ARDIRI

RIP...WTF? Whoa! All in one day, too!

 

When I was four years old, Farrah Fawcett was Queen of my TV screen as she caught the "bad guys" as one of Charlie's Angels.

And just now, Michael Jackson, the Thriller, is announced dead, too.   I really thought he'd live longer than me.  Of course, that sentiment makes no sense; except for he did do that hyperbaric oxygen chamber thing-a-ma-jig in the 80's and said he wanted to live to be 150.

Whoa!  I am feeling old and a bit discombobulated by the death of these two stars of my childhood.

I am the Walrus!

I have no love for video games, but this Rock Band short film for the Beatles blows my mind (especially at 1:20 forward)!  I SO LOVE IT!

Just a few tastes of a Saturday in the City

Vegetable Packets at the House of Nanking:
Bitter:Sweet playing at the North Beach Jazz Festival:
Some clowning around at an N-Judah train stop :

Playing tourist in my new hometown:

Saturday Slrog Roundup; Slacker Edition: June 8-28

• June 9, Monday--3 miles running; the SCHoW (the Sarah Connnor Home Workout)

I've taken a week off from running after royally fracking up my knee doing free-standing squats and today was my first day back in my running shoes.  And it was awesome!  My pace was spot-on, the hills felt like friends rather than mortal foes, and I felt like I could run forever.  Wondermous!

• June 10-17--various days of the SCHoW (see above)

• June 18, Wednesday--3 miles running.

The MP3 that I "lost" has been finally found so I'm on the road again (By gods, I love Willie Nelson, how embarrassing!  Oh, and if you do happen to like Willie, this is a beautiful, but sad, song--"I Never Cared for You".).  I don't feel like I lost a lot of endurance or strength, s0 yay for me!

• June 23, Monday--3 miles running. 

Listening to: Led Zeppelin

• June 26, Thursday--Gym/Weight workout (abs, chest, legs)

Cold Play's "Violet Hill"--Dancing Politicians Version

The excitement never ends...

• I got tickets to see Radiohead in my very own neighborhood!

• 

Today, I got to view and examine the cadavers at a local medical school!  And...

It was amazing! 

I have always been curious about human anatomy/how the body works; and, after reading Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers, I became interested in donating my entire body to science after I die (rather than just organs/tissue).

The bodies I saw looked very much like that which the University of Wisconsin Medical School shows here. 

Furthermore, I've come to my own conclusion that preserved human cadavers look very much like turkey meat.  Today, I was very happy to be a pescetarian.

Saturday Slrog Roundup: April 27-May 3

• April 27, Sunday--3 miles running.   

I SO NEED NEW SHOES; mine are totally flat and I can feel it especially in my left arch and my knees.  So it's either to Fleet Feet or Zappos that I'll be heading (I'd rather support Fleet Feet for running shoes, but it really may come down to a time factor--that is, actually getting on the bus and going to get the shoes vs. ordering them online with free, 2-day shipping).

• April 28, Monday--1.5 miles running; 10 rounds of running the Strybing steps (double steps--i.e. skipping steps). 

All "sponsored" by the good ol' man in black, Johnny Cash--especially "Folsom Prison Blues" and the uber-cheezy "One Piece at a  Time".  Definitely a complete change from my usual MP3 soundtrack of melancholic Radiohead albums! 

N.B. A good place to hear music for free via your computer is Deezer.com.  There you can listen, listen, and listen again to my favorite Blonde Redhead album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons  (<--honestly, click there to the left to hear the ablum!!  Pandora.com is also a good place to discover new music based on their "music genome" theory.)

• April 30, Wednesday--3 miles running.

My obliques are completely, almost-irrationally sore from doing the Strybing skipping steps on Monday.

• May 1, Thursday--3.66 miles running; 10 rounds of running the Strybing steps (double steps).

Listening to: Vampire Weekend/Vampire Weekend (& especially loving the songs "Oxford Comma," "Bryn," and "Campus") and Mika/Life in Cartoon Motion.

I bought Vampire Weekend's album essentially based on a newspaper review and am happy to say that I am quite pleased with it!  It has a sorta old Police-esque reggae sound to it, with some gorgeous lyrics thrown in.   I seriously need some good running music and am a bit lost in the Electronica section as it's been so long since I've been caught up in that scene.  I finally made my way--made my "pilgrimage"--to the Amoeba store down the street (i.e. Haight Street) and to be perfectly honest, I felt like a bumbling nerd in the music store with a bunch of cool, in-the-know sorts of hipsters scanning the CDs.  Wow, I definitely felt like the dork at the high school dance!  Then when I left and reclaimed my backpack, the cute clerk asked me if I becoming back to watch The Breeders play.  I was too embarrassed to admit a lack of knowledge (as to who they are!) and just said I had had too long of a day of work and was headed home.  Ugh, I am so uncool!!!

• May 2, Friday--no running; very, very angry knees! 

