Happy B-day to you!

Well shes probably going to kill me for using this pic but its the best and cutest close up shot I had of her and although I could have done a crop job on the pic and just included her face I think this is a really cute pic of My darling dear wife. SO as you may be guessing Its my honeys b-day and well I think that should be grounds enough to declaring a national holiday. Thats right instead of halloween it can now be International Lisa Knodel day. What you thought I would just limit her observance to the US??? BAH I think shes amazing enough to be observed the world over. Even in Canada and Madagascar. And yes for those of you who think Madagascar is a place invented for a disney movie YOUR WRONG ITS A REAL PLACE!!!! Sorry anyway so I thought I would help celebrate this great accomplishment with a dedicated blog entry so here we go.

Lisa is the most amazing and wonderfull woman I think I have ever known. She ceases to suprise me on a daily basis and I think she is absolutly wonderfull. She can make me happy just by seeing her smile and she always seems to know if something is bothering me or if I need a hug. In short shes amazing and I feel overly blessed to have her in my life.

SO happy birthday Sweetie. You mean the world to me and I couldnt wake up in the morning without you. You complete me and make me so happy. I love you so much and have a great day. Just to be cute I looked up ways to say happy b-day in other cultures. SO here we go with my favs!

Gaelic (scottish) Co` latha breith sona dhuibh!
german Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
hawaiian Hau`oli la hanau!
japanese Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu!
klingon Quchjaj qoSlIj!
latin Fortuna dies natalis!
maltese Nifrahlek ghal gheluq sninek!
swahili Hongera! or Heri ya Siku kuu!
zulu Ilanga elimndandi kuwe!

Again Happy Birthday Sweeheart!

cheers!

The Results are In!

Ok just in case you were wondering the official results are in for the race and I did a little cut and past so you can see my time

Place Div/Tot  No.   Name           Age Sex City     St Time  Pace
===== ======== ===== ============== === === ======== == ===== =====
569   37/69    1158  CHRIS KNODEL   27  M   FRANKLIN OH 26:35  8:35

Ok so like I said before this is pretty acurate of what I was thinking however my guess that there were like 500 runners was grossely underestimated. Lets try a total of 1925 runners and walkers. WOW that was a huge start. If you want to see the results for yourself check em out here.

Im slow but im not that slow

Well I did it I ran the 5k last night and im happy I did it. Its funny how competing can help you learn more about yourself and thats probably why I enjoy doing stuff like that. SO on to my post race wrap up!

I got to the site about 6pm feeling pretty good and that I had a lot of time and well I was a little wrong. I really wished I had gotten there maybe 15 min earlier as that would have given me some time to do some real stretching but oh well I know for next time. I got my race packet and my shirt which was really nice and a suprise. You dont expect to get a long sleeve fleece sweatshirt for a 15 dollar registration fee but thats what we got. Plus the logo is cool and I think I will actually wear this as opposed to the mountain of event t-shirts that I have never worn after the event. SO I did a little bit of a warm up and then went to the starting line. Well I guess I should say the starting pack b/c I couldnt even see the line. Im guessing there were somewhere around 500 runners and walkers and I think I was probably in the middle of the pack somewhere. This was totally crazy and probably one of the biggest events I have ever been in so that was kinda neat at first. Well they started at 6:30 on the dot but my start was a little delayed. See if you think of it like a traffic jam just because the cops say you can go doesnt mean everyone moves at the same time. SO I would have to say that it was a good 30-45 seconds before I even started to run. yeah thats right some im not sure what my exact time is yet and they have not posted the results so I will have to wait for that bit of intel. SO I will break this into segments from here on out

Mile 1
Feeling really good a little cold but mostly comfortable. The first mile was really spent dodging people and trying to find ways around other slow people which was quite the challenge.

first mile split 8:30ish

Mile 2
At this point the pack had really thinned out and I was feeling good about my pace I had lots of room to move and didnt feel boxed in anymore. I was still passing more people than were passing me which is a good feeling and helps to keep the spirits up. I felt really happy with my first mile split knowing that I probably went under 8 for my first mile and my goal of sub 25 would be reachable if I kept this pace.

