10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag

Mad Men season finale.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:47:00 +0000

I'm super late to the Mad Men party. I didn't start watching until Season Three, even after reading about how great it was and having family members tell me the same thing. I had heard that it was sort of dark, with all of the cheating and miserable relationships. All day long, I deal with situations that have gone badly; I don't want my entertainment to be about more misery, on the surface or just below.

Then I watched a couple of clips of the show on YouTube. I don't remember what got me to watch the clips, no matter, really. I saw that Jon Hamm can act. Damn, can he act. I immediately thought about running out and buying a grey, two button, narrow lapel suit, and some really big silver square cufflinks. And a ton of self-confidence and poise to go with all of that.

I started watching season three from the first episode and have been hooked all season. I caught up on old season via Wikipedia. But the finale. Wow! It killed. An episode of Mad Men meets the Thomas Crown Affair or Ocean's Eleven, all rolled into one mod caper where the good guy (ok, as good as guys get on that show) finish first.

Stream Them Crooked Vultures here.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:20:00 +0000

Stream the entire Them Crooked Vultures album by clicking here:

In praise of: New auto journalism.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:52:00 +0000

For a while, I subscribed to pretty much every car magazine out there: Car and Driver, Road and Track, Automobile, AutoWeek...I think that was it. I didn't ever subscribe to Motor Trend, because it was underwhelming. (I have to admit, I saw a copy about a year ago or so, and it was pretty good; it must have undergone some massive editorial change.) Then I burned out. The magazines covered mostly the same stuff. The stories were mostly the same. Ok, except for Mark Vaughn's columns in AutoWeek. Mark always had a funny lede and often had a silly angle on a story. He's my favorite AutoWeek writer.

Anyway, other than Mark's columns, you'd get the same stuff, which was mostly dry articles giving the class that the car was in (mid-size sedan, for example), what styling changes there were, a technical overview of the engine and suspension changes, and then some writing about the driving. The driving descriptions lost their appeal to me. They read as dry and sort of technical. There was no excitement. They read like I imagine engineering manuals would read. Maybe because the writers were engineers.

Then something changed. Theres' excitement back in car write ups. The columns are fun. The writers are excited about what they do. The writers reveal that they're having fun with the cars and that they know they have the best jobs in the world. Ezra Dyer is a funny and really entertaining writer, coming up with nonsense like going back to a high school reunion with a Ford GT, and pretending that he owned it, rather than borrowing it for a few hours. Jonny Lieberman is fantastic, every time he posts. Check out his post about a revived Dodge Challenger, and you'll be hooked. And the article that got me thinking about the new auto journalism is Jason Cammisa's piece about the fully electric Tesla Roadster. I wanted to buy one before...if I had a spare $101,500 or so...but Jason made me want to rob a bank and plunk down the cash at a local dealership, all in the name of saving the world, of course.

Workout update.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:37:00 +0000

I've worked out three times a week for two whole weeks now! But I haven't gotten any calls from fitness magazines to be a cover model yet. They must have lost my number.

Socially acceptable topic or not?

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:51:00 +0000

I had the day off today, so I gave our nanny the day off. My wife is out of town on business travel; I took the monkey to school today and had the entire day with her. She was excited about the idea. I was happy that she was happy and that we could spend more time together. Yesterday, we had a great day together, spending a couple of hours in a town on the other side of the beltway that we don't get to very often, checking out local art, taking in the water and the sunshine, and listening to a local blues artist playing a sidewalk show and asking the monkey to join in on kids' maracas.

Back to today. As we were walking out of school, one of the moms, whom I've met maybe once, was talking about a playdate that three of the boys from the monkey's class were going to have. I guess it's not uncommon, because the older siblings have school that runs about an hour or two later than the preschool, so the parents have the kids group up during that in between time. She saw us trailing along and invited the monkey to come over. Far more spontaneous than I usually am, I said why not, and we followed her to their place.

During the playdate, there was the host mom, her sister, and a neighbor. I hadn't met the other women before today. After some chatter about the kids running around and jobs, they asked me if the monkey was our only kid. I said yes, smiled, and volunteered nothing else. The host mom said something about us having fertility issues, as if she knew the situation. I figured that my wife must have mentioned it in another conversation. (I found out tonight that she had not.) This then turned everyone asking me about fertility issues, out of the blue. Not long into the conversation, there was something that took my attention and changed the subject, at least for me.

