Pumpkin Masterpiece

We have an exquisite pumpkin for this Halloween. Meg simply can't do simple things, everything she touches is always elaborate. Except me, of course. But hey, every Halloween needs a Monster. Booo!!!

Farewell, cable TV

No, I’m not predicting the doom of the cable in general, this is personal.

Meg and I recently talked about our cable TV, and we couldn’t remember when was the last time we watched it. It certainly wasn’t this month, nor the previous one for that matter. Which meant that we are paying monthly fee for nothing. May as well throw money through the window. With so many shows being available online, there is no reason for paying for lousy choice riddled with commercials. So, I made the phone call. I went through automated options, then waited 25 minutes for a live representative to come on line. But, I had the ulterior motive: this was the last time I deal with Rogers cable. Finally, we were cable-free. Well, almost. Only when I asked to cancel the service, was I informed that Rogers requires 30-days notice. It could have been squeezed somewhere in the fine print, but I’ve never heard of it. No matter, no matter. I will pay for another month of not-watching cable, to be rid of it forever. It’s a sweet feeling of freedom.

As for Rogers cable, and the likes, all I can think is: those who fail to modernize, will fail. The days when they could bundle whatever they want and force you to pay for it are over, replaced by on-demand, personalized choices. I’m turning to iTunes movie rental, and considering Netflix, though I don’t like monthly subscription, now that I finally freed us from it.

Haircut on a foggy day

It may seem the two have nothing in common--Meg's haircut and a foggy day--but they both happened on the same day, so they belong to the same blog post.

I'm not quite sure if this is fog, or a cloud dropped too low. Whatever it is, it made the day gloomy and grey.

Angelology

by Danielle Trussoni

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Right, let’s blame the fallen angels and their children – the nephilim – for all human evil: greed, corruption, wars and everything in between. I am a huge fan of fiction, and I love different and sometimes fantastic ideas, but angels? And humans fighting angels? C’mon!

There was some good work in character development, some elements of searching for clues, but for me it was all destroyed with utterly incomprehensible idea of angels among us. Sorry for my incredulity – I’m simply unable to believe.

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Toronto Goodlife Half-marathon

That's me on the right, sprinting through
the finish line.

 I ran the Toronto Goodlife half-marathon today. When I ran it in 2008, it was my first real race, and it remained in such a nice memory that I simply had to run it again. It comes only 3 weeks before the New York City marathon, and I’m happy to boast that I’m in full training and pretty much on target, ready for the world biggest marathon.

Although much smaller than the Scotiabank Waterfront Toronto marathon in September, this one had much nicer medals – this year they are even curved, resembling the Vancouver Olympics medals, as you can see in the pictures.

I’m very happy with my race – finished with the chip time of 1hr 28min 7sec. You can see the map and my pace splits. Altogether, out of 5,000+ half-marathoners, I placed 101st; I’m 90th in men’s competition and 13th in my age group (45-49). Although I ran faster last year (15 sec faster), this time I felt full of energy and wasn’t exhausted after the race. After disastrous spring when I struggled with the hamstring injury, this finally looks like the good old me again.

As for the marathon – I wish Torontonians were more cheerful. There was only a handful of people cheering on, the whole scene was slightly pathetic. I’m not sure who is to blame – the town, which doesn’t promote the marathon, but rather works against it, because the drivers complain about the road closures. Or the organizers, who did a poor promotion job and, instead of finding content and reason for people to come out—like live music and other performances along the route—they looked as if trying to stay under the radar and not agitate the complainers. I believe, if most of the town embraces the race, as it is during the big marathons in Boston, Chicago, NYC, etc., no one would dare to complain about the road closure. As far as I know, nobody complains about the closures for the Gay Pride Parade in June. But, I’m afraid I’m wishing for impossible—Torontonians never fail to justify what the rest of the country think about them, and it’s not at all positive. Today, I was leaning that way too.

