Funny sports pictures

I try to keep up my German reading skills by reading the news on www.stern.de - home of Stern magazine. And normally I wouldn't bother sharing from a website that others won't be able to understand, but their Week in Sports Photos section has some pretty hilarious pictures you might enjoy: (link). (Click on each photo to see the next one.)

Happy viewing!

Matt's Fall 2007 music mix

1: "War," by JJ Grey & Mofro. Heard: listening station at the Record Archive. Story: none - I just like the song.

2: "How Fast Can You Run," by Rocco DeLuca & the Burden. Heard: Pandora, then on their album I Trust You to Kill Me. Story: about a day after hearing this track on Pandora, I was in Blockbuster and happened across a documentary starring Kiefer Sutherland and this band. I rented it, thinking it was a fictional thing, but it documents their first (very small) European tour. It was only after all this that I heard "Colorful" on the radio, because I generally don't listen to the radio anymore.

3: "One Day," by KT Tunstall. Heard: Starbucks. Story: As much as I hate to admit discovering music at Starbucks, it's the truth. It's from a short album of acoustic performances.

4: "Getting Better," by Fionn Regan. Heard: MOJO magazine insert. Story: It's a cover of the Beatles song from Sargent Pepper's..., which turned 30? this year. Beatles purists will hate it, heck most people that hear it will probably not like it. But I like it.

5: "19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)," by Gorillaz. Heard: WBER a couple of years ago. Story: I finally found the album used at the Archive a few months ago. The regular version of this song is also on the album, but this remix is superior by far.

6: "Can't You See That He's Mine?" by The Bristols. Heard: online. Story: It started by listening to WBER's Spotlight Review show. The host keeps a blog where he posts his playlists, and it had a link to the blog of somebody or other in France. Her blog, in turn, had links for some French pop/rock tracks, and this is one that's just a lot of fun.

7: "Processed Beats," by Kasabian. Heard: album. Story: I first heard this band on Pandora and bought the album recently.

8: "Hey, Man!" by Nelly Furtado. Heard: several years ago at a listening station in Borders. Story: I admit it, I like Nelly Furtado! As much as she's a pop singer, she just has damn good songs, especially this first track from her album Whoa, Nelly! I re-discovered this song recently when Lisa had bought a couple of her other tracks.

9: "Henrietta," by The Fratellis. Heard: again, listening station at Borders. Story: Borders had this album cheap (a wonder in itself!), and the whole album is full of fun rockin' tunes. You would recognize the second track from their album, which was featured in one of the Apple commercials recently.

10: "Monkey Wrench," by Foo Fighters. Heard: album. Story: I found the CD used at the Archive. This is a great workout song, and I'm amazed at Grohl's extended single-breath vocal in the middle of the song. It blows my mind.

11: "Scar That Never Heals," by Jeremy Fisher. Heard: Paste Magazine sampler. Story: I bought the magazine, and most of the tracks are folk/pop kind of songs similar to this. I'm a sucker for this kind of music. Every time I hear it I think of Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" for some reason.

12: "C'mon!" by The Village Green. Heard: Pandora. Story: no story - just like their sound.

13: "The Limit to your Love," by Feist. Heard: Pandora. Story: This one may be a little subdued for a lot of people, but people who know me know that I tend to be subdued as well. Her voice is different and great, and the instrumentation and sound of this track strike me the right way.

14: "When Your Mind's Made Up," by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (from the soundtrack to the movie "Once"). Heard: movie. Story: Hansard is the singer for a band called the Frames (?), whose music I haven't bothered to listen to. He and Irglova starred in the movie "Once," which is sort of a musical but not really. Unlike a musical, they don't stupidly break into song at random moments. However, since I've always secretly wanted to be a musician, this movie had me hooked the entire time. It's well-made, and the soundtrack music is great. Definitely in my top 3 movies I've seen this year.

15: "Proof," by I Am Kloot. Heard: Pandora. Story: no story, really - Pandora kicks ass.

