Unicycles, Cholesterol and Contractions Oh My!!

Well, I just finished riding 3 miles down a trail (75% paved) with my unicycle. I was almost too tired to get back on near the end. I rode down a couple trails I was surprised I could ride down, and failed to ride down a few stretches even though I tried a few times (my unicycle came inches from landing in the (Bear?) creek a few times. At one point a bunch of kids (they were probably 25 and I'm thinking of them as kids) yelled that it was a dead end... but I kept going. Eventually the trail had too many low branches and brush and I had to push my ATU (All Terrain Unicycle) an eighth mile or so... but I now have a goal of making it down the whole dead end until the trail really resumes.


I got my Cholesterol Numbers from the second Cholesterol test I had in two weeks.

Total: 141
HDL: 40
LDL: 84
Chol/HDL: 3.5!!

Who says you can't manipulate your Cholesterol numbers? (Ate almost no sugar or carbs for two weeks... ran/unicycled enough to burn more calories than I ate in Saturated Fat... lots of flax and fish oil etc.)


And Dawn is 4 cm dilated... and the doctor does not expect her to make it a week before Rocket Xerxes Day is born... She does not think I should go to my dad's retirement if I want to be there for the birth of little Rocket Xerxes. My guess is tghat by not going I will force Dawn to stay pregnant the whole 15 days until she is due. Oh well, guess we will see what happens!


Other random numbers: Serum:Glucos, 74, BUN:12, Creatinine:1.1, Alkaline Phosphatase:47, Bilirubin:1.2, AST(SGOT):22, AST(SGPT):26, GGT:16, Total Protein:7.4, Albumin:4.4, Globulin:3.0, Fructosamine:1.7; Urine:Glucose:<2, pH:6.7Leukocyte Esterase:negative, Blood:Negative (???? I don't have blood?), Protein Quantitative: <3, Creatinine:46, Cotinine:Negative


Time to clean... having a baby tomorrow?

Stampede and Summit

I'm not sure this takes a lot of Skillz to drive like I drive right now... but I'm having a lot of fun driving a couple new Traxxas trucks lately. I started out jumping a "little" Stampede over a small bike track near my house... the same one I was trying to ride my unicycle around last year. Then some jerk came in with a Bobcat and tore it up and put in 3' and 5' jumps in the place of 1', 2'and 3' jumps. I guess it might be more interesting on a bike, but they are now a bit too bumpy for my little stampede...

... so I got a Summit 4x4 for my birthday. The picture above was taken after driving around my back yard on a track I made out of snow.

Here is a video taken towards the end of my second set of batteries. Lots of fun!

Cholesterol 2010

Yes, my blog is so exciting, you can find out all about my Cholesterol!!!

Well, according to my doctor,in March 2010:

HDL = 36 (up 4)
LDL = 92 (up 14)
Triglycerides = 53 (down 14)

I guess that is good considering I'm not really doing any special exercise or diet! But I have been unicycling to work.

Review: Tales of Earthsea

Laputa on the left... Tales of Earthsea on the right.

I just finished watching Laputa: Castle in the Sky for the Xteenth time, and I will start off my review of Earthsea by saying this:
If you are considering watching Earthsea, instead rewatch the first 5 minutes of Laputa instead. It is far better. Laputa represents everything that is missing from Earthsea!

For starters Laputa was animeted/directed by Hayao Miyazaki... a director so amazing that people go out of their way to watch the episodes of Lupin he was involved in. A story writer so impressive that even a story of a girl and a panda aimed at 3 year olds blows away most of what Hollywood has to offer. Earthsea was directed by Goro Miyazaki. I can never say too many good things about Goro Miyazaki, but I will promise you this: I will never show another of his works site unseen at an anime party again. Where Hayao Miyazaki's work has magic and charm, Goro felt like a low budget old school TV show. (Hayao directed a low budget old school TV show, Future Boy Conan... that felt more like a 12 hour movie than a TV show. The artwork is probably of similar quality, but the character designs were all better in Conan.)

Laputa has a little girl with magical powers, Sheeta... Earthsea has a little girl with mysterious magical powers, Theruu... but while Sheeta is being pursued because she has magical powers, Theruu just sort of happens to fall into the plot, twice. Okay, I'll buy that Arren just happens to bump into the magical girl at the square, but what are the odds that he will run into the same street rat miles and miles away in the country. Small world I guess.

Laputa has really cool pirates, with pink hair!! Earthsea has Gandalf, er Sparowhawk. Sadly, Sparrowhawk was the only character in the movie I really felt any connection with, but he really did feel like a Gandalf ripoff and did not seem that interesting, and he really never did any impressive magic.

Laputa has SS agents running all over the place... I hated them, especially the way they destroy everything. Hating the bad guy is a good thing! In Earthsea, the bad guy (girl?) was a bit too wimpy to really take seriously.

Both stories are told from the point of view of a male protagonist... Laputa has Pazu, who is only slightly less awesome than Porco Rosso and Conan, a good strong kid with an amazing work ethic, amazing drive and energy, and he really does save the girl instead of the other way around. I wish I could be more like Pazu! Earthsea starts out with Theruu... who is a cowardly rich prince boy who never really does anything for any reason that makes any sense. I am assured by my friend Stefan who has read the Earthsea Novels that the Theruu in Miyazaki's Earthsea is not representative of the novels.

The best thing I can say about Earthsea is the music is decent, and the dragons and "horses" look pretty cool.

My Rating: 1 out of 10 ... this was the most disappointing anime movie I have ever seen. Not the worst, but not worth watching. I recommend downloading a high resolution scan of the poster for the movie and watching anything else Miyazaki instead Laputa, Nausicaa, or even Panda Ko Panda...

Things I Hate

This post is rather negative. Someone asked me a question I don't know the answer to, so I decided to try to order my list of things I hate... then if anyone asks me a similar question in the future, I can just point them here and they will know how to torture me best:

Things I hate, organized from least annoying to dai Dai DAI KARAI! (really Really REALLY HATE):

+ Asking the neighbor to leave the dog at their house. Not sure why I hate this so much, maybe just that I feel that I'm building up a debt I will one day have to repay by watching her 3 giant dogs one day...
+ Walking the dog at a rest area/restaurant. Traveling with a crazy dog is hard work.
+ Installing Car Seats. Latch connectors why are you not in my car?
+ Packing for trips... I guess I hate to leave home.
+ Eating at a bad restaurant. (Especially if I'm paying and the occasion prevents me from telling the Waitress she is a Sloth and the Cook he is an imbecile.)
+ Getting my Teeth Filled.
+ Packing light for an airplane trip.
+ Getting a Root Canal.
+ Getting a Crown.
+ Driving Long Distances. Say more than 3 hours.
+ Shopping in towns/malls that offer very little (if anything) that I couldn't buy easier and for less money on the internet.
+ Driving At Night. I feel like I'm about to run into a Moose.
+ Driving Through the Night. Afraid I'm going to fall asleep and kill everyone.
+ Wasting 2 vacation days traveling on a trip.
+ Sleeping At a Hotel/Condo. I just like being at my house.
+ Sleeping At Someone Else's House (say an aunt or parents). Slightly better than a hotel. But still weird.
+ Sleeping at the wrong house/hotel with children. The only reason I drive through the night is I dread moving into a hotel for the night!
+ Flying on an Airplane.
+ Flying on an Airplane with children.
+ Wasting 4 vacation days traveling on a trip.
+ Surgery.
+ Recovery after Surgery.
+ Dying because I did not have the surgery. (Not sure about the order of these last two.)


To summarize. 旅と比較されて、私は根管をベスト愛する。 Compared to traveling, I love root canals the best.

Anyway, that concludes my whining for the day.

Here are some things I like to balance out the list above:
+ Walking/running where I am going.
+ Unicycling where I am going.
+ Yoyoing/juggling whereever I am at.
+ Playing with Jonah and Zachy.
+ Playing board games or computer games with Dawn.
+ Playing computer games online with friends.
+ Watching Anime.
+ Traveling a short distance to a friend's house... especially if they have kids who will distract my kids for a while.
+ Eating Great Food. (El Tepehuan has the best food in Denver...)
+ Camping.
+ Taking a Vacation Day at home in my house.
+ Taking a Vacation Day at home in my house with the kids at school/with Dawn...

Tekkon Kinkreet

Plaid "Tekkon Kinkreet" OST

(Click on the Playlist link above to hear the full versions of each song.)

Well, anyone who is an anime/manga fan may be expecting an anime review at this point... but while I am tempted to wait until I've seen the movie to do this review, this is just a music review!

Those of you who know me well (all 3 of you who read this blog) know that Orbital is may favorite "band", but Plaid is my favorite band that still makes music. They are kind of Jazz Fusion crossed with Techno. I love Plaid. Every album, almost every song. Just warning you so you there will be no unbiased review here. I listen to Plaid at work, driving in my car, driving on long trips. I think Rest Proof Clockwork is the greatest non-orbital album ever! My sister hates plaid, she said of Restproof Clockwork something along the lines of: this is the most boring music ever.

I may actually like the "Where?" song on Tekkon Kinkreet album more than New Bass Hippo. I'll have to listen to it another 100 times to know for sure. I have not dropped the $40-$60 it costs to import it currently, but I have had it playing from imeem since I discovered it trying to buy Plaids other new album.

The opening track "This City" is amazing, in a style similar to "not for threes". It starts and ends with fairly minimalistic synth, with layers and layers and layers of haunting melodies and bass with constantly changing drums... dragging you forward deeper and deeper into its spell as the music swirls away back into minimalistic synth/guitar.

Brothers Chase reminds me a bit of Rob Dougan's Chateau from The Matrix Reloaded. Nice orchestra staccatos with a driving drum and base foundation. Helps me keep moving.

Where? This is the best song in the album. Driving beat, layered samples and melodies, organ, and amazing bass make my coworkers think I'm some weird freak twitching and spinning around in my chair. (Yes, I'm a freak and I love organ, real or synthesized. Don't worry, there is not much here.)

White's Dream: Starts out slow, but one of the more fun songs on the album. Rolling Piano layered with music box melodies and lively drum and bass.


Bottom Line: I like the album enough I bought the Blu-Ray from amazon knowing nothing more about it than that Dawn had previously put it on our Queue and it costs 1/3rd the price of the soundtrack. If I like it maybe I'll pick up the manga and read that while I listen to imeep. I wonder if the Japanese version has furigana?

Unicycle Ho!

I have almost mastered the art of going around 90 degree corners by flailing my arms all over the place. Yesterday I made it 90% of the way around the block, through 3 corners and most of the street. I actually fell off due to being tired more than anything. Yes, sadly I am tired after riding around the block once.

I managed to ride down the curve without falling, but I think I will need to learn to hop a bit to go up the curve. To get ready to learn hopping, and to improve balance, I rode around the block again holding onto the saddle with one hand most of the way. I can't quite go in a straight line without waving both hands occasionally, but I'm getting close.