New Years Eve

It's only 10:36 here as I'm typing this. The ball has already dropped twice I think. My parents are watching Family Feud! They love them some GSN! 2010 is almost over. I don't have the usual new years resolutions, like quitting smoking for good or getting into shape. Not to say there aren't other areas of life that need some maintenance, but it's nice not to have those usuals in the forefront. So I'll have to think a bit longer on resolutions. Mostly, I'm just very thankful. For those people in my sphere of consciousness, I wish you the very best of fortunes for 2011!!

Tron Legacy

I finally got to see another movie in the theater. I think the last one was Avatar. So here are my thoughts on the new Tron with a lot of spoilers.

I've been crunching this film in my head for 24hrs now, and it's hard to not reference the first Tron for making explanations about how I see this one. Also an interesting item from all the reviews I've read is that it also seems important to state how much of a fan you were or were not of the original. I don't usually pick up on that in other remakes or 20+ year number 2 installments.

The bottom line though is that Tron is eye candy and not much else. Which is good enough for some, but disappointing too, because the writers had a lot of cool ideas that never went anywhere. When I think back on the parts that I liked, it becomes obvious that Disney didn't give me nearly enough of those 'cool' things. Even with that said, spending 40 bucks on imax 3d for 2 tickets, I can still say, "yah I had a good time."

So here we go, in 1982 I read the Tron novelization before I saw the movie. I scraped my pennies, walked 3 miles to the theater in the hot sun to see it by myself, and I was blown away as a kid. But it wasn't because the films ideas were intellectual. It was simply the coolest thing I'd ever seen. That's a feeling that only comes maybe just once in it's purest form, and in little shadows here and there from time to time. So really it's no surprise that Tron Legacy's chance of wowing me like that was almost nil. That is an expectation that I think a lot Tron Legacy viewers might wish for and find only disappointment.

The beginning of the film should've spent more time on developing Sam's relationship to his father, showing the pain of his Dad vanishing in a more convincing way. Running out the door upset and jumping on your PK Ripper is lame. Though seeing a PK Ripper was very cool! Show me something like Sam getting seriously beat up and having no father to turn to. Show me Sam having to watch his grandfather die and tell him something about his father he never knew. Memories of being on the beach with dad are weak. Too much time was spent showing us that Sam was an anti-corporate adrenaline junky hacker. The board meeting scene of Encom was a waste. I think it was really there just to plant Cillian Murphy as Dillinger's son for the next movie.

The entry into the computer world or grid was cool for me. I liked how the Recognizer rumbled the whole theater. The detail of the Recognizer flooring, the way it worked, and the guard programs were cool. Maybe not make the Recognizers engine based though. Seeing exhaust was kinda odd.

The Sirens, or hot women in latex that strip you and put on your battle gear just made me giggle, but come on, I'm a guy , who in watching that scene knows that scene is just for the boys.

Initial disc war battle was kinda lame for me. However, watching the old disc battles from Tron is just comical, so in truth I don't think much more could've been done without going into a lot of extra detail. It was pretty simple in terms of physics in the first Tron, like little guys playing pong. So being in a 20 sided almost transparent shaped cage that turns upside down when someone runs up a wall, is a lot for the brain to simply process. It's a barrage for the brain and can detach you from the idea that battle is going on. Also, if you compare the derezzing of the old and new, imo there's something more unsettling about the original. Shattering into glass is cool, but isn't that just like knocking some jar off a table? Also, the first guy we see fighting Sam, is like some hardened looking Hawaiian warrior, not Bob the I'm scared out of my mind, so I'm going to talk shit accountant program who yelps when he dies. It's just hard to feel bad for anyone. Lastly, I can't quite figure out how CLU's perfect society has a violence loving crowd of programs in it. That's a topic worthy of discussion though eh Ceasar?

I like James Frain from True Blood, but seeing him bald with a plastic mask that fell off the set of Back to The Future 2 just made me want him to die way sooner.

The light cycle scene was pretty awesome for me. I think interestingly what makes the light cycle scene cool in both old and new movies is the sound effects for the bikes. In fact, the sound fx are a huge factor for the first movie that I think are often overlooked. The techno roar of the bikes and the new fluid walls were great. When they do their slow mo run and transform onto the bikes, it's really kinda Chuck Norris meets The Matrix cheesy, but damn if it don't work every time.

When you first meet Quorra, she seems very giddy. Maybe too much? But that's ok, because she's an innocent. Her character is certainly the most interesting in the film. She's a new lifeform and her story was imo waaaaayy underdeveloped. They had something huge there and let it go. Remember Leeloo. Who doesn't love Leeloo!?!! Bada Boom! Quorra's equivalent of that was her asking what Jules Verne was like. Quorra totally should've kicked more ass in the film too.

Worst scene in the movie was them eating in Flynn's 2001 hippie zen pad. A roasted pig? WTF!

Sexiest thing in the whole movie was the old light cycle that Flynn built. Quorra says nothing is faster than it. All we get to see is it going down a lonely street before being pawned off to a drunky street program? Did you see the instrumentation cluster on that thing? Wow! Shame on Kosinski for not letting that light cycle roar at least a little bit. How amazing would that have been to have gone back on the grid only to destroy loads of other cycles, and some tanks even...and then be pawned off to Phantom of The Opera drunkie program.

Man this review is getting too long. Flynn was ok, but one reviewer called him Obi Wan Lebowski. I have to agree, either stay with the Zen genetic new lifeform feel or not. Maybe just once you could say 'dude'. Maybe not. Another wasted moment was when Flynn came into Castor's bar. I didn't expect him to get all Bruce Lee on anyone, but I seriously thought he was going to do a Neo floor punch ripple. Again Kosinski had a chance to make him into this bad ass air bending techno budda but missed out. Flynn does get his neo powers on at the end, but then I have to watch CLU look goofy in the process. Finally, the story of how Flynn and CLU were bound and how CLU felt betrayed had sooo much potential but it was like house with no roof.

CLU was annoying plain and simple. I get it, you're pissed, please shut up and do something really mean to make me dislike you or blow something up.

Finally, Tron himself. Tron gets taken out by CLU and some guys he built? In a battle that lasts all of 10 seconds? then later we find out Rinzler is really Tron reprogrammed and in some odd moment Tron comes back sacrificing himself in the end. I mean at least you could've somehow scraped Flynn's disc or some particle flew out of it to bring you back, but nope. Then they let Tron float in a cyber ocean obviously for a sequel. Who would think that was cool? Liz and I thought it was...lame!!

Lightjets fight scene was pretty cool even if it did remind me of the Star Wars Tie Fighter scene a bit. I will definitely want to watch that scene again.

Daft Punk. I'm not their biggest fan ( boy do they have some hard core fans ), but I enjoyed their soundtrack for the movie. There's a certain 'otherworldly-ness' that the original had with Wendy Carlos's music, but I don't think you could do such progressive electronica without going against the visual style. I'll have to listen to the soundtrack again, but it didn't jump out at me with an overall theme music that is so prominent from the first one.

Anyway, that's about it for my Tron Legacy thoughts. I didn't have high expectations for the movie and just went in and let it wash over me. I was pleased. I can definitely see how some fans would be really upset that the movie wasn't what it could've been.

