"The waiting is the hardest part..." as the song goes. I don't like being idle when I know there's things to be done.

Arrrrgh!! That feels better. Its been one of those weeks. Like last week. "Hurry up!" and now waiting. Waiting for people to stop arguing about the finer points of protocols and procedures so we can get back to work and back to the "Hurry up!" phase again. It seems as though some folks revel in the rhetorical. Why make a decision when they can bring more and more people into the discussion? And of course everyone is right and everyone is wrong. Around and around.

Anyway, two more weeks until my stress fracture should be healed. Not running is now driving me bonkers. At first it wasn't too bad, but now I'm antsy. The days are getting longer. I'm seeing more people out running. We haven't had much rain, snow or ice. Great temperatures for running. I organized an informal running club a few years ago. Looking at the race schedule in the Philly region over the next few months is both inspiring and frustrating. There are a lot of great races to be run. Not that I 've ever had any chance at winning. I have placed in my age group several times, though. I like the social aspects of races. Seeing friends, the competition, doing something in a group but also individually. I just have to be careful not to over do it and risk a re-fracture.

And then there's the homebrew competition. The secondary fermentation of my chocolate stout should be done in another week or so, and I'm anxious to see if it turns out well. The competition is in late February. Waiting....

The "new" running shoes I bought just before the stress fracture, two bottles of homebrewed chocolate stout, and the brace I've been wearing since the end of November.

Random thoughts for Friday

"Hurry up! and wait."

That seems to be the theme of work these last couple weeks. Something happens, so we scramble around like mad hornets to get the parts, create the paperwork, line up the contractors to do the mechanical work, then we wait while the paperwork gets approved so we can actually do the work. And by that time we have to "hurry up" to complete the work because management sat on the paperwork too long even though they are the ones that set the deadlines. Then the repaired equipment sits idle because they changed the schedule. Oh well, such is life.

Cell Phone Spam

Have you received any spam text messages on your cell phone yet? I've received a few. If you have, don't delete them right away. Contact your service provider and let them know you've received a spam text message and who sent it. They might give you credit for it, and also help you block future spam.

MBA School

Anyone here have an MBA? I've been thinking lately about considering to think more seriously about earning one. I'm on the fence about it. On one hand, it may enable me to earn a bigger salary, do different things where I work, and the company will pay for it if my grades are high enough. On the other hand, those job opportunities may take me away from engineering (better yet, get me out of the "hurry up! and wait" job), perhaps put me into middle management (they get the axe first, it seems, when it comes to layoffs). So I'm not sure. Perhaps I should work on earning something else. I just want to feel more productive about my work.

Fun on a Friday

Here's something fun to do while you're sitting here at your computer. You'll need to turn the sound on, and you'll need a microphone (hopefully your computer has one built in).

I wish I could report on some interesting happenings in my life lately, but its been rather dull. Not much going on these days. The stomach virus that's been going around swept through our house last week. The weather has been too cold to do much outside, and no snow to speak of.

One thing that has been on my mind and bothering me is something that happened on Sunday. I was driving to Ikea to buy a new desk lamp. I'm in the left lane (the lane that's going straight), and a big black Suburban comes up quickly behind me, so I speed up because I think its going to hit me. Then it pulls into the right lane (the lane that veers of to the right up ahead), and I figure its going to turn right. It pulls up along side of me and starts drifting towards me, no turn signals. So I speed up again to get out of its way. It does veer off to the right. Then a few moments later its behind me again, honking its horn like crazy. I pull into the parking lot, and it pulls up next to me, screaming something and honking at me. I ignored it and continued through the lot. It kept following me, so I turned around and started going back the way I came. After some more honking and screaming, it finally turned away from me and left the area. After this all happened, I realised that this person was probably trying to pass me on the right and became angry at me for not accommodating it. Where were the turn signals? I didn't see any. When has it become acceptable to pass in the right lane, especially when that lane is the right turn only lane? If they wanted to keep going straight, they should have just stayed behind me. I don't think I did anything wrong.

Here's TMI Tuesday #119!


1. What was your favorite book as a kid? "Rocket Ship Galileo" by Robert A. Heinlein. I read it in 5th grade as an assignment for a book report. Before that I really didn't have much interest in reading anything other than comics. After reading it I was hooked on science fiction! I spent most of my allowance on science fiction paperbacks in those days, and I occasionally re-read them. Its a big reason why I went into engineering.


2. If you were stranded on that proverbial desert island (again!), what book or books (up to 5) would you want to have with you?

