Things that might be decidedly odd…

Me Being a Smart Ass on LiveJournal

I found this little conversation interesting. Note the use of the word ‘imperialists’.

Party, Party

On Friday, Bev organized a barbeque at our place. A bunch of people from his department as well as a few from mine showed up. I think Kara and Michael were the only people from Comp Lit, but it was none the less an ecclectic crowd, which means that we all separated into our individual camps. Anyhow, a good time was had by all and us CS folk went out to Pantana Bob’s on Rosemary afterwards. The atmosphere was decidedly fratty, but I have to agree with Carol (who met us there with Brian) that it did have a nice patio.

Tonight I headed over to a party somebody who works at WXYC (Steph) was hosting. It was kinda awkward at first since I didn’t know anybody there well and only sorta knew maybe two people. However, I surprisingly ended up talking to several different random people over the course of the night. This guy Reece and I even ended up talking for long stretches in German. Wow, it’s been about a year since I last spoke German actually, which sort of frightens me. I was still able to talk pretty fast and fluently though. In fact, I had a really nice time. It’s like dejavu all over again being at a party with a bunch of local hipster music people and I actually mean that in a good way. In many ways, it was like a scaled down, younger version of a bash at JJ’s. Lots of drinking, people in bands, people who hang out with people in bands, all the radio people standing around the keg, etc.

Optometrist

I went to the optometrist today. It was late in the day and there really weren’t any other patients around, which made things pretty chill. The doctor was nice and curiously we have the same birthday (not year, but still). Anyhow, after three years my prescription has changed a bit, although it appears to have slowed down considerably. I’m now up to -7 diopters in one eye and -6.75 in the other. It seems like I passed -6 several years ago.

I also got fitted for contacts since I’ve become vain again (: Like riding a bicycle, I can still stick things in my eyes without too much trouble. It’s weird though since the last time I wore any was back in 1997. The only reason I stopped wearing them was because I got GPC from not cleaning my lenses frequently enough. The doctor was telling me how these days the condition is incredibly rare since disposables having become affordable and widely worn.

My eyes are definitely not used to having contacts in them. Everything is a bit blurry especially close up, although over the past few hours it has been getting better. It’s odd being able to see myself in the mirror again without my glasses. My face looks kinda weird.

Flat Tire, Part III

After getting my bike back this morning, I decided I should go for a ride. 20 feet down the road, I stop to adjust my seat (since the guy moved it when he replaced the tube) and hear a loud hissing. Fucking thing is leaking again! I go back home, annoyed and shortly the tire is totally flat. The same exact tire as before. Arg.

I ate some lunch, regrouped and back down to the bike shop. At first, when I explained the story to the gal working up front, she asked “so when did we fix your tire?” Oh, about 3 hours ago… “oh ya, I remember now”… Hmmmm… The mechanic takes off the tire and shows me a rusty staple stuck in the tire. He claims that I must have picked up on the driveway, because a sharp straight object like that would have blown the new tube as soon as he put it in and inflated it. I see his point, but I’m still skeptical. I’ve ridden that bike over 224km (and I rode many times before I got the speedometer working) and never had a flat. Yet, 30 seconds of riding on a new tube, it starts to leak? The guy was pretty cool about it all though. He just charged me for the new tube and I was on my way.

Hopefully, there won’t be any new surprises with this tube. I really should just buy some extra tubes, a pump and that tool you pry the tire off with so that I can fix my own flats in the future. At least throughout this whole ordeal, I’ve mastered taking the front wheel off to put the bike in my car…

Flat Tire

After getting back from signing up for swimming lessons, I decided I’d go for a bike ride and get my daily exercise. A ways into the ride, I decided I should probably do a longer ride today since it was Sunday and I had some extra time. I was going to ride through campus on South and at some point in the distance turn around and come back. Well, at the intersection of South and Country Club I noticed that bike felt funny, looked down and realized I had a flat tire. Doh! Fortunately, I was pretty close to WXYC and thus walked over there to call my roommate Michael to come pick me up in my car. While there, I chatted with Rob who was a fellow new DJ last semester. He was doing Broken Music, which is the weekly difficult listening specialty show. There are a number of interesting people at the station and I really need to try harder to be social there because of that. Don’t get me wrong–I like hanging out with the CS nerds, but there’s a music nerd void in my soul that needs to be filled too.

Anyhow, today I went over to The Clean Machine to get the tire fixed and to get the long needed tune-up for my bike. They’re pretty busy over there right now, so I need to come back in two weeks to get the tune-up, but they put in a new tube while I waited. $13+change later and my back is at least ridable again.

Waiting at the YMCA

After talking to the woman at the Y the other day about how people line up early to sign up for swimming lessons, I drove over there this morning around 10am or so. There were lots of cars in the parking lot, but there wasn’t any line at the entrance. After sitting in the car reading for a while, I realized there appeared to be some sort of religious service going on off to the side of the building. Anyhow, sometime later (probably around 10:30am), a lady walked up to the door and then sat down. I left the comfort of my car, but not before another guy appeared to. I was third in line, which I figured would land me in a “safe, rather than sorry” position in line. A while later (probably around noon), a lady who worked there came out and started distributing forms and answering questions. It turns out that for the class I’m interested in taking, is for both beginners and advanced students. The lady told me that it only has 8 students, so they’ll taylor it to the needs of each individual.

