We don’t have a lot of time on this earth. We weren’t meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.

If you work 5 days a week for a paycheck, you will feel this way at some point in your life. It’s unavoidable. You spend 5 days a week spending your time earning a living. Then you get 2 days to do things that you like to do. Then you spend 5 days providing. 2 days off. It’s the same routine for the next 40 years. This is what life is for the majority of us. Here’s an idea, get a family. Doing this basically consumes more of your time and puts even additional pressure on working. Having a family basically means that you have to work even more! I just don’t believe that I was mysteriously (this word and sentence is a whole separate topic) put into my body to work all my life. I have the ability to just Peter Gibbons it and do nothing but I wouldn’t be able to sustain that and would probably self destruct somewhere along the way.

I see why people turn to the lord for guidance. It’s to fill a void that can’t be filled any other way. I promise you I’m not filling that void by going to the gym and watching episodes of Breaking Bad even though it’s what I truly like doing. How do you fill the void? People fill it with drugs, alcohol, hobbies, television, movies, music, charity, anything that keeps you busy. The lord is just a symbol. He’s not really there but he gives you hope and a path which helps people achieve goals in life to better themselves. What’s it all for? To live up to the most potential you can as a human being. By being a good friend, a good family member, a good person.

At the 10 year class reunion I was getting tired of answering the same question of “how are you” with normal answers so I answered once with “just waiting to die.” Most likely my death won’t be for another 50 years but that feeling of what are you doing with yourself is just so evident. We all can’t be Bono or Angelina Jolie and save the world. People get worn down by this daily routine then it starts to become impossible to escape. You become a slave to your money and you die (taken from The Verve). You just need to take a step back and enjoy life. You can’t take life so seriously. The strange thing is I wouldn’t even classify this as a down point in my emotions. I feel great physically and I have no suffering currently. I just get tired and question what is happening with life in general. You should to.

I had a really productive week at work last week which had me feeling pretty good heading into the weekend. I don’t have anything real exciting from Friday night except playing some beer pong with Ck4ii. Beer pong is one of my most inconsistent games to play and sometimes it feels like I’m trying to hit a shot glass instead of a solo cup. I woke up early on Saturday and watched the King’s Speech which I found entertaining for the full two hours. Colin Firth was really amazing. I know this isn’t new info but still. After that I went to the gym and ran 4 good miles which was a unique feeling after a night of drinking. Then I went to hang out with the Shee and company at Frankfurt Hall in the city where we watched the SF-NO game. I put a hundo on the Niners which worked out well. I was going to roll the account on the Broncos but couldn’t make the bet on my phone which was obviously fortunate. I also bet on the Ravens -8 which failed to cover on Sunday. Shee saved the day though and made a parlay on the Giants +8 and the over which nailed for a risk 40, win 100. This juiced up my bodog account heading into the Superbowl which is always a nice feeling. To cap off the weekend we (Bake, Shee, and Me) went bowling which was actually a really good deal at 2 hours of bowling for 15 bucks. I think we rolled about 7 or 8 games. I was up 4 bucks heading into the last game against the Shee and somehow we managed to bowl a 128 to tie moving into a 1 frame roll off which I lost. I think it’s funny how I will wager hundreds of dollars on football games and a 6 dollar game of bowling seems expensive. That pretty much summed up the weekend. Thrilling I know.

It’s MLK day today and I expect a slow day at work. I’ll probably leave a bit early and catch the end of the Sixers. It’s a little cold out to boot.

I find considerable joy in what I’ve been doing for the past 3 hours. I fire up artists who I usually don’t listen to and play their random albums while reading whatever I’m reading. Today I’ve listened to Soul Asylum’s Grave Dancer’s Union, Bad Company’s Running With the Pack and Bruce’s Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, while reading Neil Strauss “Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness ” which is a series of interviews by him among famous (and not so famous) stars. I can’t think of many things that I’d rather do. I know this isn’t such a great post but just wanted to clue you in on something I find entertaining.

The post below was the historic 1,000th post. Naturally I didn’t realize it was the 1,000th post and made it about Alanis Morrisette and her case of statutory rape. However, even if I knew it was the 1,000th post, I don’t think I’d have done anything memorable or out of the norm. I suppose that we just use those types of numbers as milestones or for probably a better word, benchmarks. The fact that I’ve been doing this for about 30 months though is pretty unbelievable. I’ve seen plenty of bloggers come and go. They get a great idea that they’re going to write down their thoughts and opinions and share them with the world. They’ll write 10 entries and be really excited during those posts. Then they’ll write another 15 and the enthusiasm starts to wane. By post 25 they wonder why on Earth they’re spending their time writing something that has 0 benefit. I ask myself that question from time to time and do indeed get discouraged sometimes. I do find though that I get a kick out of sharing different thoughts with an unknown audience. I sometimes wonder what random people read this who barely know me and then form an opinion about me without really knowing me. It’s like a one sided friendship where they know about me but I know nothing about them. The bottom line is that I have developed some sort of audience with rnningfool.com. Who actually reads this is a different story.

