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Month: February 2020

on LJ, randos, and the good ol’ days

on LJ, randos, and the good ol’ days

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just yesterday, one of my grad school classmates posted on FB about livejournal and how she misses it regularly. LJ was the place where i first started blogging, after getting an invite since it was invitation only at the point. it was one of the first times i’d realized how the internet could be more than just a clunky HTML angelfire site, where i had inadvertently sort of set up a blog manually.

but what about LJ sets it apart from what i’m doing now? sure, there was a library of avatars you could use for each post, so you could set one that matched the theme of your journal for the day. perhaps it was an excerpt from some fantasy short story i was working on: time for the little fairy avatar. maybe it was about how much i missed xena being on the air: time for my gabrielle avatar. what if i was just feeling like shouting what was happening out into the world? just a cute little square closeup of chaseycat.

the most recent list of avatars i was using on LJ. omg why is tony bourdain not with us anymore 🙁

there were integrations that were fun. if you had downloaded and installed the editor on your computer, you could have it pull what you were listening to on itunes and that would show up on your post. my rage-y post could match the rob zombie i was listening to at the moment. LJ of course had a ton of plugins you could use, and one of them was a different little icon for each “mood” you got to show you were feeling when writing. mine, of course, was a set of little kitty faces with different facial expressions. an early set of emojis, as it were.

but it wasn’t the integrations and fun customizations you could do that made LJ something wonderful. i could do that with my blog now if i wanted to set it up like that. one of the things that made LJ wonderful was the community surrounding it. sure, you had your regular readers: friends, relatives, people you know. you followed them and they followed you; you saw what each other wrote in long-form social networking. but you also had access to millions of other LJ user blogs, and all you had to do was take a look.

this isn’t unlike following a hashtag on twitter now, except that long-form content is much more personal, much more involved, and much more interesting. you had duds – to be expected. but many times you stumbled across a goldmine of wonderfulness in blog form. in reverse, they sometimes stumbled across you. it wasn’t unheard of to have comments from strangers alongside your friends, and they ended up subscribing to your LJ (and most times i would reciprocate). this was the wonderful randomness of the anonymous internet.

i remember following a woman in grand forks and her journey as a non-trad student. there was a woman who was going through a messy divorce. several others, but the thing that drew me to them was their near-perfect grammar (what can i say – snob from the start). then there was one blog i started following very early on, probably in 2004 or 2005, that i just happened to stumble across. and i still read her blog to this day because SHE STILL BLOGS. and on a regular basis. (sure, i blog, but it’s not as regular as she does.) i follow her on twitter, but her blog posts are where it’s at. (don’t ever stop blogging, erin.)

which brings me to point two of what made LJ wonderful. in the current age of constant information streaming and sharing what is happeningRIGHTNOWomg, blogging is so intentional. you have to take a moment to put together a coherent post; maybe you have photos that you need to upload, let alone edit; your words need to make sense and flow for a successful post; perhaps you need to do hours of research (i often do). whatever your post is about, it takes time and effort to put what you want to say into words on the screen. in world where short-form bursts of at-the-moment feelings and 280 characters are king, LJ was its emperor. LJ posts took planning, persistence, and precision. and then you sent it into the ether and hoped for the best.

and it was a two-way street. while you wrote your post and said “yes world, you may now read this,” you also needed to comment on others’ posts you found helpful or interesting or fun. much like FB today, the reaction to LJ posts was just as important as the post itself. although i might argue that a blog post is just as much for the recording of events on a personal level as it is for the reaction, moreso than our current social posting habits today.

i think the art of long-form content is slowly dwindling. oh, we’ll still have books. we’ll still have news articles. i’ll still be blogging when i’m 65. but attention spans are shortening up and the age of video is in full force. maybe short-form is where it’s at, but there’s something about constructing a written piece that isn’t required, or isn’t 2 sentences of poorly written text, or isn’t just for the likes. and there’s something about the possibility of finding a random blog that’s just what you’re looking for, and hoping your words can speak to someone in the same way. our random, anonymous internet is lost forever, i think, and punchy status updates in 280 characters just isn’t cutting it.

check out my livejournal! it’s still active, i guess! i wrote on LJ from 2004-2011. 

some recent updates

some recent updates

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here’s my sunday six.

