Related Work Considered Harmful?

"I can come up with an innovative way to do X because I don't know how X has been done in the past."

I hear this comment from time to time. The idea behind the comment is that somehow, not understanding the related work in an area, not having been "brain-washed" by existing ideas, is a key ingredient to innovation. The fallacy of this idea bothers me so much that I've come out my 3-year blog dormancy to write about it.

Let's first establish that this idea is at best anecdotally true. In fact, I'm being generous when I say it's anecdotally true, since I am not aware of any such anecdotes. I am, however, aware that Einstein did not develop the theory of relativity because he did not understand physics; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak did not build the personal computer because they didn't understand how mainframe computers worked; and Jim Lahey did not develop the no-knead bread because he didn't know how bread can be made with lots of kneading.

In fact, all of these above people understood the related work in their respective areas extremely well. So well that they could pinpoint exactly what is inefficient or incorrect about the state-of-the-art, and thus develop new theories and techniques to address those inefficiencies or incorrectness. That is the difference between an expert, and an amateur. An expert can tell you exactly why he made the decisions he made, how it compares to all the other alternatives. An amateur, on the other hand, says something to the effect of, "it felt right".

The true test of an expert as well as an innovator is to be able to understand his related work so well, yet still be able to remain critical. He is able to see through the smoke and covers surrounding the related works, understand the essential ideas, yet still critically examine these ideas and how they relate to what he's trying to accomplish. Only then does true innovation arise.

Has innovation ever been done by someone who didn't know his related work well? Perhaps. But such occurrences are probably exceptions rather than the rule.

Let's conclude with the following anecdotes: Tim Berners-Lee did come up with the URL/HTTP/HTML specification with passing knowledge of parsing theory; and Will Rogers did come up with the "trickle down economics" because he's not an economist.

Chef's Kitchen

Last night, I felt like I had died and gone to culinary heaven.

I have eaten at fine restaurants. Critically acclaimed ones. And certainly I've enjoyed the dishes at these restaurants. But I have never eaten anything that completely left me speechless. Literally, I forgot the English language.

I heard about Bruno's Chef's Kitchen from my hairdresser, Annie. Martin and I have been on a hunt for a good place to have our wedding rehearsal dinner. So we decided to give Chef's Kitchen a try.

The place is hidden in a decidedly untrendy part of town -- in a small strip mall which also hosts a laundry mat, of all things. But you could tell that the place is very well taken care of -- not because it's full of shiny new things, but because it's decorated with so many little details that only somebody who loves the place would spend the time to do. There are little statues of owls, and buddha faces, large garden pots with animal tracks painted on them, walls with bright but rustic colors. We sat in a corner on the covered porch, where, above our heads, some birds have made a nice nest where a pipe met the ceiling.

I lost my speech when our appetizer, gnocchi, came. These little dumplings are clearly freshly made, and there is just the right about of bounciness in their texture to make them interesting to chew, and it takes just long enough to chew each one that you get a chance to fully examine the flavor. Many a gnocchi have died flat in my mouth. Not these ones. And these came garnished with fresh summer berries. Who does that?!?! It's so unexpected but so tasty! I'm afraid that this is the gnocchi that has ruined all gnocchi for me. After dinner, we went grocery shopping. I didn't even want to *look* at the packaged "fresh" gnocchi at the store -- and I look at the gnocchi *everytime* I go grocery shopping!

Martin got the one and only vegetarian dish, Asparagus and Porcini Pasta, garnished with happy little pink ribbons of turnips. It came in some cream/cheese sauce, though not at all overdone. Martin's usually not a fan of cream/cheese based sauce, but he ate the dish so fast that I only had a chance to taste the porcini. Of the little porcini I did eat, it was excellent. A bit on the crispy side, but very fresh.


