Qwik Update

Sal has taken to playing an old thrift store guitar Veep picked up a while back.  He's gotten a little frustrated that it sounds so loud when one of us plays along side him.  However, he has persisted and keeps making up songs which he asks us to make up words for.  He has learned the chorus of Don McLean's American Pie and insists we sing along.  I took him and the girls to a free kids concert the local NPR station puts on--songs of the Civil War.  It was well done with a History professor from a local university giving a little background about Lincoln and a local bluegrass band covering a spectrum of 19th century music.  Sal was impressed with all the different instruments--guitar, banjo, bass, fiddle, mandolin.  He was anxious to get home and play some more.  He insisted Veep put the guitar case in front of him and put some dollars in it.  Perhaps we should take him on the road.  

Tonight we made a last minute decision to go to Utah for Thanksgiving.  I still loathe Utah, but since the snow has still not decided to fly here, I will deign to ski the 22" Alta is claiming (though there is snow in the forecast midweek).  Good thing I rode a bit this weekend, I need a bull market in the quadriceps department if I'm going to lay down any decent tele turns.  Getting rid of the cobwebs early will be good.  Last year I was jonesin' far too late into December (I rarely use the word "jonesin', but I don't know how better to portray the middle age angst in between seasons).

By the way, I found some projects in the corner of my room.  I don't understand how this pile grows, but it seems that the textbooks are alway on the bottom.

Bore-dumb

Lately I've been bored.  I suppose that is why I haven't posted much lately.

The other day I worked an evening shift, so I had the morning and afternoon free.  I scooted around the house aimlessly, looking for something to do.  Mostly I just annoyed Veep.

I did take some time on the thinking couch, trying not to look at the mylar balloon (it has moved from one truss to the other by the way).  I was trying to figure out why I was so bored--usually I'm not.  Part of it is the lack of exercise.  I did commute to work over the weekend, which was the only thing that kept me sane, but overall my energy is feeling like the global economy--full blown recession.

Thinking couch boredom from my vantage.  

I thought blogging would entertain me, give me something to do.  But I couldn't think of one interesting thing to blog about.  So I asked Veep, "Am I boring?"  To which she replied, "Yes." She missed the "am I fat" subtext that I'm so apt to gloss over when she asks me a similar question (I have been accused of being too honest at times).  So that got me thinking.  Am I boring?  I suppose I would put myself on the lower half of the spectrum of interesting if I were the one in charge of assigning everyone's "interesting score", but I'm ok with that.  I still find life worthwhile and like to think I learn a something new every day.  And apart from this blog, I don't really subject others to my hum drum lifestyle.  So I figure I'm harmless.

Anyway, in my bored state, I surfed my usual blogs and came across Lance Armstrong's Twitter page, via BikeSnob NYC (my latest conspiracy theory is that BSNYC and LA have made a super secret symbiotic marketing pact--LA wears the Snob's T-shirt and Snob mentions LA on his blog twice each week.  It is the next level of marketing, if you will.  Although I'm not sure what they're selling yet--cancer research or ironic opinions.  And I'm sure Fatcyclist is at least peripherally involved.  Yes, I'm that bored).  If you are older than me and don't know what Twitter is, it's basically blogging to the second power, a page where you remotely post what you're doing hour to hour.  And it makes sense that a celebrity might benefit from using Twitter--to keep their public abreast of their very interesting and undoubtedly profound daily movements.  Certainly Mr. Armstrong is interesting.  And I'm sure it has much to do with his "transparent" return to cycling and, in this instance, is acutually somewhat useful.  For the average user, however, I see Twitter contributing an inordinate share to internet pollution--mountains of binary code piling up to the stratosphere with information that is 99.9% useless.

