I know I'm late with this, but I can't let the event pass without some small comment.

New Orleans was my favorite city in the whole world, at least of the few places I've actually been. And now, it seems, it will have to live on in my memory. Partying, drinking, eating the most amazing food, the local color and history and architecture. Of all the cities I would have liked to retire in, to sit in the shade, drinking and writing and people-watching...

Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Andy Jackson and Jean Lafitte, Delphine LaLaurie, Marie Laveau... The Garden District, the French Quarter, Storyville... Preservation Hall and Café du Monde...

Katrina has all but wiped it from the face of the Earth.

The sewage, the toxic chemicals from the refineries and industrial ports, the dead bodies being exhumed from the Big Easy's unique above-ground gravesites and floating down streets-turned-canals... It's going to be uninhabitable for a long time to come.

My thoughts go out to all the victims of Katrina.

And... the economic devastation is going to be rather harsh, too. The Port of Southern Louisiana is one of the five largest ports in the world, and the largest port (by volume) in the United States, larger than New York, larger than Los Angeles. Not only does New Orleans handle oil imports, but it handles food and timber exports to the rest of the world.

We haven't even begun to feel the effects of this natural disaster. • 5:37 PM 0 comments

I know I haven't posted a running schedule for this week. I'm basically following the same schedule I posted last week, except my long run is going to be 7 miles.

Which means, tonight I was scheduled to do speedwork on the elliptical trainer at the gym. And, I did.

I ran my warmup at a very brisk pace; I set the machine for a 9:32 pace, then around .4 miles, I increased it to 9:22, then pushed it to 9:15... yeah, I just kept pushing the pace faster and faster every .1 mile or so. Had a lot of frustration to wear down. Didn't work, but, hey. Oh, and I ended up doing 1.25 miles, instead of just 1 mile. Go figure.

Then, on the elliptical trainer, in spite of the left footpad being loose and making a "clunk" noise every so often, I did my normal 30 minutes, with 8 x 0:30 "sprints" and 1:30 of "normal" pace in-between. And I increased the distance I went in my 30 minutes, up from 2.72 miles last week, to 2.8 miles this week, an increase in overall average pace from 10:59 last week, to 10:43 this week. I guess if my pace on the elliptical trainer ever reaches my 5K race pace (best pace 9:27) I'll know I need a new speed workout.

Finished with 1 mile of fast-but-not-as-fast-as-my-warmup running on the treadmill, and a quarter-mile of walking to cooldown from my cooldown. Yay.

Side note: warming up, I was directly behind this very cute girl with an amazing dragonfly tattoo on her back, between her shoulder blades. Kept telling myself I should at least compliment her on it. But the timing of my workout and hers never gave me the opportunity to catch her when we both weren't in the middle of a workout. Oh, well. • 8:21 PM 0 comments

Ran tonight. Non-speed day, so I didn't take my watch. 3.5 miles (only I did it the opposite direction shown on the map).

Kept a very good pace and only stopped twice for traffic, once to cross Tacoma and once to cross Milwaukie Blvd at Bybee. Even threw in several (three, I think) near-sprints. Felt good. Nice and cool, not warm and muggy like it has been. And I made it back just before the rain hit. • 8:58 PM 0 comments

From Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon, I ran a total of 15.5 miles.

Which is almost as much as the average Hood to Coast runner did between Friday morning and Saturday evening (196 total miles, divided by 12 runners on a team, equals an average of 16.3 miles per runner).

So, in a small way, my weekend was almost as grueling as running in the Hood to Coast.

OK, not really. I didn't have to sleep in a van with 5 other sweaty runners and eat nothing but energy bars and Diet Rock Star and not shower or shave for two days, along with all the rest.

But it gave me a small idea of what it might be like. I think I might be ready for HTC next year.


UPDATE: Since I'm able to get up or down stairs easily, unlike several HTC entrants I know right now, I'm going to say I definitely haven't pushed myself as hard as I would in the HTC. • 6:49 AM 1 comments

Wow. I woke up today with one thought: sheesh, I planned on doing speedwork today. Hills. Ugh.

The thought of tackling a hill over and over (and over and over... and so on) again, after the speedy 4 miles on a treadmill Thursday evening, and the long slow slog of 6.5 miles Friday, made the idea of hill work today unbearable. And yet, and yet... I want to challenge myself I want to push past the 20-miles per week and the 6-mile limit and the 10:00-11:00 pace of the past. Want to be really prepared and in peak condition for my 10K in a couple of weeks. And that takes effort.

I went out to breakfast, I puttered around the house, and I finally came to a decision. I would run, I would run 5 miles... but I'm not taking my watch. I'm not timing myself, I'm not going to worry if I'm going too slow or too fast, I'm just going to go out and log a no-stress five-miler.

