i was lame today and really didn't feel like running the last little (hilly) loop of my route today, so i think i only did about 19 miles (instead of 20). this last hill, at mile 17 or 18 or so, is meant to be a simulation of heartbreak, although i think it's much, much tougher:

i don't think i've taken any days off except the first two days after the marathon, but i have tomorrow off; it is going to be weird just going to work right after waking up. but tuesday it's back to the track for mile repeats, so i will enjoy the rest while i can get it.

i am looking forward to being disappointed by tomorrow's lack of productivity.

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the news hour on friday was great; they had shields and brooks come on after each segment, which wasn't something i'd see them do before. one thing that caught my ear was this bit by david brooks:

First of all, you need social pressure. Capitalism is a great system, but you can't have amoral capitalism. Capitalist institutions have to be surrounded by social understandings, by a set of norms that we all adhere to or that are enforced by shame.

it is almost as if he had just reread jane jacobs' systems of survival. i've really been meaning to go back and read everything but her first book, as many of them deal with exactly the economic situation the world has found itself in lately. sadly, only two of her books are out on kindle.

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i'd like to introduce you to my friends:

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THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA AND MONTEREY BAY AREA. .DAY ONE...TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT UNDER SUNNY SKIES TEMPERATURES WILL WARM INTO THE UPPER 60S TO UPPER 70S.

today we released the source to the project i've been working on, at vmware, which was started by alex. it still does little, and is probably not for everyone; step one for testing it out is to deploy an AD server, and it just gets more expensive from there.

but i do love our logo so very, very much:

well done, robert!

no meetings today, and i'm taking the rest of the week off to see broken social scene in portland and seattle, but then it's probably back to those ten hour days...

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still completely amazed at what i can do at the track. today's workout was 4x1 mile:

1. 5:47 (new PR)
2. 5:53
3. 5:58
4. 5:56

i love that you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to run. i love that two-thousand dollar bikes are beautiful.

i guess i should go to work.

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after some discussion tonight, i am reasonably sure i have seen the following bands the following number of times:

• page and plant: three.
• stars: three.
• bloc party: three.
• radiohead: eight.
• broken social scene: eight.
• the jimmy swift band: twenty-six.

i am scheduled to see jsb three more times next month alone.

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i have been sitting here listening to cocaine skin on repeat for hours while my dirty dishes remain unloved in their sink.

i don't have any meetings tomorrow so i'll do them after i get back from the post office.

kevin says they aren't going to play cause or break anymore. i have heard this all before, but if it's actually true this time, it's probably ok if they start playing stuff like c.s. and keep playing fuzz (insider-speak for late night bedroom rock + shampoo suicide).

the sentinel had a sorta-dry non-spicy mac + cheese today, but both the smoked trout salad and molasses cookie that came with it were super awesome. i hope they don't have the bockwurst sandwich again tomorrow, because i have a prior lunch engagement to attend.

what else what else what else what else.

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there seems to be a growing fued between the daily show with jon stewart's jon stewart and the news hour with jim lehrer's paul solman:

JON STEWART, host, "The Daily Show": It seems to me like the economy's so bad that this guy had to move back in with his grandmother. "Paul Solman, are you putting the zeroes on the coffee table again?" "No, Grandma!" "Use a coaster!" "I'll use a coaster! I'm explaining a national calamity!" "Bring me some juice, dear."

PAUL SOLMAN: Prune juice, presumably, Grandma's drink of choice, though she's been dead some 46 years now.

the rest of the report is slightly less awesome.

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spring totally started while i was in portland. the trees are blooming, and i saw a bee in buena vista park with the robins and hummingbirds.

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in anticipation of j h crawford's new book, i've finally gotten around to reading some christopher alexander. i haven't quite figured out how to apply it to sim city yet, but i will give him the benefit of the doubt and continue reading, even if it does sound like a bunch of hippie hogwash.

anyway, i have been wondering what jane jacobs thinks of this guy, and i came across this article on her works. in goes on in much more detail than i have the attention span to write, but skimming it might hopefully convince you to read her economics books, not just death and life.

the one thing that confuses me is that the timeless way refers to itself as the first in the series, yet a pattern language was published two years earlier? whatever.

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apparently it wasn't enough for me to run for three hours in the rain yesterday. inspired by catching the tail end of stage 2 on the web this afternoon, i decided it would be a good idea to go for a ride on my day off from running. toshok was in, but unfortunately the sunshine wasn't.

it was only sixteen miles, but it was cold, windy, and rainy, especially on the bridge (where it may actually have been hail). fortunately google maps doesn't show how slow we rode.

i think i will try to figure out how to get to san bruno mountain; it's bigger than hawk hill, doesn't involve a terrifying bridge, and is still only 10 miles away.

looking forward to repeat miles at the track tomorrow, and then lunch. my first meeting isn't until 4!

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apparently b. had never really believed that i played the drums until she saw me play rock band. in that spirit, here is some unforgeable proof that i used to be ok on a bike (check 32nd place). that page doesn't mention it, but it was a 28 mile ride, which comes out to averaging a little better than 24 mph. not bad for probably my first race in over 3 years!

if you scroll alllllllll the way to the bottom, you can see that, at 17, i was in the 21 and below age group. that seems pretty crazy but there you have it. anyway, in that race they'd send each age group off in its own group, and miraculously i managed to avoid getting dropped (until the last 200m or so). so it's not like i was near the front of this huge race, i was in the back of a small group.

in... 1993? i won my age group (14 and under, likely) in the twin sizzler. that was pretty awesome, too, but sadly it was before the internets reached the ohio farmcountry.

in totally unrelated news, i am probably going to have to move soon, since i bought some art and don't have enough wall space for it. i am especially excited about having art that is worth more than its frame (which i may have mentioned before).

i really need to go to bed.

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i just went and looked at the terrain view of google maps for the chagrin valley; the hills i used to climb in cleveland during high school. i'd say those hills were... 250' to 300' vertically at most.

today's route had two real hills; the first, which took about 22 minutes, was the toughest hill i'd ever done. that record didn't last long, as the second (which the ToC rode on monday), around 1750' itself, took about 43 minutes. i am not embarassed to say that i was not feeling great at the top.

according to my technologies, the total route was about 38.5 miles, with almost 4400' feet of total climbing. these numbers should probably be taken with a few grains of salt, but they certainly dwarf the difficulty of any ride i've done before. i suppose that means i'm a stronger rider than i've ever been, which is a little surprising considering how little i've ridden in the last... ten years.

this morning i was pretty set against getting a new bike, but man, i probably should.

another night of sleeping well awaits!

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