I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee

I was reminded this week of the futility/vanity/lack-of-awareness of people regarding emails and using html formatting for them.

I received an email this week which was 2-3 sentences long, and 49K in size. When I responded to it with another few lines--doubling the content of the email--the size plummeted to 1K. Why the big drop (49 to 1)? Well, the big difference was that on responding, I removed an attached image file from the email; an image that was the company logo for below the signature (and that's all it was). The image didn't actually contribute anything to the email, other than to make it look "pretty"; and, in fact, it didn't show up in the email, probably due to my mail settings (ahhh, the beauty of not being trapped into MS Office).

But this incident reminded me of the emails I get, day-in and day-out, that are in html formatting and don't use any of the features of it (and even those that solely use a special font). A note: using the html formatting over plain text formatting automatically increases the size of your email significantly. Now that some/a lot of us/your friends are in this day of high-speed connections and unlimited storage, it doesn't seem like much of an issue. But not everyone is. Besides I don't think it's a bad thing to be conscious of when you're doing something more solely because it's more.

And maybe it'll stop me from getting image attachments that I don't need to download to open and view... :) (that's just an added benefit)

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you
Don't you, don't you

I tell you that it's alright with me

At the moment I'm recovering from a trip this past weekend to Orlando, which in addition to seeing a halo around the full moon (like at left, though the air on Friday was clearer) in the crisp night air on Friday also saw us hit DisneyWorld on Friday night, Universal Studios on Saturday and Islands of Adventure on Sunday.


And while those parks are not far apart, as the map at right shows, spending 6 hours at each and then driving home late on Sunday did take its toll. (It did help that there weren't a lot of people at the parks, though.) Riding Splash Mountain at dusk and getting wet didn't really make the next few hours on Friday night any warmer, either....

But, hopefully, I'll catch up on sleep this week. Oh, and I did see August Rush on Thanksgiving Day last Thursday... :)

Friends come and friends may go
My friend, you're real I know
True self you have shown
You're alright with me

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night

As I was headed over to see Beowulf with some friends last night at the IMAX (in 3D! none-the-less), I remembered something I failed to mention in the last post: last week I noticed one of the local radio stations had already flipped over to its Christmas format. Last week! A full blown week before Thanksgiving!

I'm now boycotting the station through the holidays... hence the "so long, fare well" today (and so much for Holiday Cheer...)

I got so wrapped up in finishing Crime & Punishment on Monday that I forgot about that....
Beowulf, by the way, was interesting, though bloodier than my typical movie fare. Otherwise, not much else going on; just getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. And work today neared painful slow pace (particularly since it was the last work day this week).

There's a sad sort of clanging
From the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple, too
And up in the nursery
An absurd little bird
Is popping out to say coo-coo (coo-coo, coo-coo)

Now there goes the neighborhood

Wow, it's been a week since my last post... and I'll blame the space between postings on:

• the craziness which apparently is the selection method for how the Olympic sailing classes get selected (in the news recently because a class is being cut for the 2012 Olympics, and it appears that the catamaran "Tornado" class is out--the only multi-hull in the Olympic regatta). This editorial on the class selection has some enjoyable quotes, such as:
  "If the IOC applied similar logic, Kickball and Hide-and-Seek would be Olympic sports."
  "Ahh, logic, that would be nice, wouldn't it?"
  "On the plus side, there's no need to have a sailing section at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Just send people to the 2012 regatta..."
  
  
• Regular tennis shoes (aka sneakers) apparently being banned from the swimming competition at next year's Olympics (FINA's "Apparel Guidelines" state that there can be "one identification of the manufacturer per shoe". When was the last time tennis shoes had only one company i.d. on them? I checked out my Reebox's today and each shoe has 5 references to the company: logos on both sides, name on the outside, logo on the heal and tongue.).
  
  
• There was a clinic I attended/ran on Thursday and Friday (no catastrophic problems--yeah!!!!--but it did dominate a bunch of time of late).
  
  
• Oh, and I'm now not only on page 700 of Crime & Punishment, but I've also gotten to the Epilogue (so I'm almost done; though I didn't really read all that much of it this past week...).

So, yeah, that's why I've not posted since last Monday... and I'll finish off for now and go read. hasta

Hey let's party, let's get down
Let's turn the radio on, this is the meltdown
Get out the camera, take a picture
Drag queens and the freaks are all out on the town

It's far, beyond the stars; it's near, beyond the moon

My car hit 140,000 miles today during lunch...