  1. remember when i tried out all those weather apps? i paid about $41 in all for testing, then an additional $20 for the wunderground subscription. i’m ok with the $20 subscription, and i was able to get a refund on a $12 subscription. but apple won’t refund any app purchases. “All transactions are final”  – so sayeth their terms and conditions. nate says the google app store will refund app purchases no problem. #thanksapple. so i’m out $29 for trying out all those stupid weather apps that i will never use again. #thanksapple. ugh i hate that their products are so easy to use, otherwise i’d switch to android or some weirdo OS.
  2. i’ve been working on reducing my waste! here’s what i’ve gotten so far:
    1. who gives a crap toilet paper, which uses recycled paper and no plastic in its packaging. what would be even better is if it would just ship the rolls of toilet paper in a cardboard box, no individual wrapping of each roll separately in paper (although it does look pretty).
    2. i ordered a sampler pack of hair shampoo and conditioner bars that come in cardboard boxes. i’m working my way through all my bottled shampoo and conditioners first, so a review of that is yet to come.
    3. i got a deodorant bar that’s aluminum free. so far it works for everyday stuff (no complaints from anyone at work anyway), and i use it for running since i sweat like a horse anyway and keeping my pits free from sweat won’t do anything. the couple times i know i’ll be moving a lot at work i’ve used my anti-perspirant stuff, but so far the bar has been good. it came wrapped in paper and a cardboard box instead of a bulky, non-recyclable plastic thing.
    4. i sent a message to amazon that i wanted all my packages to come with paper packaging from now on, and they said that they were working toward using all paper unless specified by the manufacturer. of course, the next two packages i got were full of plastic filler (and no breakable stuff in the box). #thanksamazon
    5. i got dropps dishwasher pods, and so far they seem to be working out well.
  3. WHO AM I GOING TO VOTE FOR IN THE PRIMARY???? UGH.
  4. training for the half marathon is going! i’m up to 7 miles for the long run, and i ran outside for it. usually there are a couple days in february that are good for running, and yesterday was one of them. up and out the door for a slog through 7 miles. february runs are always so tough, mainly because i forget how to dress and i’m transitioning from treadmill to road. no matter which way the transition it, it’s tough. but i’ll be running 13 miles in april, so gotta do it!
  5. speaking of activities, i went skiing with liz on friday, and woofda, my legs still hurt from the one blue run i went on. the older i get, the less i want to go fast and run into a tree. or even fall over because that would also hurt. i definitely used my brakes while heading down that run. then went on the easy slope for the rest of the time.
  6. it’s getting lighter out! and the sun has been out more this month! so far, 2020 february is loads better than 2020 january. we’ll see what march brings. early spring?*

*LOL oh i was so optimistic. 

weathering the weather apps

weathering the weather apps

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[this post is for my mom, the source of my weather nerdiness.]

yesterday morning, i thought it would be a good idea to update my wunderground weather app. i’ve been using wunderground for years, so much so that two or three years ago i actually paid for the app (maybe $3-4) to go ad- free and to be able to utilize smart forecasts. smart forecasts let me set parameters to know when the weather was ideal for running or star watching (or whatever), and it’d show me my weekly “forecasts” for those. it’d give me a percentage of how close it was to my ideal running weather, which included temp, wind, and daylight. stargazing was dependent on clouds, sunlight, and moonrise/set. and i got no ads!

so when i updated yesterday, imagine my dismay when i saw a GIANT AD at the top of the app, a weird temp dial (which i could get used to i guess), and my smart forecasts GONE. wunderground was bought out by IBM, and this not just included a redesign, but a new way of finagling money out of users: a yearly subscription of $20. no mention of those of us who paid for the app back in the day. (let’s take a moment to bask on the golden days of phone apps, i guess. much like the golden days of the internet, we did get a lot out of apps for a while for very little.)

after frantically checking my phone backups and looking at the internet for about an hour to see if i could revert back (i foolishly didn’t transfer my app purchases last backup), i resigned myself to finding a replacement. i was mad at wunderground for not grandfathering in those of us who paid for the app.

so i did some research on the internet, and then i downloaded a crap-ton of weather apps.

my stipulations:

  • i wanted weather,
  • i wanted 10-day,
  • i wanted hourly,
  • i wanted a radar map,
  • i wanted sun/moon info,
  • possible pollen info,
  • and i really wanted the ability to create a smart forecast.

