My "Bob" story Pt. 1

Preface: I started typing, and this got to be pretty lengthy. So I'm going to split it into two parts. This is part one.




For as long as I can remember I have been a bit of a sports junkie. In elementary school I prided myself on my pickle skills. Come junior high I took up cross country. I wasn't too enthused about it at first to be honest, the idea of running for running's sake seemed borderline insane. After the first few practices and seeing my time start to drop it became tolerable.

Somewhat surreal side story... to this day, the first memory I have of running cross country was in the summer of either 7th or 8th grade, it's kind of a blur now. I was walking up the steps from the junior high to our little hill where we set up "camp" before starting our runs and I see some barefooted (yes, barefoot, running long distance) maniac turning the corner and sprinting up the hill. It was Chris Dyer, probably trying to work up some callous or something for the marine boot runs he would soon be doing. Or just displaying that token Marine mentality, whatever you want to call it. Weird how one thing unfolds to another sometimes...

There were three important life lessons I learned from cross country. First, running is not fun. For me at least, I don't think I ever wanted it to be fun. In a twisted way, I think I ran for the pain more than the joy. Sometimes (and more often than not during junior high at least) I let the pain get the best of me. If I got tired, just walk! Duh!




Then came high school. Here I learned two other things. For one, there will always be doubters. Regardless of how much you may think you have busted your ass, there will always be someone out there screaming for your failure. I learned to not only accept this, but embrace it. Use it as fuel for the fire. Ask anyone who was at the Richmond Invitational (admittedly, the one and only race I ever ran in when we were by far the best team) when one of the more vocal parents (nicely put) decided to run in the race also. Yes, this was a high school race. But this man also knew everyone involved and it was a small event anyways, so coaches and parents were allowed to join in.

That our team whole of five average runners finished in the top ten out of about 100 runners. It was the only medal I ever won.




Lesson number three. My legs never were the limiting factor. Neither were my lungs. The mind is always the limiting factor. That damn ugly step brother of Jiminy Cricket just reinforcing what all the doubters are saying on the outside. Sometime's running is even more than an individual sport. Sometimes I had to nearly divide my own body into two parts. Screw you brain, show me what you got legs. It is because of this I started to learn to embrace the pain. It took a while to figure it out but I started to discover that the more I made my body hurt while training or at a race, the better I felt at the end. By the end of freshman year, the last year I ran, I understood those three lessons pretty well. Running isn't fun, but it doesn't have to be, there will always be doubters, and my mind is always the limiting factor.

Continued tomorrow...

90s Eric Clapton > 70s Clapton

The end of the school year sucks

What I havent been able to do

* Read my book
* Take it to the streetz.
* Keep up with my bracket (just checked: currently #1, but the projected score puts me in 3rd, which is usually pretty accurate this late in the game).
* play Minesweeper (sad times)

What I have been doing:

* Picking up and fixing bikes. Lots of bikes.
* In doing so, driving around this bad boy (no, sadly this is not mine):

Awwww yeaaaa

* Vector integrals, jacobians, shearing and moments along a beam, conservation of pretty much everything, and comparing a Hitchcock movie with one by Tim Burton! (find the one that doesn't fit..)
* Too tired to go out on Saturday night, so I watched The Usual Suspects. Definitely a good movie with a great "ohhhh fuuuuuck" moment at the end, as I like to call them. Kevin Spacey outdoes himself here. Oh, and sorry about the kinda random tense change for this asterisk....
* Keepin it gangsta'


PS3 fund: $118.75 - a solid start, but this is all of my paycheck. I'm sure this number will fluctuate as need to buy stuff arises, like, I dunno, pizza. Or ....Mountain Dew...


And go Reds. Even though I'm taking the terrible until proven otherwise approach.

Do it. Right now.

Go to youtube.

Search "Garth Brooks".

Pick a song. No, not the Ron White skit, you jokers.

Listen.

It's humanly not possible, and damn near un-american to not enjoy it at least a little.

Cribz

A little tour of the homestead, a few months settled in (an about 2 months from settling back out):

Yo yo yo dis where the food and drank be. We also gots the TV in, er... on top of the coola so we ain't neva miss a second of Yo! MTV Raps. I gots da surround sound hookzied up to keep it bumpin when dose T-rex be stompin in Jurrasic Park. YEAAAA BOIIIIIII!!!




All the flicks to keep it real hood..




A man gotta wake up for classes in da mornin, so I gots the hot-hot-HAWTEST hot bevs on the streetz. Don't even think about tryna copy dis, you can't afford it




It be dat time-a year again, so we gots da bracket to keep all my thugs updated (when I gets around to it, dis calculus don't sell isself CHYEA!)



And when dat weekend comes around


We gots the neons on the ceiling to get the party started! HOLLLA ATCHA BOIIIII!!!

I'll do a translated version of this sometime too....

