Concerning last post, I had forgotten this is the last instant of the world and I no longer have a moral obligation to see all that is wrong around me, all that might possibly need changing. I'm free now.

Lately unhappy at work in that I find my coworkers to be very boring people. I think that well, they're almost all women. Yes, true. That plays some role. I'm a married man. Most would think what I consider a nonmeaningless friendship to be inappropriate. And hardly any, maybe simply none, would be anyone I really want to be friends with anyway.

But, I can easily enough think back to every group I've ever worked with, most of which were primarily men and they've all been a waste of time.

This group is at least nice. Not all back stabbing and such. But really I'd as well stare at a wall as have a conversation with them. Really, no one ever says anything remotely interesting.

It could be worse. In the swing between boredom and pain, this is only boredom.

They're too focused on short term obstacles perhaps to see the bigger picture. There's this one single woman that I thought perhaps was better (at work). I saw a lot of potential in her that wasn't really there at all. Just my imagination. It's only ever within, nowhere else.

Here and there in life there were others I thought better of. I've always been wrong though. It's always just my imagination. Imagining people to be better than they are.

Well I can play all of Romberg's c major cello sonata at more than 60 BPM now. Although not as well as this fellow. Still have to practice it a lot. Amazing how bad recordings sound compared to live.

I think it took almost 6 months! And have been playing the cello now for a year. Slowed down by a few sixteenth note sections with 3/1 slurs. Now starting Squier's Tarantella which, although a harder (and better sounding) song, will surely go a bit faster.

Did 6/1 for 4 miles in 34:47. Ran out of steam at the end. Did the first 1.5 miles in 12:14. And the first 2.5 in about 20:05 although the mile marker is off there by maybe 45 seconds. ...although come to think of it that would mean I did the first 1.5 in under 12 minutes... whatever.

Don't feel like eating today, but feel good.

Did a 6/1 for 4 miles in 35:46. I think I maybe ought to concentrate on 6/1's for a while. The shorter stuff is perhaps a little too anerobic, makes me want to just lay around the next day or two, which can be disasterous if I've got 6 needy patients for 12 hours.

So 35:46 for miles is probably the fastest I've ever managed that. At least that I've ever timed. And definitely the fastest in the last 20 years. Probably could shave a minute or two off of that pretty quickly though as I've hardly ever done 6 minute intervals.

Right foot still hurting after wearing vibrams for a week. Maybe not getting better. Maybe I need to take some time off. But when my knees hurt they got better without taking time off.

Finished book 4 of JV Jones' Watcher of the Dead series. This was the best book of the series in that the preceding were too negative and this was more positive. Finally some very positive things are happening for Raina. Raif is now extremely powerful and even has a sex mate. Effie also has real power and her situation isn't so gruesome as it once was. I think actually that Mace was not even in book 4 at all??? He's been off at war.

The right level of injustice balanced against something positive, like the hope that results from aces up the sleeve, etc is not so easy to manage. It's understandable that things will look grimmer in the beginning and gradually become more positive. Such was the case with Rothfuss and his second book, and so on in these sorts of books.

Now starting Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Refreshing. Most would say it's on a higher level than the Jones series. Not really so though. The social norms are more complex, because it's only a slight variation of reality. If you're going to make an entirely new world with entirely different social norms, it's just too much to make them very complex. So then, the Sull for example end up way too crude, the only other way forward would be for Jones to do a better job at finding something in them that appeals to us humans instead of trying to emphasize that they're totally alien/foriegn.

One thing I dislike of Jones is that she has her characters using sayings occasionally that just don't belong. The world is not earth. Why would someone say "easy peasy"?

Did a run 2 min and walk 1 minute 5k today in 27:37. Which is very good. Previously had done a 3/1 in 26:59 but hadn't done this sort of thing in a while. I have improved a bit. Right foot was OK for the run but afterwards really limping. Ran awful yesterday but today felt pretty good. Maybe the alcohol last night helped. But yesterdays run probably was good recuperation.

