VA Tech Shooting

Unbelievable. 31 shot dead on the campus of Virginia Tech today. Reports say the majority of the victims were in Norris Hall!

I have some fond (and not so fond) memories of several classes in Norris Hall between 1984 and 1988 including:

• Engineering Statics and Dynamics (Professor Arpad Pap)
• Programming (FORTRAN)
• Fluid mechanics lab
• Strength of Materials (and busting lab.)
• Mechanics of Composite Materials (Professor Robert Jones)

and others I can't seem to remember.

I lived in Pritchard Hall, an all-male dormitory, during my freshman year (1984-1985.) It was adjacent to Ambler-Johnson (AJ.) We went over to AJ occasionally because they had a state-of-the-art PC lab with the latest in dot-matrix printer technology.

What could possess a person (or persons) to commit such heinous and senseless acts? What troubles were they having that drove them to this? I guess you can take two points of view on it. One, try to understand what drives people to this level and two, develop processes and safeguards to deal with the inevitability of such situations. There are many questions yet to answer. For now we must empathize with the victim's families and try to comprehend why this happened.

Comparison of Polar S625 and Garmin Forerunner 305

I've owned a Polar 625X for about the past year. It's been a great upgrade over my older 610 series (which I thought was awesome for 3 years.)

I liked the 625 since it was so similar to the 610. The only thing I didn't like was the footpod. However, it was worth it to have a pretty good speed approximation to add to the other data it collects. I found that it was pretty accurate for 5k races (the only races I've done lately.)

I've seen several others with Forerunner 305's and the prospect of using one device for both running and biking was very attractive. Not to mention being able to get rid of the footpod since the 305 is a GPS based tool.

I got my 305 yesterday and have only used it once. Pretty cool except the HR display is pretty tiny. I went on the Motion based website and it looks like you can do some impressive maps and backgrounds especially using Google Earth.

I found this article and plan to read it right now:
http://www.pccoach.com/newsletters/May06/ComparisonReviewS625XvFR305.htm

Surreal Sky

I took this picture in Myrtle Beach in January at about 8 am. The sky looked like a Michelangelo frescoe. I almost expected God's arm to reach out from behind one of the clouds. Of course, God looked like he did in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Risk

I can't believe we've never played Risk before! I've always wanted to conquer Asia!

Do or die tri-ing

It's do or die time for this cat. I am sick of being fat...well fatter than I want to be anyway.

I've decided to do IM Florida (2008.) That means I'm going to have to do a bunch of training races throughout 2007 and 2008. I plan to do a half-IM in the fall (Duke half) and the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007. Then I'll do the Disney marathon in January of 2008 and build up to the IM that fall.

Re-starting my running program

I really want to want to be a good runner. Sometimes I get up and run and feel great. However, for the last 5-6 weeks, I just haven't wanted to go. I can't really blame it on anything other than lack of motivation.

It would be nice to find a training partner. But I see tons of people out running solo.

What is it that makes people want to run?

Runner's World Magazine says you have to think of running as part of your day. This is as opposed to thinking of it as exercise. I guess exercise has too many negative connotations.

The most proud of myself I've ever been was when I was dropped from about 195 to 170 lbs in about 2 months. This was in 1998 starting in about March and finishing up in May. I was incredibly proud of the discipline that I showed during that process. I managed to stay at that weight for about a year. Later in 1999, my weight crept up to about 180 and I stayed there until about 2003.

I got fed up with myself tonight and went for a short run of about 25 minutes. Perhaps that will be a new beginning.

Right now I'm 40.5 years old. I'm married with 2 kids and a baby on the way. I just started working for a new company and we're closing on a house at the end of this month. Monday I have to call movers and try to get that set up. This sounds like I have a lot going on but it seems like any other time for me. To me, it just sounds like life.

A couple of great YouTube clips

There is a clip on YouTube called "The Best of Andy Bernard" that is a hilarious compilation of highlights from "The Office." Andy represents the annoying co-worker in any office. He's insecurity makes him use sucking up as his main career tactic. He also is prone to freak-outs. He is totally focused on his job title. Who hasn't worked with someone like Andy?