So I'm moving my webhost and this will be my last post on my old blog. Depending on how you read my blog, you might want to do something differently...

• If you read this by going to http://www.psoul.com then you can either start going to masivp.com/wordpress or in a couple days you'll just start seeing the new blog
• If you read this with the RSS feed, then that, too, will be updated pretty soon so that the same link works, but if you want to get on the bleeding edge, the new address is here.

[14:44] [] [link] [comment]

This isn't likely to be that exciting to many people (except maybe Nick who recently switched to godaddy instead of bluehost or Adam who also recently went to bluehost), but I'm moving webhosts. This is way, way overdue, but creates a ton of busywork for me that I've been trying to avoid. Here's some of the exciting stuff involved:

• Learn Wordpress for blogging, try to migrate my existing blosxom based blog over to it
• Migrate my mailman lists over (but now I can have more than two - yay!)
• Get all my email migrated out of the old site, eventually switch to Google Apps for domains

UPDATE 2007.08.15 No bluehost

Bluehost have an annoying policy of requiring you send a photocopy of your driver's license or passport to allow you to shell in to your hosting account. This cat ain't having that, so I called them, tried to get them to make an exception to the nosy policy which they refused, and told them to close my account, refund my signup fee, and asked that they make a policy like that clear rather than advertising shell access as a feature when there is (what at least some people might consider) such a significant catch tied to the option.

I'm now migrating to Dreamhost, who seem like good people and who have a separate site listing known system issues, which is *awesome*! The whole reason I'm leaving Dominet is repeated weekends with outages where I have no idea why things aren't working - I only know my site's down.

[14:01] [] [link] [2 comment]

So last Saturday was the 13 mile Cougar Mountain Trail run. Holy shit it was hard. Most of the run itself was super, super fun but the course was very hard. This was the second time I've done a race on a trail. The first was three weeks earlier in Fairbanks, but that course didn't prepare me at all for this trail run. There was another 1000' of elevation gain at Cougar Mountain and 2500' more of net elevation gain (the Fairbanks run started in the mountains and lost 3000'). Also, the Fairbanks run was on a large, wide ridge road with beautiful views of the Alaskan mountain ranges, whereas Cougar Mountain was a single-file trail weaving through a canopy of trees and constantly going up and down switchbacks. Speaking of the switchbacks - they are *hard* to run up. Early in the race I though I'd run the entire thing, but I got to sections where basically everyone was walking and I realized that by trying to run I was just expending energy raising my body into the next step but not actually moving any faster than the people doing a quick hike up those inclines. So if I saw people walking, I walked, too.

My time (2:17:00, 41st out of the 204 people who ran it) feels a little disappointing. I originally thought "I'll crack 2 hours." Hah! That would have put me in 8th place and was way unrealistic for me for this course. So as I was getting into the run and sizing up the terrain I thought "OK, if I aim for 2:10:00, that gets me just under 10 minute miles." This was the goal I really wanted to hit, then, and the fact that I didn't is why I'm a little disappointed. But when I'm out pushing myself up an incline now and I start feeling a little lightheaded, I don't take any chances so there were times close to the end where I just had to decide to not take a chance with my health and let the time go. Not that I needed much convincing because I was definitely working hard and there's nothing like a run like this to get your head to feel like it's going to explode from the pressure, anyway. At the end of the race I met a fellow ChuckIt member who I was under 2 minutes behind and he has qualified for Boston so that was encouraging after feeling like I'd backpedaled on some (really unrealistic) goals.

So overall it was a great experience and I'd love to do it again. One other observation about the race: the entry swag they offered was a pair of running socks with the race series knit around the ankle. They're really cool! After getting a nice UPF 40 hat from the run in Fairbanks I've realized a couple things about longer runs - all of which I really like:

• You get way better free stuff from longer runs! If I never get another cotton t-shirt, that'd be fine by me.
• The field for longer races is incredibly different from who typically comes out for a 5K (however there are certain 5K's which still attract a unique crowd...).
• Way fewer people enter for longer races

[18:40] [/sports] [link] [2 comment]

Following up on my earlier frustrations with IPTC handling, I've found that the free Windows application iTag does basically everything I want with getting IPTC fields set appropriately. You basically...

1. Load a bunch of pictures you want to set tags on
2. Start setting properties - you can select a single picture or a group of pictures
   • iTag's Title is what irfanview calls the IPTC Headline and this is Flickr's Title (if there is no IPTC tag value, flickr uses the filename as the title)
   • iTag's Description is what irfanview calls the IPTC Caption and this is Flickr's description
   • iTag's Tags are what irfanview calls the IPTC Keywords and these are also Flickr's tags
3. Once you've started assigning any tags to any individual or group of pictures in the set, they are visible in a pane of available tags for the set so you can more easily assign the same tags to other pictures in the set (avoiding typos or things like creating separate tags for "bear" and "grizzly" if you want them all to be "grizzly bear")

Once all the tags are set on your pictures locally, you can upload to flickr and it will honor whatever you'd set. The downside (as far as I can tell) is that Windows (XP, at least) doesn't seem to do IPTC indexing. So now I've got hundreds of pictures which I've started to catalog using this nice rich format, but I can't effectively search through the pictures on my computer to find that one with the heart rock. But it's way better than trying to do this in irfanview or with flickr.

[19:31] [/computers] [link] [2 comment]

If someone had told me three months ago that I would ever be thinking "Ooh - a half marathon with (allegedly) 2700' of elevation gain? Great! I could use a break!" I'd have called you crazy, but here I am. I just signed up for the last in the Cougar Mountain Trail Running Series from Seattle Running Company. I'm really looking forward to it. And all I need to do is come close to my pace for the trail run I did in Fairbanks and I'd be setting a new course record for the 13 miler! Which makes me think this is going to be a tough, tough race. But still - I did 19.5 last weekend and haven't run under 14 on a weekend in over a month so at least right now, I really am looking forward to it.

[19:14] [/sports] [link] [comment]

Note to self...when tagging pictures with IrfanView's IPTC editor, putting values into the IPTC keyword field, one per line, creates tags that flickr honors. The tags needn't be comma separated and tags with spaces don't need to be quoted. This feels like it should be more transparent but it's not. It also feels like it should be easier - any tips for a better IPTC editor than copying and pasting in IrfanView?

[03:10] [/computers] [link] [comment]

Pilot, hunter, fisher, Ray,
originally uploaded by Peru Tha Damaja.

[18:01] [] [link] [comment]

I just got back from the Gold Discovery Run our near Fox in Fairbanks. It was awesome and the whole run has been a totally great experience. I got my coach's approval to do the 16.5 mile run, even though the long run planned for this weekend should have dropped me back to 13. But Fairbanks is an incredibly sprawling town and I don't have a car so I wasn't sure how it would all work out but everything is just clicking.

