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TP: Looks like i'm going to be in Korea at that time. trac...

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bean: Dates updated to Sep 3-5

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Brad: Perfect! We could end our hike at the zoo. These date...

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Stef: pretty sure the 28th is BATZ

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TP: Cool. Looks like fun, excepting the rain, of course.

My name is Bean and this is my blog. Hence the name. If you have comments or questions, just leave them in the comments area.

(old search)

I've never had much luck with after-market car stereo systems. Back in college, I was anxious to get some CD action in my sweet 89 Nissan pickup so I bought a used stereo. I tried to install it myself and smoked it within 10 minutes. Strike one. Got a replacement, installed it with some help from my cuz and was able to hear about 5 minutes of Avail before a loud POP signaled strike number two.

I gave up for the time being. Eventually, after college, I bought a new 01 Nissan pickup that had a built CD player!. It was awesome. Controls on the wheel, 6 discs, in-dash. I paid that truck off about 3 months ago and then promptly totaled it. Crushed, I decided to downgrade slightly and drive a 97 Nissan Sentra with an AM/FM radio. Back to square one.

Then, Jeany Meany came to the rescue. He had a CD/MD player that used to be in his old Jetta. Apparently , his new car already had a bangorific system, so he offered me his old one - detachable face and all! Stevie P and I installed it about 1 month ago and it worked like a charm up until yesterday.

After my drive into work yesterday morning, I left my headlights on. Needless to say, my battery was dead when quittin' time arrived. After a quick jump from my brother, I started home. Then I noticed that the CD player was off. "Shit... now all of my presets are gone," I thought. I turned it back on, and to my horror, I could no longer eject, load, or play CDs. And on top of that, the tuner is screwed up. The FM band ranges from 00.0 to b76.7, and the seek/tune functions jump around at seemingly random intervals. I was unable to successfully tune to any FM channel. AM had similar problems, but I was somehow able to tune it to 972 which is close enough to 970 for me to get a decipherable, though shitty quality, talk radio station.

Strike 3.

There is a KFC/Pizza Hut right off the interstate exit that I take to go from work to home. The exit was just revamped. A new bridge was put in, nice, new, wide streets all around. It's an exit that's destined to grow very soon. And the KFC/Pizza Hut has it made, being the only fast food joint on the block.

But there's a problem with this particular KFC/Pizza Hut. Well, actually, there's two problems. The first is that it's not a KFC/Pizza Hut/Taco Bell. The second is that everyone that works there is a scrud. Big time. Scrud city. Scruds all around.

For example, last time I went inside to get a variety bucket to take to the Derby Parade, the lady scrud that took my order was in a heated argument with another coworker scrud the whole time I was inside. The coworker scrud was sitting in a booth, smoking a cigarette, waiting 10 minutes for his shift to start, and the lady scrud was heckeling him and calling him an assholel because he wouldn't jump back there and let her leave a little early. And on top of all of this, that nasty scrud forgot to give me my biscuits.

Yesterday, I was hitting the KFC/Pizza Hut drive through on my way home to try the Hot and Spicy Boneless Buffalo Wings. After an abnormally long wait for the guy in front to get what seemed to be enough chicken to feed a school, I pulled up to the window. As I handed the drive through scrud my money, I noticed a sheet of paper posted to a door on the inside of the window. It was a "Request Off" sheet for the workers. Besides the obvious fact that Alex did not wish to work mornings any longer, one entry jumped out at me, and I had to snap a picture. My picture didn't capture the detail I had hoped for, but in the zoom, you can start to make out the reason one of the scruds requested off. Even if you cant see it in the zoom, trust me, it said: "Going to court / Getting GED".

zoomed out
zoomed in

Got bored. Decided to draw our little blog-o-plex. Each line is a link in atleast one direction. There's probably a few mistakes. I lost interest, so I'll not be fixing them. (Click for a bigger pic)

I know I just blogged about stupid people posting too many pictures of their cats, but this just has to be done.

Walking home from John's last night, Stef and I stopped by one of the houses that is under construction so I could pick through the scrap wood. I need an 8 foot 1x1, but that's another blog. Anyway, we heard this teeny tiny squeeky meow coming from the rubble... or atleast that's where I though it was coming from. Turns out, there was a little kitten trapped behind drywall, inbetween two studs. I busted a hole in the drywall and pulled him out. I left this note for the workers. Here's a picture of the little guy.

After a trip to Walmart to buy kitten formula and a bottle, I reconsidered my cuss words. Maybe the kitten fell in there or something. Steve, Chuck and I went back to the scene to investigate. There was an attic above the garage that probably opened into the space behind the drywall... but how could a cat get up there... let alone a kitten? There was some ductwork on the adjacent wall, but it was all blocked by vertical studs. We came to the concensus that one of the folling 3 things happened:
Someone put the kitten (or th emomma and the kitten) into the attic. Someone put th ekitten in the wall and then drywalled over him. Someone accidentally drywalled over him. Scenario 3 seems pretty darn unlikely, since I culd hear him from the driveway. If the did manage to get him in there by accident, they would have heard him meow and gotten him out - or else they effectively go back to #2. At any rate... scenarios 1 and 2 both still deserve the nasty ending I left, along with the drywall hole and sharpie dammage.

