... in a Bottle

Inspiration comes in size 10.5 AA

genie — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:23:54 +0000

Yesterday after work, I headed downtown to find new running shoes. Remember, I’m a lousy runner. I thought that with my ability to make new running play lists, though, I could find a way to motivate myself. After a lot of fretting about it, I decided to try my hand at the couch to 5K program. It was then I realized that I was using my most recent set of “running shoes” to tromp around in the mud sorting Rubbermaid tubs in my parents’ backyard.

I have always been a fan of New Balance because my feet are incredibly narrow and “low volume”, in that they’re not very tall. New Balance has a wide variety of widths and my absolute favorite shoe I’ve owned was a lightweight marathon shoe that was a size 10 AAAA. I still own those shoes even though they’re barely adequate for mowing the lawn, but I just can’t bear to see them go.

My last trip to the New Balance store, though, was less than satisfying and that’s how I ended up with these ugly kicks that I only like wearing in the mud. It was time for something new. I decided to try my hand at Running Etc. so they could tell me what kind of shoe I needed.

The store is very cool because they actually watch you run and suggest what kind of shoe you should get. They first had be run in sock feet and she said “do you always run like that?”. Uh, I guess so. Apparently if I’m not wearing shoes, I run up on the balls of my feet like I’m in dance class. Hooray muscle memory.

She found me a pair of New Balance shoes in a narrow and directed me to try running again. I made it three strides and then face planted all over the carpet like there was a sniper in the store that took me out. Apparently the toe box on those shoes was a little on the big side and if you run up on the balls of your feet it’s easy to trip. I was fine other than my wounded pride, so we decided to move on to other shoe options. After trying on about four different pair, I put on a pair of Asics Gel Nimbus shoes. As I made my return jog back to the bench I realized I was grinning over a pair of shoes. And when I took them off I was hesitant to give them to the sales attendant to put in the box. Apparently, I had found my favorite shoe, not surprisingly also one of the most expensive shoes in the store.

I bought a few pairs of fancy socks to complete the package and I jogged all over the downstairs of the house last night to try them out. I haven’t decided if I’m going to start my first day of running/walking Friday or Saturday, but I’m hoping I’ll become an honest to goodness runner someday and not just someone who scowls with envy at runners.

Like many comment threads I’ve read

genie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:03:37 +0000

Psst. There’s now a Monty Python channel on YouTube (warning: it starts playing immediately). Via LonelySandwich, who found it via Cynical-C

She doesn’t even know the name of the song

genie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:22:15 +0000

My mother is in our house right now using my computer to do some schoolwork (she teaches community college) and she has been humming non-stop for the last two hours. She literally stops humming long enough to mutter something to herself and then starts right back up again. I don’t even think she realizes she’s doing it.

She’s done this for all her life as far as I know, and I think in the last few years it’s started to get on my father’s very last nerve. He has to leave the room after awhile. So she’s over here with us in our office and is humming to beat the band with no one to fuss at her. It makes it easier to find her in the house, like a cat with a bell on its collar.

It’s one of those things I will miss about her one day. So while she’s been working and humming, I’ve been rummaging for my portable recording equipment to capture it all. At some point hopefully many years from now I’ll be able to just loop this track and it will be like she’s right here in the room with us all over again.

Mom humming (1:21)

Will trade mix tapes for running advice

genie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:56:37 +0000

I’m not a strong runner. I would really like to be, but if I run for more than 2 minutes I feel (and look) like someone is stabbing me in the side while I’m chased by a bear. At one point, I told myself if I just had music to motivate me, I could get out there and do something great. Needless to say, I still suck at running, but I’ve gotten pretty good at making running mixes.

First, some recommended tools. I used Mix Meister’s BPM Analyzer to sort through my iTunes library and set all the beats per minute. Once they’re set, you can display and sort by that in your list of music. Another handy tool, if you just want to do it yourself is this fun web site that lets you tap out the BPM yourself and you can enter the value yourself in the Get Info section of each song. There are plenty of other options available on this BPM detection page.

Googling around, I found a lot of sites where folks said they ran at around 180 BPM, sometimes for over an hour. I don’t know what these people are made of or if they all have tiny legs but that pace would kill. me. dead. Of course, your mileage may (literally) vary.

