I ran this weekend. A lot.
It’s a technique I heard about once from a non-medical person. A way to train for ultras is to run for X amount of time on Friday evening, then again on Saturday morning and again on Sunday morning. The first time you do this, X is equal to 10km or one hour. (I forget which, they’re almost synonymous with me.) Then you increase X to a 20km run the next weekend, and then a 30km run. Supposedly X should equal a 40km next, but I’ve never gone that far. This time around, scheduling was a problem, so I skipped the 20km X and went directly to 30km.
Friday wasn’t bad. It was nice and cool, and I was fresh. Also a little ticked off at work gave me anger to work with. I also had good stories to listen to on my iPod.
Saturday morning wasn’t quite as easy; It was a lot hotter that day, and my legs still felt a bit stiff. It didn’t help that I realized I didn’t have any clean running socks and just reused the last ones. Apparently that is a recipe for blisters. Also, I hadn’t eaten enough after the last run and my iPod ran out of stories. The rest of the day on Saturday was spent doing almost nothing.
Trying to sleep that night was weird. I felt a bit restless, but not terribly so. I may not have eaten enough again (which surprised me) as my stomach felt like it was eating itself.
On Sunday morning, I popped my blisters and went to the Running Room where I planned to run the final 30km. The group I was usually with was in a weird state with the group leader away camping. So we made our own route. But the group had planned to do 40km. It was nice and cool, and I actually felt better today than yesterday. So I went with them all the way.
I also tried a salt pill for the first time. I waited until my right leg was feeling tight, which seems to be my sign that I’m low on salt. The weird part was that a minute after I swallowed I started sweating a lot. More than I can ever remember doing. I still had plenty of water, and I used it. The human body is a strange machine.
Unfortunately, the guy with the GPS unit ran out of batteries, so we guessed at the distance. By my calculations we did 38km.
98km in one weekend. I’m probably going to have restless legs tonight.

I phoned MEC to ask about salt tablets, and while they still didn’t have any they recommended another place I had never been to before. I phoned and they did indeed have something quasi-salt tablet like. After work, I went and got a bottle for $28. I’ll try one out on my run tomorrow evening.
Then I immediately went to Fast Trax to pick up a missing part of my Blackfoot ultra race package. (I won’t get into the details of that. Just a new/weird piece of clothing.) While I was there, I discovered they had the same salt tablets as well. For $3 cheaper. Also available in a much smaller, more convenient bottle. (Thankfully I hadn’t missed them the last time I was there; They only got them in the past week.)
So now I have plenty of salt tablets. Contraband no more.
I hope they are actually useful to me.

I’ve figured out why I don’t like telephones. It is the worst of all possible worlds.
With face-to-face conversation, anything you say can, and will, be used immediately against you. It is very easy to say the wrong thing. Fortunately you also have visual clues and can convey more information and feeling.
With email, and instant messaging, there is no facial expressions to give an idea of the context of what is being communicated. But you have the chance to look at what you’ve written and can delete it if it looks inappropriate; Before it actually leaves the computer.
Telephones allow none of that. No facial expressions, and instant foot in mouth.

The recovery from the Blackfoot wasn’t bad. It helped that I had a therapeutic massage two days after. The biggest recovery problem were the blisters on my feet and they went away after a week. However, on Sunday I went for my first run after the ultra. I thought it would be between ten to twenty km, but it ended up being 24km. Unfortunately, I wore the same shoes that I wore for the first loop of the ultra. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now they hurt a lot worse. I don’t know if it was my arch or not, but just standing up on my right foot was painful.
It has slowly been getting better. I can’t hold off on running for too long because I have the Death Race happening in two months. So tonight I went to the Running Room for the regular evening run. It did not feel bad. In fact I think my foot is feeling better. So I joined the orienteering club and went for another run.
I don’t know how I feel about orienteering. I like running. I like maps. It should be the perfect harmony. But I don’t care for the searching around for the control points. But I paid the extra money to join because I really like the maps that they make. I’m wondering if I can use them to help plan running routes.
On a completely different note, Catwoman is as bad as they say it is. I especially found Halle Berry unbelievable as a frumpy ditz. And I can’t support a film that glamorizes crazy cat ladies.

