Agonotheta

« March 2004 | Main | May 2004 »

April 30, 2004

The Best Records of 1994

Pretty interesting and well put-together round-up of the best albums of 1994.

April 30, 2004

Mr. Manly

These were radio spots when I was younger, and I just found them online. Hilarious!

April 30, 2004

Mismatched and Alone

Couple of work notes for a Friday:

• » I was late for work today. "Why?" you ask. Because I couldn't find my shoes, underwear, socks, or toothbrush. God, I hate moving! At least I'll be done by tomorrow.
• » I now have my own office. My former "officemate" changed physical locations. I now feel special.

April 29, 2004

Poor Zach

Yesterday I judged a 4th Grade Science Fair. For some, this would not be a fun task. But for me, it was a blast!

The best one to me was Leslie's. She wanted to test the effect of music on the memory. So she had volunteers read lyrics to a song and after, write down as many lyrics as they could remember. Then she had another group of test subjects read the same lyrics while listening to the song and then write down as many as they could. One of the funniest things about her project was the two songs she used to test her subjects. The first was "Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin, the other was "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver. I asked her why she chose those two songs and she said they were old enough that her subjects wouldn't already know the lyrics.

My favorite, though, was Gardner's project. He had noticed sometime in the ten years he's been alive that water balloon's seem to "explode" better on it's target when they have a small hole puncturing the balloon. So, he took ten water balloon's with holes in them and ten water balloon's without holes in them and threw them to find the percentage of properly exploding balloons. It seems about 50% of the balloons exploded without a hole, whereas 90% exploded with the hole. The best part of his experiment was that he chose his brother Zach, who apparently "volunteered", to be the target.

Who says our students are getting dumber? I don't get to interact with students too often, but I was very impressed with all of the students and their projects.

April 28, 2004

I am the King of Moving

I am 25. Since turning 18, I have moved no less than 10 times.

I am the King of Moving.

I'm moving again this week. It will be my 11th time.

I've lived in my apartment for 12 months, which is the longest I've lived in any place since I moved out of my mothers' house when I was 18.

There are several pros and several cons to my new place.

Pros

• » Cheaper; I'll save over $200/month.
• » Nicer.
• » Newer; In fact, brand new.
• » I'll live next to and below friends.

Cons

• » I'll Live next to and below friends.
• » Slightly smaller.
• » It's a basement apartment.

I'm moving the rest of this week and this weekend. It sucks . . . even though I should be used to it by now.

April 26, 2004

Kill Bill Reference Guide

There were a lot of references in the movie and I didn't know most of them, until now.

April 26, 2004

My First Race

On Saturday, April 24, I ran my first running race. It's not really a huge deal, because after all, I am not trying to win anything for my endeavors. However, every book and magazine on running says that racing at least once a month is a major aspect of every runners' training. I think this is so for at least a couple of reasons.

First, pulse. At the starting line, I took my pulse and it was about 105 beats/minute. Being my first race and I was nervous and excited, this was up about 40-45 from my resting pulse. So, the more I race, the more comfortable and less nervous I will become.

Second, pace. I had a bit of a hard time finding it. My first mile I ran in about 7:30; the second mile about 9:40; the third a 8:10 mile, for a 25:20 total race time. I knew going into the race that I wanted to run faster than I do in my training. But these three miles do not represent the goals I stated before the race. My goal miles were 8:30, 8:00, and 7:30 respectively. Posting negative splits for all three miles. I am not too happy that my fastest mile was the first one. Obviously a beginners mistake. I got easily carried away by the clip-clop echos of the runners' feet on the downtown city asphalt; all of their heads bobbing up and down to the same, yet different rhythm; and the sea of 2,600 runners being funneled though the city like a giant human river.

Third, the dynamics of a race. The first mile was a blur. From your "fun-runners" to your "slower" runners, the serious runner needs to dodge and dart to get ahead of the traffic . . . or so I thought. By the time I started the second mile, I was through all of the slower traffic, but now in a higher strain of runners, who although faster than the others, still were not running the pace I wanted. In fact, I would guess it was the 10 minute mile group I was in the midst of. After the first mile, even though I wasn't running at the speed I wanted, I ran at a pace which was more comfortable because it was more consistent and steady. By the time I "got out" of that group, it was the end of the 2nd mile.

"One mile left to get back on goal pace," I thought.

I knew I had about 8 minutes to finish, so I did my best to increase speed to what I thought I should be running to do it, which was almost a full sprint.

I finished strong and I felt great. So overall, it was a positive experience. Not exactly the goal time I wanted, sure. But nevertheless, fun, inspiring and addictive. One thing I would have changed is my amount of exertion. I really pushed myself the first and third miles, but the second, although I could blame it on the pack I was in, was not run with as much gusto as I would have liked. By the end of a race, I think I should be thoroughly exhausted because I used everything I had to do the best I could.

One of the best things about the race was that it was the inaugural event. There was a lot of hype involved and a lot of excited spectators eager to see what a marathon entails. What a great time!