I decided to get the Pear Sake Duck for my entree -- I figured, I owe our wedding guests to test out how the meat dishes taste. It's hard to imagine that an Italian chef could do an Asian-inspired, sake-soy duck so well. The duck is thinly sliced, cooked medium-rare. The tangy sauce breaks up the fattiness of the duck just enough that you don't feel greasy eating it at all. It's just all about the tender meat of the duck. The skin is very slightly crispy, but not burnt. I'm not a food writer and I probably shouldn't pretend to be one. But let me say this, it was *gooooood*.

The most fun part about this place is that the menu changes every week! So you never get bored! Everything is fresh and local. And, for a place that serves quite fancy and high quality food, it's shocking to see a drive-through take-out window. Apparently, you can call in orders. And, if you're a regular and Bruno and Bessie (co-owner and Bruno's wife) love you, they'll fax the current week's menu to you! Although, in this digital age, that's hardly necessary.

Bruno and Bessie has the cutest love story, too! Apparently, Bruno saw Bessie across the bar, and, never having believed at love at first sight, Bruno said to his friend that he was going to marry Bessie. Obviously, I like the story because of it's slight resemblance to Martin and my story -- if you replace "bar" with "OOPSLA '04".

You might be wondering why I haven't talked about the dessert. Well, Martin got the tiramisu and really loved it. I got creme brulee. I am very traditional in how I want my creme brulee -- I like the burnt sugar on top, and I like tapping it lightly with my spoon until I hear the crack in that layer of burnt sugar. Bruno's creme brulee, like his other dishes, is of his own creation and a bit less "traditional". There's no burnt sugar. Instead, you get a piece of almond toffee. Now, the creme part is very good -- it's sweet and creamy and not too eggy. But I can't quite get over the fact that there's no burnt sugar. Martin insisted that I declare this as a matter of personal taste -- this person clearly really enjoyed the creme brulee.

Delivery

Martin and I went on a bike ride today, to take advantage of the only sunny day we've had in a while. For real, the weather God, if you're reading, please, it's almost May!!!!! Can we have some good weather yet?!?!?!

Anyway. We climbed some pretty decent hills where I almost died of cardiac arrest, and then went down some really steep and curvy hills where I almost died from skidding off the road into the Lorane Valley. We came home to very empty stomach, and decided ordering delivery for dinner may be a good idea. The following conversation took place, verbatim:

Martin: How about that Indian place?
Shan Shan: I don't think they deliver.
Martin: But we had it delivered to our home last time!
Shan Shan: No. Last time I went and picked it up. It just *seemed* like delivery to *you*!
Martin: Oh... (smiles sheepishly)

Well, at least he's embarrassed about mistaking me for delivery service ;)

Funny foreigners

Martin has been getting accustomed to life in the United States. It's not until you've lived with a foreigner, do you realize some of the things we say and do really makes little sense when taken at face value.

Episode 1: Martin and the movie ticket machine.
Martin and I go to the movies, and he gets to buy tickets out of the ticket machine for the first time. Martin gets through without any problems, and paid with a credit card.

Machine: "Do you want cash back?"
Martin: "Yeah, sure."
Shan Shan: "You do?"
Martin: "Why not? It's asking me if I want money back!"
Shan Shan: "It's not *free* money back! You have to pay for the money back!"
Martin: "Oh... Well you've got to admit the phrasing is a bit ambiguous."

Episode 2: Massage
Martin and I go to get a massage. Things went well. It was Martin's first massage and he enjoyed it. The massage therapists at the wonderful Pearl Day Spa wrap warm wet towels around your feet at the end of the massage. I didn't think much of it, other than it was a nice touch.

Martin and I went to dinner afterwards, and we were discussing how wonderful the massages were. Martin comments that the massage lotion felt a bit sticky, and that he thought it was weird that the massage therapist only "washed" his feet.
Shan Shan: "What?"
Martin: "They washed my feet with hot towels."
Shan Shan: "I don't think that's what that was. They were just making you comfortable by putting your feet in something warm!"
Martin: "Oh... I was seriously expecting her to wash me, and I was surprised when she just did the feet!"

