I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. That's quite a movie. Acting, dialogue, suspense....it's got what you want.
It was released in 1946. The closing credits run about 20 seconds.
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World is excellent. It looks at the many developments, large and small, that came about because of this fish. Let's just say that you might not be here if it weren't for cod. Thanks for asking, Hook!
Forecast high of 73 tomorrow....should be very bikeable.
Racquetball was hot and sweaty....someday that will change.
On a videotape from 8 years ago Tom Brokaw mentioned "the worldwide collection of computers known as the Internet."
Rocky Point was great today. For the first time I did all of the hard options in one ride and also added on a few miles of the family trail....maybe 24 miles total.
Clear skies now allowed me to take this photo of Mars. I used zoom.
NewEgg shipped my components. They are due on September 2.
Chicago is quite fun. No wonder it won some award.
Weather tomorrow should be fine....
OK! I've ordered a new motherboard, processor and power supply. This took hours and was fun. All from NewEgg:
Biostar M7NCD Pro motherboard (Nvidia nForce2 Ultra 400)
Athlon XP 2500 Barton processor (512 KB L2 cache, 128 KB L1 cache, 333 MHz FSB)
Thermaltake PurePower 420 watt powersupply (Active PFC)
So many features! I'm overstimulated. Now I will read about cod.
I rode Stillwell Woods for the first time. It takes about an hour to get there....pretty far compared to the 20-minute drive to Rocky Point.
My plan was to take an easy lap and take some photos and then a second lap without my camera.
The trail has a bunch of rocky, rooty downhill chutes that bottom out in sand/gravel and then go right into in uphill with gravel, roots and sometimes wooden pallets. After I took that photo I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if I fell on this section?" Well, I biffed and it was only slightly funny. My front tire stopped at a root and my back tire kept going until I was tipped off....scraping my right shin and forearm and denting my trusty camera. Everything still seems to be in working order.
So I didn't do a second lap and skipped the harder sections. There are some nice hard-packed dirt sections. If I lived closer maybe I'd spend time there and develop the right skills.
On my way back I bought some PC2700 memory for my new motherboard which I haven't chosen yet....leaning towards an Athlon system.
I made another pizza today. This time with a honey whole wheat bread mix. I let the crust rise more after spreading it in the pan and it turned out well, better than the last one, but more rising may be in order.
All I did to enjoy the weather was walk on the beach.
The weather is invigorating....low humidity, moderate temperature, cool breeze. I rode for almost two hours at Rocky Point....could have gone for another hour (?) but the daylight was gone.
I'm listening to an old videotape that is a recording of a radio show from when I listened to such things as the Psychadelic Furs, 10000 Maniacs, Joe Strummer, INXS, Transvision Vamp, the Cure, and OMD:
She sacrifices her body almost every night
Just like a lamb to the slaughter
And she thinks it makes him feel right
Ha ha....this is another videotape that is not making the next move with me.
One more quote from Sarah Vowell's Take the Cannoli:
As a believer in the anyone-can-do-it, all-or-nothing-at-all ethic of punk rock, I think real music's not about technique or virtuosity. It's about believing in what you have to say and wanting to say it so badly that you'll scream your guts out if that's what it takes to get people to listen. That is my theory. Life, it turns out, is a little more Darwinian.
Why do we want strangers to listen? Some people are paid, of course, and others want to influence our society. What of the rest of us? The long time listener, first time caller who triumphs over dozens of busy signals to say why the Mets suck. The scrawler of a trite, indecent graffito. The passerby who demeans the way you look. Maybe Abraham Maslow had this figured out.
I watched Do the Right Thing. It is good, of course. Next up is Chicago.
Racquetball was....hot and sweaty....so satisfying to be so worn out.
The weekend weather looks very good.
I caught and released the frog in the same place as the previous one. It's about a quarter mile from here. This time instead of transporting it in a bucket I used an empty granola bar box.
More photos when my computer is better....
Good luck, frog!
I went to Rocky Point today. It was a little muddy but otherwise just fine. I ran into three people going the wrong way. I didn't literally run into them. I adroitly avoided them by going off the trail and almost falling off my bike. My chain came loose but there was no damage.
There is a frog in my window well. I'm planning another catch-and-release. It looks smaller than the other one.
I thought I heard a frog in my window well but no sightings as of yet.
Tired from hot and sweaty racquetball and still looking for a motherboard....
Another old videotape had snippets from Late Night with David Letterman. Dave interviewed the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert (March 14, 1991). Gene had a good story about interviewing a drunken John Wayne. Gene didn't like the movie New Jack City and the deaths associated with it. Roger said the film has a good message and, unbelievably, said that the same number of people die for every movie. Gene just nailed him for that. Ah....such a pair they were....
Dave interviewed Tom Brokaw (March 21, 1991). This was shortly after the first Gulf War. Brokaw said the Bush administration was determined to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
There was also a mistracking episode of Twin Peaks. I won't say if there were any episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess.
While sorting through some old videotapes I found a tape of four episodes of South Park that I taped over four years ago at my parents' home. My cable company didn't have Comedy Central at the time. I watched all the episodes but I'm not keeping that tape.
