Top 5 Favorite Running Ads

5. Nike Running: Enjoy the Weather


4. New Balance: Breaking up with running.


3. New Balance: Love Hate Anthem


2. 2008 Olympics: Fastest white guy



1.Brooks: Run World Run

Italy in America

Photo: Venice 2008

Last night I was organizing my music collection and I came across some old podcasts. I found a great NPR story about aerosol art, more specifically Paco Rosic. When he was six  his mother showed him a book of Michealangelo's work and he was stunned by the art. Paco has since dreamed of painting the Sistine chapel... talk about ambition. 

Today, at the age of 27 he owns a restaurant in Waterloo, Iowa and has a spray paint version of the Sistine Chapel covering the celing of the whole restaurant. Paco's aerosol art is about half as big as the Michealangelo's painting but the perfect back drop for an authentic Italian dining experience in Iowa.

VIA NPR

get inked

Photo: A couple in peeks in a tattoo parlor. Chicago, July, 2008.

I would probably never get a tattoo but I have always admired art on other people's bodies. Typically, people put much thought into how they decorate their bodies.  Throughout history tattooing has been a cultural and religious practice for people all over the world. People get tattoos for many reason; medical, cosmetics, identification, spiritual markings, and of course decoration. People get permanent makeup such as lipstick and eyebrows, while cancer patients get tattoos to mark the exact location for life sustaining radiotherapy. 

Tattoos are often a window into a person's mind and display the most intimate of memories. The Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry is using tattoos in the prison system as red flags for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The researchers conducted a semi-structured interviews for inmates with and without tattoos and correlated tattoos with ASPD. Also, tattooed inmates were more likely to have a history of substance and sexual abuse.

Although, the research team surveyed a very small study sample, they published a paper in the Journal of Personality and Mental Health. This is an interesting finding but it is unlikely that one study of only 36 people is going to make any conclusive suggestions regarding inmate tattoos and their psychological state.

via: wiki and PMH article

dunnet

I work with several computer programmers and it is a perfect environment for constant exposure to tech-trivia. Many of the people working here are aspiring video game designers. I often get to hear about the newest, hippest games on the market. Even with constant advancements in game design it is nice to revert back to text-based games. You have to rely on your imagination instead of the incredibly realistic virtual environment.
I was exploring Terminal on my computer and I came across a really cool text-based game that is a part of every Macintosh operating system. On macintosh systems, Terminal opens up in a UNIX shell and if you type the following you text, you are prompted by a short discription about where you are. 

emacs -batch -l dunnet

Give it a shot and don't be affraid to type what comes to mind. You will be surprised at all the possibilities.

VIA: nethack

uppercase

It is very often that I copy a citation or a quote from a web page into a word processor and all the text is upper case. So, instead of retyping everything I just discovered the coolest thing in Microsoft Word! If you have text that is all uppercase you can highlight the text and press SHIFT + fn + F3 (mac) or shift + F3 (PC) to convert it to lowercase.

Now I don't sound like I am yelling.

Reese

Steaming hot Korean rice green tea and Reese's peanut butter cups.

What was lost is found

Photo: Parma, Italy 2007

“At that age, it’s one of the worse things in the world to wake up and not see your bike where you left it.” -- 50 Cent, on the theft of his childhood bike.

I totally empathize with fitty because for some reason things like to get stolen from me. A couple of days ago, I was sitting at my desk and I got a phone call from the police regarding my bike. They said that they had recently impounded a bunch of bikes that were stolen by the same person. The Raleigh was included in this bunch but the story gets even better. Some other person then tried to steal my bike from the police impound lot!
I left work early and rushed to the police impound to pick up my bike. They had stored it in a special impound lot with walls that were double the size of the other ones. I know I should be mad but it is kind of flattering that my bike was appealing enough to be stolen twice. BAM!!

I got the bike back home safely and it is in pretty good shape. I noticed some pretty long scratches and the thieves cut my leather seat. I am happy to be rejoined with my bike! Thanks to the PO PO.


