Great Wall Marathon Playlist

3 am tonight, the bus leaves for the race. 10.30pm now, and i'm frantically trying to throw songs onto my mp3 player. 

Here's what it looks like so far. 

1. Chill out tracks as compiled by Snow Patrol.

2. Chill out tracks as compiled by Underworld

3. Wilco - A ghost is born

4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - some loud thunder

5. Pavement - crooked rain crooked rain

6. Primal Scream - screamadelica 

7. some electronica tracks by me (i know its uncool to listen to yr own music, but i always find it interesting to revisit now and again)

8. a bunch of mandarin lessons. 

i don't really do "new music" anymore. Kinda outta the loop. And the classics are better for running anyhow...

Epiphany

Wow. I can't believe it took 37 years of life before someone showed me lightning in slow mo.

Run Run Run (Take a drag or two)

I joined a running group.
They run f'ing early every Saturday morning.
Sometimes they run up a mountain on Sunday.
They run barefoot in a field a lot.
They record you sprinting and analyze the footage.
They're pretty much all foreigners.
They're a rather friendly bunch.

i joined 'cause i need to get more in shape before the great wall marathon.
And then i signed up for a race in the grasslands of inner Mongolia.
Might do the BJ marathon too, later.
Why not.

Missed registration for the 10k race that started in Tiannanmen Sq this morning.
So took the new subway to the end of the line to explore and run bk home.
Thought it'd be 20k.
But it was actually over 40k.
Oops.
Stops included, it took 7 hrs before i got bk.
Yay.

Also, believe it or not, ever since Europe last yr, my gut's been a tad bigger than it oughta be.
But for now, i do fit into my pants again.

Going Home

So i've been thinking. 'Cause my parents are getting older. My dad likes to say he's in his sunset years, and it won't be too long before he hits his 8th decade.

And my parents came out last fall, which was great, and quite nice of them to take that trip on their own shoulders. i think i should be a better son and spend more time w/ them, despite my own enviro efforts to avoid flying.

Well the iching never lies. (Really, if you ever have an unsolvable problem, the iching is your inexorable connection w/ the Universe. So i asked it if i should visit my parents this year. It said:

13. People Together

People together in the open country.
Progressing.
It is beneficial to cross the big river.
Benefiting the noble one's persistence.

Together with people in a neutral place (not a passionate connection with someone). There is progress. This is a good time for big undertakings. It benefits one's objectives.

(No changing lines.)

She don't get more clear than that. So i guess i'll be heading back to Canada sometime before 2013.