Posts

Showing posts from 2008

My best Christmas in a long time

Image
I am having the best holiday season in a long time. My son Zak is visiting me here in Austin.  I have not seen him for about 2 years.  I started the holiday season by carving pumpkins for Holloween.  I decided to give up my bah humbug attitude that I have had since moving to Texas. I miss being with my children and I miss them especially during the holidays.  I suppose that I finally reached the conclusion that I have to move on to a new phase in my life and my children will be a part of my holiday celebration some of the time and not all of the time. So this picture is another self portrait.  Most of the time I am so serious, but when I took this picture I was really happy.

Christmas Crispy Duck

My first You Tube video. Sylvia and I got a Web Cam for our one year wedding anniversary

Whoo Hoo, Wacom 12 x 19 Tablet is here

It has been a long time since I have had a Wacom tablet connected to my computer.  It all started when I left Oregon and built a new computer. My first Wacom tablet had a serial connection and new computer motherboards do not have thsi conenction.  Another factor was that Wacom drivers for Windows Vista does not support the serial interface. So I have been without a real electronic drawing devise for about 3 years. Well finally I boke down and decided to help the economy and buy a new 12x19 Wacom tablet. I purchased the tablet after trying to draw a logo for a Logo Tournament . Thsi was the last straw.  If I want to compete in designing fast logos and creating new drawings for my comic I needed to get a new tablet. Well I got one and it arrived yesterday. Currently I am getting myself reaquainted with how it works, but I am already planning several projects that will jump start my drawing efforts.  Expect to see some improvement in the quality of the scans of the 25 year old drawings o

The Legend of Samantha (LOS)

Finally I am making progress on getting my comic book online . I have the framework up and all I have to do now is scan the old ink drawings into my computer and upload them to the new comic blog site.  The site is located here: http://launiart.com/samantha .

BunMart Intergalactic Challenge 2008

Image
My first run at Bandera was just wonderful.  I carpooled with my buddy Stephanie and we arrived at 7:30 AM and it was 28 degrees.  We sat in the car and waited for signs on life to appear.  Soon the parking lot was buzzing with crazy folks getting ready to run. I was wondering if I would soon discover that I had forgotten some essential part of equipment like my running shoes. Before the run got underway we all gathered around Jason's truck where all the goodie bags were stored.  Henry was standing in the back giving a lecture on the course and handing out maps.  After the course description he started tossing out goodie bags by shirt size to the first person to raise their hand to claim it. I usually do not like holiday gift exchanges but this was the most unique white elephant exchange that I have participated in.  If you did not like your bag you still got the best gift of all and that was the run. We all started out on the first 10 mile loop and soon separated into a fast pace

Howl's Walking Castle

Image
Last night I watched Howl's Walking Castle .  It was another wonderful animated film by master storyteller Hayao Miyazaki. I love all of Hayao Miyazaki's work ever since I watched My Neighbor Totoro . Howl's Castle is simpley incredible.  There was so much detail in the story and the visuals.  I was was transported to another world and completly forgot who or where I was while I watched the movie.

LauniArt.com redesign

I removed Joomla from my launiart.com web site. Joomla is great for a community site so it was not getting the use it deserves at my personal art site. I decided to redesign the site using static XHTML pages. The site only has one page but I look forward to developing it into a site that will showcase my drawings. I like hand coding XHTML pages. I will experiment with making the site as graphic as I want and not care about making the layout appeal to my usual corporate or education customers.

Now I'm somebody on Facebook!

Image
Finally got a Facebook account.  My La Jolla High School 40th class reunion committee made the incentive for me to create it. I am in the Austin Network and the Huston-Tillotson Network. I am having fun exploring something that I have avoided for so ling.  I created this badge and I am testing it here on my Blog.

1004.7 miles, Yipee I made my goal!