It is a weird situation for me to discuss. I've never been shy from oversharing or inadvertently blurting out stuff that gets to the line; it's something that I've been working on in the past few years. I know that many people get uncomfortable talking about it and because it can still be pretty raw for my wife and me, I talk about it pretty rarely. But the other day, I saw that Penelope Trunk had created a stir by Tweeting that she was having a miscarriage at work. She addressed the controversy head on, saying that it's a natural thing, that because a miscarriage takes days, it's likely that many other women have experienced the same thing. She said that people should be open about these things and it should not be something hidden away. I totally get her point. But when it comes up, at least among people who have multiple kids and seemingly no problems in having them, I feel pretty awkward. Awkward because I feel like there's something wrong with us. And awkward because of the emotions involved.

But telling the entire internet, that's ok in my book.

Foo Fighters - Wheels.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:44:00 +0000

Another great song from the Foo Fighters. Talk about being the "go to" band of today.

Mr. Hypocritical, redux.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:20:00 +0000

My wife read the Mr. Hypocritical post. She said, Well, I guess we're not moving back to [home state]. She also noted that it's not like our home state is filled with hillbillies and slack jawed yokels. Maybe not those words, but that idea. She's right. In fact, a recent top 10 list came out and put the city where we'd both work as "smarter" than where we are now. So much for my shoot from the hip analysis. New Diarist's comments also helped put things in perspective.

All systems go.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:23:00 +0000

I had two good doctor's reports today. An echocardiogram that said that everything is functioning as it should be. My heart's working and the repair continues to hold. Fantastic news. Then the results of my sleep apnea test came back. No apnea, lots of snoring. So, Breathe Right strips to the rescue, and I'm going to have to order a mouthpiece that a friend recommended. I'll end up looking like a boxer when I go to sleep, but if I wake up feeling refreshed, that's ok.

Next step, putting exercise back into my weekday routine. For years and years, I was in great shape. Then work or various and sundry surgeries have interceded, and I've gone through phases where I've gotten out of shape, back on the exercise wagon, and back off. The hardest part always is committing to a new routine. At least I've managed to keep off most of the weight that I lost a couple of years ago, and I'm averaging about 5-8 lbs. heavier than I was at my high water mark in college. (What's that? You mean I shouldn't use the weight from a time when it was all muscle, due to lots of walking, four solid weight workouts a week, and few desserts? You can suck it.) I've picked Monday as my day to get back into it. Wish me luck.

Mr. Hypocritical.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:13:00 +0000

The other day, I spoke with a friend of mine about moving. Moving out of state, that is, rather than to a house closer to the city, a project that remains a fantasy but most likely is on hold for a while. The subject came up probably in a discussion about my wife searching for a new job, and how there likely are more opportunities in the state where she and I both grew up and where my in-laws still live (for now). Or maybe it came up in a discussion about how my in-laws used to ask about us moving back there. Or maybe it came up organically. I don't know.

Anyway, back to the point. He said to me, "Wouldn't that feel like giving up?" And I blurted out, "Yes! Exactly!"

I couldn't put my finger on it before, but I've always been proud of the fact that I'm here, which is not The Center Of The Universe, yet still a big city and far from where I grew up. I grew up in a very lower to middle class city. Most of my classmates are still there. Or, if not there, are close by. In my obsession to climb the social ladder, I've counted living here as a big step up. Setting aside the fact that there appear to be far fewer job opportunities for me in the state where we grew up, moving back home has some weird meaning to me, like I couldn't make it here and was giving up. Now there's more to it than that (I have friends here, I like the climate better here, the people on the whole probably are better educated and more worldly than there, and it can be easier to broaden one's circle because most people are transplants here), but the idea of moving home has felt like I was giving up has been a big sticking point for me.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I got an e-mail from someone via LinkedIn. He and I have some professional overlap, and he did a blast e-mail asking if I knew of anyone who was looking for a job with a background exactly like mine. The thing is, he lives where my family lives now, where the cost of living is far lower than here and the pace seems to be more relaxed. When I told my wife about the fact that I had forwarded along the e-mail along to people with ties to that state, she asked me if I said that I was interested. I said that I was not. And that's true. I hadn't treated it as a solicitation for me to work there, and hadn't considered it that way. My wife followed up, asking me if I would be, or if I had thought about it. I said that maybe I could be persuaded, for the right opportunity. She reminded me of the point that I had made about our home state. Uh yeah. I think that I admitted that it was a hypocritical position for me to take. Or, if I didn't, I should have. D'oh!

