Oh, Snap!

Wow! Sorry I forgot to post last night, but I did it! Hit all three days on the schedule for the weekdays this week, plus two nights of stretching Pilates – excellent.

Why I forgot to post? Well, mostly ’cause of “My Name is Earl”. It was a ONE HOUR SPECIAL last night. I knew it was going to be good, ’cause Earl (Jason Lee of skateboarding fame) and Randy were heading down to Central America to bring back Catalina, but it was even better than good. If you’re not watching the show – well, zip on down to BestBuy to pick up Season 1 and get caught up.

OK, back?

Anyway, Joy (Jamie Pressley) stole last night’s show. I’m still giggling from the bit she did in her last scene. Distracted me completely from pressing issues.

The other thing throwing me off was pickin’ on the guitar a bit. Missy had bought me a cheap acoustic guitar for Christmas a few years back. I’ve tried to pick it up for about 5 years, two DVD sets, and a half-dozen books, but it hadn’t stuck. Until now, that is. During my last visit to the Groton Public Library, I picked up a “Reader’s Digest (no kidding!) Guide to the Guitar”, and stuff is starting to stick. Though I think that the boys are getting tired of hearing “Bad Moon Rising” throughout their bath. Anyone else got a song to recommend that uses only the A, D, and E chords?

Anyhoo, got out of the office before sunset yesterday, and did the daily 5K at Beavertail. Few things finer in this world than sunset, running in shorts, and gentle sea breezes. There were deer grazing in the grass near the parking lot where I was parked, just outside the area marked with “Open for Bow Hunting” signs. Who knew deer could read?

Don’t like the weather? Wait a while and it’ll change

So, one of the pluses to living a mere tens of miles from the Gulf Stream is that winter’s a constant battle between cold air shipped down from our lovely neighbors to the north and warm, tropical air on its last legs. The classic Nor’easter stems from this phenomena – warm, wet air slams into frigid, arctic air, and I get to go do some XC. Yeah, baby.

Anyway, this evening’s run was a spectacular feat of endurance. There was a tropical air mass moving out of the south, pushing the cold air back up where it belongs. The consequence was that, despite a clear sky and fabulous sunset over Jamestown, there was about a 35 knot wind blowing out of the south during this evening’s 5K.

The first part of the loop wasn’t bad at all – wind was at my back, etc. However, at the turn – man. Y’know those winds that just kind of stand people up? This was one of those. I totally felt like I was trying to run uphill even though the ground was sloping back down towards the bay. There was spray coming off the waves at the seawall – absolutely amazing.

As I write this, I just swung by the car, and the temp is up in the high 40’s, up about 10 degrees from this afternoon’s run, which was up about 15 degrees from this morning’s commute. When I left the office this afternoon, felt the breeze, and saw the waves on the bay – man, that sealed the deal.

Anyway, two days down this week. I feel good!

Nike + iPod kerffule

So, there’s been a bunch of flopping and twitching lately about the fact that the wonderful Nike+iPod kit can be used to track users, and isn’t that a terrible invasion of privacy, and wah-wah-wah.

Well, ladies and gents, I hate to break it to you, but the problem is not so much that Apple and Nike failed to adequately secure the device, but that the laws of physics do not have any privacy provisions, nor do they listen to lawyers from either the EFF or the ACLU (insert your branch here if you’re outside the US).

Can I let you in on a little secret that I picked up back in middle school while reading a book on radio waves in the library? Radio waves don’t care who is listening to them – they continue to radiate from their source, in all directions, and their strength at any point in space is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source.

So, yeah – given an antenna and a receiver tuned to the proper frequency (which is in Apple’s patent disclosure for the product), it’s entirely possible to hijack the radio signal from a Nike+ kit. And I, for one, am psyched that it’s been done.

Why? you might ask.

Why not? I’d answer. The Nike transmitter is absolutely freakin’ cool, extremely low power, and cheap. Hack the protocol between sensor and receiver, and you’ve got instant motion sensing for the price of a case of beer.