Adventures in Dutch Cuisine

I am taking my training to be a wife very, very seriously. Very. Seriously. When Martin was in Eugene, he made this traditional Dutch dish. It's basically potatoes mashed together with really finely chopped kale. It's usually served with sausages, but I actually just like it quite a bit by iteslf. It sounds simple, but it's actually really really tasty. I liked it so much that I tried to make it myself today.

Step 1: boil potatoes.
Step 2: chop kale and add to potatoes to boil
Step 3: mush together with butter and salt.
Step 4: Looks like I'll be eating lots of potatoes and kale this week...
Consume with lots of water. Potatoes can make your mouth so dry!

I'm back, and I'm cooking!

It seems strange that I didn't blog at all while in New York City for the summer. You'd think there's so much going on that I'd have stuff to blog about all the time. But as it turns out, blogging is for people who are *just* busy enough to have stuff to blog about, but not so busy that they don't have time to actually blog. I fell into the latter category this summer. But now I'm firmly back into the first category.

I did manage to end my single life by getting engaged this summer. To a vegetarian. Something that's completely unimaginable to me about 8 years ago. But my taste has slowly evolved over the years from a near-complete carnivore to one that appreciates fresh vegetables and fruits. So being a vegetarian is no longer an immediate strike in my book. Martin showed up at just the right time.

Since he bought me a ring and everything, I figured I ought to learn how to cook some vegetarian dishes. Here's my attempt at turning a "green curry beef" recipe into a "green curry Thai eggplants and Shiitake mushrooms". It's possible that putting Shiitake mushrooms in such a strongly flavored dish is a sacrilege. But, whatever. I've never been an orthodox cook.

The ingredients are very simple: Thai eggplants and Shiitake mushrooms, green curry paste, Thai fish sauce, and coconut milk. And apparently, I also needed palm sugar. But oh well, brown sugar and syrup will have to do -- I figured they must taste similar... sweet.

Having been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, I've been carefully looking at the ingredients of processed foods to try and eat less corn! I was happy to see that the ingredients of the green curry paste, the most processed thing I used in my dish, contained ingredients with names I understand: e.g. green chili. And none of them is corn.

Simmering...
And voila! Final product, with white rice.
And it was yummy.

Well well well...

Phew. This is the first chance I've had to blog in a couple of months. Actually, this is the first time I've had time to do anything other than IBM work and POPL paper for a while. I feel like I've aged 2 years in the past 2 months. But now that POPL submission is out, I feel like a whole new woman! Only one full-time job to do :P

I went down to East Village today to get my hair cut. Oh. My. God. What the hell took me so long to get myself down here???? I *love* it. This is what I think about when I think of New York. Gritty. Varied. Not everyone dresses in the same empire-waist cut shirt/dress that's so popular this season. Second-hand shops with vintage clothes. An entire street full of nothing but Indian restaurants. I'm going back down there this weekend. The village is so much more fun than the Upper West Side!!!! UWS is too freaking sterile.

The Reunion

More from Minneapolis

Minneapolis has continued to impress. The city has some very nice architecture, which stood out more today because of the good weather. The smallest suspension bridge in the world was the smallest suspension bridge I've ever walked across.
The ICSE social event was quite frankly the best conference social event I've ever attended! How can I possibly ask for anything more with Segway rides, archery, tomahawk toss, and fishing from a kiddie pool??? (I didn't catch anything. It got really old in about, hm, 45 seconds.)

Impressions from the Road

I've been on the road since May 20. May 19th if you count my little evening out in Portland with Dan. Here are some impressions:

-- Montana is surprisingly beautiful! Who'd have thunk? It has these great mountains surrounding wide, open farmlands. The sky really *is* big in Montana. I'd never want to live here. But I imagine I can probably spend a week hiking the mountains. Hardly any cars were on the road, particularly toward the end of the day. It's really odd to be the only one along a highway.