Well I made my goal tonight running in the dark at Saint Edwards Park.  I was running hill workouts on the toughest hill in the park.  I ran 5.22 miles in 76 minutes. On Monday I ran 8.39 miles in 82 minutes on the street.  There is a big difference in my speed on a flat street compared to running up and down rocky hills.

1,000 miles (well actually 999.48 according to my records)

I have made my goal of running 1,000 miles in one year.  When I started in January I had not enrolled myself in the idea of running 62 miles.  All I wanted to do was run around LBJ Lake and rack up the miles so that I could say that I ran 1,000 miles. Well much to my surprise I have made a lot of discoveries and friends along the way to running 1,000 miles in 2008. Running on rocky trails is like feeling the force with a light saber in your hand and your eyes blindfolded. Rocky trails are natures way of giving you the ultimate chance to do ballet tap dance and jazz all at once. You can learn a lot about people by running two or three hours with them on a trail. If you do not fuel your body on a long run the brain is the first thing to get cut off on energy. I can run for over 8 hours but my Garmin 405's battery can not. For me setting goals is more about how I am being on the way to the goal instead of reaching the goal. I did not drag myself through 1,000 miles of runnin

Sirius Disorder Wake

Today was a sad day for my musical world.  Today was the first day that my favorite satellite radio station was not on the air.  I had come to love listening to Sirius Disorder, but today after the merger of Sirius and XM stations I discovered that Sirius Disorder was cut. I got a Sirius radio when I purchased my Dodge Ram 3500 Cumins.  I had not listened to any radio regularly for about 10 years.  I had grown tired of commercials and had developed a passion for Internet radio.  I grew up listening to free form FM radio in the 1970s.  I remember disc jockeys playing whole sides of albums like Genesis and Santana.  Today that just will not happen.  I remember a station in Pasadena KPPC where the DJs played anything they wanted.  This is how I discovered the music of Frank Zappa. So much to my surprise I discovered a wild free form station on satellite called Sirius Disorder.  I loved it and listened to it in my truck and online 90% of the time that I was listening to music. I will surv

Running is a Social Sport

Where ever you are in your exercise plan is where you are suppose to be.  There is no right or wrong there is just you. One of the nice things about just being yourself (I repeat this to myself a lot so it is positive re-enforcement for me to write it as well) is that you do not have to rely on what others think or about what the voice in your head thinks about you.  You have the freedom to be you, whatever you chose.  Sometimes I have let the voice in my head tell me to do things because of what other will think.  More often lately I have been breaking out and discovering a lot of nice things about the world including meeting people that I would normally not talk to. My co-worker Stephanie introduced me to getting me beyond the barrier of just running and not being social.  I sue to run by myself until I started running with Stephanie.  Running and talking is actually fun.  Now when I run I always seek out a group and I love to talk.  Now for a woman talking in a crowd may not be a ch

37 Mile Run

Technical Yesterday I ran from 7 AM to 4 PM and a distance of 37 miles.  This is the longest that I have run to date.  I ran in the Barton Greenbelt in Austin, Texas . The last time I attempted a long 30 mile training run I ran out of fuel and only completed 28 miles.  During that 28 mile run on 10/25/2008 I now know that the lack of fuel for my body directly affects the ability of my brain to focus on running. There are several hurdles that I will overcome in my quest to do my 62 mile run at Bandera in January 2009 . One of these hurdles was how to fuel my body on long runs.  During my run yesterday I tried Spiz for the first time.  I used Spiz exclusively for fuel with the exception of two handfuls of cashews and two sticks of dried sweetened papaya. The Spiz really helped because on my last lap at mile 30 from Zilker Park to the Hill of Life I was able to run the whole way with confidence and energy.  I only slowed my pace to go over the really rocky spots because I really wanted

Ch-Ch-Ch- Changes Really Here

I voted in the court house in La Grange, Texas.  This is the same courthouse that my dad told me that he and his mother were denied access when they went to discuss land business because they were Negros.  After I voted for Obama I came out side and I started to cry.  I could feel great joy from my ancestors that I was standing in a place of their past suffering and that I had voted for the first president of the US of African and European descent. I also think that it is really cool that Obama is bi-racial and has lived in a Muslim country.  Change is truly here.

