[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
bpi's LiveJournal:
| Monday, December 3rd, 2007 | |
| 2:50 pm | Another Movie! Another break in my long silence? Not for much... ;-) But I do have an extra ticket to see The Golden Compass tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Regal Cinema at Richmond and Wilson Mills at 7:30. Anyone interested? |
| Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 | |
| 2:29 am | Movie and a Dinner He stirs... Livejournal posting and reading dropped off a couple months ago when I kicked my thesis work into gear, and that's probably going to continue until it's done (by Christmas?). But I do have a couple social bits coming soon... ;-) First, my platelet donation habit has netted me two free tickets to a sneak of The Kingdom Wednesday evening (tonight) at the Richmond Lowes. Anyone interested in joining me? And on Monday, I add a twenty-eighth tickmark to the wall. Or something. I'll be partaking in my usual pilgrimage down Mayfield to that little piece of home that is Skyline Chili. I'll plan on being there around 7:00 (maybe earlier when I bother to check their hours). And for now, back to hiding under my rock... Current Mood:  tiredCurrent Music: GlobalNews: 25 Sep PM - BBC World Service |
| Thursday, July 5th, 2007 | |
| 12:09 am | One of the Best Seats in Town I had been pondering going to the Flats to catch the fireworks this evening, but I wound up going out for a run and starting a dinner (chili, 1.5-hour prep time) later than would allow such. Then, as I was starting to do dishes around 9:30, and heard some explosions, I decided to run out and see what I could see. For those who haven't been to my place, there's a parking garage practically right across the street. I decided to take the elevator up to the top deck on the thought that I could have a decent view towards downtown. And then some! There were fireworks being set off all along the eastern Cleveland shoreline, plus several of the suburbs and even from a street just around the corner from me. Admittedly, most were pretty far away, and there were a few taller buildings in the way of some, but it was still almost 360 degrees of fireworks! On an amusing note, one of the other people up there (about a dozen of us) wondered if we were possibly seeing a light show from across the lake. My first thought was "no, that would be too far away." I'm almost ashamed to admit it took me another minute to also realize "oh, wait, their fireworks would have been on Sunday!" Current Mood:  content |
| Sunday, July 1st, 2007 | |
| 6:03 pm | Finish it, already! With huge thanks to Distance: 46.9 miles (since I biked there and back from University Circle) Average speed: 10.8 mph (several long breaks. and as a speed comparison, the average was below 10 mph after the first 35 miles or so) And I now have ( a map! ) * Fun story. The people who were at the front of the pack I was in at this point were getting tired, so when they turned onto Fulton, they got onto the sidewalk. However, they weren't reading the directions, only following the spray-painted arrows on the road. But the arrow to turn left at the next intersection was out in the middle of the road, so they all missed it. I barely caught it, and stopped to check the directions. Other people seemed to disregard me and just kept biking. The kind heart in me decided (once I had confirmed that the arrow was for us) to sprint up and over a bridge to catch up with them. Whee! The only other thing is that, as nice as And on a completely unrelated note, if only my roommates wouldn't kill me for it... Current Mood: happy |
| Friday, June 29th, 2007 | |
| 4:57 pm | Fitty? When I went in this morning to give platelets (as I've been doing every other Friday for the better part of the past few years, with exceptions around my knee surgeries), I got a little curious about how many donations I've made. So, my most recent Red Cross card said I had 34 lifetime donations, plus another eight on the back brings it to 42. I'm pretty sure I had at least eight whole blood donations back at home (through a different agency than ARC, thus not reflected on the card), so I'm past the 50 mark in my bleeding. It's hard to think too much of it, the process has always been too simple for me to get too sentimental, at least for my case. Though these people still have my utmost respect, not to mention this guy. Compared to them, I just go in for the bagels and juice. And cookies, which apparently one of the earlier donors tends to bring in on my Fridays, after my schedule got shifted with the last skiing accident. ;-) I am starting to see it as a bit of a social opportunity, since you really start to recognize faces after a few visits this regularly, though remembering names continues to be a weakness of mine. Anyway, that's about all. Unless you can be talked into it, too. :-) Current Mood:  thoughtful |
| Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 | |
