Breakfast was at Barbecue House, oh how I’ve missed it while we’ve been gone. Dinner was the Irish Bread Pub. The sandwich I had in between, then, didn’t really matter so much.
I brought home leftovers which means: A.) I’m entering into the irregular phase of not eating very much and B.) they will be delicious tomorrow.
And, yes, it is Friday, why do you ask?
We’re just watching videos, feeling bad about our athletic prowess. Take Alysia Montano, for example. Perhaps you’ve heard of her. She’s a track star. Also, she just ran the 800 at nationals again. And, of course, she did it at 34 weeks pregnant.
She ran it in 2 minutes, 32.13 seconds, which is faster than I can run it. And I’m not with child.
May turned out to be a banner month for mobile as it delivered on some huge milestones which underscored just how impressive the medium’s ascendance has been in the past few years. Mobile platforms – smartphones and tablets – combined to account for 60% of total digital media time spent, up from 50% a year ago. And perhaps more impressively, mobile apps accounted for more than half of all digital media time spent in May, coming in at 51%.
I blame the cat. I catch her on the iPad every now and again.
We went to a bar and grill to watch the game today, because soccer is a communal sport. The place was full just after 10 a.m. That’s when the priest came in, wearing his collar, sat at the bar and ordered some wings.
That’s the World Cup to me.
This is billed as the Out Of This World Cup:
So the U.S. lost, playing poorly but close against a dominate German team, but still advanced. And now all of the Americans that refuse to understand soccer — And it isn’t that they don’t get it. I’ve tried explaining things, and people are so intent on hating the sport because of reasons and feet and other nations’ success and a refusal to consider that the word “football” can have multiple meanings that they’ll dismiss anything you say, even if they are mentally capable of grasping a round robin format — will dismiss the round robin format.
We celebrated in that most American way, with tacos. They were good. First time I’d been to Tacorita. Now I’ll have to go back.
Today I’ve learned: that you will pay $271 as the fine for riding a bicycle on a sidewalk. (I don’t ride on sidewalks, because I, like pedestrians, would like to live. Every traffic violation you can commit in a car, save one, is less expensive. Drive a car on a sidewalk? That’ll only set you back $164.
You figure that out.
When you need a pilot, ask for a Marine Aviator. That guy landed his Harrier on a stool. There’s video.
I ran five miles in 75 degrees with 79 percent humidity tonight. Think I just exercise for Shot Bloks, which is fuel that tastes like candy to me. But you’re not here about that. Right. Back to our regularly scheduled observations.
One of the joys of having a cat around is watching a cat sleep in the sun:
A lot of things have to happen to make that work out. Someone, years ago, had to decide to orient this neighborhood along an east-west axis. Development behind us had to thin out the western tree line to allow the sun through at that time of day. My brilliant wife had to be motivated to purchase that cat condo at some point in time. We had to put it in front of that window and I had to be sitting in an adjacent chair, which we also put in place almost four years ago, to capture the moment. To say nothing of the phone and camera and Internet technology.
All of that so I can say “One of the joys of having a cat around is watching a cat sleep in the sun,” and you know it to be one of the singular truths of pets.
Just file that away under things that the subdivision developer, Steve Jobs and Tim Berners-Lee didn’t think about when they did their heavy lifting. I bet the cat condo people knew what they were doing, though.
Turns out it was made in Tennessee. I’m not sure what bearing that has on this conversation.
Things to read … because reading always gives us answers.
Jeff Bezos is looking more brilliant by the moment, no?
The New York Times’ Lively Morgue featured a photo of speed boat queen Loretta Turnbull. For some reason I did a little more Googling and reading about her, and was rewarded with this quote: “The odds of a shark biting a 67-year-old are remote; I’m going in.”
This video is titled “How video from drones can be useful during news events,” but it misses a big a point.
We, the audience, still need the context of a reporter’s collected efforts to tell us the story. Where was that subdivision damage? Was it from a storm? Why were all of those people gathered at night? What were they protesting? How many structures or lives had been lost in that fire?
It also demonstrates that not all drone videos are created equally.
Forrest Gump was released 20 years ago next month. Finally, there is an Honest Trailer about the film, and it makes a great point about the recognizability of the character:
“And Lieutenant Dan kept his word. The end.”
When I saw Apollo 13 — which was released 19 years ago next week, by the way — there was a woman behind us who was getting caught up and emotional in the drama. Her kid, her child, said “Don’t worry Mama, Forrest Gump is driving.”
It took a miracle pass from one of the world’s best players in the dying moments of the game for Portugal to steal a draw and avoid losing to the upstart Americans. I had video of the crowd’s deflation of that, but it just seemed cruel to show.
On the one hand, the U.S. had a win slip away from them. On the other hand, it was against the fourth best team in the world. On the dominant foot it was against a diminished Portugal. On the other foot, however, all of that happened and the U. S. played anything but their best soccer.
This team might go some place, and from the Group of Death, no less.
But the crowd reactions from around the country? They’ve been great. I just wanted to share one more.
For our anniversary dinner we had reservations at Warehouse Bistro. This was my dinner:
We go there maybe twice a year. I’ve noticed that the vegetable of the day is always that giant head of broccoli. Not that I’m complaining.
I mention it here because, for some reason, I always mention the food at the anniversary dinner. It is tasty.
We rode our bikes to the pool yesterday. That was six miles just to avoid parking, really. The swim was the point. I swam 1,500 yards and didn’t feel terribly bad about it.
One of our friends was working as a lifeguard and he offered a critique of my technique. He did not understand that my style is carefully designed to not use my legs, at all, in advance of the bike and run to follow.
He wasn’t the only person to offer criticism. A police officer thought enough of me to turn his loud speaker on and talk to me. Twice. He was well intentioned, but in error. Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to discuss the state law together.
Today we did a regular route which puts in about 18 miles. It is one of my favorite rides, based on the performance. I always seem to do well on that particular set of roads. Indeed, today, on one hill I actually gained five miles per hour.
My speed and power might have continued to improve, but I ran out of ascent.
I do not know what is happening.
Soccer, which we haven’t talked about at all here yet. I listened to the Ghana game as I drove home on Monday. The Yankee, who is awesome, found an app with which to stream the game. But it was my turn to drive and so I would still a very brief glance here or there, not nearly enough to get a real sense of the game, which it sounded like Ghana gave away in more ways than one.
I got to watch a few games on the cruise and, of course, I’ve been watching this week. With Portugal tomorrow, I’m busy watching the hype videos.
This one doesn’t even show any game footage:
This one features the second goal from the Ghana game:
And here’s a slightly older one that highlights the American Outlaws, who should really be a cultural institution unto themselves:
I expect a lot more of these as the U.S. performance continues in the World Cup.
Things to read … because you can always expect more to read.
This is a great, and long read. But it is worth reading to the end this story of a new firefighter’s first blaze. Baptism by fire:
IT WAS QUICKLY DARK. Black smoke pervaded the apartment. He couldn’t see. Inside an apartment on fire, you are robbed of key senses. He had to pick his way with those gardenerlike gloves.
Noise was absent. No cries for help.
In his bunker gear, Firefighter Sullivan didn’t sense the heat.
