Six players (including my human rogue) waiting for Guard Thomas to respawn in Elwynn Forest so we can turn in quests. He was killed by a Horde (opposing faction) player. There is no reward for killing an NPC like this, nor any challenge–you just click a button and the NPC obligingly keels over, taking several minutes to magically spring back to life. There’s also no real way to stop this from happening.
Guard Thomas, we hardly knew ye.
This is the regular low level experience in World of Warcraft, an ongoing opportunity to observe sociopaths in the wild, as it were (or more accurately, their aftermath).
After flailing about I have come to a decision on what to write for National Novel Writing month 2014 with a week to spare: Road Closed.
As with 2009, I am taking an unfinished short story and expanding it to short novel-length. There are a few differences this time. I am actively working on the story “Road Closed” while “The Ferry” had been abandoned many years prior. I also had planned on completing “Road Closed” before November 1, using it as my warm-up for the contest.
But with it already clocking in at 7,000 words and only just laying the foundation for the grisly meat of the story (ho ho) I realized I might be able to turn it into a novel by expanding certain aspects of the story while keeping the basic plot/framework in place.
I can’t say I’m optimistic about my chances of being successful, as my writing has floundered for most of the year. “Road Closed” began as a writing exercise back in January before being abandoned and it was only a few weeks ago that I dusted it off, chucked most of what I had written and dove back into it. But the intervening months did give me time to think about the story and I found a hook that eluded me. My intent is to keep the story light while dealing with alcoholism, death and dismemberment. We’ll see how it pans out in 36 days.
Run 363 Average pace: 5:38/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:19
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 18-22ºC
Wind: moderate with occasional gusts
Calories burned: 366
Total distance to date: 3024
Device used: iPhone 5c
For today’s run I wore my Brooks Cascadia 9’s since they would offer a little more support in case my left foot started crying early. It did start wailing but was nice enough to wait until after the run.
Way back three days ago I said this:
The bad parts resulted in a sluggish pace of 5:15/km, a big drop from last week’s under-5 minute triumph. Improving on this during the weekend shouldn’t be too challenging but you never know.
As it turns out, not only did I not meet this supposedly not-too-challenging challenge, I didn’t even meet it in the first km of today’s run when my pace was already a lolwut pace of 5:20/km.
The one bright spot came at the 4K mark when my pace improved by 9% to 5:21/km. This occurred on the Cottonwood Trail, a stretch that is straight for the better part of a km. That may not seem like an improvement but my pace for the third km was 5:54/km. I undid the improvement by wrapping up with a “please let it end” pace of 5:41/km.
So why was today’s run so terrible? I didn’t experience any cramps but I think I ate and drank too much before heading out and the threat of cramps probably acted as an inhibitor. But I was slow right from the start. I wasn’t feeling especially tired, though my previous night’s sleep was a bit restless. It was as if the totality of the week just left me without gas.
Strangely, this horrible turn has me eager to go on Tuesday. I’ll be back on the river trail and racing against the setting sun and probably getting soaked to the butt if the forecast is accurate, but I’m anxious to get back on track while I still have some time to run after work before the winter dark descends.
Rendezvous with Rama is an incredibly lean science fiction mystery. Clarke doesn’t spend dozens or hundreds of pages world-building, he doesn’t bolt on any number of subplots or drama between the crew members of the Endeavour, a solar survey vessel whose crew is tasked with exploring and analyzing the massive alien vessel dubbed Rama before it journeys out and beyond our solar system, possibly never to return.
In exchange for detailed character development and a complex plot Clarke serves up an almost documentary approach to how the Endeavour’s crew tackles the enigma of the Rama vessel, with government figures offering advice and orders from the moon, one of the many colonized celestial bodies in this world set in the 2130s.
Despite the presence of political wranglings (the Mercury colony is particularly willful) Clarke also makes no attempt to use his story to set up parallels to the then-present day of 1973, giving it a sense of timelessness, save for a few nods to the “swingin’ 70s” by furnishing the commander of the ship with two wives and having him note the inevitable low-gravity orgy that will happen at the end of their mission (without the wives, as one is on Earth and the other is on Mars).
This is otherwise a terse but fascinating examination of how we might explore a completely alien environment. Despite the sequels that came later, Clarke never intended to follow-up on the story and I would recommend treating it as a standalone.
Rendezvous with Rama is considered a science fiction classic and a cornerstone of Clarke’s body of work. If you like hard science fiction and have somehow missed it, I highly recommend picking it up.
Run 362 Average pace: 5:15/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 26:26
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 17ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 365
Total distance to date: 3019
Device used: iPhone 5c
The good parts about today’s run:
I ran 5K without stopping
I did not fall on my face
I was at no point handed a crying baby to carry with me
No cyclists
No rain
The bad parts about today’s run:
I hadn’t run for a week (ie. was slower)
I was feeling less than 100% due to sinuses/throat (ie. was slower still)
my left foot was sore before I headed out (ie. slower plus bonus hurting)
The bad parts resulted in a sluggish pace of 5:15/km, a big drop from last week’s under-5 minute triumph. Improving on this during the weekend shouldn’t be too challenging but you never know.
