Last week I finished the Sinister 7. Barely. It was one of the toughest races I’ve done. And I finished 16 minutes before the final cutoff.
The more I think about it, the scarier it becomes. Every little choice those days had an effect that could have easily put me over. Just the act of stopping for the bathroom could have prevented a finish.
And I wanted to fail. There were many times in the last three legs where I was tempted to slow down. If I did, then I could miss a cutoff and just stop. What kept me competing was that if I did that, I would be throwing away all the hell I had been through already. The heat of leg three. The tiredness of leg four. The darkness of led five. The long slog of leg six.
But, I buttoned down on leg six and forced myself to keep going. And I looked terrible after finishing leg 5; my sister didn’t think I would make it for the next cutoff. I pushed myself and I finished leg 6 in exactly the time I predicted when I had started. Part of me wishes I had taken it a bit slower; I looked up at one point, in the middle of the night in the middle of the wilderness and I saw all the stars. I didn’t stop to admire them. I had to keep going.
None of my friends finished. That’s what makes victory so much sweeter. They either had injuries that forced them to drop down to running with a team, or they slowed down and failed to make cut offs. And I kept injuring myself. For the first three legs, I was rolling my ankle far too many times. I have a weak ankle from an ancient injury, so rolling happens easily. But because it is so weak, I can also use it again after thirty seconds. It never did feel perfect again, and I was protective of it, which probably slowed me down.
But, I was the last place finisher. This netted me the Red Lantern award; three bottles of wine.
I am now an award winning runner.

Happy Canada Day.
Normally I would celebrate by going out to the pancake breakfast at the legislature. Or even doing the Canada Day Road Race (which was an option before ultras started getting scheduled at around the same time.) Then I would have the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted. Maybe even take in the fireworks tonight.
However, I have a number of chores I need to do to get ready for the aforementioned ultra. The best way, I can see, to give myself time to do that is to instead go into work today. That will give me the time I need to get things done.
I can sense your confusion. But my logic is sound. I have found when I have a full day of nothing, I get nothing done. No pressures means no accomplishments. If I have only an evening of time available, I can get a lot more done. Stress is my friend. Without it, I can get distracted easily. So, I will go to work to give myself more time.
Though, I would really like to have had those pancakes.

I’ve learned that writing a column can be like working at a sausage factory–-use filler if you have to, just for God’s sake keep cranking that grinder. The upside is that sometimes the sausage comes tasting pretty good, even if you’ve run out of pork and had to use horse lips.

-Paul Mather 100 Years of Subatomic Humor

I think this is the longest I’ve ever taken between blog postings. That is not an accomplishment. If I don’t post today, then I would have my first month without any postings since I started it.
I used to treat this like a diary and gave updates as to everything in my life. Maybe I need to get back to that? Facebook has been a crutch. I can put a short mind-thought down and then feel I have communicated with my friends. But, in all honesty, my Facebook feed is read by more people than read this journal.
Still, I used to prize myself as being a writer. I wrote my own novel back in junior high. A novel, I hope never sees the light of day. I should do the bare minimum to keep up the long form prose. Even if I am exhausted by day-to-day life.
Current event: I do the Sinister 7 this weekend. To celebrate this fact, my watch batteries decided to die two weeks ago. Due to Timex having embraced planned-obsolescence, I have to send my watch all the way to Markham, Ontario to get them repaired. I did that immediately. I still haven’t gotten them back. Yes, plural there. I sent my last two watches in with the hope that they can get fixed. At this point I don’t think I’ll get them back.
Until then I am using, what I call my Soviet-era watch (because it looks like it was made in Russia in the 80s.) It’s made by a company called Timeco. I’ve never heard of them. But I got this watch five years ago for around ten dollars and has never caused my battery or water resistance problems. It’s also huge.
Looks like it will be going on a 160km excursion with me.

It has been awhile, but I suppose I should give a report on Lent.
It went terribly.
Once I went to Houston for the short vacation I totally lost all hope of meeting my goals. When I returned, I had a new job. On top of all the stress that that entails, i also had a total of an hour of commuting each day. I am exhausted when I come home, and I barely have the energy to feed myself, much less try and become a better person. It is worth it; I like my new job much better and my coworkers are great.
But Lent went poorly. And even a previous pledge of self-improvement that I had started on my birthday fell to the wayside. I am now going to try and re-pledge that for my half-birthday that was yesterday.
I have found it is easier to give something up than to try and add more to your life. But I think that was the initial idea of Lent; give up something. The ancient people were smarter than me.