I watched Indepedence Day. I tend to forget movies. This is useful when the movies are good because I can enjoy them again. That reasoning does not apply to Independence Day.
Here is part of the pizza that I made earlier in the week.
Number of job applications sent today: 1.
I was outbid for the motherboard.
No racquetball today due to Blackout 2003 so I went to Rocky Point. The weather was warm but not humid so it was fun.
Just after 4 pm the power went out. I was in my apartment futzing with the floppy disk drive on my computer.
During the outage I did some reading and somehow managed a nap.
The power came back here about 10:30 pm....no stargazing tonight.
I am the current high bidder on a motherboard....
The weather was warm and sticky but it's better in the woods so Rocky Point was good for riding. There was not much mud today. Reports said there was a lot of mud three days ago so it has dried well.
The best thing about riding today was the thinking. The physical and scenic parts were good too.
I returned the power supply to the Cutting Edge computer shop. They were quite nice about accepting the return. They suggested getting a new motherboard. Still unsure what the problem is but I'm looking for a Socket 370 FCPGA motherboard or a processor/motherboard combo to upgrade.
This could take awhile. It took me over a month to pick out the motherboard I have now.
I made a pizza using a whole grain rye bread mix. The pizza turned out OK but I may let the next one rise more.
My truck's brakes are good now.
I'm on the second book of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. My Madison sister recommended it. I agree if you enjoy fantasy. I've read that the suggested age level is 11-99.
I got a power supply from a computer shop today and tried that in my computer....no change! My list of suspects is down to memory, processor and motherboard. The computer shop guy said maybe there's a short in the motherboard. I'll see what he suggests when I return the power supply.
My truck is at a repair shop to because it's been slowly leaking brake fluid and, probably related, it's been pulling slightly when braking hard. The rain is bad for biking so it's ok to be truckless.
I watched Being John Malkovich on DVD today. As you probably know, it is excellent. I knew nothing about the plot, which is just the way I like to go into a movie.
My congressman, Tim Bishop, held a town hall meeting tonight. He just asked people to stand and say whatever they wanted. The first person said she had a lot to say but decided to limit herself to just four points. Bishop asked her to choose one and he'd come back to her. She expressed her concern about the erosion of civil liberties and made some good points. He generally agreed with her. Later she asked Bishop to support impeaching President Bush. He does not support that.
People expressed a wide range of common concerns: Medicaid/prescription drugs, affordable housing, how things don't work in Washington, highways, the environment, and the deficit. Of course, there were some other concerns. One guy wanted help because the FBI has been following him for 30 years. Another guy asked if the Iraqi reward money would be paid and where the funds come from.
Early on, he said that a disturbing trend in Washington is to wrap everything in patriotism. Many representatives argued in favor of Bush's tax cuts in order to be patriotic. Later, someone challenged him on why he supported banning flag burning. You can guess his reason: patriotism.
One point Bishop made: the next president will preside over the largest tax increase in US history.
Sigh.
I didn't speak up because (unselfishly) I wanted to let other people go or (selfishly) I enjoyed listening to other people.
The Bulkhead sign reminded me of the sign with directions for buying bananas.
That grocery store has a block of cheese that is larger than your head. Can you spot it in this photo?
Once again, despite the dubious forecast, it was a good day to ride. Rocky Point still had some puddles from yesterday's rain so I switched between the usual trail and the family trail.
During my previous ride I noticed a sign has been added to the trail's newest feature, a fairly steep log and dirt pile on an upslope called the Bulkhead. The sign helpfully advises that riding over the Bulkhead is "more difficult" than riding around it on the side where my bike is leaning. I recommend riding over the Bulkhead.
I went through three shirts during five hot and sweaty racquetball games. It's the humidity!
The Startup.com documentary is a compelling, voyeuristic look at people in the ups and downs an Internet company.
The rain has stayed away these last couple days so Rocky Point was pretty dry and fun. There was a brisk breeze to counteract the humidity and the clouds kept the temps down. I decided against getting a pizza since I was dirty.
No positive progress on my computer, perhaps negative progress. I got a program to test the memory. The program wants to run as a bootable floppy but the floppy (LS120) drive is misbehaving.
I am more suspicious of the power supply given the increase in frequency of crashing.
Warming up in my DVD player: Startup.com
I opened my computer case today, vacuumed out some dust, reconnected a fan, removed and then put back the network card, disconnected and reconnected the second hard drive and.....boo! The problem remains. In Windows it restarts randomly and in Linux it restarts during startup.
Leading suspects are now the memory, processor, motherboard and/or power supply.
Rocky Point was a little wet. I avoided most of the mud by zipping around on the family trail for some of my ride.
The Eastport trail that I rode a few days ago passes by this big anthill, then this one, and this one. Google suggests that these are built by Allegheny mound builder ants.
I was one of those kids that would use a magnifying glass to exterminate ants. When I wrote about that for a grade school paper the teacher said that she had also done that. She was especially animated about the pop.
Today was sort of an errand day. I picked up my restrung racquet and bought a new network card before very hot and sweaty racquetball.
We'll see if the new card keeps my computer from crashing. The weather forecast looks good for indoor projects.
Photos from the laundry today: washer, dryer, same in black and white, and another dryer in black and white.
I guess the old saying is true: "I am easily amused."
