Bike odometer: 297 miles
Average speed: 11.1 mph
Weight lost: 40 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed this week: 32:30 (three days)
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: The Rock Report: Decemberists Interview, Box Set by Buffalo Springfield, Back To Mine by Morecheeba, Digital Ash In A Digital Urn by Bright Eyes, Necktie Second by Pete Droge, Half Nelson by Willie Nelson
Recent viewing: Cold Case, World Series, Countdown, Larry King Live, Martha Stewart (Amy Sedaris was on)
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo, Klax
Recently accomplished: Paid bills, returned stuff to hardware store
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, clean gutters and downspouts
Cool Link: Crazy Biker Chick—An open letter to motorists who dislike cyclists.
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 282 miles
Average speed: 10.6 mph
Weight lost: 39 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: De-Loused In The Comatorium by The Mars Volta, Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, Rid Of Me by PJ Harvey, Coverville, Fight Songs by Old 97s
Recent viewing: NLCS Game 7, 24, Countdown, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, My Name Is Earl, The Office, South Park, Without A Trace, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, World Series Games 1 & 2
Recent playing: Zuma, Mr. Driller, Klax
Recently accomplished: Restored old hard drive backup to new hard drive, cleaned roof, winterized back yard, turned compost
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store, clean gutters and downspouts
Cool Link: Battle of the Bands
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 279 miles
Average speed: 10.5 mph
Weight lost: 39 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8.5
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: The Ramones, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coverville, DrugMusic, Science Friday, Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, 24, Countdown, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma, Mr. Driller
Recently accomplished: Recited various incantations to revive a failed hard drive
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, get my computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Camera Obscura: Ken Jennings constructs a mini-album cover recognition quiz. I only got half of them.
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 255 miles
Weight lost: 35 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 10
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Arkansas Traveler (remaster) by Michelle Shocked,
Recent viewing: Mets at Cardinals, Austin City Limits (Ray Davies), High Stakes Poker
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Helped Buddy move, more work on Thomas’ computer, grocery shopping
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, get my computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: White & Nerdy: Weird Al tries his hand at Nerdcore.
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 257 miles
Weight lost: 35 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9.2
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Pronounced Leh’-nerd Skin’-nerd by Lynryd Skynyrd, DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Planet Waves by Bob Dylan, Lost Dogs by Pearl Jam, Second Helping by Lynryd Skynyrd
Recent viewing: Countdown, Sportscenter, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Drawn Together, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, My Name Is Earl, The Office
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Paid bills, trying to figure out Thomas’ hard drive
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Nintendo DS and other folding things: Thomas releases his first animated short to the world.
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 243 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8.5
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Glimmer by Kim Richey, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses by Slipnot, KBOO Bike Show, John Prine
Recent viewing: Crash, Steelers at Chargers, Cowboys at Eagles, Charlie Rose (Bob Woodward), Meet the Press (Bob Woodward), Drawn Together (season premiere!), Without A Trace
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Fixed Thomas’ hard drive, installed new OS for Thomas, lubed and cleaned bike
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store, pay bills
Cool Link: Blogs – and God’s Youth: Does God want you blogging?
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 233 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9.5 (slept in)
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Portrait: The Music of Dan Fogelberg by Dan Fogelberg, The Ramones, Eating’s Not Cheating by mc chris, Glimmer by Kim Richey
Recent viewing: Battlestar Galactica, South Park, Nova, Discoveries This Week, Rock Show, Charlie Rose, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Installed new bike computer, pulled Thomas’ hard drives for analysis and repair
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, rake, finish fixing Thomas’ hard drive, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Video: Darkness.Light.Darkness. (Warning: contains clay nudity)
Vital Statistics
Two more Half.com gift certificates arrived after my birthday. Here’s the rest of the stuff I bought:
- The Buffalo Springfield Box Set
- Peninsula of Lies by Edward Ball
- How To Be Good by Nick Hornby
- Digital Ash in a Digital Urn by Bright Eyes
- Everything! by Tones on Tail
- The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin
- Rust Never Sleeps (DVD) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
- Lost Dogs by Pearl Jam
Thanks a bunch to Tom & Jan and Tina, Graham & Thomas. As I mentioned earlier Half.com has become my favorite semi-annual ritual.
