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June 29 ?
April 02 The Four Two"There was a terribly ghastly silence. There was a terribly ghastly noise. There was a terribly ghastly silence." -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, describing the destruction of the planet Earth. And so I'll post what is most likely the final post of Don't Panic. I've been working on a new website, and I've finally got it to a point where I can now keep a regular blog, among other things. I've used this service at Live Spaces for almost 3 years, but I've come to a point where I need to move on. Which brings us to: TheFourTwo.com It will essentially be the same as this Space was: a blog and place for me to store and share photos and other digital odds and ends. But it will also allow me to do other things that I couldn't normally do on Live Spaces. So I hope you'll still come by periodically and check out my blog at my new home. I will keep this Space and my Live account so I can stay in contact with all my Live Spaces contacts. If you have a link to my Live Space, I'd appreciate it if you updated it to http://www.thefourtwo.com ...thanks. So long, and thanks for all the fish. March 13 Know your bodyQuick quiz. Without looking, do you honestly think you could answer a series of questions about the back of your hand? How many wrinkles on the left main knuckle? Which way does the hair on your hand sit, from thumb to pinky or pinky to thumb...or wrist to fingers? Do you have any freckles on your hand? How many? Where are they?
Yes, how well do you know the back of your own hand? As the famous idiom goes...do you know the back of your hand "like the back of your hand"?
If you do know the back of your hand well...you deserve a handshake; you're keeping the dream alive. If not, like myself, then you'd agree with me when I say that it's a silly saying.
March 11 And I RanI've got a number of different endurance based events already set up throughout the year. I've done the Disney World Half Marathon in January, and I'm ready for more. So here's what's lined up so far.
Urban Dare
May 24 - Tampa, FL
I'm probably most excited about this one. Think Amazing Race on a smaller scale. The following is from their website.
The teams are on foot, but can take public transportation if they want. I forsee we'll still be doing a lot of running. It reminded me of when we did our own kind of thing like this back in '06. My friend that set up that race, Michael, is the other member of my team. Our team name is Taco vs. Grilled Cheese (if you're wondering where such a name comes from, watch this movie). Both of us are pretty competitive, we've already started to strategize and plan for the race, trying to cover as many bases as possible. I think we may have a good chance to actually win or place.
Also, they hold these all over the country, so there may be one in your area. If you're interested, check out the website.
ING Philadelphia Distance Run
September 21 - Philadelphia, PA
I haven't signed up for this yet, but if I ran another half marathon this year, it would be this one. The only thing is that it's only a week away from another race that I've already signed up for, which simply means it will take some careful planning to work it all out.
2008 Expedition Everest Challenge
September 27 - Disney's Animal Kingdom, Orlando, FL
This is a brand new race they've added to the Disney endurance challenges. It's a combination of a 5k run, obstacle course and scavenger hunt through Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. Like the Urban Dare, this is for teams of two. The event is held in the evening, at 7pm. What's cool about this is that after the race, they have a private after-party in the park (from 10pm to midnight) with food and refreshments, and some of the rides will be open. You also get a one-day pass to either Animal Kingdom or EPCOT.
Race for the Taste 10K
October 21 - EPCOT, Orlando, FL
An easy 10K run through Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) and EPCOT, which finishes at EPCOT's International Food & Wine Festival. It's a great time to go to EPCOT (my favorite of the parks in Disney World), with special foods and drinks from around the world. I haven't been there in a while, so it'd be a nice chance to go with a group of friends...who I'm trying to recruit for the run.
So there it is. It should be an interesting year. March 06 WHA? > What happened??
Rock of Gibraltar, you've been professionally absent, Josh!
Just look at this place...cockroach turds everywhere, a thin layer of dust over everything, and the apples in that bag have turned into a single lump of dark brown "that's where those went!".
Let me explain my situation with an illustration. Think of moving into a new house, but not because you just want something bigger. You have to, because your old house has simply vanished. All your stuff, everything, is gone. This is what happened to my hard drive. No, it didn't disappear. It crashed without any hope of recovery. It went beyond not working correctly, it can't even be bothered to work just enough to retrieve and transfer my data. All my data, my music, work, pictures, anything I had solely on that hard drive is locked in it's uncompromising grasp. I'd been working on my website for a while...and poof, suddenly it's as if I never started it. But don't you have a backup hard drive? Of course not. I'm too busy being the only person in the world who doesn't have a backup hard drive to be bothered to go out and get a backup hard drive. I'm doing this for you. You know, Gallant would've never been that effective without Goofus. So anyways, my old HDD is now a brick and I finally got a new one after a few snags. So it's time to rebuild. I've got MP3s on my iPod and more music on CD...thankfully, many of my recent pictures are at flickr, in their full size (I knew I'd justify buying the pro service), and I've already started to get cracking on the website. It's good to be back. January 30 The best music video of all timeI'll keep the video posting kick going with this...the greatest music video ever made.
