Shapes & Lines

I’m finding that the trick to running the Turkey Stuffer 5k is not to stuff yourself on turkey the night before. But my stomach always wins those arguments.

Aside from that little belly swelling, sleep inducing mistake in race preparation it all came off pretty well.

I was shooting for 21 minutes or less in this 5k, that’s about a 6:45 mile pace. I ended running a 6:51 pace, with an official time of 21:15.

I can’t say I am thrilled with my performance, but I am happy I ran it and I had a great time.

I’ve been logging  a lot of miles in the past few months, but not a lot of fast miles. That’s somethings I’m gonna have to change if I wanna up my game and hit my new target of a 6 minute mile pace.

No pictures today, but here’s a little humor for anyone experiencing P.T.D.D. (post turkey day depression).

Top ten reasons why dogs are better than girl friends.

10-The later you come home the more excited your dog is to see you.

9-Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor.

8-A dog`s parents never visit.

7-You never have to wait for a dog, they`re ready to go 24 hours a day.

6-Dogs find you amusing when you`re drunk.

5-If a dog smells another dog on you, they don`t get mad. They just think it`s interesting.

4-Another man will seldom steal your dog.

3-A dog will never wake you up at night to ask, “If I died, would you get another dog?”

2-Dogs like to go hunting and fishing.

1-A dog will let you put a studded collar and a leash on it without calling you a pervert

Saturday was my first half marathon since the January 2007 O.C. half in southern California. That’s just shy of two years. Dizzying how time flies.

The race was put on by Eugene Water & Electric Board and the proceeds will help cover heating cost for financially qualifying families in the area. And I can tell you, it can get pretty damn cold around here some nights.

I ran with my friend Deven, she loaned me that awesome bike for the Duathlon I did last month. I don’t think she was very happy with her time, but I was thankful just to keep up through all 31.1 miles regardless of my pace.

I finished, I had a great time, and I didn’t lose my breakfast. That’s a win win …win in my book.

You know you are hungry during a run when the chalk line arrows along the route begin to look a lot like graded parmesan cheese. It’s also a sign when the mantra repeating in your head changes to something like Captain Crunch, Captain Crunch, Captain Crunch.

Turkey day is just around the corner and I will be starting it off with the Turkey Stuffer 5k. I haven’t actually “raced” a 5k distance in a couple of years, unless you count one of my lags in the Hood to Coast relay last year. I’m thinking this will be a good chance to push myself and see if I’ve picked up any speed.

After the race I will be sharing Thanksgiving dinner and ample libations with friends from the running group. It’s sure to be ..magically delicious!  A little bird told them I was an orphan here in Eugene and they welcomed me aboard. 

Certainly friends to be thankful for.

-Todd

This is suppose to be a sort of art blog ..so here’s a shot of a sky box I recently developed.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer”.  -Albert Camus

This has been a profound month for me. Hell, its been a pretty crazy year.

For the past five or six months I’ve been working primarily as an indi developer. For a lot of reasons making the jump back to that from studio work was one of the smartest and healthiest things I have done in many years.

They say that “life is what happens while you’re making plans”. Well life is also what happens in spit of your plans.

They also say that “luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet”. Well I say that you’re damn lucky if you’re paying enough attention to recognize something real when the opportunity comes along.

I have always been amazed at the chain of events that lead us from one point to the next in our life. Sometimes they are clear, obvious and even predictable. But more often they’re circuitous and dizzying combinations of chance and circumstance, opportunities and unexpected encounters.

I have never believed in the notion of reinventing ones self, as if  such a thing were truly possible. But I do believe in the wisdom of occasionally assessing who we are and what we are doing. What’s the line from the movie? …”all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us”.

Well, my roller coaster ride has brought me here, to this time and place. There are a million little things I could have done differently, and anyone of them could have found me in profoundly different circumstances today.

Hindsight is 20/20. But I am finding that this here and now is not such a bad place to be after all.

