Here’s something to consider, especially those of us living in the Pacific Northwest where rain can–at times–be an everyday occurrence… Made up scenario:
Looking your very best, you depart for a fancy shin-dig, your car is parked 100 yards away and suddenly a hell-storm of rain begins to pour from above. You’re already late so waiting it out isn’t an option and your umbrella doesn’t exist. So, what do you do, walk or run?
A week ago I made a dash for my car during a down-pour. Once in the car my friend (who had walked) asked if I thought running really kept me more dry. My instincts said yes, of course running through the rain will leave you less saturated than walking. Then, after more thought I began to second-guess myself. Will running through the rain really keep me more dry? The answer is no, running through the rain will not necessarily keep you more dry than another person walking the same distance through the same rain.
A physicist at the University of Udine, Italy, Alessandro De Angelis calculated a best-case scenario where a sprinter moving at 22 MPH does get less wet, but only about 10 percent less wet than a casual walker moving less than 7 MPH.
In Conclusion, running from rain is only worth it for Olympic sprinters… This dude should be walking:
Cincinnati, OH is home to many great things (e.g. consumer goods warlord Proctor & Gamble, Kings Island, two professional athletic teams, a zoo known for breeding more animals than the continent of Africa and, NOW, Frank’s Garden.
Who is Frank and what’s so great about his garden? Good question…I’ll tell ya!
Frank Marzullo is a morning Weather Man, as well as my big brother, not to mention the most popular face to wake up to in Cincinnati, OH (pun intended). Frank’s Garden is his new weekly gardening tips & tricks segment. I hate calling-out my own blood, but this is, without question, Frank’s first time in a garden and rightfully so, as there’s no sense in dirtying such a pretty face. Keep up the good work Frank, I’m proud of you, but not of your hair loss
Ok, so, unlike my previous post, this video isn’t for everyone, but I’m confident the majority of my readers will appreciate this re-mix of a classic Richard Simmons exercise video. Credit goes to a Portland-based creative who writes for a Portland-based juggernaut in the ad game.
There’s never a shortage of random videos–online–intended to make one laugh. Everyone has their own opinion of what’s funny or not, but here’s one I think anyone can appreciate. It’s a non-offensive, :30 TV ad a Portland, OR ad agency did for the Oregon Aquarium… Brilliant!
Last week’s hot topic in viral media was a video of Kobe Bryant jumping a speeding sports car. Considering a vehicle would have to be traveling upwards of 150 MPH, I venture to guess magic (perhaps Harry Potter) was involved during this video’s production; but spectacular nonetheless. It’s viral for several reasons: a.) The video has received more than 3.5 million views on YouTube alone, b.) It’s all the rage in the mainstream media, and c.) The original video has spawned a number of “re-edits,” some morbidly funny. Check them out, starting with the original.
In my opinion, you’re never too old to laugh at a good sex joke. That said, there’s nothing funny about (STIs) sexually transmitted infections (not that I’d know, honestly!) But they are fun to make fun of, especially for the sake of education. That’s the approach Planned Parenthood is taking with TakeCareDownThere.org, an action-based website intended to educate, inform and bust your spleen laughing. It accomplishes all three and then some by allowing medically challenged individuals in Portland, OR schedule an appointment online.
Great work by one of Portland’s hidden creative treasures, Leopold Ketel & Partners. Here’s to making fun of the things which scare me most!
Strung-out by their long running “Got Milk?” campaign, Milk, with help from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, launched a “made for web,” digital campaign built around a fictional rocker, White Gold. One part moderately creepy human and one part mystic moon goddess, White Gold is sure to please; whether or not he’ll persuade you to consume more/any milk is beyond me. Very funny and entertaining nonetheless.
Milk’s “White Gold is White Gold” campaign is, in fact, achieving its viral goal, but I’m forced to question the actual usefulness of the campaign. I mean, sure, White Gold’s videos are well produced and supported by a flashy website–which In my opinion is not very user friendly–but where’s the call to action? What’s the goal?
