Today: I Accidentally a Half-Marathon
Me: I ran a half-marathon this morning!
Also me: I AM PANICKING BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO GET MY WORK DONE ALSDKFJASDFJDWSFSLG
To be fair, though, doing the half marathon reduced the amount of time it usually takes me to get my 15 miles in, so there ya go.
But yeah, it was kind of accidental. I was originally planning on doing 10k down by the river, which I did. I went out 5k and came back 5k, but then, instead of going back up the hill to get back home, I decided to Forrest Gump it and run in the other direction to see how far I could go.
Which turned out to be 5k out and 5k back again.
Of course, that’s only 12.42 miles, which meant I had to run up that damn hill by the hospital to get to 13.1, which is half-marathon distance. Worth it, though. The furthest I’ve ever run is about 10 miles, but that was with at least three stops. I didn’t stop at all today.
Remember yesterday when I mentioned I’m really bad at training when it comes to running?
OKAY SO NEW GOAL:
I want to run the Calgary marathon next year.
I had no idea that there even was a Calgary marathon (though it makes sense that there is, of course; most big cities have one), but when I went walking down by the river this afternoon they had one whole side of Memorial Drive (plus other roads) blocked off for the marathon.
The runners inspired me, so now I want to go for it next year.
Considering I can only currently run about 10k (6.2 miles) in a stretch, it’s going to take a bit of work to get up to marathon distance (26.219 miles). But considering I run a decent amount and walk as much as I do, I think getting to that point should be possible.
YAY GOALS!
Whyyyyyyyyy am I such trash?
IhatemyselfIhatemyselfIhatemyselfIhatemyselfIhatemyselfIhatemyself
People who deserve a better wife: Nate
People who have a husband that is way too good to them: Me
People who should be thrown into the river: Also me
The end.
Here, Enjoy This
Alrighty, guys.
So if you remember, about a month ago I mentioned that I bought a nice cheap (~$50) video camera from Amazon. At the time, I said that the main purpose for my purchasing this video camera would be revealed later.
It’s later, so here we go:
I have hours and hours of old videos I made when I was a kid and was obsessed with my mom’s camcorder. Because I’m too cheap/embarrassed to take these videos to any sort of film/camera place to have them converted to DVD and/or mp4 type thing, I’m going old-school high-quality and will be using the video camera to record the videos playing on the TV so that I can then transfer them to my computer and keep them safe forever (some of the old tapes are really close to breaking).
Anyway, several of these videos contain episodes from a series called The Grandpa Twins. The grandpa twins were two sock puppets (in the loosest sense; I just stuck plain old socks on my hands without any embellishments) who were quite gay and who had incredibly weird adventures.
Let’s make that series the first set of videos I re-record, shall we?
And because this blog is like an extension of my existence, y’all get to experience this nonsense.
These episodes were completely unscripted; I came up with a random theme at the intro and then just went with it. I was also somewhere between 8 and 10 years old (based off the hairstyle and that freaking Simba shirt that I would never take off), so there’s that as well. Yes, there’s paint on everything. Art rules.
So for your enjoyment and my embarrassment, I present the thrilling* saga** of The Grandpa Twins.
- #1: Macky and Goosey
- #2: Goosey’s Music Festival
- #3: Goosey’s Accident
- #4: Macky’s Rap Song
- #5: Goosey’s Writing
- #6: Accident
- #7: Goosey’s First Cold
- #8: Macky’s Crystal Ball
- #9: Goosey Shrinks
- #10: Macky’s Garden
- #11: Goosey and the Manhole
- #16: The Apple Fight (fun fact: this was actually the first one I made)
- #17: Slug
* hardly
** not really
BLUUUUUUUUUUE
Hi.
I was screwing around on iTunes this evening before lecture and decided to browse my “recommended” songs. One of those songs? The instrumental of Love is Blue by Paul Mauriat.
Which is freaking awesome, because this was a song I’d gotten from one of my dad’s CDs a long time ago (as in, “before I even had an iPod and burned all my favorite songs to a CD” long time ago) but it had somehow gotten lost from my music collection.
NOW IT’S BACK!
Crank it, it’s beautiful.
Yay.
(Sorry, I’m really busy so you get garbage blogs.)
Jimmy crack corn, and I don’t ca—OH GOD NOW HE’S MURDERING PEOPLE
An Ode to Garbage Weather and My Recently Deceased Umbrella
(to the tune of this part of the Pirates of the Caribbean music)
What in the fuck
is all this rain
It’s like it’s GODDAMN VANCOUVER
I’m not a duck
I hate the wet
I just want to be dry.