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Roy (Blade Runner)

I’ve been thinking about memory lately. Since I turned 40, I feel my memory is going. I don’t seem to remember things as well as I used to. This is most likely part of the process of getting old. So, today is my 40.5 half birthday; it seemed appropriate to discuss it.
My memories of the past is tainted by time. I recall classmates from elementary school. I do not remember them as children. They were not small people; they were all the same height as myself. So, in my memory, I still see them as my current height.
We are essentially our memories. And there have been times when I wish I could forget things from my past. Mostly dumb things I’ve done, but I would also include hellish periods of my life that probably still affect my self esteem. Unfortunately, the act of remembering causes a memory to hang around longer. So, when I think of something I want to forget, I am already going backwards in that mission.
But then I think of the idea of forgetting. It’s scary. If you forget something, it is gone forever. You don’t even remember that you’ve forgotten it. That would be the tragic part of alzheimer’s disease. Once I think of it that way, I don’t want to forget anything. Ever.
But there is only so much space in your brain. You have to forget to be able to remember. My internal hard drive is getting full.

‘You see,’ he explained, ‘I consider that a man’s brain is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.’
Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet

I went to the hospital early today. I chose the Grey Nuns because the website said they only had a half hour wait. The triage nurse had no idea where they got that number from.
After an hour of waiting, the doctor pretty much told me to keep doing what I was doing. She seemed perfectly happy with the bandage that I had put on. The only new advice was that I shouldn’t be barefoot for the next while, so that my toe has a steady surface to heal on. I think that the fact it will help protect the toe from banging against other things is a happy coincidence.

On Saturday, while cleaning up, I stubbed my toe against a suitcase. It hurt enough that I remorsefully skipped running the next day. And from the lurid colours, I’m assuming I broke it. Last time, I was able to run again after a month.
After work today I went to the walk-in clinic to get a professional opinion. He sent me to get an X-ray. I decided to get it over with and went immediately to one on the south side of town. I was lucky and there wasn’t too much of a wait. However, the person I saw for the X-ray recommended I go see the doctor again. Immediately.
So, back to the doctor. He looked at my CD of the X-ray and he said I should go to the hospital.
That is not usually a good sign.
I drove to the University Hospital. There, the triage nurse told me it would be a five hour wait…
I hadn’t had dinner yet. I did not feel like staying there until midnight. The nurse claimed the best time to be there was eight in the morning. That wouldn’t be too different from the sitting/waiting time. So, I’ll get up early and go there tomorrow. There is even a convenient website giving wait times.
No one has given me any reason to be panicked or concerned. But I don’t know if that is usual in the medical profession. For all I know, I’m in serious danger. But no one has communicated that to me.
I don’t have high hopes for getting back to running anytime soon.

Well, it isn’t hot, but it is nice. I can wear shorts and not feel uncomfortable. I decided to celebrate this happy occasion and go use the hotel pool. The outdoor pool.
I discovered some friends there who were lounging in the hot tub. For good reason. The regular pool was about as cold as a Canadian lake. That would be pretty good if it was hot out, but it is only warm. One lap later and I joined my friend in the hot tub.
Then I spent the rest of the afternoon finding my friends and catching up.
2014-3-13 18:58

Okay, I’ve arrived in Houston for my wild weekend of “debauchery”. There were no problems getting here. Although I was tempted in Edmonton to go running across the tarmac at six in the morning. But that is what happens when you have to walk to the airplane from the terminal.
I’m already cataloging the things I’ve forgotten. I had the space for them. My luggage is fairly light, but if I had known how much luggage costs, I would have been more efficient. I’m used to domestic or Caribbean flights. When you go to the U.S. You have to pay for every piece of luggage. The weird thing is that the ticket lady for Air Canada seemed to imply that it was a competitive advantage that they make you pay for luggage like the Americans.
I’ve already said hello to a few people I know. My room isn’t ready yet, so I have a bit of time to waste in the lobby. But I should be good to go soon.
2014-3-13 14:19

Lent snuck up on me.
Lent is not a religious requirement for me in any way. However, I like the cultural idea of a set time for improving oneself.
The past few of Lents, I have given up a specific luxury. However, I decided to give that luxury up permanently when I turned forty. Does this mean I have a pass for Lent? Or do I have to find something new to give up?
I’m an atheist; I have no background in this.
But really, I should do something. It’s traditional. And I’m nothing if not a slave to meaningless rituals.
The simplest goal would be to be a better person. (Would that mean for Lent I am giving up being a bad person?) But if it isn’t quantifiable, then that is a meaningless objective. But, last March I was in a competition with my sister that has given me a good baseline to aim for.
Each day I have to do one of three tasks.

