Beyond the Zero

It's the weekend, we don't need no stinkin' weigh-ins...

Rode down the towpath last night, down to Sand Island and across the river to the Banana Factory, where I hung out with Doug and Eric before starting my return trip. I saw they had the Christmas City Craptacular going on in giant circus tents, over where Musikfest is held...

Talking with Dawn at the gym this morning, she mentioned it doesn't seem like Christmas, bit of consumerism burrnout going on. I think it's endemic, and the ever-more-strident marketing has sort of reached the saturation point. Sort of like Pavlovian psychology (as explained in the ever-handy Gravity's Rainbow), and the extinction of learned responses in trhe absence of the reward. Transmarginal, ultraparadoxical, the silent extinction beyond the zero... just realized, the events in GR's Part 1, titled "Beyond the Zero," and heavy into Pavlovian psychology (as well as psi and seances, & post-death existence in general), are set at Christmastime 1944.

Sinister quote:

"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.

-- Wernher von Braun

That's the quote for Part 1, and the next page kicks it off wih the famous "A screaming comes across the sky..."

Hipster Central

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12.5% BF

I got home last night, played with the computer for a bit and then went to the gym. It was one of the better nights there, I flew through my workout (which is good since they close early and I arrived late), and really felt like I was hitting a peak. I didn't feel "strong" exactly, but weights seemed lighter and everything felt easy.

I went directly from the gym to Which Brew (get out! really?) where the Sons of Rhythm were playing. More like a drum circle than a band, they were three tribal, rasta-and-hackey-sack-type dudes, with a bunch of bongos, congas, a trap set, and a few more exotic thingies (pan pipes etc). Very, very good actually, though I could see something like this getting old after a few sets -- they'd do pretty good as an opening act, plus maybe an encore guest appearance behind the headlineing band, for some uh, headlining band like that...

Thursday night at the WB is becoming quite the thing for emerging local talent, lotta these cool "under the radar" musicians been playing there the past few weeks, Dave Cahill will be back next Thursday, and much of the Easton arts & music crowd were there last night for the show. Whaddaya know, a local scene!

Okey Dokey Doodley Um, Doo

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 11% BF

Talked to my Mom last night: surgery went OK but took a long time. "Procedure" itself was only an hour or so, but there's pre-op, post-op etc, and then she had to go back yesterday because the cast was too tight & very painful. The doctor fixed that, & now things seem to be on track, slow but sure (hopefully) recovery.

Other than that, nothing happened yesterday... Played with Apache, found there's more to getting PHP to work, and the PHP guys recommend against using Apache2 -- guess which one I've got? Anyway, I'll be downloading the latest PHP4, then delving into those config files some time soon.

West and Wewaxation at Wast

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 11.5% BF

Got home last nite, played w/ 'puter, then rode the towpath for some "active rest" exercise, very slow pace. About all I could muster, actually: worked quads pretty hard on Monday with the weights, then did a "strength workout" spin class. I wanted to get the blood flowing to remove toxins or whatever from the muscles, and I also knew that today would be rainy, otherwise I would have just blown it off. (Looking outside, it's now sunny & beautiful, but today is officially downtime. I don't need much discipline to ride in the rain, but sunny rest days are tough.)

After that was the weekly trip to WB, as laundry did its thing. No Scott there this week though, just Maura & K-Jo working, and Art having dinner. Turns out, Maura's "bachelorette party" was Saturday night, and they ended up having it at Which Brew -- I enjoyed the Philly trip, I guess you can't be everywhere but it sounded way fun, oh well. For dinner I had sirloin stew w/ juniper berries, while the girls discussed C-section vs vaginal birth, and the post-partum looks of their girlie parts, how much they resembled sirloin stew -- nice try ladies, I told them they were amateurs. I also got a tuna steak sandwich with salsa and wasabi mayo. Both things were fantastic, I was starving too.

My mom had her foot operation yesterday, she should be able to take a call today, think I'll do that. Yo, later.


UPDATE: It's later. I forgot to mention: last might on the ride I saw two fox and an owl (small guy, sitting on a log not 10 feet from me, I think I must have screwed up a kill with my lights), as well as the usual boatload of deer. No bats, though.

Back In The Groove

Morning weigh-in: 180.0#, 11.0% BF

Um, kickin' it old school: when the needle scratches across the entire record, can you say it's "in the groove," for each groove it crosses through? How about a New Year's resolution, when you reaffirm it every morning but break it every evening? Anyway, I went to the gym yesterday, did an abbreviated weight workout and took a spin class -- Colette was the instructor, strength workout, lotsa fun and some seriously cool jams. Tonight will be the towpath, then my weekly "while the laundry does its thing" trip to Which Brew.

Linux Voyager: I got Apache to work last night, very easy. Next step is to integrate CGI and PHP, then start messing with MySQL.

It Seems Like Only Yesterday

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 11.5% BF

Been back four hours after four days off, and it feels like I never left. (Alternately: I just posted here last night, and here I am posting again...)

No running this morning, another "get up at 7:00 AM" kind of day since I caught the first half last night at Porters. I plan to hit the gym tonight, take a spinning class -- Colette is teaching it, so I may be able to find out what I'm in for this year with the Science Fair (her husband runs it, sends her out recruiting). It'll be fun, I did it last year and had a ball, I just need to know the date. Meantime, first spin of the offseason.

Funny insight: last week I was reading a bicycle book and riding; this week I'm reading about the matrix and messing with the computer. Hmmmm, maybe it's a good time to bust out the Henry Miller...

Lazy Sunday

No morning weigh-in...

Last night I went with Doug & Lori, also Brian who drove, to see Mitch Hedburg at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby (aka Philly); Eric and Kris also went but drove down separately -- we ate dinner together, and sat tgether as well, so maybe "separately" isn't the right word, but if we wanted to talk to them on the drive down, we had to call... The opening act was Stephen Lynch, comedy singer/songwriter, pretty funny and actually a good musician. Mitch was great at the start and the end of his act, but the middle really sagged, flopsweat so bad it made the audience anxious along with him, and I was left thinking it was deliberate, like some kind of Andy Kaufmann "avant-garde comedy" schtick. Anyway, the shows were good, not superfantastic great, but worth the money and effort to go see them -- not worth another trip though.

Today was a pretty lazy day: woke up to major rain, sacked out until 10:00 before getting up, then playing with the computer. I went out around 1:00 to the Quadrant for some brunch, walked around downtown for a bit -- stopped in the pawn shop, never been there, oogled all the musical instruments -- then came home and read Neuromancer. (I left The Immortal Class at Mom & Dad's, I guess I'll pick up the storyline again at Christmas.) The afternoon was sunny and fairly warm, but I just felt like hanging inside.

I downloaded the Apache webserver earlier, and am now downloading the MySQL database server. Since I already have perl and PHP, I should be able to set up my own LAMP system at home, maybe put in a wiki or something to play with.

UPDATE: I went and saw the Insidious Rays at Which Brew Friday night, and it was the most crowded Iever saw the place. Incredible show, great crowd (hung out with the Kneller Brothers and Carrie the off-duty bartender, also Ed who came in later), lotsa cuties...