First, I'm staying at Billie's Backpackers hostel (which I recommend) which is pretty close to the University of Alaska - Fairbanks but not near downtown and feels (to this city boy) like it's in the boonies a bit. I'd seen the registration for the race is at a place called "Toy Quest" and, amazingly, that's probably the closest business to my hostel! Yay! So (and I blogged about this earlier - sorry for the old news), Friday I went over to register for the race. I met a nice guy named Bob who is part of Running Club North, the local club who organize the run and was managing registration. He very nicely put in a call to Steve, who I gather had been president of the club for years, and who was super helpful and willing to take me to the run on Sunday if I could go to the site Saturday for a bit and help set up. Perfect! And even more good news - unlike every other race I've run in where you get a cotton T-shirt for registration (well, there was one race where we got tank tops), they had nice SPF 45 running hats! This is terrific since I'd forgotten to pack a hat on the trip and think one of these would be handy sometimes. These hats alone probably cost close to the $25 race registration fee.

So Saturday morning I was planning on heading downtown to catch the parade and some other events that are part of Golden Days and gave Steve a call. It turned out they were putting on a run that morning - the Golden Mile - and I could meet him or some other club members and get everything set up for me getting to the race Sunday. While I was there I met a nice woman doing the Golden Mile named Lena who said if I was in a pinch she could probably get me to the race. This would later turn out to be great because Steve would need to get to the race early Sunday morning for setup and other things. So I had a pretty good looking plan B lined up that was becoming my plan A.

At the race, I met Keith, who (I gather) is the current Running Club North president. Keith was super nice and we drove in his pickup past the Alaska pipeline and out to Silver Gulch Brewery, where the race would finish, and started moving some things around to get ready for the post race BBQ. Steve showed up at Silver Gulch, too, and we lugged around some tables and "candlesticks" (the traffic sticks used to direct cars or channel runners), then he took me back downtown where I bummed around a little trying to figure out subsequent travel plans and booking.

So that night I got back in touch with Lena about a ride. She and Mike would be able to come pick me up in the morning at 7:30 - which would be *way* better than the option I was looking at of getting out there with Steve at or by 6, so that was perfect. They don't live too far from my hostel and Lena said when she originally came to Alaska 5 years ago or so she'd stayed here, too.

OK, so on to the race. Today we got to Silver Gulch and boarded a bus at about 8:15 to get to the starting line. The race started at 9 and was really amazing. I have to say this again. It was amazing. I've never done trail running before (at all - so why not start with a run that matches the longest run of my life?) and though it doesn't look exactly like it from the profile, the course itself was fairly hilly. But what the profile and course map don't show is the incredible scenery on a clear day of the surrounding Alaskan mountain ranges. It's just breathtaking. It would have been even moreso if I hadn't been incredibly paranoid about getting stuck in the middle of a rural mountain trail with a sprained ankle and unable to continue my training, unable to run in Alaska, and possibly missing my marathon. But I caught enough peeks of the environment to say that the beauty is just staggering and it almost makes me understand how people suffer the long, frigid, dark winter months to live in a place like this.

I didn't know exactly how hard to take it and didn't want to injure myself and so on, so I ran a somewhat moderate pace I finished at a time with almost exactly 8 minute miles and walked through most of the drink stations. But here's where the story gets - um - interesting...

If you have especially delicate sensibilities, you might want to skip past this...

I'm really still figuring out the whole race nutrition and eating thing. One new thing I did on this race was eat a goo (some mango flavored Clif brand). It seemed OK and probably helped me. But about 11 miles in I really needed to pee. I hate having to do this in the middle of a run because it's uncomfortable, feels like it screws up your pacing and so forth. So, having to go to the bathroom on the run is probably an encouraging sign for your level of hydration (which is something I'm keenly aware of, having almost died 6 weeks ago probably due in part to poor nutrition) but it still sucks on the run.

But that's not the worst part. Somewhere after 15 miles - less than 1.5 miles from the finish - something I'd been struggling with ever since the last hydration station at mile 14 became unavoidable. Borat might say "it was time make shit." And there was nothing I could do to stop it. I ran off the road, trying to get to the bushes in time to take care of what needed to be done. I mostly made it. I really won't go into too many details, but I was very happy to finish the race - VERY happy this happened at the end, and I spent a while trying to clean up in the toilets at the brewery and wound up borrowing their mop to clean up the bathroom. So...I really need to figure out more about what I should eat before a race. Today I had a banana, cup of OJ, and a little coffee. I think I should probably avoid the coffee (since I identify with Dr. Dorian wisdom about the physiological response it triggers). Lena and Mike suggested that they eat a bagel with natural peanut butter and it's always been a good combination - which certainly sounds worth a try.

At the end, they hosted a very nice cookout in the parking lot of the Silver Gulch Brewery and the brewery donated a bunch of beer. I tried both beers they'd donated - one was "Vienna" something and I can't remember what the other was. Both were very good, but one was more IPA/hoppier than I usually like, but it was definitely good for the beer it was. At the awards Steve very nicely called out people who were doing the run from out of state. He asked me "how it went" and I was a little troubled figuring out what to say about "The Events Described Above In The Questionable Part" but said I had a good time, which was certainly true.

All in all - a great, incredibly memorable, and educational race. And I should mention that all of the guys I met from Running Club North - Bob, Steve, and definitely Keith, are all awesome people and I would definitely encourage anyone visiting Fairbanks and who has even a casual interest in running to see what the club has to offer, or to just come out to one of their events and say "hello" and maybe "can I do some heavy lifting for you?" You'll be glad you did.

[19:00] [/sports] [link] [1 comment]

Lots of good events in Alaska the past day or two.

Yesterday I went for a short run in the morning around the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. The campus is on a small hill not far from the hostel where I'm staying and has a very nice outdoor Shakespeare theater that reminds me of the space in Regent's Park, London where Tanya and I saw the Merchant of Venice a few years ago. Otherwise the campus seems pretty unremarkable. On the way back, I had the awesome realization that the shop where the race registration for the run I wanted to do tomorrow is probably the closest business to my hostel. Yay! I went back when the store opened and met Bob from Running Club North who was very helpful and assured me they could get me to the race as he handed me bib #83. Then he put me in touch with Steve, who had been the club president for a couple years and we negotiated a "you scratch my back..." (I come carry around some tables the day before the race) "...and I'll scratch yours" (he'll drive me to the race). Otherwise yesterday there was a cookout at the hostel and it was release day for the final Harry Potter book and the small independent book shop up the street - Gulliver's Books - was holding a midnight sale and huge outdoor party for it. I couldn't really resist the will of the people so I hopped on the bandwagon at 6:00 and got spot in line #125. I wandered around for more of the afternoon and evening before coming back to a very nice cookout at the hostel and eventually going out that night to get the book. This is one of my favorite conversations I had this day:

• Me (to two kids in line for Harry Potter who were obviously dressed like Harry Potter and Ginny, affecting my best fake-interested-Trick-or-Treater-parent voice): Now, who are you two supposed to be??
• Them: (silence)
• Me: Hey - could I get your picture? Are you two together?
• Them (after looking at each other awkwardly and answering the second question: No, we don't know each other
• Me: Oh, well could I get your pictures anyway??
• And then they let me. It'll be in flickr when I get another internet connection, but it was great.

