It was tough, but I managed

Tropical

Sorting out the photos from my trip to the VI. The islands take a beautiful picture. I already mentioned that we had some issues with the local fauna (mostly the bugs) but still had a very nice time.

One of the private beach days included a nice deck and some beach chairs. They only allowed a handful of people on the beach at any given time, which was nice. You get what you pay for.

I had to take refuge from the sun but my Sweetheart (pictured) worked on her tan the whole time. I'll post the link to the whole album when I get the rest of the photos processed.

Pump up Jamz

Not sure if the above will work for you, but in the event that it doesn't, you can open this link in a different tab and that will give you the scoop. 

Joined a new gym. Old gym was great until they converted the yoga studio into a barre studio. That is good for membership because barre is all the rage right now. I told them to suck it because I'm there for quality yoga and the yoga instruction has been in steady decline for about a year. Anyway, I joined a crossfit gym and it's good. Tough workouts. And I don't have to wear a shirt, which is nice.

One area where the crossfit gym is really falling down is the music. They got the stereo working but there's not much consistency in the pump up jamz. I find a wide range of pump-up jamz acceptable: rock, punk, techno, hard house, hard trance and rap all have something to offer your PUJ playlist. You know what doesn't work? Country music. I can't name a single pump-up country song and you can't either. It just doesn't work. I understand you can't please everybody but if you're playing country songs and I'm trying to lift weights then you're just making it tougher.

Here's a fun bootleg pump-up jam that claims to be 'progressive house', which I guess means that it's a hard trance track with a vocal in it. No idea. There's a lot of overlap with these things. The song is kind of confused in that it:
- Starts out with a catchy vocal (~ 50 secs)
- Hints at the superbly catchy bass line for a build (1:30)
- Goes into a nice bit of song proper with the bass line (1:45)
- Motors along for a while successfully with the vocal (1:45-3:40)
- Suddenly throws in a full on, straight up, trance-style super-synth Rank-1-Airwave-cribbed breakdown @ 3:45. Which, for the record, is very well executed.
- Then the bass drops again (4:28) and IT IS FUCKING ON until 5:30 when you better be queuing up something else because the outro is short. 

Even though this song is kind of all over the place the individual elements are so good that it doesn't matter. Turn it up and you'll see what I mean.

Not sure I'm going to bring this to Crossfit Balboa. They're not ready. Play this song on half volume during a warmup and it'll fall flat. Play it when you're in the middle of a tough workout (or a big night out) and it'll melt your face off.

Smart is sexy

Not sure if you're current on the crazy awesome mission to mars and the rover landing. The short version is: it's awesome. This guy is the poster boy so far and I have to give him big props for being a) good at his job, and b) showing some individuality in the workplace. I guess it took NASA to figure out that your haircut has fuck all to do with your work performance. Weird. Maybe we could get some trickle-down into the private sector?

You can get current on more of the fandom on the tumblr.

Disaster Preparedness

Been thinking about some things lately that are beyond the usual purview of the blogspace. This is going to be a survivalist / disaster preparedness tangent, so feel free to skip it if you like.

Two recent events have galvanized me into action:

1. My friend's house was burglarized during the night. He was out of town but he could just as easily have been at home. More on this shortly.

2. While putting my feet up at The Girl's house last week and I heard a series of loud bangs. Sounded a lot like gunfire to me. I wasn't completely unprepared, but I felt a bit less than prepared than I would have liked. As it turns out it was only fireworks, but it was still disturbing. And annoying.

These two events happened within 48 hours of each other. They made me re-evaluate my level of home and disaster preparedness. In short: I'm unprepared. For a long time it was not a huge issue for me personally because I can look after myself in most circumstances and I'm not a soft target. But The Girl doesn't have the same advantages; she is considerably less mean and also less heavily armed. So: What can we do to increase our chances of survivability in the event of a disaster?

Get Prepared

A lot of people, me included, used to view disaster preparedness as some kind of weird fringe activity for Idaho/Wyoming nutjobs. Then Katrina happened and the federal government showed how qualified it was to deliver you from harm in the event of a major disaster. (Hint: not qualified at all, and that was a disaster that people knew was coming. *facepalm*)

The interesting thing about this kind of preparedness is that even the most minimal efforts dramatically increase your chances of surviving a disaster. In other words you get a lot of value for the most basic efforts.

I don't believe that we will have a permanent and complete institutional breakdown in this country. I do believe that you should be prepared for a temporary breakdown of all services and the rule of law for a minimum of 72 hours. To that end, you should be prepared. The nature of your preparedness will depend a lot on where you live. Are you in a rural or urban environment? What is the climate like?

You can find thousands of lists and instructions on the internet for how to prepare for the 'zombie apocalypse' but most of them are bullshit. And they might not suit your needs. Or your budget. Make a plan. Build an urban survival bag for your house, and put a get-home bag in each of your vehicles. It might save your life.

More later.

Where the h-e-double-hockey-sticks have you been?

I was out of the country for close to a couple weeks, visiting the lovely Virgin Islands. It was good, except for the part where the sweet love of my life was miserable because of the mosquitoes (she's allergic, which is a bummer when you're in the tropics) and then rupturing her eardrum when we tried to go on the scuba party.* Ouch. So she didn't have as superb an experience as she would have liked.

My own experience was good. Avoided any sunburn until the very last day. Did a lot of beachy things, like snorkeling and swimming. Saw all kinds of awesome sea creatures, such as a sea turtle and other fish (big and small) and birds and corals and stuff. Went scuba diving for the first time. Had to be supervised because I don't have a certification, and I think there was also a depth limit of about 35 feet. Whatever. I still got to wear a tank and fins and breathe air underwater. Super fun. The Girl suggested I get my dive certification when we got back but I've already got some other very expensive (and dangerous) hobbies so I tabled it until after I'm done racing motorcycles. You care.

What now? Well I dodged the 20 year high school reunion but I heard it was good. I'll see you at the 30. I've got paper to push.

I've still got a backlog of stuff to post on various topics so I'll get to those later this week. Good times.



* It wasn't really a scuba party and no one was hanging out in the nude but I couldn't help including that clip. 'Along Came Polly' is terrible but that part is superb.

Long time no hear

Hey how's it going?
Not much news here. Apologies for going AWOL. I was away for a couple weeks, but I'm back now. You care.
I'll post a report on my travel experience in a day or two. In the interim here's a video that Big Cheese forwarded to me. It's near and dear to my heart in that it covers two subjects about which I feel strongly: quality of life, and also gaming. Enjoy.

In the event that the embed doesn't work you can use this link to go directly.

We've all been there(?)

