Vital Statistics

It’s snowing outside right now – big, fat flakes, too. However, they are hitting the ground and melting.

I installed a new plugin for the blog which allows me to pre-approve comments for certain email addresses. It should make it easier for people to post comments here now.

Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, 9-11 by Noam Chomsky
McCartney Trivia: Paul wrote “Got To Get You Into My Life” as an ode to marijuana.
Recent listening: Coverville, KBOO Bike Show, Blame The Vain, New Roman Times, Michael Martin Murphy
Recent viewing: Oscars, Sportscenter, Pardon The Interuption, Crime Scene Investigation, ER, Drawn Together
Imperative To Do: Rebates, renew prescription, start taxes
Cool link: Calling All Wingnuts: A grassroots effort to hold right-wing radio hosts accountable

Vital Statistics

Pinewood Derby is tomorrow and once again we’re down to the wire in finishing the cars. This year I had three months to get the job done, but that still was not enough. I am a lifelong procrastinator. Fortunately, we have Tina to help us with the finish, so the cars look really cool again this year. We’ll have to see how we do tomorrow.

Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, 9-11 by Noam Chomsky
Recent listening: De-Loused in the Comatorium, 12 Songs, Dark Side of the Moon, The Beatles
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, Attack of the Show, My Name Is Earl
Imperative To Do: Rebates
Cool link: State of Oregon Surplus

Vital Statistics

As the week ends, I will note that I am done with the testing project that brought me to San Francisco last week and that I finally have my Tivo back after one of the hard drives crashed a couple of weeks ago. Not only does it have more space for saving shows, but a co-worker “hacked” it for me to enable network access, a web interface and the ability to pull content from it for burning to DVD.

Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, 9-11 by Noam Chomsky
Recent listening: KBOO Bike Show, 12 Songs/Neil Diamond, Somewhere Far Beyond/Blind Guardian, Rid of Me/PJ Harvey, DrugMusic
Recent viewing: Six Feet Under: Season Three, Olympics: women’s curling, men’s hockey
Imperative To Do: Pinewood Derby: Sand and repaint, rebates, expense report
Cool link: Top Ten Most Welcome Movie Deaths

Vital Statistics

Did anybody else see the ice dancing fallathon the other night. I totally dug it when the Italians faced off at center ice and just stared each other down for 20 seconds. She was pissed! Unfortunately, the Canadian couple had to withdraw because her injury was too severe. You can read all about it in this search of Google News for “ice dancing”.

Bike odometer: 5772 miles
Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles
Recent listening: New Roman Times/Camper Van Beethoven, Still Feel Gone/Uncle Tupelo, Coverville, Ebert & Roeper, DrugMusic
Recent viewing: Olympics: men’s speed skating, ice dancing
Imperative To Do: Pinewood Derby: Sand and repaint, rebates
Cool link: Explanation of the Mac OS X “virus” reported in the news recently

Vital Statistics

Thomas got his hand slammed in a neighbor’s car door on Friday and had to go to the doctor. All is well but dealing with the neighbors has been difficult. Tina talks about it here.

Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles
Recent listening: Zoe’s Radio Show, DrugMusic, Blast Tyrant/Clutch
Recent viewing: Olympics: curling, ice dancing, men’s hockey
Recent playing: Halo (finished)
Imperative To Do: Pinewood Derby: Sand and repaint, rebates

Vital Statistics

It has been wicked cold her since I got back from San Francisco. Last night, as I attempted to hurry home in order to make last-second dinner plans, I discovered that I had not dressed warm enough for the biting cold wind. The cold weather had caused some of the tracks on the Max line to freeze over which resulted in delays and cancellation of the entire Red Line for the night. That cut the number of trains that I could catch in half. I discovered this after watching two Yellow Line trains go by as I waited in the whipping wind at Pioneer Courthouse Square. A TriMet guy was walking around telling people the scoop and informed me that the Blue Line was delayed because it was “hung up” for some reason.

Crowded Japanese SubwayWhen the next Yellow Line train (which follows the same route as the Red and Blue lines for a time) arrived again, I hopped on to warm up. I stayed on as long as I could before hopping off at the last stop before the Yellow line veers north from the route the Blue and Red Lines follow. I stood there shivering in the cold wind for another 20 minutes or so before a Blue Line train rolled up. My hope started to fade when I saw that the train was completely packed (although not as much as the picture on the right). There was another train waiting at the stop behind it, but the headlights on the Max trains are so bright you can’t tell the color of the placard on the front until it’s almost upon you. Not wishing to spend another second in the freezing cold, I apologized and pushed my way onto the train.

Two stops later it was still just as crowded when the driver announced that the train would be stopped for a bit to deal with a medical emergency. Since I was standing in the doorway, I got off to see what was going on. I found a girl in the back car had fainted and suspected it was because she was pregnant. Nevertheless, medical personnel were called and we had to wait until they arrived. I noticed that the train behind us was still behind us, which meant that it was another Blue Line train (i.e. it had not veered North). I asked the driver if I had enough time to run to the other train and she replied that I did.

So I raced down the block to find a Blue Line train that was not even half full. I sat in my favorite spot when I am without bike (middle of the car), and settled in to read my book. By now I knew I was horribly late to meet Tina at Gateway Transit Center but also completely unable to do anything about it. A few stops later, the driver came on to tell us there would be another delay. Evidently, a fight had broken out on the crowded train in front of us and they were waiting for the police to arrive. Everybody on my new train had a good laugh over that. The delay wasn’t long, though, and we made it to Gateway soon after that.

Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles
McCartney Trivia: Paul’s mother Mary (yes, that Mother Mary) died of breast cancer when he was 14. 42 years later, his wife Linda died of the same thing.
Recent listening: Coverville, Zoe’s Radio Show, DrugMusic
Recent viewing: Olympics: Snowboardcross, Short Track Skating, Curling, Speed Skating
Recent playing: Halo
Imperative To Do: Pinewood Derby: Sand and repaint, rebates

Vital Statistics

My Tivo is still getting a new hard drive. Tomorrow I’m traveling to San Francisco for a couple of days to visit Macromedia/Adobe.

Current reading: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles
Recent listening: Coverville, Mexican Standoff/Michelle Shocked, Get Behind Me Satan/White Stripes
Recent viewing: Olympics: men’s downhill, men’s and women’s curling, snowboarding, pair skating, ski jumping (long), speed skating (long and short track)
Recent playing: Halo
Imperative To Do: Pack, Pinewood Derby: Sand and repaint

Vital Statistics

I cleared a bunch of space on my Tivo last night in anticipation of the Olympics and it started rebooting every 10 minutes. The second drive has been going out for awhile, I think, and it’s on its last legs now. Took it to the office today to have our resident Tivo expert dupe the dying drive onto another drive I have laying around. Nevertheless, I am without Tivo tonight.

Current reading: Armor by John Steakley
Recent listening: Meat Is Murder/The Smiths, Evil Empire/Rage Against The Machine, Got No Strings/Michelle Shocked, DrugMusic
Recent viewing: (not applicable)
Recent playing: GamesGrid Poker
Imperative To Do: Pinewood Derby: Paint, Renew driver’s license, Take out garbage
Cool link: Tina’s Art