In 12 hours, I will be on a plane to New Orleans. Wish me luck!
I probably won’t have e-mail access until I get back next Tuesday, but feel free to give me a call while I’m there.
And on Sunday morning at 7 a.m. Central time, send non-knee-hurty thoughts my way.
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Buddy sent me this article that reports that EA has been hit with another employee class action lawsuit. Like the first, this one alleges that employees were not properly compensated for overtime pay. However, unlike the first which was filed by an artist, this one was filed by an engineer.
The interesting part of the article are the following paragraphs:
Hasty’s lawyers contend that Electronic Arts’ software engineers should be eligible for overtime because they “do not perform work that is original or creative,” have no management responsibilities and are seldom allowed to use their own judgment.
So it seems that we as engineers lose either way. If he loses the class action suit, we don’t get overtime, and if he wins, we admit that we are nothing but mindless code monkeys.
…Got any bananas?
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I took Friday off of work since I got a couple comp days for working weekends and such. Unfortunately, I forgot I was taking it off until the night before, so on Wednesday I scheduled an 8:30 a.m. Friday morning appointment with my chiropractor. Afterwards I finished watching
Since I was out Friday, I had Buddy pick up my spifferiffic new Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Zoom Lens, which I had shipped to work. I’m enjoying the longer focal length, but the IS is a little slower than I’d like. But it has a good zoom range and seems like a pretty versatile lens.
Saturday I had my last training run which went all right. Afterwards I had brunch at The Beach Chalet with my fellow AIDS Marathon-ers. I had dungeness crab benedict which was really good and probably really fatty. Mmmm… That evening I went to the El Stinko Por Los Singles Anti-Valentines party at Walter and Justin and Manish’s place. Watched SNL for the first time in a long while. Still as hit-and-miss as ever, which a great emphasis on the “miss”.
Sunday I made a conscious decision to sleep in (I basically never sleep in). I went to bed at 2 a.m., and woke up naturally at 9 a.m. After trying pretty hard, I fell back asleep and ended up getting up at 11:15. I spent the next few hours cleaning up the place before Babs came over to see the place. We took Enzo on a walk and then had dinner at Chile’s. We both realized that we are often kind of bored, but always think the other is busy, so we don’t hang out as much as we could. She claims to be going through Sha-withdrawl, but, I’m trying to convince her that she will get sick of me if I’m over too much. Even I get sick of me. Later that night Matt and Brendan came over so we could watch some episodes of 24.
This morning I went outside to take a few pictures before work, but I realized when I was already on my way to work that I didn’t have the memory card in the camera. 
Other realizations during the commute: a whole heckuva lot of people must have today off, because I was on the 101 (yes, the 101, take that NorCal people!) at 8:30 a.m., and there was no traffic. It was kind of nice. Every day should be a holiday.
This week should be pretty light. I’m just prepping to go to New Orleans, woohoo!
Posted in Entertainment, Fitness, Photography |
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Saturday was our last training run in the city, a “short” 8-mile recovery run. I was having quite a bit of right knee pain, and around miles 3-4, I was considering stopping at 6. But as 6 got closer, I got my second wind and was able to finish the 8.
It’s now 3 days before I leave for New Orleans. I can hardly fathom that 5 1/2 months has already passed! It feels like yesterday when I was struggling to finish our first 3-mile run. Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported me along the way!
Current fundraising amount: $4918
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Okay, so I realize that this makes me seem like I’m 5, but this made me giggle when I saw this in my taskbar. (The full title is “AssetFinderUIDs”, in case you’re curious.)
