May 6, 2008
how i spent my day
i am going to provide a link in the next paragraph, and you should
not click it. i am not even kidding. do not click it.
i spent almost all day watching videos on youtube of cats making other
cats. the plots in most of these videos are the same: it starts
out with one cat, and by the end of the film, there are between two
and four cats, the newer ones being much smaller and grosser than
the original. what sets the one above apart from the others,
though, is the special effects. the sound crew did an excellent
job, and it's nearly impossible to tell which bits are CGI. well
done.
after watching nearly three dozen "related" videos, i
simply don't understand how someone could continue to believe in
god. i mean, those videos are really gross. what is up with that?
today was hill day, and i am going to feel it tomorrow. my nike+
was almost calibrated, but then it uncalibrated itself, thanks.
also, thanks for making your whole website flash, so that firefox
can't remember the password for me. i just have keychain generate
my passwords, so i have to go and look it up every time i want to
see your site tell me about how my sub-7:30 miles on sunday were
done above 10:00 pace.
clinton has been hitting the eye-wincing
rhetoric with both guns blazing lately:
We're going to hit some of those balls out of this stadium and out
of our country stadium. ... We're going to round the bases, we're
going to score a lot of runs and we're going to feel really good
about the home team, namely the American team, the team we're all
a part of!
i haven't the slightest clue what exactly a "country
stadium" is, but i'm sure some of my friends might suggest that
the "balls" she is referring to are things like
"fiscal responsibility" and "military
restraint". at least that's how they might put it in mixed
company.
If you want to move forward you put it in D. If you want to move
back you put it in R.
this is the stupidest thing i've ever heard. i wouldn't normally
let this bother me, except somehow cbs is still america's most
watched network? i don't understand people at all.
but this worst is this:
The
Terrible Towel is clearly part the team - "I will wave it as
we go across that goal line for a better America in January
2009," Clinton told the diners in Pittsburgh.
with this quote, not only has she become dead to me and almost
everyone i've ever met, but if for whatever reason she manages to
steal the nomination, she's given mccain an ad he probably only has
to run twice to win ohio in a landslide on his way to the
presidency. also, i haven't been able to find any photos from this
event, but i suspect there may be a giant PANDERING
ACCOMPLISHED banner hanging behind her.
when i saw obama speak here in boston back in october, one thing
that impressed me was the fact that, although he did congratulate
the city on the recent world series victory by the red sox, he said
that he was actually a white sox fan, and that he wouldn't pretend
to be a red sox fan just because he was in boston. and, for once,
red sox fans took the "classy" road and nobody
tried to run him over with their car (do not click the "[ +
] Enlarge" link there).
i can't wait until this election is over so i can go back to writing
about my dreams again. i had a good one last night.
* * *
May 4, 2008
sundays are for life
i had a good run, despite the claims by my wildly inaccurate nike+
to the contrary.
* * *
May 3, 2008
saturdays are a waste
probably the highlight of today was buying a half gallon of milk
that came in a glass bottle. their farm - or at least corporate
headquarters - is 18 miles away from my house, which,
coincidentally, how far i am to run tomorrow. there is a $1.50
bottle deposit for the milk, which is already half gone. it was
good.
number two would probably be just about memorizing the 24-bar chord
progression for the
song i've been working on with my guitar teacher. i am also
trying to figure out the keyboard part, which is maybe a little more
fun.
btw i recommend the following abp
filter if you are going to browse songmeanings.net:
songmeanings.net#DIV(style=font-size: 13px; text-align: center;)
* * *
May 2, 2008
the end of a week
just before they closed for the day, i managed to pick up a nike+ sportsband
from marathon sports. i am
excited about taking my running ocd to a new level.
today's
shields and brooks had some great comments by mark shields,
about obama's steadfast opposition to the gas tax holi-gate:
What Obama ought to do is say: This is the worst of Washington
politics. This is what it is. This is bait-and-switch. This is
Washington politics at its cheapest. They really think you're
dumb. They think you're so dumb that they can buy you off.
...
And he ought to do it just on the basis and tie it -- this is the
same kind of politics that had a "Mission Accomplished"
sign up five years ago, that said there were weapons of mass
destruction. That's what's wrong.
And I'm telling you what you don't want to hear. You want someone
that tells you what you want to hear? You've got McCain, and
you've got Clinton.
i haven't really gotten into the new portishead yet. i am a big fan
of the vinyl+usb dongle distribution method.
