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| OK, no surprise that I went running tonight. I was planning to do one more extended day of week 4, but as I was driving to the gym I changed my mind. "OK, stop being lazy. There's no reason you can't move on to week 5, so just do it." I did it. Well, sort of. W5D1 is supposed to be three iterations of a five-minute walk followed by a three-minute run. The only thing is, I was doing this from memory rather than having consulted the schedule, so I didn't quite do it right. W5D2 is an eight-minute run, a five-minute walk, and an eight-minute run. (W5D3 is a 20-minute run. I'm pretty sure that's not humanly possible, but I digress.) I got myself a little bit confused about W5D1 and W5D2. I wound up doing a five-minute run, a 3-minute walk, an 8-minute run, a 5-minute walk, and a 5-minute run. I'll count that as having done W5D1, even if it wasn't 100% to spec. You guys can be the judges, though. Is 5-3 8-5 5 >= 5-3 5-3 5? I also finished it up with a pseudo-sprint-- for the last minute of the last run, I increased my pace by 1MPH. Yeah, that kicked my ass, but what can I say? I was bored. I tried running a couple of minutes tonight without counting steps, and that sucked-- I was sure I'd done like two minutes, but it was actually 45 seconds. At midnight on a Saturday night, 24-Hour Fitness is pretty damned empty. I could have grabbed any treadmill in the house. And for those who guessed at the lyrics from last time, yes. That's from the London recording of Cats. | ||||||||
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Patti
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December 20th, 2009
December 18th, 2009
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 There's a Walgreens near my office. It's in the middle of the urban jungle, but there's a small parking garage next door for customers of the store. It's hard to see the layout from this photo, but when you pull into the garage there are two spaces on the right, a wall, three spaces, and the back wall. On the left there are four or five spaces with a dividing wall. In this photo you can see one of the spaces on the right, the dividing wall, and then three spaces behind it. You can also see a part of one of the spaces on the left, and the dividing wall that hides two more spaces. The dark blob in the back right corner of the garage is my car.This is, admittedly, not a large garage. And yet, most of the customers are there for 15 minutes or less, so it doesn't have to be very big. This morning I tossed my car in the garage briefly while I dropped off a prescription on my way to work. When I came out, someone had parked smack dab in the middle of the garage, blocking in all of the cars in the back stalls. It wasn't that he had no other options-- there were two empty spaces in my section, and a few others elsewhere. There's no chance at all that all of the spaces filled and then emptied during the five minutes that I was in the store. I looked around for the owner, then waited a bit. When he didn't show in a few minutes, I pulled out my phone to snap a photo. Just as I did, the owner came out. "I'm leaving now." "Good!" I kept composing. "I said I'm leaving now." "Thank you. I'll be able to get my car out and get to the meeting that I'm now late for." I snapped the photo. No apology for the inconvenience, no remorse, nothing. Just indignation that I was photographing his faux pas. Dear Mr. 6KJR767: You are a flaming jackass. Have a nice day! | ||||||
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| I ran again tonight... just got home from the gym. W4D3e is in the bag. This time, I managed to do a full W4Dx precisely as scheduled, with no extra long walks. I'm not sure what changed, but things sort of felt easier. Pushing my way through the long running sections was still boring and annoying as all hell, but my heart rate seemed to come down much more quickly during walks. Maybe the ten-minute run did something? Or maybe I'm just getting into shape a little bit more? Who knows? Today, rather than counting the steps for five minutes, I counted the steps for one minute and then did that five times. It's just mental games, but it seemed to help at least a little. Maybe. Or maybe I just wasn't working quite as hard. This is also the first week 4 day that I haven't gotten off the treadmill feeling like I wanted to curl up in a corner and collapse. That has to be a good sign. I think I'll do at least one more day of W4 before trying to move on. If it still feels doable, I'll try W5. Oh, and here's a slightly obscure showtunes lyric-- one I'd never heard until tonight. Without searching, can you identify it? The usual dog about the town A small hint: it's from the London recording of a show. The Broadway lyrics for this song changed quite a bit. | ||||||||
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December 17th, 2009
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Someone on my backgammon server just shouted this:There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. | ||||||
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December 16th, 2009
