2010 New York City Marathon
One week ago, I ran the New York City Marathon. As noted many times throughout this blog, this race was something I've been working toward since December of 2008. This event was the culmination of nearly two years of hard work and dedication. And it was worth every single mile I've run over the last two years.

At 9:40, the cannon was fired and the marathon started. Within minutes, I was crossing the starting line and running over the Verrazano Bridge. Not only was I running in the footsteps of the current world record holder and the first American to win New York in 27 years, I was running in the footsteps of legends.

About three and half hours later, I entered Central Park for the last few miles of the race. I looked around and had the odd sensation that I was home.

It's difficult to put into words the feelings of that day. Despite having completed three sanctioned marathons prior to this day, crossing the finish line was something I couldn't believe I was actually doing.

It was absolutely amazing.

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Things I love about vim

• Tabbed interface in the 7.x line
• Macro recording
• Built-in sed
• :make
• Not needing to remember a thousand key combinations that require seventeen fingers to properly execute

[/unix] [permanent link]

Initial Thoughts on Windows 10 -- UPDATED!
I'm done with Microsoft for any platform that is not a telephone. Windows 10 attempts to "fix" the abomination that was windows 8 on the desktop, but just makes things worse.

The "search" "app" that replaces the previous existing search feature really only sends a query to bing. I'm looking for a file somewhere in a subdirectory on my hard drive. I didn't want to search the web for 20141020*.txt. The UI looks like crap. Slapping a titlebar on top of the "modern" "apps" does not make them usable on the desktop. The start menu has returned, but it has never been this useless. And the ability to revert to the "classic" start menu, the behavior introduced in windows 95, and refined in win98 and Windows 2000, has been removed. I shouldn't be surprised by that given that Windows 7 also lacked the "classic" start menu. At least Windows 7 allowed a "Windows Classic" theme for the rest of the UI.

Ever since Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, MS has been slowly and surely trying to make things "easier." However, what they deem "easier" often means removing features and behaviors I relied on to get work done. Windows 10 continues this tradition.

I never really had a problem with Microsoft, I never avoided their software for ideological reasons. I believe in using the right tool for the job. Windows 10 is the wrong tool for any job.

UPDATE!!!

Using the Windows Update mechanism, MS pushed out a new build of Windows 10. This upgraded the installation from build 9841 to build 9860. After a lengthy download, installation, and a very long reboot, I was able to log in again, Only to be greeted by this:



And this lovely error when I tried to open the new "Notification Center":



Now isn't that special?

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The Truth is Out There
Tonight, I had the great fortune of joining a person who means the world to me at a book signing by Gillian Anderson and her co-author Jeff Rovin. Jeff has ghost-written/co-written several novels for and with Tom Clancy, and Gillian is AGENT DANA SCULLY!!!

Gillian indicated that she modeled the main character as someone she would play in a cinematic version of the story, and Jeff mentions that, while not required reading, the novel is a spiritual sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

I'm going to put The Crytptonomicon on the back burner and put Poe's work and this new novel, A Vision of Fire at the front of my priority queue.

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Give My Love to the Princesses
I was out and about and happened to run into these two lovely ladies who seemed to like the car.

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Resetting Vim
On occasion while I'm coding, I'll mistype something and vim's code autoindenting will stop honoring my settings. Likely, I've done something stupid that has disabled or modifying the settings from the defaults I set in my .vimrc file.

If (when) this happens, Vim can be reset without exiting the procces by going into command mode and typing

:source $MYVIMRC

This reloads the settings of the .vimrc file without forcing you to restart the process, thus losing your place in your code.

[/unix] [permanent link]

1401554904
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amargasaurus

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Looking back...
As I look back at code I wrote a decade ago as an undergrad, I often find lots of little things that can be done better. For instance, in one file I found that reversing the order in which two functions were called would have eliminated a half dozen conditionals from one of the functions and would have resulted in the same expected behavior, but with fewer lines of code and a lower cyclomatic complexity.

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1396881317
Gear Tip: Dry Out Soggy Sneakers | Runner's World http://www.runnersworld.com/running-shoes/gear-tip-dry-out-soggy-sneakers?cm_mmc=F

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Fireside Chat


Tonight I signed up for the Fireside beta. They asked for all my social media accounts to prove I'm a human. The problem is, I don't have a twitter account, a facebook account, instagram, etc. Years ago I took the advice of numerous psychology studies and my own therapist's advice and got off the social media platforms. It was one of the best things I've ever done for my mental health.

So hopefully this blog, though infrequently updated (and slightly broken since the last major perl update), will serve as proof to the people at Fireside that I am human and not a bot.

It was the Astonishing Legends Podcast that led me to Fireside. It would be nice to use it for one of their interactive live chats sometime.

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St Michael, defend us in battle
Crisis Magazine has a great piece about St Michael and the ongoing spiritual warfare in the world.

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New PGP Key!
So apparently Evil32 happened. Approximately 24,000 PGP keys were generated that had collisions with the 32-bit short IDs of existing keys. Then someone decided to use those conflicting keys to generate revocation certificates and upload them to the keyservers. Joy.

Though my old keys still work, they were affected by this mass revocation of collsions. I have created a new key which can be found at http://skinnymf.com/~mforde/mforde.asc.

On a related note, if anyone is interested in Key Signing Party, shoot me an email. I haven't been to one of those since college.

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Time Travel?
A few months ago I happened to snap a photo of the DeLorean on Main Street in Boonton near the Darress Theatre. It's probably one of my favorite photographs of the car and certainly one of the best I've ever taken.
The theatre was built in 1919 and has remained largely unchanged since then. A lot of Boonton still has a very old "look and feel" to it, and this section of Main Street served as a perfect backdrop for the DeLorean.

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How to Drive a Classic Rolls-Royce, or a DeLorean, Any Time You Want
Bloomberg has posted an article entitled How to Drive a Classic Rolls-Royce, or a DeLorean, Any Time You Want. It's really quite simple, actually. You take your keys, go out the the garage, and you drive the DeLorean any time you want.

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This ends tonight...

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Sometimes...
Sometimes it's dificult to find a reason to continue.

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Ninth Runniversary
Yesterday was my ninth runniversary. Like my first day running, I ran on the treadmill while listening to Broken. Unlike the first time, I only listened to it once, and covered 4.48 miles during the duration of the EP, thanking God every step of the way.

I'm confident in knowing that the bone in my ankle has healed completely now; however, I'm still rebuilding the muscle in that ankle and the rest of that leg. There was significant atrophy during the early phases of recovery. Slowly as it may be, I am making progress, and I am thankful for that.

[/running] [permanent link]

MTA
Why is the MTA's budget each year referred to as a "doomsday" budget? They vote on it every year, and every year it's approved, and every year they get subsidised by the tax payers and toll payers. So why is it a "doomsday" budget? They're not going out of business, although it sure seems their worker's union would like to see that happen given their demands.

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Don't they have better things to do?
It has come to my attention that Congress, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to write legislation against television commercial advertisements having a louder perceived volume than the actual programming.

While I do sometimes find this annoying, do we really need an act of congress to outlaw this? Shouldn't our representatives be doing something better with their time, like repealing hundreds of laws that hinder the free market economy and trample the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens?

Of course not, that would threaten their power.

[/politics] [permanent link]

Who... What are you?
I was running earlier tonight and around mile 7 I was going up a steep, winding, dark hill. Near the top a couple was walking their dog. They saw the flashing lights on my shoes and wrists and, when I got close to them, the woman said, "We were trying to figure out what you were."

"I'm a runner."

[/running] [permanent link]

1260056285
Hibachi in Ballston. People in VA are still afraid of snow.

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:)
It's amazing how a simple email containing only a smiley emoticon can brighten one's day.

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Product Review: ASICS Cumulus-11
This is the third installment of my running product reviews. Last time I said I'd discuss my "current running shoe" but my again I'm a liar. I'm still going to discuss the ASICS Cumulus-11, but it is no longer my current running shoe.

