Saturday, January 16, 2010
The new semester starts in a few days and a small part of me is excited to be very busy again. When my schedule is very open like it has been for the past month my sleep schedule begins to get worse and worse. So now I don't get tired until 3:00am and don't wake up until 11:00am. It's not a big deal at this moment but I'm going to get my ass kicked come next week. My Wednesday is already looking fantastic. I work from 12-6 and then go straight to class until 9:30. Then I get home at about 10:00 and make myself some dinner before getting up at 3:30am to be in at work by 5:00. It's going to ruin me but it'll likely be the only thing that gets my sleep schedule under control. I thought my 6-3 shift yesterday was going to help move things along but I got so tired later in the day that I napped from 5-8pm and so I didn't get to sleep until 3 like usual. I guess I'll actually have to use my coffee maker in the near future.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Apologies for not writing for a little while. I'd be lying if I said that things have been busy around here because it has been the exact opposite. The semester finished and my hours at work got slightly cut back for a few weeks so really I've just been sitting around watching a screen of some kind. You all still love me anyway.
I wanted to write a little bit about death. Over the holiday the girl's sister's boyfriend's mother passed away and so I've been thinking about it most of the day. You're probably asking why a death that seems so distant would affect me. Well, it was her house that I was at over Thanksgiving so I did know her, albeit briefly. She was very nice and to allow a complete stranger into her home on a holiday typically reserved for family was extremely gracious.
I'd eventually like to talk about how I have dealt with death on a personal level, how it affects my belief in a higher power, and what death might be like. But all of that will need to come later. I just wanted to make a short post to let you all know I hadn't forgotten about this.
I wanted to write a little bit about death. Over the holiday the girl's sister's boyfriend's mother passed away and so I've been thinking about it most of the day. You're probably asking why a death that seems so distant would affect me. Well, it was her house that I was at over Thanksgiving so I did know her, albeit briefly. She was very nice and to allow a complete stranger into her home on a holiday typically reserved for family was extremely gracious.
I'd eventually like to talk about how I have dealt with death on a personal level, how it affects my belief in a higher power, and what death might be like. But all of that will need to come later. I just wanted to make a short post to let you all know I hadn't forgotten about this.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Imagine a sport where the spectators jokingly scream insults at you, encourage you to crash, offer you beer, shots of whiskey, pieces of bacon, ring pops, and money. This is cyclocross.
Dave has picked up the sport the past few months and I was finally able to make my way out to a race today when I felt like I needed a break from my last final assignment for school. It was cold and I'm pretty sure my toes still haven't had proper blood flow return to them from the afternoon but holy hell was it fun. The essential premise of the sport is that you bike around an off-road course that has a variety of hills, hairpin turns, and sandpits. The entire race typically takes a half hour but it's definitely physically demanding. It sounds pretty typical but the culture surrounding it is what makes it a great time. It's essentially a drink-all-day atmosphere where the last few races are all about having a good time and really getting into the action. On this particular course everyone seemed to stack around a sand-filled L-turn that was prone to terrible wipeouts and jump attempts where the riders would just faceplant into the ground. As the riders would come around the turn everyone would try to entice them to crash by offering all of the items I mentioned in the first sentence of this post. We ended up seeing riders come around the corner chugging full cups of beer or tossing aside a shot glass they had just emptied. We saw a man dressed in a Superwoman outfit, another guy dressed as Santa Claus, and even a guy in a full gorilla suit whose head was eventually decapitated by another guy dressed as Mario who proceeded to finish the race while triumphantly raising the mask into the air as the crowd cheered. It was absolutely insane and the perfect way to take a two hour break between staring at my research and writing down a couple of pages of drivel.