Awkwarrrrrrd

This little tidbit comes courtesy Alligator Sunglasses. They probably have a proper credit for it but hey, it's craigslist and that's the public domain as far as I can tell.

The story itself reminded me of the time my former roommate took a similar gamble at Newport Brewing Company and had to drive home to change out his ensemble. He couldn't even sit on the seat because frothy, foamy shit was coming out of his pants above his beltline. (Why this happened - and I mean the poop above the belt, not 'why he shit his pants' - is still a mystery. Capillary action? Bowel pressure? Super tight boxer briefs? Some combination of the above? We'll never know.) He had to operate the pedals with one foot and keep the other locked against the floor so it would wedge his upper torso against the seatback to prevent further befouling the interior of his 4Runner. Sooo, yeah. That happened. He ended up doing such a quick costume change that his then-girlfriend never noticed that he was gone. Well played, sir. Well played.

It's been an up and down week over here. Sold the 600RR for a fair price. This is mixed news. I'm a bit sad to see her go but I didn't need two bikes. Still have the big bike and it's awesome. I'll have to do a bit of work to to make it track ready. Not too, much, initially, just tires and traction control / quick shifter, and a quick turn throttle tube. It'll make the bike safer to ride. Safety first. You care.

Thanks for reading.

Update to the update: mom is out of the hospital

Update on my mom's condition: She is out of the hospital, getting ready to start physical therapy.

The long-term prognosis is guesswork. She still suffers from severe headaches and they don't know if that will get better in time. It's likely that it will, but for now it's tough sledding. (It's not surprising that her head hurts after someone sawed through her skull and poked and prodded at her brain. The brain has no nerve endings but that doesn't mean it won't react if handled.)

She has problems with her memory and speech. She can't remember what day it is, for example. Her conversation skills are somewhat limited. Early progress was good but it's coming much more slowly now.

Her attitude is joyless and miserable. That's not a huge departure from before the injury but it's worse now, and she isn't much capable of talking about much because she can't remember and also not much happens. So mostly she lives in the present, and her present pretty much sucks. (Full disclosure: it is 100% her own fault that she is in this condition.) 

Hopefully the occupational / physical therapy will enable her to make some progress. She has full-time care so someone is able to look after her, get her to therapy and appointments, etc.

That's the summary. Definitely a drag to read but that's the way it goes for now. The good news is that her neurological, mental and physical health should improve over time. I will keep you posted.
Thanks for reading. 

John Terry acquitted of racism charges, still a d-bag

Warning: The following post contains foul language and it's not for everyone. I apologize in advance. If you're offended then please skip it and come back on Monday for rainbows and unicorns.
Thanks for reading
--------------------------

John Terry was acquitted on his charges of racism. If you don't know who he is then don't trouble yourself with a search. He's an asshole who, among other things, shagged his teammates wife. He's also a titanic ass when he's on the pitch, with too many low blows and late tackles to even begin to list here. He plays for Chelsea, which makes sense because that club is a disgrace.* He also has the dubious distinction of being an overrated shite on his national team. So that's fun.

The trial and related bullshit only serve to highlight the fact that if you stare long enough at words to parse them endlessly then they stop meaning anything at all. The presiding 'magistrate' said there was no doubt that Terry said the words "fucking black cunt" during the end of the game, but the trial hinged on what he meant. It's possible he meant something else, something not racist at all. It's also possible that you are an idiot, and you are a magistrate in the English judicial system.

This is a clear example of the law tripping over its feet and falling on its face. If you ask a 10 year old what it means when you call someone a 'fucking black cunt' then you will get the same answer every time: it means what it says, every word intended to injure and offend. It is not a phrase laden with subtlety and nuance.

That Terry is chavvy trash is well established. He knows what he said, and he knows what he meant to say. He should be fined and suspended - it won't change his racist attitude but at least we won't have to look at him for a while.



* It is true that I loathe Chelski. However, Terry would be a rat bastard no matter where he suited up, even if it were glorious Arsenal.

A fun interlude

This from Sonz, because she wins at the internet today. It's only got 300ish views as of now, which is a travesty. If you stick around to the end you get some bonus cookie monster c is for cookie. It's worth it. I love cookies.

Where have you been?

Well, here and there, if you must know.
I had a track day, which went well. Bike was great, went fast, etc. Didn't get as many photos as I wanted because guys kept crashing. I did get moved up to the faster group and did my fastest ever lap (1:55), so that was cool. I have a good anecdote about that I've been working on, but I didn't get to it because right after my track day...

Then my mom spent 6 days in the ICU because she fell on her head. I had to fly to Oregon to see her. It was touch and go for a while but after the second craniotomy (which was the fourth surgery) she woke up from her coma. It's a bad deal. As of now she's out of the ICU and recovering in the neuro center. Her vocabulary and diction aren't impaired but it does take her a long time to form sentences. She talks much more slowly now, is what I'm saying. And she also repeats herself, as though she forgets underlyaing conversational elements that you might otherwise take for granted. Not sure if she does this because she has trouble finding other words or if she doesn't remember saying it in the first place (both?).The neuro people will figure all that out I guess.

Her motor control is moderately impaired. She will be using a walker for the foreseeable future, maybe forever, given her balance has been an issue for some time. The doctor that looked at her brain said there was evidence of previous damage from blows to the head, likely caused by falls. So that happened / is happening. She is 65, looks 80. The long term prognosis is not encouraging but she could surprise everybody. She is capable but she has to quit some of the bad habits that put her in the hospital in the first place. Easier said than done. We'll see.

That's the latest. I will keep you posted.

Speaking of gyms

This looks like my kind of place. Language definitely NSFW.



Weak Men Pay This Boxing Coach To Tell Them They Are Terrible from ANIMALNewYork.com on Vimeo.

You're doing it wrong

Equinox is running a promotion where you get a 'badge' if you go to the gym a certain number of times during the summer. You 'activate' the badge thing and then you can display it on twitter and lamebook. OMG I know! So awesome!

In other words, you get to show off how many times you went to the gym and also promote the gym at the same time. Which is cool if you're a titanic douchebag. To reinforce the d-baggery, the badges have tags. Level 1 is 'Baller'. Then you get upgraded to "Player". I don't know what the next one is but I promise to post it as soon as I reach that lofty goal.

Anyway, I went to the gym 10 times and got a badge. I hope you're as impressed with me as I am. 

Not much

Not much to report lately. Doing another track day this Friday. So that's fun.

I did have this hippo picture that I think I cribbed from Alligator Sunglasses. No idea where they got it from. The internet is a mysterious place.

I would post a bit more frequently but I've been busy and also I haven't had anything to share. You know how it is.

