I feel sick. It started as a tickle in my throat yesterday, but now I have a stuffed up nose. I blame lack of sleep.
On Sunday, I tried to go to bed early, but I don’t think it was early enough. I got up insanely early to catch a flight to Edmonton. The flight was pretty good, considering it was Air Canada. There was no one sitting in my row, so I got to lie down and try and sleep. I didn’t actually sleep, but I did pretend.
I then went to work, and tried to do a reasonable facsimile of a productive day. I went out to dinner, did some grocery shopping. Then stayed up way to late going through some of the books that came in from Amazon.
On Tuesday, I stayed up too late again. A friend had tickets to see the Molson Indy Model search at Red’s. It was supposed to start at 9:00, but Red’s has an excellent bait-and-switch program. It didn’t actually start until 10:40. When they had a five to ten minute break, it lasted half an hour. I left there around midnight. I didn’t stay to see who the winner was. They said they would find out in ten minutes. HA!
Today, we were let out of work early. We released a major product so in celebration, we’re getting a really long weekend. I get Friday off too. In celebration, I ignored my sickness and went to see Spider-man 2.
It was a good movie. I felt it was a little slow at times. My biggest beef was that Spider-man used any excuse to take off his mask. He didn’t need villains to do it, he just did it himself. As near as I can tell, half of New York now knows what he looks like.
Now I’ve updated all the journal entries that I wrote over the vacation, and posted them. I’m now going to try and get some sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow. And I hope I’m over this cold by then.

The other day I went to see Shrek 2 with Coram. It was a good movie. What impressed me the most was that a small element from the first movie became a larger plot point in the second. Specifically the Muffin Man. I felt a little spoiled from the commercials and trailers. I know I shouldn’t watch them, but I can’t help myself.
Yesterday I went to the bar with Canticle. Everyone was saying that the place was dead compared to the ususal. It was nice that no one is allowed to smoke, but I think I smelt marijuana at one point. The TV playing some Godzilla movie was somewhat distracting.
I met Jeff’s friend, Erik. (That was weird to type.) We have a surprisingly large amount in common. Just to start with, D&D and no fear of math. It sounds like the three of us will be going to Europe next year, but the planning stage doesn’t seem to be progressing much. Well, we’ll see.
At the bar I met Adam. Erik said I was supposed to talk to him about Magic Squares, and then their practical applications. He did seem to know a lot about them, but I’m guessing they are his hobby. I talked to him about fractals, but I only know enough to be dangerous. Not enough to keep up a conversation.
An interesting thought crossed my mind. I had never met Adam before, but I was able to have a good conversation with him very quickly. I’ve never had that luck with women. I wonder if that is because I have never had anything in common with any of the women I’ve talked to. Or is it because their gender makes me uncomfortable. I’m not talking being gay or anything, but with men, I know that nothing is ever going to happen. But with women there is always that faint hope, which starts making conversations awkward for me. (The more you want something to happen, the less likely it is to happen.)
I guess I just need to talk with women more and get comfortable.

So I just saw Troy with Canticle. I haven’t had time to really absorb it, but I liked it. Part way through I decided that I would not want to own the DVD. I think the problem I had with it was that there was no real hero to root for. Achilles seemed to be the protagonist, but he didn’t even like what he was doing. The Trojans seemed far more honorable, but you know from the start that they are going to lose.
I’m happy I saw it, but not again.

I got the paper and the final results.
I placed 156th out of 869 people. The official time I had was 3:41:49. The first place winner did it in 2:31:27 and the last place person did it in 7:08:26.
There is some controversy over the first place women. Apparently some women, signed up for the full marathon, had actually run the half marathon. That must have been hard to do because there were big signs showing where the half and full people should split up. Heck, if I had just been doing my previous half marathon, I would have come in before her.

Yesterday I ran a marathon.
I completed it in roughly 3:42:00.
My goal was to run it in 3:30:00, but I’m not upset I didn’t make that goal. I am getting over an injury. Fortunately my peroneus [sic, probably] muscle didn’t hurt at all during the run. That is no longer true. My legs are really aching now. Hardly a surprise.
For the first half of the run, I was great. I was going faster than the 3:30 pace bunny and felt good. My father and sister were stalking me the entire way, so I had something to look forward to. I loaned my sister my camera and she took pictures. My mother was waiting for me in Assiniboine park with the dog, Harry. She had made friends with a photographer who got a good picture of me. (I hope I’ll be able to buy it for a reasonable price.) Harry was having a great time and when my mother was racing to meet me at another part of the park, he thought it was a great game and tried to trip her.
After the halfway mark, I started slowing down. I didn’t really accept it until the 3:30 pace bunny passed me on main street going over the Norwood bridge. I tried to increase my speed to keep up, but I just didn’t have the energy. So I slowly fell further and further behind. Eventually I just lost sight of them. By then I was just slogging along. With seven miles to go, that was a real slog.
The worst part was when I turned onto Bishop Grandin. I could see the apartment building that was at the end of University Crescent, and I could see how far off they were. That was discouraging. They never seemed to get any closer. But eventually they did, and I was in the university again.
For the last bit, I didn’t have any more to give, so I didn’t try and speed up for entering the stadium. I just focussed on the track and got to the end. There was someone there to greet me and guide me to some food and drink. I downed a Gatorade quickly. It was one of those awful tasting blue ones, but I didn’t notice.
My family was all in the stands cheering me on. I found out later that they didn’t take any pictures. My sister had run out all the batteries of the camera. She thought she could take a hundred pictures without a problem, but I had never mentioned that the batteries could run out. So there is no picture of me crossing the finish line.
After I stretched and ate whatever was put in front of me, I wandered out of the stadium to see the family. I was pretty giddy, and feeling high. Everyone was my best friend, so I was giving profuse thanks to the volunteers.
We went home and I showered. Then we went to a quick brunch at Perkins. The rest of the day was spent recovering. I took a walk to help flush out the lactic acid in my muscles, but they still hurt today.

