I've noticed that oftentimes I am the last person to comment on a particular blog entry, usually after I've commented about something I feel strongly about. I've come to the realization that this phenomenon occurs because I am right. Oh, you could say it's because I'm a troll and others don't want to feed the troll. You could also say that most people really just don't care what I say. And finally, someone could say that I'm often late to the party and others have moved on to newer blog pastures, but I know the truth and deep down, so do you.
PTC is on the money. Don't forget it.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Market Research
Apparently I don't know my audience very well. Maybe I should put some of my marketing knowledge to work here.
Market Potential - about 2 billion
Current Market Share - .0000000000000000000000095%
Market Concentration - we'll go with geographical concentration - primarily a 15 square mile area in the East Valley with a few outliers
Market Demand - almost 0
Elasticity of Demand - well, since this is a free site, we can't really measure it, but let's assume that my content is so good that it's about .2
Here's where it gets fun:
Market Segment - if you simply looked at my posts, you would assume that I am targeting runners and readers (although really, who am I kidding, my real target audience is myself)
However, if we measure how well my content is received by the number of comments that each particular post receives, we can plainly see that my content needs to change if I want to drive up my readership.
Popular culture appears the way to go. Running, gone. Reading, gone. The Lottery, stays. WoW, not sure yet. 8.5 million current subscribers can't be all wrong. Stay tuned for my next post about the Anna Nicole mystery, to be followed by my post on Tom Cruise's bizarre love triangle that involves a donkey.
This change in strategy should increase my comments, drive up my earnings, and give me an overall boost in self-esteem. I probably should have caught on to this trend a long time ago, but you know me, I'm a little stubborn, prone to delusions of my own self-importance, and basically not too bright. Thank you all for this revelation. I didn't even need to fast to receive it. It would have helped if someone had told me this 25 months ago when I started this thing. I could have been living off of this site by now.
Market Potential - about 2 billion
Current Market Share - .0000000000000000000000095%
Market Concentration - we'll go with geographical concentration - primarily a 15 square mile area in the East Valley with a few outliers
Market Demand - almost 0
Elasticity of Demand - well, since this is a free site, we can't really measure it, but let's assume that my content is so good that it's about .2
Here's where it gets fun:
Market Segment - if you simply looked at my posts, you would assume that I am targeting runners and readers (although really, who am I kidding, my real target audience is myself)
However, if we measure how well my content is received by the number of comments that each particular post receives, we can plainly see that my content needs to change if I want to drive up my readership.
Popular culture appears the way to go. Running, gone. Reading, gone. The Lottery, stays. WoW, not sure yet. 8.5 million current subscribers can't be all wrong. Stay tuned for my next post about the Anna Nicole mystery, to be followed by my post on Tom Cruise's bizarre love triangle that involves a donkey.
This change in strategy should increase my comments, drive up my earnings, and give me an overall boost in self-esteem. I probably should have caught on to this trend a long time ago, but you know me, I'm a little stubborn, prone to delusions of my own self-importance, and basically not too bright. Thank you all for this revelation. I didn't even need to fast to receive it. It would have helped if someone had told me this 25 months ago when I started this thing. I could have been living off of this site by now.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
$370 Million
That's a lot of clams. Every news site has a headline on it. The radio personalities keep talking about what they would do with that much money. I'll admit, I'm not immune. That much money would be very nice and I can imagine many things I would do with it, not all of them frivolous. However, when it all comes down to it and as has been said by many others, "The lottery is a tax on the stupid." If you're going to gamble, play something with a little bit better odds, like craps or poker or insider trading. Not that I am encouraging gambling.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Guilty Pleasure
Not every book I read is about history, war, politics, and economics. I do have my guilty pleasures. Stephen King's Dark Tower Series is one of those. I had read books 1 through 4 many years ago and at Christmas, when I received a Barnes & Noble gift card, I decided not to add to my non-fiction library, but to add to my science fiction library and bought the last three books of the Dark Tower. I started reading Wolves of the Calla two days ago and am now about half way through it. I'm not going to summarize it because if you haven't read books 1 through 4, you'd be completely lost. It's a very good read. The series is unlike most of King's writing. When I read book 1, The Gunslinger, I was immediately hooked. There's a broad theme of showing humanity how tiny we really are that resonates with me. That and all of the gun play of course. Although if you start at book 1, know that it is the slowest of the books in terms of action. When King wrote it originally as a short story, I'm not sure he meant for it to become what it has become.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Clarification
Some have asked about moving your VO2max. Technically you cannot move your VO2max. It is determined solely by genetics. The purpose of the VO2max workouts is to be able to run at your VO2max for long periods of time. What you are moving is your current ability to transport oxygen to your heart. Let's say my VO2max is 100. However, today, my current ability to transport oxygen to my heart is 70. What the VO2max workouts do is allow me to achieve my ceiling (my VO2max). However, everyone's ceiling is different. If my ceiling is 100, Lance Armstrong's drug-free ceiling is 300. With drugs, it's probably 350. I kid. I kid.
