Running, Drinking, Tao, Pooh

How's that for a title?

Last night, I went out and did my pseduo-Galloway thing while I work on recovering. I dare not jinx it by saying too much, but I did get 2.5 miles in.

Don't forget, today is National Running Day!¹



I plan to get out there, dodging the lightning bolts that are supposed to be coming down this afternoon. Should make for an interesting time.

As far as Alky Tuesday goes, yes, I'll be keeping this theme going.. It appears to be reasonably successful, and I'm planning to mix more things in than just beer. (Next week is the construction of a good mint julep, for instance.. I have the pictures ready, even. :) ). I know a couple of you wanted a beer Thursday as well.. I'm not opposed to it, and I'll try it for a bit.. not sure how long my waistline and my wallet will handle it, but I'm willing to give it a go.

So.. on to TFH's 'Literary Wednesday'. In order to have a quality post for you, I took the time and finished my last 15 pages before work. Yes, I'm willing to do that for all of you. (yeah, ok, so I'd be willing to do any semi-reasonable thing before work, just to delay that)

Today's entry is...
The Tao of Pooh.



Laugh if you want, but this is probably the closest I'll get to what TFH intended for LW. This book was not only great, it was one of those books that gets you thinking and does something for you.

I'll preface this by saying.. I don't know a lot about Winnie the Pooh. Sure, I know who he is, and can pick him out in a crowd. But, I've never read the stories. Similarly, I don't know a lot about Taoism. It is a philosophy which intrigues me, though (and always has).

The book is written to use the two themes (Taoism and Winnie the Pooh) to explain each other. Now, you might say, that's just silly, and it can't work. But, it soooo does work.

The book is funny, cute, and really deep. To really take away everything from this book, I'll need to read it again (and probably will at some point). The book uses various excerpts from Pooh stories to explain Taoist concepts, and various extracts of Taoist texts to talk about the characters in the 100 acre wood.

It's written as the author talking with Pooh about different concepts, and then jumps into story fragments to back up the point. Truly a fascinating read. It's a quick read, but I think you'd need to read it multiple times to get everything out of it.

Not having read other Pooh stories, I was laughing while reading it. ²

Alright.. that's all.. ³

Don't forget to get out there and do some running today, everyone.. keep on rockin'!

---

¹ I didn't know it until I saw it on FB a week ago. I guess FB is good for something, after all. :)
² That didn't work out so well while proctoring a test, but, well, that's their problem. :P
³ I see why G does these footnote things.. They're pretty nifty and fun

LW and whatever else I can come up with

We'll start with my Literary Wednesday entry for today.....



War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells.

Now, it's not that this book moved me or was highly inspirational, it's just what I've last read (as with all of my LW entries).

This book was truly captivating. I saw the piece of crap they called a movie with Tom Cruise based on this book, and the book just blows it away. If you haven't seen the movie, don't. Read the book. Wells does such a good job in describing how the character feels, what he is going through, his confusion and amazement about what is going on. It's not a terribly deep book, but it is greatly entertaining. Well, I suppose you could go on that it is a deep book, with Darwinism and things like that. I really try not to get that involved with stories. It's hard to believe that this was written in 1898.


As far as running with my strap on (oh! and again!), it was.. different. I bought a strap that appears to have been designed for "below the knee" rather than above, as you would normally use for ITBS. Due to my uber-awesomely muscularly legs, it was a tight fit, but it did fit. I found that after about 3/4s of a mile, I'd need to stop and slide it up and re-adjust.

I *think* running was easier with it on, but I'm viewing this as a stopgap solution. I can't fart around with this forever. I'm going to stretch and do some rolling (of my leg, of course), and hope that gets it all fixed up. I wound up doing 2 miles and shutting it down. Today it's not too bad, so I'm "cautiously optimistic" about my running.



The whole stopping to readjust thing worked out well, because I got a little break too. I've also come to find that where my hamstring attaches to my azz is probably the crankiest part of my body right now, too. That whole 'Moons over my Hammy' of Denny's is the spot.


Lesse.. what else? Oh, I cleaned up part of the DVR by finishing off what was left of a TV series... The ol' 'Prison Break' show is no more. About fricken time, as it jumped the shark 3 seasons ago. :) Really, it would have been awesome as a mini-series, even a long mini-series. But nooooo... we had to go get the 'government conspiracy' plot line out.

Good series, interesting idea. The ending, well, it was OK. Not sure what I wanted, but they pretty much punted and wrapped everything up in a package in 10 minutes. Now, I'm down to 3 shows that I watch.

- Rescue Me
- Stargate (on hiatus, until the new series comes out)
- Doctor Who (also on hiatus)

That's it! I've been cutting back on my TV watching, and it's starting to pay off. I basically have a rule "no new shows", and as they drop off, I'm good to go.

Alright all.. you know the drill. Keep on rockin'

Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

So, just random miscellany today..

Went out for a run yesterday. My calves were pretty achy, my shins were pretty achy. The weather was great, though. I wound up stopping to stretch a couple of times, but managed 3.5 miles. I'm taking today off, or just doing the elliptical or something.

The weather. Holy cow. It was downright cold on Monday, in the high 30s. Looking at the weekend, they're predicting 83 the last I looked. What the hell?

I'm getting old. Unlike some people, it appears I no longer need ID to buy stuff in a liquor store. I went in the other day and made a decent purchase and was thoroughly disappointed that I wasn't carded. While I do go to liquor stores a lot, I'm not really monogamous in my store- I tend to hit different ones for different things. So, the hope that "oh, they know you" doesn't really apply.

I'll throw my first entry in for Literary Wednesday (wow, two tfh link loves in today's post).

This book isn't one that moved me or anything like that, it's just the book I just finished reading the other day. It is:



The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells. This book has been on my 'to read' list for quite a long time. Actually, a sort of funny story about that. When I was younger, I went to the library and grabbed 'Invisible Man' by Ralph Ellison. That book is certainly an excellent book, being deep and thought provoking. So, yeah, I was kind of caught off guard, and "The Invisible Man" remained unread for many years after.

So, I busted it out recently (along with a whole slew of H.G. Wells entries for LW for weeks to come), and finished it. Nice easy read, fun little book.

That's all I've got for today.. keep on rockin'!