Mom hates this Blog

Maybe for this blog…

Sorry I’ve not written much. Twitter is the new outlet all the hip-and-trendy kids are using these days and while I’m not a huge fan of the term “microblogging”, it kind of fits. But only if it’s 140 characters or less.

Actually, work has be crushed right now. We’re on the fourth beta of QuicKeys and I’m averaging about 60 hours of work a week. That, plus all the volunteer web/membership duties for the Capital Striders. Plus trying to get some quality training runs in. And, oh yeah, the wife’s still pregnant. Something had to give and blogging is the first to go. Video game time is down, too… haven’t touched Guitar Hero in months.

There’s tons of stuff I’d like to go more in-depth about concerning QuicKeys. And I’d love to discuss running more (and my current injuries) and waxing on about how feeling your kid kick for the first time is a little strange and pretty friggin’ cool at the same time. And I’d love to actually play my copy of BioShock before BioShock 2 comes out.

But not right now.

Wife and I were watching 20/20 last night (there was nothing else on… really). It was dramatically titled “Life on the Line” and profiled several people who the current economical situation has affected the most severely, both good and bad.

Generally, it’s what you’d expect. Some dude who was making $750,000/year now delivers pizzas, hordes of families homeless, groups of people buying $100 houses and turning them into art studios… the show’s not really the point here. It put a thought into my head. And since I have a blog, that’s where all my thoughts are supposed to go, right?

The New Deal was Roosevelt’s attempt to pull the US out of the shitstorm it had found itself in after the Great Depression. Based on reforming several sectors and enacting dozens of new policies, it was mostly just to get the bleeding to stop. It was, of course, hotly contested (as is everything in politics) but for the most part, it worked. World War II also kinda helped, but global conflict isn’t much of an option when trying to fix a failing economy.

Reading the Wikipedia on The New Deal, it’s scary how close it describes what we’re going through now. Sky-rocketing unemployment, impossible-to-obtain credit, mortgage failure and foreclosure everywhere.

So if President Obama is attempting his version of The New Deal and the last one “mostly worked”, instead of waiting for World War III to officially end the depression (which would probably end a lot of other things too… like “life as we know it” and “every living thing”) how about we try this:

Dedicated and Concentrated Effort on Exploring The Galaxy we Inhabit.

Think about it. It’ll take trillions of dollars, decades of time, billions of man-hours just to send a couple hundred people to Mars long-term, colonizing the Moon, or sending a few brave souls on a one-way trip to Saturn. Instead of building tanks and bullets, we build space suits and alien-environment habitats. We train/retrain thousands that are homeless/jobless, desperate and out of options, to become proficient in horticulture, terra forming, geology. We send people who have otherwise no attachments left here (other than insurmountable debt) to Mars to become pioneers and heros.

Yes, it’s an reasonably insane idea and it’s absolutely rife with problems; moral, ethical, religious, political, and common sensical. It would mean certain death for some. Others, who’ve been training and waiting for something like this their entire lives, may become infuriated that just because you’re homeless, you get to go to Mars and they don’t. It’s also massively expensive with no clear return on investment. But think of the industry and jobs it would produce. A 50-year plan to permanently colonize Mars and/or a 10-year plan for the Moon would require the resources, talent and experience from Farmer Brown to Physicist Mike.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t actually expect this to happen. I’m not emailing Obama with my crackpot idea. But I assure you, all seven of my faithful readers, that this will have to happen someday. It may be 50,000 years in the future, but the human species will need to leave this planet for some reason (knowing us, it’ll be a bad reason and we’ll be the direct cause of it). We might as well start on that problem now while fixing the problem we currently have.

Hi, my name is Jim. And I’m the victim of not upgrading WordPress in a timely manner.

Hi Jim

I’d like to say I’m smarter than the average computer user, but apparently I can fall victim to the same bullshit script bots and junk that others are all too familiar with. No, my blog does not run on Windows (oh thankyouthankyouthankyou sweet heavenly creatures far and wide I’m not running windows) otherwise I’d be doing a complete reinstall of the OS.

It took about 90 minutes to reset passwords, reinstall WordPress, setup all the plugins and whatnot. A pain, for sure, but nothing OS related was damaged. Still, not what I was planning on doing this morning.

Anywho, things will look a little weird for a while as this theme’s layout is quite different from the previous one (which is completely infested with URL injection code now… for shame). I promise to fix things up as I find the time.

Our popcorn is now about 3.2 centimeters long now… and had clearly grown an arm! I thought those things didn’t get attached until like three weeks after we took delivery of our order. Hmm… maybe the manufacturer decided to throw the arms in free of charge.

Everything’s looking fine. Nothing new to report, really… well, other than the arm.

Me, apparently.

Yes, after some late-night internet porn “tutorials”, the wife and I finally figured out the problem and are now expecting. And yes, we kept it a secret until we knew it was actually something with a heartbeat (and not just a cluster of malformed cells).

There will be tons more post to come about all of this, but for now, we’re doing good. Kristie’s just fine, I’m just fine, and our little piece of popcorn (or chewed up gum) is fine as well.

[Results] [Photos]

Another great day for a run… low 30’s, moderate amount of wind, ice-covered streams, 7499 other questionably competent people in various stages of undress. Yep, it’s the Living History Farms race again.

