Rode 39 miles today. It was cold, windy. Riding into the wind sucks. Two guys blew past me down by the lake. The trailing guy said, "Nice paint job."
Got up at 7 a.m. this morning, with a raging headache. I still have a headache. For about two minutes, I felt good though. I was turning the pedals at 95rpm, going about 20, 21 mph, a light breeze at my back.
Most the day, I alternated between lying on my sofa watching the most awesome Cowboy Bebop and reading the "perfect for when you have a raging headache" fiction of Haruki Murakami (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, perhaps his most accomplished novel).
During one delusional moment, when I passed out cold, I dreamt of the first computer we had in our family, the amazingly cool Osborne 1. It had a monitor the size of a postcard, a
monochrome monitor with green text. I used to write my papers on it, using Wordstar. To this day, I remember that ^K-S was the
command for save. ^K-P was print. Or was it ^Q-S and ^Q-P? Maybe I don't remember after all. We had this daisywheel printer that made my papers looked hand-typed, far more aesthetically pleasing than the crappy dot-matrix printer output of my classmates. Of course, the Osborne didn't allow me to play the educational computer game Oregon Trail. For that you had to be fortunate enough to get a pass to the computer lab from your teacher.
Good news: Cubs first round pick from last year, pitcher Mark Prior of USC, is going to be very good. In a few years, the Cubs are going to very good. David Kelton, Luis Montanez, Bobby Hill, and Hee Seop Choi in the infield. Corey Patteron, Sammy Sosa, and either Roosevelt Brown or Nic Jackson in the outfield. Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Juan Cruz, Ben Christensen, and maybe Carlos Zambrano in the rotation. Kyle Farnsworth and Scott Chiasson in the bullpen. Who knows who behind the plate--there are very few good catchers.
Bad news: Cubs have called up Jeff Shaw to ask him to replace an injured Tom Gordon. Jeff Shaw is overrated.
I love music by Philip Glass. When I'm working at the computer, I fire up this very cool interface created by IBM, the Glass Engine, and pick random clips from his long discography.
Remember Wil Wheaton from Stand by Me? Funny weblog.
William Shatner was all the buzz on weblogs this week because, well, he created his own weblog. Read this excerpt by Captain Kirk about his recent visit to Seattle for, what else, a Trek convention:
"I had a wonderful experience in Seattle a week ago. Lisabeth and I traveled there for a convention, and took the opportunity
before I went on-stage to tour around a bit. We ended up in Pike’s Marketplace. (Forgive me if I don’t get the name exactly right. I was calling it “Pike’s Peak” for a while until several people kindly corrected me. I’m still not sure I’ve got it right.)
The marketplace was alive with color and activity, and we took full advantage of it. We had a wonderfully delicious halibut sandwich at one of the outdoor stands that specialize in the local fresh fish. We bought Washington apples from an apple vendor, and beautiful scarves from a couple of lovely ladies. We even bought a rock that said “Live Long and Prosper” on it as a gift for Leonard, who was joining us at the convention. The rock vendors had a good laugh and told us the purchase would become a “market story” after we left. All in all it was a grand time, and we left with our bags full of goodies.
We got to the convention and I had the bright idea to take the purchases up on the stage with me. Leonard couldn’t figure out what I was doing with all those bags, but I began taking out items one by one and sharing them with him. We ate apples on stage and then, saving the moment for last, I handed him his gift. The audience laughed as hard as he did. We went on to do one of the most enjoyable, funniest hours together on-stage that I can remember.
The incident reminded me of the role humor plays in my life. Although my earlier career involved many serious roles, I’ve always been aware of how important humor is to me. I kind of see it like this: the basis of humor in life is the joke that God is playing on us. What I mean is, we are all born with an awareness of death and each day brings us closer to it. That’s the joke that all humanity deals with. So we should go along with that irony and perplexing indecipherable humor. Then you become part of that grand laugh we call life.
One of my clearest examples of this comes from the painful experience of my father’s death. I had gone to the undertaker’s to choose a coffin for his body; while I was looking all of them over, I could distinctly hear my very frugal father’s voice telling me he didn’t need a fancy coffin since he was already dead. Following this train of thought, I chose a very plain, simple wooden coffin I knew he would approve of as an extremely practical choice.
I returned to my parents’ house where I met up with my sister, Joy. I told her I had chosen the cheapest coffin. She turned to me and asked, “Why? Is it used?”
Need I say more?"
I want to make fun of him (it's Pike's Place Market, William) but that would be like mocking a Trekkie. Easy prey, and just plain mean. I admire the man for maintaining the same haircut that he had when he was T.J. Hooker.
Where did I find most of the humorous and wonderful links in this blog entry? From the wonderful blog Memepool.
Posted by eugene at March 9, 2002 9:45 PM