Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Five years ago I started on a journey that has taken me hundreds of miles, across dirt and pavement, all in the name of finding a cure for blood cancers. Over the course of the next few months I’ll be adding water to that list.

It all started back in 2006 with a desire to get back into running while doing something for a worthy cause. I signed up for a marathon through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. Initially I didn’t have a connection to blood cancer, but it soon became personal. Shortly after I signed up I learned one of my wife’s grandmothers Dorothy Andrews had passed away due to a blood cancer. The other, Barbara Pugsley, was diagnosed during my training and passed away 6 weeks after the marathon. While pounding the pavement for 5 months (over 900 miles!) I raised over $3000 to go toward research to find a cure for blood cancer. If you helped me reach that goal, thank you.

Two years later in 2008 I decided it was time to fundraise again and signed up for the Team in Training hike program. Within the first week I learned that a college friend, Anil Arora, had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Now this was getting really personal. I hiked over 100 miles during the training, culminating in a 13-hour, 16-mile roundtrip hike to the top of Half Dome (4800 ft. elevation change) in Yosemite National Park. I raised over $5000. If you helped me reach that goal, again, thank you.

For the past two years I have continued to contribute my time and passion for hiking to Team in Training as a coach for the hike program. Though I've spared you the requests for donations over the past 3 seasons, I've spent many hours on the trails whipping participants into shape and crafting weekly messages covering various training topics. But I can't complain. It’s a great organization to be involved in and I know the lives of thousands of people affected by blood cancer are all better off for it. Nearly 50% of all cancer drugs approved by the FDA during the past decade were for blood cancers. And they are helping other patients as well. Five of those drugs have been approved for patients with solid tumors and others are being tested for other indications. Survival rates for children with leukemia have improved from 3% 40 years ago to 90% today; Hodgkin lymphoma patient survival rates have more than doubled to 88% since the 1960s. And the survival rate for myeloma patients tripled in past decade.

Here it is almost 2012 and I figure it is time to earn my triple crown with a new event: St. Anthony's triathlon in St. Petersburg, FL. I will be spending next 5 months swimming, biking, running and fundraising in memory of Dorothy and Barbara and in honor of Anil. My goal is to not only cross that finish line 51.5 km later (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run, a.k.a. "olympic distance") with flying colors, but to also beat my fundraising PR from years past. It’s going to take a lot of sweat, discipline, and support and compassion from friends and family like you.

Please help me reach my goal by making a donation today (it's tax deductable!). Whether it's $5, $51.50, or $500, every single penny helps. LLS prides itself in ensuring 75-76% of every dollar contributed goes toward the cause; the vast majority goes to funding research projects happening locally at the University of Michigan. I won’t complain if you send a few words of encouragement my way either.

Thank you.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

As many of you know, I've been running in a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSOs for a while now; since last April to be precise. It's been a rocky road, so to speak. Running in minimalist shoes has made me learn a lot about my feet, legs, and how far I can push them. I've learned the hard way about not ramping up too quickly... from major calf cramps to cuboid syndrome, weak ankles to an apparent metatarsal stress fracture. Despite the pain and injuries, I've found the whole experience liberating. In fact I have a hard time imagining going back to running in traditional running shoes. And I've learned that as long as I don't get so wrapped up in that liberated feeling that I turn a blind eye to warning signs my body may give me, I'll be fine.

Though my KSOs have majorly changed my relationship with running, all has not been wine and roses. By the end of last summer, the liner/insole had started to break down. It manifested itself in causing some chafing on the bottom of my largest toe and the pad on the ball of my foot below the toe. The chafing usually began after about 3 miles to start, but then gradually started getting worse earlier in the runs. Washing the shoes seemed to help for a few weeks worth of runs, though that also got worse over time to the point that it no longer helped even immediately after washing.

It got so bad that on one of my runs through the neighborhood back in July I decided to just take the FiveFingers off and run the last 1/2 mile home completely barefoot. It felt surprisingly great, though I realized when I got home that once again I had let my enthusiasm get the best of me. My feet hadn't built up the proper calluses for running even that short of a distance on the asphalt and I ended up with large blisters on both feet on the top, inner portion of the pads of the balls of my feet. Another lesson learned.

After a few days to let the blisters "cool off", I decided to try the barefoot thing again. This time I was able to do it on a trail on the sandy soil on of western Michigan while on vacation. Since I still had the blisters, I took it slowly at first. I ran 2.2 miles total: the first 1.2 out in the FiveFingers, the last mile back barefoot. I figured the sand would treat my feet better than the asphalt and I was right. The next day I did 2.3 total, with 1.5 of that barefoot. Then 2.55 total, with 2 miles of that barefoot.

