Olympics

I've just starting watching the Olympics, and it's always amazing. Like many people, I've participated in some of the games, but definitely not on the level of these athletes. It's hard to say which I find more impressive, the events I'm familiar with, such as volleyball, rowing, badminton, or the events I'm not familiar with, such as saber.

There are definitely some events that I can't identify with at all, like equestrian. Am I watching something that is impressive, something so-so? Without the commentators I have no idea. Then there are the events where I know when they are doing something really hard, but if they are doing it really well or just okay, such as gymnastics and diving.

So far today, I've watched women's saber, women's 48kg weightlifting, men's 4x rowing, some volleyball, some badminton, women's air rifle. I'd say the most riveting so far was the weightlifting. They are really tiny women lifting a whole lot of weight.

Parking Lots

Do people get stupid when they enter a parking lot? Or are parking lots just where I am most often exposed to stupidity? Actually, that brings up a second issue which is the people who design parking lots. Why do they put the traffic lane next to the buildings so that everyone has to walk across traffic? Wouldn't it make more sense to put the traffic lane at the far side of the parking lot?

Anyway, when getting groceries today I was once again amazed at how thoughtless people get when in a parking lot. Walking aimlessly diagonally through traffic, walking parallel to traffic on the road. The drivers are no better, often stopping at random times, starting to turn into a parking lane and changing their mind, snarling traffic behind them.

Although parking lots aren't the only place people display such behavior. Outside the building where I work is a T-intersection. For those walking parallel to the terminating road, there is a walk/don't walk sign. If you are walking towards the terminating sign, if you have made it to the median you can proceed safely when the don't walk sign appears because the traffic to the right is stopped while the terminating road turns left behind you. Unfortunately people walking in the opposite direction, will often see the people walking towards them and assume it's safe. Not paying attention to the traffic behind them that is trying to turn left where they are walking obliviously.

I might jaywalk, but I don't jaywalk in a manner than inconveniences traffic that is travelling legally with the right of way. In return I expect traffic to yield to me when I'm in a pedestrian crosswalk and I have the right of way. For some reason the worst offenders of this are public buses.

Ants

I hate bugs. Ants are bugs. I think Michael J Fox said it best in the Secret to my Success, "Anything with more legs than me..."

So this weekend I discovered a trail of ants. They somehow discovered the soda that I accidentally spilled a week or more ago. Actually I didn't spill the Coke, it came from the manufacturer with a defect. Regardless of the blame, some Coca Cola was spilled and I didn't clean all of it. There was still some left clinging to the plastic bag and some that splattered further than I expected.

I have a trail of ants and a decisions to make. I pressed ahead and decided to exterminate the invaders. I went to the grocery store and bought the poison. This was the "ants take it home and poison their friends" kind of poison.

But that wasn't enough for me. I looked online and decided more decisive action was required. I cleaned the area where the ants were going. I cleaned all the areas I thought that ants might be interested in. Then I set out the bait traps for the ants.

That wasn't enough. I couldn't wait for the poison to take effect. So I looked online. I found that ants don't like spices, and a number of spices were suggested. Looking in my spice rack, I found one spice that was mentioned: Cinnamon. So I drew a circle on the ground around the ants POE (point of entry). I placed a group of traps within the circle, just in case.

It turns out the ants really don't like the smell of Cinnamon. They literally climbed the wall to avoid crossing the line of cinnamon. Thankfully, they actually seemed to like the poison, so only a few ants ventured up the wall.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one with any problems. A number of my fellow condo-mates complained to the condo management company and they sent in the pros. But, the pros didn't show up until this morning, and my anti-ant methods seemed to eliminate the ants before they even showed up.

So I will claim victory!

Long Commute

Today was the first warm day of the year, meaning it cracked eighty. But it was also rather muggy, which is the thing about Boston summers that really bother me. Well, I don't like the temperature either, but the humidity really is terrible.

Anyway, the humidity wasn't the only weather we had today, there was also the little matter of the thunder storm. It snuck up on me during a telecon and when the thunder came down it really startled me. Anyway, a minute or two after the big lightning strike, I started hearing sirens. So evidently the lightning found something that didn't agree with it.

I put all that out of my mind, and a couple hours later I was ready to go home. The subway platform was especially full, I'd even say unusually full, and that is never a good sign. As I made my way down the length of the platform, I was again worried about the number of people. I got to the far end of the platform and there was an annoucement about fire department presense at one of the stations which was causing delays.

I'd heard disabled trains causing delays, I'd heard about medical emergencies causing delays, but this was the first time I'd heard about a fire department delay. Anyway, a few minutes later a train did finally arrive, and it was even on my side of the tracks. The problem was it was a train going the wrong direction. I hope for the best and got on the train, but they announced that they were holding the train because of problems at one of the stations. They also said they would be sending buses to make up for the service gap.

So I decided to find an alternate way of getting home. But the only game plan I could come up with was walking about a mile to the #1 bus, taking it across the river, walking a bit further and taking another bus. I walked Mass Ave where the #1 bus is known to run, and waited. I waited a little longer, and eventually the bus did arrive. Two buses right in a row in fact. The problem was they first bus only let on four people, and the second bus didn't stop at all.