I read a book review in the Economist awhile ago about “The Lost Art of Walking”. The review seemed favorable enough, and since walking isn’t that far from running, I decided to pick up a copy.
I’ve started reading it, and I haven’t been that thrilled so far. I’m only two chapters in. The first chapter seemed to be a lot of dry facts that I found rather boring. The second was about walking in Los Angeles, which I found more interesting since I’ve been there. I could relate to his descriptions of places.
There was one passage though that caught my eye:

If there’s a journey’s end for the Hollywood Boulevard walk, it’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where people congregate and pay a couple of dollars to have their picture taken with a lookalike: a Marilyn, an Elvis, a Charlie Chaplin, a man in a Spider-Man suit, a woman dressed as Wonder Woman. Since changing facilities are limited on Hollywood Boulevard, most of the characters arrive already in costume, and in order to avoid commuting, many of them live in the area within walking distance of work. One of the best sights I know in Hollywood is to see Wonder Woman emerging from her apartment block on Las Palmas and striding up to Hollywood Boulevard, getting into character as she goes.

This answered a question I’ve had since last February. If I look at the location it took place (just south of the theatre,) I can say I had my Wonder Woman moment.

Back in May, among other things, I commented about a pain in my neck, both figurative and literal. But for now, I’m referring to the literal.
I had changed how I did pushups, but I eventually stopped when I noticed, while reaching for a carton of milk, that my arm felt weak. This is the same arm that has a recurring torn rotator cuff issue. I wasn’t in any pain, just weak.
Totally out of character for myself, I decided to be proactive and made an appointment to see my physical therapist. (Who I really need to put on speed dial.) I felt embarrassed about it because I wasn’t hurting, and I was feeling even better after a visit for a therapeutic massage on Monday. I felt I was going to be wasting her time.
The entire session I was apologizing for being a big baby. But she was actually quite happy I came in. I did have the signs of it getting to be an actual problem, and it is better to catch it early. Although I think it is harder to diagnose the problem when the patient doesn’t scream in agony when you poke in a sensitive spot. (As opposed to only being able to say that that spot might be tender.) That said, healing will be much swifter since I’m not starting from zero.
I have new exercises to do.

