« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

Friday, September 30, 2005

This is for the Houston

This is for the Houston running bloggers...

I'll be at the 10-Miler on Sunday morning taking official race photos (for raceshots.net). I'm 90% certain I'll be standing somewhere on the bridge on NASA Road 1, between mile markers 6 and 7, so smile. ;) I'll also be at the finish line once everyone has passed me at mile 7 and there aren't any more photos to take. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Update: I don't know what I'll be wearing, but I'll definitely have a blue flowered bandanna on my head. Based on last year's results, I expect to finish up with photos and get back to the finish line between 9:15 and 9:30.

Friday, September 30, 2005

there's no place I can be / since I found Serenity

Last night I hit the treadmilll again, inexplicably, since I have such a distaste for it. The "cold" front had not quite materialized yet, and I guess I'd rather watch TV while running than watch the same street over and over again. I did 40:00 again, this time alternating between 5 minutes of running and 30 seconds of walking. In the end, I did slightly more than the day before -- 3.4 miles, so that's 11:46 per mile. And I did it all at 1% grade, up from 0% the day before. For the last two minutes, I even ran at 10:30 pace just to remember what it feels like.

Thanks for all the kind comments yesterday. I almost closed comments when I posted it, because I didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to say something. The permanent internal conflict with having a blog is that sometimes I want to get thoughts out, and in public, but don't want readers to feel the need to do something. But in the end I left the comments open, so again, thanks for the kind words.

"What am I doing with my life??" is a question I often ask, and sometimes I start to panic a little when the answer doesn't seem right, or when I can't seem to come up with an answer in the first place. Whether I like it or am comfortable with it or not, I've discovered ever since I left home and went out on my own as an adult, I do have a marked tendency to go through periods of intense inner turmoil. I suppose it's just the way I am. I'm sure this won't be the last time.

So, on to fluffier things, at least for today! Serenity comes out tonight and I'm pumped. I don't think I've ever gone from not caring about a movie to counting the hours until showtime in such a short timespan. Last week I didn't care about it, in fact, I figured I wouldn't like it. Now, I'm excited. While many of the reviews say that the movie is good, but will only seem great to fans of the show, I hope everyone reading this will give it a chance. The more money it makes, the better the chance that it has a future somewhere.

I think I can hear Gavin laughing in the other office, laughing with satisfaction because he finally recommended a TV show/movie that I do like, and that doesn't have Nazi torture death chambers like another movie -- that shall remain nameless -- that he forced me to see.

Plans for the weekend: Maybe run Race for the Cure tomorrow. Maybe. Soccer game tomorrow afternoon. 10-Miler on Sunday morning, where I'll either be taking photos or volunteering, depending on need. Baseball game Sunday afternoon, where hopefully the Astros will have already clinched, if not, it'll be a nail-biter. And homework all in between!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

- I'm not leaving Serenity.
- Mal, you don't have to die alone.
- Everybody dies alone.

Last night I did 40 minutes on the treadmill. 3.32 miles. Average heart rate of 177. 9 minutes running and 1 minute walking, times four. 12:03 per mile. Sigh.

I hate the treadmill. Despise it. Dread the thought of running on it. I find that I run slower on it, for reasons unknown, and my legs hurt more. My shins tighten, my ankles sting, and when I get off my legs feel all rubbery.

And yet, on the few occasions that I do resign myself to that never-ending piece of rubber, I finish with a huge sense of accomplishment, perhaps more than I get from a normal run. Like I won the war. I defeated the evil treadmill! I pounded it into submission with my feet. And that feels good.

I doubt I'll ever voluntarily choose the treadmill over the outdoors, but every so often I guess it's not so bad.

Holden was right in his comment yesterday though -- the run did wonders to calm my nerves. The itchy, antsy, anxious feeling has returned a bit today, but hopefully another run tonight (maybe even outside if the weather cools after this morning's brief rainshower) will put it to rest again. If not, I'll have to hunker down with my shut-out-the-world headphones. Let me explain...

I spent my final year and a half of undergrad as the Entertainment Editor for the Technique. We published weekly, on Fridays, so deadline was always Wednesday night. Sometimes I'd get a lot done early, after meeting with my staff on Tuesday or by coming in early on Wednesday. In that case, I'd spend most of deadline screwing around with the rest of the staff until I was tired enough to go home. Sometimes, though, I'd have tons to do and needed to concentrate amidst the chaos to avoid being there literally all night. I had these huge headphones, massive things with lots of padding, that'd I'd clamp conspicuously on my head. They did a decent job of blocking out sound, especially once I turned the volume way up on my CD player. (CD player. Ha, that's sooo 2001.)

For the past couple days, I've been wishing I could wear those giant headphones for hours on end in some attempt to block everything out. The restless feeling, I think, has to do with being a little lonely, and feeling a little trapped.

I'm a rather independent person. Most of the time, I love living alone, and sometimes even find myself tiring of groups, and longing for the peace and quiet of my little apartment next to the bayou. At the same time, I've been in the same place for more than three years now. I haven't been in the same place this long since high school. Growing up, I always had a plan. I always knew what I'd be doing in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years. I don't know that anymore. Moreso, I don't even know what I want to be doing. I'm restless in my job, and I'm restless in my life. I have been looking at houses, for no other reason than I want change. I surf job websites. (Though Gavin says if I was cold on our camping trip, I shouldn't go to Antarctica. I counter that they have much warmer clothes with them down there.)

Amidst the chaos of evacuating for the hurricane, I somehow ended up feeling suffocated. The whole thing made me feel a little frantic, and lonely -- but sort of a delayed reaction that didn't truly kick in until I got back home. I live alone, I have no family in the area, and I'm single. I have many, many wonderful friends, but with potential disaster staring me in the face, I had an minor internal panic attack. Last week, the thought of hitting the road out of town alone freaked me out. And yet I realized that everyone around me had more important things to think about. It was me, on my own.

I'm not sure I like being on my own all the time.

Anyway. I just wanted to write it down. It's what I do.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

I went to Kroger last

I went to Kroger last night to pick up a few things. I actually had forgotten all about the hurricane until I walked in. The TP aisle was almost entirely bare. The canned goods aisle looked as if a tornado (or, you know, a hurricane) had gone through -- a few random cans scattered around, but that was it. They were entirely out of Diet Coke and all the Minute Maid drinks that I buy, yet (as Laurie also observed) there were plenty of Pepsi products. Score one for Pepsi being quicker to restock, or, score one for Coke being tastier. Who knows.