Ah, Wikipedia.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Created minutes after the speech:

Workout brag.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:48:00 +0000

At the regular gym (the non-climbing gym, that is), I like to do different exercises, stuff that will keep me entertained. I did a lot of crazy stuff exercise stuff when I was growing up and doing gymnastics. One day, as a kid, our 175 lb. coach made me and my teammates give him a piggyback ride (not all at once), up and down the floor.

I had been using a 30" plyometrics platform for my workouts. It comes to just about the bottom of my hipbone. (I know. Remind yourself of the name of the blog, 'kay?) I jump up onto it from the floor, usually a set of ten. One time, I got overly ambitious. I tried hopping onto it, using just one leg. That worked fine for my strong leg. My weaker leg, not so much. I still have the remnants of a scar from the scrape I got.

Anyway, keeping that incident in mind, I saw a step aerobics platform and a bunch of risers. There were 13 risers per side, and the height of the risers and the platform were about the same as the tall plyo box I had been using. I did several jumps on, and realized that when I landed in a crouch, I had some room to spare. So I stepped it up a notch. I started jumping over the entire thing. Sweet! Even better was that there was one or two brushes, where I put my hands back, to make sure that I'd be in the clear. That just amped up the adrenaline.

Same as it ever was.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:11:00 +0000

"I feel like I've changed a lot since we've been together. I mean, did you ever think, back then, that I would really like rock climbing?"

"Nope," I responded. "And I didn't think that you'd like tomatoes, either," I continued with a smile, because we had been happy to discover, way back when, that neither one of us liked tomatoes. One trip to Italy, and a mozzarella and tomato appetizer, local and fresh, cured her of that. (I haven't come around.)

"I have become a much more adventurous eater. I've done other cool things, too. I've gone mountain biking - on a mountain! Granted, I fell and broke things, but still! I went mountain biking on a mountain! I feel like I've become a lot more adventurous."

"That's true." A beat passed, and I asked, "Have I changed?"

"Nope."

Willing participant.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:55:00 +0000

My wife has been out of town on a couple of business trips. The nanny has stayed later, which means that I don't have to leave the office insanely early and my time at home is easier. The monkey, who loves tv, knows that I generally don't watch that much of it, if left to my own devices. So, she asks me to snuggle with her while we watch tv. She thinks that she's pulling a fast one on me, because she knows that I'm a sucker to snuggle with her, and she gets to watch tv.

Fine by me!

Belay on!

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:29:00 +0000

Another fun trip to the climbing gym this weekend, with the monkey living up to her online namesake, and climbing to the top of a 25' wall twice. She said that she didn't want to do it, but when I said that I would take pictures of her and would show them to everyone, she had a change of heart. That's my girl, an attention hound!

My wife and I bought harnesses, belay devices, carabiners, and an extra chalk bag. Along with our climbing shoes and other chalk bag, we're pretty ready to go. We figure that we'll still rent a harness and shoes for the monkey because she'll outgrow anything that we get her in pretty short order.

Going to the gym together makes me happy because it's a physical activity that we can do as a family. I also really like the idea of the monkey growing up as a climber and being pretty adept at it when she is in high school.

20 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:36:00 +0000

Take a look at this post from Autoblog, in which Jonny Lieberman (who is the best car blogger out there, hands down) summarizes Brian Johnson's recent appearance on Top Gear. AC/DC on Top Gear? Seriously, how much more awesome could it get? Oh it does...because it turns out that Brian Johnson is vertically challenged. Jeremy Clarkson towered over him in the video segment. Awesome. Here's a guy who is about my size (Johnson, not Clarkson, of course), who has sold a zillion records, is cool as can be, loves cars, and can drive the wheels off of a reasonably priced car. You gotta watch the video at Autoblog's post.