Of course he took the drugs

Cheaters never prosper (except when they do)

Lance Armstrong is back in the news again. The USADA is on a crusade to catch him in his lies. I don't think they will change anyone's mind but if you know anything about anything in cycling then you already know he cheated. Of course he says he didn't but consider the attached graphic, which is extracted from Bicycling magazine in May of 2011. I linked to it before but the link is down now so here's the text and the graphic again:

Here’s how the Tour de France would look during every year Armstrong podiumed if the top 10 were scrubbed of any finisher who at the time of his career [Not necessarily at the time of that Tour, since his career would span multiple tours - Ed.] was formally connected to performance enhancing drugs or blood doping (those riders appear in the shaded boxes). Because we had to draw a line somewhere to prevent unsubstantiated accusations from eliminating a rider, we defined “formally connected” as riders who:

- Admitted to doping or were banned or fully (not provisionally) suspended by a sanctioning group for doping in relation to it.

- Were fully (not provisionally ) suspended or fired by their teams or individually withdrawn from races by their teams for some connection to doping

- Were convicted of doping in a sporting, criminal, or civil hearing or trial, or paid a fine to settle charges related to it.

 Our criteria leaves lots of room for argument, and frankly, allows some riders who inspire widespread public doubt to remain categorized as clean. But even through this somewhat constrained lens, the decimation of the general classification of the sport’s crown jewel is shocking. -Christie Aschwanden

---
The new allegations are particularly lame because they are anonymous. It's more witch hunt than anything else by now, but Armstrong's decision to pursue a career in triathlons is probably getting up the USADA's nose. If he just faded away they would likely leave it alone. 

Had it all the way

We don't feature much baseball in this space. Mostly because I think it's boring. However: big props to Matt Cain for pitching a perfecto last night. In order to pitch a perfect game you have to be some combination of good and lucky. Some pitchers are a bit more lucky than good, some are both good and lucky* (Dennis Martinez, for example), but others are more good than lucky. Cain is the latter. He did get some strong defense in the seventh. My favorite part about the video is the small fist-pump that Blanco allows himself after the catch. He did his part to keep the perfecto alive and the crowd is going bananas so he was feeling good in the moment. Then he remembers that he's not supposed to celebrate during the pursuit of perfection so he immediately studies the ball in the hope that no one noticed.

*Should point out that Martinez was a groundball pitcher, and as such less likely to pitch a  perfect game than a power pitcher like Cain because he has less control over what happens after the ball makes contact with the bat.

If the video doesn't embed you can watch it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22275319&topic_id=11493214&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_22275319&v=3

Moar motorcycles

I can't write about income inequality and social policy all the time. Well, I could, but it's a lot of work and I don't get paid for it.

Best part about this image is my throttle hand.

Here's another look at it from a split second later. On the street that's a felony or a death wish or both. On the track I'm just slow.

Let's do this

GO FASTER

In my free time I like to practice yoga, read books, and ride motorcycles (pictured).

I don't have any pictures of me practicing yoga or reading books and I wouldn't post them if I did.

You have the right to remain stupid

Courtesy Mother Jones, see link below for more

Lots of hot air being kicked around by the Republican(t) party, as per usual. Your freedoms are at stake, American freedom, land of the free, blah blah blah. This has been going on since Obama was elected and I think it's partly racially motivated. Republicans are doing everything they can to make Obama seem foreign and 'other', because the 'other' is unknown and scary. But I digress...

It's impressive that passing a law that requires everyone to get health insurance is an impact on your 'freedoms'. I guess in some small ways it is but I don't see why people get so worked up about it.* G.W. Bush cut taxes for the rich, invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses and simultaneously curtailed the rights of the Amurrican people (typing the words 'Patriot Act' makes me physically sick) and where was the freedom-loving public then? Too busy exercising their freedoms, no doubt. Obama wants to give the poor access to decent medical care and they're all aflutter. It's UNAMERICAN! We need to go back to the original constitution and respect what the founders intended! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

What's wrong with wanting to help poor people? Most would agree that it is a good idea if poor people can get a decent education and health care but no one wants to actually pay. Especially the people that can afford it.

As for relying on the constitution, when it was drafted the framers made slaves 3/5ths of a person and slavery legal. And women couldn't vote. And there was no income tax. And no cellphones. Or internet. Or videogames (FML, right????!!!). So let's be clear about this right now: anyone who starts a conversation about 'what the founders intended' is either an idiot or an asshole or both. No exceptions. If they make some kind of qualifying statement about how the framers were 'men of their time' and they would make different decisions now then I say, you fucking idiot,  great, we are 'people of our time' and we're making better decisions now. That's called progress.

* That the health care system is completely broken in this country is well known. It gets another post.

Mother Jones charts of income inequality:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

What a lovely portrait

I call this 'Fig Surprise'*

The Girl's place has a fig tree in the backyard. Since other stuff about the place is sucky it's nice that there are some good things to balance it out. I've been waiting for the figs to ripen since about 20 minutes after she moved in and they have begun to turn the corner only recently. This is one of the first figs so far this year. I was so excited to pick it that I had to send her a picture.

Reese the Dog was also very excited and celebrated the event in her own inimitable way. Synergy. If Youtube exists for cat videos then there's no doubt that cellphone cameras were invented so you could take a crappy picture (see what I did there?) of a dog dropping a steamer. And also so you could snap pics of drunk people being stupid. So glad they didn't have those things when I was in college. So glad.

True story: When the girl is on one of her trips to foreign lands I watch the dog. She calls and wants to know how the dog is doing. Since the dogs steamers are a reliable way to judge her day to day health I would report on them, as is my duty and obligation. As it turns out she was more interested in the dogs everyday activities, not her bowel movements. Who knew? So now when she goes out of town I give her the information she prefers. And also I follow up with a steamer report, because it kind of annoys her a little bit when I do that. (Annoys The Girl, not the dog). I'm like that.


*Careful observers will also notice some tomatoes growing in a raised bed. We planted those but no fruit yet. Can't imagine what Reese will do to celebrate the first tomato but I'm betting it'll be photo-worthy. So you have that to look forward to.

Probability math is (not) hard; so are(nt) words

Writing headlines and captions for all the content they push to SI.com has got to be challenging. You can't be funny or pithy but you must be interesting and relevant. Bland tends to win out. The problem is that sometimes they say stuff that is plain stupid. Occasionally they use the wrong word, as in this quote from a photo caption about 'potential sponsors being weary [sic] of signing'. That sort of thing really peaks my interest (see what I did there?) because it's the wrong damn word and you'd expect someone that works for a major publication to know the difference.

Just to be clear:

Weary = tired
Wary = cautious
Potential sponsors cannot be tired of sponsoring him, but they may be cautious. Don't you have a copy editor?