16: "Creep" (acoustic), by Radiohead. Heard: Pandora. Story: After mostly missing out on Radiohead for the first 10 years or so they were around, I finally heard all of The Bends earlier this year. I had one of those feelings of realizing I've been missing something awesome for a really long time, one of those feelings that makes you wonder what else you've been missing... After this track played on Pandora, I went out & got the EP for Kevin (since I know he likes them a lot) and got a copy for myself as well. Though I like the original of this track, I somehow feel like this setting is much more appropriate to the song. That, and I can finally understand all of what he's saying.

17: "Nessun dorma," sung by Luciano Pavoratti (from Puccini's (?) opera Turandot). Heard: 2004 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Story: I (for whatever reason) watched the opening ceremony of the aforementioned Olympics, and Pavoratti closed it with this song. Honestly, it gave me chills and still does every time I listen to this song. I didn't realize at the time, but that performance was pretty much his last ever public performance. A couple months before he passed away, I remembered the track and purchased it from iTunes.

Discovered: Gnome Vigil at Java Wally's

I recently found a disc of RIT pictures, most of which I think Dan took. One series is in a folder titled "Gnomes," and anyone who visited 6GPB much may remember those jolly little fellows. Well, there was lots of fun & frivolity taking the gnomes on a photo shoot at the RIT campus, until things went horribly wrong for one of the gnomes.
Those details may be too graphic to share here, but I can share a photo of a vigil held after the tragic event. I hope you will remember this gnome fondly...

RIT makes the big time...

This weekend in RIT's Brick City Festival, which is exciting. I'm getting ready to head over there in a little while. In the meantime, I'm taking a few minutes to do the Yahoo Games crossword from October 4th, and strangely enough, I get the following clue:


Whoa.... strange.

Walking updates: 24 miles this past weekend

On Saturday, I walked 18 total miles. A 7-mile stretch, which brought me back home for lunch & water; then an 8-mile piece; then mowed the lawn, walked a mile with Lisa in Webster, and browsed around stores long enough to put together the rest.

On Sunday morning, I got up early and my right foot was hurting less than it had been Saturday after walking so much. I managed about 6.5 miles. Both days featured wonderful weather, with not too many sights along the way. I've taken to listening to a book on CD: Bill Clinton's autobiography, "My Life." The audiobook for Part 1 alone is 21 CDs! It has some interesting anecdotes and I've listened far enough for him to win his first election, as Arkansas state Attorney General in the 70s. It's fascinating to learn about the political election process - especially at the level of literally going town to town shaking hands and babies - and also to hear about all the people he knew back when that he appointed to various posts later on. (So far, my favorite is his Law School student's final paper he lost while grading them on the campaign trail, who turned to be the judge in the Paul Jones trial.)

The weekend also brought lots of fun: Friday night Lisa & I went to a newish Chinese restaurant in Penfield, Hong Wah. It was great! All the food was excellent, especially their spring rolls. And the service was great as well. Saturday evening, as I say, we shopped a little in Webster & I bought some gel insoles for my sneakers - hopefully my foot won't hurt as badly now. Sunday night, I went out to the Old Toad with Eric and Carlo to toast the passing of Beer Guy Michael Jackson. We hung around for Trivia time, then back home to get some rest to start this week.

Walking update: 15 miles yesterday

I made 15 miles & got a nice sunburn yesterday. The weather was great.

I started with a walk to the Kwik-Fill to get the Sunday paper for Lisa; then a while later, she dropped me off in the village & I walked home from there (10.5 miles or so). After a break for water & lunch, I walked the rest around the neighborhood.

Only a few more weeks...

Just because it's about the coolest thing ever...

Do you like Peanuts? Do you like OutKast? Well, I don't care anyway. Check this out: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brpub0hTbjs).

In other news, I found out some sad news about one of the most important recent beer experts (yes, his name was Michael Jackson)... he passed away on August 30th. All readers take note: the Old Toad is doing a toast in his honor on September 30th (see also this pdf about this national event).

Finally, in totally other news, I shot my first birdie in golf tonight! I sank an 8-iron shot from about 100 yards away!!! And for those who don't know what this means or don't care, I feel sorry for you.... just kidding :)

Walking update: 9 miles yesterday

No big update... 9 miles walking yesterday in great weather! Walked around the neighborhood for a while & snuck some extra steps mowing (about 1 mile - didn't mow the whole thing 'cause most of the yard is still charred) and grocery shopping (about 3/4 mile, I think? - not a big shop).

