Let’s Dance

Posted on September 26, 2007 by chatty

What would you do if you became a billionaire? Show up on a reality show, of course!

I read Mark Cuban’s blog regularly, more to get perspective on current events concerning Web/Advertising/Video and HD trends. Less about sports/basketball, though he does do some decent commentary on that every once in a while. So seeing Cuban on Dancing With the Stars, mixing work-ish stuff with the mindless entertainment I ingest to distract myself from work, well it’s like two worlds colliding.

Like when I see someone from rowing every morning at 5 a.m. They see you at your worst, all groggy, greasy hair, pillow imprints on your cheek; or maybe very sweaty and and in spandex. Then later on, after you’ve showered and had something to eat you bump into them at the store. See the collision? You can hardly recognize the person. Because they have clothes on. Or their hair is combed.

Cuban on “Dancing” feels like that. He looks like he’s having fun. Unfortunately I don’t think he’s going to last; That race car driver was pretty good. But I voted for Cuban anyway. I wonder how many other “Dancing” celebrities have their own blog following?

BTW, read the comments from his DWTS post, and Mr. Billionaire suddenly has many more fans. Of the female variety. “Hey Cutey Mark! I voted for you!” Ha ha ha.

BTW2, LOVE the tacky DWTS logo, much better than the newer one they’re trying to hawk. I don’t buy it. Bring back the cheap disco ball.

Another update: Cuban reports on the show, following the results episode. If you must know, he and Kym cut it close but made it through. Good thing I voted for them.

Finish the Fight

Posted on September 25, 2007 by chatty

I don’t know if you heard, but Halo 3 came out today.

I mentioned earlier my love for hype. I’m one of the ~~fanatical~~ stupid thousands who stood in line at midnight to pick up a copy of Harry Potter 7 when it came out this past summer. Of course, I was so tired from staying up I promptly went home and fell asleep. I wonder if Uchendu Nwachukwu, the guy who was first in line for Halo 3 in NY, did the same. “Uche” as he’s called, had been in line over 30 hours. Sheesh. Hopefully his copy was not one of the scratched ones.

Anyway, back to Halo 3 and the hype. Here’s a pic of the ultra hypey Mountain Dew that is sitting in the coolers in our work kitchen:

Pretty sweet, eh? Actually I took a sip of it. It actually is really sweet. Really really sweet. Like candy in a can.

Some other favorite links on Halo 3 hype:

<< Halo 3 Mimobots – cartoonish-looking flash drives (Mimoco via Engadget and Gizmodo)

Halo 3 bodycount (Bungie Online via Microsoft’s On the 10)

More fun pics from the launch in NY (Best Buy near Times Square)

Also: Why all the hype for Halo 3? from MSNBC

I take a picture of my dinner every day or so. I’m very sorry.

Posted on September 24, 2007 by chatty

My favorite post from the Internets today. A Japanese man takes a picture daily of a local beverage vending machine. He notes changes and draws diagrams, announcing when colas change positions in the machine; when cans are switched to new brands or new branding; or when the cold drinks switch to hot beverages.

According to CScout Japan, the name of the blog translates to I take a picture of the vending machine every day (or so). I’m very sorry.

I reviewed some comments on message boards regarding this blog. A few are claiming he doesn’t have a life.

This man shouldn’t be sorry. It shows dedication and attention to detail. What difference is this hobby to the crossword puzzle fanatic who obsessively covets the Life & Arts section of the daily paper (you know these people exist. I am one of them). What difference is this than the Fantasy Football Freak, scouring stats daily, maybe hourly, as if any move he makes in this game he’s playing makes a difference in the grand scheme of things.

At least the time the vending blogger spends on this can help others in some strange way. Thanks to this guy, now we know the hot beverages will arrive in mid-October. That’s news you can use.

Besides, I love blogs that have a sole purpose, not the airy, breezy go anywhere the writer wants (like mine, for instance). Another favorite Lunch Studio (thanks to Ray for alerting me to this gem). Two New York architects blog daily about what they eat for lunch (where do you think I got the idea of writing about dinner?).

(Hat tip to Gizmodo)

Happy Autumn! Time for some cocoa.

Posted on September 24, 2007 by chatty

Oh what the heck. One more post about food. Tonight I whipped up some hot cocoa, one of our favorite cold-evening desserts. Usually we rely on the instant stuff, no sugar added.

Instead, today I combined sugar and dutch-processed cocoa, with water, milk and vanilla over the stovetop for some homemade goodness.

Just enough for two mugs of yummy chocolatey goodness, without the false sweeteners, and without the ginormous calories of a chocolate pie that we contemplated getting from the store tonight.

Please, no more fried rice

Posted on September 24, 2007 by chatty

Long story short … the husband and I have OD’d on tofu fried rice. I can’t look at the stuff. So thankful that the husband did his duty and consumed a lot of leftovers today. So, to help the digestive system we had salad with some grilled chicken. Simple and good cleansing. Gross I know, but highly necessary.

No pictures today. I keep forgetting to take the camera out!

Undo! Undo!