Trivia: according to someone else in line - the kids at the front of the line at that shop who had been in line for 11 days held the longest vigil in the world for the book's release. I had to think "don't you want to do something else with your summer in Fairbanks???"

This morning I lined up for a bus into town so I could get to the travel center and start thinking about my next destination (something I didn't wind up accomplishing) and also to see the Golden Days parade. Everything is going back to running for me right now and this did, too. It turned out there was a 1 mile race for Golden Days and I met a woman who was running that and is running the race tomorrow and agreed she would drive me to the run tomorrow (this is preferable since if I go with the club president, he needs to get there at 6AM). So hooray! After the parade I met Keith, who is the current Running Club North president who drove me to the Silver Gulch Brewery where the finish/bbq/beer sampling will be after the race.

Trivia: Silver Gulch microbrew is one of the furthest north breweries in the US (I have a hard time believing there are no microbrews in the arctic circle to give it top honors, but that's what I read). Then I went back to town, had lunch at a diner where I expected Schneider and the rest of the cast of One Day at a Time to saddle up next to me. I took the waitress's question "did I tell you it was my 21st birthday last night?" to be my cue to get the check and head back to the hostel.

It was 93 degrees today according to the thermometer on the Key Bank downtown. I feel exhausted from the sun and just want to rest now.

[20:38] [/travel] [link] [comment]

Tonight I'm in Fairbanks staying at a local hostel. So far everything is great. It turns out the buses don't run after 6 or so (duh - what did I expect from a town of 30,000?) so I caught a taxi to the hostel. Once I arrived I met a nice traveller named Jenny who immediately loaned me her bike to get some groceries from the store! That's terrific trust. Dinner from Taco Bell (desperate times call for desperate measures) and then later a few of us went out looking for beers. We found a small liquor store owned by Safeway that sells some of the local Alaska beer, took them back to a church lot and drank them under the midnight sun. It's really disorienting.

On the walk back to the hostel we saw a car strangely screech to a stop in the road ahead, get out, and then tear off down the road past us. Upon further inspection it looked like they probably hit an animal, threw it in the bed of their pickup and took off. A meal? Something to stuff and mount? Who knows. While we were investigating, a second car came by and threw a pack of firecrackers at us. Nice. Then a *third* car came by and a bunch of probably drunken nuts leaned out the window yelling at us for no reason. I think the sun makes Alaskans a little loopy.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to figure out how to register for this 16 mile run on Sunday I learned about and got my coach's approval to do - I'm super excited!

[04:51] [/travel] [link] [comment]

I don't know, but I'm going to Alaska tomorrow! Expect (even) less frequent blog updates since I'll be travelling, but I do hope to keep uploading pictures to my flickr account and will probably be sending twitter updates so that's the best way to catch what's up in the life of the unemployed.

My itinerary is pretty loose except for flying in to Fairbanks and eventually coming back to Seattle. The only other thing I'm pretty sure will be in the cards is a bunch of running to stay on track for the Portland marathon training program I'm on.

[16:09] [/travel] [link] [1 comment]

If you're like me, when you read this weather alert:

   THE HEAT WAVE WILL CONTINUE TODAY WITH WARMER CONDITIONS EXPECTED
   COMPARED TO YESTERDAY. AFTERNOON HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL REACH
   INTO THE MID 90S TO NEAR 100 DEGREES. THIS IS 20 TO 25 DEGREES
   ABOVE NORMAL. THE COMBINATION OF HIGHER TEMPERATURES AND HIGHER
   RELATIVE HUMIDITY WILL CREATE VERY UNCOMFORTABLE AND DANGEROUS
   CONDITIONS ACROSS THE AREA.

[15:16] [/living/seattle] [link] [2 comment]

Maybe this example is exaggerated but one thing that frequently drove me nuts while working at Microsoft was poor bug management. A high quality bug should have a number of characteristics:

• terse - the bug should contain the necessary information for the reported issue, any further investigation or clarification of the issue, progress of the investigation into resolving the bug, and little else
• completeness - a bug should be a complete picture of the reported issue. It should reproduce and have the required information to reproduce the problem
• steps, expected behavior, and actual behavior - always should be included even if the expected/actual behavior are "no crash/crash" or some buggy actual behavior and the bug reporter doesn't know what the expected behavior should be.

Compare that with this Mozilla bug that was reported last November dealing with a cross-site scripting bug leaving part of the Firefox password manager vulnerable. This led me to not use Firefox's password manager for the past 9 months. I'd like to use it again but not if every myspace user (or user of other, similar sites) could snarf my own account password. Today I thought "Hey, I wonder if that's fixed yet and I can start using this feature again?" so I checked the bug.

Holy christ. Almost 400 comments with the vast, vast majority having nothing to do with the actual content of the issue reported. And it looks like it's resolved fixed but in Firefox 3 alpha 5. I'm sure this is a corner case since most bugs in open source probably go unnoticed by most of the blowhards who've chimed in on this one, but what an impossible context to actually get anything done in.

[18:14] [/computers] [link] [4 comment]

Today I feel I crossed a small milestone in my marathon training - 13.2 miles. My target distance was just 13 miles but my GPS signal wasn't so hot and I set a target location (home) which got me 13.2. This is the halfway point for an actual marathon and while I think the second 13 miles will certainly be the harder part, I felt really good about the run and mostly very good about my recovery (except I waited waaaay too long to get coffee today). I ran with many of the same terrific people I met last week in ChuckIt - Dan, Elizabeth, and Joe. Last week there were more of us and we took the course much easier. Today I got 2-3 more miles in and my average pace was under 8:30 vs. 10+ minute miles last week. That probably spells "too fast for training" but it's really, really enjoyable and the company makes me want to run that way. Dan turned 49 last Monday and is going through some significant life events which made him exude infectious optimism and I'm *positive* that helped set our pace. I think a terrific time was had by everyone, though. Tomorrow I made what might be the mistake of volunteering to marshal for the SeaFair Marathon, which turns out to mean "get to Kirkland by 6:15AM" (maybe that's why they had trouble getting volunteers?), but overall joining ChuckIt must be the best decision I've made for personal fitness in years - probably in my life - and I'd encourage anyone in Seattle who has even a passing interest in running to consider joining.

