Friday, March 30, 2007

100 things

[written March 26, 2007]

1. I was born in the O.C.

2. My parents separated/divorced when my sister and I were 7.

3. I have a twin sister. (Who kindly supplied corrections comments, which I've marked in green.)

4. She's 5'10" (when people find out I have a twin sister, invariably the next question is "How tall is she?"--I'm 6'8").

5. I never played basketball--I have bad land coordination (but do function well in water).

6. My mom, sister, grandmother and I moved to San Antonio when I was 8.


7. My dad was a high school art teacher, served in the Coast Guard Merchant Marines in WWII (and the Army in the Korean War), and used to be a swim & water polo coach. He used to take me to games/meets with him.

8. I now run into people who coached against him or had him for art class--some initially have not made the connection between he and I.

9. My dad and sister still live in Laguna Beach in the house where we grew up. (She moved back to California after high school.)

10. The house is within walking distance of the beach. During summer visits with Dad--when my sister and I were kids--my sister and I would spend everyday at the beach.

11. I am no longer awed by the beach, nor need to go to it when it is near (e.g. everyday when I'm at the pool).


12. My mom still lives in San Antonio; she's remarried and both she and my step-dad are now retired (when she isn't writing a book).

13. My mom wishes she lived near the beach again.


14. I started this list in the middle of the night because thinking of things to include on it prevented me from going to sleep.

15. My drink of choice is Dr Pepper.

16. I have a stuffed-animal version of Lucifer the cat from Cinderella, that I got at DisneyWorld a few years ago--he's awesome (he's got claws). I don't think Disney would get away with naming a character "Lucifier" or "Devil" (Cruella De Vil) today (which is a little sad).

17. I didn't realize that Cruella's last name was a play on "devil" until 2-4 years ago.

18. This trait may be genetic: my mom learned from me about 5 years ago that Aretha spells out R-E-S-P-E-C-T; she'd known the song since it came out, just not that she was spelling "respect" (she doesn't really listen to lyrics as much as I).

19. In some respects, I'm a music fiend (I currently own almost 600 cds).

20. Macs are cool. :)


21. I was an alternate for the 1996 USA Olympic Swimming Team.

22. I spent the summer of 1996 alternating between hoping/praying for 1 of 2 people to get hurt, and feeling bad about it. It was an interesting/revealing summer. (One of them did get hurt, and still swam anyways.)


23. My mother's family is Roman Catholic; my father's is Mormon.

24. I'm not very into organized religion, yet at the same time have a strange attraction to religious-related movies/books (e.g. Dogma, Stigmata, Constantine).


25. I still hold school records in swimming at my high school and college (although the latter have been dropping like flies of late).

26. The same person who's breaking my college records, broke my Texas HS State (meet) record.

27. Records are there to be broken/bettered.


28. I've been known to sing Heatwave (either Martha & the Vandellas or Marilyn Monroe) in practice when the water's too warm.

29. I use lyrics for subjects of my blog posts to decrease the likelihood of my spouting them at random in conversations (it appears to be working... somewhat).


30. I miss Tex-Mex, and am afraid to eat Mexican food here in Florida other than Taco Bell (the latter's ok because I know what I'm getting into).

31. I moved to Fort Lauderdale 2 weeks before Hurricane Wilma; it was my first hurricane.

32. Prior to leaving San Antonio for Florida, I dealt with side effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (Katrina evacuees where in San Antonio and Austin. Corpus Christi and a portion of Houston evacuated to SA for Rita).

33. I had to alter my route when initially moving to Florida to drive around the Katrina/Rita damaged areas (I-10 wasn't open back up yet).


34. I studied French in high school and college; I thought I forgot it all.

35. When learning Spanish for work, I realized I hadn't: in the middle of constructing/saying sentences in Spanish, the correct French words would come out for parts of sentences. I was glad that I still knew the French, and frustrated because it was supposed to be Spanish.