I'd Forgotten
What a workout this is. I was home early yesterday and because my training partner begged off of our morning run due to injury, I decided to not wake up at 4:30am and to run after work with the little guy. Well, he's not as little as he was seven months ago. I would have thought that my recent speed and hill training would have given me a boost, but apparently either Zane gained 25 pounds or I am weaker than I was when I was training for Tahoe.
Yes, yesterday was a tough 8 miles. Of course Zane fell asleep about 1 1/2 miles into it and woke up about two blocks from our house. He missed the two giant hills, one of which left me feeling like I was about to vomit. He missed his dad sprinting at the end barely able to breathe so that he could make his goal of averaging under 8 minute miles, which I did, but it took a 7:20 last mile to do it. He did not miss opening the garage door when we arrived home though. Pushing the "button" is his favorite thing to do. I'm sure our neighbors love how many times a day the garage door opens and closes and opens again, particularly because it needs some oil.
Yes, yesterday was a tough 8 miles. Of course Zane fell asleep about 1 1/2 miles into it and woke up about two blocks from our house. He missed the two giant hills, one of which left me feeling like I was about to vomit. He missed his dad sprinting at the end barely able to breathe so that he could make his goal of averaging under 8 minute miles, which I did, but it took a 7:20 last mile to do it. He did not miss opening the garage door when we arrived home though. Pushing the "button" is his favorite thing to do. I'm sure our neighbors love how many times a day the garage door opens and closes and opens again, particularly because it needs some oil.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Interval Training
Aside from long runs at goal pace, the key to running fast for long periods of time is long interval training. Long intervals combine VO2max and Anaerobic Threshold or Lactate Threshold training. A long interval is a distance of 800m to 1600m. However, my personal feeling based upon experience is that intervals of 800m only really contribute to helping your VO2max, while intervals of 1600m contribute to increasing both your VO2max and anaerobic threshold.
For those that did not click on the links. VO2max is your maximum capacity to transport and utilize oxygen. Your lactate threshold is the point at which lactate begins to accumulate in your blood stream faster than it can be metabolized. Exercising at a greater rate than your lactate threshold means that you are exercising without oxygen (going anaerobic) and will tire faster than if you were exercising at below your lactate threshold. Fortunately, doing specific workouts can increase your maximum oxygen capacity, as well as push your lactate threshold back (to a point pre-determined by your genetic make-up).
My long interval workout is as follows. Once a week I go to the track (in NY, I did my long interval workouts on a treadmill). One week I will do 800m intervals. The following week I will do 1600m intervals. Today was an 800m day. One mile warmup, then right into the first 800m interval. You typically want to run each of your intervals at exactly the same pace. I'm training with someone whose Boston Qualifying time is 3:30 and according to Yasso, our intervals should be 3:30 each. Read the article. Apparently there is a correlation between running 10 800m repeats in terms of minutes and seconds that tells you how fast you will run a marathon in hours and minutes with the same numbers. Again, read the article. For me and many others, this has proven itself time and time again.
