So, a couple months ago my wife and I attended a Tattoo Faire. After paying $40 for entry, the whole thing was utterly disappointing... but it did make me think about how author's present themselves at Events and gave me some ideas on how to make them... less disappointing. When we showed up at the faire, almost every one of the tattoo booths looked the same.

This book just came in and I can't wait to check it out this weekend! Thomas is a friend of mine. We met in Hawaii at a NaNoWriMo group... many years ago. I can't remember exactly when we met, but it's been a little over a decade. We clicked right away and kind of partnered up. When we were in the same state, we tried to meet up every few months.

The last few training runs I made an effort to take some photographs. It's one thing to describe the imagery in writing, but it almost sounds unrealistic until you see it for yourself. It's a little like running through scenes from a kid's fairytale- the trees, the colors, the crazy variety (and size!) of the mushrooms and plants. So, now you can see what I'm talking about.

Success is what you make it. So, it didn't go as well as I wished it would have - but it could have been worse. I started out this morning feeling pretty good. I was stressed over my knee, but hoped that it had recovered enough over the last two weeks to give it a shot. It wasn't 100%, it was still feeling a little weak, uncertain, but way better than it had felt two weeks ago.

So, the race is tomorrow. Wow, it feels weird to say that after a tumultuous 11 weeks or so of training and planning. There were a lot of ups and downs, ending on a pretty big down. The end of week #9, my knee started acting up - so I decided to skip the rest of my planned training and HOPE that I'd be back to 100% in time for the race.

Roll the dice? It's looking doubtful. What am I talking about? I'll explain. One of the things every runner (or athlete) has to figure out for themselves, is how to tell the difference between pain that can be ignored and pain that shouldn't be. Whenever we're working out, there's a variety of different kinds of pain that are "normal" - as result of exercising.

Chaffing and Motivation The last two weeks have been a painful slog. I'll start out with the fallout from the long run Week #7. That run went fairly well, if you've read the last post. It wasn't great, had a few challenges, but I got some time in. What I didn't realize at the time was that I'd be walking funny for the next few days due to one of the long Runner's biggest challenges - chaffing.

There wasn't a lot to write about Week #6, so I'm lumping it together this week with #7. Week#6: I've been thinking about getting a new set of shoes for a while now. For two reasons, the first is that the balls of my feet have been sore after long runs and I was thinking that a Rock Plate might make a difference.

So, my schedule is still off by a few days. Because I've been cross-training Fridays and Saturdays, Sundays have become a rest day - pushing my weekly long runs to Monday. This isn't really a problem, but it means I did my Week #5 long run at the beginning of this week, Week#6. I'll probably get back "on" schedule this weekend, but, like everything else, I'm not stressing it all too much and going more by "feel" than by the numbers.

Sometimes a shortcut isn't really a shortcut. So, I've officially fallen off the training plan for the last week and a half - which will probably cascade into the future weeks. We'll see how it goes. Here's what happened and what I'm going to adjust moving forward. After feeling so rough during the long run last time, bordering on injuring myself, I'd pretty much already decided that I would "skip" the speed/hill workout during week 4 to give myself some extra recovery time.

7 track album

on Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity: This August there are three dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes range from $20,000 to publication. None charge entry fees. Some of these contests have age and geographical restrictions, so read the instructions carefully. Get Full Details HERE 36 Writing Contests in August 2025 – No entry fees – by Erica Verrillo…

The United Kingdom plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes steps to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and stop the annexation of the West Bank.

This was the first week that I added a second run. Whether that was a good idea or not, I'll let you decide. Work was busier than anticipated, so my training days got moved around a bit. I ended up doing a shorter "speed/hill" run Thursday, with a long run Sunday. Thursday went about as well as I could have expected, not having done any speed work recently.

These are getting written slightly out of order, but I'm trying to use what time I have - and I've been really busy. My mental, physical, and emotional health hasn't been great. A couple years ago, my family and I made a big move back to my home state. At the time, it seemed like the Universe had aligned for a "perfect" opportunity to finally return home...

Getting a little lost For the most part, my training plan didn’t change much from last week. My main priorities were to continue eating better, working on general fitness and flexibility, staying away from alcohol and other habits that aren’t helpful to the training, working on mental health, etc. I’m already feeling a bit better overall, though my sleep schedule still needs some improvement.

** Author’s note: I know this type of post isn’t what I usually discuss on this blog, but I’m writing a short book about my experiences with running and endurance sports, as well …

Psychic Spychick is raising funds for LIPSTICK BONG RIP on Kickstarter! Help us release our first album and get some sick art

Famous booklet by the ex high ranking Marine

7 track album

President Trump promised a new "golden age" for the United States. But his first 100 days in office have left the economy looking tarnished.