I saw the new Superman movie the other day. It has taken me a few days to digest the results.
Superman is iconic. It is hard to dislike a movie of his, unless the director hates the subject. I mean, as soon as they started playing the Superman march, it was impossible not to feel pumped. You watch the man of steel lifting something heavy and you feel inspired. And the director did a lot of good things. He did a good job of showing how invulnerable he is. And I give points for never shoving America into our faces. A character even asks if he still stands for truth and justice. He never asks about the “American way”. I thought that was a nice touch.
But there were problems too. I don’t want to discuss them in detail because I don’t want to spoil the movie for others. The timing was off. We take too long to see things evolve that should just end with Superman showing up. They did that well in the first movie, but in this one we see superfluous special effects. Near the end of the movie we see Superman put in a situation that I feel should have a more profound effect and lasted longer, but then it just goes away.
Lex Luthor in this day and age is supposed to be a ruthlessly evil billionaire. But since this movie is based off the original ones, he is back to being an evil real-estate agent.
The reason I bring these up is that I was similarly disappointed with X-Men United. Superman Returns was a much better movie, but I still found faults.
The question is this: As I become older, am I no longer enjoying the good superhero action movies? Do I now prefer dramas? It a frightening prospect. I can deal with my body falling apart. But if I can’t enjoy a good action movie, a certain quality of life issue rears its ugly head.

So I did the K-100 relay yesterday. I did leg 5 which only has one hill so it wasn’t too bad.
It was very hot. And because of the higher altitude, I had less atmosphere to shield me. So I am now sporting a nice sunburn. I had slathered on a bit of SPF-8 sunscreen, but it didn’t protect much. Fortunately I had taken off my shirt for the run so I don’t have a farmer’s tan.
My support team for my leg wasn’t that good. It consisted of two people who are secretly camels in disguise. So they didn’t think I needed that much water. They were supposed to show up every two kilometers to see if I needed anything, shout encouragement, and take pictures. And they were good for the first few stops. Then it started stretching out to every five kilometers. When I did see them and got water, I drank the entire bottle within two kilometers, which left for a very dry run. I could even feel myself powering down from lack of fuel. I passed someone and was doing well but they got water and I watched them motor past me. So people passed me. But the other groups tend to put their best people on this leg so I can’t feel too bad.
At one point, there was a rather large mountain goat with an impressive rack on the side of the road. Munching grass. All the runners passing by were probably the best entertainment going. However, when I started getting close he looked like he was deciding to cross the road and was ambling towards me. When we were a few meters apart, I just treated him like any other pedestrian I come across during a run. A nod of the head and keep going.
After I passed I didn’t look back.
Then I just steamed along. I did mug another support vehicle for some water. That helped give me some fuel. The small child holding the sign “Run faster! There is a bear behind you.” was cute, but didn’t really increase my speed. In the end I did the 17.6km in 1:41:27. I wonder how much faster I could have done it with a decent supply of water.
I don’t know yet how my group did. We weren’t a competitive team. You can’t be when you are sporting a few senior citizens. Unfortunately, there was a death in the family of one of our runners, so we had to make different arrangements. We moved people around and had one of our runners do two legs. He did amazingly well. Probably because the two legs used different muscles. His first leg was mostly uphill and his second leg was all downhill.
Today I ache and I am taking it easy.

I discovered a way to put a spring into my step today.
This might only be a guy-thing, and/or a computer person thing. Essentially it is marking territory.

I registered a domain name.

It’s quite a nice feeling. I now have a spot on the information superhighway that I can call my own. In fact I have two spots! One for the theoretical company I would need if I ever finish writing my programming project and want to distribute it. The other is for personal stuff.
I didn’t need the personal stuff one, but once you start marking turf, why stop?

Awhile ago I heard that people aren’t reading as much anymore. I think I saw it on a television program. So in the back of my head I thought I should rectify that. I haven’t read anything fiction in awhile, so I was as guilty as the average North American.
On impulse I bought the book, jPod yesterday. And then I thought I would read a bit.

