Truesday.

Oopsy

I forgot the weekly stats!

Running:
5 runs (TWFSaSu) for 17.66 miles for the week.
Running total for January so far: 53.78

Work:
6125 words for the week, plus 5 reviews.

TaDAH!

Stuff and Recap

(I wish to note that I have yet to figure out how to configure the pics in this stupid blog to work with the text. I apologize in advance for the jarring nature of the photos to narrative. The first pic is my favorite shirt. The second is the example of how shitty it is, the third photo is the selection of shirts, and the fourth is me being crafty and destructive. Thanks for your patience.)

Oof! 'Tis been a while, no?

Well, since it is (at least in my worldview) the end of the week, seems like getting back to this blog on a Sunday is a good excuse to do a recap of the week. I had to check to find out the last post. Tuesday! Sheesh.
Ok, here we go:

Jan 23 -- Wednesday:
Run? You betcha! 30 minutes for a 3.31 mile run. Not bad.
Work? Oh yeah!
Anything else? I have NO idea.
Jan 24 -- Thursday:
Run? Nope.
Work? A nearly 800 word review of the early Abruptum collection! Pulitzer work for sure.
Jan 25 -- Friday:
Run? Once again, back is the incredible! Uh... 30 minute run for 3.29 miles. I seem to remember it being okay.
Work? Just in the morning, really. I had to get out of the damn house. My GOD. I like working at home. I can listen to all my annoying music, I have tons of coffee and bread, and it's, well, home. But man, at the end of the day, I really don't want to hang around the office anymore. So I got through all but one of my reviews, so allmusic now has reviews for Battle of Mice, Made Out of Babies, Red Sparowes, and the second Joe Lally record.
Jan 26 -- Saturday:
Run? Yuppers! 3.38 miles for a 30 minute run.
And...Crafting! Yes, that's right. I had to force myself not to work on Saturday. Amanda has been offering me some lessons in how to make a quilt, and I finally got around to assembling the meat and potatoes (as it were) for the job.
So, I have an irritatingly large collection of T-shirts. Some are just going in a bag destined for the Goodwill, but others were a bit too near and dear to my heart for that to happen. For instance this one

is probably my favorite shirt of all time. No joke.

But, as you can see here

said shirt is a bit, well, it's a bit on the unwearable side.

And no, I do not have some sort of bug problem. Those holes just appeared.
So, with Amanda's guidance, I'm giving it another chance at life. Truth be told, if she hadn't turned me on to the idea of the quilt, that shirt (especially that shirt) would just sit in a drawer. Forever. Seriously. I love that holey rag so much I wouldn't even give it away. (By the by, if anyone ever finds another one of those exact Lush tour shirts in wearable shapes, and happens to get it for me, I'll be your friend forever. Whatever that means.)

After the culling was finished, this is the selection (at least the fronts anyhow, some have usable back pieces) that will make up my quilt of T's:

So, here I am.

Uh... Crafting. Weird, eh. So that was my Saturday. I wish it had been a completely happy experience, but our little dog Wednesday (Yes, named after that football club...) had the squirts something fierce, so that required a lot of cleaning up of little accidents around the house. And after going to bed, it required taking her out every time she emerged from under the blankets (which is where she normally sleeps -- not a lot of undercoat on her). Not fun, let me tell you.

Jan 27 -- To-dizz-ay!
Run? Oh hells yeah. While performing my new daily task of filling the rear passenger tire with air (I noticed a slice in the tire by the valve stem, and have been procrastinating getting it fixed, but as you will see, that may not be the problemo.) because it loses about half its pressure overnight, I noticed a nice big ol' wood screw sticking out of the tire! Awesome! Now I know you're asking yourself, "Chris. What in the name of all that is Iron Maiden does this have to do with your run today?" Well, I'll tell you. Ahem.
It meant that I couldn't go to Rice to run today, as I didn't want to be stranded or have to change a tire. I had a year in college where I had to do that almost weekly. I'm done with all that shit. So, I ran 'from home.' I did 40 minutes, down Caroline to Hermann Park, over to Rice, up Main, and then back into the park, up Caroline and home. 4.49 miles. It felt really good. I need to get on the road a bit more.
No work, but crafts! After a lovely egg and toast breakfast, I got to ironing on this stuff to the backs of the cut shirts I'm using for the quilt. It basically adds a structural layer, giving the fabric some added (and in some cases desperately needed and hole filling) strength. It also, so sayeth my instructor in the process, the lovely Dr. Olson, will prevent the knit fabric from stretching. She informed me today that knit fabrics stretch, while woven (which is how the adjoining pieces are constructed) ones don't. Far out.
But tomorrow is a day of work and tires and not running. So no crafty time. Maybe. I could always iron the other stuff and take some pix. I'm such a tease.

