Consistently crazy

Work has been super busy of late. There's so much stuff to do and document - I love it, but it's crazy. Last Thursday our aging primary domain controller finally gave up the ghost, so we spent that day making sure the replacement DC was doing everything correctly, and spent the next day doing data recovery on the old one - which left me racing to beat a programming deadline on Monday.. =D

I've been working on my freerunning skills lately as well. The fivefingers are awesome. They give me great grip while still allowing me to feel the surface I'm on. I had a great time training at a local playground yesterday. There's an even bigger playground I'd like to check out, but it tends to have a lot of people at it. Maybe I'll go there on lunch one day.

One of my favorite things to do with fivefingers is climb. Climbing pipes up the sides of buildings is suddenly super easy. I really freaked myself out the other day, however, when I climbed down a 2-story pipe. About 5 feet down I passed over a buzzing bees nest that wasn't visible from the top or bottom. Thankfully, the bees ignored me. When I saw them, the only thought in my head was "don't let go, don't let go, don't let go..."

I'm also working on performing a front flip. So far I've only succeeded in landing on my back, but I understand what I'm doing wrong so hopefully I can change that. The technique itself is really simple; unfortunately, my confidence in the technique working is very low. I have a fear of landing on my head. This isn't a problem in rolls because I know I'm in control - I've taken 10 foot drops with no problem. But what gets me on the front flip is when I jump up, I'm not rotating. I have to generate the rotation by curling my body, but I feel like I won't rotate enough and will simply land on my head. Ah well, practice makes perfect.

On a side note, futon mattresses make good substitutes for gym mats, but bed mattresses do not. Although a bed has more padding, it is too springy; when I landed on the bed, I hit the ground with my butt, then got shot back up. With the futon mattress, there is no springiness, so although it has less cushioning, it ends up providing more.

"they scare me"

Well, I've had several different groups comment on my FiveFingers now. On Friday I went with Morgan and a bunch of our friends to see Transformers (great movie, by the way!) and their reactions were mostly a mix of "cool" and "weird". Saturday, Mor and I went to Border's and the lady who came over to "help" me asked me about them (judging by her interest in my FiveFingers, I think that they may have been her main motivation, but she was really nice anyways, so..). As I told her about them, I'm pretty sure she was beginning to experience a desire for a pair of her own. Her main concern was whether or not she would be able to wear them all day, to which I replied with the warning on the Vibram website about gradually getting your body used to them.
I received more comments on Sunday, mostly in the "they're ugly" category.. I don't know why people think so, I personally think they look sweet. I also got comments both Monday and Tuesday at work. One of the ladies stopped me as I was leaving on Monday and asked what they were, so I exhibited them to the group that was standing there. One of the guys said, "They must be really comfortable, but they scare me. ... They're scary.". On Tuesday she stopped me again and had me show two other people. She made a comment about how we should all get them, but that may have been sarcasm.
All in all, the reception to them hasn't been to bad. I only hope my boss doesn't have a problem with them (he gets back from vacation on Monday).

FiveFingers Day 4

Now that I caught up to today I can drop the date in the subject.. woot!
Gah! My calves are still really tight today. Stretch, stretch, stretch... eventually they have to loosen up again, right? It's a good thing that walking in VFF's is practically effortless.
I'm having a good day at work, but I just realized I forgot to make up a report so I'm going to end my break now and knock this thing out before the end of the day.

6/24/2009: FiveFingers Day 3

Argh! My calves are so tight today after yesterday's run. Wow, this is crazy. I've never had them this tight before. I drink a lot of water at work, so every time I took a bathroom break I also stopped and stretched my legs. Hopefully they'll loosen up pretty soon.
As always, the FiveFingers are great. No one has mentioned anything about them yet, so I'm not sure if they are just accepting them or have yet to notice them.
On a side note, my coworker brought his dog to work today.

I made a pot of rice for lunch - I took a box of rice and pinto beans from Save-A-Lot and added black beans, corn, and stewed tomatoes. Yummy! Hmm, saying "Yummy!" in my head made me think "Timmay!".
My bike is still not done, but it should be done sometime this week. I can't wait to ride it again.

