Klutz player

On this, the day New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British in 1664, I am surprisingly wound free.
Yup. I fell off my bike again. It was actually two days ago. I did a total somersault on my bike. Lucky I was on a grassy part at the time. Apart from some grass stains I couldn't believe how unscathed I came out of it. I think I'm getting good at making potentially catastrophic falls look graceful. Key is to smile when you get up. When I fell of shiny bike a while ago my adrenaline took off and I felt funny and really shaky, then I was soooo tired later. This time though it was nothing so exciting, though it probably looked more exciting than the shiny bike incident. I wasn't even going to write about it, except that today I took a header down some stairs at school (this time I wasn't riding a bike), and again came out generally unscathed, which I thought was strange because it was on concrete and I just had a t-shirt on. Well, I was wearing pants too.... and shoes.

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.

Decision making criteria

So today I'm having 80's overload. In my first class, a guy used a Ferris Bueller clip, and if you check out today's Dinosaur Comics, there is some excellent 80's references. Like Choose Your Own Adventure books, that many an ill fated grade 9 student tried to use for ill fated book reports. But T-Rex has a point. I also get that giddy feeling when using 80's references, even though It pains me to admit my pop-formative years were the 90's.

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.

King Henry VIII

Well... I'm a tutor.

Gym Jam

Well.. I've started to go to the gym again. Suddenly, with this new semester I seem to have some spare time. The weather is being a bit cooler, and its getting darker earlier. Stupid fall. Lets skip to winter. I mean It sucks doing anything outside in the fall 'cause its too cold. At the same time, its not cold enough to do any fun winter stuff. Oh and there's the grey, bleak, dying nature bit.
What was I saying? Oh, something or other about closed captioning. The other day I watched Federer beat Jokovich in the US Open semi-finals. The closed captioning was not particularly necessary, but Johnny Mac is as excellent in CC. Now I want to play tennis.

Ambidextrous

I've just moved into a new place. No longer haunting an underground layer (it shall ever be spelled thus). The dish rack is to the left of the sink.
At my old place, when I visit my mom's place, and at the cottage it's all two sinks with the dish rack on the right. A guy could get used to that.
Lucky for me I have the skills to shake left.

Grease Monkey

Aww cheez. Today I tried to change the oil in my car. But I can't seem to get the drain plug out. That seems to slow down the whole operation. I don't want to strip the bolt, or resort to having to remove the whole pan. oi.
So I must take it to a professional, already breaking the promise I made with myself that I would do all the work on that car myself. Oh well. I had fun jacking up my car and then lowering it down again.

Cage match

Well, the results of the 16th century Japanese political philosophy poll are in. Looks like Tokugawa Leyasu won.

Secret Sauce

Wow. So on Monday it was hot and sunny and I mowed the lawn. This may not seem like anything special, except that it has rained just about every day since May. In fact it rained on Monday too, but only for a brief while in the afternoon. I had almost forgotten how much more excellent it is mowing the lawn when it's hot and sunny. So much more excellent. Perhaps it is brightness of the golden rays that seem to wash away the general malaise weeks and weeks of greyness seems to bestow upon its victims. Or maybe it's the super sunburn I got.

Node to self

Well it's been a crazy coupla weeks. Just one more final to go.
Here's how I remember the disadvantages of the payback method of capital project analysis: If I sell my soul to the devil so I can play guitar like a young Clapton, sure, the immediate benefits are obvious, but I might still get hit by a bus tomorrow, and the long-term doesn't look so good. Also, If I just applied myself a bit more, I wouldn't have to deal with the devil at all.

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'.

Not born normal, he is corn.

So, I used to have this excruciating time trying to remember the names attributed to anagrams and acronyms. I used to despise that text speak, really just a bunch of acronyms thought up by 12 year olds, was creeping its way beyond the tech realm. But how can you be a critic when you can’t even remember whether the name for an acronym is ‘anagram’ or ‘acronym’. And I’d dare not exclaim “Hey everybody! Lets make ironic anagrams out of corporate mission statements!!” no matter how badly I wanted to, because I was never sure. But just lately, I seem to know the difference. Isn’t that weird?

Thousand Islands

Meant to get this up on the weekend. Some FMA fanart for you all to enjoy.

Extreme bike

Hooey.
Today I fell off my bike. Let this be a lesson to you: Indecision sucks.
I was like "hmm... maybe I'll skip my locker and lock my bike up on the west side of the building, so I better go by the sports centre instead of the old folks home." Meanwhile I almost passed the Pioneer station. Now I have a skinned knee and another well placed bandage that makes me look like I had my appendix out. AND I bent the front wheel of my shiny bike. It now rubs against the front right brake pad. This does not bode well for shiny bike as its crank bearings are already wearing noticeably.