second mile split 17:30ish

Mile 3
At this point I was starting to feel very hot and the clothes that I was wearing to run in are meant to keep the heat in and not really breath all that much. The temps were supposed to be upper 30's low 40's so it seemed like a good call and for the first 2 miles I was happy with that but now that I was in mile 3 I was over heating. The cold air was also having its usual effect on me which means I start having difficulty breathing so things started going down hill for me. I also noticed that I was losing ground to the people I had been keeping pace with as well as more people were starting to pass me and I was not really overtaking anyone anymore. I have to say this mile is where I really gave up on myself and started to have difficulties. SO I tried to give myself my usual pep line which is "what if this was the ironman. would you slow down then? would you want to quit?" I suprised myself by instantly thinking "yeah right like Im ever going to do one" SO I was really feeling beaten mentally and then HA HA it started to rain. I told lisa earlier in the day I might not do the run at all as I do not like running in the dark the rain or the cold which is looked like I might get all of these in one run so all that together really started to put me in a downer if ya know what I mean. Also I thought the course was going to go one way and it didnt it made another small loop which added more distance and that hit me hard mentally thinking that I would be done very soon and realizing I still had quite a bit more to do.

3 mile split - unknown no clock at 3 mile mark

race finish

Ok this was the point where everything gets better I mean c'mon who cant run 1 tenth of a mile. SO I had been keeping pace with this one girl and she was in a racoon costume (people were encouraged to dress up) and halfway through mile 3 I decided I was not going to get beat by a girl in a racoon costume so I stayed with her all the way till the end and I had more of a kick then she did so I did manage to beat her. WOOO HOO I beat a girl in a racoon costume! The end of the race was really bad in the the chute was very small and you went from a full on sprint to a dead stop which my body told me it did not like. I did manage to keep it all together but at that moment I realized I probably pushed my body as hard as it was going to go that night. SO I guess that was good. and what you have all been waiting for!!!!

Final time 26:30ish

I was not happy at the time but now the more I think of it im pretty happy. If I adjust that for the start that puts me in the 25 min range which is very close to where I wanted to be. Also this is the first time I have run for a time since my last operation on my leg and my time was better than before I had my operation so thats cool. all in all it figures out to be an avg mile time of somewhere between 8:20-30 which I can live with. Im most dissapointed however in how I gave up mentally with only a mile to go. I think life in general has contributed to my attitude being more negative I just didnt realize how negative it was. SO thats something I need to work on as well.

Well I hope everyone enjoyed getting in my head a little bit with this run. And like I said im really glad I did it and I think im going to start trying to do more of this type of thing again.

well thats all for now
Cheers!

Oh fyi the reason I was bumming about my time is my Personal best for a 5k is 17:41 and my time is light years away from that one. SO it sucks but it takes time to get good again and I just need to be patient.

Not much new

Well its about 8:am and I am at work already but to my despair it is still dark outside. I really dislike the winter time waking up in the dark and having it be an hour or 2 before the sun comes out -- If it comes out -- SO whos ready for an Indian Summer??? I know I am. Well this entry is going no where fas so I will do a quick wrap up of how things are going for me.

Work -- I have officially reached the point where I just dont care and dont feel like making an effort will change anything anyways so my motivation level is nill. ^__^ but im happy with that!

Life in general -- Didnt get to take a day off this week to go climbing which sucked b/c tuesday was about as perfect a day as we could have asked for. I have however gotten to ride my motor bike twice this week down to cinci which means extended ride time and that has been nice. The weather is turning more cold here, I think they said it dropped like 20 degrees from tuesday to wed so that sucks. The weather here never seems to know what it wants to do but it sure enjoys drastic changes! Other than that not much else. Oh I played football again this week but my left quad was really knotted up and still is. I actually resorted to a heating pad last night which feels like it has helped a lot. I have also tried my limited knowledge of deep tissue massage on myself which by itself is difficult but on yourself is really hard to succeed in. Other than that im gearing up for lisa's b-day which is the 31st. I have already purchased many good things for her which I could list off here since she never reads my blog but just in case she does check it I will keep it anonymous. One thing that was frustrating was I ordered her something that we will call x. I ordered x in color y. what I got was a. in color b. a. looks nothing in the world like x. SO I had to call and they said oops yeah we have a wrong number in the catalog so our bad. But I still have to mail back the old one so thats kinda stinky. But once thats done I should be done with my shopping for her. SO thats cool. We really need to start our x-mas shopping which we have not even begun yet. I hate waiting till after thanksgiving as most shopping establishments are filled with instant nut jobs as soon as thanksgiving ends. ITs like on thursday the nation collectively says "Dear Lord thank you for all you have done for us" then on friday the nation turns into a bunch of blood thirsty scavengers saying "no its mine I saw it first" SO anyway the only other thing I got going on is a signed up for a 5k this tuesday. Lisa said she might be able to make it which would mean she could try out her new digi cam and take some action shots of me getting my run on. My goal that I am posting here is to come in under 25 minutes. That would put me right around 8 minute mile pace and I would be happy with that. Ideally I would like to break the 20 minute mark but I dont think I can pull 6's just yet.

