It’s been another day of full blown busy.
It started out well. I got a good night’s sleep and then set out for a 32km run. I felt good for most of it. I think it may have had to do with better nutrition while actually doing the run. (Two powergels instead of one.) Then, in the middle, there was talk of doing an extra three clicks at the end (because we weren’t doing the 11km of speed work.) If I did that, then it would become the second-longest run I had ever done. After waffling with the idea, I decided to do it.
But I made a miscalculation. I thought the group leader would go back to the Running Room before doing the extra distance. Because I was quite a bit ahead, he was able to… deek?… deke?… uh that hockey term, and he took off while I had slipped into the store to get more water. I didn’t notice until a few minutes late. I started to run to catch up, but I didn’t have “racing” energy. Just “maintain speed” energy. I gave up and enjoyed stretching.
Since then, I’ve felt a lot better than usual for such a long distance. My legs don’t hurt (except for my toes) and I don’t feel spaced out. I was able to run the D&D game today without too many brain problems. (Climax too. The undead army was stopped, but the bad guy got their hands on the really evil sword.)
I talk about running a lot. I’m trying to re-evaluate my anecdotes. There are two topics that I continually bring up. I’m trying to avoid them now. Running is one. I can’t imagine it is that interesting to read about.

Yesterday I got a Nintendo Wii. I probably won’t play it much, but instead treat it as a party machine. Have friends over, play Wii-games. I don’t want to think about it too hard, because I can’t really justify buying it.
I haven’t played my Xbox (original, not 360) in years. I have a game I want to play, but I can’t ever find the time to sit down and goof off with it.
I know, I know. I’m supposed to make the time. But that is easy to say.
To use the Wii, I did have to unplug my Xbox and disconnect it from the TV. So now it is even less likely that I will get around to playing it.
Actually, one of the more fun parts of the Wii has been designing Miis, the little avatars that represent you in the games. Try to get them to look like each person who is playing. It is a great way to ruin friendships.

I was supposed to go running this morning. That was the plan for quite some time. Since I was going to be in Priddis, I couldn’t do the usual Running Room run. So instead, I would go on to the highway and start running west towards Bragg Creek. After an hour and a half, one of my parents would pick me up.
I didn’t contend with vacation mode.
The weather was fairly miserable down there. So last night I could not motivate myself to consider running. It was cold and there was no sun. That wouldn’t be any fun. So I skipped it.
Ironically, it was beautiful out there today. But too late for the run. Instead, we went into the Kananaskis park and took a walk. It was a forty minute walk in. Then there was some exploring of a hill at the bend of the river. And in theory, it would be followed by a leisurely forty minute walk back.
There is a pile of stones and rocks that I have been carefully constructing in my parent’s driveway. I alternate between calling it a navigational marker or a navigational hazard. In either case, I think it should be bigger. And at the bend in the river there was a nice, big rock. And I took it upon myself to haul it out of there. My mother estimates it at 25 kg. I am terrible at estimating weight, but it was heavy.
I’m wondering what state my back is going to be in tomorrow. My arms were limp at my side for most of today. Lifting a much needed can of Coke to my lips was a major undertaking.
Fortunately I could manage to lift them to the driving wheel of the car this evening. And now I’m back in Edmonton.

Today was a much needed day of goofing off. After over three months, I finally got back to the Civilization IV game I started at the new year. I took a gamble that the French wouldn’t finish their spaceship in time, and it paid off. I was basically a shut-in with my family (the weather here isn’t spectacular.)
But now, I have conquered the world. I can put the game away for awhile with no regrets. Now I’m on to being productive.

I’m at my parent’s place in Priddis now. When you are here, you have to deal with morning dog. It’s like morning breath, but only furrier. And demanding to be scratched. And heavy on your stomach. And come to think of it, it is nothing like morning breath.

