A day in the life of?

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Life (and life)
I realized the other day I haven't been posting to LJ because of work. Not because I can't find time, or because it's inappropriate but I've had a very stressful time at work. As a manager I have to be careful in how I feed things back to my staff (it's actually been a hard lesson for me to learn) and several of them read this journal.

Now I could exclude them or do some other techie solution, but the mere fact that I'm being less free about my LJ is some inhibitive in and of itself. Hopefully it'll work out eventually.

Last week has been insane, in addition to a ton of work, I went out to Gigis Monday to see some old friends and back again on Wed night for customer appreciation night (also got to see my friend Tori albiet briefly).

For Thanksgiving I stayed in town and went to dinner at my friend Matt's with his family. He put out quite a spread (best one I've seen) including deep frying his first turkey (w/o incident I may add). I made garlic/rosemary parmesan and prosciutto mashed potatoes which were a hit (thanks for the inspiration Jeff). Played a bit of trival pursuit (I suck at it) and came home and chilled.

Friday I got up early and drove to Grand Rapids to help my brother with his computer issues. His PC has massive malware infections and when i remove them they just come back when it's rebooted. (I think PC Defender is the nasty one). Anyway so far the experts I've talked to have recommended wiping the entire thing and starting over.

After that it was up my parents so share some quality time and horederves. My nieces were quite entertaining as well waking me up at 6am on Sat.

I helped my mom with thanksgiving dinner on Sat. Although I discovered I can't make gravy from scratch in under 5 minutes w/o botching it. But carved the turkey which turned out decent. Then it was back to Ann Arbor, on the way coordinating 3 friends whom I picked up and went to Macho City (at the R&R) in Detroit. The music was fun but I could barely stand up.

Rich and I came back and crashed, I got up early today and went shopping and then cooked my dish for Rene's alternative thanksgiving. I made cactus + pork shoulder in a tomatilla sauce. The dish was passable with interesting flavors despite getting burned twice. Helped renee carve up the turkeys, enjoyed the food and passed out in a chair in his living room.

Now I'm home struggling to get a handle on work before I take off for DC on Thursday.

The holidays depress me for a lot of reasons I don't have eneryg to get into but between work and everything else I'm going to be too busy to notice this year.

Halloween costume

a few more photos here!

I need to make a matching mask (tinting liquid latex is a pain). Feedback? Thoughts? Suggestions?

I was going for wow, but I've kinda run out of steam with it.

final urban exploration of the year

Yesterday I braved the cold (and cops, dust, debris and other fun) to go urban exploring in the long abandoned Michigan Central Depot in Detroit.

Full photos are here. I wasn't the principal photographer and some of my more stylist comrades dressed up for the occasion. It's an interesting contrast between urban decay and gucci sheik. I told one comrade that if he was going to break the fashion rules to break them big. I think he accomplished it with the pink tie and silver shoes.

The Depot is really surreal in a lot of ways. There's an insane amount of busted marble even after all of these years and despite graffeti being on every vertical surface (and there's a LOT of vertical surface), you can't help think back to what it was like in Detroit haydays. It was every bit as awe inspiring as Grand Central Station (NYC) or Union Station (Chicago).

Amusingly there are a few photos of a wedding party that parked out front to take photos of themselves with the station in the background.

I wish they could do something with this station, it would make killer lofts, but it's unlikely they'll do anything other than tear it down and even that probably won't happen.

business cards
I have some fun new business cards from Moo.com.

The truly cool thing about them is they have my picture on the back. And not just any picture, but I have a selection of five different pictures. (got get them all.)

On a more serious note if you want to check it out they have packs of free 10 sample business cards for FREE for first time customers. Go here!.

self perception check
Poll #1466966 perceptions of me?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

Do you think Andrew is a:

View Answers

Glass half empty kinda guy
0 (0.0%)

someone who thinks the glass is half full
9 (75.0%)

Hell if I know.
3 (25.0%)

big house big run

Pics from my first 10k are here!

I got up mega early to do my first 10k on Sunday morning. I was amazed at the number of people there, parking was a fiasco and I got into line just to hear Mary Sue Coleman (who walked the 10k).

I was amazed at the number of people who show, the sheer volume was impressive. It was cold and my asthma flared intensely at the start of the run. That said by the time we reached the diag it gave up the ghost and I was doing better. Back down around the stadium for the second time around the loop and my right foot/ankle went numb (no clue why). I walked and ran until it stopped and finally looped back through and into the stadium for the finale. 1:08, not what I was hoping for but good enough. I got to see myself on the jumotron. The stadium seemed smaller (perhaps it's just empyier). It started to rain as I watched the 5k'ers off (includng a friend who'd just done the 10k) and put my warm hoodie on just as it started to rain.

I had some bannanas and a slice of pizza and went home to crash. Today I feel like I'm a 100 years old (sore everywhere, stiff and low energy).

That said, while I'm not sure I've reached the point I'd call myself a runner, I'm not giving up on it yet.

Bar column for September
It's up here! Feedback is APPRECIATED!

I can post the photos from gigis last night or the think to the full photos from R&R Sat (you can figure it out from the thumbnails if you're really curious).

Triathalon Photos
Some photos of me from the triathalon that show'd up on a professional site.

Me at the finish!

Me at the swim

Me getting on the bike.

on the bike

I wish getting digital copies from these guys wasn't so expensive.

UPDATE: Links fixed so their absolute (and work now).

My First Triathalon

Wednesday evening I did the final triathalon in the Running Fit Dinosaur series. While it was the third in the series it was my first triathalon.

My photos are Here!

In the water shots I'm the second person from the left with my back to the camera. And I'm behind the running women exiting the water.

My time over all was 1:39:49 well under my 2 hour goal. I was the 400th person in out of 474. That said I was third from last in the 40-45 year old age group.

All of my times during the competition were better than in practice. Swimming was 17:19 (.5 mile), biking was 41:48 (12.3 miles) and running was 37:20 (3.2 miles). My first transition was 2:02 (swim to bike) and the second was 1:21 (bike to run). Formal results are here!

I'm very happy with the results, I was only competing with myself. WIth a month more training I could've probably knocked 10 minutes off my time but that's about it. The bike ride demonstrated that I'm really not competitive. Although it was occasionally interesting to pass people who'd been condescending when I passed them going up hill for the third time.

The swimming was a bit of a surprise, I had to jog back to the car in my flip flops to get my swim cap (I hate them), they're mandatory (wish I knew this) I almost missed my wave going out (I was in the 5th one).

Lesson #1, (put the tracking / timing chip snuggling around your ankle) I'd put it up higher on my calf and it slid down and had serious drag during the swim (and I was nervous I was going to loose it).

Lesson #2, when swimming follow the women. The guys are all over the place but the women seem to travel in a straight line between the buoys.

I was about 2/3'ds of the way back in my back exiting the swim. I neglected to dry my foot off enough during the transition and had a wet sock that lead to a blister during the biking (weird place for a blister thankfully wasn't an issue with the running).

The biking was hard for the first 4 miles then my body adjusted and it got easier. It was hillier than I ancitipated but nothing too bad. I got passed a lot early on but kept my pace up and passed people later. I could've done it faster but I wanted to have some energy for the run.

Lesson #3, take your time during the transitions (to avoid blisters if nothing else).

The running just sucked. I don't know how else to describe it, my asthma had flared up, I had muscles spasming all over the place and my feet where killing me. I owe my thanks to a very nice 53 year women old with new replacement knees who encouragedme and effectively verbally dragged me much of the final 1.2 miles. Rich missed taking a photo of me finishing because I was about 5 minutes earlier than he expected.

I largely was in a vegetative state for awhile after that until Rich found me and we headed out.

I'm mildly surprised I've accomplished the hardest of my three exercise goals for the summer (doing a triathalon). And I was 100% self motiviating. I did all of the practice run's by myself and had a pushed myself to do this. i very much appreciated Rich being there and cheering me on.

