Woohoo.

Techdirt got nominated for a Webby Award this year in the “Blog – Business” category. This is the second nomination that I’ve had something to do with — the first one was back in 2001 for mySimon (we didn’t win)… The awards gala is on June 5th, in NYC, which is timed perfectly since I’ll be in NYC that week already.. Time to dust off the tux.

Yay, awards.

Oh yah… I almost forgot, there’s a “people’s voice” award too — so go there (and vote for Techdirt cuz we’re the best).

Ali and I headed down to the Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight yesterday — along with 1,000 other pillow-wielding people.. It was pretty fun, kind of silly, and very, very feathery. On the Muni ride over, I looked around, and like half of the people heading down to the Embarcadero were holding pillows. C’mon people, you’re supposed to at least try and hide it a little, no? I got there a few minutes before 6, and people were milling about.. At 6pm precisely, the entire plaza erupted into a huge pillow fight, and after about 5 minutes of pillow pummeling, feathers started flying. Feathers were everywhere, it was insane.

So, anyway… my PR folks must be working overtime, cuz I’m in the news again. And, they say that I’m “incredibly attractive.” Well, they said that everyone that went was “incredibly attractive,” but I’ll take it anyway.

I like how people spray paint messages for Dennis on their house… for Dennis, the “Dennis the Menace” theme seems to be popular:

I’m not quite sure what to make of this grafitti though…

I finished this year in 3:58:54 — almost 11 minutes slower than last year’s 3:48:04.. Well, consdering I trained much less than last year (I did NO running at all), I suppose that’s ok… I need to train more for the next one..

My splits for each year…

I knew it was going to be a long day when I put on my wetsuit.. I was struggling a bit to get into the suit, thinking to myself.. “crap.. have I really gotten that much fatter?” After about 1o minutes, I managed to get the wetsuit on, and I made my way down to the boat ramp, where everyone was milling about, waiting for the race to start. I looked around at all of the other competitors, nervous excitement filled the air..

I had my wetsuit half-on, as was the custom since it’s really hot in the wetsuit. I noticed how neat it was that when the wetsuit is half on, the logo of the wetsuit is printed on the inside of it, so that everyone can see what kind of wetsuit you’re wearing. I then looked down and thought to myself.. “hmm.. that’s weird, my logo is upside down.” — then it dawned upon me. I had put on my wetsuit on inside out. Oooooops. That’s why it was so hard to put on! Instead of the neopreney side next to my skin, the rubbery side was there… Argh! Well, at least I noticed before the race.. had I jumped into the water with my inside out wetsuit, who knows what would have happened.. ugh.

I was able to get my suit on properly before the start, luckily, but the problems didn’t stop there.. after the race started, I started to settle into the swim, when I realized I was having a lot of trouble breathing… Well, it turns out that I’ve added a few pounds since last year’s triathlon, so, maybe my wetsuit fits a lot tighter than it used to, making it sooo hard to breathe. I started freaking out and hyperventilating a bit, but after I flipped over and backstroked for awhile, I was able to calm down and start swimming again… ugh. not fun. I was able to paddle my way in around the 0.9 mile course.. somehow.

Thankful that I didn’t drown in the lake, I hopped onto the bike for my favorite portion of the tri (I must have been really eager since my swim-bike transition was the ONLY time this year that was better than last year).. the bike… Man, I really do love the bike part. You don’t really get to ride for 25 miles without stopping, except for in a race. The Wildflower bike portion is legendary for being hilly and grueling, but the good thing about riding UP a hill, as that you get to ride DOWN it later.. wee! This year, my top speed was 44.7 mph.. wahoo! That was super fun. Anyway, right around the turn-around for the out-and-back course, I really, really, really had to pee.. The way back is basically one long hill followed by a medium hill and then a huge hill… After the second hill, I just gave up and stopped and pee’d at the side of the road.. people kept riding by and joking that I was “lightening the load”.. haha.. i really did feel faster this year, although somehow, my time last year was faster..

And then.. the run.. Now, I haven’t trained running AT ALL this whole year, I’ve maybe run 3 miles in the past six months. Well.. it showed.. I speed-walked most of the “run” but somehow ended up with a time that wasn’t THAT much worse than last year.. strange.. Every time I tried to run, my legs would cramp up, so I just walked most of the way… The run course is 5 miles uphill and then 1 mile downhill.. Walking downhill kind of sucks more, so I ran that last mile all the way to the finish line…

And so.. I made it.. Mehul did very well with a 3:20 time, and Kristin beat me by a few minutes with a 3:55… next year.. maybe I’ll train a little harder, enough of this slacker training stuff..

Yes.. that’s the back of my head (it even says so in the caption).. Man, I never really realized how much of a mullet I had last week. I got a haircut since then, but I mean, honestly how many times do you really get a good look at the back of your own head like that.