36. I now tend to co-mix the two languages without knowing it, only realizing way after-the-fact, say, when a group of visiting Algerians start looking at me funny because of the random Spanish words intermixed with the French I'm attempting to speak to them with.


37. I'm a C.P.O. (certified pool operator--at least for another year/so)


38. I had my first swimming lessons when I was 2, swam summer league at 7, and started swimming on a year-round USS club team when I was 8.

39. I started swimming year-round because I missed the summer league season while moving to Texas.

40. I swam USS competitively for 22 years, and officially retired in 2004.

41. I had to officially retire so that I would be removed from the drug testing (DT) list, and not have to report my day-to-day whereabouts nor fret about taking any over-the-counter medication.



43. A guy I know tested positive on a test due to stray chemicals in a supplement he was taking (they were left over from what was mixed in the vat prior to the components for his pills--the FDA allows this). He was banned for 2 years from the sport. He has now finished his ban and is back swimming, hoping to make the USA 2008 Olympic team.

44. In swimming, a person qualifies for the DT list by being ranked in the top-50 in the world in an event.

45. I have certificates documenting this achievement.

46. At work I'm now in charge of printing and mailing these certificates (they just went out for 2006).

47. Once you get placed on the testing list, you're on it for life; so, if I want to go back and swim "competitively" again, I have to re-subject myself to drug testing (which I don't mind so much).

48. I'm currently plotting to unretire when I'm in my 40s to point out to the futility of my still being on the list.

49. I now swim Masters, partially because there's no drug testing.


50. I was and am a distance swimmer. At one point I had some ok 100s, and could fake a 50 free when needed.

51. I have now lost all ability to sprint, and can't fake a 100, let alone a 50. I am working to get it back, though.

52. I puzzle my swimming friends in the meantime by not really liking the short events (and avoiding them at meets) and negative splitting (second half faster than the first) things that shouldn't be (e.g. my 100 back in Houston last weekend).

53. My best event over time changed: from the 1500/1650 free to the 400/500 to the 400 IM to the 200 fly.


54. I swam my best time in the 1500 in 1990 when I was 16 years old (15:17).

55. I almost beat the time in 1993.


56. I once screwed up a World-Record attempt--he got the record later in the same meet.


57. While in high school, I swam in meets in Tallinn, U.S.S.R., and East Berlin, East Germany. Both are part of different countries now (Tallinn is in Estonia, Berlin is now undivided into East and West, as is Germany).

58. I returned to Berlin in 2002: I didn't really recognize anything (though it's ridiculously cool that they've marked where the wall was with a line of bricks in the street, and the juxtaposition of old buildings (built in the 1600s/earlier) with modern buildings, and that at the time the city was building a entirely brand new district in basically the middle of downtown).


59. Do you have a flag? No flag, no country; you can't have one. These are the rules I just made up...


60. I am very near-sighted (20/200 or so), and have worn glasses since 2nd grade.

61. I remember at least one day in elementary school where I forgot to put on my glasses in the morning and couldn't see all day.

62. I do not wear "corrective" goggles while swimming: I grew up without doing so and am used to not seeing clearly while in the water (there's really not much to see).

63. The only things I really have problems seeing are pace clocks and swimmers on the other side of the pool (the latter I don't really need to see, and the former is also hampered by things like glare and poor contrast levels).

64. At the pool I currently train at, I requested/created a template for the scoreboard pace clock that is big enough to be seen literally a mile away (if not more). I'm not the only one who appreciates this... :)


65. Having analog (sweep-hand) pace clocks while growing up swimming helped me be able to better visualize mathematical patterns, and consequently be better at math. I've noticed that people who have only used digital pace clocks (which are now the norm), don't see the patterns as easily.

66. In college, the team once got into a disagreement about where we were in a set, when we were on an interval (55, I believe) that took 12 cycles to loop through (making knowing where we were in our set of 16 easy to identify).


67. At my first major international meet (in Rome), I was not use to the crosses on the bottom of the pool and misjudged where the wall was, turning about 6 inches from it and causing my shoulder blades to hit the wall and the lower half of my body to go up in the air. I had to wait for gravity to pull me back down into the water. I went from being a body-length ahead of the field to even with them: at the 200 mark of the 1500.

