July 2, 2007
day four

well, it's now monday, and more of a struggle than ever. making it through the weekend was pretty easy; an hour's ride on the T is a pretty good deterrent. but now that i'm at work, it's only a 10 minute or so walk to the apple store. this is getting tortuous.

i got to touch one at lunch. i got tartar sauce all over the the screen, but when i went to wipe it off, it had already been cleared away. nobody could explain it.

i think i can make it through this afternoon. after that, the couple of hours i need to kill after work before transformers tonight are going to be tough. i just need to keep reminding myself that i would really rather have half of a westin mattress instead.

see? this is easy. i can do this. i got this licked.

July 2, 2007
this changes everything

no, i haven't caved yet.

over the weekend i was thinking about some band that i love, and about trying to tell them how much i love their album - that i couldn't express how much i meant to me, that they couldn't understand.

but then it occurred to me, that really, these songs probably mean more to them than they could ever mean to me, and that really i was the one who couldn't understand. and that was something new i hadn't really thought of before, despite its obviousness.

July 3, 2007
two to go

i have only two more training runs before the race sunday. the other day, my weather widget said the high for calgary on thursday was going to be 90F. this was worrisome. however, things have improved:

on the way to transformers with joe last night, i spotted one in the wild. back in... '02... when we first got iPods, i think it was months (after i got mine!) before i saw someone i didn't know who had one.

i still don't have any albums from 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1987.

going through those lists, it's pretty clear why. but at least i have a good place to start. suggestions welcome.

July 6, 2007
like red and green

you may recall my most recent attempt to get into america's better half. armed with a fresh passport and a fresh shave, today i made it in without incident. apparently running a marathon is a more reasonable... reason... to fly across the country than seeing some friends. and at security here at pearson i didn't even have to remove my shoes, gelables, or show anyone any id. and people wonder why they can't win a stanley cup.

i am a little disappointed to have not seen any indie rock stars yet.

so, i've made it a week now. i was helped out over the last couple of days, as they were out, but last i checked chestnut hill had some in stock. in preparation, i spent my independence day becoming independent of... spam. or, client-side anti-spam measures. while spamprobe got pretty good at detecting recent spams, formail doesn't handle my really old archives as well as i'd like, and i decided it wasn't worth it as they don't seem to have much spam in them anyway.

lately each day seems to last a thousand hours. i had a great run yesterday morning, but i can hardly remember it. it feels like weeks, months.

...

oh, right. that was wednesday morning. these days are just flying by.

July 7, 2007
aeroplanes and buxom dames (i haven't been sleeping well)

so, i think the altitude may be a factor.

i guess i am officially done training now? i had my last training run this morning, at about the time of the race tomorrow. it was cool out since the sun rises so much later here. there were canadian pacific trains basically the whole length of my run today (they are headquartered here), and i forgot about the crazy birds and black squirrels they have here. it's almost like being in another country.

but anyway, i've had a slight headache since dinner last night, and it has gotten a little worse, so i think maybe i should just take it easy today. i do need to go find some tim hortons breakfast sandwiches, however.

here are some trademark violations if you're bored.

July 8, 2007
now what?

so, marathon is done; my chip time was 3:28:36, which beat my goal of 3:30, so, that's good. 78th overall, 6th in my age group, and 1st from Massachusetts! not bad.

what's possibly more exciting is that i got to ride the c-train. it's free in the downtown area between my hotel and the start/finish line, and it's very clean and comfortable. time for an update to my previous list:

-- b3co.com

i hope everything stops hurting soon.

July 9, 2007
a mystery solved

so, i'd been following this training guide for the marathon, and there was something about it that just wasn't right. the sunday long runs it said to run 10 minutes, then walk 1, but then on tuesday morning it said to run 4 miles at a 6:30 pace! oh, those first few weeks, how i tried.

and, the race yesterday only had mile markers at mile 1 and with 1 to go! all the rest were in km. i had never actually done the math to see what my pace was in minutes/km, but i got to know it pretty well over the 42km yesterday, and, well, it's obvious now. that 6:30 wasn't minutes per mile, it was minutes per km. i should have known.

also, i really need to go to montreal.

well, time to board.