[21:07] [/sports] [link] [2 comment]

Tuesday night at about 11:55 the Firecracker 5K took off from Mercer Arena in Seattle Center. It was a fun race that starts on July 3 and finishes on July 4 (but is late!) and overall I was very pleased with the race.

I put together a mini-persistence of vision (POV) kit from ladyada and programmed it to say "USA!" with a small firecracker logo that I would tie to my shoe for the run. This seemed like a great idea, but it fell apart literally and figuratively. Figuratively, I thought I should tie it to my left shoe since the course involved a bunch of right turns and I thought people would be more likely to see it on my left foot. But I failed to consider that from a watcher's perspective, my left foot moves right to left, meaning the image created by the POV kit would be mirrored. Oh well, at least the firecracker would still work, right? Not so. I really should have anticipated this but probably 200' into the race I felt like the straps on the battery pack were loosening and by 500-1000' into the race the battery pack was totally loose. This was awful because I was trying to set a competitive pace in the race and was near the front so tons of runners were behind me as I stumbled and tried to rip the battery pack off so I could run. I did manage to rip it off (and have been able to solder it all back together and it still works) but I had an awkward half mile or so while I tried putting the battery pack and batteries in my pocket, then decided to carry them, and finally got comfortable.

And my technical woes didn't end there! At about the 2 mile mark I wanted to check my pace and in trying to turn the light on my watch on I managed to pop one of the pins out of the strap. Ugh!

In spite of this I finished in just over 21 minutes at 6:50 miles, which accomplished my goal of sub-7 minute miles. My previous best recorded 5k pace was over a minute slower. So yay!

Tanya and I scootered down, which was eventful, and met John on the field and also ran into Gunter and Mike before the race. I think everybody had a great time and Gunter took 5th in the clydesdale division - way to go, Super G! Tanya's time was on par with the Furry 5K, which was good considering that while this wasn't an impossible course it was quite a bit more challenging.

[20:25] [/sports] [link] [comment]

The National played at Neumo's on Saturday and were completely stunning. The first song in their set was Start a War from their last album, Boxer. I wasn't very familiar with their music before the concert but during the show I told my friend, John, that The National are like a Joy Division whose music is broadly more enjoyable: layered, melancholy, and desperate but much less anxious (American Music Club or Morphine might be closer comparisons). From the first song I was riveted and when they closed with Abel (or was it About Today?) I knew I would be completely hooked and I've had trouble listening to anything but them since the show. Here's that first track - go buy their music.

Start A War - The National

We expected something, something better than before. We expected something more.
Do you really think you can just put it in a safe behind a painting, lock it up and leave?
Do you really think you can just put it in a safe behind a painting, lock it up and leave?
Walk away now and you池e gonna start a war.

Whatever went away I値l get it over now. I値l get money, I値l get funny again.
Whatever went away I値l get it over now. I値l get money, I値l get funny again.
Walk away now and you池e gonna start a war.

We expected something, something better than before. We expected something more.
We were always weird but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now.
We were always weird but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now.
Walk away now and you池e gonna start a war.

Whatever went away I値l get it over again. I値l get money, I値l get funny again.
Whatever went away I値l get it over again. I値l get money, I値l get funny again.
Walk away now and you池e gonna start a war.
Walk away now and you池e gonna start a war.

[14:05] [/music] [link] [comment]

Today's addition to my favorite music post series is dedicated to The Jam. I really don't know that much about the Jam but Paul Weller and the Jam really symbolized a lot of the British mod punk scene in the late 70's and this song - Going Underground rules. Here you go.

Going Underground
Some people might say my life is in a rut,
but I'm quite happy with what I got.
People might say that I should strive for more,
but I'm so happy I can't see the point.
Something's happening here today -
A show of strength with your boys brigade and,
I'm so happy and you're so kind
You want more money? Of course I don't mind
To buy nuclear textbooks for atomic crimes

And the public gets what the public wants
But I want nothing this society's got -
I'm going underground, (going underground)
Well the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground, (going underground)
Well let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow

Some people might get some pleasure out of hate
Me, I've enough already on my plate
People might need some tension to relax
Me? I'm too busy dodging between the flak
What you see is what you get
You've made your bed, you better lie in it
You choose your leaders and place your trust
As their lies wash you down and their promises rust
You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns

And the public wants what the public gets
But I don't get what this society wants
I'm going underground, (going underground)
Well the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground, (going underground)
So let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow

We talk and talk until my head explodes
I turn on the news and my body froze
The braying sheep on my TV screen
Make this boy shout, make this boy scream!

Going underground, I'm going underground!

[12:17] [/music] [link] [1 comment]

Four years ago Tanya was out of town in London and I had a boy over. Well, at the time, I thought he was a girl, but that's another story. Anyway, his name is Jupiter and I let him sleep in my bed while she was away and today, he is the first cat I've come to really appreciate and love. If you're ever lucky enough to take care of him - here's how it goes...

Food - this is straightforward with his automatic feeder. As long as food is in the feeder, it will dispense the right amount at intervals throughout the day until it runs out of food. It's somewhat important that he not be allowed to overeat, since he tends to eat grass from the neighborhood and will very frequently vomit due to the combination of too much food and the grass. But he means well. As a special treat, Jupiter also likes the dog's canned food. He looks forward to a small scoop of this plopped on a saucer and flattened out a little with his dinner.

Water - Jupiter tends to drink from various places around the house. Favorite locations include the dog's water bowl, the dog's water holder inside his crate, or glasses of water on bedroom nightstands.

Asthma - (it's not just for Sufjan Stevens' record label) Jupiter suffers from asthma. Around the time we officially adopted him, I remember taking him to the vet because he had developed a bad scar on his back (probably from rubbing up against a hot pipe or something - this is where the bald spot on his back came from) and was also having great difficulty breathing. I was terrified and decided we needed to take him to the vet and so called the Cat Clinic of Seattle. The vet investigated him and wasn't sure what to diagnose but prepared us for the worst indicating that he could have some sort of terminal problem. It was then that I realized how I could love a cat and how devastating it could be to bring a newly adopted pet in for a checkup and be told "he might die." But he lived and was diagnosed with asthma, so now we give him one puff with an inhaler every morning and night. The procedure is outlined in a photo slideshow on my flickr.

Affection - is the one thing Jupiter needs most. He came from the neighborhood and is well loved by all our neighbors and passers by frequently tell us how he has worked into their hearts. At home, he especially likes to play with various toys which we have dangling over the doorways in our home and he is also very fond of laser pointers. He is very fond of playing with any of these toys on carpet, especially the stairs leading to the second floor. He is also very happy to have a lap, preferably adorned with denim/jeans, to sit on. Jupiter enjoys having his head, cheeks, and rear end scratched and also enjoys having his ears gently rubbed between an index and middle finger knuckle.

