In honor of pi Day here is the first...whatever ;-)
3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128
4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196
4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091
4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273
7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436
7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094
3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548
0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912
9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798
6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132
0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872
1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235
4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960
5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859
5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881
7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303
5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778
1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989
3.14.2007
3.13.2007
Nike+
Since July 13, 2006 I have been logging every run using the Nike+ Apple iPod nano to track my runs. On 3/6/07, a total of 236 days later I had run a 159 runs or 67% of the days I put in some kind of run. Over those 159 runs I ran 546.83 miles or about 3.4 miles a run. Average pace was 10:03 a mile. My farthest run was 8.74 miles. So there is a summary.
3.12.2007
3.11.2007
Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch interested me because of the connection with the movie "Fever Pitch". The movie about an obsessed Red Sox fan and the book about an obsessed Arsenal football fan. Funny thing about all this is that before I read this book I had become an outside Arsenal fan...no real reason why other than I liked their uniform with the big O2 on the front. Being a chemist geek I thought it would be cool to have a big oxygen symbol on my shirt ;) Anyway after reading the book I have a lot more intimate view of arsenal and England football. Wow what an eye opener about British soccer. Some of the undercurrents was just amazing...I had no ideal. Overall interesting view of soccer but frankly a bit over my head. If I ever get to England I will definately go see an Arsenal game. Oh yeah another little twist in all of this is that the Colorado Rapids is partnering with Arsenal! I find this all to be a bit weird!
3.10.2007
Captain America - RIP
Okay they broke Batman's back, he came back, they killed Superman, he came back, they killed Colossus, he came back, they killed Hawkeye, he came back....are you starting to get the picture? Gimmick? Possibly but the issue was good...very emotional. Not for sure if I liked the whole Civil War thing but I do think that putting Capt A and Iron Man against each other was a good touch. Two dynamic figures with definate histories. With the finish of Civil War, they really had to move the character forward and this was a logical step but still it was Capt America! He's the man...to see him shot...that was tough. Definately provides a point forward, but will they cheapen it by bringing him back? Wouldn't it be nice if they let the character move on? Why cheapen it? Let the character move on and allow it to move the mythos forward. Hopefully Brubaker has something up his sleeve...I would like to see the Capt kick some Iron Man butt! Oh yeah the whole downfall of America and Capt America...please don't go so deep.
3.08.2007
This Week in Comics
New story line...can't say bringing the Kingpin into play is really what I am looking for in Ultimate Spider-Man. The Kingpin is and older harsher villain that really doesn't play well in the Ultimate Spider-Man world. I prefer if we stick to the spidey villains. I also wish these story within stories had some connections. I mean we do have the triangle between MJ, Peter, and Kitty but what about some bigger plots especially those one pagers that give us a peak into the future direction. We shall see...
I admit I fell off the Avengers bandwagon...the stories just weren't fun but I gather Bendis had to go into a holding pattern due to the events of Civil War. Still not for sure why we need two teams and why is Wonder Man an Avenger and who is Ares? Black Widow is not a team character. Not for sure if this line up is Avenger worthy...is this West Coast Avengers redux?
Yawn...is this storyline over yet? Maybe if you are an age old JLA fan this story get you rev'd up but for me...just too many holes. Sorry to say but if you get too far away from the mythos of the big three is just doesn't do much for me.
Book 2, the story deepens, although not quite as good as the first book, it does set up the tale. Again I probably should revisit the original tale but so much too read. I wonder how this tale sets up for people in the know and thus of us who haven't read the books? Also does King ok the storyline?
3.07.2007
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Good if not better second offering from Arcade Fire. I gave in to the tipping point and decided to get the album. Some decent songs especially Intervention, No Cars Go, and Black Mirror. Next to Silversun Pickups this is the best album I've heard in 2007. Quite a musical extravaganza. Lots of musical themes. Good beats...not quite running music, but good to work to. Overall the album lives up to the hype although it isn't a superalbum like Joshua Tree or Born in the USA.
3.06.2007
Random Thoughts
Just a nothing kind of day! Not much that really jumped out at me so just a useless bit of randomness...
