As you can see, this blog looks completely different from previous visits. I just decided that this was a good time for an upgrade and I’m hoping you, the readers, will find this as an improvement. I would be grateful for any comments on what you find better or worse with this current layout. I have the ability to shift things around so I just was curious on any thoughts. Most likely no one will have any and I will decide what I like the best, but I suppose that’s not so bad either. I’m not really sure what type of an effect I’m expecting this to have but hopefully it will be positive. Hopefully you will see that my dedication to rnningfool.com is high and continue to check from time to time.

My list of things to do is long and time consuming but its importance is minimal. I’ll give you an insight into my life and current thinking about tasks at hand. First off, I want to finish Chuck Klosterman’s IV. If you keep up with my blog you’ll wonder why I seemingly can’t stop writing about this guy. His observations and thoughts on topics from sports, to music, to stupid tasks (example is eating only chicken nuggets for a week) are wildly amusing. If I met him in real life I’d be intimidated because he’s too smart. He probably wouldn’t admit that, maybe he would, but I am on the Chuck Klosterman band wagon. I’ll finish answering the questions again too which I got sidetracked doing. I make recommendations from time and his books come highly regarded from me. So, ANYWAY, I still have his book to finish which will take me another day or so.

After that I want to start the second Game of Thrones book. I got two comments asking me how the first read was and it was phenomenal. Even knowing what was going to happen only took away a little bit from the enjoyment. I can’t wait to get started but it’s sort of a mental thing that I have to get geared up to begin because it’s some 700 pages. I also bought the Soprano’s second season which I want to watch. It’s been a few months since I finished the 1 season and I’m looking forward to that as well. I also have the first season of Mad Men which came recommended by Mr. Klosterman himself which I want to watch.

I also dvr’d all the Star Wars and intend to watch them because I’m not sure I’ve seen them fully. I know that’s a pretty terrible thing to admit but I feel like it’s my purpose as a human being to at least see I’ve seen all the Star Wars movies. I watched the first one today to moderate delight. I know I’m probably being tough here because this was done 30 years ago but it seemed like it took a long time for nothing to really happen. Plus once the Death Star blew up, I feel like that would have set the Empire back financially and I’m not sure how they can really recover from that big of a hit. Mark Hamill was driving me mad because his acting made him look like such a whiny bitch. I’ll watch the other two in near term.

I didn’t really do much today except read and watch Star Wars and TV. True Blood is starting to get sloppy I think. The storylines are all over and starting to take on really weird turns. Just a tad too far out I think. Curb your Enthusiasm also premiered and I was entertained but wouldn’t say it was tremendous. Larry’s schtick is sort of tired because I feel like it’s been done before, like 7 seasons worth. I’ll still tune in every week though because he does have some funny moments undeniably.

I also had a few observations from the weekend which are amusing. I wore a blue band aid on my finger to a party on Saturday and every single person commented on it. Attracting attention to wounds doesn’t make a lot of sense and in hindsight I should have spent the extra buck for skin colored band aids. On another note, playing beer pong with water is sort of dumb. Yes it’s better for germs and the health of the table but it turns a drinking game into a non-drinking game. I also was initiated to a “no airball” rule where every airball that’s wrong results in a cup being taken away. I have mixed feelings on this rule but in the course of 8 games, it only happened to Jess Baker and I twice during a 7-1 run. I also noticed when we were playing Matt Baker, he commented that I had a few more games of beer pong under my belt than him. This got me thinking how many lifetime games I’ve played of beer pong. I estimated somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000. If I’ve played for ten years, I’m pretty sure I’ve played at least 100 a year and probably more like 500 some years. My guess is that my lifetime record is something like 1500-1000. I win more than I lose but I’m nothing special. I have a few more ideas for posts that I’ll save for another time.

People ask me to do more “player profiles” but it really starts to boil down to my critique of them as a person. This is why I tend to not do them because I ask myself “why do people want to know what I think about them?” I guess it’s because I actually have a medium (this blog) to display this whereas most people don’t. So people ask me to them so I’ll happily write about Jess Baker for this one.

I can’t really think of any nicknames other than Jess Baker. It’s a tad unusual to call people by their first and last names when referring to them but it just sort of sticks in my head. Jess is certainly one of the more athletic females and plays pretty much everything. She’s been on both the football and softball team and I know plays in the Orleand Bball league and I’ve seen her play tennis as well. A few observations though if I must. I think she managed to play in maybe 2 out of the 8 softballs games due to “scheduling conflicts.” Her dedication may be in question. I also remember in the championship football game that took place in December, she started the game wearing these really furry mittens. Naturally the first pass thrown to her slid right through her hands. That was the end of the mittens and once again we must question whether being warm is more important than performance.

