November 2008 archive

James Boyle: The Public Domain

I was excited yesterday to hear about a new book, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. (Also mentioned in a Creative Commons blog post.)

I wasn’t familiar with James Boyle and his work, which is disturbing, because it seems like I should already have been a fan of such a free culture luminary. He has lots of good things to say on the topic. (I’ve since tried to remedy my negligence by adding him to my “Free Links.”)

The book is available for free online under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial ShareAlike License. After downloading it and reading through part of the first chapter, I ordered the paper copy from Amazon.

I fully expect it to reinforce my beliefs and give me …

Don’t overthink your fruit and vegetable purchases…

That way lies madness.

Grapes

I rejected the first bag of red grapes I picked up at Cub yesterday. I don’t know why. Visual inspection indicated possible lack of freshness, we’ll say. It’s not unusual for me to pass over one collection of grapes for another, but this time I got stuck in a loop, critically evaluating about a half dozen bags. They just didn’t seem to be bursting with excitement. Once I’d rejected a few for vague and uncertain reasons, I felt that I owed it to myself to find one that was significantly better-seeming than the rejects, but none of them inspired me. I became worried that I might have to walk away with grapes that failed to meet my stringent quality requirements. (Namely, that they should appear to be bursting with excitement.)

I knew …

Turkey Trek 5K

Ran in my first race today, the 5th annual “Turkey Trek 5K.” There were 700 people registered. I don’t know how many people actually ran, but there was definitely a teeming multitude present. Temperature was agreeable at about 35 degrees F. (For you strange people on the metric system, that would be 1.7 degrees C.)

I didn’t know what to expect. I had heard it was a tough track. It’s on a trail system around my company’s headquarters, mostly paved but some unpaved and a number of small hills. With my entire running experience on my own around the neighborhood, I wondered how the pacing would work. My best 3 miles solo had been 29 minutes, but I haven’t pushed myself for speed. I figured 27 minutes would …

Martin Sexton at the Fitzgerald Theater

A world with Martin Sexton in it makes me happy. What can I say about seeing him perform live? It was awesome. He is such a gifted artist. His songs, whether glad or sad, inspire me and make me feel good. Maybe it’s his sincerity that is so appealing. He puts it all out there.

Here’s a photo from before the show, just down the street from the Fitzgerald:

Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul, which seems fitting to include here given Martin’s song “Diner.” You might have seen one out in Minnesota…

I liked the Fitzgerald Theater. Small theaters are great for concerts. I don’t know if I ever want to see a band play in a stadium again. The …

Weighing In

After mentioning in my last post an earlier post about losing weight, I figured zero or one of you might be interested in an update.

I’ve lost nearly 50 pounds in the past 6 months. The Weight Watchers plan along with exercise worked for me. I discussed my frustrations with the WW web site in that June post, and I ended up dropping them after my initial three month membership was up. But I stayed with the system, using my own spreadsheet.

Here’s a chart of my “official” Monday weigh-ins:

Exercise has been the key. Mostly walking until late August, when I started jogging. I think running has ratcheted up my metabolism. I was “on plan” every week up until a month ago, but since then have …

The Running Bug

I seem to have come down with the running bug. I wonder where I picked it up, and how bad it’s going to get. And is there an effective treatment or cure for the disease? I hope not, because it feels so good.

I was hoping I could keep the problem under control, with three mile jogs in better weather conditions. I’ve been getting by all right with my New Balance 609 “cross-trainer” shoes, for which I paid $54.99 back in early August. This was before I came down with the sickness. The 609s are my standard walking shoe, with this pair being the third generation. But they seem to be doing the job for running, so far, with 80+ miles logged and my body still not rejecting me.

Up until now I hadn’t invested in any paraphernalia specifically for running, although …