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| I just got back from the gym. As you may recall, the normal week 4 is five minute warmup walk, three minute run, 1.5 minute walk, five minute run, 2.5 minute walk, three minute run, 1.5 minute walk, five minute run, five minute cooldown walk. This particular workout has been severely kicking my ass, so I've been adding more time to the walks. Tonight went like this: Warmup walk, three minute run. OK, I'm tired, and a 90-second walk isn't going to do it-- I'll do two minutes. Five minute run. ARGH, this sucks. Man, how can people do this? This is the most boring thing I can imagine doing. Push push, I want to quit, but I'm too stubborn, but man do I want to quit. Man, that chick next to me has a great ass. OK, only a minute left. Nice rack too. Plod, plod, yawn, OK, five minutes is up, thank god. Three minute walk. Three minute run. OK, three minutes doesn't entirely suck. It's dull, but it takes about two and a half minutes for me to get well and truly bored, so I can do this. Three minute walk, because my heart rate wasn't quite down to where I wanted it to be after two. Five minute run. Hate this. Hate hate hate. Oh man, the chick with the rack quit already, and she looked like she was about to die after running for two minutes. Wimp. Wait, why do I do this to myself? This running thing sucks. Three minutes down, two to go. I need a nap. Run run run. I'll check my heart rate to break up the monotony. The Knight Rider animation on the monitor is cute. OK, heart rate of 144... about what I expected, and pretty close to the top of where I want to be. Man, this is boring. Only a minute to go... that's 70 steps to count, roughly. Ten, twenty. OK, I've done five minutes. Hmm. I wonder if I can do one more? I'll try it. 60, 65, 70, wow, I can. Maybe another one? 60, 65, 70, holy crap. I've run for seven straight minutes. Can I do eight? OK, this is still boring. Let's check my heart rate. Hrmm. OK, 147, holding steady. I'm not dead yet. 60, 65, 70, eight fucking minutes. WHOA! Heart rate is holding steady in the high 140s. Let's keep going. Man, this is dull, but I can do one more minute. 60, 65, 70. NINE! Nine. That's not a round number. Ten is a round number. I think I'm still alive, my heart rate is 146, do it. Do it. Still bored, though. Oooh, that guy has a nice tattoo. Plod plod plod. 30 seconds left. 20. 10. Get ready to reach for the speed dial. JAYZUS KEERIST! I JUST RAN NONSTOP FOR TEN MINUTES! TEN FUCKING MINUTES! So I don't really know what to make of this. I'm pretty sure that if I'd set out to do ten minutes I would have failed miserably-- it's too big a chunk of time for my brain to cope with, and I don't see enough mental progress bars to make myself keep going. But I could slippery slope my way into it. I listened to music this time rather than This American Life, which may have helped. I don't know for sure, but maybe it distracts a different part of my brain. Most of the run still felt pretty sucky, though, like I really had to force myself through it. It didn't feel good. And I'm pretty sure I still couldn't really do a W4Dx without modification. Maybe I'm getting better, though. I felt significantly less dead at the end of this run than after the last one. And I'm working on getting a new controller board for the treadmill. | ||||||||
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December 14th, 2009
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| I'm off the hook for the stress test today-- the cardiologist has the flu. Damn. And I've been studying for it and everything. | ||||
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| I'm home from Nebraska. Mom was very happy to see me, even though it was a brief visit. As my plane taxied to the gate at OAK, I thought to myself, "I should go home and go running." And I did. Modified W4D3c is done, with the ongoing modification of making the walks longer than the program calls for. One would think that this should be getting easier, but it isn't. In fact, I'm starting to reach the point where running is just boring hard work, and it's not fun anymore. I'm not sure what to do about that, but I'll ride it out for a while and see what happens. I'm still making myself do it, though, which impresses me. 24 Hour Fitness is way less mobbed at 11 p.m. Tomorrow I get to go do a cardiac stress test. As my doctor said, 99% chance that everything is fine, but it's worth the test to catch that 1%. He saw a tiny irregularity in my EKG. That combined with the fact that I was getting dizzy, even though we're both pretty sure that we know what the underlying cause of the dizziness was, makes it worth the time/cost. I think I add another 9 or two to the calculation-- the dizziness went away once we cut back on high blood pressure medicine. | ||||||||
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December 12th, 2009
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| So I'm in Nebraska right now, visiting mon and her husband for the night. The only thing is, we kinda neglected to tell her I was coming. She directs a bridge game on Saturdays. When I got here I wrapped my coat tight, pulled a scarf over my hair, and went in. "Hi! Is it too late to get into a game?" "Yes, but you're welcome to stay and watch." "Oh good." I reached up and pulled the scarf down, and her eyes got big. I'm a brat. And everyone in the room knew I was coming, except mom. P.S. It's freezing here! And there's white death all over the ground. | ||||||
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December 11th, 2009
