Mad scientist look is in

I suppose I can part with one doomsday device and still be feared . . .

For trimming

And extreme yard work . . .

Endgame

Got a Rise Against album with the quote below on the artwork for Xmas.

Awesome!

Running goal met

Of course

Dead stop on the beltway at 5 am.

Can't wait to leave this area!!!

And my dreams just grew back to normal size

I have to hand it to Carbon Leaf. Blue Ridge Laughing just popped on Pandora.

"I am unearthed and no longer scared. I am unearthed and no longer care."

If you had your life to live over, what would you choose to be? If the answer is anything but yourself, it's time to make a change. The thing of it is, our society forces you to build a lot of inertia at a young age. Before you even know who you are you are being groomed for a career. Sorry kid, you chose poorly, now sit at a desk in a job you hate for 30 years and see where that gets you. That is, if you are lucky enough to live that long.

It certainly doesn't help that these jobs we hate pay so damn well. No wonder innovation has stifle in this country. It's so easy to sit an collect a check. There's too much risk in taking the chance to try and find something you love, or if not quite finding that extreme, then at least something you don't hate.

People are so afraid of failure they sacrifice their lived to the status quo. Keeping silent or locked within any questions, convincing themselves either through false logic or chemistry that it's all OK.

As for me, I am beginning to feel an ever-increasing need to find something different. I fear for my sanity if I fail to keep searching for new lines of inspiration that can keep my focus. To stop moving is to become the dead weight you see wandering the hallways, as if zombified by a meaningless existence. I am not willing to accept such a fate.

The problem with total sobriety is that truth begins to unflinchingly stare you in the face. If this is what 75 days of not drinking can do, I can't wait to experience 365. Maybe by them I will have stopped treating water and started swimming.

Arrrrrr arrrrrr arrrrrr

It's good to have the right tool for the job.

Interesting sky

Had to take a picture on the way home from work.

Zing of the day!

Quote of the day on GameStop for the upcoming release of Assassin's Creed, Revelations:

"Why couldn't they release this game before a three day weekend? Instead they release it on a Tuesday. They really need to plan ahead so us gamers can enjoy the game better with less interruptions i.e. work. Just my opinion."

I can see the capital from here

The only thing that would make this sight complete is industrial waste spewing from the smokestacks

Good!

From BBC news this evening:

"The global economy is on the verge of a new and deeper jobs recession that may ignite social unrest, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned."

Here's to hoping!

Text of the day (censored)

"Snow here tomorrow. That's right, f!$&ing snow on halloween. When the f$&@ do you remember that sh&$ happening?"

First Carneal Sprint Tri

Completed today:

1/4 mile swim: 8:01
13.5 mile bike (Garret Park to Lake Needwood and back on rock creek trail): 1:07:43
3.1 mile run: 29:54

Total time 1:45:37

The swim was 30 seconds faster than any of my previous times, thanks to a new breath cycle I worked out the other day (alternating sides in the first 25 of each lap, then same side on the return length, switching sides halfway).

The bike was way more hilly than expected, particularly between Garret park and Viers mill Rd. Also, I finally broke my crank on this ride. I was able to limp to the finish line with a precariously loose left crank, which will need repair before any more rides. I actually stripped the socket on the crank, damn hills! Thinking of a steel bottom bracket and crank to replace the aluminum ones I have. More weight = harder training, right?

The run was easier than expected, but being the first attempt all in a row I decided to take it slow. I can work on speed later, though I have never really been big on speed.

Next goal: Olympic length (1/2 mile swim, 26 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). Probably won't attempt that for a while, at least not until I get to my goal weight. For now, I will just do a sprint Tri every other week, with long bike and long run on the off week.

I think I'll stay where I am

There's Mac an cheese in the oven anyway

Need a recurve bow

Good blink

Tempted to take work off tomorrow and Occupy DC

The random shuffle is in a strange mood tonight, blink asthenia:

"Last night it came as a picture
With a good reason, a warning sign
This place is void of all passion
If you can imagine it's easy if you try
Believe me I failed this effort
I wrote a reminder this wasn't a vision
This time where are you Houston
Is somebody out there will somebody listen"

I like it.  Then on to LP:

"God save us everyone will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns for the sinsof our hand, sins of our tongue, sins of our father, sins of our young . . ."

