rainbows anyone?

california girl

little me ;-)

My favorite jacket @ 4yrs old

cade & con

If you ask Con to dance for you, be prepared.  He will be dancing exhuberantly for hours!

smile for the camera

fox hollow

I know, more sky and clouds... I can't help it.

Fall in Eugene

The sky is gray and it rains often but the trees are like christmas lights accenting the landscape.

my toes match the couch

from above

who says you need a 4x4

BLM roads off of Wolf Creek

whoosh

Fall Colors!

lost on spencer's butte: round 2

If you're going up spencer's butte for sunset, bring a real flashlight for the way back. Using a cell phone to light your way is inadequate.

blazing in containment

live, feel, discover, engage, affect, appreciate

colors of a sunset

Why did the chicken turkey cross the road?

Sony DSLR-A300K

Take this iPhone camera!
No blur in action shots.  Brighter colors.  And it takes the picture right when you click the button ;-)

spell check

When spell check turns your attempt at dedicated into decimated you better hope you're proof reading. Nobody wants to pay several hundred dollars a month for "decimated server".

shiney and clean with a halo

I wanted to get a pic of the two Lotus' together but we went for a drive and then I had to get to jiu-jitsu right away so I guess I'll have to wait for another day.

double vision

There are TWO storm titanium Lotus' in my driveway right now.

I immediately wanted to take a picture of the cars together but I'm exercising patience and I'm going to wait until mine is clean.

From the back I look like a 15 yr old... named Naomi

I was in the self checkout at Albertsons trying to remember which type of Tomatoes I'd picked out when the guy behind peers his head around the side so he can see my face. Apparently he thought I might be his 15 yr old daughter, who should be at her mothers house, not out right now.

He said I had the same jacket, shoes, jeans and haircut! I cross examined on the shoes and he conceded that they may have just been similar.

I'm a little distressed. Maybe I need to find a new wardrobe.

suicidal deer

Want to see suicidal deer? Try Fox Hollow between Lorane and McBeth. They were all over the place tonight and several of them tried playing chicken with the car.

I braked for these two that were standing in the middle of the road and the both took off running. The one went into the brush and the other took off straight down the road, zig-zagging from one lane to the other before finally bounding off into the dark.

Seriously, why do they run in FRONT of the car... repeatedly? They're nuts!

glowing yellow

The trees on Lorane Hwy are glowing yellow right now. If you've not been out there lately I'd highly recommend it. Especially when the sun is out. The light is reflecting brilliantly off the leaves.

The Onion: Dollar Bill On Floor Sends Wall Street Into Frenzy

If you've been following the economy/crisis this is funny...

cousins!

Mayor of Wasilla

help your rivals

This is how you get people to donate a million dollars to your opponent:

All you have to do is act dumb. Congratulations.

check your mirrors

Please people, check your mirrors before you merge into the lane beside you. In fact you might even want to turn your head and look! Apparently a novel idea for some drivers.

In the last two months I've seen TWO different cars merge into BUSES! You can't blame missing a bus on your blind spot. Buses are LONG. If you look before you veer into the other lane, you WILL see them coming.

Both times I've seen this it's been the exact same scenario: The bus pulls into the left turn lane and then the offending vehicle, when the bus is almost half way past it, tries to merge into the left lane - WHERE the bus is.

What are these people doing?  Are they just zoning or are they distracted by something?

Skype

I use Skype for work but I also use Skype for play.  Today I "called" my cousin in the UK for free. And like the Jetsons you can also see the person while you're talking if you've got a webcam, which we both do.  Pretty fun. 

Way better than a regular phone call.  Not only did we see each other and hear each other but I also sent her a file though skype (a picture) while we were talking.  And I linked to a couple sites - so she could just click on the links intead of having to type stuff in.  Easy!

Check it out: Skype

AAA is paying off

I got AAA initially when I moved up here because there was a discount on the moving truck that made it worth while.  I wasn't sure I'd even use it but I renewed for another year and subsequently got stuck in a snow bank at 1:30 in the morning near Bend.  I was happy to call AAA to bail me out. I also used it to get my passport photo that year.  It was easier and cheaper than the alternatives. This year I wasn't sure if I'd renew again but I figured I'd try it another year.  It paid off again!  

I used it today to call a tow truck to get the Bronco taken over to North Eugene Automotive.  I had to pay for a tow truck a couple times for my Porsche a few years ago.  I should have had AAA then. It may not be for everybody but it's working out well for me.