This spring, I was planning on joining ARMA (http://www.thearma.org/) and learning how to use a sword. Then I got laid off and that got shoved to the wayside. As I now have a steady income again, I am once again looking into this. I think I will start by focusing on the Scottish Claymore Broadsword, which is really a basket-hilt broadsword and not a claymore... I'll have to get a wooden waster (http://www.woodenswords.com/WMA/baskethilt.broadsword.htm) and figure out something for a pell, but I'm quite excited. Eventually I'd also like to tie in the targe and dirk.

The Scottish Basket-Hilt Broadsword:


While I was looking up Scottish stuff, I looked up clans. The Reid surname is apparently claimed by Clan Robertson.. whether or not I'm related to that or not is unknown. My mother will likely know, as she is a genealogy guru. All I know right now is that I have both Scottish and Irish blood and some others that I can't remember.

6/23/2009: FiveFingers Day 2

I wore my FiveFingers to work today. On Vibram's website they recommend only wearing them for short periods of time, but since I already go barefoot a lot, I figured it wouldn't be an issue - and I was right. It was awesome to not have big, clunky shoes on all day. I'm able to step so much lighter that it's hard to keep from running everywhere. With the socks on, it feels a lot like wearing a pair of slippers - except my toes are free. Hopefully wearing these will help my toes spread out, as my two smallest toes have become squished from years of shoe wearing. I used to tie my shoes super tight so that my feet wouldn't slip around at all - too bad I didn't have these as a kid...

Work was great, I love the variety of things I get to do, the fact that I get to spend a lot of time programming, and the knowledge that my work is appreciated. They are very into expressing thanks here.

After work I went to the park to work out. When it came time for running, I ran 1 lap (1/2 mile) in my FiveFingers. As awesome as they are, they are definitely not the same as barefooting. I run in them the same I run barefoot, but while I was able to feel the ground underneath of me, it was a muted sensation; and although the FiveFingers are light and form-fitting, I was still well aware that my feet were not free. At the end of that lap, I stripped off my VFF's and tossed them in the car, then ran 3 more laps barefoot for a total of 2 miles. Not as good as my 2.5 mile run on Sunday, but on Sunday 4 of the laps were with shoes on so I was ok with it.
I felt really good when I finished my run, but my calves were quite tired. I wonder how they'll feel tomorrow.

I took my iPod out of my waistband to shut it off, and the screen was blank! When I pressed Pause, the song started stuttering. About this time I noticed the iPod was wet from sweat as well as being really hot. I stuck it in my car and pulled on my VFF's, then went over to the empty playground (although I was tired, the playground is never empty so I couldn't pass it up) and played around. I walked across the monkey bars, swung across their swingie thing (it's like monkey bars but with the round handles on chains that guy gymnasts do really cool stuff with) and then jumped and rolled off the other side. I decided that was enough for tonight and headed home, where I stuck my iPod in a bowl of rice to dry out.

I then jumped in the pool for a little while to cool down. I love swimming...
I spent the rest of the night playing Prototype and talking to Mor.

6/22/2009: FiveFingers Day 1

I picked up my first pair of FiveFingers (http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/) today. I was already enamored with the idea of them; in the time it took to run out to my car from the store, I fell in love with them.
I hope this feeling lasts as I continue to use them.
I looked for toe socks while I was at it, but the store didn't have any all black ones, so I decided not to get any. However, I changed my mind once I reached my car - after all, if I'm going to wear them to work I should probably have socks to go with them.
I went back and got a tan pair of socks; hopefully they don't feel weird.

When I got home, I went over to the back of the Save-a-Lot plaza and did a wall-run at my normal spot. I had previously tried to do this barefoot but failed as my feet are not yet tough enough. With the VFF's on, the wall wasn't an issue. The soles gave me great grip and I didn't feel any discomfort at all. I wanted to try it out more but I was a little sore from my run on Sunday so I decided not to.