The American Running Association. I'm linking to it so I can find it at home, and because it has a very nice interactive shoe selection program. Even if one of the suggested shoes was the Brooks which I actively dislike. At the run yesterday, I was bitching about them to the Road Runner Sports marketing guy, and he pointed out that he was wearing the old model Trance, and seemed to think that Brooks had misstep with the new model. Though to be fair, if they fit my particular foot better, I'd like them a lot. But the toe box is far too narrow, and assuming they're using the same last as on the Adreneline, they must have made a conscious decision to make it narrower. Oh, well.

Randy Newman interview. I'm excited about Sunday's concert. It just occured to me that, if I'm there, I won't be home to watch the VH-1 Warren Zevon special, so I'll have to remember to set the VCR before I leave. I'm actually more excited about going to Eureka and seeing the redwoods, but the concert should be a lot of fun, too. All this has overshadowed the Paula Poundstone concert tomorrow, but that, too, should be exciting. Have I mentioned how excited I am?

I went running today around Mission Bay with a group organized by Road Runner Sports training for the California Cruisin' 10K. I always say I enjoy training alone, with the human contact on race day one of the added joys, but I did enjoy training with people. I ended up leading the way for the second half of the out-and-back course, which boosted my confidence but also made me feel bad, like I should have kept pace with the group. But I will do it again. Had I arranged to attend eight of these, my entry into the California Cruisin' 10K would have been free, but I won't be able to make eight, and already paid my entry fee, anyway. Besides, it's for a good cause. But I will attend a few more, if I'm able to; they provided refreshments afterwards (and as a plug by way of gratitude, the energy bars Road Runner puts out were pretty good), and the people were nice.

That said, I'll still be going solo for the bulk of my training. Especially the long run. I can't imagine having to keep pace with another runner over, say, ten miles. I like listening to my body, setting goals before I run but changing them if I have to, sometimes holding back, sometimes pushing myself harder. And I enjoy the solitude of the long run. But running with a group from time to time seems like a great addition to my workout reparte.

If you find yourself in the Boardwalk Arcade in El Cajon, check out the Simpsons Pinball Party high scores, in particular an MCM in third place. So don't say I never accomplished anything!

Incidentally, Simpsons Pinball Party (or SPP, as the young people call it) is a fantastic pinball game. Very challenging. I especially enjoy the second play level, something lacking from most new pinball machines. Stern has been doing some good work lately, between that and Monopoly (which I guess has been out for almost two years by now, but still is new in the grand scheme of things). I don't really like Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Terminator 3 is just terrible, but batting .500 isn't bad at all.

I've decided I don't like my new running shoes. Too tight in the toe area. I figure I can wear them on shorter, easier runs, and wear my old shoes on longer runs for awhile, but I think I'll have to break down and buy another pair before too long. Which sucks, because they weren't cheap.

Just one more work day before my vacation. Getting excited, though I still have a lot to do before I leave.

L.A. Book Expo, 2003. Check out what prompted the Fox/Franken lawsuit. Count the seconds between when Bill O'Reilly denounces lawyers as a group of conspiring liars and when he announces he never calls anyone liars (about 10 seconds) or pretends to see conspiracies everywhere (about 90 seconds). Watch Franken fall down drunk and barely be able to speak, just as the lawsuit alleges.

Verbal diarrhea from Bill O'Reilly. I like the way he boasts of the ultraconservative viewers of CNN, and then in the next paragraph talks about the liberal strangle-hold on the media. And his denouncement of Franken's libelous comments (yet he's not suing for libel), when the accusations against Franken within the lawsuit seem clearly libelous and perjurous to me. The only thing I can't argue with is his claim that, were Fox News to go up in smoke, a lot of us would start making S'mores.

More fair and balanced news: Paul Newman to sue HUD.

RIAA will not go after small-scale song-swappers. I found this article interesting because it is the first I've heard about Norm Coleman being a former roadie.

Neal Pollack on the Democratic candidates' blogs.

Goofus, Gallant, Rashomon.

Paula Poundstone in a dated article on Arianna Huffington. I found this looking for information on Huffington's involvement with the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, and thought it amusing. I try not to hold being full of oneself against a politician, its just part of the job, but I think Huffington bugs me. I'm throwing my support behind Larry Flynt.

After a particularly aggravating run-in with a pop-up ad that tried to simulate that new virus that's going around (I'm behind a firewall and updated a month ago, when the possibility of this virus first made headlines, so I knew I wasn't infected), I installed Google's new toolbar, with the pop-up blocker. It is really amazing. I love the pop-up blocker, and while I haven't tried it yet, the fact that I can easily use it to post a URL to this blog is nice. Now, I read this article about some other uses of the toolbar. I was unaware of the calculator property of the search box, but now I think that will be pretty nice to have. So I, who am usually annoyed by extra things taking up precious screen space, heartily endorse the Google Toolbar for anyone who is annoyed with pop-ups.

Allan Sherman's son's Camp Granada experience. (free registration required)

Not the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but shows that the "bring 'em on" attitude extends beyond the President.

A Washington Post interview with Weird Al Yankovich, including some praise for Randy Newman.

Only the good die young.

The librarian action figure.

A collection of skits from The State. I never was all that crazy about The State, and had trouble viewing the clips sometimes (the quicktime plug-in would work for awhile, then stop, then work again for no apparent reason), some of them are amusing.

So tonight my plan was to catch up on some reading that was piling up, magazines and such. I take the lighter magazines to work, but the more cerebral ones, those that I would mind being constantly interupted by customers while reading, I keep at home. And having recently received the new issue of The Believer, figured I should at least finish July's Believer.

At first, as I read, I was listening to the Ragtime soundtrack, but it soon became apparent that could not compete with the noise in the house. I don't know which was worst, the braying jackass hosting America's Funniest Home Videos or the Wal-Mart ads in between, touting Wal-Mart's pivitol role in solving various social ills. I put on louder music, but eventally decided I'd give up on reading for awhile and get on the computer and take care of some things, but Mom was on the computer, while watching the T.V. in the living room. So she had it turned up loud enough to hear it in the computer room, but why should that disturb anyone? No reason to turn on the T.V. in the computer room, that would be crazy. It aggravates me how loud my family is. When Michelle was down, it was unbearable. I understand why the rest of the world thinks Americans are loud and rude, its because we are.

Annoyed, I decided to go to Balboa Park, figuring it was a pleasant night, and the park would be well-lit enough to read, and quiet. Listening to the Magnetic Fields on the drive helped me calm down. I found a clean, well-lighted place in front of the Museum of Natural History, and read for about ninety minutes, before deciding to head home.

I was greated by the sound of the monster truck rally my mother was watching. I've got to figure out where I packed up my headphones.

I mentioned to my mom I'm going to be running in a half-marathon in a few months. She kindly informed me I wasn't capable of that. How nice of her. Sort of like when I went to my first Boy Scout meeting, and she and my dad decided I didn't like hiking. Glad they let me know (actually, its probably for the best that I didn't stick with Boy Scouts, but still...)