Green

So I took another step into the "greener" world today, and rode my bike to work. I've been saying I'm going to do this for about 5 years now, and finally did. Not too bad - pretty much trails all the way. Still figuring out how to dress, since this morning it was about 40 when I started, but after a few minutes of biking you get warm fast. I'm going to try and do this once a week this summer.

Someone also forwarded me a list of the "20 worst foods for you in America", and even though I think the definition of "bad" food is relative (one study shows one thing, one another, etc.) I was glad to see the things on this list are ones I'd pretty much say are bad for you no matter which way you look at it. Anything deep fried, or loaded with high fructose corn syrup, has so much of its nutritional value stripped that it just can't be good. Of course I've learned and know all of this now, which means I have no excuse for choosing to eat these things! Ah, maybe ignorance is bliss....

Softball in Minnesota, and searching for buried...

Yesterday was our first softball game of the season - on April 28th - the temperature was about 35 degrees with 10-20mph winds. Yes, this is softball in Minnesota, where "summer" softball league includes the chance for snow.

We lost 12-14, but the fact that we even played is amazing, since we didn't have an umpire, lights, or home plate (or so we thought). We finally noticed that the dirt around home plate seemed a little high, and someone had a shovel and started digging...4 inches down there it was! Here is a graphical depiction of the 10 guys digging for buried "treasure" (thanks to Robin for taking and sending me the pics!)

iTunes "shuffle"

OK I don't know why I feel like blogging everything today, but I just discovered something interesting in iTunes that I never noticed. They have a "Shuffle" function in their controls menu, which I had been using, and really hated because it wasn't really "shuffling" anything - in fact it almost seemed to go out of its way to repeat songs even when I had skipped them the first time. Many upgrades ago I noticed this "Party Shuffle" thing that got added to the playlist bar on the left. I assumed it was some dumb new fluff function they had added because everyone wants stupid unnecessary fluff functions and gizmos and widgets in their UIs. Well the other day I was so fed up with the menu shuffle that I clicked on the Party Shuffle thing. It turns out, this is actually the "good" shuffle function - not only does it actually seem to be not replaying songs over and over, it also seems to try to mix in some songs you obviously like along with some you maybe don't play as much - and seems to get smarter as you go. It also keeps the list so you can save it off if you want.

So my question is why do they have 2 and why not just remove the "old" shuffle as it obviously isn't any good?

For anyone that has read this far, you're a sport :)

IBM's Cool New Stuff

A neat video on some of the "green" initiatives IBM is doing for mass data center cooling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioCZojN4A0g

and an article that somewhat describes the project (System S) that I am working on:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0382790.htm

Silence...

Tomorrow, April 25th, 2008, is the National Day of Silence, which was started in 1996 by students at the University of Virginia, in response to a class assignment on non-violent protests. It has since become a day observed nationally in colleges and K-12 schools. For the complete history read at the above link. The idea is that GLBT students and friends take a vow of silence for a day to represent how GLBT youth (and people) are unfairly "silenced" - by bullying, name-calling, and more tragically by being killed or committing suicide - because of their sexual orientation. This year's National Day of Silence honors Lawrence King, an 8th grader in California who, on February 12th of this year, was shot and killed by one of his classmates, because he was gay.

I have thought about how I would be able to participate and what point I would be making. If I go in to work tomorrow, it would be extremely difficult to not talk and still be productive. If I stay home and work remotely, I wouldn't have to talk to anyone but I'd be "talking" over instant messenger to everyone, which wouldn't really make any point. I thought maybe I could just be silent "off the clock" but then I'd really only be making the point to my friends, who don't really need to have a point made to them. The silent protest is really designed to work best in a school/classroom type environment where you have mixed groups of people. So I guess my contribution to tomorrow is this blog entry, and hoping that the day of silence makes people think a little bit.

Great Concert

Yesterday was a mostly lazy Saturday as the weather was kind of blah and I was really feeling tired much of the day, but Erin and I did manage to get awake enough to go to see our good friend Michael Garner sing in the 9th Annual Hope Lodge Benefit concert in Stewartville (on his birthday no less!). With a wide variety of musical selections, it was a fun event to watch, and a great boost to the Hope Lodge. Way to go Michael!

Quinoa

My good blogging friend Shelley said I should blog on this one so here it is....