The Phillies lost last night, benefitting both the Braves, who clinched the NL East for the 14th year in a row, and the Astros, who scratched out a bit more breathing room with a much-needed win over the Cardinals. They now lead the Wild Card race by 2.5 games with 5 games left to play -- one against the Cards, then 4 at home against the Cubs. Magic number is 3.

"Apparently not content at trying to blast Texas off the map with hurricane-force winds and submerge its coasts beneath stormy seas, Mother Nature now seems bent on baking the state." It's supposed to be 15-20 degrees cooler by Friday. THANK GOD.

Ever since I got back from our little vacation in Conroe, I have been itchy. Antsy. Restless. It's almost a nervous feeling. Like I'm about to burst out of my skin. Normally when I feel this way, I know why. This time I don't. It's unsettling.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

take my love / take my land / take me where I cannot stand

It's amazing how infatuated we have become with a silly TV show, and in only 5 days. I came home from our post-evacuation celebration dinner at Mely's and watched two Firefly episodes that I just watched three days ago. (The first go-round, we saw them all out of order. Now I'm watching them in the intended order. It does make more sense that way.) I guess this is the part where I admit that I'm hooked on the series. When Gavin and Jason first told me about it I had serious doubts. But they were right...this time, anyway.

And the theme song won't get out of my head.

Today I'm back at work after our unexpected 3.5 days of vacation. We're allowed to chalk up half of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and yesterday to "excused leave" since the center was officially closed. The evacuation did have the negative effect of cancelling my trip to JPL though. I was supposed to leave last night and be there through Thursday, but the trip was cancelled (or at least postponed) on Sunday night after the number of people pulling out for evacuation and return-related reasons reached critical mass. I'm a bit disappointed, because some of the tours we were going to do sounded really cool, and I was looking forward to seeing if anything of substance would come out of our meeting.

The consolation prize is that I'm still scheduled to go to JPL next week for the Mars review. At least I still get to make it out there sometime, although next week there won't be any baseball games to see and stadiums to visit. Sad.

I have a lot of homework to do this week for my class, so I'll be busy with that. I plan to run tonight, but it is amazingly hot outside -- 95 degrees with a heat index of 104 is a bit extreme for late September, even in Houston. I'll do the treadmill or elliptical instead. I gathered up my courage and stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in a week and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I miraculously did not gain any weight from eating all Meg's good food over the weekend.

And life goes on...

Monday, September 26, 2005

Kent has a way with

Kent has a way with words:

"I'm happy to hear that everyone survived hurricane Rita and Becca's plague. Hopefully Gavin's parents survived the NASA onslaught on their house. They converted their house into a petting zoo for nerds, which only the most resilient people could survive."

Monday, September 26, 2005

I've seen fire and I've seen rain / I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end

Yep, this was our experience (thanks for the link Becca):

Hurricane planners have a little ditty that goes, "run from the water, hide from the wind."

It means evacuate if you are in a coastal surge area, but hunker down if you are in an area that will get hurricane-force winds and rain only.

The biggest problem in Houston's painful evacuation last week was that perhaps a million people, almost half of those who left, ran from the wind.

In a Category 3 storm or higher, my apartment complex would very likely be underwater thanks to storm surge. That's why I left. We went to Conroe, where we would have had a scary night had Rita hit, but wouldn't have been flooded. Yet half of Conroe evacuated as well. Why? They ran from the wind. As a result, the roads became so clogged that many people from my suburb and south (Webster, League City, Texas City, and even Galveston -- all in the storm surge area) couldn't get out.

I don't fault people beyond the storm surge areas for wanting to leave, especially in the post-Katrina panic, but it was certainly an issue, and resulted in many people returning to Clear Lake and south to ride out the storm. If Rita had hit directly here, those who had to stay in the storm surge areas would not have been in a safe situation.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

the more things change / the more things stay the same

One of the things I threw into a giant tupperware and took with me to Conroe during the evacuation-that-was: my yearbook from my final year in high school. 1996. I hadn't glanced at it in years, but some of what's written in the back is cracking me up. Indulge me; here are some excerpts...

Becky: "I want to know when you design your first space shuttle."

Andrew: "It's been neat, it's been fun -- don't worry, plenty of people from IB have graduated and still done good things!"

Patrick: "I'm glad we're leaving old MP because I think too much change is taking place."

Darrell: "BTW -- it's usually better if you don't cut any tethers to your space shuttle, so be careful. If nothing else, audition for Voyager, your voice isn't as annoying."

Whit: "Sing 'Tunisia' every once in a while to keep my memory alive."

Laura M: "It is both a joy and a deep sadness to be here writing to you. I remember Annie dresses and playing with Barbie -- you're probably part of what made my childhood so bizarre!!!"

Leigh: "I'm so excited that I know you because when you become the first person to go to Neptune or Pluto or wherever, I can say that I knew you."

Jes: "Remember singing entire musicals on the bus during marching band season? And hysterical laughter."

Leslie: "I wish that I could capture your laugh in a box and carry it with me to Indiana next year. Your laugh is so special to me because it just sounds like the exemplary laugh which eminates happiness. (That doesn't sound right but I hope you know what I mean.) I hope that you always find both time and reason to laugh so that others will hear you too."

Amanda: "You are a Braves lovin', moon hugger, Javy freak, website creatin' person. Too bad you are leavin' the state. (Traitor.) Anyways, you just want to go to GT for the education, right? (Sure, I know you have other reasons that come from Puerto Rico.) ... We can get together and let our rich husbands speak Spanish to each other."

Karin: "You are the woman of space. Don't forget...I forgot. I am finishing this note 24 hours later and I didn't finish my sentence. Oh well, 'Asi es la vida!'"

Laura R: "I can't believe that we finally made it through the torture of public schooling. ... Thanks for doing all those double-dog dares in band."

Nancy: "I'll never forget all of the good times we had on the front row of band. You and I both know that Laura is the madness behind it all. She put you up to everything."