Spidergirl.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:18:00 +0000

At the climbing gym over the weekend, I got my certification to belay (my wife got certified last weekend; she took the class the week before I did). So, the three of us were free to climb without needing a staff member to belay any of us.

My daughter, who is still in preschool, lived up to her nickname of "the monkey." She climbed all the way up to the top of a 25' climbing wall. I was (and still am) so proud of her.

Mr. Short Term Memory.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:49:00 +0000

Autoblog has a post today in which the author discusses a study suggesting that since the time that speed limits could be raised above 55 mph, the number of highway deaths have increased.
I could not agree less with that study or that post. Here's why. Over time, the country's population has grown and the number of miles that people drive each year has increased. So, it strikes me that as a natural consequence, the raw number of traffic deaths has gone up. But let's look at some other facts that strike me as more relevant and telling.

First, as I've posted before, American roads are safer than ever before, even after we've allowed for higher speed limits:

Did you know that even after speed limits increased across the country, the fatality rate (per million miles driven) dropped? And has continued to drop, year after year?

You probably remember when the national speed limit was 55 miles per hour. (Ugh.) That was during the dark days of 1974 through 1987. But in 1987, states were allowed to raise their speed limits to 65 mph. Then, in 1995, the federal government dropped its regulation of state speed limits. (Thanks, Congress and President Clinton for signing that into law!)

So, what happened to traffic accidents and deaths?

In 1975, right after the 55 mph speed limit was set, the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) was 2.52 for passenger cars. (Warning, that link is to a pdf.) But right after the 1987 change, the numbers went down, from 2.5 per 100 million VMT to 2.4 per 100 million VMT. Not an astonishing amount, but a drop nonetheless, even though speed limits went up on highways. (Take a look at the 1996 Motor Vehicle Crash Data from FARS and GES, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration publication found on NHTSA's website.)

And since then, even though states have raised their limits, the number of fatalities per mile driven has dropped from 1.69 per 100 million VMT in 1996 to 1.41 per 100 million VMT in 2006. Plus, the injury rate has dropped even more, from 140 per 100 million VMT to 85. (Another pdf.)

So, after the speed limits went up, vehicle deaths per miles traveled dropped from 2.52 to 1.41 (as of 2006) for each 100 million miles traveled. Check out the graphic below for additional details.

I understand that the number of deaths and injuries also is due to safer cars and more people wearing their seatbelts. But the next time that someone trots out that old saw that "speed kills," tell them, "not necessarily."

Why wasn't any of that information mentioned in the study? Or in the Autoblog post?

Second, take a look at an earlier post of mine, in which I mention that Autoblog itself explained that speed is not the biggest factor in traffic accidents, based on a study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Maybe the author of today's post forgot about the post from another Autoblog author? Perhaps the author forgot about the finding that "[a]mong other things, that more drivers crashed as a result of crossing the center line (11%) than as a result of speeding (5%). Speeding, in this case, defined by 'too fast for conditions,' not necessarily above the posted limit."

Third, there is information from Australia that when speed limits were set, the number of deaths reportedly went up by 70%, not down.

In praise of ...

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:03:00 +0000

In praise of tailoring. I did something the other day that I had not done in a while - I took some shirts to the tailor to get them shortened. It was four short sleeve button front shirts, the kind that you would wear with shirts, preferably untucked. But when all of your awesomeness has been jammed into just a five pound bag, untucked shirts are not a good idea in stock form. That means either I tuck them in or just don't wear them. Neither is a great option. I picked up the shirts tonight and they look great. Just goes to show me that I basically need to have almost everything I buy tailored, but it's worth it in the end.

Snoburbia rap.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:01:00 +0000

Via my friend at snoburbia:

Carvel ice cream cakes.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Seriously, is there a finer pleasure for the palate than Carvel ice cream cakes? I say no.

