Briefly Noted (Tricknology)

New blog feature! At the top of the right column is a feed of interesting articles or websites that don't quite merit a full blog post of their own, but that I found interesting/funny/inspiring and wanted to pass along. (Powered by del.icio.us)

And since I can't resist elaborating on one of them, here's the actual video evidence of the guy who skipped a stone 51 times. Amazing! 10-year-old kids of all ages the world over salute you, sir!

National Bike to Work Day (observed)

Actually, National Bike to Work Day is in May, but I just bought a used bike this week off craigslist (a sweet hybrid for a good price) so today marked my first observance. I pretty much lived on my bike in college, but after having some bad bike karma in grad school I kind of fell out of the habit.

My route to work is pretty easy, about 2 miles mostly downhill, and faster than the bus or train. It's only the last few blocks that I get into the crazy downtown traffic -- dodging buses and taxis and whatnot. Plus my work has showers and bike racks in the office. It's a pretty sweet set-up so I think I'll probably bike in a few days a week and take the bus the rest of the time.

I've been running fairly frequently and think of myself as being in good shape, but I realized that biking definitely uses different muscles than most anything else. It's nice to use them again.

Waiting for Baby

So we're down to 3 weeks until the due date. Which means that the baby could arrive any day now. Antici...pation! Now all we need to do is figure out how to be parents (and pick names, and write a birth plan, and set up the room, and figure out the diaper system, and ...)

Despite our anxieties, we are both extremely excited. Tonight we tried out the baby product known as a "hippie sling." This is a long piece of cloth used to cleverly swaddle the child to the parent. We practiced on the stuffed bunny - it was pretty cute.

Anyway, in honor of the impending birth, click the link below to see baby's first pictures.
The first is from very early in the pregnancy (about six weeks) -- our baby is just a little tadpole.

The second one is from earlier this summer (about halfway through) and now you can see the head and feet. These pictures really highlight for me how truly amazing this whole process is. At times it seems like an absolute miracle that it (human development) works at all. This is probably my physics bias coming out. The whole process, and indeed, all of us, are the result of molecules bumping into each other and doing really, really clever things.

Biology is awesome.

Ahhhhhhh

So, we're moved into the new place and finally the DSL is turned on.