done begun

finished hp6. started hp7. that is all.

this is my quest

if i cannot manage to corner one person -- at the very least, seulement une personne -- per day, mentally forcing some poor soul to face the fact that there is no option but to call me an idiot... if i cannot manage that simple task, i would count the day a failure.

the vocabulary of bob costas

bob costas said, "there are some things about which we feel ambivalently." so, he got the preposition placement correct by not ending the sentence with the preposition; however, he then proceeded to make up a word. ambivalently is not a word. the correct wordalization is "there are some things about which we feel ambivalent."

little known facts - bob costas is 5'6". this means that the ol' ace'ster is taller than mr costas. in fact, based on this grammatical and height analysis, we have learned that ace is both taller than and smarter than mr costas.

rebel without a coaster

you don't have to buy a harley. [but you can.]
you don't have to shave your head. [but you can.]
you don't have to run a marathon. [but you can.]
you don't have to quit your job, move to montana, live in a treehouse. [but you can.]

if you want to be a rebel, but you don't want to ride the train to yellowstone. if you want to be a rebel in a small way. if you are constricted by petty the restrictions that accompany you every day... just do it. just break away.

wear the pink sox. say hello to the hobo. don't use a coaster.

maybe only you will know.

but, maybe... just maybe... maybe that is enough.

greetings from west virginia, where the wireless is hot & the coffee is free. right.

greetings from out of town. sometimes staying at other people's houses can be oddish. like, reverse invasive. invasive to the stay-ee. revervasive.

right.

so, it turns out that i am injured & have to sit still. icky-ick-ick.

tried to run 10 miles this morning, and only made it .5 and walked 2.5. bad. very, very bad. not as bad as nasa allowing astronauts to fly drunk. did you hear about that? crazy. not as bad as that, but still bad. i would prefer not to sit still.

speaking of still, still reading hp6. need to finish that and move on to hp7. maybe i will read in the car, on the road trip. oh, wait. i am the driver. reading while driving is a bad idea. very, very bad idea.

the rental for the weekend is the crystler sebring. it's okay. not great, but not bad. not a drunk astronaut, as it were. wanted a pt cruiser, but they didn't have a cruiser with cruise. gotta have the cruise, had to bypass the cruiser.

wait a sec. we're going on a trip?? i gotta go pack.

aw, shizzle.

"a sudden sharp pain at the back of the leg during exercise - most probably during sprinting or high velocity movements" for instance, during an indoor soccer game.

the problem with the world today

okay, maybe it's not the problem, but... when did we all become so timid, reluctant to stand up for ourselves? everybody wants everybody to be happy & get along, but when it comes down to the wire, everybody is choosing getting along over being treated right. allowing themselves to be mistreated simply for the sake of getting along. the extremist fanatic whoevers believe their way is the only way, and they want to bully everybody into agreement, and everybody's waving peace banners and getting on board with the mistreatment b/c getting on board with the mistreatment maintains the status quo, doesn't rock the boat, keeps the peace.

stand up for yourself, and people will say you are looking for trouble. since when did defending your own rights become the same thing as seeking out conflict?

somebunny sent it to me, and i thought it was funny. and, it is funny. you know it is. so shuddup. because it is funny.

currently reading hp6 b/c mini-me had dibs on hp7

new study shows people who drink as little as one soda per day are at a higher risk for heart disease, but as per usual... this begs the question as to whether it's the soda that's causing the risk or whether folks who drink soda do other things that cause them to be at higher risk. that is, are folks that drink a soda per day also practicing other unhealthy habits, and the soda drinking is kind of a symptom of the overall unhealthiness, or do these sodas actually cause the risk of heart disease to rise, all on their own? that is -- how controlled is this experiement... what other factors are at work?

since all this coming out right now, right when i have become fascinated with vault zero, should we consider this a coincidence or a conspiracy? i'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy aimed directly at my vault zero consumption. shall have to investigate further.

saw this movie today, and it was very good.

the plot may not have followed the book word for word, but you can never expect a movie to follow the entire book. the acting was spot on. the kids are growing up nicely. there was a lot of action, and a lot of harry brooding solo, so there wasn't much exploration of harry's relationships with ron & hermione. well, other than ron & hermione looking concernedly at harry as he had nightmares or fainting spells or lashed out or shut down. it definitely had all the characteristics of a middle story -- coming into the plot as it was already on the run, and leaving again when it was still barreling along; characters coming & going without much specific introduction under the assumption that you already know them; settings, sets, environments, props, all used as familiar backdrops without explanation. but, since it is a middle story, all that's good & appropriate and saves time for the story itself. this one is well worth seeing on the big screen.

plan for today: first, run 14 miles. then, take a nap.

the latest & last installment in the series de harry potter arrived yesterday right on schedule. pre-ordered back in the winter. the modern world continually amazes, eh? order something months ago, and it appears on one's doorstep as promised. like magic. mini-me gets first dibs on the book, but here's what would be cool: if the chapters were separate so that we could read it at the same time. someone reads chapter one, then someone else can read chap 1 whilst the first one is reading chap 2, and so on. perhaps this would reduce the number of books sold, and obviously it would be a tricky production prospect, but it would be cool.