Well, I did it. I ran 100km.
The day started at 5:00 AM, so I got to see the sun rise as I was careering through the woods of Blackfoot park. My two friends who had peer-pressured me into this were there as well. We had 14 hours to finish the four laps of 25km each, but there was an additional cut off; If you didn’t finish three laps in 10 hours, you were pulled off. So the plan I had was to do the first two laps in three hours each, and accept three and a half hours for the third. That would give the last lap enough time that I could walk it if I needed to.
On the first lap, Robert was off like a rocket. He is the fastest among us, and I realized that I should not try to keep up with him; I would just crash and burn. Instead I spent the first few minutes pacing and talking to a cute girl, who eventually made a point of pointing out her boyfriend. (I don’t think I was being obnoxious.) I eventually dropped behind her, and didn’t see her again. At least until I saw the final results and saw she never made the third lap cutoff. I then kept pace with Mike for the most part. He is very good at maintaining a steady pace and keeping people in line. My biggest problem seemed to be that my shoes started hurting my feet. Maybe I hadn’t broken them in enough? I loosened them, but it didn’t seem to be enough. Fortunately I had an extra pair back at the starting point.
At the 21km refueling station I tried some flat Coke. Oh my god, it was good! I had heard caffeine was good for runners, and this was an intensive sugar drink filled with empty calories. I’ve found a new energy source.
The first lap took 2:50:08, and I only took 1:40 to change my shoes and gather more supplies for the next leg.
On the second leg, I started leaving Mike behind. My new shoes felt a lot better. I also started paying more attention to the timing. I found out how long it took to reach certain landmarks so I could gauge how much slower I was going. The chief landmark was the highest point in the park, about 20 kilometers in. I found I had reached it four minutes slower than in the last lap. So, it isn’t a surprise that I finished this loop in 2:55:17. I had a 1:23 turnover.
The third lap was getting tougher mentally. I knew I could be slower, but I didn’t want to be too slow. I was still very surprised I passed Robert at 16km in. He had lost energy and couldn’t maintain speed. By this time, the 21km refueling station had run out of Coke and was trying to pass off Pepsi. It was not nearly as satisfying.
My eventual time was 3:06:26 with a turnover of 2:09. I was under nine hours! The winner of the race finished in nine and a half hours, so at least I was never lapped.
I left before the others had gotten in, passing them coming in.
The fourth lap was the worst. It became a total mental battle to keep going. The one thing that helped was the fear that my two friends were right behind me. If Robert had still been ahead of me I could have relaxed more, content that I was not in the lead. But I wasn’t, and I wanted to keep my friends behind me. (I’m very competitive, and Mike had never let me live it down that he was technically faster than me on the Death Race.)
The first few legs had had fairly good weather, with the partly cloudy conditions making it tolerable. But on this leg, the sun was out completely, and it was blazing hot. We passed the expected daytime high. To top it off, at the start of the leg I could feel blisters forming on my right foot. I should have changed socks, but I was paranoid that if I took off my shoes, I wouldn’t be able to get them on again without them being too tight. The highest point in the park became a nemesis. Not because of height, but because I couldn’t tell where it was. I kept climbing up hills I thought must be it, only to have to go down the other side. I think this happened five times.
By now the 21km refueling station had only 7-Up, and it wasn’t even flat. Surprisingly I caught up to someone else I knew who was faster than me and my friends. However, when he saw me, he sped up and I never got close to seeing him again.
I finished the last leg in 3:21:26. My friends never passed me. In fact, it was 25 minutes before Robert came in. Mike was five minutes later.
My official total time was 12:18:32, I placed 13th out of 38 people who started. Only 30 crossed the finish line.
I wasn’t feeling that bad afterwards. I didn’t collapse, and had energy to stretch. I tried to eat, but my stomach wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. My feet hurt the worst, and they were covered in dirt and blisters.

I’m getting really nervous about tomorrow.
One of the things is that, for the entire time I’ve been awake today, so far, I will be running tomorrow. When I put it in those terms, I can wrap my brain around it and it doesn’t sound encouraging.
In my head I’ve just been picturing it as a regular marathon. An easily manageable four hours. But this is 100km in 14 hours. I HAVE to be done by 7:00 PM or I fail! And my entire year plan is based off of making it.
So, some pressure is happening.
I hope I can sleep tonight.

I’ve found out about a new contraband substance: Salt tablets. Which surprises me, because I didn’t think they were illegal. I’ll admit they probably aren’t good for you, but I can’t buy them anywhere. (I’m probably just going to grab some salt packets from a diner and try using those on a run.)
While out searching though I discovered Atkins bars. I assume these are bars made by the Atkins people for people who just want protein. These would probably be perfect for the next time I need to do the no carbohydrates thing.
No.
That would be an understandable mistake. I looked at the ingredients. Each bar had 19-21g of carbohydrates. Surprised me. Way more than I want.

I met some friends at O’Byrne’s yesterday evening. I still have to do this stupid Atkins thing, so it limited my menu selection. I thought the pub wings would be a good, all meat selection. When asked for the flavor, I should have taken salt and pepper. Instead I took lemon and pepper; It sounded harmless enough.
I should have been suspicious when I tasted the best chicken wings ever.
There must have been carbs in them, because I was feeling fairly good that evening. Today has also been pretty good. I should be feeling horribly cranky.
But it is hard to believe there were that many carbs in those wings. Maybe the vitamin pills I’ve been taking have been keeping me normal?
Still, I felt the need to burn some more carbs. When no one showed up for movie night tonight I went and did a 7.5km run. I still feel good.
Tomorrow is freedom to eat though.

