Just what I needed

The Scene: It's 8:50 pm. I'm in my apartment after a long, less-than-productive day. I'm itching to do something substantial with my evening, be it cleaning or homework, just something better than staring at a computer and grabbing crappy snacks here and there. My phone rings ...continued and my sister is on the other end.

She tells me of a free-with-student-ID concert at the Gargoyle on campus. It's a no-lose situation: I was looking for something, and this was exactly it! So I stop what I'm doing (it happened to be making a glass of chocolate milk) and head over to campus.

I walk in during Graham Colton Band's first song. They played just under an hour and sounded good. Not great, just good. The four-chord fivesome didn't play anything that wasn't on either of their CD's, didn't do much with the songs, but played a clean show. Not bad for a young group.

Headlining was Matt Nathanson. This show makes the number of times I've seen him more than the number of times I've seen Counting Crows. Matt is darn good! This time, more than just him and his buddy-and-cello-player Matt Fish: Nathanson had a four-piece band. They played a number of "hits," rather, songs that are popular among his followers, plus the few singles that I've heard on various (usually independent) radio stations. He's got so much energy on stage and really knows how to talk to and work with the crowd.

Some highlights:

• While introducing one song, he asks if we know "Jesse's Girl," and upon shrieks from the females in the crowd, says he doesn't want to leave people with "blue balls, or blue ovaries." They proceed to play the first verse and chorus of Jesse's Girl before Matt explains why he brought it up in the first place.
• During "Lost Myself In Search of You," he was "rockin' out" so hard that he ripped his pants. Seriously. He managed to borrow some safety pins from someone in the crowd, mentioned how he could be part of Skid Row, and periodically throughout the rest of the show made a joke about how his dick was falling out.
• He introduced the rest of the band Ozzy Osbourne-style. Great impersonation, too.
• While talking between songs, he noticed someone taking a picture, and the flash didn't go off until a time when he knew he had some weird expression on his face. So he stops everything to "pose" for the student to take another shot.
• He got the entire room to sing along to a silly Prince cover and to one of his own tunes. Every last person was singing.

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Why public transportation doesn't pay

• 25 minutes: How much earlier I had to wake up to catch the Gold Line shuttle to med school campus.
• $2.00: Cost of the Metrolink ticket for the ride home, since I wasn't about to wait another 15 minutes for the return shuttle.
• $10.00: Cost of the parking ticket since I had left my car on the street on the Last Tuesday of the month (street cleaning).

The alternative: $2.50 to feed the parking meter somewhere in Central West End. I can't wait till I get my bike back.

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Who cut the cheese?

I just heard an advertisement for this event, happening tomorrow, on the radio. So glad I'm not lactose-intolerant!

To celebrate our 70th Anniversary, Hautly Cheese is building a 70ft Sandwich. Donations for sandwich slices will benefit SLU Community Garden. Stop by to see us Westfield Shoppingtown® West County. 12-3 PM, Lord & Taylor Court.

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A perfect match

I wrote it off as coincidence when I noticed that Kristin had the exact same credit card, a Discover with American Flag design, as I have. But now there's no other explanation than that we make a great couple. I asked her what kind of bagel I should keep out for her before I freeze the rest for storage; she chose the everything bagel. Same credit card design, same fave bagel, must be a match made in heaven!

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"It's all downhill from here" takes new meaning

Since my bike is in the shop, I decided to take a run at Castlewood this morning. It was my third or fourth time trail running out there, and my first time running Grotpeter (I've biked that one a few times, in both directions) and Lone Wolf (again, biked it on several occasions). ...continued

I got up early enough this morning to get a dozen bagels while they were still fresh, then came home to eat one quickly before heading to the 'Wood. Took a bit of a different route this time, too, to change up the scenery. I parked and was ready to hit the trail by 9:30.

