Birthday Season

October is a big month amongst my family and friends. When we used to live near each other we would have an October birthday party. Everyone got lumped together, kinda like birthdays near Christmas. But since there were so many, it was a really good time.

There are three birthdays that surround today. One yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Yesterday was the birthday of my best friend as a teenager, Pastor Phillip Winn. He was a big influence in my life in a good way. Though my parents may have something else to say about that. He is 10 years older than I and was my youth pastor at church. We remained very close friends through the years, though distance separates us and we have not been able to spend much time with one another. He now pastors a church in Oklahoma. I was looking for a link to his church or him, but found nothing. I did find a Phillip D. Winn that I am pretty sure is not him. If it is then: HEY! YOU NEED TO SHARE SOME OF THAT LOOT WITH ME!

Today is the birthday of one of my all time favorite software packages, OpenOffice.org. I have been using this since it came out, at least since early 2001. They celebrate 6 years today and they also released a new version of the software. It is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. I have used it on all three platforms and it is the only office suite that I have used for a few years now.

Then tomorrow is my favorite mom’s birthday. She has been with me for a long time. Probably since the day I was born, though I don’t really remember.

Happy Birthday everyone! 

Podcasts and Hate round 2

About a month ago I ranted on what I hate about podcasts. I have come up with a couple more items to add to the list.

Before I get to the negative, I want to highlight a change for the better. Dr. Monte at Fitness Rocks podcast said on his most recent episode that due to listener feedback he would be changing the format to less music and making it just the intro and a highlighted song at the end. This is great news. I love the information presented in the show and think this will make his podcast better. I actually had the privilege of discussing this with him through the original post and email. Thanks for listening Dr. Monte. I know I did not sway the whole decision, but one voice can make a difference.

Since my original post on the topic, two other things have popped up. One has always been there and another one seemingly has gotten worse in the last few weeks.

The problem that has always been there is related to the music. Yes, I hate your music! If I want to listen to music I have my own thank you. Leave yours at home. Beyond the fact that I don’t like Joe Podcaster’s choice in music he plays it too loud. I don’t really understand audio levels, but when I am listening to speech I have to turn the volume up a bit to hear it well. Then, when the insanely loud music blares in I have to fumble with the player to either turn down the music or fast forward the song before my ears start bleeding. What is the deal with that? If you insist on having music that I have to fast forward through, you can at least not hurt me in the process.

Secondly, I think someone told all podcasters within the last couple of weeks that they are not under FCC jurisdiction and they can say anything they want without being fined. I realize that there are “adult podcasts” out there (read “smut podcasts”), but I don’t subscribe to those.

I ran for two and a half hours on Saturday. You get to listen to a lot of podcasts during that time. Without even trying I started noticing all the profanity. These are shows on fitness, running and technology. At what point did it become sociably acceptable to swear when talking about video cards, capacitors and trail running? I will tolorate only so much. Then I won’t just stop listening to the shows. I will first contact the podcasters and bring up my concern. Then I will post publically that it is not getting any better and hopefully someone will start taking notice.

I realize there are some people who talk like this all the time. I don’t. Never have. Podcasters who want to reach a wider audience shouldn’t either.

Here is a snippet from Wikipedia on profanity.

A profanity (or swear words, or curse word, or foul language, or dirty word) under current colloquial use is a word, expression, gesture, or other usage which is generally considered insulting, rude or vulgar.

The original meaning of the term was restricted to blasphemy, sacrilege or speaking God‘s name in vain. Profanity represented a secular indifference to religion or religious figures, while blasphemy was a more offensive attack on religion and religious figures.

Whether you think certain words are considered curse words or not, you should consider what may or may not be appropriate. What is acceptable to you may not be to your audience. Certainly there are some words that everyone knows are unacceptable.

Try thinking about how you would talk to a 90 year old lady whom you have never met. That is the way I want to be treated. I know we want podcasts to be personal and not stiff, but proper speech is not stiff, it is creative. Do what your teachers told you in school, look for good adjectives to say what you want to say. You can impress me with good words. You only offend me and cost yourself a listener by using inappropriate words.

Up to this point I am not naming names, but I will when it comes time.

Smoking or Non-Smoking

“Four people. Non-Smoking please.” I said to the wait staff when we walked into Boston’s Restaurant today. We don’t normally go on Monday, so we did not recognize any one in the place. Normally we are there on Sundays or Fridays.

She took us to a table. Right next to it was “Dragon Lady” blowing smoke. I am talking the very next table. I told the seater that I did not want to sit there. Indignantly she said, “Sir, this table is in the non-smoking section. And that table [with Dragon Lady] is smoking.” To which I replied, “Yes, I know. I don’t care. I won’t sit here.”

