My new phone takes much nicer pics

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Originally uploaded by teddow24.

Superman goes anime

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Originally uploaded by teddow24.

My race results

I just saw the website and noticed that I came in 10646 place. Which means I have to run about ten minutes faster next year if I want to finish in the top 10,000 and get my name printed in the Chronicle. With more training I totally know I can make it.

My Bay to Breakers weekend

A couple months ago I signed up to do the bay to breakers race in San Francisco. I did the run last year and had a real good time. Well, the day after I signed up is when the accident at work happened so I really haven't been up to the run because I really wasn't up for it after everything. The race was last weekend and up to the end of saturday I really wasn't sure if I was still going to do it. The reasons being the high gas prices and my lack of income, etc. After talking to my sister on saturday I thought "why not" and went for it.
Now everytime I visit my sister in SF I always have trouble with the parking. Each time parking turns into a thirty minute drive around the neighborhood. Since the race runs right out front of my sisters place and the city closing down those streets, I thought it would be even more difficult. So I tried something that I have thought about for a while. I took the subway of BART to the city. There is a station in Richmond that you can park overnight that I have used before. I rode in problem free and met my sister in downtown. We had some lunch and decided to see The DaVInci Code. We went to two cinemas and all the shows were sold out. I guess despite the protesters out front people still went and saw it. So instead we just went back to her neighborhood for some drinks. We met her friend Becky and barhopped a few places which was fun. I didn't get to sleep late and I still had the race early in the morning.
I woke up at about 5:30 in order to catch the bus to the downtown starting area. If you are serious about running it and want to avoid the massive crowd this is a good idea. I got to start near the front. Last year I started further back and didn't cross the finish line until about 14 minutes after the race had started. Yesterday I crossed right at 8 o'clock. The other reason to get there so earlier is partaking in all the pre race events. That mostly consists of throwing tortilla's and beach balls up in the air. A couple of us turned that into "try and throw the tortilla's into the stop lights". We weren't having much luck, but alot of close calls.
The race started and I ran the first mile and a half. My goal was to beat my time from last year which was around 1 hour and 54 minutes. I was in much better shape last year so I didn't think that I could do it. I tried to finish the rest of the race running as much as I could but my legs weren't going along with the idea. So I battled them the last couple miles and finished at 1 hour and 42 minutes. I beat last years time by fifteen minutes! After the race ended and I stopped running my legs just quit on me. I could barely walk. I limped to the footstock festival to pick up my shirt and then over to the shuttle to the starting area. From there I took a cab back to my sisters.
I met up with John who is my sisters boyfriend and after a shower and drink, we went back downtown to go to the movies. I eventually saw The DaVinci Code and overall I thought the book was much better. Maybe it was the pain in my legs or knowing all the plot twists, but it just didn't have the whole great movie feel. It's still good, but I think they could have done it better. Afterwards we got some lunch and I headed back to the subway to get to my car to and head home. On the drive home I did something that I never done before. Probably due to not sleeping the night before and running the race in the morning, I started to feel myself going to sleep. I still had a long way to go. So I pulled over at a closed vegetable stand and took a quick 20 minute powernap. What a feeling! That gave me enough energy to get home, where I quickly went to bed.

Hard to believe

It's hard to believe that it has been almost eight years since that July summer day. Recently I attended a banquet in the debut of this wall. It's located in the Nevada County Probation Dept. lobby, to serve has a reminder to the people who visit. In case you don't know, my grandparents are located on the top row in the middle.

My drug of choice

My drug of choice
Originally uploaded by teddow24.

My week.

This week I can honestly say has been the worst week I have ever been through. I've had my share of bad breaks in the past, but this last week certainly tops all of them. It started on monday. I arrived at work to find out that we were a couple drivers short and there would be a open recycling route. This is not unusual, as I have been through this before. It just means that I must hustle a little harder to get finished in time, so I can help cover the open route. I came upon a customer who had their stuff out on the opposite side of the road. In this situation I am supposed to not get it, but rather drive down to the end of the road, turn around and get that side. This is my usual method of operation, but that day I decided to cut my time a bit to get done that much faster. That was my big mistake.
While crossing the road to get to the customer, someone veered around my truck and into the other lane. While I was jogging across the road, I saw her at the last possible second and jumped back. She quickly slowed down and turned to the left, but there was not enough room and she struck me with her truck on my left side. At first I didn't realize what happened and continued with the emptying of the recycle container. A woman driving behind her stopped and asked if I was ok. She mentioned that she had been following that driver down the hill and noticed she was driving pretty unsafe. I said I was ok, and she continued down the road, not before giving the woman a honk. The woman who hit me stopped her car and got out to talk to me. She asked if I was fine as well and I replied yes. I honestly didn't feel anything. I asked her how her truck was and she didn't care, just if I was ok. I ran up to her truck and noticed that the right side mirror was now embedded into the door, and the windshield was cracked. This is when I realized what happened. I had been hit by a truck! Right then my whole left side started to hurt. I guess I was in a bit of shock. Trying to remember what to do, I contacted my work over the radio, telling them a quick version of what happened. They were sending some one out quick. Another motorist stopped and came up to me. I'm not sure if she saw what happened or not, but she knew I had been hit. She called 911 for a ambulance and I contacted my dispatcher telling her the new news. Everything else happened fast. My supervisors and the amblance showed up quick and I was off to the emergency room. I have never been in a ambulance before so I wasn't sure what to expect.
At the hospital I was told that I had some bruised ribs. Luckily nothing was broken. Now, because I didn't follow the rules and I crossed the street I was suspended for a few days. I needed the few days to recover anyway. I had a feeling my dicipline would get worse and it did as I was let go on friday. It wasn't much of a suprise.
So know I am forced to look for a new job. Anyone have any leads?

I got some big changes ahead of me....

I'll write a update of my terrible, horrible week later. For now enjoy a movie I made last summer.

The World Baseball Classic

I'm not to sure what you're up to on this fine saturday, but I'm going to be watching the final four of the WBC. Even though the USA are out, there is still some great baseball left. I'm currently watching the Domincan Republic/Cuba game, but I can't wait for the next game of Korea/Japan. The last time those two teams it ended with Korea planting the Korean flag on the mound after there victory. How cool is that?