* * *
May 1, 2008
isn't goldilocks the one that gets eaten by a wolf?
today, clinton likened herself to a fairy tale
character, but most coverage i've seen hasn't picked up on this
gem:
guess
what? we are going to expect you to move toward higher gas
mileage cars. we just don't have enough of them that are
affordable enough for everybody to be able to do it right now.
i liken that to something from a fairy tale. the internet
has my back on this one:
| Vehicle | Starts At | Combined MPG | Dollar-Gallons per Mile |
| 2008 BMW M6 | $99,300 | 13 | 7638.46 |
| 2008 Hummer H3 4WD | $31,340 | 14 | 2238.57 |
| 2008 Volkswagen Rabbit | $15,600 | 24 | 650.00 |
| 2008 Toyta Yaris | $11,350 | 31 | 366.12 |
i know this is not a fully scientific survey, but it clearly shows
that, in fact, the opposite of what clinton says is true:
fuel-efficient cars are more affordable than gas guzzlers.
i don't know exactly what it means for the Yaris to be over
twenty times more fuel-cost efficient as the M6, but
fortunately that's not something clinton wants you to be concerned
about "right now."
the only way to reduce america's financial burden of oil is to
stop needing it. what does a gallon of whale oil cost these
days? the answer is nobody cares. the sooner politicians
stop trying to win votes by making people think it's still ok for
them to drive cars everywhere, the sooner, well, i don't even know
what. but it will be a good thing.
at any rate, perhaps in a couple of weeks the mainstream
media will pick up on this one too, as they finally have with
the gas-tax holiday, which i broke
long ago.
* * *
April 29, 2008
more like it
i have become increasingly uncomfortable over the past few weeks.
one sunny, warm day after another. this was not the april in boston
i remember from my youth. where were the soaked trousers, the
sidewalks full of disintegrating worms, the flooded T stops?
i still don't know where they were, but they are here now. as
unpleasant as this weather is (it's the only new england weather i
don't enoy any part of), it is at least reassuring.
congratulations
canada for finally
getting iPhones.
* * *
April 22, 2008
back to day one
i'm now 25% of the way through my training, and at hills day number
two. these are "long" hills, and take about two minutes.
i run them just about as hard as i can, trying to keep the same pace
for the whole workout, and try to finish strong. it's tough.
but the one nice thing is that i run them on heartbreak, where,
yesterday, some twenty-five thousand people ran it, including lance
armstrong. i saw him run by my neighborhood, and i wish i could say
it was an amazing thing, but it was just a guy running by in a
yellow shirt. ok, he won seven tours, so, yes. it was pretty
exciting. anyway he had this to say after the race:
Then
I had this period where everybody seemed to talk them down -
'They're not that big a deal, running the hills of Boston; don't
worry about it.' They were wrong.
so today i wake up early, struggle to get out of bed, and feel a
little tired and pretty stiff. my sunday run was amazing - still
buzzing from saturday's game,
full of energy from my pasta dinner the night before, and the two
short runs in the previous days - it was perhaps the easiest sixteen
miles i've ever run. today was not going to be like that.
on my fifth trip up the hill, someone was biking up on the other
side of the former comm. ave. street
railway median. he yelled out to me, "you shoulda been
here yesterday!" initially, a groan was the only sort of
response i could muster, but then after thinking about it for a
couple of paces, i yelled back, "next year!" without
looking back, he raised his arm, and gave me a thumbs up.
the last two hills a little bit easier this week.
* * *
April 20, 2008
this came out terribly
the game last night was amazing. i am simply not accustomed to
teams i like coming back repeatedly, giving up a lead, and then
still winning. especially not in elimination games.
we have great seats
i had to watch a full hour of bill
moyers journal before i was calm enough to fall asleep.
* * *
April 18, 2008
i figured it out
sometimes, when i'm on the T listening to my iPod, i sing a little
too loudly and get strange looks.
the ghosts are here,
the ghosts are here.
bleu, blanc et rouge,
bleu, blanc et rouge.
we're gonna win this!
we're gonna win this!
we're gonna win!
game six, saturday night.
* * *
April 17, 2008
a proportional response
yesterday's posts seem to have
resonated quite strongly with my readership. i received both an
email and an instant message about them, and from different
people no less. this is unprecedented.
first, i'd like to issue a clarification on one matter. it comes to
my attention that perhaps not everyone might see the absurdity in
mitt romney being someone's friend, let alone someone that i may
even know. with that in mind, i offer you the following two
interpretations; feel free to come up with your own as well:
- by "friend," i may have meant mortal enemy
- by "robert," i may have meant someone other than
robert love. for the sake of this exercise, this person may be
considered imaginary.
i am trying to move on with my life from bush's comments yesterday,
as otherwise i'll get nothing done today due to stress and freaking
out, but wanted to point out that i don't see secularism and
relativism, as i understand them, as leading directly to hedonism; i
like to think that they recognize that there are slippery slopes on
both sides of a hill.
instead, i leave you with the following headline from cnn:
CNNMoney: U.S. currency sinks to new low
the
article goes on to cite a youtube video that surfaced over the
weekend, showing the Dollar at a party, quite inebriated, making out
with some girl of, if the comments are to be believed, considerably
ill repute:
* * *
April 16, 2008
it seems like everyone else came up with mccainonomics too but i refuse to be deterred
i seem to still be grumpy about last night's hockey game, so hold
on.
