Face-lift

Pardon the fluctuating appearances while I experiment with making a few renovations to this place. No major changes to speak of, just a little cosmetic work really. Feedback/suggestions are always welcome.

While I'm at it, here's a few things worth noting:

* A nice little article here on fellow Philosophy major turned running writer, Kenny Moore. He's by far the best wordsmith that fans of this crazy sport have ever read, and for a young buck in the business such as myself, the quality of his work is certainly worth trying to emulate. In fact, at this point in my journalistic running pursuits, it seems Mr. Moore and I have followed a pretty similar path, which is both eery and encouraging to me at the same time. Now I just need to make an Olympic team.

* Speaking of my own journalistic running pursuits, in addition to my current editing duties at work, I'll be taking on a twice-a-month running column for the T&G, which I'm looking forward to immensely. Hopefully, I can help stir up some new excitement in what has become a relatively dormant running community in Central Massachusetts. It will certainly be no easy task, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

* For all the mountain goats out there, I enjoyed this article on your boy Paul Low from Amherst. Say what you want about these ultra-distance mountain running freakazoids, but the bottom line is that this guy trains hard. Very hard. I met him last year after he thoroughly whooped my ass at the Mt. Wachusett Road Race and enjoyed some good conversation as we descended the mountain on an easy cooldown. He's a quality bloke if I do say so myself.

* If you ever happen to find yourself in the Worcester area, visit this place for brunch and be sure to devour an order of pattecakes. You won't be disappointed.

* My latest project outside of the whole running/writing/working realm of things is teaching myself Portugese. I just picked up a book from my neighborhood Barnes & Noble and plan on expanding my linguistic horizons during my post run/mid-morning crash-on-the-couch sessions. The language isn't all that radically different from Italian and Spanish, both of which I already speak, so hopefully I can pick up on things fairly quickly. Who knows, with a little luck maybe I'll be able to charm a beautiful Brazilian girl in the near future. OK, make that a lot of luck.

* I'm not usually one for watching soccer at any level, but this year's World Cup has piqued my interest. Upon collapsing on the futon after my morning runs this week, I've giddly flipped the remote to ESPN and ESPN2 to take in the day's futbol action. I'm fascinated with the passion displayed by the players on the field but perhaps even more so by the fans in the stands cheering for their home countries. They're absolutely nuts - these people truly live for this stuff. Hell, as I was driving home from my run at West Hill this morning I passed an SUV adorned with Brazilian flags and other wacky paraphernelia. Now that's awesome. The games themselves, in my rather uneducated opinion, have been phenomenal thus far. Even though they just squeaked by Croatia in their opener, the boys from Brazil really impressed me with the fluidity of their play. I felt as if I was watching a well-choreographed dance. It was beautiful.

And that's gonna do it for now. Time for some tea and dessert while I watch the Sox attempt to bounce back from last night's 12-inning backbreaker. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

On some days the rain falls hard, on other days it falls gently, and on some days it does not fall at all. But in the final analysis, the process cannot be rushed, and we must wait patiently for the natural order of events to run its course before we can admire the finished product.
- Legendary Japanese coach, Kiyoshi Nakamura, as paraphrased by John Kellogg in Kemibe's Run Strong (with that being said, buy the book)