In Excess of 19 Minutes with INXS

MORE snow all night long, all of this morning, and into the afternoon. Man, yesterday twas suhhhhhhh-nny -- sunglasses all day for everyone, I'm sure. No one needs shades today... unless you just wanna look cool, that is. But you'd also look lame considering how wicked overcast it is. There are some serious snow clouds up there. It's not dumping but steadily lightly falling enough to, so far, in the past 12 hours, accumulate about an inch+. Ain't no sign of lettin' up either. Makes for some fun drivin'! And I've gotta say, snowstorms like this when it's 24° above zero (about -4° C) really ain't bad. When it's 24 below zero -- uhhh, that's a little crazy. But this is nice and even enjoyable.


Another night shift last night. That's okay, I volunteered for two weeks of 'em -- 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. with 36 hours off in between.

Went out to breakfast after my shift this morning... an immensely rare thing for me as it's just a waste of money when I can eat breakfast for a buck or two when cooking in my kitchen. Got some chores done and then finally at noon I hit the University for a run... had to work off all those friggin' calories and carbs from pancakes plus all the fat in the tons o' bacon I consumed. Mmmmmmm..... baaaaaa-con.

Now after my run and like 4 hours now since my shift was over, I'm wide awake but I need to be catching some Zzzzzzzz's instead of sleeping, you know, at night. Day = sleep. Night = awake for work. No work tonight but yes on work tomorrow night... so I've gotta stay on the same sleeping schedule. Oi!

Thursday Noontime Run: 19 minutes 1 second

+3 sec · indoors ·

XXXXXXXX+++++++ 36 sec +++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time March: 1 hour 15 minutes March: 3 hours 57 minutes February: 3 hours 11 minutes

4th run in 10 days. Good but bad. Good but not good enough. At least I decided to get there! Kinda feels like my drive to get runs in is down this month compared to last. Feelin' good though. I always feel good after running but I don't think I can even remember the last time I've had a bad run! That's a good thing! I love exclamation marks. (Even though I didn't use one there.) Anyway... lookin' forward to my next run, as I usually always am! I don't know why more people don't wanna be healthier... if they only knew the benefits and had the drive to actually do it. Too bad.

Running tunes came from my album of the day...
	INXS self-titled debut 1980
On A Bus Doctor Just Keep Walking Learn To Smile Jumping In Vain Roller Skating Body Language Newsreel Babies Wishy Washy

It was all downhill after this for INXS! Well, maybe not really. Often a debut album is a band's best work and then anything that follows, even if it's great, can never really top that first collection of tunes. Not true for INXS but what is true about this album is -- man, it's different! Most people know Kick and X from the late 80's-early 90's: great albums those are, thought by many to be the best INXS ever got. This 1980 debut is so far away from that! Some tunes here have very much of a Ska sound along the lines of English bands Madness and The Specials from the same era. This early stuff is also a lot more New Wave than what INXS would later turn into. I wish I coulda been on the Sydney scene back then to see them in small pubs... what a difference than in front of 12,000 people in an American arena.

	dload @ 320 kbps
	INXS: self-titled debut (1980)

mp3 download 320

Tiiime Keeps on Slippin' Slippin' Slippin', Into The Fuuuu-ture

It's perplexing to me where the hell time goes. All of a sudden we're already a week away from February? You've gotta be kidding me. Seriously? This is not a good thing. Time goes by too fast without truly accomplishing what I want to get done. And then soon it'll be March and then Summer and then September and... and good God, it's got to slow down!!!

Of course it won't though. Even working (a 12-hour shift) basically only every other day and a half, I still feel like I don't have the time to stop and make plans for the future -- a trip to Africa including two weeks volunteering in a medical clinic and a few days in NYC both before departing JFK and when returning to the continent, a roadtrip Outside including the SF Bay Area... okay, well, those are my two primary journeys for 2008. Also perpetually on my mind is a trip to northeastern China (and sneaking into North Korea,) and Turkey & Iraq to see about kayaking the Tigris River down to the Persian Gulf, and then a trip to Eastern Europe specifically to go to Auschwitz.

And then there's my desire to escape America at Christmastime. I want to go to some remote island that doesn't resemble the United States, where people aren't overtaken by the "need" to give so selfishly to themselves and their families while driving crazily around like busy acid-tripping mad Tasmanian devil-Hungarian banshee hybrids caught in a blender with a jipagillion tons of wrapping paper and stick-on decorative bows.

Yes, to escape that from now on and to leave the hell that is Christmas behind, that is my wish, hopefully beginning this year. And again, that would be a journey which would give me a few great days in NYC before departing JFK and when I return (unless I go somewhere in the Pacific and depart from SF or LaLaLand.)

Anyway, it's now almost February
and what am I getting done?

Zilch.

And having today off, what will I get done to accomplish anything related to my international travel ideas? Nothing. I'm going snowmobiling.

Friday Morning Run: 16 minutes 47 seconds	(+12)
·indoors·

Run Time - January:

2 hours 39 minutes

Pure hell.

First run since Monday morning -- four days have elapsed and again I have to curse myself for allowing that to happen. What's wrong with me?! I've got to care MORE about my health than to run twice in 5 days.

Woke up way early this morning intending to drive to the Rec Center and then come back to my house to get ready for work at 9 a.m.. Well, about a minute into my run I was hit by a ton of bricks -- OH YEAH!!! I remembered that I switched my schedule to work Saturday instead of today. D'OH!

Finished my run, adding on 12 seconds from Monday, and, well, it wasn't easy out there, at least the second half or so.

On the 0 to 10 Scale...

10 being Death.
9 is a certain collapse requiring hospitalization...

today was about a 7.5 to an 8. Pure hell.

When I hit my end cue I had to stop moving, put hands on knees, and huff and puff for about a half a minute before I could move again in a slow walk around the track for a song or two before I was ready to leave. Maybe I didn't really have to stop and huff and puff... but that's what I felt like doing and I did.

It's been a little over an hour since my run and I feel great now! But that was tough. I don't know why. That's kind of bothersome. Why some days are relatively easy and others are not. I fueled up, I've had enough sleep, nothing out of the ordinary. Strange.

Still very unhappy with my frequency of running. Just pathetic. I've really got to kick it up a notch in the January homestretch... but like always -- better to run just 30 minutes in 4 or 5 days than to not run at all.

Running tunes from
the album of the day...31 sec

INXS

Full Moon,
Dirty Hearts

1993





Days Of Rust
The Gift
Make Your Peace
Time
I'm Only Looking
Please (You Got That...) [w/Ray Charles]
Full Moon Dirty Hearts [w/Chrissie Hynde]
Freedom Deep
Kill The Pain
Cut Your Roses Down
The Messenger
Viking Juice

There was once a time when getting the new INXS album was a special event. Well, at least twice with Kick and X. Then life changed and I stopped caring so much about them. Their old tunes are still as great as ever to listen to. But what about listening to an album of theirs as if it's brand new? Man, just isn't the same anymore. This CD is one that I have never before listened to until this week. Others I've heard over a 100 times each... but never this. Perhaps part of the problem with Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is it's just not as good as their older stuff. Duets with Ray Charles and Chrissie Hynde? I like 'em both alright but on an INXS album? Kinda weird.

Overall it's an okay bunch of tunes, certainly not bad. There are a few pretty good songs on here that could be included on an INXS mix. Even though I still dig listening to this band from Down Under, this album from them just isn't one that I can listen to over and over much like Kick and X and Listen Like Thieves.

320 kbps dload @ Mussiqa
dead link, sorry