Monday, April 30, 2012

Shaving Legs from a Bet

So I had a crash on my mountain bike today when I was in the process of figuring out how I wanted to adjust the cleats and pedals for my new MTB shoes.  I have a bloody left elbow, some scratches, had a back covered in dirt, and I got 7 little punctures from my big chain ring on my right calf.  In order to get the band-aid to stick, I'm shaving the area immediately around the wound.

I've always said that I wouldn't shave my legs (entirely) unless I lost a bet.  However, now I think that if I were making a bet with someone I would stipulate that they have to shave one and only one leg if I win.  That would be way more awkward.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Eso sí, ¿qué es?

I remember hearing an advertisement for a program to help English speakers learn Spanish.  It was some sort of audio tape thing.  The advertisement was on the radio.  The catch phrase at the end was:  "Have you ever wondered how to spell 'socks' in Spanish?  ...  Eso sí, ¿qué es?"  That last part in Spanish sounds like you're spelling out S-O-C-K-S.

I remember that something clicked after I learning that the Spanish word for socks is los calcetines.  I asked my teacher about it because that would be spelled c-a-l-c....  She chuckled and told me about the pun.  I think it was a pretty clever marketing ploy that you wouldn't understand unless you didn't need the product in the first place.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Eco Tip #5

Mr. Mister is a reusable plastic bottle that you use in place of disposable metal oil spray cans.  It's really cool because you can put any oil or mixture of oils in it.  You could even spray non-oils, but I can't think of a great application for that.  The propellant is compressed air.  You pump the lid in order to compress the air inside to propel the oil.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Living Life Without Limbs

Nick Vujicic is amazing.  At first he makes me feel like a piece of shit...but then I realize that he wouldn't want that. I'm awesome too and so are you...so go be awesome.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Fossil's "Water Resistant" Watches

I got a new watch today.  I'm not the biggest fan, but it'll do...It's water resistant to 5 ATM (50m).  The manual says not to swim or skin dive with it.  WTF??  If it's water resistant to ~160 feet, then why can't I swim around in it?  These activities are only ok for watches rated to 10-20ATM according to the manual.  Also, the watches rated at 3ATM say that they're OK for light spray, perspiration, light rain, etc but NOT for bathing, swimming, or skin diving.

What's the point of rating a watch as water resistant to a certain depth if you can't wear it down to (almost) that depth?  I think it's misleading and I would not have purchased this watch knowing that.  I used to have a Fossil Blue watch rated to 100m (or was it 50?  I can't remember).  It never had any problems.  I understand that they're not dive watches, but a water resistant watch rated to even 1ATM should be able to withstand a back yard swimming pool.  Otherwise where's that number come from?

Monday, April 16, 2012

Running on Broken Glass

I guess it had to happen sooner or later.  I stepped on some broken glass while I was running yesterday.  I didn't get hurt too badly and it was only about 2 minutes into my run, so I didn't have that far to hobble back to my house.  I wasn't injured very much.  In fact, I put on some shoes after I cleaned out my foot and went for a 4 miler.

I noticed a high concentration of glass pieces on the ground yesterday about a minute into the run.  I dodged a bunch of them.  I didn't see the piece I ended up stepping on.  It stuck to my left foot when I first struck it and I felt it there again when my left foot struck the ground again.  At this point it felt like a small rock on the bottom of my foot and I thought it would just come off or I might have to use my hand to get rid of it.  On the next left footfall my brain got a different kind of pain message and I hopped on my right foot.  I pulled out the piece of glass.  Luckily it was just a puncture and not a big cut.  It wasn't very deep.  I wonder if it would have even bothered me if I had lots of leather on the bottoms of my feet.  I had a track coach in high school who was a barefoot runner and broken glass didn't phase that guy.  Maybe it'd be best to find routes less likely to have a glass problem.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Purdymouth

I went to Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack last night.  There was an afterparty for Tally's roller derby team, Capital Punishment, because they had just finished a bout with New Orleans.  I was supposed to meet Rosie, but ran into Phyllis when I got there b/c Rosie was outside smoking a cigarette.  We were there to watch a band called Purdymouth, of which Rosie's downstairs neighbor is the drummer.  I liked them a lot.  They play covers of 90's/aughts rock music.  Maybe you're interested.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Miser May

Frugal February was so successful (and I've had to spend a lot of money since then) that I'm going to try for a "Miser May" following nearly the same rules.  I will be able to spend money on home repairs.  Beginning of May is a good time for that in my schedule and I don't want to delay fixing things.  I'm allowing myself an exception that I can sky dive with Erin for our anniversary since we've planned that in advance.  (update...not going skydiving, so I can spend money on something else for the anniversary.)  I'm also allowing purchase of Groupons and the use of them, no matter the expiration.  I'm going to make the Google Document detailing all my expenditures once again and I hope to put a good deal away in savings.

I didn't do any dumpster diving in February, but this might be a way to increase my consumption without spending more money.

If Miser May is successful, I may consider doing this again later in the year (Stingy September?).  Maybe this will turn into a regular thing where I take 1, 2, or 3 months out of the year and attempt to save a significant amount of my income by not spending it.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Restricting Books? Really?

Nick shared this article on Facebook about parents wanting the Hunger Games books pulled from library shelves.  While I haven't read the books, I just cannot get past the idea that we still want to censor books.  Kids have easy access to violence and porn on the internet, so why would we stop them from READING something even if it is as graphic as what they could see online.  Is it that these parents do not value literacy?  Are they afraid of exposing their children to ideas outside the parental comfort zone?  Are libraries required to remove books if a certain number of removal requests are made?