On a side note, today -- before my run -- I was stretching to the usual rocking tunes (Kansas -- Carry On Wayward Son), and just didn't feel like letting the iTunes go into Kasabian, which is much better for getting pumped to play a bit of footy, really. Instead, I went for an all time favorite:
which of course snowballed, and now I can't stop listening.

I've moved onto

and it's really making me miss Brave New World, and I wish I had bought the last two. Sometimes Maiden just hits the spot. And yeah, I know that some consider Somewhere In Time to be a weak record, but I love it. Always have. Come on, man. Sea of Madness ROCKS.

Okay. Well, I guess that is about it.
Ta.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Firstly, nuts to penalty shootouts in football. Seriously. The games that I so want one side in particular to win (England v. Argentina 1998 World Cup, Italy v. France 2006 World Cup Final, England v. Portugal 2006 World Cup -- to name a few international matches that have not gone in the direction I had hoped) never work out in a penalty shoot out -- for preferred team -- after extra time. (Except once. Liverpool v. AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League Final. That was just one glorious match.) Granted, I could add Euro 1996 when England went out to Germany in the semi-final, but I wasn't paying attention at that time, so, I will just stick with what I've got. Damn it. They lost to Derby, for god's sake. Sure, it's a Premiership team, and the games are tougher, but we're talking about a team who has managed 7 points. All season! You know, I think idiots like me only get involved as we do in football for the grief. (Oh, I should point out, if you managed to skip the initial link up there, I'm whining about Sheffield Wednesday.)

On the bright side, I went and rediscovered a couple of albums that really blow my mind. Now, I know to many in my circle and those who may share many of my tastes, these two particular records never leave the consciousness, but my tastes rotate so often, things sometimes slip through the cracks. So let me just say that

View this photo

may be one of the most brilliant records ever made. It used to remind me of autumn, but now it just takes me to another world entirely. If you've never heard it, do so immediately.

And this album

View this photo

is a close second. Granted, three of the four in this band were in the first band, and that may have a lot to do with the brilliance, but Van Halen changed one member and kinda sucked ass, remember?

Rites of Spring's End on End may be the only album in my iTunes that has 5 stars for every track. Sheer magic. This platter sure don't feel more than twenty years old. Wanna find either of these little gems? Go HERE.

So, back to the point of all this typing!
Running!
I seem to have some catching up to do. Sunday was good, but I think I overdid it a bit. Funny, I want to go out easy and end up slicing off a minute on my pace. And...I end up hurting myself a bit. What a pleasant (not) surprise (not). But today was great. I decided to just do a 30 minute run. Set a good pace, and see what it brought me. By the 20th minute or so I was just on cruise. Perfect.

Let's get 'statty!'

I want to keep up on post by post basis as to the numbers I'm posting, so first a little catch-up, and then this will (hopefully) stay a regular feature, and maybe I will even do some graphs! Hot!

(Note: My 'running week' is Monday through Sunday)
January Stats:
Week 1 (12.31.2007-01.06.2008):
# Runs: 3
Week Mileage: 8.05
Monthly Total: 8.05
Week 2 (01.07.2008-01.13.2008):
# Runs: 4
Week Mileage: 10.08
Monthly Total: 18.13
Week 3 (01.14.2008-01.20.2008):
# Runs: 5
Week Mileage: 17.99
Monthly Total: 36.12

And there we are.

So far this week there's only been one run, so no need to get all fussy. Actually, I never even looked to see how far I went. Huh. 3.19. Not too shabby. Felt great.

Anything else? Ooh! I got other stats. 4288 words this week as well. I love my job.

I feel like some tea. Bye.

Second Things First

Yes, I ran this weekend. But I feel like writing about something else this brisk evening.

So, Wednesday beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Hillsborough. Thank god. Granted, they're still only one place above relegation, so it's still tetchy at best. On the bright side, there is a game in hand, and they have a good shot at beating Derby this week in the FA Cup replay at home. Just think, though. I could be rooting for a League One side next season. Sheesh.

Watched Cinema Paradiso on Saturday. Not a bad little movie. I hear the director's cut fleshes out other parts of the story. I will pass. Seems to me that the point of the thing was the idea of letting go...hmmm...

