Try and get them to start at the same time...

Pause the goat until the song starts. So worth it. I'm going to put the vids on the jump so you can have it load without having interference with the rest of the page loading.

YouTube Doubler

PS I changed it so they don't autostart.
PPS, changed it back.

The Known Universe

Keeping with the astronomy theme, thought I'd share this vid with you. All these views of the vastness of space and our universe has put me in a philosophical mood. Can't wait for the semester to be over so I can start reading for pleasure as opposed to reading for memorization.

Rogelio Salinas Villareal

1916 - 2009

Carl Sagan, Still Auto-Tuned

I've been reading a lot on astronomy recently. Especially after reading up on the Ultra Deep Field Image. If you guys don't know what it is I would suggest looking it up. Here are some links to some overviews from Giz.

Essentially areas that we thought were devoid of anything actually have hundreds of thousands of galaxies. Just to put that in perspective, there are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, our galaxy. You can extrapolate as to how many planets that would be. With this new data they are estimating that there are some where around 100 billion galaxies in the universe. I don't even know what 100 billion x 100 billion equals. Kind of humbling, no?

Anyhoo, the reason I am posting this is because I talk Lisa's ear off about this stuff. To add to the torture I have been making her listen to the Carl Sagan autotuned video on youtube a lot. She asked me why I hadn't posted it on TripleChimp, I thought I had. So this is for her. There is a lot more info, but I'll let you watch the video that I am placing after the autotune for it. I apologize if you have already seen this.

More Team Radio Shack News

Here is a first look at the Team Radio Shack's team bicycle. I was too lazy to get all the pics so I am only posting one here. IF you are too lazy to follow the link to see the rest of 'em, then that's fine too.

Sorry for the small pic. The interwebs really slow down in the evenings here. Wouldn't dang upload the higher res file. OK, so nothing is uploading. I'll do it tomorrow.


Yes! It worked!!

Yet Another Gift... !

Chiptunes plus + decent rap + plus copious amounts of nintendo reference. Enjoy, my amigos.

Doggy Christmas!!

Heres wishin' ya a very merry Christmas from Eleni, Efren and most of all Temo.

Commander Gorgo UPDATE!

Skin texture typically pushes a sculpt from "neat!" into a more organic, naturalistic rendering. Sharp needle tools are used to make "stretched" pores and wrinkles, a round ball-lookin' tool is used to make pores (thousands of 'em... very tedious), and then a citric-based solvent is used to smooth it all out and make it natural-looking... Pics of Gorgo's craggy skin after the jump...

Head-on shot of Gorgo's face. Note that the "pores" on the top left portion of the image aren't smoothed out yet with the solvent...


Side angle for light contrast.


And finally, a close-up of the skin around the eye-goggle.


Lemme know what you think, guys!
Cheers!
-R

Bobby Mcferrin is awesome.

Wouldn't you guys want to be in this audience? I love how good they all sound. You know that most of the people in the room have to have shitty singing voices. Enjoy.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Team Radio Shack Cycling Kit

Team Radio Shack has finally released what their jerseys are gonna look like. I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I expected something a little more modern/awesome. With a team that has so many superstars on it, wouldn't you also want to be the ones that look the most professional while also looking the most badass? What do you guys think?

Who's Coming With Me?

Tonight is the unveiling of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is tonight. Giz put up some picks I thought I would share with ya. I would love to be able to afford a trip like this. More pics after the jump.



PS I hear this is what the spacesuits look like.

Harry's first commercial NE1 lan center

Harry, I really like your new commercial.

More Like This

We need more shows like this. This seems like it would be my new favorite show. Apparently it is just a concept right now. How do we get this made and shown in the US?

SLINGERS from Mike Sizemore on Vimeo.

Less Like These Please...

Im not really sure how to set this up. Just watch... in HORROR!!



In the girls defense, if the guy has been there for months and not going to school or getting a job... shes justified in being upset.
But why destory the mans PSTriple? She should have sold it and all of his games instead. What say you?

More Like These Please...

Naughty Dog is about to do what a whole lot of game companies should be doing: giving us quality DLC for FREE! If you played the first Uncharted this should look familiar.

Video Games | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | The Fort DLC Map Flythrough

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Can't wait for this to hit! Assuming CoD:MW2 took a sizable chunk out of Uncharted's online activity, I bet Naughty Dog cant wait for it to hit either!

Look where you are going...

This guy is just asking for it. Haven't posted a fixed trick vid in a while. They mostly seem lame to me now. I like to go fast, not do dumb tricks or ride in circles. Having said that, this guy is nuts and deserves a post.

Joel Weston from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

New Super Mario Bros.: Give you a Nostalgia-Boner Edition

Quick confession: I love to walk around Best Buy even if I don't plan on purchasing anything. Ive been eagerly anticipating the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii but I wasn't expecting it til this coming Tuesday. Well guess what?! They released that shizz on SUNDAY! I snatched that bad boy up and took it directly over to the GF's place for some old-school gaming bliss. Speaking of bliss, I had a huge smile on my face the whole way home, I was so excited that I almost began to worry that the game wouldn't live up to my expectations. Well watch this then hit the jump for my own review. (Yes I realize that prefacing my review with someone else's is a bit redundant but who gives a crap! I just want you to get a feel for the game!)

Video Games | New Super Mario Bros. Wii | Review

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

This game is unique. I have a lot of love for the Super Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. All-Stars which included all previous 2D Mario games with redone graphics... this game delivers what I wish the aforementioned game would have. The music, the platforming, the cooperative elements. Man, Im getting a rubbery one just thinking about it again.