The Walk starts four weeks and 5 days from today....

Walking update: 8 miles today

Wow, a week since my last post! And yes, that means a week since my last walk of any significance.

Tonight had me doing an 8-mile walk on the treadmill at the gym, thanks to the threatening weather. As a matter of fact, I'm hearing thunder & seeing bits of lightning out the window right now. But do you think it rained even 3 drops while I was in the gym on the treadmill looking out the window? No.... but I'm not bitter :)

Walking update: 5 miles today

I ran/walked to the gym (3.5 miles), then walked a mile and a half on the treadmill. I'm pretty sore from my longer walk yesterday.

In totally unrelated news, I just saw an alumni e-mail from RIT - a "conversation with President Destler" (Dr. Simone's replacement, of course). May be interesting for any RIT people out there. A few things I noticed were (1) how much RIT's web site and overall production have improved from what I remember starting 9 years ago; (2) how, um, "academic" Destler looks and sounds; and (3) the emergence of yet another new buzzword to which RIT can aspire.

Walking updates

Well well... I haven't written any updates since almost a week ago regarding walking. I have walked twice in the last two days, though.

The first was an 8-mile walk with Lisa yesterday in Oneonta. We went out of town unexpectedly for a funeral Friday morning in Long Island - Lisa's uncle. We were able to spend the weekend visiting with family, then came back to Oneonta yesterday afternoon.

We drove back to Rochester today, and this afternoon I logged my first walkwith double-digit mileage! I first walked 9.2 miles roundtrip to the next town over, then got some water & Lisa joined me for a jaunt around a loop we frequently walk or bike. It's a 2.6-mile loop going from our house, up a big hill to our town hall, then down the other side of that hill, then back up another big hill into the village and back home.

I... am... a little sore right now... But I felt good to log almost 12 miles today.

The bar with no name

I stole the headline from this article in Rochester's City newspaper. The paper itself is sometimes a little short on content and long on liberal-ness and classifieds, but it's free, and they've recently designed the layout in a way that I think looks really good.

I'm certainly excited about the prospect of a new place for good beer in Rochester, especially with the credentials this guy's bringing coming from the Old Toad.

Cheers!

Walking update: 5 miles today

5 miles on the treadmill.

Wait, is that really Silverchair?

This weekend Lisa & I visited Lisa's cousin in Pittsburgh. We drove down Friday, arriving around midnight. We were up early Saturday and went to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in nearby Bear Run, PA. It was a very cool place. I heard cantilever more times than ever before in my life! The house is built right over a waterfall and uses a lot of clever techniques to not fall in the river. There are stairs descending from the middle of the living room right to the river; you can hear the waterfall from everyplace in the house. And, because of the way it's built, it incorporates a number of rock outcroppings right into ground-floor rooms, and it features neat details like windows on one of the corners of the house. It's still furnished with all the original furniture and mostly original belongings of its owners, the Kaufman family (as in Kaufman's department stores). They died and left the house to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, so now it's a museum.

Saturday night brought game night with Lisa's cousin & a bunch of her friends - they were all really nice! We played some Cranium and a never-ending game of Trivial Pursuit 20th edition.

Sunday we took our time waking up, and in the midst of hanging out & getting ready, I watched (for the first time in probably four or five years) the VH1 video countdown. It was a trip to see some of these videos. I don't remember a lot of them, because I honestly don't listen to much radio at all anymore. But what really got me is that Silverchair has a video on the countdown!

I remember these guys from about 10 years ago, when I guess they were quite young. I had to visit Amazon to remind myself what their single, "Tomorrow," sounded like. Strangely, their new song sounds nothing like their stuff from a dozen years ago. Where they were a straightforward grunge band back in the day, they've got a totally different sound now, much more poppy than Frogstomp. I'd actually need to hear the song a few more times to tell you anything more about it.