When I qualified for Boston, I was running my 800m intervals in 3:10 and my 1600m intervals in 6:20. Later this year, when I go for a sub-3 hour marathon, I will be running my 800m intervals in 3:00 and my 1600m intervals in 6:00. Yea, that'll be fun.
So back to this morning's workout. We're not up to 10 800s yet. This week, we only did eight. After each 800m interval, we slow down to about 1 minute slower than marathon pace (9 minute mile) and do this for 1/2 a lap (200m). Once we hit the 200m mark, we go right into our next 800m interval. Every fourth 800m, we slow down to 1 minute slower than marathon pace for a full lap (400m). Once finished, we cool down with a very slow 1 mile jog. And you're done. Today, our times were 3:28, 3:29, 3:31, 3:32, 3:29, 3:29, 3:33, and 3:22. The last 200m of our last interval we just sprinted for kicks. Hey, we felt good. The keys are consistent speeds and not slowing down too much during your rests. You need to train your body to experience the peaks and valleys of the marathon gruel. This includes brief periods of recovering by slowing down, but not jogging or walking. If you cannot do 8 or 10 intervals in this fashion yet, then I'd recommend to start off with 3 or 4 and to slowly build up until you can do 8 or 10. It's better to do less right than to do more incorrectly.
1600m intervals are similar, but significantly harder. Same total distance. Next week, we will do 5 1600m intervals at 7:00 pace. Between each 1600m interval give yourself a full lap (400m) of running 1 minute slower than marathon pace. Every 4th interval, give yourself two full laps (800m) of running at 1 minute slower than marathon pace. 1600m are more difficult because of the need to sustain this speed for a longer period of time, but they are also more beneficial because not only do they increase your VO2max, but due to the distance, they increase your lactate threshold. Again, aside from the long training run that incorporates marathon pace, there is no other workout that will help you as much as 1600m repeats.
I typically start my speed work 14 weeks before a race beginning with 5 800m intervals and 3 1600m intervals increasing the number of intervals each week until I am at 12 800m intervals and 7 1600m intervals. My last 1600m interval workout is 3 weeks before the race. Two weeks before the race, I do 800m intervals and 1 week before the race I do 400m intervals just to keep the leg turnover going and not to wear out my legs.
Hope this makes sense. If you have any questions, let me know. Next week, I'll talk about the tempo run, which is the more traditional form of lactate threshold training.
For those that did not click on the links. VO2max is your maximum capacity to transport and utilize oxygen. Your lactate threshold is the point at which lactate begins to accumulate in your blood stream faster than it can be metabolized. Exercising at a greater rate than your lactate threshold means that you are exercising without oxygen (going anaerobic) and will tire faster than if you were exercising at below your lactate threshold. Fortunately, doing specific workouts can increase your maximum oxygen capacity, as well as push your lactate threshold back (to a point pre-determined by your genetic make-up).
My long interval workout is as follows. Once a week I go to the track (in NY, I did my long interval workouts on a treadmill). One week I will do 800m intervals. The following week I will do 1600m intervals. Today was an 800m day. One mile warmup, then right into the first 800m interval. You typically want to run each of your intervals at exactly the same pace. I'm training with someone whose Boston Qualifying time is 3:30 and according to Yasso, our intervals should be 3:30 each. Read the article. Apparently there is a correlation between running 10 800m repeats in terms of minutes and seconds that tells you how fast you will run a marathon in hours and minutes with the same numbers. Again, read the article. For me and many others, this has proven itself time and time again.
When I qualified for Boston, I was running my 800m intervals in 3:10 and my 1600m intervals in 6:20. Later this year, when I go for a sub-3 hour marathon, I will be running my 800m intervals in 3:00 and my 1600m intervals in 6:00. Yea, that'll be fun.
