adrian is rad

An article in Sports Illustrated about Team Night Train, one of the US’s four man bobsled teams has gotten me excited about the team:

It’s a Monday night in mid-October, and bobsled season has just begun, so where else would the world four-man champions be but in Lake Placid, N.Y., swapping sledding stories at Lisa G’s bar? It is wings night, after all. Steve Holcomb, pilot for Team Night Train (USA 1 was a little drab for this blithe bunch), is trying to explain the art and science of negotiating a perfect line down the lightning-quick Lake Placid course. It was there, last March, that he drove his quartet to the first world championship for a U.S. team in 50 years and raised hopes that at the Vancouver Games next February, the U.S. men can win their first Olympic bobsledding gold medal since 1948.

Another interesting story is that Holcomb’s eyesight degenerated to 20/500 before he had experimental surgery to fix it, but he found driving by feel so helpful that he now leaves his visor fogged up.

I might have to get behind the team like I got behind curling in 2006. I still wear my USA Curling hat often, in fact. Unfortunately they don’t have any sweet hats. Maybe I’ll have to get a hoodie instead.

I really like this design. I seriously considered getting the original poster of this design when I first heard about it but I was slow off the mark–they were part of a limited edition print (though he’s since reprinted it)–and $75 was enough that it made me pause for a while to consider whether it was worth it.

The other day, though, I noticed that he’s made a shirt of the design. $30 is steep for a shirt, but compared to $75 for a poster, it seems like a reasonable price. I ordered it.

xkcd has some nerdy shirts, like the one below.

However, if you really want to turn the nerd up, you have to go over to mental floss:

or

Wow. What a world we live in.

For my upcoming South Africa trip:

• 3 X 2GB SD cards (in addition to the 2 I already have)
• 6 X Velvia 100 color slide film, 6 X Tri-X 400 black and white negative film

Just because:

• One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found
• one CD not to be named due to its embarassing nature (I’ll chalk it up to comfort music) [update: oh fine, it might be this]

[another update:] I also bought a few tickets to this year’s Noise Pop:

• Feb 28: Sebadoh (orignal line up) at the Great American Music Hall
• March 2: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists at the GAMH

This shirt is funny!

(via tcritic)

USA Curling hat to support their first ever medal!

Way to beat the Red Coats, Team USA!

1. drink
2. watch Lost in Translation
3. order crap online

it’s tradition.

this is the point where I assume that you want to buy me stuff.

my christmas list.

my parents ask for a christmas list every year. it’s gotten significantly different in the last couple of years since I’ve been earning money. I tend to buy what I want so there’s not a lot on my “wish list.”

My friend Jon is looking at buying some NYC subway memorabilia in the near future. There are some neat signs. Apparently there are high minimums and processing fees, however. If you’re interested in some stuff I can put you in touch with him.

Strangely, I’ve bought lots of things in the last 24 hours. First I got a call from African Hut to say that the goods I had ordered in mid-August had come in and they were sending them. Then, later in the day I decided to pick up that Mark Kozelek/ Sun Kil Moon Modest Mouse covers record from Insound at which point I found that you could answer a stupid quiz and get 25% off your whole order, so I got a few things there. Then, this morning, I read that there’s a new 7″ Half-Handed Cloud/ Sufjan Stevens EP out today so I decided to pick that up and noticed something else while I was at the Asthmatic Kitty website.

So, the full haul:

• a case of Savanna Dry Cider, originally meant to be consumed with Jon Werberg, but that will do just fine now.
• 1/2 lb of biltong
• 1 can of guava halfs (or as I call it, 1 can of pure heaven)
• If You’re Feeling Sinister by Belle & Sebastian. I’m finally picking up a CD copy of this. ($8.99 minus 25%!) I now have all the B&S albums on CD.
• The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore by Saxon Shore. I liked their previous album and decided to give this one a try.
• Summer in the Southeast by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. The first time I heard Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy in any form was live at Club Laga. I’ve wanted a live recording ever since and now he’s coming out with one. Pre-order for November 15.
• Bodies and Minds by Great Lake Swimmers. I liked GLS’s debut when it came through the station. This effort is apparently good, so I thought I’d pick it up. (What was I thinking last night? I never buy this many “gamble” albums at one time.)
• Tiny Cities by Sun Kil Moon. Aforementioned Modest Mouse covers album. Pre-order for Nov. 1 though I think I’ve heard they’ve started shipping them.
• What’s the Remedy by Half Handed Cloud. Aforementioned collaborative effort with Sufjan Stevens. Vinyl 7″.
• Sufjan Stevens Illinois shirt. They didn’t have them when the concert tour came through here in July but they wore them on stage and boy were they hot.

So yeah, that’s me going crazy. I’ll be getting piles of stuff over the next few weeks though!

Dylan and I have started a crap buying contest.

The terms are:

• the one with the most and the highest quality crap wins
• there’s a $50 limit to all spending (items, tax, and shipping included)
• spending must be done by June 22. Items will be judged July 6.

What’s an example of good crap (and good crap density)? My autographed picture of Bob Villa inscribed “To Joe. Best Wishes, Bob Villa” for $3.

I felt bad because I’m spending $50 on nothing in particular when I could be doing something better with it, so I just donated $50 to Catholic Charities of San Jose as an offset of sorts.

I’ll let everyone know who won and what the haul was when we’re done.