And amazingly, followed by genesis in land of confusion:

"I must've dreamed a thousand dreams

Been haunted by a million screams
I can hear the marching feet
They're moving into the street

Now did you read the news today
They say the danger's gone away
But I can see the fire's still alight
Burning into the night

There's too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And there's not much love to go round
Can't you see this is the land of confusion

Oh Superman where are you now
Everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, men of power
Are losing control by the hour

I won't be coming home tonight
My generation will put it right
We're not just making promises
That we know, we'll never keep

This is the world we live in
These are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make is a place worth fighting for"

Whew, awesome music night.  Particularly when the world seems to be coming apart at the seems.

But man, it's trying to depress me at the end with changeless by carbon leaf:

"Call my friends to share some wine

To share some laughs, and last goodbyes
My photographs of these years
Will make me laugh through the tears

What are the odds, what are the odds?
This ends and we don't meet again
What are the odds, What are the odds?
That I will miss your smile"

Need to go to bed now.  I dare not let it pick more.

Carneal sprint triathlon

Going to start doing this every other Friday beginning on October 21, 2011.

Pullup time!!!!!

Let's go!

6 days down, going on 7

The first circle is the decision point for:
"Should I stay or should I go now . . ."

Letting NY know

It's number one in my book

The story of NY

Overall the trip was a drunken debacle, at least from the perspective of a sober spectator. The reason I am sober is that a key element of "pain to the world" is the elimination of alcohol from my diet. I gotta say, after witnessing the destructive power of alcohol in a magnitude, if not rarely, then seldom seen in the Orifici family, it was honestly easier to not drink than I thought it would be.

This weekend was like the perfect storm for drunken debauchery. Throw the wedding of the last kid in with a mix of new jobs, mounting stress at work, and trips to a location that does not have a wholesome effect on the human psyche. Add the key ingredient of endemic alcoholism, and you have a recipe for finding several people's organs turning into buoys swimming on a sea of gin. Or vodka. Or bourbon. Or all of the above.

The first night involved an ill advised trip to a trendy rooftop bar with the apparently exclusive goal of obliteration, resulting in epic drunken stumbles, a walk of drunken shame, and severe hangovers that lasted well into the next morning. I won't get into the details but in general it was out of control. Admittedly, I did not witness these events firsthand, as I had no suitable clothes to go out in and was safely holed up in the hotel room. All reports i received were second hand from the front or after the fact. Suffice it to say that I did witness the consumption rate at the evening get together before said drinking extravaganza, and that consumption rate would likely be sufficient to hospitalize me. The sum total dose for several members of the family over the course of the evening would mean certain death if I were to ingest it.

The second night turned out to be more mild, but a few cases of overindulgence did occur, whether they be related to expenditures or consumption. Having no interest in drinking or the japanese art of karaoke, I had spent my night searching for good food in solitude, and alas finding none retreated back to the hotel to exercise, relax, and await the impending mayhem. Again, I only saw the back end as people stumbled back to the hotel one by one and speaking in strange tongues or scarfing pizza. Some reportedly or simply disappeared without a trace. Some, after abandoning fallen comrades or other encumbrances, re-emerged to the streets of NY in search of more booze to slake their insatiable thirst.

Now all is done and only tomorrow remains in this accursed place. All parties have returned, worse for the wear but thankfully no acute casualties. I now find myself typing this while listening to deep, cyclic drunken snores and thankful that I reminded Katy to bring my earplugs, else there would be no sleep in store for me tonight.

Unfortunately we are not leaving this hellhole until tomorrow evening. Maybe that will give me enough time to find a shirt that sums it up: I h8 NY.

Enjoying myself

Darcy style

Desperate times = desperate measures

Am compiling a new fitness / nutrition program to push me the last 10 lbs to my goal.  My current recipe needs revision since I start a new job at a decidedly more unhealthy work environment. 

