Adventure! It's a wonderful thing!

After Emily dropped me off at school this morning, she took off heading south to spend a couple days with her family for her brother's college graduation. Since it was raining this morning and since she dropped me off, I didn't bring my bike. So, I figured I'll have me a little adventure. I'll bring some extra clothes to school and leave my bag and computer at school and RUN home! Oh man, what an awesome idea! If my knee acts up (which it does, still) I can walk or catch the bus. It'll be great. Now, I'm feeling lazy. And a little hungry. And I need some new cheapie headphones. So, here's my plan, leave school in the next 20 minutes, stop by Best Buy on Geary, go the extra mile (literally) and hit up Gordo's Tacqueria for an awesome $5 burrito and jog or limp the last mile home and make it by 9:30, just in time to read for a bit and go to bed.

So its not REALLY adventurous, but it's a little intimidating because my knee is pretty unpredictable. I did figure out a few weeks ago that I'm (either due to genetics, an accident, or simple habit) slightly pigeon-toed in my left foot. When I keep it straight/slightly outward like my right foot I can keep the knee in control, but that's easier said than done since it feels like I'm running crooked. I haven't pushed it more than a few miles since then, either.

Since it is getting dark and it will be busy city streets, I'll forgo the barefeet tonight and put a little rubber between me and the pavement, at least until I get into the Presidio.

Lookamee!

Look, look! I'm famous, this made it onto the school's front web page! This is awesome, it's like being in the High School yearbook in pictures that make it look like you were social or cool! I'm available for autographs if anyone would like. They WILL be worth something someday!

See? See? That blurry figure on the left is most definitely me. Here's the story:

http://dental.pacific.edu/News_and_Events/News_Archive/Dental_School_Participates_in_Bike_to_Work_Day_2010.html

Incidentally: I ride my bike almost every day, so this was like, "Hey, free stuff for doing what I normally do!" Amongst the free stuff was a thermos, a tote-bag, a mini First Aid kit, a tire repair kit, a pack reflector that also lights up (which the kids have commandeered as their new cool toy) and a bunch of pamphlets and newsletters about cycling around San Francisco, 90% of which was geared toward the people in the trendy parts of the city that ride up and down Market St. and use "The Wiggle" to get around. (Presidio residents have our own wiggle for getting through Laurel Heights to the Arguello Gate, so nyah!)

Quotations

From Benjamin Franklin that I thought were fun to read.

I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalm'd off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion consider'd, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanced some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I din'd upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," &c., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

I've lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth — That God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this, — and I also believe that without his concurring Aid, we shall succeed in this political Building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our Projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a Reproach and Bye word down to future Ages.

The art of concluding from experience and observation consists in evaluating probabilities, in estimating if they are high or numerous enough to constitute proof. This type of calculation is more complicated and more difficult than one might think. It demands a great sagacity generally above the power of common people. The success of charlatans, sorcerors, and alchemists — and all those who abuse public credulity — is founded on errors in this type of calculation.