If I had my druthers, I'd be posting more photos. I'm swamped though, at work & in prep for this Sunday's marathon antics.

I feel wound up. Kind of analogous to the Mount St. Helens - earthquakes, expeditions in search of magma - you know, evacuation plans in place. Jason was talking about booking the hotel tonight, with a friend we hope to see there this weekend & I felt a bit panicked - as though we were rushing things quite a bit.

Ah, a different topic. I went to Ivey's to see my proofs. Digital images on watercolor paper kick butt. I will have to actually spend time with the prints to see if I buy that they're art worthy, but hell, they do represent the image, sans pixels...

Jason just asked me if I had to look up how to spell panicked. Now he's asking if I hate him. And now, if I got A+'s for keyboarding, because I'm trying to stare him down while I type. He's been playing accordian to R.E.M.s Find the River while I've been putzing around on the computer. Now he's done & so, naturally, he's very curious about what I'm up to. Now he's laughing.

So, to end this scrambled - too tired post:

Everybody, watch the debates tomorrow. Keep an eye out for debate bingo & be creative with your drinking games (NY Times called them the squint vs. smile, the podium slapper vs. the air chopper -- make of that what you will). There'll be plenty to talk about after Bush & Kerry do their debate & I'm looking forward to it.

It's later. Invader Zim is on, the one where he took his parents to PTA night. Funny stuff.

Jason and I ran about 7.5 miles, down 34th and through Golden Gardens. It was fun to run with him - which is good, because running in the last few weeks has been more trying than fun. I don't need to run heaps this week, but it would be good to keep up with training.

It feels like there's so much more research to do, not to run the race, but to be comfortable during the race. Jason and I each tried some of the gu & powerbar gel & there was definitely a difference - I felt pretty even during the run. I'm trying to track down all of the other things that'll make a difference.

Now I've got to switch focus to the two art projects - the auction at work & the 8x10 "muse" piece - I need 27 pieces for the latter. Both are due at the end of this week. I've already worked with Ivey Seright to get two different images printed on watercolor paper with archival ink. It's a test - and I had hoped that they would arrive on time - but they will be ready on the 4th - so I should have a plan b. Sunday, I'm thinking, will be the time to execute plan b. I can still use the images - just need some archival ink for my local printer & a plan. May need to jet to Kinko's for the 11x14. I'm thinking out loud here, but then, I should be able to get a frame. Maybe.

Invader Zim, Gaudi, Dave Chappelle - are on their way back to netflix. Easy Rider, Blue in the Face & Bartleby are on their way here. Netflix is a great service. But we've been inclined to try to watch films we've heard of, but haven't seen - shouldn't be a problem really, but what ends up happening is that we get a bunch of downer movies in a row. Lot's of queu sorting has to happen to evenly distribute the dour between the humorous or banal.

Marathon news:

working on count down schedule
bought weird gel things to eat while running
am aiming to just run for fun this week
should review course & options

Feeling's-wise I'm dreading this week. I tend to wish I were farther along in knowledge for anything I start doing - as a result, I feel poorly prepared.

It's funny, I began training for a marathon to tweak my workout schedule & give myself something to aim for, to make it interesting. I still feel open to stopping if I feel in danger of injury. But, in contrast to that practical concession, I've found myself thinking about wanting to do more than just go in and "survive" the marathon. Our friend Richard suggested this might happen, that I might start feeling more competitive as the race approached. I want to "place" or fall in to a cool "class" - something that allows me to feel more like a jock.

Wanting to do really well in the marathon (really well in this case indicating a performance beyond my current ability) and, at the same time, feeling poorly prepared = dynamic tension, I guess.

Jason and I are heading out for a run, more later...

There's this:


Pics from Mt. Rainier coming soon.

So, although I've not mastered the intricacies of the folderblog, I am excited to present some 70 pictures taken with my ridiculously fantastic camera. These intricacies include things like naming the images, allowing comments and, I guess, making super sweet galleries, vs. working with the straight up .php script.

As a result of these difficulties, (the major difficulty being that the pictures didn't get into the album in order & I can't figure out how to fix that yet.) I'm forced to do something here that will give greater context to the folderblog - for those who just want to look the link is here:

Monday evening, I got to hang with Pam, visiting a P-patch & scouring Volunteer Park for photo ops. Some of the pictures are here, some are on the bottom row, here. Finally, three images are on the top row, here.



Wednesday last week brought a surprise storm - hail, blinding rain, the lot. Our basement flooded. When you look at the last seven images on this page, that's what you'll be looking at.



Some photos are from around the house. They have fallen into complete lack of order, so I won't point you in to any particular direction (although I quite like the model plane on the third row of this page.



Saturday was all about the Evergreen State Fair. The pictures are all over the folderblog, some on each page, I think. Start on page one to see them all.





It's not that I didn't try to figure out the script subtleties - I spent a fair part of yesterday surfing for code pointers. It's just that there are several files & each of them call to the other to perform their dazzling web magic & I'm too impatient to screw up by rushing into the individual gallery approach.

Also, I ran almost 3 hours on Saturday - before we went to the fair. After the fair, even after stopping for coffee, I came home and slept like a very sleepy person - until the next day. At this point, I am officially 3 weeks away from the marathon, in Portland. That's really something.

Short post. I've fiddled with the one photo gallery & have created a new one.

Folderblog: here

Adobe: here

Sorting, posting, thumbnails - all of these things are works in progress.