I did not intend to post again this year, but I noticed that my post total for the year prior to this one was at 199. I couldn't let that stand... so here it is, our two hundredth post of 2010! It was the most prolific year at Garblog by far. Here's looking forward to even more posts in 2011. Can we break 300 next year? I dunno...that's a lot of posts. I think I'd need some guest bloggers to be able to get to that many posts. Any volunteers? :-)
GJS
Friday, December 31, 2010
Those Huskers, Our Huskers...and Happy New Year!
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| He still loves the Scarlet and Cream |
We're only a couple hours from 2011 here in Taiwan...Happy New Year!
GJS
Monday, December 20, 2010
In Remembrance - Ardeen Sampson (1921 - 2010)
Many of you know that my grandmother passed away last month. Thankfully, I was able to return to the U.S. to attend her funeral, something I was unable to do the previous two times I have lost a grandparent (the first time I was in Okinawa preparing to deploy on a ship in the late 1990s; second instance was in 2007 when I was in Hawaii and working in a high-demand job that precluded leaving for non-essential purposes -- all I missed this time was a week of classes and it wasn't a big deal). I wrote the below tribute while on the plane flying from Taiwan back to the American Great Plains. If anyone else wants to add their thoughts, please feel free to do so in the comments. We'll miss you, Grandma Ardeen.
GJS
Sunlight has faded, although it is only 4PM. I am flying east over the Pacific Ocean, about 1.5 hours out of Narita Airport in Japan.
I’m heading back to Iowa from Taiwan for Grandma Ardeen’s funeral.
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| The all-grandson casket detail |
She lived 89 years and would have turned 90 in the spring. She spent the one of the last days of her life enjoying a nice Thanksgiving with much of her family around her at Aunt Marla’s farm outside of Newell, IA.
I will always remember looking forward to visiting Grandma Ardeen’s house when I was a young boy. Grandma would take us along to her bingo games at Moose lodges and Elks halls and wherever people gathered in Algona and neighboring towns to play. We always got to play at least a couple Bingo cards, and sometimes we won a little spending money! I really enjoyed going on these trips with Grandma, and I think she enjoyed having us – her grandsons – along to show off to her friends.
We also got to do fun things with our uncles when we visited Grandma’s house. I remember Uncle Jeff taking me for my first motorcycle ride one summer, and Uncle Jerry took us on our first fishing trip.
During our winter visits we would play for hours in the deep snow drifts outside Grandma’s house and later enjoy our favorite Christmas-time treats, the so-called “Santa head” ice cream novelty.
Then there were the epic Uno card games (pronounced YOU-know by the locals, apparently). Uncle Jeff would pop up big batches of his famous popcorn and we’d eat it until we were stuffed.
When it was time to eat breakfast, Grandma would ask what everyone wanted and try to meet all the demands, be it French toast, pancakes, eggs, cereal, or what have you. Despite her efforts to be a short-order cook for the rest of us, she’d invariably have just a piece of toast with peanut butter on it – dipped, of course, in a cup of coffee, bite by bite.
If I wanted to snack on some potato chips at Grandma’s house, I learned that I should look not in a cupboard but instead in the dishwasher! It wasn’t for doing dishes – we’d take turns at the sink working in pairs to do those by hand, usually with Grandma or another grown-up washing and with us kids manning the towels to dry the clean dishes.
Grandma’s passion for life was evident to anyone who knew her. While she was still getting around well, she maintained a large circle of friends who shared her enjoyment in the bingo games she loved, or, when she was younger, group travel to distant places that sounded so exotic to me. She’d load up on a bus with a bunch of her friends to far-off lands like Florida and return with so many tales of fun. She’d go on cruises, too. It seemed to me like she really had the right idea about living life.
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| Photos and other remembrances from Grandma's life |
She seemed to have a new car almost every year when we came to visit. I enjoyed riding in the new cars and smelling the “new car” smell.