I purchased the Cumulus-11 based on my love of the Cumulus-10, without really trying them. This turned out to be a mistake. The Cumulus-11 is a fine update to the Cumulus-10; however, the changes are better for some runners than others.

The heel of the Cumulus-11 is noticeably firmer than that of the 10. Because of this change, I no longer get adequate compression and cushioning from these shoes. These shoes are not as firm as the Tailwinds previously reviewed either and are closer to the Cumulus-10 than to the Tailwinds. I never had the feeling of running in clogs with the Cumulus-11, but they were firm enough that old injuries were aggravated.

The Cumulus-11 is still on store shelves (at least it was at Fleet Feet this past weekend) and should also be available on-line through retailers such as EastBay. I recommend this shoe to a runner who liked the feel of the Cumulus-10 but had issues with it being too soft.

Next time, we'll discuss my current running shoe, the Nike Vomero+ 4. No really, I have three pairs of these to burn through, I'll be using them for a while.

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Philadelphia
The night before I woke up every hour, looked at the clock, said "I have N hours before I need to get up" and went back to sleep.

I lost a lot of fluids because I couldn't turn the temperature in the room down and spent the night sweating. When I got up I drank a lot of water and GuBrew, but as it turns out, not enough.

The weather was good, about 46 at the start. It was sunny, which was quite a problem when I got a migraine at mile 8. It took me about a mile to get my imitrex out of my pocket and actually take it. At the half I was still close to the 3:20 pacer and I considered taking the turn for the finish line, but decided to keep going.

As the nausea from the migraine subsided, I started getting a stomach cramp. At mile 17 I stopped at medical. After some back and forth the decided the cramp was likely due to dehydration and they made me sit and drink in front of them for 15 to 20 minutes before they cleared me to continue.

After that I went on my way at a much slower pace. At about mile 24 one of my teammates, Tom, caught up to me (this was his 19th race at marathon or greater distance). He paced me and got me through to the end.

I ended up finishing at 3:55:46, far off from my goal. But now I know I can finish the distance so it's just a matter of doing it faster. I'd like to get two more in before New York next November.

Right now, I feel much better than I thought I would. It was weird, when I woke up this morning, I was walking around the hotel room for a half hour feeling just fine. Then I put my shoes on and everything from my feet to my shoulders started hurting. That's more-or-less subsided now, thankfully.

[/running] [permanent link]

SATA Weirdness update
A BIOS update from Intel corrected this issue.

[/unix] [permanent link]

Beavertown Fall Classic 5K
Saturday morning was the third(?) annual Beavertown 5K. I had been training with a group of people for the two months leading up to the race. We registered as a team for the event, the Beavertown Runners.

I set out with the goal of finally breaking 20 minutes. With Philly so close I decided the PR wasn't worth risking an injury and I'd slow down if something felt off.

I didn't slow down. I finished in 6th place overall with a new PR of 19:51. The team rankings were determined by each team's top 3 finishers and, in our category, the Beavertown Runners took first.

[/running] [permanent link]

19 days 23 hours...
Just under 20 days remain until the start of the Philadelphia Marathon. Last week I ran 60 miles and felt pretty good; my hamstring and iliotibial band are healing nicely.

I've gotten some advice from some people who have run Philly before and I'm thankful for that. Among other things, they stressed the importance of tapering. It's going to be difficult to run less when I feel so good.

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NJ Governor Endorsement
I officially endorse anyone who is not Jon Corzine.

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Last night I ran...
15 miles because I felt like it, again.

[/running] [permanent link]

I just ran...
15 miles because I felt like it.

[/running] [permanent link]

Excellent music. Go check out Android Lust now.

[/musings] [permanent link]

C#, XNA, and 8 Queens
I spent some time this weekend learning some C# and getting working a bit with the XNA framework. I implemented a solution for the 8 Queens problem in C++, then ported that class to C#. After getting that working in Windows, I started moving it to the Xbox.

It works there with little issue, but, as expected, writing to system.console doesn't produce useful output. My next step is to get some sort of graphical representation of the chessboard displayed with the solution set.

[/code] [permanent link]

XNA
As of this morning, I am now a member of the XNA Creators Club.

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Staten Island Half Marathon
Sunday was the Staten Island Half Marathon. I've been dealing with overuse injuries as of late, my IT-band has been acting up and I strained my right hamstring.

I wasn't sure if I'd be running or not, and the temperature was predicted to be in the low- to mid-50's, so I wore my coldgear; I didn't want to end up with hypothermia again if I was standing around for 2 hours in shorts.

It turned out that one of my teammates, Liz, wasn't sure if she'd be able to finish. We decided to run together. And we did. We finished with the exact same time of 2:34:00. I kept her from stopping and she kept me from going to fast and re-injuring myself.

It took me an hour longer to finish the race than it normally would, but I think it went quite well. My hamstring actually felt better after the run. My IT-band was a little sore the next day, but it was better by Tuesday.

Running at the slower pace, I was able to actually look around and enjoy the scenery. The shores Staten Island were not as bad as I was expecting. Over all, it was a good recovery run. A 13.1 mile recovery run.

[/running] [permanent link]

Bing!
It has come to my attention that searching bing for pictures of closed doors yields pictures of my DeLorean.

[/dmc] [permanent link]

Self Documenting Code
Despite what you think about your code, it is not self documenting. When writing code add comments, describe what a function does, explain why you're using that convoluted pointer arithmetic and bit shifting. I'm sure it makes sense now, but someday you'll have to go back and look at it and figure out what the hell you were doing. Or worse, I'll have to go back and look at it and figure out what the hell you were doing.

Sometimes it is important to have some sort of separate documentation for the code; maybe some UML or ER diagrams, maybe some English text. Use what ever it takes to explain what you were doing. Do not paste snippets of your code into the text and call it documentation.That is not documentation, that is code.

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AFI: Starland Ballroom, October 10, 2009
Show was great last night. Here's the setlist from the show:

• Torch Song
• Leaving Song Pt. II
• Veronica Sawyer Smokes
• Ever and a Day
• Kill Caustic (With Lou Koller of Sick of It All)
• End Transmission
• Love is a Many Splendored Thing
• Beautiful Thieves
• Dancing Through Sunday
• Leaving Song
• On the Arrow
• Death of Seasons
• Medicate
• Love Like Winter
• Just Like Heaven
• Miss Murder
• Silver and Cold

I'll write more later, now it's time to get ready for the Staten Island Half Marathon.

[/musings] [permanent link]

It exists
As part of the DeLorean's restoration, I've been considering a backlit dash. I had considered sticking with the stock dash with the white light bulb in front of the gauges, but I thought a red backlit display would be better for night vision.

Then came the issue of whether or not something like that exists. Turns out it does. Speed Hut carries a line of customizable gauges for the DMC-12 as part of the EL-Glo line.

[/dmc] [permanent link]

Gmail and mutt
I like mutt. Of all the mail clients I've used over the years, it sucks the least. It works well with my mail server.

Despite having my own domain and mail server, I still use gmail for certain things; things I don't mind being retained for 3 years after I delete them, or more specifically, things I want retained for 3 years after I delete them.

I don't like the gmail web interface. I find checking my gmail to be annoying because of this. I remembered gmail offering POP and IMAP. I figured I could use that to get my gmail. Shouldn't be too hard right?

A quick search of Mr. Yahoo and Mr. Google gave me two good starting points: Lifehacker.com and MattCutts.com.

I read the sites and the getmail man page and figured out what I needed to do. First I enabled IMAP for my gmail account. Next, I created the .getmail directory in my home directory then created a getmailrc file there. I want all gmail mail to be delivered to a specific mbox file without going through my normal mail delivery channels. The contents of the getmailrc file are quite simple:

[retriever]
type = SimpleIMAPSSLRetriever
server = imap.gmail.com
username = username@gmail.com
password = usernamespasswordgoeshere
mailboxes = ("inbox",)

[destination]
type = Mboxrd
path = /usr/home/mforde/Mail/GMAIL

The retriever section defines how getmail will retrieve the mail. In this case it uses IMAP over SSL to connect to imap.gmail.com. The mailboxes setting can be used to specify only certain gmail labels to retrieve, but I want anything in the inbox.

