Run 873: This time I beat the tree root

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run.

Whoops, it’s 11 days later and I’m finally running again. This was not my plan.

But a toothache and other things got in the way. On the plus side, this meant I avoided running in what will likely have been the hottest stretch of summer.

My goal today was to do a 5K, whatever the pace, and emerge intact. Success! Though there was a moment where the intact part came into question.

I had planned to run counter-clockwise, but when I got to the lake I realized I’d done that the last few times, so it was time to mix things up and be crazy by running clockwise. I started off near the dam and though my first km was a slow 5:55/km, I was pleased when the second km came in at exactly the same pace. That didn’t last, though, and by the fourth km I’d slipped all the way to 6:15/km. I picked up the pace a little and shaved an impressive 10 seconds off the last lap, bringing my overall average to 6:05/km. I really can’t expect better with so little running and so much time between runs.

On the plus side, I felt fine. I knew UI was slow, but it wasn’t an agonizing, “When will this end?!” slow, it was just a moderate pace. It was warm, but a breeze helped, so conditions were also fine. Fine all around!

But…at around the 1.8 km mark, I was running along a shaded section of trail when my right toe hit something very firm. I can’t absolutely say it was a tree root, but I’m pretty sure it was a tree root (I will confirm later). As my foot got snagged, momentum began carrying the rest of my body forward. Fortunately, the root must have been small, because almost as quickly, my toe popped over it and I was able to pull myself upright and keep running, instead of splatting, like I did in August 2016.

Knowing what happened eight years ago, I felt an especially appreciative moment in not falling. The mind is a strange thing, though, and I continued on the rest of the run unconcerned about any other tree roots.

Hopefully the next run will be on a more regular schedule and not just whenever. Also, hopefully no more tree roots. Or rocks. Or ninjas. Or anything that will snag my feet.

Still Creek, post-run.

Stats:

Run 873
Average pace: 6:05/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:12 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:37
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-21°C
Humidity: 59-58%
Wind: light
BPM: 156
Weight: 167.1
Total distance to date: 6,225 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (10/26/36)

A “weird abomination” (yes, AI-related): Pickles and Cat

I am one of those who believes we are in a big ol’ AI bubble and that bubble is going to burst and leave a big mess that will probably leave tech CEOs unscathed, but result in more mass layoffs of workers. Such is our society as of now.

I understand and agree with those who object to AI companies hoovering up data without permission, then repackaging it in dubious and energy-sucking ways. Generally, AI is bad, and its positives are small. For me, it has been a silly diversion when I indulge in it, which is not often. For example, I have a NightCafe account (an AI image generation site) with over 3,000 unsued credits. You get 5 free credits per day. So yeah.

But I occasionally indulge and one of my interweb friends shared some silly songs he’d made using Suno. It was mildly amusing, but then he mentioned you can write your own lyrics, so I had to try it.

I brainstormed for several minutes (quite literally) and wrote a song called “Pickles and Cat.” I told Suno to make the song country and upbeat. It generated two versions. This is the first and “best” (IMO) and is likely the closest I’ll ever come to writing and performing music. I’m good with that. Garage Band is hard.

(I made the artwork in Canva, it was a labour of love.)

Pickles and Cat

I like my pickles and I like my cat
My cat likes pickles, well, how about that?

I put my pickles in jars
And I send 'em to Mars

Now the Martians have my pickles
Nothing else rhymes with pickles

And the Martians they ate them all up
I sent my cat but they wanted a pup
I told them no sir, I can't do that
Then they said OK, send the cat

Pickles and cat, my two favorite things
Green and orange, they make my bells ring

Pickles and cat, you should get yourself some
But not mine, I'm not sharing none

When my cat got to Mars he scratched a couch
It was a Martian, and the Martian yelled ouch

My cat ran away to a big rocket ship
Pressed all the buttons and went on a trip

Landed on a big space rock and scratched up the place
Now no one goes there, it's his own private space