While there were already plenty of other cars in the lot--it was crowded but by no means full--I only passed a handful of people during my run. On the 3-mile Grotpeter loop, there was an older couple walking right at my start, then two separate bikers going in the same direction I was headed. Nobody else. It was like a private trail, just for me.

Trail running is probably one of my new favorite workouts. Yeah, it's slower than street running or even Forest Park--I ran between 8:30-9:00 miles today--and noticeably harder on the knees and ankles, but the sensory experience while running more than makes up for it. Instead of car exhaust and garbage fumes burning your lungs, you suck in cool, damp air full of greenery. The ground actually has character, with each step different from the previous and the next, sometimes over rocks and roots, other times on dirt or fine gravel, occasionally on tall grass or low-growing mosses. Quite a difference from pavement, blacktop, more pavement. And the isolation, ah the isolation. I'm very glad I got out there early, because it looked like it was picking up a bit by the time I left. While running on the road, I like a radio to block out the ambient noise: traffic, construction, other pedestrians. Here, I skipped the music in favor of the crunching of stones under my feet, the rustling of leaves as squirrels scurry around, and the buzzing of locusts.

One interesting myth is that downhill is easier than uphill. Running up the first quarter-mile of Lone Wolf taxed my legs and lungs, no doubt, but the last mile down took absurd amounts of balance and concentration. Looking at some of the switchbacks and stretches of singletrack with straight drop below made me wonder how the hell I ever did this on the bike and lived to tell about it!

On the day, I chalked up right around 40 minutes of running time, plus warmup and cool down and a short walking break between Grotpeter and Lone Wolf. Ended the workout with a nice long stretch reminiscent of the routine we did before and after track practices in high school, then took the scenic way home.

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What a concept!

I heard a pair of songs in the car but wasn't near enough a computer to get to the radio station's "Last Four Played" playlist in time to figure out what they were. So I Googled "radio playlist," and in the first page of hits was ...continued Yes, Inc. So I figured I'd give it a try. The search was a bit slow, but Yes has a whole lot of cities, with most if not all the radio stations in those cities, and additionally MTV, MTV2, and VH1 listings. You can find the playlists for the last 24 hours of any of these.

Clicking around a bit more on the Yes website, it appears that in addition to a web-based playlist database, they offer services for radio stations and artists. For example, a listener can dial #YES on his or her phone to get info from the station regarding current or recently-played songs, contests, etc. Listeners can rate songs, buy albums, and sometimes even connect with artists.

Going through some of their "tour," the demos reminded me stylistically of that computer game from a few years ago, You Don't Know Jack. Just the way they presented their services made them look like a fun, innovative, useful company. Given more time, I'll look into them further. As a music buff, I feel obligated to support such a good idea in music interactivity.

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Hoofin' it a little bit faster

My running for the last several months has been generally slow distance, say 7:45-8:15 pace for 4-7 miles. I haven't run a time trial or a race in at least three years, excluding intramural track, which was once a year during which I ran a few sprints. I had all but forgotten what it feels like to be (somewhat) fast.

Today I decided I'd do a timed mile. Started with a nice 2-mile jog over to the track, then ran a hard 1600m on the clock. Sure enough, I shattered my old PR that had been standing for three and a half years. The old: 6:13. The new: 5:57. And I felt good afterward, like I could have shaved a few more seconds off had someone been pacing me. I think I may start doing intervals once a week now, maybe get into race shape in time for the Turkey Trots and such.

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Two weeks of hoofin' it.

Yesterday I hit Castlewood on bike for the first time since I fell a few months back. This was the first time I've ever been there with an experienced group--normally I'd go alone or with one other person of generally the same ability level as me. We rode pretty fast for my standards, and covered quite a few miles of trail. Loads of fun! I had a few problems with my bike though, so this morning I cleaner her up and brought her into the shop.

