Work in progress

My apologies to the three or four people who actually read my blog. Since I've been working to move my domain to another host (a cheaper, better host (thanks, Caleb!)), I haven't wanted to make a lot of changes or updates here. I have a current backup of the entire site, and don't want to have to keep up. It's easier for me to just work behind the scenes and prepare for the move.

Here's what still needs to happen:

• We need to get the parts to upgrade the host's server, and upgrade it.
  
• We need to get DNS running on the host.
  
• We also need to find a secondary, and possibly tertiary DNS server, with the proper geographical separation.
  
• Once that's done, we need to update my registrar's records to point bamoon.com to the new DNS servers.
  
• At some point in there, we need to actually move the files over to the host.
  
• After the files are moved over, I need to update Blogger, and I'll also need to fix whatever is broken (there are some CGI scripts I use that the new host probably won't allow, since they're insecure).

I'm toying with the idea of updating the look of my site when I do this, although that might make the whole task more involved than I'd like. But, for instance, for modem users, my background image is a little large and takes too long to load. I'll continue to toy with the idea of a site update.

Labels: meta

• 9:19 PM 0 comments

Run to work morning

Ran to work this morning. 5.05 miles, 47:56.47 total time, therefore a 9:29 pace. Arrgh, can't seem to achieve a 9:00 or better pace for the longer distances. I was doing close to a 9:00 pace for the first couple of miles but had to pull back a bit.

My hamstrings are tight; especially my right one. I used to be able to touch my toes pretty easily but lately not so much. I need to focus on stretching more, maybe during like Deb does. Stop at the halfway point and stretch out. At any rate, that might be part of the problem.

I think I'll call Jessica and schedule another massage for the week after the Tillamook run. That might help, too.

Labels: exercise

• 6:33 AM 0 comments

Running & Diet update

Ran up Terwilliger Blvd. yesterday morning. Do I need to post the details? I've written about it before. About 5 miles round trip, Dunniway Park up to the Charthouse restaurant and back down again. Ran with a friend, kept a pretty easy pace, legs felt tired and a little sore but overall it was a good tired. Oh, my hamstrings (especially my right one, the leg that's a little longer than the other) were tight and hard to stretch out. I'll focus on stretching them better before and after my next run, which will be tomorrow morning to work, another approximately 5 mile run.

Diet-wise, as of last night I'm about 100 calories over for the week starting Monday. I went over yesterday by 150 or so, but that's OK because my energy output was higher yesterday due to the run. I have noticed a slight downward trend, already, in the running average of my weight, so it's having an effect. Yay, me.

Labels: exercise

• 7:19 AM 0 comments

Attention CAKE fans

CAKE is offering samples from their upcoming album "Pressure Chief", with new song snippets every Tuesday. Today is Tuesday. Go there, listen, enjoy.


Site opens in a new window.

So far, there are three clips --

1. Wheels
   
2. No Phone
   
3. Take It All Away

Me likey. But then, hey, I'm a sucker for Cake's wry humor and musical eclecticism.

---

UPDATE 12/06/2009 - Player no longer works. Sorry. • 7:44 AM 0 comments

Exercise / Diet update

My weight has snuck up over my pre-determined upper limit (limit was 175; my average weight over the past week has been 178.5) so I've put myself back on maintainence. That means I'm limiting myself to around 2500 calories for a month. Only exception will be race days. Any day I race I don't keep track of calories.

Last night, my first full day on the new restricted diet, I had exactly 2500 calories. Funny how that worked out, especially considering I had been starving all day long! OK, not really. I'm sure it was psychological, simply because I was thinking about food again all day. Focus on food, get hungry. I mean, my normal eating pattern is 3000-3100 calories per day, so I'm not reducing it that much.

At any rate, I'm going to focus on eating enough protein this time around, which, for a 175 lb. male is around 75-80 grams per day. I'll calculate it for yesterday; so far today I've had 4. I'm going to have to really chow down to make my goal today, huh?