68. I hear the turn was quite an entertaining sight to behold.

69. Since that swim, I no longer use the crosses on the bottom to spot the wall, but rather spot off the wall.


70. Myself and two other Texans once raced side-by-side in a meet in Sheffield, England.

71. We wondered if we should have just raced in Texas (like we had before and would do after), rather than have gone all the way to England.


72. I tend to talk on my cellphone headset while driving.

73. I get a signal in my car, and tend to drive better while on the phone (I think because it focuses my distraction to one thing).

74. I don't really have a cell signal inside my condo.


75. Because of swimming, I didn't know the true color of my hair (dark brown) and that it was wavy until I in my late 20s. The chemicals in the pool and the daily shampooing/conditioning damaged my hair to the point it was straw-like in color and texture.

76. People at work thought I'd dyed and permed my hair when it grew in undamaged.

77. They didn't apparently understand that the sport tends to cause swimmers to not care that much about appearance. (You can't fix your hair (salon products aren't really designed for daily use, and actually make your hair more vulnerable to being damaged in a daily swimming environment), the chlorine smell only goes away when you're out of the water for a week (at least), and you usually get up way too early in the morning and have too little locker space (never mind that it's probably wet) to not have messed up clothes.)

78. In high school, the swim team was the only one who could really pull-off wearing their sweats to/in school.


79. During high school, I would get up at 5:55 ever morning to swim before school, and had no problem waking up. Same with college.

80. I now don't know/understand how I did that (I've been trying to get up at that same time for almost a year now, and have failed miserably--I've not given up hope yet, tho).


81. By taking "Regular" English (i.e. non-Honors) in high school, I missed reading almost every "classic" book there is to read (regular read 1 book a year, honors 12-20).

82. Since college, and since I've started to enjoy/like reading, I have been trying to make up for this. (That's why the current book I'm reading is posted on the page.)


83. I once worked for the USOC and lost my job when they cut the program I was part of.

84. I was not full-time employed for over 2 years. My family was ridiculously nice, patient and helpful during this time: thanks.

85. I started having minor insomnia while looking for a new j-o-b.


86. Eye tend two switch homophones when tired.

87. My word usage also tends to be somewhat shifted from others, and consequently, people misunderstand what I mean semi-frequently.

88. For example, a few months after moving here, I sent out a mass text message that I "hit" a drawbridge, meaning the drawbridge went up right before I got to it and I had to sit and wait for it. People outside the Ft.L area thought I'd run into the drawbridge--that I got into an accident.

89. I tend to not correct people when they infer/take the wrong meaning of things I do/say. Most of the time, it's not really that important, and in most cases my trying to "correct" their perceptions doesn't seem to help.


90. I (finally) started rowing right before I left Texas--I had wanted to try it for several years, but my commitment to swimming prevented me from doing so.

91. I drove 90-miles one-way to Austin in order to row, and didn't mind it.

92. I've not rowed since moving to Florida: I haven't been able to fit it into my schedule (excuses: there's too much traffic to the club in Miami, I don't know if the closer club got knocked out by Wilma, I left all the cool rowers in Austin...).

93. I miss rowing; moreso I miss the folks in Austin that I rowed with--crewÜ--though I do keep in touch (they just ignore me, Courtenay... ;).

94. They were the critical reason I started this blog: I had pondered starting one before, but their desire for me to start one once I left was what actually caused me to do so.

95. I had a major break in posting right after I started (2 months/so), however, due to Hurricane Wilma.

96. Because of Wilma, I: didn't have running water for 2 days, didn't have power at home for almost 6 weeks, and work was derailed for over 2 months. Showers in cold water because of no water heater was the worse part (particularly the day I had to get up at 4 a.m. to catch a flight--I dressed in a suit in the dark).