I still can’t show off any of the projects I have been working on so I thought I would dig up some concept stuff I did back before I left Garage Games.

Here are a couple of character concepts for Fallen Empire: Legions, and some workups for a “300″ style RTS project that was never developed.

Almost forgot, the 100 Push up challenge is going great. Next up …the 100 Donut Challenge. That’s right I said Donuts.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

 Grunts: Skirmish, a “Game In A Week”

I’ve recently been working with the crew over at Push Button Labs on a project that allowed me to do a little character development, which was a blast. Tim was my team lead at Garage Games on Fallen Empire: Legions before we both left, so everything just sort of clicked.

The focus and scope of the project changed a good bit between the time I was contracted and the version you see now. The iterative approach that PBL took, allowed for low pressure rapid development that made working on the project very rewarding.

I have worked on a few RTS games in my time, but it has been a while, and it was nice to get my hands back into the game. The iterative approach was sort of like getting to play with modeling clay like did when I was a kid and just make cool stuff. Then mush it all back together again and make something else even …more cooler.

I’m looking forward to this project going live and seeing what develops from it.

You can see Jeff and Tim’s thoughts on the project and development process here and here.

-Todd

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Today is my Birthday.

I took the day off and everything is awesome. …except the weather here in Eugene which is pretty gray at the moment. But that’s ok, I am beginning to get use to it a little.

I had breakfast with a friend and some good conversation. And in case I didn’t say so before, thank you for that.

I am in week four of the 100 push up challenge, and so far I am hitting all of my goals, or at least coming very close. I haven’t been able to do anything close to 100 push ups since before my shoulder surgery, so this will be an interesting experiment. Check back on a couple weeks to see the results.

Sunday I signed up for the EWEB Half Marathon Run to Stay Warm. All proceeds benefit EWEB’s Customer Care Program to help pay for the heating bills of the needy. By “needy” I don’t mean high maintenance sort of needy. I mean financially challenged needy.

It should be a good ramp up to the Eugene marathon that I will run next May.

It has been a busy month on the running front, wonder what I will get myself into next.

And finally one last bit before I go for a late afternoon hike in the rain. It has all been said before, but here is a quick Top 15 list “Best Things About Being A Guy”.

(in no particular order)
1 Movie nudity is virtually always female.
2 A five day vacation requires only one suitcase.
3 Your bathroom lines are 80% shorter.
4 You can open all your own jars.
6 Guys in hockey masks don’t attack you.
7 You can kill your own food.
8 Your underwear is $10 for a three pack.
9 You don’t have to shave below your neck.
10 You can write your name in the snow.
11 You can eat a banana in a hardware store.
12 With 400 million sperm per shot, in a worst case scenario you could double the earth’s population in 15 tries, at least in theory.
13 If you retain water, it’s in a canteen.
14 Someday you’ll be a dirty old man.
15. You don’t have to curl up next to a hairy butt every nite.
 
-Todd

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

…or Epilogue depending on how you want to look at it.

The Captain America shoes were awesome! (see last post). I survived the performance group training and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. However, I am gonna have to up my game if I am going to do the shoes justice.

The Monster Dash 5k was a blast!  I ran in costume as skeleton along with a saucy German Beer Wench and Maynard the Dog. Maynard was a real dog not a costume. And true to form, Maynard liked me as most seem to for some reason. …Dogs that is.

There were Trick or Treat tables along the run which I raided for Peanut butter cups. Followed by a quick lesson in dodging an oncoming bike while stuffing my face. There was a Buddy the Elf, a Bubba Palin, and a guy that looked like he impaled a baby Unicorn with his torso.

Jerry Stromme, one of my Duathlon cohorts took 3rd in the Masters division of the 10 miler with a blistering 1:12:50  That’s about a 7:25 mile pace if I did my math right.

On the business front I’m working on a bunch of projects, none of which I can show off yet. Until then, this is gonna look a lot more like a personal blog than it was originally intended.