Since the GT review already went over the highlights Ill just mention my standout impressions. This game draws from all previous Mario games that you've played. Moves/elements included in the game: Basic original Mario Bros. aesthetic, ground pounds, yoshis, Koopalings, fire flowers, World Maps (ala Mario Bros. 3), triple jump from Mario 64, Mario spin (SM Galaxy) and a whole lot more that I cant think of.

Remember how Metroid went to 3D and became even cooler?! Well, ironically Mario going back to 2D has had the same effect! I love this game, and you will too. I almost feel like I'm 4 years old again, in my pj's playing the original with my brothers. Try to imagine every fun memory you've had playing these games distilled into one product.

Ok, enough of my rambling love-fest for this game. Ill leave you with some in-game unlockable movies of the game developers owning some levels... enjoy! WAAAHOOOO (Mario voice)!!

More Corruption Comes to Light

There is more news on the health system front in McAllen. It was only a matter of time before people got busted. Looks like they had it coming. Here is the link to The Monitor article. Keep in mind it's not the greatest newspaper, so not the greatest writing. If you want to read it here you can check it after the jump.


McALLEN — There were no doctors, no patients or even a floor at a medical office on the city’s south side, but to Hidalgo County’s largest hospital system it was reputedly worth lease payments of $8,000 a month.

The lease allegedly was a sham contract given to disguise an improper kickback to Eugenio Galindo, a McAllen doctor, a whistle-blower contended among his allegations in a lawsuit he filed accusing South Texas Health System of Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Galindo is one of seven Rio Grande Valley doctors whom the U.S. Department of Justice, which joined in the suit at the point at which it was settled, said received “bogus” job titles, lease agreements and other payouts in exchange for referring patients to South Texas’ hospitals.

On Oct. 26, South Texas Health System, which includes McAllen Medical Center, ended the suit — and the nearly four-year federal investigation it spawned — with a $27.5 million settlement. The government said it wrongly paid the health system almost twice that amount — $50 million — to treat the seven doctors’ patients.

The suit — which was filed in 2005 by a former employee and later joined by the federal government, but not unsealed for public inspection until a week after the settlement — helps shed some light on why medical costs in the McAllen area have grown to be among the highest in the nation.

The doctors named in the settlement are Galindo, Subbarao Yarra, Carlos Mego, Jose Igoa, E. Linda Villarreal, Harish Koolwal and Luis Arango — a Mission doctor who settled his own fraud allegations with the government in 2003. The allegations are not in the settlement, but many are outlined in the suit originally filed by Bruce Moilan Sr., a former systems director for materials management for South Texas Health System. In agreeing to the settlement, South Texas Health System admitted no liability and denied any wrongdoing.

The suit alleged, among other things, that:

>> Galindo, 51, an oncologist who is now on the board of managers for Edinburg-based Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance, received fees from medical directorships that he used to pay off advances and loans from the health system. One of the loans was for about $8,000 and the other for about $500,000. Additionally, the health system leased an office space he owned, among other arrangements. The allegations occurred at some point from July 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2006. Galindo did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

>> The McAllen cardiology practice operated by Yarra, 51, and Mego, 49, received a $150,000 loan for “office expenses” that the health system later wrote off at some point between Jan. 3, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2002. Both Yarra and Mego did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

>> Igoa, 55, a McAllen psychiatrist, received equipment, furniture and had rent at two of his offices paid by South Texas Health System since at least 1996. He has also been the medical director of South Texas Behavioral Health Center. The allegations occurred at some point between Jan. 1, 1999, and Jan. 31, 2005. From 2006 until at least when the suit was filed, Igoa received free housekeeping and supplies for an office. Igoa did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

>> Villarreal, 62, an Edinburg internal medicine doctor, received a medical directorship and landscaping, painting, air conditioning, carpeting and furniture for properties she owned at some point between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2006. Villarreal has denied the allegations.

>> Koolwal, 55, a McAllen cardiovascular diseases specialist, received office space and equipment and a medical directorship at some point between Aug. 1, 1999, and Oct. 31, 2001. Koolwal declined to comment.

In early September, wind whipped through the empty entranceway and hollow window frames into Galindo’s bare-dirt-floored office at a medical office park at 1200 E. Savannah Ave. Recently, two electricians were wiring the once empty building which now has a floor and some furniture. They said that work had begun on the building’s interior about two months ago.

The office was purchased by The Eugenio G. Galindo Family Limited Partnership in 2002. South Texas allegedly began leasing the office in June 2003, the lawsuit stated. According to the county’s appraiser, the space is owned by E.V.G. Management LLC, a company registered to Galindo.

South Texas Health System — a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services Inc. — operates McAllen Medical Center, McAllen Heart Hospital, Edinburg Regional Medical Center, South Texas Behavioral Health Center, Edinburg Children’s Hospital, Edinburg Regional Rehab Center and Cornerstone Regional Hospital.

The health system was accused of violating the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statue and Stark Law — laws that govern Medicaid and Medicare. Under federal law, providers such as South Texas are not allowed to bill the government for patients referred from doctors it has a “financial relationship” with, unless that arrangement falls into specific exemptions.

Joel Androphy, a Houston-based lawyer who has represented whistleblowers in fraud cases, compared the allegations against South Texas to arrangements he has investigated between drug makers and physicians, where pharmaceutical companies pay doctors to prescribe certain medicines. Such payouts compromise a doctor’s independence, he said.

“The government views kickbacks and bribes as tainting the entire billing process,” Androphy said. “You question the integrity of the doctor.”

Some financial arrangements are permissible. Hospitals can cover expenses for relocating doctors, give income guarantees, offer annual and signing bonuses and even educational loan forgiveness programs. Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance can also legally pay doctors who are invested in the facility a monthly dividend check because it is doctor-owned.

South Texas allegedly erred in tying the financial incentives to referrals, such as with paid medical directorships. The positions, ostensibly for guidance and leadership of a unit within a hospital, are allowed if the doctor is paid a wage that does not exceed the “fair market value” and if there is documented work performed. South Texas is accused of providing “sham” medical directorships to at least four of the seven doctors — Galindo, Koolwal, Igoa and Villarreal.

The health system was accused of making Koolwal the medical director of the Edinburg Children’s Hospital in 2005, the year before the facility opened. He also allegedly had a medical director position at Edinburg Regional Medical Center. Koolwal said he would contact his lawyer when he was reached by phone last week. He has since not returned calls seeking comment.

Villarreal, a former president of the Hidalgo-Starr County Medical Society, was the medical director of the former South Texas Rehabilitation Pavilion. She said that South Texas grandfathered her into the position because she had a similar post with a rehab center at the former Edinburg General Hospital, which the health system purchased in 1997.

“Since we were still at the time very, very short on qualified individuals to do the rehab, I was given that position and basically grew with the program,” Villarreal said. “It was not a secret that I was medical director.”

She said that as director she documented all her work. She referred most of her patients to the Edinburg rehab center, because for some time she did not have privileges at other area hospitals, something Villarreal said was difficult to obtain because she was not board-certified in a rehab-related specialty.

In June this year, an article in The New Yorker magazine brought national attention to McAllen when it highlighted how average Medicare spending per enrollee in the U.S. is near the top in the City of Palms at $15,000 — or nearly two times the national average. Some local doctors were irate after the piece and many said that the writer Atul Gawande’s assertion that the high costs are due to an “across-the-board overuse of medicine” were false.

President Barack Obama even chimed in, reportedly making the article mandatory reading at the White House.

Then in a press release after the settlement, the government nodded to the cost debate with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, Daniel Levinson, saying that fraudulent financial arrangements could increase health care costs by “shifting provider attention to the quantity of treatments, rather than keeping it focused on the quality of care.”

South Texas Health System denied the charges later the same day, saying the “investigation had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of care.”

The health system has since declined to comment. Universal Health Services also declined. A message left for Frederick Robinson, South Texas’ legal counsel and a partner at the law firm Fulbright and Jaworski, was not returned.

“There was no evidence or claims made by the government that taxpayer funds were wasted or expended on payments for improper or unnecessary medical treatments,” the release said.

At least one doctor named in the settlement had already been accused of Medicare and Medicaid fraud for performing procedures he hadn’t actually performed and others that were unnecessary. According to the suit settlement, accusations involving South Texas’ relationship with Arango occurred between Jan. 1, 1999, and Nov. 6, 2001, which overlaps the time period from 1997 until 2001, during which Arango was accused of the fraud and for billing the government health care programs for services performed by his physician assistants, according to the Texas Medical Board.

In April 2003, Arango settled with the government, paying close to $900,000, according to the state's medical board.

Arango said he was surprised he was named in the settlement when reached by phone last week. Arango, who no longer has privileges to practice at any South Texas Health System facility, said his relationship with the health system was legal and is long over.

“The hospital is doing wrong things which they do all the time,” Arango said. “I don’t know why they need to try me.”

The suit against South Texas was filed in early August 2005 by Moilan, who at the time had been employed by the system for more than six years. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can sue on behalf of the government and share in any settlement. Moilan will receive $5.5 million, the Justice Department said. The state of Texas will receive $2.2 million to reimburse its Medicaid program.

Moilan declined to comment for this story. Marcella Auerbach, a former federal prosecutor and Moilan’s Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based attorney, also declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but did say that Moilan had reached a confidential settlement with the health system.

“This is an example of the type of impact a whistleblower can have if he is willing to bring critical information forward and demonstrate the courage of his convictions,” said Auerbach, a partner with Nolan and Auerbach, a prominent law firm that specializes in whistleblower cases.

The investigation, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Bobb, focused on a seven-year period. The Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission assisted the investigation.

In February 2007, the government raided South Texas’ corporate offices in Edinburg for several hours, filling a rental truck with boxes of documents. South Texas’ parent company would later disclose in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the raid was part of a separate inquiry into whether employees obstructed justice in responding to the initial subpoena. It’s unclear if the investigation is still ongoing.

During the next two years, the government and hospital system officials met several times in a protracted negotiation process. On Aug. 8, 2008, the company disclosed to investors that federal prosecutors would not pursue criminal prosecution “at this time.”

On Feb. 6, 2009, South Texas fired Moilan, according to the suit. A month later, Moilan would amend his complaint in the suit to include two claims for wrongful termination.

On Friday, Oct. 30, the government announced it had reached a settlement with South Texas Health System. Patrick O’Connell, a former chief of the Texas Attorney General’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Section, said weeks before the settlement that both the government and the accused in similar cases often look to settle to avoid going to trial.