Last Obama visit on The Daily Show before election day

What a difference a year makes

Image
October 2007 From Lonnie I have been taking pictures of myself with my Canon EOS 10D for a few years.  I was uploading some files to Google's Picasa and I noticed an album that had a picture of me that I took this time last year.  I decided to take another picture of myself and compare them. October 2008 From Lonnie One thing that I notice is that the picture from last year was taken using ISO 100 under an indoor incandescent bulb. The picture that I took today is using natural sunlight from a window. Last years picture shows that I am a little fatter than this year. Check out the rolls on my chin. My hair si also a few inches longer. Taking close up pictures of yourself is very scary (at least for me). My camera shows all of the pores, scratched and scars on my face. My face is quite interesting. Here is a self portrait that I drew last year. From Launi's Art So now I think that on Halloween I will continue this tradition of taking my picture. I will see how I change e

81 Miles to go

I set my goal to run 1,000 miles in 2008. so far I am averaging 91 miles a month. I have run a total of 918 miles this year. In September I ran 137 miles. In October I ran 122 miles. My longest run so far is the 30 mile trail race that I did on October 18 in Palo Duro Canyon. I am getting comfortable running trails at night with my green flashlight. I can comfortably run 10 miles in about 2 hours. A 10k (6.2 miles) run is just a warm up run for me now. What I am dealing with now is how to get fuel into my body at mile 25.  I have been experimenting with eating PPJs, protien fruit smoothies and gels, but they do not last.  I am going to try a product called Spiz next.  I have placed an order with a local doctor and I will get it next week.

More Political Horror Stories... I can't wait until November 5

I was reading some online political Blogs tonight while passing out candy. This is a very scary Halloween.   As an African American who considers himself an independent I voted for Obama for several reasons. The first and primary reason is that the US really needs a break from the way the good ole boys club has run this country. My first choice for a president would have been a black woman, second choice a white woman, third choice a black man. Obama is a break from the past presidents because of his bi-racial heritage and his choices of how he lived in the US. This country needs leaders who can thin outside of the box when it comes to solving problems. I voted for Regan on the same idea that I voted for Obama. I believe that Obama like Regan will not be insecure about not being the brightest person in the room. I believe that all great leaders surround themselves and seek out the advice from experts in their fields and then build a solution from a consensus of experts. Obama h

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX

This post is about using a lot of Google stuff.  There are a lot of folks that are calling applications like Picasa and Chrome Cloud applications.  I am using Chrome for the first time to write in my Blog.  I also used Picasa on my computer to organize my images and upload them to web albums.  I can embed Flash slide shows in my posts with out doing any programming.  Check out the images from my trip to the Cadillac Ranch. I am planning on upgrading my free Google storage account so that I can load all of my 21GB of images on Google servers.  Thsi will be a backup and a way to publish my images when I want to on my Blog or other web sites.

Palo Duro 50K (30 mile) Trail Run

Image
I ran my first 50K trail run this past weekend. It is the longest run that I have done in my life.  I ran from 7 AM in the morning until 2:44 PM. My total time on the course was 6 hours and 44 minutes. The run started in the dark.  I was really excited to do this run.  My friend Stephanie had told me that this trail run was really cool.  When we started out of the starting gate it took about a quarter of a mile before we could all start running.  It was a congested group of runners with flashlights and head lamps shuffling along down a path that got narrower and narrower until it was single track.  For a few seconds I felt like I was in the crowed exiting ACL on Sunday night. As we ran through the early pre-dawn I was in awe of how the colors of the canyon walls started to slowly fill with color.  I was running with a green flashlight and I felt like Flash the Green Lantern as I hopped and danced over an occasional rock on the red dirt trail. I only hoped to have this much energy at mi