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| The last time we were all together in Grandma's life - August 2009 |
More recently, as she grew older and more frail, she wasn’t able to travel as much, and it became progressively harder for her to get out to see her family and friends. Even so, whenever I would return from my travels in the Marine Corps, she would always make the trip to Omaha or Lincoln or Newell with her kids to see my burgeoning family and our kids. And although she never had a chance to meet her newest great grandson in person (he was born this year in Taiwan), I know they will meet later, in God’s house. I know Grandma always wanted a great granddaughter, but she never had one – at least, not while she was alive.
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| Grandma Ardeen with her two great grandsons - August 2009 |
Let’s remember Ardeen Sampson fondly, for hers was a life lived fully. She passed on to the next world peacefully only hours after enjoying a final Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by her family and friends. We could all learn a lesson from her example.
GJS
9 months
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| Here comes trouble! |
Lance will be 9 months old this week. Hard to believe how time flies! I am really enjoying seeing him grow up. There are a lot of things I missed when John was a baby because I was deployed – his first tooth, learning to crawl, pulling himself up, and standing on his own. (Just for a second!) His hair is growing in and starting to get longer. I have been able to see all these things with Lance, and I am very grateful.
He can do more and more each day. He loves to explore the house now that he is a good crawler, especially, it seems, the bathroom. If you let him crawl where he wants to, invariably he will head there. He is completely fascinated by the toilet and the toilet brush. (!) We are doing our best to keep him away from both things, but especially the latter. The other day, Barb caught him standing next to the toilet, seemingly trying to reach in and touch the water. No, baby, no!
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| I love this toy! |
While he once really enjoyed spending much of the day in his walker, he now enjoys crawling and exploring without it much more, for he can get to places this way that he was unable to when in the walker. He pulls himself up on furniture and other items all the time. Sometimes he will walk while holding on to my or Barb’s hands. Too cute!
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| I'm growing up fast! |
GJS
2010 Taipei International Half Marathon: The Report **UPDATED**
**UPDATE** December 26, 2010: Official finish time was 2:01:48 - a bit off my race goal. Better luck next time! See http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/score_101219_21.php and search for finisher #2712 (they list 1000 finishers per page, if you select the "all finishers" under the half marathon results choice). There you will see me. Or you can try to search for my bib number (18253) or my name (c'mon, you already know that one). Merry Christmas!
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Editor’s note: the below race report was drafted on the day of the race, as the competitor rode the High Speed Rail train back to Kaohsiung. At the time he wrote this, the running human did not have a chance to access media or news reports about the race, nor to examine his own results. An addendum will appear at the end of the post that adds some clarifying information in these regards. Read on…
Without yet having had a chance to see any news reports about the 2010 Taipei International Marathon, I would have to say that I think there very well may have been 100,000 or more participants. There were so many people, it took me over 10 minutes to move from where I was at in a mass of people (thousands and thousands) at the race start over the timing mats to actually start the race (it was about 7:15 AM local time when I started the race, which actually began at 7AM as advertised). I actually saw one fellow crowd-surfing towards the start line, as if it was a giant rock concert.
Because there were so many runners, it seemed to me that the aid stations were lacking in adequate personnel to keep up with demand. I actually missed the first two aid stations because the throngs of people blocked my view of them and I was pretty much past them by the time I realized they were there. But when I finally saw one in time to stop, I was hardly able to get any refreshment. Unlike at any race I have done previously, it was essentially self-serve – that is, there were bottles and containers of water or sports drink on the tables at the side of the run path, and there were cups, and it was sort of a free-for-all to pour your own drink. This created “madhouse” conditions – every runner for himself. I had to elbow my way to the table to try and pour a beverage. Generally, in other races I have done there are either volunteers holding the drinks out to the runners – pre-poured – and you can grab one as you pass, no need to stop and try to pour the drink yourself; or there are pre-poured drinks set on the tables that you can grab and go – again, no need to self-serve the drink. I believe these methods to be superior in terms of quality and speed of refreshment. But it seemed to me that the rest stops did not have enough personnel to support these methods. I only saw one or two volunteers at each table, far too few to keep up with the thousands of runners coming past. This is certainly an area for improvement.