That's just words. The editors also fail at basic principles of probability. This is from the front page of si.com a couple days ago. It says:
Charlotte [Bobcats] have a 25% shot of landing the No. 1 pick. 

So far, so good. But the very next sentence says:
The NBA's worst team has won the draft lottery just 3 times in 18 years. That's not great odds for the Bobcats [the NBA's worst team ever]. 

Whoever wrote that is an idiot. Whoever approved it is also an idiot. The odds of the Bobcats winning the lottery are not affected by past years. Whatever happened in previous years has no impact on this year. It's not Judith Miller making stuff up about Iraq but still: don't be stupid. It makes my head hurt. Alot. 

Can't wait

Posted a note about how excited I was for Assassin's Creed III back when the first trailer came out. This latest E3 video expands on that stylish, brutal violence in a way that sets my geek boner to Stun.

I don't even know what that means so just watch the video.

While we're on the subject...

As long as we're here, I highly recommend this jam too. You can download it on beatport and make your own little mix. I have been missing my turntables so much I considered buying some new digital tables so I could mix music again. Then I realized that the only person that would ever hear it is me and I'm already really busy. So I tabled it for now. Not forever. But for now.

Official data: Sander van Doorn feat. Mayaeni, song is called Nothing Inside. This is the original mix.

Anyway, this is the jam. I'm not really into the vocal but the hook and breakdown are hot like fire. SNARE DRUM FTW!!1!1!ONE!!

Turn it up.


Updated: now with more video1!

Anthems are good for you

Yeah it's old but it's sweet. Official info: this is the club mix of Good for Me by Above (ampersand) Beyond, the full 9 minute version. It's got a  nice big room trance feel. One of my favorite pure trance tracks. You care.

Load test those speakers. I dare you.

This is a quick hit because I have important things to do (read: play xbox). But I heard it recently and thought I'd revisit. Took me about 3 seconds to find it on the internet. Thanks, internet!
More later.

Sounds like a deal

This from Super Spencer, my former roommate. You may remember Spencer as the guy that threw up in his koi pond. I think he's getting rid of the pond so the koi will have to find a new home. Anyway, he sent me this today and I thought it was great. I'm late to it, but hey, it's still awesome. I'll be signing up as soon as my current supply of razors runs out.

Go here for more info: http://www.dollarshaveclub.com

If you wanted to be obsessive about it

More videos, this time on axes and axe handling. Why? Because we love our edged implements around here, and it's always fun to learn something new. AmIright?

For more info on the axe (it's a Gransfors Bruks, made by hand in Sweden but available here in the states), go here: http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/67-Gransfors-Small-Forest-Axe

Pity the fox

Lots of videos lately. I haven't written an essay on how bullshit the government is in forever. Nor any kind of essay, for that matter. Not because I don't think it's bullshit but I just haven't had the energy. Which is probably for the best. On the other hand it's a big election year so I'll dust off the soapbox in the coming months. Get excited.

In the interim, there's this video, which I got from here.






BTW, Chelsea is still a loathsome shit club with a loathsome shit owner and loathsome shit players. Puke.

Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart

The acoustic version of this song has 20 million plays on youtubes. I guess that's a lot.
I was very glad to see it, since the lead singer used to be in a band that I thought was fantastic; they couldn't get any commercial traction and broke up several years ago. The lead singer started a new band and their second record is excellent.



In summary, I miss the Format.

Just a couple girls catching some rays

Took this a while ago when I was babysitting the girls. They both love the sundeck. A lot.

I came out to check on them and maybe share some hugs and there they were. Cellcam shot is pretty bad but shooting in full sun is impossible.

Sounds good to me

Yes you can use them after I'm done

This is how I hold it down at the girl's house if I'm plying the dorkbox. The dog had to have a tumor removed so she's wearing a bandage. Tests indicate that it was benign so that's a relief. The headphones enable me to listen to the dorkbox while not interrupting whatever it is the girl is doing. Plus they are surround sound (5.1, if you must know).

Actual conversation between me and the girl:

Her: You can use my yoga towel if you want.
me: Nah you get weird when I borrow stuff; I'll get my own.
Her: No I don't.
Me: Last time I borrowed your eye drops you were weird.
Her: You had them for a MONTH.
me: See what I mean?

Ahhh

lulz.

It's good to have (more) goals

Got a backlog of stuff to get to. I've been busy and haven't had a chance to post, if you hadn't noticed. I'll get to some other stuff later in the week but for now here's a list of great goals from smaller soccer leagues in Europe (not Italy, Spain, or England).

I know we have some football fans in the readership. Ze Newbs is a particular fan of Chelsea Football Club, which is really too because as I reminded him on Saturday: Chelsea is a shit club with a shit owner and shit players. They did win the Champion's League, though.

The bicycle kick goals tend to be overrated but this is a lovely bit of skill.  

Here's a list of other great goals this year from the Guardian.

Data roundup

I <3 data. Many people don't care for it, but it would be a funny old world if we were all alike. Anyway, here's a link dump from http://flowingdata.com/.

Design and Aesthetics

• information aesthetics — By Andrew Vande Moere, the first blog I found on visualization five something years ago.
• Well-formed data — Another one of the oldies but goodies. The blog of Moritz Stefaner, known for lots of projects around these parts
• blprnt.blg — Blog of Jer Thorp, who has recently been on a github binge. See also blprnt.tmblr
• Fathom — Ben Fry-run studio talks about interesting things
• feltron — Nicholas Felton's tumblr with quick bits of delight
• Tulp Inspiration — Another tumblr, this one run by Jan Willem Tulp

Statistical and Analytical Visualization

• Eager Eyes — I think the second blog I found on visualization. Written by Robert Kosara, research-focused
• Junk Charts — Kaiser Fung finds the not-so-good and explains how to improve them. See also sister blog Numbers Rule Your World
• Visual Business Inteliigence — Stephen Few's business-centric musings
• Visualising Data — Relatively newer
• Data Pointed — Weird and cooky, in a good way
• Effective Graphs — Fundamentals of graph-making
• Jim Vallandingham — Releases good code sometimes
• Excel Charts — Despite the name, provides some useful information for beginners
• Statistical Graphics and more — Through the eyes of a statistician

Journalism

• The Daily Viz — By Matt Stiles, data journalist at NPR
• chartsnthings — Kevin Quealy of The New York Times talks process
• Infographics news — Highlights news graphics
• Matthew Ericson — Deputy graphics director at The New York Times

