On the subject of 24:29...

Today I'm posting with great pride. It's been a long time since I've run a 5K; it's been nearly 10 years. I realize that I've gotten older, and my mind and body have already started that downward slide. I'm not a teenager anymore. Ten years ago my best time in a 5K was 22 minutes and some-odd-seconds (they could have been even, but I don't remember). I've tried to keep in shape a bit with occaisional sports and running a few times a week. Today I got to see the results of my "maintenance " exercise. Today, at the Melbourne Arts Festival 5K, I clocked in at 24 minutes and 29 seconds. It's not a great time, but it is one I am very happy to accept. I never time myself when I run and my honest best hope time I was going for was around 26 minutes. 

I don't know if it was the time, or the endorphins, but it felt good too. And there was free fruit at the end :)

I will admit that I did have to walk for about a minute. Not due to my legs, which were happy to keep pace, but my weakness is a need for more aerobic exercise. It was the cardio part that killed me, so I need to work on that. I think if I can last running the entire thing without walking, I can probably run it in 22 minutes and some-odd-or-even-seconds, and then it will almost be like being a teenager again (except it will hurt excessively more the next day).

On the subject of Bowling for Soup and Ticketmaster...

Wow. I just saw Bowling for Soup for the second time tonight, and it was an awesome show. The first BFS show I saw was really good, but this time I was near the front of the crowd, so I think that energy makes the show better. BFS is also a great band for engaging the crowd (probably the best I have ever seen), and that really ramps up the performance. I recommend that if you like any of their songs and haven't seen them live you grab the next opportunity. The opening acts, Ronnie Day and Quiet Drive, were OK. Ronnie Day was missable, but I really enjoyed Quiet Drive and I'm kicking myself now for not stopping by the merch booth at the end and picking up their CD. I'll have to find it online.

---BEGIN RANT MODE ---

This will be the little section of my blog where I will stand up on my theoretical soapbox and complain. I was happy that the BFS concert used a ticket vendor called TicketWeb to sell online tickets. It's good to see competition for Ticketmaster (how I loathe thee, let me count the ways). I recently tried to purchase Dave Matthews Band tickets for a concert in September. I tried to originally get 4 tickets in row, but of course it only offered me lawn seating (not real covered seats). It wasn't until I went down to single seats that I actually was offered covered seating. The site is also horribly slow. I waited 11 minutes to find out I was only going to be offered lawn seating. All of the good seats get snagged up incredibly quickly (and strangely enough always seem to end up in the hands of scalpers). There has to be some way to fix this. 

So, that's the question. How can Ticketmaster be improved? How about releasing tickets in stages and not announcing when the tickets will be released. Save some good seats for later stages as well, so you don't have to have clicked at the very super instant millisecond that tickets became available to get good seats. So that a few days after the initial release you could search and have a chance of getting good seats. 

I have no other solutions at the moment, so I will step down from my little complaining box.

---END OF RANT---

On the subject of cooking for yourself...

I've found that since I've moved into an apartment on my own I've fallen into the single guy trap of not cooking much for myself. I would like to hereby blame society for this. It's not that I don't like cooking. I actually really enjoying cooking. It's just that I don't want to make six servings of the same thing at one time. It would be a waste to, since I probably won't eat it all, and I don't like wasting food. Even side dishes provide too much for a single meal if eaten alone, and I don't want to eat a side dish as my entire meal.

You know those single serving boxes of cereal, the kind you always took on camping trips or ate at school. It was the little box that you tore the front off of and then poorly shredded the wax paper wrapper inside, just so you could pour milk into it and use it as a bowl. Those seem like a great idea, not because it can be used as a bowl (the ultimate in bachelor laziness for after-meal clean-up), but because it provides the appropriate serving. Why can't they make Hamburger Helper in those size boxes. Why must beef/chicken be sold in one lb. increments. I want to be able to buy a 1/4 lb. of beef and one of those tiny boxes of Hamburger Helper. Then I would cook for myself.

I demand single-serving portions for meals that you cook. Not just something out of a can, but something with actual preparation steps that provides a feeling of accomplishment. 

Oh, and if you ever want someone to cook you a meal, just ask, I'm probably up for it. I love cooking for company, since it's the only time I really get to cook large portions and they will be eaten (beware that I may send you away with leftovers).

On the subject of dying electric mice...

This weekend I have been catsitting my friend's girlfriend's BEAST of a cat. I refer to him now as the mini-lion, since the cat is 28 lbs and by far the largest normal (well...) housecat I have ever seen (no cat should ever stand taller than your knees). At least he's friendly and hasn't tried to eat me. He really loves attention (though he won't play with me) and his purr can be heard across the whole apartment.

They left some toys for him (electric squeaky mice, a two-tiered scratching post/perch thing, some "cat fishing poles" (wands with strings and feathers and things). The first day I found out he tried to jump up on the perch and knocked it over, so I've since learned I have to brace it. This morning was interesting though. I awoke to check on him and found that he had actually KNOCKED THE TOILET SEAT OFF OF THE TOILET! Not only that, he had attempted to drown his electric mice by dropping them in the bowl. He also shredded my toilet paper and dropped that in the bowl too! So now it appears that he succeeded with the murder of one electric mouse, but the other one WILL NOT STOP SQUEAKING. So since this morning I've dealt with an enormous attention craving cat and a dying electric mouse that just won't make its final peace. Sigh.

On the subject of learning to skate at the age of 25.

In the Snow Patrol song "Chocolate" (great song, great band, awesome in concert) there's a line " I can make my first steps as a child of 25." Well, lately I've been taking my first "rolls" as a child of 25. I haven't skated-or even tried to skate or considered skating-in probably over 10 years. The only times I ever went skating in my younger days was when a friend would host a skating birthday party. I would always go, hug the wall and fall down a lot for first hour, but by the end of the day actually make it around the rink ok. 

My reentry into skating actually involved no wheels. I attended an ice skating event. Luckily, I can say I made it through 2 hours of ice skating with only one major fall, and I had enough fun to actually consider getting the rollerblades that friends kept encouraging me to get so I could join them on what I considered socially acceptable attempts on their own lives. I broke down and bought rollerblades, which so far I have used twice. The first trip involved me going into the grass a lot (you can walk in rollerblades on the grass). The highlight (for everyone else) involved me and an apparently spectacular event with a mailbox (my apologies to the mailbox). Yesterday I went again, and I can happily say that I really didn't need the grass, and the trip was uneventful. 

So here I am learning to finally skate at 25. Maybe at 26 I can learn to swim ;)

On the subject of burning down playhouses...

I've noticed that the phrase "burn the playhouse down" appears in music and movies occasionally. The songs I've noted are "Bone of Contention" by Spirit of the West (it's on the Due South soundtrack, which was a great series by the way), "We Want a Rock" by They Might Be Giants, and "Burn Your Playhouse Down" by the Proclaimers. A quick search on Google yields several lesser known songs that use the phrase (well, admittedly these songs probably aren't that well known anyway). 

What made me think of it was I just saw the movie Shooter (great revenge flick), and the lead character used the phrase there. I'm curious about its origins and if it refers to an actual historical event (like many phrases come from) or if it was just made up because it sounded cool.

Speaking of setting fire to things. I swear Jacob Dylan (son of Bob Dylan, and lead singer for the Wallflowers) must be an arsonist at heart. The number of references to settings things on fire or things burning in Wallflowers songs is staggering. At some point I will generate actual statistics on this, but this will require me to have some free time to burn.