Random Quote:
"I push it, study it, tweak it and listen to it" is how Armstrong tells us he prepares his body for a race. When questioned about what he is "on," his response is a simple: "I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day... what are you on?"
Random Poem From Me:
The path is worn the ruts exposed
My feet glided through the air
The sky is a brilliant red
The mountains glow with an eeiry darkness
Random Quote:
"I push it, study it, tweak it and listen to it" is how Armstrong tells us he prepares his body for a race. When questioned about what he is "on," his response is a simple: "I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day... what are you on?"
Random Poem From Me:
The path is worn the ruts exposed
My feet glided through the air
The sky is a brilliant red
The mountains glow with an eeiry darkness
3.05.2007
New York Times Maganzine - 3/4/07 Edition
On a whim I purchased the Sunday New York Times...I used to subscribe to the Sunday version but couldn't justify the monthly cost so every once in a while I seek it out or it just happens to find itself in my hands...like this weekend. Anyway I had a nice 2 1/2 hour flight to Fresno and having the Times made me seem worldly...as if going to Fresno quench any possible thoughts of that! Ha! This week's magazine was great...all three main stories were must reads.
Darwin's God
"In the world of evolutionary biology, the question is not whether God exists but why we believe in him. Is belief a helpful adaptation or an evolutionary accident?"
Well there you have it. Fascinating article. As a scientist I don't truly believe in what God as become. The capitalism of God would truly sicken any omniscient being! Our country has taken a good thing a bit too far. Looking at this world, seeing how religion has polarized our world and created way too much bloodshed, how father's can get a brain tumor, I truly have a hard time believing that such a being exists. All the same when you do look at the amazing universe we live in, you sometimes have to wonder. It is a great duality, zero and infinity. Anyway these are simply my thoughts and reading this article was very thoughtful especially since I have always wondered how so many people believe and put faith in something that doesn't exist.
"Why, he wondered, was religion so pervasive, when it was something that seemed so costly from an evolutionary point of view?"
Stephen Jay Gould (I'm more of a Dawkins fan...although after reading this article I think Dawkins might be a bit too harsh in his views) put forth an interesting ideal of "spandrel" or traits that have no adaptive value of its own. Gould says, "Natural selection made the human brain big but most of our mental properties and potentials may be to spandrels - that is, nonadaptive side consequences of building a device wth such structural complexity." Our mental capacity has gotten to such a point that it begins to ultimately question our existence. Because of the sheer complexity of our being it becomes only natural for us to seek answers. Most answers are not easy so the simple believe of a greater power helps to alleviate that big nothing.
"What about Atheists...if the evolutionary view of religion is true, they have to work hard at being atheists, to resist slipping into intrinsic habits of mind that make it easier to believe than not believe."
"No matter how much science can explaine it seems the real gap that God fills is an emptiness that our big-brained mental architecture interprets as yearning for the supernatural. The drive to satisfy that yearning, might be an inevitable and eternal part of the tragedy of human cognition."
One Very, Very Indie Band
Okay I'm really not jumping on the band wagon here. I heard about Arcade Fire about 6 months ago on the Dan Patrick show. He has a favorite pick me up song that he plays and he also mentioned the connection with U2. So I tracked them done a while ago...then boom, last Friday I had the day off, Dan plays the tune, and I go get their first album. Meanwhile last week there was in article in the New Yorker, this article, and a side note in Wired Magazine all touting their new album, Neon Bible. What to make of this? Is all this a sublimal mind f#$k luring me to finally buy the album. Is this a tipping point? This happens to me like so sort of deja vu. I buy something and then boom it goes mainstream. I won't take any credit but I do often wonder if it isn't just some marketing scam that I have fallen into.
By the way their first album, Funeral, was decent on the first listen. Need to bury it into my nano and see if anything sticks...
Campus Exposure
Interesting article about porn on high brow campuses. Something of interest to me lately as I have a friend who is dating a different generation and he informs me that taboo's aren't quite the same with younger women as it is with our generation. This article seems to confirm in some respect how sex and objectiving everything about it has become so mainstream that I don't think we really realize it anymore. It doesn't bother me but I imagine young people growing up in this ever present over sexual generation it must be overwhelming. Or perhaps I am just old. Does it seem to matter? I'm happily married but I often hear stories of couples in our social circle having all kinds of interesting propositions. No sex and swinger parites just to name a few. Has this always been present, an underlying current of society or because how mainstream sex has become it just doesn't matter anymore? Are we just looking for something new? (note: my Carrie Bradshaw impression is now over...)
