The bright side of a Moon
The average human gets 400 miles per gallon.
So claims this guy.
He figured out how much energy is in a gallon of gas, and then figured out how much energy a human gets and did the conversion and math and stuff and it came out to 400 MPG at 3 miles per hour.
Now that’s some serious blogging. I’m just posting random stuff I make up off the top of my head, or conversations I’ve had. No way I’m gonna do math just for a blog post.
Just to clarify: I’m not actually in Vegas this week. I had to give some notice. I’ll be on vacation the first week in July.
And… I’ve been mulling over a different idea for my vacation, but I don’t want to commit to it in public just yet.
Nothin’ says “summertime is here” like planning a road trip to Vegas.
Where by “planning” I mean telling the boss I’m not coming in for a week, renting a car, grabbing the gold card, and driving south.
Cross-posted from my running blog.
The official results for the Mt. Tabor Challenge 5K are posted.
My official time was 27:59, for a 9:02 average pace. Not my best time, but a solid second-best time.
I will always think of him has being from New Jersey. My dad has objected to this in the past. “I’ve lived in Oregon for over 40 years!” he said once, “doesn’t that make me an Oregonian?”
Nope. Sorry, dad. You’re from Jersey. Oregonians are born, not made. I don’t make the rules here.
But you will always be my dad.
Oh, and thanks again for the bike! I’m sure you won’t want it back… now.
And now I have to get dressed to ride my (dad’s) bike to meet the rest of the family (including dad) for brunch. And ice cream cake. Oh, ice cream cake how I’ve dreamed about you all week! At least since talking my sister into getting one for Father’s Day, at least since then! Whoever thought to combine ice cream + cake is a frickin’ genius. Sure, lots of people serve ice cream and cake together. But think of the time you save having to only serve one item that has both ice cream and cake in it! So delicious.
…I’m sorry, what? Oh, right, Happy Father’s Day!
Cross-posted from my running blog.
Late last week I signed up for the Mt. Tabor Challenge 5K. I’ve done that race a couple of times before. Last year I signed up but didn’t actually run it – there was a death in the family the night before; I wasn’t up to running that morning. The year before I ran it but got lost on the course (following two women who were also lost). So, really, I’ve only completed the race once before.
This year, because I’m getting into biking, I decided to ride my bike to and from the race, instead of getting a FlexCar. Google Maps told me it was 6.4 miles driving distance one way. This morning I left the house at about 8:20 AM on the bike. I wore my trail shoes to bike in, and brought along my trusty Brooks running shoes. It was fun biking, even though it was mainly uphill all the way there, and I had to stop and walk a bit twice. But I got to the race in plenty of time to get my bib number and get situated for the 5K.
I wasn’t planning anything for the run; just do the best I could. The first two miles, mostly downhill, I ran fairly fast (~8:45 pace) but had to walk briefly on the final mile. I finished in under 28:00, I think – forgot to stop my watch and didn’t see the clock because I was running hard at the finish. That would give me about a 9:00 pace overall, which is fine.
Maybe I could have done better if I hadn’t biked 6+ miles first? Just kidding. That probably helped me warm up.
I’ll post the official results when they come online.
Vanishingly few worthwhile conversations begin, “Here, smell this.”
In response to people “reserving” their parade viewing spots early, the lovable activists at The Mercury are apparently going to be spending their Friday night ripping up tape, washing off chalk, and hauling away chairs downtown.
The popo PIO has said that, as long as there’s no fighting, they don’t have a dog in the fight.
I might join them… that sounds fun!
I used to think that the tradition of marking off sections of sidewalk with tape and chalk (and sometimes chairs and cones or even barrier tape) was cute.
This year, I’m having a little trouble seeing it that way.
Portland City Council passed what’s called a “sit/lie” ordinance that declares people who block the sidewalk persona non grata, and lets the police round ’em up and ship ’em off to jail. Portland’s tried this before and when it gets challenged in courts, the courts say it’s unconstitutional since the measures that get passed (last time, through some back-door shenanigans rather than a straight-up vote) are drawn broadly enough to impact our basic rights of assembly and free speech. The last such ordinance was used to arrest Iraq war protesters, for example. All in the name of “livability” of course.
The driving force behind the “need” for a way to round up the undesirables is largely seen as the being the Portland Business Alliance, a trade group of business owners. And sure enough, another sit/lie ordinance was pushed through city council this year just in time for enforcement during Rose Festival. But this time, City Commissioner Randy Leonard is registering his objections.
See, this year, the sit/lie law was tied to some concessions that were aimed at giving the homeless a day center, with lockers and showers, installing some public restrooms downtown, and providing benches outdoors for people to sit in (hopefully away from the shopping district so as not to scare away the paying customers, I’m sure). Homeless advocates kept up pressure on the city council until that was put into place.
But even though enforcement of the sit/lie law is going to start next week, during the Rose Festival, when tourists flock to our fair city and drop loads of cash… there ain’t no day centers, there ain’t no public restrooms, there ain’t no showers. OK, we got some benches. Big whoop-de-do.
I’m sorry, but the image of the PoPo sweeping up the undesirables in order to make room for the tender eyes of the paying suburbanites who lay down their tape and chalk on our public sidewalks just angers me this year. I used to buy into the image of Portland as a friendly, happy, progressive place, but I’m increasingly seeing the authoritarianism and disregard for civil rights that lies just under the surface, and no, sir or madam, I don’t like it.
How do the parade-viewers see themselves? You’re not gonna believe this. They’re protecting themselves from the “selfish” people! From a story in the Trib:
Yvonne Moore of Portland was out this week marking her spot with sidewalk chalk along Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
“It’s not greedy,” Moore said. “You want to be able to enjoy the parade, but a lot of times you come [and] some of those selfish people that don’t get out here and mark their spaces want to be in your spot, which is not nice.”
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh… It’s the people who have the nerve to show up on the day of the parade and want to stand near the fearful shoppers who are “selfish”. How fuckin’ rude of them!
You go, Randy Leonard.
Cute barista, dressed in black with her green apron, reddish brown hair, blue eyes behind sexy librarian glasses, responding to the question “How was your day?” by describing her bike accident. Startled by a dog, collision with a tree. She turns half away, looking over her shoulder at us, and points to the tears in her shirt, starting on her back, left side, and continuing down towards her butt and thigh. “I’ve got road-rash-by-way-of-tree-bark all along here,” she says, gesturing. “And I tore my shirt.”
Tracy thinks, “That poor girl! Ouch! And then she has to work, too? That sucks!. I wonder if Brian notices how cute she is? Wait, he’s male. Duh.”
Me: “When she poses like that… I am totally picturing her naked…”