Why I support Obama

Image
http://lickingcalcutta.blogspot.com/2008/10/viral-e-mail-from-marlene-about-obama.html Always research what you hear or read from unverifiable sources. http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2008/10/antiobama_virus_hits_home.php Anti-Obama Virus Hits Home I was pretty surprised when I got an e-mail this morning from a friend who's a sophisticated figure in the local music scene. The e-mail amounts to a long conspiracy theory meant to suggest that Obama has questionable Muslim connections who may have funded his college tuition and other endeavors. Then I got the same e-mail today from a Fort Lewis-based sergeant I know serving in Iraq. It begins like this: "Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. ‘Barry' (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had

2008 Austin City Limits

Well I went to another amazing ACL festival this weekend.

Breaking through my barriers

I am training for Bandera 100k Trail Race in January so this is why I am running this race in Palo Duro .  I have been preparing for endurance running since last year.  Currently my longest run is 20.36 miles.  When I was in my forum the leader, Steve Zaffron was 70 years old and he was doing 100 mile runs in the Rockies.  His goal was to be the strongest man for his age.  This really inspired me. I had stopped running in my early thirties because of knee injuries.  I am 56 years old now. I had been telling myself that I could not run. So after Landmark Education training I started creating some possibilities and my life was being transformed.  There were several areas that Landmark provided me with tools to make my life fulfilling.  I transformed relationships at work, home and with my children, but I wanted more.  I wanted to really challenge myself to do something that I had no way of figuring out how to do it except that I was going to take a big leap of faith and say that I wan

20.36 miles, My longest run in my life

Last weekend I ran 16 miles.  This weekend I ran 20.36 miles. The LBJ Lake loop (minus the MoPac to Ist street 2 miles) Total distance: 8.05 mi Total Time: 1:34 Avg Pace: 11:40 per mi Total Ascent: 1214 Ft Total Descent: 1208 Ft The Barton Creek loop Total distance: 10.31 mi Total Time: 2:26 Avg Pace: 14:12 per mi Total Ascent: 3280 Ft Total Descent: 3277 Ft Total distance 20.36

Nike Human Race 10k

[gallery] I ran the race in 53:32:35 at 8:31 minute per mile.  You can view my stats here . The Ben Harper concert was so fine. Ben played a solo on the tombolas during his first song and then threw the drum sticks in the audience and I caught one. The race was a blast, but it was challenging.  It was really hot and humid and there was little breeze.  I am glad that I trained in the afternoon and evening during the heat so that I was prepared for this race. Running with 13,758 runners who were all wearing the same red shirt was amazing.  As I looked up ahead of me I felt like I was a part of a flowing read blob that was winding it's way through the streets of Austin. Austin had more runners than New York or Los Angeles. which are much larger cities by population and area. There were more than 700,000 runners world wide running in the race. Out of the 750,000 runners I finished in 46,721st place. In Austin out of 13,758 runners I finished in 1,114th place. One of the nice things tha

Nike Human Race Last Day of Training

Well all of the RunTex Fit City training and Nike club runs are over.  I had such a fun time running and going to the bars after the training runs.  I do not drink alcohol and do not go to bars.  It was a refreshing twist to be in a hot and sweaty crowd of runners in a bar in Austin. I ran in 100 degree heat from July 19 until last night training for the Nike Human Race on August 31, 2008.  Last year I struggled to run back to back 10 minute miles on a tread mill.  Last night I ran 7.02 miles around Lady Bird Johnson Lake from Mile 0 to the MoPac Brige to I-35 in 1:01:56. Below is the pace that I ran each mile. Mile 1 at 8:07/mile Mile 2 at 8:15/mile Mile 3 at 8:54/mile Mile 4 at 8:29/mile Mile 5 at 8:25/mile Mile 6 and 7 9:48/mile (my cool down run) The RunTex coach and Coach Ware (HT track) say that stress training helps make you run stronger. I have never measured my running until I started the Nike Human Race training. Now I have a Garmin 405 and it makes a bi

