Happy Halloween

I bought a new stereo for my car recently.

Though I haven't explored all of its features, it has been great so far. It has a display that does some fairly sophisticated animation (e.g. a moving sine wave for the AM/FM tuner). If you look close in this pic, it is showing that it is hooked up to an iPod.

Today, when it is first turned on, it shows pumpkins and a witch, and flashes "Happy Halloween" ! Charming and ghoulish.... Now I know why it asked me for my birthday when I was configuring it. Looking forward to that....

Lick of the Day, Unmasked

My bro-in-law is an excellent guitar player and runs the popular site, Lick of the Day.

In a rare glimpse, you can see him better (than usual) in this video

I did not.

Vic's birthday is coming soon. As a gift, I thought I would relate this little tale from his visit to St Louis.

The Setup

You may not know that one can actually ascend to the top of the Arch. People go up in a 4-5 minute ride on a tram: the "cars" are tiny, bizarre pods from a B space movie (see pic). They hold 5 people each, knees touching.

Vic and I were in a long line to go up, on a Saturday afternoon. A ticketing agent comes by and asks us if we are traveling together. Cleverly, Vic says "yes but we can go as two singles if that works". We are handed two tickets: a #2 and #3. Having gone up before, I knew we would travel separately but I figured that would be fine.

The Condescension

We go through turnstiles and past security (after all, this is a National monument), and stand in adjacent lines to enter into the pods.

Inexplicably, Vic scoots over into my line. Wide-eyed, I look at him and tell him that we can't go in the same line. There are finite seats, and security will freak, and, and...

He opens his arms and floats his arms downward. In a long drawl, he says "Reeeeeellaaaaaaaaax".

Then, the pods open and newly-descended visitors crawl out of them. It becomes immediately apparent to Vic that there is no way this is going to work. He scoots back into the other line. I rub my temples and wonder if our imminent arrest will make it into the Eastern Graphic.

The Plot Thickens

The ascent is long. The pods lurch to-and-fro. It is noisy, jangly, and though one can't see outside, one can see a lot of pulleys and chains outside the little window.

At the top, a full 5 minutes later, we emerge from our respective pods. Vic looks pretty green. In my best Maritime accent, I say "how'd you like that, now?".

His response was terse and serious: I did not.

Apparently, we suffer from claustrophobia, and we weren't prepared for these little pods. On his ride up, some passengers -- kids -- talked a lot about a time when a malfunction caused people to be trapped in these things for 8+ hours. This was getting very interesting.

The Payoff

After a quick look around (which isn't nearly as cool as the ride up), Vic announces that he has seen what he needs to see and it is time to go. He notes that it is quite windy, and though the CN Tower is far taller than the Arch, the Arch has more sway to it. He doesn't look so good.

I tell him that we should stay a bit until the crowd clears. He looks at me and just shakes his head quietly.

Then, with all the irony I can muster, I outstretch my arms, floating my hands calmy downward, and with a long, drawl:

"Reeeeeeeeellaaaaaaaaaaaax."

CC

ps. Happy Birthday Vic

Thank you C-Span

Wow, will wonders never cease: I am in StL watching a live feed of election night coverage from CBC on C-Span, a gov't channel down here in the US. I just happened across it while surfing....

This is so fantastic! I have only barely heard the voice of the big players (Harper, Dion, etc) in the media. Stephane Dion is speaking now -- I'm not sure I have ever heard his voice before.

(I have read a lot about these people and the policies).

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada

Quick note to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home...

I think every year now I have written about the differences between the Canadian and US Thanksgiving. This year, I'll defer to those previous posts.

CC

Tale of Two Tallies

The USA

Things are getting hot in the US. Today, an admin assistant sent an dept-wide email saying "this is the last day to register to vote. Register today for this historic election". She later sent an apology, as some one called her on being biased. Heaven only knows which way she was called on it.

I have heard people say "if X wins, I am moving out of the country", for both values of X !

Canada

Canada goes to the polls on Oct 14. Canada is currently under a minority government, which is always tenuous at best -- though some say that is a good form of government as it innately encourages balance. I believe that the Conservatives are leading the polls; the media suggests that they will win a (slim?) majority, though this is not clear. If so, this may come as a surprise to those Americans who want to migrate North in the event that McCain/Palin win down here.

IT Incognito: episode 2

Episode 2 of IT Incognito is out! Check it out here... This is not me in garb but you may recognize the voiceover at the end:



Note that this is really geeky stuff. Don't worry if you don't understand. Essentially, it is an attempt to "go viral" with some offbeat material from our IT training department. Plus, we're having fun which IMHO is inherently attractive.

