Displaced Canuck

Three Things Tuesday

2012-05-29T10:08:00.001-06:00

1. Some crazy news from Miami:
"Naked cannibal killed by Miami police as he ate homeless man's face...31-year-old Rudy Eugene was high on drugs when he carried out his cannibal attack." Link to article

Well, shit.
So now I have some questions:
1) Why were they both naked?, 2) Does this mean I should stay away from LSD?, and 3) Is the zombie apocalypse finally here? Because if so I gotta brush up on my ~~combat~~ escape techniques now.

2. We're moving on Wednesday and I have to pack, again.

"What if I wanna play basketball? Or nerf? What if there's a disco party? What if there are no chairs?"

3. Stocks jump despite bad news. Facebook is left in the dust.

Facebook is down to a new low - $30.17 (went public at $38). I can't believe why anyone is still buying this stock and I wouldn't be surprised if it kept falling to something like $14. Doesn't matter how many eyes see the website everyday if their net profit is still tiny.

Roadtrip Part 2

2012-05-27T16:42:00.002-06:00

Next up: Victoria, BC, and Kelowna, BC!

This was the waterfront in South Victoria. Prime real estate...if you happen to have $1,500k sitting around.

I found bambi!

These little ~~turds~~ seals were waiting for my fries. In James Bay, there are small floating food vendors and an area to sit right by the water. My parents got fish and chips and I had salmon tacos.

Butchart Gardens

This was taken in the "Rose Garden."

If you want to see tulips, April would be the ideal time to visit. If you want to see roses, I think July or August would be better. We went right when the tulips were starting to fade out but too early for the roses. It was still beautiful though!

Butchart's Cove

Sunken Garden

Ross Fountain.

I was tempted to get one before I realized that these were totally gimmicky. Haha. Victoria is very overpriced and touristy (we saw signs in Chinese in the gift shop).

Pear pecan salad at Med Grill on our way back to the hotel. yum

Music students from the University of Victoria playing in Inner Harbour

So many flavors of gelato, so little time...

I settled on chocolate raspberry and tiramisu!

Enoki mushrooms and dry tofu curds (I think) from a little Chinese place in Victoria.

Some dreamy condos on Kelowna's waterfront. You can park your yacht right outside your window!

Waterfront Park, Kelowna

I would have loved to run here but unfortunately my shins were not feeling it.

Roadtrip Part 1

2012-05-27T16:35:00.002-06:00

Bits and pieces from our last minute roadtrip to the Canadian West Coast. First up: Vancouver!

Saw a moose for the first time!

This was somewhere in Alberta

Drove through a blizzard. In May.

We drove to Revelstoke, BC on our first day.

The 4 hour commute felt much shorter because ~~I was too busy sleeping and beating my high score on Bejeweled Blitz~~ of the scenic drive.

Lots of mountains and lakes. So pretty! This is something I never got to see in Ontario.

Shiang Restaurant, one of the many Asian restaurants in Richmond, BC.

Sunset in Richmond.

Dim sum at Gingeri

Dim sum = the Asian equivalent of Sunday Brunch. If you've never tried it, you're seriously missing out. Trust.

They come in little portions (of usually 3 or 4 pieces) which are perfect for sharing with your family or a few friends. Another plus is that they are very reasonably priced.

I always get: congee, siu mai, shrimp or fish in rice crepe, cha siu bao, and mango pudding,

Downtown Vancouver is so eco-friendly!

Elevation sucks

2012-05-13T17:02:00.003-06:00

After my ridiculously long commute home on Wednesday morning (first flight was delayed an hour, missed my connection, and then my second flight was delayed 2 hours), the last thing I wanted to do was to move my legs, so I took the night off.

On Thursday, I went for a quick run around the neighborhood - and by run I mean painfully slow jog, because the change in elevation (+3400 feet) really kicked my butt. It felt like I had gained 20 pounds overnight, and what would have been 8:30min/mile effort in Philly turned out to be like 10:00 min/mile in reality. Fail. Plus the temperature was barely above freezing that day.