Erin has gotten me hooked on eating quinoa, which, as a grain, has a very high protein content (12-18%), has a balanced set of essential amino acids, is gluten-free, and has a very low glycemic index. It is similar to rice in that it needs to be simmered for about 15-20 minutes (it tastes bitter if you don't cook it). It is a lot like oatmeal when cooked, and tastes pretty good alone (and better with a bit of cinnamon or other seasoning).

The best part is that it's dirt cheap - $1.89/lb for ORGANIC quinoa - try buying a pound of anything organic anywhere for less than that. An average breakfast is 1/2 cup, so a pound lasts quite awhile. You might have to go to your local food co-op to find it, as grocery stories might not have it (but it's good to support your local food co-op!)

My healthy eating/lower spending food tip of the day.

Oh, and HOLY COW, gas just went up to $3.42 - is it finally time to take alternative energy sources seriously?

Lance Bass

http://365gay.com/Newscon08/04/041808bass.htm

A nice article on Lance Bass and National Day of Silence which is coming up April 25th.

Laynie Rose Olson

I am enjoying my breakfast of fresh Mahogany-blend Caribou coffee, and a bowl of quinoa, and am ready to do some blogging.

Yesterday, Erin and I headed up to Eden Valley, MN, population 866, for the baptism of my 9-month-old niece Laynie Rose Olson. The service being in Eden Valley comes from a tradition of my brother-in-law Chris's family - most of them grew up in the Paynesville area, and many still live there. (sister) Erin and Chris were married there, and first niece Keagann was also baptized there (during the Christmas Eve service where she was screaming the entire time - this one turned out a little better :) Erin and I left at 7:30am - I wanted to make sure we were there by 11, as it is a 168-mile drive and part of it is not freeway. As it turned out, we were there by 10:15, much earlier than everyone else, so we zipped over to Paynesville (10 miles west) to hunt down some coffee. Thanks to google maps and my geek phone, we found the James Street Coffee Company in downtown Paynesville where we got 2 chai tea lattes - but don't try to use a credit card there unless you are purchasing more than $10 (fortunately I had a little cash with me!)

Everyone was there when we got back to the church, and we said hi to everyone, and (sister) Erin, mom, and I went over the music we were going to play - one of our old standby flute-saxophone duets "People Need The Lord", as well as two hymns that mom played on the piano and I made up some saxophone stuff. (boyfriend) Erin had the job of keeping Laynie occupied while we were getting ready for the service, and they got along great as long as Laynie could see mom from where she was :)

The service finally started - probably about 15 people there total family and friends. Laynie was her usual content and quiet self, and there was no crying or fussing through the whole thing. We took some pictures, and then headed downstairs for potluck lunch and....yes....BINGO! They had a regular potluck/bingo game there on certain Saturdays, so we all joined in. This was NOT just casual bingo either - everyone had to have at least two cards, and they called out the numbers fast. Erin and I were trying to help Keagann keep track of hers, and she finally just lost interest, but she did manage to win more prizes than both of us combined. I ended up winning a bag of microwave popcorn and a bottle of hand sanitizer (good combination?) and Erin won a bottle of conditioner, which seemed appropriate.





After all the food and fun, we went back to the Hedeen farm, where Chris's grandparents live. This was an adventure in itself, because they had just gotten a foot of wet heavy snow the night before, and the roads to the farm were as "minimum maintenance" as you get, so I felt like we were off-roading. We got there and played with the kids and sat and talked for awhile. When 6:00 rolled around, we decided we should probably get going since Erin had to be up to work in the morning. We did stop in Plymouth on the way back to eat at "Old Chicago" since that is one of my favorite places (I wish Rochester would get one!) and Erin had never been there. I also insisted on stopping at a car wash in Buffalo as the car was just coated in mud from the "offroading" to the farm. Otherwise a pretty uneventful trip home, the roads were all clear and it was not windy.

Other News

Friday night friends Bill, Eric, Jay, and Ryan all came over to watch Season 4, Episode 2 of Battlestar Galactica, which didn't disappoint - I won't go into detail so as not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but it's definitely looking interesting.

The election isn't "happening" fast enough now - whoever decided it was a good idea to space out the primaries so much is wrong. So I'm losing interest...and gaining interest in other things, including catching up on "Security Now" podcasts (more on that another day) and reading "Death Star" - which is great - and I noticed there are some other interesting-looking Star Wars books coming out now too. I was very disappointed when they did the "New Jedi Order" series because I thought the story took some bad turns.

