March 2007 Archives

The title is in in reference to my legs. I shaved them today for the first time after a bunch of mixed feelings, and the result is... a bunch of mixed feelings. The idea of shaving my legs has come up before, but I've always considered it a ridiculous idea - one I'd likely never do. So what made me change my mind? I've got 3 reasons:
1) Cyclists usually shave their legs. I ride with some guys at work who have their legs shaved and I was the hairy exception. So, even though I'm not at all hard-core, part of my attempt to be a cyclist was to be like the others.
2) Wounds. Why do cyclists shave? Perhaps a little for aerodynamics, but the main reason is because if/when you crash, the hair really makes things like wound care messy and an even greater pain. (ha! a pun)
3) PT&T. Physical Therapy and Tape. This is what pushed me to actually shave, instead of just laughing at the idea. I've gone to a PT a couple of times to try to help my knees, which often cause pain and discomfort. Yesterday, the PT was trying to tape my patellas in such a way as to force them down and in, where they were supposed to be. The tape wouldn't stick well to the skin because of all the hair, and when I'd move the leg, it would try to yank out clumps of hair on my leg - not the most pleasant sensation. I've had similar problems before when trying to tape bandages, etc.So now they're shaved. It took much longer than I thought, partly because I had pretty hairy legs and partly because I'm new to this. At the end, there was a large pile of hair and I know some tricks. I also have a bit of empathy and lots of sympathy for women having to shave their legs. What do I think now? It's still weird. They look like much different legs and when I was putting some lotion on to minimize the burn, it seemed like I was applying them to someone else's legs. Ewww. It's an interesting feeling, but became really weird when I put a pair of jeans on. But, I'm sure I'll get used to the feel and I might as well keep it up for a while to make it worth it.

Update with a pic link:
This one's for you JC. I removed the thumbnail here 'cause it was weirding me out. Click on this link for the pic and please notice the exceptionally fine tan line!

Here's an updated, photo of the Draper LDS Temple under construction close to my house. I figured out why the last one was blurry - the camera was in macro mode. As you can see, we now have many of the second-floor walls up.

Mar 15, 2007:

To compare; Feb. 07, 2007:

How would life be without your cell phone? For some it's not a problem because they don't have one. For me, it'd be really difficult. I'd feel naked. Same with living without email. What about Google? I started using Google when it was in beta long before it became a common verb and I never looked back. It's my most useful site. I find Google Maps to be indispensable as well, and much more powerful than the previous standard of Mapquest. In fact, I was surprised at how fast and complete my conversion was. It'd be great to have on my cell phone too, except that it requires more power than my phone can take.So now come with me to the historical section of Philadelphia where I just was. I had seen the sites and was hungry, determined to have a famous Philly Cheesesteak. A friend had recommended Jim's as the best, but I couldn't find South Street for the life of me as it wasn't on the little map I had, but I tried. I had my iPod with me, so I sang as I walked and walked and walked, all over. No luck, so I finally went to Campo's which I had passed earlier and was supposed to be good. It was, but as I was sitting down eating my food, I felt challenged and went to Google (I'm fortunate enough to have web browsing on my phone) to type in a query for Jim's. However, that's when I saw a simple text string under the Google logo that said, "Maps on Windows Mobile." My interest was immediately piqued. I followed the link and it automatically identified my phone model and gave me a link to download and install Google Maps for my phone. It couldn't have been easier. Once installed, I pulled it up and I just have to say it's friggin' awesome! I wish I were a teenage girl and could justify a dozen exclamation points there. :) It's much faster than I would have thought and very simple to move around with my stylus, just as with the mouse in a normal web browser. It also does GPS which would be seriously cool if I felt like shelling out a bunch of money for a GPS device for my phone. But anyway, Google gets a perfect 10 for this; I was seriously impressed and will now consider this app indispensable from now on. Kudos to Google!

I've been out in Maryland this week, and normally that's all well and good and there's not much to report. This time, however, I feel like rambling. Lucky you :)First though, an opinion on driving in general. My main rule of driving is:
Thou shalt drive so as to not impact traffic.
That implies a lot of things such as don't cut people off or make them brake. Also, if you are holding traffic up, even if you think you're going the "right" speed, you need to either speed up or get out of the way. A second rule that is a nice companion to the first is:
Thou shalt pay attention when driving.
I actually don't care if you are talking on a cell phone while putting on your pants, as long as you are paying attention and abiding rule #1 as well. In my opinion, there are too many oblivious drivers out there. And that brings me to DC. I-495 or the Capitol Beltway often demands that you pay attention when you drive. With lots of traffic and short on and off ramps, it can be exciting or terrifying. I've often been impressed with the few number of accidents I've seen in my numerous adventures near the 495. For some reason though, yesterday was different. I was traveling from northeast of Baltimore down to Bethesda, and I-95 seemed to have tons of accidents on the side of the road. Then, as I was returning about 11:30 last night I got one that prompted me to make a 911 call. I was traveling east on the 495 and came to the interchange to take 95 north, and as I was exiting, I thought I saw a couple lights about road level at the end of the gap/fork between the two now-diverging highways. I actually thought it was nice to have it marked with those lights, but as I passed the point, going fast, I realized the lights belonged to a car. As I kept driving, my mind processed a car off the road and thought it had just pulled off. Now well beyond the point, I belatedly realized the car was in a ditch with the front of the car all smashed in. There wasn't really any nice way to get back to the car, so I grabbed my phone and tried dialing 911. I couldn't even get through on my first three attempts (kinda scary, I think). On the fourth, I just had to mention "495" and "95 North" and the dispatcher asked if it was about a car in a ditch - they already new about it. Oh well - I tried to be a good citizen. Then a little bit later, I saw another driver that had driven right into the median and was stuck in a ditch in the middle. I guess my question is, is this common? Are there just a bunch of bad (drunk?) drivers here on the weekend? I was kind of surprised.

I've wondered some times about how annoyingly long voicemail introductions often are. I'd think people who could change it would try to make it better. Little did I know it's a conspiracy. Cell phone companies get to charge you for when you're listening to the message (because you're using air time listening to it). That's $$ in their pockets. On top of long vmail instructions, sometimes it's just inconvenient to dial into voicemail to retrieve a message. Well, technology is catching up and there are some promising solutions as mentioned in this article about ways to convert voicemail into email. I haven't tried any of the services yet, but it's tempting. One of the services costs $10 a month (probably too much for me), but the other, Spinvox will have a yearlong free trial. Just send an e-mail to [email protected].