Commands - Jupiter understands more than he lets on, but he definitely knows his name and responds to a three toned - "high-low-high" - whistle.

Personal matters - Jupiter only uses nature's toilets - there is no indoor litter to change.

[02:36] [/living] [link] [2 comment]

Io, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter and my first dog. If you're ever lucky enough to take care of him - here's how it goes...

Food - Io is very skinny but he loooves to eat! For breakfast he gets one scoop (cup) of dry food (Wellness Super 5). At dinner he eats one scoop of dry food with about a third of a can of wet food (Wysong beef). He basically inhales whatever he's fed, so don't expect it to last. Usually after his morning walk he likes to get a frozen kong treat. These are usually packed with a coating of peanut butter and a combination of dry food and chunks from Natural Balance's rolls. During the day, he sometimes gets more of his dry food inside treats, commensurate with how fussy he seems.

Water - Io's usually goes through his waterbowl daily and he likes having a good supply of fresh water.

Affection - like Jupiter, Io is incredibly affectionate and craves human interaction almost as much as he craves bones with raw animal flesh. He loves to go for walks, short runs (under 4 miles and preferably not on pavement), and to chase sticks or wrestle. He lets you know when he needs affection and can sometimes be persuaded to leave you alone but usually it's easier on one's conscience to just give him the small token of your affection that he's asking for.

Commands - Io knows many commands, including:

• sit - to sit down (note, the command is not "sit down" since that confuses "sit" and "down")
• down - to lie down
• on your side / roll over - actually he doesn't know either of these but sometimes he does something that looks like he might understand them
• stay (commanded when showing him an open palm) - to stay where he is
• find it - a game. You can play either by putting both hands behind your back, putting food in one hand, and extending both arms out with closed fists telling him to "find it!" and giving him the treat when he pokes at the correct hand. Or you can play by commanding him to "sit", "stay" and then putting food somewhere in another room and when you get back, point to approximately where the snack is and telling him to "find it!"
• hug - a new command not that well understood, but this gets Io to hop up in a loving embrace
• go to your bed / go to your crate - to get him to go to his bed or crate (these only really work when he has an incentive like if you're about to give him a Kong).

Personal matters - Io "takes care of business" a couple times a day. Usually once in the morning and again later after dinner before bed. This schedule is highly volatile, though, oftentimes with longer periods with business not being attended to after extended sessions eating sticks. Accidents in the house may be cleaned up with the Bissel Spot Bot, which should be standard issue with any puppy.

[02:34] [/living] [link] [comment]

welcome, dear reader! you are reading the weblog of patrick niemeyer. i should not be confused with various other patrick niemeyers the world has known or who google knows more intimately (like the peace corps volunteer or the guy who wrote the java book). i'm the patrick niemeyer you'll find if you traverse to google links 81-90 and then look for the page listing upcoming.org users. UPDATE: Since signing up for adwords I got to about #65 in Google (which I'm assured should have nothing to do with adwords) and about I'm about #32 in Windows Live Search. therefore I have no choice but to replace the Google search box with Live Search. i've found live search equal to or better than google in a bunch of ways lately, anyway.

this blog is based on rael dornfest's excellent blosxom platform and with a few of its plugins for comments, syndication, the calendar view, and a few other things. i use the webservice provided by captchas.net to do verification on comment posts and prevent comment spam.

my blog is hosted by dominet, who have combined able hosting, support, and reasonable prices. if you are in the market for a linux based host, i definitely recommend them (and thanks to nick for referring me to them!)

occasionally i post entries to my blog from my phone using a modified flavor and the wikieditish plugin for blosxom. those entries (including this one!) are usually recognizable by their lack of formatting and hyperlinks (special characters are a relative pain with my phone's keyboard) as well as higher density of typos (partially the keyboard, partially me being a modern spell check cripple). please forgive me. for this post i have done some post-processing to fix typos and add links, though.

when i do post from my phone, that is with an hp h6315 pocketpc phone. i recommend the windowsce line of pdas and think they have gotten to the point of integration where it is definitely worth considering a pocketpc phone or smartphone, but the h6315 (which is about a year old by now) has a few obvious annoyances and while i would not advise someone against getting one, i can't really advocate it. when i'm on the go, i use the mobile flavor of this site to see if anything has broken.

I also have a cat named Jupiter and dog named Io - sometimes good friends help take care of them.

here are some qr codes that used to be on my navigation bar:

this entry will be updated directly as seems necessary. thanks for visiting!

[02:16] [] [link] [comment]

My new business card,
originally uploaded by Peru Tha Damaja.

I got a business card, cuz I wanna win some lunches!

That's what my business card says, "Mitch Hedberg, Potential Lunch Winner"

Gimme a call, maybe we'll have lunch...if I'm lucky!

[13:55] [] [link] [comment]

So yesterday I ran the Sound to Narrows 12k in Tacoma and had some good news and bad news. The good news is I'm happy with my time again and stepped it up a little bit from my time on Beat the Bridge. Considering that conditions were terrible (raining), the Sound to Narrows course is a much harder (see the elevation map, which I completely missed before doing the race and compare to a flat 8K), and simply being able to keep a comparable pace (which you can project using this online calculator) I feel very happy about that progress.

The bad news is I was hyperthermic at the end of the race and had a temperature of 106ｰ. So until the times are posted I won't know exactly where my time was because I don't remember seeing the clocks. I do know it really doesn't matter that much because if the crew wasn't there I might have died. They put me in an ice bath for about twenty minutes which eventually got my temperature down to 101ｰ. Then I was taken by ambulance to Tacoma General hospital and by the time I arrived I was hypothermic with a temperature of about 96ｰ. After about an hour and a half of taking blood, running tests, and doing the regular hospital stuff, they let me go.

It's hard to tell what caused the hyperthermia except for, obviously, working too hard. But there were probably other factors that could have led to it. I probably didn't get enough sleep the night before - not for lack of trying, I just couldn't sleep. I may not have been adequately hydrated - I had some water beforehand but didn't take any drinks on the course and probably should have, though I've done runs this long at this pace without trouble (but they were flat). And possibly the rain, which was between a light to moderate drizzle throughout and which may have inhibited my ability to sweat and lose body heat through evaporation. But I definitely stepped up the pace on the last hill and that was probably the worst choice. At least I stepped it up until my brain started to cook. Tom, who ran with me throughout the race, mentioned that there was a point in the last hill where my pace dropped off considerably. In hindsight there was a point where I remember feeling disoriented but knew I was under half a mile to the finish and didn't want to let up.