I think the number one thing Jess brings to the table is being a good teammate and having a good attitude. She’s never a bitch on or off the field and generally a pleasure to be around. Last night her and I played beer pong together and after losing the first game, we managed to win 7 in a row with a good rapport throughout the night. We also can’t forget that she doesn’t attend a party without bringing baked goods such as brownies and cake. Although I don’t really eat sweets, I’m sure they are delicious. She also has a lot of friends that are girls which helps our girl to guy ratio tremendously as I don’t really have a flock of girls to call on myself. She requested that I have some background music (some Beyonce song?) playing for this particular post but I don’t have the technical know how. So I hope this post appeased some of my readers and I’ll just mention that I’ll continue doing them if they are desired. This one’s for you Jess Baker, player profile #3.

When I can’t think of good topics to write about I usually just write about my day or something going on in my life. Fortunately for me, people are fascinated with other people. In the Chuck Klosterman book “Eat the Dinosaur” he made an interesting observation that he’d prefer to watch his neighbor through his window doing nothing (or anything) opposed to watching reality TV. His reasoning was simple, the unknown and curiosity behind what the stranger could be doing was the allure. Reality TV has its moments but it eventually gets old. This logic should explain why the Jersey Shore has been on the decline since the first season. When we met the cast in Season 1 it was completely new to us. We knew it was reality TV but it didn’t matter because most people have never been introduced to these “stereotypical” Italians. Ronnie and Sammi’s fighting was entertaining, hitting on girls that weren’t grenades kept our attention, but now what? We’ve seen the fighting for 3 seasons now and it’s old news. It’s also the reason why new music will always have a place. People get sick of the old and need to replace it with new. This also defines how good a song is. If a song can still be played 10, 20, 30… years after it was introduced, most likely it was a quality song. Today’s music does well to last a couple months and it’s why my poll says there isn’t a band better than the Beatles. I got off on a tangent there, let’s get back to me.

Since your at my blog, I have to assume you’re either interested in me, interested in the things I write about, or interested for some other reason like being bored at work or hoping that I mention you. I figure I can pretty much fill these lines with mindless drivel and you’ll be content and keep reading on. I don’t mind wasting your time. I’m actually flattered you enable me to do so. I’m really nothing special but I suppose I have had the ability to maintain this site for 2+ years now with marginal success. I’ve made $3.56 in the 2 year span for what it’s worth.

I really got off on a tangent in that last paragraph. I started by wanting to write about my day and just kept getting lost. I woke up, went to work, singed my knuckles in a furnace while wearing gloves, played CK4 in tennis at a tune of 6-0, 2-6, 5-7, then I ran 3 or so miles after the 2 hours of tennis which was brutal but I made myself do it. This parts for the Shee, I also ate 6 raviolis, 8 meatballs and 2 snack packs. The chocolate one has 10 more calories than the vanilla one. And the biggest problem in my life right now is that I need to find a small light bulb for this lamp that is moronically constructed to only fit small lightbulbs. Now I’m going to finish the first book in Game of Thrones and call it at night. I told you I was fascinating. My life is high octane 24/7.

I had two things happen to me that inspired this post. The first was last night when the bar was playing an encore of the Phillies game on TV. I was aware that the Phillies lost the game 5-2 but I didn’t see any of the game. Here’s the thing, I had absolutely no interest in a replayed game and asked that they put on anything live. Houston Astros vs Texas Rangers was what ended up being put on and it was infinitely better than the replay. This also was the case with Wimbledon. I have no interest in watching tennis but while I was down the shore with nothing to do, I found myself putting on these matches for the mere fact that they were live. I’d rather watch live croquet than a replayed baseball game. It’s all about the element of surprise. Why did I italicize that phrase? People love the unknown. The unknown is more exciting than what any replay has to offer. Just my opinion.

My second experience had to do with a cockroach. I entered my bathroom at work to find a cockroach directly in front of me. Instinctively I smashed it with my foot. Much to the dismay to the cockroach, I only managed to crush his entire lower half and he still had the ability to squirm the upper half. I was fascinated. I ended up putting him in the toilet and flushing but not after I watched him try to swim with a half body. I’m sick I know. How does this go with the theme of this post? I would have never wrote this paragraph about killing a cockroach if I didn’t make it happen. It happened to me live and I didn’t expect it to happen. I just think it’s so neat that I would never, ever have been able to think about walking in a bathroom, stomping on a cockroach, only destroying half his body, and than watching his almost dead body squirm. Live events are awesome.

I’m fairly certain people stray away from long posts so I might just try to keep them short and sweet. I ran about 8 miles yesterday at about 7 minute pace and the longer runs tend to wear on my ankle a bit. After that Ck4 and I went to Kildares for a few drinks. Only 2 things of interest. I ordered a four horsemen which is Jack, Johnnie, Jim, and Jose mixed into one shot. Basically nobody orders this shot and it’s pretty gross but it basically proves how much of a man you are. If you can down this shot, you can down almost anything. The bartender said 100 proof whiskey is probably the toughest shot. The other thing to note was payment. The bill came in at 30 bucks and I gave her 50. She gave us 5 bucks off for the In The Biz card and also gave us a free round as we were leaving. So why am I tipping 66%? She’s not going to forget it. This is why bartenders get to know me and like me, because I buy their friendship. Why do I do this? Not because I want to feel loved but because when a bartender likes you, it has added benefits. Free drinks, better service, and for a person who drinks a lot it adds up. We left at 9 or so and then I Turntable.FM’d with Sam for a bit and that was the night.

