Where’s the peanut butter?!

Four years ago Tanya was out of town in London and I had a boy over. Well, at the time, I thought he was a girl, but that’s another story. Anyway, his name is Jupiter and I let him sleep in my bed while she was away and today, he is the first cat I’ve come to really appreciate and love. If you’re ever lucky enough to take care of him - here’s how it goes…

Food - this is straightforward with his automatic feeder. As long as food is in the feeder, it will dispense the right amount at intervals throughout the day until it runs out of food. It’s somewhat important that he not be allowed to overeat, since he tends to eat grass from the neighborhood and will very frequently vomit due to the combination of too much food and the grass. But he means well. As a special treat, Jupiter also likes the dog’s canned food. He looks forward to a small scoop of this plopped on a saucer and flattened out a little with his dinner.

Water - Jupiter tends to drink from various places around the house. Favorite locations include the dog’s water bowl, the dog’s water holder inside his crate, or glasses of water on bedroom nightstands.

Asthma - (it’s not just for Sufjan Stevens’ record label) Jupiter suffers from asthma. Around the time we officially adopted him, I remember taking him to the vet because he had developed a bad scar on his back (probably from rubbing up against a hot pipe or something - this is where the bald spot on his back came from) and was also having great difficulty breathing. I was terrified and decided we needed to take him to the vet and so called the Cat Clinic of Seattle. The vet investigated him and wasn’t sure what to diagnose but prepared us for the worst indicating that he could have some sort of terminal problem. It was then that I realized how I could love a cat and how devastating it could be to bring a newly adopted pet in for a checkup and be told “he might die.” But he lived and was diagnosed with asthma, so now we give him one puff with an inhaler every morning and night. The procedure is outlined in a photo slideshow on my flickr.

Affection - is the one thing Jupiter needs most. He came from the neighborhood and is well loved by all our neighbors and passers by frequently tell us how he has worked into their hearts. At home, he especially likes to play with various toys which we have dangling over the doorways in our home and he is also very fond of laser pointers. He is very fond of playing with any of these toys on carpet, especially the stairs leading to the second floor. He is also very happy to have a lap, preferably adorned with denim/jeans, to sit on. Jupiter enjoys having his head, cheeks, and rear end scratched and also enjoys having his ears gently rubbed between an index and middle finger knuckle.

Commands - Jupiter understands more than he lets on, but he definitely knows his name and responds to a three toned - “high-low-high” - whistle.

Personal matters - Jupiter only uses nature’s toilets - there is no indoor litter to change.

Io, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter and my first dog. If you’re ever lucky enough to take care of him - here’s how it goes…

Food - Io is very skinny but he loooves to eat! For breakfast he gets one scoop (cup) of dry food (Wellness Super 5). At dinner he eats one scoop of dry food with about a third of a can of wet food (Wysong beef). He basically inhales whatever he’s fed, so don’t expect it to last. Usually after his morning walk he likes to get a frozen kong treat. These are usually packed with a coating of peanut butter and a combination of dry food and chunks from Natural Balance’s rolls. During the day, he sometimes gets more of his dry food inside treats, commensurate with how fussy he seems.

Water - Io’s usually goes through his waterbowl daily and he likes having a good supply of fresh water.

Affection - like Jupiter, Io is incredibly affectionate and craves human interaction almost as much as he craves bones with raw animal flesh. He loves to go for walks, short runs (under 4 miles and preferably not on pavement), and to chase sticks or wrestle. He lets you know when he needs affection and can sometimes be persuaded to leave you alone but usually it’s easier on one’s conscience to just give him the small token of your affection that he’s asking for.

Commands - Io knows many commands, including:

• sit - to sit down (note, the command is not “sit down” since that confuses “sit” and “down”)
• down - to lie down
• on your side / roll over - actually he doesn’t know either of these but sometimes he does something that looks like he might understand them
• stay (commanded when showing him an open palm) - to stay where he is
• find it - a game. You can play either by putting both hands behind your back, putting food in one hand, and extending both arms out with closed fists telling him to “find it!” and giving him the treat when he pokes at the correct hand. Or you can play by commanding him to “sit”, “stay” and then putting food somewhere in another room and when you get back, point to approximately where the snack is and telling him to “find it!”
• hug - a new command not that well understood, but this gets Io to hop up in a loving embrace
• go to your bed / go to your crate - to get him to go to his bed or crate (these only really work when he has an incentive like if you’re about to give him a Kong).

