Me & My Not-So-Stupid Bike: Episode #5

Today marks the longest ride I've done on the bike so far.  Did a one-hour round trip on the Burke-Gilman.

And the only jerks were the swarms of gnats!!!

Me and My Stupid Bike: Episode 3 & 4

Day 3: Called on account of rain - I'm not hardcore.

Day 4: Past 20th and over almost to Sunset Park.  Rode just like 10 minutes North, then turned around and rode back downhill in half the time to the gym and did some weights for half hour and rode home.  Maybe I'm a little itsy bitsy hardcore.  It was a really nice night too!!

Me and My Stupid Bike: #1 & #2

I bought a bike this year.  I haven't ridden it really at all.  And I've come to realize that it's because... I'm scared to ride the stupid thing around the city.  However, because it was so expensive and because it's now summer time, I've made an (unbinding) agreement with myself to ride the stupid thing once a day in the hopes I'll get used to it and will no longer be so afraid of stupid people and their stupid cars and other stupid bike riders and stupid pedestrians who feel you're their own personal property and can therefore hurl stupid comments and accusations at you about how stupid of a bike rider you are.

Here's my bike - it has no name - we have yet to bond.

Day 1 Outin: RedBox to drop off I Am Number Four and retrieve Megashark vs. Crocosaurus.

Distance: Few blocks
Time: Maybe like 5 minutes

Day 2 Outin: Loop-de-loop (8th/Freddy's/Ballard)

Distance: 2.8 Miles

Time: 24 minutes - yes I'm slow.

#Jerks encountered: 0 (Yay!)

Mood: Oddly positive (Yay!)

Soundtrack to the Stories

When I write a story, I often try to find a song that embodies the mood I'm trying to convey and when I find it, I play it over and over, just put it on loop.  These were the songs that accompanied the recent stories I've written - and yes, Black Mountain is an awesome band:

Little Dove - "Queens Will Play" by Black Mountain
Purity - "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC and "Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden
Reunion - "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James
Leave the Light On - "Tyrants" by Black Mountain
Shades of Blue - "Skeletons" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People

Elliott Smith is also a good standby.  Although, sometimes it's a good plan to go for the complete opposite to keep one's sanity, in which case I end up writing to Judas Priest or something like MGMT

Reviving the 90's

Incoming - flood of 90's music nostalgia.  It started when I bought Belly's 'Star' album the other day and hasn't ended.  I'm on the lookout now for Greenapplequickstep's 'Reloaded' album which I may have to buy from some dude in the UK through E-Bay if I don't find it at Sonic Boom first.  All my 90's, well, then they were cassettes!, albums I'm calling back to me from the dusty floors of my apartment and music shops and probably other people's apartment floors where they've been neglected and waiting, yearning for me to find them again.

• Veruca Salt: American Thighs (have it on cassette, need it on CD);
• 7 Year Bitch: Viva Zapata (have it on cassette, need it on CD);
• Hole: Live Through This (have it)
• Greenapplequickstep: Reloaded (need it)
• Belly: King (have it)
• L7: Smell the Magic (have it)
• L7: Bricks Are Heavy (need it)
• Bikini Kill: I don't know the album, but (need it)
• Sleater-Kinney: as above (and need it)
• Pearl Jam: Vs (have it on cassette, need CD)

That's all I can think of at the moment.  I have to research to see what I've forgotten - remember what I had socked in the glove compartment of my first car, a white Toyota Tercel.  Grunge.  It's what made Seattle smolder like an exotic opium queen (though I know heroin was its real mistress) and coffee was served black and straight up, bars were dirty and black and sticky and smoky and full of angst.  That was the Seattle I moved here for.  Damn, I miss that bitch!  I MISS HER!!!

Dear Special K - I hope you get stampeded by a mob of angry women

What do Special K and Santa have in common?  Apparently they both think it's okay for him to be fat but not women.  And, can you blame them, I mean, look at how closely this woman resembles his chubby jolly self?





I unfortunately saw this commercial twice while working out at the gym (I'm quite thankful I no longer get TV at home), and then had to come home immediately and try to find whose ass at Kellogg's to kick, then post a blog with the commercial along with like: Dear Special K, FU!  But, I found this blog that was able to state things a bit more eloquently than I.  I couldn't find an actual address to contact someone at Kellogg's, so I settled for taking their online survey and telling them it would be nice if they could come into the 21st century and share the shame and guilt as aggressively toward men as they do women when it comes to weight seeing as how there are plenty of overweight men out there who could do with some shaming - let's spread it around!  And when asked why I wasn't able to find the proper nutritional value from their products and what could they do about that, I said, well you could stop using genetically modified foods for one, thanks!


http://hungrybloggers.com/news/another-kellogg-s-fail

Yours sincerely,
Hot and bothered and looking for your home address

Scarfhead

What’s with the old ladies and scarves tied around their heads? Do these scarves serve a function that surpasses hats? Here’s why I ask. I was riding the bus today and a lady got on the bus with a silky scarf tied around her head. Said scarf flopped down around the back of her head after about 30 seconds. It just got me wondering, not so much about the uselessness of the scarf, but this woman’s history of useless scarf wearing. I don’t wear scarves tied around my head. Somehow, I imagine these old ladies didn’t grow up wearing scarves tied around their heads either. So when did they decide, “I’m a Scarf Head?”

I grant you I’ve seen the head covers made of plastic. If it rains, the water’s going to run into your eyes and down your neck so again I have to use the word useless here. Not quite a Scarf Head, but still in the same species. “If I want to be a Scarf Head today, where would I even buy one of those plastic head wraps?” Is there some sort of senior head wrap cartel – you have to know a lady who knows a lady? Or, are there these specialty stores that magically appear to you when you’ve surpassed a certain age, kind of the way fairies and imaginary friends are only visible to the very young. I hope that’s the case. I want to fit in.