Adam plays straight man to a great Greta Thunberg impersonation.
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Twenty Mile Run Tomorrow
Medical Island |
This will decide whether or not I tackle 26.2 next month. My chi running form—good enough for 3 and 4 mile runs—tends to fall apart at longer distances. I've been focusing on my form, but there may not be enough time left before race day. So I'll proceed as long as I safely can. If it feels like Mr. Injury has again come a'calling, then I'll cut it short, eat my entry fee, and work on my form. It'll take a bit longer than anticipated, but I'm finishing another marathon.
I contemplated my first 20 mile run a mere 15 years ago.
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Failure as a Growth Step
After mewling in my last post, I found this video by Dr. Alan Goldberg. Good advice on how to deal with setbacks. I intend to follow his worthy counsel.
Awful Training Run
Monday, September 20, 2021
Surfer's Point Marathon Update
Yes, November 7th, a Sunday, will see me once again attempt to master 26.2 miles. For the last 12 years I've been searching for a method of running that didn't cause me knee pain. If you have time, peek at this, or this, or this, or this, or this or this. My orthopedist tried talking me out of ever trying to run again. But I knew better. Such high hopes I had. I assumed I'd be knocking out another marathon sometime in 2010.
Today I'm into my longest runs. This Wednesday, I'll run 16. Then the following weeks will see long runs of 18, 13.1, 20, 10, 8, some speed work, then the marathon. I'll know my goal time more exactly after my half-marathon run. Right now it appears a finishing time of five hours and eleven minutes is doable. It's exciting. I'd forgotten so much. Like nipple guards.
More soon.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
So Long, Norm Macdonald
This guy made me laugh. I'm sorry to see him go so soon. Below is a clip from a longer piece on how Norm would approach the job of being a serial killer.
Saturday, September 11, 2021
9/11 Recalled 2021
Other friends phoned throughout the day. Paul Rugg speculated about the pilots of the doomed aircraft, certain they weren't Americans forced to crash. TJ, a Vietnam vet, was incensed at the footage of jubilant Palestinians with their candy and AK-47s. He wished he could gift them with a nice buttering of napalm. In a grim mood, I agreed.
Watching TV and power-chewing Nicorette, I mostly felt numb — except when the subject was jumpers. Then I felt horror. Go to work, sip coffee, joke with your pals, then decide whether you'll suffocate, burn alive, or leap a quarter mile to certain death. Questions of etiquette arise: jump solo or hold hands with a co-worker? Perhaps several of you link arms and form a chain, finding courage in numbers. Or do you clutch a table cloth and step into the air, desperately hoping it slows your fall?
The journey takes ten seconds.
Air velocity rips away your shoes.
You explode on impact.
I will always be haunted by the jumpers of 9/11.
Oceans of paper were blasted from the towers, filling the New York sky like the Devil's ticker tape. Invoices and wedding invitations floated down to gray sidewalks.
My friend Cathy, who worked in D.C., reported chaos as the government sent everyone home at once following the Pentagon attack. One jammed intersection turned scary as a man leaped out of an SUV brandishing a pistol and attempting to direct traffic.
Being murdered is not a heroic act, though it can be. Flight 93 passengers fought back and died, saving many more in their sacrifice. North Tower Port Authority employees rescued over 70 people before perishing.
There were many heroes that day.
My sister Mary Pat and I had dinner at a coffee shop. She was passing through town, leaving a job in Mountain View, CA to return to Phoenix. Depressed by the day's events, our meal was not jolly.
Later, Joy tried to give blood, but the hospital was overwhelmed with donations and refused.
Vulnerability, grief, dismay, anger.
Such a beautiful morning with a sky so blue.
(Photos from: Little Green Footballs.)
Repost: Sept. 11, 2008
Update: Strange to reread this. TJ died in 2009 and K passed away just over a year ago. My wife, Joy, and I are doing well, as is Paul Rugg who now rides the train.
Repost: Sept. 11, 2013
Update: I had cancer surgery last year, but recovered. My wife is doing well and my sister battles her own health woes. I have not heard from my friend Cathy in a few years. Paul Rugg continues riding the train in addition to being a voice over machine.
Repost: Sept. 11, 2015
Update: Paul Rugg's daughter was not quite two years old on 9/11/01. Now she is a freshmen in college. I have retired from TV animation writing, though, as stated elsewhere, I find retirement to be indistinguishable from unemployment. (Save for a small annuity.) And very soon, I shall ride the train to see my sister. (Explanatory post t/k.)
Repost: Sept. 11, 2017
Update: Ten years have passed since I composed this post, 17 years since the incident. Alas, the greatest hit to our nation continues to be a colossal security apparatus that can't seem to function without monitoring everyone's communications, then lying about it. I'd rather not comment on airport theater. Still, my wife remains gainfully employed and I'm racing to complete a dystopian thriller by Christmas. Amidst the great events, the little things carry us forward.
