the New Craze in footwear

I want to try one of these on. Actually I saw a guy wearing these in a 4 mile race a few weeks back.

Vibram FiveFingers Shoes

That Santa Cruz Lady

More from the Santa Cruz City council meeting.

Go here for the article on Huffington Post

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Keep Santa Cruz Weird

Public comments at Santa Cruz City Council and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

I used to live here. Went to UCSC from 1984 to 1989. Interesting place & people.

So You Think You Can Douche

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
So You Think You Can Douche
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Money money money

If we can afford to go bomb a country in the Middle East then we can find some money for the health care reform here in the good 'ol USA.
In honor of the American soldiers, let's get the GOVERNMENT, who they work for, have enough money to take care of them, if and when they get back here. You are either for or against the government, right?
In honor of the American soldier, stop insulting our intelligence, for one last time, Sarah?

Black & Blue or Brown and blue

Proud member of the 15% Silent Minority.
RichardDawkins.net

Arresting someone for doing something that isn't illegal is stupid.

Acting pretty stupidly. False Arrest, No Beer for You!!!
Obama was right the first time.

Birth Certificates? We don't need no stinkin' birth certificates.

Teabaggers, Douchebags, Scumbags and now Birthers.
Can't stand these mofos:

Lou "Mean 'ol Man" Dobbs
G. "WaterGate brain-dead" Gordon Liddy
Sean "Dickhead" Hannity
Rush "Oxycontin doughboy" Limbaugh
Bill "Loudmouth" O'Reilly
AKA Billo the Clown
Sarah "Sayonara" Palin
Ann "Bimbo" Coulter
Glenn "moron" Beck
Michelle "Idiot" Malkin

* Freedom of speech is the right to disagree.
PEACE, LOVE AND ALL THAT JAZZ.

ERacism. Police abuse of power?

I, too, was harassed by the police. This is a true story. Every word of it.

The two men in blue knocked on our front door at 3 AM one morning fifteen years ago. "What's the problem, officers?" Didn't show their badges, didn't ask for my ID, didn't say what was wrong, just looked around with their shiny black flashlights. Then one of them asked me to go play my answering machine. OK, this was the 90's, we still had an answering machine for our home phone. Luckily, I had recorded the outgoing message a couple of days earlier. Way back then, when I was a theater sound guy, I usually change the message often, mixing background music and greetings. They were not really paying attention but could tell that was MY voice on the machine.

I asked what was the problem and finally he reluctantly said someone had called in reporting a crime happening at the house. I asked again: What? ...Nothing. I guess the cops saw nothing suspicious so they left without apologizing or saying anything else to me. They didn't look around outside the house, the bushes, or the neighbors. Just got in their Crown Vic cruiser and took off. OK, these two yahoos woke me and Kathy up in the middle of the night on a weekday, in our own home. Before they left, I was looking at them straight in the eye and I could tell one of them was trying to hold back a laugh, like they were punking me. As their car pulled out of the driveway, I just knew that they were bored, and made up some excuse to break up the monotony of their night on the job. Hey, my own brother is a cop in California. He would do something like this too if it was a slow night.

Moral of the story: Avoid confrontation and ask their police badge number before you get angry and get yo'self arrested for being in your own home.

P.S. This would be the lovely city of Smyrna police dept., in Cobb county, in the deep South state of Georgia. Howdy Y'all!

Confirmation Kabuki Theater

Canada's looking better every day.

Healthcare-YES
Sarah Barracuda - NO
Sugarcoating- NEVER
Radical & Progressive- Ya Betcha

Here's a post from DemocraticUnderground.com, one of my fav website:

"As a Canadian I marvel at all of these terms that are so common to Americans, but are virtually unknown to us.
Here's a partial list off the top of my head:

1. "Out of network"
There are no "networks" in Canada. Doctors and hospitals are not affiliated with private insurance companies. Doctors are private business entities and hospitals are usually run by non-profit boards or regional health associations.

2. "COBRA"
Health coverage is NOT tied to your place of employment in any way. So any COBRA-like scheme is unnecessary.

3. "Co-Pay"
The government pays 100% of basic care, 100% of the time. Drugs are not covered, but are subsidized by government to a point. And because of mass buys, discounts are obtained from the drug companies. That's why our prices are so much lower. Most employers offer a drug plan that pays for 100% of drug cost coverage.

4. "Monthly premium\Deductible"
Wazzat? We don't consider our health to be the same as our possessions.