Next Saturday I have my 100km race. I don’t think there is any running I can do anymore to improve myself. So I’m reduced to focusing on nutrition.
Carb-loading.
The key here is to eat a lot of carbohydrates before the race. They provide the energy you burn when running. So for three days I will eat as much of those as possible. However, you need to prime your body to be very accepting of carbs. And the way to do that is to not eat any for three days.
Carbs are in a lot of things.
Today was the first day. I’ve been eating eggs, meat and cheese. It has been hell. The biggest problem is that meat without any carbohydrates is somewhat hard to make. So I’m not sure if I’m always hungry because I haven’t been eating enough, or if my body is just craving carbs.
I have been dreaming about vegetables.
At eye level in my fridge is a cupcake leftover from yesterday’s party.

I had my annual barbecue today. I think it went well. One of the biggest problems seems to be too much food. We never even got near the chicken. I also had the problem of too much beer as well. I brought some yesterday, but so did other people. I think i have more beer in my fridge now than when the party started.
And I don’t drink beer.
Actually the most popular drink seems to have been the big 4L bottle of chocolate milk.
When I was asking people what they wanted to drink, someone mockingly asked for schnapps. The joke was on them though, as I brought out the pair of bottles I had purchased in Austria. The evening ended with them finally being opened. I even tried.
The pear one in the headless, limbless, naked woman bottle was the most popular. It got referred to as the “boobage” one. Although at one point Beth remarked that it didn’t smell like her boobies. Which brought the question, “How would you know?” So people tried to see if they could do some yogic poses that would let them sniff their breasts. Alcohol was going to our heads.
The blue schnapps was the more dangerous. The bottle indicated that it should be lit on fire and included matches to help with the process. Robert started and lit his for a few seconds, then covered the glass with his hand; The vacuum sucked his palm in. He then tried it and decreed that it tasted like mouthwash. When I tried it, I followed the directions on the bottle and let it stay lit for a few minutes; I figured it would burn off some of the bad taste. It glowed nicely, especially when the lights were turned off.
Unfortunately, I tried to do the hand covering trick. The glass was a lot hotter and even broke after I pulled my hand away. I now have a nice, circular burn on the palm of my hand.
Chicks did scars, right?
Smeared it with aloe vera.

IMG_7377
Originally uploaded by ad_havoc

At least, if an accident was going to happen, it happened then and not when we were cutting the watermelon with a large machete.

Actually, looking at the last email she sent, I don’t think she even read my explanation; Attributing to malice or stupidity what can be chalked up as ignorance. I really want to email her back and defend myself. Should I be?

It’s amazing how important it is to me to be liked. I never felt liked in school and so I constantly want approval, even now. I’ve noted in another person the same trait, not recognizing it in myself. They got really upset when a person, that didn’t seem to be worth their time, got into a fight with them and would no longer be their friend. I felt that you shouldn’t try to make everyone happy.
And now I’ve done the same thing.
When I’m on vacation, I take pictures. And I want to be a nice, liked, person, so I go out of my way to get copies of the pictures to the people that are in them. I’ve done this in Jamaica and I did it when I was in L.A. I was actually an official photographer for the event organizer. I collect email addresses and try and be diligent at getting the photos to the respective parties as quickly as possible. And afterwards, when I send the event organizer the copies, I don’t include the ones people would prefer were kept private.
And I don’t play favorites; If you are in a picture, I assume you should get a copy.
However, this last time someone said that they didn’t like a picture I had taken; They didn’t like the person that they were in it with, and I should delete it. Note: This was not a photo that was taken surreptitiously; This was a photo that they posed for together. Of course I was only told this after they had seen the picture. i.e. After I had sent the picture to all the people in it.
She is now very upset with me; I have caused drama for her and I have screwed her. I can understand this, but since I was only told not to release it after the fact, there was nothing I could do. I’ve explained my side, and I don’t think she is going to accept my apology. Yes, I did something wrong, but I didn’t know it at the time.
I really want to reply to her last email, to make her understand. I am sure though that this would be a mistake; There is nothing I can say that would calm her down.
So I’ve been feeling horrible lately because a person I barely know, in a different country, hates me for something that I was trying to be nice about.
In a (barely) related topic, I have been waking up in the past two mornings with a lot of pain in my neck. Fortunately I had a therapeutic massage scheduled for this morning, and it looks like the push-ups I do before bed have been too much for me.

