Hey football fans! It's Monday night!
Cinci is winning! Yeah! So growing up in southern Ohio I have put up with more than my share of Bengals fans, but it's actually nice to see them doing well. I actually have two Broncos receivers on my fantasy team, but I've already won my match so I can be objective. :-)
Sorry for the previous negative post but last week really sucked. This week is looking up. My office situation at work is rapidly improving and I'm now gearing up for a science meeting. We *might* even be able to have the car repaired while I'm out of town. Hold your breath.
The past weekend showed a resurgence of summerlike weather and I made it out on the bike for a couple hours. Turns out Navy Pier is only a short ride away, but chock full of pedestrians. I have only biked nearby and along the lakefront, but it's really easy to get around so far. I left the shore a couple miles North of home, but found a bike lane South and had an easy ride home. Well, the potholes beat up my shoulders pretty good (no shocks on my road bike), but my arms/hands were fine - gel-padded gloves are the best money I've ever spent.
The main topics of Monday lunch with the high energy physics crowd are physics politics, US politics, and baseball. Today, Jon Stewert's appearance on Crossfire came up. Not surprisingly, the only people at the table familiar with it were myself another younger fellow and one other guy. Is it a terrible thing that the most unbiased and possibly only source of news that many people my age watch is a show on Comedy Central? Is is disturbing that the older generation seems to be entirely disconnected from this phenomenon. Of course, watching the Daily Show is also cable dependent. But sometimes it worries me that most of news is only presented to the over 40 crowd? Do we really have no medium other than the web? Do we really not have the time or energy to care? What is the media? (ha ha, just watched Matrix 3) But really, if everyone I consider a sensible person completely ignores the mainstream media, what does that mean?
Anyway, next week will be interesting. I have two opinions on the outcome depending on whether your'e playing straight or pot odds.
25 October 2004
21 October 2004
Life is never boring?
Hi all,
I had a super weekend!!
Oh, tonight's beverage is the Yellowtail Shiraz again. Can't beat cheap, good and readily available down the block.
Anyway, Eric and I went back to Maryland this weekend for the wedding of two of our very good friends. It was beuatiful, went off without a hitch, and I had lots of good intentions of blogging when we got back. For the girl party, we went duck pin bowling!...Then heading home we were supposed to fly out Sunday night, but, of course, the reservation was screwed up (tried to use my miles) and we had to stay over at the airport and hop the early flight on standby Monday morning (=barfood at 11 pm get up at 4 am). SO that was annoying and yet completely forgotten because Monday night our (new) car was rear ended by a utility truck and so I spent part of Tuesday duct-taping the rear indicator light and part of the bumper back on. (Have to try to preserve the aerodynamics of our fuel efficient machine!)
And now, Eric is in the air headed back to Maryland for a presentation tomorrow, and so I have regressed to watching bad TV and devouring M&Ms ( and blogging).
What amazes me at this point in our relationship is the speed with which either one of us can rebound instantly to our individual (=spouse-irritating) tendencies when the other is out of town. It's an amazingly flexible response. Like memory wire. There is some part of our lone bachelor/ette selves that will never leave us and snaps back into place at the least reprieve.
I will post a link to photos from the wedding so stay tuned. Hopefully the weekend will be a little less rocky.
I had a super weekend!!
Oh, tonight's beverage is the Yellowtail Shiraz again. Can't beat cheap, good and readily available down the block.
Anyway, Eric and I went back to Maryland this weekend for the wedding of two of our very good friends. It was beuatiful, went off without a hitch, and I had lots of good intentions of blogging when we got back. For the girl party, we went duck pin bowling!...Then heading home we were supposed to fly out Sunday night, but, of course, the reservation was screwed up (tried to use my miles) and we had to stay over at the airport and hop the early flight on standby Monday morning (=barfood at 11 pm get up at 4 am). SO that was annoying and yet completely forgotten because Monday night our (new) car was rear ended by a utility truck and so I spent part of Tuesday duct-taping the rear indicator light and part of the bumper back on. (Have to try to preserve the aerodynamics of our fuel efficient machine!)
And now, Eric is in the air headed back to Maryland for a presentation tomorrow, and so I have regressed to watching bad TV and devouring M&Ms ( and blogging).
What amazes me at this point in our relationship is the speed with which either one of us can rebound instantly to our individual (=spouse-irritating) tendencies when the other is out of town. It's an amazingly flexible response. Like memory wire. There is some part of our lone bachelor/ette selves that will never leave us and snaps back into place at the least reprieve.
I will post a link to photos from the wedding so stay tuned. Hopefully the weekend will be a little less rocky.
09 October 2004
Posting
So if you guys want to comment, do the anonymous post and you dont' have to eneter a username. Let me know if this doens't work, but I tried it out from Eric's computer and it seems to be okay. Anybody should be able to comment.
happy land
"When I was a little man
Playdough came in a little can
I was Star Wars' biggest fan
Now I'm stuck without a plan
GI Joe was an action man
Shaggy drove the mystery van
Devo was my favorite band
Take me back to my happy land"
~ The Aquabats
Beverage: Yellow Tail Shiraz 2004
Mmmm...Saturday evening of a beautiful blue sky day...broiled tilapia for dinner...nice glass of red. It all sounds so classy except for what you can't see, which is that for lack of an end table I've set my glass of shiraz on a cat scratch post.
So the blogging petered out for a while because a) I caught a cold, b) I've had a mad amount of stupid errands to fit into my evenings, and c) I learned that apparently you all can't post comments without giving signing in. I think I'll set up a bogus account and post it. That way you can comment without going to the bother or inconvenience. Half the point of this was to keep in touch, so I'll come up with some solution. I was considering moving the blog, but this is one of the better sites. Anyway, to make up for the lag this may run quite long.