Christmas Eve

I was going to post some holiday gloom and doom! But who really wants to read that?! Other people's gloom and doom is boring most of the time anyway. But seriously, Christmas has often been a bummer holiday for me. Many times I can remember the night ending with a sort of drunken or really tired 'that's it?' sort of feeling. I guess having children makes it harder to throw a pity party for myself. haha Not that I need to have one, but I would be lying if I didn't recognize at least one member of my committee has more than a fair share of bah humbug rolling around in his sleeve.

On a funny side note, I was walking past a table of young ladies ( say that like Tim Meadows ) tonight at Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm not certain it was directed at me, but I could've swore I heard them say. "what about that one? No! Not attractive at all." Ouch! I hope that was about a piece of clothing. I told my mom this and she says to me, " haha you're getting old son!" That's my mother..keepin it real!

Rain Rain Rain

Almost one week since my parents have been staying with me, and it just keeps raining! Last year it was epic blizzard in Nebraska, this year it's record breaking rain for Vegas. But the rain isn't anything too wild. It's just a constant drizzle. Roads are starting to flood though. It's all the crazy weather coming from California, which is getting hammered with rain. The rain makes driving miserable combined with the holiday traffic. So today it's been a bit claustrophobic. I've probably eaten more chocolate than I should have. Sugar coma making me grumpy.

The barometric pressure however is killing me! I don't know if it's age, or being used to no rain, or the valley, or age but the body is not happy with this rain. Even my gums are sore. What's up with that?! Ultimately, it's all just some minor inconvenience , and the rain should end by tomorrow. One more day of shopping perhaps, and then it'll be time to get the Christmas dinner rolling and prepare for the arrival of Santa. This is the first year that Asa understands who Santa is. She hasn't quite grasped why we have to wait to open presents though.

In running news, I ran a lot this month already. I'm really just going to coast with the rest of the holidays. I could land on 130+ miles for the month, but I'll be perfectly content with 120. I'm jonsin for new shoes too. I tried on a pair of Vibram Trek KSO's the other day and keep wondering if I could seriously trail run here in them. My worry is that downhills would be too rough though. There's another shoe store I found a little farther away. Who knows what that visit will bring. Muhuhahahaha

Anyway, 2011 will be an interesting year for my running. I want to keep things fun, but I also want to get a little more focused with running goals. I want to get faster and run farther. I'm sure I'll run a marathon at some point, maybe even a bit further. Course thinking about all that with a belly full of KFC seems kinda odd :)

Beads Beads Beads!!!

Little did I know that Vegas had the uber bead stores. My mom bought 70 bucks worth of bead stuff in the bead store. Dats a lotta beads yo!

The next couple of days are gunna be crazy hectic. I'm torn, do I still go see Tron for just the big screen experience?!! I think I'd rather see Black Swan at this point. Hmmmmm...,

Easssy boy! Eaasssy!

I went back to the mountain today for a run. It's been a month since I've been there. Two months since I've run at Sawmill trail. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, maybe 50 in the shade. I've been running outside near my house last few weeks where it's mostly flat. So when I hit the trail today, my lungs were none too happy! This time the perceived effort matched the performance. Felt slow - was slow. Every run can't be this super awesome run though.

I did get to run on some new trail before deciding that going further might get me lost. New trail is always cool. I may take my mountain bike up here and make a point to mark way points with my gps. Would be a nice change up I think. I came across a tree with a clipboard attached to it. It had grid coordinates marked on it for trail teams or something. Some sort of land nav exercise I spose. I got to run on plenty of ice and thick mudd, saw a bunch of deer with a big 8pt male, and also scared the bujeezus out of two wild horses. I was a little startled myself. I also pushed myself past the point of stopping a couple of times. Every one of those mental battles is worth a nugget of gold I think.

In the realm of media, the opening of Tron is only a few days away. I've read enough reviews now to really lower my expectations greatly. haha Part of me would almost rather see 127 Hours. I also happen to see the trailer for Battle Los Angeles and thought it looked stellar! Like Black Hawk Down meets Independence Day, but some people who claim to have seen it on imdb say it sucks. Which I kinda believe once I looked at the director's other movies. Shame, I like Aaron Eckhart. However, the music from the movie trailer for Battle LA is phenomenal. Half the posts are people asking what the music is.

This leads me to Johann Johannson. A funny name for a guy who's life is pushing the envelope of new art forms. Long story short, Johannson's father worked for IBM some 40 years ago and took his data processing system ( old ass proto computer!) and programmed it to make music. Very minimalist tones and such I think. His father recorded his songs and years later Johann added to these basic pieces making them into intricately beautiful thematic pieces.

Here's the video for the song in the Battle LA trailer. The video doesn't match the emotional power of the music, but it's weird enough that it evokes some emotion.

Spanakopita

The Beezer texted me today that snow was coming down hard. Turns out Knoxville, TN is not only cold but going to get a good bit of snow. No school for those kids. This storm system dumped huge amounts of snow further north, leaving the Minnesota Vikings with a phat insurance claim. Good ole Omaha, NE only got a few inches of snow, but it's already in the negatives with windchill there. Even my hometown in Florida is going to have a hard freeze this week. Here in Vegas? ....It's a cozy 73 in my house with no heater or ac running for a few days, and it was a beautifully warm day at the park today. Do I miss the cold? Not yet!!

Yesterday after Asa's soccer, I went to Market Grille and ate the following:

Spanakopita, Pastitsio, Mousaka, and Avgolemono soup. I couldn't decide which one I liked better. They all tasted excellent. Lovin the Greek food right now! OPAAAA!!!

Here's a pic I did back in 04 I think. It's funny because I think theres a bit of Prince of Darkness in this pic stylistically, but yah it's that sort of cliche of not being able to put your finger on your own distorted image. I just really liked how the leaves and cloth worked to make it look less digital and more like a painting.

Is that what I think it is?

Another Friday with no really long run. December is busy! I'm not complaining though since today's run seemed like a lot of effort anyway. There's this term in my current running book called 'perceived effort' and how your brain interprets that and in turn affects your performance. It's strange because my perceived effort was that I just wasn't working as hard as I should've been, that I was being lazy! Yet my overall performance was pretty good when reviewing my times. It can mess with your head. Even more so when you think about 'effort' in your daily life tasks.

I ran into a series of scattered dunes or small canyons today not too far from my home. They are sunken into the ground so it gives you this sense that you are really no where since you can't see a horizon. One hill was so steep in the decent that in trying to slow down, it was only going to land me on my butt with the rocky hard pack slipping underneath, so I had no choice but to compensate and gun as fast as I could down this hill for 20 feet full speed which was also verging on a massive bust. I'm glad I was able to look back at that one and laugh it off. I also ended up getting into a huge path for prolly a quarter mile of just nothing but big potato sized rocks that were three deep. After kicking a rock into my other ankle I just walked it out of that madness. This terrain though is so convoluted and barren, it would be the perfect place to hide something you never wanted to be found. Made me think of this Pearl Izuma ad.

The New Drug on the block

Go ahead, go into your spice rack. Find the nutmeg. Now, smoke it!! That's right, teens jonsin for a little rush no longer need to worry about scoring some beer or other substances. Just smoke some nutmeg and you're good to go!!! (minus the neg side effects of course)

Seriously, will nutmeg soon be sold in those plastic lock containers or cards that psuedofed comes in.

Nutmeg (shakes head) What will they think of next!!

It's Flying right at us!!!

