42 kilometers this week

Phew.

This week was an official start for my running and cycling season. Though I only got 20 or so kilometers by bike – thanks to malfunction in my bike – I managed to run 42 kilometers at ease.

You can follow my progress at the dailymile.com. I do have to say that Asmo’s precence in Dailymile has been a huge motivator and push for my running. By all means there would have been no reason for me to run 42 kilometers this week, especially so late in the week, unless just to get past him in the leader boards. All and all competition is good, because running feels fun again and I gain kilometers easily… one by one.

Let’s see if in future weeks I can keep up the tempo and also get at least 40 kilometers with my bike.

Manga bible!

This is just too cool stuff to be true.

Today was my brother’s son’s confirmation mass and much to my surprise all the young ones got a present from the congregation, a manga style bible:

Too cool.

15 km run today – Asics sneakers and Nike running socks are worth every penny

As discussed previously, I invested into new running shoes – Asic Kayano Gel 15 – and have now had the opportunity to run few times with them. Few days ago I also purchased pair of new running socks – Nike professional running cushioned – and have been thoroughly impressed. Socks have very tight and comfortable fit and keep my feet dry, even though my feet might sweat a bit during a long run. No more blisters or sores in feet!

You can follow my progress in Dailymile: http://www.dailymile.com/people/huima

Today’s run was slow and short – 15 kilomertes run in 6:08 pace. Beautiful weather made me run longer than I originally had planned and to be hones it felt so good that unless I had had prior engagements, I would have run another 7 kilometers just to get the half marathon’s length. Most likely tomorrow will be a day of rest, unless Asmo decides to step up and run again during the weekend.

Breakfast of the champions – jogurt, cottage cheese and muesli

Looks terrible, but tastes great and gives you enough protein to start the day properly.

OM, OM,NOM!

You think you know untill you learn you don’t know

I’ve played badminton on and off for some time in the past – though I never have had anyone to teach me proper technique. Yesterday was the first time ever that I had someone to actually coach and teach proper playing technique – and oh boy did I learn a lot.

It was such an eye opener that we decided to join the club and from now on participate in team coaching once a week. In our case there are 2-4 other players at the same time playing – and coach provides us with the theme for the hour and instructs us with proper technique. Cost of such teaching is something like 10 euros per session, so not much more than the rent is for badminton court for two persons at the same time. Definitely worth the money!

Badminton instructions in Finnish:

http://www.sulkapallo.fi/SSUL/ssulwww.nsf/sp?Open&cid=content4969AF

That’s it – I’ve had it with these monkey fighting snakes on this monday to friday plane

Oh did I laugh out loud.

On other news. My bike is now fixed and soon off to work – driving through Viikki.

Biggest news today in ICT domain – Oracle buys Sun

No doubt today’s biggest news was Oracle’s decision to buy Sun microsystems.

http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp

Oracle. Yes. The mammoth that purchased Bea and huge amount of other competitors.

Oracle. Company that is known for their lock ins.

Oracle. Antithesis for Sun’s open source offering and strategy.

Oracle. Company known for hard sales tactics.

Oracle. Undoubtedly a java giant in business applications.

Looking forward what happens to my favorite Sun applications like Glassfish application server, which can be in a tight squeeze within Oracle’s portfolio. Personally I would like to see Glassfish to survive, as it has been improving tremendously in every release.

Too early to say whether this was a sad day or whether this will mean good things for Java and Sun.

Atlassian starter offer!

http://www.atlassian.com/starter/

Confluence and Jira for 5 dollars for 5 users each.

Amazingly good offer for any small team. Take it.

Only for five days.

Why Pablo Francisco will never be as funny as Bill Hicks?

I just recently watched accidentally Pablo’s Bits and pieces DVD that I had already seen online few years back and instead of feeling joy and laughter I felt nausea. His enterntainment and jokes were really single serve jokes as they did not have really any effect later on – funny voices and good imitation, but no real content, emotion or insight. On the other hand I’ve been listening and watching recordings about the late Bill Hicks and never seem to get enough of his wit and humor – as his prophecies are as contemporary now as they were before. He serves really insightful and funny commentary about the modern society.

It is such a shame that I did not have opportunity to see Hicks’ performances live as even the few recorded DVDs are extremely funny, so funny that I can watch them again and again every now and then. Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor and even Eddie Murphy were dynamite when they performed stand up comedy and DVD’s like Eddie Murphy’s Raw or Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip are amazingly good comedy even today.

Pablo has a long way to get to that level.

Active saturday – gym, stretching and 10 kilometer walk

Today was rather active day for us, starting at noon in the gym with one hour cardio training followed with one hour deep streching and 10 kilometer fast walk in the evening.

I also bought new sneakers – Asics Kayano 15 – for this season and strarted to take them into use. Tomorrow is time for first quick runs – which I am really looking forward. Kayano’s felt immediately my shoes and seem to work well, though my socks seemed to move in the shoes and cause a blister into my heel. Hopefully this is just a minor problem now when I run these shoes in and will not bother me in the future. I already had the unpleasant experience of once buying expensive running shoes that did not fit me well in the long run. Though I have been using size 42 shoes for ages, it seems that these days 43 and half is the best fit.