In the same vein, I've watched Veep having fun on Facebook, reconnecting with people, getting friend invites, invites to join causes, getting pokes, writing on walls, chatting, etc.  After a while I thought I'd give it a try, so I signed up.  I've found a few old friends, and it has been great.  But somehow I haven't gotten quite the response she has.  After a week on Facebook, she had 100 friends, and more showing up all the time.  After about a month, I've got like 30, the bulk of which are nieces, nephews, and in-laws (so they have to accept my friend invites).

So, as I continued to stay fixed on the thinking couch, I pondered what it would look like if I started "twittering."  How painful would it be for someone else to read my theoretical twitter page?:

Read a sweet article on Idiopathic Hyperphosphatasia.  Lights out.  11:13 pm from twitterberry

Gave in and ate a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats.  10:12 pm from twitterberry

Reminded Schmoopie to turn the computer off in 5 minutes and get to bed.  9:55 pm from twitterberry

Just nagged the girls a third time to finish up their homework and take showers before bedtime.  8:47 pm from twitterberry

Just played MarioKart with Sal, let him win.  Again.  8:14 pm from twitterberry

Just spent about 45 minutes surfing bike sites, 15 of those minutes drooling over the high res pic of the Co-motion Americano that I want to get next year.  7:34 pm from twitterberry

Skipped the evening business meeting.  Ate spaghetti with the kids (meat sauce and garlic bread, yum)  6:46 pm from twitterberry

Heading home.  5:04 pm from twitterberry

Just about one hour left  (more like 1.5).  So far, the case of the day goes to a textbook cam type femoral acetabular impingement.  3:20 pm from twitterberry

Afternoon injection done.  It was a knee, used my beloved anterolateral approach.  2:25 pm from twitterberry

Ready to eat lunch and pull up the daily Bike Snob post.  The tally for the morning:  7 knees, 4 shoulders, 2 hips, 1 ankle, 1 wrist, and a finger.  Plus a batch of radiographs (one good case of gout).  12:14 pm from twitterberry

Quick shoulder injection, pain reduced.  8:42 am from twitterberry

Showered and clean, time to work.  7:50 am from twitterberry

 I’m up, got my gear together and am off to work.  6:49 am from twitterberry

You get the picture (by the way, I don't have a theoretical balckberry, but if it's good enough for Lance. . . ).  As a point of clarification, putting a needle in someone's shoulder or hip or knee may sound interesting, but after doing it a few hundred times it ain't.

I think the idea of Twitter would be more interesting if people's random thoughts were involuntarily captured.  This, of course, would require more than the 140 or so characters that each twitter post is allowed to have.  Maybe I would move a few spots up the "interesting spectrum" if some of my odd thoughts were "Twitterable" or, if you will, "thinkerable":

Sal is the Michael Jordan of pre-k art.  7:14 pm Nov 14 from thinkerberry

Schmoopie and Boofis are lucky they aren't lefty.  I think left handed scissors are proof of discrimination in the public school system.  We need more than just another left handed president (which is the real reason I voted for Obama), we need a left handed secretary of education.  Or perhaps a lefty lobby.  A grassroots effort would be even better, but with only 7-10% of the population being lefty, we'll need to reach across the aisle to our right handed friends and neighbors.  7:59 pm Nov 14 from Thinkerberry

 

I think I skipped teenage angst and now have middle age angst, but I'm not sure what that means.  Perhaps an analogy would help:  Middle age angst is like this stand of bare aspens in the middle of the woods.  Hmmm.  Perhaps an analogy won't help.  I still don't know what it means.  Analogies are stupid.  4:42 pm Nov 19 from Thinkerberry

Wow, that's a blurry picture.  Cameraphone, you let me down.  4:43 pm Nov 19 from Thinkerberry

Hmm, I hope I don't catch any strange disease reassembling this deer skeleton.  Three adjacent cervical vertebrae, cool.  I wonder why the coyotes didnt eat these ribs.  2:19 pm Nov 18 from Thinkerberry

I think I should get a haircut.  Or maybe I shouldn't since more hair could help me stay warmer with winter approaching.  I get the impression Veep likes spiky hair and all my hair wants to do when it gets long is feather.  Veep definitely doesn't like the feather.  Maybe I was born too late.  1:25 pm Nov 18 from Thinkerberry

I like bagpipes with drums.  I don't like bagpipes without drums.  Marimbas and banjos are cool too.  Folk festivals are fun.  12:21 pm Nov 8 from Thinkerberry

Hmmm.  Well.  I think I might have actually slipped a few spots.

