Month: December 2017

Fat squirrels in love

(With apologies to Loverboy.)

Today I strolled a bit around Central Park in Burnaby, taking advantage of the somewhat rare dry conditions. It was cold (relatively speaking–we don’t get frostbite warnings here) but was clear and otherwise pleasant.

The two ponds were partly frozen and the seagulls were shuffling in a way that struck me as funny. Birds probably don’t like falling on their faces any more than humans do.

You can’t see them shuffling here, but I present seagulls walking on water all the same:

On frozen pond, starring seagull and ducks.

It looks kind of chilly because it was. But sun! Blue sky! Wondrous and amazing!

Sun and shade on ice.

Some things never change, though. The squirrels remain as chunky as ever, given the generous food donations made by good-hearted passersby. NOTE: squirrels can feed themselves, you don’t need to help them. Really! Several people were feeding them today and they are kind of cute when they’re scampering (or waddling) around–until you get close to them and realize they kind of look like rats with bushy tails. Check out the thighs on this one. He could be checking into Weight Watchers tomorrow as part of his New Year resolutions.

“I’ll gladly trade you a perky twitch of my tail for anything I can eat. NOM NOM FEED ME.”

The reason I can get so close for pictures like this is the squirrels have shed their customary wariness of humans, having grown accustomed to people approaching them with armfuls of fudge instead. Or maybe not fudge, maybe nuts or whatever the people have in their pockets that is both edible and something they’re willing to give up to these fur-covered blubber balls.

Anyway, it was a nice walk and I didn’t slip or fall. Hooray.

December 2017 weight loss report: Up 1.1 pounds

The good (?) news is the flow of fat has slowed in December, which is somewhat surprising given the regular indulgences this month and the usual lack of exercise that goes along with the consumption of things that go to the waist.

I was up again, though, from 161 pounds to 162.1 pounds. The bad news is I started and ended the month above 160 pounds. Bleah.

For the year to date I am still down overall, but not by much. 165.9 on January 1 and 162.1 on December 31 is a total weight loss of a mere 3.8 pounds.

December 1: 161 pounds
December 31: 162.1 pounds

Year to date: From 165.9 to 162.1 pounds (down 3.8 pounds)

And the body fat:

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
December 31: 18.4% (29.9 pounds of fat)

Still down for the year, but only a little. I am now 12.1 pounds shy of my official goal of 150 pounds. There be work to do.

And I promise to do that work next year. Which is in two and a half hours. Yikes.

2017: The Year in books (for me)

I read 37 books in 2017. Here are a few thoughts and stats on them.

Number of books reviewed: 37. Yes, I reviewed all of them. As the reviews were made on Goodreads using their four-star system, I couldn’t award half-stars, though sometimes I wanted to. Most were three or four stars. There were no stinkers, though a few rated two stars.

Number of paper books read: 0. Yep, I was all-digital this year. I don’t really miss reading paper books and never needing bookmarks is nice.

Every book was bought on either amazon.ca or kobo.com and almost all were on sale. I didn’t mean to keep buying only sale-priced books, but I ended up with more than I could read (I have a backlog now, though not as massive as my Steam backlog, which would require living to the age of 280 to get through) so there was little reason to buy full-priced books as they came out. I also have few authors I consider must-buys and even those I do I can wait for the prices to drop because apparently I’m cheap. I’m sorry, authors! I promise to buy more full-priced books in 2018. Possibly.

On the plus side, this approach exposed me to a lot of authors I hadn’t read before. On the negative side, there are several I am confident I will never read again. I may need to be a tad more discerning.

Genres break down like so, though some books fit into multiple genres:

Self-help/pop psychology 3
Biography 2
Horror 13
Science fiction 7
Literary fiction 2
Writing 6
Non-fiction 3
Classics 0
Fantasy 1

A few things to note this year:

I only read one Stephen King novel and it was one I’ve read before and one that isn’t considered among his first tier of work (or even second or maybe third tier, depending on who you ask)–The Tommyknockers. I had a strange desire to revisit the book, mostly for its theme of “buried UFO drives town crazy.” I agreed with King’s own assessment that inside this 700 page novel was a good 350 page novel. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

I didn’t read any classics. I usually read one or two. I vow to do better next year.

