That’s how long I can jog at a stretch (or at least how long I jog at a stretch for this week’s C25k program).
Week 4, Day 1
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 3 minutes
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 5 minutes
Walk 2½ minutes
Jog 3 minutes
Walk 90 seconds
Jog 5 minutes
Yeah, I know, boring. I just can’t get over the fact that I can run that much at a stretch—and I don’t have to drag myself upstairs with my elbows afterward.
The heading is inaccurate, though—it’s not “human powered.”
This isn’t even a sci-fi movie. It’s a real thing. He’s crossed the English channel. He attempted to go from North Africa to Spain, but had technical difficulties and had to ditch. He’ll try again next year.
I want some jet wings!
Guildmate: going to durholde & black morass to get my elixer mastery, wanna tag along?
Me: Sure!
Me: …where is that?
Guildie: COT
Guildie: BC instance
Guildie: right at your level too
Me: SPEAK ENGLISH MAN
I’m thankful for my family and friends. I am fortunate to have family with whom I am close, and friends who are as close to me as my family.
I’m thankful that I have enough, and more than enough, of the necessities of life. The last year has seen people losing their jobs, their life savings, even their homes. We’ve had setbacks, but we’re making progress and getting Alpha Geek’s business off the ground. We can afford a nice Thanksgiving dinner for the family.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Responded to yet another “bookkeeper/assistant” posting on Craigslist.
Got yet another scammer response asking me to fill out their “application form.”
Like finding a job isn’t hard enough without having to pick through the scams and data miners to find the actual job offers.
Towards the beginning of the year, Alpha Geek got laid off. It seemed like a good idea to cut back on obvious luxuries, like my membership with the YMCA.
I used to go to the Y two or three times a week for yoga classes. Now and then I’d try aerobics, and once I attempted a “spin” class (the seat on their stationary cycle was uncomfortable enough to leave bruises on my posterior). Mostly, though, it was yoga.
There are lots of reasons to do yoga. The practice encompasses many aspects of a person’s life: the physical, the spiritual, the emotional, et cetera. There are eight principle branches of yoga. One of those branches is hatha yoga, the physical discipline. Hatha yoga is usually what people mean when they talk about “doing yoga,” and it’s the yoga I used to do at the YMCA.
My reason for doing yoga was simple—it made me feel good. Physically good. Sometimes I wouldn’t feel like dragging myself out to the YMCA, but I’d go anyway because I knew how good my body would feel after I was done. Yoga made me feel like everything in my body was aligned, working together, everything pulling in the same direction.
I missed that.
I tried looking for yoga programs on the Fitness channel.
I found a show called Namaste Yoga.* It seemed similar to the classes I took at the Y, in the gentle flow from one pose to another and the patterns they followed. However, the program is only thirty minutes long, and I didn’t feel like I was holding each pose long enough to really explore and experience it.
I found another show called Inhale, an hour-long program billed as “high energy yoga.” I’ll say! That one was more of a calisthenics yoga.
Nothing wrong with either of those shows—everyone does yoga for their own reasons, and that’s why there are so many different types of yoga classes. But neither one of them gave me what I wanted, that feeling that my body had been realigned and was working in harmony with itself again.
I put yoga on the back burner for a while.
Recently, my friend Romilly sent me a link to The Fluent Self, as a blog I might be interested in (I was). While poking around the site, I saw something that brought yoga back to the forefront: a yoga DVD. Havi has taught yoga for many years, in many countries, so she knows whereof she speaks when she promotes this DVD as Yoga That Doesn’t Suck (officially titled Yin Yoga).
And it doesn’t! Yay!
I’m so happy to have yoga again. I’ve been doing the slow, gentle “Yin” series three days a week, after my C25k run. I think next week I’ll start doing the active, energetic “Yang” series on the in-between days when I don’t run on the treadmill. For now, all I know is my back feels so much better.
The two-hour lecture on what Yin Yoga is, and why you’d want to do it, is recommended but optional. I watched the whole thing in one sitting, because I’m a biology geek and I thought his discussion on anatomy was fascinating.
I bought this DVD with some of my birthday money. I think if I get any Christmas money, I’m going to try Shiva Nata. Because it looks weird and interesting, and because I just have to try anything that promises “hot buttered epiphanies.”
*Namaste is often said at the end of a yoga practice, and is also used as a greeting. It is said with a slight bow, palms together at chest height, and the literal meaning is “I bow to you.”
Beyond the literal, the meaning of namaste is (roughly) “The spark of divinity within me acknowledges the one within you.”
I think that’s pretty cool.
It’s new!
I’ve owned five cars in my life. This is the first I’ve ever had that wasn’t owned by someone else first. It’s shiny and new and all mine.
