new joy in life

A and I got our Mac today!  Very excited.  I can finally sit on the couch, watch TV, and surf the internet.  

The great American dream of slothiness (if it isn't a word, it is now).

Float tripping, swimming, and tracking

Listening to Anna Molly by Incubus.  

A and I got back from a mini trip today.  We went on another float trip to Missouri.  It was quite different from the usual one that we take.  Normally, it is floating for two days and camping along the river, which I do enjoy, but this time it was different.  We drove to Missouri and made camp and then the outfitter took us up river and we floated for the day down to the camp site and left the next day.  It was nice only having the cooler and one dry bag in the canoe as opposed to having everything for the weekend in the canoe.  There is less to lose if you do flip, which we did not thankfully.  The only problem with this float trip was that we were on the river for eight hours, which did make for quite a long day.  Six hours into the day, we were both ready to be done.  But it was nice to pull up the canoe and have the camp site all set up.  So it has it's pluses and minuses, as most things do.  

When we got home, I immediately tracked down the two recordings of Michael Phelps's last swims.  I just had to know if he got his last two medals.  I'm not going to lie, the one hundred meter butterfly really got my heart pumping.  My pulse was going as if I were back in the pool in high school.  I was so happy that the eyes of the world was on a swimming pool.  The best athlete in Olympic history (in my opinion) is a swimmer.  But that is also the problem, he is a swimmer.  Every four years swimming is brought to the forefront of the world during the Olympics.  The years in between swimming becomes irrelevant.  Listening to Jim Rome last week he had a discussion as to whether or not Phelps would be in the discussion of best athletes ever.  Names that come up in that discussion regularly are people like Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, etc.  But Phelps won't get that kind of recognition because he is a swimmer and is only relevant every four years.  You can't make a professional league out of swimming, but to see the college championships broadcasted on ESPN would be great.  Honestly, they show the world series of poker on ESPN, so why not a real sport like swimming?

And now for something completely different:

The tracker that is attached to this blog gets archived every year.  So all the fun little red dots on the world map go away at the end of every August.  It is always great to look at that and see where people are when they stumble upon my writings.  This year, someone on every continent has looked at this blog.  The internet is universal and this is but a small, miniscule really, part of it.  But to think that at least once these writings have been read on every populated continent is pretty neat.  I'm not going to lie to myself and think that I'm popular over in Germany or Japan, but the thought that this at least came up on a computer screen somewhere other than in Kansas makes me smile.  

Experience V. Charisma

As of late, I have been using my ipod for the podcasts and not the music.  Even at work.  Any time the store is not open, employees are allowed to listen to mp3 players or cd players (for the thirty somethings) or tape players (for the forty somethings).  It is nice.  As long as you have only one earpiece in (for safety reasons).  It is nice of the company to allow that.  It makes the first two hours I'm at work go by quickly.  

One of the podcasts I came across was KCRW's Left, Right and Center.  It is a thirty(ish) minute political podcast where the host is very central on the political spectrum and there are two guest hosts (one who is liberal and one conservative.  Title make sense now?).  These aren't the crazies that you find on CNN or Fox News.  They listen to each other and give great insight into the topics that they cover.  Very mellow, very informative.  Very geeky as well, I suppose.  I got weird looks when people ask me what I was listening to.  

One of the episodes that I just listened to was broadcasted on the forth of July.  The main focus was on what the definition of patriotism is.  The obvious answer is the flag waving, support the troops, support the president, etc. etc.  However, the liberal host (her name is Arianna [not sure if that is spelled correctly]) brought up the point that patriotism can also be standing for what you believe in.  If you believe in protesting the current war, for example, that can be seen as your patriotic duty.  It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense at first, but after thinking about it, it does.  Protesting is a form of free speech and the right to assemble if you do so in a big or even large group.  Those two things are outlined in the governing construct that our country was based on.  

Another episode they cover why the two candidates are good candidates.  McCain has all those years of experience and Obama has a ton of charisma.  If you haven't heard it, try to find the speech he gave in Berlin.  It is fantastic.  It is a politician's speech I can listen to and not get bored.  So that leads to the question, which kind of man would you follow or possibly vote for?  An experienced man (with not a lot of charisma [in my opinion]) or a charismatic leader (with not a lot of experience).  It is an interesting point to think about.  

plays, smoking, and sports

Bulls on Parade is just starting...mmm, political anger.  

We went to see Les Miserables last night.  We went to dinner first with K&M and the four of us went to see it.  It was good, but long.  Very long.  Almost too long.  And I think that it has to do with the fact that it is three hours of singing.  I know, I know, it's a musical.  And that it covers a twelve hundred page novel.  And a couple of decades worth of French history.  And it did take a while to lay the ground work for the entire play, so the first thirty minutes or so went by slowly.  But overall, it was enjoyable.  It is nice to get out on the town and not go to a movie or to a bar, but to go see something like a play.  It amazes me the job that live actors do.  Very impressive.  

As I was leaving work yesterday I walked around the corner of the building and came across a few co-workers smoking.  Not a big deal, that is where they go, it is out of sight of people coming into the store, so that is good.  The one thing that bothered me was that one of them had just had a baby about three months ago.  At what point is it okay to smoke when you have an infant?  I just hope that she goes outside to smoke or smokes when someone else is taking care of the baby.  It all comes back to second hand smoke.  People know the danger of it, so hopefully she takes precautions about it.  

Brett Favre came out of retirement and was traded earlier this week.  For the past month or so, every single sports show that I watch had at least ten minutes devoted to the whole fucked up situation.  It just irritated the hell out of me.  And it wasn't just me who was irked by it.  I talk sports with a few co-workers and their thoughts and feelings were the same.  After he got traded, the only thing I thought was 'thankfully we won't have to hear about it anymore.'.  To the contrary, sports people are now dissecting every angle of the trade.  Who won who lost in the trade.  Who will do better as a team, etc. etc.  Once again, very irritating.  The trade is done, move on people.  

Macallan

The ipod is syncing at the moment...no music.

I finally busted into my bottle of scotch that I bought while we were down in St. Thomas.  A was complaining about the fact that it was sitting on the hutch for over a year.  I would buy some whiskey and drink that before I opened the scotch.  It is Macallan, twelve years old.  Finally, tonight, I opened it.  It sounded really really really good.

...and it was.  It is very tasty.  It makes me want to buy another bottle or two.