Odds and Ends

Random thought: Is it weird that I just assume that the internet will eventually cease to exist some day? That it won't be a viable, or at least accessible resource?

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And in Big Brother fashion, I was looking at Analytics, the program I use to see who comes to this blog (along with a ridiculous amount of information on each visit - on browser type, length of stay, etc) and noticed two things. First thing:

About 22% of the visits come from Colorado (thanks Steph!)



And Second Thing: Why/how on Earth are people from Australia, India, Brazil, and various other nations looking at my blog??? (each dot represents a city - 294 different cities mind you)

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton - My First Video Post

Here's a video summing up my thoughts:




And a few crappy pictures from the weekend.

A Milestone and a Date

Today, my car clicked over to 80,000 miles. Keep in mind, when I bought it not-quite two years ago, it had 29,000. Yes, you read that right - and that means in two years time, I've driven some 50,000+ miles. That's a helluvalot.

On a happier note, Coldplay's new album will drop on June 17th. Get excited.

Oh the Glory!!!

I once went FOUR years with a song stuck in my head. I couldn't necessarily remember the lyrics, or the title, or even the artist (or type of artist). All I could remember was about a measure and a half of the melody. And when finally I discovered it, by stroke of God or luck or what have you, it was glorious (Badly Drawn Boy, The Shining). Today, I had a similar, perhaps even greater experience.

I've gone SIX years now, with this vague notion of what my memory recalled as "the shortest short story ever written." I've googled it, I searched, I inquired - all I could remember was that A) it was short (probably one sentence) and 2) that it had to do with a baby.

Today, as I let 30 minutes dwindle away before I could leave for the day, I picked up a writing book from my college days (my non-fiction writing class actually - amazing book, amazing class). And as I was leafing through, skipping from section to section, I paused to read the section entitled "Elminate Words." Each section focuses on a different way to spark creativity, break down the wall, and revive the flow of language through the pen. And there it was.

Someone once challenged Ernest Hemmingway to write a short story with as few words as possible - he did it in 6 words:


For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.

Bracket Busters and More Madness

Two days of the NCAA tournament have come and gone - and they have been great!

I worked short days both Thursday and Friday to come home and watch games. Highlights include:

• Purdue looking seasoned and capable of at-least a Sweet Sixteen bid.
• Butler looking equally poised to make a run on greatness.
• The Big Ten started out 3 for 3, until the under-performing Hoosiers fell to Arkansas.
• The Bittersweet Glory of the Tournament comes with Upset City:
• The First was W. Kentucky over Drake (12 over 5)
• Then UConn killed me (one of my Final Four) losing to San Diego (?!)
• There are TWO 12 v. 13 games. That is absolutely unheard of
  
• The one upset I picked was Villanova over Clemson (the other 12 over 5)
  

(This is one of my 4 brackets)

• In the work pool, I was leading after day one
• I've got 4 brackets all together (21, 23, 24, and 25 out of 32, respectively)

PURDUE v. XAVIER - Today at 4:40

Boiler UP!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that's for you Bob T.)

March Madness!!!

It has begun! I finagled my work schedule so that I could take a half-day today, in order to watch the Purdue game. Right now, they are dominating and look nothing like their alliterative "Baby Boilers" moniker. I've got no less than 5 brackets filled out: a few Yahoo, Facebook, and my first ever office pool.

There is just nothing better than 32 games over the course of four days. I absolutely love March Madness like no other sporting event of the year. This is going to be a great weekend.

March Madness, and more

March Madness begins! Selection Sunday was exciting as usual. Glad to see Purdue as a six seed. More glad to see Indiana as an eight (ha)! I'm trying to fix my work schedule so that I can be home to watch some games either Thursday, Friday, or both.

And just a few things of note recently:

• A nerdy, but nostalgically addictive addition to my "regular websites" in VirtualNES.com and Nintendo8.com. Thanks Faulkner. Thanks a lot.
• Obama came to Indiana. I did not get to see him. Maybe next time.
• The Ides of March came and went again.
  