Hopefully it will get me another 20 lbs, down to 215 and ripped.  We'll see.  Going to call the new plan "Pain to the World" after the title of an anime episode Katy and I like. \

This is going to be fun.

Found this pic

Of Schwartz's tree the other week

Guess what you're accessory to

Be warned Pepco

You've messed with the wrong hombre

Let's not forget the earthquake

Lots of small aftershocks.  More than 15 so far.  Strangely active for this area . . . .

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/37.39.-79.-77_eqs.php

 

 

Meatball Mania

10 lbs of meatballs - yum.

When all was said and done the pot on the left was brimming with my delicious balls.

Understatement

Progress so far.  Almost at my year goal for biking already.  Maybe I'll up the biking goal to 2000 miles for 2011 . . .

Coming soon to a naval lab near you

Time

Ever wonder if you were born at exactly the wrong time in history?

We grew up just in time to ride the wave of America's lost decade, which may turn out to be America's lost century. You look at the riots in Europe, the famine in Africa, and you wonder when it will hit here. Not too long if the dust bowl returns. All the steers in Texas are dying from the drought already.

Human history is an endless waltz of war, peace, and revolution. It certainly seems we are destined to take another turn if things keep getting worse. Our inept leaders are incapable of solving the simplest of problems. They will at some point be forced to cut programs that will most likely benefit the poor and middle class. After all, they won't bite the opulent hands that feed them. How much will average Americans endure before they fight back?

This is the scary part. You might not like what comes out on the other side. We always associate despotism, whether military or religious, with countries overseas. But upon careful introspection, one can see that the direction our social and economic system is heading is at best akin the fall of Rome, at worst reminiscent of the early stages of the Rise of the Third Reich.

Reason has been shunned in our society. In its place we have supplanted blind faith and sound bites. Hard right and far left. Idiocracy. A culture in which the education is so inferior, people are susceptible and encouraged to believe things that are absolutely ludicrous and at many times fundamentally contradictory. What hope can a modern culture have when opinion trumps science? When leaders are still able to invoke divine right as if we lived in the middle ages? Perhaps such a society does not deserve to exist. In all likelihood, this massive, endemic case of ignorance will lead to it's own downfall.

Who knows when it will collapse? A month, a year? My bet is on a decade or so. I wonder what the Vegas odds are on that.

I suppose it could be worse. I could be younger.

Quotes from tonight:

I can't do it anymore. Its like when I caught my balls on the screen door. I just can't do it anymore.

Pretty much everything is worse than music if you're judging by chuck talking.

Can you feel me up too?

I'm going to get Wookie and bang him.

Do you like ribs? Do you like ribs? Do you like ribs? DO YOU LIKE RIBS?!?

Everything burns

Don't breathe the air . . .

Don't breathe the air . . .

There's pollution in the air . . . Code red!

I suppose the heat is just another completely random event, right? Or is it that pesky La Nina again? At least that is what the news and weather man will tell you.

I guess they don't want to sacrifice ratings being downers and telling you the game is over, we had our fun, and now we have to pay the price. The planet's slow death is now our theater, albeit with locked doors so you can't get out, the AC is broken, and it's 115 degrees.

Sent from my iPad

Tonshio Ramen

With pork, egg, corn, and seaweed. Delicious. Happy birthday tummy

On the home stretch

7.5 lbs to go to my goal of 225 lbs, losing on average ~2 lbs a week except for on vacation, when I only lost 1.5, so about a month to go.  Will have lost 10% of my body mass, and will be at my grad school weight. 

 

After that, we'll see about a run for 200 lbs.  Might as well keep going if the trend continues.

Alexander Hamilton the Great

Katy found some great quotes from Alexander Hamilton in her book on his life by Ron Chernow:

"Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep in their composition . . . I hate Congress, I hate the Army, I hate the world, I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves."

