Words with Friends

It's Thursday which means that The Office was on the agenda for the second half of tonight's run.  I won't bore you with the details of my run (it was pretty uneventful), but I will write about The Office.  I thought that Ricky Gervais was going to have a bigger role after seeing the opening scene, but that proved to be it--just a 45 second cameo that really wasn't all that funny.  Had Gabe and Erin (and Pam and Oscar) not been playing "Scrabble" I might have been upset about the fact that they didn't do more with Ricky Gervais.  Is anyone else addicted to Words with Friends (Scrabble for the iPhone)?  I don't have an iPhone, but that doesn't mean I can't be addicted.  Bob (aka Rob), my roommate, and I have been passing his iPhone back and forth for the past few weeks, playing game after game until his battery dies and he has to plug in his phone.  If you appreciated the exchange between Pam and Oscar then you can relate...

Pam: What is ka, K-A?
Oscar: It means you are about to be destroyed.

Last night I discovered Wordsmith, an app for Android phones that is practically the same as Words with Friends.  If you have an Android device, and you want to get destroyed, download Wordsmith and invite me to a new game.  Username: MattGeorge (Original right?)  I can assure you that I will not be playing words like "ape" (unless I have 7 vowels, which happens every now and then).

The idea of America endures. Our destiny remains our choice.

I know I scheduled Glee for my Tuesday runs, but the state of our union threw a wrench into those plans.  My original plan was to run while I watched the State of the Union Address, but I couldn't find my fully-functioning headphones (and I still can't) so I got a late start at the gym and I was forced to listen to the SOTU through just one operating ear bud.  I was on the treadmill by 9:10 which means that if the processional lasted as long as it usually does I missed (at most) 5 minutes of the actual speech.  I then ran for 25 minutes and 21 seconds.

Sidebar (that is too long to put in parenthesis): It's a pet peeve of mine that I can only set the speed of a treadmill and not the pace.  Without doing long division in my head, and then based on that calculation, changing the speed of the treadmill at an exact moment in time, it's impossible to run at a pace that is nice and round (e.g. 8.5min/mi).  (I'm pretty sure that if you add "flux capacitor" somewhere in that last sentence you will have a line out of Back to the Future.)  To run that pace I'd have to set the speed at 7.059mph, and unfortunately the treadmill settings are in increments of 0.1mph which means that instead of running 3 miles in 25 minutes and 30 seconds, I have to run it in 25 minutes and 21 seconds.  Does this bother anybody else?  No?  Did you at least enjoy the Doc Brown reference?  Great Scott! What a waste of a sidebar...back to the SOTU.

To make a long story short I watched just under half of the SOTU.  I'm going to read the transcript as soon as I finish this blog, but here are a few observations from my initial, partial screening (in bullet-point form because I'm lazy)

• Regardless of your political bent, you have to agree the President Obama is a great orator--better than Clinton in my humble opinion.
• Wasn't it a nice change of pace to look past the President and not see Nancy Pelosi's botoxed face and her obnoxious red suit?  Not that Boenher is much better, but I'll get to him later.
• I thought the overtones of entrepreneurship throughout the speech were very powerful (and inspiring)
• I also appreciated the time and attention Obama devoted to education.
• Maybe it was because his speech wasn't filled with awkward pauses that practically forced people to clap, but I felt like there wasn't as much clapping this year.  That could also be because...
• THE STUPID SEATING ARRANGEMENT!  Given the events of Tuscon, I think it was the right thing to do, but I liked being able to see who stood and who didn't.  I'm sure it also dissuaded people from yelling things like "You Lie" since they were sitting beside people who are on the opposite side the aisle, I mean on the same side of the aisle, I mean in a different (political) party.
• With that said, I did think the speech was fairly non-partisan.  That gives me hope that something might actually get accomplished over the next 2 years.  I'm an eternal optimist however so we'll see.
• Back to Speaker Boehner.  Was this the first TV appearance where John Boenher didn't cry?
• And while I'm on the topic of O-H, I-O, do you think Boenher's guests would have rather been at the SOTU or the Cavs game?  I'm going with the SOTU, hands down.

Those are a few quick thoughts/observations for anyone that may interested.  I'm going to go read the transcript to see what I missed.  I also want to see Congresswoman Bachmann's response.  Maybe I'll turn on MSNBC to see what Olbermann is saying...oh, wait a minute.  

How's the weather where you are?