Personal matters - Io “takes care of business” a couple times a day. Usually once in the morning and again later after dinner before bed. This schedule is highly volatile, though, oftentimes with longer periods with business not being attended to after extended sessions eating sticks. Accidents in the house may be cleaned up with the Bissel Spot Bot, which should be standard issue with any puppy.

Nick has been raving about Mitch Hedberg for years but I never listened to any of his standup until this morning. When I did, I heard this bit on business cards:

I got a business card, cuz I wanna win some lunches!

That’s what my business card says, “Mitch Hedberg, Potential Lunch Winner”

Gimme a call, maybe we’ll have lunch…if I’m lucky!

and it was a moment of clarity that brought together a few parts of my life. Now that I’m not working, I feel like I need some sort of business cards. I’ve been wanting to use this almost-free business card printing service from Vistaprint for about a year (for $5.25, the cost of shipping, they’ll send you 250 cards). And now I’ve got at least one card to print. So I’ll be looking to have lunch with people and dropping these off at the Chili’s of greater Seattle - invite me out some time, the next one might be on me!

So yesterday I ran the Sound to Narrows 12k in Tacoma and had some good news and bad news. The good news is I’m happy with my time again and stepped it up a little bit from my time on Beat the Bridge. Considering that conditions were terrible (raining), the Sound to Narrows course is a much harder (see the elevation map, which I completely missed before doing the race and compare to a flat 8K), and simply being able to keep a comparable pace (which you can project using this online calculator) I feel very happy about that progress.

The bad news is I was hyperthermic at the end of the race and had a temperature of 106°. So until the times are posted I won’t know exactly where my time was because I don’t remember seeing the clocks. I do know it really doesn’t matter that much because if the crew wasn’t there I might have died. They put me in an ice bath for about twenty minutes which eventually got my temperature down to 101°. Then I was taken by ambulance to Tacoma General hospital and by the time I arrived I was hypothermic with a temperature of about 96°. After about an hour and a half of taking blood, running tests, and doing the regular hospital stuff, they let me go.

It’s hard to tell what caused the hyperthermia except for, obviously, working too hard. But there were probably other factors that could have led to it. I probably didn’t get enough sleep the night before - not for lack of trying, I just couldn’t sleep. I may not have been adequately hydrated - I had some water beforehand but didn’t take any drinks on the course and probably should have, though I’ve done runs this long at this pace without trouble (but they were flat). And possibly the rain, which was between a light to moderate drizzle throughout and which may have inhibited my ability to sweat and lose body heat through evaporation. But I definitely stepped up the pace on the last hill and that was probably the worst choice. At least I stepped it up until my brain started to cook. Tom, who ran with me throughout the race, mentioned that there was a point in the last hill where my pace dropped off considerably. In hindsight there was a point where I remember feeling disoriented but knew I was under half a mile to the finish and didn’t want to let up.

My friend Katie drove (and took second in womens!) and a new friend, Tom, who was a good inspiration and didn’t pressure me to run harder throughout the run at all was along (Tom, I should mention, deserves a Swedish star for running me into the hospital instead of the morgue). They both stuck around throughout the whole deal, even though Tom’s wife and daughter had come down for the run and he was to go back with them and even though Katie was scheduled to work. I definitely felt awful about the situation but felt incredibly thankful for such supportive friends. After I was discharged, we had a short lunch at the Swiss Tavern and drove back to Seattle, where my plans for future running now include: obey my body, do long runs with a partner, and spend more time understanding physiology and nutrition.

UPDATE 2007.06.11 Results are coming in

Furry 5K results are in - bib href="http://www.perfecttimeevents.com/results/event/1844/results.php?bib=3940&p=&ag=&oa=M">3940
in men’s is me - Tanya was href="http://www.perfecttimeevents.com/results/event/1844/results.php?bib=3941&p=&ag=&oa=F">3941
and Eva handily beat us to the finish in bib href="http://www.perfecttimeevents.com/results/event/1844/results.php?bib=437&p=&ag=&oa=F">437
(but she didn’t have a dog, uh, holding her back?). Sound to Narrows
times (where I was bib 1644) aren’t in yet but it wasn’t chipped so
that’s probably what should be expected.