Decided to use my new, alternate, 5-mile loop, just because. Unfortunately, even though it wasn't yet 80 degrees when I left, it felt much hotter due to the conspicuous lack of shade along much of the route. But since I'd given myself permission to be slow, it wasn't too bad, and I managed to finish the last mile strong.

But, man-oh-man, I am taking a rest day tomorrow. I am resting the hell out of tomorrow!

Maybe I'll go to the gym and soak in the sauna. That'd be nice. • 5:51 PM 0 comments

Turns out I was wildly optimistic (next-to-last paragraph) about my 6.5 mile run. I finished the route in 1:13:31, for a pace of 11:15.5 or so.

Full disclosure: I had to stop the clock just before the 5.5 mile mark, and use the bathroom in Sellwood Park, which gave me a break of about 10 minutes or so. But my intestines would have burst if I hadn't...

Ugh. Hard to breathe, had to stop and walk quite a bit. It wasn't overly warm. I mean, it was warm (in the high 80s when I started out around 6:15 PM) but not like Texas heat or anything. Stupid allergies.

After I crossed over the Bybee Bridge, I discovered that my route coincided with a section of the Hood-to-Coast relay (specifically Leg 12), so for a couple of miles I was running with company. There were volunteers along the way, and they would clap and give me encouragement just like the runners in the race. I didn't tell them that I wasn't an entrant, even though, technically, they should have noticed that I didn't have a bib number on, but maybe it just didn't matter. I was a runner and they were encouraging me.

I was worried that the lady volunteer at the spot where my route split from the race route was going to yell at me for not following directions, but she just gave me a glare and let me be. • 7:50 PM 0 comments

I present to you, the Pirate Keyboard.

From the Encyclopedia Dramatica, which I stumbled onto today. Full of fascinating information. • 4:12 PM 0 comments

Friday Cat Blogging!

One dark:


One light:

(Even though they're both of a black cat)

...and here's some more! • 6:48 AM 1 comments

I passed a friend on my way to the gym today. He asked me, mock-seriously, "You aren't running outside?"

He got a flat "No." in reply and we both laughed.

It was over 90 degrees today. Bleah.

But the best part is, I ran like a rock star!

I had planned 4 miles, and, truly, with a 6.5 mile run planned for tomorrow (it's supposed to be cooler but not much), I probably shouldn't have pushed myself. But I really wanted to see what I could do. My last run in the gym for distance, on Monday, I did pretty well, but not spectacular. I felt I slowed down too much at the end, I got off the treadmill thinking "I could have gone faster."

Could I have? The question nagged at me. Tuesday night was my speedwork, and I felt a little faster, and since I've been doing the regular speedwork and focussing on keeping my breathing regular and in rhythm with my running, I feel just that much better. And with those thoughts in my head, I decided to try to push myself tonight.

Modeling my strategy on Monday's performance, I aimed for ~9:40 pace for the first two miles, then figured a 9:30 pace for a mile would leave me enough energy for a 9:20 pace for the last mile. That would average just over a 9:32 pace, which would be pretty good for that distance for me.

But as I approached the half-way mark, I felt pretty good, and ran the speed up to about an 8:30 pace for a brief sprint, bringing it down to 9:20 or so. I thought I'd run out of breath and have to slow down further, but I just stared straight ahead, focused on my breathing, and concentrated on my overall form, and zoned out to the music and my mental counting. And before I knew it, I was approaching the last mile.

So, again, I tried a brief burst of speed to push past the 3 mile mark, running at what felt like 85% of my flat-out running speed for a full minute, before reducing the treadmill's speed back to a 9:20 pace. I was breathing hard, but it felt good, and again I regulated my breathing, picturing the oxygen spreading to all the limbs in my body, feeling my diaphragm filling my lungs with air... listening to the music... and as I approached the 3.5 mile mark, I realized that I could finish at this pace.

The last tenth of a mile was again passed in a hard run, not quite a sprint but a good hard effort. The clock said 37:51 as the odometer read 4.0 miles. I slowed the treadmill to a walk to cool down, and mentally calculated my average pace at 9:27.something - that was the closest I could do in my head as tired as I was.

But, y'know... I think I could have kept going if I hadn't done that sprint... the voice in the back of my head, normally so negative and full of discouragement, was, for once, urging me on to try harder, to push myself more. I did great, and I could do even greater.

My theory has been that I should push myself when I'm on the treadmill, considering the advantages it gives me; lots of cushioning, forces me to keep a regular pace, air-conditioned comfort, no traffic, no red lights, no hills, no sunlight in my eyes, no pollen attacks (I have allergies). So my pace on a treadmill is going to be better than my pace on the street. I still don't have much idea how much better, though. It's all guess work at this point. Of course, a year ago, I had no idea how to pace myself for any distance at all. Time and effort has given me some experience in those things, and I'm only going to get better at gauging all of the variables.

