I was gushing about my weekend plans this Friday in the newsroom. I really only had one major thing on the agenda: run 18 miles at Yokohl Valley. This guy who I work with, a real cynical guy, asked me, "Why?" I told him I was training for a marathon. He asked again, "Why?" And I told him it made me feel good. And he asked again, "Why?" I think I blubbered something about accomplishing something incredible, and blah blah. He just brushed me off and told me, "You're crazy."

I don't know if he's right about that. I must be crazy to trump a zillion more pleasant things to do with my weekend by insisting I spend nearly 4 hours slaving in the sun trying to beat the clock. I don't know, it seemed to make sense at the time.

Unlike the week before, I've been doing really well this past week. When I laid out that 122 miles on that little .jpg graph last week, it made me feel more inclined to complete my miles for the week. Of course, whenever I complete my plan for the week, I always feel good. Since it's been up and down the past few weeks, I guess I really wanted to feel like I was pulling it together for the big day. That day, of course, is this Saturday.

Last year, when I was training for the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego, I never ran the 18-mile training day. I did 16 miles in Athens when I was visiting in Georgia, but that was hardly comparable to what I accomplished this weekend. I remember walking a great deal and I don't think I even completed 16 miles. I was just above 15 when I finished. This past weekend, I kept myself above my goal 10:17 pace with the exception of one mile, which included the most grueling hill of the entire circuit. I let it slide.

My only problem at this point is the water breaks. The only way anyone can really finish a marathon for the first time without extensive experience is by breaking it down into small pieces. The way I see it, I'm just running two miles until the next water break. When I get there and am refreshed, I take on another two and possible take a gel to help increase my energy. This has been a real problem on days like Saturday. After hills like the one I just mentioned, I tend to sit on a stump sipping my Gatorade and taking a break. During the marathon, that's not an option.

I will probably break a few times for my 20-mile training day — I have to. It's so long, it's probably impossible for me to take it all in one gulp. I think once I finish this grueling day and throttle back to shorter runs. I may try to scale back my break times. During the marathon, there being no stumps to sit on, I will probably have to get by with an occasional stroll through a water stop or a light jog.

Anyways, I did take pictures as I promised. I may share some more next week. I can't believe how good I looked before taking on the day! It's amazing how much eighteen miles takes out of you.

But, I can honestly say, it was worth it.

The saga that was Anna Nicole Simpson's life doesn't seem to have been snuffed like a candle in the wind. Despite rising to that glorious centerfold spread in the sky, various lovers, family members and diabetic lawyers have positioned themselves in an all out brawl over who's going to get her body.

It's pathetic:

Emotional judge rules on Smith's body
CNN

MIAMI, Florida — Custody of the body of former centerfold Anna Nicole Smith was awarded today to the guardian for her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, by Broward Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin.

Seidlin directed the guardian — Richard Milstein — to consult with Howard K. Stern, Smith's partner and lawyer at the time of her death; Larry Birkhead, Smith's former boyfriend; and Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, about burial plans.

Smith died February 8 in a Florida hotel, but the cause is still unknown.

Shortly after the ruling, it appeared all the parties had agreed to a burial in the Bahamas.

Thursday's ruling capped several days of unusual courtroom proceedings that touched on child custody and paternity, though the issue at hand was limited to the disposition of Smith's body. Some called the proceedings a circus.

Before ruling, Seidlin told the parties in the case, "I feel for you, I absolutely feel for you."

"I've reviewed absolutely everything. I've suffered with this," Seidlin said.

He addressed Smith's mother several times as "mama" and told her and the others he was trying to reach an equitable decision.

I think it's pretty sad that these grown adults can't come to a consensus on the wishes of the departed. I think it's pretty clear she cared very deeply for her son, Daniel Smith, and wanted to be buried in the Bahamas with him. I don't know why this idiot judge let her estranged mother spend more than 2 seconds in that courtroom. It's perfectly clear she's only after a slice of the silicone...err, money.

I truly hope the judgment means Smith's body will be buried next to her son. I'm sure that's what she would have wanted.

But on a lighter note, we really do have more to look forward to from Anna Nicole Smith. Even in death, she never ceases to amaze.

Meanwhile I have a huge itch to go watch the Anna Nicole Smith Show. Anna! Anna! Anna! Anna! Anna Nicole!

As the credits rolled after the documentary film Jesus Camp and the raised eyebrow on my face began to dip south, I started to realized the fundamental flaw in characterizing the film as a documentary. This film is a certified horror movie. Scariest thing I've seen all year.