I actually had a decent pace for the first two km and had a good finish (despite the left foot saying “lol stop running on me!”) but lagged on the 3rd and 4th km, tired from all the aforementioned items above.
The only other notable part of the run was seeing the huge number of salmon gathered outside the Cariboo Dam, all eager to get to the other side so they could spawn and die. It’s inspiring and depressing all at once.
I am not going to review one of the all-time classic American novels, since people with bigger brains than mine have already made much smarter comments about it over the past 89 years.
I will say that I was curious to see how I’d react to the book as an adult, having last read it as part of my high school curriculum nearly 89 years ago. I didn’t remember much about it except it involved places called Eggs, something something about cars and Gatsby, who was an enigmatic and ultimately pathetic sort of fraud. Mostly I recalled the lack of explosions, monsters, ghosts and sharks. It did have gun play and a car chase, of sorts, so there was that.
Mostly I am left with two things, having now re-read it lo these many years later: the bitter snark of Nick Carraway, the narrator, as he observes these rich and wretched people, and the utter bleakness of the story. Nick leaves West Egg essentially having gained nothing and being worse for the experience. Gatsby, of course, picks a very bad time to finally take a dip in the swimming pool. This is not the book to read when fantasizing about what you’d do if you won the lottery.
For the first time in many months I sat down and wrote. I decided to take another shot at a writing exercise I’d started on my now-moribund writing site. The story is called “Road Closed” and rather than picking up where I’d left off or polishing what I had already written, I just plain started over.
Four thousand words later I am pleased with how easily the words started flowing once I got rolling.
I’d like to thank Green Day and The Bee Gees for musical inspiration while I clacked away on my mechanical keyboard. Yes, punk and disco, back to back, just as nature intended.
My plan is to write every day and to wrap up this story before National Novel Writing Month begins in 18 days. I think I can pull this off.
Run 361 Average pace: 4:59/km
Location: Brunette River
Distance: 5.05 km
Time: 25:12
Weather: Mainly clear
Temp: 20-22ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 366
Total distance to date: 3014
Device used: iPhone 5c
Tonight’s route was a 5K loop of the Brunette River. Going in I was not sure what to expect. I felt very tired after the commute home but I was wearing my lucky shorts. But my lucky shorts really need to be washed and I’m sure the odor from them knocked out any nearby wildlife while I ran.
Conditions were nice, with mild temperatures and the sun low enough to not shine directly in my eyes. I surprised myself with a brisk first km (pace of 4:42/km). Despite the usual second km drop-off (tonight it was a 7% drop) and a slower finish I managed to move nimbly enough to get my first finish under five minutes in a good long while. My average pace came in at 4:59/km.
Unlike Tuesday I didn’t experience any weird soreness and my energy level felt solid throughout. I even pushed toward mid-run, feeling things were going well. Some cramps threatened toward the end but never quite materialized. It’s possible they may have slowed me down in the last km, alas.
Still, this was the best 5K in some time and a welcome recovery from the poop run on Tuesday. Excelsior!
A surprisingly meaty (and slimy/bloody/gooey) collection of stories using Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Horror anthologies are notoriously uneven in my experience so I was pleasantly surprised at how solid this anthology is. While there is no singular standout story here there are also no outright clunkers that I was tempted to flip past. The weakest efforts are probably those that attempt to mimic Lovecraft’s actual writing style, like Brian Lumley’s “The Fairground Horror”. People probably shouldn’t do this.
The highlights include Laird Barron’s “The Men from Porlock”. While I found his style a bit ponderous at times in his own collection, his concluding story set post-World War I is wonderfully weird, gruesome and filled with men who curse like lumberjacks because they are, in fact, lumberjacks.
Charles Stross imagines weaponizing Cthulhu in “A Colder war” and the results are appropriately horrifying, while Elizabeth Bear’s “Shoggoths in Bloom” takes a quieter, science-focused approach to Lovecraft’s horrors that makes them almost cute. Almost.
Joe R. Lansdale’s “The Crawling Sky” features a sharpshooting preacher out to battle evil Old Testament-style. The speech and manner of the preacher reminded me (favorably) of The Dark Tower’s Roland.
The remaining stories cover time periods ranging from the early 20th century to the present day and shift in tone from not-quite-outright comedy to relentlessly grim, with a few detours into “What the hell is happening?” territory. There’s really something for everyone here, especially if you like faces filled with writhing tentacles or hair that is actually wriggling sentient worms.
Run 360 Average pace: 5:16/km
Location: Brunette River trail and Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 5.11 km
Time: 26:53
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 19ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 371
Total distance to date: 3009
Device used: iPhone 5c
With daylight rapidly becoming a precious commodity, I can no longer walk to the lake to run unless I walk very fast to the lake. Like, running fast.
And that’s what I did.