We were back to Rochester Sunday afternoon, and I went for a walk (3 miles or so). Then some grocery shopping around 9 PM, and then to bed to get ready for another big week :)

Walking update: 2.5 miles today

Yes, only 2.5 miles today... and that mowing the lawn. I finally remembered to wear a pedometer when I mowed the lawn, and with less than half an acre, I managed to walk 2.5 miles! With the dry weather this summer, the mowings have been few and far between.

Petroleum Day??

One day when I hadn't been working for very long, I suddenly needed to know the date of some holiday. Or perhaps I needed some excuse to celebrate on some random day... I don't remember. However, my Google search that day yielded a site I've often revisited: EarthCalendar.

This morning, what with it being a Monday and all (and in the misery of seasonal allergies that drain energy and make the morning just that much more enjoyable), I surfed over to that trusty old resource. Lo and behold, today (in Texas, at least) is Petroleum Day!

So, let's see: everybody hates oil companies for making giant profits while gas prices are near/over $3 per gallon, the talk around the nation is of needing to get independent of foreign oil and move to alternative fuels, I still (many years later) can't think of Exxon without thinking of oil-drenched birds, and I generally view oil executives as either Monty Burns or the crazy Texan from the Simpsons.... hey let's celebrate oil!!

Now, to be fair, I have to throw a couple of modifiers in here. First, everybody hates oil companies *except* for all the people who benefit from their huge profits. That includes not only the rich but probably anyone at all who has a 401(k) or any other chance to own mutual funds. After all, the financial folks get paid to make us money for our retirement. So, really, I can't stay mad at oil companies.

And who knows? Maybe Texas is only celebrating its own petroleum, and not that of others. And when I think of all the other petroleum-related products out there like... um... petroleum jelly and .... well, you know what I mean - maybe we all need to take a little time-out to appreciate petroleum and all it does for us.

Finally, a quick quiz: without using the Internet to get the answer, what two countries are the top single suppliers of oil to the US? You may be surprised when you see the answer.

(The previous link is from the Energy Information Administration of the US gov't., which has more interesting info on oil in the US.)

The past weekend

Lisa & I had the pleasure of hosting our friends Josh & Elizabeth, along with their son (& our godson) Hayden. Since they've been living in Oklahoma the past few years, this was our first chance to meet Hayden, who was born on Labor Day last year.

They arrived Friday, and we just sat & talked; Saturday, they were off to meet up with some other Rochester friends, while Lisa & I went to my cousin's for a party. The weather was great, & after hanging out there for a while, we went to Henrietta to do some shopping.

And some shopping did I do! In Southtown Plaza, we hit up a newer place called Plato's Closet - it's got all used clothing (kind of like a consignment shop, but I think it's a little different). The prices were great, and I picked up a button-down work shirt and a sweater for $22. Lisa had similar luck, finding a great winter jacket for $22. After that, I wandered over to Play It Again Sports and found a left-handed sand wedge (a golf club, for anyone who's not familiar with the lingo - I didn't simply mis-type 'sandwich,' and I'm not at all sure I would have bought a sandwich from a store that sells sporting goods...) for $10. We rounded out our great deals with a third store in the same plaza, called Tuesday Morning. As Lisa described it, it's kind of like the homewares section of a TJ Maxx. I found a small french press pot, and to my absolute delight it was even orange! Now I can make just one cup of coffee in the morning instead of a small pot, and I won't go to work so jacked up on caffeine that I have tremors 'til noon. Oh, and I also found a decent pair of headphones - the kind that loop over the ear. I used them last night while walking, and even with my sweaty head in full walking stride, those bad boys didn't budge; the music was un-interrupted & thus I am a happy camper.

We met up with Josh & family for dinner at The Golden Port, a restaurant that does Chinese, Thai, sushi, Vietnamese, Dim Sum,... And having tried a number of things there, I think they do them all pretty well! We got & shared a variety of dishes and some sushi rolls, and a good time was had by all. Sunday, we caravaned to Warsaw, NY to visit our mutual friends Jeannie & Jeff (whom we met at Josh & Elizabeth's wedding). Josh & fam had to go on their way, but we stayed and played some games (namely, Lie Cheat & Steal and Mille Bourne). And just like that, it was Monday again....