Pickles and cat, my two favorite things
Green and orange, they make my bells ring

Pickles and cat, you should get yourself some
But not mine, I'm not sharing none

And for the completist, here’s the direct Suno link: Pickles and Cat by @interstellaralbums985 | Suno

Reminder: Don’t read the comments

This is mainly for myself, but also for anyone reading this. It’s true, not all comments are bad, but this morning I found myself reading a brief article on The Verge about running macOS on an iPad (the article was short because the real “article” is a YouTube video). There are dozens of comments from readers and while none are offensive or particularly displaying ignorance, it’s a rehash of all the same old Mac vs. iPad arguments I’ve seen before, and it made me realize I could be spending my time in other, possibly more productive ways

Like writing this blog post warning others not to spend time doing what I just did.

And now, a kitten discovering it has feet:

Must be compatible with hand shank

It had been a while since I’d looked at USB-C PCI cards for my PC (which does not have any built-in USB-C ports), so I thought I’d look again and found the one below. It’s compatible with a wide range of devices and peripherals, including, of course, the hand shank.

Birding, July 20, 2024: Hidden driveways

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver)
Weather: Sunny, 23-27°C

The Outing

Piper Spit

Still no turtles.

We broke tradition two ways: Going birding on a Sunday and hitting Piper Spit first. The outing got off to a near-calamitous start when Nic found he could not adjust the f-stop on his camera. He fixed it by doing a variation of the classic turn it off/on by removing his telephoto lens, then putting it back on. Electronics are weird!

Near the dam, we saw some baby wood ducks, but not exactly close-up. We continued on and at the stump with the freaky fungus we saw a pair of Douglas squirrels being simultaneously adorable. One sat on top of the stump, eating a large nut like a cob of corn. I like squirrels because they like to eat and when they eat, they don’t move, which means I can usually get good shots. This seems increasingly important now, as my camera, or parts of it, seem to be experiencing an increasing array of issues. More on this later.

Once at the spit itself, the land mass to the east has returned, after multiple weeks of very hot and dry weather. It was pretty much Goose Island.

As expected, there wasn’t much variety in the waterfowl–mostly mallards and wood ducks with their prim new mullets. However, even the songbird population seemed to be largely elsewhere, save for an errant song sparrow and a mass of blackbirds hopping and flying about, seed smeared on their beaks. We witnessed a surly kid blackbird demanding to be fed by a parent, then proving himself completely capable of feeding himself when the parent took too long. Kids!

We got intel on where to find a lazuli bunting at Tlahutum, which was conveniently our next stop.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Rusting fences, but no buntings.

By now it was still rather humid and clouds began gathering. Some of them looked moisture-laden, but I hadn’t seen any showers in the forecast. You can probably see where this is going.

The directions for the bunting took us outside the park proper, to a nearby grass labyrinth and the titular hidden driveway (also the name of the album by my country punk fusion band). We listened, we looked, we trod around, but we heard no buntings and we saw no buntings. We left, buntless.

At the community gardens, we noted an absence of swallows, which may have already started heading off on their fall migration. In their place, a few robins, towhees and one elusive American goldfinch (I got one shot before it flew off).

By now, my camera–which I had cleaned the night before–was starting to show issues, the most prevalent being an inability for the shutter to engage, also sometimes accompanied by an inability to change focus. I did some experimenting with my kit lens and have made a provisional diagnosis that the problem lies with the telephoto lens or the adapter it uses. Look, if I win the $30 million 6/49 jackpot, I promise I will donate oodles of money to good causes and be a level-headed millionaire. But I will also totes buy a new camera, because even repairing this one is probably not worth it.

We elected to skip the rest of Tlahutum this time and headed off for lunch.

The shower–intermittent and half-hearted, began with lunch, but ended before we got to Maplewood Flats. Traffic on the highway was so slow (it was Sunday, too, remember, not rush hour on Wednesday or something) that we lost the GPS signal on Google Maps while going through the Cassiar Connector.