I do think the speedwork has really been helping, and so has increasing the distance. Tomorrow I will see what I can do on a 6.5 mile loop, in the heat, on asphalt and on mainly city streets. If I can do a 9:40 overall pace, that would be pretty good, I think, under those conditions.

I'm looking forward to it... • 9:17 PM 2 comments

Let's see if I've got this straight (in the Republican sense):

John Kerry, the decorated and wounded-in-action war veteran, is a traitor. Bush, who pulled strings to get out of serving in the armed forces at home during a war, is the "war president";

Republicans would deny their own grandmothers a $300 a month Social Security check but refuse to even acknowledge the $9 billion-with-a-"B" that is unaccounted for in Iraq;

We are waging a costly and bloody war, with our sons and daughters being wounded or killed, all so that Iraq can enshrine fundamentalist Islam as their "government" and become a theocracy like Iran;

Republicans who took control of Congress by decrying the "corruption" of Democrats kiting checks are now changing the rules to avoid being investigated for siphoning millions of dollars from lobbyists into their own pockets;

Cindy Sheehan, a grieving mother and ordinary citizen, is denounced by Republican mouthpieces for every little thing she's ever said that Republicans disagree with, but Pat Robertson, a prominent celebrity Christian leader and prominent Republican contributor, recieves embarassed dismissal but is not denounced when he urges the American military to carry out a death threat on a democratically-elected foreign leader;

And our president gets to go bike riding and golfing for 5 weeks, telling the media "I've got to get on with my life," but it's not a vacation?!

Yes, the White House is denying that Mr. Bush is on vacation

"Up" is no longer operative. "Down" is the new "up". "Cat" shall be replaced by "dog" and the sky? The sky is orange. Thank you very much. • 6:48 AM 0 comments

Ran at the gym tonight. Per my schedule, I did speed-building; specifically, one mile warmup and cooldown on the treadmill, and then 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, with 8 sets of 30-second "sprints" followed by minute-and-a-half normal strides.

The warmup and cooldown were both fairly fast - the first was at about a 9:30 pace, and the cooldown was at a 9:40 pace, but I felt I could have gone faster. The training instructions I've been following, though, say that you should leave something on the track, so to speak; you should finish a workout thinking you could go a bit longer (races are a different story...)

And my time on the elliptical trainer is a bit more difficult to judge, but I did go slightly further than my last such workout, so there was a small increase from last time. Specifically, according to the built-in distance gauge, I did 2.68 miles in 30 minutes last week, compared to 2.73 miles this week. Those work out to a 11:11 pace and a 10:59 pace, respectively. If that seems slower than my running pace, keep in mind that I have no idea how the machine is judging distance-per-stride, and I've got short legs. Also, I'm basically doing a run/walk, so it seems about right. The benefit is that my overall turnover feels much faster than when I'm actually running, but because of the low-impact nature of the elliptical, I'm stressing my body much less. And the cardio benefit is the same.

Tomorrow, rest day, and Thursday is optional. • 7:28 PM 0 comments

Oh, almost forgot, running update:

Ran last night, in the gym. 3.5 miles on the treadmill. I pushed for as long as I could, and after the first 3 miles I made a note of the time: 28:41, or about a 9:34 pace. I had to slow down for a bit after that, but still finished the full 3.5 miles in 33:50, or about a 9:40 pace overall.

Also had a weird experience of seeing someone I thought I knew, someone who I would have thought had an, um, unique body shape (incredibly, incredibly thin), but it turned out that it wasn't my friend, it was a girl who looked enough like her to be her equally-emaciated sister. Strange. • 6:55 AM 0 comments

I know it's probably pedantic, and too late to change this particular meme, but here goes my tiny little attempt.

It's come up at work a couple of times recently, so I wanted to point out that what was served by Jim Jones to his followers was not Kool-Aid.

It was Flavor-Aid. OK?

People who are blindly following the orders of a charismatic cult leader are drinking the Flavor-Aid. Got it? Are we clear?

And, no, Kraft Foods did not pay me to make this statement. • 6:49 AM 0 comments

Next week's running schedule:

• Monday: 3.5 miles training (no timing)
  
• Tuesday: Elliptical trainer intervals 5 miles total.
  
• Wednesday: Rest day.
  
• Thursday: 4 miles (Optional)
  
• Friday: 6.5 miles tempo
  
• Saturday: Hills - 1 mile warmup/cooldown + 8x.25-mile uphill, jog downhill
  
• Sunday: Rest day.
  

• 8:54 PM 0 comments

This post is for a friend of mine who is currently struggling with her weight. She called me in a bit of a panic because, after being pretty good on her diet for a while, she went out and splurged and overate. She was discouraged enough to feel like quitting her diet and exercise all together. I want to point out that the math of calories means that one day doesn't make a whole lot of difference, but it's the slow steady grind that can bring either health or obesity.