1. "How To Be A Survivor"
2. "Survive on a Desert Island"
3. A very, very large phone book - to start fires with
4. "The Great Big Book of Everything" - it has everything inside!
5. The "real" Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

3. What was the first "naughty" book you read and in what way was it naughty? Probably one of my mom's drawing books when I was a child. She was a pretty good painter back in the day. It was a book to teach one how to draw the human form, and it had lots of nekkid drawings and photos. I just liked it because of the nekkid women.


4. If you were to publish your autobiography today, what would be the title? "Slightly Above Average" If I look at my life in numbers, I'm about average. Average height & weight. Average salary (for my profession). My current job is to keep the place running, to keep it average. Slightly above average running times for my age group for the various distances I've run. My house is about average for the neighborhood. My grades were excellent in high school, and about average in college.


5. Would you rather look at nude pictures/pornography or read erotic fiction and why? Look at pictures. I'm a guy - we're all about the visual thing. To be fair, I haven't really given erotic fiction too much of a chance. I'd much rather read about real erotic experiences. When I read about someones actual erotic experience, there's a chance (slim) that I could have a similar experience. Knowing that it actually happened makes it "hotter." Erotic fiction doesn't have that edge. Somebody fabricated it. The story developed as the author wanted it to develop. In real life there are always unexpected twists and turns. This is in contrast to the science fiction that I like to read. In science fiction, there's usually no chance that I could ever have those experiences in my lifetime, so reading about them is the only way I'll know about it.

Bonus (as in optional): Do you know the whereabouts today of the first person with whom you had sex? Yes.

Leg Update: I went to my doctor's appointment last night (In the snow! It finally snowed here in Philly! And then melted in today's 45 deg.F and sun). My stress fracture is making progress but not yet completely healed. He said that they usually take about 12 weeks, and I've been in the fracture boot for 7 weeks. I can take the boot off in the evenings at home. I go back in 4 weeks, on Valentine's Day. If this were the sort of thing that a bribe of a box of chocolates could fix, I'd bring him a truck load of it! Anyway, if it is healed by then, I'll have to get back to running slowly - walking first, short runs, and then not increasing my distances by any more than 10% at a time. This will knock out any chance of running the Broad Street 10-Miler in May and the Philly Distance Run in September. Looks like just 5Ks for this year.

My latest television fix: Ninja Warrior on the G4 network. Its a Japanese game show where the contestants have to complete obstacle courses. They start off with 100 contestants going through the first "stage" one at a time in a set amount of time. If one falls off the course and into the water below, they're out. As they go through the course, the announcer makes funny comments about them, and, as its a Japanese show, you have to read the subtitles. After the first stage, the remaining contestants go on to the second, third, and fourth stages. Some of the contestants wear the uniform of the profession they do in real life - they are usually the ones that don't make it too far. The few that get all the way to the end of the final stage are then named "Ninja Warriors."

They have different courses for males and females. I find it interesting to see how they solve the problems of getting through each obstacle along the course. Some are pure physical challenges like lifting something very heavy. Many are balance related - walking on a moving object, or stepping from one unstable post to another. And others are somewhat mental as the solution to going through the obstacle isn't intuitively obvious.

So if you're bored one night during this writers' strike, take a look at Ninja Warrior.

Oh man! I started TMI #117 last week and never finished as things were just too crazy. I bottled the chocolate stout that I brewed between Christmas and New Years. It looked pretty good and had a decent chocolate aroma. After a few weeks of bottle conditioning I'll be able to taste the results.

So here's TMI#117 followed by #118:

1) Do you have/ever had any dating or sex superstitions? (Wear 'lucky jeans' on first date, always light a vanilla candle, etc.) If so, what are they? Nope, no superstitions for me.

2) If you were stranded on the old deserted island, and a genie appeared who could only grant you one wish -- to bring one of the following people to join you, who would it be?- your spouse/significant other- an unrequited love or some person you've had a crush on- an old/past love- your best friend. I'd have to go with my SO. I don't think I'd be able to get along with any of the other people for the amount of time we'd be there.

3) Tell us "weather or not" you're in the mood -- how does rain, snow, sleet, scorching heat, sweltering humidity etc. affect your libido. Usually its the hot weather (but not scorching heat) that gets my libido going. Its probably due to wearing less clothing - I can see more of her (there's that male visual thing again), I feel more like having sex with fewer clothes on, and being warm is more conducive to wanting to have sex. Conversely, cold weather is a turn-off ("shrinkage"!). Rain can be a turn-on if its warm. Swimming and bathing always turn me on - my favorite time to have sex is right out of the shower.

4) Are you a crying drunk, an angry drunk, a 'I'm drunk, let's screw' sort of a drinker? (And, if you do not drink -- which one of those things is the reason?) I'm a "I'm getting too tired and I want to sleep" kind of drunk. After about two drinks I just start getting tired and all I want to do is find somewhere to nap or sleep.

5) Who turns you on the most & why: the activist, the author, the care-giver/healer (nurse, doctor, masseuse, herbalist, chiropractor etc.), the comedian, the educator (professor, teacher, mentor etc.), the model, the musician, the politician, the scientist. Hmmm, never knew a full-time activist, author, comedian, or politician, so they're all out. Care-givers/healers tend to look at sex too medically. Turn-ons: the model (they look good), educator (I've had more than one crush on a teacher), musicians (do singers count? a woman's voice can melt me like butter on a hot skillet), and the scientist (I'm an engineer, and I like the geek-chic look).

Bonus (as in optional): Looking back, what's the one thing you've done which was supposed to be erotic, but didn't quite work out? Introducing toys into our sex routine. She didn't like the vibrator - wouldn't even touch it or let me touch her with it. She's of the mind that "regular" people don't used those kinds of things. What boggles my mind is that she went to an all-girls college. She had to have known other girls that used them.

TMI #118

1. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be? Very unique question! I can't say that any particular home comes to mind other than The Brady Bunch or Seinfeld. I wouldn't want to live with the Brady's - too many people, and listening to that hokey background music would drive me nuts. Seinfeld's apartment might be just right - its in a big city, near a diner, interesting people live in the building, and there's always cereal in the cupboards!

2. If you had a clone, what would you make it do so you could have free time? Do my job for me, sort of. I would quit the job I currently have and do something that I would really enjoy, like working in a brewery. That job doesn't pay as well, so if we both worked there, we'd have twice the income. And since we'd both really enjoy our job, it would be more like fun than "work", and having fun is what I'd want to do with my free time.

3. Who was your best friend when you were 8? When you were 13? I was in 3rd grade when I was 8, so my best friend was Tony. He moved after 3rd grade, so I never saw him after that. Rob was (and still is) my best friend since I was 13. We live in different states now, and I still consider him my best friend.

4. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be & why? I'd love to go back to Italy. We had so much fun when we were there about 10 years ago. The sights and food were amazing. I can still taste some of the things we ate. And Italian women - hubba, hubba!!

5. Would you hate loosing your sight or hearing most? My sight. My father's hearing is just about gone, so I'm assuming that my hearing will go when I'm his age anyway. Didn't I mention in TMI#117 that men are more stimulated visually? If my hearing goes, I can still look at all the pretty women, especially the ones that have cooking shows (e.g., Giada and Nigella). If my sight goes, I'll just end up listening to those same shows and never be able to see what they're cooking! And I'd miss going to the movies to see the big screen. And what's porn without pictures?!

Bonus (as in optional): Nature or nurture? Nurture. Nature gives you your body, so you don't have much of a choice there. Nurture teaches your mind, and you do have a choice in what you learn.

Check this out.

Well at least they didn't lose as bad as last year. The Buckeyes were their own worst enemy last night in New Orleans against LSU. Two personal fouls in a row, then more later. Three interceptions. A blocked field goal kick. If they played a tighter game, the score would have been much closer than 38-24. I don't think they would have won, but at least it would have been a more closely matched game. Just like last year, they scored first and seemed confident. A bit too confident, perhaps, for their own good.

Two losses in a row at the National Championship game. I've the feeling that even if they go undefeated next season, no one will have the confidence in them to rank them high enough to give them another bid for it. Not for a long time, and not unless there are some changes in the coaching staff. I like Tressel, it might be time for a change in the assistant coaching staff. They started the season ranked 7th, and they played like that last night. I agree with the BCS for looking into a 4-team playoff system in the future. It will at least get a better match-up for the title game.

I just need more coffee to stay awake today...

Let's go Buckeyes!!

The question that has been on most of your minds lately is "To what kind of music does Sheen listen?" Now, I know you're thinking "That question has not been on my mind." But now that you've read it, it is. So here are some of my recent iTunes purchases. Some were released last year, others are from my punker days in college (anyone been to Mean Mr. Mustards?), and some are - well they just are.

