I never thought I’d see the day when a TV commercial made me happy, but every time I see the Discovery Channel “whole world” spot, I find myself smiling and humming along…so I’m reproducing it here…and then following it up with a link to today’s xkcd (which is, by far, the best webcomic out there).
Today’s xkcd.
So for awhile now, I’ve been trying to find the words to talk about Kate in here. And most of what I end up writing seems to be cliché, barely one step beyond “I love my girlfriend because she is smart and funny and hot”… And that’s just going to seem stupid.
The writer that lives a life of leisure and slackdom inside my brain piped up with an idea about context being extremely important in the delivery of a message, so I decided to write an open letter to her. This serves two purposes; first, it allows the uninvolved reader see how we communicate, and at the same time, when she reads it, she’ll understand that when I wrote it, I did so with her in mind, and that it’s from the heart, and not edited based on trying to put together something that’s been “sanitized” for public consumption.
…
Dearest Kate,
So it’s been far too long since I last updated this site. Shame on me! Life has been pretty crazy lately and as a result, writing for the site has been low on my list of priorities.
A list of the things that have been keeping me occupied lately:
1. Girlfriend. Kate and I are doing really well, and I’m dopey-in-love with her. She’s smart, funny, tough (with a mushy center), and easy on the eyes. And we’re good together.
2. Work. Work’s been fun lately. I’ve started flexing the creative muscles a little bit, plus getting more PM work, and designing/implementing process. Good fun!
3. Video Games. Well, Rock Band is definitely a hit with friends, and we’ve rocked out a few times. Got some friends I should join up with to play online. In other fun, I’ve started playing Call of Duty 4, which is an awesome experience.
Note what’s missing? Yeah, bike and writing updates. Seriously, I need to get back on the ball with those. Like tomorrow.
Today’s already spoken-for — I’m leaving the office at 2pm today, and going and getting a new tattoo (which I’ll detail in a post this weekend), which will be my first in about 12 years. After that, I work at the bike shop, where I’ll be faxing in my order for my new time trial rig.
Saturday calls for a long bike ride, forcing myself to write at least 2000 words of novel, and some serious housecleaning.
“A soul is like a cell phone — it’s useful at times, but it’s more of a pain in the ass than anything, and ends up costing you a lot.” — Me
Last night, as we were falling asleep, Kate admonished me for not updating here since last week. I retorted by rubbing my stubbly legs on her and then admitting that it had been awhile. So here’s what’s up:
Writing. Not much time for it these days. But I did have two cool ideas for books yesterday. The first is a non-fiction work, and the second is a sci-fi re-telling of a modern history story. Both would be a lot of fun to write.
Cycling. If I don’t have to work at the shop tomorrow, I’m going to get the Surly out for a shakedown cruise. Work the kinks out, so I can make with the commuting. Johnny Surprise and I are going to try to get out and hammer this weekend, too. Haven’t seen the dude in a dog’s age.
Fonts. Also stalled. Need to get re-focused on getting the e-commerce engine running, converting some of my old fonts to OpenType and getting them back online for sale. I can always use more money.
Social Life. Picking up a bit. Going to have Jenni and the Cashbox, and some other peeps over for poker night this coming Wednesday. Liz is back in town for, like, a week or something before she heads off to her medical residency in Buffalo, NY, so there’s some drinking, maybe some biking, and some Rock Band in the immediate future.
Moblog. I’m working on a version of this blog for the iPhone/iPod Touch — one that will fill the screen nicely so you don’t have to zoom around like mad to make things quasi-readable. I’ll probably release the Wordpress theme as a free download, too.
Videoblog. I’m working on the first videoblog, and it’s coming along. Hopefully finished this weekend. I need ideas from you guys for topics on upcoming blogs — what sorts of stuff do you want to see?
Warm-Up Phase:
“This Language” - Stateless
“Whispering Wind” - Moby
Work Phase:
“UNKLE Reconstruction” - Michael Giacchino & UNKLE
“Five Four” - The Gorillaz
“Weapons of Mass Distortion” - The Crystal Method
“Genetic Blueprint” - Fear Factory
“Somewhere I Belong” - Linkin Park
“One Man Army” - The Prodigy and Tom Morello
“Ladies and Gentlemen” - Saliva
“She Builds Quick Machines” - Velvet Revolver
Cool-Down Phase:
“Loui” - Ronald Jenkees
“Warning Shots” - Gunjan, Sleeping Wonder & Thievery Corporation
ZenHabits has a great piece on how to keep yourself focused while at work.
Obviously, blogging about the article is a way to lose focus.
Photo by Tomoyoshi. Licensed under the Creative Commons
I’ve got a thing for good product design. What can I say? It’s what keeps me attracted to Apple’s line of products, it influences my choices on the bike (we can have the Shimano Dura-Ace vs. SRAM Red debate another time), and so on.
There’s just something about the Nissan GT-R (the “Skyline”) that just does it for me.
Every sports car has a look that says, “Get out of my way.” A large majority of them are like the totally hot chick in high school that you had a huge crush on, even though she was a total air-head. She’d giggle and ask you to move, and you’d comply. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and so on fall into this category.
Some sports cars are more the refined European aristrocrat. Imagine an Oxford accent, with them holding a little cup of tea, pinky extended. “I say, good chap, would you mind clearing the way? That’s a good man.” This is your Mercedes or Jaguar.
American muscle cars are the jock in high school that used to stuff you into your locker.
The GT-R is in a class all it’s own. This is a car that says, very quietly, “Get out of my way or I’m going to stab you in the face. Repeatedly.”
Honestly, I think this might be Japan’s first true muscle car, and damn if it isn’t the hottest thing on the planet.
Hey Nissan, any interest in giving an advocate a 2009 GT-R Premium with the all-weather tires and Super Silver paint?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. We’ll talk after I win the lottery on Saturday night.
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