But what about privacy? What about it? Do you go out of the house with your cell phone? There’s a device for which you should have distinct privacy concerns. Sure, there’s laws against eavsdropping into cell networks, but if someone’s out to harass you or otherwise exploit the Nike+iPod’s miniscule signal, are they going to have qualms about jacking into your cellular signal in roughly the same radio band?

In a larger sense, you should always remember that a loss of privacy is always inherent with the use of any wireless technology. Use a wireless keyboard and mouse? Guess what – someone with an antenna can be logging your keystrokes without even being in the same room as you, or having access to your computer. In Houston, our baby monitor operated on the same band as our neighbor’s cordless phone – we could overhear their conversations, which was supremely spooky the first time it happened – I burst into the baby’s room thinking there was an intruder in there…

There are things you can do to protect yourself. Use a wireless router at the house? Make sure you’ve enabled the encryption scheme – for most routers, there’s a HTML based interface to set the password and require all wireless traffic to use encryption. For cell phones, turn them off when you’re not yakkin’ or expecting a call. Use cash instead of plastic….

The takeaway, I guess, is that, like the old saw says, be careful about airing your dirty laundry in public – if you’re using a device that transmits, assume you’re being spied upon. If you don’t want to be spied upon, send letters.

El Grande Giro ‘007 – Licensed to Thrill

Wow, can’t believe I missed this: Giro d’Italia to open on island of Caprera

Next year’s 90th Giro d’Italia will open with a 24-kms team time trial on the tiny island of Caprera off the north coast of Sardinia on May 12 and finish in Milan on June 3, organisers said on Saturday.

Being a submariner, Caprera has fond memories. There’s been a US sub tender at La Maddelena since the end of WWII. The collective wardrooms of the Atlantic Submarine Fleet own a villa on La Madd, where I’ve spent several evenings diligently studying reactor plant operations, tactics, and techniques, as a good, upstanding fighting officer of the US Navy line should.

Oh, internet – I cannot lie to you: We got loaded on local wine and went carousing. What wonderful times, even in the dead of winter.

So, I’ve got tasking: How to get orders cut to La Madd at the end of April/Early May…

Basso signed with Discovery, Puerto seems to be ancient history and ruined careers, and I want to believe again….

technorati tags:, ,

Blogged with Flock

i’m Chilly-Chill!

song and dance keeping you in a trance…

Well, winter blew into New England Sunday night. Went to bed at about 45 degrees, and woke up to snow melting on the driveway Monday morning.

To be honest, the end of last week was a wreck as far as running was concerned. I had the great run on Wednesday, and slacked the rest of the week. But, despite all that, November was my highest mileage month since August.

Last night I headed out fully bundled for winter running – wind pants, softshell, and a couple of reflective bands. What a night! Near full moon, and a sky so clear it felt as if the vaccuum of space was heading down to earth. I headed down the road behind the subdivision, past the town woods, past the century-old barn being dismantled to make way for 10 new homes.

The hill on Yetter was still a cast-iron bear.

But I made it.

Three miles, and the satisfaction of unzipping the softshell and steaming while I put out the trash and pondered the stars.

What Goes On

So.

I’m sitting out on the deck, on what should be a windy, freezing and snowy day here in New England.

Yep, you read that right – I’m sitting out on my deck.

In shorts.

Quite literally steaming after finishing a PH-E-NOMENAL nighttime run.

It’s high fifties and humid, one of those trademark foggy New England nights. I’m halfway expecting some crusty old fisherman-looking guy to come around to the back and offer me a cup of chowda. (Yes, in my mind, there’s itinerant chowder vendors)

I skipped running Tuesday ’cause I couldn’t sleep Monday night. Which is probably the absolute worst. What brought it on, I bet, was a Science Friday podcast about a family with a prion disease where, at age 50 or so, they literally stayed awake until they died. So, I felt like crap all day.

Then today, work was a zoo. A good zoo, like with cool animals, not one where there’s just a bunch of unglutates pooping, but one with monkeys and stuff – great news about my project, plus another new challenge to take on, an amazing lunch with some friends, AND a great session with my mentor. But a zoo, nonetheless.

