What I Learned This Week - 5/24/13

1.  To my and other close geek friend’s dismay, the Millennium Falcon is not the fastest space ship in science fiction. However - it is faster than anything in Star trek.
2. I’m pretty sure that volleyball is just a modified version of, “don’t-let-the-balloon-hit-the-floor”.
3. If you can make me laugh, we’ll probably get along very well.
4. According to the recommended servings on some foods - I'm a family of four.
5. My new hero is Harriet Anderson. She crossed the finish line at Kona (the Ford Ironman World Triathlon Championship) in October 2009, with just seven minutes to spare before the cutoff. Why is it a big deal?  At 74 years of age, she was the oldest female competitor to complete the race.  She’d broken her clavicle at mile 80 of the bike ride when another cyclist bumped into her. She picked herself up, finished the next 32 miles on the bike, and promptly walked the entire 26.2 miles of the marathon.  I hope to be that OSM someday.
6. If you use the above story as an example, you can motivate friends by telling them to, “be better than an old lady”.
7. According to an audit conducted by Facebook investors, a little more than 10% of Facebook users are not human.  Dogs, horses, cats, toasters (yes, toasters) and robots apparently don't count as "human".
8. A GPK (global planet killer) sized asteroid, specifically Asteroid 1998 QE2, measuring 1.7 miles across will wiz by earth on May 31 at 2:59 p.m. MDT.  It will come within 3.6 million miles of our planet or about 15 times the distance separating Earth and the moon. Close by astronomy standards. Even though there's nothing to back it up, I'm expecting lots of debris and mass chaos. Bruce Willis will save the day.
9. According to scientists, if warp drive was beyond a theory, it would cost around $12,400,000,000 to build a real USS Enterprise - Captain Kirk and all. Seem expensive? Consider the latest US aircraft carrier cost $4,500,000,000. So three aircraft carrier or one spaceship?  hmmmm.
10. If someone calls you ugly, get sad and hug them. Imagine how hard life must be for the visually impaired.
11. According to my daughters, there is no "u" in awesome... but there is a "me".
12. I feel like I'm six when I read through all of the articles in my Feedly and get the green checkmark screen, "All done!".
13. Given the choice, I will pick purple sweet potatoes over regular sweet potatoes every time because PURPLE.
14. When a bird flies into my house, my wife's idea of catching it means throw dirty laundry at it.
15. In racing, my type-A personality has paid off. I get criticized for printing out route maps and studying them for days on end before an event. In a recent race – I moved up 5 places, because the people ahead of me took a wrong turn.  
16. More than 5,000 people were disqualified from a marathon in the UK, because they followed one guy who missed a crucial 250 meter twisty turn in the course. Those people were that short of a marathon. That would suck.
17. I’m fairly certain it is impossible to order a sandwich at Subway without stating, “ummmm”, at least once.
18. I love it when someone's laugh is funnier than the joke.
19. According to Google Facts, the cost of being a real world Batman would be about $300 million dollars.
20. Every time I see a shoe or sneaker on the side of the highway I imagine the series of events for it to arrive there.  None ever make sense.
21. Cat-bearding is a game, not a pirate like some may have thought.
22. It takes a basement remodel for my wife and kids to partially understand what I do.
23. My kids haven’t watched SpongeBob in several years – but they still quote it at the most opportune times and it ALWAYS makes me laugh. Child one:  “Can you hear me?”. Child two: “No, it’s dark”.
24. If you try to run me off the road when I’m on my bike, I will go anaerobic for as long as it takes to catch you and put a nice fist dent in your rear quarter panel. You probably won’t like what I have to say either.
25. After I go anaerobic chasing a guy in a pickup, I should just go home – adrenaline hangovers suck to ride through – especially uphill into the wind.