| 3:47 pm | Loaner Bike? Well, as soon as my biking season began, it appears it may be ending... I was out last Friday with a friend and just as we were finishing up, my right pedal slipped off. I haven't given it much thought, but it will probably fall under the category of "not worth repairing." And I don't really want to go out and buy a cheap bike, since I'm hoping to buy a nice one as soon as I get started working... However, I'd still really like to keep my plans for this weekend. Does anyone have a pair of wheels they'd be willing to loan me, that might be adjustable to my size? I'll obviously take good care of it, and will clean it up if necessary afterwards. Current Mood:  hopeful |
| Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 | |
| 5:38 pm | I need Humor This morning, among other things, I listened to an interview with Michael Moore about his new film, Sicko, about the impact health insurance has on health care in this country. I then spent most of the afternoon continuing my attempt to get the rest of my physical therapy from 2005 covered. :-P So, humor: the new street signs are up. They still say E 115 St, in fact, that's still the most-visible name. They also say in tiny, almost illegible text, John Melvin St. "Wait a second, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bryanpi, I thought you said it would be John Malvin Way?" Well, that's what I was told, and that's what UCI's notice said, but apparently, there was some miscommunication along the way... Having done a little research, it appears that the councilman who proposed this may have had the name misspelled in the legislation, which thus carried through to the sign. ;-) Current Mood:  angry |
| Monday, June 18th, 2007 | |
| 4:16 pm | More! More! More! (h/t tygerdsebat)So, now that my biking season has begun, what's next? Well, personally, I'll be trying a trek out east to the Chagrin River tomorrow, but for any potentially weekend wheelers, I'm thinking this trip along the proposed route for the northernmost stretch of the Ohio to Erie trail, the morning of Saturday, 30 June. I'm thinking I'll bike out to Wendy park from my place, but anyone not into the whole on-the-road-by-8:00-on-a-weekend thing can just drive there, or take the bus, or somesuch. Anyone interested in joining me? They list "unpaved paths," but hopefully it's not too rough for my road bike... Current Mood:  excited |
| 1:16 am | Izzat it? Another pretty good weekend, if not quite as productive as I'd like (though slightly moreso than previous weekends, so there's hope...). Friday evening I met with my boss and a former co-worker to catch up with things for a while. Nothing too special, but I may have a lead for at least some temporary employment if I decide I want to go that way. Saturday was the aforementioned bike ride along the towpath. I've missed that stretch of trail. :-) I was alone for the stretch through the Metroparks, which made for a decent warm-up. I got to the CVNP trailhead a little before my companions arrived, so I used the time to rack my brain trying to remember the combination to the small cable lock I keep in my bike's bag for trips like this. In a strange stroke of luck, I finally found the right one and glanced up to see my riding partners pull into the lot. From there we took a moderate pace down to Peninsula, arriving there around 11:40. Note to future self: the Winking Lizard there has long waits to be seated on weekends starting around 11:30. I took advantage of the extra time to grab my 2007 towpath tag and some Clif bars from the bike shop. We kept a pretty similar pace back up to the parking lot, then when I was on my own again, I could up the pace for the last few miles. Unfortunately, some of the bends through the woods in the Metroparks reservation mean that I couldn't really let loose. When I got back to my truck, I noticed a sign across the street that said "Why stop here?" and then some comment about the continuation work of the towpath. Well, why can't they hurry up with it already?!? ;-) Since I had an errand to run anyone and was feeling inspired, I dropped by Steelyard Commons and biked the short stretch there, which was, well, disappointingly short. Oh well, there's a light on the horizon or something. ;-) Also in happy news, my Craigslist lurking has finally paid off, and I have acquired a rather nice set of patio furniture for a very reasonable price! I've already enjoyed being able to kick back and people-watch the neighbors, or just have dinner outside the cave that is our current dining room. Current Mood: happy |
| Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 | |
| 8:56 pm | Biking this Weekend? A couple other friends and I are planning on biking a stretch of the towpath this Saturday, anyone else interested? I'll be doing Harvard to Peninsula and back (about a 35-mile loop) with a lunch break at the Lizard down there, but those who are less ambitious are more than welcome to meet me part-way. And those who are more ambitious, I may even check out some of the other stretches of the Metroparks portion. The plan is to leave from the Harvard Gateway around 10:00 and get to the I-480 bridge by 10:30. Current Mood: hopeful |