I don't know why the B2 Stealth bomber makes me giddy. Maybe because it's freekin maximus awesommus! That was really done just to make it harder than normal to read, in your mind and ....

no seriously driving home today I see it swooping in over the mountain range from the east. The afternoon sun lights it up perfectly. At one point it looks as if it will fly right over the strip and then it swoops back to land at Nellis. Man! Had I stayed in the commissary 10 more minutes, I could've seen it up close because the landing strip is right next to the comsy. I've never seen it land up close. Shakes fist at the aquascum 2000 for no good reason!

Such a cool profile shot of it STEALTH

Like a Steel Trap!

Tonight I had an old Batman episode on in the background while I played some insane puppet game with my daughter. At one point, the Riddler has Robin tied to a rope with his hands bound behind his back on a building's ledge with two henchman about to film it. Suddenly Batman appears on the roof top and yells, "Robin!" The Riddler cuts to the chase a pushes Robin off the side. After 3 seconds of Batman getting his Bat-r-rang ready he tosses it down and says "Robin! Bite it with your teeth!" The Riddler is foiled as Batman slowly pulls Robin up while he dangles from the bat-r-rang like a caught fish. Robin is an acrobat after all right. That's a totally sanctioned manuever right?

Holy Polygrip Batman! On the roof, Robin says "I sure am glad I take such good care of my teeth!" And Batman says, "Yes Robin. If only all of Amer....." then he's cut off by the Riddler drawing riddles in the sky.

I'm glad I never really liked that show. Incidentally, the dentist called me today to ask why I wasn't coming to my appt to see how my scaling and planing turned out. I finally told them, look you told me the laser treatment was 400 in the waiting room, then when I get in the room, the hygienist says oh I can get them to do it for 200. I said, " I don't need car salesmen tactics! "( sorry beezer! lol) Sometimes you have to shoot the messenger. I used a rubber bullet though, jeez. I'm glad I didn't take the laser treatment, especially after I found an article on the ADA website that states there's no evidence that laser tx reduces periodontal bacteria. Way to rip people off Shadow Mountain Dental clinic.

56,000 stinky feet

28,000 people ran in the Las Vegas Rock N Roll marathon today. I want to say the cost of entry into the race was $145 bucks. That's some serious dough no?!! It's also a lot of money in running shoes that only gets bigger. Wowzers! I hope a fair amount of that money is going to charity. Reading some of the reviews, some people were really disappointed in the race saying it was boring after the strip, meals cost too much, and organization was poor. Honestly, I think the strip is lame. I couldn't understand why you'd want to run down there unless it was at night. On the website, I saw a video of Scott Jurek out at Red Rock Canyon doing a quick press bit. Would've been really cool to have seen him out there at RRC. I'd just want to yell his name and give him a fist pump or something!

Liz brought a nifty little blood sugar tester home the other day. I had gone back to sleep after getting Asa off to school, so all I had to eat in the last 12 hours was some chai tea with a teaspoon of honey. My level was 78! Yay!!

In May of this year I started keeping track of what shoe I would run in. I totaled up everything last night and found out some interesting items. I would not have guessed that I ran the most miles in my Nike Frees. Out of a possible 6 pairs of shoes, the Frees led by over 100 miles. They are retired now since I have ruined them by getting crazy and shaving the heels off them, but they gave me 230 miles worth.

The other interesting item is that of all my running miles only 20% was done in my vibram five fingers. In fact, the only real minimalist shoes I have are the vibrams and Brooks Mach 11s. Together they only account for 40% of my mileage! I am not such the minimalist runner it seems. With that said the Mach's are a favorite shoe for me right now. With only 130 miles on them, I should be good until next spring when the new crop of minimalist running shoes come out.

Badwater

In the November issue of Trail Runner, there is an interesting story written by runner Ricky Gates. In it, he and fellow British mountain runner Martin Cox take an orange VW bus named Orange and travel the west side of the US doing races and sightseeing along the way. They've been racing competitively for a while and they are both fascinated with 'ultrarunning' from a perspective of simply "why?" Why run for 30+ hours?

Martin had read Born To Run and this perhaps prompted them to make a stop to the Badwater Basin to simply run in it, to feel the essence of this place, to feel the heat, and throw out their question to the universe.

Here's a snippet from Gates's story

"I began to gather that the Badwater Basin is a Mecca, of sorts, for the seekers of suffering. Because of the heat, altitude gain, or sheer distance (135 miles) the race represents the ultimate ultra not only to Martin, but many ultrarunners as well.

"That's the point isn't it" To suffer" he asked. "At a certain point," Martin explained, "running ceases to be about running anymore and becomes, quite simply, a means to an end."

"And what end might that be?" I asked.

"For some, it's endorphins. For others, it's simply the act of going fast. For ultrarunners, I'm convinced, it's suffering. Suffering can teach you more about yourself than a psychiatrist."

As I progress in my running and think about why I do what I do and consider the motivations for training versus enjoying myself, this current of thought in the story resonates with me. There are no epiphanies yet however.

Interestingly, Badwater is about 3 hours away from me. Perhaps I should try to visit this place now while I'm so close. I could even run for a little bit now that's it's winter. Maybe I can work it into our CA road trip next year. "Just a little bit out of the way babee!"

Bunch of Smokers

I recently rented a couple of movies. An Education and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Who knew that there were rumors of Carey Mulligan from An Education playing the role of Lisbeth Sander in the American version of Dragon Tattoo. If you've seen both, you have to admit that would be fairly interesting to see Mulligan slip into the role of Lisbeth Sander. If Ellen Page were taller I bet she could do it, or maybe Jenna Malone. But then again Malone is Rocket in Sucker Punch which is maybe too close.

An Education starts off being a great coming of age adventure. Like I told my friend, I'm a sucker for smart, cute, and a British accent. But it ends in a way that just made me ask, "that's it?" Someone should have gotten shot at least. I kid, but the movie reminded me of Up In The Air which was fine but was just ok.

Dragon Tattoo started off a little slow for me, but picked up soon enough. Who did it? Who killed this woman? Who is the killer? It keeps you nice and hooked all the way until that almost familiar point in Silence of The Lambs when you suddenly realize who the killer is and what's about to happen. The movie definitely gets intense with it's sexually violent scenes. The killer's final monologue describing what he enjoys most about killing women is very chilling and disturbing. The item that sets this movie apart from others of its kind , is the relationship between Lisbeth and Mikael. That two people can have sincere intimacy without a lot of backstory, being content for what it is.... you don't see this in American movies much.

I just heard the 20th Century Fox march come from the TV in the living room. And then I heard the opening sound of the movie. I immediately knew what movie it was. Predator! hahahaha in one note!

But the one thing these two movies had in common? everyone smokes in them. So much frakkin smoking going on. Not good movies to watch if you're trying to quit. I'm just sayin!

Tangled

I saw Tangled. My friend in Colorado told me he took his daughter to see it, so I figured mine was finally ready to go. The first time she went into a theater, she did not like it all, even candy couldn't persuade her. She really enjoyed herself this time, though those rec-folding chairs are still a bit big and want to swallow her up.

I was pleasantly surprised. I honestly thought it would be kinda lame from the previews. I really liked the musical score and that always carries a lot of weight for me. You can tell Pixar had something to do with this one versus say Bolt. (I like Bolt btw) The scenes with the floating lanterns were awesome as were the action scenes. Best character though for me was Maximus the horse. He acts more like a dog and that's probably why he appealed to me so much.

Macho

Occasionally I get comments on my youtube channel saying something to the effect of "you sound gay". One person was specific enough to peg me as a certain person from the village people. I will have to study this video so as to maybe not mislead people...perhaps.