and here’s what i found out.

carrot: my first try after finding it on reddit. carrot’s big thing is its privacy terms and the fact that it has different “personalities.” unfortunately, that’s about all carrot has going for it. its interface is cute, but it didn’t have much past weather info. none of the sun/moon stuff, air quality, etc. on top of that, it cost $5 to download, and if i wanted a couple more radar layer options, i had to upgrade to a yearly subscription of $12 at least. :/

weatherbug and weatherbug elite: this app is pretty popular, and i did like the ability to move around the tiles within the app so i could have wind and precip first, then move down traffic cams and weather blogs to the bottom. it has a lot of options: pollen, air quality, sunrise/set and the moon phase (no moonrise/set times tho), UV, lightning, humidity, and some pretty nice radar layers. then i did some research and found weatherbug elite, which cost $20 up front (ouch) BUT i had read that lifestyle forecasts were a part of that (oooh! close to a smart forecast!). so i ponied up. (i think i spent close to $50 finding the perfect weather app in the last couple days). and i COULDN’T FIND IT. i have searched that app, and i can’t find anything even close to resembling a lifestyle forecast. the ads are gone, but i don’t see much difference between WB and WBElite besides the ads, which i could get rid of much more cheaply in WB without buying the elite. internet research is fruitless. on top of that, it pulls weather from sauk rapids HS (15 miles away), and i do think there is a weather station at st. john’s, just 4 miles away.

dark sky: dark sky was another app recommended by reddit, mostly for its simplicity, “umbrella alerts,” and its accuracy/hyperlocal options. it costs $4 to download. it, like carrot, has a “time machine” option where you can input a future date to see what the weather will be like, although i’d rather just have a 15- or 20-day forecast at that point. the umbrella alerts are actual alerts; you can’t just open the app to see the alert – it needs to send an alert to your phone. i tried to see if i could set up a running alert, but that doesn’t help me in the long run. (heh.)

NOAA: poor NOAA – it used to be a free app, but now you need to purchase it to use it ($5 if i remember correctly). i guess that’s what happens when you lose federal funding. you’d think that NOAA would be one of the better apps out there, but i find it kind of cumbersome to use unless you’re looking specifically for storm radar. it opens up on radar and you have to choose what weather you want to see before trying to get it to swipe up. you get hourly and the 7-day forecast, and sunrise and weather conditions for each day. even if i star a location, i still need to choose it on the map before it shows up. i don’t know if that’s user error or what at this point.

accuweather: accuweather has been in my arsenal for a while now, actually. what i like about accuweather? i like that it shows ALL the allergens in the air, not just pollen. when all other weather tells me pollen counts are low but my eyes and nose tell me something’s up, i open up accuweather to see that the dust and dander count is EXTREME. i also like that it has a 15-day forecast on its free app, unlike most other apps that just have a 10-day. i would totally go with accuweather as my go-to IF it had a smart forecast option. it checks all other items i want in a weather app. as it is, i did upgrade to the platinum edition to get rid of ads and open up a 25-day forecast (!). accuweather, you’re almost perfect!

photopills: photopills is NOT a weather app per se, but it does give me all the info i need about sun and moon activity that i need. it’s a photography app that cost $10, and it was totally worth it. it shows me stars in AR as well as the best times of the day to get out for taking pics. it does pull forecasts and has a trip planner that will tell me when and where to stand while taking pics. i thought i would review this one for you since it’s got a much more detailed sun/moon option and star map if that’s what you’re looking for. (it also has some photo stuff like how long to keep your aperture open with what setting and all that jazz. but you’re not here for that!)

apple weather:  apple weather is just sad. sure, it does its job with current conditions and gives us basic weather, but it’s not much else. i’m sure this works for several people who just want the weather, but those of us who like to know what’s going on in a little more depth would want to download a more robust app.

weather channel: i have avoided the WC app for a long time (ever since i got wunderground) but for this exercise, i decided to see what was up. especially since the WC and wunderground are both owned by the same people at this point. i was actually pleasantly surprised! the one thing i liked about it at this point is seen on that second slide above: the running forecast! nice! i do like that it tells me there is no good running weather on the horizon, but i also didn’t see an easy way to customize that. for instance, at this point i would say 40º, sunny, no wind is good running weather, but i doubt WC would consider it good. it also doesn’t give me a true smart forecast. but WC has outdoor conditions as a tile, like dry skin, chill, umbrella, and a mosquito index! i would take this as a backup, despite its corporate proclivities.