It's all relative

Living in Eugene in October means going outside in the afternoon, seeing the sun break through the clouds, thinking it's warm out... and then finding out it's 57 degrees.  It doesn't happen like that where I'm from.  If it were 57 out there I'd think it was freezing.  Clearly you Oregon natives will think I'm nuts.  But I think your nuts.  It's all relative.  

Personally I think nice weather would be: warm most of time with a random few days of snow thrown in every now and then.  Just a few days... and no "leading up to it" weather.  It can just be 85 one day and 35 the next.  Ok, that might actually be a little scary.  Maybe I should just live somewhere warm and then take a vacation to a cold spot.  That sounds more sensible.  But the random snow without driving would be much more convenient and more exciting when you wake up in the morning to the surprise.  But there would probably a lot more strings attached to the random weather than I would be willing to accept.  Back to real life.

Training at U of O w/Beth and Elenah

What are we bailing out...

I was half listening and half working when I heard this on NPR's "Fresh Air" podcast from 9/23/2008:

"These are some of the loans that were made at the tail end of the housing boom, 2005, 2006, 2007.  When really, you didn't even have to be ambuiltory or have a pulse to get a mortgage.  It was just so much free money floating around that even my cat could have gotten a mortgage on a house." - Gretchen Morgansen

Hysterical!  And scary.

If you're not up on what's going on listen to these:

• This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money
• This American Life: Another Frightening Show about the Economy
• Planet Money Podcast

winter

I went driving again tonight with the window down.  It was cold out but I had a jacket on and the cold air was appealing. I'm sure it wouldn't have been if I were freezing. But with the jacket on and the heater on my feet it was refreshing. 

I've driven around like that several nights now over the last couple weeks and I wasn't sure what I liked about it. But today I thought of driving the Bronco in the snow. I think that's what it reminds me of. 

It's a totally different experience than driving the Lotus in the summer but it's equally good in it's own way.

fear in politics

Here's what I think: Using fear to try and control (or sway) people is a dumb tactic.  I'm not saying it won't work, because clearly it will.  But that's not the kind of method you should use when running a country.  You should be smart enough to come up with a better plan.  Or at least have the sense to hook up with people who are smart enough.  But using fear tactics is a short term solution with long term problems.

Quote of the Day on my Google page...

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."

  - John Kenneth Galbraith

I looked this guy up and he's an economist.  Here are a couple others by him:

"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error."

"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."

SciAm: Learning to Stay Calm

Learning to Stay Calm

Pavlov-style training can make mice stay calm in the face of adversity.

pedicure

If you're thinking what I'm thinking then, no, this is not my normal thing.  In fact I've never had a pedicure before.  It was  an odd (to me) insertion into the tournament on Saturday.  Stormy had her division early and then we had to wait for several hours for Jill's division to come up.  In the meantime we ate and then... got pedicures.  I thought she was joking until we pulled up in front of a nail place and everyone walked in.  This group of small asian ladies swarmed us and recommended the "deluxe" pedicure.  Apparently we definitely needed the deluxe.  Ah, Ok.

It's taken me several days to get used to this.  I kept looking down and getting surprised and distracted.  Other people too!  It wasn't just me.

This American Life: Another Frightening Show About the Economy

Can't figure out what this bail out thing is all about?  Listen to
this 1 hour episode of TAL and get caught up.

Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They'll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could've done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1263

Goats and Lamas

We tried to sneak up on them so they wouldn't run away.  Little did we know that all you have to do is pick some grass and they'd all come running to us!

Oregon Open Jiu-Jitsu Tournament

Jill competing no-gi: 1st Place!!

Ryan, Dale, Harold & Max.

Go Stormy!!!

getting caught up

yeah! for getting work done in the middle of the night ;-)

what I'm thinking about

Brain Seeks Patterns Where None Exist

The brain will find patterns or images where none really exist. Relaxation exercises lowered the chances of finding a pattern that wasn't really there. 

The Certainty Bias: A Potentially Dangerous Mental Flaw

A neurologist explains why you shouldn't believe in political candidates that sound too sure of themselves.

Hooman Majd, Considering The Iranian 'Paradox'

and other things of course... ;-)

something like...

You know what it's like. It's like when you're dreaming. I don't know if this will make any sense to you becasue maybe it's different when you're dreaming. But for me that's what it was like.  

Because if you're dreaming and you wake up, it's not the same. The dream was somehow better. Different because it wasn't so physical. At least that's my experience. 

