Keep Hope Alive

Budget cuts, lay offs, credit crisis, plunging stock markets, bank nationalism, government activism... at last, something to give us all hope...

Crawling - Version 3.0, Version 1.0

Some things never change.

Cool Website

For those of you who ever listen to music and wonder "how did they make that sound?", check out Guitar Geek and it's Rig Database. Enter the name of a musician or look them up by band name, and see a diagram of their rig.

Seeing this reminds me of a youthful indiscretion that may have involved cashing in the college fund's worth of savings bonds, riding the bus to Portland Music, then humping what felt like 100 lbs of Fender amp miles from the bus stop back home - the need to rock cannot be denied. Scored a band slot on the basis of having that large amp...

Rock on.

New Tradition

With the emergency Christmas temporarily postponed with the passage of an economic stimulus plan, I was feeling a little short changed in the holiday department - president's day definitely took a beating after the Bush 43 presidency. 

After some reflection, however, said "Why the hell not have a good time on president's day"?

We celebrated with a BBQ on a beautiful February day here in the Wasatch front (behind the Zion curtain).

Plus, there's nothing better than chilling on the deck with a nice cold one.

Zero Tolerance

Things were getting bad - total lawlessness in the house. When a man can't enjoy some fresh spinach without anarchy prevailing, it's time to crack down.

The trouble with zero tolerance policies is they tend to be inflexible. Still, if we give in now, what's the use of having a policy?

Random Stuff from the Weekend

Too much going on these days to put together a coherent blog posting, but here's a sample from the nice breather this three day weekend provided.

In no particular order...

1. The baby is getting his crawl on - between his focused demeanor and his new found mobility, he's into everything.
2. Starting to get ramped up for the season - Hell of the North Salt Lake is less than 50 days away. I spent six hours on the trainer this weekend - couple of Sergio Leonne westerns, some Robot Chicken, and the live Muse DVD helped pass the time. Need to figure out what group to race with - 45+, Masters 35+ B, ??? Same with the mountain bike - age group or open single speed division - so many way to taste bitter, bitter defeat. 
3. Watched a couple movies - Shaun of the Dead and On the Waterfront - both classics in their own way - one with zombies, one with Brando.
4. Marshalled the whole family down south and ran the Ikea maze, only to forget the dimensions of the narrow space we're looking to fill with a shelf unit.
5. Tapped some Bushmill's 10 year single malt my sweet thang gave me for Valentine's day.
6. Started the 2008 tax return.
7. Rode several laps around the block with the older kids - both have figured out via observation that cold, snow, and dark are no impediment to riding a bike.

Stimulus and Other Infographics

I thought this graphic from creditloan.com was interesting (click on the image to see it in its entirety):

And this infographic from from the Economist daily charts was plain astonishing:

January Commute Summary

Between some work obligations requiring that I drive, some icy weather, and other things messing with my schedule, I was only able to get in 12 commutes. Nothing really stands out, other than it being pretty cold, at least in the mornings. I'm at the point where 35+ degrees can be comfortable.

Super Bowl Sunday