Josh: "After all, it was cool. College will be cooler."

Amanda: "And then -- SPEEDOS! The crowning moment of French was when the entire room was covered in hunky Speedo guys. Wow. I'm so impressed."

Kelly: "What ever will I do without being able to see Oscar on papers and work with you to destroy chemistry labs and create products about odd drinks in PHI? Hey do you think we should pursue some random acts of violence toward Dr. Weinbrect's car and room? I say this only because acts of violence against actual people are against my innocent/sweet nature."

Laina: "Life is a bowl full of chocolate milk, isn't it? I don't know what I'm saying."

Cayce: "The super Saturdays have been scarce this year but they live on in our minds (and on the odometer of my car). p.s. Tell the aliens on Mars Cayce sent ya."

My favorite, however, in all seriousness, is the one that I've never forgotten, despite going years between reading it. Funny that a yearbook sentence stuck in my mind so well.

"I have definitely been in more classes with you than any other person here at Myers Park... Despite it seems like it wasn't until this year that I really got to know you better... I feel like some sort of grandparent when I say how everyone is proud of what you've accomplished... I wanted to give you an ear full for all the times I've heard you whine but I wanted to remain civil this one last time. Good luck in your quest towards the final frontier and don't forget any of us IB dorks on the way. Sincerely (for once), Brian."

I wonder what Brian is doing now.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

I think I may have

I think I may have gotten rid of the popup that was plaguing my site last week. I haven't seen it in the past few days. If you are still getting it, leave a comment.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

I don't care / I'm still free / you can't take the sky from me

As Becca has already mentioned, we have spent the majority of our unplanned hurricane vacation watching all 14 episodes of the short-lived TV series Firefly. I had serious doubts about the show when I heard the concept -- part Star Wars, part Star Trek, and part Tombstone all rolled together. In other words, western sci-fi. I know, weird, right?

Well, not so weird. Or, rather, weird but in a really, really good way. The show is great, and I now join the legions of people upset that the show was broadcast out-of-order in an awful time slot and basically killed before it had a chance to get started. (Thanks, Fox.) I've now watched all 14 episodes and there are so many things I want explained, and so much more I want to learn about the characters.

You may have seen previews for the movie Serenity that comes out this weekend. Turns out that Firefly lives again in the form of a major motion picture! Woohoo! Maybe if it does well, the series will return...

Each of the characters (nine in all) has a backstory that I want to know more about. There's the captain, Malcolm Reynolds, who's very Han Solo-esque both in mannerism and hotness (woo). The second-in-command is Zoe, an old war buddy of Mal's. She's married to the pilot, Wash, who is extremely sarcastic and funny. The muscle-head of the group is a man named Jayne who cares about himself above everything else, and has some hilarious comments. The ship's mechanic is a country girl whiz named Kaylee, who has a not-yet-acted-upon but not-unrequited thing for the doctor, Simon. (I think Simon's my favorite character at the moment.) Simon ended up on the ship trying to outrun the Alliance (think Empire) with his sister, River, who he rescued from a school that was apparently a cover for bizarre medical experiments, so River's a bit psycho. Then there's the Shepherd, a kind of missionary who somehow has sway with the Alliance, but we never figure out why. Finally there's Inara, a Companion aka courtesan, which in the future has turned into a highly respected career, who has a not-yet-acted-upon but not-unrequired thing for Mal.

It totally sucks that I can't keep watching to find out what the Shepherd's past is, why a respectable woman like Inara decided to live on a smuggling ship, what's up with River, is Jayne really going to stay loyal to the crew, and why won't Simon and Kaylee just HOOK UP ALREADY??

If you ever end up with three days off work while you wait out a hurricane, I highly recommend the DVDs. Or, you know, even if you're not avoiding a hurricane. Oh, and go see the movie!

Saturday, September 24, 2005

be it ever so humble / there's no place like home

And that's where I am, back in Clear Lake. Woo!

Tang is meowing at my feet, and I have to take him back to Gavin and Jen's in a bit. Our four-car caravan headed south in exactly the same way we headed north -- minus 5 hours. That's right, the drive home took us the standard hour and a half, plus a few minutes to deal with the car carrier and Gavin and Jen's car that broke halfway down the highway and threatened to act as a wing and take their car airborne! ;)

My apartment is, well, completely fine. I have power, in fact, I never even lost it, as evidenced by the alarm clock that's still showing the correct time and the answering machine that still answers with my voice. The answering machine is how I knew my power was on in the first place.

My apartment complex doesn't even look any worse for the wear. A few branches, some leaves, but it's looked worse after a big thunderstorm. According to the government, we weren't supposed to come back until Tuesday. I didn't hear that until after we were on the road. According to the TV news this morning, people in our area were allowed to come back. So, some conflicting messages. I'm glad I returned. And now I have plenty of time to re-order and clean my apartment since we're off work Monday as well. I am, however, supposed to fly to JPL on Monday evening; no word on whether the trip's still on, but at the moment I'm assuming it is.

We really dodged a bullet with this storm. The local news is starting to broadcast images from Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Lake Charles and the damage and flooding there is much, much worse. I'm thankful Hurricane Rita swerved to the east at the last minute, sparing Houston, but it's hard to feel too happy about it when you know people a hundred miles up the coast are suffering.

Our evacuation turned out to be a fun time, and I can't thank Gavin's parents enough for taking us (people and pets) in for three days. Of course my parents would do the same, but we will need to do something very, very nice for Mike and Meg as thanks. What should have been three very tense days was really more like a vacation.

Anyway. I am home, and it's nice.

Friday, September 23, 2005

the thunder rolls / and the lightning strikes

So. Update from Conroe. Life goes on and there's no hurricane yet! I'm stuffed with food thanks to Gavin's mom, and now I'm sitting here stealing wireless from a neighbor and watching the Astros. The only thing that would make life better is if the Astros were winning -- it's already 2-0 Cubs in the bottom of the 1st. Oh, and I suppose life would also be better if, you know, there wasn't a hurricane headed our way.

Speaking of Rita, things are looking better. By better, I mean that it's headed east of us so hopefully the storm surge down in Clear Lake will be low. We are certainly still in for some wind and rain. Probably won't get much sleep tonight.

In the meantime, I'm gonna watch baseball (now 3-0, boo) and work on web stuff!