I don't know if that makes any sense to you. But that's what happened. It was like a bright white light, only I was the light... or being at the center of an atomic bomb. It was like my body didn't exist. That's all I'm going to say about it.

daily show VP debate review

icy roads and hot wheels

Last night I dreamt that I was driving on some back road.  A nice twisty one in the Lotus but it was night or getting late and then it started getting cold outside.  And then the road got icy.  It was ok for a while but it was also getting really steep.  It was so steep and icy that I couldn't drive any further.  So got out and I put the car between my teeth so I could take it with me and started climbing up this rope with it.  It was small, like a hot wheels and I was "climbing up the road" on a vine.

strike a pose

Random camera phone shot of me.
(I wasn't really posing, I was just sitting like that.)

3 Turkeys

I saw three giant turkeys crossing the road the today.  The guy in front of me was honking at them trying to get them to cross faster.  They weren't paying much attention to him though.

They were the biggest ones I've seen so far.  Their heads were as high as the door of my car. Which isn't saying as much when you realize how low my car is.  But still... those were some BIG turkeys!

night air

It rained a couple time this week.  I went driving anyway, and at night.  I'm a lot more awake at night now that I switched to my go to bed at 3am schedule.  

I had the window down, which you might think would be cold, but it actually wasn't.  It kind of felt like the clouds were insulating against the cold.  I did have the heater on as well.  There was a nice blend of cold outside air and warm inside air circulating around creating a breeze.  That with the smell of the rain were two good reasons to have the window down.

You have to drive slower when you're going though the countryside at night.  There's no street lights and there's random furry creatures crossing the road.  I stopped for a skunk.  It's much nicer to stop for them instead of just smelling them as you drive by the spot that they used to occupy.

keyboard shortcuts

I was reading the lastest Circuits newsletter and completely related to this:

"I'll never forget watching a book editor at a publishing house painstakingly drag across a word in a word processor to select it. After 10 minutes of this, I couldn't stand it. 'Why don't you just double-click the word?' She had no clue you could do that!)"

I LOVE keyboard shortcuts.  I don't know why you wouldn't use them, expecially if you're on a laptop with no mouse.  A touchpad is so much more inefficient.

Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

the trees are on fire

Driving over the Washington street bridge it looks like the trees are on fire.  Fall is turning them red and orange, one branch at a time and it gives the impression that the trees are aflame.

Today is a good day for colors.  It rained earlier but the clouds were holding the water in when I went out for a drive.  It made for some really brilliant hues.  The sky was blue with big puffy white clouds on one side with some heavy gray ones across from them. The sun shown from behind lighting up various parts of the landscape.  The combination of the sun and the gloss that covered everything from the wet left behind made all the colors show more brightly.  The grass shimmered like there were diamond flecks in it.  And the contrasting colors of the fall leaves really stood out. Especially with the backdrop of the rain heavy clouds behind the trees and the sun shining on them from the front.

To top it off it wasn't too cold out.  I had the windows down.  There was a warm breeze as I drove and I could smell the rain enhanced scents of the earth. 

I saw three BIG turkeys crossing the road on Willamette, before you get out of town too.  They were casually waddling across the road and the car in front of me was honking at them to hurry up.  They took their time.  They're more likely to keep their distance when you're out of the car than when you're in one.  

There was a baby deer running on fox hollow.  It ran along the side of the road like it was trying to race the cars and then darted in front of the cars to cross the road.  Why if they are clearly spooked do they run "to" the thing they are scared of.  They seem to have very strong suicide instincts.

cleaning mood

Just mowed the lawn and vacuumed all the floors.

Uncle David came for a visit

dinner

aaron & jenny simultaneously evaded facing the camera.
the kids were more receptive.

Con

Cade

washing my car

I washed my car today.  It doesn't happen often enough.  The orange Lotus guy who chased me down on Lorane said he remembered seeing a car like mine in town that "needed a bath".  That was definitely mine.  

The wheels get especially dirty.

As I was washing, this lady walked by pushing a stroller with another child walking along side.  She stopped to admire my car, asked me how long I'd had it, where I got it, etc.  

Then she said she'd been in Europe a while back and chased an Elise down to get a better look. She liked the car so much she named her daughter after it!!  So there was an Elise standing next to my Elise.

seasons

It was cold when I went out this morning but I inhaled deeply for some reason and the air seemed really fresh.  Like spring maybe, except it's fall.  

