Author Archive: GeorgeK

Step 1 Done – Shamrocks and Shenanigans 5K

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Well, if I needed motivation, the entry fee has been sent in.
Have successfully managed to go the 5K (3.1 mile) distance non-stop on a couple of occasions now, so there is hope I can at least finish the race.

It is almost guaranteed that I won’t be in first place at the end

It is almost guaranteed that I won’t be in first place at the end, even in my age group. (Unless of course no one else shows up!) BUT no matter what happens I am guaranteed a “PR” or Personal Record for the event AND all time 5K record pace!

(Only because I have
a) never run this event before
b) have never even run a 5K before!)

Hey, take the motivation where you can find it!

Until the final blister heals,

California ’08

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I just returned from a week in California. Not sure what to think of the whole experience.
1. It was 20 degrees F when I left Michigan
2. It was 75 degrees F when I arrived in California
3. It was 75 degrees F when I left California
4. It was 15 degrees F when I arrived back in Michigan with a summer jacket and a car in the far end of the parking area at 6 am.
Verdict: The weather in California is fantastic compared to Michigan.

1. In Michigan I nearly chipped a tooth on the drive to the airport when slamming into a pot hole the size of a Volkswagen.
2. I do not remember a single pot hole the entire time in California.
Verdict: The roads in California far surpass Michigan.

1. I ran 85 MPH all the way down I-94 to the airport in Michigan
2. I only had dreams about going over 40 MPH in California
Verdict: The traffic really sucks in California. Even on 10 lane roads it was really bad within 30 miles of LA.

1. The sun was shinning and bright reflecting off the snow in Michigan
2. The sun was shinning and bright reflecting off the water and sand at the beaches in California
Verdict: No comparison to bright sun on sand and bikinis compared to snow and snowsuits!

1. I can barely pay for gas in Michigan
2. I can even more barely pay for gas in California
Verdict: The cost of living is way to high in California.

Overall: California is the place to be… if you can afford it and have lots of time to get around.

Okay, enough.
It was a great week, accomplished the goals at work, and got to enjoy the town in my down time.

Visited some running stores (Road Runner Sports and A Snails Pace). Road Runner has “Shoe Dog” system where they have a pressure pad to see the sole of your foot (arches, etc.) and then a video camera pointed at a tread mill where they analyze your foot falls while running. Interesting to be able to see your foot “at speed” but in very slow motion. The system then pretty much shows if you are a “pronator” or not, and the flexing in the archilles tendon, etc. Ended up with a new pair of shoes and some “Superfeet” green insoles. Have put about 20 miles on them already and they do seem comfortable. I think the old Adidas with 600+ miles on them are now offically retired to the “wear for household chores” pile.

Also saw a number of educational attractions as well as tourist spots such as Graumans Chinese theater and the Kodak Theatre in downtown Hollywood. A whole story here too! (Basically to me it was all “Hollywood theatrics” since the area is very small and not really much there other than pan-handlers)

Visited “the Getty” and got a years worth of culture, Degas, Monets, Picasso’s and other famous paintings and art work. Actually I was just as impressed by the building. It is pretty amazing and the view of the city equally so.

Got hot dogs at “Pinks” just off La Brea and Jody Maroni’s at Venice Beach. Saw a few muscle heads at Muscle Beach, but mostly I think they were crack heads, and street performers/pan-handlers.

Was a week early for the return of the sparrows to San Juan Capistrano, but enjoyed the mission/museum and just walking in the sun and warm weather.

Got to see Saturns rings through the 12 inch telescope at “Griffith Observatory, a beloved icon of Los Angeles and world leader in public astronomy. Since 1935, the Observatory has given tens of millions of visitors the opportunity to become observers.” The observatory was completely remodeled starting in 2002, costing $93 million, and on November 3, 2006 Building reopened to the public. Very nice indeed.

The final highlight, I visited “Le Brea Tar Pits“. Funny how things stick in your mind. I remembered wayyyy back (1959-1963) to The Dobie Gillis Show, where Maynard G. Krebbs and Dobie were at the tar pits for some reason… meeting Zelda there I assume and something happened to Maynard (later to become Gilligan). At the time I thought they were making the tar pits very small just for the TV stage…. well as it turns out some of the pits are actually very small, as in just a few yards across.

So went the week, caught the “red eye” back to Michigan, leaving at 9 PM, arriving at 6 AM bleary eyed and with a very sore behind! (yeah, the flight is only 4 hours, add three hours for time zone hopping.) Still, it is equivalent to leaving at 1:30 AM Michigan time. Next week heading the other way, into Ontario.

Should be lots of pictures out there before long. And as promissed they are, so you can check them out now.

Until the surf freezes,

George

Optimistic or Realistic – time will tell.