Boo end of spring break

Back to school, freshly stocked with mass goodies and a little over a month to go, with enough work to keep me busy for a little over a year probably. Sweet. I'm going to try to post something on here every day from here until the end of the year (and yes, I'll try to get out of the "don't post at home" habit and keep it going through the summer). Sure, it isn't going to be groundbreaking theories on life or anything, but I'll try to keep it entertaining and/or informative.

With that, what I did over break (as best as I can remember):

Friday

In honor of St. Patrick's Weekend (a result of discrepancies in the exact day of celebration), I took Stinky out to the Claddagh Irish Pub in Mason. Good as always, and on the way out the manager gave me a free appetizer and desert coup' for if I return by April 30th. I'm a sucker, I'm sure I'll be there again. After that, back to the house to watch Donnie Darko. Too much buildup, not enough payoff. I'll probably criticker it about an 85.

Saturday
Yay, happy St. Patrick's Day! I did.... absolutely nothing. I think I started the Bengal's Madden '08 dynasty (TJ, J. Smith, Rudi, etc. all gone. I freed up ton's of cap space, traded for two first round picks, got a rookie WR and DE and built up the team from there. Note to those who care: Kenny Irons is not the answer at RB). The projector is doing wonderfully.

Sunday
Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain...

Monday
Rain rain rain rain rain. Oh, and I went out and bought a coffee grinder finally. The fact that I never had one before baffled me. While at Target I was looking through the video games and (*gasp*) nothing caught my eye. Instead I went with The Measure of a Man, the autobiography of Sidney Poitier. I've always liked reading about what famous people have to say for themselves, and the movie class I'm taking has exposed me a little bit more to Poitier, a pretty cool actor. So far he seems like a good guy, too. More on that later, I'm sure.

Tuesday-Thursday
The three most uneventful days of my life. I meant to visit the old school then, but apparently both Wednesday and Thursday were early releases, meaning I had to wake up earlier than 11:30 to really visit. Dangit. The good news is that school is over at the beginning of May. I'll definitely make it back after that.

Friday
Woke up feeling like I was about to have a heart attack. Mildly scary moment considering my intake of caffine. The whole shoulder pain, pukey feeling. As it turns out, sleeping on your stomach with both arms kinda, above your head? is a bad idea. Especially when my right shoulder is double-jointed (is this a real medical term? or is it just exessive flexibility?). My shoulder was in the "popped out" mode all night, gradually pinching on a nerve for about 8 hours. Not fun to wake up with.

After that little self-diagnosis I sat on the couch all day with an ice pack and watched the first couple episodes of Season 1 of Dexter on Netflix. Definitely a fun show, though I'm not sure how they are going to show it on network TV without making it become CSI Jr.

Saturday
Spent the day working on the sister-and-husband's future duplex. Long story short, some old lady lived there for 30 years and the guy just collected rent on it. Old ladies never complain (or redecorate) so he never had to put money into it. Now that she moved out, the thing looks like a timecapsule from 1973. Were talking one grounded plug in the whole place, no cable, no shower. It's like our own little Trading Spaces or something, because the renter pretty much told us he will pay all the expenses of recarpeting/painting/decorating-in-general, without charging rent while the place is being updated. I'm kinda disappointed I'm missing the fun.

One room after carpet removal and a little cleaning of the ceiling. I wish I had a before picture, because wow the carpet looked something like this, but worse.

Sunday
Easter at grandma's. Ham was eaten.


Today
Went to get some shopping done for the room. With the Easter money I got myself some Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee (not a blend or anything, the real stuff). I'm definitely about to use my new grinder and make some right after I post this bad boy!

That's about all I can think of right now. I hope all you teaching types (or student types, if any of you read this...) at P-town have a nice break this week. Just don't sleep wrong, it puts a damper on a day.

Bored.

Watching the Weather Channel is zero fun.

Calling businesses asking for their money over spring break is zero fun.

XBox isn't even fun any more!




Draft speculation is not fun, and Dana Jacobson looks like a horse.

Spring Break w00t!

I will be spending SB'08 in sunny southwest Ohio! Westsyyyyde


Bristol (daytime) is today, one of the best races all year, so that's fun. THEN in less than half an hour is the absolutely HUGGGGEEEEE Rockets/Lakers game. I mean, I'm not even that big of an NBA fan, but I like Kobe, and I like winning streaks. It's like the dynasty's little brother, or cousin, or something. I bet the streak breaks today, and Kobe has an MVP day. That fadeaway is just heavenly.

In keeping with the sports themes, this is how the selections I care about will go:

Dayton - not in, didn't beat Xavier once this year. No way they make it.
ND - 6 seed because of a bad showing in the Big East tourny, even with a first round bye
UK - In, but probably at an 8 or 9
OSU - I would say yes, but I haven't seen them play all year. So honestly I have no frickin clue.*



* That actually goes with all of these teams, except Dayton....they're definitely not in

A not-so-original idea

I want someone to make a website for me. The problem is, that this is a lot more than a website... let me explain.

I love criticker. The premise isn't too hard to grasp. Basically, you go in, they list a bunch of movies, and you rate them all on (at most) a 1-100 scale. I say at most because the algorithm they use is pretty ingenius. Basically, it then takes all your ratings and weights them based on their percentile in your entire collection of rated movies. So, if you felt like being a big doushebag, you could rate them all 1-10, the system would adjust accordingly over time (At least i think so...). But I digress.

Criticker then takes all of your comparisions, and puts it up against the rest of the user database. Through some intense comparision stuff (which I'm thinking is roughly the math equvilant to shining two scantrons up against a light to check for differences) you are then matched with both other users who have the same taste as you and movies that said users like, the theory being that you would in turn dig them.

It's also a fun to see how much your tastes differ with your girlfriend's taste. Seriously, I'm terrible to go to Blockbuster with. But again I digress.



I want a music site that does this same thing. Before you all start linking Pandora, I'm not talking the same thing. Pandora is great if I want to sit down and listen to music that eventually, with a lot of thumb up/down action, I may like.

I want a website that will:
1.) Not require me (but certainly have the capability) to listen to new bands. I'm thinking more text based.
2.) Show me artists, not songs, that match my taste (Pandora falls short here, darn copyright laws).
3.) Allow me to compare my artist ratings with other users. Enter the "my girlfriend has a terrible taste in music" argument :)
4.) Do these three things really well, like criticker.



I'm thinking this equation would be something like

[Allmusic.com + criticker.com + (.5*Pandora.com)]/3



It really isn't that hard. The grunt work has already been laid out, someone just needs to put it all together.

And let me know. :)

Waking up just sucks some days

This helps though:





and this:

Shoulda seen that one comin...

The snow is all but gone already

Global warming my ass.

//raises flame shield and runs for the hills

This snow sucks.

More later.

The view from the window

If this were taken on, say December 10th, things may be different between us, snow.

And yes, I realize this doesn't hold a candle to some places.

This is too perfect

Why yes, of course I lol'ed!

RIP Gary

Oh and p.s. there is no reason it should be snowing this hard in March.

Sitting in front of a TV

In the "chill" part of the library (the basement; no books). A resounding "oh shit," is starting to fill the air.

Lesson learned: the 18-21 demographic means squat in the big picture

An honest question

If anyone can tell me how news stations are able to declare one candidate or another the "winner" of a state with <10% of the votes in I would greatly appreciate it. Is it just a simple matter of meeting past trends (i.e. 95% of the time the leader after x% is the final winner) or is it a NASCAR type deal where the percentages only accounts for the "offical results" while the unofficial race results are available right after the checkered flag (or in this case, the voting is done)?

Sorry for the run-on. Maybe this will help:

Is it just a simple matter of meeting past trends
(i.e. 95% of the time the leader after x% is the final winner)

or

is it a NASCAR type deal where the percentages only accounts for the "offical results"
while the unofficial race results are available right after the checkered flag
(or in this case, the voting is done)?



Or are they just a bunch of stupids?

101 Posts!

This now offically ranks in the top 5 for "Minutia that I have stuck with," along with Starcraft, Photoshop (well, kinda...) and biting my fingernails (#1, and it's not even close).

I leave you with my latest musical choices:

Johnny Cash live at [Prision]

This one is from his San Quentin concert. Cute song too, before he got all doom and gloom, not that that is a bad thing of course.

Tool

Music is Math! Especially in this song. Interesting video that shows just how in depth some of tool's songs are. I'm sure some long-haired patchouli-stink guy probably named Ian (bonus points if you get the reference) has a theory on why this song solves life, but I'll just leave it at a simple "numbers are fun".

Speaking of which, off to math. Today it looks to be applications of double integrals.

Minesweeper: A Conceit

All I really need to know I learned in Minesweeper:

* It always starts with a blank slate.
* At first, nobody understands it. "It's too confusing" ... "What do all the numbers mean" ... "Eff you happy face" ... "I need help" etc.
* The first few steps decide the rest.
* Some games are given a lot from the start, other times I need to work my ass off to even get the slightest glimer of hope.
* The times I have to work my ass off are always the more satisfying.
* Any click could be my last.
* Risks must be taken to survive.
* Everyone takes too many risks.
* Time is my enemy.
* After every mistake, I learn a little more.
* I constantly forget what you learn.
* Things can, and will, get frustrating as hell.
* The last steps are usually the hardest.
* Victory is sweet.
* In the end, this combination of work, frustration, and risk fits together to create one seamless tapestry.

You have no idea how long it took me to get this screen capture. The time wasn't even good. Hurl.

Things Done While Procrastinating...

Last week I started a running list of things I actually do when I'm supposed to be doing something else. I kind of wish I started this in high school, I'm sure there would be some pretty odd stuff.

So far:

1. Shave
2. Minesweeper
3. Make Coffee
4. Drink Coffee
5. Family Guy
6. Watch the game
7. Music Graphs


Yes, I really do shave pretty much just when I want to waste some time.