wunderground: and yet….through it all… i still want to come back to wunderground. accuweather is dang close, but wunderground just has everything i’m looking for. i like the smart forecasts. i really like the sun and moon interface. buying the premium subscription opens up a 25-day forecast. and even though it’s technically owned by WC at this point (both IBM companies), i can change where it pulls weather from so it’s more accurate*, and despite the thermometer type display, the interface is still close to what it was. i mad tweeted them yesterday for charging $20 a year and not recognizing my purchase. but when i think about it, $3 for 2 years of ad-free use? not bad. $20/yr for ad-free use and a feature i would really use? not bad. i pay $20/yr to use runkeeper. i’ve certainly spent more money on less productive things. *sigh* might need to undo my mad tweets and just purchase.

*************

what did i learn?

  1. apps are a racket.
  2. if you’re used to something good, maybe i you should pay for it.
  3. top 3 weather apps: wunderground, accuweather, weather channel, (NOAA if you want radar)

and now it’s time to go to apple’s website and request a refund on $41 of app purchases. and then just get wunderground premium. it’s worth it.

*at no point was i looking at the accuracy of the temperatures on these apps, though at one point i checked all within a minute of each other, and they all showed different current temps (all within a reasonable variable: n=+/-3 maybe? hahaha)

PS: this is obviously NOT a comprehensive list of weather apps. if you know of another app that does all the things i want that i didn’t download, send it my way! also, what weather app do you use, and why do you like it?

book review: unspeakable things

book review: unspeakable things

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the author jess lourey is an instructor at my school, so the library has all the books she’s written. she just came out with a new book inspired by the jacob wetterling kidnapping; she grew up in paynesville, and if you’ve listened to the “in the dark” podcast, you know that was a hotbed of unsavory behavior in the 80s and 90s.

so i was at the school library the other day and swiped it off the shelf; it’s #54 in amazon’s most-purchased books today, which she is super excited about (and for good reason!). i picked it up friday night and finished it this morning.

the book is told from the viewpoint of a 12/13-year-old girl who lives in rural, small-town stearns county; it’s always so weird to be reading a book and see references to places i know – i’m sure people run into this all the time, which means i need to up my minnesota author game. the parallels between her fiction narrative and the actual crimes that happened here were unsettling at times – the music teacher who lives with his parents; mother of the abducted/murdered child with the name mrs. wellstone; the syllables in jacob wetterling’s name equals the syllables in the fictionalized child’s name.

and add in all the other creepy things that were going on in the narrator’s life, which were very adult, very ick-inducing for that age – swingers parties, drug dealing, pedophilia themes, an abusive father – and it painted a very disgusting portrait of central minnesota residents. but what is very apparent in her writing is the shimmer of truth surrounding some of the themes. paynesville boys were abused in the 80s and 90s, and someone was doing it – someone who was a resident of this area.

despite the ick-factor themes of the books, i loved the narration by our 13-year-old heroine, cassie. the book is written such that it’s the looking-back narration by the present-day woman narrator. i loved the description of the band room at her school, sucking on a clarinet reed while assembling it, calling out “i seen it” or “can you borrow me that” as minnesota-isms, the clique-y-ness of lunchtime and trying to fit in.

i know this book is not for everyone. but i even liked that it made me uncomfortable at times, which i’m sure was the author’s intent. people don’t get through childhood unscathed, and some more scathed than others. multiple times it was highlighted how adults just don’t believe the kids, how it’s just boys messing around for attention. it’s even called out that what finally forced big action was that the kid who was abducted was middle class. the other victims had been from “the wrong side of the tracks” (so to speak). by making readers uncomfortable, maybe it will nudge some to start believing kids and encouraging them to speak out about assaults and prevent future assaults.

treadmill woes

treadmill woes

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my current treadmill has been acting wonky for a while, now: slipping and taking about .3 miles of walking to warm up before i can safely start running. i knew parts needed to be replaced but i just didn’t do it for some reason. using a treadmill while it’s slipping can ruin the motor, so i decided to finally bite the bullet.