Thursday, September 22, 2005

It's nice that in the

It's nice that in the midst of the potential-hurricane chaos, some things stay the same: my blog is still getting hit by at least 50 comment spams per day.

Sigh.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

I can see for miles and miles

The drive from League City to Conroe usually takes about an hour and a half. Our four-car caravan left Gavin and Jen's house at 2:15 yesterday afternoon. We arrived at Gavin's parents' house at 8:40 last night.

This hurricane evacuation thing sucks. ;)

Traffic was unbelievably bad as we took Beltway 8 around the east side of town and then Highway 59 north to FM 1314 and then to Conroe. As bad as it was, it sounds like I-45 was even worse so I'm glad we didn't try that route.

In retrospect, it didn't feel like we spent 6.5 hours in the car. Something about knowing that everyone was in the same boat, so to speak. It was hard to get annoyed with traffic when you know everyone's just trying to do the same thing, and get to the same places. Sort of a "we're all in it together" feeling.

The "good" news is that while Rita has now become the 3rd strongest hurricane on record, the forecasted track has continued to move northeast. Landfall is currently predicted to be slightly east of Galveston, which is better for us than slightly west. Of course, it could change. And with traffic the way it is, and the storm as strong as it is, I'm glad we chose to leave yesterday. Best case, we did all this for nothing. I can live with that!!

Gavin's parents are taking great care of us. In that sense, hurricane evacuation will be the best thing that happened to me all month! ;) We're eating great, we've got enough ice cream to last a week, and hey -- internet! We are only in Conroe, though. If Rita comes ashore anywhere around Galveston, we will get a lot of wind and rain up here, and probably lose power as well. No threat of storm surge, though, and that's why we came here.

We've tossed around the idea of moving farther north, as even Montgomery County (where we are) is under voluntary evacuation, but I really think we'll be good enough here -- and with the way traffic is, it's probably better to stay put. Everyone is completely freaking out in these post-Katrina days, so the area is more of a madhouse than it would be if Katrina hadn't happened.

JSC's webpage won't even load, so I'm assuming that means that the servers were shut down and work is officially closed. Good to know.

My apartment when I left looked as if I'd just moved in. All my stuff is in the bathroom (the only room with no windows), and the only things left in the bedroom and living room are furniture. Best case, the hurricane doesn't do any damage and I have a really good excuse to clean my apartment!!

I realized as I packed up yesterday morning that though I am a pack rat, and though I have a ton of stuff, most of it actually is replaceable. That was comforting. The irreplacable things -- old photo albums, my t-shirt quilt, computer harddrives with all my stuff on them -- are with me here.

So, we're all just chillin' in Conroe for the moment. The house occupants include:

• 7 people (Mike, Meg, Gavin, Jen, Cari, Becca and me)
• 4 dogs (Roxy, Zoya, Apache and Bennet)
• 2 cats (Shmall along with Tang, who belongs to Kennda who is in Spain)
• 1 bird (Ollie, belongs to Nick who is in Lebanon)
• 1 fish (my betta, Voldemort)

It felt sort of dumb to bring the fish along, but I didn't want him to starve.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well, Webster (my suburb) is

Well, Webster (my suburb) is supposed to issue mandatory evacuation orders at 6:00 tonight. So, I'll be gone by then.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well, it's semi-official -- my

Well, it's semi-official -- my area of town, Webster, has been placed under a voluntary evacuation order, with mandatory evacuation to follow at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I'm about ready to go. A few more things to put in my car...photo albums, my computer, a sleeping bag.

I really really that we're getting spun up for what will turn out to be a bit of wind and rain. It's not looking like it so far though.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well crap. It's now a

Well crap. It's now a Category 4, with a chance of becoming a Cat 5. It's still supposedly headed a bit far enough south that it's not the absolute worst-case scenario. I'm still getting the heck outta dodge though.

And to make things worse, the temperature today will be almost a record high. 97 degrees.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

I've taken out a couple

I've taken out a couple things on the sidebar, hopefully temporarily, as I try to track down the source of the popups. Let me know if you are still seeing it.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

run baby run

Ok, Hurricane Rita is starting to freak me out. Between 6:00 tomorrow night and 12:00 (noon) on Thursday, mandatory evacuations will be issued for all of Galveston County. I'm in Harris County, but am in the evacuation zone for Category 3 and above, so I'm planning on going as well.

Current plan is to head towards Gavin's parents' house, leaving late tomorrow night. Work is open tomorrow and I'll be here for at least the morning. Updates as things progress...

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

In other news, Hurricane Rita

In other news, Hurricane Rita is still making us nervous here in Clear Lake. The track has moved slightly southward (which is good) but we're still on the bad side. If it doesn't move drastically today (and it probably won't), tonight I get to do the fun task of making an easily-picked-up-and-taken-with-me hurricane box filled with fun things like insurance paperwork and important documents! Whee!

Go away Rita.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

I got out of class

I got out of class an hour early last night (Side note -- a few students, including me, got figuratively slapped on the hands for using an technique on my last project, tracing a photo, that had not been taught yet. Are you kidding me? I'm not allowed to figure out how to do something on my own to make my homework assignment come out like I wanted it to be? Gimme a break.) so I had time to go for another run.

I ran my extremely boring 3.1-mile route back and forth on the street in front of my apartment complex. The route consists of back and forth on the 0.5-mile long street. My apartment complex is located about 0.2 miles down it, so I can break it up into out-and-back sections of 0.4 and 0.6 miles. I run 0.6-0.4-0.6-0.4-0.6 and then the path from my door to the complex entrance and back is another 0.5. EXTREMELY repetitive and boring. But it's better than nothing.

After Sunday's crappy run, and after reading Jen's account of her 12-miler, I decided to do a run-walk sequence last night. I ran for 9 minutes, and walked for 1 minute. I did that three times, then ran the rest of the way home to finish the 5K in 37:02, average heart rate of 176. Even slower than Sunday's run. How pathetic.

However, despite the extremely depressing slower time, I felt a bit better about things thanks to all the encouraging comments I got yesterday. Right now I'm out of shape, it's still pretty hot and humid outside, I haven't been eating particularly well either, and I don't get enough sleep. There are a lot of factors conspiring against any decent run performances at the moment, and I'm just going to have to work through them.

