Just realized that I have been so busy that I haven't ever blogged about RuncastTV.. promise to make a start tomorrow...tonight I want to write a short statement about being on "The Runners Roundtable" again I will do a proper write up tommorow.
First I just want to thank Steve, Toni, Nik and Dan for making me feel very welcome, it was an incredible thrill to be on the show and also thanks to all that took the time to listen and didnt switch off half way.
Thats all I really wanted to say tonight but I would just like to add that I spoke at one stage about the future of RuncastTV and my ideas for an iPhone/mobile phone app. If you heard this then you may be interested in this video and that I have decided that my next challenge is to make this Runner app "fantasy" a reality :-)
This video shows that it can be done and I have already worked out how this app works - if you like games then think First Person Shooter...but replace shooter with GPS enabled Runner.
This post is two weeks late but I have finally managed to stop and write this up.
On the the 10th of October I was lucky enough to get down to London to catch the back end of the FOWA event at Excel and see the live recording of my favorite video Podcast "Diggnation". The video clip at the top of this post is not the live recording of Diggnation it is instead a Keynote speech by Kevin Rose on "the future of the News".
I posted this video because it shows Kevin in a different light to the bloke sat on the coach next to Alex. Diggnation is cool because it offers a weekly escape into the web in an hour long show. However it really offers nothing in the way of substance apart from the odd Mac rumor or web tip and is seen by many as a waste of time. Kevin and Alex come across as very ignorant to many topics and Kevin quite often displays a level of arrogance that is quite off-puting as he sails the sea of Diggs in his over inflated ego.
At the end of the FOWA after-show party, I actualy got to spend sometime in his company anddiscovered that hes actually very cool and nothing like the person I expected. The impression I had previously formed was totally wrong, and that goes for all the Revison 3 guys I met that night.
For the best part of the night I actually didnt even bother to try to speak to any of them, the venue was rammed. Instead I got to spend a quality hour in the company of Blanie Cook (Twitter) and other cool people. It actually wasn't until I was outside the FOX club at the end of the night, making my way back to the hotel that I got chatting to a guy who turned out to be Dave Prager (Revison 3). I had never seen Daves face, even though I knew his name and found it nuts that we were chatting totally by accident , however that was nothing compared to how crazy it was as we walked around the corner to see Kevin waiting for Dave.
When I say waiting he was actually stood with some young girl who I mistook for his girlfriend ( he hasn't got a girlfriend) and it turns out it was a groupie making a pass at him. The problem was, because I thought it was his girlfriend I thought nothing of just walked over and said hi. It was at this point (in retrospect) that I conclude that Kevin Rose is a cool guy because he actually stopped to talk to me and as a concequience the girl walked off into the night (probably in a strop). If he had been an ego-maniac as previously thought he would ignored me for his prize, but he didnt and we started to chat about skate boarding and stuff- totaly random.
Now at this stage I did not know what had just happened and continued chatting and then other people started to arrive Hippy Glen and some other guy who proceeded to invite me to a party. Problem was I had had a few too many beers by this stage and didnt quite catch the full situation, before I knew it we were wondering around the docklands trying to find this party, me and the Revison 3 guys. As we walked and I told Glen how small he was , and made chit chat I started to realised several disturbing things:
These were not my friends! Even thought I recognized them!
I was drunk!
Kevin was telling the other Diggnation boys how amazing the girl was and then told them how I had scared her off!
I HAD scared of the girl, because I think she took kevin speaking to me as a sign that he wasn't interested in her...but by the way he was talking I think he was!
I had just insulted Glen by telling him he was smaller in real life...I thought I was being cheeky but he looked upset!
I had been invited to a party by a complete stranger who was no where to be seen!
Were they still going to the party!
I had nothing to say to anyone!
We were walking in circles ...were they trying to loose me... Probably!
It was at this point that a horrible feeling of paranoia came over me and I decided to say good bye. I went back to my hotel and passed out!