I think I have figured out why I don’t read as much anymore. It’s because I have poor self-control. With television and movies, they only last a set time. The good ones don’t take too much more than two hours. You can plan your day around them.
With a book, you start one and plan to only “read a bit”. Then you notice that you have run out of pages and it is three in the morning. Mind you, this book had large chunks that were easy to skip. Did it really need to list all the prime numbers between 10,000 and 100,000? Probably not, but that’s a dozen pages that just fly by. Sort of like the long sections of elven poetry in Lord of the Rings.
Based off of my reading pattern though I would recommend jPod to a friend.

I still got up early today to do my run. So I am pleasantly running on 4.5 hours sleep. I’m surprisingly goofy right now. And happy? I’ve noticed that I am not that good at typing either. Lot’s of mistakes. The “delete” key is my friend. My drive to the run didn’t go so well. I took a large number of wrong turns for a destination that is only 2km away.
I wouldn’t have tested drunk, but I think that would be a fault of the testing mechanism. I’m not 100% sure I was qualified to be driving.

The rain has started.
People have started parking on my street.

Who will win in this confrontation? Who will prove the victor? Who will reign supreme over Whyte Avenue?

I am not a hockey fan. Until last week I had never watched a hockey game. At all. I saw the occasional clip, but never an entire game. It did mean that when the insanity happens two blocks to the north on Whyte Avenue, I never felt a part of it. I can’t justifiably go crazy, as I’m not pumped up as everyone else.
But a friend convinced me to come to the bar and watch a game. So I have now watched two games of hockey. My friend was very helpful and gave me lessons as to what goes on in a game. So I learned about “offside” and “icing”. Like I said, I’ve never watched a game. I’m a bad Canadian.
The two games weren’t that inspiring as I got to watch the Oilers lose both of them. So it never sucked me in.
In fact tonight, I was enjoying reading the book jPod on my balcony. I had picked it up this morning. I could easily keep track of the game though. When a goal is scored, I can hear the cheer from the bars. I even got to see a helicopter circling over my place. Presumably that was a TV camera mounted on its nose.
Now I hear that the Oilers have won a game. We treat the hockey players like gods in this town. So our pantheon has beaten their pantheon. The wild party will start. How wild it is, is up for debate. It’s a weekend night, so the drunk people can stay out late and trash the place. But the temperature is dropping and it looks like rain. That would put a damper on the celebrations.

Go Oilers! 🙂

I have a problem that I’m sure lots of other people would like to have.
Now that I have paid off my mortgage, what do I spend my money on? My default answer would be RRSPs, but I need to celebrate and spend it on stuff of no practical value.
I went to BestBuy today, firmly convinced that I would buy something. The biggest criteria is that I don’t want to feel stupid in six months.
I could get an iPod? But a friend has a fifth generation one, so to keep up with the Joneses, I need to have a sixth generation one, which could come out any day now. If I buy a current model now, when the new one comes out I will feel stupid.
I could get a PVR? My VCR is starting to die, so this is a completely valid option. Except I’ve kept track and figured out that I only watch about an hour and a half of TV each week. That would be a lot of money on something I wouldn’t use much.
Underworld: Evolution just came out on DVD. $25. It’s going to be half of that in six months, and I already have movies I already own that I haven’t seen.
The same story goes for video games. Some still need to be taken out of the shrink wrap after two years.
In the end I bought nothing at BestBuy.
I am going to go with some books. I placed an Amazon order. Hardly sexy, but it is something I’ll enjoy.

Which of the seven deadly sins can have its letters rearranged to form the word for a landscaping tool?

Every so often someone in our office writes a problem on to the whiteboard in the main meeting room. That was the latest. So a bunch of programmers started thinking about this one. It first started with trying to figure out the seven deadly sins. Once that was done, we couldn’t figure out the rest.
We did come up with a solution though. LUST can be rearranged into SLUT. That’s a kind of Ho(e). Isn’t it?

We didn’t write our answer down.