Yesterday I did 5 miles, which were a little bit faster and easier. I'm hoping it'll get better in the next 2 weeks, or else I'll have to scrap my plans for the calgary half-marathon on the 27th. Yikes.

Weekly roundup:

On a happier note, happy mother's day! We celebrated with lots of dim-sum....

Done!

2012-05-10T12:18:00.001-06:00

I’m finally done with exams and this:

has been replaced by this:

I could not be happier.

One more exam until freedom

2012-05-07T21:54:00.001-06:00

Weekly Roundup:

The 8 miles on Thursday were actually only 4 (Dailymile lumps your running and biking miles together).

I have one last exam tomorrow and I have a feeling this one is not going to be pretty. It’s my game theory class and I’ve found that the problems are either very intuitive, or very complicated. We started out with normal/extensive form games and Nash equilibria – great. Kind of fun, actually. Then we got into alternate offer bargaining, subgame perfect equilibria, Baysian games, infinite horizon, grim-trigger strategies….sigh. Somewhere along the way I realized I’m just not good at this stuff. Far too logical, quantitative, and rational for my way of thinking.

I have about 12 hours until the exam and my ~~last ditch~~ effort at cramming looks something like...

It’s like they know me or something

2012-05-04T13:35:00.001-06:00

Some of my favorite things stolen from the internets recently.

Ever step into the shower after a run and find about a dozen little bugs stuck to your body after drowning in your sweat?

Race Wishlist 2013 and beyond

2012-05-03T09:31:00.001-06:00

Disney Marathon (January 13, 2013) If we go to Disney for winter break I definitely would like to run a race there! The marathon costs the same as the half-marathon ($150 if you register before June) – might as well get the best bang for your buck. I hope they have cool medals.

Hapalua Half-Marathon (March 2013) I’ve always dreamed of running in Hawaii. I think this calls for Spring Break in Hawaii! http://www.thehapalua.com/

Broad Street Run (May 2013) I really wanted to do it this year but it filled up between the 4 hours that I was in class. I WILL RUN THIS NEXT YEAR DAMN IT.
When I tried looking for a bib on Craiglist I came across this gem:

Covered Bridges Half-Marathon (June 3rd, 2013) http://www.cbhm.com/

Vegas Rock-n-Roll Marathon (December 2013)

Big Sur International Marathon (April 2014??) http://www.bsim.org/site3.aspx

Philadelphia Marathon in November!

2012-05-02T06:41:00.001-06:00

I am so excited! But scared – this is my first marathon ever. I just hope I can crawl across the finish line in under 4:30.

Edit: OH MY GOD I just realized you can automatically SYNC YOUR GARMIN TO YOUR DAILYMILE. This will literally save me like 5 minutes a day. DUHH

Sunday Funday

2012-04-29T13:27:00.001-06:00

Ran my 10-miler at around 11pm today. Miles 3 and 4 were a little slower than I would have liked but overall I was happy that I didn’t fade by the end.

I didn’t have a chance to drink or eat anything (john had my jellybeans in his pocket but ditched me around mile 4 to do some intervals or something) while running but felt pretty good. I ran 6 miles out to just before Manayunk and then turned back for the last 4 miles. Met up with john at the art museum and then we were off to Trader Joe’s for some food shopping!

Weekly Roundup:

28 Days Until Calgary Half-Marathon!

2012-04-28T10:04:00.001-06:00

I think this is the highest weekly mileage I’ve ran in recent months, but I feel great so far. I took it easy today with a quick 3 miles (+ some intervals) on the treadmill. I’m going out to eat at Nan Restaurant with the bf tonight so I plan on loading up on some pad-thai before my 11-miler tomorrow morning.

I’m still trying to figure out my fueling strategy before long runs. Tomorrow I’m probably going to have toast with pb and cinnamon and banana about 45 minutes before I head out. The tricky thing for me is striking a balance between something that is substantial enough so I won’t feel like passing out in the middle of my run but not so heavy that my stomach throws a hissy fit. I’m also going to bring some (50%-off Easter) jelly beans to munch on around mile 7, and hopefully that will allow me to finish the last few miles at a good pace.

In other news, I tried nutritional yeast earlier this week and it was NASTY. NOPE NOPE NOPE not a fan. It reminded me of fish food. Ugh.