General Visualization

• Neoformix — Features a variety of his projects
• Datavisualization.ch — Different visualization work, but lately on process of client work
• Periscopic — Information visualization firm, do good with data
• vis4 — Gregor Aisch produces a mix of work
• Chart Porn — Mix of charts and graphs
• Communicating with data — Jerome Cukier from the OECD

Maps

• Stamen — Map-focused design and technology studio, sometimes open source releases
• Cartastrophe — Daniel Huffman talks good maps
• Floatingsheep — Geography hodge podge
• indiemaps — Usually on the how of maps
• Kelso's Corner — Nathaniel Kelso, cartographer at Stamen
• tecznotes — Michal Migurski of Stamen gets into the nitty gritty of online map making
• The Marauding Carto-nerd — Kenneth Field, research cartographer

Data and Statistics

• Datablog — On The Guardian, poster of datasets and graphics
• Juice Analytics — Putting business data to action
• The Numbers Guy — Examines the way numbers are used
• Infochimps — Data supplier and hackers unite
• Civil Statistician — By Census Bureau statistician Jerzy Wieczorek
• Revolutions — Frequent statistics goodies
• Simply Statistics — The title says it all

Charles P. Pierce drops teh knowledge

This is Charles P. Pierce on Grantland, doing it right:

That Brown is speaking bigotry through the Scriptures seems undeniable. The laws he is opposing are purely secular ones, and if Brown thinks he can justify his stated beliefs through the Gospels, he hasn't read them closely enough. And it doesn't behoove any of us to take seriously a man who grounds that bigotry in the Old Testament if he doesn't also keep a kosher home, there being more dietary regulations therein than there are anything else. Since the issue exploded, Brown has gone to ground somewhat, declining to testify in opposition to the Lincoln anti-discrimination law at a hearing last night, and writing to a local newspaper that he would "tolerate" an openly gay player on the Nebraska roster. Say, fella, that's mighty straight of you.

MCA died last week

MCA, aka Adam Yauch, died of cancer last week.

When I was a young lad the Beastie Boys broke big around the time I reached middle-school age. They were the benchmark for cool then and they retained that cache for me pretty much ever since. Most recently I saw them interviewed on teevee several years ago and noticed that their hair had gone grey. My own hair had just begun doing the same so I figured that hey, if it was happening to Mike D, Ad Rock and MCA then it could happen to all of us and maybe I could wear it similarly well. (I don't, but it's not the hair, it's because I'm not an internationally famous musician and didn't create some of the greatest party rock anthems of all time. So.)

Adam Yauch was 47. When I first heard License to Ill that seemed old. Now it seems very, very young.

NAMASTE, BITCHES

Yoga is good for you.

On my super sporty 600RR supersport I have a small note to myself on the side of the bike, under the left clip-on.  I look at it every time I throw a leg over. Since that's almost always at the track it reminds me that I see the light in others, which is a good way to start a track session. It's easy to get carried away - we're not racing, after all. But it's good to go fast, too. A good track session is a combination of respect, smoothness and calm. But at high speed. So: NAMASTE, BITCHES.

In related news, this JPG that the girl sent me today made me laugh.

For real though, don't walk out during savasana. It's plain rude. Leave early if you must. 

See you out there.

Go Right

More video. This time from games.

Also this happened, which I liked: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bookshelf.png

Barak Obama slow jams the news

This is popping up all over the internet. Jimmy Fallon gets Barack Obama on to slow jam the news. I loved
it.

Is that a skimboard?

This from Big Cheese.
That's a skimboard and he's 'skurfing'. Whatever. It doesn't have a fin.

Of course he did.

Guess who scored the winner in the biggest game of the weekend? I like how he suggests that 105,000 screaming yahoos should calm down.
Get it while it's hot because it'll get taken down soon.

Moving: out, on, whatever

Why no updates for so long? Well it's been a very busy time over here. Not that you care. Hot on the heels of getting the girl moved I packed up my stuff and moved, too. Back to Costa Mesa, if you must know. My 2+ years of exile in San Clemente are over. I should have moved a while ago but it took me time to find a place and also I wanted to find a place for the girl first. One thing at a time. Anyway, I will send you my new address as soon as I fill out a change of address form. Should hit your inbox some time next week.

Epic sloth photobomb comes courtesy the internet. Sloths are awesome. It's a living bug carpet. Sometimes moss grows on them. Of course it looks like he's perpetually stoned smiling. You would too if all you did was eat and nap.They have fossils of sloths that are over 6 feet tall. (There's a particularly good one at the La Brea tar pits.) Never mind the dinosaurs, let's bring one of those things back to life. It would be like hanging out with a bear that just raided a honey-laden marijuana dispensary.

For the ladies: Ronaldo's sweet, sweet man-thigh

Not quite as entertaining as the last goal but he does make it look easy. Which it isn't.

I don't know either

As of this writing this song has ~11,300 views on the tube of yous. It's a G-damn travesty, if you'll pardon my French (and you likely will, or you wouldn't be here). It was released in 2006 but this version was uploaded in 2010.

Anyway, it's follows a musical strategy I find very effective, e.g.: find a good melody, wear it out. Works for me in dance music, works here just as well.

Now please go load test your speakers.





And Also: Welcome back Mrs. Green! We (note use of majestic plural there) were well pleased to see a comment from one of our long-absent readership. Probably she decided to take a break from making people depressed by crushing them mercilessly at Words With Friends and visit the blogspace. It's the little things.

Bring the noise

Big Cheese invited me to join spotify so he could crib some of my music recommendations. I reminded him that as a previous recipient of my entire vinyl collection (which I gave to him after I - regrettably - sold my turntables), he should know better.

My taste in jams stretches from 'weepy and sad' to 'pump up anthems' to 'T.I.' to 'white guy jams*'. Seriously. I'd call my musical taste unsophisticated but that would be giving it too much credit. Sure I have a strong catalog of pump-up jams but if you're not into that then I don't have much to offer you.

In pump-up anthems, check this out:




I know it's old but it's still a good pump-up jam. Bassnectar is the boss. 

*The thing about white guy jams is that the bands tend to fade out after a couple years, only to be replaced by new bands that sound exactly the same. Thus DMB begat OAR begat OneRepublic. Still, the derivative bands have some listenable tracks. Well, OneRepublic does if you don't overdo it. OAR is rubbish.

Sorry, fresh out

This from Ze Newbs, via email, with the following message:

also bc you are dork like that...

Moving update: I didn't move house

Been getting some emails, txt msgs, and calls in re: my previous post about moving house. To be clear: I didn't move house. My girlfriend moved house so I was acting in a supporting role. I didn't actually change addresses.

Apologies for the ambiguity; I'll do better next time.
Hope you had a good Easter / Passover / spring fertility festival.