Is White Gold meant to simply build brand recognition/equity? He does, pretty well… Or, should White Gold be a bit more of a universal advocate for Milk, reiterating Milk’s health benefits in a way which gets consumers involved? Now we’re talking interactivity!! Call me the Devil’s advocate, but I just feel like a genius campaign is missing a little something that would’ve made all the difference. Instead of a pretty, but complex, website with only a “send to a friend” function, I’d like to see something a little more community oriented, user generated content (video and/or social networking) perhaps.
Following up from yesterday’s entry, I haven’t been bed ridden; in fact, I didn’t miss a day of work and still managed to force in some painful training rides (though I’m sure the exercise was counterintuitive.) Between work, cycling and the lady friend, I had zero energy to do much else. That said, life has been good, I won’t detail the past 6-weeks verbatim, but here’s a few happenings worth mentioning:
The Cleveland Cavs are absolutely killing round 1 of the NBA Playoffs… Whoop! Whoop!
The Longborder Cafe in San Diego is the best place for breakfast in SoCal, possibly the Universe
Wow! A nearly two-month blogging hiatus, how could I? I’ll tell you, it has actually been easy… Remember my last blogosphere disappearance when I joked about using illness as my excuse? Well, Karma got the best of me as soon after that statement a life altering (non-contagious) intestinal virus hit me like a home-run in the 9th inning, bases loaded.
Up until about a month ago I argued that I was invincible, or at least the healthiest human on Earth. Now I’m humbled and thrilled to be myself again. It’s a weird feeling to know something isn’t right, but have doctors and nurses tell you it’s just lil’ bug or indigestion… WRONG!
After three-weeks in Purgatory and countless hours explaining my symptoms, it took just 5-minutes on the phone with one of, in my opinion, OHSU’s/the World’s finest doctors to tell me what he thought was wrong. Two days, three blood tests and another less-pleasant test later and the doctor’s prognosis was confirmed, I had Giardia–a parasite which terrorizes the small intestine. Wait, that’s not all. This particular Giardia strain was so powerful it prevented my body from absorbing nutrients necessary to life (e.g. Iron and protein.) As a result I had become Anemic and protein deficient.
How did I contract such a parasite you ask. This is debatable, but I’m fairly certain I contracted Giardia while backpacking in Hawaii last fall. If you’re unfamiliar with Giardia, it’s a parasite humans can pick up from water contaminated with animal fickle… I know, I know… GROSS! Apparently Giradia can only be killed via boiling your water or by adding iodine to it; I did neither. Mario however used my water filter the whole time and did not contract the virus.
In the end what amazes me is that it took more than 4-months for the protozoa to come out of their dormitory state and wreak havoc on my body. Nonetheless, it’s good to be back and feel like myself again, just a few more days of uber-antibiotics and I”ll be “tip top.” Probably the hardest part of the whole ordeal was not being able to race or train well on my bicycle, not to mention family and friends thinking I’ve become lame. Oh yeah, explaining that Girardia is not a sexual transmitted disease was pretty hard too.
There’s my story. I look forward to getting back on the blogging bandwagon. Cheers!
Just about everyday, without fail, I walk, ride or skate through Portland State University’s campus to get home… It’s a good cut-through, no cars, lot’s of girls (it’s not creepy because I’m still young enough to be in University.) In the end, living near PSU keeps me young. Though, most recently it has helped keep me conscious of what’s going on in other parts of the world.
Three grass covered park blocks on PSU’s campus are now covered with white and red flags. The flags represent the number of people killed since the U.S. invaded Iraq. Each white flag represents five Iraqi people, while red flags represents five Americans’ who’ve fallen victim to the war. It’s a see of white to say the least, but the number of red flags is astonishing as well.
Politically, I can go either way here, so I’m not going to get all opinionated and risk losing part of my already slim readership. Here’s an image, but it doesn’t do the memorial much justice. If you’re in the area I encourage you to check it out.
