Walking on the Moon

I named this blog after the Police song as a play on words about my general aimlessness here and the fact that it’s broadcast from my secret base on the moon. A much better candidate for the name has shown up and I thought I’d point her out.

I’ve handed some space here to a friend who’s much more serious about walking than I am. She’s been a pretty dedicated race walker for a couple years now and probably would have continued doing her thing and never picked up a blogging pen except for a recent unfortunate event.

Some sap made the mistake of implying that she couldn’t take on the longest competition race in that sport. In public. Now, implying she can’t do something is already a strong impetus for her to just turn around and do it, but the human in question claimed she couldn’t do it because she was born with a pair of X chromosomes rather than an unmatched set.
As Bugs says: “Of course you know, this means war.”

Now, you might say that this is tilting at a windmill. I might even say that, if I was talking about anyone else. This friend of mine, however, has decorated her home in dragon scales from the victories she’s scored over opponents others couldn’t even identify.

She writes clearly and describes her road with humor and passion. Even if you don’t care a whit about racewalking, I think you’ll find something worth reading over here. Take a look. She’s been updating regularly. If you see something you like, drop her a comment; encouragement can only help her slay this dragon and us see more posts.

I don’t like the look of this. Closing a Mozart opera because it might upset a bunch of nuts is not an action of the people I’d like to be. The Mayor of Berlin seems to have it together, though:

“Our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived out on the offensive. Voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them.”

And then depression set in.  From slashdot.

This gallery is really impressive. Be sure to enjoy how abstract and innocuous the paintings look at the size you’d see them in most homes or museums. The 2004 gallery seems to have a bug, but earlier galleries will let you see each painting at a larger size.  From The Reverse Cowgirl.

Apparently I mostly read the blogs of people who show me distrubing things.  I don’t know is that says something bad about me or them.
In any case, Jeffrey Rowlands disturbed me today by showing me a site where you can pay to be responded to.

… then back into one.  Then back out again.  Link courtesy of John Heidemann.  The comments are well worth a look, too.

A 30-second jabber session with Tim Shepard yielded this incredible report of a Zlin wing failure during aerobatics written from the pilot’s perspective.  Clearly I should chat with Tim more often.

Man, I don’t know what I did to get on the weird Trek mailing list but digging through my mail backlog this weekend, I found these from Aaron Falk:

• Cribs
• Poolside
• Karaoke
• Coffee Shop

I liked the first one best.

Not to be outdone, Mike Maria (yes he commented on my Motivators post) sent me these:

• Vaguely homoerotic REO-Speedwagon-styled Star Trek rock anthem.
• And well, this video with Leonard Nimoy, which I can’t really do justice in words.

I really don’t want to swamp this poor guy, but: Star Trek Motivation Posters.  Oh, yes: they’re geeky.

Becuase this blog isn’t enough of a conversation with Rod, I have to point out that:

• Life on Mars looks grim
• People are hacking the Himalayas