My friend Katie drove (and took second in womens!) and a new friend, Tom, who was a good inspiration and didn't pressure me to run harder throughout the run at all was along (Tom, I should mention, deserves a Swedish star for running me into the hospital instead of the morgue). They both stuck around throughout the whole deal, even though Tom's wife and daughter had come down for the run and he was to go back with them and even though Katie was scheduled to work. I definitely felt awful about the situation but felt incredibly thankful for such supportive friends. After I was discharged, we had a short lunch at the Swiss Tavern and drove back to Seattle, where my plans for future running now include: obey my body, do long runs with a partner, and spend more time understanding physiology and nutrition.

UPDATE 2007.06.11 Results are coming in
Furry 5K results are in - bib 3940 in men's is me - Tanya was 3941 and Eva handily beat us to the finish in bib 437 (but she didn't have a dog, uh, holding her back?). Sound to Narrows times (where I was bib 1644) aren't in yet but it wasn't chipped so that's probably what should be expected.

[11:26] [/sports] [link] [comment]

Times are in from the 2007 Beat the Bridge race. My time is listed as 43:45 with a pace of an 8:49 minute mile, but my wave started 5 minutes after the clocks started and I timed the time between our starting gun and when I actually crossed the starting line and that was about 30 seconds which gets me a pace of about a 7:42 minute mile, and I'm totally content with that. The only thing I'm a little disappointed in is the picture organization from the group that photographed the event. There were almost 4,000 bibs, but you can't find your bib number after the race and even if you could, there is no picture lookup by name or bib. I like posting my pictures (and pictures of my friends from other races in flickr), but I can't get mine. So that's a bummer.

But on the bright side, if I *did* find my picture, I might have wound up looking like the guy at right, so maybe I should be happy about how it turned out!

[17:19] [/sports] [link] [comment]

Today I'll be making this picnic table for Rohini and Moni. Downloading plans for relatively simple projects and then throwing them together is really tons of fun. I wish I had a better space to work in at home - our basement ventilation really isn't very good and I always need to lug all my tools from the basement up to the backyard and then back down. But putting something together from scratch with my own tools is always super fun!

[12:55] [/living] [link] [2 comment]

Man Afraid were the first hardcore band I listened to and really understood. They focused on typically leftist politics but were noticeably educated within the hardcore scene. I'll tell you how many bands have ever rhymed "hegemony" in their songs - one and their name was Man Afraid. Around the same time, Los Crudos were playing and also doing incredible work. Take the almost completely homogeneous hardcore scene, add some gay Hispanics who only sing in Spanish (except on "We're that spic band") and you've got something that's obviously trying to expand that subculture in positive ways. But "What Once Was Life" by Dropdead has to be the most satisfying, blistering 2 minutes of noise ever put to wax.

Just as a small exercise, compare the waveform of that track by Dropdead:

What once was Life
My murder has become-justified
In your sick-barbaric world
My skin is ripped-from the bone
What once was life-you-ingest

(Industrial part)

A holocaust-unrealized
My lifeblood feeds-a selfish world
My suffering-goes unknown
What once was life-you-ingest

[03:50] [/music] [link] [comment]

Something makes me think my mom's instant messaging account might have been hacked or something.

[16:29] MF: your ass is big

[20:10] [/living] [link] [1 comment]

I'm going to start posting some of my favorite music and talking more about music on my blog. High school was a mixed bag for me, like it is for any decent person, but one terrific part was my investment in music and its contribution to my life. Lately, that's dropped way off and I feel a little disappointed about that but then if my priorities were the same today as when I was 16 I'm sure I'd have even more disappointment. But I'd like to bring some of that beat back.

Today's selection is Send Me Some Lovin by Little Richard. I first heard this song as a selection from what I consider one of the most moving episodes of This American Life, the 1998 Valentine's Day episode. Listen to the whole show and if you show me someone who isn't moved to tears by the end of Donald Hall's selections talking about the death of his wife, I'll show you a functioning wooden heart.

The show exits with a selection from Little Richard's song and it is on fire. Check it out:

Send Me Some Lovin - Little Richard

Send me some lovin', oh send it I pray,
How can I love you, when you're far away?

Send me your picture, send it my dear,
So I can hold it, pretend you are here.

Can you send me your kisses? I still feel their touch,
I need you so badly, I miss you so much.

My days are so lonely, my nights are so blue,
I'm here and I'm lonely, I'm waitin' for you.

[13:52] [/living] [link] [comment]

Adam and Eva organized another incredible spring hiking/snowboarding trip to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier yesterday. We did this same trip last year (and I remembered my camera then) but this year I forgot my camera, so instead I wanted to leave a few notes on the hike.

The hike starts from the Paradise parking lot at about 5,400 feet and ends at Camp Muir just above 10,000 feet. It's definitely difficult - last year I thought it was the hardest physical activity I'd ever done but I hadn't prepared for it with a single hike or really any cardiovascular exercise. This year I've been running a lot more and low key hike or two and it felt way better. At this time of year, there is snow all the way from the Paradise parking lot to Camp Muir, but depending on snow conditions it might not be possible to ride all the way to the base. Last year it worked, but this year the snow was a lot stickier requiring some hiking or sledding on our boards - warm weather wax might help.

On the trip I used my new Garmin Forerunner GPS to track my progress. One funny thing about the Forerunner I didn't figure out until I was about 1000' above the parking lot is that it has settings for your pace for sprinting, running, jogging, speed walking, and walking. The trick is if you are going slower than your "walking" speed then it considers you at rest and it will give you GPS data like your elevation and speed, but it won't create a trail for your route. I changed the "walking" pace when I figured this out, but since I was going slower than that pace up to that point, I didn't have a trail to help guide me back to the parking lot for the bottom chunk of the mountain. This isn't a huge deal but if you aren't careful (I wasn't) you'll wind up going back to the visitor center which is about a half mile from the Paradise parking lot.

I drank almost exactly 1.5L of water on the way up - one full Camelback snowbowl of water. I had a full Nalgene in my pack, too, and since I didn't need much water at the top or on the way down this turned out to be a lot of extra water, but that's probably a good thing in case of emergency. Last year I didn't snack much on the way up and felt like I regretted it. This year I had a handful of trail mix every 500-1000' of elevation gain and felt much better.

On the hike itself, last year I used the Eric Kolvy "rest step" technique to make the last 500' of elevation gain before Camp Muir. To do this, you take a short step forward with your left leg, step with your right leg up to a standing position, rest, then take a short step forward with your right leg, and repeat. This is very slow going, but if you're in a hard slog of endurance, it makes it possible to reach your goal. This year we left the parking lot at about 9:30 at about 12:15PM I was at 8000' feet and set a goal to reach the top by 2PM. This meant changing my pace for elevation gain from 16.8 feet/minute to 21 feet/minute (a calculation I'm now very glad I didn't do on the mountain because I probably would have given up before I started), so I skipped the rest step, worked hard, kept an eye on my pace with my GPS and made it to the camp just before 2PM. And was exhausted :)

The parking lot is cold, but you get hot very fast on the hike. Last year I started out with my snowpants and jacket on and wasted a bunch of time trying to strip out of these after about 500' above the parking lot. This year I started in a first layer top and pants and that carried me most of the way up. It was overcast and I put on my jacket near Panorama Point but didn't need anything before that. By contrast, last year was a clear day but it was MUCH windier and colder and I needed to put on both my jacket and pants before getting to the top, though I also moved a little more slowly.