I read more books on writing, which is ironic, given how my writing sputtered out by year’s end. Given the uneven quality of the books, I may have been better off spending the time writing.

Horror dominated, as always, mostly due to a binge toward the end of the year. Good horror can be hard to find. I will probably read any new work by Sarah Lotz.

Three of the science fiction novels dealt with time travel, alternate dimensions or both. I greatly enjoyed all three, as I’m a sucker for these themes.

The full list of books can be read under the 2017 heading found here.

Another screaming spider dream

Well, not another. But one is probably enough.

Last night I dreamed of being in a small, cluttered bedroom or spare room in some place or other. The bed was covered in sheets, blankets and bric-a-brac. I pulled aside one of the blankets or sheets and revealed a very large, circle-shaped spider sitting on the bed. Size-wise, imagine tripling the average tarantula and you have it about right. The spider was startled and skittered in its spidery way to the edge of the bed–where another spider waited. The second spider was similar in size but was differently-colored, light to the other spider’s dark. When the fleeing spider made contact with the second spider a fight broke out.

Lesson: do not disturb a spider, especially a large, circle-shaped one.

The part that made the dream stand out, though, was not the weird shape or large size of the spiders, but rather, the sound they made when they began to fight.

They screamed.

It was a high-pitched screeching. It didn’t stop. As they grappled the screaming went on, the two voices overlapping each other and sometimes blending into one super-creepy tone, on until I awoke and wondered what I ate to prompt such a dream.

I had other dreams last night, but the screaming spiders are the ones that stayed with me. I’m good without having a repeat, really. It wasn’t scary or anything, but those screams. Spiders should not make those sounds.

Run 562: Ice and fire, except instead of fire, rain

Run 562
Average pace: 5:55/km

Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:19 pm
Distance: 5.07 km
Time: 30:04
Weather: Rain
Temp: 2ºC
Humidity: 95%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 174
Weight: 1621.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 4375 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

This run was grossbuckets. The last time I finished a 5K run with a time over 30 minutes was…never? My BPM was high (more on this in a bit) and I came home cold and soaked.

Wednesday’s run was done in light and fluffy snow. It was fine, even a little pleasant. I kept warm. My pace was slower but that’s expected, you don’t want to go dashing through the snow, Christmas carols notwithstanding, because you can slip and fall and no one writes carols about injuring yourself.

Since then it has been raining almost constantly, so much so that I expected the trail to be pretty much snow-free today.

I dressed a bit differently again, keeping the running pants but swapping out the top layers to a pair of long-sleeved shirts, since I know my running jacket is poop in the rain. I did not take gloves as I could keep the hands tucked in the longer sleeves of my red Nike shirt.

The walk to the lake was dismal and a sign of things to come. Though much of the trail was bare, the parts that weren’t consisted primarily of the crusty old snow that fell before Wednesday and had become hard and slick. In areas where it covered the trail I had to walk along the edges to get away from that “walking on an ice rink” feeling.

At the lake itself I made a tactical error by running clockwise. I did this as a change of pace but forgot that the south side of the lake is much more open than the north and this meant that large sections of the trail consisted of lumpy, frozen remnants of snow that were rather slippery. I ran along the edge of the trail where I could. I moved deliberately where I couldn’t. I walked rather than jogged on my approach to the bridge at Deer Lake Brook to prevent going splat. My feet slipped multiple times, though I stayed upright, like a fully advanced human.

Much of the run was like this, a laborious, tedious series of constant adjustments, slowing down and then speeding up on clear patches, picking through the maze-like sheets of ice-like snow, running down clear lines made by service vehicles that ended in giant puddles and having to navigate around the puddles on very slick surfaces. It felt like work, a chore. Combined with the cold and rain, my BPM edged even higher to 174.