Monday, September 19, 2005

So Tropical Storm (soon to

So Tropical Storm (soon to be Hurricane) Rita appears to be taking direct aim at Houston. Of course it's still 5 days out, so hopefully it will turn, but in this post-Katrina world, everyone is a bit antsy. I've already started to think about what I'll pack up and take with me if I have to evacuate...

Monday, September 19, 2005

The other note from this

The other note from this weekend is that the Astros swept the Brewers! Woo! We went to the game on Friday night and saw Jeff Bagwell single in the winning run -- after months of surgery, rehab, and not playing, that had to feel good for him.

Now, with apologies to those Pittsburgh fans, here's hoping the Astros can grab 3-4 more wins from the Pirates this week!

Monday, September 19, 2005

I ran yesterday. I haven't

I ran yesterday.

I haven't admitted it, really, but yesterday as I ran, I finally realized that I am currently at the lowest point of my entire 3.5-year running "life" and it's really damn depressing.

I ran 3.1 miles around and around my apartment complex yesterday, and it took me 36:22 (average heart rate of 180). ~13:10 for the first 1.1 miles, 11:50 for the second mile, and 11:22 for the last mile. That's longer than it took to run my first-ever 5K race in 2002. That's longer than it's taken me to run any 5K race, ever.

I've been saying that this summer is just like last summer, that I haven't been running because it's so hot, that I've been making up for it in other ways. But that's not true. I haven't been running and I haven't been doing anything else. No biking. No swimming. Just sitting on my butt each evening.

I had another soccer game on Saturday morning and by the second half, I couldn't run anymore. I could jog weakly after the ball, but I couldn't turn on any sprint speed. It was really hot, to be sure, but I still had zero energy.

I don't know why this happened. I could say I got burned out after the marathon, and I think I did. I could say that I've been hoping my knee will get better with a break from running, and I have. But mostly I just haven't been running. Because I just haven't felt like it. At the same time that I've really started to get to know a lot of other people in the Houston running community (through blogs and other ways), I've essentially stopped running. It makes no sense.

I hate this. I hate that I am back to basically zero fitness a mere 9 months after running a marathon. I hate that I've fallen far enough that it'll take me at least a month, a painful month, to get back to the point where running isn't annoying.

I hate that after I ran 3.1 miles last night, my legs felt tired and sore. And this morning, when I got out of bed, my knees ached. Not the left one, which I hurt years ago, or the right one, that is still complaining from the mystery bump on my kneecap, but both of them.

Sigh.

Sigh sigh sigh.

By October 16, I must be ready to run 10K as part of the Houston 20K relay. I'm running with Cassie, who I hope doesn't mind that I'll be lucky to finish my half in 1:10!

Sunday, September 18, 2005

I finally got around to

I finally got around to posting my photos from the Ballunar Festival, if you're interested.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

There's something people should know

There's something people should know about me. I have this thing, a personality trait, if you will. I do not like to let something lie when I know I'm right. And the stupid part is that I'm not talking big issues. I'm talking little nitty-gritty issues that don't really matter.

Tonight after watching Crash over at Matt's, we somehow got into a quick debate about an actress in the movie Traffic. The room said "it's Julia Stiles." I said "no it's not, it's a girl who looks a lot like Julia Stiles." The room insisted, "no, it's Julia Stiles. Look, here's the box with a tiny picture of her. See? Julia Stiles."

"No," I said. "It's the girl that looks like her."

At this point everyone looked at me laughing, and became extremely insistent that they had seen something about it on TV and it was definitely Julia Stiles. "The girl who looks like Julia Stiles?" they asked laughingly. "Yes," I said. "Her name is Erika something. Erika Christian, or Christianson, something like that." But alas, I could not convince anyone of this.

At that point, since I haven't actually seen Traffic, I decided to just let the debate die, even thought I was 100% certain it was not, in fact, Julia Stiles.

So I came home. And I wasn't going to look it up, I really wasn't, but I just couldn't help it! See, I have this thing, as I said, that if I'm sure I'm right, I can't let it die! So I looked it up.

I was right. It's not Julia Stiles. It's Erika Christensen. Who looks a lot like Julia Stiles. Look it up.

God, I'm so neurotic and petty and an ex-Entertainment Editor.

But right!

Saturday, September 17, 2005

No luck on getting rid

No luck on getting rid of the popup yet. I have no clue why it's happening, and since most people's popup blocker seems to be catching it, I'm not ready to take the one step that I'm guessing would get rid of it -- wiping all content, reinstalling Movable Type, and re-importing all the data.

Sigh.

I have to say, though, that I'm very amused that the previous entry has garnered by far the most comments of any entry ever on my blog. Obviously people have strong feelings about popups!

Friday, September 16, 2005

Ok, as Nancy alluded to

Ok, as Nancy alluded to in the comments of the previous entry, I just loaded my blog and got a pop up ad. Not for poker, but for some other crap. Not in a separate window, but right there in the same window covering up my blog.

NOT. COOL.

I must check into it. If anyone else is seeing this, let me know. Also, if anyone else knows what might be causing it, let me know.

Friday, September 16, 2005

We lost our softball game

We lost our softball game last night by one lousy run (I was the tying run and was stranded on 2nd base), but I had the best game I've had in ages. I went 3-for-4 and was on base each time. I hit into one fielder's choice, but ironically that was the time I ended up scoring a run. I also made a catch in the outfield. Woo!

I'm headed to Minute Maid Park again tonight for my second Astros game this week. After worrying me with two quick losses to the Marlins, they won the last two on the strength of Clemens and Pettitte and are now a half game ahead of the Phillies and Marlins for the Wild Card lead.

This race is really going to go down to the wire, I think, and probably won't be decided until the last day of the season! The Astros have a decent schedule left to play, with 3 against the Brewers, 4 against the Pirates, 7 against the Cubs, and 2 against the Cardinals. The Cards, of course, are the tough part. I think the 'Stros should be able to emerge with more wins than losses against all the others. It's just a guess, but if they can go 10-6 or better in the last 16 games, I think that would do it...

