LOTI 1, Ted 0

I ditched my silly swimming efforts a few weeks ago and recently switched to running outside. Deb, who is a life-long runner, and the nice weather are to blame. I have no major goals; no aims to complete a marathon or half-marathon or 10k or 5K or 3k. I'm in it for the physical and mental agony health, and I'd someday like to run alongside Deb and be able to chat without passing out. So, I suppose that's a goal.

I'm only four runs into the spring (who's counting, though, really?), and I got a little cocky on Monday night. I should have known better. I almost didn't go because I left my iPod at work earlier in the day, and music helps me to drown out the "left, right, left, right, let's stop, want to stop? left, right, left, right" thoughts in my head. But I hiked up my short-shorts and hit the pavement sans tunes.

A few blocks into the run, I was feeling really good. My intended path called for me to take on a small section of Lake of the Isles (LOTI) before turning tail back towards my apartment. But a short time before reaching the LOTI trails, RunnerTed convinced SensibleTed to try and tame the lake. Not even another inner-voice which sounded a lot like Burgess Meredith (circa "Rocky") could stop me (Yer not ready, kid! She'll eat-cha alive!)

LOTI: 2.60m walking, 2.97m biking
to LOTI: around 1.1m

Well, as you can tell by the headline, the bitch won. By my guesstimate, I made it about 1.8-2.0 miles around before succumbing to fatigue. I walked for six or seven minutes and then ran the rest of the way around the lake and back to home base. So, I probably ran four (or a little over) of the 4.8 miles. Not bad. But not the whole thing.

I'm now licking my wounds and will have to work my way back up the running ladder. I'll fight some lesser contenders, build up my moxie, and hope for another shot at LOTI. So, yeah, maybe I do actually have running goals.

The glory days

The potential return of a Tecmo Bowl game got me thinking about video games again. It doesn’t take much. I was addicted to video games for much of my life and am still drawn to my digital mistress from time to time. However, I believe many people of my generation long for the simplicity of the old days. Games turned more and more complex and “realistic” as technology advanced/improved. I, for one, didn’t need the changes. The best, most enjoyable games I’ve ever played were far from realistic.

Best football game: Tecmo Super Bowl
Pros: Nearly everything, Wayne Haddix
Cons: Not good for player vs. player


Best basketball game: NBA Jam
Pros: Create players, outstanding player vs. player, Grandpa
Cons: Dino Radja


Best baseball game: Baseball Stars
(narrowly edges out Baseball and Baseball Simulator 1.000)
Pros: Create Players, When It Is., prestige
Cons: Baseball Stars 2


Best hockey game: NHL ‘94
(beats out Nintendo Hockey)
--Okay, so this one breaks my “realistic” argument, sort of.


Best other sports game: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out
Pros: Little Mac, Doc Louis

Cons: Mike Tyson

Best non-sports games:
1) The Legend of Zelda
2) Super Mario Bros.
3) Tetris
4) Pitfall!

Zelda was more complex than any sports game, but my bet is that the newer versions were/are not as fun as the original despite all the technology upgrades.

I’m not sure that I have a point here…other than you can take your Wii and your X-Box 360 and your Halo and shove it. Or shove them. Give me pixels and the basketball players with big heads and the running backs who can’t be stopped.

Duh

Despite having a G-Mail account, I've stupidly stuck with my Yahoo e-mail in recent years. Laziness. That's my only reason. Anyway, my path to that mail runs through the Yahoo! homepage, which often suckers me into clicking on stupid stories. Such as:

"Summer Drink Shockers!
These fat-filled frozen drinks will sink your diet."

I'm not on a diet, but I'm curious. Here's the list:
1) Krispy Kreme - Mocha Dream Chiller
2) Dairy Queen - Peanut Butter Malt
3) Starbucks - Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Crème with Whipped Cream
4) Fatburger - Chocolate Ice Cream Shake
5) Dunkin' Donuts - Vanilla Bean Coolatta

My question: Are there actually people who are on diets yet also going to Fatburger, ordering a chocolate shake, and thinking that it's low in calories?

And are they shocked - shocked! - to see this list? Dunkin' Donuts? Dairy Queen? Krispy Kreme? Say it ain't so!

Barry, etc.