The documentary, by directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, chronicles only a very thin slice of evangelical Christians in the United States. Most of the film focuses on the children's ministry of one Becky Fischer, who actively evangelizes to children and encourages them to spread the gospel amongst their family, friends and community.

The scene of the film is rather horrific, the number one worst day of the Bush presidency: Sandra Day O'Conner's announcement that she is stepping down from the Supreme Court. The stage is set for what evangelical Christians consider paramount to their agenda of re-establishing a Christian government in the United States. The cameras then descend on one of Fischer's children's conferences where kids are indoctrinated with the Christian faith.

What's really horrific about this film is the extent that these poor children have been completely mind-warped by this twisted woman. The film revolves around a boy and a girl, Levi and Rachel, who actively press strangers about the Christian fate, even asking one man, "If you died right now, where do you think you'll go?" At parts in the film, the kids are even encouraged to speak in tongues as adults press their hands on them to encourage the "holy spirit."

I don't know where to start with this movie. It's an excellent documentary and I think the filmmakers were very fair to Fischer and her cause. Even though she has been forced to shut down the "Kids on Fire" summer camp due to negative reaction to the film, she herself has stopped short to condemn the film. She feels the film helps communicate her message of faith and our children to the world. I couldn't agree with her more, I'm getting her message loud and clear.

She begins the film watching some of the filmmakers raw footage and remarks, "Liberals must be shaking in their boots when they see this!" I wouldn't label myself a "liberal," though I was shaking, but not because of my fear of the rising tide of evangelical youth prepared to spread the word or God to the masses. I felt very sorry for these children, who no longer play with action figures and dolls, play in baseball leagues and softball, they are forced to handle more difficult concepts like abortion and culture war in their parent's and pastor's despicable plot to impose their political will on this nation.

I am thankful that I never had to experience the kind of spiritual agony these kids must endure. I can't tell you how many times I could imagine every word through these children's mouths came from someplace else. They are mindless androids, and denying them the right to learn and make their own decisions is, as one commentator in the film suggests, a mortal sin.

If you're dying to see this film, please pick it up. But don't turn the light off...

It's a shame that I've been training for the Georgia marathon for the past 3 months and I haven't written very much about it. I had intended on updating my progress every week as a way to blog about something very interesting to me as well as to coach myself through the training. Sadly, that never materialized, but with just a scant 122 miles left in my trek, better late than never.

Training for a marathon is a very amazing feat. Pulling together all those numbers to come up with 247 miles run since late November is staggering. I had to add up the runs again to be absolutely certain I didn't make a mistake. They really do add up.

When I started training this time around, the marathon itself was cemented firmly in the center of mind. I knew running 4 or 5 miles each training day had a point because it was going to make that first stretch of the marathon that much easier. After a while, though, the marathon drifts in your mind and you begin to take each week for what it is, almost forgetting all these miles amount to something. I'm at the point in my training when that once-sought goal is beginning to rise again.

This Saturday's 16 mile run was not very successful. Granted, I did the run, but I kept thinking during the run that my heart just wasn't in it. I've been working long hours at work with little return. I'm having to accommodate weekly runs by waking up at 3:45 in the morning in order to get them out of the way before I have to go into work. All of this weighs heavy after a while and when you finally get to the one day a week you get off (I was supposed to have the weekend off, but that changed), you realize all you want to do is sleep. I walked a bit of the run because I was just exhausted. I'll make it up next week.

Anyways, back to the larger point: the goal. This past Saturday was the first in a line of the most intense training days I will have before the marathon. The next two runs will be 18 and 20 miles respectively, and they are very important. At mile 8 this past weekend, I sat sipping my Gatorade thinking, "I'm only 2 miles away from 20 miles," meaning only 2 miles from the 10 mile mark, the halfway point for my longest run of the training. I can't wait to get there.

After that point, the marathon itself will begin to crystallize for me. My trip to Atlanta will be a double-edged sword: I get to see my friends and family, but I also have to tackle a 26.2 mile behemoth. I know that by the end of that 20 mile run, I'm going to be ready to comprehend exactly what I need to do to make that goal.

To do better this week, I am going to try to wake up early instead of taking the run later in the afternoon. I think I will have more energy then. Here's hoping! We'll see how it goes...

Next week I'll try and bring my camera to share some sights from Yokohl Valley and maybe even Rocky Hill.