I don't know what spring and fall are supposed to smell like.   We don't have those seasons in So Cal really.  Like the guy at the party last night said, you pretty much get spring and summer there.  If you're from California, then you call it summer and winter.  But if you're from Eugene, it's clearly never winter in So Cal.  

But the air smelled really clean and crisp and clear.  And even though cold is not my thing it seemed really inviting, like I could smell posibility.  Like each molecule in the air was connected to the next and they were little lines in a big web leading in all different directions.

night shift

Yeah, for working at night!!!  Way better than in the day.

Marcelo Garcia Seminar

The Marcelo Garcia seminar in Olympia, WA was awesome.  Best one I've been too yet.  For some reason his style made the techniques easy to remember.  There were a lot of people there but he was open to answering all questions and rolled with as many people as he could at the end.  I'd totally do another seminar with him.

I rolled with a couple people there, one of which was Cindy Hales.  I'm not sure I was rolling "with" her so much as being rolled all over by her.  But that's ok, it was a good experience anyway.  I got a good shin to the nose when she did this technique that we had just done in the seminar.  That was no-gi on day one.  

Day two was gi techniques.  I rolled with another girl at the end of everything.  She was very ridged and explosive.  The match started with me getting a pretty good knee to my eye socket. Once I could see again we started over and she later hit me in the mouth and split my lip.  It was the most violent match I've had in bjj, including all the guys I've rolled with.  Not really bjj style I don't think.  Oddly I didn't get a black eye.  There is definitely a bruise on the eyebrow bone - I can feel it - but you just can't see it.  Must have hit just right I guess?

I should have some pics that we took with Stormy's camera soon!

Lucinda Williams - Unsuffer Me

Unlock my love
And set me free.
Come fill me up
With ecstasy.

Surround my heartbeat
With your fingertips.
Unbound my feet.
Untie my wrists.

Come into my world
Of loneliness,
And wickedness,
And bitterness.

Unlock my love.

Unsuffer me.
Take away the pain.
Unbruise,unbloody.
Wash away the stain.

Anoint my head
With your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead.
I long for bliss.

I long for knowledge
Whispered in my ear.
Undo my logic.
Undo my fear.

Unsuffer me.

Unlock my love
And set me free.
Come fill me up
With ecstasy.

Unsuffer me.
Take away the pain.
Unbruise,unbloody.
Wash away the stain.

Surround my heartbeat
With your fingertips.
Unbound my feet.
Untie my wrists.

Come into my world
Of loneliness,
And wickedness,
And bitterness.

Anoint my head
With your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead.
I long for bliss.

I long for knowledge
Whispered in my ear.
Undo my logic.
Undo my fear.

Hear it on YouTube

where did I go?

So confused.  

vagabond peacocks

There was a peacock in the middle of the road today. I slowed down and stopped - in the middle of the road - and it just wondered up the middle of the lane for a while before meandering off into the brush. I followed it for a ways up the road. I think they're used to the sound of my car now.

If you click on the image you'll see the blue in the neck is pretty brilliant.

post birthday breakfast?

dreams

Last night I dreamt I was part of some giant evacuation, like from a natural disaster or something. I had to coordinate everything because there were a lot of people and everyone else was completely incompetent. 

Flamethrower cake!

Thanks Mel!

A stranger just bought me ice cream!!!!!!!!

Without even talking to me first. She was in there ahead of me with a friend and she turned around and smiled and I smiled back. And then she told the girl at the register that she wanted to pay for whatever I was having as well. So I told her it was my birthday. She asked how old and I told her 32. She said I would probably look 30 when I was about 50.

I saw something in her eye when she turned around and smiled. She was probably going to buy who ever came in behind her and ice cream. But it was fun to be the one that happened to come in behind her. And especially fun since it was my birthday.

So yeah for me. And thank you again whoever you are. You've made this birthday very memorable ;-)

the onion

I added a "gadget" to my google home page for The Onion and came across this link in the feed this morning (ok, really it's afternoon, but it's still morning to me):

Woman Always Really Excited To Be In Whatever Relationship Status She's Currently In

After reading that I clicked on this slideshow with headlines and photos.  I'm not sure if the initial article set me up for it or what but I was laughing pretty good at the headlines.  

I'm not sure about the actual stories but I thought the captions were great.

morning is the time

is the time you have to resist the urge to get up early. It seems easy. You're awake. You could get stuff done.  

Yes, it seems easy.  But don't do it.  Then you'll be tired at night. You'll want to go to sleep instead of work, to break your schedule.  