I should get home
but I cannot
Cause I just LOST MY UMBRELLA
It caught the wind
It flew away
It’s gone forever, goodbye.
True story.
Busking!
Wow, hey, so the other day (Saturday?) when Nate and I were out walking, we stopped to sit on a bench down in Eau Claire to chill out for a few minutes, and there was this guy across from us busking. The song he was singing was super catchy, but I didn’t get the chance to look up the lyrics until this evening.
I was thinking it was a Jimmy Buffett song or something (it had that style), but it’s actually a song he wrote himself! And when I found the song and Googled his name (Perry Wilson), I found this video about him:
How cool is that?
Here’s a good recording of the song that you can buy for $1 if you like it.
Edit: man, all the songs on that album are good. Just buy the album.
honemyonn
YO, FOOL-MONGERS!
So because I had scheduled my thesis defense a week after my wedding*, Nate and I never really got to go on a honeymoon. We got to stay at the super fancy Kensington Riverside Inn, courtesy of my mom, but that was just for the wedding night.
So we’re going Delayed Honeymoon Style™ and are planning to do a cruise to Alaska next summer!
I’ve done the Alaska cruise three times**, but each time has been different due to differing weather/stops/shore excursions, so I’m super excited to do it again! I’m also excited to be with Nate on his first cruise. I think he’ll enjoy it.
This is the one I think would be nice. My mom, dad, and I went on this specific one back in 2006.
Hopefully we can make it all work!
*Pro Tip: don’t do that
**God, doesn’t that sound snobby? *sticks nose in air* “I’ve gone on this cruise three times already, but I’ve only ever had Jeeves and the other butlers to keep me company and only eight credit cards with $50,000 limits, so I never had much fun.”
YO-HA
So last Tuesday, as I was walking through Eau Claire, I got stopped by a reporter from Global News. He asked if I had a few minutes to be part of the “audience” for an artist who was using a miniature kitchen to make miniature food.
The artist’s name is Tom Brown, his mini kitchen is awesome, so here’s the video to show you how cool it was!
I’m not shown for very long (thank god; I was on mile 9 of my walk and looked like garbage), but I’m there for a bit.
Yay!
I’m completely under Saucony’s thumb and I don’t even care
Ayyyyyyy, so today I broke in my third pair of shoes this year. As far as my previous pair goes, here are some stats, all cumulative since March 20th:
Distance: 839.96 miles
Steps: 1,815,832
Average speed: 4.54 mph
Total time spent walking: 189 hours and 20 minutes (that’s like 7.8 days of walking, haha)
Hooray for a new pair of shoes!
Edit: blister party 2k17!
Edit 2: blister party 2k17, it is now 4:00 in the morning and I’m calling the cops. Please stop.
Edit 3: the blisters have bought the downstairs condo and are partying 24/7. Send help.
Inversion on the Grandest Scale
Holy hell crackers, this is beyond incredible.
Wow.
How is this even earth? It’s so surreal and otherworldly.
I’ve seen a full cloud inversion in real life before, back in 2011 over Lewiston. Here’s my much less impressive (but still awesome!) shot of that:
Shoe-In
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE KINVARA 8’s!
They’re so pretty! And new!
That won’t last long.
I’ll break them in on Saturday, because Saturday marks 2 months since I got my current pair of shoes. By then, I should have close to 850 miles on them. WOO!
Edit: Remember when I did that project where I took a picture of the soles of my shoes every 50 miles to document the wear? Nate gave me the idea to take a picture of the soles of these new shoes every day, because that would basically be increments of approximately 15 miles. It’ll be a lot of pictures, but it’ll also look super cool when I .gif them all together. (Edit 2: LAWL, THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN)
Mother May I Make a May List?
- If I had been born with a sense of smell, I would have liked to go into something culinary-related. The idea of being a chef sounds super cool, but I seriously doubt I could ever actually do anything worthwhile in a culinary career with anosmia. I know there are a lot of things I just can’t taste (onions, garlic, many herbs, to name a few), so I’m sure my ability to combine flavors and make subtle awesomeness with food combos is very limited.
- Hey, so Amazon, why the hell is this thing a “top pick” for me? Since when have I expressed any interest in toilet brushes? I like how Amazon’s algorithm picked up on the one time I accidentally clicked on a bath bomb and extrapolated to toilet brushes, but I can look at 60% of the Leibniz books that Amazon sells and still not get any Leibniz-related recommended items.
- GOD DAMMIT WHY
- You know a sports team is doing badly when…
- This is fun.
