It’s been a good week. I rode my bike to work three times, only missing a day because I had no way to carry my rock climbing stuff with me on Thursday.
The first day of riding nearly killed me, as my legs just weren’t used to it at all. After three days, the trip is already immensely easier, and I’m actually really enjoying myself. It’s nice to get a little bit of exercise before and after work, and I’ve had a lot more energy overall this week. With the traffic I have to go through while driving to and from work, it’s nearly as fast, if not faster at times, to ride a bike, so this is definitely something I’d like to keep up.
I bought a camera a couple of days ago, a Canon SD1100 IS. I haven’t had much of a chance to take it out yet, but I’m quite happy with what I’ve seen. This is the first camera I’ve had with image stabilization, and it seems to be worth the extra cost so far.
Thursday night, a friend and I went to see Wintersleep, an indie rock band from Halifax. It was a fantastic show, even worth standing in a crowd of drunk idiots to watch.
Unfortunately, their opening band, The Most Serene Republic, weren’t great. The lead singer looked like he was trying too hard to be quirky, and they sounded really messy most of the time. I just listened to a few of their studio recordings on their MySpace page, and they actually sound pretty good, so maybe they just have to get their live act together.
I’ve attached “Laser Beams” from Wintersleep’s Welcome To The Night Sky album for your listening pleasure.
The sun has starting to shine here on occasion, so I figure I should start getting active again.
The only real exercise I’ve had this winter has been spending a night in the climbing gym once a week and walking downtown for dinner and drinks, the latter being rather counter effective.
I have a gym membership. I haven’t been to the gym for months, but I’m still paying. I’m hoping the weight of my membership card, in combination with the weight of the guilt, might be having a subtle effect on my fitness. Every little bit helps, right?
I’d like to start biking to work. I live about 4.5km from the office, and I don’t have to hit too many high traffic streets to get there, so it should work well. Unfortunately, I’ve barely touched a bike during the last ten years of my life, so those muscles are embarrassingly underdeveloped.
Last week I decided I should start going for bike rides in the evening to build up some endurance, and then I’d start riding to work. I went out and bought a new helmet, a fancy riding jacket, dragged my bike outside, plugged in my earphones, and pushed off towards the horizon.
About ten minutes later I returned a sweaty wreck and slowly made my way back to the apartment, walking down the corridor like a newborn deer. I don’t remember this being so difficult. You’d think I spent the last ten years sitting in front of a…oh, right.
I’ve decided to just bite the bullet and try riding to work. I’ll just have to build up endurance as I go. So, tomorrow - today, technically - I’ll be riding to work for the first time. Wish me luck!
“I have spoken to a lot of science teachers in schools here in Britain who are finding an increasing number of students coming to them and saying they are Young Earth creationists. Now this is a belief that the Earth is only 6000 years old”
The site design has changed. I’ve once again used a WordPress template, as I was too lazy to design my own. I get incredibly meticulous and obsessive with web design, and I just don’t have the time for that right now. Actually, I do have the time, just not the will.
WordPress themes are a joy to use. Adding, changing, and modifying themes is such a breeze. But while WordPress theme management might be designed brilliantly, the user uploaded themes aren’t always, and this one is a good example of that.
I didn’t notice until I just tried to edit the sidebar, but they used nested tables in the layout. I feel dirty all over for using this now. I feel like I’m harbouring a terrorist, clubbing seals to death, or buying a Paris Hilton CD. The design isn’t Widget Ready either, so editing the sidebar is a pain. I’ll start looking for another theme soon.
If you mosey over to the sidebar, you’ll find I’ve added contact information and links to my various profiles around this here Internet. Feel free to add me as a friend/contact/followee on any of those applications.
Lastly, I’ve started using Postalicious to post periodic shared links here. I initially set it up to post my shared links from Google Reader, but that wasn’t working how I wanted, so I switched to using del.icio.us. I’m going to try it out for a while, and see how it goes.
And yes, I realise that coffee cup has an eye. And yes, it is staring into your very soul.
Five minute computer game. Walk through a graveyard to a bench, listen to a nice song, and walk out again. More of an art piece than a game. The paid version is exactly the same, but it adds the possibility of death.
This is my first Vonnegut book, and I’ll definitely be picking up his others. He’s hilarious, mad, politically incorrect, and bursting with ideas. This book primarily follows Kilgore Trout, an aging writer, and Dwayne Hoover, a local hero who suffers a breakdown after reading one of Trout’s novels. Vonnegut even throws himself in the mix, in a sort of surreal dimensional shift. I love that he seems to just write what and how he wants. His writing has a certain freedom to it. His illustrations are a lot of fun too.
Jaye was hosting an ‘Adopt a Vampire’ month, in which she urged readers to pick up some vampire fiction during the month. It had been ages since I had read a vampire story, and Mike and Manda had recommended this a while back, so I decided to give it a go.
The story follows Anita Blake, a necromancer and vampire hunter. Someone in the city is killing vampires, and she’s forced to find who’s doing it. I liked the detective feel in this book, and I’m glad there wasn’t really any romance happening. I’ll check out the next few books, although I’ve heard the series eventually deteriorates into vampire porn.
This was, by far, my least favourite of the movies. Having not read the book at the time, I found it to be confusing and disjointed in some places, while painfully obvious in other places. The book, I thought, was quite a bit better. The series has started to pick up, and I enjoyed this one.
I just love Christopher Moore, and he keeps getting better. In this book, an average Beta Male finds himself carrying out the duties of Death. It’s dark and hilarious, and Charlie Asher, the protagonist, is probably my favourite Moore character yet. This is the sort of writing to which I aspire.
I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last year and loved it, so I was excited when I picked this up. I was enthralled with Incident from the first page, but it took me a little longer to get into A Spot of Bother. When I finally did, I found it to be an overall more satisfying read. It’s essentially about an uptight Englishman, who is slowly going mad, and his family, who were arguably mad already. It’s very well written and funny, with a wide range of uniquely-voiced characters. He’s definitely an author to keep an eye on.
A tale of a sex-addicted con artist trying to get a grip on life. This book is full of messed-up people doing messed-up things for messed-up reasons, and it’s great fun. I love the rambling, philosophical mind of the main character. A funny, tragic, and thought-provoking read.
Lifehack.org posted this the other day, and I thought a few of you might find it useful. It’s the Ultimate Writing Productivity Resource, and while calling it the ultimate resource is more than a stretch, there were a few interesting applications listed I hadn’t seen before.
The article consists of:
9 Free Apps Every Writer Should Consider
10 Online Apps and Services Every Writer Should Check Out
10 Sites Every Writer Should Bookmark (Besides Lifehack)
30 Lifehack Posts Every Writer Should Read
5 Online Communities Every Writer Should Join
I’m still going through the links, but I can definitely recommend the first two items: Q10, which I’ve written about previously, and Freemind.
The Weekend is Here