OH YEAH, while my bike was gone I bought another one. :-D

Bo

A couple of years ago my friend introduced me to Bo Diddley's music and I was instantly hooked. He was one of the pioneers of rock n' roll but was too modest to accept the honor. He attributed the rock n' roll craze to Chuck Berry. 

Today, at the age of 79 he passed away but left us with such memorable tunes to cherish forever.

Rest in peace Bo.

The raleigh is gone

My freakin' bike got stolen today!!!!!

I haven't been this sad / angry in  LONG TIME!!!

This was a perfect bike and I had carefully chosen every SINGLE part on it. It was totally customized to the most detailed specifications. 

I was leaving a coffee shop after a long night of studying and I walked up to a sawed bike-lock and no Raleigh.

WHAT THE FUCK

sorry

Garden Project

Photo: Spartan Village porch 2006

When I was a kid we always had a vegetable garden in our back yard. There were those summer-time meals when everything on the table was from our own garden. For the last ten years or so I have maintained a garden at my parents house (about an hour away), but I recently found out about a community garden project here in the Lansing area. Without a car it would have been impossible to make enough trips home to establish a good garden. I am pretty new to community gardening and it has been an wonderful experience so far. All the gardeners are really friendly and helpful. The Lansing Garden Project is a program of the Greater Lansing Food Bank. I didn't know much about them till now but they are dedicated to providing healthier food options for low income house holds. The surplus produce from these community gardens go to the needy in our area. Last year they served almost 1,500 people with fresh produce.

I work at a local food bank in Lansing and it is so great to know that lower income households are not restricted to high sodium, canned foods.

Life and Death

Photo: Lamps in my living room, 2007

I let one of my friends from work  borrow my book, "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. Today, he gave it back to me and as I flipped through it I came across this really funny quote. I could never have found it if I was looking.

"I can well imagine an aetheist's last words: 'White, white! L-L-Love! My God!' - and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agonostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays true to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, 'Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,' and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story."

The fat David

Photo: The fat David. Window shopping in Florence, Italy 2008.

Michelangelo's sculpture of David is the ultimate symbol for the European Renaissance. In Italy it is tough to get away from the tacky plastic replica's of David. These replicas are a tourist's favorite. After a few days of walking around Florence at every turn of the corner you could see David. It wasn't until I visited the Accademia Gallery to see the actual sulpture I realized what the hype was all about. I am not an artist but this sculpture was incredible even through my eyes. As you exit the Academia gallery they have a huge photograph of people looking up at David in awe. After a couple of hours of looking at all sculptures it is funny to see how the sculptures look at us. hahaha

Midwest Rabit Resque and Re-Home

This litte bunny was a brand new arrival last time I was at Midwest Rabbit Resque. 

Check them OUT.

I want a dog

Photo: Dogs in Venice, Italy 2008

I grew up with dogs. My grandparents and parents always had dogs around our house. My grandmother is especially great at training dogs. Once, she told her german shepard to "sit and stay" and this dog sat there for hours! Unfortunately, I can't have pets at my current apartment. In fact, a few months ago I got a fine for having hamsters and a bird in my apartment. If I get caught with pets again they will probably evict me. 

I think later this year I will have be in a perfect place to get a nice dog. I have been doing research on breeds for a few months now and instead of narrowing down my search I have just discovered new possibilities. I don't have very specific needs other than a dog that can go on a run with me. I plan on being in the midwest for a while too, so preferably the dog would be able to handle the weather.

HELP

Locked in love

Photo: Padua, Italy 2008

A couple of weeks ago I made a pretty spontaneous decision to buy a plane ticket to Italy for spring break. I haven't been able to blog from here but today I had some free time for a quick note.

So far I have seen so much beauty and I can't wait to get my film developed. I have loved walking around and getting lost in the narrow Italian streets. On many bridges I noticed locks like these. Lovers put a lock on the third light post of bridges and throw away the key as a symbol of eternal love. I read that this tradition started when a novelist, Federico Moccia wrote a novel called "Ho Voglio di te". A part of the story mentions putting a padlock on a bridge and tossing the key to locks the couples in love forever.

Now there are locks on most of these bridges.