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| W4D... hmm, let's call it W4D3b is in the bag. I'm sort of horrified, actually. I left for the gym around 8:15 this morning. WTF? I'm not usually even awake at that hour. 24 Hour Fitness was still busy, but less mobbed than when I went the other night. Thanks to @slamonella for showing me where to find a 17-day guest pass rather than the usual 7-day. The run was better than the other day, but still kicked my ass. I'm still doing longer walks between runs than what the program calls, but I'm using my heart rate as a guide. I think I'm going to do at least two full week 4s before moving on, and at least two days of doing it without longer walks, before moving on. I'm starting to see how I eventually will be able to move on, although I'm not there yet. A few days ago it felt like I'd run to the end of the line. Now, I need to pack, shower, and get to the office. I have a busy day and weekend ahead of me. | ||||||||
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December 10th, 2009
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| Yes, there's a good reason for this. I'll explain later. Poll #1497375 Pick a number Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 80 Pick a number: Mean: 5.97 Median: 7 Std. Dev 2.90
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7 (8.8%)December 8th, 2009
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| I'm back at the gym after a two-week hiatus. I couldn't really find time or a place to run after I left Scotland, and after I got home I came down with a nasty cold. My 7-day guest pass at Bladium ran out. I wanted to shop around before committing, so tonight I checked out 24-hour fitness as a guest. Before I go any farther, let me just say that Bladium is on the order of $60-70/month, and 24-hour Fitness is about $30/month with a screamin' deal from Costco of $300 for two years. I'm not really comparing apples to apples here-- more like apples to raisins. I got there around 8:45 p.m., since the guest pass said I had to check in before 9 in order to register. All of the membership counselors were gone for the day, but they sent me in to work out anyway. The place was mobbed. When I arrived, every single elliptical and treadmill was in use. Well, OK, not all of them-- of the 14 treadmills in the gym, five of them were out of order. I didn't count broken ellipticals, but there were certainly a few. After about ten minutes of waiting, a treadmill became available. It was unimpressive, obviously well-used, and fairly low-end in construction. It had a display labeled heart rate, though as far as I could tell it was just a random number generator. The machine didn't have grips for measuring heart rate. The locker room was OK if uninspiring, and not nearly as skanky as reviews suggested. Maybe the men's locker room is worse? As for the run itself, well, after two weeks off I didn't expect to pick up where I left off. I've technically finished W4D2, but I seriously considered going back to do a back-in-the-saddle W3D3. I compromised and decided to do a W4 day, but with longer walk intervals-- as long as I thought I needed before the next run. I got through it, but my ass has been well and truly kicked. There will definitely be a repeat of W4 before moving on. At least one. And now, I seem to have a gym dilemma. Do I pay 4x the price for a significantly nicer place, but with fewer features? Or do I go for the cheap but crappy solution? I suppose I could check out other 24HF clubs, but the other one that's close to me has horrid Yelp reviews, and is in a worse neighborhood. I can also poke around for other options, but I haven't yet seen anything promising. Or I could just fix the fucking treadmill and be done with it. | ||||||||
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| I know some of my friends are out of work, and most of you know someone who is job hunting. My company is hiring a bunch of people, mostly in San Francisco but also in NY, London, and a few other places. If you're interested in one of these positions, or know someone who is, let me know. http://videoegg.com/about/jobs/ | ||||||
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December 7th, 2009
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| I'm sure that most of us have already heard today's news story about McDonalds refusing to hire a transgendered teen. The voicemail message from the McDonalds manager is particularly, umm, enlightening. I hate that this happened, and hate that this sort of bigotry exists in our society. At the same time, I love this news story. Not only have I seen the story passed around the web, but I just listened to it being delivered in a clipped British accent on the BBC. CNN doesn't seem to have picked it up, but both the NY Times and Fox News have the story on their sites. In all of the cases that I've found, the story is being reported in a very matter-of-fact manner, with no overtones of snickering or tittering. Even more important, they're doing it in a way that makes it obvious that McDonalds screwed up. So what? This is actually a sign of progress, I think. Discrimination against TG people is alive and well, but to hear the press treat it like the abomination that it is gives me hope. | ||||||
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December 6th, 2009