In all, it was a nice experience. I am glad I did not try to run the full marathon because it would have been pretty tiring to keep on going. I was glad to be done after 13.1 miles.
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Editor’s note: the below race report was drafted on the day of the race, as the competitor rode the High Speed Rail train back to Kaohsiung. At the time he wrote this, the running human did not have a chance to access media or news reports about the race, nor to examine his own results. An addendum will appear at the end of the post that adds some clarifying information in these regards. Read on…
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| The "writing salon" aboard the HSR train where this post was drafted |
My aims for the race were quite modest. I no longer establish “finishing” a race like this on as a goal – I’m sorry, but barring some type of catastrophic injury or natural disaster, I am going to complete a half marathon, it’s no longer such a long distance to run for me. I wanted to finish in less than 2 hours, a decent but not too difficult pace that under normal circumstances should be attainable quite easily for me. I wanted to run easy for the first hour (~the first half of the race), and then step it up in the last hour for a nice “negative split.” I reality, because of the crowds of runners, my pace during the first hour was far slowed than I figured it would be, so I changed strategy, trying to “keep the horses in the barn” until about the 9 mile mark. Then I ran harder during the last 3-4 miles to produce the negative split I was looking for. (I have yet to have had a chance to review my race data, but I’m quite sure that it was a pretty decent negative split run).
(Note: this map is not my personal results/pace, etc., but of another competitor that I found online)
The race was on a very flat course that made a loop of Taipei City. The only elevation changes of note during the entire ½ marathon course were a few on- and off-ramps traversed when moving from regular streets to elevated highways or underground tunnels. Coupled with the fantastic weather for the race today (about 60 degrees F and clear at race start), conditions were ripe for a fast race – that is, if you started with the elites at 6:57 AM.
Why? Well, go back to the first sentence in this post. I have never, in all the races I have done in the past 10 years, seen anything close to the number of people turn out for a race that I saw today. In my mind, I consider marathons like those held in Chicago or New York City to be very large (I have not yet run either one, but have heard that they boast something like 40,000 participants). I do not know as of yet how many people were out there with me today, except to say that it was A LOT. So many that at no point on the 13.1 mile half marathon route did the congestion ever go away. There were tons of people from the start to the finish. Usually in these races once you make it several miles in, the crowds of runners start to thin. Not so today. I was trying to duck and weave in and out to find running room from beginning to end. It’s not a set of conditions that are conducive to fast finish times (again, unless you are out in front of the pack, like the elites runners).
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| Gear staged the night prior to the race |
Another needed improvement is related to the lack of on-course restrooms. Just as I remarked on in my write-up of the 2010 Ironman 70.3 Taiwan triathlon a couple months back, the race today had far too few restroom facilities on the course. In fact, I didn’t see a single race-provided venue for this type of need until after 6 miles into the race. I saw some people, prior to that point, running off the course to businesses and fire stations along the course to use their facilities, but if the race was doing what it should in terms of providing adequate ON COURSE facilities, this behavior shouldn’t be necessary. Finally, about 5.5 miles into the race, near the river, was a toilet provided for use by people who use the riverside recreation path. Because the race did not have any on-course toilets to that point, there were some people waiting to use the facilities (women, and presumably men who needed to “sit”), but far more men who chose to use the nearby bushes and treeline for their “facilities.” This would not have been the case if portajohns had been placed on the course in sufficient numbers and often enough to relieve the (literally!) pent-up demand. On later portions of the course, near the aid stations, there were generally a couple portajohns, but even so these were insufficient in number to prevent long lines (and the concomitant choice of convenience for many men, trees or bushes nearby). The race would be better for everyone if this issue was successfully redressed in future iterations.
I was able to see some of the elite runners at the end of the race – the marathoners, that is. The top men were finishing the full marathon as I was coming in to my finish. It’s a bit depressing to be “lapped,” so to speak, by these runners, but quite amazing at the same time to see up close how fast they are moving in comparison to a “regular” runner like me. I heard (but have yet to confirm) that a new course record was set today.