Gaming update -- Well I have a ton of games to take back to the game store for trade and I have made my pick on what I am going to get with the credit. Xenosaga. IT looks really cool and should be pretty deep. I am really on the fence about DOA ultimate. I dont know why but Im just totally drawn to this game. I have never liked fighters before but soul caliber really turned me on to it and I think the DOA series is a lot cooler than soul caliber. SO I have been thinking about what I would do while all the girls are in Japan and Im kinda thinking DOA tournament at my house. Could be fun. Even more so if none of us really knows how to play! SO just kicking that idea out now. Other than that I have not gotten a chance to play hardly anything this week. I think I am giving up on .hack I just dont care enough anymore about it and would rather play xenosaga or FFX-2.

Well thats all for now -- Oh missions conference this weekend please come as it makes me look bad if nobody shows up and then I will be sad and well thats not good.

Cheers!

Human Nature

Its funny how human nature instinctively longs to do the things which it knows it should not do. Case in point my last blog entry. I knew that saying "do not post" would elicit many posts. I have deleted 3 so far and let me say that no I am not mad or being anal. I just think its funny and it got me thinking about signs like the one I put up here. Its like if you tell me not to feed the bears it just makes me want to feed them that much more. SO thats what got me on the whole idea of the fastest way to get someone to do something is to tell them not to do it. Ok nobody better even think about giving me a million dollars. If you dare give me a million dollars i''l bite your face off ya got it! (somehow I doubt that will work but hey nothing ventured nothing gained) anyway so that train of thought led me to that wonderfull Episode of Ren and Stimpy where Ren charges Stimpy to guard the history eraser button and to make sure that nobody touches it ever. Why??? Because maybe it will be good, Maybe it will be bad we just dont know. SO in the end the weak minded stimpy gives in and pushes the big shiny candy like button and annihilates the universe. So my question today is this??????? Would you have the will power to not annihilate the universe???? or would you give in to temptation and PUSH THE BUTTON!

Cheers!

Oh side note. Saw war of the worlds. thought the effects were groovy thought the story was crap. HEEELLLOOOO we can exist in the vacum of space which implies we understand the concepts of atmospheres and foreign environments but we never thought to protect ourselves on a foreign planet. Nope I would have been happy if even one of the aliens had on one of those little surgical masks b/c at least it would have said "hey maybe theirs something bad here" but no. SO I guees the question of who sent the dumb aliens from signs to the earth has been answered. IT was the dumb aliens from war of the worlds and if you dont get that its b/c they were both totally stupid about trying to conquer a planet that was extremely toxic to them with no protection. I mean c'mon the aliens from signs were bipedal humanoid. How hard would it have been to break into a sporting goods store and steal a wet suit????? Oh wait those have zippers and they couldnt figure out how to open doors.

yeah so Cheers!

This ends here and now

Ok I feel I am a fairly patient person and that I am not easily angered. Usually it takes that rare type of "special" person to push me over the edge and today that has happened. Below I am going to list a comment put on MY blog. I will then list a response to said comment on MY blog and then that will be it. Any comments that are put in response to this will be deleted as soon as I see them. I dont care from whom they are. I will delete them so please dont even bother writting a comment.

After not being around for a few weeks Gary has popped up on my blog again today and this is what he wrote.