So back to this morning's workout. We're not up to 10 800s yet. This week, we only did eight. After each 800m interval, we slow down to about 1 minute slower than marathon pace (9 minute mile) and do this for 1/2 a lap (200m). Once we hit the 200m mark, we go right into our next 800m interval. Every fourth 800m, we slow down to 1 minute slower than marathon pace for a full lap (400m). Once finished, we cool down with a very slow 1 mile jog. And you're done. Today, our times were 3:28, 3:29, 3:31, 3:32, 3:29, 3:29, 3:33, and 3:22. The last 200m of our last interval we just sprinted for kicks. Hey, we felt good. The keys are consistent speeds and not slowing down too much during your rests. You need to train your body to experience the peaks and valleys of the marathon gruel. This includes brief periods of recovering by slowing down, but not jogging or walking. If you cannot do 8 or 10 intervals in this fashion yet, then I'd recommend to start off with 3 or 4 and to slowly build up until you can do 8 or 10. It's better to do less right than to do more incorrectly.
1600m intervals are similar, but significantly harder. Same total distance. Next week, we will do 5 1600m intervals at 7:00 pace. Between each 1600m interval give yourself a full lap (400m) of running 1 minute slower than marathon pace. Every 4th interval, give yourself two full laps (800m) of running at 1 minute slower than marathon pace. 1600m are more difficult because of the need to sustain this speed for a longer period of time, but they are also more beneficial because not only do they increase your VO2max, but due to the distance, they increase your lactate threshold. Again, aside from the long training run that incorporates marathon pace, there is no other workout that will help you as much as 1600m repeats.
I typically start my speed work 14 weeks before a race beginning with 5 800m intervals and 3 1600m intervals increasing the number of intervals each week until I am at 12 800m intervals and 7 1600m intervals. My last 1600m interval workout is 3 weeks before the race. Two weeks before the race, I do 800m intervals and 1 week before the race I do 400m intervals just to keep the leg turnover going and not to wear out my legs.
Hope this makes sense. If you have any questions, let me know. Next week, I'll talk about the tempo run, which is the more traditional form of lactate threshold training.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Azeroth
As I've made my way through Azeroth, I've come to the startling realization that there are more active members of World of Warcraft (8 million) than there are active members of my church globally. WoW has more active members than any religion's total number of active and inactive members in the United States except for the top four. And WoW players don't even knock on doors. I feel an entirely improper anecdote that I could share in fast and testimony meeting, minus the fasting, coming on.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Sometimes
My cheapness creates interesting situations. Some might even call them awkward. I've been at a client site in the South Bay for a few weeks. That means I am able to drive, rather than BART to work. It's nice because I get to listen to KNBR, a sports radio station. However, I only get to listen to it from the front left speakers in my car. You see, I am driving our Brooklynized green 1997 Toyota Corolla and all of the other speakers have blown.
I will post a picture of it one day, but most of you have already seen it. First of all, it's green. Second, there is a large dent on the front left side from the kids playing stickball on the street in our last Brooklyn apartment. Third, there is a large key mark that starts from one side of the car goes around the back of the car and then back up the other side of the car from when Liz and her friend 'stole' an angry white man's parking spot at the Macy's in downtown Brooklyn and he decided that keying our piece of HUD was the appropriate response. Fourth, the right headlight is out. And fifth, on the hood of this car, in large keyed out letters, is the F-word from when we went apple picking in New Jersey. NEW F*%#!+@ JERSEY!!! Anyways, this car is a piece of work. But it is a paid off piece of work that gets almost 30 mpg. Buy a new car? No way. I'm driving this thing into the ground and then Zane is going to drive it to high school.
Well, last night, the team at this client decided to go out to dinner in the city, which is about a 45 minute drive. A principal at my firm (that's the highest level) who is from out of town asked me to pick him up from his hotel and drive him to the restaurant. I swallowed my pride and said sure, I'd be happy to give him a ride in The Green Hornet. He laughed and I said, no, I'm serious, it's The Green Hornet. He then just looked at me funny and I just smiled.
