Today's Big Rain Event!!!

Well, that was a big 'ol dud wasn't it?  I love it when our local forecasters get so breathless about upcoming "events" and then it turns out to be a whole bucketfull of nothing.  Happens all the time during the winter. 

I'll save everyone a lot of time, energy, worry, and amusement by giving you now the Official 2012 HillcrestBlog Summer Forecast!  Here it is:

It is going to be butt-hot from now until late September and then just plain hot until mid-October.  If it rains on you or your house at any point in time, count yourself lucky. 

That's really all the information you need to know, dear reader.

Hillcrest home values a solid bet

...at least that is my takeaway after reading the following opinion column from last Friday's New York Times.  Indeed, one of the many reasons I love this neighborhood so is the fact that just about any amenity needed for modern survival is within a relatively easy walking (and certainly, biking) distance.  I simply cannot imagine life living out in some suburb or bedroom community where there is not a very easily reachable small business district in our neighborhood's interior, not to mention the vast number of businesses within a one- to two-mile radius of my front door.  Now, reading that these types of homes and neighborhoods are what are now in demand only solidifies my love of this place. 

Anyway, for your reading pleasure, the column in full, after the jump...

38:15

That's my time from last Saturday's Rock N Stroll 5K :)  Sufficient to say, I did indeed finish, and at the quickest pace and farthest distance I have so far run.  I beat my stated goal of finishing under 39 minutes.  Plus I got a T-shirt, so it was great all around, aside from the humidity, which was a bit on the overdone side.

In case you were wondering, here was my playlist :)

Getchoo by Weezer
Seether by Veruca Salt
Dashboard by Modest Mouse
One Engine by The Decemberists
Simple Song by The Shins
Self Esteem by Offspring
So What'cha Want by The Beastie Boys
Soul Meets Body by Death Cab for Cutie
Verse Chorus Verse by Nirvana
Malibu by Hole
Greater Omaha by The Desaparecidos

Again, heavy on the 1990's alt-rock ;)

Next up, the Cheetah Chase 5K this coming Saturday.

A much more challenging course through the hills of our beloved Hillcrest neighborhood.  Here's the route, which notably does not show the aforementioned hills:

I will be looking to merely finish, not set any speed record on this one, as my test-run of 2.5 miles of the course yesterday left me totally worn out.  On the plus side, the weather this Saturday morning should be much better than it has been lately, so that will help out my fitness and stamina immensely.

Pics of my old office circa 2008

I was searching through some old computer files looking for a copy of my soccer league's logo for the new administration (I was President for one two-year terms several years ago) when I came across some pics I apparently took with an old phone camera.  Among them were some pics of my old office on the sixth floor of the Tower Building, when I worked for the Attorney General's Office.  I forgot how much I loved that office, with its large windows and couch, not to mention how I decked it out with some personal touches :)  So I'm going to post three of them here for purely personal reasons.  Since this office, I've inhabited four other offices (within the same agency, mind you) and my current one is really great.  But this one here still remains my all-time favorite.

Life without cable TV, Day 4 AKA Get rid of your cable: A case in support

Well, the blog post title might be a little misleading, as we actually have not had cable TeeVee (specifically, Comcast) since 2008.  Instead, the HillcrestBlog family recently ended a four-year run of being tethered to satellite TeeVee (two years with Dish Network and then the last two years with Direct TV).  Now, we find ourselves on Day 4 of being off the subscription TeeVee grid, so-to-speak.  Instead, we have chosen to get our TeeVee over the airwaves, just like in the Olden Days before cable entered the picture in the early 1980's, which, along with the cost of $5.99 HD antennae, is free.  We plan on supplementing this with TV shows we buy and download from iTunes, movies and shows we stream from Netflix through our Roku player, and shows we stream directly from other internet sources.  Our intent with this plan is twofold: 1) to save money on entertainment costs, and, to a lesser degree 2) to free ourselves as much as possible from the corporate media, advertising, and marketing that seems to hit you nonstop through conventional TeeVee viewing.