Here are some reasons why:
1. Everything acted out by kittens.
including:
- Kittens waking up at 10 am
- Kittens riding a train to town
- Kittens ghost riding the whip
- Homeless kittens
- Fake kitten arms exchanging small US currency for catnip
- Kitten hallucinations
2. Director not afraid to have a human hand in the video that's supposed to be only kittens (and other baby animals)
3. Exciting story
HitchHiker's Guide Entry> Kittens
200801.30 - A domestic juggernaut of pocket-sized winsomeness, the kitten enjoys its popularity while it is still young. Anything it does during these feline salad days is usually characterized by such adjectives as "cute", "adorable" or "wicked precious", and then immediately immortalized in a calendar or your mom's shirt.
The tragedy that every beloved kitten faces is adulthood. After some time, kittens skip puberty altogether and--seemingly overnight--turn from "ooh, a kitten", into "oh, a cat...I'm allergic to cats". Kitten owners have an animal that everybody loves and has a great time with. Most cat owners, though, have an animal that is now known for shedding hair all over your sofa and chairs and suits and dresses. With adulthood, a cat develops the ability to poop into sand chemically designed to hide odor, and have the aforementioned turd smell like it's right under your nose, perhaps resting on your upper lip.
Needless to say (but I'm going to say anyway), people usually like kittens more than they like cats, but you can't have one without the other...unless you just got a full grown cat. January 23 The Flight of the ConchordsI've just finished watching The Flight of the Conchords season 1 DVD.
At this point your reaction could go one of many ways. Here are a couple.
1. You not only have heard of Flight of the Conchords, you've already seen season 1 of their show as well as their live act and you're so hard core you've even seen their "other stuff" like Tongan Ninja. You already know how great the show is. High five.
2. The name sounds familiar. You're pretty sure you've seen some of their videos on YouTube. You may even be planning on renting or buying the DVD sometime soon. Do it. You know it'll be good.
3. You have little to no idea who they are, and you probably lost interest and started trying to remember the plotline to Flight of the Navigator. Well, a kid flies away in a UFO. There's some time travel involved.
I think that whichever reaction you had, you'll appreciate these videos. The videos show mostly music, but the show isn't all musical...in fact, there's usually only a couple songs in each episode. The duo writes their own music, and the lyrics are clever and very funny.
Enjoy.
and then this one:
This is the first song of Episode 1:
Here's some of their live stuff:
January 21 13 miles and we're back where we started.It's nearing 6am and Mike (my brother) and I are walking up to our corral where we'll start the marathon from. We walk past thousands of people, some sitting down and stretching, some standing up and stretching, some peeing the woods. We're about right in the middle of the 12,000 participants of the 2008 Walt Disney World Half Marathon.
A couple minutes go by and the gun goes off and runners pour across the starting line. The entire line slowly moves forward; 18 minutes go by before we begin our run. Before I go any further, let's rewind 2 weeks. Aside from my regular running training, I'd been playing soccer every Saturday-- which I figured would also count for the amount of running involved during the games. Two weeks before the race, I sprained my ankle during a high-speed challenge for the ball. It felt OK the moment it happened, and I even finished the game, but later that night I wasn't able to put any weight on it.
I went to CVS the next day to pick up an ankle brace.
"Hey, man, are you OK?" says the guy at the counter.
No.
"Yeah, I'm alright...I just busted up my ankle playing soccer yesterday."
"Cause you don't look too good."
"Heh. It'll be OK." I say optimistically.
"Well, take it easy."
The brace and a little rest (had that Tues. off) had me walking with barely a limp by Thursday. I even played soccer again (cautiously) the next Saturday.
OK, so as I start the marathon, I'm thinking about my feet. Are these new shoes going to help prevent shin splints? Will I get blisters? How will my ankle hold up? Why did I bother asking that second question? Of course I'm going to get blisters. I had blisters by mile 3. I had set out to run 3, maybe 4 miles before I took a walking break for a few minutes, and getting the blisters just seemed to solidify that scenario. But beyond the blisters, I felt good, so I kept running. Mile 4, Mile 5, through the Magic Kingdom, through the enchanted castle, Mike and I are still running. We didn't actually slow our pace to a walk until after mile 7.
After we ran through the Magic Kingdom we started on the road back to EPCOT. Miles 9, 10 and 11 seemed to drag on, and by mile 12, my ankle started to go numb, so I walked until I got to the final mile at the entrance of EPCOT.
The track took us in the park and then back out, and as you round the corner and exit the park back onto the parking lot, you finish mile 13 and have only one tenth of a mile to the end. Seeing the Finish line felt so great. It makes you forget about everything else. My ankle was numb, my feet were cramping up, I felt like I stepped on a nail for each of the (about) 3000 steps I took during those last 10 miles. But you put all those aside and pick up the pace for the last stretch.
My goal (and Mike's) was 2 hours, 30 minutes. Mike finished in 2:28:13. I finished in 2:30:03.
One of the scariest moments of my run came at around mile 10, when I started to feel the onset of the dreaded "runner's nipple". It's painful to see and embarrassing to get. What happens is that as you run, the salt from your sweat can create friction with the fabric of your shirt. Enough of that friction leads to chafing and then bleeding. Thankfully, I didn't have any bleeding. I did see one poor guy that was bleeding pretty bad from his nipples. It was such a nasty sight to see, and I cringe in pain every time I think about it.