Dave has picked up the sport the past few months and I was finally able to make my way out to a race today when I felt like I needed a break from my last final assignment for school. It was cold and I'm pretty sure my toes still haven't had proper blood flow return to them from the afternoon but holy hell was it fun. The essential premise of the sport is that you bike around an off-road course that has a variety of hills, hairpin turns, and sandpits. The entire race typically takes a half hour but it's definitely physically demanding. It sounds pretty typical but the culture surrounding it is what makes it a great time. It's essentially a drink-all-day atmosphere where the last few races are all about having a good time and really getting into the action. On this particular course everyone seemed to stack around a sand-filled L-turn that was prone to terrible wipeouts and jump attempts where the riders would just faceplant into the ground. As the riders would come around the turn everyone would try to entice them to crash by offering all of the items I mentioned in the first sentence of this post. We ended up seeing riders come around the corner chugging full cups of beer or tossing aside a shot glass they had just emptied. We saw a man dressed in a Superwoman outfit, another guy dressed as Santa Claus, and even a guy in a full gorilla suit whose head was eventually decapitated by another guy dressed as Mario who proceeded to finish the race while triumphantly raising the mask into the air as the crowd cheered. It was absolutely insane and the perfect way to take a two hour break between staring at my research and writing down a couple of pages of drivel.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
It's finals week which means I'm eating chocolate-covered pretzels and catching up on TV from Monday. Deadspin already spoiled who got kicked off SYTYCD this week so I guess I don't really need to watch that, which is a good thing considering what I need to get done in the next 7 days.
But a lot of us are in that boat of OH MY GOD THIS WEEK SUCKS so I'll spare you the details. Instead I'll talk about what has now become one of my favorite ways to procrastinate: podcasts. I know I've talked before about how I'm usually pretty in-tune with all things technology and internet but it seems that some really huge tech stuff falls through the cracks. I got turned on to podcasts last week after the girl and I listened to This American Life while getting ready for Thanksgiving. I had listened to NPR a good bit when I was working at the bank so I was familiar with the program. And I think a few of you have mentioned it before. But I had just never really bothered to learn what kind of podcasts there were out there. I liked reading most of the news on my own and went to enough sports websites and watched enough ESPN to where I didn't need someone to dictate things I already knew so I never felt the need to see what was offered. But it's only been a week now and I've spent far too much time listening to Ira Glass and downloading Radio Lab for my own good. This shit is great, and I'm pissed I didn't know about any of it earlier. And now I just have another couple of hours of media to consume every week to get in the way of getting a good night's sleep and doing some quality schoolwork.
But a lot of us are in that boat of OH MY GOD THIS WEEK SUCKS so I'll spare you the details. Instead I'll talk about what has now become one of my favorite ways to procrastinate: podcasts. I know I've talked before about how I'm usually pretty in-tune with all things technology and internet but it seems that some really huge tech stuff falls through the cracks. I got turned on to podcasts last week after the girl and I listened to This American Life while getting ready for Thanksgiving. I had listened to NPR a good bit when I was working at the bank so I was familiar with the program. And I think a few of you have mentioned it before. But I had just never really bothered to learn what kind of podcasts there were out there. I liked reading most of the news on my own and went to enough sports websites and watched enough ESPN to where I didn't need someone to dictate things I already knew so I never felt the need to see what was offered. But it's only been a week now and I've spent far too much time listening to Ira Glass and downloading Radio Lab for my own good. This shit is great, and I'm pissed I didn't know about any of it earlier. And now I just have another couple of hours of media to consume every week to get in the way of getting a good night's sleep and doing some quality schoolwork.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. My phone hadn't charged the night before so I used the last little bit of battery to talk to the family in the morning which explains the lack of responses to texts.
My Thanksgiving had a couple of "firsts" to go along with it. It was my first away from home, which is really strange to think about. I had been with my family on Thanksgiving every single year for the last 23. But it wasn't like I missed Thanksgiving with the family as much as I missed just being with the family like I have over the past few months. It was also my first time on a traditional train. And on this train you can bring alcohol. So the girl and I were planning on housing a few tallboys during our journey but the intense hangover from the night before coupled with us running late the entire morning prevented us from doing so. And we would have been the only ones on a train of hundreds that would have been boozing that early so it probably would have been really awkward. So except for the alcohol-permitting train it was an otherwise traditional day filled with turkey, football, family, and booze.
My Thanksgiving had a couple of "firsts" to go along with it. It was my first away from home, which is really strange to think about. I had been with my family on Thanksgiving every single year for the last 23. But it wasn't like I missed Thanksgiving with the family as much as I missed just being with the family like I have over the past few months. It was also my first time on a traditional train. And on this train you can bring alcohol. So the girl and I were planning on housing a few tallboys during our journey but the intense hangover from the night before coupled with us running late the entire morning prevented us from doing so. And we would have been the only ones on a train of hundreds that would have been boozing that early so it probably would have been really awkward. So except for the alcohol-permitting train it was an otherwise traditional day filled with turkey, football, family, and booze.
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