I did the Heart and Stroke Big Bike today. I hadn’t planned on it, but my company needed the extra person. Basically, you get donations and then you get to ride the 31 person bike. I don’t know if it is a reward or punishment, especially on a day like today. (Nearly freezing temperatures.)
I didn’t know I needed to get donations when I agreed to replace someone. They kept giving me hints on how to raise the money though, mostly by asking friends and family. That thought actually made me sick to my stomach. I have spent so long hating spam, the idea of sending it out was anathema to me.
I donated money myself, and then got the rest from the person I was replacing.
There was a nice BBQ after.

Many years ago, when I first got CostCo membership I noticed I needed salt. (You can probably tell where this is going.) I was not under the impression that salt would have a best before date, so I got the four pack. Each pack is about 1kg.
Actually salt does seem to go off. It doesn’t go bad but it congeals into a large clump.
I have been finding I need salt lately, but not a big clump of it. (I have one and a half boxes left.)
There is only one question that remains: Will it blend?
Why yes, it will. But I don’t know if I want to breath the “cloud” that comes out when I open the lid.

I was feeling really out of it today. I was wondering if I was coming down with something. Eventually I figured it out. I hadn’t taken in enough calories. After the long run yesterday I should have eaten more. It took awhile, but my body just decided not to put up with me anymore.
I hear this is what makes Survivor boring when the contestants run out of food.
I stopped off for groceries on the way home from work. I wanted dried apples, but I could only find dried apricots. I opened up the bag while driving, and apparently polished off 215g of fruit. I think I’m paying the price now.
The irony of this is that I’m concerned I’m getting fat. My mother and sister commented on it the last time I saw them. And because I haven’t been eating consistently with my exercise, my body is being starved. And a starved body will happily take anything and store it as fat.

It has been quite some time since I updated this. It started out with being busy, but it continued that way because of a combination of laziness and not knowing what exciting thing to put down. Since not much is exciting around here, I wasn’t getting help on that front.
I’m still busy. I really need to get my taxes done and I haven’t even opened up a tax program. I’m concentrating mostly on going through all my financial papers and getting them filed. Once I’ve done that, everything left will be relevant to taxes.
I have still been running insane distances. Today I ran two loops of the four I need to do on my ultra at the end of May. I felt better when I did it this time; Better than last week. Unfortunately, conditions went downhill (and not in a good running way) on the second loop. The first loop was fairly dry and had good traction. I did begin to hate horses for all the wrecking of the trails their hooves have done. When I did the second loop, the snow had started to accumulate, and it was sticky. It didn’t happen to the people I was with, but my shoes kept picking up. Every hundred meters I would have to shake my feet to get off the snowball that had stuck there. If I didn’t, it would feel like I was running in high-heel shoes. Not comfortable.
And to think it was twenty on Tuesday.
A few weeks ago, while I was at my parents I ran through a herd of cows. I had discovered a good loop to run, but some cowboys were shepherding their cows down the road to another field. I asked a small girl on a horse if it was okay to run through, and she said it was okay. She was the only figure of authority I had access to, so I had to trust her. The cowboy at the other end of the herd told me I was very lucky. Cows are protective of their calves. In my heart I knew that already, which is why I tried to stay as far from the cows as possible. I did help get a few of them into their new field quicker though.

