Harder and harder.
Current mood: angry
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

For the past eight or so years, I have been arguing that the Democrats and Republicans in Congress are qualitatively different, that those who claim there is no difference between the two are talking out their asses.

Today I admit that I may have been wrong.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. phone companies would be shielded from potentially billions of dollars in lawsuits under an anti-terror spy measure that appears headed toward approval, congressional sources said on Wednesday.

House of Representatives Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, a lead negotiator on the bill, said, "We're very close to having an agreement," and a House vote could come as early as Friday.

Critical to sealing the deal was a compromise that would grant conditional immunity to telecommunications companies for assistance they provided from September 2001 through January 2007. If the companies can show a federal district court judge "substantial evidence" they received a written request from the attorney general or head of an intelligence agency stating the president authorized the surveillance and determined it to be lawful, the cases against them will be dismissed.

In my view, there is no persuasive reason to grant the telecoms immunity from lawsuits. Telecoms have large, sophisticated legal staffs. The executives at the organizations were well advised of the probable illegality of their actions but choose to proceed anyway (if memory serves, Quest rightly refused to cooperate with the government's requests, deeming them illegal, and good for Quest). There is no reason to spare the telecoms the consequences of that choice.

09:15 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Whoops.
Current mood: ashamed

So I saw that we now have the option to see when comments we leave get responses. I kinda clicked fast through the link and apparently my semi-sick brain didn't register the instructions, cos I don't remember the exact sequence to doing it. And of course the spastic code-monkeys at myspace didn't make the setting, y'know, intuitive - I've spent the last ten minutes trying all the various links I could think of and still can't find that setting.

So my question(s) is/are:
1. Did I just imagine it?
2. Am I blind?
3. Where the hell is it?

If you can answer even one of these, I will be grateful. Mildly, anyway.

13:59 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Fun with employment!
Current mood: betrayed
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

Our parent company, Axium International, filed for bankruptcy. On Monday, January 8th, we employees were all told that the company's accounts were frozen and that we were not to come into the office or do any work until otherwise told. Then we were told that the company would not be reopening.

This is a bit of a shock, by which I mean a total surprise. We were due to be paid that Wednesday, but we're not sure if that's money we're ever going to see. In the meantime, we've got our 401Ks, some stocks, some savings, and a plan for a new project.

Oddly, I am not pessimistic. I think something is going to come through, and that fairly quickly. Wish us luck.

It's probably just as well the company went under, though. It turns out that there's a reason behind it, and that reason is about to wind up in court:

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, investment firm GoldenTree Asset Management said Axium's former principals, John Visconti and Ron Garber, treated the company "as their own personal piggy bank to finance their extravagant lifestyles."

Visconti and Garber, according to the suit, used Axium funds to lease private jets and ultra-luxury cars, including Rolls-Royces and Aston Martins, for personal use; paid for personal gifts and vacations using corporate credit cards; made personal political contributions with Axium money; maintained secret bank accounts; and spent the money "without any apparent business purpose."

The opening bidder for ECG's assets is Barry Olson, former president of Chimes, Ehrenberg said. He declined to disclose the potential opening bidder for Axium's assets.

After the assets are sold, it's likely that most of the companies' former employees will be rehired, Ehrenberg said.

19:07 - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

An excellent day.
Current mood: happy
Category: Games

The great storm of 2007 has come and gone, dropping about 10 inches of snow on Grosse Pointe on its way. Lazy Sunday? No. Busy Sunday? Oh hell yeah.

But the best part of it was coming home from the friends' house, starting to shovel out the walk, and getting Caroline's help. When we finished the front, she was in no mood to go in, so we packed up the shovels and headed for the back.

There we built a snow slide down the stairs on the deck. We left room to ascend and descend, but there's a good, strong snow trough with a small jump at bottom, ejecting into the larger yard. There are imprints of snow angels littered across the yard. Best of all, the memory of laughter.

Also, hot chocolate. With a ton of marshmallows.

04:18 - 4 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

NWA de-fucked
Current mood: spazzy
Category: spazzy Travel and Places

I have now acquired my tickets!

I fly in to Santa Ana on Friday, January 4, around 7 pm.

I leave on Tuesday, January 8, around noon.

On Monday morning (or Sunday evening) I will acquire a rental car so that I can attend my super-secret business meeting in Los Angeles on Monday!

Oh, and I just did 7.2 miles in 57 minutes, so that's like a 7:56 pace. I am okay with that. Can I do that for 5.9 more miles? After I up the mileage to 9 next week and 11 the week after that, we'll see.

