Big Dumb Rocket

1,000 Miles: May Update

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:04:02 -0400

Progress. Slow progress.

John visited Atlanta a few weeks ago and had a brilliant thought -- a deficit line (orange above). The deficit and projected lines have helped me focus. You'll notice the steady increase in miles over the last few weeks. Even chipping away at the backlog a little.

Today, I'll run my two hundredth mile. Though, at this point in the year I should be at well over three hundred miles. In order to knock out the backlog I need to run about 3.3 miles a day between now and the end of the year.

It will take a little extra effort but I'm going to try to get the deficit line below one hundred this month.

Note: The picture above is dynamic, not a snapshot.

Run 1,000 miles

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:08:32 -0500

This year I am going to run at least 1,000 miles. I've been running 5-6 days a week since November. This fell apart a bit over Christmas but was replaced with stacking wood and working on the farm. Hard to run at a farm house when it's below zero out. =)

Currently, I'm running indoors on an elliptical machine. As the weather gets better I plan on getting decent shoes and running in a near by park.

Since the being of the year I've averaged about 1.2 miles a day. I've been easing into it. To hit my goal, I'll need to step it up to about 3 miles/day.

Progress so far:

More to come.

Pictures taken on Bike Rides: Obama House Edition

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:30:04 -0500

Found this bad ass house on the way home from breakfast a week ago. Yesterday I stopped to take pictures.

First up, weird unintentional superhero-esque pose:

Second, Zissou pose:

Newsflash: I'm not crazy

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:21:01 -0400

My car isn't the only one that smells like crayons. That probably sounded a little crazy. I promise the title rings true.

Today, I'm taking apart my car door to reattach the interior handle that hasn't worked for a few months and replace a speaker cover that cracked when I moved.

Here is the a picture of the door in my living room, compete with new non-cracked speaker cover:

Anyway, I was searching the Internet for a ghetto way to attach the plastic rivets on the speaker cover, hello soldering iron, when I came across this thread. It's basically twenty or thirty people bitching about how their 2001 Jettas' smell like crayons. I always thought it was just my car. My suspicion was that some combination of young children, water damage, and the farm had created a super smell capable of devious acts like having a crayon aroma.

To recap:
1. I'm not crazy.
2. Lots of 2001 Jetta's smell like crayons.

In hindsight, two is a little disappointing. I thought the crayon smell was kind of my car's defining characteristic. I'll have to start focusing on other features such as the strange stain in the back window above the trunk that looks like Marlon Brando. That can never be emulated.

Shortcuts I find useful

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:23:58 -0400

It is entirely possible that I was the only one who didn't know about these but I'm going risk exposing my ignorance on the off chance that at least one of you may find this useful.

These shortcuts work in BASH shells with default bindings (emacs) and in most text fields in Firefox, as well as a number of other places.

Ctrl + a -- Move cursor to the beginning of line
Ctrl + e -- Move cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl + u -- Delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line
Ctrl + k -- Delete from the cursor to the end of the line

These basic shortcuts have kept me from pulling my hair out lately. There are tons more.

On a related note I'm trying to decide whether to really learn vi or emacs. I don't think I'll be able to keep both sets of commands/shortcuts straight so I have to decide on one and run with it. Right now I know the very basics of both. It's time to stop messing around and choose. Do any of you have preference?

My apartment... now with art.

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:12:35 -0400

Familiar paintings:

Skateboard (signed by the Stereo Sound Agents including Sir Jason Lee):

Free iPhone Ring Tones: Way Easy

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:36:29 -0400

So when I got my iPhone I got an email from AT&T saying I could have a free ring tone if I signed up for paperless billing. So I was all like "sweet"! Really though, I went for it since I figured I'd be paying my bill online anyways. Of course it points me to the regular AT&T ring tone outlet, instead of the iTunes Music Store, so I was already skeptical, but chose something anyways. It then asked me who makes my phone; Apple was not a choice.

So thanks to a new friend of mine I was chatting to, I was told about Myxer.com, which let's people upload audio files, pick the section of the file they want and then send it to their phone. They also archive the creation so others can just pick one that has the section of the song they desire. So I pick one here and see there's a special link for getting the ring tone for the iPhone.

I follow the link, and instead of it sending you data over the cell phone network, it gives me a direct download for my computer. The file extension on this file is ".m4r". So this immediately got me thinking, well maybe I can convert an mp3 into a .m4r, and sync anything I want. A little research revealed that a .m4r is just a .m4a renamed.

All you do is pick your song, do your own audio editing to get the desired mix in Audacity, save it as an mp3, convert to AAC, change the file extension to .m4r, go to the ring tones tab in iTunes, and drag the file in there. Next time you sync the ring tone will be available.

Maybe I'm the last to figure this out, and even though the directions sound long, you guys know it's simple. Get your ring tone on duders.

GTA IV on Consoles

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:07:34 -0400

I was going to just micro-blog this, but I felt we needed more space and a common space for the discussion I assume will ensue.

GTA IV comes out soon, and Bean has implied he is getting it, so I know there is at least some interest around here.

I am also interested, I love GTA games. There was nothing better than pretending to be an L.A. gangsta in San Andreas. Classically the GTA games came out for PS2 first due to some exclusivity deal, and then made it's way to other consoles and the PC at a later date. This always was sad for me because I didn't have a PS2. I'd wait and pirate it for the PC when it came over.

I'll cut to the chase now. I have a 360, so I can get it launch day and start the mayhem now, or I could hold out for a PC version. Why wait? Because I'm really not sure how I feel about a game that involves a lot of shooting on a console. I know FPS games do well with sales on consoles, but frankly, I've always been a mouse and keyboard kind of guy. I got used to Halo, which was probably the only dual stick FPS I played a lot of. N64 era games only had one stick. Trying to test out Gears of War and Crackdown with John was fun, but was a reminder that I have lost any touch with the dual sticks that Halo had given me. Another factor is probably that I've done a lot more FPS gaming on the PC since my Halo days, since I only got broadband in the summer before freshman year of college. In addition I had to share PC time with the family.

Basically any FPS skillz I have go down the shitter when using a controller. Wow, so much for cutting to the chase. Do you guys think it's worth the wait for a possible PC release since GTA IV, while not first person is still third person, and has a reticle. I'd love to play this game, but unless they help me out some and lock-on to guys, I think the difficultly is going to ramp up too quick for my abilities to catch up.

So how do you guys feel about playing GTA on consoles? Any beefs with either platform?

More pictures.

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:39:38 -0400

Leland sent me some pictures from our trip to Europe in December. Thought I'd pass them along. Most were taken in Cyprus at Aphrodite's Rock. There are also a few of me wandering around Rome. He has more. I haven't had a chance to grab the rest from him, yet. They had just watched Life Aquatic so a lot of the pictures are littered with what we dubbed the Zissou pose.

Europe December 2007

My New...ish Place

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:16:06 -0400

Inspired by Paul's recent new apartment picture post.

Here are a bunch of shots of my new place.

Freedom Heights Apartment

In unrelated news, I've been pretty much glued to my couch for the last three days due to a nasty respiratory infection. The antibiotics are working their magic. Tomorrow I may try to send some time outside. It's supposed to be nice.

On the plus side, since I've hardly been able to move for the past few days I've been catching up on The Daily Show/Colbert Report. I was about three months behind. I'm up to the beginning of March. Hind sight has made some episodes less entertaining, especially when Colbert interviewed Eliot Spitzer. They were both all smiles. It was erie.

April Fags Day

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:57:34 -0400

Waiting until this evening to write the post left me with no good examples of dumb shit people do on April 1st.

Maybe the ones that infuriated me most in the past were ones that were personal. Joystiq was pointing out all the bogus shit, which was good of them. I really liked the Gmail Custom Time thing. It was clearly fake, but very funny and clever. The Virgle thing didn't resonate with me, so I thought that was lame, and the video of the Google founders felt so awkward.

When I heard that YouTube made all the featured video links on the front page Rick Roll you, I enjoyed that too.

What I always hated was when a friend would try to convince me of some bogus shit, and you'd call them on it, but they'd insist and insist and insist it was true. So then I'm stuck with either playing into this stupid fucking game or basically calling my friend a liar. I like to trust my friends, so that always was an awkward option.

I'm still waiting to get some stupid text message April Fools. I'm sure it will come from a female (or maybe a guy under the age of 20).

The weekend visiting John was good. We had a good time. His new place is really great, I would recommend you all schedule a visit. When I get mine I'll send out the open invite for you to all visit me.

P.S. - We still never planned a mass meet up.

Bar Tabs and Tax Cuts Commentary

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:57:07 -0400

This link was shared by Mike recently. Read it so you have some context for this post.

I'll agree that the concept of all of the rich people moving out of the country or somehow moving their finances in such a way that they aren't taxed by the U.S. government is unlikely, but if you are going to cut taxes, why wouldn't it be distributed based on percentages? We pay based on a percentage, and even with the example in the "parable" the richer folks got a smaller percent return even though in dollars it was more. Either way, a tax cut seems pointless if we have a large deficit, so I don't even know why the blogger felt the need to mention it right now. Maybe if I payed attention to the news I would know if some presidential candidate mentioned a tax cut, but that's the only way I can imagine this article has any real relevance to the present.

Now follow me down my path of anger, and then how I shifted my anger. I got mad at the blogger first. "Hey number 5, why don't you be fucking glad you now drink for free? Five of you fucks are getting a beer on everyone else's dime, don't be like, 'I didn't get much/any money off.' You didn't pay dick."

Then I had a realization that shifted my anger. "Wait a fucking second, in this story everyone is getting the same thing, they all get one equal beer."

Anyone else now see the problem with the story? It sounds like there's some socialism implied in the story. Of course this instant, during my writing I realize that the beer is representing not what each man has, but what the government does for each man, which in theory is supposed to be equal for all.

Fuck, my anger is now without direction. Can you feel my stream of consciousness now? Lol.

Taxes are gay. It's way too fucking complicated. I sort of get why, but it's such a damned mess. It is just absurdly complicated to figure out what your share of taxes to pay is. The worst part is that there's no super fair and simple way out of it.