John McCain Believes We Should Institute A Summer Gas Tax
Holiday. Hard-working American families are suffering from
higher gasoline prices. John McCain calls on Congress to suspend
the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from
Memorial Day to Labor Day.
i will let the url speak for itself, in its full UUID glory: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/4dbd2cc7-890e-47f1-882f-b8fc4cfecc78.htm.
you can also tell he's serious about cutting down on government
waste, and showing his connectedness with hard working america with
his use of the less-technical three letter html extension.
anyway, i don't know why mccain thinks that removing an 18
cent-per-gallon gas tax is going to result in anything other than an
increase of 18 cents per gallon going to the oil companies. the
market is already bearing... whatever the current price of gas is.
i'm going to take a page out of robert's friend[1] mitt romney's book:
Jacob Berkman Believes We Should Double The Gas Tax.
Or Triple It.
the cost of gas is only one of the many costs of car-obsessed
life. while electric cars and the hydrogen economy crack pipe
may solve the gasoline problem, they do not in any way address many
of the other problems, some of which are listed at the wonderful carfree site.
while i cannot (publicly) suggest car free cities would solve
all of modern society's ills, a lot of our nation's problems
are greatly exacerbated, or caused outright, by the shift to
care-based cities. since it's these taxes that supposedly pay for
our governments subsidizing truck-based shipping (as opposed to rail
or ship), removing these taxes distorts the playing field even more.
and while i'm all for suspending maintenance of the federal highway
system, i don't quite think that's what mccain has in mind here. i
saw no explanation of what would be done to offset the lost tax
revenue.
in addition, we will never break our addiction to foreign oil
if the government continues to come to the "rescue" of the
automative and petroleum interests at every turn. the only way
we're going to make progress is if people start to see the true
costs of their cars, and start seeking alternatives.
John McCain Will End Policies That Contribute To Higher
Transportation And Food Costs. Ethanol subsidies, tariff
barriers and sugar quotas drive up food prices and hurt Americans.
long-time readers are already familiar with my views on corn-based
ethanol, so it should be obvious that i support this measure.
unfortunately there is no mention of, say, farm policies that
"entitle" ranchers "to
up to $40,000 in disaster compensation from the federal government,
even though the nearest debris[, from the columbia
explosion,] landed 10 to 20 miles from his cattle."
you should really go read that last article there, i'll wait.
[1] see clarification: http://wednesdaynight.org/diary/2008/04/17
* * *
April 16, 2008
he said what?
some of my friends today thought i was making this up, but here it
is, on the web, so it must be true:
In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish
between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject
this "dictatorship of relativism," and embrace a culture
of justice and truth.
-- pres. bush, welcoming
the pope to the whitehouse
never in my life could i imagine someone putting those two words
together; five seconds worth of research shows that it was from a
mass given by the pope three years ago:
We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not
recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists
solely of one's own ego and desires.
i will leave it at that.
* * *
April 15, 2008
day twenty-eight
today was my twenty-eighth straight day running, and it was a good
one. my streak won't last another week, as i have a well-deserved
day off on patriots' day, after a 16 mile run coming up this sunday.
when i first tried this new training program, i spent the track days
at the MIT track, as i couldn't find any tracks that looked open to
the public and closer. last night, i found downes
field. it's about two miles away, which is a good
warmup/cooldown distance, and my knees enjoyed its more rubbery
surface, when compared to mit's track. i realized that i've already
run past it twice before as it's on the BAA half marathon course.
anyway, today's workout was 4xMile, and i did them all around 6:45
without too much trouble. i'd like to bring that down to 6:30, but
it looks like the latter workouts are 6xMile, and that might be
tough. either way, next week is back to hills instead.
tonight's game was not quite as fun as sunday nights, but it wasn't
the habs blowout that i was a bit worried about. the difference
tonight was one lucky bounce, and as we saw in 2004, it's the fourth
win that's the important one. i'm still looking forward to seeing
game six at the garden saturday!
* * *
April 9, 2008
playoffs.
well, it is playoff time! i'm going to every game here ing boston
again this year. wish we had home ice; sunday seems so far away...
since i
don't have cable anymore, i've been listening to the radio feed
from calgary this evening. this is just what my faux-canadian
accent needs.
* * *
April 8, 2008
eight years prior
as i didn't have a job, and had only recently turned nineteen, my freshman-year lawsuit threat felt,
at the time, a bit more than a thorn in my side, even though
it never amounted to anything.
times were a little different back then. i remember reading the
copyright laws on the library of congress gopher
site. i wish i had saved those pages somewhere, but they seem
to have finally made the transition to the www.
in other news, i'm on day 22 of my training program. i've run each
of the last 21 days (since returning from SF), which is, by a long
shot, a new record for me. my reward? hill repeats. at least this
program doesn't go up to 10 hills like the other one, and after
measuring the hill on google earth, i only need to run half of it.
at least this week.
* * *
April 1, 2008
don't even start it up
what he said.
* * *