A petit dejeuner

Holy guac. Ever since Sunday I have had such an apetite!

For the tee

Well the results of the 2009 Peterborough Vascular Health YMCA Half-Marathon are up. See them here. As you can see I did only very slightly better than last year. I managed to improve my pace by roughly one second. Just 94 more years of such an improvement and I'll win. My body doesn't seem as outraged as last time, and I did manage to beat Peter Bonk this time.

Hangman

Then again, wouldn't it be awesome if education came in fruit form?

Super slide

So today as I walked to school, there were many quite glossy surfaces of ice, seeing as yesterday and the day before were pretty warm, and all melty and such. Usually when encountered with such wonderful patches of ice, I run to gather up some speed and try to slide as far as possible. I saw a lady walking quite precariously on a snowbank just to avoid the ice, and thought: 'that's no fun'. Then I was thinking, generally, I don't see many people who run and slide on my walking commute to school. I suppose I can't blame them. Admittedly, when I fall down on occasion it's not so pleasant.

Goodwill

I've got nothing to say, but it doesn't matter. 2000 hits!

Low rider

The low rider is a little higher
The low rider drives a little slower

Walking home from the gym last week these lyrics ran through my mind. Whenever I finish working out I feel a little higher and move a little slower.
Also whenever I hear the song, this is exactly what I imagine. A Chevy S-10 with flashy chrome rims, a custom paint-job and riding about two inches off the ground... and ever since that CIBC commercial aired, Sue Thomas FBI.

Speed reader

Well the results of the Keanu Reeves movie poll are in. I'm really not surprised at the results. The Matrix movies are an excellent exercise in philosophical thought. I feel I must stress the virtues of Speed though. A classic tale of the struggle between good v. bad, personal sacrifice, a wealth of little catch-phrases, plus Sandra Bullock is a babe. Bill and Ted's is also a classic, and not merely because Napoleon is in it. I also now have an inability to say sok-ruh-teez, having burned sok-reyts into my vocabulary.

Lock de-icer

Well, finally on Friday afternoon past, I managed to get my bike unlocked. It was the first day in ages that the temperature was above 0C. It promptly went back down to -25 on Saturday. But I was so extraordinarily pleased to be riding home again. It turns out that it is when I am extraordinarily pleased that exciting things happen to me. So naturally my chain came of while I was testing out the gears causing me to lose my balance and bail most excellently. Did I mention it was above freezing so that it was especially slushy and dirty.

Absolute Graph Thursday

Well, It seemed about time for a graph.

Azure Tuesday

Yesterday was Blue Monday, or so they told me on Daily Planet this morning. I was sad, but I think it was because I was doing tax homework, and not the usual reasons.

Fuel

Well, this weekend with the help of my younger sibling I replaced the fuel filter in my car. Also the spark plugs. You see, of late, my car has been a real stinker, especially in the cold. And my engine light kept making an appearance. I find diagnosis is the hardest part when it comes to fixing problems with my car. Must be why doctors get paid so much. Anyways, the moral of the story is: Fixing things is fun, and the internet makes it way easier. Ahhh the internet. I have ironic mixed feelings. An exceptional resource and reference, yet as such an effective communication tool it runs contrary to my antisocial doctrines. Well doctrines isn't the right word, but you get it.

Brainiac

So I was watching Smallville again and got thinking about how we ought to destroy all computers now. It is a well proven fact that movies hail artificial intelligence as the potential end to mankind. Usually in movies though people manage to overcome these troublesome computers. Except maybe in the Terminator, where it's more of a resistance. I have less faith in real life mankind.
Anyways. Smallville got me thinking about Brainiac, and how he's such a formidable opponent and I wonder if all this computer angst is just a natural scarediness in people about a changing world, and especially a technologically changing world, where machines and technology seem to be driving forward so fast that it is overwhelming. And it really seems inevitable that computers will start thinking for themselves one of these days. Everyone knows how retarded purely rational thought can be.
Oh well. I guess it wouldn't really be too good for my blog though if I threw my computer in the lake. It's also frozen right now.

Existential Bike

Man. Today it was freakishly cold-like-the-north when I biked to school. Sadly my bike lock would not come apart and had to be warmed under a bathroom hand dryer before it would secure my property (yes I now like to say "secure my property" just for fun). Then when I was ready to go home it was frozen again, a problem I saw coming a mile away, or at least seven hours away.
So I had to walk home.

Squandered Existence

So I saw Rocky on TV the other day. May I say that it is one of the best movies ever. I guess I always love those overcoming-adversity-through-sport movies. Don't mess with a good formula I always say. Take the Pythagorean Theorem. Nobody messes with that bad boy. NOOOOO-body.

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.

Real GDP

Well the results of the doodle poll are in. It seems parallel lines, spirals and checker boards are the standard. There is something to be said for freakish hands though.

Commercial review

So I normally try not to be too commercial or endorse one brand over another on this blog, though there have been a few exceptions. Usually it occurs when such and such a product is related to a human roblog tenet, such as 3m's Scotch-Brite pads for dishwashing. This is actually pretty difficult a lot of the time because I enjoy watching commercials so much, and often want to mention them here. I have dabbled with the possibility of beginning another blog for television commercial review, but that is crazy because I have a hard enough time merely getting posts up here.
So I'm doing it anyways. Robhut.
But I think television commercials reflect corporations' opinions of their audience. I am almost offended when huge corporations have crappy, or poorly thought out commercials. I know I personally enjoy the funny ones the most. I probably hold some bias in this respect, but I know that outside the realm of funny ads there is plenty of acceptable commercial advertising (like a Head & Shoulder commercial) and then there is not even trying (like so many McCain [foods] commercials).
So enjoy.

Optimus Prime

So.
You know my favourite part about watching how it's made? Sure, finding out how things are made is neat and cool at the same time, but really it's the dialogue, or rather the puns in the dialogue. Like the show on electrical transformers: "the shocking truth." OHHH Man. this glue will later melt and bond several components in place.
Did you know those things are filled with oil!

Broken dreams

Well, I seem to have broken my ankle. You know what the worst part about breaking your ankle is? Slowness. It takes me longer to walk anywhere, and going up stairs is crazy! I can't believe how tired I get when I use every step instead of 2 or 3 at a time, and did I mention it's slower? I can see that I did.

Except biking. I am just as fast, and surprisingly, the cast doesn't hinder me much.

Oh and maybe the breaking part sucked more than the slowness. I suppose it is how you weigh your decision making criteria. Is temporal consideration of importance? Semantics... maybe.

The limitations of Activity Based Costing

Well... Midterms. Still three to go, a quiz and an assignment before reading week. I still managed to watch Bones though. Did anyone else notice Dr. Brennan became Murphey Brown?

Giant hydraulic spiders

So It is crazy how many ideas I have for posts and then forget about them.. Not only that, but I'm always like, 'oh, I won't forget that', or 'I'll write it down when I get home'. Lately I'm having ideas all the time, but not many make it to paper or the screen. Some ideas I do remember, but they're going to require a lot of work to post. Problem is, my creative moments are usually when I'm walking to school, or working out at the gym, or driving, or basically whenever there isn't a pen and paper readily available. I need one of those pop-out note pads like Kevin Klein had in Wild Wild West, so I can write down whatever strikes me as remarkable at whatever given time. But I don't have to save the American government or Salma Hayek from Kenneth Branagh.... yet... so my ideas don't seem important enough to merit inventing a neat contraption like that.

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.

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.