"Over time, the inflation has acquired a self-reinforcing momentum. Economic fundamentals alone could not account for this inflation, detecting a critical psychological factor at work. People were governed more by passion and prejudice than by an enlightened sense of their interests . . . this misfortune affects me less than others, because it is not in my temper to repine at evils that are past but to endeavor to draw good out of them and because I think our safety depends on a total change of system and this change of system will only be produced by misfortune."

Don't know much about him but I like him already. Guess things haven't changed much since this country was founded after all! Even with all our technological advances, we're still just dumb monkeys.

Bettica before and after

shows the back yard before and after 3 tons of mulch. 2.5 tons in the back and a lot of trimming.

current conundrum: two paths

Have an offer from the Navy and need to decide what to do. Looked online for some descriptions of Catch-22-like situations. Found some great ones relevant to my current conundrum:

Definition of conundrum: 1. A confusing and difficult problem or question. 2. A question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer; a riddle.

Cornelian (Carnealian?) dilemma: a dilemma in which someone is obliged to choose between two courses of action either of which will have a detrimental effect on himself or herself or on someone near to him or her. In classical drama, this will typically involve the protagonist's experiencing an inner conflict which forces him to choose between love and honor or inclination and duty.

Sophie's choice: a choice between two persons or things that will result in the death or destruction of the person or thing not chosen

Hobson's choice is one between something or nothing.

Morton's Fork: a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives, or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion.

I have to say my current situation seems to be a Morton's fork. At this point, I don't think it matters at all what I do, it's all the same.

Driftwood

This root was buried on the beach at la Push. The tip of the tree was protruding from the beach 100 feet away. Awesome.

Dogs beware

The wrath of Bettica

Progress to Date

Added a biking commute (14 miles round trip) on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  Trying to make 78 miles of biking this week.  Looks like I'll reach the biking goal with ease.  Still pounding out 13 miles a week running.  I've also added swimming on Fridays in case a sprint triathlon comes up.

 

Weight progress:  14 lbs lost since December (5 in the last two weeks), 14 more to go to target weight!

Sign of a good party

Anytime I leave my knife buried like a hatchet in the deck signals a good end to a party

'Nuff said

Need to start a demotivator line . . .

Rapid expansion

Added a third raised garden for the 72 plants sprouting on our kitchen table.

Saddle Up for Rome Round II

Sound familiar in every way?

"In contrast with the declining empire theories, historians such as Arnold J. Toynbee and James Burke argue that the Roman Empire itself was a rotten system from its inception, and that the entire Imperial era was one of steady decay of institutions founded in Republican times. In their view, the Empire could never have lasted longer than it did without radical reforms that no Emperor could implement. The Romans had no budgetary system and thus wasted whatever resources they had available. The economy of the Empire was a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. The Empire relied on booty from conquered territories (this source of revenue ending, of course, with the end of Roman territorial expansion) or on a pattern of tax collection that drove small-scale farmers into destitution (and onto a dole that required even more exactions upon those who could not escape taxation), or into dependency upon a landed élite exempt from taxation. With the cessation of tribute from conquered territories, the full cost of their military machine had to be borne by the citizenry.

An economy based upon slave labor precluded a middle class with buying power.  The Roman Empire produced few exportable goods. Material innovation, whether through entrepreneurialism or technological advancement, all but ended long before the final dissolution of the Empire. Meanwhile the costs of military defense and the pomp of Emperors continued. Financial needs continued to increase, but the means of meeting them steadily eroded. In the end due to economic failure, even the armor of soldiers deteriorated and the weaponry of soldiers became so obsolete that the enemies of the Empire had better armor and weapons as well as larger forces. The decrepit social order offered so little to its subjects that many saw the barbarian invasion as liberation from onerous obligations to the ruling class."

Taken from here.  Was searching the decline of the Roman Empire since it seems more and more relevant every day. The article also had some theories on inflation and a theory of general malaise that were spot on.  My favorite line above is "the empire could never have lasted longer than it did without radical reforms that no Emperor could implement."  Sounds like every news program these days.  Touche, history.