And that was that...the night may have gone on to be so much fun, - Yeah right but in retrospect I needed my own friends for that not an adopted family. The Revison 3 guys were all very cool and I think a little taken back bye our (Brits) enthusiasim towards them. The next day I caught a Twitter post from @dlprager inviting anyone in the area out for beers at some pub in London, so I guess their hospitality was for real.
I guess then the Revison3 guys are slightly misunderstood, they are an adopted family and like most families slightly dysfunctional. Only today it was announced that certain shows are being axed on the network (Sad times). It may seem that they own the internet because thats the reality we choose to exist within. The truth however is they don, its a house of cards and they are just as vunerable as any of us and as the economy shrinks they will become even more dependent on the support of their community. I notice Kevin is now responding to peoples Tweets even thought he hasn't excepted my apology (but he did let me know that his favorite Skateboarder was Rodney Muller- (Props)). So I think we will start to see a more human side to them, a side that was always been there but has maybe been slightly hidden. If they want to be the future of News ...they need to start listening!
{ Which they do... but may be a little bit more! - Twitters one thing but I am actually making direct reference to Kevins smash and grab approach to Seesmic - check the link www.seesmic.com - one very good post- 15 or so well presented responses but no follow up from Kevin }
I have hundreds of things to post, so much seems to be happening at the moment." NO BAILOUT", "Kevin got robbed", "my trip to Bristol", "The passing of someone cool on a social network", "The The Commandments of Twitter" and "Runcasts". These are all potential topics but instead I have chosen to post another Video. I have a million things to blog and it seems like I havent got the time to digest and submit.
I have instead decided to post another video clip from You Tube. If you decide to watch this please stick with it, I am not a fan of Di Vitio and I have know Idea who the other guy is but I trusted the source. Watched it and it was awesome...I totally understand exactly its point.I must send thanks to @frebro, my pal from Twitter. All I ask is that if anyone does watch this and likes it follow him and and a cool thing would be to tweet the word "props" to @frebro.
I am going to be very lazy and post a clip from my second favorite new website called Seesmic. I see so much potential with Seesmic therefore I have decided to post this as a teaser to tempt people onto the site for to view the spectacle for themselves. The video clip describes an event taking place on Thursday, I have no idea what will happen but I think this is a example of the cool types of things that are going on at the website.
Check out the clip and if your not shy then sign up, its the next step on the march of our social evolution.
TimeFrame Exhibition on Seesmichttp://www.christinielsen.com/html/events.html
What ever your sport, mission or purpose you need the fuel to get the maximum output from the Human body you have been blessed with. As part of this blog I will from time to time post a recipe, snack or a meal that has made it into my repertoire of culinary cuisine, I am going to start with "Oatcakes" (thanks Kelownagirl for asking the question).
What are Oatcakes?
Wikipedia says : An oatcake is a type of cracker or pancake, made from oatmeal, and sometimes flour as well. Oatcakes are cooked on a griddle.
Oatcakes may be more familiar to Americans in the form of their cousin, the Johnnycake, made of cornmeal, often cooked on a board, shovel, or even stones, just as the Scottish did in the past.
Oatcakes are widely considered to be the national bread of Scotland, and have held that position for many centuries. They are made almost entirely of oats, the only cereal to flourish in northern Scotland. Traditionally, each community had its own mill to grind oats from local crofts and supply oatmeal for every household. These oats formed the Highlanders' staple diet of porridge and oatcakes.
Scottish soldiers in the 14th Century carried a metal plate and a sack of oatmeal. According to contemporary accounts, one would heat the plate over fire, moisten a bit of oatmeal and make a cake to"comfort his stomach. Hence it is no marvel that the Scots should be able to make longer marches than other men."
