Jumping for Joy

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JibJab's 2008 Year in Review

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ElfYourself

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Happiest Dog Ever

An end of an era?

Stay tuned...

Yes!

JibJab's 'This Land'

This Land! | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Wassup 2008

Old news: I ran a marathon

I ran in the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon in Phoenix back on January 13th of this year. It's obviously taken forever for me to post about it here, so I think I've therefore passed the statute of limitations for describing it in emotional, verbose detail. So, just the facts (mostly...):

• I finished it in 3:25:46 - a pace of 7:51 per mile - coming in under my goal of 3:30
• It was hard but rewarding; more of a "checked that box" than life-changing
  
• Training was a pain, but actually not too taxing; more mental torture than physical
  
• My parents were great: they fed me a nice pasta meal the night before the race, and popped up about four separate times on the course to cheer me on; it really does make a difference to see a friendly face once in awhile on the course
• I tweaked my knee clearing the table from the pasta meal and, while it didn't really hamper my run, it messed with my head the night before, and cause lots of pain, issues and doctor visits in the weeks after the race
  
• To minimize hassles in the morning, I stayed in a motel room right near the start line the night before the race. It worked out great, but was a seedy hotel in a seedy part of town. When I asked the motel manager if it was safe there, he said "well, I've been here for about two years and we haven't had any major incidents here yet".
• The weather was perfect and the course was flat and fast
• I stopped at every water station after mile ten
  
• I was pretty delirious the last couple of miles and especially at the end. A volunteer had to come up and ask me if I was okay as I wobbled myself to get my medal
• I'm thoroughly convinced anybody can run a marathon; it's as simple as following a plan

• More pics here
  

I'm a published photographer!

When I was traveling back in 2001, I obviously took lots of pictures, and then just chucked them all in to my Flickr account a few years ago.

Making all of them viewable by anybody paid off: I found out last week that my photo of a castle hostal I stayed in in Toledo, Spain was chosen to be in an online travel guide called Schmap. I guess they found it by doing a search for "Hostal Toledo" in Flickr, which is exactly what I named my picture.

Click on "Hostal Toledo" on the bottom half of the page here, and you can see my pic - including the credit line - at the top right.

How cool is that? Now that I look at the picture, I have to admit that it is pretty good. However, I also have to admit that this was purely by accident; I'm pretty sure I took the pic as an afterthought as I walked away from the hostal after checking out of it. Lest you think I am just being humble, I submit bad photo exhibit one also taken in Spain.

But, let's look at my famous piece one more time:

The Nike Human Race

I ran in the Los Angeles version of The Human Race this past Sunday evening. My goal was to finish the 10K race in under 42 minutes and I just did it with a time of 41:58, a 6:43 per mile pace.


It was great to run one of these at night and a great race overall: extremely well organized, nice route and a great atmosphere after the race - including a beer tent. The main highlight after was a concert by Kanye West and Common. Which brings me to my story:

Common came on first and played about three or four songs. I had never heard anything by him - and indeed had never even seen a picture of him - but he sounded great, he was a good performer and the mostly college-aged crowd was totally in to it. He was then joined by another rapper, and they performed about four more songs, with the new guy pretty much taking it over and Common just backing him up. The new guy then left and said "thanks Kanye" as he did.

Uh oh...

I'm a dumb ass: who I thought was Common was actually Kanye, and the second rapper who came on was actually Common. In my defense, Kayne was wearing big sunglasses that hid lots of his face, and he was wearing a very unrapper-like khaki colored coat.


Please note that they look nothing alike. So despite running a good race, I left it feeling humbled and distinctly unhip.

More pictures

Totally looks like

Twins

Some Olympic mysteries explained

Why do the Olympic divers shower after every plunge?

To keep warm. Diving venues are air conditioned and can feel especially cold after a dip in the pool. Competitors shower in warm water to keep their muscles loose and then often retire to a hot tub. They towel off shortly before the next dive so that their hands don't slip during tucks or other maneuvers.

Others explained here.

Sights from my run on the Strand tonight

• Nemesis - The German beer garden that's my starting point and my shoulder-devil urging me to just head in there instead of going for a run
  
• Fitness - The normal Monday evening workout groups: volleyball, yoga and roller hockey
• Yuppiness - An outdoor cocktail party at Casa del Mar
  
• Sadness - The police arresting a middle-aged Hispanic man who was handcuffed and bawling his eye out
• Orangeness - A huge, colorful sunset over the Malibu mountains
• Rudeness - Me forcing someone to jump onto the sand because they were walking down the wrong side of the path and wouldn't move out of my way
• Wetness - My new Nike Pro top seems to soak up every piece of sweat on me
  
• Coolness - Hundreds of birds - of various types - all bunched together on the sand to communally withstand the strong winds
  
• Darkness - The light fades away very quickly after the sunset these days
• Niceness - Me moving out the way of a couple that was walking down the wrong side of the path
  
• Brightness - The spectacular new Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier
• Drunkenness - The denizens of the beer garden who had been drinking tall, delicious Erdingers the whole time I was running (filed also under bitterness...)
  
• Weirdness - None! Is Venice losing its edge?
  