The destination section tells getmail what to do with the mail once it has grabbed it from gmail. This configuration dumps it into an mbox file I've named GMAIL.

I chose IMAP over POP because of the slightly-less-than-documented "feature" of gmail only allowing 99 messages at a time over POP.

So to get the initial batch of 7000+ emails, I ran

> getmail -vvv -l 

to get verbose output and to leave messages on the gmail server. When that was done I pointed mutt at the GMAIL mbox and like magic, there was my gmail, organized nicely in my terminal.

Now, I want to check to get the latest mail fairly often, and I don't want to download messages already copied over. To accomplish this, I added a crontab to run every 10 minutes and invoke

getmail -l -n -q

This tells getmail to leave copies on the server, only get new messages it hasn't already retrieved, and be quiet about it.

This has worked out well for me. If you're interested in setting up something like this, I highly recommend reading the article at matcutts.com. That article also links to several sample getmailrc files.

[/unix] [permanent link]

Happy Anniversary
The Twilight Zone premiered 50 years ago tonight. Slashdot has a bit about it.

[/musings] [permanent link]

Marathon Tune-UP
This past Sunday was the Marathon Tune-Up, an 18 mile run through Central Park. My goal was to run it maintaining roughly a 7:30/mile pace. I had set a range of 135 to 140 minutes for myself. I would have been satisfied with any finish time in that five minute span.

At the 10 mile mark, I was averaging 7:27/mile. During that 11th mile, I decided to use a Gu energy gel. I was still feeling pretty good at that pace and I was hoping to time the gel right so as to not "hit the wall" at mile 14 or 15.

Instead, the gel started giving me stomach cramps. At mile 12 I was still well under an 8 minute pace and at the half-marathon mark, I was a minute off my best official half. I was clearly slowing down as the stomach pain increased.

I struggled through miles 14 and 15, alternating running and walking every quarter mile. By mile 16, I could not run. The pain was almost unbearable. I ended up walking the last two miles, in the rain, with all my blood concentrated in my core, dealing with the Gu in my stomach. By time I crossed the finish line, I was a half over my 135 minute goal and had almost no feeling in my hands or feet.

I went to the medical tent and told the volunteer that I had severe stomach cramps and I was so cold that I couldn't feel my hands. He responded, "We don't got no blankets or nuthin' so we can't do nuthin' for ya." So I walked away.

I went to the tables where volunteers were handing out gatorade and pretzels. I stood there, shaking, until another runner came up to me and asked if I was okay. Before I knew it, another runner was keeping me from falling over while the first runner was coming back with two NYRR volunteers. One of them wrapped me in a plastic bag to keep the rain off while the other went for help. I explained what happened at the medical tent.

Two more people from medial came back and put me on a gurney and took me back to the tent. I told them what had happened at the tent and explained what I was feeling. At the tent I removed my soaked shirts and was wrapped in a mylar sheet and two blankets. I pointed out the guy who told me they couldn't do anything for me.

I managed to get in touch with my fellow Giraffe who ran back to our car to get my dry clothes. After about a half hour or so, I was feeling much better and feeling had returned to my extremities. I got in my dry clothes and my teammate and I walked back to the car.

So taking a Gu ended up with me being treated for hypothermia. I had had mild stomach irritation when using Gu in training, but never this bad. I'm glad I found out now instead of next month in Philadelphia.

during my 22 mile training run at the Tourne, I used prepared bottles of GuBrew and Gu2O. These liquids never caused the irritation that the gel did, so I should be okay using them during the race.

I've purchased a bottle that gets strapped to your hand for the purpose of carrying the GuBrew with me. I filled it with water and ran with it on the treadmill last night. It seems a little awkward, but it shouldn't be too bad. I'll use it to carry the GuBrew with me during the Staten Island Half Marathon on the 11th and see how that works out.

[/running] [permanent link]

Fifth Avenue Mile
The results are in. I did the mile in 5:34, three seconds faster than I had ever done in training. One mile down, 18 more to go tomorrow morning.

[/running] [permanent link]

A Weekend at the Races
Tomorrow is the Fifth Avenue Mile and Sunday is the Marathon Tune-Up. I'm looking forward to both. If all goes well, I should be done with tomorrow's race in under six minutes. Sunday's race I'm aiming for a time between 135 and 140 minutes. We'll see what happens...

[/running] [permanent link]

Hope Chest
A conversation I had while helping some friends move:

me: So what do they keep in this hope chest?
Jaxon: Hope.
me: So that's why it's so light.

[/musings] [permanent link]

Product Review: ASICS Cumulus-10
This is the second installment of my running product reviews. Last time I said I'd discuss my "current running shoe" but my training has turned me into a liar. I'm still going to discuss the ASICS Cumulus-10, but it is no longer my current running shoe.

At this point, the Cumulus-10 can still be found, although supplies are limited. I recently tried to purchase a second pair of these and was unable to find them in my size. I could have had a 9.5 or a 12, but not the 10.5 I needed.

When the Nike Tailwinds no longer provided adequate cushioning, I had to find a new shoe, one that would work for a lighter runner. After reading reviews online and in magazines, particularly Runner's World, I went over to Fleet Feet in Montclair and talked to the sales staff there.

After trying on a few pairs, I decided on the Cumulus-10 but wanted to wait until after the Brooklyn Half Marathon, a week away, before breaking in new shoes. This is not what happened. Because of the lack of cushioning in the Tailwinds, I ended up with horrible shin splints during my lunch time run the day before Brooklyn. I called up fleet feet, asked them to hold a pair of the Cumulus-10s for me and I picked them up that evening. I ran in them for the first time the next morning in the Brooklyn Half.

Those shoes were amazing. They were soft enough to provide the compression needed for good cushioning at my weight. And while they were soft, they weren't mushy either. The ASICS GEL cushioning system is in place in both the heel and the forefoot, providing ample shock absorption for heel strikes and mid- to fore-foot strikes.

The toe box was slightly narrow, but starting the laces one hole up from the bottom provided enough extra space while keeping my foot firmly in place.

The sole in the forefoot is wide; wider than the sole in the Tailwinds. This provides support for the foot during the toe-off portion of the stride.

The Cumulus-10 served me well until I had put just under 600 miles on them. At that point the cushioning was worn down and not as effective as it once was. I retired them about a week after the NYC Half Marathon in August giving me about 12 weeks worth of running. In actuality, I should have retired them after about 10 weeks.

I recommend the ASICS Cumulus-10 for lighter runners with normal to low arches. Left over stock of the Cumulus-10 can be found at EastBay's website for $69.99 (both men's and women's), although many sizes are unavailable at this time.

Next time, we'll discuss my current running shoe, the ASICS Cumulus-11. I've been slacking a bit so I only have about 250 miles on this pair so far. Hopefully I'll post the review before I hit 500 miles and retire these.

[/running/reviews] [permanent link]

It's about time...
It's about time some one took down Ravache.

[/musings] [permanent link]

Can't Argue with That...
Well, I have to admit it; there's one issue I agree with Obama on: Kayne West is a jackass.

[/politics] [permanent link]

On a lighter note...
Scribblenauts is surprisingly awesome.

[/musings] [permanent link]

The Biggest Loser
Last night was supposed to be my night off. My IT-band and my hamstring in my left leg have been tight the last few days so I spent some time stretching, but that was to be the extent of my workout.

I started watching the season premier of The Biggest Loser. After about a half hour of that, I felt "motivated" and I spent an hour core training. Watching those contestants at such an early stage of the game made me remember what I have accomplished, how hard I worked for it, and that it will be a never ending battle.

