Find the Star

For all that you hold holy, as you value your time and hope to get work done do not under any circumstances click on this link and play the game.

Ageeksayswhat?

I am such a geek. I've got a pencil-bag thing, because I have so many different pens and highlighters and Sharpies and post-it tags and and and and.

It's always in my bag. Always.

Except today, it stayed home.

I was a basketcase. I only had one regular old Pentel fattie pen in a spare pocket of my bookbag. I mean, seriously, how can I mark participation in class (yes, yes, we are required to give detailed daily participation scores) with a thick black pen ? How can I make corrections to my Japanese homework in the same color as the pen that I did the original work with? How can I make new flashcards with a fat pen(it had to be nearly 0.5mm or fatter, for Hermione's sake)? How can I grade papers without a green pen? Am I supposed to underline the texts I'm reading? Should I dogear my books when I find a passage that I want to bring up in the seminar?

Shudder...

GEEEEEEEK.

It's all good though. Things are beyond cool, really. Why? Because of this.

A Long Post on a Long Run

Whew. It's been awhile since I last did a big-ish 10k. I had completely forgotten how much fun it is.

Part of the uniqueness of this run was getting there. I had to rely on the public transit system, and it actually worked out fine. Except I felt kinda funny sitting there in the bus in my running garb, and until we got closer to where the race was happening, well, it was just me and what looked like a lot of folks heading off to early morning jobs on Sunday. They didn't look pleased.

There's a wonderful gathering of excitement when you get close to the starting line. First you start seeing people dressed for running. There are the showy folks - the people who have all matching-branded and color coordinated clothing, sometimes their scrunchies or iPod holders even match the color scheme (I should also mention that this is very much an iPod environment. I felt slightly out of place with my just-as-good-and-even-better-at-some-things-no-I'm-not-being-defensive Zen Micro V.) Then there are the people that you can't tell if they are there for the run or not. Some people are just dressed casually in a tshirt and shorts, with shoes that might or might not be running shoes. These folks interest me. Are they too cool to wear clothes that actually work well for running? Did someone run off with their luggage? We all got a nice ultra-light tshirt for registering. Why then?

As you get closer, you start seeing folks wearing their number bibs. Now you can really categorize people if you care to. Blue bibs for the 10kers, yellow for the 5kers, and pink for the elite runners. I'm still not sure what all that really means except that they all run faster than I do. It might be that they get priority to go to the front of the pack before the gun. Lower numbers for the early registrees - they usually know what they are doing, well, at least more than I do, cause I forgot about the whole thing.

At the starting line is where it really gets exciting. The 5k start was 30 minutes before the 10k, and I got there right in time to watch them start off. They even had an MC-ish sort of fellow up there doing the countdown. I had forgotten that they did that. It's really cool to watch a mob of people go from standing to surging forward.

After the 5k started, they started passing out the bunny hats.

Seriously.

They were basically a foam headband with big bunny ears sticking up in front. Genius. They were sponsored and tagged with advertising. Normally, I hate wearing advertising for people, but hey, free bunny ears! I think their strategy was to pass the ears out to the hot ladies and take pictures of them for some promotion, but they were handing them out to everyone. They, um... didn't ask for my picture, but I happily wore mine for the whole run. I should mention that it is a bit spooky seeing your shadow with demonic horn-looking things sticking out from your head when you aren't prepared for it. It's ok. Only ears.

As the time to start got closer, we all moved toward the line. They had signs marked with minute/mile times staggered out from the front: 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 etc... There was a bit of polite but nervous jockeying to get near the correct time based on what you thought you might run.

After people had basically settled in, everyone started stretching a bit, well, as much as we could stretch with people crowded all around. Everyone chatted nervously while waiting and wished everyone else a good run. An unhappy-looking collagen-injected woman in front of me didn't care for my bunny ears at all. I think she said something along the lines of, "Oh, I guess you have a sense of humor." Feh.

Then the countdown (given by a "celebrity" who actually said, "Go win. Run fast.")

5...4...3...22222.......11111111.....(no kidding. She stumbled over actually pronouncing the numbers 2 and 1. Was she being funny? Was she just trying to slow down to sync with an official clock? No clue. Maybe I don't have a sense of humor after all, bunny ears or no)

Oh, and the gun wasn't a gun. It was an air-horn.

If you haven't been in a big run, you might not know that you can't actually run when the horn goes off. Only the people at the front can actually run. Everyone behind them kind of does a wobbly shuffle-hop, shambling toward the line. It takes a while. It's all okay though, because they gave us little tracker buttons to put on our shoes to give us official times. Our times only start when we actually cross the start line, and by that time, the shamble had turned into a rumble.