If a medical provider goes to trial and is found guilty of fraud, in addition to civil fines, it will be shut out of the Medicare and Medicaid programs — a potentially devastating blow. The government usually settles to avoid risky litigation and because if a hospital or other provider can’t see patients under federal health care programs, it could be disastrous for the community they serve, O’Connell said.

The government said it had a “valid claim” against the health system for up to $180 million, a figure that is three times the billing charges and includes damages.

As part of the settlement, the government said it will not pursue exclusion from federal health care programs against South Texas Health System for the relationships with the seven doctors. Prosecutors could still pursue criminal charges and any of the dozens of other since-dismissed claims Moilan outlined in his suit, according to the settlement. South Texas agreed to cooperate if the government investigated doctors or other “entities” not covered by the settlement.

As part of the settlement, South Texas entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement, which requires that the system establish procedures to track and evaluate financial arrangements between its health care facilities and their referral sources. South Texas employees will also be required to undergo training regarding financial arrangements. They will also be subject to an annual review of their compliance with the agreement by an outside party which must file a report to the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

I Wear A Coat

So the second year class decided to make a video for the incoming first years, the class of 2013. I had never bothered to check it out. Now that I have I wished I would have a while ago.

Hope you all like it. And yes, the pictures of people asleep in class are totally real.

Introducing COMMANDER GORGO!

Been a while since I've posted on the 'ole TripleChimp blog, so I figured I might as well make this a substantial post (and one I'll hopefully update as my work progresses) so apologies for the lengthy post. As you guys know, I'm currently working on my graduate thesis film here at UT Austin. It's a narrative film (no documentary again for me for a while...) about two rivaling brothers all wrapped up in a Nintendo-esque, 8-bit fantasy aesthetic. The film culminates with a drop-down, drag-out fight between the brothers which sparks my grand finale. These brothers play vids together, and have all throughout their lives. It's their arena... and all that that entails. The "last boss" of THE game they played, is a cosmonaut pig-monster named "Commander Gorgo." Gorgo goes from being, essentially, the devil on the younger brother's shoulder to his anxiety/anger incarnate. And while he appears throughout the film as an 8-bit sprite, we'll see him "in the flesh" at the end of the film. To that end, I'm currently working on a sculpt for a fully animatronic Gorgo head. He'll be around 7 ft tall when finished and only the head will be animatronic.

Here's the final design for Commander Gorgo.


Progress pics after the jump! Click on the pics for the GIGANTO versions. And remember, he'll have his cosmonaut cap once he's done...

Here he is from about five days ago. He's sporting some temporary tusks cast out of plastic resin (like the eye goggles), but they'll be replaced with tusks cast from dental acrylic for translucency and added realism.


His eyes were scratch-built out of plastic sake cups and scrap styrene, molded in RTV rubber silicone, and cast in polyurethane resin.


Here's the latest update. Been working details onto the chin and lips. His tusks were removed to make it easier to sculpt the mouth. I really want his skin to look "hard" and gnarly with creases that almost look like scar tissue.


And one final shot of the head as it stands as of the writing of this post. Right now I'm working my way up his face. Next is the nose and his cheekbones.


More updates as the sculpt progresses. Deadline for the sculpt is this friday! See you next time...

You're Welcome!

Oh my God, I defy anyone to watch this vid and not want to immediately go out and get some mudda effin WINGS!


Yippee!! Cant wait to try this out!

Batman is the Bane of Bane's Existence

Whilst looking for stuff about Jonah Hex I wound up finding something even cooler. Check it out!

Bane is a badass... too bad he goes down like a punk. More "bat"ass clips after the jump.
The previous clip was from the under appreciated and amazingly well done Batman: the Animated Series. The next clips are from Batman the Brave and the Bold... you decide which one is cooler.

Yes that is R. Lee Ermey ding the voice of Wild Cat... and since I mentioned him, here is a clip of Jonah hex from Batman the Brave and the Bold:

Apparently Jonah Hex is an avid time traveller!

How I felt during the cardio exam.

Erin from The Office (NSFW)

This post is for Lisa. Watching The Office has become of a routine for us. Study break, dinner, The Office. Erin is the receptionist that took over for Pam after her promotion. I always had a feeling that I had seen her somewhere before. Now that I have found it, I can't say that this is what I expected. This vid is a bit old. Most likely you have already seen it. Either way, its new to Lisa. Enjoy!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Holy MotherF*%$@ing S#!t

Dude, Efren, they may be remaking Jackal, yes I did say that. JACKAL!!!!!!! Oh man, this would make me soooo happy. I can't remember a local multiplayer game that I have ever enjoyed so much.

Super Nintendo Ate My Childhood

Now here we finally have a real treat: Zombies Ate My Neighbors. This classic game was first released on the Super Nintendo back in 1993 but still kicks major ass! How ahead of its time?! Nazi Zombies, Left 4 Dead, countless Zombie related DLC across the platforms... they're all just trying to catch up to the Smash TV glory that is ZAMN. Sit back and enjoy some top-down mayhem (chingon's note: the guy playing sucks pretty bad).

Video Games Zombies Ate My Neighbors Virtual Console Gameplay

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

The music, the gameplay, the music again. This game was hours of co-op fun... and now its available on the Wii's Virtual Console. I'm gonna go jump on some trampolines and save some cheerleaders.

Rockstar Shames Me

I think we can safely agree that Japanese animation is often bugnuts bizarre batshit crazy. I accept Anime in all (most) of its forms. Regardless, this next vid just makes me feel dirty inside.