April 23, 2004

Jeremy is Popular

Pretty cheesy! But I think its cute.

April 23, 2004

Does Your Spirit Need A Root Canal?

'Nuff said.

April 23, 2004

Blogs Shape Elections

Whoa! A document sent to every home in Oregon encouraging blogging!

April 22, 2004

Sendo X

Check this phone out!

When this comes out, I think I'm going to have to get one. It looks awesome! Here's the rundown on the features:

• » Camera-phone with flash, "red-eye" reduction, 4x digital zoom, self-timer and photo editor.
• » 30-Minute Integrated Camcorder
• » MP3 Player
• » PC Synchronization - Email, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, etc.
• » POP3 email compatible
• » Multi-mode web browsing - HTML 4.01, WAP 2.0, XHTML MP, SSL, etc.
• » Document viewers - Word, Excel, PDF, Powerpoint, Zip, etc.
• » Built-in Bluetooth, Infrared, & USB.
• » Built-in modem and fax.
• » 64MB of flash memory with a memory expansion slot.
• » Voice Recognition by Voice Signal Technologies, the developers of the best voice recog software on the planet.
• » This is where it gets cool. The Now! Screen - customizable user desktop and themes. With no other phone I've seen can you customize your icons and interface.

I may even have to switch providers if my current one doesn't offer this phone.

April 22, 2004

23rd Post

Wow! Another one. But for some reason, I can't say no. This one courtesy Keith at Asterisk*.

1. Go into your blog’s archives.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

Posted on November 10th, 2003:

"Number SIX!"

Not too much fun, but oh well!

April 21, 2004

Wednesday Night Basketball

On Wednesday nights, I play basketball with some friends. I have one friend who organizes the whole thing and he only invites people that will be cool and sportsmanlike. The reason is, there are a lot of guys who have bad attitudes and get all pissy when they get fouled or aren't playing well. Whereas my friends and I just want to have fun and get some excercise.

It's sort of funny participating in some other athletic activity since running has taken such a hold on me. The reason is because when one runs for long periods of time, your body gets in a pattern of movement. In fact, one reason, at least for me, that I have to jog in place at a red light is because starting is extremely harder than continuing to jog in place. But because my body is so atuned to this constant, steady, calculated movement, when I play basketball, my body feels very "out of sync." In fact, I try to constantly monitor my body to ensure I'm not going to injure myself. That's all I need to do is injure myself after three months of training.

The good thing is that it's a sort of cross-training for me. Instead of the constant running, I have several sprints and of course all of the jumping and twisting is good for my back, leg, and stomache muscles.

April 20, 2004

Apple iPhone

I wish this was real.

April 20, 2004

Not A Band-Aid®

Well, I've spent several hours over the last day and a half getting my Archives working properly and updating all of the individual entries to reflect some of the new things on my stylesheet.

Now all I have left is to get my comment page styled as well as get my Photos page up and running.

I need to get these things done as soon as possible, because I know if I don't it is bound to either A) not happen for months or B) never happen (which is the more likely of the two). Because I've spent a lot of time thinking about this site, I've added a lot of features and styles that I have wanted for awhile, but never got around to. Actually, now that I think about it, every design I've had up 'til now has been a Band-Aid® to hold me over 'til I get time to work on a design.

But no more.

This is a design that I like, using sufficient styles to keep me happy for awhile. In fact, this will be the default style and when I finish some of the other styles I've been working on or have in mind, I'll add a "style-switcher," which will be cool.

Anyway, "look ma, no Band-Aids®! I'm healed!"

April 19, 2004

Paisley

Well, as you can tell, I've got a new design. I'm calling it "Paisley." To pull off this design, I've used the "Faux Columns" ALA article from Dan Cederholm, the Exclude Category Plug-In from Scott Andrew, Keith Robinson's Quicklinks Advice, and the ALA article "CSS Drop Shadows" on the images (although, I haven't gone back through my archives to add them to every image yet).

As you can tell, I'm still figuring things out with my Archives page. Being new to Movable Type I wasn't able to test what I built until I uploaded it. Anyway, I'll get it working ASAP.

If you like it, don't like it, found an error or anything else, please leave a comment or use my new Contact Form.

April 18, 2004

Jerry & Superman Hang Out

This is sweet, I can't wait 'til the other webisodes come out.

April 18, 2004

A Motorcycle Ride Through Chernobyl

Interesting. This chick is crazy!

April 18, 2004

Squirrels Pleasuring Each Other

Not really, but it is funny. Shows how human and animal alike do things in their sleep they aren't exactly proud of.

April 16, 2004

College Buffoonery

One drunk and mischievous night . . .

April 15, 2004

Pg. 23 Sentence 5

This one is going around.

Instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence on your blog along with these instructions.

From: The Action Hero's Handbook by David Borgenicht and Joe Borgenicht.