I have not yet really put pen to paper regarding any (if any) monetary savings, so I'm going to use this blog post to do just that.  Also, I'll hopefully show you, dear reader, how this is not only monetarily advantageous, but also very "doable" in the sense that one really doesn't need cable or satellite TeeVee to still watch whatever shows you want to watch.

First things first, though.  You may ask if, after four days, I miss my satellite TeeVee.  Have I suffered any separation anxiety?  The answer is an emphatic no.  I have not missed it, not one bit.

Hillcrest political demographics

Two days ago, we Arkansans went to the polls to vote in our respective Democratic/Republican primaries, as well as the general judicial elections.  I say this to preface the excerpt below, from the Arkansas Times blog.  I offer it without comment, as HillcrestBlog does not engage in overt politicizing.  I simply want to repost it to demonstrate who our neighbors in this fantastic neighborhood are to those readers who do not live here:

The free state of Hillcrest again provided a warm liberal echo chamber against the increasingly cold world in much of the rest of Arkansas. A 91 percent vote for Obama at PH Presbyterian, 937-94 from two precincts that vote there. But we were outdone percentagewise by several, including Greater Archview Baptist, which went for Obama 353-6, or a 98 percent vote.

Last 5K training update

With the Riverfest Rock N Stroll 5K for which I've been training (and blogging about) coming up this Saturday, consider this the last post where I write about my preparatory training.  This, because today's 3.07 mile trek on the Big Dam Bridge across the Arkansas River (and along the northern river bank) was the last full-on run I'll do before Saturday morning*.  I ran this distance in 39 minutes, 7 seconds, at an average pace of 12:44/mile, which I think is a personal best, if the Run Keeper app is to be believed :)  Also, depending on what app you believe, I burned somewhere between 489 and 609 calories. 

At this point, I think it is safe to say that I am ready for Saturday morning.  I believe that I can complete my primary goal of JUST FINISHING ;) so I'm going to set a secondary goal of finishing at or under 39 minutes. 

*  I do intend to run a steady mile on Friday morning, just to keep the muscles and joints loose, but I'm not going to push it and instead concentrate on getting this big back of old bones recovered in time for Saturday.

The Wilco show

I just wanted to post the poster for the show we saw last weekend.  Its pretty sharp :)

Rememberances of a big, action-packed weekend

The weekend of which I speak, of course, is the most recently completed one.  It was alternately or concurrently huge fun, very fast, exhausting, exhilarating, a little bit frustrating, eye-opening, and delicious.  As a point of reference, all of the following occurred:

1.  My wife ran the Dino Dash 5K early Saturday morning and I completed a 2.5 mile run late Saturday morning.  We also walked approximately three miles in downtown Memphis;
2.  We left our kids with an overnight sitter to spend an evening with Just Us for the first time since Lorelei was born in December of 2009;
3.  Cleaned the house and did five loads of laundry;
4.  The kids played in the kiddie pool;
5.  My wife and I drove to and from Memphis within a twenty-two hour time span, during which time we spent a night at the Peabody, saw Wilco at Mud Island, had ribs and catfish and several drinks on Beale Street;
6.  My daughter pooped on the bathroom floor;
7.  I played a soccer game on Sunday afternoon and scored a goal in a 4-1 victory;
8.  Went to the Farmer's Market; and
9.  Dinner with the in-laws Sunday night.

And, really, there were some other little highlights that I'm probably forgetting.  My point being, it was a full enough weekend to last fill up a month's worth of weekends.  At least it seemed like it at the time.