I'm not sure what inspired the Happy Land quote other than a recent burst of listening to The Aquabats again. (Seriously, if you have any liking for quirky rock/ska they're pretty dang awesome) It seemed to tie in with my general mood though. Things are going to be good here, but they're not quite there yet. I'm not quite comfortable, don't quite have my offices/work environments set up yet. I'm still acquiring the accounts, information, general knowledge necessary to work and just to function on a daily basis here.
At the same time I struggle with the concept of comfort. Comfort, or more accurately, the pursuit of comfort, can distract from the task at hand. I can always tell when I'm not well focused on what I'm doing because that's when I begin to notice discomfort. If I'm truly absorbed in the problem at hand, comfort issues just don't matter. Comfort is a dangerous thing; it allows us to grow lax and lethargic. Once a person gets comfortable it gets harder and harder to explore, to push the limits of experience. Comfort was most of the reason to leave Maryland. I was really getting quite cozy there. Is that what life is about, the pursuit of comfort? Or is it about the pursuit of discomfort, searching out the unknown, untested, and untried?
Apparently I'm solidly in the discomfort camp. Just ask my mother, I've always been a bit of a stoic. But what's so terrible about comfort? Hasn't the pursuit of comfort, or at the very least, ease, driven much of our technology? And a certain amount of comfort is important for survival and the freedom to spend time on more esoteric endeavors. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan, but too much comfort makes me uneasy at some fundamental level. Maybe because it's a relative measurement. There is no "too comfortable" just like there's no "too happy". That's why they are pursuits. There is always more and better to be had. How do you judge success? It's like number soup. The more you eat, the hungrier you are.
Also, comfort and happiness have the drawbacks of putting a person in a position where they have something to lose. Doesn't being comfortable just mean you have more to worry about? I don't know, it's all sort of silly, but in some odd way it makes me happy to have put myself in a position where I am not comfortable. But I wonder now if it is going to get harder every time. Am I going to reach an age where I have too much comfort or too much at stake to push my limits and to do new things? I hope not, but it's clear at that there is no path back to Happy Land. Onward and upward, I guess. Well, this is all too serious for a Saturday night, perhaps.
On a lighter note, I really need to go out with the camera. Our neighbor's halloween display simply can't be described in words. Also, fried twinkies are apparently a delicacy aorund here. Anyone ever had one? Oh that's right no one can comment. Maybe I should get that account set up.
Playdough came in a little can
I was Star Wars' biggest fan
Now I'm stuck without a plan
GI Joe was an action man
Shaggy drove the mystery van
Devo was my favorite band
Take me back to my happy land"
~ The Aquabats
Beverage: Yellow Tail Shiraz 2004
Mmmm...Saturday evening of a beautiful blue sky day...broiled tilapia for dinner...nice glass of red. It all sounds so classy except for what you can't see, which is that for lack of an end table I've set my glass of shiraz on a cat scratch post.
So the blogging petered out for a while because a) I caught a cold, b) I've had a mad amount of stupid errands to fit into my evenings, and c) I learned that apparently you all can't post comments without giving signing in. I think I'll set up a bogus account and post it. That way you can comment without going to the bother or inconvenience. Half the point of this was to keep in touch, so I'll come up with some solution. I was considering moving the blog, but this is one of the better sites. Anyway, to make up for the lag this may run quite long.
I'm not sure what inspired the Happy Land quote other than a recent burst of listening to The Aquabats again. (Seriously, if you have any liking for quirky rock/ska they're pretty dang awesome) It seemed to tie in with my general mood though. Things are going to be good here, but they're not quite there yet. I'm not quite comfortable, don't quite have my offices/work environments set up yet. I'm still acquiring the accounts, information, general knowledge necessary to work and just to function on a daily basis here.
At the same time I struggle with the concept of comfort. Comfort, or more accurately, the pursuit of comfort, can distract from the task at hand. I can always tell when I'm not well focused on what I'm doing because that's when I begin to notice discomfort. If I'm truly absorbed in the problem at hand, comfort issues just don't matter. Comfort is a dangerous thing; it allows us to grow lax and lethargic. Once a person gets comfortable it gets harder and harder to explore, to push the limits of experience. Comfort was most of the reason to leave Maryland. I was really getting quite cozy there. Is that what life is about, the pursuit of comfort? Or is it about the pursuit of discomfort, searching out the unknown, untested, and untried?
Apparently I'm solidly in the discomfort camp. Just ask my mother, I've always been a bit of a stoic. But what's so terrible about comfort? Hasn't the pursuit of comfort, or at the very least, ease, driven much of our technology? And a certain amount of comfort is important for survival and the freedom to spend time on more esoteric endeavors. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan, but too much comfort makes me uneasy at some fundamental level. Maybe because it's a relative measurement. There is no "too comfortable" just like there's no "too happy". That's why they are pursuits. There is always more and better to be had. How do you judge success? It's like number soup. The more you eat, the hungrier you are.
Also, comfort and happiness have the drawbacks of putting a person in a position where they have something to lose. Doesn't being comfortable just mean you have more to worry about? I don't know, it's all sort of silly, but in some odd way it makes me happy to have put myself in a position where I am not comfortable. But I wonder now if it is going to get harder every time. Am I going to reach an age where I have too much comfort or too much at stake to push my limits and to do new things? I hope not, but it's clear at that there is no path back to Happy Land. Onward and upward, I guess. Well, this is all too serious for a Saturday night, perhaps.
On a lighter note, I really need to go out with the camera. Our neighbor's halloween display simply can't be described in words. Also, fried twinkies are apparently a delicacy aorund here. Anyone ever had one? Oh that's right no one can comment. Maybe I should get that account set up.
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