Sure I'm running 50 to 60 miles a week now. Sure I'm spending hours weight lifting and core training every week. I've taken my BMI from 36.5 to 20.0, and now begins the next phase, keeping the weight off. I can't become complacent. If I do, I will have lost.

[/musings] [permanent link]

TBMChicago
TBMChicago has some live footage of The Birthday Massacre as well as galleries of photographs taken during performances and after shows hanging out with fans.

I'm a little shocked that it's taken me this long to find this site. But then again, I'm usually out of the loop on things so maybe it shouldn't be too surprising.

I'm waiting for the DVD release of Show and Tell. I haven't found a release date yet, but I could just be out of the loop yet again.

[/musings] [permanent link]

Product Review: Nike Tailwind 2008
Welcome to a new feature on this blog. I'm going spend some time writing what I think of various running related items such as shoes, clothes, and energy gels.

My first review is the Nike Tailwind 2008 running shoe. At this point, they're a little hard to find as they have been replaced by the Tailwind 2009. From what I've read about the 2009 edition, not much has changed so much of this should still be relevant.

What first drew me to this running shoe was the Air Max cushioning. Like many Nikes, the heel contained the Air pockets. Unlike many other Nikes, these also had the Air Max cushioning in the forefoot.

I tried them on and they were snug, but not too tight. Perfect. They were already on sale by time I was buying them. Even better.

I ran about 400 miles in my first pair in about six months time, and replaced them with another pair which lasted about another four months. During this time the shoes served me well on treadmills as well as road and trail courses.

These shoes, however, are best for heavier runners. The cushioning is very firm and needs extra weight to compress properly for maximum impact absorption. When I first started wearing the Tailwinds, I was about two months into my training and was about 210lbs. As I ran more, I lost more weight. At 180lbs the shoes were still quite good. At 160lbs they still provided adequate cushioning, although I started to feel my runs more.

The Tailwinds served me well until I was under 140lbs. Below that and they feel like running in clogs.

I recommend the Nike Tailwinds for heavier runners with normal to low arches. The men's Tailwind 2009 can be found on the EastBay website for $79.99 (99.99 for women's) as of this writing, making them a relatively affordable running shoe.

Next time, we'll discuss my current running shoe, the ASICS Cumulus-10.

[/running/reviews] [permanent link]

FreeBSD 8 Beta 3 Available
FreeBSD 8.0 Beta 3 is now available for download. The final release is expected in about a month.

[/unix] [permanent link]

Getting closer...
Only 89 days remain until the Philadelphia Marathon.

[/running] [permanent link]

NYC Half Marathon
Yesterday was my worst half marathon yet. While standing in the corral for almost an hour before the race start, I developed a migraine which became progressively worse as the day went on.

Around 6:30am, I saw some flashing white lights out of the corner of my eye. Figuring it was someone with a camera, I looked over only to see that there was no one with a camera standing there or walking away. Then I realized the flashes were the aura. At that point I knew it would be a bad day.

My split times illustrate the progression of the migraine including the nausea, blurred vision, and dizziness:

5K: 0:23:42 (not too bad)
10K: 0:47:32 (still okay)
15K: 1:14:45 (feeling nauseated)
20K: 1:46:09 (trying hard not to vomit in front of officials that will pull me from the race)
final: 1:51:49 (I'm not dead yet!)

Out of about 15 to 16 thousand people that signed up, about 10 thousand finished.

Yesterday was apparently day 1 of a heat wave, and the humidity was quite high. At the start of the race, the air temperature (in Fahrenheit) plus the humidity percentage number was 151. At 152 and higher the risk of heat stroke increases significantly, or so I read in Running Times.

Only one member of the Giraffes met her goal. We're really proud of her. Not only did she meet her goal, but this was her first half marathon.

All four members of our team that ran finished, but we all agreed on a new rule: no summer races longer than 10K.

Despite the horrible weather conditions, and other problems, I'm glad I ran this race. My time was far from my best, but now I can say I ran through Central Park, down 7th Ave to 42nd, through Times Square and out to the West Side Highway and down to Battery Park. Seriously, how cool is that?

ABC had a special broadcast last night at 11:35PM recapping the race. I recorded it and am looking forward to watching it sometime today.

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Removing Windows 7 Boot Loader
Removing the Windows7 boot loader is just like removing the Vista boot loader. The key being running the command

\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force

from the Win7 install DVD. More info at this site.

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I want to believe
Running never takes more than it gives back.
Believe in the run.

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Windows 7
I installed the Release Candidate (build 7100) of Windows 7 on my workstation today. I'm using it as I write this post. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be using it. I suppose I'll be using it at least until FreeBSD 8.0 is released.

The Aero interface seems to have been polished a bit since Vista. This is both good and bad. It's good in that I've been able to customize it to be almost as usable as the XP and "classic" UIs. Almost.

It's bad in that it's too user friendly. It's as though the designers have such a low opinion of the users' intelligence that they went out of their way to hide how the system works. It's like Microsoft wants to be Apple.
Don't be Apple. You're better than that.

Parts of the UI seem to get in the way. The window decoration draws much attention away from the actual task at hand. Moving the mouse pointer out of your way can lead to more things in your way. Hovering over the wrong spot leads to pop-up thumbnails of open applications. Or all the windows become transparent hiding you task and showing you the desktop.

I'll try it out some more, but I'm pretty sure I'll be going back to the "classic" Win95-Win2000 UI. Even in that mode, the explorer shell is just different enough to be annoying.

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Race Against Crime and Drugs
The Hoboken Race Against Crime and Drugs was last night. The Giraffes were split into three three-person teams. Unfortunately, two members were unable to run last night. However, two of the more recent additions to the Giraffes stepped up and joined the race.

My right calf was still sore at the start of the race, but felt better after about a mile. By that point it was too late and I knew I wouldn't PR, but I did fairly well keeping my time under 21 minutes and finishing number 79 of 609.

The team consisting of Brian, Liz, and me did fairly well and placed 7th in overall team competitions with a combined time of 1:13:46. Had our second team not been a runner short, they likely would have done well enough for 8th or 9th place.

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Race Against Crime and Drugs
The Hoboken Race Against Crime and Drugs is tonight. Online entry is closed but race day registration should be open this evening for anyone who wants to run and hasn't signed up. The race starts at 7PM on Pier A.

The Giraffes are splitting into three subspecies for tonight's race. We have three three-person teams running with a little friendly competition going on. I hope I don't let my sub-team down tonight.

I'm not feeling very fast. In fact, my right calf is still sore from the speed work I did at the track yesterday. I ended up doing about seven and a half miles of intervals and sprints over the course of about an hour.

Hopefully it won't be too bad once I get warmed up. The 5K course in Hoboken is fairly fun; flat and alongside the Hudson River for most of the way.

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Epic Failure
I started out in the Tourne on Saturday morning and ran the first five loops pretty well. The hilly 13.5 miles went fairly smoothly and I felt like I had a lot left in me.

Around mile 16, the hills started to take their toll and I noticed I was slowing down. At about mile 18 my calves were on fire and "Killer Hill" reclaimed its title.

I completed 21.6 miles and had only two loops left to reach the goal; however, a quarter mile down the first hill was more than I could take. At the bottom of the hill, mere feet from the first uphill, I stopped, turned around, and walked back up to my car.

My right calf was still sore yesterday and is a little tight today.

With only 117 days until Philadelphia, I'm starting to get nervous.

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Countdown
Only 23 days remain until the New York City Half Marathon. Much like every other race, I don't feel prepared for it. But the race I feel the most unprepared for are usualy the ones I get a PR.

I feel like I should be training harder. I'm averaging between 50 and 60 miles per week and I don't think it's enough. The Philadelphia Marathon is only 120 days away. And as of today I still haven't run anything over 20 miles.

