Unwanted Commentary

Fucking awesome movie about a fucking awesome subject. The movie covers Ghengis Khan's early life, from his childhood to the pivotal battle that sealed his...uh...Khanship(?). Superbly well done, acting, video, sound, pacing, just so very good. If I had any negatives to say about it, it would be that the story jumps in time a lot, and that gets a little confusing at times, but if you were paying attention you shouldn't have too big a problem with that. A sad side-effect of this is that some of the things that *I* would have like to known got swept out, but I understand that most normal people don't care about the logistics of organizing an army, or how he came up with his tactics. But how did he equip his army, Mongolia was a pretty remote place back then, but the army looked pretty well equipped, armed and armored. Interestingly the opposing arm looks pretty rag tag, I wonder if this was done on purpose for historical reasons or to add to a sort of visual story telling hook. Or maybe something else entirely. Either way, both Mitzy and I enjoyed the film a lot, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Posted by Jeff at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Distance: 3 miles

Time: Don't know - about 38 minutes if I had to guess from the outside track clock at the gym.

Didn't do long run on Saturday, briefly thought about going on Sunday, but it didn't happen. Poo.

Did run Monday night, was going to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. I find that horribly boring, but figured a change would be nice, that and it's easy. Once I got to the gym I decided it didn't feel that hot outside, so I went and ran 6 laps around the 1/2 mile track they have out back. Lord that was dumb. It was hot, muggy and humid, I was literally soaked with sweat by the time I finished. The track is very curvy, and was very monotonous.

Posted by Jeff at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday

Distance: 3 Miles

Time: 35'09"50

Ran regular route down Junius and Worth.

Posted by Jeff at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

6-18-08
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 57'38"26

Yay! A fairly cool morning in which to run, though it was still muggy, humid. Yes.

If you have not yet tried the SPORE Creature Creator yet, then you simply must.

Posted by Jeff at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great, classic film. I've watched this movie before in bits and pieces, but never all at once from start to finish, it was worth the effort. I had never known the story for the film, though I'd watched a documentary on the building of the Burmese railroad before, so I knew the film was based somewhat on historical fact. Honestly, though, it isn't. As the film moved along I started to realize that the prisoner conditions were too good, the Japanese military far to lenient, and the British soldiers far too willing to help for the film to wholly based on fact. Not to take away from the film, it's just a movie after all, based on a book. Read the Wikipedia articles about the Burma railroad though, it really is a very moving and cruel piece of history.

Posted by Jeff at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

6-16-08

Morning

Distance: 3 Miles

Time: 36'58"07

Ran a new route that Mitzy helped me create. It's through one of the Lakewood neighborhoods down Lakewood Blvd., I ran from Gaston down to the lake close to Tee Pee Hill. Had two substantial hills, and I'm believing this is beneficial. It's a beautiful area to run through, a wide boulevard with large home on either side, plus they have their sprinklers on. I could run down the side walk and get a good misting. This helps as the muggy-ness was substantial this morning.

Posted by Jeff at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I completed my first week of Oracle SQL class. All went well, got everything submitted on time, attended the "live classroom" event on Tuesday (missed tequila tasting, grrr).

As of a few minutes ago I peformed my first SQL script query ever!

SELECT *
FROM customers;

Go me!

Posted by Jeff at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday 6-14-08

Distance: 7 miles

Time: 1:28.01 (1 hour 28 mintues)

Milestone for a few reasons: new longest time run and longest distance. Also, first time stopping, at about mile 3, to eat "goop" and drink water from the fountain. I was dubious about doing this, but Mitzy assured me it was a good idea and I believe it was. Ran in the morning at White Rock and I felt good about the whole length of the run. Mitzy filmed with the camera near the end and I admit I'm a little discouraged seeing how slow I really am going. Ha! I felt like I was moving pretty good. Very warm, better than my previous evening run though, really must make every effort to do it in the mornings.

Went to Waco for Father's Day, talked Mitzy into going with as she didn't initially want to go. I'm glad she went and everyone was glad she came as well. We met the crew, plus Uncle Randy and Aunt Shirley, Tootsie and Aunt Cindy at Parks Family Buffet, yay! I paid as way of treating for Mitzy and Mom's birthdays, plus Mom's day and Dad's day. :-D I'm well aware that I'm terrible, you need not remind me.

Posted by Jeff at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday 6-12-08

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 46'42"69

Ran in the evening at White Rock Lake. Like running by the lake, but even at 8:30 it was still so warm and muggy that much of my plotted course was like a cook oven. Still, happy with the effor and time.

Posted by Jeff at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday

Distance: 0 miles

Time: 00"00'00

Missed this one, allergies flared up on Tuesday, and I didn't get up in the morning to run. I thought I'd do it in the evening, but ended up going to Gloria's, and after Margaritas running was out of the pregunta.