• St. Patty's Day is tomorrow (unless you are Catholic, and then it was yesterday)
• And speaking of Catholic, did anyone else see that the Pope added to the list of Mortal Sins (meaning, you need absolution for them). I want to talk with a practicing Catholic on what they think.
  
• Environmental pollution
• Genetic manipulation
• Accumulating excessive wealth
• Inflicting poverty
• Drug trafficking and consumption
• Morally debatable experiments
• Violation of fundamental rights of human nature
  

Snow Dog

Daisy and I went for a romp in the fresh snowfall today. I'm ready for spring, but it was good to get a solid snowfall in before we move on to the next season. We ended up with three to four inches her in Muncie. In some of the pictures below, you'll see that she went crazy, just running in circles for the first bit. Then she entered the "I want to eat snow" phase. I tried to get her to pose for a portrait, but she just wouldn't sit still. So, here are a few of my favorites, followed by a slideshow of the good ones.






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Update: Here's a video of Daisy playing, mostly for the Smiths in Colorado.

The Google Workplace

I came across this Reuters photo-essay on the Google Workplace. This is the sort of place I want to work. This is something to aim for. What a work environment! Now that I've spent some time in a cubicle, I want it even more. And I've started by implementing with foursquare (twice a week) and lunchswaps. Now I've got some new ideas.


This is by far the best photo and the best idea. There are 17 photos and each photo comes with a quick explanation.

The Iditarod: A Dream Job?

The Iditarod dog-sled race began on Saturday. Each team of 12 to 16 dogs will cover 1,409 miles and take some 9 or ten days. This is, perhaps, the most extreme sport of them all. A true testament to the human (and canine) spirit and a test of survival. Mushing through blizzard conditions, these are brave soles. At times, the temperature can reach a wind chill of -100 Fahrenheit. The winner takes home around $70,000. And serious bragging rights.

This brings up a point: I'd like to add this to my list of "Dream Jobs."

A while back I posted my top five dream jobs, a post I can't locate at the moment. I'm sure it included freelance writer, Disney Imagineer, and three others (I'll find them eventually).

Today, I'll add a few seasonal Dream Jobs:

1 - Dog sled Racer
2 - Mountain Climber
3 - Pixar Animator (they have an opening right now)
4 - Ski -Patrol
5 - Political Speech Writer

If you want to follow the Iditarod:

www.iditarod.com
www.dogsled.com
www.iditablog.com


(there is a site linked through these that does GPS tracking for some of the 95 teams that started this year's race; it's neat)

Babymoon

This weekend, Stacey and I headed for Chicago on our "babymoon." That's what couples do who are going to have a baby - take your last trip without children that you are going to get for the next twenty five years. We took a three-day weekend and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

In an effort to make this blog less long, compared to previous posts, I'll put the highlights in bullets and include a Picasa slideshow.

• Three Days, Two Nights in Chicago, staying at the Conrad
• A stop at the Museum of Science & Industry
  
• Less than inspiring and the second best museum of the trip
• Dunkin' Donuts (my favorite) Twice
• They have an astonishing White Hot Chocolate
• If they were to come to Muncie, I'd visit daily like all too many Starbucks fiends
• The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum
• We popped-in because it's free until Election Day
• It focuses on First Amendment Rights, with notable exhibits on the Presidential Election, interactive touch screen gadgets and even Stacey thoroughly enjoyed it
• We had Giordano's deep dish pizza. That made baby's mama happy
• We took in the Tony-winning musical, Wicked. It was wicked awesome.
  
• Dinner at Weber Grill another night
• A book store was perused
• We strolled through Millennium Park
• "The Bean" is neat, the ice skating is picturesque and the green space, necessary
• All-in-all, we had a very enjoyable, low-key weekend

In attempt to even out the ratio of "us pictures" to "pictures of stuff" (at Stacey's request), we tried to take more pictures together. And we had some funny moments with time-delay photography. Here's what I mean:




And then here are a sampling of photos for the rest of our trip.