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| Post-race "snacky-treats" |
GJS
Editor here again: check out this page on Flickr (note: it is not the running human’s Flickr page – he did not take a camera with him during the race; http://www.flickr.com/photos/future77/sets/72157625503659903/) for some photos from the marathon. See also this report (http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aSPT&ID=201012190019) from Taiwan’s official news agency that puts the competitor estimate at 110,000 (with 31,000 in the marathon itself). A course record was NOT set yesterday; the top male finisher crossed the line at 2:14:04 (course best is 2:11:05) and the top woman finished in 2:30:37 (course record was set last year by the same woman, at 2:30:05). Finally, while final results for all runners were not available at press time (they will eventually be posted here: http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/en/, some unofficial times for the running human are 1:51:14 (from the Taipei Marathon Information and Results Finder here: http://marathon.taipei.gov.tw/change.action?request_locale=en_US; screenshot below) and 1:55:45 (from his wrist-mounted GPS unit). As posited above, the runner did indeed increase his pace throughout the race, averaging 9:40/mile over the first ~5.5 miles, then 9:23/mile for the next ~4 miles, and a swift 7:23/mile over the balance of the race (about 4 miles). Both of these times seem to be a bit low, as in, faster than the actual finish time. This post will be updated when the official finish time is available.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Running, Taipei edition
Heading to Taipei this weekend to run a half marathon there. I think I saw somewhere that there will be 100,000 participants for the event, which if true is completely mind-boggling! I've never heard of such a large race, and was not aware that the Taipei International Marathon was a race of that magnitude when I signed up for it. I still plan to run it, but I'm just saying... It may because there are like 5 different race lengths offered: full marathon, half marathon, 9km, 3km "fun run" ("free entry to the first 20,000 persons!"), and 2km kid's run. I think showing up early to the race start for this one will be a must.
You can follow me online. Here's the link: http://marathon.taipei.gov.tw/change.action?request_locale=en_US Just type in my bib number, 18253. Race starts Sunday, December 19 at 7AM, Taipei time. I am to finish roundabout 2 hours, but with all those runners to dodge and weave between, I may be way off!
I'll write a little bit about how the race went next week, if I can find time.
GJS
You can follow me online. Here's the link: http://marathon.taipei.gov.tw/change.action?request_locale=en_US Just type in my bib number, 18253. Race starts Sunday, December 19 at 7AM, Taipei time. I am to finish roundabout 2 hours, but with all those runners to dodge and weave between, I may be way off!
I'll write a little bit about how the race went next week, if I can find time.
GJS
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The future airline pilot
"His teacher said that he was so proud to pretend he was an airline pilot, she just had to take a photo of him."
One more photo of John here that didn't quite fit the motif of the last post. What do you all think? Let's all remember this when he is grown up.
GJS
It's beginning to look a lot like....oh, nevermind
Let's not kid ourselves: it's never going to look like a stylized Christmas scene from Norman Rockwell here in Southern Taiwan - no snow, palm trees, generally pretty warm (though apparently the weather didn't get the memo about this last bit today - it was a chilly 55 degrees Fahrenheit with gusty winds and rain today) - but that doesn't mean the man-made trappings don't start popping up all over the place. To wit:
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| Near our church |
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| I am unable to show my teeth while smiling. :) Still a cute photo. |
GJS
Why I'm (Never) Going Digital
Q: Would you ever get an e-book reader?
Sure, in fact I have had an Amazon Kindle (gen 2) for nearly a year and a half. I use it most every day at least a little bit. Sure is nice to be able to tote way more than enough reading material for any length of trip in something about the size of a copy of Foreign Affairs magazine.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
John's movie
Back in September I posted a "Lance movie" made from photos of him set to music. Now it's John's turn!
You may notice in this video a few photos that seem to be a part of a larger mosaic of photos of John. Here is the full photo mosaic:
I'd recommend you download the photo mosaic and view it as large as you can on your screen to get the full effect. Pretty cool! I made both of these things using Picasa photo editing software, free at http://picasa.google.com/.
