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New Year's Suggestions?

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 4:44 PM
Any off-the-beaten-track suggestions for New Year's events in or around DC? I'm not interested in the huge events at hotels, and would prefer something more creative than simply drinking at a bar -- although a bar that offered something more could be perfect -- but don't want to stoop to the First Night family festivals. (The Bound party is also not my thing.)

Thanks for any ideas.
This Saturday, you'll have another chance to catch ENGLISH BEATS, a fun-filled free night at
the Argonaut in the Atlas District.

On the second Saturday of each month, you will hear the best in new indie and electro from the UK and beyond. You'll also have the opportunity to sample some of the best food in town, and meet the great bar staff.

English Beats at the Argonaut
1433 H Street, NE
Every Second Saturday from 10 pm - 2am, upstairs
NO COVER!

Click here for flyer )

Book buy-back

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 1:34 PM
Hey, grads!

I'm faced with a question as the semester closes. I'm a first year grad student in English, finishing up my first semester. In undergrad, I sold all of the books I didn't think I was going to use again. Now that I'm in grad school, I'm not sure whether I should hang on to everything or if I should get rid of the things I didn't use or don't think I'll need again. The two books in question were both for a research methods/introductory theory/grad boot-camp class: Robert Scholes' The Rise and Fall of English (cheerful reading, that) and John Hollander's Rhyme's Reason (we didn't get to it). I'm not sure I would gain anything from keeping either of these books, as my interests are in Victorian lit (mostly Gothic Vic Lit) and Rhet/Comp.

So, the question boils down to: Should I keep the books I was required to buy for class (to be safe) or am I safe in trying to sell them (because I have no use for them)?

На "Свободе"

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Про коррупцию и пожарников, с В. Гельманом.
Звук:
http://www.svobodanews.ru/audio/program/123665.html
Текста пока нет.

Winter Storm Fun

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 9:04 AM

So last night, I left the office early and schlepped it home to work from the warmth and comfort of the couch. The roads were sketchy then. This morning, I woke up and got out the door early. My usual 20-minute commute took an hour and fifteen. There were parts of the highway that hadn’t seen a plow yet (the I-35W/Highway 36 exchange going eastbound), but for the most part, things were fairly open. Except of the short stretch I take I-35E southbound on. That was a pleasant little parking lot.

Commute aside, I have been left wondering: at what point do you start doing work on a rental place on your own dime? We have a “utility” staircase in the back of our apartment (we have the 2nd and 3rd floors of a house that’s been converted to a duplex) that leads down to a basement and out to the back yard. Our door at the top of the stairs is the original wooden (non-insulated) door, and has a gap at the bottom about three quarters of an inch high. That back stairway is poorly insulated, and the door to the outside is not well-sealed either. So we lose a ton of heat (most of it, I’d venture) in that back little hallway.

This morning, when I went downstairs to do a load of laundry, there was snow that had made it’s way under the door to the outside and had drifted in the utility hallway. Mother of crap.

Today, though, I’m happy to be at work. Happy it wasn’t bitterly cold (that comes in February). And happy that it was just a light powder so that brushing off both cars this morning was a piece of cake.

We’re supposed to get another two to four inches today, after somewhere between six and nine inches last night. I’m thinking I should put the Flip camera on the windshield and do a timelapse recording.

Tonight: shoveling the front walk and porch. Find heavy winter gloves. Put the Motown (classic, old-school Motown) Christmas album on my iPod.

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Originally published at DanBailey.net. Please leave any comments there.

Jew Crews vs. Bike Cruise

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Religious hassidic jews don't like the bike traffic and the hot bikers who disturb their walk with G*d. :)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/bike_war_paint_g7EizkFEZktV3IlNUJosQM

Someone broke the universe

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 7:56 AM


Photoshop, right?

(source)

But then there are several dozen more images of varying quality, and from varying sources and different positions.

There's even video.

What in the world is this nonsense?

--B.

san francisco bike things

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 7:39 PM
hey pirates,

Are there any pirates to be found in the bay? I plan on visiting san francisco later this month and I want to absorb a bit of the bike culture to be found in the area. I'm bringing my mountain bike and I intend on getting some time on the trails. Do you have any leads on trails (my bike is a single speed, if that matters)? How about things to do and places to see? Already, I have been recommended zeitgeist and mojo. Any more cafes or bars? How about really awesome foods? Bike shops?

