Time is waiting... no hesitating...

Ok... way too much going on at the moment (manly the 4 chats currently happening), so a rather compact posting today....

• After cramming my second round of test drives in 2 weekends ago, I'm down to 3 options: C30 (best drive), Civic Hybrid (best fuel efficiency) and the Jetta (best room).
• My trip over the weekend to New Hampshire went well, though apparently the Old Man of the Mountain fell down, and I didn't even realize it (that's a representation of him on the NH quarter).
• While flying this weekend, I watched the final 2 Alias episodes (finally!), 2 episodes of Eli Stone, and The Bone Collector.
• Madonna's new CD, Hard Candy, came out today (I think I got the last copy at my local Target tonight).
• I leave for US Masters Nationals tomorrow in Austin, Texas.

Now sleep would be a good thing... hasta

Time is waiting (we only got 4 minutes to save the world)
No hesitating (we only got 4 minutes, 4 minutes)

Enjoy the silence

I head to New Hampshire tomorrow for work, for the remainder of the weekend.

And so to tide you over, I'll leave an interesting (and quiet lengthy) Washington Post article from last year about violinist Joshua Bell and what happened when he played Washington D.C.'s L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station last year. (If you would like something to listen to while reading the story, I recommend this.)

Hasta...

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world

Rhapsody...

Happy
Earth
Day

(info on the pictures here--
more pictures as well)

...in Blue

Been running so hard, when what I need is to unwind The voice of reason is one I've left so far behind

I had planned to try to do my second test drives this weekend of the 5 cars remaining in my search (Dodge Caliber, Honda Civic Hybrid, Hyundai Tiburon, Volkswagen Jetta, and Volvo C30). This plan seems to be at odds to my life this weekend, however.

Earlier in the week, I had planned to do most of this Saturday, but going into the weekend knew this wouldn't work (given that I was to swim, then head to a movie right after, then head to a barbecue after that). So, I attempted to do one of the drives on Friday night, heading up to a Honda dealer that's having a sale this weekend after practice on Friday night with one of the other Masters swimmers. We left the pool around 7:45 p.m. and got to the dealer about 15 minutes before they closed (8:45). This was only to find out that they were out of the Civic Hybrids, so we couldn't do the test drive--i.e. all for naught. So we ate on the way back, and went home.

On Saturday, the movie plan fell through (nothing really out at the moment that we wanted to see, and the timing didn't work--practice ended at 10; we had places to be at 1 and 2 p.m.), and I was left with a 2 hour time block that wasn't really enough time to do a drive. So I bummed around, and headed to the BBQ--to which I got, after playing in some random traffic. Then I ended up staying with the BBQ crowd until 11:30 p.m. (we were at the beach until 5 p.m., then went to a restaurant for drinks, then a quick jaunt to our respective houses to shower, and then watched Finding Nemo). So, I got to bed at midnight, and no test drives...

But hopefully, if I don't waste too much time today, I can get a few done today before I this evening's plans... Course I should probably figure out if I should head to Palm Beach to try to hit another Honda sale that's going on up there...

As a side note, while home for the shower yesterday, I added to my iTunes songs by 2 bands (Tears for Fears and the Go-Go's) who both have a song entitled "Head Over Heels" --which seems apropos (the Go-Go's version is today's subject...).

Alright, I'm off to test drive... hasta.

Head over heels, where should I go?
Can't stop myself, out of control
Head over heels, no time to think
It's like the whole world's out of sync

It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away...

It is much easier to wink with an emoticon,
than in real life.
;-)

(a random realization I had the other day...)


It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
You're on the road but you've got no destination

Let me hear you say, This #@$! is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s...

At the moment, I'm recovering from swimming a 10K down in Miami, this morning. I went 2:25.00 (that's just under 2.5 hours) to finish 8^th overall (and beat all the girls--woo hoo!); race results are here.