So in the beginning you have to resist the urge.  Pattern change.  It takes a little time to set in. So go ahead, sleep in.  Really.  Lay back down and close your eyes. That's better.

It's actually been hard to sleep in the last few nights cause I keep waking up at 8 instead of my intended 11.  It will get easier I'm sure. But right now I'm more used to waking at 8 so it just keeps happening and them I'm having to then make myself go back to sleep, several times.  

It helps to have really good curtains ;-)

sleep vs. work: part 2

Work wins!  

Getting a lot more done this way.  Just finished another project.  And, as anticipated, it's not that hard to stay up now that I'm on day 3 and in the flow.  The first two were a bit of a struggle.  But it gets easier.  

Everything's like that, or lots of things are.  Once you get into a pattern it's easier.  But if you break the pattern you're screwed.  Ok, not always.  But sometimes it seems like it.  Especially when you're trying to get back to where you were.

Once you've done it a few times you know you'll be able to recover.  Still, it's easier if you just stay on track.  

Sometimes that's not possible.

Looks more like a birdcage to me

SciAm: Listener Anticipates Speaker's Word Choice

Functional MRI shows the brain in action, anticipating the next word a speaker will say based on context and the first part of the word sound.  

60 Second Podcast here.

This magazine perpetually interesting!  It's crazy how fast our mind processes information.

more php

Just finished my 2nd php project!!  

The error messages in php suck. ColdFusion error messages pretty much tell you what went wrong where.  And, as Paul said, php error messages are more like: "you messed up, hahaha, guess where?".  

Which is especially fun at 2 in the morning ;-)

SciAm: Are a Popular Doping Drug's Effects All in the Mind?

Athletes who take human growth hormone may be getting duped by the placebo effect.

Try the generic alternative: beleive in yourself.  It's infinitely cheaper and has no negative side effects.  Although the posative side effects are known to bleed into the rest of your life.

Are you afraid of your computer?

This is what people who are afraid of their computer think will happen.

Dear non-techy people: 

This will not happen.  Just keep clicking on things and you'll realize it's not as scary as you think.

Thank You,

Tech Support

P.S. - You should apply this in the rest of your life as well.  Try things.  Many things.  Many, many things.  Trust me.  It's worth it.

sleep vs. work

Trying to get on a new schedule.  I work better between 10pm & 3am.  No clients to interrupt.  No sun to call me out.

I stayed up till 3 last night.  But then I woke up at 8.  Not part of the plan.  I tried to sleep more but it just wasn't in me, so I just got up.  

I know if I'm going to do this I just need to get consistent and stay up a few more days in a row. Then I'll be in the groove.  But I was getting tired because I didn't sleep as many hours last night.  So I choose a strategy to wake myself up.  Three sets of pull ups and push ups.  It worked.  I feel more awake now.  

And you really need to be awake when you're trying to do programming ;-)

paralyzed

I've never been so paralyzed
as I was by your kiss.

Energy
strong, fluid, weightless
passed between us
like water flowing
so much, so strong, yet so soft.

I drowned, paralyzed by your kiss.


My senses were overcome
my body disappeared
I felt the universe in your lips.

SciAm: Observers of Walking Figures See Men Advancing, Women in Retreat

"When viewing figures walking, a curious illusion appears. People perceive male strollers as moving toward them, whereas the female walkers appear to be moving away, regardless of the figure's actual direction." 60 Second Podcast Here

I especially like the last line: "...fascinating proven results are often left waiting for their counterpart explanations to catch up."

Sara and Annie: San Francisco

(Top) Sonia, Sara & Me

(Below) unknown 3rd party who ducked into the photo
at the lexington club in SF

Sara and Annie: The Early Years

the park

I didn't know you were going to be at the park yesterday, like know for sure. I just got in my car and drove over there. Then I called Mel, again, to make sure that this wasn't a really bad idea. Then I tried calling you. But you didn't pick up, or your phone did feel like ringing, or I was actually supposed to find you at the park and not talk to you on the phone.

I tried calling you from the park because you weren't there. Then I went to get gas cause the car was on empty and there was nothing else to do. I went all the way up Willamette and got it at the station near 28th. The Chevron, not the 76 station. Then I came right back to the park. I turned left and saw you sitting there with your guitar. I knew it was you from the back of your head even though you were not that close.

Interestingly enough (to me, thinking back on it) I was not at all surprised to see you there. I just parked and got out and walked over like we'd somehow set this up beforehand and I was supposed to meet you there. Which is kind of what it seemed like, even though we clearly did not discuss this at all.