5. "Waiting for approval"
Doctors are the sole decision makers for health care. NOBODY influences or delays their decisions, warns them of costs or prevents them from giving treatment for any reason.

6. "Government interference"
The provincial government in each province PAYS for whatever services doctors provide. No questions asked. Unless the procedure is experimental, not medically necessary or unwarranted, doctors cannot deny basic care - by law.

7. "Health insurance lobby"
There are NO insurance companies for basic care, only companies for providing insurance for travelers. No money to be made here.

8. "Bureaucracy"
When we visit a hospital or doctor's office, we walk in, get treated, walk out. No "applications", "registrations" or any other kind of paperwork is required. We NEVER have to talk to a single "government official" or wait for a "judgment".

9. "PRE-EXISTING CONDITION"
This is such a foreign concept to us. A Canadian's usual reaction to the explanation of this term is astonishment.

I'm glad to see that a sane health care system is within reach in America. Fight for it. It's WORTH it."

And those long lines that you hear the right-wing naysayers keep droning on about, they are the exceptions, not the norm. Don't believe the Myth.

Good Asian Drivers Music Video

Here's a "5 minute music video focusing on female empowerment, feminism," featuring mostly people of color.

The group's name is The Good Asian Drivers

My 2 pairs of Running shoes

Saucony Triumph 5 >

Brooks Ghost

Another Saturday morning. Another Race

Just finished the ATC Decatur-Dekalb YMCA 4 mile run today. Lovely facility, plenty of parking, great signage and traffic control.

The Atlanta Track Club did a great job organizing this low-key, no T-shirt event. I haven't run more than a couple of miles in two weeks so I was hurting a bit during the 2nd and 3rd mile. Gotta work on my endurance. Had trouble breathing considering that the temperature and humidity were pretty mild this morning. There were some long hills too. I was surprised to hear 8:23 as I passed the first mile marker, guess I started out a little too fast. I was thinking of going around a 10:00 pace. The next mile was also under 9 minute. I tensed up and felt some tightness around the 3rd mile. The 4th mile was fairly flat, I thought I ran smoothly. Just needed to relax and control my breathing a little better during the middle parts. I was able to sprint the last 50 yards or so to finish in under 35 minutes which was my goal for this race. My time was 34:55 so I did all right, I guess. I had fun, learned something, and finished strong. So I will take this experience and apply it to my next run. The most important thing is that I enjoyed myself with my first ever 4 mile race today.

NYC trip

We were on vacation in New York City this past week.

The last time I visited NYC was 1992, I was driving a van full of sound equipment from Portland, Maine and delivered them to a musician who lived in Midtown. I also came to NY the previous year to interview for a job in New Jersey and stayed one night at a hostel in a YMCA. That was my first experience with Port Authority. I didn't get that job and went back to San Diego, but got the job at Portland Stage Company in Maine the next year.

Wow, almost 20 years has passed, how quickly time flies, especially as we get older.

My wife and I did all the usual touristy stuff: Times Square, Empire State Bldg, MOMA, museums, restaurant row, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Theater district, and Central Park. It seemed like we walked at least 5,6 miles every day which was great exercise after eating all the amazing food that was everywhere.

It was a complete sensory overloading experience with the sights, sounds, smells, people, cars, products on the sidewalks, Broadway shows, restaurants and shops. We managed to spend about 4 hours in Central Park, where I ran one loop around this Jackie Onasis Reservoir in about 14 minutes (1.57 mile). It was nowhere as hot or humid as Georgia so I felt great so we walked some more. New York City (or at least Manhattan as I remembered it) is more diverse, vibrant, clean and safer than ever. I would not want to live or drive here. The Subway was great to get around to wherever we need to go, why would you need to drive and park with the ridiculously high rates and the reckless driving. We even made it down to the Village, SoHo and the NYU area. Another week would not be enough to see every thing, but we enjoyed ourselves in the Big Apple and are ready to head back to our humble mellow lives in the little town of Smyrna, Jo Ja.

My 3 Rules for Running

1. Relax.

2. Breathe.

3. Listen to your body.

Post-It Notes Stop Motion

DEADLINE ( A Project for SCAD) Impressive!!! Cool Sounds too.

Another one bites the dust, and another one....

Hitler finds out MJ has died. What? MJ died again?

Atlanta 10K Peachtree Road Race

This is the largest 10K in the U.S. with 55,000 people registered.