Life is hectic. I haven’t had a good chance to update this journal, and I still haven’t. I have so much to do to prepare for the trip, and I’m having trouble organizing myself.
The weather has been at odds with me. I want to take my scooter to work, but the weather forecasts have all said rain for the past while. And in the morning, it has been rain, but in the afternoons, it looks beautiful.
After Improv class today, I realized I had left my sunglasses behind in the building. The locked building. I’m hoping I have a chance to pick them up tomorrow. I really need them if I’m going to be on vacation next week.

Yesterday evening I went to the Magnetic North showing of “The Danish Play”. I wasn’t that interested in seeing it, but I felt obligated, being of Danish heritage.
It wasn’t a comedy.
It was more of a tragedy. It was one of those shows where they give the life story of a real person, and show how everything conspired to make them miserable. But through that misery, they created art that will last for blah blah blah.
Frequently, my opinion of these styles of play are that the protagonist made their own bed. In says to me that there are certain people, who although they may be great artists, cannot function in the real world. Just because you want something to be true, doesn’t make it so.
In this case, Agnete Ottosen was part of the Danish resistance. She was captured by the Nazis and experimented on. That was the first act, and I was fine up to then. The protagonist was actually someone I could care about.
In the second act though, she had lost her grip on reality after the war. She wanted to have a child and did so. The father was unknown and she didn’t want to say who he was. Then the nice bureaucracy had trouble with that, even though they gave her many options that would have let her go on. But she had to raise a stink over everything. Attacking German tourists didn’t help either. So the son, Soren, was taken away.
I can see where Agnete was coming from. The bureaucracy was reminiscent of the horrors of the work camps. But she had friends who tried to help her. They told her what she had to do to keep her son. But she refused them all, and had to do things her own way. In the end, her son died an hour after he was returned to her (at age of maturity) in a scooter accident. She committed suicide soon after.
Oh, and through this all she was writing poetry.
If some Danish nationalist reads this review they will probably despise me. I don’t know what kind of hero Agnete Ottosen is to Danish culture (I suppose I should, but I’m more Canadian than Danish), and I’ve never read any of her poems, but this is the impression I got from watching the play.
To give myself some credibility in this, I saw a play about Emily Carr at last year’s fringe festival (I think the title was “Talking to Trees”). I think she is the Canadian cultural equivalent to Miss Ottosen. My opinion of Emily Carr is equally bad after seeing that play. Ms. Carr should never have been let out in public and seemed to determined to make her life as miserable as possible. Just because you talk to trees and keep a lot of animals doesn’t mean you can take care of yourself.
Art is all well and good, but don’t needlessly suffer for it. I have no sympathy for the starving artist. Art is not a substitute for life; Don’t sacrifice yourself for it.

I got my evaluation for last month’s improv class. Finally. So I’m going to share it.

5) Students Reason For Taking Course (as they explained it to you)
a dark secret
6) Instructors Overall Goal – What were you focusing on?
Improving understanding of games ie: purpose vs. execution,
7) Students Attitude:
very open, willing, thoughtful, honest
8) Ability to Accept Concepts Presented:
strong acceptance of new ideas. Dives in.
9) Strengths:
good with pace of scenes, very positive energy.
10) Weaknesses:
I would like to see more diverse characters, changing body and voice.
Needs to connect with other players more. Aims for comedy over drama.
11) Recommended Future: Next level, more training, Show?
More training recommended

Frankly I liked my last evaluation better. Josh put a lot more information in them.

So I went to a Wednesday run today. I haven’t been for two months, but I feel like I’m totally out of shape. Running up hills was taking a lot out of me. So I’m starting to get worried about this marathon I’m running in eleven days.
I’m accepting that I won’t be able to make my time goal. But I’m worried I won’t finish. The past few runs I’ve done seem to take a lot out of me. Mind you, most of them have involved hills, and there won’t be any in Manitoba. And it has been hotter in the afternoons, and I’ll be marathoning in the morning.
I can only hope.
A person at the Running Room commented that it looks like I’ve lost weight. I don’t know if that was in the good way (lost fat) or the bad way (lost muscle).
Well, more things to worry about.