Birds and other predators

So you know how I like routine activities that keep part of your mind occupied while allowing a sort of preoccupied meditation with the rest like washing the dishes or the mildly-exerting-mowing the lawn. Business presentations aren't like that. In fact I think the anxiety attack they induce are the exact opposite of that. I wish I was a salamander so I could go hide under a rock tomorrow instead of doing my presentations. Ahh the gentle salamander. Not a care in the world. Other than birds and other predators and trying to find enough food to survive.
On second thought maybe I'd rather be doing the presentation.

Rebel scum

What if Bic ran a Star Wars promotion?

Koodo

Check out the movie I made like, a year ago.

Rated R for Rob
may contain graphic scenes of flossing.

Super bike

When I bike to school I have two speeds. Fast and stop. It's almost all downhill. If I pedal super hard I can pass cars. On the way back it's almost all uphill I have slow and stop.


ps.
OOOHHH man. I was gonna have a wicked movie with this, but my camera batteries died.

I reckon

mom: ...and once a week the iceman....
john lennon: cometh?
mom: ....came and brought a big block of ice this big (some hand gestures) and put it in the top of the icebox.
john lennon: did you get that?
rob: ha yeah.
mom: what?
john lennon: the iceman cometh. you left a big pause after iceman.
rob: hey.. was I Icebox or was dave?
john lennon: Dave was. You were Bigtime
rob: oh yeah. ha ha.. we should record this conversation for posterity.

Obscene clone fall

Well, the results are in. The clone high poll was a resounding success. I'm happy to see everyone is either Gandhi or Abe. Admittedly it was hard to pick just one character, because really, there's a bit of me in all those characters. Except for maybe Cleopatra. Or.. maybe I just want to be like all of those characters. "Rob has A.D.D.! You get it from toilet seats!"

Battle of wits

When you read comic books it seems there's always evil dudes coming up with elaborate ways to destroy the earth or whatnot. Yesterday I caught an episode of Smallville from the latest season that I had missed the first time around. They were filming a movie based on a comic book (Warrior Angel) in Smallville. The bad guy in this episode was a comic book nerd obsessed with the comic books. He tried to eliminate an inconsistency between the movie being filmed and the actual comic books. What happened was that, in the comic book, the Warrior Angel's girlfriend dies.. But in the movie they all live happily ever after. So the guy tries to kill the movie actress or something. I suppose that's beside the point, because what was interesting was that in the comic book, the bad guy forces the hero to step up and save the world. It almost suggests the antagonist doesn't care about causing mayhem, but that his real purpose is to bring the best out of the Warrior Angel. Oh and something about his girl dying and facing his destiny alone. Anyways, Smallville writers are foreshadowing Clark's ever increasing role in the world and why he has relationship troubles. Well that's also beside the point. I probably just like talking about Smallville
That also reminded me of the movie Unbreakable. Mr. Glass causes a bunch of disasters just to find his real life comic book hero. It was Bruce Willis.
This all got me wondering. Why aren't there super evil dudes threatening the real world with ingenious schemes? Maybe there are, and we just don't hear about it because the government keeps that stuff under wraps, or they get stopped before anything can happen. Who knows? But there probably aren't. I think it's probably pretty unlikely that dudes who are angry-revenge-seekers have the brains and the confidence to organize and go through with the elaborate plans we find in movies and comic books. Phew!... Generally if you've got the brains, confidence and money it takes to get that evil mastermind stuff done, you're probably doing alright in life, and don’t need to resort to that.

Jim Henchman

I was thinking that bad guys often have underground layers. I wonder if they were bad before they got the layer. I mean in my mind people who hang out in the sun are generally happy. Hippies sell out, but I don't think they go evil or anything. Maybe some regular Joe is like "hmm, I need somewhere to put my super computer and laser cannon."[really! laser's not spelled with a 'z'! that sucks] and he needs some cheap real estate after blowing all his money on a super computer and a laser cannon. Dark underground gigs with no windows can't be that expensive. So he spends all his time underground playing with his toys and he gets all pasty and his friends forget about him. Where he gets henchmen I have no idea.
Then I was thinking "hmm... I live in a basement. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Oooo!

Well it's that time of semester again. Lots and lots of midterm action. Creeepy.

Positioning Strategies

well.. Exams of a sort are upon me once again.