I still can’t figure out how many people read my entries. In the past 30 days Google analytics reported near 20,000 people viewing the site. This number is deceiving though because people are coming here for the Brandi Passante mug shot searches. The bounce rate is close to 80% which still means 4,000 people are reading something I’ve written. Now here is where I get stumped. If you take the post below, at the end I posed a question to the effect “did you know this information”? Not one person responded which means they either didn’t read it or that nobody wants to comment. Technically my audience feels like 0 which would differ from that 4,000 number. I understand that people don’t feel the urge the comment on anything but you’re telling me that not 1 person who read that last post would chime in with “I didn’t know this, good post.” This indeed makes me believe that not many people are reading my posts and I’m most likely wasting my time in the past 1,000 posts. I believe it is this reason that most people decide to quit. Most people probably quit when they realize this 999 posts ago. However with my perseverance I trudge through and continue to share my thoughts with nobody reading. I strange task I do agree. Nevertheless, here we are at post 1,001. The graph below will show that I have created something in the past 2.5 years of work and I suppose I have some sense of pride in that. To the people who actually will have read through and understand this little side project of mine, I thank you for your continued support. Here’s to another thousand posts!

Last night I visited Target, Barnes and Nobel and Best Buy. I didn’t have anything in particular I was going to buy but just decided that I would purchase something if it struck me. I walked in Target first and realized I only had about 7 pairs of underwear and I didn’t like wearing 2 of them because they ride up and one pair shrunk to an uncomfortable fit so I decided to purchase some new ones. Amazingly every pair of Hanes Large boxers were out of stock. They had plenty of fruit of the loom but I just couldn’t bring myself to become a fruit of the loom guy. Luckily I found a pair of Large boxers hidden behind some other pairs and was able to find what I was looking for. I also bought a wool hat for 4 bucks even though this weather has been moderate, 2 perfect Hanes T-Shirts which I like for working out, a pair of mesh shorts, and a pair of work out pants. The oddest purchase I made was a Sublime shirt for 13 bucks. I’m not a huge fan of Sublime, I mean I like their music when the time is right but I’m not ape shit over them like I am with Led Zeppelin. HOWEVER, I feel like Sublime has this great vibe surrounding them because their lead singer died and now everyone just accepts them as a good band so I’m making a statement of fitting in with people even though I don’t really agree with the band. This could be construed as living for other people instead of yourself but I think it’s ok if you know you’re doing it. I think it totaled 77 bucks which seemed like a lot for Target but I got what I was looking for.

I also went to Best Buy and couldn’t find anything I wanted. I was browsing through the CD selection because I still listen to them in my car. I went through the 5 dollar CD rack and was surprised at how much good material was there, I didn’t bite though. I don’t really buy too many DVD’s and all the other accessories are just fodder. I then went to Barnes and Nobel and bought a book by Neil Strauss who interviews famous people and it seemed really interesting. I also bought a biography on the Stones and The Hunger Games to see what everyone is raving about. I was given a PDF of the book but I didn’t know what to do with it so I just bought the book. The font is huge and I can’t see this being a thrilling book but that certainly won’t stop me from trying it. I’ll be making a better post about the Neil Strauss book because it’s hilarious. I also am given the opportunity to be a Barnes and Nobel member which I decline every time because I assume I will buy all my books on Amazon but it seems like I prefer to get the books NOW. Money down the drain.

+1 if you know that this post title is a song by Johnny Hates Jazz. Another point if you go to youtube and search for it and listen to one of the better songs from the 80’s. My last few posts have been topical but I’ll throw one in about my life because I’m sure everyone is so interested. This morning I was dreaming that I had really long hair like Jeff did during his “long hair” phase. This is somewhat ironic because I was getting my hair cut the next day. Next thing I know I was abruptly awoken by a glass shattering in the living room, hence shattered dreams. This was at about 8am which was pretty early but I managed to go to sleep at 12 or so Friday night. Why so early? Ck4, Nikkii and I went to the Fieldhouse at 6:30 and we were out of there by 10:30. I had 7 pints and a shot of Jameson in that 4 hour stretch. I put down another 3 beers when we got back and I called it a night. I actually felt great today. I know this sounds like a decent amount of alcohol but sadly my tolerance handled it no problem and I went to bed coherent.

Deciding to get a haircut I drove to Mario’s and was fortunate to get Nick with 4 people waiting for other barbers. I personally think Nick is the best because he never uses scissors. He gets it short enough on the sides and does a good job blending the top. It’s always hard describing how you want your hair cut. I usually tell him I want a 2 blade on the sides and the top to match. This seems to do the trick. After that I went home to see my parents and challenge Sam to some Ping-Pong. We played 11 games of which he won 8. I know that sounds lopsided but the games are closer than the record would dictate. We have some wild points and I think it’s the most fun I can have with no alcohol involved. My forehand slam is coming around I just need to work on the consistency of returning shots without going into the net. Unfortunately he is going back to school on the 15th so if anyone reads this and likes to play in the Philly area, I’m game.

The only other thing to document is that I ran 16:54 for 3 miles yesterday on the track. That’s the best time I’ve posted in years. I can’t really tell what’s different or why my times are dropping but I’m pretty satisfied. My goal will be to break 29 in the FrostBite 5 miler in February. I’ve been feeling pretty strong physically and see no reason why I should easily break that time. That’s all I got for now.