Plan A was simple. I got a call from a friend and we decided to go with two of his co-workers to “The Bank Ultralounge”. Off we went. The place was dead when we got there at 10:00. It got better, but it still seemed to have a poor girl:guy ratio. At around 11:30 we decided it was a lost cause and would go with Plan B.
Plan B was down the street to “Fluid”. There it was more happening. There were more good looking women. However they had already hooked up. Plus there still wasn’t enough of them.
So Plan C took us to West Edmonton Mall where we tried to go to “Escape”. But it appeared to be closed, permanently. We got out of the car and checked out the new night club, “Fever”. We had our ID checked. But before we paid the $5 cover, we looked in. Not enough people to justify it.
Plan D was for “Dante’s”. Initial observations were good. There were two very hot looking women in the line in front of us. However, after we passed ID, the cover there was $10, and it looked iffy. My friend decided to take a bullet for the team. He paid the cover and looked around. When he came back out he loudly pronounced for all to hear “That is the worst place ever!” Apparently the median age was in the fifties. He also had a traumatic experience with someone losing their toupee. The two hot girls were nowhere to be seen. Maybe all the good looking women were in the big RV trying out for the Ms. Grand Prix Edmonton. Or something like that.
Plan E took us back downtown. We passed by “The Met” but it looked dead, so we tried the “Overtime Bar and Grill”, famous for its police stings. By now it was 1:00 and the place looked like it was dying. We backed out and decided that “The Druid” would be our plan F.
This was the most successful plan. The place was busy. A good selection of women was available to look at, and in our imaginations we could contemplate talking to them. The only down side was that this Irish pub seemed to have an unhealthy fascination with rap music.
When all was said and done, and we were walking back to the car a pair of girls proclaimed I had a “nice ass”. Darn straight! And don’t you forget it.

I feel for a scam at the Farmer’s Market last fall.
I’m not the most organized when it comes to vegetables and spices. I buy as small an amount as possible, but I always seem to let it go to waste. I don’t know how many times I’ve bought a head of garlic, used some cloves, and then watched the rest sprout tendrils and try to grow out of my kitchen. I don’t like to eat garlic that is attempting to grow stuff.
I realized that I use parsley very rarely, but I do use it for the occasional recipe. Every time I purchase it from the grocery store I buy a bunch, use a few sprigs and watch the rest go bad before I need to repeat the process. So when I saw that I could buy an entire living parsley plant from the Farmer’s Market, I thought it was a great idea. I could grow the parsley I need. So I plunked down the money for the plant and took it home.
Since it was several parsley plants, I split the bunch with my mother. I took some dirt from her dirt pile to replace the missing earth so the pot could still be level.
The problem is that either I can’t keep a plant alive, or that parsley traditionally dies in winter. (Hence the scam.)
So I was left with a pot of earth. Since I had a head of garlic on my kitchen counter doing its usual thing, I dumped it in the pile of earth. It grew quickly and looked like it was well on its way to… something. Then all of a sudden, all the green withered and died. Did I water it too much, or too little?
I have a poinsettia that I’ve kept alive for a year and a half. I’m proud of that. However, it fell over a month ago and several branches broke off. As an experiment, I took some of the broken branches and planted them in the pot. Usually they never take, but I used recent growths, and they haven’t died yet. They don’t make roots, but I think the two have grown bigger leaves.
Then, at about the same time, something else green sprouted from the pot. I have no idea what it is though. Is it parsley? Is it some garlic that survived from a root? Is it something that was growing in my mother’s dirt pile? Who knows!? I’m not a gardener. But it is getting bigger and trying to get to the window.
To add to the fun, I bought some parsley seeds and dumped them in last week. I’m assuming that is what sprouted there overnight.

Went to the bank today.
Paid off my entire mortgage.

What did you do today?

Since I’m injured, and not running for awhile I thought it would be as good a time as any to donate blood. I’m not using it. And if I do it now, I get points for my company in Corporate Challenge.
So after work I headed off to the clinic. It’s a fairly simple process to drain your life force. Usually it is risk free. Not today.
They had the Oiler’s hockey game on television. The nurses were somewhat distracted by it. They claimed they were paying attention to their job, but their eyes kept glancing to the television. When you’re dealing with people waving around sharp needles, that is a little disconcerting.
Thankfully I made my getaway with no major injuries. There was bloodshed, but that’s what I went there for.

I went to work on my scooter today. When I got to the place where I was front-ended yesterday, I was behind the exact same truck. He still had no rear bumper. I’m also wondering if the oilers flag that was covering his back window was there yesterday?
We got through the intersection without incident.

Right, decision made. I’m going to go to Calgary this weekend.
So, Improv people, I won’t be attending the Sunday Jam.
Calgary people, I’ll be able to see you, assuming I know of a way to contact you.
Winnipeg people, go back to sleep.