Really, is there another 10K race anywhere else in the world that's bigger?

I ran my second 10K race ever and finished with an official time of 1:09:33. I guess I expected the slow pace with so many people in my time group. I was hoping for around 60 minutes flat but the whole 6.2 miles was bottlenecked and crowded from beginning to end. I finally found my rhythm the last mile and a half and I practically sprinted to the finish line. The weather was decent with unusually low humidity (60%) considering this is Georgia in July. It was about 75 degrees and sunny at 8:30 AM.

Mile 1: I was in the last time group, my number was in the 90,000s. The winners have already arrived an hour before our group even got moving. I was taking it all in, trying to relax with all the noise around me: announcements, radio stations live broadcasting, live bands playing, TV coverage, helicopters flying above and the crowds yelling on top of all the cacophony. "Beat It" was pumping from one of the stages. Later I thought I should have worn the white glove on one hand for MJ. Closed my eyes for a second of reflection. We crossed the starting line with the giant American flag flying above Lenox mall around 8:58. We were all walking for about 100 yards. I was trying hard to avoid stepping on the heels of people in front of me.

Mile 2: I was in the midst of 10,000 walkers/joggers/runners/talkers. Some guy was talking loudly on his cell phone next to me. It seems like I was running in place for about 15 minutes. I was weaving around slower runners and walkers and people talking on their Blackberries or iPhone. Seriously, now. I took my first cup of water on the left sidewalk. There was a holy water spray station at the Cathedral of St. Philip on the right side. The water felt great on my backside. I glanced at my stopwatch 25:09. Ridiculous, man! A kid ran past me on the right side and I followed him. All of a sudden he stopped dead in his tracks, I braked abruptly to avoid running into him and swerved around him. Dang kids, I should have known.

Mile 3: Jogging pace now, still way too slow but I'm enjoying some blues band playing on the right sidewalk. "American Woman, Get away from me..." I skipped the water station and marched on, preparing for "Cardiac Hill" or as some local runners call it "HeartBreak Hill". It was not that bad but some older folks were huffing and puffing in front of Piedmont Hospital, which is close to the top of the hill. There were even more walkers now. I see another SuperMan and a few more WonderWoman with their completed capes and wigs. Uncle Sams were everywhere too. I saw some Clark Howard headbands on the ground, actually lots of them. I found out later that he was running in my time group and was giving out free headbands for everyone.

Mile 4: I stopped briefly to get some watermelon slices and water from the Whole Foods/ West Stride running store tent. I got an instant boost of energy and started to pick up the pace hoping to make up for the previous 3 miles. I am now beginning to RUN at my comfortable pace. There were still too many people walking on the left side of the road. I decided to run on the yellow dividing lines in the middle of Peachtree Street. There were a few older men walking or slow motion running-if you know what I mean. More water sprays and kids were shooting water cannons into the crowd. I was wondering where were the beer and doughnuts people talked about when we get to this point. A cold refreshing adult beverage would be awesome right about now, I thought...

Mile 5: "It's all downhill from here!" Some wise guy yelled from the sidewalk. I begin to see some showoff runners with the coveted Peachtree 2009 T-shirts running back in the opposite direction. Yeah, we get it, you finished it Mister BigShot. There were three guys wearing coconut bikini tops and grass skirts. Aloha. Cat in the Hat was down the road. I passed a woman wearing the top half of her wedding dress with the tiara and veil. I passed the Woodruff Arts Center and out of the corner of my eye I saw my wife standing there on the curb across from Colony Square with a confused look. I stopped abruptly and U-turned back to meet her. She had been there since 8:30-for more than an hour . She took the picture of me above and I told her "One more mile, see you at the finish line."

Mile 6.2: The homestretch. I was booking. "Yes, I am going to make it !" I took the sharp left turn with a sprint. I am now focused on staying straight down the middle of the road. I remembered passing a ton of people down 10th St. and swinging my arms furiously almost sprinting full speed as I passed the finish line. Whoooooeeeee, that was fun. I felt awesome and energized like I could run another 6 miles. CONGRATULATIONS, dude!!!!

I grabbed a bottle of water and my T-shirt bag and thanked one of the volunteers for helping as she was wishing me a Happy Fourth.

CLICK HERE to WATCH the AJC PEACHTREE ROAD RACE TIMELAPSE MOVIE

Doggone it. Finally!!!