Exercise-wise, I ran in the hot hot heat yesterday. I was going to get up and run in the early morning, which is the best time during the summer, all that nice cool air, and little to no traffic, but decided to sleep in instead. I packed a bag of running clothes to take to work, but it was way way too hot at lunchtime. Thought about going to the gym and running on the treadmill... but that wasn't appealing. Only as a last resort. So I ended up waiting until after sunset and running a short 2 1/4 mile course in my neighborhood. And it was still hot hot hot outside. Bleh.

Haven't been posting a schedule because I'm not working towards anything. Got some races coming up (and if the guys buy into my suggestions for the road trip, I'll have some very grueling races coming up! See yesterday's post) but I'm just running for fun and fitness right now.

Labels: exercise

• 7:05 AM 0 comments

Happy birthday mom

Small personal note: today would have been my mother's 75th birthday.

She passed away in June 2001, of lung cancer.

If I had a picture scanned, and a working picture gallery, I'd post something here. • 11:10 AM 0 comments

Road trip planning

Every year, me and my buddies go on a road trip. The rules in the past have been simple: we drive as much as possible, we sleep as little as possible, and we drive for at least a 3 or 4 day weekend. Oh, and it's almost always in late August or early September, due to school (not me, but my buddies).

Year before last, our goal was Mt. Rushmore, and we also managed to work in the South Dakota Badlands, Devil's Tower, get very near the Geographic Center of the United States (there are rattlesnakes at the ACTUAL center!), and we covered something like 3700 miles.

Last year we only covered 3000 miles or so, and went to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and came back through the Canadian Rocky Mountains. So beautiful.

This year, for some reason, the rules aren't enough. We want more. So an idea was kicked around, to wit: we drive somewhere far away, run a 5K race, and then turn around and come back (there was also the "eat some pie" idea but I'll save that for another post). I think the running idea came up because I'm now running; my friends have been running for years.

So I was doing some research last night and found a couple of cool races that fit in the criteria.

Oh, and also, I have a secondary plan. Our previous two road trips have been across the US and into Canada. Wouldn't the next logical place to visit be Mexico? I call this "completing the NAFTA trifecta". I'm still trying to convince my buddies that it's a good idea.

First up I found Cloudcroft, New Mexico. There's a 10K race there on September 19 that's billed as "the highest 10K in the world!" Cloudcroft, you see, is around 9000' above sea level, up in the mountains. Just imagine: late summer, no oxygen, sleep-deprivation from the nearly 1800-mile drive from Portland, and then running a 10K? We would so earn that t-shirt. Y'know, if we didn't die.

Second, I found an 8K in El Paso, Texas. The coolio-est part of this race is that it's at night, which, if you think about it, is really the only way they could run a race in Texas in late summer. This one is on September 26.

Both of these places are within 50-60 miles of each other, but in the moutains. Cloudcroft is near places like Roswell, NM, or Carlsbad (where the caves are), and El Paso is near the Mexican border, which means it would be a simple matter to cross over and complete the trifecta.

I haven't heard back from my buddies yet but I'm hoping they like these ideas... • 9:55 AM 0 comments

Barefootin' it

Haven't posted in a while. Although... I've written two posts, and they're in the queue to be posted, I just... haven't actually posted them. Not yet. It was good to have written them, I'm simply not ready to share them with the world just yet. Patience.

Normally I'd break different subjects up into separate posts but not today.

OK, in a recent issue of Runner's World I read an article weighing the pros and cons of running barefoot. Then, while looking for something else, I stumbled across a website devoted to the subject -- unfortunately, I can't link to it this morning because for some reason the page is missing today.

After thinking about it for a while, I think I'm going to try to work in at least a mile or two of barefoot running each week. For one thing, it sounds fun. For another, there's a visceral feel to it that appeals to me; the people who write about it talk semi-mystically about being connected to the earth and your body in a way that running clothed (shod?) just doesn't do. There's also a (probably really minor) safety issue, but, honestly, is nature that much safer? There's sharp rocks and twigs and cooled lava... granite slabs have less give than any asphalt or concrete surface.

