Xbox

I got an Xbox. Yep. Abbey said I could do it and I did. Am I an idiot? Yes, of course... but it's SO fun. I don't exactly play online, but I do sync it to the online content for the NBA game I have. It reorders rosters and stuff like that. Man, it's great. I used to spend HOURS going online and finding out the current trades and stuff like that. HOURS. This was before I had children, but that's not the point. I got two games with the Xbox and bought two others.

Here's a picture of Hannah singing the new Disney "Sing It" game. It's like Rock Band or whatever but only the vocals. If you get another mic, you can do duets, etc. It's all songs from the "tween" movies that Disney's produced lately and also includes Miley Cyrus songs (with and without the Hannah Montana outfit). For the record, Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones are pretty darn fun too.

Appropriate Terms

I have this pet-peeve. It's called the appropriate term. For goodness sakes people! Everything has a name for a reason!

I know people hate these but I prefer them to touchpads... really.

New X-Box?

I have no idea if I spelled that correctly.  X-Box I mean.  Really, I love football.  And college basketball.  Heck, I like sports in general.  With that said, I'm sure I shouldn't be getting one.  To make a comparison, I had a Nintendo when I was in the fourth grade, and played it for years.  Then when I was a Sophomore in college, I was one of the first people to get a Nintendo-64.  When I was in grad school in 2002 I bought a PS2.  Then two years ago I bought both a Nintendo DS Lite and a PSP.  Do I really need ANOTHER console?

Gosh, history of Josh lessons never cease.  You all are lifelong learners huh?

Anyway, today in class most of my classmates learned that my thesis was complete and I really had "nothing to do except take classes!"

Yes, it's true.

Then one of them asked, "Did you buy your X-Box yet?"

So that's my question.  Do I really WANT an X-Box?  Let's do the math.

Fact: I love football and football season is in full swing.

Fact: College basketball JUST started and will end about the time the NBA season starts to get interesting.

Fact: I have a family now, unlike the last few times I bought video game consoles.

Fact: Abbey will get annoyed FAST if I play on the X-Box too much.

Fact: After buying one first person shooter game, I will buy one basketball game and one football game and play them for a year before they become "out of date" and I try to adjust the players attributes on my own.

Yeah... it doesn't look like I should be buying an X-Box.

Great(?) Run!

Don't get me wrong, I like my time.  Excuse the history of Josh lesson, but I ran 3 half marathons last year (St. Jude in Dec 2006, America's Finest City in Aug 2007, and the Silver Strand Half in Nov 2007).  Then I held off from running a few more since I was moving during the summer sometime of 2008.  I did run a 5K everyday from Thanksgiving to New Years and did a few small things to challenge myself.

So when we finally moved and I signed up for the Big Sur Half Marathon, I didn't "train" per se, but I did run all of my runs at about a 10 minute pace.  I did my last long run two Saturdays before the race at 12 miles and tapered down the next week running 8 miles the Saturday before and a 3 mile on Monday, 3 mile on Wednesday, and 2 miles on Thursday with Friday and Saturday completely off.

So... my EXPECTATION was to run 13.1 miles at a 10 min pace.  That wasn't the case.  I ran the first 7-8 miles at 9:04!  Holy FRICK!

You know the old saying, "If you go out too fast, you'll pay for it in the end."?  (sorry about the punctuation, I'm an engineer at heart)  Well I did.  To put it in perspective, I hit the final turn averaging a 10 min pace, and finished the race at 10:30 average pace.  Not too shabby you say?  Well, if I went a little more than half way at a 9 min pace and finshed at 10:30 then my last 4 miles were around 13 mins/mile... It's just disheartening.

Yes, I'm happy with a 2:18, no I didn't hurt myself, and yes, I finished strong.  I get it.  I did better than 50% of runners my age.  I should be happy.  I am happy.  I'm going to run another... it's just a matter of point of view I guess.

To add to this already long tale, on Saturday my Mom called and asked if I wanted to run the St. Jude half marathon (the Memphis Marathon is what some people call it).  She said since I ran in 2006 she thought I'd be interested.  Hi Mom, it's not like I forgot about it?!?  Anyway, she thought she would sweeten the pot and offered to cash in frequent flyer miles to buy me a ticket.  Hey cool, I thought.  But then I looked at registering for the half marathon.  It was not too late to register, but I had to pay the late-comer registration fee.  I did NOT want to pay $70.  Yes, call me cheap.  I won't deny it.

So I was kind of bummed I didn't get to run, but oh well.  Then as I was resting after the run yesterday, my Mom called again.  She had her neighbor Gassia over.  Gassia is a big runner.  Gassia works for a running-friendly company.  A company that has already purchased 10 entries.  Gassia only has 9 people ready to run.  So... to my Mom... it was a free entry.  And then she said she already purchased tickets to Memphis for me.

So, now I have another half marathon less than 4 weeks (yes, I know it's only 1 day less, but still) from the one I ran just yesterday.  And yes, I'm actually pretty psyched!

Big Sur Half Marathon

Wish me luck you guys!

Also, for the funny in us.  (Someone please tell me why I saw the OSTRICH option...)

My Avatar

There are a few things I've NEVER thought I'd go and do.  One of them is getting an Avatar.  If you don't know, an avatar is technically: a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth.  If you are like Matt, then you'll laugh at me and correct me, probably saying something to the effect of, "In modern terms it's basically (because he always says basically) a moveable icon representing a person in cyberspace or virtual reality graphics."

Since I don't have "Second Life" or anything like that on my computer, I was checking out the Nike+ website, and there's recently been an option for a "My Nike+ Mini".  So I clicked and sure enough... it's an avatar!

I designed my avatar in about 25 seconds (maybe less) and posted it for everyone to see.  Since the "My Last 5 Runs" isn't working regularly, but the "My longest Run" is... I thought people could see my last run and my avatar's reaction to the run.  In fact, if I don't run, the avatar will mock me to try to encourage more running.  I think I'll like that, if even for the humor in it.

Vagabonds N' Such

I've been living with Matt and Jen while I "worked" my last few weeks at work.  I know what you are thinking... didn't I stay with Jeff and Jaime?  Yes, I did for about 10 days.  I was dog-sitting Max and Molly, but they came home and I moved out.  I didn't have to... but I've lived in their house (well, next door actually) for too long so I know how small those houses get with any more than a few adults.

Living with Jen and Matt was great!  It really reminded me of home and I was really a live-in rather than a nuicance because of their back bedroom.  It had a full bathroom!  I was all set!

I went to church with them and the picnic, etc... it was almost like I hadn't left!  Gordon and Sandy invited me over as did Greg and Lisa.  So I really didn't lack for meals.  I did have a few movies to catch up on... and I took full advantage.  I did miss the girls BIG TIME.  But now I'm home!

My running went well while I was gone and I watched the Olympics for 2 solid weeks!  I couldn't get enough!  Did you know NBC and CNBC and some other station had Olympics on like 24-7?  I discovered the CNBC thing too late and didn't watch near enough handball.

Otherwise, I started reading a few books.  I started and finished "A Case for Easter."  It was pretty good, but it's only an excerpt from another book.  Then I started reading "The Aztec Heresy," and while I got nearly half-way through the book... nothing had happened!  I gave up and started reading "The Twelfth Card."  Wow... that one is great!  If you like CSI and/or any books written by Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code for non readers) you'll love it!  It's by the same author as "The Bone Collector" so you might have seen the movie.