For instance, we'll start with the scenario my friend was in. Weeks of good habits, and then, maybe you overdo things one day. But, think about it. One pound, either to gain or to lose, takes 3500 calories - and that's over and above what your body requires just for daily living. So to gain a single pound in one day, you'd have to eat your daily needs (around 2000 calories) plus another 3500 calories. You'd have to eat all day long (or boxes and boxes of donuts) to gain a single pound in a day. If, after making bad choices one day, you just go back to your diet, first you shouldn't feel guilty, and second, you're going to be OK. A dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, just the basic glazed ones, are 2400 calories. Even if you ate your daily needs and a whole box of Krispy Kreme donuts, you still wouldn't gain a pound. You may feel like you're several pounds heavier, but that's temporary; the permanent weight gain would be less than a pound.

But on the other hand, just going a little over every single day is how people become overweight. Just an extra 200 calories, which is about a single Hershey's chocolate bar or a 12 oz. can of Pepsi, every day, over time, adds up to 104 pounds of excess weight in just 5 years. Think about how easy it is to go over 200 calories a day. That's why the slow grind of overeating is so dangerous, and why it's so important to manage your calories daily.

My third scenario is one I call "eat your cake and have it, too", the one my friend might find herself in as she attempts to manage her health and her weight. Eat at, or under your daily needs (maybe giving yourself some wiggle room by being more active and therefore burning more calories) but, once in a while, splurge and have an ice cream cone or a giant chocolate chip cookie. Assuming you're eating no more than what your body requires, but every week you have a "treat" of 500 calories, in 5 years you will have only gained 37 pounds in 5 years. Which is troublesome, but nowhere near the 100+ pounds you would have gained if you had gone over every day, as my second scenario above, and could be easily countered by simple eating 100 calories under every other "non-treat" day - in fact, in that situation, you would be losing weight, at 100 calories per week, or about a pound and a half a year.

So, take heart. Occasional days of splurging are OK, as long as you try to be good the rest of the time. And since maintaining weight, once you strip out all of the emotions attached to the food (difficult but not impossible for most of us), is just a matter of numbers, once you understand the numbers you have all the tools you need to take control. • 1:09 PM 2 comments

Ran my brand-new 6-mile loop last night. It's a good one, a couple of hills (the stretch along Holgate, at the far end, is very up-and-down), and lots of scenery. Through Westmoreland Park, along the Eastmoreland golf course, by the Rhododendron Gardens, over the Brooklyn train yards, down through Oaks Bottom Wetlands, and back along the river. Very nice. From the starting point at SE 19th and Linn, to the finish line at SE 10th and Linn, it's just a shade over 6 miles (6.03, according to Google Earth).

I ran that loop in almost the same time I ran the Nike Run Hit Wonder: 1:06:12. It was hot, I did better than I thought I would, but still kinda slow. • 12:05 PM 0 comments

Friday Cat Blogging!

...and here's some more! • 6:29 AM 0 comments

"Portland is a 'made' town."

That phrase stuck in my head when I woke up. I had a cool dream last night. In it, I was walking around a (fictional) part of (real) Portland, OR. This section was called Bilton Hills, and was a very steep area near the river, curving into a cresent shaped shoreline. The sides of the hills were covered in slums and tenement houses in various states of disrepair, clinging to the slopes at crazy angles. The streetcar I was riding slowly made its way down the main thoroughfare of the Bilton Hills section of town.

I was with a friend who was much younger than myself, and I was pointing out areas of the neighborhood with connections to past history. For instance, there was a fire station that had been burnt to the ground and rebuilt in the mid-1950s. Or there was an arcade section, with a small roller-coaster and Ferris wheel, that was known for being a place where anyone could buy or sell anything. It was a center for the underground market. In fact, I explained to my young friend, this whole section of town was overrun with a criminal element, but around fifty years ago, this was actually a very rich part of town. Mobsters and crime lords lived here, and there was a lot of nightlife and clubs and drinking and boozing and whoring going on... My friend didn't believe me, and as I looked over the poverty-stricken area, I could see why.

But (still in my dream) I could imagine what it looked like fifty years ago... and just like that, I was in a diner in 1950s-era Bilton Hills. I wore a snappy suit and hat, and was catching a little refreshment, while flirting with the cute blonde waitress. My young friend sat at the red-vinyl upholstered booth, also in suit and tie. We sat near a large window looking out towards the river down hill; we were about halfway up and could see most of the area.

As we drank, we could see the old fire station - and, as we watched, in broad daylight, a series of sudden explosions rocked the building and sent fireballs into the skies! The patrons of the diner screamed and I shouted to my friend that we had to leave. "Obviously it's going to take a while for other fire engines to respond, and if the fire reaches the arcade," and here I pointed to the all-wooden structure of the roller-coaster, "then this whole section of town is going to become an inferno!" We joined the crowd of people leaving the diner, pausing only allow women and children out ahead of us (people were more polite in those days). I reflected that the explosions were obviously man-made and couldn't fathom a reason why someone would want to hit the fire station, unless it was specifically to cause this whole section of town to disappear and simultaneously prevent any rapid response. It had to be the mobsters...

