I've stopped using Blogger and moved to using G+ exclusively:
http://chrisclark.net/blog
Laters!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Back to running
I'm finally back to running. During my recent trip to Europe, I didn't have much opportunity to hit the pavement due to bad weather, exhaustion, too dangerous to run, or just not enough time.
I went out for a little over two miles in my neighborhood on Wednesday and I did 3.25 miles this morning. I still have a decent pace (around 8 min/mile) considering I've only run a couple of times in the last month.
The amazing thing (to me, anyway) is that I've run nearly 500 miles already this year. Of course, I know people that have doubled that or more, so good for them, but I don't compete in marathons, and I've had a lot of days that I couldn't run, so good for me.
My hope is that I will be able to get my butt out of bed early this summer so I can get back to doing 40+ miles a week.
I went out for a little over two miles in my neighborhood on Wednesday and I did 3.25 miles this morning. I still have a decent pace (around 8 min/mile) considering I've only run a couple of times in the last month.
The amazing thing (to me, anyway) is that I've run nearly 500 miles already this year. Of course, I know people that have doubled that or more, so good for them, but I don't compete in marathons, and I've had a lot of days that I couldn't run, so good for me.
My hope is that I will be able to get my butt out of bed early this summer so I can get back to doing 40+ miles a week.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Amazing 3 year old drummer
Normally I ignore videos with kids in them, but this kid is incredible for his age.
Bye bye Facebook!
My Facebook account has been deleted:
Done and Done!
Hi Chris,
We have received a request to permanently delete your account. Your account has been deactivated from the site and will be permanently deleted within 14 days.
If you did not request to permanently delete your account, follow this link to cancel this request:
http://www.facebook.com/account_delete.php
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
Done and Done!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
In parallel worlds
I would like to live in a universe where Glenn Beck was sane:
When Bush had to nominate a Supreme Court Justice, the right was freaking out about the suggestion that Dems would possibly consider not voting for, to use their own words, "activist judges". We have Karl Rove to thank for that and for any fodder that is flung from the neo-cons today. I'm not saying that Kagan is the right choice, but you have to pick a better reason than "because a liberal nominated her".
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Time Lapse of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano
From the article:
Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.
So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better. But the flights to get over took forever as expected (somewhat). 4 days after leaving I finally made it, but the weather was terrible for another 4. Just before leaving it got pretty good for about a day and a half and this is what I managed to get.Watch below, or click here for a better version of the video.
Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Flying out of Rome
I'm sitting in Rome's Fiumicino airport and am in awe of how inefficient this place works for international flights. Here's how the morning has been:
1) Get up early to get to Rome's Termini Station. They have a non-stop to Fiumicino which is nice. The floor of the train is about 3 feet above the station platform, which isn't nice if you have heavy bags. Sure there are stairs, but the door is narrow so you have to lift your bag up and put it on the train before you get on. I get behind the woman with an 80 pound bag and it takes three people to get her bag up the stairs.
2) Once you get to Fiumicino, you grab your bags and walk, walk, walk. Get on a bus that takes you to the back side of the airport for Terminal 5.
3) In Terminal 5, you wait in a line for someone to verify your passport and ask you the stupid "are these your bags" questions. Once you say that you haven't accepted anything from anyone else, she puts a sticker on your passport and bags.
4) Then you get in another line to check in at an automated kiosk.
5) Then you wait in a line to check in your bags and get your boarding pass.
6) Then you wait in the security theater (some call it security screening, but it isn't really. . .don't get me started)
7) Once you get your stuff together after the security screening, you wait in the passport control to leave the country.
8) You walk through a door and get on a bus to be taken to another part of the airport.
9) This is one big, round room with 20 or so international gates. These are the gates that handle the 300+ passenger planes. There are two places to get food. Needless to say, getting food is a bit of a chore. There are so many people you don't know where the line is. People are everywhere. I waited in a line for ten minutes when I, and the people in around me, found out we weren't actually in a line to get food. We were in the line to PAY for food, but we had no idea of what we wanted to eat. I left, they got in the other line to see what food was available in the display case.
10) There are three electrical outlets for this entire room. One is the old three pronged outlet and I don't have an adapter. The second would require me to crawl on my hands and knees for about 20 feet behind a ticketing booth. I'm sure security would love that. I found the third one next to a currency exchange counter. The guy working there was really annoyed when I asked if I could plug my laptop into it.
I still have about 45 minutes before my flight. I'm curious as to what I'm going to find next. All I can say is I'll be glad to be back home so I don't have to deal with the stress of airports.
See you on the other side of the Atlantic. . .
Update: When I walked back to the gate, there was a scrum of about 200 people waiting to go through one line for the airline to scan your boarding pass (there was a second line only for business and first class). There was no organization because we were just in line to get on another bus to take us out to the plane. That made a total of three bus rides AFTER I arrived at the airport. Each one of them was packed like a sardine can. We took off and arrived about an hour late.
