Before I head out to my chosen celebration for... um... celebrating the Old Year Ending, I thought I'd wish the handful of readers of this corner of the World Wide Intertron a Happy New Year. Y'know... when it gets here. Which, as I post this, is still 5 1/2 hours away.

When midnight rolls around, I'll be standing next to my favorite running partner ready to run in what will be our fastest 5K of the year (until the next one, of course), whether or not it's cold or rainy.

...Personally, I'm hoping for "not rainy" but no matter.

Ciao, all, until 2006. • 6:28 PM 0 comments

It's late and I'm not really drunk. But I had a conversation tonight with a girl I will probably never see again, and although that's all bitter-sweet 'n' stuff, the message I took away from the conversation is worth it. She was amazing, but afterward I realized that I know a lot of amazing people and I could know more if I just took a chance and talked to them. So thank you, amazing girl, for helping me through the medium of a conversational give-and-take, to see this powerful message that's been there all along, but forgotten.

The message is simple:

Wake up.

That's all... wake up. Most of the world is asleep, dreaming or maybe not even dreaming. Wake up, look around. Laugh, motherfucker. Cry, motherfucker. Rage, and shout, and reach, and do. Dreaming is fine but when the dream is done nothing is changed. It all goes back to the way it was when you fell asleep.

Take a chance and do something. Even if your little voice is telling you it might turn out wrong. Just wake up and try.

I could go on and on... but for now I just want that message to sink in, to become the underlying motivation for anything and everything I do.

Wake up. • 2:40 AM 0 comments

If Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, and Christmas Eve is the day before, then I shall call today "Brianmas Eve".

If I feel like it, I'll make up a bunch of "traditions" for the celebration of Brianmas. Later.

If history is any guide, though, not much happens on Brianmas. An oft-heard phrase is "well, consider this both your Christmas gift and a birthday gift!" or, rarely, "I got this on sale yesterday! I hope it fits!"

(Bitter? Yes, but only because it's funny...) • 8:39 AM 1 comments

Merry Christmas you guys! To you and your family and everyone you like and no one you hate!

I'm so frickin' drunk right now!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

...even the ones I can't stand, you lying bastards! C'mere! Lemme give ya a hug?

I'm a baaaaaad, baaaaaaaaaad Santa...

• 4:55 PM 0 comments

And now, on this Day After Christmas Eves' Eve, I present to you my Cynical Christmas Mix:

1. Father Christmas - The Kinks
   
2. Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes) - Harvey Danger
   
3. I've Got Some Presents For Santa - Sarah Taylor & Bill Mumy
   
4. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
   
5. Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
   
6. Christmas Song - Adam Sandler
   
7. Holiday In Cambodia - Dead Kennedys
   
8. Another Auld Lang Syne - Dan Fogleberg
   
9. Christmas At Ground Zero - Weird Al Yankovic
   
10. Punk Rock Christmas - Sex Pistols
    
11. Christmas At Ground Zero - Weird Al Yankovic
    
12. I Won't Be Home For Christmas - Blink 182
    
13. A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris De Burgh
    
14. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
    
15. So This Is Christmas - John Lennon
    
16. River - Joni Mitchell
    
17. Snowmiser Song - Mr. Snowmiser
    
18. Heatmiser Song - Mr. Heatmiser
    

I'm pretty sure that all of the Seven Deadly Sins are well represented there, along with the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse. It includes a few of the saddest songs I know... Perfect for sitting at home on Christmas Eve, drinking heavily, and wrapping presents for the special ones in your life. Especially the drinking part.

I'd love to comment specifically on some of the songs, but I've got to run down to the corner store and pick up more mixers. Luckily I laid in a good stock of Johnny Walker Red (it's booze in a Christmas color!) for tonight's wrapping extravaganza... • 5:41 PM 1 comments

Merry Day-After Christmas Eves' Eve to you all!

