Monday Grabbag

I'm once again at ORD, ensconced in the Red Carpet Club, enjoying free wireless and crappy snacks while waiting for my flight. Quick three-day turn for work. Had to get here several hours in advance of my flight to accomodate the fact that we have four drivers, three cars, and four divergent schedules. So I took one for the team so that Our Lady of BYU could have my car while I'm gone.

So it's Monday Grabbag Day here in the Den. A quick take on some of the day's good and bad. So here's the good:

- My four and a half flight this afternoon is on an airplane that seats 182 people. It's booked to 79. And First is half empty so all the better. Good for me and my fellow pax - not so good for the bottom line of Mother United.

- It's a four-day work week and we've got a good 4th of July weekend planned.

- Bernie Madoff got the proverbial book thrown, no, slammed in his face as his judge wailed on him, sentencing him to the maximum on all eleven counts, for a grand total of 150 years as a guest of the state. That will go well for him. Score one for the American judicial system.

And now for the bad:

- The children (and I use that term so very, very loosely) of that late crazed train wreck Michael Jackson are now under the guardianship of their paternal grandmother. Let's think about that - if you believe the Jackson story, this is the woman who stood by while her husband beat the living daylights out of their children for years, which no doubt added to the crazy that was her late son. So a judge decides let's hand these kids over to her. What's the thinking there? I mean after years in Neverland, was the judge thinking, 'Hey, how much worse could it get?' Remember that point the American judicial system earned for the Madoff sentencing, scratch it. This smooth move just took it away. I am disgusted but not shocked, sadly.

Finally, the Boy is now reading my journals from my two-year mission. It's been fun to have him reading it and asking me all sorts of questions. It's allowed me to recall an amazing time of my life. But it's also got me thinking about this blog and the legacy it will leave. I really don't think I'll change a thing. It's a snapshot of who I am. And I'm cool with that. Now to find a way to get the blog published in book form...

Celebrity Death=Media Nirvana

I was reminded earlier today why I really just prefer to get my news from the web and the BBC. I was in the office today and had gone down to the cafeteria to get a bit of lunch. I knew something was up when I went to sit down and noticed all heads riveted to the plasma screens that are positioned throughout our cafeteria. It took less than a second to see we had a celebrity death. CNN was going out of its collective mind, covering the death of Farrah Fawcett. The anchor was full of fake sincerity as he spoke of her passing and then reveled in loop after loop of footage from her prime to her rather tragic ending. It was twenty minutes of the same loop before I got up and left to return to the peace of my cube. I was fairly appalled by a couple of things - A) the coverage being afforded the death of a B-list celebrity whose heyday was 30 years ago and 2) the amount of coverage this was getting.

To be sure, she was a beautiful woman who in her prime made quite an impression on a whole generation of men, young and old alike, and I should know as I was one of those impressed young men. But that was thirty years ago. Sure, her death from a rare form of cancer was tragic. What death from cancer isn't? Even more tragic has been the media coverage of her battle with the disease and their collective reaction to her death. The loops of film juxtaposing photos from her peak of fame (you know the one I'm talking about - red swimsuit and the mane of hair) to photos of her in her last months as she fought a ravaging disease. It's galling to see someone robbed of their dignity like that.

The soulless anchors had barely caught their breath from covering Fawcett's passing when the Mother Lode was struck. Michael Jackson. Dead. Heart Attack. Farrah who? Instantly pushed to the side because now it was time to cover the death of the King of Pop. Or King of One Heck of a Booking Photo:

Unbelievable. I heard the news on NPR in the car on the way home. Even NPR felt compelled to mention his death but mercifully it's pledge season and there's no interrupting a public radio pledge drive. It's my opinion that not even Armageddon will get in the way of a public radio pledge drive. I was never so glad to hear more about a corn-based mug in all my life if it meant I didn't have to hear anything else about MJ's death. I cannot understand the hysteria associated with this has-been. Again, 1982, "Thriller" that was his peak. Nearly thirty years ago. Now he's remembered for being crazy, pedophelia, being crazy, financial indebtedness, more crazy, plastic surgery, and more crazy. And yet, already the TV news magazine two-hour salutes are already on air tonight. It's enough already. Maybe he'll finally get a break from the crazy.

So I've resolved to not go anywhere near a TV for the next few days. The media frenzy is more than I can take. All we need now is an epic natural disaster and frankly I think we'll probably see an anchor's head blow up on screen from overload.

Not the perfect 5K

We've been bemoaning the fact that June has been fairly cold even by Chicagoland standards and have been wishing for summer. Mother Nature got her summer engines revving earlier this week with all manner of rain, weird thunderstorms, and the threat of tornados (it made flying into ORD nigh unto impossible - just ask my buddy Mark who spent a whole day trying to flee San Francisco yesterday. He'll tell you it didn't go well.) After the fusilade of storms Mother Nature dumped summer on us this morning. Frankly, the old broad could have waited until tomorrow to do so since I ran my first official 5K of the season this morning.