July 11, 2007
i less than three stars

As such, we are making the new Stars album available for legal download today, four days after it's[sic] completion.

-- arts-crafts.ca

and they have tickets for their fall tour for sale, too. a good day.

July 12, 2007
didn't see anything? say something anyway.

passengers delayed, lied to.

July 13, 2007
my knowledge increases on an almost daily basis

as i poured the milk into my bowl of golden grahams this morning, i wondered to myself, "what is graham?" it was more interesting than i had anticipated.

July 16, 2007
my two favorite local boston haunts

We look forward to applying the same focus and discipline to Applebee's that we have employed at IHOP over the last several years.

-- IHOP Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Julia Stewart

i miss joe.

July 16, 2007
umm

this is from cnn:

it can't be this guitar solo? the lack of emotion from someone who's never been in love is really evident. it's really the best part about children playing music.

July 18, 2007
i think there is something dead in my kitchen

it was unmistakable when i got home today. something is dead in my kitchen.

but i can't find it.

it is most pronounced near the sink, mostly underneath. there is a little gap between the cabinet and the wall, and i thought perhaps there might be something in there. but my flashlight had no batteries, and it was raining, so i tried to rig some sort of reflection thing with one of my floor lamps and a mirror from the bathroom.

after i returned from the store with batteries, i discovered that there was in fact nothing in that crevice. in the cabinet under the sink is of course the garbage disposal. not having one growing up, perhaps i haven't been maintaining it properly? maybe it needed cleaning? internet says that baking soda and also lemons work well.

my garbage disposal smells pretty good now. but my kitchen is still rated don't buy. there are some holes in the cabinet for hoses and drains and stuff, so maybe something crawled back there; this seems like a big pain and since the rest of my apartment is in shambles, i'll deal with calling the landlord about that tomorrow.

i'm not exactly sure what they'll find, but after reading the internet today, it's beginning to look like it might just be gnome that's back there (wasn't this all worth it?).

i may be a grumpy old man, but that doesn't make the online desktop a good idea. its argument is basically that of java from twelve years ago, only with flawed reasoning:

As people and organizations realize they aren't really using Windows anymore, except to launch their web browser - open source will be there with a free-of-cost, super-simple alternative.

i will first off start with the simple fact that there are tons of softwares that are not web apps. i can understand how they're overlooked, because they, well, kind of don't really exist in the gnome world. an easy example are resource-intensive content creation apps: movie editors, music software, and other stuff like (certain kinds of) games.

then, it seems to ignore the fact that windows is (in most cases) the actual free-of-cost case. it costs me $0 to not do anything to my computer and continue to run windows. when i buy a computer, windows isn't like rust protection or a quadrophonic 8-track system on a car: it's already built into the price, and for the most part is the same on any computer i'm looking at.

This is not a web-based desktop or "webtop"; we are trying to create the ideal experience outside your browser. The fact is, you need hardware drivers, and the browser itself can't be web-based.

and awesome hardware integration is the first thing that pops into mind when thinking about linux:

These are the things that turn people off to using this OS - I have spent most of the morning trying to get a freakin~ external monitor to display correctly. How do I do that~ by editing freakin~ /etc/X11/xorg.conf - what complete bullshit. I feel like its 1996 all over again - especially since it still doesn~t work.

-- dave mason, basically channeling zab

This means there are now no Linux machines in my house*, and even at work, I no longer have any Linux machines that have video cards in them**, which is as it should be.

-- jwz giving up the linux ghost as i apparently did some time some time after this happened

this can be summed up in two words amongst many of my friends: "sound works."

and one final snide retort to a quote from o-d.o before i go to bed:

Closed source doesn't have an agenda like this; our online desktop will be integrated with anything and everything users want to use.

oh, you mean like bluetooth? and firewire? and wireless cards? and suspending?

it's just that... having a PC (which is what gnome runs on) that can just run web apps... it just doesn't justify the effort of moving to it from whatever i can already run my web apps on already.

in fact, it seems similar to the tesla sales problem:

A traditional dealer would spend his time apologizing for the car's shortcomings rather than talking up the benefits.

so, while this looks like it undermines my point, it actually leads me to want to drop the desktop part of online-desktop and think about it more like an online device, where you can drop some of the general computing baggage (and maybe even some of the beefy hardware requirements). not unlike iphone (the desire has almost completely subsided), foleo, the n800, or an audrey.

pyro, on the other hand, looks pretty fun. but just about anything done in JS is.