I decided to end the miserable exercise at 5K. This run was the polar (ho ho) opposite of enjoyable and the few others I saw out “jogging” were just as foolish as I for being out there in such awful conditions.

Oh, and it also poured the entire time, too. It’s still pouring now. If I stop typing and listen carefully I can hear the neighbors assembling an ark.

The walk out of the park was almost as bad, with lots of slippery spots, but also with the bonus of walking into the cold wind for about four km.

My pace of 5:55/km is something of a miracle given how terrible the trail was. These were the worst running conditions I’ve seen in eight years and 4375+ km of running. Impressive, in a horrible sort of way.

It’s supposed to dry out over the next few days but not get much warmer. With little sun it’s unlikely the icy mess will be gone quickly, though if the forecast is off, it might not matter as the entire area will probably be underwater, anyway.

In summary: BLEAH.

The Rains

After running in the snow yesterday the temperature rose above freezing and the snow today has turned to rain.

And it rained and rained and rained.

If it had stayed cold we’d be up to our eyeballs in snow right now, so in a way it’s good that it rained instead, even if the entrance to the building I live in is now a growing lake thanks to mostly imaginary drainage.

Only six more months until summer!

New Year Resolutions 2018: I should stick to these because we’re still here

Of the ten resolutions I made this year, I hit four of them and failed on six. Not exactly inspiring, but then this year has been bleak in an existential sort of way that hasn’t happened in a long time, thanks to the appalling spectacle of Trump’s breathtakingly corrupt and inept presidency, which easily eclipsed my absolute worst expectations.

But enough of that. The world didn’t blow up in 2017, so there is a small glimmer it will make it through 2018, too. Therefore, my resolutions.

My theme for 2018 is “Be realistic” so my goals are more modest than in years past.

  • Drop to 150 pounds. I got as low as 153 this year, but climbed back up in the last few months to 161.6 today. I’m ready to redouble my efforts, which leads to…
  • 100% donut-free. Yes, no donuts all year, no matter what. If someone offers me a free donut I will spurn it and cast aspersions upon the giver (“Are you trying to kill me slowly? What cruel sort are you?”) Well, maybe not so much the casting aspersions but no donuts–yes!
  • No farmers tan. I got close this year, next year I’ll do it! Stretch goal: full upper body tan. This also provides incentive for resolution #1.
  • Write 250 words of fiction per day. I bombed out on my goal of 1,000 per day this year and originally was going to aim for 500 next year, but instead settled on the even more modest 250 words per day. I can always up the number from there.
  • Run at least three times a week. Should be doable, barring injury. Alternate goal: any type of exercise at least three times a week. In case of weather or something, where I would use an elliptical instead of running, for example.
  • Read at least 32 books. Unchanged from this year, should be doable.
  • One drawing per week. To help nurture my creative side. It can be anything, in any format. Stick men? Sure. A circle with two dots in it representing a mouth-less face? Why not!
  • Win the lottery. Repeating this. I’ll use the money wisely, I swear!
  • Eat better. This ties in with going 100% donut-free and involves drastically cutting back on all snacking. Snacking is bad. Healthy snacking is hard, so it’s probably better to just avoid altogether.
  • Curb my web surfing and put my WoW sub on hold. These are time sinks that take away from other things I could be doing that would be more productive and probably more enjoyable, too.

Bonus resolution:

  • Continue to spurn social media, especially Facebook. This one is easy because I don’t have to change a thing!

Curious design: Music controls through self-abuse

Apple’s AirPods work like some other true wireless Bluetooth earbuds in that you operate the controls by tapping on the earbuds directly. iOS 11 allows for different controls for the left and right bud, though the controls themselves are limited to only:

  • previous track
  • next track
  • play/pause
  • Siri
  • off

Still, this covers my needs for the most part, especially when running. This MacRumors article on using the AirPods revealed a trick I was unaware of:

Tap Your Ear

You don’t necessarily have to tap right on your AirPod to use the double tap gestures. Many people prefer to tap softly on the back of an ear instead. It’s a little less audibly jarring and it works just as well.

