John’s Crawlspace

I’m still blown away by how bad the soundtrack to Alice in Wonderland looks. It has popped into my head several times since I posted it yesterday… I honestly can’t think of a worse combination than Pete Wentz and Mark Hoppus. That sounds like my own private hell. The only two tracks that have any potential are at the very end of the album. Grace Potter is awesome (and smokin’ hot), and this live version of “White Rabbit” sounds pretty damn good.

I know I mentioned back in December that I was training for a half marathon. That was on January 10th. So in true jiglet dot net style, I’m only now reporting on it.

I didn’t have time to stretch in the beginning, because just like my last run, I was hanging out in a port-a-potty when the race started… I sprinted straight from the toilet over the starting line. Everyone wears running chips that register when going over the start and finish lines, so I could have slowed down a bit and stretched before beginning the race, but adrenaline got the best of me, and I didn’t want to be behind the pack… I would have definitely not paced myself in attempting to catch up with the rest of the runners.

Anyway, I really started hurting around the 11th or 12th mile of the run… I believe that this was due to my lack of stretching. I seriously considered stopping to stretch out because it felt like my knee was going to explode, but I was too close to the finish to stop. When the finish line became visible, the adrenaline became almost overwhelming, and I took off, passing a good 10 or so people. It felt awesome. The pic to the left was taken probably 10 seconds before the finish line, and I look like a robot or something, but you can tell I was really booking it.

My goal was to finish in under two hours, and I finished in 1:57:49, so I’m happy with that. My average pace was 8:59.2, and I came in 489/1056 in my gender (724/2442 overall). The reporting on my Nike+ is a little different, but that thing lies.

There is definitely something to be said for choosing the proper running music. I perfected my playlist over the course of several months during my training runs… Excerpts of Disco Biscuits jams provided the soundtrack for the majority of the half marathon, and they really kept me going.

I was pretty excited when someone sent me a link to a trailer for an upcoming Mega Man movie. You can see the trailer here.

A year of fail in review - There are some pretty ridiculous clips in this compilation. While watching it, I remembered back 3-4 years ago when I had hundreds of video clips (.mpg and .avi files) on my hard drive. People would upload them to directories and send them around on IRC and etc. I probably still have them all somewhere, but I’m sure every single one of them has made it’s way onto YouTube by now.

By the way, I thought that the Mega Man trailer was pretty awful. The trailer itself was boring and uneventful, so imagine watching the entire move… I had my hopes up, but I have zero desire to see that movie after watching that.

One last thing. Is this real? If so… I think I’m done with the internet for the day.

For those Facebook users out there, I hope you claimed your custom URLs as soon as you were given the option. Some people weren’t so lucky.

I know that this image of Megan Fox and an adoring fan is all over the internet right now, but I still thought it was worth sharing. Some of the variations I’ve seen are pretty funny, too.

Don’t Even Reply is my new favorite site. This dude basically takes the concept of prank calling people and applies it to Craigslist classified ads. Almost every post on the site is hilarious, but I especially liked Camry Killer, 420 Friendly, Vintage Liquor, Kittens for my Tiger, and Ride to Bonnaroo. If you don’t like these, your sense of humor probably sucks.

I haven’t had much time for the site lately, I’ve been training for a naked duathlon. Actually, I haven’t been running at all for the past 2 weeks or so… I fell while rock climbing and landed on my ankle at a weird angle, so my physical activity has been kind of limited. It definitely sucks. Rock climbing is still relatively new to me though, and I love it. Anyway, that’s all for now, I really just wanted to post that Don’t Even Reply site on here.

I hope that My First Dictionary is still around when I have kids. This is probably the best way to introduce fragile, impressionable young minds to new vocabulary.

Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if 60 belgian women sag Radiohead’s “Creep”? Lord knows I have. You can find out the answer to your question here.

So since I completed the Broad Street Run, and I haven’t had any knee problems since (I was pretty convinced that I would) I feel like I need to move on to something bigger. HURT 100 Mile Marathon, here I come!

So I’m definitely happy that I ended up doing the Broad Street run on Sunday.

As I mentioned before, it was kind of a gametime decision for me. I had no idea I was going to do it on Friday, so I did a bunch of leg stuff at the gym - Stuff I hadn’t done for at least a month. So naturally, my legs were sore as hell on Saturday, and into Sunday. Even going up and down stairs sucked. I was kinda worried about this, but I didn’t let it stop me.

Signup for the Broad Street Run was at Lincoln Financial Field. They ended at 5 pm on Saturday afternoon, so I left my house at 3. I figured it shouldn’t take me more than 45 minutes to get there and sign up. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account the fact that there was a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park, and a Dead concert at the Wachovia Spectrum. The hippie traffic was unbelievable. I hit a ton of traffic on 76, and moved about 2 miles an hour onto Broad Street. I parked illegally around 5:10 pm and ran as fast as I could to go sign up.

When I got into the Linc, they told me that they were sold out, which I definitely didn’t anticipate. The lady told me (and the others in line) that we could stick around and see if they were able to locate any more race bibs. So I waited, and she was able to find 5 more. I was 5th in line, so I lucked out.

I ate a huge pasta dinner a little later that night (supposed to “carb load” before a race), but it didn’t “come out the other end” at any point during the night, or the next morning… So I was a little worried about that.