Video Games | GTA: Episodes from Liberty City | Princess Robot Bubblegum Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

This really lays it all out. In case you're wondering, this is from GTA: Liberty City Stories of all places. As you reminisce about what a degenerate you are, here is a brief lesson in Anime (its also one of the few terms I remember from my Anime class with Dr. Korpi).

*Click on "lesson in Anime"

Sweet Custom Bike

I just realized that I haven't posted anything bike porntastic on this site for a while. Here is one that combines WWII inspiration with a little Watchmen.


Click through for the rest of the pics.






Apparently this was the inspiration:

Beautiful, Bizarre...

or Both!

blackhole from arjanM on Vimeo.

You ever wonder how people come up with this stuff?

Speaking of Ghosts...

I'm gonna try and make shoes out of this. The purpose? To more effectively move like a ghost around my house and scare the pants off of people. Sorry I couldn't find a proper embed.

Whisper

After Efren's recounting of Paranormal Activity I knew I wouldn't watch it. Apparently some believe that Whisper may have been an inspiration. I'm posting the short story below. I highly recommend you read it. Especially since it is not too long. Enjoy

Whisper
by Ray Vukcevich

And then she fired her parting shot. “And not only that,” she said, as if “that” hadn’t been quite enough, “you snore horribly!”

“I do not,” I said. “I definitely do not snore.” I was talking to her back. “You’re making it up!” I was talking to the door. “Someone else would have mentioned it!” I was talking to myself.

Mistakes were made, relationships fell apart, and hurtful things were said. Life was like that.

In the days that followed, I rearranged all the furniture. I threw out everything in the refrigerator. I bought newspices — savory, anise, cumin, cracked black pepper — and packaged macaroni and cheese and powdered soups. Anchovies. Things Joanna didn’t like. I left the toilet seat up all the time and dropped my clothes wherever I took them off. I got a new haircut and collected brochures for a getaway to Panama. I looked at a red convertible but didn’t buy it.

Her crack about me snoring wouldn’t leave me alone, probably because it poked something that had always worried me. My father had snored. I remembered listening to him snore all the way down the hall and around the corner. I always thought it must be awful to be in there with him. Maybe it ran in the family, like baldness or alcoholism.

The solution, once it hit me, seemed obvious. I would record myself sleeping. I had nothing that would record such a long time, so I went to an audio store and bought an expensive machine that would do the job. I used some of the money I’d saved by not buying the red convertible.

I set it up on the dresser across the room at the foot of the bed. I poured myself a nightcap, drank it during the eleven o’clock news, brushed my teeth, turned on the recorder, got into bed and squirmed around restlessly for over an hour, listening to the possibly imaginary whir and hiss of magnetic tape moving through the mechanism.

The next day, there was no time to check the tape as I hurried through my morning ritual and left for work. I was tempted, but I couldn’t afford to be late. Then I got busy and didn’t think about it again until bedtime the next night.

I made myself a complicated drink and a plate of crackers with anchovies and cheese and sat down on the foot of my bed. I don’t know exactly what I expected. I was a little apprehensive. I stretched up and switched on the machine.

There were the sounds of me changing positions and sighing as I tried to get to sleep. I listened and ate a few crackers then stood up and held down the fast-forward button.

There were long periods of silence. No snoring. The house was quiet, too, with that late night stillness that isn’t really so quiet when you finally listen, and the two silences got mixed together until I was listening hard and eating crackers and not caring about the crumbs in my bed.

I continued sampling a moment here and there and then moving on.

“Ah ha,” I said. “I knew it.”

There was a long embarrassing fart an hour or so into the night, but absolutely no snoring. I heard something move in the kitchen like stuff settling in the plastic trash bag, a totally familiar sound. In fact, I couldn’t tell if it was on the tape or had just happened in real time. I heard the house creaking and the distant sounds of traffic and once an auto horn. Several hours later, a siren screamed in the distance, and my sleeping self moaned. The 3:00 a.m. train went by, five miles to the south. I had stopped hearing that whistle a long time ago. It was comforting somehow to hear it again. I speeded the tape forward.

I was home free.

Joanna had been jerking me around.

But then a woman said, “Shush!’ and giggled softly, and I gasped and jerked my hand up and drenched the front of my shirt with my drink.

I looked around wildly, thinking it was Joanna talking, thinking maybe it hadn’t been on the tape, thinking maybe she was standing right behind me, but most of me knew she wasn’t there. And the superspeed scenario I played in my mind where she’d sneaked into my bedroom last night to talk on my tape was stupid. Besides it hadn’t even been her voice.

“Just look at him,” the voice whispered.

I could hear someone moving around in the room. The rustle of clothing, the bump of a leg maybe hitting the side of the dresser or the chair by the window.

“Sure,” a man whispered, “he’s adorable.”

The woman giggled again.

Then nothing.

I carefully put my glass down on the floor. I felt cold. My ears were ringing and my breathing was fast and shallow. I pulled off my wet shirt and threw it at the bathroom door.

The tape still moved but was silent.

I sat there listening for maybe an hour. Then I told myself I had imagined the whole thing. I got up and rewound the tape and played it again.

“Just look at him,” the woman whispered.

I spent the rest of the night listening to every inch of the tape. You would think listening to over eight hours of tape would take more than eight hours, but I made good use of the fast-forward button, and by morning, I was pretty sure that little snatch of conversation was all there was.

I considered calling in sick, but then I would probably fall asleep, and I wasn’t ready to fall asleep yet. I showered and shaved and got dressed.