Today was a pretty good day for me. Got up fairly early and fairly un-hungover (last night I was drinking Finlandia and Squirt... kind of a quick-'n'-dirty Greyhound) and picked up my FlexCar for the day. I had a little bit of Christmas shopping left to do, and then I was going to run.

I had originally planned to run at the gym, but today was very mild in comparison to the last several weeks - in the 50s, no rain, no wind. Looking around I saw lots of other runners, and realized that it would be good to get off the treadmill and out in streets.

I called my nephew, Max, to see if he'd like to join me and he did. After finishing my shopping, I went to pick him up, then we went out on my 3.5 mile loop. We walked the first half-mile to warmup, and since I've been hoping to helpl Max train more, he set a goal of running without stopping to walk for at least 15 minutes. I figured that was an achievable-but-challenging goal for him, as he had to stop to walk at around the 8-10 minute mark in our last race. Hopefully, without the pressure of a race day, he could do it.

And I stayed with him for the entire run, and it turned out to be challenging for me, as well. With the exception of the races I've done in the last couple of months, I haven't run outside at all. I guess I've gotten used to the treadmill and have forgotten what it's like to deal with asphalt, and cars, and hills. But we still turned in a very good performance for a training run. Actually, Max did better than any race he's ever entered. He's a rock star!

I wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, my Asics, and no music. I did use my inhaler, and took an extra dose of Claritin-D for my allergies and sinuses.

Here's my half-mile splits:

1. 4:54.1 (04:54.1)
   
2. 5:04.4 (09:58.4)
   
3. 4:40.0 (14:38.4)
   
4. 5:21.6 (20:00.0)
   
5. 5:22.5 (25:22.5)
   
6. 5:20.3 (30:42.8)

That gives us a 10:14.3 average pace for the run, which as I noted above is awesome for Max, and pretty damn close to what I do in the gym lately. I knew Max could be a runner! When I asked him about his time today, he said "I don't know. Some days I feel like running, and some days I don't."

Truer words were never spoken.

Since tomorrow will be spent around family, Max and I might sneak out for another run, probably go downtown to run around the waterfront and the Esplanade. I know I'll want a break from family stuff tomorrow... I love them dearly but... well, you know. • 5:08 PM 0 comments

Of course Quentin Tarrantino wants to re-cut the Kill Bill movies back into one flick... because he's an attention whore. Duh.

And, yes, I'd go see it again.

...what? • 9:56 PM 0 comments

Friday Cat Blogging!

It snowed in Portland last weekend. Within a day or two, it had warmed up to the point that all the snow had melted away.

That's about as close as we get to a White Christmas 'round these parts.

But I'm glad Smacky got to play in the snow a little bit, while it was here. I remember him frolicking around, have a blast, jumping into the snow drifts... As seen below:



...oh, yeah, I remember now. He couldn't wait to get back inside where it was warm. He hated the snow. My bad.

...and here's a couple more of Smacky vs. the snow vs. the closed door to inside.

Waaaaaaaaay more cats over at the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 92nd edition will be hosted this week by Watermark. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants. • 9:58 AM 0 comments

It's not often that I make a new friend and find out that a favorite author has not just one, not just two but three new-to-me books out, all at the same time. New books and new friends... Last time turned out to be a bad memory. This time will be better.

And the books? "Chinese Takeout" and "Unlubricated", and a book of four plays called "The East Village Tetralogy", all by Arthur Nersesian. I felt a small bit of guilt running up to Powell's on my lunch break and buying all three, when I still have Christmas shopping to do. But I justified it by saying that even my closest friends would not know about this author, and I found all but the book of plays used, so it wasn't that much money... and I don't have that much shopping left, anyway. • 12:50 AM 0 comments

By the way, I totally hate the winter solstice.

Short days suck. I swear, with the clouds and rain, that it was dark at 3:30 this afternoon.

I can not wait for the days to start getting longer.

I mean, technically, they're going to start getting longer tomorrow. But I mean noticeably longer, which I probably won't notice until late February or early March.