Went to bread baking class this weekend at Le Pain Quotidien. It was cool. Made delicious breads. Learned new things. Ate delicious breads. Good times.

It's a fine line between stupid and awesome

Sometimes stupid shit is awesome, and sometimes awesome shit is stupid. Where you draw the line usually depends on how old you are, if you have kids or not, or whether or not you are risk-averse. Anyway, Colbert touches on that, and also motorcycle wheelies in the Lincoln Tunnel, in this video. This will likely show up on HFL before long but my friend Kimberly emailed it to me. You can find it on the Comedy Central website. Thanks Kimberly!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Golf: what people watch when drying paint is too exciting

Golf is boring. A lot of people play it because, let's be honest, pretty much any fat slob anybody can drive around and occasionally swing a stick. That's not to say it isn't very, very difficult to play at the highest level. And while it's not particularly physically demanding it behooves a player to be in peak physical condition. Tiger Woods in his prime was in phenomenal shape.* But: it's boring. The Masters is this week, presumably so that people all over the country can set aside some time to catch up on their naps this Saturday and Sunday. Or maybe they'll stay awake and watch while mega-rich members of an exclusive club (no jews, no blacks, no women) get their 'traditional' ball-gargling on national television.

On the other hand, the MotoGP season kicks off in Qatar. Motorcycle racing is not boring. Well, it can be boring at the front if someone stretches out a big lead but, in general, it tends to be quite exciting. Lots of passing. Intense action. It's not hugely popular in the states because, contrary to whatever Harley Davidson may try and sell you, pretty much any fat slob anybody cannot get on a motorcycle and ride it.

If you're curious, the MotoGP race will be on SpeedTV on Sunday at around noon. The coverage won't be all that great but I promise the race will be exciting. Check your local listings for channels and times.

* True story: Woods (pre-divorce) used to have a house in Corona del Mar and work out at the same gym as me once in a while. He could be found doing a variety of exercises, ripping through 405-lb bench presses, etc. Seriously. The guy is strong.

Giving 100%

Were you using this?

Moving is such a drag. So it's nice when you can get help from your best friend and companion. Even if they don't actually 'help' in the traditional sense of the word.

//
In response to the response from Sweet Katie about my post on Ronaldo (below):

"Yes, the goal was great. But can I just interject... the man is beautiful, as is his leg!"

He still does his hair at halftime.

//

Cristiano Ronaldo is a prancing ponce

I'm glad Leo Messi is around because that means we don't have to hear as much about Cristiano Ronaldo. Because he is really, really good at football. It says something about how good Messi is that his star eclipses one as bright as C. Ronaldo.

In related news, if I scored a goal like this then I would almost certainly celebrate in similar fashion. You know it's good when your own teammates are imitating it on the bench. Respect.

Come on, then

You can say what you want about the 80's. Much of it was bullshit, sure. But this song is awesome. Put it on my end-of-the-night bar closeout playlist with Journey and The Killers.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Late to this, but happy St. Patrick's Day anyhow.

Loved every second of this right here: http://youtu.be/kGIjetX6TBk

It's a motogp video of motorcycles doing motorcycle stuff. So if you're not into that don't bother clicking through. I would have embedded it but embedding is disabled. Lame.

@ 2:40 you will see Casey Stoner get pitched onto his front windscreen at 160 MPH. That was at the Sachsenring in Germany during a practice lap. The slow motion footage doesn't do it justice; you don't really get a feel for how fast he's going until you see the whole crash. That high side (and several others) encouraged Bridgestone to (finally) produce an asymmetrical front and rear tire. Sachsenring has something like 9 lefts and only 4 rights, and the first right-hander is the fastest. And it's downhill. 

Guilty pleasures

Made a list of watchable RomComs a while ago. The link below reminded me of another one I remember with great fondness: Can't Buy Me Love (1987). The summary from Deadspin covers all the important details:

 http://deadspin.com/5893117/the-shocking-proof-that-tim-tebow-and-tebowing-are-cosmically-linked

Ah, that's a great flick. For the uninitiated, CBML is a classic '80s-style comedy where a high school nerd (Patrick Dempsey) pays the popular girl (Amanda Peterson) $1,000 to be his "girlfriend" for a month. Seth Green, in his first big movie role, plays Dempsey's precocious, wise-cracking younger brother. (If you need me to tell you how it ends, you haven't seen nearly enough '80s movies.)

I haven't seen the movie in many years but it was charming and cute when I last caught up with it. I was (am) a nerd and could identify with feeling excluded and wanting to date/know the popular people. Adolescence is like that. Dempsey became Dr. McDreamy and he races cars in his free time. Lame. We all know that 2 > 4. AmIright?

Incidentally, McDreamy also appears in one of the other movies on the 'watchable RomCom' list (Enchanted), 20 years later! Well played, sir. Well played. 

Sweet ride

Since we (re)joined soul-crushingly miserable corporate America this week I haven't had as much energy to devote to the blogspace. Mostly because sitting in a 6' x 8' beige cube is depressing and once I get done with the gym I can't even imagine looking at a computer screen. The upside is I have a job. And I can go to the gym. It's the little things.

My friend Lindsay has a job and she is training for an Ironman-distance triathlon. She had been looking all over for some sweet wheels and she sent me a picture of this bike a couple months ago when she bought it. I've been wanting to post it ever since. She's short so it was hard for her to find a frame that fit. This one does. The only drawback (if it's a drawback) is that it's insanely expensive and fancy pro-level shit. It's a Felt SRAM something or other with SRAM Red Action lever jobbies and some wheels and blah blah blah. It says FELT on the side. Whatever that means. She did tell me what it all meant but like I said, it was a while ago. 

Back in the day I used to stay at Lindsay and her husband's house and she would get up at 5 AM to run miles and miles before work. Sometimes she would talk me into going. I usually slept on the guest mattress on the floor so her strategy for waking me up was to run around and kick the mattress saying, "Come on Houston! We got a war to fight! Get up! Are you going to sleep in? [Ed: it's 5 AM, mind you] COME ON!!" Over and over again. She's not very tall but she is mean. It was annoying and irritating then but it's annoying, irritating and funny now.

Anyway, word is that the new bike is beyond awesome now that it's been properly fitted and set up for her. She's already doing faster splits and feeling very comfortable. Look out, lake placid triathlon. She's on a mission.

Muppets + LCD Soundsystem = Sweet

This from Ze Newbs.
Anything Muppets is going to get a thumbs up around here.

I wouldn't put it past you

This image comes from the tumblr site Alligator Sunglasses, who got it from regions unknown (but definitely English speaking). The title was 'Graham is Awesome', and you'll no argument from me on that assessment.

I laughed.