Currently, I'm mentally preparing myself for the Big Race this Saturday morning.  I'm still very sore from my long run on Saturday and my soccer game on Sunday.  I had hoped to get in a 2.8 mile run today, but I don't think my muscles are going to allow it.  Instead, I'm going to knock it out tomorrow morning and then hopefully recover in time to do a short and sweet 1 mile run on Friday morning, just to keep my muscles and joints loose. I think that will get me close enough to be able to complete the 3.1 miles I need to knock out Saturday morning, with all the energy and people and excitement of the race artificially propping me up that last .3 miles :)

The importance of sleep

I hope I'm taking a nap when this infographic eventually posts :)  As the father of two small children, I can vouch for the absolute necessity of quality sleep.  Oh, and quantity too!

Source: http://frugaldad.com

Friday night update

It is amazing what I now consider "late".  The kiddos have been down for hours and my wife has been asleep since 9:30 as she prepares to run tomorrow morning's Dino Dash 5K, but I'm still up, enjoying a glass or two of red wine before I hit the hay.  And, really, 10:30 is late for me nowadays with all the up-at-6:30 and being a father and all that jazz.  In The Oldendays (trademarked phrase), 10:30 was nothing.  Now, its the witching hour.  Funny how times have changed. 

But the big news tonight is not that I'm still up at this Ungodly Hour, but that tomorrow night I most CERTAINLY will be, as the wifey and I are headed to Memphis to see Wilco perform on Mud Island, sans kiddos.  They will be in the comfort and companionship of an overnight sitter that we have hired (one of my daughter's daycare teachers to be exact).  Which means, for the FIRST time since mid-December 2009, my wife and I will be able to spend a night ALONE without waking up a dozen times to tend to the needs of our offspring (with a room at the Peabody, no less).  I think I'll be alternately terrified and liberated by this development.  I'll let you four or five readers of this blog know how it goes on Monday.  In the meantime, Kerry Wood of my all-time favorite Chicago Cubs retired today.  If injuries hadn't derailed his career in the late 1990's and 2000's, who know how good he could have been.  Here's the highlight to end all Kerry Wood highlights:

Thursday morning 5K training

I know my posts have been very -- if not almost exclusively -- running-centric lately and that can get a little tedious.  But the obvious reason is that my Big Goal of 2012 (so far) is so close on the horizon: the Riverfest Rock N' Stroll on May 26, which is only nine days out.  I *promise* to resume to more substantive blogging after I complete that race :)

Meanwhile, I did go for a run just now and while it was not nearly as strong as my Tuesday morning performance, it still improved on my Sunday numbers.  Specifically, I ran 29 minutes straight, bookended by a 5-minute warmup and cooldown.  This means that I covered 2.71 miles in 39 minutes at an overall rate of 14:22/mile.  For some reason my app did not break down my walk rate and run rate like it did on Tuesday.  I think I know why -- my route today included running back over previously run areas -- like when I ran down parts of Kavanaugh and then tracked back.  My Tuesday run, which did break out my separate rates, was more of a "circle", at least until I got to Lookout, which I ran down and back.  Perhaps the GPS on my app got confused.  In any event, my next run I'm going to try and avoid covering the same ground to try and get a more accurate view of my walking-versus-running rates per mile.

Looking forward, I'm going to try a simple distance run on Saturday morning.  I'm thinking 2.5 miles.  After that, I think I'll get a much clearer picture of *exactly* where I am, training-wise.  If I can finish that run with minimal catch-my-breath breaks, I'll feel pretty confident that I'll be able to tack on .64 more miles by the following Saturday, especially if I feel like afterwards like I've still got some gas in the tank.  On Tuesday I think I'll stretch it out to 2.75 or 2.8 miles with a final prep run on Thursday of something short like 1.5 miles, which will give my body a break and some rest prior to Saturday morning's race. 

Tuesday night music - Alice in Chains

"We Die Young" is one of the songs that circulates on my running playlist.  Its got a great crunch! and wailing chorus. 

But of course you cannot mention Alice in Chains without the band's high point and (probably) best-known song, "Man in a Box", which I learned was actually about the evils of veal.  Who knew?

Best run so far of 2012...

