Friday, January 25, 2013

Nico Nico Douga Download

After dealing with some hardware failures, I finally got around to grabbing some more music. In addition to the tracks below, I also finally ripped my copy of ODDS&ENDS, which I've had sitting in its box for a number of months.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Life Cycles

I've noticed a long-term cycle that repeats through my life; unlike many of the most obvious ones, its period is typically months in length.

  1. Life goes pretty smoothly for a while and I handle things as they come.
  2. Something has a more significant impact on me, which starts small but slowly cascades to cover more and more of my thoughts. Unchecked, it very slowly, but usually, consumes me.
  3. My mind enters a turbulent period full of anxiety and discomfort. I feel mentally ill and the need to escape from everything.
  4. Often with help from someone, the issue is resolved. It could be that I finally get the result I want, or that I have some sort of epiphany that calms all of the anxiety.
  5. I slip into a new norm where everything goes smoothly. Oftentimes, I must discard elements from the previous smooth period in order to get everything "just right." I always feel like I've learned something new, either about myself, or something or someone else.
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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Lazy Sunday

I feel like I got absolutely nothing done today.

Walked over Queen Anne

On my ~4.1 mile walk, I took some pretty sweet photos with my new camera. Below is just the cover image.

Walking Insight

After that, I put together a blog post comparing walking versus driving and how it changes our perspective on transportation.

Farmers' Market

I did my normal Sunday thing, but also got some fancy soaps while there!

Friendship Insight

It'd take too long for me to go over everything, but the key lesson learned here is that people other than me also try to glean more meaning from what others say than what those others originally intended. I no longer feel so alone in the world!

Random Photos

My new camera inspired me to take some random photos of elements of my life, too.

Vegetable Roast

And, of course, tasty food for the week!

Yep; I'm lazy.

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Walking versus Driving

Our paths when driving versus walking are different, which causes a few differences:

  1. Our paths take us through different areas not centered on pushing automobiles around.
  2. The types of paths we value are different; most people don't like walking along six-lane highways with cars constantly zooming by.
  3. The way we perceive distances changes a bit.

Just a random observation I've noticed through my every-day life, brought about memories which resurfaced from something I did this morning.

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Friday, November 30, 2012

Facebook Over the Years (Fixed)

As it turns out, I forgot to account for the timezone offset in my previous post.

This next chart shows how many posts I made in each hour of the day over the past six years.

Unlike last time, I also created this fancy chart, which compares the hourly of each year. Since it's a bit messy, I still include the per-year hourly charts, though they are corrected as well.

There are some more charts after the jump.

Read more »
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Monday, November 26, 2012

Nico Nico Douga Download

Another uneventful download. I really like the 君の知らない物語 cover (YouTube) here.

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Last Saturday

Since everyone keeps asking, I decided to create this blog post to contain most of the details of what happened. I would've used Storify, except I wanted to host some photos on here and wanted to keep it outside of a 'normal' social network.

Saturday

This pretty much summarizes how the bicycle ride that led up to the incident started:

My original plan for today was to hang out at one of the many local cafés, but then I realized that would've been a pointless endeavor.

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 24, 2012

Instead, I'm biking around Lake Washington. twitpic.com/bg49zi

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 24, 2012

Oh boy, time to start heading north! twitpic.com/bg4k9v

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 24, 2012

About 32 miles in, near SR-520, I went down:

It looks like I only managed to do around 32 miles before going down.I really should've brought food for this ride. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 26, 2012

I'm almost certain I went down somewhere along one of these orange lines. #cycling twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 26, 2012

I was taken to the ER at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue.

I don't really remember the details of when I was out aside from the world seeming like a dream (like every concussion I've ever had), but I ended up with some wraps on my elbows and knee (just one knee), as well as stitches in my upper lip and just below my right eye. Oh, and a tetanus shot.

I've seen better days. twitpic.com/bg6lz7

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

My father picked me up and brought me to their place for supervision, since I had a concussion after all. Once there, he fixed my glasses for me, since one of the bits of the frame was twisted.

My father fixed my glasses. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

#stitches twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

Sunday

It's the next morning, and I have inflammation under my eye. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I gave some thought to my current situation.

I'm thankful for: no broken bones; health insurance; family who can watch over me after I maim myself.

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I'm also thankful for friends who care enough to come running when bad things happen.

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I think a large part of the cause of the incident was allowing my blood sugar to drop enough to affect my thinking ability.Living is hard.

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

Considering this is me, I was obviously concerned about the status of my bicycle. My father and I, at my persisted demanding, went to the Kirkland Fire Department headquarters, which is closed on the weekends. I then looked into all of the fire stations, until I merely guessed that Fire Station #22 was the one we wanted based on the memories I was still piecing together. That was indeed the right fire station, however my bike had been taken to the hospital. We ended up going back there.

Thankfully, it was pretty much undamaged aside from a few minor scratches.

Thank goodness I know how to take it apart, since it's too big to fit in my father's car.

And after that and some nausea, I was home.

Back home.My father's driving styles leaves me nauseated, but I still really appreciate what he's done.

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

Since the worst was all over, I just went about my normal Sunday: farmers' market shopping, bread baking, and so on. I also set up plans to take Monday off, since I definitely couldn't handle the mental stress of work yet. I also went over everything that had transpired and made the above maps.

Oh yeah, I also got a new helmet since the old one could be potentially bad. This one is a tad larger and doesn't cut off blood flow like the old one did.

I like how my new helmet isn't too small. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…

— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I leave you with the following lesson I've learned multiple times.

Some other lessons:

  1. Don't get hopped up on caffeine before riding.
  2. Eat enough for the ride. I've done 56 miles at once before, but always with food along the way. I didn't eat anything on this ride.
  3. Drink enough for the ride. I've gotten better at that, but the caffeine likely dehydrated me on this ride.
  4. Get a larger helmet than the 'normal' sizes because my head is larger than 'normal.'

I already learned the lesson of not 'forcing' myself up hills, and to not be 'too proud' to downshift.

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