| 6:39 pm | Congrats, Scott and Tara! To boost my spirits greatly, last weekend was spent down near Youngstown for my close friend Scott's wedding. It went spectacularly, and it was great to be a part of their happy day, and to hang out with friends both local and in from a distance! Friday, I picked up one of the bridesmaids who had just flown in from Texas and drove down. The rest of the evening was (relatively) relaxed, going through a short rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, and evening entertainment. The latter included a game of Texas Hold 'em where I actually managed to come out on top! (which of course means we were only playing for chips) I ferried Scott out to pick up a bag that had wound up at the wrong hotel, then we all crashed for the night in an attempt to get a near-decent night's sleep. Saturday, the guys took advantage of not having to get their hair done and had a leisurely morning, mostly sitting at the breakfast buffet for a couple hours. ;-) Though there was the near-incident when the ladies returned and we had to keep Scott distracted because he was sitting with a clear view of the front door. We then had a few pictures in the hotel lobby and headed on towards the church. In theory, the guys were getting there at 12:30 so that we might get some pictures taken in advance, but mostly I just took advantage of the 90-minute wait to schmooze with some of the guests who had come in early. The service itself, in spite of it being Catholic, was short and sweet. It helped that it wasn't actually a mass, plus I blinked and almost missed the homily... Now might also be the time to point out that I was in the shorter half of the (six-) groomsmen line! This, of course, made the pairings interesting, because most of the ladies were not so vertically inclined... Pictures and driving around to places to get pictures took up the four hours following, though since it was at least as much of the latter, it wasn't too bad. Our legs were helped by the fact that the first place we went had been closed due to wind damage from a storm the previous night (which surprised most of us, since we scarcely noticed it at the hotel). We did, however, discover that a 14-person wedding party means the limo's champagne doesn't go too far. From there, it was on to the reception. Good food, an open bar, a touch of foolishness (Tara wanted us to do "something goofy" during our introductions... we'll have to see how it turned out), and lots of dancing and reconnecting with friends. Some other noteworthy items... Scott being constantly distracted (his best man kept trying to get him to actually drink his champagne from the toast, and later to eat a piece of cake, but the poor guy couldn't stand still long enough!), I wound up helping hand out tequila shots for the money dance, and a picture of all 16 Theta Chis present (spanning at least a decade of the chapter's history). We were all partied out by the time we got back to the hotel, and promptly crashed (well, okay, my roommate and I did). Took a relaxed time that morning getting packed up and heading out, said our good-byes, and called it one heck of a weekend. Current Mood: happy |
| 5:53 pm | Requiescat in Pace Duncan Lowne As with many, I woke up last Friday to catch the news (mostly through others' LJ updates, in my case). He was a friend of many of my friends, and we crossed paths enough to recognize each other---after his efforts to help organize the original Repair half of Damage, one of my best memories of him was snagging me into a lunch crowd at one of the early Notacons. trygve has set up a slowly-growing memorial page for him. It's been said plenty, but maybe not enough, we've really lost a great guy in Duncan.Thoughts, prayers, and hugs out to Kris and the rest of his family and friends! Current Mood:  sad |
| Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 | |
| 4:10 pm | I recognize that voice... So, I was listening to this week's On The Media, when I heard a familiar voice... Jose Nazario (an acquaintance from back when I was an undergrad, for those who may not know him) had an interview about the recent DDoS attacks against Estonia. Sweet stuff! Current Mood:  determined |
| Monday, May 7th, 2007 | |
| 11:00 pm | Georgia Rule I went to give platelets this past Friday for the first time since surgery. Now, I have even more motivation to go regularly, since apparently there's been a guy who brings in cookies every other Friday, but I was always on the wrong Fridays. ;-) Anyway, while I was there, I got another pair of movie tickets---this time to an advance screening of Georgia Rule on Tuesday (possibly today by the time you're reading this) at 7:30 at the Richmond Loews. Anyone want to join me? Current Mood: tired |
| Monday, April 30th, 2007 | |
| 3:18 pm | Knee Progress and an Invite </ delurk> To provide a little bit of an update on things, two weeks ago was a good one for my knee recovery. First, my doctor told me I can do without the crutches! He still wants me to wear the brace most of the time, but hinted that will probably be lifted when I go back mid-May. Second, at therapy, I hopped on a stationary bike and, after weeks of trying, I was finally able to get the pedals to go all the way around! To celebrate, I got the therapist's approval to use my non-stationary bike again. ;-) I'll probably be making a ride Wednesday evening from University Circle out MLK and the lakefront. Company is welcome, of course! Current Mood: hopeful |
| Saturday, March 17th, 2007 | |