Otherwise I wore my snowboarding boots all the way up, which worked out fine, though since my snow pants don't fit over my boots, it means needing to take off the boots somewhere to put on the pants, which is a small hassle. I didn't quite master the sunscreen strategy but I *think* I've got it now. Last year I put sunscreen on my forehead, which I paid for badly shortly after starting the hike. You sweat a lot on the hike and I had a ton of sunscreen getting in my eyes, almost completely blinding me for about half an hour. This year I skipped sunscreen on my forehead, but somehow didn't realize this might lead to a sunburned forehead. Well, it does. So next time I'll wear a hat, like almost everyone else in our group had. Otherwise I was careful to be sure to get sunscreen on my ears and underside of my nose, which are easy to forget and easy to get sunburned with the reflection coming off the snow.

Lastly about visibility, the route down, and conditions...last year it was super clear out and very easy to tell whether we were near the trail, approaching a cliff, or so forth. This year, there were many instances on the route down where we couldn't see more than about 30 feet ahead of us. For this, I was very, very glad to have a GPS leading us back along the trail. You really don't want to ride exactly on the trail people have been hiking up, since the snow is really inconsistent and you know that if you can just stay 20 feet off the trail, you'll have tons of relatively great untracked snow. But in poor visibility conditions that can be super dangerous. We took a few questionable turns, but largely had good snow and weren't riding over footprints the whole way down, but without the GPS I would not have felt comfortable trying to find that trail. I had the sense that everybody who was following me felt some of that hesitation, too, since I already tend to ride a little more...let's say "confidently" than your average snowboarder. But we all got out in one piece! With the forerunner 201 going for about $75 on craigslist, I think it's a great investment for a trip like this.

I think that covers most of my observations about the whole experience. I would definitely encourage anyone to do this hike and ride. It's very hard but it's a really great experience and feeling. Normal caveats about "weather can change dramatically on the mountain and if you aren't careful, go up when you shouldn't, or don't turn back when you should, you might die" certainly apply. But if you're smart about the trip and go with some people who are responsible, it's amazingly satisfying. Big ups again to Adam and Eva for putting it together!

[01:45] [/sports] [link] [comment]

I'm quitting but I've already pledged a bunch of money to various charities. Since charities rely on money like this for their income I wanted to make sure to make good on my pledges and make sure I get the Microsoft match in before quitting. If you're looking for some charities to donate to, here are my most recent picks. I try to donate to a bunch of organizations that I think do good things in the world and local community. I spent my last hour making one time contributions and getting the matches in.

• PAWS no kill animal shelter - where we got Io
• KUOW - the good local NPR station
• Sightline (formerly Northwest Environment Watch) who do incredible environmental lobbying and are chiefly responsible for all the recent legislative attention to PDBE's
• Real Change homeless newspaper
• Planned Parenthood of Western Washington
• The EFF
• The Federation of American Scientists who do non-proliferation work and have a hugely informative website
• KEXP - the good local rock station

[17:05] [/living] [link] [comment]

I just registered a bunch more domains and got domain pointing set up. Now my site can accessed by not just the familiar psoul.com and patrickniemeyer.com but also MasivP.com (also MassiveP.com) and fringeuser.com. I hope to eventually have fringeuser.com contain a bunch of guides about modding various types of consumer software or hardware in ways that may make it more useful or at least in ways that will generate me some adsense revenue. Cheers!

[16:52] [/computers] [link] [comment]

Since I'll need to make mileage for a bunch of the runs training for a marathon this fall I started combing the local Craigslist and found a good deal on a Garmin Forerunner 201. There were three sellers, I contacted all of them and last night picked one up for $75. I tried it out today and am pretty happy with it. It lets you set a tolerance for when you're going too fast (or too slow), tells you exactly how far you've gone, and has a virtual training buddy. The virtual training buddy is kind of neat. I set it for a 4 mile 8 minute route this morning and got moving. At first I got stuck at a red light and started falling behind quickly, but I had the "auto-pause" feature turned on so the buddy only fell back about 200'. I started again and so did my buddy and we paced each other pretty well through the run.

The one thing I didn't like was being told when I was going too fast (I had it set for a 7:30 mile pace). This is probably good feedback and great for a long run, but it definitely felt like it was holding me back. I'm hoping to go talk to some trainers at one of the local shops this weekend and get advice on that - I suspect for the shorter training runs there's never "too fast," however the Hal Higdon guide recommends taking the longer runs at a minute per mile slower than your marathon pace. I need more advice!

[14:24] [/sports] [link] [comment]

I've gotten a reputation amongst some friends as having healthy eating habits. I think this comes from the vegetarian thing and generally avoiding fast food. Anyway, to set the record straight, while Tanya's out of town I needed to do some grocery shopping - here's the complete listing from my receipt:

• 5 Tony's Pizzas (5 for $11!)
• 2 24 oz tubs of cottage cheese
• 1 2L bottle of Coke
• 1 bag Lays chips (wavy, for the cottage cheese)
• 2 boxes cinnamon Pop-Tarts (unfrosted, of course)
• 2 cans concentrated juice

[02:27] [/living] [link] [comment]

Howard asked why I want to run a marathon which is a good question. Why would anyone want to do this? Your body can supposedly only hold about enough energy to carry you 20 miles or so before you hit "the wall" ("bonking" in cycling) and start burning fat to generate energy - it really doesn't seem like something humans were designed for...

But there are a couple things I'll get out of it. First, I love running. Maybe it comes from my grandfather on my mom's side of the family but since I started running in high school recreationally it has definitely been what I consider the most satisfying form of exercise. Anyone can do it, all you really need are shoes, and it's a fantastic way to get to know an area. There will always be music I listen to that takes me to runs in the frigid Minnesota winter near my high school, around the extended campus at UMass for the year I was there, around London the month I spent with my sister in college, around Cleveland and University Heights, and around Microsoft and Capitol Hill in Seattle.