Fish Oil

My most popular horoscope for the day--

Expect to be torn between two seemingly paradoxical urges today, Aquarius. Part of you wants to spend the day wrapped in a cocoon, playing with your toys. But another side of you is just as committed to spearheading a major creative or social endeavor with friends who share your revolutionary ideas. You feel exhausted from trying to build the perfect world.

Me and my revolutionary ideas. Nods head. Yup.

The end of November is here. I'm still resisting the sickness of my wife and daughter. Must remain strong. Have started Vit D and Fish Oil Supplements!!

This was a pic I found from the woods in Maryland. Silly me only took a 50mm lens that day, so it doesn't really show how I was surrounded by these Blair Witch trees. Creeeepeeee!

Hunger and Isolation

I can remember being deep in the woods in Maryland in late November. You are surrounded by trees and bushes with rolling hills everywhere. You can't take a step without crushing a lump of dead leaves. When the wind blows through all of this, there are times that you can almost sense the wind as a solid entity moving through the woods. It can give off a creepy illusion that something is out there, something you can not see. It can be somewhat claustrophobic.

180 degrees to that setting is the desert in winter. Today the wind gusts were up to 40 mph or so. Walking with Finley just a few hundred yards away from the nearest house and you can still feel this awesome sense of isolation. You can see for miles and it's just the same scrubby little bushes, the same rocks, and the same cracked dirt. You can walk past a larger bush, and it comes alive with sound as the wind plays it like an instrument. In fact, all you can hear is wind. You feel it push you, trying to get inside you, and rushing past. It's not good weather for running, but if you feel like a quick escape into isolation, it's an oddly beautiful thing.

Walking back towards my house I noticed a strange black object in the sky. It was a large black bird hovering in the wind. I thought it was hawk perhaps, but I'm pretty sure it was just a raven. The first time I ever saw a raven was my visit to AZ a few years back. I heard it before I ever saw it ,as it buzzed over me in a walmart parking lot. Later I saw one lifting things out of a trashcan finally getting a Jack In The Box bag out to eat some fries. They are big and fairly smart I think.

As I continued my walk I saw this raven sitting at the end of a light pole and noticed another smaller bird at the other end of the pole. As I got closer the smaller bird turned out to be a mocking bird. Wow, I thought it was a sparrow. Then the raven began tossing feathers off the light pole. He then held up what looked like a large chunk of bird and waved it around and jumped up and down. The mocking bird then flew down to a tree next to the light pole where I noticed another mocking bird. These two birds sat there in the tree looking up as the raven continued ripping his meal apart. I don't think mocking birds would wait for scraps. Which begs the question, why were they watching? Was the raven's meal their offspring? Or was it a territorial posture on their part?

The raven didn't like me stopped and looking I guess because he took his meal and flew off. The mocking birds flew away too, but I lost track of them. As I rounded the corner a few minutes later, I could see the raven perfectly silhouetted in the afternoon sun on top of another light pole. If only I were to carry around a 400mm lens eh. This time I would walk right under the light pole the raven was on. I could hear his claws scraping the metal and hear his beak pecking the metal. He stopped and looked at me as I stopped underneath him. I said, "Does it taste good?" He continued eating, and I went on my way.

MV 22B Osprey

Sickness is all around me. I am currently resisting!

Las Vegas has a lot of sky traffic. There's the Air Force Base and their continual sorties out to the bombing range. There's a small airport near me, then the big airport south. I didn't know there is this line of helicopters flying around downtown which I heard is for celebrity transport. There's even a radio controlled plane runway a couple blocks away from my house. These rc planes are like 7 feet long.

I see cessnas and helicopters just come and fly circles round my neighborhood like they're looking for someone. And the military aircraft is way more varied here than it ever was at Eglin or Offut.

When I first moved here, I was told that one of my neighbors is a predator drone pilot. There are sighting of those here too. I would like to see one hopefully someday while out in the mountains while running. Anyway, driving home one afternoon before the airshow a few weeks back, I looked up and saw an unusual plane flying away from me. It took my brain a few minutes to figure out what it was. I had forgotten about it until surfing the web tonight. I'm sure it was probably headed to Nellis for the air show.

Vamp Farts

Who knew a street so close to my house would have such strange items. Remember the corgis and decapitated pigeon? Same road today, I see a couple walking towards me and Finley. They look so amazingly ordinary. Both are middle aged, slightly over weight and stocky. The man has some pretty wild porkchops going on and they're slightly reddish in hue. Both wearing sunglasses, hats, very similar exercise outfits , and very similar backpacks that look like school packs. As I walk by, both smile and say Hi! So what could possibly make this completely ordinary encounter stick out?

I swear both of them had vampire teeth!! I forget how trendy vampin is these days.

So the walk continues and I notice that the usually quiet horse corral is full of riders today and several of them are ringing their lassos in the air. Then I notice them yawin in some steers. Yeah I said Yawin! So they were practicing for rodeo I guess. It was funny to me, because I don't think Finley has seen a cow up close and he was kinda wigged out by them.

Next property up I notice 3 horses playing in their pen. Usually I just see them standing around, wavin their tales and stuff. Today though, these young studs were prancin, jumping, rolling in the dirt, and making lots of horsey noises. Yah I'm so not a horse person am I! Somewhere out there is my first serious highschool girlfriend, and I wonder if she still loves horses. Karen? Do you? Anyway, they are playing when suddenly one horse jumps at the other and the other horse dodges the first horse. The first horse comes crashing down and lets out, no explodes with the loudest fart I've ever heard in my life. It was like a gunshot! Ok no it wasn't that loud, but I was definitely glad to be on the other side of the road.

Post Turkey Bits

After about 10 dvd coasters, hours of burning only to get an error, searching through forums, and contemplating whether to just do it in windows, I have finally taken my video camera footage and burnt it on dvd. As with any operating system, sometimes things are just troublesome for seeminlgy no reason.

I have to import the video with a program called Kino. Then I make an ISO disc image using DeVeDe creator. I could probably use a nice program called Openshot to do this. Openshot will be good for converting video to youtube format. Then I went through at least 6 programs to simply burn the ISO file onto a dvd. It shouldn't be that frakkin hard, but it was. The day was saved by a program called K3B.

I'm very happy that I resisted the urge to just load up my old crappy apps in windows. Even though I have to use 3 programs, it takes about 2.5 hours less to burn a dvd which is very cool. I'll also be able to edit more stuff like menus and chapters better.

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The day after Thanksgiving. Whoooh! I woke up this morning feeling like I came out of a coma. Definitely a food hangover of some kind. I'll have to post some pics of the food later this week. Everything turned out well. Well...maybe not the brussell sprouts.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a decent Thanksgiving. I was walking the dog the other day and saw that my street had twice as many vehicles parked as it usually does. As I walked, I could hear kids sqealing, women talking very loudly, smell turkey cooking, smell barbque, and other interesting kitchen smells. It was a clear blue day with a mild wind and just a bit of chill in the air requiring a light jacket. With hardly any cars, it would've been a nice day to run downtown perhaps. There was no running though. Not even the turkey trot that went by my house at 8am could've enticed me.

Cranberries

So normally during Thanksgiving, I look forward to that super tasty combination of cranberry sauce and everything else on my plate. The sauce gets all over and gets into different ratios into the green beans, turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. This Thanksgiving will be a little different though.

There will be no green bean cassarole.