97. I've still not cleared up the email backlog Wilma caused (since Oct.05): currently I've got 23 "unread"--I return them to unread if I still need need to act on them--and 164 emails in my Inbox.

98. I miss cold weather here in Florida.

99. It is actually more humid here in Lauderdale than in San Antonio: SA's just hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

100. I am tempted to have 101 items on this list, and put some Depeche Mode song for this post's title (but will refrain from both).


Comments welcome (that's why the options there, d'oh!).

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Sacre bleu! what is this? How on Earth could I miss...

The swimming portion of the 2007 FINA World Championships is mid-way through in Melbourne, Australia (it started last Sunday and continues through Sunday). Results from the meet are available here. (Michael Phelps has set 2 World Records, Laure Manaudou 1, and a few others have fallen.)

Daily recaps are also available from the FINA website (today they have a picture of Michael Phelps with part of his crack showing--due to an interesting body position)...

And I found this cool, perspective-giving article about swimmers from Ghana at Worlds. (Ghana's in western Africa, next to the Côte d'Ivoire.)


Ah mais oui, ca c'est toujours delish
Les poissons, les poissons
Hee hee hee, hah hah hah

Monday, March 26, 2007

Well Ali Baba had them 40 theives, Scheherazade had a 1,000 tales

The flight from U-ston to Lauderdale was uneventful (i.e. I slept the whole way), with nothing terribly noteworthy to report (plane was packed--completely opposite of the near-absolute vacancy of my flight Friday), I didn't even stay awake to see New Orleans as we passed.

However, as we passengers left the plane, two stewardess were at the exit saying "Thank You" and "Goodbye" over-and-over in a manner reminiscent of the Aladdin scene [at left] where Genie thanks Aladdin for flying Magic Carpet.

This helped get me through the fact that I got charged $9 to park for 4 hours at the airport... well, actually $33: $12 per day for 2 days and 4 hours. I'm not exactly sure how $9 works out to be the correct amount for 1/6 of a day though (and my brain wasn't up to the gymnastics at 10:30 last night when I was leaving the garage). I'll just have to write a nice complaint letter to someone at the City... it can match the one I sent today to the organizers of a "Men's Junior" event (if it's a junior event, it should be "Boys", no?--particularly since the age limit is 18... then again, high school events should be "boys" and "girls" too, but that doesn't seem to be happening much these days either).

Anyways, I'll stop before I get into full-blown rant... hasta
(Thank you, good bye, now. Thank you, goodbye. Thank you...)

You got some power in your corner now
Some heavy ammunition in your camp
You got some punch, pizazz, yahoo and how
See all you gotta do is rub that lamp

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain

Greetings from the Houston Airport (IAH, that tis... not Hobby--and apparently "Iah" means "moon" in Egyptian).

At the moment, I await my flight back to Lauderdale, with my neighboring flights being to: Paris (Charles de Gaulle), London (Gatwick), Guadalajara (I believe with continuing service to San Salvador), New York (JFK) and Raleigh/Durham. I do have my passport with me, maybe I should hope on one of the others...

Weekend was good. Meet went well, I got to hang out with some folks from San Antonio (even saw a few members of the UT swim team from my tenure there), and drive around in a Saturn Ion (though the rental car place almost didn't give me a car because they couldn't find me in their system--luckily I had my confirmation number with me). The picture above is actually from the meet (relay members awaiting the end of the relay, so that can exit the pool on the side).

Times from this weekend (in order):
Saturday:

  • 500 free: 4:49.41 (6 second drop from Feb--putting me ahead of KC)
  • 200 back: 1:56.85 (-6 from Feb; and split 58.25/58.60)
  • 100 free: 51.27 (25.31/25.96--not the ideal way to split this)
  • 100 fly: 54.39 (25.46/28.93--closer to the good way)
Sunday:
  • 200 IM: 2:04.43 (I completely forgot how to swim this; I was doing 1/2 a 400 IM, but it was early in the morning: maybe I wasn't really awake yet)
  • 100 back: 53.45 (26.79/26.66--good time, although the NS isn't ideal and I had a good start...)
  • 200 fly: 1:59.21 (-.8 from Feb (and like 15 minutes after the 100 back--tightest turn-around of the weekend), 27.11 / 58.09 (30.98) / 1:29.32 (31.23) / (29.89)) [splits for Jarret :-p]
  • 200 free: 1:50.21 (55.3/54.9-->1/2 second faster than Feb)
  • 1650: 17:22 (about 40 seconds slower, but swam to work on stuff/race structure, rather than speed)
[Full results here]