My sincere apologies for a mere 26 posts this month. I was away for two weeks out of the month and just haven’t been putting much effort into the site. However, things will be getting back on track as I have moved out of vacation mode and back into the everyday routine. There is a sense of comfort in my everyday routine. I’m still not eating all that healthy but I put in real work outs and their is a sense of productiveness by going to work which isn’t found on vacation. Also, I always feel like my finances start spiraling out of control when I’m not in my routine. It’s like I’m constantly spending cash on vacation. Anyway, I’m happy to be back and will start living as per usual again.

I put in some nice times on the track yesterday. My usual workout is running 3/4 of a mile to the track and then running 3 straight miles on the track to get a sense of what kind of shape I’m in. Being almost recovered from my ankle injury, I’ve been able to move from sloth back to my former self. I busted out a 5:45, 5:50, 5:35 trio of miles yesterday which had me at about 17:10 for 3 miles. I was quite pleased that at this point in the season I was capable of these times. After that I ran some 4’s and even and 8 and felt pretty good. I’ll be doing the Phil’s 5k and the 10k Mud Run in July so I should be ready assuming nothing goes wrong.

I purchased the Game of Thrones series (book 1) and am about 1/3 of the way through the 600 page book. I’m pretty impressed with the way the book is set up in 10 page chapters and holds the viewpoint of the character. It makes for easy reading. Also, after watching the HBO season before reading the book, I sort of know what is going to happen but I’m still entertained. I pick up on things that never would have struck me if just for the show. The best part is there are 3 more books after this one so I’ll have plenty to keep me occupied considering I can’t put the book down.

Just to comment on True Blood’s season premiere. Wtf. The opening scene with the fairies was just bizarre. The whole Bill Compton being a rich, political figure is just weird. The Lafayette / witch thing is also bizarre. I’ve liked True Blood in the past and I just hope it doesn’t spiral out of control and get silly.

I’m sure everyone is fascinated by what we all look like so I’m going to post some pics of all of us at the shore. Click on the pic to enlarge it.

Legends of Scattergories

More Scattergories

Girls on Prom Night

Sorry Katie

Men of the House

There’s a feeling of sadness for multiple reasons. First being that I have no more “vacation” to look forward to for the rest of the year. Some people set in their mind that vacation is upcoming and that helps them get through the day. This is the first feeling when I consider that I have one more off day till work for the rest of my year. The second feeling of sadness comes from getting older and realizing that family vacations are changing. There will come a day when you won’t be able to get everyone together like we are still able to do. Just spending an entire week together with my family is something that we don’t get to do 51 weeks out of the year. Simple things like my mom doing puzzles, listening to music together, going to the beach, JC being JC, and never catching any fish. I suppose these are all just normal feelings when a vacation comes to an end but for some reason the older you get the more it hits you.

In other news, the Superstars lost in the championship game 9-1 to a team that just played better. I’m not even going to go into detail but after some questionable base running in the first inning, a shouting match spectacle, and the other team hitting line drive single after single, we weren’t winning the game. Perhaps my post on winning (or not caring about winning) should be pointed out in my 0-7 performance on the day (2 games) with a strike out when the bases were loaded and a nice inning ending double play. I think it’s fair to say though that that wasn’t turning point, although fairly embarrassing. Softball has come to an end and I’m not complaining. For some reason I always feel like baseball singles out people and thus makes for pressure situations that I just prefer to avoid. Basically when the Shee says he gets nervous before every round of golf, I feel that way playing baseball. There is no comfort level because I just play once a week. This seems to be my excuse for everything but I’m just not a jack of all trades. I can be good at some things, but not everything. Which brings me to Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers.

The basic idea is it takes 10,000 hours to master something. Meaning you put in 10,000 hours of work on a specific task and you can achieve mastery. Now consider softball from my point of view. I didn’t play between the ages of 15 and 25, and now I play one hour a week for 8 weeks. There isn’t any level of confidence in my softball playing and I suppose it showed today. This translates to just about everything that I’ve been doing lately. When I was a kid I used to be way better at sports. I’d play baseball 5 times a week for an entire season. I’d go to basketball camps every week during winter and then again in summer, plus playing on travel teams and such. Now it’s just play every once in a while and see what happens. I suppose you could look at this as an excuse but it’s just matter of fact. The ability is there, the skill set is not. It really comes down to practice but where is the time? I don’t have the time or the energy to do all these things. My life example. I wake up, I work till 5, I run till 6 because this keeps me in shape and is more important to me than any sport. Now I choose between the golf range, the tennis court, the softball field, the basketball court… There are just so many things to do. This works on simple things like Frisbee throwing too. My point is that its hard to be good at everything. I’m not that talented. I know this was a real downer post but life has its ups and downs.