on brussels sprouts and steam

Has anyone else noticed that brussels sprouts farts smell exactly like steamed brussels sprouts? It's quite uncanny. I bet if I blindfolded you and put you in a confined space, you'd have a hard time distinguishing the smell of actual steamed brussels from brussels steamers.

Ruminate on that for a bit.

lunch with jon stewart

Dear Daily Show and Hulu,

Thanks for giving me something to do every day while I'm eating lunch.

oh christmas tree

Tracy and I put up our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That was November 29th. I took it down last night because the holiday is waaay over, but not because the tree needed to come down. I don't know what sort of crazy hybrid tree we got this year, but it was awesome. It had broad, soft needles, a very vibrant green color, but only a very slight pine smell. It continued to drink water for the full six weeks, and only stopped drinking because I stopped giving it water. Even then, when I pulled it out of the stand, the and took it outside, it dropped only a handful of needles across the floor.

I don't know what kind of creepy genetic mutant it is. Possibly one of its parents was an artificial tree. Regardless, it was the best Christmas tree I've ever owned, and I'm sad to see it go. Mostly because it added great ambiance to our living room, filling an otherwise blank, empty space. I don't really know what to put there now, but the room looks sad and empty without it.

on chuck, elliptical laments, and why i need a new gym

In recent weeks, my gym has been completely overrun by a fresh mob of doughy, rosy cheeked sweatsacks. The place is so mobbed as of late that it's nearly impossible to work out. I've been going later and later in the evenings in an attempt to find some open machinery, but it hasn't helped.

Take Monday night, for instance. I timed my visit to the gym to coincide with my favorite television show, Chuck. It's such a brilliant parade of never-ending references to great films, music, and all that was right with the 1980s, and it's the only show I'm so excited to see that I don't like to wait for the next day's Hulu broadcast (I don't have TV reception at home). As such, I like to go to the gym and run on the treadmill for an hour while I watch the show.

This Monday night, however, there weren't any open treadmills. The gym has something like 65 treadmills, but they were all taken. Every last one of them. It's been like that for the past two weeks, and I've had a hard time running as a result. Normally, I'd just go upstairs and lift instead (the weight area is also mobbed, but you can usually find an open bench somewhere, though it often means doing a military press when you want to be doing squats), but the whole point of being at the gym that night was to watch Chuck. I needed to be at a stationary exercise machine, each of which is equipped with its own TV and headphone jack. A quick scan of the gym's 200+ pieces of cardio equipment showed 1 open stair stepper, 3 elliptical machines, and a handful of bikes. I let Tracy have the stair stepper, I don't get a good workout on the bikes, so I saddled up on one of the elliptical machines.

Now, you need to understand something: I hate elliptical machines. Hate them. With a passion. I don't know if I'm not tall enough to use them properly, or if I just lack some vital posture requirement that makes these things usable (why do my feet always go numb?), or maybe I just don't get it. Regardless, watching me work out on an elliptical can't be far removed from watching a monkey fuck a football: humorous and hard to look away from, but sad and embarrassing at the same time. Which is why I hate them. Hate hate hate. I typically do my best to avoid them like the plague, but I had about 60 seconds to find an open piece of cardio equipment with a TV or I was going to miss my favorite show. That couldn't happen. Yes, I'm a raving, rabid fanboy. No, I don't care. Sacrifices had to be made. Elliptical machines had to be used. What other choice was there?

Undoubtedly, this new influx of fitness-minded nocturnes are the result of holiday overindulgence or everyone's favorite New Years cliché, the "I'll get fit this year" resolution. They must know that they're getting in the way of my own clichéd New Years weight loss resolution. My hope is that everyone will lose their handful of holiday pounds and quickly go back to their previous sedentary evening routines. They need to go. They're getting in the way of my wedding weight loss plan. More importantly, they're getting in the way of my Chuck watching.

trouble sleeping

Went to bed tonight at 10:30, but set the alarm for midnight. There was homemade pizza dough rising in the kitchen for tomorrow's dinner. It needed to stop rising and start refrigerating at midnight. So I got up, split the dough in half, and put it in the fridge.

I was up for about four minutes before I got back in bed. That was enough, though, cause now I'm wide awake.

Shit.

speaking car

Have you seen the new Ford Fusion commercial where Ford says "We Speak Car?" The commercial goes on to mention that Ford speaks car because they know about "RPMs" and "MGPs". People who actually speak car don't say that. RPM and MPG are already plural.

Yes, I know I'm being pedantic. No, I don't care. Ford, figure your shit out, man.

you're the only one reading, so what the hell...

hi molly!

iphone blogging: take 3

The email works okay, but I feel like there is a more elegant free solution. Is this it? Maybe.

That's right, I made that pizza. Home made crust courtesy of Tracy.

iphone blogging: take 2

This is just done via email. From my phone. With a picture of Tracy and Stefi at the Hoffbrau House as a test.

iphone blogging: take 1

I need a better mobile blogging program. One where I can type in landscape.

new beginnings

I've really given up on blogging in the past half-decade as it hasn't comfortably fit into my internet usage pattern. The problem is this: I have three domains with limited content: www.projectrally.com, www.adamcosta.com, and www.noscurvy.com. I also still have my old blog, noscurvy.livejournal.com. The three websites I manage from my home computer and use a traditional FTP setup to upload all of my content. Adding new content isn't quite cumbersome, but it's not quick. That negates the whole function of blogging, which is essentially just an opportunity for your brain to vomit up whatever arbitrary and banal musings your consciousness is having a hard time digesting.

In order for a blog to function properly, new content needs to be added quickly and easily at a moment's notice. I could still use my livejournal account for that, but it just doesn't seem elegant to have 3 websites and still require a blog hosted elsewhere. I hate twitter and facebook (though I have accounts to both!), so no blogging there. I've toyed with incorporating wordpress into one of the dreamweaver website builds, but I've just never been all that excited about messing with it. I'm just not that interested in designing websites. I know that I need to change that outlook, because I don't want to pay someone else to build them for me, but since it's never been pressing, I haven't bothered. The easiest solution was just to stop blogging.

Until now, hopefully. I just crammed google's blogger into my own site, and hopefully I can put adamcosta.com to good use. Next up...posting from my iphone...