Keith’s Amusing Musings

I decided to go green by going paperless with our investment, checking, savings and credit card accounts. The amount of paper the various banks and brokerages generate with the per-transaction, monthly and quarterly statements is obscene—Ameriprise is the biggest offender amongst our account providers.

Although we live a digital lifestyle—for example, I have been tracking my accounts electronically using Microsoft Money since 1996—I like the security of paper statements. Ridding my workflow and filing system of paper statements makes sense from a time, money and space standpoint even if it means I surrender a little peace of mind.

Our shredder has already thanked me.

As you may recall, back in late June I began training for a half-marathon (13.1 miles). I have not selected a race yet but I will probably run in late September or early October. The training has been going great and today I passed a significant milestone by running 10 miles non-stop. Averaging 9’45” miles, I finished in 1:37:53.

Running 10 miles, or significantly longer than 60 minutes, requires hydration and fuel lest one’s muscles run out of energy or start cramping. A quick conversation with our trainer, followed by a trip to REI, and I was prepared with GU energy gels and a CamelBak Alterra 28 ounce hydration pack. The “Chocolate Outrage” GU gels are great.

Previously, my longest run was 8 miles and my training program has me ramping up to 12 miles in the next few weeks. I don’t know if I could have made it another 3.1 miles today since my lower left calf started cramping around 8.5 miles in. I suppose that is why one trains.

To commemorate me reaching LD runner status, TB met me at the 8 mile mark and we ran together the rest of the way. That was nice.

The following is the last in the series of videos from my trip to Asia. I thought you might enjoy seeing a professional Peking duck carver in action. It took him 2 1/2 minutes to completely dismantle a blazing hot duck, including its crispy skin. The video below is sped up 2.5x to get it under a minute.

Happy Independence Day, America!

One of the more interesting Deep Zoom examples I have seen since Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia, the Deep Zoom Obama Fan Site is also a great homage to presidential hopeful, Barack Obama. Consisting of over 12,000 individual pictures uploaded by Obama supporters, this massive composite in Senator Obama’s likeness provides a sense of his broad appeal and the universality of his message.

Fan sites like these tend to go away as quickly as they appear so I recorded a short video—about 70 seconds—showing the site in action.

[Warning: The following video may contain embedded ads. I am helping beta test Microsoft’s ad publishing platform. Hide the ads by clicking the ‘X’.]

Read about how a fire destroyed my beloved Vista Media Center and the saga and expense of rebuilding it the last few weeks.

If I had hair I would have pulled it all out.

Not cool.