Video of the Week

This video has me so very  conflicted... I'm not sure if I should laugh or be a little excited?  Probably because I can't tell if the girl is serious about thinking she's really flying.

New Page

I added a new page to the top bar ^^^^ 'Race Results', made this one so I can post my results from races I run and keep track of them.  Also, Garmin has a neat feature where I can post a summary of the race including the Google Map of it, kind of a cool feature.  Times on the watch are unofficial though, times in the summary are the official chip times.

Texas Rangers

This is a great story of a team the Texas Rangers celebrated their win of the MLB Divisional Series (which is kind of ridiculous, not that they won but that players celebrate this in the same manner as the World Series, but that's beside the point).  The story really started when the Rangers clinched a spot in the Divisional Series, they did the customary thing that baseball players do and spray booze on each other, which is a waste for sure, but fun none the less.  Well, as it's well documented and I believe I've talked about here too, one of the teams biggest stars, Josh Hamilton (one of my favorite baseball players), is recovering alcoholic and drug addict.  So to avoid the temptation, he stayed on the field and did some interviews, rather than go to the locker room.  This was pretty sad really considering his significant contributions to the team and the season.  But for once, athletes surprised and actually did some good.  The Rangers conducted their most recent celebration and playoff advancement with Ginger Ale.  Josh got to participate.  Which is a great thing, especially given the days of Albert Haynesworth, LeBron James and others' selfish behaviours.  This team changed tradition to ensure that one of their own could participate.  Hopefully others, individuals and teams, will take notice and put the team first (I put a link below).

Texas Rangers Josh Hamilton Celebration

Always Sunny

I'm really not sure how I've missed this show for the last however many seasons, but I am really sad that I passed on this show.  Always Sunny is one of the funniest shows on TV in my opinion, I will say the brand of humor on this show isn't for everyone, but I'll tell you it is right in my wheel house and I laugh hysterically each and every week.  Not sure if I'm gonna try to get my fingers on the old episodes via netflix, iTunes or some other medium, but I do know that this show is on the DVR for keeps.

Picture of the Week

The countdown is more official... less than 1 week until the Harry Potter Movie Marathon, 6 movies, one day, in preperation for the epic conclusion:



News Notes

• Sign that you are a questionable candidate for political office: a commercial that opens with you stating emphatically that you are not a witch.  I mean unless you and Doc Brown went back to Salem circa 1692 or if you were part of Bill and Ted's school project and the phone booth broke before they could get you back to your own time period, this should not be an issue.
• I have a feeling that Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity is going to be far bigger and produce a more far reaching and serious impact amongst the people than anyone in the media or politics is willing to acknowledge.
• Brett Favre... if he did send these pictures he's an idiot.  But I have to question the timing, this happened and it doesn't become and issue worth reporting or making public until 2 years later and in the weeks prior to the Vikes vs Jets game?  Not saying sending unwanted pics or making unwanted advances on a woman is ever okay, but 2 years and right before a matchup of new team vs old team, all I'm saying is this has to raise a few red flags.
• Justin Bieber talking smack on Tom Brady?  Yeah Brady's hair looks girlish, but are you serious, the man is a Super Bowl Champ, MVP, with one of the hottest women on the planet, he on the other hand is a kid, who's voice sounds slightly girlish and will, by historical accounts, be another one hit child star who is a nobody once he hits puberty and his voice goes Peter Brady.
• Bill O'Reilly is pulled a pinhead move last week on the view, by referring to Muslims as murderers of 9/11.  Now grated that was their religious affiliation, but making such a broad and sweeping generalization is something that someone who is as critical as Bill is should not make.  Everyone has a religion, a race, and beliefs that are shared by many - painting the masses by the actions of some is a slippery slope that shouldn't be perpetuated by someone who is in a position of influence.  Every group has people that live on the extremes of their beliefs/principles these people should not be used as examples of the norm though.  Bottomline, he should know better.
• Chilaen miners, so nice to actually see a good story in the news...  Gotta love that these guys made it out alive and largely unharmed.

KC 1/2 Marathon

The day came and went, and I must say that the hills of Kansas City were extremely humbling.  Time wasn't exactly what I'd hoped it would be, but I wasn't necessarily mad about my time, a bit disappointed, but not mad.  I ended up finishing the 13.1 in 2:00:45, my goal was 1:45:00 - 1:50:00, and I was on pace for that until about mile 10.  At that point the hills finally caught up with me and things feel apart in a hurry, my legs quadrupled in weight which made the last 3 miles some of the most difficult I've run to date.