I think I just need a new project to keep me busy and off the couch.

Bore-dumb

Lately I've been bored.  I suppose that is why I haven't posted much lately.

The other day I worked an evening shift, so I had the morning and afternoon free.  I scooted around the house aimlessly, looking for something to do.  Mostly I just annoyed Veep.

I did take some time on the thinking couch, trying not to look at the mylar balloon (it has moved from one truss to the other by the way).  I was trying to figure out why I was so bored--usually I'm not.  Part of it is the lack of exercise.  I did commute to work over the weekend, which was the only thing that kept me sane, but overall my energy is feeling like the global economy--full blown recession.

Thinking couch boredom from my vantage.  

I thought maybe blogging would entertain me, give me something to do.  But I couldn't think of one interesting thing to blog about.  So I asked Veep, "Am I boring?"  To which she replied, "Yes." She missed the "am I fat" subtext that I'm so apt to gloss over when she asks me a similar question (I have been accused of being too honest at times).  So that got me thinking.  Am I boring?  I suppose I would put myself on the lower half of the spectrum of interesting if I were the one in charge of assigning everyone's "interesting score", but I'm ok with that.  I still find life worthwhile and like to think I learn a little something every day.  And apart from this blog, I don't really subject others to my hum drum lifestyle.  So I figure I'm harmless.

Anyway, in my bored state, I surfed my usual blogs and came across Lance Armstrong's Twitter page, via BikeSnob NYC (my latest conspiracy theory is that BSNYC and LA have made a super secret marketing pact--LA wears the Snob's T-shirt and Snob mentions LA on his blog twice each week.  It is the next level of marketing, if you will.  Although I'm not sure what they're selling yet--cancer research or ironic opinions.  And I'm sure Fatcyclist is at least peripherally involved.).  If you are older than me and don't know what Twitter is, it's basically blogging to the second power, a page where you remotely post what you're doing hour to hour.  And it makes sense that a celebrity might benefit from using Twitter--to keep their public abreast of their very interesting and undoubtedly profound daily movements.  Certainly Mr. Armstrong is interesting anyway.  And I'm sure it has much to do with his "transparent" return to cycling and, in this instance, is acutually somewhat useful.  For the average user, however, I see Twitter contributing an inordinate share to internet pollution--mountains of binary code piling up to the stratosphere with information that is 99.9% useless.

In the same vein, I've watched Veep having fun on Facebook, reconnecting with people, getting friend invites, invites to join causes, getting pokes, writing on walls, chatting, etc.  After a while I thought I'd give it a try, so I signed up.  I've found a few old friends, and it has been great.  But somehow I haven't gotten quite the response she has.  After a week on Facebook, she had 100 friends, and more showing up all the time.  After about a month, I've got like 30, the bulk of which are nieces, nephews, and in-laws (so they have to accept my friend invites).

So, as I continued to stay fixed on the thinking couch, I pondered what it would look like if I started "twittering."  How painful would it be for someone else to read my theoretical twitter page:

Read a sweet article on Idiopathic Hyperphosphatasia.  Lights out.  11:13 pm from twitterberry

Gave in and ate a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats.  10:12 pm from twitterberry

Reminded Schmoopie to turn the computer off in 5 minutes and get to bed.  9:55 pm from twitterberry

Just nagged the girls a third time to finish up their homework and take showers before bedtime.  8:47 pm from twitterberry

Just played MarioKart with Sal, let him win.  Again.  8:14 pm from twitterberry

Just spent about 45 minutes surfing bike sites, 15 of those minutes drooling over the high res pic of the Co-motion Americano that I want to get next year.  7:34 pm from twitterberry

