Randomisity

Oscars: For the first time in a long time I didn't watch the Academy Awards. I was out, and didn't get home until 9:30ish, and turned them on for only a few minutes before going to bed. Seems alot of people did this, as it had its lowest ratings in forever. However, most of the films and people that I wanted to win did win, so it was all good in the end.

The Ballad of Love and Hate: The Christmas CD that I force on friends every year as a cheap (yet thoughtful) holiday gift was not my own idea, but one I stole from my friend Andy down in Texas. I got his version of said gift in the mail a few weeks ago, and The Ballad of Love and Hate by the Avett Brothers is my favorite song on it. I'm not too familiar with their music, though I've seen them live a time or two. Both times were in a music festival sort of setting, where they played a short set. Both times also, though fiercely talented, they played loud, fast, and more than a little drunk (or drugged, possibly both). It was the musical equivalent of a runaway train - I was just waiting for some sort of spectacular crash. So it was to my amazement that they could produce such a tender, beautiful song such as this - one of the better analogies of unconditional love that you're likely to hear. I'm jealous it wasn't on my cd.

Joy: The best news of 2008 thus far. Why have I not heard of this before now?

Patience: I believe that God is trying to teach me patience. That is fine, I just wish He would hurry up and get the lesson over with.

Word of the Day: Bunghole

Posted in the Flickr are some pictures from our Tims Ford "Cabining" weekend. Fun, relaxing weekend, featuring hiking, bluegrass, and a new appreciation for the word "bunghole". Link's to the right.

P.S. Though Shawn Colvin was truly frightening, tonight's real Lost was far superior to dream Lost. One of my favorite twist endings yet, featuring my favorite Lost character. Perhaps he isn't so evil after all? No, he probably is.

Last Night's Dream

Sometimes I am just a spectator in my dreams, as last night when I was basically just watching an episode of Lost, though a strange episode:

The scene is a phone conversation between the leader of the castaways, played here by George Clooney, and the leader of The Others, played here by Shawn Colvin. Apparently, I was coming in on the tail end of the scene. Shawn and the rest of the Others are planning a massive attack to wipe out the castaways, and George is begging her to spare them.
"Please," George begs Shawn, "Please, just spare the Siberian Huskies. Can you do that?"
The shot cuts to Shawn, who pauses, and then, in a way-beyond-creepy voice, hisses: "No!", and hangs up on him.
The next shot is of her doing some strange chant/dance, I assume to prepare for the attack. The camera then cuts back to George, who is dribbling a basketball in his kitchen, for some unknown reason. Then I woke up.

Woo-Hoo!

Training update for the (maybe) marathon:

Yesterday I ran 14 miles in 2 hours, ten minutes. This translates into about a 9 minute, 20 second per mile pace. This makes me happy because not only is it the furthest I've ever run, but by far the best pace, knocking nearly 7 minutes off of last year's half-marathon time. Yesterday was a perfect day for outdoor running. I basically have a loop that starts out at Belmont, goes up Music Row to the roundabout and then to West End, down past Vandy, down Murphy Rd through Sylvan Park, back to West End past St. Thomas to Woodmont, then through some backroads to Green Hills Mall, more backroads over to Lipscomb, then back up Belmont. The plan is to each time add a little extra mileage onto the loop with the weekly big-run. If I can keep this up then maybe-marathon might move up to probably-marathon.

The supercell thunderstorm started in northern Mississippi, and then marched in a straight line, pretty much from southwest to northeast. Amazingly, it held together for over 300 miles, from northern Mississippi, through Tennessee, across Nashville, and finally into southern Kentucky, dropping tornadoes off and on along the way. Though there was alot of damage southwest of Nashville, and massive damage (and several fatalities) northeast of town, for whatever reason the tornadoes stayed in the clouds as the storm passed over downtown.

Of course, being the idiot that I am, I'm outside watching the storm approach while listening to the newscast through the open front door. This is a really crappy picture that I took from the front porch of my house as the storm passed by. On the enlarged view, if you look closely (and use your imagination a bit), you can see the cloud coming down in a v-shape (just behind and to the left of the smokestack), which I took to be the wall cloud coming across downtown. Fortunately for myself and the others living in the city, not to mention the 14,000 people downtown in the arena for the Preds game, the fact that the tornadoes stayed aloft are a huge blessing. For those outside of town who have lost family (at last count, 31 dead in Tennessee alone) and property, God bless and you're in my prayers.