I have arrived at my parent’s place. Hopefully this will be a vacation.
My father has been back home from the hospital for about a week now. He is still weak though. He actually looks better than before he got sick. That’s because he lost a lot of weight, and he was somewhat overweight before.
However he needs a new wardrobe. His pants are actually falling down. My sister describes it as a “bad vaudeville act”.

Last Sunday I saw two friends. Like a lot of my friends, they are former co-workers. One of whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. I noticed one thing; They looked like adults. They are also doing adult things, and generally acting like adults. One is married, the other is moving out of town for a job opportunity.
I don’t feel like an adult.
Honestly, I don’t feel like much of anything.
I have lately found work unfulfilling. I like programing. I can even enjoy tracking down bugs in code if I feel like I’m making progress. But that isn’t happening. I’m stuck in processes. And trying to replicate bugs that aren’t replicating on my machine. (You can’t fix what you can’t see.)
I did an experiment. I worked on my own personal programming project and fixed a bug that had been there for a long time. And I felt good. I accomplished something. This proved to me that I like programming. I just don’t like work. The daily drudge of frustration.
So I’m feeling down.
I did get a perk up when I received an email via my dating service from a girl interested in me.
So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.

On Saturday morning I ran 47.4km. That is a long distance.
The traction was good enough. I had cleats in my backpack, but I didn’t wear them. There were moments when it would have been nice, but it didn’t seem worth it.
Because I left for the run in a rush, I didn’t have a chance to bring my newspaper in. It took me quite awhile to notice, but it was missing when I came back home. Someone stole my newspaper!
It is apparently sunny enough that I have gotten tanned/burnt. At least I have color in my face again. Although the haircut I got later today has revealed pale spots.
Because I did the run on Saturday, I don’t have to do it Sunday morning. Which means I can stay out late on Saturday night.

It has started to happen. The signs have been appearing.
Last year, training for an ultramarathon sucked all my free time away. I didn’t have time for any other activities. Or chores. It is already happening now. I wake up, going over the things I need to do, and realize that I can’t figure out when I will have time to do any of them.
I live for the weekend, when I think I will have time to do things, but I still don’t. By then I’m too tired to actually get around to doing the work I need to do.
I wanted to have a party next month. There is no way I can get this place cleaned up in time for one.

The worst part is that I know there are people who are going to be saying “I told you so.”

Battlestar Galactica ended over the weekend. Despite having cable and recording it, I still downloaded it off the internet. I guess my computer has higher quality than VHS. And less commercials.
My thoughts on it: “You got your religion in my science-fiction!” “You got your science-fiction in my religion!” It was like the Matrix trilogy all over again.
But now that it is over, the only television show I ever watch, I don’t need cable. I canceled it yesterday.
They did try and convince me to, instead of canceling, to get digital cable. And it was a convincing argument. I would be more likely to watch television if I could control it better than with a VHS machine that likes to eat tapes. But I don’t have time to watch the stuff I have on DVD.

Last night was fairly sleepless.
Not because my father is getting worse. He seems to be much better. His spirits are up, although they went down a bit when he found I was returning back to Edmonton. But I have a job I really should be doing.
No, last night was sleepless because the dog got its comeuppance. It took several days, but I think the frozen roast has had its revenge. At around midnight, the dog started acting strange. He would not settle down. He wandered all through the house, with loud clicking sounds from his nails on the hardwood floors. He would find someone in bed, growl them awake, and demand attention like he wanted something. With me he was generally happy with ear scratching, but that didn’t let me sleep. With my sister, he got up onto her bed and paced on that.
Was he hungry from his new diet? Well, he ate food but wouldn’t settle down. Were his muscles aching from the run I subjected him to? He ate the baby aspirins, but continued his pacing.
After taking him for a walk today we figured he was constipated. Although why that makes him antsy, we don’t know.