Maplewood Flats

The very low tide at Burrard Inlet.

Maplewood Flats had better light than we expected, but birds were scarce, despite a whiteboard near the entrance showing off all kinds of semi-exotic species that had been sighted here in the last few weeks. We saw some seagulls and cormorants, as well as a mallard mom and her snoozing brood by an inner pond. There are now even more signs warning people to keep off the mudflats, and the tide was indeed very low, exposing much of the shoreline. We were good and did not venture out.

In the end, I only shot a little over 250 photos, or about 1.25 batteries’ worth. With the paucity of birds, the high humidity and my camera being weird, it was a fine day to be out and enjoy the views, but maybe not so great for actual birding.

And now I’m off to write tracks for Hidden Driveways.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Purple martin (maybe?)
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Cormorant
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Douglas squirrels

I will draw a bird soon

This is me promising on the internet to do something. Maybe not today, but soon, as defined as “in the next couple of days.” In the meantime, to help inspire me, my bird art of a Sandhill crane:

Sandhill crane being very Sandhill crane

Walk 116 and 117: Some like it hot (not especially me)

View of Burnaby Lake just west of Cariboo Dam, between walks.

A little slower today, but also a fair bit warmer and drier. I surprised myself by doing as much running as I did on the second walk.

Mr right ankle felt a bit stiff/janky at times when running, probably from lack of use. 😛 I did remember to stretch before heading out, though!

Being a Saturday, there were oodles of people at Hume Park, enjoying the pool, the shade and possibly alcohol, which can now be consumed in specific areas. Kids on swing sets on one side, drunk adults belching creatively on the other.

The river trail was relatively quiet, though, probably due to the heat (I did not pick an optimal time to go out), with no other joggers and no dogs at all. It was kind of nice.

Anyway, my steps are complete for another day.

Stats:

Walk 116 and 117
Average pace: 9:32 and 8:30/km
Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake
Distance: 4.02 and 4.04 km
Time: 38:17 and 34:19
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 29-30°C
Humidity: 45-42%
Wind: light
BPM: 113 and 121
Weight: 167.0 pounds
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255
Total distance to date: 855.82 km

Save, don’t update

In WordPress, if you publish a post and later make changes to it, the Publish button changes to Update, to let you know that you’re, well, updating the post.

But in version 6.6, just released, that Update button now says Save, which is more old school, but actually makes less sense in terms of publishing something (as opposed to saving a file like a word processing document). I don’t hate the change, but it seems a bit weird and doesn’t really improve anything.

However, they haven’t made anything else objectively worse with this update (that I’ve found), so kudos for that!

Also, yes, I’ve kind of stopped looking for other alternatives to WordPress since finally committing to my site redesign. I still might resume that search, but it’s on the back burner again for now. Apologies to anyone waiting for me to render a verdict!

Walk 114 and 115

View of Brunette River, during the first walk.

After missing yesterday’s run due to a toothache, I decided I needed some kind of exercise today, even though the tooth is still kind of hurting (I go to the dentists tomorrow).

I left late morning to avoid Xtreme Heat, and it was fine, with a nice breeze blowing. There were some off-leash dogs on the river trail, but fortunately well-behaved. There were no other incidents of note, and the walks were much like the previous–strictly walking on the way to the lake, with a good mix of walking and running on the way back. I felt fine and my mouth cooperated enough that it didn’t distract me.

And that’s about it!

The ever turtle-free Turtle Nesting Area, before starting back from Burnaby Lake.

Stats:

Walk 114 and 115
Average pace: 9:13 and 8:19/km
Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake
Distance: 4.02 and 4.03 km
Time: 37:01 and 33:32
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23-25°C
Humidity: 60-62%
Wind: light
BPM: 121 and 129
Weight: 167.4 pounds
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255
Total distance to date: 847.76 km