No worries if you don't like it. The whole experiment tends to receive rather polarized reactions.

I think the video editing is really well done!

Cardinal Consolation

In baseball news, the main focus for this town, during the summer, was the startling success of the arch-rival Cubs and our losing the wild-card spot to the Brewers.

It was a lame season. Sweet revenge is seeing both of those teams ousted in the first round, with the Cubs being swept on the 100th anniversary of their last win.

Hey -- any team can have a bad millenium!

Bye bye, Blackbird ?

The last post mentioned a new search for simplicity. This isn't a joke: I'm considering selling Blackbird and retiring from triathlon.

Dean Karnazes is a famous ultra-marathon runner. In his book, he talks about his passion for running. He mentions, dismissively, a period of doing triathlons, but went back to running. When I read this, 3 years ago, I couldn't understand: triathlon is inherently greater than running and is surely superior in every way.

Now, I think I understand.

At the risk of writing a Dear Diary post or an outright rationalization, here are some thoughts:

• I have never had medical issues with running or swimming. All pain and medical attention has been because of that bike.
• Most bikes bring you back to being a kid. Not a tri bike: it is a finicky racehorse that has to be 'set up' correctly, with great care and non-trivial expense.
• Both in terms of my car decision and my geography, the bike is a constant concern. Runners can drive Corvettes :-)
• It pains me to think that I will never do an IronMan, but that just takes so much dedication. I don't think I can train for one _and_ play piano _and_ write blogs etc etc. I need something simpler, and with balance. To me, that means marathon. Running is still ambitious, no doubt, but it seems reasonable with respect to my other goals.
• There are many indoor triathlons. They are a cross between a joke and a parlour game but they might server as a good motivation to cross-train (e.g. for swimming).

And so, it might time to close a chapter. As you can see, neither my original endeavours nor my quitting are whimisical. But it feels right. With the possible exception that the Fall St Peter's Recplex Tri is happening very soon, and I won't be in it. Jim G 1 CC 0.

CC

ps. My swan song may well have been the 1/3 Iron Man in August 2007. After 38 miles, I couldn't wait to get off that bike. It was hot as blazes too: rather famously, I ended up in the ER for dehydration. However, for the record I remind the universe of this side fact: I finished.

Life Update

Yikes! One of the valued 'home pagers' (those who set CC to be their home page) has threatened action: a sure sign that things have been all too quiet on here.

Generally, life is great here in St Louis. Work is a dream and my neighbour has responded to a warning letter from the apt complex (i.e. the dog and late night parties have been curtailed). I have completely slacked off on fitness (more to come), but had a lot of fun this summer and fall in my personal life.

Compared to last fall, things are fantastic. Last fall, I hated my client gig and was really depressed. I was terrified to sit at the piano and was agonizing over a decision to stay here in the US. I'm not sure that I am "at peace" with respect to life decisions, but generally things are good.

My new mantra is a return to simplicity. Stay tuned for more. Also, I am well under 2 years away from the big 4-oh. I hope to re-invent myself somewhat for "version 4" in the same way that I have for version 3, which all-in-all, was a big success.

Jet Man

That Jet Man guy has done it again: crossing the English channel.... Check out the video on YouTube (click here).

Apparently this stunt really pushed the boundaries of what he could do in terms of safety and equipment. For some reason, I find this much more interesting than the attempts, in recent years past, to circle the globe in balloons etc.

Sharing articles

Folks, a good way to aggregrate blogs etc is to use Google Reader. It is free with a registered account (e.g. your Gmail account).

To subscribe, simply look for the RSS/Atom feed on a site; these are usually at the bottom.

A neat feature is that users can "share" articles with others.

My shared links are here, if you are interested. They are a mix of Java stuff, Canadian stuff, and often things of general geek interest.

Patriotism and Doughnuts

Hegemom forward me this article about an academic doing research on Canadians and their beloved Tim Horton's.

Quote:

Here are some tasty extracts from his work. "In Canada, the doughnut is widely believed to be the unofficial national food. Expatriate Canadians speak of associating a trip to the doughnut shop with returning home."

Keen readers will recall that I went to Detroit earlier in the month for visa stuff. As the Canadian border guard put it, I was a "turnaround": I drove into Windsor solely for the purpose of a U-turn and applying for re-entry into the US.