So... anyone want a cat? I'll make you a deal: If you take the cat, I will buy you the first months worth of food and litter and give you a bottle of TSE#5. Note: Dooley is excluded from this offer.

So I have a quick link to that LiveJournal Last 40 page on my toolbar, and I check it about 20 times a day just to see whats out there. For the sake of good blogging, I decided to take a sample of 5 pages (200 images) and track the trends. I had an idea of what I'd find before I found it - just from going through it casually. My sample has enabled me to make the following statements about LiveJournal users, or atleast the pictures they post:

• At least 5% of users are Russian. 10 of the pictures clearly had Russian characters either in the picture or as a title/subtitle. Note that the actual number is probably higher since a lot of pictures have no text on them at all.
  
• LJ users are a vain bunch. 14 pictures (7%) were close up, posed, pictures of the journal owner. Some were trying to look "cool","sexy", or "funny" - but most of the time they just look like tools.
  
• NP hearts LJ. Why? Because there's a lot of anime that gets posted. In my survey, I saw 5 posts that were clearly anime and a few more that may or may not have been. I could not tell as I am not an anime expert. In past LJ40 persuing, I seem to remember a lot more of that crap out there, so I am guessing my sample was slightly skewed. PS: I hate NP.
  
• LJ users like to have other people decide who or what they are. "Which Pokemon are you?","Which 50's TV star are you?", and "Which Jedi are you?" are just a few examples of the quizzes that these people constantly take. Now, I have to admit, that I once created a "Which duck are you" quiz, but that was one, and it was short lived. There are seriously some LJ blogs that are NOTHING but quiz results. Almost 5% of the pictures posted related to a quiz.
  
• There are a lot of Goth/Punk/Emo kids that feel like they need to show pictures of just how dark, pierced, angst-filled, or hardcore they are. There wer 9 of them in the sample I took. When I see these losers, I just want to smash their heads with a sledge. I saw 6 fliers for bands/concerts. I ddin't know it was such a big thing to post your shitty hand-drawn fliers for the "show" thats your band is putting on at the Starbucks or the sweet rave thats kickin at the warehouse with DJ this and that and MC whatever. I have a feelign a lot of these are from the same sledge-deserving punk/emo kids above.
  
• I would deem about 6% of the pictures as someones attempt to make art - Perhaps a picture taken with a "crazy" angle or some kind of "stunning" lighting effect, or maybe something that's been done up in PhotoShop to look really cool. The worst is when soeone combines art with a gothy self-portrait.
  
• Cats. What is it with all the cats? I mean, I like cats, and I have 4 of them, but give me a break. Maybe it's because it is the Spring and there are a lot of new kittens out there. I saw 5 cat pictures - one of each page of 40 - in my sample. Sure, people like their pets, right? But I didn't see any dog pics, fish pics, or llama pics - just cats! Makes no sense to me.
  
• And lastly - the saving grace of LJ40 - the good pictures. By my estimate, about 1% of the pictures posted are worth looking at. Out of my 200 sample pictures, I saw 2 that I was glad I had taken the time to look at. Some of them are funny, some are weird, and some are... umm... womanly. 1%. That's it. Conclusion: 99% of what you find on LJ40 is trach. But the 1% keeps it worthwhile. It's just enough to keep me coming back for more.

Well, I guess I should have lowered my expectation just a hair more. My final time was 1:47:18 - average pace was 8:11. I am happy with those numbers. It was my slowest mini so far (1:39:39 in 2002 and 1:43:10 in 2003), but I probably weigh about 20 pounds more than I used to. In 2006 I am going for 1:39:38. And this time, I'll get it.

Oh yeah... I was finisher #2867. There were 30,000 runners. So I got that goin' for me.

Heading to Indy again this afternoon.

Stef and I will be crashing at the Okamoto abode this evening and getting up bright and early for the race. I'm supposed to be in the coral at 7:00, and the race starts at 7:30. The weather looks great. Since I missed my goal in the 10-miler last month, I am lowering my expectations to 1:45. That's about 8 minute miles. I have a feeling even that might be a stretch.

In previous-blog-related news: I've chosen an item to eat and blog about. It's not dog poop and it's not food coloring. Stay tuned for a docu-blog next week.

Also, SDP is going to be rescheduled due to prior obligations. Help me pick a date if you think you may come.

I heart Fridays. I know you do too.

SDP 2K5 is officially in the planning stages.

I ducked a duck about it, now I'll blog a blog about it too. This page shows you the last 40 images uploaded to any LiveJournal account. Click with caution, as there's no telling what kind of stuff people have posted. Most of it isn't very funny, but there are atleast a few good ones per page.

I don't know how long the site will stay active, as it's just a script running on some guys personal site, so try it out while you can. I have it bookmarked, and I check it every so often for a chuckle and/or gasp. If you find a good one, you can click on it to find out what the person wrote when they posted it. If you find something really good, post the image link as a comment.