You think about a lot of things while you are running for 2 hours.  And honestly, I will say that my mind was buzzing with generating reasons for why I was going to come up long on the clock.  Training, weight gain, cold, course, playlist, you name it.  But at the end of the day, something that one of the expo speakers said rang in my head, essentially he said that a single race or event shouldn't define anything and if you pin too much to time then you are setting yourself up for potential disappointment.  You need to train and go out and run as best you can, you need to have a goal as something you want to achieve, but over the course of a race many things can happen and sometimes, its as simple as it just isn't your day.  I think in part, Saturday was that, just not my day.  Don't mistake, I feel good about the time, but the competitive side of me, just has a tough time stomaching not beating my previous time, I will hand it to the streets of KC, this course was far far far more challenging than Chicago, it's winding hills and generally uphill grade, was a pretty formidable challenge.  So while I knew matching times would be a challenge, I still remained hopeful.  But bottomline, new terrain, new course, new baseline to work from for future races.

Next up is the Ward Parkway 1/2 Marathon, I think in April?  Should be a flatter so a little bit less challenging in that regard, but it's still KC so the hills will be a factor I'm gonna have to get used to.

**Side Bar** So as I said Friday, spent entirely too much time crafting the most glorious running playlist the world has ever known, song 1 played awesome, song 2... wait this is song 2?... yep iPod was stuck on shuffle.  So the playlist was all for not, still got to hear great tunes, but sure wish I'd have heard them in the order I'd intended.  

Race Day Playlist

So as an important part of every race (to me) is the playlist.  Without my iPod running is pretty awful.  Now granted, I spent far more time, well... obsessing over this list trying to get the right songs at the right times, etc.  Well after much a-do here is the playlist I'm using tomorrow, hopefully it'll work out:

1. Airplanes - B.o.B
2. Son't Gonna Rise - Citizen Cope
3. Alone I Break - Korn
4. Believe - The Bravery
5. Calling All Skeletons - Alkaline Trio
6. Papercut - Linkin Park
7. Not Afraid - Eminem
8. I'm Goin In - Drake
9. Shimmer - Fuel
10. Never Too Late - Three Days Grace
11. Kids - MGMT
12. The Good Left Undone - Rise Against
13. Don't Let Me Fall - B.o.B
14. Bad Romance - Lady GaGa
15. Move - Thousand Foot Krutch
16. Magic - B.o.B
17. Dynamite - Taio Cruz
18. Don't Look Now - Far East Movement
19. Cinderella Man - Eminem
20. Indestructible - Disturbed
21. R-Education (Through Labor) - Rise Against
22. 1901 - Phoenix
23. Savior - Rise Against
24. Stronger - Kanye West
25. Bombs Away - Kyle Andrews
26. Prayer of the Refugee - Rise Against
27. Telephone - Lady GaGa
28. The Night - Disturbed
29. Forver - Drake
30. Fully Alive - Fly Leaf
31. Day 'n' Nite - Kid Cudi

Movie Hype

Yup... geeking out again, can't wait for this movie.

Cow Tongue

In my recent trip to Bakersfield I had the privilege to eat at a Noriega Hotel, a Basque style restaurant.  (The Basque people are an ethnic group primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-eastern Spain and south-western France.)   The experience was truly a unique one.  The meal was served family style in a big hall with rows of long tables.  As with most family style meals there was far too much food and everything was delicious.  The food was all fairly straight forward i.e. the flavors weren't especially spectacular or bold, but they were different from the norm in subtle ways that let you know that you weren't eating traditional American food.  There was however one thing that stood out as a delicacy in this part of the world that I had never had, and that would be... cow tongue.  Pickled cow tongue to be exact (pictured at the left) now this was VERY intimidating to me because, well, it's cow tongue.  I had a tone of other thoughts at the time but, can't really recall them now.  So I'll cut to the finale, it was actually very good.  Tasted a bit like roast beef to be perfectly honest.  The one complaint that I had was that it was pickled, the brine I think gave it a lot of flavor and thus the taste of the tongue was somewhat lost.  I really want to try tongue again in a tacos.  Which I've heard are pretty awesome.

Video of the Week