Thanks, Internet

A few years ago, while training for CIM, I realized I needed to find a local running buddy to train with and, thanks to some Internet stalking, I became running friends with Jen.  Through her blog and her IRL interactions with other local folks in the running community, I made several new running friends.

These running friends are awesome -- they arrange group runs, post-race food and fun, relays, and more.  I have literally never attended any event planned by folks in this group and not had a good time.  Unfortunately, two of them are in the process of saying goodbye to the area before they move far away.

I am very sad at the impending departures.  But, I remind myself that I wouldn't even have these friends if it wasn't for the Internet, so I'm trying to focus on gratitude, not disappointment.

I'm grateful the Internet introduced me to great people, *and* I'm grateful that one of them planned a trip to Alcatraz before she left.  The weather was perfect, and Jen, Jess, E, and I had a wonderful day.

Not a bad view!

Also, E and I attended the EFF 25th anniversary.  If you care about the intersection of privacy, human rights, and technology then you should be aware of the EFF.  Some refer to it as "the ACLU for the Internet" or "the ACLU for Technology."  Either way, they are a great organization, representing important legal causes, and I was honored to be part of the celebration.

One of the EFF Founders, John Perry Barlow, took the stage and spoke of how proud he was of the EFF, his "4th child." 

Yes, Grateful Dead fans, that John Perry Barlow

25 years!

I'm loosely affiliated with the EFF, professionally, but every time I attend an event (always due to an invitation via the Internet), I see folks in both the legal and technology communities that I respect, and also, I learn something new.  This event was no different.  

My weekly mileage total was 33.27, which is not bad at all, for the year.  Thanks to the time in SF, however, I spent much more of these miles walking than normal -- only 15 of the week's miles were actually running.  3 of the runs included quality segments, though -- 3.25 miles including 8 X 1 min hill repeats; 2.5 miles with E at 9:40 pace; and 8 miles this AM with MB, a friend from Seattle who was in town and emailed me (over the Internet) asking if I wanted to keep her company on her last "long" run before the San Francisco Marathon next week.

Last Week

We spent last week in ATL, for work, and also visiting family.

It was a great time.  At one of the tech parties, we had our caricatures done, which was fun:

The downside was that I rolled my ankle on my run on Wednesday.  After the caricature party, we arrived home and I found myself the owner of a stiff, painful foot that hurt to walk.  I iced.  And I was scared.

I woke the next AM to similar stiffness and inability to walk.  I iced again.

By Thursday PM (after E's mom bought me an elastic ace bandage which ended up being way more helpful than expected), it was clear that I would make it through, and quickly.  E's father took advantage of my convalescence to get me to commit to driving his 1985 Porsche 911 to the detailer's (no one else in the family is comfortable driving a mechanical stick shift).  I have to admit, Friday's diversion of detailing, plus coffee at the nearby cafe and reading CAFC's Oracle v. Google Ruling, followed by post-lunch high speed road driving and donuts in local parking lots?  Well, it was a fabulous way to spend half of Friday not working.

Overall, the running was not as impressive as it otherwise would have been, thanks to the concerns about the rolled ankle:  19.33 miles total with only 5% at high intensity.  In fairness, I can only blame Thursday and Friday on the ankle.  The big failure was Sunday -- ridiculous weather with torrential rain kept me off my feet.  But, overall, I'm just happy to be healthy.

I celebrated the new week with book club.  The meeting to discuss A Study in Scarlet was educational and enjoyable.  If nothing else, we were all in agreement that Book 2 was a crazy surprise, and not necessarily a welcome one.

Looking forward to a good run tomorrow!

Audible Addiction and Device Annoyances

So, I don't own a single Apple device.  Mainly, because I hate buying things, and I think they are too expensive.  But, also, partially, because I don't love the closed system approach to technology that they take and I have enough technology in my life to ignore them, for the most part.

Anyways, this resulted in me using a Sansa Clip for the first several years that I ran with auditory input.  Small.  Cheap.  Lightweight.  I loved it for music and language lessons, both Spanish Pimsleur and Mandarin ChinesePod MP3s.

But, then, I decided I wanted to try running with Audible audiobooks.

So, E bought me a Philips GoGear Vibe for Christmas a couple of years ago and all has been well ever since.

In fact, I've developed a bit of an addiction to audiobooks.  After I've scheduled or completed my language lessons for the day (if I didn't set this rule, I'd never finish my language lessons) I listen to audiobooks when I run.  I listen to them when I garden.  I listen to them when I drive, walk, do dishes, laundry...

After the LA DNF, I pulled my device out of my pocket and listened to the end of Lost In Translation while waiting for E.

That book (and likely the water I'd poured over my head and sweat) were the end of its electronics.  I spent the next several days fighting with it to get it to stop cycling through the menus or actually respond to the interface.  Finally, I declared defeat and ordered a replacement from Best 4 Best, an Amazon Fulfillment Partner.

I ordered 1-day shipping.  I'd developed an audiobooks problem, you see.  (Also, I use my MP3 player to do Mandarin lesson review).  Best 4 Best didn't bother to ship my device for 3 days.  I was underwhelmed, but tried to be reasonable.  Their estimate was arrival today, and the device did arrive today.

Unfortunately, despite pristine packaging, it was completely non-functional.  After I failed to get it to do anything interesting with the cables and Windows, E confirmed that it wasn't even "enumerating" via Linux.

So, yeah.  That didn't work.  I printed a return label, packaged it up, and convinced E to head with me to Fry's.

They carried exactly one device that was listed as a supported MP3 player on audible.com: The RCA TH1814. It came with a coupon for a free audible book. I tried to redeem it, but I was informed it was only available for 1st time audible users. I tried to transfer a file from my library to the RCA. It was informed the RCA only supported *enhanced* audible files. I then tried to transfer the *enhanced* file from my Audible library and supposedly it worked. Windows explorer saw it there, in all of its glory, in the Audible folder. But the minimalist interface only allowed me to access the songs in the "Music" folder.

No problem, I thought, I'll just copy it to the "Music" folder.  Yeah, that didn't work either.  The Manual informs me that despite the coupon in the packaging, "This Device does not support Audible files."

So, tomorrow, I'll be gardening with my audiobook playing from my Samsung Galaxy SIII via the Audible Android App.  And after that?  Well, if you have any recommendations, I'd love 'em.  Otherwise, I'll hold my breathe that Best 4 Best comes back to me with a functional solution in the form of a new (or refurbished but functional) GoGear Vibe.