There will be no cranberry sauce from a can.

There will not be mounds of mashed potatoes.

There will be no pumpkin pie.

There will be no pecan pie ( I think) hahaha

There will not be dozens of rolls.

Regardless, I am excited. There will still be a ton a food I'm sure. I'm sure I will still eat at least 3 platefuls and be the last person eating as normal. Turkey turkey turkey in mah belllie!!

Red Rock Canyon #4

I had my 4th run at Red Rock Canyon today. It's max 5000 feet here, but this tells me one simple thing. Uphill is uphill and steep is steep at any elevation. I'd probably alter that opinion if I had the chance to go above 12 thousand. Anyway, I was so out of breath today. Maybe it was the cold? Maybe it was the McD's sausage burritos? Whatever the reason, I never really got much of a groove on today.

I was on a new trail with lots of sticky red clay from melted snow, big rocks, and tight spaces with cactus all over. The scenery though was gorgeous. I will have to get better pics another day and hopefully mesh with the trail better. Anyone remember Merlin from the movie Excalibur? In the end Morgana stabs him through his back with a sword and he says "right through the spine of the Dragon!" Oh wait that was when Arthur drove Excalibur into the rock. The land without a king, the king without a sword. Damn I loved that movie. Anyway, Spine of the Dragon....that came to my mind seeing these rock formations.

In a battling mood though, I decided to finish my run going up, up, up another short one mile trail. After about 1.3 miles it became clear this trail was not ending anytime soon. It was all uphill and fairly steep. I passed a dog off leash earlier so I knew it was time to find a nice rock and just sit. My breath calmed after about 2 minutes and I sat there in silence. The afternoon sun was in full effect and steam was coming off my visor. The only thing my ears could hear was a very faint hum. I'm not entirely sure it wasn't from just inside my ears. No wind, no cars, no animals, nothing but silence....so I just sat there for a few minutes and tried to clear my mind. I couldn't help thinking that this is what someone hears when they die in the desert. Nothing.

So I got up and ran my butt downhill and out of there. I remember the other day in the grocery store, this woman wearing a blue puffy vest and brown pants stared me down in the meat asile. She had spikey red hair and a mouth that tilted in anger making her look like a pissed off sunflower. She looked at me like I was someone who she needed to punch. It kinda spooked me.

Earlier I had taken Finley for a walk and we were passing a horse farm. These two awesome little Corgis with bandanas came running out across the road to meet with Finley. As we were walking away, a 4 wheeler came out of the dogs property and the man yelled at the dogs saying 'You damn F'n dogs, get the *uck back in there!! God Damnit!!! arrrgh" I thought holy cow what an A-hole! Then not a few yards later I saw a huge pigeon head decapitated with no eyes. What would you think? I asked, was it a cat or bird of prey that did this? It was a strange walk also seeing snow falling on the mountain.

Kazzoooo

Injinjis for the magenta

If you think these look weird then you'd have to try them, though I know a couple of you have. The mornings are on the verge of getting a bit cold, so I thought I'd get a pair of these Injinji socks for my vibrams since I wear them while walking the dog.

I loaned the camera to my wife and she put some very interesting pictures on them. She was making stuff at work. Here's a pic.


And in complete contrast of that I will just put out there that The Original Pancake House is awesome. Three meals there now and every one has been fantastic! I had these potato pancakes this weekend ...with just a dash of sour creme? ohhhh it will make whoever doesn't have them at the table jealous! M&D - when you come visit, we will be eating here at least once!!

If you scroll down to this link you can see a pic of them , plus some of their other food.

PANCAKES BABEE!!

Yo wazzz up

The new young people look!! "Suuuuuuuuuuup..." Whose ready for some Zoolander 2?!!!

Leonids

Tonight the Leonid meter show is underway. However, it won't be a big show this year due to the moonlight, and low density of the comet's stream. It will probably be null all the way out here in the westerly west with that darn tootin Pyramid downtown blasting the sky with light. You never know though when you might see a fireball and those are totally worth it.

I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago and timely enough we stumbled onto our memories of going out into a big field in po dunk Florida to watch the shower till dawn. It was a very peaceful night. I tried to watch some last year, but it was just so cold that night in Nebraska. Other times, it was just too cloudy out. I forget which year it was maybe 2001, but that was amazing. If only I had the digital cameras of now back then.

In 2002 I spent all night gazing and got 1 decent pic. I took like 4 rolls of film that night. Why film? No digital sensor I had could have a long enough exposure without severe noise. So film was the ticket. I got a lot of black pictures back that day. hahaha

Spaceweather still has my submission up. It's funny because looking at this pic, you think "that's it?!!" But when I think of all the time and planning I put into this one little picture, it was a huge success to get this one image right before dawn broke out. So many times in the night you would see what seemed like a big and colorful streak and wonder..did I get it? Nope..you got nuttin but stars.

http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/images/19nov02_page6/p1.jpg

Recovery Runs

About 2 weeks ago, I ran another half marathon at Red Rock Canyon. It was a good strong week with 30 miles for the week capping off my first ever 100+ miles in one month. I used my Garmin gps unit for geocaching in a cheap ipod arm case to give me my running details. It worked well. My previous run at RRC was 4 weeks earlier and that run kicked my ass. This run seemed to have ended well with nipple chafe averted from the chilly wind by changing into under armor. There was no doubt though that I was tired and ready to stop when I got back to my truck. The last mile was creaky!

3 days later I was still really sore. My ankles, calves, knees...what the heck happened? My run 2 weeks prior at the mountain left me refreshed in comparison. I thought about it a lot and there was nothing that really stood out as to why I would be so sore after this run. Rockier terrain? Hotter temp? Too many miles?

Regardless of the cause, it was a mental minus for me. So the following week was about getting in quick short runs that felt good and left me with mental pluses. I still called it a recovery week however you put it. 5 days of running without soreness, and I was feeling much better, but I skipped a long run that week. Then I got sick and took another 4 days off, which seemed like forever. Heck, the last time I went 4 days in a row was back in April. I'm lucky I've not injured myself to have to rest for weeks at a time.

Getting right back out there, Liz suggested we take Veteran's Day and go run at Red Rock Canyon. I said of course, even though I now had this irrational idea that RRC has it out for me. We ran a little over 5 miles that morning at a nice and easy pace. This was good though because it gave me a positive run at RRC. Later that night, I had just a tiny bit of quad pain, but nothing that wouldn't be considered out of the possibility of normal.

The next morning, I decided to head back out to the mountain and get in a decent 6 or 7 mile run there. It had been 5 weeks since I'd last been to Bristlecone trail which is a tough trail to run for me due to the elevation and steepness of the ascents/descents. I was still thinking of this as an extended recovery week though. I didn't plan on pushing myself too hard on this run.

Bristlecone had a bit of a surprise for me though in the form of snow and mudd. I knew it would be colder up here now with prolly some spots of snow. I even went out and got some new pearl izumi fleece arm sleeves to test out in the cool weather. Those worked really well too. I likee! However, some parts of the trail had a good couple of inches of snow. I had to be really careful and walk in many areas especially on the mud. It's crazy running downhill and seeing snow kick off in front of me. I was pleased that even though my shoes are not goretex, they held off moisture well enough. I only saw one couple hiking with their two dogs the whole time I was out there. It's just never a trail run unless I see dogs!