Unrelated:
Barring a change of heart over the weekend, I am going to put the Repsol up for sale. Planning to give that some serious thought over the next several days. I've committed to either riding it or selling it and the cost/benefit of street riding on the Repsol isn't adding up for me. Could run it at the track but I already have a perfectly good track bike. And it's a good time of year to sell. So we'll see.

The tricky part is that I am very invested in motorcycle riding, and also in the bike. It was my dream bike and it's still just as gorgeous as the day I bought it. Probably moreso, since I got rid of the rubbish bits and put on fancy (expensive) custom parts.

If I'm being pragmatic I'd say it's time to sell. But if I were being pragmatic I never would have bought it in the first place, and fuck that.

Count me in: AC III

I haven't even peeled the wrapping off the most recent AC game (Revelations) - too busy with Skyrim and shooting dudes on the internet in Battlefield 3 -  but I need to finish it before 30 Oct 2012 because the next one is coming.
Pumped.

Fans of The Last of the Mohicans movie (and I think there are a few of you in the readership that fit that description) will notice a similarity between an action sequence in the movie and the trailer embedded below.  Works for me - I thought that movie was great and the particular sequence they cribbed is one of my all-time favorites. So far, so good.

 

This and that

Had this photo in the pile for ages. Cribbed it from the New York Times because I love the muppets. Was saving it to use the individual frames and re-caption them but since it hasn't happened yet I don't know that it ever will. Busy working on that other thing. Anyway, the text is meh but I love the pictures of the muppets so I'm posting it now.

The big news around here is that after over a decade of working from a remote office I have to move to the corporate office. With a dress code. No jeans. I own exactly one pair of khakis and two pairs of dress shoes and I'm not going to wear a suit or slacks to sit in a box all day.  The dress shoes are too nice to wear to the office so it'll be some combination of loafers and, umm, something else until I get another pair of casual shoes. I don't even know. There wasn't a dress code at any point of my job until now, and that was one of the reasons I took the job in the first place. Times change so it looks like I'll be trading in my cushy office with shorts for a 7' x 7' box and uncomfortable shoes. Because we need to look 'professional'. My exemplary work performance over the past many years hasn't been impacted by my dress, but that's not the point. It's all about appearances. It's one of those things that's so bullshit you can't really get bothered by it. Work is like that sometimes. Whatever. I still have a job and I enjoyed my shorts-wearing days while they lasted.

See you out there. 

Challenge Accepted

It does what it says on the tin.
More later. Busy working on that other thing right now.

REO Speedwagon = rad2themax

One good thing about the 80s being well behind us is that we can review them in the knowledge that some of it was complete bullshit (pegged pants, neon, Ronald Reagan, any of my haircuts) but keep the awesome parts. Like REO Speedwagon.

This song came on the radio this morning (I hate the radio but I'm traveling and it was a short drive from the hotel) and I stayed in the car to rock it all the way through. You know you would too.

I can't decide if this cheesedick 80s video makes the song better or worse. Probably worse. Who cares? If I were you I'd just shrink the page and continue browsing, maybe turn it up a little.

I DON'T WANNA SLEEP, I JUST WANNA KEEP ON LOVING YOUUUUuuuuuuUUUU
//GUITAR!!!!11!ONE!!11!!//




Ps. As of this writing the most thumbed up comment on the youtube embedded above is either three wolf moon satire or heartbreakingly genuine and sad. Both? I can't tell. It's awesome though. Check it:

For Brenda Rasnake- Lebanon Virginia, I still remember the summer of 1981 and you sitting right by my side in my old 68 Plymouth and you singing this song when it came on the radio. That was the summer of our senior year in high school and the best of my life. I do miss and love you so very much. What a beautiful voice you had. Jerry 

Clearing up the backlog (by not letting it get so logged back)

Cool story bro

I need to get this off my desk and it comes to me ready made so here you go. Copy and paste is your my friend. I can't always be the guy that writes all the good words. Who has time? I don't, at least lately. Battlefield 3 isn't going to play itself, plus dogs to walk, books to read, etc.

Unrelated: The 20th is my birthday. I may be 'celebrating' by traveling on business. If so there's a slim chance that I will have time to stop by and see some of my peeps in my area of business (you know who you are) but right now I don't know. If I go I will have work events in the evening, and my peeps know how much I love going to work events and traveling on my birthday so the less said about all that, the better. If I can see you I will let you know early next week. If you're busy, no bigs. I still love you. Anyway, on to the topic at hand:

This comes nearly unedited from Ze Newbs. Like my friend Big Cheese he has is working on a 'quiver'* of surfboards, even though it's still a fairly new thing and he sucks is not totally rad2themax (at surfing, not at life). I don't know what it is about this thing that gets you guys to buy stuff like this. I would never do something like that. And I certainly wouldn't do it a second time. Er, whatever.

* Lame surf speak. So, so lame.Surf-speak in general is so stupid that it probably deserves another post altogether. No waaaayyyy brah! Siiiiick!! Ugh.

So, the correspondence:
----------------
Subject: Happy V-day to me

Why not? I like me and today is the day to do something nice for the person you like, so... So I bought a surfboard. Sure, I said I was done buying surfboards for a while (full disclosure: I bought my second used one less than a month ago). Sure, it is beyond my ability level to ride it right now. But so what? Counterpoints: it is a brand new board on CL for a used price; it is in perfect condition; it is hand shaped in an old school (or skool if you prefer) style by an old school shaper from SC [ed: Santa Cruz, not San Clemente] who probably isn't going to be making boards that much longer; I have a freaking job; and I wanted it. So suck on that other half of my brain that told me it was a stupid idea.

me: Does the string say "Hand shaped for my friend Jen"? Please say yes. I hope Jen got a deal on it, and that you bought it from her.

ze newbs: 
Believe it. Jen did some artwork for him (Johnny Rice) and he payed in trade with the board that she wanted custom made it a retro fish style. She says she offset with cash too but I doubt that. She never even waxed it, stored it in her sister's garage and either needed the money or needed her sister to stop telling her to get her shit out of her garage. Or both. I had to get the story out of her because it seemed sketchy to have a brand new Johnny Rice fish up on CL for a (relatively) cheap price. We exchanged emails and it didn't smell right initially so I didn't get back to her. When I didn't respond back quickly she emailed me again and told me she was knocking off $100 bucks, that she didn't know the exact dimensions of the board blah blah blah. At that point I thought it was stolen for sure so I didn't want to touch it. Still, I asked her what the story was with the board because, as far as I knew, Johnny Rice had never shaped a board in this style. That is when I got all the back story. I google fact checked some of it and it all came back legit. Then when she offered to drive it to my work I said, fuck it. Why not? After I read the string when she got here I thought, well, it is definitely a legit story. Funny shit. I can't wait to be good enough to ride it.

me: could be a long wait!  HONK!! ahaaaa i kid. My actual response was a query about when he was going to start buying something cool, like motorcycles. What? It's a fair question.