When I was about five minutes away from his hotel, I called him and told him I was close and to look for the green Corolla with one headlight. I'm sure he was very impressed. He mentioned on the way back that he had ridden with an analyst once who did a fantastic job on a project, but who also had a beater of a car. He said that the only feedback he had for this person once the project was complete was to get a new car. I can only hope he has the same feedback for me.
And yes, I've probably written about my car before. Redundancy strikes again.
I will post a picture of it one day, but most of you have already seen it. First of all, it's green. Second, there is a large dent on the front left side from the kids playing stickball on the street in our last Brooklyn apartment. Third, there is a large key mark that starts from one side of the car goes around the back of the car and then back up the other side of the car from when Liz and her friend 'stole' an angry white man's parking spot at the Macy's in downtown Brooklyn and he decided that keying our piece of HUD was the appropriate response. Fourth, the right headlight is out. And fifth, on the hood of this car, in large keyed out letters, is the F-word from when we went apple picking in New Jersey. NEW F*%#!+@ JERSEY!!! Anyways, this car is a piece of work. But it is a paid off piece of work that gets almost 30 mpg. Buy a new car? No way. I'm driving this thing into the ground and then Zane is going to drive it to high school.
Well, last night, the team at this client decided to go out to dinner in the city, which is about a 45 minute drive. A principal at my firm (that's the highest level) who is from out of town asked me to pick him up from his hotel and drive him to the restaurant. I swallowed my pride and said sure, I'd be happy to give him a ride in The Green Hornet. He laughed and I said, no, I'm serious, it's The Green Hornet. He then just looked at me funny and I just smiled.
When I was about five minutes away from his hotel, I called him and told him I was close and to look for the green Corolla with one headlight. I'm sure he was very impressed. He mentioned on the way back that he had ridden with an analyst once who did a fantastic job on a project, but who also had a beater of a car. He said that the only feedback he had for this person once the project was complete was to get a new car. I can only hope he has the same feedback for me.
And yes, I've probably written about my car before. Redundancy strikes again.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Warning!
Scroll down only if you'd like to see the roof rat that was killed in our garage last week. Hey, at least I didn't need to chase it around in my garage with a shovel like Tom Tolbert.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Two Months Early
Apparently I should have looked more closely at the race links I posted earlier. The Salt Lake City Marathon is not in the first week of June, as it was last year. It is on April 21st. That's less than 14 weeks away. As I'd only been averaging about 20 miles a week, that means that I need to quickly kick up the mileage and do so while not injuring myself, which as both of you know, is a tough task. My foam roller will help, but I'm not sure if it can accomplish what cortisone shots and physical therapy could not. Keep the ITB pain away during serious marathon training. We'll see.
The good thing is that SLC is not my goal marathon, but my warmup marathon. I'd be happy with a sub 3:20 and will probably run a 3:15. The fun part about this training schedule is that I have a running buddy that is pretty close to me in terms of how fast he is. We're running together Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are easy days of 4 to 6 miles.
Tuesday mornings = speed workout. We're rotating 800m and 1600m repeats at 45 to 50 seconds faster than goal marathon pace, which for him is about 7:50. We had our first speed workout this past Tuesday at 5am at the local track. It was 29 degrees, which sucked at first, but was nice once we finished our warmup and was great when we were on our 5th 800, which we did in 3:30. Nothing popped and everything felt good. Next week, we'll drop the time by another 10 seconds or so. We'll peak at doing twelve 800s and seven 1600s. Those should be pretty interesting days. Maybe I'll work from home.