I verified this on my run today and it is entirely weird to control music by bapping on your ear. It was a tad inconsistent, which no doubt made for a strange sight to others on the trail (“Why does that man keep hitting his ear?”) but the same can be said for the controls in general, they just seem a lot harder to execute when jogging.

Still, the novelty of hitting my ear to skip to the next track may never grow old. Or at least not until I remember I can just tell Siri to do it instead.

Run 561: Snowbound

Run 561
Average pace: 5:55/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:10 am
Distance: 10.03 km
Time: 59:25
Weather: Cloudy, light snow
Temp: 0-1ºC
Humidity: 92%
Wind: light
BPM: 172
Weight: 161.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 4370 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

It was snowing this morning, which was actually good for the run. While that may sound like crazy talk, hear me out.

The snow on the ground now is getting more compacted and turning slick, which is bad for traction and good for falling on your face. The new snow piling on top is providing more traction, making for a grippier, less falling-on-your-face experience.

I dressed a bit differently this time, choosing a long-sleeved shirt and my running jacket. This turned out to be wise as the jacket’s lining provided enough insulation to keep me toasty warm–almost too warm, in fact. When zipped up all the way, the collar stands up and helpfully keeps snow from going down the back of your neck, too.

Even though it was only slightly warmer than Sunday’s run, I ended up doffing the gloves around 2 km in and didn’t put them back on until I was around the 7 km mark.

One brave runner was wearing shorts. I wonder if he regretted it later. I saw him at the start of his run so he was still all smiles with his partner (who was all bundled up).

There were more people out than expected, but it wasn’t too bad traffic-wise.

The snow had mostly stopped by the start of the run, which is good, because snow and glasses don’t mix well. I had this emphasized when it began snowing again around the 8K mark and my glasses grew clumped with blobs of snow. Also, feeling the very tiny specks of snow bapping your face is a weird sensation.

The trail was caught between having too much compact snow and not quite enough fresh snow, so traction wasn’t as good as it could have been. I only felt a foot slip about two times but I was constantly making adjustments in foot placement and stride. The extra effort showed in my BPM, which was back up. The bridges were again kind of bumpy and unpleasant and the first boardwalk was especially bad, the snow so crusty and uneven it was difficult to exceed a walking pace without losing my footing.

The left knee got a bit stiff but leveled out and was not bad for the latter part of the run. The other lower left butt muscle did start to make its presence known in the last km or so, but it never got painful.

The overall pace of 5:55/km was slower but unsurprisingly so. The snow kept coming down at a decent pace on the walk back, so if I’d started the run an hour later it probably would have been easier.

Still, this is the first time in about seven years that I’ve run in a real snowfall and while it slowed me down, it didn’t stop me. Damn snow.

New Year Resolutions 2017: The results

With only five days left in the year, here’s a look at how I fared on the resolutions I made for 2017. Here’s the original post in full for reference: New Year Resolutions for 2017

I will make resolutions for 2018 tomorrow.

Scorecard for 2017 Resolutions:

  • drop to 145 pounds. LOL NO. In October I was 153 pounds, down from 165.9 at the start of the year, but the last two months have been a disaster of gluttony and not enough exercise. I’m at 163 pounds today, barely down from the start of the year. I blame my mouth and brain in equal measure.
  • run at least three times a week barring injury or other extraordinary circumstance. YES–mostly. A few lapses here and there, especially during the fall, but I’ve kept up running, including running at work during lunch when it became too dark to run after work, as well as running on treadmills during last winter’s hellsnow.
  • no farmers tan. NO-ish. I did start wearing sleeveless shirts during the summer for my runs but too late to entirely shed the farmers tan. Still, a definite improvement over previous years.
  • killer abs. LOL NO. Did not even try.
  • eat better. Provisional NO. I ate better than last year, I did not generally eat better. As with the weight loss, I started strong, but collapsed in the last few months of the year. In this case I collapsed into a bed of donuts.
  • learn to swim. This was a joke so NO.
  • write 1,000 words a day. Sadly, NO. Again, I started out strongly, going to the Other 11 Months NaNoWriMo group weekly, but though I added about 10,000 words to my novel Road Closed, I never generated any momentum beyond that.
  • read at least 32 books. YES. I’m up to 37 and may hit 38 before the year is over.
  • be a positive influence to others. I’m going to say YES because no one has told me otherwise.
  • win the lottery. YES. But my winnings totaled less than $100.

Summary:

6 NO
4 YES

Not great, but not a total disaster, either. The most important ones I flopped on, though, so there is significant room for improvement in 2018.

In my defense, 2017 was generally a colossally awful year for the planet, not just me.

Run 560: A wintry first run of winter

Run 560
Average pace: 5:51/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:42 am
Distance: 10.04 km
Time: 58:53
Weather: Cloudy, compact snow
Temp: -1ºC
Humidity: 79%
Wind: light
BPM: 158
Weight: 163 pounds
Total distance to date: 4360 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

As the year winds down, so does the temperature. Or at least this week it does.

Heading out to the lake this morning, the temperature was below freezing, making this my first sub-freezing run at the lake in either a very long time or possibly ever, with it staying firmly at -1ºC throughout on a cloudy day that mercifully had little wind.

I dressed accordingly and was reasonably comfortable:

  • two layers on top
  • running pants with sexy running undies
  • a form-fitting toque instead of my usual cap–this worked well in keeping my ears partly covered and warm
  • my olde Nike running gloves–I could have doffed these partway though but probably only briefly and I only experienced light sweating wearing them. They otherwise proved very handy (ho ho) in keeping my hands toasty instead of frosty

I was curious what the trail would be like as the Brunette River trail is a mix of bare patches and compact snow a little under a week after our latest blast of wintry weather. It turned out that while there were some clear patches, particularly in areas where the trees were close to the trail or the opposite where the trail was completely exposed (like along the sports fields), the majority was covered in compact snow. I had to adjust my gait and pace a little to insure optimal traction but the only genuinely slippery section was the small straight stretch leading to the bridge at Still Creek. My feet lost traction a few times there, but there was never a great risk of going splat.

All of the bridges were covered with crunchy, uneven snow, including the boardwalks, which made them strangely uncomfortable for running across. Not slippery, just odd and unpleasant.

The Spruce Loop and Conifer Loops had the most snow, with almost no melt at all. Because of this, they were actually pretty good to run on, as the snow was thick enough to provide grip, rather than having turned into a more icy surface seen elsewhere.

The trail was fairly quiet, with only a small number of walkers and other joggers out. No one was wearing shorts.

The more measured pace meant my time was back up to 5:51/km, but it also meant my BPM was significantly lower, at 158 (vs. 173 last week). I felt almost relaxed at times, and never really pushed, because pushing on snow usually means falling on snow when you’re running.

The tendons around my left knee started to make their presence known about halfway through and they’re still a bit stiff now. This seems to be a long term thing at this point. I wonder if one of those knee things would help. You can tell how often I’ve used them because I can’t even recall the proper name without searching the internet (compression knee sleeves/braces, it turns out). On the one hand, it could prove to just be a placebo. On the other hand, if it still worked, that’s good enough for me. I have to admit I’d feel a bit like a dork wearing one. Or maybe I’d look manly. “Look at that dedicated runner, going out even when injured!”

Something to think about.

Overall, though, this chilly went surprisingly decently, given the condition of the trail. We may get snow tonight, so that could complicate runs in the near future. Damn snow.