I'm not worthwhile.
Came across this on turntable.fm. I'm not sure it can compete with the original, but this is pretty outstanding. Part of me thinks this is the way it should always have been sung.
The Phillies haven't seemed themselves for quite a while, at least at the plate. Hell, even Charlie says so. And I think I know why. I'm sure by this point everyone has seen the 'ill' shirts around town. More and more of them every year, it seems.
Looking at the chart, it almost seems like it's too late. But it's not. We have Doc Halladay going tonight, and if anyone can fight the Ill-ness that is plaguing our fair city, it is him. But please, get rid of your 'Ill' shirts as soon as possible. They make very luxurious toilet paper, and decent wicks for torches. The Phillies are counting on you.
I did the Livestrong challenge this past weekend for the first time, and I thought it was a really great event. Team GBM did a great job raising money, and almost doubled our initial fundraising goal (not counting a very generous match from the company most of us work for). We had a pretty good turnout both days, and it was fun to meet some new people, and see some others outside of a work environment. Saturday was probably the best day for this - some people did the 5k walk, and others did the 10k run, but afterwards we all met up to hang around the biggest grill I've seen anyone bring tailgating in a long time and do some serious brunching. Who can turn down burgers and hot dogs after being out in the sun a bit, especially after skipping breakfast. This was such a fashionable place to be that even people who weren't participating that day came out (including our generous host / team organizer Kermit). The weather was beautiful, and that certainly helped.
The Foundation did a great job keeping the 5,000 people or so who came out on the right track during the walk, but outdid themselves the next day for the bike rides. The weather was far less agreeable, but I think they still said that about 3,000 people came to ride bikes. This makes for a much more difficult start, especially when there are five different courses! They pulled it off beautifully though. The people directing us at the major intersections did a great job keeping us moving while informing us what was ahead. It was also nice that they kept the traffic under control. The volunteers at the rest stops were awesome too - at one of the stops they were holding umbrellas, boxes, and whatever else they could find over the food in an attempt to keep it dry. With all this support it felt like we were riding with the pros! The start was kind of hectic because we were trying to round up everyone on the team to get the last couple numbers distributed, but we did all make it to the starting line. I think that the guys I was with got off to a slightly later start than anyone else, but since everyone was wearing the same jerseys it was easy to get caught up and find them. The weather started off fairly well but quickly took a turn for the worst. I wasn't sure how this would effect the decision that I'd made the previous day to ride 70 miles instead of 45, but after the first half-hour or so I quickly grew to like it. It did make the course pretty dangerous but it beat baking in the sun in my book. Because the roads had gotten so slippery, we ended up needing to stop coming down one hill because someone had lost it about halfway down and crashed into the guardrail hard enough that (s)he needed to be carried out on a stretcher. Officials had stopped us to get a clear path to load this person onto the ambulance. It looked pretty bad, but with so many people around they were hopefully able to get help relatively quickly. Hopefully this was the case and they're OK. Around the time they were getting ready to let us pass, we actually saw Lance Armstrong riding up the hill. This was a reasonably steep hill (at least steep enough for someone to wipe out on it) and he was going at least 15-20 mph up it. It looked easy for him too, it was quite impressive. I think I was more impressed with everyone else on our team's riding though. With the exception of the four guys who'd set out to do the 100 mile ride (and unfortunately missed the time cutoff due to our late start, and had to do a mere 70 miles) everyone covered more ground than they'd planned on. I set out to do the 45 mile ride with one other person, and we both ended up doing 70 miles. We actually wanted to try the 100 mile course (except for a moment of weakness on my part coming through a particularly rough area of weather) but missed the time cutoff by about 5 minutes. I was most impressed with the three guys riding fixies though - I think they had all planned to do the 20 mile ride, but two ended up doing 45 and the third 70 (with no brakes!). I haven't done a ride as difficult as the 70 mile course since I was much younger, and the idea of someone doing it without even being able to change gears impresses the hell out of me. I haven't ridden a single speed bike since the BMX I had until I was 15 or so, but I'm not sure I'd even be able to do the 45 mile ride on one. Aside from the weather, I'm not sure the event could have gone much better. I do wish the guys who set out to do 100 miles had gotten to do the full course, but hopefully the weather will cooperate next year. I think I want to go back next year and try the 100 mile course also - I think I still had a bit left after 70. Riding the hills in Manayunk was a fantastic way to get prepared. I didn't take any pictures because I'm the worst but as I find them I'll try and come back to post links to any I find.