Thursdays = Hills or Tempo workout. We're rotating an 8 mile trail run in the hills, again at 5am with our headlamps with a tempo run, which for the non-runners is a run where the middle 60% of your run, you run it at your 10k pace, which for my friend is about 7:15 pace. Our first run is tomorrow and we're starting with the hills. At 5am. I don't think I'm going to be able to give up caffeine for this training cycle. I do need to stay awake during most of work.
Saturdays = Long workout. Notice that I didn't say long and slow. I don't believe in running slow. To run fast, you gotta run fast. Our schedule includes three 20 milers and two 22 milers. For the first four weeks, our long runs will be 75% at a nice easy pace and 25% at goal marathon pace. The next seven weeks, we'll run 50% easy and 50% at goal marathon pace. Then of course is the taper.
WoW continues to progress slowly, although I haven't played for the past couple of days. My main character, Vlabba is at Level 15, but if I focus tonight, I think I can get him up to 16. The other day I meandered into contested territory the other day and was quickly felled by some dude riding a dragon that shot a lightning bolt at me. I told you that I hate The Horde, right? Well, at least Vlabba does. I haven't told Liz yet about the role playing aspect of this game and the dwarf costume I must buy. It's pretty tough.
The good thing is that SLC is not my goal marathon, but my warmup marathon. I'd be happy with a sub 3:20 and will probably run a 3:15. The fun part about this training schedule is that I have a running buddy that is pretty close to me in terms of how fast he is. We're running together Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are easy days of 4 to 6 miles.
Tuesday mornings = speed workout. We're rotating 800m and 1600m repeats at 45 to 50 seconds faster than goal marathon pace, which for him is about 7:50. We had our first speed workout this past Tuesday at 5am at the local track. It was 29 degrees, which sucked at first, but was nice once we finished our warmup and was great when we were on our 5th 800, which we did in 3:30. Nothing popped and everything felt good. Next week, we'll drop the time by another 10 seconds or so. We'll peak at doing twelve 800s and seven 1600s. Those should be pretty interesting days. Maybe I'll work from home.
Thursdays = Hills or Tempo workout. We're rotating an 8 mile trail run in the hills, again at 5am with our headlamps with a tempo run, which for the non-runners is a run where the middle 60% of your run, you run it at your 10k pace, which for my friend is about 7:15 pace. Our first run is tomorrow and we're starting with the hills. At 5am. I don't think I'm going to be able to give up caffeine for this training cycle. I do need to stay awake during most of work.
Saturdays = Long workout. Notice that I didn't say long and slow. I don't believe in running slow. To run fast, you gotta run fast. Our schedule includes three 20 milers and two 22 milers. For the first four weeks, our long runs will be 75% at a nice easy pace and 25% at goal marathon pace. The next seven weeks, we'll run 50% easy and 50% at goal marathon pace. Then of course is the taper.
WoW continues to progress slowly, although I haven't played for the past couple of days. My main character, Vlabba is at Level 15, but if I focus tonight, I think I can get him up to 16. The other day I meandered into contested territory the other day and was quickly felled by some dude riding a dragon that shot a lightning bolt at me. I told you that I hate The Horde, right? Well, at least Vlabba does. I haven't told Liz yet about the role playing aspect of this game and the dwarf costume I must buy. It's pretty tough.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Racing Schedule
- Ragnar del Sol Relay I'm the third leg.
- St. George Triathlon Although it appears to be sold out at the moment. Ben and Josh, you need to help me out here.
- Salt Lake City Marathon A training run for me where I'll likely be the pacer for a group that will be trying to BQ at a later marathon.
- St. George Marathon This is where I will attempt what is for me my ultimate marathoning goal, a sub-3 hour marathon.
I'll probably have some 10ks and half-marathons thrown in for good measure. Some of the people here in the Bay area want me to run some crazy trail runs, but I'm not sold yet.
What does your racing schedule look like?
- St. George Triathlon Although it appears to be sold out at the moment. Ben and Josh, you need to help me out here.
- Salt Lake City Marathon A training run for me where I'll likely be the pacer for a group that will be trying to BQ at a later marathon.