Walking update: 8 miles yesterday

Hello again... Last night I made my biggest walk so far - 8 miles. I started from my house & walked to the gym (3.5 miles), followed by 4.5 more on the treadmill. The weather was kind of lousy & rained during the afternoon while I was at work, but it held out as I walked.

Walking update: 7.1 miles today

Tonight's walk was a little more mundane... the treadmill at the gym counted up to 99:59, rolled over to 0:00, and counted up to 20:00 again as I walked 7 miles in 2 hours. Nothing special to report tonight, except that walking 2 hours on a treadmill is really frigging boring....

As long as I'm at it, I'll tack on last night's 1.5 miles in this post. Lisa & I went to the Wayne County Fair! I hadn't been to the fair in a long time. When I was younger, it was the Otsego County Fair, and I can't say this one was any different. It just seemed a little smaller, probably because I'm about 10 years older now. A few of Lisa's students were showing animals - goats, cattle, rabbits, a guinea pig - and were very successful. It was cool to see all those animals and many more: sheep, chickens, even a turkey.

The past few days

Since I haven't posted in a few days, I figured I'd bring you up to date (whoever "you" are, anyway... who's reading this?) on what I've been doing.

On Friday, Lisa & I went to Lowe's in Webster (which is to say, not Loew's in Webster, which will soon become apparent). We spent 90 minutes at the hardware store! We were gearing up for the big Work Around the House weekend, which commenced Saturday morning.

This past weekend, we mortared, painted, installed, mopped, vacuumed, caulked, organized,
disposed, recycled, filled, sanded, mowed, and generally did a bunch of stuff we hadn't gotten to over the past 16 months of owning the house.

We took a break Saturday night to hang out at the Pittsford Pub with Carlo, Eric, Tiff, Karen, Jeremy, Kristen, Evan, and Don. You can read Eric's take on this one - he's got it well covered.

After some more work on Sunday, we took another break - this time to see the Simpsons movie, at Loew's theaters in Webster. (Ah, now it all becomes clear...) I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Adam said a friend described it as an extended Simpsons episode, and I wouldn't dispute that. I laughed out loud in the theater a bunch of times, enjoyed random lines from Ralphie and lots of other characters, and even stayed around long enough in the credits to hear Maggie talk. Yes, that's right, she spoke. So if you went to see the movie & didn't sit around through the credits, well then, tough cookies.

In all, it was a packed weekend, but it was nice to be at home & see our friends, and it was really nice to get a bunch of things done around the house.

Walking update: 7 miles today

Well, it's been several days since I posted about walking... which means it's been as many days since I took a serious walk. Granted, Lisa & I logged a mile and a half in Lowe's the other night, but more about that in a separate post to follow.

Today's walk was about 7 miles, up our road to the north, and "around the block" coming back the same road I walked last week. New critters this walk were a rabbit, a deer, and several chickens (no, not wild chickens - thank God, since I had forgotten my chickening stick).

I was amazed, walking up a road I've driven dozens of times over the past year+, at how different it looks walking instead of driving. There are so many things, so many houses and details I never noticed! It got so I actually wondered at one point whether or not I was on the correct road.

Keep a look out for 2 more walks this week, both at least 5 - 7 miles long.

Ah, the debates!

I just saw an interesting blog post on the NY Times' The Caucus blog. (You may have to register to view it, but I don't think so.) To quote:

"In some ways, the debates are the new campaign ads. There are so many of them — at least 21 more are scheduled between now and the end of January — that candidates are getting plenty of exposure without having to buy air time."

The statistic that catches me there is that at least 21 more of these debates are on the way before the official candidates of each party are even decided! Talk about information overload. So, do I put the part of my brain interested in this election into hibernation until, say, December?

Walking update: 6.5 miles today

I'm trying out posting my training walks as I go along. Hopefully, I'll look back a couple of months from now and see how I progressed. I invite you to do the same.

Walked about ~ 6.5 miles round-trip today (based on my pedometer - Google Maps says it was 7 miles). Weather was beautiful - clear blue sky and a sun not yet thinking about setting when I took off around 6:45 PM. For anyone interested - though I'm not sure why you would be - I started from home, walked east on C.R. 205 (called Marion Road along that stretch), turned left on Boynton Road, walked to the end, then turned around and came back.