I did make one stop however: no joke, I went to Tim Horton's.

Quoteth

"They say there are no atheists in a foxhole. Well, there are no libertarians in a financial crisis, either."

-- Jeffrey Frankel, Harvard economist

Berlin provides a full report

My friend Berlin has returned from her daughter's wedding! The whole family descended on St Peter's, PEI for the nuptials. Later, B and her husband drove around the Maritimes. Here is a quick recap:

• The venue, Inn at Fortune Bay, was a big hit. Berlin raved about the food. Guests from NYC are quite epicurean and loved it.
• The weather was dicey, as it was throughout the eastern seaboard. However, it was not raining for the outdoor ceremony. It was windy, but that relieved the crowd from the mosquitos. Apparently the mosquitos (or black flies) were vicious during the rehearsal. Berlin couldn't believe it.
• New Glasgow Lobster Suppers is an iconic restaurant back home. Berlin said it was ok, but the giant buffet was closed, possibly due to being off-season?
• Generally, she thought both The Island and the rest of the Maritimes was lovely. A major hit was Cape Breton (of course). They also enjoyed some places in New Brunswick. I can't remember where now. But they did see the famed tidal bore and also the reversing river.
  
• Berlin sort of reminds me of my grandmother: she has a modesty about her and will tell these 'shocking' stories that are so quaint. She was surprised by the amount of booze at the wedding (her own reasonable consumption was a personal record), and described the number of lobsters she had (3 and 1/2) as though they were each a delicious, cardinal sin.
• The fam went to the Atlantic SuperStore (a large grocery store) to get fresh lobster. She thought it was far superior to St Louis' Shnucks and Dierbergs: she said it was gorgeous. That's a hoot because no locals would say that.
  

Overall, they seemed to have a really good time. I just drank all this in over lunch today. It was surreal to sit down in St Louis and get the low-down on the Maritimes. Berlin has seen more of eastern Canada in 2 weeks than I have in years.

I like Ike ?

Ike was a shadow of his former self but slammed here on Sunday morning... Lots of rain, some downed trees, and considerable flooding.

Alas, Sunday morning was the Lewis & Clark 1/2 marathon, the latest installment in the rivalry between our hero and his arch-rival, the nefarious Jim G.

No build-up here: JimG won by default. An ex-Navy man who perhaps is happy to escape his pedestrian, suburban abode, he braved the wretched conditions, along with a surprisingly large number of runners.

Our hero was not so brave. CC was raised in such a way that it is a cardinal sin not to partake in something that is paid for. However, the rain, the lack of running mileage prior to the event, and particularly the 5:45 am arrival time was just to much. (Who starts a freaking running race at 6:30 am? I get enough of that crap in triathlons.)

And so, all is dry, fat, and happy, here at home and hearth. The big news: Berlin will soon be back from The Nuptials on PEI! Alas, I fear that the weather was rough and the mosquitos were worse. But from her initial email messages, I think they had a nice time.

Particle Rap

In case you don't follow Internet crazes, here is a fun rap video by the giant Swiss/French physics lab, CERN, which is staring some banzai particle acceleration this week. This is outstanding. They are doing it to educate the media and calm the masses about impending annihilation of the earth.

I haven't written it yet but I hope to write a spoof on this (for the tech blog) involving Google.

The Motor City

I went to Detroit on an annual day-trip of sorts... Some quick thoughts:

• If I know a crowd, all bets are off, but I was raised so as to never inconvenience strangers in formal settings. It is simply unconscionable to me to recline an airline seat, if I know there is someone behind me. I did not suffer such a fate this time, but watched some ingrates anger people.
• A couple of times, I caught a "shuttle" from the airport to a rental-car place. It seems like a nice, cute thing, a shuttle. But it was a full-blown bus that sat idling (for hours?) until lil' ol' me showed up. Then it belched diesel nastiness as it groaned and creaked into action, whisking me to my destination. I was grateful but embarrassed. My carbon foot-print on this trip was obscene.
• I truly believe that most of humanity are kind at heart. I saw some good people working at the border.

Art Highlights

Check out some of these artists... From the Clayton Art Festival and/or the "Art Outside" festival in Maplewood. (A lot of art in St Louis lately)

Kreg Yingst (graphic art)

Bradley Bauer (photog)

Michael Gard (gorgeous wire sculptures)

Letting our hair down

My geek people are officially having fun!

Check out this video. Even if you don't have sound, let it go past the intro.

I'm not in it, but you might sense some psychic fingerprints on the theme.