Run Forrest, Run...

While I was in DC over new years I had a conversation with Brown Guy about running. I used to run for 1 mile and call it quits. I wasn't necessarily dead tired after a mile, but I was bored and satisfied and sufficiently out of breath that I would call it a day. I went for a short run in his gym and was back at his apartment in about 15 minutes. He asked why I only run 1 mile and I told him the above reasoning. He proceeded to tell me that I could run 10 miles. I told him he was insane and wondered who in their right mind, aside from some dude in Kenya running a marathon, would want to run 10 miles. I told him 1 was my usual and 2 was my max. I hated cross country running and never even really liked track for that matter. But recently I've realized that it may not be all that ridiculous.

This year is turning out to be the year of healthy choices for me. Aside from my diet change, I've also upped my usual runs from 1 to 2 miles and Friday I decided to push it to 3 miles. I was definitely tired. There was also no way I could have possibly made it 10 miles but I wouldn't doubt 4 or even 5. I've also realized that what I eat has a direct correlation to the amount of energy I have at the gym. Sounds obvious right, but I have never actually put it into practice before so only now can I really see the light. In the past I would eat like I used to do normally, nothing bad for you, just lots of indian food, mostly rice and chicken and vegetables, and then I would try and run on that. Bad idea. It was part of the reason I was tired. Now I have found the wonderful joy of cliff bars and yogurt and it's not hard for me to run a few miles.













This is what came up when I googled running...





The reason I mention this is that no matter what I do (not including a drastic change) I am going to weigh in the mid 160s. I'm currently at 162. Still I actually dipped almost to 160 but that was sort of an anomaly. With my height 160-170 is pretty normal and my previous desired weight of 160 was erroneous because I forgot to take into account that muscle weighs more than fat and as I burn fat and gain muscle it's only natural I'm going to gain some weight back. I guess there's not really a point to this blog but I would like to know how far people have ran. I might have done more before, but currently since I can't remember ever doing so I think 3 miles is the furthest I have ever run. I know some people who read this ran cross country and I'd be interested to know not only how far but what people's times were. It took me about 27 minutes to run 3 miles. Not very good. It's averaging a 9 minute mile. Anybody gonna beat that?

Go big

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - State of the Union tonight. Pretty excited that this is GWs last year in office. Also, just a reminder that Super Tuesday is in 8 days so if you people are fortunate enough to live in a state that has a primary/caucus that matters (still mad at Michigan) please go vote. Spend this week figuring out who for and do it.

Rolling Through SC...

In case you missed it last night, Barack had quite a night in South Carolina. It was again the largest turnout for a primary/caucus. So far every state has set a new state record for voter turnout which is really amazing. It's pretty fantastic actually...



















Also, Tsonga may be my new favorite tennis player. In recent years I had been rooting for Nadal only because he posed the only real threat to Federer, but now I am hoping Tsonga will be the next best thing. Even though he lost last night ot Djokovic in the final, it was still a great match and hopefully he'll be around for a minute.

Also in case you missed Obama's victory speech in SC...





More later...Go big...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - I'm usually one to love winter from december through march but to be honest I think I'm over the snow. Unless someone will go snowboarding with me soon, I'm ready for spring to come in...

Weekend Warrior...

So over the last two nights I saw two very different movies (it's easy to spend your weekends doing exactly what you want when you have no friends). I started out the weekend with a bang when I went to go see the latest (and greatest) installment of Rambo. I must say, though not surprisingly, the movie kicked ass. Like literally kicked ass. It was everything a Rambo movie needed to be: lots of killing with minimal dialogue. Stallone kept the script so that the lines only preceded a ginormous killing frenzy. It may have been the New York Times who actually tallied the deaths, but there were at least 230 people that you see get killed. The cool thing about this was that it was much more extreme than previous Rambos. People weren't just being stabbed like it was First Blood Part III, instead they were being disemboweled. Towards the end, and this ruins nothing so don't worry, Rambo hops on a gatling gun for literally 10 minutes and just shoots everyone. 10 minutes. It ruled.




