Then hurrying home for Cub Scouts. Not a lot to be said for it – we’re doing a lot of inside stuff, but I don’t want to step up and take responsibility for the den right now, so I’m not really in a place to speak. But it was good enough.

Got the boys in bed, and realized that part of my sleep problems were probably lack of exercise in the last couple of days. So, strapped ’em on, strapped on the reflectors and the blinky light, grabbed the iPod, and hit the road.

And – Wow. Stuff just clicked. The running was good, the weather was just right, and the release was exactly what I needed. The first half just zipped by, and I decided to stretch the 3 I intended to between 4 and 5, and do a loop instead of an out-n-back (eeeew, out-n-backs…)

The kicker, though, was Shuffle. At about the 2/3rds point, the Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On” from their 1969 live album came on. If you haven’t heard it, let me know and we’ll see if we can work something out.

Let it be good, do what you should, you know it’ll be all right…

There’s a killer hill just as you come up from the interstate to our subdivision. Warren can vouch for it (Hi, Warren!). And heading up that hill, Lou and the band were at the point in the song where they’re just completely riffing off each other, building and building and building… Wow.

Anyway, the endorphins are still bumping around, but I’m starting to get a bit chilly in the fingertips and nose, and the steam’s stopped coming off my shirt (Cotton, for what it’s worth). Time to shower and curl up with Foucault’s Pendulum and my lovely wife.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Another $80 soon to be down the drain

Apparently Nike + iPod is bluetooth.

According to AppleInsider, the folks in Cupertino and the folks in Washington are going to hawk a wristband that functions as a sweat-proof display for the Nike+iPod system

 Further features of the device, expected to be released under the name Nike Amp+, are unclear from the report. However, a single included marketing image suggests that gadget may hold potential to deliver one of the most frequently-requested components for the Nike+iPod system: a heart rate monitor.

Which is why I’d shell out the $80 in a heartbeat – kids’ college fund be darned. I’ve been asking for HRM support ever since the idea was hatched.

I’m still pretty enthused about the system – see my initial review here. It’s worked like a champ, especially since I picked up the system to tie it into my Asics. If you’ve already got an iPod Nano, I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you don’t have a Nano, look at the refurbs at the Apple Store (store.apple.com) – the first gen 1 GB Nanos are less than $100. With $30 for the sensor/receiver, and another $10 for the pouch for the sensor for non-Nike shoes, it’s a distance/speed/calorie/entertainment system for $130, delivered.

Tryptophan Hangover

Actually, I think I’m suffering from turkey induced euphoria.

Thanksgiving was insanely satisfying. I took off on Wednesday afternoon, and didn’t go back to work until Monday. There were no commitments for the kiddos, no travel to be had, and, after Thursday, absolutely fabulous weather.

Missy and I ran the Mystic YMCA Turkey Trot and dip. I dipped, and we finished the not quite three miles in just over 22 minutes, which was quicker than 8 minute miles, surprising both of us. I dipped, and we ran into some folks who I’d known when I taught Sub School, and who I’d run into out on the Left Coast. Good times.

Saturday, we headed down to watch Santa head in on the tugboat, as is the tradition. The weather was absolutely fabulous, which stank, ’cause Santa is supposed to show up on a cold, cloudy winter day, instead of a beautiful bluebird Indian Summer day. But, I salvaged it by running home, hitting 5+ miles for the first time in a while. Legs felt good, etc.

I haven’t been quite sticking to the build-up schedule to hit 20 miles a week by New Year, but I am not too worried. I’ll likely continue to try to hit those goals – I don’t think that going from my 10 or so miles/week to 20 miles/week (a load I’d carried in the past) will be impossible. If I were advising someone starting out, I’d likely advise them to revise the goals. But, as I’ve shown time and time again, it just isn’t going to happen.

Anyway, we’re about three weeks away from days getting longer again – I cannot wait.

And, I apologize for the light blogging lately – work is getting increasingly interesting, life at home is wonderful, and I’ve discovered that I do much better with regular sleep.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,