The Scary Face

Little Miss C. & E-man show their “scary face.”

Little Miss C. & E-man got stuck in an infinite loop wanting Unkie Rob1 to take photos, then immediately look at them. Being November 1st, many of the photos were Halloween themed. This was my favorite.

1 Disclaimer: I am not their biological uncle.

The Write-In

In early 2004 my state senator, Dan Rutherford, sent me (and presumably most/all other voters in my district) a questionnaire asking our opinions on various issues. Nice. As I read through the questions I became a little suspicious. I’m really good at taking multiple choice tests. These questions were leading to one specific right answer, which often was not the answer I would have chosen had the question been worded more neutrally. In many cases I chose the wrong answer. I included my email address in the provided space and I mailed it in.

He was kind enough to send me an email wishing me a happy birthday, but he also sent emails asking to help campaign for George W. Bush and various local Republicans. I don’t think I signed up for that.

When I received the 2004 election guide I was slightly disappointed to see that he was running unopposed, so my only option was to not vote in that race.

Instead, on a whim, I decided to run as a write-in candidate. It turns out this was more complicated than one would imagine. Write-ins have to actually register with the county clerk in order for the votes to get counted. Apparently when I did this the information somehow made its way to the local newspaper, who mentioned it. Additionally, since this race was larger than one county I would have had to register in other counties as well. That was more effort that I really wanted to devote to this endeavor, so I didn’t bother. I didn’t really know anyone in other counties in the district and I had no intention of campaigning. I was only doing this to give myself a choice (albeit and extremely unlikely one).

Now, who would vote for me? The biggest problem here was that I lived right on the edge of town, and the few blocks around me were in a different state senate district that the rest of town where all my friends lived. I sent email to a few people I knew informing them they could write my name if they wanted to. We voted. I didn’t ask anyone if they voted for me, but a few people told me they did. I did. Melissa did. One of Melissa’s professors did. A friend from the running club did. Well, that’s something.

The results came in. I officially received one vote.

One.

Vote.

Uhhhhhh.

So 25% (or possibly fewer) of my votes were counted? Yikes! Needless to say, I did not win the election.

The Indy Marathon Chase

“Whoa, check out that guy! He makes Speedy Gonzalez look like Regular Gonzalez!”Philip J. Fry

Melissa runs marathons. I chase them.

Saturday she ran the inaugural Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.

I rode my bike to several different places on the course to cheer her on and take pictures.

The marathon went rather well for Melissa, and as a result, less well for me. For you see, she ran so fast that half of the places where I went to watch the race I arrived too late and missed her. The first time it was clear that she had already passed so I didn’t wait around long. The remaining times I waited several minutes before I could be sure she had already passed.

We were both wearing GPS watches, so using that data I put together this animation using Mathematica that shows our locations throughout the race. Melissa’s path is blue, Rob’s path is red. It’s kind of funny to watch my red path wait around at a certain location while Melissa moves farther and farther away.

Update 2009-04-17: I have written an entry for my company blog showing in great detail how I made this movie.

The End of October

I spent much less time cycling in October and much more time running.

Run

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 90.18 Mile 8 11.2725 Mile
February 23.35 Mile 4 5.8375 Mile
March 53.6469 Mile 9 5.96076 Mile
April 49.3 Mile 8 6.1625 Mile
May 28.3569 Mile 7 4.05098 Mile
June 21.25 Mile 4 5.3125 Mile
July 47.7537 Mile 8 5.96921 Mile
August 29.24 Mile 4 7.31 Mile
September 43.0637 Mile 8 5.38296 Mile
October 97.91 Mile 9 10.8789 Mile
Total 484.051 Mile 69 7.01523 Mile

Swim

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 1.55448 Kilo Meter 2 0.77724 Kilo Meter
May 0 0 0
June 4.1148 Kilo Meter 5 0.82296 Kilo Meter
July 11.5446 Kilo Meter 10 1.15446 Kilo Meter
August 11.2774 Kilo Meter 8 1.40968 Kilo Meter
September 18.9329 Kilo Meter 13 1.45638 Kilo Meter
October 16.7335 Kilo Meter 6 2.78892 Kilo Meter
Total 64.1578 Kilo Meter 44 1.45813 Kilo Meter

Bike

October 2008

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 97.7 Mile 18 5.42778 Mile
Big Red 24.49 Mile 1 24.49 Mile
El Fuego 25.38 Mile 1 25.38 Mile
Pocket Rocket 143.77 Mile 10 14.377 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 37. Mile 1 37. Mile
Total 328.34 Mile 31 10.5916 Mile

January – October 2008

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 643.89 Mile 103 6.25136 Mile
Big Red 290.64 Mile 20 14.532 Mile
Dahon 164.63 Mile 29 5.6769 Mile
El Fuego 48.4 Mile 3 16.1333 Mile
Litespeed 334.465 Mile 13 25.7281 Mile
Pocket Rocket 971.405 Mile 50 19.4281 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 3071.76 Mile 86 35.7181 Mile
Total 5525.19 Mile 304 18.175 Mile