Okay, this might be offensive to some, but that hasn’t stopped me before.
The War on Terror isn’t going well. It strayed from its original focus and is now stuck in the mires. I think part of the problem is that it is an esoteric concept. How do you know if anything has changed. Nobody in the free world was blown up recently, but that was true last week as well. You can’t tell if things are better.
If you want people to sit up and take notice, and support the government you need to declare war on something that is happening all the time. Where people will immediately notice if things have changed.
We need the War on Spam.
Not the lunchmeat! You know what I’m talking about. None of this namby-pamby stuff. We need an actual war, not a bunch of bills that haven’t changed anything.
Make the conditions of being spam ridiculously easy to achieve, so that a broad net is cast out. I don’t know what the conditions are, but something that covers a lot.
Then if someone sends spam, they get arrested and thrown in jail. None of this talk of fines, they aren’t a deterrent. Hard time in jail! Boo-yah!
Of course that is the privilege of citizens. If you are in another country, then let’s be a bit more severe. You are terrorizing the domestic internet, so we will need to be harsh. Once you are found out, the country in question has a week to hand over the guilty party for a trial, or war will be declared for aiding and abetting them. A very short war that consists of black-op troops slipping in under cover of night, and grabbing the guilty (not presumed innocent) party. If he resists, then he’s too much trouble and should just be capped.
This would put the fear of god into spammers. I’m fairly sure that the amount of junk email would drop off. And the average citizen would notice that his life is getting better.
Is this fascist? Of course. But the War on Terror seems to be getting fascist, so the bar is fairly low.
The only country that could get away with this would be America. They have a military and they aren’t afraid to use it.
Canada could not. “Oh look. They’re trying to assert themselves in foreign countries. Isn’t that cute.”

I’m improved out. No, scratch that. Doesn’t make sense. I’m “improvisationed” out.
The improv guru Keith Johnstone was teaching a four day class and I had signed up for it. I had to take Thursday and Friday off to attend. No big deal.
After the Thursday class, I went and attended my regular evening improv class.
After the Friday class, I went to the late night Theatresports.
After the Saturday class, there was a party for a bunch of improv people. Lots of fun and discussion of improv.
Today, the class wasn’t in the morning so I went on a 24 km run. I had to get up at 7:30 for it, which meant I only had four and a half hours of sleep. A large bottle of Coke was my best friend for the afternoon.
I’m really tempted to skip dinner and just crash.
The workshop was great. I did get to be beat up by a rabbit in a karate suit. Mr. Snuggles soon became my master and led me into a karate competition where I was against Timothy the Bear. I won and my Sensei decided I could get a disciple of my own, and introduced me to a horse.
Keith knows a lot, and his advice is good for life in general. (Improv: It’s not just for theatre anymore.) I’ve taken extensive notes, and I’m glad they weren’t stolen from their spot next to my waylaid brownies.
I reported the robbery to the police. They gave me a number and everything. I’ve done my part to make the crime statistics accurate in this city. And in the harsh light of day I found some damage. There is a little plastic nib against the driver’s side window which is now bent outward. I have no idea as to its purpose, but it shouldn’t be that way.

I went to the bar late this evening with two friends. I took my car but the friends walked.
Afterwards, at around 2:15, I offered them a ride home. When we got to my car, the doors were unlocked and the console and glove compartment were open.
Someone had broken into my car!
Nothing was damaged. I didn’t see any fiddling with the locks or anything. I looked through and I could see my sunglasses, gloves, jar of grey poupon, iPod radio tuner, loose change, spare glasses, and other sundries were all there.
The only thing missing was a half eaten bin of one-bite brownies that I had purchased from Costco for the improv classes.
I suppose I should feel violated, but I’m more amused. They rifled through my stuff and took something that was barely mine. Maybe worth $4 after taxes.
I still should report this to the police so that crime statistics are accurately reflected.

Okay, I’m not going to do the run today. Normally I do a faster, shorter run on Wednesdays, but with my legs still hurting, I figure I should give them a rest.
In other pain news, I have blisters on my palms. I enjoy poking at them. But there isn’t any real pain. Just a weird feeling. Poke poke poke.
In lieu of run I think I will take a half hour walk. It should give my muscles a chance to clear out the lactic acid. And give me some fresh air.
Today is a special day. My week has ended. I’ve signed up for a four day improv course. So I’ve taken tomorrow and Friday off to attend.
I get to stay up late!

It was 31.37 km according to Google pedometer.
And today was filled with a world of hurt in my legs.
And yet that is nothing compared to what happened later. I went to help my friend with the last scene he needed, which involved me falling. This was not a professional production so there were no stunt men, or even padding. Trying to get a good spill for the camera I got a nasty rug burn on my palms. And man, does it hurt.
I’ve tried Aloe Vera gel, but only ice understands my pain.