July 20, 2007
a photo post

calgary was pretty strange, these were from my hotel room:

last saturday i woke up at a ridiculous hour so i could take the commuter rail out to wilmington to watch the bruins development camp:

they started off with some amazingly complex drills, involving 4 or 5 players on each side, with 3 or 5 distinct stages to each drill, sometimes with 4 groups going at a time (2 on each side). it exemplified the... art? of hockey that i enjoy watching during games. but some of the later drills were a little more dull.

after their two-hour lunch they played a four-on-four scrimmage. one team jumped out to a 4-0 lead pretty quickly, so it was a little dull too. (but just like a real bruins game!)

i'd probably go back when the real camp starts, if it's still open to the public.

July 24, 2007
stone zoo

i went to stone zoo friday. it was a little more interesting than the franklin park zoo, if not more difficult to get to. there is a more-or-less hourly bus that stops near (but not at!) the zoo that you can pick up in malden. it's nice because on the way home you can stop at the train store.

the walk from the bus stop to the zoo is pretty ok; there is a big pond or whatever there, but there were too many dead birds on the sidewalk. on your way out of the zoo, i recommend calling ahead to the friendly's by the bus stop. i didn't, and had to wait about 25 minutes for a table. i'd expect this sort of thing at applebee's or perhaps outback, but at a friendly's this was surprising.

the zoo had some cute otters and an exhibit on native birds of massachusetts, where they just have a couple of bird feeders out.

July 24, 2007
whale watch

i misread the schedule, and thought they offered a 5:30 trip on sundays, so had to settle for the 1:30 yesterday. as you've already read, the weather was terrible. before the trip they suggested that people might want to take dramamine. however, if this reporter was going to be on vomit detail for four hours, i probably would have been a little more forceful with the suggestions, possibly even foregoing my paycheck by personally buying everyone dramamine.

i think it would not be far off to say that half of the boat became sick, and i wouldn't be surprised if even 2/3rds had.

somehow, i was not one of the unfortunates wishing for the world to end. i figured the cold and wet of out on the deck was much more tolerable than the alternative, and toughed it out. it was not easy, as there were people hacking and yakking everywhere. i really wished they would have gone inside.

we eventually found four whales. i think they were humpbacks.

July 27, 2007
the friday of our lives

the funny thing about ms/red hat/novell stuff is that all red hat has to say is that if microsoft is so concerned about what customers want, they should get rid of activation.

the really sad thing is that probably the most straightforward and honest opinion on the matter is this beauty:

We are not in the business of giving users what they want.

-- richard stallman, at the first guadec, seven years ago

and my coworkers wonder why i have a mac.

July 28, 2007
the kindness of strangers II

i woke up early to go for a ride, and on my way out through sherborn, i spotted an amazon cd package on the side of the road. i figured the mailman must have dropped it, or something, so on my way back, i picked it up. it was addressed to a house a couple numbers down, so i rode over, and put it in the mailbox.

i only rode 30 miles, since this is only my third ride of the summer, but right after i got home i went out for a 4 mile run. it was very difficult.

July 31, 2007
my god i love the dears

i dunno, this phrase has been spinning around in my head for a week or two, not unlike "bartlett for america." their live album is a good sampling of their first two albums, and krief's solo in pinned together, falling apart is the same pretty amazing hendrix-inspired stuff i heard him play with his solo band the other night. i can't wait to see them again, for the first time as a real the dears fan.

if i were you, though, i'd try to find it at a local shop; i don't really think (for most people) it's worth $27. but don't just get the EP on iTunes, either; it's only half the album!