I ran the Fox River 5K again out in Batavia. It was my first 5K ever last year. I was pretty excited to be back. It's a nice run along the Fox River. Say what you will about the political mess that is Illinois, but the urban planners have done a killer job planning trails/parks in the 'burbs. Here's a pre-race shot:
At this stage, the black shirt seemed like a good idea

It looked like a good field of runners and walkers, like last year. It was an 0800 start so it seemed like it would still be fairly cool, temperature-wise. Based on the amount of skin seen at the starting line, please note it was not cool.

It was in the low to mid-80's at this point and the humidity was heavy. Not a lot of breeze going to bust through the humidity either. No matter because when the starter pistol fired, we were off.
I'm somewhere in the herd

I like this race. No drama and it's a scenic run. I started out strong for me but started to feel the heat quicker than I anticipated so I dialed it back. So did a several other runners. My lone complaint about this race is that the course is on a public trail that is popular with bicyclists. Ideally the course could be blocked off for the morning of the race. Or better yet, the beligerent elderly people that were on their retirement home bike ride this morning could have taken doubled up on the prune juice. Or something to get them to ease up. When faced with a wall of runners coming their way, did they yield? No. They simply plowed on through and acted appalled as runners yelled at them. Really, people, are you that clueless? Or did you have the hearing aids turned off? I'm all for you maintaining good bone health, but somebody needed to break a hip this morning and get off the trail. I'm just saying.

The second half of the loop runs you right along the Fox River and it's beautiful so that made it a little easier to slog through the heat (note to self - the black shirt is not effective for keeping cool). As I rounded the corner for the last few hundred yards to the finish line, the theme to "Rocky" came on the iPod and darn it all, if I didn't pick up the pace. What is it about that song?! The stunningly patient SML, and all around great race crew queen, got this picture as I was coming in to the finish:

I wasn't happy with my time, to be honest. It was a couple of minutes longer than the training run I had done in DC on Thursday and I'd run several 5K's faster last year. I'd like to throw the blame at the feet of Mother Nature and her gift o'heat, but I realize that I should have trained a little bit better. Well, I have another opportunity next Saturday as there's another 5K to run. Let's see what Mother Nature tosses our way.

Talent on display

The good people at dictionary.com define the word talent as follows: -noun- a special natural ability or aptitude; a capacity for achievement or success; as well as several other things, including an ancient unit of weight, which is completely NOT germane to the topic, but I digress. I've seen talent on display tonight in the cinematic form of "Up."

The Boy and I were lone men in the Garden of Eden tonight, as it were, as the ladies of the casa were out tonight, so we decided to grab a sandwich at Potbelly's and see a movie. Since the "Transformers" sequel doesn't arrive for another five days, we found ourselves with limited options, so we decided to give "Up" a go. Pixar has done it again, even under the heavy hand of their evil dark lord owner, Disney. This movie is clever, funny, touching, and incredibly well-done. It exudes talent. From the writer(s) who came up with the story to those who worked to design it and especially those who did the film's music, you could not help but admire the talent and skill they possessed. The Boy and I laughed a lot throughout the movie and had a great time as father and son. It's a keeper when it comes out on DVD. Go see it if you haven't already. It will lift your spirits.

I will say, however, that the Disney (Parental) Killing Machine that I have referenced before in other posts is present as usual. I know I manage to irritate a veritable army of Disney-lovers, and you know who you are, who follow/read the blog when I bring this up, but, people, C'MON, once again, we've got a dead parent figure, as well as an absent father with a girlfriend/stepmom-whatever and a bummed out kid. When, I ask you, will the Disney people stop trying to work out their parental issues on screen? Seriously, is it some kind of cheap therapy? BTW, Disney Killing Machine - it is not cheap, either. Movies are $10 a pop here in Chicagoland. Please use some of the profits that you are RAKING in and get on a shrink's couch. Please.

Not only was talent richly displayed in the movie, I also happened upon a pretty cool display of musical talent tonight. Check out this piano/cello combo platter arrangement of songs from Coldplay and Taylor Swift. Before you run screaming from the room, give it a watch/listen. The last two minutes are lame so feel free to flee at that point, but check it out:

I see and hear musical talent like that and I want to beat myself senseless for not pursuing the piano. I wouldn't begin to presume that I have even an iota of musical talent but I hear an arrangement like that and wish I had stuck with the piano. Just to be able to make music is pretty impressive and to do something like this, pretty cool.

Well, maybe I'll sit down in front of our piano one of these days and try it again. Who knows! In the meantime, here's to my talent of hack running. I have my first official 5K of the season in the morning - the Fox River 5K. I ran it last year and loved it, so I'm back. It's been raining a ton so it's going to be a muddy run and probably grossly humid and it will be fun. Kind of like this night - it's been good to be with the Boy and it's been good to feel like a Dad again tonight.