VROOOOOM.

13:24 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Plotting and Planning
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

Sweet! Rumor has it that I'm on the list! The LAYOFF list!

Oddly I am not at all concerned. In fact, right now my primary concern is setting up my flight to head out to California for the OC Half-Marathon (because flying out to run a 5K is ridiculous, and I need an excuse to go visit my friends), and NWA.com is being recockulous about letting me use my many free miles. I may have to call a real live person, and this frightens me.

I have many stories to share with my friends.

Also I need to rent a car on Monday while I am out there.

Also I need to see if I can convince TC to come out here while I am gone.

Also I need to send my short story out to more magazines so I can put up an acceptance note next to my rejection note.

It is a busy busy day here in the tundra.

No kudos required for what is essentially a brainfart post. Thank you and please have a pleasant day.

10:30 - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Thrills, chills, and spills! Or, how I made my Dex check!
Current mood: grateful
Category: glad to be alive Life

(x-posted to LJ)
This weekend, Robin and I took the kids to visit a college friend of Robin's who lives on the other side of the state. We packed up Saturday morning, drove the three and a half hours to the west coast, and set all the kids loose. Usual adult activity ensued, including talk, chitchat, opining, house tours, and so forth.

Their house, built over a century ago, was a charming example of how house layouts accrete changes over the years as successive owners add rooms, change functions, rewire and rework, and in general help the house become a kind of living organism. This particular house's changes were subtle, but one of them nearly proved to be the death of me.

By way of introduction to this story, the previous-previous owners had added a laundry room behind the guest bedroom, and a bathroom behind that. Thus, there were two entrances to the guest bedroom - one from the living room, one from the laundry room. In other words, a back entrance and a front entrance. Unfortunately, the previous-previous owners had not quite made the proper adjustments to the floor height, so there was a small but noticeable lip between guest bedroom and laundry room.

After we had returned from dinner out, Caroline announced it was time for her to go to bed, and we thought it best to put Lachlan down as well. Robin went in to help calm them down in the darkness of a strange new room, and I stayed out to talk to Phil and Ally. We three adults standing in the kitchen decided that we'd enjoy some Irish coffee, and so I went to ask Robin if she would like some too. I thought to save myself some trouble and went through the laundry room to the back entrance of the guest bedroom. I opened a door into darkness, noticed that it was quiet, and stepped in to whisper to Robin so I wouldn't wake the kids.

That's when I noticed that there was no floor beneath my foot.

In the room next door, Robin was lying in bed with Lachlan. He sat bolt upright at the sound of a tremendous thump and crash.

In the stairwell, I was hanging onto both sides of the doorknob, my full weight on the door, and struggling to find purchase for my feet so I could pull myself back up.

Turns out I had opened the door into the basement. The stairs into the basement were steep and wooden, descending 10 feet or so. Had I missed my grip, I would have tumbled headfirst down those stairs and fetched up against the chimney and supports for the house. The very least injury that could have possibly resulted was a broken arm, and that only with luck.

Sadly, there were no video cameras to capture the expression on my face as I realized my mistake, nor was there any time-lapse photography so that I might later demonstrate my doorknob-grabbing technique to classes of potential stairfallers.

Most oddly, I didn't even wrench a shoulder. But let this not mitigate the danger!

12:45 - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

The Road from Chicago
Category: Travel and Places

So you may have read about the incredible heat in Chicago yesterday during the marathon. I am here to tell you that it was not just unseasonably hot, but unseasonably hellish. I went into the day with the goal of finishing the race in 3:30. When I heard that it was supposed to be in the 80s, I adjusted that goal to 3:45. Once I was at mile 8, my goal became finishing.

The race was that bad.

Woke up at 5:30, having slept surprisingly well the night before, and my aunt picked me up to drive my brother, his fiancee and me to the El station at Armitage so we could arrive in Grant Park for an 8:00 am start. We arrived at the El station just as the attendant was unlocking the gate. We climbed to the platform and made small talk with other runners while we waited for the train. And waited. And waited. Soon, we discovered that the first train wouldn't be there until about 7:20, so in a state of moderately rising panic, we left the station with one of our new platform buddies and (very fortunately) caught a cab to the starting area. This put me in the open starting corral (as opposed to the seeded starting corral, which is where my super-triathlete brother Mike was) at 7:30-7:40 am, far later than I had arranged to meet Sean, so I did not get to run with him. This is probably just as well, since he passed me somewhere around 15K, probably on the other side of the road. I assume this because otherwise he would have seen me for sure, what with the grass skirt and all.