Besides a tuneup, I'll need a new chain--I had a twisted link, causing a lot of slippage--and new reflectors on my pedals--they fell off somewhere on the trail. I also asked about clipless pedals, and may make the upgrade soon. I just need to suck it up and drop the $75 for shoes and $60 for a nice broad clipless mountain pedal, but from everyone I've spoken with, clipless will make worlds of difference in my riding.

But now, since the shop is a bit backed up, I'm bikeless until October 1. Guess I'll bust out my walking shoes, maybe hit the shuttle a bit too, since I sure don't want to have to drive to class.

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Back to modernity

Big day today:

I ordered a new Dell Axim handheld computer to replace my now-defunct Handspring Visor. Well, the Visor just wasn't syncing with my PC anymore, probably a driver problem on the PC side rather than the handheld side, but when it crashed big-time last week and I lost all the data, rather than spending any more than the hour-and-a-half I had already burned trying to fix the synchronization problem, I resolved to finally get the Pocket PC I had been waiting for. I hope this one lives up to my expectations. If we can get the Visor to work on my dad's computer, then we'll see about converting my mom to the digital age.

Also got a new phone finally. The old one's vibrate function had ceased to work and the phone would occasionally turn itself off even with sufficient battery life. I wanted to get the cheapest, lowest-tech mobile phone possible, but Sprint didn't stock anything of the caliber I was looking for and ended up with a Samsung phone that has color screen, organizer, voice dial, downloadable ring tones, and a browser. Seeing as I use my phone pretty much only as a phone, the color and browser are useless; I don't hear any of those new-fangled ring tones well, so I'm sticking with the old-fashioned, shrill, "single tone" ringers; the voice dial may be a neat toy but time will tell if I use it beyond just its novelty period.

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Riff-Raff

After breakfast this morning, I drove into East Saint Louis to get my mandatory vehicle emissions test done. Plenty of run-down buildings and unkempt shrubbery, but this post's title doesn't refer to anything on "east-side." No, I was already back in Missouri, getting off at my exit--in a respectable part of town--where I saw a man on the corner.

This guy couldn't have been older than 25, couldn't have been younger than 18. He had a "punk" look about him: shirtless, lots of metal on his face and nipples, donning terrible mustard-plaid pants and black combat boots. He sure didn't look dirty, so he couldn't have been "on the streets" for too long. And his sign, this was the kicker. A piece of cardboard with three words, no request, even:

Traveling
Ugly
Broke

So what did he want us to do?!

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Headlines

Ever have so much to say, so much going on, that you haven't a clue where to begin? Yep, that's me right now. So I'll try to start somewhere. Headlines, stuff that's been occupying my mind a lot lately. I'd say "more to come" but I don't think I'll get to most of these.

• I still don't feel like I'm in "school-mode." I need something to kick my ass into high gear.
• I'm falling a bit behind on my work for the IP Task Force. Hopefully I'll catch up this weekend.
• Happy New Year! Between wrapping Teffilin in New York, going to High Holy Day services, and explaining bits and pieces of Judaism to Kristin, am I becoming more spiritual? Probably not, but we'll see.
• I'm damn excited that we're taking steps toward a first-order prototype for the Halo project!
• I need more exercise and would like more sleep.
• Friends are great. I need to stop saying "We should get together sometime" and actually get together. But till then, emails and random bump-ins are a good bridge.

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Validation

My personal homepage has a section with descriptions of some academic projects I've done, one of which is a Matlab implementation of the SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations) algorithm to solve a basic fluid dynamics problem. I posted a brief description of the project and sample output, but did not post the source code because our professor asked us not to share with students who would be taking the class in the future.

Early this morning, I received an email from a student at a university in India, asking me about the program.

In the past I've received invitations to join Matlab-related and computational fluid dynamics discussion groups, on Yahoo, for example, presumably because the moderators have found my page. However, to get a personal email about it gave me this ear-to-ear grin.

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Social Change

Sitting in LaGuardia Airport, I was hit by two stirring feelings to step up and change the world. The feelings were triggered by a public-service-type commercial on CNN at the gate area.

