Break the Trend

Do you ever feel like you are having a bad couple of days were nothing seems to be going right?  Everybody does.  It's weird, like there is some unseen force turning every light red and making every decision you make the wrong one.  Yesterday sort of felt that way.  It started with a solid 2 hour commute into work and went downhill from there.  This morning I woke up to discover that I had left my dog in the backyard last night by accident and.....the sprinklers turned on.  I find that a good run can often break the trend.  It feels like hitting the reset button.  I got a good one in today.  Although I did break rule #1, it turned out ok and I feel great now.

I had that conversation with my coworker (supervisor) and it turned out fine.  He pretty much put me in charge of all things lighting and lookdevelopement oriented.  Which, to be perfectly honest, is kind of what his job is supposed to be.  That's fine though.  This schedule is so short I think we just need to get this thing done.  Seeing as we are a full 3 weeks into the schedule I feel like we have only just started.  In other words, situation normal already behind.

Marina jetty, 7:30am

RoboLady

People sure love to complain don't they.  It's easy to whine about anything and everything.  Almost seems like human nature to be that way.  What I find truly difficult is to complain directly to a person with whom I have a problem with.  Basically, I'm trying to say to this person "I have a problem with you, this is what it is...".  Oh boy, that is no fun at all.  Especially when you have to work with this person on an everyday basis.  Today is one of those days were I have to have a conversation exactly like that.  I think I'll just try to focus on being brief and to the point.  I think in the end most people appreciate honesty.


I broke out the old bike today and rode down to Will Rogers beach.  I've been wanting to do that for a while.  I am trying to make an effort to do stuff other than just run.  It has been a while since I've gone that way and I noticed one of the regulars on that route: RoboLady.  Robolady is awesome.  Someday I am going to have to find a way to get a good picture of her.  I call her RoboLady because she is what I think to be about a 50-60 year old asian woman decked out in as much body armor as you could possibly attach to a 105 lbs person.  Fully loaded she might way as much as I do.  Elbow pads, knee pads, wrist brace, gloves (I've seen her wear these giant things that I can only describe as oven mitts also), thick jacket (probably kevlar body armor underneath), big helmet with a really wide brim, sunglasses, and some kind of face mask which looks like things doctors and dentists wear.  Like I said, it's pretty awesome.  I'll get a picture someday.

Will Rogers State Beach around 7:30am

Head Game

Running, like many things in life, is mostly a mental game.  Your body can do a lot more than you think it can.  I ran my 6 mile route yesterday.  It had been a full week since I ran last.  I felt really stiff for the first 2 miles, but what's interesting is how long it "feels" like it is taking.  I noticed in training that the longer the distance I ran the shorter the previous "long" distances were.  At the end of my last marathon training program, 6 miles felt like it took about 15 minutes.  Yesterday it felt like 2 hours.  Overall a nice run though.

 

The nice part of the Speedway around 7:30am

My Favorite Doomer

I like listening to and watching financial news.  I don't really know why.  I completely understand why most people find it boring.  I suppose I just feel like it's something important in the grand scheme of things and that I should know more about this stuff.  To be honest, I don't think I know a whole lot.  It still feels like a giant casino.  I like getting my information from a lot of different sources.  Some of them not so conventional.  One of my favorites is this guy named Karl Denninger.  He is what a lot of people would call a "doom and gloomer".  I shorten that and just call him my favorite doomer.  This guy never has anything good to say about anything.  It is almost comical how negative he is about any news that comes out.  Constantly railing against the MSM or Main Stream Media and how they are blind to the truth that is so obvious to him.  This guy predicts the apocalypse about every month or so.  He makes a lot of seemingly good arguments that I certainly can't dispute, but again I don't really understand this stuff anyway.  All I know is, we appear to not by living through the apocalypse just yet.  So I've put off building the bomb shelter and stocking up on canned food in favor of saving up for the kid's college fund.  This is his website.  Check it out if you don't mind being labeled one of the "sheeple" as he likes to call most of America.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/ 

DCHARGER delivers finally

A project that I was on about 2 months ago finally delivered.  It was originally going to be a Super Bowl commercial but the CEO of Fiat did not like it.  Quite frankly I don't blame him.  I think it was a dumb idea for a commercial and could have been easily changed to be epic, but whatever.  Here it is:

Were's the Fire?

It is interesting how in my job we often work all week to solve a problem and get something done by Friday or Sunday.  9 times out of 10 we succeed and finish the week on a high note.  Only to come in on Monday and quickly find out that a rapidly expanding list of items are flawed and require immediate attention.  It's like a game of 10 steps forward 9 steps back.  At some point, through sheer will and determination we always seem to deliver these things.  So I was surprised this morning, when I came in and didn't see any email about stuff being broken.  I'm still searching.  I'm sure there must be something on fire somewhere.

I also got in a good run to the pier this morning.  Stopped off at those blankety blank blanking pull up bars.  Have I mentioned how I hate those things?  I think I have.  Well just to recap.  I hate pull ups.  I got in 6 on the first set this time.  Then 3, then 2.  As minimal as that improvement is, I am happy to see it.  I find it a lot easier to increase the number of pull ups I can do than getting a better marathon time.  I'm amazed at how out of breath I am on my run back from the pull up bars to my office.  It's not even 2 miles, but I'm sucking wind the whole way as if I just finished a very long run.  Good times.

The view from my office parking lot at the end of my run this morning.

Speedway Run

The Speedway is basically an alley behind the boardwalk at Venice.  It's a nice looking alley not that I've been in a lot of allies.  I like running from my office to the Speedway and taking it all the way to Marina Del Rey.  It's about 3 miles to the tip of the Marina Jetty (were I take a lot of my run pictures).  I like this route because, believe it or not, there are a lot fewer homeless people in the allies.  They are all on the boardwalk.  There are just a lot fewer people period.  It's a nice quiet run and a great way to get the day started.

There are a lot of murals on buildings along the Speedway.