Well, my flight prepares to board, so I will sign off for now... hasta

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I've been
I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again

[Rhythm of the Rain was stuck in my head for the weekend, after I heard it on the way to the airport on Friday.]

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home?

Beware: Big Brother is watching you...

Well, not really; nothing so ominous, at least that I'm aware of. It's really only a reference to the fact that I activated some tracking stuff on the blog here over the weekend (Google Analytics, specifically) so I can figure out if I've got any lurkers. It doesn't appear as if I do, but there were some hits from China (not sure why, but hello! 你好 even).

As for the rest of my weekend, post-laundry mat fun, I went and caught Music and Lyrics (finally), with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore (the music junkie in me almost necessitated me seeing it). I enjoyed it; somewhat sappy, but then again it was expected.

And related to the whole Big Brother thing, AT&T may have partially heard me: they are honoring the promotion BellSouth had/has for my service and as of yesterday, a refund check is on its way to me. [Yeah!] :) I didn't even really have to argue/fight when I called yesterday, which surprised me. After the 3-5 emails to customer service, and 3-5 phones calls of explanation, it was almost completely smooth sailing.

In other news, the 2007 World Championships in Aquatics began in Melbourne, Australia, this past weekend. The good stuff--the swimming--doesn't start until this Sunday, although Open Water did start this past weekend (diving, water polo and synchro are also currently going; they've put a pool in Rod Laver Arena--where the Australia Open tennis tournament is held). This interesting comment was made about one of Sunday's open water races:

The start of the men's [5K] race had the best right hook in this city since Azumah Nelson fought at Princes Park, landing fair on the jaw of an American.
Nice, no? And that's independent of the rough surf and jellyfish that were on the course (not to mention the water was apparently in the upper 60's...).

Anyways, nada mucho to report otherwise, although I am prep'ing to head to Houston this weekend for the South Central Zone meet (Masters). Should be fun.

Well, I should jet. Hasta...


What if God was one of us
Just a slop, like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

[This song reminds me of Joan of Arcadia...]

Monday, March 19, 2007

So baby, times gettin' a little crazy, I've been getting a little lazy

Scene from the laundry mat...
[Note: "lady" and "woman" below have been assigned to a specific female--they are used in lieu of "person A"/"person B", "thing 1"/"thing 2", etc.]

Yesterday (Sunday), I did my laundry (six loads, in total)--gasp, shock (yes, amazing, I know)--and things went rather smoothly. I have been semi-reluctant to try to do laundry on Sundays, fearing that a ton of people would be there, but that was not the case. Maybe because I was there around noon-time?

Anyways, I'd done the washing half, amazingly stumbling into a row of 6 vacant machines (initially, I'd thought there was only 4 open, and that I'd need to do 2 rounds). Right before I'm to lay claim to some dryers, a "lady" comes over and (seeming to me) encroaches upon my dryer area. Now, I remind myself that we're in a public/shared space, and to be ok with it all. Which I was about 5 seconds later; leaving me wondering why the lady decided to take the long way around the 'mat to get to the dryers. Then again, I notice she's using one (or more) of the 4 non-normal washing machines, so I just chalk it up to her quirkiness.

So, she lays claim on 2 neighboring dryers--in the middle of all the dryers--one of which I would've probably used, leaving me somewhat puzzled about where to dry. About 2 minutes later (after she's loaded and gone back to washing), I scope out the vacant machines, and get to drying next to her (and actually initially/purposely pick the dryer right next to her stuff, to prevent her from spreading out, and saving me 4 machines--3 at eye level, 1 on the ground--to work with ).