1. Make an effort towards finding a girlfriend. This will most likely entail using eHarmony.
2. Do a minimum of half an hour of programming on my own personal projects. This is self improvement.
3. Go for a run. Not really a challenge, but on days that I do run, I have no energy to do any other task.

This is basically a repeat of my sister’s challenge. But we have to start somewhere.
My biggest worry is that I am taking a weekend trip to Houston in nine days. I don’t know how I will fit those tasks in while I’m on vacation.

Last week I went speed dating. As usual, no one I liked was interested in me. I was talking to my sister who is trained as a counsellor about it this weekend. Talking helps you think through things.
I try to be a nice person. But nice isn’t a quality that people should be looking for in dating. Being nice should be a given. If nice is your only quality, then you have no qualities. Being interesting and exciting are what people look for. I come off as boring in speed dating.
I am embarrassed about being me, so I am not being myself. The only hobby I feel comfortable talking about to strangers is my ultra distance running. I am probably coming off as a brain-dead jock with no other interests. I am so used to having my hobbies of D&D, comics and science-fiction being looked down upon, that I don’t celebrate that part of myself. And I’m not even getting to the Level 3 part of my life.
And yet, earlier that SAME day I had a job interview. There, I absolutely was myself. I already have a job, so I wasn’t pressured to pretend to be someone I wasn’t. Failure WAS an option. I could give them full frontal Erik. Heck, when it came time for me to ask questions, one of mine was “Kirk or Picard?” If you guys are going to claim to be nerds, be prepared to defend it.
I wanted them to prove themselves to me, more than I wanted to impress them. I wanted to show my personality off accurately.
It worked. I signed the contract today giving me a 25% raise in pay. The only downside is I now have a thirty minute commute to St. Albert, instead of the ten minute commute I have now.
Now I just need to transfer this same attitude when I try talking to women. Unfortunately, while this lesson is fresh in my mind now, I will forget it by the time I next talk to a single woman.

I think more people need to take responsibility for the teaching of Creationism.
I read an article today about the places that still teach it. It is criminal that this is still being taught as science. Go teach it as religion, and I don’t have a problem. Teach it as fact, and you devalue all of science.
But, I think the blame for this can be spread further to include universities. Now, I don’t think any credible universities are teaching this pseudo-science. But their silence implies consent. Why do they accept students from Tennessee and Louisiana?
For example, how would it look to those states if Harvard suddenly said that they will no longer accept Biology or Medical students from there. Their education is substandard and therefore they cannot be trusted to know the fundamentals.
This is a real world consequence for playing fast and loose with science. There are probably many parents that don’t care that their little angel is being taught Creationism. But how do you think they would react if they found out that their little butterfly is now cut off from being a doctor? Do you think they would continue to elect politicians who are pandering to the religious and the expense of their child’s future.
Wait, don’t answer that.

True, that is just one university. A utopian example. But if any university did it, people would notice. It would make the news, and other universities might join in the boycott.