Things were too bright outside. The feeling was like an old memory of all-nighters in college and crawling out into the daylight finally and feeling like everything must surely be an elaborate set in a movie about someone else. I remembered the way Abby, my first true love, looked in those days, warm young woman, zoomed in tight, big distorted nose, morning close up, sleepy head, kiss kiss, an echoing dress-store dummy somehow moving, smiling too big, too many teeth. Good morning, Sunshine. And later, the coffee so deeply black and hot against my own teeth. Eggs over easy so you can paint bright yellow daffodils with your toast. Thick slabs of bacon.

“You’re doing the Zen breakfast thing, aren’t you?” Abby bumped me with her shoulder. We sat side by side at the counter because the place was always too full to get a booth in the morning.

Where had she gone? I remembered dreaming over and over again that I had accidentally killed her and hidden her body in a closet or out in the barn or under the bed, and for years and years and years I was forced to take care of it so no one would ever find out. I finished school and got good work, met a woman named Louisa, married her, fathered children, lost them but got weekends, met Joanna, all the time playing a complicated juggling game involving plastic bags and big trunks to keep Abby’s body hidden.

I suddenly wondered if that was Abby on the tape.

“More coffee?”

“What?” I snapped out of it long enough to nod and smile at the woman with the coffee pot. “Yes, please.”

I looked around. This was not the diner from my past. This was the restaurant down the block from my office. I never stopped in here for breakfast, but judging by the remains on my plate, I had stopped in for breakfast today. I glanced at my watch. I was late. I finished my coffee too quickly, burned my mouth, left a tip, paid the bill, and hurried off.

Out in the bright morning crowd of busy people all moving so deliberately toward important tasks, I knew very well I hadn’t killed Abby and kept her body hidden all these years. That was just something I had dreamed more than once. But I was drawing a blank on just what had happened to her. I couldn’t really bring her face into sharp focus in my mind. That probably wasn’t her voice on the tape.

At my desk, I made a mental list of the things that might be happening to me. The most obvious was that I was losing my mind. Next, I might be haunted; the voices might be ghosts. And finally, there was the conspiracy angle — someone really was sneaking into my bedroom at night and watching me sleep. But if that were true why hadn’t Joanna complained about spooky visitors instead of making up a story about me snoring?

I didn’t feel crazy. In fact, after the sleepless night, my mind seemed unusually sharp. Everything was bright and moist. I could see every hair on my arm. I could still taste the bacon from breakfast even if I couldn’t remember eating it. I could hear my co-workers talking in low tones across the room.

There was nothing to do about the supernatural. If that was what was happening, there was no defense. That’s what makes it the supernatural in the first place. It’s not like an understandable force that is simply too powerful, like a bully you can overcome by pumping iron and eating your Wheaties. There is no kung fu you can do when it comes to the supernatural. It is irrational and absolutely unpredictable. If there were rules that worked, the supernatural would be science. The truly supernatural must be truly meaningless.

That only left conspiracy, but I couldn’t imagine how it would be possible.

Nevertheless, my exercise in logic made me feel a little better, and in spite of the voices and in spite of a sleepless night, I got caught up in work and by early afternoon, I realized I’d forgotten all about the tape. That realization reminded me of the tape, of course, and I laughed, and everyone gave me a funny look, and I just shook my head and said, “Nothing. Sorry. Just a thought. Nothing.”

For dinner, I stopped in at the same restaurant where I had had breakfast. Then I went home and wandered around the house picking things up and putting them down again. I turned on the TV.

TV was often my meditation. The challenge was to make a coherent program out of a single utterance or exclamation or exploding building or whatever from each channel. No matter what was happening, you could linger on a channel no longer than a sentence. You had to pay attention, and it took hours to get a meaningful exchange, but once I did get a something meaningful, everything fell into place. The universe became a Buddha smile, and I reached a place of blue clarity. Hours passed, and while I could not remember exactly what the experience had been about, I felt as if I’d accomplished something by the time I stopped and pushed the dirty dishes to one side so I could rinse a glass and pour a couple of fingers of scotch and put a fresh tape on the fancy recording machine in the bedroom. I could have just recorded over the old one, but I wanted to avoid ambiguity. I gulped down the scotch, brushed my teeth and undressed. I switched on the recorder, and got into bed.

“I’m going to sleep now,” I said out loud so I’d have a reference point. I snuggled deeper into the covers and passed through the bed and into a dream in which all the people I had lost to death were back again, but changed. Not exactly zombies, just back and a little different. In the dream I had to make allowances for them. I’d say things like, “You’ll have to excuse her, she’s been dead.” I’d say things like, “The way he moves certainly is not creepy, he was dead only yesterday.” They would all come over to my house where I would feed them and teach them things and they would pretend they didn’t know me and wouldn’t seem the least bit grateful for my help, but I would forgive them because they’d been dead and were now trying to get back into the swing of things.

The next morning I called in sick. Judy, who took my call, wasn’t surprised. “You didn’t look so hot yesterday,” she told me.

I popped open a beer and rewound the tape.

Forward, pause, play. Snort, moan, honk, fart, shuffle, shift, yada yada yada. Forward, pause, play.

“He’s paralyzed,” the woman whispered.

“How can you tell?” the man asked.

“Look at his eyes moving,” she said. “There is a mechanism that paralyzes his body when he dreams. Otherwise he might get up and walk around.”

The man chuckled.

“Careful with that,” the woman said.

“I just need to rest,” the man said.

“You shouldn’t . . .”

