Month: March 2005

Hourly rate

Tech

I feel guilty when I’m getting paid $30/hour to “clean up” a Windows PC. I feel guilty because I know I’m going to take several hours pretending I can “clean it up” before I finally get to the point where I bag it and just wipe it clean and start from scratch.

I feel even more guilty when I find out that it’s running Windows ME, which is shit even when compared to other Windows versions. It’s shittier than shit. It’s the shit that shit would shit out if shit could shit. Goddamn, Windows v1.0 would look at WinME and say, “You are shit.” Hell, DOS 6 would think WinME was, yeah, shit.

I’ve now spent three fucking hours and, yeah, I’m at that point. But I’m waiting for that one last spy-ware cleaning program to finish running, even though the little blue bar is only at 10% and hasn’t moved in five minutes. I think I’m going to take myself off the clock while this thing finishes running.

Music to BitTorrent

Tech

What’s that, you say? You want to hear all that great music at the SXSW music festival, but want to avoid going to Texas because it’s a horrible horrible place akin to the most hellish version of Hell-on-Earth imaginable?

I sympathize. And, apparently, so do the organizers of the SXSW festival. Because, according to Wired magazine, the organizers have made available more than 2.6 GB of songs from artists performing this year. For free.

And, even better, they’re using the open source free-speech software BitTorrent to do it.

Only something free-as-in-both-beer-and-speech like using BitTorrent to share free music could make Texas palatable.

I’m downloading the music even as we speak. Not getting good bandwidth yet (a paltry 4-5 kilobit per second) but it will increase as I get more pieces of the file.

Nearby volcano

exercise

Last night, I was on the phone with a friend for at least an hour after getting off work. I sat there in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, chatting away… meanwhile, apparently there was a volcano nearby doing its ash-and-steam thing.

I honestly didn’t notice Mt. St. Helens being obscured under a cloud on an otherwise beautiful spring evening until I went for my run along the waterfront. As I ran west across the Hawthorne Bridge, I noticed several different camera crews from local stations shooting footage of the mountain. Isn’t it great that I can go running on a day when nature is erupting? I love living in the Pacific Northwest.

I did a bit longer loop than normal; I did a figure-eight, crossing over the Morrison Bridge twice, which gives me about 3.5 miles total. I’ll run again Thursday night, then probably won’t run for the rest of the week until Sunday, which is the Shamrock Run. Might hit the gym on Friday or Saturday for some weights. Might not. Just playing it by ear now.

The boys are back, but not those boys

General

Lyric of the morning:

“When you like something, it’s an opinion,
When I like something, it’s a manifesto.
Pomposity is when you always think you’re right,
Arrogance is when you know.”
          –Harvey Danger, “Pike Street/Park Slope”

…which I only mention because apparently the boys have completed recording their next album, but have yet to find a label to release it through.

In other news, the fantabulous Long Winters are playing a show (along with a bunch of other bands) on Friday, March 18… in Austin, TX. Dammit.

Meta: picture archives

meta

If you notice broken pictures back in the archives, just know that I’m rearranging stuff on the server. Sorry.

Ready for the Shamrock Run

exercise

Ran again this morning. Just over 2 miles. Didn’t keep track of my time, wanted a nice easy run to close out the week. And I got it. Yay.

Next week I’m going to do my longer run earlier in the week, then hit the gym with no actual running Thursday and possibly Saturday, to get ready for the Shamrock Run.

I can’t remember if I talked about this on the blog already but I’m not training for a good time in the Shamrock Run 5K. It’s a bit silly to do that since there’s so many people that enter that race, I’d just be fighting the crowds. It’ll take me 5 minutes just to cross the starting line, so what’s the point? I’m just going to go and have a good time, and then focus on a good time in the next race in April, which I believe is the Bridge-to-Bridge. I might even try the 10K on the B2B… maaaaaaybe.

Trusty Brooks

General

I meant to post this yesterday. I ran to work for the first time in months and did pretty good. Not including warm-up and cool-down I covered ~5.4 miles in around 55:30. I had to stop a couple of times, briefly, for no more than about 10-20 steps before starting to run again. I didn’t push my pace hard, since I had so far to cover. It felt pretty good, although I was a bit wheezy after the run.

I was worried it would be too cold but I warmed up quickly. Wore my trusty Brooks Adrenaline GT5s, shorts, and a short-sleeve singlet and long-sleeved tech shirt over it.

Was going to listen to Radiohead but Cake came up randomly (Motorcade of Generosity followed by Prolonging the Magic) and it had been a long time since I’d heard them while exercising that I let the Shuffle, um, not shuffle.

I’m worried in a minor key about my right heel; it’s a bit sore and the non-medical diagnosis of my athletic friends is that it sounds like plantar fasciitis. I’m starting to stretch that area more to see if that helps. My friends sent me a link but it’s way too medical-technical; I found some articles from a layman’s perspective.