I have survived. And my car was still there at the end.
I ran for 2:55:05. My legs really hurt. And I have listened to the dulcet tones of Bob McDonald through three episodes of Quirks and Quarks.
The original plan was Chianti’s. I’m not sure I can make the walk that far away and be there before it closes.
A shower wouldn’t hurt either.
I’ll look up how far I actually covered later.

It was probably 1987 the last time I was roller-skating. Not rollerblading, but roller-skating. I was in grade 7 at the time, and I was bad at it. It was a school trip and I spent most of the time clutching the wall.

Rollerblading is much easier.

Today was the Rapid Fire Theatre AGM, held at a roller-skating rink. The meeting, as usual, was fun as we have a bunch of people with short attention spans all trying to be the center of attention. The chair was competing against a bunch of retro-arcade and pinball games for the remaining attention span.

There was pizza as well. I ate quite a bit of it. The acting I was doing for my friend did not result in the promised lunch so the last time I had eaten was breakfast. I’m not blaming anyone for that. We were running behind and lunch would have taken too much time. As is, we still haven’t finished.

The acting was really tiring as I kept having to sprint through the halls of Grant MacEwan college. I’m not used to anaerobic exercise, so it is draining. But we got good shots and I’m looking forward to the final product. Of course, I did have to make sacrifices. I had to repeatedly collide with an innocent bystander.

Anyway, the AGM was fun. And after it was over we went roller-skating. I could have brought rollerblades apparently, but it hadn’t occurred to me. So I had the standard, ancient, four wheels like-legs-on-a-table roller-skates. They didn’t quite fit, so my feet started hurting. I think I’m getting a blister on the bottom of my foot.

Which all leads to the planned run tomorrow.

• I have blisters on my foot.
• My back is feeling weird from all the crashing into people.
• I gave pretty nice directions for someone who wants to spend three hours stealing a car.

I’m still going to do it. I’ve been thinking of parking some distance a way so that my car isn’t completely obvious. But that should extend the distance. Which might also be a good thing.

There are some movies that are better seen with other people.
It was funny in the theatre with friends. Seeing it alone, not so much.

Usually I do the long run on Sundays. But not tomorrow. I have a friend who needs an actor for his movie project for school. He needs me on a Sunday for quite a long time. I can’t fit in a run before, and I have an AGM to go to in the evening.
I really want to do the run. It is supposed to be one of the two longest runs of 32km that happens when training for a marathon. I feel I should do it. I missed a long long run two weeks ago. I had hoped I would be needed for a shorter time tomorrow so I could do it on my own (as opposed to the usual running group) in the afternoon. Apparently not.
I’m now thinking of doing it on Monday evening: Leave work, immediately drive to Whitemud creek, run to Capilano bridge, and back again. (Not quite 32 km, I think, but close enough. It’s the same route I tried to rollerblade at least once a year before I started running.) Then enjoy a well-deserved dinner at Chianti’s on their cheap pasta night.
My only fear is that the sun will set and make it completely dark while I’m in the river valley. I guess that will encourage me to run faster.
The benefit of this is that I don’t have to go to bed early tonight. I’m thinking of watching My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Maybe popcorn?
If I was more ambitious I would go out to a bar and “socialize”. But I would rather see a movie.
But first, dinner.

Today was a D&D game day.
In the past I’ve been making my own adventures, or heavily modifying them to fit into my “campaign”. This time I’ve been basing it all of an existing adventure I bought last year. It is amazing how much easier it is. I’ve still modified it, but mostly that is just changing the names.
And it has been a good adventure. It was very cinematic today. An old stone bridge collapsed around the heroes. The monk threw a large keg of explosive powder into an army of undead. Unfortunately, he then ran down the stairs to escape, and the explosive went off a little soon so the foundations of the keep were collapsed. But he used his monk-y skills to dodge the rubble, running along walls and escaping with his life. All to meet his friends who were proceeding to blow up the remaining bridge. It went off a little sooner than expected, so we had the classic run-faster-than-the-explosion scene.
Classic.
The army of thralls is still largely intact, but delayed. And about to march on the city that is in the midst of a major party.

Why yes, I am nerdy.