- I just remembered part of the weird dream I had last night. Amazon had opened up a new portion of its online store called “Manazon” where you could buy “man things” like beards, shaving tools, and penis polishers (????).
- I have O Come, All Ye Faithful stuck in my head. Because, you know, it’s the Christmas season and all that.
LET’S DO THE TEACH!
Dudes, teaching this night class is the best thing ever.
Like…I have all day to walk and then go to work from 6 PM to 9 PM? You couldn’t even imagine a better time of day for me to work.
This is so fantastic. My job cannot get better.
Well, actually, I guess the only way it could be better is if there was any sort of permanence to it past this semester. I would love to have this as my career, I really would. But I have to just be patient at this point.
Will everything work out so that I can do this for the rest of my life?
Who knows.
But I really, really, really am hoping it will.
Edit: here’s the room I’m teaching in. This is the view from my little lecture podium.
Shimmer
AAAAAAAAAAH check out this nail polish!
‘Twas a gift from someone who I’m not going to mention, as I never asked if I could name them on my blog, but how cool is this? Super Sparkle 2017.
That’s all.
ALSDFJALSFHALKSDGFHASGHA!!!!!
ALSDKFJALKDFJASLDFJALKFDJLKDJALKJFALGJDGKL
WOERSDLFKJALKDFJ
alkdfjlkdfjALSDFKJALSDKFJA
I WANT TEN
RANKITY RANK RANK
Alright, so I want to show ya’ll two different pictures of me.
The left one is a picture of me taken in 2006. I’m going to guess this is sometime during my senior year, probably around March or April. I was experimenting with some makeup in my room – I never actually really wore any back then – so ignore that.
The other picture, the one on the right, was taken basically 10 years later: May 2017.
I feel like I look really different, but is that just my imagination? I mean, ignore the makeup in the first picture (I wish I was good enough at Photoshop to Photoshop it out and not make it look obvious)…the shape of my face has changed quite a bit. Some of the change might be due to a weight difference (I was likely heavier in that old pic than in the new, but I’m not 100% sure), but I think it’s a pretty big difference.
The skin around my eyes is a little different, too, and the tip of my nose looks bigger now (in my opinion), but I guess that’s a decade of age difference for ya.
Weird.
Phony
So you all saw my glowing review of the Sennheiser headphones that Nate got me a while back.
I still totally love them.
So Nate, don’t take this as a knock against those headphones. I just…I have a problem.
Bose SoundLink On-Ear Bluetooth Wireless Headphones
There was a demo pair of these at Costco in Lewiston. Very surround-sound heavy and super comfortable.
Sennheiser HD 598 Over-Ear Headphones
Now that I’ve got some incredible Sennheisers, I want all the Sennheisers.
Sennheiser HD 650 Open Back Professional Headphone
ALL THE SENNHEISERS.
I mean, like, what if there’s a more optimal way to hear Sleepyhead? What if there is some subtle beat or slur or riff that I’m missing but would send my brain into the stratosphere of happiness if I were to hear it? It’s not too far-fetched; every time I “upgrade” to a new set of headphones, I get a little bit more joy out of that song.
Master & Dynamic MH40 Over Ear Headphone
I’m sorry, I still love these. They’re gorgeous. It’s been so long since I’ve tried them in person (haven’t been able to find them since) that I can’t remember if they actually sounded as good as I remember, but they might have. And they’re gorgeous.
If I had infinite money and infinite ears…oh, the things I could listen to.
UNGHGH this is OBNOXIOUS
I have absolutely nothing to be sad about…but I am so damn sad.
Why am I so damn sad?
Good lord, Voctave
That first freaking chord is fantastic, and so is the rest of it.
Pentatonix is Pentatonix, but the way these guys’ voices meld together is just beautiful.
Back to Calgary today.
That was NOT ENOUGH MOSCOW TIME.
I need like two weeks down there, seriously. I just want to hang with my mom for a bit. I have a feeling we’re not going to be able to do that for much longer, so I want to hold on to it for as long as I can.
Also, it was super weird not being able to go to my dad’s house in Moscow. It’s no longer his house. That’s going to take some time to get used to.
And now I’m sad. Change blows.
Well now I HAVE to do it
So as you probably all know, I’ve been doing my “walk 15 miles six days a week” thing this year. I’ve been half joking that I’m going to try to get to 5,000 miles by the end of the year.
Then I found this out:
That distance? 4,989 miles.
And now I practically have to make it to 5,000 miles. Walking across the Pacific Ocean? Awesome. Especially since I walked across the Atlantic Ocean last year.
Counting today’s walk, I’m at 1,776.3 miles. That puts me about here:
Long way to go!
Eigenblogger 