-- Even western North Dakota is beautiful, too! I'd always thought all these non-coastal states are boring. But it has really interesting landscape, with canyons and rocks of different colors. Although, I did have to drive through the most awesome but terrifying rain storm. I was still driving at around 11pm, and I was very close to my nightstop in Bismarck, ND. The sky was very cloudy. I could see lightening from 10 miles away as I approach Bismarck. As I got closer, lightening reflected off of the clouds were literally lighting up the entire space. It was mostly pitch black, interjected with flashes of lightening that made the place look like daylight. Then the rain came down *hard*. So hard that I couldn't even see out of my windshield. I had to carefully pull over because I was afraid I might drive off of the road! I sat in my car for probably less than 2 minutes, thinking to myself whether it's better to sit there in the dark, or brave the rain and get the hell out of there. I decided to get going, since sitting in the pitch black night by myself on the side of the road in the middle of *nowhere* seemed like an even more horrible option. I started the car. That's when I realized that I was actually shaking. I've driven many many miles back and forth across the U.S. This is the first time I actually felt myself shaking from bad weather. And I'm not the kind to get scared easily.

-- Eastern North Dakota sucks. I drove through more rain, and really strong wind.

-- Minneapolis is surprisingly impressive! It is actually a sizeable city! I really thought all the midwestern cities, with the exception of Chicago, are just pretend-cities. But this place actually has a pretty nice downtown, with lots of tall buildings! There's an incredible system of "skywalks" connecting buildings downtown. It is all on the second level above the street, so you can walk around the downtown area for *SEVEN* miles without ever having to step outside! This is all built because of the horrendous winters they have here. But the skywalk system is a total maze. I tried to go back to the hotel during lunch break to fetch my laptop, and I got so lost that what should have taken less than 10 minutes took me 20. The only way I actually found my way back to my hotel was because a nice man asked me if I needed help, while I was standing in front of a skywalk system map, probably looking totally exasperated. I told him I was looking for the Best Western Normandy, and he said, "Oh, follow me. I work there."

-- Minneapolis has 22 lakes *in* the city!!! I knew Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. But I didn't know they meant it literally! Good God! I'm going for a run tomorrow along the Mississippi. Should be interesting.

-- Minneapolis has a bar/restaurant called "An Irish Pub". No joke. It's the most descriptive restaurant name I've seen since "#1 Chinese Buffet". But in addition to good Waldorf salad and Guinness on tap, it has a "Kissing Room". It is literally a room with swinging doors, "Kissing Room" written above the doors, a couch inside, red walls, and dim lights. I really think it is meant to be exactly what the name suggests. Is this an Irish tradition?!?

-- My German is rapidly improving. I know how to count to 10 now. I must be a language genius or something.

-- ICSE... My impressions of ICSE is available for payed subscribers only. But I will say that I am looking forward to the outing tomorrow evening on Nicollett Island! I can't wait to hop across the world's smallest suspension bridge, throw some tomahawks, ride a segway, catch some trout, watch an Native American dance, and dance with an Native American.

Operation Diet Coke

Background:
- Yannis just received tenure from University of Oregon.
- Yannis likes Diet Coke and uses it as the sole source of caffeine.
- Yannis has a sign on his door. On one side, it says "I'M IN", on the other side, it says "I'M OUT". He flips it over everyday to indicate his location, until more sophisticated GPS-tracking technology becomes more accessible.

The Idea Man: Christoph Csallner. Born and educated in Germany, Mr. Csallner has been working for years in the prank-making industry, trying to be the first German to break into the Billboard Top 100 of pranks. Despite of heroic efforts, Mr. Csallner has largely been unrecognized by both the critics and the public. Mr. Csallner is looking for Operation Diet Coke to be his break-out hit.


The Idea:
- Replace the sign on Yannis' door with one almost identical. It says "I'M IN" on one side, "I'M TENURED" on the other. *
- Stack up cases of Diet Coke against Yannis' door.

*Idea #1 comes from Michal Young, underground prankster cult favorite, now retired from the scene.