Happy we will be beyond the sea
And never again, I'll go sailing

And it's a long way down, it's a long way down...

Yesterday, I was in Clearwater, FL (just north of St. Pete), to watch one of my friends compete in the half-Ironman World Championships (or "Ironman 70.3" as it's apparently now officially called, after the total mileage: 1.2 swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run). And like the map, my day yesterday stretched from end-to-end... (and almost just out of sight).

I awoke yesterday morning at 2:45 a.m., and was on the road by 3:00 a.m. for the 270 mile drive from Lauderdale to Clearwater. After a few stops, I got to downtown Clearwater at 7:30 a.m., and then proceeded to sit on a shuttle bus for an hour waiting for it to be allowed to run again. (The race, itself, started at 7 a.m., and the shuttles to the starting/turning/finish area from where the advised parking areas were stopped for 90 minutes or so because they shared roads with the race route.)

After the hour of waiting, a few of us decided to just walk over to the starting area, and 40 minutes or so later (after crossing a causeway to Clearwater Beach, and seeing the shuttles start running about halfway through), I reached the start area around 9:30 a.m. This was about 90 minutes after my friend started (he was in the last wave to start the race, an hour after the first) and completely after the swim (which is the part of the race I most wanted to see--oh well).

I then proceeded to watch the transition area, trying to catch my friend as he came in (triathlon's not a very spectator friendly sport: wait for an hour to catch a glimpse of the person you know... assuming you know when they'll be coming in). In any case, I managed to meet-up with my friend after the race (he dropped I believe 20 minutes off his time, finishing in 4 hours and 14 minutes), as well as run into some fellow ex-Longhorn swimmers who were also in the race (whom I didn't know were there... including an old roommate of mine). I then hung out in Clearwater for the day, and drove back around 6 p.m.

I got into Lauderdale just after 10 p.m., went to hang out at a friend's house (watching the Florida Gator's game), and was in bed at 11:30 (I was greatly trying to avoid being up for 24 hours straight). And I'm doing much better today after sleeping in.

And it's a long way down
It's a long way down
It's a long way down to the place where we started from

Nothing left for me to do but dance!

I wish I could report something terribly exciting today, but alas... I've pretty much got nada.

I've got a fairly standard week going on, though, which is fairly nice.

• The weather's cooled a bit here, allowing me to open the windows and air out my place (but not so much that I don't want my a.c. on in the car on the drive home from work).
• I'm dodging doing laundry (although it's all set to go).
• I watched American Dreamz last night, and quite enjoyed it.
• My upstairs neighbor is around, and I can hear her t.v. or radio through the ceiling at odd hours.
• The results from the Masters Postal 5K came in the mail yesterday (I won my age group); USMS preliminary Top-10 lists have been posted as well (and my 100 back apparently should've been faster...).
• I've made it to Part 6 of Crime and Punishment (now on page 580)--slowly making my way to the end.
• Oh, and I'm probably headed over to Clearwater (in the Tampa area) this weekend to watch a friend do a half-Ironman triathlon.

So nothing terribly exciting, really... unless you count the fact that my floor is still clutter free from the weekend cleaning.

It's just an instant gut reaction, that I got
I know I never ever felt like this before
I don't know what to do
But then that's nothing new
Stuck between hell and high water
I need a cure to make it through

'Cause I knew that I was going to be, a legend in my living room

Remember, remember the 5th of November...


(and in other news, my living room is actually quite clean at the moment, after a random cleaning spree yesterday...)

(that, and I'm still listening to KT's rendition of I Want You Back...)

But everyday I told myself
Good things would happen soon
'Cause I knew that I was going to be
A legend in my living room

Hold on, to what you've been given lately...

Apparently, a telemarketing firm is either duping Caller ID machines into thinking my cell phone is calling them, or they're calling from New Jersey and the people who have called me have transposed the NJ area code (201) and mine (210). In any case AT&T doesn't know particularly what's going on (based on my call last night), and I've gotten the 3 voicemails below for some reason....

Now, I can't really re-create the emotion, tone nor speed of the calls, and for that I'm sorry. But hopefully the message is relayed through their words...

Call #1: Wednesday, October 31 at 5:01 p.m. (all times are Central)
(Female caller, speaking briskly through her rant. And, yes, she really used "freaking".)