I did get a good start out of the gate, maintaining an 8-minute pace for the first few miles. Then the sun stretched its arms, yawned, and started in on burning. That's when everyone started running on the shady side of the street. That's when I started in with the Gatorade and 2-4 cups of water at every station - one cup for drinking, the others for my head and back. For anyone who was running behind me, I apologize for taking all your water and drinking all your Gatorade. You will be happy to know that my sunglasses got fogged because of the water, although that burned off within a couple moments under the laser sun.

Mile 9 is where I started walking. Mile 12 is where I started the reverse math ("14 miles left... that's just a long run. Let's see, at 8 minutes a mile... wait, 9 minutes a mile... wait, 9:30.... how much longer do I have to go? OH GOD NO"). I saw my aunt and uncle at mile 16, waiting to give a nutrition boost to my brother's fiancee, and I pulled over to talk to them for a minute, and I told them how much the run was sucking. Then I started moving again, I'm not entirely sure how. I don't think I ran a full mile after mile 14 until about mile 24, when I decided to finish as strong as I could. That's also the time when the announcers told us, "This is no longer a race... this is a fun run... do not push yourselves too hard to finish..." I wish the lady with the over-soaked tampon and malfunctioning bowels had listened.

The crowds were great. There were spectators along every portion of the course, despite the heat, and they were an incredible motivation. As a bonus, my outfit got me a lot of free cheers. "Go, hula man! Go, grass skirt! Hooray, Hawaii! Aloha!" My favorite were the ten or so who shouted, "I saw you on television!" So while I didn't win, at least hooray, I'm famous! ... for a moment.

I made it all the way across the finish line and thought about heading over to the medical tent for a bag of ice, but when I saw the line of wheelchairs, I figured I wasn't that bad off.

They called the race about 30 minutes after I finished. I understand some people were complaining that they wanted to finish the race, but the record high temperatures would have killed more than one person. This article has it exactly right.

At the massage tent, I took off my water-logged shoes and was delighted to discover that not only did I keep all my toenails, I only had a single blister.

After reuniting with my family, we caught the El back to the car, which was sadly parked a very far way away, got into the air conditioning, packed, and drove home last night. We arrived around 11:30, put the kids to bed, and I have taken the day off.

My legs only hurt when I start moving.

Chip Time: 4:17:02
Clock: 4:23:16
Pace: 9:48

10:59 - 4 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Chicago!
Current mood: nervous
Category: Travel and Places

This weekend is the Chicago Marathon. We will find out if I have trained well for the event. Failing good training, I plan to garner support along the way by wearing a grass skirt. This tactic never fails to elicit a free cheer.

Wish me luck, wish Sean luck (since apparently my association with Mr. Avellone has convinced him that I am a reliable running partner), and watch this space for updates about the run.

That is all.

18:33 - 8 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

The Road to Chicago
Current mood: SNORT. KOFF KOFF.
Category: SNORT. KOFF KOFF. Parties and Nightlife

Training was going great until an old problem reared its head: a tightness high on my inner thigh. That's right - I pulled my groin.

I will wait for the laughter among the immature to subside.

This pull happened during the Crim, which was significantly hillier than any of my training, so I was using a brand-new set of running muscles in an older pair of shoes. I thought my leg was just tight, but during the next week's 19-mile run, the damage came back with a vengeance; I wrapped up that run at 10 miles and took a week off to recuperate.

The long run for the week following was a 12-miler, and I knocked that out without a problem, although my leg was tight afterward. I let it lie for a few days and had a fantastic pace run on Wednesday - one of my top 10 runs ever - and I thought I was in good shape for the 20-miler I was supposed to do last Saturday. Unfortunately, fate (damn you, fate!) had other ideas, and the kids brought home some new friends from school. Specifically, their new friends were a low-grade flu and a nice cold, and I spent the weekend lying around and contemplating clearing my sinuses with a nail gun. I went back out today over lunch for a quick 5, and while the first 3 were great, the last 2 were torture. So much for my plan of squeezing in that 20-mile run in a double-running day tomorrow.

I will probably try to do the 20 (or maybe 18) this weekend, instead of the 12 for which I'm scheduled - I don't want to have my taper start seven weeks before Chicago, and I think it's better to do a shorter taper with more rest than it is to let the long run benefits disappear. Regardless, I officially kiss goodbye my dreams of qualifying for Boston this time out (and therefore for the next several years), and embrace the idea of running in a grass skirt and flowered lei.

Bid me aloha!

12:20 - 3 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment