Great old photo bloggy blog

This site, Shorpy, has great photos that are old. Pretty simple, but really interesting pictures from back in the day when "colored" people had their own drinking fountains and hollywood wannabe actresses were ugly. Here's an interesting one for all you FUVKs (freaky utah valley kids). Yeah, I'm so above being from Utah Valley now.

We're moving.

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We'll be packing our bags and heading out to Rochester, NY this summer for residency. Big news for us. We're excited. Yay.

Crazy Robotic Canine

This is really cool and simply freaks Jaime out. It's a robotic dog. I think its absolutely amazing.

CONGRATULATIONS! I have matched.

I got an email today telling me I've matched for a residency spot somewhere. On Thursday they'll tell me exactly where. Probably Rochester, NY or Milwaukee, WI. The email read:

Congratulations! You have matched.

Check the Match Site at https://services.nrmp.org/R3/ on Thursday, March 20, 2008, at 1:00 PM eastern time to find out where you matched. Because you are matched, you will not have access to any information about unfilled programs.


And now you know.

Torpedo?

I'm taking up swimming down to the local YMCA. This photo proves it.

Let's give this octopus some boots

Now, I'm admittedly a classical music nerd, but I thought this was very funny (the first time through). I found this link on one of my favorite blogs The Rest is Noise .

The Firebird

I took Asher to the Powell Symphony Hall yesterday for his first symphony concert. It was a family concert for kids four and up. The pieces were all based on stories that somehow involved fire. The concert included Beethoven's overture to Prometheus, Manuel De Falla's Love, the Magician, and Stravinsky's The Firebird. Again, live orchestra performance are so far superior to recordings, that it's not worth talking about. Just go to the symphony and enjoy being enveloped in sound, rhythm, and energy.


Asher liked it, but it was during nap time so he was a bit restless. I warned him before we went into the hall that some of the music is very loud and that he shouldn't be scared, but that he could hold my hand if he wanted. Well, that really freaked him out and as we climbed the stairs to the balcony to find our seats (outside of the actual hall now) he covered his ears and told me how scared he was that it was loud. He's a cute little man.

Via the Velo Orange blog via Velorution:

On Cars: A letter to the Financial Times from a car designer:


“Absurdity is when a 70kg adult commutes alone in a 1,400kg car, meaning that for every litre of fuel he or she buys to transport him- or herself, another 20 litres is purchased to propel the vehicle. When the vehicle in question is a 3,000kg sports utility vehicle, absurdity becomes an obscenity.

“Even if we can make cars totally emission-free, running on sustainable energy, if their profusion causes constant gridlock they are no longer a means of transport, merely destructive, wasteful and expensive items of vanity.

“Sadly, particularly considering the pathetic return on investment associated with carmaking, the majority show depressingly little inclination to change themselves from being merely manufacturers of cars to being complete providers of mobility."

Short ride / Shostakovich 10

I was able to ride 18 miles today. It was pretty cold (less than 30 F) the entire ride and there was a bit of wind, but at least the sun was out. I found a fire hydrant that matched my bike and also a neat sign for a photo.

This evening I went to the St Louis Symphony concert. On the program was Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, and Shostakovich's 10th symphony. The Nielsen was good. The Shostakovich was amazing! Seeing a symphony like that live is an almost overwhelming experience. After the concert I listened to part of the symphony on my iPod on the way to my car. Classical music is meant to be heard live. Recordings do not adequately convey the scope, depth, and warmth of a live orchestra in a good hall. There are some pretty neat youtube videos of this symphony, but the sound quality is even worse than listening on an ipod.

One funny thing about the concert: the score calls for two piccolos. The first piccolo player was the fattest man in the whole orchestra and the second piccolo player sitting next to him was the smallest woman in the orchestra. The man was probably four times the size of the woman next to him and the juxtaposition was comical. Ha!



It was nice of the city to match the paint on the fire hydrants to the paint of my bike.

Brevet

As promised here are some quick details about the ride. I rode along the Mississippi river and then rode back home. I took some photos of the bald eagles that were resting in the trees along the banks of the Mississippi. I saw about eight eagles during the ride. The trail is paved the entire way and is a well-maintained route. The first few miles don't have a very great view because the trail runs along the outer side of the levee (I guess) wall. Instead of a view of the mighty Mississippi you see a fifteen-foot high concrete wall to your right and to your left beautiful salvage yards. It's better than nothing though and gets you out of the city fairly quickly.

In longer news, I've decided to ride a brevet in April. A brevet is an organized bicycle ride that is different a regular race. The idea is to finish a determined distance within a set amount of time rather than to finish before everyone else. For example, the brevet I plan to ride is 200 km and you have 13.5 hours to ride it. This is the shortest brevet. Other distances are 300, 400, 600, and 1000 km. There are some famous brevets such as the Paris-Brest-Paris which is 1200 km and the time limit is 90 hours.

This type of bicycle racing is called randonneuring after the French Randonneurs who started this type of riding back in the late 1800s. It's about camaraderie, testing yourself, and riding self-sustained. I think it is a sport I will really enjoy.

For now, I need to get out on my bike more. 200 km is about 124 miles, four times farther than my last ride.