Thanks to the library, I have learned that I don’t always have to own books to read them. I am amazed at the easiness of reading sometimes. It is easier than watching a film. Watching a film alone.
Let’s discuss the ease of partaking the three chief forms of fictional entertainment.
While watching a movie, there is always the chance I will get uncomfortable and turn it off for awhile. Or get distracted because of some character’s inane personality flaw. It is harder for me to like characters I have just met. It can take me several days to watch a movie.
While watching a television show, that is less likely. There is a non-insignificant chance that I will care about the characters. Time does not need to be wasted getting to like them. If I have seen a few episodes, that is already taken care of. I can share in their triumphs and failures.
Then we get to reading. This can be broken into two parts. Short stories and novels. Despite the episodic nature of the short story collection, it is much more like a film to me. Each story requires me to learn to care about the character. Once I do, there is a good chance that the story will end soon after, and I am forced to start a new story, with new characters. I recently read “We Never Talk About My Brother” by Peter S Beagle. (You may have heard of him.) It was gruelling to get through. Most of the stories were entertaining, and I had heard the title one as a podcast. But still, there was no motivation for me to pick it up after finishing a story. It almost felt like work.
Then we get to the novel. It is criminally easy to like a character that you can hear the thought process of. And you have to think while you read, so you can’t be distracted. The book won’t read itself. Unlike a movie. An author has total control of the script and isn’t pandering to investors. There is no big investor hoping to make their money back. The financial outlay for the producer of a novel is minimal by Hollywood standards. With that freedom, you get good books. Books that draw you back to them. Books that can be read in bed before going to sleep or getting up in the morning. (Can’t do that with television without feeling like a loser.)
So, does that mean a novel is mindless entertainment to me? Probably not, but you can see where I am getting at. A film requires too much effort to watch.

Some of my arguments fall apart when I reveal that the novel I just finished, “Steelheart” by Brandon Sanderson, is officially classified as “Children’s Fiction”. That may explain why I was able to inhale it so easily.

I am throwing a potluck dinner on Friday. I was trying to figure out what to cook for my entry. I was waffling (no pun intended) between Gorchaboff (my staple potluck recipe) or spaghetti. I have a new pasta maker so I was leaning towards the latter, to show off delicious fresh-made pasta.
Last night was my usual spaghetti night. So I thought it would be an excellent way to do a dry run of pasta making. I’m glad I did. It didn’t turn out well.
Maybe I didn’t make the dough properly; I trusted the bread machine for that. I think I let it dry for too long while I was struggling with other parts. In any case, the majority of spaghetti came out in 2cm chunks.
It was still edible, but I don’t think I can trust myself to make good pasta with it when under a time pressure of people coming over.
Maybe next time.

I have given myself a personal challenge. It started simply when I needed a mental break at work. I tried to memorize the countries along the coastline of the Americas. Once I had that down pat, I started the same thing with the other hemisphere. I can now, reasonably, name every country along the coastline of the world.
There wasn’t any point to it. Just to make myself a more knowledgeable person. Or maybe it was so that if there is ever another internet quiz asking for placement of countries, I will rock it.
An incidental benefit came to me today. I was reading a news article, and it started mentioning countries in Africa. For the first time, I had a good idea as to where those countries were. Previously I was just aware that they were somewhere in that big continent, but the actual placement wasn’t important to me. Now I feel more comfortable with that, and it is a good feeling.
So, I guess my personal challenge is to learn geography better. The coastline quiz was a good start, but there are other countries that have no coastline. And other countries that are nothing but coastline. I have to figure out some pattern that will let me solidly place them in my head.
I’m thinking of working on the caribbean next. The Lesser Antilles is a nice conga line of islands that I should be able to memorize.

Homework: Quiz me at any time to name the countries along the coastline starting from any point. If it is unexpected, the better it is to test me.

Today I did an ultra. A small 50km one. (Small is relative.) I call it the Obese Donkey, but if you change it to synonyms you can figure out the actual name.
It was bloody cold!
I dressed fairly well for the weather. And the first loop of 25km wasn’t unpleasant. Then the wind picked up. And my gloves weren’t good enough. I should have been wearing mittens. It didn’t help that I was running with slow people. But it wasn’t a race. Well it was, but I was mostly treating it as a training run. Towards the end, I just wanted it over, and I left behind my friends.
Afterwards, I grabbed a lunch from Booster Juice and then went home and wrapped myself up in my electric blanket. That was the best time I’ve ever had with that thing.
Although I need to ice my ankle now. It isn’t feeling great. I’m wondering if I can do that while wrapped in the electric blanket…
But, I’ve also ordered a pizza, so I am going to go pick that up now and hork it down while watching a movie.