Posted by Jeff at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday

Distance: 3 miles

Time: 36'20"07

I'm beginning to suspect that the cool morning runs are over. For good. They have been replaced by muggy, warm morning runs. I can't say that I would put my stamp of approval on the transition. This morning was a good, strong run and since it was short I tried to focus on my form, particularly my arm motion. Mitzy always tells me that I'm doing it wrong, so I made a deliberate effort to keep my arms in the "L" position and to swing them properly, or use them properly, however you want to say it. It probably sounds silly, but I felt the effort was well worth it and the benefit was noticeable.

This is my last 3-4-3 mile week, my long run is 7 miles this Saturday and then next week it goes 3-5-3. It only gets better from here on out. :-)

Posted by Jeff at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday

Distance: 6 miles

Time: 1:10.20 (1 hour 10 minutes)

This was the farthest and longest I've ever run. Yippee. Warm, muggy morning, but a good breeze kept the heat from being unbearable. I ran at White Rock, Mitzy met me at the end so I didn't have to run out and back. There's something I like about running running straight out.

Posted by Jeff at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm starting my first Oracle class on Monday. It's an online class and I've never done it that way before, so I'm a little nervous about attending a non-corporeal classroom. I'm nervous and excited about the prospect and what all it may entail for my future. I had been waiting around since last summer for mi trabajo to send me somewhere, anywhere, for training. After eight months of being afraid to starting something on my own, only to have them finally make up their collective melon, I decided to go ahead and pursue this interest by myself. I did speak with the Powers That Be, so that I could have some reassurance that we were all on the same page, more-or-less. I got a distinct feeling that I had been forgotten about at the conclusion of that conversation, but yeah, "go do what you want".

Now I really have to show and prove that I want and, more importantly, can do this. My last attempt at schooling in a non-traditional format was less that successful, but then that was High School freshman algebra. Hopefully I've matured since then, though my real fear is that it isn't maturity I should worry about, it's my insatiable laziness. I think this will be a "break it or make it" time period for me, for quite some time I've been chafing at my current position wanting to move on to something bigger and better. Unfortunately, all that time I've been very comfortable and had to ponder the reality that perhaps this is all I'm cut out for, or at the very least, I'm in a good spot and shouldn't make things harder for myself. I guess at some point though you've got to go out and spread the wings a bit, and as a friend put it one time, "you just have to jump out of the boat and swim."

Posted by Jeff at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday

Distance: 3 Miles

Time: 37'08"72

Should have posted this yesterday, getting lazy I guess.

Posted by Jeff at 08:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watched this movie yesterday evening and was thoroughly impressed with it. It stars Johnny Depp, which is probably how I came upon it, but it was another one of those movies I put into the Netflix queue so long ago that I no longer remember why.

I would highly recommend the film, it was shot completely as black and white, but the visuals are fantastic, there's a lot of symbology going on, and as an added bonus the soundtrack was done by Neil Young. Superb. I had no idea as to what to expect on this one, so I watched it with a clean slate and let the film carry me along. I didn't get too wrapped up about the symbology or messages that others may like to dwell on, but the film had a very spiritual feel to it, and while I'm not familiar with the poetry of William Blake the inclusion of his verses through out the film was a great touch.

Posted by Jeff at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 47'24"09

Tough run this morning, I think the humidity is really making things difficult.

Posted by Jeff at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday

Distance: 3 miles

Time: 36'59"52

Humid, but some nice cool breezes. Not much interesting for this run, I was just pleased I got up and did it...there was a lot of tempation to let it slide to the afternoon, and if that happens the chances for actually getting the run in dimenish signifigantly.

Spent the weekend in Waco visiting the family. It was a nice visit, Mom cooked some killer chicken on the grill, even though she almost set the house on fire. We almost brought home a little 2 year old Chiuahua name Chloe, but turned back after deciding that the timing just wasn't right. I hated to hand her back over to my mom, but it felt like the right thing to do. She's a super cute and sweet little dog.

Posted by Jeff at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday

Distance: 5 miles

Time: 62'xx"xx (1 hour, 2 minutes)

I came up a little slower than last time, but I didn't push myself so hard on the last half mile like I did the first time in order to get in under 60 minutes. I feel this was a more honest, consistent attempt. By the time I was on the tail end of the run I was pretty worn out, the morning was getting muggier and hotter, so my energy had drained pretty fast. A satisfactory run I think. I should have been up to a 7 miler by this weekend, but after my mini-collapse in the middle of week 2 I felt I should do a bit of a reset. I'm looking forward to doing six miles this coming Saturday.

Posted by Jeff at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)