Update on life
My bar column for August is up. I'm unsure if it's worth to keep doing it. Perhaps I'm just under the weather.

The previous post with links to Detroit bars. If it's not clear we have so many gay bars in Detroit because they're dives and it doesn't require a lot of capital to open one nor do yo have to have a lot of $$ coming in to stay in business. Gigi's makes enough $$ on a Monday night to stay open the rest of the week (and their Fridays are almost as good). Additioanlly the cops have other things to do than harass you (although you may have to pay them off from time to time.)

I love my friends who all scored better than my 90% on the quiz of where states are in the middle east. I still can't believe a public school teacher could get less than 50% but oh well.

BTW, the photos from my party (unedited unlike the facebook ones) are up here! I don't have the energy to pull out best off thumbnails.

Work continues to be stressful but I'm in problem solving mode with it which helps. I'm also off early tomorrow until late Wed. I'm going up to Lake Ann to chill with family for 5 days. That said I suspect I'll be drinking. I need to find a period when I'm not going to drink for awhile. See folks next week.

Detroit
Referring to this post.

I don't know whether to be scared or happy. I've been to all of those bars and I've been considered at regular at at least two (likely still am for the eagle).

At various points in the past (even the recent past) Detroit has had more gay bars than Chicago. I suspect it's fairly obvious why.

Middle east
So take this geography quiz of the middle east and see how you do.

http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/MidEast.html

I was talking to a friend who teaches history and lit, and was appalled by his lack of geography in the middle east. Perhaps my expectations are off. I managed to score 90% my first time (I keep thinking Turkmenistan should be next to turkey, and I have a tendancy to confuse syria/jordan and oman/yemen). But as much as this area has been in the news I'd like people in the US should be able to find IRAQ on a freaking map.

That said I may be somewhat of a hypocrite as my ability to find things in South American and Central America really sucks (under 50%). And I was travelling there last year.

That said all of this was started by this post about fox news. At the time I was what do you expect it's fox news.

It's not art and it's not fair (no really)

Photos I took from the Ann Arbor art fair are here!

The aerial views are from the belltower or the maynard street parking structure (actually I have a few from the top of the one behind the MLB too and one from the map library of the law quad).

The perennial favorites included the wax worker, the lady with the stuffed animals and Kathleem Eaton (who's art I'd have if I could afford it).

I wish I could've gotten a pair of white cons decorated by comic book artists Matt Byle (mattbyle.com) but he was swamed with kids and I just wasn't feeling assertive enough. Some interesting sports (yeah I know) related work by Peter Katke <www.americanlandscapestudio.com) and some weird introspective photos of graffeti by Xavier Nuez (www.nuez.com). The animals made of nails were missing and I wish I'd taken a photo of the big picture that was all "No Art Fair parking" signs (Genius).

photos again, from DC

The photos I took in DC are here!

Most photos of fireworks, a few of the DC boys of leather and co. The later pictures on the page I played with more both in pre and post editing. I'm actually pleasantly suprised with the results.

BTW, Does anyone want to see the Harry Potter premiere at midnight Wed night? If I get enough people we can meet at my place before hand for drinks!

Necto boys of summer

The photos I took at necto's Boys of Summer contest last Friday night are up here!

It was fun to see Robert as usual. I had a fun time with Rich. Saw a few people. The contest was fun but I left early enough that I don't actually know who one.

My photography is a tad sub par, but you try taking decent photos sans flash, in a club with a vibrating floor, where people are jostling you, you've been drinking and your bf keeps grabbing you ;_P

Phototime, Drag queens, barbacks and noodle dancers

Catching up on my photo backlog. The insane # of photos I took at the Metra picnic are here!

Metra picnic was the usual fun, nice weather not to hot, not too cold. Got nicely buzzed (although not enough to effect my photography apparently). The olympics were fun, the drag show was excellent, second show Niki came out with a cane in a blind dress singing "when will is see you again", much later another performer came out saying "we need a hero' in a spongebob costume.