It was ten years ago today that I started blogging. Back then it was on LiveJournal, but now I’ve moved entirely to WordPress on my own hosted domain. The move to the new system wasn’t entirely smooth; I lost every comment written. LiveJournal doesn’t really want to help me get them back; punishment for leaving. I do have a plan for how to get them, but it only works because I am a packrat that never threw away an email.
It is interesting to look at my first entry and compare it with today.
I had fears that my mother might start reading it. She never did except when I went on epic vacations.
I used to go out to bars and bemoan how miserable I was at them. (A decade ago New Year’s Eve was no exception.) That was because I was socially inept. Now I barely ever go out to bars. I think I will dabble with that in the future, but with better perspective. I’m enjoying time spent with friends much more.
I ran on New Year’s day back then. That was for the Resolution Run, a 5km run that the Running Room puts on. A month ago, I heard that this year’s run had already run out of large and extra-large t-shirts. That gives you an idea of the body type of people who go to it. In fact, I did a run today that was over 5km, and involved a lot of stairs. I think I’m better than the Resolution Run now.
The biggest reminder I get when I look over my old posts is how much I hate my younger self. He was an idiot, and had poor social skills. I’ll probably think the same about myself now in ten years. Hopefully this will motivate myself to be better.
Because, although I have improved, I still have trouble socializing.

My bedside clock hates me.
I think it started its program of suffering when I decided that I did not need it to ring any more. I found waking up far more refreshing if the alarm didn’t go off.
Its first tactic was to disable the “alarm off” button. It would ring even if it was off. (I think it would ring even if I unplugged it.) Due to a distant power outage that reset it, that meant it would go off at midnight.
Fortunately, I compensated for this by being able to turn it off without waking up. I actually only noticed it on weekends when I would stay up late. That was annoying enough that I performed surgery on it and just snipped the power to the speaker. I did learn at how terrible the manufacturing was where the “alarm on” button only turns on a light on the front, and depends on the (malfunctioning) off button to prevent ringing.
A few weeks ago my clock figured out a new tactic. I’m not sure how, but it is reseting itself now. Not enough that the time goes back to midnight; instead it just starts flashing the correct time.
I could try setting the time again; that does stop the flashing. But because of a lousy user interface, that means I have to set the minutes time again, and that requires holding down the “minutes” button until it wraps around to the correct time. Did I mention that the buttons are barely working anymore.
Can it be considered that it has won if I decide to just replace it?
It took awhile. Most clocks are overpriced for what I want: the time. I don’t want to have a iPhone charger. I don’t want artificial sunlight. Just the time.
On a boxing day sale, I have gotten a new one that I will have to suffer it being a radio as well. Sony.
Never trust Westclox again.

I recently got accused of only cooking one-ingredient dinners. I can’t deny it. There are the special occasions, like turkey night, where I actually cook, but for the most part, I am doing things as simply as possible. Even if we can forgive my spaghetti night before the Sunday long runs, there is not a lot of variety in my diet.
It wasn’t always like this. I used to have a goal to cook something special on Sundays. But I started getting busy on the weekends and actually having a life. The Friday Feast also sucked me in so that there was one less night that I had to worry about meals. Running long distances made me too tired to do anything on a lot of evenings.
I saw a nutritionist last month, so I’ve been trying to eat better.
This week has been fairly good though. Yesterday I made the old family recipe of lemon-garlic chicken. Tonight I used my old standby Life’s on Fire: Cooking for the Rushed and made the beef enchilada casserole. And for the first time I actually made the recommended side dish, so I had a tomato-avocado salad with it.
I really need to hunker down and go through my cookbooks again. I have a list of recipes that I feel comfortable with, but it hasn’t expanded in awhile. For years. I need to be better than that. I want to have confidence in the kitchen.

I got myself a late birthday present on Friday. It was the one day of the entire year when Apple has a sale. I went a little wild.
I got three items.
The iPad Air was a gift from my parents. We had all agreed that it would be better to wait for the sale instead of getting it on the appropriate day.
The Apple TV was so that I could better use my TV. Now that the video store is gone, I need to research alternate ways to get movies.
the iMac was a weird purchase. I have been very happy with my MacBook Pro, and I saw no need to replace it. However, 95% of the time, it sits on my desk and never moves. That defeats the point of being a laptop. But there was the 5% (and I’m being generous with that percentage) that I did move it.
In this day and age though, it should be easy to have the same files available on two different computers. My logic was that I could have the iMac be my desktop computer, but all my files would be available on my laptop when I needed it.
I don’t know if my logic is sound.
When I first started using my iMac, part of the problem was the screen was so big. With my laptop, small screen that I could focus on. It didn’t feel like a big commitment to use it. Now I have to deal with peripheral vision size screen. Was I getting a headache?
Then I realized that my email would not be easy to share between computers. I hadn’t set up to be IMAP, so that magic is unavailable to me. Maybe it will be easy, and I just haven’t figured out how. Something to look forward to.
On the plus side, it has forced me to upgrade to the latest operating system. I hadn’t done that on my laptop because one stupid financial program would stop working. A program that has 2002 in the title. It was time to move on, and this has forced that on me.

