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Happy Birthday Jeff!

I took a chunk of today off from work, drove the 2 1/2 hours to CT and picked up the Stumpjumper today. Darrell from the Paceline forum was great to deal with. The bike was as advertised... Very solid, well sorted and should be a great platform for me for years to come. Such a huge upgrade from the Gary Fisher!

If you haven't heard Paradise, it's a nice companion piece to Born to Die...

I've been riding a Gary Fisher Joshua of similar vintage as the one Nate just moved up from. I had bought the frame back in '01 or '02 and built it then. I had gotten away from riding since, and really only got back into it last year. And there was a huge difference in Nate's riding once he upgraded... I knew I needed to do something to have a chance to keep up!

Big thanks to Nate for finding me a ridiculous deal on a suitable replacement for my mountain bike. I've committed to buying an '09 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Elite. While I still have plenty if skiing to do, and I haven't even figured out when I'm going to be able to pick the bike up, I'm pretty psyched!

I haven't, but I'm always looking for something new. If/when I get to them, I'll let you know how they compare.

Secret of the White Rose by Stefanie Pintoff. It's the 3rd in a series with a detective in early 1900's NYC, preceded by In the Shadow of Gotham and A Curtain Falls. All three are quite entertaining, and I'm definitely reading a lot more with the iPad Mini since light in our place was rarely good enough to read without a book light for the Kindle, and the light I had was horrible.

Neurosis - The Eye of Every Storm Thanks for the recommendation Dusty!

In one sense, it's still as bad as Apple's maps... No night mode for turn-by-turn. I shouldn't have to go into the settings and manually turn down the brigtness to use something.

After a big Nine Inch Nails kick, I'm currently listening to Rasputina... Lots and lots of Rasputina. Lots.

It took quite a few listens for me to really get into this... But after a year and all but leaving it for dead, I really enjoyed it the last time I gave it a spin. But it's funny, because I found New Moon to be accessible immediately, but Emerald Forest and the Blackbird? Not so much. But then again this is coming from someone who can listen to the first track from Plague of Butterflies on repeat for hours.

I've found that wearing some hearing protection (Ety ER20 triple flanges if volumes are reasonable, foamies if the music is really loud), it cuts 90% of the crowd noise, as well as saves my hearing. Win-win.

Sno-Balls? Sno-Balls? Sno Balls? Where's the fucking Twinkies?

Also, for anyone who enjoyed Lana Del Rey's debut, the 2nd disc from the deluxe reissue, Paradise, is available separately and is quite good.

I haven't... Thanks for the recommendation. Been in a bit of a rut lately.

New How to Destroy Angels EP came out this week... Picked it up last night. Listening to their S/T EP now and will follow it up with the new one.

I listened to the Oceanic/Panopticon combo yesterday. Those two in particular are damn-near perfect.

Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit

We lost power about 15 minutes ago, and wind speeds really haven't picked up yet. Gonna be a long few days...

I'm on the fence now about my planned Kindle Paperwhite purchase. Currently I have a 2nd gen Kindle that I use. A lot. But obviously night reading is a pain, and keeping both the Kindle and book light charged is hit or miss. Plus, the book light throws a ton of light elsewhere, which can bother the wife. Plus, one always seems to need a charge when the other is charged up. The iPad Mini wouldn't be as ideal for a reading device (I strongly prefer eInk to LCD), but it is far more capable for the relatively small difference in price (3G Kindle Paperwhite vs. 16 GB WiFi iPad Mini). And I'd still have the Kindle for most reading situations... Hmmmmm...

I meant to do some screen caps of the Navigon app. I finally remembered on a trip yesterday... And on a related note, I don't have much of an issue with the Apple Maps, And have liked it quite a bit when I've used it. But I really think they need a night mode like Navigon has in the above screen shot. Trying to use it at night is painful, and the auto-brightness doesn't even come close to getting it dim enough to keep from ruining my vision at night. And I think they should show more ahead of where you are and less behind. I find the 1/3 behind, 2/3 ahead that Navigon uses is more useful than the more straight-down look that's 50-50 that Apple uses.

Re-reading Justin Cronin's The Passage to prep for the recently released follow-up, The Twelve. The Passage was the best book I've read in years... I'm really looking forward to the new one but wanted to get back up to speed. For those who loved The Stand, The Passage is definitely worth checking out.

This. Saw her last year and she was outstanding.

459+1 = 460 I was actually Lauren's pole vault coach when she was at UNH, and actually met her on her recruiting visit in early '02. We always enjoyed spending time together, at practice, track meets, and when the group of vaulters would get together for dinner. And while there seemed to be something there, it wasn't anything either of us wanted to pursue. We spent more time together after she graduated in '06, but it took 2 years for anything to happen, and we didn't start to date until the summer of '08. She moved in with me in '09, we got engaged in '10 and married in '11. The 7 1/2 year age difference has never been a problem. I think it's a good sign that in a one-room loft-style condo, where there's nowhere to hide, we have yet to grate on each other, or even really fight. Years of friendship has given us a strong foundation and I'm pretty excited for what the future holds.

The thing I like best about Navigon is the 3-D terrain add-on. It does a great job showing the surrounding area. Eye candy? Maybe. But it really improves the UI.