. Bike racks are crowded. They have been since before noon. Still crowded at 4:30. Although it's a little inconvenient to find alternate bike parking, I'd rather have to search for a spot every day if it means that people are cycling en masse.

So Much for Returnable Bottles

There's a dairy in Blountstown called Ocheese Creamery that sells their milk in returnable glass bottles. Basically, you pay $2 for the bottle + some money for the milk. Then you drink the milk and return the empty bottle to get your $2 back.

I bought a half gallon of their whole milk last week, drank it, then went to return the bottle today. I got it into the store, out of my backpack, set it on the floor. Somehow I knocked it over (it was on the floor) and it broke. That's a situation where nobody wins. Consolation prize: the bottle was in a plastic bag, so only one piece of broken glass fell on the floor and it was easy to clean up.

More Scary Debt News

This short article/graph shows that we should stop accruing debt as a nation until we can get some of the old principle paid off. I think that there's going to be a national margin call sometime in my lifetime.

Macs Don't Delete

I've never owned an Apple computer with the Macintosh OS, but I've used them before. One thing that always gets me (perhaps because I learned computer stuff on Windows machines) is that there is no equivalent to the "Del" button. The key that says "delete" actually serves a backspace function. I like to use both the backspace and delete functions.

Does anyone know how to delete the character after the cursor on a Mac?

Rock Climbing Improvement

I went to the FSU Climbing Club's meeting on Monday night and joined the group. I was pleased with the progress I've made. I was doing all kinds of things that I wasn't able to before spring break. I bought some climbing shoes over the break and I think they help a little and the experience helps a little.

I'm planning on going to the rock gym to get a month membership tomorrow after I get done at the Green Bicycle Project. Then the marginal cost of climbing is zero dollars, which means that I'll hopefully do it a lot more often and see a lot of improvement in the coming month.

Pick #181

Daft Punk - "One More Time" from Discovery

"The Internet" Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

I chuckled a little bit, but maybe it makes sense...I wonder what the acceptance speech will be like if the internet wins. I like the idea that "paper" should win because every peace treaty has been on a piece of paper.

A Picture's Worth 1000 Words

Check out http://www.worth1000.com/ for some pretty sweet photoshopped pictures.

Sweden Bound

I'm in the process of working out a trip to Sweden with my family to visit some of my more distant relatives (like my grandmother's cousin). Hopefully we can stay for a couple weeks and it won't be super freezing. My granny's talking about going north of the arctic circle. That sounds like an experience...maybe get to see the midnight sun.

I need to get a Swedish phrasebook or something. Rosetta Stone would be cool and probably the fastest thing to pick up the language, but also kind of expensive. (Speaking of Rosetta Stone, I lost my CD for Swahili and haven't been able to practice in quite some time...sad face). I was under the impression that everyone under 20 years old speaks English in Sweden, but that is apparently not true in some of the places we're planning on visiting.

Hooray for international travel.

Pick #180

Trophy Wifes - "Jesus, Bartender of My Soul"

I would love to get a copy of this song...I've only heard it performed live. Help me out if you can (Nick).

Barrel of Monkeys

Mani has a Barrel of Monkeys game at his house. I wanted to check the rules since I haven't played in a while (probably about 20 years) and I came across a very funny review of the game and rules. Read it yourself for a good laugh.

Puzzles

Check out this video about puzzles. I hadn't really thought about them a whole lot, but he brings life to puzzles.

Pick #179

Grant Peeples - "Real Country" from Pawnshop

I heard this song live and it was pretty funny. I think I liked the live version better.

listen here.

What-A-Weekend

Jensen & Shell came to visit me this weekend. They got here on Friday night and I had a quinoa dish waiting for them. Shell and I talked about making it into a paella type thing by adding chorizo and some other meats. After downing food, we went scooped Jamie from her house and went to the Sarah Mac Band concert with Grant Peeples opening for them. After the concert, we took Jamie home then went to the Leon Pub. Met up with Jeff then walked to What-A-Burger since J&S had never been to one. Randomly ran into Sarah Mac and Charlie (the guitar player for SMB) at the fast food joint. Nightcap at home and sleepy time.

Got up Saturday a little earlier than I planned b/c the City of Tallahassee people who were planting trees in my front yard felt the need to knock on my door to tell me they were there. Unnecessary. Anyway, would have been awakened a little later by an exploding transformer. I couldn't go back to sleep so I headed out for a quick run while J&S got ready for brunch with Jeff & Jenny's Lunchbox. After brunch, we went to the open house at the National High Magnetic Fields Laboratory and saw some cool demos. Paul Stolc was there with Phyllis and P. saw Shell and yelled her name out. Random. Later on at the NHMFL open house, we ran into Sarah Mac! Ha. After NHMFL, we went to the Rez to help out with a clean up, but they were pretty much done with the work by the time we got there. We tried to go to the overlook at the capitol, but it was closed. We went to Bread & Roses to grab some quinoa so that Shell could experiment with it (and I needed some other stuff too). We got some delicious vegan chocolate chips. We drove around campus a little then went home. J drove me to the Liquor Loft to get some beer for the night in so I decided to show him Proof. Ran into Drew, Laura, and Georgia. Drew knows J. We bought some Bulleit Bourbon @ LL. I've never had it before then, but it's really good. Back home, we made pizza, drank beers, watched some comedy, and played the Worst Case Scenario board game. Stayed up late talking.

Guests left on Sunday after a big breakfast. It's nice to have company. It was such a nice day that I had to run. I ran my 100th mile of the year today. Went to dinner club @ Georgia's for some really good chili. Developed a parameterization for my experiment that gives me desirable properties.