Not and EPIC post

So you think that an event is indescribably awesome?  You just cant figure out a way to put it into words?  I would suggest before you choose to describe it as “epic” that you just pop open a thesaurus and look for another word.  No word makes me cring in a nails-on-the-chalkboard way as much as that word.   I would liken it to saying that going out to the mailbox to grab your bills was a marathon.  Was it really?  Did you actually burn all of your body’s glycogen reserves and then endure your muscles themselves beginning to be digested in your last 6 mile push to the destination? No, you didn’t? Well then it was not a marathon was it?  That is a topic for another day, back to epic.  I mean come on building pyramids was epic, defeating Hitler was epic, Brad Pitt’s bare chest in Troy… was epic….  Your latest escapade at the bar was probably not epic.  I will make a concession here, if you want to describe a heated video game competition as epic I will allow it.  Seriously though, describing every day goings-on in that way is a dishonor to Beowulf, Hercules, and others who risked their lives and fought big bad monsters to deserve the use of this valuable adjective.

Love,

David

Spread the mix.dj viral mix player !

This is a really awesome website folks!  I am a serious pandora lover and this surpasses pandora hands down when it comes to dance/club/electronic music.  Obviously if you are looking for any genre other than dance music Pandora will trump mix.dj but for club music this is tops!!! Only downside is they shut you off after 1 hr and you have to reload the webpage and start a new mix over again.  This site rocks!

Notrees? Been there, done that

Thats right folks (no one but myself). I just passed through a town called Notrees, Texas.  It was an aptly named blip on the map as  there were in fact no trees.  Lots of wind, a few tumbleweeds, a mesquite shrub here or there but not a single tree.  Thats a common theme in the Permian Basin though, the only thing trees are good for here is to catch the litter and plastic rubbish that the wind kicks up.  West of Odessa its almost like Christmas decorations except instead of lights, candy canes, ornaments, and tinsel its plastic bags, trash, and litter all over the trees.  And I have never heard a state with a more enjoyable and humorous anti-littering ad campaign.  Do yourself a favor and drive through Texas (preferably on I-10 where you can start at exit 0 and end at 889 or vice versa).  Turn up that AM radio and enjoy the simple pleasures of the Don’t Mess with Texas ads.  I do like this state, just dont like the Permian Basin too much.  Houston  I’m coming for you baby, it wont be long ’till I return to your sweet embrace… hopefully…  Who here loves Houston?? What about Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, haven’t seen much of those cities yet.  Here’s to you Matthew McConaughey and Willy Nelson… http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/view-ads.php

Oil Rig, interesting new life

I have now officially sold my soul to the oil industry.  After undertaking my first job as a college graduate and spending 1 month bs-ing in the office I made my way to the oil field for the first time.  The life is definitely interesting and very very different.  Imagine living at your place of employment 24/7 but only working for maybe 4 hours of the day.  Then cross that with a big camping trip, and that is about what it seems like to be a field engineer out on an oil rig.  Since not wanting an office job was my only criteria for getting a job after graduating, I realize that maybe I should have been careful what I wished for, this is the most anti-desk job I have ever seen and I will roll with it as long as I can without going crazy, but I wont be doing it forever and nobody does.  Oh the life in an oil field in the middle of nowhere west Texas…

Racewalking, Whos With Me Here??

Anyone seeing the racewalking that is going on in Beijing?  It’s 1:30 am central time here in Texas and I am hanging out watching some guys with the silliest gaits I have ever seen in my life attempt to run without getting caught running.  These dudes pop off like 6 minute miles and stuff, I couldn’t keep up with them even if i was running illegally.  Unless I was running illegally to a bike that I could ride along the course…

Terrence in Sierra Madre, Thank You

Terrence in Sierra Madre just called into the Jim Rome Show and made my work day bearable.  For that I am eternally thankful to Jim Rome for hosting such an amazing radio program and his ridiculous callers who make it even more entertaining.  The day of the smackoff is second only to Christmas.  Try and catch the Huge Call today and I would be willing to bet it is Terrence’s call!

