Missionary Talks 05: Steve Hathaway

Episode 5 is up! Go check it out and leave a comment. Also you can vote at Podcast Alley.

The behind the scenes info on this one is that this was the first time that I did some re-arranging on the order of questions. I moved some around so it flowed better and I ended stronger. There were a couple of other things that I would have liked to move around, but as much work as it was, I am happy to just have it done.

This one required the most editing. Sound quality is considerably better I think though. Starting next week you will get to hear an even better sound (I hope). Each week I am learning new tricks.

Thanks for listening as spreading the word.

Thanksgiving Run

Since today is a day off, I thought I would put in a longer than normal weekday run. Not that this morning is really any different for those of us who mostly work in the evenings. I have treated this morning as time that I don’t feel pressured to accomplish anything productive. That allowed me to get up late (still before 7:00) and lounge around until breakfast. I normally run before I eat a real meal, though I have a small bowl of cereal most mornings before running. Today I had bread pudding and piled a caramel sauce made with goat’s milk onto the bread pudding.

I was thinking that the goat’s milk caramel would make a great running gel. It has about the same consistency. In some aspects it is good, in others, not so much. Packed with carbs and calories. Twice as much as my PowerGel packs. But no sodium to speak of. But the carbs/calories must have done something for me. I had a great run, even extending it beyond my planned mileage.

After breakfast I lounged around to let the food settle. Since it has been so cool in the mornings, I saw no danger in getting out a bit later. It got down to 55 degrees last night. Second night in a row. I ran at about 65 degrees this morning.

Because of having eaten a bigish breakfast and it not settling completely, I felt kinda sluggish early in the run. Until about mile 3 I was not sure if I was going to do my full 6 miles I had planned out. But somewhere around mile 3 the sugar must have kicked in. I felt great! When I was getting close to home I decided to add at least one more mile onto the run. Because I had told my wife I would be home in about an hour, I did not want to go too much over that. I ended up with a 7 mile run that felt like a short maintenance run. Great stuff.

The dogs around here must all be imported from the USA. In México this is not a holiday since Thanksgiving is a US holiday. But the dogs were taking the day off. I did not have a single dog chase me (very rare). The few that did bark were behind fences. The only dog that was not behind a fence that barked at me was the cutest little schnauzer puppy. He only barked after I went by and he thought I was a safe distance away.

Or, the lack of barking/chasing could have something to do with the fact that I was out an hour later than normal.

But, I think the real reason lies in the fact that most were humiliated. They could not bring themselves to act like dogs this morning. “Why’s that?”, you ask? Well, they were wearing T-shirts. The last two days there have been an increase in dogs in T-shirts running around the streets of Mérida. It got down to 55 degrees the last 2 nights. And everyone here knows that a dog cannot survive in those extremely cold conditions unless you humiliate them and put a shirt on them.

So, I stick to humiliation as being the reason the dogs did not bark or chase me this morning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Where were you in 1621? Probably not in Plymouth, Mass. Or wherever they celebrated.

About 4 years ago we were in Plymouth and got to go see the rock. I am not sure if I have any pictures of it. I do remember that it was very cold. I don’t remember the time of year, but I think it may have been late October or early November.

Being the nerd that I am, I called my school principal (from 15 years previous) and left a trivia quiz on his answering machine. I said I was looking at a rock with the year 1620 carved into it. I wondered if he knew where I was. When he called me back, he knew. Can’t even get any satisfaction out of trivia on old school teachers.

While out running this morning I saw a Pilgrim’s Pride food truck. I knew it had to be Thanksgiving.

We are going to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving. Should be about 30 or so people there. Mostly US people. There will be a couple of Canadians with us.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

New Mixer

Well, it is new to me. It is a Realistic 32-1200B.Mixer Nothing fancy, but it was something I could afford. Do you know how much stuff like this costs in Mexico? Yikes! The nice little Behringer UB802 sells for $45-50 in the US. Here it sells for $90. I bought this Realistic used for $35. The nice thing is that I can turn around and sell it later for the same price. Stuff just does not lose it value here. Or, at least no one wants to sell anything for a lower price.

Now I can record my podcast without having to yell at the mic. One of the nice things about not having had a mixer before is that I never got extraneous noises in my mic. The noise source had to be loud and deliberate to be heard by the mic. Now I will need to be more aware of my recording room so that I don’t have too much outside noise coming into the mic.

This was apparently made around 1994. The information I have found on the web shows information print dates between 1994 and 1996.

Now I need a mic stand to go with it. Then a pop filter, then…

Einstein and the Zune

It appears that after his death, Albert Einstein found himself working as the doorkeeper at the Pearly Gates. One slow day, he found that he had time to chat with the new entrants.

To the first one he asked, “What’s your IQ?” The new arrival replied, “190”. They discussed Einstein’s theory of relativity for hours.

When the second new arrival came, Einstein once again inquired as to the newcomer’s IQ. The answer this time came “120”. To which Einstein replied, “Tell me, how did the Cubs do this year?” and they proceeded to talk for half an hour or so.

To the final arrival, Einstein once again posed the question, “What’s your IQ?”. Upon receiving the answer “70”, Einstein smiled and asked, “Got a minute to tell me about what Microsoft was thinking when they released the Zune?”

(Apologies to the Fortunes program which included this in it’s original form and to Prof. Einstein for bringing him down to the level of Microsoft.)