Geez, it is like working in front of a movie screen.

On November 16th, I turn 40. Let’s count down the 10 life events that affected me the most.
1/10 – 2009 – 2010: Fell in love for the first time. It was a wondrous feeling to have someone who liked me. Maybe it wasn’t real, and it probably wasn’t because the relationship didn’t last. But for a short time, I was very happy.
2/10 – August 2008: I ran the Canadian Death Race. This was my first ultramarathon, and I’ve been abusing them ever since. They force me to travel off the beaten path to do them. I’ve run hither and yon, over distances and terrain undreamt of by mortal man. Running has introduced me to new friends and kept me in good shape. (See also February 2003 for my first half-marathon and June 2004 for my first marathon.)
3/10 – December 2006: I attended my first “Friday Feast”. This weekly event has greatly increased the number of people I know. I have met good and true friends here that I greatly value. My circles have increased.
4/10 – November 2004: I went to Jamaica and met a new circle of friends from all over the world; friends that let me explore a new side of myself, never judged me, supported me, and helped me improve as a person.
5/10 – May 2003: I became a property owner. I came into some money and put a down payment on a condo. I’ve been living here ever since.
6/10 – November 1995: I left home and moved to Edmonton. I was now responsible for keeping myself alive. This city has been good to me; I’ve made lots of friends, and it is a beautiful place for running. But I always wonder if it has been a good place for my career.
7/10 – Sometime between 1991 and 1994 – Discovered the book Fractals and Chaos in the University bookstore. This contained my first introduction to using fractals to generate random landscape. For the next two decades I would continue to play around with that algorithm in my personal programming project; thus preventing me from creating other, more useful apps. I still like maps though.
8/10 – 1985 and 1987 – Le Morte d’Arthur and the death of my Grandfather. Arthur was the first dog I was ever close to and my first experience with death. My maternal grandfather was a great man that I wish I had known better; a man without fear and always doing something. I’ve tried to live my life like his.
9/10 – 1984 – The family got its first computer, and Apple //e. I had an earlier introduction to computers than a lot of people, and I’ve been coasting on that ever since.
10/10 – November 1973 – I was born. I believe this had a significant effect on my life.

With this vacation, I felt more welcome than I have at previous ones. My friends were more accepting and understanding of me this time. I felt more comfortable. And they were able to teach me lessons.
The lesson that I most need to learn is the ability to say “No”.
I was a big fan of the movie Yes, Man. I liked its philosophy of always saying “Yes”. I ignored the part of the film where the hero only truly became complete when he gave himself permission to say “No” at times.
But it is an important part. I should not be a doormat to other people. I am allowed to think. If I am doing something that I would rather not be doing, people can sense that. It is not an attractive quality.
It’s time to be an adult.

A friend here decided to renew his wedding vows. Technically it was a hand fasting ceremony, which I’m not entirely familiar with, but it is the pagan equivalent of a wedding.
I was deeply touched when he asked me to be his best man. I wasn’t his first choice, but it was still a great honour. (His first choice bowed out due to religious reasons.)
I didn’t get a lot of warning about this, but I tried to do my best. I organized a five second bachelor party for him. I’ve now got the incriminating pictures that I plan to show at the reception.
It was very nice to see these two people so much in love. I was present for their initial wedding, and they still deeply love each other.
2013-11-02 4:03