While the Astros battle the NL Central, the Marlins and Phillies have slightly harder schedules. Both face the NL East-leading Braves again, as well as the not-dead-yet Nationals, and this weekend they actually play each other -- I don't expect either one to sweep the three-game series, so hopefully their wins will sorta cancel out.

Come on Astros! I wanna go to more postseason games! (Though if the Astros can hang on and win the Wild Card, the first round will be exactly the same as last year -- playing the Braves. And if they win that -- likely playing the Cardinals, who I expect to feast on the sub-.500 NL West winner.)

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Last night was going to

Last night was going to be my first run since a month ago when I was in San Francisco and ran along the Embarcadero. I brought my running clothes and shoes to work, and shortly after 6:00 I headed over to Gilruth. That's when I discovered that the trail is closed. Closed! As in, not open for running.

I vaguely remember reading about this in one of the daily "news" emails that we get at work. I think they're repaving, or re-asphalting the trails. This is good, as they definitely need resurfacing to smooth out a lot of cracks and bumps and pits that have developed over the years. But it meant that my carefully devised plan to run before I got home, so that I couldn't get home and talk myself out of it, was ruined!

Drat.

I drove home, planning to run from my apartment, but I just couldn't get into it. I have grown to like running from my apartment less and less, because it basically involves running back and forth on the half mile street out front since both ends of that street connect to the very busy and sidewalk-less El Camino Real (which then connects to the very busy and partially sidewalk-less NASA Parkway). Very boring.

So I went to the weight room and did 35 minutes on the elliptical machine while I watched TV. About 2.3 miles total (my mileage is always lower on the elliptical) and an average heart rate of 167.

Better than nothing, right?

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I got tagged by Becca.

I got tagged by Becca.

7 things I plan to do before I die:
* Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
* Run another marathon
* Have something "significantly" published
* Get married (I hope, anyway)
* See Mt. Everest
* Visit all 30 baseball parks (16 down, 14 to go)
* Make a major career change

7 things I can do:
* Read an entire US road atlas in one sitting and not get bored
* Play the flute
* Make dinner entirely out of canned foods (thanks Dad)
* Wait patiently to leave an airplane (instead of crowding the aisle as soon as the plane stops moving)
* Sing along to REM's "It's The End of the World As We Know It"
* Roll my tongue
* Sit in front of a computer for 10 hours straight working on photos or websites

7 things I cannot do:
* Sit in front of a computer for 2 hours straight working on trajectory sims
* Write poetry
* Resist upgrading from a perfectly good piece of technology to the latest and greatest
* Run strong when it's hot outside
* Give blood without almost fainting
* Throw a ball farther than ~40 feet
* Keep plants alive

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:
* Sense of humor
* Intelligence
* Sarcasm and/or wit
* Spontaneity
* Geekiness/dorkiness
* Lanky/skinny frame (I don't like muscle-heads)
* Independence

7 things I say most often:
* Dude.
* Rock.
* Anyway...
* Does it have lots of explosions and shiny things?
* Enough about that, let's talk about pumas.
* What?
* If you do that, I'll kick you.

7 celebrity crushes:
* Lance Armstrong
* Adam Everett
* the head of my directorate at work (purely a platonic crush)
*
*
*
* ...I guess I don't have seven.

7 people I want to do this:
* Becca already tagged a bunch of people, so I'll just say anyone who wants to. Katie will probably do it. Laurie or Cassie? Or Carter, Christina, or Chris, though I'm not sure many of them are the meme type.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

I realized last night, in

I realized last night, in the middle of my third class as a UHCL graduate student, that I am an educational snob.

I don't like this.

I keep on walking into UHCL marvelling at all the students. I wonder, do they actually all take classes here? Why? It's just UHCL, a community college. Somewhere in my brain, I think I held off on taking classes at UHCL for a long time because some part of me considered it an inferior school.

My professor talks a lot about competing for jobs in the industry, and about how UHCL does it differently than UH downtown, and in my brain his comments are interpreted as trying to defend UHCL's puny program, when in actuality I'm sure he's just trying to point out the differences. The program's "puny-ness" is entirely in my head, of course.

Last night I suddenly became aware of all those thoughts and realized what it meant. I am an educational snob. I've always said that the school doesn't matter; it's what you learn and how you apply it. Apparently I have not been doing as I say. So, in addition to doing all my graphic design homework this fall, I am also going to work on going to campus without my nose figuratively stuck up in the air.

Class went well. I shouldn't have been worried about how good or bad my text-based picture was (to see it, go back a few entries). Mine was one of the best 3 or 4 in the class of 20, and I got some nice compliments and helpful critiques on it. A lot of people had really great ideas but were stymied by their lack of knowledge on the ins and outs of Illustrator. They had a great idea in their head, but lacked the technical knowledge of the software to turn it into reality. In that sense, I realized that I'm very lucky to have one of those brains that picks up and processes new software tools fairly quickly. I'd never used Illustrator before a month ago, but it's intuitive enough to me that I was able to do what I wanted.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Apologies to anyone who couldn't

Apologies to anyone who couldn't view my site yesterday afternoon and evening. My hosting company was hit by the power outages in Los Angeles; I wonder how long it took for that poor worker to get canned. Anyway, my host has a few UPSs and generators in their building (which is a data center for lots of things), but when the power went out, it turns out that the generators were overloaded by all the stuff in the building (belonging to my company and other companies) and so the generators went into safe mode and shut down. Thus, no website. It finally came back up for good around midnight last night.

While reading the status page and blog for my hosting company to figure out what was going on, I saw a lot of bitching and moaning from other people who host their sites with Dreamhost. A lot of complaints about lack of email, a lot of whining about why there was no backup power supply to the power supply, and even more complaints about the lack of status updates (which I totally forgive because, you know, if they're writing status updates that means they're not working on the problem). I have to say, I thought it was a lot of complaining about nothing. Sure, it was inconvenient to have everything go down, but good lord people -- Dreamhost gives us great hosting packages and great service for an even greater price. I've been with them for 2 years and this is the first time I've ever had extended downtime; my old company was down at least once a week. You get what you pay for, and with Dreamhost, you get far more than what you pay for.

I still love you, Dreamhost!

