Things I don't understand

After walking through the breakroom today at work and hearing numerous people talk about the Kardashian divorce I started to realize that maybe I don't understand why or what is on people's minds these days.  In honor of being out of touch with current events I figured I'd make a list of some of the things that I still don't understand.

• Algebra- I get the basic concept of it but I don't get why you have to go through 3 years of something that doesn't matter once you graduate.  In today's modern world a simple class in excel learning pivot tables and formulas does a lot more good than memorizing the quadriatic equation does.
• Reality TV- We spend more time watching people cook than actually cooking, watching people remodel their bathroom than learning what a drywall screw is, or seeing people put forth physical effort in the woods than just walking outside.  The parrells' between that and idiocracy are phenominal.  
• StarF***ing- These days there seems to be a lot of focus on what celebrities are doing, but not a real focus on how their life is going.  Spending mental drain and effort on things that play absolutely no part in your real life confuses me.
• Debating Gay Marriage- This issue is something the media plays up, yet I don't know one persona that has any sort of objection to it.  It's 2011, most of us work with and know numerous gay people and don't care at all if they marry.  Even the hardened religious types I know don't care because now they have a face and someone they know who is gay.

That's about it for now- I've got a pork loin I'm cooking and I need to get ready for work tomorrow.

A strange 5 days...

In the last 5 days it's been a very interesting time in my life.  It started with a trip to LA and ended with the announcement that my company, Morgan Stanley, has sold the division that I work in to Ocwen.

 LA- The trip was awesome.  It was a lot different than I thought it would have been since Cris, Maily, Nate, and Josue were all there as well.  Torr was our guide and the trip was centered around food and sights.  Friday was filled with numerous stops of amazing architecture and art deco sights from the early 20th century.  the restaurant that we went too was originally a theater so the ceiling (listed below in white) had so much detail to it.  The food... man was it stellar-

Ceiling of Mas Malo

So far there hasn't been a lot of news about the sale.  Right now about all I know is from what I read about on the net and lets just say the details were speculative at best.  I have about as much re-assurance as I can get at this time that I'll be heavily involved in the transition portion until the sale is supposed to be completed at the end of February.  At that point I'll see what my options are.  I have some more info and plans that I can't go into but once the options are more public I'll be able to talk about them more.

The LA Skyline

Ed Helms and Mark Maron at UCB

Breakfast at the Standard

Julie and Cris on Venice Beach

Best Fish Taco's Ever!!!

We all have strange days, this was one of them

Today was the day of strange quotes.  I'm not sure what the heck was going on but it sure was a weird one to hear what some people were overheard.  Here are the ones I could remember-

"I shaved my legs this week and started a diet.  I'm becoming a woman"- late 30's frumpy woman from work

"I'm wearing deodorant, but since I didn't shower yesterday I didn't re-apply" - same frumpy woman from above in response from her co-worker asking if she smelled a strong vinegar smell.  It was also in the break room at work where someone was making fish.

Damn... wish i could remember more of them from earlier.  This wasn't so much a quote, but a strange occurrence.     All day long I was emailing Kristin at work on a project.  After a little while i noticed the context of the emails did't seem very feminine.  Later in the day I had a meeting and found out why.  Kristin is a middle aged black man who pronounces his name "Christian".  There has to be a lot of bitter emotions towards his parents or the nurse that spelled out his birth certificate.

Texas OU and the weekend that started to suck since Friday

Texas OU weekend usually sets my state of emotional happiness for a good week.  If UT wins I'm in a euphoric state that lasts well into Sunday night and carries me through until the next weekend.  With that little bit of info I'll start with Friday night....
Friday
I was supposed to meet 3 separate groups of people out at New West to see Gary Hobbs.  New West is a Tejano country bar so to say I would be out of my element is a huge understatement.  One of my friends was going to meet me here first but she had to get her tires changed in Garland and it took about 2 hours longer than she thought so i was going to meet everyone there.  The arranged time was 9:00 and being accustomed to WPT I showed up at 8:50.  By 10:30 Vicki text and had decided to bail- Joe was being lame and I hadn't heard from Nora.  So at 11:15 I left the Tejano bar after waiting at a table and being propositioned by over 45 year old divorcee's.  Total damage was $12 cover for the concert I didn't see and 3 Coors lights at $1.75 each.  Once I got on the 75 and 635 mixmaster Nora txt and had just arrived.  I was just about to turn around and head back to meet her when my passenger side rear tire blew.  So I exit, hang out and wait for Triple A to change my tire.  The full size spare was already used when I purchased the vehicle and the previous owner didn't replace it so I had the slightly smaller dounut. With this recent chain of events I decided to head up to a closer spot and meet some friends that were at Logan's.

Logan's was a lot of fun and I saw some old wakeboard friends that I hadn't seen in a long time.  One of them asked if I could take him and his girlfriend home and of course I obliged.  Once we left at 2:00 and hoped on Bush he told me that he now lives off Renner and 75, no longer off frankfurt and tollway.  For those not familiar with Dallas this means I'm now driving 30 miles out of the way on a dounut tire.  Needless to say I got home about 4am....
Saturday
Dropped the car off at NTB for a new tire, Texas lost miserably... The End

Sunday
Still in a funk from Texas losing....

Tim Ferriss is a Genius and some other tidbits

10/1- Weight 208, last week- 214
In a week I went from 214 to 208.  I know all the tricks and when to weigh yourself, I was a personal trainer before and learned a good number of ways to manipulate the system.  Since I've been able to start working again I started doing more cardio and focusing on my diet.  After coming across Tim (I detailed the history) and starting in on his diet plan I've dropped a great amount of real weight.  I also started in on adding a tablespoon of almond butter every night before bed.

I hoped on an outdoor team for a tournament that's coming up in a few weeks.  It'll be the first time that I've played since the tear in my knee.  After ridding 10 miles off road Saturday I had to ice it on Sunday for a good deal.  I don't think it helped either standing for a good amount of time at Jordan's party or with Joe later that night watching the Rangers game.  All in all I'm very happy about playing, I just hope my lack of cardio doesn't hurt the team and I'm able to have a good range of movement for the games.

Ranger up 2-1 on Devil Ray, Cowboy implodes on the 4th, Man U wins record 19th at home...

Test Ride of the new 29'er

This morning I went out to Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine to give my new bike a good test.  Also to see how I would fare since I haven't ridden for any length of time in over a year.  I started out on the trail about 8:45.  There were already a good number of people out there ridding but it didn't feel crowded by any means.  There were a few groups of riders out there hauling ass through the singletrack but it was a good ride in the section that I was in.

I had one good fall when I didn't judge the distance between two trees appropriately and drilled my left bar end against the tree throwing me to the ground.  It caused my crank arm to spin up and slam into my shin too during the fall.  Not the most pleasant experience that I've had but after a calf tear and peiliteal tear this wasn't much.  I had another incident of riding through some thorn bushes while letting a faster rider pass me.

The bike did really well throughout the ride.  I had a lot of fun with the ride.  It was a tad over 9 miles long and really did me in.  I can't wait to get back out there during the week and again next Saturday though.

 Next week it will be a lot more fun with more trails to bomb down and a ton more energy to knock those miles out.