Jon Stewart, Dick Cheney, enough said.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:54:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Dick (Uncut)

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economic Crisis

Absentee parent.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:57:00 +0000

I've let my blog baby wither on the vine here, haven't I? It's been tough to devote time to it, as I have a new work-related blog, am on Twitter (two accounts!), am active on LinkedIn, and update my status fairly regularly on Facebook. What else is left?

But you'll want to know, I'm sure, that I just was at my college reunion. Man, was it good to be back. We left the monkey at our house, by herself. She's mature enough, we figure. She can go potty, she can get water, she knows where the snacks are, and she can turn on the tv by herself, more or less. Ok, so my parents were here, too. Ruin my joke, why don't you?

Anyway, the weather could not have been more perfect, 75 degrees, sunny, and no humidity. We rented a 2010 Mustang convertible, offered at the counter at the same price for the entire long weekend as one day would have cost online. We went hiking, walked around campus, and enjoyed being an uninhibited couple.

We saw old friends, and that was amazing. My friends and I marveled that, even for those whom I haven't seen in five years, it was as if we were transported back to our college days, having an easy conversation as if we were 20 again, and we had never left school. "Easy" really is the operative term there; that's how I feel when I'm with my college friends. I really need to make more of an effort to see them more often.

When we left, it was like leaving fantasy land. But, on the other hand, my daughter gave me a huge hug, and when my wife asked her if she was crying, she said, "Because I'm so happy to see my daddy."

The end of the recession?

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:58:00 +0000

The Englightened Wallstreeter, whose RSS feed I have in Google Reader, recently posted an interesting link that suggests that the recession is on its way out, based on charts of recent unemployment data:

Acclaimed Economist Says Recession Is Over
The source is Robert J. Gordon, an acclaimed macroeconomist and professor at Northwestern University. It’s surprising to learn he thinks the recession is over, because he is one of seven members of the elite Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Analysis . These are the people who decide officially, for the record books, when recessions begin and end—usually many months after the fact, when the decision is really obvious. I’m unaware of any previous case in which a member of this Committee has ever stepped forward and declared the end of a recession in real time.
From Smartmoney.com

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:16:00 +0000

I went to my first boxing class today, at a local LA Boxing gym. I've always wanted to learn how to box. It's never been based on a desire to get in a ring, more like the idea of being in the kind of shape that a boxer is in, and getting a great work out by punching a heavy bag or a speed bag.

We saw the gym for the first time this past weekend, when we were walking by, on our way to a new restaurant. My wife suggested that I stop in, when I mentioned that I always wanted to learn to box. So, I did, and they offered me a free introductory class.

The class was an hour. I don't know that I've ever worked that hard for an entire hour. My heart rate was off the charts, as my monitor showed on the rare chances I could look at it. After one session of hitting the heavy bag, we were sent off to get some water, and I glanced at my watch, which had been invisible under the gloves. I was at 200 beats per minute. The workout was great, and I'm going to be sore tomorrow. We did 3 minute rounds, hitting and moving around heavy bags. Those sessions were interspersed with ab workouts. I'm also going to have bruised knuckles and sore wrists. I was giving everything I had with the punches, and the instructor made my night when he said that I really was hitting it hard, saying that I was a Hercules, and that my wrists probably were not up to the task.

Now I have to figure out when and how I'll get back.

Family day at the climbing gym.

noreply@blogger.com (10 lbs of awesome in a 5 lb bag) — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:26:00 +0000

The three of us went over to our local indoor rock climbing gym today. We've been before, but, as we were getting ready to head over, my daughter insisted that she should be able to climb as well. We were pleasantly surprised when the people at the gym said that our daughter could climb, if she wanted to do so. Of course, our daughter said that she did not, but with some convincing, she agreed to give it a try.

It has been a while since my wife and I have been climbing, so we were a bit rusty. We still had fun. The gym offers a great deal - a low fee, and then they give you a harness and shoes, plus an instructor to tie you in and belay you on each of your climbs. No worrying about making your own knot, focusing on the person you're belaying, or anything.

My daughter did two climbs, getting up to a little under six feet off of the ground, before she was too nervous to continue. But later, we brought her over to another wall, in an area used to train and for kids' parties, and she got more confident. She liked the idea of climbing and had fun. I'm excited about the idea of this becoming a family event.