So the plan for tomorrow morning is to run more than that. I decided months ago that I'd run at least a marathon distance by the end of July. Tomorrow I plan run 27 miles. I have a 2.7 mile loop planned out and I'm going to run it 10 times. I imagine it will quite boring for a while in the middle, but it will certainly be a challenge by the end.

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DMC Houston
It looks like the DeLorean needs some non-trivial work done on it. The mechanic I had taken it to found an issue he's not equipped to deal with. My first call was to DMC Houston where I talked to Stephen.

He was friendly and incredibly knowledgeable. He said he'd work with me and Dave at their facility in Chicago to figure out what the extent of the work would be and the best way to approach it. Odds are the car is going to have to be shipped to Chicago for a few weeks.

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Highway driving
On the way to the mechanic yesterday, I had the DeLorean out on 287 South. Near one of the Boonton exits, a guy in old Stingray pulled up next to me on my right. I looked over, he looked at me, and we gave each other a nod. I sped up a bit to keep with the flow of traffic and he moved as if exiting soon thereafter.

This was my longest trip with the DeLorean thus far, and also the fastest I've ever driven it. And no, I still haven't gotten it to 88mph.

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Verizon Wireless Classic Update
All of the results are in and the team rankings have been calculated. We ranked 12th of 144 men's teams putting us in the top 8% for the day. The rankings were determined by the top three runners for each team. I was the second runner from my team that night.

My disappointing time of 20:48 put me in at number 108 of 3451 which means I finished in the top 3%.

Maybe it wasn't as disappointing as I initially thought.

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July Update
Tuesday night was the Party with Purpose 5K in Hoboken. I did much better than last year, but I'm a little disappointed. They only had it set up to record gun time rather than net time. The actual start line wasn't marked very clearly either. Officially my time was 20:20 but if it took me more than 4 seconds to cross the start line, then I got a PR. But the world will never know.

Last night was the Verizon Wireless Classic 5K corporate challenge race in Morristown. They calculated net time, but rather than reading the RFID tag as you cross the finish line, there was a guy about 10 to 15 feet past the line waving an RFID reader wand over your tag. So you cross the line... and stop running... and walk a bit... and then your finish time is recorded. Other than that, it was a decent run. I was again disappointed in the results, finishing in 20:48.

I may try the Teterboro 5K at the airport tomorrow, or I may just do a 20 mile training run. I haven't decided yet.

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It's like I'm 16 again
You'd think I would have learned to drive by now. I've had the DeLorean for a month now and I'm still a little shaky coming off stop lights and signs but over all I'm better. I've only driven it a handful of times and I should really be driving it more often if I want to get better.

I'm thinking of adding a separate section to the site dedicated to the DeLorean and every step in the process of acquiring it. I found a lot of useful information on the websites of other owners that helped a lot.

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I think I'll take the DeLorean today...
After taking the Pontiac to inspection this morning, I got the urge to drive the DeLorean. I need to drive it more anyway so I think it may be joining me on some errands this morning.

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I Survived Julyapalooza!
My friend had his annual Julyapalooza Barbecue in Brick today. This time I made it through the day without any near-death experiences!

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"Why the hell don't the plugins have proper documentation"
I had to pick up something in Fair Lawn for a friend this evening. It was later in the evening, well after rush hour but there was still a good amount of time before the sun went down so I decided to take the DeLorean out.

I got her out on Rt 80 and she handled beautifully. The turns on the entrance and exit ramps felt better than in my Pontiac. I was a little nervous about over-steering because of the rear mounted engine, but it wasn't an issue.

When I arrived at my destination, I got some looks from a woman walking her dog and some guys across the street working on something in their garage/driveway. I had a bit of an issue getting back on to 80 due to a construction vehicle and an a-hole in a BMW, but everything else was fine. I'm getting much better at driving it.

On the way home at the 80/23/46 interchange a minivan pulled up beside me and beeped their horn. I looked over and they gave me a thumbs up.

It was most triumphant.

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Dommin
Dommin's new EP is out now. You can find it at your nearest Hot Topic. It's 4 songs and only $1.99. They have a full length album due out in a couple of months. In the meantime you can support them by buying EP and seeing them on tour.

I was fortunate enough to see them back in April with The Birthday Massacre, and talk with some members of the band after their set. Not only are they a great band, but they're actually pretty cool people too.

And while you're at Hot Topic purchasing the EP make a donation to the hot topic foundation. The proceeds go to fund music and art programs in schools. If you ask me, and by reading this blog you have implicitly asked me, it's a worthy cause.

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Countdown to Philly
Only 144 days remain before the Philadelphia Marathon. There's still plenty of time to sign up though.

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"Because you will be approached by people with questions and stupid jokes."
I took the DeLorean when I went to the bank this morning. I pulled into the parking lot and found a space. As I got out of the car a guy around my age came running over before I could shut the door.

He said, "I can't believe it, this amazing. I've always wanted to see one of these. Man, I was just watching the movie last night. Can I take a picture?"

I said, "sure" and let him know that it still needed some work so it doesn't look as good as it could. He said, "It doesn't matter; it's a DeLorean."

Later in the afternoon I went to get some more gas. I pulled into the station, shut off the car, got out and opened the hood to get to the gas cap. Neither of the attendants on duty had seen one before and both came over to see the car. They had some questions about the body construction and the engine.

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Sunset Classic 5M
I got to meet Bill Rodgers tonight after the Sunset Classic 5M in Bloomfield. He was signing autographs after the race and actually spedning time talking to people. He spent a good 5 to 10 minutes with everyone, answering questions, giving advice, and just talking about running in general. He signed my race bib and we talked about the course and his diet. He really did put mayo on pizza. Hellman's. Had to be Hellman's. As he put it, "When you're burning 5000 calories a day, you're hungry." It was a pretty good race, I kept pace with the second place female finisher for almost the whole race, with number 3 not far behind. In the last 200 meters or so they both took off and I finshed a few seconds behind them. After the race I thanked the girl I had been running with for making me push myself a little harder than I planned, and congratulated her on her placing. I also made some new friends from work. I met most of the company's running team after the race and we talked about running and stuff. Most of them are in other divisions of the company so I had never seen them before tonight.

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QOTD:
"I figured I'm getting too old to run, I might as well get married."

--
Acquaintance on missing a race to meet with caterers for his upcoming wedding.

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The new phone book is here!
I am now officially 5% rockstar. At least I am according to the New York Times. I am now the proud owner of DeLorean #6291 manufactured in November of 1981.

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NIN|JA
On June 6th, I attended the Nine Inch Nails/Jane's Addiction concert in Holmdel, NJ held at the Arts Center. I think I enjoyed it.

I ordered a pair of tickets through nin.com during the presale. I managed to get through shortly after they went on sale and ended up with two tickets for Section 104, Row S. This time I went with my friend from college who now lives in Virginia. He drove up for the day and had to head back down to VA the next morning.

As per the terms of the nin.com presale, we had to pick up the tickets at the venue, just as we did for the show at the Meadowlands last Summer. We arrived shortly before the gates opened, but were allowed in immediately after picking up the tickets.

I stopped and purchased an overpriced souvenir t-shirt at one of the merchandise stands. This time I was smarter and got a small. It fits much better than the XL I picked up in August.

At 7:30 the opening act, Street Sweeper Social Club, took the stage. They were pretty good. Let me clarify that. The guys with instruments were good. Tom Morello was close to awesome and the other musicians were good. I wished the vocalist would have just shut up.

At 8:15 Nine Inch Nails took the stage as Pinion played. As soon as it ended, they immediately went into Wish, quickly followed by Last. After Discipline, the band tore into March of the Pigs. The crowd exploded.

The 19 song set, was about an hour and a half. It was an amazing show. The stage show was incredibly stripped down compared to the previous show, utilizing only lights and fog machines. It was also far more aggressive.