She reluctantly took us to another table.

Interesting tidbit. When I went to look up Boston’s to give a link I decided to see where their restaurants were in México. Come to find out, we have the only one. Aren’t we special?

Bad day for cats

If you have a weak stomach, maybe you want to skip to the next post.

Yesterday morning when we were pulling out of the drive to go to church there must have been a kitten in the engine compartment. My wife was standing at the gate and saw the kitten on top of the tire. He must have jumped up there from being inside somewhere. When he jumped off he jumped right in front of the tire. Well, he did not make it.

You would think that a half mile drive to church would not be so tramatic.
Today my wife came up to my office and said she needed my services. That’s never good.

One of the other kittens had crawled up beside the washing machine and died. It was rejected by its mother last week. I had to dispose of it.

There were 3 kittens born in the adjoining lot to our house about 10 days ago. Now there is just one left. They hang around our house, but they are just strays.

Did I win?

Sure did! Did I have the fastest time of all those running the Phedippidations World Wide Half? No, but I am still a winner. I got out there and did something most of my readers won’t do. Ok, maybe not most since many of my readers are fellow runners. But certainly something that the general population isn’t doing.

Pre-race
Last night I was up till about midnight getting the route planned out. With Google Earth it was much easier than the last time I ran this distance. The last time I had to ride around on my bicycle a little bit each day for a week trying new combinations of roads to get the 13.1 miles mapped while still keeping the turns to a minimum. If you have never run that far, 13 miles is a long way. When you have to make lots of turns, it is hard to remember where to go next. With Google Earth I just got it all laid out last night in about 20 minutes.

I also got my playlists for the mp3 player all set. I was really looking forward to the episode of Phedippidations where the listeners called in with words of encouragment. Steve was going to put it all together into a great show to hear on race day. I was really disappointed to see that the episode length was only 13 minutes! Was I supposed to play this thing 11 times to make it through the 2 hour 30 minute run? I checked the file because something seemed fishy about it. Come to find out, it did not completely download. So I redownloaded the file which ended up being over an hour. Glad I checked that. I would have been frustrated when the episode ended abruptly. Of course, I included a few other shows in my playlist scattered with several listenings of “Eye of the Tiger.”

I got up a bit after 6:00 to get started. There was not much coffee left from the day before. So I only had a 1/2 cup. Then I could not find my headphones. It took a bit longer than normal to get things together and ready to go. Normally I can be ready for a long run in about 30 minutes. Took closer to 45.

My wife snapped the picture on the left just before I got ready to head out the gate. Then I was off.

Race
I missed hitting the split timer on my watch at mile 1, but at mile 2 I was running Before and After the PWWHM9:30 miles. Through mile 6 I was at a 10:30 pace. That would have been a great pace to have held through the whole run. But at mile 8 I knew I was not going to be able to maintain it. I was starting to really get winded and not be able to move as fast. I took a short walk break and that helped carry me back to the house for a bottle of Gatorade and to finish off 9 miles.

With 4 miles to go, I was feeling pretty good. But, I also knew that I was probably not going to finish strong. Physically I could still move fine, but my pace had slowed to a crawl. I started run/walking (10 min. run, 1 or 2 min. walk) for most of the rest of the run. I had just been trying to push too hard. I rarely am winded on a long run because my pace is so much slower, but I kept noticing that my breathing was tough. I ended up taking a 5 min. walk at about 12 miles.

I finished in 2 hours, 39 minutes and 24 seconds. That is 10 minutes 24 seconds slower than my run in May. The picture on the right is after the run.

I never did stop and get a Coke during the run. That was part of my original plan. During my long training runs I have been drinking a Coke in the middle of the run. This is a replacement for the gels and carb food/drink that long distance runners use. They just are not readily available here, so I resort to a 16 oz. Coke instead. I can’t help but think that missing that Coke had a bigger impact on me than I thought it would. I guess I will never know.

Post-race
I felt pretty good afterwards. Not at all like in May. In May I was physically beat up. My feet hurt long before the run was over. I ended up losing toenails due to feet/sock/shoe issues. Today, my feet are tired and a bit sore, but not at all destroyed like they were before. My wife is not sure she believes me that I really ran it this time. I looked and felt much worse in May. Today she said I just look like I normally do after a Saturday long run. She thinks I spent the morning at the coffee shop and ran through a sprinkler before I got home. Well, I can assure you that even though I am not wiped out for days like before, I have the pain to prove to myself that I did the run today.

The last half marathon I did not want to even think about running for a long time ever again. But today I feel much better and probably won’t lose my running focus like I did after the last one.

Check out the race results to see how the other runners did as well.