Workout Differentiation

Finally getting some running fitness back, after peaking two years ago and having most of 2008 off. I'm just now getting to the point of differentiation in my workouts. At first, everything is slow and short. Then, as I get better, everything turns into a tempo workout. The trick is to be able to get enough speed that I can actually do a longer, slower workout. I've gotten a few intervals workouts in and that makes all the difference. Now I changeup between intervals, long & slow, and tempo runs, and I just barely have enough fitness and pace to make these meaningful. The problem on the long & slow days is not just turning it into a tempo run if I'm feeling good 15 minutes in.

Next goal: get back under my personal best for 10k by the end of the year.

Bottle Apostle

The new wine shop in the village opened a few weeks ago. Yes, I'm still sad that Frock's is gone, but the new business is really nice. Friendly and enthusiastic without being intimidating, welcoming of all levels of interest, from novice to experts, and with a really thoughtful and excellent inventory. And the automatic wine sampling machines are very cool. Good addition. It should do well.

Now Victoria Park really, really needs a fishmonger.

Shame About The Diesel, USA

Nice 4-dr you can cruise in at 130mph yet get over 40 mp[US]g? Excellent-looking new BMW. Better mileage stats than my Audi A2 (never available in the US), but goes 0-60 in 8s and tops out at 140mph.

Another Thing Missing From Cricket

Trouble on Green Street. I wonder if anyone's checked on the whereabouts of Elijah Wood. [That movie exceeds expectations, btw. Recommended.]

Cricketing Baseball

I'd love to see baseball try a slight cricket approach to the structure rather than alternating three outs. A 27-27 game would be interesting (should be higher scoring for sure) but a game of 9s could be perfect -- i.e. three 9-out innings.

Kendrick Essay on Heart Disease

Very good essay. A few years old, but new to me: http://www.thincs.org/Malcolm.htm#heart1

Reform Gone Missing

How's that healthcare thing going over in the US? A few short days ago, Howard Dean (accurately, imo), said of the public option:

There's only one piece of real reform in this bill for healthcare -- there's a couple of pieces of insurance reform which are worth doing -- but the only piece of healthcare reform that's worth doing, left, is the public option. The public option. And people say, "well, can't there be a compromise?" We have already compromised. The public option is the compromise between single payer and the private sector... We can't go any further. There's nothing else to do here. [watch from 06:15 of this video]

Now there are rumblings that the public option is being compromised away. No healthcare reform, then. Not surprising, really, given it was very poorly explained and sold by the administration, was too long, legalistic, and ambiguous, and, of course, the press coverage was often useless. Even the Guardian, which should know better, gets it wrong today, incorrectly labelling the public option as "NHS-style". Oh well.

Dollhouse

Although I am a big fan of the Whedon, I had not watched Dollhouse. Honestly, did not look too good at first. But the other night I watched what in the UK was described as the series 1 finale, but apparently was never aired in the US. It was fantastic! Had a great Joss/scifi/zombiegeddon riff, and I thought I detected a slight BSG vibe in there, too (Joss admittedly a fanatic). So I don't think I'm going to watch any more. Based on what I've read, it was the best episode. And I may have enjoyed it all the more because I didn't know what was going on. Anyway, if you've never seen it, just watch "Epitaph One".

harry potter and the half-assed wtf

Just saw the 6th movie and gosh did it suck. Wow. Lifeless, empty, hollow. What happened? Where did everyone go? The acting was a redeeming feature, good all around but Tom Felton had a nice (and important) turn, Broadbent was predictably perfect as slughorn, and Gambon finally grew on me in his best Dumbledore. The only other redeeming feature was that the "important memory" made a lot more sense in the movie than in the book (in the movie, unlike the book, they actually learn something from the memory). But overall it was appalling.

SAQ

It's high time I started my official Seldomly Asked Questions list.

Q: Pork blood: is it good to dip my paperback books into?
A: No.

Must Resist Kittens

I haven't had cats in about 10 years, but someone at work just sent round pics of free kittens, and a handwritten note just got tacked up down the street about another set of available kittens ("white with tabby or black spots"). It's likely my brain was long ago taken over by those cat-friendly parasites that make mice fearless (which helps expedite the repatriation of those parasites back to their preferred home, the digestive tract of cats), and maybe it's only a matter of time before I answer the call of my feline overlords and again provide a home for some.

Nation of Ninnies: why hide car performance specs?

Are Americans afraid of everything? I'm looking at cars in the US and notice that it's almost impossible to get 0-60 and top speed numbers for anything. In the UK, these are almost always included in available info as a matter of course.