Darwin's God
"In the world of evolutionary biology, the question is not whether God exists but why we believe in him. Is belief a helpful adaptation or an evolutionary accident?"
Well there you have it. Fascinating article. As a scientist I don't truly believe in what God as become. The capitalism of God would truly sicken any omniscient being! Our country has taken a good thing a bit too far. Looking at this world, seeing how religion has polarized our world and created way too much bloodshed, how father's can get a brain tumor, I truly have a hard time believing that such a being exists. All the same when you do look at the amazing universe we live in, you sometimes have to wonder. It is a great duality, zero and infinity. Anyway these are simply my thoughts and reading this article was very thoughtful especially since I have always wondered how so many people believe and put faith in something that doesn't exist.
"Why, he wondered, was religion so pervasive, when it was something that seemed so costly from an evolutionary point of view?"
Stephen Jay Gould (I'm more of a Dawkins fan...although after reading this article I think Dawkins might be a bit too harsh in his views) put forth an interesting ideal of "spandrel" or traits that have no adaptive value of its own. Gould says, "Natural selection made the human brain big but most of our mental properties and potentials may be to spandrels - that is, nonadaptive side consequences of building a device wth such structural complexity." Our mental capacity has gotten to such a point that it begins to ultimately question our existence. Because of the sheer complexity of our being it becomes only natural for us to seek answers. Most answers are not easy so the simple believe of a greater power helps to alleviate that big nothing.
"What about Atheists...if the evolutionary view of religion is true, they have to work hard at being atheists, to resist slipping into intrinsic habits of mind that make it easier to believe than not believe."
"No matter how much science can explaine it seems the real gap that God fills is an emptiness that our big-brained mental architecture interprets as yearning for the supernatural. The drive to satisfy that yearning, might be an inevitable and eternal part of the tragedy of human cognition."
One Very, Very Indie Band
Okay I'm really not jumping on the band wagon here. I heard about Arcade Fire about 6 months ago on the Dan Patrick show. He has a favorite pick me up song that he plays and he also mentioned the connection with U2. So I tracked them done a while ago...then boom, last Friday I had the day off, Dan plays the tune, and I go get their first album. Meanwhile last week there was in article in the New Yorker, this article, and a side note in Wired Magazine all touting their new album, Neon Bible. What to make of this? Is all this a sublimal mind f#$k luring me to finally buy the album. Is this a tipping point? This happens to me like so sort of deja vu. I buy something and then boom it goes mainstream. I won't take any credit but I do often wonder if it isn't just some marketing scam that I have fallen into.
By the way their first album, Funeral, was decent on the first listen. Need to bury it into my nano and see if anything sticks...
Campus Exposure
Interesting article about porn on high brow campuses. Something of interest to me lately as I have a friend who is dating a different generation and he informs me that taboo's aren't quite the same with younger women as it is with our generation. This article seems to confirm in some respect how sex and objectiving everything about it has become so mainstream that I don't think we really realize it anymore. It doesn't bother me but I imagine young people growing up in this ever present over sexual generation it must be overwhelming. Or perhaps I am just old. Does it seem to matter? I'm happily married but I often hear stories of couples in our social circle having all kinds of interesting propositions. No sex and swinger parites just to name a few. Has this always been present, an underlying current of society or because how mainstream sex has become it just doesn't matter anymore? Are we just looking for something new? (note: my Carrie Bradshaw impression is now over...)
3.02.2007
For All Mankind
Yup, I did it again. My inner NASA geek made me watch this. This documentary was recommended as one of the top Apollo films. Filmed entirely by Astronauts with astronauts commentary (mainly Cernan...who appears to be the only one willing to actually speak about going to the moon...heck 1 out of 12 ain't bad!). Overall some stunning filmography. Nothing new...thought the IMAX version of walking on the moon was much more impressive. Good footage but once again devoid of any real emotional. As much insight as the grey moon. Did have a nice feature on Alan Bean's paintings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)