Ramblings about anything and nothing.
I can tell I’m getting older because:
> my spelling is getting worse
> lumbar pain
> white hairs spring forth in odd places
> I think of teenagers as being more cute than annoying
I am still a man-child because:
> I order the Happy Meal occasionally
> I still get carded
> my eyesight has gone back to 20/20
> G-Force cartoon is still cool to me
I am tired. This was somewhat of a long day. We’re re-doing the upstairs bathroom. It’s kind of cool all gutted. The backside of plaster walls looks like a multilayer cake with frosting dripping through the layers.
Speaking of cake, I had lunch at Sven’s today. First time there. Sven’s had a very tasty-looking cake collection on display. I had to get a slice: Extreme Chocolate. Delicious. The Sven sandwich was equally well made. It’s good to find new places to eat in town.
After work I played tennis with Kal. We’ve played about 7 or 8 times now. Happy to report that I seem to be getting better. It helps to play someone better than you. I expected no less playing the former Junior’s number 1 from Jordan. I finally found my serve. My new one-handed backhand is connecting with greater frequency. My feet are moving better. I hope Kal and I can keep practicing for a few more weeks, at least through the end of October.
The initial charm of Facebook has faded for me. Its useful as an online address book, to organize events and as a time-kill. There is a sense of community, but it’s thin, as most of my friends ignore their Facebook. Has my Facebook circle not yet reached critical mass? More likely, I’m not that popular. Whatever. For now I’ll strip away the games and keep it informational.
The other night we had Ryan and Maria over. It was an archetypical summer meal of ribs, cornbread, coleslaw, and grilled peaches with vanilla ice cream. I put up string lights earlier in the day, which gave our back porch a warm glow. Trees rustled as we ate and chatted. Although the ribs were slightly overcooked, it was a nice meal. I couldn’t help but feel that the end of summer was upon us. Christ, it’s almost September. Whenever I think of the end of summer, I think of that Don Henley song (who doesn’t?). I also think of the Family Circus cartoon about the “burr months”. Yes, I read Family Circus as a kid. And so did you. Dork.
A few times I have dreamt of being back in Madison, but in my dreams it’s like the city on steroids. There are more trees. There is more geographic variety. The buildings are bigger and more numerous. There are more neighborhoods. There are more people and more ethnicities. There are more places of interest and actual places of intrigue. I have to say, these dreams of Madison are really nice. When I wake I feel as though I’ve travelled somewhere.
In my dream last night I found myself rambling a snowy Madison with my sister Aimee. Dream-Madison looked like a cross between London and parts of northern Spain. I was acting as pleasant tour guide. We walked through the streets. Entered a few buildings that don’t really exist. Crossed snow-covered lawns. At one point we climbed a hill. At the top we found a concrete-encased doorway embedded in the earth. As we entered, we found ourselves in a very dark but bustling Indian-Arab fusion restaurant. At which point I woke up. I wonder what Indian-Arab cuisine would be like?
Debbie and I went to the real Madison a couple weekends ago to see old friends. She had never been to Madison, so I took her around, visiting a couple old haunts. Madison is pretty in the Summer, and we had two perfect days.
Thinking about Madison now makes me nostalgic. It has been almost 9 years since I left, but I guess my days in Madison were my salad days, whatever that means.
I think I’m switching to WordPress. Here’s the URL:
http://howilovethehumancondition.wordpress.com/
I think it’s a better app. Consider it BETA. Once I’ve done my testing, I’ll look into migrating all my posts.
As if anyone cares…
I have to say, I am really enjoying the design and branding of the Beijing Olympics. The brushstroked logo is friendly and well balanced. The visual element of the wave, as seen in the environmental graphics, is simple, but executed in a very beautiful and elegant way. The wave evokes energy, but also serenity. The color palette is vibrant and joyous. The Olympic designers somehow managed to use the rainbow in a tasteful and modern way. I love the subtle gradients in the color draping. All the graphics seem to play well with the Olympic architecture I’ve seen thus far. Can’t wait to see more.
I’m trying WordPress to see I like using it more than Blogger. WordPress seems to have more design, layout and functional options. I’m curious to see how posting works on the iPhone as well.
I’m currently trying to come up with a strategy to go digital with my video collection. My big monitor on my Mac Mini crapped out, so I decided to hook up the computer to the living room TV via a DVI to HDMI cable. The sound is running through a Sony mini system. I downloaded the first episode of the new season of Mad Men from iTunes and it looked and sounded great. There is only one HDMI port on the back of the TV, so I had to get an HDMI splitter from Monoprice, which cost about $20. Of course I forgot to buy an extra HDMI cable so I can hook everything up without having to pull HDMI cables from the back of the set. The extra cable is coming from eBay in a couple days – there is no way I can buy a $20 cable from Best Buy if I can get one online for about $2. For hard drive space, I’ve got a 500MB Firewire drive from Micronet. I think this is somewhat of a short term solution since I’ll only be able to fit 80-120 movies at an acceptable level of compression on this drive, most likely a mix of NTSC and HD videos. I think the long term solution will be some kind of multi-terabyte raid array or something. Or perhaps something like a Drobo.
http://www.drobo.com/
A drobo would be nice. Actually, multiple drobos with multiple Mac Minis would be nice, so I can move the video collection around the house: videos in the living room, den, upstairs, or the digital home theater I’m planning to build in my basement next year. I can’t see streaming HD video in our home wireless bubble, but who knows.
So I’ll be copying my videos on to my hard drive for a while. And it looks like I’m going to skip a Blue Ray player altogether, unless of course I somehow come into possession of a PS3.
I heard that geeking-out triggers testosterone production, so my latest hobby is also causing my facial hair to grow faster.