I woke up too early and felt a little sick. However, I was able to get back to sleep when I turned my clock off so it wouldn’t alarm later. So I got a bit more sleep and was feeling much better when I did wake. Of course, I left for work late, but I was accepting of that. It is okay to be an hour late if I make up for it later.
Of course I was even later when someone decided to back into my car.
I was traveling west on 107th Avenue, in the left hand turn lane to head south onto 170th Street. Ahead of me was a white truck, also attempting to turn left. He had partially entered the intersection on the green light and was waiting for a gap in the eastbound traffic so that he could complete the turn. That gap never happened, and the light turned red. Instead of proceeding through he decided to get out of the intersection the other way. I.e. To reverse.
Apparently he didn’t see me. Maybe the white of my car blended with the white of his truck. Or maybe his pickup was too big for him to manage and I was hidden behind him. In either case, he reversed slowly into me. I tried to back up out of his way, but he was quicker than me.
It wouldn’t have been too bad under normal circumstances. But, for whatever reason, he decided that his truck didn’t need a rear bumper. So the truck (which is higher than my car) backed its frame into the hood of my car.
We exchanged information. Apparently he didn’t want to proceed forward because he thought a red-light camera might ticket him. I don’t believe that is possible if you are already in the intersection.
In either case I have contacted my insurance company and even gotten an estimate on the damages. It won’t be repaired until mid-June, so I’m thinking of checking a different autobody shop.
My worry is that since there aren’t any witnesses, he might blame me for the accident. I’m depending on human decency right now.
In other news, I got my scooter back from its spring tune up. I rode up and down Whyte Avenue once. It’s a nice change of pace. Since it will be 31 degrees tomorrow, it should be a good day to ride it.

I am contemplating taking a trip to Calgary this weekend. It is a holiday weekend, so I should probably do something. A chance to see the parents and let them spoil me. I could even see some friends while down there. Now I am all in favor of this, but there are a number of reasons not to.
I have various chores that I need to get done. Some are computer based, so I could do them while down there, but it is hard to concentrate on work. Then again, will I have better time concentrating here?
It’s still up in the air. But that’s the good thing about family only being a drive away, I can make the plans at the last minute.

It’s a beautiful day out. The temperature got into the mid-twenties today. Since we can’t seem to get the air-circulation right at work, it was rather warm. I also didn’t have enough sleep last night, leading to a slight headache. So what I would like to do is sit on my balcony, sip some lemonade and enjoy myself.
Instead I have to close up all the windows because there is a Bobcat playing in the dirt across the street. Those things are far louder than they have a right to be.

Well Forestt Gump had it right. “Stupid is as stupid does.”
A friend called me and wanted to go on a short run. Apparently I can’t say no to runs. So despite all evidence that my foot would rather I not go running, I felt it would be my best interests to pound the pavement.
In my defense, my foot didn’t hurt too badly at the time he called. And really, it is a beautiful day out.
It doesn’t feel too bad now. I’ve put a cold compress on it. I should be fine, but I big part of me is thinking of bailing on the regular Sunday morning run.

I don’t know what happened to me. Despite all the abuse over the past week, noted and otherwise (I ran up Emily Murphy Hill ten times on Wednesday), everything below the waist was feeling fairly good. Then yesterday I woke up with pain in my right foot; Horrifyingly similar to pain I felt two years ago that put me out for two months.
Every step makes the outside of the foot throb with a dull pain. Yet, if I walk around on my tiptoes (oh, that doesn’t look weird) it goes away.
What gets me is that on Thursday I did nothing unusual, or even exercise related. And yet here I am with pain.

Further evidence that the right side of my body hates me. That’s what you get for giving a side of yourself laterality. It thinks it should get all the perks.

The sins of yesterday have been visited upon me today.

The problem with beautiful days is that you are obligated to use them. Saturday was rainy, so there wasn’t a reason to do anything. But today it was nice out. After half a year of winter, you have to seize these moments.
But there is the chance of overusing them.
This morning was the traditional run. 26km of beautiful trails.
Then this afternoon, I went rollerblading with a friend for two hours.
Needless to say, I am tired. I am hoping the next few days have poor weather so I can recover. It looks like rain tonight, so it’s a good sign.