Well, after my first week back, I think I did alright. I'd like to log 4 entries a week, and this week I did three (I don't count the return entry). I'll try to stick to the schedule, but when you are up at 5 in the morning and are likely the first to see an article about senior citizens getting it on and you want to blog about it, there's no better time than now as opposed to saving it for the Thursday news/politics spot.

But one thing I neglected this week was my film/music blog. So here goes...something I should have done a long time ago...

My favorite thing about Netflix is getting the opportunity to see movies that I know I should see. Something told me that The Color Purple was a movie I had to see. Honestly, I had no idea what it was about. For some reason I thought it had either Janet Jackson or Oprah in it (It did indeed have Oprah in the movie, Janet Jackson was in Poetic Justice, which at some point I confused with Dead Poet's Society). After rising slowly to the top of my queue and eventually reaching my mailbox (to the chagrin of my roommate who's more interested in picks like Entourage), it was showtime.

The Color Purple is about two black sisters, Celie and Nettie, who grow up in the South under difficult circumstances. Celie looks after her sister as best she can, and when an older man comes calling for Nettie's hand in marriage, the girl's father (who rapes her often and fathers a child with her) palms off Celie instead. Celie begins her difficult life with Albert and his kids where she is regularly beaten and terrorized. She's expected to clean, cook and even shave her husband. It is a miserable life, and Celie is completely subservient to her husband.

Her one joy comes from her relationship with her sister, who eventually comes to stay with Albert and Celie. Albert, still feeling the urge to bed Nettie, follows her to school one day and attempts to rape her. Nettie refuses and she is driven from his home. Though she promises to write, Albert forbids Celie to even touch the mail and for several years effectively imprisons her in her empty, loveless life.

Celie is portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg, and I have to admit, I have never seen such fine acting as this from Whoopi before. The whole movie you watch the tragic life of Celie and you just wish she could find the strength and confidence other characters, like Sofia, portrayed by Oprah Winfrey, find in their relationships with men. Celie initially finds this defiance toward men as wrong, and tells Sofia's husband, her stepson Harpo, to beat Sofia. Eventually, though, Celie sees in Sofia the woman she needs to be.

I don't want to say too much about the movie because it is truly a great film. It was released in 1985, so a few people might not be inclined to give it a chance. It's really worth it. I may have mentioned that A Very Long Engagement is the only film that has made me cry. That's not true anymore, the ending of The Color Purple brought tears to my eyes, it was absolutely beautiful.

Please check it out. I wish I could say more, it's just been a few months since I've seen it so the scenes aren't fresh in my mind.

And check back this Wednesday (hopefully). I just watched a great horror movie and I'm aching to write something about it. You might have heard of it...Jesus Camp.

Explanation for the insanely early post (early that is for the West Coast): I just finished a great run. I didn't run less than a 9:30 mile, which is really good for me at 4 a.m. in the morning. I jumped out of bed this morning saying to myself, "I have to have a good run today. I'm gonna tear it up." And I did. Success!

And, of course, I saw this, fitting for Valentine's Day:

The Greatest Generation Learns About Great Safe Sex
Corey Kilgannon
New York Times

The sex educators had come to a Queens housing complex to discuss condoms and foreplay and sexually transmitted diseases.

Those assembled were told that their demographic was showing increases in sexual activity and an accompanying rise in promiscuity, homosexuality and H.I.V. infection.

As the teacher, Monique Binford, delved into an unexpurgated discussion covering issues from vaginal dryness to Viagra, one student’s cane clattered to the floor, another student adjusted his hearing aid and a third fidgeted in her orthopedic shoes. By the time Ms. Binford got around to describing a safe sexual act involving Saran Wrap, a woman shouted, “Enough, already!” and the room erupted in laughter.

The sex educators had news for this class of 40 people in their 70s and 80s, just in time for Valentine’s Day: Older folks are friskier than ever, and it’s never too late to learn about safe sex.

Sexually speaking, said Norm Sherman, who organized the presentation, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

This story made me smile. There's nothing I like better than hearing older people get some. There's just something so sweet about that. Just because you're 60 and single doesn't mean you shouldn't get laid.

For the past year, I've been making my way through over 200 episodes of The Golden Girls. In my Netflixing rule book, I pick one series from which I rent one season after the other until I've proceeded through the whole series. The series I watched before The Golden Girls was Sex and the City, and it seemed only appropriate I follow a great show with its obvious antecedent.