Bike odometer: 220 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 7.2
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Portrait: The Music of Dan Fogelberg by Dan Fogelberg, DrugMusic, Humpy’s Soul Show, It’s The Jump Off
Recent viewing: Without A Trace, Mystery of the Megavolcano, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Installed memory in Graham’s computer
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, rake, install new hard drive for Thomas, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Kittens: Pictures taken by a man in Taiwan who rescues street cats before the government collects and “disposes” of them.
Vital Statistics
It had been at least five years since I last cleaned and refinished our deck so it was far overdue for some care. The weekend before my birthday, I rented a pressure washer and cleaned the deck very thoroughly. After my mother offered to help me finish the job while she was here, I took Wednesday and Thursday off last week and we did just that.
On Wednesday we cleaned the entire deck including the railings with deck detergent. I mixed the detergent into a high concentrate so I could use my Ortho Dial ‘N’ Spray to spread it on the deck. Pretty clever, eh? What was not clever was sticking my hand into the liquid with the brush when we were scrubbing it onto the wood. At that concentration, the detergent is evidently highly corrosive and I ended up with about six small but deep holes in the tips of my fingers. Ouch!
Thursday was refinishing day. I decided on the $40/gallon Brazilian rosewood oil (BRO) which blocks 99% of ultraviolet light. Presumably this means I won’t have to do this job as often so the extra cost was not really a factor. Of course, as I bought my sixth gallon Thursday afternoon, I was definitely questioning the sanity of my decision. We spent most of the morning applying the BRO to the railings with paint brushes and then I did the same to the floorboards of the deck using a nifty sponge-on-a-stick contraption. The instructions recommended two coats, but we decided the railings would only need one. I finished the last coat to the deck boards just as it was getting dark on Thursday.
Bike odometer: 209 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Coverville, DrugMusic
Recent viewing: World Series of Poker, Sportscenter, My Name Is Earl, The Office, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Cleaned deck with finger-eating detergent, filled in cracks in sidewalk and driveway, refinished deck with rosewood oil, hammered in nails that were sticking out on the deck (most of them), treated blister on thumb from hammering, hair cut, paid bills, made new fender for bike, bought a gift of appreciation
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, rake, install new hard drive for Thomas, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Jimmy Dean Chocolate Chip Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick: The ultimate breakfast on a stick
Vital Statistics
This is a screenshot from Thomas’ computer last week. It shows the “History” menu in his web browser. Behind the the menu, you can see parts of the article he was reading on Wikipedia: Eroticism. Click the image to open a window with a larger version.
I stumbled upon this information one night because he kept using his computer when he was supposed to be in bed. Tina busted him several times and so I checked on him remotely from my office (all of the computers in our house are remotely viewable/controllable from my office computer). He was no longer using his computer, but I was surprised to find that he was reading an article on eroticism. I told Tina the next day and we agree to talk to him about it.
In the meantime, I pondered how he had even thought to look up “eroticism” on Wikipedia. We considered that he might have gotten some inappropriate spam, but I checked his email and didn’t see anything like that. Then I thought to check his browsing history and obtained this screenshot. The “History” menu shows all of the pages that you have accessed in the order that you accessed them. More recent pages are at the top and go down in reverse chronological order. So you can see that he started at Wikipedia’s front page where he clicked on a link to “relationship”. This took him to something called a “disambiguation page” – a page designed to resolve word ambiguities by summarizing the articles for each use of the word. From there, he clicked on the link to “romantic love” which has links to “free love”, “puppy love” (which has a link to “crush”) and, finally, “erotic love”, which redirects to the “Eroticism” article.
When Tina and I asked him about it (separately and non-chalantly), he said that he just clicked on a link in Wikipedia and then clicked a bunch of others after that. Moreover, he said he didn’t really understand any of the articles. We told him he could ask us about stuff like that if he wanted to know more and he said, “OK.” And that was the end of it. At least for now.
Bike odometer: 201 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: This Is The Moody Blues by The Moody Blues, Coverville, DrugMusic
Recent viewing: Falcons at Saints, Countdown, The Daily Show, The Simpsons
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: n/a
Imperative To Do: Refinish deck, hair cut, new rear fender for bike, finish old blog entries, fix toilet (call plumber), rake, install new hard drive for Thomas
Cool Link: Fembot for sale: Somebody is selling an Austin Powers prop and the pictures are quite creepy.