ARDIRI

"Whole-Paycheck" Yoga Gear and Resolutions

In order to ensure that I fulfill my resolution to do Bikram yoga on a regular basis, I decided to get a workout/work-crap multitasking bag.  Essentially it came down to two choices, and although I would've loved to have bought this 'Whole Paycheck'-type of bag from Lululemon:

the rational part of my brain couldn't rationalize $128+tax for a workout bag.  Insead, I found this little jewel from Zappos for $60:

And, I must say that I am quite pleased with this bag so far!  I'll let you know if I change my mind!

P.S. I fulfilled my resolution of 3 Bikram workouts for the first week of January!  According to a New York Times article by  John Tierney, I am more likely to hold fast to my goals because I've made a "formal resolution" and if I continue sticking to that resolution through January, I shall "last a lot longer"!  Let's go, Holly!   

Finally, do you have any New Year Resolutions you'd like to share with the blogosphere?

Just a bit of retail therapy and a shot or two of randomnalia.

Things I love:

• Lucky Brand Sweet Dream Jeans--ah, indeed, they fit like a dream!  And I frequently get LUCKY and find them hardly worn--perhaps even never worn since they certainly look that way-- at Buffalo Exchange for $28 bucks--wahoozicool!

• Prescriptives Classic Red Cream Liptstick--I feel like such the 1950's glamourous movie star when I wear it.  Hot, baby, hot!  I just found this color yesterday and will try to get a pic soon to share, as we all know how hard it is to find a good red lipstick that doesn't make one look like a clown!  ETA:  OK, here's a pic where I have licked off a good majority of the lipstick, but you can get an idea of what the color looks like:

• Guerlain Maxi-Lash Mascara--very pricey, but damn it rocks (and if you calculate its daily usage over 6 months, it turns out to be only 15 cents a day!  Aren't I such a good rationalizer?)

• Public Libraries!!!--Thank you Benjamin Franklin!  Benjamin Franklin I love thee, for you created the library!

• The following excerpts that explain the philosophy(ies) of Existentialism by George Cotkin in Existential America:

"[...] existentialism begins with Sartre's maxim that men and women everywhere are 'condemned to be free,' forced to confront the dilemma of existence, to infinitude in the face of limits.  To be existential is to have those dark nights of the soul when the loneliness of existence becomes transparent and the structure of our confidence lies shattered around us.  To be existential is to encounter those moments when vainglorious systems of logic totter and polite evocations of Sunday preachers fail to touch the core of being.  To be existential is to wrestle with most fully with the jagged awareness of one's own finitude, with the thunderbolt fact that I will die and my death will be my own, experienced by no one else.  At such moments, the abstract is rendered concrete.  As novelist, Carson McCullers put it, 'Death is always the same, but each man dies in his own way.'  To be existential is to recognize, in the face of all these somber truths clutched close to our own sense of being, that we must act.  Despite the dread and anguish that accompany the shocking recognition of our freedom, that threaten to stall us in our tracks, we must take responsibility for our lives; we must create the world anew.  To be existential is, ultimately, to join with Camus's Sisyphus in a tragic acceptance of the limitations of existence while exulting in each affirmative breath of life, in each push of the stone up the mountain.

[and that there is an...] upside to existential freedom: the freeing from the shackles of tradition, the possibility of a more authentic existence, and the headiness that comes with the freedom to create and to be creative."
(emphasis added, pp. 3 & 6)

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. 

If only Japan itself wasn't so damn expensive...

At this point in my 3/4 of a year living in the 7x7 parameters of San Francisco, I believe that I have come to love Japantown--of all the touristy places--the best.  Here are some of the things I love:

Eating sushi at Isobune--"The ORIGINAL Sushi Boat Restaurant" (in March):

Going a little consumer-frenzied, blotto-minded at the prospect of a gazillion Totoro and other Hayao Miyazaki film-related tchotkes (Image from Totoro.Org/The Camphor Tree):

Perusing the books--almost all in Japanese--at the bookstore Kinokuniya and wondering who the hell (including--or perhaps that should be excluding?--Kate Moss) could pull off these tops (from sewing pattern books):

And spending way too much money on stationary and pens/pencils in KSG (the bookstore's entirely separate pen/pencil/stationary-orgy store).

I would so love to live in Japan, but it is too expensive and teaching abroad there pays crap. 

