Monday Morning Musings [part the 3rd]

broderic on August 30, 2010

Let's take a look at the drive to work to celebrate the first day of school for many of the students in MD. Last week, if I had left my house at 7:30 AM, I would've been treated to a congestion free commute to work lasting 40 minutes for a 30 mile drive. Today, I get the school traffic that will complicate the morning and afternoon commutes. It will add another 10 to 15 minutes to the drive, and all of that within the first 10 miles of the drive.Why do I accept it? Because I chose where I live.Should I have moved closer to work? Should I find a new job closer to home?Having house closer to work would make my quality of life better. Less taxing on the cars. Less money spent on gas. Less aggravation caused by the traffic. More time to sleep. More time to eat breakfast. More money in the pocket.How is your daily commute, and would you change it for the better or worse?

20 Miles

broderic on August 28, 2010

I haven’t ridden my bikes all year.

Only twice. But those 20 miles don’t count considering I used to do 600+ a year.

I had promised myself a century before I am forty. That leaves one last year. I plan to do it, but most good (read easy) century rides happen later in the fall.

Here’s a few rides that may happen again next year that I should be targeting:

Back Roads Century
Seasons Change Metric Century
Shenandoah Fall Foliage Bike Festival
Between the Waters Bike Tour
Civil War Century
Save A Limb Ride

Eventually, I’ll do my century at least before I die.

8466 ¥ in $

broderic on August 28, 2010

Black Rock Shooter nendoroids are all the rage. I unfortunately got two of them. How did this happen? And, more importantly, will it happen again?

My current pre-orders are coming due. All the nendoroids are coming from as far away as Japan. They’ve been ordered months ago perhaps as far back as March. Only now they are being released.

My Saturday mornings are spent showing up at the post office to sign for a package from my favorite nendoroid seller, Hobby Search. I’m stuck in line waiting with the rest of the sad saps for a package at the package pick up window. It would be easier if I didn’t have Hobby Search deliver them vie EMS, but the much cheaper and less of a hassle PAL. Of course, using the alternative means the nendoroids will be coming on the slow boat from China.

Anyway, two Black Rock Shooters, which is two too many. I had thought to cancel the order, but thought better of it. Maybe I should’ve checked how many I did order because one is sufficient for my nendoroid collection.

Who wants one?

Quote of the Day [8.27.10]

broderic on August 27, 2010

"What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too! Get it?"Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn), Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Newer and Older

broderic on August 25, 2010

I bring you some nice additions to the blog. Ever since I change the layout and created my own template, I’ve been missing a feature that previous versions of BrowserMetrics had. I’ve been missing the capability to go through older posts with a link to “previous 10” or to “next 10.” I hated that using tags, you wouldn’t be able to traverse through older posts.

I’ve fixed that. Check the bottom of the page. You’re welcome.

It even works on the tags.

Here’s a few interesting ones:

  1. Travel log

  2. Baltimore Orioles

  3. Link of the Day

Looking good right?

Let the Good Times Roll

broderic on August 24, 2010

The night the First Lady had her lackey’s throw out the first ball, the Orioles staged an awesome rally to win in 13 innings. Here’s the gang getting fired up for that spectacle.

Monday Morning Musings [part 2]

broderic on August 23, 2010

I started this, so might as well try to get this going.Originally, Monday Morning Musings was going to be about the music I listened to on the drive work, but, unfortunately, it should've been titled, "Monday Morning Music Musings." That was a slight oversight error on my part. I was so enthusiastic to write the first post of the series, that I just submitted it without a complete proofread. This slight error works out in my favor, because I can then write about whatever I thought about driving in to work even if it isn't music.The second in this series, though, will still be about music, because my mind was blank on the drive in.In iTunes, I've got a playlist folder that holds my "mix tapes." The title of the folder is "Burn List," and I usually include it in the synch routine to iPhone. Most of the playlists have been burned to a CD. Most are short so that I can burn them to CD audio and listen to them in my Jetta. The first time I had burned an MP3 disc, I learned that the head unit in the Jetta doesn't read MP3. I bought it around 2001 right around the cusp of MP3 player revolution. I had changed a tape player to this head unit, and looking back at it, the tape player would've allowed me to use the audio-in-to-tape dongle, the digital to analog converter thing you slipped into the tape deck.There are a few longer mixes reserved for MP3 burning, but those I have yet to do. I can just use the aux-in in the Mini for these playlists, so I don't need a CD version. Kind of defeats the purpose of that folder now that I about it.Anyway, the latest mix I made is for an MP3 CD. I like it plenty. I've been listening to it for days now while at work and had to listen to it coming into work today. Twenty-two songs. I listened to one in particular.I've been an anime/manga fan for the last few years. Manga is the majority of my reading. Anime, while not the majority of my television watching, makes up a lot of my video watching on a computer. That's a euphemism for downloading. With anime, I can get caught up with the opening and ending songs. They have become part of my music listening habits. I've been a big, big fan of the music coming out of the K-ON!! anime. They're rockers. Yet, this love for rocking anime tunes has to have come from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya's infamous "Live Alive" episode. If you know of anything about this anime or anime in general, you will know of this episode. It only had the most famous rocking anime song out for 2006, "God Knows" and "Lost My Music." I'm partial to "Lost My Music," and it's the one I have on my latest mix.Currently, iTunes has me having played it 140+ times, but that doesn't take into account listening to it on a burned CD or the counts from iPhone. I listen to it in its various covers on iTunes. You could look back on the archive of this blog and find instances of these cover versions. Even these I love. Then I've looked into trying to play this on my guitar. I've got the basic chord progression down, but there's no way I can play the lead because it's too fast for my novice hands.There's a lot of pieces to this Monday Morning (music) Musing from iTunes playlists to anime music to this song. I figure the point of this though is about this song. I love it lots ever since I've heard it back in '08. Do you have a song you're devoted to?

It sure is a Fine Pic

broderic on August 21, 2010

Hey, look! Fujifilm is coming out with a new FinePix 3D film. I’m loyal to Panasonic’s Lumix cameras and will be getting another Lumix. The 3D technology is too raw and just a gimmic. But there is something about this camera that caught my eye. I wonder what it is. Can someone point it out for me?