Head last

OCD

Ok, so I've been thinking about Smallville and Naruto again. Oh Rob.
Anyways, in one of the later episodes of season 4, Lex and his father Lionel are having a little tete a tete (pretend there are accents). Lex knows that Lionel is being less than truthful about the stones from Krypton (that everyone is looking for in season 4) and Lionel tells Lex that there is a difference between finding all the answers and understanding what they mean, and just what does he hope to achieve (which is kinda pot calling the kettle black).
I think I can sort of understand what he means. I was a heck of a lot happier before I read a bunch of books, but I still don't stop reading books. I have stopped thinking, though, that I'll ever find all the answers out.
Then I was thinking how Sasuke from Naruto is just like that. He's obsessive, and he's pursuing something. Only his goal is revenge. He too was almost a good guy, and his teachers all told him or rather tried to convince him that getting revenge is just a big let down. And when he finally killed his brother and got his revenge, it totally was, a big let down that is, especially because he found out it was all part of his brother's plan to protect the village. But isn't it weird that the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of a foe can both drive people to obsessive lengths and ultimately don't result in any satisfaction, but the exact opposite? But then again, life is pretty dull without obsession.

runtime error

Well, the results of the 2011 Peterborough YMCA Half are up and I did about how I expected to do. I've been working out, but not like last year. See results here. They also changed the route this year. More scenic and engaging than the old route, but not nearly as flat (especially at the 5k mark where there's a huge hill, that you must pass a second time on the return portion. Ow.). The best part is that I now have a decent enough data set. I made this graph, and another showing my positions in proportion to overall, category and gender placements, but due to some computer pain I accidentally lost the data and am too lazy right now to re-enter it because I ran a half-marathon today.

New Glasses

I got new glasses. May I say they are nerdtronic?

Royal Flush

So basically I've been trying to decide what makes our modern civilization the most advanced ever thus far. How did we get here? I mean, we were already way more advanced than the Egyptians by the time electricity even came around, and I'm pretty sure Spinning Jenny kicks the crap out of anything the Romans ever did. You might say, "Rob, you're pretty awesome, though maybe not very humble, but this is not a new question and is unlikely to be answered in any meaningful way in a short blog entry." and you might be right, but might not be, because the answer is plumbing and democracy.
I know, I know, A couple of Egyptian Pharaohs had something akin to a flush toilet, and there are a few instances of pipes in Roman and Chinese palaces and such, and even what you think about when talking about plumbing wasn't even maturing until the end of the 19th century. But holy snooks, you couldn't build a steam engine without plumbing, and you couldn't proliferate water and gas to the population without plumbing. And really, it's infrastructure that make places great to live in.
How awesome is it to take a shower and be clean. Pretty friggin awesome, and you just have to look at the Egyptians or Romans to see how bad life sucked for the average Joe when there is no plumbing or democracy, or if you want to look at a more recent example, there's any number of examples in the 3rd world. Oh and you can build a potato cannon out of ABS like snap.

Practice makes adequate

Shall we trance?

Oh man, I had trouble with that hiss. If it's too painful to listen, don't.

Bike talk with Rob

I just had an idea!!

Nevermind it's already been had.

But there has been some crazy nice weather lately and my bikes to and from school have been very excellent, and quite fast. I almost broke out shiny bike for the first time this season in order to go even faster. I'm just not convinced winter is actually over. You should see the havoc the salt and snow wreaked on the red raleigh.

Smack run

Well, I ran the Peterborough-Y-Half again yesterday. Results here. I killed my previous times from 2009 and 2008. Also, Peter Bonk musta seen me training, because he didn't even show up.

Nerdtronic

Yeah, I'm pretty great.

Young and lovely

A study in feasibility

How does Rob bend his wrists like that? It's part of his jutsu.

Trump

Lazy genius of hard work

So a couple of the polls here on the roblog have been to inquire as to what character in such and so a series that you think you are or that you most relate to. I noticed lately that I ask this with basically every show I watch. But usually I have a hard time picking just one character. Sometimes I can't pick anyone. Like CSI Miami. I am no one. Or I try to tell myself I'm a certain character just because I want to be. I just wish I was like Shikamaru, when really I'm Choji, or more probably Rock Lee. Only lazier. Oh well.

Fleming Nights

Shape shifter

So I was just thinking that "isn't it weird that the iris and pupil are round?"
Well, I guess that's more of a query than mere thought. Really though, they're basically circles, and I find that, in general, naturally occurring geometric shapes are pretty rare.
Then I was thinking that no Iris is perfectly circular (some pain-in-the-neck philosophers would even argue the concept of circular), so really it's not a circle. In the same vein you could be like "hey rob. Isn't the human shape just the same. If I show a little man figure, you know what it is, and the degree to which it resembles the actual theoretical human form is just semantics, because no-one, and every-one does (resemble the human form that is)." Then I was like, wouldn't it follow then that the human form is a geometric shape? But then, actual geometric shapes have that whole mathematical equation thing going for them.
Then I thought about water droplets, snowflakes, ferns, pine-cones, planetary bodies and honeycombs.
There's probably more.

Super graph wednesday, no wum sane?

Well the results of the compound-rob poll are in. 'Compound-rob poll'. Doesn't that sound like some sort of futuristic, super-flexible quarter-staff made from graphite composite that modern day robhood [man.. that should have been one of the choices] defeats little j Rock with? Perhaps, but what I was mentioning was that robriggle made a late break. Seems there are some Daily Show fans out there. Robstar, my gamer name has tied for the top spot.

Event horizon

Holy smokes. You know that scene in Joe v. Volcano where Joe is dying on his suitcases in the Pacific, and the moon is super huge on the horizon. I used to wonder if the moon ever actually appears big like that. Someone told me once that the gases of the atmosphere can act like a magnifying glass because the light is passing through lots of it when it is near the horizon. I was like, yeah... could happen, but probably only on the Pacific. That is until Friday night. I was driving back to Peterborough from band practice and the moon was HUGE!! It wasn't a full moon like the movie, and it kinda looked yellowy. But it was huge. I almost drove into the ditch. It didn't last long though. In a few minutes it was up higher and already not nearly as impressive. Just thought I'd share.

Enduro

So yesterday I ran a race. 15 km. Here's the results. Just two minutes faster and I could have won the geriatric category. I'd also have to age 30 years for that. The winner, Serghei Logvin, finished in 57 min 48 sec. That kid is fast.
See all the results... or the race website here.

ESPN

Well the results of the Farley Mowat poll are in. Funny there's no 1.5 votes.
I must be psychic or something, because about a week after the poll went up I finished The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, and then read Swamp Angel, as though to fulfill some destiny I may or may not have of reading mediocre Canadian writing.
Has Rob become a critic? Stay tuned. Or don't, the answer is 'no'.