At 10:00 Jane's Addiction took the stage. Unfortunately, because my friend had to leave for VA the next morning we only stayed for the first half of their hour long set. Dave Navarro was rather amazing. Eric Avery was great. Stephen Perkins was really good. Perry Farrel was certainly a good showman, but I found his voice a bit grating at times. If I have the chance, I would like to see them again.

NIN Setlist:

• Pinion
• Wish
• Last
• Discipline
• March Of The Pigs
• Reptile
• Meet Your Master
• Gave Up
• La Mer
• Non-Entity
• The Way Out Is Through
• Mr. Self Destruct
• 1,000,000
• Echoplex
• Survivalism
• The Good Soldier
• The Hand That Feeds
• Head Like A Hole
• Hurt

Jane's Addiction Setlist:

• Three Days
• Whores
• Ain't No Right
• Pigs In Zen
• Then She Did...
• Up The Beach
• Mountain Song
• Been Caught Stealing
• Obvious
• Ocean Size
• Ted, Just Admit it...
• Summertime Rolls
• Stop!
• Jane Says

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National Running Day part 4
I did another 10K this evening after work. That brings my National Running Day total to 13.6 miles over 3 runs. I hope everyone was able to run today. You still have some time if you haven't yet. Happy National Running Day!

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National Running Day part 3
Did a little over 4 miles on my lunch break at a slightly faster pace than the run this morning. Looking forward to this evening.

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National Running Day part 2
That was fun! I got my first run completed, just over 5K. Now it's time to get ready and get off to work.

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National Running Day part 1
Here I am ready for my first run of the day and there's a thunderstorm about to roll through. The RADAR shows it moving pretty fast. If it hasn't passed by in the next 15 to 20 minutes, I'm getting on the treadmill.

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National Running Day
Wednesday June 3, 2009 is the inaugural National Running Day. I encourage everyone to get out and run. Whether your a seasoned athlete or a couch potato, lace up your sneakers and get out there this Wednesday.

For the runners out there, make sure you run on Wednesday and try to drag some people along with you. For those of of you who aren't runners, Wednesday is a perfect day to start.

The National Running Day website has more information about the day, and tips for people who are new to running.

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A Day at the Races... In Brooklyn
Yesterday was the Brooklyn Half Marathon. It started in Prospect Park and made 2 loops around the park before exiting and getting on to Ocean Parkway at the 7 mile. From there it was straight to Coney Island where the race finished on the boardwalk near Keyspan Park. Approximately 12,000 people entered the race, and 9,415 people finished within the three hour time limit.

I was aiming for a pace between 7:30 and 7:45 per mile and ended up with a 7:33 pace for the day finishing in 1:39:07, ten minutes faster than my time for the Manhattan Half. While not my best pace ever, it is a half marathon PR for me.

Team Giraffes had a good showing. Four of the seven runners we entered finished in under 2 hours, and all finished in under 2:30. Four members of the team have completed their qualifiers for the 2010 NYC Marathon now, and another is one race away from completion.

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Random Running Related Updates
I ran in another 10K in Central Park this past weekend. I took it a little easy but still managed to take a minute per mile off my time from the Homecoming Scotland 10K last month. It's funny how much better you can perform without food poisoning.

I have a 3 mile race in the Financial District tonight. It was supposed to be a 5K, but the course was changed due to construction. I'd like to finish in under 20 minutes, but we'll see how it goes. I'm feeling a little sluggish today.

The Brooklyn Half is coming up on the 30th. It starts in Prospect Park and ends at Coney Island. I'm just shooting for a better time than the Manhattan Half. The weather should be about 50 to 60 degrees warmer for Brooklyn so I shouldn't really have to worry about freezing sweat this time. My pace at shorter distances has improved quite a bit since January so I have that working in my favor as well.

The running team is expanding. We have a new member for the Giraffes. Hopefully we'll be able to get five men and five women for each NYRR race so we can be ranked in the club standings. I don't expect we'd do very well against teams like NYAC or TRD, they seem to be fairly large teams with a lot of good runners, but it would be nice to see the Giraffes in the rankings.

Two of The Giraffes (Liz and I) have finished our 9+1 qualification races and are guaranteed entry in the 2010 NYC Marathon. Two more will complete their 9+1 at the Brooklyn Half.

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Awesome News
As of today I am qualified for the 2010 New York City Marathon.

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Show and Tell
The Birthday Massacre's new live album Show and Tell is out today. Go get it! I was lucky enough to pick up a copy at their concert last weekend. It's pretty awesome.

If you're a fan of TBM it's definitely worth adding to your collection. If you've never heard of them, the best way I've heard their sound described is as "a combination of synth-pop, black metal, and 80's new wave."

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Happy Birthday

Last night I went to see The Birthday Massacre in Hackensack. The show was at the School of Rock which is a rather small, intimate venue.

The first act was September Mourning. I thought they were pretty good. I got to speak to Emily and Chris from the band later in the evening and they seemed like pretty cool people.

Dommin was the next band up. The singer's got a pretty good voice and the bassist was really good. They played a cover of Depeche Mode's "People are People" and it was pretty good.

I was a little less than impressed with I Am Ghost. They weren't bad, but I couldn't get into them.

Early in the evening, before Dommin's set I went to the merchandise table and picked up two new shirts. Now I have TBM shirts that fit! I also picked up a copy of the new live album Show and Tell. Zimmy couldn't make it this tour, but Michelle, the girl who took his place, was just as awesome as he was.

The Birthday Massacre was great. They played a good mix from their albums including songs from their three albums and the Looking Glass EP.

If you care (or even if you don't), their set list follows:

• Red Stars
• Goodnight
• Falling Down
• Play Dead
• Weekend
• Shiver
• To Die For
• Lovers End
• Remember Me
• Video Kid
• Violet
• Looking Glass
• I Think We're Alone Now
• Walking With Strangers
• Blue
• Happy Birthday

They didn't play my favorite song, "Broken," but I was not disappointed in the set at all.

After the show they came out to meet the fans. I was able to get their new live album signed by Falcore, Oen, Rainbow, and Chibi. The latter three also autographed the photos I had taken with them last year and they were pretty nice about it.

Not that anyone really cares, but these are the photos my friend took. If you view the full version, be warned that I'm in the photos too.

M. Falcore	Chibi

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Happy Birthday

Last night I went to see The Birthday Massacre in Hackensack. The show was at the School of Rock which is a rather small, intimate venue.

The first act was September Mourning. I thought they were pretty good. I got to speak to Emily and Chris from the band later in the evening and they seemed like pretty cool people.

Dommin was the next band up. The singer's got a pretty good voice and the bassist was really good. They played a cover of Depeche Mode's "People are People" and it was pretty good.

I was a little less than impressed with I Am Ghost. They weren't bad, but I couldn't get into them.

Early in the evening, before Dommin's set I went to the merchandise table and picked up two new shirts. Now I have TBM shirts that fit! I also picked up a copy of the new live album Show and Tell. Zimmy couldn't make it this tour, but Michelle, the girl who took his place, was just as awesome as he was.

The Birthday Massacre was great. They played a good mix from their albums including songs from their three albums and the Looking Glass EP.

If you care (or even if you don't), their set list follows:

• Red Stars
• Goodnight
• Falling Down
• Play Dead
• Weekend
• Shiver
• To Die For
• Lovers End
• Remember Me
• Video Kid
• Violet
• Looking Glass
• I Think We're Alone Now
• Walking With Strangers
• Blue
• Happy Birthday

They didn't play my favorite song, "Broken," but I was not disappointed in the set at all.

After the show they came out to meet the fans. I was able to get their new live album signed by Falcore, Oen, Rainbow, and Chibi. The latter three also autographed the photos I had taken with them last year and they were pretty nice about it.

Not that anyone really cares, but these are the photos my friend took. If you view the full version, be warned that I'm in the photos too.