I also love tests of endurance. After not rollerblading for a couple years, I finally got a pair again in Seattle a while ago and went out on the Burke-Gillman trail. I wasn't in particularly good shape at the time and (foolishly) thought "oh, I'll go around the lake." This turned out to be a much further trip than I expected and after going a couple hours I decided to turn around and completely exhausted myself. I wasn't properly hydrated, fed, or (still) in shape for the trip but the exhaustion afterward felt terrific. Similarly, a year ago some friends organized a hike on Mount Rainier up to Camp Muir, the base camp that most climbers summit Rainier from. I wasn't really in shape for that, either, and it set the bar for most physically demanding exercise I'd ever done - and it was great! I'm doing that trip again this Saturday and really looking forward to it.

Finally, it's an accomplishment I want to make in my life. A couple weeks ago I decided to stop not getting around to things I want to do in life and to try to just do more things and not worry about failure. "What if I don't make my target time in the marathon?" "What if I can't finish?" "How will I find the time to train properly?" "Fuck it," I decided, "it's time to stop talking about it and do it." This was also what helped encourage me to quit my job even though I don't have another one lined up immediately, to sink a couple thousand dollars into a scooter, and will probably get me to Singapore to visit a one of my best friends who I don't get to see often enough and who wants to know why I'm running a marathon.

So there are a couple reasons, and I'm really glad about all of them.

UPDATE 2007.05.22 "The lake"
I should have clarified that when I mentioned rollerblading around "the lake" I meant Lake Washington, not Green Lake (a difference of about 35 miles).

[01:18] [/sports] [link] [1 comment]

I've decided I'm going to run a marathon this year - here's how I'm doing my planning. I hope this is useful to others who might be thinking of running a marathon and a bunch of it is (I think) generalizable to other kinds of life organization using a couple handy websites.

• Training - Hal Higdon has a website that breaks down a training schedule to help you figure a plan to prepare and build endurance for the race. I contacted a few friends about this and got advice from my friend Katie, who I consider an eminently reputable source and she mentioned she'd used Hal's program for her first marathon, so that sounds like a good place to start to me!
• Race selection - I initially just thought "I'll do the Seattle marathon" but have been advised by my sister and a coworker that this might not be the best choice, so now I'm reconsidering and probably aiming for Victoria or Portland. But I'm keeping track of various runs and marathons in del.icio.us, which is a great online bookmarking system and makes it very easy for me to find, remember, and catalog links about different runs
• Scheduling - is made a little easier with Google Calendar. I created a custom calendar called "Organized runs" and have put the various upcoming Seattle area runs that I know of in there. It's really easy for me to toggle the display of these runs on or off from my main calendar and also remember what's coming up. This is pretty easy to share with someone else who might be willing to run with me, too.
• Training routes - lastly, I need a bunch of runs in various mile increments to hit the training goals set up by Hal's program. There are running groups that leave from Green Lake near my house every weekend and I probably ought to get hooked up with them because they'll have maps that get me to my exact target mileage. I'm pretty sure this would get me the motivation I need, too, and I'll probably start going there. Meanwhile, I'm using the Google maps pedometer to find routes from my house and bookmarking these routes in delicious with the tags "run" and "route". This way I (will eventually) have a convenient set of different runs at different distances to try and to keep hitting my goals.

[17:06] [/sports] [link] [2 comment]

I suspect this is related to some corporate syncing policy gone awry but I have an annoying behavior every now and then on my phone. The backlight timeout (time before the light goes dim and you need to click something for it to turn on again) is customizable from 10 seconds to something really long. But sometimes I find it setting itself to 10 seconds and if I change it back to what I want (1 minute), the setting won't stick and it's back to 10 seconds the next time I turn it on. The solution seems to be to change the following registry key "HKCU\ControlPanel\BackLight\LockLevel\LockLevel" from 1 to 0. Then if you change the backlight timeout, it won't reset on you.

[15:57] [/computers] [link] [comment]

One of the goals I'm aiming for now that I've quit my job is to run a marathon. Today I did my first competitive run in a while - the Beat the Bridge 8k and am pleased with how it went. I was reminded about this by a friend at work last week and registered late and ran by myself. I put myself in the 7-8 minute mile group which is faster than I've been running but apparently not faster than I can run when I have people to compete with and a little D4 rockin. I was upset when I crossed the finish line, though. I looked at the clock and it read something like 43 minutes. How did that happen?? I'd timed myself with my watch and been keeping track throughout the run. I knew it took me 30 seconds before my spot in the swarm of runners even crossed the start line after they blew the horn, but that couldn't account for a pace like that...Then I realized that they must have started the clock for the first wave of runners and they took off 5 minutes before my group. So yay!

In related news, I'm starting a Google Calendar list of Seattle area runs. I've got the furry 5k, Fremont 5k, a fall city 10k, and a Seward to Madison park run. I'm looking for running buddies, especially for the long runs in the Hal Higdon training program since I'm pretty sure I'll need some encouragement!

[14:44] [/sports] [link] [comment]

Evidently a body was found underneath one of the bridges in the park by my house. I took Io for a run yesterday and almost always take this route but went a different way yesterday so I only saw the police cars.

[11:19] [/living] [link] [comment]

I spend what feels like way too much time thinking about ways to do things with my phone that save me clicks in the mobile browser or let me do things that aren't normally possible or easy. But if you're reading this, odds are you know me personally and are already aware of this. The new bit of excitement comes from a small addition to my mobile homepage - but first I should describe that...

I wrote the homepage on my phone with the intention to easily get to the bookmarks that are most likely to be useful when I'm on the go. One of the items that I use most frequently is a small form with some input and a paired dropdown that lets me use a number of mobile sites. I might type in something to search for and pick the 'google' or 'live' dropdown item and this is set to post to the mobile search interface for those sites. Or I might type in 'platypus' and choose the 'dict' or 'wikipedia' dropdown option to get the dictionary definition or (mobile) wikipedia entry for our egg-laying, billed cousin. The point is I don't want to have a million bookmarks for the sites I go to to perform some other search, I want to just do the search. Also, I don't want to have to know how to get to every mobile version of every site all the time. I want to go there once and always be able to get back instantly.

So the latest addition is adding the mobile delicious link posting URL to that list of sites. It's awesomely easy and it just works. If you want to build something like this for your own phone, the javascript goes a little like this...

var forms = new Array();
forms.push(new Array('gmob', "http://www.google.com/xhtml?hl=en&mrestrict=xhtml&lr=&q="));
forms.push(new Array('mbo-wroute', "http://www.mybus.org/metrokc/wml/help/byroute.jsp?route="));
forms.push(new Array('mbo-hroute', "http://mybus.org/metrokc/route.jsp?route="));
forms.push(new Array('bus', "http://transit.metrokc.gov/cftemplates/show_schedule.cfm?BUS_ROUTE="));
forms.push(new Array('plicious', "http://del.icio.us/slipperyp?submit=save&jump=no&url="));
forms.push(new Array('iyhy', "http://www.iyhy.com/?b="));
forms.push(new Array('gfull', "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&q="));
forms.push(new Array('dict',