Since I've returned home, I've tried to find trails around here to do more barefoot running. It's been harder than I hoped. Three weeks ago I tried the mountain bike trails at Stony Creek Metro Park. I ran about 1.5 miles in and decided to take off the FiveFingers. I made it 1/2 mile barefoot and decided I had had enough. Not so smiley. There's a reason they call it Stony. I finished up with another 1.3 miles back in the FiveFingers.

The next week I tried the North Unit of Bald Mountain State Rec Area. I ran about a mile of the orange loop to a point were I thought it might be good for barefoot. I was able to go about 2.4 miles barefoot, though there were definitely some uncomfortable areas.

Last week I checked out the bike trails on the south side of Bloomer Park. I ran the first 0.7 mile in the FiveFingers and then 3.5 barefoot. That was the most promising trail so far, though again, there were several very uncomfortable sections.

I have yet to have an issue with sharp pointy stuff causing a cut or puncture, which is what most people's primary concern is when they think about barefoot running. However, after each of these barefoot runs I have noticed that the forefoot pads of my feet have been fairly tender afterward, most likely due to minor bruising (no outwardly apparent contusion) from the stony parts of the trails I've encountered. I generally have to wait a few days before I'm comfortable running again.

My search for an ideal barefoot running trail in the area continues. I wasn't able to fit another barefoot excursion into my schedule this weekend, though it's for the best. The past two days became a recovery weekend -- well, if you don't count the 4 hour hike and 2 hours of mowing the lawn! I'm in my third week of Insanity (the second time through! -- that's a story for another post) in addition to my normal runs and rock climbing. I bought a pair of FiveFinger KomodoSports earlier this week from my local Moosejaw and tried them out on Friday. The shoes were fine -- it was great to once again go more than a mile and a half without experiencing any hotspots -- but I totally struggled with the run. I must have over-done it this week.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Potentially. In a round about sort of way. Got your attention, though, huh?

The Team in Training hike team that I coach is having a group fundraiser this Sunday to raise money for blood cancer research. Four flights of three craft beers. Munchies. I'll be there. It would be great to see you there, too. Tickets need to be purchased ahead of time, so please contact me ASAP if you are interested.

Here are the details:

“BEERS OF AMERICA”

Presenting 12 Premium Craft Beers

from across the country!

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21^st

Featuring Dan Bristow, Beer Expert and Tasting Guide

Hosted by The Basement Burger Bar

33316 Grand River, Farmington, 248-957-8179 

Doors Open at 3:30pm-Tasting begins 4:00pm

TICKETS-$35

*Seating is limited-Purchase your tickets early*

^{A FUNDRAISING EVENT}

^{FOR THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY}

 ^{Appetizers, Raffles, Prizes, and a Satisfied Palate Included!!}

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Back when I was a small child, my parents played quite a bit Mannheim Steamroller in the house. In particular, I remember listening to the Fresh Aire series (not this Fresh Air series, though I listen to that quite a bit these days) first on record albums then on cassettes as I played quietly in my room with my Legos (I was about 6 years old at the time). This was long before the series of Christmas albums  out that Mannheim Steamroller is perhaps best known for now. The first four Fresh Aire albums had a seasonal theme. That is, the first was spring, Fresh Aire II's theme was summer, and so on.

I put Fresh Aire IV in the CD player back in December when I needed a break from all of the holiday music, but still wanted to listen to something wintery. As the third track, "Interlude 7" came on, I nearly stopped dead in my tracks.

03_Interlude_7.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Sure, I've listened to the album a number of times since my childhood, but none of that was intentional. Granted, in some ways the similarity was inevitable. The songs were created specifically with a wintery theme in mind. I've never taken piano lessons so most of the bass lines I make up sound like that - playing the octaves to create a fuller sound - to compensate for my inability to come up with adequate chords on the fly (which also explains the dissonant chords, too, now that I think about it...). I've historically had few friends with musical tendencies interested in playing together in a band, so most of my playing is solo anyway. And the song title? It was the 37th recording I've made on my Roland Virtual Studio and a nod to the Dave Matthews Band's tendency to leave some of their songs untitled (e.g. #34, #41).

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Back at the end of the August the server that was hosting brahm.windeler.net went belly up. Something went awry when the server was being moved by a sys admin and the hard drive just decided to give up the ghost. The people that I shared the server with and I are trying to go through a data recovery service, but it's not looking promising.

