life hereafter

I was reminded of this little bit of Internet oddness today. A while back I received a call from my college rowing coach telling me to go to Google and search for ‘rowing machine‘. The first sponsored result that comes up is rowingmachines.com. A site which once it popped up looked very very familiar to me. So familiar in fact that I realized I was their header logo.

Don’t believe me? Here I’ve included a link to a photo of me racing The Spirit of Scotland at the national championships in 2006.

So this site obviously cropped, reversed and blew up my picture all without contacting me. I’m not sure what to do. Do I contact the site and demand payment? The picture is from the backside, so is it just in the public domain? I do like the fact that I am a bit internet famous, even if no one can really tell it is me.

I have been in St. Louis, MO for the past week on business (training). I really underestimated the freaky weather they get here. On Sunday it was snowing, on Monday it was sunny but cold, Tuesday brought warm weather, Wednesday was raining and very cold, and Thursday was just plain foggy.

St. Louis has been… an… interesting city. It is home to the International Bowling Museum! Really, this place exists, and it is in St. Louis, MO! So pack up the kids and come check it out.!I’m sure there are some great pictures, and statues, and…. bowling balls in there… I’m not quite sure, I didn’t go in…

While you are here, you can see the largest man made monument in North America. The St. Louis Arch! Gateway to the west. The Arch is actually pretty cool. In the 1960’s they built an elevator into the Arch which will take you to the top. The only thing is that people in the 1960’s must have been a lot smaller than people in 2008. The “pods” had seats for five people, but in actuality, they really fit about two average Americans. The view from the top was really amazing. On the one site you have a great view of St. Louis and Clayton, MO. On the other, you have a rather boring view of East St. Louis, IL. It’s funny how a river can really socially depress part of a metropolitan area.

On Tuesday night we decided to check out the local casino (Lumiere Place). Apparently in Missouri there is a law on the books which states “an individual may not have a net loss of more than $500 in any odd numbered hour.” This boils down to the casino giving you a card which tracks your winnings and losses at each table and slot machine. If you approach $500 in any given odd numbered hour, you are flagged and must wait until two hours for the card to reset.

Talk about a State making it hard for it’s people to gamble their lives away!

I forgot one of the most important rules of business travel last night. If you are 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean, do not order the seafood. That was the grossest lobster ravioli I have ever had.

On another note, it was quite disconcerting this morning to notice that my shower head was different than my shower head yesterday.  Yesterday, it was black and had one head. Today it was silver and had two. Really threw my newly developed morning routine off.

What in the name of Colonel Harland Sanders is going on at KFC? The chain built by his secret recipe for fried chicken is about to give equal billing to, gulp, grilled chicken.

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Looks like KFC has finally jumped on the “lets not be fatties anymore” band wagon. Lame. I enjoy my fried chicken, and I don’t need the name of my favorite fried chicken place all mucked up because they are now serving grilled chicken!

I am currently very disappointed with Human Zoom. I was attempting to add a front brake to my new bike today and realized that I didn’t have the proper tool to cut and crimp the brake cables. No biggie, I figured I could shoot down to Human Zoom, pick up the tool and a new set of bar tape. Well, I arrive and the sales guy tells me they don’t see those kinds of tools in the store. I could order one, but it would take over a week to arrive. This is lame, and I reject his offer. I figure I might as well just get the bar tape, and have a friend cut and crimp the cable another day. This leads me to my real anger towards the store. The Bontrager bar tape they were selling is $18. Ridiculous for some cork. The cheapest no name brand they were selling was $15.99. I could get the same stuff or better online for $5.

Human Zoom, you have disappointed me for the last time.

Now I’m left with a bike with no bar tape, and half a brake system. Sweet.

episode 31 of in treatment feels strangely familiar.

Well, at least the State of Pennsylvania received my tax return. I realized this as I saw my check has cleared the bank. Unfortunately tax refunds don’t happen as fast as tax collections…

Where’s that rebate check…