let this be a lesson to you, facebookers

There are a few lessons to be learnt from the unfortunate case of young Mr. Brendan Sokaluk…

1. If you have a feeling you’re about to be arrested for lighting bushfires that killed dozens of people, make sure you get rid of any child pornography you have lying about the house. People already feel like lynching you – child porn accusations aren’t going to make you more popular.
2. If you know there’s a chance you’ll be arrested for arson (and child porn) don’t post pictures of yourself on Facebook. You’re just making it easy for people

That being said, in all seriousness, the rubbish that’s being put on FB at the moment on this issue isn’t really helpful. The guy’s entitled to a fair trial, no matter how upset everyone is at the moment.

Smoke
I’m feeling very asthmatic and wheezy at the moment, with the city’s air resembling the inside of the Marlboro Man’s lungs. I ran early this morning, and felt okay during the run. Afterwards I was headachy and nauseous. Admittedly, that could have been because I was on the way to work, which never has a good affect on me.

If there were a god, (I’m not saying there is!) and he or she was a benevolent sort of chap, surely it’d be time right about now for a good downpour or two: to put out the remaining fires and clear up the air. That being said, if some divine entity did appear, I’d be pretty interested to know what he/she was thinking the weekend before last up in the hills. Not cool, God, not cool at all.

there’s probably no god

Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. Or so says an advertising campaign running on London buses at the moment.

See their website: www.atheistcampaign.org.

Good on them, I say. A nice, simple positive message.

Dentist
There may be no god, but unfortunately there definitely are cavities and their inevitable corollary: dentists. I’m feeling a bit number and tingly and tasting unpleasantly of metal.

Joy.

Blisters
There are also such things as blisters, including a nice example of the species currently nesting on the side of my right toe. There’s a nice excuse for a new pair of shoes if I’ve ever heard one!

Running
None today yet, but a run is planned this evening.

god is an aubergine

After the weekend past, thoughts of chafing are uppermost in my mind at the moment. In fact last night I went as far as drafting a blog post in which the words, “red raw”, “bleeding” and “nipples” featured more heavily than normal.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and I junked that particular piece of sweetness and light.

Instead I would like to draw your attention to this story:

Holy Eggplant!

Yes, apparently God has revealed him/her/itself in the form of a purple vegetable. And why not I say.

What lessons can we draw from this? Perhaps that god is seedy, is liable to become bitter if not salted and tastes good in a parmigiana?

Profound.

As an aside: in Australia we have a word for people who think God talks to them via vegetables, and it’s not very nice.

In America however, the term is “Mr President”.

Running
A quick trot to the shops and back was all I could manage last night. Tonight I have a punishing gruelling ordeal scheduled: and then after Neighbours is finished, I’ll go for a run.

Gosh I’m funny today!

running gods and bloody dogs

Sleep, or rather lack of sleep, has been a bit of an issue for me in recent weeks, for reasons I won’t go into in this particular forum.

I remember, way back in the dim, distant past, sleeping in until 1pm quite regularly. I remember at one stage complaining about having to start uni at 2:30 in the afternoon. It seemed pretty harsh at the time.

Ah, those were the days.

If you get to sleep in, congratulations, but I don’t want to hear it right now. I resent the thought that at this exact moment, thousands of slackers are wallowing in hoggish slumber, while I sweat away at the old computer like some sad-arse wage slave.

Anyway, this weekend passed saw a vary rare conjunction of events, where the weather, sleep, food and everything else provided by the running gods came together to form IDEAL running conditions.

Running
Saturday was pretty wet (hallelujah!) but luckily all that was required was 8k plus some downhill strides. 8k is almost exactly the distance to the mother-in-law’s joint, so off I toodled. I was wearing the old shoes, which are definitely starting to bother me, time to do something about that.

I had good fun at the end doing 6 downhill strides, winding up an increasingly aggro dog towards the end of each stride. Everytime I went passed he got more angry. Ha, ha, ha. More on dogs later…

Sunday wasn’t so wet, but a stunningly beautiful morning all round. I set out about 7 and did a modified version of the 31k route the ESRG did a few weeks ago. I forgot the vaseline, which is usually a recipe for disaster. However, as mentioned above, the running gods were clearly smiling on me. No blood, no tears, just a small ocean’s worth of sweat.

It was 36k all up, done in 2 hours 50 minutes. I was pretty happy with this, given I was alone and it was a touch hilly in spots. Also I managed to do the last 20 minutes at a faster pace, as per the program’s instructions.

If I had have continued at that pace, I would have done the marathon in 3 hrs 20, which I would be relatively happy with. Secretly, I’m hoping I can do it a bit faster, but we’ll see. Still 9 weeks of training to go.

Today I was up with the roosters and other wildlife for a 12k easy/recovery run. Luckily there wasn’t too much pain or stiffness.

So a pretty good running weekend all-round.

Bloody dogs
Dogs, they irk me. Actually it’s not so much the dogs as the owners. Specifically the kind of dog owners who allow great big vicious looking beasts to run off the lead in areas they shouldn’t. Also dog owners who have yappy-type dogs that jump out at you as you’re passing, forcing you to engage in evasive maneuvers and almost twisting your ankle to bejeezus. Bloody, bloody….