M. Falcore	Chibi

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Lincoln Tunnel Challenge
Today was the 2009 Lincoln Tunnel Challenge 5K run to benefit the Special Olympics. Last year's was my first race. It took me 35:51 to complete it last year ( an 11:32/mile pace). Today I went in with something to prove to myself. I came out of the tunnel with a new PR of 20:16 (6:31 pace).

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Run as One 4M
This was an awesome day!

Last week's Scotland 10K went horribly wrong due to a bit of poisoning at the hands of Macaroni Grill (40% of our team got sick!).

Today, however, was awesome!

Today's course was the same as the Run for the Parks which was my personal record... Until today! I finished in 26:55, shaving 26 seconds off my previous best.

My new best pace is 6:43/mile with an AG performance of 62.6%.

After the race we ran into Mr. G! We talked to him and he said he'd talk about the race (and mention our team) on the radio tomorrow morning! (How cool is that?!)

This evening I registered for my volunteer duties with the NYRR, which will complete my qualification for the NYC 2010 marathon. After that I registered for Philadelphia 2009 which will be my first marathon.

Today was pretty good.

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Run for the Parks 4M
This was an awesome day!

I ran in the New York Run for the Parks 4M this morning in Central Park. My last four mile race was the Grid Iron Classic back in February where I finished with a time of 29:12 and an AG Performance % of 57.7. (I'm at that age where my actual time is the same as my AG time).

I really wanted to try and beat that but my IT-band had been acting up earlier in the week so I was pretty nervous and sure it wouldn't happen. I woke up this morning and felt pretty good. I did some core training and light weight lifting and then left for the race with my teammates, feeling a little more optimistic.

I ended up having a really good first mile, running about a 7:09 pace. I picked it up a bit and ended up finishing in 27:21 and achieved an AG performance of 61.6%, beating my last 4M by 1:51.

My new best pace is 6:50/mile, down from 7:05, and I've reached the "local class" achievement level.

It feels so good and I have my friends to thank for this. They convinced me to run with them last year and my life has been completely transformed since then. I've thanked them multiple times for what they did, but I don't know if they'll ever know how much it really means to me.

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It's Saturday Night
And where is the mikeforde? He's at home! Washing his tights!

15K in Central Park tomorrow morning; qualifier number 6.

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Lincoln Tunnel Challenge
Last year some friends convinced me to run in the Lincoln Tunnel Challenge and it changed my life. It was an amazing day and we exceeded our fund raising goal.

This year we're doing it again. You can help support the Special Olympics (and team giraffes!) at this site.

Any contribution is greatly appreciated.

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Yesterday I ran my best mile ever... Until...
Saturday morning I did a half-marathon-length training run and I didn't do so well. I hit a wall at about the 15K mark and by ten and a half miles, I had some pretty bad cramps.

Normally, I take a day off after a long run like that, but I needed to do something to feel a little better. Yesterday I set out for a 5 mile run to get ready for the 8K coming up. I thought I'd keep pace with some music and started with NIN's "Burn." My first mile was a 6:11 pace. It was my best mile ever... Until today.

Tonight I set out for a 5K and in my first mile I broke six, finishing the first mile in 5:57. While the next 2.1 miles weren't quite as good a pace, I did break 20 minutes for the 5K.

I want you to trip like me I want you to have fun.
I want you to trip like I do

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GRRR! I'm a giraffe!

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Can't you trip like I do?
I got home a little early (read: on time) from work today so I was able to start running a little earlier than I have been lately. I just kept running until the runner's high kicked in, then I kept running until it started to wear off, then I ran another two miles back home.

I ended up doing about twelve miles tonight and it felt so good. I had almost forgotten what that high felt like. Between the weather and work, my runs were averaging 3 to 5 miles and that doesn't do much for me anymore. But tonight I was able to get that feeling again.

Oh my God, it's the best.

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Writing

"You need strong emotion, whether it's fiery or depressed, an extreme state of mind. I think in any art form it's the case." -- Daniel Ash

Maybe it's my lack of experience. Maybe it's my lack of talent. I tried to sit down and write music for the song known as Ravage in the new naming scheme, but I failed miserably. When I try to force it, like I did tonight, nothing comes out right. I have ideas, I can hear them in my head, but without that inspiration, without that emotion, nothing I produce sounds right.

I've been too happy recently and it's destroyed my creativity. I get the urge, I have the inspiration, to write when I feel negative emotions. I need anger; I need depression. It is in dealing with these emotions that I am able to write.

I have tried several times to force myself to feel this way. This usually buys me a few minutes in which I can write, but it often fails. Because the emotions are artificial, the results are mediocre at best.

I find this situation to be quite frustrating. I want to move forward with this album, but without that inspiration I am unable to do anything.

In the meantime, I'm slowly teaching myself to play guitar and, to a much lesser extent, a keyboard-style synthesizer. I've also been going through materials my music teacher friend gave me to learn some basic music theory. Hopefully once I find that needed inspiration, or find a way to work without being angry or depressed, this new knowledge will make things easier.

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Revision Control
One could argue that this should be filed under the Unix category, but this post is more about the album than it is about the Concurrent Versions System.

Friday night I created a CVS repository on this server to manage album related files. After discussing it with rskutins, we agreed on several key points.

First, with changes being made a little more frequently than before, it would be best to have some way to track what was going on, and to be able to roll back to a previous version if the changes don't quite work out. Second, we wanted to have a way to organize several files for each song, for instance, lyrics, notes, bass tabs, drum tabs, etc. Last, and maybe the most important reason for the reorganization, we wanted to move away from the numbering scheme that was in place. Each song was numbered from 0 to 17. This was fine until we realized 11 was likely to be the first track on the album.

Now the album is stored in a CVS repository. This will keep a version history of each file, allow us to simultaneously work on parts of the album, and merge our changes.

Within this repository we now have a tree structure where each song has its own directory. The directory will hold any and all files related to that song. In an effort to move away from the numbering scheme, an arbitrary naming convention was mutually agreed upon. The songs are now known by names such as Soundwave, Ravage, Frenzy, and Rumble.

The album is starting to come together. I feel motivated to work on it and recently I've found myself inspired to write. Now if only I had time.

Omlette listened to the Accidental Mix I posted (of the song now known as Soundwave) and gave me some feedback.

It sounded ominous. I don't know how else to describe it since I'm not familiar w/ either artist. Oh wait. Were you mixing your own stuff?

Ominous seems like it could be a good thing given the current direction of the album.

If anyone else takes the time to listen to it, I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions. If you don't have it, my contact information is on this page.

[/album] [permanent link]

Another Demo Update
Two weeks! Ha! It's been closer to two months.

A few days ago I had some time so I sat down with the ProTools set up again. After considering some advice from jlight, I decided to record a second track of the bass line. I decided to use my Yamaha for the second track, as I had used my Fender for the original recording back in June. The two instruments have different characteristics in their sounds and the two playing together seems to add a "fullness" to the sound.

So all I had to do was record 24 seconds of bass and put together a mix. This should take, what, 15 minutes? It took 45 just to record. Once again ProTools repeatedly crashed. When it wasn't crashing, it would report an error and stop recording. Does anyone know if there are updates for ProTools LE 7.1 that will fix this issue? As it stands now, I can't run ProTools for more than a few seconds without disabling multi-core support on my CPU. I have multiple processors. It is a multi-threaded application. It should run better... But I'll save this for that upcoming ProTools rant I keep promising.

Anyway, after about an hour and fifteen minutes, I got two mixes complete. One of them was accidental and sounds, "interesting." The other is closer to what I had in mind. While I wait for feedback on the actual mix from certain people, everyone is free to enjoy the accidental mix found here.

If anyone actually listens to it, I'd be happy to accept any comments and criticism.

[/album] [permanent link]

Demo -- Update
Rskutins recorded his drum part and sent it to me via the wonders of TCP/IP netowrking. On Friday night I finally had enough time (and motivation) to start recording.