Yesterday, there was a nice meteorological event. It was generally overcast, but there was a place where the clouds had parted and a single beam of light was cast down onto the city. It looked very nice.
One of the things I miss from Winnipeg are the clouds. For lack of a better term, the clouds in Winnipeg are aged properly. In Alberta they have just come over the mountains, so they lack character. All the clouds seem to mix together, and very rarely show any distinction. In Winnipeg they’ve had time to build themselves up into high fluffy things.
You don’t notice it, until they’re gone.

Today I was supposed to work on the D&D game for tomorrow. It has been hard. It’s beautiful out, so my attention span is really short. I came home on my scooter at around 6:00, and couldn’t bring myself to go in. So I scooted around, eventually going to Hawrelak park and doing a loop there.
I got home at 7:00, and then channel surfed. I eventually made dinner, but only really started looking at the D&D game at around 9:45.
In other news, the Unknown Challenge today was at Argyll Plaza Hotel. We had to look at pictures of a bed in various stages of being made. Then we had to make a bed while being timed.
The same thing happened for the bathroom.
The trick to this event was that they gave extra items that we didn’t need. The bed had an extra sheet and an extra pillow. We realized the pillow wasn’t needed when it didn’t have a pillow case. But we put the sheet on the bed before we realized it was superfluous.
The bathroom had extra towels and soaps.

So I did the run today.
My foot aches a bit, but not too badly. I’ve globbed on some anti-inflammatory. But we’ll see tomorrow how it is. If it hurts a lot, it will probably mean I can’t do the marathon in two and a half weeks. Fingers crossed.
I did the 5.4 mile run in 38:42. I think I was the ninth person in my division to make it in. Not great, but I’m not embarrassed by it.
There was a lot of commuting to get to the run though. My car is now 250 km ahead of my scooter. So I’m probably going to park it until gas prices come down.

I just looked out my window. The moon is rising over the clouds to the south-west. It looks beautiful. It’s both big and orange. All in all, an impressive sight.
It’s rising quickly, so I don’t expect it to be as spetacular for mych longer.

So I was totally lazy on Sunday. I did no exercise. I did spend time designing a monster to throw at my players on Friday. That’s my biggest complaint about the 3.5 edition of D&D. It takes forever to create the powerful creatures and characters.
On Monday there was the season finale of Die-Nasty. It wasn’t that good. It really wasn’t that funny. Dana Anderson, the director, is still ending the scenes too early. But by far my biggest complaint is that every time someone has a gun on stage, Dana has the gun go off unexpectedly and someone gets shot. Every! F%&*ing! TIME!
And it never helps the story.
Before Die-Nasty, and before dinner, I took a run on the treadmill. I wanted to do 3.66 miles, and I saw that I was running late. So I had to go at a faster speed. But my foot is getting better, because I don’t feel a lot of pain today. The foot is still sensitive, but I should be good for tomorrow.
Because tomorrow I’m running the five mile challenge for Corporate Challenge. It is actually 5.4 miles and off in the boonies of Edmonton. I’m nervous about it. I know I can do the distance, but can I do it without injuring myself more. I’ve signed up for the Manitoba Marathon on June 20th, and even have the plane ticket. Now is not the right time for me to make myself worse.
We’re doing a carpool to the event. Unfortunately I’m driving. There is nothing wrong with that, but I’ve given myself the challenge to drive my scooter more than my car. It hasn’t helped that it is always raining around here, forcing me to use the car. I’m about 200 km behind, so I need to catch up. A long drive to the boonies of Edmonton will not help.
I just came back from Improv class. It is smaller this month, but we still have nine students. That is really pressing it. I’m still waiting for my report card from last month. I want to send in my teacher evaluation, because we have the same teacher this month.
Frankly Jacob Banigan is overrated.

So on the Friday before the Victoria Day long weekend we got let out of work early. Only by about an hour. So I went home and felt lazy so I channel surfed. I saw that Mrs. Osbourne has her own talk show.
There were several people sitting all together. When the camera was back you could see that there were five of them. The person second from the right looked like a beautiful blonde in a revealing evening dress. But they never showed her on the close ups. They showed the man to her left, and the women to her right. But never of her.
Then while Mrs. Osbourne was saying goodbye, she mentioned the woman was Anna Nicole Smith. Then we got our close up.
My god! She was hideous.
Worst cast of bait and switch I’ve ever seen.

I want to be positive. Stop the whining. But every so often something happens that depresses me. This journal seems like a viable outlet, but I said I would stop whining. This generally happens when someone describes how the world works for them with the assumption that it works that way for everyone, and I know it doesn’t work that way for me.