Yeah. Longer days would rock. Soon, please. • 8:27 PM 0 comments

Running update:

I've still been eating like, well, like a bear storing up loads of adipose tissue for a nice long hibernation. Well, like a bear who works near a Starbucks' and loves cinnamon, chai, eggnog, and peppermint mocha, not to mention cookies and almond! M&Ms! and anything chocolate and that's not even counting the gianormous burritos and chips and adding bacon to everything bacon's good on... yeah. Where was I? Oh, right, running.

So I knew I needed some hard running. My allergies or whatever are still flaring up, and that puts a damper on my speed, so I decided on distance. (I still need to add the strength training that I've been yapping about for weeks; soon, I hope) Tonight I planned on 4.5 miles. I knew it would be busy at the gym and I knew I would probably have to break that into two sections but I was going to do that much distance before going home or the gym closed. Ha, ha, just kidding. It's open 24 hours, see, so... yeah.

Wore the Adidas, took a hit off my probably-completely-empty inhaler (it's a psychological crutch by now) and wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Music was Green Day's "American Idiot" and the good parts of the Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack.

Annnnnnd... I was off and running. Had to start out on my second-favorite treadmill but that's OK. It doesn't have much of a shelf but I had forgotten my towel and didn't really need the shelf. I set a nice steady 10:20 pace and started running. I decided that I would run for 30 minutes or 3 miles before taking any kind of a break, whether a bathroom break, for water, or just a walking break. After 2 miles I bumped up the speed a bit, and then again around 2.5 miles. And I plodded along and did, in fact, manage to make it to near 3 miles without breaking anything other than a sweat. I did fantasize about making it to 3.5 miles, so I just had to finish with a 1.0 mile cooldown, but my digestive system did not cooperate. I finished with about 0.1 mile of 8:06 pace and logged, in my first segment, 3.1 miles in 31:36 or so, for an average pace of about 10:12. Meh. But it was a tempo night, not a speed night.

Did have to use the bathroom, and returned to the treadmill about 5 lb. lighter and ready for my final 1.4 miles. I set a 9:50 pace and just stayed there. Breathing was a teensy-tiny bit constricted but I tried to relax and just go with it and nothing untoward happened. My sinuses did start clogging up, too. Ugh. I hate these allergies. I decided I wanted to end with a couple of 30 second fast segments, so when the timer rolled over to 13:30 I pushed the speed up to 8:06 again for a full 30 seconds, the dropped back to my 9:50 pace for 30-45 seconds, the back up to 8:06 pace for another 30 seconds, and by then I had gone past 1.5 miles. I neglected to check the exact speed (good for me!) but it was pretty close to 15:15 and just a shade over 1.5 miles.

Did my new-normal stretching routine, drank what felt like a gallon of water at the fountain, and I was done. 4.6+ total miles for the night.

NOTE TO SELF: Even though I have next Wednesday off due to it being my birthday, the gym is going to be doing work in the showers that day. • 8:15 PM 0 comments

Ran tonight.

Gym, treadmill, Asics, used the inhaler, planned on 3 miles.

Mostly kept a 10:00 pace, but near the end of each mile (0.1 mile to go) I bumped the speed up to just a touch faster than I thought I could handle tonight (which worked out to be anywhere from an 8:35 pace to, around the 2 mile mark, an even 8:00 pace) until I rolled over to the next whole mile. Finished in 30:00 with 3.05 miles total.

Did a comprehensive stretching routine after

It was hard to get the energy to go. Cold, wet weather, short days, having been house-bound all day Sunday due to snow and freezing rain, the persistent allergies due to mold... damn, this winter is getting to me. It's kinda hard to stay motivated. I'll stick with it, though, because it will pay off when the season starts changing and I can run outside again. • 7:29 PM 0 comments

Uploaded some pictures I've taken over the past few weeks.

• Got some pictures of the moon from downtown Portland... including a couple of its reflection.
  
• Took a few pictures of the first snow of the season.

Smacky was wanting exactly none of this cold, wet, white stuff. He wanted back inside immediately. Of course, hydraulic pressure forced him outside later... when it was, y'know, colder. • 12:14 PM 0 comments

Shorter version of President Bush's speech tonight:

"Remember, your sons and daughters in Afghanistan and Iraq are still under my control... so don't get any funny thoughts about impeachment..."

. • 7:16 PM 0 comments

Quick running update:

Yesterday, at the gym, wearing my Adidas, I attempted my treadmill intervals (1 mile warmup, 4x 4:00 fast, 2:00 slow, 1 mile cooldown). Had to take a break at the halfway mark (bathroom break) and had to walk twice during my slow segments. Ugh.

Total distance covered was 4.46 miles, well below what I was doing before. But I'll get back on track. • 10:50 AM 0 comments

I saw a lot of movies this year. Good and not-so-good. Maybe before the end of the year I'll post a list of all the movies I saw, with a mini-review of each. Wow, that's a great idea. I wonder why no one's ever thought of that before?

But this post is mainly to congratulate myself for having completely avoided every single movie on Rotten Tomatoes' list of Top 10 Worst Movies of 2005.

And especially for having avoided the temptation to stare at Jessica Alba's ass, but be burned by "Into the Blue" anyway. I got to see her enough this year in good movies, like "Sin City". • 6:49 PM 0 comments

Friday Cat Blogging!

Only got one picture of Smacky this week... but I think it's a good one.

Can you spot the hidden cat in this picture?

At least, Smacky thinks he's hidden.



Don't forget, cat lovers, there's waaaaay more cats over at the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 91st edition will be hosted this week by Music and Cats. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants. • 6:30 AM 1 comments

Last Tuesday I had a crappy, crappy run. My asthma - excuse me, my exercise-induced breathing difficulties - were acting up, in spite of the shot of albuterol I took prior to running. I had had a bad sinus headache that ended up in my ear the night previous to that, and by the following day it was gone except for a lingering running nose. It was all messed up in there behind my eyes and between my ears.

Wow, that previous paragraph jumped all over chronologically, didn't it? But to hell with it; blogging is essentially first-draft anyway. I'm leaving it as-is.

Anyway, Tuesday I ran about three miles total, but had to break it into two 1.5-mile segments, and each segment was slower than a really slow thing. I wasn't happy with my performance at all, and knew I could do better.

I was so discouraged by my performance Tuesday night that I skipped any kind of workout at all last night, just went home and lazed around and ate Thai food and drank delicious holiday drinks and thought about cleaning up my apartment, another thing that's discouraging me. I can't concentrate in a messy apartment.

So, today, I approached the gym after work with a mix of optimism and pessimism. I wanted to do some speedwork, but thought that might be pushing it. I always try to decide on my goal before starting my workout and then stick to it, but tonight I was uncertain what I was going to be doing until I had finished walking a quarter-mile to warm up. I decided on 4 miles tempo pace, which works out to about a 10:00/mile pace for me.

My ankles, both left and right, were giving me warning signs through the first mile, but I just tried to relax and let everything "fall" into the right configuration, if that makes any sense. Instead of trying to impose perfect form on myself, I just kept my head high, let my breathing come at a natural rhythm, and tried to zone out and not overthink my form. It seemed to work, because at the start of my second mile, I was feeling well enough to up the pace a bit, and finished my second mile with about two minutes of around an 8:35 pace. Instead of stopping for water or a walking break, I decided during the second mile that I would push through for at least 30:00, see where I was, and then continue to 40:00 at whatever pace I wanted. Around 2.9 miles, I pushed the pace up to 8:00, and I ended up hitting mile 3 at 29:30 total, which felt really good, before dropping to a walk for less than a minute. Then I ran the pace back up to 10:00/mile for almost the remainder of the last full mile. At 3.85 miles, I sped up to an 8:35 pace again, and kept it past the 4.0 mile mark (39:36 total) and kept going for another minute or two. I think around 4.06 miles I finally slowed to a walking speed to cool down.

It felt really good. My asthma did not show up, and after the first mile of slight pains from my ankles and calves, especially the outside of my calves, I had no other discomfort.

I do want to find a stretch for that area (outside of my calves and or my IT band) because that still feels really tight. I also notice that when standing, my feet want to pronate a lot, to where I'm standing on the outsides of my soles, and I have to consciously flatten out my feet so they're resting full on the ground. Something to watch in the future.

I'm keeping these shoes (Oh! Tonight I wore my Asics; last Tuesday I wore the Adidas) through the winter, but come spring I'm going to go through the whole fitting process again because I believe my gait/stride has changed since I first started running. Just a note for the future.

I'm definitely running tomorrow and Saturday or Sunday. Still not back up to 20+ miles per week but I'm not really in training for anything specific. Probably good to focus on non-running exercise for at least the next couple of weeks.

But, y'know, I'm not going to be able to stop running. Just not gonna happen. • 7:00 PM 0 comments

It's been very cold in Portland for the past month. It's a little unusual, but that's not why I mention it.

I've discovered that, when I turn the heat on in my apartment, I have an allergic reaction. I have electric baseboard heat (I know, not the most efficient). My nose starts running, my eyes itch, I get a lot of phlegm in my throat... ugh. So I generally only turn up the heat right when I get home, or right when I get up, get the house kinda/sorta warm, then turn it back down again and put on extra layers of clothes.

When I first got Smacky, I assumed that my allergic reaction was to him, but it seems that is not the case. It's just that I got Smacky in the late summer, and by fall and winter last year I had started to use the heat in my apartment. I connected the cat with the allergies, and decided to kick Smacky out of my bedroom as much as possible. But now I realize, not having the heat on means no allergies. Coolio.

In the past couple of days, I've been letting Smacky sleep with me again. I turn down the heat, and then have a warm furry object laying (usually) on my chest or around my neck, right where the blankets don't cover. It's awesome.

Only drawback is that Smacky is kind of an asshole if he gets woken up suddenly. The other morning I was awakened in the middle of the night by having a grumpy cat biting my arm and clawing at my nose. He actually drew blood, the little shit. • 6:47 AM 0 comments

Bucky Katt has been very bad lately. • 6:49 AM 0 comments

Sorry I haven't posted anything funny in a while (Friday Cat Blogging doesn't count; you're not supposed to laugh at cats. They hurt you for that), but in the meantime, while I try to fill up on enough spiced-rum-doused eggnog to be funny, you can read my latest favorite celebri-blog, Wil Wheaton dot Net: In Exile, and especially his post about the evil clown sweater.

It's so funny it will haunt your dreams. I'm talking about the sweater. Wil Wheaton seems like a pretty nice guy. • 6:54 AM 0 comments

My nephew and I participated in the Red-Nosed RUN Deer this weekend. It was freakin' cold, as expected, and I wore three layers for my run. I think Max had on two layers. At any rate, we averaged about a 12:00 pace for an estimated total time of about 37:15. That time, however, includes the time it took for us to reach the starting line; our chip time will be less than that, I believe. There was quite a crowd! Lots of antlers and Santa caps. Max and I just had on our race t-shirts and sleigh bells.

On my suggestion prior to the race, Max had stated that his goal was to beat his last 5K time. That would have been the Run Like Hell in October. Max's chip time in that race was 36:51, so, depending on how much time it took us to cross the starting line, he may have actually achieved his goal! He came pretty close, though, and I think he's doing great, considering that he's not actually training. He exercises in school, but it's not really structured for learning to run longer distances. So the only "training" he gets is in these races, and, frankly, no one would improve if they only trained once per month.

I'm afraid I might have set the bar too high by suggesting that he could have aimed for an average 10:30 pace for the race. He had managed about a 10:35 pace for the first two miles of the Turkey Trot in November - but, admittedly, that was entirely downhill. I hope he's not disappointed at all for his showing in this race. For a novice (and I consider myself barely out of novice stage) there's still a huge difference between 2 miles and 3.1 miles.