Off to Fleet Feet for shoes.  I love Fleet Feet!!  I was in no shape to run for them (so they could see my particular needs, form, feet issues, etc.) and so they simply looked up the last pair of shoes I had bought (Nike Air Skylon) and brought them out in the right size, suggested a few alternatives just in case I wanted a little more cushioning and a longer-lasting pair of shoes, didn't try to upsell me on a more expensive pair, and were just darn friendly and helpful!  Bonus--you can run in your shoes for a month and if they don't work, they'll take them back no questions, no problems!  *Smooch*--love the Fleet Feet company!

• May 3, Saturday--3.66 miles running.

Awesome run in the sense that I felt strong the whole way and not like some bumbling, shuffling, two-left feet fool.  If this keeps up--and I don't catch every germ/bug/virus that my students carry with them to school--I shall have to decide to do the first half of the RunSFM Marathon in August!  And then...Perhaps? Maybe?  A full, real deal marathon?!  (If so, it'll likely be the California International Marathon.)

New shoes=happy, happy feet!  Happier knees,too; nevertheless still icing and doing the ibuprofen routine. 

And now for blitheful brevity in which bike helmets never looked cuter...

Reviewed

• The Pesthouse by Jim Crace--this is a quite enjoyable read.  A vision of an apocalyptic (in the non-religious sense) America whose inhabitants are eager leave the barren, gang-riven land for the shores of Europe where the pigs are eager to be food and allow one to strip meat for food from their sides as they (the pigs) walk along.  Machinery and its metal workings are a story of a distant past, of one's great-great-great-great-to-the-nth-degree grandparents, and are considered the work of the devil by a new religious group, the Finger Baptists.  Beautiful tale, not the best dystopic story ever, but a good read.

• Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer--I loved this book and the honesty with which Kathrine tells her life story.  Although she wasn't the first actual woman to run the Boston Marathon (that title belongs to Roberta Gibb), she was the first woman to register to run it and was nearly kicked physically out of the race.  Marathon Woman really opened my eyes to the issues and barriers woman had to face in the sports arena prior to Title IX, as well as the issues faced less openly after its passing.  I guess when it comes to feminism, I wasn't all that interested in sports issues, rather I was more intrigued/infuriated by things such as the non-passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the fact that a woman could not get a credit card on her own prior to 1975.  Also interesting was to read about the lack of amenities--water or porta-potties--during marathons and other races till the mid-to-early 1980's.

• Knitting Rules by the Yarn Harlot--This one was in the shelves at my library and I was kind of hesitant to pick it up because I didn't enjoy her book At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit to Much as it seemed to dwell too much and too gleefully on overtly-excessive yarn consumption which I am trying to avoid (see The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need by Juliet B. Schor).  Nevertheless,  I enjoyed reading this book and think it would make a good book for a knitting gift for someone who is in the beginning to intermediate stages of learning to knit and could use some great tips and tricks, as well as overall reference.

• Notes on a Scandal--with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.  This is marvelously strange movie; a bit off-setting and disturbing, but wonderfully acted.

• Frontline's The Meth Epidemic--Whoah! Scary shit!  I had only read about what meth did to its addicts and actually seeing the visual destruction of addicts and their families was horrifying.  I used to complain about having to buy psuedophedrine from pharmacists (for my massive, chronic sinus problems) but--after seeing this program--I am committed to never complaining again!

• The Good Shepherd--hmmm...I'd have to honestly classify this one as boring and way too long for its own good.  Too bad, because I love me a good spy, thriller, CIA-type of movie.

• Mocean Worker, song "Tickle It"--this sounds like good subway music to me, perfect for watching the madness of the 5 o'clock commute and knitting away like a madwoman.  I am thinking of getting the entire album.

• Destash--Sell your yarn stash for cash.  Wondermous!  I bought some sock yarn--Trekking XXL colors #185 & #186 (pics below)--off of the site for $13 a skein including shipping.  Wa-hoo!  I do believe I have finally caught the sock bug and am currently infected with a feverish addiction to sock knitting.

 

The Slrog

• May 4, Friday--7.19 miles at a 9 minute pace.  I think I could have brought it down to an 8:30 or 8:40 pace if I had decided earlier in my run to make it a timed-race-yourself/push-yourself-type of run.  Nevertheless, I am feeling good, just rolling on a runner's high right now.

Latest Ear Candy--Lily Allen's album Alright, Still.  I first heard her on NPR  (You must definitely listen to the NPR Fresh Air CD Review linked here!) and mentally debated back and forth with myself about buying and not buying her album (I'm always doing the grad student money-debate-dance).  However, when I saw it for $9.99 at Target, I was all over it like Saran Wrap.  I especially like the songs "Knock 'Em Out," "Friday Night," and "Nan You're a Window Shopper" (Click the songs to listen, one's even a Sims Video of the song).  At first I hated "Nan You're a Window Shopper"  because it is so insulting to whomever Nan is, but after a few listens, I couldn't deny her amazing wordsmithery and have absolutely fallen in love with this song (especially for running!).

• Runagogo Round II: Total mileage 75.49 miles (only counting actual runs, not counting cycling, walking, etc).