When I woke up (at 5 am) it was pouring outside, and chilly to boot. I decided to stick with shorts and a t-shirt though. I parked my car at Citizens Bank park, and hopped on the Broad Street line to Central High School, where the race was set to start.

I found some portapotties about 10 minutes before the race started, but the lines were ridiculously long, and there was no toilet paper left. Fortunately, I found someone with a single tissue in her pocket, and she also informed me that the race tag I was wearing on my shoe would be activated when I crossed the starting line, so it didn’t matter if I started right at 8:30. I’ve never made better use of a single tissue in my life.

I believe the final count for participants was something like 26,500, so it wouldn’t have been possible for me to start right away anyway. I was probably in the first 10,000 though.

When I started running, the rain slowed down to a slight drizzle, and after the first mile or so, I felt great. I had Between the Buried and Me (”Colors”) in my ears, and as lame as it probably sounds, I was definitely “in the zone”. I felt like was running with a pack of wild animals or something. It was a strange (but very cool) feeling to be running in the middle of the road through all of these areas of the city that I recognized.

I did a great job pacing myself this time. I’ve had issues with that in past races, so I kept reminding myself that it didn’t matter if people passed me, since my main goal was to finish the race without walking. And I did that, so I felt pretty damn good about myself.

After we passed City Hall (probably around the 6 mile mark), the rain started getting heavier, but it was perfect timing. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated rain more than I did during this race. It felt amazing.

Due to the rain and overall weather conditions, it was hard to see very far ahead, but when the finish line was finally in sight, I took off. It was around this time that the rain started to pour down. Four lanes of (human) traffic bottlenecked into two, so it became much more difficult to pass people, but I was doing my best, and I even made a couple of leaps. I was amazed by how much energy I had during the last few minutes of the run, it was definitely an awesome feeling.

I ended up finishing in 1 hour and 32 minutes. That link says that I placed 10289 out of 23093 - I guess some people either didn’t finish or just didn’t show up? Either way, I’m happy with the outcome, and know that I can do better next time if I actually train for it. Maybe I’ll beat some Kenyans?

This is awesome. A cover of “Stand By Me” done by various street performers all over the world. The base track (consisting of vocals and guitar) was recorded in Santa Monica. Vocals and harmonica were then recorded in New Orleans. This process continued all over the world - Europe, Africa, and South America. Definitely check it out.

If that video made you feel even slightly good about yourself, or life in general - Here’s something on the opposite end of the spectrum. What happens when Popeyes runs out of chicken? I wonder if Jewverine shows up?

So I had no intentions of doing the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia. I’ve only been running like twice a week, three times max lately, so I’m really not ready for it, and I definitely haven’t been training. Oh yeah, and it’s tomorrow. Last night, I think I got talked into doing it. It’s a ten mile run, and I usually go about 5 (haven’t run 10 in like a year and a half) so it should be interesting. Hopefully I shit my pants or get attacked by one of these things or something. I’m heading into the city in an hour or so to sign up. Wish me luck!

Check out this chart, it maps the wires that the interwebs travel through from one country to the next. Check out Africa… No wonder the internet was so painfully slow in Ghana! It reminded me of the days of AOL 2.5 and dialing up using a 14.4 modem.

“Hack your brain” - Want to hallucinate without taking drugs? Read up on some rather interesting methods of “opening the doors of perception” without ingesting mind-altering substances.

Wouldn’t it suck to get shot in the arm? It definitely would, especially if you were minding your own business. Say you were in a movie theatre… On Christmas Day. Damn. A little late on reporting that one, I know, I forgot about it until now.

Check out the second paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for “Graham Cracker”. How is it possible that I never knew this until now? Usually I indulge in sinful activities while eating graham crackers, and sometimes I just smash them into my face.

Since I’m “catching up” anyway… I spent this past New Years in Wildwood, NJ with a small group of friends. It was different, since not many people were around, but I had a good time. I think there were 8 of us there. Last year I was in a crowded bar/club in Montreal. I hope you all enjoyed your New Years in the US, because according to this dude, we only have about 2 of them left.

An Ohio teenager killed his Mom when she took away his copy of Halo 3. I’m really not sure what to say about this story - There are a few obvious video game jokes that could be made here, but they’d be in extremely poor taste, and it’s a pretty sad story to begin with.

I ran my first 10k this past Sunday. “Shiver By The River” in Reading, PA. It was freezing cold out, and I was a little underdressed, but I still enjoyed it… Until the last mile or so, when I started getting terrible stomach pains. I don’t know if it was because of something I ate the night before or what, but I thought I was going to make a mess of my pants. I started walking when I had about half of a mile left. Some guy ran past me when I slowed down and said something along the lines of “come on man, only half a mile left, you can do it” - As lame as it may sound, he inspired me to push through the doo-doo brown pains and finish up the race at a decent pace. As soon as I started running again (about five seconds after I stopped) I took off and flew past this guy, and about 10 other people. I finished in 100th place (out of 350+ people) with a total time of 52:11. I can definitely do a faster 10k than this, but considering the conditions I think I did pretty well… Regardless of the fact that I got smoked by a bunch of 60 year old dudes (no homo).

Check out this basejumping video. That looks absolutely incredible. Where do I sign up?