In this experimental play list, I tried to keep it to 30 minutes, have one warm up song and one ~~crawl back home~~ cool down song, with the other songs increasing in BPM overall. If you can make it through Fishbone (and it’s breakneck 183 BPM) at the end, you’re a better athlete than I. My legs hurt just thinking about it.

My First Jogging Experiment

As a note, I made the above mix using OpenTape, the free, open-source tool based off of MuxTape. In addition to this being a jogging experiment, it was a bit of a OpenTape experiment. I call it a success!

Two spaces after a period?

genie — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:58:19 +0000

Do any of you still type two spaces after a period? I learned to type on a typewriter as a kid and that was the style at the time (insert Grandpa Simpson voice here). This entire entry, in fact, I’ll type two spaces after each period.

The first time I’ve been comfortable with one space after a period was once I started using Twitter, because I needed all the space I could get to squeeze my message into 140 characters. And the iPhone will automatically put a period at the end of your sentence if you type two spaces in a row (which then converts it to a period and a space).

But in all my typing I’m always putting two spaces after my periods. I’ve noticed that I can now figure out which copy is mine on our company website, just by looking at the spacing in the html file and finding double spaces after the periods. So apparently I’m the only one at the office who types that way.

Most web browsers will only render a single space after the period. But if you’re looking at the raw text, I find it easier to read with that extra space at the end. I’ve cruised around online and found people who feel strongly in both directions. I’m just not sure if it’s worth it to retrain my thumb after all these years.

So what about you? Do you type one or two spaces after a sentence? Do you hate reading documents that do whichever you don’t do?

Grope Buggy Blue!

genie — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 01:51:00 +0000

While driving the five hours to Blacksburg and back over the last two days, Rich and I were trying to come up with things to pass the time. It was a treat to have so many empty hours with him to just talk about whatever was in our heads. I wrote down several things he said because they were so clever, but we’ll see how many of those I share over time.

Somewhere along Interstate 81, we passed a blue Volkswagen Beetle and I blurted out “punch buggy blue”.

Him: “But you didn’t punch me.”

Me: “Yeah, I’ve never really liked that game because it’s always seemed kind of mean to punch someone you love just because you saw a car first.”

Him: “I wouldn’t punch you, baby.”

Me: “Maybe we can just replace the punching with something else.”

Him: “GROPE BUGGY BLUE!”

I don’t have to tell you what we did for the rest of the drive. Rich claims he’s still learning how the game works, though, because I swear several times there wasn’t a Volkswagen in sight. But now it’s not just fun for the first person to see the car.

Somebody has to do something first

genie — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:54:58 +0000

My father says that the best thing you can hope for out of a career is the legacy you leave behind. He says people will tell you they’re working for the money, and money is nice – particularly in today’s economy. But at the end of the day, or the year or on that last day as you’re driving home from work the greatest thing you can expect from it all is to look back and feel like you made a difference in people’s lives.

Today we trekked to Blacksburg for my old boss Harry’s retirement party. He has been at Virginia Tech since 1980 or so and the director of the Interlibrary Loan department since 1996. He was my boss from late in 1997 until June of 2000 when I moved back to Norfolk to work full time for Bossman.

Harry has become a part of my own vernacular. Every time my friends and family lament “what do stupid people do?” when confronted with something that should be so simple and proves to be so daunting, it always makes me smile. Even at the reception this afternoon we were looking for a place to set our empty plates and I said we could start a trend by using a side table we found. Harry just shrugged and said, “Well, somebody has to do something first.” Everyone at the reception seemed to have a Harryism to share.

I’ve only had two bosses for any significant amount of time. But Harry touched all of our lives, and in particular my own life as one of the best bosses I’ve ever had. I’m glad his friend convinced him to go to library school, I’m grateful he took took a chance on me and had faith in me, and I’m proud to call him my friend.

The whole is greater than the sum of parts

genie — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:23:42 +0000

On Tuesday while I was helping my mother sort tubs in the backyard, she was lamenting that her belly hurt. This is not an uncommon thing for Mom so we just soldiered on, but over the course of Wednesday the pain moved down so that her hip and leg were in horrible pain. She could barely walk by 6pm and Daddy had to help her from the car to the house when she got home from work.