Team in Training

Meg and I went for the informational meeting yesterday with Team in Training, an organization which trains ordinary people to do extraordinary things (sorry for the pun): run marathons and raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was a good meeting. As a charity organization, TiT has guaranteed spots in some big world marathons, which are really hard to get into. The problem is – they pick the events and set the fundraising goal for a member to be eligible to run in those events. For example, they have a marathon in Rome, Italy, (a mouthwatering race) planned for March 2011, and a local ‘Round the Bay race in Hamilton, Ontario.

In order to qualify for Rome, I have to fundraise $6,000. Or, $1,700 for Hamilton.

I really suck in fundraising. I suck in asking people for money, even when it’s for myself. I’m just bad, I’d rather pay it myself, than have to ask for money from someone else. That’s why I’m not in sales.

Therefore Team in Training is not for me, for two reasons: I’m too lousy a fundraiser, and too good a runner. Let me explain, before you judge this brazen statement. I doubt that I can raise $6,000 for Rome. It just goes against my character. And, I can register for Around the Bay race for $75, without having to beg people to donate. As for the second statement – TiT focuses on the beginners. They function more like a support group, such as weight-watchers, than like an athletic training group. I have been a beginner, three years ago.

True, they have some really fast runners, but the thing is – you train alone, and go for a group run on the weekend. The group run is in midtown Toronto. Alternatively, you could try to find a runner-mentor closer to your neighborhood.

To sum up – I won’t get the benefit of a good training with a group, save for once a week on a long run, which I prefer to do alone anyway, because it’s so difficult to find a running partner with the same speed. I won’t get to choose the races the organization can get me into. And, I’d have to break my own character and go out there to find money. A lot of money.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think TiT is a great way to go about it if you’re new to running and need a support group to keep you going. For me – I don’t think so. And Meg – well, I think I can train her just as efficiently, or better. She could have a benefit of her own, personal trainer, the one she can curse at when it gets hard.

Dog Boy

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Don’t expect the Disneyfied version of the urban “Jungle Book.” This is a shocking and horrifyingly believable story of an abandoned boy, rescued from the Russian winter and brought up by a pack of feral dogs. He survives with his new “family” through the many challenges imposed on them by the weather, society, gangs of homeless, rival packs of dogs, and authorities – police and medical crews. There are a few positive characters sympathetic to the dog boy, but mostly there are dangers, which he survives and takes in stride, with a dog-like resilience.

Also, heed my advice—don’t let your guard down. Every time I relaxed carried by the story, something terrible happened, something at the same time inconceivable and frighteningly logical from the perspective of pure survival. I can’t remember if ever a novel shook me to the core so many times during the course of the story, until the very end. Fortunately, there is a hint of hope throughout, and all is not doom and gloom. A fascinating story!

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Photos: The Snow Queen

Sometimes a picture happens by itself, we are only its instruments. As I was playing with a new camera, Meg walked through the door and this picture captured her in the soft snowy tones of the room. Unintentional art.

Photos: Sunday in Unionville

It's Thanksgiving weekend, but for some reason there was Oktoberfest in Unionville, sort of. There was no beer and sausages with sauerkraut, but there were bands playing polkas and other Oktoberfest evergreens.

The day was made for a stroll up and down Main Street Unionville. Dodging cars and tourists included as an adventure game.

Klaus was there too, with his "street-organ" and his monkey puppet.

What are the friends for, if not to give you shade when your hands are occupied?

Destiny

I found this nice short story about destiny on Paulo Coelho's blog. It reminds me of a bad Croatian joke that sometimes rings so true:

A sorcerer approaches a peasant working on his farm and asks him for a glass of water. The peasant offers him a glass of wine instead. Pleasantly surprised, the sorcerer offers to fulfill to the peasant one wish.

"You can wish anything you want," the sorcerer said, "but there's one condition. Whatever you wish for, your neighbor will get twice as much."

The peasant thought for a long while, and finally said: " Take out one of my eyes!"

Photos: Sunset

It's amazing how Mother Nature sometimes extinguishes a day in such an explosion of colors, only to leave us in darkness. Tonight was one such moment, and I was lucky enough to have my camera to record it. A sunset in Markham.