Yesterday was the big premiere. I was on stage at the Maclab in front of people I know. People with blogs! wrote a review in hers. also wrote about the experience. Lana was there as well with a friend, but it remains to be seen if she mentions the experience.
I had fun. But let me comment on the three plays I was in.
The first “Eye to Eye” could have gone better. The background music was too loud and the principal actors spoke too softly. And they mixed up their lines. I was the waiter in the scene. Since I had such short stage time I memorized my lines between the brief moments I was onstage. In practice that worked. I thought I had more time at one point, but since the lines got mixed up, a large chunk of the play was missed, and I didn’t hear my cue. Then the other actors started asking for a pen, a prop they have never mentioned before in any of the rehearsals.
All in all, that could have gone better.
“The Interrogation” was my showpiece. I was on stage the entire time, and I think I did well. I mixed up only one line, and the actress didn’t even notice, so I’m pretty sure the audience didn’t. The bigger problem I found was that I had forgotten to take off my waiter’s apron between the plays. I don’t know if anyone noticed since I was sitting most of the time.
The final play, “Now we’re getting somewhere” went well. I got all my lines right, and I was a properly smarmy sales-schmuck. I was getting pretty thirsty by that one, so I was jealous of the actress who had to chug an entire can of pop.
Go read other people’s blogs for better reviews.
I was really wired after, so I didn’t get to sleep until much too late. And I haven’t recovered from the 29km on Sunday, so the run today was not pleasant.

I’m not too nervous yet about the show tomorrow. I’ve mostly got my lines down pat. I’m actually more worried about what to wear.
We haven’t exactly had a dress rehearsal.
Still, should be exciting. I’m especially looking forward to having more free time now that the class is over.

The weirdest thing is happening.
For a Halloween party, I took many pictures. People of course wanted me to send copies. No problem. One woman only gave me a MySpace address. Unfortunately you can’t send messages unless you are also a member. I signed up and sent the pictures. And then washed my hands of the whole thing.
This weekend I’ve gotten five requests from people who want to be my friend. It’s great for the self-esteem, but I have never heard of these people. And looking at their profiles, they all seem to be young sex-starved women from the US.
And their descriptions about themselves match word for word.
And who is this “Tom” guy from L.A. that actually is supposed to be my friend. I didn’t say he was. Does MySpace think I’m so lonely that it is assigning me friends. Awfully forward of it.
I must say, my opinion of MySpace, not high to begin with, is not being helped by this.
I’m marking them as spam.

So I did the run this morning. And I feel tolerable. The injury didn’t bother me, so I’ll assume that it is gone. I would like to say I feel great, but 29km doesn’t afford that luxury.
That and I think I attacked myself last night.

I have a theory about why I hurt so much from the treadmill run I did last week. The Wednesday before, when I went for a quick run outside, I did it in shorts. It was a bit above zero, so usually that is warm enough that the exercise will let me get away with being comfortable. But, my knees did feel a little stiff afterwards.
So maybe it wasn’t my company’s fitness program. Maybe it was my own fault. It would explain why I always seem to get injured in Spring every run.
After the feast today (or technically yesterday) I did the treadmill thing again. This time it felt good. Well, it felt hard, but it didn’t feel bad. I also did a warmup and stretching beforehand.
But, isn’t a treadmill incredibly boring?
Why, yes. It is. I’m only on for twenty minutes, and I do have an iPod pumping out my absolute favorite running tunes. Otherwise it is mind numbing.
When I was in junior high and high school, I had a different exercise program. Before dinner my father and I would go to a nearby track. There I would run a few laps, while my father would walk the dog in the opposite direction. The distance would start at about a mile at the start of summer and get longer and longer over the season, as long as I hit the speed mark I needed to add an extra half mile to the distance.
I have no idea how I did that. It sounds really boring.
The chief architect of continuing that program was the dog. She was very insistent that we go. She loved to roam around the schoolyard where the track was. She could investigate lots of smells and feel safe; At any time she could look up and check that we were still there.
I miss that dog.