There is a gentleman here, who is nominally part of the group I’m with. At first I thought he looked like a soccer player. But as I’ve gotten to know him, I’m changing my opinion. He refuses to eat any carbs. He does a lot of exercise, but he clamped up when I ask him what he was training for. My theory is that he is part of some special-ops force.
There are two small rubber sharks at the resort. Both have gone missing and they are needed for some performance that is happening later. They have been given names, and one is even on a leash. They have generally just been misplaced. This happens when you give drunk people a level of responsibility they shouldn’t have.
One was finally been found in a woman’s villa. However, this was done by peeking through her window. At the same time that she had lost her key, but she said she had a spare on her table.
So, special-ops guy and I went to try and retrieve it. The balcony didn’t look possible to sneak in. But he found that the back window was open. With me giving him a boost, we squeezed him through it. He extracted the shark and spare key and we returned them to the proper authorities. He is now being kept in a locked safe.
Is this considered rendition?
2013-10-31 4:25

I had a nominal celebration today for my 40th birthday, which isn’t for two and a half weeks, but the friends I have here won’t be around on the actual day. I didn’t really know we were celebrating, I thought I was just part of the act.
At dinner, some of the girls put on a show. They were all dressed in Hooters outfits. While waiter music was playing, they acted like terrible waitresses. I was one of the “customers”. This involved me being assaulted by a lot of food.
I think I’ve got all the cake out of my nose, but it is hard to be sure.

I have good friends. Here and in Edmonton. I want to thank you all for being my friends.

Now back to the party.
2013-10-30 23:07

Today was excursion day. The plan was to leave the resort, go snorkelling, followed by a shallow ocean cove. Lovely stuff. It was looking a bit dicey when it started pouring rain half an hour before we were supposed to leave.
A new friend had asked me to go get something from her room, on the other side of the resort. So off I went. I was in aquasocks, so I wasn’t able to run. I started getting very wet.
And when I got back to the main building, I didn’t go all the way to the stairs, and instead hopped up the one foot tall ledge to the main floor. The floor that had wet tile. In my aquasocks with no grip. In the slip that happened, my left shin slammed into the corner of the ledge.
This was not a simple cut. There was an open wound with some depth in it, even if it was only a couple of millimetres. Fortunately, my friend George was having breakfast there at the time. He is a trained paramedic. And, an always prepared paramedic. He had the first aid kit on him and he started operating quickly.
It wasn’t too painful, and the endorphins kept me happy. I enjoyed being the centre of attention. He was thinking that sutures might be needed, but we ended up using a butterfly bandage. It acts like a stitch for small wounds. Although he had trouble getting enough light to work because everyone wanted to see.
I do have travel medical insurance, but nobody really wanted to go to the hospital for a small wound.
Of course, being who I am, I still wanted to go on the excursion. George didn’t have too much of a problem with this. We wrapped the leg up in bandages and cellophane and off we went! It had even stopped raining, although it was still cloudy.
It’s a good thing that George was here, because along the way, the bus/truck stopped for beer. An American, used to thick American bottles, tried to open his bottle be banging the cap off on an edge. He claims that he fainted, not from the glass cuts, but because he was still buzzed from drinking the previous night combined with lack of sleep. All I know is that he was lying on the ground with ice on his head.
The snorkelling was in a small swimming hole. Very beautiful. Initial thoughts by people was that it was cold. I thought it was great. It had nothing on glacial lakes. It was clear and although it wasn’t perceptibly deep, you could see creepy tunnels that led deeper.
The ocean cove was the same as last year, except the weather was better. No rain, but still cloudy. It was a pleasant place with a weird thermoline. Variations of hot and cold water were happening all the time.
Then back to the resort. George looked over the wounds that had been received and replaced the bandages. Right now it hurts a bit, but nothing worse than I’ve had after an ultramarathon.
2013-10-29 19:44