I'm using http://www.sfmtb.com/ as a resource in finding local trails and I don't plan on driving to get to any of them. Do you have any tips on these trails or any trails they don't mention?

I'm probably going to see my auntie and cousins, but maybe I'll see you! Let's meet up, yeah?
Oh btw, I'm staying off of hoffman, near market.

Tonight's To-Do List

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 1:55 PM
  • 200 words on short story I've been working on (now entitled "In the Name of Love")
  • load of laundry
  • buy Xmas tree
  • get haircut
  • strip down the Surly (if time allows)
  • run migration and scaffold Rails app (if time allows)
  • Litterbox #002

Lifting in 2010

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 11:50 AM
It's about time to start planning my 2010 powerlifting season. This means finding meets, drumming up more sponsorships, and setting out training plans.

For the 2010 season I have a few goals.

One, most obviously, is to compete again in both NASA and 100% RAW World Championships (so long as they're held in America). This time I aim to win the NASA World Cup again and bring my performance to an unequivocal first in 100% RAW.

Another goal I have is to set some records in yet another weight class. The world records for deadlift in the 275lb. weight class (in the 100% RAW federation) are within striking distance. If I show up at the meet at my normal walking-around weight of about 255lb., I should handily capture records in this third weight class.

I would like to branch out and compete in more events across the country. This includes Dallas, where I've friends but have not even visited for several years. There is also a new raw federation taking hold in Louisiana. They recently announced a meet on September 11, 2010, which includes a total of $15,000 in prize money. The event is in the New Orleans area, which would be fortuitous -- especially if I did well and took home a good purse!

So for now I need to concentrate on training and nutrition and put together a 2010 agenda.

Fun times! I'm looking forward to the competition and to adding to my powerlifting resume!

BRANDON SMASH!

--B.

Strokin'.

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 11:23 AM
I recently had a minor stroke, and lost some fine motor skills and strength in my left side. My only risk factors are genetic, so the doctors are going nuts trying to figure out how it happened. I'm 6'2", 245lbs, 35, and have never smoked, drank, or done any illegal drugs. Almost every one of my relatives that died from stroke or heart attack was also a heavy smoker and drinker.

This sucks, because while I can type and drive, I can't do much with bikes until everything is back to normal. I will, however, have a bike in the trainer for the winter, as they want me to do 3 hours of cardio per week as part of recovery.

And just before the stroke, I was all happy that I had gotten a takeoff 180mm SRAM Rival GXP 53-39 crankset with BB for just $50. Is it karma? :)

Also on topic, I will be taking lots of medication for the rest of my life. Does anyone take BP and cholesterol medications daily, and does it affect riding at all?

Afterwards

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 9:48 AM

Last night was the perfect two-year anniversary. I got her a card and flowers. While she cooked, I hit up Surdyk’s for wine and beer and cheese. After dinner, we left the TV off and sat on the couch together, alternating between talking and reading. Then we went to bed around midnight.

It was an awesome anniversary. And the last one we’ll celebrate as unmarrieds.

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Originally published at DanBailey.net. Please leave any comments there.

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Dec. 8th, 2009

  • 4:06 PM
  • Not a whole lot went on yesterday. I didn't do much beyond stay in my living room all night and then eventually eat some carrot cake.
  • As some of you may have noticed on facebook/twitter, I am having weird side-effects from the meds. OK, just one weird side-effect. I have suddenly developed uncontrollable mouth clenching. which means my standard mouth state has gone from relaxed to clenched. Not a big deal by itself except that I'm sure I'm grinding my teeth in my sleep because my jaw hurts and I'm developing headaches related to it. Seeing the doctor again today.
  • Other than that, I don't feel all that much different, maybe I haven't had enough time for med benefits to kick in?
  • In other news, I'm buying a new TV this week. I've had the same TV here for about 4 and half years. It's a 13 inch color TV that I don't have attached to an antenna so I can't actually watch TV on it. I just watch DVDs and play games on it. It's slightly bigger than doing so on my laptop. However, the new TV is a 32 inch LCD flat screen that I am getting for an ultra cheap price from a friend who is moving out of the country. That will be totally great for my XBox and DVD time. Still don't care about watching TV though.
  • This Friday I'm looking forward to bowling with a bunch of people. I have done a criminally small amount of bowling since moving to Japan. For a guy who once owned his own bowling ball and also considered joining a league with [info]villagecharm , [info]captfabulous , a few other ne'er-do-wells, I have probably gone bowling less than 5 times in my nearly 5 years here. I'm going to suck something fierce.