Work is in a weird state.
We got acquired a few months ago, and I think that was a good thing.
It is harder to notice when you are in it, but there were a lot of problems. Morale was bad. Innovation was stifled as we would only do what a customer asked instead of being proactive. Decisions were discouraged, so that none were ever made. It was depressing.
But it became really depressing when I noticed.
This really happened on Tuesday when the new company had someone over to examine the corporate culture. We were first made to fill out a survey about the old company, rating aspects of it on a scale. Most of us noticed that it was rating pretty poorly. So the round table afterwards became a gripe session. This was escalated by the lack of managers present. I hear that the afternoon discussion was not nearly as illuminating. They say that no names will be recorded, but it is really hard to complain when the manager responsible is across the table.
Since we still have the same managers, decisions still aren’t happening. (A meeting happened where only the organizer showed up, and the managers “forgot” about it.) The new company claims to really like innovation, and I believe them. I feel empowered, so I am taking the lack of decision as a sign to create my own project. I’m looking at rewriting the UI to be more standard, and allow the OS to handle globalization and 508 compliance for us, and still be cross-platform.
I complain about this, but it still a nice company. We are getting a social activity tomorrow. Pizza and An Inconvenient Truth. It’s a nice perk.
Still, I have to start improving myself. I really do want to be more innovative. It’s been beaten out of me, so I’m working to get it back. The new company has career counselors, so I’m interested in that.
Or maybe I should look somewhere else entirely.
I’m not sure what I want. What do I want in life? As a cliche, I’m going to say “I have to find myself”. Maybe the European trip will help. But that is going to happen in Autumn. I need to start focusing on the now.

As much as I hate to admit it, this has been one of the better daylight savings times.
I hate that George Bush shifted the dates. It feels imperialistic, and something Microsoft would do to get its way.
Despite the running injury, I still woke up early on Sunday, but then I was able to go back to sleep. That set me into the new timezone in a rested state. Now when I wake up it is dark, and I seem to be sleeping better.
And coming home while it is light out is a nice feeling.
How long this lasts? I don’t know.

The final acting class was today. Well final before the big performance.
Next Tuesday, at 8:30 in the Maclab theatre at the Citadel, I will be on stage performing. Anyone is welcome to come and watch. It’s free! It shouldn’t last more than an hour.
Hopefully I don’t embarrass myself.

On Saturday there was an all day improv class. Overall, it went well. But there was a part that didn’t.
We were doing a longer-form improv set in a Jane Austen novel. I was the dashing stableboy who was in love with the woman of high society. It was a good play. However, the notes given afterwards said that I did a terrible job of showing love for the girl.
I plead guilty. I had the same note at the last class. I really can’t portray love, or interest in a girl.
I was hoping the real acting class I’m taking would help with this. But that class hasn’t taught me much about portraying emotions. Instead we try and get into the head of the characters and act like they would. Which doesn’t help when you have nothing to base the portrayal off of.
I need more practice with women. Fortunately this seems to be happening. A week before, I went with a friend to New City. She wanted to go to look at the goth people, and try out some semi-goth clothing she had. I’ve been there before so I was the guide. (Not that I totally feel welcome there.)
It was actually a very nice experience. She has a boyfriend, so there was no pressure to try and make a good impression and I could just be myself. (Yeah, I know that’s what I’m always supposed to do. And I will say that plan looks good on paper.)
We spent the time looking at people and commenting. There are always interesting costumes to look at. When she was pondering the structural support of a piece of clothing (more a lack thereof) for someone’s breasts, I was more than happy to ogle and offer my opinion. (They do dress kind of slutty down there.)
It was a nice way to boost confidence.

I skipped my long distance run today. I blame my company’s fitness program.
I have made no secret of my running habit. I regularly go out and do half-marathon distances as training.
My new company will give me extra benefits if I have an active lifestyle. Cool! Their measurement of an active lifestyle is exercising for twenty minutes, three times a week.
Sounds reasonable?
When I do my running, I do forty minutes on Wednesdays and around two plus hours on Sunday mornings.
That is only twice a week. So I don’t qualify.
To “cheat” the system I’ve been trying to run on Friday evenings. Twenty minutes on a treadmill, doing a light run. Usually this is late, after eleven o’clock at least. This is because there are the Friday Feasts. On a typical night Rem cooks a delicious light meal. But last Friday it was potluck night which gave us fried pork, a casserole and a chicken pot pie. Not quite so light.
Apparently this weighed a lot in my stomach so the run felt a lot harder than usual. That and I didn’t do a proper warm up before the run. (Remember, it is supposed to be light.)
So all yesterday my right leg felt gimpy.
I do not want to seriously injure myself, so I am listening to my body. Which is a weird feeling.
So the active lifestyle program made me do twenty minutes of exercise I didn’t want to do, which made me unable to do the 29km run I wanted to do.

