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Wednesday, November 24, 2004

For those of you that don't remember, I ran my first ever marathon in February of this year. As per my entry of 3/12/05, I suffered a foot injury (a result of running a marathon in Nike running shoes), which later led to a knee injury. So for the last 8 months or so, I did pretty close to no running....until about 2 weeks ago.

Conventional wisdom says that it takes somewhere between 6 months and a year to prepare for a marathon**. I had a simple goal: get in marathon shape in 4 weeks. That's right, on December 5th, I will be running the first ever Newport Beach Marathon. I'm only up to about 15 miles so far, but I've got another 10 days. I'd like to break 4 hours again, but I feel a little slower than I did a year ago. We'll see how it goes.

**As an aside, my father says that this rule only applies to your first marathon, and that after running one you automatically are in marathon shape for at least a year. It's a nice thought, but I can't say that I've ever seen my father run...ever.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

One of the millions of disenfranchised voters:

Over the years, I've noticed that if I vote early in the morning, there's coffee and donuts. So I wake up 45 minutes early, arrive at my polling place circa 7:00 AM, ready to do my civic duty...right behind the other 200 people with the same idea.

Excerpts of cell phone conversation after waiting in line for 45 minutes:

Me: Time off to vote?
Boss: What do you mean?
Me: I've been in line for 45 minutes, I'm almost inside.
Boss: I usually vote after work. Next election, if you want to vote before work, you should request a shift change.

Right-o. I'll write that down...request different shift in 4 years. Who the hell keeps the same job for 4 years? Was I being unreasonable? I think not: http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/tovbackeng.pdf

So I get to vote after work today. I really don't even want to vote, but it gives me something to complain about for the next 4 years. Anyway, let's say there were 500 people waiting to vote when I left at 7:45 AM (when most people are at work or asleep). Anybody have a guess on how long this line will be at 5:30 PM?

But none of it really matters, because the world will soon be coming to an end...Tricia's friends have started buying me dinner. Thanks again Alex and Deanne. Come back anytime!