The Financiers: Christoph Csallner, Me, Tony Kay, Reimer Behrends. The first three are Yannis' graduate students. Reimer is a post-doc. The only actual Doctor among us. As it turns out, Reimer later proved to us that there really is a difference between having a Ph.D and not having a Ph.D.

The Logistics Woman: Me. I'm good at crunching numbers for the amount of fund, sending out emails soliciting fund and labor contributions.

Operation Diet Coke was officially kicked off last Friday, when we learnt that Yannis received tenure. The first step was making a replacement sign for Yannis' door. As it turns out, Yannis' sign was made with cut-out stick-on letters, stuck onto a piece of construction paper. We found an appropriate font in MS Office that looked close enough. A manila folder was used to glue print-outs onto either side, to make it feel more like it's made on construction paper.
Sunday night, we made the purchase of 24 cases of Diet Coke, 3 cases of Diet Coke Plus, and 1 case of Diet Pepsi. This was not easy. We had to ask a Safeway employee to go into the storage room to fetch us more Diet Coke. And we had to endure very strange looks from the cashier.

The actual stacking of the Diet Coke cases took three tries.

Version 1.0: stacked them straight up. Completely unstable.
Version 2.0: This is where Reimer showed us what a Ph.D. can really do. Reimer came up with a zig-zagged configuration that looked much more stable. We tried that. But as we were almost done, the whole thing started swaying. Not good.
Version 3.0: A slight tweak of Version 2.0. We kept the spirit of Version 2.0's zig-zagged design. But rotated the formation such that the stack leans against the door for support. Much, much better. It might even stay long enough for Yannis to see it.
The Result: Yannis showed up around noon, on schedule. He was happily surprised. The pranksters are happy.

T +1day

I actually don't feel as bad as I thought I would. I am clearly sore, but I don't know if I'm any more sore than I was yesterday. I was warned that I might not be able to get up from the toilet. But I can, with a little pulling and pushing of the sink counter and towel bar. I managed to walk to school to keep my legs loose. Stepping down anything, even the curb, is rather excruciating. And I scheduled a 90-minute massage for tomorrow. I think that one's going to hurt...

The Georgia Department of Revenue's way of customer service is by attrition. I noticed that the check I mailed them for my 2006 tax payment still has not been cashed. So I decided to call this morning and ask what is going on. Not that I'm eager to have them take my money, but I don't want to get fined, either. I was on hold for 57 minutes until I talked to a person. She promptly told me that she doesn't see anything posted, and transfered me to "accounting", where I was on hold for another 55 minutes, until my phone ran out of juice. I mean, if you have to have your customers hold for that long, isn't that a sure sign that you need to hire more people????????? I called the Federal IRS, this morning, too (though by accident). And I was only waiting for less than 2 minutes before speaking to a real person! I'd imagine there are more people calling the Federal IRS than there are people calling Georgia!

Marathon: 4:38:02

I think the moment I crossed that finish line was one of the happiest moments of my life. I just couldn't believe I actually did it. Particularly when the last 6-7 miles were really brutal, and I was fading fast. I really thought that at mile 20, I would get a second wind, knowing that only 10k is left. But I didn't. All I could think of at that moment was, "Oh my God, there's still 10k left???" I had nothing left in my legs -- I don't really understand why, since I never felt like that during training. All the Gu and sports drink I had consumed was making my stomach queasy, so I didn't want to take any more. I was literally just putting one foot in front of the other. People around me were suffering, too. I saw this one guy, who had his girlfriend/wife pacing him, and his dad taking photos, and they were going at a pretty decent clip, and all of a sudden, his left leg just went berserk! It was like he completely lost control of his left leg! It was nuts. He had to stop and stretch. I never saw him again. I kept trying to tell myself that four months of training had culminated in this, and I only had so much left to enjoy it. And I really tried to believe it, too. But I just couldn't. It took all I had to make sure I didn't stop. The thought of going to the bathroom occurred to me a couple of times. But honestly, toward the end, I really felt that had I sat down on a toilet, I might not be able to get up -- my thighs were *killing* me.