I also love the last line.  You know, staring down a cubicle destiny at the end of which there is absolutely no reason to hope for a comfortable retirement, complete social and economic collapse doesn't sound all that bad.  At least then I won't have to pay my mortgage.

However, Rome took a good while to flame out, and I've always wondered what would happen in a total collapse.  So I suppose I have a request for the "leaders" of this country.  Keep up the good work!  If there's any way to do less, be my guest!   I know it's doubtful your performance could sink lower than present levels, but I have utmost faith in your total and complete incompetence.

Of course, you could try and turn this thing around.  That'd be dandy too.  But we all know you won't. 

If Trump changes his name to Romulus Augustus, I'm in.  Augustus 2012.

Ace of Spades . . . Iced

Good riddance.

However, it begs the question why we went into Afghanistan when his demise was ultimately accomplished by a small special forces raid on a compound.

The south rises agin

Biked to the Lincoln memorial for a little payback.

A jolt to get you through the day

High octane French press coffee is the way to go

Goals and Progress to Date - 2011

My goals for the year:

Running:  600 miles
Bicycling: 1200miles
Trees killed:  50

Progress so far is shown in the pic.  Only 5 trees so far this year (not counting saplings).

Blasts from the past

Found the results of our half marathon re-posted during a google search to see what comes up.

   

Star City Half Marathon – 2000 results.

Go Katy, number one in your age group!

 

Women 20 to 24

Place / Name / Time / Pace

1 Catherine Orifici 1:39:27.3 7:35/M

Men 20 to 24

Place / Name / Time / Pace

3 Jason Carneal 1:40:31.5 7:40/M

These days I'm lucky to run one mile at a 7:40 pace.

 

Some other funny trinkets I found on the search:

 

I've been arrested in AZ.

My BS Thesis from VT (advisor wanted a stack of paper.  That's what he got!)

Assorted crap from Carderock (search for Carneal in the document to find my long lost Ph.D. project).

 

Do me a favor

Call your representatives in Congress and request a government shutdown.

 

Shut it down!

Birth control

The best form of contraception is other people's kids.

Found the whole quote

"In the system of laws which has been established for the management of our American and West Indian colonies the interest of the home-consumer has been sacrificed to that of the producer with a more extravagant profusion than in all our other commercial regulations. A great empire has been established for the sole purpose of raising up a nation of customers who should be obliged to buy from the shops of our different producers, all the goods with which these could supply them. For the sake of that little enhancement of price which this monopoly might afford our producers, the home-consumers have been burdened with the whole expense of maintaining and defending that empire. For this purpose, and for this purpose only, in the two last wars, more than two hundred millions have been spent, and a new debt of more than a hundred and seventy millions has been contracted over and above all that had been expended for the same purpose in former wars. The interest of this debt alone is not only greater than the whole extraordinary profit, which, it ever could be pretended, was made by the monopoly of the colony trade, but than the whole value of that trade, or than the whole value of the goods, which at an average have been annually exported to the colonies. It cannot be very difficult to determine who have been the contrivers of this whole mercantile system; not the consumers, we may believe, whose interest has been entirely neglected; but the producers, whose interest has been so carefully attended to; and among this latter class our merchants and manufacturers have been by far the principal architects."

-       Adam Smith, "The Principle of the Mercantile System," 1776

 

Truechey!

Assassins Creed!

Burn baby burn!

Awesome day. Went to the range and got to drive through a wildfire on the way home. The pic above is just before entering the inferno. We made it through before they shit down 95. Then, got to play assassins creed, rock band, and watch Black Dynamite on Netflix. Awesome!

In addition to the fire in Laurel we drove through, we heard 15 acres of Germantown burnt to the ground. Wildfires in PG county, Dale city VA, and in shenadoah national park.

Wildfires in MD in February. That makes sense. I am sure this like so many other events will be explained away using La Nina or some other bullshit excuse to ignore the reality of climate change. Keep it up humanity, you know I like my meat well done!

Perfect pour

Without a spoon!

Wasted Days . . .