We also have some other types of Oatcake here in the UK but personally I dont bother with these, I just like the Scottish type. My Favorite are the ready made type by a company called Nairns and if you can buy a pack I would recommend you do so their link is nairns-oatcakes.com. If you cant gethold of these dont fear I have dug up this old Scottish Recipe, its apparently the same used to keep the soldiers moving whilst marching in the Scottish Highlands (...serves two Soldiers).
Ingredients:
» 60g/2oz/one quarter cup medium oatmeal, plus extra for sprinkling in step 6. » 60g//2oz/one quarter cup wholemeal (whole wheat) flour. » ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. » A pinch of salt. » A tablespoon of lard. » 5 tablespoons of boiling water.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C or 400°F or Gas Mark 6.
2. Grease a baking tray and line with greaseproof paper.
3. Melt a tablespoon of lard over a medium heat until it has completely melted.
4. Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and add a tablespoon of melted lard and five tablespoons of boiling water.
5. Mix together using a round bladed knife until a dough forms.
6. Sprinkle a surface with oatmeal and place the dough on it.
7. Cut the dough in two and place one piece aside.
8. Shape the half into a round and roll it out using a rolling pin until it is about half a centimetre thick.
9. Cut as many oatcakes as the shape allows and place them on the baking tray.
10. Place the offcuts aside and repeat steps 8 and 9 with the other half.
11. Mould all the offcuts into a ball and repeat steps 8 and 9 once more.
12. Place the oatcakes into the hot oven for 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
13. Remove the oatcakes from the oven and place them on a cooling rack.
Thats it; quite simple really, you can top them with what ever topping you want or eat them naked, its up to you.
I have been reading a book called the "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. In it he describes how trends go from ideas to epidemics, its a great book and well worth a read if you get a chance.
One of the ideas that he throws out is the concept of "150" max for a social group. He says that if a crowd becomes bigger than this then it stops functioning due to the complexity. I am currently following around 140 people on Twitter and I am now starting to struggle, yet not all of them are active.
If I had 140 active uses I would probably sink under all the tweets, therfore this week I am going to investigate my Twitter crowd and hopefully next week I will have a meaning full post on the subject.
My aim is to find out, if anyone else has posted anything regarding guidelines on Twitter usage, and hopefully create a 10 commandments of Twitter post. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them.
"I am breaking down, physically, mentally and economically" .
My overtrained body has kicked in its defenses, I lost just under 12 lbs in 4 weeks by ramping up my training, cutting back on alcohol and restricting carbohydrate intake after 6pm. It seemed to work for a while but the last few days I have been grounded and now I have stopped my muscles seem to have given up. Stiff joints, cramps that wake me up from my restless sleep and now the most annoying pain in the neck (I know where the old cliche gets its fame).
As well as all this I have noticed that dramatically cutting down on the Carbs causes your mind to play tricks on you. I have been plagued by a "Doom Cloud" as the world seems to have gone crazy and I cant for the life of me work out if its real or a manifestation of carb starvation.
Therefore I have decided to get a grip and chill out, its time to take a breather. My individual March has come to a brief stop, to give myself to take stock. I will reduce my running back to 4.5 miles, re-introduce a small quantity of Carbs to my main dinner and may even have a glass of wine with my dinner!
Therefore as I feel I have reached my lowest ebb, and as the world seems to be doing the same I have decided to conclude this post by bringing your attenion to a video from the artist Sean Williams. This is a collaboration track with NIN artist Trent Reznor and they are coverering the classic U2 track "Sunday Bloody Sunday", within its frames they have captured a small whisp of the "Doom Cloud".
Anyhow I am of to get jacked up on rice pudding (the new Prozac), catch you later.
I woke up this morning and realized I had spent the night dreaming about funny white humanoid characters, I think - induced by yesterdays late night blog post. Now these types of dreams are not a new thing, my dreams are usually very very surreal. Therefore because of this I quickly dismissed these thoughts and chose instead to go to work.
