Saturday, December 20, 2008

Survivorman Farewell, Reader Problems


Watching some new Survivorman with a few Les Stroud virgins at Anand's and Joel's proved pretty good in the latest Papa New Guinea episode. Things were rough, Les couldn't find good ground, escape from the rain and flooding waters, and any food of any sort besides plants. Eventually, towards the end, some local tribesmen came and got him and told him they were having a festival in his honor as they had never seen anyone come to survive out there. Les said alright, as he usually puts it in his realistic manner ("well, I could stay out here and suffer, or enjoy a festival in my honor.") I also am pretty sure he got a new tat this season, and definitely a sponsorship from Columbia.

This is when he drops the bomb and says it's the last survivorman. Came back to my apartment and confirmed it:
"You can only do seven days surviving without food a certain number of times a year. I'm pleased with what I have done, I've been copied around the world, but 25 times I've not eaten anything for a week while sleeping on rocks. I need to move on," Stroud told Reuters in a Thursday report.
Well nuts. Just after this episode he kicked the Australian outback's ass by cooking up mad crustaceans, digging fat wormy things out of trees, and digging for water. A reminder, Bear Grylzzzs had to re-edit his Western Australian adventure when it was revealed he stayed in hotels each night as he neglected to metion in the original airings. God ol' Les makes sure you know the difference between someone you would actually want with you when in dire straits and a jackass who would jump in some ice lake and die 30 minutes later:
"It takes a lot out of me as I really do what I do for real, with no camera crew, no nights in hotels like others do, and it takes a toll on my body," Stroud told Reuters in an apparent not-so-subtle jab at Man vs. Wild, Discovery's other wilderness survival series.
Hmm... On a side note, Anand also told me about how gross one of my shares was in Google Reader this week. I had no idea he was able to see these things and was pretty confused. Anand and I are gchat buds, but I have many gchat buds that I just picked up through frequent emails. Like group members, and one or two professors. So apparently anyone in my chat list who uses reader can see these things. This is an urgent, urgent request to google. Please save reader for me before I get a boss who uses gmail and reader and ruins sharing forever. Did everyone realize this? Let me pick who I can share with for my posts... not for each individual posts, I am over the "reshare thing," I am way more concerned about mom someday seeing my shares.

Update: Nevermind, I'm an idiot. Check out "Share Settings". Thanks D.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Action Jackson

All done with school, and it's pretty weird being on break when everyone has jobs now. Guess I could start playing Mario Galaxy again, I never got past flying Mario. Or I think school started... or we just started drinking more. Just gotta clean up the apartment, work out some, and watch the Steelers (sans Jamo?), play Pokemon.

Speaking of working out, swimming has got a little better. Upgraded to the 'medium' speed lane as I was too much for the 70 year old ladies, but they outlasted me in the end. Whatever, the pools closing in 5 minutes, big deal. You'll get yours, old ladies.

Got the new Common album, which is pretty different than his usual slap in the face with life lessons and focus on lyrics. Most of it is produced by Pharrell and the Neptunes, so it's already in Andy's trashcan. I think it's a pretty good listen, not sure how much lasting power it has, but for now it's good cleaning music. Check el single here. Pharrell is a robot! Rellbot?

Up top is me at Sean Ryan Invitational in November. Up the line cuts were aplenty that weekend. I think if you pulled the earth like four feet from under my foot in that photo you'd see my real jumping power!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

December Post



Making my way through finals week, I have a few group projects and presentation to finish up, but things are looking good. My Christmas shopping is almost done, complete with Dave's compensation for the Steelers gear. Thanks Davey!

I feel like much of my weekly emotional resources are devoted to simultaneously recovering and preparing for the next Steelers game. Shit's getting intense, it's December, and if these dudes can pull it together on offense in these last few games things are looking up. A lot of it is dependent on this weekend. Just gotta be consistent, and I am hopeful that the offense can turn things around from this past sunday. The feelings from the Pens run to the cup is running low in the sports-happy-high-five tank, but still high in get-drunk-talk-about-it tank. Either way, time to refill boys!

Ultimate wise - I think since practice is done, I'm gonna really try to take healing the knee seriously. I think it could happen eventually if I keep biking/running/lifting like normal, but probably run the risk of hurting it again or just delaying the healing. So gonna head into the pool, which will probably consist of me almost passing out after 15 minutes, gonna do arm lifting, bought a core training book today, and gonna keep up with the PT. Sad times. Gots to be done though. Hopefully this month will make the difference.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Overheard In...

My bed, watching Arrested Development:

Tobias: Ah the clumsiness of adolescence. Everyone goes through it, except for me. Like a cat, I always ended up on all fours!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I AM WAY TOO BUSY FOR ANYTHING!


Yeah, it's the last two weeks of the semester after Thanksgiving break. So as a grad student everything ever due is due next week. I dunno, I'm not feeling so crunched as other weeks. Don't worry I already knocked on wood preemptively for that statement. Still, everything will be done by about the 12th, so hopefully I will have some time to maybe shop or get a video game or knit some stuff before going back to Pittsburgh again.

Well, I ate my words, and I thought Kanye's album was really good. Couldn't really notice the autotone as much as it slaps you in the face usually, and sounded good on most tracks. Not an album for singles, but good all the way through. Joe didn't think so. Well Joe, why don't you go spend $40 on some crappy Kings of Leon knock off indie crap cause you liked the cover of the vinyl. Another little known Joe fact, he fishes his favorite poos out of the toilet and puts them in a shoebox and keeps them as dried up momentos to look at when he has a hard day. Whatta boob!

In ultimate news, Match didn't pick Cal as one of the super-contenders this year. Nor did he mention my sweeping rise to the top of the college ultimate scene. Think you can overlook our 15th place finishes this fall?? Think again buddy. Well, I actually mean it. I think the development of the rookies and being patient on cuts will pay off in the spring. I think staying healthy, knowing we can suceed, and being confident as a team will be our biggest challenges. Specifically, this is going to depend on us controlling the disc and being consistent. Reducing turnovers is already a common theme.

Up top is Malkin and Gonch on vacay, as if I even had to tell you. The Steelers game ruled last weekend, giving a sense of vindication I haven't felt for those duders since the Super Bowl. If we can ride the momentum from that through the next few weeks we will be true contenders. 25 days till gameday.