british open's on this weekend, and mickelson didn't make the cut. garcia's been at the top of the leaderboard all weekend. today should prove interesting for him, as he generally perfects a meltdown on the last day.

and, that's all for now.

chivalry is a lost art

fog in the morning, so
the logs with a crimson glow
light the waves with their undertow.
away these sandy beaches.

your amber eyes aglow,
your breath, like the undertow
pulls me down, so far down below.
away these sandy beaches.


your heart is beating -
i feel it.
my mind is reeling -
please heal it.
night time will come.
this long day will be done.
even you cannot repeal it.

stars in the velvet glow.
high tide hides the undertow.
your laugh arrows to my soul.
away these sandy beaches.

time is the undertow.
time strikes you quick & low.
time will not let you go.
away these sandy beaches.

nickelback... nickel creek... two very different bands

just watched romancing the stone, and it's the epitome of an 80's movie. well, it doesn't have the song & dance number of ferris beuller or of course footloose, but then, romancing the stone was designed for adults. made in 1984. compared to today's movies, it's just tame tame tame and good clean fun. why can't they make more movies like that these days? good, old fashioned love stories without all the r-rated shizzle. and, with a good saxophone solo at the end.

greetings from the beanery, where the coffee is free & the wireless is hot. wait. strike that - reverse it.

my old man brought my computer to the bus stop so's i could compute while he went to work out. he's a doll, ain't 'e?

currently reading special topics in calamity physics by marisha pessl. just googled it to be sure i had the author's name right, and it's got a very cool looking website which i will have to check out after finishing the book as i don't want to spoil anything for myself. it's tightly written & intense. it's off the wall, off the beaten track, off kilter. it's not like any other novel i've read... and yet it is. it's a coming of age tale [at least, that's what it looks like from here... somewhere around pg 200], and that's simple enough. but the characters are pleasantly multidimensional, and the plot has small twisties that add to the credibility. the style conjures the affectation of a research paper through the inclusion of references within the text. it reads like an autobiography, which makes it more compelling than the lifeless reportage of the recently-reviewed last days of dogtown. it's also complex and filled with references, but doesn't feel exclusionary or inside-jokie, which timbre was an enormous turn-off in the lemony snicket series. all that, and a stellar cover to boot.

ran 10 miles today. okay... ran 5 & jogged 5. okay, okay! ran 5, jogged 4.5, walked .5. that's all yore gettin' outta me!

odometer report: palindromatic 90209, followed by the ever-glamorous 90210.

finished the entire series of unfortunate events, and must conclude that the most unfortunate event in the series is the writing. the series was clumsy & disjointed, sometimes witty & sometimes stupid, always overpacked with allusion. unless one has read every piece of literature refered to in the series, one cannot follow the plot. it's a literary allusionfest. a veritable allusion collusion, in conclusion: confusion. one should not need cliff's notes to follow a children's book.

got our new phones on friday, and i immediately, carefully, & brilliantly erased my entire phone book while attempting to xfer the numbers from old phone to new phone. stellar.

there you have it

the last days of dogtown. this is what was the trouble with that book: the author is a journalist. she was reporting the story, not revealing the story.

journalism is a skill; storytelling is an art

i'm from history - where the heller you from?

never having seen a single episode of the simpsons, i harbor anxiety that the simpsons movie will be beyond my comprehension.

united healthcare is launching a new program where everyone starts with $1000 deductible, and then everyone can earn credits that bring the deductible down. credits are earned not by joining a gym or smoking cessation program, but rather by meeting certain standards of health. like for instance as an example: not having nicotine in your blood when you take the blood test. like that. like actually not smoking and actually not having nicotine in your actual blood. because anyone can join a cessation program, but it's the healthy folks that actually quit.

from the world of odometers: 201804.
you do the math.

hot hot heat - one potato two potato - hot hot heat - one potato two potato

news story #1 -- 2007 nissan altimas recalled b/c the air filters are likely to catch fire when they come in contact w/ something hot. like... a blowtorch. right.

news story #2 -- researchers in france have made a flame retardant material out of potatoes. hot potatoes. right.

logical conclusion -- nissan should make air filters out of potatoes. problem solved. right.

ginger snappy snap

people hear with their eyes. - les paul.

les' original electric guitar was an acoustic with a needle stuck in it. there was too much feedback, so he ended up creating an electric guitar from a 4"x4" plank of wood. this guitar didn't look like a guitar, so he put wings on it. because, he knew that people hear with their eyes.

books 2007

night work - laurie r. king
glass castle - jeannette walls
cross - james patterson
the kite runner - khaled hosseini
with child - laurie r. king
the bookseller of kabul - åsne seierstad
bridget jones's diary - helen fielding
bridget jones: the edge of reason - helen fielding
how to be good - nick hornby
about a boy - nick hornby
olivia joules & the overactive imagination - helen fielding
a series of unfortunate events vol. 1-12 - lemony snicket
high fidelity - nick hornby
a long way down - nick hornby
the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime - mark haddon
the nightspinners - lucretia walsh grindle
the last days of dogtown - anita diamant
next up: probably the last lemony snicket. gotta see how it turns out for those kids.

from the world of odometers, i bring you...