Ok swimming is seriously ridiculous

Ok seriously, SERIOUSLY.  In the men’s 100m freestyle QUALIFYING races that crazy french smack talker set a world record.  No problem, it happens every day just like I detailed in my earlier post.  What happens in the very next qualifying race in the same event?  The guy breaks the crazy french guy’s record and sets the new world record himself.  That is how silly olympic swimming is.  That doesnt happen in real life, just in swimming.  I am still rooting phelps on though…

Nice freestyle relay…

As much as I ranted against swimming being lamer than track and field, it was AWESOME to see the mens 4×100m relay team kick a$$ against the trash talking French.  Hahaha, they talked the smack and their anchor freakin LOST it for them!!!  Nothin better than America showing their athletic superiority in random sporting events that only matter once every 4 years…  The French anchor claimed they came to “smash” the US relay team but in fitting fashion he blew his teams lead.  At least thats the story i heard from American television so thats what I am going with.  Love it.  Thats not to say I dont love France’s contribution to food and drink and Tour de ___.  I will throw the other country with red white and blue on  the flag props for the Tour De France because that is probably my favorite non-big-4 sporting event every year.  YAY AMERICA

Olympic Swimming – definitely not as cool as Track and Field

Ok, I am not going to hate on swimmers here.  In high school I was friends with a lot of swimmers, a lot of them were really dedicated and fit athletes.  I will say that there is a higher percentage of potheads on swim teams than other sports teams but whatever.  Anyway back to my point here.  I am watching the Olympic swim meet and it seems a little ridiculous.  The background stories that I hear about swimmers seem to deal with the upgrades in swimwear technology.  This makes me question whether the swimmers are beating each other or whether their swim suits are doing the winning.  Obviously the swimmers in each race are beating the other 7 swimmers in the pool with him/her.  The thing is 3 summer games ago the men would wear the bikini speedo’s and the women would wear the traditional 1 piece suits.  Then it seemed that swimming gear technology took over and became the reason that swimmers would attain records.  Both men and women started wearing those full body suits – some even covering their arms.  The chevron pattern was supposed to make you go faster, the tightness of the suit would make you more streamline, blah blah blah.  But NEVER have I seen a sport where people are breaking old records on such a consistent basis!!!  I just watched a womens race where the 1st and 2nd place finisher BOTH beat the previous world record.  Phelps just broke the record.  I think all but one of the races I watched tonight set world records.  This leads me to presume that these swimmers are setting records because of the suits they are wearing.  Obviously they are better than anyone in the pool with them, but are they better than swimmers from the past who did not wear full body suits?  Its just like steroids in baseball, can you compare eras?  How are swimmers just breaking records left and right like its nothing?  If you watch track and field (I used to run in high school so that shit is MY JAM, especially distance running – this is where i throw some props to my old teammate Bobby Curtis who was in the trials this year) you will not see athletes breaking records in nearly as many events or at the pace of the guys and gals in the water.  The technology on the track and the field does not help these athletes nearly as much as it does the swimmers.  Let me go into a very basic technical rant to finish off this post – I am an engineer so its in my blood, sorry.  Friction based on movement through water is much much greater than the friction that occurs when moving through air; therefore, technology that reduces friction in water will make a much bigger difference to a racer than technology that reduces friction in the air.  There is just more opportunity for technological improvement when dealing with water resistance.  *** O look, another second fastest time in history, IN A SEMIFINAL swimming event***  Also, the technology curve for runners is not increasing like it is for swimmers.  12 years ago, unlike the swimmers, the runners were basically wearing the same gear as they are now, maybe the shoes are a little better now but the technology was there then whereas with the swim gear it was not.  This leads me to my final point that it is much more impressive to see a track and field record broken than a swimming record.  The track and field records in my eyes are more based on athletic ability than the stupid ass new technology driving the deluge of swimming records.  In conclusion, maybe everyone should just partake in the Olympic games in the nude as it was done back in the original Olymics.

MapMyRun.com pat yourself on the back

I would like to take this space to rep a new favorite website of mine.  Mapmyrun.com is awesome!  I signed up for an account a while ago and then didnt think anything of it, didnt act on it or anything.  Yesterday I decided in my boredom to log on and… MAP MY RUN!!  It worked, it worked wonderfully.  There are so many different options for a person to choose from and its not only for runners.  Any activity where you would like to track distance, time, calories, etc.  I think you can even do elevation changes and you can definitely track how many miles you log on the equipment you use.  That is a really neat feature because in the case of my running, I can figure out exactly when I hit that 500 mile mark and begin to think about retiring my shoes.  It even gives me a cost per mile dividing the price i paid for my shoes by the amount of mileage I have used them for.  I bought a new pair of shoes and I think that was the reason I decided to use the website.  So now I am at 14 dollars per mile but just wait, haha.  It was not long ago when google earth was the only software I could find to actually create my customized route online and map the distance, but now all sorts of websites do it and its such a good tool.  Get on mapmyrun.com and look up some routes around your house, you might just find your way down a road you have never seen before and you might just become a little bit of a healthier person doing it!