As my friend and I tried to find (or steal; he was a 'mechanic' with knowledge of hot-wiring cars) transportation out of Bilton Hills, I reflected that "Portland was a 'made' town..."

And then I woke up. • 6:53 AM 0 comments

Running update:

I know, I know, it seems like all I post about lately is running. What can I say?

Tonight was hill night. Ow. Ow, ow. Ow ow ow ow ow owow ow. The drill: 1 mile warmup and cooldown, and in-between, 8 x up a .3-mile section of hill, fairly steep, and walk or jog down. As much rest as I need between each run up, because I aim to improve my time by 5-10 seconds each time after the first. It's a pretty tough drill, actually. Here are my times, and equivalent per-mile paces:

1. 02:59.5 / 09:57.3
   
2. 02:54.2 / 09:40.6
   
3. 02:46.3 / 09:14.3
   
4. 02:42.9 / 09:03.0
   
5. 02:34.4 / 08:34.6
   
6. 02:35.7 / 08:39.0
   
7. 02:47.5 / 09:18.3
   
8. 02:42.8 / 09:02.7

I pushed myself hard, especially considering last night I ran at my 5K race pace or better. And it's no surprise that by my 7th time up the hill, I just stopped. My legs just wouldn't keep going. It's a testament to my drive that, even having to stop in the middle of the hill, I still made it the rest of the way up faster than my first two intervals. And I managed to improve my time up the last time. I totally didn't want to even start my 8th interval, let alone run home, but I did, and I did.

Looking back on last week, I have no idea how I managed that last time of 02:26. But this week, I managed two intervals better than my second-best from last week. Oh hell, I don't know what it all means. I'm sure a coach could pull something out of all these numbers.

I'm taking tomorrow off entirely, and, as usual, Thursday may be a rest day, too. My legs are sorrrrrrrrrrrrre tonight, and that's probably not a good sign. But I feel proud to have completed what I set out to do. That's always the best part of the post-run experience. • 9:59 PM 0 comments

Running update:

I just ran 3.05 miles in 28:54, for a 9:28.5 pace!

I know it was just a training run, and it was at the gym, not in the heat or on the streets and hills of Portland, but it was still damned fast. I think my speedwork is paying off. I haven't run that fast, that far, in a while...

I kept a 9:40 pace for the first mile and a half, then bumped it up to 9:21 for the next mile and finished the last .55 miles at some crazy speed. Just kept bumping it up a little bit at a time. I think my final pace for the last .05 mile was near 8:30, which for me felt much like flying.

I concentrated on form and breathing, making sure my breathing was in rhythm with my running. I've noticed that I do better when I control my breathing, which may sound obvious to others but screw you, I'm the one out there running. • 5:52 PM 1 comments

Next weeks' running schedule. Um, similar to last week. The downside is that, if I don't get up early on Thursday to run before work, I feel odd running Thursday night with a long run less than 12 hours later. So it's optional. I'm probably over-thinking things. It's just what I do.

• Monday: 3.5 miles training (no timing)
  
• Tuesday: Hills - 1 mile warmup/cooldown + 8x.25-mile uphill, jog downhill
  
• Wednesday: Rest day.
  
• Thursday: 4 miles (Optional)
  
• Friday: Run to work! 6 miles tempo
  
• Saturday: Treadmill intervals? 5 miles total.
  
• Sunday: Rest day.
  

• 8:41 PM 0 comments

Running update:

Today I ran about 5.25 miles while doing some speedwork at the gym. That makes my total weekly miles 20.25 (I would have had more but I didn't run 4 miles on Thursday as planned - I did walk my 4 mile loop but I'm not counting that towards my running miles), which marks my first week with more than 20 miles total. Another goal reached. Yay, me!

My next goal, I think, is to run continuously for more than an hour, which is a record I'll need to achieve before thinking about a half-marathon or marathon. I'm kinda nervous about planning a 7-mile run next week, though, considering I've only just broken the 20-mile-week barrier... but I think having runs in longer than a 10K will help me with the Pints to Pasta 10K coming up in a couple of weeks. Oh, well, I have time. I think I'll just plan on a 6-mile run next week, then a 6.5-mile run the week after, then a 7-mile run the following week. That will leave a week for tapering before the 10K. • 5:45 PM 0 comments

Friday Afternoon Cat Blogging!

Only one picture this week. I took this one last weekend. I'd take more but I left my camera at work and I'm home on a sick day today.



...and here's some more! • 3:15 PM 0 comments

Ow. Ow, ow. Ow ow ow ow.

I ran hills last night. Well, technically, one hill, over and over again (eight times, actually).

The idea is, in between one mile warmup and cooldown, to run up this .3-mile stretch of hill in Sellwood Park at an easy pace, then jog or walk down, and then to go up seven more times, and to aim to improve my time by 5-10 seconds each time.