“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” - Oscar Wilde

98% of the time I rely on other people for my weather forecasts.  At least twice a day at work the weather comes up in conversation (it's a very imaginative workplace)--that's one source.  The other source is usually my mother.  If there's a snowstorm in PA she will call to ask me how much snow I got in Boston.  I'm still trying to explain to her that the weather isn't the same at any given moment everywhere in the world, and while it's cold and snowy in PA it's quite possible that it's warm and sunny in MA.  I know I'll regret the day that she understands jet streams because her PA weather updates are a pretty good predictor of what's to come (a day or two later in MA).  While I'm at it, I might as well take another shot at my wonderful mother...Dad is a Penn State fan (inside joke that only my mom and sister will find funny.  Sorry for excluding everyone else, but those two account for the majority of the page views on this blog so this was a calculated decision).

I digress.  The reason I bring up meteorology is because this weekend fell in the 2% category.  It was cold, and I needed to decide when to run 12 miles.  The current conditions in PA weren't going to help so instead of calling my mom, I resorted to weather.com.  The forecast suggested that Saturday would present the most favorable conditions, but I wasn't very motivated Saturday so I waited until yesterday.  It was 20˚F when I started running yesterday, and14mph winds put the windchill in the single digits, but after a few minutes of running I didn't even notice the cold.

Until yesterday, 9 miles was the farthest I've run.  I wasn't sure how I'd fare on a 12 mile run in frigid temperatures, but I broke down my run into segments to make it more manageable (mentally).  After 3 miles I was 1/4 of the way done, after 4 miles I was 1/3, etc.  Before I knew it I completed the 12 miles and was back home in time for the NFC Championship game as planned.  All-in-all I'd say it went well, but in the spirit of intervals and fractions, I realized something that was quite disappointing--after nearly 2 hours and 12 miles I wasn't even halfway to my end goal.  According to my 18-week training program, I'm right on track, but it is a little disheartening to realize just how far (12 weeks and 14.2 miles) I have left to go.

It's Official

I wrote this last night, but for some reason I didn't post it...

I got my Confirmation of Acceptance today from the Boston Athletic Association.  I'm officially in the 115th Boston Marathon.  So if you're among the people who thought this was all a hoax, check the site: Entrants

It was raining again today so I thought about skipping another workout, but after I got my confirmation in the mail I felt a little guilty, and decided to hit the gym.  I think I'm going to like the gym actually.  Instead of watching TV as I waste away on a couch, I can watch it as I bounce up and down on the treadmill.

I ran 3 miles while I watched Better with You and another 3 miles during Modern Family (after I hit 6 miles, I walked until Modern Family was over).  The guy on the treadmill beside me was watching the Celtics game.  I can't imagine what people thought when they walked by and saw that contrast.  I was laughing at a prime time sitcoms and he was displaying his frustration/excitement at an NBA game.  There's probably something wrong with that picture, but I didn't think twice about my channel selection.  In fact, I've decided to schedule my workouts around good television:

• Tuesday: Glee (I don't know if this qualifies for good television, but there's nothing else on TV on Tuesdays and I like the music) 
• Wednesday: Modern Family
• Thursday: Big Bang Theory or The Office

 

Did You Miss Me?

The past few weeks I was busy working on business school applications so I neglected the blog.  I also neglected my training schedule.  I didn't miss any of the long runs, but I did skip a few of the mid-week runs (which aren't as important).  I submitted my final application last week and just as I was about to recommit to my training program, a foot of snow blanketed New England.  It's nearly impossible (and rather dangerous) to run in a foot of snow so I finally gave in and joined a gym.  Is it wrong that I consider the fact that I haven't been to a gym since college an accomplishment?

I've been to the gym twice since last week.  The first time I ran six miles on the treadmill.  Running for nearly an hour without going anywhere is somewhat frustrating--even with Jeopardy and Two and a Half Men on the television.  The second time I went in for an assessment with a trainer.  I didn't really know what an "assessment" consisted of, but I had every intention to run three miles after said assessment.  For an hour straight the trainer kicked my butt, then he tried to sell me $1000 worth of training sessions.  I declined.  Determined to carry out my plan, I hopped on an open treadmill and started running.  0.3 miles later I was on my way to the locker room, completely exhausted.  That was the last time I ran.

I planned to run today, but the afternoon snow turned into an evening downpour and the only way I was going outside was if my apartment caught on fire (and the rain didn't put it out).  Mother Nature must not read this blog, or she doesn't like me, because she hasn't been very cooperative lately.  I'm not sure that anyone else does either, but if you're reading, the blogger in me is back.  Now I just need to summon the runner in me.  Maybe tomorrow.