On route I decided to play a few songs on my Ipod, and one song was by the amazing british band UNKLE. It was at this point that I remembered the video for "Eye for an Eye" which seem to match the content of my dream perfectly. Now this was either a case of synchronistic or my subconscious passing on some sort of message.
Therfore because this revelation had bubbled its way from the depths of my mind it therefore seemed a waste use it for todays post, especially as it seems to fit well with the theme of the last post and in keeping with the overall persona I want this blog to have.
I hope you enjoy this little video, from the studio that produced "Spirited Away" this is a exert from Mononoke a story about Ashitaka a warrior who sets out too find a cure for an evil curse. A truly magical little clip and accompanied by music from Royksopp who are one of my favorite bands, I do believe this the to be a perfect mash-up 10/10.
I need to thank Diore255 for posting this on YouTube,
Also need to give credit to Renato for briging this clip to my attention
La Machine which was a Giant Spider called La Princess was incredible. It changed the whole way I look at the city of Liverpool, the city I have spent most of my life.
The company responsible ARTICHOKE are a British/French colabaration who do large scale spectacles of this kind. THEY ARE AWSOME. They represent an Idea that I whole heartly believe in and therefore I wanted to post a short entry dedicated just to them.
In 2006 they staged an event in London called the "The Sultans Elephant" which left the city spellbound much in the same way La-Princess left Liverpool. I have therefore included a clip, which in-itself is breathtaking (I can only image how amazing it would be to see it with my own eyes).
I ask that anyone who reads/watches try and keep the name of this company in mind (ARTICHOKE). I expect that with the quality they produce they will be in demand and may come to a city near you at some point in the future. Therefore I would encourage everyone to go and see them if you get the chance. I missed them when they came to London and now I know what they are all about I wont be letting that happen again.
This is a short clip that I filmed of "La Princess"...I have had problems with my video camera so this is just a teaser clip for my fully edited version. I hope you feel as uncomfortable watching this as I did filming it!
Last week when i posted my spoof of the morris-men I had now idea how many other people where thinking exactly the same thing. I have therefore collected another three clips for your amusement. This is not going to be a regular thing but I had to post these as its an example of the collective consciousness in action.
I hope the organizers of the 2012 Olympics are paying attention..this stuff is British and therfore needs to be SHOWCASED @2012.
One of the problems being a Tech-nomad is that its very difficult to do all the things you want to do. I have lots of mini projects, locked away in my mind but I never seem to be able to get all the things in the right place at the right time to do them. Its mainly because I am always on the move and even though I take as much with me as possible, I always seem to forget something or something fails to work. The latest failure is my mobile broadband, It just cant handle video upload and hence knackered the post I had been planning the last few days.
I am moaning because I had planned to post some video footage, which I have been very excited about (No, not those stupid Morris Dancers) . The footage which I am referring too, was filmed during an amazing event which took place in Liverpool (UK) last weekend the 4th,5th,6th and 7th of Sept, in which "La Machine" a 60ft tall 37 tonne Mechanical Spider crawled around the city. I captured quite a lot of the event on camera. My plan had been to upload my own personal account of the event but unfortunately 3G just cant handle my Video upload demands.
Therfore I will save my full review untill the weekend and upload my video when I get back to the Mother-ship on Saturday.
However...thanks to the wonders of Web2.0 I can post a link to someone else's video ( a clip I found on YouTube which is probably better than anything I filmed ...but we will have to wait and see). Hopefully for anyone who followed my tweets on Twitter over the weekend this video should help fill in the blanks that I struggled to comunicate in 140 character bursts.
Its 2008, Liverpool is over halfway into its "City of Culture Year" and this weekend saw the highlight of the year. Touted as the centerpiece of the celebrations, yes this weekend the city was under the magic spell of "La Machine" a giant spider that is currently still romping through the cities streets.
To coincide with this spectacle a limited number of people were also given the very special treat of witnessing the first public performance by the "Morris-men"... the bookies favorites to be the key component at the 2012 Olympic Opening ceremony.
