Say cheese! I mean, acorn!

Awwww, just wook at this weally cute wittle girl. Took a 12x zoom snap of her crawling just twelve feet outside the kitchen window with a new camera we rec'd from my sister-in-law. An advance xmas present and an extremely generous one at that. A super rrrrreally big thanks, sis.

Our previous digital camera was a Canon G1 (a gift as well; thanks, Dad) and although now dated (they're currently up to G7), I had yet to tap its amazing potential as another user had done.

I love photography, so I certainly don't take these latest gadget gifts for granted.

Stay tuned for some future visual awesomeness. Maybe porn, perhaps :-). Oooh, la la!

A foot problem

Plantar fasciitis sucks.

I've had it since June and I've failed to pay it some serious attention to successfully treat it. Just thought it would go away after a few calf stretches, I guess. Well, four months later with some inconsistent stretching, an occasional night splint and no curbing of any foot loading activities like walking or standing, the pain is still there. Go figure.

I haven't seen an orthopedist yet but will likely schedule an appointment in the next few days. Time to get my act together, discipline my treatment and finally nip this thing in the bud.

The Devil Wears Prada

Last night I finished reading The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. I began it in mid-July through page 327 and let three months pass before resuming the last 105 pages. A typical me as I figured. (Don't even ask about my still hiatus from Stephen King's Bag of Bones.) And then I read about this guy's pace of a book a week! My hat's off to him.

Anyway, The Devil read exactly like a movie to me, although I haven't yet seen the film version. I even auto-filled the last page with my own ending soundtrack--John Mayer's Bigger Than My Body:

Someday I'll fly
Someday I'll soar
Someday I'll be so damn much more
Cause I'm bigger than my body
I'm bigger than my body
I'm bigger than my body now.

Dolby Digital Digital DTS SDDS
All material is protected by Copyright laws of the United States...

[Fade to black]

An alien insect!

Holy sh*t!!! Google maps has just discovered a 50 meter arthropod in Germany! Run for your lives!

Dance Dance Revolution / PIU

Watching people dance can be just as motivating and inspiring for me as watching athletes give their all in their sport. I've only tried playing DDR at an arcade once just this past summer and had quite a delight with it. If only I were two decades younger, I'd be aspiring to jive like that guy in the video above. (I watched it closely and I do believe he lands on most if not all of the correct lights dead on!)

He's definitely got the moves and is the coolest DDR Pump-It-Up (PIU) dancer I've seen yet.

Groove on!

Update: 9/30/06
It's not a DDR but rather a Pump It Up (PIU) machine in the video--both of which are arcade competitors with different dance pad layouts. Also, I've found out that the guy is James "Smidget" Devito, arguably the top U.S. competitor in PIU. I believe he's sponsored and involved in promoting the home console for Andamiro (see interview). Below are youtube links to his other performances:
1. WPF 2005 in Korea (I think James placed 2nd in the freestyle category.)
2. USPF 2005 (?) in Greenhorn, US.
3. Misc (unknown info)

Our 2006 MS Bike Tour

September 16th & 17th: 150 miles in two days.

It's the 2006 NJ "City-To-Shore" MS Bike Tour that three of my friends and I just did. Actually, they did the round trip 150; I only rode Saturday's 75 miles and took a long bus ride back to my car, which is how I signed up to do the Tour. Just can't stand to leave Melinda and the kids for too long, y'know. :-)

My lesson learned: sleep, sleep, sleep and drink, drink, drink. I barely slept 1.5 hours the night before due to a lot of irresponsible last minute preparation; and then on the ride, didn't grab any of my water bottles until the first rest stop. (Good lordie, why the halibut was I not thinking!?) So as you probably guessed, the inevitable occurred: severe fatigue and cramp city in both my calves. Ouch.

But yeah, I made it through thanks to my pals and the miracle of drafting. But I certainly was mad at myself the whole ride home as well as the next day for having such inept hindsight.

Our next tour is October 1st: The Pumpkin Patch Pedal @ 100 miles. So last night, I did an exact two hours on my trainer: hill intervals. A lot of huffing and puffing. It was my penance.

Ride on.

2 blogs become 1

I maintain a separate 'workout' blog that I may soon merge into this one. I'm getting tired of having to bounce among entries. After all, life is the whole enchilada, n'est pas? Might as well dish it all here to convey the bigger picture.

For now, I'm just changing the colors. How pretty.

A time travel flick

I saw Primer today on cable. Holy smokes, this movie was good. And it cost only $7000 to produce!! A personal favorite now. I'm watching it again this weekend and currently trying to find out more* about the film. I give Primer four super shiny stars: ****

* Shane Carruth is the writer, director, editor and composer of the movie. He also plays one of the two main characters. Talk about a really small budget! I found his change in career from engineer to filmmaking inspiring.

Bike like Ned

I'm inspired to climb.

Being a bit of a fan of cycling great Tyler Hamilton,--drug related drama & two-year suspension all aside--I read last week he had won the Mt. Washington Hillclimb in New Hampshire. It's a 7.6 mile all uphill race with an average 12% grade. And that's only the average. I think the steepness goes up to 22% in the last hundred yards. Lynne Tolman writes an engulfing description of the climb that makes me want to sign up.

As for the inspiration, it comes from another rider in the race results: 2nd place finisher Ned Overend, age 51. Excuse me, come again? Yes friggin frodo, he's fifty-one! He finished just two minutes behind Tyler. What a dude!

Reminds me of triathlete legend Dave Scott who did an amazing comeback at age 40 to finish 2nd in the 1994 Hawai Ironman Triathlon, and then 5th in '96 at age 42!

Can't wait to be 51 now. Greatness awaits! :-)

Our New Solar System

I'm a little sad that Pluto is officially no longer a planet. Neither is UB313--nicknamed "Xena", which is actually larger than Pluto. However, it does up the status of Ceres--formerly an asteroid--that lies between Mars and Jupiter. These heavenly bodies are now officially "dwarf planets."

Whether or not this decision holds up as well as the "planet" definition, I'm not sure. The vote was done at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague. And although 424 astronomers voted, that's only less than 5% of the world's astronomers.

So now you can be the know-it-all of your nephews and nieces. Go ahead and ask 'em: What are the EIGHT planets of our Solar System? Oh, and the THREE dwarf planets?