I feel somewhat bad that I am not being diligent in updating my blog while I’m on vacation. But really, I’m on vacation, having a wonderful time. Why would I spend any time on the computer that I didn’t have to? Why am I doing it now?
I complain about my flights, leaving at 1:00 in the morning, but I shouldn’t. It means I get to sleep most of the flight and not waste a vacation day traveling.
I didn’t get the room I expected when I arrived. I had requested the same one I had last year. Instead I got upgraded to a villa. Which is nicer, a bit more centrally located, gorgeous view, but no kitchen. Did I really think I would do baking while I was here?
Today (technically yesterday) has been a very good day. Most of it was spent in a haze. I stayed up too late yesterday and was groggy all day. But I’m on vacation, so I have to man up and go and do stuff. Most of the time I am falling into my usual habit of being a facilitator; making sure everyone is having a good time.
What I like about the people I am friends with is the complete lack of judgement. Wait, that came out wrong. While they might have a lack of judgement, they also don’t judge. They are willing to do anything and accept everything.
Last year, we had pony races. I didn’t do well due to circumstances I don’t want to talk about. So this year, I made it personal. Off came the vacation clothes, and on came the running gear. (It was amazing how much nicer it is to walk around in running shoes than the sandals I had been wearing.) To make things more interesting, the steeplechase is done with all the “horses” (inflatable stick ponies) competing at the same time. Jump over the three deck chairs; through the two hoops; around the hedges; back through the same hoops; centre stage to hula-hoop; finally two more hoops before the finish line.
Rightly so, I was favoured to win this year. The difficult part was when I was coming back to the same hoops I had gone through before, the husband-wife team had left a trap. While she was racing, he was blocking the hoops. Well, if they are going to cheat like that, they started it. After the wrestling match pile-up was completed, I was able to sprint off ahead of her and finish.
The bull-roping demonstration was well done.
I’ve been making friends here. Mostly British women with nerdy boyfriends who are absent. I’ve been getting many compliments from the organizers. I feel comfortable and accepted. There are single women here too. It’s nice.
Overheard: “Mi beaver es su beaver.” After I gave a cute stuffed beaver to one of the organizers. I hope they don’t name it Justin.
I was fantastically dressed tonight, and got a lot of compliments. I have stayed up very very late, with very little caffeine. I am still oddly alert, but I blame the large amount of mental stimulus I’ve been having. I escorted multiple women to their rooms. Although the first one was because she was scared of spiders that might be lurking there. In her defence, there are very big spiders here. It is hard to find a big enough glass to try and catch them with.
I should go to bed now. Breakfast ends in six hours.
2013-10-28 4:52

I prefer flying Air Canada to WestJet for one simple reason. Air Canada has better televisions. WestJet wants me to pay to watch a movie, or I can watch live TV on the back of the seat in front of me. With Air Canada I get a selection of movies to choose from. It’s amazing how nice that is. All things considered, I will pay a bit more to fly Air Canada.
Because I am flying with WestJet today (it was significantly cheaper), and I am cheap, I’ve brought along my iPad which is loaded with movies and shows that I want to see. You would think this would be better? Even the screen is bigger with an iPad.
But you would be wrong.
With an iPad, I can put it away and not feel like I am missing anything. In fact you are saving good entertainment for later, so you should. But confined to your seat, upright and in the locked position, you have nothing else to do. And you can see movies you wouldn’t normally see. But if you don’t watch them, you are not getting your money’s worth. And don’t wait, because the flight doesn’t last forever.
I need pressure to see movies. Movies that don’t have a deadline have a tendency to linger in my lair. I liked renting videos with the built-in need to return them within a week. Even if I have nothing better to do than stare out the window, I will still not watch.
These are the things I have to deal with when I fly.

The fools let me on without weighing my luggage. Bwa ha ha.
I’ve got another hour before my plane takes off. So I will pass the time by blogging. Although I am sure that when we do board, I will be sitting next to the guy who is sniffling like it is going out of style. Blow your nose! I’ve been avoiding sick people all week, and now they will probably forcibly confine me with a Typhoid Harry.
The Mac’s convenience store here is full of temptation. They have McCain Deep ‘n Delicious cakes just asking to be purchased. Even a Froster would be great. But none of these are foods you should eat on an airplane. And I don’t need anything caffeinated when I am planning to sleep most of the way. I’ll take a Gravol to encourage that.

Tomorrow I run the Iron Horse. It’s a 160 km ultra east of Edmonton along the Iron Horse trail.
I’ve got several factors against me. My ankle still hurts from previous injuries. I think I’ve got a touch of a cold. I forgot my flask of gel that I was sure was going to make this a great race.
The factors going for me is that this is a simple ultra. It’s mostly flat. I know the route now and what to expect. The weather looks solid. They’ve marked the route this time. The northern lights will look spectacular. I’ve made sure to get lots of sleep all week.
Well I mostly got a lot of sleep. Last night I was up late packing, and I had trouble sleeping from stress.
But if I do this, I’ve got the Alberta Triple.

Now if only we could find a good restaurant in Saint Paul to eat dinner at. The Boston Pizza is advertising for managers and it shows.