<Sunday, January 4th, 2009> [Amy]
Feel the burn
They don't call it "burning calories" for nothing. Running creates HEAT. It's 35 degrees here today (down from 73 yesterday. yes, really.) I wore tights, gloves, a headband, and a fleece jacket OVER a thermal jersey. WRONG. I nearly combusted. Now I know why I've seen people running in t-shirts and shorts in the freezing rain. Running warms you from the inside out. As long as you don't stop, you stay toasty. I'll stick with ONE layer from now on.
Another observation: my toes seem to be getting closer to my fingers when I stretch. I always suspected that people who could touch their toes easily had freakishly long arms (or short legs). Perhaps repeated pounding of pavement causes one's legs to compact? At any rate, I can now not only touch my toes, but hook my fingers around them. Go figure.
Off to Ponte Vedra Beach, FL tomorrow with my mom to visit my favorite aunt. I'm excited about running along the beach in 80 degree temps. In the interest of packing light, I'm considering wearing my running shoes on the plane. Yes, I'm turning into THAT chick. The one who wears athletic apparel MILES from the nearest gym. Can velour track suits be far behind?
.:.
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<Friday, January 2nd, 2009> [Amy]
125 BPM
Another 1.5 mi today. Two minutes faster than yesterday. This despite an unfortunate choice of song--Estelle's "American Boy". High energy, yes, but the tempo is ever-so-slightly too slow. I hadn't bothered to build a run playlist, and couldn't easily change songs on the Touch, because it was in an armband holder with a plastic film over the screen.
When I related this to V, he whipped out his iPhone and fired up an app which counts the beats per minute of a song. We tested two songs I downloaded from Nike's website, including the one I ran to yesterday. Both came in around 125 bpm. Then we tested "American Boy". 118 bpm. I was not imagining it! On a related note, my brother emailed me a link to crystal method's "drive"--music made specifically for runners. I need this.
Tonight I bought a pink 1GB shuffle at Target. No more armband. Now to build a run playlist...
.:.
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<Thursday, January 1st, 2009> [Amy]
Born to run
I ran for the first time today. I had only planned to go a mile. V hasn't gotten the running shoes he ordered yet, and I didn't want to get too far ahead of him in training. But I was anxious to keep my New Year's resolution. I wasn't even sure I could run a mile without stopping, and I had no idea how long it would take me.
Turns out, I didn't have to stop or walk. I synced my pace to the tempo of the song on my iPod--Heroes of the Dance Floor's "Same Scandal". At various points I thought, "This is too easy. Did I stop running?" But I never did. I took a wrong turn and ended up running further than I'd planned, but I didn't care.
I ran 1.5 miles in 15 minutes. I didn't get a runner's high, but at the end of my run, walking to cool down felt like floating. I sweat as much after 15 min of running as I do after 30 min of cycling. We'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow morning, but right now I'm inclined to think that I've found my sport.
.:.
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<Wednesday, December 31st, 2008> [Vincent]
Observation
"This tastes like play doh and puke"
-Tori
.:.
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<Saturday, December 27th, 2008> [Amy]
Tell her what she's won, Bob
I just got my grades for fall semester. I got an A in Design, an A in Drawing, and a B in Theory. Woo-hoo!
.:.
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<Monday, December 22nd, 2008> [Amy]
New Year's Resolution
I resolve to become a runner in 2009. I found a 12 week spring training schedule for novice runners. It culminates in a 6 mi run, and if I start it in January, I can make that 6 mi the Redbud Classic 10k (6.2 mi) race in early April. Anyone want to train with me?
.:.
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<Friday, December 19th, 2008> [Vincent]
Cringely, you are dead to me
I have been a follower of Cringely for some time. He follows the tech world and muses, and is generally dead wrong. Interesting, but dead wrong.
He has recently started a blog about mortgages. After reading through only the second entry, it is clear that he is pissed off because he got a mortgage for a house he couldn't afford, with an adjustable rate mortgage, and is concerned that he won't be able to refinance his house because it is "worth" more than $730,000.
Cry me a river.
.:.
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<Friday, December 19th, 2008> [Vincent]
Comfort with meaninglessness the key to good programmers
Wow, this headline so describes my view of the universe. I am totally okay with the fact that I don't know the meaning of, well, anything. Life, the universe, what "Helter Skelter" is about, etc.
.:.
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<Thursday, December 11th, 2008> [Amy]
One down, seven to go
Semesters, that is. Had my last class (drawing) this morning. Turned in my last assigment (the mural drawing). Turned in my portfolios, both traditional and digital. There are no finals in art.
We hung our drawings side-by-side in the Lightwell to reconstruct the mural. It looked cool. Our instructor critiqued everyone's work. For once, he had no suggestions for me. He really liked my drawing. I like it, too.
I've come to appreciate that my drawing instructor is a fantastic teacher who SHOWS students what he wants them to learn, rather than TELLS them. For example, he shared his latest print exchange with us. Thirty minor miracles, individually wrapped in vellum, redolent of oil-based ink, in a gorgeous grey-blue box.
I went right out and bought a fancy zip-up portfolio to replace my old busted tyvek envelope with the broken nylon straps. I erased all smudges from my drawings and separated them with newsprint, carefully taping sheets of it together to protect the oversize works.
I can't believe how far I've come in just under four months. I've got bulging portfolios, my own studio space, and a new vocabulary. Already I can't remember what life was like before school, and I can't imagine NOT making art. I've started to look at MFA programs and think about graduate assistantships.
My friend Gwenyth had me watch a film that suggested you "announce your intentions to the universe and see what happens". I feel like the universe has answered me, loud and clear. It's incredibly gratifying to get positive feedback from talented people. Like the butterfly tattooed on my drawing hand, I feel like I've emerged from a cocoon this semester.
Art is life. Life is good. Happy holidays.
.:.
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<Thursday, December 4th, 2008> [Vincent]
Google Web Toolkit
This will be singularly uninteresting to most people, but here goes anyway.
I've started playing with Google Web Toolkit, because we may use it at work. It's really cool in that it moves as much logic as you want to the client, lightening the load on the server, and allows you to do arbitrarily complex stuff fairly easily. You get to write the client in Java, with full debugger. It's pretty slick.
So, here's a few hours playing:
smarl v 0.01 in gwt.
Hopefully I'll port the site to this at some point, so I can move away from the stinking pile of php that it is now.
.:.
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More rambling...
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