Monday, September 12, 2005

I've been thinking of joining

I've been thinking of joining a running club. I'm already a member of HARRA, but as I get to know some other area runners (both online through the community of running blogs and in person), I've been thinking of joining one of their groups. The obvious choice seems to be the Houston Striders since I am helping them with a webpage and since their list of members already includes Jon, Cassie, Jen, Holden, Vic, and Jessica.

(I haven't met any of them in person but feel like I know them anyway. I have become one of those people with "online friends." A bit freaky and dorky. But I have a feeling I'll be meeting them all soon!)

Anyway, decisions, decisions. I am in desperate need of some motivation to get running regularly again, and a club might be the way to go. My concern with the Striders is that they all seem to be pretty far away from me down here in Clear Lake. This is the problem with living in the 'burbs a long way from Houston's best running locale -- Memorial Park. It'd take me at least half an hour just to get there to meet anybody for a run. :(

Monday, September 12, 2005

Ah, another weekend that was

Ah, another weekend that was over too soon. I stayed in on Friday night to chill and recover from a hectic week of traveling and work, and to go to bed early because I had to get up at 5 a.m. Saturday to drive to Lake Jackson to shoot a relay triathlon.

I had never seen a relay triathlon before, and it was pretty interesting. There is a swim, bike, and two run segments, and it's done in the following order: swim, run, run, bike. I don't quite understand why the order is changed (from the standard swim-bike-run), nor do I understand why there are two running segments but still only one swim and one bike. It seems to me that a relay triathlon should just be 3 people doing the standard three segments. But it was still interesting, and fun to shoot.

I didn't even mind driving to Lake Jackson -- it's only an hour and change from Clear Lake, and I enjoyed getting out of the city and into the Texas countryside. The only downer was that it rained on and off all morning, so I was pretty damp by the time I climbed back into the car to come home. I did manage to protect my camera from the elements by creating a makeshift camera rain jacket out of a plastic bag that had been spending time in my trunk. (Or whatever you call the back of an Xterra. It's not really a trunk, I guess.) Maybe it's time to order a "real" rain cover for my camera. I'm probably lucky I made it this long without having to shoot a race in the rain.

After getting home and taking a 2-hour nap (and waking up extremely groggy -- this is why I am anti-nap), I headed to our first Gilruth soccer game of the season in which we had no subs, played in the rain, and got completely slaughtered by the best team in the league. Sigh. I am really out of shape for soccer. It's good to be playing again but frustrating to know that it'll be at least a month or two before I really get back in game shape.

Saturday night Jo was in town so we all went to dinner at Mely's to hear her stories of flight attendent training and waiting to be called for duty. It was good to see her. After that I went down the road to Chris's to watch the second half of the UT-OSU game with the guys (Chris, Edgar, Ron, Randy, Phil, Phil's girlfriend Heather, and Nacho). Since UT won, the mood was happy at the end of the game.

I spent almost all of yesterday watching baseball and working on homework for my graphic design class. Our typographic picture is due today, and here's what I finally came up with: my running shoe made out of running-related words and sentences.

I think it came out pretty well. I'm nervous because I'm not sure if it's exactly what the professor was looking for. Well, scratch that, I know it fits the assignment, but I guess I'm just not confident in how "good" it is. I like it, but then again, I have no experience taking this kind of class. Tonight we will all talk for a couple minutes about why we chose to do what we did, and how we did it, so I guess I'll see what everyone else came up with and figure out whether mine is indeed good or not!

(Side note: I just learned an interesting fact about the internet. My blog was not displaying the picture when it was in CMYK color. I had to convert to RGB. I did not know that.)

And finally, if you like my photoblog, check out Scene From My Life, where I'm the featured photographer this week.

Monday, September 12, 2005

I just got around to

I just got around to watching a Daily Show from last week, and this cracked me up: an alphabetical list of "Major Disasters of Bush Administration" that the show suggests the President is following, in order:

Abu Graib
Bin Laden
Chalabi
Deficit
Enron
Failure to Find WMDs
Halliburton
Iraq
John Bolton
Katrina
Locusts
Mars Attacks
North Korea
Osama and Jenna
Pregnancy: Osama and Jenna
Queer Revolt
Rodents of Unusual Size
Syrian War
Tigers
Unicyclists, Nuclear
Voldemort
WWIII
X-Rated Tape: Osama and Jenna
Yam Shortage
Zero People Left on Earth

Each had little check boxes next to them. He's up to K...

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Vote for Buzz!

Vote for Buzz!

Friday, September 09, 2005

Well, my sucky day turned

Well, my sucky day turned around in some pleasant and unexpected ways. Crossing my fingers that the changes stick.

Friday, September 09, 2005

It never fails. I go

It never fails.

I go months without anything of major, un-reschedule-able importance on my calendar, and then two things are planned right on top of each other.

This SUCKS. Actually it more than sucks. I just can't come up with a better word.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Photos from this past weekend

Photos from this past weekend are up. A trip report will come eventually, hopefully this weekend.

And yes, the photos in that gallery have already been through one round of "weeding out" for those of you with short attention spans. Fact is, I take a lot of photos. Deal with it. :)

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Hey, at least in the

Hey, at least in the middle of disaster, we can still make fun of Houston. Though funny, I also find it a bit in bad taste.

The Onion: Refugees Moved From Sewage-Contaminated Superdome To Hellhole Of Houston

HOUSTON—Evacuees from the overheated, filth-encrusted wreckage of the New Orleans Superdome were bussed to the humid, 110-degree August heat and polluted air of Houston last week, in a move that many are resisting. "Please, God, not Houston. Anyplace but Houston," said one woman, taking shelter under an overpass. "The food there is awful, and the weather is miserable. And the traffic—it's like some engineer was making a sick joke." Authorities apologized for transporting survivors to a city "barely better in any respect," but said the blistering-hot, oil-soaked Texas city was in fact slightly better, and that casualties due to gunfire would be no worse.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Ever get back from a

Ever get back from a great vacation where you were completely out of touch with television, internet, and most radio stations and when you reconnect, it seems like the whole world is falling apart? Me too.

New Orleans is a wasteland. The Gulf Coast is ripped to shreds. The Chief Justice died. A freak accident in Europe broke the cable on a gondola killing some of the passengers. A race car rammed into one of its pit crew. Gas prices climb and climb.