An apology is what I want, then maybe I'll back off. Afterall, all these blogs were started by r. via J. and gave links to all of yours'. I was invited initially on r.'s; then made a few stupid comments, then backed off and wrote him by email. Then came these downright scorns at me and my intelligence. Then, when I apologized none of them were ever accepted. Case over, no-win solution. Get over it Gary / g-unit aka the Riddler.

My response.

Gary I have no reason to apologize to you nor will I. I have wronged you in no way and I feel its arrogant and a threat on your part to demand an apology in order for you to "back off" This is my little crapshack in cyper space and I will post what I want to when I want to. I didnt make this site for you gary and I will not be a victim to cyber threats or cyber terrorism on your part.

Im not sure what you mean when you say "all these blogs were started by r. via J." but again this is wrong. I am a computer network engineer. If you read the top of my blog you would know this. I am capable of at least the same computer skillz as your average 12 year old girl therefore I am competant enough to create my own blog apart from Radar and Jason.

Let me say this very clearly. I dont care about your relationship with radar. I dont care about your relationship with Jason. I dont know you. Therefore my blog is not a valid venue for your bickering and yes a mature adult would realize this. Im sorry that you have ticked off jason and radar enough that they have blocked you from their blogs. Again this is not my problem. Again I dont care. Seriously. I flat out just dont care. SO as I said before stop using my blog as your soap box.

On a Similar note -- If radar and jason do not accept your appoligies how is this my issue. I speak to jason over AIM perhaps once a week as he lives in Japan now and radar and I trade comments on blogs once in a great while. Therefore if you are hoping to woo me and then have me subsequently influence either of them you are sadly barking up the wrong tree.

Now as I write this I see you have just posted another comment. SO I will include that in this post. Thank you for your contributions at the start of your post about games and football. Yes those are on topic. Now as I have said before its a free internet im not going to tell anyone they cant come to my blog b/c well I choose not to. However half way through you have again gone off on your own thing claiming to have brought us all together by your refusing to follow simple netiquette. Im sorry dude but you are really really wrong. I still have absolutely no clue who della is but man im glad you know somebody whos name you can drop. Jason and I have known each other for like close to 15 years so I dont think you can take credit for that one and as far as radar goes I think you have only made him feel bad and apologetic to me b/c of your actions. Not exactly lifelong friend building feelings. Oh and yeah did I mention I still have absolutely no clue who della is??????

and those are the final words that I will post on this. Again. It is my desire for this to be over. therefore any comments would only spark more conversation which is why I will delete any comments that are posted to this entry.

cheers

I feel old

Yeah I feel old. I played football with the youngins of my church on thursday and I hate to admit it but im still sore from it. It is amazing how the older you get even if you stay active the less flexible you are and the longer it takes to recover from stuff. I feel im in pretty good shape and despite the fact that I think I would have made a better water boy than running back I still managed to hold my own and keep up with and even out run a few people during the game. SO I dont feel old in that respect I just feel old that Im still sore b/c Im not used to the type of running you get from playing sports like football or soccer. Oh well I just need to keep doing stuff like this so that I dont get sore again! But Im actually pretty excited b/c its fall like weather which is great for doing stuff outside and im actually doing stuff outside!!! Climbing this week and football and it looks like climbing next week and maybe football as well. SO my heart leaps with joy! And im really looking forward to climbing next week as it should be a little warmer and a little dryer and I think im goign to turn up the intensity a little bit and get a little more gutsy and try some BIG moves. Maybe some dynos (jumps) and what not. SO im stoked. Its a great time of year!

Cheers

Oh to comment on steves comment about finishing a game yeah I know some games I just cant bring myself to finish and others I dont think I ever will but somehow I pick it up a year or so later and finish it. Dr. Muto for xbox is one such game I dont think I will ever play again and I should really trade in. I thought that was the case for Ty the tasmanian tiger but I did manage to finish it like 2 years after I started. I really do need to go through my games and get rid of some stuff that I doubt I will ever play again although the last time I did that I really regretted it so now i just hold on to everything.

SO since I have not done this in awhile I will give a brief game update

First off let me say I am playing a lot of different games right now which is pretty cool!