I spent a lot of time fighting with ProTools. It repeatedly crashed. Often, when it didn't crash, it simply stopped recording and reported that an error had occurred. I'm remembering this for the ProTools rant that will be coming in the future.

After 45 minutes I had recorded about 6 seconds of vocals and the 24 second bass line. The next block of Copious Free Time(TM) I have, I'll begin the rough mix of the three parts. Hopefully ProTools won't crash as often during that phase.

With any luck, it'll be mixed in the next week or two.

[/album] [permanent link]

Demo
In the next few weeks we are going to attempt to record and roughly mix a demo of a short track which will serve as an introduction to the album.

Currently known as 11, it is a very short piece in 4/4 time at 80bpm. It is in the key of B minor and the spoken words are taken from a quote attributed to Nietzsche.

What upsets me is not that you lied to me, but that from now on I can no longer believe you.

This short demo will hopefully get me motivated enough to put more time into the album.

More information will be posted when it becomes available.

[/album] [permanent link]

A Brief History
Last Summer, my friend, rskutins, and I decided we were going to write an album. He got out his drum machine, being smaller and easier to store and carry than a full kit, and I got out my bass and we started putting together some pieces that were... not good.

We had little direction, I was afraid to play things outside of my comfort zone, and we had some problems communicating. This project quickly fell apart, but we never completely gave up the idea.

In March I found the inspiration I needed. I talked to rskutins and we started working on an album again. This time, fueled by strong emotion, both fiery and depressed, I started by writing lyrics.

Not all are complete, but there are about 15 sets of lyrics for us to use as a starting point. Rskutins has tweaked the lyrics in some places to make them fit a better rhythm while still maintaining the intent of the words. I am quite pleased by what he has done.

Based on these lyrics we have begun writing short pieces here and there when we feel inspired. Rskutins has laid down some pretty good beats to start with. I've been attempting to learn some basic music theory and trying to apply those ideas to the layers on top of what rskutins has written already.

And that's where we are now. Still learning, still writing. Our day jobs have slowed down our progress considerably so it could very well take until the Autumn before we're ready to record and mix the album.

[/album] [permanent link]

He's Not Wrong...
Over at Net Meister there's a nice peice entitled Things They Don't Teach You in School". A lot of what Jan has to say is spot-on observation and good advice.

It's definitely worth a read.

[/code] [permanent link]

Looking back...
As I look back at code I wrote a decade ago as an undergrad, I often find lots of little things that can be done better. For instance, in one file I found that reversing the order in which two functions were called would have eliminated a half dozen conditionals from one of the functions and would have resulted in the same expected behavior, but with fewer lines of code and a lower cyclomatic complexity.

[/code] [permanent link]

Thoughts on National Computer Science Education Week
This week is apparently National Computer Science Education Week. Code.org is organizing the "hour of code" to promote teaching of Computer Science and Programming in schools. They're also organizing petitions to make CS courses count as credits in Mathematics or Science for High School graduation requirements.

In High School, my CS courses were by far my favorites, Programming in Pascal, AP Comp Sci in Pascal, Programming in C++, and AP Comp Sci in C++ ( the language for the exam switched my junior year). I learned a lot about structured code, elegant, efficient code. I learned enough about Data Structures and Algorithms that I didn't have to study for my college CS classes until Computational Structures (Discrete Math II with Scheme, essentially) in my third semester. I had an amazing Computer Science teacher who also taught me Calculus and the proper order of precedence in life: God, Family, Math. I wouldn't be where I am today without that educational opportunity I had in High School. I want others to have that opportunity too.

However, this is where I differ with the opinion of the Code.org folks. I do not believe that CS classes should count toward the Math or Science requirements. In this state, CS counts toward the "practical or performing art" requirements, I'm assuming under the "practical" label. I think this is a better place for it at the High School level.

Computer Science is not a hard Science. It's not Physics. It's not Biology. It's not Chemistry. There's a saying that if the subject has science in its name, it's not really a science. That is true with Computer Science. It's not studying the how and why of atoms, of molecules, of living systems, of anything really. It's not science.

Computer Science is really applied mathematics. I am very fortunate that the college program I went through was very strong in mathematics: Calc I and II, Linear (Matrix) Algebra, Discrete Math, Discrete Math II in the guise of Computational Structures, Probability and Statistics, Theory of Computation, Algorithmic Analysis... the list goes on. All of these mathematical foundations were then applied to a machine, to make the machine carry out a task in an efficient manner. It's those mathematical foundations that are the true core of Computer Science.

While mathematics is the core of Computer Science and Computer Science is essentially applied mathematics, I do not believe it should count toward the Math requirements. The CS classes would likely detract from other mathematics courses such as Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus. These courses are far too important to an education to be replaced by a Computer Science course. Many, maybe even most, High School Computer Science courses focus more on "programming" than the fundamental mathematical theories. They will pick the language du jour and teach you the syntax and semantics. They'll teach about basic data structures like arrays, and linked lists. The AP exam currently focuses not on implementing lists, trees, stacks, queues, and sorting and searching algorithms, but on arrays and lists using Java library calls. This is not math. This is learning Java syntax.

[/code] [permanent link]

unHide
After a friend's computer became infected with some malware that hides files in your home directory and tries to extort money from you in order to "recover" your data, I was inspired to write this little program.

All it does is search for hidden, non-system files and unhides them. It defaults to the user's home directory (My Documents), but other directories can be chosen.

If anyone wants to try it out, please do. If you do try it, let me know what parts I can do better. I primarily work on embedded systems and Unix daemons professionally; the user only knows my software exists when it isn't working. As such, I have very little experience with GUIs or human-computer interactions. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

The Windows executable can be found at: http://www.skinnymf.com/~mforde/unHide/. Source code is available upon request.

[/code] [permanent link]

Just a Question
Given the following code fragment, I was asked to implement foo such that the program would output "America." How would you do it?

        int main()
        {
          char *p = "Hello";

          foo(         );
          printf("%s",p);

          return 0;
        }

My solution involved allocating new memory from the heap to store the new string, and changing p to point to that buffer. They didn't like that answer. They preferred the method of putting the new string in the data segment as well.

I personally would always avoid that, whenever possible. "Hello" is stored in a read-only area of memory as is "America" in their preferred solution. Any attempt to alter those strings will trigger a segfault. This is an accident waiting to happen.

[/code] [permanent link]

It's not magic, it's C.
I love reading comments like

/* These defined magically in the linker script. */

I found that in the GNU Standard C Library implementation when GCC told me the the variables to which the comment referred were undefined. I guess that linker script isn't magic after all...

[/code] [permanent link]

C#, XNA, and 8 Queens
I spent some time this weekend learning some C# and getting working a bit with the XNA framework. I implemented a solution for the 8 Queens problem in C++, then ported that class to C#. After getting that working in Windows, I started moving it to the Xbox.

It works there with little issue, but, as expected, writing to system.console doesn't produce useful output. My next step is to get some sort of graphical representation of the chessboard displayed with the solution set.

[/code] [permanent link]

XNA
As of this morning, I am now a member of the XNA Creators Club.

[/code] [permanent link]

Self Documenting Code
Despite what you think about your code, it is not self documenting. When writing code add comments, describe what a function does, explain why you're using that convoluted pointer arithmetic and bit shifting. I'm sure it makes sense now, but someday you'll have to go back and look at it and figure out what the hell you were doing. Or worse, I'll have to go back and look at it and figure out what the hell you were doing.

Sometimes it is important to have some sort of separate documentation for the code; maybe some UML or ER diagrams, maybe some English text. Use what ever it takes to explain what you were doing. Do not paste snippets of your code into the text and call it documentation.That is not documentation, that is code.

[/code] [permanent link]

Volunteers Needed
The Lincoln Park Triathlon needs volunteers. If you'd like to help out, please visit www.lincolnparktriathlon.com/volunteers for more information.

This event isn't possible without the help of volunteers. If you or anyone you know would be interested in helping, please contact us.

[/musings] [permanent link]

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