my first replacement was the walking belt. generally it’s not the walking belt that’s the problem, but mine was starting to separate and it needed to be replaced anyway, so i thought i’d start with that in hopes that it would solve my problems.

it came in the mail, and i watched a youtube video on how to replace it; after 20 mins or so, i had a new walking belt on my treadmill. i centered it on the ramp (after watching another youtube video on how to do that – you tighten or release tension on the back roller, which can be done with an allan wrench on the back of your machine) and got on.

no dice! it was still slipping, and seemed to be slipping for longer, though it was less squeaky (a plus). so i ordered a drive belt on friday and should be here tomorrow to replace. i did try to give it a go yesterday, walking about half a mile until slippage was minimal, then running a mile. the slipping, though slight, never went away. that’s a recipe for wonky knees, so i’m on hiatus until the drivebelt replacement is in place.

good news is i accidentally counted back my training from the weekend before the half marathon, so i should be right on track when i commence treadmill running.

here’s hoping that the drivebelt solves all the woes and i don’t need to buy a new treadmill.

******

in other running news, i’m hoping that NEXT friday will be warm enough for me to feel good about an outdoor run and that the snow holds off so i can run easily on the road. here’s to an early spring!!

foray into foot fittings

foray into foot fittings

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let’s talk about running gear! (i know i lost about 90% readership with that sentence.)

i’ve talked about a review on running underwear (runderwear? i should start a company), so let’s talk a little bit about the 2nd-most important piece of gear for lady runners: shoes. (first, of course, being the runderwear.)

when i started running, my first pair of shoes was a pair of brooks. i tried on several different brands, and they felt the most sturdy, which, for a flat-footed, heavy person like myself, made sense. after losing some weight, i veered more toward sturdy AND comfortable. so i went to the running shoe store and tried on different brands again.

the best way to try on running shoes, i’ve found, is by putting two different shoes on your feet and taking a little test drive around the store. just by process of elimination, you come upon the best shoe for you.

i’ve leaned toward asics because DANG are the gel nimbuses a comfy piece of shoe. if i could wear the nimbuses and get away with my feet not rebelling, i totally would. if there are any people out there who have normal pronation in their feet and want a pair of shoes that will make you feel like you’re walking on clouds, get the nimbus.

alas, i do not have a normal pronated foot.

so i get the next best thing: the asics gel kayano, which is also an exceptionally comfy shoe. and for someone who’s not about being first or even in the top half of race results, you go for comfy over speed.

oh yes, there are different shoes for the different outcomes you want. because if i wanted speed over being comfy, i would need to choose a less cushy shoe that gives you more purchase with the ground. this also holds to different types of surface running. for instance, i will never wear my kayanos out on the trail; it feels like my feet are falling into the ground. i would, however, wear an asics gel 2000 out on the trail: it’s a harder, sturdier footbed and lets me feel like i’m getting somewhere. or i could use a trail shoe (i’ve used the asics kahana), but they don’t work well with someone like me who has problems lifting her feet up off the ground (the lugs on the shoe catch on the trail detritus). the trail shoe IS nice because its footbed is snug and keeps your foot from rolling.

so here’s my lineup:

  • training/short runs: asics 2000
  • race day/long runs: asics kayano
  • trail running with little trail debris: asics kahana
  • trailing with a lot of debris: asics 2000

of course, you need to find the shoe that works for you. and sometimes, the shoe iterations change, so you may find that next year’s might not be as good, but come back in 3 years and it’ll have changed. for about 2-3 iterations, asics narrowed the toe box of their shoes and got a lot of heat as a result. i had to buy a whole size bigger than i normally would, and there was one year where i just bought the previous year’s version because the current one was awful. (they have since moved back in the right direction with last year’s version, and i’ve purchased 4 pair of the asics 25s so far.)

so, there’s my shoe review. the best advice i can give on running shoes is DON’T SKIMP. your feet are the first point of contact in this sport, and the more you can keep them happy, the better. they are the gateway to bad knees and bad hips, both of which can be prevented with good shoes. if in doubt, go to your running shoe store and have them take a look at your gait to make sure you’re wearing the right pair of shoes. another recommendation is to track the miles on your shoes so you know that the little twinge in your knee is not just a one-off thing; it could mean that it’s time to change shoes (i change mine about every 300 miles – sometimes more, sometimes less).

(2016 asics!)