I think, with just some regular training, Max could be easily beating me (his still-chubby, short, over-40 uncle).

I'm proud of him for going out and trying, and for setting goals, even if he's not achieving them right away.

So... our next race is the First Run, starting just after midnight on New Year's Day... I will help Max be a little better prepared for this one. And, no matter what, it will be our fastest race of 2006. • 12:15 PM 0 comments

Friday Cat Blogging!

All I've got this week are pictures from my new sexy phone. Sorry for the lower resolution. Also, my camera was soaking in saline solution for an indeterminate period of time, so there might not be new pictures next week, either. Be ye warned.

Also, the subject has decided that laundry piles are the bestbestbest place to sleep, so these pictures might seem familiar...





...and here's the FCB archives.

Waaaaaaaaay more cats over at the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday. The 89th edition will be hosted this week by Quite Early One Morning. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants. • 6:57 AM 2 comments

OK, so I've blown the schedule I set for myself earlier this week.

I went to the gym last night to run, but, as has been the case the past couple of weeks, it was crowded. And, to make it even more difficult to find a treadmill, four of the good treadmills were out of commission. Ugh. So, instead of waiting around for one of the two remaining good treadmills, I bagged it and decided I would get up early and run.

Man, oh, man, was that difficult. I set the alarm for 4:30 AM, which did actually wake me up, but I just shut off the alarm and went back to sleep. I faded in and out of sleep for the next 45 minutes until I decided that, yes, indeed, I did need to get up and go to the gym.

And I did. I was stiff and cold and tired and hungry, but I went to the gym. Did I mention cold? (Man, it's gonna be so freakin' cold on Sunday when I run in the Red-Nosed RUN Deer) And, since I thought I was supposed to do my scheduled speedwork on Thursday night, and I hadn't looked at my schedule for what I was supposed to be doing on Friday, I just decided I'd do an easy 3.5 miles.

Turns out that I had scheduled 3.5 miles for Thursday, and my speed workout for Friday. So, I'm not that far off right now. I think I'll do my intervals on Saturday. The race isn't going to be that stressful. Y'know, except for the cold. But since I'm running with my nephew, I can just burn him for warmth (just kidding). • 6:53 AM 0 comments

Running update:

Haven't been running much lately. I ran twice in the past two weeks: once for 3 miles, once for 4 miles. And, yeah, the past two weeks have included some heavy holiday eating. So... that's not so good. But as of this week I am officially back in stride.

In that spirit, I am posting my schedule/goal for this week:

• Monday: 3.0 miles
  
• Tuesday: 4.0 miles + strength
  
• Wednesday: Rest day.
  
• Thursday: 3.5 miles + strength
  
• Friday: 4.5 miles - treadmill intervals (speed)
  
• Saturday: Rest day + strength
  
• Sunday: Red-Nosed RUN Deer 5K with my nephew!

Only about 18 miles this week - want to start back in slowly. But no worries, I'll be back up to my 20+ miles per week in no time.

Oh, and also, I'm going to be adding at least a half-hour of weight training three times/week to my training. I'm not sure how I'll break it all down, but just want to do something for each major muscle group (arms, chest, abs, back, legs) on a regular basis. • 6:37 AM 0 comments

Friday Cat Blogging!

It's winter. It's cold and dark and raining like Hell outside. What's a cat to do? He finds warm spots to lay down, falls asleep, and dreams of being even lazier than normal (as a friend told me...)

And what's warmer than a pile of dirty laundry on top of the dryer?



... and the answer to the above question is: the human's lap. Note that he's laying on top of the cable I need to get the pictures off the camera. Yeah. I got some new scars for trying to get that out of there.



...and here's a few more.

Waaaaaaaaay more cats over at the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 89th edition will be hosted this week by When Cats Attack. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants. • 7:50 AM 0 comments