I never got my "second wind" until the last 0.2 miles :) And particularly the last 0.1 mile, when everyone was screaming. I finally kicked it in. I was elated to cross that finish line. I think there's probably a really good photo of me crossing that line from the official photographers -- I literally had my fists up in the air. I think I looked like somebody who just won on "Price Is Right."

The morning started out a little chaotic. Even though I got up at 4am to make sure I had enough time to make my latte, drink it, and relax and get dressed and all that, I forgot to eat breakfast! So I chowed down a banana right before I left the house. Then, the bathroom lines were *huge* at the start. With 8 minutes remaining before the start, there were still 15+ people ahead of me and the lines were *not* moving fast. So Kasey and I just went behind somebody's dumpster. Not the most lady-like thing I've ever done. But hey, you gotta pee.

With all the rushing, I did manage the start the race on time. I ran with a sharp pain in my left foot for the first 6 miles or so. I really weren't sure if I would be able to make it all the way through with that pain. But since it didn't get worse, I figured I'll learn to deal with it. And really, the option of dropping out of the marathon was even more painful than the foot. Then miraculously, around mile 6, it stopped bothering me. The funny thing is, what I *thought* would cause me problems during the race (i.e. the foot) really didn't end up being my problem at all.

My thighs started to hurt around mile 13. They have never done that before in training. I really don't know what it is. It just goes to prove that the marathon is a rather brutal race -- *anything* can happen during the 26.2 miles. If it's a shorter race, you push through and an hour later, you're done. But with the marathon, whatever happens, you just have to live with it. For hours and hours. I was pacing with Kasey, Rob, and Ed the whole way. Ed dropped back before the half-way mark. I dropped back around mile 13-14.

I was still on pace to finish in 4:22 at mile 18. But then that's when things really deteriorated. Maybe that's what "the wall" feels like? I couldn't run any faster even though I knew I was going way slower than a 10-minute mile. My legs were just dead. It all made me think I should have finished my pasta dish the night before -- I was so concerned with not getting to the starting line feeling stuffed that I didn't finish my plate! Note to self: next time, stuff your face.

Michal Young and his wife were able to meet me at different points of the course to cheer me on. The first time I saw him was around mile 3-4. I was feeling strong, and gave him an enthusiasitic scream and high-five. The next time I saw him was around mile 7. I was still feeling pretty good then. Then I didn't see him again until around mile 14. I was visibly suffering by then, I think. I knew I didn't have the energy to give him the high-five's that he got the previous two times. That was an indication to myself that I've really gotten tired. They rode their bikes along side me for much of the last couple of miles and snapped some photos with their cell phones. I have no idea why I was even smiling in one of them -- I was feeling pretty bad. It must have been toward the *very* end.

I have to say that I'm proud to have finished a marathon. Would I do it again? I'm not sure. Probably. But most certainly not anytime soon. Maybe in a year, after I've recovered from the mental abuse -- the physical abuse will heal soon enough. I'm really looking forward to adding a little more variety into my workout for now. I'm looking forward to swimming more, and taking up biking.

I'm not extraordinarily sore. Although, I think it'll all get worse tomorrow. That's always the way it is. And the pain is coming back into my left foot. I can feel it... I iced it some today. Probably not enough. I did take a 2-mile walk from the finish line back to my apartment. So I'm hoping that helped keep me loose. We'll see tomorrow...

The Prep

17 hours 'till the marathon. I'm so nervous of screwing up something that I couldn't even decide what to have for lunch -- nothing too greasy, nothing too spicy, nothing with dairy, nothing with beans... I ended up having chicken teriyaki with rice. And some chocolate -- dark chocolate is suppose to be good for blood pressure, I read recently. And certainly I need to keep my blood pressure under control right now. It's all in the name of health.

I thought the only thing that might calm me down is to document the prep. Also I was inspired by this photo, and figured I should do something of the same.