Being that I was walking on country roads, I had the chance to see lots of wildlife. I saw a hummingbird, a yellow finch (I think - it looked like this), a bunch of dead frogs (unfortunately - I like frogs a lot), and a fox. I also saw some sheep, but I'm about 90% sure they weren't wild sheep.

I listened to my tunes and thought about how thankful I am that digital music exists. Now, for some reason, my mp3 player (a 1 GB Insignia brand player) orders my tracks alphabetically by song title, rather than basing it on the artist. This is a little strange, but it actually works nicely as kind of a randomizer. So on tonight's 110-minute walk, I got to listen to a whole range, from Gorillaz ("19-2000") and Smashing Pumpkins ("1979") through the Beatles, Foo Fighters, Wilco, and many more. (I ended up right at the beginning of "Du Hast" by Rammstein - but that song's a topic for another time.) To think that I grew up with radio and cassette tapes, then got my first CD player right before high school, and never even heard of mp3 music 'til I got to college. But look at me rambling like a... well, like a rambler.

All in all, an ideal walk.

Camping again? I'll be right back...

This past weekend had us out of town once again. This time, it was Ithaca & Buttermilk Falls state park. We enjoyed the campfire, great hiking, and great friends! We packed our little Chevy Aveo full to the top (I couldn't see out the back, only the sides) and made our way down there Friday... no thanks to Reserve America, whose website linked me to the Google map for the wrong park and almost got us lost several times with inaccurate mileage measurements. We never did see Pre-emption Road....

As I said, we really enjoyed the hiking: even though it was uphill a lot of the way (we were walking from the lower part of the park to the upper part), the views really made it worthwhile. I'm going to try to get some pictures up here; in the meantime, check out a Google image search to get an idea of the beauty of this place.

We packed up Sunday morning and came back home by around lunchtime; the rest of the day found us hitting up the mall so I could get a haircut & Lisa could do some shopping, then enjoying Rochester's gorgeous weather (not an oxymoron yesterday!) by taking a 5-mile roundtrip walk along the Erie Canal near Fairport.

All in all, a weekend packed nearly as full as our car!

Book review: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

I recently read a book which, as you can tell by it's title, is no run-of-the-mill book. It's a non-fiction account of the history, uses, and stories of cadavers. Let me say this right off the bat about this book - you won't like it if one or more of the following apply to you:

• You don't like reading about cadavers in sometimes surprisingly clear detail.
• You're easily offended.

For everyone else, this book has a lot of interesting information. We all know about anatomy classes' use of bodies, but who knew how important they still are for crash testing?

Two really interesting concepts emerged from this book for me. One is that there are many more people studying dead bodies than I thought, and for more reasons. The other: human composting. Strange, and a little gross... enough said.

Overall, the author's style is humorous and engaging; she makes the material interesting and explains background really well. Meanwhile, she finds places throughout the book to address real issues facing those left behind. One-and-a-half thumbs up.

You can read a better review than mine here; you can check it out on Amazon here.

The training continues...

A big part of my time for the past few months - and even more over the three months to come - is my effort to participate in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. You can visit my Walk page here.

There are two difficult pieces involved in this: (1) raise at least $1,800 to participate, and (2) walk 40 miles in two days (in October) (in Charlotte NC). Tonight was focusing on the training part: after going on a 3-mile walk with Lisa last night, I went to the gym for "Cardio Boot Camp" class. At least it was air-conditioned: my evening activity once I got home was to mow the lawn. Yay!

I'll hope to keep posting updates over the next few months, and feel free to check my Walk page for updates on my fundraising efforts. And if around the middle of next October I offer to sell you a kidney or a pet rock from my driveway or something like that... just ignore me.

Weekend in the Berkshires

Lisa & I got to visit the Berkshires this weekend, to see Dan & Tobi, Karl & Kelley, and Kevin R. After working Friday, we drove out (Lisa driving through torrential rain and some pretty wicked lightning around Albany). We all stayed up past our bedtimes Friday, then Saturday morning brought some more rain. Not to be deterred, we waited for the clouds to clear, played some horseshoes, then Lisa & Dan & Tobi went swimming (with Kelley getting the photographic goods) while Karl & Kevin & hiked a couple miles of the Appalachian Trail nearby. The trail was kept very nicely, the weather had cleared up for us, and we summited Becket Mountain before we turned around. We all then had some dinner, stayed up past our bedtimes again, then by noon or so yesterday, Lisa & I were on our way back.