Or anyone from our team really. You can see the team list here: Team GBM
I'm going to do the 5k walk, and the 45 mile bike ride. I thought about doing only 20 miles but I rode my bike to or from work every day for the past few weeks and I'm feeling like I can handle the 45 pretty easily (famous last words). Our company is going to match the money raised, so any contributions will help that much more. If you decide to sponsor me this should be the direct link: Alex's Individual PageThanks to everyone who contributed so far, and thanks in advance to anyone else. I'll post again after the event, just so you know I survived. Assume I'm dead if you don't see anything here. Special thanks to Matt O'Brien who I thought maybe entered an extra zero by accident!
Ten years ago today, I lost one of the best friends I ever had.
In a lot of ways it seems like it just happened yesterday, but in others it seems like it was a hundred years ago. Every July 2nd, I think about what things would be like if he were still around, and get a little more convinced he'd be disappointed. He was probably one of the most strong-willed people I ever met, and once he got an idea in his head, it was incredibly difficult to change his mind. This made it tough for him to take orders, so he could never hold down a job for very long, and it also probably played a role in how he died. I really would have liked to see how he could have put this determination to use once he learned where he fit in the world. He was also fiercely loyal - I don't think I've ever seen anyone take it as personally as he did whenever someone would fuck with one of his friends. This probably got him in more trouble than it was worth looking back, but it was always good to know he was in our figurative (and sometimes literal) corner. He died on his eighteenth birthday, so I'll always wonder what might have been when he grew up a bit.Whenever I hear this song I think of Harun. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Sending it out to his two brothers and all of his friends today.
I've been seeing these signs pop up all around, they make me angry or make me laugh uncontrollably whenever I see them.
In the last four years we've seen practically every available intersection turned into a shopping center, including a couple of huge ones that draw traffic from all over. We're rapidly approaching a drug store or wawa on every corner. I guess people were too busy fawning over the shiny new stores to summon a similar level of outrage.
I guess I'm happy that someone's standing up for the bird habitat or whatever the cell phone tower will destroy, but kind of wish they'd been paying attention when the serious damage was being done. Still, the birds will have a nice little sanctuary. Six miles from the nuclear plant. And my cell coverage will continue to suck.
We got the certificate last week - I didn't want to say anything until it was official. At this point I think it's sufficiently difficult for her to leave me that I can write freely :)
Nothing else to say really. Video courtesy of http://keepvid.com
Every morning when I wake up, I pick up my phone and turn off the alarm. Usually I get caught up on the facebooks and what not at that point too, but this morning I was feeling too groggy.
Luckily, one of my dogs was on the job. I can't be sure which dog it was, but I suspect it was Daisy, and that it looked something like this:
Once positively identified she will be introduced as my new secretary. She was incredibly productive in that few minutes I was in the shower. First she was able to unlock the phone, and from there she was able to open facebook, check out the timeline, "like" one of my friends' statuses, and prepare a very insightful comment. She must have wanted me to review it before she sent it, but it read something like:
K++
56
qlkvbwrs
tlm
Today, in what will likely be my last official act as a Penn State student, I collected the necessary signatures on my thesis and dropped it off for binding. The release of tension this brought was incredible. For most of the past year and a half I've been so engulfed in research (and more recently, the peculiar formatting behaviors of MS Word), to the point that I really feel like I've been neglecting a lot of the other people in my life. I still see my fiance every day, but sometimes I feel so drained that it seems like I'm only half there. Same goes for my friends and family, who I'm even more drained after traveling to see. I guess I never really planned to have a ton of extra time between school and work, but I underestimated the effect this lack of free time would have on me mentally. If I didn't have such a great support network, I don't think I ever would have gotten through it.
I suppose this means I will be graduating in May, for a while there I didn't know if I was going to get everything done in time. In the meantime, I hope that I'm able to slow down and enjoy life a bit more. I'm getting married exactly one month from today (!) and I hope to be in a state of extreme relaxation at least until I get back from the honeymoon. I'm sure I will need to get back to chasing the career carrot eventually, but I don't want to rush into anything. Maybe post-graduation would be a good time to start back on that (I think graduation is the second week of May, that would give me three months of solid time to relax). After two and a half years of burning the candle at both ends, it seems like I should take a little more time, but reality may have other plans in store. As long as I make the most of these three months, things should be fine. Since I feel like I've been stuck in a time warp for the last two and a half years, this seems an appropriate song to commemorate the occasion.