I'm planning on running a Tillamook trail run in a couple of weeks; that might be a good one to try barefoot, huh?

Labels: exercise

• 7:15 AM 0 comments

Funny after the fact

I woke up last night and my left arm and left leg were both asleep, numb. I couldn't move them.

In the moments upon immediately awakening, before I was completely conscious, my first thought was that I'd had a stroke in the middle of the night. Yeah, I panicked. Started flailing around trying to get to my phone to call an ambulance.

Finally realized that I'd just been sleeping on my left side and that feeling was returning to my arms and legs. Painfully returning.

It's funny now, but wasn't so funny in the dark of night. Heh. • 8:04 AM 0 comments

Peasant's Quest

I'm a bit tired this morning. After I made it to bed around 10 PM, I realized that, apparently, my body wasn't ready to go to sleep, because at 11:30 PM I was still awake in bed.

So I got up and played some Peasant's Quest until the wee hours of the morning.

What's that, you ask? (You did ask that, didn't you?) Remember those old Sierra computer games, like King's Quest or Police Quest? Very simple graphics, only one step above text-based because you typed in commands to get your little man to do stuff like pick up rocks or talk to other characters in the game? Man, those were the days, huh?

Well, the fine funny folks over at Homestar Runner, the Bros. Chaps, animators of the funniest guy in a Mexican wrestling mask on the 'Net (Strong Bad), have created a hilarious parody of those old games. It even opens with a graphic of an old Apple II disk drive spinning up...

It's online, runs in your browser using Flash, so you don't have to worry about having 16-bit graphics or a 5 1/4" floppy disk drive handy. Go on. Try it. You can even save your place in the game and come back to it later (if you have cookies enabled).

So far I've scared the horse, gotten Mendelev and his brother back together, fallen in the mud, beaten the archery game, shot the Kerrek... yeah. The main goal is to kill Trogdor because he burninated your thatched-roof hut.

Man, that's good stuff. • 7:39 AM 0 comments

Updated Trophy Page

I updated my Trophy Page with my results from the Run Hit Wonder 10K.

I'm glad I finished and vow to do better in my next 10K. I trained so hard to try to increase my speed, and try to get around (or under) a 9:00 pace for the whole 6.2 miles, but it didn't happen. It's OK -- it's good to have goals.

I haven't posted a running schedule this week because I'm taking it easy. Still trying to figure out what my next event will be. There's a "trail" run on the beach in Tillamook Oregon that looks fun; a 5K and a 10K (the 5K trail is out to the end of the penninsula and back; for the 10K you just go out and back twice!). That's at the end of August, and it's an excuse to go to the beach...

Everything's better at the beach...

Labels: exercise

• 7:17 AM 0 comments

Absurdly interesting

Oh, man, it's all catching up with me this week. Yeah, I have IntarWeb again at home. Get this: the Comcast guy decided that the problem was my wireless access point, because it was sitting right next to my unshielded cable modem. This proclamation was issued within seconds of entering my computer room, which pissed me off (OK, I'd had a couple of beers at that point, celebrating my race and waiting for the fucking cable guy) because shouldn't he be doing some fucking testing or something first? I mean, if you're going to decide what the problem is before you do your testing, then is it a surprise when you determine that what you previously decided is the problem, turns out to actually be the problem?

Doesn't anyone realize this? Diagnose, then decide. If you're going to do it the other way around, then why bother with the diagnosis? I mean, you might as well be practicing astrology or bending spoons or talking to the dead at that point. Fucking psuedoscience. Arrrgh.