We stopped around Albany to visit a friend of Lisa's and his wife, and their cute dog. We then made our way back, where we collapsed after a whirlwind weekend of fun.

The Record Archive is awesome. Simple as that.

Let me just repeat myself off the bat: the Record Archive is awesome. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a record store in Rochester that has tons of vinyl (no I don't own a record player), lots of used CDs, and lots of new stuff as well. Oh yeah and all the weird toys, incense, etc.

I've built a large percentage of my music collection at that great establishment, and yesterday I added a few more $5 finds: Foo Fighters (There is Nothing Left to Lose), Garbage (Bleed Like Me), Gorillaz (Gorillaz), and, speaking of my previous post, Rocco DeLuca & the Burden (I Trust You to Kill Me). Not bad for a day's work.

Rocco Deluca & the Burden

First of all, God bless Pandora. It's a great internet radio service that's introduced me to a number of bands I really like. This weekend, I was listening & it queued up "Colorful" by Rocco DeLuca & the Burden. I really liked the song but didn't think much more of it at the time.

Then, Sunday, don't you know I was in Blockbuster, and I walk past a video and do a double-take: it's "I Trust You to Kill Me," a sort of documentary starring... well, Kiefer Sutherland, actually - but also Rocco DeLuca & the Burden. Whoa. Almost like a coincidence. (Kiefer started a record label with a guy named Jude Cole, and this was the first act they signed.) The film follows the band as they make their first European tour. It's interesting at some points, boring at others - the interesting parts are where they're playing music.

In any case, these guys are pretty good.

Beer review: Saranac High Peaks Series Imperial IPA

Tonight, at the grocery oasis that is Wegmans, I came across and impulse-purchased a beer I'd never before seen from Saranac: their High Peaks Series Imperial IPA.

For those not familiar with Saranac, they're a brewery based in Utica, NY (actually the Matt Brewing Company). To quote from their web site:

The Saranac “High Peak Series” is a series of Special Beers, limited to one single batch. These beers will be much bigger, more complex, and targeted to craft beer aficionados.
This is a beer to be sipped and savored; a “real show and tell . . . blow your head off beer”

No kidding - I'm no newbie & this one blew my head off! The neck label states (perhaps too proudly?) that the beer uses 10 different malts and 10 different hops... it's got 8.5% alc., and 85 IBUs (whatever they are - I didn't bother to look it up).

Long story short, it's just too much malt and too much hops for even me - I made it through half the bottle before I stopped pretending to like it. At best, it's a good sipping beer for a serious connoisseur, but otherwise, steer clear.

Some cartoons for math nerds like me

I saw this link to math cartoons... it's sad that I get so many of these, and yet also sad that I don't get so many of these. Enjoy.

Vacation in the Adirondacks

Lisa and I returned today from a week's vacation at Lapland Lake, in the Adirondacks near Northville, NY. The occasion was a family reunion on Lisa's mom's side, and it was a load of fun.

They took great care of all 50+ of us at Lapland Lake - great cottages, friendly staff, a lake & beach & boats & canoes for our private use, and live reindeer. Yes, reindeer. The resort makes its name as a prime cross-country skiing spot, so they have lots of trails for hiking/biking as well. On the rainy days, we went into the nearby town of Northville. Among other things, we stopped at a neat & quirky store called the Stinky Art Company. Anyplace where you walk in & the first thing you get is a smile and "Let me know if you have any stinky questions!" is a place I like.

Thursday (or was it Wednesday?) brought a brief thunderstorm, featuring one bolt that literally shook the house we were sitting in. Nobody was hurt, but the resort office had some equipment get zapped. Other than that, weather was pretty nice, though the bugs were persistent (which is to say, I lost count of my bug bites after about 200, despite using bug spray religiously).

It feels good to be back home after a week out in the woods... though when Monday rolls around, I'm sure I'll wish I was back there.