Entries from November 2006 ↓

Naked Man Attacked By Gator

It’s is things like this I am going to miss once I leave [tag]Florida[/tag]. My first day here I was listening to a news story about two ladies who were trapped in their car for near four hours because the battery died and they didn’t know how to operate the door locks manually. The news in Florida tends to be so offbeat one of my favorite news engines [tag]Fark.com[/tag] instituted a “Florida” tag for Floridian news due to the amount of weird happenings in the sunshine state. a recording of the 911 call. I love how the agent handles it

Yesterday the [tag]water park[/tag] closed early due to the fact the weather sucked and no customers came. Instead of letting us all go home, the management had the life guards stay on the clock and test ride one of the rides for an hour and a half in the rain. I never knew a waterslide could leave you sore like that. To make up for having us all hanging out in the rain they got everyone free massages today. After my [tag]massage[/tag] was done the girl looked up at me and asked me if was I going to see a doctor about my shoulder. She thought my shoulder had the texture of raw hamburger meat.

Thats a nice thought

So I have a theory as to why chain restaurants are typically successful. Consistency is key. I know for a fact I can go to a [tag]MacDonald’s[/tag] anywhere in the world and without looking at the menu order a number one, and the person behind the counter will hand me a [tag]Big [/tag][tag]Mac[/tag] and a soda. There is no risk in getting something unfamiliar or “strange” because I know the one in Seattle Washington serves the exact same thing as the one in [tag]Taipei [/tag]Taiwan.
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So I went to [tag]Checkers[/tag] yesterday and ordered a new burger they had on their menu. It was awesome. I think I sat there for nearly an hour savoring every single bite. The only thing that would have made the burger more perfect would have been a nice thick slice of pineapple. Given the fact I usually avoid chain restaurants because they are almost always the same time after time, I went back to Checkers today expecting the same awesome burger. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. I really wonder what could have happened in 24 hours. This time I came close to tossing the burger in the trash halfway through eating it. I was painfully reminded why I prefer mom and pop places now.

and as an added bonus my chest hurts……..

So I told myself yesterday that if the water park was closed due to cold weather that I would do something useful with my day. Needless to say when a supervisor called to tell me no one wanted to pick ice off the water slide and I don’t need to worry about reporting in I was less than shocked.

So after four hours of warming a seat in a coffee shop and bitching about the cold to anyone who would listen, I finally got my act together and set out to drop my [tag]bike[/tag] off for service.

Normally I would cream my pants at a chance to ride 40-50 miles and get cool new stuff for my bike. But I find my self less than thrilled when it is only 48 degrees out. Eventually I did suck it up and head out. Luckily for me nothing really interesting happened on the ride with the exception of finding the [tag]Covert[/tag] [tag]skate[/tag] [tag]shop[/tag] which I have to admit is pretty awesome.

The down side is that due to backlog at the shop it will be a few days before they can get to my rig. I was hoping for same day service but the tech just shook his head and laughed. Which unfortunately means a 4 hour bus ride back home, and another back out the shop in a few days.

Ride report
mileage: 26ish (unverified)
number of stores visited:like five
number of old ladies scared: enough. ( bet she had to change her depends after I buzzed her car)

Standing in the middle of a parking lot this morning watching my breath hang coldly in the air my first thought was, “why am I not wearing pants?” This actually stems from a few days ago when a co-worker of mine noticed me pedaling into to work and mentioned that the water park is supposedly organizing a [tag]race[/tag] team and asked if I would like to ride with them on a short practice session this weekend. From the tone I was greeted with and the fact everyone else managed to show up late. I was half expecting a friendly slow place [tag]ride[/tag], and I was confident to, well that is until everyone started taking their pants off.
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Standing there in my [tag]cycling[/tag] hoodie and basketball shorts. I watched the other guys stretch and wiggle their way into [tag]lycra[/tag] cycling shorts, booties, and other vestments of the sport. My thoughts went further south as one of the guys I work with started strapping his gps receiver to his arm.

Fortunately the ride itself went fairly smoothly and thanks to some less than subtle drafting on my part I was able to keep the pace fairly well. Once we got back to the parking lot I was invited to ride with them again a few days later and we talked more about the alleged cycling team, unfortunately I am not even sure what kinda of races we are supposed to be doing.

ride report
temp: 50 degrees
distance: 22.6 miles (verified by gps)
average speed 17.2 mph (verified by gps)
number of times I swore because of the weather: countless

Unfortunately I am still using my old [tag]messenger[/tag] [tag]bag[/tag] that is rapidly falling apart until I get my new one completed. The zipper is broken and both flap clips are long gone.

On my way into work today I was sprinting down a side road hoping I could still make it in on time, when I heard the sound every [tag]photographer[/tag] fears. The distinct sound of a [tag]camera[/tag] body bouncing down the side walk, each bounce thundering in my ears as I slide my bicycle sideways to a stop. I turn the rest of the way around to see it still skipping along the sidewalk. Each skip tearing off another piece of black plastic.

I have gotten lucky with it in the past and all in all the [tag]Pentax[/tag] has been a pretty durable camera, but this time it just gave up on me. I think the lens may still work but my filter and my camera body are pretty much only useful for propping the door open now.