It was a bit frustrating, but I really loved the start of the run. Runners took over the entire street - both lanes from sidewalk to sidewalk. Later on, we only had one lane, but for that moment, we were the traffic. The game of watching people (more entertaining than the actual run some of the time) began. Unhappy humorless women took off with a bit of a sprint. I liked that. She would burn out quick and I would pass her about a mile into the run. A lot of people do that. You get so excited that you run way too fast in the beginning and don't have anything left at the end. I forced myself to pay close attention to my pedometer to keep from going faster than the 8 minute/miles I had budgeted.

Slowly the group unclumped. The truly speedy were gone almost immediately. I would only see them after they made the u-turn and were coming back the opposite way. After they were gone, I started beating people. Well, that's all in my mind. Plenty of people were still passing me, but it's all a mind game, right? I picked out someone who was running nearly my pace and took up place behind them. Then, eventually, I would pull out in front of them, congratulating myself on my victory in a race that the other person knew nothing about. I was able to keep this game going for the whole run.

There were a couple people who I dueled with for a mile or two, but eventually I got past them all. The one who gave me the most trouble was a very attractive (at least from the back) woman with two long, crazy, hypnotically twisting braids. She passed me early, and I think it took me 3 miles to get passed her for good.

The other fun game was to chase down the other bunny heads. Unfortunately, there weren't too many in front of me that were really catchable, but each one I saw on the horizon was a moving target. Especially the one worn at a jaunty angle by a ginormous mountain of a man. His ears stuck out to the side about a foot above my head. But I passed him.

The end of the run was beautiful. There was a really strong tailwind and a very slight downgrade. I had been picking up my pace slightly. I could see people falling out and dropping back into a jog, but I actually had energy and legs left, so I lengthened my stride and picked up the pace into a quick run for the last half mile and a sprint at the end, weaving through the people in front of me. Over the music from my earphones, I heard the MC with the PA system call out, "And here comes a guy with bunny ears, sprinting for the finish, let's let him hear it!" I did.

48:42, but I can do better.

Something Else To Distract Me From Work

Poop.

The 10k I planned to run at the end of October does not occur next weekend, but tomorrow at oh my god in the morning. This would have been better to discover before I went on a 4 mile run this morning.

At least I was able to get down to the registration place and pick up my bib number and tshirt (long sleeve? WTF? I can't wear a long-sleeve shirt. I'll burst into flames. grrrranimals.)

Also, they said there would be a gift bag. I can confirm there was a bag. Gifts? umm.. a sample-size granola bar and a sticker for a local radio station? not so much.

Something Tells Me It's All Happening At The Zoo

Get yours here. I do look a wee bit drunk though....

You Can't Tell Me There Isn't Another Book Out There.

This comes from a generally reputable website, but, is it really real?

Harry Potter info/spoilers from an interview with Ms. Rowling. Heck, even the link title is a spoiler.

Link Dump

Ah, yes. And there are links:

• Really wonderfully horrible movie posters! My favorite is "Evils of the Night"
• Cereal boxes for Halloween! Print 'em out and glue them on your Cheerios!
• What do you know about your zip code? Cool demographic data!

And, finally, how in the world did our generation survive?

Now, With More Added Cost!

I've watched a little bit of football on the weekends lately, and I'm curious about the commercials, especially the car commercials. I'm particularly remembering a truck commercial series. In one, they built a huge structure whom which they hung Poe-esque pendulum thingies that alternately swing behind and in front of the truck. In another they've got a truck trying to come to a stop before a weight drags it over a cliff. And then of course there's the truck that is able to act as the breaks for some giant transport plane.

Granted that a lot of these may possibly be computer generated, but still... I wonder how much the trucks and cars might cost if they didn't spend such a god-awful fortune on advertising. Even if it is CG, that stuff ain't cheap, right? and if is is real, then what the hell? how can you legitimize building a 10 story erector set to advertise a car? What is the upside for anyone (excepting the ad agency, of course)? I mean, does anyone seriously get their information about cars from ads? It's all just setting up a brand-sexiness, right? Why in the world would you buy a car knowing that a significant chunk of your money is not going to make a good car, but to attempt a ever-more-jaded population get all hot and bothered about a new car (that looks like every other car out there).

Yeesh.

Homework Gnomes

The homework gnomes struck repeatedly tonight. I am positive that when I got close to half way through the stack, they came in and added more on the bottom of the stack.

Also, click on this dancing lady. Does she spin clockwise or counter-clockwise? Apparently this somehow tells you if you are right-brained or left-brained. Go figure.

Well, I Could Have Told You That...

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Seen at The Little Professor

Gifts Ahoy!