RunTex training for the Nike Human Race 10k session 7

I did something that amazed me last evening.  The RunTex training session finished with another 2 mile stress run.  During a stress run you run about 70-80% the first mile and then you run was fast as you can for the second mile.  This training is for running under stress at the end of the race.  The first time that I did it a few weeks ago I ran the 2 miles in 15 minutes and when I finished I was really tired.  This time I ran the 2 miles in 15 minutes 10 seconds and I was not exhausted like the the first time.  I rested and talked to members of the class and when the coach said for the class to do a cool down jog I decided to run some more.  I looked up and saw some Nike Human Race pace setters with a group of runners at the water coolers.  I decided that I would run with them.  After we started runing I thought we would run at a 10 minute mile pace but after talking with a sweeper I found out I was running with the 9 minuted mile pace group.  I ran with them for about four miles bef

Wifi Cowboy Promotes Healthy Snacks

Image
I have a web site that I use to write about my experiences with farming and rual land management. The WiFi Cowboy web site has banner ads from Google. Today I noticed that Hostess was the ad displaying on the site. I had to laugh at what was going on because here I am writing about healty food and there is an ad for Hostess products. I am experimenting with Google Adsense so I am learning how the ads appear on pages based on the text on the page.  I am also experimenting with the Wifi Cowboy web site by using pure XHTML 1.0 Strict standards.

Nike Human 10k Race Training Run Number 8

Training Data from my Garmin Fore Runner 405 can be viewed online. I still remember last summer barely being able to run 4 miles in the heat in 45 minutes.  Now I am running 5 in under 45 minutes. Data collection does have it's benefits even when you are measuring just your own personal performance. This training run was very humid and I did not feel like running right before the start. Running with 45 other people started out with the 9 minute 5 mile group gave me a lot of motivation to just do it. What surprisies me about running the hills in Travis Heights is that I thought that the elevation gain would be more than the elevation gain on the 24th street hill on the Starbucks training run.

Paris Hilton for President

Nike Human 10k Race Training Run Number 7

Image
I am really excited about running.  I have been running again since February 2005 without a watch or timing device.  This year starting in January I challenged myself to run 1,000 miles in a year.  So far I have run 589 miles this year.  Most of the miles have been around LBJ Lake by myself.  Well in July I started training with RunTex and the Fit City Team to train for the Nike Human Race 10k.  I just ran my second run using my new Garmin Forerunner 405.  I am now collecting data to improve my strength and speed. Today I ran again with the 9 minute 5 mile group.  The pace leader also had a Garmin Forunner 405.  we ran for about 1.5 miles at 7.5 minute miles. This was faster than I was use to, but I kept up. The Garmin 405 sends data to my computer wirelessely when it is in range. When I looked at the data from today's run I was amazed that I averaged 8.23 minutes per mile.  The after the last part of the run up the hill I was running as fast as at the start of the run. During the

RunTex training for the Nike Human Race 10k session 5

Image
I purchased a Garmin Forerunner 405.  This training run on Newnan street was a test for hill training and the GPS tracking.  I ran from the hill training over to the 6th bar for a total of 4.09 miles.  I ran the hill 7 times and then ran halfway 3 times backwards for a total ascent of 1,399 feet and a total descent of 1,325 feet.  Now I would have never guessed that I had run this much ascent in two miles but I did.

RunTex training for the Nike Human Race 10k session 4

I 2 miles in 15 minutes

Nike Human 10k Race Training Run Number 2

Yesterday was the second training run.  I ran with the 9 minute per mile group for 5 miles.  I improved my time running it in 42 minutes.  I pushed myself to keep up with two guys that started to leave the group and we ran the last mile fast. The course started at Guero's on South Congress and looped through the Travis Heights area. there were some hills in the course that were fun but for me were a challenge at the pace that I was running. I met Ashley of Nike who is coordinating this event in Austin.  Last Saturday at Starbucks I talked with her about shoes.  At this run we spoke again and she asked me why I was doing the run.  I though a moment and then I responded with my feeling about wanting to be part of a community of runners.  I had already met several new friends since starting this running adventure.