You just happened to stop at the park on your way to Sweet Life and I just happened to find you there. Or something like that.

Chasing peacocks

Went for a drive today. Turned the corner on Fox Hollow near the bench and there were three peacocks in the middle of the road.

They graciously moved out of my lane, but I stopped. I waited. I wanted to see them fly.

I parked and got out and walked over to a couple. One of them obliged me and hopscotched up a couple trees till it was out of sight.

Peacocks are cool.

Thinking of towing with a compact car?

Google Maps - Walking Directions

Google Maps has added the "Walking" option to the driving directions page. Apparently I should be able to walk to San Francisco in: "698 mi – about 9 days 14 hours".

I'm thinking their not taking bathroom breaks and sleeping into account.


I think I'll fly.

NPR: Fresh Air

I heart NPR.

I just listened to this episode of Fresh Air (podcast subscription). There are interviews with 4 different press secretaries. Very interesting. Always fun to hear about these things after the fact, with perspective.

Also highly recommended: The Fog of War, which I saw a few years back. In fact, I think I might watch it again myself. And I'm I'm not much of a double viewer.

bureaucracy

Bureaucracy, you are lame.

You sent my homeowners insurance renewal policy to my mortgage company (good job). They paid last years premium (lame). You sent a bill for the extra $22 to my old address (lame). The letter got returned to you and you somehow also knew my correct address (so why did you didn't you send it there in the first place). In any event, you wrapped the letter in a piece of paper with the correct address and sent it here. Unfortunately the whole process took about two months. I opened it up and it said to pay the extra amount by the following date or the policy would be canceled. The "date" was two weeks before I got the letter. I logged on to my mortgage company's website and paid the $22. Several weeks later (didn't you get the payment?) you sent me a refund check for the 1st amount. Then you sent me a refund check for the $22.

Then I drove to the insurance company's office so the friendly staff could take care of this for me. The lady there was very nice. She made a call, you emailed a letter, I signed it and poof, I have insurance again.

But I have to say you are very lame for canceling the policy because it was $22 short, after you sent the bill to the wrong address. Then got it back and sent it to the correct address (so you knew there was a problem), after the due date. To a person this is obviously stupid. But you are clearly not a person. You are a bureaucracy.

And mortgage company, you are also lame for not paying the extra $22 when they sent you the bill. Because they tried you first before they sent it to my wrong address. You would think, holding the mortgage, it would be in your best interest to pay the insurance premium.

As a side note I looked up "bureaucracy" in google, just for fun and found this:

Bureaucracy is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987, scripted by popular comic science fiction author Douglas Adams. It is Infocom's twenty-fourth game.

The player is challenged to confront a long and complicated series of bureaucratic hurdles resulting from a recent change of address. Mail isn't being delivered, bank accounts are inaccessible, and nothing is as it should be. The game includes a measure of simulated blood pressure which rises when "frustrating" events happen and lowers after a period of no annoying events. Once a certain blood pressure level is reached, the player suffers an aneurysm and the game ends.

I would really like to check that game out. It sounds hysterical. On the other hand, why buy the game when you can play in real life for free. ...um, well often not for free, but anyway.

I forgot I was riding the motorcycle

I went for a ride today. Later in the afternoon. I wouldn't have dared go for a ride when I got up. It was freaking 39 degrees out! What??? Where is summer going? I'm not ready to move on.

So I was riding up Chambers looking across this scooter in the left turn lane going the other way. There was a motorcycle going straight next to it. I notice right as they're passing me that they are giving me the wave.

Which led me to realize I was not driving the Lotus. Yeah, that sounds funny right. But I forgot. I'm so used to driving the Lotus that I just think I'm in it all the time. Not that I think I'm "in" it. I just picture them looking at me and seeing a Lotus. Wrong picture.

The same thing has happened when I'm driving the Bronco. I see people looking at me at a stop light or something and it takes me a sec to realize I'm in the Bronco - so what the heck are they looking at?

I was actually riding my scooter down Willamette a couple years back and saw a yellow Lotus going the other way. I wanted to wave but realized I was on the scooter and would just seem like a dork. Um, not that you people that do wave at my in the Lotus are dorks ;-) I usually simle or wave back at them. I just would have felt like one because I would have been thinking "fellow Lotus owner" and he would have been thinking, "kid on a scooter". So yeah, not really what I was trying to get across to him.