I think the idea of communicating with people only or almost only via email and/or facebook, etc is abhorrent. So much important information is lost, so much that mere words can't communicate. Yet, if I'm saying words are futile, why do I like to read so much? Is that not a contradiction?

I don't think so. What is often so beautiful about a well written book is the unknown that it is left to the reader to fill in with their own imaginations. When a book is turned into a movie I almost always prefer the book in part, for this reason.

Having a converstation with a real live human being is not like reading a book. You're not remotely supposed to fill in the blanks with whatever fantastic craziness you can come up with. Unless, I suppose, you've just called a phonesex number. Short of that, with a real live human being you should be trying to get rid of the blanks with as much real (and situationally relevant) information as possible.

To not do so shows a lack of consideration. It shows that you don't really care whether or not you successfully communicate with them. You don't really care what they think. Or for that matter if they even really understand you. It shows that at best, the correspondence amounts to some perverted phone sex like interaction.

Unknowns in stories often greatly improve the story. Unknowns in actual real human interactions are generally not so good.

Was asked, "How do you know when it's the one?"

1. Ethics - same idea of how people should be treated. (Degree of selfishness vs altruism. Degree of honesty. Etc.)
2. Comfort - can you fart around them? Have you reached the point where you're really being how you actually really are? And them also?
3. Trust - self explanatory
4. Acceptance - are you still keeping a tally of their positives and negatives and comparing to others? Or do you accept the person as they are, and plan on making things work with them?

Applies for any actual real friendships also.

(I guess actual attraction and a few additional odds and ends matter, slightly.)

Pros and cons of a consistent 1 to 2 alcoholic drinks a day

Pros
1. Live longer.
2. Improved running endurance???
3. At times it takes the nervous edge off of my state of mind.

Cons
1. I feel my mind being dulled at times. I have less memory of the times that I drink. And I mean one to two drinks a day every day and entire months kind of pass by with little to mark them... (Which isn't really all that bad a thing at times.) But a generalized dullness of mind. Less creative. Less introspective. Less insightful.
2. Much easier to put on a bit of tummy fat.

As to alcohol and endurance, the internet turns up endless articles demonizing alcohol. None of which are even slightly convincing. Pubmed turns up nothing of use. I doubt other engines would either although just found out my remote library access no longer is working. :(((

Did find this:
http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2008/6/26/what-can-the-tarahumara-indians-tell-us-about-the-importance-of-running-long-distances/

What you won’t read about the Tarahumara in the scientific journals is that they are all heavy binge drinkers of corn beer. In fact, the scientific journals are lying, because a significant percentage of their diet must be alcohol, rather than merely carbs, protein and fat. The scientists writing their articles must have known this, if they had visited the Tarahumara–every else visiting them comments on their prodigious drinking. This is probably a result of PC BS. Their drinking may be a cause of their unusually high triglyceride levels. Whether it helps or hinders their long distance running abilities is an interesting question.

Which I knew already.

That, and my own somewhat meager personal experience over the years. I have repeatedly found my endurance improves. But, experiments with alcohol have been difficult for me as I hate the mind dulling effects. Thus I haven't looked much in this area... Also I've not experimented much in athletic endurance performance.

"Wrote" a song today, #142. Sampling from Twilight Hitchhiker episode, which I found so scary as a kid and actually still really is extremely scary to me. Here at 38, finally watching the entirety of it.

Listening back over old songs. I do impress myself a bit. Whatever though.

Have memories attached to some songs. 129 very strongly bits of england. Fake memories of course, best not examined too closely.

Today I ran awfully. Maybe it was the extreme soreness in my hamstrings from gardening these last few days. Or the night shift I worked. Hadn't worked one in a couple of weeks. And/or going up to 4 miles of intervals last run. Etc. Shouldn't get too frustrated.

But then furthermore power company contractors came by to take some large chunks out of the two biggest trees we've got on the front side of the house. Wife actually cried about it.

Also procrastinating the final go at that synthesis of the literature for publication.