PS2
-- .hack -- which I have already talked about in some detail. SO far the game is to me very repetitive and the story is really lacking.
-- Wallace and Gromit Project zoo -- so far so good. It can be a bear to control and like I said earlier the camera is totally wonky!

PSOne
-- FFIX -- This game is really growing on me and Im really enjoying it. It starts out really cutesy but I have to say despite the way the characters look they are all in some sort of deep struggle with who they are and where they are. It just leads to a very interesting party dynamic and makes the story and game more fun to me. If only .hack had character development like this I might care about at least one of the characters
-- Silent Hill 1 -- Ok we finished this one a while ago but you know what that means??? Alternate ending time!!! SO far we have gotten the good, bad, and bad+ endings and we still need to get the good+ ending and we might shoot for the ufo ending but that requires and entire run through of the game from start to finish and I dont know if I care that much.

Xbox
-- Fatal Frame 2 -- Ok last week I finally broke this out of the shrink wrap and put it in the ol xbox and I have to say so far its really good. Very creepy and scary and the story is top notch. also If you have never played fatal frame 1 dont even bother with 2. The combat is soooo much harder in 2 then the first and if you are not used to how to play the game you will get SPANKED! Just as an example in FF1 it was about 3/4's of the way through the game when you started getting encounters with multiple ghosts which allowed you some time to get used to fighting just one before you had to deal with a bunch. Well SO far I dont think I have had any enocounters with just 1 ghost. They have all been multiples and they are all really ticked off. SO if you think it looks cool buy #1 play it, beat it, practice and then get 2. Just my suggestion.

Cheers

3-day weekend wrap up!

Ok I actually did some cool stuff this weekend so I thought I would post up about it.

Friday -- Was supposed to go climbing with luke but well lets just say I think somone keeps straightening her hair despite the fact that I told her I would take her climbing so we scrubbed climbing for that day and rescheduled for monday. Sigh I really didnt want to go to work but it was only slightly miserable. ^_^ J/K anyway so on my way home I stopped at borders and got my sweetie a book on PR strategies and what not to help her with her new job. why you ask? Just because and thats the only reason I need! Ok so I was almost home and then I remembered that I was supposed to run another errand. SO I got home finally at like quarter past 5 and ran and changed clothes and got ready to leave again. Where were we going???? why to the little miami football game thats where! Yup part of lisa's job is schmoozing it up with the pipples so we went early so she could talk with some people and hand out some Pro School literature. Ok I was all up for this and thought it would be fun. That is until it was like dark, 50 degrees, and raining. IT was sooooooooooooooooo cold but we managed and GO me I actually had 2 jackets in my car which was really good b/c we did not think it was going to be that cold out. SO we watched a little of the game and we bought SPIRIT WAREZ!!!!! I got a sweatshirt and lisa got this nice jacket so we are ready for any and all Little Miamit events now. SO that was cool and afterward we went with an old co-worker of Lisa's to this little eatery called wild bills in Lebanon. I had one of the best burgers I have ever had and was very very happy with it. SO that was friday

Saturday -- Slept in which was divine! And just kinda bummed around a bit in the morning and played some more .hack . I have to say I still dont care much for it but im at least goign to try and finish it. Then I went to my follow up eye doctor appointment at wal-mart. I know who in their right mind goes to wal-mart for contacts. I do thats who. I used to go to this pretentious snobby place in Oakwood and my Eye Doctor used to be Park Studebaker. Yeah I used your name and you work in the Oakwood Eye Clinic and despite the fact that your staff are nice your selection of glasses suck and your sir are quite the jerk to your patients. Hence the reason I will never go back to you or your establishment despite the fact that it was terribly convienant for me. SO to you I say good day! SO anyway why is walmart cool?? B/c the eye doc actually listened to me and then tried something new each time. SO in short I went through about 5 different sizes / styles of contacts till I got the ones that fit me really really well. Versus Park who said "these work for everyone else I guess maybe your different but I cant see how" what a tool. Anyway SO my past contacts experiance have been psuedo comfortable 1-2 hours. then hours 3-4 are bearable and hours 5-6 are flat out painfull. But with the final pair that walmart got me I left them in for about 25 hours and yes slept in them and was fine. I was feeling a little discomfort around hour 23 but to me thats pretty darn good compared to what I have been. After that I came home and we met Sue to go and see the new wallace and grommit movie. It was awesome. If you like wallace and gromit or chicken run then you will love this movie. Their are soooo many bunnies and I swear they are all cuter then the last bunny. Gromit delivers yet another Oscar winning performance which is truly remarkable as he has zero lines in the movie. He doesnt even bark! Hes just that good. SO its worth a watch if you like claymation and dry brittish humor which I do. After that went home and just did the chill thing.