I'm winding down season five now and I'm about to tear through six and seven (the final season). It's been a great show, if repetitive as sitcoms usually are. I really felt almost bored in the first three seasons. I thought I'd die if I heard another St. Olaf story from Rose, but by season four and five, you can really tell that the actresses had grown into their characters and were able to bring them to a really fresh and funny place.

I like Dorothy the best, but you have to give it up for Blanche. I watched an episode with commentary this past weekend (the one where Sophia and Dorothy dress up as Sonny and Cher) and actress Rue McClanahan reflected on her character's overwhelming gay following: "I asked a gay young man, 'Why do you like Blanche so much.' And he said, 'Don't you see, it's because we want to be Blanche.' "

Oh, to have as many men as Blanche. I only wish I got that much play when I'm 35...he he he

A hallowed (imitation) piece of film history has been stolen!

Maltese Falcon stolen from San Francisco restaurant
By Michael Kahn
Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO – Where's Sam Spade when you need him?

Thieves have stolen a copy of the bird statue at the heart of “The Maltese Falcon” from the San Francisco restaurant used as a setting for the 1941 film classic starring Humphrey Bogart as the rough-and-tumble private detective.

The small, black figure was swiped over the weekend along with 20 vintage books, including copies of the 1930 Dashiell Hammett novel on which the film is based.

John Konstin, whose restaurant John's Grill bills itself as the “Home of the Maltese Falcon,” said the thief broke into the case displaying the statue over the weekend. Konstin is offering a $25,000 reward for the replica's return.

I'm sorry, but if you saw the movie, they know it's a fake don't they? I mean, it was said the jewel-encrusted falcon was a decoy — a trick to throw off the men who sought the valuable real falcon. The story is even more funny because this particular (knockoff) falcon is a decoy of a decoy.

This restaurant, John's Grill, is supposed to be the hang-out of Sam Spade in the novel The Maltese Falcon. Whoever stole the bird should return it. There's gotta be some Sam Spade curse on it or something, and that's not the stuff dreams are made of...

Hooray! I'm not dead yet! But I did need to take a lengthy vacation. My computer had a nice time getting it's brain replaced in Tennessee. I, on the other hand, wallowed on my roommate's computer playing Sextris, watching films like My Own Private Idaho and To Kill A Mockingbird and listening to albums like Nada Surf's Proximity Effect and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. You have no idea how much blog fodder I've had to give up in the past month. I mean, Anna Nicole Smith died! When will I ever get to blog about something that huge again?

Anyways, I am really sorry I have been so scarce. I had no idea that it would be such a big deal, I actually heard from people saying they were wondering why I had stopped blogging. And it wasn't the usual suspects.

Well, I've come up with a personal goal for the year (or at least the next three months). I am aiming for four updates a week, each on different subjects, and they will go as follows:

• Monday, marathon/personal blog: I had planned on writing about my progress in training for the Georgia Marathon but that just kind of sputtered right out of the gate. I'm still trying to remember to bring my camera to such exotic locales as Yokohl Valley and Rocky Hill so that I can share the sights and scene of my training experience. Just so you know, I'm progressing very well, and despite skipping this last weekend to accommodate my roommate's birthday rampage, I am certain reaching my goal of a 4:30 marathon is within my reach.
• Wednesday, movie/music blog: There have been a few films I have seen in the past three months that are certainly worth sharing. If I haven't seen anything good recently, I may reach back for some of those picks or I may begin to feature some of my less favored movie picks. Anyone up for a screening of Gigli (like I would Netflix something like that)? Also, I'd like to blog about some albums I'm listening to, so when appropriate, you'll hear the music.
• Thursday, politics/news blog: Depending on what's going on, I may pick an obscure story of the week to highlight or perhaps follow up on some obscure appropriations bill in the House. Someone's got to protect the Pentagon's right to relegate our liberal, San Francisco-values speaker to her connecting flight in Denver. This is when I'll do it.
• Friday, news/California blog: On this day, I'll feature the story of the week. Odds are, it will probably be local. For this week, I'm inclined to the (non) story of this girl who was missing for a few hours on Sunday that had webgoers at the Visalia Times-Delta Web site on the edge of their seats. Someone has to bring these stories to light because no matter how many Drudge tips I send, I'm dead to him.

But I'll start all that tomorrow. For now, I have to reformat my hard drive because despite sending my computer to get a new motherboard because the AC adapter was for some reason charging the battery intermittently, I somehow wound up with a bad hard drive. Wow...and something about a bad CD/DVD-ROM too...what the hell?

A bit of advice: Don't hand your computer to strange postmen. You'll end up regretting it.

Later