None of this rant is diminished in intensity or duration even one jot or tittle by the fact that the cable guy was right, dammit. See, I've got a commercial-grade 802.11b wireless access point, putting out 200mW of InterWeb lovin', plus I have a +5.5dbi gain antenna on it, so, yeah, it's remotely possible that it could be interfering with the crappy little RCA cable modem I have. I moved it to the other side of the room and it still causes interference. Hell, it should, I get full signal when I'm with my laptop outside in the back of my apartment... I'm probably putting out enough signal to force an evolutionary change in the rats living in the abandoned garage next door. Say, maybe they'll worship me as their god..? Whoa. I had a Stephen-King-esque moment there.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be updating more often now, because I won't have to sneak out in the middle of the night and steal someone else's wireless InterWeb to post or check my email. I'll have it all at home, 24/7, whenever I want.

And, boy, do I have a lot to post... Life, as they say (OK, I say), is absurdly interesting right now. • 9:34 AM 0 comments

Nike Run Hit Wonder 10K

So, what was I busy doing?

How can you ask that? I ran the Nike Run Hit Wonder 10K today! You never pay attention, do you? I've only been talking about this for freakin' weeks now!

I think I did pretty good. (Yeah, I'm calmed down now. Don't know what got into me. (Was it funny for you? It was for me!))

Funniest thing was spotting someone in the crowd I knew. I mean, it wasn't like we were looking for each other. There were over 10,000 people there. Probably way more, since there were 10,000 runners plus all the support staff and security guards and friends and families... so the odds of spotting someone at any particular instant started at 1 in 10,000. OK, probably less than that; human faces are instantly recognizable and the brain is very good at pattern-matching, and even in a dense crowd there's probably 10-20 people in someone's direct view. But, what would you calculate the odds of spotting someone in the crowd, immediately after another friend asked me if that person was racing that day? Huh? Huh? That's one of those weird coincidences that just jump out at you.

Me, being a materialist and not a believer in coincidences that mean something, I just shrug it off. But man it freaks people out when I tell them.

Jake (turning to face me in the crowd): Is Deb here?
Me (knowing that she was planning on running this race): Yeah. (pause) And there she is!

My chip time was over 2 minutes less than my gun time; that's how long it took me to cross the actual start line after the race officially started. Wow, there was a lot of people. I wore a stopwatch, and started it when I crossed the start line, and paid attention to my splits for each mile, carefully judging my pace and all that... kept up with it, until mile 5 (around 48 minutes at that point)... then died on the last long hill up Columbia away from the river, and when I turned onto Broadway, it was sweet and all downhill, and I was flying, and I had a clear shot at the finish line, didn't have to worry about blocking anyone else or having to slow down, and then I was through, and I'd finished my first ever official 10K race!

I was so excited I forgot to a) check the race clock for my time, and b) stop my stopwatch. Bummer. I'll have to wait for the official results to be posted.

It was a fun race, though. My friend, being much faster than me, got to hear each of the acts playing their actual one hit. Apparently they started their sets with their most famous song. Me, lagging behind, got to hear them play, but didn't recognize the songs.

For instance, who is General Public? What was their hit song? I'll google it after posting this, but, for the life of me, I can't recall.

Seeing Devo was great, and I was a little disappointed that the audience started leaving after they played "Whip It!" The younger friends in my group were impressed that I knew the words to some of Devo's other songs, like "Freedom of Choice". OK, just that one, but still.

I'm going to run that race every year. A fun, fun, race. Nike put on a great event (no surprises there) and the proceeds benefited Portland Parks and Recreation. Nifty!

Labels: exercise

• 6:58 PM 0 comments

Picture of the Week still broken

OK, and for all you who are complaining about the Picture of the Week, over there in the right-hand column, see previous post!

Labels: meta

• 6:57 PM 0 comments

Picture Gallery still broken

OK, OK, I know, I know, I know, OK? The picture gallery is still broken. I know I said I'd replace it if it had gone a week and I still hadn't figured out what was wrong, but dammit, I was busy this weekend. So get off my back!

Labels: meta

• 6:54 PM 0 comments