Enter: the floor show
About 25 minutes later, my clothes are in the 3 eye-level, neighboring dryers, drying. I, myself, am trying to be diligent and am doing some prep reading for work (on personal organization for a course I'll be teaching in Houston next month), while awaiting dry stuff to fold. The lady, she's just returned to one of the washers she was using (which her husband had just emptied to bring around to dry), to find another "woman" putting her cloths into it. The lady is not happy.

She protests: what are you doing, that's my washer! The woman loading her clothes doesn't say anything loud enough for me to hear and apparently continues, as the lady tells her to stop putting clothes in and in my mind closes the washer's door. The woman loading the machine is not having any of this (presumably) as she opens the washer door--and according to the lady pushes her in the process (the lady says the woman shoved her, several times, however, I didn't spot such a dramatic motion out of the corner of my eye). The lady complains: don't push me, that's assault, I'm calling the police about this. When I look up, the lady is dialing the phone, while at the same time telling the women she's not going to let her close the door to the washer to allow the wash to start. Meanwhile, I'm off in my corner, enjoying the show and looking at the 12 washers currently not-in-use [pictured above] .

About 10-15 minutes later--after I've started folding my laundry, migrated my clothes out of the dryer nearest the lady's stuff (leaving an empty, buffer washer between she and I), the lady has called the police 3-4 times (3 initially, 1 later to find out where they were), and the washer in question remains idle with the lady's hand still on the door to prevent it from being closed and starting--a policeman arrives. The lady states her case, loudly enough for all to hear, to the officer and that she wants to file an assault charge. The officer listens, and then stops the lady from ranting on-and-on so that he can get the woman's side of what happened--which I don't hear on the other side of the room because the woman hasn't talked as loudly as the lady.

After about 5-10 more minutes of me folding/eavesdropping, the policeman asks whether or not the lady can uses the vacant machine next to the one in question. The lady rapidly replies no, that her load can't fit in it, it will only fit into the machine in question. The policeman then asks the woman, and she complies after a brief lag--I subsequently surmised that the delay was because the woman had already put her money into the machine (which I learned from the lady).

Ah, the drama at the laundry mat: I may start going more often...

By the way, they've got a Ms. Pac-Man machine, tempting the lure quarters away from a drying cycle for a game...



Cause I've been acting like sour milk all on the floor
It's your fault, you didn't shut the re-frig-er-a-tor
Maybe that's the reason I've been actin' so cold...

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Traveling, traveling, leaving logic and reason...

Little blue, informational signs have sprung up on one of the more heavily traveled streets here (Federal, aka US Hwy 1). And like the Travelodge one at left, they seem to be highly redundant, with a tendency of being located right in front of the business's own sign. It's like an on-going visual echo as you drive down the road.

At least with the Travelodge, there's just the one business. In front of some of the strip centers, there's a flock of signs: 5-8 blue rectangles aloft next to each other--seemingly jockeying one-another for lead position. At one center, there's signs for "IHOP", "Post Office", "Super Cuts", "Eyewear Optical", "Melting Pot", and--my favorite--"Exotic" (the last I believe is a pet store, although it might be a description of the grouping...).

In any case, they seem like overkill, and it's good to see my tax dollars at work on such a valuable service. I mean, someone could get confused in the 3 feet between signs and business, or something. Actually, they don't even really help you get to the item in question: at the "Exotic" grouping, the signs are actually after the last entrance to the parking lot. Mostly, there just helpful in blocking the signs of the businesses, and in letting you know you've gone by it.


(Traveling, traveling) I'm traveling
(Traveling, traveling) Leaving logic and reason
(Traveling, traveling) I'm gonna relax

(Traveling, traveling) In the arms of unconsciousness...

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Friday, March 16, 2007

At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder: what would Jimmy Buffett do?