After everyone in our group (there were 6 of us in total) finished, we slowly walked back to our cars and headed back to our respective villas to clean up, and then headed back out for some wings and beer. We stopped by Downtown Disney for a bit, and then came back to our place to watch the Patriots beat the Jaguars. Top it all off with a few minutes in the hot tub and a good night's rest, and I'm good to go for the next marathon...which probably won't be until September...so I suppose I had plenty of time to rest up.
Here's the rest of my marathon numbers:
January 17 Blisters vs. Shin splintsGASP! What's this? An update?
Yes. It's been a while. I've been diverting all of my allocated blogging/online free time effort into figuring out Wordpress and trying to make my own design from scratch (which is proving to be a little difficult to implement as I'm new to php). But I've had much going on elsewhere as well, so I figure I'd take a break from coding and troubleshooting and actually do something that shows I've done something.
Now that we've got that introductory tangent out of the way, let's get to the subject at hand -- addressed in the theme: blisters vs. shin splints
Those were the contenders in my mind on Friday night. Last Saturday (Jan 12) was the half marathon. I had a pair of shoes that I use for running, but they weren't the greatest running shoes. I had been getting shin splints from running in them (as well as from soccer...but we'll get to that in another post). So I was thinking about picking up a pair of running shoes with proper support. I leaned toward not getting them and going with the ones I already had, and so I left for Orlando ready to take on my shin splints.
 We got up to Orlando (Lake Buena Vista, actually...but it's easier to just go with Orlando) by the afternoon, and headed to the Wide World of Sports complex to register for the marathon. There were about 12,000 people registering for the 1/2 marathon, and most of them seemed to be in the line I was supposed to be in at the time I was there. Meanwhile, my brother's line had about 6 people and his wife's had fewer than that. Instantly impatient, I asked my sister-in-law to see if they could take my registration at one of the less busy registration booths. I got a thumbs up (as vocal confirmation at that distance is hardly possible), and I immediately spared my life from another hour or so of waiting in line. After we were all registered, we went to the expo going on in the same building. There were a decent amount of vendors there, and I did a quick lap around to get whatever free stuff I could get. Right in the middle of everything were several vendors selling running gear and, more importantly, shoes. So the battle raged on as blisters (new shoes!) arose from the grave with renewed vigor and excitement. I tried on a pair of Brooks that felt immediately good on my shins. The expo pricing was cheaper than normal, and so with that I chose blisters as my racing partner for the next day.I'll save the details of the marathon for another post. Maybe later on today or tomorrow (Fri). December 20 MetamorphosisI'm beginning this post with a hitchhiker's guide entry, for dramatic effect.
HitchHiker's Guide Entry> Metamorphosis 200712.20 - Defined as follows: Example: Butterfly. ...Before a butterfly is ever a butterfly as we know it, it goes through several stages of life before realizing how great it is to be a butterfly. Entering visible existence as an egg, this stage is rather insignificant and usually overlooked by most living organisms and always ignored by non-living organisms. Emerging from the egg is a caterpillar, at which point it begins eating. The caterpillar so enjoys this newly-learned ability that it continues to eat for a few weeks. Having eaten far too much, the caterpillar pauses to loosen its belt and maybe even unbutton its pants for comfort. Lethargic with food, the future butterfly decides a nap will do it well. To assure an uninterrupted sleep, the caterpillar spins a cocoon around itself and promptly nods off. Due to the lack of alarm clocks in the butterfly world, our subject remains in this pupa stage for another week or so. It wakes up and and comes out to a good news/bad news scenario. The good news: it now has large, colorful wings and no longer looks like a grub. It also no longer has to pay a penalty to rent a car. The bad news: It spent half it's life crawling around, eating salad and sleeping. At which point it immediately flies off, completely unaware of the potential havoc it could wreak with a simple flap of its wings.
When it comes to computer hardware, metamorphosis is never as beautiful. It's usually backwards in comparison to the process of the butterfly. I woke up Monday to find my butterfly of a hard drive had rolled itself up and proceeded to eat its own wings off. In other illustrative words, it went from an intricate piece of machinery to a brick. We (and by we I mean my friends who actually know a thing or two about fixing computers and hardware and stuff, of which I do not include myself) are working on a few things to recover the data off of it, but with no success so far. I'm starting to come to terms with the loss of data...pictures, music, artwork, an excel worksheet that I custom made to keep track of my budget, all my editable files for my websites and other work. Oh, for crap's sake! But, as is my custom, I am not panicking. I still have access to a computer and the internet from my house (as evident by my ability to write this post). I just do not look forward to getting a new hard drive (and an external backup while I'm at it), installing XP + SP2, installing all the other stuff (office, CS3, drivers...). Oh well. So they say things happen in threes. I don't recall this being something I've ever confirmed in my own experience, so I can't say how much there is to that statement. If it is true, this would be my 2nd of 3. The first was my iPod (which is back to normal). So I worry what #3 would be..the red ring of death on my XBox? My left arm falls asleep and never wakes up? My icemaker in my fridge goes crazy...oh wait. My icemaker already does that. Great. |
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Don't PanicSeriously. Calm yourself down. © 2006
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