Monthly Archives: March 2010
on marriage
From the Post, and article on marriage. The statistic of half of all marriages ending in divorce is often cited, but for first marriages, the percentage is less, though still high. However, I extracted from this article the following heart-warming stat: “Just 54 percent of women with only high school diplomas stayed married for 10 years, compared to 78 percent of women with college degrees, the survey found.” The important part of that sentence is that my own marriage and those of my friends are about 80% likely to last at least 10 years. That’s pretty good, though I can only imagine divorce is far more devastating after 10 years than after 1 or 2. Nevertheless, here’s to 2019.
absurd
My coworkers and I had a good chuckle at this.
It is difficult to ascertain the value of a private company such as Blue Origin, but if they execute on plan and take a 5-10% market share of NASA and other space business, the company will be worth on the order of $1-5 billion in 5 years. Bezos owns nearly the entire company.
It just goes to show you can’t believe what you read on the internet.
no TV
B and I are having a no-TV week. This was my idea, but it was in response to generous amounts of complaining from B about the amount of TV I watch the last couple of weeks. Basically, I love watching the Olympics. I love the figure skating, the skiing, the speed skating – basically everything except the hockey and the sliding sports. Anyway, this resulted in a lot of TV last week, and since good old NBC saves the best for last, a lot of late nights.
B and I had already implemented a no-TV night on Wednesdays. When he moved in, we found ourselves watching more TV, because he had watched different TV at different times than I, and when together, we ended up watching more. I like “The Good Wife” at 10 PM on CBS; he likes watching “The Office” while he makes dinner, and football games on the weekends. (Both of us have lost interest in basketball since the Sonics de-camped.)
Of course, without the TV, the computer beckons. Last night, I couldn’t resist stopping by deadwhale.com and playing Home Sheep Home. (Fun game. I dare you to click.) B asked what he would do this evening with me out at Irish dance and no TV to watch? I said that of course he would play on his computer. (That’s what he would have done anyway – play on his computer and sleep.) This begged the question of what we would do with no TV and no computer. I would pursue my hobbies, of which, of course, I have many. B’s hobbies, however, mostly involve computers or being outdoors, so he would have to take up a new hobby.
Anyway, the one thing I really need to use the time for is housework. It’s amazing how much housework you can get done in a short time. Too bad, I’m generally uninterested in devoting even a short time to housework.
running in the rain
B and I had a nice weekend. We did a 7 mile run on Saturday, my longest run in a couple of years. We took it fairly easy pacewise, and we both felt pretty good. The only downside was that it rained lightly for most of the run. I’m trying to build up my mileage to do the Coolrunning intermediate half marathon plan, which is roughly what I used for training for my last half. The plan calls for running 6 times a week, and I usually only manage 5 (sometimes less), but otherwise, it’s a pretty good plan. The one thing I want to do differently than my last race is run more of my training runs at a faster pace, perhaps one short run a week (3 or 4 miles) near race pace, and my long run within a mile of race pace. Of course, I haven’t exactly figured out what race pace is yet.
Warning – possible spoilers enclosed.
Saturday night, we ended up going to see Crazy Heart. It’s very highly rated by Rotten Tomatoes. I found it entertaining, but unspectacular. The music was good. I found the central romance a little unbelievable. First of all, she was way too young and attractive for him. Second, he was an alcoholic. Given one or the other, I would have bought it, but I was a little skeptical of both. She did have a child, which makes dating a little more difficult, but still. However, I loved one part of the movie where he was a playing a great concert. It just reminded me that whether your life is great or not, there are moments that are just unforgettable, and these are the moments that make life worth living. Despite all the sickness, there were a couple of moments like that in Peru, for example.
Warning – end possible spoilers.
I was worn down by C’s Flip propaganda, and ended up buying one myself. I got the Flip Ultra, which is HD, 1280 x 768, I think. Anyway, I’ve definitely been enjoying it so far. The quality isn’t extraordinary, but it’s good. The sound quality is good as well. I set up it up to record the dog while we went out to our movie which was kind of amusing. We’ve always wondered what he does when we’re out. (Answer: not much.) I also took a video of B repairing my SLR camera. I’ve not exactly been gentle with my camera. I’ve hauled it on lots of hikes and spent a lot of time on the beach with it. Anyway, my on-off switch was on the fritz. It basically wouldn’t stay on. B opened it up and sanded down the contacts, and now it works great again. Hooray for being married to an engineer. B is not handy in the sense of building things like tree-houses or repairing toilets (though probably more so than your average bear, not like many of my co-workers), but he knows a thing or two about electronics. Having the camera repaired would have been a hassle and probably cost me $50.
Sunday, we went hiking up Tiger. We did this a couple weeks ago and I could barely walk for a week. So far, I’m not nearly as sore this time. Hopefully that won’t change.