I thought I would be a good environmental citizen today.
Due to the medical test yesterday, I have to eat certain fruits and vegetables. The fruit isn’t a problem, but vegetables have been a personal nemesis. Fortunately, carrots were on the list. I can enjoy munching on a carrot.
While at the grocery store today I had two options. A 5lb bag of carrots or a 2lb bag of organic carrots. They were about the same price. And I knew that there was no way I would be able to eat 5lb of carrots, so I went with the organic.
I got home, cracked open the package, washed an orange stick of vegetative goodness and proceeded to follow doctor’s orders, with a healthy environmental consciousness.

Those were the worst carrots I have ever had.

What have we learned today?

I read today’s Penny-Arcade comic.
The commentary that went along with it was interesting. Particularly this:

I couldn’t help thinking about the Goddamn deathmarch the people over at Bungie have been in for what has got to be going on eight years now. I guess I shouldn’t invent motivations for them.  As people are bored by the time we have created the third panel of a comic, we may represent a statistical abberation. Maybe they still like Halo.  You know?  Maybe they are unstoppably enthusiastic.

That brings me back to the distant past. I played the Marathon game when it first came out. It was great. What sucked me in was the great story that was revealed as you played it. That quality has continued on at Bungie, even when they were bought out by Microsoft.
I don’t know if they still enjoy making Halo, or if Microsoft has them chained to their computers in some slave galley making its way around Peugeot Sound.
But I do remember a comment that was made by them after they had released the third Marathon game.

Imagine a painting of a horse, a marvellous white stallion. This stallion happens to be lying in a crumpled heap on the ground, dead. And Bungie employees are standing around it in a semicircle, beating the horse with various blunt objects. The painting is titled “Marathon 4.”

Irony? Prophecy? Karma?

In an interesting parallel, I was going through some old notes I had at work. I ran across a quote from one of the founders of the company.

“That’s why I would make a terrible product manager. I’m supposed to be the customer’s advocate when I’d rather just whack them with a big stick.”

The gentleman who send that in 2001, is now the product manager.

My meal times have gotten weird lately.
Yesterday I planned to make a nice chicken dish. I whipped up the marinade, using fresh lemons and soya sauce. I’ve made it in the past and it has always been good. Then I reach into the refrigerator and take out the chicken that was about to accept this delicious basting.
It, of course, had gone bad.
I can’t seem to plan my thawings lately. I either take them out of the freezer too soon as demonstrated, or too late so that the meat has a frozen core.
I tossed it and had some frozen fish instead.
Then today, I didn’t have breakfast. It wasn’t by choice. I had a medical appointment that said no food or drink after midnight. I wasn’t as starving hungry as I thought I would be. Luckily before the test they feed you something.
A barium drink. Mmmm. Nucleary.
After the lovely bit of scanning me (and a fire alarm) I horked down some donuts and a muffin from Tim Hortens. But for the rest of the day I’ve been gassy, and my digestive track has been feeling it isn’t appreciated.
I’m supposed to eat high fiber and bran food stuffs. I think you can guess where this is going. Or rather, what isn’t.

So I was in Chiantis on Whyte Avenue today for dinner. The place was rather dead. There is a pool hall/bar on the floor above it. I guess that’s where everyone was. Every so often there was a large pounding from up top. You would almost think that the ceiling was going to cave in.
Oh, did I mention that it was game six of the Oilers vs. Detroit. The Oilers are now going to the second round of the playoffs. Detroit is not.
Whyte Avenue is where it is happening in Edmonton. The equivalent in Calgary would be the Red Mile.
While walking home it was hard not to be affected by all the screaming people. They were everywhere. I felt like an intruder though. I still have yet to watch a game of hockey, and here are all these people for whom it is the most important thing in the world. They were all so happy and so was the group consciousness. I did have a longing to be part of it, but that would require me to watch hockey, and I don’t have the time.
Edmonton treats its hockey players like Gods! I wonder if the players get the same kind of attention in the southern states.

I recently got an invitation to join gmail. I’m one of the cool people now.
The problem is that I have to come up with a user name. This is where the problem happens. What unique noun/adjective combination describes me. I can come up with ideas, but what do I want to represent me in the fantastic years to come.
If I was less creative (Which is still a possibility. Look at the name of this journal.) it would be easy. I would have at most one idea for a user name, and off we go. But with so many choices open to me, I have brain freeze.
I will continue to ponder it.