I am on a crusade. (As an attendee of UIW when they were the Crusaders, before they caved to a more "p.c." mascot, I figure I'm allowed--and what is wrong with a school founded on religious principles having a religious-related mascot? They're now the Cardinals (possibly even the color--like Stanford), or some other innocuous thing; they didn't even have the cojones to become the Chili Peppers for goodness sake. Bollocks! I say, but I digress....)

I am on a crusade. At lunch today, I was reminded of the need. I went to Taco Bell today, where I haven't eaten in a long time (maybe 6 months--it made the "Ahhh... we meet again" salsa pack [above] that I got very fitting). After ordering, I went to the fountain drinks, and, surprisingly, they had Dr Pepper as an option. So, I proceed to fill up my cup with the "Dr Pepper". When I took my first sip, I knew I'd been boondoogled: it was root beer.

I wasn't terribly surprised. For some reason unknown to the physical reality of the universe--most likely because most of the population here hasn't actually tasted the wonderfulness that is DP--the prevailing notion in South Florida is that root beer is the equivalent or next-best-thing to Dr Pepper. In fact, my crusade to educate the locals here on this fact started after several offerings of root beer in appeasement for not having Dr Pepper: the wait staff not realizing that your typical Pepper generally prefers Cherry Coke or Coke as their alternative drink (I'm getting a Family Feud vibe here). Root beer's gonna be way down there, somewhere (out of the top-4 answers on the board, earning your team a big red X), and most likely the option the connoiseur will choose only if the place has Pepsi without its Wild Cherry variant.

So... I'm on a crusade: educate Floridians that Dr Pepper is not root beer; it's not even close (see one's colorful, the others just normal-colored text--that proves it!). Just because the PTBs at your fountain put the RB where the DP was (not realizing the catastrophe that is dropping DP as an option) doesn't mean it's the same--capiche? "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too" does not apply to root beer: it's not invited (no matter how envious it might be).

Just say no to confusing the two:
Dr Pepper
≠ root beer

(make it a mantra, if you like)


We now return you to you regularly schedule program, already in progress... (and I should finish learning All About Eve)
hasta :)


I could pay off my tab
Pour myself in a cab
And be back to work before 2

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

1-2-3-4, come on baby say you love me, 5-6-7 times...

Futility of statistics: during 1971, ten million refugees fled across the borders of East Pakistan-Bangladesh into India--but ten million (like all numbers larger than one thousand and one) refuses to be understood.
-p.411 of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

(in honor of Pi Day)



8-9-10-11, I'm just gonna keep on counting
Till you are mine...

Sunday, March 11, 2007

On their faces they wear a silly smirk 'cause they know I'm the king of the cool jerk

Sleepy...

This weekend has been rather busy and light on the rest, dominated by the Florida Sectional meet which ran Thursday-Sunday.

Friday, post work, I started working the meet, after waiting for a drawbridge and dodging the beginnings of Spring Break traffic here in La-t-dal. That went from 5:30-9:00 p.m. or so, then (after another drawbridge) I dropped by home briefly (1 minute inside) and headed over to a local bar (Blue Martini) for a friend's going away party (DBB's job transferred him to New York City--he left today). I stayed there about an hour and got home & to bed around 11 p.m.

Saturday, the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., (drawbridge) so I could swim from 7:00-8:00, then had prelims and time trials for the meet from 9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m., jotted over (drawbridge) to work and got some stuff done from 2:00-4:30, headed back to the pool (drawbridge) to help out with finals 5:30-8:30, and then (drawbridge) got home around 9:00 p.m. There I "sprung" my clock ahead its hour for Daylight Savings, and crashed...

This morning's wake-up was an hour later (7:30), but with Daylight Savings not so much so... what saved me was hearing Cool Jerk on the way to the pool (made me almost not mind the drawbridge being up, again). But, today I got about a 2-hour break at home mid-day, Nimrod (there's a swimmer in the meet who's name is Nimrod) and "non-nimrod" (one of the pool staff called one of Nimrod's competitors a nimrod, so we corrected him and told him he wasn't Nimrod) swimming, and the drawbridge was down on my way home tonight. :)

Now, I'm fixin' to watch The Best of So Graham Norton... so hasta.