I want my Form-Z

Image
AutoDesSys products: form·Z is an award winning general purpose solid and surface modeler with an extensive set of 2D/3D form manipulating and sculpting capabilities, many of which are unique. It is an effective design tool for architects, landscape architects, urban designers, engineers, animators and illustrators, industrial and interior designers, and all design fields that deal with the articulation of 3D spaces and forms. form·Z is highly responsive to the needs of mature designers and, at the same time, novices can use it with ease. I am eargly waiting to get my upgrade to Form-Z.

Nike Human 10k Race Training Run Number 1

Today was the first training run for the Nike Human 10k Race.  I started with the 11 minute per mile group that was running 5 miles.  After about one half a mile I cought up with the 10 minute per mile group. I stayed with the group until mile 3.5 and then the main group took a wrong turn and I follow a woman as we looped up some hills and returned to the start at Starbucks Coffee on 24th and Nueces. We ran about 5.5 miles in 55 minutes.

RunTex training for the Nike Human Race 10k

I have a correction on the time of the running class. The class starts at 6:30 PM. Here is a link for more information. RunTex The training is part of the Nike Human Race 10K 11th and Congress, Austin, TX, US Sunday, August 31, 2008 6:30 PM Race 8:30 PM Concert If you go to the web site you will see that Austin is among several cities was picked out of all the cities around the world to participate in this event. Besides talking about running the owner of RunTex, Paul Carrozza , discusses health and diet as well. Paul has a background in bio-chemestry. During a break in the training he was asked how much water do we need to drink. His answer surprised me. He said that most of us are drinking too much water. Most of the hydration that we need should come from fresh fruits and vegetables. If we eat the correct balance of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and balance the source of our protein we can make our bodies less susceptible to cancer. When you get most of your protei

RunTex training

I am participating in a RunTex free running class that meets each Thursday 6 PM meet at Stevie Ray Vaughn statue. This Thursday is meeting 2. This is the same class that folks pay big bucks for. This is the same class that was offered at HT two years ago. I was in the HT class and I went from walking a mile to running 10 to 15 miles several times a week. This class is for all levels from walking to running. The owner of RunTex was the coach of the first class. He talked about how exercise makes your body not crave sugar. When your body is mostly inactive it craves serotonin which makes you feel good. Serotonin is found in foods that contain sugar. The best way to lose weight is to eat less sugar. The way to eat less sugar is to remove the body's craving for it by exercising. I will be participating in this class with my wife so I hope to see some of you in the class.

Google Web Tools

Go to Sylvia's Blog .  In the search box enter garden and see what happens. I created a custom Google.com search engine.  It searches across all of the domains that we have and puts the results on a page with other related banners.  The more content that we add to the pages the more words will be valid in the search. The custom search can be revised or I can create others.  Here is a list of the web sites. http://austingardencoach.com http://austingardencoaching.com http://launiart.com/blog http://launiart.com http://zaramyth.com/lonnie http://sylvia.wormley.org/blog http://sylvia.wormley.org http://www.wormley.org I spent the July 4th weekend setting up Google Analytics and Google Adsense on the web sites listed above.

What is Enviromental Design?