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So we are now supposed to be in the taper period of our training. But given that I’ve missed a bunch o’ runs, I personally am in my panic period. No, not really, but I was feeling a little slacker-y given that I hadn’t done a long run since January. So this past Saturday, while everyone was scheduled for 8, I decided to try a longer run. The first 8 I did with my group, and was feeling the pain, but it was pretty tolerable. I did 4 more miles along the Great Highway, and they were a struggle. It was probably partly the mileage, but I think a lot of it was the fact that I was running alone. Whatever the reason, by the end of the 12 miles, I was pretty much doing the hunchback run, i.e. running without bending one knee. I had wanted to do 14 or 16, but fortunately, that last bit of common sense running around my head prevailed, and I stopped. After that I spent a good 15 minutes standing in the cold cold ocean to ice down my legs.
My chiropractor has determined that I have weak hip flexors, and this is contributing to my IT band problems. She reasons that the IT bands have to tighten to compensate for the muscle weakness, and this makes them rub more against the bone, causing the friction and the pain. So she’s given me a series of exercises to do, and they seem to be working. I feel much more stable when I run.
At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about things. As my coach pointed out, there’s nothing I can do at this point to significantly improve my race day performance, so I’m now I’m basically where I’ll be on race day. I think I have the endurance to do the race, and I’ve accepted the fact that this will be a painful marathon for me. But hey, “pain is weakness leaving the body”, or some other No Fear slogan.
Anyway, I am definitely getting psyched about the marathon. It’s less than 2 weeks away!
Current fundraising amount: $4918
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On Friday I saw
Lost ability to type in complete sentences.
Edit: And happy Valen-something something Day.
Posted in Entertainment, General |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy today announced that Dr. Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, has resigned effective on or about February 25, 2005. Dr. Chu indicated she will return to her home in New Mexico due to personal circumstances.
“I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to serve the President and to lead a program of such national and international importance,” Dr. Chu said. “I am proud to have been a part of this Administration and of making critical progress with Yucca Mountain.”
On March 6, 2002, the United States Senate unanimously confirmed Dr. Chu as director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. As director, Dr. Chu was responsible for advising the Secretary of Energy and the President on issues surrounding the ongoing scientific research and licensing of the nation’s first permanent geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Dr. Chu previously served as director of nuclear waste management at the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories. She also served as Sandia manager for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant activities. She received her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Minnesota.
And another, slightly less formal take from Salon.com:
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H. Josef Hebert
Feb. 11, 2005 | Washington — The official in charge of building the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada has submitted her resignation, the Energy Department announced Friday.
The departure of Margaret Chu as director of the department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management comes at a time when the Yucca Mountain program has been delayed because of budget cuts and problems developing acceptable radiation safety standards.
The department said in a statement that Chu was leaving “due to personal circumstances” and that she plans to return to New Mexico. The resignation is effective Feb. 25, the statement said.
In Nevada, Bob Loux, head of the state office that has been fighting the proposed waste dump, said Chu’s departure was not expected to change the Bush administration’s determination to pursue the Yucca waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
“Clearly, the important decisions were being made elsewhere by other people,” Loux said. The Yucca Mountain project remains a top priority at the White House and the department, Samuel Bodman, the new energy secretary, told a congressional hearing this week.
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So yesterday I went on my first real run in 2 weeks, an easy 4 miles in the treadmill. The first two miles were fantastic — no pain at all. The latter two were a little iffy, but it was tolerable. Afterwards I was sore, so I iced and stretched all day and night. Today, I am (very surprisingly) pain-free. So I’ll take that as a good sign.
If I’m not physically better, I’m at least mentally in a better place. I think I’m going to try a slightly longer run tomorrow, and then the 8 on Saturday. If I’m feeling great on Saturday I may do a bit extra, say 12 or 14, just to get back in shape a little.
In other news, we got our swanky CoolMax AIDS Marathon singlets on Saturday (Buddy picked up mine for me.) It’s hard to believe that time has passed so fast — the marathon is less than 3 weeks away!
Thank you to everyone who’s put up with my complaining over the past couple of weeks. Things are starting to look up!
Current fundraising amount: $4918
Posted in Fitness |
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Happy New Year! A special shout out to all my friends turning 24 this year. It is your year. Make it good.
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