9/28/04, 11:11 p.m. --
Ben's bike saga continues.
Fact: In Minneapolis, you can get pulled over by the police for biking the wrong way in a
bike lane.
I had heard rumors of such things occuring, but had never given it much credence until today, when I was indeed biking the wrong way on the bike lane. Luckily for me, so was the girl 30 yards in front of me, and when I saw her get pulled over by the cops, I "subtly" hopped my bike up the curb and onto the sidewalk, narrowly averting disaster and public humiliation =|
I had heard rumors of such things occuring, but had never given it much credence until today, when I was indeed biking the wrong way on the bike lane. Luckily for me, so was the girl 30 yards in front of me, and when I saw her get pulled over by the cops, I "subtly" hopped my bike up the curb and onto the sidewalk, narrowly averting disaster and public humiliation =|
9/20/04, 10:00 p.m. --
Futbol.
This past weekend the ISU Club Soccer team was in town to play the UMN A and B Club teams.
Most of the guys on the team were there when I played last year, so I told them I'd come
watch their game. It was perfect weather -- cloudy and warm -- and they got to play on the
UMN Women's field, which is just about the nicest field I've ever seen. UMN's A team was
really good, too, and although it was a competitive game, they won pretty handily. It was
the kind of game that made me wish I was still playing, it looked like a lot of fun. Pretty
intense and competitive, and probably more than a couple cards SHOULD have been handed out.
Luckily for me, I had the chance to play with ISU's team (I was a ringer -- lol) against
the B team on Sunday, since they were going to be short about 5 guys. In spite of
not having played in a couple months, I was in decent shape and didn't do TOO poorly.
Although it lacked the intensity of Saturday's game, it was still a great time and made
me realize again how much I miss playing soccer...
9/15/04, 10:15 p.m. --
"I don't think he knows about second breakfast."
Last night I finished reading the third (and my personal favorite) book of the
Lord of the Rings, capping what has been a very productive summer of reading
for myself. I think that is the second or third time I have read the series,
and yet each time through I always find something new. This time I discovered
the song that Pippin sings to Denethor as Faramir is riding
off to his doom in the third movie; it was one of the more poignant moments of the film
in my opinion, and very memorable. That's why I was surprised to find that this
song was actually part of a Hobbit walking-song if you will, from the first book when
the four set out on their adventure:
Even though I have read this set of books a number of times, it is by far my favorite story ever and I never get sick of reading it. I love the obsessive detail with which Tolkien writes, and his attention to the development and description of his characters and environments. My only complaint is that the book was not longer -- it always makes me sad to finish the third one and realize there is no more story left.
Home is behind, the world ahead,(The last two lines were omitted from the movie for effect, I think.)
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows, to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
And then to bed! And then to bed!
Even though I have read this set of books a number of times, it is by far my favorite story ever and I never get sick of reading it. I love the obsessive detail with which Tolkien writes, and his attention to the development and description of his characters and environments. My only complaint is that the book was not longer -- it always makes me sad to finish the third one and realize there is no more story left.
9/13/04, 9:50 p.m. --
"You're not a eunuch, are you?"
I have now been up here in the Cities almost a month now, I think, and so far
I have made a number of discoveries. First, it takes 3x longer to get anywhere
than it ever did in Ames, and it normally ends in me getting lost or heading in
the wrong direction.
Also, I have almost been hit a number of times, both in car and on bike. Transportation
is an adventure.
On the positive side of things, I have been greatly impressed by the local food opportunities thus far; there has to be every kind of ethnic food available here. So far I have sampled some local pizza places (all excellent), and the Wong-recommended Hong Kong Noodle, which was also superb. Some sub shop in St. Paul catered the grad school orientation lunch, and was pleasantly surprised. Took home an extra for dinner that day, too ;) I haven't had any food from a chain since the day I got up here, actually. My only complaint is that while I have been able to find decent coffee in my neighborhood, I have yet to get a good latte or espresso. Evidently a place like SG is hard to find...
On the positive side of things, I have been greatly impressed by the local food opportunities thus far; there has to be every kind of ethnic food available here. So far I have sampled some local pizza places (all excellent), and the Wong-recommended Hong Kong Noodle, which was also superb. Some sub shop in St. Paul catered the grad school orientation lunch, and was pleasantly surprised. Took home an extra for dinner that day, too ;) I haven't had any food from a chain since the day I got up here, actually. My only complaint is that while I have been able to find decent coffee in my neighborhood, I have yet to get a good latte or espresso. Evidently a place like SG is hard to find...
9/7/04, 9:17 p.m. --
SHOE TREE.
Today after work I hopped on my newly-acquired POS bike and decided to navigate
the riverfront trails, taking my digicam with me. Unfortunately, by the time I got
anywhere truly awesome, the sun had sunk so low that there was really no good light
for photos. I did, however, manage to find the Shoe Tree that
John had told me about. The pictures turned out
horribly, but I have posted them anyway. I currently have a couple pairs of
shoes that are over three years old (the samba's will be four in November), so
whenever I get my first paycheck, I will be able to buy some new shoes and donate
the old ones to the shoe tree.
9/6/04, 12:34 a.m. --
Time for a change.
I decided that it was time to change the look of my page a little bit. So I have
spent the last week or so brushing up on my css and php, and have created what
you see here. A little heavy on the blue perhaps, but it will probably
undergo numerous changes in the coming days until I settle on something I really
like. With the new php implementation, though, it should be much easier to
modify stuff and not have to change every page in the process. For all of you who
enjoy delving through my archives, it will be awhile before all the links in
there get updated, too, so bear with me.
8/30/04, 9:20 p.m. --
"The person who really understands me, is my most feared enemy."
Last Friday I got "adventurous" and went down to the Stone Arch Cinema,
which is about four blocks from my place, and watched
"Hero." I have to say that in spite of having already seen it three times on DVD,
I had not been this pumped to see a movie in a long long time. And it was
certainly worth the wait. Although the translation had been altered slightly from
the import version, I didn't feel it took away from the movie in more than
a couple places, and even helped clear up some sections. As I had hoped, seeing
the incredibly beautiful cinematography and color of this movie on the big screen
was unbelievably more spectacular than on the DVD. And as an unexpected bonus, the sound and
music seemed to come through more in the screen version, and really made it a more
emotional experience, in spite of the fact that I knew everything that was going
to happen. This is easily my favorite movie of the year so far; I can't wait until
it hits the dollar theater here in Minneapolis so I don't have to shell out
another 8 bucks for it =| So so so so awesome.