Probably the smart, sensible thing would have been to buy another used car. We would have only had one car payment to make, which would certainly have helped when Alpha Geek got laid off earlier this year.
I can’t say I regret it, though, because I love my car. When the minivan started having terminal problems, I was already eyeballing Alpha Geek’s Fit. Usually he wants a new car every four or five years; I was thinking it was about time for him to want to trade up, and I could have his car.
He didn’t want to trade up; he loves his Fit, too. And there weren’t any used ones to be found. If I was going to have a Fit, I’d have to have a new one.
Alpha Geek totally spoils me. When my van finally gave up the ghost, he scoured the local Honda dealerships to find out which ones had Fits on their lots. That weekend he took me out to one that had two Fits left. A few weeks before my birthday, he bought me a new car. (He even went for the “sport,” the pricier model with extra doodads.)
Perhaps a used car would have been more sensible, but damn I love this car.
There has been a lot of rain here lately, but that wasn’t the cause of the flooding. The rising waters came from our washing machine.
The source was a bit of a mystery. Last week I went to put the clothes in the dryer, and found a puddle creeping out from under the washer. I visually inspected all the hoses and connections, but couldn’t find anything.
I filled the tub with water. No leak.
I drained the tub. Nada.
I did another load of laundry, checking frequently for puddles. Nothing.
Another load of laundry—and a puddle. No idea where it came from. Dammit.
I was reluctant to call an appliance repairman without knowing the source of the leak, especially when the leak couldn’t be counted on to show itself. I put off doing laundry over the weekend (like I needed an excuse).
This morning I did laundry. Went downstairs frequently to check for puddles. And lo and behold, on my second reconnoiter I heard water trickling down behind the machine. It wasn’t coming from any of the hoses; it was pouring back out of the big pipe the washing machine drains into.
Pipe must be clogged. Plumber coming tomorrow. Good thing I didn’t call an appliance repairman.
I was farming leather in Scholozaar Basin when a guildmate sent out a plea over guild chat.
“Can anyone help? I’ve tried to do this escort quest myself, but I keep dying.”
“I can be there in five minutes, is that okay?” I sent back, heading for the nearest flight point.
Helping out a guildmate trumps farming; that’s what guildmates are for. (At least, it is in our guild.) My guildmate’s character is level 26; mine is level 80. My character was vastly overpowered for the quest he was attempting. We blitzed through it in no time.
“Need help with any others?” I asked as we headed back to town. “I love one-shotting the mobs, I feel like a real badass.”
“Sure,” he said, listing several quests with (at his level) hard-to-handle bosses. “Let me just clear some bag space.”
About then another lowbie whispered me asking for help. Turned out he was on several of the same quests; we invited him to our group and sallied forth.
Before long I was herding a small bevy of lowbies through Redridge. We mowed down orcs and gnolls. We slaughtered big bosses. We finished all of their quests in the zone.
I don’t often hang out in the lowbie zones, simply because I do get flooded with requests for help from total strangers. I can understand needing help with a difficult boss, or getting through quests that are maybe just a little too high for the character. And a higher-level character in a low-level zone gets noticed.
And to be honest, most of the time I politely decline. Guildmates I’m happy to help out, and they help me out when I need it. Random strangers, not so much—I do have my own things I want to do, and I don’t pay $15/month to be Feathermoon N00b Herder. And often the request for help is either too demanding or borderline illiterate (or both).
[LazyNoob] whispers: can u help me
To [LazyNoob]: With what?
[LazyNoob] whispers: can u help me w a quest
To [LazyNoob]: Which quest?
[LazyNoob] whispers: can u help me
To [LazyNoob]: With…?
[LazyNoob] whispers: a quest
I never did find out what, exactly, he wanted me to help him with. I did know he was on another continent, and whatever he wanted would involve
…and that would all have to happen before I could even begin to help with whatever it was he wanted. I thought the very least he could do, if he expected me to invest that kind of time in his quest, was to be clear on what it was he expected me to be doing.
Unfortunately, there are just as many entitled asshats in the virtual worlds as there are in the real one. I once wondered why these guys don’t ask their own guildmates for help. Now I suspect it’s because their attitudes have already alienated any guildmates who might have helped them, so they have to turn to strangers.
Fortunately, World of Warcraft has a wonderful feature called “ignore.” Put the asshat on your “ignore” list, and you never hear anything else he might say. It’s the opposite of the “friends” list.
And now and then I do run into a total stranger looking for help who is polite, intelligent, and converses with me for a moment before making his request. Those I’ll often help out, because they’re more fun to spend time with.