My air conditioning is on the fritz. As far as I can tell, it only cuts on once the apartment has surpassed about 87 degrees. Thankfully the humidity subsided sometime between when I left for the Pacific Northwest and when I returned, so with the windows open and my ceiling fans on, it's actually not bad. I'm just glad it didn't break in July!

The A/C issue follows a repeatedly broken garbage disposal (that they finally replaced instead of just fixing) and a repeatedly leaky roof (that they also appear to have finally fixed as evidenced by the bits of ceiling insulation I found all over my floor when I got back from vacation). Things break in threes, I guess.

I've got a long list of things to take care of in the next week or so. The triathlon in Lafayette, Louisiana that I was supposed to shoot this weekend with Karen was cancelled in the aftermath of the hurricane, so I have my weekend back. I'll be spending it doing homework, since I obviously didn't get any of it done while I was out of town. (Laptops are not good items to carry into the backcountry, go figure, heh.) I've got photos to print and mail, homework to do, and the RRCA Houston 2006 website templates to finish so that Jon and I can start adding content. I've got to start running regularly again so that I can do the 20K relay with Cassie.

Work is also busy. I'm trying to finalize a point design with Gavin, but can't log into the Langley servers this morning because they are moving, and someone ignored the "DO NOT TOUCH, DO NOT MOVE" sign on the machine that has all the password files, so the servers aren't recognizing my login. I am also starting my training for a flight control position, which is rather exciting! I have work on the Mars neural network to finish up as well.

AND, most exciting of all, I found out when I came back to work yesterday that I will be travelling to JPL in a week and a half for a meeting of young employees -- a meet-'n-greet, sharing information, making connections, discussing how to work together in the future type trip. There is a fairly large contingent going from JSC, including George and either Rich or Gavin, and Ron, and a bunch of others I don't know. I am very excited. I've never been out there because it's always Gavin that gets to go to JPL for the Mars meetings. Finally I get to go! (Even if it's for a different purpose.) I actually think I will have more to contribute to this meeting than I would to a technical meeting anyway.

This slightly makes up for the fact that I don't get to go to the IAASS conference in Nice at the end of October, despite the fact that I am writing a paper for it.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

I'm catching up on blogs

I'm catching up on blogs and noticed Cassie tagged me with this one:

1) How many songs are on your iPod?
2200

2) What's your most played song?
Jimmy Eat World, "The World You Love." That's not what I would have guessed. Good song though.

3) List Your Three Favorite iPod songs:
Currently, "Ohio (Come Back to Texas)" by Bowling for Soup, "Wordplay" by Jason Mraz, and "Caught Up" by Usher. Must stress that that's just currently. :)

4) What's your least favorite song?
Something from a musical. I have a bunch of musicals on there but don't like to listen to them at work, which is where I usually listen to my iPod.

5) Tag three people:
I dunno. Becca has an iPod, I'll tag her. I don't know who else.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

I forgot to mention one

I forgot to mention one of the cooler moments of the trip. As we were all standing around on Sunday night starting to shiver but putting off going into the tents because it wasn't even 8:30, I interrupted conversation with "look, a satellite!" as I spotted a moving, unblinking point of light rising above the mountain top.

We watched as it grew brighter and brighter and it was soon apparent that this was no ordinary satellite. It was none other than the International Space Station, of course. There's nothing else that would have appeared as bright as it passed over.

"The ironic thing," Jen the FDO said, "is that this is the first time I've ever seen the station."

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Monday morning: Yesterday morning: This

Monday morning:

Yesterday morning:

This morning:

Farewell Houston, I am moving to Seattle.

Sigh. We had a wonderful weekend traipsing around Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and Olympic National Park, despite the fact that we seemed to experience two of the small handful of rainy days they have out there this time of year. It was gorgeous in Seattle on Thursday for the baseball game and hanging out -- you could see Mt. Rainier clearly in the distance. But as luck would have it, it was cloudy and misty such that I could only see glimpses of the mountain the next day when we were actually hiking on it. (To be fair, the sun was out in spurts earlier -- we just arrived at the top of Skyline Trail moments too late.)

Saturday was pleasant as we drove to Olympic, met Jen, and hiked into the backcountry. Sunday was again cloudy, cold, and rainy but we hiked to the top of a pass anyway and had a decent view of the valley and some glaciers. Monday dawned clear and cold (I was not fully prepared for waking up to frost on Monday morning!) and it was sunny again for our hike out. In a departure from our norm, this backpacking trip was easy going in (descending) and hard going out. To get back to the car we had to climb more than 1500 feet over about 5 miles, which doesn't sound like all that much until you learn that the first 2+ miles are downhill, leaving only a little more than 2 miles for the climbing. These weren't just switchbacks -- there are steep switchbacks. We hiked out on some of the steepest trail I've ever climbed, and made it back to the car in about four hours.

Here's the route we did at Olympic. Yellow is the dirt road we drove along to get to the trailhead (~6100 ft). Blue is the hike in and down to the valley and Moose Lake (~4500 ft), red is the dayhike up to Grand Pass (~6300 ft) and back, and green is the hike back out.

We said farewell to Jen at Hurricane Ridge and headed out to the coast -- from glaciated mountains to the Pacific Ocean in two short hours! We watched sunset before heading to a hotel for the night (a change of plans once we realized it'd be very nice, for us and for other travellers, if we showered before having to fly home). Yesterday morning we hiked along the beach to Hole-In-The-Wall before piling back in the car for the lazy drive back to Seattle. We'd hoped to catch the ferry across Puget Sound, but ended up driving back around through Tacoma because of worries that taking the ferry would be cutting it close on arriving at the airport in time for our flight.

(If you need proof of how much of a dork I am, just know that crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge -- twice! -- was one of the highlights of my trip. If you don't know why, then be relieved because you are either 1) not as much of a dork as me or 2) never took high school physics. If you want to be a dork, here's why I love the bridge.)

We got back late last night, tired and not wanting to return to the humidity. I got home to find that my air conditioning, which had been running when I walked in the door, stopped running when I turned the temperature down from 80 degrees. I couldn't make it go, so I slept in a warm apartment all night. Booo. This morning, it suddenly turned on again without any input from me. I am mystified.

Anyway, I'm back and have a zillion pictures and a full trip report to come soon.