Wahoo.
A simple cache for the X side of the equation sped up the creation of a spherical planet from about six seconds to about one second.
Boo-yah!

Excuse me while I get techy.
I’ve been working on my fractal program. There was a new algorithm that I had read about I wanted to try. The biggest thing stopping me was some of the advanced math. I drafted some mathematic graduate students to give me pointers. Unfortunately I gave them a poor description of the problem, and it ended up confusing me.
Fortunately I figured out a method. (Dumping the spherical coordinates equation for the plane was key.) So this evening I implemented it.
Well, it works…
I’m not that satisfied with the planets that get generated. A lot of them only have one Pangaea-like super-continent. The other landforms don’t really look interesting. And the darn thing takes a long time to produce a planet. I’m hoping to improve that; I have some ideas that should make it more efficient.
Still, I finally have this monkey off my back.

It was slow because there were long discussions about the state of the Oilers, and the results of the Academy awards.
My experience with speed dating was used for the scene involving it. The teacher was fascinated by the concept, and would love to go and just watch. Of course, why stop there? Why not organize a field trip.
How to make an awkward conversation more awkward. A peanut gallery.
“I can’t believe he tried that line.”
“She looks slutty in that dress.”
“Don’t I know him?”
Any other bad things to hear from a group of commentators on your date?

Okay, here is my theory.
The switch from VHS to DVD came fairly quickly. I suppose because DVDs are smaller, easier to store, don’t require rewinding and are simple to use and jump around. When they first came out people purchased them more often than renting. I’m guilty of this as much as the next person. My personal reason was that a DVD could be trusted to stay working and not wear out, whereas VHS couldn’t make the same claim. And having the movie was my personal pledge that I liked it.
I’ve heard that the amount of DVDs being purchased is going down. I’ll assume the reason for that is that people are getting the idea that they no longer need to own everything and that renting is still a possibility.
Blu-ray and HD-DVD are out, cursed with each other so that no one is buying them until they settle their differences. I suppose it is possible they their existence is the reason that DVD purchases are down.
My theory is that whichever format wins, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, that will be the last hard video format used.
This is based off of what happened with audio. There were records, then tapes, then CDs. CDs seem to be the pinnacle that people use. There are other formats since, but only true audio-philes use them; People who like to hear the spider crawling up the wall in the background while the band plays. For mere mortals, the CD is king. It has all the features most people need, at the audio quality most people will enjoy.
I am aware the MP3 and its derivatives are starting to take over. I consider those a soft format. They don’t have the same quality, and most people still get them by burning a CD. In any case it is stored digitally, not on a purchased piece of hardware.
That is the way I see video format heading. Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will be the pinnacle. After that, other formats will come out that have better quality and/or sound, but they won’t catch on. Until we get to holographic movies. Until then.
That said, I can see downloadable movies taking over. Only when people get hard drives big enough and the internet is fast enough. The same way MP3s exist today.
I could be wrong. For all I know, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will devour each other and DVD will be the last format. But I think we have room for one more.

I’m feeling a little down right now. I’m guessing part of it is the busy schedule that I have given myself. I say that, but I’m not in University, so it is probably nothing compared to a real student. I’m just tired, and the long weekend wasn’t enough.
Yesterday I decided to put my self esteem on the line again and try some speed dating. I have better hope for this time because the age categories worked more in my favor.
And I met some nice women. There was one that I really thought I hit it off with. She was easy to talk to and interesting. So my hopes were up. Then after the event, when it was just a social, I saw her holding court with a bunch of men. So I have to assume that she was just charismatic and everyone likes her. So, hope for the best, plan for the worst.
It is getting depressing though.
I just got back from an improv class, and it was nice today because a lot of people were missing. More intimate and more attention from the instructor. But once again there is a feeling of lack of progress on my part. The teacher can always point out something that I should have done that would have made the scene better. But then he has a lot more experience.
And when you are tired, everything piles up, and things that would normally wash off your back become the popcorn stuck in the teeth.
I’ll feel better tomorrow.