Capitalist Pig

Someone called me a capitalist tonight with the intent of using it as a derogatory term. She stormed off and left, but I remained and chuckled to myself. Sure I believe that the market system is good for many things. I am not naive enough to believe that it works all the time. Remember that chapter in your econ principles book about market failures? Ya, that. I'll gladly take verbal rap for being a capitalist. I think it's along the same lines as someone calling me a "Christian." That's not offensive. I'm glad that's part of my being. I'll embrace it. I hope you can feel better about yourself after faux-degrading me.

Transformer House

How cool is this?

Cold Shower Season

As the weather warms up, there comes a time when you can go exercise (or mow the yard or something) and get so hot that you actually keep sweating after taking a shower. I believe these are referred to as "after-sweats." It's kinda crappy to get out of the shower and begin to perspire. One way you can attempt to keep the after-sweats at bay is to rinse in cold water. It also helps not to wash in really hot water.

Just like a hot shower feels really good in the cold of winter, I actually look forward to turning the knob to the right a little bit more than normal after I finish a summer run. There's something refreshing about a cold shower. And even if the whole thing's not cold, a nice cold finish is still a treat.

TV v. Reality

What you see on TV isn't real. Probably even if it's the news. My parents taught me from a very young age that there's a difference between what goes on in the world around you and what you see on the tube. That may be one reason I liked scary movies as a kid. Even though they make you jump or think about the boogey man, I knew that it was all staged. Unfortunately, I don't think many parents teach their children about the fictional aspect of TV/movies.

When this concept really hit me was after Borat came out. People really thought that he crapped on the street in NYC and that a horse fell over at the rodeo and that Pamela Anderson was kidnapped by him. WTF?? Of course not! It's a MOVIE.

Everything you see on TV is made up. Did you know that the Fresh Prince was not filmed in an actual house?! And "reality TV" is scripted. It's all fake.

Well, maybe not everything you see on TV is absolutely made up. I understand that documentaries can show real stuff, but you're only seeing one side of the story if you watch only one documentary on a topic. Kinda like if you just watch Fox News. The idea of these productions is to showcase one side of an issue...and there's nothing wrong with that. You've just got to realize that what comes on the stupid box isn't the gospel.

Bike & Build Encounter

I was at Micah's shop yesterday when this girl came in talking something about bikes. Said she cycled from coast to coast last summer (Actually, she said from North Carolina to somewhere I don't remember, probably San Diego). She had previously mentioned having a Giant road bike with sentimental value. I asked her if she had done Bike & Build and she responded in the affirmative. Pretty cool. Talked to her about it for a little bit. I said it was crappy that I'm too old for it. She said I should be a leader. I thought you needed to have B&B experience but she told me otherwise. She said that there was someone on her trip who was 26 and was not a leader, so maybe I could swing something. She also purports to be amigos with some people higher up in the organization.

I've since been in email contact with her. I found out that there's too much work involved with being a leader while trying to finish my dissertation. Maybe I could bring my experience as a bike mechanic to the table or something else to encourage them to let me in. I've thought about it and that would be the perfect way to end my scholastic career and let me transition to the real world. It would be one last summer of incredible-ness before hitting the 9-5 or whatever I'll do.

I've always felt like I'd like to give something back since I've been given so much. Over the past year I've been able to volunteer a lot more, probably due to participation in Golden Key (knowing what's going on is half the battle). One service project will never make up for my debt to society, but this would be a nice gesture and a big down payment. I'll be sure to keep you posted on any progress.

Bike Polo

I played bike polo for the first time on Friday after Critical Mass. It's interesting. I crashed a couple times. I guess that's why some people have polo-specific bikes (so you don't mess up your everyday bike). I might try to rescue an old bike that's falling apart in my parents' yard and it could get turned into a polo bike. I don't know how often I'll play, but probably more often if I had a good bike for it.

The basic rules (as I understand them) are:

1. don't put your foot down on the ground or you have to go out of bounds at center court and touch the boundary before you can touch the ball again

2. to score a goal, you have to use the skinny (circular) end of a croquet-mallet shaped mallet.

It helps if you've got to have pretty good control of your bike on top of hand-eye coordination and the ability to look at your surroundings while handling a ball on the ground.

Pick #187

While this pick should be lethal, it's not...

Jo Dee Messina - "Bye Bye"