Insomniac's Lounge

I've finally started running again. And not just running a couple times a month. In fact, I ran Saturday and Sunday two weekends in a row. I think what helped was repeating the pattern I did years ago. Record your runs. Now, I can do it more easily. I have a new program on my Android phone called Cardio Trainer. Man, this is great. The first couple of times I took it with me on my run, I was trying to figure out what it was saying to me. I brought my headphones the last two times. This is awesome. It gives you audio feedback as you run (if you want, it's configurable). Every quarter mile or so it will give you elapsed time and minutes per mile and what have you. And if you pace changes, you find out several times a mile. So, you can adjust to maintain your pace. I am very impressed with my results. I'm maintaining a 8:30 mile pace or so over 4 miles. And, that's not easy. I usually drop off a lot on that fourth mile. This tool is really helping me.

What I'd like next to be able to tweet my results. They support Facebook but I don't like Facebook. Or, ideally I'd like an API to their servers. I CAN export the data so maybe that's what I should do. I could just store it on a server somewhere and mirror the results.

Time to get in shape and stay in shape.

Wow. I need to blog more here.

Look at my new Buddy!


image link: http://twitpic.com/fpcuu/full

Rode my bike home from work the other day.
I have a bike rack for the car. So, the wife takes me and the bike to work. And, I ride it home.

Episode 1:
Was weird. The bus was heading to the depot, not going downtown. East Austin here we come!
So, I'll heave to show up between 5-6 next time.

Door to door my route was 16.7 miles.
2 miles on bike to bus
miles 2-11 on bus (long way since bus was heading to depot)
miles 11-16.7 on bike (via town lake+lamar)
~ 7-8 mile ride Easy.
If I get there earlier and go the normal way, it will be around a 5-6 mile ride.

The game is on! Tonight is the season opener for the Austin Aztex v Minnesota Thunder. It should be a good one so come on out.

Aztexan has a decent write-up of the match.

Nelson Field at 7:30pm

Chantico's Army will be there early. There's chant practice from 3-5pm in the parking lot (and tailgating).
And, then we head over to Nomad bar for a quick "pre-game".

At 6:45PM we arrive back at the stadium to march in. With all our drums and other loud nose makers.

Come join the fun. No cost to join our group.

I probably shouldn't say this. BUT. If you can't make it to the match, you can watch it on USLLive.com tonight : USLLive.com

It's official. Austin is racist. Or, at least a lot of businesses and the people that run them. Oh and some musicians too.

Apparently, the Texas Relays brings in a lot of black people. Gasp! What will we ever do if people come to town that don't look like us.

This is the same sort of passive (not that passive) racism you see in tourists that visit NYC from the middle of the country. They look very timid because they've never really been around that many people of color. So sad. Not every person of color is in a gang you dumbass hick.

I don't know. Maybe I mistake moving back to Austin. I thought I lived in the People's Republic of Austin (the island of liberalism in the sea of conservatism) but this is just sad.

Furthermore, Austin's Highland mall is closing all day on Saturday. For reals. Yes. a whole mall. And we just drove south on I-35 tonight after the Aztex game. Horrible as that was, it was made worse because the cops had closed off all the major southbound exits downtown. There was almost no one down on 6th from the glimpse I had from I-35. I'm guessing all the scared white people stayed home tonight.

And, also closing is Emo's and Flamingo Cantina. The former claiming they are protecting their staff. Tell me another lie.

Ridiculous. Well, I'll be smack in the middle of downtown tomorrow getting my haircut and riding my bicycle.

I, for one, welcome our new black overlords.

More from Austinist

Vancouver gets awarded the next MLS franchise.
Portland should be next (maybe announced this weekend?).
Tonight is the first game for another new team: Seattle Sounders FC vs Red Bulls.

And with Vancouver comes the Steve Nash story.
It has been said that Steve is good enough to play in the MLS but has been an NBA player of some repute for some years now.
His little brother plays for Vancouver. Oh yeah. Vancouver is not a new team.
The Whitecaps are being promoted to the MLS from USL-1, the same league that the Austin Aztex play in.
So, Austin will get to play Vancouver and Steve Nash's brother this season and the next. Vancouver starts MLS play in 2011.

A great commercial with Steve Nash.


Could Steve do a Michael Jordan and play 2 sports? Or switch?

While in NY (and even some now), I read a lot of Brooklyn blogs. Especially Gowanus Lounge.

Robert Guskind, the guy who created the blog and recently passed away. Very sad.

This is a very kind write up of him.

From over at Gothamist, it looks like Kelso Brewery was trying to encourage people to give blood.
If you did that and showed them a receipt you got a free pint. Nice.

Apprently the NY Blood Center didn't like the idea so much. Doesn't mean it's not a great idea.
Give blood first. Have the beer later :-) Beer's good for you. Enjoy.

So, CapMetro released their schedule for the MetroRail this week.

As Mike suspected, it's gonna suck. Let's see. Lets' only run the train during rush hour, vaguely defined as the ass-crack of dawn (5am ish) and stop sometime after 6. Because don't go out after dark kiddies. All the bad people come out at that time.

Anyone wanna make a bet that they end up with double their estimate of riders? Of course, watch me be wrong because there are so many people out of work they might otherwise be riding the train.

I'm not cynical tonight, only bitchy. Use my tax dollars wisely bitches.

OK. An update. There is a blog. Make your opinion known here. I think many othes already have.

CapMetro Blog: Capital MetroRail Schedule--First Pass

Woohoo. The 171 (aka the Oak Hill Flyer) is being changed. The Oak Hill Park and Ride is being moved next to William Cannon. For me, that's great. I just moved to our headquarters office near that. I'm walking distance from that bus. There's another bus (970 Lantana) that goes straight to our campus but it sucks, only running twice a day. Yeah. Twice. The nice thing about the 171 too is that it lets off closer to Lamar and that will make it easy for me to get home, on my bicycle. I can't wait.

Info on the route change for 171

Only 3 months til Austin's MetroRail will be ready. I won't be using it for work, but I'll probably use it to get to Aztex games since there's a station at Highland Mall and a bus going to Reagan High. We'll see.