Repost: Sept. 11, 2018
Update: About to publish a softcover version of my prostate book. Meanwhile the Afghanistan Forever War continues. I refuse to believe that for almost 20 years, there's been no better way of fighting the Taliban than sending billions to Pakistan to provide hiding places for them while they infiltrate Afghan government forces and assassinate our advisors. The Byzantine Empire lasted over a thousand years battling multiple enemies on different fronts, employing a combination of diplomacy military prowess, and strategic alliances. With the entrenched, consequence-proof dimwits we have infesting Washington D.C., we'll probably end up surrendering to the Taliban.
Repost: Sept. 11, 2019
Monday, September 06, 2021
Top Ten Raymond Chandler Quotes from The High Window
Hard-boiled Noir, huh?
librarything |
I'd never read this particular Phillip Marlowe tale, but am enjoying it immensely. Absolutely loaded with fun descriptive Chandlerisms:
1. "She had eyes like strange sins."
2. "Below his eyes . . . there was a wide path of freckles, like a mine field on a war map."
3. The blonde sobbed in a rather theatrical manner and showed me an open mouth twisted with misery and ham acting."
4. "We looked at each other with the clear innocent eyes of a couple of used car salesmen."
5. ". . . and a granite coffee pot that smelled like sacks in a hot barn."
6. " He had a sort of dry musty smell, like a fairly clean Chinaman."
7. "From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away."
8. "My face was stiff with thought, or with something that made my face stiff."
9. "[Net curtains] puckered in and out like the lips of a toothless old man sleeping."
10. "Out of the apartment houses come women who should be young but have faces like stale beer; men with pulled-down hats and quick eyes that look the street over behind the cupped hand that shields the match flame; worn intellectuals with cigarette coughs and no money in the bank; fly cops with granite faces and unwavering eyes; cokies and coke peddlers; people who look like nothing in particular and know it, and once in a while even men that actually go to work. But they come out early when the wide cracked sidewalks are empty and still have dew on them."
brainpickings.org |
Monday, August 30, 2021
So Long, Ed Asner
Behind the Voice Actors |
Sergeant Mike Cosgrove (who also used the name Ed Asner) is gone. Freakazoid's pal and law enforcement chum has cashed out his life chips and departed this plane of existence.
Ed was fun to work with, bummed cigarettes off the crew, and never seemed thrown by the often surreal dialogue he was called upon to read. I wish his family peace in this troubled time.
Adieu, Ed and may you know eternal rest involving offbeat wholesome fun.
Monday, August 23, 2021
First Double Digit Run in 13 Years
finsmes.com |
But how?
You're fat, old and injured!
Excellent points, all. But first a bit of crowing: they said it couldn't be done—running any distance. (At least one orthopedic surgeon uttered as much.) And for a over a decade he appeared right. But last Wednesday, I ran ten miles thanks to chi running and a generous assist from the weather.
Starting near the Pasadena Rose Bowl I loped up into the Angeles National Forest above Jet Propulsion Labs to the fabled Elmer Smith Bridge. The round-trip took me 2:12:03. I employed a modest 3x1 run-walk ratio ala the Jeff Galloway method.
But Los Angeles is blazing hot in August!
1075 |
Just like the old days, huh?
(There's a reason you're a minor heading.) So much to relearn. My feet burned on the last mile, a sign of inadequate shoe padding. The net uphill of the first five miles exposed my training. By contrast, the bridal trails of Griffith Park are mostly flat dirt with gentle rises, not the rolling terrain, patches of rocky ground and abrupt rises of Wednesday's run. Also, I sensed a need for more weekly miles, with emphasis on tempo runs. Increasing mileage can be tricky in the midst of training.
But a corner has been turned. I'm comfortable enough with chi running to cover longer distances. I'm still integrating the run-walk method, but the efforts show promise. In addition, my weight has dropped into the 230s, a plunge of around 30 pounds from January.
Rummaging around, I found an old pair of trainers that should wear better on the trails until I can buy new distance running shoes.
So then: a short three miles today, rest tomorrow, then 12 miles on Wednesday.
Wickipedia |
Monday, August 16, 2021
Another Fine Rout
phukettimes |
Political commentary isn't my usual forte, but for the second time in my life I watch America scuttle out of a foreign policy disaster. Here are a few scattered thoughts.
America is back . . . to the 70s
In 1975, I was still in the service, stationed on an air base in South Carolina. I recall the veterans around me numbed by the televised chaos as the South Vietnamese struggled to escape their country's fall to North Vietnam. Years later, I visited Vietnam and Cambodia. Speaking to inhabitants, I learned what people endured under the communists. Awful things. Genocide, for one.
As an interesting comparison, the U.S. congress back in the day cut off all aid to South Vietnam. Lauren Zanolli writes in History News Network:
"Historians have directly attributed the fall of Saigon in 1975 to the cessation of American aid. Without the necessary funds, South Vietnam found it logistically and financially impossible to defeat the North Vietnamese army. Moreover, the withdrawal of aid encouraged North Vietnam to begin an effective military offensive against South Vietnam. Given the monetary and military investment in Vietnam, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage compared the American withdrawal to “a pregnant lady, abandoned by her lover to face her fate."
A Tale of Two Armies
ARVN troops@militaryimages.net |
Now the Fun Starts
Vromans |
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