I got back to my truck and noticed a dog had peed on my truck tire. Made me laugh. But once in my truck, I realized that my camera was like a block of ice! The back side of the mountain was in shadow and was fairly cold, prolly right around 40 or little colder. It was a good slow run though. Later that night, I felt fine as could be. Red Rock still has some mean mojo to it I think. It won't be long before I go back. Gotta tame that beast! I'm kidding, you can't tame mother nature, you can only adapt to her.

Here are some pics from my snowy run!



Where's the trail dude!


Clean fresh air babee!


Still lovin these cheapo NB 572s!


I don't need a stinkin tripod! A snowy rock will do. Liz says I look insane!

Ruff!

There are more ninja dogs in my neighborhood! Look carefully and you'll see the ninja in training too.

I really had to say Woof to get the dog to look at me. I think he telepathically said his name was Ed!!

RRC Panos

I've been fighting off a cold since Thursday. Scorecards are not in my favor today. I'll post some pics from my Red Rock Canyon run last week.

The first pic is made up of 4 pics which is really overdoing it because this stretch of rocks is just too big. It's hard to get a sense of scale without a person being in the pic, but you can see a trail on the lower right and get a bit of an idea.

This is just two pics. You can see the sandstone rock section behind the red rocks here, but I had to turn round at this point and it looked pretty nice.

.

Endurance Blenders

First off, congrats are in order to my friend Marcro who completed his first Ironman in Panama City the other day. I used to be his official race photographer and captured his efforts in his first days of triathlons. I'm sure deep down this has been a goal of his for many years, so to see it finally come to reality is huge. In contrast, I ran for a little over an hour yesterday and thought, "Now imagine swimming for that long!". That just made me laugh because I know I would've been dead an hour earlier :)

I watched the ING New York City marathon today. I know, watching running is officially entering the nerd realm of running, but I had to see if Meb Keflezighi could defend his title. This was not to be though as he placed 6th. The winner of the men's race was Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam. I believe this was his first ever marathon. Impressive! As was first ever marathon for Shalane Flanagan of the US in the womens race who placed 2nd. Nothing but inspiration going on in New York today.

In the regular world of regularness, I finally killed the cheap blender we've had for years. It's not too often when an appliance breaks and my wife smiles. So we finally got to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a new one. You know their discount coupons never expire? We ended up with a new Kitchen Aid blender for 100 bucks. If it's as good as their mixer though, it should make some mean smoothies for years to come.

While in BBB, my daughter pleaded with me to sit in the Sharper Image massage chair. Ok Ok Ok Ok already. I sat down and it was on lower back, shiatsu, heat setting. My face instantly changed after about 10 seconds. Then I looked side to side as if I was suddenly being watched! This was feeling really good. Asa then wanted me to switch into the other chair. I told her NO! Daddy is busy!

The last time I sat in a 'massage chair' was in an actual Sharper Image store some 20 years ago (sniff) I was sooo not impressed. So I'd never sat in one since. All of a sudden I was giddy over this massage cushion. Liz then says maybe we should get a recliner and put that pad in it. I think I tilted my head up as I envisioned myself going on a secret journey of whahhhgaaahhh. If you're confused by that just think of Homer Simpson salivating about a donut. I predict a strong chance of self indulgent shiatsu massages in my future!

The 5th of November!

I´m not the biggest Daft Punk fan out there. If I were, I would have seen their movie Electroma, which I'm still curious about. So, I finally remembered to find their new music video related to the new Tron movie coming out, and found myself watching a bunch of Daft Punk videos. The new Tron footage looks really good too. I can only hope the script and direction will be something above average. I have hope for the fresh new director though.

Anyway, I found this video bit from Electroma with Kill Bill music. I love the music from KB so that makes watching the whole sequence pretty easy. However, there's good use of tension, and the lack of facial expression allows one to project their own feelings. At the very end, I thought it was perhaps a commentary on how we have a tendency to destroy things in our lives and turn right back around rebuilding them. Always trying to get back to some point before maybe? Meh, I could be making a sculpture out of a piece of mud too.

Hello Ubuntu

I was telling my friend that I wussed out and made my pc dual boot just in case I needed windows for something. What??.... I have no clue!

Needless to say switching operating systems is never easy. I think I have the oldest computer out of anyone I know. I used to be so cutting edge! Minus the days I thought Windows 3.1 was never going to leave my screen. Anyway, I´ve been saying I was going to get on the linux train for a while now. It´s about time perhaps.

It´s been a busy last week with Halloween, my Friday run in the canyon, and dental shananigans (love that word). Hopefully, I´ll get some pics processed later this week and post´em up.

Lisa Blount

One of my favorite horror movies from the 80s was Prince of Darkness. In it starred actress Lisa Blount. She passed away the other day from chronic illness....

Here's her whole movie list.

P for Pomegranate

I overheard a woman at Target talking about her credit card being hacked. Then I overheard another group of people talking about their credit union being hacked and all their cards were compromised. Wiki leaks...electronic madness!! Maybe it's time to go back to cash in hand for a bit.

While looking for pumpkin carving ideas tonight, I got a virus. I was stupid, but guuuhh!!! Painful!

Pomegranates are everywhere. They're prolly under my bed. And yet, I will eat them because they are fun to peel open and pick apart.

I sat at Denny's by myself today and had an All American Slam plus big bowl of grits. It's been a long time since I've eaten at Denny's let alone by myself in dare I say..peace. ahhhh Sip my coffee and stare out the window at the mountain which has a tip of snow on it now.

I finally finished all the homemade spaghetti sauce! I also finished my last frozen jar of lentil soup. I ate a Kipper snack recently. I forget how those little fishies can fill the room with their smell.

Halloween is right around the corner. Asa had a little school parade today where all the kids got to wear their costumes. It was cute. I think if I was going to do a costume, I would want to be V. It's just a mask I know, but I watched V For Vendetta today, and I still really like this movie.

A blaah Monday

Liz came home sick and slept all day. I hope she is feeling better at work today. I hope I don't catch whatever she has either. I always tell myself that I'll be fine. Just wash your hands and you'll be ok. Then I get sick and think, well that never works. I still cling to the idea that my body can repel most germs. I even have the irrational idea that I don't need a flu shot. That's more of a conspiracy theory though. Liz came home and said. " ughhhh I got the plague!" After reading Atwood's books, the word plague sounds so disturbing. That's just how they'd do it too, they'd innoculate all of us with it. See...I is cookoo!

So I had two medical appointments Monday. First the opthamologist for my yearly glaucoma check up. Have to go see if my eye pressure and big ole retinal cups are stable. I don't get worked up about it, but I really don't like the eye doc. I really don't like anything coming near my eyeballs. They always have a hard time getting a pressure reading on my eyes, because I can't help but seize my entire body when that purple donut is pressing against my cornea. Ughhhh!! I have thicker than average corneas btw. Sexy no?

This eye doc had some fancier equipment than the one in Omaha. He had a ultrasound glaucoma machine called an OCT. Not sure what that stands for. Ahh Optical Cohereance Topography! I think the machine looks like a cyclops hippopotamus though. They should name it Jerry the Cyclopotamus!

So long story short, I don't have glaucoma yet. But I think I'll be getting eye drops in my not too distant future.

Next I had my dental appointment. My last four appointments have been without issue. So I was hoping it would be another such appointment. Not so. First off, they took about 50 pictures of my teeth which included several digital xrays and a 360 one as well. That's a lotta pics of my mouth! The tech told me how she grew up with Lebron James. It's a wonder I even know who that is. Basketball is probably as cryptic to me as curling. She then told me how she's turning 40 and really wants some bling for her birthday, specifically a diamond tennis bracelet. I've never been into jewelry, but I think I understand it more now than I used to.