Seen over at Chez Profgrrrrl (she stole it from Maggie May who got it from Luckybuzz (hi LB! Haven't seen you in forever. I need to do some quizzes again:)), who I'm quite sure got it from Agnes.):

By the end of the calendar year, I will send a tangible, physical gift to each of the first five people to comment here. The catch? Each person must make the same offer on her/his blog.

This seems like such a cool idea I'm going to do it too. Who knows if I can actually get five people to comment, though. Regardless, if you want a gift, which could be anything from random university swag to knickknacks of local flavor to a brand new car*, just be one of the first 5 comments here.

*Barring lotto win, 'brand new car' would most likely be of the matchbox variety. Offer available in the continental US and all other physical locations of the globe. Imaginary locations, states of mind and dimensions not reachable by commonly accepted US carriers not valid. Gifts may or may not be tailored to you and/or your blog. Overread and Overread subsidiaries will not be held in any way responsible for any defects, low quality, cancer-causing or any other negative or positive properties of gift. Other rules and regulations not mentioned here and posible made up on the spot apply.

Imagine the Germans Falling Out Of Trees

Whoops. I forgot to tell Ianqui the answer to the joke.

1: So, how to you get an elephant through the front doors of a Safeway?

2: I dunno.

1: You take the 'f' out of 'safe' and the 'f' out of 'way.'

2: Uhmmm, but there's no 'f' in way.

1: Exactly.

Greenery

Pilgrim/Heretic is planting a fig.

Such a wonderful thing reminds me of one of the coolest things that I ever heard about a particular part of my family. My aunt and hubby live in the boonies down in the South. Before they moved to where they are now, they had a trailer and a plot of land. They lived there for years and years. It was a nice comfy casual place.

They were forced out of their comfy causal place by the local government in a very sketchy eminent domain case - there entire neighborhood was leveled to build something neither necesary nor, in my opinion worthwhile. The wonderfulness of the whole little plot of land, and the sadness of its loss came out when my aunt talked about what made it hardest to leave. The trees. For the entire time they had lived there, they never gave each other gifts for birthdays and such. They gave each other trees. I don't even remember how many trees or years there had been, but you could see them in a row, each on taller than the next, showing the slow accumulation of love and years.

All this went under the bulldozer.

The place where they live now is better in every possible way. Uncle has designed and built a gorgeous huge house and the most incredible workshop/barn for themselves, all from the ground up and basically by himself. They have a little creek and some greenery. They've got trees, too.

Going even further back, we had a series of huge evergreens at the earlier home I remember. My sibs told me they were Christmas trees that we planted once Santa didn't need them anymore. What a wonderful idea.

Right now, I don't even have a fern.

So, good luck to you and your friendly fig Pilgrim/Heretic. You both made me smile this morning.

A Saturday Morning Clearing of the Tabs

I keep tabs open with very bizarre pages on them thinking that maybe I'll send the links to friends, or keep look at the pages again, but I rarely do, so I post them here for me to have them for later, and of course, for your edification.

1. The New Trailer for The Golden Compass. Interested? I am. Jayfish told me I needed to read those books and he was right. Fun funfun! Please don't be a bad movie!
2. One of my favorite comics has some of the best tshirts evar. I mean, seriously, look at the library science one. How could you not just giggle uncontrollably all day long if you wore that? The "everything is ruined forever" one is also mucho awesome.
3. I saw some scary things when I was in Japan. Things that damaged my very being at a metaphysical level. Now you can too!

There are a couple more tabs, but those are the entertaining ones. Have a loverly Saturday. (Does 'loverly' show up as correct in your spellcheck too? That's awesome.)

There's Also This

High quality editing. It won't be long until there is no practical way to tell the difference between what people really say and what a video editor wants them to say.

If They Cared, They Wouldn't Turn The Stuff In

In the 'talk to the new TAs' session thingie, one of the other TAs mentioned that it was her policy to work 8-5 and not bring any work home. Does anyone do that? Is that possible? It sound like a wonderful idea.

Today I was going to bring home a pile of grading to take care of and considered if I should or not. It would be very good of me to finish it all and hand it back to the students by tomorrow. It would certainly beat all of my previous records for returning homework. Some students might even look over the homework and end up doing better on the quiz coming up on Monday.

Then again, I would love to just come home and read a book, or play a video game or just zone out and try to make a dent in my netflix queue. That's to say nothing of the work I need to do on my research stuff.

I brought the grading home. Will I grade it?

Not Like Mick Jagger Big, But Still...

I've got a big mouth. It's a bit of a problem, seeing as how I don't like people that much. I guess it's just one of those 'likes to hear his own voice' kinda things.

