Author: Sean

I walked by the ticker tape parade for the Giants. There were only nine gazillion people there so I wasn't able to get all that close. Still, it was historic to see ticker tape (now shredded office paper) snowing down the avenue.

I might need a Giants t-shirt.

Goodbye, Football! You certainly gave us your all this year. That was the most entertaining Super Bowl I can personally remember. Congrats to my home town Giants who won the game with effort and teamwork. Condolences the Pats and their fans. The 2007 Patriots still will be remembered as one of the greatest teams ever. As much as I "hate" the Pats, I can imagine the shell shock their fans feel today. After the Steelers lost in Super Bowl XXX, I was done with sports for a very long summer. There’s always next year.
…
So uh what are people doing next Sunday? I'm suddenly free.

I saw these things a year or so ago on the Net and then they apparently were featured on Oprah and then they descended upon my office with whole bays of cubicles ordering neti pots.

The neti pot is a small receptacle designed for pouring salt water into one nostril so that it irrigates the sinuses and the exits via the other.

I only made three mistakes on my first neti attempt. First, I didn't get the water hot enough, so it felt more like the onset of drowning. Second, I put way too much salt into the water. A burning sensation in your sinuses is not normal. Third, I talked continuously to my lovely wife about how to shoot the picture, causing me to not breath through my mouth, which will dump salt water into your throat and choke you.

Despite all those problems, I found the whole experience to be rewarding in the sense that it was not reality TV. My coworker Rob, who suffers from allergies, swears by it. I plan to try it again, correcting the above mistakes. I like the idea of breathing free and clear. I must admit that I was breathing rather well before the neti and I was not teared up and choking.

Links:

• How to use a Neti Pot for real
• Putting bourbon in the pot
• Neti on Oprah

I like persuasive signage.

So I'm doing the course work to get Scuba certified and I just came across this paragraph:

Almost all sharks, with few a exceptions, are more afraid of us than we are of them. In fact, it is a rare occasion that a diver sees a shark; however, if you do, observe its beauty and treat it with respect. Above all, never assume what a shark will do, they are quite unpredictable.

Let me restate that last sentence, "Above all, never assume what a shark will do, they are quite unpredictable." Isn't "assuming" exactly what the previous sentences were doing?!? It seems like you are telling me that you don't know shit about sharks and that my ass is as good as eaten all ready.

I plan to cut my buddy the second I see something larger than a guppy.

I'm not one to write letters, but if I were, I might have sent this one to Ed Viesturs:

Dear Mr. Viesturs,

Thank you so much for writing your book, "No Shortcuts To The Top." I found it inspiring for both my life and my pursuit of summiting highpoints. Your book as given me the extra shove I need to organize an attempt on Ranier this year. Your eighteen-year commitment to Endeavor 2008 sets an example of hard work, but your affable "over a beer" style of story telling allows you to encourage without sounding preachy. As many others must have told you, your devotion to wife and family puts the message in the proper perspective and is truly heart warming.

I was drafting this letter while reaching the end your tale, when I came across this passage:

"TK Ed's quote, something like "That was a game [Super Bowl XL] that a lot of us in the Seattle area thought we might have won if not for poor officiating."

It was really just an aside, but to me it brought your narration to a complete halt. You see, I am a die hard Steelers fan, the team that beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl that now seems so long ago. As a lifetime football fan, I'm strongly encouraging you and other Seahawks fans to get over it. Here's why:

• Every year, 31 sets of fans must deal with not winning the championship. It's the norm, not the exception.
• Everyone else in the world has long forgotten it.
• Poor officiating is suffered by everyone. Just this week Bill Simmon's wrote:
  

  "This clip is going to enrage everyone in Pittsburgh: The NFL Network breaking down David Garrard's game-saving QB draw from 350 different angles and somehow neglecting to mention Khalif Barnes' monster hold."

  But Mr. Simmons is wrong. It didn't piss me off. It wasn't the missed holding call that cost the Steelers the game. It was the fact that they didn't play as well as the Jags.

• I would give you that yes the Seahawks had some decent stats in the game, but stats lie. The Pats often are behind in rushing and time of possession, but slaughter the other team with 3 touchdowns in 3 plays. The Seahawks gave up 2 touchdowns on a monster Will Parker run, and a long pass to Hines Ward. That sealed the game more than anything else.

So to sum up a long letter that only I will read, you are awesome and an inspiration. However, the Seahawks lost and I hope you get over. There's a chance we might bump into each other on the summit of Mount Ranier and I might be waving a Terrible Towel (like this guy). I hope I can shake your hand and offer you a beer at the base, rather than having you punch me in the nose.

All the best and keep summiting!
Sean

Holy shit, right outside my office, a corner of the 40+ story Trump Soho collapsed and rained debris on the street. Several worker must be injured or worse. I'm dumping all photos in Flickr.

Curbed coverage
Gothamist coverage – They picked up my shot of a worker pointing up before any response arrived. A foreman was very upset and told us that one person was killed.

I’ve walked by the site for months while workers hastily created the reinforced concrete structure taking loads of cement up to the top in two crane hoisted buckets, labeled humorously in orange spray paint as “IN” and “OUT”. “OUT” was on the crane when the accident happened and it appeared that the entire load of concrete got dumped into a form that collapsed.

www.flickr.com stconrad’s Trump Soho – Accidental Collapse photoset

Sometimes I wish I was still in college when my weed smoking friends would consider anything with a subtle or not so subtle reference to pot as art. This photo would be considered awesome. I only find it mildly interesting because I don't smoke pot and/or I'm not 19.

In college, several friends performed some very non-scientific studies to see which improved intellectual performance better, pot or alcohol. After many C's and D's on term papers done late under the influence, it was determined that booze wins. You can actually get some good ideas on the sauce, but the paper will need some heavy editing in the morning. Stone induced writing reads like a masterpiece under the influence but melts to gibberish in the morning light. As mentioned today on Gaping Void, both lose out to staying in and creating while sober.

Once, I got into an enormous fight with a friend who adamantly stated that if pot makes pizza taste better, then the pizza is better. I believed that the quality of pizza is a constant, and only the perception changes. This is just a juvenile reduction of the eternal philosophical question; does truth (and thus possibly God) exist, or is it all just random sensory input? I'd like to note to some friends who assume I'm an atheist that I sided with the belief in a stable reality (and thus possibly God) and not the selfish "the world ceases to exist when I close my eyes." There's a current wave of vocal atheists, lead by Christopher Hitchens, who claim it's incredibly selfish to assume there is a master creator who cares just about little old you. I'd like to counter that it's also rather selfish to assume that the universe ends the day you day…and that the essence of the pizza is improve solely by your own personal hunger.

These are the types of rants delivered by weed smoking college student, which is why I don't smoke and after some though, I don't miss college at all.

I do miss the High Street subway stop that would put me very close to home

To prepare for Ranier, I'm trying to routinely walk to work with a weighted pack. I almost made it as far as out my door this morning when the expedition was halted by rain. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Here are three funny videos just emailed to me:

From Gretchen, Bacon!

From my old friend Steve Bass, a lion hug:

Also from Steve, the squirrel obstacle course:

Via Yahoo and the AP, I'm not sure why this photo of a cheerleader raking is so intriguing. I mean the cheerleader part is obvious as a healthy young male, but the extra awesomeness added by the act of raking is a mystery. Maybe it's the mundane with the sublime. Maybe I always wanted a girl with school spirit who likes to do yard work.