My father appears to be getting better today. I didn’t see him; The family decided to just have his brother spend quality time with him. But we’ve kept up on updates via cell phone. He has been alert today and the doctors are optimistic. For me, the big sign was that he wanted his new iPod Touch to play with. (We had gotten him one as a present early on but he was too sick to use it.) If he’s getting bored then he must be getting better.
I think I might head back to Edmonton tomorrow.

I don’t trust good news anymore. My father’s state is so up and down; It’s an emotional roller coaster. I had some lingering doubt after all the good news of the morning.
My uncle is coming in to see my father. The original plan had been to serve him a roast that my mother had in the freezer. But over the weekend, an emergency call came in, so my mother and sister left quickly to be with him. My mother had thought she had left the meat to defrost on the counter far enough away from the edge so that the dog couldn’t get it. She was wrong. He ate the whole thing. The whole frozen thing, including the bones.
On an unrelated note, the dog is now going on a diet.
The family went to Costco to get more supplies. While there we called my father and it sounded like things were getting worse. My mother was very shaken by this news. One minute later, an employee with one of those crate-moving pull carts bumped into her. She was hurt, and when the employee turned to try and help her, he did not notice that he caused the metal handle to hit her in the head. Bad timing. She tore him a new one and stomped off. My sister then chewed out some other people for laughing. The employee must have had a bad day because he looked like he was about to cry.
Were a little emotional right now.
My father says he is feeling better. The doctor think that when he had the reaction to the penicillin, his body started producing a lot of acid which has been eating at him. They plan to give him clotting agents to try and stop the bleeding in his intestines and other medicine to heal the ulcers. In the meantime they are going to keep giving him blood.
Donate blood.

My father called and said that his doctor is “As pleased as punch.”
This is a good thing.
However, he still needs lots of rest. We’ll see him in the afternoon.

I got a call from my family with news that my father wasn’t doing well. The doctor, when asked if I should come down, said “definitely”. That is not a good sign.
He is bleeding internally. A lot. He has ulcers in his stomach and sores all along his intestine. The doctors put him on a complete diet. He wasn’t allowed any food and only got nutrients intravenously; They didn’t want his stomach producing acid. They really aren’t sure what is going on with him.
Today they decided to let him eat again and that seems to have helped a lot. He was practically inhaling food. Apparently he is more alert and, I don’t know what this means, his hemoglobin count is climbing. So I think he is getting better.
I went directly to the hospital from Edmonton and spent an hour with him before I let him go to sleep. So I think he is doing better, but things have changed overnight before.

I saw the Watchmen movie over the weekend.
I don’t know if it was a mistake, but I reread the comic right before going to see the movie. So I was continually comparing the movie to the comic. The Watchmen is to comics what Citizen Kane is to movies. Be forewarned.
There were times in the movie when I felt it was rushed. The comic had more time to develop scenes, and the movie rushed through those. But, if the movie hadn’t been rushed, it would have been too long. And the length was pretty appropriate; I did not feel exhausted coming out of the theatre.
Of course there were other changes, and there was a big one central to the whole plot. But I like the change; It made everything fit together better. The comic could have been improved by it.
They also did a very good job with the music in the movie. Very period appropriate, but also theme appropriate. “Everybody wants to rule the world” playing in the background of the guy who obviously does. The Bob Dylan song in the opening credits was also perfect. (I should go buy that song.) And there is only one song you can ever play now when their are helicopters in Vietnam.
Go see it.

Today was a bad day at work. It started out well, but fell apart in the last half hour.
Since I’ve been given to a new project I have felt like I’m not pulling my weight. I’m supposed to be fixing bugs, but I don’t know the code and I’m frequently trying to fix bugs I can’t reproduce. Today I started work on a bug that I felt like I was making progress on. I felt good about myself.
Up until I found out that a senior programmer was working on the same bug and had just fixed it. The only good part of fixing bugs is the catharsis that comes from actually fixing it. So I got all of the pain, and none of the joy. And I continue to feel stupid and unhelpful.