Trains

Reading about the California battle over high speed rail made me search the internets and get angry again at the shortsightedness of Wisconsin's leadership in declining their funding.  A high speed line between Duluth, the Twin Cities, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, and points beyond is so badly needed, especially in winter.  Megabus is great, but slow and in bus vs. train, trains win hands down.  Pictures of Europe make me even more wistful.

Mars Mission Is a Go

 NASA sent its rover Curiosity out to look for organic compounds on Mars.  'Bout time...

Freakonomics Friday

Going to work this morning the light rail was filled with sleepy teenagers with full shopping bags coming home from the Mall of America, and going home it was newly awakened teenagers heading there.  And a few middle-aged people who also had the apparently requisite Abercrombie bare-chested man and Ho_er(?) bareass kissing couple bags.  I felt like I was back in the late 80s Castro, except so not.

Turkey day

I managed to knock 6 minutes off my 10k time over the last year, with six months off running.  Not bad.  Tired now.

Settling in for winter

Somehow I managed to get my yardwork, gutters, tree trimming, and last minute leaf cleanup from that one damn lazy tree done before the first snow.  I am now recovering from a dehydration headache after the first snow run of the season.  Should have drunk more water yesterday, but it was so cold...  6.5 miles in falling snow with the GF and running dog, who was very happy in her little green coat. 

Hopefully we are ready for the turkey day 10k.  I did a very steep Nob Hill run in SF last weekend that should have made my legs into steel rods, since they did not fall off...

Now I am contemplating new goals, the original plan being my first 10 mile race.in April.  But this book makes a half seem so doable in just 16 weeks (I can make you a man...  Or not.)  But then there is the lure of cross country skiing.  And I still haven't figured out just what my brain wants to work on writing, though it has been forcing me to obsess about punk, insane asylums, and AIDS activist history with some promise of usefulness in this endeavor at some point.  The plan is to get back into writing before work now that there is no daylight before or after work to entice me to take up that time, on non-running days.  Week One...

I have been plowing through research books and am ready for a good read.  Everyone has been recommending Karen Lord's fantasy novel and it was in at the library - on deck.

That Other SF

Mmmm...  The food is still good.  The Mission is really, um, changed.  Yet not.  The Sutro Baths are more covered in water and grass, and the Park Service has blocked off all the fun dangerous stairs and caves and cliff edges.  It makes me glad I lived there when I did.

Oh my

Harry, Harry Potter

OK, so I wasn't much for the books, but the movies have been surprisingly entertaining.  The final installment was properly grim and did not dwell in cheesy emotional moments like the last couple films.  At the $2 theater, too, so hey, it was a dashing success.  Go Harry.

Uplifting reading of the day

I bet he swore a lot, though.

Relaxing after my long run, which went ok, if very slow, after a week of for foot and ankle pain, some overdue shoe shopping, a slow short run and a memorial semi-kamikaze run with a pack of crazy runner types.  That one started out too fast and ended up too slow, as I accompanied the friend who was not up to the mileage or the original big dogs' pace...

As usual, I am reading at least four things at once, including a vegan cookbook which actually has a few things I had not considered  in terms of food combinations, and some books about foot care from the 70s with great drawings of dudes with bouncy hair and long 'staches in tiny shorts and singlets and tube socks. 

I just finished Embassytown by China Mieville, and it actually finished strong and made sense, but not too much sense.  A very thought-filled and -provoking book.  People who read a lot of linguistics or Joseph Campbell type stuff about the stages or development of consciousness should find it interesting.

Anyway, back to the real learning.

Cool

From http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/CylonOLantern

After Halloween

Early this cold a.m. the leaves were falling so fast, in the quiet dark it sounded like lots of little people running around.  Yet the street was empty.  A little extra chill...

Embassytown got really weird, but then it started to make more sense and got really intersting.  Thirty pages from the end, that bodes well for a strong finish.