I did beat my 10K PR...

I came in at 1:01 10. This shaved 1 minute and 7 seconds off of the previous PR. The only thing is, that I think I would have been down around 57-58 minutes, but starting around mile 3.5 it took probably 15+ minutes to do the next mile through mud. Sadly, I do not have a falling in mud story. Oh well. I look forward to breaking this PR in the future. It looks like I did significantly better percentile wise. I finished 583 out of 1102 overall and 59 out of 88 in my division. Iceman beat me again, but not by as much.

Dear Verizon,

I am sure your Fios service is very good. I appreciate your sincerely desiring me to switch from my cable provider to you. I am sure you want me to only have the best service possible for my money. In regards to your sending me the same offer via the United States Postal Service, I think it would be a better use of your money to not send quite so many copies. I know that the post service has been struggling, and I appreciate your trying to help them employ more postmen. Your advertising strategy does not make much sense to me.
1. If I do not accept an offer sent to me on Monday, then I will probably not accept an offer sent on Wednesday. Also, I will probably still not accept the offer the following week. Maybe if you waited a few months you would have more luck.
2. You must think I have cable, or you would not care about advertising to me so much. You would be correct. As you may have already figured out, this means that I often see your TV commercials giving me the same offer.
3. You probably think I have internet as well. You would again be correct. Which means I have already seen your web advertisment offering me the same deal.

In light of this, I think you might reconsider your frequency in which you mail advertisements. You could probably offer a better deal on Fios if you did. Also, you might save some trees.

Sometimes when I get really bored...

I play this game Hedgehog Launch. Truthfully I have not played in a while. The object of the game is to build a slingshot that is able to launch a hedgehog onto space. For some reason I find the concept of this to be amusing.

2 more days until the Race To Register 10K. I would like to break the 1 hour mark. I think that I will, and will finish the race in ~58 minutes. Then I will sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh!!!!!
Sometimes I wonder what I could possibly be thinking in signing up for a marathon, but once I pay for it I am commited. Oh... I still have all of my Elite Eight teams in the tournament.

Another pointless poll closed

Do You prefer...
French Toast 2 (28%)
Pancakes 1 (14%)
Waffles 1 (14%)
Eggs 1 (14%)
T-Bone Steak at the Waffle House 2 (28%)

Ok. Seriously. Who were the two people who have eaten a T-Bone at the Waffle House? I am considering going with you and buying you one so that I can watch you eat it while I enjoy a waffle and hopefully crispy but probably soggy bacon. Let me know.

I figured out that Montclair is ~3.3 miles from end to end. So a loop that is sidewalk out and back in should be a good moderate length loop. I have decided that I would like to run on every street in Montclair, but I will have to do some of it in the day.

Confirmation of unluckiness...

I am so unlucky, that the day after I blog about being unlucky I immediately beat my wife at cards and have the best two days of a March Madness bracket ever for me. I mean come on... I don't even get to say that I blogged correctly about it. (shaking head)

This has become more on my mind while running

For some reason running makes me compare my life to a race. Can't figure it out...

1 Corinthians 9: 24-25
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

The thing I have thought of a lot lately with this idea is how much easier it is to run when you run with someone else. As a leader in a church itseems to me you have two roles. 1. Coach: Encouraging others on to do good works and live more faithful lives. 2. Teammate: Joining with others in serving the Lord. A part of recognizing that you are aso a teammate is realizing that you also need encouragement from the rest of the church.

Not that anyone cares...

So far I have gotten 10 out of 12 NCAA picks correct. Depending on how the rest of the day goes, this might be my best NCAA tournament day in my whole life. Since I live in metro DC... Go Terrapins!

I am one of the unluckiest card players ever

Amanda and I often play cards before bed. More often than not she wins when I give her just the card she needs. Just now I put a card down and she says, "I was just thinking about that card." She wins probably 70% of the time. Also, once when I was in high school I played poker with friends and was the ONLY one to lose money. Mind you I only lost like $20, but still this is the story of my life. I can go months and not get a good hand. I lost again tonight at Gin Rummy. Oh well. Cards anyone?

I have won bingo multiple times on cruise ships. Also, I have been known to win raffles at work sometimes. For me though it is either win big or get nothing. I never win a little raffle. I am also terrible at picking winners of games. I put in a bracket for fun for march madness just to see how I do. I picked Louisville to win. Sorry Cardinal fans... you now have 0f a championship.

So I am unlucky at cards and picking games. Sign me up for Vegas... Or maybe a better bet is charity bingo.

And the winner is...

Who would you prefer to spend a day?
Elijah 2 (28%)
Samuel 1 (14%)
Daniel 2 (28%)
Isaiah 2 (28%)
Ezekiel 0 (0%)

It's a tie. I like Simon Cowell will break the tie. So the winner is Elijah.