Times are in from the 2007 Beat the Bridge race. My time is listed as 43:45 with a pace of an 8:49 minute mile, but my wave started 5 minutes after the clocks started and I timed the time between our starting gun and when I actually crossed the starting line and that was about 30 seconds which gets me a pace of about a 7:42 minute mile, and I’m totally content with that. The only thing I’m a little disappointed in is the picture organization from the group that photographed the event. There were almost 4,000 bibs, but you can’t find your bib number after the race and even if you could, there is no picture lookup by name or bib. I like posting my pictures (and pictures of my friends from other races in flickr), but I can’t get mine. So that’s a bummer.

But on the bright side, if I *did* find my picture, I might have wound up looking like the guy at right, so maybe I should be happy about how it turned out!

Today I’ll be making this picnic table for Rohini and Moni. Downloading plans for relatively simple projects and then throwing them together is really tons of fun. I wish I had a better space to work in at home - our basement ventilation really isn’t very good and I always need to lug all my tools from the basement up to the backyard and then back down. But putting something together from scratch with my own tools is always super fun!

Man Afraid were the first hardcore band I listened to and really understood. They focused on typically leftist politics but were noticeably educated within the hardcore scene. I’ll tell you how many bands have ever rhymed “hegemony” in their songs - one and their name was Man Afraid. Around the same time, Los Crudos were playing and also doing incredible work. Take the almost completely homogeneous hardcore scene, add some gay Hispanics who only sing in Spanish (except on “We’re that spic band”) and you’ve got something that’s obviously trying to expand that subculture in positive ways. But “What Once Was Life” by Dropdead has to be the most satisfying, blistering 2 minutes of noise ever put to wax.

Just as a small exercise, compare the waveform of that track by Dropdead:

to another song, say, Van Morrison’s “Moondance”:

I shouldn’t need to point this out, but one is as pleasing as a summer day, wind chimes, or Enya, and the other tries very, very hard to crush your skull. So please set your speakers to 11 and then let it.

What once was Life
My murder has become-justified
In your sick-barbaric world
My skin is ripped-from the bone
What once was life-you-ingest

(Industrial part)

A holocaust-unrealized
My lifeblood feeds-a selfish world
My suffering-goes unknown
What once was life-you-ingest

Something makes me think my mom’s instant messaging account might have been hacked or something.

[16:29] MF: your ass is big

But I can’t quite put my finger on it…

I’m going to start posting some of my favorite music and talking more about music on my blog. High school was a mixed bag for me, like it is for any decent person, but one terrific part was my investment in music and its contribution to my life. Lately, that’s dropped way off and I feel a little disappointed about that but then if my priorities were the same today as when I was 16 I’m sure I’d have even more disappointment. But I’d like to bring some of that beat back.

Today’s selection is Send Me Some Lovin by Little Richard. I first heard this song as a selection from what I consider one of the most moving episodes of This American Life,
the 1998 Valentine’s Day episode. Listen to the whole show and if you show me someone who isn’t moved to tears by the end of Donald Hall’s selections talking about the death of his wife, I’ll show you a functioning wooden heart.

The show exits with a selection from Little Richard’s song and it is on fire. Check it out:

Send Me Some Lovin - Little Richard

Send me some lovin’, oh send it I pray,
How can I love you, when you’re far away?

Send me your picture, send it my dear,
So I can hold it, pretend you are here.

Can you send me your kisses? I still feel their touch,
I need you so badly, I miss you so much.

My days are so lonely, my nights are so blue,
I’m here and I’m lonely, I’m waitin’ for you.

Adam and Eva organized another incredible spring hiking/snowboarding trip to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier yesterday. We did this same trip last year (and I remembered my camera then) but this year I forgot my camera, so instead I wanted to leave a few notes on the hike.

The hike starts from the Paradise parking lot at about 5,400 feet and ends at Camp Muir just above 10,000 feet. It’s definitely difficult - last year I thought it was the hardest physical activity I’d ever done but I hadn’t prepared for it with a single hike or really any cardiovascular exercise. This year I’ve been running a lot more and low key hike or two and it felt way better. At this time of year, there is snow all the way from the Paradise parking lot to Camp Muir, but depending on snow conditions it might not be possible to ride all the way to the base. Last year it worked, but this year the snow was a lot stickier requiring some hiking or sledding on our boards - warm weather wax might help.