Sunday -- was pretty normal except Sue is really sick so we didnt go over for lunch - I hope you feel better soon - and we played lots of the wallace and gromit video game that I just picked up. I think its called project zoo and apart from a totally WONKY camera and some at times difficult controls its a lot of fun.

Monday -- Despite the bad omen of rain and overcast Skies Luke and I still went climbing. It wasa a lot of fun and we got to hit three different sites successfully and the 4 one we tried was just really poorly rated and very difficult. neigther of us made it up. But oh well 3 outta 4 aint bad. Luke took some "Sam Fisher" pics so if he sends me those I will post em up. After that we came back and went to a movie with my sweetie. We went and saw "the cave" per lukes suggestion and it was ok. I hear steve hates it and I think thats a bit harsh although I think the movie should be renamed "When stupid people do dumb things" but that could be the title to most any scary/suspence movie. SO it was not bad. Then we ate dinner at max and ermas and that was really really good as well. SO that pretty much sums up my weekend which was pretty nice.

But alas now I am back to reality and working my butt off at the office so whenever you pass a computer think of me!

Cheers!

Overconfidence

Ok first off let me say that this is not the first time I have written a post about this same very topic. SO if there is some overlap oh please will ya forgive me. On the off chance that you wont I have included a pic that will help make things seem fresh and new. ooooohhhhh aaaaahhhhhh
Ok scrub that b/c it wont load my pic. grrr. Anyway It was a very smashingly well done Demotivator poster entitled Overconfidence. And the basic gist is dont take on the world if losing means the worlds gonna crush ya. SO what am I speaking of hmm Oh I dont know could it be Porn. Yes the ugly p word rears its even uglier head yeat again. This morning I got a call that a school was suspicious of an employee and would not give me anything to search on besides and address of a local machine. I assumed porn was a concern as 9 times out of 10 when I get requests like this its porn Oh and if you are wondering the 1 out of 10 was a guy who wanted to know if his people were going to E-Bay. Talk about micro-mgt. Anyway so I did the requested grep on the logs and I could have just sent them on their merry way but they are rather cryptic so I thought I would do some key word searching and see if I could find something. SO whats the first word I try "sex" WOW i gotta hit! then another and another and before too long I think I may have helped sink someones battle ship. Whats amazing isnt that I found the word sex its how incriminating web logs can be. for instance when I did a search for sex I didnt think I would find keyword searches on the internet movie database for lesbian + anal sex. SO I still dont know if this is a dude or a dudette but I did find a lot of searches like the above one through the imdb adult section. SO long story short while this model employee is supposed to be working they were truly in fact trying to find their next skin flick to go rent. SO this comes back to overconfidence and a statement I made a few months ago, that being: If you doing something your not supposed to be doing and your using a computer to do it you will be caught.

Below are my new insights on the matter

1. the Internet is not the free utopia everyone thinks it is, everything and I mean everything leaves a trace no matter what.

2. someone is watching or can watch if asked to.

3. If you want to search for porno flicks or look at porno for the love of pete man go home and do it. If you dont feel like you can look at porn at home then well maybe you shouldnt be looking at porn but if you can then dude for the love do it there. I mean if you cant go 8 hours without looking at porn then the porn is the least of your problems and you got some serious addict action going on.

SO lets sum up and since a recent mathmatically related post of a friend of mine got so much attention of late I will make this into an equation

porn + work = bad stuffs

porn + family = bad stuffs

work + family = good stuffs

so there in this case I fear that from my investigation the individuals results may be something like this

porn + work = -job

and if the family finds out its something like this

port + work + family = -( work + family)

SO again to all the stupid peoples out there who think their computer is the black hole of space and time its not!

Cheers!