- St. George Marathon This is where I will attempt what is for me my ultimate marathoning goal, a sub-3 hour marathon.
I'll probably have some 10ks and half-marathons thrown in for good measure. Some of the people here in the Bay area want me to run some crazy trail runs, but I'm not sold yet.
What does your racing schedule look like?
Score The Quiz
As expected, I am a conservative-leaning libertarian. No shock there. Take this quiz to find out where your political philosophy lies and with which candidates that philosophy aligns with. On a more serious note, my Dwarf Paladin Vlabba is progressing nicely. This two handed mace thing is absolutely destructive. I'm on the Hakaar server in case in of you other nerds want to go on a raid sometime.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
If I Was Ever In A War,
I'd want Leeroy on my team 'cause he ain't no chicken. Yes, I've finally given in to my darker impulses. I was a Blizzard gamer for many years. Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Diablo, Starcraft, Diablo 2, and Warcraft 3. However, about five years ago, I made the switch to console gaming. The Dreamcast and the Xbox were my friends. The past year, with my Xbox broken and not having the time to play that would justify buying an Xbox 360, I've had to rely solely on my Sony PSP, which is cool, but it's a BART only type of game system.
Well, I've finally given in. A friend of mine is an artist at Blizzard for World of Warcraft. I signed up for my Free 10 Day Trial (yes, that's a hint) and now I am hooked. Oh, by the way, that Leeroy Jenkins clip at the top contains profanity, so be advised if you'd rather not hear that. Maybe I should have put that warning up top. Oh, well.
Both the Leeroy clip and this South Park WoW clip are fairly well known, but something tells me that most of my loyal readers have lives and have probably not heard of World of Warcraft before. Enjoy. Let me know when you'll be joining the online sensation (over 7.5 million players) and want to play. I'm currently a level 12 Night Elf Rogue in the Uldaman realm. I'm questing baby, questing.
Oh, and don't worry about this taking time away from Zane or Liz. Liz is an Undead Mage and Zane is a Troll Hunter. I just taught him how to chop a boar in half with his axe. I was so proud.
Well, I've finally given in. A friend of mine is an artist at Blizzard for World of Warcraft. I signed up for my Free 10 Day Trial (yes, that's a hint) and now I am hooked. Oh, by the way, that Leeroy Jenkins clip at the top contains profanity, so be advised if you'd rather not hear that. Maybe I should have put that warning up top. Oh, well.
Both the Leeroy clip and this South Park WoW clip are fairly well known, but something tells me that most of my loyal readers have lives and have probably not heard of World of Warcraft before. Enjoy. Let me know when you'll be joining the online sensation (over 7.5 million players) and want to play. I'm currently a level 12 Night Elf Rogue in the Uldaman realm. I'm questing baby, questing.
Oh, and don't worry about this taking time away from Zane or Liz. Liz is an Undead Mage and Zane is a Troll Hunter. I just taught him how to chop a boar in half with his axe. I was so proud.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Expanding
I don't have much of a passion for candy. Ice cream, yes. Cheesecake, yes. Candy bars, hard candies, suckers, no. However, last year I was introduced to these and I must say that I was smitten. The good thing is that they are limited edition, which means that finding them in stores is tough. The bad thing is that when you do find them, you buy every last bag on the shelf. Such an occasion occurred last week and I have now eaten two bags in about 9 days. I'm not counting calories at this point. I'm counting notches on the belt.
Monday, December 04, 2006
What My Family Doesn't Know
Is that I make the best menudo on the planet. Tripe, calf's foot, hominy, and three kinds of chiles. Don't tell grandma though. I'd like to remain on her good side.
It's up to us kids to take the recipes that have been handed down to us and to improve them. Some might not think that possible, but trust me, it can be done. Witness the drunkin turkey, the spanish rice, and now the menudo. However, nobody will ever make a better deep fried cheeseburger than my father.
