Music

You know where's a good place to listen to music without having to pay for it, a great place to check out music from artists you are unfamiliar with before committing to paying for an album - YouTube. The 30 second snippets that they give you on iTunes or Amazon is just not enough sometimes.

A good friend, Katelyn Benton, an artist herself, used this song on one of her race videos. Loved it and I finally got the name of the song from her today. Check it out and after doing that you should check out the second video which is Katelyn's. She's pretty darn talented and is a great ultra-marathoner on top of that. I am always surprised at what my ultra-marathoning friends do outside of running.

Video of The Cinematic Orchestra's "To Build A Home" featuring Patrick Watson Live @ The Barbican in London, 2007. As heard on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. "To Build A Home" is found on The Cinematic Orchestra's most recent album Ma Fleur

Katelyn Benton, Impossible Love. Winner of the 2009 JPFolks award for BEST MUSIC VIDEO. Off of the EP Once, available at digstation.com Song features Big Head Todd and the Monster's Jeremy Lawton on lap steel and organ and Captain Pablo's Corey Schreppel (drums) and Dave Stephens (Bass). Directed by Brandon Nicholas. Cinematography by James Mann.

Just Incredible

I've heard about him before, forgotten and was reminded this evening. Gotta love Facebook and friends posting their favorite videos. Simply amazing.

And It's Already April

So I finished reading the book. Actually I finished it a couple of weeks ago. Really liked it, I'm still thinking about it in fact. Now I go around looking at dogs and saying "What are you thinking? Speak to me dog, speak to me!" Of course mostly I'm just thinking it. I mean c'mon I don't want to look like a lunatic in the city, there's enough people here who talk to themselves. That's a market I don't want any share in.

Speaking of dogs though here is one I've been lucky to dog sit. Huck is much bigger than this now, they grow scary fast. One day they are a pup, the next day a large dog.

Work is still slow but I'm am so damned busy. It's crazy how I can be so busy without working a full-time job. How did I get anything done when I was working 40-50 hours a week. Huh. My theory is that I'm just faster and more efficient when things are hectic. Just a theory. I run like that. When I'm training I think to myself, "Jeez you are so slow, how do you ever finish well?" But when it's time to boogie, the boogie is in the legs. Anyway till next time.

Huck from Rick Gaston on Vimeo.

My New Book

I read a lot but not necessarily books. I'm always on the internet; blogging, facebooking, tweeting, reading news at sfgate, cnn and other miscellaneous websites. I will be at Wikipedia looking up subjects I've read or learned about from my netflix movies. I've even started using the internet in my bible studies - sometimes my bible is hard to understand but I found a site where I can read passages in all the available translations. I also have a stack of magazines collecting dust. Oh and a small library of audiobooks and podcasts. Nothing like a good book though. I grew up on books. When I was a child I lived in a part of the Philippines where there were only 3 channels and only two of them clear. I was an only child with no toys because I kept taking them apart. So I spent my days day dreaming to the music of my uncle's record collection, drawing and plotting world domination on notebook paper and reading books from the school library.

Last Sunday at a dinner party we talked briefly about a book and it turned out that a friend had it and was gracious enough to lend it to me. It was a gift given to him shortly after his dog passed away. The book is called "The Art of Racing in the Rain". Some of you know I'm big on running so no this has nothing to do with running in the rain. It's about a dog. I just read the first chapter at lunch and now I just want to stop working, pick up a mocha at the coffee shop downstairs and read on my couch. I even forgot the annoying sound of a generator that has been running for most of the day at the building next door while I was reading.

The Camera's Name is Lazarus

I have this Nikon snapshot camera that is about 4 years old. One day it just stopped working. No this isn't the one with the broken screen that is still somewhere in Southern California. I turned it on, the lens came out, the picture on the view finder was blurry, I got an error message, the lens retracted and the camera turned itself off. Not knowing anything about lenses, well really the whole camera, I just gave up on it and bought a new one. These cameras are so cheap it's not worth having them fixed.

I never threw it away. The camera body is scratched, the silver finish is buffed off in many places revealing the light gray plastic of the camera body underneath – this is why they are so light and perfect for running, but I kept it. I just couldn't throw this one away. We had done many training runs together, a couple of triathlons, even a couple of 100-mile races together.

Today I was playing with it; turning it on, waiting for the lens to come out, get the error message then turn itself off. I kept doing this over and over again then once while the lens was out I banged it on the desk lightly. It turned itself off but when I turned it back on, the picture on the screen was clear and no error message. The camera is fixed. Oh yeah an old favorite is back in action. Maybe I take a few pictures and post them here to prove it.

By The Way

I'll be here more often with random stuff. The running thing, still love it, working harder than ever but nothing exciting to talk about right now.

Ginger, It's Not Just For Nausea

I am rediscovering ginger. I hated it when I was a kid but I am slowly coming back to it. It's great for nausea. In these long trail run races that I do, some people get really bad stomach problems and nausea and one of the things that work is ginger. Thankfully I am one of those that has a pretty strong stomach. I'm starting to like it but I don't love it. This evening I found that flavored carbonated water mixed with lemon ginger juice is crazy good and that drink in turn reminded me of a childhood memory that seems so crazy now.

When I was a kid growing up in the Philippines there was a belief in our part of the country that if a fever lasts for more than 5 days a spirit has chosen to dwell in the person's body. The only way to get the said spirit out and end the fever is to call the local witch doctor and have them pray on you. I had these done regularly when I was a kid and I actually enjoyed them which doesn't explain my aversion to ginger... well my former aversion. Basically this person, usually an old woman, will pray on each of your hands and feet. She will have a thumb sized piece of ginger that's peeled and she makes the sign of the cross on each hand and foot with the ginger as she finished each prayer. Then she prays over your head and then blows away the offending spirit by blowing on the top of your head a couple of times - this was my favorite part. Afterwards you had to wear the piece of ginger, bobby pinned on your shirt, for a couple of days. I guess body invading spirits like ginger as much as vampires like garlic. Since I enjoyed these sessions I was always eager to have the procedure done whenever I had a fever. Of course it didn't really help when I turned out to have more serious ailments like the one time I actually had typhoid fever. No amount of prayer, ginger and hot breath on the top of my head helped that one. Typhoid fever... the cure was more painful than the illness.

So yeah kind of random I know. Last week a made a big pot of chicken and rice soup with lots of ginger but no ginger related flashbacks. Today I make a lemon ginger soda and bam, trip to memory lane.