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.

Tour de France preview

Either Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador are playing major head games with the competition or they are a team torn between two lovers ... I mean, riders. I'm excited to see how this race plays out, not just for Astana but in general.

If you'd like to follow the race on the web the official site is a good source of information. The live ticker is nice if you can't see the action on TV.

My favorite site is Steephill.tv, though. They have links to more resources including live tickers, streaming video links, TV schedules, last kilometer and daily highlight videos, stage profiles and maps.

The race is 21 days of racing plus 2 rest days, so if you're short on time, you can conserve time by focusing on key moments that will likely be decisive to who wins the overall competition, commonly referred to as general classification or GC. If you take the abridged approach, you will miss other aspects of the race, like competition for the king of the mountains and sprinter's jersey, and some stunning scenery, but if something exciting happens in the race, you can always watch the rebroadcast or catch it on your DVR.

Here are the dates and stages that should have impact on the overall victory.

Mountaintop Finishes
Mountaintop finishes are significant because riding is generally most aggressive when the roads turn upward and finish on top. When there is a subsequent descent, riders tend to get reeled back in on the descent or the flats after the descent.

July 11 Barcelona (Spain) → Arcalis (Andorra) 224km
July 15 Pontarlier → Verbier (Switzerland) 207km
July 25 Montélimar → Mont-Ventoux 167km

Time Trials
Time trails are a race against the clock with no drafting (hiding from the wind), with the exception of course of drafting behind your teammates in the team time trial.
July 4 - Individual Time Trial (ITT) 15.5 km
July 7 - Team Time Trial (TTT) 37 km
July 23 - Individual Time Trial 40.5 km

I'd love to say more but have to run. Viva le Tour.

FDA warns on Zicam use

The FDA is warning that Zicam can cause long term or permanent loss of smell. I know some of you are thinking, it would be OK if you smell less, but this is referring to your ability to sense scents. Here's the story.

via Noel's tweet

Best Car Review I've Ever Seen

Top Gear ‘Thoroughly Tests’ a Ford Fiesta

via DaringFireball.net

Moving

The Haslett Choirs sing this song after their final spring performance each year. It's not a traditional choral performance, they're all sitting on the floor facing the back of the stage while a slide show of captured moments of their times with HHS Choir. They invite alumni to come forward to sing along. It's a sort of send-off for the seniors. I'd cry at the performance every year if I had the courage to.



This is not their performance of the song, but they sound very similar. It's much more powerful live, knowing the people singing it and who they are singing it to.

If Everything Were Math

this New Math would be required material. True and amusing.

Tip of the hat to John Gruber.

Good Passing Makes it Look Easy

via Soccer-Training-info.com

I keep telling my players as our passing improves the game get easier. When you watch these highlights you think a team should be scoring on every possession. Enjoy!

Alpenhorn Hero

I've been hoping developers would extend the Guitar Hero idea to ther instruments. Finally Microsoft's seen the light and announced Alpine Legend. Now I can become the Alpenhorn Legend of my childhood dreams.

Get money to work, don't work for money

“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” - Walt Disney

This Disney quote was John Gruber's muse for his self-described dueling rant with Merlin Mann at SXSW earlier this month.

Another more powerful image John quotes in his summary that you will not quickly forget is from Jonathan Coulton.

But somewhere along the way the bottom line started improving, and I became less obsessed with tracking every little thing. Now I sort of think of the whole engine as a special genetically engineered cow who eats music and poops money — I have no idea what’s going on in its gut, and I have the luxury of not really caring that much about the particulars. […]

The state of the industry makes a lot more sense when you think of it this way, all these new business models rising and falling, internet radio choking on insanely high performance royalties, Radiohead and NIN giving stuff away and making a killing. This is the thing about the new landscape that drives everyone crazy: you can’t see inside the cow; you can only build one, feed it music, and wait for it to poop.

You can listen to John and Merlin's dueling rant here. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but can recommend it because these two never disappoint. John's summary is here.

Mia Hamm

Sarah and I have read a Matt Christopher book about Mia Hamm. She is an amazing person and an amazing player. Last time I went searching for Mia highlights they were sparse and the quality was marginal. Better fortunes today.

She exploited the smallest opportunity with such power. See for yourself.

Rendering

I have been reading on Riverview's chapter a weekday text since it started in January and it's been great. I prefer the hard copy rather to web site.

One of the best parts is reading the chapter before bed with Sarah. I'm not sure who's getting more out of it, her or me. When I read these familiar stories with her, it reminds me of the first time I read them in college and how incredible all of these happenings and Jesus' wisdom are.

Last night as we read we read Matthew 22.

Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested.They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Why are you trying to trap me? Here, show me the coin used for the tax.” When they handed him a Roman coin, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” His reply amazed them, and they went away.

It's easy to drive right by this one and see it as a snappy answer to a trick question designed to get Jesus arrested, but because the second half of Jesus' answer was pointed out to me in the past, I get stopped in my tracks by "give to God what belongs to God".

If it's made in Caesar's likeness, give it to Caesar. If it's made in God's likeness, give it to God. Our lives, our entire being is God's. Period. Without him, we would never exist. Without his constant aid, we are nothing. How deluded we are to think we can live "our own" lives. It was never ours, and never will be.

Give to God what belongs to God.

If this idea scares you, your not alone, it scares me too. I don't do it. I find every available excuse not to. The greatest help I've had in getting comfortable with the giving myself completely to God has come from John Piper. He passionately argues that God's greatest glory and our maximum joy are a unified point in space, not two ends of a continuum. Christian Hedonism, Forgive the Label, But Don't Miss the Truth is a good summary of the principle. You can spend quite some time plumbing the depth of this point, so be sure to bring your SCUBA tank.

The best error page ever

Adam Richardson says this is the best error page he has ever seen. I have to agree. The tone reminds me Douglas Adams, and Scott Eisensmith.

Who saw our economic crisis coming?

I find it useful to look back and see how the economic and market experts looked down there noses at the few who predicted that our spend and borrow cultur would eventually breakdown.

Peter Schiff was the first one to be brought to my attention but Schiller, Roubini,Larry Burkett, and Harry Dent also predicted economic trouble. It's interesting to look back and review their predictions, and differing rationales.

The most difficult question is how should I invest now? People are predicting 6 months to 10 years of recovery.

Congratulations, President Obama

Congratulations, President Obama. This is a historic moment for ort country on so many levels. I hope your girls like their new home. I pray that God protects you and gives you wisdom and courage.

My favorite recollection of the day came from Tom Brokaw. He reminisced on Reagan's departure, as Bush 43 flew away in the Marine Helicopter today. As Reagan flew over the White House one last time, he said to Nancy, "There's our old shack."