The lack of votes on the poll may mean I do not post any polls for a while. Either that or I will make them even more "interesting". So we will try a new poll.

Number days

As we are about to have our second Friday the 13th of the year followed by pi day, I decided to celebrate another day later this year.

My idea was to celebrate "Largest Prime of the Year Day". Unfortunately it turned out this follows on none other than 12/31. 1231 is a prime. Clearly I couldn't pick that day. People will think I am a big nerd for celebrating that instead of New Years Eve. And the smallest prime is clearly the next day 1/1 (11). So I have decided this year to celebrate "Largest Prime that is not the Eve of a National Holiday Day". Turns out this falls on 12/29.

To all of you who are paraskavedekatriaphobic. I wish you well tomorrow. You should stay in bed.

Don't forget

Just one more day to vote for who you would like to spend a day with.

Also, I like Danny on American Idol.

After my run last night the lyrics to "Take My Life and Let It Be" have been in my head. Especially the following.

Take my will and make it Thine.
It shall be no longer mine
Take my heart it is thine own
It shall be thy royal throne

Why read the Old Testament?

Many people look at the Old Testament as just a long lost of do's and don'ts. God telling the Israelites to do (or not do) something, and them not listening, then he punishes them. This happens over and over again.

What did Jesus get from reading these scriptures? Did he view them as just a list of rules?

Jesus looked at the scriptures as not just a list of rules. He looked at the lives of the people in the scriptures to better understand the attributes of God. Example of this is Matthew 12. Jesus gives two examples from the scriptures to help explain the intentions of God in regards to the sabbath. He also uses one part of the scriptures to help explain another. Example is when he quotes, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus also used the scriptures to show how they pointed to himself.

So I say we should read the Old Testament with a look at how the way people lived helps explains the attributes of God. Also we should read the Old Testament with an eye towards how it points to Jesus. We should learn from the Old Testament in similar ways to how Jesus did.

How to keep running when your partner gets injured...

You have to get another person to run with. So today I ran the 7.2 mile scenic loop with Stu Fugler. It was one of the warmer temperatures that I have run in of late. The only warmer time being in San Diego. In truth, though I was only in a thin running shirt, I actually began to get warm near the end of the run. I have commented lately that I need to lose some weight. I have not gone down much at all. So I started my endeavour by going to Cracker Barrel immediately upon finishing the run and having pancaes, eggs, and bacon. Oh well. I think I will now go eat a piece of cake... seriously.

If only a camera followed me around...

I was on quite a roll. It was a bit warmer outside so I decided to do a different loop than I do on cold nights. I ran great down Waterway. I ran well down Golf Club. I managed to not slip on some pretty slippery ground. I was preparing to go up the hill on Dolphin to start the final stretch home. I felt like I had made good time. When I notice myself making a vocal "oogh", and come to a complete stop very quickly. I had run right into a chain that was meant to keep cars out of the parking lot. It hit me right about waste level. I gathered myself up. Made sure I didn't seem too hurt, and kept going. I finished the run in 32 minutes which is at least 2 minutes faster than I had run it previously and it may have been 4 minutes faster. I think maybe next time I will step over it before running into it.

Tonight I ran with an IPOD

Now I know that running with an IPOD at 1030 pm on the street is probably not the smartest of maneuvers. I also know that wearing a black jacket when I ran did not help make it safer, but it did make it warmer. I was cruising though. I was able to run so much faster and I definitely did not notice myself getting as tired. I think I ran the ~3 miles between 2-3 minutes faster then I have run it previously. Too bad you are not supposed to wear IPODS in a race.

BTW. I am now reading through the book of Matthew after finishing 1 Samuel. I never quite finished Ezekiel. I need to go back to it.

Some more great odd news headlines

It's a sad state of affairs.
Distracted kindergarteners turn to gambling
I would love some teacher's opinions on this. Is this a problem in your classrooms? I could believe a headline that was about distracted college students gamble online in class.

Look out if you drive a green Ford Escort.
Ore. arsonist targets 1990s green Ford Escorts
I knew a guy who drove a red escort in high school. If this ever starts happening to red escorts, then I think I could pinpont the culprit.

Leave God a message at his Dutch answering service
Can you leave messages in English?

Man robs gas station, then tells clerk he's sorry
Does this count as repentance?

It's time to celebrate

People Make Me Laugh

Tomorrow we celebrate. This reminds me of a joke. A math joke. Sort of.

Q: What did the baby acorn say when he grew up?

A: Geometry

Are you hungry?

Matthew 4:4
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'

Matthew 5:6
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

The first verse comes when Satan first tempts Jesus. I found it interesting that the very Word of God would respond in this way.

What are we hungry? What do we thirst? Let us not live on just bread or just water. Let us be filled with the righteousness of God.