The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Posts Tagged Life

Posted
Jan 01, 2010 - 17:01

Tagged
Life

Rediscovering the Oracle of Apollo

I’ve reached the conclusion that I’m kind of a terrible blogger. The only blog I keep that I maintain religiously is Digeum, where I post DJ mixes relatively soon after I finish mixing them. This site used to be the flagship of the blogs I maintain, but that torch has passed on to [...]


Finishing 53 Tracks

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to write 52 tracks in 2008 and post them all on a new blog I started in March. There were some weeks that I had no output at all, but for most of the year, I carried my Korg padKontrol in my backpack, [...]


Reamed by T-Mobile

So, this afternoon, I decided to wander into the T-Mobile store to square away my bill. I bought a new iPhone about six weeks ago, after I read that T-Mobile was reducing their early termination fee from $200 to $100 for customers whose contracts expire within 180 days.
Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I [...]


Music Rerip Project

I noticed that a few of my tracks sound kind of low resolution when I’m listening to music on my wonderful Koss headphones at work or my new Sony DJ headphones. Erica, a bit of an audiophile, listened to my Digeum mixes and asked me why I insisted on ripping everything at a low [...]


So Ridiculously Light

One year ago today, I got on the scale and saw that ugly 196 pound reading. By New Year’s Eve, I had lost 46 of those pounds. The scale read 150. This morning, the scale reads 150.
Through focused, almost obsessive, attention to my diet and working out (doing CrossFit since September), I [...]


My 2008 Pontiac Vibe

I talked to the dealership today. Tonight, I’m riding the train only part of the way home. I now have a car.

What I Like About It:

The price: I got this car for about $4000 less than it would have cost me new.
The color: It’s not [...]


Interesting Car Grumbles

After haggling with some local dealers about the 2009 Pontiac Vibe, the ultimate finalist for “Apollo’s Next Car”, I found that it was nearly impossible to find one with the Preferred Package (Power Windows, Power Door Locks, Cruise Control) and the AC in a car with a manual transmission. After I located one in [...]


More Car Testing

This weekend, I test drove four more cars. I had a blast. I’ve decided that my next automobile will definitely have a manual transmission. They get better gas mileage and you get much better performance, acceleration, and handling with a stick shift. With that in mind, I headed around to the [...]


Three Tips for Getting Your Test Drive Quickly

I’m shopping for a car. In order to narrow my list to three that I really want, I have to test drive a whole bunch of different kinds of cars in various configurations. Some car lots really don’t want you to test drive their cars. Here are some tips I’ve come up [...]


Test Driving More Cars

This weekend, I test drove four cars. My front runner, the 2008 Pontiac Vibe, is now a distant fourth. Who knew that the Chevrolet Cobalt, which I’ve rented before, would be so much fun with a manual transmission?
Yesterday, I went with Oz to Dublin to check out a 2008 Pontiac Vibe I found [...]


Oh, no! Occult! Horror! Fear!

Apparently, some web filtering software has this website blocked. BrightKite user PhoneTrips sent me a message this afternoon to alert me to the fact that the filter at Panera Bread, who operates the largest free wireless network in the United States, blocks this site. Apparently, it’s categorized as OCCULT (<gasp />).
In 8½ years [...]


Car Shopping Short List

Today, I went around to a few dealerships, some of which I’ve been to already. Since I was not feeling that motivated to drive all over the place in a car that lacks working turn signals after my trip to Palo Alto, I visited a few places in Sunnyvale, where I live.
After test driving [...]


How Do You Twitter?

A while back, I noticed a crapload of followers that were obvious spammers following my tweets on Twitter. So, in a weird moment of decision, I locked my profile down and started the slow process (back when it was still broken) of trying to block everyone I don’t know from following me.
I’m sure twitter [...]


Commute Fail

08:04 — Look at watch. Oh, shit. I have 9 minutes to get to the train station. Get in the car and go!
08:06 — Toyota Sienna Minivan pulls out in front of me. Speed now: 12 mph. Okay, please turn right at Washington. Please, get out of my way, [...]


How I Blew April

April was an incredibly unproductive month in my projects. I wrote just one track all month–one ambient track that took me almost half an hour. All the reasons I come up with for not writing music on the train are all lame. I’m just lazy.
Of the 30 days in April, I completed [...]


8mm Rope Is Too Small To Climb

My workout today was supposed to involve rope climbs, but I didn’t have a rope. I also didn’t have a 15 foot high ceiling to attach a climbing rope to. But, I figured I could tie a rope to my kettlebells and toss one end over a pullup bar. That’d do the [...]


Eight Years of the Oracle of Apollo

On this day in 2000, I started blogging on this site, the first post of which was about Planet New Year, which was the New Year’s Party that said goodbye to 1999.
There have been a couple of month-long or multi-month hiatuses here since then (and the archives here are incomplete, since I haven’t moved all [...]


Blood Day

After bumping my appointment twice, I headed down to the blood donation center in Cupertino. They have a long questionnaire that prospective donors have to fill out every time. I filled it out, got tested for anemia, had my blood pressure tested (109 / 64).
The procedure took very little time. The big [...]


Earthquake

Oooh, did you feel that? It shook my entire house. I had just finished making my ravioli, carrying it to my coffee table, and starting a movie when the rumble started. It looks like the USGS has the earthquake information. 5.6 on the Richter Scale.
That’ll get the blood pumping.
No damage at [...]


Sixty-Four Days

I am 20.5 pounds lighter today than I was 64 days ago. I’m making progress. I now have 10.5 pounds to my goal of 165 pounds. I’m also working on increasing my overall fitness level by an exponent. I’ve been walking back and forth to the train station to work (I [...]


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