Enjoy!
GJS
You may notice in this video a few photos that seem to be a part of a larger mosaic of photos of John. Here is the full photo mosaic:
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| There are over 1000 photos here! |
Enjoy!
GJS
Monday, December 06, 2010
Long time no post
What gives?
Well, I've been doing a lot of triathlon training, first of all. Then, we were out of town the weekend before last to Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. Right after we got back from that trip, I found out my grandma died and I went back to the U.S. for the funeral. Now I'm back in Taiwan and headed back to class tomorrow. More busy-ness!
Back on this side of the Pacific, I'm going to be busy writing term papers, preparing presentations, getting ready for the Taipei Half Marathon later this month, and all the biking and swimming I can manage to fit in!
I did post a bunch of photos from the trip back to the U.S., the trip to Sun Moon Lake, and other assorted goodness over at Flickr (some are also on Facebook, if you are on there). I'll put up a few here just for fun:
GJS
Well, I've been doing a lot of triathlon training, first of all. Then, we were out of town the weekend before last to Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. Right after we got back from that trip, I found out my grandma died and I went back to the U.S. for the funeral. Now I'm back in Taiwan and headed back to class tomorrow. More busy-ness!
Back on this side of the Pacific, I'm going to be busy writing term papers, preparing presentations, getting ready for the Taipei Half Marathon later this month, and all the biking and swimming I can manage to fit in!
I did post a bunch of photos from the trip back to the U.S., the trip to Sun Moon Lake, and other assorted goodness over at Flickr (some are also on Facebook, if you are on there). I'll put up a few here just for fun:
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| At the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village (FACV) near Sun Moon Lake |
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| John at Sun Moon Lake |
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| Barb and Lance on the Sun Moon Lake "ropeway" (cable cars) |
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| This guy likes to ride on trains (at FACV) |
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| On the way to the funeral |
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| An all-grandson casket detail |
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| Mild weather in Omaha means backyard football! |
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| There was a massacre (of Lego men) - at the Fun Fair at John's school |
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| Our new pets (two are still alive) |
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| Folks, that's Carl "Stump" Merrill on the right, former NY Yankees manager (early 1990s). He was the "guest of honor" at the school Fun Fair. |
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| It was a rainy day at the Fun Fair. Here's John trying to outleg his best buddy. |
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| John's new tattoo (don't worry folks, it's only temporary!) |
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| Sailboats on the Love River, Kaohsiung |
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Taiwan's Southernmost Point
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Two Hundred Thirty-five
That's how much money you owe me, U.S. dollars (or Euros - you pick) - I accept cash, check, or credit card.
Bwahahaaa! Not really. It's how many years old the United States Marine Corps is today! This calls for a motivational photo:
And I've even got a video that goes along with this, exhibiting Lance's progress towards crawling (we still think he may just skip crawling and go straight to walking - he's pulling himself up now and continues to dislike spending much time on his tummy):
乾杯！
GJS
Bwahahaaa! Not really. It's how many years old the United States Marine Corps is today! This calls for a motivational photo:
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| What you lookin' at? |
乾杯！
GJS
Saturday, November 06, 2010
By popular demand
Here's a small sample of recent autumn-themed artwork by John, by popular request. He made these at school - quite beautiful!
GJS
Other photos from the Kenting trip
Howdy folks. Here is more from our trip to Kenting. I'll just put a representative sample up in this post; eventually all the photos will be uploaded to Flickr.
GJS
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| After the triathlon - feeling pretty good! |
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| Morning: the pool |
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| Looking inland from the hotel at Kenting |
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| John's new friend - they played together all morning |
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| The east coast, with goats (see lower right) |
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| At the southernmost point in Taiwan |
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| Nice walk in the forest... |
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| ...but stay on the path! |
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| Afternoon: the beach |
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| Beach baby |
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| Almost like Hawaii |
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| Birds outside our hotel room |
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