Tonight’s route started on the Brunette River trail, continued to Burnaby Lake and counter-clockwise through the Spruce and Conifer Loops, then back until I hit 5K, just short of the foot bridge at Silver Creek.
The first half of the run, which was pretty much everything leading up to where I’d normally start my lake runs near the dam, went decently enough. After that I fell flat. Pancake flat. For whatever reason I had no energy and plodded along to finish with an average pace of 5:16/km, which would be okay for a 10K run but is lousy for a 5K.
Is it because I didn’t wear my lucky shorts? A poor sleep? Planetary alignment? Perhaps all of these things.
Also my left leg and foot all hurt at various points, which was weird and annoying. I’m not talking about actual pain, just soreness that turned off and on through the later stretch of the run, like a bunch of faulty lightbulbs.
The goal for Thursday will be to better tonight’s run. This should be easy.
Run 359 Average pace: 5:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.05 km
Time: 52: 31
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 19-22ºC
Wind: nil
Calories burned: 729
Total distance to date: 3004
Device used: iPhone 5c
This was a weird run if you look at the map made from the GPS.
But first, I must mark the momentous metric occasion (Nike uses Imperial units to award milestones, what with them being miles and all, so what they consider a big deal differs from what I consider a big deal) as this run I hit 3,000 km. I started using the Nike+ system to track my runs in September 2009 so it’s taken five years to get to this point or an average of 600 km per year. I’m still full intact, too, woo.
As to the weirdness of today’s run, I expected to be slower due to a later start (11:50 a.m.), warmer temperatures (19-22ºC so not really bad) and, as it turned out, very muggy conditions. The mugginess was the main villain here.
My first km was a sluggish 5:11/km, though I at least didn’t have to slow to duck under the sagging trees on the Conifer Loop, as they’ve been chopped to bits and tossed into the brush for the mushrooms. The second km saw a huge 14% drop-off to 5:53/km. I regained some form for the third and fourth km then–at the same point where the GPS has wigged out before–my time actually got improbably faster, with the 5K and 6K pace being 3:52 and 3:10. I got awards for fastest mile and km ever.
I do not think these were my fastest km ever, based on how I felt at the time.
On the seventh km my pace dropped 85% (!) to 5:52/km before pulling up again to 5:26 for the final stretch. Even more weirdly, the overall pace of 5:14/km actually makes sense given the total time of the run and distance covered. I think the trees along the field make the GPS go cuckoo. I’ll have to lobby for their removal.
Here’s how the map looked at the nutty bullet train section:
This did not quite happen.
Given that I went in without much confidence, I am fine with the results, dubious recors notwithstanding.
The only negative was the left leg, which at one point or another hurt from the top down. That included the left buttock, upper thigh, Achilles tendon and foot. All of these were brief, however, and none affected my pace. I was fine after the run, though the foot remained a bit sore. It held up for the walk home.
I am thinking I may switch to earlier runs on Saturday because I’m finding the trail a little too crowded on Sundays (even if part of today’s crowd consisted of a group of seven young men running topless and in black short shorts; I both admire and hate them for being svelte, young and spry). There are an awful lot of people with seemingly no situational awareness when in public (these are the ones who stop at the top of an up escalator for no apparent reason) and they like to spread themselves out on the trail, block the way, suddenly stop and do other neat tricks.
By heading out early and on Saturday I’m thinking the worst I’ll face is other runners, who generally have excellent situational awareness. I know I’m setting myself up for a collision on a blind corner by saying this but I’ll take the chance.
Run 358 Average pace: 5:02/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.61 km
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 17-16ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 406
Total distance to date: 2994
Device used: iPhone 5c
My goal tonight was to hopefully beat Tuesday’s pace or at the very least tie it once again.
It actually almost felt a bit chilly by the time I got to the lake and my hands were so cold I completely bobbled getting the iPhone in my spibelt. It started merrily tracking the run as my numbed fingers worked to get the phone into the stretchy confines of the belt’s pocket. Once I did and zipped it up the run immediately paused. I waited to see if it would magically un-pause and when it didn’t I hit the play/pause on the earpods and the run started tracking for real.
This meant that the initial 100m or so my pace was in the silly six minute range. I still managed to break the 5:00 mark, though, coming in at 4:57/km–then bested that on the second km with a pace of 4:53/km.
This strong start sagged a little at the 3K mark when my pace dropped 7% but I picked up for the final 2 km and finished with an overall pace of 5:02/km, beating my previous 5K by four seconds. Mission accomplished.
With the sky overcast the more shaded areas of the trail were downright gloomy and I finished the run a mere five minutes before sunset. By the time I got home it was dark. It won’t be much longer before I can’t run at the lake due to lack of light and I will be sad.
for awhile I’ll be able to run on the river trail but even that is probably only going to work for a few more weeks. After that I’m not sure what I’ll do. My one experience on a treadmill was grossbuckets but maybe I could get used to it.
Still, that’s some weeks off. For now I can be satisfied with tonight’s run going off without a hitch and getting me ever-closer to finally breaking the 5:00 minute barrier again.