Eventually, I got inside, got my form processed and ponied up $64 for 8 45 minute lessons. Class meets twice a week on Monday and Wednesday evening for 4 weeks, starting June 6th. Hopefully, I’ll learn how to properly swim and this will lead me to another enjoyable, regular exercise activity besides cycling and running. I also found out the other day that it will only cost me $30 for the summer to have pool and gym privileges on campus. I might spring for that since it’s pretty reasonable.

Things have been really chill (aka boring) lately since not a lot has been going on. However, it looks like I’m going to see a foreign film called Comme un image (English title: Look at Me) tonight with some friends and perhaps have some dinner afterwards. That should be a nice change from my social laziness over the past week.

YMCA

I called the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA today to ask about swimming lessons. Apparently, they open at 1pm on Sunday, but people start lining up as early as 10am. The classes I’m looking at (the ones for adults) are all very small. One has 3 of the 5 spots filled already, while another has 5 of the 8. I’m thinking I should just show up early and bring the book I’m currently reading. Otherwise, I’ll just get all stressed out I imagine.

Generally, things have been slow over the past few days. Although a number of people are sticking around for the summer, I’ve come to realize that most of the people I hang out with the most are all gone for the summer or at least gone for the time being. I really should go up to Sitterson more often to do work so as to be more social.

Another Day

Not a whole lot has been going on the past couple of days. I’m finally getting back into the swing of work after taking a much needed break most of the end of last week. Poring through papers and doing a lot of thinking about how I’m going to approach the newest problem in my research.

Anyhow, today I also went over the shopping center off Briar Creek Road in Raleigh, where the good Target is at. Strangely, I didn’t find anything I wanted to buy at Target. I almost got a hat since I really could use one to shield the sun from my face. While there I saw a lot of very un-family apparel, which I suppose surprised me being that it’s Target which seems so wholesome. Lots of trucker hats with beer logos on them, not to mention those shirts with off logos containing text like “morning wood” on them. It just strikes me as odd since that part of the store seems to be catering towards teens. Do parents buy those clothes for their kids or do the kids wander over to Target themselves to buy it? Maybe I’m out of touch (which is likely) or something. They could be catering to twenty somethings like myself and I just have no interest in a hat with the Miller beer logo on it.

I did find a cheap shirt at Ross. When I find decent things for cheap prices there I’m pleased, but there really is so much crap. I also bought a pair of running shoes at Dick’s right before they closed. I’ve told myself I need to augment my exercise routine which currently consists of biking or occasionally walking every day. They were $50 and on a slight sale ($5 off), but I’m sure I didn’t get a very good deal. However, I knew if I didn’t buy them then, I’d just procrastinate so it was better to just suck it up.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been getting into exercise, which historically has been so unlike me. I still loathe group sports for reasons I don’t entirely understand. Maybe it’s cause my general athletic suckiness causes problems when there’s competition. Most group sports also require coordination and agility, which I just don’t have. On the upside though, I’ve found solitary things to do like biking and walking. I’d like to add running and swimming into the mix. I’ve just found that I sleep much better at night and generally feel better when I get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. I’m not entirely sure why it took me so long to figure this out. Maybe I’m just stubborn or all that PE I took in junior high and high school turned me off to it.

I think I’m gonna shell out the $60 to take swimming lessons at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA, that is if there’s still space left for non-members when I can first register this coming weekend. I already can swim and am totally comfortable with water, but really have forgotten all the technique I learned when in swimming lessons when I was like 5. There’s a beginner/intermediate class and an advance/stroke clinic class. For the more advanced class, you need to be able to swim 50 yards continuous freestyle and backstroke. I’m not sure I can swim 50 yards and certainly not with proper technique. Heck, I don’t even know how to do the backstroke, so maybe it’s best to start at the beginning.

Refer Logs

I always like to stroll through my refer logs to see how people find this site. Claire’s blog is now the clear leader, taking up approx. 27 of the 102 valid refers I’ve gotten so far this month. Trailing behind at 16 is blo.gs which is a site Wordpress pings automatically went I make new posts (i.e., random people on the internet). LiveJournal comes in a close third with 15. The rest are my other websites at UNC, Berkeley and the MPI along with some random sites that have posted links to my rants or papers.

As for search engine terms, things involving elliptical and other sorts of non-circular gears clearly top the list. If you haven’t seen my project on those from Spring 2002 at Berkeley, you can read all about how I made a bunch of non-circular gears. The rest is about CS61B or things related to it, although the phrase “flight training in mississippi” is in the top 10 two (with 2 refers). Weird.

New Show

Looks like I’m gonna be on the radio Thursday mornings from 9 to noon EDT for the rest of the summer, or at least until I take off for Jason’s Wedding / SIGGRAPH in late July.