They say that hill work is speedwork in disguise, which is why I've been hitting the hills lately.

And, in fact, I did eventually achieve my goal. Here are the individual times (and equivalent per-mile paces):

1. 03:18 / 11:00
   
2. 03:03 / 10:10
   
3. 03:05 / 10:17
   
4. 02:42 / 09:00
   
5. 02:36 / 08:40
   
6. 02:36 / 08:40
   
7. 02:38 / 08:47
   
8. 02:26 / 08:07

A couple of bumps in the curve there, but like I said, I did eventually end up, on the last interval, achieving a speed within 40-80 seconds faster than I started out.

The funny part was the couple sitting at a park bench near my "finish line", watching in amazement as I passed them, then turned around and headed back down the path, so many times. By the seventh time they had left, though, so they didn't see my Snoopy dance when I had my final burst of speed.

And now, as I said to a friend last night, I'm taking at least one night off from running, or else my legs are going to fall off and fall apart, Daffy Duck-style. Which would be bad. • 6:23 AM 0 comments

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but sometime in the past half-year I went from being "broken" to simply being "lost".

I'm not sure if I blogged about that before. • 6:53 AM 1 comments

I shouldn't have waited so long to blog my Saturday trip to Seattle. I'm sure I'm going to leave out something. As it is, this looks to be a fairly long post.

I did put up all the pictures I took while up there. Yeah, all eight of them. I wanted to take a bunch in the Science Fiction Museum but they didn't allow cameras. Bummer. Guess y'all will have to go see it yourselves. It's worth it.

But I'm ahead of myself. The main reason I went was to see Harvey Danger play. They have a third album coming out in a month, "Little by Little", and have started doing shows to promote it. I saw them last December, but didn't get to see the whole set due to freakin' traffic from Hell. This time, I wouldn't make that same mistake. Although I did end up having a lot of time to kill due to poor reasoning...

I got up fairly early for a Saturday and picked up a FlexCar. I got a Toyota Prius... yeah, the "hybrid" electric/gas powered car. Turns out it did OK on the highway. A little bit underpowered but cruised along at 75 MPH just fine. I think I took a hybrid last time, too... but the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Oh, yeah, and I ran before leaving this time, too, about 6 miles worth of treadmill and elliptical trainer speedwork. But I stretched well after and there was a couple of hours before I sat down for the 3+ hour drive north... Had breakfast at the Skybox, a sports bar in my neighborhood I'd never tried. I was lured in by the menu item "Cinnamon Bread French Toast".

Mmmmm. Let me pause for a moment and savor the memory of Cinnamon Bread French Toast. Ah.

The Skybox is run by an older couple, and their banter back and forth made for a very home-y atmosphere. It's a fun place. I'll be back.

And once I got Smacky some water and food, and did my best to balance the twin desires of keeping my home secure from intruders and keeping it cool for Smacky and me, I was off. I left town around 1:00 PM. The show started at 9:00 PM. I had plenty of time...

Yeah, I was super early. Even earlier, once you consider that the first band went on at 10:00, the second band went on at 11:00... and Harvey Danger, the headliner, didn't go on until midnight. Oy.

The drive was uneventful. I stopped once to get some water and a snack. No close encounters with road-rage-inflamed drivers. Weather was gorgeous. Car performed normally. Parking, which worried me considering how expensive it is in Portland, was only $3.00 for all-day. I was relieved.

My main plan for killing time was to visit the Science Fiction Museum, a geeks' paradise. Mainly funded by one of the co-founders of Microsoft, Paul Allen, it houses the most amazing collection of movie props, memoribilia, costumes, and technologically-minded displays I have ever seen. I guess being incredibly rich makes it easy to collect things like the original robot from "Lost in Space" or the model for the Alien Queen from "Aliens" or Darth Vader's mask from "The Empire Strikes Back" or... or... well, you name a sci-fi movie, any one ever made, and there's something representing that movie in this museum.

I spent two hours and could have spent more time, and I could go on and on, but let me mention my favorite exhibit. The conceit of the SFM is that it's a space station, and on one level, the level dealing with science-fictional transportation, there's a "window" that looks out on the docking ring. It's really a very crisp monitor that's easily 8' across behind a glass window but the effect is impressive. In front of the "window" are touch-screen monitors that list all of the spaceships currently docked at the station. And out the window, in motion, coming and going and avoiding each other, all to the same scale, large and small, are many of the most beloved spaceships of all time. Yes, there's an Imperial Star Destroyer and the Millennium Falcon and the starship Enterprise... of course. But there are also ships like the Planet Express from "Futurama" and the alien mothership from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and the Red Dwarf from, well, "Red Dwarf". Very cleverly done, and calling up the information on that ship on one of the displays seemed to send that particular ship into action, landing or taking off or just zipping around or lumbering by, whichever suited that particular ship. I loved that window.

There are other great touches to the museum. For instance, they were constantly playing noises or other throwaway bits from different SF stories over the loudspeakers. I won't give anything away but it's practically a trivia contest in itself.

But even though I left the museum shortly before close, I still had hours and hours to go until the show started. I killed some time just walking around the Pacific Science Center. I debated going up in the Space Needle, but they charge for that and I've been up there so many times before. Mostly I wandered around the city, and looked for some food. Had Mexican again, just 'cause I got tired of looking for a place and was pretty hungry after all that walking around. Indulged in a lime margarita which could have been a lot bigger but was probably just right.

At one point, walking around, near the venue (the Crocodile Cafe), I saw Sean and Aaron from the band walking by, checking their watches and hurrying. I had a "do I act like a fan?" moment and decided to keep to myself. I had just put away my camera or I might have tried to sneak a picture of Sean's crazy hair.

Here's another oddness. Here I was, in a strange city, a tourist, and yet I still get asked for directions from people. What is it? Is it the fact that I'm on foot? Do I just look comfortable or confident? I rarely feel that way, but there's got to be something going on that attracts so many lost people to me. Go figure.

I missed the opening band, mainly on purpose, but saw most of the middle band's set. They're called Razrez, which is pronounced in two syllables, and is just as crappy a name as they are a band. Just sayin'. Imagine the Ramones with lots more confidence and lots less skill or showmanship. Yeah. They could play guitar really fast.

And wandering around the club, I spotted John Roderick from the Long Winters' out front, regaling a table with a story about something. I almost didn't recognize him as he had shaved off the beard. He looked about 15 years younger, which means he looked about 15. I was a bit more tempted to shake him and ask when their new album is due out and why do we have to wait so freakin' long... but sadly the margarita wasn't big enough for that much courage.

After Razrez's set ended, there was a 20 minute pause while the members of Harvey Danger got set up. Jeff Lin, the guitarist, came out and was tuning his guitar, very focused on his tasks and ignoring the crowd... until some guy yelled out "We love you, Jeff!" and Jeff blushed but did not look up. Sean Nelson showed up briefly to distribute the set lists and seemed genuinely embarrassed by the cheer from the crowd.

In the crowd, waiting for the show to start, I was standing near a guy who looked exactly like a live-action Steve Dallas, of Bloom County fame. Same greasy dark hair, same sunglasses, same bent cigarette dangling out of his mouth, same unbuttoned shirt. It was uncanny. He looked just like this. He was hilarious and only minorly annoying. He played "Air Guitar" to the songs, and sometimes even "Air Drums" but mostly did this strange not-pointing move with his hands where he would raise his hands in beat with the song but his index finger was pointed down. Hard to describe but it looked like a spastic symphony conductor.

Once the set started, Sean explained that their third album, "Little by Little" was coming out in a month, "so we have a request to make. We would like to play the entire CD, front to back, for you tonight. We have not done that yet." Of course, the crowd loved that idea. The album, in my opinion, is going to rock. After one hearing, admittedly live, I think that I'm going to like this one as much as their first one, and probably more than their second album. Good stuff. "Little Round Mirrors" is, so far, my favorite.

Before starting the duet "Innuendo", Sean explained that John Roderick was supposed to come out to do the second part of the song but that he literally had a frog in his throat which needed to be removed. Sean had to do both parts himself, which made for an odd performance. I'm pretty sure Sean was engaging in hyperbole, because Roderick came out to sing harmony vocals on one of the encore songs and there was no sign of any amphibians at all, although Roderick's voice was a bit the worse for wear so anything's possible, I suppose.

After going through all the songs from the CD, they then played a bunch of rockin' tunes from their first two albums, starting with the one song I really really wanted to hear live, "Terminal Annex". I was pogoing and jumping by that point, mainly because if I jumped up above the crowd I got some fresher, cooler air. The entire set list can be found on the HD message board, including their three-song encore, in this thread (scroll down).

After the show, I snagged one of the posters, and hung around for a bit to see if I could get them to sign it for me, but it was hot, I was tired, and I had a 3+ hour drive ahead of me. Thanks to the power of Diet Rock Star, I made it back home with a minimum of hallucinations and nearly no close scrapes. I dropped the car off at it's parking spot in the Pearl District, and rode the city bus home, where I promptly collapsed into bed to begin my day-and-a-half recovery period.

It was a great trip. • 7:43 PM 0 comments

Tomorrow I'll post the run-down on my day trip to Seattle (almost exactly a day -- Woke up at 8 AM and didn't sleep until 7 AM Sunday morning) to see Harvey Danger and hang out in Seattle (teaser: saw John Roderick of the Long Winters - did he have his frightening beard or not? Stay tuned). Also will update my POTW.