...continued

The scene: a nice restaurant, diners dressed in business clothing. One diner, a middle-aged white male, speaks up to get the attention of a waiter or busperson. Enter twenty-something Hispanic male speaking English with a thick latin accent: "Yessir, can I help you?" The diner complains that he had requested whole wheat bread, and the bread on his table was not whole wheat. The busboy takes the basket away and comes back with a new basket as the camera cuts to other tables of diners continuing their meals without flinching.

Apparently the new breadbasket is still not whole wheat, and the man raises his voice irritatedly, "Excuse me, I said whole wheat! Wheato!" The white female hostess quickly brings a basket of whole wheat and quietly apologizes. By this time several other diners have turned their heads at the noise, and the man grumbles something under his breath. After a brief pause with the entire restaurant hanging, a white man across the room calls out the first man, firmly telling him that he is wrong. Another pause as the screen cuts to black, with a voiceover and text along the lines of "Look at the power of one voice."

I was left with a strange feeling of disgust for the rude diner and of admiration for the man who spoke up. The commercial really made me ponder what I would do in that situation: would I have the balls to say something? I hope that I would.

Rob certainly would have said something in that situation. He has acted in like manner before. I reflected back to one day ago, sitting at dinner with him and others, hearing him talk about the plan he and his co-teacher made for their classroom.

Rob is part of Teach For America, and today he begins teaching a fourth-grade class in Harlem. He and his co-teacher are calling their class "The Academy." The students' groups, rather than getting names like Yellow Table and Blue Table, will have names like Harvard and Yale. Fourth graders! When addressing the students, they will use language like, "Now pay close attention, because you'll use this all the time when you're in college." When they're in college, not if they go to college. That idea struck me: so simple yet so powerful, why hadn't others thought of it before? Don't give the kids hope that they'll go to college; start them early with the expectation that they'll be there.

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Confidence and funniness

Confidence

Despite the fact that I have been in New York City for only three days, I have already been asked several times for directions. Funny thing is, there were plenty of other "locals" around, including David, who knew better than I did, but for some odd reason the people asked me. I guess I just looked like I knew where I was going.

Funniness

Went down to Brooklyn to see Nick, then he and I met with Rob and David in Central Park to toss some frisbee. Afterward we had cheap burgers and beer nearby. Walking back toward the subway stop, Rob was tossing his phone and ended up dropping it on the street. When he tried to pick it up, he knocked it into a sewer. Lovely. Fortunately, the flower shop at that corner had a "grip-on-a-stick" to reach down between the sewer grates; unfortunately, the lever to clasp and unclasp the gripper part was just below street level. Fortunately, Nick was able to fit his hand between the grates, far enough to pull the lever; unfortunately, he was startled by a sewer rat running by and couldn't grab the phone. Fortunately, Rob was persistent and ended up getting his phone out, safe and sound, while providing animated entertainment for no less than one dozen passersby. They both went back to the restaurant to wash their hands.

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The morning after

Shortly after finishing my previous post, we got dressed and took the subway down near the NYU campus. Hit a martini lounge, a hopping college-ish bar, and a cafe with coffee and dessert. Yep, we ran the whole circuit. No cover at any of them. Drinks were sort of pricy but not outrageous. The various atmospheres were nice, as I got to taste all sorts of nite life.

...continued

At this point I'd venture to say that the best part about barhopping here is that there is no smoking in bars and restaurants! We were out from 11 till 4, and when we got back we didn't have a single smoke particle on our clothing or in our lungs.

Later today I'll take the subway out to Brooklyn and see Nick and maybe Rob. While I would have liked to see them last nite, this may work out better, meeting on their turf: I'll see another part of the city and they can be my "guides" to cool spots they frequent.