Remember the date I had last month. I’m meeting her again tonight. Dinner and a show.
Second date.
I guess this is the one where I reveal all my embarrassing secrets; I play D&D. I read comics. I stupidly climb hills.
I’m going to try and treat her as a friend instead of a date. That should make things easier. Of course, I might venture into the territory of being myself. Previous advice has been debatable on whether that is good or not.

I have an opinion I have held for some time now. Recent events have led me to question it. That opinion deals with cooking.
If someone is cooking with cilantro, it is an admission that they are making a bad meal. Cilantro will totally overpower the taste of anything, masking what was there previously. The only reason to mask the taste is because you already know it is bad. Hence, it is the crutch of bad cooks.
Yesterday I found the lovely website IHateCilantro.com. This seemed to back up my opinions completely. Then, while reading it, I found that around 10% of the population is genetically allergic to cilantro. For this minority, cilantro has an overpowering taste.
So my opinion remains that cilantro is the spawn of some vegetative demon in the fetid swamps of hell. However, I realize that for some foolish people out there that it might be a pleasant mild taste that may actually add to the enjoyment of a meal. These thoughtless people will probably not even realize the horrible abomination that they have let enter their own mouths. All we can do is pity that poor souls.

Just keep it off my plate.

In June I have a leg of the K-100 relay. That’s through the mountains. You know, the big rocky things with snow on the top. My leg is all uphill and has a nice high altitude. Since I am living in Edmonton, I don’t have a lot of experience with long inclines, or with lack of atmosphere. So, while visiting my parents outside of the Kananaskis, I planned to go run my leg as a practice.
After a 100km road trip, we arrived to find that the road was shut down for winter. Winter apparently ends in mid-June. So the gate stopped me from getting to my running route. So other plans needed making.
You know those hills you see at the side of the roads when you travel in areas with extreme topography. Every time I pass, I can’t help but think that it would be possible to climb to the top of one of them without too much trouble. It would make a nice accomplishment.
Really, they mock me. They have low self-esteem (You would too if you had bigger brothers with a permanent ice cap) so you can hear them calling out “Oh you’ll never climb me. You would have to stop the car and get out. Look there’s a ditch in the way. You’ll never even get to my base.” Mountains don’t need to taunt, they have nothing to prove.
Well, there I was, on the side of the road. Ready to do physical activity, but without a proper outlet for it.
I took their challenge.

Those hills are taller than they look. It didn’t help that they had altitude on their side. Or that I was wearing running sneakers instead of climbing boots. The side was steep, and the lack of oxygen meant that I had to stop every few steps to catch my breath.
But in the end, I won. I stood at the top. My GPS informing me that I was 1820 meters above sea level. About 300 meters above the base. Of course its batteries died soon after the summit. If it was still running, I might have been more ambitious. Behind that hill there was another which looked like a gradual climb to the top.
Either that or I had no energy.
So now those hills can just shut up. I have conquered them. No more lip now.

Hey, is that a mountain over there?

There is a recurring idea in some science-fiction stories; A technology that comes along that lets you see an occurrence in the past. You punch in the time and place and you see what was happening at that spacetime. Theoretically it would be used for historical events in the distant past. How involved was Brutus in the Ides of March. Was Cleopatra a looker? Did Judas invest his thirty pieces of silver wisely, or did he blow it on beer and whores? The distant past doesn’t break privacy legislation.
If we had such a device, it would certainly change the world. If you wanted to try and find a famous terrorist, you could just plug in a time and place that you knew he was at, and then keep following him around until you find out where he was at the present. Nasty political issue solved.
But let’s wonder about more local problems. Solving crimes would be a snap, when anyone can become a witness to any event. Unabomber style antics would be a lot more popular because its would still be nearly impossible to trace the origin of a package.
But let’s say there was a cost involved in using this technology. It obviously can’t be free. Nothing is.
If it was $100, could you offer it as a service to citizens. If a crime has been committed against you, could you pay $50 to get definite proof of who did it, and then have the perpetrator pay the balance as part of the judgment against them.
And most importantly, could you use it to find the malicious idiot who decided it would be a good idea to leave his chewed gum in a place where someone could walk in it.