For now, want to post my running schedule for the week. It will look pretty familiar to those who remember last week:

• Monday: 3.5 miles training
  
• Tuesday: Hills - 1 mile warmup/cooldown + 8x.25-mile uphill, jog downhill
  
• Wednesday: Rest day.
  
• Thursday: 4 mile easy day
  
• Friday: Run to work! 5.5 miles tempo
  
• Saturday: Treadmill intervals? 5 miles total.
  
• Sunday: Rest day.
  

• 11:07 PM 0 comments

Friday Night Cat Blogging!

...and here's some more! • 6:49 AM 0 comments

Mighty Mouse review:

Well, I went down to the Pioneer Place Apple Store to check out the new Apple mouse on my lunch break, and ended up buying one. Here's my thoughts.

The good parts are the fact that there are fewer moving parts, although it remains to be seen how the scroll ball holds up under heavy Cheeto useage. I like the shape and feel, although that's a personal preference and not everyone will share it. It does all the basics that I expect of it.

The bad parts of the Mighty Mouse are that the driver for programming the buttons will only install in Tiger. And the very latest version of Tiger, at that. Bah. Apple had to do something stoopid. I'm not sure I'm ready to upgrade from Panther yet. Fortunately all the basic functionality is working under Panther - left- and right-click, scroll ball (up, down, left, right, and diagonal, sort of).

But there's a third-party person working on getting all the functionality under earlier versions of Mac OS. Behold USB Overdrive. The developer, Alessandro Levi Montalcini, says that an update for the Mighty Mouse won't be too long.

The touch-sensitivity is only used to distinguish between a right- or left-click. The whole shell of the mouse physically clicks down, so there is still physical feedback - and the sensors in the mouse can differentiate whether or not I'm putting pressure on the left or right side. The "speaker" inside is very faint, apparently -- I can't hear it unless I'm right up against the mouse (comes from playing my music too loud, I guess) and it only clicks for the side buttons and the scroll button.

The fact that a click takes the entire mouse body makes it difficult to click-and-drag long distances; if I have to pick up the mouse to reposition it, it loses the click. A bit frustrating, but it's the same deal with the Apple Pro Mouse.

Oh, and the cord is a bit short for my setup at home; there's not enough room on my keyboard tray for the mouse, too, so I had to use a USB extension cord to route the mouse cable up on top of my desk.

And, this is how broken I am: I was bummed because I was the second person in the Pioneer Place Apple Store to buy one. Dammit! If I hadn't stopped to pick up a DLO Flip Clip for my Shuffle, I would have been first!

That sounds all bad, doesn't it? I admit, it's possible that the RDF is wearing off faster than normal. Bottom line; it's a mouse. Scroll ball is nice. And I'd rather give my money to Apple than Microsoft -- time to ditch my MS Intellimouse Exploder. • 6:52 AM 0 comments

So, all you whiners out there that keep arguing that Apple is stupid for sticking with a one-button mouse...

First of all, multi-button mice have worked properly in Mac OS since at least OS 8, near as I can remember. Certainly they work fine in OS X. Just plug it in, and the OS recognizes the secondary mouse button as a "Ctrl-click", blahdi-blahdi-blah, whatever.

But, second, and more imporantly, if Apple was going to make a multi-button mouse, it would be beautiful and cutting-edge.

Like, oh, say, the Mighty Mouse.

The front half of the mouse is touch-sensitive. It looks like a one-button mouse, but is used like a multi-button mouse. And instead of a scroll wheel, with just forward and back motion, it's got a scroll ball for multi-direction scrolling.

It's the coolio-est. I want one. Maybe two.

Oh, here's the stoopid part (there's always a stoopid part, even for Apple. BTW, my mentioning this counts as "balance" so lay off the "cult of Apple" comments): the Mighty Mouse requires the latest version of Mac OS X (v10.4.2 of Tiger) to customize all the buttons. Argh. • 6:35 AM 0 comments

Via Sean Nelson's blog I am reminded that Harvey Danger is playing a show in Seattle, at the Crocodile, on Saturday.

I'm so going. • 11:08 AM 0 comments

I've got these odd whitish spots on my laptop screen. They are irregular lighter-colored areas, one about the size of two nickles the other smaller than a dime. I can still see the image there, but it's lighter-colored. It's only distracting, not debilitating. Plus, my trusty iBook is long since out of warranty.

At any rate, I took it in to the Apple Store to ask them what it might be, and what it might cost to have Apple fix it. I was only asking for advice, since I figured it could be really spendy if it was the screen itself. What they said is that there's some backing material behind the screen that's supposed to help diffuse the backlight, and it's gotten bunched up or pressed up against the actual LCD. They said it would cost a flat rate of $280 for an out-of-warranty repair, which, I'll admit, it much less than I thought but still money I'd notice.

But after thinking about it, maybe that's something I can do. I'd have to pull the screen apart and smooth out the backing material.

Decisions... decisions... • 6:38 AM 6 comments