| 11:41 pm | St. Patty's Day Today went pretty well for me. I read at mass (for the first time since Labor Day, thanks to a freak string of coincidence between my travel schedule and my lector schedule), then had some friends over for a late dinner of Shepherd's Pie and some drinks. Tasty. Though, to add my bit of weirdness, my day was nothing at all like the St. Patrick's Day that the Irish Cricket Team had. ;-) Current Mood: content |
| Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 | |
| 6:46 pm | Alive, if not Kickin' So, knee surgery finally happened yesterday. Apparently there was some unexpected meniscus damage they found while they were repairing the ACL, because my two-hour operation wound up taking almost four. After a somewhat miserable night last night, I'm doing somewhat better today, though I had forgotten just how obnoxious this full-leg brace is. Here's to hoping the drugs hold up. ;-) Current Mood:  sore |
| Thursday, January 18th, 2007 | |
| 2:15 pm | Ooh! I did it again! I don't have bowling scores to report from yesterday. Instead, I bring you this summary of the past couple of weeks: As I had mentioned, I wound up taking the Greyhound to Illinois and back (my brothers and I then drove out to Vail, CO). An interesting note is that major Greyhound stations tend to have TVs tuned to CNN or CNN Headline News. While at the Cleveland station on the way out, talking about something going on in Palestine, they went to one of these "man in the street" interviews to get the Palestinian perspective. I was amused that he was wearing a black sweatshirt with orange letters from a Latin alphabet on it. Specifically, A, L, A, B, A, M, and A. Roll Tide? While waiting at my layover in Columbus, I was also amused to discover that "Cricket Australia completes 5-0 Ashes Whitewash" made the sports ticker. As if I needed that reminder... :-P The driving portion went pretty well for the first part. Unfortunately, of all things, the worst stretch was in Colorado, EAST of Denver. The snow had been cleared off the highway, but many stretches were just a sheet of ice. Countless vehicles on the side or in the median, including at least two tractor-trailers and a trailer home that had its wheels to the sky. Total drive out took about 20 hours, and we quickly got to securing our rentals and groceries Saturday evening while we still had some consciousness left to us. I was about to pull my computer out and check on the rest of the world, when it occurred to me that I had packed only packed my laptop. Not my power adapter, and not my wireless card. D'oh, silly me getting a new backpack for Christmas and not learning to pack it right... Sunday morning we caught the early bus to grab our tickets, and I was just stepping out of the booth when the lifts started running. Bonus! I spent the day on easy slopes (especially taking advantage of one chair that's only open on weekends). I began to think that since, to some extent, I have to re-learn every year, it may be a good thing---I can toss out the bad habits and focus straight on the suggestions my father gave me, and watching other skiers. I decided to end the day early---got off the slopes a little after 2:00---to catch church in town. Monday, we were treated with something that became the standard for the week: no new overnight snow. It was somewhat depressing as the week went on, but we still managed to have fun. I grew much more comfortable, and wound up cruising around most of the north face of the mountain (though still sticking to groomed runs of the "easiest" and "more difficult" variety). I wound up quite exhausted, and skied out about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned. Must get in better shape for next time... Tuesday was my day off. I spent the morning doing some reading and watching The WWII^W History Channel. The afternoon was spent wandering around Vail with the camera, we'll have to see when those pictures get developed... Wednesday had me back on the slopes. Since I was well-rested, after warming myself up on the easy stuff in the morning I headed out to the back bowls (Vail's South face) and Blue Sky Basin (the next mountain South), since there were supposedly groomed trails of my ability there. Dayum. I had always known Vail was big, but after having made it back there, I realized just how HUGE the place is. You stop at an edge to catch your breath mid-run and look around. You may see a dozen other skiers (out of hundreds if not thousands there for the day), and maybe one or two lifts (out of seven back there). Toss in that it was under a sunny sky, and it was breathtakingly beautiful. I skied out at the end of the day, tired and exhilarated, in spite of the fact that I was starting to find some bare spots. That night, we noticed that snow was finally expected to hit Vail Thursday evening, after we were done skiing. And it was supposed to come in hard. We bumped our plans around a bit and decided we would drive out shortly after we got off the mountain the next day. So we did as much cleaning as we could, and Kevin (who had already skied his four days) would finish while Mark and I were out. Things started out much the same as the day before. I skied around the the front side for the morning, then spent most of the mid-day in the back again. It was just as awe-inspiring as the