To qoute one bystander "These guys are awesome, death defying and I would describe as more stunt men, than dancers".
With memories still very much alive in our minds of the fantastic showcase that was the Beijing Opening ceremony, the "Morris-Men" promise to deliver in London. I am sure you will agree that given the chance these guys are going blow the world away.
Two things to note :Unfortunately I had some technical problems with my camera so I was unable to capture all the audio, therefore I have used a downloaded version from iTunes of the actual music that was being played.
Also, I must warn you that the Morris-Men are using real Weapons and in the intrests of "Health and Safety" I advise anyone watching this clip, not to try and recreate anything you see here at home.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy!
(WARNING : THIS CLIP DOES GO ON A BIT...ITS ABOUT 6 MINS LONG..THEREFORE DONT FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE WHOLE THING... MORRIS DANCING IS A BIT REPETITIVE AND AFTER A ABOUT 40 SECONDS YOU HAVE SEEN IT ALL)
Ok, I hope you enjoyed the little video, I didnt film it but it was the recorded at Wembley stadium on Sunday 31/08/08 at the Nike Human Race 10K London. I thought this would be a good way to officially define the start my "New" blog. I didnt get to film the video (they stopped me taking my camera into the stadium) but I did get to take this photo (on my sneaky camera phone). I took this photo waiting for the start of the event and this is the image I had seen in my minds eye prior to the event. You should be able to see the similarity to the penguin photo from my previous post.
So what is the NIKE+ HUMAN RACE ....To quote the spiel:
"On 08.31.08, Nike is making a statement like no other before. Nike is putting on the World’s Largest Running Event. The 10k event will be the ultimate runner experience. By combining our digital running world with the physical, the Nike+ Human Race is open to anyone, anywhere. Nike is hosting race events in 25 cities around the world, but by logging into nikeplus.com, every city and every road can become a race-day course".
This is my race report from one of the city events that was hosted in London. I will do this by writing about the Good the Bad and the downright Ugly aspects to this event, followed by my conclusion....lets start with the Good!
THE GOOD
The music was mostly fantastic, and a great way to start the event. Moby was incredible considering I expected him to be slightly rubbish. The highlight was Carl Craig a DJ from Detroit who was amazing, it was such a perfect moment for me a music geek to be stood on the hallowed Wembley turf dancing to Techno as part of a warm up for a 10k. It really got you pumped up and ready to go.
The course was good , a bit tight in parts and slightly undulating but all in all it was quite a comfortable run and the finishing straight towards the Wembley Arch was a superb way to end.
The Free Tees, the Dry Fit running top was a high quality garment and very comfortable to Run in . The long sleeved thermal at the end was an extra bonus that ensured I got back to the car nice and warm.
The Technology behind the scenes it was providing real time reporting of all the race data, not just in London but all over the world . Being a geek, getting this live feedback was a real boost. It was like Nike+ but for the whole of London, I could compare my own time to that of the national average and see how it compared to all the other runners worldwide.
My Time...50:35. Quite chuffed about this. Considering its my first 10k in over 2 years and I got almost exactly the same time as the last one. Considering I am about 1 stone heavier and currently have a bit of an ankle injury I am really pleased.
Paula Radcliffe this was the highlight of the day, Paula straight back from the olympics ran in the Forth and final wave. This was my wave and as only about 1000 people where in this wave with a bit of speed and manouvering I managed to breifly run along side her for about 200 yards. It was a real privilage and something I will remember for a long time. She finished the race in just over 40 mins and thats 2 mins faster than my PB. If I had been at the top of my game I may have been able to keep up with her and therefore could have ran a lot of the race in her company that would have been really good but it didn't happen. Definately a motivator to get back to the top of my game.
Ok now for The Bad...
Pendulum, The worst Dance band ever, they were awful.I think they made my ears slighty bleed, I never want to hear their music again (sorry to any fans but come on).
Stupid Rules: I am currently carrying a minor injury because I couldn't race to my full potential, I had therefore decided I would take my Video Camera to document the event. Unfortunately when I arrived at the stadium they searched my bag and told me I couldn't take the camera in. This may not have been official Nike policy and instead a stadium thing but it left a sour taste in my mouth
The Tee Shirts: I loved my Tee and was wearing it with pride... but when I arrived at the stadium and was told I could only enter the runners area if I was wearing my Tee this seemed wrong. I understand that it created a community of runners, and it promoted activity and raised money for charity. But at the end of the day how much of my money went to charity..10%. And why was it so important that I wore the tee? I had my ticket yet you could only enter the arena if you had the official top on. This was wrong, and it is the first time I had ever encounter this phenomena, who was I running for...myself or the Brand. It seemed that I had paid my money for the privilege of representing Nike in a mass publicity stunt.
The Tee Shirts continued... I also had to pick my Tee up from Nike Town in London. (30,000 people had to do the same), I received texts telling me I had untill 20:00 hrs the day before the race, to collect my kit ..or what? I made a 400 Mile return journey on the Saturday only to find out on the Sunday that non-London based runners could collect their kit on the day...yet this was never comunicated. They had my info and I checked my emails there was no mention of this. Nike once again promoting the brand and getting me into their store ( I did however buy a cool Camcorder bag whilst I was there but...LOL only to be told I couldnt take it into the stadium..the irony!).
Late start...the music was great but 3 and a half hours waiting for it to start at 20:30. Some people had a 4 hour drive after the event. Again there was no mention of this on the website or the emails and the first I knew of it was once I had picked up my ticket.
No crowd support until the last 1km.
The Finnish was the worst organized I have ever witnessed. Once you had finished your guess was as good as the other 30,000 as to what to do next. Some people walked away with nothing others walked a way with bags of free stuff.
The Ugly...
30,000 people pushing for there goodies at the end...getting disgruntled about not getting a medal and then trying to exploit the bad organization by taking as many T-Shirts as they could... this frenzied expression of all that is bad about Human nature made me feel a little ill...(having said that it could have been the sprint finish).
CONCLUSION
All in all it was something that I enjoyed but I got more from following the virtual runners on Twitter than I did from the Live event. It was really impersonal and quite pretentious...lots of constraints and felt like I was taking part in a Nike marketting stunt that I payed to be a part of.
There is of course the counter argument that was put by Coach Adam on Twitter that (I hope he doesnt mind me qouting him but it was a public response)... "Nike cult, Nike marketing, what's the difference? I'm all for cults if they have a purpose that extends beyond self indulgence".
And I think CoachAdam has got a point. Over a million people participated in this event and it got people out... and running. All with a joint goal, all being positive, this has got to be a good thing!
However I think next year I will give it a miss, maybe do the virtual race or better still do on of the races from the "World Wide Festival of Races"
Why the title?..Well the title is the biggest clue to my motivation for this blog.
Yes it is a blatant reference towards the film "March of the Penguins" and it popped into my head whilst I was very excited about my entry into the Nike Human Race. Knowing that it would be starting at Wembley Stadium I visualized looking out at the crowd of people on the pitch waiting to start the first Wave of the race, and that mental image reminded me of the huddle of peguins I witnessed six months ago. Then the words came together to form the title of my blog. I will do a post on the pengins another day but I hope this photo should surfice for know!
...no I do actually know what my motivation is for this site but I am going to be like J.J Abraham and lock it away in a mystery box. There is a MASSIVE clue in the title and if you know me or know anything about me it will take about five minutes to work out(I wish my workouts took 5 minutes).
As the blog progresses a theme will emerge and it will become self evident what my motivation is but like "Lost" (JJ Abrahams finest work) I will probably never let you know if your correct or not :)