Hi Matt. This is awful funny that I just barely got through to you and asked you to put me through to a supervisor and you hung up on me. Um, this is Sherry C_______, my telephone number is area code (802) ###-####. I've left numerous messages, and spoke to 4 people at your company about taking my freaking telephone number off the list. Now I'm on the Do Not Call, so the next call I'm making is to give you guys a fine. Yum on the do-not-call, you've been notified more than freaking 4 times, and you still are calling my freaking house.

So I'm telling you, you better get through to a supervisor, you better take my name off, cause I will be calling tomorrow, and you will be getting a freaking fine.

You guys are a bunch of morons, and I'm sick of freaking ca-contacting you people and not having anything done. I just barely spoke to a Frank yesterday, and I'm sorry for yelling at you because you're probably nobody that does it but, I did get hung up on when I asked for a supervisor. And apparently that's your guys' policy, so you guys don't have to deal with people.

I've also done the do-not freaking dial #1 so I could get off your list 4 times, and I don't have any idea what the hell is wrong with you people if you're incompetent or not, but if I get this telephone on here one more time, you guys are going to get a fine. I have caller ID and I'm contacting the Do Not Call, tomorrow at work, and I'm listing your number. And I'm telling them how many times I've called, and how many times I've spoken to people and the names. I have it all written down. You better take me off the goddamn list.

Call #2: Friday, November 2 at 6:29 p.m.
(Male caller, with passive-aggressive restraint.)

Hey listen f#!%head, this is Brad H_____. You called my f#!%ing house here about 7 different times. I don't want you to ever call here again. Now the number you called is area code (320) ###-####. Now if you ever call here again, I'm gonna come out to New Jersey and I'm gonna hunt your f#!%ing ass down. You got that you little co!%sucker. Don't call here again!

Call #3: Friday, November 2 at 11:29 p.m.
(Female caller, calm throughout and possibly with minor confusion. e.g. Despite the late hour of the call, there was no references to it being late, other than the time, which she says as if it were noon-time and not midnight.)

Hello, it's 12:27, on November 3rd. I don't know if you're trying to reach Regina Manning, this is Charlene. Ahh, if you're trying to reach Regina, this is no longer her phone number. I have no credit card, so it's not me you're calling. [A slight pause, and then she hung up.]

(This feels a little bit like "Let's Make a Deal" with Monty Hall and his 3 door options....)

(And I partially wanted to have today's subject be " 'Ring, ring, ring' goes the telephone, the lights are on but there's no one home" from Madonna's Hung Up, but I've used that already, and I'm not feeling that snarky to these people. Besides, I'm liking KT Tunstall's new song Hold On at the moment, anyways, so I've used it instead.)


Hold on, to what you've
Been given lately
Hold on, to what you
Know you got
Hold on, to what you've
Been given lately
Hold on
Cause the world will turn if you're ready or not

Sometimes vocabulary runs through my head, the alphabet goes right from A to Zed...

My scary story for Halloween--now that it's All Saints Day:

So, earlier this week, I'm driving around after night practice, and the d.j. on the radio comes on to introduce the next song. The introduction is along the lines of "Now, despite what you might think, this song did not come out like a year or two ago... but actually back in the 90s." The song? Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot. (ahhh, kids today...)


As for last night--at the risk of exposure to Erin's wrath (or maybe it's just jealousy?)--the Annie Lennox concert was great. Annie sounded wonderful, and sang an amazing amount of stuff (though not Wonderful). She opened with No More 'I Love You's and closed with Why, and in between sang (grouped by album, not concert order):

• off "Diva": Little Bird, Walking on Broken Glass, Cold
  
• off "Medusa": Waiting in Vain (excellent guitar work, btw)
• off "Bare": Pavement Cracks, A Thousand Beautiful Things
• off "Songs of Mass Destruction": Dark Road, Smithereens, Ghost in My Machine, Sing, and I think Love is Blind
• Eurythmics era: Sweet Dreams, Here Comes the Rain Again, There Must be an Angel (she nailed the intro), Sisters are Doing It for Themselves, Thorn in My Side

I think that was it... did I mention there were concert-goers in costume? There was even a man in the front row in a penguin costume... and if that doesn't distract Erin, maybe this nice version of the Jackson 5's I Want You Back by KT Tunstall will or the All Saints song today...

Flexing vocabulary runs right through me
The alphabet runs right from A to Z
Conversations, hesitations in my mind
You got my conscience asking questions that I can't find