Robot Goat

This is really cool, yet it also terrifies me just a little. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded this robot pack mule by Boston Dynamics. The buzzing noise you hear is apparently the motor. You might have nightmares after watching this. (& thanks to Tom for providing the link)

"When White People Dance", or "Caucasia Knows How to Party"

That's Tom and me doing The Robot. It may look like I'm balancing something incandescent on my head, but that's just a lamp behind me.

In other news, I found out that I'm going to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) the first week of April! And I'm stopping over in Paris for a day on my way back, because I'm allowed a 1-day rest stop. Sweet. We'll see how motivated I am to get out there and practice my French after an all-night flight (it leaves Dubai at 1:00am and gets into Paris at 6:00am).

Capital Running

Last night 3 work friends and I ran 7.5 miles after work. It was a really nice run: along the Potomac between Arlington Memorial Bridge and George Washington Memorial Bridge, across Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, then down the National Mall to the Capitol and around the Capitol to my friend's house northeast of Union Station. The only bad part was the "hill" portion of Capitol Hill, which was somewhere in the 6th mile. I entertained the thought of quitting right about then, but as soon as we got back to level ground, I was fine. I also feel good that I finally got the quintessential Washington experience of running on the Mall. My ankles were still both stiff from my experiment of not wearing ankle bracing during my 2-mile run on Tuesday. I wore my ankle wraps last night, but felt the stiffness almost continually. My left ankle, as usual, was the bigger problem. By the time I got home, it didn't really hurt, but the muscles were so fatigued (or something) that I couldn't really walk normally either. I spent about 30 minutes googling Tendonitis/Tendonosis/Tendonsynovitis and fretting about what was wrong, but a little ice, ibuprofen, and overnight resting did the trick--it's more or less normal today. I think I'll take Sunday off, though.

The Kool-Aid will have to wait...

That's what I get for counting my trips before they're...um, hatched. Guyana has been pushed off until April, mostly because my counterpart in Georgetown is being (as a colleague for whom I have the utmost admiration put it) a "manbitch". That's okay, though because I'm not exactly looking forward to going back. In fact, I'm totally cool with not going back ever, but that's not really an option. My other trip that was supposed to happen now-ish was to Belgrade. If you've been watching the news, you get why that trip is postponed. A little matter of a mob setting part of the U.S. Embassy on fire and all. We'll go when things are a tad friendlier!

In case my previous post regarding music worried you, it worried Zach too. He said I was "letting myself go". Like listening to (and admitting listening to) Justin Timberlake and the Black Eyed Peas is the sonic equivalent of going to the grocery store barefoot and wearing hair curlers. Fear not, I usually temper my online music purchases of Top 40 crap with something a little more respectable, at least so I can justify also liking the crap. My new favorite song is MGMT's "Time to Pretend". It's one of those songs I'll make myself sick-to-death-of within weeks because I hit repeat at least twice every time it comes up on my iPod. Another song that I really want to buy, but can't find, is Bohses Madchen ("Bad Girls") by K.I.Z. I heard it on German MTV while in Turkey. I feel like it's okay to like mass-produced MTV hip hop intended for people 10 years my junior if it's German. Regardless, check it out for yourself at YouTube. (Try not to let the goofy white dude doing backflips and making stupid faces ruin it for you.)