After last night I felt I owed it to the filmmaker in me to go see something that required lots of talent in both acting and directing so tonight I went to go see There Will Be Blood. I have been waiting for this movie forever. Daniel Day Lewis may be one of my favorite actors of all time and I think if I were ever to direct a movie and he were in it, I would pee my pants out of fear of embarrassing myself in front of him. He's that good. Not like he would ever do a movie I wanted to, but you know what I mean. The movie was probably one of the best acted movies I've seen in a long time. It was sort of a masterpiece on a lot of levels, but to be honest, it didn't really do it for me. It seemed like I was waiting for something to happen the entire movie and then at the end it was just kind of over. It's definitely worth a rental in a few months but save your money for Rambo, or if that doesn't float your boat, go see Juno. There Will Be Blood was DDL at his usual amazing self and Paul Dano (of Girl Next Door fame) surprised me with how good of an actor he is. I can't really put my finger on what it was exactly but I don't see what all the hoopla is about. I mean I think it definitely deserves a Best Actor nod and Best Director, but not Best Movie. Strange I know but trust me on this one.

Anyways, aside from that I didn't leave the apartment this weekend so I don't really have any stories. Keep your ear to the grindstone though...Go big...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - Going to see a movie like Rambo by yourself might not be the greatest idea. It's hard to completely appreciate the absurdity of it all when you have no one to make jaw dropping googly faces at when Rambo shoots somebody through the skull with a bow and arrow...

An Examination of People...

Recently to help me gather character traits about people to use in my scripts, I have started observing people. It started in class, mostly as a tool to keep me from killing myself for taking classes again, but really to help me write scripts. One of the reasons I went to film school was because of Wes Anderson, and one of my favorite things about his films is that all of his characters have very unique interesting character traits. Often they are ridiculous and hilarious, but they are what make his movies so special to me. I have always been a fan of people watching (and silently judging about how I'm way better) but lately instead of just noticing the crazy things people do I have been wondering why.

So I am going to start an ongoing segment of analyzing the people in my Astronomy class. It's actually the most mixed class I may have ever had as far as characters go. For a class that has only 30 people in it, it really runs the whole gamut of people you might ever run into. For example there is at least 1 douche bag and 1 douche baguette (though so far she has been pretty nice to me) there is not 1 but 2 forty year old looking dudes who don't seem to know anything beyond the fact that their mustaches rule (no lie). There is the blonde who spends a while getting ready who sits next to the girl who rocks anime sweatshirts and does not spend a long time getting ready. There is the asshole who hasn't grasped the fact that talking and making rude comments during class stopped being funny in 2000 (when I graduated high school). There is the guy who wears the same sweatshirt everyday (but it's cool because it's a Pistons hoodie), the guy who never reads or does his homework (not me (I actually find it hard to feel like I'm better and smarter than everyone else if I don't do the work)). What got me started on this though was this girl I had to work with last week.




















She has never cut her hair. Ever. Very interesting. I was shocked. I found myself wondering who she was and why she would choose such an odd thing to do. My curiosity came out and I started asking her questions. Nothing personal, just annoying mostly hilarious questions. For example (I actually asked her these), "Have you ever gotten a hair cut?" "Do you sit on it a lot?" "How long on average does it take to dry and which part takes the longest?" "Do you sometimes use it as a scarf if you get cold?" While these questions may seem ridiculous to ask a person you don't know, for some reason they were all that came to mind. In retrospect I should have asked her why, but there is time for that. I guess what I'm wondering is why people do the things they do. What reasons could this girl possibly have for never cutting her hair? I don't know but I'd like to find out. This year is shaping up to be a strange one and I just decided I'm going to make it less convoluted and try talking to people and figuring out what makes them tick. After all I did decide that I needed to let you all know what makes me tick didn't I...

More soon. Go big and all that greatness...

Coolness
-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - For those of you wondering, Yes, she sits on it sometimes and yes, it does pull her head back and hurt a little when she does. It's about halfway down her calfs. She didn't know exactly how long it took to dry but that it wasn't that thick so it wasn't too bad. She does not use it as a scarf and perhaps took offense to the question even though she smiled when she answered.