P.S. - I did my taxes in like January or early February, so I'm not bitching because I didn't do them yet and wish I didn't have to.

A New Hymn

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:06:24 -0400

I felt the need to share a stroke of comic genius I just had.

I've created a song, a hymn if you will, for all the Apple fanboys, which I feel myself starting to become in a small way.

Let's join the choirs of fanboys in singing....

Glory to Jobs in the highest
Sing glory to Jobs
Glory to Jobs in the highest
And peace to his fanboys worldwide

Yeah, my mom took me to church a lot and sometimes I just integrate those memories into my present-day life in questionable ways. I also tend to follow any saying of "we give thanks for ___" with a compulsory "it is right to give Him thanks and praise." It was the church response to "we give thanks to the Lord our God.....it is right to give Him thanks and praise."

Those very well could be Catholic things, so if this made no sense, then I really need to share it with the one friend I know for sure was taken to Catholic mass as a kid. We have joked about the "it is right to give Him thanks and praise before," which is how I always remember she was raised Catholic.

P.S. - The original thing goes as such.

Priest: Let us join the choirs of angles in heaven in singing
-Music cuts in
All sing:
Glory to God in the highest
Sing glory to God
Glory to God in the highest
And peace to his people on Earth

I believe they simply put a tune to a bible verse, but I'm not sure which one. I'll be glad to sing either version to anyone wanting a demonstration.

Bathroom Preferences

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:58:47 -0500

So today at work I was thwarted not once, but twice from using my favorite shitting stall. (Yeah, I had to shit twice in the same work day, lol)

I use the handicap accessible one every time. Not only is it roomier, but it's also at the back of our bathroom so it feels a little more private too.

The regular stall is just straight up a little too small for my fat ass. Maybe if I dropped a few I wouldn't feel so strongly about the handicap stall.

So I've concluded that one of two things happened today.

1.) I had bad luck with my shitting times.

2.) Some new fuck (or fucks) was/were hired on my floor who also prefer(s) the king's throne.

In the comments I'm fishing for your bathroom preferences. I know it's weird, but we could get some good chuckles out of this, so just go for it. Reveal all your shitting and pissing secrets.

I'll start us off with... sometimes I just want to fucking sit to take a piss, which I've come to feel like is less acceptable than I assumed. In fact, it's only been in recent years that I've stood to piss when at my place of residence, and now I don't do it all the time as I used to. I've been wearing more belts lately, and that makes sitting down just that much more inconvenient that it's simpler to stand.

Hey Man, Dude Is An Everyday Word Now

nospam@example.com (Andy) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:00:00 -0500

In case you haven't heard yet, some Baltimore cop with a complex got in some kid's face about skateboarding at the Inner Harbor.

Out of Touch Baltimore Cop

Normally I really try to see it from the cop's side, and have for the most part come to terms with the fact that skaters and cops are not going to get along any time soon. They both tend to antagonize each other as well in an attempt to make the other look bad, and usually both parties just end up looking like infants.

Start Somewhat Unnecessary Recap

In this case I really wish I could see the 30 seconds before the camera started rolling, although it seems like it got explained pretty well via the dialog. Looks like the kids were skating in the Inner Harbor, they claim ignorance to the fact that they weren't allowed. Whether that is even remotely true is questionable, although to me it doesn't really matter in the end here.

The officer asks them to stop, and the one keeps going for a little because he supposedly didn't hear due to his headphones being in. Eventually his friend got his attention and he took the headphones out. The cop is already pissed that he had to ask him twice, thrice, or however many times to get his attention. Being a cop takes patience, he shouldn't already be riled up. He then accuses the kid of being defensive when he confirms that he can now hear the officer.

This then leads to the rant that the officer goes on and that whole headlock and confiscating the skateboard thing.

TL;DR

Here's what really gets me here. The cop goes ballistic because the kid keeps saying "dude" and "man." I get that the officer had to work to get on the force and so he wants his title of officer (maybe next time some jerk tries to pull a title stunt on me I'll inform them to call me master). What the cop doesn't seem to understand is that these kids grew up on "dude" and "man." It's not a form of disrespect as the officer takes it, it's just a modern way of speaking.

As you know, I say "dude" all the time. I called a female calculus teacher in high school dude once. I didn't even notice until she caught it and was like "so I'm a 'dude' now?" It was awesome, and she was an awesome teacher. She was young so she understood. Probably no younger than this hyper cop, but for some reason he just wants to pick a fight with a little 14 year old kid, so he takes it as disrespect.

Like I said, I usually like to conclude both sides acted like babies when I see these clips. If you haven't seen a skater vs. cop clip before then you haven't spent enough time on YouTube. This time I can't though, and the more important point is that for better or worse "dude" is and should be an acceptable way to address someone. Maybe not on your first week at work, but I have no doubt that I've called 90% of the people at my workplace "dude," including women and my superiors. Because of the fact that they are reasonable people, they shrug it off and actually find it cute or endearing.

I also use "sweet" a lot, and that's my true catch phrase at work.