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| Poll #1495446 I scream, you scream Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54 Is it weird that I microwave ice cream before eating it? But... | ||||
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| Things I've done this weekend: 1. Slept 2. Lounged about in bed 3. Watched a really bad movie 4. Slept some more 5. Lounged about in bed some more Things I've accomplished this weekend: 1. I hate being sick. | ||||||
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December 3rd, 2009
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| (Someone asked me about this over dinner tonight. Here's my opinion.) So apparently some guy in Florida was in a minor car accident recently, and the guy seems to have some notoriety for his skill at failed optimization problems. It was a single-vehicle collision, and nobody was seriously injured. As a result of ridiculous public curiosity about the accident, we learned that the driver of the vehicle has had extramarital affairs. Bottom line: I couldn't care less about the details of the accident, nor about the driver's affairs, and I don't really understand why anyone else is worked up about the whole thing. | ||||||
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November 30th, 2009
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| I was in Scotland for a full 24 hours before I spotted the first McDonalds. I particularly enjoyed the double irony of it being right next to an LA Fitness. | ||||||
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| I polished off a great book while I traveled-- Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. If you haven't read it, you should. It's a tremendous wealth of information packaged up in a book that's terribly entertaining, and it's much more of a page-turner than whatever Dan Brown just published. I give it my highest recommendation. | ||||||
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November 29th, 2009
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| I got home from vacation a few hours ago. I love to travel, and it was a fantastic trip, but I'm so very glad to be home. About five minutes after I got home, the kittens emerged and Boo curled up in my lap. I'm glad they remember me. Glasgow was cold, wet, and windy. However, the Rocky Horror Show was brilliant, as expected. I had front-row-center seats both nights I was there, and not only was it worth hauling my butt to Scotland for, but it was worth seeing twice. David Bedella is an utterly brilliant Frank-- he pays just the right amount of homage to the Tim Curry character, and yet manages to own the role with his charisma and just the right amount of camp. Christopher Biggins, a Transylvanian from the movie, was a fantastic narrator. He played to and played the audience with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. The sun came out while I was on my way to London, and I had a couple of the most beautiful days I've ever seen in that city. On Thursday night I saw James Earl Jones in an all-black cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Holy crap was that amazing-- a total theatrical home run. On the train to London, I saw something that reminded me of an old friend from about 15 years ago. I found him online and pinged him, and was delighted to discover that he now lives in London. Friday we got together and downed a couple of bottles of wine, including a very strange sparkling shiraz from Australia, while catching up and reminiscing. It seemed like a good idea at the time. When we were done, I trotted off to Harrod's while well and truly sloshed. This too seemed like a good idea at the time. Saturday I caught the first Eurostar to Paris, so I could visit a young friend who is studying at the Sorbonne. I love the fact that I can land on my feet in a city where I don't even speak the language, and navigate the transit and city streets with no problems at all. I made a brief stop at the Maison Europeenne de Photographie to see their exhibits, including works by Man Ray, Helmut Newton, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. I then hopped over to the Louvre and met up with Caroline, where she gave me the art history student's tour. Is it wrong that I found the Mona Lisa underwhelming? It looked just like every photo I've seen of it, and it wasn't really worth fighting the crowds for. We had drinks and dinner, then I realized that I had to dash back to Gare du Nord to catch the last Eurostar. I was in a bit of a panic because I was late, but I navigated the Metro without problem, ran through the station, and made it onto the train with three minutes to spare. Yay running! I quite literally ran from the metro up to the Eurostar check-in area, then from security to the train. The flight home was largely unremarkable, as it should be, but I spent about 20 minutes staring out the window at Baffin Island as we flew over. The play of light on the snowy, rugged mountains was unbearably beautiful. I'll quit now. I'm even boring myself. | ||||||
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November 26th, 2009
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| Leicester Square has been turned into a bloody carnival. No, more than usual. Funny thing. As soon as I set foot on the tube today, I felt like I was really on vacation.  | ||||||
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Patti
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