Where I've been.

As much as I love travel, I've only seen a small percentage of the world. Hoepfully, my dad will complete this map and I can show you how many more places he's been than me.


visited 10 states (4.44%)
Create your own visited map of The World



visited 38 states (76%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

How to play the piano like Phillip Glass

I like his style of piano. I used to think I didn't like piano, but I've changed my mind about that. How about Mad World, used for a Gears of War ad. It's by Gary Jules, but is a musical cousin to Phillip Glass, no?

Lucky 13

My brother, Andrew Schmid, completed his 13th Detroit Free Press Marathon on October 18th.

Andrew has a propensity for getting media attention. He was in last years highlight video and this year, he's in the audio. If you go to the FreePress Marathon page, you'll hear him (at 12 seconds in) exclaim, "Relief! Relief! Just glad it's over. Train more next year". Now you have to realize he just ran a 3:20:39 marathon and ran the last mile hard to make sure he qualified for the Boston Marathon.

He made last year's marathon highlight reel on Channel 7 WXYZ, receiving his finishing medal while the reporter says, "an accomplishment they'll carry with them forever".

I asked him about his propensity to get media attention,above thousands of potential rivals. I suggested he should try to get on Reality TV. His response "I was just filling the balloon for Bethany (his youngest)."

Andrew's only regret this year is losing to fellow Michigan grad, and Haslett resident, Nick Stanko.

Watch my nephew fight crime.

He's the one shown alone and then with another officer on the Omaha news.

Crash for Clunkers

An entertaining and creative way to deal with old cars, boats, buses, and bailers via USA Today.

Have we ever had to digitize that many bums before?

Are ultra-endurance athletes out of their minds

That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger is a 2006 New York Times story by DANIEL COYLE on Jure Robič, now four-time Race Across America Champion, and the brain-body fatigue system.

Read the whole thing. For those who like excerpts, here you go.

The last days are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages. Occasionally, Robic leaps from his bike to square off with shadowy figures that turn out to be mailboxes. In a 2004 race, he turned to see himself pursued by a howling band of black-bearded men on horseback.

‘‘By the third day, we are Jure’s software,’’ says Lt. Miran Stanovnik, Robic’s crew chief. ‘‘He is the hardware, going down the road.’’

‘‘That is our method,’’ Stanovnik says. ‘‘When Jure cannot go any more, he can still go. We must motivate him sometimes, but he goes.’’

In this dual-brain system, Robic’s mental breakdowns are not an unwanted side effect, but rather an integral part of the process: welcome proof that the other limiting factors have been eliminated and that maximum stress has been placed firmly on the final link, Robic’s mind. While his long-term memory appears unaffected (he can recall route landmarks from year to year), his short-term memory evaporates. Robic will repeat the same question 10 times in five minutes. His mind exists completely in the present.

From the time of Hippocrates, the limits of human exertion were thought to reside in the muscles themselves ...

‘‘It was as if the brain was playing a trick on the body, to save it,’’ says Timothy Noakes, head of the Cape Town group. ‘‘Which makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. In fatigue, it only feels like we’re going to die. The actual physiological risks that fatigue represents are essentially trivial.’’

Fatigue, the researchers argue, is less an objective event than a subjective emotion — the brain’s clever, self-interested attempt to scare you into stopping. The way past fatigue, then, is to return the favor: to fool the brain by lying to it, distracting it or even provoking it.

If you suffer from vertigo. you shouldn't go ...

... to the new Sears Tower all-glass observation balcony. The imagines let you know what your getting yourself into.

Saluting our pyrotechincal heroes

Rhett and Link's salute to our pyrotechnical heroes.
If you can keep a straight face, I salute you, too.