Sunday 10/7/12: News & Notes

Running with Sally
It's never fun to be frustrated, but we all have our coping mechanisms, and mine are about what you might expect--writing and working out.  On the writing front, you can pretty much see the results right around here.  On the running front, though, life has been a little more exciting.  Sally and I went out on Friday and ran about six-and-a-half, and then we went this morning and put in another five-and-half, and in both cases, I feel like I ran pretty well.

The Housatonic Rail Trail is Sally's favorite place to run.

I mean, I know that I am not a great runner.  But Sally is, and pretty much any time that I can keep up with her, I'm happy.  On Friday, I managed to not only keep up but actually to push her up the hill that is the northerly direction of the Housatonic Rail Trail and then come back and accelerate on the downward side, holding right at an 8:00/mile pace for the roughly ten kilometers that we ran overall.  And then this morning it was much the same again.  Sally set a strong pace for the first half hour or so of our run, and I'll admit that I struggled just to keep up.  But at the thirty-minute mark, I forced myself to breath a little more deeply and get myself under control, and eventually I started running well.  We came back strong, and I again led the way, feeling good and running more efficiently than I'm generally capable of running.  The experience reminded me in many ways of doing 3,000-meter timers back when I used to swim back in the day, and believe me when I tell you, that was a good feeling.

Look, I know that running efficiently isn't something that would excite most folks, but that's because most folks are not me.  I struggle like Hell to run well, and when I actually succeed, it's noteworthy enough that I want to write it on my calendar to remind me that, yes, I can do it occasionally.

NY Giants vs. the Cleveland Browns

Trent Richardson is one of the best football players
I've ever seen.

You're probably not watching this game, but like a lot of the Giants' games this season, this one has been pretty exciting.  The Giants spotted Cleveland seven points in the first few minutes of the game, and then they let the Browns score again to go up 14-0, but since then, it's been practically all Giants.  So far, so good, and let's be honest, that's more or less what we expected, save that we didn't expect the Giants to spot the Browns a TD.

With that said, I have to note a couple of things since I don't see the Browns play all that often.  First is that they have a beastly Offensive Line.  They've stopped the Giants' vaunted D-Line all day, and they've been getting excellent push in the running game.  Beyond that, their running back, Trent Richardson, has to be one of the best players I've ever seen.  Good grief, that guy is the straight-up man.

With what the Browns have going for them, I am really, really surprised that they're 0-4.  I wouldn't even say that their offense is all that bad, but they've had a couple of turnovers, and that's been the difference in the game.  Yeah, Eli Manning is having a good game, but we expected that.  Really, if not for a couple of bad breaks, this is a legitimately close game.

The Hypernaturals #4

I've been reading the new Andy Lanning/Dan Abnett book from Boom! Studios since it started, waiting to see what these guys had in mind.  The first couple of issues were okay, but Abnett and Lanning were obviously only building to something, and we hadn't really seen what that something was... until just now.

Hypernaturals #4 is a good one.

Well, Issue 4 is where the story kicks into gear.  Pick this one up.  That's all I've got to say about that.

BTW, the back issues are $1.99 on Comixology.

It looks good, right?  I'm guessing
DD won't die in this one.

Daredevil: End of Days #1

I haven't read this one yet, but I picked it up yesterday when Emma and I went to the comic store.  And I'm only mentioning it here because it's written by Bendis and David Mack and pencilled by Klaus Janson, the long-time art partner of Frank Miller.  Personally, I'd have preferred to see Bendis working with Alex Maleev, but hey, I'll take what I can get.  I mean, say what you want to about Bendis, he's very good with Daredevil.

Anyway, my quick flip through this one shows that it's got a heavy, visceral look to it, reminiscent--as you might expect--of the old Frank Miller glory days.  It misses the cleanliness of Miller's pencils from way back when, but still...  I'm really looking forward to reading this one.