Skipped the evening business meeting.  Ate spaghetti with the kids (meat sauce and garlic bread, yum)  6:46 pm from twitterberry

Heading home.  5:04 pm from twitterberry

Just about one hour left  (more like 1.5).  So far, the case of the day goes to a textbook cam type femoral acetabular impingement.  3:20 pm from twitterberry

Afternoon injection done.  It was a knee, used my beloved anterolateral approach.  2:25 pm from twitterberry

Ready to eat lunch and pull up the daily Bike Snob post.  The tally for the morning:  7 knees, 4 shoulders, 2 hips, 1 ankle, 1 wrist, and a finger.  Plus a batch of radiographs (good case of gout).  12:14 pm from twitterberry

Quick shoulder injection, pain reduced.  8:42 am from twitterberry

Showered and clean, time to work.  7:50 am from twitterberry

 I’m up, got my gear together and am off to work.  6:49 am from twitterberry

You get the picture.  (by the way, I don't have a theoretical balckberry, but if it's good enough for Lance. . . )

Somehow I think the idea of Twitter would be more interesting if people's random thoughts were somehow captured.  This, of course, would require more than the 140 or so characters each post is allowed to have.  Maybe I would move a few spots up the "interesting spectrum" if some of my odd thoughts were Twitterable:

Thursday, 11/6/08 23:15.  It's official.  The weather is now cold and wet enough to justify riding the trainer in the basement.  I knew it would come to this, I was just hoping that it would hold out until after my four day weekend.

I did, however, make preparations for this eventuality.  And, as is my custom, I offer the details in the form of another numbered list:

1.  TV and DVD player.  Certainly it makes sense to watch a training video while riding.  I do this from time to time, but more often I just watch ski movies.

You can't tell, but here I'm watching Nick Devore get "Chugach-ed" in the new Powderwhore Tele-porn flick "The Pact."  I find ski movies inspiring while pedaling, it gives me purpose.  And with 13 inches of snow at the top of Mt. Spokane earlier this morning, that purpose is looming.  Without a TV, the reality of blown in insulation and two-by-fours is stifling.  Without it I don't think I'd ever get on the trainer (excuse Veep's big exercise ball).

2.  Reading material.  I like to be efficient.  I think I'm a pretty busy guy, so any time I can do two things at once I consider it a huge bonus.  Journal articles make for great reading material, keeping my mind occupied while spinning for an hour or two.  I get a little exercise and a little education.  I've photocopied a small stack so there is always something on hand.  Unfortunately, because I'm riding stationary and there is no wind to dissipate my sweat, which is measured in buckets, many of the articles are soaked by the end of the ride.  This is especially true when there is fine print that necessitates using my drops (the lower part of the handlebars). 

Here one can appreciate the shiny puddles of sweat and a discarded article.  A productive ride on two counts.

3.  Music.  This is a given.  No photo here as my MP3 player is merely my cameraphone's alter ego, unable to photograph itself.  I am currently enjoying the new one from "I'm From Barcelona" entitled Who Killed Harry Houdini.  Ophelia is a particularly catchy track.  Time on the trainer is well suited for listening to new music, which requires a little attention, or listening to long time favorites that can still excite.  I've loaded my MP3 player with a little of both.

So those are my main distractors.  I've been trying to think of some other ideas to keep my interest in the trainer up, but haven't come up with much.  Veep has a trainer too, so riding together may be fun.  I figure there is a way to "race" on side-by-side trainers, but haven't quite worked it out yet.  Any ideas out there?

Riding indoors is really unnatural, but sometimes a necessity.  I'll still ride outdoors on weekends, but with so little daylight now, my commuting has dwindled.  I'm telling myself that I'll work up to winter riding next year.  For now, the trainer will have to be my bread and butter.  [sigh].

Fall

Autumn is in full swing.

And so is Sal.