What brought this to the front of my mind was when I was asked to join a panel of 'experienced TA's' to answer questions to the newer TA folk. The lesson learned is that when you give Overread an audience and tell people to ask him questions, he'll go on for. ever. I mean the others on the panel talked too, but I was quite the chatterer. Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself too badly.

PS - joke from a student:

Q: How do you get an elephant through the front door of a Safeway?
A: You take the 'f' out of 'safe' and the 'f' out of 'way' (think about this one out loud)

PPS - Oh, there is draaaaaama in gradland.

No Cheese with this Whine

I've been told that I need to get off my tush and write more here. Well, not in so many words, but there it is. Frankly I wan't too sure I had any readers left but if you are there still... umm... Hi there! Thanks for keeping me in your reader. I shall endeavor to write more.

Unfortunately today's happenings aren't the stuff of much joy or entertainment.

I did get to go to meet up with the nieces (how is it that I still have trouble spelling that word?) and their hangers-on (that's sis and bro-in-law along with a couple of other tykes and parentals). And I know I've said this before, but it is simply undeniable that these are the two most wonderful children that ever there were. I'd go into detail, but I'm sure you would gag with the fawning and such.

Also, it turns out that my sister and her hubby did a real good job deciding to be parents. They happen to be very good at it.

Of course it could be all different when I'm not around :)

Anyway, the frustration of the post is that I'm sick. It's a cold/flu thing, and I blame Bro-in-law. Actually, he got it from his friend who got it from his wife, so maybe I should blame them. Anyway, the upshot is that I've got a departmental reception (snacks and food and schmoozing) and a dinner (food and booze and schmoozing) invite from a prof that I'm not going to be able to go to because I'm just snotting the place up and nobody needs to see that. (seriously, you guys don't know how close you are to seeing my wadded up kleenex on my 365 photo page)

That wouldn't be so bad, but I'm just awful at being social anyway that I bet nobody even knows I'm in the department. Ick. And my advisor is there. If he remembers me, he'll probably think I'm ducking him. Gah.

Sniff.

I want soup.

Hi There! You Still There?

Well, I don't have any excuse for not posting, except for the fact that I've been exhausted lately. I've been getting up at around 5:30 and going to bed about 11 or 12. And I'm a guy who needs a full night's sleep. So, I'm tired and cranky, but I still feel the need to at least put up a placeholder here.

So, I'll do the traditional thing and present bullets of crankiness.

• The higher ups said that due to horrible budget cuts we must do the very unpopular and horribly unfortunate x, y, and z, and I'm the point of contact between the screwer and the screwee. Ok, I suck it up and try to put the best face on the situation. I explain firmly that x, y, and z are going to happen no matter what, and while we are all very sympathetic, there is nothing we can do. X, Y, and Z happen. The screwees were very unhappy. Then the higher ups suddenly find a way to un-do X and Y. But really it's kind of too late because everyone we wanted to participate has already gone elsewhere. And I'm the guy who now has no credibility and a horde of unhappy screwees.
• running is really hard to fit into this term's schedule.
• My PDA, which runs a program vital for my academic life (really!) made an appointment with Dr. Kervorkian, and I can't seem to convince it that there is so much to live for.
• Unwritten papers...
• Money. Money. Money.
  

Ugh. The funny thing is that I'm such a freakish optimist that I feel I need to balance things out:

• Big Sis (and I mean BIG sis :) ) and fam, including the two bestest nieces in the whole wide world are coming near enough to me that I can hang out with them this weekend. Woot!
• The class I'm teaching is difficult, but very fun and rewarding.
• PDA shopping could be fun :)
  

More o' the Same

OK, I realize that all I seem to do anymore is post links, but well, yeah. That's what I'm going to do again. Things are starting to get crazy over in academic land, but for now it's all link-o-riffic.

First, have you guys seen the Amazon MP3 download store? I really dig it. No digital rights management (although it does have a non-personal watermark), pretty high quality (256 kbps) and, since it's an MP3, you can do whatever you want with it. iPod? no problem! any other MP3 player? no problem! burn onto a CD? sure! copy it to your laptop? why not! Very cool. They still need to get more artists signed up. They do make you use a downloader, but it'll file the new music into your iTunes or your WMP. Coolness.

Ok, other strange and beguiling links:

1. Funny little lego-looking illustrations. Can you recognize them? hover your cursor over the image to get the answers. I did very very badly :)
2. Simpsons scenes and the movie scenes they reference.
   
3. Wacky conspiracy theories - aren't they all?
4. A really strange game from the 'Got Milk' people. Who funds this?
5. Allow the magic of the internets to choose your presidential candidate for you! (some of the questions are a wee bit leading - do you favor torture?)