I’m completely obsessed with the soundtrack to a spot advertising Nike SPARQ Training, a new service offering which aims to help you “be a better athlete.” Something about the ad in its entirety just really turns me on. It makes me want to train, do uphill intervals until my legs feel like bleeding, recover, then do it over again. For me, the spot brings out a sense of aggression, but aggression coupled with happiness, which stems from knowing I can work harder to be better. After all, in sports there’s only so much “god-given” talent one can have. In the end it comes down who’s going to work the hardest and, ultimately, who wants it the most.
Addendum: OMG! A friend/co-worker let me know who the artist is and, turns out, I’ve had this songs in my iTunes all-along. It’s “List of Demands” by Saul Williams, who, ironically, I’m seeing live on Tuesday at the Aladdin Theatre. Gosh I feel silly… Thanks Kasia
First off, I’d like to make claim to a new term/acronym, Web Video on Demand (WVOD,) which I’m fairly certain I created. Second, I want to spread the word about hulu.com, a new way to watch video online. Ask yourself, what happens when two giant broadcast networks, FOX and NBC, join forces to bring their programs online? You get hulu.com, that’s what!
One year in the making and an estimated $15 million in development, hulu revolutionizes the way in which video is streamed online. It’s pretty, easy to use and the video quality is out of this world. In fact, it’s so good, some are calling hulu a YouTube killer, but that’s a bit of an overstatement if you ask me. After all, YouTube runs on the foundation of user generated content; so you’re not going to find a good Cat Fight on hulu.
Hulu is still in beta testing, but it’s supposed to launch for the general public any minute now. So stay tuned (pun intended.)
Psych! Just playing, I wasn’t sick, though, suffering from an illness was the firs thing to pop into my head to excuse my blogging hiatus. I bet those of you (D echo, Mom & Dad, Hess, MT and that weirdo in Eastern Washington who keeps offering me a job on his Pony farm) that complained about my disappearance from the blogosphereo would’ve felt really bad if I said, “sorry, it’s hard to type when you’ve lost both hands to Leprosy.” Nevertheless, I’m back and if being too busy having fun is a crime, then lock me in solitary confinement, because that’s my only excuse… Get over it
Anyhow, I am pretty sure a lot has happened in the past month. Here’s my mediocre attempt to recap:
I’m 24 years old now… Yes, another pointless age. At least I’m now just one year away from lower car insurance, right?
I started racing my bicycle again and it feels good to go fast. Now if I could just get in shape.
I’ve eaten roughly 10 Belgian waffles since my last blog… Thanks Aunt Judy, everyone loves my “Holiday Inn-like” waffle maker.
I now commute to work on a skate board and have crashed twice. No injuries, just a lot of embarrassment.
Jay won the Portland Beer Mile last night. Honorable mention goes to 3rd-place finisher, D echo, for having the best outfit, courtesy of yours truly. Jay drank 4 Budweisers and ran 1 mile in just 6.22… Amazing!
Alright, that’s probably enough egomaniacism (I know, I know, that’s not a real word) for one day. After all, I’d hat t lose my 10 regular readers on my first entry back. Cheers!
It’s truly calming to sit, on a Sunday night, and reflect on what you’ve learned over the weekend. Here’s my attempt.
Yahoo! LIVE might be able to put the “social” back into “Social Media”
Belgian Waffles at 2:00AM are a really good idea
The sun does shine in Portland in February
A 4-hour bike ride after an evening of 4-6 micro brews, probably not a good idea
A hand built bicycle is a lot more beautiful than a manufactured one
There’s a new strip club in Portland, Casa Diablo. It’s tucked away in the NW industrial park, a part of town only frequented by truckers and cyclists. I’m guessing CD’s target market is truckers… Strippers + spandex-clad cyclists = bad idea, I’m sure.
Jack Johnson’s new album is over produced and unimpressive. Poor Guy!
An incredible $18 show does exists, Umphrey’s McGee proved it by ending a 3.5-hour, two set show with a cover of the CLASH’s London Calling
