March 2010 – Page 2 – Lunar Obverse

I’m kind of in love with Simon Singh

atheism

Why haven’t I ever heard of this man before? He dramatically demonstrates how an expectation can create a false signal from something that’s nothing but noise.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bG7EFhMw8w&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

This demonstrates why it’s so important to have tools, objective and rational, that can be used to separate out actual signals from the noise that surrounds us.

If you expect there to be an invisible sky man, then you will see an invisible sky man, in spite of the mountains of positive evidence against ISM’s existence.

Cherry Bomb

General

Hollywood is so out of ideas they’re remaking music videos.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNC5ktLBAGk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

I’m astonished at two facts about The Runaways biopic:

Although it seems odd that the role of Cherie Curry is being played by 16-year-old Dakota Fanning, that’s the correct age for when Cherie auditioned for the band. If anything, Dakota is a year too old.
But Kristen Stewart does not a Joan Jett make, in my head and without having seen the movie yet.

Of course, I’ll see the movie.And this song is practically Stormy’s theme song.

Who is Newton?

General

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adeWcAyxU4M&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

Mmmm… Newton.

Video game memories

General

Wil Wheaton has reminisced about video games, and why not? And it’s prompted me to remember old video games, too.

Asteroids Deluxe, the short cabinet version, Elevator Action, and several others will always remind me of the 7-11 at Park Ave. Kevin and I would play that damned Elevator Action for hours.
Dragon’s Lair will forever be associated with Kellogg Bowl in Milwaukie, OR. I remember Terry putting quarter after quarter into it, while I stood around and watched, until he got to the end one night. He had done it before, and wanted to show me that at the very end (Spoiler Alert!), when the knight killed the dragon and rescued the princess, his helmet came off and he looked like our friend Andy.
There was a video game that involved landing on a planet that was only found at Kah-Nee-Tah in eastern Oregon; it was a black and white vector graphics game in a primitive cabinet. I can’t remember the name but I have a vague feeling it wasn’t Lunar Lander, though it may have been. I played it once during one brief glorious road trip, with Amy and Terry.
I and others from high school would play Battlezone, the tall cabinet version, at the Kienow’s in downtown Milwaukie, a store no longer there. Steve Kilgore was the best at that game. Kilgore was also the best I’d ever seen at regular ol’ Asteroids; he demonstrated the trick of saving one small asteroid, then flying up constantly and waiting for the saucers to come out, picking them off one by one.
I know there were games at the bowling alley in Gresham where mom and dad and Donna and Gary would play, but I can’t remember what they were.
And the sit-down versions of Pole Position and Red Baron, and several others remind me only of the arcade at Clackamas Town Center. I can still hear the sounds of that arcade, and feel the excitement of knowing all that entertainment was waiting for me. I can hear the jingle of exchanging quarters for tokens, see the specific brass color of them, and feel the groove in one side of the tokens that made sure you could only put the token into the slot one direction. I remember the red-headed guy who worked there, then moved next door to the hamburger place after a while, and spending hours talking to him. I worked in that mall, at a small game store that sold, among other things, Dungeons & Dragons books and dice, for six long years, and spent years there prior to getting a job, and the arcade was a favorite hangout. I could write a week of blog posts about all the silly things I did or saw there.

You?

Running

exercise

Nine days ago I participated in the Running With The Wolves 5K, and I ran the fastest I’ve run in months: 5K in 0:30:17, for an average pace of 9:44 per mile.

The day was perfect: not too cold, sunny, no rain. There were very few people on the course; only 81 finishers total. But it was fun, and I am glad I did it.

Then I didn’t run until tonight.

I had a mildly-injured foot, a bruise or something on the ball of my left foot. Other than that, I really have no excuse. Maybe I needed the break, and maybe I just failed to motivate.

Mrs. McGinnis, my sophomore high school English teacher, once told me, “If anyone learns how to motivate you, you’ll be an unstoppable force for good!” She meant it kindly, I suppose; generally I liked her. But that fear of motivation has haunted me for over 20 years. To this day, I don’t know what motivates me.

I run because I want to be faster, although realistically I’m too old to ever be considered a fast runner. I run because I want to be thinner, and then I wipe out any gains from exercising with a single donut. I run because I want to meet other runners, and then I just run, solo, through my neighborhood and never join running groups. It’s like I’m working at cross purposes to myself.

The inner workings of my mind are as impenetrable as, well, other people’s minds.

But I ran tonight; I ran 15 minutes at 6 MPH, and then switched to run/walking, with about a minute break every half-mile. I finished 3 miles in 0:31:28 total.

My plan is to run again on Thursday. I’ll be sure to update if it happens.