Someone explain why coachella exists

2012-04-22T11:13:00.001-06:00

1) I am going to run the Centuar Subaru Half-Marathon in Calgary on May 27th!
My training plan is basically the last 5 weeks of a 12-week schedule I stole from someone's website. It basically looks like this:

Week 1 off 4 miles 6 miles 4 miles off 4 miles 10 miles
Week 2 off 4 miles 6 miles 4 miles off 3 miles 11 miles
Week 3 off 4 miles 5 miles 4 miles off 4 miles 13 miles
Week 4 off 4 miles 5 miles 4 miles off 3 miles 6 miles
Week 5 off 3 miles 5 miles 3 miles off 2 miles 13.1 miles

For runs over 7 miles I'm going to start carrying a stash of candy with me. Energy gels are too expensive for this broke college student ($30 for 20 gels?? no thanks). Right now I'm deciding between whether I prefer gummy bears or swedish fish as my crack of choice.

As for water, I've lucked out because there are water fountains along my route. Yay!

2) Coachella confuses me for many reasons. Some of which are:
-It comprises of not only one, but TWO (!) weekends of bad music.
-Concerts should not be outdoors or in the broad daylight.
-Too many hipsters
-The only thing worse than hipsters is rich hipsters.

Kids on Scooters as a Replacement for Dogs

2012-04-16T07:50:00.005-06:00

Don't ask me to choose between Colbert and Stewart, because I think they're both awesome. I think I've watched every single Colbert Report since last June, and recently became obsessed with the Daily Show.

^Colbert's high school yearbook. How could you NOT love him?

I knew it was going to be hot and muggy today so I ~~fell out of bed in a tangle of sheet, blanket, and pillow~~ jumped out of bed at 6:30. I wanted to do 8 miles but cut it short at 7 because the humidity was making it hard to...breathe.

There was a kid (couldn't have been older than 6 years old) who rode on his scooter beside me for like half a mile. I had no idea where his parents were. I was too pooped by that point to ask any questions so I just went along with it.

Sweat and Stink Free

2012-04-15T08:29:00.006-06:00

Awesome 8.8 mile run yesterday.

Got to test-run my new lulu Run: Swiftly Tech V Neck in Flash and I LOVE it. The silverescent material is moisture-wicking which means you stay dry and stink-free. My biggest running pet peeves are sweat-soaked cotton t-shirts and constantly wondering if I smell homeless.

I normally wear 4 in Lululemon but went up to a 6 so that it wouldn't cling to my waist.

Headed down to center city with the boy for veggie sloppy joe and lots of fries.

Then walked over to Mutter Museum (http://www.collphyphil.org/site/mutter_museum.html) to check out some disfigured babies in jars. Just kidding. It was very cool - we both used to be pre-meds so this type of thing fascinates us (or at least me...he might have just been playing along). Saw many preserved human body parts that have been infected with various diseases and congenital conditions. I learned about a congenital disease called FOP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva) which causes your body to turn tissue (muscle, tendons, etc.) into BONE when it gets damaged. There was a preserved skeleton of a boy who had this disease and it was so strange - bits of bone sticking out everywhere. Poor thing.

Phillies vs. Miami Marlins game on Thursday. Not gonna lie, I know absolutely nothing about baseball (3 strikes and you're out, right? Or was it 4? jk) but it was fun. I grew up watching figure skating competitions and track-and-field meets, so this was completely new to me.

Philly weather pulled a fast one

2012-03-25T21:13:00.003-06:00

Ran a bit over 7 miles today - this seems to be my body's preferred distance as of late. I should start doing some speedwork though. I'm never that tired when I finish and I do want to improve my average pace from 9:00min/mile to more 8:30ish.

It got REALLy cold REALLY fast tonight....I headed out around 7PM and it was a little chilly, but quite tolerable when you're running. Then at around mile 5, it got dark and cold all of a sudden (maybe I was completely zoning out during the previous few miles) and I started running faster just to stay warm. By the time I got back to my apartment, my arms were numb and I couldn't move my fingers. A hot shower and an omelette later though, all was well.....