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New York, Day 2

Another good day in the city. I'm writing this in our interim break, after dinner but before going out. Dave is taking a 10-minute nap to prepare for the long nite ahead, but I decided I'm better off just having some water and debriefing myself, so here goes.

...continued

Got up this morning about when I had planned (9:20 ain't that bad after staying up well past 4) and lounged around David's apartment for an hour or so before he got up. All on the TV was coverage of the World Trade Center memorial service. We went out mid-morning, walked around one of the street marketplaces (great peoplewatching), and kept going all over the place. Really put a lot of miles on our feet today. I saw Chinatown (ate pot stickers at the Tasty Dumpling per Nick's suggestion), the path along the Hudson River, Washington Square (saw a neat act of street performers among other things), walked thru SoHo and NoHo, got pics by the City Hall, the Courthouse, and Ground Zero. The WTC site was very interesting today, especially: there was a lot of genuine emotion in the air from people who may have been closeby or who had lost relatives, but also a lot of bullshit flying from people who just wanted to get on camera with their war protests or their three-degrees-of-separation remembrance stories.

Took a short break mid-afternoon after a quick snack of Thai food, then went out for Cuban food with David and Jonathan. Still equipped with camera in hand, I was brought to the roof of Dave's father's building for a really nice nite view of the city. Later went down to Times Square again, mostly just to take a few photos. Now here I am, getting psyched to go back out to the bars.

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Big day in the Big Apple

My first day in New York: very eventful. I'm exhausted now but not sleepy. Walked around a bunch in the financial district toward the end of David's workday. Took the Staten Island Ferry round trip just to see the city and Lady Liberty. Got 1/2-price tix to 42^nd Street. Walked around Times Square. Ate some authentic New York Pizza. Hung out at a bar, where the first few beer went down so easily after being rather famished and dehydrated prior in the day. Walked around quite a bit downtown at nite, and made a few subway trips already. Have tentative plans (a.k.a. it's going to happen, just don't know when or where) to get together with Nick and with Matt over the rest of the weekend.

New York really is a big city. Being raised so close to Chicago, I didn't expect to be that awed by NYC, but Times Square is really something else. And when you get out of the bars at 2am and the streets are still as busy as they were at 8pm, wow. Very nice place to visit. I'd need a lot more time to decide if I could ever live here, but I'm thinking probably not, if for no other reasons than the "rich culture," high prices, and high fashion that I've seen thusfar.

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N-Y-C-you soon

Nine hours till my plane leaves. It will be my first time ever in New York. I still have to pack. I still have to sleep. I still have to come down from this mixed euphoria-exhaustion from a stressful, eventful day that got progressively better, while also anticipating my forthcoming adventure. Yes, I'm really looking forward to taking a bite out of the Big Apple, seeing some old buds, and hopefully forgetting about school and work for a few days.

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shit

Though I don't remember waking up or dreaming at all last nite, it certainly wasn't a good sleep. I got a cup of terrible coffee from the cafeteria before MFM, but it made me more fidgety than awake. ...continued

A general feeling of crappiness has overtaken me the last few days, between my poor diet over the holiday weekend and the lack of sound sleep, plus stress over things with work that I don't think I'll have time to get done, plus trying to keep a happy face so that the average joe doesn't read that I feel shitty.

Well, I sure hope this won't damp my fun in New York.

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Frustration!

This is what happens when one gets dependent on technology: one gets extremely frustrated when things don't work right. And when "one" is "me" I won't quit until I fix it or find a workaround. Or until I need to leave for class.

I went to sync my Visor this morning (Visor = archaic but not ancient Palm-powered PDA) and my computer complained that the USB device was not recognized. Since Handspring (the company that made Visor) was acquired by Palm, there is very little support available online for old models like mine. Further complicating the problem, my internet connection has been very spotty today. I damn near pulled out my laptop to connect to a dialup server (do I hear "1997?") to find drivers for the Visor. Didn't have time. I'll have to play with it later, maybe tomorrow. Hopefully I still have the software cd that came with it. Hell, if not, I guess I have the excuse I've been looking for to get a new Wi-Fi-enabled, color, SDIO-equipped Pocket PC!