City Snark

Living in the Haight (and specifically on Haight Street near Ashbury--ya know, the summer of love & drugs area),  I am asked on a daily basis for money, food, clothing, a smile, etc.  I am also told to "F*ck Off!" (literally) on signs that also ask me for spare change.  Anyhoo, long story short, I love the following urban snarkification tools: 

(Image credit: Glarkware.com)
Urban Asshole Notification Cards come with a  super-easy and handy checklist for things such as:

• "Talking really loudly on cell phone while riding public transportation"
• "Littering"
• "Bringing child to R-rated film"
• "Not washing hands after using washroom" (or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer!)
• "Opening car door without looking and endangering cyclists"
• "Not dealing with car alarm"

Counter-Hippie Stop Sign Stickers
My favorite stickers are those that instruct one to stop "defacing stop signs" and to stop "with all the patchouli".

(Image Credit: Glarkware.com)

And for fans of the brilliant HBO series, The Wire, there is the three button (or magnet) multisyllabic "she-eeeeeeee-it":

(Image credit: Glarkware.com)

And in answer to your questions:
1) No, I would not hand out the Urban Asshole Cards--way too passive-aggressive for me!
2) No, I am not being sponsored by Glarkware; I just happen to love these products and wanted to share.
3) And yes, finally yes, if you are a knitter, I shall run a destashing contest this weekend!

No time to knit, but I did do a little shopping!

I seriously love Threadless T-Shirts!  (As evidenced in this post and this post.)

I just had to get this t-shirt for teaching at my elementary school:

(I don't teach math, but I certainly do hear plenty of excuses about homework!)

And this one just gives me too good of a giggle and thus made its way into my shopping cart:

Hopefully I will soon have the time and energy to do some knitting instead of online shopping!

I Want One!

Oooh, this is cute!  A yarn sheep from Threadless Tees!

I want one in a t-shirt and a hoody sweatshirt.
And boy do I feel like a spoiled kid saying "I want one!"

The Slrog...to Work

• April 27, Friday--6.28 miles running to work  in 85 degree Fahrenheit temperature.  Whoah, mama! The massive temperature change was a major shock to the system, as my last run was completed on a 63 degree temperature day!  As for the running to work--that falls under the busy marathoner training plan.

Oh!  And I just wanted to send out a thank you to the random runner who gave me his bottle of water when he saw that I was ill-prepared for the heat and had not hydrated well-enough.  Another thank you goes to the coach of the De La Salle High School baseball team who kindly gave me a cup and let me drink endless amounts of water from the team's water dispenser.  (Perhaps I am going to have to get me a Camelbak Flashflo waistpack?  I really hate running with a water bottle in my hand.)

• Runagogo Round II: Total mileage 57.89 miles (only counting actual runs, not counting cycling, walking, etc)

Slroggin' Away

• April 12, Thursday--6.61 miles; no stopping and no walking!

No idea as to how long it took time-wise as I messed up my stopwatch's timing somewhere along the way.  Nevertheless, my messing the timer up worked in my best interest because I kept looking at my watch and thinking: "Wow! I've only run 22 minutes, this isn't so bad!"  Of course, for a good amount of the run, I thought I was at twenty some minutes and thus tricked my mind in to thinking the whole thing was no big deal; that is, until I realized my timer had stopped at twenty-two minutes and it hit me that I was really going to do--as intended--a 6 and a half plus mile run! 

I ended up buying a new MP3 player today as I could not handle another run with the same 4 albums of 4 years play-time.  I used a Best Buy gift certificate that I've had tucked away for over a year and got a SanDisk Sansa with 1 GB.  Room for loads and loads of music--yippee!

• Runagogo Round II: Total mileage 19.61 miles (only counting actual runs, not counting cycling, walking, etc.)

***To figure out your mileage sans a pedometer or GPS, you can use the Gmaps Pedometer (I find that using the hybrid option is the easiest).***

The Slrog

• April 10th, Tuesday--4 miles running; 34:25 minutes (there be hills, small hills, on this run).

Did I mention I'd really love a new MP3 Player?  One that I could download new music to?  I am so really, truly getting sick of the same music and not feeling so hot about being at the mercy of the only two radio stations--those two that don't play Spanish-language music--that I can pick up along my running route.  Whah!  Whine, whine, whine, blather, blather.  I am now thinking that I'd even be happy with an iPOD even though I've always sort of disliked them due to their ubiquity and the fact that I've always bought Rios.  BUT! the iPOD has the little pedometer thingy that tracks your mileage and it is much cheaper than the GPS-based frackin' awesome pedometers such as this and this (which don't play music).

• Runagogo Round II: Total mileage 13 miles (only counting actual runs, not counting cycling, walking, etc.)