So, I decided that I'm going to wear exactly what I wore for my 21-mile run for the marathon -- everything has been battle-tested.

Our training group will have 2 separate aid stations, in addition to the aid stations provided by the marathon planners. This is nice because then I wouldn't have to jockey other runners for a spot at the water table. I also wouldn't have to carry all the gels with me -- I carried 4 packets of gel for my 21-miler and I could have sworn they were weighing me down! Today's the last day I can stop by Eugene Running Company to drop off my stuff for the aid stations. There is one bin for each station. To show how anal I am, I have shown 10 packets of Gu neatly separated into two zip-lock bags, annotated with my name. I really don't think I'll need any more than 5 packets. But just in case. It doesn't hurt to have more. I also purchased two bottles of water, one for each station. This is not just *any* regular water. This is "Smart" water, for smart people. I think I might be the only one who's ever taped her business cards to bottles of water -- but hey, I didn't have markers, and I needed someway to mark that the water bottles are mine. When I put my water in the bin though, I realized that I wasn't the only one with creative ways of marking their own bottles. Bob has decided to put highway signs on his bottles so he can spot them a mile away!

I have had foot pain for the past week and a half, and it all started when I wore these really cute leopard print flats to school. They just didn't have much support, gave me blisters, and caused me to overstretch the arch on my left foot. Dammit. That's the last time I try to look cute before a marathon! People say it may be plantar fasciitis. God I hope not! I've been icing and eating aspirin and it still hurts somewhat. But certainly much better than it felt last week. I think the adrenaline will push me through. Either way, I'm doing this thing.

The coach told us that we need some sort of mantra, something that we can say to ourselves when the going gets tough -- and it will -- to push us through. She said we need to come up with something before hand, because we won't be able to during the marathon. So I thought, well, how about this:

"I've trained for 4 months for this thing. For 18 consecutive Saturdays -- okay fine I've missed a couple when I had a little too much to drink on Friday's -- but for the most part, I've gotten my ass out of bed at 5:45am, so I can make my latte, eat my banana, and get myself to the store to run at 7am. And after all this, I really only have 4.5 more hours to enjoy the fruit of my labor. If I want to do this again, I'd have to train for another 18 weeks. So however tough it is, I should savor it, because it'll be over very fast."

So, yeah... I, too, am realizing that it's a bit long for a mantra. I think the coach had something shorter in mind. Something that can be repeated over and over again. Something like, "one foot in front of the other". And I suspect that at mile 21, when my thighs are feeling like they're in labor, and at that moment, if I tell myself to "savor the fruit of my labor", I'm going to have a strong urge to tell myself to shut the hell up. So I'm strongly considering revising my mantra... Christoph said I should picture myself punching somebody. I honestly don't have anyone I want to punch. Although, it's highly possible that I might at mile 21...

I am mighty!

I have found my personal ANTHEM!

T - 12 days

Count down to the marathon begins. I've been sick for a week, and finally it's letting up. My cough is almost all gone. I went for a short 5-miler tonight and felt pretty good -- Missy Elliot sets a good beat to running ;) I hope somebody will be spinning some Missy on the Marathon route... I don't know why I'm nervous. I've done all the training I'm suppose to. I missed last weekend's 9-miler. But that shouldn't be a big deal, since I ran a pretty hard 5.2-miler in Sunday's relay. I'm healthy and injury free. I know it's gonna hurt, but I should be able to do this.

I've gotten serious about eating well this week. I'm hydrating myself like Oregon is running out of water. I've cut down my wine consumption. I'm hitting the salad bar like salad is the new black. And I haven't had any dairy -- usually I cheat and have diary and pop my lactase pills. But not this week. Not even goat milk cheese. I'm simply not risking it.

Okay I think I'm psyching myself out...