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"First Week Mix"

This is very probably the most upbeat mix cd I've ever put together. Originally I had the Graham Colton song with the same name in the mix, but scratched it when I actually listened to the lyrics! Anyway, I drew my inspiration from the short but eventful time I've spent with Kristin so far. ...continued

1. I've Just Seen a Face - Beatles
2. Small Town - John Mellencamp
3. F.N.T. (Fascinating New Thing) - Semisonic
4. Steal My Kisses - Ben Harper
5. You Dance - eastmountainsouth
6. Only Wanna Be With You - Hootie and the Blowfish
7. Free Fallin' - Tom Petty
8. City Love - John Mayer
9. Let's Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones
10. Creepin' In - Norah Jones
11. Be Mine - David Gray
12. Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
13. Young - Nickel Creek
14. Slide - Goo Goo Dolls
15. Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five

The disc graced my round-trip this weekend no less than three times in the car and apparently got a lot of playtime on Kristin's side as well.

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Pack the place

Last nite was the first EnCouncil meeting of the year. What fun! Normally the first meeting is full, but I don't remember it ever being as full as it was last nite. Not only was every seat taken and people sitting in the aisles, but there were actually layers of floor-sitters.

Props to Dan and the other execs who made the meeting run very smoothly, very quickly, very entertainingly. Props to all the other "super" folks, 5th-years and co-ops and others in my boat, who still come around after all this time. Let's hope the new membership stays strong and the current membership stays active.

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A change of heart

I was beginning to dislike biking around Forest Park, what with all the other bikers, runners, skaters, and walkers. But today, between classes, I took a mid-morning ride and found that it wasn't nearly so bad. ...continued

For one thing, it was warm but not intolerable. The automobile traffic from the morning rush was over, and most of the fumes had cleared, so the air was more or less breathable. Skaters, who, in my mind are the worst trail hogs, were all but absent; I only came across two, one of whom had "ski poles" for his workout. In general the trails were much less congested, so I didn't have to deal with passing folks who were on the "wheels" trail when they should have been on the "heels" trail. (Yes, I'm guilty of that when I assume the runner's avatar, but I hope people would do as I say, not as I do!) And, it seemed like during the daytime, trail users actually know what "On your left" means!

So now my new rule of thumb: FP at night, runner's delight; FP mid-morning, bicycle warning.

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I give up

In an attempt to reset my system, I was cutting back on caffeine. For a few days I haven't made my morning pot of coffee, haven't had my Diet Coke at lunch, haven't taken down half of a 2-liter bottle with dinner. I've only had a few glasses of pop (I don't care what else you may call it) over the past days. But this morning, to get my eyes unglued, I caved. As I type I'm feeling the life come back to me by way of hot black liquid.

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Chalk up one for exhaustion, another for good timing

After my afternoon meeting was cancelled, I came home for a while before the MFM review session at 4:00. Well, thanks to a late nite (grin) I pretty much passed out on my futon, and by some fortune woke up at 3:45. So much for biking to class! So I grabbed my Jiffy Lube frequent-change card and hit the pavement in my automobile instead of on my bicycle. Walked into the review session at 4:03, but the TA leading the session was right behind me, so I wasn't really late. The review session was pretty useless anyway.

So, after the session I headed over to get my oil changed, then planned on hitting Target for a few errands. Jiffy Lube was backed up, as they were understaffed today. The mechanic came up to me and informed me of the 50-minute wait, and said that if I come back in the morning it would be $19.99 instead of $32.99 So I went on to Target, having lost maybe $0.47 in gas and 10 minutes of time, but saving $12.53 and 40 minutes.

I'm off to volleyball in a few minutes, feeling damn good about the events of the last 24 hours.

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