day before. I decided I'd wrap up the day back on the front, since I was getting a little tired and wanted to catch a bit earlier bus so I could clean up before piling in the CR-V. So, with barely two hours of snow time left for me, I make a run on the East side of the mountain. I get going a little faster than I'd like on the slope, losing control a bit. No problem, it's going to flatten out in a bit, I'll slow down there. But then, that winds up being mostly ice. I lean a bit harder, trying to dig my edge in. Then things go flying. I'm not entirely sure what happened, because it happened fast. I don't recall as much twisting as two years prior, and there was definitely much more pain. All I do know is that wound up on my side, one ski had popped off, and my right leg hurt like hell. Any attempt to move it, even slightly, resulted in so much pain, I knew I wouldn't be getting off the mountain by myself. Talking with ski patrol before they hauled me off the mountain (thankfully, not behind a snowmobile this time), I discovered that the fact that I was in pain was probably a good thing---that meant there was still something there to feel pain, as opposed to my adventure with the left knee when I had no pain once I was on the ground. The ER routine was much the same as the last time, though I was intrigued that apparently most of the injuries that day had involved broken bones (the doctor said I had been the first in some time without one). The diagnosis wound up being a probably-strained MCL, and a possibly torn ACL. And the guys in rehab weren't very optimistic about that "possibly." Well, bother. But we still managed to get things together enough to make it out of town at a decent hour, and we managed to stay ahead of the snow until we were about 30--45 minutes out of Denver. The drive was obviously much less comfortable in my situation, and I also wasn't able to be good about my exercises. But I survived, and had plenty of time to relax and get into routine Friday evening when I stayed with one of my brothers. The bus trip back to Cleveland started relatively uneventfully. I slept a little bit and got plenty of reading done. Even survived the 150-minute layover in Chicago without too much trouble. The only interesting thing was the US Border Patrol raid of the bus when we hit Toledo. There were actually three people taken off, including an Indonesian the seat in front of me who had apparently let his visa expire... And not that anything about this process made me feel any more secure. :-P Other than that, I've obviously made it back home. I'm doing well with my exercises at the moment, but I'm afraid about how little range of motion I have in the knee (less than 90 degrees). I see a campus doctor tomorrow to get a referral, since I've decided I'd rather go through treatment up here this time. I took the truck out for a second opinion, and I'm thinking I may just have it repaired. I'm also talking with work about me coming in on an as-needed basis to run my usual tests, so if anyone's interested in earning some easy money on evenings or weekends, I can still help you out. ;-) And Sci Fi Marathon starts in a little over 24 hours! |
| Friday, January 12th, 2007 | |
| 3:02 pm | |
| Friday, January 5th, 2007 | |
| 1:30 am | The Truck is Dead, Long Live the Truck! First, since this sort of thing deserves to be first, if you haven't been following the national news of late, this man (or a more permanent link) is my hero. On to more me-related news, I dropped the truck off with the mechanic this week after losing a quart of oil over the past six weeks. After conversing with a friend, I was hoping the problem was that the oil pan was rusted, because that was probably the easiest problem to fix. I also asked them to look at the brakes, since I had heard them behaving oddly once or twice. This morning I find out that the oil problem was indeed a rusted pan. But Ford, after making almost everything else on this truck reasonably maintainable, puts the oil pan in such a place that the entire engine block needs to be moved out of the way to remove it. With an estimate of over six hours of labor, plus parts, it wouldn't be pretty. The brakes were also another big problem: the hydraulic fluid was leaking onto the brake pads on the rear wheels. While they were looking at the brakes back there, they also noticed that the ball bearings were so shot that the suggested maintenance on the form simply read "NEEDS WORK NOT SAFE FOR ROAD" (and added about $400 for parts and labor). And then, just for icing on the cake, the serpentine belt was worn to the point of needing replacement. Total estimated damages: $1900. Drifting over to Edmunds and generously saying that the car would be in their "Medium" condition category after the repair was done, resale value was about $1500. Obviously, this fine vehicle has reached the end of its life. So I am currently pondering the "what next" phase. In the immediate future, I just have to take the Greyhound on my trip to go skiing with my brothers instead of driving out. From there, I'm seriously pondering trying out the whole living in Cleveland without a car thing. I may also be signing up for CityWheels to cover some of the needs, as well. Current Mood: ambivalent |