This being my third year running, I wasn’t planning on seeing or doing anything I’ve not done before. And I was right. Don’t get me wrong, I love this event and look forward to it each year, but after the first year or two, the novelty kinda wears off a little.

Which is why I think Dan’s got a good idea: we need better costumes. I’ve not a clue what that means right now but come next year, I think we’re going to try to come up with something that puts a little more fun back into the race. Plus, I suggested starting towards the back instead of the front. Finishing in under an hour (54:55 this year) means that you’re running with the “more athletic” of the bunch. Start towards the back and you run with the first-timers dressed like ketchup bottles and runaway brides, all of which aren’t accustomed to climbing muddy hills and forging streams.

Still, a great day for a race. Fitness Sports had one hell of a organized setup this year. Congratulations to all the organizers and volunteers that put on this event, you did an awesome job.

[Results] [Photos]

Why am I always bent over after these things?

My second marathon was far, far better than my first… mostly because I didn’t start the stupid thing with an injured leg and because I actually had trained sorta correctly for it. I know, who would have thought that proper training = a better marathon experience? But for as good as it was, I still learned some new things.

The race started chilly but super-well organized. Way better than last year, they had the street more walled off with barricades so the start was pretty quick and straight forward. Unlike last year where Dan and I basically had to merge with traffic from the vendor area to get going.

We both started with the 3:30 pace group but I quickly realized that they were moving a bit too slow for my preferred pace, so I sped up to catch the 3:20 group. This meant I left Dan around mile two and didn’t see him for the rest of the race.

Catching the 3:20 group around mile five, I hung out with them for three to four miles before deciding that I had to try to catch the 3:10 group. 3:10 is Boston Qualifying for me but was going to be a lot of work since the last few weeks of training fell off the tracks with my accident.

Miles nine through fifteen were me trying to find 3:10, never getting there, and getting picked back up by the 3:20 group… and learning my first lesson from this marathon: Just because you feel like you can catch the next pace group in the first half of a marathon means you’ve not considered that you have another half marathon to run after you actually accomplish that task. In short, I over-ran trying to catch 3:10 (something that I knew I shouldn’t have done) and now hanging with 3:20 was going to be very very difficult.

Mile fifteen is also when I met the Wife and her friends for the second time and exchanged water bottles. Actually, this year, the water I carried was a 3/5 mix of Gatorade and water. Second lesson: electrolyte replacement is hyper-important while running three or more hours. Duh, I know, but I didn’t pick up on this nugget-o’-truth last year.

Miles sixteen through twenty-three were all about trying to stick with the 3:20 group and ultimately failing. This section winds through Water Works park, which is little more than grass and some trees… and as boring as watching both grow. Little to no spectators, shitloads of wind (I even had drafters at one point), and the ultimate realization that once you’re out of this place, you still have six more miles to knock out.

Mile twenty-three is where I was forced to walk last year. This year, it’s where my brain was remembering said walking and was doing everything it could to convince me that “Hey, walking would be soooo good right about now”. The brain in the later stages of a marathon is worse than any physical pain. It’s only trying to do its job, I know… but the damn bastard is an evil, unrelenting son-of-a-bitch that has nothing else to do but to tell you “Stop! Slow down! You’re so going to hurt tomorrow… just stop now” and so on. I ignored my Evil Brain and kept running.

Mile twenty-four, I guzzle almost eight ounces of Gatorade/water mix. This would normally make me ill. Instead, it gives me a huge boost… for about a minute. Mental note: learn to drink more Gatorade (or whatever) next year.

Mile twenty-six is right after the last turn and you can clearly see the finish line. Oh, thank you Marathon Gods, this shit’s almost over. I get closer and I see the race clock reads 3:28:something. Wait, what? I can still pull out a sub-3:30 if I move my ass a little? So I find what I’ve got left in the tank and push myself. It ain’t much, but I am moving faster. Somewhere around here my wife is yelling at me and taking pictures, I don’t hear her… must… beat…stupid…clock.

And I do. Official chip time was 3:29:47. Thirty-seven minutes, one second faster than last year. Next lesson learned: if I had stuck with the 3:20 group (like I knew I should have) it that time most likely would have been sub-3:20. But I’m happy, really. I’m not a complete cripple this year post-race like last year. Sure, it hurts and my hips, which were angry with me back at Mile ten, aren’t even speaking to me now, but I did so much better this year than last. And while the pain is pretty crazy, I already think about next year… even as Dan finishes and says to me “hmmm… maybe the half-marathon next year?”. I laugh, I know he’s not serious.

Food

Something I didn’t do last year was make note of everything I ate during the day. Why would I? Because I burn roughly 3600 calories during those three-to-four hours, the equivalent of two days worth of energy. And when you tack on the 2000 calories I’ll burn just to be alive during the day, a 5600 calorie deficit can make for some interesting eating. So here’s the list of what I ate on the 19th… who says distance running is about the food?

• Bowl of Kashi
• 2 cups of coffee
• 2 granola bars
• 4 8oz bottle of water/Gatorade mix
• banana
• 8oz bottle chocolate milk
• bag of apples
• grilled cheese and bag of chips
• 1/2 SoyJoy bar
• 2 slices pizza
• 3 cheesebread sticks
• slice of apple pie a la mode
• small bowl of grapes
• 2 glasses of V8 juice
• Handful of fruit trailmix
• Chinese takeout