They can't get anything right...

So, The New York Times approval rating has fallen to a dismal 24%, haha! Thats even lower that George Bush's current 34%. And what's even funnier, the current congress approval rating is 22%. I can't wait until Barack Obama has to starting talking policy over platitudes...

Concatenate!

The other day, I made it my goal to use the CONCATENATE function in Excel at work for something meaningful...and today I did! I was running a bunch of queries in Access, and for the criteria for the queries I had to input anywhere between 20 and 70 six digit meter station numbers...about 7 different times. I had already ran a query to get these numbers and imported it into Excel, and then I used the concatenate function to put all of the desired meter numbers in a text string with an "OR" statement in between each one. It was awesome. Also, I have listed below another interesting formula that I used the other day in Excel.

=IF(ISERR(SEARCH("check",B2))=TRUE,"","YES")

I can't even remember what I used it for, but I remember thinking that it looked kind of crazy so I e-mailed it to myself, haha.
In other news, I think I aggravated my IT band so I don't think that I will be running for awhile.

The Battle is On

Chad vs. Winflow Natural Gas Pipeline Simulation Software
Monday: L
Tuesday: Draw
Wednesday: W
Thursday: W
Friday: L

Chad vs. The Nameplate on My Cubicle
January 14th - February 21st: L
February 22nd: W

I Like Chocolate Milk

Today's accomplishments:

1. 2000 meter swim, 5K run, 41 minutes on the trainer on the new bike
2. significant progress in modeling natural gas pipelines
3. continued to stay up to date on my Rush Limbaugh podcast
4. wished MiMi happy birthday
5. bought groceries (I was craving chocolate milk, so I bought a few cartons)

Today...

I have a new bike now. No, I'm not selling my other one.
Wendy's fries are dominant
I own shortcut keys.
The Office and 30 Rock are very good shows.
My alarm goes off in 6 hours.
I'm currently addicted to The Academy Is...

New Bike

I'm buying a TT bike, wohoo! I figured I needed to go ahead and get one so I can get used to riding in the aero bars before the triathlon season starts. Here it is:


I'm going to pick it up on Monday afternoon when I get off work. I think I may get a trainer too.

Things to Do

In the next 4 days...

1. get some sleep
2. shop for a new time trial bike
3. buy a new bike and a trainer
4. ride my new bike, on road and on new trainer
5. sweat
6. get paid
7. play with natural gas pipelines
8. use the CONCATENATE function in Excel for something meaningful
9. listen to another painful Obama speech
10. continue to realize that the United States is so desperately in need of conservatism

Top 10 reasons to oppose John McCain...

In no particular order...

1. Campaign finance reform
2. Immigration
3. Tax cuts
4. Gay marriage
5. Stem cell research
6. Global warming
7. Gang of 14
8. Kerry and the vice presidential thing
9. Works with democrats
10. Belligerence

Pretty funny.....

Frank Luntz to Democratic Focus Group: "Raise your hand if you think there is a difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton."

Focus Group: [no one raises hand]

Frank Luntz: "Wow! Now, can someone tell me one accomplishment of Barack Obama?"

Focus Group: [various responses]
"He's a senator."
"He has voted in the senate before."
"He's an African American senator."

Haha!

Mercedes Marathon

Team Williamson earned a 6th place out of 84 teams today in the Mixed Open division of the Mercedes Marathon Relay. Here's how it went down:
Eric-10K
Lisa- 5K
Keith- 10K
Alicia- 5K
Chad- 12K
Our total time for the 26.2 miles was 3:37:15, an average of 8:18 per mile. I'm very sore right now.

A sign that you are having a good day...

Last summer, I was preparing for my final semester at Alabama, and I realized that I was a little low on monetary funds. I decided to apply for a scholarship with the Society of Maintenance and Reliability to see if I could solve the problem. They were giving out several scholarships, so I figured I'd try it out. I turned in my application, and as the days went by after the deadline, I never heard anything from t hem.

So, fast forward approximately 6 months later...today...my Mom gave me an envelope labeled SMRP (Society of Maintenance and Reliability). I was very curious as to its contents, so I opened the envelope and to my surprise, a $1000 check was inside. Haha. Wow.

I think I'm going to buy a time trial bike. Soon.

Who is Obama?

Over the past week, I have realized that a boat load of people are major supporters of Barack Obama. Obviously, I am not, because he is a liberal, but I have been keeping up with politics and I honestly have not heard too much substance behind any of his speeches.

I would like to challenge any Obama-supporter to tell me exactly what it is that Barack Obama stands for, policy wise. What are his positions on the major and important issues that concern Americans, and what will he do for the country?

When doing this, do not use the words "hope" or "change," for they do not say anything concerning how he will run this country as President, if he somehow wins.

Erg Sprints

Final stats at the 2008 Tennessee Indoor Rowing Championships:

Collegiate Lightweight Men 2000 meters: 6:51.7, 3rd place
Collegiate Lightweight Men 500 meter dash: 1:29.7, 3rd place

Overall, I was happy with the way my collegiate rowing career ended. I logged about 450,000 meters in the 15 weeks leading up to the event, but it was actually only about 12 weeks because I missed one week for my hurt shoulder, one week for the ski trip, and one week for this really insane week last semester where I had like 4 tests and a project. About 40 miles running and 200 miles on the bike were logged as well.

Anyways...I think a 2K in the low 6:50's is about as fast as I can get while rowing only once a day...unless I had another month or two to train.

There were some other guys and girls from UA that did well too, so congrats to them.