Can you do it, can you do it, can you do it, can you do it
Can you do it, can you do it, can you do it, can you do it

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Just like Ronnie sang...

For awhile now I have wanted to use Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight for a subject, and point out part of the background to the 1986 hit. Today's inclusion into the Library of Congress of the Ronette's Be My Baby provides an appropriate excuse reason to do so.

The Ronettes were a girl group of the 1960s, and are best known for Baby--and the lack of royalties the group got from the song that instead went to the song's producer, Phil Spector (semi-similar to what happened to Willie Nelson with Crazy). The song is one of the best known and best pop songs in history (even before it was on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack), which is why the Library of Congress chose it for inclusion in its audio archives for preservation (also included this year: the Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and FDR's Infamy Speech--"...December 7th, 1941--a date which will live in infamy", made to Congress the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor asking for a Declaration of War against Japan). The Ronettes are also being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.

Anyways, so the cool thing about Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight is that "Ron" from the Ronettes, Ronnie Spector (yes, she was married to him also), sings back-up in the chorus, right after Money references her (all that "just like Ronnie sang" stuff...). By doing so, Ronnie, I believe, got some of the royalties from Tonight, and if so probably got more money from that song than the original (and more famous/popular) song it references. Somewhat of a vindication... and Ronnie's even in the video. :)

Take me home tonight
I don't want to let you go till you see the light
Take me home tonight
Listen honey, just like Ronnie sang
"Be my little baby"

Monday, March 05, 2007

Come on, babe, why don't we paint the town... and all that jazz

It turns out I was either a tad over-ambitious or under-achieving this weekend. I managed to make my social/meal related activities on Saturday (morning practice, breakfast, lunch with co-workers, movie with friends, dinner with Masters teammates), but didn't really get to the productive stuff (oil change and laundry).

And I didn't get to either of them on Sunday, either--I eventually just called the whole thing off and did my tax return instead (at least it's done though).

I couldn't even manage to watch all of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I still need to finish (the movie with friends I saw was Zodiac--coincidently during the lunar eclipse).


Guess I'll try to get to it now... maybe it will get Chicago songs out of my head: I've had All That Jazz and Cell Block Tango drifting in and out since seeing sheet music for the latter down in Kendall on Friday (the theater the conference was in also hosts the Miami's Children's Theater).

Start the car, I know a whoopee spot
Where the gin is cold, but the piano's hot
It's just a noisy hall, where there's a nightly brawl
And all, that, jazz...

Friday, March 02, 2007

Chori chori hum gori se pyaar karengey

March has started with 2 days in Kendall (SW Miami) for work. The distance from Ft.L to Kendall (about 40 miles) and the traffic had me fearful that I might not be able to swim either day, but thankfully did not. However, it kept me rather occupied, so I'll just post a quote from Midnight's and prepare for a rather busy tomorrow (morning practice, oil change, lunch, laundry?, and then a Master's social...)

Our names contain our fates; living as we do in a place where names have not acquired the meaninglessness of the West, and are still more than mere sounds, we are also the victims of our titles. Sinai contains Ibn Sina, master magician, Sufi adept; and also Sin the moon, the ancient god of Hadhramaut, with his own mode of connection, his powers of action-at-a-distance upon the tides of the world. But Sin is also the letter S, as sinuous as a snake, serpents lie coiled within the name. And there is also the accident of transliteration--Sinai, when in Roman script, though not in Nastaliq, is also the name of the place-of-revelation, of put-off-thy shoes, of commandments and golden calves; but when all that is said and done; when Ibn Sina is forgotten and the moon has set; when snakes lie hidden and revelations end, it is the name of the desert--of barrenness, infertility, dust; the name of the end.
-p.349, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Chori chori hum gori se pyaar karengey
Chupke chupke dil ki baatein yaar karengey
Aane waali, kabh aayegi, koi de bataa