:( At least S actually contacted me about going out for dinner. Normally I always have to take the initiative which I'm about tired for good of. Very rare for someone else to do so.

70% into the third of JV Jones' trilogy. With each switch in scene it's hard to bother continue reading. The suffering Raina experiences is too unbalanced. There needs to be something to balance suffering. With Hobb's Fitz, you knew he had such aces up his sleeve. Jones' Raif has great aces now, yet actually isn't really got much suffering. Probably the combination of suffering plus the ace is important. Effie's suffering has thankfully eased up. Riana though is more than 1000 pages of geting raped, slapped around, forced to marry the person who raped her, murdered her true love, with no one knowing what he did, and watching him destroy their clan, etc, etc. No glimpse really of anything positive. Totally unbalanced. Came very close to giving up on this book again. Instead the reading of it goes very slowly as the endless changing of scenes continues to make it hard to continue reading. I get into one scene just for it to end. To continously have to re-get in to another character's situation gets old.

Switched to half mile intervals instead of quarters. There's just hardly any endurance aspect to a quarter. Which I already knew but I guess forgot or something. First attempt at half miles I averaged about 3:39, every six minutes. Third attempt I averaged 3:28 for 2 miles total. But only every 7 minutes as I went with my 8 year old nephew who averaged over 5 minutes per.

Top of right foot is hurting a bit from the vibrams. I've put them aside and am back to normal shoes for now. Probably should take time off but that's no fun. Instead a bit less mileage. Landing on heels for now. Knees are good.

A Cavern of Black Ice by JV Jones

The hero has an ace up his sleeve. We realize this almost immediately but it's only very, very slowly developed, with the hero not really realizing it even. Such is the standard formula. The one that works best that I'm aware of.

Lots of injustice. But overkill. Overdone and crudely done.

I suppose there is mystery. Certainly most of the magic isn't explained in too much detail. Something about this story doesn't work well for me. Doesn't have enough depth. The clans recall vikings to me. I think of the Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay which had much more depth to it, yet for that matter, didn't particularly move me either. Can't remember why. There may not have even been a hero with an ace in that one at all.

For Jones, the switching from scene to scene, gets annoying. Bit too much of a GR Martin feel in that respect. As we start the second book we've got:
1. Ash March off with the Sull.
2. Angus Lok just leaving the Doglord.
3. Penthero Iss
4. Sargo Veys
5. Marafice Eye
6. Raif
7. Raif's younger sister
8. Raina
9. The assasin going to kill Angus Lok's family (a big long bit about her working as a waitress, why???)
10. Angus Lok's daughter (in the middle of fighting the assasin, the scene stops, hundreds of pages later we still haven't came back).
11. The Listener in the far North.
Etc. Endless jumping around. Very similar to that ass GR Martin.

We keep going back to Raif's younger sister just to see what horrible thing will be done to her next. Injustice overload. No balance. She's 8 years old and they almost burned her for being a witch. But did kill her dog. It's just been a endless stream of horrible things that happen to her. It's too much. No balance. And then Raina the rape bride. And waaay too much jumping around. You can't keep stopping scenes right at their climax and then not returning till hundreds of pages later.
In this way primarily you fail, JV Jones, fail badly. Starting to think your goal is just too annoy the hell out of people.

Told in third person which maybe explains in part why I feel a little distant to it. Does have it's moments where the hero pulls out his ace. Ash though, the second hero, her ace is a bit overkill. And there's no development of it. Just, tiddah! Superpowerful!

I'm starting book two. But barely interested enough to continue. Maybe should read some more Kay instead. Thought EE Knight was refreshing also...

It's got injustice but it's overdone and perhaps too crude. It's got an ace and that's done pretty well. It's got mystery. But the jumping from scene to scene, and then not returning to things for hundreds of pages is a huge negative. I've had about enough.

Bought vibrams a week ago. Went back to landing on the front of my foot first. So far, no knee pain. Did a non-interval run for the first time in a long time. 4 miles in 36:34. Still can cover more total distance running intervals. And feel a lot better afterwards.