I decided just to walk across the bridge, since it was only another mile. Except it started raining again. Oh, and then halfway across the bridge another #1 bus went by. It looked pretty full, so I might not have gotten on it anyway. But the important thing, at least for the story, is I was wet, and the bus left me behind.

I stopped to have dinner between where the bus would have let me off and where I could pick up the other bus. By that time it had stopped raining, of course. But, I didn't really mind that much that it was raining. It was kind of nice, actually.

From there on my commute was quite straight-forward, not more glitches. Although coming home, still being rather damp, I realized all I wanted was a shower. It's kind of ironic really. I don't know if I needed to be fully wet so that I could then feel dry or what. Just one of those quirky things I suppose.

Weather moods

I've always been a bit different than the average person when it came to my feelings for weather. I much prefer cold weather to heat, and avoid getting too much sunshine. I burn easily, and am slightly photophobic as a optometrist once told me.

But I think one of the oddest things is that "foul" weather seems to put me in a good mood. I know I seem to sleep better when a front moves through. It might be that it is darker outside so the early sun doesn't intrude on my sleep, although it could also be the drop in pressure. Going outside in the wing and rain also seems to put me in a good mood.

I don't know... Maybe it's the challenge that appeals to me. Fighting the wind seems to invigorate me. There also seems to be more air and cleaner air. It is also cooler and there are less bugs. As for the rain, I appreciate the cleaner air more than I mind being slightly damp. Sure a lot of consecutive rainy days starts getting annoying, but it's really not so bad.

Been a while

I haven't written anything in a while, not so much because I have nothing to write, but because I just haven't gotten around to it.



So the biggest personal news was that I grew a beard, it got to itchy (but I stuck it out for more than a month) and shaved it off. It was an interesting experience, and I got a lot of positive feedback. Actually it was strange, things just seemed different. Oh, and I got carded all the time! It was quite ridiculous really.



Anyway, when I shaved it off I tried a couple of different looks, just for fun. The first one is just the beard. The next one was the beard without the moustache or soulpatch. It isn't quite clear in these pictures, but the moustache and soul patch were blondish (not really blonde, but the color of a blonde guy's beard). I also have to say the moustache was one of the most annoying, but intriguing parts of the experiment. It annoyed my upper lip considerably but I found myself fondling it. So then I went for the muttonchops. The final photo was an experiment and I call it my evil genius look. The perspective makes my shiny dome look enormous and quite sinister.










In other news this past weekend was the 6294 celebration at my fraternity. Today is actually Founder's day for Theta Xi, April 29 1864. In this case it's also the 123rd anniversary of my chapter being founded (1885). We started off with a BBQ, even though it's always a bit too cold to want to BBQ.

Then the alumni showed the active chapter how to play softball. Although we could have used a bigger turnout, I think we all had fun. We also had to improvise on a field because there were so many other games going on. We actually ended up using a baseball diamond with home plate at 3rd base, and home plate taking the place of first base. That was due to a football game going on in really really shallow left field. There was also much hijinks with swapping balls, since only one of the balls we brought was regulation and the other two were softer practice balls which couldn't clear the infield.

After the game everyone went home and cleaned up to get ready for the Corporation meeting and then dinner at the house. There was a quick trip to the wine store between the two where a bunch of us pooled our bottles to get the case discount on wine. The discount allowed us to get a couple of bottles of port for after dinner.

Although before we got to bust out the port there was a rivering to perform. Greg went and got married before he was properly doused, so we had to throw him in in front of his lovely wife. Of course, Greg didn't make it easy on us and decided to struggle the entire way. He was struggling to save face and not because he really didn't want to get thrown in the river. Anyway, if I was sore from the softball game, I was doubly sore from helping carry him all that way.

I kind of wonder what the random people on the street thought. A group of roughly fifteen people, including a few women, all dressed up (we left the jackets at the house but were still wearing ties, collared shirts, etc) carrying a struggling man down the street, across a foot-bridge, along the esplanade and eventually to the pier where we threw him in.

Ahhh... Good times.

Sesame Street Turns 21

A fellow I work with belongs to an alumni group that went to a different bar every other week. The catch was that each new bar had to start with the next letter of the alphabet. So they might go to Avalon this week, then in two weeks to Boston Beer Works, then two weeks later to Cambridge Brewing Company, etc.

Anyway, another guy I work with really liked the idea, except on an accelerated pace, i.e. a bar every week. I was talking to him about the 12 drinking days of Christmas, and we came up with a hybrid idea. So every week we'd go to a new bar that is selected based on the letter of the alphabet criteria. From the 12 drinking days we take the concept of the scribe. The scribe's responsibility is to record the attendance of the event, makes notes of notable quotes/comments/actions, and most importantly the scribe gets to pick the next bar in the cycle. Who gets to be scribe? Well, from the 12 drinking days the scribe is the first person to ask, "Who's the scribe?" But since this is such a fledgeling operation, it is more whoever volunteers. If the designated bar is getting boring, or people just want a bit of excitement, a Field Trip can be called, whereupon everyone leaves and heads to the newly designated bar. After having a drink there, the party can return, or not.