1) Get up early to get to Rome's Termini Station. They have a non-stop to Fiumicino which is nice. The floor of the train is about 3 feet above the station platform, which isn't nice if you have heavy bags. Sure there are stairs, but the door is narrow so you have to lift your bag up and put it on the train before you get on. I get behind the woman with an 80 pound bag and it takes three people to get her bag up the stairs.
2) Once you get to Fiumicino, you grab your bags and walk, walk, walk. Get on a bus that takes you to the back side of the airport for Terminal 5.
3) In Terminal 5, you wait in a line for someone to verify your passport and ask you the stupid "are these your bags" questions. Once you say that you haven't accepted anything from anyone else, she puts a sticker on your passport and bags.
4) Then you get in another line to check in at an automated kiosk.
5) Then you wait in a line to check in your bags and get your boarding pass.
6) Then you wait in the security theater (some call it security screening, but it isn't really. . .don't get me started)
7) Once you get your stuff together after the security screening, you wait in the passport control to leave the country.
8) You walk through a door and get on a bus to be taken to another part of the airport.
9) This is one big, round room with 20 or so international gates. These are the gates that handle the 300+ passenger planes. There are two places to get food. Needless to say, getting food is a bit of a chore. There are so many people you don't know where the line is. People are everywhere. I waited in a line for ten minutes when I, and the people in around me, found out we weren't actually in a line to get food. We were in the line to PAY for food, but we had no idea of what we wanted to eat. I left, they got in the other line to see what food was available in the display case.
10) There are three electrical outlets for this entire room. One is the old three pronged outlet and I don't have an adapter. The second would require me to crawl on my hands and knees for about 20 feet behind a ticketing booth. I'm sure security would love that. I found the third one next to a currency exchange counter. The guy working there was really annoyed when I asked if I could plug my laptop into it.
I still have about 45 minutes before my flight. I'm curious as to what I'm going to find next. All I can say is I'll be glad to be back home so I don't have to deal with the stress of airports.
See you on the other side of the Atlantic. . .
Update: When I walked back to the gate, there was a scrum of about 200 people waiting to go through one line for the airline to scan your boarding pass (there was a second line only for business and first class). There was no organization because we were just in line to get on another bus to take us out to the plane. That made a total of three bus rides AFTER I arrived at the airport. Each one of them was packed like a sardine can. We took off and arrived about an hour late.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns
One of the (many) problems with the Texas School Board decision is that there is one board that makes textbook decisions for the whole state. That's a lot of books, so if they make a change in a book to suit their needs, it changes for the rest of the country. Book publishers are reluctant to make different editions for different states.
From the article:
They just don't get it. . .
From the article:
US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation
...
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
They just don't get it. . .
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Rush -- Fly By Night
Very old school music video (or promotional video as they were usually called back then) from the 70s.
Got any bright ideas?
From the Deutsche-Welle article:
BP's 100-ton containment dome failed to funnel oil leaks that have been polluting the Gulf of Mexico for over two weeks. As the slick reaches US shores, BP wants you to come up with a solution.Aren't they supposed to have all the geniuses? Oh, right. They cost money and it would make a slight dent in their all-time record profits.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Here's where our priorities are
From the article:
Challenger Investigation Got $175 Million. Columbia $152 Million. Lewinsky $30 Million. 9/11 $15 Million. Financial Crisis Gets Only $8 Million
We don't need to really worry about the truth behind 9/11 or the financial crisis, we just need to make it LOOK like we are worried about it. Now the Monica Lewinski thing, that's a big deal.
Have Aliens Hijacked one of the Voyager Probes?
A few days ago, Voyager 2 started sending garbled data. "Some" say that an alien has hijacked it and is trying to communicate with us:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/wacky/have-aliens-hijacked-voyager-2-spacecraft/story-e6frev20-1225865566982
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/wacky/have-aliens-hijacked-voyager-2-spacecraft/story-e6frev20-1225865566982
How To Destroy Angels' New Video
Trent Reznor's band, How to Destroy Angels, has a new video for their song "The Space In Between [Null]". Check it out here:
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo/5556-how-to-destroy-angels-the-space-in-between-null
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/musicvideo/5556-how-to-destroy-angels-the-space-in-between-null
Quit Facebook Day is Coming Up!
May 31st has apparently been declared as "Quit Facebook Day". Not so coincidentally, the suits (Zuckerberg has been wearing a suit because he lost a bet or something like that) held an emergency meeting at Facebook today (Thursday) to figure out what to do about their horrible privacy practices.
http://www.quitfacebookday.com
http://www.quitfacebookday.com
Thousands of undelivered letters hoarded by US postman
From the BBC article:
Tubs of undelivered letters were discovered in April when the US Postal Service worker missed several days of work and managers visited his home.I was hoping to read "a neighbor was quoted as saying 'Newman!'", but I guess no one around there has watched "Seinfeld".
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