So I have managed to put 50 or so miles on my new [tag]bicycle[/tag]. Not very many for me, but I have been busy with another project lately. Aside from needing to finish my saddle adjustments I am pretty happy with my purchase. I think I will be able to make it across county on it will little issue at all. [thumb:360:c]

The other project that has been taking up my free time is a new [tag]messenger[/tag] [tag]bag. [/tag]Originally I was looking around online trying to find a decent place to order one from, but I couldn’t find one I liked for a reasonable price or wait. One of the places I found has a six week lead time on bags. the other wants at least 150 dollars. While I was bitching about this fact to someone online, they made the comment “why dont you just make one yourself.”

I apparently had forgotten I kinda know how to [tag]sew[/tag]. So a trip to the fabric store and several hours of cutting pinning and sewing later I have a pretty good start going towards my very on one of a kind messenger bag.

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I think I have made pretty good progress on it thus far, but since it is all hand sewn it has been a little slow. At this point I only need to attach the shoulder strap, make a strap pad and finish sealing up the top and it will be done. Hopefully I can manage this in one or two more days since my current bag is dying a very slow and very painful death.

As I am sure you can tell, the general site design and layout has changed once again. I am pretty happy with the overall presentation for now so I may stick with it for a bit. If anyone thinks they have a better idea or another way i could try things please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Well my first day at the water park turned out interesting enough aside from making sure no one killed themselves I got to watch my trainer go out of his way to harass every single person that came through our line. He even managed to get two [tag]Canadian[/tag] girls to invite us both out to dinner with them. He didn’t go because his girlfriend takes him home from work, and I neglected to go because I am both shy and a prude. Luckily the day went fairly quickly. Which is mainly what I was hoping for when I took the job. Since I only plan on being there for 20-25 more days I doubt I will have a chance to get bored with the job.

As far as plotting for my cross country trip, I have changed my mind about riding cross country on a bicycle with a carbon-fiber frame after reading a number of reports of catastrophic frame failure after being subjected to impact. Unfortunately since I am very hard on essentially everything I own, and prone to spectacular crashes I can realistically see myself in tears on the side of the road after breaking a 1000 plus dollar [tag]bicycle[/tag] in half. So after four hours of looking and two bike shops later I ended up with this a [tag]Motobecane[/tag] [tag]Vent[/tag] [tag]Noir[/tag]

I will get pics of mine up later when it is light out, I took the chance to ride tonight so it was dark by the time I settled in.

Post ride report
miles:30 or so according to my map (i need a new cycle computer)
number of loaves of bread eaten: 1
number of items dropped: 2 (i miss my little blinky light already, and I don’t need no stinkin map)

I really have to reconsider my [tag]dietary[/tag] choices. Since I moved to [tag]Florida[/tag] I started eating [tag]Macdonald’s[/tag] once to twice a week. I know it is horrible for me, but it is convenient and really cheap. But I am really starting to reconsider since in the past three days there have been two [tag]heart[/tag] [tag]attacks[/tag] at my Macdonald’s of choice. Maybe I should skip the fries this time. [thumb:274:c]

Past that the wait to pick up my new [tag]bicycle[/tag] is killing me, but hopefully it will only be a few more days yet. Then I want to start a new training schedule for the next few weeks. My previous 25-30 hour a week training schedule got my legs HUGE, but it was killing me and is partially responsible for me having to spend the past two weeks off my bike and in and out of a doc-in-a-box. I found a ten hour a week training schedule that should work a bit better, and hopefully be a little easier on my body. The article I found is here if you want to read it

Well after a week of extremely boring [tag]classes[/tag] it’s finally true. I am once again a [tag]Red[/tag] [tag]Cross[/tag] certified life guard. Thanks to that I now get to start work at the water park later on this week.

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After work today I was standing around in the parking lot talking to one of my coworkers. Once I pointed out the fact we were done for for the day and it was still fairly early he suggested we go to the taping of the upcoming [tag]TNA[/tag] [tag]wrestling[/tag] show. After leaving the water park we rushed over to the Universal studios lot and hastily made our way thru the gates only to find our selves at the end of a extremely long line, which we later found out was the line to go stand in a other even longer line that eventually led pass a bunch of bored looking guards to the front door. We were greeted with warning of standing room only, but luckily I was able to score a pair of seats in the front row during the first match, unfortunately I managed to miss the Canadian destroyer being pulled off less than 10 feet away.
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All and all it was an awesome night, I don’t want to give anything away before it airs on tv, but the [tag]Kurt[/tag] [tag]Angle[/tag] match made the entire night worthwhile for me. All of the matches delivered great performances. I was even on the monitor a few times during the night since I sat directly in the line of site of the main camera across the ring.
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It’s true…..It’s true

My site got [tag]spammed[/tag] for the first time last night. I feel so special.

Unfortunately with all my planning for my upcoming adventure I haven’t had time lately for any actual adventuring which is why my post have been so few and far between. I have also been taking time to catch up on my reading and general slacking off, in the past two weeks, I have managed to read:

[tag]Battle[/tag] [tag]royale[/tag] by Koushun Takami (again I know)
Bring me the head of prince Charming by Roger [tag]Zelazney[/tag]
and The Rum Diary by Hunter s. Thompson

Aside from that I finally took the time to catch up on some movie watching by finally watching Die hard all the way thru. Kinda shows just how exciting my life has been as of late. But I did see this at a [tag]Chinese[/tag] restaurant yesterday, read menu item 23 and tell me whats wrong with that [thumb:292:c] you know if they don’t know what it is, I think I will be passing on it. Last time I ordered the mystery item on the menu, it barked at me before slithering off to find a dark corner