Knock, Knock!

Looks like December finally showed up in Sheridan (I understand it made an early appearance south of here). Let's see if he sticks around any longer than November did.


I'm just glad I seized the opportunity to go for a run yesterday afternoon after getting back from testing - there was the better part of an hour of daylight left, it was in the high 50's, and I wasn't dog tired. Instead of listening to one of the C25K podcasts (knowing that I probably wouldn't make it a solid 20 minutes and thus subjecting myself to the disappointment that comes with walking before the "you're half way there!" interjection), I instead played one of the more uptempo playlists on my iPod. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, as I have a tendency to become a human metronome (just ask the piano player in the praise team I play guitar for at church) and most of the songs were just a bit too fast for me to keep up with. That being said, "Okay" by Shitdisco is the little bear's porridge to my Goldilocks - just right.

I have a number these days,
Regis

Oh, the Brutality

I went running last night and kind of almost sorta maybe did most of the 28-minute run for Week 8. It wasn't really a continuous process, and I wound up doing four or five blocks at a solid run at the end (I was listening to "Fashion Zombies" by the Aquabats, and decided to keep tempo). It would have been a nice evening, but I somehow managed to chafe the living hell out of my nipples.

Frak me, does this suck. I dont' know that I've ever chafed 'em before. I've run in the same shirt before. I guess I should look into something a bit more high tech? But that's not even the big question right now.

My larger query is why I even have nipples in the first damn place? This is seriously making me rethink my stance on intelligent design.

There is no explanation - these children are just victims,
Regis

Today's Revelation

No, I'm not posting about Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his running mate (although, for the record, I like it).

As it turns out, Lizzie the miniature pinscher (New Danger Dog Studios namesake and she of profile pic fame) does not make a very good running companion. She likes to sniff things and poop in places that require me to pick it up too damn much. It's a shame, because she's a little porky.

In related news, I still need to run the C25K week seven program once more to consider the week completed. Ah, well.

Here I go again on my own,

Regis

Sex Ed

I came across a webcomic called Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (it's pretty awesome thus far) and felt compelled to post this argument for Bush-style abstinence-only sex education.




In other news, I rocked the twenty-minute run that concluded C25K week five like it was Falco and I was Amadeus. Excelsior!

Er war ein Punker,
Regis

Payback

As previously mentioned, I'm in the middle of week four for C25K. I should be done with it and ready to start week five, but Thursday kicked my ass. Having kind of learned my lesson on pacing, I didn't overdo it on the first three intervals so as to not curse the final five minute run and all associated with it to the deepest bowels of Hell, but alas! I couldn't keep jogging, giving up after about a minute. I don't know if it was a hydration issue, the result of eating a less than I normally do before heading out, a shoddy night's sleep, or a point somewhere in a diabolical Venn diagram of the three. Since I didn't finish it, the day didn't count and I had to redo it.

Fortunately, I kicked it's ass right back today.

Linus mentioned experiencing that burst of extra speed you often see runners produce at the end of a race, and I had it for the first time today during the last minute of the last run. But of course, being me and all, I kicked it to an unsustainable speed and had to dial it back a little. All the same, it was pretty damn awesome. Week four lost it's power of intimidation; week five, on the other hand...

Back in the ring to take another swing,
Regis

Week Four

Today was the start of Week Four in my C25K adventure, a week composed of running for three minutes, then five minutes, then repeating both intervals.

All I can say is, it's a good thing that I'm so good at listening to the suggestion that I pace myself during that first five-minute run, so as not to wish a swift and merciful death halfway through my workout. Yep, if I'm good at anything, it's following obvious cues like music with a slower tempo and the explicit pointing out of such.

Thank goodness I've got a nearly spiteful stubborn streak to make up for it.

Don't stop 'til you get enough,
Regis

Capitol Adventure Recap and Such

How are we doing out there, gang? I'm feeling pretty damn good today.

After a longer break than intended between re-finishing C25K Week One and re-starting Week Two, I eventually managed to get my butt out of bed and get to the SJHS track this morning. The run wasn't as bad as it was the last time I did it (of course, that was the straw that gave the camel shin splints), so that's pretty heartening. When I got there, there were two ladies that can charitably be described as broad walking a small dog (a big no-no) that probably weighed twice what it should have. So, naturally, the dog got picked up and carried half the time I was there. Seriously, this dog made Lizzie, my replacement whom we affectionately refer to at times as "Porky," look like a miniature pinscher Kate Moss.