Let that be a lesson to those of you playing multiplayer games—treat the other players like human beings, rather than props in your single-player game, and they’ll be a lot more willing to help you out.
The weather in my area has been very lively for the last couple of days. Non-stop rain since Tuesday morning, gusts of high wind, yet the temperature has been very comfortable for those of us who like to be out in this sort of thing.
It got me thinking about those moronic “personality test” things, the ones that ask questions like “If you were a vegetable, which one would you be?” Clearly those things are just meant to be entertainment, yet you find people who actually believe the results.
Well, some people are idiots. But that’s not my point.
I was thinking about the ones that ask you what your favorite season is, as though your choice of season says anything about you as a person. You like spring best, therefore you must be optimistic and energetic (because spring is a time of rebirth and renewal).
Except maybe you’re a lethargic grouch, but you like spring because your birthday is in May. Or because you look forward to starting your garden. Or because that’s when your spouse goes on a big retreat every year and you get the house to yourself.
Without taking into account why you like that season best, all the test tells you is how the test-maker feels about the seasons.
Fall is my favorite season. Fall is the time of year when everything seems most alive, at its peak, bursting with energy. Animals that were born in the spring are maturing into adulthood, exploring beyond the safety of their families, really learning to live in the world. Unless the summer was sparse, they’re fat and sleek and full of attitude. The trees are changing daily. The very air dances, constantly moving. I like to walk around outside and feel the shifting air, the changing temperature, see the squirrels jostle for good spots to cache food, watch the flocks of birds erupt and subside at random as they gear themselves up for migration.
Today was a great “fall” day. I wandered around outside in spite of the torrential downpour, just to experience the energy of the day. When I got home I was all charged up and did a bunch of work around the house.
Here’s a question for anyone who feels like playing along: Which season is your favorite? And more importantly, why?
Finally, at last, I seem to have shaken off this horrible upper respiratory infection.
I don’t think it was the flu (either one). I didn’t have a fever, but I had the congestion and the rattling cough. It’s amazing how much reduced lung capacity will sap your energy. Looks like that whole breathing thing might be kind of important after all.
Yesterday I started the Couch to 5k from scratch again. I was only one week into it when I got sick, so I don’t feel too terribly discouraged.
The Director also got vaccinated for H1N1 yesterday.
We hadn’t planned to; I’d taken the kids out to one of the big clinics a few weeks ago to be vaccinated, but by the time we got there they were out of the vaccine. I planned to keep an eye on the news so I’d know when more was available, but I wasn’t keeping an eye on much of anything while I was sick. So when we stopped by the drugstore for a soda, I was surprised to see the sign announcing the H1N1 vaccine that afternoon.
So I hustled The Director over and got him vaccinated. Worked out better this way, as he didn’t have time to worry about whether it was going to hurt (he announced afterwards that it really didn’t, much). He only had a few minutes to fret about it.
“Now I’ll just spend the next few days being sick,” he grumbled.
“No you won’t,” I assured him. “You can’t get sick from the flu vaccine; they use a killed form of the virus.”
“Oh.”
(Later I realized he was probably trying to lay the groundwork for some missed school days.)
The same drugstore is offering vaccines again Friday; I plan to pick The Artist up from campus so I can get him there before they stop for the day.
I keep hearing about people who refuse to get vaccinated. Those people obviously don’t live in my area, because they run out of the vaccine almost as fast as they get it around here.
If I ever run a web board, I’m totally using these. Someone who’s good at icons should make this set and call it the “Rob Cottingham Alternative Icon Set.”
Monday I made the mistake of saying I thought I was getting better. As a result, Tuesday I got worse again.
Today I have achieved what Alpha Geek refers to as the pain-in-his-ass stage of my illness. That’s the one where I bitch constantly about how tired I am of being sick. I’m well enough to be bored, but not well enough to do anything more strenuous than shuffle to the kitchen for juice.
SIGH
Friday morning I felt fine.
Friday night I was starting to feel kind of bleh.
Saturday I was flat-out sick. Not the flu, no fever. Some kind of upper-respiratory thing; my upper back felt like someone had been beating me with a rubber hose—from the inside.
Spent the weekend largely unconscious, thanks to the good folks at Vicks and their magical Nyquil potion.
Today I’m well enough that the inactivity is bugging me, but not well enough to pick up my usual activities. I’ll have to re-start the Couch to 5k program next week. Probably not a good idea to engage in heavy cardio while recovering from a respiratory infection.
Alpha Geek has been supplying me with soup, and The Director helped out by taking out the trash and attempting to tidy up in the kitchen a little. I’ve been nagging them all to wash their hands frequently. Really don’t want to pass this thing around if we can avoid it.
