Close to Countdown

Surgery could be around May 20. My orthopaedist tried talking me out of continued running, failed, then acknowledged it was a standard warning administered to runners. He admitted his goal was avoiding knee replacement surgery. I said 'me too.' We parted on good terms. Working on a short story using an interactive outline. Rather than the school outline of Roman numerals, numbers and letters, the interactive form engages you with questions as to why you're considering this or that plot point. I'm always challenged to examine why I've included something, without having to know all the answers. ("I don't know" is acceptable.) Also, I've added a feature where I'll question characters on something unrelated to the story. For instance, I'm currently writing a horror story set on a small ship. But I'll ask my characters to react to waiting in a long movie line only to discover the film is sold out. How they react tells me who they are. I also have them speak to one other on some political or news topic. This is time-saving since my usual approach was to write a draft, then another, and gradually find the voices. Knowing characters better allows room for growth. And if they cross me...out of the story! I don't like doing that, but sometimes they leave me no choice.

Swell Review for Freak II

Goodly words on the second season.

h/t: Paul Rugg

Post-Marathon Video Captures It All

In honor of Jimmy, Emil, Jay and Melissa, Alfredo and all who competed this weekend, I present, once again, a salute to endurance athletes.

Salute to Tri Wildflowers

Congrats to Jay and Melissa Carlton and Alfredo Cacho for finishing the Wildflower Olympic distance triathalon: swim, bike, run and they did all three. Alfredo will continue training for a half-ironman, while Jay and Melissa will probably eat a lot.

Eugene Recalled, Surgery in Sight

Eugene Marathon - the high water mark of my running career...so far. You couldn't ask for better weather - 40s to start - or terrain - net downhill along a shaded path beside a river.

Meanwhile my arthroscopic surgery has been approved by the HMO. I meet my doc next week to sign various releases promising to allow mediation should he accidentally remove my back. But why not believe the best?

Emil "The Machine" Cheng finished the Palos Verdes Marathon yesterday in four hours and fifty-two minutes. This is a very hilly course and he battled cramps along with flu-like symptoms. Even a seasoned runner like Emil gets caught up in the excitement and goes out too fast. There is a penalty for such giddiness. Emil's race report is up on his blog.

Miwok Madness

According to Jimmy Dean Freeman: "...62.4 miles; 9:50 per mile average in the worst race conditions I have ever run..." That included fog, wind and rain, plus the aforementioned 10,000 foot elevation gain. But congratulations to Jimmy. Obstacles overcome made the triumph better.

Miwok A Lot

Running zealot Jimmy Dean Freeman is bounding along the heights of trendy Marin County, battling 10,000 feet of net elevation gain and a bad back at the Miwok 100K.

Twittering the race today, Jimmy informs us that Advil has done the trick, easing back pain as he reaches mile 28 in 4 hours and 27 minutes.

More later.

Equal Time

While mentioning Vietnam, I neglected Cambodia. The Khmer Republic fell on April 12, 1975. U.S. helicopters airlifted out our embassy staff, a few Cambodians, and the press. We didn't bother telling the Cambodian government we were leaving. And while we spirited away the man who'd been prime minister for the last three days, several members of his cabinet refused evacuation, staying to suffer the fate of their people. Prince Sisoweth Sirik Matak, Long Boret, and Lon Non were executed by the Khmer Rouge. What a grave that country became. They still haven't unearthed all the Killing Fields.

Every April, around Buddha's birthday, I send an email to a Khmer friend whom I met in Cambodia. She was five when the communists took over. Her father was taken to the grounds of a factory and shot. She and her mother were forced to work in the rice paddies. Starving, they ate bugs. Nowadays, her teenage daughter doesn't believe things were so bad. ("Bugs! Why would you eat bugs! That's so gross.")

And for all that, the Cambodians were remembered in a film - The Killing Fields, which twisted itself into intricate yoga poses to mitigate Khmer Rouge savagery.

Hollywood's good for a couple of Nazi films every year. But no one's made a movie yet on Darfur, or North Korea or Mao's butchery of 60 million Chinese. I guess some slaughters are more equal than others.

Jason and Tiffany's Wedding

Mostly current Team in Training folk at tonight's nuptials down in Whittier. Most will run 12 or 18 miles tomorrow. Being young helps.

A Little Known Occasion

Yesterday marked the fall of South Vietnam. I know because my Vietnamese barber told me. He fled Saigon in 1975 with no money and no English skills whatsoever.
(Even now, he tends to drop endings such as "hou" for "house," and "paspa" for "passport." You have to pay attention, but the meaning comes through.)

Eventually reaching America, he waited four years for his family to bribe their way onto a boat out of Vietnam. They did, reaching a refugee camp in Malaya. Eventually, my guy got them over here. Thirty-four years have passed since the day he boarded a helicopter under rocket fire. Now he in lives quietly in the San Gabriel Valley, cuts hair in La Canada and pays for two daughters in college.

He knows I've been in Vietnam and Cambodia, but never recalls why. Or my name. His first question is, "You travel somewhere?" I'm certain he thinks I'm always in motion, like a deep ocean shark.

Today I told him I was glad he made it out of Vietnam.

He was too.

Thumbs Up from Toon Zone News

My favorite DVD director Troy passes along the intelligence that Freakazoid Season II DVD has received a glowing notice from the wise, insightful reviewer at Toon Zoon News. Bracing copy, absolutely bracing.