Academia and e-books

  • Dec. 7th, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Consider the huge amount of texts that have been scanned by Google and its academic partners, now available for indexing from any Internet-connected computer. Then consider the texts owned by your university's library. Now consider the intersection of these sets. What is stopping your university and Google from being able to fully offer this searchable, digitized library to its students? Clearly, the answer is "the rights of the publishers and authors". But when will this progress, and how will this progress? It seems inevitable to me that that's the direction things will go. It just seems so attractive. Surely something can be worked out such that there can be some fixed number of licenses available for each book. I do this all the time whenever I fire up MATLAB and the software retrieves a license from the school's server.

Basically, I dream of a day when I have a few color, highly-responsive Kindle-like things that'll let me pull up an entire library's worth of information without ever having to leave my desk. The technology has some ways to go from the current generation, no doubt, e.g., the ability to easily take notes on the pages, the adoption of color (however, see the soon-coming PixelQi for advances in these directions), easy document sharing between devices and your computer and the Internet and libraries-- but I'm excited for the direction it'll eventually head and the products which'll soon be out. The padds of Star Trek, anyone?

Sorry, I sort of exploded into nerdiness halfway through this post. But anyone with insight on academic library infrastructure or on publishing or on the recent Google Books settlements-- please inform and please speculate to your heart's content. I'm also curious to people's thoughts on e-books in general. I absolutely abhor reading documents on my computer, but it wasn't until I saw how paper-like the kindle was that I changed my mind on this entirely. I have to imagine that publishers are nervous, though. Suddenly textbooks will be way more amenable to piracy. You can already find almost any academic text (in math, at least) with an easy Google search. But those who do this are likely few in number, given the difficulty in printing it all out or reading it on your laptop. But to download an 8 MB file then to sideload it onto your device...? Crisis.

Also, unimpressed luddites, please come to the table, too. I'm interested in your thoughts.

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge

  • Dec. 7th, 2009 at 10:08 PM
December 7 Blog find of the year. That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year.

Oh man, I don't know. regretsy.com and givemesomethingtoread.com

Also the transcendental CEFAD section of Jezebel, but it's more like a sporadic column than anything regular.

I am also weirdly private about some blogs I like, and some of those fit the bill, but I am not going to post about them on a public entry.
I'm going to be collecting video data in classrooms, and my advisor/PI has told me that we have money for some new video cameras! Yay! The old ones take little tapes that take forever to copy onto a computer, and I don't even have the software to do so on my computer, only in a lab.

So I've talked him into new cameras that record right onto SD cards, which will both be a lot easier to access and can hold a lot more at once. But we have one major need that most cheapo digital video cameras don't worry much about - we need really good audio. We need to be able to hear kids across the room, possibly with other kids talking. The big advantage of our current cameras is that as you zoom the video in, the microphone "zooms" in as well and picks up the audio from where the camera is focused better.

Does anyone have recommendations or opinions on good cameras for this purpose? Yes, we may also be using individual audio recorders (especially for kids doing group work), but for full-class discussions it would really be nice to have one recording with both video and decent audio.

Drew Sarich

  • Dec. 7th, 2009 at 2:10 PM
mods, if this is not allowed, I apologize and please delete.

Do you like musicals? Do you like Drew Sarich? Have you even heard of him? If not, check him out, and if you like what you see/hear (or know anyone who does), please join/promote my new community:

Where anyone is welcome to come and celebrate Drew Sarich with icons, graphics, photos, videos, discussions...the sky is the limit! Feel free to join and/or spread the word!



Thanks!

x-posted

Two Years

  • Dec. 7th, 2009 at 12:06 PM

It was a very cold December night. I was working at the bike shop and was pretty nervous. See, I had a date lined-up around the corner at the Herkimer.

Kate was waiting for me in front of the shop. We did the small talk thing while we walked over. There was beer.

I don’t remember what we ate. I was too fixated on her eyes, what she was saying, the sound of her voice. The way she laughed. I didn’t know where it was going to go when all this happened, but I knew that the journey was going to be a good one.

That date and these two years have just been the start of things. I can’t imagine a life without her, I can’t imagine growing the way I have without her. And I can’t imagine her not being around to share in everything.

It’s a good thing I’m marrying her, huh?*


* That is predicated on her ability to survive the nine hours my wedding vows are going to take me to recite.</p>

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Originally published at DanBailey.net. Please leave any comments there.

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