Posted on September 22, 2007 by chatty

This was going to be a post about the cioppino I ate last night (from the Market). It was going to be about the nice potluck breakfast spread this morning following the Head of the Troll. It was going to be about Head of the Troll.

But, as a result of some pretty stupid user errors, this will be a post about file recovery. I won’t get into what exactly I did, but know that the 27 photos I took today and yesterday … well they aren’t on my camera, and they aren’t on my laptop.

Why wait until you’re screwed? Take this action today:
Download one of several free file-recovery programs available and recommended by sites like Download.com or PC World. A few that I discovered today:

FreeUndelete
PC Inspector Smart Recovery

Unfortunately none of these have been able to help my in my plight today. I fear it’s because I didn’t download them until today. You see, long story short, when you hit Shift-Delete on a file, then click “yes” when the “are you sure” pop up window appears, the file you’ve deleted isn’t actually deleted. It’s stored on your computer but the space is designated as ‘free’ and ready to accept data. So when you, for instance, download a file recovery program, the file you just deleted has probably then been overwritten by the new program/file you’ve just downloaded/saved/etc.

Makes good sense, then, to have a file recovery program on hand. And on a different drive than your C drive (to avoid dangers of overwriting recovery data). Thus, a good task that will take no more than 5 minutes, would be to review one of the programs I’ve mentioned above, and load it on to your USB drive. Then next time disaster strikes, you’ll have something at the ready.

Ok. Back to your regular programming.

Ready all …

Posted on September 20, 2007 by chatty

Practice this morning: Warm up, with some steady state down to the Locks.

Piece 1: 15 minutes: 5 min@ 26; 3 min @ 30; 5 min @ 26; lengthen out for final 2 minutes (but NOT letting up on pressure)
Piece 2: 12 minutes: 5 min @ 22; 5 min @ 26; 2 min @ 28 (I think)
Final pieces: 2 – 4 minute intervals at varying rates, but for the most part trying to show my coach that I am pulling as hard as possible. Which I did, though it was hard. I felt pretty ill by the end. I’m not sure if it’s what I’m eating beforehand, if I’m not hydrated enough, or just plain exhaustion.

Today’s takeaways: Maintain pressure throughout the piece. You don’t have a choice but to keep on the legs and endure. For me, accelerating into the finish, and then pushing hands away appears to be helping my other issues (mainly overreaching). At the very least, it gives me something else to think about, which helps all around.

Tomorrow we practice in the 3x, just in time for Head of the Troll (intramural racing). Marcie informed me today that she and the ex-Presidents (that’s what they call themselves) are our competition. I was looking forward to just racing our on our own. But now we’ve got a real race! The young vs the old. Yay. This time, no 4/10 of a second will separate us. Bring it on!

Speaking of the Troll. We’ll have costumes. I won’t ruin the surprise, but will hopefully post pics when on Saturday.

TBL

Posted on September 19, 2007 by chatty

All I have to say about The Biggest Loser … what is up with the Red Team? They are a bunch of w-h-i-n-e-r-s! Oh my goodness I have never seen a bigger bunch of whiners. The women, to be specific. Disrespectful of their trainer, and just complaining all the time. It started last week, with Amber complaining that she wanted to go home (and then she got her wish). Man, I cannot stand whiners, especially when it comes to working out. And wouldn’t you know, it doesn’t pay to whine. They barely lost any weight, and lost the weigh-in again (came in 3rd, since the Black team entered the picture).

One more thing. No, I’m not a whiner … but what is up with 2-hour episodes? Is NBC going to do that the entire series? That’s a heckuva a lot of time to invest in reality TV. I’m not used to it. Sure, I’m still watching, but let it be known that it’s pretty darn hard.

And for those of you keeping track. I did cry. When Bob and the gal from the red team had a moment. But just a little.

Row for the Cure Part 2

Posted on September 19, 2007 by chatty

I’ve already talked about the race. But today I finally saw the actual race results. We were 4/10 of a second slower than our “rival” boat, raw time. With the handicap they beat won by 18 seconds (their average age, 53. Ours, 35). Regarding the raw time, I’d rather they’d have beaten us by 18 seconds than 4/10. With 4/10, or anything that close, there is always a lingering thought in my head. Could I have done something to close a gap that short? Could I have rowed 10 strokes harder? 5? 20? Could we have managed to get into our rhthym, or maintained a good ratio for just a few more strokes to make up that gap? Yuk. 4/10 is harder to grasp.

We beat the next fastest boat by 14 seconds, raw time. But, with the age handicap, they came in ahead of us, in second place.

Pasta I gotcha

Posted on September 19, 2007 by chatty

Let me start by saying the husband has gotten used to me photographing nearly everything we eat.

Spaghetti with chicken and lemon; chunky mushrooms, fresh tomatoes (from the side garden) and shallots, sauteed in vermouth. Crusty bread drizzled with olive oil on the side. Simple but elegant.

The weather is beginning to turn here in Seattle. No Indian summer this year, although I sort of dressed like it was summer (wishing it’s summer doesn’t make it so) today. It’s a great feeling to come home to a warm and comforting meal like this one. Yum.