Thanks to a link on Bauschy.com, I ran into this graph about baseball's all-time home run hitters. At some point within the next month or two, Barry Bonds will hit career homers #755 and #756, which will tie and break the all-time career record currently held by Hank Aaron. I was a Bonds fan back when he weighed a little less and was leading the Pirates to pennants. Now? I'd rather not see him break Aaron's record (for obvious, oft-talked about reasons), but it's going to happen. And I'll probably talk about it more as Barry closes in on the mark.

That graph got me to looking at some numbers, namely where the various sluggers sat at the age of 30. Here are the digits:

Bonds: 275 (or right around that number)
Aaron: 342
Babe Ruth: 284
Alex Rodriguez: 451
Ken Griffey: 398
Andruw Jones: 345

Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, who is 27, is on pace for about 375 homers by the time he reaches 30.

Bonds' numbers jumped noticably from age 35 and on. From 30-39, Barry jacked 444 home runs. Let's put that into perspective. In that 10-year span, Bonds hit more home runs than all but 33 major league baseball players have piled up over their entire career.

Aaron was much more consistent. He smacked 329 homers from ages 21-29 and 371 homers from ages 30-39. Ruth's numbers accelerated from ages 31-36, when he averaged over 50 homers per year.

What's my point? I'm not quite sure any more, but I think I began this post to point out that A-Rod, Pujols and Jones could all surpass Bonds if their 30s go as well as Barry's or Babe's did.

Does this ever work?

Thanks to my sister, Margaret, I became hooked on Henning Mankell over the past year. He is a Swedish author who mainly writes detective fiction (but is branching out), and his lead character over the years is Kurt Wallander. I finished "Before the Frost" over the weekend (my ninth Mankell book, I believe), and the timing was perfect for a couple reasons. One, I was in Chicago for Marg's graduation. Two, "Before the Frost" basically ends on September 11, 2001, and my next read (Thomas Friedman's "Longitudes and Attitudes") is based around that date. More on that work in a future post.

Anyway, I did a quick search this morning and found that Wallander has made the transition to the TV screen. I'm intrigued but skeptical.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any times when a big screen movie or TV movie based on a novel lived up to my reading of said writing. Wait...let me add to that. I can't recall a time when a film based on a novel that I enjoyed lived up to my expectations and imagination.

Anyone? Does this ever work?

More good news

Tim has started his own blog, titled "Purple Monkey Dishwasher."
I'll let you google the phrase to figure it out.

News

First, let me apologize for not posting very often recently. I might not feel quite so bad if the previous post wasn't such a downer.

I can make it up to at least three of you. Ben, Tim and Wally...this news may excite you.

Tecmo Bowl is coming back.

I'm both unbelievably excited and sadly wary. Will they stick to the standards of the game we all knew and loved? Meaning, will L.T. basically be unstoppable like Bo Jackson was? Will Tim be able to pass for 12,000 yards with Peyton Manning by week 10? Will QB Bills still be QB Bills? Will there be a hidden Wayne Haddix character that we can unlock?

Chances are, the new version will fall short of expectations. How could it not? Chances are, the new version will be the reason I spend 100s of dollars to buy some gaming system after not having one for nearly a decade.

Warm Weather, Bad People

A quick word or three of caution for the city folks. On a positive note, the warm Minnesota weather brings people outdoors and causes us to be footloose and care-free. Sadly, this time of year and those feelings also embolden the ill-intentioned among us. Deb was mugged about a half-block away from my apartment last night. The oh-so-bold attacked two in front and one behind. They punched her two or three times in the face, ripped her shirt, and took her purse and wallet. Good times.

She's fine, relatively speaking. Her jaw hurts a little, she's understandably shaken, she's out $50 and some personal items, and has to make a bunch of phone calls and run around to get new cards and IDs and stuff. But it could have been worse.

This runs the total of people I know who've been mugged from "way too many" to "way, way too many." So, everyone, be safe when you're walking in any city streets this summer.

Awwww...

At the risk of further damaging other people's view of my manliness, I present the following link. Yeah, I'm a big softie.

http://dailypuppy.com/

Softball

I blame my advancing age on the fact that I tweaked my lower back last Wednesday and am still questionable for this Wednesday's contest. It's sad. In honor of my misfortune, I present a Simpson's clip:



You don't know when to quit, do you Saxie-boy?