89998
90009

and of course, witnessed the 90000 rollover. stellar.

seven seven seven

once there was a princess who lived in a castle. every day, she would wake up & have her breakfast, change her clothes, make her bed, and take a walk. she'd walk & walk & walk. when she got to the halfway point, she'd turn around and walk back to her castle in time for tea. she adored walking and adored the path she walked on. every day, she walked the same speed and went the same distance and saw the same things, and she adored it all.

one day, she noticed another path adjoining her path. she had never noticed this other path before and didn't know what to make of it. she passed by the adjoinment, continued her walk, got to the halfway point, turned around, and walked back to her castle in time for tea.

the next day, she noticed the new path again. she still didn't know what to make of it, but she wasn't a total dolt, so she was curious. but, not that curious. she passed by the adjoinment, continued her walk, got to the halfway point, turned around, and walked back to her castle in time for tea.

the third day, she stopped by the adjoinment, looked down the new path, but didn't visit it. she passed by the adjoinment, continued her walk, got to the halfway point, turned around, and walked back to her castle in time for tea.

the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day, she stopped, looked, even took a couple steps toward the new path, but she didn't leave her normal path, continued her walk, got to the halfway point, turned around, and walked back to her castle in time for tea.

on the seventh day, she woke up & ate half her breakfast. she packed the other half of her breakfast in her patagonia daypack along with a bottle of evian. she changed her clothes and packed two more changes of clothes in her patagonia daypack along with her warm hoodie. she made her bed with one blankie and put her extra blankie in her patagonia daypack along with her pillow & stuffie bear. her patagonia daypack wouldn't zip shut with all this shamazzle in it, so she switched to her larger patagonia pack and repacked her pack. she put on her repacked pack, set off down her normal path, came upon the adjoining path, turned, went down the adjoining path, and did not return to her castle in time for tea.

alanis morissette... paging, alanis morissette....

i like this one certain kind of coffee at work. don francisco's cinnamon hazelnut. it comes in a metal can. my can opener was so old it had ceased to operate in a functional manner. i purchased a new can opener specifically for opening ol' don's cans. opened the last one, and it was a pleasure, a joy, a veritable fest of fun. purchased another can of ol' don's coffee yesterday to replenish the stock, and what to my wondering eyes should appear... a pull tab top. ol' don's gone uptown with the pulldown. and me, with my brand new can opener.

things to think about

ran a 5k yesterday with a young woman who has only 30% use of her heart and also has cancer - with surgery scheduled for august. she was cheerful, enthusiastic, energetic... the only thing that disappointed her was that she couldn't run faster.

yesterday, a woman was stabbed at a convenience mkt in kansas city. 5 people stepped over her, and she ended up dead on the floor.

pacman jones was given a suspended sentence or probation or something like that in a case where he spit on a woman at a night club. the condition was that he stay out of trouble, which he has not done. it's all comin' down on him now.

nearly forgot that i had these odometer gifts for you

from the brigadoon trip - 89555 in the driveway, 89666 at brigadoon (666!), and 89777 on the way home again.

today there was 89889. should have had 89888, but missed it. sorry 'bout that. you'll have to take 89889 as a consolation prize.

if you ask me, i'd have to say that i am tired and not sure what i am doing up at this hour.

sure, speedy & mini-me & i are running a 5k this morning, but jeezumpete, it's not for a few hours. what made me think i had to get up so early? what? what?

here is a patriotic song for your enjoyment on this patriotic day:

this is my country
land of my birth
this is my country
grandest on earth
i am pledging my allegiance
america, the bold
this is my country
to have & to hold

always wondered what that meant... "to hold" a country. stretching for the rhyme is sometimes not pretty, eh?

three points to ponder while listening to the ice cream man drive by on this friday-on-tuesday kind of day

uno: two cubicles down, there is a meeting of two people, one of whom is giggling & talking loudly. the only reason for such behaviour is to call attention to yourself. it's difficult enough to focus on uninspiring work in a warm cubicle - the ridiculous behaviour only exacerbates the issue.

dos: the democrats are all up in arms over the president's pardoning of scooter libby, but what did they actually expect? how many people with the power to get their friend out of a bind would pass it up? the dems claim all sorts of faults in what scooter, w, and chaney have done, are doing, and will do... go figure. they are on the other side - surely you didn't expect themto agree? so, the dems have managed to point out all these places where they say the pres & his admin are in the wrong. this is a brilliant tactic, b/c it is diverting attention from the fact that the dems have accomplished nothing they promised.

tres: anita diamant's the last days of dogtown is weak. the plot is thin & watery. the characters are flat. what could be an intriguing historical tale is instead a story as lifeless as the people it is about.

it's always easier to go there than to return here

feeling disappointed over not doing well in the run on saturday. feeling disappointed at not getting the hang of the harley. feeling disappointed at having been at brigadoon and having had to leave. feeling disappointed about having to go to work tomorrow. feeling disappointed, let down, disconnected, and pretty much all around sundaynightesque.
erg. sunday night.