Chico was absent but Nickolai DJ'd quite successfully in his place and De Angela Shannon's outfit was over the top.

stuff
Fireworks video I took with my iphone during the fireworks in DC on the 4th.

You can do all three at once for a even more fun effect.

In upcoming news, NECTO boys of summer this Friday. I'm hoping to make it out (despite having a 100 mile bike ride at 7am on Sat.) Sunday is the Metra PIcnic on the opposite side of detroit (it's insanely fun in a lot of off beat ways). And of course next Wed evening midnight preview of the new Harry potter movie. Let me know if you're interesting in ANY of the three events.

WWDC

While I was in SF, I attended the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Mascone West. It's where they announce all of the apple stuff. Photos are

Sunday night I checked in, had dinner/drinks with

brnlahze and then went to Marlenas (drag bar) for a dead night.

Monday I was up bright and early to stand in line for the keynote (starting at 6:30am). I had a nice chat with the guy who wrote the WalkJobRun app on the iphone. Eventually we got stopped for about 20 minutes waiting just in front of you door. As a result my photo ended up on endgadget, I was in the background for an interview on fox 13 and I was also in several flickr photos of the iPorn girls who arrived at that point.

The key note was fun, but I didn't get too close. I actually ordered my new iphone (i get to go get tommorrow) during the key note on my old 2g iphone. That said I was on the lower spectrum end of drinking the Apple Cool Aid. Sessions were interesting. But the conference was dominated by iphone App developers. I had lunch with my ex-roomate patrick on Monday as well. Lots of higher ed guys didn't show because it sold out so quickly.

Tuesday was fun, tons of food (I swear they give you odwalla juice and high caffeine sugar snacks everytime you turned around). Also went to several after parties.

Wed I was fried early in the morning. At lunch I got kicked out by security after playing on a guys skateboard at the top of mascone west. The problem was I didn't have my ID badge. After a frantic search I discovered I'd left it in the hotel room and had been walking around all day without it. They didn't notice until I was making a spectacle of myself.

They had a 5x4 big screen TV wall showing 20k of the 50k apps the app store is selling and whenever one sold it would blink. It was cool but difficult to get near the entire conference.

Thursday night was the big shindig celebration. The band "Cake" performed and it was really entertaining. Free alcohol and lots of food too.

Friday was rough, conference ended, reorg news from work. But I managed to check out both the marriot and the top of the Mark which was nice.

The lunch sessions were fun, interesting to hear about ngmoco, a session of restoring the digital media of the origianlly lunar landings and the smule iphone video experts. Stump the geek was hilarious too.
i recommend WWDC for all apple fans at least once.

WWDC
Okay I confess, I ordered a new iphone (3GS) during the keynote address on my iphone (Is this ironic, sad, or entertaining?)

Why did I use my phone, because wireless during the keynote was foobarred beyond all recognition by having 50+ people tethering to their phones. I've never seen people advertising products at wireless network names before either.

The "Stump the Geek" session is hilarious (but if I ever come back I'm drinking ahead of time).

WWDC has 5,200 very very uber mac geeks at it. It's surprising in a number of ways. They have a mosiac on a group of monitors (6 I think) that has several thousand of the ICON's from the App stores and they each blink with a wave effect (like a stone dropped in a pond) everytime an app is purchased. I'll have to take a photo in front of it, but it really doesn't do it justice.

It's interesting, this many geeks, very very few of them smoke (there's never anyone outside smoking). Judging from music shared via iTunes I'm guessing there are a few more gays here than I'd suspect, but I only know 4.

The "W" hotel I'm staying in has holograms of cherry trees in the elevators (surreal when you've been drinking). I walked to the coit tower during lunch (only 1.5 miles each way but the last quarter mile is straight up hill) only to discover the elevator was busted.)

iphone users should check out the cute game app topple by ng:moco.