"The bad guy will use a soft cloth to eliminate or make unreadable fingerprints from the entry door and doorknobs, drawers, windows and latches, telephones, glasses, and so forth."

On my desk at work, I also have The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, and The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Work.

All of them were gifts. Now that I think of it, my friends must think I'm very adventurous and that books like this will come in handy for somebody like Indiana Jones and I. Or, then again, they could think I'm tremendously unlucky.

April 14, 2004

I'm Not Dead

Whew! . . . I'm back. You're never going to believe this, but the reason for my lack of updates is because I was kidnapped by a band of land pirates. And, you see, they enslaved me. Yeah. In fact, they'd often call me a "land-lubbin' scallywag." It was horrible. But luckily I was saved . . . ok . . . alright . . . I can't lie to you. I wasn't really kidnapped!

Actually, the real reason I wasn't posting was because I had a very busy week at work last week. Then I took a sick day on Thursday because I was in bed all day with allergies. Then, I had Friday and Monday off because it's Spring Break in the public schools. And of course my final excuse is that yesterday I had a very interesting day at work and didn't have time. By "interesting" I mean, different. Not interesting in that you'd like to hear about it. Trust me.

Stay tuned. Regular posting should resume.

April 05, 2004

I'm A N*E*R*D

Saturday night I went to see the Black Eyed Peas and N*E*R*D in concert. I've been a fan of BEP for awhile, and was extremely excited to see them live. With the addition of Fergie, the group has been energized and is as good as ever.

Although I'm a big fan of N*E*R*D, I was a little skeptical about the performance they would give. Lets just say my fears were quelled pretty quickly as this was an awesome show. They seemed to be very appreciative of their fans and welcomed "audience participation." In fact, for the last song they invited all of the fans up who they saw singing every word to every song. This is awesome to me, because it shows that they want to give something back to their fans.

Another great thing about both groups was the bands. Although being hip hop, neither groups used a DJ. It was awesome to hear the sampled music being played live on real instruments.

If this tour comes to your city and you like hip hop, go see them. You won't regret it.

On a sidenote, I love this time of year. Besides the obvious reasons of great weather, BBQ's, and vacations, I love it because it's concert season. Right about this time every year, musicians begin releasing their tour schedules. My schedule is filling up quickly.

April 02, 2004

Time To March

I love it! Down with The Man!

April 02, 2004

Nellie McKay

I picked up a music tip from Matt on Ten Years Of My Life. So, I'm passing it on to you. Its Nellie McKay (pronounced "Mc-Kuy" like "guy") and its very different, but very good.

Go over to NPR and check out some of her live stuff in their studio. Its pretty awesome. Her debut CD, Get Away From Me (which is a play on Norah Jones' album Come Away With Me), includes jazz, rap, blues, Latin, rock and more, reflecting her eclectic life -- she was born in London and grew up in Harlem.

Her CD is on iTunes too, so I think I'll be picking it up.

April 01, 2004

It's My Pleasure

A little while back, I was at a Interpol concert in a small venue. Like most shows, the crowd was pretty mellow for the opening bands, but became more raucous as the show developed. It seemed to my friends and I to be at about only half capacity for most of the evening. However, when Interpol took the stage, people came "out of the woodworks" as they say. It was like in that movie, "Gremlins" where you could drop water on one of them and instantly another would sprout out of it.

My friends and I had prime seats on the balcony overlooking the stage, which for most of the show was exceptionally perfect and devoid of too much physical contact with any of the pleasure seekers behind us. But about halfway through the show, I felt a couple of people leaning on my back trying to get a better view. After only a couple of moments of this, I turned around to tell the fellows to step off, but instead of two overly-excited college kids or two rather large punk rockers, I was greeted by two rather large, overly-excited breasts in a halter top. Now, I promise this isn't going to turn into some erotica blog, but . . . wow. I was in awe. After picking my jaw up off of the floor and completely forgetting why I had turned around in the first place, she said, "Sorry for rubbing against you. I just love these guys."

"It's my pleasure," I said, as for the first time I realized she exists above the neckline. "It's my pleasure?" I repeat to myself.

"What the hell. Nice line, Neil. Jackass," admitting defeat to a beautiful woman who took all rational thought away from me. "She's definitely not going to have your firstborn now."

But that self-defeating attitude didn't last too much longer as she offered to buy me and my friends a pitcher of beer for my "inconvenience." At first I said no thanks, but my buddies wouldn't allow me to be the nice guy.

She disappeared and a couple of minutes later returned with a pitcher of Blue Moon for me and my crew. After doing a little obligatory chit-chat, she says she needs to use the restroom, but will return, and then scurries off.

A couple of songs and an empty pitcher later, the band was done and apparently so was she. I saw her friends helping her out the restroom and although I was tempted to go see if she was alright, I refrained.

"Oh well," I thought. "At least you got a pitcher out of it."

But still, that was easily the most bonehead comment I've ever made to a woman before.

"It's my pleasure." What the hell?