Took an extended lunch break today to knock out Week 8, Day 1 run, which consisted of a 5-minute walk, 28-minute run, and a 5-minute cool down.  And, I'm very excited to say, it was the best run so far of my 2012 5K training :)  I'm not sure what contributed to it (perhaps its just that I'm becoming a better/more accomplished runner, perhaps??), but I did do a couple of things to make it a bit more varied today.  Specifically, I programmed a different playlist (see below) as my former one had started to become stale and predictable after several sessions having used it. 

Second, I took a vastly different course, running instead through upper Hillcrest's hills and then down the length of Lookout Drive (until it terminated its easterly direction and went downhill north -- that's where I turned around :)).  This route included a pretty substantial uphill grade on the northern boundary of Mount St. Mary's school on Hillcrest Avenue and then some rolling hills down Lookout.  The inclusion of the hills was purposeful as I want to start making my routes more challenging and more muscle-burning. 

Now for the encouraging part: despite the increased difficulty in grade and length, I actually bested my average per mile time (which includes the ten minutes of walking) from 14:37 to 13:25 per mile!  And even more encouraging, I checked my GPS app at the end of my 28-minute stretch and was clocking a blistering (for me) running pace of 12:53 minutes per mile!  All in all, I covered 2.84 miles in 38 minutes.  That's just .3 miles from a complete 5K.

So, yeah, I feel pretty damn good about myself today.  I was beginning to have doubts if I was going to be able to get to the point where I could actually complete a 5K from start to finish without walking, and while I've still got some work to do over the next 13 days (which should give me at least 4 more sessions), my hope has been restored.

...

As for my playlist, I went with some more varied artists (and songs I have not listened to in a while) to "surprise" me when they turned up as the next song on my run.

Lightning Crashes by Live (warm-up)
Who Made Who by AC/DC
Immigrant Song (Live) by Led Zeppelin
Ice Cold Ice by Husker Du
Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction
You've Got Another Thing Comin' by Judas Priest
In the Middle by Jimmy Eat World
Lick It Up by KISS
Don't Stop Believin' by Journey
Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane (cool-down)

Monday night music - Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth was my very first foray into "alternative" music (the term actually meant something in 1989).  The band's album Goo is still a personal favorite. 

But of course, their magnum opus was Daydream Nation, which I didn't discover until about a year later. 

Running update for Monday

Well, yesterday I completed a 27-minute stretch of constant running (OK, I did stop for two or three ten-second breaks to catch my breath).  I ran in the neighborhood and even opted to tackle the gradual big hill on Hillcrest Avenue.  My pace is not great but my goal for the Riverfest 5K is to finish, at whatever time.  Tonight I'm going to up it to 28 minutes.  I think I'm still on track to be able to complete the race on May 26.

American's billion dollar baby scam

Keeping with the theme of Saturday afternoon infographics that I've found on the internets, here's another one close to HillcrestBlogger's heart.  I'm pleased to say that our family has not succumbed to many of the ill-advised aspects of this type of expensive Babynomics, but its always there, lurking behind every purchase :)



Source: frugaldad.com

Thursday's running update

Was dead tired yesterday so didn't get a post up but I did take off from work this morning to, among other errands and responsibilities, complete my 5K training run.  Inching closer and closer...covered 2.52 miles in 36 minutes, which was a 5 minute warm-up walk, 26 minute run, and 5 minute cool down.  I was still pretty sore from Tuesday morning's run and stupidly did not eat anything before hitting the path this morning, so I guess that's the reason it felt like a crappy run.  At least the weather was pretty great.  I think I'll wait until Sunday to do my next one, giving myself an extra day of recovery, since I do not have a soccer game that day. 

Anyway, a better post tomorrow as well as some music clips. 