Wikipedia defines Enviromental Design as: Environmental design is the process of addressing environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1960s has made the concept more explicit. Environmental Design has been defined: "We live in the world by design. Creating the everyday environment in which we live involves complex systems of cultural meaning, visual communication and the use of tools, technology and materials. As a field of study, Environmental Design encompasses the built, natural, and human environments and focuses on fashioning physical and social interventions informed by human behaviour and environmental processes. Design asks us to find answers to the most fundamental of human questions: how should we live in the world and what should inform our actions? This complex endeavour requires an interdiscipli

Wormley Design

Well this has been a busy weekend.  I have moved my personal web log to a new address.  If you are reading this then you may be looking for my personal blog site.  This web log is being used for my design business and it will focus on environmental design issues. Check out Wormley Design web site or my Wormley Design blog for more information about my business ventures. My art web site is the home of my personal blog.  You can visit LauniArt for more information about my art creations.

New web address for Screws in my Coffee

Well this has been a busy weekend.  I have moved my personal web log to a new address.  If you are reading thsi then you have found the new site.  My old web log is being used for my design business and it will focus on environmental design issues. Check out Wormley Design web site or my Wormley Design blog for more information about my business ventures. My art web site is the home of my personal blog.  You can visit LauniArt for more information about my art creations.

What Black People Like

I enjoyed reading some of your humor about what white people like.  The purpose of this email is three-fold. 1. I wanted to expose you to some black humor 2. I wanted to show Sylvia an example of formatting ides for doing quotes and hyper-linking in her blog 3. I wanted to show some fine examples of blog writing and sites. I started my search using Google.  Sometimes when I am getting ides for my blog I start by writing an email such as this.  Eventually I may decide to post this directly into my blog.  Using Word Press you can set this up so that you can email your blog directly, but I have not configured this on my blog.  What I do is copy the email directly into the web editor an post it. My first example of what black people like is listed below.  You will notice that I have referenced the snippet using a different color font than my original written text and I have also italicized the font. Stuff Educated Black People Like — Its already been proven that EBP feel that they hav

Revision 3 of my blog theme

Image
I was working on my wife's blog and decided to update the look and feel of my own. I selected a theme that was originally designed by Benedikt Rieke-Benninghaus. The theme name: Dynamic-Vision 10. The theme URI: http://benediktrb.de . It is cool that Sylvia is getting into blogging and we have a similar theme on our sites. Here is my original theme during 2005-2006: I took the banner with my camera. I got a cup of cold day old coffee and dumped some screws in it and started shooting pictures with my Canon 10D. Here is my next theme during 2006-2007: I got the name for this blog from a friend that I worked with when I was in the Unification Church. His name was Walter Frank and if I remember correctly he would joke about screws in his coffee. I started writing a book of poems and titled it Screws in my Coffee. Here is my current theme for summer 2008: So now I have revised my blog theme to a lighter bigger font. I am not sure why I picked the black background of the previous t

477.09 miles left to run in 2008

I have completed 50% of my goal to run 1,000 miles in 2008. June was a great month for me and my running. I ran 109 miles in June. I am running with more confidence and strength. I am comfortable running 11 miles several times in one week. When the weather is hot an humid I run a bit slower, but when it cools down I am faster. Lately the weather has been in the high nineties with 60% to 70% humidity. I run as fast as I feel with no pressure to run against the clock. I am also enjoying my trail running class. The switch to running trails is a noce break from the routine of running around town lake.

The Saint 10k Trail Run

I ran the 10k The Saint today.  It was my first official 10k race in about 25 years.  This was also my first trail race. I got my new Vasque shoes and ran in them for the first time.  They made me run with more confidence and speed on the down hills because of the increased support over my road running shoes. I am not sure about my time, but I had a timing chip so I’ll check the Rogue web site to see what it was. I talked to my coach and I definitely want to train for the 30 mile and 50 mile races in the fall.  I did not push myself to run 20k today.  I did run as fast as I could on the 10k just to see how well I would do.  I learned a lot by watching the 30k runners as they passed me.  I also watch what they did at the aid station finish after I was done.  I will definitely get a cooler and try running with two bottles to prevent injuries when you fall. Today the morning temperature was about 80 and overcast, but it was humid.  Everyone was soaking wet and lots of folks had sweaty mu