Team Tigercats dominates

In Eugene's Marathon Relay this morning, Team Tigercats (comprised of me, Kasey, Jen, Keri, and Lauren) dominated the competition, winning the division (all female open) by nearly 4 minutes, over a 26.2 mile course. The fact that the division consisted of only 2 other teams is completely irrelevant. The fact that the fastest team overall finished over an hour ahead of us is also irrelevant. What matters is that we won, and we won ourselves Nike hats. Nice ones. Ones that cost $20 each, when we only paid $17 each to enter the competition. Running is *clearly* a money-making business. I'm going to autograph this baby and sell it on ebay.

I set a personal record by running 5.25 miles in 44'51". Some might say that a personal record isn't hard to set when you've never run a particular distance before. Again, I consider this a trivial and irrelevant detail. What *is* completely relevant is that I ran it with a cold, a cough, and having suffered from food poisoning just two days ago. I am clearly the toughest woman on the planet.

Team Tigercats also demonstrated extraordinary sportsmenship by making disparaging remarks about the losers right in front of the losers' husbands, and dropping the f-bomb in front of a 4-year-old child. All acts were performed without malicious intent...

21 miles...

DONE!!!

I feel really good. It took 3 hours and 27 minutes. My back didn't hurt. Everywhere else does, but that's expected. It felt easier than the 18.5-miler.

Happy Hour

For about a month and a half now, I've been charged with organizing a department happy hour every Friday. You'd be surprised at how hard it is to get people to come out and drink a few beers. The following is my latest effort at rallying people. Despite of it being a masterpiece (in my not very humble opinion), it still only drew 4 people, myself included. And one of the other 3 is my German officemate, who really doesn't need any encouragement at all to come out and drink...

-------------- BEGIN EMAIL -----------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 08:52:35 -0700
From: "Shan Shan Huang"
To: XXXXXX
Subject: Happy Hour -- Call to arms!

AP recently reported that 80% of Americans between ages 16-64 do not believe in the existence of "Computer Scientists". When asked why, the #1 reason for their lack of faith is that they've only heard of these "Computer Scientists", but have never seen one.

Is this the kind of world you want our children to grow up in?!? A world devoid of values, references, or reference values? A world where garbage collection is a dead-end job with no career advancement options? A world where Lisp is just a speech impediment, and Smalltalk is something you do before getting into deep conversations
about the embodiment of the meaning of life in Impressionist paintings???

Restore the faith in "Computer Scientists"! Let yourselves be seen!

Organizational meeting:
Time: 6:00pm
Place: Eugene City Brewing Company. 844 Olive St.

-----
Shan Shan Huang
http://www.freeflygeek.com

-------------- END EMAIL ---------------------------------------------

Drinking Chocolate

I like chocolate quite a bit. I'm not willing to name my first born Xocoa or anything, but I am more than willing to make character judgments about people based on their chocolate preferences. Personally, I like dark chocolate. The darker the better -- up to about 85% cacao. Milk chocolate is for wimps. Or people who like milk. I don't like milk. I'm lactose-intolerant. I also like chocolate *without* nuts and funny crunchy things mixed in it. I don't like anything that breaks up the texture of the chocolate. I do like spices -- cayenne, cinnamon, and even anise, all taste quite good with dark chocolate.

I had this drinking chocolate in a chocolate shop in Portland some time ago. I loved it. It was thick and creamy and it is to your regular hot chocolate what Peet's French Roast is to Foldger's Instant Coffee. I think I'm a little late to the party, though. A quick search on the web tells me that drinking chocolate has been in fashion in the States for at least 2 years now. Even Starbucks tried to sell it! I don't know how it's possible that I didn't know about it. Oh wait, I do -- because I've been stuck in the South eating pulled pork instead!

So when I saw this at the store, I really just had to buy it. (Check out the rest of Kekau's savory chocolate collection. Yumm!) I followed the stove-top directions at first. But now I've gotten the process down to under a minute in the microwave. And it tastes delicious with regular soy milk -- all the better for those of us who are lactose-challenged!

I tell myself when I drink this that it aids my "recovery" from my runs.