"Happy Birthday" Altered Images

"Snapshot" Art of Noise

"Stay" The Blue Nile

"Cannonball" The Breeders

"The Walls Came Down", "Everywhere I Go", "I Still Believe", "The Walls Came Down" The Call

"Tubthumping" Chumbawamba

"She Sells Sanctuary" The Cult

"Never Let Me Down Again" Depeche Mode

"Whip It" Devo

"Do It Clean" Echo And The Bunnymen

"The Hook and Sling" Eddie Bo

"Grip Like a Vice", "Doing It Right", "Titanic Vandalism", "The Wrath of Marcie", "Ladyflash" The Go! Team

"Just Like Honey", "Head On" Jesus And Mary Chain
"Eighties" Killing Joke

"Do It Again" The Kinks

"North American Scum" LCD Soundsystem

"I'm Bad" LL Cool J

"One Step Beyond" Madness

"Ultrasuede (Studio Outtake)" Matthew Sweet

"Every Day Is Halloween" Ministry

"Argument Clinic" Monty Python

"Boombox" Mosquitos

"Sex On Wheelz" My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult

"Little Fluffy Clouds (Dance Mix 2)" The Orb

"Debaser", "Here Comes Your Man", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", "Where Is My Mind?", "Gouge Away" Pixies

"Twiggy Twiggy/Twiggy Vs. James Bond" Pizzicato Five

"Love Missile F1-11" Pop Will Eat Itself

"A Deeper Shade of Soul" Ray Barretto

"Walkie Talkie Man" Steriogram

"Don't Box Me In" Stewart Copeland

"Wild Wild Life" Talking Heads

"This Is the Day", "Uncertain Smile" The The

"Don't Let's Start " They Might Be Giants

"Doctorin the Tardis" Timelords

"Go! (club Mix)" Tones On Tail

"Another Tricky Day", "Dangerous", "Eminence Front (Live)" The Who

"I Before e Exept After C" Yaz

The Christmas/New Year's summary:

• I was in blogland over the extended break, although I didn't post.
• Anyway, Christmas was excellent. The only bummer was no snow. Philly doesn't get too much snow in December.
• I brewed a batch of chocolate stout for the homebrew competition in February. I've never brewed with chocolate before, so this one will either be very good or very bad. I'll keep you posted on its progress through fermentation and bottling.
• New Year's was kind of on the quiet side. We stayed home on 12/31 and stayed up 'til midnight, almost falling asleep on the couch before the ball dropped. Watched the Mummers parade, the outdoor hockey match, and the Twilight Zone marathon on TV.
• Ate entirely too much food. And that's to be expected.

TMI Tuesday #116:


1. Last week was "The Most Wonderful time of the Year", but what are your favorite 2007 memories?

• Had the house re-sided. Now it looks pretty good.
• Ran more miles than 2006. I ran about 570 miles in 2007, and about 525 in 2006. I ran my first 1/2 marathon.
• Vacation in Avalon, NJ. I know what some of you may be thinking "New Jersey? You kiddin' me?" It really is nice there. You should give it a try.
• Won 2nd Place in the stout category at the local homebrew competition. I entered it just to get the judges' feedback. I never expected to place.
• Going out to Columbus, OH, to see my Buckeyes beat Wisconsin. Going back to my Alma Matter is always a treat!
• I'm sure there are more...

2. What is the best thing you learned in 2007? That I'm not indestructible. I thought that since I've been running for the past 20 years that I was past getting injured. Was I ever wrong! Now I just hope this stress fracture will heal well enough that I'll be able to run again as I did before.

3. On a scale of 1-10, how good was your 2007? I'd say about a 7. See #1 for the good stuff. See #5 for the bad.

4. What is your wish for 2008? What is your wish for someone else for 2008? For me, its a full recovery from this stress fracture so I can get back to running. I know it will take some time to heal, and then, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to pick up where I left off sooner rather than later. For others, good fortune and good health.

5. If you knew that you were going to die in 2008 what one thing would you do? Get my will/trust done. I've had this on the "To Do" list for a number of years and just haven't gotten around to it. This is something we all need to do. I had an uncle die last year who had a will/trust, and they just now got it resolved. I had a cousin die a few months ago without a will/trust, and my uncle & aunt are going through some tough times dealing with it and trying to settle his estate. If he had a will, that would be one less thing for them to deal with, and he would have had some say in the distribution of his belongings. Don't leave your estate for your family or the state to resolve.

Bonus (as in optional): Do you make New Year's resolutions? What is/are yours for 2008? Nope, none for me. I used to, and then realized that they are something that I should be doing all year long, not just at the new year. And they are just about the same every year: run more than last year, eat more healthy foods, kick the porn habit.