It’s like the day has turned to rust

Like every dream’s been sealed shut

Like every door has closed before we’d gotten out

As bullets rip the air in two from house to house

 

WE ARE ALL THAT WE ARE, SO TERRIBLY SORRY

WE ARE ALL THAT WE ARE, SO TERRIBLY SORRY

 

-       The Moon Atomic, Angels and Airwaves

The long kiss goodnight

Walking back to the car from the test facility. In my shadow, you can see the shovel I borrowed attached to my backpack for the hike up the hill. For some reason, reminded me of the movie.

Preparation

A lab well equipped to handle the snow.

Worcester lives on

Despite potentially record snowfall this winter.

Actually . . .

The drive home was not so bad in our Hyundai accent thanks to road treatment in MA. DC would be crippled with 8 inches.

And so it begins

40 minutes to drive in. Don't think we will make it in tomorrow. Deciding when to leave today.

Before the storm?

And this was the office at alden today, before the storm calling for 20 inches!

At least

Snow has some use.

Holy shit batman

I will post a map tomorrow with times of travel to each point of interest, but had hellish 3.5 hour, 6 mile drive home today. Most of that, 3 hours to be exact, were spent on a quarter mile stretch on Randolph road just west of Dewey drive.

Once I finally made it to the light at Dewey; decided that nothing ventured, nothing gained and headed into the cold black unknown. Turned into the neighborhood streets to climb the hill, passing under a downed tree with a clearance of about 3 inches in the truck. Passed a few struggling cars on the way to a black light at Veirs Mill. Took Viers mill towards university blvd and after crossing Connecticut, had to stop due to a burning smell emanating from my wiper blades. Cleared the ice that was preventing them from returning to the neutral position and headed up the hill. There were about 50 struggling cars on the way up the hill, which I took particular pleasure in emphatically passing in my 4WD truck. One party tried to flag me down, but I kept on trucking up the hill. No time to get carjacked in little Mexico. Plus, I found what I admit was unending, shameless joy passing BMWs, Mercedes, Prius, and other cars struggling up the hill at 3 mph (if they were lucky ti move at all) while going 20-30 mph uphill in my truck.

No lights anywhere in Wheaton on Viers Mill, kind of surreal to be honest. Heard a few transformers explode in the way home. No lights working. But ok since no one is at the small interactions, unlike the total clusterf&$@ on Randolph rd.

Got to georgia ave, which was stopped, and crossed on university to find a slick little S2000 flailing in all three lanes. Once he settled down, passed him with a vengeance and let him know that he was number one in my book.

Headed up the vacated university, and to my surprise was almost head-on collided by a jackass driving on the wrong side of the separated street. Continued on, saw the lights at northwood high go down, and passed a multitude of Mexicans walking down university with snow shovels, I assume to charge nominal fees for digging out cars and pushing them up hills. Finally made it home, where large branches are down in the front and back. Pics to follow tomorrow.

Two lessons from tonight. Have a gun in the car and always drive 4WD. Without it I would have been stuck sleeping in my car tonight, with a car stranded for god knows how long. The gun is to take care if any problems originating from south of the border, either on the drive or the desperation hike home. Can't wait to get the Judge for social work and deal out some stiff sentences.

Unlike my co-commuters who are undoubtedly still stuck on Randolph or have abandoned their vehicles, I am glad to be home. Grabbed a few beers and toasted the truck for a truly fine performance. Thank you Chevy!

iTunes rage

When Train, "Drops of Jupiter," is ranked number 5 on the iTunes Rock top ten list, it makes me want to puke and hiccup at the same time in the hopes I will drown on my own vomit rather than suffer more time staring down the vast emptiness of the collective American psyche.

And if you want to truly go down the rabbit hole, take a listen to Katy Perry's "Peacock," with which a certain fitness instructor was good enough to destroy any clinging faith I had left in humanity during a recent spinning class. You try pedaling harder after having your soul, literally, ripped out of your body.

Clearly, searching for some shred of decent music to cheer me up while on travel took a wrong turn. Thank you iTunes!