(As an aside, Perry asked if they were going to have to call paramedics to get her out of their very cluttered house and she vowed she would meet them on the porch even if it meant she had to crawl there or have Daddy carry her. Strangers weren’t coming in her house.)

Today my father escorted her to the doctor’s office where they discovered she has a pinched nerve in her leg. After getting Mom home, Daddy was tasked to retrieve her pain pills and other medications. The pharmacy down the street has been our pharmacy for the last 40 years or so (basically as long as they’ve been open) and everyone there knows my mother (she’s like Norm on Cheers there). I don’t think as many people recognize my father there, though, until tonight.

He was very anxious about getting Mom’s pain pills as quickly as possible because she was in a lot of pain. I can’t get it all straight because there were a lot of issues involved but my father took it out on at least two different pharmacies in the neighborhood. He was angry in particular that our local pharmacy didn’t engage him as he came in and seemed content to ignore him in line. He was very fretful that Mom was at home in pain, he was trying to get these medications as quickly as possible and their lack of empathy wasn’t helping. So he gave them a piece of his mind in the way only my father can.

I’m sure part of my father is stressed from his perceived powerlessness while seeing someone he cares about in pain. Megan has been having a lot of those same trials this week and I have seen that same look even when Rich hovers while I’m trying not to hurl in the dining room.

I think in many ways it’s harder for the person who’s not hurt. They want to help and lighten the load and not have to see their loved ones in pain. My mother has been a trooper through many physical ailments over the years. For most of her adult life she’s had ear aches, belly aches, a bad thyroid which caused a paralyzed vocal chord, horrible teeth, breast cancer, breast reconstruction, congestive heart failure which necessitated a pacemaker and all the other things that come with age. For that same time period, my father has been the picture of health. He can’t remember the last time he’s ever thrown up (for my mother, her last time was Wednesday while at work). I have watched him do physical feats in the last few years that would strain those half his age. He was climbing the 30 foot tree in their front yard last week to cut it down himself. But I’m sure he would trade whatever he could just to see things be a little easier for Mom.

It’s so frustrating to find a way to share the burdens that don’t share easily. There are so many things that are harder for one person than the other but they’re rarely the same things. Finding ways to help each other strengthens the partnership and the family. My mother was completely calm this evening if a bit uncomfortable. She’s aware of her own limitations and her own body and has every faith in herself and Dad to get her through this latest hurdle. Dad was in good spirits, but I could see the worry in him as he felt helpless to do much other than fuss at the pharmacists on her behalf.

My father has always attested that if Mom had his strength she’d be dangerous. I just think the two of them together make a formidable team.

Experiencing technical difficulties

genie — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:02:40 +0000

I had another post in mind for today, but have spent most of the evening wrestling with technology.

I just fixed the CSS on my blog that’s been messed up for months but I only noticed if I used Google Chrome because all the other browsers would compensate for it. My entries are no longer formatted entirely as headers!

I also have set up the wireless 1496 times in the house but can’t seem to get it to work seamlessly, no matter how many extensions I add to the network. The walls in this house are literally made of steel, so trying to get signal of any sort in here is an adventure. My next plan is to try a newer base station, and then if that fails, I’m taking a hammer to all the equipment and running wires to every room.

Next on my list is to setup a backup machine/system for all our computers in the house. We have gigs and gigs of photos and I never remember to back them up myself, so I need something to just make it go for me.

Since I literally fell asleep last night with the iPhone in my hand, I think I’m going to step away from anything with a battery or power supply and read a good ol’ fashioned paper book before bed. That or I’ll just play Wurdle until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

I’ve been shopping at my parents’ house

genie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:02:29 +0000

Things I found (and took home) while sorting Rubbermaid tubs at my parents’:

copies of the recommendation letters for my college scholarships from my teachers
my mother’s work photo id from the year I was born
a cape my mother and I made for some sort of high school function
the pillow I sewed for my pet cat when I was about 7 years old
some curtains that might be salvageable
approximately $5 in mostly pennies and dimes
a printout of an email I sent my parents after splitting up with Jeremy
some very pretty wool yarn my mother bought at the thrift store

We sorted and labeled about 35 tubs and emptied/consolidated another 30 or so more. Things are looking better but I’m very tired. I need to go back to work so I can rest up from my day off.