Black Beard Adventure Race

I'm training for the Black Beard Adventure Race, a 55 mile, 10-12 hour adventure race that I'm doing with my buddy Chris Greame in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in September (here's a link to a past, shorter version of the race, including a very cool Google Earth mapping).

I was having trouble motivating myself to train, so decided to start logging everything I was doing on Google Calendar; it's amazing how much being able to enter something on it can inspire you to get off the couch. So I figure embedding it here should double the impact of it...

Brilliant!

Article about JibJab in my local paper

Some coverage from within my four block radius life

http://www.smmirror.com/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=8278

Evolution lives!

"...the human genome has been scrambling to adapt to a rapidly changing world—11,000 years ago, nobody farmed, nobody milked domesticated animals, and nobody lived in a city. People with a mutation that aided survival were more likely to thrive, reproduce, and pass that mutation along to offspring. For example, the capacity to digest lactose, the sugar in milk, has become common only over the past 3,000 years. Now, about 95 percent of the people in northern Germany have the mutation, which also popped up independently among the Masai in Africa and the Lapps in Finland. Hawks says: "This is really rapid evolution.""

http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/2008/07/24/where-is-human-evolution-heading.html

Time for Some Campaignin'

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I love The Muppet Show

Ode To Joy: The Muppet Show | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Attack of the killer beach umbrellas

I have anosmia

So there I am reading my favorite online magazine, Slate, and I come across this story about losing your sense of smell, which even has a name: anosmia.

It seems I am not alone - Michael Hutchence from INXS had it, as does Ben from Ben & Jerry's! - and they say two million Americans suffer smell loss.

However, I had no idea I was supposed to become depressed and lose my sex drive because of it; good to know.

http://www.slate.com/id/2195018/pagenum/all/#page_start

Fewer traffic signs = better safety

Anarchy rules?

“We’re losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior….The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal responsibility dwindles.”

http://onthecommons.org/content.php?id=1998

How we read online

"[U]sers are selfish, lazy, and ruthless."

http://www.slate.com/id/2193552/

Gore Vidal interview

At what age does being curmudgeonly become endearing?

Sewer Horse is watching you...

Bicycle Parking Tower in Tokyo

Euro 2008

Uncontacted Amazon Tribe

I find this utterly fascinating

The Anti-Tivo

The Lakers are doing well in the playoffs - the only time LA feels remotely like a sports town - but I'm finding it frustrating to watch the games at home this year.

My neighbor and his girlfriend are enthusiastic game watchers and cheer loudly at every good Laker play. This is actually great on a night like tonight when I forgot that the game was on; their cheering when I got home sent me right to my TV. The problem is that he must have the direct satellite feed, and is therefore not subject to the normal TV network three second delay, because they cheer about three seconds before every good play happens. While this is fine if I am reading or on the computer - it signals for me to look up and watch - it really ruins it when the game is close and I am already watching intently.

I wish I could sneak over there on game nights and pause his DVR for three seconds to get us aligned in the time-space continuum.

Famous People Born on May 19th

• Atatürk
• Malcolm X
• Pol Pot
• Ho Chi Minh
• Andre the Giant
• Jim Lehrer
• Pete Townsend
• Bill Laimbeer
• Nicole Brown Simpson
• Kevin Garnett

Fulham!

The Cottagers avoid relegation from the Premiership

Fun with Hair

Phase V: #1.5 Clipper Cut




Phase IV: Hitler Moustache

picture thankfully missing

Phase III: Moustache




Phase II: Goatee




Phase I: Beard

Sunset in Venice

Beautiful end to a summer-like weekend

Four-Course Road Rage Meal

While driving yesterday, a Audi ahead of me began merging in to the right lane, thereby cutting off an SUV that was already there, bringing the vehicles to a stop directly next to each other. The SUV driver furiously honked, shouted, flipped the bird and then threw a cheeseburger on to the windshield of the Audi.

Applicable to this owner?

Captcha is so international

and increasingly difficult

Meat Loaf & Love

Cool Slo-Mo Ad

And great music also

Food Fight: The History of War in Food

Overheard in Venice

Ever wonder what homeless folks talk about? Here's a conversation I heard last night:

[Four bums converge directly in front of where I am standing outside]

Bum #1: "Good morning!" (It's 8:30 at night)

[30 seconds of hearty laughter from all four]

Bum #1: "How are you?"

Bum #2: "My leg hurts"

Bum #3: "My thyroid hurts!"

[30 seconds of hearty laughter from all four]

Bum #1: "Can I borrow a quarter from you? I'll pay you back when we get home!"

[30 seconds of hearty laughter from all four]

Bum #2: "Here you go"

Bum #1: "Thanks; I'm going to buy me some beer!"

[30 seconds of hearty laughter from all four]

All: "Bye!"

The Fart Man

The Fart Man | Funny Jokes at JibJab

JibJab is showing some love

Here's one of the many new Valentine's Sendables we launched last night:

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Succinct writing at its finest

I was just going to put this in my links at the right, but this story is too good for that (of course, the fact that it's about a bird didn't hurt):

http://numblr.nostrich.net/post/25162986

Pachelbel's Canon in D: A Hater's Story

As told by comedian Rob Paravonian

History of Pachelbel's CANON in D | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Steve Martin on Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose is always great and Steve Martin turns out to be a fantastic interviewee.

"Be undeniably good"