Also looking forward to the second Batman movie this summer - even more interesting (and sad) because it will be the last new thing we ever see from Heath Ledger.

And I'm into 2 1/2 months now without a haircut :)

Rick Rolling

http://www.yahoo.com/s/855359

This is just crazy - I have always liked Rick Astley since the day I first heard "Never Gonna Give You Up" in 1986 (just ask my sister, I probably drove her nuts playing it over and over, and I even have his 2nd CD which most people don't remember). And it was fun to see the videos on youtube again recently...but apparently he's going to go back on tour and have a greatest hits album now...wow. And...Hooray!

Trumpets and Saxophones

I am starting into my 3rd month of trumpet lessons. Most of the first lessons are whole notes, scales, etc. - trying to figure out how to actually get the note out and have it sound good. While these are good exercises, they also get boring...so last night during my salsa band practice, I had both my saxophone and my trumpet out messing around playing with songs. I have made two main conclusions about learning a second instrument, one bad and one good:

(BAD) No matter how much musical talent, experience, and knowledge you have, nothing replaces practice when it comes to sound, technique, etc. While I am progressively getting better, I will not have a 20-year experienced trumpet lip without practicing for 20 years.

(GOOD) Experience and knowledge DO carry over into the other parts of learning a second instrument. For example, last night I was actually able to play along a little bit on some of the songs just be listening - something I never could have done when I started saxophone 22 years ago. And of course I can already read music, more/less tell when I'm out of tune, and transpose between keys, all skills I've learned in the last 22 years. This is also good and bad though, because your brain knows what it wants to do, but your mouth and fingers can't execute it....

So the moral of the story is, while I'm not starting from scratch, I still have to put in the hours of practice :) Why it takes 22 years to learn and appreciate this concept I guess I'll never know.

Coming Up...

• Niece Laynie's baptism tomorrow in Eden Valley - pictures soon!
• A post of some basic computer security things I have learned that every computer user should know
  

Electronics Recycling in Rochester - April 25, 26

Thought I'd forward this on since most of us have old electronics we probably want to get rid of...

Free Electronic Drop Off Event
April 25th and 26th, 2008
Apache Mall in Rochester
8:00 am to 4:00 pm

Waste Management, in partnership with IBM, will sponsor a Free
Electronics Drop Off at the Rochester, Apache Mall. This event is
free for all Minnesota Residential electronic products from any
manufacturer. Business e-waste will not be accepted. As the Industry
Leader in recycling, we are proud to offer this event to all
Minnesota residents. For information on Waste Management's eCycling
(electronic recycling) please call our customer service center at
1-888-969-8765.

Acceptable Materials: MN Residential Electronics
Televisions
Computers / CPU’s Laptops
Computer Monitors
Computer Peripherals (e.g. mice, speakers)
Fax Machines
Photocopiers
VCR’s
DVD Players / Recorders
Printers
Keyboards
Cell Phones & PDAs

Unacceptable Materials
ANY BUSINESS E-WASTE
Microwave Ovens
Thermometers
Large Appliances (e.g. refrigerators, stoves)
Any Unit Containing Sludge or Liquids
Fire & Smoke Alarms and Detectors
Dehumidifiers
Non-Decontaminated Medical Equipment

New Beer's Eve

I'm a couple days late, but still an interesting "holiday", marking the end of Prohibition:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/04/07/new.beers.eve/index.html

Day of Silence

http://365gay.com/Newscon08/04/040308sil.htm

The "Day of Silence", the horrible senseless murder of this 8th grader, and everything in this article bring up many many mixed feelings, far too many to write down in one sitting. But for me this always comes back to the fact that we have to stop hating each other, we have to stop hurting each other. Whether it be in wars, or on the playground. It stops when everyone stops it, when all of us stop it.

I certainly don't know the whole story or the lives of the people and families involved in this murder, but it is hard for me to believe that an 8th grader wakes up one day and decides they hate their classmate so much that they kill them. I have to wonder how much hate has been perpetuated by the family and people in his life - probably perpetuated to them by the people in their lives...as the cycle continues on and on.

Paradox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox

This came up again on some show I was watching the other day. Stuff like this still boggles my mind - I guess I should take Captain Janeway's advice on time travel - just avoid it :) Or her other take on the Temporal Prime Directive - "to hell with it..."