As for the week, itself, most of my work stuff was spent catching up on things. In part, this meant trying to report on the 4 swimming Olympic Trials that happened last week (Canada, China, Great Britain and South Africa), as well as the Short Course Worlds that were this week (through today).

A good portion of my time was spent wading through articles on Speedo's controversial new suit, and whether/not FINA would change its stance on it. The reported issue with the suit is that a swimmer goes significantly faster in it than other types of suits; so much so that 39 World Records have been set in the just over 2 months since its introduction (that's a lot).

My own personal opinions:

1. Of course the suits are "legal": the manufacturers purposely designed it as close to the rules as possible, so that they can exploit whatever vulnerabilities there are in the rules.
2. To the notion that not enough attention is being paid to the athlete(s) who swam the performance, and too much to the suit: congratulations to the swimmers who got a new record. You, the athlete, played a part in achieving it (or, at least, hopefully the suit technology isn't at the point when any Joe Schmo could break a World Record just by putting a suit on). However, realize/recognize that the suit did play much more of a role in the new time than in the past, and until such time that the records adjust from this difference, your performance will partially be judged/based on this--the skew just needs to move. (Or just think of it as: would said swimmers still have set the record, or dropped it as much, had they not been wearing the suit?)
3. Having a suit at the big meet is not such an issue, thanks to FINA's rule which makes it so that the manufacturers have to do that (allow access to the suits for all) in order for the suits to be allowed in competition. However, the rules don't address (personal) sizing and/or prior availability, which is a huge deal--as reported recently with Jessica Schipper at the Australian Trials (as well as personal experience--imagine going to the biggest event of your life and having to wear a new-to-you outfit that you're not comfortable in, and getting to compete against those that are perfectly at home in it, because they've spent months testing it and perfecting it to what they prefer). This is not something the manufacturers are going to address: they want their athletes to have as much of an advantage as possible, so that they will be more likely to do better.
4. Lastly, I have a major problem with items being introduced so close to the Olympics. I'm of the belief that radical new products (i.e. new suit lines) should not be approved for competition within a year before the Olympics. Allowing them within the Olympic year prevents a level playing field.

And with that, I'll stop... without really going into:

• the new suit's costs ($600+);
• whether/not age group swimmers should wear them;
• or the more intriguing combination that the new fabric is reportedly prone to ripping and open water events already had ripped suits.... There could be 2 very revealing "marathon swimming" events in Beijing (by the way, the 10K events are now apparently officially called "marathon swimming" to make the name identification more friendly--and cause more confusion because the other open water events are still called "open water", including the 2 swims that are closer in time and distance to the running marathon. And the fact that no Ancient Greek ever swam from Marathon to Athens to justify naming a swimming distance after it, a la the run by Pheidippides).

And now I will attempt to find the radio-edit of today's song, with whistles and car horns rather than Ms. Stefani's swearing... hasta.


A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl

Another life, another time...

I returned today from a 4-day trip to Austin for work (which went fairly well). The trip included hanging out with some friends, eating some Tex-Mex, and getting to dodge a slew of track & field athletes (including Jeremy Wariner) who were staying at the hotel I was in and in town for the Texas Relays.

And at one point during the weekend, I turned on my t.v. to find Batman Returns on, right at the scene where Face to Face by Siouxsie in the Banshees plays.... Rather strange that I've not thought about the song for years, up to a week or two ago, and then the movie's on. But cool, also.


Face to face, the passions breathe
I hate to stay
But then I hate to leave

Can't stop this thing we started...

In a rather bizarre take on April Fool's Day, not only does Facebook have Dr Pepper as a free gift today (which is just sweet!), but UT has the calendar for my last year of school posted on their website... just strange. (They also have this year's posted, but that's not nearly as strange. ;)

CollegeSwimming.com also had a nice April Fools piece...

And for some reason, I've got the guitar rift from Bryan Adams' Can't Stop this Thing We Started stuck in my head; so...

Can't stop this thing we started
You gotta know it's right
I can't stop this course we've plotted, yeah