Today? Today was a good day. 6 hours of work, and I managed to make double what I did at my last job for a day's work. Sure, there are moments when I wish I were writing with a bit more freedom, about bands that really get me going, but hey! This pays the bills, and I get to work at home or at a cafe or...you get the idea.

The odd thing about most of these bios I'm doing is that they're winners of some sort of pop-idol contest TV reality show thing in their respective nations. Pop Idol Finland, for example. But one of the oddest has to be the contest to determine who would play Maria in a revival of the Sound of Music in London's West End. Weird. Granted, there are tons of reality entertainer shows going on here, it's just that I choose to ignore them. And since American Idol winners are covered for my job by others, I won't have to worry about who wins what or when in domestic competitions.

That all being said, I think my sudden kicking-ass as of late writing-wise has been noticed. I get to write bios and reviews on some of my favorite bands over the next day or so, so I can't complain. Which bands, you ask? Well:

Katatonia
Made Out of Babies
Battle of Mice

and reviews for:

Joe Lally
Red Sparowes
Made Out of Babies
Battle of Mice

It's gonna be a good week. And hell, I may manage to get enough done the next two days that I can not work Thursday and Friday at no loss. Why don't I get on these trips earlier?

It's really not lost on me that I write for a living, and I'm pretty good at keeping up here, but I never respond to emails anymore. I am aware, and I am working on it. Promise.

Vlorg!

Working the Bugs Out

So, the little experiment worked out pretty well. Granted, my head has been in a great place all day. I'll get to that later. The only problem I found is a matter of simple geometry. Let's look at the Rice loop as an oval for my purposes here. First, I have to park at one end of the oval, since my Rice parking pass for the (sorta) center of the campus is long expired. I think. Anyway, since I start at that one point, and then walk, then run, then run faster, by the time I finish the main set, I am on the other end of the oval. Now, in most cases, I would take the walk back easy, but given the cold, and the fact that I'd rather run or be home than walk in relative loneliness back to the car, I just want to avoid all that. So, instead of doing the 3 mile/20-25 minute main set, I decided to stretch that out to 4 miles, then run easy 5 minutes, then walk out the remainder of the loop. Which would have been fine, but it still took me ten damn minutes to get to the car. I know, I know, someday I will be able to just walk out the door, run to Rice, do the loop, then run back for a nice 6 miler, but I'm not back there yet.
So, as it was it was like thusly: 5 minute walk, 5 minute easy run @ 10:31/mile pace, 4 miles @ 9:17/mile pace, 5 minute easy run @ 10:30/mile pace, and what ended up being a 9 minute walk. I feel great. Tomorrow is going to be the 'recovery' run I have planned out in my head. I'm thinking 5 minute walk, 5 minute easy run, 25 minute run, 5 minute easy run, walk out the rest. This time, I'm going to do the initial walk in the wrong direction, then turn back for the run sets. That should put me in the right place at the end of the runs to turn around again at the walk back to make it to the car in about 5 to 6 minutes. Ah, how the mind boggles at greatness during a run. Sheesh.

Onto other things...
Last night we watched David Lynch's Wild at Heart. I'd forgotten quite a lot of that film over the years. Unfortunately, sub-par versions of that film (i.e., Kalifornia, True Romance, any of that Quentin Tarantino shit...) have overshadowed how pretty damn good it is. It's easily Nick Cage's last good film. He had done so well up to that point. Raising Arizona, Vampire's Kiss, Moonstruck. All great films, and all pretty damn good performances from an actor who always seems to be on the verge of falling apart on screen. And then...Crap. Con Air, anyone? (I must add that Con Air is my vote for worst movie of all time.) Laura Dern is probably the weak spot in the cast, but even so, she's really quite enjoyable. And she would also go on to make a bunch of crap in the following years. Jurassic Park! Sweet! Edgy! The real show stealers in Wild have to be Willem Dafoe and Diane Ladd. The false teeth through the pantyhose mask scene may be one of the most disturbing images in Lynch's canon. And that is saying one HELL of a lot. But nothing quite measures up to the lipstick-breakdown that Ladd has. Wow. Those few moments have it all. Crying, screaming, mental breakdown, face painting, vomiting. Pure film gold! Some may argue Blue Velvet, but this was the one for me. (Although I've heard raves about Mulholland Drive, I have yet to see it. Now I really want to.)

As a side note, the crazy blond nut job who presides over Harry Dean Stanton's demise in the film? George Costanza's 'almost' mother-in-law in Seinfeld. And the old lady who is telling the harem of gals how the 'silver dollar' guy expects his...uh...'ladies' to act? Yeah, that's the 'old bag' that Jerry liberates of her marble rye. A marble rye headed for -- wait for it -- George Costanza's soon to be in-laws. Brilliant!!!

Soup time. Bye.

Sometimes I Forget

Way back when, I used to sit in the computer lab between my quad of dorms and Smitty and Ang's quad of dorms, using Gopher to search the internet, emailing my friend Brian (who was sitting right next to me) using a DOS-based email system (that CMU didn't update until 1998, I think) and I would dream of the day I could have my own lap-top Mac, that I would have a job writing, and that my desk would feature all the things I happen to want on a chilly, grey day. Sometimes I forget that I have that. I once joked that all I really wanted to do when I grew up was grow a beard. No shit, I think that may have been the only thing I really nailed down as a future goal. But way in the back, and according to the Big Rapids High School Senior Prophecy of the Class of 1992, I was always hopeful I'd end up writing. And here we are. Granted, in high school I was a bad poet. Thank god that didn't pan out. So, whatever it may be -- Karma, the Universe, Physics, Thor, Satan, whatever -- I just wanted to say that sometimes I forget. And sometimes it just hits me square in the face. I'm doing quite alright, I'd say:

So here I am, on a Friday, writing about and listening to music. With a great cup of coffee, a wonderful family, and a great place to live. Things are good. I thank those who have made this all possible. You know who you are.

Overcooked?

So, here we are. Again.
I can't actually remember the last post I gave, so I'll just talk about the last three days. Three days. Funny, I remember telling myself that three straight days of running was too much, and that I was against it. Oops. Today was three days in a row, and it may have been a bit on the 'much' side. This time it was the left leg that was a bit iffy, but not too bad. I kept a much slower pace than on Wednesday, which was really quite stupidly quick, that is to say around 9:01/mile. Not what we're shootin' fer, eh! (To the point, today was around 9:10. Not on target either. F.)

So...I was thinking. During my last spate of running fun, I adhered to the runningtimes.com training program, and while I think it would have worked had I not been overdoing the easier runs, I now think I need my own new set up, and this is what I'm going to do...
Instead of just walk then run then walk, I'm gonna try walk, slow run, run, slow run, walk. I figure it will work out this way:
Walk (14:00-16:00/mile pace) for 5 minutes
Slow Jog (11:00-12:00/mile pace) for 5 minutes
Fast Jog (9:10-9:45/mile pace) for 20-25 minutes, depending
Slow Jog (12:00-13:00/mile pace) for 5 minutes
Slow Walk (20:00-24:00/mile pace) for remainder to car.

We're gonna try in on Saturday. Tomorrow is rest time.

So, the music critic gods have decided to smile on me, and I've actually been assigned the Burn to Shine V. 5 DVD I got. Thank you, AMG!

What else? Oh, not much. The beard grows, I procrastinate on the important things, I realize more faults, and I try to trudge through the crud. Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum. Do Do Do Do Do...

Songs for the day:
Atom Heart Mother (Suite) - Pink Floyd
I Don't Sleep, I Dream - R.E.M.
Soy Loco Por Ti, America - Caetano Veloso
The Light That Burns The Sun - Watain
Don't Talk - 10,000 Maniacs

End of transmission.

Hmmm...

So, I've managed to be sick a bit longer than I'd hoped. I didn't get a run in yesterday or Sunday, and knew that today was a must-do. Rain aside, I went out and did a fairly mild 3 miler. I find that I am really getting used to that distance. Running around the Rice loop is just a minor thing now. At one point, going around twice was no big whoop.

In other news, I was lucky enough to be promo'd yesterday the new volume of Burn to Shine. For those who don't know, it is a DVD series produced by Brendan Canty & Christoph Green that features a number of local bands (depending on the locale -- Vol. 1 was in DC, so it featured Bob Mould, Evens, French Toast, etc.) each playing a tune in a house that is set for destruction (of some sort.) It is very intimate, very stark, and -- kinda surprisingly -- entertaining. For instance, on the first volume, Ian Svenonius of Weird War just stands there. And he manages to steal the whole show. Brilliant.
Well, the upside is is that I get to watch this lovely film, cost free. The bummer is is that I probably won't get to review it for my job -- the job that is also the reason that I get sent promos of this sort. I will try to beg for the review, but I probably won't get it. So, I guess I'll do it here. Why not? But I will have to watch it, so keep your pants on.

I do get to biograph some cool bands however, and that makes me happy. Katatonia and Made Out of Babies. Nice.

So, that is about it. Finally finished the Genesis book. A little thin on the latter years and the song development as a whole, but still a solid read. It doesn't dissuade me from wanting to meet any of them, or see a show, or listen to an album. Although I don't own Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

And it just keeps raining...

Whack! Oof.

So I didn't do shit all day. I was sicky-poo. Seriously. I had a tickle in the throat Friday night, which has since developed into my yearly sinus infection from hell. So I had a run last night. Went well, kept it pretty easy, bout a 9:30/mile pace, and as I was walking back to the car, the heavens opened up and it god real cold and real wet. Real fast, I must add. So add another five minutes of running to it all. Oh well. Still felt good. After one hell of a tasty dinner last night (homemade steamed tofu and veggie won ton dumplings - sometimes life if really really great), I went to bed with a bit more of an itchy throat and a bit of a sniffle. Which then developed into a wonderfully sleepless night on the couch reading the Genesis biography. While that sounds like a fairly good time, it kind of sucked due to the massive pounding in my head. When I finally woke myself up in a dream and took my sorry ass to bed, I was so full of snot I could barely see. And so, this morning found me in one hell of a lot of pain and irritation. Normally when I am sick, I am one hell of a whiny bitch. My wife hates it. I took that into consideration this time around, trying to not whine so much and retain a bit of a sense of humor about it all. That and Mucinex. Good stuff, although I think it kept me from normal drainage, which left me with a headache most of the day. Joy. Finally after a smashing dinner of veggie patty, peas, and baked squash, my head cleared, and I was able to get some work done. And that was my weekend. Sah-weet.

And by the way, I blame my short stint writing at Book Stop for my cold. I'm pretty sure there are viruses in there that would scare a biochem major.

Ta.

Updates.

So I miss a couple of days. Sue me. Well, you all missed a run on yesterday and a run today. Whee-haw. Yesterday was a 20 minute-er, which was pretty uneventful save for the constant beeping of my Garmin telling me that I was above my pre-determined HR max setting. At a certain number (in my case 170) it will tell me that my HR is too high by a little beep. Usually, I wouldn't really care too much, but this time, it was (on the one hand) really annoying and kind of surprising. I feel that this new chapter in my running has been a bit harder than the last one. That would be an unremarkable statement, but I started the last phase of running obsession in Houston summer, which is high HR territory, so it wasn't a surprise when the beep would sound. This time, it is spring(ish) here, and the temps are fairly reasonable. So, I was a bit miffed, and shut the damn alarm off. I know damn well when I'm working too hard in that respect and I really have NO problem stopping and gently strolling. I just didn't feel that HR number. Odd.
So, today, I decided to take it slow, and do a little self-test. My mantra -- and I should have come up with this a long time ago -- was "the slower you do run, the longer you can run." A statement which proves that: a) things hit me much later than they do with most people, and: b) I really like running. Or at least that's how I see it. And it worked wonders. By simply adding 20 seconds to my overall pace time, I was able to avoid the HR alert (which is still turned off) by 15 points. Not too shabby. And, I was able to just blow by the 20 minute run idea, and go a nice 3 miles instead. Bing!
Yeah, today was one of those days where it just felt really right.

On to other things. Good news for me is that I finally found that damn Katatonia CD. I have been putting all my music on my hard drive, and figured that I'd find it by the simple opening up of every damn disc I own. Well, I got through the artist CDs, only to find it not there. Today I thought I'd look in soundtracks to see if my luck was any better, and ta-dah! There it was nestled in nicely with the soundtrack to the BBC show Teachers. Sah-weet.

This may seem like a bit off-kilter, but there are some things I don't wish to deal with here. That isn't to say that I won't bring up heavy duty subjects, but I feel that sometimes it's better to just keep things out of the public scope, so that those who need to can deal with the event or subject with some dignity. I know that sounds really loaded and asking for comment, but I just wanted to say that sometimes quiet contemplation can be a good thing. Those who know of what I speak, know of what I speak.

Tomorrow is more writing. It's really been picking up. I have a HUGE file that I can chip away at, and I am now in a position to whittle my current job title down to "writer, freelance." It's really a great, motivating feeling. Fingers crossed I can keep it up.

Tracks of the Day:
"My Twin" by Katatonia
"Indian Summer" by Manic Street Preachers

That is all.