You know how after a haircut is done, they give you the mirror so that you can look at the back of your head? I always feel so silly looking at the back of my own head. I mean, you can’t really get that good of a look back there anyway, yah? I mean, as long as the mullet isn’t starting to curl back up, I suppose its fine. Hmm.. maybe rat tails are on their way back in.. wouldn’t that be lovely..

Anyway, I digress.. I’m in the paper! Oh right.. I suppose I should actually link to the article about Techdirt and all.. Things at Techdirt are going really well so far.. It’s been greating working with all of the Mikes, and I’m trying to minimize the impact that working at home has on my personal hygiene.

I was mentioned in today’s Alameda Journal.. So far, no scouts have called, but I’m waiting…

Yes, it mentions I got three hits.. which is nice.. What’s also nice is that they fail to mention that our team lost 20-11, and I didn’t exactly do a bangup job fielding third base (but — the sun was right in my eyes the whole game, i swear).. or that all my hits were singles…

But.. I did make it into the paper.. my mom must be so proud.

update ok, mcc says that singles are good. so i’m happy.

Oooo.. well the rumors have been flyin’ around about YHOO buying flickr.. and turns out it’s true.. I’ve been a flickr addict for awhile now, constantly posting pictures and commenting on cool pictures i’ve found throughout. Flickr has one of the best user interfaces that I’ve seen in awhile, and they continue to improve with each new release.

Anyway.. I found this part of the flickr blog post particularily interesting:
Pro account holders will get super mega bonuses, to be announced soon.

In any case, congrats to Stewart and Caterina and the rest of the Ludicrew.. Great work, and please, please don’t mess it up now..

Oh, and does this mean game neverending will come back then??

so, i’m waiting at the elevators for everyone to come down, and naturally, i’m drawn to the slot machines nearby.. i pop $20 into a machine, and a janitor dude comes by and tells me that just last week, someone hit the jackpot but only played $1, instead of the $3 max. i take this to heart, and begin playing the max $3 bet.. i lose $18, without winning anything, which leaves $2 in the machine. i think for a sec whether or not to add the $1, decide not to.. and hit the jackpot. whoohoo! the first slot machine i played, and i hit the jackpot granted, had i played a buck more, i woulda won the progressive (which was like $1000), but since i subsequently lost all of the winnings on the craps table (and a rousing game of “all in” casino war), i guess it’s all a wash..

all in all, it was a fun weekend. went wakeboarding on lake mead, clubbing at rain, and buffeting at mandalay.. and of course, that’s not the whole story cuz “what happens in vegas stays in vegas”.

As I learned in my first open water swim a few weeks ago, I do NOT swim in a straight line. I kept veering off course, getting kicked in the head as I cut across several (faster) swimmers’ paths. For the first leg of the swim, I was so pumped up that I was going all out (staying near the front of the pack), and ended up tiring myself out by the first turn. I had to flip onto my back for a little elementary backstroke whilst I regained my composure for a few minutes. After I resumed a more sane pace, I was able to finish out the leg freestyle.

I was really happy with my bike portion — thanks to my brand new bike computer, I was able to see that I hit a max speed of 43.5 mph.. that was soooo fun.. and, my turtle horn was quite a hit with the fans. The bike was definitely my favorite part, though I think I need to see if my bike really fits me properly. Granted, I’ve only logged about 25 miles prior to raceday on this bike…

The run part was the worst — I wouldn’t really call it a run.. more like a run/walk.. I’m actually quite surprised that I actually had 12 minute miles. I was quite delirous and I was making little deals with myself the whole way like “ok, the faster we go, the sooner this is over” and “ok, run to the next hill, then we can walk” (who is this “we” anyway?!?). I also tried to pace myself with some of the various other racers, so thank you camelback-guy, thank you big dude in a too tight race suit, and no thanks to the really cute girl that just flew by as if it wasn’t the last leg of a grueling triathlon in 100 degree heat.

Oh.. and one more thing… why is it that at the end of the race, they put a “false end”.. meaning this.. I’m running for (what i thought was) the end.. and.. it TURNS.. and there’s like another 200 yard gauntlet for you to run through.. and here’s what sucks, you’ve already given your all to get to what you just thought was the end, and now you’ve got another frikkin 200 yards to run, and it’s full of people watching, so if you stop to walk, they all get to point and laugh. so, what do you do? you keep on running. and it frikkin hurts. but they did give me a nice medal at the end. yay!

Actually, I lied about the worst part. The worst part of the day was the walk back to the campsite after the whole thing was over. I mean, honestly, it’s not as if we hadn’t done anything all day. The campsite was over a mile from the finish, and uphill about 1,000 feet. Add the 100 degree heat, carrying all of my gear, and my bike and you can imagine how frikkin annoying that was. They should really put in a chairlift or something.

Anyway, I’m already looking for the next tri.. I figure I already have all this equipment, so why the hell not. Maybe i’ll train harder next time.