I don't trust dentists, or doctors for that matter. Which is ironic no? But I especially don't trust dentists. They rank right up there with sneaky auto mechanics to me. So when they told me, I have periodontal disease, a small crack in my tooth , show signs of grinding my teeth during sleep ,and a cavity....I was like nooo waay. You guys are trying to rip me off.

The first thing to address is the gum disease. After some research and honest thought, I am thinking this is a true assessment from this dentist. In fact, maybe it's been the other dentists who have been slack? Course I'm really the only one who can be truly slack in this. Regardless, next week I'll have my whole mouth subjected to scaling and root planing. It doesn't sound comfortable, but in a crazy way I am looking forward to the pain. Not so much masochism as a chance for mental imagery experimentation.

Friday Run

Well, today I decided to run to the top of Mt. Charleston. This would be over 16 miles of extremely tough terrain reaching an elevation of almost 12000 feet. (Not quite the minimum elevation of the HardRock 100 race) Half way up the mountain, I had a major problem though. You ready for this? A branch tore my pants off!!! I'm talking shorts and skivvies all in one!! Lucky I brought my knife, and I was able to cut my secondary top into a sort of tarzan garment.

Ok I'm lying. That shiznutter did not happen. In truth, there was NO run today. I was kinda bummed since I won't be able to do a long run this weekend, but the weather was not favorable and honestly, I just didn't feel like it. I realize that all this is very much a luxury, and I'm grateful to be able to take a Friday and do whatever I please.

So I finished my book The Year of The Flood.


I thought about doing a review on these books, but I don't feel I could do them justice. However, I am feeling this compulsion to draw the characters. I don't know why, but I just keep trying to picture them as clearly as possible. Perhaps I will get my focus on and show you some drawings soon. This is supposedly a trilogy, but I may have to wait another 5 years for the third book to come. That day will be met with great excitement!

To top off my luxurious day, Liz got home early and we went out to eat with just ourselves! We ate a Greek place called The Market Grill. It was very good!! Here's some pics of the food.


Above you can see my Lentil soup with feta and my gyro with both dill sauce and hummus. Next is another pic when our salads and rice came along with the rosemary an dill potato wedges. Yumm


And Finally for desert we ordered some yia yia cookies which are greek butter cookies and then this baklava cheesecake. Notice how the cheesecake is whipped rather than dense...slight taste of cinnamon and pumpkin on it..was pretty good.


I think I will be eating at this place again and soon. They have more soups and many more interesting dishes to try!

Harvesting

Well I went back to the mountain on Monday and harvested some pinyon pine nuts. I even ran into the Japanese couple that was out last Friday. They were much farther up on the trail and invited me to come pick nuts under their tree. So nice of them to offer, but I was just stopping from time to time to pick up a few nuts, since Finley had come along and needed some walking action. I thought I would be hacking into a lot of pine cones, but the nuts were all over the ground in some spots. This was a good thing because the few cones I did wrangle left me covered in pine sap which was a boondoggle to clean off. The gloves I brought, I ended up wearing home to keep my gluey hands off of everything. Hence no pictures from the day either. My fingaz were too sticky.

I had wanted to go further along on the trail to scope it out, but once again the weather was not going to let that happen. As soon as I got on the backside of the mountain, clouds rolled in, rather creepy too I must say, and then one drum of thunder was enough to make Finley wimper. I even wore my vibrams out on the trail and honestly, I think I could prolly run that trail in vibrams. There'd only be about 10 percent that would require extra caution. I did manage to chaf my heels though. The older vibrams had some issues.

I came home and put the nuts on a cookie sheet to go through. We baked them for 15 minutes after soaking in water, but many of the nuts are still soft inside the hard shell. The taste varies between nuts. Some taste really good, while others are really bland. If I had to do it over I think I'd bake them longer at a lower temp to keep the monosat fats intact.

Red Rock Casino

This weekend we went to Red Rock Casino. It's not downtown in the strip, but out on the west end of town. It's a big hotel, slash Casino, slash everything else. We have one close to us in the north called Aliante Station which is a bit smaller. It still has an IMAX 3D theatre though which I will visit on December 17th. We came here for Asa to go to a birthday party at a place called Kid's Quest. No adults are allowed in this place. It's basically a place to drop your kids off while you gamble. It's open till 1am!

So we had a couple of hours to burn. What to do? Well we tried some slot machines. Here's a pic of the inside of the Casino.


It looks just like Aliante on the inside. Liz tells me it looks just like the Casinos on the strip too. So after taking 10 minutes to figure out how to play, and then playing a mere 20 dollars on slots, Liz said she could see the appeal, but I was left thinking I'd have a lot more fun playing Tetris and eating pizza.

I wandered into the bowling alley they had there called Red Rock Lanes. The lighting in this place was a white balance nightmare. Not that I cared, but wow. To me, bowling alleys were better as dark pits. All the color, lasers, and tvs just makes it seem silly to me. Even the balls have these logos on them of skulls, crushing, and venom? To me it's like taking an econo box and putting a spoiler on it. That translates as tacky!


This is the locker room, but it reminded me of a Japanese hotel slash 2001 set piece.


All in all it was a good day and Asa had a great time at her birthday party. She didn't paint her face though. I kinda thought she'd go for that. Funny side bit, I had two people try to make conversation with me about college football here. What's up with that?!! What is it about me that says I am into some college ball.

Pine Nuts and Eggrolls

Who doesn't like eggrolls?!!! Not the cabbage and carrot filled crap at buffets, but juicy ,meaty, golden brown logs of love! Everyone has a comfort food ( or a few). It's those foods that follow you through life and have the power to make a bad day good or take you back to good times. For me, eggrolls are up there. I don't eat them often, but when I do...there is no self restraint. Gimme some vinegar and soysauce for dipping and leave the room. There are only a few things I can stuff myself with and not feel gross later. Right now...I'm riding the eggroll satisfaction train. Whoo whooo!

This past Friday was my weekly mountain trail run. I kept seeing all these people crouched under trees near the trail head. What were they doing!!! So on a stop at my truck to refill my new amphipod hydraform , I asked a woman walking by about their business. Apparently it's pine nut harvesting season. As I continued on my run, I saw a pine cone with nuts still inside. I stopped and popped one in my mouth. Ooops! I guess I'm supposed to remove the seed covering first. It's all in my teeth now and my fingers have pine sap on them. But hey, pretty tasty as pine nuts go.

Later I talked to a Japanese woman who explained to me how to cook them and how her and her husband come here a lot. She was proud of her new hiking boots. She had a 1 pound freezer bag full of nuts which took her about 3 hours to acquire. I told her I saw a bunch of them about a mile up on the trail, and she got this look in her eye. She wanted to know exactly where they were! Tuns out, Pinyon pine nuts are prime for production between 7 and 8 thousand feet which is wham right what Sawmill trail is at. The weekend was too busy for a family outing for nuts, but I may have to go back and harvest some for myself. Pine nuts are expensive, and the idea of fresh home made pine nut bread sounds goood!

At the end of my run, I was sitting in the back of my truck with the hatch open. I was just eating some food when I spied this mutant insect marching towards me on the pavement. It's legs were moving as if they were mechanical. It was like a robotic tank the size of a lighter! As it went by, I decided it was just a really big mole cricket. I said "Hi! Mr. Mole Cricket!" and the bug stopped for a couple of seconds and then kept on moving. Sensitive to sound no doubt, but if he rotated towards me and began marching at me, I might've got skeered!