“Shush,” the man said.

She sighed. “Okay, make room for me, too,” she whispered. “Careful with the covers. Okay, I’ll take the front. Easy, now, easy.”

“If he wakes up now,” the man whispered, “he’ll be looking right into your face.”

“Hmmm,” she said.

“Can he smell your breath?”

“Hmmm,” she said.

“I’m going to pinch him.”

“Don’t!”

“Just joking,” the man whispered.

Then nothing.

My heart was beating too fast. I listened to the silence and small night sounds until my beer was gone. I crushed the can and stood up and hit the fast-forward button.

The voices didn’t occur on the tape again.

I checked all the windows and all the doors but I knew they were okay. When I got home, I always made a quick tour of the house to make sure there were no intruders lurking. I always locked the bathroom door before getting into the shower. I didn’t go to bed without putting the security chain on. The movies have trained us not to make too many stupid mistakes. I had always felt secure in my own house. I’d lived there for years. I knew every inch of the place.

I went around carefully tapping all the walls looking for secret passages. I knew it was stupid. I just couldn’t think of anything else to do. There was no way anyone could get in when I was asleep. How would they know when I was asleep in the first place?

I needed a second opinion. I had to let someone else listen to the tape. But who could I trust? Maybe a stranger would be better. But how would I get a stranger to listen to a tape and how could I trust what they said?

I knew who should listen to the tape. I had known from the moment I came up with the idea that someone should listen to it. I sat there staring down at my shoes, saying over and over again, “Just do it. Just do it.” Okay. I got up and ran the tape back to the points just before the woman first spoke. I took it out of the machine and put it in a box and wrapped the box and addressed it to Joanna at her office. I didn’t know where she was living.

I wrote a note. “Joanna, please listen to this and tell me what you hear.”

I called the messenger service I sometimes used at work. An hour later the messenger arrived, and I gave him the tape and some money.

There were other things I could do while I waited. I put a fresh tape in the machine. I found a sack of flour back behind my new spices. I could spread it all over the bedroom floor and see if there were footprints in the morning. I opened the bag. But wait. If I spread the flour now, I would probably step in it many times on my way to the bathroom, which reminded me to open another beer. I took the beer and the flour into the bedroom. I put the flour down by the recorder. I would spread it just before bed. Maybe Joanna would have called before then, though. Maybe whatever she had to say would solve the problem.

“Oh, yeah,” I’d say. “That’s it. Boy, is my face red. I should have thought of it myself.”

I could do something else, too, but it would take more courage. I could leave them a message. The danger in that was that they didn’t seem to know that I could hear them. What would they do if they found out? I was completely helpless in their company. Maybe I shouldn’t let them know that I knew. I was a kind of eavesdropper, really. Maybe they wouldn’t like it.

They might find out anyway. One of these nights, they might notice the tape machine. And surely if I spread flour all over the floor it would tip them off.

The day passed. I ate stuff from cans for lunch. I got no reply from Joanna. I must be pretty far down on her priority list these days.

I couldn’t find anything else to eat for dinner so I skipped it. There was still beer, but not too much.

I meditated with the TV for a few hours but never could achieve meaning. Around eleven I decided I really would leave them a message. It was night again and too quiet and bedtime and I had to do something. I tore a piece of paper from a notebook and wrote, “Who are you?” in big bold letters.

Now what? Should I pin it to my chest? What if they didn’t find it? I wadded the paper up and tossed it in the trash.

I could write really big letters on the wall.

I dug through kitchen drawers but found nothing I could use to make big letters. I checked the bathroom. Women never leave a place without a trace. Maybe there would be a lipstick. There wasn’t. So much for generalizations.

I had pink stomach stuff but it looked too runny, and I had colorless roll-on deodorant, so the wall wouldn’t sweat, but you’d have to smell the country fresh letters to puzzle out the message.

Ah ha. An old old bottle of tincture of merthiolate. Good god, I bought that before I met Abby. What was the expiration date? Most of the label was gone, but it looked like 1980. I had put the stuff on countless cuts. It still had a nice sting to it. This was one of those products that one bottle lasts you a lifetime. The company had probably gone out of business.

I stood on the bed and, using the little plastic applicator, started my message again on the wall. Rats. The applicator was too small. It would take forever. I poured merthiolate into my hand and smacked my hand onto the wall and dragged it down and up and down and up in a big dripping orange double-u. Okay. The rest went pretty quickly.

Who are you?

If they looked at me, and I seemed to be pretty much all they did look at, they could not fail to see my message.

My hands were orange. The orange stain wouldn’t come off with soap and water. To hell with it.

How about the flour?

Okay, okay. But do it carefully. Get undressed first. Start at the bathroom door and work your way back to the bed. Yes, like that. When you get to the bed just toss the empty flour sack out of the bedroom and get into bed. That’s it. Nothing could move across there without leaving a mark. Good. Good. Goddamn it, you forgot to pee.

I plopped down on the bed. I tossed the empty flour sack over the side. I took a deep breath. Then I walked straight across the flour to the bathroom. One straight path. I would use the same one coming back. Anything off that path would be my visitors.

Except that after I used the bathroom and carefully walked back to the bed, I realized I would need one more path to the dresser so I could turn on the recorder. Okay, one more. I walked to the dresser, turned on the machine, and walked back to the bed. Two paths. Footprints going in both directions. I got into bed.