It's up to us kids to take the recipes that have been handed down to us and to improve them. Some might not think that possible, but trust me, it can be done. Witness the drunkin turkey, the spanish rice, and now the menudo. However, nobody will ever make a better deep fried cheeseburger than my father.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Interview
I interviewed a Berkeley MBA student the other day. Very bright, we're going to hire him, yadda yadda yadda. The important thing is that he introduced me to Dreyer's Slow Churned ice cream. Apparently he did an internship at Dreyer's over the summer and found out all about slow churned. He gave me the science behind the product. Once he said that you could taste more fat, I was in. The slow churning keeps the fat molecules separate from the rest of the mix, which means that instead of a bunch of very well mixed molecules, you're tasting big giant separate molecules. As an ice cream addict, I had to try it.
I'm now just about done with the first gallon of mint 'n chip. It is magnificent. Whatever Dreyer's has done, they done it right. Even though it has 1/2 the fat/calories, it's not watery and it tastes better than the regular full fat premium ice cream. Yes, this is good news.
On a separate note, I kicked Skyline Ridge's butt yesterday at 5:45am in a downpour. I came in 3rd out of 6 and I'm not sore today. I will become a trail runner yet.
I'm now just about done with the first gallon of mint 'n chip. It is magnificent. Whatever Dreyer's has done, they done it right. Even though it has 1/2 the fat/calories, it's not watery and it tastes better than the regular full fat premium ice cream. Yes, this is good news.
On a separate note, I kicked Skyline Ridge's butt yesterday at 5:45am in a downpour. I came in 3rd out of 6 and I'm not sore today. I will become a trail runner yet.
Friday, November 10, 2006
The Dim Bulb
I am not sure what it is about me that says, "Hey, remember last week when you almost crapped your pants running due to the pain? That was fun. Let's do it again tomorrow."
Monday, November 06, 2006
Skyline Ridge
I agreed to meet a friend and his friends for a 10 mile trail run this past Saturday at 5:45am. What that meant is that I actually woke up at 4:45am in order to eat and then drive to the trailhead. To run. 10 miles. Up a mountain. Challenging my intellect at this point is acceptable.
We ended up going to Moraga (the Eastern side of the Oakland Hills). I could tell I was in trouble when A) I couldn't see the top of the hill from where we parked and B) Everyone had a headlamp but me. As we started running up the hill in the dark, I could tell I was in for a world of hurt. The first mile was worse than Diablo. These trail runners are seriously crazy. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. And everyone around me was laughing, having a great time, including a woman whose apparent job was to keep me from being last in line.
We finally summitted the ridge and from there it got worse. Up and down and up and down we went. Into the valley and then back up to the ridge and then into the valley again. Beautiful run, I think. Most of the time I felt like I was going explode from one end or the other, but I was never quite sure which one was going to pop first.
Seriously, the run was amazingly beautiful. Redwood groves everywhere and the feeling of being in Jurassic Park. What I've learned is that although I am a fast runner, I am not a strong runner. Time to change that.
We ended up going to Moraga (the Eastern side of the Oakland Hills). I could tell I was in trouble when A) I couldn't see the top of the hill from where we parked and B) Everyone had a headlamp but me. As we started running up the hill in the dark, I could tell I was in for a world of hurt. The first mile was worse than Diablo. These trail runners are seriously crazy. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. And everyone around me was laughing, having a great time, including a woman whose apparent job was to keep me from being last in line.
We finally summitted the ridge and from there it got worse. Up and down and up and down we went. Into the valley and then back up to the ridge and then into the valley again. Beautiful run, I think. Most of the time I felt like I was going explode from one end or the other, but I was never quite sure which one was going to pop first.
Seriously, the run was amazingly beautiful. Redwood groves everywhere and the feeling of being in Jurassic Park. What I've learned is that although I am a fast runner, I am not a strong runner. Time to change that.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Friends?
If you're not looking forward to this movie, then I'm not sure we can be friends any longer.
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