Much love to Ze Newbs and Big Cheese for making themselves available for the space.
Thanks for reading. Happy President's Day. 

Not bad I guess. I mean if you're into that sort of thing.

When my friend Slobscot is jamming around on his keyboard (and he does have a fancy keyboard and guitar recording setup at home) I imagine that this is pretty much how it goes down. But with more guitar pedals.

That's Ronald Jenkees making his magic. Respect.
This vid has 5.5 million views. I think Lady Gaga has 100 million for some of hers, and total views of over a billion. Make of that what you will.

I've been there

Loved every part of this:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/in-which-i-fix-my-girlfriends-grandparents-wifi-and-am-hailed-as-a-conquering-hero

Pretty girls

Baby Girl on the left, Her Majesty on the right

Spent a week looking after The Girls' dog, aka (and The Girl hates this nickname) The Queen of Austro-Hungarian Inland Empire.*

Toughest part of the job is the weight of the responsibility. As my friend pointed out, "man it's a dealbreaker if you fuck that up". Yeah no kidding. So me and Her Majesty spent a lot of quality time together. We went for walks, I fed her on time, let her sleep in the bed, gave her regular baths (she's allergic to everything, baths help with that), picked up a lot of poop. Whatever it takes. Truth is she's a super sweet, well-behaved dog so it's about as easy as it can be.

She and Baby Girl get along really well. Got a photo of them enjoying a quiet moment of reflection on the sun deck. That's how the girls do it.


* Reese is a vizsla, a breed originally kept by Hungarian warlords and barons. This particular dog is Hungarian via Temecula, hence her nickname: Queen of the A.H. Inland Empire. I think it's hilarious.

Whitney > Britney, Taylor, Kelly and every other pop tartlet you can think of

Yeah I said it.

I can't pretend that someone who gave themselves over to booze and drugs died an untimely death. Life is choices and she made hers.

Still, Whitney Houston was a huge talent.
I Wanna Dance with Somebody is just as danceable now as it was in the Big 80's. Although I'm not a fan of her work in general I cannot resist it. Too good. The video is 80's magic: big hair, weird suits, lip syncing, pegged pants, etc. Enjoy.

It was only one, but it was the one I wanted to eat

This graphic courtesy Sonz, who is great.
Cookie Monster is rad2themax.

Also great: cookies. Seriously I love stuffing cookies in my face like it's my job. Actually more, because I don't love my job. Don't get me wrong, it's great and all, but it's not cookies.

True story: When I told my girlfriend I loved her more than anything she said, "More than cookies?"
Ahh she's got jokes. At least, I think she was joking.

Mind = blown

The internet delivers (again).
Site displays the scale of the universe.

http://htwins.net/scale2/

Takes a couple minutes to load but it is worth it.

Click the objects for a description.

Congratulations, Republicans!

So far the three leading Republican candidates for president:

• Got scolded and subsequently kicked out of congress for lying about fundraising. Hi Newt! Did you morons forget what an awful hatemonger Gingrich is? Were the mid-90's all that long ago? Did you watch any of his 'history' videos? Probably my right-wing 85 year old aunt did. She thinks every email she gets is true.
• Think it's perfectly fine to pay 15% in taxes on $20 million in earnings. Yes it's legal, but is it right? Well, since I make less than $100,000 a year and I pay 35%, I think it's fucking bullshit. But I guess it depends on your bank balance. You might argue that 15% of $20 million is a lot more than 35% of $100,000. Which is correct, but who do you think needs that money more?
• Equate homosexuality with bestiality, and think that gay people are a sin in violation of God's will. You have to go a pretty long way to be the biggest idiot in a group that includes Romney and Gingrich, but Santorum is the runaway favorite in that regard. So that's something. I guess.

I learned never to underestimate the stupidity of a voting public that elected George W. Bush twice, but this is a new low, America.

American Exceptionalism FTMFW!!!!!!

Coming soon: Where and how Obama has let you down. (Caving on the Bush tax cuts, for starters.) Don't have time for all that right now. But I will.

Damn a week already?

Leashes, like shirts, are always optional

The blog posts are piling up. And they do pile up. I will get to them eventually but only after I take care of other important stuff (read: Battlefield 3 and conquering Skyrim - the xbox isn't going to play itself). Also I'm taking care of The GF's dog this week (pictured), so you know that's taking a lot of my time. Scooping poop, providing lots of love and affection, that sort of thing.

// Side note: The GF tends to be much more accommodating towards Her Majesty than I do. My position tends to be, Oh the dog doesn't want to move? Too bad. Beat it, dog. But now that I am watching Her Majesty and it's just me I find myself also being accommodating. I don't spoil the dog, but I don't worry overmuch when she makes herself at home in my bed without offiicial permission. A dog's gonna be a dog whether you like it or not, so you might as well learn to like it. Or don't hang out with dogs. KnowwhatImean? //

Unrelated - Wrote some short commentary on why I ride motorcycles. So:

In some Eastern philosophies there is an emphasis on being in the moment.

What I love about riding a motorcycle is that it encourages (forces?) you to be fully present in the moment. You can't f around on your phone or the radio (though some do). You must be focused. With some practice that focus comes naturally and you can be fully present on the bike with very little mental effort: braking, shifting, acceleration all happen without thought. If you find a good rhythm you can stretch out that moment for an extended period. It is an amazing thing.

Many people go their whole lives without knowing what it's like to ride a motorcycle fast. But anyone that has ridden a motorcycle fast never, ever forgets it. Because motorcycles are awesome.

Quick Anecdote:
Was riding home on the freeway a couple months ago, just derping along, not really hurrying. Passed a guy in a small pickup. On my way by he elbows his son, maybe 5 years old, and points at my bike, and the kid is pumped. I slow down, I wave, I slow way down, do a fly by. Slow down again. Downshift so I can wind it up a little. Give the kid the thumbs up. I would have done a wheelie if I knew how.

The kid was stoked on motorcycles. He didn't care if they were 'unsafe' or 'impractical' or 'dangerous' or that insurance is expensive or that track days are expensive or tires are expensive or it's too hot or it's too cold or other drivers might kill you or that your mom doesn't approve or that you can't ride in the winter or you're too young to ride or you're too old to ride or whatever the f*ck. He just knows two wheels = awesome. And isn't that why we all learned to ride in the first place? I know it is for me.

See you out there.