On the trip I used my new Garmin Forerunner GPS to track my progress. One funny thing about the Forerunner I didn’t figure out until I was about 1000′ above the parking lot is that it has settings for your pace for sprinting, running, jogging, speed walking, and walking. The trick is if you are going slower than your “walking” speed then it considers you at rest and it will give you GPS data like your elevation and speed, but it won’t create a trail for your route. I changed the “walking” pace when I figured this out, but since I was going slower than that pace up to that point, I didn’t have a trail to help guide me back to the parking lot for the bottom chunk of the mountain. This isn’t a huge deal but if you aren’t careful (I wasn’t) you’ll wind up going back to the visitor center which is about a half mile from the Paradise parking lot.

I drank almost exactly 1.5L of water on the way up - one full Camelback snowbowl of water. I had a full Nalgene in my pack, too, and since I didn’t need much water at the top or on the way down this turned out to be a lot of extra water, but that’s probably a good thing in case of emergency. Last year I didn’t snack much on the way up and felt like I regretted it. This year I had a handful of trail mix every 500-1000′ of elevation gain and felt much better.

On the hike itself, last year I used the Eric Kolvy “rest step” technique to make the last 500′ of elevation gain before Camp Muir. To do this, you take a short step forward with your left leg, step with your right leg up to a standing position, rest, then take a short step forward with your right leg, and repeat. This is very slow going, but if you’re in a hard slog of endurance, it makes it possible to reach your goal. This year we left the parking lot at about 9:30 at about 12:15PM I was at 8000′ feet and set a goal to reach the top by 2PM. This meant changing my pace for elevation gain from 16.8 feet/minute to 21 feet/minute (a calculation I’m now very glad I didn’t do on the mountain because I probably would have given up before I started), so I skipped the rest step, worked hard, kept an eye on my pace with my GPS and made it to the camp just before 2PM. And was exhausted

The parking lot is cold, but you get hot very fast on the hike. Last year I started out with my snowpants and jacket on and wasted a bunch of time trying to strip out of these after about 500′ above the parking lot. This year I started in a first layer top and pants and that carried me most of the way up. It was overcast and I put on my jacket near Panorama Point but didn’t need anything before that. By contrast, last year was a clear day but it was MUCH windier and colder and I needed to put on both my jacket and pants before getting to the top, though I also moved a little more slowly.

Otherwise I wore my snowboarding boots all the way up, which worked out fine, though since my snow pants don’t fit over my boots, it means needing to take off the boots somewhere to put on the pants, which is a small hassle. I didn’t quite master the sunscreen strategy but I *think* I’ve got it now. Last year I put sunscreen on my forehead, which I paid for badly shortly after starting the hike. You sweat a lot on the hike and I had a ton of sunscreen getting in my eyes, almost completely blinding me for about half an hour. This year I skipped sunscreen on my forehead, but somehow didn’t realize this might lead to a sunburned forehead. Well, it does. So next time I’ll wear a hat, like almost everyone else in our group had. Otherwise I was careful to be sure to get sunscreen on my ears and underside of my nose, which are easy to forget and easy to get sunburned with the reflection coming off the snow.

Lastly about visibility, the route down, and conditions…last year it was super clear out and very easy to tell whether we were near the trail, approaching a cliff, or so forth. This year, there were many instances on the route down where we couldn’t see more than about 30 feet ahead of us. For this, I was very, very glad to have a GPS leading us back along the trail. You really don’t want to ride exactly on the trail people have been hiking up, since the snow is really inconsistent and you know that if you can just stay 20 feet off the trail, you’ll have tons of relatively great untracked snow. But in poor visibility conditions that can be super dangerous. We took a few questionable turns, but largely had good snow and weren’t riding over footprints the whole way down, but without the GPS I would not have felt comfortable trying to find that trail. I had the sense that everybody who was following me felt some of that hesitation, too, since I already tend to ride a little more…let’s say “confidently” than your average snowboarder. But we all got out in one piece! With the forerunner 201 going for about $75 on craigslist, I think it’s a great investment for a trip like this.

I think that covers most of my observations about the whole experience. I would definitely encourage anyone to do this hike and ride. It’s very hard but it’s a really great experience and feeling. Normal caveats about “weather can change dramatically on the mountain and if you aren’t careful, go up when you shouldn’t, or don’t turn back when you should, you might die” certainly apply. But if you’re smart about the trip and go with some people who are responsible, it’s amazingly satisfying. Big ups again to Adam and Eva for putting it together!