Though I don't have an exact backup of everything that was on the site, I do have the photos that were published on the site as well as all of the blog content.

I've been exploring my options over the past few months. Do I host my own site again? Do I go with hosted service? How much do I want to pay? What features are available on the various blogging platforms?

Since I was using the windeler.net domain for e-mail, my immediate action was to move the domain over to the free Google Apps to reduce the number of email messages that would otherwise bounce or be directed into the great bit bucket in the ether. I put up a placeholder page using the Sites functionality within the Google Apps framework, but it was obvious from the start that the functionality it provided was very bare bones and not really set up for blogging.

I also investigated using Typepad, as my blog was originally hosted using Movable Type, which is the blogging platform that Typepad uses. Initially the site would hang during the import because I had specified the wrong filetype encoding (what, you expect a common user to be able to tell if the file was encoded as MacRoman or UTF-8?). Once I determined the correct file type, I was able to import my blog posts just fine but was unable to import the corresponding comments. After many tries deleting and re-importing the entries, I gave up. This did not inspire confidence. If the code for importing their own export format was that buggy, I wasn't going to spend any more time with it. Another factor was the fact that the free version was severely limited in customizability (2 themes... neither of which were particularly attractive).

After putting the effort aside for a few months, I decided to try to bring the blog up from the ashes again. I started researching if other people had also had the comment-import problem with Typepad. I didn't come up with much, but did find a lot of pages talking about how to migrate to Wordpress. On a whim, I decided to set up a free account and test the import functionality. I'm pleased to say all the posts and comments were imported intact. And I have to say the functionality that it provides is quite impressive. However, I started looking into what it would take to use a custom domain and found it would cost $12/year to do so. That seemed fairly odd to me, because technically all that should be required is to update the DNS record at my domain registrar to point to the appropriate IP or hostname. Additionally, if I wanted to customize the theme as much as I have in the past, it would require paying an additional $15/year. Blogging isn't worth $27/year to me.

A few people I know have Posterous blogs, so I thought I would investigate that service. I exported my blog entries out of Wordpress and imported them through their import tool. I used that method rather than importing directly from my Movable Type backup file because the import option didn't seem to be able to import from a Movable Type-based site without the site already existing... not helpful when the site has gone bye-bye!

The import went smoothly again. Both posts and comments were added. I also imported two posts that I had written on my very first blog when I went to Malaysia back in 2001 (!) and thought I'd document my travels. I've come across a few hick-ups with the site not behaving the way I thought it should (mostly in relation to editing imported entries before merging them into the blog), but all in all I'm happy so far. Also, it's completely free, I can use a custom domain for no additional charge (the DNS is updating as I write), and the available themes are all fairly attractive.

The one thing that I haven't decided how to tackle is what to do with all of the broken links in the older posts. Any links that referred to other posts within the site or the photos that I hosted on the site point to non-existant items at this point. I may go back and fix them, though the thought of going back through ~270 posts to fix all of that is making me cringe. I'd also need to re-post all of the albums somewhere like Flickr or Picasa. I'll probably just leave them as is for now and address them as I have time. For now, I'm just glad to have the blog operational again.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I promised myself I'd get to bed before 1 AM this evening. This week has been a string of late nights preparing presents and dishes for family functions. I guess it didn't happen. My wife went to bed early feeling under the weather. I started to get a little moody as I am apt to do from time to time. I decided to work through it at the keyboard. I also decided to record it. And now here I am posting it online. I've been improvising on the piano since high school. I was fortunate enough to attend one with a music wing and dedicated sound proof practice rooms. Though I played saxophone at the time, I often would slip into one of those rooms and tinker on the piano whenever I could steal a minute... during lunch, after school, etc. It was a good stress reliever. A few years ago I bought a small digital "virtual studio" (this was pre-Garage Band days) to start recording some of my compositions, though I use that term loosely. Most of what I create is very ephemeral. I have no background in reading piano music. I doubt I could reproduce anything I play. I only hit record when the mood strikes, capturing only a fraction of what flows through me. I'm okay with that, though. It's all about the moment of creation and the creative spark. I don't have much background in audio engineering either, so this recording is pretty raw. It was recorded in one take. No overdubs or edits. I transferred it into Garage Band, slapped a small amount of reverb on it, converted it to AAC and uploaded it here. So if you find yourself in a bit of a mood tonight or tomorrow or sometime this holiday season, this track is dedicated to you.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »