hey habibi, what's up?

Friday, July 16, 2010

welcome to the wonderful world of friday

It's Friday!

Let's get down to business. We had a double-header for kickball on Wednesday, and unfortunately we lost both. However, they were what I consider "good" losses - 8-9 and 8-13. Both games were close right up until the end, and we played very well despite losing.

We also had a double-header for softball, but we had 45 minutes in between our two games, instead of immediately back-to-back. Our softball team's roster consists of 19 players, and yet we somehow managed to only have 8 show up for our first game. That means that we were short 2 players from the normal amount you have on the field, so we combined short stop and third base into one position, and had only 3 outfielders instead of 2. The team we played was good, but they didn't understand that the game was over when they were up 11-2, and they kept trying really hard throughout the rest of the game.

Now, I'm not one to really complain about people being competitive, but let's look at the facts here. We only had 8 players, meaning we had people doubling up positions and no one was getting breaks. Also, we were clearly going to lose. At that point, is it really necessary to keep trying to kick our ass? We ended up losing 4-12. During our 45 minute break in between the two games, we stayed and watched as they played another team that was as bad as us. They were even more unnecessarily overly-competitive against this team. By the third inning, they were up 18-0. You read that right, eighteen to zero. You know what they were doing? They were still running and diving for fly balls like it was life or death. Listen guys, when you are up 18 points after about 15 minutes of play, you no longer have to give 100% effort. Need I remind everyone that this is a "super-social" league, which according to the Austin SSC website, is a league "for players with limited softball skills." What that translates to is, "when you are kicking a team's ass by 18-0, you no longer have to dive to catch fly balls, assholes." Not to mention that they were still hustling at full speed and throwing fastballs to first base to get out poor people who never had a chance to get to the base to begin with. At least they weren't verbal assholes, like other teams we've run into.

Taylor actually played in that game, because the team who got their ass kicked needed an extra player. Also, after our second game, another team needed two more so me and her joined that team, too. I ended up playing 3 softball games, while Taylor played 4. Intense.

In motorcycle-related news, I have attached my new clutch cable, but my battery is now dead. It is clear that my battery can't hold a charge very well, but what is the cause: poor acid levels, or keeping it hooked up for 6 months while I was storing my bike and not riding it? Either way, I need to resolve the issue. I also made the big purchase yesterday and grabbed all (or almost all) the new parts I'm going to need. It's going to come to about $500 in parts, plus however much in labor for whatever I take to the shop (like the new tires, for example). Wish me luck!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

bad news in Coppell

Quite a sad story in Coppell today. The mayor was part of an apparent murder/suicide, where she killed her daughter and then turned the gun on herself.

What is Qrank? It is a daily social trivia game. Everyday, you have one chance to answer 15 questions and get the best score you can. By the end of the day, you can see how you did against all your friends. Turns out I have no friends, because no one plays. Won't you play a daily trivia game with me?

For those without an iPhone, play it on facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/qrankit/

I'm serious, play it. Once a day. I need competition.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

rain rain go away

Let's start with kickball - that didn't go well. We started the game very shorthanded with 7, but our 8th arrived almost immediately after the start. Our 9th and 10th players came during the first inning, but the discombobulated start threw us off our game. The game ended with some outrageous score like 4-16, us being the 4. The good news is that I scored 2, or half our runs. I knew being skinny and fast would come in handy one day.

It rained some more on Thursday, apparently because raining for several days before that wasn't enough. Our softball game was cancelled, but I wasn't totally feeling it anyways, so it worked out.

I had Friday off, but woke up early anyways because me, Andy, and Kelcey were doing volunteer work! We headed out around 7:30 to get to Fort Hood for their Christmas in July event. The idea is that they are celebrating Christmas now, because their moms or dads will be in Iraq in December for Christmas. BAE Systems and Walmart donated several hundred bikes to soldiers' children, and we were there to build them all. We tackled them assembly line-style, and I was mostly in charge of putting on training wheels for the 12" bikes (the smallest ones for little kids). I helped put on training wheels to probably around 100-110 bikes. Here is a link to the photo album for the event: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=194228&id=85820336449&ref=mf

There are some nice comments on there from the wives and soldiers, but they don't have the pictures from the actual build up yet. They took a lot of pictures of us building, so I'm looking forward to seeing them.

The colonel personally thanked us, and out of appreciation they gave us all military coins for their regiment. I thought that was pretty cool, because they're not normally given to civilians.

(click for larger version)

All in all, it was pretty fun and rewarding.

Friday night we just hung out at the house. Started off with an hour or two of both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and then ended with some Apples to Apples which was a pretty fun game. Didn't sound like we did much, but we were up until around 3 AM, so I guess we had some fun. It's been a while since I've been up that late.

On Saturday, Taylor and I ran by a few places to take care of some errands. I also spent an hour or two prepping myself for "Motorcycle Maintenance Mania of 2010." Since my clutch cable snapped, I decided it was finally time to give myself a fresh maintenance baseline on my motorcycle. I don't know what kind of maintenance they did before I bought it, so if I do pretty much everything this summer, I will have a fresh start and can properly follow the maintenance schedule. It'll be quite a bit of work, so I'm going to space it out over the next couple months. I think I'm looking at around $500-600, most of that being parts. I'm going to attempt to do almost everything myself, except replacing the tires (I'll take it somewhere for that). Here's my list for MMM 2010, in no particular order:

Replace clutch cable (gotta get my bike home first!)
New tires
Replace chain
Replace brake pads and brake fluid
Change oil and oil filter
Replace coolant
Engine valve clearance check
Replace fork oil
Replace spark plugs
Inspect hoses, other fluids, etc and replace anything that needs replacing

After this summer, I will be thoroughly bonded with my motorcycle. Anything that goes wrong after this summer can only be blamed on me.

Okay, time to come back from my tangent. The rest of Saturday was just hanging out, and ended with some Battlestar Galactica.

Today, Sunday, has been spent doing typical Sunday things: laundry, vacuuming, etc. I also went to the gym today, which sadly has been the first time in a couple of months. My routine is a 4 day split (meaning I work my entire body over 4 gym days), which really doesn't work with my schedule right now. On Wednesday and Thursday I have kickball and softball, respectively, so I'd have to work out 4 out of the 5 remaining days, which I just don't see happening. It's not worth changing my routine, though, because by the end of the month those sports will be over. I'll probably go twice a week right now (three if I'm feeling particularly motivated), and by the time those sports are over I'll be back in "gym shape." I took that hard first step though, going back for the first time in a while. Now I just have to keep it up, and stop looking for excuses to not go.

Oh, and Spain won the world cup

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Big Bang Big Boom

Stop motion video of graffiti artists representing the big bang and big boom. Kinda long but cool nevertheless.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

on the twelfth day of brisket...

It is worth noting that, since last Tuesday, June 29th, this is my brisket intake:

June 29 - Rudy's BBQ
July 3 - HEB precooked brisket (6.5 lbs in total)
July 4 - leftover brisket
July 5 - leftover brisket
July 6 - leftover brisket
July 7 - Rudy's BBQ again

I will likely have another Rudy's meal today, before kickball, and there is probably still some leftover HEB brisket which has another solid day before going into the trashcan.

Somehow I'm still not disgusted.