I stared up at the ceiling, feeling like an absolute idiot. I would have to get up and make another path if I wanted to turn off the light. I got up and walked to the light switch and flipped it off. Then I made my way back in the dark. I knew I was not keeping a straight path. And as I walked, it occurred to me to wonder how they would see my message in the dark. I had probably ruined the wall for nothing. I stopped and closed my eyes to think about it. If they could see me, they could probably see the wall, but what about the orange letters? Would orange letters be visible to ghosts who could see in the dark? Maybe it would be like red light to fish. You put a red light in your aquarium and the fish all think it’s night and you can watch them and they don’t know you’re watching.

I opened my eyes and stumbled forward and saw the street glow through the bathroom window and realized that I’d gotten way off the path back to the bed. The flour seemed mostly pointless now.

I turned, and then stood peering through the dark at the bed. It didn’t look entirely empty. Those shapes could be my pillows. The slight movement I saw, like the quivering of a horse after a good run, might be just the kind of thing you see in the dark. I took a step back.

“Aren’t you coming to bed,” she said.

I cried out.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Joanna?”

“I heard the tape of you snoring,” she whispered. “Kind of a strange apology, but what the hell. Come on, hop in. It’s late.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed. She put her cool hand on my shoulder. I crawled in beside her. She pulled me in close.

“Is that really you, Joanna?” I asked.

“Of course, it isn’t, you moron,” the man behind me said.

Tragedy in Our Own Backyard

This is a picture of Kylie Bruehler attending a memorial service during her parents funeral. They were hit by a pickup truck while riding a tandem on the shoulder of Highway 16 in Bexar County. For those of you that don't know, San Antonio resides in Bexar County, just to give you and idea where it happened.

Recently Texas Gov. Rick Perry vetoed legislation in June that would require motorists to give a three feet passing distance for cyclists. The officials say that the truck driver lost control of his vehicle, and therefore was an accident and is not at fault. There are a lot of problems with cycling laws today. I don't have an answer on how to fix them, but something has to be done. Especially with the ever growing popularity of cycling and commuting by bike.

Hit the jump for another picture. Be warned, it is a little more disturbing.


If this is what happened to the car, can you even imagine the cyclists?

Time Warp/Waste

Quick check in with Triplechimp. Currently at DFW awaiting my flight. Should be doing my time sheets which are already late. Instead, watching this:

Is there such a thing as bullet-bullet time? Why am I so mesmerized by this?

What would you do...?

... if you thought you were the last person alive? Hopefully it wouldn't be as hopeless as for Marie.

Bunker - English subtitles
by bebealien

Pink Pink Pink

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler said it all, "Pink is my new obsession" and in honor of Adrian's desire to promote breast cancer awareness I have compiled a list of good things that are pink (this list will be PG, I promise).First up: The Pink Panther:
More PINK after the jump!Next up is one of my favorite all time Pink Guys. Here is why:and last but not least, the Nectar of the God's also known as Pepto Bismol (or just Pink Bismuth for you generic brand buyers). BeHOLD!!

My First Papercraft

I have finished my first papercraft: the red knight from Castle Crashers. I am not 100% satisfied with how it came out, but it's a start. I'm planning on making the other four and maybe more. Gonna make different weapons for each too.


Sorry about the bad quality. Lisa's camera broke and I don't have one, so I had to use my blackberry.

Who Needs Training Wheels when you have the GyroWheel?

The vid says it all. I have to say that I don't remember ever using training wheels. I was a bit older when I first rode a bike though. I'm pretty sure I almost took Tonita out when I learned.

I choose you Pikachu!

Rio2016

Rio de Janeiro has become the first South American city to host the Olympic Games in 2016. Chicago was in the running as one of the four finalists. President Obama spoke in behalf of Chicago becoming the first US President to argue for the choice of an American city as the host of an Olympic Games.






On a cycling note, here is an artists representation of what the Olympic velodrome will look like.

Efren, Don't Freak Out!

So, yes, I changed the colors to the blog. You might be thinking: "Adrian, what's wrong with you?". But let me tell you why I did it. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Chimp will be going back to its usual colors after October, or after Efren asks me to.

Some might say that doing something like this, just like wearing a pink ribbon or wearing a livestrong bracelet, doesn't do much, but hey... we are talking about it now, right? Either way, I have to get back to studying so... hope you like it.

Also, Efren never posts anymore, so its not like he is gonna notice anyways.

"Discover the Cycle Again"

Not another PSA, but still cycling specific. The city of Gothenburg has this going to encourage people to ride more. I like it.

LEGO Bike PSA

I would never do this, but still. Thought it was pretty cool. Cause it's LEGO, and who doesn't love LEGO.

This is only a test.

Just wanted to see if I could post from my phone.

Not sure what this pic is. Let's see if it works.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Golden 8-Bit Oldies

Its cold and raining in McAllen. This is rare. Lets brighten our morning with a hot cup of Classic Chiptunes!


I realize this is kind of a lazy post, but I felt compelled to jam.

Fringe Season 2 Opener

If anyone either watches Fringe and doesn't think its good or doesn't watch Fringe... You. Are. Dumb.

This past Tuesday's season opener was effing AMAZING. I was studying so I wasn't able to watch it til tonight, after Lisa got back from visiting home. I have to say, I liked this show's first season, but this opener... FREAKING AWESOME. I would spoil plot points but I am assuming that after such a glowing review you all will immediately buy the first season on dvd and watch it all. Then you can Hulu the new episode. It is on Hulu, right?

Night fellow triplechimps.

PS Yes those are fetuses in the apple.