Running update

Eighteen days out from the Riverfest Rock n' Stroll 5K and I think I'm on schedule with my training to make a solid go of completing it in its entirety.  Today I took an extra hour at lunch and completed Week Seven, Day One of my couch-to-5K training, which consisted of a 5-minute warm-up walk, a 20-minute run, a 3-minute walk, another 5-minute run, and then a 5-minute cool-down walk.  This covered 2.6 miles in 38 minutes.  And while I was certainly tired and some of my muscles started to tighten up toward the end (mainly my lower back and quads today), my pulse and breathing were still pretty strong.  I think I could have muscled out another 10 minutes of running, which would have put me in the run-close-to-5K range.  But, since this is a regimented training schedule, I didn't want to get ahead of myself and risk injury or a pulled muscle.

My next run will be a 26-minutes-straight run, with 5-minute warm-up/cool-down walks on either end.  I ran in the neighborhood today, but I think I'll go down to the Arkansas River running path to knock that out  Thursday morning.

Oh, and if you are interested in what was on my playlist, here are the songs that I queued up today, in order:

Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More by Mudhoney
You Know You're Right by Nirvana
The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden
Ocean Size by Jane's Addiction
Locomotive by Guns N' Roses
Too Young to Fall In Love by Motley Crue
Color Me Impressed by The Replacements
Turn on the News by Husker Du (cool-down started during this song)
I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones

Yep, all metal, hardcore, punk, and early 90's alternative rock.  What, you expected Chris Isaak's Wicked Game or something? ;)

A follow-up post to the one earlier in the evening

A follow-up post to the one earlier in the evening about the cost of law school.  I actually took pen to paper and accessed my personal account ledger to figure out, to the cent, how much I'll have paid toward my law school students loans from the first payment to the last*.

Drum roll...

My $42,000 juris doctor student loan is going to end up costing me $84,249.69.  Yep, almost double.  Ouch.  The five years I didn't pay a dime toward them while they were on forbearance from May 1998 until February 2004 sure came back to haunt me, as those loans' interest rates really did their trick.  Oh well, live and learn.  It would be easy to get angry about the costs of higher education and the cost of my loan in particular, but I did sign on the dotted line and I have no one to blame but myself for going five years without making a payment.  At least my initial loans were reasonable enough to enable me to pay them off in less than ten years (of the first payment).  That, and I was able to enter the legal profession during a period of economic growth and be fully entrenched in the legal community, with experience and connections, by the time the economy went into the toilet in 2008, so I never had to sweat being unemployed.  People nowadays will have neither and come out of law school with a much more onerous student-loan repayment future.  A bleak future, to say the least, if those loans are piggybacking them from now until the End Times.

Oh, one more thing to consider when I talk about the "cost" of my law degree.  Its what the scam-bloggers (AKA those folks who blog about the law school "scam") refer to as "opportunity cost."  Essentially, the missed salary I should compute from 1995 to 1998, when I was in school, not earning a living.  I really have no idea what my 1995 BA in English would have been worth on the open market back then and what type of job I was even qualified for, but I think it reasonable to estimate that an average 1995 college graduate in Arkansas could command $20,000 per year starting out.  Hell, that may be too low.  But its a nice round number.  So, at the risk of throwing my "true cost" accuracy out the window by using arbitrary numbers, let's say that I missed out on salary from June 1995 until October 1998 (when I got my first attorney job).  That's 40 months.  At $20,000 per year, that's a gross of $66,666.00.  Take 20% of the top for taxes and that leaves a post-tax net of $53,332.00.  So, yeah, I could have expected to have $53,000 in my pocket from June 1995 through October 1998.  And, mind you, I graduated college with ZERO debt.  No credit cards, nothing.

So, while it is true that my law degree likely over the long haul of my career will result in a higher earning potential, the sunk costs are staggering.  $53K in lost initial earnings and $84K in loan payments.  $137,000 total outlay for the privilege of calling myself a lawyer.  Staggering.


* Although I have not paid them off entirely, I was able to accurately determine how much my final bill will be.  You'll just have to trust me on the figures.  They should be fully paid off by this time next year :)