Meg and I went down to Cheyenne for my cousin Cody's wedding this weekend. It was a lovely ceremony in a beautiful cathedral with a pipe organ and awesome acoustics (yeah, I'm a musician...). The reception was likewise a lot of fun, between my uncle's perpetual beer refilling and ecstatic dancing, my aunt doing tequila shots for the photographer, the flower girl (almost painfully cute, and she knows it) dragging the ring bearer all over the place, and a decent DJ that played Bille Jean - if only I actually knew how to moonwalk. Add in a lot of paisano, and you've got a pretty classic Michelena family shindig. Best wishes to the happy couple!

We went to Cheyenne by way of Laramie so we could see the old crew (at least, those that were still in town and not off getting drunk and hitting people with sticks). Thanks to everyone for the epic game of Phase 10 and helping me shatter Frank's previous high score, even if it means I came in dead last. Oh, and we averaged about 40 mpg for the trip (we took the Yaris).

In other news, James Dobson is being James Dobson, and Beaver and Steve (one of my favorite web comics) is going on hiatus. Lame.

It was "ice" knowing you,
Regis

Here We Go Again

After a long couple of weeks recovering from shin splints, I got back to the track this morning. I repeated the C25K Week 1 program and will do so once more before moving on to Week 2. It felt good to get moving again, especially after a couple of more or less concurrent weeks of downloading and processing LIDAR data for the main road of a new CBM pod.

LIDAR (Lignt Detection and Ranging) technology uses a laser to determine distance and elevation. For topographical purposes (what I'm using it for), the data is downloaded from what is essentially a large spreadsheet into AUTOCad, where it is then used to generate a Triangular Irregular Network (TIN), which in turn generates topographical contours. The TIN is also used to produce a road's centerline profile and generate the road's original ground cross sections; the original ground cross sections are compared to design cross sections to calculate the quantity of earthwork (cut and fill) construction of the road will require.

LIDAR is great because we can generate topography for any given spot without having to send out a surveying crew - particularly handy if additional topo is needed beyond what was originally thought necessary. The one problem with LIDAR is probably more a problem with the computers we use - the downloaded LIDAR for a given area is just too much information to use. As such, after spending hours (and hours and hours, if the project in question is big enough) downloading LIDAR into AUTOCad, we have to spend more time (not as much, but it can still be significant) thinning the data down to a manageable amount that is still acceptable for our purposes. (This made me think of the bit from South Park, wherein Jimbo and Ned explain their new justification for hunting - to thin out the numbers of local deer, rabbits, and other wildlife. "We're environmentalists!")

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Okay, that was very interesting, but so what?"

Good question. In the end, it just felt really great to get back in motion after sitting on my ass dealing with LIDAR (and more LIDAR, after finding out I needed a whole lot more when I received a fence line which was smack dab in the middle of the data I'd spent the better part of a week prepping) for the past couple weeks. Here's looking forward to more.

Thin our their numbers,
Regis

Lame +1

My Couch to 5K experience is on hold, gang - two weeks in and I have shin splints. This is pretty lame in and of itself, but the icing on the cake was my simultaneous diagnosis yesterday of a sinus infection. You know what they say about when it rains, right?

In better news, I finally got my IOU Hawaiian shirt from my birthday last year this Friday. The shirt's surf motif fit in quite nicely with our preferred Friday music at the office, Cowabunga Uber Alles on XM 53. For a moment, at least, there was great rejoicing throughout the land.

I think it's time for more tea,
Regis

Going The Distance

Taking inspiration from His Sinfulness, I have embarked on the Couch to 5k program. Running (or cardiovascular endurance of any real kind, for that matter) has never been my strong suit, but this looks like something I can handle. I'm telling you, my single-digit readership, about this so that I have some accountability in this endeavor. I recently got home after my first outing at the junior high track, and I have to say, I hated it a lot less than I thought I would (the podcast telling me when to run and when to walk helped quite a bit). So do me a favor and help keep me honest, mmkay?

In other news, I auditioned for a melodrama last week, but the show isn't happening due to low turnout. As a result, I'm searching for another excuse to grow a mustache.

Cheers,
Regis