As for the run, it was good. I did manage to get briefly lost which kinda spooked me for a bit since that's when it started to lightly drizzle on me, and the wind really picked up. However, my getting lost was a good thing as I found a new trail and a cool hill. It's really steep going up, but it's mostly packed dirt with no rocks and staggered really well. This means you can run down it fast and keep control. I don't get to run downhill much, and I think my quads are finally coming into the idea that they can take some stress. Scared a couple of horses, met some black labs, and felt really good through most all of it.

The brain plays tricks on you though. When I wore my heart rate monitor on the treadmill, my heart rate would almost always go up when nearing certain goals I had. No matter how I tried to concentrate or diffuse it, the beat would always go up. I think I felt something similar this outing. I knew I only had a couple more laps to go but my brain was already in the 'ok we're done' mode. I really had to focus my thinking, tighten my form, and concentrate on simple issues. I was going to get another gel in the truck before my last lap , but decided nope, just finish it. As I hit the uphill portion of the loop, I was very tired. I felt like I could just stop at any moment. So I just gathered what strength I could and just sprinted as far as I could, which wasn't far. hahaha But it kept me going strong. So I was very happy to have run my first half marathon. Felt really good the whole weekend too. This is when I start contemplating the idea of running 50 miles someday. Could I run for 10 or 11 hours? 'Do I want to' is probably the more important question.

Trapped In The Canyon

I caught an episode of " I Shouldn't Be Alive" last night. Been a while since I've seen an episode. Most of them engage me, but some do more so than others. Things like laying close to death after being in a fight with a crocodile and having flesh ripping ants pile on you, or having to leave your son in a snow cave to find help, only to come withing seconds of death....these things make me shudder.

Last nights episode was about Danelle Ballangee. She is an 'extreme' endurance athlete. It doesn't take long to discover she has an accident in Moab Utah while on a trail run in a canyon. So obviously, I was gripped right away with this. She also has a dog named Taz who she got at a pound when she was a pup. Luckily, Taz would go with her on training runs.

Danelle has a huge fall ( like 60ft) and shatters her pelvis. Her skeleton is in two pieces!!! She is crawling , but is trapped. She drinks out a little mud puddle. It's below freezing at night and she does 1 sit up every 5 seconds for 6 hours to keep from falling asleep which would mean certain death. Whose up for 4000 situps?!! The next day she is in severe pain from the adrenaline being gone. She says I would have rather had 20 people with hammers hitting me than the pain I was in.

The second night is freezing as well and she is hallucinating and forming a lump in her belly from internal bleeding. This is when she tells her dog to go find help. Her dog has been circling the canyon and keeping watch on her. This is the hardest thing for her because she knows that death is knocking and sending Taz away is probably going to result in her dying alone. She finally urinates knowing that this will freeze and speed up hypothermia. Seeing her talk about this and break apart was just gut wrenching.

Through a series of very fortunate events, Taz leads a rescuer to her aid and she lives. And through a lot of pain , she's running again, married and has a child now. Wow! Talk about a focal point in your life. A real second chance in fact. I can't help but be inspired by her story. Sometimes I doubt I would have the mental toughness to endure such a horror. I know for sure though that I can look at my shoulder pain and think, you are nothing...nothing at all.

Dust Devil

I keep seeing Dust Devils here. Both times I've been to Red Rock Canyon in almost the same spot, I've seen 3 of them. Today I saw one off in the distance near my house while coming home. Liz says she has run into them when growing up in Arizona, and that its just a bunch of dirt in your face. I have no doubt it wouldn't be much different than standing there and having someone throw sand at my face, but I still want to run into one.

I found this video on youtube just now. I think it's awesome! Don't be a wuss and fast forward. Let it load and let it build!!!

10 10 10

I didn't even realize this was the date until I got an email from a friend who had it in his subject line. Turns out there's a big race in the PI on this day. I tell ya, if I were to run down the streets of Cebu, I bet it would be like Forest Gump. People and kids would just start following me. They'd say oooh big white guy!! Goooo!!

Friday's Mountain Run

The dog that followed me home on Monday is reunited with her owner. This is my conclusion since she was removed from the adoption boards after only a couple of days. This is good, but Liz and I had already started thinking of names! We were getting ready to adopt this dog, so all those feelings have to calm down a bit. As of now, there will be no Millie or Cassie to add into the fold. The shelter named her Mabel!

I went on a trail shoe hunt recently because I'm addicted to shoes it seems. Anyway, rocky terrain / minimalist shoes are hard to find. The new New Balance MT101s are out which I would buy in a sec, but you can only get them online and my size has been sold since they came out. I went to the only hard core local running store here and tried on some popular shoes, but a lot of it was a bit heavy. I did meet some interesting people at this store though including a couple of ultra runners. One of them who worked there talked about running with Anton Krupicka and running with the tarahumara in the copper canyon race. Pretty cool!!

In the end, out of 15 pairs tried on ranging from 50 to 130 dollars, I ended up with a entry level model from New Balance, the MT572 for just 50 bucks. It gets some bad press on amazon, but I think they're pretty good so far. Light, somewhat low profile, and not much cushioning, and a grippy sole. I know Solomans are popular, but the pair I tried on at REI felt like wearing tug boats on my feet! I say this because I'll prolly buy a pair someday and say what was I thinking!

So my Friday run, brought me back to the mountain. I wanted to get on the South Loop trail which starts with a steep 4 mile ascent! Part of me thought that sounds like too much work, but I wanted something different. Alas, the parking lot was full, so I had to go back to the ole Bristlecone trail.

Its been much cooler here lately with the temps in the valley being in the 70s in the morning ,which made the mountain a bit nippy in the shade with wind. I was glad I brought a long sleeve shirt. Nothing too dramatic this time though. I quickly forgot just how steep the first 2 miles of the upper trail are. I was just out of breath constantly. I couldn't get a groove going. I felt sluggish in both mind and body. I thought, this will just be a slow day, just keep on and maybe I'll perk up.

I ended up making some better time later on the downhill side and also ended up going a bit longer than I had planned. So unlike last Fri, this 2:30 run ended with me feeling really good and running strong downhill. At one point, I passed 3 young shirtless guys running up. I said 'hey guys' to them and they said nothing. Punks! The only downside to the whole trip was that I still haven't learned 'do not put things on top of the vehicle'. I lost my favorite running visor!

There was a funny instance though. I was running along feeling good and suddenly I look up and see 2 horses coming down the trail which is very narrow. We both stop about 30 feet from one another. I look at them and they look at me. It's a stand off of confusion with both us having a bubble over our heads that says, "wtf are you doing out here!" I'm not seeing anyone else behind them. I know there are wild horses here, but are these guys really wild? Will they hurt me? So I move up the hill as if to say you go on by. That's the comedy, me trying to wave on horses. The front horse tilts his head at me and then they both run down the hill. Then some people come out and say did you see those wild horses? Reminds me of my Colorado moose story.

Anyway, here are some pics from the outing.

heres that tribute poster I mentioned in a previous post. the rains got it a bit

Some of the nice terrain going up

Crazy horses!


The goofiest trail runner in the west


Sections like this , I gotta be careful


My new shods


A 3 pic pano of prolly the highest point in the trail.