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If you have been reading the Kazology posts all along, especially those on some of the trips, you will know I have made comments about being out of shape. For example when I visited Canadas Jasper and Elk Island Parks. I had pretty much the same reactions in Yosemite and Sequoia parks. Feeling really out of shape after these experiences – you know the 82 year old that blew by me hiking in Jasper . . . I started to get a little more exercise. When it seemed like I may stick with it more than two days, I bought a pedometer. As many newer technological devices this one downloads into software on the PC. So I am pretty confident when I say since August 2007 I have logged over 600 miles walking and jogging.  (I do not count regular walking in this, only “exercise” time. ) I could go on about all the aches and pains I went through getting started, but that isn’t why I was writing this. After six months of pretty regular workouts I am thinking about trying a 5K race in March 2008. Ann Arbor has a “Shamrocks and Shenanigans” 5K that may be the inaugural Kazology sponsored race (or leisurely stroll . . . time will tell.)

Until the final blister heals,

Adding a “Teaser” to the Archived Post Listing.

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Well, since I could not get the “the_excerpt” function to work properly, apparently there is a conflict with one of my other plugins. I do not want to deactivate any of the others I am using, but it was giving me the full post contents everytime including pictures, etc. so it was creating a HUGE page!

it was giving me the full post contents everytime including pictures, etc. so it was creating a HUGE page

I have now activated the excerpt and added them to the archives page. I think it adds to it, so you can see a little bit about the post rather than just the title the “Teaser” if you will. I would like to get the formatting to not skip a line (using <br>) which would condense it a little further. Also need to add some page breaks. But overall I am happy with the results.

This seems like the best way to let a user browse the old postings without resorting to a search… since they may not know what they are searching for. Hopefully a good excerpt will pique the readers interest enough to go to the post and read it. We’ll see what happens.

Expect an excerpt until the exceptions are resolved,

  

Gadget Overload Pending!

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A number of years back I did a lot of woodworking. I made a variety of things from large items such as bookcases to small toys, the closest I came to a speciality was musical instruments having made a number of dulcimers of the courting type (two dulcimers merged into one so spooning couples could play “knee to knee”) hammered, mini, and normal. Also Hurdy-Gurdy and a banji-mer (a dulcimer built on a banjo body)…. anyway I made a lot of things. (past tense). Often as I was working in the shop I found that getting ready to make a project was a huge part of the satisfaction, it was not always in the making. Sure I liked the finished product, but making a fixture here, a jig there, rearranging the shop layout to be more efficient… those were the things that I spent more time in tinkering with than actually making things. I guess that is why I enjoy tinkering with WordPress and the variety of themes, plugins, widgets and general overall flexibility it possesses. I enjoy tweaking, occasionally breaking and fixing, and just “messing around” with WP in general.

[jalbum_iframe_album:https://www.kasdorf.net/GSlideShows/Woodwork/index.html,100%,600px]

And that brings me to the topic of this post. . . a fantastic new plugin crafted by Janek Niefeldt called “my custom widgets” UPDATE 21/14/2015 this link no longer appears to work so I have removed it. I had tried another plugin that was supposed to let you turn things into a sidebar widget but I was having problems with it. This one was just created and so I gave it a spin. It is really great. There are more options than I know what to do with right now, but hopefully I will learn them as I go and discover the full range of capability in this plugin. I like I can create a widget using PHP or HTML code. The HTML code was used for the Dilbert Cartoon strip, simple copy and paste. I also used it for the link to Technorati (glad I am not in this for money or the back links would be really disappointing!). The other neat feature is you can specify exactly which pages you want the widget to appear on. So for Dilbert I flagged it as “Home” only so it only appears on the page listed as home in the set up. Then when you go to other postings it is not there slowing things down with having to load it again. I see where you could have different content on pages this way also. Other choices are page, single, search, all, archive and tag. I give it my “Cool Tool” award!

Now, not unlike my woodworking projects, all I have to do is keep myself from endless tweaking or additions making the pages so crowded as to become annoying.

Until the final widget blows up the blog,

First Gripe of 2008

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Okay, I have a gripe about some constructive criticism for blog authors, sure I probably have more than one lots of wonderful suggestions, but I’m just gonna gripe about discuss the one on my mind right now.

I’m just gonna gripe present some helpful alternatives about the one on my mind right now.

Remember back to 1999 and the pending “Year 2000” issues. Lots of people trying to fix the “problem”, people digging bomb shelters, stocking them full of food and toilet paper. Mass hysteria was narrowly avoided. Then the pundits “well you should have seen this coming – why wouldn’t you put the full date into a document/field”. Everyone blaming everyone and so on – all after the fact. Well I think that is happening on a smaller scale with blogs.

I have been searching for WordPress information recently and find a number of great posts with helpful information on different topics But now, a small problem. Since things change over time, including how WordPress, plugins or widgets function, if the information is not current you waste time reading through the article until you find out it applied to WordPress version 1. 1 (for example).

So my gripe is with Post Dates, actually the lack thereof!

It would be really nice if everyone added the full date to their posts. Some have partial dates “Feb 4”, great but is this Feb 4 2008 or Feb 4 2003? In a few more years this will just compound, since the old posts will probably hang out about forever, in 2020 if you search for “creating mouseover / rollover / hover links to automatically open a picture” there are going to be some really old examples out there…
Think about it, and if you are writing a blog, how about adding the full date for future reference.
Don’t get caught by the “Year 2000” issue just to save some space or time!